Donald Trump Archives - Page 10 of 55

Project 2025: Personnel and staffing

Christian nationalism

I have looked at Google Trends. Since the week of June 3, there has been a definite upward trend in the number of searches for the term Project 2025, “the extreme right-wing agenda for the next Republican administration.” That’s good. Maybe djt is one of them since he claimed he doesn’t know about it but is opposed to many of its aspects. How are both possible?

Leading up to the election, I’ve decided to reiterate its tenets. Regarding Personnel and staffing, “Project 2025’s goals for staffing the next GOP presidency reflect Trump’s idea to gut civil service staff and replace them with potentially tens of thousands of MAGA loyalists. The New York Times describes this plot for a second Trump administration as an ‘expansion of presidential power over the machinery of government’ that would reshape “the structure of the executive branch to concentrate far greater authority directly in his hands.”

When I first searched for Schedule F, I discovered the IRS Form 1040 to report farm income and expenses. That’s not what we’re looking for.

Here’s an article from The Brookings Institute, a hardly liberal think tank, titled The Risks of Schedule F for Administrative Capacity and Government Accountability.

“Weeks before the 2020 election, President Trump unveiled an executive order that would have created a new class of political appointee, Schedule F. The order would have allowed a president to turn any career official with a policy advisory role into a political appointee, removing job protection and opening the door to vastly politicize the federal workforce.

“President Biden rescinded the order, but Trump has made it a central feature of his re-election campaign as part of his effort to take control of “the deep state…”

“Deep state”

“First, let’s understand the scale of what is being proposed. Among developed countries, the U.S. is an outlier in terms of its existing level of politicization. We use about 4,000 political appointees to run the executive branch, an increase from about 3,000 in the early 1990s…

“Supporters of Schedule F have proposed converting 50,000 career civil servants into political appointee status. That is a massive degree of additional politicization and the most fundamental change to the civil service system since its inception in 1883. Increasing the number of political appointees would create a new venue where political polarization would undermine the quality of governance by replacing moderates with extremists.”

Or, put another way, the cabal would replace people who know how to do their jobs with political hacks. Naturally, the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE) supports legislation to stop it. Unsurprisingly, it was introduced in the House in February 2023, where it languishes.

Pushback

However, back in April 2024, the “Office of Personnel Management issued the final version of its regulation meant to safeguard the civil service from the return of a Trump-era policy that sought to convert most federal employees to at-will workers.”

In a statement, Joe Biden said, “‘My administration is announcing protections for 2.2 million career civil servants from political interference, to guarantee that they can carry out their responsibilities in the best interest of the American people’… Day in and day out, career civil servants provide the expertise and continuity necessary for our democracy to function.”

“The final rule states that an employee’s civil service protections cannot be taken away by an involuntary move from the competitive service to the excepted service; clarifies that the ’employees in confidential, policy-determining, policy-making or policy-advocating positions’ terminology used to define Schedule F employees means noncareer, political appointments and won’t be applied to career civil servants; and sets up an appeals process with the Merit Systems Protection Board for any employees involuntarily transferred from the competitive service to the excepted service and within the excepted service.”

So djt and his people could reinstate Schedule F, but implementing it would be more difficult.

Christian nationalism

Another tenet of Project 2025 is Christian nationalism. It claims that “centralized government ‘subverts’ families by working to ‘replace people’s natural loves and loyalties with unnatural ones,’ utilizing the biblical language of natural versus the unnatural.”

More specifically, “Former Trump official Jonathan Berry’s chapter on the Department of Labor states that ‘the Judeo-Christian tradition, stretching back to Genesis, has always recognized fruitful work as integral to human dignity, as service to God, neighbor, and family’ and claims that Biden’s administration is ‘hostile to people of faith.'”

As a person of faith, I trust my antipathy for Christian nationalism and Christofascism is abundantly clear.

Assassination attempt

conflicting conspiracy theories

After the assassination attempt on the now-Republican candidate, there was a fairly low bar established that suggested that one should make statements abhorring that type of violence. Joe Biden did that, even apologizing for using “bullseye” to describe how we should focus on his opponent’s record. He also called for tamping down such rhetoric in the campaign.

As the Boston Globe [likely paywall] noted, “The shooting created the ‘perfect storm of misinformation,’ said Katherine Ognyanova, an associate professor of communication at Rutgers University in New Jersey, because of the event’s significance, the lack of immediate information about the motive, and the level of polarization in America.”

It was inevitable that some people would conclude that Biden put a hit on djt. For instance, Representative Mike Collins (R-GA) wrote on X: “Joe Biden sent the orders.” Politico notes, “The court’s decision in Trump v. United States really does appear to immunize a hypothetical president who directed the military to commit murder, though a president might be hard-pressed to find someone to carry out such an order.

“In her dissent…, Justice Sonia Sotomayor painted a grim portrait of a commander-in-chief now ‘immune, immune, immune’ from criminal liability and free to exploit official presidential power against political opponents. ‘Orders the Navy’s Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival?’ she wrote. ‘Immune.’

The next Veep?

In 2016, J.D. Vance went “back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical a–hole like Nixon who wouldn’t be that bad (and might even prove useful) or that he’s America’s Hitler.” But in 2024, the once-never-Trumper who has gone full MAGA is blaming 46 for the shooting. Katherine Ognyanova in the Globe said, “If political leaders are actually fanning the fire and kind of spreading conspiratorial, violent rhetoric, that’s going to be very detrimental.” I told my wife that I thought Vance’s recent statement was disqualifying. Naturally, he was named DJT’s running mate.

Conversely, others believe the victim’s “blood was fake. The Secret Service clearly anticipated the shooting. [His]triumphant, clenched-fist pose was just a little too photogenic to be real.” Indeed, the first email I received after the shooting described that scenario.

Perhaps I lack sufficient imagination of how to pull that off, though the Secret Service’s apparent lapses feed into the conspiratorial blather.

Incidentally, the guy from Weekly Sift believes “that just about everybody, at one time or another, fantasizes about doing violence to someone who symbolizes absolute evil to them. I know I do, and I try not to feel guilty about such fantasies. As long as they stay in our heads, they’re relatively harmless indulgences.”

History

On April 11, 2016, three Presidential candidates were in downtown Albany. As I wrote here, my daughter wanted to see djt. I vetoed it, fearing the violence that had taken place towards people of color and reporters at rallies, often encouraged by the candidate from the stage. We ended up seeing Bernie Sanders, her preferred choice.

His rhetoric of violence has been constant. Most infamously, he boasted in January 2016, “‘I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK? It’s, like, incredible.” This was at a campaign stop at Dordt College, a Christian college, in Sioux Center, Iowa. Axios has a tidy, though incomplete, list of his comments in office.

The Weekly Sift guy quotes Jemele Hill: “The Republican Party in general is graded on a curve, but Trump especially. They’ve normalized his buffoonish bigotry. If you watched American news coverage, you would have no idea that Trump often threatens violence, promises to weaponize the DOJ against his ‘enemies,’ is a felon, has been found liable for rape, tried to overturn an election, and incited an insurrection, among other things.”

So, shortly before the shooting, when the NY Times calls on Republicans to reject djt ahead of the Republican National Convention, describing him as ‘dangerous’ and ‘unfit,’ 1) I totally agree with the assessment, but 2) no way it’ll happen.

As Howard W. French wrote in Foreign Policy, Biden’s Age Is a Problem. Trump’s Agenda Is a Bigger One. “I have been puzzled by the dearth of vigor shown in post-debate coverage toward a question of far greater import: Can America survive another Trump presidency? In other words, if Trump is reelected, what will remain of U.S. democracy, of civil and human rights in the country, of its economic health and its alliances, and of Washington’s prestige and influence around the world?”

Call it

Regardless, several folks have opined that djt is nearly a lock on November 5, whether Biden stays in the race or not, and I tend to concur. (America: prove me wrong. PLEASE.)

I cannot recall such adulation towards a political candidate since RFK ran for President in 1968 before he was assassinated that June. George Wallace had some of that pull, but it tended to be more regional; he was shot and seriously wounded in May 1972. Reagan had a taste of that; after he was shot in March 1981, his legislative agenda was propelled.

I’ll be voting for the Democratic nominee, whoever it is. And folks should also start concentrating on the down-ballot races. djt with a GOP House, Senate, AND SCOTUS is a terrifying thought.

Media Matters on Project 2025

I thought Americans didn’t want a king

A LOT of folks I know IRL have said, online and occasionally in person, that we all need to know more about Project 2025. I agree. My first mention was in a link in August 2023, but it bears repeating.

Check out the Media Matters website.

“The initiative is backed by a coalition of over 100 organizations and individuals, at least two-thirds of which receive funding from the Koch network or conservative philanthropist Leonard Leo. The project is also heavily promoted by MAGA-connected media figures such as Steve Bannon, who has called it the ‘blueprint’ for Trump’s second term on his War Room podcast.”

The presumptive Republican nominee claims, “I know nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it. I disagree with some of the things they’re saying, and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal. Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them.”

Or, less politely, he lies.

This is – let me think of a kind way to put this – disingenuous. Just before he went to prison for a few months, Bannon told ABC News’ Jonathan Karl that he had regularly been in touch with djt. “John McEntee, former director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office and one of Trump’s most trusted aides, is a senior adviser for the project. McEntee said in April that the Trump campaign and Project 2025 plan to ‘integrate a lot of our work’ this summer, according to the liberal watchdog Media Matters.”

Peter Navarro, Ken Cuccinelli, Stephen Moore, Christopher Miller, Roger Severino, and others who worked in his administration are all involved in Project 2025. In other words, he has implausible deniability.

A fundraising email from the Heritage Foundation also lays it on thick. “The Biden campaign has declared an all-out war on The Heritage Foundation and our Project 2025 initiative.

“The social media feeds for the campaign, and all their surrogates are filled with lies about our work. Their website even has a page dedicated to attacking Project 2025.

“They are terrified of Project 2025 because they know it will save our country from the radical Left’s destructive agenda.”

Here’s a video dispassionately explaining Project 2025, noting five criticisms of the program. It’s the type of resource that tries to be nonpartisan.

Immunity

Project 2025 is made more threatening by SCOTUS’ decision regarding immunity.

Once again, the Heritage Foundation says that Biden lied. “‘For all… practical purposes, today’s decision almost certainly means that there are virtually no limits on what a president can do,’ Biden claimed.” He also suggested “that ‘the power of the office will no longer be constrained by the law, even including the Supreme Court of the United States. The only limits will be self-imposed by the president alone.’ This accusation is objectively false.”

The prevarication belongs to the Heritage Foundation. The generally apolitical The Legal Eagle notes WE’RE F*CKED. In the description: “This is one of the worst SCOTUS decisions ever.” Trump Is Immune. He argues that djt’s “limited immunity,” in practical terms, is anything but limited.

New Civil Rights Movement: “Two hundred and three days after Special Counsel Jack Smith’s first request, the U.S. Supreme Court in a 6-3 decision along partisan lines… ruled an American President has ‘absolute‘ immunity from criminal prosecution if his actions are ‘official acts’ of Office.

Frank S. Robinson wrote in The Supreme Court, Presidential Immunity, and the Implacable Tide: “The court unnecessarily pronounced [an overly broad] doctrine of presidential immunity. Practically deeming the president above the law, saying one can’t be prosecuted for any ‘official acts’ — only for stuff done in their ‘private capacity.’ Quite a limited carve-out. Worse yet, the Court’s majority, having promulgated a standard, failed to take the next step and apply it to the facts at hand.”

The Weekly Sift guy: “Roberts and the conservative majority have embedded a time bomb in the Constitution. That bomb could sit peacefully for decades until it is disarmed by some future Court, or it could go off as soon as next January.”

Am I scared? Yes, I am. Will I vote for whoever has the best chance of beating djt in November, even if he’s 81 and arthritic? I absolutely will.

Dean Phillips was right

the debate

I’m sure he’s not gloating, but Dean Phillips was right. You don’t remember him, do you? He’s the guy who engaged in a quixotic campaign to be the Democratic nomination for President in 2023/24.

In October 2023, he wrote: “I didn’t set out to enter this race. But it looks like on our current course, the Democrats will lose and Trump will be our President again. President Biden is a good man and someone I tremendously respect. I understand why other Democrats don’t want to run against him, and why we are here. This is a last-minute campaign, but desperate times call for desperate measures, and courage is an important value to me. If President Biden is the Democratic nominee, we face an unacceptable risk of Trump being back in the White House. I know this campaign is a long shot, but that is why I think it is important and worth doing.”

Of course, his campaign went nowhere and was widely criticized among Democrats for running. I voted for him in the 2024 New York presidential primary, even though Biden had all but locked up the nomination. Heck, I voted for Elizabeth Warren in 2020 under similar circumstances. Warren, who is now 75, and Bernie Sanders, who will be 83 in September, and who I voted for in the 2016 primary, are too old in this political climate. I’ve never voted for Joe Biden in a primary, only in the 2020 general election.

JRB, Jr. v. djt

I hear there was a debate last week. The Democratic candidate didn’t fare so well. Frankly, I’m not convinced of the efficacy of debates in determining the worthiness of candidates for most political contests.

Still, it happened under rules approved by the Biden camp. Beyond the occasional lack of focus and volume, Truthout noted: Biden Offered No Alternative to Trump’s Pro-Policing Authoritarianism in Debate. “Biden did not put forth a progressive or convincing counterweight to Trump’s xenophobic and authoritarian tirades.”

djt didn’t win the debate. As is often the case, the Republican lied regularly, denying things he did and taking credit for things other presidents accomplished.

The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote: “Lost in the hand-wringing was Donald Trump’s usual bombastic litany of lies, hyperbole, bigotry, ignorance, and fear-mongering. His performance demonstrated once again that he is a danger to democracy and unfit for office. In fact, the debate about the debate is misplaced. The only person who should withdraw from the race is Trump.”

The Weekly Sift guy said, They Both Lost. Now What?

But Joe did “lose” the debate. Did cold medications affect Biden’s debate performance, as MedPage theorized? Maybe, but after a barrage of Sleepy Joe memes, it doesn’t much matter.

For some time, there have been calls for Biden to step aside for some other candidate. I don’t need to get into that discussion since so many entities including the New York Times, Joe Scarborough, Boston Globe opinion, Albany Times Union, Frank S. Robinson, and many others have stepped in.

Nearly half of registered voters who support Biden supporters wish someone else were the Democratic nominee. Gavin Newsom, governor of California said, “We gotta have the back of this president. You don’t turn your back because of one performance. What kind of party does that?”

Ezra Klein of the NYT replies: “Perhaps a party that wants to win? Or a party that wants to nominate a candidate that the American people believe is up to the job?”

Money

The donor class of the Democratic Party is particularly concerned. Newsmax writes:

“A sense of concern is growing inside the top ranks of the Democratic Party that leaders of Joe Biden’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee are not taking seriously enough the impact of the president’s troubling debate performance…

“Multiple committee members on the call… described feeling like they were being gaslighted — that they were being asked to ignore the dire nature of the party’s predicament. The call, they said, may have worsened a widespread sense of panic among elected officials, donors, and other stakeholders.”

But what I’m more interested in is how the Democrats could move from Biden/Harris. Unless Biden decides to drop out of the contest, he will be the Democratic nominee, and the wondering is moot.

If he does leave the race, Kamala Harris is the most logical person to succeed Joe. But she has nearly as many political negatives as Biden does despite the fact that I believe that they’ve done a reasonably good job in office.

She IS the White House’s lead voice as a defender of abortion rights, which may prove pivotal in November. And dumping the nation’s first Black, asian, and woman vice president from the ticket is problematic.

Michigan!

My favorite candidate, should there be an open Democratic convention, would be Gretchen Whitmer, governor of Michigan. The New York Times, in listing her as one of the likely choices:

She “has risen quickly as a national star of the Democratic Party, helped in part by Mr. Trump’s antagonizing her as “that woman from Michigan.” A two-term governor, Ms. Whitmer led a 2022 campaign that gave Democrats in the battleground state a trifecta — exercising full control of the legislature and state government — for the first time in 40 years.

“She has used that mandate to enact a laundry list of progressive policies. Her national profile also soared during the pandemic, when she was vilified by right-wing media and Republican officials for her lockdown measures. And Ms. Whitmer is a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, a top leadership position in the national party.”

Moreover, she has dealt with the nut cases from the COVID era of crazies, particularly when they try to kidnap her, and she’s come back stronger than ever, getting reelected with more than 54% of the vote in 2022.

California?

In contrast, I’m not feeling a campaign from Newsom. From the same article, “But — California. For one thing, Mr. Newsom would be saddled with explaining the problems California has had over the past decade: homelessness, high taxes, escalating housing costs.”

Ted Cruz repeatedly suggests that Michelle Obama will be the candidate. I believe her when she said that eight years in the White House is enough.

My preference for vice-president for either Harris or Whitmer would be a white guy from the current administration, Pete Buttigieg, the current transportation secretary. I think he has done a very credible job being front-facing in dealing with Boeing, the FAA, etc. He has held the airlines accountable for the bad holiday scheduling of a couple of years ago.

I can’t imagine that Democrats are going to put a gay man on the national ticket in 2024 but I think it would be a lovely idea.

June rambling: Schedule F

Donald Sutherland

**Washington Park on Willett Street between Lancaster and Streets, Albany, NY, Friday, June 21, 2024, after the storm the day before (ROG)**

djt’s Second Term: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and his Schedule F plan, explained

The Limits of Originalism (SCOTUS)

Deep-Sea Mining and UK Elections: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Europe is Healthier than the US: But it’s not about the physical (although it makes the stage more dramatic), it’s about the work/life balance. About third spaces that encourage being around people, in a way that’s deeper than a brutal transactionalism.

The US is about the individual, to a hyper degree. Everyone is so focused on being emancipated from everything, freed from any “outdated” obligations, that they end up in an empty loneliness.

The Plot Against America by Philip Roth

Why Physical Media is Having a Comeback

Bill Cobbs, Actor in ‘Night at the Museum’ and many others Dies at 90. He was one of those character actors I learned to recognize in film and episodic television.

Martin Mull, Funnyman and ‘Fernwood 2 Night’ Star, Dies at 80

The Real (Weird) Way We See Numbers

Now I Know: How Bad Film Captured an Explosion and The Nobel Prize Winner Who Bet Against Himself and The Dead Parrot Society and The Case of the Mousey Soup

Kelly’s Sunday Stealing. He is the greatest cheerleader for Pie I’ve ever known.

Alex Trebek Forever stamps

Donald Sutherland 1935 – 2024

The obituary and Hollywood tributes

I saw him in LOTS of movies: The Dirty Dozen (1967) – as a “crazed/dazed Pvt.” at the drive-in with my parents and sisters.

MAS*H (1970) – the original anti-establishment Army medic Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce; I saw it again on TV when WXXA, Channel 23, first broadcast in Albany in 1982. The station showed it on the first Sunday morning it broadcast at 8 a.m.; I thought it was a strange choice

Klute (1971) -” a private eye who falls for a prostitute (his then real-life romantic partner Jane Fonda)”

National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978) – the pot-smoking professor

Ordinary People (1980) – a friend of mine describes this movie as like his growing up with a controlling mother (the Mary Tyler Moore character) and ineffectual father (Sutherland)

Backdraft (1991) – pyromaniac; JFK (1991) – conspiracy theorist

Undoubtedly many others.

What struck me in a 2017 60 Minutes interview with Anderson Cooper was this exchange:

If there’s a slight sadness about Sutherland it may be because his childhood in Canada wasn’t easy. He survived polio as a toddler and spent all of fourth grade at home with rheumatic fever. He was an awkward kid. Tall with big ears, at school they called him Dumbo. When he was 16, he had a question for his mother.

Donald Sutherland: And I went to her and I said: “Mother, am I good looking?” And my mother looked at me and went. “Your face has character, Donald.” And I went and hid in my room for at least a day.

Anderson Cooper: Did what she say stay with you?

Donald Sutherland: Not really. Just– just for– 65, 66 years.

Donald Sutherland: It’s not easy, Anderson. It’s not easy to know that you’re an ugly man, in the business like I’m in.

Anderson Cooper: Do you think of yourself as an ugly man?

Donald Sutherland: Unattractive is a gentler way of putting it.

Ouch! I never thought that.

Kelly posted some music.

Alerts!

I’m constantly reminded that technology is fine until it’s not. When the Massachusetts 911 system went down on Tuesday, June 18, I received an alert to that effect. I do not know why. A program intended to secure the state’s system caused the firewall to stop calls from reaching dispatch centers. Or something like that.

About 15 minutes later, while I was at a book review at the library, almost everyone’s phone started buzzing. It was rather startling and worrisome. It was the New York State 911 system letting us know that OUR state’s system was NOT down.

MUSIC

I Have Nothing – Peter Sprague featuring Rebecca Jade

Licks Off Of Records – Martin Mull

Mandela’s Blues – Kinky Friedman

Favorite Songs By Favorite Artists: Grateful Dead, which reminded me of the time I saw the Jerry Garcia Band in New Paltz on November 29, 1977

Coverville 1492: The John Wetton Cover Story and 1493: Purple Rain 40th Anniversary

Had To Cry Today – Peter Sprague featuring Leonard Patton

March Of The Belgian Paratroopers by Pierre Leemans.

Star 69 – R.E.M.

Let’s Go Fly A Kite – Dick Van Dyke and Jason Alexander