QOTD -- Synonymous For Russians

 

A trio of Democratic Representatives had their takes on the Hunter Biden/ Joe Biden Republican impeachment exploding clown car, fueled by high-octane Russian intelligence services disinformation:

...“We all thought that after their key witness was indicted for lying to the FBI about Hunter Biden and was meeting with Russian intelligence that they would stop degrading themselves,” Rep. Greg Casar (D-Tex.) said during a break in the deposition. No such luck.

Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) argued that “if this impeachment inquiry continues, then Chairman Comer and Chairman Jordan are working with Russia to interfere in the November 2024 election on behalf of Vladimir Putin.”

Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Tex.), abandoning all qualifiers, declared: “Basically, the Republicans have become synonymous for Russians at this point.”...

Dana Milbank's op/ ed title, "Putin's useful idiots won't give up on their impeachment dreams," makes clear the Russian influence on the MAGAt Republican cult/ party, which began when they first identified the Malignant Loser as a malleable potential asset many decades ago.  The cult/ party has now become so compromised through its reliance on Russian election interference and disinformation (and who knows what else) combined with the autocratic bent of its base that, as Rep. Crockett noted above, Republicans are now synonymous for Russians. In their thirst for power that they can't achieve with their unpopular fascistic policies, they're willing to sell out America.  You know there's a word for that.

QOTD -- Worst. Congress. Ever.

 

Dana Milbank reflects on the "Worst. Congress. Ever." :

A year ago, I assigned myself to the Capitol to cover the new House Republican majority, suspecting that this erratic crowd of lawmakers would provide some lively material.

They did not disappoint. What I could not have known then, however, was that this would turn out to be the most ineffective session of Congress in nearly a century — and quite possibly in all of American history.

The year began with chaos and incompetence. It ended with chaos and incompetence. In between were self-created crises and shocking moments of fratricide — interspersed with more chaos and incompetence.

“This will go down as ... the least productive Congress since the Great Depression,” Rep. Joe Neguse, Democrat of Colorado, observed this week as the Rules Committee marked up plans for an impeachment inquiry into President Biden for imaginary crimes.

Milbank offers voluminous evidence of the incompetence, including the Republicans' enervating battles for the Speakership, the paucity of bills passed, the fight over funding for Ukraine and Israel (now in limbo) and, of course, the phony Biden "retribution impeachment inquiry."  Here's how he concludes his opus: 

Democrat Eric Swalwell (Calif.) congratulated Republicans for their dogged pursuit of the president’s son. “I want to give James Comer some credit,” he told the House, “because after 50,000 pages of depositions and secret hearings and closed hearings, I think if we give him enough time, he is going to prove that Hunter Biden is Joe Biden’s son.”

After the do-nothingest congressional session in U.S. history, that might go down as their most notable achievement.

Worst. Congress. Ever.

BONUS:  Stephen Colbert has a hilarious video companion to Milbank's op/ ed.

QOTD -- Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk

 

"... Next week, House Republicans plan to vote to authorize a formal impeachment inquiry into President Biden. You see, they believe they have finally found the smoking gun that proves Biden guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors: He helped his son buy a pickup truck in 2018.

"They have become the Three Stooges of the House’s Biden investigations: Jim, Jason and James, stepping on rakes and getting hit by falling flowerpots as they try to make a case for their predetermined outcome of impeaching the president. Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan is Moe, thundering and blundering in his repeated failures to prove Biden’s 'weaponization' of the government. Jason Smith, the in-over-his-head chairman of Ways and Means, is Larry, brainlessly reciting whatever script is in front of him. And Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer is Curly, perpetually getting a pie in the face when the 'evidence' he produces is immediately debunked.

“'BREAKING,' Comer announced on social media this week, with two siren emojis. 'Hunter Biden’s business entity, Owasco PC, made direct monthly payments to Joe Biden.' This was evidence that the president 'knew & benefitted from his family’s business schemes.' But it turned out the payments, for all of $1,380 each, were repayments for a 2018 Ford Raptor truck Biden helped his son Hunter buy at a time when the younger Biden was broke because of his drug addiction..." -- Dana Milbank, Washington Post, in "Meet the Biden impeachment managers: Larry, Moe, and Curly."  Pretty much any member of the House Republican/ Christofascist caucus could be interchanged with these Three Stooges, or take leading roles in "Fascist Follies of 2023."  Remember, these are some of the same Stooges who tried to get the Malignant Loser's two impeachments expunged. To see these... clowns... running interference for the Malignant Loser, trying to dirty up President Biden with a bogus "impeachment investigation," giving us a preview of the extra- judicial "retribution" the Malignant Loser has promised should he regain power -- it's more than enough to make you want to slap them all across their stupid, cynical, evil mugs.

(Image via GIPHY)

QOTD -- Stumbling Clowns

 

Dana Milbank sets the scene for the clown show that was put on last week by the House Republican caucus and its pathetic Squeaker of the House Kevin "Qevin" McCarthy:

...It should have been obvious to all this week, if it wasn’t already, that McCarthy (R-Calif.) is speaker in name only, as his leaderless Republican caucus stumbles toward a government shutdown. Review some of the labels House Republicans hurled at each other over the last few days:

“Clown show.” “Clowns.” “Foolishness.” “Weak.” “Terribly misguided.” “Selective amnesia.” “Stupidity.” “Failure to lead.” “Lunatics.” “Disgraceful.” “New low.” “Enabling Chairman Xi.” “People that have serious issues.” “Pathetic.”

Amid the epithets, Republicans brought the House to another standstill. For the second time in as many weeks, hard-liners blocked the House from even considering a bill to fund the troops. Two days later, they blocked it for a third time. They also forced party leaders to pull from the floor their plan to avert a shutdown — a plan that would do nothing to avert a shutdown even if it passed...

He goes on to catalogue the low points of the Republican- on- Republican violence, the nihilistic extremism, the stupidity, the appalling lack of concern over what a government shutdown would mean, and more.  The quotes above from some in the caucus accurately describe not only "hard-liners" (i.e., fascist bomb- throwers), but the cult/ party as a whole.  Broad allegiance to a lunatic, disgraceful, pathetic, stupid Malignant Loser, who is cheering for a government shutdown, puts these "hard-liners" and the weak Squeaker right at the core of the rotted- out Christofascist Republican Party.

QOTD -- Absurdities

 

"...It was, to coin a phrase, an “absurd” spectacle to watch this law-and-order conservative being attacked by MAGA lawmakers set on undermining the rule of law. Various House Republicans had already issued demands to “defund the FBI” (Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia even sold T-shirts with the slogan), and on the day before the Wray hearing, Jordan, the Judiciary chairman, sent a letter to House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Kay Granger (Tex.) requesting that she “eliminate any funding for the FBI that is not absolutely essential.” (For good measure, Jordan also asked her to block some funds for the ATF.)

"Were Republicans to succeed, Wray told the Judiciary Committee, they would leave Americans more vulnerable to fentanyl cartels, violent criminals, gangs, sex predators, foreign and domestic terrorists, cyberattacks and Chinese spies. This is where a government of lies will take us..."  -- Dana Milbank, Washington Post, writing about the recent House Judiciary Committee hearing inquisition of FBI Director Chris Wray by the likes of "Gym" Jordan,  Matt Gaetz, and Troy Nehls ("Republicans Celebrate Their Successful Deception of Voters").  Milbank focuses not only on the FBI hearing, but also on hearings focused on the coronavirus pandemic conspiracies and the "whistleblower" who turned out to be a Chinese agent on the lam.  The common element was the miasma of lies, conspiracy theories, paranoia, and bad faith brought forth by the Christofascist Republicans at every turn.  To top it, these arsonist rats revel in the fact that they're undercutting the rule of law and faith in American democracy in their desperation to hold onto power.  The philosophy seems to be, if we can't have it, we'll burn it down.

We can't have a country with a party/ cult whose interest lies in destroying it.

QOTD -- Insurrection By Other Means

 

"...This is what happens when a political party, year after year, systematically destroys the norms and institutions of democracy. This is what happens when those expert at tearing things down are put in charge of governing. The dysfunction has been building over years of government shutdowns, debt-default showdowns and other fabricated crises, and now anti-government Republicans used their new majority to bring the House itself to a halt.

"This is insurrection by other means: Two years to the day since the Jan. 6 invasion of the Capitol, Republicans are still attacking the functioning of government. McCarthy opened the door to the chaos by excusing Donald Trump’s fomenting of the attack and welcoming a new class of election deniers to his caucus. Now he’s trying to save his own political ambitions by agreeing to institutionalize the chaos — not just for the next two years but for future congresses as well..." -- Dana Milbank in the Washington Post on the recent "self- inflicted debacle" of the Republican/ Seditionist Party's attempts to select a Speaker of the House of Representatives.  Finally selecting an ambitious, empty suit in the form of Kevin "Qevin" McCarthy, they succeeded only in bringing more disgrace upon themselves and to the concept of American democracy.  "Squeaker" McCarthy will preside over an unstable, anarchic caucus that's intent only on creating more grievance and division, thereby scoring political points with its mouth- breathing MAGA base.  It's like beating a dead horse, but this is America's continuing reality.

QOTD -- Apologies

To the January 6 insurrectionists:

"I regret that the heads and bodies of police officers got in the way of your truncheons and flagpoles while you were engaging in Legitimate Political Discourse at the Capitol. I hope that you didn’t hurt your fingers while gouging their eyes, and that their blood didn’t stain your tactical assault gear; if it did, please send me the dry-cleaning bill! I am so sorry that, on your Normal Tourist Visit, you didn’t get to use your noose or all the guns stockpiled at the Comfort Inn in Alexandria. Please forgive me for previously quibbling with your plan to “hang Mike Pence” and your use of the Confederate flag in the halls of Congress. I apologize that you had to break windows and doors, climb scaffolding and rappel into the Senate chamber. My bad! Next time you want to overthrow an American election, just knock."

____________________

To the MAGA Republican "semi-fascists":

"I’m so sorry you’ve convinced millions of people to believe the egregious lie that the 2020 election was stolen. I’m sorry you are making heroes of the criminals who attacked our seat of government. I’m sorry you’re currently fomenting violence against the FBI and the IRS. I’m sorry you’re passing laws giving yourselves more power to overthrow the 2024 election results if you lose, and I’m sorry you’re nominating candidates committed to doing so. I’m sorry you don’t like it when the Justice Department enforces the law and protects national security. I’m sorry you’ve lionized Hungarian strongman Viktor Orban, and I’m sorry you say that the Democratic Party, not Vladimir Putin’s Russia, is the real enemy. I regret that you’ve taken away women’s rights. I regret that you’re banning books and censoring history lessons. I regret that you are shunning science, expertise and the truth. Above all, I’m truly sorry that, because of such things, Biden called you semi-fascists. There’s really nothing 'semi' about it." -- Dana Milbank in the Washington Post responding to the Malignant Loser's saying the country would apologize to the January 6 insurrectionists should he become President again, and to odious lickspittle Rep. Kevin McCarthy's (Sedition-CA) demand that President Biden apologize for rightfully calling MAGA Republicans "semi-fascists."  If only the timid, equivocating editorial board of the Post had the same understanding of what the times demand (hint: ffs, President Biden wasn't out to persuade MAGA Republicans).

BONUS:  Don't miss Alexandra Petri's hilarious take on the "non-polarizing speech" President Biden should have made.  Also, fellow Post-er Greg Sargent's twitter take.

QOTD -- The Destructionists

 

"Republicans and their allied donors, media outlets, interest groups and fellow travelers have been yanking on the threads of democracy and civil society for the past quarter-century; that’s a long time, and the unraveling is considerable. You can measure it in the triumph of lies and disinformation, in the mainstreaming of racism and white supremacy, in the erosion of institutions and norms of government, and in the dehumanizing of opponents and stoking of violence. In the process, Republicans became Destructionists: They destroyed truth, they destroyed decency, they destroyed patriotism, they destroyed national unity, they destroyed racial progress, they destroyed their own party, and they are well on their way to destroying the world’s oldest democracy." -- Dana Milbank, in an extended essay in today's Washington Post, tracing the  devolution of the Republican/ Seditionist Party to "the rise of [Newt] Gingrich and his shock troops [who] set the nation on a course toward the ruinous politics of today." We think Milbank is far too near- sighted in his historical analysis (think:  the laissez-faire fetishists of the 1920's, the "America First" movement of the 1930's, Nixon and the "Southern strategy," everything Reagan, etc.).  But the essay is worth reading for an overview of "recent" (i.e., last 25 years) Republican perfidy and destruction.

QOTD -- Boldly Timid Pence

 

"... as he floats his 2024 presidential candidacy, he’s trying feebly to differentiate himself from his former boss and tormentor — while simultaneously praising his former boss and tormentor. The result is a profile in timidity.  [snip]

"A sampling of the 'positive' agenda Pence outlined: 'American freedom is under attack … a pernicious woke agenda designed to control the American people and destroy the American Dream … one disaster after another … our borders are under siege … big-government socialism … toxic waste into the headwaters of our culture … censorship, coercion and cancel culture … the radical gender left … left-wing tyranny, socialism and decline.'”

"So, Pence’s idea of differentiating himself from Trump is to praise Trump and to give the same sort of 'criticize and complain' speech Trump does, only with less feeling? No wonder he’s losing the battle." -- Dana Milbank on why one- day- wonder Mike Pence, who escaped from the Malignant Loser's lynch mob on January 6, 2021, deserves to get dissed.

QOTD -- Dark Place

 

Dana Milbank on the "dark path" taken by Republican "Ultra-MAGA" Rep. Elise Stefanik (MAGA-NY):

It’s a story told a thousand times: Ambitious Republican official abandons principle to advance in Trump’s GOP. But perhaps nobody’s fall from promise, and integrity, has been as spectacular as the 37-year-old Stefanik’s. “I was just so shocked she would go down such a dark path,” said her former champion, [former mentor John] Bridgeland. “No power, no position is worth the complete loss of your integrity. It was just completely alarming to me to watch this transformation. I got a lot of notes saying, ‘What happened to her?’ ”

The answer is simple: “Quest for power,” Bridgeland said. “But power without principle is a pretty dark place to go. She wanted to climb the Republican ranks and she has, but … she’s climbed the ladder on the back of lies about the election that are undermining trust in elections, putting people’s lives at risk."

As Milbank notes, Stefanik is just one example of the transformation of what were once garden-variety Republican sociopaths into full- blown enemies of American democracy.  But, in her thirst for power regardless of any consequences, she is the epitome of the ethos of her party/ cult.  As the cliche goes, history will not be kind.

Quotes Of The Day -- "DeSanty World" Is Coming For You

 

Dana Milbank has a must- read Washington Post op/ ed on Floriduh Gov. Ron "DeSanty" DeSantis' so far successful efforts to remake his state into a MAGA/ Putinesque Christian nationalist hellscape.

"[DeSantis'] “don’t say gay” legislation makes Florida unwelcoming to LGBTQ people. His voter-suppression laws and race-baiting attacks on teaching history and race make Florida hostile to Black, Latino and Asian Americans. Rising antisemitism (Florida’s most famous resident just had a film screening at Mar-a-Lago characterized by antisemitic swipes at Mark Zuckerberg) gives Jews pause about the state. DeSantis’s MAGA-signaling anti-immigrant and antiabortion laws repel more large swaths of the population. His banning of math textbooks should send educated Floridians packing. His opposition to Medicaid expansion and Florida’s excessive covid-19 death rate over the past year have sent many Floridians to the morgue.

Should Disney abandon Floriduh, what could DeSantis do with the 25,000 acre resort?  Re-make it as "DeSanty World"!

"DeSanty World would make the Carousel of Progress turn in reverse, reimagining the Disney classics to suit its growing audience of Snow White nationalists. Pinocchio would dream of becoming not a “real boy” but a Proud Boy. Lady Tremaine, the wicked stepmother, would become the heroine of Cinderella, championing parental rights. Bambi would be seen from the hunters’ point of view. Aladdin’s new soundtrack would warn of “A Whole New World Order,” and Mulan would be reviled for spreading the coronavirus. Brave Frollo would fight valiantly to free France of minority groups and the disabled. And all would cheer for QAnon’s own Captain Hook as he battles to prevent villainous Peter Pan from grooming the Lost Boys.

"Some attractions would require only minor changes. The Barnstormer roller coaster (“a staggering series of stupendous stunts”) would be dedicated to DeSantis instead of Goofy. The Mad Tea Party and Festival of Fantasy Parade could pretty much stay as they are, and the Hall of Presidents would just be dispossessed of its 46th inductee. DeSanty World would build a wall around the Alien Swirling Saucers. And, because of the park’s new open-carry gun policy, the whole thing would become a Frontierland Shootin’ Arcade..."   

Meanwhile, The Boston Globe's Renee Graham compares DeSantis with another bully:

He seeks vengeance against his perceived enemies. Accusations he levels at others are usually a description of his own actions. While he pretends to care about those he governs, he is most concerned with unchallengeable power. Under the guise of protecting children, he demonizes the LGBTQ community, jeopardizing their safety, health, and basic rights.

I’m not talking about President Vladimir Putin of Russia. I’m talking about Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida. 

Graham offers plenty of example of the Christofascist similarities between the two bullies, and concludes:

Anyone who works this hard to garner national headlines is plotting a move up the Republican food chain. In scraping the depths of white fear and outrage, DeSantis is borrowing from Trump’s campaign road map, but these days he seems to find as much inspiration in Moscow as Mar-a-Lago. On the backs of trans kids, reproductive rights, and Black voters, DeSantis is banking on it that his inhumane policies, coupled with his party’s no-limits depravity, will propel yet another Putinista fanboy closer to the White House.

DeSantis, who's favored for re-election later this year (!), is on a collision course with the Malignant Loser and is determined he won't be outflanked on the lowIQAnon/ MAGA far right by him.  If anything, as a more ruthless, ambitious and skilled demagogue, he's far more of a threat to the Republic than almost anyone else on the scene today -- including the Malignant Loser.

 

QOTD -- DeSantis' Floriduh Math

 

"When Florida released the names Monday of the 54 math textbooks it had rejected, most for allegedly including “critical race theory” or other “prohibited topics,” I was struck by how the publishers had adjusted their titles to reflect the state’s singular interpretation of the subject matter.

"The books had names such as “Florida Reveal Math,” or “Florida’s B.E.S.T. Math,” or simply “Florida Math.” The titles essentially codified what Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’s censorship program has accomplished: There is math — and then there is Florida math.

"On one level, we already understood that “Florida math” is not the same thing as “math”:

"Problem 1: In an election, the Republican candidate gets 232 electoral votes and the Democratic candidate gets 306. Who won?

"Answer: It was rigged." -- Dana Milbank, in today's Washington Post, in a tour-de-force skewering of ambitious culture warrior Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' risible but ominous efforts to cleanse math textbooks (!) of the chimera of CRT (for the millionth time, not taught in K-12) and other "prohibited topics," i.e., hobgoblins of the far right- wing fever swamps.  Milbank was just getting warmed up in the quote above, so be sure to check out the whole op/ ed.

QOTD -- Full-Time Republican Hypocrisy

 

"Covering the hypocrisy of the Trump right is a full-time beat these days. 'Law and order' Republicans now embrace insurrectionists. Those who decried 'cancel culture' now ban books and history lessons. Conservatives who supported 'tort reform' now enshrine the rights of private citizens to sue one another. A party that welcomed libertarians now has officials incentivizing people to report on their neighbors. Onetime Cold Warriors now sympathize with Putin.

"The inconsistency over street protests is particularly black and white.

"When a convoy of White people in trucks promotes chaos and lawlessness on the northern border, Republican officials call them heroes, and former president Donald Trump invites them to the United States. When a caravan of Brown people on foot posed a remote chance of chaos and lawlessness on the southern border in 2018, Trump called in the military to protect against the 'MANY CRIMINALS.'

"When (predominantly White) crowds protest for the right to ignore public health rules in mostly peaceful but occasionally violent and highly disruptive actions, Republican officials hail the glory of civil disobedience. When (heavily Black) crowds protested for racial justice in mostly peaceful but occasionally violent and highly disruptive actions, Trump called them 'rioters, looters and anarchists' not to mention 'terrorists,' 'arsonists' and 'violent mobs.'"  -- Dana Milbank, on the full-time hypocrisy beat of the rotted out, fascist Republican Party.  But, we're beyond hypocrisy.  Their brand has been forever changed: Trump is the party, the party is Trump. 

The Word Is "Fascist"

 

WaPo writer Dana Milbank reminds us what we're dealing with in the Malignant Loser's party:

"Poll after poll shows about 10 percent of the American public believes violence against the government is justified at this moment. Among Republicans, and particularly Republican men, the figure is substantially higher.

And this was before the Republican National Committee decided it would officially decree that violence is 'legitimate political discourse.' Among the Jan. 6 activities so justified:

Blinding police officers with bear spray.

Throwing rocks, bottles, furniture and incendiary devices at them.

Gouging their eyes.

Beating them with flagpoles, sticks and bullhorns.

Punching, kicking and dragging them down stairs.

Tasing them and hurling a fire extinguisher at them.

Smashing windows and doors.

Carrying zip ties onto the Senate floor.

Ransacking desks and offices.

And all this with murder on their lips.

Now, the Republican National Committee, the official leadership of the GOP, has embraced this unspeakable violence as legitimate discourse. It’s an absurd euphemism — and it points to another one.

To call a person who endorses violence against the duly elected government a 'Republican' is itself Orwellian. More accurate words exist for such a person. One of them is 'fascist.'”

Tune in to any documentary about the rise of Mussolini's fascism or Hitler's Nazism and you'll notice unnerving similarities. Past time to call it what it is, and gird against it.

Jobs And "The Worst Economy We Never Had"

 

No doubt this is "bad news for Biden" on the jobs front:

Initial filings for unemployment insurance dipped last week and remained close to their lowest level in more than 50 years, the Labor Department reported Thursday.  [snip]

When adjusting for weekly volatility, the four-week moving average for claims came to 199,250, the lowest level since Oct. 25, 1969.

Continuing claims, the data for which runs a week behind the headline number, dropped by 140,000 to 1.72 million, the lowest level since March 7, 2020, just before the Covid pandemic declaration.

The numbers reflect an increasingly tight labor market and come with the Federal Reserve pulling back on some of the historically accommodative policy it put in place during the crisis. The national unemployment rate has dropped to 4.2%, a far cry from the 14.8% peak in April 2020.  [snip]

Some of the decline in claims has come from the ending of benefits through programs created during the pandemic that provided enhanced and extended payments. Still, the total getting benefits is a far cry from where it was a year ago when 20.5 million were on the various programs.

The jobs market also has seen a record pace of people quitting their jobs, many for better opportunities elsewhere as average hourly earnings climb in an inflationary environment the U.S. has not seen in decades. (our emphasis)

Yes, inflation -- the fly in the economic ointment -- caused by global pandemic supply chain issues and just good, old- fashioned price gouging.

But, as Dana Milbank points out in "The worst economy we never had," the good news doesn't end there:

“America’s economy improved more in Joe Biden’s first 12 months than any president during the past 50 years notwithstanding the contrary media narrative contributing to dour public opinion,” Matthew Winkler, former editor in chief of Bloomberg News, wrote last week. Among the gains: The economy expanded an estimated 5.5 percent in 2021 (fourth-quarter growth dramatically outpaced Europe and even China). Unemployment plunged to 4.2 percent. Record-setting U.S. stock markets (the S&P 500 is up nearly 30 percent) outperformed the world. Productivity jumped. Corporate profits are the largest since 1950 and corporate debt the lowest in 30. Consumer credit expanded. Confidence among CEOs is the highest in 20 years. The American Rescue Plan cut child poverty in half.

But, as with most other inconvenient facts, none of this is penetrating the Republican cult bubble:

[A] Gallup poll out last week found that “Americans’ confidence in the economy has dropped to where it was in April 2020, when nationwide shutdowns brought on by the covid-19 pandemic plunged the nation into a recession.”

The reason is clear. As The Post’s Philip Bump explained, Republicans in April 2020 were evenly split on whether the economy was in excellent/good condition or fair/poor. Now, despite dramatic improvements, 91 percent of Republicans say the economy is in fair/poor condition. (The Democratic shift, in the opposite direction, was smaller.)

This happened — surprise! — during Fox News’s hysterical coverage of inflation, gas prices and supply chain problems. It invoked inflation roughly twice as often as CNN and MSNBC. Now, as Bump reported, three-quarters of Republicans say prices are the most important measure of the economy’s health (only one-quarter did a year ago), eclipsing unemployment, personal finances and the stock market.  (our emphasis)

The point, in the end, is that the Biden Administration will continue to do what it needs to do in order to improve peoples' lives, even those people who insist against all evidence that it's not.

 

QOTD: Virginia Election Hindsight

 

"Democrats in Congress had months to prove that they could legislate, to demonstrate that a government of the people, by the people and for the people could still function despite the creeping authoritarianism, the daily assaults on truth and the conspiracy-minded paranoia.

They let President Biden down. They let the country down. And on Tuesday night, Terry McAuliffe paid the price.

Virginia voters decided not to return him for a second nonconsecutive term as governor, instead electing Republican businessman Glenn Youngkin, who ran a Trump-inspired campaign of disinformation, conspiracy theories and race-baiting. It wasn’t terribly close. Republicans were leading the the lieutenant governor and attorney general races, too, and were within sight of a majority in the House of Delegates.

There’s no sugarcoating this loss for Democrats in a state Biden won by 10 percentage points a year ago. But if there’s anything positive in this defeat, it’s that Democrats are hearing this alarm with enough time to mend their ways. If they don’t, Tuesday’s loss will be as nothing compared to the shellacking Democrats will receive a year from now." (our emphasis) -- Washington Post pundit Dana Milbank in this morning's paper.

Milbank neglects to point out that the U.S. Senate is evenly divided and still under the Jim Crow era filibuster rule that gives obstructionist Republicans a powerful weapon to stall Biden's agenda. But, point taken. 

It's worth noting that Terry McAuliffe was slow in getting his message out and in defining Youngkin as a stealth Trumper. Meanwhile, Youngkin started early, portraying himself as just a suburban dad in a fleece vest whose only interest was lower taxes, jobs and keeping critical race theory from being taught in schools -- which it hasn't been and isn't now being taught. Sadly, McAuliffe's foot-in-mouth statement that parents shouldn't tell schools what to teach was a turning point in the campaign, when he apparently meant to refer to the belligerent parents threatening school board members.

It was an ugly result, with the top three positions flipping to the Republicans: Governor, Lieutenant Governor (a religious nut named Winsome Sears) and Attorney General (insurrection sympathizer Cubano gusano Jason Minyares).  The House of Delegates may also switch to Republicans, but because the Commonwealth's upper chamber remains under Democratic control (they elect every 4 years), there's still Democratic presence in the government.  

It's also worth pointing out that a strong historical trend was against them:  the party controlling the White House has now lost 11 out of 12 Virginia off- year gubernatorial elections. 2022 is looming, and while disgraced, mentally unstable demagogue Donald "Loser" Trump won't be on the ballot then, his shadow will be and Dems need to cope with that and with the dishonest culture war Republicans think is their path forward now.

 

Monday Reading

 

As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op eds.

Reporting in Rolling Stone is apparently confirming what was already in the wind about January 6 insurrectionists' prior coordination with Republican Members of Congress (paywall at link):

As the House investigation into the Jan. 6 attack heats up, some of the planners of the pro-Trump rallies that took place in Washington, D.C., have begun communicating with congressional investigators and sharing new information about what happened when the former president’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. Two of these people have spoken to Rolling Stone extensively in recent weeks and detailed explosive allegations that multiple members of Congress were intimately involved in planning both Trump’s efforts to overturn his election loss and the Jan. 6 events that turned violent.

Rolling Stone separately confirmed a third person involved in the main Jan. 6 rally in D.C. has communicated with the committee. This is the first report that the committee is hearing major new allegations from potential cooperating witnesses. While there have been prior indications that members of Congress were involved, this is also the first account detailing their purported role and its scope. The two sources also claim they interacted with members of Trump’s team, including former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who they describe as having had an opportunity to prevent the violence. (our emphasis)

Now that the January 6 select committee has this information about the seditious Republicans (doubtless most members of the "Freedom Caucus", including Arizona madman Rep. Paul Gosar), getting them under oath in front of the cameras is imperative. This nest of traitors to our democracy needs to be cleaned out.

Meanwhile, wannabe Trump usurper and Florida man Gov. Ron "One Glove" DeSantis is putting out the welcome mat for Trumpist police thugs who lost their jobs because they refused to get vaccinated to protect their community:

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has invited law enforcement officers around the country to come to Florida if they lose their jobs because they refuse to receive the Covid-19 vaccine.

During an interview on Fox News, DeSantis explained that he had "scientific" reasons for hiring unvaccinated police officers.

"On a scientific basis, most of those first responders have had Covid and have recovered," DeSantis claimed without evidence. "So they have strong protection and so I think that influences their decision on a lot of this that they have already had it and recovered."

"In Florida, not only are we going to want to protect the law enforcement and all the jobs," he continued, "we're actually actively working to recruit out-of-state law enforcement because we do have needs in our police and our sheriff's departments. So the next legislative session, I'm going to hopefully sign legislation that gives a $5000 bonus to any out-of-state law enforcement that relocates in Florida."

Our hearts go out to the good citizens of Florida.

The so-called "Facebook Papers" show a company under siege as more is known about its harmful effects on the world:

Facebook the company is losing control of Facebook the product — not to mention the last shreds of its carefully crafted, decade-old image as a benevolent company just wanting to connect the world.

Thousands of pages of internal documents provided to Congress by a former employee depict an internally conflicted company where data on the harms it causes is abundant, but solutions, much less the will to act on them, are halting at best.

The crisis exposed by the documents shows how Facebook, despite its regularly avowed good intentions, appears to have slow-walked or sidelined efforts to address real harms the social network has magnified and sometimes created. They reveal numerous instances where researchers and rank-and-file workers uncovered deep-seated problems that the company then overlooked or ignored.

Final responsibility for this state of affairs rests with CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who holds what one former employee described as dictatorial power over a corporation that collects data on and provides free services to roughly 3 billion people around the world.

More here from the Washington Post. The "profits- before- people" business model will continue, certainly as long as Zuckerberg is holding all the cards. Meanwhile the best advice remains to disengage from it.

Dana Milbank writes that Republican weasel Glenn Youngkin's campaign for governor in Virginia is  both running away from and with Trump.  This long excerpt gives you the flavor of this slippery demagogue:

[W]hile Youngkin banished Trump, he could not wash away the stench of Trumpism.

At his rally here Saturday night in Richmond’s suburbs, Youngkin debuted his closing argument. It was a Trumpian blend of conspiracy theories, race-baiting and fabrications.

Conspiracy theory:

“Terry McAuliffe wants government to stand between parents and their children,” Youngkin said of his Democratic opponent. “And when parents across this great commonwealth said, ‘No, Terry, you’re wrong,’ he called his friend Joe Biden and asked the FBI to come silence us.”

PolitiFact already identified this baseless claim (that McAuliffe got U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to order the Justice Department to help combat growing threats against school-board members and educators) as a “pants on fire” lie. But Youngkin keeps repeating it.

Race-baiting:

“What we won’t do is teach our children to view everything through the lens of race,” Youngkin vowed, adding that “on Day 1, I will ban critical race theory.” It was perhaps the biggest applause line of the night.

Preceding Youngkin onstage, the Republican attorney general candidate, Jason Miyares, argued that “you cannot survive as a nation if you’re raising an entire generation of children to hate their country, and that is exactly what critical race theory is.”

Critical race theory isn’t taught in Virginia schools. It’s a phantom menace, whipped up by Fox News to fill White people with racial terror. Youngkin urged his supporters to fear a “20-year high murder rate,” even though overall violent crime decreased in 2020 in Virginia, among the safest states in the country.

Fabrication:

Youngkin complained that “Virginia ranks 50th in the nation in standards for kids to progress in math, reading,” but Virginia kids’ actual proficiency exceeds the national average.

He suggested that Virginia “children cannot pass an 8th-grade math equivalency test” because of pandemic school closures — “so we will proclaim that Virginia’s schools will never be closed again to five-day-a-week, in-person education.” In reality, Virginia’s 38 percent proficiency in 8th grade math topped the national 33 percent. And the test results to which Youngkin referred were from before the pandemic-related closures.

Youngkin claimed that McAuliffe “said there’s no place for parents in their kids’ education” (a line that prompted boos and shouts of “communist”). But McAuliffe didn’t say there’s “no place” for parents. He spoke out against vigilantism in which “parents come into schools and actually take books out and make their own decisions. I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach” and “running down teachers.”

This is a race Democrats need to win.  They need to make sure their winning coalition from 2020 isn't asleep at the switch and gets out to vote (early voting continues through October 30).  

Finally, a reminder to check out Infidel 753's link round- up for the best, most comprehensive collection of links to posts of varied topics from around the Internet.  Always an excellent selection.

QOTD -- Rise Up

 

"Texas this week showed us what a post-democracy America would look like.

"Thanks to a series of actions by the Texas legislature and governor, we now see exactly what the Trumpified Republican Party wants: to take us to an America where women cannot get abortions, even in cases of rape and incest; an America where almost everybody can openly carry a gun in public, without license, without permit, without safety training and without fingerprinting; and an America where law-abiding Black and Latino citizens are disproportionately denied the right to vote.

"This is where Texas and other red states are going, or have already gone. It is where the rest of America will go, unless those targeted by these new laws — women, people of color and all small “d” democrats — rise up." -- Dana Milbank in the Washington Post today.  That rising up must begin now and carry through the off- year elections in Virginia and New Jersey, the recall election in California, the mid- term elections in 2022, the general election in 2024, and in every state and local election from school board to county clerk.  These Christo-fascist Republicans must be hammered down again and again if we're to keep our fragile democracy.  They must not be allowed anywhere near the levers of power in this country.

Monday Reading

 

As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op eds.

Mike Litwin writes in the Colorado Sun about his declining sympathy for the anti- vax, anti- mask crowd:

The irony here, of course, is that for all the anti-maskers, if nearly everyone gets the shots, which work incredibly well, then no one would have to wear masks.

So sympathy? Sure, I understand that many of the vaccine resisters have been manipulated by the Tucker Carlsons of the world, by the Rand Pauls of the world (did you enjoy, like me, Dr. Fauci’s most recent takedown of Paul?), by the many GOP politicians who don’t have the guts to admit to their political base that they and their families have actually been vaccinated, by social media platforms that clearly play a role (although not nearly as big a role as Biden seems to think), by the misinformation and disinformation running rampant across the country.

But misinformation, particularly when it’s opposed in so many forums with valid information, does not survive, and certainly does not thrive, without a willing audience.

So when I’m asked to be sympathetic to the 44% of Republicans who, according to a YouGov poll, believe Bill Gates wants to use the COVID vaccine to implant microchips in people so he can track them digitally, my sympathy quotient all but disappears. This isn’t about anti-vaxxers. It’s about lunacy.

The $1 trillion infrastructure bill is ready for Senate debate:

Senate Democrats and Republicans unveiled on Sunday a roughly $1 trillion proposal to improve the country’s roads, bridges, pipes, ports and Internet connections, setting in motion a long-awaited debate in the chamber to enact one of President Biden’s economic policy priorities.

The package arrives after weeks of haggling among a bipartisan bloc of lawmakers, who muscled through late-night fights and near-collapses to transform their initial blueprint into a roughly 2,700-page piece of legislation. The fate of their labors now rests in the Senate, where proponents of infrastructure reform have little margin for error as they race to adopt the sort of bill that has eluded them for years. [snip]

With a proposal in hand, that debate began Sunday night under the fast-track timeline laid out by Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.). From here, though, Senate leaders hope to finish their work by the end of the week. The chamber then plans to begin work on a second, roughly $3.5 trillion economic package sought by Democrats, underscoring the significant lift awaiting lawmakers in the days before they are set to depart for their planned summer recess.

“I’ve set out two very ambitious goals for the Senate this summer, and we’re now on the way to achieving both,” Schumer said Sunday as he took the necessary procedural step to bring the infrastructure deal to the floor.

On a related note, 

An array of progressive and pro-White House groups plans to spend nearly $100 million to promote President Joe Biden’s agenda over the next month to pressure Congress while lawmakers are on their August recess.

The push being announced Monday, coupled with a wave of travel by the president’s top surrogates, is meant to promote and secure passage of Biden’s two-track infrastructure plan: a bipartisan package focused on highways, transit and broadband, and a Democrats-only budget reconciliation bill for child care and what the White House calls human infrastructure.

Dana Milbank takes on the task of determining whether House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Sedition-CA) is, in fact, a moron:

After Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy this week decried the House’s new face mask requirement, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) replied with a considered response: “He’s such a moron.”

Mean! But if the dunce cap fits …

Such an incendiary charge by Pelosi demands a fact check: Is McCarthy, in fact, a moron? Let’s weigh the evidence.

The very day Pelosi called him a moron, McCarthy complained on the House floor that the latest mask guidance came from a study in India (not so) of an unapproved vaccine (also not so) that “didn’t even pass purr review.” Was he waiting for a litter of kittens to examine the data?

The day before Pelosi called him a moron, McCarthy held a news conference to provide his latest thinking on the Jan. 6 investigation, including:

“We now have a committee that all of America wants to know the answers to.”

“How can you ever get to the bottom of the questions?”  [snip]

The day after Pelosi called him a moron, McCarthy made yet more important points at another news conference.

On President Biden: “The president, we sat to met with, that we wanted to be — keep our path be energy independent.”

On a retired colleague: “Former liberal senator Barbara Boxer is now has the effect of being robbed in Oakland.”

On Pelosi: “She will go at no elms to break the rules.”

We think you can guess what Milbank's (and our) conclusion is, but please read the whole piece.

Fareed Zakaria is interviewed by Sean Illing and discussed "illiberal democracy" and "illiberal systems" before concluding he's somewhat optimistic about American democracy:

... I still believe we’ll get through this, but I think it’s a struggle. The challenges reflected in this conversation are deep. We’re more polarized than at any point since around the Civil War. That degrades the democratic culture. We have strong illiberal forces within our society. That’s all true. It’s still an amazingly resilient country, however. There’s still a lot of dynamism and vitality. Young people particularly seem to want to live in a country that’s really a kind of universal nation, where everyone is more equally treated.

Some of this is mushy idealism and can be caricatured as “woke” platitudes, but there’s a spirit of empathy there that I admire and appreciate. So I hope that general feeling has an effect and translates politically. But this is the fight of our political lives and we’ll have to engage and make our voices heard in a way that is perhaps more important and louder and stronger than at any point since the Civil War, certainly since the civil rights movement.

Will this happen naturally? No. But there’s an inherent logic in the American experiment that can move us in the right direction if we push hard enough.

We have to be hopeful in order to have the energy and strength to engage and beat back the illiberal forces that have always been a part of our society, but who now feel more threatened than ever and are thus more dangerous.

We found that last piece at Infidel 753's link round- up, which seems to get more comprehensive by the week.  Trust us, it's a lot of links to non- political items -- religion, science, medicine, history, curiosities, etc. -- so if you just want scores of different topics to browse, that's the place to go.

QOTD -- Let's NOT Go Places, Toyota

 

"A Toyota spokesman told me the company 'supports candidates based on their position on issues that are important to the auto industry and the company.' Apparently, constitutional democracy isn’t one of those issues. This leaves me with one question: Would anybody like to buy my 2017 Toyota Sienna? I suspect I’m not the only one who won’t be buying a(nother) Toyota. Toyota likes to say its cars are 'made in America' — while its actions are unmaking America." -- Dana Milbank on Toyota's bankrolling 37 of the insurrectionist House Republicans, and their statement doubling down on their support for the treason caucus. Milbank goes on to suggest new names for Toyota brands, like the "Toyota GunRunner (formerly 4Runner)," the "Toyota RAV4chan (formerly RAV4)," and the "Toyota Supremacist (formerly Supra)."  Excellent satire.