retaliation intimidation

2/20

see fired tag

see retaliate 2

merri ok

see fascism

see macho // strict fr yahweh old testament smite

see deep state

see desantis, DA, teacher, AA voters/felon

see rubber glue inversion

prolly neglected since it's daily/ "normal"

aha dark side inverse of transaction is retaliation

see defund

see dirty tricks, oppo res etc

see retaliATE DEFUND ...

see legal suppression lawsuit defamation libel slapp

ghost of cohen: any threat is met with threat of over overwhelming force (no modulation --> oscillation/runaway mode? 6/1/20

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aha rubber inverse but also // anti-gubmint freedumb: true victim

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aha trump claims to be their instrument of punishment

an extreme flavor of pseudo-populism? // qanon storm punishes

:{:{Kelly McClure @ Salon: “:{I am your retribution,” says Trump in his CPAC speech.}:

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Bannon says former AG Bill Barr and FBI Director Chris Wray should be “brought up on charges” related to Hunter Biden laptop

06/05/24

===

mAGA Martyrdom Machine Portrays Felon Trump as Victim, Vows Revenge

:By Peter Montgomery | May 31, 2024 Kyle Mantyla | May 31, 2024

Former President Donald Trump, top Republican officials, MAGA movement leaders, and dominionist religious-right figures, all reacted badly to Trump’s May 30 conviction on 34 felony counts. A jury of citizens found that he repeatedly broke the law while trying to prevent embarrassing information about his sexual dalliance with a porn star from hurting his 2016 presidential campaign.

Even before the verdict, Trump and his allies had denounced the trial as rigged, smeared the judge, and portrayed Trump as the victim of political persecution. When the jury’s verdicts were announced Thursday afternoon, the MAGA Republican martyrdom machinery went into full swing. Right-wing figures attacked the judge, jury, prosecutors, and President Biden, who they accused of masterminding the prosecution. Trump cultist Joey Mannarino accused them all of committing treason before taking to Twitter to have a vulgar meltdown.

IFrame Content

Trump himself denounced the trial as “rigged.” In a series of text messages tied to fundraising asks, Trump called himself a “political prisoner” and declared, “JUSTICE IS DEAD IN AMERICA! Our country has FALLEN!” Trump called on his supporters to mobilize “IMMEDIATE PUSHBACK SO MASSIVE IT WILL GO DOWN IN HISTORY!” and added, “WE MUST MAKE JOE BIDEN REGRET EVER COMING AFTER US!”

:{Trump, his son Don Jr., and daughter-in-law Lara, all sent fundraising emails. In one of them, Trump said the trial was a “sick & twisted” effort to turn his supporters against him. “NOW IT’S TIME FOR ME & YOU TO SHOVE IT BACK IN THEIR CORRUPT FACES!” he ranted. Trump called the day of his convictions the “darkest day in American history!” Junior repeated the claim that his dad is a “political prisoner” and called America “a third-world shithole.”

Lara called Trump’s conviction an “assault on America” and accused Democrats of “using a SHAM TRIAL to silence, imprison, and ERASE PRESIDENT TRUMP FROM HISTORY!” Right-wing media reported that the flood of contributions from Trump supporters overwhelmed his fundraising site.}:

Trump’s capture and corruption of the Republican Party is on full display. When the guilty verdicts were announced, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson declared, “Today is a shameful day in American history.” Johnson claimed the trial was “evidence that Democrats will stop at nothing to silence dissent and crush their political opponents”—some high-level gaslighting considering that is actually what Trump has been promising to do if he gets back into power. The Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell fumed that the criminal charges “never should have been brought in the first place.”

Right-wing Trump supporters went ballistic. Culture warrior Matt Walsh railed that he didn’t want to hear statements from Republicans condemning the verdict. “The only thing I want to hear from these people is which Democrats they will have arrested,” he posted on social media. “Don’t tell us that you’re sad about the verdict. We don’t give a shit about your feelings. We want to see corrupt Democrats frog marched on camera in handcuffs. If you won’t do that, then shut up.”

Eric Metaxas declared that the guilty verdict was “like a lynching” while fellow right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk proclaimed that “they just executed a legal assassination.” Far-right activist Ali Alexander claimed that “Today is January 6th for the entire nation,” and former Trump administration official William Wolfe welcomed everyone “to the United Soviet States of America.”

Mark Meckler, who heads the Convention of States movement to do a right-wing rewrite of the U.S. Constitution, demanded that officials in “deep red” parts of the country “bring immediate prosecutions of every Dem official they can tag with even the most spurious charges.” Meckler was so outraged that he even did an to demand that every district attorney in every conservative county in every red state bring “the most brutal changes we can possibly bring” against every Democrat they can.

Radio host Todd Starnes asserted that “There MUST be payback. The judge and the district attorney should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. The House must immediately defund the Justice Department. Justice must be served.” Religious-right activist Carol Swain lamented that “for the first time in my life, I am ashamed of my nation.”

Trump’s religious-right backers also rallied around him. “Jesus was a convicted felon. Convicted by political enemies,” declared dominionist Mario Murillo. Like many other far-right figures, Murillo predicted that the convictions would strengthen Trump by energizing his outraged supporters. He invoked the Japanese admiral who planned the World War II attack on the U.S. at Pearl Harbor, who wrote afterward in his diary, “I fear all we have done is to awake a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”

“Apostle” Dutch Sheets, a leading figure in the New Apostolic Reformation, God to “strengthen President Trump” because “he is being martyred politically.”

Speaking of terrible resolve, far-right pastor Joshua Feuerstein asked, “At what point do we take up arms?” Never one to be outdone, far-right broadcaster Stew Peters, who has a record of calling for political violence, did so again, tweeting, “Our judicial system has been weaponized against the American people,” adding, “We are left with NO other option but to take matters into our own hands,” a statement he followed with an emoji of crossed swords. In case Peters wasn’t clear enough, he followed that up with a tweet that simply said, “It’s time” and featured a photo of a noose.

===

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mma

Clay Travis: “We’re in a real war. Legal warfare is afoot and it’s time to return fire.”

05/31/24 9:05 PM EDT

### Laura Ingraham says Democrats could use reaction to Trump conviction to “maybe even declare martial law”

05/31/24 7:45 PM EDT

### Jesse Watters predicts “there will be a revolution” if Donald Trump receives jail time

05/31/24 6:10 PM EDT

### Sean Hannity calls Judge Merchan “the most corrupt judge I've ever seen in my lifetime”

05/31/24 4:09 PM EDT

### Jack Posobiec endorses “reciprocity” after Trump's 34 guilty verdicts: “Get the message across by any means necessary”

05/31/24 3:17 PM EDT

### Project 2025 plans to dismantle the federal agency that tracks hurricanes

05/31/24 3:07 PM EDT

### Matt Walsh: “Donald Trump should immediately create and publish a list of 10 high-ranking Democrat criminals who he will have arrested when he takes office”

05/31/24 2:21 PM EDT

### CNN and MSNBC fact-checked Trump's complaints about his guilty verdicts. Fox News repeated them.

05/31/24 1:01 PM EDT

### MAGA figure Mike Davis fantasizes about a Trump DOJ prosecuting Biden, Garland, and legal figures in Trump's trials: “There is absolutely gonna be retribution”

05/31/24 12:42 PM EDT

### Steve Bannon attacks House Republicans, calls for a “vast investigation” into Trump's 34 guilty verdicts

05/31/24

---

May 31, 2024 RWW

Glenn Beck reacted to the conviction of former President Donald Trump by recalling “something that Ben Franklin asked himself during the writing of the Declaration of Independence”: “As they were going through what they went through, he sat in his chair, and he had been looking at John Hancock’s chair, and it had a half sun on it. And he said, this whole time I had been sitting here thinking, wondering, praying, is that a setting sun or a rising sun? He deemed at the end that it was a rising sun.” That happened after the Constitutional Convention and it was George Washington’s chair.

Charlie Kirk calls on attorneys general to respond to Trump’s conviction by “getting creative” and finding ways to bring charges against “Open borders NGOs, Democrat ‘Civil rights’ foot soldiers, Leftwing COVID tyrants, [and] Democrat 501c3s gaming our elections.”

Someone should explain to Kandiss Taylor that “furries” is not “bestiality.”

Just a reminder that Stew Peters is racist.

Finally, Dalton Clodfelter finds out that being a racist, antisemitic streamer is not quite as great as it seems.

---

{{{ mAGA media rage in response to Trump's 34 guilty verdicts

WRITTEN BY MATT GERTZ & JOHN WHITEHOUSE

PUBLISHED 05/31/24

Fox News stars and other MAGA media commentators have responded to former President Donald Trump’s historic criminal conviction in a New York court with apocalyptic rhetoric and demands for retribution.

On Thursday, a jury found Trump guilty on all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush-money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels, which were intended to prevent Daniels’ claims that she had an affair with Trump from becoming public during the 2016 presidential election.

Right-wing media have followed the same time-tested strategy deployed in innumerable previous Trump scandals. Since the charges were brought, they have worked hand in hand with the former president to run interference, denounce Trump’s foes, and shape the way the GOP base perceives the events, thus keeping the Republican Party squarely behind him.

The convicted former president’s media allies responded to Trump’s indictment and arraignment last March by claiming that Trump was the victim of a politicized persecution that made the U.S. a “Third-World banana republic” and demanding legal retribution against Democrats.

Over the last seven weeks, the MAGA media sought to delegitimize every aspect of the trial. They attacked the judge, jury, prosecutors, and witnesses while pushing an array of false claims about the case.

### Following the guilty verdict, Trump’s media allies piled more attacks on the justice system

Fox News co-host Jeanine Pirro claimed America had “gone over a cliff,” called the verdict “warfare,” and spoke of the country being “born of revolution.” Media Matters, [5/30/24, 5/30/24, 5/30/24]

- War Room host Stephen Bannon claimed that Trump’s convictions for falsifying business records to cover up his affair with a porn star were really an attack on his viewers: “It's not President Trump they're trying to destroy — they're trying to destroy you.” Earlier in the show, he had reassured viewers about the damage Trump might take as a result of the verdict. *War Room*, [5/30/24, 5/30/24]

- Prompted by a quote from actor Rob Schneider, Donald Trump Jr. argued that “we don't have a choice” and that the GOP will have to prosecute Trump critics as retribution. *Triggered*, [5/30/24]

- On his radio show, Fox News host Sean Hannity lashed out at Judge Juan Merchan. *The Sean Hannity Show*, [5/30/24]

- Fox News guest Brett Tolman: “I really blame the judge.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [5/30/24]

- A Newsmax host made clear that Trump jurors can never go anywhere without being harassed. Newsmax, [5/30/24]

- Fox News reporter Shannon Bream hyped criticism of the judge’s jury instructions. Fox News, *Special Report*, [5/30/24]

- Laura Ingraham speculated that two attorneys on the jury steered the rest of the jury’s deliberations. Fox News, *The Ingraham Angle*, [5/30/24]

- A Fox News guest called Trump’s conviction a result of a “show trial” and said it shows why presidents “need immunity from criminal prosecution to do their jobs.” Fox News, *The Ingraham Angle*, [5/30/24]

- Newsmax guest Joseph di Genova warned jurors to be “very careful.” Newsmax, *Rob Schmitt Tonight*, [5/30/24]

---

Steve Bannon: “It's not President Trump they're trying to destroy -- they're trying to destroy you”

05/30/24 6:19 PM EDT

Newsmax host says the jurors in Trump's hush money trial “can never go anywhere without worry about being harassed”

05/30/24 6:07 PM EDT

Reacting to Trump's guilty verdict, Jesse Watters promises to “vanquish the evil forces that are destroying this republic”

05/30/24 6:24 PM EDT

Fox News coverage of Trump's guilty verdicts

Fox co-host on Trump's 34 guilty verdicts: “Lawfare is far too soft. It's far too benign. This is warfare.”

05/30/24

Steve Bannon's initial reaction to 34 guilty verdicts: “This is not going to damage President Trump at all”

05/30/24 5:41 PM EDT

Watch Fox News' initial reaction to Donald Trump being found guilty of 34 felonies

05/30/24 5:35 PM EDT

The Fox News campaign to undermine the jury in Donald Trump’s hush money trial

05/09/24 11:22 AM EDT

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Myths and facts: Debunking right-wing lies and misinformation about Trump’s Manhattan criminal trial

04/19/24 10:37 AM EDT

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How Trump's Fox News feedback loop powers his Manhattan trial defense

05/20/24 8:57 AM EDT

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fox Business host falsely claims New York trial and conviction of Trump “was Biden's idea” and is “election interference”](https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-business/fox-business-host-falsely-claims-new-york-trial-and-conviction-trump-was-bidens-idea)

05/31/24

### **:{Megyn Kelly on Trump's 34 guilty verdicts: “The only way to save the republic now is to give them a taste of their own medicine”}:

05/31/24 10:57 AM EDT

### Media Matters weekly newsletter, May 31

05/31/24 10:49 AM EDT

### Fox guest brings up “stolen election,” “warfare” rhetoric in response to Trump conviction

05/31/24 10:44 AM EDT

### MAGA media rage in response to Trump's 34 guilty verdicts

05/31/24 9:23 AM EDT

### Newsmax guest tells the jurors in Trump's hush money trial to be “very careful”

05/31/24 8:38 AM EDT

### Jesse Watters calls for an investigation into “whether Soros was involved” in Trump's conviction

05/30/24 9:34 PM EDT

### **:{Donald Trump Jr. promises that the GOP will “retaliate” for the conviction of Donald Trump}:

05/30/24 8:37 PM EDT

### Watch Andrew Weissman eviscerate the MAGA attacks on Trump's conviction

05/30/24 7:57 PM EDT

### Donald Trump Jr. calls Fox News' Shannon Bream a “fucking dolt” for questioning Trump's claim that his felony trial was partisan

05/30/24

=== }}}

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an 3 24

Former President Donald Trump is still seething at New York Attorney General Letitia James after losing his civil fraud case earlier this year. And if he's elected to a second term, his Department of Justice may throw the book at her.

Rolling Stone reported Wednesday that the ex-president's lawyers are planning a vengeance campaign against James in the event Trump gets elected in November and installs a far-right attorney general. Reporters Asawin Suebsaeng and Andrew Perez wrote that "Trump and his MAGA legal brain trust — many of whom are informally auditioning for roles in his potential second administration — are serious about keeping their vengeful options wide open."

"Letitia James is not going to get away with it," Trump attorney Alina Habba said on Fox News. "We will come at them. We will come hard and we will literally fight until the truth comes out. There was nothing wrong. President Trump has done nothing wrong. All he has done is won a campaign. And that is scaring them because they know when he goes back in November 2024, he is going to clean house."

In order to appeal Judge Arthur Engoron's verdict in the bench trial, the former president owed a bond of $464 million, which included the $355 million in penalties and statutory interest. But a New York Appeals Court recently reduced that bond to just $175 million, and gave Trump another 10 days to come up with the money (he'll still need to pay the full judgment amount if he loses the appeal). But despite the multiple breaks he's received since the verdict, Trump is still planning to prosecute James under a federal statute.

Suebsaeng and Perez reported that Trump is specifically aiming to prosecute the New York attorney general under 18 U.S. Code § 595, which prohibits state officials from using their "official authority for the purpose of interfering with, or affecting, the nomination or the election of any candidate for the office of President."

Former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti called the use of that statute a "non-starter," saying prosecuting James would be an "abuse of power" that would likely trigger impeachment hearings.

"James used her authority as Attorney General to enforce the laws of New York," Mariotti said. "To characterize that as ‘interference’ in an election raises obvious federalism concerns. It would essentially mean that state officials could not enforce any state law against an entity affiliated with a potential presidential candidate."

The Rolling Stone report pointed out that President Joe Biden could theoretically use that same statute to prosecute Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, given his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Suebsaeng and Perez also noted the irony of Trump complaining about "election interference," given his multiple documented attempts to interfere with the certification of election results.

"As it were, Trump has been charged in two criminal cases — one federal, one in Fulton County, Georgia — for actual election interference during his attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden," they wrote.

Trump has made revenge the themes of his 2024 campaign. At his first official rally of the 2024 election season in Waco, Texas — the site of a deadly FBI raid on the Branch Davidian cult in the 1990s — Trump told the crowd he was their "retribution." He repeated that statement at the 2024 Conservative Political Action Conference.

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maccarthy primaries/flanks gaetz 8? 2 24

'Kevin wants payback': Nancy Mace faces 'potent challenges' in tough GOP primary battle - Alternet.org

8 Republicans lose donor support over McCarthy disloyalty — Mace gets most 'blowback': report - Alternet.org

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an 2 24

When 2024 arrived, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-California) was gone from Congress. McCarthy was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2006 midterms, but after being ousted as speaker in October 2023, he obviously lost his desire to remain a congressman. And instead of serving out the rest of his term, McCarthy made December 31 his final day in the House.

According to Politico reporters Ally Mutnick and Olivia Beavers, McCarthy and his allies are planning revenge against the Republicans who are responsible for him being ousted as speaker.

Far-right Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) triggered a "motion to vacate" that led to a full House vote on McCarthy, and seven Republicans joined Gaetz in voting to oust him as speaker. Collectively, they are known as the "Gaetz Eight" on Capitol Hill, and Mutnick and Beavers report that McCarthy ally Brian O. Walsh is "overseeing an attempt to recruit primary challengers" against them.

"Behind the scenes," the Politico journalists report in an article published on February 1, "McCarthy allies have identified three of the Gaetz Eight as the most vulnerable in primaries — and thus, the ripest targets: Reps. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), Bob Good (R-Va.) and Eli Crane (R-Ariz.). Mace and Good already have strong challengers, but Crane still lacks a compelling prospective candidate to take him on. That quiet work shows McCarthy's appetite for payback remains intense, even months after his October ouster as speaker and December departure from Congress."

Mutnick and Olivia Beavers continue, "It also illustrates that even out of office, the former speaker and his supporters can make life miserable for his detractors — a further sign that the House GOP power struggle between burn-it-down hardliners and more establishment conservatives is alive and well."

Walsh's thirst for revenge was evident in a statement to Politico.

The McCarthy ally said of the Gaetz Eight, "These traitors chose to side with Nancy Pelosi, AOC and over 200 Democrats to undermine the institution, their fellow Republicans and a duly elected speaker. There must be consequences for that decision.”

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Pastors threaten 'retribution' under second Trump term in their prayers — although it does get 'awkward' - Alternet.org

rubber retaliate/mirror

Michael Knowles: "A red state governor needs to have a red state secretary of state kick Biden off the ballot" | Media Matters for America

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mma 1 24 mg

After decisions in two states ruled that Donald Trump was disqualified from the presidential ballot because he “engaged in insurrection” on January 6, 2021, right-wing influencers called for Republican officials to retaliate in kind by dropping President Joe Biden from the ballot. It took only days for them to find someone willing to play the part: Jay Ashcroft, Missouri’s secretary of state and a candidate for governor.

Ashcroft said last week that he would enforce “the new legal standard” against Biden in his state if the Supreme Court sustains Trump’s removal in Colorado. He probably won’t be the last to make such a pitch given the incentives GOP officeholders have to follow the lead of the party’s media propagandists.

Colorado’s Supreme Court generated a legal firestorm when it ruled in December that Trump is ineligible for office under the 14th Amendment’s ban on officials who “engaged in insurrection,” for his “overt, voluntary, and direct participation” in the storming of the U.S. Capitol by his supporters. Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows subsequently removed Trump from the primary ballot on similar grounds. Trump has appealed both decisions, and the Supreme Court said Friday it would review the Colorado ruling.

Prominent conservative legal scholars have argued in favor of Trump’s removal on 14th Amendment grounds. As conservative former federal Judge J. Michael Luttig wrote with liberal Harvard Law professor Lawrence Tribe, “any disinterested observer who witnessed that bloody assault on the temple of our democracy, and anyone who learns about the many failed schemes to bloodlessly overturn the election before that” would agree that January 6 was “an insurrection for which Trump bore responsibility.”

But Trumpist propagandists have spent the last three years crafting a bogus alternate narrative of January 6 in which the rioters were victims of a government conspiracy and the then-president who incited them based on lies did nothing wrong. And so they’ve responded to the rulings in Colorado and Maine by urging Republican officials to bump Biden from the ballot in retaliation.

“Due process is not taken into account any more in America in 2023 and certainly going into 2024, so Republicans should say Joe Biden is off the ballot in all the Republican-controlled-AG states because of his links, clearly, to bribery schemes,” Donald Trump Jr. offered on his Triggered podcast on December 28, 2023. “There's far more evidence of that than an actual insurrection.”

“I want to see a secretary of state in the next couple of days just put out the press release,” Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk said Wednesday. “Joe Biden's not going to be on the primary ballot. He's not going to be on the general election ballot.”

Like Trump Jr., Kirk made clear that any explanation for why a secretary of state would do such a thing would be a pretext, saying, “Shot across the bow. Power dynamics. Fight power with power.”

“We need a red state secretary of state to kick Biden off the ballot now,” Daily Wire podcaster Michael Knowles added Friday morning. “And they can come up with some explanation. It will probably be a more credible explanation than the one that the Democrats have come up with for kicking Donald Trump off the ballot.”

Knowles went on to say that a GOP secretary of state could cite a 2020 tweet by Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign asking supporters to donate to a Minnesota bail fund to “help post bail for those protesting on the ground” there following the murder of George Floyd by a police officer.

“Certainly we can say Kamala Harris led an insurrection. She personally fundraised for rioters and criminals who were insurrecting against cities around the country during the George Floyd riots,” he explained. “So OK. Make it Kamala Harris, and then Kamala can't appear on the ticket, and you don't even need to go after Joe Biden.”

The incentive structure on the right is such that once major players like Kirk and Knowles start creating a demand for action, Republican officials will supply it. Ashcroft, who is seeking a promotion to governor but faces a competitive GOP primary against candidates including the state’s lieutenant governor, answered the call later on Friday.

“What has happened in Colorado & Maine is disgraceful & undermines our republic,” the Missouri secretary of state wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “While I expect the Supreme Court to overturn this, if not, Secretaries of State will step in & ensure the new legal standard for @realDonaldTrump applies equally to @JoeBiden!”

He subsequently used the story to direct people to his campaign website, saying on X, “Its time to stand and be counted. The future depends on it.”

It can be difficult to tell whether GOP officials are acting in response to right-wing media figures or if they’re converging on the same idea independently because they’re all swimming in the same milieu of Republican base voters. But notably, when Ashcroft discussed the potential rationale he would use to remove Biden from the ballot in an interview with NBC News, it sounded an awful lot like Knowles’ idea from earlier in the day:

Asked how he would disqualify Biden from the ballot for insurrection, Ashcroft said that he's “let an invasion unstopped into our country from the border.” Vice President Kamala Harris, he added, “supported people that were rebelling against the U.S. government during the riots in 2020,” referring to racial justice protests in the wake of George Floyd's murder.

“If this is the standard, does that suddenly mean she's not allowed to run? None of us can say, because there is no standard,” he said.

---

===

gosar also

Trump-allied group wants J6 committee staffers blacklisted - POLITICO

2/23/2023

A conservative non-profit group allied with former President Donald Trump urged “Hill staffers and their colleagues” to cut off meetings with any former Jan. 6 committee staffers who have since joined firms that lobby.

In a letter sent to hundreds of recipients on the Hill, the dark money group American Accountability Foundation listed the names of the former committee staffers and their titles — along with their new employers and links to their firms’ clients — all of whom they urged to blacklist.

“AAF has put together a cheat-sheet below outlining their new firms and the firm’s clients so you can be sure you (and your staff) aren’t inadvertently taking a meeting with a company that hires staff that hates your boss,” says the memo sent by Thomas Jones, the group’s president and founder. In his letter, Jones noted recent reporting by POLITICO on the January 6 committee staffers being hired by law and lobbying shops.

“It is important to remember that even if one of these former J6 investigators is not listed as a lobbyist on this specific account, the billings brought in by the clients listed below benefit all staff at the J6 investigator’s new firm,” he added.

It remains to be seen how effective the gambit will be, as the letter was sent only this past Wednesday. K Street firms have a major presence on Capitol Hill and their hires include figures on all sides of the political spectrum. But the group’s play illustrates the intense desire that exists among some conservatives to exact political retribution for those staffers who helped unearth extraordinary evidence of Donald Trump’s bid to subvert the 2020 election.

Jones confirmed the authenticity of the memo in an email to POLITICO. He railed against the January 6 committee’s use of investigative power, claiming that the committee and the F.B.I. forced some to “spend tens — sometimes hundreds — of thousands of dollars defending themselves from an overreaching and weaponized government.” He argued that conservatives should not be taking meetings with these lobbyists’ clients.

“My email was just a short list of people and companies they should stop working with,” he said.

“Until conservatives are willing to fight back against the swamp — in this case cutting off the lifeblood of lobbyist access — the swamp will never be drained,” he contended.

:{:{Among those listed on the memo include Casey Lucier, former investigative counsel for the committee, who was hired at McGuireWoods, a firm that represents Hertz Global, Perdue Foods, Sinclair Broadcast Group, and others.}:

:{:{Other names listed were Kevin Elliker, another former investigative counsel, who was hired by Hunton Andrews Kurth. That firm represents Koch Companies Public Sector, NCTA – The Internet & Television Association, and Southern Company Services.}:

Former committee staffers Marcus Childress, Heather Connelly, and Michelle Kallen had all been hired by Jenner & Block, the email noted, which represents T-Mobile and the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.

In his message, Jones also noted that the memo’s recipients were free to send over additional names.

Led by Jones, an alumnus of Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-Tex.) presidential campaign, and Matt Buckham, a veteran of the Trump White House, the American Accountability Foundation has taken on controversial tactics to undermine Biden’s nominees. The New Yorker reported links between the American Accountability Foundation and the Conservative Partnership Institute, which has been affiliated with former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and attorney Cleta Mitchell. Notably, Meadows’ attorney George Terwilliger works for McGuireWoods, one of the firms listed in the memo.

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an 12 23

Since the Colorado Supreme Court ruled last week that Donald Trump is ineligible to appear on the 2024 Republican primary ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment — which says an "officer" cannot participate in an insurrection — three GOP lawmakers have worked to keep President Joe Biden off the 2024 ballot as well, Truthout reports.

Per the report, "In a statement to the far right website *Breitbart*, Rep. Aaron Bernstine (R-Pennsylvania), Rep. Charlice Byrd (R-Georgia) and Rep. Cory McGarr (R-Arizona) explicitly cited the court ruling from last week as their motivation. The GOP representatives described the court's decision as 'lawfare,' despite strong evidence demonstrating Trump did indeed engage in insurrectionist behavior."

Furthermore, the news outlet reports the Republican lawmakers' rationale "has nothing to do with insurrection," but with "disagreements over policies on immigration and border security, as well as" Biden's "'alleged corrupt family business dealings with China,' which Republicans have yet to actually demonstrate beyond innuendo and unsubstantiated assertions.'"

The lawmakers wrote, "The absurdity of radical Democrat judges removing Donald Trump from the ballot in Colorado will be a stain on the American political system for decades. By their very own interpretation of the law, Joe Biden is 100% not eligible to run for political office."

The news outlet reports, "This effort to disqualify Biden from being able to run isn't the only action being taken by Republicans in the wake of the Colorado ruling — Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R), for instance, has similarly said he may try to block Biden from his state’s ballot, citing the same dubious claim that Biden’s border policies make him an insurrectionist."

Truthout also notes, "A snap poll from YouGov the day after the Colorado Supreme Court ruling found that 54 percent of Americans approved of the court's action, with only 35 percent opposed to it. Although quick turnaround polls such as this one aren't the most scientifically accurate, the poll suggests that a significant portion of the U.S. electorate likely approves of pursuing this option in other states to block Trump from being president again."

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texas-lt-gov-wants-to-remove-biden-from-ballot-after-colorado-booted-trump-video

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12 23 // debate hannitize softball dictator only day 1 border drill baby

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an 12 23 tx trib

"Three court of criminal appeal judges up for reelection targeted by Ken Paxton’s political revenge machine" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.

Attorney General Ken Paxtonis turning up the heat in the Republican primary for Texas’ highest criminal court, where three judges are up for reelection.

Paxton has long made clear he would be going after the Republican judges over their 2021 ruling that struck down the attorney general’s ability to unilaterally prosecute voter fraud, saying that his office must get permission from local county prosecutors to take on such cases. The three judges up for reelection next year — Sharon Keller, Barbara Hervey and Michelle Slaughter — were all in the 8-1 majority.

Now, Paxton’s plan to unseat the judges is coming into focus. Primary challengers to all three judges filed Saturday, two days before the deadline. And in an announcement first shared with The Texas Tribune, Paxton’s allies have started a new political action committee, Texans for Responsible Judges, that will work to defeat the incumbents.

“Despite Texas’ reputation for conservative leadership, the Court of Criminal Appeals remains plagued by judges who’ve abandoned their conservative roots,” the PAC’s executive director, Sam Vrana, said in a statement. “Their decision to strip the Texas Attorney General of the power to prosecute voter fraud has left Texas undefended against liberal district attorneys.”

The attack on the judges dovetails with Paxton’s more recent commitment for political revenge targeting Texas House members who voted to impeach him in May. Paxton was acquitted of abuse-of-office charges by the Senate after a trial in September.

Keller, the presiding judge who has served on the court since her first election in 1994, is being challenged by David Schenk, a former state appeals court judge. Hervey’s challenger is Gina Parker, a Waco attorney. And Slaughter’s opponent is Lee Finley, a lawyer from Paxton’s native Collin County.

Both Schenk and Parker have run competitive races for statewide judicial office before. Schenk ran against Texas Supreme Court Justice Evan Young in the 2022 primary and got 45% of the vote. Parker challenged another Court of Criminal Appeals judge, Bert Richardson, in the 2020 primary and received 48%.

:{The judges serve six-year staggered terms, and their races usually do not draw much attention outside the legal community. Two of the three judges who were up for reelection last year ran uncontested in the primary, and the third defeated a primary challenger by a comfortable margin. T:{he court has not had a Democrat on the bench since 2013, when Lawrence Meyers, who was elected as a Republican, switched parties}:.

The 2021 ruling came just days after the filing deadline for the 2022 primary, so Paxton was unable to recruit challengers back then.

In the 2021 opinion, the court said the law had violated the separation of powers in the Texas Constitution, letting the executive branch intrude on the judicial branch by attempting to prosecute election cases without being asked by a local prosecutor.

Paxton attacked the ruling, saying the court handed “Soros-funded district attorneys” the exclusive power to determine whether to prosecute voter fraud. And he called for the electoral defeat of all eight judges who supported the ruling.

“We got to make sure the next round that we pay attention to those people and get rid of everybody but Kevin Yeary,” Paxton said while campaigning for reelection last year, referring to the lone dissenting judge in the opinion.

The case stems from when Jefferson County’s district attorney declined to prosecute Sheriff Zena Stephens over campaign-finance allegations related to the 2016 election. Paxton's office stepped in and obtained an indictment from a grand jury in neighboring Chambers County.

Paxton has not endorsed any of the 2024 primary challengers yet, but the PAC has ties to him. Vrana, the executive director, works for Fundraising Solutions, LLC, a firm that counts Paxton among its clients.

A spokesperson for the group said it has “raised six figures already” but declined to comment further on fundraising details. Its next campaign finance report is due to the Texas Ethics Commission by Jan. 16.

Asked for comment on the efforts to unseat the judges, Slaughter touted her record.

“As a constitutional conservative and originalist judge with over a decade of judicial experience, I am confident that the people of Texas will reelect me to the Court of Criminal Appeals,” Slaughter said in an email.

Keller provided a brief response when asked about Paxton’s focus on the 2021 ruling.

“We just followed the Constitution,” she wrote in an email.

A court spokesperson did not respond to an email seeking campaign contact information for Hervey.

The primaries have an additional layer of intrigue because two other statewide officials — Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick — had expressed opposition to the 2021 ruling. The Texans for Responsible Judges website prominently features quotes from Abbott and Patrick urging the court to reconsider its decision at the time. Patrick called the decision “completely unacceptable.”

The court upheld its ruling in September 2022, declining to rehear the case. Two judges dissented, including Yeary and Slaughter. Slaughter said she stood by the original ruling but believed there was a way to interpret the law in question in a “very narrow manner to find it constitutional in some circumstances.”

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2023/12/13/ken-paxton-court-of-criminal-appeal-primary-republicans/.

The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.

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12 23 a n

ep. Brandon Williams (R-New York) is accusing two former staffers of blackmailing him by threatening to expose his adult daughter's page on adult subscription site OnlyFans.

According to Politico, Williams says Michael Gordon, who was his former chief of staff, along with former legislative director Ryan Sweeney, threatened to "expose" his 27-year-old daughter's profile on the site after they were both fired earlier this year. The threat appears to stem from a confrontation Williams and Gordon had at a Capitol Hill holiday party. In a video recorded by a Syracuse university student, Williams is seen putting his finger in Gordon's face, saying "you f--- with my family, I’ll end every relationship you have."

Williams said Gordon was "trying to exert some leverage over me," and added "I just simply won’t allow that to happen."

After Williams gave Gordon a notice that he had 30 days to find new employment, Gordon reportedly went to GOP consultant Aaron Evans. The consultant then relayed to Williams that he should "think about the potential embarrassment his family would experience if [gossip site] TMZ found out about his daughter’s OnlyFans account."

For his part, Gordon told Politico "the allegations Congressman Williams has levied against me are categorically false." Sweeney asserted that "the congressman’s allegations are completely false."

On the day before former Rep. George Santos (R-New York) was expelled from the House, the embattled former congressman called for the House Committee on Ethics to investigate Williams for his behavior. Williams was a member of the group of New York Republicans who pushed for Santos' expulsion.

Williams is a freshman member of the House of Representatives who represents a swing district. After winning in 2022 by just one point, Williams' district has been targeted by House Democrats as a top priority in order to win back a majority in the chamber in 2024. Politico chose not to publish the name of Williams' daughter to protect her identity.

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see kashyap on press suppression bannon

Sean Hannity defends Donald Trump’s promise for “retribution” | Media Matters for America

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1123

targets barr wray? milley...indict pol opponent = enemies list

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an 11 23

one of the few foreign correspondents to be granted personal access to Adolph Hitler and his inner circle in the dark winter of 1933 was Welsh journalist Garreth Jones. Assigned by his home paper, the Western Mail,to cover Hitler’s push to absolute power, Jones accompanied the newly appointed chancellor and his entourage to Frankfurt for a massive political rally that was held on March 2 of 1933.

*This article originally appeared on Truthdig.

Jones’ eyewitness account of the event is bone-chilling because it looks so much like what we are seeing today at Trump rallies.

“For eight hours, the biggest hall in Germany has been packed with 25,000 people for whom Hitler is the savior of his nation,” Jones began his story. “They are waiting, tense with national fervor…I have never seen such a mass of people; such a display of flags up to the top of the high roof, such deafening roars. It is primitive, mass worship.”

Then Hitler took the stage to a “roar of applause and the thumping and the blare of a military band and the thud of marching feet.” Hitler, Jones observed, “is … a master in repeating [his] leitmotiv in many varied forms, and the leitmotiv is: ‘The republican regime in Germany has betrayed you. Our day of retribution has come.’”

As a form of political behavior, discourse and ideology, Trump and the MAGA movement are clearly fascist.

The rally closed with Hitler’s pledge to “complete the work which I began fourteen years ago as an unknown soldier, for which I have struggled as leader of the party and for which I stand today as Chancellor of Germany. We shall do our duty.”

“Again,” Jones wrote, “the hall resounds.”

Three weeks later, Hitler secured passage of the Enabling Act, bringing the Weimar Republic effectively to an end.

Flash forward some 90 years and you can hear echoes of Hitler’s Frankfurt address in the persistent messaging of Donald Trump. Speaking at the ultra-right Faith and Freedom Coalition’s 14^th annual “Road to the Majority” conference in Washington, D.C. on June 24, the former president proclaimed:

In 2016, I declared: I am your voice. Today, I add: I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.

Trump delivered a similar message earlier in June, telling an audience of enraptured supporters in Columbus, Georgia, that he was being persecuted by federal and state prosecutors. He insisted that the “deep state” was also out to get those who followed him. “In the end,” Trump complained, “they’re not coming after me. They’re coming after you — and I’m just standing in their way.” This was the usual stuff of Trumpian spectacle. In a rambling tirade delivered on Veterans Day in New Hampshire, Trump vowed to “root out…the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country.”

Trump’s fixation on Hitlerian imagery, memes and tropes is not an accident. The orange-haired demagogue has had a longstanding fascination with Hitler. According to a 1990 Vanity Fair article, Trump’s first wife Ivana, who died last year, told her divorce attorney that the former president kept a compilation of Hitler’s speeches in a cabinet by his bed. Wall Street Journal reporter Michael Bender remarked on Trump’s interest in Hitler in his book on the 2020 presidential campaign, “Finally We Did Win This Election.” Bender writes that Trump told his then-chief of staff Gen. John Kelly during a 2018 trip to Europe that “Hitler did a lot of good things,” particularly for the German economy. (Trump vehemently denied Bender’s account.)

The cult-like bond between the movement leader and his most ardent followers, a bond characterized by pledges of mutual aid, threats of revenge and shared delusions of victimization, is one of the bedrock features of fascism. This was graphically illustrated by the ascent to power of the two pillars of 20 ^th-century fascism, Hitler and Bennito Mussolini, whose personal style Trump is often said to emulate.

“Mussolini put his hands on his hips, thrust his chest, jutted his lower jaw,” Jonathan Blitzer wrote in a 2016 New Yorker article that profiled the work of New York University history professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat, one of the fore most authorities on fascism. “It’s all about showing that he cannot be contained,” Ben-Ghiat told Blitzer. “It was the same with Mussolini.”

“I’ve been studying cult leaders for a hundred years’ worth of them,” said Ben-Ghiat in an appearance on Democracy Now last June. Trump “has all the signs. He is not a conventional politician of either the Democratic or Republican [Party]… He is a cult leader. And the GOP has long been…submissive to him. He put them under an authoritarian discipline, and then he made them complicit. And this is what corrupt, violent authoritarians do. They make you part of their crimes.”

As I have written before in this column, fascism is an emotionally loaded and often misapplied term. But if understood correctly, it can never be dismissed as a vestige of the past. As a form of political behavior, discourse and ideology, Trump and the MAGA movement are clearly fascist. There is no longer room for debate.

Fascism has deep roots in the United States, from the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s, to the rise of the German-American Bund in the 1930s, to the ascendance of Depression-era demagogues, and, fast-forward almost a century, the election of Trump in 2016.

There’s a long-running class factor in the current of American fascism. University of London professor Sarah Churchwell’s June 2020 essay in the New York Review of Books exactly nails it when she quotes rabbi Stephen Wise: “The America of power and wealth is an America which needs fascism.”

Churchwell’s essay, fittingly titled, “American Fascism: It Has Happened Here,” offers a working definition of fascism. She notes that while fascist movements differ from nation to nation, they are united by “conspicuous features [that] are recognizably shared.” These include:

{“[N]ostalgia for a purer, mythic, often rural past; cults of tradition and cultural regeneration; paramilitary groups; the delegitimizing of political opponents and demonization of critics; the universalizing of some groups as authentically national, while dehumanizing all other groups; hostility to intellectualism and attacks on a free press; anti-modernism; fetishized patriarchal masculinity; and a distressed sense of victimhood and collective grievance. Fascist mythologies often incorporate a notion of cleansing, an exclusionary defense against racial or cultural contamination, and related eugenicist preferences for certain ‘bloodlines’ over others.”*}:

If he is reelected next year, Trump could make the January 6 coup attempt look mild. The Washington Post and Politico have reported that Trump and his allies on the extreme right hope to transform the federal government into a virtual presidential dictatorship. Trump and his allies, states Politico, are “collecting the ingredients and refining the recipe for an authoritarian regime.”

The fear is that Trump will invoke the Insurrection Act on his first day in office to deploy the military. This vision of horror includes Trump in the Oval Office using his immense power to quash civil unrest and dismantle civil service protections for government workers in order to secure their loyalty. And all this while weaponizing the Justice Department to do his bidding.

The New York Times warns that a second Trump term will be especially dire for undocumented immigrants, with mass arrests and the construction of detention camps on a scale not seen since the racist “Operation Wetback” of the Eisenhower era. The Times also reported that Trump plans to cancel the visas of foreign students who participated in anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

Fascism thrives in moments of widespread social anxiety and moral panic, when large segments of the population are persuaded that liberal democracy no longer serves their interests. We are living in such a moment now. The urgency we face cannot be understated.

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Republicans propose $1 salary for Pete Buttigieg: report - Alternet.org

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eric trump

says will prosecute NY AG an 10 23

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'Guerrilla tactics against MAGA bullying': House Republicans opposed to Jim Jordan have a plan - Alternet.org

house Republicans opposed to Republican Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan‘s quest to become Speaker have been executing a plan to ensure he not only loses votes but appears to be designed to ensure he loses credibility and respect and suffers, as some are saying, “humiliation.”

Jordan’s candidacy has been strongly opposed by Democrats, largely based on his ties to Donald Trump and the January 6, 2021 insurrection, along with allegations he ignored years of sexual abuse inflicted on his wrestlers when he coached at Ohio State (OSU).

After Jordan lost more votes in the second round on Wednesday than he lost on Tuesday, CNN’s Melanie Zanona reported House Republicans opposed to a “Speaker Jordan” have been “staggering” their no votes.

“Some of Jim Jordan’s opponents tell me they’ve been purposely staggering their ‘no’ votes over multiple ballots — a strategy designed to show Jordan’s speakership opposition is only growing,” Zanona writes. “And that’s why they tell me Jordan will bleed even more support on a third ballot.”

That third ballot currently is expected to take place Thursday at noon.

“I know it’s inappropriate to take joy in anyone’s suffering but Jim Jordan has spent years being a bully and jerk to his own party and the Democrats. Seeing a bully put in his place is always good,” wrote former Lincoln Project executive director Fred Wellman. Later, responding to Zanona, he added: “This is what happens when you’ve done nothing for your colleagues for years except make their lives harder. Some places call it ‘karma.'”

Veteran foreign policy journalist Laura Rozen wrote, “the House GOP is trying to maximize the humiliation for Jordan by having him lose by more votes every time.”

Former Jezebel editor-in-chief Laura Bassett added, “they’re like not only will you not win, we also have a plan to slowly humiliate you.”

Longtime Republican political strategist Mike Madrid called the plan, “guerilla tactics against MAGA bullying.”

Meanwhile, others are taking notice as well. The Washington Post’s Aaron Blake reports, “The non-MAGA GOP finds some backbone — against Jordan and intimidation.”

As NCRM reported earlier, some Republicans are suggesting or even alleging Jordan and his allies have been sending threatening or intimidating messages attacking members of Congress for not voting to elect him as Speaker. Some say their families have also been targeted.

The Washington Post’s Jacqueline Alemany reported that U.S. Rep. Steve Womack (R-AR) said “in no uncertain terms: The opposition against Jordan is ‘profound.’ He notes that the people who are against Jordan do not want anything but are opposed to him ‘on principle.’ He also says Jordan’s ‘tactics’ have massively backfired.”

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an 11 23

a Florida county commissioner ousted by governor and 2024 presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, was exonerated Thursday after being sentenced to three years of probation and community service, and serving 75 days in jail, The Intercept reports.

"He lost everything," Oren Miller's wife Angie Fox said, according to the report. "They took his job away. He had to go to jail. He had to pay for all the expenses and everything. Where we go from here, I don't know. Right now we're just trying to settle down from the news."

The Sumter County commissioner, along with "fellow commissioner, Gary Search, who was similarly prosecuted," but took a plea deal, The Intercept reports, "ran for office pledging to roll back a property tax increase that had been foisted on residents to fund future development in The Villages. They argued that if the developer, which also owned the local newspaper and radio station, wanted to expand the size of the retirement community, they should do so with their own money."

The news outlet adds, "Shortly after Miller and Search were sworn in, the local prosecutor launched an investigation into whether they had violated Florida 'sunshine laws' around transparency and open government. They were never charged with doing so, but as part of the investigation, the state's attorney interrogated both Miller and Search about phone calls they had after the election."

The report notes that "Commissioners are barred from talking about commission business outside of open meetings, and the investigators wanted to know about calls between the two that had happened earlier in the year."

Miller's "repeatedly hazy" reply to questions about when his calls with Search stopped is what resulted in his perjury charge and jailtime.

A panel of judges pointed out "the absurdity" of Miller's charge, and furthermore, The Intercept notes, "The case is shot through with ironies, principally that the prosecutors used an anti-corruption law to prosecute a commissioner who was challenging corruption. In a further irony, the prosecution made obviously false statements while accusing Miller of perjury."

The ruling read: "Reviewing the entirety of the sworn statement made by Miller to investigating authorities, it cannot be said he in fact definitively claimed that there were no phone calls with Commissioner Search after January 2021. Indeed, quite the contrary."

According to the report, "The court took the unusual step of not just vacating the previous conviction, but also instructing the lower court to insert a new verdict of 'not guilty.'"

*The Intercept's full report is availableat this link.

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hostage fail

https://www.mediamatters.org/steve-bannon/steve-bannon-close-your-checkbooks-republican-party

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fitton trying to get names targets doj fbi retaliate purge

https://www.alternet.org/trump-fani-willis-2660722042/

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retaliation FAIL / backfire

// tucker

an 4 23

no lnx vid etc

'The worst case of blackface': Matt Walsh's racist attack on Justin Pearson

Brandon Gage April 12, 2023

Right-wing Daily Wire host Matt Walsh called Tennessee State Representative Justin Pearson (D-86th District) a "gutless fraud" and accused Pearson of "doing blackface" as Nashville officials were voting to reinstate him to his office on Wednesday afternoon.

Pearson and State Representative Justin Jones (D-52nd District) – both of whom are Black – were expelled from the chamber last week by Republicans because they protested the GOP's lack of action to prevent gun violence following the deadly mass shooting at the Covenant School in late March.

A third legislator, State Representative Gloria Johnson (D-90th District), who is white, was spared. Jones was reinstated on Tuesday.

READ MORE: 'Miscarriage of justice': Metro Nashville council reappoints Justin Jones

On Easter Sunday, Pearson delivered a Resurrection-themed sermon at the Church of the River in Memphis in which he blasted his right-wing colleagues for their unprecedented assault on the democratic process.

"The Republican-led supermajority of the Tennessee assembly sought to have a political lynching of three of its members because we spoke out of turn against the status quo of the government after the tragic deaths of six people at the Covenant school in Nashville," Pearson said. "The movement for democracy lives or dies in Memphis. The movement to end gun violence lives or dies in Memphis. We’ve seen those who want to kill the movement in the Republican-led supermajority."

Pearson compared Governor Bill Lee to Pontius Pilate, the biblical Roman official who condemned Jesus Christ to crucifixion.

"Because we walked to the well of the house out of turn, resolutions were unjustly and undemocratically filed against us on these trumped-up charges," Pearson stated. "Because we spoke out against the empire of the NRA of the gun lobbyists; because we demanded an end to gun violence, an end to the proliferation of weapons on our streets, an end to the funerals we attend day after day and week after week and month after month and year after year — because we did that, the Republican-led General Assembly with the support of folks even in this district like Mark White, from our own community, thought it better to get rid of our democratic representation in District 86 than to actually solve the problem."

READ MORE: Tennessee lawmaker: 'Partisan' GOP efforts to oust him were a 'gross miscalculation'

Pearson also penned a blistering CNN editorial on Wednesday in which he admonished Republicans for their "gross miscalculation" in having him removed.

"The spectacle was a gross miscalculation by Republicans in the chamber," Pearson argued. "It turns out that most Americans care deeply about democracy. Most people care about equality and progress. And over two-thirds of Americans — including four out of 10 Republicans — support the kind of common-sense gun safety laws that Rep. Jones, Rep. Johnson and I were protesting in favor of, in the wake of the senseless March 27 Covenant School massacre."

Pearson's powerful oratory triggered a vengeful reaction from Walsh, who launched a racist attack against Pearson:

You know, he doesn't, he, he doesn't really sound like a 1960s civil rights figure, which is what he is trying to sound like and look like. Uh, he sounds like he's doing a parody of one. You know, this is, this is the worst case of blackface that we've seen since Justin Trudeau, except that Pearson's actually Black and he's still doing blackface. Nevertheless, he, he is performing and we know he is performing because now we know what he sounded like before theperformance. It's not at all a convincing performance, of course, in fact, I didn't think I'd see a performance less convincing than Bill and Mulvaney's portrayal of womanhood until Pearson came along. Pearson's really given him a run for his money. This is what the left promotes and encourages – empty performance taken to comical, almost surreal extremes. You know, they give us heroes and leaders who are cartoons. Who are hollow and paper thin, who are, it always turns out conniving, cowards, gutless frauds, andself-aggrandizing performance artists.

Watch below or at this link.

READ MORE: Judges axe Tennessee GOP's halving of Nashville Metropolitan Council: report

FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES

'Fascism, full stop': Progressives in Congress condemn expulsion of Tennessee Democrats ›

'Can’t expel truth': Ousted TN lawmaker Justin Pearson highlights hypocrisy of 'country built on a protest' ›

Democrat Justin Pearson erupts at Republicans ahead of vote to expel him from the Tennessee House ›

Operation Whistle Pig

In 2017, Jeffrey Rambo, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent working for the National Targeting Center, investigated Watkins, other journalists including Martha Mendoza, and NGOs while on an assignment to combat forced labor in the Congo. The operation was called "Whistle Pig" and in addition to its own database trawling^[46] it got the CBP’s Counter Network Division to provide information about Watkins' mother and brother and links to their public profiles, as well as details of Watkin's domestic and international travel. Rambo met Watkins under the fictitious name Jack Bentley, but Watkins obtained his real name from a credit card receipt. Watkins perceived Rambo's approach as a threat.^[47]

In 2021, Watkins said: “I’m deeply troubled at the lengths CBP and DHS personnel apparently went to try and identify journalistic sources and dig into my personal life.”^[48] A few days later, CBP launched an investigation.^[49]

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wiki 7 22

The National Targeting Center (NTC) is a division of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). It is based in Sterling, Virginia.^[1] The NTC observes air traffic and trade activities,^[2] gathers and vets intelligence, and is empowered to send e-mails requesting that U.S. citizens be detained and questioned.^[3]

The National Targeting Center includes several divisions, including: NTC-Cargo, NTC-Passenger, Counter-Network, and National Targeting Center – Investigations (NTC-I). The latter was established in 2013.^[4]

The NTC was initially established in 2001; its original name was Office of Border Security.^[5]

In 2017, the NTC approached journalists "as part of a broader effort to get reporters to write about forced labor around the world as a national security issue." The journalists included Ali Watkins and Martha Mendoza.^[6]

In 2021, CBP launched an investigation of the NTC's targeting of journalists, members of Congress, and others.^[7]

===

an 7 22

A long list of House Republicans — from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio to House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik — deeply resent Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s January 6 select committee, which Stefanik has denounced as an “illegitimate partisan sham.” But that “sham” has presented a mountain of damning evidence against former President Donald Trump and his MAGA allies, including former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson’s bombshell testimony, on June 28, that Trump knew some of his supporters were armed on January 6, 2021 and wanted to march with them to the U.S. Capitol Building anyway.

Regardless of what else the committee’s hearings reveal, many House Republicans are angry that the committee exists in the first place. Journalists Alayna Treene and Jonathan Swan, in a report published by Axios on July 6, describe some ways in which House Republicans are hoping to take revenge against the January 6 committee if they regain control of the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2022 midterms.

“Key House Republicans are threatening to subpoena records of the January 6 committee if the GOP retakes the majority next year — an escalation of the party's effort to undercut the investigation's findings,” Treene and Swan explain. “Why it matters: Fresh talk of 2023 subpoenas, following last week's vivid testimony by former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, means the committee's ‘final report,’ expected this fall, may be far from the last word on the Capitol attack.”

McCarthy and Jordan, the Axios reporters note, “have been threatening unspecified subpoenas in retaliation.” And Rep. Rodney Jones of Illinois, on June 9, promised to make a “full investigation” of the committee a top priority in 2023 if Republicans retake the House in November. But Jones lost a GOP congressional primary to Trump-backed candidate, Rep. Mary Miller.

Interviewed on condition of anonymity, a Republican source described by Treene and Swan as a “senior GOP staffer on the House Administration Committee” told Axios, “When Republicans retake the majority, we will exercise our oversight responsibilities, including subpoena authority to review all transcripts and information that the committee has access to in order to identify the truth.”

Axios also interviewed an anonymous House Republican aide, who told the publication, “The base is out for blood on subpoenas. A lot of it will just depend on how far McCarthy wants to go.”

===

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/06/how-john-durhams-probe-has-exposed-trumps-russia-con/

no lnx

How John Durham’s Probe Has Exposed Trump’s Russia Con

His three-year investigation has so far shown the only hoax was orchestrated by the former president.

DAVID CORN

Washington, DC, Bureau Chief

Special counsel John Durham leaves federal court in Washington last month.Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

Donald Trump has bad timing. On Friday, he sent a letter to the Pulitzer Prize Board reiterating his demand that it rescind the awards given to the New York Times and the Washington Post in 2018 for their coverage of the Trump-Russia scandal. (That’s not what he called it.) He based this request on the prosecution of Democratic lawyer Michael Sussmann, who was indicted by special counsel John Durham for allegedly lying to the FBI during a September 2016 meeting when he shared with the bureau computer data research that suggested there might be a connection between a Trump-related business and Alfa Bank, a large Russian financial entity. Trump claimed the Sussmann case showed the “Russia hoax was a dirty campaign trick promulgated by Crooked Hillary Clinton and her associates.” Five days later, the jury, after only several hours of deliberation, acquitted Sussmann. Oops.

The quick not-guilty verdict was a sharp slap at Durham’s three-year-long investigation, which was launched by William Barr, when he was Trump’s loyalist attorney general, and which has come across as a political crusade mounted to undermine the various Trump-Russia investigations. Durham was tasked by Barr to investigate the origins of the FBI’s probe of the Russian attack on the 2016 election (which, according to multiple investigations, was waged to help Trump win) and the interactions between Trump associates and Russian operatives. Put simply, Durham’s job was to find that Trump had been set up by the bureau. When the Justice Department inspector general in late 2019 issued a report concluding the FBI had legitimate cause to investigate the Russian assault and the Trump campaign, Durham, in an unusual move, released a statement declaring, “we do not agree with some of the report’s conclusions as to predication and how the FBI case was opened.” A-ha, Trumpists exclaimed. Durham was on track to reveal that the FBI investigation was bogus from the get-go and Trump was right: It was all a hoax and a witch hunt.

Yet after years of toil, Durham has produced nothing to suggest the Russia investigation was a Deep State hit-job against Trump. He has brought three cases that have nothing to do with the origins of the investigation. One involved an FBI lawyer who altered an email used to obtain a search warrant after the investigation was started. (The attorney pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a year of probation.)

Another led to the indictment of Igor Danchenko, a source for the so-called Steele dossier, for allegedly lying to the FBI about his sources. His trial is scheduled to begin in October. This prosecution, too, has nothing to do with the origin or legitimacy of the FBI’s investigation, which was not triggered by the Steele reports. The third was the Sussmann case that just exploded in Durham’s face. It, too, was essentially unconnected to the FBI’s core investigation, given that the meeting in question happened months after the bureau began examining the Russian assault and that the FBI quickly dismissed the Trump-Alfa Bank tie.

Despite declaring over two years ago that he had reason to question the FBI’s opening of the Russia investigation, Durham has failed to make good on his assertion. His investigation has yielded zilch in this regard. His prosecutions are all sideshows.

But Durham has done Trump and his cultists a great favor by providing material they can exploit for one of their favorite pastimes: deflection.

For over five years, Trump and his minions have endeavored to beat back the Trump-Russia scandal with denial and distraction. They have done all they could to change the subject from the basics of the affair: the Kremlin attacked the 2016 election to help Trump; while this assault was underway, the Trump camp had troubling interactions with Russian operatives and was told the Kremlin intended to covertly assist Trump; Trump hid from the public his effort to land a major development deal in Moscow (for which he sought help from Vladimir Putin); the Trump campaign aided and abetted the Russian attack by denying and/or downplaying it; and, as president, Trump tried to impede the investigation. All of these are confirmed facts that make a damning case that Trump committed a grand act of betrayal to become president. Trump and his defenders, though, have tried to change the subject: the problematic Steele dossier, an improperly obtained search warrant, baseless conspiracy theories about the Democratic Party’s computer servers being whisked away to Ukraine, and, most recently, the Sussmann meeting.

Look at Trump’s letter to the Pulitzer board. It dwells on details that came out during the Sussmann trial about the Clinton campaign promoting the Alfa Bank allegation. This case, Trump claims, shows that Clintonites were trying to spread opposition research about him, particularly iffy data about a purported computer server tie between his business and Alfa Bank. He declares he was the victim of “shameful smears” from the Clinton campaign—and these covert attacks were the basis for the FBI investigation. The Clinton crew, of course, was trying to disseminate negative information about Trump—especially worrisome material about a possible Trump-Russia connection. But this had nothing to do with the investigation already begun by the FBI, which was launched independently of the Clinton effort.

Trump writes, “I again call on you to rescind the Prize you awarded based on blatantly fake, derogatory and defamatory news. If you choose not to do so, we will see you in court.” Putting aside whether Trump can sue a journalism awards committee for content it honors, he is yet again engaging in deflection. Nothing in the Sussmann case undercuts the investigations or the reporting related to the central elements of the scandal. Trump is trying to turn the thin gruel Durham has served up into a feast.

In the reality-based world, Durham actually has undermined Trump and his bogus narrative. He has failed to demonstrate that the Russia investigation was a witch hunt or hoax cooked up by Trump’s enemies. His small-beer cases do not challenge any of the main findings of the investigations, which justifiably taint Trump’s 2016 victory and presidency. Durham’s work (so far) shows that Trump’s attempts to distract from the scandal have been nothing but a big con. Trump shrieks about Sussmann, the Steele dossier, and other matters so the public doesn’t see what’s clearly there: a record of misdeeds, lies, and treachery. In a way, Durham has provided a valuable service. His inability to uncover evidence of a hoax confirms that Trump’s denials and diversions have been the real hoax all along.

===

an 2 22

an RNC committee Thursday evening unanimously passed a resolution to censure GOP Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger. The resolution will be voted on by the full RNC, all 168 Republican National Committee members, Friday.

That resolution – submitted by Trump "dirty trickster" and GOP "shady partisan hit man" David Bossie – makes false claims about President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats,

"The Biden Administration and Democrats in Congress have embarked on a systematic effort to replace liberty with socialism; eliminate border security in favor of lawless open borders; create record inflation designed to steal the American dream from our children and grandchildren; neuter our national defense and a peace through strength foreign policy; replace President Trump's 'Operation Warp Speed' with incompetence and illegal mandates; and destroy America's economy with the Green New Deal."

The resolution also promotes the lie that participants in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol were merely "ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse."

It calls for the RNC to "immediately cease any and all support of them as members of the Republican Party for their behavior which has been destructive to the institution of the House of Representatives, the Republican Party and is inconsistent with the position of the Conference."

Read:...

https://www.alternet.org/2022/01/michael-flynn/

Retired army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn's allies reportedly planned to gather "intelligence" on Republican electors in key states former President Donald Trump lost in hopes of distancing them from the election audits, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents and House Select Committee investigators have learned. GUK

Former whistleblower Everett Stern recently spoke with the investigating panel and FBI agents where he shared details about Flynn's associates.

Speaking to The Guardian, Stern, head of the Tactical Rabbit intelligence firm and a current Senate candidate, also revealed Flynn's allies reached out to him. He reportedly provided evidence, which included text messages, emails, and other correspondence to support his claims.

The individuals he was in contact with included Velma Anne Ruth, along with two additional Flynn allies: Al Hartman, a real estate mogul in Houston, Texas, and former army Green Beret Ivan Raiklin, both of whom advocated for election audits in multiple states.

Two of Flynn's associates, who are said to be part of a far-right extremist organization known as the Patriot Caucus, were the first to approach him back in April of last year. At the time, they were reportedly part of a "scheme to seek potentially damaging information on two Republican members of Congress to prod them to back an audit of the 2020 vote that Joe Biden won."

Stern revealed Flynn's associates were in search of incriminating campaign financial information and other negative intel on Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Penn.) and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Penn.), who both supported Trump's impeachment. They'd reportedly hoped the dirt would be a way to convince Toomey Fitzpatrick to support Trump's baseless claims of voter fraud which suggested that President Joe Biden's election win was illegitimate.

Per The Guardian:

"The efforts by Flynn’s Patriot Caucus allies were launched after Trump failed to block Biden from taking office, and are part of a wider drive by Trump loyalists and Flynn to help boost Trump’s political fortunes via more state audits nationwide into false charges that Biden’s win was rigged, and elect like-minded candidates in key states to top electoral offices."

Although Stern reached out to the FBI last June, it remains unclear whether or not the agency is still pursuing the allegations.

webster chamberlain (bopp?):

Letter to Donors of "left wing organizations"

In late September 2008 Rich wrote a letter on Americans for Limited Government Foundation letterhead to donors to what he described as "left wing organizations". In it Rich referred obliquely to Tom Matzzie's Accountable America group which had written to supporters of conservative organizations and candidates warning of possible scrutiny by the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Election Commission.

"As a donor to one of more of these organizations and efforts, you have been able to engage in these activities without notice, operating in relative obscurity. I am writing to inform you that this will no longer be the case. Your name has been put in our database. we are monitoring all reports of a wide variety of leftists organizations. As your name appears in subsequent reports, it is our intent to publicize your involvement in your local community," Rich warned.^[6] The letter was also accompanied by a supporting memo from Frank M. Northam from the law firm Webster, Chamberlain & Bean.^[7]

Rich told NPR's Peter Overby that ALG was sending letters to donors as "if you're supporting a group that's into some illegal activity, that, you know, might not be good for you."^[8] For his part, Matzzie posted a blog note titled ^[9]

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https://gizmodo.com/republicans-slobbered-all-over-themselves-to-apologize-1847959116

ref 3 gizmodo bAD CODE NO LNX

gop have a, shall we say,...relationship. But that relationship went from snuggly to downright NSFW on Thursday at a hearing ostensibly about...The House Oversight Committee welcomed executives from four fossil companies and two trade groups as well as a pipeline welder to probe decades of campaigns to confuse the public. There’s plenty of fodder. The past few years have seen...$59,956 in oil and gas money in the 2020 election cycle) said, thanking the company for increasing production. “I want to thank those companies that are actually increasing production,” Jordan later added.

“These companies being villainized,” said Rep. Jody Hice (recipient of $5,000 from the oil and gas industry in 2020, which talk about getting your money’s worth). Hice did not ask a question.

“It’s just people who don’t have anything better to do than type on their keyboards,” Rep. Byron Donalds ($18,110 from oil and gas interests so far this cycle) said of climate activists before turning to the oil CEOs. “Let’s be very clear, you need anapology. What I witnessed today isrank intimidation by the chair of this committee. ... It is disgusting, it is absolutely disgusting. Somebody better call Merrick Garland, tell him to get in here, and watch the intimidation that came from this very panel today. It’s not about defending Big Oil. ... I’m sorry for you. And I’m sorry for the people in our country who have to witness shenanigans like this.”

“While this committee may not like you because you’re executives, because your companies have been successful, I just want to apologize for the decorum. Because thank you for what you’ve done,” said Rep. Yvette Herrell ($115,126 from the industry she was overseeing, making her the second-biggest oil and gas recipient in the House so far this cycle). “There are people here who believe in you. Thank you. ... In fact, I would just submit to saving anybody who has gotten a vaccination or who is going to get tone, thank you to the oil and gas industry because I would bet that almost every single one of the syringes has been touched by a petroleum product. ... I just want to thank all of you for being here today.”

“You guys all have a good story to tell. Don’t be afraid to tell people how much cleaner things are than in the past. It doesn’t do any good for you any good to get allwokeon us,” Rep. Glenn Grothman ($30,576 from oil and gas in 2020 and $3,570 so far this year.)

“It’s been very shameful how the other side wants to demonize our oil and gas industry. I’m very proud of our oil and gas industry, the innovators that adopt new tech, provide a higher standard of living, and jobs throughout our country,” saidRep. Bob Gibbs, the $28,558 oil and gas man in 2020. He later added, “I’m disappointed the chair failed to recognize that and demonize them on that.”

“I apologize to our witnesses that were called and asked to take part in this today,” said Rep. Pete Sessions, who has so far received $11,400 from oil and gas interests and raked in $237,375 in 2018. (2020 data was unavailable.)

“There is a moral case to be made for the fossil fuel industry and fossil fuels as a whole,” Rep. Pat Fallon, who has taken in $5,600 in oil and gas money. “If we want more abundant and inexpensive and cleaner energy—which we all should do—these witnesses here should be the ones that we are supporting and applauding and not demonizing.”

“These very important energy companies and the [American] Petroleum Institute understand you’ve got yourself here, you’ve seen the attitude of the folks on the left of this committee. When you get asked this morning that, aren’t you embarrassed, that’s really an irrational question to ask CEOs about their company,” said Rep. Andy Biggs, the receiver of $27,253 in oil and gas money in 2020.

“My, my, my. Good lord help us to be protected from this threat from within. American patriots are so done with career politicians and Democratic socialist insanity... We are nauseated by thecontinuous attacks on working Americans and American industry. This entire debacle of a hearing today of why my colleagues across the aisle will lose their majority status very soon,” Rep. Clay Higgins predicted. (Higgins has received $10,426 in fossil fuel cash so far this cycle and $40,773 in 2020.)

“Did President Biden or anyone from the White House apologize to you?” Rep. James Comer, who received $18,500 in fossil fuel cash in 2020, asked the welder Republicans invited. (For the record, he did not....

a United Nations report out this week warns the world as a whole is facing a “production gap,” with more fossil fuels on tap to be produced than is compatible with a safe climate. Other reports have warned that new fossil fuel exploration must stop next year, emissions must fall at unprecedented rates over the next decade, and that cutting fossil fuel production and use is the most surefire way to do that. The reason we’re at this precipice is because the fossil fuel industry pursued a misinformation campaign while further entrenching their product with the global economy, fully aware that it would cause major climate damage.

It is also because Republicans (and a handful of Democrats) have blocked climate action, and have maintained a grip on power in no small part thanks to millions of dollars from the fossil fuel industry. The industry has directed roughly 85% of its donations in 2020 to Republicans, and is on track to do the same this year (and has done the same in past years, too). Those same Republicans who apologized to the industry and thanked it on Thursday.

Anyways, this is all very cool and very legal.

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BBB manchin wants work req tho proved not to work strict fr also corps want workers dependent/compliant:

aha note gop sez ppl lazy and moral hazard of soc safe net but at same time quash vax mask Mandate EVEN WHEN LOCAL PPL /REPS VOTE FOR THEM, THEN PPL QUIT CRAPPY LOW WAGE DANGEROUS JOBS

Dartagnan

and

Daily Kos

October 24, 2021

https://www.alternet.org/2021/10/unemployment-2655355131/

The business owners whose blood, sweat, and tears—or at least their fancy, high-priced educations, family connections and access to venture capital—built this country, dammitwere hellbent and determined to show American workers who was boss. This COVID-19 nonsense was not going to interfere with their profits any longer. It was time totake a stand.

So they all had their administrative assistants conference in their favorite state legislators, the same ones who helpfully passed legislation a few years back, keeping pesky unions out of their states. They called in their chits for all those campaign contributions to the governor. They called their Republican House reps and senators. Damn that Fauci, they complained. My business is hurting. No more lockdowns, no more of this "social distancing "crap. This state is going to open for business and I don't want to hear another word about body counts or stressed hospitals. I need workers and I need them now. I paid for your damn campaigns, so do something!

And those state representatives and senators leapt into action. In a matter of a few weeks we saw state after state brimming with self-appointed medical experts in their legislatures, railing about the tyrannical mask mandates and business lockdowns. CEOs and white-collar professionals cracked their whips—many still from the comfort of their fine second homes and pools. And thus the support staff, the retail clerks and the service workers, many of whom who had once been adoringly lionized as "essential" at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, were told it was time to return to work. And for added good measure, Republican governors in those statescut offtheir unemployment aid. That'll show them, they thought ...

But strangely enough, not all of those workers heeded the call. In fact, a good many of them quit.

As reported by Alyssa Fowers and Eli Rosenberg, writing for The Washington Post:

Kentucky, Idaho, South Dakota and Iowa reported the highest increases in the rates of workers who quit their jobs in August, according to a new glimpse of quit rates in the labor market released Friday.

The largest increase in the number of quitters happened in Georgia, with 35,000 more people leaving their jobs. Overall, the states with the highest rates of workers quitting their jobs were Georgia, Kentucky and Idaho.

As The Post points out, the interesting thing about this data is that service-sector jobs are most highly concentrated in urban areas. So why would people be quitting their jobs at such astronomical rates in such relatively rural states as Kentucky, South Dakota, Iowa and Idaho?

Fowers and Rosenberg offer a clue:

Employees quit or were hired at rates matching or exceeding the national average in the ten states with the highest rates of new infections that month: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Tennessee.

So the highest rate of turnover in August—employees quitting or getting hired—was found in the states which had the highest rate of COVID-19 infection for that month. Logically, that seems to make sense. Workers who live in one of those states were also likely to have a governor or, in the case of Kentucky, a Republican-dominated legislaturewho opposed business closures, even while the delta variant ravaged the state's population. Such workers were essentially forced by these states policies to return to work if they could not work from home.

Those people forced back to work in an unsafe environment simply decided to quit—many of them likely before ever venturing back into their workspace. After all, they saw a job the other day that was offering more money. Or their next-door neighbor's cousin got a job that pays more and allows them to work from home. The Post article quotes Nick Bunker, an economist for the job search portal Indeed, who notes that the high quit rate in these red and rural states "may be a sign there's more competition in those parts of the country than other parts."

The other interesting point aboutallof the states having both the highest level of turnover and the highest infection rates? They are all so-called"right to work" states,where legislatures passed legislation to disincentivize and discourage unions. So these workers have essentially no protection, no one to turn to for help remedying unsafe conditions, and no collective bargaining power; they can, for the most part, be terminated at will. That's what "right-to work" has always been about.

As one commenter to The Post story points out:

So, when you have a crappy job, for crappy wages, and a crappy employer who doesn't value you at all, and all of a sudden you find yourself in a labor market situation that actually encourages you to look for work elsewhere--what do you think is going to happen? The 'Great Resignation' is largely about working class people attempting to use what little leverage they have in order to make a moderately better wage for themselves in a mostly hostile, oppressive national work environment.

For employers, the downside of "right to work"— one they never saw coming—was the fact that workers in those states had little, if any, incentive to stay, especially when once-in-a lifetime opportunities arose for them to leave, while competition for higher wages and better working conditions further drove that exodus.

Some employers are responding by antagonizing would-be applicants.

In Missouri, a group of businesses, still frustrated by labor shortages more than three months after the state cut off the $300-a-week federal jobless checks, paid for billboards in Springfield that said: "Get Off Your Butt!" and "Get. To. Work."

The state has seen no growth in its workforce since ending emergency benefits.

"We don't know where people are," said Brad Parke, general manager of Greek Corner Screen Printing and Embroidery, who helped pay for the billboards. "Obviously, they're not at work. Apparently, they're at home."

The attempt to force workers back to dangerous, unsafe pandemic working conditions—brought on by short-sighted Republican policymakers for political ends—has collided with a culture where workplace protections and the ability to bargain have been completely devalued (also by Republican politicians), leaving workers as essentially dispensable commodities.

No wonder they're quitting for greener pastures in those states. Republican elected officials and their business donors in those same states have no one to blame but themselves. They created this environment, and now they're going to have to cope and adjust with workers who want more out of their jobs … and know they can get it. They have to keep up and do better, or see their businesses go under.

Funny how that worked out.

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bunch of DoD eg esper replaced by loyalist hacks

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school bd attacked for masks, rx hosp workers attacked, election workers

1021

===

1021 an

Michele Carew is the latest casualty in the Trumpist war on voting. The veteran elections administrator tendered her resignation to officials in Hood County, Texas, on Friday after a brutal campaign by Trump loyalists to oust her. Trump won 81 percent of the vote there, but Carew still found herself in the crosshairs of those seeking to entrench the GOP's control over election administration. They want to see Carew's duties reassigned to a county clerk, who is notorious for (what else?) sharing electoral conspiracy theories on social media.

Carew is one of many local election officials across the country who have chosen to quit rather than absorb right-wing abuse. Among 14 southwestern Ohio counties, one in four of election officials has already called it quits. Pennsylvania is grappling with a similar exodus.

"These conspiracy theorists are in it for the long haul," county clerk Barb Byrum told the Associated Press. "They're in it to completely crumble our republic, and they're looking at these election administrator positions. They're playing the long game."

It all keeps coming back to the Big Lie. The Big Lie of voter fraud is a classic stabbed-in-the-back narrative. These fantasies crop up whenever fascists need to reconcile their conviction that they're strong and special with the reality that they've been shut out of power. They convince themselves that they would have won, if it hadn't been for the treacherous Other who denied them their glorious birthright.

In the most famous stabbed-in-the-back narrative, it was the German Army of World War I that supposedly could have triumphed had the craven politicians not betrayed them. Today, Donald Trump's supporters console themselves with the fantasy that they won the 2020 election, but Democrats, unions, Black people and the Chinese Communist Party cheated them out of power.

A good stabbed-in-the-back narrative also suggests a target at which to direct resentment and even violence. "Stop the Steal" was the rallying cry that Trump used to sic a mob on the Capitol on Jan 6.

Local elections officials are still bearing the brunt of Trumpist fury. A special investigation by Reuters documented 102 threats of death or violence against 40 local election officials. Those are a fraction of the true number of threats. Milwaukee election official Claire Woodall-Vogg estimated she'd received 150 threats since a Gateway Pundit, a massively popular conspiracy blog, published lies about her.

Election administration skews disproportionately female, like education and public health — two other spheres where GOP radicals have directed their ire. The California Voter Foundation, a watchdog group, estimates that 75 percent of local election officials are women.

"The common thread is that no one has any respect from women […]," Milwaukee elections official Woodall-Vogg said in an interview with CNN in which the mother of two small children recounted how her harassers delight in calling her a cunt and a whore.

In Georgia, Republicans are using a new state law to purge Democrats of color from local elections boards. At least 10 board members have been removed under the new state law or by local ordinances. Of these, at least 5 of the ousted members are people of color.

"I speak out and I know the laws," Ms. Lonnie Hollis, an ousted Black board member told the Times. "The bottom line is they don't like people that have some type of intelligence and know what they're doing, because they know they can't influence them."

Michigan Republicans are busily replacing local election board members with pliant functionaries who, they hope, will refuse to certify future Democratic victories. The state's former elections director warned that it would create "a mess" if 10 or 15 counties refused to certify the election. It would be more than "a mess." It would be yet another procedural coup attempt. The GOP is organizing to steal the next election in plain sight, but the Department of Justice has done little more than convene a task force to study the problem. The Big Lie must not be allowed to cast a shadow over our democracy.

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dems fled quorum? tx rangers and helo?! 8k$/yr?!

texas Gov. Greg Abbott vows to defund state Legislature after voting restrictions bill fails

Patrick Svitek The Texas Tribune

June 01, 2021

May 31, 2021

"Texas Gov. Greg Abbott vows to defund state Legislature after voting restrictions bill fails, threatening salaries" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a...

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https://www.alternet.org/2021/04/anti-corporate-gop/

no lnx twt

how 'anti-corporate rhetoric' captured 'the paranoid, vindictive post-Trump GOP': conservative

Alex Henderson April 27, 2021

Historically speaking, right-wing Republicans are strident defenders of corporate America. Economist Milton Friedman argued that corporations had no obligation to anyone but their shareholders, and the late talk radio host Rush Limbaugh equated anti-corporatism with anti-capitalism — that is, before he flip-flopped and endorsed former President Donald Trump's pseudo-populism. And in 2021, railing against "woke corporations" is a badge of honor for Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri and other Trumpian GOP wingnuts. Never Trump conservative Amanda Carpenter takes an in-depth look at the strident "anti-corporate rhetoric" coming from the far right in an article published by The Bulwark on April 27 — stressing that it underscores the "paranoid, vindictive" nature of the "post-Trump GOP."

:{:{}:

The message of Republicans who have been railing against "woke capitalism," according to Carpenter, is "Screw with our elections…. and we'll screw your trusts, tax cuts, loopholes and credits."

"Republicans try to pretend that their bullying is something more principled — that it's anti-woke corporate populism — but in reality, it's little more than grievance weaponized as policy," Carpenter explains. "But don't laugh. The way things are going, this could be the next grand unifying theory for the GOP."

Carpenter points out that everyone from Hawley to Fox News' Tucker Carlson to Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas has been lambasting Corporate America for being "woke." Cruz, who once employed Carpenter as his communications director, came up with the hashtag #GoWokeGoBroke.

"The GOP's clash with business over the last few weeks is different in two ways from what came before," Carpenter observes. "First, on the business side, this case is different because the 'activism' in question — the holding back of donations, the criticism — is not related to some matter of policy or party, but rather, to election administration and the preservation of democracy itself. And on the GOP's side, this case is different because it is based solely upon the politics of retaliation."

The Republicans who have been raging against corporations, Carpenter notes, are upset because the companies have acknowledged Joe Biden as the legitimate president of the United States — rejecting Trump's false claims of voter fraud — and spoken out against GOP voter suppression bills.

"Republicans are proposing punitive action in direct response to political speech from companies about the post-election Big Lie, the attempts to overturn the 2020 election, and Georgia's recently enacted voting law," Carpenter observes. "Threatening to use the power of the state to crack down on that speech is repulsive…. This anti-corporate rhetoric has captured the paranoid, vindictive imagination of the post-Trump GOP."

By "post-Trump GOP," Carpenter isn't saying that the former president is no longer influential in his party. Most Republicans are afraid to say one word against him. Rather, Carpenter means "post-Trump White House GOP" or "post-Trump presidency GOP." And she stresses that the GOP, following Trump's presidency, has maintained his mean-spirited nature.

"There is a culture clash underway," Carpenter writes. "Hawley and the rest of the anti-woke crusaders are saying that Corporate America must heed their 'values' or get smashed — just like Hawley's rioters smashed up the Capitol when the Democrats didn't agree with their 'values' about 'election integrity.' It's all the same brute idea. Comply with my party, or get the fist."

FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES

GOP's 'anti-democratic' rhetoric on HR 1 signals a disturbing battle ... ›

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This is disturbing': DOJ claims armed feds are allowed to inspect state vote-counting locations

Jake Johnson Common Dreams

November 05, 2020

As ongoing vote tabulation in several key battleground states continues to slowly narrow President Donald Trump's path to reelection, the New York Times reported late Wednesday that the Justice Department has told federal prosecutors that U.S. law permits...

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fbi wray, noaa McLean sci

https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/trumps-sharpiegate-grudge-may-have-led-to-noaas-acting-chief-scientist-losing-his-job/

===

https://www.alternet.org/2020/11/trump-asserts-dictatorial-power-over-top-government-employees/

===

https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/vote-for-trump-or-else-florida-voters-receive-threatening-emails-linked-to-overseas-servers/

Dozens of Florida voters and others residing in heavily-Democratic counties across several states have received threatening emails warning them to vote for President Donald Trump in the upcoming presidential election or suffer consequences.

Ahead of early voting, Democratic voters in Alachua County, Fla., began receiving the disturbing emails. Voters in Alaska and Arizona also reported receiving the same message.

The subject line for the email reads: "Vote for Trump or else!"

Targeting voters registered as Democrats, the email message opens with a disturbing statement telling potential voters all of their personal information has been exposed as the sender claims to have infiltrated the "entire voting infrastructure."

The sender also warned Democrats to vote for Trump or they would "come after" them. Voters are also being told to change their political party affiliation so it can serve as confirmation of agreement to the terms of the threat.

"We are in possession of all your information (email, address, telephone… everything)," the message stated. "You are currently registered as a Democrat and we know this because we have gained access into the entire voting infrastructure. You will vote for Trump on Election Day or we will come after you. Change your party affiliation to Republican to let us know you received our message and will comply. We will know which candidate you voted for. I would take this seriously if I were you."

Although initial investigative findings suggest the emails were sent from the right-wing group The Proud Boys' official email address "info@officialproudboys.com," a review of the source code embedded in seven of the emails suggests the messages were sent from an overseas server linked to "IP addresses linked to servers located in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Estonia," according to CBS News.

However, Dmitri Alperovitch, former chief technology officer of the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, explained why the IP addresses do not necessarily reveal the exact location the emails were sent from. He also weighed in on the verbiage in the email.

"It could be that they are simply relaying through this infrastructure," Alperovitch told CBS News in an email. "In fact, given how this email was sent, using their web interface, that's most likely the case — that the people behind this found a vulnerable server in Saudi through which they can route lots of emails."

The latest developments come just two weeks before election day.

===

https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/journalist-lost-award-for-criticizing-trump-despite-administration-claims-to-the-contrary-officials/

no lnx pix twt

Journalist lost award for criticizing Trump -- despite administration claims to the contrary: officials

Alex Henderson September 25, 2020

In January 2019, Finnish journalist Jessikka Aro was notified by the U.S. State Department that she would be receiving its International Women of Courage Award. But the offer was later rescinded after it came to light that Aro had been vehemently critical of President Donald Trump on social media. The State Department and allies of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have denied that Aro’s anti-Trump posts had anything to do with that decision, but a new report by the State Department Inspector General’s Office says otherwise.

“The report tracks how the discovery of the journalist’s remarks worried senior U.S. officials and prompted a decision to withdraw the honor to avoid a possible public relations debacle,” journalist John Hudson reports in the Washington Post. “The report’s release is likely to worsen tensions between the (State) Department’s leadership and the inspector general’s office, which has undergone several shake-ups following the firing of Inspector General Steve Linick in the spring at the request of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.”

Aro was certainly well-deserving of an International Women of Courage Award. The Finnish journalist became the target of death threats and cyberattacks after reporting extensively on Russian troll factories and their propaganda and disinformation efforts.

When the State Department withdrew its offer, its press office said that Aro had been “incorrectly notified” that she was being offered an International Women of Courage Award. The State Department told Congress that Aro “ultimately was not selected to receive the award due to the highly competitive selection of candidates.” And it never acknowledged that Aro’s anti-Trump social media posts had anything to do with it.

But Hudson reports that the State’s Department’s “inspector general ultimately found that the decision to give her the award was not a mistake and was included in a memo approved by Pompeo. The report also noted that the decision to withdraw the award stemmed from the discovery of the social media posts, despite public claims otherwise.”

Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey is speaking out about the State Department watchdog’s report and is highly critical of Pompeo.

Judson quotes Menendez as saying, “Secretary Pompeo should have honored a courageous journalist willing to stand up to Kremlin propaganda. Instead, his department sought to stifle dissent to avoid upsetting a president who, day after day, tries to take pages out of (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s playbook. The State Department owes Ms. Aro an apology.”

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an 920 wm barr

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...an 920

On top of the Trump administration’s disinformation campaign, the notion that the federal government is going to withhold federal funds from three of its top contributing cities is ludicrous.

All three cities rank in the top 10 per capita income for the 25 most populated cities in the U.S.: Seattle was second, Portland eighth, and New York 10th. Because states and cities with a larger share of higher income residents contribute more to the federal government, these three cities alone likely contribute more tax dollars to federal coffers than most red states, which have been feeding at the federal trough for decadeswhile contributing far less money to its bottom line. New York and the northeastern states, in particular, are “giver” states, while most red states, especially in the southeast, are “getter” states, according to a Rockefeller Institute of Government study.

But now that Barr has homed in on the cities he wants to target and delivered supposed criteria for determining which cities fall into that category, the next step, according to Trump’s presidential memo, is for the director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, to issue guidance to the heads of certain agencies on “restricting eligibility of or otherwise disfavoring, to the maximum extent permitted by law, anarchist jurisdictions in the receipt of federal grants.”

Again, such a direction will undoubtedly be challenged in court and tied up until long after the election. So at this point, it’s nothing more than another lawless effort by Trump to target cities run by Democrats in order to gin up and delight his “getter” constituency in the red states.

If Joe Biden wins, this ridiculous presidential directive will obviously fall onto a scrap heap of other lawless Trump directives targeting Democrats, liberals, and certain demographic groups purely for Trump’s political benefit and pandering to his supporters.

But if Trump manages to somehow steal this election, the directive is simply one more reason why we could see a serious effort by Democratic states to leave the union. There’s absolutely no reason for those states and their densely populated liberal cities to stick around for Trump’s presidential harassment while the federal government bleeds them dry.

===

an 920

Retaliatory abuse’: Legal experts slam Barr DOJ for opening ‘politically-motivated’ criminal inquiry into John Bolton

David Badash / The New Civil Rights Movement September 17, 2020

The Dept. of Justice is opening a criminal inquiry into John Bolton, allegedly to determine whether or not he disclosed classified information in his book, which discusses his 17 months serving…

===

an 920 mid-2021, masks best weapon [even if vax works 70%?]; he's been low key/ low radar not confront/correct trump so far?

trump attacks his own CDC director’s claims about coronavirus vaccines

Cody Fenwick

As the administration faced doubts about the integrity of its approval process for a coronavirus vaccine, President Donald Trump went on the attack Wednesday against CDC Director Robert Redfield’s claims…

===

https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/critics-warn-of-transparent-effort-to-retaliate-after-doj-issues-subpoenas-in-criminal-probe-of-john-boltons-memoir/

an 920

no lnx

Department of Justice (DOJ) has opened a criminal investigation into whether President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton disclosed classified information in his recent book.

The DOJ convened a grand jury, which issued subpoenas to Simon & Schuster, the publisher of Bolton’s memoir “The Room Where It Happened,” according to The New York Times. The grand jury also issued a subpoena to Bolton’s literary agency Javelin, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The Trump administration previously tried to block the release of the book — which was highly critical of the president — over claims that it contained classified information. The move was ultimately unsuccessful. Nevertheless, Trump’s handpicked director of national intelligence John Ratcliffe referred the matter to the DOJ’s national security division last month, which opened a criminal investigation, according to The Times.

Bolton has denied that his memoir contained any classified information. Though he agreed to let the administration review its contents in order to make sure it did not contain classified intelligence, the DOJ accused Bolton of allowing Simon & Schuster to release the book ahead of final approval. The agency unsuccessfully attempted to block the book’s release.

“With hundreds of thousands of copies around the globe — many in newsrooms — the damage is done,” D.C. Circuit Judge Royce Lamberth ruled in June.

But the opinion left open the possibility that Bolton could be criminally charged if he allowed the memoir to be released before final approval.

“Bolton has gambled with the national security of the United States,” Lamberth wrote. “He has exposed his country to harm and himself to civil (and potentially criminal) liability. But these facts do not control the motion before the court.”

Lamberth also said he was “persuaded that defendant Bolton likely jeopardized national security by disclosing classified information in violation of his nondisclosure agreement obligations.”

An attorney disputed the conclusion that Bolton “did not fully comply” with his obligations and accused the administration of slow-walking the approval process in an attempt to prevent the release of the highly-critical book. According to The Times, the National Security Council’s (NSC) top official for prepublication review also said in an email at the time that she was “satisfied with the edits that Mr. Bolton made to address her concerns about classified information.”

But the White House launched another review without notifying Bolton, and the official involved cited multiple instances of classified information, according to the report. Though Bolton did not receive final approval from the White House, he approved the memoir for publication.

The grand jury subpoenas came after Trump repeatedly called for Bolton to be prosecuted over the book’s release. The president has claimed that Bolton “broke the law” and “should be in jail” for “disseminating, for profit, highly Classified information.” At the same time, he simultaneously argued that the book was a “compilation of lies and made up stories, all intended to make me look bad.”

The memoir detailed Trump’s alleged attempts to pressure Ukraine and China to investigate Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, as well as his behind-the-scenes dealings with Turkey and North Korea.

Attorneys at both the DOJ and the NSC expressed concerns about launching a criminal investigation, because Trump’s statements “made it seem like an overtly political act,” The Times reported.

National security attorney Bradley Moss described the criminal probe as “absolutely an overtly political act,” but said it was unclear whether that would be enough to beat back potential criminal charges for Bolton.

Bolton also faces separate civil litigation, which could require him to forfeit the proceeds of the book for violating the prepublication review agreement.

Lamberth, who is overseeing the case, said in June that Bolton should have sued the government rather than prematurely approve the memoir for release before the process was complete.

“This was Bolton’s bet: If he is right and the book does not contain classified information, he keeps the upside mentioned above; but if he is wrong, he stands to lose his profits from the book deal, exposes himself to criminal liability, and imperils national security,” Lamberth said at the time. “Bolton was wrong.”

Some legal experts, however, expressed concerns about the DOJ pursuing a former official who has criticized the president.

“Bolton deserves nothing but scorn for how he’s behaved,” wrote Steve Vladeck, a law professor at the University of Texas, “but this is a transparent effort to retaliate against a former senior official for exercising his First Amendment rights and to chill those thinking about similarly coming forward.”

===

https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/7-bombshell-allegations-in-a-damning-new-trump-administration-whistleblower-report/

a new whistleblower complaint from U.S. Department of Homeland Security employee Brian Murphy released Wednesday provided a slew of provocative and disturbing allegations of criminal behavior and abuse of authority within the Trump administration.

The document was released by the House Intelligence Committee, and it actually summarizes numerous previous complaints that Murphy, the principal deputy under secretary for the department’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis, has previously filed with the inspector general. The complaint alleged that he has since faced professional retaliation from his superiors because of his previous allegations, despite the fact that he is protected from such actions by federal law.

While the retaliation is condemnable on its own, most striking are the series of allegations the complaint described. It paints a picture of a department completely warped by the president’s distorted priorities and determined to cater to his whims and prejudices, regardless of the facts — sometimes putting the country in danger.

Here are seven key details:

1. Murphy said he was illegally directed to manipulate intelligence assessments to support aggressive border policies.

On or about October 29, 2018, Mr. Glawe informed Mr. Murphy that instructions from Mr. Taylor and Ms. Marquadt had been issued for Mr. Murphy to ensure the intelligence assessments he produced for Secretary Nielsen’s review supported the policy argument that large numbers of KSTs were entering the United States through the southwest border. Mr. Murphy declined to censor or manipulate the intelligence information, viewing it as an improper administration of an intelligence program, and stated to Mr. Glawe that doing what was being requested would constitute a felony.

2. The complaint makes a compelling case that former DHS Secretary Kirtjen Nielsen repeatedly and deliberately lied to Congress to exaggerate the threat at the border.

Murphy said that the secretary purposely tried to blur the distinction between “Known or Suspected Terrorists” (KSTs) and other categories of migrants, thereby misleadingly suggesting the border posed a greater threat of terrorism than it actually does. Even after he explained these distinctions to Nielsen, Murphy said, she consistently misled Congress about the matter:

Prior to Secretary Nielsen’s testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on December 20, 2018, Mr. Murphy attended a preparation session that went over the information within the proposed testimony. During that session, Mr. Murphy sought to clarify for Secretary Nielsen the distinction between a KST and a Special Interest Alien (“SIA”). An SIA is a term of art created by U.S. Customs and Border Protection meant to describe a category of migrants who come from countries where there is a significant terrorism threat but regarding whom there is no individualized basis for suspecting the person is themselves a terrorist. An SIA does not constitute a KST.

Notwithstanding the clarification provided by Mr. Murphy, he has a good faith belief that the testimony Secretary Nielsen subsequently provided on December 20, 2018, regarding KSTs constituted a knowing and deliberate submission of false material information. This assessment formed the basis of the anonymous OIG complaint Mr. Murphy submitted on November 2, 2018. On January 9, 2019, without consulting with Messrs. Glawe or Murphy, DHS issued a document – apparently crafted by Messrs. Wolf and Taylor, and Ms. Marquadt – entitled “Myth/Fact: Known and Suspected Terrorists/Special Interest Aliens”. The document contained erroneous information regarding the number of KSTs and SIAs encountered along the southwest border.

On March 5, 2019, Mr. Murphy participated in another preparation session with Secretary Nielsen, this time in advance of her testimony before the House Committee on Homeland Security. Messrs. Wolf and Taylor were also present. During the session, Mr. Murphy provided Secretary Nielsen with documentation reflecting that the number of documented KSTs crossing the southwest border only consisted of no more than three individuals, not 3,755 individuals as she had previously attested to in her testimony on December 20, 2018. 3 Mr. Wolf and Mr. Taylor responded by saying Secretary Nielsen should claim the details were classified, state any KST crossing was one too many and deflect away from addressing the significant discrepancy in the data. Mr. Murphy advised Secretary Nielsen that he did not believe that was appropriate, and noted that the few “known” KSTs who were apprehended were derivative contacts, in so much as they merely had a name or phone number of a person who was known to be in contact with a terrorist. At that point, Mr. Murphy was removed from the meeting by Mr. Wolf. He then informed Messrs. Glawe and Hanna what transpired that evening.

It is Mr. Murphy’s good faith belief that the testimony Secretary Nielsen delivered on March 6, 2019, regarding KSTs again constituted a knowing and deliberate submission of false material information. Mr. Murphy outlined that assessment in his anonymous May 13, 2019, OIG complaint.

3. Acting Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Ken Cuccinelli illegally tried to distort intelligence reports he viewed as too favorable to asylum seekers, claiming they were concocted by the “Deep State,” the complaint said.

In December 2019, Mr. Murphy attended a meeting with Messrs. Cuccinelli and Glawe to discuss intelligence reports regarding conditions in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. The intelligence reports were designed to help asylum officers render better determinations regarding their legal standards. Mr. Murphy’s team at DHS I&A completed the intelligence reports and he presented them to Mr. Cuccinelli in the meeting. Mr. Murphy defended the work in the reports, but Mr. Cuccinelli stated he wanted changes to the information outlining high levels of corruption, violence, and poor economic conditions in the three respective countries. Mr. Cuccinelli expressed frustration with the intelligence reports, and he accused unknown “deep state intelligence analysts” of compiling the intelligence information to undermine President Donald J. Trump’s (“President Trump”) policy objectives with respect to asylum. Notwithstanding Mr. Murphy’s response that the intelligence reports’ assessments were consistent with past assessments made for several years, Mr. Cuccinelli ordered Messrs. Murphy and Glawe to identify the names of the “deep state” individuals who compiled the intelligence reports and to either fire or reassign them immediately.

After the meeting, Mr. Murphy informed Mr. Glawe that Mr. Cuccinelli’s instructions were illegal, as well as constituted an abuse of authority and improper administration of an intelligence program.

4. Under Secretary David Glawe was reportedly almost fired by Trump after he testified about the threat posed by Russian election interference.

In approximately September 2018, Mr. Glawe testified in front of the House Committee on Homeland Security. Mr. Murphy was not present during the testimony. Immediately following that hearing, Mr. Glawe informed Mr. Murphy that he had been “challenged” by Republican members of the Committee regarding Mr. Glawe’s confirmation of Russian interference in the 2016 elections. Mr. Glawe was subsequently summoned to the White House a few days after his testimony. Mr. Glawe informed Mr. Murphy that Secretary Nielsen had warned him that President Trump had demanded Mr. Glawe be fired. However, Secretary Nielsen and White House Chief of Staff, John Kelly, had convinced President Trump to “give Glawe another chance”. After that meeting at the White House, Mr. Glawe informed Mr. Murphy that while he (Mr. Glawe) would continue to support him on most matters he (Mr. Murphy) was on his own when it came to election interference assessments.

5. Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf told Murphy to stop reporting on Russian interference and to focus on China and Iran, which Murphy believed “would put the country in substantial and specific danger,” the complaint said.

In mid-May 2020, Mr. Wolf instructed Mr. Murphy to cease providing intelligence assessments on the threat of Russian interference in the United States, and instead start reporting on interference activities by China and Iran. Mr. Wolf stated that these instructions specifically originated from White House National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien. Mr. Murphy informed Mr. Wolf he would not comply with these instructions, as doing so would put the country in substantial and specific danger.

6. Officials were concerned that discussing the threats posed by white supremacists and Russian intelligence operations would reflect badly on Trump, and they preferred that Murphy’s team work on “violent ‘left-wing’ groups” like “antifa.”

These changes would clearly better match Trump’s preferred rhetoric, though not reality.

In March 2020, Mr. Murphy’s team at DHS I&A completed a Homeland [Threat] Assessment (“HTA”). Completion of the HTA was a requirement set forth by Acting Secretary Kevin McCleenan prior to his departure from DHS. Mr. Murphy was intimately involved in the editing and crafting of the HTA. Following its completion, the HTA was distributed by Mr. Glawe to Messrs. Wolf, Cuccinelli, and Gountanis. Shortly after the distribution, Mr. Glawe was informed that further distribution of the HTA was prohibited due to concerns raised by Messrs. Wolf and Cuccinelli regarding how the HTA would reflect upon President Trump. Two sections were specifically labeled as concerns: White Supremacy and Russian influence in the United States. Mr. Murphy stated to Mr. Glawe that this constituted an abuse of authority by Messrs. Wolf and Cuccinelli, and Mr. Glawe concurred with that assessment.

In May 2020, Mr. Glawe retired, and Mr. Murphy assumed the role of Acting Under Secretary. In May 2020 and June 2020, Mr. Murphy had several meetings with Mr. Cuccinelli regarding the status of the HTA. Mr. Cuccinelli stated that Mr. Murphy needed to specifically modify the section on White Supremacy in a manner that made the threat appear less severe, as well as include information on the prominence of violent “left-wing” groups. Mr. Murphy declined to make the requested modifications, and informed Mr. Cuccinelli that it would constitute censorship of analysis and the improper administration of an intelligence program.

…

During multiple meetings between the end of May 2020 and July 31, 2020, Mr. Murphy made protected disclosures to Messrs. Wolf and Cuccinelli regarding abuse of authority and improper administration of an intelligence program with respect to intelligence information on ANTIFA and “anarchist” groups operating throughout the United States. On each occasion, Mr. Murphy was instructed by Mr. Wolf and/or Mr. Cuccinelli to modify intelligence assessments to ensure they matched up with the public comments by President Trump on the subject of ANTIFA and “anarchist” groups. Mr. Murphy declined to modify any of the intelligence assessments based upon political rhetoric, and advised both officials he would only report accurate intelligence information as collected by DHS I&A.

7. Classified material

Much of what is concerning about the complaint is what it doesn’t mention. At several points, the complaint makes clear it can’t repeat the substance of allegations regarding DHS officials because the material involved is classified. This is particularly concerning because other parts of the complaint indicate that officials abused the classification system to cover up embarrassing or inconvenient facts.

Additional point: One interesting point to note is that Murphy tried to push back on some reporting that was critical of DHS because it supposedly implied falsely that DHS was collecting intelligence information on journalists and reporters.

Murphy claims this didn’t happen. Putting aside the particulars, this detail in the report may be seen as bolstering Murphy’s credibility. Defenders of the administration will likely argue he’s a disgruntled employee trying to hurt Trump and DHS, but it’s notable that he seems to be willing to defend the department when he thinks the facts have been unfairly reported. This suggests Murphy is someone who cares about getting to the truth, rather someone who is trying to hurt the president and the administration no matter the cost:

To be unequivocally clear, the press reporting was significantly flawed and, in many instances, contained completely erroneous assertions. For example, DHS I&A never knowingly or deliberately collected information on journalists, at least as far as Mr. Murphy is aware or ever authorized. There were, to be sure, efforts to track publicly available media reporting that included information that had been leaked from the U.S. Government, including publicly-accessible posts by journalists on social media, but DHS I&A did not seek authorization to and was not engaging in surveillance of journalists’ private data.

---

https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/trump-campaign-and-republicans-have-now-spent-nearly-60-million-on-lawyers-for-the-president

as evidence mounts that the Donald Trump campaign is going broke, you might be wondering just how the heck a presidential incumbent could manage to churn through a nine-figure amount of donations and be coming up short only weeks after its own national convention.

We don’t know, but this might be a clue: The New York Times and Campaign Finance Institute counted up the latest totals of just how much Republican “donation” money is being spent not on Trump’s campaigning, but Trump’s lawyers. The new total? At least $58.4 million. Trump, his allies, and the Republican National Committee have spent nearly $60 million, since 2015, on Dear Leader’s lawyering.

Yikes.

The *Times*‘ report makes it clear that this level of legal spending is absolutely not normal. In addition to defending Trump from the Russia probe and the near-countless sexual harassment and corruption scandals surrounding him, Trump has also used donor cash to file lawsuits against ex-campaign and White House staff members who he says broke “nondisclosure” agreements and to file lawsuits against major news outlets after they published damaging opinion columns about him, thus turning the supposed legal fund into a slush fund for settling Trump’s personal vendettas.

if you’re thinking Trump is bilking small-dollar donors out of their money, with all these legal bills: yes and no. The Trump campaign has provided some of the money, but a large chunk is coming from the Republican National Committee’s legal “recount account” fund, an established party fund that is allowed to accept donations far in excess of normal campaign contribution limits. That means it’s funded by some of the richest Republicans in America.

Oh, but don’t worry. The Times reports that a National Republican Committee spokesperson “rejected” the notion that wealthy Republicans are pouring money into the legal slush fund in an attempt to “influence” Trump.

So this is all very interesting, but it’s not immediately clear that you can blame the party pissing away nearly $60 million on Trump’s personal defenses, scandals and vendettas for its apparent new money woes. It does seem a risky choice, however, for the party to be so freely spending money intended to fight election-related legal issues only months before a presidential election that (shudder) stands a very good chance of being litigated to hell and back, if Trump has his way.

Then again, the lesson of 21st-century America is that the nation’s fabulously rich have, literally, All The Money. There doesn’t seem to be any upper limit on how much money fascist-friendly but tax-averse Trump allies are willing to send his way. And as top Republican donors like Louis DeJoy keep demonstrating, don’t assume they’ll be letting petty things like federal laws block them from giving however much the conservative “movement” needs.

920

no lnx twt

thehill

Trump on Sunday threatened to withhold funding from California schools incorporating The New York Times’ 1619 Project in their classrooms.

"Department of Education is looking at this," Trump tweeted in response to an anonymous post claiming the Times’ series had been “implemented… into the public schools” in California.

"If so, they will not be funded!" he added.

The president’s allies have frequently targeted the Pulitzer-winning Times series, which emphasizes the legacy of slavery in American history.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) in July introduced legislation that would make any schools using 1619 Project materials ineligible for federal professional-development grants. Cotton called the series “a racially divisive and revisionist account of history that threatens the integrity of the Union.”

Pelosi: Trump 'engaged in fright and fear' in efforts to 'discredit'...

DeWine: Trump 'extremely respectful' of military, says report has...

The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) last week ordered federal agencies to end workplace sensitivity training that teaches the U.S. “is an inherently racist or evil country” or "that any race or ethnicity is inherently racist or evil."

It is unclear to what extent, if at all, such programs are in place at the agencies, with the OMB citing “press reports.”

===

https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/donald-trump-and-william-barr-plan-to-defund-americas-cities-using-authority-they-just-made-up/

https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/team-trump-is-conducting-a-series-of-stringent-loyalty-tests-to-gauge-who-is-maga-enough-for-his-administration-report/

It’s no secret that President Donald Trump likes to be surrounded by loyalists — not advisers who offer him constructive criticism. That’s why Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Attorney General Bill Barr and White House adviser Kellyanne Conway are still in the White House and why former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and former National Security Adviser John Bolton are long gone. And according to Politico reporters Dan Diamond, Daniel Lippman and Nancy Cook, Trump’s need for loyalists is so extreme that some members of his team have even devised a series of “loyalty tests” to make sure that people in his administration are unwavering in their devotion to the president.

Diamond, Lippman and Cook explain, “The White House’s presidential personnel office is conducting one-on-one interviews with health officials and hundreds of other political appointees across federal agencies — an exercise some of the subjects have called ‘loyalty tests’ — to root out threats of leaks and other potentially subversive acts just months before the presidential election, according to interviews with 15 current and former senior administration officials. The interviews are being arranged with officials across a wide range of departments — including Health and Human Services, Defense, Treasury, Labor and Commerce — and include the top tier of Trump aides: Senate-confirmed appointees. Officials are expected to detail their career goals and thoughts on current policies, said more than a dozen people across the (Trump) Administration with knowledge of the meetings.”

White House officials have said that the interviews are meant to determine who would be willing to serve in the Trump administration if Trump is reelected in November and defeats former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. But according to Diamond, Lippman and Cook, “officials summoned for the interviews say the exercise is distracting from numerous policy priorities, like working to fight the pandemic, revitalizing the economy or overhauling regulation — and instead, reflect the White House’s conviction that a ‘Deep State’ is working to undermine the president.”

One of Politico’s sources, presumably interviewed on condition of anonymity, described the interviews as “an exercise in ferreting out people who are perceived as not Trump enough.” And another source told Politico, “If they’re spending time trying to hunt down leakers, that’s time they’re taking away from advancing an agenda — and that’s irresponsible.”

AD REMOVED FOR SUBSCRIBED USER

In the past, some U.S. presidents were criticized for being too quick to heed the words of advisers. Some conservatives argued that President George W. Bush was too quick to follow neocon war hawks on foreign policy; some liberals and progressives argued that President Barack Obama was too quick to be influenced by Wall Street insiders on economic policy. But Trump’s mentality has been: my way or the highway — much to the frustration of everyone from Tillerson to former Defense Secretary James Mattis.

A senior Trump Administration official familiar with the interviews/loyalty tests told Politico, “It just seems like you could be a rocket scientist, but all they care about is whether you are MAGA. It is fair to do something to prepare to fill jobs in a second term, but right now, it is hard to know what the metrics are with this personnel office for being successful. There is no set criteria for what makes a good political appointee.”

also 720 fauci fail, trump navarro under bus?! https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/white-house-is-waving-the-white-flag-on-fauci-attacks-after-trump-throws-navarro-under-the-bus-cnns-acosta/**

https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/the-trump-white-house-sent-the-pentagon-a-list-of-ugly-allegations-against-alexander-vindman-in-order-to-derail-his-promotion-report/

he resigned? 1st report was WH asked for dirt but none could be found. sen duckworth still hold?

===

https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/trump-engaged-in-yet-another-internal-investigation-to-silence-whistleblowers-in-the-white-house/

Trump’s relentless efforts to purge the federal government of people who aren’t deemed sufficiently loyal to him will now be overseen by a lackey who once claimed that Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta was a practicing Satanist, according to Axios.

https://www.axios.com/white-house-office-personnel-management-john-gibbs-7333b9be-424a-454b-b395-6654d364b79b.html

Trump intends to nominate John Gibbs to run the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), according to two sources with direct knowledge of the decision, which remains closely held.

Why it matters: OPM is the HR department for the federal government's civil service. The agency has become a focus of the White House's efforts to install and reward Trump loyalists across the government.

As Politico first reported, the previous head of OPM, Dale Cabaniss, "stepped down because of, what two people familiar with the matter said, was poor treatment from the [then] 29-year-old head of the Presidential Personnel Office, John McEntee, and a powerful appointee at OPM, Paul Dans."

Between the lines: Gibbs is a former conservative commentator who currently serves as a senior official at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Gibbs received national media attention when CNN reported, in 2018, that he "spread a false conspiracy theory that claimed Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign chairman took part in a Satanic ritual."

White House response: Deputy press secretary Judd Deere told Axios that "the White House has no personnel announcements at this time."

Go deeper: Trump's loyalty cop John McEntee clashes with agency heads

===

not sure he deserves whistleblower name, but aha transparency --> CRIME; also authoritarian dics eg duterte murders drug users

an 620

Trump threatens John Bolton with ‘criminal liability’ to keep him quiet

Jon Queally / Common Dreams

President Donald Trump on Monday claimed that any conversation between himself and former National Security Advisor John Bolton is “highly classified,” threatening his far-right former top advisor with “criminal liability”…

an 620

7 of the many former administration officials Trump has trashed

Alex Henderson June 4, 2020

Although Gen. James Mattis was obviously quite frustrated when he resigned from his position as secretary of defense in December 2018, he has been reluctant to criticize President Donald Trump…

https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/ex-fbi-official-slams-bill-barr-for-ignoring-the-right-wing-boogaloo-bois-infiltrating-protests/

Ex-FBI official slams Bill Barr for ignoring the right-wing ‘Boogaloo Bois’ infiltrating protests

Written by Bob Brigham / Raw Story May 31, 2020

Attorney General Bill Barr was slammed by the former assistant director for counterintelligence at the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Saturday for misleading Americans about the source of violence at the protests over the killing of George Floyd while in police custody.

“There’s evidence developing, Brian, that the organization we’re seeing of the most violent protesters is coming from a couple of disturbing places,” both, by the way, there’s disparate in terms in being from the right or the left. here’s what those who monitor these groups and sites are seeing.

“We’re seeing a far-right group, one group for example known as the Boogaloo Bois, who on their private Facebook page and social media outlets are calling for violence, calling for people to show up,” Frank Figliuzzi told MSNBC’s Brian Williams.

“We’re seeing evidence in the protests that right-wing dangerous militia groups are there. We’ve seen flags and symbols that come from both Boogaloo Bois and dangerous militia groups,” he warned. “On the far-left, we’re seeing some evidence developing of global anarchists showing up.”

“So we’re seeing a strange alignment occurring by some groups who are anti-government on the right and therefore anti-police because they think the police are too oppressive to them, aligning themselves with people like Black Lives Matter and saying, ‘hey, we’re one because we both don’t like the police,’ but I’m here to tell you they are not one, their intention is to destroy government and the system of justice, as opposed to calling for justice within the system.”

“What do we do about it?” Williams asked.

“Well, ordinarily we’d rely on our system and mechanisms and rule of law, but here’s two things significant that happened today that caused me to be deeply troubled about the summer ahead. The attorney general, William Barr held a press conference where he chose selectively just the intelligence that indicates there’s far-left agitators within the protest groups,” Figliuzzi noted.

Acyn Torabi

@Acyn

AG Barr: it appears the violence is planned, organized, and driven by anarchic and left extremist groups, far left extremist groups using Antifa like tactics... it is a federal crime to cross state lines or to use interstate facilities to incite or participate in violent rioting

Embedded video

5,003 people are talking about this

“He politicized intelligence. We shouldn’t be surprised by it, but we should be disturbed that the whole truth is not getting out about all the groups that pose a threat because that goes toward whether or not law enforcement will take effective action against all groups that are violent and be allowed to take such action,” he explained.

“And then the second thing that should disturb us today is within the last hour, the president of the United States has tweeted he wants to use the unlimited power of the military with regard to these protests. Well, let me remind our viewers that we have laws in the United States that prevent the military from turning into law enforcement on the streets of America,” he reminded.

“Yet we see a direction of where this is headed: politicizing the intelligence so that only the far-left becomes the bad folks here, and then a president who seems inclined to use the military on our streets,” Figliuzzi warned.

“It’s scary stuff,” Williams said.

Watch:

no lnx twet pix

aha 520 this twitter is trump superweapon so can't afford to have even innoc factcheck link attached thus goes to war/retaliantion

---

bunch // AN 520

https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/donald-trump-just-issued-his-most-serious-threat-yet-to-free-speech

salon

'Totally asinine’: Legal experts pour cold water on Trump’s call to ‘strongly regulate’ social media companies

Alex HendersonMay 28, 2020

Although Twitter has been one of President Donald Trump’s favorite modes of communication, he is furious with the social media outlet this week for fact-checking two of his tweets: Twitter…

https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/kellyanne-conway-paints-target-on-back-of-twitter-executive-in-charge-of-fact-check-label/

aha hmmn, does djt hijack of law = evil perversion? also pseudo-populism by billionaire to line own pocket and corrupt cronies?

see roy cohn for full txt

https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/sadism-crime-and-a-love-of-lies-what-3500-lawsuits-reveal-about-trumps-true-nature/

no lnx

Sadism, crime and a love of lies: What 3,500 lawsuits reveal about Trump’s true nature

Written by History News Network April 11, 2020

American presidents before Donald Trump had some record of public achievement in politics, government or the military before they were elected. Donald Trump lacked any of those credentials, but brought his astounding history of involvement in thousands of lawsuits to the nation’s highest office. This trove of cases from more than 45 years reflects Trump’s contempt for ethical standards and for the US Constitution and the rule of law, the foundation of American democracy.

As a perennial litigant, Trump weaponized the law to devastate perceived enemies, to consolidate power, to frustrate opposing parties, as former federal prosecutor and acclaimed author James D. Zirin illuminates in his compelling and disturbing history of Trump’s use and abuse of the law, Plaintiff in Chief: A Portrait of Trump in 3,500 Lawsuits (All Points Books)....

authoritarian

https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/trump-goes-ballistic-over-twitters-fact-check-but-he-has-no-idea-what-hes-talking-about

That didn’t take long.

Around 5:30 PM Twitter slapped a label on two of President Donald Trump’s tweets, inviting social media users to “get the facts about mail-in ballot.” It’s the first time Twitter has placed what some are calling a “warning label” on any individual tweet.

And while others say it’s not sufficient – Trump lies remain and the label isn’t especially strong – Trump went ballistic just two hours later.

Despite the fact that Trump was engaging in voter suppression, he is accusing Twitter of “interfering in the 2020 Presidential Election."

'They are saying my statement on Mail-In Ballots, which will lead to massive corruption and fraud, is incorrect, based on fact-checking by Fake News CNN and the Amazon Washington Post.”

Actually, his tweets are filled with lies and falsehoods, no fact-checking required.

But Trump did not stop there.

In yet another example of his belief that he is all powerful, Trump decreed, “Twitter is completely stifling FREE SPEECH, and I, as President, will not allow it to happen!”

The President, who has never read the U.S. Constitution and little to no understanding of it, does not comprehend that he is using a private platform operated by a private company, and the only “free speech” guarantee is when the government “stifles” it.

Twitter can do what they want. And they have.

---

cody f

Twitter finally took a minor step to address the deluge of distortions, lies, and blatant disinformation flowing from President Donald Trump’s account.

Now, following a pair of Trump’s bogus tweets sent Tuesday morning spreading lies about mail-in voting, Twitter has inserted an alert telling readers to “Get the facts about mail-in ballots” as seen below:

https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/twitter-finally-takes-a-step-to-counter-trumps-online-disinformation

...[twet] Clicking the link brings readers to a page that addressed Trump’s falsehoods. It explained:

On Tuesday, President Trump made a series of claims about potential voter fraud after California Governor Gavin Newsom announced an effort to expand mail-in voting in California during the COVID-19 pandemic. These claims are unsubstantiated, according to CNN, Washington Post and others. Experts say mail-in ballots are very rarely linked to voter fraud.

It continued:

Trump falsely claimed that mail-in ballots would lead to “a Rigged Election.” However, fact-checkers say there is no evidence that mail-in ballots are linked to voter fraud.

– Trump falsely claimed that California will send mail-in ballots to “anyone living in the state, no matter who they are or how they got there.” In fact, only registered voters will receive ballots.

– Though Trump targeted California, mail-in ballots are already used in some states, including Oregon, Utah and Nebraska.

While it’s important to rebut Trump’s attempt to manipulate the election and mislead the population about the integrity of American democracy, it’s easy to see how this solution from Twitter will raise further problems.

Conservatives will undoubtedly be outraged by the fact-check. Given how social media outlets have caved to faux and unjustified conservative outrage in the past, it’s easy to imagine that Twitter will respond poorly to these attacks.

It also creates the problem that the rest of Trump’s Twitter feed remains littered with disinformation and lies, including smears about President Barack Obama and former Vice President Joe Biden and a horrendous conspiracy theory insinuating baselessly that former Rep. Joe Scarborough murdered a congressional staffer. Correcting some lies and not others could create the appearance that Twitter is putting its seal of approval on misinformation.

Some, including Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), have advocated that Twitter ban Trump completely because of his abuse of the platform. Ultimately, someone like Trump leaves companies like Twitter in an incredibly difficult, perhaps impossible, situation. The best solution is to get reckless spreaders of disinformation out of power.

===

an 420

Trump says he might use pandemic relief funding to extort so-called sanctuary cities

===

so much for respect for military crozer got her's farewll from sailors

https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/its-not-shocking-the-navy-fired-a-commander-for-warning-of-coronavirus-threat-its-part-of-a-disturbing-pattern/

===

https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/pure-retaliation-trump-fires-inspector-general-who-sounded-alarm-about-ukraine-whistleblower-complaint/

no lnx

‘Pure retaliation’: Trump fires inspector general who sounded alarm about Ukraine whistleblower complaint

Written by Julia Conley / Common Dreams April 5, 2020

Democratic lawmakers and government watchdogs on Saturday condemned President Donald Trump’s abrupt dismissal of Michael Atkinson, the intelligence community inspector general who informed Congress last year of the whistleblower complaint which kicked off Trump’s eventual impeachment proceedings.

Two months after being acquitted by the Senate, Trump on Friday night told lawmakers in a letter to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees that he no longer had confidence in Atkinson.

“It is vital that I have the fullest confidence in the appointees serving as inspectors general,” the president wrote (pdf). “That is no longer the case with regard to this inspector general.”

Atkinson’s firing will be in effect in early May, 30 days from Trump’s announcement.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), chair of the House Intelligence Committee, condemned Trump’s decision, which he viewed as retaliation against Atkinson for informing Congress of the White House communications with Ukraine last year which were at the center of the impeachment hearings.

Trump’s dead of night decision to fire ICIG Michael Atkinson is another blatant attempt to gut the independence of the Intelligence Community and retaliate against those who dare to expose presidential wrongdoing.

It puts our country and national security at even greater risk. pic.twitter.com/Pnm7chdIkl

— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) April 4, 2020

Disagreeing with then-acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire’s decision to take the whistleblower complaint to Trump’s Justice Department, Atkinson alerted Congress about the complaint regarding Trump’s conversations with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in which he asked Zelensky to publicly launch a corruption investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.

Daniel Goldman, who served as counsel to the House Democrats during the impeachment hearings, said Atkinson “followed the law with the utmost integrity” and accused Trump of seeking “pure retaliation, retribution, and reprisal.”

I saw Michael Atkinson up close. He followed the law with the utmost integrity. He did nothing to lose Trump’s confidence other than lawfully and properly expose Trump’s misconduct and the ensuing efforts to cover it up. This is pure retaliation, retribution and reprisal. https://t.co/GStcTOJn4J**

— Daniel Goldman (@danielsgoldman) April 4, 2020

Trump was also rebuked by the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency.

“Inspector General Atkinson is known throughout the Inspector General community for his integrity, professionalism, and commitment to the rule of law and independent oversight,” said council chairman Michael Horowitz. “That includes his actions in handling the Ukraine whistleblower complaint, which the then Acting Director of National Intelligence stated in congressional testimony was done ‘by the book’ and consistent with the law.”

National security analyst Clint Watts wrote that Trump chose to fire Atkinson while Americans are focused on the coronavirus pandemic, which has spread to more than 278,000 Americans and has killed more than 7,000.

“While the world is rightly distracted by COVID19, we see leaders around the world with authoritarian tendencies subverting democracy. U.S. is no different,” Watts tweeted, suggesting a comparison between Trump and far-right Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who secured dictatorial powers this week through an emergency law passed by Parliament.

Death of American democracy, one Friday firing at a time, people are usually fired for not doing their job, Atkinson was literally fired for doing his job and following the law. https://t.co/o1X719iEox

— Clint Watts (@selectedwisdom) April 4, 2020

At the Center for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), deputy director Donald K. Sherman suggested the American public could soon learn that Atkinson’s firing may have been brought about by actions unrelated to last year’s whistleblower complaint and Trump’s impeachment.

Everyone is assuming this move is retaliation for something we know #Atkinson Atkinson did — sounding the alarm on the Ukraine whistleblower complaint— but what if it’s for launching an investigation into something we don’t yet know about? https://t.co/oF1TF60Tk4**

— Donald K. Sherman (@donaldonethics) April 4, 2020

“The question we need to ask right now is what investigations or audits did Atkinson start in the last few months,” Sherman wrote. “Were any related to intelligence failures around coronavirus? Why would he be fired so abruptly AND placed on administrative leave?”

===

https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/trump-fires-people-for-telling-the-truth-president-blasted-for-dead-of-night-decision-to-fire-intel-watchdog/

‘Trump fires people for telling the truth’: President blasted for ‘dead of night decision’ to fire intel watchdog

President Donald Trump was harshly criticized on Friday for firing intelligence community Inspector General Michael Atkinson.

House Intel Chair Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Senate Intel Ranking Member Mark Warner (D-VA) were among the lawmakers who took to Twitter to criticize Trump on his favorite social media platform.

Here’s some of what people were saying about Trump’s decision:

Adam Schiff

@RepAdamSchiff

It puts our country and national security at even greater risk.

...

Mark Warner

@MarkWarner

· 15h

In the midst of a national emergency, it is unconscionable that the President is once again attempting to undermine the integrity of the intelligence community by firing yet another intelligence official, the ICIG, simply for doing his job.

Mark Warner

@MarkWarner

The work of the intelligence community has never been about loyalty to a single individual -- it’s about keeping us all safe from those who wish to do our country harm. We should all be deeply disturbed by ongoing attempts to politicize the nation’s intelligence agencies.

Rep. Gerry Connolly

@GerryConnolly

Donald Trump tramples the Constitution again. This time, late on a Friday night under the cover of global crisis.

Congress may be at home, but we can see you, Mr. President. And we’re the one group of people you can’t fire. https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1246262473977561088 …

Kyle Griffin

@kylegriffin1

Breaking: Trump has fired the intelligence community's chief watchdog, Michael Atkinson, who was the first to sound the alarm to Congress about an "urgent" complaint he'd received from an intelligence official involving Trump's communications with Ukraine. https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/03/trump-fires-intelligence-community-inspector-general-164287 …

244

7:55 PM - Apr 3, 2020

Twitter Ads info and privacy

117 people are talking about this

David Cicilline

@davidcicilline

How many civil servants will be victimized by this President before Republicans wake the hell up?

1,779

7:52 PM - Apr 3, 2020

Twitter Ads info and privacy

531 people are talking about this

Jim Himes

@jahimes

Captain Crozier and Inspector General Atkinson. Decent patriotic men of service doing their jobs with honor. And of course @realDonaldTrump can’t abide that.

Both fired in one week.

There is no bottom to this administration.

Chuck Schumer

@SenSchumer

Whether it’s LTC Vindman, Captain Crozier, or Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson:

President Trump fires people for telling the truth. https://twitter.com/NatashaBertrand/status/1246261657086672896 …

Natasha Bertrand

@NatashaBertrand

BREAKING: Trump has fired the intelligence community’s chief watchdog, Michael Atkinson, saying he no longer has confidence in him. He will be removed 30 days from now. https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/03/trump-fires-intelligence-community-inspector-general-164287 …

Chuck Schumer

@SenSchumer

Michael Atkinson is a man of integrity who has served our nation for almost two decades. Being fired for having the courage to speak truth to power makes him a patriot. https://twitter.com/NatashaBertrand/status/1246261657086672896 …

Natasha Bertrand

@NatashaBertrand

Rep. Eric Swalwell

@RepSwalwell

America, time to fire @realDonaldTrump https://twitter.com/natashabertrand/status/1246261657086672896 …

Natasha Bertrand

@NatashaBertrand

BREAKING: Trump has fired the intelligence community’s chief watchdog, Michael Atkinson, saying he no longer has confidence in him. He will be removed 30 days from now.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/03/trump-fires-intelligence-community-inspector-general-164287 …

https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/is-trump-using-critical-medical-supplies-to-blackmail-blue-state-governors/

===

https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/saudi-arabia-in-royal-purge-over-coup-plot/

riyadh (AFP) – Saudi authorities have detained three princes including King Salman’s brother and nephew for allegedly plotting a coup, three sources told AFP Saturday, signalling the de facto ruler’s tightening grip on power.The detentions, which cast aside the last vestiges of potential opposition to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, come at a sensitive time as the petro-state grapples with plunging oil prices and limits access to Islam’s holiest sites over fears of the new coronavirus.Royal guards detained Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, a brother of King Salman, and the monarch’s nephew…

Read More

rehired pow mcEntee doing staff purge

wow, aha score zinger to trump opponent is qualification for high office, no matter lack of temperment or expertise.

so not just downside of attack djt opponents, but if you help you can get promotion/more power

sessions fired for not protecting, barr hired to do precisely that

---

https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/rump-to-nominate-texas-us-rep-john-ratcliffe-to-become-director-of-national-intelligence/

no lnx

Trump to nominate Texas US Rep. John Ratcliffe to become director of national intelligence

Written by The Texas Tribune March 1, 2020

By Stacy Fernández and Patrick Svitek, The Texas Tribune

Feb. 28, 2020

“Donald Trump to nominate U.S. Rep. John Ratcliffe to become director of national intelligence” was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.

U.S. Rep. John Ratcliffe, a Heath Republican, was nominated as director of national intelligence Friday, President Donald Trump said in a tweet.

“Would have completed process earlier, but John wanted to wait until after IG Report was finished. John is an outstanding man of great talent!” Trump said in the tweet.

The Washington Post reported the tweet was an apparent reference to an inspector general’s report about the investigation into the president’s campaign and Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Ratcliffe could not be reached immediately for comment Friday.

The announcement comes months after Ratcliffe withdrew from consideration for the job amid claims that he’d exaggerated parts of his biography, like his role as the leader of an immigration crackdown while he was a federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of Texas. Ratcliffe defended his record last year but said he didn’t want the national security and intelligence debate surrounding his confirmation, “however untrue,” to become a political issue.

Ratcliffe has been a fierce defender of the president during congressional hearings. He gained notoriety for berating former special counsel Robert Mueller during his appearance before the Judiciary Committee. Ratcliffe also defended Trump during impeachment hearings of the president.

Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick tweeted his congratulations to the congressman. Fellow Republican U.S. Rep. Chip Roy of Austin called Ratcliffe “a good man” and said in a tweet that he supported the nomination.

The Texas Democratic Party’s executive director, though, said Ratcliffe’s nomination was an insult to the intelligence community and that his “entire claim to fame” was his interchange with Mueller.

“Deeply unqualified and highly partisan, he fits right in with the Trump Administration but the results will be terrible and dangerous for the rest of the country,” state party executive director Manny Garcia said.

If Ratcliffe is confirmed to the post, it could create a vacancy in Texas’ 4th Congressional District. The district, which covers the northeast corner of the state, is safely Republican.

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2020/02/28/us-rep-john-ratcliffe-gets-director-national-intelligence-nomination/.

The Texas Tribune is proud to celebrate 10 years of exceptional journalism for an exceptional state.

bit neglected re gig

Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-TX), President Donald Trump’s newly announced pick to be the next director of National Intelligence overseeing the 17 U.S. intelligence services, doesn’t have much experience in intelligence. Previous occupants of the position have had long careers serving in the U.S. Senate, military, foreign service, or intelligence agencies. By contrast, Ratcliffe, a former U.S. attorney and small town mayor, is a third-term congressman who joined the House Intelligence Committee a scant six months ago.

What Ratcliffe really brings to the table is a willingness to protect Trump from the implications of former special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election by parroting the fantasies of the president's most ardent Fox News defenders.

A few days after interviewing for the job, the congressman benefited from the opportunity to “essentially audition for the president” during Mueller’s Wednesday hearings, The New York Timesreported. If those hearings were Ratcliffe’s audition, then callbacks came Thursday when he used an interview on Fox & Friends, one of the president’s favorite programs, to play the network’s anti-Mueller hits to the audience of one.

On Fox, Ratcliffe claimed that the Mueller report was written by “a bunch of lawyers that didn’t like Donald Trump.” He suggested that the way “Russia really did interfere” with the election was with a “fake dossier” provided to Democrats. And he accused former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and former FBI Director James Comey of violating the Espionage Act, adding that the Justice Department probe that Attorney General William Barr has ordered could provide “accountability.”

“The big winner yesterday,” he added at one point, “was Donald Trump, because impeachment is dead."

[vid]

Trump is trying to replace someone who refused to operate in his personal interest with someone who will. Outgoing National Intelligence Director Dan Coats lost the president’s favor by loudly defending the U.S. intelligence service’s conclusion that Russia interfered with the 2016 presidential election to benefit Trump, and he has sounded the alarm that the Kremlin will target the 2020 elections as well. Ratcliffe, meanwhile, has adopted Fox host Sean Hannity’s moronic position that the “real collusion” during the 2016 election was between Russia and the Democrats.

Such a personnel shift can have profound consequences. Trump forced out former Attorney General Jeff Sessions because Sessions was unwilling to use the Justice Department to defend the president and punish his enemies. His replacement, Barr, had publicly indicated that he was willing to do so; as attorney general, Barr opened the investigation into the inception of the Mueller probe that Fox hosts had demanded.

Trump wants a National Intelligence director who will similarly parrot Fox conspiracy theories and use the office to the president’s benefit. In Ratcliffe, he believes he’s found his man.

AOC white supr death threats 220

note when trump targets, thugswarm or worse follows

https://www.mediamatters.org/roger-stone/roger-stones-right-wing-media-allies-grasp-straws-attacks-judge-amy-berman-jackson

no docs

Right-wing media figures who are attacking Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who recently sentenced Trump confidant and friend Roger Stone to prison, either don’t understand the basic mechanisms of the federal legal system or don’t want their viewers to.

On February 20, Jackson sentenced Stone to 40 months in prison after a jury convicted him of seven charges stemming from special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe, including lying to Congress, obstructing an official proceeding, and witness tampering. Jackson, however, put a decision on hold about when Stone would report to prison while she considers a motion from Stone’s legal team for a new trial based on a claim that the jury foreperson was biased against Stone.

A hearing was held on that topic on February 25 and Jackson has yet to rule, though according to Politico she “appears headed toward dismissing the defendant’s motion for a new trial” after Stone’s legal team failed to make a convincing argument. In any case, Trump has signaled that he is receptive to calls from Stone’s right-wing media defenders to issue a pardon that would eliminate Stone’s prison sentence. According to Seth Cousins, who served on the jury, the foreperson actually “expressed skepticism at some of the government’s claims and was one of the last people to vote to convict on the charge that took most of our deliberation time.” Cousins also wrote that the foreperson “oversaw a rigorous process, slowing us down on several occasions and advocating for the rights of the defendant.” Still, Stone’s allies and Trump himself have waged a public campaign against the foreperson, including during yesterday’s hearing.

In addition to attacks on the foreperson, Stone defenders are launching attacks on Jackson herself, including baselessly calling into question her impartiality and even spreading falsehoods about how Jackson would conduct the post-conviction retrial hearing.

During his February 25 radio broadcast, Fox News host Sean Hannity said, “You had a political activist judge running the show, the same judge in the [Paul] Manafort case,” before asking, “How is it these judges, lifetime appointments, they get away with murder?” Similarly, Fox News host Tucker Carlson scandalized the fact that Jackson “was appointed by Barack Obama” in order to call her “an openly partisan Democrat.” He also said that she is “a disgrace to the judiciary” and is “corrupt, dishonest and authoritarian.”

It is a basic fact of our political system that federal judges are nominated by presidents who are members of political parties and these judges serve lifetime appointments “during good behavior.” And it’s a basic fact of life that some criminal defendants will be charged with federal crimes that arise out of political matters, which is what happened in Stone’s case. There is a simple reason that Jackson is presiding over both the Stone and former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort cases. She was randomly assigned the Manafort case and it is the standard practice of the federal judiciary system to then give judges any other cases that may have overlapping evidence.

Prior to being assigned a number of cases stemming from the Mueller investigation, Jackson sentenced a high-profile political figure to prison -- a Democrat -- and arguably showed less leniency than she did in Stone’s case.

In 2013, Jackson sentenced former member of Congress Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL) to 30 months in prison and fined him $750,000after a jury convicted him of illegally using campaign funds. Prosecutors had recommended Jackson Jr. spend four years in prison, meaning Jackson sentenced him to 63% of the time prosecutors requested. While senior officials of the Justice Department interfered in the sentencing recommendation against Stone, when the sentencing hearing took place, newly assigned prosecutors to the case ended up defending the initial recommendation of seven to nine years. Jackson sentenced Stone to 40 months in prison, or 37-47% of what prosecutors asked for. Stone was fined $20,000.

False information about how Jackson would conduct the hearing for a new trial was also broadcast on Fox News by its chief legal analyst Andrew Napolitano. During a February 25 appearance hours before the hearing, Napolitano joined Fox & Friends and characterized the hearing as “secret” while claiming Jackson “won’t give a reason why” and saying, “You combine secrecy and silence and that is a recipe for totalitarianism.”

The publicly available docket for Stone’s trial shows that wasn’t the case:

[doc]

as the docket text explains, a public hearing and a sealed hearing was scheduled for February 25. After the public hearing, where members of the public could sit in the courtroom, Jackson cleared the room, but said that audio of the hearing would be available in a listening room. The purpose of this move was solely to protect the publishing of the names and physical characteristics of members of the jury, who had been gathered at the courthouse for potential questioning. The public was still free to listen to and evaluate the substance of the hearing. The transcript of the hearing will also not be sealed and will only be redacted in instances of personal information. (In any case, the jury foreperson, who was questioned, had previously publicly identified herself in a social media post, and the media subsequently reported her identity.) Jackson also offered a rationale for her decision, contrary to what Napolitano claimed was happening.

As reported by CNN, “Jackson read one of the President's past tweets attacking the Stone jury forewoman, as well as commentary from InfoWars' Alex Jones and Tucker Carlson from Fox News, to a federal courtroom, in deciding to hear testimony from jurors while protecting their identities after Stone asked for a retrial.” Indeed during the trial, Jones’ far-right conspiracy theory Infowars outlet, where Stone previously worked as a show host, led a campaign to out juror identities while making disparaging remarks about them. During the trial, Jackson said that those efforts put peoples’ safety at risk.

The attacks from conservative media against Jackson are intertwined with Trump’s own attacks against the judge. While the hearing was underway, Trump shared on Twitter a Fox News article about Jackson that Napolitano had tweeted, adding, “A total miscarriage of justice!”

The article in question was published on February 22 and in itTrump-supporting lawyer David Schoenargued that Jackson should be removed from the case because at sentencing she offered generic praise of the jury’s work -- the same legal argument that Stone’s lawyers used in a filing that Jackson would dismiss days later in a “sharply worded order” that “dressed down Stone's defense team for using the court's docket to air what she said were meritless claims that she is biased against him.”

---

related sean Hannity launches unhinged attack against judge in Roger Stone trial

02/25/20

Inside the right-wing media campaign to rig the justice system in favor of Roger Stone and Donald Trump

https://www.mediamatters.org/roger-stone/inside-right-wing-media-campaign-rig-justice-system-protect-roger-stone-and-donald

namy lnx 2 vid

Alex Jones' Infowars interfered with criminal proceedings against Stone at every step, and Fox's Tucker Carlson is leading demands that Stone be pardoned

WRITTEN BY TIMOTHY JOHNSON

PUBLISHED 02/12/20

Right-wing media outlets, led by Trump allies at Infowars and Fox News, have waged a months-long campaign to interfere with criminal proceedings against Roger Stone. Now that Stone has been convicted of seven felonies and is facing the possibility of significant jail time, his conservative and far-right media defenders are drumming up support for President Donald Trump to pardon him.

Longtime Trump confidant and friend Stone, who prosecutors argued committed his crimes in a bid to protect Trump, will be sentenced in federal court on February 20, though Trump could issue a pardon at any time. In recent days, Stone’s case has been thrown into chaos, as leaders at the Department of Justice have meddled with the sentencing recommendations of the DOJ line prosecutors who tried Stone in court, resulting in all four prosecutors withdrawing from the case.

CitationVideo by Miles Le

After Stone was arrested, he used his Infowars platform to publicly litigate his case

Stone was arrested in Florida on January 25, 2019, during an early morning FBI raid of his house and subsequently charged with seven felonies related to special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe, including lying to Congress, intimidating a witness, and obstructing an official proceeding. After appearing in court that day and being released on his own recognizance, he made his first media appearance on Infowars, where at the time he was a co-host of the weekday afternoon show War Room. Speaking with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, Stone denied he had committed any crimes and promised not to testify against Trump, saying, “There’s no circumstance in which I would bear false witness against the president.” (In December 2018, Trump had faced allegations of witness tampering after he approvingly tweeted a purported quote from Stone that said, “I will never testify against Trump.”) Stone also promoted his legal defense fund several times.

Stone’s immediate run to Infowars made sense. The outlet had already been doing damage control for Stone as it became increasingly apparent he was in legal jeopardy. Infowars had been waging a public relations campaign against former Infowars employee Jerome Corsi in an attempt to pin any 2016 election-related wrongdoing on Corsi -- who at the time appeared to have significant legal exposure from Mueller -- rather than Stone. Part of the pressure campaign involved Infowars warning Corsi not to give inculpatory testimony during a grand jury appearance about Stone’s involvement in WikiLeaks’ dissemination of hacked emails, the issue Stone would later be convicted of lying to Congress over.

Infowars then became Stone’s public forum to litigate the charges against him. In an appearance four days after his arrest, Stone attempted to explain away the witness tampering charge he was later convicted of. On his show War Room, Stone said he hadn’t encouraged radio host Randy Credico to lie to Congress to prevent him from implicating Stone in a crime, but rather so that Credico’s liberal friends wouldn’t find out he supported Trump and get mad at him.

Stone continued to use Infowars to attack his critics. During the February 8 edition of his show, Stone complained about “leftist retards” talking about his upcoming trial. On February 12, he mentionedCNN commentator Ana Navarro, asking, “What qualifies her other than her ethnicity to comment on anything?” and saying, “Let’s see if she celebrates my acquittal,” before calling her “porquita.” During the broadcast, he also highlighted the role of Infowars in his legal defense, saying, “I’ve told you about the vital role that Infowars plays in the strategy for my defense. If I can’t come here, if I can’t come on The Alex Jones Show, if I can’t come on the morning show with David Knight, if I can’t come on the War Room, then there’s no forum where I can really go to tell people the complete story about what’s going on.”

Stone also used Infowars to praise his friend, the president. During the February 18 broadcast of The Alex Jones Show, he alleged that Trump was the victim of a “globalist” coup attempt led by elements in the FBI and DOJ and railed against the special counsel office, which was leading the criminal prosecution against him. Stone also flattered Trump, saying, “If he’s so incapacitated, why do we have 4.8 million new jobs, for example?” He added that Trump is a “leader” who is “keeping faith with the very people that voted for him.”

After Stone was placed under a gag order for posting an image showing firearm crosshairs next to the judge in his case, Infowars picked up the slack

But Stone also did something on February 18 that would stop him from fighting his legal case through Infowars when he posted an image on Instagram that showed the federal judge overseeing his case, Amy Berman Jackson, next to apparent firearm crosshairs. Stone was already operating under a gag order that prevented him from speaking about his case on the steps of the courthouse where it was being tried, but Jackson expanded the order in a February 21 hearing to prohibit Stone from talking about his case anywhere, with the caveat that he could still profess his innocence and solicit money for his legal defense fund.

But Stone’s boss, Alex Jones, picked up where he left off.During a February 25 broadcast, Jones compared Judge Jackson to Hitler and attempted to link Mueller to Jeffrey Epstein. He also echoed language Stone had used on his show, claiming that Stone was being pressured “to bear false witness against the president” and also addressed Trump directly, saying, “And we can talk about how great Trump is all day, but he’s asleep at the switch. Tweets don’t do it, President; protect us.”

As Stone’s trial approached, he stopped appearing on Infowars but continued to go right up to the line imposed by his gag order in other public forums. During an April interview with pro-Trump propaganda outlet One America News Network, Stone complained that he was facing “process crime charges,” echoing a right-wing media talking point that had been used to attack the charges against him. In July, Stone again ran afoul of the gag order after Jackson agreed with prosecutors who said some of his Instagram posts counted as disallowed commentary on his case. Stone was banned from using social media as a result of the violation.

Stone made one exception to his silence on Infowars while he was under gag in the pre-trial phase. In an October 25 appearance, he discussed topics unrelated to his case and made flattering comments about Donald Trump Jr. and Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham.

Alex Jones and his Infowars outlet attempted to interfere with the trial process in a way that the court said put people in danger

Stone’s trial occurred in November, and Infowars attempted to interfere on his behalf -- Stone had since officially left the outlet -- throughout the proceedings. During the jury selection phase, Infowars attempted to out the identities of jurors on the trial with the help of Jacob Engels, Stone’s assistant. Amid the outing attempts, in which they named at least two people who were not actually on the jury, Jones attacked the jurors, claiming that they were involved in a setup against Stone. According to a transcript from the trial cited in a Department of Justice sentencing memo, Jackson said that Jones’ actions caused “great consternation among members of the public” and put “the safety of all the people associated with this case, on both sides, and including, possibly, the jurors, at risk.”

As the jury deliberated, Stone passed a message through Alex Jones asking Trump to pardon him

The sentencing memo also mentioned Jones with respect to an incident that occured while the jury was deliberating Stone’s case. During his November 14 broadcast, Jones shared a purported message from Stone in which Stone said, “I appeal to the president to pardon me because to do so would be an action that would show these corrupt courts that they’re not going to get away with persecuting people for their free speech or for the crime of getting the president elected.” Jones then encouraged people to call the White House to demand Stone be pardoned and continued to attack the “libtard jurors.”

Video file

05:06

CitationFrom the November 14, 2019, broadcast of Infowars' The Alex Jones Show

Other right-wing media figures -- and even more extreme right-wingers -- have joined Infowars in campaigning for a pardon for Stone

Stone was convicted on all counts the next day, November 15. Reacting to the news on air, Jones read an angry text message from one of Stone’s lawyers that said Jones’ broadcast of Stone’s pardon request almost caused Stone to be remanded into custody immediately upon conviction, as the ongoing gag order also prohibited Stone from commenting on his case in public forums through surrogates. Jones defended his conduct by saying he was just “doing what Roger said.” Post-conviction, many other members of right-wing media -- most notably Tucker Carlson on his Fox News broadcast -- publicly pleaded with Trump to issue a pardon. According to reporting from The Daily Beast, sources close to Trump say that “as a platform for pro-Stone messaging,” Carlson’s show “is potent enough that Trump allies who seek leniency for the Stone have specifically sought to appear … in order to get the message to the president” and that Trump watches segments about Stone on the show and discusses them with others.

Between conviction and sentencing, Infowars’ advocacy for Stone crossed into the territory ofviolent rhetoric. During a late November broadcast, Stone’s former co-host Owen Shroyer said, “Roger Stone’s fate is our fate. So if Roger Stone gets thrown in jail and dies in jail, that’s the rest of our fate. We’re all going to die from these left-wing politicos, whether that’s in jail or from a bullet [in] the head.” Stone’s assistant Engels cited the saying “would you rather die on your knees or die fighting standing up?” and Shroyer responded, “We’re not calling for violence. … But let me tell you, when you start to use the government and these bureaucracies against us, and you take away our freedom of speech, and you take away our right to a fair trial, and you take away our right to bear arms, what are we supposed to do? We’re not going to be your damn slaves.”

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01:33

CitationFrom the November 26, 2019, edition of Infowars The War Room

As the sentencing date approached, chaos reigned while high-level DOJ figures interfered in the case

After an extension, Stone’s sentencing was scheduled for February 20. The latest flashpoint in the case began on February 10, when the DOJ and Stone’s attorneys submitted their sentencing recommendations to the court. While Stone’s attorneys asked for no jail time, the DOJ recommended seven to nine years, garnering a late-night tweet from Trump about the “horrible and very unfair” recommendation. Chaos ensued on February 11 when reports began circulating that the DOJ would issue an amended sentencing recommendation. All four of the federal prosecutors who worked on the initial sentencing memo quit the case (one prosecutor left the DOJ altogether) and an amended sentencing memo calling the initial recommendation excessive was filed with the court. As rumors swirled throughout the day about the modified memo, Fox News’ Sean Hannity said on his radio show, “Something is happening that is very deep. I'm telling you this is a big deal.” Later, he praised the DOJ’s move to amend the memo on his Fox News broadcast.

Throughout Stone’s criminal trial saga, Infowars has repeatedly promoted in videos and articles the catchphrase “free Roger Stone.” In reaction to the initial sentencing memo, Infowars.com published an article criticizing the filing that provided readers with a phone number to call the White House to ask Trump to pardon Stone. On air, Jones purported to share inside information about internal discussions in the White House about Stone’s fate. Jones said that he talked to “somebody this morning who was there inside the White House meetings dealing with” the Stone situation and that Trump would issue a pardon for Stone following the February 20 sentencing. The pardon push was also seen in (slightly) more mainstream conservative media, with Carlson demanding during his February 11 broadcast that Trump pardon Stone.

Video file

00:59

CitationFrom the February 11, 2020, edition of Fox News' Tucker Carlson Tonight

If Stone is pardoned, he would be the latest beneficiary of a corrupt system in which Trump grants pardons based on what he sees on conservative media

Stone’s allies are prescient to make the pardon case through conservative media. In November, Media Matters’ Matt Gertz chronicled the “Fox News pardon pipeline” and concluded that “Donald Trump’s Fox News obsession is directly linked to at least nine of his grants of executive clemency.” Despite its extreme character, Infowars has also apparently been previously influential in at least one pardon situation. Former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was pardoned by Trump before he could be sentenced for refusing to comply with a court order that enjoined his racially discriminatory law enforcement practices, credited Infowars with his clemency grant. Appearing on The Alex Jones Show in August 2017, Arpaio praised Infowars as having real influence in getting his story before Trump inside the White House.

Arpaio’s pardon was granted following months of Infowars public advocacy.

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IN THIS ARTICLE

Roger Stone

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Alex Jones

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213 COMMENTS

Tucker Carlson demands Donald Trump pardon Roger Stone

02/11/20 9:05 PM EST

Alex Jones: Source involved in Roger Stone White House discussions says Trump will pardon him after sentencing

02/11/20 3:23 PM EST

Sean Hannity on Roger Stone sentencing: “Something is happening that is very deep, I'm telling you this is a big deal.”

02/11/20 4:16 PM EST

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Trump abandoned Treasury nominee after memo criticized her for not indicting McCabe

In December, President Donald Trump nominated Jessie K. Liu (a…

https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/trump-style-vengeance-is-not-limited-to-individuals-he-can-also-exact-revenge-on-an-entire-population/

Why Trump’s post-impeachment actions are about vengeance, not retribution

Austin Sarat, Amherst College

Trump's firing of witnesses who testified during his impeachment trial has been described as 'retribution.' But these actions are actually revenge, a political scientist says.

===

https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/trumps-secret-police-things-are-heading-in-that-direction/

no lnx

Trump’s secret police? Things are heading in that direction

[President Donald J. Trump speaks with U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers coming in for their shift change, after President Trump attended a Roundtable on Immigration and Border Security Thursday, January 10, 2019, at the U.S. Border Patrol McAllen Station in McAllen, Texas. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)]

Written by John Stoehr, The Editorial Board February 18, 2020

I wrote this morning about the president’s new intimidation of sanctuary cities. He’s deploying 100 CBP agents, including BORTAC, which is a SWAT team for border security. The official goal is increasing deportations by 35 percent, but it’s pretty clear the aim is bullying local law enforcement into cooperating with federal authorities. I set the Times report in historical context, trying to explain, as I see it, how 9/11 sparked a chain reaction leading to what appears to be Donald Trump’s secret police force.

I end the piece by quoting Jenn Budd, a former Border Patrol agent turned civil rights activist, who reported a conversation she had with a former CBP official. She wrote:

Border Patrol does not believe they are a civilian law enforcement agency. They believe they are kin to the Marine Corps. They do not believe they are accountable to Congress, which is why they have no issues lying to them even while under oath.

They believe they are only accountable to … presidents like Trump. Border Patrol believes it is not required to answer to local police, FBI, CIA or any other law enforcement agency. They claim to be the “premiere” law enforcement agency, superior to all others. They say they will become a “national police force” to be used by a president to enforce laws even among citizens. (Italics are mine.)

Check out the whole thing here.

And while you’re there, please support my work by becoming a member!

Thanks. —John Stoehr

===

didn't they have like 2k signatures? mostly retired?!

https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/federal-judges-postpone-emergency-meeting-on-barrs-political-interference-after-trump-tweets-at-them/

no lnx

Federal judges postpone emergency meeting on Barr’s political interference after Trump tweets at them

Written by David Edwards / Raw Story February 20, 2020

A group of judges have reportedly cancelled an emergency meeting on possible political corruption at the Justice Department after President Donald Trump tweeted about the event.

The Federal Judges Association was set to discuss political interference by Trump and Attorney General William Barr. According to CNN, a decision was made on Wednesday afternoon to postpone the meeting.

A spokesperson for the group did not offer an immediate explanation and did not say if a new meeting had been scheduled.

The cancellation came after the president addressed the meeting on Twitter.

I hope the Federal Judges Association will discuss the tremendous FISA Court abuse that has taken place with respect to the Mueller Investigation Scam, including the forging of documents and knowingly using the fake and totally discredited Dossier before the Court. Thank you!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 18, 2020

===

zoe

w/ nadler demand info on military swat to sanct cities

trump bk reminds us that when brennan? security clearance stripped in early retaliation, admiral head spec ops on bin laden raid said take mine too

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Admiral who oversaw Bin Laden raid to Trump: 'Revoke my ...

www.nbcnews.com › politics › politics-news › admiral-who-oversaw-...

Aug 17, 2018 - Get breaking news alerts and special reports. ... WASHINGTON — The architect of the Osama bin Laden raid said Thursday that it was a badge of honor for former CIA Director John Brennan to have his security clearance stripped by ... would revoke my security clearance as well, so I can add my name to ...

Missing: early ‎retaliation, ‎spec ‎ops ‎mine

Commander who oversaw bin Laden raid: It'd be 'an honor' for ...

thehill.com › homenews › administration › 402207-commander-of-bi...

Aug 16, 2018 - Trump revokes Brennan's security clearance ... The admiral who oversaw the 2011 Navy SEAL raid that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden said Thursday he'd ... his security clearance in a show of solidarity with former CIA Director ... Adm. William McRaven wrote in an op-ed for The Washington Post.

Missing: retaliation, ‎mine

Rep. Cummings Demands Explanation For Stripping Ex-CIA ...

www.npr.org › 2018/08/16 › revocation-of-ex-cia-directors-clearance-d...

Aug 16, 2018 - Former CIA Director John Brennan arrives at a May 2018 Senate hearing. President Trump revoked Brennan's security clearance Wednesday, claiming ... Trump said that's why he wanted to strip Brennan of his security clearance. ... Navy admiral who oversaw the raid that killed Osama bin Laden during his ...

truscott

https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/were-slipping-further-into-fascism-as-trump-indulges-all-his-worst-instincts-with-the-help-of-his-toadies/

no lnx

We’re slipping further into fascism as Trump indulges all his worst instincts — with the help of his toadies

President Donald J. Trump delivers remarks at the 2020 National Prayer Breakfast Thursday, Feb. 6, 2020, at the Washington Hilton in Washington, D.C. (Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian

Written by Lucian K. Truscott IV / Salon February 15, 2020

There will come a time when we look back on this week as the moment in our history when we finally understood that we have a man as president who is acting like a fascist dictator. Just look at the headlines from one day’s New York Times alone: “Alarm in Capital as Axes Swing in Growing Post-Acquittal Purge,” “Justice Dept. Acts to Ease Sentence for a Trump Ally.” If either one of those headlines had run on the front page of a major American newspaper before now, not to mention both of them at once, we would have believed as a people, as a citizenry, that we were facing a national crisis. But this week? Wednesday was just another day in Donald Trump’s America.

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truscott

https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/were-slipping-further-into-fascism-as-trump-indulges-all-his-worst-instincts-with-the-help-of-his-toadies/

no lnx

We’re slipping further into fascism as Trump indulges all his worst instincts — with the help of his toadies

Written by Lucian K. Truscott IV / Salon February 15, 2020

The day before that, in what became known as the “Tuesday night massacre,” all four prosecutors in the case against Trump’s longtime friend and political bad boy Roger Stone had resigned in protest of the intervention by Trump and his attorney general, William Barr, to reduce the sentence recommended by the Department of Justice in Stone’s conviction for lying to congressional committees and tampering with witnesses.

All of this followed closely the “Friday night massacre” of last week, when Trump fired two of the impeachment witnesses against him, Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman of the National Security Council and Gordon Sondland, ambassador to the European Union.

But two “massacres” in a row was just the beginning. By mid-week, Trump was suggesting that Army officials with court-martial authority over Vindman should “take a look at” punishing him for testifying at the impeachment hearing. On Thursday, the New York Times front page trumpeted, “U,S. Lawyers Fear Removal of a Guardrail: Sone Case Stirs Worry of What’s to Come.” And by Friday morning, a panel of legal pundits on MSNBC were worrying about what would happen when Trump didn’t merely step in to help allies like Stone but actually began prosecuting his political foes.

Folks, let’s not mince words: This is the kind of stuff we read about happening in dictatorships like Russia and North Korea and Iran. And yes, it’s the kind of rule by strong-arm fiat that was practiced by Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany.

Before this week, I would have thought it an exaggeration to compare Trump’s frequent rallies to the infamous Nuremberg rallies Hitler held during the1930s. No longer. Trump’s rallies are unnervingly close to those held in Nuremberg. The MAGA hat has become a kind of Trumpian Nazi helmet. The denunciations of hated minorities are the same. As is his insane bellowing before a crowd screaming its slavish obeisance.

Let’s just stop for a moment and consider the angry chants of “Lock her up,” first directed at Hillary Clinton, now at Nancy Pelosi. What do Trump’s cheering crowds want his Democratic opponents locked up for? Neither of those women has faced criminal charges, much less been convicted of any crime. Neither is even under investigation for corruption or alleged criminal behavior. But that doesn’t matter to Trump and his rally crowds. This stuff has been going on for so long, it’s clear that they actually do want them locked up. When Trump stands before his screaming fans, raising his arms and smiling, it’s obvious he does, too. To call for the imprisonment of political opponents without trial is not playing with rhetoric for effect. It’s not political gimmickry. It’s not cute. It’s not funny. It’s not clever. Let’s say out loud what it is: It’s pure fascism, plain and simple.

The man who stands before those rallies and encourages such idolatry isn’t merely running for president. He is calling, directly and without apology, for the kind of obedience and loyalty demanded by dictators. He is commanding worship and submission. It must be why he attracts so completely the support of evangelical Christians. He truly is the false idol their Bible warned them against. They have fallen for him in the same way the most conspicuously devout worshipers commit sins. The inevitability of Trump and his evangelical masses is jaw-dropping, and yes, biblical.

By the end of the week, we had the practically comic spectacle of Attorney General Barr scolding Trump publicly for his tweets in an interview with ABC News, saying they “make it impossible for me to do my job.” Within hours, Trump replied — by tweet, naturally enough — that he has the “legal right” to tell Barr what to do in a criminal case, “but I have so far chosen not to!”

Which given the events of the rest of the week is a little bit like reassuring the “Lock her up” minions at his rallies, “Just wait.”

It’s hard to put a finger on the worst thing Trump has done since taking office, but right up there is the complete destruction of the idea that the person in the Oval Office is the president of all the people. He isn’t. He doesn’t want to be. If you didn’t vote for him, if you’re not out there wearing a MAGA hat and screaming at his rallies, you’re a non-person. If your state didn’t go for him in the 2016 election, forget about it. Just ask California, or Puerto Rico, still waiting for federal assistance after natural disasters. Or ask New York, which Trump is now extorting like a domestic Ukraine, by denying New Yorkers access to the “Trusted Traveler” program unless the state “stop all of its unnecessary lawsuits & harrassment” [sic]....