Politics

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/11799933

mirror link to the video clip

Khan has been at the forefront of the Biden administration's push to use U.S. antitrust law to boost competition and address high prices and low wages. Khan, who oversaw the FTC's ban on noncompete agreements, has drawn the ire of corporate groups, but won fans including Donald Trump's running mate, JD Vance, for her skepticism towards big business.

Now, big money Democratic donors this week publicly said Khan should not be part of a potential Harris administration.

Prominent Democratic senators have spoken out in support of Khan, including senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Warren said on Friday that Khan should continue her work, calling it "a big reason the economy is growing strong as we saw with yesterday's GDP data."

-- or as Matt Stoller puts it in his 'BIG' (regarding one of the two, Hoffman):

Ok, so it’s pretty stunning for an oligarch like Hoffman, with a net worth of a couple billion dollars, to publicly make such a demand. So why is he doing it? One reason is that there’s a lot of money involved. As the Lever reported, Hoffman is on the board of Microsoft, which is right now being sued and investigated by the FTC. It’s a pretty good gig, if you get to fire the law enforcer investigating your misdeeds.

and thinks it likely that:

he’s going to supply the financing for Harris’ campaign if she does what she’s told.

In other words, democracy really is on the ballot, but not in the way people imagine. An oligarch has explicitly and openly taken over policy because it conflicts with his small faction’s control of American society. And so far, most political leaders are silent.

The only upside here is that Hoffman is being very public, aggressive, and explicit about his demands. And he’s going to corner Harris until she kisses the ring, or refuses to do so. From his perspective, he’s not donating $10 million, he’s making a purchase. Or so he thinks. Now it’s up to Harris to make the choice.

Archive version: https://web.archive.org/web/20240726142307/https://www.rawstory.com/jd-vance-dolphin-search-history/

It has been so great to see how horrible Vance is as a VP pick. I would hazard a guess that nobody else would say yes to Trump after he was willing to sacrifice Pence.

Archived link

SiriusXM Progress host Michelangelo Signorile is questioning Donald Trump's "cognitive decline" after he appears to have forgotten a potential nominee for Treasury Secretary.

Trump spoke with Bloomberg earlier this month and agreed that JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon could be a potential candidate for the position.

The reporter at Bloomberg asked the question twice whether Dimon would be a candidate for Treasury Secretary, and Trump said that "he is somebody that I would consider, sure."

"He [Dimon] was at the [GOP] meeting."

In a post on Truth Social this week, Trump denied he commented.

"I don’t know who said it, or where it came from, perhaps the Radical Left, but I never discussed, or thought of, Jamie Dimon or Larry Fink for Secretary of the Treasury,” Trump said. Fink is the CEO of the BlackRock investment firm.

Archived version

In 2008, a software developer in San Francisco named Curtis Yarvin, writing under a pseudonym, proposed a horrific solution for people he deemed “not productive”: “convert them into biodiesel, which can help power the Muni buses.”

Yarvin, a self-described reactionary and extremist who was 35 years old at the time, clarified that he was “just kidding.” But then he continued, “The trouble with the biodiesel solution is that no one would want to live in a city whose public transportation was fueled, even just partly, by the distilled remains of its late underclass. However, it helps us describe the problem we are trying to solve. Our goal, in short, is a humane alternative to genocide.”

He then concluded that the “best humane alternative to genocide” is to “virtualize” these people: Imprison them in “permanent solitary confinement” where, to avoid making them insane, they would be connected to an “immersive virtual-reality interface” so they could “experience a rich, fulfilling life in a completely imaginary world.”

Yarvin’s disturbing manifestos have earned him influential followers, chief among them: tech billionaire Peter Thiel and his onetime Silicon Valley protégé Senator J.D. Vance, whom the Republican Party just nominated to be Donald Trump’s vice president. If Trump wins the election, there is little doubt that Vance will bring Yarvin’s twisted techno-authoritarianism to the White House, and one can imagine—with horror—what a receptive would-be autocrat like Trump might do with those ideas.

Trump’s first campaign was undoubtedly a watershed moment for authoritarianism in American politics, but some thinkers on the right had been laying the groundwork for years, hoping for someone to mainstream their ideas. Yarvin was one of them.

Original link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BIdV-DbZ_8

[Edit typo in the title.]

“What has happened in Gaza over the past nine months is devastating. The images of dead children and desperate, hungry people fleeing for safety, sometimes displaced for the second, third or fourth time,” Harris said. “We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies. We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering. And I will not be silent.”

Edit: Guys, watch the video. He clearly said “college.” I am sorry for posting misinformation; I didn’t watch the video first, and just assumed it was legit 😕.

Archived version

A majority of U.S. citizens are now hearing about Project 2025. Among those familiar with the Project 2025, just 11 percent view it favorably, while 43 percent view it unfavorably, a 24 point increase in its unfavorable rating since last month.

It has also become significantly more unfavorable since Trump attempted to distance himself from the plan, a survey conducted by Navigation Research finds.

• More than seven in ten Democrats are aware of Project 2025 (71 percent) and are overwhelmingly unfavorable toward it (net -57; 7 percent favorable – 64 percent unfavorable, with 62 percent very unfavorable).
• Independents hold net negative favorability ratings of Project 2025 (net -20; 8 percent favorable – 28 percent unfavorable), but nearly two in three still don’t know enough to have an opinion.

In response to a Trump statement that he knows nothing about Project 2025, the following statements were effective counter arguments:

• Those who say Project 2025 is Trump’s plan for a second term, since nearly all of the plan’s authors worked for Trump and will likely work for him again if he is re-elected, and it fleshes out the extreme MAGA agenda he’s talked about publicly. (net +10; 55 percent agree with this statement more – 45 percent agree with Trump distancing himself more);
• Those who say Trump’s Project 2025 would be a dangerous, unprecedented government takeover by Trump and his loyalists that threatens rights, freedoms, and democracy by giving Trump powers like no president before him has ever had… that’s why Trump is unwilling to admit it’s his plan. (net +8; 54 percent agree with this statement more – 46 percent agree with Trump distancing himself more); and,
• Those who say Trump’s Project 2025 would be a dangerous, unprecedented government takeover by Trump and his loyalists that would hurt the middle class and working families, all to help wealthy billionaire donors… that’s why Trump is unwilling to admit it’s his plan (net +4; 52 percent agree with this statement more – 48 percent agree with Trump distancing himself more).

Archived version

Former President Donald Trump is out of his depth facing the prospect of running against Vice President Kamala Harris instead of President Joe Biden, wrote his niece Mary Trump in her latest email blast — and he's "terrified."

[...] "Donald also hates women (especially strong women) and minorities, so you can see why current Vice President and presidential candidate Kamala Harris terrifies him to the point of incoherence. He says she’s 'crazy,'" Mary Trump says.

She continues: "His childish nickname for her is 'laughing Kamala' because she feels joy, and joy is something he [Donald Trump] has never experienced and doesn’t understand. Faced with the reality that he is now running against a vibrant, intelligent, experienced woman who is fully two decades younger than he is, Donald spent Sunday and Monday flailing, trying to find an angle of attack that would stick."

He's so lost trying to figure out what to do, she added, that he's even continuing to attack Biden, despite knowing Biden has already decided to exit the race.

Combine that with the fact that Democrats have seen a massive surge in donor support and that tech billionaire Elon Musk appears to be backing out of his plan to give a pro-Trump PAC $45 billion a month, Ms. Trump wrote, "Donald and his sycophants, enablers, and backers are scared."

"And they should be," she noted.

CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten breaks down the numbers around JD Vance since his announcement as Donald Trump's vice presidential pick.

• Step 1: Declaration of Intent to Run: process will remain open until 6 p.m. Eastern time on Saturday, July 27
• Step 2: Obtaining Delegate Support: candidates will have until Tuesday, July 30 to obtain support of enough delegates to demonstrate viability of their campaigns
• Step 3: Vote to Determine Nominee: Any candidate who obtains the signatures of at least 300 delegates will be eligible for the virtual roll call vote, which is currently scheduled to take place on Thursday, Aug. 1.
• Step 4: Choosing Candidate’s Running Mate: After the nominee is officially chosen, they will have the task of identifying their vice-presidential nominee no later than Aug. 7.

According to the Rules Committee, that nominee will be made official by the DNC chair.

Both candidates on the ticket will be present at the DNC in Chicago for a ceremonial vote showing support for their spot atop the ballot, though delegates will still get a chance to vote on the party’s official platform.

Archived version

"Vice President Kamala Harris opened up a marginal two-percentage-point lead over Republican Donald Trump after President Joe Biden ended his re-election campaign and passed the torch to her," the Reuters/Ipsos poll found. "The poll, conducted on Monday and Tuesday, followed both the Republican National Convention where Trump on Thursday formally accepted his party's nomination and the Biden announcement on Sunday he was leaving the race and endorsing Harris."

Harris led Trump 44 percent to 42 percent in the Reuters national poll. Though the difference was within the margin of error (3 percent), it's an improvement on a Reuters poll taken July 15-16, before Biden quit the race, which tied the Biden/Harris campaign with Trump at 44 percent.

Also positive for Harris: "When voters in the survey were shown a hypothetical ballot that included independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Harris led Trump 42 percent to 38 percent, an advantage outside the margin of error. Kennedy, favored by 8 percent of voters in the poll, has yet to qualify for the ballot in many states ahead of the Nov. 5 election."

It's also an improvement on a Reuters poll taken July 1-2, when Trump led Biden by one percentage point.

Four environmental groups on Monday evening endorsed the presidential run of U.S. vice president and presumptive Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, whom many campaigners view as slightly stronger on climate issues than President Joe Biden.

The League of Conservation Voters Action Fund, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) Action Fund, the Sierra Club, and Clean Energy for America Action issued a statement of support for Harris and pledged to mobilize millions of their supporters behind her.

“Kamala Harris is a courageous advocate for the people and the planet," said Ben Jealous, Sierra Club's executive director.

"She has worked for decades to combat the climate crisis and protect our health and future," he added.

Manish Bapna, president of NRDC Action Fund, agreed that the vice president was well-equipped to step into the top role and deal with the climate crisis.

Last week’s Republican National Convention notably downplayed Trump’s persistent lie that the 2020 election, which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden, was stolen from him.

But when Trump returned to the campaign trail Saturday night he did not hold back.

“The Radical Left Democrats rigged the presidential election in 2020 and we’re not going to allow them to rig the presidential election in 2024,” he said, in just one of his references to voter fraud.

[...]

And the crowd cheered as he called on them to “Fight, fight, fight.

[...]

Beautiful’ note from Xi

Trump again touted his relationships with autocrats around the globe, insisting of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un that getting along had made the United States safer.

“All he wants to do is buy nuclear weapons and make them,” he said of Kim.

“I said, just relax, chill. You’ve got enough. You got, you got so much nuclear weapons, so much, I said, just relax... let’s go to a baseball game.”

He called Hungarian President Viktor Orban a “very powerful leader” and again insisted that, had he been US leader, President Vladimir Putin of Russia would never have invaded Ukraine in 2022.

And he said he received a “beautiful note” after the assassination attempt from President Xi Jinping of China, calling him a “great guy”.

He said he had told reporters that Xi was “a brilliant man. He controls 1.4 billion people with an iron fist.”

[Edit typo.]

Archived version

Three US Senators introduced bill that aims to rein in the rise and use of AI generated content and deepfakes by protecting the work of artists, songwriters and journalists.

The recently introduced Content Original Protection and Integrity from Edited and Deepfaked Media (COPIED) Act is a bipartisan effort authorized by Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), according to a press alert issued by Blackburn’s office.

The COPIED ACT would, if enacted, create transparency standards through the National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST) to set guidelines for “content provenance information, watermarking, and synthetic content detection,” according to the press release.

A landmark bill aimed at standardizing and improving the way police treat victims in the aftermath of a sexual assault has become law in Connecticut.

The new law establishes a council that will create a model policy for police responding to sexual assault, and it received unanimous, bipartisan support. The law also requires that officers refer victims to a victim advocate, distribute information about services available, and help the victim and any children present obtain medical care. Every law enforcement agency in the state will have to meet or exceed the model policy by September 2025, and the council will collect data about police and the overall criminal justice response to sexual assault statewide.

Democratic state Rep. Eleni Kavros DeGraw, a co-sponsor of the bill, cited an investigation by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting in her testimony about the need for sexual assault victims to be treated better by law enforcement. The investigation, featured in Victim/Suspect, a documentary film by Center for Investigative Reporting Studios, found dozens of cases, including several in Connecticut, in which women reporting sexual assaults were ultimately charged with crimes after law enforcement doubted their stories or zeroed in on behavior common for victims of trauma.

The highest 24-hour fundraising total, surpassing Trump's post-conviction and (likely, given that they refuse to disclose it) post-assassination totals.

888,000 small donors, 500,000 of whom were first-time donors for this campaign cycle.

That's the engagement and energy we should have been having this whole time. That's the kind of engagement and energy that landslides Trump.