- Trump’s dementia;
- The Heritage Foundation’s threat of violence unless they get their way;
- And a graphic from Fb: “If you don’t scream, I won’t hurt you”;
- Trump disavows Project 2025;
- And a song by Crosby, Stills & Nash.
Continuing from yesterday’s theme.
Robert Reich, 8 Jul 2024: Why isn’t the media reporting on Trump’s growing dementia?, subtitled “The evidence is increasing”
Friends,
A few weeks ago, at a rally in Nevada, Trump told his followers that boat manufacturers are now required to use electric engines. He claimed that someone at a boat company in South Carolina told him, “It’s a problem, sir. They want us to make all-electric boats.” (There is no such requirement.)
Trump then said the South Carolinian warned him “the boat is so heavy it can’t float. Also, it can’t go fast because of the weight.”
Reich goes on to quote Trump at length about heavy batteries and sharks and getting electrocuted by those batteries. Then says:
I ask you: Is this the speech of a rational human being?
But how much attention did this incoherent ramble attract in the media? Very little, especially in comparison with the nonstop media assessment of Biden’s verbal stumbles during the debate.
Trump is showing growing signs of dementia, but isn’t facing nearly the same scrutiny as is Joe Biden.
Reich then supplies further examples, about Gettysburg, confusing Nikki Haley with Nancy Pelosi, Biden with Obama, and warning about Biden starting World War Two. And this nugget from Trump:
“We will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country, that lie and steal and cheat on elections and will do anything possible — they’ll do anything, whether legally or illegally, to destroy America and to destroy the American dream.”
Are these the words of a sane person? Or of an aging paranoid megalomaniac?
And the point I made earlier: Reich says “When I’ve asked members of the media, they say Trump’s malfunctioning brain is ‘old news.'” Which is an indictment of those media. Reich concludes,
But just because Trump has shown mental instability in the past doesn’t make his mental problems any less relevant now that he is seeking reelection. They’re more relevant. He appears even more delusional than before.
If Biden’s difficulties are fair game, why isn’t Trump’s apparent mental decline front and center?
Biden may appear frail, but he’s rational. The growing evidence of Trump’s dementia and paranoia, on the other hand, poses a clear potential danger to the future of America — if he’s reelected.
At the least, the media should be investigating and reporting on it. Right?
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I noticed this item five days ago, but not the phrase that’s getting the most attention.
Media Matters, 2 Jul 2024: Heritage Foundation president celebrates Supreme Court immunity decision: “We are in the process of the second American Revolution”, subtitled “Kevin Roberts: ‘We’re in the process of taking this country back … we ought to be really encouraged by what happened yesterday’”
The phrase comes at the end of the long statement from Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts that this piece quotes.
And so I come full circle on this response and just want to encourage you with some substance that we are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.
So — his side is prepared for violence unless the rest of us roll over and succumb. This is consistent with theme we’ve seen about conservatives threatening violence in order to get their way. (Since they don’t have evidence, reason, or arguments to support their positions.)
Here’s a graphic I saw on Fb today. The poster called it “The most powerful piece of political art I’ve ever seen.”
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At the same time, here is Trump changing his story yet again.
Hemant Mehta, Friendly Atheist, 8 Jul 2024: A desperate Trump wants to distance himself from Project 2025. Here’s why., subtitled “There’s a reason Trump doesn’t want voters to know the GOP’s plans if he gets elected”
On Friday, Donald Trump tried to distance himself from Project 2025, the 922-page conservative playbook for a second Trump administration. He (or someone on his campaign staff) posted on Truth Social:
You can tell he’s desperate to wash his hands clean of this by the way he pretends to “know nothing” about the plan while simultaneously saying he disagrees with certain parts of it… which would require him to know what’s in it. (Which parts does he think are “ridiculous and abysmal”? Who knows.)
This echoes Republicans distancing themselves from the Supreme Court decision that reversed Roe, after which it became apparent that a majority of the country *supports* abortion rights, and were thus voting against Republicans in key states. Mehta goes into some detail, quoting various passages of the Project 2025 document, and how it is irredeemably Christian-focused. For example, picked almost at random:
There are multiple references to the country’s supposed “Judeo-Christian tradition, stretching back to Genesis” and all of our “God-given” rights, but there are virtually no mentions of non-Christian religious beliefs. As FFRF Action Fund notes, “the only mentions of Islam in the 920-page publication are references to Islamic terrorism and concerns over the Islamic Republic of Iran’s nuclear capabilities.” The document also says, “Religious devotion and spirituality are the greatest sources of happiness around the world.” (No citation is provided.)
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When you see the Southern Cross for the first time
You understand now why you came this way
‘Cause the truth you might be running from is so small
But it’s as big as the promise
The promise of a coming day…
So we cheated and we lied and we tested
And we never failed to fail
It was the easiest thing to do
You will survive being bested
Somebody fine
Will come along, make me forget about loving you
In the Southern Cross
