Friday, July 26, 2024

Two CNN items earlier this month. In reverse chrono order.

A coronation -

Trump’s former rivals bury their criticism to celebrate all-powerful GOP leader

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, left, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on the second day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 16, 2024.

Image: Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, left, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on the second day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 16, 2024.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.

Once the leader was on his throne, the ritual capitulation could begin.

Donald Trump looked on with an ethereal gaze Tuesday as a parade of Republican presidential candidates whose dreams he crushed staged a parade of the vanquished at the Republican National Convention. On another night awash in emotion after Trump escaped an assassination attempt just days before, speakers joined a choreographed attempt to soften his hardman image, portraying him as a caring and even benevolent, leader, boss and grandfather while smoothing the rougher edges of his populist and authoritarian worldview.

The message on night two in Milwaukee was double-edged and impossible to miss: this is indisputably and irrevocably Trump’s party now and the GOP is united in pursuit of victory.

“Donald Trump has my full endorsement, period,” said former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who warned during primary season that Trump would foment global and political chaos and who declared in February, “I feel no need to kiss the ring.” Her genuflection, which came shortly after Trump made another triumphant entrance into the arena, might have come through gritted teeth, but it closed off the unfinished business of an acrimonious primary race that saw the former UN ambassador win hundreds of thousands of votes long after her campaign ended.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis once billed himself as Trumpism without the pandemonium and as a potential president who could actually enact the MAGA agenda. But on Tuesday night, he implored the crowd, “Let’s make the 45th President of the United States the 47th President of the United States.”

The servility of unity is part of the victor gaining the spoils. GOP style. With lipstick on the pig. What more, what more?

Two days earlier, where the headline trumps the text -

Two days after surviving an assassination attempt, Trump picks his MAGA heir

Both items being more op-ed than reporting news. The second item may be unique in putting strong focus on "Two days after surviving [...]."

Speculation before Vance was named had a threesome guessed over, Vance, Rubio, and Burgum. Rubio is a reed in the wind, and Burgum a vanilla rich Republican from a state with few electors.

With possibly the other two being equal ticket balance and Rubio being same state, Ohio has more electors. However, with the assassination attempt a message to an aging man with fading faculties, Trump went with the stronger MAGA mind. Yes, more educated and smarter than Trump, but most kindred.

It was, to use Dean Phillips slogan, "passing the torch."

And that is why Vance has earned more attention than either of the other two would have. Trump nailing down legacy survival, warts and all.

And that is why Crabgrass tries objectively to see whether or how much fear and loathing attach to JD Vance. Why he is more a focus than Harris or Trump.

Harris has to define herself as Presidential, with attacks expected, but that is a wait and see thing. Trump is a known liar and fraud. Vance is multi-faceted with known footprints that can be circumstantially examined, while his defined image is from his book, which is suspect as painting an untruthful, simplified portrait. Vance seems a more interesting person, so far, than the other two. Harris, we shall learn, so she may well be a puzzle rivaling Vance, or more singularly integrated a personality, but one - most hopefilly - a good personality, a winner.

Republicans clearly are hoping the other way.

Having posted contribution links to the Biden candidacy, it is history.

Trump - Vance has scored a ton of Silicon Vally money with Vance having been named VP on the Repubican ticket. To whatever extent money calls the shots this cycle, and with Heritage having been taken over by a coup of former Trump acolytes writing in favor of extreme policy especially aimed at curbing individual freedom, of women in particular, it is appropriate that the successor candidate to Joe Biden is female --- and that funding levels from the people are plentiful to counter Republican cash. Vote against Trump - Vance with the better choice being the Democratic Party presently uncertain ticket. We eagerly await Harris naming her VP. The hope being this sidebar will need updating sooner than later, once that VP choice is announced. Go KH! All that said, the sidebar item below this one is kept for its sentimental value. If you don't like it, too bad.

From Women's March - 10-2-2021 - imagery speaks

Image is cropped from one of a series of Buzzfeed images. Click the image to access the Buzzfeed coverage of that march. This was a major event in Washington, D.C., and it happened mid-way after Trump had been fired by voters in the 2020 election, and before the one approaching. To assert as MN GOP politicians have that abortion is not an issue is an insensitive fiction concocted in some smoke filled GOP backroom. Do not let a GOP intent to deceive misleed your vote. The issue IS ON THE BALLOT. Women deserve dominion over their bodies, we all deserve privacy in our lifetime decision making.

Cracker fear and loathing toward Critical Race Theory has its precedent.

The precedent - Integration dodging intent behind segregated "non-profit" private schools, after the Brown decision was issued. Leading a twisted mind, Paul Weyrich, to issue-monger.

Politico in 2014 posted the true history of the ginned up propagandized opposition to abortion among the nation's hordes of Evangelicals as the "Weyrich solution" to energize the base. Leading to grave mischief. Evangel-Jesus-jockeys, with fellow travelers, (many of whom are surveyed as not as worked up about Roe as Alito would want you to falsely believe). Some, "foaming-at-the-mouth" rabid, however -

This is for you, Gipper and crowd.

Click that Wikipedia image, get THE STORY (and a link to the enlarged image, copyright info and all). GET: Online info leading into a new year via some pre-1947 new "old thoughts." New to many first time voters - this cycle. Not the thoughts, but the history. A history not to be found in Gipper speech transcripts, nor the Gipper's presidential library papers. Hello, Joe, Dem Party history, so pay attention. Pre-Clinton, Pre-Obama, but Dem party new-old nostalgia. Good old ways. Show the guts to walk that talk.

War Crime - Crime Against Humanity - Today, Now.

Let's go Brandon?

Yes, it relates to a NASCAR event, NASCAR attendees making a statement. But given how fifteen bucks got disappeared, and now Build Back Inconsequentially is pending, shouldn't we all chant? Trust whoever you care to, but wouldn't you like to see trust earned? Actions speak louder than words, while inaction when action is needed speaks loudest? Truthfully so? Pharma prices if anything have gone upward since Trump left while Manchin's daughter's a part of it via her grotesque EpiPen market manipulation and price gouging (a/k/a contract, combination, conspiracy in restraint of trade to gain market segment monopolization). Who might they want to fool? Biden's Justice Department appearing to not be looking at EpiPen under antitrust criminal law? Student debt relief is an aim of many, yet Biden has made no move to be helpful. Never mind Medicare for All sidetracked - Not even cosmetic change is being made to Obama's Romneycare? Taking progressives for a buggy ride? DC redux? Money talks? A Congress of old owned lackeys? Let's go Brandon?

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MYOGA - Make Yacht Owners Gain Again

A RIGHT - not a privilege - EVERYBODY'S RIGHT - no limits

JOE BIDEN DOES NOT SUPPORT MEDICARE FOR ALL. That is because Biden's billionaires want to keep every last one of the people beholden, manageable that way, willing to compromise and to worry about the next paycheck and the mortgage, rather than worrying abstractly over the grossly unfair distribution of wealth and power in our nation. Reform of that situation is needed. HOWEVER, with the Biden White House team, we must wait for HOPE and CHANGE. He owes, as a career politician now a millionaire himself, after NOT ever biting a feeding hand. We need Bernie.

Bernie ran for President. Who cares?

Bernie Sanders early 2019 crowds from before the Democratic Party oligarchs did him in, Clyburn, Bloomberg, Biden - the usual suspects. What resonated with those crowds - a candidate for justice and fairness, finally and for us all: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7DRwz0cAt0 Joe Biden could have a Lincolnian legacy, if he cuts and runs from the big donor class he has so far courted, makes his platform the heart of that speech and delivers on the promises. If there is the will, there is the way.

More meddlesome in U.S. of A. politics. More money spent over Russians? Does that compute?

click here for image source plus NYTimes coverage.

Will there be blowback? There seems to be a disproportionate sense to DC's media-mania focus. Russians seem to make better theater, while Israelis generate movement on a scale Putin could only dream of? Essays and books could be written . . . However, in 2012 Romney and Bibi preceded Donald and Vlad mischief, in attempted outsider bias of U.S. national elections. Donald never visited Vlad in Russia. Romney did visit and schmooze Bibi, in Israel. "Double standard?" Go figure.

Doug Wardlow's police pal, Bob Kroll.

POLICE ENDORSED has to have a meaning, a context, and a discernible personality. G.R.Anderson writing over a decade ago, in a CityPages item, puts in a context, Bob Kroll, further fleshed out, here. It behooves the public to know who the supporters of a politician are, (photo above), since that reflects on the politician. "Rule of Law" must have a meaning to Kroll, one which few would share. Why is Mainstream Media not asking about POLICE ENDORSED, a Wardlow tout point?

IN ADDITION: In this image, isn't it Bob Kroll standing to the right hand of friend Wardlow? Looks like him. Paired Ellison haters? Anti-Muslim cohorts? How far back does the pairing go? And how has the pairing grown over time or evolved, from what start? Is there some Dobson joinder? The press should inquire.

Douglas Gary Wardlow did not merely throw the first stone . . .

He unleashed an ADF salvo, earning his ADF paycheck. Read about it, here, here and here. Outlawyered on appeal, Wardlow now apparently has no ADF paycheck. Others for ADF are pressing on. ADF appears to be a win-or-go-home team. James Dobson's team, so walk the line. Whatever you think you want, trust me, you do not want James Dobson anywhere near our attorney general office. A Berniecrat is the other choice, and is a good choice because Bernie's policies are the only future the Democratic Party has whether they accept that or not. Aimee Stephens is as human as I am, as human as Wardlow and Dobson and Hillstrom and Pelikan, the latter two seeming to have gone silent. Ms. Stevens should not be bedeviled in this Twenty-first Century. She merely wanted to be herself, do her job, and get her share. That is what each of us wants for ourselves. Evolution of politics is overdue. Ellison got piled on; is getting piled on. Click the above image.

Sell 'em Prosperity Gospel and feed 'em beans. Some never catch on.

What is Prosperity Gospel? It is: Channeling the mind of a brick into GOP and related dogma. Read this Minnesota story. Click the image to read its fine print. (image source: Bluestem Prairie) The image shows a part of the "mind" of a 30 yr. and still-going Prosperity Gospel faithful attendee. A Dev Crabgrass post fleshes things out. Islamaphobia is but one dimension of a larger "GOP base" stupidity. Stupidity you can bank on. HINT: Follow links in items linked here. Questions will get answered. And --- There's more -

DINO NEWS: Democrats in Name Only; they exist as a problem.

a DINO with an up-top money slot

This link. Al Franken in the linked WashTimes item is quoted:
“There are a lot of Minnesotans who are Franken-Trump voters. You have to go and talk to them, and you have to listen. That’s what we need to do. We need to listen.”
Al knows the score better. Al knows Sanders-Franken voter numbers dwarf that Trump-Franken segment, as to where Al needs to pay most attention, "to listen."

Al, in no uncertain terms, should be telling Tom Perez and the beltway money-bunnies of a new fresh smell in the air. Recognizing (in kind wording) one DINO foundation-family's drift, now, into irrelevancy is far from admitting what's relevant and moving full speed to the Bernie side of the force.

Dinosaurs, DINO ways and means, must and will be extinct (can you say "Primary Joe Manchin and Clair McCaskill"). As Al in the item says; listen. Hear Bernie sounding like a giant asteroid strike upon a DINO status quo. Indeed, primary the poster DINO-bunny of artful misdirection and status quo actions, Cory Booker. Gain attention from that, successful or not. Ideally, send Cory to work with Eric Cantor on Wall Street, where his heart is.