The Last Election?

How is this not an indication that the felon is a threat to democracy?

And again, Christians: Get out and vote! Just this time. You won't have to do it anymore! Four more years, you know what? It'll be fixed, it'll be fine. You won't have to vote anymore. In four years you don't have to vote again, we'll have it fixed so good you're not gonna have to vote.

Update (July 29):  Heather Digby Parton offers her take.

If it weren't for his constant praise for dictators and tyrants and his repeated comments that he should be allowed to stay in office beyond two terms, I might be willing to believe some people's interpretations of this startling remark to mean that he will fix everything in four years so they will have no reason to be involved in politics after that. But that makes no sense since unless he means he's not leaving office, people will always have to vote lest their opponents reverse their gains as [Fuckface] himself is promising to do right now. No, he said what he said and we know what he means.

Ruth Ben-Ghiat warns of more "troubling rhetoric" to come.

[The felon] is really making very clear his intentions of telling people that they need to get him into office — and then, there will be no more need for elections. And the way he phrases it is as though it's a bother, it's a burden to have to vote. [T]his is obviously disturbing from so many points of view.

[T]he authoritarian, from Mussolini onward, has always presented himself as not just the savior of the nation, but the person who will take care of things and lighten the burden of the people.

Update (July 30):  Yeah, this clears it up.

Don't worry about the future, you have to vote on November 5. After that you don't have to worry about voting anymore, I don't care. The country will be fixed and we won't even need your vote anymore.

Even worse, a Rolling Stone investigation finds that about 70 election officials in swing states are willing to block election certification.

Certification of election results is what legal experts consider a "ministerial task," and one required by state and local law. But as [the felon's] lies about the 2020 election have taken hold, Republicans nationwide have decided that certification provides them an opportunity to hear fraud allegations — and refuse to officially count their local votes. Republicans have refused to certify election results at least 25 times since [Fuckface] lost the 2020 election to President Joe Biden.

A New Day

The felon's niece, Mary, offers a new realization.

I finally agree with [my uncle]: It would be a huge mistake to elect the oldest candidate in American history.

Former presidential candidate Nikki Haley had an insightful comment in January.

The first party to retire its 80-year-old candidate is going to be the party that wins this election.

And Joe Scarborough sums up the Republican reaction to the news that the President will not seek re-election.

Joe Biden puts country first and Republicans meltdown. What a tell.

Update (July 23):  Heather Digby Parton describes the sorry state of the GOP.

So what do the Republicans think about all this?

They seem to have been caught completely flat-footed.

It seems that they may not have anticipated that Joe Biden gracefully withdrawing from the race might be seen as an act of selfless patriotism in contrast to their [Dear Leader], the grasping egomaniac who incited a riot rather than admit that he lost. The contrast couldn't be more vivid.

And Amanda Marcotte points out the advantages of a Kamala Harris candidacy.

[The felon] and his team aren't hiding their full-blown panic that Biden dropped out. They're scared for many reasons. Their entire campaign could be boiled down to "Biden is too old," and now it's [Fuckface] who is the old and incoherent guy in the race. But I suspect it's also because Harris could blow up their strategy to turn out young male voters. The campaign obviously hoped they could send misogynist signals to certain kinds of young men, without female swing voters noticing. And it probably would have worked with Biden at the top of the ticket, unable to draw attention to what [Manbaby] is doing. Harris won't have that problem. She can do one interview and speech after another where she reminds female voters that [the Orange Turd] is a sexual predator and that he and his team would ban abortions, even for rape victims. With her background, she may be in a better position to push this issue than any other potential Democratic nominee could have been.

Update (July 24):  Marcotte further elaborates.

With Harris as the Democratic nominee [the felon] is caught in a no-win situation. If he continues to hang back from the campaign trail while she's out there hustling, he'll start inviting the questions about whether he's too old and weak, the exact questions that plagued Biden. But if he starts doing more media and events that are outside the MAGA bubble, he will draw negative attention and remind voters why they hate him.

Update (July 29):  Ryan Teague Beckwith sees a strong, simple theme for the new candidate.

Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign message is clear. She loves freedom and [Dear Leader] is weird.

It doesn't hurt that the campaign got permission from Beyoncé to use the song "Freedom" at events.

Sabrina Haake notes another strong message from the Vice President.

Harris talks about abortion rights clearly, forcefully and unapologetically, and will help shape abortion into the pivotal issue in November.

Update (August 9):  Democrats are energized and Heather Digby Parton notices that the felon just isn't the same after a "meltdown" press conference.

He was dour and angry and frankly is starting to look a whole lot older, just in the past few months. He's not enjoying himself and it shows and compared to the excited crowds greeting Harris and Walz this week this sad, pathetic appearance seemed almost funereal. [Fuckface von Clownstick] isn't fun anymore.

I think he's considering for the first time that he might lose again and he is not psychologically equipped to deal with that reality.

Update (August 16):  Frank Luntz describes the results he found from a focus group comparing the vice president to her opponent.

On these personality traits, Harris has a tremendous advantage over [the felon] and there are people who had voted for [him] in 2020 that will not vote for him again because they're tired of his rude and abusive behavior.

Update (August 19):  Vice presidential candidate Tim Walz spoke to the Aliquippa High School football team.

Politics isn't so much different than this. It's about something bigger than themselves. It's about setting a future goal and trying to reach it. It's about doing it with dignity and hard work. It's about doing it with humility and when you lose, you walk across the field, you shake hands with the other team and know they played hard, too. But we're all in it together to try and make it better.

Our country's not that different. Our neighbors wanna be with ya, our neighbors wanna do what's right and the more we figure out that we're in this thing together and we have more in common than we have separated, we're gonna do a heck of a lot better.

Heather Digby Parton sees a reason for optimism.

The Harris/Walz ticket has the momentum, creativity and palpable excitement on its side. Whether that's enough to overcome [the felon's] inexplicable hold on the Republican Party after eight years of his now very tired old schtick is unknown. ... [I]f the stars align and there is no external catastrophe, the Democrats might deliver that historic victory we all thought we were getting back in 2016, and our long [orange] nightmare may finally be over.

 

Hillbilly Hypocricy

Two days after facing an assassination attempt, the felon cranked up the election stakes by choosing Senator J.D. Vance as his running mate. Vance had previously been a harsh critic of Dear Leader, but is now full MAGA. I'm hoping this will do nothing to expand their supporters.

Sarah Burris lists four things to know about the V.P. pick.

Onlookers have claimed Vance's morals have collapsed
Vance has been accused of lying about being a "working class hero"
[Fuckface] has complete control over Vance, critics have said
He's been criticized as being little more than a right-wing troll

Update (July 19):  Heather Digby Parton is not impressed with the choice.

I have to say that in all the articles written about this decision, what comes across to me is that [Dear Leader] has lost a step. Maybe he's just so cocky about winning that he doesn't think it matters, which is possible. But from the way it sounds, he let himself be steamrolled into picking someone who on some level he knows wasn't the best choice for his electoral prospects. Maybe the 78 year old [felon] is just as weak and tired as that other old guy he's running against.

 

Project 2025

In addition to anti-democratic Supreme Court decisions, there are detailed plans for even worse.

Among its numerous recommendations, [Project 2025] calls for the following (in no particular order): 

Changing how the FBI operates. 

Eliminating the Department of Education. 

Defunding the Department of Justice. 

Reversing Biden-era policies attempting to reduce climate change. 

Stopping cybersecurity efforts to combat mis- and disinformation. 

Changing immigration policies. 

Restricting access to abortion. 

Removing LGBTQ+ protections. 

Cutting ties completely with China.

Reversing protections against discrimination in housing.

To execute the above-listed objectives, the roughly 1,000-page document calls for a federal government operated by political appointees equipped to "carry out the President's desires."

Put another way, [Kevin] Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, said in a July 2023 interview with The New York Times that Project 2025 leaders want to dismantle independent federal agencies that do not answer to the president. Then, they want to fill positions with people who subscribe to conservative politics — including jobs that are currently merit-based hires, not politically appointed.

Roberts has also said, "We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless ― if the left allows it to be." 

And while the felon claims "I have no idea who is behind it", CNN sets the record straight.

Paul Dans, the head of Project 2025, was chief of staff at the Office of Personnel Management during the Trump administration, and the group's roadmap for the next administration includes contributions from others who have worked for the former president, including his former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, former acting Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Ken Cuccinelli, and former deputy chief of staff Rick Dearborn. John McEntee, Trump's former director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office and one of his closest aides while in office, is also a senior adviser for the project.

Amanda Marcotte notes increasing interest in the plan.

If the chatter about Project 2025 continues in both the press and social media, the knowledge of [Dear Leader's] plans might start to influence the election — and in ways he will not like. [Fuckface] cannot win without a large percentage of voters backing him under the false belief he's "not so bad." The more they find out about what he intends to do in office, the more will have second thoughts about risking another [von Clownstick] term.

Update (July 11):  In a speech to the Heritage Foundation in April 2022, the felon had a different take on their work with Project 2025.

They’re going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do.

Update (July 14):  Rick Perlstein notes that the Heritage Foundation puts out these policy proposals every four years. 

The best part so far about the journalism about Project 2025 is how it has documented its cataclysmic aim of destroying the very notion of an expert and independent civil service—the people [MAGA] calls the "deep state". I don't point to antecedents to minimize that danger. I point to them to maximize it. The fact that conservatives have been trying so hard for so long is what makes it more dangerous.

Update (August 15):  Despite Kevin Roberts delaying the publication of his book, and the felon's efforts to distance himself from the project, revelations continue. Russell Vought, with the Center for Renewing America, explained to undercover reporters that he is preparing "hundreds of executive orders that could be used to enact mass firings and deportation of immigrants living in the country illegally".

There are people like me that have his trust that will be able to get it to him in whatever position we’re at. The relationships will be there. The trust level will be there.

So, [Dear Leader is] very supportive of what we do.

Amanda Marcotte notes that Republicans are aware their policy proposals are unpopular and thus try to hide them from the electorate. And that screws up their presidential campaign strategy. Especially with an erratic candidate.

[Fuckface] doesn't talk about policy because it bores him and he will never take the time to learn enough about it to say anything meaningful about it. Project 2025 was set up precisely because [the orange turd] doesn't care about such things, and will delegate all those decisions to the wild-eyed fanatics who populate the conservative activist world in the MAGA era. When Republicans beg him to talk about "the issues," the best they can hope for is that he will offer incoherent non-answers like "we're going to look into that" and "we'll have a policy in two weeks," or his other strategies to pretend he has answers while avoiding any actual details. But he'll get bored with that, inevitably. So there's almost no chance he doesn't return to his favorite well: being a loudmouthed, racist weirdo.

Ending the Rule of Law

From Justice Sonia Sotomayor's dissent in [Fuckface] v. United States.

The President of the United States is the most powerful person in the country, and possibly the world. When he uses his official powers in any way, under the majority’s reasoning, he now will be insulated from criminal prosecution. Orders the Navy’s Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival? Immune. Organizes a military coup to hold onto power? Immune. Takes a bribe in exchange for a pardon? Immune.

Update (July 3):  Heather Digby Parton explains the history behind the decision.

It is apparent that the Supreme Court majority, like the average MAGA voter and [the felon] himself, is filled with bitter resentment. In fact, I would suggest that this entire unitary executive, imperial president philosophy stems from grievance over Richard Nixon being forced out of office all those years ago. [This ruling] was the culmination of many years of careful, strategic planning by the right-wing legal community. The six partisan justices in the majority played the long game and when they got the chance to implement their dream of an imperial presidency they did not hesitate. Not even the prospect of allowing a corrupt president unlike any other, including Richard Nixon, gave them pause.

Update (July 14):  David Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research and a former voting rights attorney at the Department of Justice, expresses his concern.

If there is a president intent upon committing crimes, this decision gives him a very clear path to that.

Ordering the Justice Department to institute a sham investigation? Absolutely immune. Ordering the military to seize voting machines, as the former president almost attempted in 2020? He’s talking to the military, that’s a core function [of the presidency], he would be immune. Ordering the National Security Agency to conduct secret surveillance on a political opponent? The NSA is part of the executive branch, immune.