Trump Dictates Platform as GOP Convention Nears

Enough with the Democrats, already. Nothing will likely change regarding their ticket until the convention. ”Wait and See” are the watchwords for would-be naysayers these days.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, Britain tossed their Tories, France tossed their “new and improved” fascists, and now it’s our turn. 

Before I turn to the new and exciting GOP platform (copies of the original written in sharpie are available for $47.95) and Project 25 (the roadmap, starting tomorrow), let’s take a gander at the latest round of international and domestic grifting.

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Former President Jair Bolsonaro, Trump’s best buddy in Brazil got caught for walking out the door of his office with $3.2 million $3.2 million in diamonds given to him and his spouse by the Saudi government.

Former President Donald Trump didn’t need Saudi diamonds; he’s seeing a much larger return for actions deflecting international pressure away from Prince Mohammed bin Salman following the murder and dismemberment of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in a Saudi consulate.

“I saved his ass,” Trump said of Mohammed, according to a book by veteran journalist Bob Woodward. “I was able to get Congress to leave him alone.”

Since leaving office the former president has benefited from Saudi-backed golf tournaments at Trump courses, inked a deal with a Saudi-financed resort complex in Oman, and most recently been paid for putting his family name on a residential skyscraper.

Via the New York Times: (h/t Marcy Wheeler)

• The Trump Organization has signed a new deal with a Saudi real estate company to build a residential high-rise tower in the city of Jeddah, extending the family’s close ties with the kingdom.

• Saudi Arabia has become one of the few reliable sources of growth for the Trump family’s business operations, as new real estate deals in the United States have slowed or stopped since the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol and since former President Donald J. Trump left the White House.

• This new deal is like other international projects the Trump family has signed over the past decade. It offers the family’s name and brand to a well-financed developer that will build the project and sell luxury resident units, it hopes at a premium, based on the marketability of the former president’s perceived star power. 

And there is the $2 billion investment in son-in-law Jared Kushner’s start-up private equity firm, drawn from a sovereign wealth fund chaired by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

It’s no wonder Marcy Wheeler posed the question:

• Isn’t it time voters learned whether the Republican candidate for President is a mere house boy for the Saudi royal family?

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At the 2024 Republican National Convention starting on July 15 in Milwaukee, the presumed candidacy of Donald J Trump will be made official. The site of the gathering was chosen in part because of Wisconsin's status as a battleground state. 

As is true with so many Trump-lican enterprises these days, hospitality businesses in Milwaukee are learning about The Grift first hand. 

Via Newsweek:

• Speaking to online publication The Recombobulation Area toward the end of June, Gary Witt, president and CEO of the Pabst Theatre Group, which runs venues in the area, said four of its sites, the Pabst Theater, Riverside Theater, the Vivarium and the Fitzgerald will likely sit empty during the convention.

• He said the RNC planning was "underwhelming" and a "failure. It's 100 percent a case of 'overpromise, underdeliver,' on all parts, by everybody," he said.

• "We were told it was going to be one way over and over and over and over again when [the RNC] was confirmed, and it has turned out to be almost anything but the way that we were told it was going to turn out," he said. "We were sold a storyline of how this is going to go, and basically it didn't go anything at all like the storyline that we were sold."

In June it was learned that Trump would be staying in a Chicago hotel and had called Milwaukee "a horrible city." The campaign disputed the hotel claim, which originated with high ranking law enforcement officials charged with planning travel routes between the two cities. 

Spokesperson Steven Cheung later tweeted that Trump's comments had been misunderstood, and that Trump was "talking about how terrible crime and voter fraud are."

Via Washington Monthly:

• The former president’s perception of Milwaukee may be shaped by the rise in homicides while he was in office. The Milwaukee murder rate nearly doubled from 2019 to 2020 in Trump’s last year in office, when the mismanaged Covid-19 pandemic led to a nationwide spike in crime.

• But it’s a different story under the Biden administration. According to data from the Milwaukee Police Department, the number of homicides dropped 20 percent last year, and is down another 17 percent so far this year.

• Other types of serious crime are also significantly down when comparing year-to-date figures from this year to 2022. Aggravated assaults are down 14 percent. Motor vehicle theft is down 36 percent. Other theft is down 25 percent.

And then there’s the matter of voter fraud in Milwaukee. There has been one conviction for fraudulently obtaining absentee ballots… of a Republican election official.

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In advance of the 2024 GOP Convention, the party’s platform committee has released a document purported to be their aims for the next presidency.

Via the Los Angeles Times:

• The document focuses on many themes, such as immigration, Trump hammers at his rallies. The platform even mirrors Trump's typical language and formatting in social media posts, with many capitalized letters, slogans such as "DRILL, BABY, DRILL" and broad promises.

• Party delegates will vote on the proposed platform at their convention, where they will also formally accept Trump as the Republican nominee for president.

Many mainstream media reports on the document have led with the claim that it “softens” the party stance on abortion. And if you’re talking about party platforms of the past 50 years, you’d be right. Until 2020, when there was no platform (aka whatever Trump wants), the GOP has called for a national ban on abortions; now it's left up to the states.

• “We believe that the 14th amendment to the constitution of the United States guarantees that no person can be denied Life or Liberty without Due Process, and that the States are, therefore, free to pass Laws protecting those Rights,” the platform said. 

Via the Guardian:

• The 20-point all-caps plan lays out an agenda to “seal the border and stop the migrant invasion” as well as continue building a border wall that Trump promised during his presidency but largely failed to deliver. The plan also called to “end inflation and make America great again”; enact tax cuts for workers with “no tax on tips” and make college campuses “safe” by deporting so-called “pro-Hamas radicals”.

• The platform repeatedly criticizes policies to empower transgender individuals and specifically their involvement in sports, promises to repeal emissions regulations on gas vehicles and to build an “Iron Dome”, referring to Israel’s anti-missile defense system.

• The Republican policy document also pledged to ensure “election integrity” with new voting restrictions, end “gender insanity” and support for trans inclusion policies, “stop woke” government and “protect free speech” online. 

The Republicans tasked with drafting the platform were rolled over, as Utah’s Gayle Ruzicka explained: 

• “It’s never happened before. I mean, I guess I’ve done this several times. There was no committees. We always had subcommittees, where we can go in and rework … a section of the platform; we can propose amendments, debate them, add them. It always happens,” said Ruzicka. “They didn’t allow any amendments. They didn’t allow any discussion.

• “They rolled us. That’s what they did.

• “You know, we spent thousands of dollars to be here, and everything they told us they were going to do isn’t what happened. None of it happened. I’ve never seen this happen before. I don’t understand why they did it. And I’m extremely disappointed that we do not have any pro-life language,” she said.

Welcome to Trump World, Gayle, where the dear leader's wishes are your commands.

Nevermind that the architects of the 20-point plan are connected to Project 2025, the plan Trump has publicly disavowed, despite it being based on the former-president’s statements.

Project 2025 language would end abortions through a thousand cuts, from retracting approval of medicines used in non-invasive procedures to enforcement of the antiquated Comstock Act. None of those actions would be carried out by state governments.

I see Project 2025 at the center of what the Republican Party has to offer should their candidate be elected. Therefore I will shift my editorial focus on that document, its  authors and implications over the next couple of weeks.

(This is not to say I’ll ignore Democrats and my other topics of interest. If I have something to say, I’ll say it.)

Look for a dissection of Project 2025, starting tomorrow.

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Tuesday’s Other News to Think About

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What do TradWives have to do with Democracy? (An excerpt from Democracy in Retrograde by Emily Amick and Sami Sage) via Jill Filipovic

• The kinds of conservative forces behind Butker and the tradwives are good at tapping into young women’s insecurities and desires in a way that those on the left are not. At the recent Turning Point USA young women’s leadership conference, sundress-bedecked “cute-servatives” flooded Barbie-pink rooms to strategize about how to win the “culture wars.” (“At home!” they all cheered in unison!) 

• Last year their leader, Alex Clark,  said that the most important thing about the conference was that she convinced women to go off birth control. This year, the stakes were bigger, better and pinker. Leading up to the event their socials were sprinkled with beautiful hand drawn pastoral scenes calling on the attendees to “embrace tradition.” The political organizations publicly posted a Valentines Day card that said “buy me chickens and tell me you don't trust the government.” 

• The Tradwife movement is more than just eye-catching images of open land, barefoot kids, chickens, and sourdough perfectly cultivated for an Instagram grid. It’s a cultural movement to influence young women to willingly check out of the workforce and give up their rights and agency.

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Tourists still flock to Death Valley amid searing US heat wave blamed for several deaths via The Associated Press

• In eastern California’s sizzling desert, a high temperature of 128 F (53.3 C) was recorded Saturday and Sunday at Death Valley National Park, where a visitor, who was not identified, died Saturday from heat exposure. Another person was hospitalized, officials said.

• They were among six motorcyclists riding through the Badwater Basin area in scorching weather, the park said in a statement. The other four were treated at the scene. Emergency medical helicopters were unable to respond because the aircraft cannot generally fly safely over 120 F (48.8 C), officials said.

• More extreme highs are in the near forecast with a high of possibly 130 F (54.4 C) around midweek.

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'Historic Victory': Ecuadorian Judge Rules Pollution Violates River's Rights via Common Dreams

• Experts have likened the section of the Machángara running through Quito to a sewer in a Paris-sized city. The river is contaminated with heavy metals, fats, detergents, oils, bacteria, fecal matter, and a wide array of chemical pollutants.

• "It is alarming what happens with the Machángara because it should be full not of bacteria and chemicals, but of animal and plant life," Blanca Ríos, an ecologist who has studied the river for 20 years, toldPrimicias on Tuesday.

• Ecuador—one of the world's most biodiverse nations—is one of just a handful of countries to enshrine rights of nature in its constitution. Previous court rulings, including a 2021 decision against mining in the Amazon Rainforest and an earlier block on dumping in the Vilcabamba River, have upheld this right.