Author: A.T.

The Press Conference

Frank Bruni: Donald Trump is the Prince of Self-Pity. 

And dangerous!

Project 2025 is his blueprint for turning our pluralistic democracy, beacon to the world, into a white Christian nationalist autocracy, replacing competence with sycophantic loyalty.

He says it’s not his 920-page roadmap — he doesn’t even know Kevin Roberts, the guy behind it.

But it so is — and he so does!

Trump Busted Cozying Up to Extremist Leader He Claims to Not Know

“Project 2025 architect Kevin Roberts compared abortion access to slave auctions, lynchings, and the Holocaust,” reports Media Matters.

And guess who wrote the foreword to Kevin Roberts’ forthcoming book?

I’ll give you a hint:  JD Vance.

Vance, of course, is well known for having called Trump “America’s Hitler.” 

But lately I’ve been wondering whether he meant that (or Trump took it) as a compliment. 

After all, Hitler “did a lot of good things.”  Not like the “vermin” Trump promises to “root out” once he and JD take office.

(As noted Wednesday, Vance Just Blurbed a Book Arguing That Progressives Are Subhuman.)

AND NOW — THE PRESS CONFERENCE

I didn’t watch it, but the Harris campaign did — and have some quibbles:

But first, an important reminder on the question Donald didn’t answer: how he will vote on the Florida abortion referendum. (He has been ducking this question since April.)

We worked to pin down reality so Donald Trump, bless his heart, doesn’t have to.

Here are the facts:

We had 12,000 and 15,000 people in Wisconsin and Michigan yesterday, respectively (Not 2,000.)

The ABC debate is September 10th. Not the 25th.

People have spoken to bigger crowds than Donald Trump. (Obama, Clinton, literally anyone at Lollapalooza, Coachella, the World Cup…)

January 6th was decidedly nothing like MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech. And Trump did not get a bigger crowd than Martin Luther King Jr. on that historic day.

There was famously not a “peaceful transfer” of power after the 2020 election, which Donald Trump fought to overturn.

Five police officers died because of January 6th.

Donald Trump said he was off the trail this week because of the Democratic convention. (That convention is not happening this week.)

Trump said they have commercials at a level no one else does. (He is being drastically outspent on the airwaves.)

Governor Josh Shapiro is actually a great guy.

Project 2025 author Tom Homan, the “father” of Trump’s cruel child separation policy, is not a person to praise.

Jewish people should not “have their head examined” for not supporting him. (That’s actually antisemitic.)

Trump said he was not complaining. He in fact very much was.

Trump does not know the difference between asylum seekers and an insane asylum.

Donald Trump does not “cherish” the Constitution.

Abortion is not “less of an issue” for voters. It is not “subdued.” It is not a “small issue” for voters, despite how much Donald Trump wants it to be.

Donald Trump did not answer the abortion question “very well in the debate.”

Everybody did not want Roe v. Wade overturned. The American people do not support states banning abortion.

After-birth abortion does not exist.

Minnesota and Virginia are not the same.

Donald Trump doesn’t know what progressive means.

Kamala Harris does not want to take away everyone’s guns. Tim Walz is a gun owner.

Vice President Harris does not support an arms embargo on Israel.

Donald Trump could not remember Tim Walz’s name.

Donald Trump’s tax cuts are not the biggest in history.

We don’t know what “the transgender became such a big thing” is supposed to mean.

Donald Trump will cut Social Security – just like he proposed every year he was in office.

Government was not weaponized against Trump and Steve Bannon.

Mail ballots are secure.

We agree – Elon IS a different kind of guy.

There are no polls that say Donald Trump is going to win in a landslide.

The MAGA base is not 75% of the country

###

Paid for by Harris for President

Have a great weekend.

The money and support keep pouring in.

 

Why Walz Matters and a Must-Read Book Review

How a self-described “old white guy” can help many Americans reimagine themselves.

Walz is an unusual figure on a Democratic Party ticket: the first non-lawyer on a Democratic presidential ticket since Jimmy Carter, the son of a farm family, a public school graduate with a fancy-school-free résumé, a longtime teacher and coach, an Army reserve soldier — all in all, a truly working-class, regular-guy, non-coastal-elite vice presidential nominee that Republicans simply cannot dismiss as the Other . . .

The far right often tries to tarnish Democrats as a bunch of effete coastal folk trying to ruin sports, take away your guns, unravel traditional understandings of gender, replace white people, usher in communism, and more. It is vital that everyone stand up to this bullshit. But there can be special power in an old white guy saying: This is bullshit. A guy who hunts and keeps guns. A guy who coached football. A guy who fought in the military. A guy who did all the supposed “guy” things and emerged with a belief in equality and dignity for all of us  . . .

To compete with those who are offering fascist solutions to men despairing about their place in the future, Democrats need to have not just a message but also a messenger.  And Walz is well equipped to call in those who feel like they haven’t had a home in the Democratic Party for a long time . . .

Worth reading in full.

[Yesterday’s story about how he taught the Holocaust to his high school students is equally telling.]

GREAT QUESTION

Glenn Hudson: “Why aren’t we hearing more about Senate Republicans blocking the child tax credit?”

“Senate Republicans love to talk about how they are the party of family and business. So it’s very odd to see them come out so aggressively against expanding the child tax credit and rewarding business with the [research and development] tax credit,” Schumer said on the floor of the chamber.

R.I.P., BILLY

My baseball heroes were Duke Snider, Jackie Robinson, and Pee Wee Reese.  Then the Dodgers left Brooklyn and it would be four decades before I found another: Billy Bean.  In his warmth, modesty, decency, and commitment to a better world, Billy hit it out of the ballpark.

MUST READ:

JD Vance Just Blurbed a Book Arguing That Progressives Are Subhuman

 

But Not All Conservatives

A Black Girl Won the 1908 Spelling Bee.

But not all conservatives.

Not Liz Cheney.

Not Adam Kinzinger.

“As a proud conservative, I never thought I’d be endorsing a Democrat for President,” Kinzinger said in a statement. “But I know Vice President Harris will defend our democracy and ensure Donald Trump never returns to the White House.” — Republicans for Harris!

Not Trump’s own former press secretary Stephanie Grisham.

“I might not agree with Vice President Kamala Harris on everything, but I know that she will fight for our freedom, protect our democracy and represent America with honor and dignity on the world stage,” Grisham said in a statement. . . .

Not Geoff Duncan, former Georgia Lieutenant Governor.

As a lifelong conservative Republican, it was not an easy decision for me to endorse Vice President Harris, but I know that she fights for all Americans, right, left, or center, and will stand up for the Constitution. — Press Release

Take a minute to watch what he has to say and share with your Republican friends.

The money and support keep pouring in.

We’re gonna win.

 

What’s YOUR Guess?

Did Trump shut this investigation down because he DIDN’T take $10 million in cash from Egypt’s Sisi?

Two hundred pounds of $100 bills.

Trump lost the popular vote to Hillary by 3 million votes and to Joe by 7 million.  He knows he will probably lose to Kamala by more than 10 million.  Rachel says this is why he isn’t campaigning much — he plans to gum up the election and have it thrown to the House of Representatives, where each state gets one vote.  So Idaho and Wyoming, which Trump will win, count for as much as California and New York, which he will not.

NANNY GATE

Doug Emhoff — who is not running for president — cheated on his first wife, who seems entirely to have forgiven him.  (“He is a great father to our kids, continues to be a great friend to me and I am really proud of the warm and supportive blended family Doug, Kamala, and I have built together.”)

Trump, an adjudicated rapist alleged to have had sex with a porn star — and who is running for president — brags that he grabs women by the pussy and has been accused of sexual harassment by 19 women, none of whom has forgiven him.

“It’s totally true,” I can imagine the Second Gentleman saying. “I’m human. I did have an affair.  People who are troubled by such things should compare the moral rectitude of my wife with the depravity of her opponent.”

Case closed.

Trump is running scared.

We’re gonna win.

The money and support keep pouring in.

BONUS

1,169 continuous years of quadrennial Olympics

No biting or eye-gouging allowed, same as now.  But no skateboarding competition or golf, either.

 

The Tide Is Turning

Trump is falling apart.

This video gets pretty rough — but c’mon.  After all the damage he’s done to the dignity of the presidency, and to so much else, is it so wrong to mock him as the dreadful man he is?

Kamala, by contrast, is on fire.  The optimism!  The excitement!  The joy!  The sense of possibility!

She is so good . . . so stable . . . so morally centered.

And the team behind her is so good and competent and morally centered — namely, the 4,000 Biden appointees who have helped build the remarkable Biden/Harris record.

Electing the Harris team will disappoint Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un . . . disappoint Rudy Giuliani and Steve Bannon, David Duke and Michael Flynn . . . even disappoint folks who save said horrible things about him in the past like Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, Tucker Carlson, and JD Vance (a “con man,” “America’s Hitler,” a “pathological liar” “who destroys everything he touches”).

But for most voters it will mean the brighter future that they, like everyone else, deserve.  And the freedom to pursue happiness as they see fit.

VENEZUELA

Following up on Wednesday’s post: U.S. says Maduro lost Venezuelan election, calls for talks, transition.  “Maduro claims that he won the vote Sunday, despite exit polling and, the opposition says, the government’s own records, which indicate that Edmundo González won twice as many as votes.”

Trump — who claims he won the last election by a landslide and plotted to hold onto power even though he lost — is our Maduro.  

GYMNASTICS

Glenn Sonnenberg:  “Watching the men’s gymnastics team reminds me of what often is forgotten about this great country of ours. Most national teams are homogeneous (or nearly so). But America’s team is extraordinarily diverse. The men’s gymnastics team includes Black, Asian, and white men, some recent immigrants, cheering each other on. It’s enough to make one proud. We are a nation of diversity and a nation of immigrants.”

Have a great weekend.

 

Helpful Facts

Data Don’t Lie: Harris Has the Facts to Refute Trump’s Lies About the Economy

Candidate Harris has a compelling economic narrative based purely on the facts—about growth, business investment and creation, employment, and the measures that helped us get there—the bipartisan infrastructure and semiconductor acts and the Democratically passed Inflation Reduction Act. Yes, inflation hit the United States like other countries — and the Biden-Harris policies beat it.

Worth reading in full if you’re not already sold.

Project 2025 — the Barbra Streisand effect.  Trump is trying to distance himself from Project 2025, just as he once pretended not to know who Davd Duke is.  It may not be working for him.  “Trump owns Project 2025.”

. . . who is (by the way) a convicted felon under multiple additional criminal indictments for things for which you or I would have long since been imprisoned.

But that’s where we are.

And why the money and support keep pouring in.

 

Of Comic Strips And Dictatorships

But first . . .

“Stop calling us weird!” (48 seconds).

Who says it’s a cult?!

And now . . .

Doonesbury cartoonist Garry Trudeau is the first (of only two) comic strip artists ever to win a Pulitzer Prize.

He begins his forthcoming book with this preface:

 

It’s a beautiful spring day, and I’ve just concluded a spirited discussion with myself over whether this latest volume should be titled “Day One Dictator” or “Day One Dementia.” I chose the former on the grounds that it’s less terrifying.

Some readers may disagree. The stench of pending authoritarianism is so overpowering that it may distract from the gathering psychiatric consensus that Trump is rapidly slipping into senility — doubly alarming as this new deficit is eating away at the brainpan of a sociopath. Last weekend in Dayton, Trump said, “Joe Biden won against Barack Hussein Obama! Has anyone ever heard of him? Barack Hussein Obaba (sic)!” Rallygoers, primed to cheer, instead exchanged nervous glances.

As well they might. MAGA long ago embraced the crazy — Trump’s loud, transgressive behavior is what endeared him to the mob in the first place. Humans, like apes, are wired to respect the bellowing of alphas, which in Trump’s case, his followers still mistake for strength, not the hypomania it actually is. Dementia, on the other hand, is scary. Most people have seen it in their own lives — a sad, silent aunt, a raging, profane grandfather — and regard it with abject horror. As they listen to Trump free-styling around the stems of common words, at least some of them are surely starting to think, “Uh-oh.”

Or not. Cult members are by definition resistant to reality, and with the help of right-wing media, they have set up false equivalencies, likening Biden’s occasional lapses to Trump’s aphasic word salads. But you have to wonder if there might be some concern among campaign workers, those who see Trump with his guard down, exhausted, floundering, deeply frightened that he’s sliding into the same dark realm that swallowed up his father. Do they worry, not for themselves, but for the country? Are they truly comfortable about the prospect of installing a mad king in the White House? Reagan was in absentia for the last year of his presidency, but at least he had a good heart and was surrounded by institutionalists, career public servants who kept the ship steadied. Trump will have no such support — he’s done with competence in his advisors. The old ones all betrayed him. Only ideologues, sycophants and idiots need apply.

Let’s be clear: It’s no fun mocking someone falling apart before our eyes, but what are the alternatives, particularly given the country’s current glide path to calamity? As you peruse the strips that follow, don’t judge me harshly for doing exactly that to Trump.

Garry Trudeau March 19, 2024

In this full-length interview, Mayor Pete suggests that, if this election turns out right, the fever could finally break.  

It certainly did in Venezuela this past Sunday.

It’s just that it may have broken too late.

Listen to an American friend who’s been living in Venezuela for 50 years helping the poor: 

The democratic opposition actually won in an overwhelming 70% landslide.  Maduro’s claimed 51% victory was orchestrated FRAUD, as most “elections” are down here now.  But this was by far the most blatant example to date, maintained only by brute force (the military and the government-sponsored criminal militia), and repudiated by the population.

The bravery of so many in Venezuela in standing up against intimidation and documenting electoral fraud, at great risk, is MAGNIFICENT.

So many people here once believed in the promise of Chavismo, just as so many North Americans currently believe in Trumpismo.  Now they are deeply disillusioned and are fighting valiantly to recover the soul of their country.

The huge lesson for the United States is clear.  Do not let your country descend into authoritarianism because it is brutally hard to turn that around, once it happens.

Reports CNN:

. . . [T]he opposition, galvanized this election cycle and posing the most significant threat to Maduro’s grip on power in years, had promised to restore Venezuela’s democracy and rebuild the economy if it won.

But there have been mounting concerns that the opposition would not see a fair contest, as Maduro’s government controls all public institutions in Venezuela including the Supreme Court – which could be the final arbiter on any claim of electoral fraud.

The government has also been accused of rigging votes in the past, which it denied.

A loss in the election could have devastating consequences for Maduro, who is facing drug trafficking and corruption charges in the US and is under investigation for crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court. If he were to relinquish control, he could end up in prison.

Oh, my.

However things play out in Venezuela, we get to determine how they play out here.

The money and support keep pouring in.

The Prosecutor Versus The Criminal

It’s pronounced CALM-a-la — and Doug Emhoff doesn’t think Trump will have to pretend not to know that for much longer (30 seconds).

Long gone are the days when Republican presidential candidates treated their opponents with respect.  Remember John McCain defending Obama?  Trump couldn’t even treat McCain with respect.  Or any other Republican who failed to kowtow.

Heather Cox Richardson’s latest must-read post begins with the French and Indian War — she’s a historian, after all — and ends with this:

When President Joe Biden announced just a week ago that he would not accept the Democratic nomination for president, he did not pass the torch to Vice President Kamala Harris.

He passed it to us.

It is up to us to decide whether we want a country based on fear or on facts, on reaction or on reality, on hatred or on hope.

It is up to us whether it will be fascism or democracy that, in the end, moves swiftly, and up to us whether we will choose to follow in the footsteps of those Americans who came before us in our noblest moments, and launch a brand new era in American history.

These Lincoln Project 90 seconds ring true.

The money and support keep pouring in.

We’re gonna win!