Monday Reads: #MAGAtrocity Edition

“The Emperor has spoken, John Buss, @Repeat1968

Good Day, Sky Dancers!

The outrageous speech given by Trump in Dayton, Ohio, over the weekend, has grabbed the attention of the media. Despite Republican damage control, few believe that his use of the term “bloodbath” meant anything but calling the deplorables back to riot and insurgency if he doesn’t get his way. He has a lot of bad news this week, so be prepared for more rhetorical evil like this. Aaron Blake writes this at the Washington Post. “‘Bloodbath’ aside, Trump’s violent rhetoric is unambiguous. Trump has already warned of “riots,” “violence in the streets” and “death & destruction” if he’s wronged. All of that context is vital.”

In an interview with Donald Trump that aired over the weekend, Fox News host Howard Kurtz presented Trump with a not-exactly-novel theory: that Trump uses “over the top, sometimes inflammatory language” to draw attention.

Trump conceded that “if you don’t use certain words, that maybe are not very nice words, nothing will happen.”

The weekend provided ample evidence of that dynamic, particularly whenTrump invited yet another tempest with his violent rhetoric. This time, he warned of a “bloodbath” if he loses in November. Trump’s allies claim he’s being taken out of context and unfairly attacked.

To recap: Appearing at a rally in Ohio, Trump riffed on his proposal for a 100 percent tariff on Chinese-made cars to protect the U.S. auto industry.

“Now, if I don’t get elected,” he continued, “it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole — that’s going to be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country.”

Here’s what we can say: Trump might indeed have been speaking metaphorically in this case. But the broader context here is vital. And that context is that Trump has repeatedly invoked the prospect of actual violence by his supporters while speaking about similar circumstances — his losing or facing criminal accountability, for example. We also saw a pronounced example of his supporters seizing on his rhetoric when they stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Which makes it much more difficult to dismiss the “bloodbath” comment as overheated rhetoric. Trump is, at the very least, deliberately playing with fire. And this is merely the most recent example.

Trump backers and even some conservative Trump critics dismissed the comment as, more or less, standard-issue political rhetoric. Some suggested that Trump was merely talking about a “bloodbath” for the auto industry (even though he was clearly saying the “bloodbath” would extend beyond that industry).

I have no idea why anyone would give him any wiggle room on this unless they are scared of his rabid and well-armed idiots. We see more of his usual contempt for law and democracy in a new headline today in The Guardian. “Trump calls for Liz Cheney to be jailed for investigating him over Capitol attack. “Adam Gabbat reports the story.

Donald Trump has renewed calls for Liz Cheney – his most prominent Republican critic – to be jailed for her role in investigating his actions during the January 6 Capitol attack launched by his supporters in 2021, a move that is bound to raise further fears that the former president could persecute his political opponents if given another White House term.

In posts on Sunday on his Truth Social platform, Trump said other members of the congressional committee that investigated the Capitol attack – and concluded he had plotted to overturn his 2020 electoral defeat to Joe Biden – should be imprisoned.

Those statements followed Trump’s previous comments that he would act like a “dictator” on the first day of a second presidency if given one by voters.

Cheney, who served as vice-chair of the January 6 committee and was one of two Republicans on the panel, lost her seat in the House of Representatives to a Trump-backed challenger, Harriet Hageman, in 2022. She responded later on Sunday, saying her fellow Republican Trump was “afraid of the truth”.

Trump has been charged with four felonies in relation to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, including conspiracy to defraud the United States. The US supreme court is considering Trump’s claim that he has absolute immunity from prosecution in the case because he served as president from 2017 to 2021.

Elizabeth Crisp of The Hill reports on what one Trump primary challenger has faced recently. “Hutchinson says decision not to endorse Trump’ costly and difficult’.”

Hutchinson says in the piece that he voted for Trump twice, but that insight gleaned from former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wy.) and the Department of Justice on the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol changed his mind.

“In terms of history, we all witnessed the violent attack on our national Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, by those wishing to overturn the last election,” he writes. “This was not an act of patriots as Trump likes to say, but it was a real threat to democracy.”

Nearly 400 people have been charged with assaulting, resisting or impeding officers or employees during the riot, including more than 100 people who have been charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer.

“With Donald Trump’s domination of the GOP primaries and the elimination of all primary opponents, including the party leadership and Republican elected officials are clicking their heels in obedience to the victor and presumptive nominee. I have not endorsed Donald Trump for president, and I will not do so,” he writes.

I know what friends in other countries are saying about us and Trump’s befuddled lies and ugliness. They can’t believe we would let this happen, and I can’t either. Another headline in today’s Washington Post lets us know that we cannot ignore the Trump push to replace democracy with a MAGAtrocity. “Pro-Trump disruptions in Arizona county elevate fears for the 2024 vote. A meeting in the state’s largest county, Maricopa, ended chaotically last month, raising concern that the former president’s supporters could try to undercut the election.” They’re trying to make our elections mirror those of Putin.

As the board of supervisors for Arizona’s largest county abruptly ended a meeting late last month, a swarm of people rushed toward the dais, shouting that the members were illegitimate.

The Maricopa County leaders made a beeline for a side door and were swiftly escorted out of the chamber by security guards, who called for backup from the sheriff’s office. After the meeting’s live-feed went dead, a member of the crowd yelled that a “revolution” was underway.

“I’m here today to put you on public notice and to inform you that you are not our elected officials,” said Michelle Klann, co-founder of a pro-Trump group, from a podium she had commandeered. “This is an act of insurrection. Due to all the voter fraud, you have never been formally voted in.”

The scene at the Feb. 28 meeting terrified many Maricopa employees and others who were reminded of what happened after Joe Biden won the county — and, with it, Arizona — in the 2020 presidential race. Back then,Trump supporters used baseless fraud claims to try to pressure or scare elected leaders into changing the results for the metro Phoenix county, which is home to more than half of Arizona’s residents.

Louisiana has become the latest state to be taken over by White Christian Fascists. Big John Stanton writes about the latest shady moves through special sessions that throw our state back into the Dark Ages. “One Landry to Bind Them All: Under the watchful eye of Gov. Jeff Landry, Republicans push a regressive legislative agenda.”

The regular session of the state legislature has only just begun, but Republicans have already notched scores of key legislative victories thanks to two special sessions and a series of executive orders remaking the state government in Gov. Jeff Landry’s image.

The breakneck pace at which Republicans have dismantled the modest criminal justice reforms of the past decade has been nothing short of breathtaking. In less than two weeks last month, they not only undid decades of hard work to modernize the state’s justice system but instituted new punitive policies, including eliminating parole and authorizing new, inhumane forms of capital punishment.

And they’re not done. Lawmakers are proposing a number of additional criminal justice bills increasing prison sentences for some convictions to legalizing vehicular homicides under certain circumstances.

But those changes during the second special session are likely only the beginning of a broad push to impose a host of often cruel conservative policy positions. Lawmakers in the House and Senate are once again targeting the LGBTQ community — particularly transgender and gender nonconforming people — with a series of bills legislating their very identities.

Republicans and business interests also are gunning for what remains of Louisiana’s already weak labor protections, ranging from eliminating key child labor rules to banning public sector unions.

The rights of young people are also under assault in a host of areas, including proposals to require the Ten Commandments be posted in public schools, ban their ability to freely use social media, limit the types of books they can find in libraries and further restrict their ability to make health care decisions.

Even bar owners find themselves in the GOP’s sights this year, with bills to raise the age of bartenders, make concealed carry legal in their establishments and even put them on the hook for liability if someone underage is served and is involved in a DUI.

His latest move on education is frightening. It adds to the data that we live in a police state here.

States that adopt the MAGAtrocity agenda move back to the Dark Ages Quickly.

Our state and city have been hemorrhaging the population since 2015.   Most of this is due to the anti-Economic growth policies of Republicans and their absolute denial of the impact of climate change while subsidizing the oil and gas industry.

What she’s saying: “Our recent policies are not supporting population gain,” Data Center chief demographer Allison Plyer told NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune.

• At issue is a confluence of short- and long-term factors, like affordability, education opportunities, hurricanes and health outcomes.

Will this movement continue even after Trump has left the building? His lawsuits are mostly delayed, but the impact becomes obvious, starting with the total takeover of the RNC. This headline from NBC News is an omen of things to come. “Trump has been unable to get bond for $464 million judgment, his lawyers say. In a filing to an appeals court, Trump’s attorneys said getting the bond needed to halt proceedings while they appeal is a “practical impossibility.” I guess everyone believes that the value of his assets is incredibly inflated and illiquid.

Former President Donald Trump has not been able to get a bond to secure the $464 million civil fraud judgment against him, his lawyers said in a court filing Monday.

Trump and his company need to post a bond for the full amount by next week in order to stop New York Attorney General Letitia James from being able to collect while he appeals. They’ve asked an appeals court to step in in the meantime and said Monday that they have not had any success getting a bond.

“Defendants’ ongoing diligent efforts have proven that a bond in the judgment’s full amount is ‘a practical impossibility,'” the filing said. “These diligent efforts have included approaching about 30 surety companies through 4 separate brokers.”

Their efforts, including “countless hours negotiating with one of the largest insurance companies in the world,” have proven that “obtaining an appeal bond in the full amount” of the judgment “is not possible under the circumstances presented,” the filing said.

The other bond companies will not “accept hard assets such as real estate as collateral,” but “will only accept cash or cash equivalents (such as marketable securities),” the filing said. The lawyers also noted those companies typically “require collateral of approximately 120% of the amount of the judgment” — which would total about $557 million.

“In addition, sureties would likely charge bond premiums of approximately 2 percent per year with two years in advance—an upfront cost over $18 million,” the filing said. That $18 million would not be recoverable even if Trump wins his appeal.

Karma is a bitch, Don the Con! #TrumpIsBroke is trending on X.  Susan B Glasser continues her narrative on how to cover this pariah of a politician in a system and media set-up that just doesn’t seem to get it. “Susan Glasser Slams ABC Panel: Take Trump’s Words As Fact. The New Yorker reporter reminded her panel members that Trump is “peddling an alternate reality vision of America that is built on lies.” I wrote about her article on Monday. This is from Crooks & Liars.

Susan Glasser wrote a comprehensive article in the New Yorker highlighting the Traitor Trump’s reworking and rebuilding a whole new edifice of lies for 2024.

Glasser joined ABC’s This Week and, during a panel discussion, laid out the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about Trump’s words and lies.

“Yes. I mean, look, Donald Trump, it seems to me, it’s very hard, eight years into this, we still struggle with how to cover him as journalists. But in a way, the unhinged, rambling rants that you see from the former president of United States are baked in. And I think in a way, we are all desensitized and endured to the extraordinarily remarkable and very at times un-American and threatening things that the former president is saying.

I’m not saying it’s easy to understand how to cover it. I think we have to cover it when the former president, who’s already incited violence among his followers, says that there’s going to be a bloodbath. What? After the election, if he does not win, he is telling us what he is going to do.”

Too many journalists and his right-wing allies ignore Trump’s violent rhetoric and Hitler-like catcalls and instead sugarcoat and re-imagine what he’s actually saying.

After two other talking heads downplayed Trump’s behavior, and tried to pretend “we don’t know what a second Trump administration will be like,” Glasser came back with even more fire in her belly.

“I’m sorry, I just have to say something. Like Donald Trump is attacking, in a broad-brush sense, the basic pillars of American democracy, period, full stop. If that’s not news to you. It’s not about tariffs. That’s not the reason why millions of Americans are supporting Donald Trump. Let’s be real about that. You have a Republican congressman who came on here today, and he can’t even condemn in forthright, straightforward, honest terms, that ransacking of the United States Capitol by thousands of Trump supporters.

He says, well, you know, maybe there’s some problems with that. Donald Trump opens his campaign rally, Sarah, by saying, these are martyrs. These are victims. These are heroes. His whole campaign now is being built around an alternate reality, by the way, constructed on an enormous number of lie after lie after lie. That’s what he’s peddling to the American people. Not tariff policy. He’s peddling an alternate reality vision of America that is built on lies.”

No one should sit this election out. No one should make up excuses for what’s going on or shake off the danger. I left the Republican Party 30 years ago because it left me and it left well-researched effective policies in the trash heap. Liz Cheney is the only one who makes sense these days and look what is happening to her. My sister bailed in 2015 and did what I did then. Register as an independent if you have to and vote like your entire life depends on it because it does. Also, purity progressives need to drop the whining and suck up and vote like adults. We’re all in this. Not one of us will have an input into policy decisions if Trump gets back in. He didn’t casually mention detention camps; they’re suitable for many more people than you’d like to think.

What’s on your reading and blogging list today?