Remember that Trump's former WH physician Ronny Jackson, the "Candyman" of the WH in Trump's years because of the pills he handed out without prescriptions, told the public that he had bandaged the "bullet wound" and that it was a 2 cm.-wide wound extending to the cartilaginous surface of the ear that was swollen and granulated when Jackson treated it.
#Trump #ear #shooting #gun #ElonMusk #RonnyJackson
/1
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trumps-former-physician-gives-new-details-gunshot-wound-2024-07-20/
If the AP photo taken on 27 July that Pete Souza shared on Twitter resulting in the deletion of Souza's account is a bona fide photo — and I've seen absolutly no indicators it's not authentic — then why is this not a major news story? When the media followed every misstep or sniffle of Biden's for months on end?
Did that bullet wound that took off a piece of Trump's ear heal so miraculously?
As Margaret Sullivan notes, Trump's ominous remarks to Christian nationalists last week in Florida — he told them that if they elect him, they won't have to vote again because "it will be fixed" — were totally "underplayed" by major media outlets except The Guardian, for which she writes. She offers a number of possible reasons why media ignore Trump's actual words and threat to democracy as she urges them to behave responsibly.
https://margaretsullivan.substack.com/p/the-media-fails-to-take-trump-at
"Joe Biden didn’t just pass the torch to another generation. He passed it from white MAGA men to America’s future.
Consider that women now compose a remarkable 60 percent of college undergraduates. And that by 2050, it’s estimated that America will consist mostly of minorities — 30 percent more Black people than today, 60 percent more Latinos, and twice the number of Asian Americans."
~ Robert Reich
"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."
~ Heather Cox Richardson
#Biden #KamalaHarris #women #Black #Hispanic #Asian #democracy
/6
"Last Friday, Trump told Christian rally-goers that 'You won’t have to vote any more' if they elect Trump in 2024.
Let that sink in. A presidential candidate promised to eliminate future elections.
The media yawned."
https://roberthubbell.substack.com/p/trump-promises-to-eliminate-future
"Actually, the media ignored the story (except for The Guardian) until commentators on social media and the Harris Campaign shamed journalists into acknowledging Trump's antidemocratic threat—which they did in a dismissive, begrudging manner.
It is tiresome to highlight the media’s failings, but this incident is so egregious that it is important on many levels."
Polling in Michigan found that Donald Trump now has no support among Black voters in the state. He polled at zero percent against Kamala Harris in a local poll conducted by The WDIV/Detroit News [22-24 July]. Meanwhile, a new Michigan poll by the Detroit News has Harris tied with Trump at 41% each, with spoiler Robert Kennedy polling at 10%. In a January poll, Trump led Biden 47%-39%."
~ Joyce Vance
Judd Legum provides an overview of what J.D. Vance has said about women and children:
• "The decision not to have children has made many Americans 'insane' and turned them into 'sociopaths.'"
• Women should stay in violent marriages.
• Parents should get extra votes.
• Vance bashes efforts to make daycare more affordable
• Vance wants law enforcement to have access to women's medical records to enforce abortion bans.
"I wish journalists would be a tad less bored with the threatened demise of democracy. I wish they’d cover Trump like they cover hurricanes. When hurricanes approach, news outlets warn people. They don’t think, 'We told them about hurricanes last year. This is just another one. It’s just ‘hurricanes being hurricanes.’'”
~ Mark Jacob
https://www.stopthepresses.news/p/the-political-media-are-entertaining
"Harris will become the perfect avatar for all that aggrieves those who fear the browning of America more than they fear the collapse of democracy and the rise of fascism. The perceived loss of status among white voters and male voters has long been a factor in American politics that the right has weaponized, and the left has avoided and sometimes even enabled."
~ Kimberlé Crenshaw
"It is perhaps the most under-addressed dynamic in the media’s game-like coverage of American politics. Consider how far-right fears of white replacement drove the January 6 insurrection: The fact that it was the votes of Black and brown people in places like Atlanta, Philadelphia, Detroit, and Phoenix that grounded claims of a stolen election has been dreadfully under-addressed in accessing the driving forces that brought us to the brink."
"Originalism is now our national religion. In short, that means, 'Whatever rich white men who claim Christianity' want is our religion. The MAGA majority on the Supreme Court decides who my daughter can marry when she gives birth and the medication she will be able to use."
~ Jason Sattler
"The most worrisome feature that has defined the Republican Party during the Trump era is a relentless assault on reality, fused with lawlessness and the embrace of illiberalism.
The Republican Party once preached about the importance of standing for moral truths and standing against moral relativism; today it is, in important respects, nihilistic."
~ Peter Wehner
#Trump #Republicans #nihilism #morality
/14
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/29/opinion/trump-vance-republican-party.html
" The Republican Party once described itself as the party of 'law and order'; it now worships a man who is a felon, who was found liable for sexual assault and defamation, and who portrays the violent mob that attacked the Capitol as a band of patriotic 'J6 martyrs.' Republicans once proudly proclaimed their reverence for the Constitution; in Milwaukee, they crowned as their leader a man who attempted to subvert it."
#Trump #Republicans #nihilism #morality #LawandOrder #ConvictedFelon
/15
"Trump is temperamentally incapable of responding to the prospect of defeat by broadening his appeal, and Republicans are structurally incapable of deposing Trump as a chastened peace offering to the country. They will see only one option, and it will be to intimidate and demoralize the anti-Trump movement all over again."
~ Brian Beutler
#Trump #Republicans
/17
https://www.offmessage.net/p/republicans-are-about-to-become-desperate-d18
"What would a decadent party in a bind like this do to stave off destruction? What wouldn’t they do? GOP judges will likely step in where they can to help Republicans tilt the playing field of the election. Their propaganda apparatus will run hotter than ever to divide the opposition. Their rabid supporters will become yet more receptive to calls for political violence."
Is J.D. Vance "just" an opportunist pretending to be radicalized in order to grab power? Or is the radicalization real? Some thought-provoking observations from Noah Berlatsky:
"J.D. started off with a lot of reactionary and invidious ideas about marginalized people; he believed they were immoral, he believed they were irresponsible, he believed that their lack of traditional values led them astray."
#JDVance #PeterThiel #racism #authoritarianism
/19
https://www.everythingishorrible.net/p/was-vance-sincerely-radicalized-or
"Then he marinated in the eugenic ferment of Silicon Valley techbro reaction, and he came away convinced not that he was wrong, but that he hadn’t sufficiently appreciated his own rightness. Trump’s cruelty and contempt had put Vance off; Thiel and company convinced Vance (by argument or example) that he was being too soft. They told him to listen to his own hate. That’s how radicalization works."
#JDVance #PeterThiel #TechBros #racism #authoritarianism
/20
David Kurtz looks at the "helpless shrug" Washington Post gave to Trump's ominous statements in Florida and concludes,
"When a former president who tried to stay in office via an auto-coup is now the frontrunner to return to that office and is assuring his most diehard supporters that they only have to make the effort to vote one last time, you should take that as the clarion call it is. No excuses."
#Trump #dictator #media #WashingtonPost
/21
https://morningmemo.talkingpointsmemo.com/p/trump-promises-2024-is-the-last-time
Washington Post does a deep dive into the pressure campaign big-name tech bros mounted with Trump to have him select J.D. Vance as his running mate. These include Peter Thiel, David Sacks, and Jacob Helberg.
"Vance’s most forceful Silicon Valley advocates are euphoric about the former Never Trumper’s rise in the GOP."
See Elena Lacey's drawing at the head of the piece: do you spot any face that's not a white male?
#JDVance #PeterThiel #TechBros #authoritarianism
/22
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/07/28/jd-vance-peter-thiel-donors-big-tech-trump-vp/
"The effects of the assassination attempt on Trump are so far in line with authoritarian history. Chief among its aftereffects is a boost to Trump’s victimhood persona. He had always told his devoted followers that the 'enemies' were not going after him, but rather going after them, and he was 'just standing in the way.'”
~ Ruth Ben-Ghiat
The July 13, 2024, assassination attempt will seem to validate that claim in the eyes of Trump’s faithful, especially since a person attending the rally was killed by the shooter and others were injured.
The attack has also brought Trump even more loyalty from followers bonded to him. …
Trump’s campaign has always had vengeance and retribution for those who persecute him, in his telling, as a central theme."
"IT MUST BE HARD TO TRANSITION from martyr anointed by God and positioned to win in a blowout to jealous old whiner grumbling about the misunderstood relevance of Hannibal Lecter.
Life came at Donald Trump fast when Sleepy Joe Biden took his name off the Democratic ticket and endorsed Kamala Harris last week."
~ A.B. Stoddard
#KamalaHarris #Trump #age
/25
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/trump-just-had-his-worst-week-ever-vance-harris
"JD Vance claims that Kamala Harris wants to free criminals who assault
police officers.
Donald Trump has promised to pardon criminals who assaulted Capitol Police officers on Jan. 6 if he is re-elected."
~ Republican Voters Against Trump
In marked contrast to (and to the great shame of) almost all U.S. major media outlets, The Guardian continues giving full coverage to Donald Trump's ominous statements to a Christian nationalist group in Florida last Friday.
Here's a live thread of reactions to Trump's statements, including attempts by Republicans to downplay and pooh-pooh what Trump said.
#Trump #dictator #WhiteChristianNationalism #media
/27
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2024/jul/29/election-updates-trump-harris
@spradlig Thank you for reminding me that I, too, need to donate to them. I read them daily and benefit so much from their valuable commentary and reporting, and have an obligation to pay back.