Tuesday Open Thread

10 thoughts on “Tuesday Open Thread”

1. Trying for the "both sides" dismissal … CPR report http://Colorado Republican lawmakers meet for special session amid party turmoil

   Meanwhile, Colorado Republicans continue to grapple with a bitter intraparty schism with no immediate end in sight as two men both claim to be the Colorado Republican Party chair. 

   “I think the public looks at that and it's one more party squabble,” said Republican Sen. Bob Gardner of Colorado Springs. “And frankly, the other side of the aisle has its own. And RFK Jr pulls out of the race and everybody goes crazy about that. It has very little to do with what's happening here this week.”

    

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2. I believe the writer of this tweet is very well informed, and he claims the CO special session deal on the table right now would mean a "$600,000 homeowner will see a 5% jump in their 2025 tax bill, but the owner of a $5M home will see a decrease in their tax bill." I'm not sure if that means increases or decreases compared to the bill the legislature passed like 3 months ago.

   So, my rhetorical question is whether the special session has an element of Faustian bargain?

   https://x.com/sjwasserman/status/1828425155300762005

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3. On Trump's Impulse Control – or lack thereof. Marcy Wheeler at EmptyWheel.

   Trump is so easy to manipulate.

   Has Trump been using the N-word behind closed doors to refer to Kamala, or only “bitch”?

   Then Kamala’s campaign released a video showing clips showing Trump questioning whether he should debate, with chicken noises in the background.

   Whatever happens with the scheduled debate now, Fallon has imposed a cost on Trump’s equivocations, making it more likely he’ll have the meltdown he and his handlers are trying to stave off.

   It is absolutely true that Kamala is trying to change the terms of the agreement, even as Trump gets cold feet about participating at all. But this arises, I think, out of the dynamic that has made it so hard for Trump to face Kamala in the first place. He can’t suppress his bigotry, but if he doesn’t, he’ll risk losing to a Black woman. A smart, beautiful Black woman.

   There’s a Beltway story that that moment in 2011, when the first Black president used Donald Trump’s racist birther campaign to humiliate the reality TV star in front of the entire press corps, was the moment Trump decided he needed to be President. Whether or not that’s true, it’s fairly clear that kind of public humiliation by a Black person triggers Trump in a way other things might not. Trump’s narcissism requires him to maintain the appearance of superiority over everyone else; his racism makes it even more important that that perceived superiority extends to Black people.

   And even if the WHCP did convince Trump to run, after considering it, he didn’t run in 2012, when he would have faced Obama. Donald Trump chose not to risk losing to Obama.

   Now, because of a decision Joe Biden made, Donald Trump has lost the ability to choose whether he wants to face someone like Kamala Harris. And he’s stuck: The thing his MAGAts like about him is his spontaneous riffs, many of which rely on the humiliation of others. But if he calls the Vice President the N-word or bitch publicly, it’ll further sink him in the polls.

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   1. "calls the Vice President the N-word"
      We can only hope he does.

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      1. Not sure about that, his supporters would eat that up that (even his Black supporters, that's how strong the disease is). And the closeted or "polite" racists, "edgy" people and "freeze speech" hypocrites that are undecided or unaffliated may secretly agree and vote accordingly. American voters are two-faced. For example, most claim to care about things like the environment, abortion, gender equality, legal weed, racial equality, healthcare, secularism, fair wages, education and more. Yet Republicans control more states than Dems. Further yet, about half of voters want Trump and the GOP despite their clear intentions to destroy or cripple all the above things. The cognitive dissonance and denial that the GOP wants them dead is staggering. I often disagree with Democratic policies and beliefs but I vote for them becasue they don't want to erode my rights and best of all, they want to improve all the stuff I just metioned and actually do it when they have power. 

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   2. I'm very cynical that even if Trump has a racist meltdown, he'll actually face any consequences. It's considered normal now for Republicans to say the most insane and bigoted stuff and many voters and pundits will say "well, that's just Republicans for ya" or "don't take it seriously, its just politics. Mere rhetoric to fire up the base, he'll calm down and love all Americans once in office" (collective amnesia anyone?). Democrats get cancelled for far less while the media wag their fingers even if Dems say anything that's close to a hot take. Even if a Republican is clearly bigoted, Dems get more flack for pointing that out and get called "uncivil" "sensitive" or "alarmist". 

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4. Lots of Crystal Nacht Fantasizing on the MAGAt Right. Josh Kovensky at TPM.

   From Christian Nationalists  to the Federalists, they are really pushing the idea of violence and the inevitability of Trump calling out the National Guard, either for border control or against protestors. The Floyd protests loom large in their fear-mongering.

   Violence Fetishing is a key part of the fascist impulse. It keeps showing up in the RMGO/NRA gun culture, Proud Boys, Constitutional Sheriffs. The worry I have is how easy it will be for this rhetoric to switch when Trump is defeated in November.

   Kovensky interviewed a bunch of MAGA influencers and MAGA observers.

   In this MAGA fever dream, everyone has their part to play. They believe that they’ll be caught up in it; you might be, too. It goes something like this: If Donald Trump wins in November, people will protest. Riots will break out. The left, they theorize, will go all-out to stoke organized violence around the country, clearing the way for a newly inaugurated Trump administration to step in and make unprecedented, widespread use of the U.S. military to restore law and order.

   This dark vision of the future draws on deeply pessimistic theorizing, on lectures about Marxist anti-government ideology seemingly ripped from the Cold War, on memories of the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, and on claims that Democrats and the left will be unable to accept a Trump victory. It all comes against the backdrop of senior officials around Trump and Trump himself reportedly having been eager to invoke the Insurrection Act while he was in office, and mulling its actual use if he’s re-elected.

    

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5. Jill Stein will be on the ballot in Wisconsin, after all. 

   I agree with the Constitutional principle that ballot access should be open to anyone with the means to obtain it. However, I lost respect for Stein when she allowed herself to be used by Putin in 2015.

   This has been an LBPoS trigger moment. 

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   1. Please, tell me the progressives that are not always reliably Democratic voters won't get taken in by her nonsense again.

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      1. Maybe not Stein, but there's always Cornel West.

         I have a tiny amount of sympathy for people who are politically homeless, or those who want to fight against the 2-party duopoly. But back to reality – we're living under the stupid Electoral College, and spoiler votes in competitive states this year are like loading a couple extra chambers in a game of Russian Roulette in which losing can bring us 4 more long, painful years of the morbidly obese traitorous dotard. It's just a very bad tactical decision.

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