Dispatches

PROTESTS LIGHT AT DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION. They said tens of thousands of protesters would be in Chicago. They claimed they would “shut down the DNC for Gaza.” Like the Chicago riots during the 1968 Democratic convention, their demonstrations would snarl the city, shake the party and doom the candidacy of “Genocide Joe.”

Then came Kamala Harris — and the protest fizzled. Organizers anticipated there would be 30,000 to 40,000 protesters on hand for the Dec. 19 kickoff. But only a few thousand showed up; police estimated 3,500, Dana Milbank noted at The Washington Post (8/22).

“There were more reporters than protesters,” observed Bennett Weiss. He was there selling Gaza-related buttons, including one that, he said, describes himself: “Self-Ambivalent Jew Against Zionism.”

As the smaller-than-expected group assembled in Union Park near the United Center, Milbank reported, hundreds of signs reading “Victory to the Palestinian Resistance” were left stacked and unused. (They were the work of the “Freedom Road Socialist Organization.”) The protesters had their street puppets and their giant bloody hands. They denounced “Killer Kamala” along with Genocide Joe. Milbanks added, “I heard nary a mention of Oct. 7 or Hamas’s hostages, but clarion calls for the destruction of Israel: ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free. From the sea to the river, Palestine will live forever.’”

Still, the first question from a reporter at a news conference by the organizers was about whether the loss of Biden as their foil had “changed the crowd size.” An organizer said “we won’t know that for a couple more hours.”

A few hours later, we knew. Only 100 people attended a protest march on the DNC by the “Poor People’s Army,” and that was after they delayed the start by 90 minutes. With Green Party candidate Jill Stein in attendance, their announced intention was to make “citizen’s arrests” of Democrats attending the convention and to charge them with “crimes against humanity.”

A few dozen demonstrators broke off from the main group Monday night, Aug. 19, and, a couple of blocks from the arena, threw water bottles at police while taking down a few sections of the outer perimeter fence. Police quickly seized control without using tear gas, nobody was seriously injured, and police reported a grand total of 13 arrests for the day.

[An unsanctioned protest outside the Israeli Consulate on the second night resulted in clashes between protesters and police and 56 arrests, the Associated Press reported.]

RFK JR’S SIBLINGS BACK HARRIS AFTER JR’S INCOHERENT ENDORSMENT OF TRUMP. Five siblings of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called his decision to suspend his independent presidential campaign and endorse Donald Trump the “sad ending to a sad story,”

Amid RFK Jr.’s very long-winded speech, his siblings released a statement throwing their support behind Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and running mate Tim Walz, Walter Einenkel noted at Daily Kos (8/23).

“We want an America filled with hope and bound together by a shared vision of a brighter future, a future defined by individual freedom, economic promise and national pride. We believe in Harris and Walz. Our brother Bobby’s decision to endorse Trump today is a betrayal of the values that our father and our family hold most dear. It is a sad ending to a sad story.”

The Kennedy family has been openly critical of their brother’s dubious endeavors, as well as very public in their support of President Joe Biden’s administration.

‘THANKS TO CITIZENS UNITED,’ 50 MEGADONORS PUT OVER $1.5 BILLION INTO 2024 ELECTION. Just 50 donors have contributed more than $1.5 billion in total to the 2024 federal elections, The Washington Post reported (8/26), based on an analysis of Federal Election Commission data.

The Post’s top 50 list, which includes contributions reported by August 20, is comprised mainly of individual megadonors but also includes some organizations. Most of the contributions accounted for in the list have gone to super political action committees (PACs), which can accept unlimited funds from individuals and corporations, thanks to the 2010 Citizens United ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that loosened campaign finance law, Edward Carver noted at CommonDreams (8/26).

The list led critics of the political system to lash out on social media, with one X user arguing that billionaire influence is undemocratic and leads to policies that hurt the working class, and another positing that it showed “capitalists bankrolling both capitalist parties.”

The Post reported that those on the list “skew Republican” and the top several individual donors on the list are in fact Republicans.

The top donor is Timothy Mellon, an 82-year-old billionaire who was heir to a banking fortune and has given $165 million in total this cycle. He contributed $125 million to the Make America Great Again (MAGA) Inc. super PAC, which supports Republican nominee Donald Trump, and $25 million to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s now defunct campaign.

Kennedy withdrew from the presidential race (8/23) and endorsed Trump. Former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich, who’s now a professor and progressive commentator, said the Trump-Kennedy union was no surprise, given that they shared the same “billionaire nepo baby” donor.

Number two on the Post’s individual list is Kenneth Griffin, a billionaire hedge fund manager who’s given $75.7 million this cycle, largely to congressional races. The top individual Democratic donor is Michael Bloomberg at $41 million.

TEXAS BUSING OF MIGRANTS HITS SPEED BUMP AS FEWER ENTER COUNTRY. For more than two years, Gov. Greg Abbott has sent thousands of migrants who’ve recently arrived at the southern border to cities run by Democrats.

But in border towns, the buses have largely stopped rolling in recent weeks.

Texas sent no buses north in July, according to one report published this week. Another report said that Texas has not sent any buses since late June for a lack of passengers, Alejandro Serrano noted at The Texas Tribune (8/23).

The New York Times reported that the last bus dispatched by Texas left the border near El Paso on June 27 with 50 migrants headed to New York. Texas officials attributed the decrease in buses to a decrease in migrants, according to the Times.

“Texas has decreased illegal crossings into the state by over 85% thanks to our historic border mission,” Abbott spokesperson Andrew Mahaleris said in a statement.

Abbott has vowed to continue the busing program, which only takes migrants who voluntarily get onboard.

The slowdown has coincided with a decrease in the number of migrants entering the country illegally following an executive order from President Joe Biden in early June that widely stopped granting asylum to migrants.

Federal authorities apprehended roughly 32% fewer migrants in Texas in June, the first month that Biden’s order was in place. The sharp drop of apprehensions in Texas was also seen across the rest of the southwest border and continued in July, when they hit a new low during the Biden administration.

The administration has credited his executive order for the decrease, while Abbott has credited the state’s $11 billion Operation Lone Star border mission that launched in March 2021. Through the border initiative, the state has dispatched thousands of Texas National Guard troops to patrol the border and thousands of Department of Public Safety troopers who arrest migrants on state charges.

Two immigrants’ rights groups in Texas sued to stop the executive order. Texas, which has sued the administration over its previous immigration policies, has asked a federal court to help defend the policy, court records say.

J.D. VANCE STANDS BY ‘CAT LADIES’ SLUR. Donald Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance sat down for an interview with “Meet the Press” and once again refused to apologize for characterizing Democrats as “a bunch of childless cat ladies,” Walter Einenkel noted at Daily Kos (8/26)

“Look, I regret, certainly, that a lot of people took it the wrong way,” Vance told NBC’s Kristen Welker in a textbook non-apology. “And I certainly regret the DNC and Kamala Harris lied about it.” In no way did anyone at the DNC or Harris “lie” about Vance’s statement, which was recorded for posterity and amplified in late July by none other than Hillary Clinton.

“I’m a real person. I’m going to make jokes. I’m going to say things sarcastically.” Vance responded when pressed by Welker. Real person Vance then argued that the important information to take away from his belittling of millions of Americans without children was that, “this country has become too anti-family.”

It’s an interesting redirect from someone who skipped out on a vote that would have expanded the child tax credit, and who represents a political party that worked intensely to sunset the expanded child tax credit that helped tens of millions of children get out of poverty in the first place.

GAVIN NEWSOM PULLS 1-MINUTE FACT CHECK ON FOX NEWS. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has made a recent pastime of humiliating right-wing luminaries like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R). So it’s no surprise that when he appeared on Fox News (8/22), Newsom made quick work of host Brett Baier’s attempts to push the sexist right-wing talking point that Vice President Kamala Harris is a soft-on-crime commie, Walter Einenkel noted at Daily Kos (8/23).

Baier brought up California’s Proposition 47, approved by voters to decrease the number of prisoners by reducing penalties for some nonviolent drug crimes and petty theft offenses. The resulting law raised the threshold for felony theft to $950. It didn’t make stealing legal or unpunishable, despite conservative claims to the contrary.

“Which is, by the way, the 10th toughest threshold in the United States of America, meaning you can steal up to $950 of goods and it will be charged as a misdemeanor,” Newsom informed Baier. “You can steal $2,500 in the state of Texas,” Newsom pointed out. “Why you’re not focusing on those other 40 states is beyond me. Tenth toughest felony threshold in the United States of America. That is a fact.”

The $950 threshold has become a major talking point for convicted felon Donald Trump (who has done zero time for his criminal offense) over the past couple of weeks. During a press conference at his Bedminster, N.J., golf course (8/15), the GOP presidential nominee blathered and lied about the law.

“You can rob a store and you have kids, thieves going into stores with calculators, calculating how much it is,” Trump claimed. “Because if it’s less than $950, they can rob, but not get charged.”

Stuck with this dead-end talking point, Baier asked, “Do you think that the pitch that [Harris] was a tough prosecutor in California is going to stick?”

Newsom’s response was lightning-fast.

“Do you remember her primary for president?” a laughing Newsom asked. “She was attacked from the left for being too tough, for being a prosecutor, for having a prosecutorial mindset.”

The California governor is in a different weight class than these guys.

‘THAT’S MY DAD!’ STOLE OUR HEARTS. MEET GUZ WALZ. The unbilled star of the Wednesday (8/21) Democratic National Convention was Gus Walz—the 17-year-old son of Gwen and Tim Walz—who couldn’t hold in his tears, his joy, or his pride at seeing his father on the national stage, Joan McCarter noted at Daily Kos (8/22).

“Hope, Gus, and Gwen, you are my entire world and I love you,” Walz said in his speech, after talking about the years of fertility treatments he and Gwen underwent to have children. That’s when Gus stood up to proclaim to the whole convention center and everyone watching “That’s my dad!”

The Walzes have opened up about their family in a People magazine interview, and especially about Gus, a young man whose parents say his condition is a “secret power.” He has a non-verbal learning disorder, ADHD, and an anxiety disorder.

“Like so many American families, it took us time to figure out how to make sure we did everything we could to make sure Gus would be set up for success as he was growing up,” the couple told People.

“It took time, but what became so immediately clear to us was that Gus’ condition is not a setback,” they added. They explained that Gus “is brilliant, hyper-aware of details that many of us pass by, and above all else, he’s an excellent son and brother to his sibling.”

The Walz’s family values shine through in that interview, just like they did that night in Tim Walz’s speech. He’s taken the simple, beautiful message that “everybody belongs” to the national debate, and for him it clearly starts at home.

That was true before he became the nominee. It’s in all those viral videos he’s done with his daughter, Hope, who makes fun of him unmercifully as a daughter should. It’s all over Walz’s social media pages.

That’s a pretty sharp contrast to those other guys. You don’t see a whole lot of love oozing from Donald Jr. or Eric for their dad Donald at the Republican National Convention. Neither Trump’s wife nor daughter Ivanka chose to speak this time around, and have been noticeably—and deliberately in the case of Ivanka—absent from the campaign trail. And let’s not forget Trump’s youngest.

“I also wanna thank my entire family for being here. Don, Kimberly, Ivanka and Jared. Eric and Lara. Tiffany and Michael. Barron,” Trump said at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wis., at RNC. “We love our Barron.”

Barron, however, was not at the RNC, and Newsweek reported, “led to laughter from the crowd.”

Here’s what Sen. J.D. Vance, Trump’s vice president pick, said about his family in his acceptance speech: “I’m joined by my beautiful wife, Usha, an incredible lawyer and a better mom. And our three beautiful kids, Ewan who’s 7, Vivek who’s 4, Mirabel who’s 2. Now they’re back at the hotel, and kids, if you’re watching, Daddy loves you very much but get your butts in bed. It’s 10 o’clock.”

Feel the love.

A few weeks later, Vance went on a podcast with YouTube comedians the NELK Boys where he laughed about telling Ewan “Son, shut the hell up for 30 seconds about Pikachu” while he was on the phone with Trump.

If it’s about family values, Democrats win every time.

DOJ FILES RENT-FIXING LAWSUIT AGAINST CORPORATE LANDLORDS’ GO-TO SOFTWARE FIRM. Executives at the property management software company RealPage claimed they had the “greater good” in mind when they offered corporate landlords a price-fixing algorithm service, said the U.S. Department of Justice as it filed a lawsuit against the firm—but the scheme allegedly drove rental costs up in communities across the country, contributing to the housing crisis, Julia Conley noted at CommonDreams (8/23).

The antitrust lawsuit, filed with attorneys general from states including California and Colorado, accused RealPage of using confidential data about its clients to algorithmically determine the highest price renters would pay, using its AI software.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and other officials said the company has violated antitrust laws by providing the service, which gives corporate landlords recommended rental prices and allows them to align prices with one another instead of having to compete.

Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter said the lawsuit is “best understood in the words of RealPage’s own executives,” who have said the company’s software allows landlords to “drive every possible opportunity to increase price, even in the most downward trending or unexpected conditions.”

“RealPage tells landlords that it would prefer everybody succeeding versus essentially trying to compete against one another,” said Kanter. “But that’s not how free markets work. Competition among landlords, not RealPage, should determine prices for renters.”

Garland added that “Americans should not have to pay more in rent because a company has found a new way to scheme with landlords to break the law.”

NEWSMAX HOST SAYS POLLS SHOWING HARRIS AHEAD ARE ‘DANGEROUS.’ From the moment she entered the race, polls began moving in favor of Vice President Kamala Harris. However, according to far-right outlet Newsmax, reporting that Harris is ahead is “almost like election meddling,” Mark Sumner noted at Daily Kos (8/22)

As Media Matters for America reported (8/20), Newsmax host Rob Schmitt is concerned about letting Americans see Harris’ good numbers.

“I think that when you put a poll out there that makes it look like Kamala is doing well,” Schmitt said, “it creates the idea in a lot of people’s minds that aren’t intelligent enough to think for themselves that ‘Oh, she must be better than I think she is.’”

“I mean, this kind of polling, in my opinion, is dangerous,” he continued, “and it’s almost like election meddling in a way to put a poll out there like that and have it this skewed.”

Except it’s not “a poll.” It’s pretty much every poll put out recently.

Since entering the race on July 21, Harris has made large gains with low-income Americans, with young women, with people of color, and especially with people who have a “somewhat unfavorable” view of Donald Trump, according to New York Times data from battleground states released Aug. 22.

What groups has she lost support with in those states? Not many, as it turns out. Just “somewhat” and “very” conservative voters, Republicans, and those with a very favorable view of Trump. In other words, people who were almost certainly never going to vote for her in the first place.

So it makes complete sense that Harris now leads national polling averages compiled by The New York Times and 538. She leads even in the average put out by the conservative outlet Real Clear Politics.

Harris is simply ahead in national polling. She’s not ahead by a huge amount. She’s certainly not so far ahead that Democrats don’t know they’ll need to work like crazy to win this election. But … she’s ahead.

Hey, at least, conservatives will always have Rasmussen.

J.D. VANCE RUNS GAUNTLET OF HUMILIATION IN COUNTERING DNC. The Democratic National Convention was a joyous and positive affair. Speakers took their shots at the GOP ticket of Donald Trump and JD Vance, but it is hard not to when those guys keep being so weird about everything.

Events on Wednesday (8/21) were capped off by a tremendous speech from the Democratic vice presidential nominee, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. Across the aisle in MAGA-land, Vance was sent out to do the media rounds and attempt damage control.

It went pretty poorly, Walter Einenkel noted at Daily Kos (8/22).

NBC News’ Tom Llamas asked the Ohio senator about Walz’s assertion that Vance “trashed your own people in your best-selling novel, and that your career was funded by Silicon Valley billionaires.” Vance responded the way he would for the rest of his humiliating night, calling it “a nasty personal attack” before launching into rote campaign talking points.

Things were no better when Vance appeared on CNN, where he complained that DNC speakers did not have “a lot of positive vision” for our country’s future. Host Jake Tapper proceeded to play not one, not two, but three separate videos of Democratic speakers going after Vance for things he’s said and done.

When shown a clip of military veteran and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg calling out Vance’s 2021 claim that Americans without children have “no physical commitment to the future of this country,” Vance responded that the Democrat was taking “a sarcastic remark” he made and distorting it. It wasn’t a sarcastic remark.

When shown Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) pointing out that Trump needed to choose a new running mate because the MAGA base wanted to literally kill the last guy, Vance responded that Raskin and the Democratic Party are “people who somehow always make themselves the victims.”

Tapper finished by showing a clip of Walz calling out Vance and Trump’s fealty to the radical Project 2025 agenda and the billionaire class. Vance just launched into lies about how great things were during the Trump administration—the one that ended with a deadly and mismanaged pandemic.

Vance’s sad media blitz ended with this memorable (and satisfying) moment: While prattling on about how he would “welcome” an endorsement from anti-vaxxer and independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., his feed was cut off mid-sentence.

From The Progressive Populist, September 15, 2024

Populist.com