MAGA Melts Down Over Democratic Unity
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MAGA Melts Down Over Democratic Unity
Because the MAGA party has no strategy to campaign against Vice President Kamala Harris, Republicans have resorted to throwing discriminatory spaghetti at the wall to see if any single message sticks. And, in a show of panic and transparent hypocrisy, far-right personalities, pundits, propagandists, and Republican officials are suddenly “concerned” about U.S. Democracy. Just more concerned about their chances of finishing the coup they started back in 2020.
Since Sunday, Republicans have been leaning hard into racism and misogyny, in addition to projecting Trump’s criminal record onto President Joe Biden. A hodgepodge of incoherent bigotry that borrows from the President Barack Obama birtherism conspiracy theories and the blatant sexist commentary about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
A Tale of Misogynoir: The Bigoted Lies about Kamala Harris
Far-right figures have resurfaced birtherism conspiracies about Kamala Harris not being eligible to run for president because she is a daughter of immigrants. This lie was originally floated by disbarred attorney John Eastman in 2020, who wrote an op-ed in Newsweek arguing that the U.S. Constitution does not grant citizenship to children of immigrants.
This is false and the constitutional criteria for presidential candidates states that the president must be a natural-born citizen of the U.S.— Harris was born in Oakland, California—at least 35 years old—Harris is 59—and have been a U.S. resident for at least 14 years—Harris was and is a CA resident as she served as San Francisco District Attorney beginning in 2003 before she was elected as CA attorney general in 2010.
Because the party knows no racist bounds, they have also repeated the lies that Harris is lying about being Black and is only South Asian. When they are met with the fact that Harris’ father was born in Jamaica, they claim that doesn’t make him Black, especially because he has stated that he is a descendent of an Irish-born slave owner. For one, they ignore the history of slavery in the Carribean. For another, they ignore the history of slave owners raping slaves who bore children of their abusers. Those pesky little facts…
Despite all this, Harris has been outspoken about her proud Black and South Indian heritage, including in her 2019 autobiography. But the real point Republicans are making is that they don’t believe a non-white male should be president. So the goalposts will always move.
This is why the party has landed on its favorite racial slur: DEI candidate! DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) is MAGA speak for the “N” word, but it has evolved to also be a derogatory term for woman. Harris isn’t the only powerful woman they have slung DEI at recently. Some Republicans called former U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle a “DEI hire” earlier this week when she sat before the House Oversight Committee to testify about the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.
It’s a one-two White Supremacist punch that insinuates women and people of color are incapable of earning the positions they hold or seek. So it’s no surprise that Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN), who represents Tennessee’s 2nd Congressional District (East Tennessee, including Knoxville) and is running for another term, went all in on misogynoir on Monday.
He tweeted on X that VP Kamala Harris is America’s “DEI vice president,” and then followed it up with an on-air interview with CNN in which he referred to Harris as a “DEI hire” and lied that President Joe Biden said during his 2020 campaign that “he was going to hire a Black female for vice president.” He added, “What about white females? What about any other group? When you go down that route, you take mediocrity, and that’s what they have right now as the vice president.”
Not that facts matter to these post-truthers, but Biden said at a March 2020 Democratic debate that he’d choose a female running mate. He did not mention race or ethnicity. Reps. Tony Cárdenas (D-CA) and Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) had planned to introduce a censure resolution by the end of the week, but, since Republicans are in disarray and are getting cold-feet about the blatant bigotry, House Speaker Mike Johnson has made other plans for Congress. But more on that later.
Either way, Rep. Burchett doubled down on his rhetoric on Wednesday. So, if you live in Tennessee, his democratic opponent is likely to be Jane George who is running unopposed in Tennessee’s August 1 Democratic Primary. Now is a great time to support her.
As if this wasn’t bad enough, the far-right is also using sex discrimination. And it’s not just coming from Republican Men. Former FOX News anchor Megyn Kelly tweeted on X that Harris didn’t earn her position because she slept her way up the ladder. In short, Kelly accused Harris of being a slut. And she’s not the only female conservative who has defamed Harris. In 2019, Tomi Lahren accused Harris of the same thing. Internalized misogyny is real and on full display here.
I won’t dignify any of this with an explanation. But I will say that she has been elected to several public service roles, including as Vice President, by the people for a reason.
Of all the gross lies that are spreading on the far-right, it appears that DEI may be the one dog whistle message the party lands on. And it’s because they have nothing of merit to campaign on against the Vice President.
But… Sleepy Joe Biden Criminal Mastermind!
It’s not just discriminatory rhetoric MAGA has been test driving. Republicans are also desperately trying to make fetch happen.
Because Donald Trump made his entire campaign about President Joe Biden, his party must tie the Vice President to their existing messaging about Sleepy Joe criminal mastermind. The only wedge issue they have in their arsenal is the Biden Administration’s border and immigration policies.
This is why the far-right media echochamber has been lazily and incoherently screaming about Harris being Biden’s “border czar” and covering up the President’s health status. So, naturally, the Republican Party has resurfaced articles of impeachment against Vice President Kamala Harris on both counts.
On Tuesday, Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN), who represents Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District (a very gerrymandered district that includes parts of Nashville), re-filed the articles, claiming that she had shown “extraordinary incompetence as “border czar” and had committed high crimes and misdemeanors for not invoking the 25th Amendment despite being aware President Joe Biden was “cognitively impaired.”
Ogles borrowed from the GOP’s repetition of former President Barack Obama’s full name, President Barack Hussein Obama, by writing, “Kamala Devi Harris has knowingly misled the people of the United States and the Congress of the United States.” He repeated her full name again, writing, “In all of this, Kamala Devi Harris willfully and systematically refused to uphold the immigration laws, failed to control the border to the detriment of national security, compromised public safety, and violated the rule of law, to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.” This is another dog whistle.
Aside from this being a publicity stunt that continues from the articles he filed in June 2023, the Republican Party is lying about Harris’ role regarding immigration.
For one, the corporate-owned news media branded her with the click-baity term “border czar.” For another, Harris was tapped by President Joe Biden as a U.S. Diplomat to advocate for economic development in South America. The goal was to encourage the private sector to invest in the region in order to boost jobs and reduce violence, which would, in turn, reduce the number of migrants heading toward the United States.
Either way, House Speaker Mike Johnson threw a wrench in the next Biden Cabinet Member impeachment. He announced on Wednesday that he would gavel out Congress for August break beginning Friday, July 26. GOP leadership issued guidance for members of Congress that “Last votes for the week and month are now expected to take place tomorrow, Thursday, July 25, 2024 at approximately 10:45 a.m."
This also means that the government spending bills will not be brought to the floor for a vote until at least September 9, making the Republican threat of a government shutdown leading into the election a real possibility. Everything is fine.
Meanwhile…
While MAGA pathetically flails, the Democratic Party is finally united and hyperfocused on defeating the national security threat squatting in Florida.
And voters are stoked and living their best life in Brat summer.
Vote.org reported that within 48 hours of President Joe Biden dropping out of the race and endorcing VP Kamala Harris nearly 40K people registered to vote—the largest surge in a 2-day period this election cycle. The voter advocacy group also shared that of new registrants, 83 percent were from people aged 18-34.
Adding to the enthusiasm around the VP, of the $81M raised within 24-hours of kicking off her campaign, 888K donations came from individual donors, 60% of whom were first time donors for this election.
Billionaire Elon Musk walks back big money donation pledge to Trump
One conman cons another. Days after The Wall Street Journal reported that Apartheid technocrat Elon Musk pledged to donate $45M per month to Trump’s America PAC, Musk has publicly entered his denial era. In an interview with far-right online personality Jordan Peterson on Tuesday, the billionaire called the WSJ’s reporting about his financial promise “not true.” He tweeted on his renamed platform X, "I am making some donations to America PAC, but at a much lower level and the key values of the PAC are supporting a meritocracy & individual freedom."
Nikki Haley hates that her primary voters now support Kamala Harris
A group of never Trump voters who supported former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley in the GOP primary has told the Trump lackey to F off after receiving a cease and desist. The political action committee "Haley Voters for Harris" was previously known as “Haley Voters for Biden.” The PAC—officially registered as PIVOTPAC—rebranded once Biden dropped out and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to continue its mission of advocating for former Haley supporters to vote for the Democratic nominee. But Haley, who recently spoke at the RNC after endorsing the man she challenged, is not happy about the PAC’s support for the VP.
In a letter from her attorney, Michael G. Adams, Haley demaned the group "cease and desist from any unlawful use of Ambassador Haley's name in your political action committee name, and from any use of her name, image or likeness that implies her support for the election of Kamala Harris as President of the United States…Any intimation that Ambassador Haley supports Harris is intentionally false and misleading.” And Haley herself issued a statement finally admitting that she has no principles, writing "Kamala Harris and I are total opposites on every issue. Any attempt to use my name to support her or her agenda is deceptive and wrong. I support Donald Trump because he understands we need to make America strong, safe, and prosperous."
The PAC issued a statement on X on Tuesday, making it clear that the group does not claim to speak on behalf of Haley or her views. It wrote, “There are many other like minded Haley voters who also do not plan to support former President Trump in November. Our rights to engage with voters and encourage them to vote for Vice President Harris – who in our view is the clear better choice for the country – will not be suppressed.” In an interview with NPR, the group’s director Craig Snyder said that the group’s name is “a factual statement of the way a lot of people feel and the way a lot of people intend to vote in November,” adding, “Ambassador Haley’s made it clear that she’s joined the Trump train, and that’s her prerogative, but the voters that voted for her are gonna make up their own minds.”
UPDATE: Labor unions reach tentative deal with Walt Disney Company
After voting to authorize a strike, the coalition of unions representing Disneyland employees announced on Wednesday that they have reached a tentative deal on a new contract with the Walt Disney Company. Details of the agreement have not been publicly released, but will be announced on Monday once union members review the contract and formally vote on whether to accept it. Negotiations between the parties continued on Monday and Tuesday with the goal of averting Disneyland’s first strike in 40 years.
Voting rights and election security prevails over GOP threats
On Friday, Pennsylvania launched a hotline to report voter intimidation, election fraud, or election-related violence. Following the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, Governor Josh Shapiro coordinated with the Pennsylvania Department of State (DOS), the State Police (PSP), and the state Emergency Management Agency (PEMA) to establish a hotline to safeguard Pennsylvania’s election process. Voters and election workers can now call 1-877-VOTESPA, which is operated by the DOS, or file an election complaint on the agency’s website. The commonwealth is the first state to establish an election hotline, but as threats to election workers and candidates increase, the Biden administration has also taken action to provide a safe and secure election process. In June 2021, the Department of Justice launched an Election Threats Task Force and has fielded reports about violence against election workers.
On Tuesday, the Ohio Secretary of State’s Office certified the signatures for the proposed anti-gerrymandering amendment called the Citizens Not Politicians ballot initiative. If passed by voters in November, the state would be required to establish an independent redistricting commission comprised of Ohioans. The initiative will next be reviewed by the Ohio Ballot Board, which is led by Secretary of State Frank LaRose, to finalize the language of the ballot measure by August 22. Given LaRose’s history of tampering with ballot text (namely last year’s abortion amendment), he could rewrite the text of this measure to be misleading.
On Tuesday, the Montana Supreme Court unanimously ruled that GOP Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen failed to prove her claim that U.S. District Court Judge Mike Menahan “injustly” ordered her office to count the signatures of “inactive” voters for 3 ballot initiative petitions. The court also declined to intervene in the case, writing that the district court has yet to fully hear all allegations raised in the case and that Jacobsen’s actions “created the circumstances that gave rise to this litigation.” It explained, “(Montana code) provides that the Secretary bears the responsibility to obtain and maintain uniformity in the application, operation and interpretation of election laws. Jacobsen’s decision to change the Secretary’s longstanding practice to count the signatures of inactive voters — and to do so without notice to county election administrators after they had commenced petition processing — failed to maintain uniformity in the application, operation and interpretation of the election laws in this instance.” Menahan scheduled a hearing for Friday, July 26 about a preliminary injunction.
Democrats snub Bibi
Democratic representatives have had enough of the United States’ bear hug strategy with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Half of House and Senate Democrats boycotted Bibi’s address on Wednesday, leaving about 100 Democratic members of Congress and 28 Democratic senators in attendance. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) also skipped the speech. Not all who showed up were there to show support though. Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and Jerry Nadler (D-NY) trolled Netanyahu—Nadler read a book titled "The Netanyahu Years"—and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), the only Palestinian-American in Congress, held a sign that said "guilty of genocide" on one side and "war criminal" on the other. After the speech, Raskin said it was made for Trump’s GOP and that “we didn’t hear anything about meaningful progress towards a bilateral cease-fire in return for hostages. We didn’t hear anything about peace.” Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi called it “the worst presentation of any foreign dignitary invited and honored with the privilege of addressing the Congress.” Meanwhile, thousands of protesters marched outside the U.S. Capitol in opposition to U.S. support for Israel as Netanyahu remains firm in finishing what he started—the Nakba.
The Biden Administration continues to rein in corporate greed
On Tuesday, the Department of Transportation (DOT) opened an investigation into Delta Air Lines’ failure to recover from Friday’s global IT outage. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told the press that the agency is also determining whether the Atlanta, Georgia-based airline violated federal rules by continuing to leave more than half a million passengers stranded by ongoing cancellations and delays. He added that the department has received more than 3K complaints and called Delta’s customer service wait time “unacceptable.” While other airlines have resumed normal operations, Delta has been on the struggle Airbus. The carrier and its Delta Connection partners canceled more than 500 flights on Tuesday due to issues with its crew scheduling system, accounting for approximately two-thirds of all canceled flights in the United States. FlightAware, a real-time flight tracking platform, estimates that Delta and its partners have canceled more than 6,500 flights since the outage—more than all other carriers.
On Tuesday, the Federal Trade Commission announced that it is investigating private sector use of AI-powered “surveillance service pricing.” The agency voted 5-0 to utilize its 6(b) authority, which allows the commission to obtain information for research without a law enforcement purpose, to issue orders to 8 companies: Mastercard, Revionics, (clients include Home Depot, Tractor Supply, and Hannaford), Bloomreach (clients include FreshDirect, Total Wine, and Puma), JPMorgan Chase, Task Software (clients include McDonald’s and Starbucks), PROS, Accenture, and McKinsey & Co. The FTC has requested information from these companies as they all offer services that use AI to personalize pricing based on individual consumer behavior, location, and other personal data. The FTC aims to understand the technology and how it’s used to collect data, as well as what the impact is on pricing. In a press release, FTC chairwoman Lina Kahn described the practice of different prices for different customers as a “shadowy ecosystem of pricing middlemen.”
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Kelley Hodge affirmed the FTC’s authority to enforce federal antitrust laws and to outlaw anti-competitive practices such as noncompete agreements. In a written order, the judge denied a request by Pennsylvania-based ATS Tree Services to block the agency’s ban on noncompete agreements from taking effect in September. (Note: ATS is represented by the Pacific Legal Foundation, a far-right legal group backed by dark money, including the Koch Network, Big Oil, and a nonprofit with ties to the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society.) The judge wrote that federal law "provides the FTC with the authority to promulgate rules prohibiting unfair methods of competition," and that after an extensive research and rulemaking process, the agency found that noncompetes are "exploitative and coercive" and "not justified by legitimate business purposes." The FTC found that 30M Americans (about 20% of U.S. workers) have signed such an agreement. California, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Oklahoma have banned noncompetes and at least a dozen other states have passed laws limiting their use.
Senate passes bill to implement civil penalties for nonconsensual deepfakes
On Tuesday, the Senate unanimously passed the DEFIANCE Act, a bill introduced by Senator Dick Durbin (D-NY) that aims to provide federal protections for victims of nonconsensual deepfake pornography. The bill now heads to Congress where Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will spearhead the effort to pass the bipartisan legislation. If passed, victims will be able to take civil action against those who knowingly produce, distribute, or receive nonconsensual sexually-explicit digital forgeries.
Rudy Giuliani’s wealthy benefactor is MyPillow Guy Mike Lindell
Rudy Giuliani’s lawyers disclosed that his trip to last week’s Republican National Convention was paid for MyPillow guy, Mike Lindell’s new far-right media company, FrankSpeech. As Giuliani’s bankruptcy proceedings continue, creditors have the former “America’s Mayor’s” finances under a microscope as they aim to finalize a deal for Giuliani to pay up. And they were paying close attention to Giuliani’s income and spending for the RNC, which appeared to be suss. Giuliani seems to have only shared transactions from his personal debit card, which is not his usual method of payment, and that showed only 2 charges for less than $100 at a hotel in Milwaukee. The letter to the court revealed that Giuliani has his own wealthy benefactor who flew him first class and put him up in swanky accommodations in exchange for working the week-long event. Lindell told CNN on Tuesday that he hired Giuliani as a host for FrankSpeechTV and that the troubled attorney began working on July 1. The judge overseeing Giuliani’s bankruptcy case will likely factor this in to his upcoming ruling on settling his debts.
Ultra wealthy Democratic donor throws temper tantrum over VP Kamala Harris
Democratic megadonors are big mad at Dark Brandon for outmaneuvering them. Upper Class Florida Man, John Morgan (of personal injury law firm Morgan & Morgan), aired his grievances on Sunday about Vice President Kamala Harris replacing President Joe Biden as the Democratic candidate for president. He said the quiet part out loud on X, tweeting, “Joe Biden’s endorsement of Kamala is his f---- you to all who pushed him out. Be careful what you wish for." And then shared his picks for the next Democratic nominee, which include Sen. Joe Manchin (R-WV), Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, and/or former First Lady Michelle Obama. According to him, only a combination of these select few could win the election and pledged to not give any of his Scrooge McDuck money to Harris’ campaign. He then insinuated that he was the leader of this shadow megadonor network, tweeting “You have to be enthusiastic or hoping for a political appointment to be asking friends for money. I am neither. It's others' turn now. The donors holding the 90 million can release those funds in the morning. It's all yours. You can keep my million. And good luck.” He clarified with Chris Cuomo on NewsNation that he’d still contribute to Democratic races down the ballot if he was asked to donate.