Category: Trump impeachment

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Trump and the Seven Calls — What are he and Putin up to?

Bryan Zepp Jamieson

October 10th 2024

When Bob Woodward, renowned investigative journalist, revealed in his just-published book War that Trump had secretly sent Vladimir Putin seven COVID testing machines, possibly dooming hundreds of Americans, I shook my head in disgust. But I didn’t expect much to come of it.

Trump would issue a blanket denial, and his mindless supporters would immediately reduce it to the level of “he said – he said.” A normal person wouldn’t have much trouble of weighing the veracity of Bob Woodward against that of Donald Trump, but Trump’s followers have pretty much abdicated all human skills of judgment. They would dismiss it, just as they have dozens of other stories about Trump, many of them proven, that would have destroyed the career of any public figure who wasn’t a cult leader. Cults are dangerous, and about one third of American voters have been brainwashed into becoming followers of a cult.

But then something unexpected occurred. The Kremlin weighed in on the story. Per Bloomberg News, “Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that the tests had been sent, but denied the book’s claim that the two leaders had spoken by phone several times since Trump left office.”

I had just expected the Kremlin would issue a denial, or more likely, just ignore the story altogether. After all, the Russian disinformation media loves to portray Trump as a brave hero beset by liberals and Jews in the American press. This would have fed right into this narrative. (One Russian outlet today managed to find a way to portray Hurricane Milton as being somehow Jewish! Dot’s funny…Milton doesn’t look Jewish…)

That was devastating to Trump, and not because I expect the scales to fall from the eyes of his followers. That’s not going to happen overnight. But it struck me as a clear signal that Putin and his mob have written Trump off as a useful asset and no longer expect him to regain the White House. Clear and independent thinking around exactly staples of the Putin regime, but careful analysis and calculation are. They no longer think Trump is useful. Oh, they’ll keep spreading disinformation on his behalf and supporting him because anything that destabilizing to the United States is for the good, but they no longer take him seriously as an ally. (They already reported today that Milton destroyed Disneyland, which will come as a surprise to the City of Anaheim in California). Keep up the good work, Ivan. There will be an extra potato in your paysack this week!

Now, about the seven calls. There may be tapes—there’s reason to suspect both the FBI and CIA have been monitoring Trump’s calls abroad because of suspicion he is a foreign agent. That’s speculation, of course, but not wholly unwarranted speculation.

But it was JD Vance who tried to ride to the rescue aboard the epileptic cow he calls a brain, telling reporters, “I honestly didn’t know that Bob Woodward was still alive until you just asked me that question.” Dismissing Woodward as a hack, he went on to say, “Even if it’s true, look, is there something wrong with speaking to world leaders? No. Is there anything wrong with engaging in diplomacy?”

Well, actually, yeah, there is. Trump is a private citizen, and there’s this thing called the Logan Act. It says, “Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.” It was passed in 1799, so if any of the stooges on the Supreme Court are minded to bring up their originalist bullshit, they might consider that the people who passed the Act were either founders or knew them personally. You might think someone running for Vice President with an ailing 78 year old man a heartbeat away from Ayn Rand heaven would know that, yeah?

Vance clearly thought that was a valid defense. Vance is a moron. But it wasn’t a confession the phone calls took place. The twin enigmas-wrapped-in-a-riddle-wrapped-in-a-mystery, the Kremlin and Mar-A-Lago, have both denied the calls took place.

But Donald couldn’t resist the opportunity to swan about in his own imagined importance, trumpeting it was “a good thing, not a bad thing,” that he got along with Putin “very well.” “A lot of people think that’s a bad thing,” Trump said. “No, no, that’s a great thing.”

I’m guessing those calls did take place. And they didn’t benefit the United States in any way. Hopefully the FBI and CIA are on this, and we won’t have to wait three years while Merrick Garland dithers.

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Walzing to a Win — Vance dance slick, but hobbled by Trumpentruths

Bryan Zepp Jamieson

October 1st, 2024

On the surface, tonight’s vice-presidential debates harkened back to debates prior to the Trump era. Both candidates were articulate, reasonable-sounding, and civil. If you stripped the content of the debate of all context, they seemed evenly matched. Give Vance credit: he came across as human, a feature he has struggled with since he was nominated.

But he was badly crippled by the fact that he had to present the general lunacy of Trumpentruths. Thus, he had to spout utter absurdities as “Trump saved the ACA” Really? Nobody remembers Trump’s campaign to repeal it, a drive that was stymied in the final minute by a dramatic midnight thumbs-down gesture by a dying John McCain? Walz, thinking fast, immediately brought up that seven years later, Trump only has a “concept of a plan” to deal with health care.

He had to mirror Trump’s waffling on the issue of bodily autonomy. So he had to simultaneously pretend that Trump ended abortion while saying that the public wanted the states to determine a woman’s right to abortion. Walz parried it beautifully, noting that fundamental rights should not be subject to geography. It was the perfect response to the GOP pretense that it’s a states’ rights issue: the constitution supersedes states in the matter of establishing rights, and no state may suborn a national civil right.

On health care, in addition to the ACA blunder, Vance tried to argue that costs of health care needed to be distributed, and not the sole domain of government. He managed to say it in such a way that he wasn’t saying people should depend on churches for health care.

Vance had to evade answering the yes-no-no question, “Is the climate changing?” His response went, “One of the things that I’ve noticed some of our Democratic friends talking a lot about is a concern about carbon emissions, this idea that carbon emissions drives all the climate change … let’s just say that’s true, just for the sake of argument.” He fluffed the question, saying that the all-powerful Harris should have reduced pollution by bringing manufacturing jobs back to the US, saying (falsely) that the US has the cleanest economy in the world. He claimed, again falsely, that solar panels are all made in China, although when pressed, he muttered that the parts that go into solar panels were made there. Under Biden, of course, manufacturing jobs have been returning to the US (Harris may have supported him, doubtlessly did, but vice presidents don’t have any particular authority on this). He tried saying that Trump did not consider climate change despite the fact that Trump is on record, repeatedly, for making that very claim.

Vance had to bash immigrants since that’s the centerpiece of Trump’s Naziesque hate campaign. He tried blaming immigrants for the high cost of housing, but had to back off when Walz noted that immigration was dropping. I would have noted that few immigrants are financially able to buy a home.

Confronted with the fruits of his hate campaign against Springfield, Ohio, he tried saying that the only reason they were there was because Harris (apparently the most powerful vice president in history) let them in under a special refugee law. They did in fact enter under such a law—one signed by Donald Trump. Oh, and at the invitation of Springfield, which needed labor.

Finally, and this was where Vance successfully knocked himself out, he tried the pretense that Trump did not want to overturn the 2020 election, and wanted only a peaceful protest at the Capitol on January 6th, 2021. He couldn’t handle the question that he had stated that if he had been vice president instead of Mike Pence, he would have rejected the electoral vote citing “questions” and thrown it to Congress. (In the event of a legitimate tie in the electoral college, Congress could vote on who won. And it isn’t a straight up-and-down vote: each state gets one vote, and in 2021, the outgoing Congress had a majority representation in 27 states. They might have overturned the election had Mike Pence not done his job.)

A lot of people have said that Trump made a poor choice when he selected JD Vance as his running mate. But watching him squirm and battle to toe the party line, the absurd Trumpentruths that have turned the GOP into an anti-American and savage cult, I think it wasn’t Trump who made the bad choice for a running mate. It was JD Vance who made the poor choice for a running mate.

Vice Presidential debates rarely shift votes, and it’s unlikely this one did. Walz won, both on presentation and debate points. It wasn’t the utter carnage of the first two presidential debates, and won’t get a lot of attention.

But watching Vance, and how slick and mentally agile he was, I realized how fantastically dangerous this soulless man would be if he elects to run in 2028, armed with his own Trumpentruths.

 

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Helene of Tories — Trump stumps sump dump

Helene of Tories

Trump stumps sump dump

Bryan Zepp Jamieson

September 30th 2024

We’re with you all the way, and if we were there, we’d be helping you,” Trump said. “You’ll be okay.”

He said that the day after Hurricane Helene, by then a tropical depression, had finished wreaking havoc over a quarter of the United States and was coming to a wet fizzley end clear up in Ontario. Helene, as forecast, was a major disaster. The known death toll is mercifully low (91 so far) but the damage will be in the tens of billions of dollars. Many parts of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Kentucky and Tennessee were flooded, dozens of roads and freeways washed out, and at least several dams failed.

When I first heard Trump’s latest burst of idiocy, I remembered how he famously “was there to help” in the wake of Hurricane Maria in San Yuan, Puerto Rico in 2017. He tossed paper towels to a group of survivors, an action on a par with dropping packets of chewing gun over an area suffering from famine. The BBC reported it this way: “Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz described his televised meeting with officials as a ‘PR, 17-minute meeting’. The sight of him throwing paper towels to people in the crowd was ‘terrible and abominable’, she added. Mr Trump tweeted it had been a ‘great day’ in Puerto Rico.”

He no doubt would have consoled the people hit by Helene with $10 coupons to use to buy his $500 watches. Trump, after all, is the grift that keeps on grifting.

Trump and the Republicans had waved away reports that Helene was going to be a monster. Part of it stems from their insistence that global warming is just a myth spread by liberals and communists to destroy American capitalism. Part of it is their libertarian fascist drive to convince people that government agencies such as the National Weather Service and NOAA (which runs the vital National Hurricane Center) are just propaganda organs for the left and serve no useful purpose.

As the damage became clear, Trump backtracked in his usual awkward and shameless way, saying, on Sunday, that the storm as “a big monster hurricane” that had “hit a lot harder than anyone even thought possible.” (Anyone except NWS, every reputable meteorologist in the country, and pretty much everyone with enough weather knowledge to know what ‘bombogenesis’ means.)

He criticized Harris for attending weekend “fundraising events with her radical left lunatic donors” in California while the storm hit. “She ought to be down in the area where she should be,” Trump said. I didn’t notice Trump going down there during the storm, did you? In fact, he decided Mar-A-Lago was uncomfortably close to the storm (it wasn’t) and watched from a safe distance—New York.

Per ABC News, “The White House said Harris would visit impacted areas ‘as soon as it is possible without disrupting emergency response operations.’ She also spoke with Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina, and she received a briefing from Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell while she was traveling.

Trump, of course, can’t be arsed with waiting until emergency response operations have ended and things shift to recovery mode. He’s going to Valdosta Georgia today to swan around. While the water supply is now safe, Valdosta is still under an emergency curfew, much of the town is still flooded, and in addition to the 17 known dead, many more are still missing. He’s going to have his security detail shut down several blocks so he can pose, even as city authorities are begging people, “Text. Don’t Call: Texting leaves lines open for emergencies.” I’m sure he’ll be a big help.

No doubt, Trump will blame Harris for the damage. You know he will. I’ll bet the mortgage he will. As far as he’s concerned, any crisis must be used to blame Harris, real or conjured, natural or caused by Republicans. In Trump World, no crisis should go to waste, and the more dead Americans he can blame on Democrats, the better.

Remember, too that under Project 2025, the Republicans want to eliminate FEMA.

But since FEMA hasn’t yet been removed as part of the GOP’s Ayn Rand’s hellscape America, it’s still massively useful. If you want to help people in the affected areas, go here: https://www.fema.gov/press-release/20240928/how-help-after-hurricane-helene

And if you’re a Trump supporter, stay true to your principles and send rolls of paper towels.

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“Oh Popeye! Oh Bluto!” — Fortunately, morons won’t decide the election now

Bryan Zepp Jamieson

September 18th 2024

The small group of voters known as “undecideds” break down into two categories. First, there’s the “What? There’s a election?” crowd. They tend to have an exaggerated impact in polls because they rarely actually vote. They need to know to register, and when, where and how to vote.

The others are the Olive Oyls. They’re the ones who are like the old Popeye cartoons character, the weak-willed and ever-vacillating female who can never decide between her two suitors, no matter how stark and obvious the difference between the two might be.

The reasoning might go something like this: “OK, Trump hates Taylor Swift, but Vance tells me Harris eats live kittens!” They can’t tell truth from falsehood, and aren’t ethically equipped to distinguish between normal and abhorrent behavior.

In a nation split almost exactly evenly by the power of propaganda, it’s horrifying to realize that these morons were likely to be the tipping point.

But the good news is that there is a new tipping point, and it lies with a group large enough to send the undecideds to the obscurity they deserve: this group is the Responsible Republicans.

They are a lot larger than most people realize. I started getting an inkling of their presence when I noticed that even in primaries where Nikki Haley wasn’t on the ballot, between 10 and 30 percent of Republican voters were NOT voting for Trump.

I looked at this, and I reasoned that as long as Biden held it together and didn’t do something utterly senile like declare hatred for Taylor Swift or childless cat ladies, and Trump went right on being Trump, these disaffected voters would become a significant factor in the election.

Biden’s withdrawal and the subsequent rise of Kamala Harris put Trump’s deficiencies in a glaring light. People immediately saw it as the Prosecutor vs. the Felon. Not Kennedy vs. Nixon, but more like Perry Mason vs. Tony Soprano. Only this “Tony” has stripped his mental gears and confuses Mason with Ironsides and mocks him for being in a wheelchair.

The exodus of Republicans choosing country over party didn’t begin with Liz Cheney and her father Dick endorsing Harris, but changed from a trickle to a landslide since. The latest round was announced by the Harris/Walz campaign today, when “more than 100 Republican former national security and foreign policy officials who served in senior roles in multiple presidential administrations and in Congress are endorsing Vice President Harris for President.” This is in addition to the hundreds of ranking Republicans—former Presidents and Vice-Presidents, former Congressionals, former members of the Trump administration, hundreds more from both Bush and Reagan administrations, who have either endorsed Harris or refused to endorse Trump.

And now we are starting to see the polls shift. And it isn’t a big increase for Harris (1 percentage point) but a significant decrease for Trump (3 percentage points). He’s bleeding support.

For Responsible Republicans, the message is clear: if you can’t bring yourself to vote for Harris, at least don’t vote for Trump. The country can survive Harris; it won’t survive Trump. They may believe the propaganda on Fox News that Biden has ruined the economy and turned the country into a Taco Stand run by the cartels, but they can see that things are actually pretty good in their town. And because things ARE actually pretty good all around the country, a lot of Republicans are noticing that.

We’re just about at the point in the campaign where Bluto has pulled a dirty trick so egregious that Olive is starting to look even more confused, and Popeye is muttering “That’s alls I can stands, I can’t stands no more” and you know the loud music is about to start.

This week’s “assassination attempt” at the golf course shows just how desperate the Trump campaign has become. The previous attempt in Bethel, Pennsylvania, which was very real, didn’t result in a boost in the polls, but it did earn Trump a certain amount of good will and he might have enjoyed a ‘honeymoon’ period after that, had he not started immediately grifting from it.

This one’s credibility didn’t even last overnight. Trump himself blew the believability of it out of the water by saying that his decision to go golfing that day was a “last minute decision” which, combined with police claims the guy with the gun was parked outside the golf course for twelve hours, added to a huge “this doesn’t add up” from everyone. Not only did the grifting begin almost immediately, but JD Vance and others instantly demanded that Democrats—commies, pet-eaters and baby-killers all—immediately tone down the “inflammatory rhetoric.” If Ashli Babbitt was the MAGA movement’s Horst Wessel, then Ryan Routh, the golf course guy, was Marinus van der Lubbe, the half-wit executed for supposedly starting the Reichstag fire.

This won’t be lost on the remaining responsible Republicans who hadn’t quite decided to break the bond with Trump. What was a trickle of Republicans abandoning him will become a flood.

It doesn’t translate to down-ticket votes necessarily, although candidates firmly aligned with Trump will suffer from it. If you’re a sane Republican in North Carolina, you not only won’t vote for Trump, but you won’t vote for that nutball Mark Robinson, either.

Republicans in the House especially may find themselves vulnerable.

But a lot of those Republicans who see the dangers of Trump may decide Harris is nearly as bad, and vote Republican down ticket to keep the country paralyzed. This could still happen.

Less than seven weeks to go, now. Stay focused.

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Tonight’s Debate — Hero versus Zero

Bryan Zepp Jamieson

September 10th 2024

Tonight’s debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump will probably decide who the next president will be. For Trump fans, there is hope: if he wins, you’ll never have to endure another presidential campaign again. People like Leonard Leo, Elon Musk and Jared Kushner will be deciding your rulers from now on. No more silly elections where weak and foolish nobodies can push the movers and shakers of society around.

That, in a nutshell, is what is at stake here. Do you want to keep your country, or turn it over to people who have no problem with turning Donald Trump loose on you? Plutocrats in Germany faced a similar situation in the early ‘30s. It didn’t end well. Nor would it end well here.

So here’s what Harris needs to do tonight. Don’t attack Trump personally other than to call out his lies. Start the debate by pointing out that every lie Trump tells will be listed and refuted by her campaign the following morning. Every single one. Feel free to needle him: mention his criminal convictions and policy failures.

Second: refute the right wing talking points, rather than Trump’s inevitable lies. The border is not in crisis. Immigrants aren’t creating a crime wave of any sort. Inflation has halted. Unemployment is good. The military is strong. Energy production is the highest it’s ever been, including oil. Oh, and as a personal favor, could you assure people that Canadians aren’t sneaking over the border to eat your cats? I would like to be able to order cat food online without getting a visit from the FBI.

Hammer policies, but don’t drown the viewers in details. There’s only a half dozen that really matter to voters. Tell them that on immigration, you will ask the new Congress to take up the border bill that Trump scuttled. On the economy, talk about jobs. You’re in great shape there. Mention the number of jobs—millions–created by the Inflation Reduction Act. Assure people you will submit a national reproductive freedom act to get the zealots out of our beds. Press for an end to the slaughter in Gaza. Remind people that in a situation very similar to America’s, Netanyahu stays out of prison only for as long as he is conducting his ‘war.’ Let people know that Netanyahu no more represents the spirits and ethics of Israel than Trump does America. Both are criminals willing to sacrifice country for personal gain.

Promise to move forward on global warming. It’s too late to avoid serious damage, but it’s not too late to avoid self-annihilation. Although you’ll probably want to give that a more positive framing.

Point out that much of the GOP leadership of former years have endorsed you, or at the very least refused to endorse Trump. You have people like Liz and Dick Cheney who realize that you are better than Trump. He is not a Republican, he is not a conservative. He is a fascist. Much of the GOP leadership, including a huge swath of Trump’s administration, prefer you to more of him. And no, that is not normal. It’s a sign that every responsible and patriotic conservative, no matter how different their policies, put America ahead of Trump and what he represents. The Guardian just reported that “Anthony Scaramucci, who served as Donald Trump’s White House communications director, and Olivia Troye, who was homeland security adviser to Mike Pence and a top aide on the Trump White House’s coronavirus task force, will speak out against Donald Trump and for Harris ahead of the debate, the campaign said.” Nobody has ever heard of defections like those before, ever. Trump is widely hated within his own party.

Even though your mike will be muted as he speaks, don’t be afraid to mug for the camera. He’s going to say some ridiculous things. Don’t hesitate to laugh, roll your eyes, and make “what-in-the-fuck-is-he-talking-about?” gestures. Don’t make the mistake of taking him seriously. He hasn’t earned it, and never will. Let America know you don’t see him as a worthy opponent, because he is not.

There’s a lot riding on this. You can do it.

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Home Stretch — Putting on the afterburners

Bryan Zepp Jamieson

August 26th 2024

David McAfee at Raw Story noticed a seminal remark posted by Adam Kinzinger, former Republican Congressman that utterly captures the deep change in the political landscape that we’ve seen over the past six weeks or so.

“‘Something happened at the DNC that will be written about for years.” the ex-lawmaker said. ‘Donald Trump has given up traditional Republican ground, and the Democrats and Kamala snatched it up. Trump gave up being the defense candidate by becoming weak and panicked, and embracing Russia.’

“Kinzinger went on to say that that Harris ‘said she wants to make the most lethal military ever and stand up to dictators. Trump gave up being the proud American party. They hate America which is obvious to all but the most loyal MAGA. Kamala showed her pride in the country AS IT IS TODAY, not pining for the 1950s. Trump gave up being the border hawk. While this will take time to recognize, I believe cracks have started. Kamala reminded everyone that Trump tanked the hawkish border bill, and committed to signing it (in front of a loudly cheering crowd).

‘Trump ceded the ground of opportunity and vision. His constant whining and focus on the past. Kamala showed a forward looking vision. Trump gave up law and order. Not just on Jan 6, but attacking The FBI, questioning the CIA, and calling for violence. And now an awards ceremony for Jan 6 criminals. Kamala showed appreciation for police and stressed her role as a prosecutor. The Dems are now on their way to being the Patriotic, USA chanting, America loving party, and the Republicans look like the bitter old men who are angry that the country is vibrant and dynamic.;”

I had noticed that even with the joy and inclusiveness and cheers, a lot of what Democrats had to say reminded me of some of the speeches we would hear at RNC conventions in 2004 or 2008. It was an era where Republicans hadn’t embraced meanness, cruelty, exclusiveness and bigotry as their standards.

The horrific thing is that this is about all that the GOP have remaining. They’ve lost all the “issues” they hoped to run on: Biden’s age, the economy, inflation, national pride, abortion, crime. Everything improved under Biden except his age. And most Republicans are coming to realize that the golden apple of tearing down Roe v. Wade in fact was a poisoned apple, turning most of the country against them.

My friend Isaac Peterson of the Weasels wrote me, saying, “It doesn’t help matters that Trump is incapable of even giving the appearance of being able to accommodate anybody outside of his base. He just doesn’t give a shit about anybody else and it shows. I still believe his NABJ BS was intended to appeal to them rather than black voters.

“He can’t appeal to anybody else because he doesn’t care about anybody else and his lack of empathy means he just cannot relate to anybody else. Definitely not enough to try to communicate on their (our) terms or to even acknowledge their (our) concerns. His contempt comes through loud and clear.

“His flocks of howler monkeys can’t recognize he doesn’t even actually care about them either.”

If Trump didn’t have enough problems, a fair chunk of his base are furious because he isn’t vicious and fascistic enough. The zealots are mad because he backed away from a pledge to make abortion illegal in all states. The National Association of Zealots and Ideologues are mad because he backed away from their treasured Project 2025. And the bigots are furious because he suggested the US should allow aliens with college degrees in and even give them green cards.

Bad enough that with this lot, Trump gets up with fleas, but they all growl loudly when he tries to brush the fleas off.

As a result, Trump is floundering in a no-mans’-land between MAGA and the rest of America, and he’s bleeding support from both sides.

The DNC and Kamala Harris (her campaign has blue hats emblazoned with “ , la “) came out of the convention with a three point lead nationally over Trump, and small leads in most of the battleground states. The convention “bounce” (which Trump didn’t get) will show up in next week’s polls, and I expect to see her leading by five to seven points, and nearly all of the battleground states. That will fade as the warm glow from the convention dies.

But not fade away. We’re in the final stretch now, ten weeks left, and it’s going to be one furious fight.

There’s already speculation about “October surprises.” Which is shorthand for dirty tricks, and by no means limited to October. The allegations and rumors will get more and more lurid. I already heard one today that had Trump dumping JD Vance as his running mate and selecting Robert Kennedy Junior. That one’s so crazy I suspect it may have come from the Democrats. Trump tried snarling that Tim Walz was only an ASSISTANT coach, and in a brilliant riposte, the Dems replied, “Maybe that’s why he’s running for VICE president.”

I feel disquiet about the flag waving and bellows of “USA! USA!” Pep rally patriotism is a dark lake a thousand miles wide and an inch deep, and can turn toxic with the slightest change in the wind. I’m hoping that once clear of the convention, the flag-waving will subside to thoughtful patriotism.

In the meantime, keep an eye on Joe Biden. Yes, he’s a lame duck, but he IS still the president, and he still has the acumen and abilities that made him the most successful one-term president in American history. He may have an October surprise or two up his sleeve, and it won’t be the sort of nasty ones like sabotaging the Vietnam Paris talks or the hostage release with Iran or the email like we’ve seen in years past. Biden has a “Nuthin’ up my sleeve, Rocky” air about him. He’s up to something. Whatever it is, I suspect we’ll like it.

So. Off to the races. And may the best woman win!

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Biden’s Big Night — As Kamala tans the hide of Trump

Biden’s Big Night

As Kamala tans the hide of Trump

Bryan Zepp Jamieson

August 20th 2024

www.zeppscommentaries.online

Political conventions after the last contested convention in 1980 have tended to be yawn fests, in particular those where the nominee is already the incumbent president. Everyone marvels at the (largely imaginary) accomplishments of the administration, chant ‘four more years,’ dutifully vote, and then go back to the hotel to schmooze and get laid.

And in this century, if something does happen that’s unusual or vivid, I can just go watch the video on YouTube and get caught up.

I’ll often have a convention on the screen but in the background, since there are often people I want to listen to, either because I respect them or I’m at least curious (one young black senate hopeful in 2004 caught my attention, fellow named Barack Obama).

This year I didn’t turn on the GOP cult fest at all, figuring that Trump and his stooges gaslight, lie to and lie about me and everyone else enough as it is, and I don’t need the aggravation. I wasn’t even curious about Vance, figuring (correctly) that he was just a corrupt creep. Even if I had never heard of him before, anyone wanting the job as Trump’s mini-me had to have something seriously wrong with them. I expected a dishonest hatefest, and that’s exactly what they delivered.

With the Democratic convention, I figured to pay attention when Joe Biden spoke. I’d heard the rumors swirling around, mostly from the right, that Biden was forced out of the race very much against his will. Some of the crazier members of the GOP whispered that Biden being ousted was somehow unconstitutional. Like the GOP has any respect for the Constitution.

Certainly the Democratic Party would put on a show, mostly heartfelt, honoring Biden as a revered party elder and an unusually effective president. They wouldn’t have to fake that at all.

I’ve been watching Biden since about 1980, and my take is that he’s a good actor with an excellent poker face (both very nearly prequisites for a political career) but essentially honest. His only real scandal was the plagiarism flap in 1980, and he dealt with that by dropping out of the race and apologizing. At the time I felt it spoke well of the man; he admitted his wrong doing and atoned.

He was too centrist for me politically (a view I still held in 2020) but all in all, a decent man. I supported Sanders in 2020, but had no trouble switching to Biden, especially given the vile alternative.

So my main reason to tune in was to catch the Biden speech.

Somewhat to our surprise, we found ourselves riveted from the opening gavel. The Guardian’s Sam Levin described it thusly: “Speakers from red states gave personal accounts of the impacts of abortion bans. Hadley Duvall, from Kentucky, described how she was raped by her stepfather and became pregnant at age 12: ‘I can’t imagine not having a choice. But today, that’s the reality for many women and girls across the country because of Donald Trump’s abortion bans.’ She noted Trump’s previous remarks calling abortion bans a ‘beautiful thing’: ‘What is so beautiful about a child having to carry her parent’s child?’

“Speakers also repeatedly tied the Trump and the Republican agenda to Project 2025, the roadmap for a second Trump administration crafted by former Trump officials. Mallory McMorrow, a state senator from Michigan, held a copy of the Project 2025 document and assailed the plan to ‘turn Donald Trump into a dictator’. Congressman Jim Clyburn called Project 2025 ‘Jim Crow 2.0’. Biden noted that the project calls for the dismantling of the US department of education.”

David Smith and Kira Lerner reported, “Jamie Raskin, a representative from Maryland who served on the January 6 committee and led Trump’s second impeachment, said reelecting Trump would bring America ‘back to the days of election suppression and violent insurrection’. He suggested making Harris’ victory so large that even Trump and his allies can’t try to steal the election.

“Andy Beshear, the governor of Kentucky who was a vice-presidential contender, focused his speech on Harris and Tim Walz’ support for reproductive rights. Republican abortion ‘policies give rapists more rights than their victims’, he said. And Senator Raphael Warnock from Georgia spoke about the need to protect democracy, invoking his faith to denounce Trump.

“I saw him holding the Bible, and endorsing a Bible, as if it needed his endorsement. He should try reading it,” Warnock said. ‘It says, do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your God. He should try reading it. It says, love your neighbor as yourself.’”

Kamala Harris showed up unexpectedly and said, “Joe, thank you for your historic leadership, for your lifetime of service to our nation, and for all you will continue to do, we are forever grateful to you. Thank you, Joe!” She wore a tan suit, notoriously a red flag to the professional scandal-mongers of the GOP.

Hilary Clinton and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez gave vivid barn-burner speeches, a women of the party’s recent past passing a torch to a woman of the party’s future and both lavishing praise on the woman of the moment, Kamala Harris.

Then it was Biden time. His daughter, Ashley, took center stage and gave a moving account of the life with her father and expressing her deep pride, leaving the place (including Joe Biden) in tears. Then first lady Doctor Jill Biden, in an amazing silver dress, orated, praising her husband and his work.

Then it was Biden’s turn. He gave the speech of his life! There was nothing of the tired and sick old man who failed to shut down the psychopathic Trump in the debate. He expressed his deep pride in his accomplishments, his faith in Kamala Harris, and his love and respect of country. There was nothing defensive in how he described his record, and his support of Harris was full-throated and enthusiasic. He seems to like the role of honored elder who is stepping back for the good of the country and feels he has left it to capable hands. He blistered the liar Trump and his cultish followers, and told America to vote or lose everything.

He may have needed persuasion to drop out of the race, but he wasn’t forced. He did it, just as he did in 1980, because it was the right thing to do and for the good of the country. It cemented his legacy of being one of the American greats.

Meanwhile, he is still president, and will be until January of next year. He negotiated a complex six way prisoner swap with Russia, and is actively involved in a possible ceasefire in the Gaza genocide, and helping Ukraine’s efforts to drive out the invading Russians. The economy, the best one in over 50 years, is running smoothly, a result of his efforts to rein in predatory capitalists and encourage domestic investment and manufacturing.

I don’t know if Republicans were thinking of digging up that 44 year old scandal about plagiarism. It would be moot now, I suppose. But Trump ruined that approach for them anyway, posting a faked video of Taylor Swift seemingly endorsing Trump. What he hoped to gain from it other than being cruel is a mystery, but it’s a far worse dishonest theft than Biden’s scandal. Swift is probably furious, and her millions of fans are ready to ride Trump out of town on a rail. In a campaign marked by endless stupid and nasty moves, this one of Trump’s hits a new low in the sewer pipes of his mind.

So: the party is united, Joe has been honored and will keep on working, and tonight should be fascinating as hell.”

It’s “Republicans for Harris” night, staring members of the Trump administration and former leaders of Congress.

This will be fun.

 

 

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The Trump Dump — No matter how high you pile garbage, it has a downhill side as well

Bryan Zepp Jamieson

July 31st, 2024

www.zeppscommentaries.online

It’s truly impossible to describe how bad a month the Trump campaign has had. Oh, I’ll try anyway.

A month ago today, Trump was riding high. He had just had a debate with Joe Biden that by any reasonable metric, Trump lost badly, offering nothing in the way of policy or ideas and just offering the usual melange of lies and smears that seems to be the extent of his campaigning philosophy. But Biden, suffering a cold, faltered badly, and the press declared Trump the winner, more or less by default. The Biden campaign was crippled, and people were declaring it DOA.

As the nation obsessed over Biden’s age and health, Trump went on the road, campaigning vigorously. By mid month, polls were showing him leading in most of the battleground states.

Then on the 13th, he was grazed by a bullet. While the wound was minor, the peril was very real, and the showman Trump had enough presence of mind to strike a heroic pose and shout “Fight! Fight! Fight!” as Secret Service agents tried frantically to get him to safety.

Then on the 15th, the Republicans held their national convention. It was only here the first cracks in what was to prove a catastrophic collapse appeared. First, Trump announced the day before the convention that he had picked JD Vance as his running mate. JD himself, an unlikeable extremist, was a decision that bespoke the high level of Trump’s confidence. He felt no need to reach outside his base. Vance, unnatural offspring of Ted Cruz and Stephen Miller, was red meat for the base. Much of the rest of the country recoiled.

The timing was strange, as well. The VP choice was about the only element of suspense the convention had. Trump could have assured himself of more viewers if he had waited to the end of his acceptance speech to announce that Vance was his running mate.

The speech was the next crack. He promised a speech of unity and moderation, and that lasted about ten minutes. Then it was back to the usual fest of angry lies and sneers.

The public didn’t have time to consider these mistakes before the next windfall came for Trump.

Biden announced on July 21st that he was dropping out, and at first did not announce who he would suggest to succeed him, leaving the possibility of an open convention, a politically disastrous event.

For the first time, I felt Trump, despite everything, could win. Trump clearly felt the same way.

It’s no exaggeration to refer to the rise of the Harris campaign as the Kamala Harris Miracle. Trump had, though complete fault of his own, failed to capitalize on the good will that came from getting shot at, having a convention, naming a young newcomer his VP running mate, and driving his opponent out of the race. At at time when he should have been able to put the race away, he began to lose ground.

It was incremental. He was secretive and sneaky about his medical condition following the shooting, and simultaneously tried to capitalize on it in pure Trump style, with tacky, vastly overpriced pair of sneaks with his “heroic pose” image. His acceptance speech angered his detractors and put his supporters to sleep. Vance quickly proved to be a major political blunder, as some of his statements and flaws came out. Project 2025, basically a Mein Kampf for the 21st century, rose in the public consciousness, and despite Trump’s frantic efforts to rebrand it as Agenda 47 and then disown it altogether, dragged on him. Most of the creators of that manifesto were Trump people, past, present and future.

If he had hoped to drive Biden out in disgrace, it backfired. Biden is being treated (rightly) as an honored elder, and suddenly it’s Trump under scrutiny for his mental and physical (and psychological) fitness.

Stories about Vance, some lurid and some true, spread like wild fire. Trump compulsively babbled nonsense about Hannibal Lecter and sharks. The Harris campaign gleefully framed their race as The Prosecutor versus the Felon.

Today, however, the Trump campaign essentially collapsed. Trump elected to do a press conference / town hall with the National Association of Black Journalists. The moderators made it clear they weren’t going to throw softballs, and Trump just came apart at the seams. He told the crowd he was the best president for African Americans since Abraham Lincoln. He said that Kamala Harris was always “just Indian” and had only in the past two years started pretending to be black. When he repeated his lie about Democrats wanting abortion to be legal even after birth, he got called a liar to his face. It may have been the most disastrous campaign event in US history. Yes, it was that bad.

Then Vance, his creepy VP candidate attacked Simone Biles as “lazy” and “cowardly” on the SAME FUCKING DAY she wins a gold medal for the USA. He was attacking her for being unable to compete in the last Olympics four years ago because of a stress-related breakdown.

Simone Biles is America’s sweetheart and today was her day of redemption. There was never a good time for a sleazy attack like that, but he picked the worst day possible. He should have been filmed setting fire to live kittens in front of the American Nazi Party headquarters. It would have been a better look for him.

And yet, the day wasn’t over. There was one more moment of yin. Trump’s readers on Truth Social should have exploded over this past month  Instead, they’re falling like a rock. Visitors are down by a third from two months ago. He hasn’t just alienated people who hadn’t decided, but he’s now shedding his own true believers.

Trump is dead.

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President Kamala Harris — If Joe Biden steps down

NOTE:  I finished this essay just minutes before Joe Biden announced that he was not running for President, but not stepping down as President, or endorsing a successor.  I’m going ahead and publishing this essay anyway, as written, in the hopes it might influence people to urge Biden to make a stronger and more directional decision.

Bryan Zepp Jamieson

July 21st, 2024

www.zeppscommentaries.online

Ever since the debate I’ve been going back and forth in my own head about whether Biden should run for a second term. There’s no doubt in my mind that he is in better shape, physically, morally, mentally and psychologically than his opponent, but he has a disadvantage in that his supporters care if the president is fit to run the country or not, whereas Donnie One-Ear’s supporters are content merely to worship their idol.

If Biden were to step down, he would go down as the greatest one-term president in American history. He has served his term with immense competence, overcoming daunting odds to create the greatest legislative legacy since FDR. His policies have brought the country back from the brink of a depression to a roaring economy, and for the first time since Reagan’s ‘trickle down’ madness was inflicted upon the country, workers and the middle class are gaining ground. He has brought manufacturing back, made vast updates and improvements to the national infrastructure, and made inroads in smashing the corrupt system of permanent economic servitude known as ‘student debt.’ His legacy is secure, and no mountain of Republican lies can change that.

While a lot of people who think he should step down propose that he just announce he isn’t running again (as did Lyndon Johnson and Harry Truman) it’s worth noting that in both instances the party left without an incumbent president went on to lose both the White House and Congressional supermajorities.

That’s illustrative in another way: in both cases, the prior president died in office (Franklin Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy) and both Johnson and Truman, running on their predecessors’ policies and platforms, were elected with huge majorities against fundamentally weak Republican candidates.

Biden announcing he won’t run again would be a mistake, and we would probably see a floor fight at the convention followed by a sweeping loss. I’ve no doubt that would be the last meaningful election America would ever see. If Trump gets back in office, we are finished.

But if instead, Joe Biden resigns the Presidency, then Kamala Harris becomes President. Not ‘acting president’ or ‘president pro tem’ but THE President. She would be the incumbent (and eligible to run for two full terms in addition to the months remaining in Biden’s first term) and effectively the head of her party. If she decides to run (and it’s nearly impossible to imagine a circumstance where she wouldn’t) the Democratic Party would have little choice, politically or tactically, but to back her and nominate her and a running mate at the convention, three weeks from now.

If she runs on Biden’s platform, and has the full-throated support of Biden, then the Democrats would be united. Even the Democrats mooted to be possible presidential candidates, such as Gavin Newsom or Adam Schiff, would have little recourse but to support her.

The only President to resign office was Richard Nixon, and he did so in disgrace. With Biden, it would be an act of heroism and personal character, putting the interests of the country ahead of his own ambitions. He would be a hero. And if he, along with Obama and the Clintons, is actively campaigning for her, then Biden’s final official act will be one of pure courage and genius.

Which leaves one question: Is Kamala Harris up for the job?

Often the vice presidential nomination is a matter of naked political calculation. The putative goal is a “balanced ticket” wherein the VP candidate is strong in a region where the presidential candidate is weak or appeals to a constituency not keen on the presidential candidate. Harris wasn’t the result of such; she is from California, which was already a given for Biden, and is liberal-centrist, like Biden. The bigots will say she’s a ‘minority hire’ or some other such crap, but honestly—does anybody know a Repucican black person and/or a woman who said, “I was going to vote for Trump, but Harris is a DEI, so I’m switching?” Yes, there are black people and women who support Trump. But you only need to watch them for a few moments to see they aren’t quite right. None of them are going to switch for Harris.

With the possible exceptions of Al Gore and puppet master Dick Cheney, most VPs don’t have memorable terms. John Nance Gardner once remarked of his job as VP that it was “Not worth a bucket of warm spit.” Basically, the VP has three jobs: cast a tie-breaking vote in the Senate, certify the electoral college count, and wait for the president to die. In most of the history of the Republic, that made the job an utter sinecure.

What about the rest of her career? Well, stellar. As a district attorney she was tough on crime, but had compassion. She opposed the death penalty in all cases, sometimes in the face of intense political pressure. In 2005 she created an environmental crimes unit, and a hate crimes unit. She vigorously persecuted marijuana traffickers, but very rarely persecuted end users, and didn’t seek prison time on such offenses. On violent crime, she was suburb, achieving an 87-percent conviction rate for homicides and a 90-percent conviction rate for all felony gun violations.

She was elected State DA in 2010 in one of the closest elections in state history (it took three weeks to determine she was the winner, but won reelection in 2014 by nearly 58% of the vote, showing strong public consensus behind the job she was doing.

She went after the mortgage mills that nearly destroyed the economy in 2008, and clawed back over a half billion dollars in false claims from two major Medicare swindler companies. She backed and then utilized the Homeowner Bill of Rights which eliminated egregious abuses by the banks and saved not only thousands of people their homes, but homeowners around the state billions of dollars.

She consistently has fought major corporations and banks for the rights of consumers and employees and the public at large. Her record as state DA is utterly amazing, and leaves me with no doubt that she can stand nose-to-nose with Donald Trump, call him a liar and a crook, explain why he’s a liar and a crook, and send him away crying like a little bitch. She’s far more a man than he’s ever been.

Harris, backed by Biden and the rest of the Democratic party, is what we absolutely must have if Trump and the National Association of Zealots and Ideologues who back him are to be defeated.

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A Turn for the Douche — Trump reaches down for VP pick

A Turn for the Douche

Trump reaches down for VP pick

Bryan Zepp Jamieson

July 16th 2024

www.zeppscommentaries.online

Before he became a vulture capitalist and began his descent into utter dirtbaggery, JD Vance would occasionally say some things that suggested at least some personal integrity. For instance, in his book Hillbilly Elegy, he described Trump as “cultural heroin” and someone “leading the white working class to a very dark place”.

He told a friend, “I go back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical asshole like Nixon who wouldn’t be that bad (and might even prove useful) or that he’s America’s Hitler.”

In 2016 he told the NY Times, “Mr Trump is unfit for our nation’s highest office.”

Also: “I can’t stomach Trump. I think that he’s noxious and is leading the white working class to a very dark place.”

Or how about “Trump makes people I care about afraid. Immigrants, Muslims, etc. Because of this I find him reprehensible. God wants better of us.”?

Well, that’s all bye the bye now. He’s now Donald’s choice as vice presidential candidate, there to fluff Donald on command and snarl and threaten all those who oppose Donald.

It just happened to be coincidence, I suppose, that the update that Vance had been named VP candidate happened just as my disk mix started playing Garfunkel and Oates’ “This Party Just Took a Turn for the Douche.” (NSFW, but very funny).

The GOP has been on a steady downward trajectory since 1964, when the John Bircher crowd managed to make Barry Goldwater their nominee. He lost by a huge margin, of course, and what the Birchers (read: The Koch Brothers) learned was they would have to set up a vast propaganda apparatus and take control of the nation’s press, suborn the legislatures and courts to make it easy to buy elections, and get at least one major party to put their interests well ahead of the nation’s.

Thus was born the Heritage Foundation, the Federalist Society, thousand of other “think tanks” (Goebbelese for “propaganda pits”), Rush Limbaugh and his control of AM radio throughout rural America, a vast right wing network, the takeover of local news and newspapers, and the neutering of “mainstream” media such as the New York Times or CNN.

If you think Trump and Vance 2024 is as low as it gets, expect it to get much worse. Germany 1938 worse.

Trump is Trump. He got grazed by a bit of shattered glass, and one of his fans was killed trying to shelter his family from the bullets. Trump never tried to call to console the family—instead he went out and played golf. It’s an example, though, of how thoroughly he has poisoned the minds of his followers: President Biden DID try to call the widow to console her, and they refused to take the call. Better to be ignored by a fascists then cared about by a Democrat, I suppose. That’s pretty sick.

Trump is trying to pretend he knows nothing (“I know Nuffink!!”) about Project 2025, and his followers are marching in lockstep. They’ve been told to say that Agenda 2030 is a far greater danger to America. Here’s a link to that 2015 laundry list of goals: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Read it, and cower in terror. They want you to be fed, clothed, housed, free from tyranny, and all kinds of mean nasty horrible things like that. The right is hoping that while you are running away waving your hands and squealing like a piggy, you pretend that Project 2025 is just an example of liberal hysteria and no self-respecting conservative supports it and besides it’s not all that bad any way. Here’s a link to that: https://static.project2025.org/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf Since it’s over 900 pages, you might just want an overview: https://democracyforward.org/the-peoples-guide-to-project-2025/

The fourth pillar of Project 2025 (yes, it has pillars, just like Islam, only Islam’s are a lot nicer) is the transition plan for the first 180 days of the Trump administration. Kind of hard to believe that none of Trump’s people have heard of it, especially since 140 of his top aides from his last administration co-authored Project 2025. Basically, it’s a nightmare. Restores the Spoils System, makes all government workers Trumps’ personal serfs who he can fire and hire at will. Eliminates most of the departments of government, including the EPA, Education, Health and Human Services, and such vital agencies as NOAA, and FEMA.

We already know what sort of man Donald is. Now we know Vance is no better. And Project 2025 tells you a lot about the people supporting Trump.

They aren’t doing it for you. As far at they are concerned, you are there to generate revenue, buy their stuff, and keep your fucking trap shut.

It won’t be a fun existence. Especially since tyrannies like that need endless scapegoats to distract and intimidate you with. They’ll start with immigrants, but it won’t stop there. The camps will grow huge, and as they grow huge, more expensive. You can probably figure you where things go from there.

Don’t listen to what Trump and Vance say: they are inveterate liars and hypocrites. Instead, see what their supporters say. There’s the real agenda, and it’s an ugly one.

“The real problem is what they want to do to the dollar, the constitution, the judiciary and the rules based international system is an absolute train wreck, a perversion of what was once conservatism. It is a brand of anarcho-Christian populism, which borders on fascism; it is a very dangerous time for the United States. The deficit spending is out of control and if they devalue the dollar they’re going to disrupt the entire global capitalist system. The United States could lead the world out of this problem, but it would need to do it in a way that is almost the opposite of what they are doing.” — Anthony Scaramucci on Project 2025

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