For those idiots who “can’t stand either,” this election isn’t simply Biden versus Trump.
It’s democracy versus autocracy.
It’s a free press versus state-run media.
If you’re still clueless, it’s F.D.R. versus Hitler.
Vote and vote responsibly, because you may well be casting your last ballot. #Election2024#JoeBiden#democracy#DonaldTrump#autocracy
Trump's team is more focused so far on building a sprawling network of "#ElectionIntegrity" #lawyers & #PollWatchers than on rounding up organizers & door knockers to reach voters.
It's a sign that 5 months before Election Day, the legal battle is underway —& that Trump PLANS to cry "rigged" if he loses, as it did after the #2020election & his #felony#convictions.
#Republicans have filed complaints against #elections ofcls in #Milwaukee & #Madison — heavily Democratic cities — along w/the #Wisconsin Elections Commission. The complaints allege Republicans were denied #PollWorker positions in the state's April primary election.
That pledge could provoke a dramatic #constitutional showdown, w/vast consequences for how the govt operates. If #Trump returns to office, these efforts are likely to turn typically arcane debates over “#impoundment” #authority — or the president’s right to stop certain spending programs— into a major political flash point, as he seeks to accomplish via #edict what he cannot pass through #Congress.
#StephenMiller, a fmr snr adviser to #Trump [& pure concentrated evil] who still helps guide his thinking on policy, blared out a directive on #FoxNews after a jury found Trump #guilty of falsifying financial records to cover up… his 2016 [#ElectionInterference]. Miller posed a series of questions to Republicans at every level, including local DAs.
#MikeJohnson vowed to use House oversight powers while cutting funds in the #government appropriations process & taking other unspecified #legislative measures.
“We’re going to do everything we can, everything within our scope of our responsibility in the Congress, to address it appropriately,” Johnson said at his weekly news conference afterward.
The #UnitedStates is actively weighing whether to lift one of #POTUS#Biden’s longest-held precautionary measures of the #Ukraine war: a ban on the use of #US provided #weapons for offensive strikes inside #Russia.
The reassessment is a byproduct of Russia’s renewed cross-border assault on #Kharkiv, a chorus of pressure from #EU ofcls & a visit to Kyiv by Secy of State #Blinken that reinforced the peril facing Ukraine….
From the Republican perspective, this election is not actually about policy or governance. It's about the GOP's project to change the American form of government from democracy to autocracy.
#Trump has frequently boasted that he could negotiate peace between #Russia & #Ukraine within 24 hrs if elected, even before taking office. But he has repeatedly declined to specify publicly how….
Trump-aligned #ForeignPolicy thinkers have emphasized addressing threats to #US interests from #China & seeking ways to reverse Russia’s increasing dependence on China for #military, #industrial & #economic assistance. They have also embraced limiting #NATO expansion.
"The best approach to understanding the Right has always been to take seriously and actually grapple with their vision for American society. In that sense, 'Project 2025' is tremendously helpful. Rightwing leaders could not possibly be clearer about the reactionary vision they want to impose on the country."
"They are telling us that they do not accept this egalitarian, pluralistic idea of a society in which the individual’s status is no longer determined by race, gender, religion, and wealth. They feel justified in taking truly radical, extreme measures to prevent that society from ever becoming a reality because they believe they are defending 'real America' in service of a higher purpose:"
"To restore and entrench what they see as the natural order and divine will, as it manifests in strict, discriminatory hierarchies.
The reactionary mobilization against democratic multiracial pluralism won’t stop because the people behind it have some sort of epiphany that they shouldn’t go that far."
"In today’s America, the right wing seems to be echoing its antebellum predecessors. It is attacking women’s rights; diversity, equity, and inclusion programs; immigration; LGBTQ+ rights and so on. At the same time, it continues to push an economic system that has moved as much as $50 trillion from the bottom 90% to the top 10% since 1981 while exploding the annual budget deficit and the national debt."
"Just as it was in the 1850s, the right-wing emphasis on religion and opposition to a modern multicultural America today is deeply entwined with preserving an economic power structure that has benefited a small minority. That emphasis is growing stronger in the face of the administration’s effort to restore a level economic playing field."
"Trump’s appearance in Georgia … reflected a man not rooted in any kind of reality, one who struggled to remember his words and who was, by any definition, incoherent, disconnected, and frequently malicious. …
Watch his speeches. Share them widely. Don’t look away."
A part of the American political spectrum is not merely a passive recipient of the combined authoritarian narratives that come from Russia, China, and their ilk, but an active participant in them. ( anneapplebaum.substack.com )