The “Cheesecake Factory” War

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Finally: It’s Ending!

When Donald Trump isn’t having a hissy fit over the Cheesecake Factory joke, pretty much the entire closing argument for MAGA World in Michigan has been: “Fear the Muslims”! The Islamophobic message is dominant in their rhetoric, repeated across the state by Donald Trump, J.D. Vance, Robert Kennedy Jr. and wannabe Senate candidate Mike Rogers. Trump devoted the opening 10 minutes of his weekend rant in Port Huron with anti-Muslim bigotry.

RFK Jr., campaigning in Grand Rapids, took it a step further: a racist slam at all Muslims, claiming they are become intellectually deficient. The reality: his claim was pure bullshit. Arab-American chemist Omar Yaghi won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry last year, and he won the Wolf Prize in 2018. Last year’s winner of the National Book Award was Lebanese writer and painter Rabih Alameddine. The winner in non-fiction? Egyptian-American journalist Omar El Akkad. Look for a big vote margin for El-Sayed in Dearborn!

Trump has other issues he’s discussing – all of them off-message for Republicans. When he’s not admiring the posteriors of John Husted and Nicki Minaj, he’s bragging about his White House renovations, saying your $5,000 bonus check will be enough to buy a burger at Mar-A-Lago, but most important of all: the record profits of America’s oil companies.
Trump’s personal stake in oil stocks has added $12-million to his personal fortune with his oil stock holdings doubling since he started the Iran War.

Abdul El-Sayed held a counter rally in Grand Rapids even as Bobby Junior was attacking Muslims, a rally featuring Senator Bernie Sanders. A little-reported portion of Dr. El-Sayed’s speech at his rally may have been the most significant statement of the weekend. The Rhodes scholar who has two medical degrees flat-out questioned Donald Trump’s mental capabilities.

The El-Sayed campaign is reaching out directly to Trump voters, using a six-figure television buy to seek crossover votes with an ad titled “Red Hat,” running on Fox News and Newsmax.The spot adopts language familiar to Trump supporters, calling Washington a “corrupt swamp,” advocating the release of the Epstein files and declaring support for making America healthy again. The ad then assembles clips of media personalities and Republican figures praising El-Sayed’s political abilities or criticizing Rogers including Lara Trump, Jesse Watters and Tucker Carlson.

The billionaires are adding to their image as James Bond-level villains. Elon Musk unilaterally decided to temporarily cut off vital Starlink services to Ukraine, making the country more vulnerable to Russian aerial attacks. His political spending this cycle is in the neighborhood of a half-BILLION dollars. Musk is the primary backer of multiple candidates, most notably Texas Senate candidate Ken Paxton and, along with the DeVos family, the Mike Rogers and John James campaigns.
Fellow oligarch Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta is directly attacking Democratic candidates with censorship. Facebook suspended Abdul El-Sayed’s campaign account for the remainder of the campaign, and Instagram temporarily shut down the accounts of the No Kings Day organizers, and Florida Senate candidate Angie Nixon. Facebook is also refusing to carry advertising by the Democratic National Committee, and for a new documentary that is critical of Musk.

In the aftermath of the dueling Presidential rallies over the weekend, two new polls show Abdul El-Sayed leading Mike Rogers beyond the margin of error. Mitchell research shows a 51-44 El-Sayed advantage; CNN also shows a 7-point lead at 49-42. Just prior to the rallies, Glengariff had El-Sayed leading by 6 points, 51-45.

We’re recording on Thursday, the 5th day of early voting. A part of the new world of voting: literally hundreds of volunteers ready to move quickly if and when Trump’s team starts messing with the process. Mark created the Election Protection program more than 20 years ago when he was chair of the Democratic Party, and updates us on the State of Voting.