Golden Sneakers, Tees, and Democracy

 

You know the former president always has some kind of game going, whether it is a scheme like his real estate courses and universities or merchandise such as steaks and water. The latest grift involves garish and pricy golden sneakers embellished with a "T", stars, and stripes of red, white, and blue. One can choose either low tops or high tops with the latter costing $399.00. In a speech in South Carolina recently, DJT pushed the "merch", as they say, by touting the appeal of the sneakers and his indictment tee shirts to the African American community. Claiming they knew a lot about indictments, and were thus more attracted to the shirts (which included his mug shot) than perhaps others. He claimed his indictments made more black people like him because they have been discriminated against and they can now view me as I am being discriminated against (with his 91 indictments). 

Reporting by CNN noted:

“Black conservatives, Trump told the crowd gathered for the gala hosted by the Black Conservative Federation, "understand better than most that some of the greatest evils in our nation's history have come from corrupt systems that try to target and subjugate others to deny them their freedom and to deny them their rights. You understand that. I think that's why the Black people are so much on my side now, because they see what's happening to me happens to them."

The GOP front-runner also claimed that Black Americans have "embraced" his mug shot more than anyone else.

"The mug shot, we've all seen the mug shot, and you know who embraced it more than anybody else? The Black population. It's incredible. You see Black people walking around with my mug shot, you know they do shirts," he said."

"Trump, who has a history of using racist language, railed during his remarks against President Joe Biden, his likely general election rival, accusing him of being a "vicious racist."

He attacked Biden over the 1994 crime bill – which Biden has repeatedly defended his role in but has also pointed to mistakes in the legislation – and over comments the president made in which he recalled working with segregationist senators.

"On top of everything else, Joe Biden really has proven to be a very nasty and vicious racist. He's been a racist," Trump said.

Many African Americans viewed the former president's remarks as insulting. The Biden campaign quickly responded, as reported in the same CNN article:

In a statement following Trump's remarks, Jasmine Harris, the Black media director for the Biden campaign, called the former president "an incompetent, anti-Black tyrant," noting his meeting with a White nationalist shortly after declaring his 2024 candidacy.

Prior to the event, Biden's campaign had put out a statement calling Trump "the proud poster boy for modern racism." It detailed what it described as his "racist record," which included his role in the Central Park Five case and his promotion of the “birtherism" conspiracy theory that targeted former President Barack Obama.

"Come November, no matter how many disingenuous voter engagement events he attends, Black Americans will show Donald Trump we know exactly who he is," Harris said."

Jennifer Rubin, writing in the Washington Post recently, also looked at the issue of racism in the Maga campaign. In this article, she noted:

"The Republican Party wants to have it both ways: appeal to white Christian nationalists and peel off Black voters from Democrats; play up the "great replacement" theory while wooing Hispanics. MAGA Republicans often pull off such jaw-dropping hypocrisy because the docile right-wing media will not ask Republicans hard questions nor point to obvious contradictions. However, now and then, the gap between Republicans' pretense of decency and their real attitudes toward Black people and immigrants becomes glaring to all but the most rabid MAGA voters.

On race, Trump's apologists, including those in "respectable" conservative quarters, insist — despite his rhetoric (e.g., "s-hole countries," "very fine people on both sides") and downplaying endemic racism in policing — that we cannot assume he is a racist. We also are expected to ignore, one supposes, his vendetta against the Central Park Five, his real estate company's history of discrimination, and his failure to appoint a single African American to the circuit courts or the Supreme Court. His slurs against Black female prosecutors and vivid social media posting showing him attacking Black Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg get brushed off by his supporters, who portray him as the real victim."

In other remarks on the campaign trail at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), DJT appeared to go off the rails and move away from his stump speech to predict an apocalyptic future should he not be elected:….

As reported by Jonathan Swan and Michael C. Bender in the New York Times:

"If Mr. Biden is re-elected for a second four-year term, Mr. Trump warned in his speech, Medicare will "collapse." Social Security will "collapse." Health care, in general, will "collapse." So, too, will public education. Millions of manufacturing jobs will be "choked off into extinction." The U.S. economy will be "starved of energy" and there will be "constant blackouts." The Islamist militant group Hamas will "terrorize our streets." There will be a third world war and America will lose it. America itself will face "obliteration."

On the other hand, Mr. Trump promised on Saturday that if he is elected, America will be "richer and safer and stronger and prouder and more beautiful than ever before." Crime in major cities? A thing of the past.

"Chicago could be solved in one day," Mr. Trump said. "New York could be solved in a half a day there."

(Author note -I watched this video. And this was spoken in such a smarmy way, one, only a carnival barker could appreciate. Snake oil sales, anyone? I guess he will just wave his magic wand, the one that takes away our rights as he destroys the Civil Service and our social safety net, or invokes martial law or whatever.

Streets paved with gold–the better to walk on with one's golden sneakers, maybe? The American public, in some places, seems to be buying this propaganda!  As for solving the issues in the cities, remember when he wanted to send troops into Portland? It could well get worse, should he be elected and not have anyone in the Oval Office to tell him NO!)

The reporters provided some fact checking with this article and said:

"In his 2020 campaign, Mr. Trump warned that Mr. Biden would "confiscate your guns," and "destroy your suburbs." He predicted that the economy would sink into a depression worse than the 1930s Great Depression and that the "stock market will crash." A Biden presidency, he predicted four years ago, "would mean that America's seniors have no air conditioning during the summer, no heat during the winter and no electricity during peak hours." And, he warned in July 2020, "you will have no more energy coming out of the great state of Texas, out of New Mexico, out of anywhere."

Some of those past predictions are now checkable, and have turned out to be fictions. The stock market has hit record highs under the Biden administration. Guns haven't been confiscated. Air conditioning is as good or bad as it ever was. And under Mr. Biden, the United States is producing more oil — not only more than it did under Mr. Trump but more than any country ever has."

The fact-checking as above is often missing from reporting.  Major media outlets seldom challenge these wild statements on the campaign trail as the campaigner takes no questions.

Jennifer Rubin, writing in the Washington Post, notes that the former president is losing many voters in the Republican primaries, with only 60% in SC, 50% in Iowa caucuses, and under 60% in NH, even with only token opposition. When a person, claiming incumbency cannot barely win over half of his most committed voters, trouble is in the air.

Rubin further notes that there are Republicans and others out there who can be reached by President Biden:

"Country club Republicans, small-business owners, and many other voters live orderly lives, follow the rules, and rely on stable government with predictable laws and economic policies. With GOP state parties and the House caucus in constant turmoil, Trump's rants flooding social media, and the real risk he will be convicted, Republicans do not offer sane, orderly government. No wonder former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley has associated Trump with "chaos."

Biden will seize every opportunity to revisit the chaotic Trump years: fights with allies, a daily barrage of insane tweets, bizarre media conferences, the coronavirus running rampant, spilling classified information (even before leaving office!), and schools closing. (They reopened under Biden.) And, worst of all, he instigated an insurrection, plunging the Capitol into violence and threatening his own vice president's life."

Tonight, the Supreme Court suggested it will have a decision announcement tomorrow. Many assume that the Supreme Court's decision will be about the concern of prohibiting an insurrectionist from running for the highest office in the land. Most conclude that the Court will allow DJT to appear on the state election ballots in question.

However, on the immunity issue that the Appeals Court so tightly summarized against the defendant, causing many to guess the Court would pass on a ruling, the experts were wrong as the Court this week took up a narrow review of the matter, setting oral arguments for April 22nd, seven weeks from now. Thus, in their own sweet partisan way, they further delayed the insurrection trial, quietly fulfilling the wishes of the former president, who still hopes to be elected and make these unpleasant trials and indictments disappear.

(But, wait, there's more – a small matter of fines, fees, and other assessments coming due to the tune of half a billion dollars or so from the two civil trials– AND he says he cannot pay this – stay tuned for the next drama in this saga.)

Watch out, Justices, your party stripes are showing under those robes, leaving many, such as myself, to further doubt the fairness of this and future rulings. Enough for tonight- it is getting dismal out there!

Til next week-Peace!