Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of July 31

AP: Trump supporters view the latest indictment as evidence of a crime — against Trump

Former President Donald Trump and his supporters are reacting to a third indictment against him with a now-familiar playbook: deflecting with unrelated accusations, distracting with misleading claims about the charges, and demonizing the prosecution.

Instead of convincing his followers about the seriousness of the charges, Tuesday’s indictment is being held up as proof of a conspiracy to take down the Republican ex-president and a continuation of the effort by Democrats, the media and the so-called deep state to interfere with the nation’s elections.

As Dianne Feinstein, 90, struggles to function in the Senate, a dispute within her family over control of her late husband’s estate is another difficult chapter at the end of a long career.

(archive link)

Now, Senator Feinstein is also navigating an increasingly bitter legal and financial conflict that pits her and her daughter, Katherine Feinstein, against the three daughters of her late husband Richard C. Blum, who was a wealthy financier.

Raised in affluence, Senator Feinstein has long been among the wealthiest members of Congress. She was rich in her own right in 1980 when she married Mr. Blum. After she entered the Senate, she placed securities into a blind trust that is valued at between $5 million and $25 million, according to her most recent financial disclosure required of lawmakers.

Combined, the couple’s fortunes flourished to an extent that eclipsed even the senator’s prior standard of living. Her main residence is a 9,500-square-foot mansion in the upscale San Francisco neighborhood of Pacific Heights. Their vacation homes, until recently, included the 36-acre Bear Paw Ranch in Aspen, Colo., which sold in March for more than $25 million, and a seven-bedroom Lake Tahoe compound that sold in late 2021 for a reported $36 million. Current holdings include a property on the Hawaii island of Kauai and a home in Washington, D.C.

Katherine Feinstein, 66, Senator Feinstein’s only child, who has power of attorney over her mother’s legal affairs, filed two lawsuits against Senator Feinstein’s co-trustees. The first lawsuit, over the beach house, says the property is in disrepair, that Senator Feinstein no longer wishes to use it, and that she wants to sell it this summer or fall.

The statement said that the trustees have not been provided with documentation showing that Katherine Feinstein had been appointed power of attorney. And, in an apparent attempt to raise questions about Senator Feinstein’s capacity to represent her own interests in the lawsuit, it said: “Nor has Katherine made it clear, either in this filing or directly to my clients, why a sitting United States senator would require someone to have power of attorney over her.”

the power-of-attorney allows her daughter to make legally binding decisions on Feinstein's behalf. as the lawsuit said, having this for a sitting Senator...seems odd.

I can imagine Feinstein wanting someone else to handle the day-to-day management of this family property dispute so she can focus on Senatoring, but as we've seen from other examples, Feinstein isn't really doing that either. and we live in an age of electronic document signing, it would be easy for Feinstein to review and sign documents related to this California dispute while in DC. even with paper versions of legal documents, she could easily afford to have them overnighted between CA and DC.

I don't see any plausible explanation for this other than as further evidence that she's suffering from dementia and her family and political aides are basically Weekend at Bernie's-ing her.

538: Trump's Rivals Can't Compete With His Version of Masculinity / (archive link)

The topic of modern masculinity has really been in the public eye for a while. As far as I know, it started with the introduction of the concept of "toxic masculinity"—an idealized form of masculinity that is as harmful to men as it is to women. The discussion in general has been pretty interesting to me; sometimes it is nuanced and often it is not. But of course there's been massive pushback against the idea from certain populations, and it seems like the support for Trump is part of that.

[Trump's] version of manliness is fueled by other kinds of behavior — including his belittling of other candidates, aggression toward women, “tell it like it is and don’t apologize” affect — that are associated with traditional ideas about how a man should behave. The other GOP candidates largely aren’t trying to imitate those aspects of Trump’s macho identity — but experts told us that without Trump’s signature belligerence, his version of masculinity might not resonate as much. And that means his rivals may have an especially difficult time convincing the GOP primary electorate that they’re as strong a leader as Trump.

“In this view of masculinity, men are supposed to be dominant, powerful, aggressive,” said Theresa Vescio, a professor of psychology at Penn State University who studies masculinity. “And the more that people — both men and women — think that good men should be high in power, status, dominance and toughness, the more they say that’s what a man is, the more they support Trump.”

College Board: https://newsroom.collegeboard.org/statement-ap-psychology-and-florida

We are sad to have learned that today the Florida Department of Education has effectively banned AP Psychology in the state by instructing Florida superintendents that teaching foundational content on sexual orientation and gender identity is illegal under state law. The state has said districts are free to teach AP Psychology only if it excludes any mention of these essential topics.

Some news articles on the topic:

• The College Board Says A.P. Psychology Is ‘Effectively Banned’ in Florida https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/03/us/florida-ap-psychology-courses.html?smid=nytcore-android-share

• https://www.politico.com/news/2023/08/03/ap-psychology-banned-in-florida-00109720

• https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/florida-effectively-bans-ap-psychology-course-lgbtq-content-college-bo-rcna98036

I don't have much commentary to say except it is depressing and disappointing that Florida is taking this road towards bigotry and prejudice.