The Technocrats that installed JD Vance as Trump’s VP Running Mate
Vance joins House Speaker Mike Johnson in being handpicked by special interests for the political line of succession
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The Technocrats that installed JD Vance as Trump’s VP Running Mate
While the crowned GOP nominee may not have planned to pick a Vice Presidential running mate, the billionaires and Christian Nationalists running the Republican Party are united in showing that they are in control here. Donald Trump is just the Manchurian Candidate to advance their agenda and his family, being compromised and broke, is indebted to these special interests.
From a political standpoint, the freshman Senator from Ohio is an odd choice. He has no leadership experience or much experience at all in governing. And Ohio isn’t a battleground state. Overall, you have a milquetoast politician who doesn’t exactly have that “it” factor that will win over swing voters, or any particular voting bloc for that matter. He even received a tepid response at the Republican National Convention on Monday when he was officially introduced as Trump’s running mate. But this is all the point.
As I’ve been saying since before the election cycle kicked off, Donald Trump and his far-right MAGA party aren’t strategizing to win. They are fully aware their policies are unpopular and that they have a lot to lose after participating in Trump’s legal and violent coup against the United States. So they are cheating to manufacture a win and will use force if necessary. This plan is out in the open.
What isn’t exactly advertised is how much power and influence the American Oligarchs, the Christian Nationalists, and foreign adversaries have over the Republican Party. With J.D. Vance as the potential second in line, these three deep-pocketed special interests have now secured a line of succession that will end U.S. democracy and usher in a new autocratic World Order. Donald Trump is the Russian asset, Vance is the oligarchy asset, and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is the apostle-prophet for the Christian Nationalists. It’s the Menage a trois axis of evil.
You may be asking why the oligarchs pushed Vance over an actual ultrawealthy candidate like VP potential North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum or Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin. And the answer is three-fold:
1) Vance is young and believes in nothing but money and power, meaning he will do whatever his power brokers tell him to do.
2) He is part of the technocratic populists (aka techno-fascists)—basically, neo-fascists in a modern technological world—who is sidelining the “neocons” (aka RHINOs) aligned with the biggest RHINO of them all, Rupert Murdoch. Leopards still eating faces.
3) His wifey, Usha Vance, was a law clerk for 2 sitting Supreme Court justices: Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh when he was on the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
As you can see, it wasn’t just any oligarchs pushing for Vance. It was the reactionary tech bro billionaires and a useful idiot with an axe to grind and worthless Russian rubles to spend.
Axios reported Tuesday morning that there was a secret lobbying campaign for JD Vance by hardcore idiot and billionaire, Elon Musk, tech investor and obnoxious online personality, David Sacks, and untalented nepo baby thrice fired from the Big 3 news networks, Tucker Carlson.
These wealthy, out-of-touch losers say they believe Vance, a Yale Law grad and venture capitalist under billionaire Peter Thiel, will appeal to working-class voters. But it’s really that Vance is the bridge between the Tech industry, including the intersection of tech and finance, and party fundraising.
In short, the PayPal Mafia has secured their Golden Ticket. And the technocrats are lining up in support. The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that Musk plans to donate $45M per month to the pro-Trump America PAC, and techno fascists Marc Andreesen and Ben Horowitz pledged to donate big money as well.
It would just suck for them if Vance didn’t change his position on antitrust. Business Insider reported that Vance is a vocal proponent of the Federal Trade Commission's antitrust enforcement of Big Tech companies. But given his change of heart—Vance was a staunch Trump hater who called him “America’s Hitler”—the now firm bootlicker is likely to change his tune on regulatory authority.
It’s not just business that Vance has been helpful with. His positions on issues from healthcare to immigration to foreign policy has shifted to the far-right—in alignment with Project 2025. Vance was one of 18 senators who voted to block the Ukraine aid bill earlier this year and has repeated Kremlin talking points. He has also voted against all legislative bills to codify abortion rights, establish federal rights to contraception, and protections for in vitro fertilization. He also sponsored bills that would reverse the Biden administration’s consumer and environmental regulations. He has rejected calls for tougher gun laws and voted against the bipartisan border security deal after Trump directed his party to do so in order to help his campaign.
In addition, Vance is now an election denier. All told, with Vance’s far-right shift over the past year, he is one of the Republican Party members who does not believe the message he is sending. This makes him a false prophet and wholly unfit for public service.
Trump’s Personal Judge Lands the Plane
On Monday, Trump-appointed judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the classified documents case against Donald Trump, ruling that Special Counsel Jack Smith’s appointment and funding is unconstitutional. She determined that only Congress has the authority to appoint and authorize funding for independent prosecutors and that U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland overstepped his authority.
In a 93-page ruling, Cannon only cited one legal opinion to justify the fringe idea she was using to land the plane for Trump—a separate concurring opinion by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in the SCOTUS ruling that gave Trump presidential immunity. No other justice signed on to that opinion. Because it’s the only legal writing that exists to help her help Trump, she cited it several times.
It’s also important to mention that Thomas incorporated the fringe argument from friend-of-the-court amicus briefs and not from Trump’s lawyers. The defense never argued that Smith’s appointment was unconstitutional. This means that Cannon made her ruling based on a singular Supreme Court Justice’s suggestion that was drawn from dark money interests who are Trump allies.
Another issue for Cannon is that, for decades, attorneys general serving in both Democratic and Republican administrations have appointed special counsels without authorization of Congress. And all federal courts have upheld the authority. Special Counsel plans to appeal to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, but the damage has been done. The greatest national security threat to the United States escapes accountability again.
Anti-vaxxer and Spoiler Candidate RFK Jr. Steps on Another Rake
It appears that Independent Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is pretty tight with GOP nominee Donald Trump. After reporting came out about Kennedy’s meeting with Trump at the RNC on Monday, rumors on social media spread that the two may join together for a potential “unity ticket.” After Kennedy dispelled those rumors, Kennedy's son, Bobby Kennedy III, made things a whole lot worse by turning to social media. In a video that has since been deleted, Kennedy is seen listening to Trump ask for his endorsement and ramble about vaccine conspiracy theories, as well as his assassination attempt. Kennedy III also saltily wrote, "[Trump] could have picked a unity ticket instead he picked JD ‘fire all the unvaccinated nurses’ Vance.” Kennedy claims he’s not a spoiler candidate and that only he can defeat Donald Trump, but in a post on X (formerly Twitter), Kennedy apologized to Trump for his son’s error in judgment and referred to him as the President.
Senator Bob Menendez and Codefendants Found Guilty
After 3 days of deliberations, a jury found Senator Bob Menendez guilty on all 16 felony charges against him. Those charges include bribery, extortion, wire fraud, obstruction of justice, conspiracy, and acting as a foreign agent of Egypt. The jury also found his 2 codefendants Fred Daibes and Wael Hana guilty on 7 and 6 felony counts against them, respectively, including conspiracy, wire fraud, bribery, and obstruction of justice. They will be sentenced on October 29 and each faces decades in prison. Several Senate democrats and New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy have called on Menendez to resign. Menendez has pledged to appeal the verdict.
Wall Street Bets on Donald Trump’s Return & Project 2025
Wall Street closed higher on Monday as the wealthiest individuals who own the majority of stocks bet on Donald Trump’s return to the White House. According to reporting by the Financial Times earlier this year, 93% of U.S. households' stock market wealth is held by the top 10%. Shares of Trump’s Truth Social parent company soared 31.4%, but the newly crowned GOP nominee’s Emoluments Clause violation isn’t the only stock performance that should raise eyebrows. Industries aiming to profit off Trump’s deregulatory and Project 2025 policies also jumped, including a number of crypto stocks such as Coinbase, which were up between 11.4% and 18.3%, gun manufacturer Smith and Wesson was up 11.4%, and Prison operator GEO group up 9.3%. There’s also speculation that the U.S. Federal Reserve will begin lowering the interest rate this fall. What shouldn’t go ignored is how well the wealthy have faired under President Joe Biden. Under his tenure, the S&P 500 has posted 65 new 52-week highs while the Nasdaq has recorded 203 new highs.
Biden continues working for the people
On Tuesday, President Joe Biden announced new policy to lower housing costs for renters. And he’s daring the GOP-controlled Congress to bring it to the House floor and vote against a popular piece of legislation. Under Biden’s economic plan, the bill would cut off tax credits for corporate landlords that raise rent by more than 5% per year. The President aims to begin applying this sanction to landlords with 50+ units this year and to be enforced through 2026—meaning this would impact more than 20M rental units nationwide. To sweeten the pot, Biden included an exception for new construction and buildings being renovated.
The administration is also coordinating with several federal agencies to assess using surplus federal land for affordable homes. The Bureau of Land Management plans to open a public comment period on selling 20 acres of public land in Nevada at below-market value, while the US Postal Service plans to repurpose some unused properties for affordable housing. The Housing and Urban Development Acting Secretary, Adrianne Todman, also announced a $325M grant for the effort in Chattanooga, TN, Houston, TX, Miami, FL, Las Vegas, NV, Syracuse, NY, Trenton, NJ, and Huntsville, AL.
According to a report from the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University, 22.4M renter households spent more than 30% of their income on rent and utilities in 2022. This is an increase of 2M households over 3 years. Also, according to June inflation data, shelter inflation rose at the slowest pace in three years while annual housing price hikes rose 5.2%, outpacing overall inflation. According to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis, nationwide rent prices have risen by 21% since January 2021.
This plan would make the GOP look really good if they passed it. A June Gallup poll shows that 36% of Americans say economic issues are the most important problems with 14% citing the high cost of living as the biggest problem in the US.
Cybersecurity Meets Antitrust
It’s another week, which means another monopolist has been hacked. This time, the target was mass media entertainment behemoth The Walt Disney Company, which is investigating a data breach of its internal Slack channels. In a pretty meta turn of events, Slack, an enterprise communications platform, is owned by cloud-based software giant Salesforce. In a 2-fer, hacktivist group Nullbulge has claimed “it was me!” to the cyberattack and that it leaked more than 1T of data from Disney’s global internal Slack online, including details about unreleased projects, raw images, and computer code. The Wall Street Journal reported that it reviewed the leaked files and found “data stretching back to at least 2019.” Nullbulge, which bills itself as a group that protects artists’ rights, told the WSJ that it targeted Disney “due to how it handles artist contracts, its approach to AI, and it’s [sic] pretty blatant disregard for the consumer.”
Iran Plotted Revenge against Donald Trump
CNN reports that US authorities were tipped off recently about a plot by Iran to assassinate Donald Trump. This is why U.S. Secret Service increased security around the GOP nominee in the weeks leading up to the Pennsylvania rally. A US national security official also confirmed with CNN that the Secret Service and the Trump campaign were informed of the threat before the rally. They also stated that there is no connection between the shooter and the Iranian plot. Iran has been planning its revenge for the Trump administration’s ordered strike that killed Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the Iranian military’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, in January 2020. Other targets of Iran’s revenge tour include Trump’s former national security advisers John Bolton and Robert O’Brien and Trump’s former Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo.
The Reaction to Trump’s Near Assassination is Censorship and Loyality
MSNBC executives pulled “Way Too Early With Jonathan Lemire” and “Morning Joe” from air on Monday to focus coverage on the attempted assassination of GOP nominee Donald Trump. The broadcast network also shelved a live stream by anchor Ali Velshi from the Republican National Convention, according to the New York Times. CNN reported that a source told them the decision was made by the network’s top brass to ensure interviewed guests don’t “make an inappropriate comment on live television” that could damage MSNBC’s reputation. It’s a nice way of saying they’re afraid of MAGA so they’re scrambling the lineup to CYA, which inevitably capitulates to the far-right. The network wasn’t alone in pulling live coverage today. Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” also canceled its plans, which was to tape live from the convention.
The Republican Party hatched a plan to gaslight the American electorate about Donald Trump’s plans to rule with an iron fist under The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 agenda before Trump’s MAGA Rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The failed attempt by a young registered Republican to assassinate Trump on Saturday accelerated the strategy. The core messaging is simple: Shut up, take the blame, and fall in line, or else. The tactic is playing hardball, which includes blackmailing Trump critics and leaning into projection.
The GOP has been playing the projection game for a long time now, including accusing President Joe Biden of being a dictator and Democrats of being fascist, communist, marxist, socialist, [insert scary contradictory term here] radicals. That is nothing new. What is new here is that the Republican Party plans to conflate warnings by historians and Democratic officials of Trump’s own spoken autocratic promises and violent rhetoric as promoting violence. So what they’re doing is saying that those who are echoing Trump’s words are the problem and caused the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. This is a method called DARVO (deny, attack, reverse victim and offender) that abusers use and the Republican Party is industrializing it.
The one thing that undermines this plan of psychological attack is that the shooter was a registered Republican with an obsession with guns. But they’re hoping to distract the public with so much misinformation that that fact gets lost.
Either way, Trump’s party is already fundraising off the incident and using it for propaganda to provide “proof” that Trump is “God’s chosen one.”
But he is just a rich asshole who is running as an authoritarian to escape facing justice. He is openly using fascist rhetoric and already attempted to make himself dictator in 2021 by directing a violent coup on the U.S. Capitol that nearly succeeded. He has since demanded military tribunals and jail for those who tried to hold him accountable for January 6 and is promising retribution for all his enemies. This sounds pretty fascist and should be labeled as such.
Trump’s former DOJ Lackey Jeffrey Clark Loses Again
On Friday, the U.S. District Court of Appeals for D.C. denied Jeffrey Clark’s request for federal removal of the disbarment proceedings against him. In a classic delay effort, Clark asked the court to transfer 3 issues to federal court: 2 subpoenas and 1 D.C. Bar disciplinary hearing. But the court determined that the subpoenas are moot and that his third request was not eligible for removal and, even if it was, it came too late. The D.C. Bar Office of Disciplinary Counsel ruled that Clark violated ethics rules in April and recommended his disbarment for engaging in dishonesty and obstructing the administration of justice in 2020. The Court of Appeals has yet to make a final ruling.
Great job! Very informative.
So. Much. Happening.
Thank you!!