Open Thread February 29 2024 “The Republican Party is dying as Trump and his supporters take it over . . .”
February 28, 2024, Letters from an American, Prof. Heather Cox Richardson
Past Open Thread February 21 2024 Is Late Economic Reporting the Cause of Bad Perceptions as New Deal democrat says? Angry Bear.
Putin warns that sending Western troops to Ukraine risks a global nuclear war
AP via Boston Globe – this morning
Dobbs
the trick here is that Putin claims Ukraine is “our territory.”
so far he hasn’t blown up the world when Ukraine strikes inside of Russia.
House Passes Stopgap Bill to Head Off Shutdown, With Key Issues Unresolved
NY Times – today, 3 pm
The Republican Party is very alive and well from my viewpoint. In fact, at the federal level, I think they are poised to have control of all three branches of the government come next January.
A recent redistricting case in North Carolina may provide them another three or four House seats, probably enough to hold on control. The Senate looks very promising for Republicans. They need to win two new seats. West Virginia is a lock. They will probably also win Montana, and possible pick ups in Ohio, Arizona, even Maryland now in play.
Trump is leading, especially in the few swing states. The Supreme Court has now put their thumb on the scale by taking the immunity case. I now think that the election interference and classified materials case may end up delayed past the election. And Fani Willis has been a disaster for the Georgia state case, the only one where Trump cannot pardon himself or halt the case itself.
Now with Mitch McConnell leaving his leadership post, I believe that the R’s will eliminate the Senate filibuster on day one in 2025.
That’s just the federal side. State wise, R’s have total control in over half. They aren’t going anywhere.
Registered Voters by Party 2024 (worldpopulationreview.com)
(If the GOP puts Trump back in office, it will most likely be despite a popular vote win by Biden.)
Biden Says US Will Airdrop Aid Into Gaza
NY Times – just in
Questions still surround the convoy disaster as clamor grows for a cease-fire.
Witnesses Describe Seeing People Shot as Israeli Soldiers Fired Toward Crowds Surging Around Aid Convoy
Condemnations of the aid convoy killings continue to pour in.
Might ChatGPT Transform Healthcare?
Healthcare Innovations – Sept 2023
The NY Times today continues its series on how lots of voters are anxious about voting for Joe Biden …
Voters Doubt Biden’s Leadership and Favor Trump, Times/Siena Poll Finds
The share of voters who strongly disapprove of President Biden’s performance reached 47 percent, higher than in Times/Siena polls at any point in his presidency.
Mr. Biden’s 43 percent support lags behind Donald Trump’s 48 percent in the national survey of registered voters.
Then adds an op-ed from Maureen Dowd who has a fantasy about Biden’s upcoming state-of-the-union speech where the president gives a stirring oration about his accomplishments & stuff and then says …
(As if? Remember, this is only Maureen Dowd’s fantasy. Most amusing, eh?)
So, maybe Gavin Newsom had better get to work, time before the Dem convention & Election Day being very short.
I continue to support Joe Biden’s relection campaign, and I fully expect to vote for him & Kamala Harris in November. If I didn’t enjoy my Times subscription as much as I do, this would be a pretty good reason to cancel it.
Te Time has been hammering Biden on the age issue for quite a while now. They are shameless about drumming up controversy to sell papers.
@Jack,
The NYT is a disgrace. From a paywalled WaPo article:
Their columnists have been pretty even handed about Israel’s behavior in reacting to the Hamas attack. I’ve mostly been struck by their constant harping on Biden’s age. It’s an issue, of course, but hardly the only issue, nor the most important issue.
@Jack,
“Their columnists have been pretty even handed about Israel’s behavior in reacting to the Hamas attack.”
This appears to be a new and unfamiliar use of the phrase “even handed.”
“On January 28, The Intercept revealed that “The New York Times pulled a high-profile episode of its podcast ‘The Daily’ about sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas on October 7 amid a furious internal debate about the strength of the paper’s original reporting on the subject.” This was the story that sent Times editors into their bunkers.
“A lengthy follow-up report on Wednesday was even more devastating. The new report painted Anat Schwartz as an incompetent propagandist. Schwartz had liked a tweet calling on Israel to turn Gaza “into a slaughterhouse.” The tweet described Palestinians as “human animals.” The Intercept also quoted from a radio interview Schwartz gave in Israel where she admitted that when it came to evaluating evidence of sexual violence, “I have no qualifications.”
“Schwartz relied heavily on Zaka, described by The Intercept as “a private ultra-Orthodox rescue organization that has been documented to have mishandled evidence and spread multiple false stories about the events of October 7, including debunked allegations of Hamas operatives beheading babies and cutting the fetus from a pregnant woman’s body. Its workers are not trained forensic scientists or crime scene experts.” Another major source, Shari Mendes, has repeatedly made demonstrably false claims.”
https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/new-york-times-intercept-hamas-rape/
I don’t think they are just “selling papers.” They represent the interests of the ruling class.
the polls only measure the success of propaganda. i don’t know if Dowd just believes what she hears, or if she would like Biden to quit because she is against his policies.
Biden would be a better president than Trump if he was dead and stuffed, with his advisors making decision about runnig the country.
The Moslems and Progressives are killing themselves if they vote against Biden.
Move over Gavin Newsome…
How Democrats Can Win Anywhere and Everywhere
NY Times – this morning
(If the GOP puts Trump back in office, it will most likely be despite a popular vote win by Biden.)
The recent polling showing Trump defeating Biden in a handful of swing states that Dems won in 2020, if they hold up in November, will produce an electoral college win for Trump, but will probably leave Biden with a popular vote victory – which won’t matter.
Now, this is not unlike what happened in 2020, except that polls in some of those swing states back then strongly favored Hillary Clinton.
It will take a strong Dem turn-out in those states, with no one not-voting-for-Biden- t0-send-a-message to keep Trump from being re-elected.
@Fred,
“Now, this is not unlike what happened in 2020, except that polls in some of those swing states back then strongly favored Hillary Clinton.”
Hillary wasn’t on the ballot in 2020. Back then, the polls in some of those swing states favored Joe Biden. Those polls turned out to be predictive. He won both the popular vote and the EC in 2020.
err, “Now, this is not unlike what happened in 2016, except that polls in some of those swing states back then strongly favored Hillary Clinton.”
That should be “The Times”.
it doesn’t matter if the republican party is dying. the evil virus has already been planted and Trumpism will emerge triumphant. They will call themselves Republican, just as the evil that re-emerged after the Civil War called itself Republican, running on the popularity of Lincoln and Grant while completely ignoring what Lincoln…and Grant…tried to accomplish.