A BIPARTISAN BORDER BILL WAS PROPOSED AND AT THE REQUEST OF THE ORANGE TURD, MAGA GOP GENUFLECTED AND DEFEATED IT!
IF REPUBLICANS WANT SOLUTIONS, WHY WOULD THEY DEFEAT THE SOLUTIONS?
FLORIDA OUTLAWED 'IMMIGRANTS,' THAT ALSO FORCED THOSE MARRIED TO 'UNDOCUMENTED' PEOPLE TO FLEE FLORIDA. THE CONSEQUENCES HAVE BEEN A SHORTAGE OF PEOPLE AVAILABLE TO PICK CROPS - CROPS ROTTING IN THE FIELDS, AMERICANS ARE NOT RUSHING TO FILL THOSE JOBS! THERE'S A SHORTAGE OF CONSTRUCTION WORKERS......
FLORIDA CAN PROCLAIM ITS FALSE SOLUTIONS, BUT DON'T IGNORE FLORIDA'S FAILURES LIKE THE RECENT FLOODING CAUSED BY SLASHING FUNDING, INSURANCE COSTS AND MUCH ELSE.....
DESANTIS SENT A PLANELOAD OF PEOPLE FROM TEXAS TO MARTHA'S VINEYARD OFF SEASON WHEN FACILITIES WERE CLOSED, DUMPED THEM AT AN AIRPORT FAR FROM TOWN....RESIDENTS RUSHED TO PROVIDE FOOD AND SUPPLIES --- CAUSING TRAFFIC JAMS....THEY WERE WELCOMED!
THE ISLAND IS ONLY ACCESSIBLE BY PLANE OR BOAT - INADEQUATE MEDICAL FACILITIES.
THEY WERE VOLUNTARILY TRANSFERRED TO A MILITARY BASE THAT IS ACCESSIBLE FOR SERVICES, OFFERS DORMITORY FACILITIES AND A CAFETERIA.
THE MILITARY BASE WAS PREVIOUSLY USED TO HOUSE EVACUEES FROM THE LOUISIANA HURRICANE.
THEY WERE WELCOMED!
Ron DeSantis called out Martha's Vineyard in RNC speech. Here's the history behind the jab
With a theme of "Make America Safe Again," DeSantis spoke about immigration when he took to the podium, and on stage he made a jab at Massachusetts and other liberal leaning states.
"They support support open borders allowing millions and millions of illegal aliens to pour into our country and to burden our communities, but just don't send any to Martha's Vineyard then they get really upset," he said.
That moment references the 2022 political stunt when he sent two charter planes of about 50 migrants from Venezuela to the state to make a point about sanctuary states. The move to send the migrants unannounced was controversial.
Here's what to know.
Who is Ron DeSantis?
DeSantis is the current governor of Florida, his term beginning in January of 2019. He has generally leaned politically conservative in his ideological and policy choices.
The "Don't Say Gay" Bill, the near-absence of COVID-19 restrictions and social distancing measures at the peak of the pandemic and his legislation to prevent transgender people to use the government-owned bathrooms that most reflects their gender identities are key moments in his tenure as governor.
In his speech, DeSantis prodded at the Democratic Party for its support of the LGBTQ community, saying that the Democrats can't parse out a clear definition of the word woman, a jab at transgender women, specifically. He also pushed the narrative that "gender ideology" was being impressed upon military members and small children, alike.
DeSantis, a longtime critic of more open immigration policies, signed three bills in March to put pressure on undocumented immigrants living in Florida, increasing the severity of prison sentences for returning deported migrants.
Nearly two years ago, he pulled a political stunt to show his opposition to President Biden's immigration policies.
Why did Ron DeSantis send a plane of migrants to Martha's Vineyard?
DeSantis was part of a string of governors sending migrants who crossed the U.S. border illegally to blue states in 2022. Around the same time as the Martha's Vineyard plans, 100 migrants reportedly arrived outside the home of Vice President Kamala Harris. Previously, buses loaded with migrants were sent from Arizona and Texas to Washington D.C., New York and Chicago.
After news of the planes arriving on Martha's Vineyard broke, DeSantis' communications director said, "States like Massachusetts, New York and California will better facilitate the care of these individuals who they have invited into our country by incentivizing illegal immigration through their designation as ‘sanctuary states...'"
At the time, the move was called a “blatant disregard for human life” by a joint delegation of Venezuelan-American groups who also accused DeSantis of lying to Cuban and Venezuelan people when they said he pledged not to send migrants from either country out of state.
After they arrived at Martha's Vineyard, the migrants were voluntarily moved to Joint Base Cape Cod in Bourne, where many remained for a period of time before further arrangements could be made. Officials said some returned to Martha’s Vineyard for work and living arrangements.
Has Ron DeSantis talked about sending more migrants to Martha's Vineyard?
As recently as this March, DeSantis has talked about repeating the political stunt.
On a podcast, DeSantis suggested in March he would send a potential influx of Haitian migrants to Martha’s Vineyard. The comments, made on a podcast hosted by the conservative radio host Dana Loesch, were in regards to a question about an influx of migrants fleeing Haiti.
“We do have our transport program also that is going to be operational,” DeSantis said on the podcast. “So, if Haitians land in the Florida Keys, their next stop may very well be Martha’s Vineyard.”
While having no strict legal definition, a sanctuary state has been defined as a jurisdiction that limit cooperation with federal immigration law enforcement, like failing to provide information about immigration status and curtailing the length of immigration detainers, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
The following states have been labeled as sanctuary states by immigration hardliners:
Tuesday night, House Speaker Mike Johnson told the Republican national convention, “We in the Republican Party are the law and order team.” He said that as they prepare to nominate a convicted felon to be president. A man who spent over a year lying to the National Archives and Justice Department about the fact that he was keeping classified documents in publicly accessible bathrooms and the ballroom at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
If you're shameless enough, you can say anything. Apparently, if you repeat it often enough, some people will believe it. Just like Donald Trump's claims that there is a two-tiered criminal justice system, and he's the victim of it. Nothing could be further from the truth. Today, we have the tale of two defendants under prosecution.
Tuesday afternoon, a jury convicted New Jersey Democratic Senator Robert Menendez on all 18 charges in the indictment against him. He was tried alongside two co-defendants. His wife, also charged, will be tried separately. Menendez was convicted of multiple conspiracies, bribery, extortion, wire fraud, obstruction, and other charges related to a scheme where Menendez traded his power as a senator for cash. And gold bars. It’s crass public corruption.
A number of the charges, including honest services wire fraud and Hobbs Act Extortion, carry maximum 20-year sentences. Under federal sentencing guidelines, the Judge is likely to impose a sentence that is much lower, but it will still be tied to the dollar amount of the fraud, which is significant. Over half a million dollars in cash was recovered when search warrants were executed at Menendez’s home and his wife’s bank safe deposit box, and the guidelines include enhancements for people who abuse a position of public trust to commit their crimes, like the Senator did. Menendez will likely spend a meaningful amount of time in custody.
DOJ first indicted Menendez in September 2023. Even with two superseding indictments adding additional charges, his trial began a mere eight months later.
Trump has been indicted in four separate cases:
In March 2023 by the Manhattan district attorney on state charges of falsifying business records related to hush money he paid to Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election to procure her silence about their sexual encounter. He was convicted on all charges on May 30, 2024, but in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision that Trump enjoys broad presidential immunity, Judge Juan Merchan is reevaluating the validity of the conviction, and sentencing has been postponed until September 18.
In June 2023 for mishandling classified documents and obstructing justice in federal court in the Southern District of Florida. Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the case on July 15, 2024, ruling that the Special Counsel’s appointment violated the Constitution.
In August 2023, Trump was charged with election interference in connection with the 2020 election. Proceedings in that case have been stayed since late last year while Trump pursued an appeal and ultimately persuaded the Supreme Court to rule that he has immunity for official acts. That case was set to gear back up within the next couple of weeks, but Trump is now likely to seek a further stay following Judge Cannon’s decision on the constitutionality of the special counsel process.
In August 2023, Trump and 18 others were charged in a state RICO case in Fulton County, Georgia, in connection with the 2020 election. Four defendants have already pled guilty, but the case is on hold at least until December when a Georgia appellate court will consider whether District Attorney Fani Willis can continue to prosecute the case. Under Georgia law, they have until March 2025 to rule.
Of the four cases, all involving serious felony charges against Trump, one now stands dismissed, two are indefinitely delayed, and even the jury unanimously convicting him is in question. If there is, in fact, a two-tiered justice system, Trump is certainly the beneficiary of it.
When Menendez was indicted, there were no cries of witch hunt from the ranks of Democrats. There were no claims that the Justice Department had been weaponized. Apparently, there are some people in politics who still believe in the rule of law, just not in the party that claimed so boldly tonight that it is the party of law enforcement.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, has called for Menendez to resign. Meanwhile, the Republican party is in the process of embracing Donald Trump as its nominee to lead the country.
It’s a discouraging moment. But Donald Trump is not inevitable. Four months is a long time in an election cycle, and a lot can happen. What we can do is to share ideas and information, like what’s in the newsletter tonight, with people around us. Trump has eluded justice in the courts, at least for now. But he doesn’t have to at the hands of the voters; that’s up to us.
Thank you for being here with me. And thank you to those of you whose paid subscriptions make it possible for me to devote time and resources to writing Civil Discourse. Let’s make sure we do everything we can to keep the Republic.
How J.D. Vance’s shocking inexperience turned into an asset
Presented by
With additional reporting from Ankush Khardori
GREEN IS GOOD — J.D. Vance wasn’t picked as Donald Trump’s running mate because he can deliver Ohio. It’s already in the tank for the GOP. And he wasn’t tapped because he’s the most qualified to be a heartbeat away from the presidency. The entirety of his government experience consists of less than two years in the Senate.
Vance’s ascension is owed to something else entirely. He is the embodiment — and one of the most articulate defenders — of a belief system that has gradually taken hold of the Republican Party, one that prizes cultural and ideological warfare and rewards the warriors who are most effective in taking the fight to non-believers.
National politics has always been the destination for the smartest, most skilled and ambitious partisans. But the conflict itself was rarely the point, just a means to an end, and even the vice presidential nominees expected to do the campaign bladework were typically required to have some semblance of governing experience.
By historic standards, Vance has shockingly little. No experience balancing a state budget, overseeing disaster response, or wrestling with the legal and moral dimensions of the death penalty. He hasn’t commanded a state National Guard or managed a federal agency or Cabinet office. He’s less than a third into his first six-year Senate term.
Intellectual abilities aside, he hasn’t been anywhere long enough to develop a record that suggests he’s prepared to run the country. His conversion on Trump alone demonstrates he’s a work in progress, still developing new incarnations of himself.
Vance has less experience in elected office than other vice presidential nominees who were pilloried over their qualifications — most notably Geraldine Ferraro in 1984, Dan Quayle in 1988 and Sarah Palin, twenty years later. Not that long ago, it would have been a handicap that would have been a consistent and all-consuming topic of debate.
But the forces that delivered a third consecutive nomination to Trump also inexorably led to Vance as his running mate. To a party that has always viewed government as a constraint on liberty, it made perfect sense in 2016 to nominate Trump, a businessman with no prior experience in government. Whatever chaos Trump might have unleashed in the Oval Office as a result, once that hurdle had been met, it wasn’t much of a leap for a populist party with a disdain for establishment norms to settle on a vice president with just 18 months of experience in the Senate.
Vance has experience where it counts for the Trump era GOP, in the social media trenches and on cable TV hits. His Marine Corps service — Vance is the first post-9/11 veteran on a major-party ticket — insulates him on foreign policy, and offers a measure of credibility to isolationist views that once might have been dismissed as a product of a lack of seasoning.
He projects cool anger, and knows the enemy as well as anyone in the party because he’s lived and circulated among them, as a venture capitalist, a celebrated author and a Yale Law School graduate. He doesn’t deliver his home state so much as send a message to the restive regions that the GOP aspires to keep in its fold — the Rust Belt and Appalachia.
Trump spoke to these aspects of Vance’s background in announcing his pick Monday on social media, ticking off LinkedIn bullet points that individually served as dog whistles to the faithful.
It’s an about face for a party that once whacked Democratic presidents like Barack Obama and Bill Clinton for their naivete when it came to Washington and their on-the-job learning. And it’s a dramatic departure from recent veep nominees like Dick Cheney and Paul Ryan, both Washington heavyweights, and former Vice President Mike Pence, a former governor and six-term member of the House.
But that’s precisely the intention. As a 39-year-old with considerably less experience than Dan Quayle — who had several House terms and a full Senate term under his belt when he was tapped to be George H.W. Bush’s vice president — Vance’s rapid rise mirrors the GOP’s ideological realignment. He is Trump’s declaration of independence from the old Republican Party, a tacit rejection of what the GOP once valued at home and abroad.
Yet Vance’s ascent isn’t merely a function of Trump’s assault on elites and credentialism. He arrives at the end of an era dating back to 1960, when Richard Nixon campaigned on the slogan, “Experience Counts,” which was designed to highlight his background as House member, senator and two-term vice president against then junior Sen. John F. Kennedy. By 2008, a septuagenarian John McCain was prepared to hand over the keys to the White House to Palin, who was hammered for a thin resume consisting of a mayoral stint and two years as Alaska governor.
Experience, however, is no longer viewed as a badge of seriousness in either party, but especially among Republicans. Trump’s own 2016 victory came against an unusually deep and accomplished field of GOP governors and senators. He mercilessly turned their years of service in government against them all, painting them as denizens of the Washington swamp that he promised to drain.
Television cameras captured the prevailing sentiment up close at the Republican National Convention on Monday. As Minority Leader Mitch McConnell — the longest-serving Senate Republican leader in the history of the nation and godfather of the Kentucky Republican Party — stood at a microphone on the floor to nominate Trump, he was met with a resounding chorus of boos. In the midst of the awkward scene, all he could do was offer a pained smile and a thumbs up.
The cover of the RNC, however, has done little to head off the widespread criticism from legal analysts of Cannon’s startling decision, which concluded that special counsel Jack Smith’s appointment was unconstitutional. It was a major departure from decades of legal precedent supporting the use of special counsels by the Justice Department, as well as the statutes and regulations authorizing their use, POLITICO’s Ankush Khardori writes for Nightly.
For political-legal obsessives, there were at least two other immediate implications — one concerning the highly consequential question of how the Justice Department will operate in a second Trump term, and the other concerning a rolling and long-running public debate over Cannon’s handling of the case.
It’s not clear whether the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals will weigh in before the November election, but if they do not, and if Trump is reelected, Cannon’s decision could very well be the last word on the matter in this case. Trump, of course, is widely expected to ensure that the Justice Department’s cases against him are dismissed if he returns to office.
On top of that, Cannon’s decision could give Trump even more ammunition in the prosecutorial revenge campaign that he has repeatedly promised to embark upon against his supposed political enemies and legal adversaries. That’s because Cannon effectively concluded that the Justice Department is legally barred from appointing special counsels from outside the department — even in cases where there is an obvious conflict of interest for the current administration.
Cannon’s 93-page opinion, by itself, does not bind any other judge in the country, but you can reasonably expect a future Trump Justice Department to use Cannon’s opinion to justify any decision to use Trump appointees at DOJ to directly manage any investigations and prosecutions of his purported enemies and critics.
For almost two years now, legal analysts and political commentators who have taken issue with Cannon’s handling of the case have grappled with two different characterizations of the judge, who was appointed by Trump and has proven to be a highly favorable draw for him. Is Cannon a “MAGA judge in the tank for Trump” who was always looking for a superficially plausible reason to toss the case against him? Or is she a relatively conventional conservative judge — another card-carrying member of the Federalist Society — who is inexperienced and in over her head?
The debate has played out in countless cable television segments, news stories and social media posts. As a participant in many of those discussions, I have largely tended toward the latter characterization of Cannon, whose handling of the case — both procedurally and substantively — seemed consistent with that of an ideologically-driven judge who lacks significant experience dealing with complex litigation.
Her decision on Monday, however, is potent evidence in favor of her strongest detractors.
WHAT'D I MISS?
— Menendez found guilty in corruption trial: Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez was found guilty today in his corruption trial, a historic verdict marking a dramatic downfall for New Jersey’s senior senator who was one of the most influential people in Washington D.C. The 12-member jury found Menendez guilty on all 16 counts after a two-month trial on charges that all but ended his political career. Federal prosecutors accused Menendez of bribery, acting as a foreign agent for Egypt, obstruction of justice, extortion and conspiring to commit those crimes.
— House GOP ramps up investigations into Trump assassination attempt: House Republicans are quickly ramping up their sprawling investigation into the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump — with a GOP chair scheduling a public hearing with a trio of top officials next week. House Homeland Security Chair Mark Green (R-Tenn.) today invited Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and FBI Director Christopher Wray to testify about Saturday’s shooting before his panel on July 23. Cheatle is already expected to appear before the House Oversight Committee the day before, and Wray is slated to testify before the House Judiciary Committee next week, an appearance that was on the books before Saturday’s shooting.
— Scarborough blasts NBC for pulling ‘Morning Joe’ after Trump shooting, threatens to quit if it happens again: MSNBC “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough slammed his own network for pulling his show on Monday in favor of news coverage of the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, saying he and co-host Mika Brzezinski were “surprised” and “disappointed” by the call and threatening to leave if it happens again. “Next time we are told there will be a news feed replacing us, we will be in our chairs,” Scarborough said live on air this morning. “And the news feed will be us, or they can get somebody else to host the show.”
A drafted letter, circulated by Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) and obtained by POLITICO, offers the first public signal from Democrats since the weekend’s attempted assassination on former President Donald Trump that scores of their own members remain deeply unsettled about the future of Biden’s candidacy.
HOLD OUT — Teamsters President Sean O’Brien called President Joe Biden “definitely the most pro-labor president we’ve ever had and we’ve ever seen” — but he’s still not ready to endorse him. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters president, who represents over 1.3 million members, became the first Teamsters leader to speak at a Republican National Convention on Monday evening. The union has historically endorsed Democratic candidates — but this year, O’Brien suggested, that could change.
PELOSI IN PRIVATE — One House Democrat anxious about President Joe Biden’s effect on the 2024 campaign recently sought out guidance from a trusted party leader: Nancy Pelosi. This lawmaker, who represents a swing seat and was granted anonymity to describe private conversations, said Pelosi asked detailed questions about congressional district-level polling and was “very receptive” to concerns that Biden couldn’t win in November. The member ended the phone call with the distinct impression that Pelosi believed Biden should exit the presidential race.
AROUND THE WORLD
IN THE IN BETWEEN — Governing France is about to get much harder for Emmanuel Macron. The French president today accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Gabriel Attal and his government, the Elysée said in a statement, officially starting a transition period during which the outgoing administration plays the role of caretaker government until a new executive is appointed.
The statement added that Macron urged “all Republican forces” to reach an agreement in order to end this transition period “as soon as possible.”
This transitory period has never lasted more than nine days — but these are unprecedented times in France.
The choice of who fills the prime ministerial and cabinet positions is up to the president, who mostly does as they please when their party holds an absolute majority in parliament, or otherwise picks the leader of whichever party controls the lower house.
But the fragmented political landscape in France makes it unclear who is set to govern and who will act as an opposition.
Though the left-wing New Popular Front coalition won last week’s snap election, it is far from holding an absolute majority in the National Assembly and cracks are starting to appear in its ranks over who should be put forward as prime minister.
NIGHTLY NUMBER
RADAR SWEEP
NEED A FRIEND — When writer Kelly Stout had a child and entered her thirties, she noticed that it was harder to spontaneously see many of her friends. They had moved away, or they were busy themselves with children or partners or work. So she gave herself one month to make a new friend, someone who she could text and see on a whim and whose company she enjoyed. For Esquire, she wrote about the trials and tribulations of that process — why more Americans are wanting for friends than ever, why it’s hard to make new ones and some of the benefits of doing so.
PARTING IMAGE
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