GOP 2024 Convention in Milwaukee: Stay Awake

Or is that woke?

Monday, July 15, the Republican Party will begin its national convention in Milwaukee.

The big questions for this event are: Who will Trump choose to be Vice President on the GOP ticket? Can convention organizers keep news coverage interesting without giving exposure to the really-out-there-nutjobs in the party?

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Note to Readers: My dissection of Project 2025 will resume on Monday with commentary about the section dealing with organization, priorities, and strategic aims of the Department of Defense and each of the military services. Issues relating to foreign policy come at a later point in the handbook. 

On Wednesday, I tackled the overall thrust of the report, along with its point of view about organization in the White House. On Thursday, I focused on Project 2025 plans for the rest of the federal workforce. (Policy issues will be addressed as they appear in Project 2025’s guiding document.)

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The Basics
There will be daily themes for the roughly 50,000 people cycling through the event that organizers hope will focus attention on issues and reinforce the mythology used to frame Trumpist viewpoints. (And give the media something to report) 

In addition to the political maneuvering, party conventions are also kind of like trade shows with assorted groups jockeying to sell their wares. In practical terms, this is where the real action lies, as networking and coalition building takes place outside the view of cameras and reporters.

Monday: Make America Wealthy Again.
The largely imagined economic successes of the first Trump administration will be touted. Republicans are able to juke statistics in making these assertions by simply ignoring the impacts of the pandemic, both at the end of the Trump administration and the beginning of the Biden administration. In a nutshell…

• The second Trump administration will turn the page on the mindless “Bidenomics” agenda and usher in a new age of prosperity.  

Tuesday: Make America Safe Once Again
Campaign fear mongering themes about rising crime and immigration will be spewed from the dias. Expect horror stories about cartels unspeakable crimes aimed at women and children (and maybe police), along with previews for yet another War on Drugs.

• President Donald J. Trump will stand up for our law enforcement and put an end to the senseless crime spree and drug flow that plague America.

Wednesday: Make America Strong Once Again
(Plus Vice President selection announced) First son Donald Trump, Jr will speak just prior to the Veep announcement. Given that he’s articulated a preference for Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, I suspect this will be a warm up speech.
It’s hard to tell in advance whether bashing US allies or uplifting like-minded authoritarians will rule the day. Somebody should tell the Biden administration how weak our armed forces are thanks to radical Marxist woke ideological programs.

• President Donald J. Trump will secure our borders, curb Chinese and Iranian threats, and restore America’s rightful standing on the world stage. 

Thursday: Make America Great Once Again
The celebration of their candidates’ rise from the ashes will be magnificent. Dear Leader will speak. The assembled masses will cheer.

• Americans will once again have reason to harbor hope and optimism for the future of our country. President Trump will Make America Great Once Again! 

BIG News! Melania Trump will emerge from hiding to attend the convention. 

But wait! There’s more! Via The Independent:

• The agenda will include formal policy sessions, meetings of the individual state delegations and events sponsored by organizations promoting various conservative causes, from Moms for Liberty and the American Jewish Committee to the Heritage Foundation, whose controversial Project 2025 proposal has sparked uproar in recent weeks.

• There will also be film screenings, including the biopic Reagan starring Dennis Quaid,Theocracy of Terror: Murder, Oppression and the Rise of Iran’s Political Regime and Trump’s Rescue Mission: Saving America.

Why Milwaukee?
Milwaukee leaders promised their city would be “turnkey” ready to host a convention, thanks to the 2020 Democratic National Convention being moved online due to the pandemic. Wisconsin is also a crucial swing state, and Republicans have consistently chosen swing states to host in recent years.

Prepare for plenty of California bashing.
Let’s face it, the Golden State symbolizes everything GOP voters have been told to hate. You can say “California” in connection with “woke” and never use distasteful words describing the world’s majority population and those unfaithful to the one and only True God–who is using the GOP to organize the rapture. 

Pesky Protesters Be Gone!
The Secret Service took charge of designing the security plan, announced in June. There will be two platforms for speakers and a “parade route,” with specifically designated sections for protesters within the outer perimeter area. 

The ACLU, representing The Coalition to March on the RNC, sued the city, saying the plans infringed on protesters First Amendment rights. Their updated protest parade map is larger and closer to the prohibited zones  than the officially designated parade route. 

The march and rally are scheduled to take place on Monday July 15. Organizers say the “family friendly” events will include more than 25 medics, 100 marshals, and observers from the National Lawyers Guild. 

The Coalition to March on the RNC is organized around points of unity, to wit:

• Fight the racist and reactionary agenda of the Republican Party.

• Defend women's, LGBTQ, and reproductive rights.

• Defend and expand immigrant rights.

• Peace, justice, and equity for all.

• Stand with Palestine

Last year, the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission approved a suspension of the city’s 15-day policy for the release of bodycam footage, starting just before the GOP convention. (Perhaps one of the networks will arrange live coverage of protesters being beaten.)

What about the Democrats?
Trust me, anything drawing attention away from the debate over the abilities of their candidate will be a relief. 

Via NBC News:

• The Democratic National Committee and the Biden campaign say they are planning a six-figure paid visibility effort in Milwaukee during the RNC, with daily news conferences featuring Democratic surrogates and advertising around the city blasting Trump and the governing blueprint put forward by conservative allies.

• The Biden campaign has seized on Project 2025, a policy document produced by the Heritage Foundation, more intensely in the past week, with advisers insisting that as voters learn more, it will translate into support for Democrats up and down the ballot.

Brought to you by…Project 2025
As delegates to the GOP exit terminals at Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport, they won’t miss the messaging plastered about by the Heritage Foundation, facilitators of Project 2025.

Hamas, Antifa-BLM, and the FBI, oh my!
The Washington Post ran a feature about the Heritage Foundation-sponsored election War Games. designed to justify preemptive measures in the November elections.

• Barbra Streisand kidnapped by Hamas. Antifa-BLM protesters taking over a migrant detention facility. The FBI arresting Donald Trump two days after winning the election.

• These were among the far-fetched scenarios imagined by a simulation of threats to the 2024 election showcased on Thursday by the right-wing Heritage Foundation. The presentation, delivered at the foundation’s Washington headquarters, stated as a given that the Biden administration was already engaged in a sweeping conspiracy to use multiple forms of federal power to influence the presidential election. It did not supply any evidence.

• “As things stand right now, there’s a zero percent chance of a free and fair election,” said Mike Howell, executive director of Heritage’s Oversight Project. “I’m formally accusing the Biden administration of creating the conditions that most reasonable policymakers and officials cannot in good conscience certify an election.”

What About the Platform?
Meh, it’s a slightly toned down and less wordy reflection of the policy ideas enunciated in Project 2025. If you’re interested in a quick run down of its bad news, check out Timothy Noah's assessment at The New Republic.

• The worst of Donald Trump’s first term was felt by immigrants. Looking over the 2024 Republican platform, which was more or less dictated by Trump and his team (down to its Weird use of Capital Letters), I can state with confidence that the worst of Trump’s second term, if there is one, will once again be felt by immigrants. That is, I’m sorry to report, a selling point for many voters; according to Gallup, fully 41 percent of the population wants immigration to decrease, against 26 percent who want it to increase and 31 percent who want it to stay at the same level. Border crossings are at record levels, and so too is anti-immigration sentiment. Opposition to immigration is higher than it’s been in 10 years (though it’s still low compared to the mid-1990s, the previous high for border crossings, when the proportion that wanted immigration to decrease exceeded 60 percent).

• The GOP instinct here is to pander. Its 2024 platform pledges to “complete the Border Wall,” though Republicans no longer pretend that Mexico will foot the bill, as Trump promised in 2016. (Trump spent 15 billion taxpayer dollars on the wall during his first term.) Trump now claims, falsely, that he said only that Mexico would pay for “a piece” of the wall, and that Mexico’s deployment of troops to intercept migrants met that requirement, which it did not.

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Friday Finds in the News World

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This is why we cannot let The Quiet New Deal stay so quiet via LOL GOP

• What do 11 down-on-their-luck factories being retrofitted to build EVs have in common with overdue raises for four million salaried workers or a billion dollars clawed back from millionaire tax cheats?

• Well, all three are good news from the Biden Administration. They all haven’t made much news, especially compared to the cosmic revelation that Joe Biden is 81. And they’re all part of the Quiet New Deal.

• You may recall that the Quiet New Deal is our attempt to explain the subtly radical way Joe Biden has reshaped government in favor of the people, to explain the administration’s accomplishments and what they will continue to accomplish in a second term. It’s also a direct alternative to Project 2025, the Christian Nationalist plan to replace the government with fascist lackeys who only service corporate and fundamentalist oligarchs.

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Would Kamala Harris Have a Better Chance than Biden? Via Dan Pfeiffer at Message Box

• This is all guesswork, but a few things are clear. Despite some stumbles early in the Administration, she is a very good communicator and certainly a much better one than Biden. She delivers her message crisply and coherently and can maintain the vigorous campaign schedule of a presidential candidate. She would have mopped the floor with Trump in that debate. Harris is more in tune with popular culture and with younger voters. Perhaps most importantly, at 59 years old, she could turn the age question on the 78-year-old, fast food-hoovering guy on the other side. Voters have been literally screaming for an option other than Trump, and Harris's candidacy gives them exactly that.

• Kamala Harris’s candidacy would also come with a few concerns. First, her 2020 presidential campaign was a slow-moving disaster. She started as a frontrunner with resources and momentum and didn’t even make it to the Iowa Caucus. Second, Harris would function as the incumbent at a time of global anti-incumbent sentiment. She would be forced to defend every element of the Biden record, and the effort to separate herself or chart a different course would be difficult. Finally, several commentators brought up the question of whether America is ready to elect a woman of color President. That is an impossible question to answer based on polling. Racism and misogyny run deep in this country’s politics, but people raised similar questions about Barack Obama’s candidacy.

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Fighting back against corporate investors buying up San Diego's homes via CBS8News:

• County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer calls San Diego "ground zero" for this growing trend of giant financial corporations buying up residential homes.

• It's a trend that she says is forecast to increase ten-fold by the end of this decade.

• "It's hurting first-time home buyers, it's hurting renters," said Lawson-Remer, vice-chair of the Board of Supervisors, adding that as more and more corporate investors snap up available homes using cash, San Diego's already limited housing inventory is depleted even more, driving *down* availability and driving *up*  prices...