Daily Wire Claims New Vitamins Will Boost Sperm Counts (And End Wokeness!)
The Daily Wire announced the launch of a new “men’s lifestyle” company named Responsible Man on May 1, promoting its only current product — a men’s dietary supplement that it says is “designed to help … sharpen brain cognition” and that it suggests will help address what the outlet calls the “increasing health risk” of declining “sperm concentration.”
On April 30, The Daily Wire’s parent company Bentkey Ventures registered the assumed name “Daily Wire Ventures.” The next day, on May 1, it debuted Responsible Man, a new company for men’s health products.
The Daily Wire is promoting Responsible Man as an alternative to “woke” companies and by fearmongering about some of the outlet’s frequent targets, namely gender-affirming care and drag queens, asking its readers, “Do you want to buy your men’s health products from a company that partners with drag queens and supports radical organizations that push gender procedures on children?” Responsible Man’s website uses similar language, promising its customers that “together, we can reclaim masculinity” and claiming that “Emerson’s Vitamins are a simple step towards improving yourself, creating order, and building the future.”
The Daily Wire’s promotion suggests Responsible Man’s products can help address various health issues, including the purported “increasing health risk” of declining “sperm concentration” worldwide, promising to help men stay healthy “for the survival of the human race.”
The company’s only product, a men’s multivitamin, is marketed as being “professionally engineered by medical doctors” to “support your immune system, maintain energy production, sharpen brain cognition, and support the health of your heart and muscles.”
Claims made by The Daily Wire’s new company are not FDA-approved
According to disclaimers on Responsible Man’s website, the claims made to promote the company’s vitamins “have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.” Multivitamins do not need to go through an evaluation process prior to entering the marketplace, and have generally proved ineffective in reducing the risk of heart disease and mental decline.
In the past, The Daily Wirehas targeted certain medications used in gender-affirming care for trans youth for their use off-label without FDA approval, even though this is a common practice in prescribing pediatric medications. The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh has been particularly fervent in wielding this point to target gender-affirming care.
The Daily Wire is promoting the new company by targeting Men’s Health magazine
The Daily Wire’s previous ventures into consumer goods have been framed in opposition to specific companies it deemed too “woke,” such as Harry’s Razors and Hershey’s Chocolate, for refusing to advertise with The Daily Wire and featuring a trans woman in an advertisement, respectively. (Jeremy’s Razors and Jeremy’s Chocolate, The Daily Wire’s answers to Harry’s and Hershey’s going “woke,” have received poor feedback from customers.)
The Daily Wire’s promotion of Responsible Man singles out for criticism Men’s Health, the largest men’s lifestyle magazine in the United States. Claiming that Men’s Health was “afraid of manhood itself,” The Daily Wire has declared itself “here to give you a better option.” The lone source of outrage cited by the outlet is a Men’s Healtharticle from November 2021 on “LGBTQ+ Language and Media Literacy.”
Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.
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What was adult film star Stormy Daniels doing on the stand for a second day in a criminal trial about Donald Trump falsifying New York state business records? She may have been called by the prosecution, but it was Trump’s lawyers who put her there, Judge Juan Merchan said.
The exchange came in a hearing after testimony on Friday when Merchan denied a second motion for a mistrial by the defense based on prejudicial testimony by Stormy Daniels. Merchan took time to tell Trump’s lawyers that he went back over Stormy’s testimony on Tuesday, as well as their opening statement. “You denied that there was ever a sexual encounter between Stormy Daniels and the defendant,” Merchan told Todd Blanche, Trump’s lead attorney, so it was the defense that opened the door to her testimony and the “messy details” they object to, such as her statement that Trump refused to wear a condom during sex.
Additionally, Merchan found that the defense did not object to the “messy details” when they were revealed in direct testimony during questioning by the prosecution, so the testimony they failed to object to cannot now be used as grounds for a mistrial. Judge Merchan even said he could not figure “why on earth” Trump’s lawyer, Susan Necheles, had not objected to the question that elicited the “messy detail” about the missing condom.
Friday’s testimony by Stormy Daniels did not go well for the defense. Trump lawyer Necheles spent nearly an hour comparing and contrasting Daniels’ testimony on Tuesday with interviews she had given previously, like the one she gave to gossip magazine In Touch in 2010. She accused Daniels of making up the story about sex with Trump in the Lake Tahoe hotel in 2006. Daniels replied that if she had made it up, “I would have written it to be a lot better.” In another exchange, Necheles challenged Daniels about her account of the sex with Trump saying that as a porn actress, “You have a lot of experience in making phony stories about sex appear to be real.”
Daniels responded that “the sex in the films is very much real, just like what happened to me in that room.” That ended that line of questioning.
Another line of questioning that went flat was when Necheles challenged Daniels about how she had monetized her relationship with Trump by writing a book and selling a votive candle with an illustration of herself depicted as a saint. Daniels responded that her attempts to make money with branded products and her strip club tour were “not unlike Mr. Trump,” bringing that line of questioning to a quick close. The prosecution later called two publishing executives to read into the record from Trump’s books his claims of how much money he made monetizing the Trump brand and how he vowed to always exact revenge on anyone who “betrayed” him, clearly implying that Daniels was Trump’s victim, not the other way around.
The unasked question that hung over the courtroom throughout the testimony of Stormy Daniels and during Judge Merchan’s denial of Trump’s motion for a mistrial was, if Trump didn’t have sex with Stormy Daniels in 2006 in a Lake Tahoe hotel room, why did he have his lawyer pay her $130,000 and have her sign a non-disclosure agreement about what happened between them?
Until the trial for the lawsuit filed by E. Jean Carroll in which the judge found that under common definitions of the term, Donald Trump had raped her, and this trial, when Stormy Daniels has been able to get her story about her sexual encounter with Trump on the permanent record, Trump has gotten away with his practice of “deny, deny, deny.”
This time, by causing his lawyers to “deny, deny, deny” that he had a sexual encounter with Stormy Daniels, he exposed the truth not only to the world, but to a Manhattan jury that will now have to decide who to believe: Donald Trump, who has relied on his lawyers to deny the story, or a very smart and credible witness who parried every attempt by those same lawyers to poke holes in her story.
The prosecution is nearing the end of its case. They will call a few more witnesses to establish the facts of how Trump falsified his business records, and then they will call his former lawyer, Michael Cohen. Jurors have already heard an audio tape of Trump and Cohen discussing making a payoff to Playboy model Karen McDougal, and Cohen is sure to be a deadly witness who will provide more details of the payoff to Stormy Daniels.
Maybe Michael Cohen will answer the question about why Trump found it necessary to pay off Stormy Daniels to buy her silence, because it’s a sure thing that a stone-faced and silent Donald Trump won’t take the stand to do it.
Lucian K. Truscott IV, a graduate of West Point, has had a 50-year career as a journalist, novelist, and screenwriter. He has covered Watergate, the Stonewall riots, and wars in Lebanon, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He is also the author of five bestselling novels. You can subscribe to his daily columns at luciantruscott.substack.com and follow him on Twitter @LucianKTruscott and on Facebook at Lucian K. Truscott IV.
Please consider subscribing to Lucian Truscott Newsletter, from which this is reprinted with permission.
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President Joe Biden traveled to Wisconsin on Wednesday to announce a new multibillion-dollar project by Microsoft, which stands in contrast to a notorious failure of local economic development in the state during the Trump administration. In response, Fox News’ purported “straight news” coverage accused Biden of “trying to troll” the public and otherwise dismissed the new project.
Biden traveled to Racine County to tout Microsoft’s $3.3 billion investment in a data center, which builds on other university partnerships and business projects the company has in the state. Notably, the data center will be constructed on land that was previously allocated for a factory to be built by Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Foxconn, in a deal pushed in 2017 by then-President Donald Trump and then-Gov. Scott Walker (R).
“Foxconn turned out to be just that,” Biden said Wednesday. “A con.”
The Vergereported in 2020 on the colossal failure of the Foxconn project. Though state and local governments spent at least $400 million on land and infrastructure, the factory never went into operation. And, far short of the 13,000 jobs that were promised, the company had hired fewer than 300 people by the end of 2019 and made a failed attempt to fill out its payrolls enough to qualify for state tax subsidies.
On the May 8 edition of MSNBC’s All In, host Chris Hayes said the Foxconn deal — along with many other Trump promises about saving jobs, reviving American manufacturing, or building important infrastructure — was “a big, glitzy announcement that turns into nothing.”
Hayes also revisited Trump’s remarks at a 2018 groundbreaking event in Racine County, in which he claimed the factory would be “the eighth wonder of the world.”
In Fox News’ telling, however, it was Biden’s event, rather than Trump’s failed promises on the Foxconn deal, that was politically suspect, and a cover-up for a supposedly failing economy to boot. (The American economy is objectively strong, despite the right-wing smear campaign to convince the public otherwise.)
Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.
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There is really only one signature legislative “achievement” from Donald Trump’s time in the White House: The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. He did other things while in office—bungling the pandemic, wrecking relationships with allies, insulting veterans—but when it comes to bills pushed through Congress and collecting Trump’s signature, there’s only one thing that stands out. A tax bill that emptied the nation’s coffers to pay off billionaires and corporate bosses.
Even at the time, it was clear that the bill would be extremely costly. Republican leaders claimed that the tax bill would generate growth and lead to “$1 trillion in additional revenue.” But the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the bill would actually cost the government $1.9 trillion before its cuts expired in 2025.
Now the CBO is back with a new estimate of what it would cost to keep Trump’s tax cut in place over the next decade, and that estimate is more than double the original cost. Keeping Trump’s tax cuts would cost a whopping $4.6 trillion and send the nation on a path to a level of deficit only seen during the Great Depression, World War II, and … Trump’s bungling of the pandemic.
Trump’s tax cuts are slated to expire in 2025, meaning that the winner of this election is going to determine whether the nation puts an end to this gravy train for billionaires, or extends it at a crushing cost to the average American. At his fundraiser that supposedly made $50 million in April, Trump told wealthy donors exactly what they wanted to hear: He plans to extend the tax cuts.
Not only has Trump’s plan generated a crushing deficit that only gets much worse over time, but it has also failed to stimulate economic growth as Trump and Republicans promised. A National Bureau of Economic Research study shows that the bill produced only a small fraction of the promised benefits. Far from generating revenue, as Republicans promised, corporate tax revenue dropped by $100 to $150 billion per year.
These effects are similar to what a Brookings analysis predicted in 2018: a small, short-term stimulus effect followed by negligible long-term benefits and a significant reduction in federal revenues.
What we know now is exactly what was projected then:
- Trump’s tax cut is heavily skewed to benefit a specific group of the extremely wealthy.
- Far from increasing tax revenues, or being revenue neutral, it has generated enormous deficits that threaten to drown the nation in debt.
- Despite having “jobs” in the title, the bill did not generate the waves of new investment that Trump promised.
President Joe Biden has already made it clear that he would not extend Trump’s plan and its crushing deficit. Instead, he has proposed a package that would see increases for those making over $400,000 a year, while cutting taxes for lower income Americans. Biden’s plan includes:
- Requiring billionaires to pay at least 25 percent of income in taxes.
- A corporate minimum tax of 21 percent that would end corporations paying nothing.
- Denying corporate tax breaks for multi-million-dollar executive compensation.
- Quadrupling the tax that corporations pay when they buy back their own stock.
The conservative American Enterprise Institute prepared an analysis of Biden’s plan in advance of the 2020 election and found that, rather than costing another $4.6 trillion, as Trump’s plan would, Biden’s changes would result in $3.8 trillion in revenue increases. It would also make the tax system more fair and progressive.
There are many reasons to reelect Biden in the fall; so many that tax policy may not be getting as much attention as it usually receives. But that $8.4 trillion difference in revenue over the next ten years is the difference between a government that is capable of responding to issues like the climate crisis and other new threats as they arise, and one that is designed only to set back and provide a constant stream of cash for those who need it least.
Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.
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Since both Republicans and Democrats blocked Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) motion to vacate the speakership Wednesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is safe — for now.
The Georgia lawmaker has not been the only Republican House member plotting on Johnson's removal, according to a Thursday, May 9 Axios report.
House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) has plans of his own to takeover his Louisiana colleague's position in 2025.
Per Axios, several sources said that "Jordan privately told colleagues what he would be doing differently than Johnson during the recent fight over foreign aid funding."
Additionally, the Ohio GOP leader "has been noticed handing out more campaign checks to colleagues," according to some of his colleagues, and one Republican told the news outlet "that Jordan previously said it was 'not his job' to help vulnerable members. His shift has raised his peers' eyebrows."
Jordan was vying for the speakership last year after Rep. Kevin McCarthy's (R-CA) ouster, but failed when "25 Republicans refused to vote for him on the House floor on his final ballot."
The Ohio lawmaker has not given up hope.
According to Axios, "Jordan has hit the trail for a bevy of Republicans in recent months, including vulnerable Republicans and" McCarthy allies.
Axios' full report is available here.
Reprinted with permission from Alternet.
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Bombshell reports from The Washington Post andPolitico are fueling concerns over the promises 2024 Republican presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump reportedly has been making to “Big Oil.”
“What Trump promised oil CEOs as he asked them to steer $1 billion to his campaign,” is the Washington Post’s headline.
“Donald Trump has pledged to scrap President Biden’s policies on electric vehicles and wind energy, as well as other initiatives opposed by the fossil fuel industry,” the Post reported.
“You all are wealthy enough, he said, that you should raise $1 billion to return me to the White House. At the dinner, he vowed to immediately reverse dozens of President Biden’s environmental rules and policies and stop new ones from being enacted, according to people with knowledge of the meeting, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a private conversation.”
“Giving $1 billion would be a ‘deal,’ Trump said, because of the taxation and regulation they would avoid thanks to him, according to the people,” the Post added.
“Political contributing is often a type of legalized bribery,” The Bulwark’s Marc Caputo remarked. “But the way Trump is so explicit about making a ‘deal’ is going to raise eyebrows.”
It has.
Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, an attorney and University of California-Berkeley professor of public policy, issued this warning:
“Trump asked Big Oil execs to give him $1 billion for his campaign. He promised lower taxes and a rollback of Biden’s climate regulations and clean energy programs in return. Trump is literally willing to take bribes in exchange for the destruction of the planet. Be warned,” Reich wrote.
Rep. Gabe Amo (D-RI) also issued a warning: “Donald Trump is saying the quiet part out loud. Re-electing him will guarantee ‘deals’ that work against our climate future. He cares more about campaign donations from oil tycoons than the fate of future generations and the health of our planet. Take him at his word.”
“We cannot believe this,” wrote government watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). “Donald Trump essentially told a room full of oil executives ‘raise a billion dollars for me and I’ll get rid of the regulations that you want.’ This is blatantly corrupt behavior.”
Former Los Angeles Times reporter Steve Weinstein called it, “Bribery straight up.”
“Wow,” exclaimed Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ), “a report today finds donald trump demanded a straight up billion dollar bribe from oil executives. Republicans want to sell you out to big oil to line their pockets.”
Liberal Super PAC American Bridge 21st Century wrote: “New reporting uncovered Trump is already planning to sell the White House to the highest bidder. He’s demanding a $1 billion bribe from oil execs in exchange for massive tax cuts and the repeal of environmental protections and clean energy investments.”
Josh Dorner, a communications executive, responded to the Washington Post’s Heather Long’s summation of the paper’s report, by writing: “Bribery, how does it work?”
Marketing executive Jason Karsh, also responding to Long’s post, wrote: “How cool is it to have a presidential candidate so broke and so corrupt that he’s asking for bribes out in the open. I mean, he’s a Republican so nothing will happen, but this is so clearly what the founders intended, it’s just … *wipes a tear*”
California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom commented, “Big Oil is literally writing up Executive Orders for Trump to sign on Day 1 — with the promise of $1 billion in return. He’s giving away our planet in return for cash. Have we just accepted this as the new norm??”
Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Laurie Garrett in a lengthy social media thread reached back into history and compared Trump’s alleged billion-dollar request to the Teapot Dome scandal. “Until now, it was the biggest presidential corruption case in US history,” she wrote.
“The Teapot Dome Scandal was, in the 1920s, the greatest threat to the integrity of the US Presidency the Nation had experienced. Not only was Big Oil bribery unfolding, but Harding, a golfer and womanizer, & had a child out of wedlock,” she noted in one post.
See the social media posts above or at this link.
Reprinted with permission from Alternet.
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Okay, it’s a complicated case, but this is getting ridiculous. I read the five-page order by Judge Aileen Cannon delaying Donald Trump’s classified documents case, so you don’t have to. You may not be able to remember back far enough to recall what this criminal prosecution is about, so here’s a brief summary.
Donald Trump literally had a Hertz rental truck pulled up next to the White House on January 20, 2021 so he could have his aides load dozens of boxes of documents he was taking with him to Mar-a-Lago in violation of the Presidential Records Act, which makes all records and documents produced during a president’s time in office the property of the government.
When later that year, the National Archives contacted Trump and demanded the return of the documents, he stalled, making all sorts of claims that the documents were his private property. The National Archives had to threaten to go to the Department of Justice for Trump to turn over 15 boxes of presidential records in January of 2022. In the 15 boxes, the National Archives found a trove of top-secret documents, and going through them, determined that it was likely that more classified documents were missing and demanded those, too.
Trump stalled again, finally agreeing to turn over some classified documents to lawyers for the DOJ in June of 2022. But before the DOJ lawyers arrived at Mar-a-Lago, Trump had his “body man” aide, Walt Nauta, move boxes of classified documents all around the Palm Beach property so (1) his own lawyer couldn’t find them when he did a “due diligence” search, and (2) the DOJ couldn’t find them when they showed up in June to collect the few documents Trump was turning over.
The DOJ analyzed the top-secret documents in the stash Trump turned over, and they interviewed witnesses from Mar-a-Lago, and determined that there were likely more documents stored there. They got a warrant and searched the place on August 8, and discovered more than 100 additional top-secret documents, some of them regarding secrets about the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile.
Special Counsel Jack Smith was appointed to investigate Trump, and in the summer of 2023, Trump was indicted on 40 felony charges of stealing and mishandling government documents, including national security information.
The case was assigned to Judge Cannon, and she started stalling, issuing several bogus rulings on motions by the defense that were overturned on appeal to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. Then she continued to stall, as Trump’s lawyers filed one motion after another to delay the case.
Now here we are in the spring of 2024, more than four years after the National Archives demanded the return of the documents Trump stole, and Judge Cannon, with legal shovel in hand, has dug yet another trench in the warfare that she and Trump’s lawyers have been waging against Special Counsel Smith. They’re trying to wait out the campaign season, so Trump doesn’t go to trial before the election and get convicted, because they know the evidence is against them. He did take the top-secret documents. He did store them in a ballroom and bathroom and inside his own office at Mar-a-Lago. He did move some of them to his golf club in New Jersey. They’ve got the documents, they’ve got video taped evidence of the movement of the boxes within Mar-a-Lago, they’ve got testimony by Mar-a-Lago employees that they were acting on Trump’s orders.
They’ve got him.
But they’ve also got Judge “I’m just a little ‘ole MAGA girl from Florida” Cannon, and she issued an order today that’s a doozy. She is going to hold a hearing on every single motion Trump has filed right up to and including a request to go to the bathroom. Here are some of the hearings Cannon says must take place before she can even schedule a trial date:
Resolution of Pending Seal Requests May 20
Non-Evidentiary Hearing on Defendant Nauta’s Motion to Dismiss for Selective and Vindictive Prosecution May 22
Non-Evidentiary Hearing on Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss Indictment for Insufficient Pleading May 22
Discovery Status Reports (Special Counsel; Consolidated Defense) May 31, 2024
Defendants’ Rule 16 Expert Disclosures June 10
CIPA § 5 Notice as to All Defendants June 17
Non-Evidentiary Hearing on Motion to Dismiss Indictment Based on Unlawful Appointment and Funding of Special Counsel June 21
Partial Evidentiary Hearing on Defendants’ Consolidated Motions to Compel Discovery and to Define Scope of Prosecution Team June 24-26
Special Counsel’s Supplemental Expert Disclosures (if any) July 9
Special Counsel’s CIPA § 6(a) Defense Reciprocal Discovery July 10
Defendants’ Combined Speedy Trial Report July 19
Status Conference July 22
Supplemental CIPA § 4 Hearing (Sealed/Ex Parte) July 22
Now listen to her: “The Court also determines that finalization of a trial date at this juncture—before resolution of the myriad and interconnected pre-trial and CIPA issues remaining and forthcoming—would be imprudent and inconsistent with the Court’s duty to fully and fairly consider the various pending pre-trial motions before the Court…Finally, the Court has evaluated the statutory factors set forth in the Speedy Trial Act, 18 U.S.C. § 3161(h)(7)(B), including the public’s interest in the efficient administration of justice. Upon such review, the Court finds that the ends of justice served by this continuance, through the last deadline specified in this Order, July 22, 2024, outweigh the best interest of the public and Defendants in a speedy trial.”
Got that? Judge “I had to use spellcheck on the word ‘speedy’” Cannon has allowed Trump and Nauta and any wino wandering in off the street in Fort Pierce, Florida, to file any motion they wanted for more than a year, and now she has determined that Donald Trump won’t go on trial until a fucking rooster crows somewhere on an icy peninsula in Outer Mongolia because…uh…let me check my first year law school notes here…“the ends of justice” command it so.
I’ve got two words for you: Mitch McConnell. He’s the right-wing double-dealing backstabber who put two justices on the Supreme Court by violating rules he, himself, had set, and he’s the Federalist Society sock puppet who put AI bots like Aileen Cannon on the federal bench so she could look after the interests of the Republican Party and any flaming asshole they decided to run for president, right up to and including Donald “Excuse me while I expel a fart and pee in my diaper” Trump.
Benjamin Franklin said we’ve got a Republic if we can keep it. This isn’t what Franklin had in mind. This is throwing everything generations of Americans have fought and lost their lives to defend out with the trash.
Lucian K. Truscott IV, a graduate of West Point, has had a 50-year career as a journalist, novelist, and screenwriter. He has covered Watergate, the Stonewall riots, and wars in Lebanon, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He is also the author of five bestselling novels. You can subscribe to his daily columns at luciantruscott.substack.com and follow him on Twitter @LucianKTruscott and on Facebook at Lucian K. Truscott IV.
Please consider subscribing to Lucian Truscott Newsletter, from which this is reprinted with permission.
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A recent Marist poll for NPR and PBS NewsHour surveyed Americans' biggest concerns for the country's future, finding that "the rise of fascism and extremism" topped the list, at 31 percent of U.S. adults.
The partisan breakdown, as usual, was illuminating, with a plurality of Democrats and independents choosing the rise of fascism and extremism, at 47 percent and 32 percent respectively, as their primary concern.
The issue dominated with Democrats—nothing else even broke 20 percent. But among independents, "a lack of values" came in second at 24 percent with "becoming weak as a nation" just behind at 23 percent.
Republicans’ top two concerns were "a lack of values," at 36 percent, and "becoming weak as a nation," at 30 percent, while the rise of fascism was a distant third at 15 percent.
Notably, 35 percent of those who cited rising fascism and extremism as their top concern said they are "definitely voting in November's election." Meanwhile, a lack of values and the nation becoming weak stayed static among “definite” voters at 24 percent and 21 percent, respectively.
Simply put, the rise of fascism and extremism is the most concerning to Americans, particularly those who are "definite" voters, and the feeling is most pronounced among potential Democratic voters (i.e. Democrats and independents). On the other hand, it is not a primary motivation for Republican voters.
Additionally, the survey's findings suggest that abortion could be a more powerful issue than some analysts suggest because of GOP abortion bans sweeping the South. These bans serve as a real-life example of the loss of freedoms and autonomy associated with fascists and autocratic regimes.
While attendees of this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference are outright welcoming "the end of democracy," the GOP’s quashing of abortion care in an entire region of the country serves as a tangible reminder of what an end to democracy means.
Among analysts, the economy and immigration are often touted as the two main policy issues driving the election, with abortion lagging, polled separately, or even excluded from the issue polling.
That was also the case in the 2022 midterms, when Democrats were supposed to be swept away by a red wave but instead wildly outperformed expectations.
In October 2022, a Civiqs poll showed exactly why analysts misread the issues that would dominate the election. While 58% of voters overall chose the "economy/jobs/inflation" as their top issue, the partisan breakdown of issues showed that 52% of Democrats chose abortion as their No. 1 issue while 43 percent said "fair elections/democracy" was their No. 2 issue.
These two issues proved to be decisive and incredibly motivating among Democratic voters' and some independents who turned out to beat back the red wave.
The latest Marist polling suggests that anyone who underestimates them in this election does so at their own peril.
Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.
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Trump's Project 2025 Is 'Blueprint For Soft Coup' -- Like Orban's Hungary
With Project 2025, former President Donald Trump's allies in the Heritage Foundation lay out a game plan for radically overhauling the United States' federal government if he defeats President Joe Biden in November and returns to the White House in January.
The idea behind Project 2025 is to fill the federal government with Trump loyalists who are fully committed to the MAGA agenda, including Christian nationalism. According to CNN, Heritage's Project 2025 and the America First Policy Institute — another group promoting ideas for a second Trump term — are looking to far-right Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán as an authoritarian role model.
During an early May segment, MSNBC's Ali Velshi discussed Project 2025's goals with two Trump critics: conservative Republican Olivia Troye (a former aide to ex-Vice President Mike Pence) and liberal Vanity Fair journalist Molly Jong-Fast.
Velshi told viewers, "The threat that Project 2025 poses to our democracy cannot be overstated…. Probably the most troubling aspect of Project 2025 is its plan to grant Donald Trump unchecked power over the executive branch…. Project 2025 is ultimately a blueprint for a soft coup, one that replaces our age-old system of checks and balances with cronyism."
Jong-Fast shares Velshi's views on Project 2025, warning that much of the Republican Party has embraced "authoritarian Trumpism."
The Vanity Fair writer told Velshi and Troye, "One of the things that I think is the top line here is that every single government agency will be politicized. So, that means that from the FDA to the DOJ to the EPA, every single part of the federal government will be serving Trump and his Republican Party. And if you think about that, that's actually really terrifying…. Now, imagine an entire federal government that serves as a campaign arm to Donald Trump."
Velshi noted that the Heritage Foundation, historically, has been a "fairly mainstream conservative think tank" that "was once associated with Reaganism" — and the conservative Troye agreed with Velshi that Project 2025 is a "radical plan by the far right."
Troye told Velshi, "This is not a conservative plan. It is the more extreme arms of conservatism that you are seeing reflected in here. And I think it goes to show the complete transformation of the Heritage Foundation — a group that actually, for a long time, has been long-respected."
Reprinted with permission from Alternet.
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The same coalition of groups that drove center-right group No Labels to abandon its efforts to run a 2024 presidential candidate has now identified its next target: Anti-vaccine activist-turned independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
According to Politico, a collection of outside groups and super PACs are now mobilizing to educate a specific subset of voters about RFK Jr. through a coordinated information campaign. Matt Bennett, who is president of the center-left group Third Way, said they're specifically zeroing in on younger voters they call "double haters," who dislike both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. And they're specifically aiming to engage with voters in swing states where the son of celebrated former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy has met qualifications for ballot access. This includes Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire and North Carolina. RFK Jr. has also qualified for ballots in California, Nebraska and Utah, though those states are seen as less competitive.
"One of our biggest concerns is ensuring that this subset of voters absolutely positively understands who this person is and who he is not," Bennett said.
"He is not his father. His numbers reflect his dad’s popularity," he added. "He is a right-wing crank. People really do not understand that yet."
Democratic-aligned group MoveOn, which has 10 million members on its list, has shifted resources aimed at stopping No Labels toward its anti-RFK Jr. campaign. Another group taking part in the effort is Clear Choice, which is a super PAC focusing on driving down voter turnout for third-party candidates like RFK Jr., along with Jill Stein and Cornel West, who are running on the Green Party and independent ballot lines, respectively. Pro-Democratic super PACs Future Forward and American Bridge have also joined in on the campaign.
The groups are running on the message that, according to a League of Conservation Voters (LCV) official, "a vote for RFK is a vote for Donald Trump." LCV senior vice president of campaigns Pete Maysmith told Politico that he wants to reach out to "voters who aren’t paying full attention yet and reminding them that "voting for Kennedy is throwing your vote away."
"What we’re seeing so far is that when voters hear even just a little about his extreme positions, they are a lot less interested," Maysmith said.
However, Democrats aren't the only ones who want to turn voters away from RFK Jr., In April, a Quinnipiac poll showed that former President Trump's narrow lead over President Joe Biden grows when RFK Jr.'s name is removed from consideration. After that poll was released, Trump tore into the environmentalist-turned-conspiracy theorist and alleged he was only running to help Biden.
"His Views on Vaccines are FAKE, as is everything else about his Candidacy," Trump said. "Let the Democrats have RFK Jr. They deserve him!"
As for RFK Jr.'s campaign, his New York state director, Rita Palma (who previously canvassed for Trump in 2016 and 2020), previously suggested that their main goal wasn't to win, but to "get rid of Biden" and "block Biden from winning the presidency."
"Two hundred seventy [Electoral College votes] wins the election," Palma said in April. "If nobody gets to 270 then Congress picks the president, so who are they gonna pick if it's a Republican Congress? They'll pick Trump, so we're rid of Biden either way."
Reprinted with permission from Alternet.
According to the New York Times' veteran political reporter Peter Baker, the number one topic of discussion at Washington dinner parties and receptions these days is “Where would you go if it really happens?”
“It” being Donald J. Trump’s return to the White House following the November 2024 election.
Canada, some say. Others mention Portugal, Australia, even the United Arab Emirates. “The range and seniority of people who talk about it is striking,” Baker writes. “They include current and former White House officials, cabinet secretaries, members of Congress, agency directors, intelligence and law enforcement officials, military officers, political strategists, and journalists.”
Trump’s vows of retribution against his political enemies he has called “vermin,” his stated intention to prosecute pretty much everybody who has offended him, and his loose talk about disobedient generals deserving the death penalty have got a lot of people wondering if it can indeed happen here.
“It” being an overt fascist dictatorship.
One former Trump administration official turned critic told Baker, “People are feeling that it’s very obvious if a second Trump term happens, it’s going to be slash and burn.”
As for me, to put it in Arkansas vernacular, “I ain’t going nowhere.” First, because I’m too old to think about relocating to a foreign country, which is a difficult thing to do—even if you can afford it. Second, because while I yield to nobody in my contempt for Trump, I’m too obscure to persecute.
Besides, my wife and I could never agree about where to go. Chances are, for example, that I could qualify for an Irish passport, given that all eight of my great-grandparents were born there. Not long after we married, Diane was surprised to see tears in my eyes for the first time at the tomb of my great literary hero Jonathan Swift in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin. (Swift died in 1745, but lived on in my imagination.)
I have always felt at home in that country, which welcomes immigrants unlikely to become a burden on the public. The Irish are great talkers and listeners. They want to hear your story and tell you theirs. Now that they’ve quit killing each other over religion, the Republic of Ireland is one of the most peaceful countries on earth, and among the friendliest.
I’ll never forget how emotional I got seeing that rapscallion Bill Clinton with British Prime Minister Tony Blair on TV from Belfast announcing the Good Friday Accords. I thought I’d left all that Irish business behind when I followed an Arkansas girl home from school all those years ago. But no, there it was, deeply embedded.
But here’s the problem. I’ve always been a weather-maven. So here’s my summary daily weather report for Dublin over the next ten years: High, 56; Low, 42. Rain. At least 250 days every year fall within those parameters. Chilly, wet and windy. I don’t think I could fool myself into being happy with that.
The Arkansas girl’s people emigrated from France into South Louisiana by way of Cuba. (Her parents met at Louisiana State U, where he was a ballplayer.) She thinks France is the most beautiful and fascinating country in the world, with the best cuisine. The food is great even in the airport. When we’ve visited there, she’s frequently been stopped on the street by people asking directions. She has to haltingly explain that, appearances notwithstanding, she doesn’t actually speak the language.
So France is out. Even if we could afford it. Besides, she’d never leave Arkansas unless the entire Gang of Four—her closest girlfriends for forty years—agreed to come too. Me, I don’t know how I’d get along without my daily Boston Red Sox broadcast, or Arkansas Razorback basketball for that matter. Somebody’s got to load up the pack for their daily outing at the dog park, and it’s pretty much got to be me.
No matter. Because while I fear that the several months following the November 2024 election will be filled with turmoil and foreboding—Trumpist loudmouths have made it clear they will accept nothing but victory and will resort to violence if denied—I believe that Trump is not going to be inaugurated come January 2025.
The exact sequence of events is impossible to predict, but in terms the former Apprentice star would understand, the Trump Show is about to be cancelled. He has zero chance of winning the popular vote. None. The public is heartily sick of him. Just seeing his scowling face and listening to his endless boasting and whining have become almost unendurable.
For that same reason he has little chance of running the table in the so-called “swing” states. Also, this time around no amateur insurrection will take the authorities by surprise. Trump’s attempts to summon a mob to disrupt his New York trial have fallen flat.
So never fear, it’s almost over.
Gene Lyons is a former columnist for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, a winner of the National Magazine Award, and co-author of The Hunting of the President.
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