I’m reading about the first-ever Republican midterm convention to be held in Dallas next week. There’s a Wall Street Journal headline about it that mentions “Trump fatigue.” I don’t subscribe, unfortunately. But I found this by Lisa Needham at Daily Kos:
According to the Wall Street Journal, photos with Trump during the convention will cost $88,600, a number that seems weirdly arbitrary until you realize that $44,300 is the current Federal Election Commission contribution limit for donations to national party committees.
So, presumably, half would go to the National Republican Congressional Committee, and the other half would go to the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
But that hefty sum is a bargain compared to what you’d pay for the “roundtable” with Trump on the first night of the convention, Sept. 9. That will run you $250,000, as Trump continues to creepily conflate his existence with the 250th birthday of our nation.
Who wouldn’t want to pay a quarter of a million dollars to hear Trump rant about how schools are forcing our children to be transgender, that he has already won the war in Iran eleventy times, and that the economy is terrific?
If Trump plans to televise the roundtable on September 9, he’ll be competing against the first NFL game of the season on ESPN. The Seattle Seahawks will be hosting the New England Patriots. Check your local listings for time.
I assume Trump chose Texas to give Ken Paxton a boost in the race for Senate. But if Trump is so all-fired concerned about Republican election campaigns, why is he sitting on millions of dollars of Super Pac money? See Republicans fear Trump will keep super PAC money and not spend on the midterms at WaPo.
Trump’s political advisers have been assuring anxious allies that MAGA Inc., the president’s super PAC that had more than $400 million on hand as of July 31, will come to the rescue during the peak campaign season after Labor Day. But Republicans are increasingly skeptical andsuspicious that Trump — who must personally approve the spending — has other ideas.
Of course he has other ideas. They may not be legal, but he has them. And Republican candidates had better not count on getting any of that “photos with Trump” money, either.
It’s all about the grift. I was remembering back in 2017 when Rachel Maddow was pointing out that Trump collected a whole lot more money for his inauguration than he could possibly have spent. Where that extra money went was never uncovered. During Covid we went through a phase orchestrated by Jared Kushner in which the Regime appeared to be engaged in profiteering with medical supplies. I don’t think anyone ever got to the bottom of what was going on with that.
In Trump 2.0, after the January 3 military raid that deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, the U.S. in effect was in control of Venezuela’s oil industry. What happened with that? See the Council of Foreign Relations, The U.S. Took Over Venezuela’s Oil Industry. Where Has All the Money Gone? Something slick (ahem) seems to have gone on with oil and money and Trump, but it’s hard to say what. And of course all kinds of special interests have learned that donating to Trump’s pet projects, like the Marie Antoinette ballroom, is key to winning Trump’s favor. Yet somehow a lot of tax money is going into that ballroom, too. Hmm. One wonders if the donations to the ballroom are going somewhere else.
So the new scam seems to be raising money for Republican candidates that somehow isn’t getting spent on Republican candidates. Because Trump has other ideas. I read somewhere today that some donors have stopped giving to Trump’s Super Pac because they can see the money isn’t getting spent. And as Trump gets closer to the end of his term the easy money is likely to dry up. No point bribing a lame duck. Trump’s got to rake in all the money he can now.
Still, even Trump ought to be able to recognize that if Republicans do badly in the midterms he’s likely to be leashed. Do see Donald Trump is acting like he *wants* to lose the midterms by G. Elliott Morris and David Nir at Strength in Numbers.
I also understand that Elon Musk is throwing a lot of money into some key races. Leftie activists are organizing around the battle cry “Don’t let Musk steal this election.” And don’t forget his debacle in Wisconsin.
Also
I want to thank everyone who donated to my fundraiser. I’ve gotten more than I asked for, and I’m not going to ask for any more. I am very grateful.
This week has been busy Yesterday I had my annual Medicare physical, which for some reason was exhausting. The most strenuous thing I had to do was pee in a cup, and yet I was just wiped out. Today my son came to help me with some things in my apartment. Tomorrow I have to go back to the dentist for more work, fortunately all pre-approved by the insurance company this time. But that will take up a big part of the day. So if I don’t post for a couple of days — and I’m not saying I won’t — I’m just getting some rest.
He's fixin' to leave town with as much money as he can. Carville says he'll step down after the Dems score a big enough win in November. I think it won't happen until the election fight is good and settled and everyone is seated in January.
The USS Lincoln won't get to a US port until another few weeks or a month. And then the sailors are going to go home to their families and talk, no matter what Pete Hegseth tells them. This would be a good time to sacrifice Hegseth, to dampen the disastrous news from the sailors, to salvage the election.
The House tried to pass a bill that would prevent the Supreme Court from being expanded. It failed. Adding more seats to SCOTUS is one of the easier things the Democrats can do, maybe not immediately, and has a monumentally huge effect. Hence this opening salvo before the Rs lose seats in November.
I wonder how many suckers are left in the Republican Party, willing to donate to Trump's travel stash. Some of the psychics I follow say he's going to the Middle East.
I'm glad your fundraiser was successful!
Trump is hanging on to cash but IMO, he's looking to finance the militias somehow. I think (opinion) Trump is NOT resigned to leaving town. He's gonna see investigations ramp up, evidence leak out, and we are not done with Epstein. Trump knows ho often being in the Oval office was the only thing that saved his fat ass. Constitution or no Constitution, Trump will try to keep power, by a coup.
I said yesterday that Trump and Whisky Pete have removed anyone in the military top ranks who showed a spine. They think the military will fight against the citizens of this country if the top leadership declares it's "the enemy within." I think they troops will refuse to move if the top leadership doesn't.
Trump will try to keep power, by a coup.
That is as good an explanation of the Hegseth purges as I have heard. Stalin, albeit faced with slightly different problem, would have approved.
Pick off any actually dangerous flag–officer while purging others (women, minorities, uncle Tom Cobley), to muddy the waters and you are good to go. I've had this thought several times as the purge continued but have thought this is to sophisticated for Hegseth.
However, if he is just following orders it makes a good deal of sense. The question is: Does Donny have enough of a 'brains trust' behind him to pull off a coup? I imagine they have learned since the Jan 6 coup attempt back in 2021 but ….
Agree with you that he's gonna try a coup first. Leaving town is Plan Z, if everything else fails.
Glad to hear the money thing is worked out. It pleases my in a way that's hard to describe. You've been doing the blog for years – "Politics, Society, Group Therapy." Sign me up as a nut case sorely in need of treatment. But you invest your time for the benefit of informing strangers you will never meet. (Most of us.) Periodically, your expenses slightly exceed your income and you say to these strangers, "Hey, guys, can ya' help me?" and we do. I'm pleased to kick in when I can, and I don't feel guilty if I can't because I'm living too close to break-even most of the time. But I'm proud of y'all and wanted to say so.
Regarding the Trump rally, the story I' watching is GOP congress-critters who don't show up. Trup is asking House members to kick in, I think, 25K to attend. A lot of them are saying, "Sorry, I got a dentist appointment those days." They are past primary-season, and Trump will be in the rear-view mirror in '28. So what will the final head count be?
The timing puts Trump against the NFL. So far, no networks are carying it and Fox is not committed. Trump will want them to carry every minute but I'm reading that one of the top talking heads (Maria Bartiromo) for Fox got the axe for trotting a memo from Fox executives after Trump made bongers remarks about China and the 2020 election this summer. After settleing on 2020 election lies to the tune of almost a billion smackers, Fox isn't giving Trump a platform to revisit 2020. Maria was one of the kooks who supported the conspiracy theory then, and she trotted the memo from Fox to the WH. And is likley going to be then next official WH liar for Trump.
There's a USSC battle over mail-in ballots. It's a bid for the states to surrender to Trump power that the courts have refused Trump. It's not final but if the USSC does allow Trump to build the Ballroom without Congress voting to approve it, that MIGHT be the insult to Congress that will generate the shift to pack the court to 13. Dems in Congress are usually spineless, but this court is abandoning all precident and the clear text of the Constitution for Trump. It's a fire we have to put out yesterday.
Tendentious is a word you don't trip upon much, but if you do you remember trying to navigate the landing. Looking up the definition is that which one tends to do, which even makes more sense with this word as the first four letters match. The rest of the letters suggest, however, suggest doing so, doing what one tends to do, might be a mistake.
This seems true here, as the antonyms, the opposites, get you there better. Words like fair-minded and apolitical. I suppose open-minded might even work.
It does seem trendy today to be opposite, to be tendentious, in this era. Come to a convenient conclusion and cherry pick the evidence or just muck-rake along without any. See parallels in a room full of tangents. Sure, James Comey is guilty as hell, we just need to investigate. Misconnect a dot here and ignore dots there and we will get the picture we need. Like what in the hell does tendentious mean. Get that Maria Bartiromo on it. She's a tendentious type if I ever saw one.
I also understand that Elon Musk is throwing a lot of money into some key races.
A new documentary about him is being released soon, directed by Alex Gibney. I've read some reports that he's "very worried" about it.
I saw a description that included the phrase "Where He's Named in Bombshell Election Meddling Claim"
It's a bit more than a hunch with me that he rigged the 2024 election. I think the evidence is going come out after the mid-terms, probably leading with this movie.
I am often amused by the WSJ Editorial Board being suddenly all verklempt, only now realizing that Trump is going to bankrupt them as well as the rest of us. They’ve been doing serious damage since 1979, and now their GOP cheerleading will likely do in their portfolios as well as our 401ks.
They should all go fuck themselves.