trump 12 post

11 slow to save this is 12/20

SEE TRUMP 13 11 21

see stop the steal

see rubber glue inversion scam

see post trump

prolly some neglect interwebs down

neglect? 921 milley jt chief talked down chinese 1/6 and put up barriers to nukes, pulled a schlesinger ~ nixon

bill o and djt say they are boosted, tour has empty seats

https://www.alternet.org/2021/12/trump-qanon-believers/

qAnon believers, also known for their adamant disapproval of COVID vaccinations, have been left befuddled by former President Donald Trump admitting that he'd taken the COVID vaccine booster shot.

Following Trump's appearance on Bill Reilly's "No Spin News," Trump confirmed his third jab. When O'Reilly, "Did you get the booster?" Trump replied: "Yes. I got it too."

In addition to boos from the crowd, QAnon believers are speaking out. According to Newsweek, disgruntled QAnon believers have criticized and "turned on" Trump due to his latest announcement.

In wake of the latest controversy, John Sabal, also known as QAnon John, weighed in with explained why he believes Trump made the decision as he suggested that it would be a form of "political suicide" if he publicly disavowed the COVID vaccine and booster shot. He also urged QAnon believers to make their own decision.

"Knowing what we know. Whenever POTUS 45 promotes something, the other side does the total opposite. They get disgusted by that thing," Sabal said. "Trump derangement still runs deep. Trump still says that those who don't want the vax should not be forced to take it. That is the most important thing he said. The messaging here is clear.

"Imagine for one second what would happen if Trump all of a sudden started to backtrack on the vax. Operation Warp Speed was necessary for reasons I already discussed. He would lose all credibility with those who took the jab. It would be political suicide for him."

One QAnon influencer offered a delusional explanation for the former president's remarks but also condemned his support of the vaccination. Sharing a message with his 58,000 followers on Telegram, he admitted that he disagreed with Trump but still expressed support for him.

"We don't always understand everything," the influencer said, per Newsweek. "I love President Trump. I disagree here.I think we may find out something about this soon imo [in my opinion] either way, think for yourself. You are in the right spot here. Just don't cuss up a storm, we have so many twists and turns already."

The influencer continued, "I believe the end will explain the middle. But, we are all to think for ourselves and most of you guys are still with me on this vax crap. If we are confused by Pres Trump's comments, I'm sure Deep State is. Maybe he would be a danger to society arrested otherwise idk [I don't know] but I'm gonna continue locally and here doing what we all must every day."

https://www.alternet.org/2021/11/trump-conflates-poll-showing-him-winning-in-2024-with-a-2020-win/

https://www.alternet.org/2021/11/trump-biden-2655782871/

"attack" on oil reserves (shambolic but at least coord w/ other contries?)

1994 newt revo = zombie tag?

11 21 AN

...There were certainly whistleblowers — but they were far too few.

There were the "adults in the room" who tried to rein in Trump's worst impulses, including the retired generals John Kelly, H.R. McMaster and Jim Mattis, who at least prevented him from starting a nuclear war or provoking another global catastrophe. But for the most part these "adults in the room" remained silent both during and after their time in Trump's administration, and did not act to remove him from office or aid in his impeachment.

There were opportunists, who for personal or political reasons (or both), found ways to advance their own agendas through Trump's malfeasance. They may have personally disliked or even detested Trump but, in the end, he was a valuable means to an end.

There were people with books to sell and other ways to cash in on their privileged access to Trump, often by hoarding the secrets about his misconduct that they had accumulated.

Miles Taylor, who worked as chief of staff to former Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, was one of the few members of the Trump regime who attempted to resist from within. Under the name "Anonymous," Taylor wrote the much-discussed 2018 New York Times op-ed "I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration," in which he warned the American people and the world about the great danger that Trump represented. Taylor also sought to reassure onlookers that there were rational patriots within that unhinged regime, doing their utmost to control Trump's worst inclinations.

One can debate the morality of Taylor's choice to remain inside the Trump regime as a truth-teller and human guardrail, but there can be no question he has paid a price, becoming a major enemy for Trump and his loyal supporters. Taylor has also been maligned by many in the political class and the media, as well as liberals and progressives, because he did not resign, make himself public and reveal what he knew.

Taylor later wrote the book "A Warning," still as "Anonymous," before later revealing his identity. His op-ed "Inside the fight for the GOP's soul" was recently featured in the Deseret News.

In this interview, to be published by Salon in two parts, Taylor discusses the threats that he and other former members of the Trump regime have endured for speaking out, and what this reveals about America's worsening democracy crisis. He also reflects on his initial decision to join the Trump administration, in hopes of goal of bringing some level of professionalism to what he and others knew would be a volatile and dangerous presidency.

Later in this conversation, Taylor explains his views of that the events of Jan. 6, which he says were utterly predictable, adding that senior officials in the Trump administration and the Republican Party's leadership knew all along that such a destructive outcome was more likely than not....

tells 1st 4 to ~ subpoenas

jeff b clark

Stone writes, "The Senate report provided new details about the secretive pressure tactics deployed by Trump and Clark to persuade Rosen to accede to their schemes to help nullify Biden's win, even after Trump staunch ally, attorney general William Barr, publicly stated on 1 December that the election results were not marred by fraud that 'could have effected a different outcome in the election'."

https://www.alternet.org/2021/10/internet-explodes-with-reactions-to-bombshell-senate-judiciary-report-on-trumps-efforts-to-pressure-doj-into-helping-him-overturn-the-election/

kos an 11 21

As Donald Trump has consolidated power in the Republican Party this year, his slow-but-steady takeover has sometimes masked the overwhelming creep of extremism into every corner of the Republican Party.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's embrace of Herschel Walker this week as the establishment pick to win back Georgia's Senate seat is a perfect example.

On the one hand, McConnell's cowardly cave to Trump's chosen candidate is such a laughable outcome for a guy who's hailed as a "master tactician" and repeatedly told reporters that his only red line for candidates was electability. While Walker is potentially electable in today's Republican Party, his open struggle with mental illness and alleged history of abusing women makes him a wounded candidate right out the gate. Whatever Walker's upsides might be, he isn't who you pick if ensuring electoral success is truly your North Star.

Lurking just one layer beneath McConnell's acquiescence to Trump's demands is the unmistakable surrender of the establishment wing of the GOP to Trump. He is 100% calling the shots now about the Grand Old Party's future, and there's no pretending otherwise.

And as the Republican establishment bows to Trump, his manifest dominance of the party has also convinced candidates running for critical seats that no amount of personal baggage is prohibitive. In fact, men with violent histories are flocking to Republican primaries, often earning Trump's endorsement. That is the case not only for Walker, but also Sean Parnell, an Army veteran running for Pennsylvania's open Senate seat. Parnell, who won Trump's early backing partly by pushing a fraudit of the Keystone State's 2020 election results, is in the middle of a contentious divorce and custody battle over his three children. Parnell's estranged wife once called 911 during a domestic dispute, and also secured two temporary protective orders against him as their marriage crumbled. According to the **Pittsburgh Post-Gazette**, temporary orders only require a hearing with the accuser; making them permanent would have required a judge to hear from both parties, which never happened.

But now Senate Republicans are in the position of potentially fielding two Trump acolytes, each with a mountain of personal baggage that hasn't even been fully mined, in two seats that will surely play a role in deciding the fate of the upper chamber.

Trump also might play an outsized role in mucking up the reelection of a man he despises: Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp. This week, we learned that former GOP Sen. David Perdue, who Trump campaigned for in the run up to the state's January runoffs, might mount a primary challenge to Kemp. Trump would love nothing more than to knock off Kemp, who he blames for not overturning the state's 2020 election results.

Perdue's potential entrance is already radicalizing the race on the Republican side and will surely continue to do so.On Friday, Kemp announced that Georgia was suing President Joe Biden over his vaccine mandate for federal contractors. It's a clear bid to cater to Trump's fringe anti-mitigation, pro-pandemic base—setting up a telling trajectory for a Kemp-Purdue primary that could hamstring Republicans in the general election. On top of that, if Perdue does enter the gubernatorial race, he will lean heavily on the support of Trump, who will spend his every waking breath grousing about 2020 and the supposedly stolen election in Georgia. The net effect would be months of Trump constantly reminding his voters that Georgia elections aren't secure, and that their vote may not even matter in the end. That's on top of the fact that Trump voters already decided to stay home the last time Perdue was on the ballot.

Beyond Trump's impact at the federal and state level, his toxicity is also permeating local elections. Buzzfeed News reports that at least a dozen Republicans who attended Trump's Jan. 6 festivities at the Capitol are on the ballot for next week's elections. They include incumbent state lawmakers, first-time candidates for statehouses, and local officials—mostly running in New Jersey and Virginia, which have off-year elections. But that also suggests that the number of Jan. 6 participants running for office this year might just be the tip of the iceberg.

All of this information is just more evidence pointing to the fact that, whether or not Republicans take over congressional majorities next year, the party itself will be uniquely radicalized with an even more profound Trump bent following the midterms.

omfg

https://www.democracynow.org/2021/9/28/cia_julian_assange_assassination_plot

yahoo isikoff

did the CIAunder the Trump administration plan to kidnap and assassinate WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange during a shootout in London? That is one of the explosive findings in a new exposé by Yahoo News that details how the CIA considered abducting and possibly murdering Assange while he took refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to avoid being extradited to Sweden for rape allegations, charges that were dropped in 2017. More than 30 former officials say formerCIADirector Mike Pompeo was apparently motivated to get even with WikiLeaks following its publication of sensitive CIA hacking tools, which the agency considered “the largest data loss in CIA history.” Michael Isikoff, chief investigative correspondent for Yahoo News, lays out the plans and describes how the abduction plan “was one of the most contentious intelligence debates of the entire Trump era,” noting it ultimately spurred the Justice Department to fast-track its legal case against Assange. We also speak with Assange’s legal adviser Jennifer Robinson, who says the latest revelations should alarm American citizens, as well as journalists around the world. “This is the CIA talking about conspiracy to kidnap and murder an Australian citizen and an award-winning journalist and editor who has done nothing but publish truthful information.”

https://www.alternet.org/2021/09/eastman-memo/

By now, you've read about John Eastman's secret memo outlining six points by which he believed the vice president could overturn the results of the 2020 election on January 6.I defer to legal scholars to explain the memo's legal absurdities. I defer to political scientists to explain why the memo represents forces threatening our republic.

What I want to suggest is so plain I'm surprised that no one else has asked: isn't this evidence of a conspiracy to commit a high crime?

News of Eastman's memo put the debate over democracy reform into overdrive. The hope has been that the Democrats in the United States Congress, especially Senate moderates, will see the light. They must kill off, or seriously change, the filibuster in order to pass election laws that would not only reach or surpass the 1965 Voting Rights Act but also prevent a political party from pulling off a coup in broad daylight.

While the Eastman memo should, for obvious reasons, put that debate into overdrive, I'm wondering if we're misplacing our hopes. It's not that I think the filibuster is good. It needs to go. It's not that I think new election laws would be bad. We need more, in a hurry. It's that laws require enforcement, and enforcement of the law is pretty much the only thing that's going to stop people who have no respect for democracy, principle, the Constitution, tradition or anything else. Without equal treatment under law, in the form of prosecution, I don't see why new laws would stop people who hold themselves above it.

We really need to acknowledge the elephant in the room before we pin our hopes for democracy on changing a Senate rule. We really need to acknowledge the reason it's possible, in a rule-of-law country, for powerful and power-hungry people to hold themselves above the law. The reason is so obvious as to be invisible, and because it's invisible few people are talking about it right now. It's because powerful and power-hungry people are in fact above the law. "No one is above the law"? Pish. Anyone with senses, and sense, can see that's not true.

News of the Eastman memo only adds to what we already know. According to CNN, the plan was for Vice President Mike Pence to throw out "the results in seven states because they allegedly had competing electors. In fact, no state had actually put forward an alternate slate of electors — there were merely Trump allies claiming without any authority to be electors." That didn't matter, though:

Pence would have declared Trump the winner with more Electoral College votes after the seven states were thrown out, at 232 votes to 222. Anticipating "howls" from Democrats protesting the overturning of the election, the memo proposes, Pence wouldinstead say that no candidate had reached 270 votes in the Electoral College. That would throw the election to the House of Representatives, where each state would get one vote. Since Republicans controlled 26 state delegations, a majority could vote for Trump to win the election.

Two important points. One is about recognizing competing slates of electors when there were none. New laws in Georgia, Texas and other states now fill in what was missing in Eastman's memo. They allow for GOP-controlled legislatures to overrule election officials. They make room for assigning competing slate of electors when outcomes are undesirable. A future vice president might do what Mike Pence didn't.

My other point is about the impression made by CNN's reporting, and by the new book all this news comes from by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa — that Donald Trump's GOP allies believed the US Constitution forbade a vice president from recognizing competing slates of electors. The impression is of a founding document that sets the rules. "You might as well make your case to Queen Elizabeth II," Mike Lee reportedly said. "Congress can't do this. You're wasting your time." That's a dangerous impression to have in a rule-of-law country in which powerful and power-hungry people are in fact above it.

The Constitution is many things, but a set of unbreakable rules isn't one of them. It is whatever powerful and power-hungry people want it to be, when they want it to be and why. I don't know why Lee, Lindsay Graham and other high-profile Republicans were not all-in on the Eastman memo, but I do know the Constitution didn't stop them. I am confident, and you should be confident, that if they had reason to believe they could get away with it, they'd have found a way to make a coup by a political party in broad daylight seem "constitutional."

The Eastman memo is putting debate over democracy reform into overdrive. Fine and dandy. But the memo is also why we shouldn't pin our hopes on democracy reform. The incentives to cheat, steal, lie and otherwise commit treason in the pursuit of raw political power will be with us long after we've made all our dreams come true with the death of the filibuster. New laws won't take away corrupt incentives. The only way to do that is prosecuting the laws we already have. The only way to do that is prosecuting the principle of equal treatment under law so that powerful and power-hungry people are not in fact above it.

The Eastman memo is evidence of a conspiracy — a GOP conspiracy — to commit a high crime. And yet no one is being held accountable. No one will be held accountable as long as the Department of Justice is soft on high crime. Amid such lawlessness, why not give treason another go? By then, perhaps Lee, Graham and others will have found what they need to make a coup in broad daylight seem "constitutional."

trump org many subpoenas 921

Astounding claims about former President Donald Trump are being highlighted in Bob Woodward and Robert Costa's new book, "Peril." Here are five of the most shocking revelations from the book.

1. Trump was angry with Paul Ryan for criticizing protestors in Charlottesville because "these are my people."

According to "Peril," as reported by HuffPost, the former president was not pleased when Ryan spoke out against white supremacy after the "Unite the Right" rally that took place in Charlottesville, Va., back in 2017.

At the time, Ryan described white supremacy as "repulsive" after Trump suggested there were good people on "both sides." Ryan also insisted that Trump had "a moral leadership obligation to get this right and not declare there is a moral equivalency here."

A furious Trump reportedly phoned Ryan and chastised him for not being "in the foxhole" with him.

"These people love me. These are my people," Trump reportedly told Ryan. "I can't backstab the people who support me."

2. Trump's claim that there were good people "on both sides" was fueled by "Unite the Right" rally goers' overwhelming support of him.

At one point during his call with Ryan, he admitted that there were "some bad people," but because of their support for him, many of them were also "good people."

"I get that. I'm not for that. I'm against all that," Trump reportedly said. "But there's some of those people who are for me. Some of them are good people."

3. General Mark Milley had defense officials take a secret oath when Trump became too unpredictable following the Capitol riots.

General Mark Milley had great concerns about Trump's mental health following the insurrection on the U.S. Capitol. In fact, he was so concerned about the president's impulsiveness that he secretly had top defense officials take a private oath. They were to report to him first if Trump ordered them to launch nukes.

"No matter what you are told, you do the procedure. You do the process. And I'm part of that procedure," Milley told the officers, according to the book. The top-ranking military advisor is also said said have "went around the room, looked each officer in the eye, and asked them to verbally confirm they understood."

4. Trump threw tantrum when Pence refused to help him overturn the presidential election.

According to the book, Trump reached an unprecedented point of desperation when he wanted former Vice President Mike Pence to aide him in his effort to overturn the election. According to Vanity Fair, Woodard and Costa detailed one encounter where Trump whined and told Pence they wouldn't be friends anymore if he didn't participate.

After relentlessly pressuring Pence despite him having no real authority to do his bidding, Trump resorted to threats.

"You don't understand, Mike," Trump said. "You can do this. I don't want to be your friend anymore if you don't do this."

“If you don't do it, I picked the wrong man four years ago," adding, “You're going to wimp out."

5. Trump believed Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) betrayed him.

Trump was enraged when McCarthy condemned January 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol. According to Trump, it was the ultimate betrayal. The book sheds light on Trump's reaction to McCarthy's words.

"This guy called me every single day, pretended to be my best friend, and then, he f****d me," Mr Trump reportedly said of tthe top-ranking Republican lawmaker back in February. "He's not a good guy."

"Peril" Is set to be released on September 21.

MELANINA COS WANTED 1/6 TWT SHE SAID "NO"

Absolutely terrifying': CNN's Jake Tapper reacts in horror to new revelations about Trump and Capitol riots

Brad Reed Raw Story

September 15, 2021

CNN host Jake Tapper on Tuesday reacted with horror after reporter Jamie Gangel broke down new details from the new bombshell book by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Robert Costa...

https://www.alternet.org/2021/09/steve-bannon/

dart kos

on Wednesday evening made an excellent point: While Democrats and the Biden administration focus on the mundane aspects of trying to do what's best for the American people—passing infrastructure legislation, preserving and protecting the right to vote against GOP measures to suppress it, combating the causes and effects of climate change, and trying to ensure that women retain autonomy over their own bodies, for example—for Republicans, even addressing or staking out a position on these issues has become, at most, a peripheral concern.[wedge issue cult war, own the libs]

You would expect a party that professes some legitimate relationship to the American people to at least set forth its policy views on these matters. But, as Maddow noted on Wednesday, that is not what Republicans are talking about. In reality, the Republicans have only one focus now: the negation of fair and lawful elections that don't go their way. That has been the crux of their entire collective effort since Trump lost the election last November. It is the focus in California, where the racist Fox News crackpot Larry Elder apparently received unpleasant news from his internal polling and is now playing the "fraud" card, in the apparent expectation that he will lose that state's recall election against Gavin Newsom. It is happening in Nevada, where Trump-endorsed candidate Adam Laxalt has preemptively suggestedthat if he fails to unseat Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto in 2022, it will only be due to some unspecified "fraud."

The "stolen election/voter fraud" theme is now the official GOP talking point. As Maddow observed, Republicans everywhere are now using it and will continue to use it in 2022 and beyond. The tactic is being chiefly promoted and driven by Steve Bannon, Donald Trump's former chief of staff, and reinforced through his daily podcasts, which, like NBC News, ProPublica and others have pointed out, are now virtually required listening for most Republican officials, whether elected or intent on being elected. This is where their marching orders are coming from.

While Bannon's podcasts touch obliquely on current events (the latest fixation of their contrived outrage is Afghanistan, for example), the overwhelming emphasis is on conjuring up and amplifying the phony threat of "election fraud," urging on the nationwide bogus, partisan audits and investigations, and providing preordained conclusions to those investigations. As Pro Publica reported in their analysis of Bannon's efforts, this nationalization of Trump's Big Lie has been extraordinarily successful up to this point, prompting a massive surge in local election precinct membership among Trump's most delusional, violent, and white nationalist base of support:

The new movement is built entirely around Trump's insistence that the electoral system failed in 2020 and that Republicans can't let it happen again. The result is a nationwide groundswell of party activists whose central goal is not merely to win elections but to reshape their machinery.

Bannon's podcast is a disinformation megaphone the likes of which Josef Goebbels could have only dreamed of, and it is incredibly corrosive to this country's democratic institutions. It is the cynical product of a man who has exercised (or attempted to exercise) an insidious influencenot only on far-right, proto-fascist movements and political parties in Europe but now apparently in Brazil as well, on behalf of would-be dictator Jair Bolsonaro. And the fact that the entire GOP is currently operating in lockstep with—and at the bidding of—such a person tells you everything you need to know about how the 2022 election will be framed: Every contest in which a Republican loses will now be susceptible to an ongoing, malicious attack on that election's integrity, bar none.

And Democrats have every reason to be appalled by this Bannon takeover of the Republican party. (In reality, all Americans should be appalled, but as the listless reaction by the GOP faithful to the terrorist assault of Jan. 6 showed, we cannot expect any fealty to democracy from the vast majority of Republicans.)But there is a silver lining to this seditious perfidy by Bannon and others: it serves to make all forthcoming elections a referendum on Donald Trump, to the exclusion of all else.

Bannon himself has created this effect by tying his entire effort to the 2020 election. (In his podcasts, rather than refer to it directly, he calls it "3 November," as if the bare mention of the date has a mobilizing resonance similar to Jan. 6 or Sept. 11.) All of the invented, phony, and racially tinged rhetoric about voter fraud hawked in his podcasts stem from the given assumption that Trump was wrongfully denied reelection. And Trump himself has been more than eager to support it, as he showed this weekby injecting his assessment of the California recall election as tainted, even before any votes were tallied. Trump's anointed candidates, such as Laxalt and the countless others who will follow him, have all irrevocably signed onto this playbook. That is their sole roadmap.

So be it. Just a few weeks ago, plenty of political prognosticators weregleefully downplaying Democrats' chances in California (and, by implication, the 2022 midterms), touting the fact that Trump was no longer on the ballot. Republicans, by leaping onto the Bannon bandwagon, have now made it essential that he be implicitly on the ballot, even as they resolve to delegitimize any Democratic wins as the product of fraud. Seen in this perspective, every election from this point forward is a referendum on Trump and Trump-ism. Fascist-admirers like Bannon believe that this is a winning strategy, but to an electorate that has already rendered a decidedly negative verdict on Joe Biden's predecessor—a judgment which was amply reinforced by the horrific attacks by Trump supporters on Jan. 6—he may have inadvertently provided the single strongest motivation for Democrats to vote.

When Georgia held its special election on Jan. 5, pitting Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff against two GOP incumbents, it was in the wake of weeks of rhetoric from Trump attempting to delegitimize the electoral process. At that time, Trump's mob of white supremacist terrorists had yet to demonstrate their violent and utter contempt for our institutions by assaulting the Capitol. Many political observers concluded that Trump's efforts sabotaged the GOP's chances by depressing and demotivating the vote. But the converse effect, theconcerted mobilization of the Black vote by Stacey Abrams and others, was perhaps less remarked upon. Far from having its desired effect, the tactic of falsely crying voter fraud hurt GOP turnout.

The entire underlying premise of Bannon's podcast is the illegitimacy of the Democratic voter. But as the elections of Sens. Warnock and Ossoff showed, people react very negatively to attempts to delegitimize them. For many, it simply increases their resolve to vote. While every district is certainly different, if Republicans expect the tactic to work as a national strategy, they have to resign themselves to the fact that the election thereby becomes all about Trump, everything that Trump did in office and has done in the wake of his defeat. Gov. Terry McAuliffe, for example, isdoing just that in Virginia right now.

Trump is the most polarizing figure in American politics, and by and large, all Democrats viscerally despise him. By overtly basing their entire strategy on the petulant lies of a failed president, Republicans who choose to follow down the primrose path Bannon has laid for them may well be giving the Democrats a midterm opportunity of a lifetime.

Democrats should embrace that opportunity: make every election a referendum on Donald Trump, tying every Republican to his attempts to overturn the election. And pull out all the stops to get our voters to the polls.

sued by capitol cops 1/6

booed at rally for suggest vax?!

no lnx

Travis Gettys and Raw Story August 26, 2021

Newly revealed records show Donald Trump likely broke the law by issuing a campaign donation to the Florida attorney general investigating his fraudulent university.

The Trump Foundation issued a $25,000 check in 2013 personally signed by the real estate mogul and reality TV star to a political action committee associated with Pam Bondi's re-election campaign, and The Daily Beast obtained new records that dispute Trump Organization denials made when the donation became an issue during the 2016 campaign.

"It kind of blows up their whole story," said Jordan Libowitz, communications director for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. "The Trump Organization staffers knew they were making this political donation. There are no questions about it. There is no ambiguity."

Libowitiz, whose watchdog group filed the complaint that exposed the scandal, called the evidence "a smoking gun," and the records show Trump Organization employees were explicitly told the donation was made to a political group -- which goes against claims made by chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, campaign officials and Trump Foundation executives.

"I probably didn't know at that time that we probably shouldn't be using foundation funds for this type of thing," said Trump Organization accountant Jeff McConney during a 2017 interview with investigators from the New York attorney general's office. "We made a mistake."

But an email from Aug. 28, 2013, shows Bondi's campaign finance director Deborah Ramsey Aleksander provided the name and federal tax identification number for the "And Justice for All" PAC, which she described as an ECO, or "electioneering communications organization, to Trump's longtime executive assistant Rhona Graff.

"Again, it was a pleasure meeting you today!!! Thanks again for always being so responsive and wonderful to work with." Aleksander wrote to Graff. "Let Mr. Trump know that we are SO VERY thankful for his commitment of 25k and If he wants to make it 50k, that's perfectly acceptable. :) Seriously, thanks again for everything!!!"

Aleksander provided Graff with a copy of the PAC's W-9 form, which lists the group's "federal tax classification" as a "political organization," in a follow-up email on Sept. 11, 2013, and two days later Trump himself sent Bondi a check with a signed letter that misspelled her name and told her "you are the greatest!"

The signed check was issued from The Donald J. Trump Foundation, Inc., in likely violation of Section 501(c)(3) of U.S. tax code, which prohibits political donations by tax-exempt charities.

The Trump Foundation was eventually dissolved after the New York attorney general's office found a "shocking pattern of illegality" and the Trump Organization and Weisselberg were indicted this summer for criminal tax fraud, while Bondi, who reportedly tried to return the donation after it was revealed, never did investigate Trump University, which settled three fraud lawsuits for $25 million in November 2016.

Bondi joined Trump's impeachment defense team shortly after leaving office in 2019.

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i'm neglected rumors of legal, tho swalwell 2nd to sue under KKK law?

see coup milley nunes wackos

7/26/21 still says he'll be back in WH

rnc pulls pages on boast about afghan deal?

top Taliban leaders are among the 5000 that Trump released last year over everyone's objections [when screwed kurds?]

SemDem Daily Kos

August 16, 2021

One year ago, the Donald released 5000 Taliban fighters in exchange for a cease-fire to help his flailing presidential campaign, despite strenuous objections from both the Pentagon and the Afghan government...

jun 2020 2x?

Trump was harshly criticized on Friday after a bombshell *New York Times* report on Russia offering bounties for the killing of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

“American intelligence officials have concluded that a Russian military intelligence unit secretly offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants for killing coalition forces in Afghanistan — including targeting American troops — amid the peace talks to end the long-running war there,” the newspaper reported,” the newspaper reported.

“The intelligence finding was briefed to President Trump, and the White House’s National Security Council discussed the problem at an interagency meeting in late March, the officials said. Officials developed a menu of potential options — starting with making a diplomatic complaint to Moscow and a demand that it stop, along with an escalating series of sanctions and other possible responses, but the White House has yet to authorize any step, the officials said,” the newspaper explained. “Any involvement with the Taliban that resulted in the deaths of American troops would also be a huge escalation of Russia’s so-called hybrid war against the United States, a strategy of destabilizing adversaries through a combination of such tactics as cyberattacks, the spread of fake news and covert and deniable military operations.”

Here’s some of what people were saying about the scandal:...

here's why it was so easy for Trump to sucker Americans into his cult

Tom Boggioni Raw Story

July 26, 2021

In his column for the Daily Beast, conservative commentator Matt Lewis made a case that Donald Trump's rise was the inevitable result of a country that has become filled with lonely people who have lost ....

https://www.alternet.org/2021/07/trump-on-blm/

only regret no mil ~

trump PAC 75M but no $ for auduit BS, just grft for travel etc?

https://www.alternet.org/2021/07/putin--trump-kremlin-documents/

Joe Biden may be president, but in too many ways the Age of Trump marches on. American political and civic life continues to resemble a spy thriller, a horror movie or a science fiction dystopia that keeps spawning sequels. Most Americans want to escape the theater, but the doors are locked. Those who remain in their seats love these movies and can't get enough of their charismatic star.

The ending of this saga has been obvious since the beginning: Donald Trump is a malevolent force, with no loyalty to the United States and its people; yet his followers worship him as a god and nothing can tear them away from the cult.

Almost every day there are new plot twists. As reported last week, the highest-ranking officers and civilian leaders of the U.S. military were concerned that Trump might try to stage a military coup after his defeat in the 2020 presidential election. Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, considered a plan to resist such a move through mass resignations, a last-ditch effort to save democracy.

As detailed in Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker's new book "I Alone Can Fix It," Trump became so enraged after losing to Joe Biden that some feared he would stage a "Reichstag fire" incident, in the mode of Adolf Hitler, that might allow him to seize absolute power. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi even asked Milley to ensure that Trump would not launch a nuclear attack and use the ensuing crisis as an excuse to suspend the Constitution and remain in power.

More "revelations" have followed: Last Thursday the Guardian reported that it had obtained classified documents from a 2016 meeting where the Russian government launched its secret campaign in support of Trump:

Vladimir Putin personally authorised a secret spy agency operation to support a "mentally unstable" Donald Trump in the 2016 US presidential election during a closed session of Russia's national security council, according to what are assessed to be leaked Kremlin documents.

The key meeting took place on22 January 2016, the papers suggest, with the Russian president, his spy chiefs and senior ministers all present.

They agreed a Trump White House would help secure Moscow's strategic objectives, among them "social turmoil" in the US and a weakening of the American president's negotiating position.

Russia's three spy agencies were ordered to find practical ways to support Trump, in a decree appearing to bear Putin's signature.

Western intelligence agencies are understood to have been aware of the documents for some months and to have carefully examined them. The papers, seen by the Guardian, seem to represent a serious and highly unusual leak from within the Kremlin.

The Guardian has shown the documents to independent experts who say they appear to be genuine. Incidental details come across as accurate. The overall tone and thrust is said to be consistent with Kremlin security thinking.

At this purported Kremlin meeting, Putin and the Russian intelligence services concluded that Trump could be easily manipulated to serve Russia's strategic goals because he is an "impulsive, mentally unstable and unbalanced individual who suffers from an inferiority complex." This document concludes, "It is acutely necessary to use all possible force to facilitate [Trump's] election to the post of US president."

The Guardian further concludes that the Kremlin's internal report was likely the work of Vladimir Symonenko, a senior Kremlin official who "provides Putin with analytical material and reports, some of them based on foreign intelligence." He discussed various "American weaknesses" Russian agents could exploit, including "a 'deepening political gulf between left and right," the U.S. 'media-information' space, and an anti-establishment mood under President Barack Obama."

The Guardian report has been met with considerable skepticism, some of it from the usual suspects who continue to claim — despite an abundance of known and proven facts — that the scandal sometimes dubbed "Russiagate" was all a hoax, or at least grossly exaggerated. But it's also fair to say that some respected national security experts are suspicious about the timing of the Guardian story, and the authenticity and provenance of the documents in question.

But other national security and intelligence experts believe the Guardian story is true and the Kremlin documents are authentic. Robert Baer, a former CIA case officer and author of several bestselling books who serves as an intelligence and security analyst for CNN, believes the Kremlin document is legitimate and was likely leaked to the Guardian by British intelligence.

In a recent conversation with journalist Ian Masters, Baer said that Donald Trump may indeed have served as a "useful idiot" on behalf of Russian interests, sent into the heart of American democracy as a "Trojan horse to cause problems." He suggests that Russian intelligence used the technique of "framing a guilty man" to muddy the waters around Trump and make him a more effective chaos agent.

Writing at Esquire, Charles Pierce explains how he reconciles concerns about the veracity of the Kremlin papers:

Are experts within the Western intelligence agencies divided about the authenticity of the documents, and did someone who believes them to be the smoking gun leak them in order to force the action? I'd certainly want to know more about their provenance than I do now.

Frankly, my impulse is to believe what The Guardian reported. The revelations certainly seem believable given some of the otherwise inexplicable actions of the previous president* and his administration*, and they also conform to the methods of ratfcking Russia has used in other democracies in Europe. (What up, Estonia?) And they also track with what we've learned recently about the former president*'s rabid-badger attempts to stay in power after he'd clearly lost the election — and, for that matter, his continued attempts to undermine confidence in this country's electoral system.

But my innate caution against leaping to conclusions based on leaks from intelligence services of any kind makes me cautious about this being a conclusive Eureka moment. Too many shadowy people have too many shadowy agendas for me to accept anything emerging from those shadows too readily. But there is one conclusion I will stand by, based on the Guardian story and its conformity to what a lot of us suspected was true about the previous president*: We simply have got to get rid of the Electoral College. Now.

Whatever one concludes about the authenticity of these Kremlin papers, one conclusion is obvious: Their observations about Donald Trump, and about the vulnerability of American society to disinformation and subversion, are correct.

Both Robert Mueller's report and the Senate Intelligence Committee's report on the 2016 election (the latter completed under Republican leadership) have conclusively shown that Russia interfered to help Donald Trump win as a way of advancing its strategic goals. Moreover, it is a matter of public record that Trump's inner circle included at least one Russian agent.

At almost every key juncture in his presidency, Trump made decisions that advanced Russia's interests to the disadvantage of the United States. In both public and private, he was strikingly submissive and deferential to Putin. Whether that reflects blackmail and control, or simply hero worship and admiration, is an unsettled question.

Even members of Trump's administration and Republican elected officials questioned his loyalty to the country, especially after the astonishing Helsinki summit of 2018.

In the end, Russia's strategy would prove to be brilliant:Trump left the White House with the U.S. a weakened world power, gripped by a plague that has killed at least 600,000 people, along with a neofascist insurgency that shows no signs of dying out. Right-wing terrorism and other violence is escalating, and the nation has become irreparably polarizedby the increasing radicalism of Republicans and the right.

In recent weeks I have reflected a great deal on my 2019 conversation with the late Dr. Jerrold Post, the founding director of the CIA's Center for the Analysis of Personality and Political Behavior. In Post's long and distinguished career, he served as the CIA's head psychological profiler under five presidents of both political parties. He described Donald Trump this way:

If one were to subtract from the ranks of political leaders all those with significant narcissistic personality features, the ranks would be perilously impoverished. I see Donald Trump as representing the quintessential narcissist. Using that phrase, though, is not to make a diagnosis, but to say he has a preponderance of these traits. Someone such as Donald Trump with that trait has no capacity to empathize with others, no constraints of conscience. Donald Trump also demonstrates a paranoid orientation. Whenever anything goes wrong, there is someone to blame.

There is also unconstrained aggression. This is very important. Never apologize, never admit you're wrong. That is part of Donald Trump's political style. But negotiating foreign policy is different from negotiating how to buy a skyscraper. Donald Trump also shows through his behavior a deep underlying insecurity. His grandiosity aside, Donald Trump is extremely fragile, and that trait is associated with extreme sensitivity.

Post also warned, nearly two years before it happened, that Donald Trump was unlikely to leave office peacefully:

In the last chapter of my new book I quote one of my favorite poems, which is, "Do not go gentle into that good night, but rage, rage at the dying of the light." I do not believe that Donald Trump will go gentle into that good night. In a close election, there is a very real hazard in terms of both potential outcomes. Should Trump win, as he did in 2016, he will make it a much bigger win and talking about the fraudulent election support on the Democratic side. But should Trump lose narrowly, I think we can be assured that he will not concede early. Trump may not even recognize the legitimacy of the election.

How will the American people deal with these continuous "revelations" about Trump and his regime? To this point, the response seems to be impotent rage. Because Trump and his inner circle are almost entirely rich white men, they will face no serious punishment for their crimes and other wrongdoing. Many Americans feel justifiable rage about a system which has one set of rules and laws for the rich and powerful (who are white) and another set for everyone else.

America is not just experiencing a democracy crisis caused by the Trump movement and the Jim Crow Republicans. The problem goes much deeper: America's political and social institutions are experiencing a legitimacy crisis, in which Trumpism is one symptom of a much larger disease.

The American people must decide whether their rage can be turned to productive or regenerative possibilities, or whether they continue to live in a state of learned helplessness, shrugging their shoulders as even more of the Trump regime's crimes are revealed. On that decision rests the future of democracy.

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an 721 me

While it may appear that Facebook mogul Mark Zuckerberg and former President Donald Trump are often on completely different sides of the fence given the former president's loathing of Big Tech, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd has highlighted a similarity between the two: their "hoary tradition" of "outfoxing history."

As a flurry of new tell-all books are being released, Dowd has managed to connect interesting dots between two of the forthcoming books. In her op-ed piece published by The Times, Dowd outlined the similar professional doctrines that have existed at both the White House and Facebook.

Using the book, "An Ugly Truth: Inside Facebook's Battle for Domination," she noted how New York Times writers Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang detailed the unspoken understanding among those at Facebook.

"Don't bring the boss bad news or push back. Exercise willful blindness about the disaster around the corner, and then, once it arrives, manage it badly," Dowd wrote, adding, "Put the syndicate over democracy. Blame others for your mistakes, especially the unfair media. Present yourself as doing good for the world when you're doing bad."

While Facebook is thousands of miles away from Washington, D.C., Dowd noted that the Trump White House operated along the same lines. In the new, highly publicized book, "I Alone Can Fix It," Washington Post reporters Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig explained how Trump also operated in a similar fashion. However, Trump's level of deflecting and control reached new heights when it came to the presidential election.

According to Rucker and Leonnig, even Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump "had become increasingly uncomfortable with efforts to overturn the election results." In fact, she even expressed concern about her father's persistence in pressuring former Vice President Mike Pence to do his bidding.

It would likely be optimistic to think should behavior would wane as time progresses, that does not appear to be the case here.

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waiting for confirm; other stories just daid trump wd weaken US, so win win

https://www.alternet.org/2021/07/kremlin-and-trump/

no lnx

'Beyond Putin's wildest dreams': Kremlin's backing of Trump had goal to 'alter mass consciousness in certain groups'

Alex Henderson July 15, 2021

A leaked document obtained by the Guardian indicates that the Kremlin ordered its spying agencies to back Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential election.

During a closed January 22, 2016 national security session in Russia, according to the document, Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized a spying agency to back the "mentally unstable" Trump for president of the United States.

The document reads, "It is acutely necessary to use all possible force to facilitate his election to the post of U.S. president."

According to Guardian reporters Luke Harding, Julian Borger and Dan Sabbagh, "The key meeting took place on 22 January 2016, the papers suggest, with the Russian president, his spy chiefs and senior ministers all present. They agreed a Trump White House would help secure Moscow's strategic objectives, among them 'social turmoil' in the U.S. and a weakening of the American president's negotiating position. Russia's three spy agencies were ordered to find practical ways to support Trump, in a decree appearing to bear Putin's signature."

Never Trump conservative George Conway tweeted:

Here are some reactions to the Guardian's reporting.

an 721 loser-palooza

Saturday in Ohio, former President Donald Trump held his first major MAGA rally since leaving office on January 20. Politico reporter Meridith McGraw analyzes that Ohio event in an article published this week, stressing that it had a darker tone than the MAGA events that preceded the Biden era — and underscored the sense of "grievance" and bitterness that Trump's supporters continue to feel five months into Joe Biden's presidency.

McGraw, describing the Ohio rally as "a cross between a NASCAR tailgate and a traveling circus," explains, "There was a familiarity to it all. The chants of 'Four more years!' and 'Lock him Up!' — this time, aimed at infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci instead of former campaign rival Hillary Clinton. The recitation of the sinister poem, 'The Snake'….. And yet, there were signs this rally was different."

The Politico reporter continues, "During past rallies, Trump's supporters applauded Trump as he trashed immigrants, demonized the media, and echoed his calls to lock up his opponents. But they also felt hopeful the real estate magnate was giving them a voice. There was a sense that this charismatic outsider would empower them to change Washington, and a joyfulness that came with being part of a movement. Now, they felt cheated. 'WE THE PEOPLE ARE PISSED OFF,' one popular rally t-shirt read. Their champion was no longer in office."

McGraw notes thatsome of Trump's most controversial supporters were at the rally, including MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia. And the Biden-era MAGA event, according to McGraw, had an overall "sense of desperation" that was expressed "even" by "Trump himself."

"In all, Trump spoke for more than 95 minutes, and after the rally was over, supporters marched back to their cars," McGraw recalls. "In the distance, the bright lights of the rally that read 'SAVE AMERICA AGAIN" and a lit-up fairground french fries truck painted a dusky dreamscape redolent of Edward Hopper. 'Gloria,' the one-hit-wonder disco song about a woman driven to insanity because of a man, could be heard blaring from the speakers. 'Are the voices in your head calling, Gloria?' People sang along."

"Gloria," the song heard at Trump's Ohio rally, was a major hit for the late pop star Laura Branigan in 1982 and was an English-language remake of a tune that Italian singer Umberto Tozzi had originated in the late 1970s. While it's inaccurate to describe Branigan as a one-hit wonder (Branigan had several other major hits in the 1980s, including "Solitaire" in 1983 and "Self Control" in 1984), McGraw is spot on when she says that the use of "Gloria" underscores a mood of "desperation" among Trump supporters. Although President Biden's victory over Trump in the 2020 election was decisive and Trump's claims of widespread voter fraud have been repeatedly debunked, many of Trump's followers — as polls have demonstrated — still wrongly believe he was cheated and that, by extension, they were cheated as well.

"Trump's reemergence on the political scene is promising to spark a seismic disruption to America's political system bigger than the one he caused when he came down his gilded escalator six years ago," McGraw emphasizes. "Where once his supporters were hopeful, they now seemed aggrieved. The crowds are more frenzied, the conspiracies more fantastical, the cast of characters more outlandish."

One of the people McGraw interviewed at the rally was Ohio resident and Trump supporter Richard Stachurski. When McGraw asked him if he wanted Trump to run in 2024, Stachurski responded, "How do you run for president if you're already president?"

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see fake local newspaper star ntwk fredericks:

wapo

“Thank you and congratulations to Laura Baigert of the Georgia Star News on the incredible reporting you have done. Keep going! The scam is all unraveling fast.”

— Former president Donald Trump, in a statement, June 17

False and misleading claims that cast doubt on Georgia’s 2020 election results continue to pop up seven months after the vote, and Trump keeps promoting them.

We have a high bar for fact-checking the former president these days, but this claim about an election “scam” in the Atlanta area carries weight. The state launched an investigation based on the same reports Trump is referencing from a website called the Georgia Star News.

But there is no evidence of a scam unraveling in Georgia, only shoddy record-keeping by local election officials.

The Facts

Joe Biden unexpectedly won Georgia by 11,779 votes of about 5 million cast, according to a hand recount of the votes that was done as part of a risk-limiting audit and that was later confirmed by a second recount.

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, election officials authorized the use of ballot drop boxes by emergency rule. County officials had to fill out forms noting the date, time, location and number of ballots collected from each drop box.

The Georgia Star News, a pro-Trump publication,says it filed public-records requests with every county in the state, seeking the chain-of-custody forms that track the movements of all ballots deposited in drop boxes for the November election.

When Fulton County, the state’s most populous, responded to the request months later, the documents were incomplete. After several follow-up requests, Fulton County officials supplied 1,180 of 1,565 ballot transfer forms.

The missing forms accounted for 18,901 ballots, the Georgia Star News said. In a story June 14, the publication noted that 18,901 was “greater than the less than 12,000 vote margin of Biden’s certified victory in the state.” The same story quoted a Fulton County election official acknowledging that the request for records was not completed.

“We noticed that a few forms are missing, it seems when 25 plus core personnel were quarantined due to positive COVID-19 outbreak at the EPC [Elections Preparation Center], some procedural paperwork may have been misplaced,” Fulton County official Mariska Bodison told the Georgia Star News in an email on June 9.

The Georgia Star News said, “This is the first time that any election official at either the state or county level from a key battleground state has made an admission of significant error in election procedures for the November 3, 2020 election.”

Was it an admission of significant error? The county official said only that “a few forms” were missing.On June 16, two days after this story appeared online, the news organization Georgia Public Broadcasting said it had gotten ahold of almost all the missing records.[minus 8?]

“After GPB News asked the county Monday about the forms not included in the Georgia Star’s records request, elections staff locatedall but eight of the more than 1,500 forms, sent them to state investigators [raff? ] and provided them to GPB News on a flash drive,” the broadcaster reported, adding that “GPB News has obtained records for all 123 counties that used drop boxes, countering claims among some pro-Trump media outlets that there are more than 300,000 ballots’ worth of forms ‘missing’ statewide.”

By the time that fact check appeared, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) had announced his office would investigate the “revelations” from Fulton County.

“New revelations that Fulton County is unable to produce all ballot drop box transfer documents will be investigated thoroughly, as we have with other counties that failed to follow Georgia rules and regulations regarding drop boxes,” Raffensperger tweeted June 14 in response to the Georgia Star News story. “This cannot continue.”

When we asked whether Fulton County records were indeed missing, a spokesman for Raffensperger, Ari Schaffer, said: “The investigation is still ongoing. The investigation is of Fulton’s statement that they were missing forms, not any other claims made by the Georgia Star.”

After the state conducted a hand recount of its election results in November, Biden’s lead dropped from 12,670 to 11,779, apparently from a revision in Fulton County. The recount showed 880 fewer votes there.

Gabriel Sterling, a state elections official in Georgia, called the Fulton County discrepancy “a little worrisome” but said it was a big county with a history of managerial issues. He also noted the difference in vote totals was not enough to change the outcome in Georgia, according to the Associated Press.

Raffensperger has been critical of Fulton County’s election management and has suggested several changes, although he also has defended the integrity of the county’s vote results in 2020.

The county, covering much of metro Atlanta, was in short supply of trained poll workers last year and had long lines because of a shortage of voting machines, among other issues. An audit of Fulton County by a nonpartisan monitor appointed by the state elections board found “persistent chain of custody issues throughout the entire absentee ballot processing system” and blamed bad management.

The auditor said “the fact that ballots were being delivered to State Farm Arena in unsecured mail carts is very concerning. Protocol for securing ballots exists not only to protect the ballots themselves but also to ensure that no ballot box stuffing occurred.”

The auditor also reported: “From October to January, I spent nearly 270 hours at various locations observing every aspect of Fulton County’s election processes. At no time did I ever observe any conduct by Fulton County election officials that involved dishonesty, fraud, or intentional malfeasance. During my weeks of monitoring, I witnessed neither ‘ballot stuffing’ nor ‘double-counting’ nor any other fraudulent conduct that would undermine the validity, fairness, and accuracy of the results published and certified by Fulton County.”

Fulton County officials did not respond to a request for comment.

Raffensperger has ruled out Trump’s claims of election fraud in Georgia. Trump called the Republican secretary of state a “complete disaster” and falsely claimed his brother “works for China.” This year, Raffensperger is running for reelection and facing a primary challenge from Rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga.), a Trump ally.

The Georgia Star News has been publishing regular updates of how many counties have supplied chain-of-custody documents for their drop boxes, keeping up the pressure on those that delay, as we found in this fact check.

The Georgia secretary of state’s office issued a news release in April debunking the implication that something mysterious was taking place besides tardy replies to a publication.

Of the 123 counties that used drop boxes, “120 have confirmed they filled out and retained ballot transfer forms in accordance with Georgia rules,” the statement said. The other three counties, Coffee, Grady and Taylor, were referred for investigation.

The Pinocchio Test

Despite Trump’s latest claim, there is no evidence of an election “scam” unraveling in Georgia.

In response to a request for public records made by a pro-Trump website, Fulton County officials failed to supply all the forms that track the movements of ballots submitted by drop box.

A Fulton County official acknowledged that the chain-of-custody records it provided to the Georgia Star News were incomplete. Days later, Fulton County provided almost all the records to Georgia Public Broadcasting.

Sloppy? Yes. But shoddy record-keeping by itself does not constitute evidence of election fraud.

We will keep a close watch on developments in Raffensperger’s investigation, and it bears keeping in mind that Fulton County has a history of election management issues, including an audit that found problems with keeping chain-of-custody records for ballots in last year’s election at the same time that it affirmed election workers’ integrity.

For now, without evidence to justify accusations of an election “scam” in Fulton County, Trump earns Four Pinocchios.

Four Pinocchios

(About our rating scale)

see polar wedge issue cult war:

https://www.alternet.org/2021/06/how-ron-desantis-has-positioned-himself-as-a-leading-maga-culture-warrior-conservative/

although Florida is a swing state, Gov. Ron DeSantis has not governed as a moderate conservative like Maryland's Larry Hogan, Massachusetts' Charlie Baker or Vermont's Phil Scott. DeSantis has governed from the far right, making it abundantly clear that he is a Donald Trump loyalist through and through. Never Trump conservative Max Boot, in his June 22 column for the Washington Post, describes DeSantis as a strident culture warrior and lays out some of his possible political motivations for being so devoutly Trumpian.

"The winner of 'The Apprentice: Culture Warfare Edition,' so far, appears to be Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) of Trump's new home state of Florida," Boot explains. "He is setting himself up as Trump's running mate or successor byshowing a genius for appealing to every disreputable prejudice of the GOP base. This man knows how to outrage Democrats and therefore, delight Republicans."

Some of the Republicans who were scathing Trump critics when they ran against him in the 2016 presidential race are now afraid to say one word against him — Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, for example. The problem with Rubio and Cruz, Boot argues, is that they come across as less "authentic" than DeSantis.

"Former President Donald Trump is America's premier culture warrior," Boot observes. "No other modern politician has displayed as much talent at dividing Americans, peddling disinformation, demonizing minorities and exacerbating social problems. Many have tried to imitate him only to fall short because their performances were inauthentic and unconvincing. I'm looking at you, Marco Rubio; you, too, Ted Cruz."

In 2020's presidential race, Boot was among the anti-Trump conservatives who endorsed now-President Joe Biden over Trump — and he was highly critical of the Trumpified Republicans who turned the coronavirus pandemic into a culture war battle. DeSantis, according to Boot, was more concerned about playing the MAGA card than dealing with the deadly realities of COVID-19.

"Other governors saw the COVID-19 pandemic as a public health crisis," Boot observes. "DeSantis, following Trump's lead, saw it as an opportunity to score populist points with the base. He was one of 16 governors never to issue a statewide mask mandate, and he banned municipalities from punishing people who refused to follow local mask orders. In September 2020, even while the pandemic continued to rage, he allowed restaurants and other businesses to reopen at full capacity."

Boot continues, "Last month, he signed an executive order and legislation preventing businesses from insisting that customers be vaccinated. This caused a showdown with cruise lines that want to use "vaccine passports" to lure travelers. DeSantis acts as if mask mandates and vaccination passports — both sensible precautions — are actually 'Deep State' plots that must be resisted at all costs."

In Florida's 2018 gubernatorial race, the far-right DeSantis narrowly defeated the liberal Democratic nominee: former Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum. But as close as that race was, DeSantis hasn't reached out to Democrats in his state — and he is still playing the MAGA card at every turn.

"Now, as the pandemic fades, DeSantis is scoring points on other issues of concern only to the Trumpist base," Boot observes. "Appealing to Trump voters who think that the 2020 election was rigged, DeSantis went on Fox News to sign a bill making it harder to vote in Florida. DeSantis won't say if he thinks President Biden won legitimately. Appealing to right-wingers mad that Trump has been kicked off Twitter and Facebook, DeSantis signed legislation that would fine social media companies that suspend state or local candidates close to an election and make it easier to sue tech companies."

It remains to be seen whether or not Trump will run for president in 2024. DeSantis is being mentioned as a possible running mate if Trump runs — or as someone Trump is likely to endorse if he stays out of the race.

Whatever happens in 2024, Boot emphasizes, DeSantis is making sure that MAGA voters know how much of a Trump loyalist he is.

"Mask mandates, vaccine passports, voter fraud, tech company censorship, transgender athletes, undocumented migrants, Critical Race Theory — DeSantis pushes every single right-wing hot-button issue," Boot writes. "He understands how to demonize and polarize for political advantage — and he doesn't care about how much collateral damage he inflicts. Little wonder he is being talked about as the front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination if Trump doesn't run — and maybe even if he does."

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This Trump supporter could be the first Floridian prosecuted under Ron DeSantis' new anti-protest law

https://www.alternet.org/2021/06/trump-george-floyd/

"just shoot them"

an 621

trump's tour with Bill O'Reilly conflicts with August reinstatement theory — driving QAnons bonkers

Aldous Pennyfarthing DailyKos

June 21, 2021

Seeing QAnon adherents puzzle their way through reality is a bit like watching Donald Trump try to sound out a raw vegan menu. Eventually he orders the portobello mushroom steak—and then we sit back...

no lnx https://www.alternet.org/2021/06/republicans-trump-reinstated/

A disturbing number of Republicans actually think Trump will likely be 'reinstated' soon: poll

New analysis finds Trump’s support among white voters is slipping

Aldous J. Pennyfarthing

and Daily Kos

June 10, 2021

I'll never understand why anyone listens to Donald Trump on any subject. He wanted to nuke hurricanes. He wanted to put alligator-filled moats along the southern border. He thinks windmills cause cancer, asbestos is swell, and exercise is bad for you. He seriously suggested pumping our bodies full of UV light and disinfectant. He thinks we have planes that are literally invisible, for God's sake!

Nevertheless, millions of Trump fans have bent their brains into pretzels trying to make his doofus proclamations sound presidential—or even marginally nonsimian (see also: hydroxychloroquine).

We've pretty well established that Trump's brain is, at best, masticated circus peanut and, at worst, Lucifer's molten boom-booms, and yet when he dry-heaves utter batshit nonsense, plenty of his fans seem all too ready to lick it up like feral purse poodles.

Case in point: Fully 29% of Republicans think Donald Trump is returning before the year is out—possibly riding in on a cloud or a flaming chariot or (more likely) a golf cart with a cupholder and custom-installed deep fryer.

A new Politico/Morning Consult poll asked survey respondents this straightforward question: "How likely do you think it is that former President Donald Trump will be reinstated as U.S. President this year, if at all?" The question was no doubt included in the poll because Trump himself has been telling insiders that he thinks he'll be back in office by August. (Narrator: He won't.)

The results? (You still have time to bail if you've had your yearly quota of frothing insanity. You're still here? Okay, gird your loins.)

Among Republicans surveyed, 17% think it's "very likely" that Trump will return to the White House this year, 12% think it's "somewhat likely," and 10% don't know or have no opinion. Taken together, this shows that two-fifths of Republicans have not yet accepted that Joe Biden won the presidency.

Of course, that wasn't the only eye-opening result. Asked whether things are going in the right direction in the U.S. or on the wrong track, only 15% of Republicans thought things were going in a positive direction, while 85% said we're veering off course. Guess 85% of Republicans prefer raging pandemics and collapsing economies to Democratic presidents.

Is this what it's like to lick hallucinogenic toads for breakfast in lieu of frosted Pop-Tarts? At some point, do you just surrender to the unreality of your environment?

Over at Civiqs, even more Republicans report they're worried; a stunning 93% of card-carrying GOPers think we're all gonna die.

If you enjoy watching Donald Trump eat the Republican Party from within, like a genetically modified tropical eyeball worm, you'll be happy to know that the Politico/Morning Consultpoll found that 80% of Republicans want to stick around so they can see him play either a major (59%) or a minor role (21%) in the party going forward. If you'd prefer he stay in Florida chucking oyster shells at flamingos from his balcony, you'll likely be disappointed by the 13% of Republicans who want him to slink away.

There's also some good news, of course. President Biden's approval rating is at 53% among all registered voters, with 28% of respondents "strongly" approving of the job he's doing, 25% "somewhat" approving, 43% disapproving, and the rest offering no opinion.

Meanwhile, 66% of registered voters want Congress to pass an infrastructure bill—so maybe we should get that done, huh?

There's still some sanity left in the world, so long as you look in the right place. And that right place is clearly nowhere in the vicinity of the right wing. I invite Republicans to hurry on back to planet Earth. The water's fine. At least it is for now—unfortunately, only 12% of Republicans consider passing a bill to address climate change a "top priority."

Go figure.

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Conning' their 'vulnerable' followers: Here's what Trump and a discredited televangelist have in common

When the Christian right invaded the Republican Party during the 1980s, Peter Popoff was among the televangelists who made millions of dollars. Popoff, a faith healer, was exposed as a major fraud — he wasn't really curing cancer patients as he claimed. Journalist Michael Siegel, in a lengthy article published by Ordinary Times on June 8, lays out the things that Popoff has in common with another con man: former President Donald Trump, explaining why their deluded followers have such a hard time accepting the truth.

Popoff and Trump are the same age: 74. Popoff was born on July 2, 1946, and Trump was born the previous month on June 14, 1946. Siegel's article is really about Trump more than Popoff, although he offers plenty of details about Popoff's embarrassing history — and Siegel stresses that when people have been conned, they are often in denial about it. Popoff still had his unwavering followers even after he was exposed as a fraud during the 1980s.

As anti-Trump and anti-Popoff as Siegel's piece is, he does more than slam them and makes a point of explaining their appeal.

Siegel observes, "One of the things that con men rely upon is a certain vulnerability…. Many are afraid of their nest eggs disappearing, which ironically, makes them vulnerable to the very people who want to rob their nests."

According to Siegel, "Con men — whether they prey on the rich or the poor, the powerful or the powerless — look for those who are at a crossroads.Those who want a chance to get ahead. Those who fear falling further behind. Those who have lost their status and want it back. A person comfortable in their life and their finances will realize the Nigerian Prince is too good to be true. A person nervous about their finances or desperate to move up in life may think this is the chance they've been waiting for." [vid] Popoff exposed - Part 1 <br

Trump is much more dangerous than Popoff ever was, as Popoff never became president of the United States — although the Christian right movement that Popoff helped bring to the forefront of the GOP during the 1980s (along with the Moral Majority's Rev. Jerry Falwell, Sr., Jimmy Swaggart, Focus on the Family founder James Dobson and others) has been very damaging to the country. And Trump still has millions of devotees seven months after being voted out of office and four months into Joe Biden's presidency.

Many Trump devotees, according to polls, still believe the Big Lie: Trump's false claim that he was a victim of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election. And Siegel explains why they are so "vulnerable," not unlike Popoff's followers.

"The Trump election fraud claim is something far more insidious than the standard-issue 'they stole our votes'cry of the defeated," Siegel warns. "It did, after all, culminate in an open attack on the Capitol to try to overturn the election. It is a claim that is not fading but being amplified by an increasing number of Republicans, becoming a litmus test in primaries. The Republicans just ousted their third most powerful Congress-critter because she had the temerity to say that Donald Trump was full of it."

Siegel continues, "I can certainly see why grifters like Rudy Giuliani and Sydney Powell are making this claim. There's money to be made by promoting these claims— the Trump campaign itself pulled in a quarter of a billion dollars with this scam. But why do rank-and-file Republicans believe this. Is it because they're stupid? They're no more stupid than anyone else. Is it because they're deluded by Fox News? Most of them don't watch it. No, I think it's something more basic, something that goes back to Peter Popoff and every other con artist that slithered down the pike. It's because they don't want to believe they were fooled."

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travis raw AN 621

Trump has reportedly been telling people that he'll somehow be reinstated as president in August, and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell is taking credit for that notion.

The Trump-loving businessman claims he's been filling the twice-impeached one-term president with ideas about returning to the White House through means that aren't laid down in the U.S. Constitution, although it's not clear what justification Lindell has offered for that scenario, reported The Daily Beast.

"If Trump is saying August," Lindell told the website, "that is probably because he heard me say it publicly."

Two sources close to Trump told The Beast the ex-president has been increasingly asking confidants about possibly returning to the White House by the end of summer, claiming that "highly respected" people have been saying that's possible.

Both sources said they decided not to tell Trump they don't believe that's possible, and even Lindell seems more hopeful than confident.

"The month of August, for this, is subjective," Lindell said. "It is my hope that Donald Trump is reinstated, after all the proof comes out, by the end of August, but I don't know if it'll be that month, specifically. I started saying August…about four weeks ago. That was my estimation. I spoke about it with my lawyers who said that they should have something ready for us to bring before the U.S. Supreme Court by July. So, in my mind, I hope that means that we could have Donald Trump back in the White House by August. That's how I landed on August, and I'm hopeful that that is correct."

FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES

mich state rep?

https://www.alternet.org/2021/06/peter-meijer/

~ trump civil war lunacy

// milleninalist, just recalculATE WHEN DATE Passes?

jenna attacked for saying trump can't be re-install in aug b/c you know lAW/REALITY?

621 MAGA heads go berserk over 'incompetent failure' Jenna Ellis after ... ›

https://www.alternet.org/2021/06/trump-reinstated/

NO LNX TWT

On June 1, the New York Times' Maggie Haberman reported, on Twitter, that former President Donald Trump still believes that the 2020 election results will be overturned and that he will be "reinstated" to the White House by August. Haberman discussed her reporting during a June 2 appearance on CNN's "New Day," stressing to hosts John Berman and Brianna Keilar that Trump is "echoing" the false claims he is hearing from attorney Sidney Powell and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell.

"There is no mechanism by which this can happen," Haberman said of Trump's delusional claim that he will be returning to the Oval Office by August. But Trump's delusions, Haberman added, are being encouraged by Powell and Lindell — and he is "regurgitating" their bogus claims.

Trump has been telling a number of people he’s in contact with that he expects he will get reinstated by August (no… https://t.co/0gUGozPQQR

— Maggie Haberman (@Maggie Haberman) 1622551318.0

Haberman told Berman and Keilar, "What he's doing is echoing things that are being said by Sidney Powell, who was his lawyer — although he distanced himself from her at certain points over the final months of the administration. But she was helping advise him on these efforts to overturn the election last year. This is being said my Michael Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow — who has been pushing this for some time. (Trump) is echoing what they're saying. The difference between them saying it and Donald Trump saying it is that one is the former president — one is a possible future (Republican) Party nominee…. There are people telling him things are possible that are not possible."

Powell and Lindell have been relentless far-right promoters of the Big Lie, falsely claiming that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump — who, Haberman said, has been "so laser-focused" on the recent election "audits" taking place in Arizona and other states because he "thinks they are going to overturn" the 2020 election results.

JUST NOW: "“There is a dangerous component about this conversation that's going on.” @maggieNYT on her reporting t… https://t.co/u3fuzgsHhr

— John Berman (@John Berman) 1622632941.0

Trump, Haberman warned, is trying to use the "conservative media ecosystem" to promote his fantasies of being "reinstated" to the White House this summer.

"People are in their own media ecosystems," Haberman observed.

Berman pointed out that some Trump opponents are upset with Haberman for tweeting about the former president's delusions, and the Times reporter responded that "ignoring" Trump will not make him go away in 2021 any more than it did in 2015 and 2016.

Haberman told Berman and Keilar that Trump "is in control of the Republican Party, to a big extent…. Ignoring him was not the answer in 2015."

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twt maricopa voter db DELETED

cody f

while the criminal investigations of former President Donald Trump often make the news with fresh developments, many of these revelations don't truly amount to much. On Tuesday, though, there was a significant exception to this pattern when multiple reports found that New York DA Cy Vance, who is working with the state's Attorney General Letitia James, has impaneled a special grand jury of his investigation of Trump and the Trump Organization. This suggests that serious charges may be on the horizon.

After the news broke, New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman, a longtime close observer of the president, explained how he will fight back against the investigations as it threatens to ensnare him or his interests.

"Trump is going to use talk of running again as a way to tar the Vance/James probes," she wrote on Twitter. "From his latest statement in response to the grand jury being empaneled: 'Interesting that today a poll came out indicating I'm far in the lead for the Republican Presidential Primary…'"

He has already suggested that he intends to run for president again in 2024 (even as he insists that he really won in 2020 and thus should be president now.) It's one way he can maintain power in the Republican Party and at least some level of attention from the media.

But Haberman is right that dangling a run — genuine or not — can be helpful in his effort to tar the investigations that target him. As long as he remains a potential candidate, he can say that criminal charges are just an effort to keep him out of power by his political enemies. Of course, that won't make an indictment go away — but it will likely be a potent message for his fans.

Since many are already primed to believe the 2020 election was stolen from him, it's not hard to imagine the prospect of his facing serious criminal charges could inspire more dangerous and lawless actions from his supporters like those seen on Jan. 6.

In the case of Letitia James, the criticism that she's a political enemy of his does have some genuine force. She explicitly campaigned in 2018 on investigating Trump, and she has used her investigation of him to elevate her profile. Vance is a more complicated story though. A ProPublica report actually found that Vance went easy on the Trump family as his office prepared to indict two of Trump's children in 2012. After Trump's lawyer Marc Kasowitz donated $25,000 to Vance, he reportedly overruled his own prosecutors and declined to bring the charges.

===

at least they recycle grift

https://www.alternet.org/2021/05/newt-gingrich-trump/

In 1994, when President Bill Clinton was serving his first term, then-House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich unveiled his Contract With America — a hard-right Republican legislative agenda that Gingrich's critics slammed as the Contract On America. Republicans recaptured the House in the 1994 midterms, and Gingrich became House speaker in January 1995.Now, in the Biden era, Gingrich is a major ally of former President Donald Trump — and according to Politico reporter Meridith McGraw, Gingrich and Trump are joining forces for a new version of the Contract With America for the 2022 midterms. But the 2022 version, McGraw reports, will have a much more Trumpian focus.

"With an eye toward winning back the House and Senate in the 2022 midterm elections, former President Donald Trump has begun crafting a policy agenda outlining a MAGA doctrine for the party," McGraw reports. "His template is the 1994 'Contract With America,' a legislative agenda released ahead of the midterm elections in the middle of President Bill Clinton's first term. And as a cherry on top, he's teaming up with its main architect — Gingrich — to do it."

McGraw adds that according to a Politico source, Trump recently met with Gingrich, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in South Florida to "begin crafting the document." twt]

"The group is still just beginning to hammer out the details of what a Trumpified Contract might look like," McGraw explains. "But it is likely to take an 'America first' policy approach on everything from trade to immigration. The source described it as 'a policy priority for 2022 and beyond.' Its construction has been teased and talked about for weeks, but the fact that the principals are beginning to put it together underscores Trump's continued interest in trying to shape the Republican Party."

The 77-year-old Gingrich, however, told Politico that he doesn't expect the 2022 plan to be finalized "anytime soon." When Politico asked him to outline some policy priorities that it may include, the former House speaker responded, "It should be positive. School choice, teaching American history for real, abolishing the '1619 Project,' eliminating critical race theory and what the Texas legislature is doing. We should say, 'Bring it on.'"

Like Barack Obama, Clinton went down in history as a president who was decisively reelected but suffered a major setback at the midterms. 1996 was a great year for Clinton, who was reelected with 379 electoral votes compared to only 159 for Republican nominee Bob Dole. But Democrats suffered a major pounding in the 1994 midterms.

"The original 'Contract with America' was credited with helping Republicans gain their first majority in four decades after the party picked up 52 seats in 1994 in the House and nine seats in the Senate," McGraw recalls. "Republicans have used it as a template in elections since."

The Politico reporter continues, "In 2010, the so-called Republican 'Young Guns,' led by Reps. Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan and Kevin McCarthy, introduced a much longer version of Gingrich's contract with a 224-page publication outlining policy goals ahead of the midterm elections. And Graham, who was one of the Contract's signatories when he first ran for a House seat in 1994, has frequently advocated for Republicans to adopt Contract-style declarations to unify the party during election years."

https://www.alternet.org/2021/05/end-of-enlightenment/

common dr robt freeman

The Enlightenment was a time of intellectual ferment in the Western world following the Middle Ages. Its ideas gave birth to the modern world.

We know the Enlightenment from the names of its most brilliant expositors: Francis Bacon, John Locke, Voltaire, Montesquieu, Rousseau, Adam Smith, and others. We know its ideas as the foundation of our social world: the social contract, the rule of reason, the rule of law, consent of the governed, natural rights, constitutionalism, separation of powers, checks and balances, and others.

The Republican agenda is a direct assault on all of that. It literally aims to return America to the pre-modern, pre-Enlightened darkness of the Middle Ages. If it succeeds, it will reverse more than three hundred years of human progress.

The most egregious of Republican assaults on the modern world is its rejection of Reason. Reason is the way we know what we know. It is not through revelations from God, or the pronouncements of priests or monarchs as had been the case before the Enlightenment.

Reason as a process for discovering Truth started in the Scientific Revolution around 1550. It was so powerful a way of knowing the physical world, the philosophers of the Enlightenment adopted it for knowing—and improving—the social world. It became the foundation of all subsequent Enlightenment thought, and all modern institutions.

The Republican broadside against Reason was on display in the first days of the Trump administration when Trump asserted that his inauguration crowd size was the largest in history. Presented with facts to the contrary, in photographic evidence, his assistant, Kellyanne Conway, proclaimed the existence of "alternative facts." It's been downhill since.

Republican discourse is a never-ending torrent of lies, idiocies, and absurdities—the very antithesis of Reason. The Muslim invasion. The caravan bringing murderers, rapists, drugs, and disease. Democrats eating babies. A satanic cult of pedophiles running the "Deep State." A pandemic that would "disappear, like a miracle." The greatest economy in the history of the world. Dr. Seuss and Mr. Potato Head being canceled. Biden's hamburger ban. A rigged election. Massive voter fraud. Terrorists who were really just tourists handing out hugs and kisses. It never ends.

The Republican assault on Reason is an attack not just on truth itself, but on our very capacity to think at all. With their base, Republicans address not the neo-cortex—the thinking part of the brain—but the amygdala—the lizard-brain seat of fight-or-flight. The amygdala subordinates logic, facts, reason, and deliberation to deceit, conspiracy, hysteria, and fear.

It's easier to trigger hatred and fear than thinking and logic. That's why Republicans do it. That's why their base—and increasingly, their "leaders"—sound like zombies, like robots, like members of a cult when they're interviewed for the evening news. They are. They've been programmed to fear and hate and blame, and the reinforcement is unending, [feedback? amplif?] because, to work, it has to be. Otherwise, they become unprogrammed.

It doesn't matter that none of the endless effusion of lies ever turn out to be true or that they are routinely, repeatedly abandoned in favor of newer lies for the next news cycle. What matters is that the lies incite indignation, and that the dopamine high that follows gets its constant, programmed, ever-increasing reinforcement.

Trump's 35,000 documented lies are the embodiment of it all.It is a leprous, insidious disease, an inability to deal with reality, but literally the one by which Republicans define themselves. Glandular excretions are the Republican formula for generating voter turnout: inciting Pavlovian rage based on a torrential fantasmia of lurid lies. It works, but it is the living, suppurating antithesis of Reason.

Another Republican assault on the legacy of the Enlightenment is the attack on Democracy. It was John Locke who, in 1689, wrote that people who were able to think could not be bullied like ignorant people could. If government wanted thinking people's cooperation it could no longer rely on the medieval divine right of kings. It needed to obtain "the consent of the governed." This, of course, became a sacrament of the American political order.

The opening words of the Constitution are, "We the people of the United States…" That is not a paean to monarchy, or to dictatorship. It is a statement that the consent of the people—and only that consent—provides a government its legitimacy. But Republicans are working feverishly to overturn the consent of the governed, to destroy Democracy.

Their assault on the Capitol on January 6th was the most conspicuous effort to overthrow the legitimately elected government of the United States but it was not the first and will certainly not be the last.Republicans insist that their reason-denying mobs, their goons, their Brownshirts will tell the rest of us how we will be governed. No consent involved, only submission: ours. You can see this in their fevered efforts at voter suppression, explicitly preventing majority rule and the consent of the governed.

Republicans cannot win power on the strength of their ideas and policies. They lost the presidency, the Senate, and the House. Large majorities favor policies backed by Democrats. So, they need to destroy Democracy itself to gain power. To do that, they need to destroy Reason as the way we know what we know. That is the core, the essence, the modus operandi of the Republican enterprise.

Constitutionalism is a third Enlightenment ideal that Republicans are intent on destroying. A constitution defines how a country is to be governed. Before constitutions, it was autocracy that called the shots. Think of Louis XIV's notorious declaration: "I am the state." Decisions were made by caprice, by the rich and powerful, in their own interests, everyone else be damned. Constitutionalism embeds the Rule of Law—another Enlightenment ideal—into a society, making "equal treatment under the law" a modern treasure, however badly it may be realized.

Besides losing all of the branches of the federal government, Republicans failed over and over and over to persuade the judicial branch to sanction their usurpation of the Constitution. So, they resort to performative charades like the farcical ballot laundering farrago in Arizona to try to undo the Constitutionally-ordained process for the peaceful transfer of power. Now, they're taking it to other states. It will not end.

We could go on. Republicans want to destroy the social contract—another Enlightenment ideal—that says you get ahead on the basis of hard work. They insist, instead, that privilege should be based on race, with the best spots reserved for whites. This violates the Enlightenment ideal of equality for all.

Remember the opening words of the Declaration of Independence? "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." Pure Enlightenment. In the Republican world, however, like in Orwell's Animal Farm which was an allegory of the degradation of Soviet totalitarianism, all men are created equal, but some—whites—are more equal than others.

We should be clear. This is not about peripheral protests over policy preferences. It is a broadside against the foundation, the institutional undergirding of our civilization. It is an attempt to destroy the conceptual milieu that has survived for centuries and that, however flawed it may be, has delivered the greatest freedom, expansion of rights, material progress, and human opportunity the world has ever known.

The measure of our alarm should be that Republicans, with the help of a complicit media, have managed to normalize rampant public lying, the unrestrained desecration of Reason, are carrying out an open, unabashed attack on our democracy, are carrying out notorious, savage assaults on Constitutionalism, the Rule of Law, Equality, and more. Our nation is literally under attack by anti-Enlightenment zealots determined to tear it down and it's not at all clear that they will not succeed.

It is indicative that the Republican party's highest priest is a thrice-married pathological liar, an admitted sexual assaulter, a draft dodger, a six-time filer for bankruptcy, a man who inflicted hundreds of thousands of excess deaths on the country, was twice impeached, who lost two successive popular vote counts, and who then attempted to overthrow the government. Read that sentence again and think about its implication.

The Republican hero, the man they model themselves on, the one they want us to bow down to, is a failed business man, a failedreality TV star, a failed president, a career con man who is the most corrupt, certainly the most craven and creepy individual ever known to American politics. This is the best Republicans have to offer. That is who they are, and what they insist on inflicting on all the rest of us, our consent be damned.

The Enlightenment helped the world replace monarchy with republicanism, a world ruled by theology with a world of science, autocracy with the rule of law, aristocratic privilege with the equality of all men, and feudalism with capitalism. No matter how imperfectly it may have been realized, it was as noble a vision as human beings have ever devised. The two worlds are the difference between the "Dark Ages" that went before and the modern world. That is the Republicans' promise to America.

More regression. More destruction of beautiful ideals and noble institutions. More degradation of deserving people. More humiliation of undignified people, themselves being the examples. More carnage. More chaos. More slime spewed on everyone.

There's not a syllable of inspiring vision in anything they have to say, not a word of uplifting ideals in any of it. It is all pathetic self-victimization and a lust for vengeance against those who refuse to respect them. We must all be dragged into the sewer that spawned, that is, and that sustains Donald Trump. That is his and Republicans' retaliation against a people who once had the temerity to believe in majestic ideals, the audacity to strive for them, and who once imagined that they might even be worthy of them.

an 521

Weak or stupid': Trump lashes out at Republican officials — even as they continue to defend him

Bob Brigham Raw Story May 21, 2021

Donald Trump lashed out at Republicans for not further embracing his debunked conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.

Trump was interviewed by Chanel Rion on OAN on Thursday.

"We don't have a free and fair press any more media anymore," Trump said on the far-right network. "This is not free and you know, you look at communist countries. That's what happens, nobody can talk, and when you can't talk, there's nothing to discuss."

He then pushed his conspiracy theories about the election, which he decisively lost to President Joe Biden....

here are the ‘classic signs of authoritarianism’ the Trumpified GOP now exhibits: conservative

Alex Henderson

May 17, 2021

The Joe Biden coalition of 2020 was shockingly diverse, with everyone from self-described "democratic socialists" like Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to hardcore conservatives such as...

why did Trump issue this bizarre military memo in the final days of his presidency?

Travis Gettys Raw Story

May 17, 2021

Former president Donald Trump issued a bizarre memo days after he lost the election that his interim defense secretary ignored.

The ousted president signed a one-page memo without the knowledge of White House counsel Pat Cipollone or national security adviser Robert O'Brien directing then-Defense secretary Christopher Miller to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, Africa, Germany, Iraq and Syria, reported Axios.

"This is what the president wants you to do," said trusted aide John McEntee to retired Army Col. Douglas Macgregor, who was offered a post as senior adviser to Miller.

Macgregor told McEntee, who was head of the presidential personnel office, that he doubted all of those things could be accomplished by Jan. 20.

"Then do as much as you can," McEntee told him.

Miller himself was astonished when the memo landed on his desk two days later, on Nov. 11, and top military brass were appalled when news of the order traveled through the Pentagon, as Trump worked to overturn his election loss to Joe Biden.

Trump was ultimately talked out of the unilateral order by Pentagon officials who told him the Taliban could take Kabul in the waning days of his presidency.

Biden in April announced the withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11.

FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES

https://www.alternet.org/2021/05/new-gop/

Confederates may have lost the Civil War back in the 1800s but, according to a new Daily Beast editorial, it appears they are on the road to victory when it comes to the present-day, intraparty war with the Republican Party. The piece highlights the evolution of a new disturbing breed of lawmakers and politicians within the Republican Party.

Describing the Republican Party's rising "heroes" as "killers, kooks, and creeps," Wajahat Ali, Beast editor and Senior Fellow at The Western States Center, details the blind support of former President Donald Trump's Big Lie and how it may not only impact the political party but U.S. government in its entirety.

According to Ali, "we are witnessing the end of a long molting process as the GOP slithers into its final form: a counter-majoritarian, fascist entity."

Those who were once silently supportive of far-right ideologies are now "shedding their masks and hoods, spitting out their dog whistles" as the party's Trumpists, racists, conspiracy theorists, and violent insurrectionists are increasingly gaining representation in Congress.

While Trump may no longer be walking the halls of the White House, that has not stopped his agenda as many an overwhelming number of Republican leaders and lawmakers are still out to do his dirty work. The former disgraced president's influence, alone, is enough for his supporters to continue down the path he paved.

"Trump was not a cancerous growth but the end product of the party's decades-long molting process. He's the beating heart. He's Republicans' orange avatar, their unrestrained ID, their boiling, festering rage that quenches its appetites while securing power and wealth by any means necessary," he wrote, later adding, "Just because Trump is golfing in Mar-a-Lago instead of rage-tweeting from the White House, doesn't mean the threat has been removed. His tactics and tantrums have merely been picked up and copied by Republicans desperate to ride the same strategy to power in 2022 and 2024, perhaps with less sensationalism and fanfare."

With the path Republicans are embarking on, the party appears to be in what is described as "the final molting stage," which consists of "an increasingly radicalized, weaponized, and fascist entity."

FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES

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dirty dregs of dixie: rino purge

publication reports that a local South Carolina Tea Party leader named Pressley Stutts is at the center of the political shakeup. While he admitted that he is aware of the stark changes, he claims there is a reason for it. Trump had a request and he and others feel obligated to fulfill his request.

"There are a lot of good people that did lose their positions. Some are my friends," Stutts admitted during a recent chat with The Daily Beast on Tuesday. "Some people say, Pressley, what have you done?"...

https://www.alternet.org/2021/04/trump-gop/

gop meets maralag? firm denial gaetz // mbz, vlad

Psychotic' fundraising tactics show how unhinged the Republican Party has become: columnist

Alex Henderson

April 08, 2021

Media outlets ranging from the New York Times to The Bulwark have recently reported on some of the more extreme, heavy-handed fundraising tactics that former President Donald Trump and his allies in the National

djt kept his vax secret, after reveal he press to promote, 3/16 he did, while indirectly priase self as orig?

https://www.alternet.org/2021/03/tucker-carlson-2651097830/ vax

trump's own defense secretary just threw him under the bus for inciting the Capitol riot

Sky Palma Raw Story

March 11, 2021

The former Acting Secretary of Defense under the Trump administration, Chris Miller, spoke to VICE on Showtimerecently, and said that he thinks then-President Trump's speech on the morning of Jan...

https://www.alternet.org/2021/02/trump-tax-returns/

scotus grand jury

don jr at cpac Tpac fail, PO'd at mccarthy

https://www.alternet.org/2021/02/trump-evangelicals/

fox News analyst lays into Trump for how badly he betrayed the Constitution

Meaghan Ellis

February 12, 2021

Fox News contributor Andrew McCarthy did not mince words when he lambasted former President Donald Trump's "indelibly stained" presidency due to the poor behavior he exhibited during the final days of his time in office.

When McCarthy appeared for a podcast interview with Mediaite's Aidan McLaughlin, he discussed a number of Trump's controversies including his election fraud claims and the Capitol insurrection that opened the door for his second impeachment trial. McCarty, also a columnist at the National Review, admitted that he could not of any American president that behaved as poorly as Trump has.

"I can't think of any other president, if you (don't) just take January 6 by itself, but this whole continuum from November 3rd up until he left office, that's as bad as anything I'm aware of in American history from an American president," said McCarthy.

He also weighed in on the second impeachment trial as he noted discussed the strategy needed to prove Trump's incitement. To prove incitement in a regular criminal trial, you'd have to show that there were unambiguous calls to violence that were imminent and probable," McCarthy explained.

He went on to discuss the most "indefensible" aspect of Trump's reaction to the Capitol riots. McCarthy said, "The most indefensible thing about this episode is the hours during which the siege was going on when former President Trump didn't respond to it."

"As commander in chief of the armed forces, he had an absolute obligation to take action to repel an attack on the seat of government," he said, adding, "And what the reporting at least shows, and I don't have any reason to think the proof will come out any differently, is he was basically sitting on his hands — at best."

When asked if he believes Trump's presidency is "indelibly stained," McCarty said, "The easy answer to that question is yes," McCarthy said. "And I don't want to make it more complicated than that because in the end, it's really not."

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https://www.alternet.org/2021/02/impeachment-trial-2650528206/

trial witnesses?

Corp of city of london? trump hotel spike prices?

https://www.alternet.org/2021/02/qanon-march-4/

raw story

On CNN Wednesday, "QAnon Anonymous" podcast host Julian Feeld explained the strange new conspiracy theory that Trump will be re-inaugurated on March 4th as the "19th president" of the "restored" United States — and how it ties into long-standing "sovereign citizen" beliefs that the United States has been an illegitimate government for over a century.

"Can you explain the convoluted conspiracy theory that has begun to take hold that involved March 4th?" asked anchor Alisyn Camerota. "What are they expecting to happen on March 4th?"

"The March 4th theory actually comes from sovereign citizen beliefs," said Feeld. "Now in the past, we haven't seen such a huge overlap, but in this case, QAnon — certain QAnon followers have borrowed whole cloth from a belief that the last legitimate president was the 18th president, so this goes back to 1871, and this is the belief that Trump will be actually inaugurated as our 19th president."

"Now, of course, this is illogical since he was the 45th, but what they believe is that there is — there has been no country known as the United States ever since it was unstuck from the gold standard and they don't believe that any amendment past the 16th Amendment is valid," said Feeld. "They essentially believe that Ulysses S. Grant was the last American — valid American president. They believe — I mean, I think there's different beliefs, obviously, of what will happen on that day, but I think many are expecting a ceremony, and that ceremony may be accompanied in their mind by what QAnon believers called 'The Storm.' That would be, you know, as described a little earlier on the segment, the rounding up and often military tribunals, you know, for leading Democrats, but also some celebrities they believe falsely to be part of this pedophile cabal."

"So essentially people are still in this belief that Trump will come back and will become the president again. Obviously, falsely," he added.

Watch below:

221 an

...U.S. Senate on Tuesday evening reaffirmed that former President Donald Trump's impeachment trial is constitutional, with just six Republicans joining Democrats on the vote, which came after hours of opening arguments from House impeachment managers and Trump's widely criticized attorneys.

This is the second time in as many weeks that the Senate has voted on the trial's constitutionality. In late January, Republican Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Mitt Romney (Utah), Ben Sasse (Neb.), and Pat Toomey (Pa.) joined Democrats for a similar vote forced by Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.).

All but one Republican—Sen. Bill Cassidy (La.)—doubled down on that position Tuesday. Cassidy explained after the vote that "the issue at hand is, is it constitutional to impeach a president who has left office, and the House managers made a compelling, cogent case—and the president's team did not."...

chat like old pals

https://www.alternet.org/2021/02/trumps-hidden-calls-and-private-conversations-with-putin-are-now-in-bidens-hands-report-says/

alexander et al suppress covid #, kids

https://www.alternet.org/2021/02/trump-administration

went after liz c and failed?

https://www.alternet.org/2021/02/oval-office-meeting/

President Donald Trump, weeks after losing the November 2020 election by more than 7 million votes and more than 70 electoral votes, discussed declaring national security emergency powers his White House attorneys told him he did not have.

That's according to a stunning report that details a December 18 meeting in the Oval Office and the White House Residence from Axios, "Inside the craziest meeting of the Trump presidency."

The meeting included White House senior adviser Eric Herschmann, White House counsel Pat Cipollone, and White House staff secretary Derek Lyons, on the one side, and former national security adviser Michael Flynn, former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne, former Trump administration official Emily Newman, and attorney Sidney Powell, who is now being sued for $1.3 billion by Dominion voting machines.

Powell "proposed declaring a national security emergency, granting her and her cabal top-secret security clearances and using the U.S. government to seize Dominion's voting machines."

At one point Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani joined by phone,and was forced to tell everyone in the "heated" meeting to calm down. Axios reports at one point the "meeting had come entirely off the rails," and says "people were yelling and cursing" inside the Oval Office.

Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne, "wearing jeans, a hoodie and a neck gaiter, piped up with his own conspiracy: 'I know how this works. I bribed Hillary Clinton $18 million on behalf of the FBI for a sting operation,' he said, according to Axios."

Herschmann stared at the eccentric millionaire. "What the hell are you talking about? Why would you say something like that?" Byrne brought up the bizarre Clinton bribery claim several more times during the meeting to the astonishment of White House lawyers.

Trump, for his part, also seemed perplexed by Byrne. But he was not entirely convinced the ideas Powell was presenting were insane.

He asked: You guys are offering me nothing. These guys are at least offering me a chance. They're saying they have the evidence. Why not try this? The president seemed truly to believe the election was stolen, and his overriding sentiment was, let's give this a shot.

The words "martial law" were never spoken during the meeting, despite Flynn having raised the idea in an appearance the previous day on Newsmax, a right-wing hive for election conspiracies.

But this was a distinction without much of a difference. What Flynn and Powell were proposing amounted to suspending normal laws and mobilizing the U.S. government to seize Dominion voting machines around the country.

Both Lyons and Morgan "expressed skepticism" about Flynn and Powell's idea of "invoking national security emergency powers."

"Trump expressed skepticism at various points about Powell's theories, but he said, 'At least she's out there fighting.'"

Axios adds the "handful of White House lawyers and advisers" were "determined to keep the president from giving in to temptation to invoke emergency national security powers, seize voting machines and disable the primary levers of American democracy."

Read the entire report here.

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an 121

trump and DOJ lawyer said to have conspired together to oust acting Attorney General

Meaghan Ellis

January 23, 2021

Top officials within the U.S. Justice Department received intel last month about former President Donald Trump's efforts to oust acting U.S. attorney general Jeffrey A. Rosen to gain more control over

https://www.alternet.org/2021/01/trump-linguists/

25th amend?

https://www.alternet.org/2021/01/trump-lies-2649961270/

22k tho someone gave up counting; big 3 covid no problem, we have health care plan, election stolen

[now also no vax plan]

kush kept djt from going to gab etc neo-nazi after de-plat an 121

https://www.alternet.org/2021/01/trump-enablers-2649875205/

no lnx twt

With the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden less than two weeks away, some of President Donald Trump's most aggressive loyalists and defenders now find themselves being attacked by extremists for their supposed lack of purity — including Vice President Mike Pence, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Sen. Lindsey Graham and former Attorney General William Barr. And the fanatics that they enabled and encouraged are now accusing them of not doing enough in support of Dear Leader.

The most disturbing example is Pence. When a joint session of Congress met on January 6 to certify Biden's Electoral College victory, Trump demanded that Pence prevent that certification— which he didn't have the power to do. Regardless, some of the far-right extremists and White nationalists who showed up in Washington, D.C. that day believed that Pence was letting Trump down. Groups of them began chanting, "Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence" — and a hangman's noose hung from a tree near the U.S. Capitol Building, which was stormed by a violent mob of Trump supporters. The same extremists who were hoping to harm Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that day advocated murdering Pence as well.

Graham has repeatedly jumped through hoops in support of Trump, from the Russia investigation to the Ukraine scandal and the president's impeachment to Trump's Supreme Court nominees. But after the storming of the Capitol Building, a frustrated Graham finally distanced himself from Trump — saying, "Trump and I, we've had a hell of a journey…. All I can say is: count me out, enough is enough. I've tried to be helpful."

Later, when Graham was walking through Washington, D.C.'s Reagan National Airport last week, he was heckled by angry Trump supporters who believed he hadn't done enough to help Trump overturn the election results. Video posted by CNN shows a Trump supporter shouting, "Lindsey Graham, you are a traitor to the country…. You garbage human being."

Barr's critics often accused him of debasing himself by becoming "Trump's Roy Cohn" — an insulting reference to the unscrupulous attorney who supported Sen. Joseph McCarthy during the 1950s and represented a young Trump in the private sector during the 1970s. But after the 2020 presidential election, Barr was branded a traitor by MAGA diehards for acknowledging Biden as president-elect and telling the Associated Press, "To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election."

Following the events of January 6, Barr described Trump's conduct as a "betrayal of his office and supporters" and told AP, that "orchestrating a mob to pressure Congress is inexcusable."

MAGA diehards are also furious with McConnell, who was a staunch Trump ally throughout his impeachment and aggressively supported all three of Trump's Supreme Court nominees: Justice Neil Gorsuch, Justice Brett Kavanaugh and most recently, Justice Amy Coney Barrett. On December 15, however, McConnell acknowledged Biden as president-elect and congratulated him on the Senate floor — inspiring wingnut radio host Mark Levin to post, on Parler, "Thanks for nothing, Mitch. Trump helped you secure your seat, as he did so many Senate and House seats, and you couldn't even wait until January 6th. You've been the GOP 'leader' in the Senate for far too long. It's time for some fresh thinking and new blood."

Mindy Robinson denounced McConnell as a "turncoat," and far-right pundit Dinesh D'Souza lambasted McConnell as well, tweeting:

History shows that those who support fanaticism can become a victim of it themselves. Communist Leon Trotsky supported totalitarianism in the Soviet Union, and was murdered by Joseph Stalin's henchmen in Mexico because of his supposed lack of purity. And now, in 2021, the MAGA mob is turning against some of the very people who enabled it.

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an 121

trump was 'pleased' by Capitol Siege — until realizing he had 'legal exposure': NYT reporter

Alex Henderson

The New York Times' Maggie Haberman has been reporting extensively on the January 6 siege of the U.S. Capitol Building and President Donald Trump's response to it. Haberman discussed her reporting during a January 12 appearance on CNN's "New Day," telling hosts Alisyn Camerota and John Berman that Trump was initially "pleased" with what we he saw on television.

The Times reporter told Cameron...

an 121

While Americans all over the United States watched in horror as angry Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, President Donald Trump reportedly continues to place blame elsewhere. And when the president claimed antifa was to blame for the deadly rioted he, himself, incited, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) pushed back on Trump's claim, Axios report. Now, details are emerging about the Republican lawmaker's heated call with the president.

According to Axios, McCarthy spoke with Trump on Monday, Jan. 12, where he reportedly stood his ground and reminded the president that the 2020 election is "over."

During the 30-minute call, Trump allegedly deflected and peddled conspiracy theories about the election and what transpired at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. As Trump continued his claims of widespread voter fraud, McCarthy is said to have grown "exasperated" with the president.

According to one White House official, "the call was tense and aggressive at times, with Trump ranting about election fraud and an exasperated McCarthy cutting in to say, 'Stop it. It's over. The election is over.'"

When he claimed antifa caused the civil unrest at the U.S. Capitol, one White House official claimed McCarthy reached his breaking point. "It's not antifa — it's MAGA," McCarthy told Trump, according to two Axios sources. "I know. I was there."

McCarthy also reportedly urged the president to "call Joe Biden, meet with the president-elect and follow tradition and leave a welcome letter in the Resolute Desk for his successor."

However, Trump has made his stance clear. He does not agree with the outcome of the election. Despite calls for impeachment and resignation, Trump also has no plan to concede the election or resign from office. The president also has no plan to attend President-elect Joe Biden's Inauguration on Jan. 20.

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an 121

Deutsche Bank just severed personal and professional ties with Donald Trump. More are following suit

Military on 'red alert' that Trump may invoke martial law to stay in power: report

Sarah Toce The New Civil Rights Movement December 24, 2020

A series of pardons, post-election protests claiming voter fraud that has never been proven, and one man's probable mental illness at the head of the nation are adding up to a "red alert" in what has normally been a quiet time of the year for many: the holidays. But not this year.

"Pentagon and Washington-area military leaders are on red alert, wary of what President Donald Trump might do in his remaining days in office," Newsweek reported on Thursday.

One officer who spoke with Newsweek on the condition of anonymity said the inaugural and transitional planning is being kept out of sight of the White House and Trump loyalists in the Pentagon for fear that it would be shut down.

"I've been associated with the military for over 40 years and I've never seen the discussions that are being had right now, the need for such discussions," said the retired flag officer, who is currently a defense contractor. He was granted anonymity in order to speak without fear of reprisal.

"Right now, because of coronavirus," one retired judge advocate general said, "the president actually has unprecedented emergency powers, ones that might convince him—particularly if he listens to certain of his supporters—that he has unlimited powers and is above the law."

He continued, "But martial law is the wrong paradigm to think about the dangers ahead."

"There is no role for the U.S. military in determining the outcome of an American election," Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy and Army Chief of Staff General James McConville said in a joint statement last Friday.

"At this point there's no telling what the president might do in the next month," a former Northern Command (NORTHCOM) commander told Newsweek. "Though I'm confident that the uniformed military leadership has their heads screwed on right, the craziness is unprecedented and the possibilities are endless."

The retired flag officer also requested anonymity because he is actively advising senior officers and is not authorized to speak on the record.

Retired Lt. General Michael Flynn, President Trump's first national security advisor and a recently pardoned felon, publicly broached the subject of martial law on the conservative channel Newsmax last week, saying that the president should use the military to seize voting boxes and "rerun" the election in certain states.

"He could take military capabilities and he could … basically rerun an election," Flynn said. "The president has to plan for every eventuality because we cannot allow this election and the integrity of our election to go the way it is."

Flynn's statement has been condemned by numerous retired officers who referred to Flynn as a "disgrace to his uniform."

Trump has so far denied the martial law suggestion publicly.

Martial law = Fake News. Just more knowingly bad reporting!

— Donald J. Trump (@Donald J. Trump)1608440788.0

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Heated Oval Office meeting included talk of special counsel, martial ... ›

deplores violence , will punish?!

https://www.alternet.org/2021/01/trump-will-not-resign/

threat to switch parties?

I want him out': Republican senator says Trump must go — and she might leave the GOP

Cody Fenwick

January 08, 2021

Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska came out swinging against President Donald Trump in an interview with Anchorage Daily News published Friday. She said he should resign his office and expressed doubts about her place in the Republican Party.

https://www.alternet.org/2021/01/mulvaney/

resign insurrection

A screaming Joe Scarborough demanded the arrest of President Donald Trump, the president's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, and the president's son, Donald Trump, Jr., for inciting Wednesday's deadly violent insurrection.

"Are we a nation of laws?" the "Morning Joe" co-host yelled the morning after thousands of armed Trump MAGA supporters, some draped in "Make America Great Again" flags, breached the nation's Capitol Building, with hundreds crawling the halls of America's seat of government.

"Donald J. Trump called for the insurrection against the United States of America. He called for it. Rudy Giuliani called for 'combat justice,' just an hour or two before this happened. Donald Trump, Jr. said, 'We are coming for you!'"

"That's insurrection against the United States of America. And if Donald Trump, Jr., Rudy Giuliani, and Donald Trump are not arrested today for insurrection and taken to jail and booked, and if the Capitol Hill Police do not go through every video, and look at the face of every person that invaded our Capitol, and if they are not arrested and brought to justice today, then we are no longer a nation of laws and we only tell people they can do this again."

Scarborough and co-host Mika Brzezinski also blasted the Capitol Hill Police for treating the insurrectionists with kid gloves "because they are white," and accusing them of opening "the fucking doors" for the Trump insurrectionists.

"If these insurrectionists were Black, they would have been shot in the face. And my god, if these insurrectionists were Muslim, they would have been shot from the top of buildings."

Watch:

death penalty push w/ barr

an 121

Trump bypassed Department of Justice guidelines to install his own U.S. Attorney in Georgia -- where he's pressuring state officials to overturn his election loss.

Byung Jin "BJay" Pak, the U.S. attorney in Atlanta, abruptly resigned Monday -- after a recording leaked of Trump leaning heavily on Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger -- and was replaced early Tuesday morning by Trump appointee Bobby Christine rather than the Northern District of Georgia's first assistant, reported Talking Points Memo.

Christine, who had been appointed by the president as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia, will serve in both roles for now.

The change was announced by Kurt Erskine, a career prosecutor and Pak's top deputy, after the Trump administration passed over him to hand the job to Christine.

The decision to bypass Erskine was made "by written order of the president" according to the Department of Justice.

The president was heard in the audio recording calling Pak -- whom he also appointed -- a "never-Trumper."

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https://www.alternet.org/2021/01/georgia-secretary-of-state-2649747234

alexh

During an hour-long phone conversation on Saturday, January 2, President Donald Trump unsuccessfully tried to bully and coerce Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger into overturning the 2020 presidential election results in the Peach State. But Raffensperger, a conservative Republican, wouldn't budge — maintaining that President-elect Joe Biden won Georgia's electoral votes fairly and that the debunked voter fraud conspiracy theories Trump was promoting had no basis in reality. NBC News reporters Ben Collins, Brandy Zadrozny and Jane C. Timmpinpoint the far-right sources of those theories in an article published on January 4, and they include QAnon and the extremist 4Chan forum.

"While Trump has embraced conspiracy theories for much of his tenure as president," the NBC News reporters explains, "Saturday's call offered a look at just how much he is now relying on some of the most outlandish theories from obscure corners of the internet to make his case for election fraud."

4chan is a favorite source among fans of far-right conspiracy theorists like radio host Alex Jones. And QAnon, a bizarre conspiracy cult, believes that the United States' federal government has been infiltrated by an international cabal of Satanists, cannibals, pedophiles and child sex traffickers and that Trump was put in the White House to fight the cabal.

Joan Donovan, research director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, told NBC News, "Trump manages to distill down to a 10-minute monologue what would take the average person years to pull together…. Everything from fakes, forgeries and machine hacking to collusion across parties — it's all laid out in detail with rapid fluidity."

Trump, according to Donovan, "pulled together all the major talking points" of "right-wing media like Parler and Newsmax" during his January 2 conversation with Raffensperger. Collins, Zadrozny and Timm note that although Trump's "claims were wide-ranging" during that conversation, he "focused in particular on a conspiracy theory that alleges that Georgia election worker Ruby Freeman, working in the State Farm Arena in Downtown Atlanta, produced thousands of fake ballots from a suitcase that somehow swung the vote to President-elect Joe Biden. The theory was debunked weeks ago by state election officials, who called the baseless claims 'ridiculous.'"...

meadows on raff call

~ beyer

https://www.alternet.org/2021/01/trump-gop

hour audio trump pressure raffensbreger and atty germany nice name

https://www.alternet.org/2021/01/georgia-secretary-of-state-2649728639

https://www.alternet.org/2021/01/trump-iran/

wag the dog?

nader must punish // ruth ben-ghiat strongmen bk?

https://www.c-span.org/video/?478171-2/after-words-ruth-ben-ghiat

https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/trump-pardons-2649651964/

~ AG

https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/trump-michigan-2649651269/

DC rept

The message: the boss takes care of friends and allies if they lie for the boss or keep silent, but does nothing for those who cooperate with law enforcement. Give Trump's many attacks on the FBI and other law enforcement, this should surprise no one, especially journalists -- and yet it eluded them.[helo coke trafficker]

https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/trump-pardons-2649658859

an 1220 https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/jared-kushner-2649647902

no lnx

Inside Jared Kushner key role behind Trump's flurry of pardons [trump mafia crime family, but also authoritarian]

Meaghan Ellis December 27, 2020

Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law and White House Senior Advisor, has played an important role in organizing the flurry of clemency requests the president has received as he enters the last month of his presidency.

Over the last five days, Trump has granted a total of 65 pardons and commutations, including which eliminated convictions and prison sentences for many of his own allies and close acquaintances.

As expected, the president's executive orders were widely criticized and many legal experts have viewed the avalanche of pardons as an abuse of power. No insiders are detailing Kushner's involvement in Trump's orders. According to HuffPost, inside sources have described Trump's pardons as a "free-for-all" as they explained Kushner's role.

"Everyone's sending emails to Jared," an insider source said. "If you want to make something happen, go to Jared."

The publication also reported that insiders have explained Kushner's scorekeeping strategy in an effort to monitor who Trump grants pardons. The source added, "It's going to be a free-for-all. He'll let you know where you stand. The ones who are going to get pardoned and get to the top of the list are the ones who have representatives, staff or counsel that were loyal to the president."...

an 1220 pissing out the dr:

defense trans...Department and the incoming Joe Biden team for the next few weeks. In what universe other than the Trump ego-fantasy does it make any sense for incoming Pentagon leadership not to know about the readiness of military forces, the global danger signs that the Pentagon is tracking, even the Defense spending patterns. Apparently, such meetings were halted because Trump was angered by seeing a Washington Post article that suggested the Biden team was looking at how many billions of dollars could be saved from re-routing money taken from the Pentagon for the border wall construction back to the military. I would hope that is something they should be considering.

Screwing up coronavirus economic aid: Even to their own members, the movement among Republican senators to find new religion for relief from debts and deficits by blocking coronavirus aid to Americans reportedly was being seen as nuts. The situation was fluid, but barely, as Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), led a late charge to stop lending by the supposedly independent Federal Reserve for businesses that need credit to stay afloat. A compromise finally got through around narrowing the proposal, setting Congress toward bill approval. Once again it put hunger and evictions over non-payment of rent for millions on real display and requiring a third, brief reset of the deadline clock for the final votes. Republicans had seen it as a fiscal necessity; Democrats saw a bid to throttle the incoming Biden administration even before it takes office. Though the participants will see it as a victory, it was politics at its worst.

Ignoring cybersecurity hacking: Even after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said it was the Russians who broke through software walls guarding the Pentagon, the Treasury and Commerce Departments and the nuclear areas of the Energy Department, Trump still insisted Saturday it could have been the Chinese. He added they could have skewed voting in the election to account for his loss. Trump thinks we are idiots.

Trump's never-ending election challenges: More than six weeks after the election, Trump met in the White House on Friday night with the Sidney Powell, the lawyer who's outlandish arguments about election fraud were considered too far out of line for him to even keep her on as a personal lawyer. They discussed making her a special counsel investigating voter fraud, according to two people briefed on the discussion. Even Rudy Giuliani, present by phone, said no, as did White House counsel Pat Cipollone. Apart from all else, declaring a special counsel is the jurisdiction of the Justice Department, not the Oval Office. Powell is the one arguing conspiracy theories about a Venezuelan plot to rig voting machines in the United States. It was unclear if Trump will move ahead on it. Meanwhile, Trump associate and the disgraced but pardoned former national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, is going around the country telling Trump to declare martial law over the election results.

The pending pardons: Politico reported that Trump is considering preemptively pardoning as many as 20 aides and associates before leaving office, even to the frustration of Senate Republicans who are arguing that strategy could backfire politically. Again, pardons are supposed to move through the Justice Department and a review process, and again Trump is insisting on his own rules for family and friends. Those under consideration include Giuliani, campaign staff and several members of his family. Of course, accepting a pardon includes the assumption that there was a crime committed. Perhaps the smartest move Trump might make is to offer Hunter Biden the same pre-criminal pardon he apparently is considering for his own kids.

Fast and loose money: It turns out Trump will be leaving with 10s of millions of dollars with few legal limits on how he can spend it. And, records now show that his family members managed to interfere with campaign funds to direct hundreds of millions into slush funds controlled by Trump. This brazen attempt to siphon reportable campaign money into accounts for which there is no accounting is questionable on lots of grounds. The reports extend the pattern of loose financial ethics marking the Trump presidency. It was common for Trump to use his official office and functions for personal money-making activities. Everything occurred from spending his time golfing at Trump resorts to re-routing foreign trips to the benefit of his own properties.

Expanding Mining: Despite the timing, Trump is moving to open up vast amounts of federal land to widespread mining and drilling, The New York Times reported. It is a move bound to create yet more consternation and problems for the Biden administration. The new administration, for procedural reasons as well as political ones, is bound to challenge a number of the individual sites involved. Again, whose interests are being served here?

And in possibly the dumbest attack of the week: Trump supporters took up the challenge to knock the doctorate earned by Dr. Jill Biden, defending and outdoing a particularly sexist, silly and anti-intellectual column from a Wall Street Journal op-ed that asked her to drop the honorific unless she was going to treat coronavirus patients. Go stuff it, kiddo.

Meanwhile, at far ends of the news worlds, both The New York Times and Lou Dobbs ran apologies for getting things wrong. The Times said sorry for trusting a source on ISIS without proper investigation. Under legal threat, Dobbs (or his employer Fox News) gave a mea culpafor allowing unsubstantiated lying about conspiracy theories about election fraud.

On the other hand, Trump and Vice President Mike Pence reached the enormously important and contentious decision to label members of Space Force as "guardians," rather than airmen, sailors, soldiers or Marines. Wasn't that the name of the universe-traveling robot Gort in "The Day the Earth Stood Still"?

Klaatu barada nikto.

https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/trump-pardons-2649624556/

cody f

On Tuesday night, President Donald Trump unleashed a wave of pardons and grants of clemency for 20 individuals. Among those included in this round were two of the president's early supporters in Congress and two figures convicted in former Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.

Since the special counsel was appointed specifically to shield the investigation from conflicts of interest with the president, these two pardons, much like the clemency offered to Trump allies Michael Flynn and Roger Stone, undercuts the integrity of Mueller probe.

Trump also gave pardons to four veterans who were convicted of killing Iraqi civilians while working as contractors in 2007.

Georga Papadopoulos was among those receiving a pardon on Tuesday. He is a former adviser on the president's 2016 campaign who pleaded guilty for lying to the FBI about his contacts with an individual offering emails from Hillary Clinton months before WikiLeaks began dumping hacked Democratic emails to influence the election. Though Papadopoulos expressed contrition and was granted a lenient sentence, he has since argued that he was the victim of a set-up. In a statement explaining the pardon, the White House dismissed Papadopoulos's illegal lies as a "process-related crime."

Trump also pardoned Alex van der Zwaan, who was charged by Mueller for lying to investigators. He admitted to deleting emails and misleading the investigation about his work with Rick Gates, who worked on Trump's 2016 campaign. This, too, was dismissed as a mere "process-related crime."

In another disturbing move, Trump repaid favors to two of his earliest endorsers in Congress, former Republican Reps. Duncan Hunter of California and Chris Collins of New York.

Hunter pleaded guilty to misusing campaign funds, while Collins pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit securities fraud and lying to the FBI. When indictments of the pair were rolled out under Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Trump attacked his hand-picked head of the Justice Department for daring to pursue the crimes of Republicans:

Two long running, Obama era, investigations of two very popular Republican Congressmen were brought to a well publ… https://t.co/QTG25ccvbp

— Donald J. Trump (@Donald J. Trump)1535999125.0

Hunter was sentenced to 11 months in prison, while Collins received a 26-month sentence. The only justification the White House offered for pardoning these crimes was that they came "at the request of many Members of Congress." Of course, it's not surprising that members of Congress would prefer to not see their buddies go to prison.

Nicholas Slatten, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty, and Dustin Heard all received pardons from Trump on Tuesday after facing charges including first-degree murder and manslaughter in the 2007 massacre of Iraqi citizens. They were working for the mercenary contractor Blackwater at the time, owned by Trump ally Erik Prince. The White House said many members of Congress had lobbied for these pardons and suggested there were questions about the evidence used in the case.

Two former agents of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, also received pardons.They were convicted on charges of assault, using a firearm during a crime of violence, and deprivation of civil rights, after an incident in which Ramos shot an immigrant suspected of smuggling marijuana at the border. Former President George W. Bush had already commuted their sentences of 11 and 12 years in prison.

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1220

trump’s personal bankers abruptly resign from Deutsche Bank

Sarah Toce The New Civil Rights Movement

December 23, 2020

President Donald J. Trump's personal bankers, Rosemary Vrablic and Dominic Scalzi, have resigned from Deutsche Bank. The financial institution has loaned the Trump Organization more than $300 million over the years.

https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/jerry-falwell-jr-2649629904/

with the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden less than a month away, the Christian right is in mourning. A major ally of far-right white evangelicals, President Donald Trump, is leaving the White House — and even though Biden is known for being a devout Catholic, he isn't nearly as friendly to the Christian Right's theocratic agenda. Journalist Maggie Severns, in an article published by Politico on December 22, discusses Trump's alliance with former Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. — who, according to Severns, was free to spend millions of dollars on his political activity thanks to an executive order from Trump.

"Former Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr.'s decision to spend millions of university dollars on Republican political causes followed an executive order by President Donald Trump directing the Internal Revenue Service to avoid, whenever possible, investigating religious organizations veering into politics," Severns explains. "Trump issued the order in 2017. The following year, under Falwell's leadership, the university directed more than $3 million to conservative organizations."

Severns' December 22 article follows a December 14 article for Politico in which she discussed the millions of dollars that Falwell Jr. spent promoting Trump and his causes at Liberty University.

Falwell Jr. is the son of the late Jerry Falwell Sr., founder of Liberty University and co-founder of the Moral Majority. The elder Falwell, who died in 2007, was an outspoken segregationist during the 1950s and 1960s and vigorously defended Jim Crow laws from the pulpit — and during the 1980s, he played a major role in the prominence that far-right white evangelicals and the Christian right movement achieved in the Republican Party.

New: Trump discouraged the IRS from investigating religious organizations. Then Jerry Falwell Jr. and Liberty Unive… https://t.co/rO3MQbPucH

— Maggie Severns (@Maggie Severns)1608734488.0

Trump went out of his way to pander to the Christian right when he ran for president in 2016 — and it worked. Trump is wildly popular among Christian right evangelicals, and Falwell Jr. has been among his closest allies.

Severns, in her December 22 article, notes that Falwell, Jr.'s pro-Republican activities "appear to push the boundaries of the university's non-profit status, particularly given that the law explicitly bans nonprofits from assisting political candidates under a provision called the Johnson Amendment, named after former President Lyndon Johnson, who sponsored it in the Senate."

The Politico reporter notes that "under Falwell's leadership, the university directed more than $3 million to conservative organizations" in 2018 — and "in 2019, it created a think tank that purchased Facebook ads featuring Trump's image and the slogan 'Pray For Our President,' produced a podcast that amplified Trump's claims of a stolen election, and recently staged a strategy session for the 2021 elections that featured only Republican politicians."

According to Severns, "Trump's administration furthered the IRS' already hands-off approach to monitoring churches and other religious nonprofits to the point that enforcement now appears to be nearly nonexistent, giving Liberty and other groups new opportunity to test boundaries they couldn't have in the past."

Brendan Fisher, director of the Watchdog group the Campaign Legal Center, told Politico, "For someone like Falwell, who was eager to use tax-exempt resources to engage in politics, it may have given the green light. It's a correlation, but it certainly seems like you can draw a line between the executive order and Liberty ramping up its political activity in the years following it."

https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/trump-election-challenge

...IMI]...That there will be an attempted coup is no longer a matter of speculation. In an appearance on "Fox & Friends" on December 14, Stephen Miller, perhaps the most deranged and malevolent of Trump's senior advisers, openly declared the administration's plan to overturn the election results in the upcoming joint session.

A gambit under the 12th Amendment is a long shot, to be sure, but so was Trump's initial presidential bid back when he descended the escalator at Trump Tower in June 2015 to announce his first campaign and stigmatize undocumented Mexican migrants as "rapists" and drug traffickers. It behooves us, then, to take Trump and Miller seriously.

Ratified in 1804 in the aftermath of the hotly disputed election of 1800 (which ultimately seated Thomas Jefferson as the nation's third president), the 12th Amendment modified the procedures that govern the Electoral College. And while the 12th Amendment itself was modified by the 20th Amendment (which moved up the presidential inauguration from March to January), its basic provisions remain intact.

Of particular relevance to Trump's machinations, the 12th Amendment stipulates that after the electors of the various states (there are 538 of them today) cast and certify their votes for president and vice president, their ballots are transmitted to the president of the Senate. Under the Constitution, the president of the Senate is the vice president, currently Pence.

...

v pence cert election?

https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/trump-white-house-2649585320/

no lnx twt

Trump allies floating increasingly 'anti-democratic' ideas as their ‘desperation’ grows — and officials are 'scared'

Alex Henderson December 21, 2020

President Donald Trump can't stand rejection, and his campaign has had a lot of it since the 2020 presidential election — from judge after judge dismissing his legal team's election lawsuits to the Electoral College certifying President-elect Joe Biden's victory. Following all that rejection, journalist Charlotte Klein stresses in an article published by Vanity Fair on December 20, Trump and his supporters are resorting to increasingly extreme ideas in the hope of preventing Biden from being inaugurated less than a month from now.

"Having effectively exhausted his legal options — at least 86 judges, including dozens appointed by Republicans, have shut down the president's unprecedented attempt to overturn his defeat through the courts — Donald Trump is apparently now entertaining even more anti-democratic paths to preserving his power," Klein explains. "During a White House meeting on Friday, nearly a week after the Electoral College certified Joe Biden's victory, Trump reportedly discussed invoking martial law to overturn his losing election result — a strategy one of the meeting's attendees, former national security adviser and recent pardon recipient Michael Flynn, had recently proposed on cable television."

According to New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Zolan Kanno-Youngs, far-right Republican attorney Sidney Powell was also present in the White House during that Friday, December 18 meeting with the president — who floated the idea of choosing her as a special counsel to oversee an investigation of voter fraud. Powell, in her lawsuits, has been alleging that Trump was the victim of widespread voter fraud during the election but has offered no proof of it.

Others who were present during that meeting included attorney Rudy Giuliani, White House Counsel Pat Cipollone and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.

Klein writes, "As others in the room pointed out Powell's failure thus far to support her fraud claims with verifiable evidence, (Powell) 'accused other Trump advisers of being quitters,' according to the Times. Another reported an idea weighed during Friday's meeting was an executive order to seize voting machines to examine them for alleged fraud, after Giuliani separately asked the Department of Homeland Security to do so earlier in the week — apparently to no avail."

Flynn isn't the only Trump supporter who has been urging Trump to declare martial law. Far-right Georgia-based attorney Lin Wood, who has been working closely with Powell on election-related lawsuits, has also made that frightening recommendation:

Haberman and Axios' Jonathan Swan have both posted tweets noting how worried some people in Trump's circle have been about the increasingly extreme ideas they are hearing:

Klein points out that "concern about the president's increasingly desperate quest to remain in power has intensified among those in Trump's circle," noting that a senior administration official, quoted anonymously, told Axios, "People who are concerned and nervous aren't the weak-kneed bureaucrats that we loathe. These are people who have endured arguably more insanity and mayhem than any administration officials in history."

https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/trump-georgia-2649520984/

new report kellyanne and ivanka kid killers?!

https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/trump-cdc/

https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/trump-economy/

record bad

hmn reports that he's more isolated, depressed, floated flynn martial law idea

random 1220

Week In Dumb

In another attempt to undo the election results, right-wing media, including Fox personalities, promoted fake elector slates from states won by Joe Biden. These slates have no legal significance whatsoever.
President Donald Trump reportedly met with conspiracy theorists Sidney Powell and Michael Flynn in the Oval Office. Both Flynn and Powell have called for martial law to overturn election results, and Trump reportedly brought it up with them. This morning, a Fox contributor dismissed the entire story.
An investigation found that Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) helped the VA secretary smear a veteran reporting a sexual assault. Major TV stations in his district ignored it.
A truly wild story: A former police captain was arrested and charged with assaulting an air conditioner repairman who he falsely thought was carrying 750,000 fraudulent ballots in his truck. The organization allegedly paying the former cop to prove supposed election fraud is led by a QAnon conspiracy theorist, and its Facebook page is filled with conspiracy theories and violent rhetoric.
A viral 4chan hoax about Chief Justice John Roberts tricked a presidential elector and pro-Trump media.
Right-wing media personality and major Fox News advertiser Mike Lindell, of MyPillow, called for Trump to impose martial law.
Invoking the infamous Dred Scott decision, Mark Levin screamed at the Supreme Court over Trump's election loss.
Laura Ingraham encouraged viewers to gather for the holidays. She is still lying about how lethal COVID-19 is, and also claimed this weekthat vaccinations may not be necessary in the Dakotas because of how many people have already been infected.
Tucker Carlson claimed vaccine distribution is “eugenics” against white people.
Fox News villainized Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) for the massive hack (allegedly by Russia) that happened on Trump's watch.
A Newsmax host compared mask burning ceremonies to the Boston Tea Party.
Fox News used video of Times Square in a snowstorm to claim NYC is empty due to crime and COVID-19.
While undermining the election results on air, Newsmax has been sending sponsored messages stating that readers should invest in gold because Biden will be president.

note rhet, note always defensive, it's kraken that is coup

https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/prepare-for-war-gop-official-pushes-dangerous-conspiracy-theories-over-election-outcome/

It has been three days since the Electoral College confirmed President-elect Joe Biden's victory, but an overwhelming number of Republicans are still refusing to accept the outcome of the election. Propaganda articles and infotainment videos on conspiracy theories are still circulating as Trump supporters continue their fight to "stop the steal."

Now, an article published by the Seattle Times highlights another problem with the spread of misinformation. The writer notes that it is one thing when dangerous falsehoods come from unknown websites that lack credibility, but some of the latest threats are coming from members of the Republican Party.

According to the publication, on Monday, Rep. Robert J. Sutherland, a representative of the 39th legislative district of Eastern Snohomish County along with Skagit County, took to Facebook with a number of dangerous claims about the election.

In multiple posts, he referenced reports and claims from right-wing influencers and propaganda sites as he said,"prepare for war. Joe Biden is not now, nor will ever be my President. Am I a sore loser? No. I'm pro-America and anti-communist. Joe Biden is a bought and paid for Communist China puppet. Stay tuned, big things happening soon at the Federal level."

In a series of other Facebook posts and discussions, Sutherland also insisted that he supported the idea of going to war over the so-called "coup against the sitting president."

"Is the 'coup' against the sitting President the start of a second 'Civil War' here in the USA?" Sutherland asked as he noted his support of Trump possibly using the military to maintain his presidential power.

"What good and decent person would not conduct a war to defend Life, Liberty, the Pursuit of happiness, their families, their neighbors?" Sutherland asked.

aha2 covid plague not scourge of god for gay sex but chicomm.

aha CNP is everywhere in trump/ crazytown slide into polarization in this case dobson; satan usage getting pretty common/casual, it's manichean light/dark tribalism, you're with us or THEM; they are so evil/irrational only settle/cure with war; they hate america and freedom; armageddon is the final orgasmic punishment /vanquishing of coastal elite who looked down on us and called us crazy (ghost dance) aha3: this is the dark side of magical thinking vs prosperity gospel.

https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/trump-evangelicals-2649541067/

alexh

Christian Right is in mourning over President Donald Trump being voted out of office. Pat Robertson, the far-right evangelical who founded the Christian Broadcasting Network, has declared that the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden on January 20, 2021 must be prevented, saying, "We will not give up this great country. And Satan, you cannot have it." But the irony is that the incoming president is much more religious than Trump, who has demonstrated how little he knows about Christianity and the Bible.

Although Trump was raised Presbyterian, religion was never a high priority in his life. But when he ran for president in 2016, Trump realized that the Christian Right was a prominent voting bloc in the GOP and went out of his way to pander to the far-right White evangelicals he had no connection to in the past. The Trump of the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s was more of a Blue Dog Democrat than a GOP culture warrior, and he spent a lot more time in casinos than in churches.

Journalist Ed Kilgore, in an article published by New York Magazine on December 17, notes Trump's history of butchering Biblical references during his speeches.

Kilgore explains, "Before Donald Trump became the very favorite politician of White conservative evangelicals, he was regularly a figure of sport for displaying exceptional ignorance in all matters religious. A particularly rich example of his clumsiness occurred when he was campaigning at evangelical stronghold Liberty University early in 2016 and tried to quote a Bible verse that was very familiar to the audience, since it's etched on several buildings there."

Kilgore adds that there were many other "religious gaffes Trump committed while stumping for votes" in 2016.

"On another occasion along the campaign trail," Kilgore recalls, "Trump was asked about his favorite line of scripture. He delivered a word salad for a while and finally tried to recall 'an eye for an eye,' not the sort of thing Christians of any variety consider normative for the faith of the Prince of Peace…... Just prior to the Iowa caucuses, Trump was in a Council Bluffs church when a plate came down the pews with communion bread on it. The billionaire misidentified it as a collection plate and put a couple of bills on it."

Kilgore also notes that in 2017, Trump met with two Presbyterian minsters and was surprised to learn that they didn't consider themselves evangelicals but rather, described themselves as "Mainline Protestants."

Of course, anyone with even a basic knowledge of Christianity realizes that Presbyterians aren't evangelicals any more than Episcopalians or Lutherans — two other examples of Mainline Protestants — are evangelicals. And there's no way that either Biden, a devout Catholic, or former President Barack Obama, a Mainline Protestant, would have made that mistake or confused a communion plate with a collection plate. Unlike Trump, Biden and Obama both have a long history of being churchgoing Christians and obviously have an extensive knowledge of the Bible.

[twt]

if Pat Robertson were to sit down with Biden or Obama, they could have an in-depth conversation about scripture. Yet Robertson, like much of the Christian Right, adores Trump while hating Biden and Obama — which underscores the deeply tribalist nature of the Christian Right.

The Christian Right has long been a hate movement, and it is as much about White nationalism and far-right identity politics as it is about Protestant fundamentalism. The late Rev. Jerry Falwell, Sr., founder of Liberty University and co-founder of the Moral Majority, was a notorious segregationist during the 1950s and 1960s, when he vigorously defended Jim Crow laws in the pulpit and argued that the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a not a true Christian because of his anti-segregation views. During the 1980s, Falwell defended the racist apartheid regime in South African and encouraged Christians to buy krugerrands to support it.

The late Republican Sen. Barry Goldwater, known for being an arch-conservative in his day, was vehemently critical of Falwell and the Christian Right during the 1980s — describing them as dangerous fanatics and warning that the GOP was making a huge mistake by allying itself with that movement. But many Republicans ignored Goldwater, much to the GOP's detriment.

To the Christian Right and far-right White evangelicals, the fact that Biden and Obama are more religious than Trump is irrelevant. Robertson, the Family Research Council's Tony Perkins, James Dobson (founder of Focus on the Family) and other evangelical Trump supporters are extreme tribalists, and they view Trump as part of their tribe — which is why Trump got a pass when, according to his former personal attorney Michael Cohen, he had extramarital affairs with a porn star (Stormy Daniels) and a Playboy model (Karen McDougal) and paid them hush money to keep quiet.

Trump repeatedly attacked Biden as anti-Christian during his 2020 presidential campaign. But in 2017, Trump didn't even know the difference between Presbyterians and evangelicals.

The Christian Right will miss Trump dearly when he leaves off on January 20, 2021. And no matter how much Biden goes to church or accurately quotes the Bible, it won't matter to the far-right evangelical extremists who value White identity politics above all else.

https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/trump-coup-2649538441

no lnx twt vid

Four chilling signs Trump's attempted coup is escalating

Bob Brigham December 18, 2020

President Donald Trump continues to refuse to concede that he lost the 2020 election to President-elect Joe Biden.

There were four major signs on Thursday evening that the Republican effort to overthrow the election is escalating.

The first sign was when former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn suggested on NewsMax Trump could use "military capabilities" to overturn the election in swing states hold do-over elections.[mart law used 64x]

The second sign occurred a short time later on Fox News when White House advisor Peter Navarro said President-elect Biden would be an "illegal and illegitimate president."

The third sign was when White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany argued on Fox News that Congress could use "alternate slates" of electors to steal the election.

https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1339758838535180288

The fourth sign was Trump's Twitter account.

Trump complimented Senator-elect Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) for saying he would back Trump's efforts to overturn the election in Congress.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1339758142381551629

Trump then falsely claimed he won Wisconsin and that the vote was rigged.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1339759289234317312

And then Trump complained about the United States Supreme Court refusing to go along with his efforts to overturn the election.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1339759289234317312

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yikes bill tracker

https://projects.propublica.org/trump-midnight-regulations/

small eg# finalized 1220

Loosening Efficiency Standards for Clothes Washers and Dryers

This rule would loosen water and energy efficiency standards by creating a separate class of clothes washers and dryers based on how long they take to complete a load. More efficient washers use less water, and take longer, because they require more time for the soap to penetrate soiled clothes. Major manufacturers oppose the change, but small-government conservatives still want to slash regulation.

Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy • Read more: regulations.gov

FINANCE

This rule has moved ahead since Election Day

Loosening Restrictions on Banks Acquiring Deposits Through Brokers

This rule would loosen restrictions on banks accumulating deposits by acquiring them from other banks through brokers. Financial reform advocates have raised concerns about allowing less well-capitalized banks to grow to an unsafe size.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation • Read more: fdic.gov

FINANCE

This rule has moved ahead since Election Day

Confining Retirement Fund Pressure on Corporations

This rule would constrain the ability of private retirement fund managers to vote on shareholder resolutions that influence the behavior of public companies. Critics such as Investor Advocates for Social Justice and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System say it will reduce corporate accountabiltiy and oversight.

Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration • Read more: regulations.gov

OTHER

This rule has moved ahead since Election Day

Bolstering the Position of Faith-Based Organizations in Government Grants...