Politics-What's on your mind?

[hagster]

Secret Service is assigned for life for the president and spouse as well as minor children, in this case only Baron will continue to receive it. They can refuse it, but only Richard Nixon has done so.

I had to look up the post-office benefits. A former president does receive a pension, over $200,000 a year (salary in office is $400,000), as well as medical benefits, though the details of those benefits I can't find with a quick search. There are other perks as well, like cost of office space, but again, didn't dig too deeply into that. Pretty sure legal representation is not part of the package (insert appropriate smiley face).

[hagster]

In case you're wondering, protection would continue if an ex-president went to prison.

[Femmewench]

In case you're wondering, protection would continue if an ex-president went to prison.

Of course they'd have to find Secret Service agents willing to do this. That might be a hard thing to do, not because of who he is but because of what the duty would entail. No one's going to sample his food for him.

I wonder if they could refurbish a small part of Alcatraz, rent it from the National Park Service, and charge him for the privilege.

[homoe]

"Your credibility... will die in this room"


Sheldon Whitehouse issued a blunt warning to his Republican colleagues on Thursday, as he watched the Judiciary Committee ready Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court nomination for the Senate floor.

There will not be two sets of rules for Democratic and Republican Senate majorities, Whitehouse vowed; the GOP decision to block President Barack Obama’s nominee in 2016 and approve President Donald Trump’s just days before the 2020 election will have consequences.

“Don’t think when you have established the rule of ‘because we can,’ that should the shoe be on the other foot, you will have any credibility to come to us and say: ‘yeah, I know you can do that, but you shouldn’t,’” Whitehouse said. “Your credibility to make that argument at any time in the future will die in this room and on that Senate floor if you continue.”

The Rhode Island Democrat succinctly stated what’s on everyone’s mind: Once Barrett is confirmed, all bets are off about how the Senate — and the Supreme Court — might look a few months from now if Democrats sweep in November.

It was amazing how pointed and articulate this gentlemen was during the hearings.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/15/democrats-supreme-court-retaliation-429655

[Cin]

This song is on my mind.

n9Y-lS1trhw

[C0LLETTE]

In case you're wondering, protection would continue if an ex-president went to prison.

Sounds like a very crowded prison cell, esp if there's only one toilet.

[BullDog]

Over 30 million people have voted so far! That's 21.7% of the total who voted in 2016 (about 138 million). This year, it is expected that 150 million or more might vote, so it's probably about 20% in the bank.

Democrats are doing a great job of getting out and voting early. Obviously, the most committed people will vote first and we have a long way to go, but we have a lot of votes in the bank and a lot more than Republicans.

I think the Republicans are making a big mistake by bashing mail-in voting and they don't seem to be encouraging early in-person voting either. There is nothing wrong with voting in person on election day, but getting votes in early helps to avoid unexpected events - bad weather, virus outbreaks, your car not starting, etc. On the campaign level, it also allows the Biden campaign to see where votes have been cast and where they are outstanding. The Republicans have a lot less early votes in so they are more in the dark.

Here is the cool early vote tracker I am keeping an eye on:

https://electproject.github.io/Early-Vote-2020G/index.html

[homoe]

~~
I wish I could share in the optimism that those out voting early are voting for Biden.

When I see the big turnouts Trump drew in Janesville WI and then again today in Prescott AZ it really scares me!

Four years ago at this time we thought Hillary had it all sewed up but look how that turned out..:|

[BullDog]

~~
I wish I could share in the optimism that those out voting early are voting for Biden.

When I see the big turnouts Trump drew in Janesville WI and then again today in Prescott AZ it really scares me!

Four years ago at this time we thought Hillary had it all sewed up but look how that turned out..:|

A lot more Democrats have voted than Republicans so far. You can see that at the site I linked to in my previous post.

The situation is not the same as 2016. However, nothing should be taken for granted and people who have not yet voted definitely need to.

[Pacificblu]

~~
I wish I could share in the optimism that those out voting early are voting for Biden.

When I see the big turnouts Trump drew in Janesville WI and then again today in Prescott AZ it really scares me!

Four years ago at this time we thought Hillary had it all sewed up but look how that turned out..:|

Trump is getting relatively small crowds, and they are his hard core people that go from event to event to hear their “God”.

When Hillary ran I knew deep inside that she would lose, but this time I don’t get that same feeling. Hillary made a horrible choice for a V.P. Running mate, and was so sure of her win that she appeared arrogant., which is a bad combo for running against a dynamic person proposing change.

Anything can happen, but Trump winning without help, not worried.

[~ocean]

on Thursday's debate each question asked to either Trump or Biden the other one's mic will be shut off so no interruptions TRUMP ~

[Kätzchen]

Over 30 million people have voted so far! That's 21.7% of the total who voted in 2016 (about 138 million). This year, it is expected that 150 million or more might vote, so it's probably about 20% in the bank.

Democrats are doing a great job of getting out and voting early. Obviously, the most committed people will vote first and we have a long way to go, but we have a lot of votes in the bank and a lot more than Republicans.

I think the Republicans are making a big mistake by bashing mail-in voting and they don't seem to be encouraging early in-person voting either. There is nothing wrong with voting in person on election day, but getting votes in early helps to avoid unexpected events - bad weather, virus outbreaks, your car not starting, etc. On the campaign level, it also allows the Biden campaign to see where votes have been cast and where they are outstanding. The Republicans have a lot less early votes in so they are more in the dark.

Here is the cool early vote tracker I am keeping an eye on:

https://electproject.github.io/Early-Vote-2020G/index.html

We lost very important people this past year, who spent their entire lives fighting on political fronts for people of color, the LBGTQ, and a host of other important, vital issues most Americans see intrinsically as vital to their every day life existence. In my mind, nothing but a landslide vote in favor of the Biden/Harris ticket will do. I know it can be a close call, but every instinct i have tells me that this will be the most important election for generations to come.

I mailed my ballot in person at the post office. I signed up for electronic notice that my ballot has been counted (should know by end of week).

Keeping my fingers crossed that justice will be served and that the will of the people will show that TP is out and Biden/Harris will win back our country from the terrible reign of terror by current DC (GOP) admin.

Gooooo Blue!

[theoddz]

We lost very important people this past year, who spent their entire lives fighting on political fronts for people of color, the LBGTQ, and a host of other important, vital issues most Americans see intrinsically as vital to their every day life existence. In my mind, nothing but a landslide vote in favor of the Biden/Harris ticket will do. I know it can be a close call, but every instinct i have tells me that this will be the most important election for generations to come.

I mailed my ballot in person at the post office. I signed up for electronic notice that my ballot has been counted (should know by end of week).

Keeping my fingers crossed that justice will be served and that the will of the people will show that TP is out and Biden/Harris will win back our country from the terrible reign of terror by current DC (GOP) admin.

Gooooo Blue!

Like you, my friend, I feel that this time is different. There are so many groups and super PACs that have organized to get the word out about how crooked, dishonest, corrupt TP is. It's just absolutely blatant now and 99.9% of reasonable, decent people with an ounce of morality are now aware of just how bad he is. He has been called a "malignant narcissist" and has shown himself to be just that. He is dangerous. His fear and hate mongering almost cost Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan her life.

Here in Texas, there are tons of folks voting in the early voting phase. Dear Wife and I voted early at our polling station the other day. I have, for my part, not seen many of these Texans sporting tRump gear, which is good. From what I'm hearing, so very many of them are sick of TP and feel like they were deceived into voting for him in the first place. They are angry. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if ol' boy loses Texas and the entire election.

Dear Wife has another theory. Due to TP's shenanigans and dirty dealings, he's going to be faced with a lot of legal problems the minute he steps out of office. Being the malignant narcissist that he is, Dear Wife thinks he'll either try to leave the country......or put a bullet in his head before he vacates the WH. One thing's for certain. When he steps out of that WH on 20 Jan 2021, he's going to be stepping out into a whole 'nuther fresh hell!!! We are both wringing our hands with glee at the thought of him being held to account for what he has done to this country. That turtle, "Moscow" Mitch McConnell, needs to go, too. Hopefully, Kentucky Democratic challenger Amy McGrath, a fellow US Marine, will kick his ass in the election. I know ol' Lindsay Graham is crapping his pants and he should be!!!! South Carolina seems to elect the worst, most racist, self serving old white men that they could dig up. Old Sen. Strom Thurmond, who was dragged in to the Senate chambers at nearly 100 years of age was always pontificating and condemning people of color and "immorality". Come to find out, the old geezer had quite a few illegitimate children running around. One was even biracial, as Ol' Strom had his way with a black woman who worked for his family. He sent money for her care until she was way into adulthood.......and did his best to cover it up. Yep, South Cackalacky (what we Georgians call South Carolina) definitely has had more than a few shitty people in their political system.

I can't wait for election night!!! I know right where I'll be.......in my cozy recliner with a tub of buttered popcorn, watching the righties twitch and flap.

I say "BRING IT". :cheer::popcorn:

**NOTE: On the other hand, we must also be very guarded about what TP does when he realizes that he has really lost. He might just trigger Armageddon, in an attempt to wreak revenge on this nation for rejecting and "de-throning" him!!! :|

~Theo~ :bouquet:

[homoe]

on Thursday's debate each question asked to either Trump or Biden the other one's mic will be shut off so no interruptions TRUMP ~


........:hangloose:..............

[C0LLETTE]

Biden will need earplugs


QUOTE=~ocean;1276792]on Thursday's debate each question asked to either Trump or Biden the other one's mic will be shut off so no interruptions TRUMP ~[/QUOTE]

Not sure if shutting mic is enough if Biden can still hear him across the stage. It's Biden that Trump wants to throw off his game.
Biden needs earplugs.

[BullDog]

Yes, it's great news that they are cutting off the mics but Trump will probably just shout into the room. At least he will look insane doing that, but Biden definitely needs to be prepared.

[~ocean]

I just got an image of TRUMP stomping his feet walking off the stage cause no one can hear him ~ lolol "Baby Donald" not so cute ~

[C0LLETTE]

I just hope Biden points out every time Trump reaches for a "cough drop".

[Kelt]

I find it kind of amazing that this sort of rule actually needs to be put in place because we have a candidate who is unable to demonstrate any restraint whatsoever and apparently cannot be controlled any other way. :blink:

Is this really the best we can do as a country?

[~ocean]

I find it kind of amazing that this sort of rule actually needs to be put in place because we have a candidate who is unable to demonstrate any restraint whatsoever and apparently cannot be controlled any other way. :blink:

Is this really the best we can do as a country?

touche' touche' touche' ~ our country makes us all look like a country with no power ! Land of The Free and The Brave ? I know I'm brave enough to vote against "Donny Dolly Hands"

[clay]

Theo.....I am from SC.....Walhalla (up near Clemson University) & I know what you mean about crooked politicians from there. Ole Sperm Thurmond (as he was called) did indeed father many illegitimate children, at least one biracial known. He had the sweetest wife, much much younger than him, & I always felt so badly for her.

Weasel Lindsay Graham is from Central....close to my hometown. I have never cared for him. He makes my skin crawl. Jaime Harrison is whipping Graham's political ass. I hope he wins, Harrison that is. Graham is a switch hitter...meaning he votes whatever way benefits him and a huge ass kisser! HE! NEEDS! TO! GO! along with Rumpuswrinkledskin & Moscow Mitch & Ted Cruz & all the old dinosaurs. I WANT the Squad in there...fresh, new young & women!!

I, too, will be watching the Debaucle Thursday night AND the election! I hope Biden staays cool & persevere as he did previously.

[homoe]

x0-aK5uBsPU


Sorry there is a much longer clip but I couldn't find it.......

[~ocean]

I have to say I am crushing on Barack Obama ~ He is truly a class act Barack dotted the "I"'s and crossed the "T"'s ~ and you know Dumpy Trump can't do that ! all I can say is speak brother speak ! A great tribute to Biden and Harris ~

[Kätzchen]

I have to say I am crushing on Barack Obama ~ He is truly a class act Barack dotted the "I"'s and crossed the "T"'s ~ and you know Dumpy Trump can't do that ! all I can say is speak brother speak ! A great tribute to Biden and Harris ~


Honk, Honk!!!

Just read the CNN coverage. Now to find a video of his speech.

I agree, Ocean. :cheerleader:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/21/politics/obama-philadelphia-speech-biden-harris-trump/index.html

[C0LLETTE]

Stay focused, Joe. Ignore that blabbering noise "over there".

[homoe]

nirxBsu4amI

[Kätzchen]

In light of tell-tale troubling behaviors, like daily inundating social media news feeds, I find myself wondering if social media websites will develop policy concerning people who inundate news feeds on a daily, nightly basis.

Take for example, T---p: every day he inundates the Twitter website.

I feel certain that there are lots of people who are sick of seeing news feeds imploded daily.

:sunglass:

[C0LLETTE]

MY, MY!

" The New Yorker has suspended reporter Jeffrey Toobin for masturbating on a Zoom video chat between members of the New Yorker and WNYC radio last week. Toobin says he did not realize his video was on."

Oh Jeffrey, you bad boy. I think your " goose" is cooked.

[FireSignFemme]

I'm so upset. I received my voter's pamphlet but never received my ballot. Fortunately I happened to noticed a pamphlet at my oldest son's house and asked him in light of the pandemic when he thought we'd be getting our ballots. He told me they'd already received theirs, both of my sons and their wives. If that was the case then mine should have been here by now, was in fact long over due. Turns out even though I'd updated my address, which is why I got the voter's pamphlet, my ballot was returned because they sent it to my old address where it was promptly returned as undeliverable . Yep my fault because I failed to update my address. Okay so why didn't you send my voter's pamphlet to the wrong address then, because I didn't give you the new address as evidenced by the fact that you have it?

I'm so glad I caught this mistake. I don't know who is responsible for mailing out the ballots, addresses these things, but the post office can only send mail to the address they're given and if you gave them the wrong one then how can you possibly be blaming me or the post office. Fortunately I discovered it while I still have time to vote but if this could happen to me, how many other people has this or similar happened to? Oh and then what did I get in the mail this week? Someone else's voter registration card. I can see how, though not right, it would be understandable if someone who'd lived here prior had moved and failed to update their address but I'm the only person who has ever lived at this address. These apartments were still being built when I moved in.

Then of course there's the matter of if this crud could happen to me who else has it happened to. I don't have any reason to believe anyone intentionally meant to do this, it was obviously just some sort oversight seeing how quick to respond and correct it they were but if something like this can so easily happen when people are trying to get it right and have just made an honest mistake what about people with true evil intent, malice in their heart? I mean right now someone could be sitting there filling out my ballot. I suppose the signature wouldn't match. I wonder how they check a thing like that or if they even bother to compare signatures at all. People have already been busted for tampering with ballots. What a mess. I'm going to be so glad when this election is over.

[Kätzchen]

Over 30 million people have voted so far! That's 21.7% of the total who voted in 2016 (about 138 million). This year, it is expected that 150 million or more might vote, so it's probably about 20% in the bank.

Democrats are doing a great job of getting out and voting early. Obviously, the most committed people will vote first and we have a long way to go, but we have a lot of votes in the bank and a lot more than Republicans.

I think the Republicans are making a big mistake by bashing mail-in voting and they don't seem to be encouraging early in-person voting either. There is nothing wrong with voting in person on election day, but getting votes in early helps to avoid unexpected events - bad weather, virus outbreaks, your car not starting, etc. On the campaign level, it also allows the Biden campaign to see where votes have been cast and where they are outstanding. The Republicans have a lot less early votes in so they are more in the dark.

Here is the cool early vote tracker I am keeping an eye on:

https://electproject.github.io/Early-Vote-2020G/index.html

I like that vote tracker link: I checked tonight and so far, Oregon is still blue (democrat). Hopefully this remains the trend until all votes are counted. Now to look at other states and see how it's stacking up. Hopefully, The Democrats sweep both the house and senate. *fingers crossed*

[BullDog]

I like that vote tracker link: I checked tonight and so far, Oregon is still blue (democrat). Hopefully this remains the trend until all votes are counted. Now to look at other states and see how it's stacking up. Hopefully, The Democrats sweep both the house and senate. *fingers crossed*

I'm glad you like the tracker. I'm kind of addicted. It's so exciting that over 53 million have voted so far!

[dark_crystal]

In light of tell-tale troubling behaviors, like daily inundating social media news feeds, I find myself wondering if social media websites will develop policy concerning people who inundate news feeds on a daily, nightly basis.

Take for example, T---p: every day he inundates the Twitter website.

I feel certain that there are lots of people who are sick of seeing news feeds imploded daily.

:sunglass:

Twitter has rolled out some stuff. The other day i retweeted a press release for my own organization and twitter asked me if i was sure i didn't want to read the article before sharing. The dialog said they were trying to improve the quality of information being spread. They are also annotating the trending topics with "context" and not allowing trends for which no useful context can be provided.

[homoe]

President Donald Trump flirted with the possibility of an authoritarian power grab yet again Saturday, suggesting to supporters at a campaign rally that he may not commit to a peaceful transfer of power should he lose the presidential election.

Trump has deflected the question before when asked by reporters, saying, “We’ll see what happens.” But he has not made the case for defying a transfer of power directly to supporters before. Vice President Mike Pence has joined the president in refusing to answer the question, dodging it at the vice presidential debate last week.

Former Vice President Joe Biden, who assisted with the transition to Trump from the Obama administration, reacted with apparent exasperation last month when Trump first refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses: “What country are we in? Look, he says the most irrational things. I don’t know what to say.”

Sidebar: This is only my opinion but I think Trumps just likes to toss this out in order to work up folks into a frenzy!
You can tell it works too especially with Rachael Maddow!

[homoe]

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) indicated that mysterious dark forces — rather than his own increasing unpopularity — are responsible for surging campaign contributions to his Democratic rival, Jaime Harrison. He called for a legislative review of the kind of small-dollar donations that are boosting Harrison.

“Where’s all this money coming from?” Graham asked in an interview Wednesday with The Hill. “Some of these shadowy figures out there running ads, is there any foreign influence afoot?”

Graham conceded last month that, in fact, he’s getting “killed” by Harrison’s fundraising because his foes “hate my guts.” He pleaded for contributions on Fox News.

Harrison raised a record $57 million, mostly in small, individual contributions, in the third quarter of the year, while Graham raised $28 million. Recent polls give Harrison a slight lead over the three-term incumbent.

“I don’t know what’s going on out there, but I can tell you there’s a lot of money being raised in this campaign,” the senator told The Hill.

Graham called for an investigation into the process. “When this election is over with, I hope there will be a sitting down and finding out, ‘OK, how do we control this?’” Graham said. “It just seems to be an endless spiral.”

Graham singled out ActBlue, a nonprofit technology company that provides online fundraising software to help Democratic candidates collect small donations. He complained that the operation doesn’t report individual donors who contribute less than $200 because it’s not required by campaign finance regulations.

An ActBlue representative told The Hill that the organization reports even its smallest donations to the Federal Election Commission, yet the names and addresses of donors giving less than $200 had not been reported. Its October filing will provide the names, hometowns and employers of donors who contributed more than $1, according to ActBlue.

Hopefully Lindsey will soon join the thousands of others unemployed and knows how it feels to worry about the future!

[BullDog]

Promising signs that young voters (18 to 29) are voting in higher numbers this year, especially in key states like Texas, Florida, and North Carolina.

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/politico-nightly/2020/10/26/no-seriously-young-people-are-voting-490710

[Cin]

I've changed my mind. After what the Republicans have done I think expanding the Supreme Court is a completely sane and appropriate course of action. Of course we need to have control of the Senate to do it.

[dark_crystal]

I've changed my mind. After what the Republicans have done I think expanding the Supreme Court is a completely sane and appropriate course of action. Of course we need to have control of the Senate to do it.

Me, too. Two weeks ago I was saying it set a bad precedent and meant the court would eventually balloon to the size of the Senate with each new power shift yielding more and more justices, but what the Republicans have done is shady as hell and basically amounts to the same thing. They are the ones that went there, first.

Democrats will be blamed for setting the precedent because we (hopefully) will TECHNICALLY, officially be the first to add justices for partisan reasons but only bc the Republicans literally, brazenly, stole two seats.

They made the decision, and if we expand the court and that triggers ever-increasing and more frequent expansions in subsequent administrations, that will be for those administrations to worry about. Right now we have no choice, expanding the court has to be done to literally save lives.

[dark_crystal]

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) indicated that mysterious dark forces — rather than his own increasing unpopularity — are responsible for surging campaign contributions to his Democratic rival, Jaime Harrison. He called for a legislative review of the kind of small-dollar donations that are boosting Harrison.

“Where’s all this money coming from?” Graham asked in an interview Wednesday with The Hill. “Some of these shadowy figures out there running ads, is there any foreign influence afoot?”

Graham conceded last month that, in fact, he’s getting “killed” by Harrison’s fundraising because his foes “hate my guts.” He pleaded for contributions on Fox News.

Harrison raised a record $57 million, mostly in small, individual contributions, in the third quarter of the year, while Graham raised $28 million. Recent polls give Harrison a slight lead over the three-term incumbent.

“I don’t know what’s going on out there, but I can tell you there’s a lot of money being raised in this campaign,” the senator told The Hill.

Graham called for an investigation into the process. “When this election is over with, I hope there will be a sitting down and finding out, ‘OK, how do we control this?’” Graham said. “It just seems to be an endless spiral.”

Graham singled out ActBlue, a nonprofit technology company that provides online fundraising software to help Democratic candidates collect small donations. He complained that the operation doesn’t report individual donors who contribute less than $200 because it’s not required by campaign finance regulations.

An ActBlue representative told The Hill that the organization reports even its smallest donations to the Federal Election Commission, yet the names and addresses of donors giving less than $200 had not been reported. Its October filing will provide the names, hometowns and employers of donors who contributed more than $1, according to ActBlue.

Hopefully Lindsey will soon join the thousands of others unemployed and knows how it feels to worry about the future!

Lindsay is correct! I have recurring ActBlue donations going to Mark Kelly, Jaime Harrison, MJ Hegar, Amy McGrath, the entire squad, and Sara Gideon. Because the whole GOP is fired!

[Kätzchen]

When The People's Party (Democrats) take back the WH, how long will it take a hazmat team to make sure the WH is Covid-19 free?

Will members of Team Lie Like Hell have their access to security clearance revoked?

I keep wondering how long it will take for the cancerous party of the GOP to crumble and never be tolerated in American politics.

[C0LLETTE]

The Deplorables

Just once I'd like to see a CNN reporter, interviewing a Trump supporter, say: "That's a really stupid, ignorant answer" and walk away.

Hillary was very right about "The Deplorables." and I'm sorry she got tossed to the wolves for it.

[nhplowboi]

The Democrats will have to hire about 8 sage dealers to handle the White House after Trump is voted out.

[Cin]

"Dismissing glaring concerns about voter intimidation, a Michigan judge on Tuesday struck down a directive from the secretary of state banning the open carry of firearms at polling places on Election Day."

Open carry at polling places. Gee, what's wrong with that picture?

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/10/27/michigan-judge-accused-jeopardizing-safety-and-democracy-reversal-open-carry-ban

[homoe]

nrNOaDrCMms

[BullDog]

Another story about the surge in young voters.

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/523199-new-voters-surge-to-the-polls

Yes, I already posted about the topic, but with all the doom and gloom that gets discussed, I do like to point out some of the positive things that are happening. Cynicism is exactly what the Repugs want us to feel.

Georgia is very much in play and maybe even Texas.

Great job on early voting overall, it continues to surge.

[~ocean]

OMG on CNN right now Miles Taylor what he just said the reason for resigning from being the DHS Chief of Staff ~ TRUMP should be put in jail w/ a death penalty on him. PLEASE watch CNN Chris Cuomo tonight. TRUMP ordered the parents of the children at the border to be SHOT and GASSED. he is friggen Hitler reborn. why in the hell is this man alive and free??? justice ???? I am ashamed of our country to let this man get away with MURDER.

[Kätzchen]

OMG on CNN right now Miles Taylor what he just said the reason for resigning from being the DHS Chief of Staff ~ TRUMP should be put in jail w/ a death penalty on him. PLEASE watch CNN Chris Cuomo tonight. TRUMP ordered the parents of the children at the border to be SHOT and GASSED. he is friggen Hitler reborn. why in the hell is this man alive and free??? justice ???? I am ashamed of our country to let this man get away with MURDER.


That is simply beyond horrible! Thanks for letting us know what Miles Taylor has said in his interview with Chris Cuomo. That right there is definitely breaking news and I sure do hope swift action is taken.

[homoe]

'Quick, quick, quick': Trump rushes McSally at rally as she fights to hold her Senate seat.


President Donald Trump offered a not-very warm welcome to Sen. Martha McSally on Wednesday at his campaign rally in Arizona, where McSally, also a Republican, is fighting to hold on to her seat.

After saying she was "respected by everybody" and "great," Trump rushed McSally to the stage at an airport rally in Goodyear to say a few words.

"Martha, just come up fast. Fast. Fast. Come on. Quick. You got one minute! One minute, Martha! They don’t want to hear this, Martha. Come on. Let’s go. Quick, quick, quick. Come on. Let’s go," Trump said.

McSally spoke for just over a minute, and said she was "proud" to work with the president — something a moderator could not get her say during her debate with Democratic challenger Mark Kelly earlier this month.

After McSally spoke, Trump called up a trio of politicians from out of state to speak — Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. Of the three, only McCarthy, the House Republican leader, is running for re-election in November. All spoke longer than McSally did — as did another guest speaker Trump called on, Nigel Farage of Britain's Brexit party. Trump did not rush any of those four.

IMHO...No doubt Trump thinks she's got no chance of being elected and will be of no further use to him should he win!

[homoe]

There have been few high-profile Republican politicians more publicly and slavishly devoted to President Trump over the last few years than Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). Words like "toady" and "lapdog" have frequently been used to describe the senator's subservience. Apparently that near-total fealty hasn't been enough for Graham to earn a little loyalty in return.

The Trumpiest corners of the conservative ecosphere have made it plain in recent weeks that they're ready to abandon Graham — who is locked in a tight re-election race with Democratic challenger Jaime Harrison — even if it means losing his Senate seat. "I don't know why anyone in the great state of South Carolina would ever vote for Lindsey Graham. It's just outrageous," Fox Business host Lou Dobbs said last week.

"It's about time" for Graham to be defeated, added a writer at the right-wing American Greatness website.

Graham has never been particularly popular among hardcore conservatives, but it is still shocking to see them turn on a fellow Republican candidate in a close general election race. For right-wing activists, the senator's problem is that he is only about 97 percent steadfast in serving Trump's wishes, instead of a full 100 percent. Dobbs, for example, pointed out that Graham — in his role as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee — had failed to pursue evidence of the fake "Obamagate" scandal that Trump has tried — and failed — to get going. It's the same reason Trump has talked about getting rid of FBI Director Christopher Wray after the election. "He's done absolutely nothing to investigate Obamagate except to tell everyone, 'Stay tuned,' time and time again. Stay tuned," Dobbs said. "Senator Graham needs to be tuned out in South Carolina."

The rhetoric could endanger Graham's campaign: If even a small portion of South Carolina conservatives decide to withhold their support, he could lose his seat. Trump could possibly discourage the attacks on Graham if he wanted to, but so far, he hasn't. One has to wonder if the president had Graham in mind last week when he told GOP donors there were some Republican senators he just couldn't support for re-election. "There are a couple senators I can't really get involved in," Trump reportedly said. "I just can't do it. You lose your soul if you do. I can't help some of them. I don't want to help some of them."

[~ocean]

Graham is a shameful person homoe ~ 2 good posts !!!

[homoe]

Trump wants to prosecute Miles Taylor and New York Times; Taylor says president wants to lock up critics
Kicking off his campaign day Thursday, Trump again called on authorities to prosecute political opponents – this time the once-anonymous aide Miles Taylor, who criticized him in a high-profile New York Times column and subsequent book.

There "should be major criminal liability for such scum like that," Trump said of Taylor during a campaign rally in Tampa, Fla.

"Are you listening to me back in Washington?" Trump added. "He should be prosecuted."

Taylor, who on Wednesday disclosed he is the anti-Trump writer known as Anonymous, responded on Twitter that Trump is trying to use the legal system to punish and silence opponents.

"The state of open dissent in America: the President derides critics as 'traitors' and 'treasonous'; threatens to 'prosecute' & 'lock them up'; and ominously warns 'bad things' will happen to them," Taylor said. "Is this who we are?"

In the 2018 column and a 2019 book called "A Warning," Taylor said that Trump routinely urged aides to take illegal actions and suggested that the president might refuse to leave office, even if he is defeated for re-election.

“He will not exit quietly – or easily,” Anonymous wrote in "A Warning."

Taylor worked for Trump as an official in the Department of Homeland Security.

Trump also called for prosecution of The New York Times, never mind the First Amendment protections for newspapers (and critics).

[homoe]

WASHINGTON — Two years ago, when Republican Sen. Susan Collins announced that she would vote to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh after he was accused of sexual assault, liberal groups vowed to oust her in the 2020 election — and they haven’t hit the brakes since.

Her opponent, Sara Gideon, who currently serves as the speaker of the Maine House of Representatives, has posted stunning fundraising numbers, raising more than $63.6 million since she launched her campaign last summer, while Collins raised just $25.2 million over the last two years.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/addybaird/susan-collins-sara-gideon-election-maine-local-journalism

[nhplowboi]

So let me get this straight Tucker Carlson. You had ALL the information to take down Joe Biden and you just dropped it in the mail (USPS) to send to ???? and the envelope was opened and all the evidence is missing?! Wow.......no copies of such valuable evidence? You didn't hire a currier or hand deliver it? Yep, that is believable. You are disgusting.

[~ocean]

So let me get this straight Tucker Carlson. You had ALL the information to take down Joe Biden and you just dropped it in the mail (USPS) to send to ???? and the envelope was opened and all the evidence is missing?! Wow.......no copies of such valuable evidence? You didn't hire a currier or hand deliver it? Yep, that is believable. You are disgusting.

lololol NH you crack me up ~ obviously TUCKER has the " Pinocchio " syndrome ~ see Tucker has faith in the USPS but, but , the envelope was empty ~ oh my ! :blush::blush:

[homoe]

WINDHAM, Maine — Both Republican Sen. Susan Collins and Democrat Sara Gideon are hitting the campaign trail hard in the final days left until Election Day. Recent polls show the race for Collins' Senate seat is a statistical dead heat.

A Colby College Poll released this week showed Gideon had a slight lead 47 percent to Collins' 43 percent. The margin of error was three percent.

"I'm feeling great," Collins said at a campaign stop in Windham Thursday. "I'm taking the campaign bus all over the state. We've already logged more than 4,500 miles, and it's such fun to come to the smaller communities in Maine."

Sidebar: but Susan you said this remember?
3_0N9DKtAH8

[homoe]

Graham is being challenged for his seat by Jamie Harrison, a 44-year-old former chair of the South Carolina Democratic Party

South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham is less popular than ever, according to an exclusive new poll for the Independent. Mr Graham, 65, is facing a surprisingly tough re-election battle, and is locked in the fight to save his political life.

His hopes of clinging on to a seat he has held since 2003 have not been helped by his enthusiastic backing of Mr Trump.More than a third of American voters — 34 per cent — say they have a worse view of him than four years ago, according to a new poll for the Independent, carried out by JL Partners. They spoke to 1,002 people between 26 October and 28 October.

[Cin]

What is on my mind (and has been on my mind a lot since this endless election counting began) is what it might mean that over 72 million Americans voted for Trump to be the US President for another 4 years. They came out in droves to support him. It was mostly white people of course, although 34% of Asian voters, 32% of Latinx voters, 13% of black voters, and 41% of other voters chose Trump. I assume non white voters support Trump and the Republican party for tax reasons, fiscally conservative reasons, and/or socially conservative/religious reasons. However I don't believe those are the primary motivators for white republicans any longer, if they ever were. And any non white American supporting Donald Trump needs to understand this, anyone with a soul needs to understand this regardless of anything else. Although I suppose people could understand this completely and just not care. It does seem an odd thing not to care about, but then so is a pandemic and plenty of people don't seem to care about that. But to get back on track, 1972 was the year the Republicans succeeded with their Southern strategy and they have never looked back. I personally believe religious zeal drives many Republicans, but I also think nothing is as important as white nationalism. Here is an interesting article that speaks to this issue.

www.commondreams.org/views/2020/11/11/things-may-get-worse-they-get-better-us

Things May Get Worse Before They Get Better for the U.S.

For many, Trump’s ouster is a relief. But his steadfast support among white voters puts his party on a crash course with democracy.

byWalden Bello

I’m one of those kibitzers who supported Joe Biden reluctantly from a distance, mainly because I felt that for both the U.S. and the world, he was the lesser evil. And like many, I breathed a sigh of relief when Biden crossed the 270 electoral vote marker.

Then the political sociologist in me took over as I looked at the electoral breakdown by race.

The electoral coalition that was behind Biden’s win was a minority of whites (42 percent, most likely the people with more years in school), the vast majority of Black voters (87 percent), and a big majority of Latinx voters (66 percent) and Asian American voters (63 percent).Whites make up around over 65 percent of the electorate of the US. Surveys show that 57 percent of white voters (56 percent women, 58 percent men) went for Trump, despite everything—his awful mismanagement of the pandemic, his lies, his anti-science attitude, his divisiveness, and his blatant pandering to white nationalist groups like the Nazis, Klan, and Proud Boys.

Trump’s support among whites was essentially the same as in 2016, with support from women rising to make up for a slight decline in that of men. White solidarity continues to be disturbingly strong, and, more than opposition to taxes, opposition to abortion, and unqualified defense of the market, it is now the defining ideology of the Republican Party.

How did the party of Abraham Lincoln, author of the Emancipation Proclamation, become so completely opposite of what he stood for?

The Party of White Reaction

Over the last five decades, the key feature of U.S. politics has been the unfolding of a largely race-driven counterrevolution against progressive and liberal politics.

The year 1972, when Richard Nixon beat George McGovern for the presidency, was a watershed, since it marked the success of the Republicans’ “Southern Strategy.” It had been Nixon’s aim to detach the American South from the Democratic Party and place it securely in the Republican camp as a reaction to the Democrats’ moving to embrace—albeit haltingly—the civil rights of Black people.

From 1972, the racist colonization of the Republican Party steadily progressed, reaching a first peak with Ronald Reagan, president from 1981 to 1989, whose extremely effective “dog-whistle” was the “welfare queen,” which whites decoded into “Black woman with lots of children dependent on state support.”

His successor, George H.W. Bush, memorably owed his election to his playing up the charge that his opponent Michael Dukakis, owing to a prison furlough bill the latter had supported as governor of Massachusetts, was “responsible” for a Black man, Willie Horton, going on a weekend leave from which he did not return and went on instead to commit other crimes.

This does not mean, of course, that people flocking to the Republicans during this period did not have other reasons for doing so, like opposition to abortion and to tax increases. There were a variety of reasons, but the central driver of this political migration was racism.

That racist Republican base, the majority of whom still believed as late as December 2017 that former President Obama had been born in Kenya, was the key factor that catapulted Trump to the presidency in 2016 (though Obama’s pro-free trade policies also played a crucial role in costing Hillary Clinton white working class voters in the deindustrialized Midwest states).

Turning Away from Democracy

What Trump has managed over the last few years as president is not so much to transform an already racially polarized electoral arena but to mobilize his racist base extra-electorally, combining dog-whistle race-coded language with rhetorical attacks on “Big Tech” and “Wall Street” (and on the latter, it’s just a matter of time before his followers will start zeroing in on the immigrant Indian roots of some very visible members of Silicon Valley and Wall Street’s elites, like Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and former Citigroup chief Vikram Pandit.)

History has shown that when large social groups no longer feel they can win by democratic elections, the temptation towards extra-parliamentary solutions becomes very tempting. As the aggregate minority population in the U.S. moves toward parity in numbers with the white population over the next few decades, white nationalism is likely to become more rather than less popular among whites of all ages and across gender lines. That is where the danger lies now: the fascist mobilization of a white population that is in relative decline numbers-wise.

Many people are wondering why Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and most other Republican top dogs aren’t telling Trump to concede, though they most likely know his claims of fraud are bogus. The reason is that they know very well that if they do, Trump’s base would turn against them, endangering their current and future ambitions.

This just goes to show how much Trump and his base have converted the Republican Party into a pliable political instrument, with a leader-base relationship much like the Nazi Party in the Germany of the 1930s.

In fact, Trump is as much a creation of his base as he is creator of that base. What liberal commentators do not understand is that it is not only a case of Trump whipping up his base for his personal political ends. It is that, but it is much more: that base wants Trump to lie for them and cheat for them and go to hell for them—and if Trump were to stick to the conventions of the transition process, he himself would run the risk of being disowned by them.

For Trump’s people, what is at stake is the maintenance of white supremacy, the enduring material and ideological legacy of the genocide of Native Americans and enslavement of African Americans that are among the key foundational elements of the United States of America. Just as the South was willing to stake everything on the roll of the dice of secession in 1861, a very large part—perhaps the majority of the Republican base—is probably now willing to resort to extra-parliamentary means to stop the tide of equal rights and equal justice for all.

In this connection, the armed pro-Trump convoys that paraded against Black Lives Matter supporters in Portland in September, and the armed band that showed up to intimidate electoral workers counting the votes in Maricopa County, Arizona, on election night, may not be aberrations but a taste of things to come.

It is now evident that the Republicans’ emerging strategy is to refuse any formal concession on Trump’s part and boycott the inaugural ceremonies, then mobilize against the Biden administration as “illegitimate,” paralyzing it over the next four years.

I hate to spell this out, but the current mood in the U.S. approximates that of civil war, and it may just be a matter of time before one side, the Trump forces, translates that mood into something more threatening, more ugly.

Can Biden’s victory be the equivalent of Lincoln’s in the elections of 1860, which led the white South to support the secession spearheaded by the slave-owning aristocracy? Lincoln’s words unfortunately ring true today as they did then: “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

[BullDog]

I agree with Cin and the article above. I am sickened by how many people voted for Trump and the high percentage of white voters making up that number. I can't say I am completely shocked but it is disgusting. I kept hearing how white suburban women were fleeing Trump in droves. Well, apparently not. I guess they really don't care about children being separated from their parents, having no viable healthcare, or all of the atrocities Trump has committed and his incompetence.

I too believe white nationalism is the driving factor, although to make themselves feel better they will cite economic and other factors. The tax cuts favor the wealthy, not the middle or working classes. They are deluding themselves.

That's why any in-fighting among various factions of the Democratic party or telling Democrats they need to have better messaging, etc. I think is pretty much bullshit. We have an overwhelming problem with 65% of the electorate. They overlook their own economic interests, health, and more not to mention justice and standing up for democracy. That doesn't mean that I think we shouldn't keep fighting or trying harder but let's be clear what the huge problem is.

[Vincent]

I find the transitional period of 3 mths is very problematic in the US.

In a Aust,the govt of the day call an election and the parliament is disolved and is now in caretaker mode.
They cannot spend money or do any govt buisiness IE,pass bills sack public servants,as they are no longer the govt, while the election process is taking place.
After the Election,the new govt is imediately formed and then form a cabinet.
I'm afraid if the old govt maintained power after the election,they would clean out treasury,not that at the last election the current govt,believing they would loose ran up huge debt,then won,so now it is clearly the debt of their own making.
We have the westminster system,I'm wondering how other countries work?

Please don't make this a nationlalistic conversation,for me !!!!!
I am a world citizen.
I have blood ties to this land through Aboriginal elder maternal grandparents

Aboriginals had circular societies and were led by elders,not pyramid like capitalist society.

[homoe]

~~~
In the past few days, I've noticed several pundits bringing up "should Trump decided to run again in 2024"

STOP please I beg of you just stop it...:seeingstars:

[Cin]

That's why any in-fighting among various factions of the Democratic party or telling Democrats they need to have better messaging, etc. I think is pretty much bullshit. We have an overwhelming problem with 65% of the electorate. They overlook their own economic interests, health, and more not to mention justice and standing up for democracy. That doesn't mean that I think we shouldn't keep fighting or trying harder but let's be clear what the huge problem is.

I totally agree that in-fighting is counter productive. I don't know how it will happen but Democrats need to find a way to compromise. I think there is a much better chance for Democrats to find common ground with each other than with Republicans. A focus on Bipartisanship will lead Democrats down a dark path and is an object lesson in futility.

But I don't think constantly pushing for a move away from over focusing on choices that serve Wall St and Silicon Valley, addressing overwhelming income inequality and taking action by putting more money in the hands of the middle and working class, raising the minimum wage, caring for the poor and the homeless, fixing a broken healthcare system, demilitarization, slashing the trillion-dollar-plus annual military budget, putting an end to the country's endless wars, embracing nuclear disarmament and being a part of the U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, etc... means you are not clear what a huge problem white nationalism is in the US. It just means we need to keep the focus on what really matters for the average American.

I also don't think calling out the Democratic Party elite for blaming progressives for down ballot losses means you aren't clear on the huge problem white nationalism is in the United States. On the other hand pandering to the white nationalist party, better known as the Republican Party, does make it seem as though the huge problem of white nationalism in the US isn't clear to the Democratic Party. It isn't a good plan to focus on compromising with Republicans. And it doesn't makes it seem as though there is a lot of clarity as to what the huge problem in the US right now is if we chose to do that. We will not win the hearts and minds of the white nationalists who make up most of the Republican Party, so it would be better to focus on the needs of the people who put Biden in power. Don't make choices with the Republicans in mind, they will not make concessions, they do not compromise. Bipartisanship forces Democrats to blur lines and compromise values and the end result allows both parties to only focus on the interests of their donors and not the American people.

The Democratic Party needs to focus on getting those 2 Senate seats. If that doesn't go our way we will have to do the best we can with what we have and forget about the Republicans, we can't ever get them to compromise. All of the democratic party needs to work together, progressives and centrists, left and right, whatever you want to call them. It is a war for our for nation's soul, but it is NOT going to be won through bipartisanship. Working with a party whose agenda is white nationalism and causing chaos will not get us anything. They are not interested in working together and they are not interested in what is good for all Americans. Democrats working together for the common good and letting the American people, who are crying out for change, see that the Biden Administration is interested in bringing that change will do a lot to clarify a Democrat Party agenda so that voting Democrat isn't just voting against something, against Trump, against white nationalism, but voting FOR something, real change, systemic change. It is playing the long game, but it will go a lot further toward winning hearts and minds than focusing on making compromises and concessions that will never happen with the Republican (white nationalist) Party. The Republican party's idea of compromise is that the Democrats roll over every time.

[BullDog]

I totally agree that in-fighting is counter productive. I don't know how it will happen but Democrats need to find a way to compromise. I think there is a much better chance for Democrats to find common ground with each other than with Republicans. A focus on Bipartisanship will lead Democrats down a dark path and is an object lesson in futility.

But I don't think constantly pushing for a move away from over focusing on choices that serve Wall St and Silicon Valley, addressing overwhelming income inequality and taking action by putting more money in the hands of the middle and working class, raising the minimum wage, caring for the poor and the homeless, fixing a broken healthcare system, demilitarization, slashing the trillion-dollar-plus annual military budget, putting an end to the country's endless wars, embracing nuclear disarmament and being a part of the U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, etc... means you are not clear what a huge problem white nationalism is in the US. It just means we need to keep the focus on what really matters for the average American.

I also don't think calling out the Democratic Party elite for blaming progressives for down ballot losses means you aren't clear on the huge problem white nationalism is in the United States. On the other hand pandering to the white nationalist party, better known as the Republican Party, does make it seem as though the huge problem of white nationalism in the US isn't clear to the Democratic Party. It isn't a good plan to focus on compromising with Republicans. And it doesn't makes it seem as though there is a lot of clarity as to what the huge problem in the US right now is if we chose to do that. We will not win the hearts and minds of the white nationalists who make up most of the Republican Party, so it would be better to focus on the needs of the people who put Biden in power. Don't make choices with the Republicans in mind, they will not make concessions, they do not compromise. Bipartisanship forces Democrats to blur lines and compromise values and the end result allows both parties to only focus on the interests of their donors and not the American people.

The Democratic Party needs to focus on getting those 2 Senate seats. If that doesn't go our way we will have to do the best we can with what we have and forget about the Republicans, we can't ever get them to compromise. All of the democratic party needs to work together, progressives and centrists, left and right, whatever you want to call them. It is a war for our for nation's soul, but it is NOT going to be won through bipartisanship. Working with a party whose agenda is white nationalism and causing chaos will not get us anything. They are not interested in working together and they are not interested in what is good for all Americans. Democrats working together for the common good and letting the American people, who are crying out for change, see that the Biden Administration is interested in bringing that change will do a lot to clarify a Democrat Party agenda so that voting Democrat isn't just voting against something, against Trump, against white nationalism, but voting FOR something, real change, systemic change. It is playing the long game, but it will go a lot further toward winning hearts and minds than focusing on making compromises and concessions that will never happen with the Republican (white nationalist) Party. The Republican party's idea of compromise is that the Democrats roll over every time.

Yes, I think it's noble that Biden wants to work with everyone but he needs to be disabused of the notion that Republicans will work with him ASAP and not waste a second on it. They won't even acknowledge that he won a clear-cut victory.

I agree. Focus on the needs of those who support you. One place where Democrats I think could improve is with Latino voters. Biden is going to sign an executive order to protect the Dreamers and has pledged to try to reunite the children who are separated from their parents. Obviously, these things should be done because they are the right thing to do but hopefully, it will also show the Democrats commitment and they will continue to work on issues that impact Latino lives.

Of course, African American interests should be front and center. They are the backbone of our party.

Biden, of course, needs to focus on the coronavirus and beyond that, I say really basic economic issues that affect the lives of working-class and middle-class Americans. Get money into people's pockets and focus on job opportunities. I think an infrastructure plan would also be great because our roads, bridges, etc. are crumbling and it would create jobs. These things have nothing to do with progressive versus moderate or whatever. People need to be able to pay their bills and support their families.

I get irritated with the media about how the Democrats are supposed to better understand the Trump voter and that the messaging is all wrong. That's not to say Democrats can't do better but I sure as hell don't hear anyone saying now that Trump has lost that the Republicans really need to reach out to Democrats and understand their voters. The fact of the matter is during this crisis the Democrats tried to pass legislation to help people in need and the Republicans got rewarded for being obstructionists. It's disgusting.

Anyway, we need to continue to grow our base and just outnumber them.

[Kätzchen]

I am resonating greatly with posts by Cin & Bulldog.

Here is what I think needs to be dealt with, head on. White Nationalism, toxic white priviledge, and the cancerous hold it has on those who espouse these tenets and values. Every time i see McConnel's face or Graham's face, i see the embodiment of White Nationalism and the racist choices both make in the name of the Republican (White Nationalist) party.

They are both creepy, and people like them and stand beside them are equally creepy and toxic and (...).

I am beyond grateful for the sledgehammer effect of those who voted for the Democratic party.

And, yes, we got to keep on top of this situation until every last breath of White Nationalism is eradicated from American society.

[~ocean]

trump wanting to pardon himself along with known criminals ~ is an admission of guilt ~ he needs to be brought to justice no more allowances .the administration regardless of party, needs to intercept all of the actions of a crazy dictator named DONALD TRUMP . without these actions they are enabling a this man to jeopardize our security and needed actions to act on the pandemic. TRUMP doesn't care who dies or suffers. this virus is going to leave millions of people mentally disturbed. Including himself even more than he is now. What does this say about the AMERICAN government ? I ponder this argument constantly to myself. This is my own theory... WE ARE NOT FREE. This tyrant has us up against the wall. The people don't want him to stifle us when it comes to the pandemic. WE want to be saved. WE built this country it's ours. not HIS or a government that bends over for fear. He can't handle money ~ or the lives of the Americans. TRUMP bends over for evil leaders . He disrespects woman. TRUMP is a sexual deviate. ALL we know about him and we let him run OUR COUNTRY... Where is our legal justice ?? I'm not for violence, but we need to take TRUMP out of the WH physically. with OUR military behind us. The military is OURS . They are tax paying citizens who chose to uphold justice. OUR HEROES not TRUMPS TOYS. CIVILIAN TAKEOVER ... citizens arrest. He needs to GO. This is what casts over my daily thoughts. I am a creative person who is being robbed of my freedom, to feel and think of all of life's aspects because of the shadow that engulfs us. I have tried to preoccupy my thoughts. I can't when every part of thinking refers to business, health , freedom of going OUTDOORS to shop or walk ~ smile at a stranger and make their day or mine. YOU can't see a smile under a mask. TRUMP took our living daily lives away. TRUMP needs to GO. ~ and with this I need to go wash the escarole for tonight's soup. sorry for the rant ~

[Vincent]

fri DN
https://www.democracynow.org/shows/2020/11/13

[homoe]

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s refusal to concede the election has entered a more dangerous phase as he stokes resistance and unrest among his supporters and spreads falsehoods aimed at undermining the integrity of the American voting system.

More than a week after President-elect Joe Biden was declared the winner, Trump continues to block his successor’s transition, withholding intelligence briefings, critical information about the coronavirus pandemic and access to the vast machinery of government that Biden will soon oversee.

Some former top advisers to Trump have said that his refusal to cooperate is reckless and unwise. John F. Kelly, Trump’s former chief of staff, called it “crazy” on Friday. John R. Bolton, the president’s former national security adviser who wrote a scathing memoir about his time in the administration, said the refusal “harms the country.” “Every day that he delays under the pretense that he’s simply asking for his legal remedies ultimately is to the country’s disadvantage,” Bolton said on ABC’s “This Week” program on Sunday morning.

[~ocean]

Trump is going to flee. He knows he lost. He can't live in the US a free man so he's going to flee after a violent act. Many will lose their lives . National Security along with world security are watching him and his children. I feel for Giuliani's children will have to lose their father He will either go with Trump or he will be a subject of Trump's fleeing. I dunno , maybe I'm writing my own movie in my head lol ~~ or ? lol oy vey . That insane mind of his is throwing up all these smoke screens by not conceding and false accusations for an exit only he knows how it will be. The whole time Trump is watching TV or reading tweets he is scheming , and pre meditating is deff. his forte'. I don't know if Trumps not attending the virus briefings is illegal not to do his job, and where is Mike Pence if the president isn't going . The pandemic was put in his hands.

[Orema]

What Happened in California Is a Cautionary Tale for Us All

A voter-approved measure strips gig workers of basic protections enjoyed by employees in other businesses.

By Terri Gerstein. Ms. Gerstein is the director of the State and Local Enforcement Project at Harvard Law School’s Labor and Worklife Program.

https://i.postimg.cc/765dNThw/merlin-178239738-8204ee8d-01f8-45cf-844f-b5414bb7d493-super-Jumbo.jpg
An anti-Proposition 22 protest, last month.Credit...Mike Blake/Reuters

What happened in California? Despite the state’s liberal reputation, voters there last week approved Proposition 22, a ballot initiative exempting many gig companies from state workplace laws and stripping their workers of basic, essential protections.

Uber, Instacart, Lyft, DoorDash and other on-demand providers of ride-shares and food and grocery deliveries spent $200 million pushing the proposal, an astounding sum that workers and their allies couldn’t remotely hope to match. Not surprisingly, Californians were misled by an avalanche of claims about the proposal’s impact on workers. The measure, which takes effect next month, was approved with 58 percent of the vote.

Emboldened by the results in California, Uber and friends are apparently planning to take the show on the road. Potential targets could include Massachusetts or New Jersey, where state regulators have pursued them, or New York or Pennsylvania, where courts have rejected the argument by gig companies that workers run their own independent businesses. The rest of us need to understand what happened in California.

What was at stake with Proposition 22 was whether workers for app-based driver and delivery companies would be considered employees under California statutes, which like workplace laws nationwide, cover only employees, or whether they should be classified as independent contractors. Proponents argued that requiring gig companies to follow current laws would badly damage their on-demand business model and result in longer wait times, higher prices and the loss of countless jobs. These were the same bleak prognostications gig companies made about the minimum wage for drivers that New York City enacted two years ago — predictions that did not come to pass.

What they didn’t say was that it was a terrible deal for workers. Allowing companies to write their own exemption from California law is also a cautionary tale for our fragile democracy.

Now, workers for these gig companies in California will not have a right, as employees do under state law, to paid sick days, overtime pay, unemployment insurance or a workplace covered by occupational safety and health laws.

How did these companies persuade California voters to approve this snatching of rights from thousands of vulnerable people? They used a deluge of money to convince voters that the proposal served workers’ interests by preserving their flexibility, ensuring a guaranteed level of pay and providing them with “portable” benefits.

Their claims were deceptive.

There’s no law prohibiting flexible or part-time hours for employees. Millions of employees already work part-time or flexible hours. Indeed, these particular industries (ride-share and food delivery) would be unlikely to hire only full-time employees because of the ebb and flow of customer demand.

Under Proposition 22, gig companies will have to pay their contractors 120 percent of the state or local minimum wage. In addition, companies must pay 30 cents per mile for gas and other vehicle-related expenses, adjusted annually for inflation.

But here’s the catch: Workers will be paid only for “engaged time,” defined as the time between receiving a request and dropping off the passenger. This is far less than what’s required under laws for employees, who must be compensated for all work time. About a third of drivers’ work time wouldn’t fall within this definition of “engaged time,” according to a study funded by the companies themselves. Workers will not be paid for time spent getting gas, waiting for a ride request or cleaning and sanitizing their cars.

Plus, 30 cents per mile doesn’t cover all vehicle-related expenses; by comparison, the Internal Revenue Service’s optional standard deductible rate for the costs of operating a car for business is 57.5 cents per mile. And as independent contractors, drivers won’t have a right to overtime pay for long workweeks, as is required for employees. In light of all this, a study by three research groups at the University of California, Berkeley, found that Uber and Lyft drivers would be guaranteed only an estimated $5.64 per hour. This no doubt would have surprised 40 percent of those in a survey of early voters who said they had supported Proposition 22 to ensure workers earned livable wages.

Finally there is the issue of benefits. Gig companies have used snazzy “portable” benefits language, but Proposition 22 gives workers crumbs compared to what it takes away. Companies must provide a “health care subsidy” to people working at least 15 hours of “engaged time.” At 30 weekly hours, the subsidy would average about $1.22 per hour, or just over $36.00 a week, according to one analysis, a paltry sum compared with what workers would receive as employees who are paid for all of their work time — not just two-thirds of it.

And of course, rights are meaningful only if they are enforceable. If a company pays less than what’s required, shaves hours or doesn’t pay the health care subsidy, Proposition 22 is silent about what mechanism workers can use to enforce those pay and subsidy rights.

The kicker? Unlike most laws, which require only a majority vote of the State Legislature to revise, Proposition 22 requires the vote of seven-eighths of the Legislature to make any changes.

These are the truths that can be buried by well-funded advertising campaigns of large corporations collaborating to write their own rules. And this, in the end, is what’s most dangerous about Proposition 22. Companies shouldn’t be able to do this. Surely, lots of other industries would like to avoid paying unemployment insurance taxes, sick days or overtime. Surely, food manufacturers would like an exemption from safety requirements and inspections, and chemical companies would save a bundle if they got an exemption from environmental laws.

But that’s not how our system is supposed to work.

California has always been a bellwether. This time, let’s not follow its lead.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/13/opinion/prop-22-california-gig-workers.html?action=click&algo=bandit-all-surfaces&block=more_in_recirc&fellback=false&imp_id=321526850&impression_id=c716f253-28ba-11eb-a85b-cbb57fbf1caa&index=4&pgtype=Article&region=footer&req_id=809165947&surface=more-in-opinion
______________
Link to related articleL https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/11/california-proposition-22-uber-lyft-doordash-labor-laws

[dark_crystal]

What Happened in California Is a Cautionary Tale for Us All

[...]here’s the catch: Workers will be paid only for “engaged time,” defined as the time between receiving a request and dropping off the passenger. This is far less than what’s required under laws for employees, who must be compensated for all work time. About a third of drivers’ work time wouldn’t fall within this definition of “engaged time,” according to a study funded by the companies themselves. Workers will not be paid for time spent getting gas, waiting for a ride request or cleaning and sanitizing their cars.

Plus, 30 cents per mile doesn’t cover all vehicle-related expenses; by comparison, the Internal Revenue Service’s optional standard deductible rate for the costs of operating a car for business is 57.5 cents per mile. And as independent contractors, drivers won’t have a right to overtime pay for long workweeks, as is required for employees. In light of all this, a study by three research groups at the University of California, Berkeley, found that Uber and Lyft drivers would be guaranteed only an estimated $5.64 per hour. This no doubt would have surprised 40 percent of those in a survey of early voters who said they had supported Proposition 22 to ensure workers earned livable wages.

Finally there is the issue of benefits. Gig companies have used snazzy “portable” benefits language, but Proposition 22 gives workers crumbs compared to what it takes away. Companies must provide a “health care subsidy” to people working at least 15 hours of “engaged time.” At 30 weekly hours, the subsidy would average about $1.22 per hour, or just over $36.00 a week, according to one analysis, a paltry sum compared with what workers would receive as employees who are paid for all of their work time — not just two-thirds of it.[...]

California has always been a bellwether. This time, let’s not follow its lead.

This is awful, and i do think that other states WILL follow California's lead. I feel like companies in general are trying to shed employees any way they can-- from outsourcing to gig-ification to independent contracting to adjunct faculty to part-time only.

After experiencing this pandemic as an essential worker, I'm to the point where i am not even sure we wouldn't have been safer if everyone WAS an independent contractor (assuming Dems get some protections in place). I don't know that we SHOULD be in monogamous employment relationships. Its supposed to provide security and stability, but it can become a hostage situation.

If the Dems are able to pass VERY meaningful health-care reform with a public option, a lot of people can be liberated from some extremely toxic employment situations.

[Orema]

This is awful, and i do think that other states WILL follow California's lead. I feel like companies in general are trying to shed employees any way they can-- from outsourcing to gig-ification to independent contracting to adjunct faculty to part-time only.

After experiencing this pandemic as an essential worker, I'm to the point where i am not even sure we wouldn't have been safer if everyone WAS an independent contractor (assuming Dems get some protections in place). I don't know that we SHOULD be in monogamous employment relationships. Its supposed to provide security and stability, but it can become a hostage situation.

If the Dems are able to pass VERY meaningful health-care reform with a public option, a lot of people can be liberated from some extremely toxic employment situations.

I think other states will follow, too. If nothing else, the ads were very effective and constant. PlutoTV was swamped with ads and based on the ads, you would have thought it was the best thing for workers since sliced toast.

Having employees as independent contractors has been popular since the Reagan years. That’s when the “Temp Agencies” exploded and employers were able to avoid healthcare and unemployment taxes for employees.

Yes, good healthcare will help, but there needs to be more protection for independent workers.

[Vincent]

https://www.democracynow.org/shows/2020/11/18

[nhplowboi]

So last night I heard a term on one of the shows I was watching..... "Trumpublicans". I think that is a pretty accurate word. Maybe I am wrong but I feel the GOP is crazy to be hanging their hat on the Trumpublicans. I think only about 50% of that base is going to continue to help the GOP if Trump is not actively running. As Trump loves to say...."We'll see.". [/I]

[Orema]

I think Trump, being as vengeful as he is, may very well start a new party with his base, the old Tea Party. He could do this through the media outlets he thinking of creating.

That would certainly shake things up in the Republican party and he knows it.

It would also cause Democrats to lean toward the center so it may shake up things in the Democratic party, too.

[Orema]

qUed6Ug4Cgo

From Jimmy Kimmels YouTube page:
President Obama talks about his new book “A Promised Land,” selling more books on the first day than Michelle did, being scared of Sasha and Michelle, the alias his daughters came up with for him, the struggle of being a good father and husband while also being a good President, being on the cover of InStyle Magazine, sinking a three pointer while campaigning with Joe Biden, calling the election for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, getting Trump out of the White House, Joe Biden becoming President, resurrecting the Pandemic Task Force disbanded by Donald Trump, getting the Affordable Care Act passed, the work that still needs to be done, the best night of his Presidency, the Bin Laden raid, Donald Trump’s birther theory, and he surprises a totally unsuspecting fan.

[homoe]

This sounds about right for this SOB.......

Donald Trump is reportedly weighing whether to launch a 2024 re-election bid on the day of Joe Biden’s inauguration.

On Saturday, The Daily Beast cited three sources who confirmed he is considering a 2024 run, and two of them said he had floated the idea of holding an event on 20 January.

According to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter, the president has privately bragged that he would still remain in the spotlight, even if Mr Biden is in the Oval Office, because the media finds Mr Biden “boring.”

The report comes after the Trump campaign suffered a humiliating court defeat in Pennsylvania, where Republican-appointed judges unanimously ruled to toss out the campaign’s attempt to challenge the election result there. “Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here,” judge Stephanos Bibas wrote in the court's ruling.

By Saturday evening the Pennsylvania Supreme Court had also dismissed a case brought by Congressman Mike Kelly and others to disallow millions of mail-in ballots in the state.

[C0LLETTE]

So, Biden just announced an all-female WH communications team plus 4 women to lead his economic team...

Gotta love the old guy!

[nhplowboi]

Happy Safe Harbor Day to us/U.S.!!!

[~ocean]

This sounds about right for this SOB.......

Donald Trump is reportedly weighing whether to launch a 2024 re-election bid on the day of Joe Biden’s inauguration.

On Saturday, The Daily Beast cited three sources who confirmed he is considering a 2024 run, and two of them said he had floated the idea of holding an event on 20 January.

According to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter, the president has privately bragged that he would still remain in the spotlight, even if Mr Biden is in the Oval Office, because the media finds Mr Biden “boring.”

The report comes after the Trump campaign suffered a humiliating court defeat in Pennsylvania, where Republican-appointed judges unanimously ruled to toss out the campaign’s attempt to challenge the election result there. “Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here,” judge Stephanos Bibas wrote in the court's ruling.

By Saturday evening the Pennsylvania Supreme Court had also dismissed a case brought by Congressman Mike Kelly and others to disallow millions of mail-in ballots in the state.


Trump is a spoiled child ~ by 2024 comes around he will have a new toy to play with ~ he will never get voted in again ~ I wonder how long it will take Melania to divorce his obnoxious large orange ass ?

[homoe]

~~~
That these pundits on MSNBC, CNN, etc just STOP already about Trump and especially about Trump 24! I am like a raving lunatic, screaming at the TV when they start up on this crap!

The best way to get Trump's goat is to ignore him!

It must of killed him to have had to post one of his rants on Facebook when no network would carry it!

[homoe]

~~~
Why is it women are always fair game when it comes to this sort of crap!?

Nobody pointed out Strom Thurmond or Robert Byrd mental decline and dollars to donuts, I doubt anyone will when Chuck Grassley does or hasn't already!

[Orema]

7L4ktHbelhc

Just watched The Way I See It by Pete Souza, the Official White House Photojournalist for President Reagan and President Obama.

Saw it for free and without interruptions at peacocktv.com

Quite enjoyed it.

[~ocean]

What did Russia get rid of for Trump in it's hacking ? I know Trump was behind all of this ~ he knew ~ He loves America ~ my tuchus lol ya right ~ MAGA b/s ~ everything he ever said reverse it that's who Trump is. raising his fists, showing of clinched fists ~ all signals to his pathetic followers. gang related organization. that evil bastard isn't done w/ this country yet !

[~ocean]

Putin pardoned himself and any other Russian presidents as well as his own family ~ and Trump is doing this as well ~ Trump is pardoning several high profile crime offenders ~ He intends to veto the stimulus ~ Trump is out of control with his delusional understanding of his loss to the election. ~ Trump is guilty of treason ~ they need to apprehend him ~ take him out ~ where is our justice to not have him in the WH ? We look weak letting him play us ( Americans ) like a game.

[Kätzchen]

Putin pardoned himself and any other Russian presidents as well as his own family ~ and Trump is doing this as well ~ Trump is pardoning several high profile crime offenders ~ He intends to veto the stimulus ~ Trump is out of control with his delusional understanding of his loss to the election. ~ Trump is guilty of treason ~ they need to apprehend him ~ take him out ~ where is our justice to not have him in the WH ? We look weak letting him play us ( Americans ) like a game.


I just saw that over on CNN. Wow. Makes you wonder if SDNY-DA is hot on the trail because I also read that his 'buddies' at the Deutsche Bank resigned from their positions (??). Will they prosecute the T----p? Will they prosecute him for in-your-face blatant disregard for the things he is doing that is harming people of America? Will he make the mistake of invoking martial law?

No fire in hell can burn hot enough for this person, if there is a hell.


I actually hope that the DA for SDNY will be effective in bringing charges against him and making him pay the price for all he has done.

[~ocean]

I just saw that over on CNN. Wow. Makes you wonder if SDNY-DA is hot on the trail because I also read that his 'buddies' at the Deutsche Bank resigned from their positions (??). Will they prosecute the T----p? Will they prosecute him for in-your-face blatant disregard for the things he is doing that is harming people of America? Will he make the mistake of invoking martial law?

No fire in hell can burn hot enough for this person, if there is a hell.


I actually hope that the DA for SDNY will be effective in bringing charges against him and making him pay the price for all he has done.


exactly Katzchen ^ 5 ~ Trump's pardoned friend FLYNN came out of jail w/ Martial Law on his mind. I read about the 300 million banking too ~ How can a sitting president pull so many illegal acts and not be charged ? He needs to be taken out by the men in white coats.

[nhplowboi]

Hey President Pardon......seeing you have no morals and want to destroy everything on your way out.....I have an idea for you. Why don't you call up the Warden at Terre Haute and commute the life sentences of every death row inmate at that facility. There are around 52 of them there right now. Then send a bus to pick them all up and bring them over to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave so they have a place to stay while they are back getting on their feet. Lastly, give them all a commemorative AK47 to mark their release. That should really make for a "wild" January 6th protest like you have been calling for.
Disclaimer.......I woke up at 4AM this morning with this thought and couldn't shake it all morning. Presidental pardons need to have parameters because of people like Trump.

[Kätzchen]

exactly Katzchen ^ 5 ~ Trump's pardoned friend FLYNN came out of jail w/ Martial Law on his mind. I read about the 300 million banking too ~ How can a sitting president pull so many illegal acts and not be charged ? He needs to be taken out by the men in white coats.

No, not taken away by ppl in white coats. That is too easy and is problematic in that what he is doing is criminal.

For example: Why is T----p not willing to sign off on the current financial aid pkg? Does he or members of his family or friends stand to benefit from larger aid? That is one thing that comes to mind, concerning the sinister acts of manipulation that has gone on for the past four years.

The American public is not stupid. No doubt T----p is benefitting in some type of way.

The T---P reality shit show is over and this is most likely the reason he keeps on with his sicko-psycho behavioral tactics.

Narcissism 4.0.

[homoe]

An old tweet by Donald Trump suggesting that Hilary Clinton should “lose with dignity” has resurfaced to haunt him as he continues to refuse to accept the election result and complain of voter fraud despite the lack of any proof that supports his claims.

Mr Trump shared the message shortly after he was elected president in 2016, endorsing comments made by Vladimir Putin about Ms Clinton and the Democratic Party at an annual news conference in Moscow.

"Vladimir Putin said today about Hillary and Dems: 'In my opinion, it is humiliating. One must be able to lose with dignity.' So true!” read the tweet.

[homoe]

In a tweetstorm beginning early Saturday morning, Trump railed against the the Department of Justice and U.S. attorney John Durham for failing to produce a report that exposed wrongdoing in the FBI's Russia probe. “Where the hell is the Durham Report? They spied on my campaign, colluded with Russia (and others), and got caught,” Trump tweeted without providing any evidence to back his claims.

The president then took aim at the FBI and DOJ for not pursuing baseless claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election, saying the agencies “should be ashamed” for the lack of action against what he deemed “the biggest SCAM” in U.S. history.

Trump also took aim at the Supreme Court, calling it "totally incompetent and weak" and again questioning why it wouldn't hear a suit filed by Texas claiming election fraud, effectively ending legal challenges to the electoral process. BLAH.. BLAH .. BLAH ..

[homoe]

One of Donald Trump’s most prominent allies in the US Senate has thrown his support behind the US president’s demand for $2,000 stimulus cheques as a new government shutdown looms amid the funding stand-off.

Lindsey Graham, who played golf with Mr Trump on Christmas Day, took to Twitter to endorse the president’s call for an increase from the $600 cheques agreed in a major new funding bill passed by Congress.

Mr Trump has refused to sign into the law the piece of legislation, which seeks to help those worst affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and its economic fallout, insisting the direct payments to Americans should be raised.

The president’s initial decision not to sign the bill, which was flown down to the Florida golf resort Mar-a-Lago where he is spending Christmas, creates a number of knock-on problems that are yet to be resolved.

[homoe]

The Associated Press Thu, December 31, 2020, 8:49 AM PST

President Donald Trump is cutting his Florida vacation short and traveling back to Washington on Thursday, but the White House offered no explanation for why he was ending the holiday trip to his private resort a day earlier than planned.

The announcement of Trump's return to Washington came just hours after Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said he would object to the certification of some states' Electoral College results Jan. 6 in a final, futile attempt to overturn the results of the election.

The president's daily public schedule released Wednesday night said only that he "will be leaving Florida for the White House tomorrow at 11:00AM." Although the White House did not provide a reason for Trump's early return, the president has continued to push his unsupported election fraud claims while away, questioning without evidence the results in key battleground states and attacking Georgia's Republican governor and secretary of state.

[Kätzchen]

Will Twitter Ban TP ???

I hope so. TP should be held accountable for lies and spreading falsehoods that incites and inflames division across our country. Hate speech, racial bigotry and all other /cardinal sins/ have no place in American Society.

https://www.masslive.com/politics/2020/12/twitter-may-ban-president-trump-from-social-media-platform-after-inauguration-day.html

[homoe]

While McConnell was eating with his wife at Havana Rumba, four men approached the senator. The man who was the most aggressive yelled at McConnell, “Why don't you get out of here? Why don't you leave the entire country?”

The woman who captured the footage told TMZ that before she began recording, the man banged his fists on the senator’s table, took his to-go bag, and tossed the food outside the diner. She also shared that the man’s main grievance was the senator’s viewpoint on Social Security and healthcare. McConnell recently stated that entitlement programs are the primary source of extensive debt. The angry man allegedly screamed that McConnell’s stance was killing people. McConnell didn’t get upset, later thanking his allies and shaking their hands.

Members of the Republican party have had a difficult time at eating establishments recently. In September, Texas Senator Ted Cruz and his wife were ridiculed in a restaurant in Washington D.C. by people protesting Brett Kavanaugh. Cruz and his wife eventually left. In July, the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, was asked to leave a Virginia restaurant by its owners.

Sidebar: Why are these folks so shocked when they get accosted while out in public?! IMHO when you're lying or making decisions that directly impact others but not necessarily yourself, you can't be surprised when you're asked to be accountable!

[Kätzchen]

While we wait to see if the GOP will invoke the 25th Amendment, I thought it would be worthwhile to post an Op-ed which appeared over a year ago, and was penned by a Civil Liberties lawyer.

Here are 20 reasons why it is important to take measures now:

*********************
*********************
*********************
Leading Civil Rights Lawyer Shows 20 Ways Trump Is Copying Hitler’s Early Rhetoric and Policies

The author, Burt Neuborne, is one of America’s top civil liberties lawyers, and questions whether federal government can contain Trump and GOP power grabs.

by Steven Rosenfeld

Steven Rosenfeld is a senior writing fellow and the editor and chief correspondent of Voting Booth, a project of the Independent Media Institute. He is a national political reporter focusing on democracy issues. He has reported for nationwide public radio networks, websites, and newspapers and produced talk radio and music podcasts. He has written five books, including profiles of campaigns, voter suppression, voting rights guides, and a WWII survival story currently being made into a film. His latest book is Democracy Betrayed: How Superdelegates, Redistricting, Party Insiders, and the Electoral College Rigged the 2016 Election (Hot Books, March 2018).

A new book by one of the nation’s foremost civil liberties lawyers powerfully describes how America’s constitutional checks and balances are being pushed to the brink by a president who is consciously following Adolf Hitler’s extremist propaganda and policy template from the early 1930s—when the Nazis took power in Germany.

In When at Times the Mob Is Swayed: A Citizen’s Guide to Defending Our Republic, Burt Neuborne mostly focuses on how America’s constitutional foundation in 2019—an unrepresentative Congress, the Electoral College and a right-wing Supreme Court majority—is not positioned to withstand Trump’s extreme polarization and GOP power grabs. However, its second chapter, “Why the Sudden Concern About Fixing the Brakes?,” extensively details Trump’s mimicry of Hitler’s pre-war rhetoric and strategies.

Neuborne doesn’t make this comparison lightly. His 55-year career began by challenging the constitutionality of the Vietnam War in the 1960s. He became the ACLU’s national legal director in the 1980s under Ronald Reagan. He was founding legal director of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School in the 1990s. He has been part of more than 200 Supreme Court cases and Holocaust reparation litigation.

“Why does an ignorant, narcissistic buffoon like Trump trigger such anxiety? Why do so many Americans feel it existentially (not just politically) important to resist our forty-fifth president?” he writes. “Partly it’s just aesthetics. Trump is such a coarse and appalling man that it’s hard to stomach his presence in Abraham Lincoln’s house. But that’s not enough to explain the intensity of my dread. LBJ was coarse. Gerald Ford and George W. Bush were dumb as rocks. Richard Nixon was an anti-Semite. Bill Clinton’s mistreatment of women dishonored his office. Ronald Reagan was a dangerous ideologue. I opposed each of them when they appeared to exceed their constitutional powers. But I never felt a sense of existential dread. I never sensed that the very existence of a tolerant democracy was in play.”

A younger Trump, according to his first wife’s divorce filings, kept and studied a book translating and annotating Adolf Hitler’s pre-World War II speeches in a locked bedside cabinet, Neuborne noted. The English edition of My New Order, published in 1941, also had analyses of the speeches’ impact on his era’s press and politics. “Ugly and appalling as they are, those speeches are masterpieces of demagogic manipulation,” Neuborne says.

“Watching Trump work his crowds, though, I see a dangerously manipulative narcissist unleashing the demagogic spells that he learned from studying Hitler’s speeches—spells that he cannot control and that are capable of eroding the fabric of American democracy,” Neuborne says. “You see, we’ve seen what these rhetorical techniques can do. Much of Trump’s rhetoric—as a candidate and in office—mirrors the strategies, even the language, used by Adolf Hitler in the early 1930s to erode German democracy.”

Many Americans may seize or condemn Neuborne’s analysis, which has more than 20 major points of comparison. The author repeatedly says his goal is not “equating” the men—as “it trivializes Hitler’s obscene crimes to compare them to Trump’s often pathetic foibles.”

Indeed, the book has a larger frame: whether federal checks and balances—Congress, the Supreme Court, the Electoral College—can contain the havoc that Trump thrives on and the Republican Party at large has embraced. But the Trump-Hitler compilation is a stunning warning, because, as many Holocaust survivors have said, few Germans or Europeans expected what unfolded in the years after Hitler amassed power.

Here’s how Neuborne introduces this section. Many recent presidents have been awful, “But then there was Donald Trump, the only president in recent American history to openly despise the twin ideals—individual dignity and fundamental equality—upon which the contemporary United States is built. When you confront the reality of a president like Trump, the state of both sets of brakes—internal [constitutional] and external [public resistance]—become hugely important because Donald Trump’s political train runs on the most potent and dangerous fuel of all: a steady diet of fear, greed, loathing, lies, and envy. It’s a toxic mixture that has destroyed democracies before, and can do so again.

“Give Trump credit,” he continues. “He did his homework well and became the twenty-first-century master of divisive rhetoric. We’re used to thinking of Hitler’s Third Reich as the incomparably evil tyranny that it undoubtedly was. But Hitler didn’t take power by force. He used a set of rhetorical tropes codified in Trump’s bedside reading that persuaded enough Germans to welcome Hitler as a populist leader. The Nazis did not overthrow the Weimar Republic. It fell into their hands as the fruit of Hitler’s satanic ability to mesmerize enough Germans to trade their birthright for a pottage of scapegoating, short-term economic gain, xenophobia, and racism. It could happen here.”

20 Common Themes, Rhetorical Tactics and Dangerous Policies

Here are 20 serious points of comparison between the early Hitler and Trump:

1. Neither was elected by a majority. Trump lost the popular vote by 2.9 million votes, receiving votes by 25.3 percent of all eligible American voters. “That’s just a little less than the percentage of the German electorate that turned to the Nazi Party in 1932–33,” Neuborne writes. “Unlike the low turnouts in the United States, turnout in Weimar Germany averaged just over 80 percent of eligible voters.” He continues, “Once installed as a minority chancellor in January 1933, Hitler set about demonizing his political opponents, and no one—not the vaunted, intellectually brilliant German judiciary; not the respected, well-trained German police; not the revered, aristocratic German military; not the widely admired, efficient German government bureaucracy; not the wealthy, immensely powerful leaders of German industry; and not the powerful center-right political leaders of the Reichstag—mounted a serious effort to stop him.”

2. Both found direct communication channels to their base. By 1936’s Olympics, Nazi narratives dominated German cultural and political life. “How on earth did Hitler pull it off? What satanic magic did Trump find in Hitler’s speeches?” Neuborne asks. He addresses Hitler’s extreme rhetoric soon enough, but notes that Hitler found a direct communication pathway—the Nazi Party gave out radios with only one channel, tuned to Hitler’s voice, bypassing Germany’s news media. Trump has an online equivalent.

“Donald Trump’s tweets, often delivered between midnight and dawn, are the twenty-first century’s technological embodiment of Hitler’s free plastic radios,” Neuborne says. “Trump’s Twitter account, like Hitler’s radios, enables a charismatic leader to establish and maintain a personal, unfiltered line of communication with an adoring political base of about 30–40 percent of the population, many (but not all) of whom are only too willing, even anxious, to swallow Trump’s witches’ brew of falsehoods, half-truths, personal invective, threats, xenophobia, national security scares, religious bigotry, white racism, exploitation of economic insecurity, and a never ending-search for scapegoats.”

3. Both blame others and divide on racial lines. As Neuborne notes, “Hitler used his single-frequency radios to wax hysterical to his adoring base about his pathological racial and religious fantasies glorifying Aryans and demonizing Jews, blaming Jews (among other racial and religious scapegoats) for German society’s ills.” That is comparable to “Trump’s tweets and public statements, whether dealing with black-led demonstrations against police violence, white-led racist mob violence, threats posed by undocumented aliens, immigration policy generally, protests by black and white professional athletes, college admission policies, hate speech, even response to hurricane damage in Puerto Rico,” he says. Again and again, Trump uses “racially tinged messages calculated to divide whites from people of color.”

4. Both relentlessly demonize opponents. “Hitler’s radio harangues demonized his domestic political opponents, calling them parasites, criminals, cockroaches, and various categories of leftist scum,” Neuborne notes. “Trump’s tweets and speeches similarly demonize his political opponents. Trump talks about the country being ‘infested’ with dangerous aliens of color. He fantasizes about jailing Hillary Clinton, calls Mexicans rapists, refers to ‘shithole countries,’ degrades anyone who disagrees with him, and dreams of uprooting thousands of allegedly disloyal bureaucrats in the State Department, the Environmental Protection Agency, the FBI, and the CIA, who he calls ‘the deep state’ and who, he claims, are sabotaging American greatness.”

5. They unceasingly attack objective truth. “Both Trump and Hitler maintained a relentless assault on the very idea of objective truth,” he continues. “Each began the assault by seeking to delegitimize the mainstream press. Hitler quickly coined the epithet Lügenpresse (literally ‘lying press’) to denigrate the mainstream press. Trump uses a paraphrase of Hitler’s lying press epithet—‘fake news’—cribbed, no doubt, from one of Hitler’s speeches. For Trump, the mainstream press is a ‘lying press’ that publishes ‘fake news.’” Hitler attacked his opponents as spreading false information to undermine his positions, Neuborne says, just as Trump has attacked “elites” for disseminating false news, “especially his possible links to the Kremlin.”

6. They relentlessly attack mainstream media. Trump’s assaults on the media echo Hitler’s, Neuborne says, noting that he “repeatedly attacks the ‘failing New York Times,’ leads crowds in chanting ‘CNN sucks,’ [and] is personally hostile to most reporters.” He cites the White House’s refusal to fly the flag at half-mast after the murder of five journalists in Annapolis in June 2018, Trump’s efforts to punish CNN by blocking a merger of its corporate parent, and trying to revoke federal Postal Service contracts held by Amazon, which was founded by Jeff Bezos, who also owns the Washington Post.

7. Their attacks on truth include science. Neuborne notes, “Both Trump and Hitler intensified their assault on objective truth by deriding scientific experts, especially academics who question Hitler’s views on race or Trump’s views on climate change, immigration, or economics. For both Trump and Hitler, the goal is (and was) to eviscerate the very idea of objective truth, turning everything into grist for a populist jury subject to manipulation by a master puppeteer. In both Trump’s and Hitler’s worlds, public opinion ultimately defines what is true and what is false.”

8. Their lies blur reality—and supporters spread them. “Trump’s pathological penchant for repeatedly lying about his behavior can only succeed in a world where his supporters feel free to embrace Trump’s ‘alternative facts’ and treat his hyperbolic exaggerations as the gospel truth,” Neuborne says. “Once Hitler had delegitimized the mainstream media by a series of systematic attacks on its integrity, he constructed a fawning alternative mass media designed to reinforce his direct radio messages and enhance his personal power. Trump is following the same path, simultaneously launching bitter attacks on the mainstream press while embracing the so-called alt-right media, co-opting both Sinclair Broadcasting and the Rupert Murdoch–owned Fox Broadcasting Company as, essentially, a Trump Broadcasting Network.”

9. Both orchestrated mass rallies to show status. “Once Hitler had cemented his personal communications link with his base via free radios and a fawning media and had badly eroded the idea of objective truth, he reinforced his emotional bond with his base by holding a series of carefully orchestrated mass meetings dedicated to cementing his status as a charismatic leader, or Führer,” Neuborne writes. “The powerful personal bonds nurtured by Trump’s tweets and Fox’s fawning are also systematically reinforced by periodic, carefully orchestrated mass rallies (even going so far as to co-opt a Boy Scout Jamboree in 2017), reinforcing Trump’s insatiable narcissism and his status as a charismatic leader.”

10. They embrace extreme nationalism. “Hitler’s strident appeals to the base invoked an extreme version of German nationalism, extolling a brilliant German past and promising to restore Germany to its rightful place as a preeminent nation,” Neuborne says. “Trump echoes Hitler’s jingoistic appeal to ultranationalist fervor, extolling American exceptionalism right down to the slogan ‘Make America Great Again,’ a paraphrase of Hitler’s promise to restore German greatness.”

11. Both made closing borders a centerpiece. “Hitler all but closed Germany’s borders, freezing non-Aryan migration into the country and rendering it impossible for Germans to escape without official permission. Like Hitler, Trump has also made closed borders a centerpiece of his administration,” Neuborne continues. “Hitler barred Jews. Trump bars Muslims and seekers of sanctuary from Central America. When the lower courts blocked Trump’s Muslim travel ban, he unilaterally issued executive orders replacing it with a thinly disguised substitute that ultimately narrowly won Supreme Court approval under a theory of extreme deference to the president.”

*******************

To read the entire article, please click on the following link:

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/08/09/leading-civil-rights-lawyer-shows-20-ways-trump-copying-hitlers-early-rhetoric-and

[Kätzchen]

Nancy Pelosi just made a statement that she is ready to put together a panel of former Presidents, cabinet members, etc., to quickly impeach 45. I sure hope they do this because impeaching 45 will send a more concrete message that seditious, intentional acts will not be tolerated, and prohibit him from ever being elected to any office again.

*fingers crossed*

From ABC News:

Speaker Pelosi calls on invoking the 25th Amendment after Capitol riots: ABC News Live

https://abcnews.go.com/Live/video/abcnews-live-41463246



While we wait to see if the GOP will invoke the 25th Amendment, I thought it would be worthwhile to post an Op-ed which appeared over a year ago, and was penned by a Civil Liberties lawyer.

Here are 20 reasons why it is important to take measures now:

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Leading Civil Rights Lawyer Shows 20 Ways Trump Is Copying Hitler’s Early Rhetoric and Policies

The author, Burt Neuborne, is one of America’s top civil liberties lawyers, and questions whether federal government can contain Trump and GOP power grabs.

by Steven Rosenfeld

Steven Rosenfeld is a senior writing fellow and the editor and chief correspondent of Voting Booth, a project of the Independent Media Institute. He is a national political reporter focusing on democracy issues. He has reported for nationwide public radio networks, websites, and newspapers and produced talk radio and music podcasts. He has written five books, including profiles of campaigns, voter suppression, voting rights guides, and a WWII survival story currently being made into a film. His latest book is Democracy Betrayed: How Superdelegates, Redistricting, Party Insiders, and the Electoral College Rigged the 2016 Election (Hot Books, March 2018).

A new book by one of the nation’s foremost civil liberties lawyers powerfully describes how America’s constitutional checks and balances are being pushed to the brink by a president who is consciously following Adolf Hitler’s extremist propaganda and policy template from the early 1930s—when the Nazis took power in Germany.

In When at Times the Mob Is Swayed: A Citizen’s Guide to Defending Our Republic, Burt Neuborne mostly focuses on how America’s constitutional foundation in 2019—an unrepresentative Congress, the Electoral College and a right-wing Supreme Court majority—is not positioned to withstand Trump’s extreme polarization and GOP power grabs. However, its second chapter, “Why the Sudden Concern About Fixing the Brakes?,” extensively details Trump’s mimicry of Hitler’s pre-war rhetoric and strategies.

Neuborne doesn’t make this comparison lightly. His 55-year career began by challenging the constitutionality of the Vietnam War in the 1960s. He became the ACLU’s national legal director in the 1980s under Ronald Reagan. He was founding legal director of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School in the 1990s. He has been part of more than 200 Supreme Court cases and Holocaust reparation litigation.

“Why does an ignorant, narcissistic buffoon like Trump trigger such anxiety? Why do so many Americans feel it existentially (not just politically) important to resist our forty-fifth president?” he writes. “Partly it’s just aesthetics. Trump is such a coarse and appalling man that it’s hard to stomach his presence in Abraham Lincoln’s house. But that’s not enough to explain the intensity of my dread. LBJ was coarse. Gerald Ford and George W. Bush were dumb as rocks. Richard Nixon was an anti-Semite. Bill Clinton’s mistreatment of women dishonored his office. Ronald Reagan was a dangerous ideologue. I opposed each of them when they appeared to exceed their constitutional powers. But I never felt a sense of existential dread. I never sensed that the very existence of a tolerant democracy was in play.”

A younger Trump, according to his first wife’s divorce filings, kept and studied a book translating and annotating Adolf Hitler’s pre-World War II speeches in a locked bedside cabinet, Neuborne noted. The English edition of My New Order, published in 1941, also had analyses of the speeches’ impact on his era’s press and politics. “Ugly and appalling as they are, those speeches are masterpieces of demagogic manipulation,” Neuborne says.

“Watching Trump work his crowds, though, I see a dangerously manipulative narcissist unleashing the demagogic spells that he learned from studying Hitler’s speeches—spells that he cannot control and that are capable of eroding the fabric of American democracy,” Neuborne says. “You see, we’ve seen what these rhetorical techniques can do. Much of Trump’s rhetoric—as a candidate and in office—mirrors the strategies, even the language, used by Adolf Hitler in the early 1930s to erode German democracy.”

Many Americans may seize or condemn Neuborne’s analysis, which has more than 20 major points of comparison. The author repeatedly says his goal is not “equating” the men—as “it trivializes Hitler’s obscene crimes to compare them to Trump’s often pathetic foibles.”

Indeed, the book has a larger frame: whether federal checks and balances—Congress, the Supreme Court, the Electoral College—can contain the havoc that Trump thrives on and the Republican Party at large has embraced. But the Trump-Hitler compilation is a stunning warning, because, as many Holocaust survivors have said, few Germans or Europeans expected what unfolded in the years after Hitler amassed power.

Here’s how Neuborne introduces this section. Many recent presidents have been awful, “But then there was Donald Trump, the only president in recent American history to openly despise the twin ideals—individual dignity and fundamental equality—upon which the contemporary United States is built. When you confront the reality of a president like Trump, the state of both sets of brakes—internal [constitutional] and external [public resistance]—become hugely important because Donald Trump’s political train runs on the most potent and dangerous fuel of all: a steady diet of fear, greed, loathing, lies, and envy. It’s a toxic mixture that has destroyed democracies before, and can do so again.

“Give Trump credit,” he continues. “He did his homework well and became the twenty-first-century master of divisive rhetoric. We’re used to thinking of Hitler’s Third Reich as the incomparably evil tyranny that it undoubtedly was. But Hitler didn’t take power by force. He used a set of rhetorical tropes codified in Trump’s bedside reading that persuaded enough Germans to welcome Hitler as a populist leader. The Nazis did not overthrow the Weimar Republic. It fell into their hands as the fruit of Hitler’s satanic ability to mesmerize enough Germans to trade their birthright for a pottage of scapegoating, short-term economic gain, xenophobia, and racism. It could happen here.”

20 Common Themes, Rhetorical Tactics and Dangerous Policies

Here are 20 serious points of comparison between the early Hitler and Trump:

1. Neither was elected by a majority. Trump lost the popular vote by 2.9 million votes, receiving votes by 25.3 percent of all eligible American voters. “That’s just a little less than the percentage of the German electorate that turned to the Nazi Party in 1932–33,” Neuborne writes. “Unlike the low turnouts in the United States, turnout in Weimar Germany averaged just over 80 percent of eligible voters.” He continues, “Once installed as a minority chancellor in January 1933, Hitler set about demonizing his political opponents, and no one—not the vaunted, intellectually brilliant German judiciary; not the respected, well-trained German police; not the revered, aristocratic German military; not the widely admired, efficient German government bureaucracy; not the wealthy, immensely powerful leaders of German industry; and not the powerful center-right political leaders of the Reichstag—mounted a serious effort to stop him.”

2. Both found direct communication channels to their base. By 1936’s Olympics, Nazi narratives dominated German cultural and political life. “How on earth did Hitler pull it off? What satanic magic did Trump find in Hitler’s speeches?” Neuborne asks. He addresses Hitler’s extreme rhetoric soon enough, but notes that Hitler found a direct communication pathway—the Nazi Party gave out radios with only one channel, tuned to Hitler’s voice, bypassing Germany’s news media. Trump has an online equivalent.

“Donald Trump’s tweets, often delivered between midnight and dawn, are the twenty-first century’s technological embodiment of Hitler’s free plastic radios,” Neuborne says. “Trump’s Twitter account, like Hitler’s radios, enables a charismatic leader to establish and maintain a personal, unfiltered line of communication with an adoring political base of about 30–40 percent of the population, many (but not all) of whom are only too willing, even anxious, to swallow Trump’s witches’ brew of falsehoods, half-truths, personal invective, threats, xenophobia, national security scares, religious bigotry, white racism, exploitation of economic insecurity, and a never ending-search for scapegoats.”

3. Both blame others and divide on racial lines. As Neuborne notes, “Hitler used his single-frequency radios to wax hysterical to his adoring base about his pathological racial and religious fantasies glorifying Aryans and demonizing Jews, blaming Jews (among other racial and religious scapegoats) for German society’s ills.” That is comparable to “Trump’s tweets and public statements, whether dealing with black-led demonstrations against police violence, white-led racist mob violence, threats posed by undocumented aliens, immigration policy generally, protests by black and white professional athletes, college admission policies, hate speech, even response to hurricane damage in Puerto Rico,” he says. Again and again, Trump uses “racially tinged messages calculated to divide whites from people of color.”

4. Both relentlessly demonize opponents. “Hitler’s radio harangues demonized his domestic political opponents, calling them parasites, criminals, cockroaches, and various categories of leftist scum,” Neuborne notes. “Trump’s tweets and speeches similarly demonize his political opponents. Trump talks about the country being ‘infested’ with dangerous aliens of color. He fantasizes about jailing Hillary Clinton, calls Mexicans rapists, refers to ‘shithole countries,’ degrades anyone who disagrees with him, and dreams of uprooting thousands of allegedly disloyal bureaucrats in the State Department, the Environmental Protection Agency, the FBI, and the CIA, who he calls ‘the deep state’ and who, he claims, are sabotaging American greatness.”

5. They unceasingly attack objective truth. “Both Trump and Hitler maintained a relentless assault on the very idea of objective truth,” he continues. “Each began the assault by seeking to delegitimize the mainstream press. Hitler quickly coined the epithet Lügenpresse (literally ‘lying press’) to denigrate the mainstream press. Trump uses a paraphrase of Hitler’s lying press epithet—‘fake news’—cribbed, no doubt, from one of Hitler’s speeches. For Trump, the mainstream press is a ‘lying press’ that publishes ‘fake news.’” Hitler attacked his opponents as spreading false information to undermine his positions, Neuborne says, just as Trump has attacked “elites” for disseminating false news, “especially his possible links to the Kremlin.”

6. They relentlessly attack mainstream media. Trump’s assaults on the media echo Hitler’s, Neuborne says, noting that he “repeatedly attacks the ‘failing New York Times,’ leads crowds in chanting ‘CNN sucks,’ [and] is personally hostile to most reporters.” He cites the White House’s refusal to fly the flag at half-mast after the murder of five journalists in Annapolis in June 2018, Trump’s efforts to punish CNN by blocking a merger of its corporate parent, and trying to revoke federal Postal Service contracts held by Amazon, which was founded by Jeff Bezos, who also owns the Washington Post.

7. Their attacks on truth include science. Neuborne notes, “Both Trump and Hitler intensified their assault on objective truth by deriding scientific experts, especially academics who question Hitler’s views on race or Trump’s views on climate change, immigration, or economics. For both Trump and Hitler, the goal is (and was) to eviscerate the very idea of objective truth, turning everything into grist for a populist jury subject to manipulation by a master puppeteer. In both Trump’s and Hitler’s worlds, public opinion ultimately defines what is true and what is false.”

8. Their lies blur reality—and supporters spread them. “Trump’s pathological penchant for repeatedly lying about his behavior can only succeed in a world where his supporters feel free to embrace Trump’s ‘alternative facts’ and treat his hyperbolic exaggerations as the gospel truth,” Neuborne says. “Once Hitler had delegitimized the mainstream media by a series of systematic attacks on its integrity, he constructed a fawning alternative mass media designed to reinforce his direct radio messages and enhance his personal power. Trump is following the same path, simultaneously launching bitter attacks on the mainstream press while embracing the so-called alt-right media, co-opting both Sinclair Broadcasting and the Rupert Murdoch–owned Fox Broadcasting Company as, essentially, a Trump Broadcasting Network.”

9. Both orchestrated mass rallies to show status. “Once Hitler had cemented his personal communications link with his base via free radios and a fawning media and had badly eroded the idea of objective truth, he reinforced his emotional bond with his base by holding a series of carefully orchestrated mass meetings dedicated to cementing his status as a charismatic leader, or Führer,” Neuborne writes. “The powerful personal bonds nurtured by Trump’s tweets and Fox’s fawning are also systematically reinforced by periodic, carefully orchestrated mass rallies (even going so far as to co-opt a Boy Scout Jamboree in 2017), reinforcing Trump’s insatiable narcissism and his status as a charismatic leader.”

10. They embrace extreme nationalism. “Hitler’s strident appeals to the base invoked an extreme version of German nationalism, extolling a brilliant German past and promising to restore Germany to its rightful place as a preeminent nation,” Neuborne says. “Trump echoes Hitler’s jingoistic appeal to ultranationalist fervor, extolling American exceptionalism right down to the slogan ‘Make America Great Again,’ a paraphrase of Hitler’s promise to restore German greatness.”

11. Both made closing borders a centerpiece. “Hitler all but closed Germany’s borders, freezing non-Aryan migration into the country and rendering it impossible for Germans to escape without official permission. Like Hitler, Trump has also made closed borders a centerpiece of his administration,” Neuborne continues. “Hitler barred Jews. Trump bars Muslims and seekers of sanctuary from Central America. When the lower courts blocked Trump’s Muslim travel ban, he unilaterally issued executive orders replacing it with a thinly disguised substitute that ultimately narrowly won Supreme Court approval under a theory of extreme deference to the president.”

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To read the entire article, please click on the following link:

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/08/09/leading-civil-rights-lawyer-shows-20-ways-trump-copying-hitlers-early-rhetoric-and

[GeorgiaMa'am]

Retired Admiral James Stavridis has a smart, optimistic and rational viewpoint regarding yesterday's protest at the Capitol during which a riot broke out. He spoke on today's episode of HARDtalk, a BBC radio podcast, and had some very thoughtful and interesting things to say. Here are some highlights:

Stavridis: "I was angry. It felt a bit to me like 9/11 . . . I suspect in the Capitol as the work of Congress returns there must be anger by many. This was an absolute desecration of the highest temple of democracy in our nation . . . That attack yesterday by rioters, incited by an American president, was a violation of our constitution in my view . . ."

Host: "How could it happen . . . that at least some of those uniformed personnel were really not interested in trying to stop that mob entering the building?"
Stavridis: "We are going to need a full investigation of the Capitol Police . . . It is either a lack of planning, a failure of intelligence or rot from within that Capitol Police force. We will need a full investigation . . . and if the commander of the Capitol police is still in his job by the end of the week I would be surprised."

Host: Help me to understand exactly who these people are who stormed that building . . .
Stavridis: I think that there are elements of domestic terror involved in the events yesterday . . . What has caused them to come together is a sense of grievance and anger which was fueled by the President of the United States with his baseless claims that the election was fraudulent . . . Some of these groups have talked about secession from the Union, they have talked about civil wars. I don't think the vast majority of Americans are remotely in that place yet . . . I think our next president is smart enough to recognize that job one is going to be bringing together a very polarized nation . . . We are not headed to a civil war."

Stavridis: "Donald Trump came into office, made a lot of promises, what happened? He lost the House, he lost the Senate, he lost his own office. He has completely failed . . . A subset of the American population remains firmly behind him, somewhere around 35%."

Stavridis: "I think democracy is not going to collapse in the face of authoritarianism."

* * *

To hear the full podcast, go here: Admiral James Stavridis: The aftermath of the capitol riot (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3cszbyh)

[Kätzchen]

I saw lots of video footage today showing what the t-p clan was doing in their tent while watching their followers at that rally, and it was so sickening to see the depravity among members of that clan, the lust for power, the warped thinking process articulated with dangerous smiling faces. It is scary, so frightening to see this type of demagoguery worship among not only themselves but those who listen to them and act on every thing they say.

I don't know if I can ever fully say that I think our society is suffering political polarization as much as this type of condition blankets or skirts the elemental processes by which it operates. Not sure I am succinctly describing all I have been thinking about but I do know that I am grateful that there are more of us whose moral compass is nothing like the hateful vitriol we've had to witness over the past several years, if not more.

I tend to think of the body of American society is riddled with a complicated type of 'cancer' by which is fueled by hatred for that which is not white.

I feel frustrated that it took this type of crisis for the proverbial spell to be broken, but it's only the beginning of lots of conscious, hard work and making the decision to commit to, as President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris use as a campaign slogan, Build Back Better.

My heart hurts for our country, and for those of us who have suffered tremendously over the past year, specifically.

So much loss. So much pain. Some critical lessons we need to nail down and actively work on, to become a better people.

[homoe]

I'd bet my bottom dollar old Mitch put a bug in Elaine's ear to resign, but not for the reason she's saying!

I think after what happened Tuesday, Mitch saw that maybe the trying to remove of Trump from office would put her right in the thick of things and best to get out before that happened!

[Cin]

Civil Society Groups Warn Against Anti-Protest Legislation Following Siege of US Capital
"We have to make sure this moment is not used to further anti-protest legislation."

Weaponizing the siege of the U.S. Capitol

When news broke of the white supremacists breaching the U.S. Capitol, multiple news outlets repeated statements labeling the mob as “anarchists,” echoing White House efforts to target “Antifa.”

This type of weaponization of the day’s events to justify efforts to clamp down on protests is raising concerns among civil society groups.

“We have to make sure this moment is not used to further anti-protest legislation,” says Justin Hansford, Founder and Director of Harvard University’s Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center.

The events on December 6 showcased preferential treatment by law enforcement for white supremacist groups. “The tanks, batons, and tear gas rounds aggressively used against BLM protesters this summer were conspicuously absent when these white supremacists stormed the capitol building,” says Hansford. “At the end of the day, for many people around the world, this incident punctuated not only the delusion of President Trump's supporters but more enduringly, the fundamentally racially tinged nature of police response to public assemblies."

This preferential treatment, also condemed by the National Lawyers Guild, is further proof that any new efforts to strengthen the power law enforcement to clamp down on dissent—such as through domestic terrorism legislation—is “without basis," says Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, Executive Director, Partnership for Civil Justice Fund.

“This violent mob was allowed to storm the Capitol,” says Verheyden-Hilliard. “The differential treatment that they received, and as compared to the brutal attacks on actual First Amendment protected activity of the racial justice movement, is stunning. Capitol police have all the weapons, tactics and personnel at their disposal but they made an obvious decision not to deploy them. The last thing we need is to allow this right-wing attack on the Capitol to become a vehicle to give police more tools to clamp down on the progressive, peaceful social justice movement.” (The DC Police purchased over $130,000 worth of tear gas just before the November 2020 election and turned down offers from the Pentagon for backup.)

Chip Gibbons, Policy Director for Defending Rights and Dissent agrees. “While we condemn these crimes against democracy, such antics cannot be used to justify new repressive measures against actual protests, restrictions of the right of peaceful assembly, or curtailment of speech,” said Gibbons in a statement.

Groups including Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, Center for Protest Law and Litigation, Defending Rights & Dissent and Justice for Muslims Collective are demanding probes into the federal and local police planning and response to Wednesday’s events.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/01/08/civil-society-groups-warn-against-anti-protest-legislation-following-siege-us

[Orema]

In Capital, a G.O.P. Crisis. At the R.N.C. Meeting, a Trump Celebration.
Party members at a gathering of the Republican National Committee endorsed President Trump as the man to lead the party forward, ignoring the turmoil in Washington.

By Jonathan Martin
Jan. 8, 2021

https://i.postimg.cc/vZ4qzFSQ/merlin-176138757-c4837971-892d-49a8-8b74-47f576b71950-super-Jumbo.jpg
Ronna McDaniel was re-elected as chair of the Republican National Committee despite the party’s loss of the presidency and the Senate. Credit...Pete Marovich for The New York Times

AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. — In Washington, Republicans were dealing with a burgeoning crisis in their ranks, with high-profile resignations and bitter infighting over how to deal with an erratic and isolated president. But at the Republican National Committee’s winter meeting on Friday, most party members were operating in a parallel universe.

In a chandelier-adorned ballroom at the seaside Ritz-Carlton here, there was no mention of President Trump’s disruption of the coronavirus relief package or his phone call to the Georgia secretary of state demanding that he help steal the election, both of which contributed to Republicans’ losing control of the Senate.

And while the R.N.C. chair, Ronna McDaniel, condemned the attack on the Capitol, neither she nor any other speaker so much as publicly hinted at Mr. Trump’s role in inciting a mob assault on America’s seat of government.

Even as the president faces a possible second impeachment proceeding, this collective exercise in gaze aversion was not the most striking part of the meeting. More revealing was the reason for the silence from the stage: Party members, one after another, said in interviews that the president did not bear any blame for the violence at the Capitol and indicated that they wanted him to continue to play a leading role in the party.

“I surely embrace President Trump,” said Michele Fiore, the committeewoman from Nevada, where Republicans have lost two Senate races and the governorship since 2016. Ms. Fiore, who was sporting a Trump-emblazoned vest, said the president was “absolutely” a positive force in the party.

The fealty to Mr. Trump was made plain on Friday when the state chairs and the committeemen and women who make up the R.N.C.’s governing board unanimously re-elected Ms. McDaniel, Mr. Trump’s handpicked chair. They also reappointed her co-chair, Tommy Hicks, who was first appointed to his post because of his friendship with the president’s eldest son.

Mr. Trump is the first president since Herbert Hoover to preside over the loss of the White House, the House and the Senate in a single term and will be the first since Andrew Johnson to boycott his successor’s inauguration. That hasn’t yet fazed the Republican rank and file.

“This room, they’re in denial, and that’s on the record,” Bill Palatucci, a committeeman from New Jersey, said during a break in the Friday session, acknowledging the “damage done to the country” and the Republican “brand” this week.

But Mr. Palatucci was a lonely voice of dissent, at least in public.

Privately, a group of Republican officials, mostly those from the pre-Trump establishment wing of the party, said that they were appalled by the president’s conduct and that Ms. McDaniel had been candid about the party’s difficulties behind closed doors.

These Republicans predicted with more hope than confidence that once Mr. Trump was out of office, the ardor for him in the conservative base would cool.

Yet for now, the flames still burn.

“I would love to see him go into states that have some House seats we can flip in ’22,” said Terry Lathan, the Alabama G.OP. chair, who said “absolutely not” when she was asked if Mr. Trump bore any blame for the attack on the Capitol.

When a committee member took an informal survey on whose closed-door speech on Thursday members had liked better, that of Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota or of Nikki R. Haley, the former United Nations ambassador, the response was clear. The party officials preferred Ms. Noem’s, because she had not criticized Mr. Trump as Ms. Haley did in her remarks, a Republican familiar with the sampling said.

Earlier in the day on Thursday, when the president briefly called into a breakfast meeting, he was greeted by applause. And when the Missouri national committeeman, Gordon Kinne, said at the breakfast that he was a supporter of the president but had been upset by his comments about the violence at the Capitol, he was met with a generally frosty response, according to another committee member in the room.

The loyalty to Mr. Trump results in part from the turnover on the committee during his term. The president’s top political lieutenants intervened to install loyalists in state and local G.O.P. conventions ahead of 2020. The goal was to prevent any party rule changes that could have made it easier to mount a primary challenge against Mr. Trump, but the end result was to leave the committee heavy with Trump devotees.

The changes also accelerated a trend that pre-dated Mr. Trump’s rise: the evolution of the committee from a body filled with canny political professionals and power brokers in their states to one dominated by dogmatic partisans well-marinated in Fox News and Facebook memes.

Perhaps more significant, the president has fostered a new wave of activism on the right — and many longstanding G.O.P. leaders fear alienating these newcomers to party politics.

“We can’t exist without the people he brought to the party — he’s changed the direction of the party,” said Paul Reynolds, the Republican committeeman from Alabama. “We’re a different party because of the people that came with him, and they make us a better party.”

Reta Hamilton, a committeewoman from Arkansas, said Mr. Trump should play “a leading part” in the G.O.P. in the future for just that reason — “to bring his voters,” she said.

Ms. Hamilton and other R.N.C. members also sought to rationalize questions about the damage to the Capitol and the images of Trump banners and Confederate flags littering the building.

“What was your reaction to Black Lives Matter looting and robbing and killing people?” she shot back brazenly before walking away.

Steve Scheffler, a committeeman from Iowa, was equally quick to invoke last summer’s at times destructive protests over racial justice and the news media’s coverage of them.

“Why doesn’t the press condemn the violence that happened in Portland and Seattle?” said Mr. Scheffler. “It’s a double standard.”

Asked if he felt there was an equivalence between the left-wing protests of 2020 and the violent attempt to subvert the election this week, he said: “Two wrongs don’t make a right. It’s all bad.”

In her remarks to the committee, Ms. McDaniel, the niece of Senator Mitt Romney, thanked Mr. Trump for his faith in her and never directly acknowledged that Mr. Trump had been defeated, only referring to her frustration at “losing critical elections.”

As for the president’s own denial about his loss, she did not rebut the conspiracy theories he has pushed, and that the party’s base has echoed.

Addressing the Republican “grass roots,” she vowed to work with state legislatures to “make sure what we saw in this election never happens again.”

Ms. McDaniel went on to criticize the effort by House Democrats to withdraw gender-specific words like “wife” and “husband” from the rule book governing the chamber.

The standing ovation she received was a reminder that disdain for the left’s perceived excesses is the most animating, and unifying, force on the right. This brand of oppositional politics could help paper over Republicans’ challenges when they run as the out-of-power party next year.

Indeed, much of Ms. McDaniel’s speech was Republican red meat. There were warnings against socialism, attacks on the four liberal congresswomen known as “the squad” and boasting about the diverse class of lawmakers who helped the party gain House seats in November despite Mr. Trump’s broad unpopularity. “Candidates matter,” she said, alluding to new lawmakers.

David Bossie, one of Mr. Trump’s advisers and the Maryland committeeman, insisted that the party’s losses had been on the margins.

“You don’t have to throw out everybody when there’s nothing fundamentally wrong,” Mr. Bossie said.

A handful of committee members, however, believe more reflection is desperately needed, particularly after this week. “We’re whistling past the graveyard,” said Henry Barbour, the Mississippi committeeman, who called Mr. Trump’s conduct before the riot “totally unacceptable.”

Few of his counterparts, though, would criticize the president.

Asked if Mr. Trump was still the effective leader of the G.O.P., the Wyoming Republican chair, Frank Eathorne, said, “The way Wyoming sees it, yes.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/08/us/politics/trump-republican-national-committee.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage

[homoe]

~~
Voss, Chao, Mulvaney, the list goes on and on...

Really, now after 3 years and 50 weeks, you've finally saw what an idiot you've been ass kissing and brown nosing?! OR perhaps just now you're realizing soon you'll be out of a job and are trying to cover your ass!

[Cin]

In Capital, a G.O.P. Crisis. At the R.N.C. Meeting, a Trump Celebration.
Party members at a gathering of the Republican National Committee endorsed President Trump as the man to lead the party forward, ignoring the turmoil in Washington.

By Jonathan Martin
Jan. 8, 2021

https://i.postimg.cc/vZ4qzFSQ/merlin-176138757-c4837971-892d-49a8-8b74-47f576b71950-super-Jumbo.jpg
Ronna McDaniel was re-elected as chair of the Republican National Committee despite the party’s loss of the presidency and the Senate. Credit...Pete Marovich for The New York Times

AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. — In Washington, Republicans were dealing with a burgeoning crisis in their ranks, with high-profile resignations and bitter infighting over how to deal with an erratic and isolated president. But at the Republican National Committee’s winter meeting on Friday, most party members were operating in a parallel universe.

In a chandelier-adorned ballroom at the seaside Ritz-Carlton here, there was no mention of President Trump’s disruption of the coronavirus relief package or his phone call to the Georgia secretary of state demanding that he help steal the election, both of which contributed to Republicans’ losing control of the Senate.

And while the R.N.C. chair, Ronna McDaniel, condemned the attack on the Capitol, neither she nor any other speaker so much as publicly hinted at Mr. Trump’s role in inciting a mob assault on America’s seat of government.

Even as the president faces a possible second impeachment proceeding, this collective exercise in gaze aversion was not the most striking part of the meeting. More revealing was the reason for the silence from the stage: Party members, one after another, said in interviews that the president did not bear any blame for the violence at the Capitol and indicated that they wanted him to continue to play a leading role in the party.

“I surely embrace President Trump,” said Michele Fiore, the committeewoman from Nevada, where Republicans have lost two Senate races and the governorship since 2016. Ms. Fiore, who was sporting a Trump-emblazoned vest, said the president was “absolutely” a positive force in the party.

The fealty to Mr. Trump was made plain on Friday when the state chairs and the committeemen and women who make up the R.N.C.’s governing board unanimously re-elected Ms. McDaniel, Mr. Trump’s handpicked chair. They also reappointed her co-chair, Tommy Hicks, who was first appointed to his post because of his friendship with the president’s eldest son.

Mr. Trump is the first president since Herbert Hoover to preside over the loss of the White House, the House and the Senate in a single term and will be the first since Andrew Johnson to boycott his successor’s inauguration. That hasn’t yet fazed the Republican rank and file.

“This room, they’re in denial, and that’s on the record,” Bill Palatucci, a committeeman from New Jersey, said during a break in the Friday session, acknowledging the “damage done to the country” and the Republican “brand” this week.

But Mr. Palatucci was a lonely voice of dissent, at least in public.

Privately, a group of Republican officials, mostly those from the pre-Trump establishment wing of the party, said that they were appalled by the president’s conduct and that Ms. McDaniel had been candid about the party’s difficulties behind closed doors.

These Republicans predicted with more hope than confidence that once Mr. Trump was out of office, the ardor for him in the conservative base would cool.

Yet for now, the flames still burn.

“I would love to see him go into states that have some House seats we can flip in ’22,” said Terry Lathan, the Alabama G.OP. chair, who said “absolutely not” when she was asked if Mr. Trump bore any blame for the attack on the Capitol.

When a committee member took an informal survey on whose closed-door speech on Thursday members had liked better, that of Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota or of Nikki R. Haley, the former United Nations ambassador, the response was clear. The party officials preferred Ms. Noem’s, because she had not criticized Mr. Trump as Ms. Haley did in her remarks, a Republican familiar with the sampling said.

Earlier in the day on Thursday, when the president briefly called into a breakfast meeting, he was greeted by applause. And when the Missouri national committeeman, Gordon Kinne, said at the breakfast that he was a supporter of the president but had been upset by his comments about the violence at the Capitol, he was met with a generally frosty response, according to another committee member in the room.

The loyalty to Mr. Trump results in part from the turnover on the committee during his term. The president’s top political lieutenants intervened to install loyalists in state and local G.O.P. conventions ahead of 2020. The goal was to prevent any party rule changes that could have made it easier to mount a primary challenge against Mr. Trump, but the end result was to leave the committee heavy with Trump devotees.

The changes also accelerated a trend that pre-dated Mr. Trump’s rise: the evolution of the committee from a body filled with canny political professionals and power brokers in their states to one dominated by dogmatic partisans well-marinated in Fox News and Facebook memes.

Perhaps more significant, the president has fostered a new wave of activism on the right — and many longstanding G.O.P. leaders fear alienating these newcomers to party politics.

“We can’t exist without the people he brought to the party — he’s changed the direction of the party,” said Paul Reynolds, the Republican committeeman from Alabama. “We’re a different party because of the people that came with him, and they make us a better party.”

Reta Hamilton, a committeewoman from Arkansas, said Mr. Trump should play “a leading part” in the G.O.P. in the future for just that reason — “to bring his voters,” she said.

Ms. Hamilton and other R.N.C. members also sought to rationalize questions about the damage to the Capitol and the images of Trump banners and Confederate flags littering the building.

“What was your reaction to Black Lives Matter looting and robbing and killing people?” she shot back brazenly before walking away.

Steve Scheffler, a committeeman from Iowa, was equally quick to invoke last summer’s at times destructive protests over racial justice and the news media’s coverage of them.

“Why doesn’t the press condemn the violence that happened in Portland and Seattle?” said Mr. Scheffler. “It’s a double standard.”

Asked if he felt there was an equivalence between the left-wing protests of 2020 and the violent attempt to subvert the election this week, he said: “Two wrongs don’t make a right. It’s all bad.”

In her remarks to the committee, Ms. McDaniel, the niece of Senator Mitt Romney, thanked Mr. Trump for his faith in her and never directly acknowledged that Mr. Trump had been defeated, only referring to her frustration at “losing critical elections.”

As for the president’s own denial about his loss, she did not rebut the conspiracy theories he has pushed, and that the party’s base has echoed.

Addressing the Republican “grass roots,” she vowed to work with state legislatures to “make sure what we saw in this election never happens again.”

Ms. McDaniel went on to criticize the effort by House Democrats to withdraw gender-specific words like “wife” and “husband” from the rule book governing the chamber.

The standing ovation she received was a reminder that disdain for the left’s perceived excesses is the most animating, and unifying, force on the right. This brand of oppositional politics could help paper over Republicans’ challenges when they run as the out-of-power party next year.

Indeed, much of Ms. McDaniel’s speech was Republican red meat. There were warnings against socialism, attacks on the four liberal congresswomen known as “the squad” and boasting about the diverse class of lawmakers who helped the party gain House seats in November despite Mr. Trump’s broad unpopularity. “Candidates matter,” she said, alluding to new lawmakers.

David Bossie, one of Mr. Trump’s advisers and the Maryland committeeman, insisted that the party’s losses had been on the margins.

“You don’t have to throw out everybody when there’s nothing fundamentally wrong,” Mr. Bossie said.

A handful of committee members, however, believe more reflection is desperately needed, particularly after this week. “We’re whistling past the graveyard,” said Henry Barbour, the Mississippi committeeman, who called Mr. Trump’s conduct before the riot “totally unacceptable.”

Few of his counterparts, though, would criticize the president.

Asked if Mr. Trump was still the effective leader of the G.O.P., the Wyoming Republican chair, Frank Eathorne, said, “The way Wyoming sees it, yes.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/08/us/politics/trump-republican-national-committee.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage

This is quite disturbing. Although I don't know why I'm surprised. This is the Republican Party. This is who they are.

Apparently they are not at all concerned that Trump will be impeached.

All the clutching of pearls by members of the GOP, it's all for show. I guess there will be no price to pay for all the elected officials of the Republican party who participated in this attack on the Capitol or publically supported the riot.

This is all too disheartening. People don't change their minds. People believe what they believe at their core. We all think the other would change their minds if they just understood the truth. The line between fact and fiction has been so blurred that truth is considered a matter of opinion.

[Orema]

This is quite disturbing. Although I don't know why I'm surprised. This is the Republican Party. This is who they are.

Apparently they are not at all concerned that Trump will be impeached.

All the clutching of pearls by members of the GOP, it's all for show. I guess there will be no price to pay for all the elected officials of the Republican party who participated in this attack on the Capitol or publically supported the riot.

This is all too disheartening. People don't change their minds. People believe what they believe at their core. We all think the other would change their minds if they just understood the truth. The line between fact and fiction has been so blurred that truth is considered a matter of opinion.


Exactly............

[Cin]

“Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.”
― Winston S. Churchill
That was then and this is now.
Now they change lies for truth and truth for lies and they don't hurry off, they stand there smug and content with what they have accomplished. No need to fear the truth today. One can wiggle out of any inconvenient truth.

Apparently the formula for turning lies into truth is to simply share the lie with like minded folk and repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat.

Before this over it will be Antifa who stormed the Capitol to make these poor, good hearted, special, god fearing patriots look bad.

https://www.politifact.com/article/2021/jan/07/theres-no-proof-antifa-stormed-capitol-rumor-sprea/

[GeorgiaMa'am]

~~
Voss, Chao, Mulvaney, the list goes on and on...

Really, now after 3 years and 50 weeks, you've finally saw what an idiot you've been ass kissing and brown nosing?! OR perhaps just now you're realizing soon you'll be out of a job and are trying to cover your ass!

Thank goodness some die-hard Republicans are starting to turn their backs on T***p and his legacy, for whatever reason. The RNC is delusional, claiming they want Trump to continue to lead the party, even after everything that culminated in this past week's sh*t storm. I welcome any of them who want to adopt a more centrist, if not Democratic, position. And if any of them truly see the light, well Hallelujah!

[homoe]

WASHINGTON — One of his most important early backers now says supporting him "was the worst mistake I ever made in my life" and a top donor called for him to be censured by the Senate. The largest newspapers in his home state called on him to resign. His publisher canceled its contract with him for an upcoming book. He's been pilloried by both Democrats and Republicans for leading the futile objection effort.

That's just some of the condemnation that's come Sen. Josh Hawley's way since the Missouri Republican became the first senator to announce he would object to the counting of Electoral College votes and then moved forward with his plan even after a pro-President Donald Trump mob had stormed the Capitol on Wednesday.

And a viral photo of Hawley entering the Capitol before the riot, showing the senator in a slim-fitting suit, hair perfectly coiffed and raising his fist toward the gathered crowd, has already become a lasting image of a day that won't soon be forgotten.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/sen-josh-hawley-becomes-public-170920469-203731306.html

[homoe]

Freshman lawmaker hit with colleagues’ fury after Hitler comments.

CHICAGO — Rep. Mary Miller served less than a week in Congress before moving Illinois Democrats to call for her resignation after she referenced Adolf Hitler in a speech not long before Donald Trump supporters laid siege to the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.

“She’s been on this earth long enough to know that invoking the beliefs of Hitler as being right in any respect is inappropriate and wrong. It’s wrong enough that she should not be in Congress,” Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) said in an interview.

During a rally for the conservative Moms for America, Miller, an Illinois Republican said conservatives would lose unless "we win the hearts and minds of our children. This is the battle. Hitler was right on one thing. He said, ‘Whoever has the youth has the future.’”

Miller, the wife of Illinois GOP state Rep. Chris Miller, issued a statement Friday saying "I sincerely apologize for any harm my words caused" and she "[regrets] using a reference to one of the most evil dictators in history." But she blasted critics for “intentionally trying to twist my words.” Miller spokesperson Erin O’Malley considered an interview request with the congresswoman Friday but didn’t respond further.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), an Iraq War veteran, said Miller should resign and be replaced with “someone who better understands the sacrifices our brave service members made during World War II.” Illinois' Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who also is Jewish, called Miller’s comment at the rally “disgusting.” And Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, one of the first Republicans to press for Trump's removal from office after Wednesday's riots, called the Hitler comments “garbage.”

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/08/illinois-lawmaker-hitler-comments-456596

[homoe]

Freshman lawmaker hit with colleagues’ fury after Hitler comments.

CHICAGO — Rep. Mary Miller served less than a week in Congress before moving Illinois Democrats to call for her resignation after she referenced Adolf Hitler in a speech not long before Donald Trump supporters laid siege to the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.

“She’s been on this earth long enough to know that invoking the beliefs of Hitler as being right in any respect is inappropriate and wrong. It’s wrong enough that she should not be in Congress,” Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) said in an interview.

During a rally for the conservative Moms for America, Miller, an Illinois Republican said conservatives would lose unless "we win the hearts and minds of our children. This is the battle. Hitler was right on one thing. He said, ‘Whoever has the youth has the future.’”

Miller, the wife of Illinois GOP state Rep. Chris Miller, issued a statement Friday saying "I sincerely apologize for any harm my words caused" and she "[regrets] using a reference to one of the most evil dictators in history." But she blasted critics for “intentionally trying to twist my words.” Miller spokesperson Erin O’Malley considered an interview request with the congresswoman Friday but didn’t respond further.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), an Iraq War veteran, said Miller should resign and be replaced with “someone who better understands the sacrifices our brave service members made during World War II.” Illinois' Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who also is Jewish, called Miller’s comment at the rally “disgusting.” And Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, one of the first Republicans to press for Trump's removal from office after Wednesday's riots, called the Hitler comments “garbage.”

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/08/illinois-lawmaker-hitler-comments-456596

Even if Miller doesn't resign, she may be forced out of Congress anyway after the redistricting process fires up later this year.

Illinois is expected to lose one of its 18 congressional seats in the upcoming redistricting process as the state’s population has fallen relative to others. And there's a good chance the remap doesn't bode well for Miller: She lacks seniority against GOP Reps. Rodney Davis and Mike Bost for conservative seats. Now her words have further alienated the state's power structure, where Democrats control both houses of the Illinois Legislature and the governor's office.

[~ocean]

" Donny Dolly Hands " has blood on his hands ~ he is now the new 2020 "Chucky Dolly Hands "

[Kätzchen]

"...Biden and his attorney general must set the tone from the top that Trump’s actions were not politics as normal but were egregious and potentially criminal. This will make it clear to all that a full investigation into Trump’s possible crimes is warranted. In turn, it will go a long way to paving the way for a future we can all look forward to in which no one — not even a president— can pretend that they are above the law," ~ MSNBC Op-ed Columnist, Dean Obeidallah (January 6th, 2021).

LINK: https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/democrats-can-t-look-forward-without-investigating-donald-trump-s-n1253081?icid=msd_topgrid


____________________________
_____________________
________________


Rico and I both wrote to our respective US Senators and US House of Representatives to let them know we are grateful for their leadership and to also enforce the idea that we believe the current president should be held accountable: Tried by prosecution and convicted for the crimes he has committed all along, as well as the seditious acts of insurrection on the US Capitol and the American People.

[Cin]

While Trump is very much responsible for what happened at the Capitol on January 6, and it's hard to imagine that responsibility for this terrorist attack goes beyond the highest office in the land, but it does and it's important that we, the people, understand that clearly. Their was collusion at the highest levels and I don't just mean the presidency.

Excerpt from https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/01/10/trump-coup-and-collusion-made-it-possible?cd-origin=rss&utm_term=AO&utm_campaign=Weekly%20Newsletter&utm_content=email&utm_source=Weekly%20Newsletter&utm_medium=Email

A few things are clear.

One is that the Washington, D.C. mayor, and other D.C. public officials, explicitly requested that the federal government coordinate law enforcement efforts in the city and on the scene, and that these requests, made weeks ago, were ignored.

A second is that orders were given in advance by federal authorities that federal national guard forces should stand by but not deploy, should not be armed, and should not engage any violence if deployed, etc. In other words, someone in the Executive Branch, presumably the Secretary of the Army, clearly anticipated the possibility of deployment and sought to forestall it, and limit its effectiveness, in advance.

A third is that, as Maryland’s Republican Governor Larry Hogan has very publicly stated, when the Pentagon was phoned by him, as per procedure, to authorize the deployment of Maryland National Guard, he received no response for almost two hours, and then received a rushed response outside of normal channels.

In short, while the insurrection was going on, and Hogan had National Guard troops ready to deploy, and requested proper authorization, he was denied authorization. The Pentagon refused to authorize National Guard deployment for almost two hours while the Capitol building was being rampaged by rioters. There were decisions taken to produce this “nondecision.” There are authorities, and institutions, who were clearly responsible for non-action in the protection of the Congress and the enforcement of federal law.

There is complicity here at the highest level. And a kind of collusion, between the relevant Pentagon officials and, on the one hand, their insurrection-instigating boss, and on the other hand the rampaging mob, who were allowed free reign on federal property by federal forces.

This must be addressed because at this moment the county is in the hands of people who colluded with these terrorist groups.

[Kätzchen]

While Trump is very much responsible for what happened at the Capitol on January 6, and it's hard to imagine that responsibility for this terrorist attack goes beyond the highest office in the land, but it does and it's important that we, the people, understand that clearly. Their was collusion at the highest levels and I don't just mean the presidency.

Excerpt from https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/01/10/trump-coup-and-collusion-made-it-possible?cd-origin=rss&utm_term=AO&utm_campaign=Weekly%20Newsletter&utm_content=email&utm_source=Weekly%20Newsletter&utm_medium=Email

A few things are clear.

One is that the Washington, D.C. mayor, and other D.C. public officials, explicitly requested that the federal government coordinate law enforcement efforts in the city and on the scene, and that these requests, made weeks ago, were ignored.

A second is that orders were given in advance by federal authorities that federal national guard forces should stand by but not deploy, should not be armed, and should not engage any violence if deployed, etc. In other words, someone in the Executive Branch, presumably the Secretary of the Army, clearly anticipated the possibility of deployment and sought to forestall it, and limit its effectiveness, in advance.

A third is that, as Maryland’s Republican Governor Larry Hogan has very publicly stated, when the Pentagon was phoned by him, as per procedure, to authorize the deployment of Maryland National Guard, he received no response for almost two hours, and then received a rushed response outside of normal channels.

In short, while the insurrection was going on, and Hogan had National Guard troops ready to deploy, and requested proper authorization, he was denied authorization. The Pentagon refused to authorize National Guard deployment for almost two hours while the Capitol building was being rampaged by rioters. There were decisions taken to produce this “nondecision.” There are authorities, and institutions, who were clearly responsible for non-action in the protection of the Congress and the enforcement of federal law.

There is complicity here at the highest level. And a kind of collusion, between the relevant Pentagon officials and, on the one hand, their insurrection-instigating boss, and on the other hand the rampaging mob, who were allowed free reign on federal property by federal forces.

This must be addressed because at this moment the county is in the hands of people who colluded with these terrorist groups.

I read somewhere yesterday that T---p gutted DHS's watchdog group which rings the alarm bells on high-watch National Security issues.

I also think this is a rally call to scholars in the field of Sociology, with cartography experience, in mapping the sequence of events which have transpired since T---p was installed at the 45th president.

How long was it, after he(TP) gutted the watch dog group until the acts of sedition took place? I feel confident that by mapping out each event with what transpired before (ie, firing key personnel, gutting executive branch special offices that blow the whistle on key serious issues, etc) one can see the real picture of how TP accomplished such horrendous acts of sedition.

If I ever come across a fantastic article which explains it better than I can or find a video which speaks to these very issues, I will post it.

But I think Sociological Cartography can be utilized as a forensic tool of discovery to build an air-tight case that explains how TP and bad actors helped bring these acts of sedition to pass.

Thanks for your post Cin, issued by Common Dreams. I agree: TP didn't do this alone. He had help and key GOP/Retrumplican's aided and abetted TP each day he has been in office.

[Cin]

I agree: TP didn't do this alone. He had help and key GOP/Retrumplican's aided and abetted TP each day he has been in office.

I think it goes far beyond Trump and Trumpism per say, I think it is a mind set the GOP has had for a very very long time. Dog whistle politics and the southern strategy are a ways away from storming the capitol but it is all connected. The DOD was involved here. To me that is very scary. When the Pentagon does not come to the defense of the Capitol building that really is a bridge too far. It goes beyond anything I could have ever imagined. It is nothing short of treason. How can people depend on the Department of Defense to defend this country for all its citizens. I hope we don't look back on this as the opportunity we missed. They all have been caught with their pants down and if they get to white wash this (pun intended) and put it all on Trump and walk away with a few sacrifices here and there we will have missed our chance to clean the government of these abominations. There will be another Trump and we see clearly now that the power in this country favors the alt right white supremacist movement. If we blow this chance we might not get another. I doubt they will get caught again like this. The dems control the house, the senate and the presidency or will in a few days. They need to appoint committees manned by loyal and trusted people to follow the money and find out who is funding these organizations. Every part of this treasonous conspiracy needs to be dragged into the light and severe consequences have to happen to all the people involved in this.

[GeorgiaMa'am]

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Former Governor of California, Condemns T***p, Capitol Rioters, and Fellow Republicans

In his address, Schwarzenegger compares the Capitol Riot to Kristallnacht in 1938 Nazi Germany. He accuses T***p of attempting a coup. "President Trump is a failed leader. He will go down in history as the worst president ever." He then accuses members of his own Republican party of supporting the rioters. And finally, he encourages public support of Democratic President-elect Joe Biden to bring the nation together.

IMHO, Schwarzenegger says a lot of things that need to be said, and which will never be said by any Republican in office who is afraid of losing the support of T***p followers. It's almost enough to make me consider seeing Schwarzenegger as a viable future candidate for president, Republican though he is. He makes some very good points in a stirring statement.

To see the whole video (7 minutes, 38 seconds), click below:

x_P-0I6sAck

[Kätzchen]

Some things on my mind, while we wait for the USHOR to impeach the orange monster from psychoville:

A) Can our legislative body draw up and implement law to address political hate groups from forming a new political party? I wonder if it is possible because of the huge fracture within the GOP (life long Republicans abandoning thier party over incendiary politics which damages our country)?

B) Will participants of the riot incited by T---p be charged with Hate crimes, including those who carried a Confederate flag? Because, to me, by far, this sinister act against the government and all its people is a White Nationalist Supremacy attack and I feel strongly that these people should be listed as a hate group that should never be tolerated by our democracy.

[Cin]

I am concerned why the request by the Capitol Police to have the National Guard at the ready on Jan 6 was refused because of optics.

I'm really concerned with finding out why the Department of Defense did not respond to requests for help when the Capitol was attacked.

The Department of Defense is responsible for national security. Why did they do such a piss poor job? Why did they refuse to respond to requests for assistance from the former Capitol Police Chief, the DC Mayor and the Governor of Maryland?

If we don't hold them accountable and figure out who the traitors are in the Pentagon how can we feel our capitol is safe when these people attack again.


https://news.yahoo.com/former-capitol-police-chief-steven-144732071.html

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/01/10/larry-hogan-pentagon-took-hours-ok-national-guard-capitol-riot/6618084002/

Former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund said he requested that the National Guard be placed on standby in the days before the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol, but House and Senate security officials turned him down.

Sund, who resigned his post the day after the riot, told The Washington Post he had been concerned that the protest planned for Jan. 6 would be larger than expected. Sund said he asked House and Senate security officials for permission to request that the National Guard be placed on standby.

Sund said House and Senate sergeants at arms told him they were not comfortable with the “optics” of declaring an emergency days before the protest and suggested Sund should informally ask Guard officials to be on alert. Both have since resigned.

Sund said he pleaded for help five more times as the riot unfolded. A crowd of several thousand quickly overran the Capitol Police contingent of 1,400 officers at the scene.

“If we would have had the National Guard, we could have held them at bay longer, until more officers from our partner agencies could arrive,” Sund told the Post.

Sund said the crowd breached the Capitol just before 2 p.m. A half-hour later, he was on the phone with the Pentagon, he said. Sund and others said Lt. Gen. Walter Piatt, director of the Army Staff, balked at recommending that his boss, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, approve the request. Again, optics were cited.

National Guard troops arrived around 5:40 p.m., after the riot had been quelled.

Under federal law, the mayor of the District of Columbia does not have authority over the Guard. Neighboring Maryland must gain approval from the Pentagon to send its troops across the border into the District of Columbia.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said he received a call Wednesday afternoon from House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., saying the Capitol had been overrun. Hogan said he authorized the mobilization of the Maryland National Guard and was ready to deploy them to the Capitol.

"However, we were repeatedly denied approval to do so," Hogan said.

“I can't speak as to what was going on on the other end of the line back at the Pentagon or in the White House,” Hogan said. “I was in the middle of a meeting when my chief of staff came in and said the Capitol was under attack. ... We were in contact with the mayor's office, who requested assistance. We immediately sent police assistance. I immediately called up the National Guard.”

“All I know is that we were trying to get answers and we weren't getting answers,” Hogan said.

Pentagon officials on Sunday downplayed Hogan’s assessment, arguing that even if the authorization had been granted, it would have taken several hours for troops to assemble at their armory and equip themselves to join the effort to control the rioters. Guardsmen generally require four hours to leave their jobs or homes for their armories.

[homoe]

With a second possible impeachment of President Donald Trump on the horizon, some Republicans are saying his conduct in egging on a mob that rioted at the Capitol last week is worthy of impeachment or removal. Others, however, say taking action against Trump could inflame tensions further.

Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., said on NBC News' "Meet the Press" that he believes Trump should resign immediately, joining a handful of Republican colleagues calling for him to go. Toomey said that he believed Trump's conduct is impeachable but that the appropriate step is for him to leave office before his term ends Jan. 20.

R E A L L Y....this is a man who could not admit he was defeated. THEY must be living in a fool's paradise if they think this is ever going to happen!

https://www.yahoo.com/news/many-republicans-agree-trump-went-220100484.html

[Kätzchen]

I would add that not only the national capitol, but the entire nation itself too.

How can anybody feel safe, especially people of color or any minor sector of American society (ie, the LGBTQ, aging and/or disabled, hearing impaired, etc) feel safe after the sitting president incited violent attacks?

I dont feel safe. My biracial African-American sons have never been safe from harm, either.

And I too worry, and share in your concerns, Cin.


I am concerned why the request by the Capitol Police to have the National Guard at the ready on Jan 6 was refused because of optics.

I'm really concerned with finding out why the Department of Defense did not respond to requests for help when the Capitol was attacked.

The Department of Defense is responsible for national security. Why did they do such a piss poor job? Why did they refuse to respond to requests for assistance from the former Capitol Police Chief, the DC Mayor and the Governor of Maryland?

If we don't hold them accountable and figure out who the traitors are in the Pentagon how can we feel our capitol is safe when these people attack again.


https://news.yahoo.com/former-capitol-police-chief-steven-144732071.html

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/01/10/larry-hogan-pentagon-took-hours-ok-national-guard-capitol-riot/6618084002/

Former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund said he requested that the National Guard be placed on standby in the days before the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol, but House and Senate security officials turned him down.

Sund, who resigned his post the day after the riot, told The Washington Post he had been concerned that the protest planned for Jan. 6 would be larger than expected. Sund said he asked House and Senate security officials for permission to request that the National Guard be placed on standby.

Sund said House and Senate sergeants at arms told him they were not comfortable with the “optics” of declaring an emergency days before the protest and suggested Sund should informally ask Guard officials to be on alert. Both have since resigned.

Sund said he pleaded for help five more times as the riot unfolded. A crowd of several thousand quickly overran the Capitol Police contingent of 1,400 officers at the scene.

“If we would have had the National Guard, we could have held them at bay longer, until more officers from our partner agencies could arrive,” Sund told the Post.

Sund said the crowd breached the Capitol just before 2 p.m. A half-hour later, he was on the phone with the Pentagon, he said. Sund and others said Lt. Gen. Walter Piatt, director of the Army Staff, balked at recommending that his boss, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, approve the request. Again, optics were cited.

National Guard troops arrived around 5:40 p.m., after the riot had been quelled.

Under federal law, the mayor of the District of Columbia does not have authority over the Guard. Neighboring Maryland must gain approval from the Pentagon to send its troops across the border into the District of Columbia.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said he received a call Wednesday afternoon from House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., saying the Capitol had been overrun. Hogan said he authorized the mobilization of the Maryland National Guard and was ready to deploy them to the Capitol.

"However, we were repeatedly denied approval to do so," Hogan said.

“I can't speak as to what was going on on the other end of the line back at the Pentagon or in the White House,” Hogan said. “I was in the middle of a meeting when my chief of staff came in and said the Capitol was under attack. ... We were in contact with the mayor's office, who requested assistance. We immediately sent police assistance. I immediately called up the National Guard.”

“All I know is that we were trying to get answers and we weren't getting answers,” Hogan said.

Pentagon officials on Sunday downplayed Hogan’s assessment, arguing that even if the authorization had been granted, it would have taken several hours for troops to assemble at their armory and equip themselves to join the effort to control the rioters. Guardsmen generally require four hours to leave their jobs or homes for their armories.

[homoe]

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo took to U.S. government-funded airwaves on Monday to deliver a full-throated defense of the Trump administration’s presentation of its foreign policy and its support for democracy abroad.


How he could of done this with a "straight face" I'll never know!



https://news.yahoo.com/pompeo-trumpets-trump-razzes-critics-204042491.html

[GeorgiaMa'am]

How did I not hear about this?

Apparently it has been a "thing" for radical right-wingers to invade government buildings and threaten federal workers for years. They are rarely charged with any crime, or they are arrested and later let off the hook. T***p has pardoned several of these repeat agitators. Other politicians pander to them as well.

No wonder the rioters last week thought they could get away with insurrection. Here's a brief overview from NPR's _All Things Considered_. https://www.npr.org/2021/01/11/955720030/violent-acts-have-occurred-in-western-u-s

[Cin]

How did I not hear about this?

Apparently it has been a "thing" for radical right-wingers to invade government buildings and threaten federal workers for years. They are rarely charged with any crime, or they are arrested and later let off the hook. T***p has pardoned several of these repeat agitators. Other politicians pander to them as well.

No wonder the rioters last week thought they could get away with insurrection. Here's a brief overview from NPR's _All Things Considered_. https://www.npr.org/2021/01/11/955720030/violent-acts-have-occurred-in-western-u-s

Ya, they can pretty much do what they want. And have been able to for years. These groups are filled with retired military, police, fire fighters and have active police as members. At this point we can add a president as well as bunch of elected state and federal officials.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/aug/28/fbi-far-right-white-supremacists-police?CMP=share_btn_tw

For decades, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has been aware and has routinely warned its agents that the white supremacist and far-right militant groups it investigates often have links to law enforcement. Yet the justice department has no national strategy designed to protect the communities policed by these dangerously compromised law enforcers.

A leaked 2015 counter-terrorism policy guide made the case more directly, warning agents that FBI “domestic terrorism investigations focused on militia extremists, white supremacist extremists, and sovereign citizen extremists often have identified active links to law enforcement officers”.

in June 2019, when Congressman William Lacy Clay asked the FBI counter-terrorism chief, Michael McGarrity, whether the bureau remained concerned about white supremacist infiltration of law enforcement since the publication of its 2006 assessment, McGarrity indicated he had not read it. Asked more generally about this infiltration, McGarrity said he would be “suspect” of white supremacist police officers, but that their ideology was a first amendment–protected right.

The 2006 assessment addresses this concern, however, by summarizing supreme court precedent on the issue: “Although the First Amendment’s freedom of association provision protects an individual’s right to join white supremacist groups for the purposes of lawful activity, the government can limit the employment opportunities of group members who hold sensitive public sector jobs, including jobs within law enforcement, when their memberships would interfere with their duties.” I wonder if the Supreme Court in its current configuration would uphold it's own precedent.

The FBI’s 2015 counter-terrorism policy, which McGarrity was responsible for executing, indicates not just that members of law enforcement might hold white supremacist views, but that FBI domestic terrorism investigations have often identified “active links” between the subjects of these investigations and law enforcement officials. But its proposed remedy is stunningly inadequate.

[nhplowboi]

I am starting to think this was not so much a bad dream but more of a premonition.Hey President Pardon......seeing you have no morals and want to destroy everything on your way out.....I have an idea for you. Why don't you call up the Warden at Terre Haute and commute the life sentences of every death row inmate at that facility. There are around 52 of them there right now. Then send a bus to pick them all up and bring them over to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave so they have a place to stay while they are back getting on their feet. Lastly, give them all a commemorative AK47 to mark their release. That should really make for a "wild" January 6th protest like you have been calling for.
Disclaimer.......I woke up at 4AM this morning with this thought and couldn't shake it all morning. Presidental pardons need to have parameters because of people like Trump.

[Kätzchen]

Gosh, what a long day. Did you all see that big breaking news story about how McConnell supports the idea of Impeachment, to rid the GOP of TP?

Wow. I could not believe what I was seeing, but gosh, if he supports the impeachment, will he follow through and hold TP accountable by convicting him of his egregious offense (s)?

I have been watching ABC news live stream, lately and they've been looping their mini-docu-coverage of the Capitol Hill Riot for hours now. Over and over again, which I think is a good idea, btw.

I so concerned for our nation. Super concerned. And *SOOO* worried that TP will not be held accountable in tangible, meaningful ways.

Democracy is precious. It is the very opposite of Authoritarianism, which is the antithesis of American values and tenets.

Please, please. Let the hands of justice prevail and let the hands of justice prevail for the SDNY, too.

Please, please.

[Cin]

Finally. It's really about time. This was criminal. I sincerely hope all involved will finally be held accountable. Good job Michigan Attorney General, Dana Nessel.

https://www.alternet.org/2021/01/rick-snyder-flint/

Republican Governor Rick Snyder of Michigan, whose actions led to the Flint water crisis that flowed poisonous water in to 100,000 homes and businesses, will be charged after an investigation by that state's new Attorney General, Dana Nessel.

"Snyder, his health director and other ex-officials have been told they're being charged after a new investigation of the Flint water scandal, which devastated the majority Black city with lead-contaminated water and was blamed for a deadly outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in 2014-15," The Associated Press reports.

[Cin]

REPUBLICAN ATTORNEYS GENERAL DARK MONEY GROUP ORGANIZED PROTEST PRECEDING CAPITOL MOB ATTACK

The Rule of Law Defense Fund (RLDF), a 501(c)(4) arm of the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA), helped organize the protest preceding the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol that took place on January 6, 2021.

As a 501(c)(4), RLDF is not required to reveal its donors. RLDF has received at least $175,000 from the Koch-backed Freedom Partners. Other RLDF donors include Judicial Crisis Network, the Rule of Law Project, and the Edison Electric Institute.

RAGA is a 527 political organization that helps elect Republican attorneys general and can accept unlimited contributions from wealthy individuals and corporations. As previously reported by Documented, RAGA received significant funding from numerous corporations in 2020, including Koch Industries ($375k), Comcast Corporation ($200k), Walmart ($140k), Home Depot ($125k), Amazon ($100k), TikTok ($75k), 1-800 Contacts ($51k), Chevron ($50k), The National Rifle Association ($50k), Monsanto ($50k), Facebook ($50k), Fox Corporation ($50k), Uber ($50k), Coca Cola ($50k), Exxon ($50k), and Google ($25k).

RLDF appeared in a list of groups “Participating in the March to Save America” on the March to Save America website alongside entities including Stop the Steal, Turning Point Action, Tea Party Patriots and others. (MarchtoSaveAmerica.com has been taken down

RLDF also sent out a robocall detailing where and when the protest would take place.

“I’m calling for the Rule of Law Defense Fund with an important message,” the robocall stated. “The march to save America is tomorrow in Washington D.C. at the Ellipse in President’s Park between E St. and Constitution Avenue on the south side of the White House, with doors opening at 7:00 a.m. At 1:00 p.m., we will march to the Capitol building and call on congress to stop the steal. We are hoping patriots like you will join us to continue to fight to protect the integrity of our elections. For more information, visit MarchtoSaveAmerica.com. This call is paid for and authorized by the Rule of Law Defense Fund, 202-796-5838.”

RLDF’s role in organizing the protests, which turned into a violent mob attack inside the Capitol, is ironic given its 2020 election campaign warning of “lawless liberal mobs” burning down buildings and committing violence. The campaign, dubbed “Lawless Liberals”, came in the aftermath of the largely peaceful protests following the murder of George Floyd by police and the shooting of Jacob Blake.

“The Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA)’s five-month Lawless Liberals video campaign repeatedly warned Americans about the dangerous reality of lawless liberals run amok in cities across the country,” RAGA said in a statement.

Republican attorneys general have been heavily involved in efforts to undermine the results of the 2020 presidential election. Shortly after Joe Biden was declared the winner, Republican attorneys general filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court that sought to reject some mailed ballots in the state of Pennsylvania. Republican attorney general Ken Paxton–who has been embroiled in bribery, abuse of office and other criminal allegations–filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Supreme Court regarding four battleground states and alleging unconstitutional changes to their voting laws before the 2020 election. Prior to the protests, Paxton appeared on Fox News and said he hoped to be at both rallies.

RAGA and Republican attorneys general issued statements denouncing the violence. “The Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) and the Republican attorneys general (AGs) stand together to condemn the violence, destruction, and rampant lawlessness occurring at the U.S. Capitol today. These actions are an affront to the rule of law, our Constitution, and our American political discourse.”

After Documented published the robocall, RAGA issued a statement to reporters: “Republican Attorneys General Association and Rule of Law Defense Fund had no involvement in the planning, sponsoring, or the organization of Wednesday’s event.”

The Democratic Attorneys General Association revealed in a tweet RAGA originally appeared on the March to Save America website under “Coalition Partners”. The website later took out RAGA and put in the Rule of Law Defense Fund under “Participating in the March to Save America”.

https://documented.net/2021/01/republican-attorneys-general-dark-money-group-organized-protest-preceding-capitol-mob-attack/

[homoe]

~~~~~

Oh that cocky, indignant, MotherFu&*$#!

I can't wait till they come for him!

[Kätzchen]

I am listening to a livestream of impeachment proceedings @ CNN. J. Jordan is speaking and his words, ideas, and such foment the same seditious thinking of those who would priviledge lies over truth, fiction over fact. Jordan is not worthy of the Freedom Medal.

To me, the biggest lie in his speech is how TP secured the return of the hostage held by the Korean megalomanic, who died within hours after being returned to America, as worthy of TP remaining in power.

I certainly hope that for his role in supporting the treasonous current president, is to have his credentials revoked. Immediately. Jordan is no American hero nor does his blind servitude to an authoritarian make him a voice of the people in his political party.

Here is to justice being served to every person who stood in favor behind our unhinged, and deranged, occupant of the WH.

[Kätzchen]

REPUBLICAN ATTORNEYS GENERAL DARK MONEY GROUP ORGANIZED PROTEST PRECEDING CAPITOL MOB ATTACK

The Rule of Law Defense Fund (RLDF), a 501(c)(4) arm of the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA), helped organize the protest preceding the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol that took place on January 6, 2021.

As a 501(c)(4), RLDF is not required to reveal its donors. RLDF has received at least $175,000 from the Koch-backed Freedom Partners. Other RLDF donors include Judicial Crisis Network, the Rule of Law Project, and the Edison Electric Institute.

RAGA is a 527 political organization that helps elect Republican attorneys general and can accept unlimited contributions from wealthy individuals and corporations. As previously reported by Documented, RAGA received significant funding from numerous corporations in 2020, including Koch Industries ($375k), Comcast Corporation ($200k), Walmart ($140k), Home Depot ($125k), Amazon ($100k), TikTok ($75k), 1-800 Contacts ($51k), Chevron ($50k), The National Rifle Association ($50k), Monsanto ($50k), Facebook ($50k), Fox Corporation ($50k), Uber ($50k), Coca Cola ($50k), Exxon ($50k), and Google ($25k).

RLDF appeared in a list of groups “Participating in the March to Save America” on the March to Save America website alongside entities including Stop the Steal, Turning Point Action, Tea Party Patriots and others. (MarchtoSaveAmerica.com has been taken down

RLDF also sent out a robocall detailing where and when the protest would take place.

“I’m calling for the Rule of Law Defense Fund with an important message,” the robocall stated. “The march to save America is tomorrow in Washington D.C. at the Ellipse in President’s Park between E St. and Constitution Avenue on the south side of the White House, with doors opening at 7:00 a.m. At 1:00 p.m., we will march to the Capitol building and call on congress to stop the steal. We are hoping patriots like you will join us to continue to fight to protect the integrity of our elections. For more information, visit MarchtoSaveAmerica.com. This call is paid for and authorized by the Rule of Law Defense Fund, 202-796-5838.”

RLDF’s role in organizing the protests, which turned into a violent mob attack inside the Capitol, is ironic given its 2020 election campaign warning of “lawless liberal mobs” burning down buildings and committing violence. The campaign, dubbed “Lawless Liberals”, came in the aftermath of the largely peaceful protests following the murder of George Floyd by police and the shooting of Jacob Blake.

“The Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA)’s five-month Lawless Liberals video campaign repeatedly warned Americans about the dangerous reality of lawless liberals run amok in cities across the country,” RAGA said in a statement.

Republican attorneys general have been heavily involved in efforts to undermine the results of the 2020 presidential election. Shortly after Joe Biden was declared the winner, Republican attorneys general filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court that sought to reject some mailed ballots in the state of Pennsylvania. Republican attorney general Ken Paxton–who has been embroiled in bribery, abuse of office and other criminal allegations–filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Supreme Court regarding four battleground states and alleging unconstitutional changes to their voting laws before the 2020 election. Prior to the protests, Paxton appeared on Fox News and said he hoped to be at both rallies.

RAGA and Republican attorneys general issued statements denouncing the violence. “The Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) and the Republican attorneys general (AGs) stand together to condemn the violence, destruction, and rampant lawlessness occurring at the U.S. Capitol today. These actions are an affront to the rule of law, our Constitution, and our American political discourse.”

After Documented published the robocall, RAGA issued a statement to reporters: “Republican Attorneys General Association and Rule of Law Defense Fund had no involvement in the planning, sponsoring, or the organization of Wednesday’s event.”

The Democratic Attorneys General Association revealed in a tweet RAGA originally appeared on the March to Save America website under “Coalition Partners”. The website later took out RAGA and put in the Rule of Law Defense Fund under “Participating in the March to Save America”.

https://documented.net/2021/01/republican-attorneys-general-dark-money-group-organized-protest-preceding-capitol-mob-attack/


Cin? Is the article I found today on ABC news (link (https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/report-companies-donated-170m-gop-election-objectors-75229005?cid=clicksource_4380645_6_heads_hero_live _headlines_hed)) speaking to the same nature of events, mention in your article link?

If this is true, then I hope this becomes part of the resultant investigation into crooked members of the GOP and further implicates them so charges can be filed. Maybe all this horrible stuff they've been doing all along will force their political party to 'clean house' and rid themselves of rogue members of their party.

[Cin]

Cin? Is the article I found today on ABC news (link (https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/report-companies-donated-170m-gop-election-objectors-75229005?cid=clicksource_4380645_6_heads_hero_live _headlines_hed)) speaking to the same nature of events, mention in your article link?

If this is true, then I hope this becomes part of the resultant investigation into crooked members of the GOP and further implicates them so charges can be filed. Maybe all this horrible stuff they've been doing all along will force their political party to 'clean house' and rid themselves of rogue members of their party.

Similar but not exactly. Your article refers to a report by Public Citizen that examines corporate and trade association contributions made since the 2016 election cycle to the 147 members of Congress who, at Trump's behest, last week objected to the certification of November’s election. My article is talking about how the the Republican Attorneys General Association and The Rule of Law Defense Fund, an arm of RAGA helped organize the protest preceding the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol that took place on January 6, 2021. As well as a list of their donors and other groups participating in the attack.

[Kätzchen]

I like Clyburn's idea for our National Anthem: Lift Every Voice & Sing (James Weldon Johnson poem).

Link: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/act-healing-rep-james-clyburn-calls-making-black/story?id=75221927

I also think it is high time we change the name of the WH because White Supremacy just needs to go. Maybe change the name to somthing more reflective of the diversity of race present in our country: maybe, House of the People.

[Cin]

Who knew so many elected officials are members of militant groups looking to overthrow the government. Isn't that a conflict of interest?

QAnon congresswoman faces calls for arrest after live-tweeting Nancy Pelosi's location to rioters
https://www.alternet.org/2021/01/lauren-boebert-2649869093/

GOP Reps Accused of Giving “Reconnaissance” Tours of Capitol Before Mob Attack
https://truthout.org/articles/gop-reps-accused-of-giving-reconnaissance-tours-of-capitol-before-mob-attack/

QAnon Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene Threatens Joe Biden With Impeachment
https://truthout.org/articles/qanon-congresswoman-marjorie-taylor-greene-threatens-joe-biden-with-impeachment/



What is the point of half-ass measures that avail nothing? Why can't elected officials be forced to follow the rules? That's half the problem right there. White privilege and white exceptionalism.

'They Should All Resign': Here Are the GOP Lawmakers Dodging Metal Detectors Installed After Capitol Assault
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/01/13/they-should-all-resign-here-are-gop-lawmakers-dodging-metal-detectors-installed

[GeorgiaMa'am]

I like Clyburn's idea for our National Anthem: Lift Every Voice & Sing (James Weldon Johnson poem).

Link: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/act-healing-rep-james-clyburn-calls-making-black/story?id=75221927

I also think it is high time we change the name of the WH because White Supremacy just needs to go. Maybe change the name to somthing more reflective of the diversity of race present in our country: maybe, House of the People.

Maybe it just needs a paint job. The equivalent in South Korea is known as "The Blue House". Something in a nice woodsy green, perhaps?

[GeorgiaMa'am]

QAnon Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene Threatens Joe Biden With Impeachment
https://truthout.org/articles/qanon-congresswoman-marjorie-taylor-greene-threatens-joe-biden-with-impeachment/


Marjorie Taylor Greene is from Georgia, unfortunately. She's a nut job, and a totally wasted voice in Congress on our behalf.

[homoe]

ABC News
Trump plans to leave Washington Inauguration Day morning; Pence, Harris speak
JOHN SANTUCCI, MOLLY NAGLE, KATHERINE FAULDERS and ELIZABETH THOMAS
Fri, January 15, 2021, 3:04 PM
President Donald Trump plans to make the unprecedented move to depart the White House next Wednesday morning, just before President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration, ABC News has learned.

Trump has requested a large sendoff to be planned for the morning of Jan. 20, sources said, after he choppers via Marine One to Joint Base Andrews, where he is expected to give remarks to supporters and departing members of his administration.

Sources add that Trump has requested his departure ceremony to have a "military-like feel," although details are not finalized.

He hopes to depart to the blare of a military band, with a red carpet and military honors, according to sources briefed on the plans. Even some sort of military flyover has been suggested, they said.

Just go already!

[Kätzchen]

I read a couple of news articles, over on CNN, this morning.

One article (found here (https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/16/politics/trump-approval-analysis/index.html)) concerned itself with if there was anything that could actually move the public opinion needle, concerning the litany of lies and terrible things this person (tp) has done.

And the other article (found here (https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/16/politics/fact-check-dale-top-15-donald-trump-lies/index.html)) talked about the many lies uttered by t---p and their toxic political enablers/supporters.

I couldn't help but think of the forum thread started by Aj (Dreadgeek), back in 2010 (eleven years ago, now).

In Aj's opening post, Aj tabled certain propositions to think about, which can be found here (http://www.butchfemmeplanet.com/forum/showpost.php?p=40700&postcount=1).

That is what I have been thinking about lately. And the up and coming post-impeachment trial by Senate.

[homoe]

hairbrained tweets!

Ivanka Trump has deleted a tweet in which she referred to the mob of President Trump’s supporters violently rioting at the US Capitol building as “patriots”.

Ivanka Trump touted the accomplishments of her father, President Donald Trump, on Twitter — and received a stark reminder of his administration’s many scandals, failings and controversies in response.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ivanka-trump-donald-trump-accomplishments_n_60028fe8c5b6efae62f8c1d7

[homoe]

In the final week of his presidency, Donald Trump met in the Oval Office on Friday afternoon with Mike Lindell, the MyPillow CEO and a personal friend of the president’s who presented Trump with six pages of documents, loaded with unproven conspiracy theories, that he told him proved that China and other countries helped steal the 2020 election for Joe Biden.

Lindell says that after a “five-to-ten minute meeting” in the Oval, Trump asked someone to take the MyPillow inventor to a different room to show his documents to “the lawyers,” and then asked for staff to bring Lindell back afterwards. Following a roughly two-hour wait, according to Lindell, he finally met with White House attorneys who dismissed his claims but said they would “look into it.” He was then not allowed to see the president again on Friday.

[GeorgiaMa'am]

Who knew so many elected officials are members of militant groups looking to overthrow the government. Isn't that a conflict of interest?
. . .
QAnon Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene Threatens Joe Biden With Impeachment
https://truthout.org/articles/qanon-congresswoman-marjorie-taylor-greene-threatens-joe-biden-with-impeachment/


Marjorie Taylor Greene is from Georgia, unfortunately. She's a nut job, and a totally wasted voice in Congress on our behalf.
Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene finally got her Twitter account temporarily suspended. She was tweeting lies about voter fraud in Georgia and QAnon nonsense, per BBC and NPR respectively.

[BullDog]

In less than 24 hours Trump will be out of office and Biden & Harris will be sworn in. I hear he is leaving town quite early so by the time I wake up tomorrow morning he will be gone, gone, gone!

I am nervous about tomorrow but also very hopeful and looking forward to it. I was so relieved there were not any big attacks on our state capitols over the weekend, so hopefully, the insurgents realize they are well-prepared for now. I just hope everyone is kept safe. It's also a bummer there can't be big crowds to celebrate but the important thing is that our country will be led by honorable, competent people as of noon eastern tomorrow.

I am really looking forward to seeing Kamala Harris sworn in by Justice Sotomayor using Thurgood Marhsall's bible. That will be amazing.

We did it. We saved our democracy using democratic means. Our country is in tatters and those of us still standing are lucky to have survived. I mourn the loss of all who have lost their lives unnecessarily to COVID-19 due to Trump's inhumanity and incompetence and anyone else who is no longer with us. I think the biggest lesson of all is to never take anything for granted and that the fight for justice and our rights will never end.

Tomorrow starts a new age. There is much work to be done. Thank goodness we will be in experienced and competence hands. God Bless America.

[Vincent]

https://www.democracynow.org/

[homoe]

~~
just think only about 20 hours left of 45!!

[Bèsame*]

rblYSKz_VnI

[homoe]

rblYSKz_VnI


....:goodpost:.....

[GeorgiaMa'am]

"[Trump] leaves office with an approval rating of 34%, a record low for a departing president."

Source: BBC

[GeorgiaMa'am]

Parler.com needs to find a new web hosting service, and get back on the internet. Twitter users who get themselves booted off need to find a new platform.

I know, I know, what people use these services to say is often reprehensible. They spread lies. They are rumor mills for the right wing and Donald T***p.

But many right-wingers believe that their First Amendment right to freedom of speech is being threatened. And do you know what? They're right - in a way. In reality, these people violated the Terms of Service - parler.com with Amazon Web Services, and individual users with Twitter (although I'm not really sure about Twitter - is it against Twitter's TOS to lie? to foment discord? To spout conspiracy theories? to have an unpopular opinion? I doubt it.) The TOS are within the purview of the owners of Amazon and Twitter, though. Just as with newspapers, it's the publisher who has freedom of speech. But when someone is censored from a popular web-based platform, I'm sure to the individual it feels like their freedom of speech has been trampled on.

Now of course, illegal activities should not be tolerated on any web-based platform, nothing from inciting an insurrection of the U.S. government, to child pornography. But unless there's a law preventing it, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and even T***p, should be able to talk about QAnon and voter fraud all they want. Unfortunately there will always be suckers and stupid people who believe them. But please may there always be good people who are willing to stand up and prove them wrong.

Freedom of speech in a democratic society is important. Suppression of speech is what dictators and communist governments do. Even wackos need to express themselves. By allowing them to do so, we help ensure that all voices can be heard - no matter what the current popular opinion is. (I feel kind of stupid even writing this last paragraph. You don't need a Civics lesson from me.)

* * *

To hear an interesting podcast that led me to write about this, check out some dissenting voices on 'What Kind of Message is That?' How Republicans See the Attack on the Capitol (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/19/podcasts/the-daily/trump-supporters-biden-transition-capitol-riot.html) from The Daily podcast by the New York Times. It's short, only about 20 minutes.

[Vincent]

~~
just think only about 20 hours left of 45!!

https://www.democracynow.org/

[C0LLETTE]

Today's Globe and Mail Editorial:

Canada is not the United States – and amen to that – but no country on Earth has more of a stake in the Great Republic’s success. Our relationship is not that of a competitor who wins when America fails, but rather a partner who can’t get ahead if the other guy keeps falling down on the job, or a neighbour who can’t get a night’s sleep because the people next door won’t stop smashing dishes and setting fires on the lawn.

As comedian Robin Williams once put it, Canada is like someone living above a meth lab – a description the Donald Trump era transformed from joke to geography lesson.

Because we share a continent, a language and the world’s longest undefended border, open to the migration of ideas and culture, our floor and their ceiling aren’t thick enough to keep what goes wrong there, there. As such, we can’t live our best life up here until the family downstairs starts talking seriously about turning their lives around, and gets into rehab.

That’s why Jan. 20, 2021, is a good day for Canada. The swearing-in of President Joe Biden is the first step in America’s 12-step program.

[GeorgiaMa'am]

I'm afraid that Jimmy Carter is probably seriously declining in his health. He's 96 years old, after all. But not only that, he didn't attend the inauguration ceremony today. I also noticed that he recently did not attend another gathering where all of the other former presidents were in attendance (although I can't remember what that event was). In both cases, he did make statements that were read aloud at the events.

Whatever anyone may think of President Carter's failures and successes as Governor of Georgia and President of the United States, he is a good man. I believe he has been a force for good in the world. I hope he is well and that he will continue to be with us for a long time.

[~ocean]

I love the way he thinks ~ our President " Biden tells appointees 'I will fire you on the spot' for showing disrespect to colleagues " so many people were bullied by that psychopath. ~ they will find their way back !

[Kätzchen]

Nancy Pelosi invoked Dinah Washington today during her press conference. That makes my heart happy to know that a larger body of voters chose sanity and voted for a Biden-Harris administration.

I also like how she said that lawmakers who had ties to Jan 6th will be prosecuted for their roles in the violent insurrection.

OmBxVfQTuvI

Also, I loved the beautiful coats Dr. Jill Biden and Vice President wore on inauguration day. So beautiful, the colors they wore.
:stillheart:

[Orema]

Biden Has Already Fired Three of Trump’s Worst Appointees
By Mark Joseph Stern. Jan 20, 20216:44 PM

https://i.postimg.cc/85qym8XB/8f8d0c71-b8d9-4824-896d-602734cb5b1d.jpg
President Joe Biden arrives to swear in presidential appointees during a virtual ceremony at the White House. Jim Watson/Getty Images

Many of Donald Trump’s most notorious appointees, including his Cabinet secretaries, resigned shortly before Joe Biden took office. But myriad officials whom Trump installed in the executive branch remained in spite of their antagonism toward the new president’s agenda. Hours into his presidency, Biden has already ousted three of his predecessors’ most unqualified and corrupt appointees. This clean break sends a clear message that Biden will not tolerate hostile Trump holdovers in his administration, including those with time remaining in their terms.

First, Biden terminated Michael Pack, who was confirmed to head the U.S. Agency for Global Media in June. Pack sought to transform the agency, which oversees the international broadcaster Voice of America, into a propaganda outlet for Trump—despite a statutory mandate that prohibits such political interference. He purged the staff of VOA and its sister networks, replaced them with Trump loyalists, demanded pro-Trump coverage, and unconstitutionally punished remaining journalists who did actual reporting on the administration. In a perverse move, he refused to renew visas for foreign reporters who covered their home countries, subjecting them to retribution by authoritarian regimes. Pack also illegally fired the board of the Open Technology Fund, which promotes international internet freedom, and replaced them with Republican activists.

Following whistleblower complaints, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel found a “substantial likelihood” that Pack had violated federal law and engaged in “gross mismanagement.” He was eight months into his three-year term when Biden demanded his resignation shortly after taking the oath of office. In his resignation letter, Pack complained that his termination “will long be viewed as a partisan act” without any apparent sense of irony.

Second, Biden sacked Kathleen Kraninger, who was confirmed as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in 2018. Kraninger, who had no previous experience in consumer protection, immediately tried to undermine the agency’s role as a watchdog for the financial sector. She scrapped a landmark rule that restricted predatory payday lending, pressuring staff to downplay the resulting harm to consumers. And she refused to enforce a federal law that protected military personnel against a broad range of predatory lending. Her decision yanked federal support from military families who were defrauded by lenders. In the midst of the pandemic, Kraninger also approved a rule that allows debt collectors to harass Americans with limitless texts and emails demanding repayment.

Through the Dodd-Frank Act, Congress gave the CFPB’s director significant independence by barring the president from firing her over political disagreements. In 2020, though, the Supreme Court found this protection unconstitutional. Kraninger supported that decision, which paved the way for her termination on Wednesday. Had the court upheld the agency’s independence, Kraninger could have remained in office through the end of 2023.

Third, Biden demanded the resignation of Peter Robb, who was confirmed as the National Labor Relations Board’s general counsel in 2017. The NLRB was created to enforce federal laws that guarantee workers the right to form a union and bargain collectively. Yet Robb is vehemently anti-union; during his tenure, he tried to limit employees’ free speech, give managers more leeway to engage in wage theft, hobble unions’ ability to collect dues, and prevent employers from helping workers organize. He also tried to seize near-total control of the agency by demoting every regional director and consolidating power in his office. If successful, this gambit would’ve given him unprecedented authority to bust existing unions and prevent new ones from forming.

Robb’s term is set to end in November, but Biden has authority to fire him before then. On Wednesday evening, Robb announced that he would not step down voluntarily, stating that his resignation “would set an unfortunate precedent.” (In reality, the precedent has already been set: President Harry Truman demanded the resignation of NLRB general counsel Robert N. Denham in 1950 over political disputes.) Biden fired him shortly thereafter.

Pack, Kraninger, and Robb are the tip of the iceberg: Trump spent his presidency packing the federal government with Republicans eager to undermine the missions of the agencies they led. But Biden’s aggressive action upon taking office should be encouraging for progressives, since it indicates that the new president will move swiftly to fire Trump allies with high positions in the executive branch. Moreover, Biden should not have much trouble replacing these holdovers with Democrats in control of the Senate. (Republicans cannot filibuster nominees to the executive branch.) The new president undoubtedly faces legislative challenges ahead. But in the meantime, he can rapidly erase the legacy of the Trump administration by simply replacing Trump’s lackeys with qualified civil servants eager to do the job right.

Update, Jan. 20, 2021: This article has been updated to note that Peter Robb refused to step down.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/01/biden-michael-pack-kathleen-kraninger-peter-robb.html

[Orema]

Why Congress Gave Lloyd Austin a Pass
Another retired general will be secretary of defense—and nobody in Washington seems that bothered by it.

By Fred Kaplan, Jan 21, 20215:34 PM

https://i.postimg.cc/gk0wHwRs/7ad8cede-cc26-47ca-818a-23260f2686c3.jpg (https://postimages.org/)
Retired Gen. Lloyd Austin at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington on Tuesday. Greg Nash/Pool/Getty Images

And so another retired general will be secretary of defense. When President Joe Biden nominated former Army commander Lloyd Austin for the post last month, several senators—including some Democrats—said they would oppose his confirmation, leery of eroding the tradition of civilian control over the military.

The Defense Department’s founders, back in 1947, were so adamant about civilian leadership that they wrote a law barring military officers from taking the job until at least seven years after retiring—unless both houses of Congress pass a formal waiver exempting them from the rule. After voting to grant a waiver to retired Gen. Jim Mattis at the start of the Trump administration, Jack Reed, top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, pledged never to do so again, saying that it shouldn’t happen more than once a generation. (Mattis was only the second defense secretary in history to get a waiver; the first was Gen. George Marshall, in 1950.)

But on Thursday, after the House approved a waiver, the Senate Armed Services Committee—which Reed now chairs—did the same, and then confirmed his nomination, on a voice vote. The full Senate is almost certain to do the same.

Congress gave Austin a pass for three reasons. First, the Senate tends to let a president choose his top Cabinet secretaries as long as they’re at least somewhat qualified for the job, and Austin—who was the Army’s vice chief of staff as well as commander of U.S. Central Command—is certainly qualified.

Second, Austin would be the first Black defense secretary, and rejecting him, for whatever reason, would send a dangerous signal at a time when even the Joint Chiefs of Staff have openly expressed concern about the rise of white supremacist views within the military ranks. (Rep. Adam Smith, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, made precisely this argument on Monday in a letter urging colleagues to vote for a waiver.) This is especially true since Austin, in his confirmation hearing on Tuesday, committed to rooting out extremist views from the armed forces as a top priority. (He also pledged zero tolerance of sexual harassment.)

Finally, at that same hearing, Austin said many times, in many ways, that he would rely heavily on the Pentagon’s top civilian officials, turning to them for advice even more than he would turn to the Joint Chiefs. He even said that he would regard the presumptive deputy secretary of defense, Kathleen Hicks, as a “partner” in setting policy—unusual, as deputy secretaries usually play a more managerial role, running the Pentagon’s day-to-day operations. Austin also said he would routinely consult with Colin Kahl, nominated to be undersecretary of defense for policy, touting him at one point as a “very talented young man.” (Kahl will turn 50 this year, though Austin, who is 67, has known him since Kahl was in his late 30s. The two worked closely together during President Barack Obama’s first term, when Austin was the last commander of U.S. forces in Iraq and Kahl was deputy assistant secretary of defense for Middle East affairs.)

Austin’s pledge to work with the Pentagon’s top civilians seemed sincere—he also knew Hicks from when he was commander of CentCom and she was deputy undersecretary for policy. More than that, it stood in stark contrast with Mattis, who, as defense secretary, surrounded himself with a tight entourage of fellow Marine officers and ignored or dismissed civilian advice and analysis. In part for that reason, Mattis was an undistinguished secretary. Though he earned plaudits and scorn for restraining Trump’s belligerence toward U.S. allies, he imposed no discipline on the military’s unleashed appetite for weapons systems and left no legacy on defense policy broadly.

In other words, a great military commander doesn’t make a great secretary of defense; if anything, history suggests the contrary. The two jobs entail very different skill sets. Mattis’ failure, which highlighted this distinction, heightened many lawmakers’ concerns about confirming Austin; they didn’t want the militarization of the job to become normal.

So why did Biden choose Austin? The reason seems clear: Biden has known him for many years, trusts his judgment, and regards him as a member of his inner circle. The same is true of the other top members of his foreign policy team. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, national security adviser Jake Sullivan, and Colin Kahl all worked as Biden’s national security adviser when he was vice president; Blinken also served as Biden’s staff director on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines also worked on Biden’s Senate staff, then became Obama’s deputy national security adviser and deputy director of the CIA, where she continued to have contact with Biden.

Biden and Austin got to know each other well in Iraq, when Austin was commander of U.S. troops and Biden was entrusted by Obama to work out the details of the American withdrawal. The two became particularly close when Biden’s late son, Beau, served on Austin’s staff in Iraq in 2008–09. As Bryan Bender and Lara Seligman reported in Politico, “Austin and the younger Biden attended Mass together, sitting side-by-side almost every Sunday, and they kept in touch after Beau returned from his deployment.”

There’s nothing wrong with this. A president must have trust in his Cabinet secretaries, especially the defense secretary, who speaks with the highest authority in advising him whether or not to send troops into combat. And this trust can be based on whatever makes the president comfortable. Biden is comfortable with Austin. Austin says he’ll rely for advice on a very competent crew of civilian advisers—not just Hicks and Kahl, but also 22 new midlevel specialists, many of whom worked in the transition team (along with Hicks and Kahl), don’t require Senate confirmation, and were sworn in on Wednesday.

Maybe it will all work out.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/01/austin-secretary-defense-waiver.html

[Bèsame*]

I loved how the women made such a huge statement yesterday. Loved each outfit too! https://media.vanityfair.com/photos/60086a9cb8542426d4f095d3/master/w_1200,c_limit/inaugurationfashion-2021.png

[GeorgiaMa'am]

. . . By Fred Kaplan, Jan 21, 20215:34 PM

. . . even the Joint Chiefs of Staff have openly expressed concern about the rise of white supremacist views within the military ranks.


This is so disheartening. I thought the military was one of the great equalizers, like all "I've got your back" and bro-ey, exposing people from different areas of the country to each other, etc. I have probably absorbed too many "join the Army" commercials and movies and episodes of MASH.

Of course, they're misogynistic as hell.

[Kätzchen]

Does it make anybody else mad to know that the Supreme court put the kibosh on the lower courts to not do anything about TP's penchant (behavioral issues) for benefitting from his organization and how he's made a f*ck ton of money off his golfing episodes, and other ripping-off-the-tax-payers at any expense, type of b.s., right in plain sight?

All I'm gonna say is I will be *SO* upset if they let this white collar con-man, sex perp, criminal off the hook.

Please, please, convict this former president.

While we're at it, I know it's wishful thinking (sort of), could be also make sure it went down in history that law makers in the Senate did the right thing and held this horrid person accountable?

Please. For the sake of our future, please please let the 'hands of justice' prevail.

:praying:

[BullDog]

Rand Paul forced a vote in the Senate today declaring the impeachment trial for Trump was unconstitutional. It failed but only by a 55-45 vote. So only 5 Republican senators voted it was constitutional to hold an impeachment trial for Trump after he incited a violent insurrection to overturn the election and our government, where his own vice president and others were at risk of being executed.

This isn't the final vote - the trial hasn't started yet but we can see where it's headed.

I never thought there would be enough Republicans to convict but this is truly abysmal.


The 5 Republicans who voted that it was constitutional to hold the trial were:

Susan Collins (Maine)
Lisa Murkowski (Alaska)
Mitt Romney (Utah)
Ben Sasse (Nebraska)
Pat Toomey (Pennsylvania)

[homoe]

Rand Paul forced a vote in the Senate today declaring the impeachment trial for Trump was unconstitutional. It failed but only by a 55-45 vote. So only 5 Republican senators voted it was constitutional to hold an impeachment trial for Trump after he incited a violent insurrection to overturn the election and our government, where his own vice president and others were at risk of being executed.

This isn't the final vote - the trial hasn't started yet but we can see where it's headed.

I never thought there would be enough Republicans to convict but this is truly abysmal.


The 5 Republicans who voted that it was constitutional to hold the trial were:

Susan Collins (Maine)
Lisa Murkowski (Alaska)
Mitt Romney (Utah)
Ben Sasse (Nebraska)
Pat Toomey (Pennsylvania)

I guess Collins realized at some point Trump didn't learn his lesson after all!

But still, in my opinion, she's a little too late!

[homoe]

I guess Collins realized at some point Trump didn't learn his lesson after all!

But still, in my opinion, she's a little too late!

eUcWYIHIT44


From the lips of Susan Collins around Feb 2020 on her vote NOT to impeach..

[Kätzchen]

I read this op-ed this evening. It's message is crystal clear. I hope more people like her will keep voicing their social opinions on the horrors from yesteryear and why it is so important for accountability, right now.

*****************************
************************
*****************

I witnessed the rise of Nazism firsthand. We must act now to protect American democracy.

Opinion by Irene Butter

Editors Note: Dr. Irene Butter is a Holocaust survivor. She came to the United States in 1945. Since the late 1980s, Dr. Butter has been teaching students about the Holocaust. Her memoir,
"Shores Beyond Shores," details that journey. She is a co-founder of the Raoul Wallenberg Medal and Lecture series at the University of Michigan, and one of the founders of Zeitouna, an Arab-Jewish women's dialogue group in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The views expressed in this commentary are her own.

(CNN) I am a survivor of the Holocaust and a proud American. I first landed on the shores of this country in Baltimore Harbor on December 25, 1945, under a brittle blue, clear sky. My lifeboat was lowered from a Liberty ship into the watery space between ice floes and I stepped onto the land that welcomed me.

I was a 15-year-old refugee with a sixth-grade education, broken English, no money and a small knapsack of belongings. America allowed me to receive an education, build a career, a family, and a new life -- away from the Nazis.

Just as America was there for me and people like me, we must now be there for America. Ours is the land of opportunity. We must now rebuild and protect it against the current fascism that threatens it.

I was born in Berlin in 1930, a Jewish girl who grew up in Nazi-occupied Europe. My childhood was quite idyllic: I had loving, funny parents and grandparents, and a beautiful, music-filled home. I was three years old when the Nazis came to power and began targeting the Jews, step by step.

Early on, Jews were forbidden from owning or working in banks under Nazi race laws, and my father lost his job. He left for Holland in search of one, as well as to escape Hitler. My family -- me, my mom and older brother -- were able to follow not long after. We settled in Amsterdam.

In 1940, the Nazis had occupied the Netherlands and the persecution of Jews escalated. We were eventually deported in cattle cars to Camp Westerbork in eastern Holland, and ultimately to the infamous Bergen-Belsen, a concentration camp in Germany.

Having barely survived hunger, forced labor, beatings, disease and cold at Bergen-Belsen, my family was included in a prisoner exchange. We were among the limited number of Jews to be traded for German civilians and boarded a train bound for Switzerland.

On January 23, 1945, my father died on the train from malnutrition and a brutal beating by the Nazis. He had gotten his family to freedom. My mother and brother were so ill that they were hospitalized immediately upon arrival in Switzerland. However, the Swiss would not let me stay with my family. So, at age 14, I was separated from them for the first time in my life and sent to a refugee camp in Algeria, North Africa.

A year later, I landed in America, and eventually was reunited with my brother and mother. Up until that moment on Baltimore's shores, my journey had been by command and not by choice. My parents hadn't chosen to move to Amsterdam -- they were forced to. We didn't choose to be sent to the concentration camps -- we were forced to. I didn't choose to live in Algeria alone as a refugee -- I was forced to.

But finally, in America, I had choices and could exercise my free will. There were no restrictions. No yellow stars on clothing. No men with guns stopping people to see papers. Only opportunity.

Now, 75 years later, I see something I never imagined: echoes of the Nazis and their regime. What happened in Washington, DC, on January 6, 2021, was an attempted coup of our government and an unraveling of the democracy that protects all of our rights. I saw a T-shirt with the words "Camp Auschwitz," as well as other anti-Semitic symbols and slogans used by the rioters.

Decades earlier, I heard an interview on the radio with Auschwitz survivor and Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel, who said, "If you were in the camps, if you smelled the air and heard the silence of the dead, then it's your duty to be a witness and tell the stories." It took me 40 years to start talking, and I am not finished yet.

The disinformation, distortion and denial of human rights and democracy that resulted in the Holocaust must not happen again. We must speak truth to fascism. The United Nations and UNESCO were founded in 1945, the same year as my liberation, in the wake of the Holocaust. Today, the UN and UNESCO educate the contemporary world about this history and how to recognize threats to democracy when they occur. Their work helps to establish an accurate historical record and encourages witnesses and others to speak out and teach truth.

The massive, violent assault on our Capitol is an awakening for us that our American democracy is vulnerable and needs protection. Democratic institutions need to be strengthened and government officials held responsible and accountable.

Four years ago, we could not have guessed that rioters with Nazi symbols would break into the Capitol to subvert a fairly elected president. None of us can afford to be a bystander to history. We all must confront racism and hatred when we see it. We must establish a record, encourage witnesses and others to speak out, and teach truth. Each of us can and must make a difference.

To me, education is the quintessential endeavor to combat the threat of fascism. The crisis in our country today brings opportunities for positive change. Each of us has the opportunity to make a choice:


to be a survivor defined by the life we make for ourselves, and not a victim defined only by the harm done to us;

to refuse to be enemies, seeking our common humanity;

to never be a bystander to injustice, standing up for others even if we do not know them;

to fill the world with love and hope, not hate and division.


As I share my history through my book, and in schools across the country, I am overcome with gratitude and amazement at students' wisdom and curiosity. Young people are hungry to learn how to stand up against hatred, bullying, oppression and discrimination. They are wise, strong and ready.

Let's stand with these students and continue to educate and involve them -- and allow them to educate us. They will one day be the leaders of this democracy. Let's build a better America and a better world, together.

(LINK) (https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/26/opinions/holocaust-fascism-un-capitol-riots-butter/index.html)

[nhplowboi]

I would like every one of our cowardly Republican politicians, to stand in front of the families of those killed in the insurrection and explain why Donald Trump should not be held responsible. I understand they were all safely ensconced in their own little hidey spots while others were dying but how can they look the other way when these deaths are on the hands of the Republican Trump administration.

[homoe]

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy will have 'conversation' with Marjorie Taylor Greene after her 'disturbing' comments on social media.

Marjorie Taylor Greene has only been representing Georgia’s 14th congressional district in Washington for a few weeks but she’s already made a big name for herself…as one of the most batshit crazy elected officials in recent history, a title for which there is major competition these days. After voicing her support on the campaign trail for such conspiracies as QAnon, Pizzagate, and one about the Pentagon not actually being hit by a plane on 9/11, Greene has wasted no time making it as clear as possible that she is a dangerous lunatic who should not be allowed anywhere near the halls of power. On her first day in office, which took place on January 3, she wore a mask that read, “Trump Won.” Days later, during the certification of Joe Biden’s win, she objected to counting Michigan’s electoral votes. While sheltering in place during the riot that occurred shortly thereafter, she refused to wear a mask, despite being in close proximity with other people.

Here's just the tip of the iceberg:

A review of hundreds of posts and comments on Greene's Facebook page revealed her past support of and engagement with numerous far-right QAnon conspiracy theories.

In April 2018, on a post she wrote about the Obama administration’s Iran deal, a commenter asked her, “Now do we get to hang them ?? Meaning H & O ???,” meaning Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. To which Greene responded: “Stage is being set. Players are being put in place. We must be patient. This must be done perfectly or liberal judges would let them off.”

Greene repeatedly expressed support on social media for assassinating leading Democrats, once liking a Facebook comment in 2019 that said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi should get a "bullet to the head."

CNN reported that in February 2019, Greene broadcast a Facebook Live video from inside Pelosi's office saying the speaker would "suffer death or she'll be in prison" for treason.

The freshman lawmaker also reportedly endorsed conspiracy theories that both the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, which killed 26 people, including 20 elementary-school children, and the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting - which left 17 dead - were staged.

[homoe]

~~
I do wonder what it would or would have taken for those republicans to consider an impeachable offense!

[GeorgiaMa'am]

Jimmy Carter once again did not make it to an all-presidents-on-deck event. He did send a video message to Hank Aaron's funeral, and he did look very aware and alert, although frail. I believe the days of Jimmy Carter leaving his house are done.

[nhplowboi]

I am starting to think Marjorie Taylor Greene might be Rand Paul's illegitimate daughter. According to Google......they only live 318 miles apart by car. :| Just saying.

[C0LLETTE]

I am starting to think Marjorie Taylor Greene might be Rand Paul's illegitimate daughter. According to Google......they only live 318 miles apart by car. :| Just saying.

...or maybe it's just something in the local water.

I often wonder how ugly creatures such as these are allowed to walk amidst the rest of humanity.

But I do know how it happens: small snivelling worm-like vermin, supported by carefully hidden wealthy powerful enablers, spit out their slime and grease the internet path for vermin . In neither case are they the majority of voters or citizens but they have slowly, stealthily packed the courts, thickened the walls of their legislatures, and created a gross lie that they represent the "will of the people"...wtf is wrong with Democrats that they cannot figure out how to disabuse citizens of this lie....

YOU WON, WTF ARE YOU SO OFTEN ON YOUR KNEES???
TIME TO STAND UP. CLAIM YOUR VICTORY AND TELL THE "REPUBLICAN BASE " TO GO TO HELL.

IF THEIR LEADERSHIP CAN"T STOP THEM, DO IT FOR THEM .

You know, it's said that the surest way to lose an argument is to invoke the example of Hitler and Nazis. People's eyes glaze over and they stop listening.

"Yeah yeah. That all happened but was 70 years ago. It can't happen again".

How fucking stupid is that?

[GeorgiaMa'am]

I am starting to think Marjorie Taylor Greene might be Rand Paul's illegitimate daughter. According to Google......they only live 318 miles apart by car. :| Just saying.

From thehill.com article "GOP Has Growing Marjorie Taylor Greene Problem":

"Greene penned a 2018 Facebook post espousing a wild and false conspiracy theory that California’s deadliest wildfires at the time had been caused by a laser from space."

* * *
That is, by no means, the wackiest or most harmful of her beliefs.


It seems that Congress could reprimand her in a couple of ways, both of which have been proposed by her colleagues. They can have her removed from Congress, which will take a two-thirds majority vote, or they can strip her of her committee assignments, which apparently the House Minority Whip can do on his own. Her current committee assignment is to the Education Committee - which is ludicrous, because one of Ms. Greene's favorite conspiracy theories is that the school shootings at Sandy Hook and Parkland were hoaxes.

[homoe]

From thehill.com article "GOP Has Growing Marjorie Taylor Greene Problem":

"Greene penned a 2018 Facebook post espousing a wild and false conspiracy theory that California’s deadliest wildfires at the time had been caused by a laser from space."

* * *
That is, by no means, the wackiest or most harmful of her beliefs.


It seems that Congress could reprimand her in a couple of ways, both of which have been proposed by her colleagues. They can have her removed from Congress, which will take a two-thirds majority vote, or they can strip her of her committee assignments, which apparently the House Minority Whip can do on his own. Her current committee assignment is to the Education Committee - which is ludicrous, because one of Ms. Greene's favorite conspiracy theories is that the school shootings at Sandy Hook and Parkland were hoaxes.

I guess that brain trust Kevin McCarthy was too busy yesterday begging for Trumps help to conduct his "talk" with this crackpot nutjob! He did say it was on his "to-do" list tho!

[homoe]

SARAH SANDERS RUNNING FOR GOV OF ARKANSAS: WHAT TO KNOW

"As governor, I will defend your right to be free of socialism and tyranny," Sanders said in her nearly eight-minute launch video. "Our state needs a leader with the courage to do what's right, not what's politically correct or convenient." "With your support, I hope to be the first woman to lead our state as governor," she continued.

Her former boss jumped in to endorse her campaign the day she announced.

"Sarah is strong on Borders, tough on Crime, and fully supports the Second Amendment and our great law enforcement officers," President Trump said in a statement.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders raises $1 million in four days after announcing run for Arkansas governor.

Only time will tell if the voters of Arkansas want a bold face liar as their next Governor!

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/sarah-sanders-plans-arkansas-governor

[homoe]

Pressure mounts on Trump as former lawyers for the Trump Organization will have to surrender documents to the New York attorney general investigating him.

Let's hope....

New York Attorney General Letitia James can do what we know the senate or fellow republicans won't! Bring Trump down and give him a criminal record which prevents him from running for president again.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/pressure-mounts-trump-former-lawyers-133453096.html

[homoe]

Tim O'Donnell
Sun, January 31, 2021, 5:07 AM

Five attorneys who were prepared to defend former President Donald Trump in his upcoming Senate impeachment trial have departed his legal team, people familiar with the situation confirmed to CNN and The New York Times. Butch Bowers and Deborah Barbier, who were expected to be two of the lead attorneys, are out, as are Josh Howard, Johnny Gasser, and Greg Harris. No other attorneys have announced they were involved with the case, so it appears that, for now, Trump is defenseless.

The lawyers reportedly left because of a disagreement over legal strategy. Trump reportedly wanted them to push his unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud in last year's presidential election rather than focus on whether convicting a former president after he's out of office is constitutional, an argument that appears to be the consensus among Republicans and the reason he'll likely be acquitted. Bowers, a source said, lacked chemistry with Trump and the decision to leave was reportedly mutual.

It's unclear where Trump will go from here - his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani reportedly wants to take the case, but he's a potential witness in the trial because he spoke at the rally preceding the deadly Capitol riot Trump is accused of inciting, and the Times notes "almost all" of Trump's advisers blame Giuliani for the impeachment in the first place.

Considering GOP senators have signaled they won't vote to convict, some are wondering why Trump would even bother spending money on attorneys at all at this point.

Stephen Bannon, Trump's former chief strategist, thinks the former president should go the Senate himself because "he's the only one who can sell it." Trump seems open to the idea, but aides are reportedly against it.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trumps-impeachment-defense-bannon-reportedly-130751966.html

[GeorgiaMa'am]

The "Proud Boys", self-described "Western Chauvinists" who were part of the insurrection movement that stormed the Capitol building on January 6, 2021, have been named by Canada as a terrorist organization. Canada is the first country to do so.

Why hasn't the United States done so? They attacked our capitol, after all! You would think we would get in there first!

[homoe]

Marjorie Taylor Greene tells lawmakers she regrets being 'allowed to believe things that weren't true'.

My ass, I'm sure she ONLY regrets her posts on social media came back to bite her in the ass!

[GeorgiaMa'am]

Marjorie Taylor Greene is fast becoming a rash on my butt.

She has now co-sponsored a bill that would prevent all U.S. embassies from flying the LGBTQ Pride flag.

We are a symbol of hope for LGBTQ people around the world. I'm sure all the queers in Russia are more hopeful for their own country when they see our colors proudly being flown at the U.S. embassy.

https://i.imgur.com/vw0h3uhl.jpg

LGBTQ Pride Flag, U.S. Embassy, Moscow, June 25, 2020
- MSNBC

[Femmewench]

The "Proud Boys", self-described "Western Chauvinists" who were part of the insurrection movement that stormed the Capitol building on January 6, 2021, have been named by Canada as a terrorist organization. Canada is the first country to do so.

Why hasn't the United States done so? They attacked our capitol, after all! You would think we would get in there first!

Law enforcement officials have very carefully been calling them "extremists." The media was calling them terrorists on January 6th and 7th. I haven't heard that lately. Ain't it great to be a white terrorist in the US?

[C0LLETTE]

Gee...where did all those fake Ukrainian names go???

Ohhh, no worries..we've got fake Russian names now.

Hi there " Generationghy "

Do people who id as "Generationras" adjust to the left or to the right?

[GeorgiaMa'am]

It seems that Congress could reprimand her [Marjorie Taylor Greene] in a couple of ways, both of which have been proposed by her colleagues. They can have her removed from Congress, which will take a two-thirds majority vote, or they can strip her of her committee assignments, which apparently the House Minority Whip can do on his own. Her current committee assignment is to the Education Committee - which is ludicrous, because one of Ms. Greene's favorite conspiracy theories is that the school shootings at Sandy Hook and Parkland were hoaxes.


The House of Representatives has voted to remove Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committee assignments. This will limit her influence in Congress. The vote was 230 to 199, with 11 Republicans siding with the Democrats.

Yay!

[homoe]

The "Proud Boys", self-described "Western Chauvinists" who were part of the insurrection movement that stormed the Capitol building on January 6, 2021, have been named by Canada as a terrorist organization. Canada is the first country to do so.

Why hasn't the United States done so? They attacked our capitol, after all! You would think we would get in there first!

:goodpost:

[nhplowboi]

MTG......nothing more than Trump with a vagina. Sorry you are off the committees (NOT) but ^5 to the Dems and the 11 Republicans with a set of values. She is supposed to meet with Kevin M next week. I wonder where that motel is located? ;)

[C0LLETTE]

Barry Goldwater Saw it Coming.

Almost 60 years ago:

" Barry Goldwater was able to read the writing on the wall “Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem.

Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them.”

I didnt admire his politics but I sure admire his foresight.

[homoe]

The 11 Republicans who voted to oust the nutjob from her committee appointments, but mainly the 199 that didn't! That's just scary!

[C0LLETTE]

Wait till they try shutting her up.

From what I heard from her today, I'm sure they are starting to regret it already.

Let the finger pointing begin.

[GeorgiaMa'am]

Wait till they try shutting her up.

From what I heard from her today, I'm sure they are starting to regret it already.

Let the finger pointing begin.

She can still get her butt voted out of Congress altogether. Margarine Taylor Greene better not get too vengeful. (We can always hope.)

According to fivethirtyeight.com, "Even in the GOP, she is divisive: On average, 24 percent of Republicans view her positively and 20 percent view her negatively."* That implies that some Republican representatives (more than 11) would have some support from their districts to get rid of her.

*https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-do-americans-think-of-marjorie-taylor-greene-liz-cheney-josh-hawley/

Also, when her Twitter account isn't about conspiracy theories and hatred, it's about the money and fame. Here's what she tweeted today: "Thank you to the more than 22,000 #AmericaFirst Patriots representing all 50 states who supported me with a generous financial contribution this week!" (@mtgreenee)

[Kätzchen]

REPUBLICAN ATTORNEYS GENERAL DARK MONEY GROUP ORGANIZED PROTEST PRECEDING CAPITOL MOB ATTACK

The Rule of Law Defense Fund (RLDF), a 501(c)(4) arm of the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA), helped organize the protest preceding the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol that took place on January 6, 2021.

As a 501(c)(4), RLDF is not required to reveal its donors. RLDF has received at least $175,000 from the Koch-backed Freedom Partners. Other RLDF donors include Judicial Crisis Network, the Rule of Law Project, and the Edison Electric Institute.

RAGA is a 527 political organization that helps elect Republican attorneys general and can accept unlimited contributions from wealthy individuals and corporations. As previously reported by Documented, RAGA received significant funding from numerous corporations in 2020, including Koch Industries ($375k), Comcast Corporation ($200k), Walmart ($140k), Home Depot ($125k), Amazon ($100k), TikTok ($75k), 1-800 Contacts ($51k), Chevron ($50k), The National Rifle Association ($50k), Monsanto ($50k), Facebook ($50k), Fox Corporation ($50k), Uber ($50k), Coca Cola ($50k), Exxon ($50k), and Google ($25k).

RLDF appeared in a list of groups “Participating in the March to Save America” on the March to Save America website alongside entities including Stop the Steal, Turning Point Action, Tea Party Patriots and others. (MarchtoSaveAmerica.com has been taken down

RLDF also sent out a robocall detailing where and when the protest would take place.

“I’m calling for the Rule of Law Defense Fund with an important message,” the robocall stated. “The march to save America is tomorrow in Washington D.C. at the Ellipse in President’s Park between E St. and Constitution Avenue on the south side of the White House, with doors opening at 7:00 a.m. At 1:00 p.m., we will march to the Capitol building and call on congress to stop the steal. We are hoping patriots like you will join us to continue to fight to protect the integrity of our elections. For more information, visit MarchtoSaveAmerica.com. This call is paid for and authorized by the Rule of Law Defense Fund, 202-796-5838.”

RLDF’s role in organizing the protests, which turned into a violent mob attack inside the Capitol, is ironic given its 2020 election campaign warning of “lawless liberal mobs” burning down buildings and committing violence. The campaign, dubbed “Lawless Liberals”, came in the aftermath of the largely peaceful protests following the murder of George Floyd by police and the shooting of Jacob Blake.

“The Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA)’s five-month Lawless Liberals video campaign repeatedly warned Americans about the dangerous reality of lawless liberals run amok in cities across the country,” RAGA said in a statement.

Republican attorneys general have been heavily involved in efforts to undermine the results of the 2020 presidential election. Shortly after Joe Biden was declared the winner, Republican attorneys general filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court that sought to reject some mailed ballots in the state of Pennsylvania. Republican attorney general Ken Paxton–who has been embroiled in bribery, abuse of office and other criminal allegations–filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Supreme Court regarding four battleground states and alleging unconstitutional changes to their voting laws before the 2020 election. Prior to the protests, Paxton appeared on Fox News and said he hoped to be at both rallies.

RAGA and Republican attorneys general issued statements denouncing the violence. “The Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) and the Republican attorneys general (AGs) stand together to condemn the violence, destruction, and rampant lawlessness occurring at the U.S. Capitol today. These actions are an affront to the rule of law, our Constitution, and our American political discourse.”

After Documented published the robocall, RAGA issued a statement to reporters: “Republican Attorneys General Association and Rule of Law Defense Fund had no involvement in the planning, sponsoring, or the organization of Wednesday’s event.”

The Democratic Attorneys General Association revealed in a tweet RAGA originally appeared on the March to Save America website under “Coalition Partners”. The website later took out RAGA and put in the Rule of Law Defense Fund under “Participating in the March to Save America”.

https://documented.net/2021/01/republican-attorneys-general-dark-money-group-organized-protest-preceding-capitol-mob-attack/

I came across another news article concerning Dark Money. Apparently, Kushner & Ivanka made millions off their side business while holding 'office" . 640 Million. Wow.

Unbelievable that the GOP is looking the other way and not holding the corrupt members of its political party accoubtable.

Link:

https://www.citizensforethics.org/reports-investigations/crew-investigations/jared-and-ivanka-made-up-to-640-million-in-the-white-house/

[nhplowboi]

Wow Josh Hawley!!!! Really?! Your behavior is disgusting but then again I am sure you really don't want to watch the footage of what your contestation of the electoral vote caused.

[homoe]

Wow Josh Hawley!!!! Really?! Your behavior is disgusting but then again I am sure you really don't want to watch the footage of what your contestation of the electoral vote caused.



:goodpost:........

[homoe]

You old FUC*! Grow a backbone! You can't have it both ways!

[homoe]

You're sure singing a different tune nowadays about your old pal Trump!

[Orema]

You're sure singing a different tune nowadays about your old pal Trump!

My money says she’s getting ready for a 2024 Presidential run and is hedging her bets on Mitch McConnell and the conservative center.

[Stone-Butch]

I think that President Biden should claim FIXED. Those who voted for Trump were bribed otherwise he could not have won. False news. Mr. President call foul and ask for a recount.

[Orema]

The Trump nightmare will be over soon enough. Trump will be 75 in June. It’s unlikely he’ll be re-elected and his power wont be passed on to his Mini-Me children. They’re incompetent bullies and thieves like he is, but they dont have a fraction of his style and charisma, and they will never command the attention that he does.

Will be glad to see the book closed on Trump.

[GeorgiaMa'am]

The Trump nightmare will be over soon enough. Trump will be 75 in June. It’s unlikely he’ll be re-elected and his power wont be passed on to his Mini-Me children. They’re incompetent bullies and thieves like he is, but they dont have a fraction of his style and charisma, and they will never command the attention that he does.

Will be glad to see the book closed on Trump.

ME TOO! I'm sick and tired of spending my energy hating on T***p. Thank you for the reality check, Orema.

I have also unfollowed Margarine Taylor Greene on Twitter. I'm sick and tired of her too, and I really hope she just keeps on banging her head against a brick wall until she fades away.

[homoe]

The New York Times

Lara Trump for North Carolina Senate Seat?

WASHINGTON — A central issue in last week’s impeachment trial was whether former President Donald Trump deserves a political future. But his acquittal sparked speculation Sunday about the electoral prospects of another Trump: his daughter-in-law, Lara.

Sen. Richard M. Burr’s decision to vote for the conviction of Donald Trump incensed many Republicans in his home state of North Carolina, and in doing so reignited talk that Lara Trump, a native of Wilmington, North Carolina, would seek the Senate seat Burr will vacate in 2022.

“My friend Richard Burr just made Lara Trump almost the certain nominee for the Senate seat in North Carolina to replace him if she runs,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said in an interview on Fox News on Sunday.

Lara Trump did not respond to a request for comment. One senior Republican official with knowledge of her plans said that the Jan. 6 riot soured her desire to seek office, but that she would decide over the next few months whether to run as part of a coordinated Trump family comeback

[homoe]

As he should be! What an ass..


Just days after he was criticized for taking a controversial trip to Mexico as millions of Texans suffered in freezing temperatures amid water and power outages, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz came under fire for posting photos of himself helping with relief efforts at the same time one of his most prominent opponents came into the state to offer aid.

Cruz visited some sites in the Houston area on Saturday and Sunday, delivering bottled water to residents and providing food to first responders. The social media posts, which featured the senator in a mask with the Texas flag, were met with thousands of replies and tweets slamming Cruz for what many called a "photo op" to counter the bad press he got for taking his trip.

[homoe]

Some progressive lawmakers and activists saw a double standard between Tanden and some of President Donald Trump's nominees who were confirmed by the Senate — including frequent Twitter sniper Richard Grenell for Ambassador to Germany, and Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court after his at-times intemperate testimony in response to allegations of attempted sexual assault.

At his weekly news conference today, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., criticized Republicans as hypocritical for basing their opposition to Tanden on mean tweets.

"I'm not gonna get into specifics and names but we're continuing to look [for votes]," Schumer said. "I think Neera Tanden would be an outstanding OMB nominee. And for Republicans who look the other way with the nastiest of tweets by their president their leader for now to say Neera Tanden shouldn't get in because of her tweets is a little bit of a contradiction."

[homoe]

Jq_1XiJs7ZE

he is! As if flying off and abandoning his constituents wasn't bad enough, he leads off with a joke about it!


He just won re-election by the skin of his teeth last time, perhaps next time he won't be so lucky!

[homoe]

-7SlckAdyHY


We're in a hell of a lot of trouble..

[nhplowboi]

Why does that golden statue of Trump remind me of the golden calf?? Then again we all know how that story ended.

[Kätzchen]

Why does that golden statue of Trump remind me of the golden calf?? Then again we all know how that story ended.

LOL (or not), yesh, there is an awful lot of people who recall this particular episode, including my mom. OMG, my mom left the GOP before last year's presidential election and became a Democrat - renouncing her GOP membership because even my mother could seek the sociopath/narcissist train wreck that TP has always been and will continue to be until American society finds a way to reign in these types of wacko-sicko personalities that wreak havoc upon those in their own family to the wider audience of those who comprise American society and the world at large.

I read somewhere today that when that sycophant had a golden statue made of himself, that Twitter lit up faster than people could say Moses.

What I wonder is this: How many Israelites were in number during their Wilderness episode and does it compare to the number of voters who have been sucked into believing all the deranged stories and lies that spew forth from the deranged ex-monster in charge (who, thankfully, was fired from office and can no longer live off the tax payers who support government programs, etc)?


This is what out of control narcissists do: they push the envelope of decency until it is painfully obvious that the only other way to bring them to justice is to make sure they pay a huge price for their role in hurting others by any number of means.

Like we all heard Mr. Cohen state on national news, TP needs to make sure he has a suitable jumpsuit to wear in prison. State prison, that is.

[homoe]

~~
For the most part it was the same old same BS, and even though he did get in a few jabs at Mitch, I don't he was willing to exactly burn his bridges with him like he did with so many other GOP members!

[homoe]

Nikki Haley, former U.N. ambassador -- The former ambassador to the U.N. during the Trump administration was invited to CPAC but declined, citing a scheduling conflict. Haley is widely viewed as a presidential contender in 2024 and hyped up the former president at last year’s event.

After the Capitol riot, Haley said she doesn’t think Trump has a future leading in the GOP, but she walked that back a bit with a Wall Street Journal op-ed crediting Trump for other achievements and blaming the media for creating a rift in the party.

Nikki Haley Praises 'Strong' Donald Trump CPAC Speech After Doubting Role in Future of GOP

Former United Nations ambassador and possible 2024 GOP presidential contender Nikki Haley has praised former President Donald Trump's weekend speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, dismissing talk of a civil war within the party as a creation of the "liberal" media.

Haley said the GOP should unite behind Trump's "strong" speech, despite comments made less than a month ago in which she criticized his role in the January 6 attack on the Capitol and suggested the former president would not be able to successfully run for office again.

"Strong speech by President Trump about the winning policies of his administration and what the party needs to unite behind moving forward," Haley wrote on Twitter shortly after Trump's address. "The liberal media wants a GOP civil war. Not gonna happen."

[homoe]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The day after he single-handedly delayed the U.S. Senate's debate on President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill for 11 hours, Republican Senator Ron Johnson said on Friday that he could retire from office when his term expires.

The two-term Republican told Wisconsin media outlets that he has not decided whether to run for reelection in 2022 but added that not seeking another term is "probably my preference now."

Johnson, a Trump ally, recently drew widespread criticism by peddling a debunked conspiracy theory that leftists posing as Trump supporters played a role in the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Political analysts say his seat could be vulnerable to Democrats next year.

IF only!

After the bone-headed things this jackass has done, I would like to think he wouldn't even be able to win dog catcher position but unfortunately after past elections, where idiots like Graham, Cruz, McConnell, Collins, and others won, it'd be a toss up!

[nhplowboi]

Homoe I am not sure how some of these people are getting elected?! I was just perusing a couple of web articles on Colorado's Rep. Lauren Boebert. I thought she was only a gun nut but after reading up on her, I see she is really a nut with a gun. Do people not do any research on who they are voting for? Yes homo, we as a country, may just be doomed.-7SlckAdyHY


We're in a hell of a lot of trouble..

[BullDog]

Today is a great day for the Biden Administration, Democrats, and the entire country. The American Rescue Plan passed, Merrick Garland was confirmed as Attorney General and Marcia Fudge as HUD Secretary.

This is truly landmark legislation. It's great to see government hard at work again. Repugs are just the party of no. It's pathetic.

I'm telling all the yapping Trump supporters to either give their $1400 back or stop bashing Biden and the Democrats since the Democrats are 100% responsible for them getting the money and that no Republican supported the bill. I know it does no good but they need to shut up and I'm gonna tell em, lol.

[firegal]

Today is a great day for the Biden Administration, Democrats, and the entire country. The American Rescue Plan passed, Merrick Garland was confirmed as Attorney General and Marcia Fudge as HUD Secretary.

This is truly landmark legislation. It's great to see government hard at work again. Repugs are just the party of no. It's pathetic.

I'm telling all the yapping Trump supporters to either give their $1400 back or stop bashing Biden and the Democrats since the Democrats are 100% responsible for them getting the money and that no Republican supported the bill. I know it does no good but they need to shut up and I'm gonna tell em, lol. Agree all the Biden bashers arent sending back the checks bigger than the GOP folks wanted!

[homoe]

Rep. Lauren Boebertrt (R-Colo.) faced backlash this week for releasing an ad attacking Democrats and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) that ended with a gunshot sound.

In the spot, the QAnon-endorsing first-term lawmaker called on Pelosi to “tear down” the security fence that was put up around the U.S. Capitol following the Jan. 6 insurrection, when a violent mob of then-President Donald Trump’s supporters overran the Capitol building.

“It’s time to cut the crap and remember, this is the people’s house,” Boebert bombastically declared.

The video concluded with audio of a gunshot, followed by the sound of the weapon being reloaded and fired again.

CiKOACG98Zg

[nhplowboi]

According to the NY Times, influential Evangelical Beth Moore is going to quit Southern Baptists over Trump. As tweeted by Beth MooreLPM on 12/13/2020, "I do not believe these are days for mincing words. I'm 63 1/2 years old & I have never seen anything in these United States of America I found more astonishingly seductive & dangerous to the saints of God than Trumpism. This Christian nationalism is not of God. Move back from it." Now if only the rest can come to their senses.

[nhplowboi]

Here.....let's start with this idiot. Pastor Robin Bullock, who describes himself as operating "heavily" in the prophetic realm, claimed during a Tuesday church service that prophets will call back former President Donald Trump "for three terms.". Bullock, who is the founder of Alabama's Youth Force Ministries Church International and hosts the weekly "prophetic" YouTube program The Eleventh Hour, said it was apparent Trump was still president when "all you have to do is listen to him. He's the president."
I need to create a list of the people who should be sent a copy of Rick Wilson's book "Everything Trump Touches Dies".

[Orema]

Ending the End of Welfare as We Knew It
The Democrats’ new child benefit is a very big deal.

Paul Krugman
Opinion Columnist, Economist

The era of “the era of big government is over” is over.

https://i.postimg.cc/prVNSjMf/11krugman-new-super-Jumbo.jpg
Credit...Carolyn Drake/Magnum Photos

The relief bill President Biden just signed is breathtaking in its scope. Yet conservative opposition was remarkably limp. While not a single Republican voted for the legislation, the rhetorical onslaught from right-wing politicians and media was notably low energy, perhaps because the Biden plan is incredibly popular. Even as Democrats moved to disburse $1.9 trillion in government aid, their opponents mainly seemed to be talking about Dr. Seuss and Mr. Potato Head.

What makes this lack of energy especially striking is that the American Rescue Plan doesn’t just spend a lot of money. It also embodies some big changes in the philosophy of public policy, a turn away from the conservative ideology that has dominated U.S. politics for four decades.

In particular, there is a sense — a strictly limited sense, as I’ll explain, but real nonetheless — in which the legislation, in addition to reviving the notion of government as the solution, not the problem, also ends the “end of welfare as we know it.”

Once upon a time there was a program called Aid to Families With Dependent Children — the program people usually had in mind when they talked about “welfare.” It was originally intended to support white widows while they raised their children, and it was effectively denied to both Black and unwed mothers. Over time, however, these restrictions were eroded, and the program rapidly expanded from the early 1960s to the early 1970s.

The program also became hugely unpopular. In part, of course, this reflected the race of many beneficiaries. But many commentators also blamed A.F.D.C. for creating a culture of dependency that was in turn responsible for the growing social ills of inner cities, although later scholarship, notably the work of William Julius Wilson, suggested that the real cause of these ills was the disappearance of urban jobs. (The social problems that have followed economic decline in much of the American heartland seem to confirm Wilson’s thesis.)

In any case, in 1996 Bill Clinton enacted reforms that both drastically reduced aid to the poor and imposed draconian work requirements, even on single mothers. Welfare as we knew it really did end.

But the American Rescue Plan Act, closely following proposals from Senator Michael Bennet, reinstates significant aid for children. Moreover, unlike most of the act’s provisions, this change (like enhanced Obamacare subsidies) is intended to outlast the current crisis; Democrats hope and expect that substantial payments to families with children will become a permanent part of the American scene.

So is “welfare” back? Not really.

A.F.D.C. was intended to provide mothers with enough to get by — barely — while raising their children. In 1970 three-person families on A.F.D.C. received, on average, $194 a month. Adjusting for inflation, that’s the equivalent of around $15,000 a year today, compared with the $6,000 a family with two children over age 6 ($7,200 if they’re under 6) will receive under the new plan.

Alternatively, it may be more informative to compare “welfare” payments with the incomes of typical families. In 1970, an A.F.D.C. family of three received about 25 percent of median income for three-person families — hardly a generous allowance, but maybe, just, enough to live on. The new legislation will give a single parent of two children less than 7 percent of median income.

On the other hand, the new program will be far less intrusive than A.F.D.C., which constantly required that parents prove their need; there were even cases where aid was cut off because a caseworker discovered an able-bodied man in the house, claiming that he could and should be supporting the children. The new aid will be unconditional for families earning less than $75,000 a year.

So no, this isn’t a return to welfare as we knew it; nobody will be able to live on child support. But it will sharply reduce child poverty. And it also, as I said, represents a philosophical break with the past few decades, and in particular with the obsessive fear that poor people might take advantage of government aid by choosing not to work.

True, some on the right are still flogging that horse. The ever-shrinking Marco Rubio denounced plans for a child tax credit as “welfare assistance.” Wonks at the American Enterprise Institute warned that some unmarried mothers might somewhat reduce working hours, although their estimate looks pretty small — and since when is working a bit less to spend time with your kids an unadulterated evil?

In any case, these traditional attacks, which used to terrify Democrats, no longer seem to be resonating. Clearly, something has changed in American politics.

To be honest, I’m not sure what provoked this change. Many expected major change under President Barack Obama, elected in the wake of a financial crisis that should have discredited free-market orthodoxy. But although he achieved a lot — especially Obamacare! — there wasn’t a big paradigm shift.

But now that shift seems to have arrived. And millions of American children will benefit.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/11/opinion/biden-covid-relief-welfare.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

[GeorgiaMa'am]

Ending the End of Welfare as We Knew It
The Democrats’ new child benefit is a very big deal.

Paul Krugman
Opinion Columnist, Economist
. . .


According to the BBC Hardtalk program, most wealthy nations have some kind of child tax credit to prevent child poverty. In these countries, it's generally considered the right thing to do, and there's little or none of the American pull-yourself-up-by-your-own-bootstraps type sentiment.

[nhplowboi]

"Ted Cruz demands meeting with Marine Corps leadership after 'inexplicably inappropriate' attacks on Tucker Carlson" per the Washington Examiner. Really Ted? Inexplicable?? I hope you are taking time to plan for your future in between all you hissie fits and bluster.

[homoe]

~~~~
Ted, stop worrying about Carlson and start worrying about how you'll ever get re-elected after the bone headed things you've done recently!

[Orema]

January 6: What Kind Of Revolution Was It?

BY DANIELLE ALLEN
MARCH 16, 2021

Behind the U.S. insurrection was a widespread feeling of disempowerment. Here’s what we can do to address it.

What we witnessed at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 was not something breaking — it had been broken for a while. It was dry tinder set ablaze.

For me, the first alarm for the fracturing of our democratic institutions came in 2012, when a poll revealed that public approval of Congress had dropped to just 9%. I’m a student of the early modern design of constitutional democracies, and one of the first principles established by theorists from that period was that the legislature is the first and rightly predominant branch of government. Neither the executive nor judicial branch gets that pride of place. This is because the legislature has the job of articulating the voice of the people.

If the people approved of their own voice at a rate of just 9%, that’s a sign that our democracy is broken. The question, then, is what we can do about it.

When Democracy Can’t Govern

Our democratic crisis is not merely about popular attachment to traditions or institutions. It’s also about performance, as the handling of the coronavirus pandemic — much worse than in other countries — makes abundantly clear. Approval and legitimacy fall away when performance falls away.

Just how bad has the coronavirus response been? A network of scholars recently produced a study sorting the performance of governments around the globe during the pandemic into three categories: “control” countries like China or South Korea, where strong centralization and health authorities managed the situation aggressively and quickly; “consensus” countries like Germany and Australia, constitutional democracies with sturdy roots of solidarity and effective governance that enabled them to avoid political polarization; and “chaos” countries like the U.S. or Brazil, huge and multicultural democracies in the throes of populist politics.

“Barely 30% of Americans under 40 consider it essential to live in a democracy.”

In the “chaos” countries, political polarization inhibited effective decision-making and communication. In the U.S. in particular, we were unable to execute a known playbook for how to deal with such a pandemic. If the U.S. had the same mortality level as Australia, we would have had only about 15,000 COVID deaths at this point. Our chaotic response revealed an absence of effective governance, a signal of the breakage of our democracy.

There are other signs. One is that barely 30% of Americans under 40 consider it essential to live in a democracy. For the cohort born before World War II, about 70% consider it essential to live in a democracy. I remember on the day after the 2016 election, at my class on ancient and medieval political philosophy, a student stood up and shouted, “You have abandoned us! With this election result, your generation has just abandoned us!”

At some fundamental level, we are failing at a project of generational succession and transition, failing to hand down an appreciation for and understanding of democracy, a sense of it having value in our lives. From climate change to racial injustice to widening inequality, young people, in particular, see our institutions of governance failing to respond to these threats, and they see a broken system being handed to them just as those problems have become most dire. Their disaffection is not irrational. Their experience is connected to a sense of disempowerment and abandonment, if not downright betrayal, by elites and institutions.

Deadly Fight Over Voting Rights

In the presidential primaries in 2016, institutionalists (Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush) faced off against insurrectionists (Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump). The case the insurrectionists made was that the whole system is broken, more or less, and that it needed to be rebuilt from the ground up. What both Sanders and Trump represented was the widespread experience of disempowerment and the demand for dramatic change. They demanded we recognize that the technocratic management of the economy and society over the last few decades has left a lot of people feeling that the government is ineffective in responding to their needs. In the face of that demand, the institutionalist response was, to put it mildly, uncertain and problematic. As a result, we got Trump as president.

Unfortunately, this dynamic between the institutionalists and insurrectionists hasn’t yet generated a productive vision for how to reform our politics, nor shown us how to ensure that our institutions can both deliver effective governance and empower people. Instead, what we’ve gotten is a knock-down-drag-out fight between two parties for control over our broken institutions.

Fast forward to last year, at the beginning of the pandemic. The technical knowledge of how to succeed at COVID suppression was available in the U.S. It was delivered to the White House and Congress by all kinds of public health professionals and policymakers. In fact, the Democrats in the House put a well-considered pandemic policy of testing, contact tracing and support for quarantine and isolation in the HEROES Act, which they passed in May. Yet the HEROES Act didn’t move in the Senate: It just sat and sat, with Senate Republicans unwilling to move it forward.

Why did the Senate GOP delay the bill, allowing the COVID crisis to unfold into a national disaster? It wasn’t because they were against the public health measures included in it. What they opposed was the package of election security and integrity measures that the Democrats had included in the legislation. Those measures would ensure that mail-in voting, which was long overdue but suddenly urgent because of the pandemic, could be done in the most robust and secure fashion possible.

“The U.S. had one of the biggest fights over voting rights that we’ve ever had. And it cost us half a million lives.”

Those voting innovations were incredibly important for ensuring the continuity of our electoral system in a moment of crisis. For people on the right, however, they were equivalent to changing the rules in the middle of the game. This was a bare-knuckle calculation about votes. The policy was good and right, but it was presumed that it would bring electoral advantage to Democrats and not Republicans.

Let’s be clear what this means: During our pandemic year, when we urgently needed a quick response to a rapidly spreading virus, the United States had one of the biggest fights over voting rights that we’ve ever had. And it was a fight that cost us half a million lives.

This fight over voting rights — whether or not we make voting as easy as possible — is the fundamental battle in our politics right now. It is happening against a backdrop of a world in which both the left and right have experienced disempowerment. On the left, the narrative is that disempowerment flows from corporate greed. On the right, the narrative points to the domination of liberal media, liberal universities, liberal technology companies and liberal global capital.

The fire that was lit on Jan. 6 was possible because of the problems of disempowerment flowing from our failures of governance and from our institutionalists and their technocratic approach to politics. So yes, on Jan. 6, we saw white supremacists in action, but they were taking advantage of a more widely spread disaffection that doesn’t necessarily merit description in terms of white supremacy. We can only understand that moment by thinking more broadly about the experiences of disempowerment and alienation that characterize our population across political boundaries.

Recommitting To Universal Suffrage

In June last year, a bipartisan commission at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences released a report that was the culmination of two years of research, including listening sessions held all over the country. Everywhere we turned, we heard Americans convey an experience of non-responsive political institutions, of feeling as if they didn’t have an equal say or an equal vote. What we heard was that there is a vicious cycle in our national life. Because our institutions are non-responsive or don’t provide equal representation, people are left feeling disempowered, which they respond to by withdrawing from participation.

As they withdraw, they stop participating in the other organizations of civil society that pull people into the political process. When that happens, people get less exposure to others who are different, who have different views. This, in turn, makes Americans feel increasingly distant and alienated from each other — a fact borne out by polling that shows Americans’ distrust has increased not just in our institutions, but also in one another. This decline in trust has then further fed a general erosion of a culture of mutual commitment to each other and to our shared constitutional democracy.

“Americans’ distrust has increased not just in our institutions, but also in one another.”

One of our report’s recommendations is to increase the size of the House of Representatives. Before the 1920s, the size of Congress had always grown in parallel with the size of the national population. However, when the 1920 census showed for the first time that the majority of the population lived in cities (which were filled with immigrants), Congress (which then, as now, gave disproportionate weight to native-born rural voters) refused to reapportion representation on that basis. Eventually, a “compromise” was struck in 1929 that permitted reapportionment after the 1930 election but capped the House at 435 seats.

That resulted in a fundamental erosion of the legitimacy of our electoral system, because the Electoral College is constituted of a combination of the number of seats in Congress and the Senate. Allowing Congress to grow (which, unlike abolishing the Electoral College, does not require a Constitutional amendment) would allow us to get back to a place where the relative weight of highly populous and less populous places gives us a reasonable mechanism for decision-making. That would minimize the risk of a president being elected with a minority of the popular vote.

In addition to addressing the legitimacy crisis of the Electoral College, increasing the size of the House would also reduce the size of each representative’s constituencies, enabling members of Congress to be more responsive to their voters. While some people might fear a larger Congress would be more unwieldly, it’s worth noting that both the British Parliament and the German Bundestag are bigger than our Congress, even though their populations are both less than a third the size of America’s. It is indeed possible to be bigger and remain functional.

A second recommendation from our report is to shift to universal voting — to treat voting in the same way that we treat jury service: as not just a right, but a duty. In Australia, voting has been mandatory for almost a century, with a minor fine applied to anyone who fails to vote without an excuse. “Mandatory” in Australia does not mean that Australians are obliged to vote for one of the candidates on the ballot. They’re free to submit an empty ballot. The goal is to create an ethos, a sense of a duty to participate in civic life that is reinforced structurally.

“The British Parliament and the German Bundestag are bigger than our Congress, even though their populations are both less than a third the size of America’s.”

Increasing the size of the House doesn’t clearly advantage either party, so this reform could potentially get through as a good government reform that could appeal to both sides. It received support from both sides of the political spectrum in our commission work. Universal voting via a federal decision might be challenging at the moment, but states could introduce this and start setting a new standard for how we approach voting in the country.

Universal voting would be valuable for a number of reasons. When voting is mandatory, candidates don’t have an incentive to campaign with the goal of demoralizing their opponents’ voters so that those voters won’t turn out. Right now, our elections are full of negative campaigning, partly because one of the purposes of negative ads is to try to discourage your opponent’s voters from even going to the polls. But with mandatory voting, that incentive falls away.

But here’s the more important point about universal voting. Part of the reason for the botched COVID response is that it got caught up in a fundamental fight about voting rights. Universal voting would bypass controversies over voter suppression and assert our commitment to universal suffrage. As with jury duty, we would no longer fight over who is or is not going to participate, only over how to make sure that everybody can fulfill their duty.

Universal voting would put an end to the most bitter, deep and profoundly important political fight in our country right now. It’s how we move on from the insurrection on Jan. 6. It addresses the fundamental sense of disempowerment that propelled the riot by improving the effectiveness and empowerment of our governance. Then we can get back to the job of governing on behalf of everybody.

https://www.noemamag.com/january-6-what-kind-of-revolution-was-it/?campaign_id=129&emc=edit_jbo_20210327&instance_id=28559&nl=jamelle-bouie&regi_id=15911458&segment_id=54329&te=1&user_id=536378bf7a4b381e82c2d380d4a9c79e

[Orema]

The G.O.P. Has Some Voters It Likes and Some It Doesn’t

By Jamelle Bouie
Opinion Columnist
March 30, 2021

https://i.postimg.cc/HkjjB16C/30bouie-lead-super-Jumbo.jpg
Credit: Damon Winter/The New York Times

This is what happens when a political party turns against democracy.

The most outrageous provision of the Election Integrity Act of 2021, the omnibus election bill signed by Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia last week, is one that makes it illegal for anyone except poll workers to offer food or water directly to voters standing in line. Defenders of the law say that this is meant to stop electioneering at the polls; critics say it is a direct response to volunteers who assisted those Georgians, many of them Black, who waited for hours to cast their ballots in the 2020 presidential election.

Less outrageous but more insidious is a provision that removes the secretary of state from his (or her) position as chairman of the State Election Board and replaces him with a new nonpartisan member selected by a majority of Georgia’s Republican-controlled Legislature. The law also gives the board, and by extension the Legislature, the power to suspend underperforming county election officials and replace them with a single individual.

Looming in the background of this “reform” is Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s conflict with Donald Trump, who pressured him to subvert the election and deliver Trump a victory. What won Raffensperger praise and admiration from Democrats and mainstream observers has apparently doomed his prospects within the Republican Party, where “stop the steal” is dogma and Trump is still the rightful president to many. It is not even clear that Raffensperger will hold office after his term ends in 2023; he must fight off a primary challenge next year from Representative Jody Hice of Georgia’s 10th Congressional District, an outspoken defender of Trump’s attempt to overturn the election.

This is what it looks like when a political party turns against democracy. It doesn’t just try to restrict the vote; it creates mechanisms to subvert the vote and attempts to purge officials who might stand in the way. Georgia is in the spotlight, for reasons past and present, but it is happening across the country wherever Republicans are in control.

Last Wednesday, for example, Republicans in Michigan introduced bills to limit use of ballot drop boxes, require photo ID for absentee ballots and allow partisan observers to monitor and record all precinct audits. “Senate Republicans are committed to making it easier to vote and harder to cheat,” the State Senate majority leader, Mike Shirkey, said in a statement. Shirkey, you may recall, was one of two Michigan Republican leaders who met with Trump at his behest after the election. He also described the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6 as a “hoax.”

Republican lawmakers in Arizona, another swing state, have also introduced bills to limit absentee voting in accordance with the former president’s belief that greater access harmed his campaign. One proposal would require ID for mail-in ballots and shorten the window for mail-in voters to receive and return their ballots. Another bill would purge from the state’s list of those who are automatically sent a mail-in ballot any voter who failed to cast such a ballot in “both the primary election and the general election for two consecutive primary and general elections.”

One Arizona Republican, John Kavanagh, a state representative, gave a sense of the party’s intent when he told CNN, “Not everybody wants to vote, and if somebody is uninterested in voting, that probably means that they’re totally uninformed on the issues.” He continued: “Quantity is important, but we have to look at the quality of votes, as well.”

In other words, Republicans are using the former president’s failed attempt to overturn the election as a guide to how you would change the system to make it possible. In Georgia, as we’ve seen, that means stripping power from an unreliable partisan and giving it, in effect, to the party itself. In Pennsylvania, where a state Supreme Court with a Democratic majority unanimously rejected a Republican lawsuit claiming that universal mail-in balloting was unconstitutional, it means working to end statewide election of justices, essentially gerrymandering the court. In Nebraska, which Republicans won, it means changing the way the state distributes its electoral votes, from a district-based system in which Democrats have a chance to win one potentially critical vote, as Joe Biden and Barack Obama did, to winner-take-all.

This fact pattern underscores a larger truth: The Republican Party is driving the nation’s democratic decline. A recent paper by Jacob M. Grumbach, a political scientist at the University of Washington, makes this plain. Using a new measure of state-level democratic performance in the United States from 2000 to 2018, Grumbach finds that Republican control of state government “consistently and profoundly reduces state democratic performance during this time period.” The nationalization of American politics and the coordination of parties across states means that “state governments controlled by the same party behave similarly when they take power.” Republican-controlled governments in states as different as Alabama and Wisconsin have “taken similar actions with respect to democratic institutions.”

The Republican Party’s turn against democratic participation and political equality is evident in more than just these bills and proposals. You can see it in how Florida Republicans promptly instituted difficult-to-pay fines and fees akin to a poll tax after a supermajority of the state’s voters approved a constitutional amendment to end the disenfranchisement of most ex-felons. You can see it in how Missouri Republicans simply ignored the results of a ballot initiative on Medicaid expansion.

Where does this all lead? Perhaps it just ends with a few new restrictions and new limits, enough, in conjunction with redistricting, to tilt the field in favor of the Republican Party in the next election cycle but not enough to substantially undermine American democracy. Looking at the 2020 election, however — and in particular at the 147 congressional Republicans who voted not to certify the Electoral College vote — it’s not hard to imagine how this escalates, especially if Trump and his allies are still in control of the party.

If Republicans are building the infrastructure to subvert an election — to make it possible to overturn results or keep Democrats from claiming electoral votes — then we have to expect that given a chance, they’ll use it.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/30/opinion/voter-suppression.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

[Orema]

Doctor: Arkansas anti-LGBTQ law is completely unethical
Opinion by Jack Turban

https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/210309175707-asa-hutchinson-file-exlarge-169.jpg
Asa Hutchinson, governor of Arkansas, speaks during a Bloomberg Television interview in 2018. Hutchinson recently signed the Medical Ethics and Diversity Act into law.

As physicians, my colleagues and I have the honor and privilege to help people through some of the most difficult times of their lives. Along with this privilege come some challenging situations. Once at three in the morning, I was paged to see a patient going through alcohol withdrawal. The moment I walked into his room, he grabbed my pager from my scrubs and threw it against the wall. He screamed homophobic slurs in my face. I was tired. My shoulders tightened with anxiety, and I steeled myself against memories of middle school bullies summoned by this patient's screaming.

I pushed through and made sure he got the medical interventions he needed. Had he not received this timely medical care, his substance use would have threatened his life. My medical training taught me to prioritize his health over my pain at his words or beliefs that homophobia like his is morally wrong. It is my job to do that. Similarly, I would expect a doctor who thinks alcohol use disorder is a "moral failing" to still offer this patient evidence-based medical care.

Sadly, not all politicians think the same way. This week, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed the so-called Medical Ethics and Diversity Act into law. The law allows a wide range of health care workers -- doctors, pharmacists and even insurance companies -- to refuse to provide non-emergency healthcare based on personal "moral" objections. This new law is dangerous and directly contradicts the professional responsibilities we have as health care providersAs a gay man in medicine, I'll be the first to tell you that we should have diversity in the profession. It's important to have physicians from all races, ethnicities, religious backgrounds, gender identities and sexual orientations. I applaud that idea of a bill that promotes diversity in medicine. But Arkansas's new "Medical Ethics and Diversity" law does no such thing. It is unethical and targets diverse patients, trying to take away their health care.

The most obvious damage this law will cause for the people of Arkansas will be to limit access to certain treatments that have become politicized. This will likely include things like gender-affirming surgeries or medications for transgender people and abortion care. Of note, the state legislature also just passed a law that would explicitly outlaw gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth, despite opposition from major medical organizations and data linking gender-affirming care to lower odds of transgender people considering suicide. That bill is awaiting the governor's signature.

But Dr. Jennifer Gunter, obstetrician gynecologist, women's health expert and author of "The Menopause Manifesto," noted in an interview with me that the negative impacts of the Medical Ethics and Diversity Act may go beyond these highly politicized treatments. "What if your insurer decides your cancer is a result of immoral behavior because you were once a smoker? The potential for abuse is huge and frightening."

This new law means that health care can be blocked at various stages along the health care delivery chain. Let's say a doctor agrees to prescribe your medication -- a pharmacist could still refuse to dispense it based on whatever "moral" grounds they assert. Even if the physician and pharmacist agree to give you the medication, your insurance company could refuse to pay for it.

Proponents of the law have been quick to point out that it only applies to "non-emergency care." But we need to keep in mind that people die from "non-emergencies." Let's say a lesbian woman lives in a small town where there are only a few doctors. She develops diabetes, and the doctors in the area refuse to examine her and give her insulin because they think living as an out lesbian woman goes against their personal "morals." This woman's diabetes will progress. She will eventually lose feeling in her hands and feet. She may become blind. Her diabetes will progress and eventually she will end up in the emergency room, where the doctors will need to treat the emergency. But at that point, it will likely be too late, and she will die an early death.

This bill has left many people in Arkansas horrified. I spoke with one of them recently: Chris Attig, an 11-year US Army Veteran who lives in Little Rock, and is the father of a transgender child. He pointed out that Arkansas is a small state, and that almost all of the major hospitals are "faith-based." He worries that if these hospitals refuse to treat trans people, then his son will simply go without medical care.

Like Chris, many have seen the new law as being primarily directed toward transgender people. Arkansas has had a flurry of anti-trans legislation this year: a new law that bans transgender girls from playing on girls sports teams, a bill that outlaws gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth and now this "medical conscience" bill.

When I asked why there has been so much legislation about transgender people in Arkansas this year, State Rep. Deborah Ferguson told me she believes conservative groups in the area are simply out of issues, "Honestly I think the Family Council has run out of things to fight about. They need to look for something to validate their existence." State Sen. Kim Hammer, lead sponsor of The Medical Ethics and Diversity Act in the Senate, did not -- as of the time of this writing -- respond to my question on what prompted his introduction of the bill.

It seems clear that the new law will lead to direct negative impacts on health, and potentially deaths. But there will also be more insidious indirect effects. Research has consistently shown that bills like this cause cultural shifts. If the local news and politicians tell LGBTQ people that they can be discriminated against in health care, people are likely going to think it's okay to harass them in other settings. Sadly, LGBTQ people often take those messages to heart. As a psychiatrist, I sit with many LGBTQ people who have been told all their lives that being LGBTQ is wrong or amoral. At a certain point, they start to internalize those messages, resulting in low self-esteem, anxiety and depression. This is a primary reason for high rates of suicide among LGBTQ people.

One of the best ways of illuminating the risks posed by this Arkansas law is a major study of how marriage equality impacted adolescent mental health. In states that passed marriage equality before it was legal nationwide, adolescent suicide attempts dropped. It obviously wasn't because teenagers were getting married; it was because these conversations about the rights of LGBTQ people impact mental health dramatically. Similarly, laws permitting refusal of services to LGBTQ people have been shown to have substantial negative impacts on mental health.

The new law will also likely negatively impact Arkansas's economy. Similar lawsuits have been challenged in the courts, resulting in substantial legal fees the state would need to pay. The Idaho attorney general's office, for instance, estimated that it would cost Idaho approximately $1 million if it needed to fund a protracted legal battle over an anti-trans birth certificate bill. Some states have also seen major companies pull resources out of their state in response to similar legislation. These are resources that would be better spent fighting Covid-19 and other health challenges impacting the state.

Doctors and medical professionals train long and hard to have the privilege to care for people during some of the most challenging times in their lives. This comes with responsibilities. As a profession, we have dedicated ourselves to putting health above all other beliefs we may hold. The new Arkansas law goes against these medical ethics. I can only hope that, despite this amoral legislation, the doctors of Arkansas will uphold their duty to treat all people.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/02/opinions/arkansas-anti-transgender-law-medical-ethics-turban/index.html

[JDeere]

That religion and politics are clumped together. its freaking annoying!

[homoe]

Embattled Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) has been invited to speak at a pro-Donald Trump summit this week at a Florida golf resort owned by the former president. Gaetz, who is under investigation for alleged sex trafficking and engaging in a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl, said he was grateful for the chance to “share my vision” for America at the event.

Gaetz said he would be speaking Friday at the “Save America Summit” at Trump’s Doral resort in Miami.

The event is being organized by Women for America First, which has been described as a “pro-Trump dark money” organization. The group hosted the Trump rally in front of the White House on Jan. 6 that preceded ― and helped ignite ― the deadly U.S. Capitol riot.

[BullDog]

Derek Chauvin found guilty by the jury on all 3 counts.

I cried tears of relief. It doesn't bring back George Floyd or anyone else who has died, but I believe it is the beginning of calls for accountability and justice that we will never give up on. After 4 horrible years under Trump, we finally have some hope.

What brings me the most hope is ordinary citizens doing the right thing and speaking up. The Black Lives Matter protests, the voters in Georgia, the residents of Chicago who were at the scene of the crime speaking out and documenting it all, the police officers who told the truth under oath, the members of the jury. We can make a difference and we will. Never stop fighting and never give up.

[homoe]

HuffPost
'Spineless Coward': Kevin McCarthy Ripped For Defending Trump's Riot Response

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) was called out on social media for defending former President Donald Trump’s failure to rein in his supporters as they attacked the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection.

McCarthy initially said Trump “bears responsibility” for the riot and admitted the then-president was too slow to respond.

“He should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding,” McCarthy said a week after the insurrection.

But on Sunday, he changed his tune completely, telling Fox News that Trump promised to help stop the violent attack on the Capitol carried out by his supporters.

“And that’s what he did,” McCarthy said. “He put a video out later.”

Trump waited hours to release the video, eventually telling the rioters “we love you” as he asked them to go home.

On Sunday, McCarthy wouldn’t answer a question about a report claiming his conversation with Trump during the riot didn’t go nearly as well as he indicated

[homoe]

USA TODAY Mon, April 26, 2021, 2:07 PM

Texas will gain two more congressional seats and seven states will each lose a seat as a result of population shifts recorded in the 2020 Census, the Census Bureau said Monday in the release of its first round of data from the survey taken last year.

In total, seven seats shifted affecting 13 states. Colorado, Florida, Montana, North Carolina and Oregon each gained one seat in addition to Texas. California, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia each lost one seat.

The shift could affect the 2022 midterm elections and whether Democrats can hold onto control of the House, where they hold a narrow majority. It's also part of a broader shift to the South and West of the U.S., with 84 seats shifting toward those states since 1940.

The U.S. House of Representatives has 435 seats, based on population. Every decade, as population shifts, the allotment of seats for each state may change based on updated data collected by the Census Bureau. States that grow may gain House members, at the expense of shrinking states.

The population for apportionment includes residents of the 50 states, plus overseas service members and federal civilian employees who are attached to their home state's tally, according to the Census Bureau.

New congressional districts would take effect for the 2022 election. That puts added pressure on Democrats, who control the house by the slim margin of 218-212, with five seats vacant. The size of the House has not changed since 1913.

States that gained seats were mostly Republican-leaning, with Texas, Florida, Montana and North Carolina each voting for former President Trump in the 2020 presidential election. North Carolina was one of the closer races, with Trump defeating President Joe Biden by less than 1.5%. Oregon and Colorado, meanwhile, were solidly blue states in the last election.

States that lost seats were mostly Democratic, but consist of more close battleground states. California, Illinois and New York were solidly in Biden’s column; Michigan and Pennsylvania were closer swing states with slim margins for the president.

[homoe]

Louisa Ballhaus Mon, April 26, 2021, 9:36 AM

Former president Donald Trump has enjoyed the state of Florida as his home base since leaving the White House in January 2021. Now, however, a change of plans may be afoot: according to a new Business Insider report, Trump is planning to relocate to New Jersey this summer, and not just because he’s eager to avoid the high temperatures of a Florida summer. Trump insiders who spoke with the outlet claim that this move indicates the former president is looking to step up his fundraising efforts, and there are a number of reasons New Jersey is a better place to operate from than the Sunshine State.

While Trump has enjoyed plenty of political and personal support by setting up shop at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, his former base of New York City allowed him closer access to top donors and financial strategists.

Unnamed Trump advisors who spoke to Insider say he’s hoping to replicate that access by moving to his golf club in Bedminster, NJ, where a meeting with those top names won’t require a plane ride!

[homoe]

Chris Christie Gives One-Term, Twice-Impeached Trump An 'A' For His Presidency

The former Republican governor of New Jersey was not shy in railing against longtime friend Donald Trump’s refusal to accept the 2020 election result and his incitement of the deadly U.S. Capitol riot, for which he was impeached for a second time.

But on Friday, Christie was asked by Fox News personality Sean Hannity how he graded Trump’s presidency.

Christie gave top marks to the former reality-TV star, whose offensive rhetoric he has defended for years.

“Oh, listen, overall I give the president an A,” Christie responded.

Birds of a feather, need I say more!?

https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/chris-christie-donald-trump-presidency-rating-084435670.html

[homoe]

U.S. Senator Collins defends Romney, Cheney from Republican attacks.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senator Susan Collins, a leading moderate Republican in the U.S. Congress, warned on Sunday against intolerance of differences within her party and pushed back at intraparty attacks from the right against Senator Mitt Romney and Representative Liz Cheney.

Collins, who won re-election in Maine last year despite a strong Democratic bid to oust her, said she was dismayed that Romney had been booed by fellow Republicans in his home state of Utah, and defended Cheney, who like Romney has been attacked from within the party for criticizing former President Donald Trump.

"We need to have room for a variety of views," Collins told CNN's "State of the Union" program. "We are not a party that is led by just one person."

https://www.yahoo.com/news/u-senator-collins-defends-romney-172430322.html

[homoe]

Marooned at Mar-a-Lago, Trump Still Has Iron Grip on Republicans

Locked out of Facebook, marooned in Mar-a-Lago and mocked for an amateurish new website, Donald Trump remained largely out of public sight this week. Yet the Republican Party’s capitulation to the former president became clearer than ever, as did the damage to American politics he has caused with his lie that the election was stolen from him.

In Washington, Republicans moved to strip Rep. Liz Cheney of her House leadership position, a punishment for denouncing Trump’s false claims of voter fraud as a threat to democracy. Lawmakers in Florida and Texas advanced sweeping new measures that would curtail voting, echoing the fictional narrative from Trump and his allies that the electoral system was rigged against him. And in Arizona, the state Republican Party started a bizarre re-examination of the November election results that involved searching for traces of bamboo in last year’s ballots.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/marooned-mar-lago-trump-still-145045740.html

[homoe]

Donald Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen predicted that his ex-boss won’t give Rudy Giuliani “two cents” for legal fees to defend himself against any charges that might arise from a current federal investigation.

“Let me be very clear: [Giuliani’s] going to get stiffed,” Cohen told Joy Reid in an MSNBC interview Friday. “Donald Trump does not pay legal bills. He doesn’t care about anyone or anything other than himself.”

Giuliani’s advisers earlier this week reached out to Trump’s team to shake loose some of the former president’s $250 million in campaign cash to reimburse Giuliani for his work attempting to overturn the 2020 election on Trump’s behalf. But Cohen said there’s no way that will happen. “Donald in his crazy mind actually believes” that money is his “to do with” as he wishes, Cohen told Reid. Giuliani now has a “better chance of sling-shooting himself to the moon” than getting a big pay day from the former president, Cohen added.

“Donald Trump wouldn’t pay him two cents because his feeling is it’s an honor and a privilege to go to prison for him, to do his dirty work,” he said.

Cohen should know. He was sentenced to three years in prison for a variety of crimes committed while he was Trump’s lawyer, including lying to Congress during its probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election, campaign finance violations, and tax fraud.

Now Giuliani’s in the hot seat for work he did in Ukraine to dig up unflattering information about now-President Joe Biden and his son Hunter ahead of the 2020 election. In their effort to find communication between Ukrainian officials and the Trump administration, federal investigators last week seized more than 10 computers and phones from Giuliani’s Manhattan home and office. The Justice Department is reportedly focusing in part on Giuliani’s efforts to oust Marie Yovanovitch from her job as U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. She was reportedly unpopular with some Ukrainian officials because of her strong stance against corruption. Trump booted Yovanovitch from her post in 2019.

Cohen believes Giuliani will eventually act out of self interest, though. Late last month on CNN, he said: “Do I think Rudy will give up Donald in a heartbeat? Absolutely. He certainly doesn’t want to follow my path down into a 36-month sentence.”

https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/michael-cohen-rudy-giuliani-defense-money-trump-235400782.html

[homoe]

In booting Cheney, 'My Kevin' leads GOP back to Trump....

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Kevin McCarthy is leading his party to an inflection point, preparing to dump Rep. Liz Cheney from the No. 3 House leadership position and transform what's left of the party of Lincoln more decisively into the party of Trump.

The GOP leader argues that ousting Cheney has less to do with her very public criticism of the former president's lies about his 2020 election loss to President Joe Biden than her inability to set aside personal convictions and do her job. As conference chair responsible for communicating a unified party message, Cheney has lost the confidence of rank-and-file lawmakers, he said this week.

But in tossing aside Cheney, the daughter of the former vice president and as close as it gets to GOP royalty, and promising a “big tent” to win back power, McCarthy is hollowing out a cadre of lawmakers intent on governing while he is elevating the people and personalities most loyal to Donald Trump. In one stroke, he is amplifying the former president’s false claims about the election and seeking to mend his own tattered relationship with Trump, reasserting himself as Trump’s man in the House.

It’s a transformational moment for McCarthy, who resurrected his political career by attaching himself to Trump — who called him “My Kevin” — and is now on a glidepath to become House speaker, second in line to the presidency, if Republicans win control in next year's elections.

[Orema]

I didn’t catch the first debate of candidates for NYC Mayor, but I see that Maya Wiley did well according to the NYTimes (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/13/opinion/winners-losers-nyc-mayor-debate.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage). I like her a lot but am not familiar with most of the other candidates. Looked like Andrew Yang is doing well but I’m not convinced he’d be good for NYC.

[homoe]

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., has been downplaying a mob’s attempt to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election results for months, and on Wednesday night he went on Fox News to continue asserting that there was not an insurrection.

“Calling it an insurrection ... it wasn’t,” Johnson said in an interview with Laura Ingraham. “I condemn the breach, I condemn the violence, but to say there were thousands of armed insurrectionists breaching the Capitol, attempting to overthrow the government, is simply a false narrative.

“By and large, it was peaceful protests except for there were a number of people, basically agitators, that whipped the crowd and breached the Capitol, and that’s really the truth of what’s happening here,” Johnson added.

So far, over 400 people have been arrested for crimes tied to the Jan. 6 riot, which resulted in several deaths.

[homoe]

Paul Ryan slams Trump in speech about future of Republican Party.....


IF only "little Eddie Munster" of had a backbone when it really counted!

https://www.yahoo.com/news/paul-ryan-slams-trump-speech-053116596.html

[homoe]

Texas Senator Ted Cruz is facing renewed criticism of his travel habits after spending the weekend in Israel touring damage from Hamas rocket strikes.

The firebrand Republican senator, who earlier this year was embroiled in controversy after it was reported that he traveled to Mexico for a family vacation amid a devastating winter storm that left millions in his state without power, now faces similar criticism after tweeting a video of himself inside an Israeli home damaged by rocket fire.

In the video, Mr Cruz discussed the death of an elderly woman’s caretaker in Ashkalon, Israel, resulting from a Hamas rocket strike that hit a residential home. Mr Cruz gives a brief tour of the damage in the home, and explains how the elderly resident was able to make it out of the home in time.

“I’m in Israel and I'm seeing the results of Hamas terrorism. A Hamas rocket destroyed this home and killed an elderly woman's caretaker,” reads the video’s caption.

Under the video, the senator was excoriated by angry Texas residents who demanded to know why he had not reacted similarly to the devastation wrought by the winter storms that largely shut down the state’s power grid in February.

“How much is this photo op costing us, Rafael? Did I miss the tour of frozen Texas homes?” wrote one commenter, who referred to the senator’s given name.

[homoe]

If there’s one thing that Donald Trump is good at is generating headlines, the latest news circulating has the former president telling those in his inner circle that he will be back in power by August, according to New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman. And of course, he has the support of his QAnon followers, who have been parroting the theory that the election was stolen from the 45th president, even though he lost the electoral and the popular vote in November 2020.

This all comes on the heels of Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, who suggested that a Myanmar-like coup should happen here in the U.S. while at a QAnon-affiliated conference in Dallas. He swears he never made those comments, even though they were caught on video. He went on to set the record straight later saying, “I am no stranger to media manipulating my words, and therefore let me repeat my response to a question asked at the conference: There is no reason it (a coup) should happen here (in America),” he wrote on the messaging app, Telegram, per The New York Times.

[Orema]

https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/210831174619-larry-elder-joe-johns-dnt-lead-thumbnail-vpx-exlarge-169.jpg

If Larry Elder loses in California today, as suspected, then I think Trump may have found his next running mate.

I still think Nikki has a shot at running on Trump's 2024 ticket, but Trump can work with Larry a lot easier than he can Nikki.

[Orema]

Joe Manchin Should Stop Talking About ‘Entitlement’

By Jamelle Bouie
New York Times Opinion Columnist

https://i.postimg.cc/02Z5mHK7/06bouie1-super-Jumbo.jpg
Joe Manchin. Credit: T.J. Kirkpatrick for The New York Times

Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia has been coy about what he wants from the Democratic reconciliation bill meant to pass as much of the president’s agenda into law as possible. Other than a number — he wants to shrink the Biden administration’s Build Back Better proposal from $3.5 trillion to $1.5 trillion — Manchin has not said much about which policies he would keep and which he would cut.

Manchin does, however, have one red line.

“I’m just not, so you know, I cannot accept our economy or basically our society moving toward an entitlement mentality,” Manchin said last week. “I’m more of a rewarding, because I can help those who are going to need help if those who can help themselves do so.”

He repeated the point on Wednesday, criticizing Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who wants a larger bill. “I’ve been very clear when it comes to who we are as a society, who we are as a nation,” Manchin said. “I don’t believe that we should turn our society into an entitlement society. I think we should still be a compassionate, rewarding society.”

I find this incredibly useful not because it says anything about what Manchin wants but because it makes clear that this is a dispute over values as much as — or even more than — a dispute over policy.

In previous statements, Manchin used debt and inflation to justify his opposition to spending that went beyond his comfort level. “The nation faces an unprecedented array of challenges and will inevitably encounter additional crises in the future,” Manchin wrote in The Wall Street Journal last month. “Yet some in Congress have a strange belief there is an infinite supply of money to deal with any current or future crisis, and that spending trillions upon trillions will have no negative consequence for the future. I disagree.”

It should be said that Manchin’s case is not very persuasive. Interest rates are low and have been for the past decade. The Congressional Budget Office expects interest rates to stay low until at least the 2030s. For the government, then, borrowing is cheap, and there’s little risk that the additional debt will overheat the economy or crowd out private investment. We can, and should, spend much more than $3.5 trillion, especially since — when spread out over 10 years — that number would be 1.2 percent of our projected national income over the same period.

But the reality of America’s fiscal capacity isn’t the point. For as much as he talks about debt and spending, Manchin’s objection is more moral than it is practical. To say that you don’t want to foster an “entitlement” mentality among America’s able-bodied adults is to make a statement about the proper order of things, as you understand them.

Take tuition-free community college, one of the proposals tucked into President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda. Where Biden sees a pathway to opportunity for ordinary American families, Manchin seems to see another lane on the road to dependency, to a world where most adults do not have to work to receive benefits.

Indeed, even just using a word like “entitlement” speaks to a particular critique of the welfare state — in particular the view that a capitalist economy will not work without the threat of poverty and immiseration. If the market runs on the promise of reward and mobility, then to reward individuals without work is to undermine the very engine of the American economy.

As with so much of our national political discourse, this isn’t a new idea. In “Free Enterprise: An American History,” the historian Lawrence B. Glickman shows how proponents of “free enterprise” and laissez-faire capitalism used the language of entitlement and dependency to condemn the economic guarantees of the New Deal.

“For the first time in my lifetime, we have a president who is willing to mislead the people on fundamental questions of finance,” Robert Taft declared in a 1936 speech to the Women’s National Republican Club, “who is willing openly to attack the very basis of the system of American democracy, who is willing to let the people believe that their problems can be solved and their lives made easier by taking money away from other people or manipulating the currency, who is willing to encourage them to believe that the government owes them a living whether they work or not.”

Or, as Strom Thurmond put it in 1949, when he was the governor of South Carolina, “Nothing could be more un-American and more devastating to a strong and virile nation than to encourage its citizens to expect government to provide security from cradle to grave.”

This “hiving of the country into productive makers and unproductive takers,” Glickman notes, “formed the basis of the traditional American belief in ‘producerism,’ the idea that people who made and grew things deserved pride of place in the republic.” In the 19th century, this producerist ideology fueled labor and agrarian revolts against concentrated power in finance and industry. The great orator and three-time Democratic presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan captured this in his famous “Cross of Gold” speech at the 1896 Democratic National Convention in Chicago:

Mr. Carlisle said in 1878 that this was a struggle between the idle holders of idle capital and the struggling masses who produce the wealth and pay the taxes of the country, and my friends, it is simply a question that we shall decide upon which side shall the Democratic Party fight. Upon the side of the idle holders of idle capital or upon the side of the struggling masses? That is the question that the party must answer.

For conservative opponents of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, however, the makers and takers were reversed. “Rather than an artisan, the maker was now described as a company,” writes Glickman. “The taker was no longer an unscrupulous employer or an enslaver who unfairly took the fruits of labor from the worker but the government, which now did the same through its system of confiscatory taxes and extravagant spending.”

It is this right-wing producerism that, I think, is the most relevant antecedent for Manchin’s fear of an “entitlement” society. Although, in fairness to him, there was a point — in the very recent past — when his views were the dominant ideological position within the Democratic Party, both a consequence of and a driving force in the neoliberal transformation of the United States.

Ronald Reagan was, of course, an important part of this development. He brought right-wing producerism into the mainstream, captivating the voting public with a simple story of undeserving takers and welfare cheats, social parasites who undermined the “hard-working people” who “put up with high taxes,” as he put it during his 1976 campaign for president.

Inextricably tied up in race hierarchy — to be white was to be a worthy taxpayer, and to be nonwhite, and specifically Black, was to be dependent — this producerism was the “common sense” behind the austerity and deregulation of the 1980s and 1990s, from Reagan’s tax cuts to Bill Clinton’s “welfare reform.” Americans would receive a “hand up” — a tax cut or a tax subsidy — and not a “handout” in the form of direct benefits.

These ideas don’t just fade away, and the extent to which they are recapitulated by the media, politics and, most important, the material conditions of our society, all but guarantees their continued potency, especially when the rising costs of housing, education and health care encourage zero-sum competition for every available advantage.

It is this potency that we see in the present debate, from Manchin’s resistance to an “entitlement” society to a public that appears not to want Congress to renew the child tax credit — a no-strings-attached benefit for almost every American family — in its current form.

We can also see it in Donald Trump’s appeal to broad swaths of the American electorate. Trump made his name as a builder in America’s largest city, then leveraged that celebrity in a popular television show that sold him as the nation’s greatest businessman. Years before he entered politics, Trump embodied the producerist ideal of a man who dominates but is never dominated.

At $3.5 trillion, Biden’s Build Back Better plan is more ambitious than anything offered during the Obama administration. If, to win the votes of Manchin and Senator Kyrsten Sinema, Democrats have to scale their bill back to under $2 trillion, it will still be one of the largest spending bills to ever come out of Congress under a Democratic majority.

From that perspective, it might seem odd to speak of the influence of conservative producerist ideology on present-day American politics. And yet a major ideological obstacle to the social democracy progressives hope to build is this sorting of people into winners and losers, deserving and undeserving. “The myth of opportunity for energetic individuals,” Irving Howe once wrote, “has taken on a power independent of, even when in conflict with, the social actuality.” Manchin, in other words, is not the only American who fears an “entitlement” society.

In which case, the ideological challenge for progressives is to redefine what it means to be “entitled” — to return, in a sense, to that older meaning, in which it is the owners of capital who are the takers and the ordinary citizens of this country who are the makers.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/08/opinion/joe-manchin-biden.html

[Orema]

Former Trump officials' new career ventures suggest very little changed after leaving White House

Their business practices didn't progress much past the questionable tactics that haunted the Trump Administration

By MEAGHAN ELLIS
PUBLISHED OCTOBER 17, 2021 4:30AM (EDT)

https://i.postimg.cc/05MZmXxn/mnuchin-trump-kushner.jpg
H.R. McMaster, Steve Mnuchin, Donald Trump, Jared Kushner (Getty/Zach Gibson)

Now that former President Donald Trump's reign is over, the members of his administration have been forced to take their careers in different directions. So, where are the members of the Trump administration now? According to The Intelligencer, many are doing an array of different things; some of which are synonymous with the questionable activities that long-haunted the Trump Administration.

Here's where the top Trump White House officials are now:

1. Former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is still trying to distance himself from the kidnapping of Julian Assange. According to Pompeo, he had nothing to do with it.

Pompeo is adamantly denying any involvement in the plot to kidnap Assange. A report published by Yahoo! News back in September, suggested that Pompeo was livid when he learned Assange divulged U.S. national-security secrets. In fact, the report also claimed that he participated in discussions with members of the Trump administration on how to get retribution.

However, Pompeo is still suggesting the reports are not true. "There's pieces of it that are true," Pompeo said during an appearance on The Megyn Kelly Show. "We tried to protect American information from Julian Assange and WikiLeaks, absolutely, yes … We're not permitted by U.S. law to conduct assassinations. We never acted in a way that was inconsistent with that."

Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.

2. Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has been milking his access to the Secret Service.

Thanks to Trump's order extending the use of the Secret Service to members of his administration, Mnuchin has used the professional perk to his benefit. The publication reports that in his first six months out of office, Mnuchin has racked up the highest Secret Service tab. The Washington Post detailed how Mnuchin managed to rack up more than $150,000 in Secret Service expenses:

The receipts showed that agents spent $114,000 over the six months to rent rooms at a W Hotel in Los Angeles, where Mnuchin has a home. They also followed Mnuchin on three trips to the Middle East, where Mnuchin is reportedly seeking to raise money from sovereign wealth funds for a new venture called Liberty Strategic Capital…

Mnuchin's travels with the Secret Service weren't all business, however. Over the six months, the records show three separate trips to Cabo San Lucas — the Mexican resort, where Mnuchin had also vacationed during Trump's presidency.

To guard Mnuchin during those three trips, the records show, the Secret Service paid $56,000 for hotel rooms and $2,000 to rent golf carts.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Mnuchin is planning to use the $2.5 billion he has raised traveling so he can invest in technology and cybersecurity investments, along with "new forms of content." It remains unclear what Mnuchin specifically describes as "new forms of content" but "many big tech companies are pushing virtual- and augmented-reality hardware and content products and digital gaming."

3. Wilbur Ross is reportedly fantasizing about putting "Trump condos on the moon."

Back in February after the Trump administration transitioned out of the White House, Ross spoke with Bloomberg and shared his upcoming post-government plans; which involve "Trump condos on the moon."

On this particular afternoon, he's sitting in the living room of his 80-year-old home filled with Magrittes and Picassos, sipping a cappuccino, dressed in cashmere sweater, slacks and velvet slippers embroidered with octopuses.

Ironically, it's while ensconced in this paradise of earthly delights that Ross is gearing up to invest in space, among other possibilities. He sees opportunity in extraterrestrial tourism, manufacturing, research and habitation.

Habitation? When asked whether space would be a gold-plated real estate opportunity for Trump, Ross didn't disagree.

"Why not Trump condos on the moon?" he quipped back.


Ross' remarks came just months after the U.S. Commerce Department's inspector general released a scathing report about the former Trump official's behavior. According to The Washington Post, the IG's report "concluded that Ross had made many inaccurate statements to federal officials about his assets before taking office, though he did not willfully violate conflict-of-interest laws."

4. Ben Carson is launching a venture similar to Boy Scouts of America.

After departing Washington, D.C., Ben Carson —the former Housing and Urban Development Secretary— launched an organization called the American Cornerstone Institute. Carson's new think tank reportedly places an emphasis on discovering "commonsense solutions to some of our nation's biggest problems."

GcxUE8l3T8M

Carson has also created the Little Patriots program, which is described as a partisan organization for children. Speaking to The Washington Post, Carson explained the organization's initiative. "It will be something like the Boy Scouts," Carson told the publication. "But heavily exposed to the real history of America.

"You probably notice when ISIS goes into a place, they destroy the history, they destroy the monuments," Carson explained. "History is what gives you identity."

5. Elaine Chao contributed to calls for Kroger to be boycotted.

Chao —wife of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and former transportation secretary— worked for several of the country's top corporations prior to her role with the Trump administration. But Intelligencer reports that "she and other Trump Cabinet alums were having a hard time finding cushy landing spots after exiting the administration. 'The feedback was 'It's too soon,' said one of the headhunters involved in an unsuccessful effort to find companies willing to work with Chao."

Despite her struggles to re-enter the corporate world, Chao was appointed to Kroger's board of directors. But given her history of abusing her power and position with the government, social media users quickly expressed outrage and urged Kroger to drop the former Trump cabinet member from its board.

6. Alex Azar is reportedly conspiring against his former colleagues.

Former Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar is at odds with many of his former colleagues. In fact, several of them including —former FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn, former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director Robert Redfield, former Medicare chief Seema Verma, and former White House COVID coordinator Deborah Birx— have reportedly joined forces to prepare their statements regarding the Trump administration's handling of COVID-19.

According to Politico, they've done so out of caution and concern about Azar possibly using them as "scapegoats" to clear themselves.

"I know the way this goes — everyone has a different perspective," Hahn said in an interview. "I wanted to tell what it was that happened and why it happened and the perspective that we had."

In calls and text messages, members of the group have swapped notes, compared recollections, and sent updates on media requests and interview opportunities, four people with knowledge of the matter said …

And in a nod to their individual battles with Azar, some have jokingly referred to the group in private as "AAA," or Alex Azar Anonymous, according to a person in direct contact with multiple members.


From the looks of it, many Trump administration officials are still conducting shady business as they did while in office.

https://www.salon.com/2021/10/17/former-officials-new-career-ventures-suggest-very-little-changed-after-leaving/

[Kätzchen]

The political turbulence of corruption exhibited by long-standing members of executive branch officials and the peril our country is enduring. It is terribly worrisome and deeply concerning. It feels like our country is under attack from the inside and on every imaginable front.

:vigil::vigil::vigil:

[Orema]

it’s good to see Obama on the campaign trial stumpin for democrats. Have gotten my voting papers in order so I can vote in 2022.

[cathexis]

"Little Patriots" started by Cabinet Secretary sounds a little like "Hitler's Youth."

We even have to keep an eye on Biden's Administration. Don't get me wrong, I voted for Biden. He is turning out to be a war-monger. He ended the long lost war in Afghanistan just to pick a war with China of all nations.

Biden has also hinted at a war with Cuba. Cuba is all alone with no nearby allies.

Hands off China and Cuba.

[cathexis]

"Little Patriots" started by Cabinet Secretary sounds a little like "Hitler's Youth."

We even have to keep an eye on Biden's Administration. Don't get me wrong, I voted for Biden. He is turning out to be a war-monger. He ended the long lost war in Afghanistan just to pick a war with China of all nations.

Biden has also hinted at a war with Cuba. Cuba is all alone with no nearby allies.

Hands off China and Cuba.

[Orema]

The Shadow of Ronald Reagan Is Costing Us Dearly

By Claire Bond Potter, Guest Essay, New York Times Opinion Piece
Ms. Potter is a professor of history at the New School for Social Research.
Nov. 11, 2021

https://i.postimg.cc/qqPx491L/08-Potter-art-super-Jumbo.jpg
Eiko Ojala

With Build Back Better (https://www.whitehouse.gov/build-back-better/), President Biden has attempted to revive a New Deal ethic that entwines human and physical infrastructure. No one likes taxes, but building a nation where Americans know that their families are safe and cared for is popular across party lines. It shouldn’t have been a hard sell.

But here we are. The reconciliation package has shrunk to about $2 trillion. And something else is gone: a chance to change the American narrative of what good government does. The legislation was once billed as a plan for sweeping once-in-a-generation social change, but aspects of it that warranted that hyperbole, like dental and vision coverage for Medicare recipients and free community college, have disappeared. Paid family and medical leave have been sharply reduced.

Other industrialized nations provide a far more robust safety net than the one we have and even the one Mr. Biden proposed. Yet Republicans and at least one Democrat insist that such social welfare spending endangers the nation’s fiscal and moral health.

How did we get to a point that doing less for Americans is a virtue, and comprehensive social welfare a privilege?

It goes back to Jan. 20, 1981. On that cold, windy day, Ronald Reagan, who had scoffed at mythical female welfare cheats on the campaign trail, a trope he had revisited since his 1966 campaign (https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-policy-history/article/abs/incremental-revolution-ronald-reagan-and-welfare-reform-in-the-1970s/90E7B3A515853B61E6879FD041B874FB) for governor of California, took the oath of office. The defeated Democratic President Jimmy Carter, also on the dais, shared some of Mr. Reagan’s distaste for social spending. During his presidency, Mr. Carter charged (https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1981/05/22/welfare-reform-a-dream-that-was-impossible/19924236-c5c3-4b79-8e4b-09a8e1cc4b77/) Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare Joseph Califano Jr. with creating “pro-work and pro-family” rules for recipients (though they never went through).

Mr. Reagan went further. In his inaugural speech (https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/reagan1.asp), he linked government itself to national decline. The economic crisis of the 1970s, he declared, was “proportionate to the intervention and intrusion in our lives that result from unnecessary and excessive growth of government.” Social programs were wasteful. Worse, they lured families into dependence.

In other words: The government that helps families most helps them least. It was an idea that became an American ethic, with staying power through Republican and Democratic administrations alike. Attacks on social programs portrayed poverty as a moral failure and exploited racist stereotypes to mischaracterize social welfare as a magnet for criminal, failed and indolent Americans. The belief that successful families helped themselves remained an article of faith in both parties until the socialist Senator Bernie Sanders ran for president.

Under Mr. Reagan, conservatives were finally able to begin dismantling the New Deal state (https://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/the-hands-that-built-the-conservative-movement) and Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society. In 1981 and 1982 (https://www.irp.wisc.edu/publications/focus/pdfs/foc52b.pdf), Mr. Reagan made more than $22 billion in cuts to social welfare programs, including federal student loans and the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1981/04/11/079299.html?pageNumber=1), a modest program that paid businesses to train and hire economically disadvantaged people.

The federal deficit grew anyway, as Mr. Reagan cut taxes and accelerated military spending (https://www.forbes.com/sites/lorenthompson/2017/01/23/a-reagan-moment-arrives-for-americas-military/?sh=10d43e2c213e). Inheriting (https://www.self.inc/info/us-debt-by-president/) a national debt of about $995 billion (https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/shared/minitext/ess_reaganomics.html), he nearly tripled it. But conservative activists still cheered.

In fact, Mr. Reagan’s welfare reforms just made the poor poorer. When a three-year recession hit in 1980, six million more Americans fell into poverty (https://www.nytimes.com/1986/03/03/opinion/l-poverty-is-thriving-under-reagan-788886.html). By 1989, employment recovered, but a weak social safety net meant that workers were an illness or an accident away from hardship.

Democrats were complicit. In 1992, although he would try (but fail) to pass national health care, Bill Clinton promised (https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/politics/bill-clinton-in-1992-ad-a-plan-to-end-welfare-as-we-know-it/2016/08/30/9e6350f8-6ee0-11e6-993f-73c693a89820_video.html) to “end welfare as we know it.” Looking to a second term, he later blasted big government. The bipartisan Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (https://aspe.hhs.gov/reports/personal-responsibility-work-opportunity-reconciliation-act-1996) put mothers to work at low-wage jobs without health care benefits, linked food aid to work, established a five-year lifetime limit on benefits paid by federal money and funded sexual abstinence (https://aspe.hhs.gov/hhs-fact-sheet-title-v-abstinence-education-programs) programs, not reproductive health. By 1999, single mothers on “workfare” had sunk deeper into poverty (https://www.epi.org/publication/webfeatures_viewpoints_tanf_testimony/).

Progressive Democrats did only marginally better. In 2012, Republicans accused President Barack Obama of unwinding (https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/08/what-obama-really-did-to-welfare-reform/260931/) decades of welfare-to-work provisions, with a new system of waivers, work requirements and block grants that states had to follow. And while his Affordable Care Act passed (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28747321/) narrowly, under pressure (https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/article24554320.html) from both parties, he abandoned universal health care (https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/article24554320.html).

Today the poverty rate hovers around 11 percent (https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2021/demo/p60-273.html), about where it was in 1973 (https://poverty.ucdavis.edu/faq/what-current-poverty-rate-united-states), and economic insecurity now envelops the working poor and middle class. Some economists now argue that the misery caused by decades of failure to support working families paved the way for Donald Trump’s presidency.

That may be true. Left to fend for themselves in poorly regulated markets, by default, working Americans do care for themselves — often on credit. Medical debt was recently pegged at $140 billion (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/20/upshot/medical-debt-americans-medicaid.html) and student loans at over $1.7 trillion (https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/09/america-has-1point73-trillion-in-student-debtborrowers-from-these-states-owe-the-most.html). Thirteen million workers (https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2019/06/about-thirteen-million-united-states-workers-have-more-than-one-job.html)have more than one job.

Americans work hard, but in the United States it costs money even to go to work. Child care, if parents can find it, can cost (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/09/us/politics/child-care-costs-wages-legislation.html) more than a mortgage payment. Elder care? Even more (https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22639674/elder-care-family-costs-nursing-home-health-care). Despite the Affordable Care Act, 28 million Americans (https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2021/demo/p60-274.html) are left uninsured.

Cutting social programs failed, yet this ethic dogs us to this day. Why? First, since the New Deal, conservatives have promoted the falsehood that universal welfare programs reward Americans for not working. Second, when Great Society programs failed to eliminate poverty, rather than make federal aid more accessible and inclusive, some liberals implicitly tied welfare to work (https://prospect.org/features/liberal-lessons-welfare-reform/) and implied that the inability to make ends meet was a moral problem.

Thus Reagan-era bromides are alive and well, even in the Democratic Party, and they are undermining good-faith efforts to help a besieged middle class, too. While Senator Joe Manchin has said that he is not against paid leave, some of his comments continue to perpetuate the myth that comprehensive social welfare programs are a national moral hazard (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/08/opinion/joe-manchin-biden.html). “I cannot accept our economy or basically our society,” Senator Manchin declared as he demanded more cuts in human infrastructure, “moving towards an entitlement mentality.”

And, while the conservative U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a campaign donor (https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-chamber-backs-manchin-sinema-with-campaign-contributions-2021-04-15/) to Manchin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, supported the hard infrastructure bill (https://www.politico.com/newsletters/morning-money/2021/10/05/chamber-says-it-still-backs-infrastructure-deal-798033), it blasted (https://www.uschamber.com/letters-congress/us-chamber-key-vote-letter-reconciliation) the earlier $3.5 trillion human infrastructure proposal as “an existential threat to America’s fragile economic recovery and future prosperity.” So it’s no accident that what remains in the reconciliation bill mostly pumps new funds into existing programs: a child tax credit, universal pre-K, climate spending, the Affordable Care Act and affordable housing.

These things are not insignificant. But what Mr. Biden wanted, and America required, won’t happen: a universal safety net that covers the needs of Americans as a right, not a privilege, and a revised tax structure that asks the wealthiest Americans to support the work force that made them rich.

Ten years ago, Americans were already sicker (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jan/10/americans-sicker-die-younger), less educated (https://www.oecd.org/unitedstates/PISA-2012-results-US.pdf) and poorer than the citizens of most other industrialized countries. This year an estimated 18 million Americans (https://news.gallup.com/poll/354833/estimated-million-pay-needed-drugs.aspx) said that they still could not afford a drug prescribed by their physician. Health care providers and patients juggle catastrophic expenses (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/21/upshot/covid-bills-financial-long-haulers.html) from Covid-19. Of the more than four million women who dropped out of the work force to care for family members during the pandemic, nearly 2 million (https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LNS11000002) are still missing in action.

The myths of American individualism planted and nurtured under Mr. Reagan continue to cost us dearly as a nation. “In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem,” he insisted in that first inaugural.

The time is long overdue to reverse that equation.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/11/opinion/reagan-social-welfare.html

[Kätzchen]

The ongoing traumatization of GOP party politics and the lack of blowback on racist actions by those who aid and abet racist politics. In the months ahead, I want Jan. 6th commission to draft and pass solid guard rails so another (or the same) demagogue-type person can't upend Democracy.

I want a Democracy that does not reward corruption. I want a Democracy that does not elect racist members of society to important positions. I want a Democracy that values truth over lies. I want a Democracy that boots racism and political corruption to another galaxy. I want a Democracy that cares about its people enduring hardships and goes to bat for people, no matter the sector of society in which they represent others like them (women, LGBTQ, POC, etc). I want a Supreme Court that cares about protecting the rights of members of society and not undoing hard-won battles that protect a women's right to vote or get an abortion or equity in pay or any other number of rights that protect us from being assaulted by those who do not care for the female segment of society.

I sincerely hope people are doing all they can to make sure that the Cult of Personality (t-p, et al) do not ever stand a chance to upend Democracy ever again.

:vigil: :vigil: :vigil:

[Orema]

https://i.postimg.cc/2jFmqLxD/tumblr-pkx5ai-Tq0-D1rcqvq2-640.jpg

Deb Haaland (New Mexico's first district) and Sharice Davids (Kansas' third district) shared a tearful embrace, as new House Speaker Nancy Pelosi congratulated the 116th Congress for taking up office.

Haaland is a member of the Laguna people, and Davids is from the Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) nation.

Davids is also a lesbian, making her the first ever LGBT member of Congress from the state of Kansas.
_______________________
Old news but good news to rehash. Now we need to get some American Indians and lesbians on the Supreme Court. It will happen. It’s just a matter of time.

[nhplowboi]

Really Senator Kennedy?! I hope the people of Louisiana are embarrassed by your questioning of Dr. Omarova, Biden's pick for currency comptroller. Your behavior was totally disrespectful and unnecessary.

[BullDog]

Racist America strikes again. Not that it ever stops. I'm not surprised that white boy vigilantism is considered to be okay but I am thoroughly disgusted.

[cathexis]

Really Senator Kennedy?! I hope the people of Louisiana are embarrassed by your questioning of Dr. Omarova, Biden's pick for currency comptroller. Your behavior was totally disrespectful and unnecessary.

They should (not done) be ashamed of the ruse Senator Kennedy R-LA pulls on the American people, I can see why he is being re-elected repeatedly He is Harvard and Oxford educated, but fools his constituency into thinking he's just a "good ol' boy."

[Blade]

McCarthy is an idiot. Shut up and sit down. Get out and vote when it is your turn folks we have to keep the Dems in office

[Kätzchen]

I find it terribly worrisome and hugely concerning that women (and our allies) are not mobilizing to address harrowing concerns over the possibility that Roe vs Wade could be overturned by current judges occupying seats on the SCOTUS.


Also deeply concerning is people with conduct disorders, personality disorders and sexual misconduct disorders, who exist deep within the American fabric and hold positions of power.

Big red flags all over the political landscape.


Super scary stuff. (w)(w)(w)

[Stone-Butch]

I would like to shake all the Canadian fools that voted Trudeau in again as PM. Without a though for all of us he allowed Canadians abroad to come back and THEN put out a ban on arrivals from 3 other countries. The new virus is already here you bloody jerk.

[JDeere]

I find it terribly worrisome and hugely concerning that women (and our allies) are not mobilizing to address harrowing concerns over the possibility that Roe vs Wade could be overturned by current judges occupying seats on the SCOTUS.


Also deeply concerning is people with conduct disorders, personality disorders and sexual misconduct disorders, who exist deep within the American fabric and hold positions of power.

Big red flags all over the political landscape.


Super scary stuff. (w)(w)(w)

That worries me as well, why aren't they mobilizing and speaking up?

I think as I see it, they are too busy arguing with each other over other stuff, they can't set aside time to coordinate to mobilize. However their male counterparts are no bettter, all they do is bicker.

I'm learning that the whole facet of the USA government doesn't truly care about us, in any form.

smh

[homoe]

~~
Democrat Stacey Abrams announces 2022 bid for Georgia governor.

Hopefully she'll get a fair shake this time around!

[cathexis]

That worries me as well, why aren't they mobilizing and speaking up?

I think as I see it, they are too busy arguing with each other over other stuff, they can't set aside time to coordinate to mobilize. However their male counterparts are no bettter, all they do is bicker.

I'm learning that the whole facet of the USA government doesn't truly care about us, in any form.

smh

Turn the TV on MSNBC, you will see the throngs of people protesting the "right to life" movement and pro-women's reproductive rights.

It is sad for this very important and life-saving vote to occur after a horrible presidency and the fear it might return plunging us into Fascism again, a pandemic that has killed many Americans, Canadians, Mexicans, and untold numbers Caribbean Island residents and Cuban citizens, and untold numbers of catastrophic weather phenomenon causing much disaster.

It would not surprise me if very few protestors showed up at SCOTUS, but there are those hearty souls who show up at the SCOTUS and The Capitol to stand up for those of us unable to show-up in person.

Thank You to those well, able, with housing and food unlike many up in my neck of the woods. I am warm, feed, without any major worries. ;)

[JDeere]

Turn the TV on MSNBC, you will see the throngs of people protesting the "right to life" movement and pro-women's reproductive rights.

It is sad for this very important and life-saving vote to occur after a horrible presidency and the fear it might return plunging us into Fascism again, a pandemic that has killed many Americans, Canadians, Mexicans, and untold numbers Caribbean Island residents and Cuban citizens, and untold numbers of catastrophic weather phenomenon causing much disaster.

It would not surprise me if very few protestors showed up at SCOTUS, but there are those hearty souls who show up at the SCOTUS and The Capitol to stand up for those of us unable to show-up in person.

Thank You to those well, able, with housing and food unlike many up in my neck of the woods. I am warm, feed, without any major worries. ;)

I was speaking on the women in the government mobilizing together! I rarely see them come together because they are too busy bickering and such on petty stuff, while the men do the crap deeds!

[Orema]

Why are US rightwingers so angry? Because they know social change is coming
Rebecca Solnit

The American right might win the occasional battle – but they will never win the war against progress

https://i.postimg.cc/JzJ5TfJ6/4485.jpg
‘We are dismantling the trophies of the ugly old world of sanctified inequality and erecting monuments to heroes of justice and liberation.’ Photograph: Steve Helber/AP

While their fear and dismay is often regarded as rooted in delusion, rightwingers are correct that the world is metamorphosing into something new and, to them, abhorrent. They’re likewise correct that what version of history we tell matters. The history we tell today lays the groundwork for the future we make. The outrage over the 1619 Project and the new laws trying to censor public school teachers from telling the full story of American history are a doomed attempt to hold back facts and perspectives that are already widespread.

In 2018, halfway through the Trump presidency, Michelle Alexander wrote a powerful essay (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/21/opinion/sunday/resistance-kavanaugh-trump-protest.html) arguing that we are not the resistance. We, she declared, are the mighty river they are trying to dam. I see it flowing, and I see the tributaries that pour into it and swell its power, and I see that once firmly grounded statues and assumptions have become flotsam in its current. Similar shifts are happening far beyond the United States, but it is this turbulent nation of so much creation and destruction I know best and will speak of here.

When a regime falls, the new one sweeps away its monuments and erects its own. This is happening as the taking down of Confederate, Columbus and other statues commemorating oppressors across the country, the renaming of streets and buildings and other public places, the appearance of myriad statues and murals of Harriet Tubman and other liberators, the opening of the Legacy Museum documenting slavery and mass incarceration and housing a lynching memorial.

There was no great moment of overthrow, but nevertheless we are dismantling the trophies of the ugly old world of sanctified inequality and erecting monuments to heroes of justice and liberation, from the Olympic track medalists of 1968 making their Black power gesture at San Jose State University to the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park in Maryland. All those angry white men with the tiki torches chanting, in Charlottesville in 2017, “You will not replace us” as they sought to defend a statue of Gen Robert E Lee were wrong in their values and actions but perhaps not in their assessment.

White people are not being replaced, but in many ways a white supremacist history and society is. The statue of the general was removed earlier this year and will be melted down (https://apnews.com/article/race-and-ethnicity-virginia-charlottesville-public-art-82967e27bfe3a0febd9b584bde381a99) to be made into a new work of art under the direction of the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center. They call the project “swords into plowshares”, a phrase suggesting that this marks the end of a war – perhaps the civil war in which the north never fully claimed its victory, the south never accepted its defeat.

What’s happening goes far beyond public monuments. The statues mark the rejection of old versions of who we are and what we value, but those versions and values matter most as they play out in everyday private and public life. We are only a few decades removed from a civilization in which corporal punishment of children by parents and teachers was an unquestioned norm; in which domestic violence and marital rape were seen as a husband’s prerogative and a wife surrendered financial and other agency; in which many forms of inequality and exclusion had hardly even been questioned, let alone amended; in which few questioned the rightness of a small minority – for white Christian men have always been a minority in the United States – holding almost all the power, politically, socially, economically, culturally; in which segregation and exclusion were pervasive and legal; in which Native Americans had been largely written out of history; in which environmental regulation and protection and awareness barely existed.

You have to remember how different the past was to recognize how much has changed. Frameworks such as indigenous land acknowledgments that were unheard of and maybe almost inconceivable a few decades ago are routine at public events. Land acknowledgments are not land return, but they fortify the case for it.

The Civil Rights Act passed in 1964; in 1965, with Griswold v Connecticut, the supreme court overruled state laws criminalizing birth control and laid the groundwork for Roe v Wade six years later; only in 2015, Obergefell v Hodges established marriage equality for same-sex couples (while equality of rights between different-sex couples had also gradually been established as marriage became a less authoritarian institution). The right is trying to push the water back behind the dam. With deregulation and social service and tax cuts, they have succeeded in reestablishing an economy of extreme inequality, but not a society fully committed to that inequality.

They have succeeded in passing laws at the state level against voting rights and reproductive rights, but they have not succeeded in pushing the majority’s imaginations back to 1960 or 1920 or whenever their version of when America was great stalled out. They can win the battles, but I do not believe they will, in the end, win the war.

While the right has become far more extreme and has its tens of millions of true believers, it is morphing into a minority sect. This has prompted their desperate scramble to overturn free and fair elections and other democratic processes. White Christians, who were 80% of the population in 1976, are now 44% (https://www.npr.org/2021/07/08/1014047885/americas-white-christian-plurality-has-stopped-shrinking-a-new-study-finds). Mixed-race (https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/06/myth-majority-minority-america/619190/) and non-white people are rapidly becoming the majority. On issues such as climate, people of color are far more progressive; if we can make it through the huge backlash of the present moment, the possibilities are dazzling.

These are relatively concrete changes. Others are subtler and more recent, but no less important. Even in the last decade there has been an epochal shift in our expectations of how we should treat each other, and the casual cruelty and disdain targeting women, queer people, Bipoc, the disabled and those with divergent bodies that pervaded entertainment and daily life are now viewed as repugnant – and are met with consequences in some contexts.

A regular experience of this era (for those of us who were around for the last one) is to revisit a song, a film, a book and find that we have now become people who can see better the insults and exclusions that were so seamlessly woven into it. Some of the old art has not weathered well and will fall out of circulation, as some old culture always does; some will be interpreted in new ways; some neglected treasures will move from margin to center. We – a metamorphosing “we” – are sifting through an old and building a new canon.

Even more profound than this is a shift in worldview from the autonomous individual of hypercapitalism and social darwinism to a recognition of both the natural and social worlds as orchestras of interdependence, of survival as an essentially collaborative and cooperative business. Disciplines from neuropsychology to economics have shifted their sense of who we are, what works, and what matters. Climate change is first of all a crisis, but it’s also a reminder that the world is a collection of interlocking systems. The just-deceased bell hooks talked about a “love ethic” that included “a global vision wherein we see our lives and our fate as intimately connected to those of everyone else on the planet”.

Birth can be violent and dangerous, and sometimes one or the other of the two involved die. There is no guarantee about what is to come, and the shadow of climate chaos hangs over it all. We do not have time to build a better society before we address that crisis, but it is clear that the response to that crisis is building such a society. So much has already changed. The river Alexander described has swept away so much, has carried so many onward.

It has come far; it still has dams to overtop and so much farther to go.

Rebecca Solnit is a Guardian US columnist. Her most recent books are Recollections of My Nonexistence and Orwell’s Roses

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/dec/20/rightwingers-us-social-change-coming