Saturday Report 7/13/24 - Election Bombshell: RNC Uses Fake Electors to Crown Trump!

The Best of the Rest of the News

— A quick note that last week’s “Ask Thom Anything” Zoom call was rescheduled to this morning at 9 am PT because Louise and I were traveling. I’ll see you in a few hours!

— Finally: The New York Times Editorial Board Calls for Republicans To Reject Trump. Calling him “Dangerous in Word, Deed, and Action,” the Times editorial board laid out, in detail, how deranged Trump is and how deadly his second presidency would be to American democracy and to the American people ourselves. Biden’s gaffes notwithstanding, he’s been one of the most effective and high-integrity presidents in my lifetime (and probably yours, as well). While I wrote an op-ed the day after that disastrous thing that CNN laughingly called a “debate” calling for Biden to step back for another candidate (presumably Harris), it’s clear that he’s not taking that advice, which may well be a good thing. Voter surveys increasingly show that people would vote for Joe Biden against Trump even if Biden was incoherent and drooling; one CNN focus group respondent, a former Republican, said he’d vote for Biden over Trump “even if Biden was dead!” Meanwhile, the president turned in a great performance this week and reminded America why we supported him in 2020 (by 7 million votes!). My position today is that I’ll do everything I can to help the candidate who comes out of the Democratic convention next month, no matter who…and I expect (but am not certain) that it’ll be Joe Biden. And he’s worked his ass off and certainly earned the position, even if he does forget names and loses his train of thought from time to time. There’s no doubt we’ll see more of both of those cringe-worthy reflections of his age, but I — and the Democratic base — don’t think they impair his ability to continue to be a great president (even if it does make him a weaker candidate). As I noted in response to a commenter to one of my Daily Takes this past week, I’m now all in no matter what.

— Trump Snubs McConnell's Warning, Rolls Out Red Carpet for Authoritarian. Just a week after spending time with Russian President Putin, Hungarian strongman Viktor Orbán made a trip to Mar-a-Lago to meet with his “good friend” Donald Trump. Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell reportedly argued against the meeting, saying, “Republicans in Washington who fashion themselves both ‘national conservatives’ and China hawks should pay more attention to Mr. Orbán’s actions and ask themselves if they are consistent with America’s interests.” Nonetheless, Trump took the meeting. My personal take on this is that Orbán is acting as a middle-man between Putin and Trump in their shared goal of flipping America and every other democracy in the world into oligarch-controlled autocratic states like Hungary and Russia. It’s another proof of how dangerous Trump is and how heavily involved Russia will be in this election (as they were so successfully in 2016).

— Election Bombshell: RNC Uses Fake Electors to Crown Trump! The Republican Parties of Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, and Wisconsin have sent fake electors associated with Trump’s criminal attempt to steal the 2020 election to this year’s RNC coronation. Many of these people have been criminally charged and needed to get court permission to leave the state to show up in Milwaukee in two days, again showing how the GOP is just fine with criminals in its midst.

— Clarence Thomas’ all-expense paid visit to Putin? Wait what? The Daily Beast dropped a story this past week revealing the latest corrupt near-million-dollar “vacation” Clarence Thomas and his wife took from a rightwing billionaire whose interests often come before the Supreme Court. This one, involving a cruise and a helicopter ride, was particularly notable because it took the Thomases to Putin’s home town. While nobody knows if the trip involved an actual meeting with Putin (I’m skeptical), it’s a hell of a headline and again shows why Senators Wyden and Whitehouse calling the DOJ to appoint a special prosecutor against Thomas and AOC’s call for his and Alito’s impeachment are so important and deserve more coverage.

— Voter Suppression Alert: House Republicans Pass Controversial SAVE Act! Texas Republican Congressman Chip Roy proposed legislation to make it harder to vote, requiring people to prove their citizenship over and over again whenever they want to vote; every Republican in the House voted for it. The GOP has known since the days of the Goldwater race in 1964 (when William Rehnquist was part of “Operation Eagle Eye” to harass Black and Hispanic voters) that if they can drive down the number of voters, it usually works to the benefit of Republicans. Right now in America, a state has to go to court and prove before a judge that they have justification to take away your gun, but doesn’t even have to let you know when they strip you of your right to vote. As President Biden noted a few days ago, we need to pass legislation making voting a right (like owning a gun) rather than a mere privilege.

— Inflation Takes a Dip: June's 0.1% Drop Fuels Hopes for Rate Cuts. Two months ago the US inflation rate was 0%; last month it went negative to -.1%, sending the stock market soaring as investors anticipate a possible Fed interest rate cut. President Biden continues to preside over what is now officially the world’s most robust economy, while Republicans remain committed to sabotaging it with more massive tax breaks for billionaires and cuts to federal support for education and healthcare.

— Urgent Warning: Southern US Experiencing Unprecedented Sea-Level Rise! Inside Climate News is reporting that sea level rise — now pushing a half-inch a year — is happening faster in parts of the US (like the Florida panhandle) than much of the rest of the world. This is driving home insurance rates through the roof, but the GOP, taking hundreds of millions of dollars a year from the fossil fuel industry and its aligned billionaires, remains committed to the big lie that climate change is a hoax or a natural event. Given that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis recently ordered the words “climate change” and “global warming” removed from all of his state’s government documents in a bid to get money from the fossil fuel industry for his planned 2028 run for the White House, it’s particularly ironic that Florida is the hardest-hit state in the country.

— Hunter in a Farmer’s World Alert!

Workaholic Hunters Need to Schedule Time with Friends