Tuesday Open Thread

9 thoughts on “Tuesday Open Thread”

1. Even Elvis can’t escape the truth of the Las Vegas heat wave:

   NYT: Las Vegas Heat Breaks Records and Stuns Even the Forecasters

   

    

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2. From Conventions past…..

   "Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue"

    

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   1. Memes, couplets, and the like abound for all sorts of things. Your point?

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   2. Oh good, you're all in for 1933 redux, American style.  

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   3. Bullshit, Allyn. It was bullshit then and it's bullshit now. Liberty and Justice cannot be reduced and compromised with a citation of "the extremists' creed". 

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3. FWIW, 538's latest has Biden ahead over Sleepy Creepy in the stupid Electoral College 277-261:

   https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2024-election-forecast/

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4. Conspiracy theories give people too much credit. If a conspiracy seems more complex than getting 10 people to agree on where and when to go to dinner then it's likely not true.

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5. This week as Democrats politely retreat for the opponents convention it's important to remember no speech from this will be remembered or indicative of outcome nor any event.

   

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6. Josh Marshall on JD Vance. From Talking Points Memo.

   Apologizing to quote the whole thing.

   I’ve heard various takes and reactions to Trump’s JD Vance decision. I’ve thought of it as a choice that shows Trump thinks he’s in the driver’s seat and doesn’t have to appeal to any groups for support. I’ve heard others say that this is to nail down Blue Wall states in the Midwest, in part on the basis of people who remember the Vance of Hillbilly Elegy. It’s quite possible that the biggest thing is the more mundane and human fact that Vance did the best at cozying up with Don Jr. over the last year. But the most substantive and real thing is that this creates a deeply and coherently authoritarian ticket. Big into Trumpian executive power, very anti-abortion right down to unleashing red states to surveil women’s travel and reproductive health services, deeply anti-U.S. alliances, the whole package.

   I do think that Vance opens up a number of lines of attack on this ticket. That’s not because people vote on the basis of vice presidents. They don’t. But it’s that coherence he brings to the ticket: Vance is more specific and literal about what he supports. Whereas Trump usually bundles his comments in a hodgepodge word salad that is hard to pin him to, Vance is direct. He is an anti-abortion hardliner. People don’t care about vice presidents. But Vance’s crystal clear and extreme positions provide a path into revisiting what should and may be again at the center of this campaign: whether abortion will be banned nationwide or whether Roe will be reestablished by statute, whether coups — which Vance whole-hog supported — and political violence are our future.

   On a general level Vance has embraced a version of conservatism significantly different from the roughshod laissez-faire of pre-Trump Republicans. He wants to weaponize state power against perceived cultural enemies. It is a piece of the cultural pessimism of the 21st century American right, which feels it is on the losing end of history. Getting government out of the way, as the old saw goes, is no longer sufficient. Government needs to be captured and harnessed to reverse that course. That’s the core premise of the “national conservatism” that acolytes have built as a package or container for the raw rage energy of Trumpism.

   Which brings us to the final point: At the most basic level, Vance is another angry and aggrieved white guy, very much a successor to Trump, with all the political momentum and vulnerability that comes with it.

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