QOTD -- Tanking

 

"... There is one exception to the general rule that presidents don’t have much control over gas prices: Donald Trump. He can’t bring them down, but he certainly sent them up.  [snip]

"There aren’t going to be too many voters who call themselves MAGA and will vote for Democrats because Trump made gas prices go up. But Democrats don’t need them to. It’s enough if the persuadable voters who believed Trump when he told them that he’d bring down the price of everything — including gas — are mad that he broke his promise and decide to send him and his party a message.

"In fact, if the Iran war drags on and gas prices stay high, this could wind up being as decisive a campaign issue as Trump’s misbegotten tariffs, his parade of idiotic construction projects, his rampaging incompetence, or his boundless corruption.

"Of all the ways a president could tank his political standing and sabotage his party’s chances of success in an upcoming election, few are as straightforward as directly causing an increase in the price of gasoline at the pump. Yet Trump has managed it. He truly is a president like no other." --  Paul Waldman, "Public Notice" Substack, on "Why Trump deserves all the blame for high gas prices."  Waldman notes that many experts believe if the  Malignant Fascist's bungled war with Iran doesn't end soon (and what would Iran's incentive be for that to happen?) gas prices could remain high for a prolonged period.  Elect clowns ...

 

QOTD: The Problem Is Their Beliefs

 

Paul Waldman has a terrific piece in his "The Cross Section" Substack about why Lindsey Graham and others of his ilk showed us their true selves as principle-free, amoral windsocks seeking power at any cost.  Please read his entire piece.  Here's the coda:

"Just as Trump awakened in so many Republican voters a barely-suppressed desire to be their worst selves — to be racist, to be sexist, to be obnoxious and cruel and loudly proud of all of it — there’s no reason to think that isn’t true of politicians as well.

Lindsey Graham didn’t lose his way or betray his principles, and neither did Vance, Rubio, or Cruz. The problem isn’t that they abandoned their beliefs. The problem is their beliefs. They showed us who they really are, and if some day in the future they try to convince us that they’ve rediscovered the virtue that had merely lain dormant within them for a while, we’d better not buy it."

We'd better not buy it, indeed.  

 

 

 

QOTD -- Trump's Twisted Psychology

 

"... The picture [Trump] paints is one in which everyone — individual people, countries, the world as a whole — is an eternal spectator in a constant state of awe, slack-jawed in amazement at either events as they unfold or, more often, the greatness of Trump and his accomplishments. Everything he does is something no one has ever seen before, and our purpose is to stand back and behold him in his glory.

"This is the perspective of a man whose brain has been poisoned by his life-long pursuit of fame and admiration. He exists only if he’s being watched, and his decisions are good only so far as they are seen. This is why Trump is the purest expression of this cursed moment in cultural history: He is every fame-lusting Real Housewife, every hungry influencer trying to boost their middling follower count, every looksmaxxing douchebro, taken to a terrifying extreme..."  -- Paul Waldman, in his "The Cross Section" Substack, on the Malignant Fascist's twisted psychology, and the one phrase that explains it.  (It's there in the first paragraph above.)

QOTD -- Trump's Good And Bad Reasons For War

 

"...The difference between him and the neocons of the Bush era is that they had grandiose ambitions of spreading democracy across the Middle East and beyond, and they convinced themselves that they were acting for the good of those populations and the whole world. Trump couldn’t give a rat’s ass about democracy or the people of the Middle East. But that doesn’t mean he has any qualms about launching a vigorous bombing campaign every month or two. In the first year of his second term, Trump bombed seven different countries (Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Venezuela, Somalia, and Nigeria).

"The Trumpian view isn’t that the U.S. shouldn’t intervene militarily around the world, it’s that there are good reasons and bad reasons to do so, and we should only do so for the right reasons. In his view, bad reasons include: fostering democracy, protecting human rights, discouraging imperialist aggression, and supporting allies. Good reasons include: plunder, culture wars, revenge, pique, and because war is cool..." --  Paul Waldman, in his "Cross Section" Substack on "What Both Journalists and MAGA Voters Misunderstood About Trump and War."  He's been a narcissistic sociopath all his life.  It takes some powerful self-delusion to think of him and what he would do with enormous power any other way.

Meanwhile,

QOTD -- Vance's Whiteness Über Alles Message

 

"... I have noted often that when they searched for a leader for their party in 2016, Republicans decided that they would rally behind literally the worst human being in America, the walking collection of character flaws known as Donald Trump. Dishonest, ignorant, cruel, petty, narcissistic, bigoted, a tax cheat and a con man and a sexual abuser — how could they have done worse? But in some ways, JD Vance is worse, for one reason. Trump was born this way; Vance decided to become a monster. After going through a series of personal reinventions and name changes, he settled on the most repulsive version of himself, believing that it would bring him the power he has long sought.

"There are some problems, however. The first is that his ethnonationalist, exclusionary vision of America runs against everything we’ve been telling ourselves America is about for all our lives. That doesn’t mean it contradicts what America has often been in many ways, but the ideal of America as a place of inclusion holds extraordinary power. And what Vance is offering is therefore deeply un-American. It says that everything that has made our country dynamic and successful ought to be rejected, and it’s just hard to imagine a majority of American voters going for that..." -- Paul Waldman, The Cross Section on Substack, on "Why JD Vance Can't Ride Whiteness to the White House."  Vance's other main problem, as Waldman points out, is that Vance is "a black hole of charisma," and "a personally unappealing figure." He's not only delivering a fundamentally un-American message, but his inauthenticity in transitioning to the monster that he chose to become makes him doubly repellent. 

 

QOTD -- Why They Did It

 

Paul Waldman, writing about "Why They Did It," in his Substack The Cross Section, offers a reason why the MAGAt Republican party/ cult was bound and determined to pass its Big Ugly Bill, despite its historic unpopularity:

... They despise Medicaid and have contempt for everyone who uses it. The same goes for SNAP, aka food stamps. They desperately want to cut taxes for the wealthy, and always have. They don’t just want to roll back Biden-era climate policies, they want to destroy the entire green energy and manufacturing sectors of the economy. Their hearts flutter excitedly at the sight of a gang of masked thugs pummeling a landscaper or arresting a 6-year-old with leukemia; the thought of spending $150 billion so ICE can seize millions of immigrants and cart them off to a network of brutal detention centers fills them with joy.

That’s just part of what’s in the bill, but the point is that this is the fulfillment of their fondest policy wishes. If it costs them their House majority and maybe even their Senate majority as well (a long shot, but not impossible), they’re willing to do it. Because they believe in it.  [snip]

So while the short-term political outlook for Republicans is very bad, the more they look at the long term — in politics, but especially in policy — the better this bill looks. They pushed right up to the limit of what their budget could do and still hold enough votes to win a majority. And with every immigrant parent torn from their children’s arms, every family that loses their health coverage, every young person who decides to forego college, every rural health clinic that shuts down, every research grant that gets revoked, every solar energy project that gets dismantled, they can sit back, smile, and say, “This is why we came to Washington. No matter what happens tomorrow, it was worth it.”

Michigan Democratic Rep. Jim McGovern asked of these MAGAts "What is wrong with you people?" Our simple answer is, they're immoral, authoritarian- worshiping, torture- porn cowards whose only aim in life is to punch down -- punch down on the afflicted, the poor, the "other," all the people they despise. They've been given power to do so, ironically by some those same despised populations who will now reap the consequences of their vote.

QOTD -- Raging At The Wrong People

 

"...When it comes to rural resentments, again and again these scholars insist that if rural whites are mad, it’s only because they have good reason to be. We are hardly unaware of the sufferings of rural America, many of which are born from late-stage capitalism. In fact, we dedicate the second chapter of our book to the causes and consequences of declining economic opportunities, outmigration of ambitious young people, hospital and pharmacy closures, and other very serious problems that pervade rural American communities, white and nonwhite alike. In our reporting, we heard many moving stories about the challenges rural communities face.

"What isn’t said enough is that rural whites are being told to blame all the wrong people for their very real problems. As we argue in the book, Hollywood liberals didn’t destroy the family farm, college professors didn’t move manufacturing jobs overseas, immigrants didn’t pour opioids into rural communities, and critical race theory didn’t close hundreds of rural hospitals. When Republican politicians and the conservative media tell rural whites to aim their anger at those targets, it’s so they won’t ask why the people they keep electing haven’t done anything to improve life in their communities..." -- Paul Waldman and Tom Schaller, writing in The New Republic, in response to an article by Nicholas Jacobs in Politico and other critics of their book, White Rural Rage. Waldman's and Schaller's work rings truer to us than the attempts to soften or elide the cause and manifestations of white rural rage (or "resentment," as Jacobs prefers).  Good read.

QOTD -- The Republican Border Show

 

Paul Waldman, on the photo op safari the bad faith House Republicans took to the U.S.-Mexico border recently:

Speaker Mike Johnson took no fewer than 60 of his House GOP colleagues on a trip to the southern border this week, enacting a ritual that is both familiar and pointless. The playbook is rife with cliches: Don outdoor-rated clothing (tactical pockets are a bonus); nod gravely while speaking to Border Patrol agents; gaze determinedly into Mexico; and hold a press conference to repeat words such as “crisis” and “open borders” dozens of times. That’s what you call leadership.  [snip]

... [W]hen Republicans stage a farce like Johnson’s border trip, mock them without mercy. Don’t say “We too are concerned about the border.” Say: “If these Republicans cared about fixing the immigration problem, they’d be sitting down at the table to negotiate, not prancing around the desert in the outfits they sent their aides to Bass Pro Shops to pick up on their way to the airport.” 

Any responsible lawmaker who sees the border as a “crisis” should be willing to do whatever it takes to confront it, including compromise. The fact that Republicans aren’t shows that they see it not as a crisis, but as a political football. That’s what it will remain, unless Democrats make them pay a price.

The Democrats have proposals that would address border security and legal pathways to citizenship. As is too often the case, no one hears about it because Democrats don't promote their ideas as forcefully as the lizard- brained Republican propaganda apparatus.  Republicans are also intent on holding funding for Ukraine and Israel hostage by linking it to their draconian border proposals and refusing to compromise. After all, what's in it for these party- before- country white nationalist fascists?  As the article quotes Republican seditionist and cult member Rep. Troy Nehls (Sedition-TX) saying the quiet part loud: “Let me tell you, I’m not willing to do too damn much right now to help a Democrat and to help Joe Biden’s approval rating.” 

We should all keep that in mind when we see these cynical shows of "concern" on this and other issues.

(Photo:  screenshot of MAGA Mike Johnson at the border with his "concerned" face / AP)

QOTD -- Snow Job

 

"... The judges President Haley would appoint would also not be abortion moderates; they would almost certainly come from the Federalist Society’s judicial pipeline to guarantee their conservative bona fides, especially on abortion. Even if she wanted to appoint moderate judges (and there’s no indication she does), it would trigger a revolt within her party. In fact, it’s unlikely anyone she appoints to any high position in the federal government with an influence over health care would be pro-choice.

"And while the president can’t unilaterally make abortion legal or illegal, there’s a good deal they can do to shore up, or undermine, reproductive rights. The Biden administration likes to tout a variety of actions it has taken on that score, from defending the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of medication abortions in court to enabling members of the military to travel to receive abortion care. Rest assured, a Haley administration would do the opposite..."  -- Paul Waldman, cautioning everyone not to fall for the "moderate" Nikki Haley "snow job" on abortion.  Having suffered significant electoral losses since Dobbs and Republican state legislatures enacting draconian anti- abortion laws, Republicans are trying to find a way to thread the needle between what the most rabid forced- birthers in their base want (a total abortion ban) and something (anything!) that won't impel suburban women to flock to the polls to vote Democratic.  Haley is road- testing her weasel language to signal empathy while still intending to assuage the forced birthers.  It could become a more widely- touted tactic by Republican candidates trying to fool people, so be on guard.

Quote Of The Day: Getting Behind Biden

 

Washington Post columnist Paul Waldman, writing in this morning's WaPo that in the upcoming Presidential election, progressives should work hard to re-elect President Biden, and shun Quixotic candidates on the left:

"Ask a Democrat with a long memory what the numbers 97,488 and 537 represent, and their face will twist into a grimace. The first is the number of votes Ralph Nader received in Florida in 2000 as the nominee of the Green Party; the second is the margin by which George W. Bush was eventually certified the winner of the state, handing him the White House.

Now, with President Biden gearing up for reelection, talk of a spoiler candidate from the left is again in the air. That’s unfortunate, because here’s the truth: The past 2½ years under Biden have been a triumph for progressivism, even if it’s not in most people’s interest to admit it. [snip]

He has been exactly the kind of president the left should hope for, not because he shares its agenda but because his agenda is malleable. What the left needs in a president is someone who can get elected in a closely divided country and whom progressives can influence.

Biden is that president. His convictions are, shall we say, lightly held. He cares more about making deals and signing legislation than holding to progressive principles. But he has been open to the argument that adopting more progressive stances than Barack Obama or Bill Clinton ever dreamed of can be the politically smart move, in part to maintain good relations with the left side of his party. And presenting progressive policy as moderate common sense is one of Biden’s skills."  (our emphasis)

We might add the recollection of Putin's useful idiot Jill Stein, whose Green Party candidacy in 2016 siphoned off just enough votes from Secretary Clinton to put the Malignant Loser in the Oval Office. We can't let that happen again. 

QOTD -- Durham Bull, Cont.

 

"You’ll search his report in vain for any mention of, for instance, the fact that Trump’s campaign chairman passed information to a Russian intelligence operative. Nearly every mention of Manafort is about his relationship with former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, who turned out to be an inconsequential figure in the scandal yet takes up much of the space in Durham’s report because of the FBI’s shoddy means of obtaining FISA warrants to surveil him.

"In the end, Durham’s investigation achieved little to nothing of consequence. He indicted three people, one of whom pleaded guilty to illegally modifying an email and was sentenced to probation; the other two were acquitted. His report tries to turn what is already known about FBI sloppiness into something new and shocking.

"But if his goal was to give Trump and his dishonest minions an excuse to repeat their bogus claims about his innocence in the Russia scandal? Mission accomplished." -- Paul Waldman in the Washington Post, assessing the report issued by Malignant Loser/ William "Low" Barr - appointed Special Counsel John Durham to try to smear the FBI's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election on the Malignant Loser's behalf.  As with reporting on the debt ceiling issue, the media is covering itself in shame by adopting Republican talking points and perspectives.  Shocking.

QOTD -- Death Rattle

 

"...The right is surely growing more focused on creating a kind of Christian cultural hegemony in public institutions in part because Christianity is in a steep decline. Three decades ago, about 90 percent of Americans identified as Christian. Today, the number has fallen to the low 60s and the decline is likely to continue.

"Something similar is happening politically in Texas. Republicans have a lock on power, yet the state continues inexorably moving away from them, culturally and demographically.

“'I think this is the death rattle of a dying worldview,' [Democratic State Rep. James] Talarico told me. 'In some ways, the far right is like a wounded animal here in Texas. They know that Texas is becoming increasingly diverse, Texas is becoming younger, and that new Texas is not going to stand for these extreme policies.'” -- Paul Waldman, in the Washington Post, on how "The Texas legislature explores new frontiers of Christian Nationalism."  Whether Rep.Talarico's faith in demographic change coming to Texas is borne out remains to be seen.  What is clear, though, is that in Texas and in every state where the Republican/ Christofascist/ Shooters Party holds power, they will use every means available to hold on to that power, whether it's constitutional or not, legitimate or not.

QOTD -- Terror As An Achievement

 

"...Or, of course, we can just get more guns. The implication is that there’s a kind of 'Laffer curve' of mass slaughter whose benefits are waiting to be enjoyed. After a certain inflection point of firearm ubiquity, the number of murders will reverse course and rapidly head toward zero.

"Conservatives don’t articulate it precisely that way. They say, 'The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,' or claim that even more guns will bring down crime. But the implication is the same: We are gripped by terror now, but there is a road to safety ahead of us, and it’s paved with yet more guns.

"Those claims are ludicrous, as even many gun owners would admit. But they give gun advocates something to say when the news is covered with stories of elementary school students gunned down with the instruments of mayhem Republican members of Congress pin on their lapels and pose with in their Christmas cards.

"They wear triumphant smiles in those pictures, and they have indeed triumphed. Our terror is their achievement." -- Paul Waldman in the Washington Post on the nightmare loop we're in because of the gun industry and their pet politicians in the Republican/ Shooter's Party.  As Waldman notes in his op/ ed, Republicans are perfectly happy with the trade off between the "freedom" to own military- grade weapons (while pocketing contributions from the gun lobby) and the innocent lives lost.  If Americans ever want to see this equation changed, they need to be one- issue voters and vote every mass- killing- enabling Republican out of office.

QOTD -- Fairness

 

"...The justices sounded almost as though they were advocating a strict version of communism, under which no one should receive any government benefit that isn’t given to everyone. You could ask why Social Security is so unfair to people who aren’t elderly, or farm supports are unfair to people who aren’t farmers, or funding schools is unfair to the childless.

"These same justices, and the party they come from, seem to rouse themselves to fret about fairness only when those who don’t ordinarily get a lot of breaks — people struggling with debt or who need help feeding their families — are given a government benefit. When that happens, the fairness police of the right turn on their sirens, usually with the argument that someone else’s gain must be your loss — even if you didn’t actually lose anything...." -- Paul Waldman, writing on the Republican Supreme Court's notion of "fairness" when it comes to President Biden's student loan forgiveness program.  Waldman uses the loan forgiveness question to broaden the scope of how questions of fairness -- or unfairness -- are deployed by right- wingers to promote resentment and maintain "hierarchies of power" that benefit themselves. 

 

QOTD -- Violence As A Republican Political Tool

 

"At this moment in history, Republican radicalism comes in so many forms — election subversion, draconian abortion restrictions, gun fetishism, anti-LGBTQ scapegoating — that some argue the party is moving toward a new kind of fascism. That raises complicated questions, but one of fascism’s key features is the glorification of violence as a domestic political tool.  [snip]

"At the moment, we’re seeing a rise in widely distributed, low-level acts of violence and intimidation directed at the right’s enemies. This will likely escalate: This year has seen a dramatic increase in threats against Pride Month events, which comes after a couple of years of near-riots at school board meetings and threats against public health officials and election administrators.

"There is an undeniable connection between what the angry right-wing mob does on the ground and what it sees from the Republican elite.

"And what do members of the right-wing mob see? Every day on Fox News and other conservative media outlets, they get a deluge of histrionic outrage and apocalyptic warnings about 'groomers' preparing to abuse their children, about the coming genocidal campaign against White people, about antifa coming to burn down their towns, about the impending outlawing of gun ownership and Christianity and everything else they hold dear.

"If you actually believed all of it, violence might seem a reasonable response, just like storming the Capitol might seem reasonable if you believed Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election." -- Paul Waldman in the Washington Post, commenting on the incendiary political ad from the scandal- plagued ammosexual Republican Senate candidate in Missouri, Eric Greitens.  Greitens has received pushback from a state Republican official, but national Republican weasels, as of late yesterday, have not responded to media inquiries. 

QOTD: "Simply Elect More Democrats"

 

Paul Waldman writes in the Washington Post about Dems' tendency to form circular firing squads in the face of setbacks:

"What happens when legislation fails? Your supporters grow disenchanted and demoralized, just as Democratic voters are becoming now. They feel unmotivated to organize and turn out to vote. And it doesn’t help when all they see from their own representatives are complaints about what a bunch of failures Democrats are.

President Biden hasn’t been much help, either. His first impulse is to reach out to the other side, but even when he doesn’t — as with the aggressive speech he gave on voting rights in Atlanta — it can come at a moment when defeat is already upon him.

And here’s a truth Democrats have trouble articulating, especially when they’re so worried that the odor of futility might be hanging on them: The boring, uninspiring answer to all these problems is to simply elect more Democrats.

If Democrats had an extra couple of senators (along with keeping the House), Manchin and Sinema would no longer hold the balance of power; the party could reform the filibuster, pass voting rights legislation, pass the BBB bill and do a bunch more besides. It’s as simple as that." (our emphasis)

To the last point above, we're looking at open Senate seats vacated by retiring Republicans in Pennsylvania (doable), Ohio (a stretch), and North Carolina (also a stretch), and the contest in Wisconsin, with the lunatic conspiracist Sen. Ron Johnson looking very vulnerable. The odds depend on Dems running solid, appealing candidates, who can go on the offensive articulating how Republican obstruction is hurting their constituents.

It doesn't help that the Beltway media has been pounding the "Dems in disarray" meme for months, while being silent about 50 Republican Senators, not one -- NOT ONE -- of whom is supporting the voting rights bills or the Build Back Better legislation. Perhaps after today's votes on the voting rights bills where every Senator has to put his/her vote on the record,  the media coverage might briefly mention Republicans voted en masse against them, but don't hold your breath.

Quote Of The Day: Trump And His Anti-Vaxxers

 

"There is clearly a good portion of the Republican base that in this case finds the truest expression of Trumpism in rejecting what Trump himself is telling them. Opposition to vaccines has been woven so tightly into their political identity that not even Trump himself can remove it. [snip]

"How did we get here? From the outset, the pandemic was politicized, with divisions drawn between liberals who wanted aggressive public health measures and conservatives who didn’t, egged on to deny the seriousness of the pandemic and see it as a plot concocted by enemies of Trump.

"Once aggressive public health measures became associated with Trump’s foes, feelings about the pandemic became interwoven with personal identity and one’s place in a particular community.

"And so, when the vaccines became available, they were inevitably viewed through that prism. That was true even for millions of conservatives who were perfectly fine before 2021 with having to vaccinate their kids before sending them to school, yet today recoil in rage at the very idea." -- Paul Waldman and Greg Sargent in the Washington Post on the die-hard (literally) opposition to vaccines by many members of the Trump cult.

Many have opined that Trumpism will survive Trump. The death cult within Trumpism may not.

 

QOTD -- SCOTUS Value For The Dollar

 

"... There was a particularly striking exchange between Laura Ingraham and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) on Fox News, where Ingraham grew inexplicably enraged over the mere possibility that Roe might not be overturned.

“'If we have six Republican appointees on this court,” she said, "after all the money that’s been raised, the Federalist Society, all these big fat-cat dinners — I’m sorry, I’m pissed about this — if this court with six justices cannot do the right thing here,” then Republicans should “blow it up” and pass some kind of law limiting the court’s authority.

“'I would do that in a heartbeat,” Cruz responded.

"In other words: We bought this court, and we’d better get what we paid for." -- Paul Waldman, in a Washington Post op/ed about the lies the right- wing Republican justices told during their confirmation hearings about Roe and stare decisis.  Don't worry, Laura.  You'll get what you paid for.

QOTD -- The Republican Violence Problem

 

"The thread running through all these events and controversies is the belief that liberals are so wicked that violence and the threat of violence are reasonable responses to the possibility of them getting their way. Right along with that belief is a fantasy, that of a man (almost always a man) who rather than being an ordinary schlub at the mercy of a world in which he has no power is actually bursting with testosterone and potency, someone who can and perhaps should become a killing machine."-- Paul Waldman in the Washington Post, discussing the rotted out Republican Party's violence problem, from Trump rallies and Trump himself, to January 6, to Rittenhouse, to Gosar and the rest of the coup caucus, etc., etc.   We've all seen it become a pervasive part of public life, from the local to the national level, and it needs to be confronted.  Appeasing fascist bullies has never turned out well.

QOTD -- Doing What's Needed

 

"[Republicans] do not quake at the prospect of the electorate’s displeasure, especially when they’ve done so much to ensure that the will of the electorate can be thwarted with the right combination of gerrymandering and voter suppression. They know what they want, and they’ll do what’s necessary to get it.

"And Democrats? They fret and worry, they restrain themselves, they recommit to norms the other side has already trashed, they live in fear of political repercussions that never come. And their own goals languish while Republicans turn America into a darker, meaner, crueller place." -- Paul Waldman, in a widely- quoted op/ ed in the Washington Post yesterday.  

Waldman's excellent analysis on why Republicans understand power and Democrats don't.  It's sure damn frustrating to be a Democrat, work hard to elect people who run on an agenda you support, but then have it thwarted (at least for now) by a few pseudo Democrats and a lack of will about what it takes today to exercise the power you were elected to exercise.  But, that's where we are at the moment.  So, we need to be the backbone so many of our representatives seem to lack.  We need to let them know the "political repercussions" will be coming from us if they don't do what's needed to be done at this tipping point in American history. (Steve M. at No More Mister Nice Blog has a take on how the Republicans' long game has led us to this place.)