— As the wealth of the American 0.1% hits a record $44 trillion.
So Republican billionaires are saluting Trump....
Image by Joan Greenman from Pixabay
The main effect of neoliberalism, aka Reaganism, is to transfer wealth and political power from the working class into the money bins of the morbidly rich, while replacing a landscape of small and medium sized businesses with monopolistic behemoths. And it’s sure working that way: in the past 3 years, the wealth of the top 0.1 percent has almost doubled.
In its early days, this outcome was pitched as a good thing: Reagan said that giving trillion dollar tax cuts to billionaires would “trickle down the prosperity” to working people (it didn’t), and Clinton said white collar tech jobs would replace the estimated 20 million manufacturing jobs America gave up to China, Vietnam, and Mexico (they didn’t). But nobody’s believing any of that anymore; the last president to pitch a neoliberal agenda was Trump, with his $2 trillion gift to his fellow billionaires, while Joe Biden has explicitly repudiated it. And those billionaires now fully intend to return Trump’s favor.
While many condemned Trump after his January 6th attempt to overthrown American democracy, now they’re reconsidering, particularly as President Biden promises to raise their taxes if he gets a Democratic congress. Wealthy people putting their own interests above the good of the nation is nothing new: back in 1934, Marine General Smedley Butler blew the whistle on an attempt by a cabal of America’s richest men to kidnap or kill President Franklin D. Roosevelt and replace him with a fascist like Charles Lindbergh. The same thing happened in Germany in the 1930s, when the morbidly rich industrialists and bankers (along with Prescott Bush) lined up to support Hitler (who then turned on them, forcing Fritz Thyssen to flee Germany and later write an apologetic autobiography titled I Paid Hitler).
Will America’s rightwing billionaires someday confront a similar “come to Jesus” moment when Trump turns the forces of government against them? Not if we can keep him out of office by voting in overwhelming numbers this fall…
— Will Jared Kushner’s billion-dollar grift finally get investigated?
The former slumlord who made money off government subsidies used his time in the White House to set up a $2 billion gift from the bloodthirsty dictator of Saudi Arabia. But what did he do that merited such largesse? Did he give or sell them top secret classified info? Did he bias the Abraham Accords toward them? Nobody knows at this moment, but, as the old saying goes, inquiring minds want to know. Democrats on the House Oversight and Judiciary committees are renewing the call, pointing out that Republicans are foaming at the mouth over the possibility that Hunter Biden made $5 million from his being on the Burisma board. Compared with $2 billion, though, $5 million is chump change. Nonetheless, Republicans are blocking any effort to question Kushner — which is another reason we need a Democratic majority next year. Again, get out and vote!
— Kentucky Republicans strip that state’s Democratic governor of his power to appoint Mitch McConnell’s successor should Mitch leave office early.
McConnell’s elderly and in touch-and-go health, having recently fallen and “frozen” a few times subsequent to those falls. Should he decide to retire early, Democratic Governor Andy Beshear would appoint a temporary replacement until the next election under current Kentucky law.
That possibility is intolerable to Republicans, though, and because of gerrymandering in the state they control the legislature with large enough majorities to overcome a veto by Governor Beshear. So they just rolled out new legislation requiring an expensive special election instead of an appointment should anything happen to McConnell.
If that day comes, they may have shot themselves in the foot: Beshear holds a statewide office, and he’s a Democrat. The same could easily happen for a US Senate seat that’s also a statewide election (and thus unaffected by gerrymandering). Nonetheless, the GOP is living up to their motto:
“If you can’t win fair and square, rig things so you win anyway.”
— Liz Cheney is warning the Supreme Court about their current attempt to give Trump all the delay he wants.
The most serious criminal charges against Trump have to do with his effort to overthrown our government and end democracy in America. As the trial was about to commence in Judge Chutkin’s DC courthouse, Trump claimed that his actions were all covered by executive immunity, a claim that’s absurd on its face: presidents in America are not supposed to be above the law, which is why he lost both in her court and in the Court of Appeals. Nonetheless, the Republicans on the Supreme Court picked up the case and put it off until the very last days of their session before their long summer vacation.
Liz Cheney — like many Americans of both parties — is incensed by this blatant attempt to prevent accountability for the orange wannabee Mussolini, explicitly telling the SCOTUS justices that she sees their delay tactics and disapproves. She doubled down this week when Trump started attacking the daughter of Judge Merchan, calling his slurs and slanders — clearly designed to incite death threats (which are already happening) — “depraved.”
— Why this year’s House map is looking more Republican.
The job Democrats face taking back the House of Representatives got a little harder this year when Republicans in North Carolina gerrymandered that state so severely that 3 Democratic House seats will certainly flip Republican and a fourth will be tightly contested. To Laura courts ruled that it was a racial gerrymander that was patently illegal, and the Supreme Court picked up the case last October, but, to help Republicans, they have procrastinated so long that a lower court just ruled that the racially gerrymandered maps will be used this year. That said, the election this past Tuesday in Alabama, where the Democrat beat the Republican in an absolute blowout after campaigning on abortion rights, gives us all hope that we can rescue America from these sycophants to the morbidly rich.
— Hunter in a Farmer's World Alert! ADHD: Have a “Clutter Place” That You Periodically Clean Out.
“Normal” people seem to magically be able to organize their workspaces, homes, and lives in general; for Hunters, clutter is more often the default mode:
ADHD: Have a “Clutter Place” That You Periodically Clean Out (here).
— Europe is now deeply concerned about rightwing extremism in politics.
Up until the past few years, most western and northern European nations were concerned about Muslim extremists. Those worries, though, are now being rapidly eclipsed by their worry over the rapid rise of racist, neo-Nazi rightwing movements being fed and fueled by Russian trolls through social media.
Neoliberalism hit much of Europe as hard as it did the United States, producing a middle class backlash, compounded by the presence of millions of brown-skinned Muslim Iraqi, Syrian, and Libyan refugees fleeing violence perpetrated by Russia and the United States. Germany may be on the verge of designating their largest political party, Alternative für Deutschland (AFD) as a radical group, cutting them off from government subsidies and reducing their ability to participate in German politics.
Putin and Xi, both interested in making the world safe for autocracy, have apparently been pouring resources into social media and other propaganda to promote these types of parties all across the continent. Keep an eye on this: it could get very ugly before things get better.
— Crazy Alert! Why the new RNC chair is breaking out in song.
Apparently, new RNC co-chair Lara Trump thinks if her father-in-law doesn’t succeed in his quest to become America’s first “dictator for a day,” a good fallback is to become a singer. Yesterday, she released two singles featuring her singing solo. While she can clearly carry a tune (with the help of electronics), Lara is no Barbara Streisand and her debut on Xitter was met with more than a bit of derision…
Comments:
by Steve Ruis
8 hrs ago
They aren't saluting Trump, they are kissing his ass.
The morbidly rich are staunchly defending the status quo because the class war is over and they won. The only way they could screw it up is to overplay their hand and they are currently in the process of doing that. Soon we will be ignoring Supreme Court Rulings because the Justices are out of touch with reality. If the morbidly rich keep stripping us of our own wealth to magnify theirs, it will be pitchfork and torches time. There will be a backlash and they will not like the consequences.
Just like the evangelicals who have warned us for years about the coming of the Anti-Christ, he finally shows up and they vote for him! Because he shares their values! Which shows you what their values really are. The same thing will happen if the GOP manages to put their faux morbidly rich person in the White House again.
By Daniel Solomon
Notes from Baghdad by the Sea
8 hrs ago
1. Republicans in North Carolina gerrymandered that state. Not over yet. Can appeal. Meanwhile the Republican candidates in NC are so repulsive that they're splitting the party. Meanwhile, we have the opportunity to add thousands of new Democrats. At the Field Team 6 Summit, more than 11,000 new NC voters were added. Here's my pitch to you, Thom: To protect American democracy, reach out to millions of unregistered likely Democrats using a dedicated database using every outreach method possible (phone and text, postcard, email and targeted ad, and in-person too), where new Democratic voters will make the most impact – in the most flippable states and districts.
https://www.fieldteam6.org/actions
2. "Republican billionaires are saluting Trump" -- actually, according to the stats, a majority of his 2020 donors refuse to support him. His campaign receipts mostly come from small donors.
3. Kentucky. Same as NC above. This is a state with more people receiving government benefits per square inch than even NC. If the D's have a candidate who knows all the lyrics to Bill Monroe's songs, they have a winner. Organizations like FT6 can target the election, overwhelm MAGATs.
4. The BIG Story. For me it's this. https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/112180192938619231?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Where (oh where) is the friggin' Secret Service????????
Trump is on the attack. A judge's daughter. Witnesses in his DC case.
Headlines in the NY Times: "Some Potential Trump Witnesses Get Carrots. Michael Cohen Got the Stick".
Should say: Trump out of control!
pass it on: editorial@nytimes.com
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