nicolelafond.bsky.social
I do my little walks & I edit TPM
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But it’s not just Carlson and Bannon (a MAGA prodigal son story who suffered his own Trumpian estrangement) who are publicly trying to remind the President of his supposed commitment to American isolationism.
Read more here:
wherethingsstand.talkingpointsmemo.com/p/trump-want...
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Tucker Carlson, improbably, has played a central role in forcing Trump supporters to actually wrestle with the question.
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And, so, the perceived shift brought to the fore a rift within MAGA that is now on full display, as the movement grapples with an age old (decade old) question. Does MAGA have values in isolation and/or independent of Trump? Or is the ideology of the hordes subject to the whims of their master?
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The ramifications of these laws are now playing out in real time.
If you'd like to get my daily attempt to explain the maddening stories behind today's maddening headlines in you inbox, you can subscribe here:
wherethingsstand.talkingpointsmemo.com/p/right-wing...
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In the wake of George Floyd protests in 2020, Republican state legislatures across the nation passed laws cracking down on lawful assembly. Many of those new laws were aimed at giving sweeping new immunities to drivers who, intentionally or not, strike protesters with their vehicles.
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These fantasies of violence grow out of a years long right-wing agitation to inflict violence on protesters who are exercising their rights and demonstrating against things MAGA doesn’t agree with.
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thanks for catching!
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You don’t have to squint to see it.
Read more, and if you'd like to support @talkingpointsmemo.com (or me!) during hell summer you can subscribe here:
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It’s the lack of cooperation with Trump’s cruelty-first agenda that’s set off the recent crackdown, which also allowed Trump to act on his other fever dream: deploying the military domestically as a show of force against anti-Trump protesters.
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His administration is upset that elected Dems leading states and cities across the U.S. have sanctuary policies that offer some protections to undocumented immigrants and, in some cases, allow people who don’t have papers to still receive health care and other community resources.
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Trump won and, thus, all manufactured outrage about undocumented immigrants helping Dems steal elections from Trump ceased, as well.
It goes without saying but I will say it: none of what Trump is saying in his latest Truth Social screed is true.
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In the months leading up to the 2024 election, TPM extensively reported on the MAGA movement’s effort to make the myth of non-citizens voting en masse for Dems the boogeyman of Big Lie 2.0 conspiracy theories that they ended up not needing.
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ty bryan! 💜
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While I have you ...
I don't wanna be that plz subscribe to my substack girl
but plz subscribe my substack <3
wherethingsstand.talkingpointsmemo.com/p/noem-says-...
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Gov. Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass most certainly fall into this category.
Read more here:
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While he is hiding behind the guise of targeting Democratic-led states and cities that function as sanctuaries for undocumented immigrants, Trump’s barely disguised his bloodlust for using his second term to punish all of his perceived political enemies.
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As I noted earlier this week, much of the effort to deploy troops to LA to clamp down on mostly peaceful protesters in the city can be seen through the lens of the president’s months-long effort to punish blue cities and states.
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The statement said the quiet part out loud: the military was there to “liberate” a city from its democratically elected governor and mayor. It all amounts to a pretty pellucid admission of the Trump administration’s ultimate vision here.
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Of course, austerity matters most, to this group of politicians, when a Dem is in the White House. And it matters the least when the wannabe dictator head of the Republican Party decides to throw himself a multi-million dollar bday bash.
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That's primarily due to his belief that it doesn’t do enough to cut federal spending on social safety net programs like Medicaid, which are, as I get into below, already on the chopping block.
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Libertarian-in-chief Rand Paul's spin is, of course, the grossest.
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In order to justify the deployment of the military against civilian protesters as anything bigger than him finding an opening for his blue city retribution, it appears he’s enlisted some of his allies in Congress to perform a bit of shameless spin when it comes to state sovereignty.
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You can read more in tonight's edition of Where Things Stand at talkingpointsmemo.com OR you can now get my daily evening briefing — contextualizing all of the stories that make up this depraved political moment — sent straight to your inbox. Subscribe here ⤵️
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California in particular has been in the Trump administration’s crosshairs. The events over the weekend simply gave the President an opening to take another swipe at the blue state, and make a spectacle out of its largest blue city.
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Even Trump’s allies in Congress have taken Trump’s threats against blue cities into their own hands, as Republicans on the House Oversight Committee drag in blue city mayors to testify under oath about their cities’ sanctuary policies.
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The effort to dismiss corruption charges against NYC Mayor Eric Adams was reportedly couched in a scheme to force Adams to allow ICE to roam free in protected spaces across the city.
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The Trump administration has been searching for ways to punish blue cities and blue states since before he returned to office. One of the first actions taken by the new Trump DOJ in January sought to warn local and state officials against protesting the new administration’s immigration crackdown.
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Starting next week, you can get WTS daily in your inbox. It's another opportunity to engage with TPM as we wade through the muck & try to meet the moment well, during a very dumb and monumental time in American history.
You can sign up here: wherethingsstand.talkingpointsmemo.com/p/coming-soon
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That includes keeping tabs on our constitutional crisis, tracking the onslaught of attacks on women and vulnerable communities, and decoding what exactly Republicans are doing when they say they are not doing what they are actually doing.
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If you follow me here on Bluesky, you might know that I write a daily column called Where Things Stand. It's a daily, evening briefing that contextualizes the stories that make up this insane, unprecedented political moment.
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What that means for intra-Republican political dynamics as the party attempts to negotiate its massive spending package and greenlight DOGE’s cuts through a rescissions package remains to be seen.
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Implicit in all this was the fact that with Musk comes Musk’s heaps of $$, and his willingness to wage scorched-earth political combat by dumping that money into key races — and threatening to back primary challengers for those who don’t get in line with the Trump agenda.