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Trump Is Now Selling Overpriced “Trump Watches”

By dianeravitch
September 29, 2024 //
12

Jonathan V. Last of The Bulwark has performed a public service by dissecting the actual cost of the brand-new Trump watches, which Trump is advertising and selling online. The top of the line sells for $100,000, the least expensive is $499. All profits, of course, go to Trump personally, not to his campaign. Trump is cashing in on the gullibility of his cult.

Last shows in his post that the actual cost of putting together the $100,000 all-gold with inlaid diamonds watch (engraved with Trump’s name on is face) is $20,000. The actual cost of the $499 watch with Trump’s name on its face is $60.

He writes:

How much are these watches worth, really?

Let’s take the $499 version, which is a red-dial steel dive watch. It has an automatic date movement of unspecified origin. (Translation: China.) It has a mineral crystal with an aluminum bezel. The clasp does not appear to have micro-adjustments.

The internet is full of off-brand watches like this. Here’s how you build one:

Everything you need comes from China using AliExpress. First you buy a steel case and bracelet for, say, $30. Like this one.

You engrave the caseback using laser etching working off an .svg file. Maybe that costs $5. Then you buy the cheapest possible automatic movement with a date function. Here’s one for $9. Pop the movement into the case and all that’s left are ial and handset. Hands are super-cheap.

And sunburst dials—even with applied markers—are not terribly expensive, either.

The final step is actually the most expensive: You have to pay someone to machine the “TRUMP” and signature bits and glue them to the dial. This is the first truly custom step and maybe, if the manufacturer wants to spend a little more money, they’re having a fourth-party make the dials for them out of sunburst blanks.

All told we’re in the neighborhood of $60. And that’s if you’re just trying to build a single watch without bulk purchasing power.

Reminder: They’re selling it for $499.

Last determined that Trump will pocket millions of dollars from the sale of these watches.

Here is his description of the $100,000 watch:

Enough with the plebe beater watches. I want to know about the $100,000 Trump “Victory” watch!

At least these aren’t from Ali Express.

Almost the entirety of the cost for the Victory models comes in the material cost for the “solid gold” case and bracelet. Trump claims there’s 200 grams of 18K gold in each watch. If true, the spot price of gold puts that cost near $13,000.¹ That’s real money.

The tourbillon movement inside these watches also appears to be an off-the-shelf product, but at least it’s a high shelf.² If I had to bet, I’d guess the Victory uses something from Olivier Mory, who sells “Swiss Made” tourbillon movements that generally run around $3,000.

How does Mory keep costs down? “Swiss Made” is like “Broadway”—it sounds like a colloquial description, but it’s actually a legal term of art.³Swiss Made means that 60 percent of the manufacturing costs and 50 percent of the “essential manufacturing step” must occur in Switzerland. Mory sources as many parts of his movement as he can from outside Switzerland—while still maintaining his “Swiss Made” status. And he streamlines his build process so that he can assemble 1,000 movements per month while keeping half of the “essential manufacturing step” in country.⁴

I can’t speak to the cost of the diamonds because there’s no information about the total karat weight involved but they appear to be quite small, in the <1mm range. For the sake of argument let’s say that the diamonds add another $1,000.

We’re now talking about a total production cost in the neighborhood of $20,000—and possibly much less—for a watch offered at $100,000.

As a point of reference, the list price on a solid gold Rolex Submariner is $40,600. In the Submariner you get an in-house, state-of-the-art movement running at COSC spec inside a bullet-proof case. The fit and finish will be superlative. And even though you’re paying over the odds for the Rolex name, you’re getting 10x the watch for 40 percent of the price of a Trump Victory.

Did I mention that the Trump Victory can’t get wet? From the Trump website: “The Tourbillon watches are not intended for water exposure.”

Which watches does Trump own?

Last writes:

Trump is not a watch nerd, exactly, but he knows that Big Rich Guys should wear expensive gold watches. So he has a Patek Philippe Golden Ellipse ($17,500), a gold Rolex President Day-Date ($40,000), and a Vacheron Constantin Historiques Ultra-Fine ($20,000). It’s a small, understated collection and if I’m being honest, it’s impressive in its own way. These are beautiful watches from serious watchmakers and they suggest an elevated taste that I would not have expected from Trump.

The website for Trump watches includes this advisory:

Trump Watches are not designed, manufactured, distributed or sold by Donald J. Trump, The Trump Organization or any of their respective affiliates or principals. TheBestWatchesonEarth LLC uses the “Trump” name, image and likeness under a paid license agreement which may be terminated or revoked according to its terms. Trump Watches are intended as collectible items for individual enjoyment only, not for investment purposes. 
The images shown are for illustration purposes only and may not be an exact representation of the product.
These watches are not political and have nothing to do with any political campaign.

Panelists on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” agreed that it’s become very expensive to be a follower of Trump. The Trump Bible. The Trump commemorative coins. The Trump NFT. The Trump sneakers. Now the Trump watch.

And there is much more for sale at Trumpstore.com.

Gotta make money while there’s still time.

Profiteering off your candidacy is tawdry and undignified.

Categories Elections, For-Profit, Trump

Media and Democracy Project Pickets New York Times: Stop Sanewashing Trump!

By dianeravitch
September 28, 2024 //
20

Bloggers are quick to report on Trump’s latest mistakes, lies, gaffes, outrages, and mental confusion, but a large swathe of the media reports on his speeches without pointing out his lies, threats, and incoherence. A group called the Media and Democracy Project decided to bring their complaints directly to the nation’s most influential newspaper, The New York Times.

THE GOOD NEWS

Members of Media and Democracy Project joined Rise and Resist’s protest outside the New York Times offices in Manhattan on September 18th, 2024

Peaceful Protest Outside The Times

The New York Times is the most powerful news organization in the United States. The narratives created by its editors and journalists have a cascading effect; the rest of the political press internalizes the Times’ agenda and then spits out its priorities and frames to the wider masses. The editorial decisions made on 8th Avenue in New York have a real impact on Americans’ understanding of the stakes of the upcoming elections and the future of our democracy.

An increasing number of regular people are joining media critics in pointing out that the Times is failing catastrophically with its election coverage, in what feels like their leadership willfully ceding to abnormalcy. This month, Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger wrote an exhaustive chronicle of worldwide threats to press freedoms, yet still drew the conclusion that he mustn’t direct his staff to accurately contextualize, or warn of, the threat to democracy here at home.

Yours truly protesting outside the New York Times offices in Manhattan on September 18th, 2024

By failing to join the fight and act as partisans for democracy, Sulzberger and the Times are failing in their critical role to accurately inform American citizens. Drew Magary recently commented in SFGATE that the “Times cares more about its place in the power structure than in actually affecting that power structure.” Magary’s piece goes further to say no one should care what the Times says anymore and we should all ignore its political coverage. His righteous dismissal is a response to the Times’ efforts to reject criticism, both internal and external.

Members of Media and Democracy Project joined Rise and Resist’s protest outside the New York Times offices in Manhattan on September 18th, 2024

When A.G. Sulzberger’s father eliminated the Public Editor position in 2017, he assured his readership that they were now the most important critics. Dan Froomkin chronicled this for his Press Watch website:

At the time, Sulzberger wrote in a memo to the newsroom that “our followers on social media and our readers across the internet have come together to collectively serve as a modern watchdog, more vigilant and forceful than one person could ever be. Our responsibility is to empower all of those watchdogs, and to listen to them, rather than to channel their voice through a single office.”

The charade of newsroom responsiveness to outside criticism did not last long. Only a few years later, Times chief Dean Baquet was completely dismissive of “followers on social media,” saying “I could care less about the unnuanced voices on Twitter. That doesn’t mean I don’t care about what our readers think, but I don’t pay as much attention to Twitter as Twitter might want me to.”

Members of Media and Democracy Project joined Rise and Resist’s protest outside the New York Times offices in Manhattan on September 18th, 2024

We’ve explored all manner of tactics to get the Times to improve its coverage and regain its credibility, including calling on them in January to reinstate the position of Public Editor. We have not heard back as of the writing of this piece. 

While some, like Magary, believe it’s no longer worth anyone’s energy trying to effect change at the Times, we disagree. A workplace is not a monolith and there are many employees there who disagree with the Times’ normalizing coverage of the Trump/MAGA threat to democracy. We want to aid those workers by facilitating a culture of dissent. 

Members of Media and Democracy Project joined Rise and Resist’s protest outside the New York Times offices in Manhattan on September 18th, 2024

On September 18th, we joined a peaceful protest outside the Times building organized by Rise and Resist, a New York City-based direct action group. Flyers with criticisms of A.G. Sulzberger and senior editors were handed to employees entering the building with the goal of inspiring the humans who power the New York Times to activate their moral core and advocate for a change in political coverage. 

The flyer that was handed out to Timesemployees

No more excuses can be made for the upper management’s normalizing and sanewashing of the most manifestly unfit person ever to run for president. It is unlikely that the Times’ HR department would approve a person like Trump for any position in their building. So why are the powerful people who run the Times deceiving America about his fitness to take a job leading us all?

Categories Democracy, Elections, Extremism, Media, Trump

John Thompson: Oklahoma’s State Superintendent Wants Schools to Teach MAGA Worldview

By dianeravitch
September 27, 2024 //
24

John Thompson, historian and former teacher, describes in this post the latest trampling of the rights of students and teachers by Ryan Walters, the state’s Secretary of Education. Secretary Walters wants to eject “indoctrination” from the schools but replace it with his own brand of introdoctrination. True MAGA!

Thompson:

Somethings Happening Here; What Is, Never Is Clear. 

In July, State Superintendent Ryan Walters announced that an executive committee would overhaul Oklahoma’s standards in order to eliminate DEI and “indoctrination,” and highlight “American exceptionalism.” It would feature prominent conservatives, including Dennis Prager of PragerU, David Barton of the Christian Nationalist organization, Wallbuilders, and the president of the Heritage Foundation, Kevin Roberts.”

In an interview with NBC News, Walters then threatened, “Oklahoma educators who refuse to teach students about the Bible could lose their teaching license.”

And Roberts, a sponsor of Project 2025, has further explained,  “We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.” Roberts also told the New York Times that “he views Heritage’s role today as ‘institutionalizing Trumpism.’”

According to FOX 25, in early September, the entire Social Studies Standards Committee met “to discuss what they thought would be a final review.”  Instead, an undisclosed draft of their standards, was presented by the executive committee. Moreover FOX News was told that committee members “had to sign non-disclosure agreements not to share what was being discussed and were reminded of the NDAs at the end of the session.”

FOX’s sources also said, “what happened Tuesday left them ‘disheartened.’” One source said, “I want to throw up.”

Moreover, State Rep. Forrest Bennett described the meeting as, “essentially getting them into a room today and saying ‘Thanks for all your work. We don’t care. We’re deleting, copy-pasting … [and imposing] right-wing, out-of-state, out-of-touch, standards.'”

The same week, new information was disclosed in regard to revoking the teaching license of Summer Boismier. In 2022, her district, “fearing the grave risk of an HB 1775 complaint required teachers to remove their classroom libraries until they could read every book or provide multiple sources to confirm each title was age appropriate.” So, Boismier, “covered the shelves of her classroom library with red butcher paper on which she wrote ‘books the state doesn’t want you to read.’” She also “posted a QR code in her classroom that linked to an online library containing banned books.”  (HB 1775 basically banned eight concepts in a confusing way; essentially it was an attack on what the state called Critical Race Theory, which wasn’t actually being taught in schools.)

In 2023, “an administrative law judge found [that] the Education Department failed to prove that Boismier’s conduct justified revocation of her teaching certificate.” But in August of 2024, Board of Education issued their revocation order without revealing what it said. We now know that Boismier was accused of “’circumventing’ HB 1775, but not of teaching any of its banned concepts.”

And now Boismier’s attorney says, “It should be an easy call for the courts to overturn it, since Walters chose to throw out the actual facts and law in the case to get the results he wanted and campaigned on.”

In other cases during that week, Edmond teacher, Regan Killackey, is fighting in court against Walters’ effort to revoke his teaching license for “goofing around with his son and daughter in a party supply store in September 2019, snapping photos. His daughter put on a mask of Donald Trump. His son held up a silver plastic sword, and Killackey grimaced.”

And, Republican Rep. Kevin Wallace announced:

That the Legislative Office of Fiscal Transparency (LOFT) would begin an investigation into spending concerns regarding the Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE). This investigation, approved by Speaker Charles McCall, R-Atoka, and spearheaded by Wallace in his capacity as Chairman of LOFT, will focus on issues raised by both legislators and private citizens regarding alleged OSDE funding disbursement issues.

Moreover, all relevant information will be shared “with Attorney General Gentner Drummond regarding any potential violations of the Open Records or Open Meeting Acts by OSDE.”

So, what’s happening here in Oklahoma “ain’t exactly clear,” but we know that more Republican legislators are resisting Walters and it seems unlikely that Walters’ overreach will hold up in court. What I hear from legislators is that the effort to impose Project 2025 on history standards has prompted a serious tumult behind closed doors. It’s also clear that Walters and the Heritage Foundation will continue their assaults on public education. But, I’m confident that Walters, at least, his heading for a fall. 

Categories Education Industry, Extremism, Freedom to Read, Oklahoma, Politics, Trump

General McChrystal Endorses Kamala Harris

By dianeravitch
September 27, 2024 //
16

General Stanley McChrystal, a much-decorated leader of the U.S. military, endorsed Kamala Harris for President. General McChrystal is retired. His endorsement appeared in The New York Times.

He wrote:

Some deeply consequential decisions are starkly simple. That is how I view our upcoming presidential election. And that is why I have already cast my ballot for character — and voted for Vice President Kamala Harris.

As a citizen, veteran and voter, I was not comfortable with many of the policy recommendations that Democrats offered at their convention in Chicago or those Republicans articulated in Milwaukee. My views tend more toward the center of the political spectrum. And although I have opinions on high-profile issues, like abortion, gun safety and immigration, that’s not why I made my decision.

Political narratives and policies matter, but they didn’t govern my choice. I find it easy to be attracted to, or repelled by, proposals on taxes, education and countless other issues. But I believe that events and geopolitical and economic forces will, like strong tides, move policymakers where they ultimately must go. In practice, few administrations travel the course they campaigned on. Circumstances change. Our president, therefore, must be more than a policymaker or a malleable reflection of the public’s passions. She or he must lead — and that takes character.

Character is the ultimate measure of leadership for those who seek the highest office in our land. The American revolutionary Thomas Paine is said to have written, “Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what God and angels know of us.” Regardless of what a person says, character is ultimately laid bare in his or her actions. So I pay attention to what a leader does.

History has shown us that the office of the presidency unfailingly reveals the occupant’s character. Moments of disappointment and crisis — like Jimmy Carter’s acceptance of responsibility for the failed 1980 Iran hostage rescue mission, John F. Kennedy’s navigation of the terrifying 13-day confrontation over Soviet missiles in Cuba and Abraham Lincoln’s courageous issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation — said little about policy but much about character.

And we’ve seen both sides of the coin: Failures of character, such as those of Richard Nixon and his vice president Spiro Agnew, dishonor and potentially threaten our republic. Character will dictate whether we stand by our NATO allies and against Vladimir Putin’s continued aggression. Character will dictate whether we have a commander in chief who honors and respects the men and women who serve in uniform.

Fortunately, neither candidate in this pivotal election is unknown to us. We’ve had years to watch both closely.

Each of us must seriously contemplate our choice and apply the values we hope to find in our president, our nation and ourselves. Uncritically accepting the thinking of others or being swayed by the roar of social media crowds is a mistake. To turn a blind eye toward or make excuses for weak character from someone we propose to confer awesome power and responsibility on is to abrogate our role as citizens. We will get — and deserve — what we elect.

I’ve thought deeply about my choice and considered what I’ve seen and heard and what I owe my three granddaughters. I’ve concluded that it isn’t political slogans or cultural tribalism; it is the best president my vote might help select. So I have cast my vote for character, and that vote is for Vice President Kamala Harris.

Ms. Harris has the strength, the temperament and, importantly, the values to serve as commander in chief. When she sits down with world leaders like President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, representing the United States on the global stage, I have no doubt that she is working in our national interest, not her own.

I would urge others to vote as I have. But whatever decision you make, let it be thoughtfully considered, carefully reached and yours alone. We’ll all have to live with it.

Categories Character, Democracy, Freedom, Harris, Kamala, Trump

Brazil Banned Twitter; Three Weeks Later, Elon Musk Folded

By dianeravitch
September 26, 2024 //
7

On September 9, Lisa Dye of Public Notice wrote about why Brazilian authorities banished Twitter (or, as its proprietor calls it, X). She wrote that he sticks up for his rightwing buddies, not free speech. In 2022, Brazil’s strongman leader Bolsonaro bestowed a prestigious national award on Musk.

She writes:

As of this writing Brazil’s 215 million citizens cannot access X (or “twitter” as we’ll call it). And yet, they are still living in the dumbest timeline.

Elon Musk, the world’s foremost “free speech absolutist,” has picked a fight with the Brazilian government over its demand that he censor rightwing misinformation. It’s a classic situation of “why can’t they both lose?” But right now, the only ones losing are the Brazilian people.

The saga began with former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a rightwing conservative who lost his bid for reelection in 2022 to leftwing politician Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. On January 8 of last year, Bolsonaro’s supporters stormed Congress and the Supreme Court in a failed attempt to keep him in power. 

The reaction of the Brazilian government to January 8 stands in stark contrast to official reaction to January 6 in the US. In Brazil, hundreds of people were immediately arrested, including some senior government officials. Bolsonaro was barred from running for office again. And Supreme Court justice Alexandre de Moraes led an operation that was both investigatory and preventative. In short, they wanted to figure out why their government had been attacked, and they wanted to make damn sure that it never happened again. 

To that end, Judge de Moraes sought to banish rightwing incitement, the so-called “digital militias,” from social media. In sealed rulings, he ordered Meta, Instagram, and Telegram to remove posts and users who flogged misinformation about the attack on government and advocated for Bolonsaro’s return. 

Meanwhile, Bolsonaro fled to Florida, where he launched a second act as hero of the American right. The Brazilian leader spews the same jingoistic populism, fueled by hatred of minorities and LGBTQ+ people, that animates Trumpism. He even consulted Steve Bannon on his 2018 campaign. And perhaps most importantly, he reinforces their bedrock belief that election fraud is rampant.

As former congressman and current Trump Media CEO Devin Nunes told CNN, “The way his narrative is built, to a large extent, as a copy or a mirror image of the narrative that they have in the US is very useful in the sense of showing people this is happening in other places, too. This proves the whole idea that there is a global conspiracy, a global leftwing conspiracy to keep us, the people who represent the real people, out of power.”

However, Musk has 20 million Twitter subscribers in Brazil, and they were drifting to other platforms, like Mark Zuckerberg’s Threads. Worse, the Brazilian Supreme Court took $2 million from Musk’s Starlink to satisfy its claims against Musk’s X. What did Musk do when threatened with fines and the loss of market share?

The New York Times reported on September 21:

Elon Musk suddenly appears to be giving up.

After defying court orders in Brazil for three weeks, Mr. Musk’s social network, X, has capitulated. In a court filing on Friday night, the company’s lawyers said that X had complied with orders from Brazil’s Supreme Court in the hopes that the court would lift a block on its site.

The decision was a surprise move by Mr. Musk, who owns and controls X, after he said he had refused to obey what he called illegal orders to censor voices on his social network. Mr. Musk had dismissed local employees and refused to pay fines. The court responded by blocking X across Brazil last month.

Now, X’s lawyers said the company had done exactly what Mr. Musk vowed not to: take down accounts that a Brazilian justice ordered removed because the judge said they threatened Brazil’s democracy. X also complied with the justice’s other demands, including paying fines and naming a new formal representative in the country, the lawyers said.

Brazil’s Supreme Court confirmed X’s moves in a filing on Saturday, but said the company had not filed the proper paperwork. It gave X five days to send further documentation.

The abrupt about-face from Mr. Musk in Brazil appeared to be a defeat for the outspoken businessman and his self-designed image as a warrior for free speech. Mr. Musk and his company had loudly and harshly criticized Brazil’s Supreme Court for months, even publicly releasing some of its sealed orders, but neither had publicly mentioned their reversal by Saturday morning.

The moment showed how, in the yearslong power struggle between tech giants and nation-states, governments have been able to keep the upper hand.

Mr. Musk has had to come to terms with that reality in other countries, including India and Turkey, where his social network complied with orders to censor certain posts. But in Brazil and Australia, he complained about government orders he disagreed with and accused local officials of censorship. His company’s responses to governments have often been in line with his personal politics.

In the U.S., where Musk will never be censored, he has restored accounts of neo-Nazis, election deniers, and COVID science deniers. His own Twitter feed is an advertising platform for Trump. He frequently highlights outrageous pro-Trump, anti-Harris messages.

It’s sad to think that this hateful, bigoted man “owns” the world’s town square, where no one ever fact-checks him or moderates his Tweets.

Just proves, as if proof were needed, that money is power.

Categories Censorship, Education Reform, International, Media, Politics, Propaganda, Trump

Charlie Sykes on Laura Loomer

By dianeravitch
September 26, 2024 //
13

Laura Loomer is a Trump fan who craves fame. She seems to have struck gold. She now travels with Trump on his private jet. She has insulted everyone who doesn’t worship Trump, and she has smeared every group that offends her. Charlie Sykes, a prominent Never Trumper, describes his view of Laura Loomer.

He writes:

“It is extraordinary. Laura Loomer is not just a bigot, she is a freak. She is at the far edges of the fever swamp. Even Marjorie Taylor Greene described her as racist and offensive. And yet Donald Trump is associating with her; these are the kinds of people who have his ear right now. So, at this moment of the campaign — I mean think about this we’re less than two months away from the election — Donald Trump is associating with some of the craziest, weirdest figures on the right.”  — Me on “Morning Joe,” September 12, 2024

Sykes writes:

Apparently, I triggered Loomer when I called her a freak…

…which is odd, when you think about it. 

By now — you’d think — she’d be used to being called an antisemitic-Islamophobic-racist-grotesquerie, as well as a conspiracist nutjob, and an overall vile human being. (Details below.)

After all, Trump’s favorite worm-tongue is not your standard-issue deplorable; she’s more like a leak from a laboratory of deplorability: a mutation of all the toxic insanity, bigotry, and demented inhumanity that has poisoned our politics. 

So, you might imagine that she would have developed a thickish hide.

But no.

On Thursday (which was quite a busy day for her), she spent a good chunk of her morning lashing out at Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lindsey Graham… and me. 

Personally, I thought “oxygen thief” was an underwhelming way to end this rant. But she was pretty jazzed by her efforts.

I am, of course, deeply flattered, honored, and not at all humbled by the fact that this loathsome mutant dislikes me. I may frame it.

Why is Donald Trump hanging out with Loomer? 

Why did he want her to be hired by his campaign? Why did she fly with him to the debate this week? Why would he take this 9/11 Truther to this week’s solemn remembrance? Why is he so enamored of her presence? 

Was Nick Fuentes unavailable? Were Alex Jones, David Duke, and the Tiki-torch dudes otherwise engaged? Or does she have other charms for the former president? I couldn’t possibly say.

But it seems clear that she is providing Trump the sort of safe space he so desperately craves — a space where his darkest and ugliest instincts are stroked and validated. Perhaps most important: she hates the people he hates. As Joe Perticone and Marc Caputo note, “Loomer has called Kamala Harris ‘a drug using prostitute.’ As for why Harris doesn’t have biological children, she once said: “I’m willing to bet she’s had so many abortions that she damaged her uterus.’”

Open the link to finish the post.

Categories Accountability, Bigotry, Cruelty, Elections, Extremism, Trump

Imagining Trump’s Immigrant Detention Camps

By dianeravitch
September 25, 2024 //
33

Trump says he will deport 11 million illegal immigrants. He says his deportation program will be unlike anything the nation has ever seen. He is right.

Trump says that Franklin D. Roosevelt deported over one million Mexican immigrants. Not literally true. His aide Stephen Miller must have told him that; Miller will probably be put in charge of the program if Trump wins the election. He hates immigrants.

Actually, the deportations were started in 1930 and reached a peak in 1931, before FDR was elected. Estimates for the numbers of those deported ranged from 300,000-2 million, about half of whom were American citizens. President Herbert Hoover approved the deportation program on the belief that Mexicans were taking jobs from white people. Most of the deportation was implemented by local and state governments.

What would it look like to deport 11 million people?

First, they would have to be rounded up in massive raids. Imagine the terror as federal agents arrived at the homes of immigrants and raided them, carrying away families–men, women and children.

Where to put 11 million people?

Then, the federal government would have to build thousands, tens of thousands of detention camps. Every state would have detention centers. This would be a massive undertaking, because the camps would need to be constructed and supplied with beds, food, personnel, doctors and nurses.

Trump has suggested that the deportees would each have a serial number. Would it be tattooed on their arms?

Inevitably, families would be torn apart, people would die, women would give birth in the camps.

The images sent around the world of detention camps for millions of people would humiliate our country as a cruel, heartless place.

Someone should drape a hood over the Statue of Liberty, so that she does not see what is happening as she lifts her lamp “beside the golden door.”

On the base of the Statue of Liberty, “The New Collosus,” by Emma Lazarus.

Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door! 

No more. Stay home. We are full. No more room. Not at this inn.

Categories Cruelty, Disruption, Elections, Ethics, Extremism, Immigration, Trump

Rex Huppke: JD Vance Ate My Dog. Elon Musk Ate My Cat. Does Trump Care?

By dianeravitch
September 24, 2024 //
57

Rex Huppke is a columnist for USA Today. He wrote on Twitter about two important tech bros who are his pets. Then he quoted his own tweet as “evidence” that it was true.

He wrote in USA Today:

Given all the uproar over GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump’s baseless, utterly false and profoundly racist claims that Haitian immigrants are eating people’s pets in an Ohio town, I would like to make a public statement that is supported by an equal amount of evidence:

“Not long ago, billionaire Elon Musk ate my cat, Mr. Smushyface. Days later, Donald Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, stole and then barbecued and ate my dog, Zoe. I remained quiet about these incidents for fear other tech bros like Musk and Vance might come for my hamster, Dennis. But after much thoughts and prayer, I have decided to honor the memories of Zoe and Mr. Smushyface by letting the world know what I claim to be the truth.”

For those fortunate enough to not yet be aware of the “immigrants are eating our pets” allegations that bubbled up from the right-wing fever swamps and got spouted by Trump during Tuesday’s presidential debate, here’s the deal: A random Facebook post, grounded in something along the authoritative lines of “I heard from a friend of a friend’s kid,” claimed a cat went missing and was (maybe) eaten by a Haitian immigrant.

It’s true that JD Vance ate my dog because I wrote it on the internet

There’s no evidence of that happening, of course. But xenophobic fearmongers saw it is a perfect way to monger some xenophobic fear. So Musk started trumpeting the ludicrous claim on X, the enormous social media platform he owns, and then Vance was babbling about it and then Trump spoke the words no presidential-debate-watcher ever imagined they’d hear, saying of Springfield, Ohio: “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs, the people that came in. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”

OK.

If an actual former president who is also the Republican Party’s standard-bearer and its presidential nominee is so concerned about a fabricated story aimed at dehumanizing an entire swath of people, he damn well better be equally concerned about my story, which is true because I read it on the internet. (Granted, what I read on the internet was from my own social media post, but that’s not important.)

My brave admission that Elon ate my cat

Here’s how this real-because-I-say-it-is story of Vance and Musk being ravenous pet devourers developed.

On Monday, I bravely posted the following on X, the social media cesspool formerly known as Twitter ‒ “True story: Elon Musk ate my cat. Please share your own story of Elon Musk eating your pet.”

The response was overwhelming and revealed my pet was far from the only victim of Musk’s decidedly un-American appetite. Others came out of the we’ve-lost-our-pets-to-hungry-tech-bros closet, with posts that included:

“Elon Musk ate my precious bearded dragon Cupcake.”

“Elon Musk ate my worm farm!”

“True story: Elon Musk ate my ferret.”

“He ate my kitten. I was at a conference where he was one day, holding my kitten. He grabbed it from my hand, poured ketchup on it, and just started chomping into it. It was so scary.”

There’s as much evidence Musk ate my cat as there is immigrants ate pets

Posts on X containing false or inaccurate information are often corrected with a “community note.” No such note appeared on my post or on any of the replies, which I took as proof that it’s all 100% true. 

Buoyed by the support of other victims, I posted an additional admission Thursday: “JD Vance ate my dog, Zoe. It’s true, because I am posting it here.”

I added: “I fear there is widespread pet-eating in the tech-bro community. They’re coming to our cities and towns, we don’t know much about them, they bring radical new ideas about what they view as ‘free speech,’ and they are apparently eating our pets. This has to stop.”

Support from others who say their pets were eaten by Musk and Vance

Again, the responses revealed that Vance’s consumption of my beloved Zoe was not a one-off. 

“I caught JD Vance running away with my dog in his grocery wagon.”

“I walked into my house only to find Elon up to his shoulders in my fish tank, bobbing for them while JD chased my cat with a fork and knife! It was horrifying!”

“My Pugs, Montez and Pearl, may they rest in peace, were also consumed by Elon Musk and JD Vance. They had a Pug-B-Que. I grieve every single day for my Pug babies.”

What monsters.

I hope Donald Trump condemns his running mate’s pet-eating ways

Clearly there’s more than enough evidence here for Trump to loudly address the problem, condemn his running mate and Musk and imply there’s something scary, evil and unwelcome about wealthy tech dudes who incorrectly think they’re hilarious.

Nothing will bring back my precious Mr. Smushyface or my lovable dog Zoe. Nothing can bring back any of the wonderful pets I know were stolen and eaten by Vance and Musk because I read something somebody posted on the internet and declined to consider it might just be fabricated bull(expletive). 

Something must be done about these rabid tech bros before all our pets wind up down their seemingly bottomless gullets.

I look forward to Trump making this a central part of his campaign in the weeks ahead.

Categories Bigotry, Elections, Hoax, Media, Trump, Vance, J.D.

Joyce Vance: Women! Would You Rather Be a Stepford Wife or a Handmaid?

By dianeravitch
September 24, 2024 //
7

Joyce Vance is a lawyer. She served for eight years as US Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, appointed by President Barack Obama. She blogs at Civil Discourse. This post could be subtitled “Ladies, Don’t Worry your pretty little head about ‘rights.”

She writes:

This is what was on Trump’s mind at 11:49 p.m. last night. 

What did he intend? Were patriarchal family-man types supposed to read it to their wives and daughters while they did chores and prepared meals? It certainly reads that way. You can easily imagine Trump hoping these men would say to the women in their lives: You’re worse off and less healthy than you were four years ago; less safe, more depressed, less happy. Or maybe American women are just supposed to take Trump’s word for it.

Women celebrate in Washington DC after Joe Biden wins the presidency in 2020

Trump thinks women can be told that they are less confident about the future than they were four years ago and they will simply accept it. Women will get on Truth Social, read his post, and think, I don’t need to worry anymore because Donald Trump will fix all of that.

President Joe Biden takes a selfie with a group of event attendees. President Biden has on a pair of aviator sunglasses with the American flag in the lenses. The women in the selfie have on black aviator sunglasses.

These women are looking pretty happy about not-Donald Trump

Donald Trump to women: If you will just listen to Donald Trump, the national nightmare you are enduring will be over.

This Photo Has Some Convinced Taylor Swift Is Backing Kamala Harris - Business Insider

Winning ticket

Donald Trump also wants you to know, if you’re a woman voter, that you won’t have to think about abortion anymore if he’s president. Why? Apparently, because abortion will be one less right to worry about since you won’t have it anymore. Say goodbye to what remains of your control over your health care. But it will be okay, Donald Trump tells you: It will make you happy. 

Trump says in one breath that there are “powerful exceptions” to his abortion bans while also saying that the status of a woman’s right to an abortion is up to her state. Many of those states don’t have exceptions for the mother’s health or have passed laws criminalizing abortion so doctors are afraid to provide care to women until it’s too late. In some of those states, attorneys general are threatening to prevent women from leaving the state to obtain abortion care or to prosecute them for doing so.

“I will protect women at a level never seen before,” Trump concludes. “They will finally be healthy, hopeful, safe, and secure. Their lives will be happy, beautiful, and great again.” He writes it with all the fervor of a man envisioning a future that is part “Stepford Wives” and part “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Trump: You will be happy. Your life will be beautiful. It will be that way because I say so. It is not up to you. 

That’s the future Donald Trump has in store for American women.

Donald Trump is a lunatic. I don’t say that casually. His post from last night was a stark reminder of what it’s like to live in Donald Trump’s America. I’m sure you all remember it—waking up in the middle of the night to check Twitter for news of unfolding disasters. Had he praised a dictator, enacted a Muslim ban, separated children from their parents at the border, called white nationalists “decent people”? What would be next? Don’t worry your pretty little heads about that, he’s telling women now. 

We are 45 days away from the election. We all know the assignment. We are never ever getting back together with Donald Trump. Never ever.

In 2020, early exit polls showed Biden winning the votes of 57 percent of women. A majority of American women were eager to end Trump’s power over their lives. If the best argument Trump has to convince those women to vote for him is that they’ll lose more rights while he tells them to be happy about it, well, good luck with that.

Here’s some better advice for women:

  • It’s okay to vote for Kamala Harris, even if you’re a lifelong Republican voter.
  • If you don’t want to, you don’t have to tell anyone the truth about who you voted for. 
  • Women should be able to make their own choices about their healthcare, and they shouldn’t have to watch their daughters suffer and even die because of Donald Trump’s abortion bans. Woman and their families should have access to IVF. Try telling men they can’t get lifesaving medical care, or even a prescription for Viagra, and see how far that gets you. Don’t vote for someone who treats you like a second-class citizen.

Donald Trump is losing women from inside of his fold. It’s not just Liz Cheney and the never Trumpers. Dawn Roberts, the Iowa state co-chair of the Nikki Haley’s campaign and a lifelong Republican, endorsed Kamala Harris, telling The Des Moines Register, “My husband, Steve, often questioned why the U.S. has never had a female president. I think the time is now and Kamala Harris is the person to lead our country into the future.”

Iowan Harris supporter Dawn Roberts, lifelong Republican

Donald Trump complains that Kamala Harris is too joyful, that she laughs too much. Trump thrives on a dark vision of America in chaos, casting himself in the role of faux superhero coming to save us all. He benefits from fearmongering. Trump made the deliberate choice to talk about “American carnage” in his inaugural address in 2020. As he loses votes among women, Trump resorts to telling us what to think and how to feel. It has nothing to do with our well-being and everything to do with helping him win the election. Sorry Donald. We are not going back.

We’re in this together,

Joyce

Categories Civil Rights, Elections, Equity, Gender, Trump

Unprecedented: Trump Sells Merch That Lines His Pocket, not the Campaign’s Coffers

By dianeravitch
September 23, 2024 //
7

There has never before been a presidential candidate who used his position to make a profit. Usually all fundraising and sales of merchandise go into the campaign’s coffers. But now, Trump is turning his campaign into a major grift. He has been marketing products throughout the campaign, meant to enrich himself, not the campaign. What next? Selling locks of his golden mane for $50,000 a snip? Making money has been his lifetime preoccupation. Win or lose, Trump will still be selling stuff to unwary buyers.

Step right up! Be the first!

Just days ago, Trump announced a new business venture. He is going into the cryptocurrency business. Should he be elected, his new business will be regulated by whoever he appoints as head of the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission). The new Trump business will be called “World Liberty Financial.” The possibilities for conflict of interest have never deterred Trump. During his Presidency, Trump owned the hotel closest to the White House, where foreign nations booked the most expensive suites to impress him.

On Saturday, Trump released a video of him hawking a $100 commemorative coin, which includes his “very beautiful face.” He assures you it is a “limited edition” coin. Don’t accept substitutes. Go to “PatriotTakes” on Twitter to buy your own Trump coin.

Philip Bump wrote about Trump’s profit making businesses in The Washington Post:

One of the defining characteristics of Donald Trump’s rallies is the emergence of an ad hoc marketplace of Trump-related merchandise. If it is made of cloth, is red and carries the name “Trump,” it’s there and it’s for sale.

A businessman like Trump might be expected to have mixed feelings about such a display. On the one hand, it’s a demonstration of the extent of enthusiasm of his supporters. On the other, it’s a lot of money being made from his name going into other peoples’ pockets.

But then, he’s still making a lot of money off his own name, too. In fact, he seems to be making an increasing amount of money selling the Trump brand — at the potential expense of the Trump candidacy.

On Tuesday, for example, Trump announced the fourth collection of his non-fungible token (NFT) trading cards — digital images that are theoretically constrained to increase their value. You may recall the flurry of excitement around NFTs a few years ago, with similar images inexplicably selling for thousands of dollars before plunging in value. Trump was late to this game, but he’s stuck with it, probably because Trump’s NFTs offer something more than a poorly photoshopped image of Trump dressed up as a cowboy: They offer access to Trump.

If you are one of the first 25 people to buy 250 of these new NFTs, the website proclaims, you get a staggering package of goodies: two VIP dinners with Trump and two cocktail receptions, as well as three pairs of signed sneakers (more on those in a second) and some actual physical trading cards, among other things. All for the low price of … let’s see, each card retails for $99, so: $24,750.

This package, mind you, does not include the commemorative card that is adorned with a piece of the suit Trump wore during his debate with President Joe Biden earlier this year. For that particular relic, you need to spend about $1,500 on 15 trading cards.

The money Trump is encouraging his supporters to spend doesn’t go toward getting him elected. The website insists that “these Digital Trading Cards are not political” — sure — “and have nothing to do with any political campaign.” The company simply “uses Donald J. Trump’s name, likeness and image under paid license from CIC Digital LLC, which license may be terminated or revoked according to its terms.”

CIC Digital LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, the entity established when Trump won the presidency to theoretically separate himself from his business interests.

CIC Digital LLC is different from CIC Ventures LLC, also a subsidiary of the Trump Trust. (The “CIC” here is presumably short for “commander in chief,” which would perhaps not be how the Founding Fathers expected that title to be used.) CIC Ventures is the partner of the aforementioned sneaker salespeople.

Want shoes showing a stylized image of Trump immediately after he was shot last month? $299. Want the gold ones, titled “Never Surrender” after Trump’s response to having been arrested in Georgia? $499. The Timberland-style boots are $199. The orange bitcoin/Trump shoes are apparently sold out; they went for $299 as well. (You will notice, as we go through all of this, that cryptocurrency is an undercurrent. That’s not a coincidence.)

Perhaps you’re simply looking to impress the guys at the frat house with your support for Trump. The sneaker people have an array of products designed for you: sandals/slides ($149), a cooler ($299) and Trump-branded cologne, titled “Victory” ($119).

Trump also recently plugged a Telegram channel for something called “World Liberty Financial,” a cryptocurrency-oriented group with an unclear goal. Among the sparse posts at Telegram, though, there was an offered warning: “Please be aware of scams and fake tokens claiming to be associated with ‘Defiant Ones,’ ‘World Liberty,’ or similar names. Do not engage with these tokens!” Scams? In crypto??

There are, of course, plenty of offerings for Trump’s more traditional base of support. There’s the Trump Bible, retailing for about $60. (The website also helpfully explains what to do if your Bible’s pages are sticking together.) And there are the other quasi-religious Trump books any true supporter will have to flesh out his or her library.

The newest is “Save America,” which Trump touted as “a FANTASTIC new Book” for which he “hand-selected every Photo, from my time in the White House, to our current third Campaign for President of the United States.” It’s only $99 — unless you want it signed, which tacks on $400.
For $399, you can get a signed copy of the book “Letters to Trump,” which is what it sounds like. The first book published by the firm responsible for these tomes, called Winning Team Publishing, was “Our Journey Together,” which is now only $74.99. If you want the full “Our Journey Together” bundle — including a special edition of the book, one of Donald Trump Jr.’s books and a “Make America Great Again” hat — you only need to shell out $999. (Donald Trump Jr. is a co-founder of Winning Team Publishing.)
If you only want a MAGA hat, Winning Team has those, too, though it doesn’t appear that sales of these explicitly campaign-oriented hats actually kick anything back to the campaign. They retail for about $30, the same as the Donald Trump-shaped Bluetooth speaker also sold on the website.

Trump’s fancier supporters might be in the market for higher-end products. A standard-sized bottle of Trump wine, from Trump Winery, retails for as much as $94.99 — though the person who benefits would be Trump’s son Eric. For that same price, you can also buy (as of writing) almost five shares of Trump Media & Technology Group stock. Whether that stock or the NFTs are a better investment is a question better answered by economists, but it’s been an unalloyed boon for Trump himself.

Further along the income scale, the Trump Organization still offers memberships at its clubs and golf courses — more expensive than buying 250 NFTs but a better way to ensure face time with Trump on a regular basis. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club/home now welcomes new members for only $700,000 a year. But hurry; the price will reportedly jump to $1 million in October. No wonder profits at Mar-a-Lago have quadrupled since Trump left office.

Almost all of this — the NFTs, the sneakers, the memberships, the books — kicks some portion of what customers pay back to Trump in one form or another. (He made $300,000 from the Bibles, for example.) All while his campaign complains in fundraising emails to supporters about being outpaced by Vice President Kamala Harris.
This is the contradiction that’s lingered around Trump since he announced his 2016 candidacy: He wants to be both a businessman and a candidate at the same time. Except Trump, it seems, doesn’t see it as much of a contradiction at all.

Categories Elections, For-Profit, Trump
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