He has reneged on some critical promises made with reports that the Ukraine war has been a "godsend" for fossil fuel production in the US. In some cases - like new drilling projects, for instance - Biden is better ..er, worse than Trump!

One more reason why Biden's approval numbers are so low?

Biden Reneges on Climate Promises

US Gains As Russia Loses Energy Battle

Team Biden thought they could win the Ukraine war by bringing Russia to its knees with crushing economic sanctions. But, that idea has backfired spectacularly as Russia is selling its fossil fuels to much of the world, including China and India. Meanwhile, the US is raking it in, too, as Europe has won the privilege of importing far more expensive American LNG, a type of fossil fuel that has the added benefit of causing far more deleterious impact on climate.

Sigh.

http://www.chrisweigant.com/2023/07/11/from-the-archives-thinking-the-unthinkable-donald-trump-gop-nominee/#comment-203533

the provisions against insurrection in the 14th Amendment were meant for Confederates who had literally made war on the republic. even in the event of a conviction for whatever he did or didn't do on the 6th of january, i sincerely doubt that any court in the land would prevent him from running, or from taking office if he won.

Yes, there's no law that prevents a criminal, in the general sense, from winning election and taking office as president. But andy in [1] suggested Trump may be convicted of insurrection; if so, the 14th Amendment's prohibition against insurrectionists taking federal office would seem to apply.

Sure, many of the folks in charge of the country's elections may hesitate to use the amendment to bar a convicted Trump from the presidency. But they also might just do so.

It's hard to guess what this Supreme Court might rule about trying to get around a constitutional amendment so specifically aimed at exactly what Trump did and, per andy, what he may well have been convicted in court for doing.

As for the majority of Chris's piece above, about the challengers' dynamics in the GOP debates this fall, I admit to having been bored by the angels-on-the-head-of-a-pin level of analysis.

Trump has 45-55% of his party's support, if not more. For eight years now people have been speculating that that number could somehow fall so that a challenger could replace him as the party's nominee and favorite. It's never happened, despite everything that conventional political analysis says should happen when a candidate or office-holder does even one of the many, many awful things that Trump has done over these eight years. Why would this dynamic change this fall?

The 14th amendment aside, there's no chance that I can see that Trump won't get the nomination in 2024. I admit I don't think he'll win against Biden - but then he wasn't expected to win against Clinton, either.

there's nothing in any lawbook to prevent a criminal from serving as president of the united states. donald could well transition straight from the jail cell to the white house.