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Put two things together.

The first is the surge of Republican support for Donald Trump since the FBI searched his Mar-a-Lago residence.

The second is this summers flow of good news for the Democrats as the 2022 midterms approach. Democratic candidates are leading in Senate races in Arizona, Georgia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. As Politico observes, all-party primaries in Washington State show Democratic candidates running well ahead of their performance in 2010 and 2014, the last big Republican years. Democratic standing is rising in generic polling. Across the nation, indications are gathering that Republicans could pay an immediate political price for the Supreme Courts overturning of Roe v. Wade. Above all, the August economic news has turned good: gasoline prices declining, general inflation abating, job growth surging.

The first factthe rallying to Trumpreminds us that his narrative of personal grievance still deeply moves Republican voters.

The second factthe Democrats improving congressional prospectsreminds us how little Trumps grievances resonate with the larger voting public. GOP leaders have made a lot of noise about the Democratic obsession with pronouns. But the Trump Republicans have a pronoun problem of their own: Trump demands, and they agree, to talk about me, me, me when the electorate has other, real, bread-and-butter concerns.

Big-money Republicans hoped that 2022 would be the year the GOP quietly sidelined Trump. Those hopes have been fading all year, as extreme and unstable pro-Trump candidates have triumphed in primary after primary. Their last best hope was that the reelection of Ron DeSantis as governor of Florida would painlessly shoulder Trump out of contention for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. Now that hope, too, is dying.

DeSantis ran in 2018 as a craven Trump sycophant. He had four years to become his own man. He battled culture warseven turning against his former backers at Disneyall to prove himself the snarling alpha-male bully that Republican primary voters reward. But since the Mar-a-Lago search, DeSantis has dropped back into the beta-male role, sidekick and cheering section for Trump.

Trump has reasserted dominance. DeSantis has submitted. And if Republican presidential politics in the Trump era has one rule, its that theres no recovery from submission. Roll over once, and you cannot get back on your feet again.

Trump specializes in creating dominance-and-submission rituals. His Republican base is both the audience for them and the instrument of them. But to those outside the subculture excited by these rituals, they look demeaning and ridiculous. Everybody else wants jobs, homes, cheaper prescription drugs, and bridges that do not collapsenot public performances in Trumps theater of humiliation.

Midterm elections are usually referendums on the pressing issues of the day. Voters treat them, in effect, as their answer to the implied question: Got any complaints? And because voters usually do have complaints, the presidents party tends to take losses. But this time, the loudest complaints of the out party are becoming very far removed from most peoples lives.

Historically, conservatives spoke the language of stability; progressives, the language of change. This summer, however, the Trump Republicans are speaking the language of confrontation, of threat, of violence. Five days ago, Peter Wehner described here at The Atlantic the angry shouts on right-wing message boards and websites. That language of menace is now being used by the former president himself. Allow me impunity or else face more armed violence from my supporters is the implicit Trump warning.

Thats a hell of a message to carry into a midterm election. And its a message that is incidentally amending the 2022 ballot question from Got any complaints? to How do you react to bullies making threats?

See the original post here:
Trump Is Back on the Ballot - The Atlantic

There are dozens of outstanding questions about Donald Trump's bizarre decision to abscond with boxes of unauthorized and classified documents when he left the White House and we don't have any idea why he refused to return many of them when the National Archives and the FBI asked for them back. All we do know is that the FBI was forced to issue a subpoena, which Trump defied, and finally had to get a search warrant to retrieve the documents.

The speculation about his motives run from the former president just wanting to take classified material as a souvenirto show offto his friendsor sell as memorabiliato possible blackmail offoreign leaders.(Apparently, presidents get highly classified intelligence on allies and adversaries alike.) The most alarming reporting suggested that the documents contained nuclear secrets. This seemed unlikely untilthis pieceby Josh Kovensky at Talking Points Memo reminded me that Trump has a "special interest" in nuclear weapons, believing himself to be an expert because his uncle taught at MIT. Now it doesn't seem so outlandish. Trump was bragging in his final year that the U.S. had developed some secret new nuclear program at his direction which he couldn't reveal. So, who knows? He may have actually stolen something truly dangerous.

It remains to be seen if the law will catch up to Trump this time. It's coming down on him from several directions but according to news reports Trump is thrilled about the whole thing because it's raising lots of money and it has his supporters up in arms and fired up to fight for him. It also has him at the forefront of the political news which always makes Trump happy.According to NBC News, it's all made him rethink his need to announce his presidential campaign before the midterm elections. As of now, he remains inclined to wait.

The biggest reason for celebration in Trumpworld no doubt is the fact that the search has necessitated that his would-be rivals all back off their plans to challenge him, at least for the moment. Once Trump activated the MAGA cult they had little choice, proving once again that Trump still has a stranglehold on the GOP. Everyone from former vice president Mike Pence to South DakotaGov. Kristi NoemandVirginia Gov. Glenn Younkinissued shrill denunciations of the FBI after the documents were siezed.

Trump's top rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis who, in another political world would have jumped on the news to condemn Trump as damaged goods, immediatelywent to bat for himcalling the FBI search "another escalation in the weaponization of federal agencies against the regime's political opponents." (If anyone knows about weaponizing agencies against enemies, it's Ron DeSantis.)Polls showedthat Trump got a 10 point bounce over DeSantis with GOP primary voters after the FBI search.

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The pressure to back up the Dear Leader is so intense that notorious podcaster Alex Jones, clearly out of the loop, rapidly backed down from his ill-timed endorsement of DeSantis over Trump:

It's easy to see why Trump is feeling relieved. Over the summer it appeared that his followers were getting restive and his potential opponents were starting to make their moves. The Mar-a-Lago "raid" changed that dynamic.

Democracy is on the ballot and that's not good news for Donald Trump.

Others, however, aren't so sure this is the big winner Trump thinks it is. One worried friend ofTrumptold NBC:

"He may get closer to the prize but in reality, he's slipping...It seems like the net is surrounding him more and more, and his ability to dance around these things is going to get more challenging," this ally said. "It's a double-edged sword."

That net is not just the legal problems. Trump believes that it's always better when he's in the news, no matter what the reason, but he never seems to understand that while he may thrill his following, he also motivates the opposition.A new pollreleased this past weekend shows that the GOP is facing some unexpected headwinds going into the fall election largely because of the January 6 hearings:

It's certainly possible that the numbers include some Republicans who see the Big Lie about the 2020 election as a "threat to democracy" but the changes in enthusiasm argue that this is primarily attributable to Democrats:

According to the survey, 68% of Republicans express a high level of interest in the upcoming election registering either a "9" or "10" on a 10-point scale versus 66% for Democrats.

That 2-point GOP advantage is down from 17 points in March and 8 points in May.

The pollsters consider that to be the result of the Supreme Court'sdecision to overrule the landmark Roe v. Wade decisionin June. But since abortion shows up as the top issue for only 8% of respondents, it's clear that it's not the only reason for the surge in interest. "Threats to democracy" coming in as the most important issue isthe big change.Democracy is on the ballot and that's not good news for Donald Trump.

Just as important, with all the "fundamentals" about the economy, President Biden's approval rating etc., Trump's constant attention-grabbing, his legal troubles, his rallies, his endorsements, the drumbeat of Trump, Trump, Trump, has turned the midterm election from a standard referendum on the president to a choice between the undisputed leader of the Republican Party and the leader of the Democratic Party. And while it's true that Biden's popularity numbers are low, Trump's are even worse:

As I've said before, Trump is the gift that keeps on giving for Democrats. If he'd kept a low profile, cooperated with the FBI and shut his mouth, this election might have been the cakewalk they all expected it to be. But with the hearings andDobbsand Trump endorsing a crop of fascist weirdos, it looks like it's going to be a real race. If Democrats actually save their majority this fall they should send Trump a case of Diet Coke and a very nice thank-you card.

See the rest here:
"A double-edged sword: Trump's thrilled to be back in the spotlight but is it already backfiring? - Salon

In an interview with "7.30," "South Park" co-creator Trey Parker expressed what was challenging about making fun of Donald Trump: "It's tricky now because satire has become reality," he said. "We were really trying to make fun of what was going on but we couldn't keep up, and what was actually happening was much funnier than anything we could come up with." This would certainly be an issue since fans of satire come to expect certain conventions from the genre, which is meant to take reality as its basis but also expand upon reality to make it more humorous than it actually is. "So we decided to kind of back off and let them do their comedy and we'll do ours," Parker added.

"South Park" featured Trump/Mr. Garrison quite a bit during the real Trump's actual presidential campaign; however, things changed after he actually became president. In an interview with Collider, Parker and Matt Stone noted, "Now we were just full-on scared that he's President. Now we're just scared for our lives, so we wanted this idea of likenot only had we had it that everyone was starting to get more and more terrified of the president, but the president himself was feeling more and more stuck and put in a hole, so we figured maybe it's time to bring Garrison back and let him come back to town."

Apparently, the president's actual election marked a difference in how Parker and Stone viewed him: from comic inspiration into a type of comedy in itself that is also scary.

Originally posted here:
The Real Reason South Park Laid Off The Donald Trump Jokes - Looper

Joe Biden could end the investigations right now

Why doesnt Joe Biden put a stop to the Donald Trump investigations even though he doesnt like him?

Biden only has to issue Trump a presidential pardon and put a stop to all the Democratic harassment of the man, and stop wasting taxpayer dollars and investigators time. He was our president and even if you feel he was robbed of his second term, hes still a private citizen and deserves to be treated as such.

I doubt the Democrats have proof the issue being investigated even took place. President Biden should pardon Trump and end the witch hunts.

Gary Colborn

Carlsbad

Pardon Trump? Instead of misusing and abusing that presidential privilege like his immediate predecessor, Joe Biden and all Americans who support our Constitution, believe that no one is above the law, and expect our elected officials to put country first over personal gain and ego, should be calling for Trump to step forward and take responsibility for his self-serving actions and lies that have exacerbated our already divided nation.

Highly improbable? Yes. Better than turning a blind eye to all the damage Trump has brought upon our democracy by pardoning him? Absolutely!

John Schroeder

Chula Vista

Opinion resources

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Opinion: Should Joe Biden just pardon Donald Trump to heal growing political division? - The San Diego Union-Tribune

Donald Trump's one-time White House counsel said in an interview that among the many legal threats the former president faces, the Justice Department's sprawling Capitol riot probe is the most dangerous.

"No matter what, the most serious case he faces is the January 6 investigation," Ty Cobb, who served as White House special counsel in 2017 and 2018, told Insider. "Not necessarily because of January 6 alone but coupled with the fake electors scheme and the interference alleged in Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere."

"That's the case that has him at the most risk and is more at the heart of what the Justice Department would take seriously," he added.

The DOJ's investigation into the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol has several threads. In addition to prosecuting those who carried out the riot, investigators are also digging into the events that led up to the failed insurrection; any attempts to obstruct the inquiry; and efforts by Trump's allies to use false slates of electors to undo Joe Biden's 2020 victory in seven battleground states.

Cobb, who helped coordinate the Trump White House's response to the special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia's 2016 election interference, told Insider that when he worked with Trump, the former president, "for the most part," listened to his advice.

But "as time has gone by, he's gotten farther and farther ahead of his lawyers, to the point where it's hard to tell if they're following his advice or if he's following theirs," Cobb said.

Trump has repeatedly downplayed the January 6 attack, calling it a "simple protest that got out of hand." He also accused the Justice Department of going on a politically motivated fishing expedition against his supporters.

But the former president's attention has shifted in recent days to the department's ongoing investigation into his handling of official government records. The FBI took the extraordinary step of executing a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago earlier this month where agents recovered more than a dozen boxes, some of which contained classified and top-secret material, that Trump moved from the White House upon leaving office.

The unprecedented raid came after the Justice Department and the National Archives had tried for months to get Trump to turn over the records. According to the FBI's search warrant, the feds are investigating whether Trump broke at least three US laws, including the Espionage Act, when he took the records to his private residence in Florida.

Peter Zeidenberg, a longtime former federal prosecutor, told Insider on Monday that he believes the department's investigation into Trump's handling of the documents is "the most direct and immediate threat by far" to the former president.

He added that Attorney General Merrick Garland and other top DOJ and FBI officials are "politically savvy" and likely anticipated the blowback from Trump and his allies following the raid.

"The only reason they would open themselves up to it is if they thought" that the public would view the raid as "being completely defensible once the facts came out," Zeidenberg said.

"I think that it's going to be a pretty clean case," he said, adding that by contrast, the department's Capitol riot probe is much more complex.

"I'm not saying it couldn't be done or it shouldn't be done," but "it would take two years to prepare that case" and months to then present it, Zeidenberg told Insider. "There would be tons of legal issues, and it would be a really heavy lift."

In addition to the DOJ's criminal investigations into the Capitol riot and Trump's handling of government records, the former president also faces legal threats on a state level.

In Georgia, the Fulton County district attorney's office isinvestigating if Trump and his allies broke laws in their quest to nullify Biden's 2020 victory in the state. And in New York, the Manhattan district attorney's office recentlysecured a plea deal with Trump's chief bookkeeper, Allen Weisselberg, who last week pleaded guilty to more than a dozen felonies and agreed to implicate the Trump Organization.

"He should be worried about all these investigations," one lawyer familiar with the Trump team's thought process told Insider last week. "I think he's a target of all of them and I think he'll get indicted."

The former president has criticized the FBI's search as a corrupt exercise of power, and his legal team filed a motion Mondayrequesting that a special master be appointed to review evidence that the FBI seized from Mar-a-Lago.

Cobb told CBS News on Friday that he thinks the Justice Department might also be in favor of appointing a special master to "err on the side of caution."

"This is an unprecedented prosecution, investigation of a former president," Cobb said. "This has never happened before, so I think I would want to play it by the letter of the law."

Originally posted here:
Ty Cobb: DOJ January 6 probe is the biggest legal threat to Trump - Business Insider