Wednesday, July 24, 2024

Trump posts letter from Palestinian leader ahead of Netanyahu meeting

 https://www.axios.com/2024/07/24/trump-palestinian-leader-letter-netanyahu-meeting-peace

But in April 2021 Trump told me his conclusion from four years of working on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process was that Abbas wanted peace, while Netanyahu didn't.

"I thought he was terrific," Trump told me of Abbas, reflecting on their "great" first meeting. "He was almost like a father. Couldn't have been nicer. I thought he wanted to make a deal more than Netanyahu."

Suddenly Trump Looks Older and More Deranged

 https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/07/trump-looks-older-and-more-deranged/679186/

Whatever happens next, the frame has altered. Now it is the Republicans who are saddled with the elderly candidate, the one who can’t make a clear argument or finish a sentence without veering off into anecdote. Now the Democrats are instead proposing something new. Now it is the many pundits who were already bored by the race and ready to wrap it up who look foolish.

Elon Musk Backs Away From Reports He’s Donating Huge Sums to Trump

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/elon-musk-backs-away-from-reports-hes-donating-huge-sums-to-trump

Elon Musk is backing away from reports that suggest he was set to donate huge sums of money to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, saying in a podcast interview this week that his plan to “commit” tens of millions of dollars to the former president—first reported by The Wall Street Journal—was “simply not true.” He added: “I am not donating $45 million a month to Trump.” 

Monday, July 22, 2024

She Sucked Up to Trump but He Dropped Her Anyway

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/elise-stefanik-sucked-up-to-trump-but-he-dropped-her-anyway

It’s got to hurt to be Congresswoman Elise Stefanik right now. Lots of women have been there on some level—proven their loyalty time and time again to the company, only to get passed over for the promotion by a less-qualified man. And boy is J.D. Vance ever less qualified. Just for funsies (and like Rep. Stefanik probably does every night before she goes to sleep now) let’s compare resumes.

Sunday, July 21, 2024

Project 2025 shreds American values

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/07/19/larry-hogan-project-2025-trump-abortion/

On the left, the refusal by some to clearly stand up to radicals such as antisemitic and pro-Hamas protesters, advocates of defunding the police, and the open-borders movement has done substantial damage. However, on the right, there is no clearer example of the threat to American values than Project 2025.

Trump makes more than 20 false claims in RNC acceptance speech

 https://edition.cnn.com/2024/07/18/politics/fact-checking-night-4-republican-national-convention-trump/index.html

Former President Donald Trump repeated his claim that President Joe Biden wants to hike people’s taxes by four times.

This is false, just as it was when Trump made the same claim during the 2020 election campaign and in early 2024. 

Biden has not proposed quadrupling Americans’ taxes, and there has never been any indication that he is seeking to do so. The nonpartisan Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center think tank, which analyzed Biden’s never-implemented budget proposals for fiscal 2024, found this: “His plan would raise average after-tax incomes for low-income households in 2024, leave them effectively unchanged for middle-income households, and lower after-tax incomes significantly for the highest-income taxpayers.”

Saturday, July 20, 2024

Biden hits Trump over RNC speech: ‘What the hell was he talking about?’

 https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4783241-joe-biden-donald-trump-republican-national-convention-speech-2024/

President Biden took to social media Friday evening to blast former President Trump over the speech he gave while accepting the GOP presidential nomination at the final night of the Republican National Convention (RNC).

“I’m stuck at home with COVID, so I had the distinct misfortune of watching Donald Trump’s speech to the RNC,” Biden posted on social media platform X. “What the hell was he talking about?”

Professor Who Accurately Predicted Past Elections Says 'Biden Can Win'

 https://www.newsweek.com/allan-lichtman-accurately-predicted-elections-joe-biden-can-win-1927988

Allan Lichtman, a history professor at American University who has accurately predicted past elections, said in an op-ed on Saturday that President Joe "Biden can win" against former President Donald Trump in this year's presidential election.

Wednesday, July 17, 2024

Fact-checking night 2 of the Republican National Convention

 https://edition.cnn.com/2024/07/16/politics/fact-check-night-2-republican-national-convention/index.html

Facts First: Johnson’s claims about dramatic increases in violence and crime are false, as is the convention video’s claim that there is a problem “everywhere” with “rising crime.” Official data published by the FBI shows violent crime dropped significantly in the US in 2023 and in the first quarter of 2024, though there were increases in some communities; violent crime is now lower than it was in 2020, President Donald Trump’s last calendar year in office.

Stefanik’s claim of a “violent crime crisis” under Biden is subjective, but she certainly did not acknowledge that the current numbers under Biden are superior to final Trump-era numbers.

Kamala Harris did not call Joe Biden a racist on the debate stage

 https://apnews.com/article/fact-checking-9244041620

CLAIM: California Sen. Kamala Harris called former Vice President Joe Biden a racist when they were facing off as potential Democratic candidates for president in 2019.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. Harris criticized Biden on certain topics related to race during a debate in June 2019, but she prefaced those remarks with “I do not believe you are a racist.”

Donald Trump's Chances of Winning Election Are Declining

 https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-polling-data-five-thirty-eight-1926226

Donald Trump's chances of winning the November 2024 presidential election are declining, according to a new aggregation of polls.

FiveThirtyEight's poll tracker, which was originally published on July 8 and updated on July 16, shows Joe Biden with a 53 percent chance of winning the election, while Trump has a 46 percent chance.

According to the tracker, Biden is favored to win in 534 out of 1,000 of FiveThirtyEight's simulations of how the election could go, while Trump wins in 462. The poll also shows that the simulations indicate that Biden is on track for a three-point win.

Republicans sell their souls for power

Historian who predicted 9 of the last 10 election results says Democrats shouldn't drop Joe Biden

 https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/06/30/lichtman-dems-replace-biden/74260967007/

Allan Lichtman, the historian who has correctly forecast the results of nine out of the 10 most recent presidential elections argued on Saturday that replacing President Joe Biden could cost Democrats the 2024 election.  

Lichtman, a professor at American University, rejected the growing chorus of political pundits and Democratic activists who have called on Biden, 81, to bow out of the presidential race after his disastrous debate performance last week against former President Donald Trump. The pivotal moment brought fresh questions about Biden’s age and ability to serve a second term.

“It’s a huge mistake. They're not doctors. They don't know whether Biden is physically capable of carrying out a second term or not,” Lichtman said during an interview with CNN of calls to replace Biden. “This is all foolhardy nonsense.” 

Tuesday, July 16, 2024

Judge Cannon goes another step too far

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/07/15/trump-documents-cannon-dismiss-case/

The courts have blessed the tradition, pointing to the 19th-century statute that authorizes the attorney general to “appoint officials … to detect and prosecute crimes against the United States.” The Supreme Court cited the code in U.S. v. Nixon after Watergate; the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit confirmed the same thinking in a case about the Iran-contra independent counsel; the D.C. Circuit said in 2019, pursuant to the appointment of Robert S. Mueller III, that “binding precedent” settled the debate. Judge Cannon, meanwhile, looked not to precedent at all. Her only reference was Justice Clarence Thomas’s recent concurring opinion in a Trump immunity case — in which no other justice joined.