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.

Debate Disaster

The best that can be said is that this debate was unusually early which allows time to make some kind of adjustment. The felon lied his ass off, but it's Biden's stumbles that will be remembered.

The Onion articulates our mindset:

Guilty (times 34)

The law finally caught up with Fuckface von Clownstick. Stuart Stevens gives his reaction:

[Dear Leader] is a felon. He joins his campaign manager, deputy campaign manager, national security advisor, foreign policy advisor, political consultant, and personal lawyer as felons.

Update (May 31):  Chauncey DeVega reminds us not to celebrate too much just yet.

How will [Manbaby's] conviction and status as a felon will impact how the American people will vote in the 2024 election? Again, we do not know. But with [his] historic conviction, there is at least the reasonable hope that he will have a more difficult time of winning the 2024 election and becoming the country’s first dictator. That final decision will be made not in a courtroom by a jury and a judge, but in the voting booth by the American people.

Heather Digby Parton expresses our frustration with the opposition.

You'd think after losing all these elections, civil cases and now criminal trials Republicans would get it through their heads that this man who calls everything a hoax and a fake is actually talking about himself.

Amanda Marcotte describes how pathetic the former guy is.

The main theme of the testimony was [Fuckface] the Coward, who hides behind a series of "fixers" so he never has to deal directly with the fallout from his poor choices. ... His crimes aren't exciting strikes against "The Man." He is "The Man," preying on vulnerable people, like the 27-year-old Daniels or the financially desperate people he defrauded through [Orange Turd] University or even some of the lost souls he snookered into storming the Capitol on Jan. 6. The regular folks on the New York streets weren't cheering [Dear Leader], but the brave jurors who stood against him.

And Brian Karem proposes an unlikely outcome.

I believe that the Republicans now have the leverage they need to take back their party from the MAGA extremists - if they have the energy to do so. If the Republican Party wishes to survive, [the felon] will not be on the ballot in the fall.

Update (June 3):  Parton has a warning.

[The convicted felon] says a lot of foolish things and half the time he doesn't know what he's talking about. But when it comes to his lifelong thirst for vengeance there is no doubt that he means it. And he is now backed by the vast majority of elected Republicans who are clearly slavering at the prospect of taking down their political enemies. They will do it.

Update (June 4):  Marcotte has a question for Republicans who claim Democrats will rue the day.

[U]ltimately, it comes down to this: If getting convicted of crimes is so goshdarned awesome for [Dear Leader], then why are his allies doing everything in their power to delay [his] other criminal trials?

Ongoing Bad News

April was the eleventh consecutive month that set an all-time temperature record since data has been collected. The month was 1.58 degrees Celcius warmer that the 1850 to 1900 average. 

Last summer was also the warmest in the Northern Hemisphere in the past 2000 years.

Permafrost is thawing, the Thwaites glacier is heading toward collapse, the Amazon rainforest is under increasing stress, and the world's oceans having been setting temperature records for the past year.

The barrage of stories gets to be too much.

Update (June 28):  An article in Nature Geoscience discusses a possible tipping point for Antarctic ice sheets. Matthew Rosza explains:

British Antarctic Survey researchers discovered that warm ocean water is seeping beneath the Antarctic ice sheet at its so-called "grounding line," or the point at which the ice from a large body rises from the seabed and begins to float. When warm water moves under a grounding line, the ice melts at an accelerated pace and could pass a threshold where the body's ultimate collapse is inevitable. While this process occurs, sea levels will rise at a much faster rate than currently predicted, resulting in millions of people from coastal communities being displaced over the upcoming decades and centuries.

Election Interference Trial

The criminal trial over payments made to conceal damaging information from voters in the 2016 presidential election has begun with opening statements today.  Heather Digby Parton gives a summary of events:

Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to those campaign finance violations [of making unreported in-kind donations to help win the election], saying in court that he did so at [Dear Leader's] direction. [David] Pecker ... corroborated Cohen's account that [Fuckface] was in on the scheme. ... "Individual 1" ... was let off the hook even though it was clear that he was guilty of the same crimes for which Cohen was going to prison and Pecker was given immunity.

Pecker was the first witness to testify in the trial. 

Victoria Bekiempis quotes prosecutor Matthew Colangelo's opening statement:

This was a planned, coordinated, long-running conspiracy to influence the 2016 election, to help [von Clownstick] get elected through illegal expenditures – to silence people with something bad to say about his behavior.

It was election fraud, pure and simple.

Update (May 24):  In anticipation of closing arguments, Dennis Aftergut offers his summation of the case.

Falsifying business records is a felony whenever someone: 

1. Knowingly 

2. Makes or causes to be made 

3. A false entry in business records 

4. With an intent to defraud [deceive]

5. Which includes an intent to commit another crime or to aid or conceal the commission of that other crime.

The totality of proof establishes beyond a reasonable doubt that [Fuckface von Clownstick] was at the hub of a conspiratorial scheme to falsify business records with an intent to defraud New York officials, federal officials and the public in order to promote his own candidacy in the 2016 election.

Update (May 30):  Aftergut also explains the jury instructions.