Would You Buy a Used Government from These Hucksters?
A few developments worth noting, and then I’m away from the Words & Deeds HQ for the day…
If you’ve been so unlucky to catch a whiff of Donald Trump’s campaign declarations lately, you’ll have realized his idea for winning heading into Super Tuesday is an emphasis on how America’s gone to shit.
The former president’s promises are getting uglier, and just to make sure there’s no misunderstanding, he sent Stephen Miller over to Fox News.
Here’s what Team Orange is promising, via the Atlantic’s Ronald Brownsein:
Stephen Miller on the Trump deportation plan: "So you build these facilities where then you're able to say, you know, hypothetically, three times a day are the flights back to Mexico. Two times a day are the flights back to the Northern Triangle, right.
Miller: "On Monday and Friday are the flights back to different African countries, right. On Thursday & Sunday are the flights back to different Asian countries. So you create this efficiency by having these standing facilities where planes are moving off the runway constantly"
Miller: "Then in terms of personnel, you go to the red state governors and you say, give us your National Guard. We will deputize them as immigration enforcement officers. They know their states, they know their communities, they know their cities."
"The Alabama National Guard is going to arrest illegal aliens in Alabama and the Virginia National Guard in Virginia. And if you're going to go into an unfriendly state like Maryland, well, there would just be VA doing the arrest in Maryland, right, very close, very nearby"
And if you haven’t heard about Trump’s promises to defang NATO, well let’s just say it will be good times for bad leaders of autocratic states.
The quote below from one of Politico’s newsletters provides an example of, even when media reports on Trumpian rants, they irresponsibly buy into the Big Lie behind it.
Trump doubled down on most of his comments at a rally in South Carolina last night, saying “I’m not going to protect you” if NATO members don’t meet spending requirements, per Meridith McGraw
NEWSFLASH: There are no dues or defense spending requirements for membership in NATO. There is an understanding that spending 2% of a country’s gross national product on defense is desirable. The countries don’t pay anything to NATO for defense. Trump & Co. have been pushing this lie for years.If you want to know what countries already spend that percentage, look at a map. If they share a border with Russia, they’re spending more.
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Now that Republicans in the House have impeached Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas for allegedly not doing his job –anybody see the irony here?--, Trump has renewed calls for his congressional minions to impeach President Biden.
From the Washington Post:
The Trump campaign is pursuing a strategy of trying to blunt the charges against the former president by leveling similar accusations against Biden. Trump has also described Biden’s impeachment as a way to get even for his two impeachments.
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Speaking of people not doing their jobs, House Speaker Mike Johnson has sent his members home for two weeks. Which means the military spending bill (Israel, Ukraine, Taiwan) passed by the Senate won’t be considered.
And, hey, guess what? There’s another government funding bill to be considered by March 1. It looks like the Speaker has already conceded that Democrats will be needed to bail him out.
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Much has been made about comedian Jon Stewart’s return to the Daily Show, in particular his inane both sides isms about Trump and Biden. “Hey, he’s a comedian” is what some people are saying in his defense.
Nope, says Bob Cesca at The Banter:
He ultimately lost me near the end of the segment when he said: "If your guy loses, bad things might happen, but the country is not over."
I couldn’t believe what I had heard. Surely, he and his writers have read the, you know, news and are up to speed with what’ll happen if Trump wins. Let’s do the list, and you can tell me whether the country is over if the clown dictator shoehorns his ponderous bulk back into the White House… (list of ‘promises’ follows)...
…Now tell me that this doesn’t describe the end of the United States as we know it. I won’t even get into the secession fever that seems to be sweeping some of the reddest states.
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Lest you think today's musings are all about Trump, let’s take a gander at the campaign of RFK Jr, wherein the campaign manager (the candidate’s daughter-in-law) hired her nanny as chief of staff.
If you needed any further proof that this campaign is a billionaire-sponsored grift...
via Mediaite:
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign is in disarray amid an exodus of campaign workers who say disorganization, lavish spending, amateurish leadership, and a severe disconnect between the campaign and the candidate’s values have led the long-shot bid for the presidency astray.
Fourteen members of Kennedy24 have resigned since the start of the year, including 12 field staff and two main staff, according to multiple sources who spoke with Mediaite on the condition of anonymity. One source close to the campaign pinned the turmoil on two leaders: Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, campaign manager and Kennedy’s daughter-in-law, and Del Bigtree, an anti-vaccine activist who serves as the campaign’s communications director.
Lead image via Meidas Touch News
