“It seemed at first that Trump was trying to embody a less partisan version of himself. Yet as quickly as he called for an end to the “demonization of political enemies,” he turned the issue exclusively toward Democrats, reprising his accusations that the justice system was weaponized against him.
“Trump tried to humanize his image by telling of the assassination attempt. The former president spoke in vivid detail of his experience being injured and nearly killed on Saturday. On stage was the uniform of the retired fire chief, Corey Comperatore, who was killed behind Trump.
“Trump made sweeping promises to end inflation and secure the border, but he didn’t outline any plans and mostly used crowd-pleasing talking points. The most specific he got was promising to roll back Biden administration efforts to combat climate change, redirect infrastructure spending and impose steep tariffs.”
“Donald Trump and his allies have spent years amplifying a conspiracy theory that Democratic officials are intentionally letting people into the country illegally to ‘replace’ the voting population.
“But lately, the former president has been claiming that the ‘invasion’ is specifically coming after Black Americans.” In his typical fearmongering, evidence-lacking style.
“He now claims that ‘the Black population is going to die’ without his violent immigration agenda in place, pitching his anti-immigration platform as a way to attract Black voters.
“’The Black people are going to be decimated by the millions of people that are coming into the country,’ he told Bloomberg in an interview published on July 16.
“’There will never be a decimation like this, and they’re already feeling it,’ he added. ‘Their wages have gone way down. Their jobs are being taken by the migrants coming in illegally into the country.’
“His language then turned apocalyptic.
“’The Black population in this country is going to die because of what’s happened, what’s going to happen to their jobs — their jobs, their housing, everything,’ he said. ‘I want to stop that. … They’re taking everything.’
“He then suggested that he believes President Joe Biden wants people who live in the country illegally to take Black Americans’ jobs from them.”
Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson, who endorsed sending fake electors to Washington for Trump, who has consistently said that Trump won and the election was stolen, and has been broadly divisive throughout his tenure, said this week: “Let’s turn this moment into a moment that helps us down that path of healing and unity.”
And then on the floor of the Republican National Convention yesterday, said: “Today’s Democrat agenda, their policies, are a clear and present danger to America.”
“Clear and present danger” is a familiar LEGAL term that Merriam Webster defines as “a risk or threat to safety or other public interests that is serious and imminent. especially : one that justifies limitation of a right (as freedom of speech or press) by the legislative or executive branch of government.”
I wonder which policies represent that kind of immediate danger. The ones that created over 15 million jobs for the U.S. (more than any previous president’s job creation), or got our economy recovering after COVID, or got more people insured, or narrowed income inequality, or added IRS agents to start collecting on unpaid billionaire taxes, promoting equal treatment of all people regardless of any categories, or increasing spending for local and state law enforcement?
AP News reports: “President Joe Biden is seriously considering proposals to establish term limits for U.S. Supreme Court justices, and an ethics code that would be enforceable under law amid growing concerns that the justices are not held accountable.
“It would mark a major shift for Biden, the former head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who has long resisted calls to reform the high court, though since taking office he has been increasingly vocal about his belief that the court is abandoning mainstream constitutional interpretation.
“Any changes would require congressional approval, which would be unlikely in a divided Congress. But with Republican nominee Donald Trump bragging about putting the three justices on the high court who are now part of the conservative majority, Biden’s call for major changes could help animate his voters.”
In other words, it would never pass right now, but if the elections this fall lead to a Democratic-majority Congress, then it probably would. And this could help motivate people to vote Democrat.
“The first night of the RNC was supposed to be about the economy, with the goal of uniting voters of all ideological persuasions who are frustrated by high prices. But some of the biggest applause lines came from harsh criticisms of transgender people.
“It’s a reminder that cultural issues motivate the GOP base as much as financial ones. A trio of speakers unabashedly went after Democrats who have sought greater acceptance for transgender people. Of particular outrage to Republicans this year was Biden marking Transgender Day of Visibility. It happened to overlap with Easter in 2024, a byproduct of the Christian holiday being based off the lunar calendar.
“To many in the LGBTQ+ community, it was a coincidence. But to many Republicans, it was an insult.
“They promised normalcy and gave us Transgender Visibility Day on Easter Sunday,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.”
Vance was the quickest and loudest to blame the shooting on Democrats.
“Eight years ago, in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election, J.D. Vance was a bitter critic of Donald Trump.
“Publicly, he called the Republican presidential candidate an “idiot” and said he was “reprehensible.” Privately, he compared him to Adolf Hitler.
“But by the time the former president tapped Vance to be his running mate on Monday, the Ohio native had become one of Trump’s most ardent defenders, standing by his side even when other high-profile Republicans declined to do so.”
“In particular, Vance’s vocal opposition to U.S. aid for Ukraine in its war with Russia has delighted Trump’s most conservative allies, even as it has upset some Senate colleagues.
“He understands what Trump is running on and, unlike the rest of the Republican Party in Washington, agrees with it,” conservative commentator Tucker Carlson, a vocal Vance supporter, told Reuters.” [“Unlike?” That should tell you something.]
The media has suggested that this event “would usher in a new tone by Donald Trump,” saying he has a chance to redefine himself.
“Trump’s new tone sounds an awful lot like his old tone.” Especially because in a posting today he called his legitimate prosecutions hoaxes and witch hunts and frames himself as the victim.
Judge Eileen Cannon has decided to dismiss the case against Trump for stealing top secret documents, lying about having them, and violating the Espionage Act, not because he didn’t do it, but because she decided that the appointment of a special counsel was unconstitutional.
Special Counsels have been used in the U.S. since the 1800s and this decision was based on Clarence Thomas’s unprecedented advisory opinion that was not even related to the case they were trying. He threw out a suggestion that these special counsels could be unconstitutional (despite 150+ years of precedent) in an effort to help Trump.
But the dismissal CAN BE APPEALED, and that would take it out of Judge Cannon’s biased courtroom (she has been giving special treatment to Trump from the beginning) and into an appeals court. Eventually it could get to the Supreme Court, where Thomas has already said what he would do, but there are 8 other justices.
Brian Tyler Cohen and Glenn Kirschner discuss it in this video:
Some snippets from an article that discusses GOP messaging about violence and fascism.
“The GOP elite has rallied around a new messaging strategy: emotionally blackmailing Democratic politicians, journalists, Hollywood celebs, and numerous other Trump critics into shutting up about the former president’s openly authoritarian vows and his extreme policy agenda.”
“Two of the finalists on Trump’s vice presidential shortlist quickly blamed the assassination attempt on talk about his authoritarian plans. ‘The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,’ Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) wrote Saturday night. ‘That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.’ Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) said the attack on Trump was ‘aided and abetted by the radical Left and corporate media incessantly calling Trump a threat to democracy, fascists, or worse.’ These messages are all part of a deliberate strategy.”
“The attempt on Trump’s life does nothing to change the reality that he is – in fact – running on an openly authoritarian platform. Trump and his closest allies are pledging to punish President Joe Biden and other top Democrats and jail his political opponents; unleash the National Guard and active-duty troops on Democratic-controlled cities whenever he wishes; end the Justice Department’s independence so he can use it to crush his foes, shut down his criminal cases, and erase any hope of accountability for his alleged crimes; retaliate against media outlets that cover him negatively; deport pro-Palestine protesters; oversee an unprecedented crackdown on immigrants, potentially erecting a vast network of camps on U.S. soil; further institutionalize his anti-democratic lies and conspiracy theories that led directly to the Jan. 6 attack; and even invade and bomb Mexico if he feels like it.”
“On the campaign trail, the former president has evoked the rhetoric of Adolf Hitler, accusing immigrants of ‘poisoning the blood of our country.’
“Saturday’s assassination attempt also does not change the fact that Trump has repeatedly and very publicly endorsed political violence over the years. Trump is calling now for ‘peace’ and ‘unity,’ but he has a lengthy track record of downplaying or excusing the harm done to the victims of pro-Trump violence.”
“Trump has campaigned as a populist strongman – that didn’t change overnight.”
The editors of the New York Times just published a 5,000-word editorial entitled: “Donald Trump Is Unfit to Lead”
Here is a snippet:
“Next week, for the third time in eight years, Donald Trump will be nominated as the Republican Party’s candidate for president of the United States. A once great political party now serves the interests of one man, a man as demonstrably unsuited for the office of president as any to run in the long history of the Republic, a man whose values, temperament, ideas, and language are directly opposed to so much of what has made this country great.
“It is a chilling choice against this national moment. For more than two decades, large majorities of Americans have said they are dissatisfied with the direction of the country, and the post-Covid era of stubborn inflation, high interest rates, social division, and political stagnation has left many voters even more frustrated and despondent.
“The stakes of this election are not fundamentally about policy disagreements. The stakes are more foundational: what qualities matter most in America’s president and commander in chief.
“Mr. Trump has shown a character unworthy of the responsibilities of the presidency. He has demonstrated an utter lack of respect for the Constitution, the rule of law and the American people. Instead of a cogent vision for the country’s future, Mr. Trump is animated by a thirst for political power: to use the levers of government to advance his interests, satisfy his impulses and exact retribution against those who he thinks have wronged him.
