DL Open Thread Monday, June 3, 2024
Their dangerous rival just got convicted on 34 felony charges, and the reaction from Democrats is just what we’ve come to expect: They not only don’t know how to capitalize on it, they’re not even sure they should mention it. Now do you understand why they lose?
Self-doubt is not something that Republicans ever have to deal with. You might have noticed that MAGAts are calling for violence. Or maybe not, since they call for violence pretty much all the time. I blame this on the hours they spend in mom’s basement playing Call of Duty.
Hunter Biden’s trial on gun charges starts today in Wilmington. If Republicans want to whine about politically motivated prosecutions, they don’t have to look far.
If there’s a through-line of consistency to the Biden administration’s foreign policy, it seems to be a desire to avoid escalation. They won’t confront Netanyahu in part because they fear a wider regional conflict, and they wouldn’t allow Ukraine to use American weapons to strike on Russian soil. The fear there is that Putin will go nuclear; these authors argue he’s bluffing, and Biden should join Europe in calling that bluff.
If the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are having a race, famine seems to have seized the lead from pestilence. The starvation in Gaza is being matched by starvation in Sudan. Meanwhile, in America, sales of Ozempic are soaring.
Mexico elected its first female president Sunday, but that seems less important than the fact that her background is in climate science. Try to imagine that happening here.
The floor’s yours.
Like dogs, voters can smell fear. And they hate candidates that stink of fear.
His crimes are so egregious that this seems like old news:
https://www.propublica.org/article/donald-trump-criminal-cases-witnesses-financial-benefits
Some quotes:
“Nine witnesses in the criminal cases against former President Donald Trump have received significant financial benefits, including large raises from his campaign, severance packages, new jobs, and a grant of shares and cash from Trump’s media company.
The benefits have flowed from Trump’s businesses and campaign committees, according to a ProPublica analysis of public disclosures, court records and securities filings. One campaign aide had his average monthly pay double, from $26,000 to $53,500. Another employee got a $2 million severance package barring him from voluntarily cooperating with law enforcement. And one of the campaign’s top officials had her daughter hired onto the campaign staff, where she is now the fourth-highest-paid employee.
These pay increases and other benefits often came at delicate moments in the legal proceedings against Trump. One aide who was given a plum position on the board of Trump’s social media company, for example, got the seat after he was subpoenaed but before he testified.
Significant changes to a staffer’s work situation, such as bonuses, pay raises, firings or promotions, can be evidence of a crime if they come outside the normal course of business. To prove witness tampering, prosecutors would need to show that perks or punishments were intended to influence testimony.”
Of COURSE they were intended to influence testimony. Will anyone indict him based on the evidence?