Saturday Report 8/24/24 - “The Party needs to burn to the ground”
The Best of the Rest of the News
— “The Party needs to burn to the ground.” Tara Setmayer is a CNN Political Commentator, ABC News Political Contributor, and former GOP communications director on Capitol Hill. Now, she’s joined the ranks of Republicans who no longer find themselves welcome in their own party. Appearing on this morning’s “The Weekend” show on MSNBC, she said, “If you care about truth, democracy, and decency, if you care about these things that are institutions, you cannot vote for this man [Trump],” adding that after the current Republican Party is burned to the ground she will “be the first one there, someone right at the center to help build it up, because we need a difference in opinions on policy.” Donald Trump has put himself at the center of the GOP, having turned it into a cult of personality. So what will happen to the old fashioned Republicans — the Reagan to Romney wing — who just want unions and abortions outlawed, taxation of morbidly rich people ended, and environmental regulations killed off? How will the GOP reinvent itself if Trump and his acolytes are badly defeated at the polls this fall? The Party has gone from its Teddy Roosevelt progressive incarnation, through its Dwight Eisenhower pro-union, pro-Social Security, 91% income tax phase, into Reagan’s neoliberalism, and now into Trump’s racism and nativism. What’s next? I’d love to hear your thoughts on the GOP’s future: you can comment below.
— Vice President Harris wants to raise taxes on billionaires. The Reagan, Bush, and Trump tax cuts have produced two massive results: they transferred over $50 trillion (with a T) out of the middle class and into the money bins of the morbidly rich, and they left the country with a $34 trillion federal deficit. Semafor is reporting that the Harris campaign has confirmed to them that they endorse the formerly Biden position that Congress should raise taxes on top earners and close tax loopholes to raise federal revenues. It’s about damn time!
— 'Infuriating': Arkansas Supreme Court blocks an abortion rights ballot measure from this fall’s election. Republicans hate abortion rights ballot measures because they encourage women and their allies to show up to vote, and Republicans dislike people voting almost as much as they dislike rich people having to pay taxes. Arkansans for Limited Government (AFLG) sounds like a conservative group, but they collected 101,000 signatures to put an abortion rights amendment to the Arkansas constitution up for a vote in November. But, in a 4-3 vote, Republicans on the Arkansas Supreme Court voted to disqualify the measure because, they said, AFLG hadn’t “properly trained” their signature gatherers. There’s no law that requires such training; it’s merely a guideline, and the signature gatherers were trained. But some of the paperwork documenting that training wasn’t properly filled out or turned in, according to the state’s Republican attorney general, so the Court killed the initiative. Arkansas State Senator Greg Leding wrote on social media: “It’s maddening and heartbreaking that the Arkansas Abortion Amendment won’t be on the ballot this fall, but that doesn’t mean Arkansans don’t get to vote on the issue. Ask your legislative candidates for their stance. Ask if they support our total ban. And vote accordingly.”
— Up next in the arms of school shooters: fully automatic machine guns. Trump appointee U.S. District Judge John Broomes (Kansas) ruled that the ban on owning fully-automatic machine guns that’s been part of American law since the 1930s is unconstitutional. Citing Clarence Thomas’ argument that if something wasn’t illegal at the time the Constitution was written it shouldn’t be illegal now, Broomes has set up a new case that’ll almost certainly end up before the six rightwing cranks on the US Supreme Court.
— Interest rates will be coming down, but by how much? Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said this week that “the time has come” to cut rates, although we won’t know by how much until the middle of September when the Fed Open Market Committee meets. “Inflation has declined significantly,” Powell noted at the Fed’s annual retreat in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He added: “The labor market is no longer overheated, and conditions are now less tight than those that prevailed before the pandemic. Supply constraints have normalized. And the balance of the risks to our two mandates has changed.” Most observers are guessing at least a quarter point and possibly a half point, although some progressive economists, concerned that rates have been too high for too long, argue there should be at least a full point cut. Keep an eye on this; it will will not only impact our economy but may also affect the outcome of this fall’s election.
— Bob Kennedy throws his support to Donald Trump. Rumors have been floating around in the media for weeks that Kennedy was reaching out to both Harris and Trump, reportedly offering to trade his support for a position in their administration should they win. Harris reportedly ignored him, but, if that story is accurate (Kennedy denies it), Trump took the deal. Will it impact the election? Possibly. Kennedy does have a small but fervent following and if he can move them from voting third-party into the Republican camp, particularly while Jill Stein and Cornell West remain on the ballot and will drain votes from Harris and Democrats. Stay tuned.
— Hunter in a Farmer’s World Alert!
— Wisdom School Alert!
At the time the US Constitution was written, it was illegal for black people to vote. Clarence Thomas should resign from the Supreme Court, and should not be voting for anything--let alone SC decisions, as he himself is illegal by his own reasoning.
By Clarence Thomas’ reasoning on machine guns not being illegal at the writing of the Constitution, then marijuana, LSD, Psilocybin, MDMA, etc should all be legal. So should a lot of other things (both good and bad things). The point is, our contemporary society of 2024 bears little resemblance to US society in the 1700’s. ‘Originalists’ know this; they use ‘originalism’ as a smokescreen to achieve their partisan goals.