Poll: Opposition To "Project 2025" Grows With Knowledge

 

Turns out the more voters know about "Project 2025," the MAGAt cult's fascist agenda for governance, the less they like it (click to enlarge):

That's why it's important to keep hammering the MAGAt Republican Party and their cult leader on the sheer un- American extremism of it, however much they seek to deny authorship.  Get up to speed on it (go to link above).  Explain to people what it means for them in their lives, and how its economic and social policies would devastate them and those around them.

There are two sides in this election: one that stands for democracy and one that doesn't.  It's on every one of us to make sure democracy wins that fight.

Republican Blocks Bill Protecting Access To IVF

 

Should there be anyone foolish enough to believe that Christofascist Republicans aren't intent on protecting, preserving, and expanding the Republican Alabama Supreme Court's egregious ruling on embryos being children, read on:

Senate Republicans have blocked legislation that would protect access to in vitro fertilization, objecting to a vote on the issue Wednesday even after widespread backlash to a recent ruling by the Alabama Supreme Court that threatens the practice.

Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, a Mississippi Republican, objected to a request for a vote by Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., who used IVF treatments to have her two children after struggling with years of infertility. Duckworth’s bill would establish a federal right to the treatments as the Alabama ruling has upended fertility care in the state and families who had already started the process face heartbreak and uncertainty.

Several clinics in the state announced they were pausing IVF services as they sort out last week’s ruling, which said that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law. The court said that three Alabama couples who lost frozen embryos during an accident at a storage facility could sue the fertility clinic and hospital for the wrongful death of a minor child.

Democrats have immediately seized on the election-year ruling, warning that other states could follow Alabama’s lead and that other rights could be threatened as well in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade and the federal right to an abortion in 2022. Congress passed similar legislation in 2022 that would protect the federal right to same-sex and interracial marriages.  [snip]

Abortion opponents have pushed laws in at least 15 states based on the idea that a fetus should have the same rights as a person...

Now, is there anyone foolish enough to believe the Christofascist Republicans aren't coming for contraception next?

As has been noted, and made clear by the Chief Judge of the Alabama Republican Supreme Court, these crackpots believe in a pseudo- religious "Seven Mountain Mandate" calling on fundamentalists to impose their values on all American life.  These are the same people setting the "Project 2025" white nationalist agenda for a future Malignant Loser administration.  These are the same people behind placing the Trumpist extremists on the Republican U.S. Supreme Court that gave us the Dobbs decision. This is the same ideology floating around in MAGA Mike Johnson's fevered brain. This is what you can expect -- and worse -- should these fascist extremists take the White House.  It's a war on families and freedom, and the most vile government intrusion into the most personal decisions imaginable.

Believe them when they tell you who they are, ffs.

(Photo:  Christofascist goblin Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Jebusland / Michael Brochstein, Sipa USA via AP file)

Meet "MAGA Mike"

 

The accession of Christofascist Rep. Mike "MAGA Mike" Johnson (Sedition-LA) to Speaker of the House, second in line to the Presidency, means there will be a puppet willing to do the bidding of the Malignant Loser heading into the 2024 election.  Johnson, also dubbed "Gym Jordan with a jacket and a smile," is an ultra- MAGAt who denies the legitimacy of President Biden's election, and was a key participant in the effort to block certification of the 2020 election.  But, wait, there's more:

...Johnson spent years making a name for himself at Alliance Defending Freedom, which was founded in 1993 and designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the national organization that monitors the activities of domestic hate groups and right-wing extremists. 

Lambda Legal, a national civil rights organization focused on LGBTQ+ communities, has previously referred to Alliance Defending Freedom as ”arguably the most extreme anti-LGBT legal organization in the United States.”  [snip]

The Louisiana Republican claimed in 2007 that most people simply don’t understand Roe v. Wade — the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision guaranteeing a woman’s right to have an abortion that was struck down in 2022 — and argued that if they did, they would not like it. Only one-third of Americans supported Roe v. Wade being overturned, according to polling.

“The abortion industry has waged a decadeslong deception campaign to suppress the truth about abortion,” Johnson told CBNNews, a branch of the conservative Christian Broadcasting Network founded by the late televangelist Pat Robertson. “If Americans knew the truth about Roe, they wouldn’t be as supportive.”...

Back to his seditious activities following the 2020 election:

... Johnson, now serving his fourth term in Congress, was the moving force behind a Supreme Court brief that helped lay the shoddy intellectual groundwork for Jan. 6, 2021. In December 2020, he rallied fellow Republican lawmakers to support Texas’s brazen bid to overturn the election results. In a lawsuit that fizzled almost as soon as it was filed, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sought to have the Supreme Court intervene in the election by blocking the certification of electoral college votes in four swing states — Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin — where voting rules had been changed in the course of the election and voters, not coincidentally, had favored Joe Biden. The justices swiftly rejected the case, tartly noting that, “Texas has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections.”

But not before Johnson rallied the GOP troops to sign on to a friend-of-the-court brief backing the Texas lawsuit — and took pains to emphasize that Trump was keeping score. “He said he will be anxiously awaiting the final list to review,” Johnson wrote on what was then Twitter. [snip]

The Johnson brief was a full-throated endorsement of the “independent state legislature” theory, ultimately rejected by the Supreme Court in 2023’s Moore v. Harper. The brief asserted that under the terms of the Constitution, only state legislatures — without any review by state courts or involvement of other state parties — have power to set rules for choosing presidential electors. “The clear authority of those state legislatures to determine the rules for appointing electors was usurped at various times by governors, secretaries of state, election officials, state courts, federal courts, and private parties,” the brief argued...

No wonder he had the enthusiastic backing of the head of the coup plot himself, the felonious, twice- impeached, multi- indicted Malignant Loser:

... “My strong SUGGESTION is to go with the leading candidate, Mike Johnson, & GET IT DONE, FAST!” Trump advised on his social media site Tuesday.  

And the MAGAt lemmings did just that.

BONUS:  Dana Milbank takes us through the sausage- making process that got us to this wiener. 

BONUS II:  Of course, MAGA Mike also wants to get rid of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

BONUS III:  It just gets creepier and worse.

(Photo:  The lean and hungry "MAGA Mike" Johnson / Win McNamee, Getty Images)

The Coup Caucus Votes Again (UPDATED)

 

The MAGAt Republican coup caucus is getting ready for another display of dysfunction, trying to reach a consensus on which of nine -- eight, make that eight -- far- right candidates it will nominate to be the second in line for the Presidency:

House Republicans coming out of a Monday night speaker candidate forum expressed some cautious optimism that their unprecedented 20-day stretch without a leader — and resulting shutdown of legislative business in that chamber — is nearly over. But members chastened by recent history weren’t yet ready to declare victory.

The GOP conference is set to vote Tuesday morning after hearing from the remaining eight candidates, a crop that thinned out slightly Monday night when Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Pa., dropped out. He said he had other commitments he wanted to focus on, including working on former President Donald Trump’s campaign in his home state. 

“The House will be in good hands with one of those members that are up there now,” Meuser said. “I’m more optimistic now than ever.”

The remaining speaker candidates are Jack Bergman of Michigan, Byron Donalds of Florida, Tom Emmer of Minnesota, Kevin Hern of Oklahoma, Mike Johnson of Louisiana, Gary Palmer of Alabama, Austin Scott of Georgia and Pete Sessions of Texas.

The range here is bad to worse.  These are how they voted on key issues regarding American democracy and human rights:

OBJECTED TO CERTIFYING 2020 ELECTION
Jack Bergman (MI)
Byron Donalds (FL)
Kevin Hern (OK)
Mike Johnson (LA)
Dan Meuser (PA)
Gary Palmer (AL)
Pete Sessions (TX)

CERTIFIED THE 2020 ELECTION
Tom Emmer (MN)
Austin Scott (GA)
-Both members signed onto the Texas lawsuit seeking to throw out votes in key swing states

HAVE REPEATEDLY VOTED AGAINST UKRAINE AID
Byron Donalds (FL)
Mike Johnson (LA)
Kevin Hern (OK)
Pete Sessions (TX)
-But most of the candidates have reservations about additional funding to Ukraine.

SUPPORTED PROTECTIONS FOR SAME-SEX MARRIAGE
Tom Emmer (MN)

OPPOSED PROTECTIONS FOR SAME-SEX MARRIAGE
Jack Bergman (MI)
Byron Donalds (FL)
Kevin Hern (OK)
Mike Johnson (LA)
Dan Meuser (PA)
Gary Palmer (AL)
Pete Sessions (TX)
Austin Scott (GA)

SUPPORTED RECENT GOVERNMENT FUNDING SHORT-TERM BILL
Tom Emmer (MN)
Jack Bergman (MI)
Dan Meuser (PA)
Austin Scott (GA)
Pete Sessions (TX)

OPPOSED RECENT GOVERNMENT FUNDING SHORT-TERM BILL
Kevin Hern (OK)
Mike Johnson (LA)
Byron Donalds (FL) missed the vote

HAVE EXPLICITLY ENDORSED TRUMP'S 2024 BID
Byron Donalds (FL)
Gary Palmer (AL)
Pete Sessions (TX)
Jack Bergman (MI)
Dan Meuser (PA)
-Others are supportive of Trump's bid

Like we said, bad to worse.  A floor vote could come as soon as one of these chuds manages to get the majority of the caucus behind him, though it's unlikely it would be today.

UPDATE:  Emmer has been nominated after five ballots.  His chance of being elected Speaker in a floor vote?  Don't hold your breath.

UPDATE II:  The chaos continues.  Emmer drops out.

(Photo:  AP/ Getty Images)

A Speaker "Gym" Jordan May Flip House to Dems

The Malignant Loser-anointed candidate for Speaker of the House, radical political terrorist and sexual abuse protector Rep. Jim "Gym" Jordan, may be the Dem's answer to their prayers, given his right-wing MAGA fanaticism. Until now, the Republican caucus has been dominated by the Matt Gaetzes on the far-right. But as the Independent's Eric Garcia notes, there are Republicans in swing districts that voted for Biden who are nervous about being tied to Gym's agenda and radicalism:

"Should he become speaker, he would be the highest-ranking elected Republican in the country and every Republican would immediately be tied with him. That might give Republicans who are from swing districts pause and ultimately lead to them not choosing Mr Jordan, regardless of what Mr Trump says.

At this point, the fact the House GOP conference has a slim majority goes without explanation. But for the most part, the focus has stayed on the 15 to 20 conservatives who at any given moment could sink Mr McCarthy or Republican legislative priorities.

Fewer people realise that Republicans have about just as many Republicans from swing districts who would not want to be associated with Mr Jordan or his antics, from leading a subcommittee on the 'weaponisation of the federal government,' to his attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, to his questioning of the story of a 10-year-old rape victim in his state who sought an abortion in Indiana, to his vociferous defences of Mr Trump.

The current Republican conference includes 18 members who represent districts that President Joe Biden won in 2020." (our emphasis)

The critical mission of Dems between now and the 2024 election is to make sure voters in those 18 districts, and more, get the connection between their Republican representatives and Gym and the party's reactionary and authoritarian agenda. They can't hide behind a broad brush "Republican" brand of yesteryear. It's Gym's House (or soon will be), and the Malignant Loser's party.

(photo: Jabin Botsford and Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post)

 

Federal Government Shutdown Impacts

 

The combination of a radical right-wing Republican House caucus and spineless and powerless "leadership" to change course will almost certainly mean a shutdown of the Federal Government at midnight on Saturday. For those who wonder what the impacts would be not only on the civilian and military employees of the Government, but perhaps on their lives, the Associated Press has a primer:

Millions of federal workers face delayed paychecks when the government shuts down, including many of the roughly 2 million military personnel and more than 2 million civilian workers across the nation.

Nearly 60% of federal workers are stationed in the Department of Defense, Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security.

While all of the military’s active-duty troops and reservists would continue to work, more than half of the Department of Defense’s civilian workforce, which is roughly 440,000 people, would be furloughed.

Across federal agencies, workers are stationed in all 50 states and have direct interaction with taxpayers — from Transportation Security Administration agents who operate security at airports to Postal Service workers who deliver mail. [snip]

Beyond federal workers, a shutdown could have far-reaching effects on government services. People applying for government services like clinical trials, firearm permits and passports could see delays.

Some federal offices will also have to close or face shortened hours during a shutdown.

Businesses closely connected to the federal government, such as federal contractors or tourist services around national parks, could see disruptions and downturns. The travel sector could lose $140 million daily in a shutdown, according to the U.S. Travel Industry Association.

Lawmakers also warn that a shutdown could rattle financial markets. Goldman Sachs has estimated that a shutdown would reduce economic growth by 0.2% every week it lasted, but growth would then bounce back after the government reopens.

Others say the disruption in government services has far-reaching impacts because it shakes confidence in the government to fulfill its basic duties. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce warned, 'A well-functioning economy requires a functioning government.'”

Our broken media will usually balk at specifically identifying the persons and party responsible, laying the blame on "Congress" not getting its act together. The first thing would be to select a more honest news source. The second would be to understand that this latest hostage taking by the Republican/Forced Birth/Shooters party won't be their last. Every year they've got majority power particularly in the House, expect the debt ceiling, the Federal budget and more to be held ransom to their outrageous demands, which the general public rejects by a significant majority.

 

QOTD -- Grifting Oligarch Party

 

USA Today's Rex Huppke summarizes the week ahead for the rotted out Christofascist Republican Party/ cult and its cult leader.  An excerpt:

...A bunch of GOP presidential candidates who have no shot at the nomination because they only timidly criticize Trump out of fear of alienating his supporters will babble onstage at a library named after one of the Republican Party’s most-revered figures, Reagan, a man who would undoubtedly loathe most of them and would be particularly disgusted by Trump himself.

While they’re doing that, Trump will lie to a select group of supportive auto workers who somehow see a rich lifetime con artist eyeball deep in legal trouble as a sensible choice for commander in chief.

The next day, Trump’s lackeys in Congress will embarrass themselves by spewing a vivid collection of conspiracy theories and innuendos that allege Biden is both a global criminal mastermind and a doddering old fool who should be hauled off to Guantanamo while we wait on evidence to prove whatever it is this collection of right-wing sycophants are alleging.

And then, almost certainly, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and his out-of-control caucus will find a way to marry their dislike for governing with their inestimable skill at doing exactly the wrong thing and cause a wholly avoidable government shutdown...

All of the above should matter.  Whether it does or not as we move into 2024 will help determine whether our democracy survives a high tide of demagoguery and fascism.

The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

 

The good:

Negotiators for Hollywood studios and the Writers Guild of America reached a breakthrough agreement after five straight days of negotiations — a tentative deal to end a strike that has halted most TV and film scriptwriting in the country.

The terms of the agreement were not immediately shared by the WGA, which said in a statement Sunday night that the deal was “exceptional,” adding that it included “meaningful gains and protections for writers in every sector of the membership.”

The union said it was immediately suspending picketing, though its more than 11,000 members were warned not to return to work until the deal is put into the language of a contract, then approved by WGA leaders and general membership in coming days. “We are still on strike until then,” the statement said.

But the deal still marks the most hopeful sign of progress since May, when the WGA and a consortium of major studios and streaming services failed to renew their old contract. The sides were divided over issues such as pay for writers and the use of artificial intelligence to create scripts. The WGA strike has lasted nearly 150 days, making it one of Hollywood’s longest labor-strike disputes...

Hopefully, the union has negotiated a good deal that members can approve.  If so, great victory for labor. Now, do SAG/ AFTRA.

The bad:

... The Assembly seat had been held by Democrats for 50 years. But after the district lines were moved, Republican Angie Sapik, who had posted comments disparaging the Black Lives Matter movement and cheered on the Jan. 6 rioters on social media, won the seat in November 2022.

The redrawing of the 73rd District and its implications are emblematic of the extreme gerrymandering that defines Wisconsin — where maps have been drawn in irregular and disconnected shapes over the last two decades, helping Republicans seize and keep sweeping power.

That gerrymandering, which stands out even in a country where the practice is regularly employed by both major parties, fuels Wisconsin power dynamics. And that has drawn national attention because of the potential impact on abortion rights for people across the state and voting policies that could affect the outcome of the next presidential election.

The new maps have given Wisconsin Republicans the leeway to move aggressively on perceived threats to their power. The GOP-controlled Senate recently voted to fire the state’s nonpartisan elections chief, Meagan Wolfe, blaming her for pandemic-era voting rules that they claim helped Joe Biden win the state in 2020. A legal battle over Wolfe’s firing now looms.

The future of a newly elected state supreme court justice, Janet Protasiewicz, also is in doubt. Her election in April shifted the balance of the court to the left and put the Wisconsin maps in peril. Republican leaders have threatened to impeach her if she does not recuse herself from a case that seeks to invalidate the maps drawn by the GOP. They argue that she’s biased because during her campaign she told voters the maps are “rigged.”...

They can't win honest elections, so they cheat.  Justice Protasiewicz said the maps were rigged because they are.

The ugly:

Congressman Paul Gosar, representing the 9th district of Arizona, said on Sunday that a retiring general should be "hung," echoing sentiments from former president Donald Trump, who said the military leader might deserve "the death penalty" for his purported actions.

Gosar, who was targeted for censure after his newsletter reportedly included a link to a website that promotes antisemitism and Holocaust denialism, said in his Sunday newsletter that General Mark Milley wrongly delayed National Guard resources surrounding January 6th.

Gosar's comments come just after Trump suggested that the retiring general who has criticized the former president deserves the "death penalty," prompting conservatives of various backgrounds to condemn the comments.

In Gosar's newsletter on Sunday, he said that after the riot "was in full swing, the Chief’s request for National Guard was finally approved."

"But even after approval was given, General Milley, the homosexual-promoting-BLM-activist Chairman of the military joint chiefs, delayed," the lawmaker added. "Of course, we now know that the deviant Milley was coordinating with Nancy Pelosi to hurt President Trump, and treasonously working behind Trump’s back."

Going even further, Gosar suggests Milley should be executed.

"In a better society, quislings like the strange sodomy-promoting General Milley would be hung," he said. "He had one boss: President Trump, and instead he was secretly meeting with Pelosi and coordinating with her to hurt Trump."

He added:

"How this traitor remains in office is a question we need answered."

Coup supporter Gosar (Insurrection-AZ) is such a fascist loon that even his family actively campaigns against him.  Congratulations to the voters of AZ-9; you elected a real POS to represent you.  Says something.

Fetterman Calls B.S. On Biden Impeachment

Of any U.S. Senator in modern times, perhaps the most authentic and free of pretension is Pennsylvania's freshman Senator John Fetterman. Here he is addressing the latest hobby horse of the fascist MAGA cult in the House of Representatives:

"Asked by reporters about the potential impeachment inquiry, Fetterman repeatedly suggested that it would only hurt Republicans politically, sarcastically putting his hands up and saying 'oooh, no, please, don't.'

'Go ahead and do it, I dare you,' he said. 'If you're gonna keep threatening it, then go ahead, just do it.'

'It would just be like a big circlejerk on the fringe right,' Fetterman later said of a potential impeachment.

He then pointed out the multiple criminal indictments against former President Donald Trump.

'Your man has what, three or four indictments now?' he said. 'Sometimes you just gotta, you know, call their bullshit.'" (our emphasis)

The MAGA cult doesn't care that there are no grounds to impeach. This is a performance for them, food for their angry, delusional, low-information voters. They take the law and governing so lightly that they elect monsters like the Malignant Loser, and presume the opposition is as frivolously corrupt as they are.

(photo: Mariam Zuhaib / AP)

 

A Cult Of Cowards

 

 

What more needs to be said about a party cult of Christofascist, misogynist, forced- birth, racist, anti- democracy knuckle- draggers except to continue to point out that their would- be, alternate "leaders" are a pack of liars and cowards:

With the coup-attempting former president and 2024 Republican front-runner now at 91 felony counts across four separate indictments, his pack of rivals, with few exceptions, on Tuesday remained unwilling to use that vulnerability against him.

Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), campaigning at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, told reporters that the latest indictment from Georgia accusing Trump of creating a “criminal enterprise” to illegally remain in office despite having lost the 2020 election reflected badly not on Trump but on the Fulton County district attorney.

“We see the legal system being weaponized against political opponents. That is un-American and unacceptable. At the end of the day, we need a better system than that,” Scott said.

Biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who has promised to pardon Trump on any federal charges should he become president, was attacking the Georgia indictment even before it was unsealed. “Prosecutors should not be deciding U.S. presidential elections,” he said in a statement Monday night.

Former Vice President Mike Pence, who has criticized Trump for putting himself “above the Constitution” but says he prefers that Trump’s fate be decided by voters, not criminal courts, said nothing at all about the new indictment after telling ABC News on Monday that he really didn’t know much about Trump’s efforts in Georgia, including his infamous phone call to election officials demanding that they “find” him enough votes to top Joe Biden’s winning total.

And Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who many party donors had hoped would surge ahead of Trump only to then steadily sink in the polls since entering the race, repeated the talking points of Trump defenders as he spoke with reporters from New England.

“I think it’s an example of this criminalization of politics. I don’t think that this is something that’s good for the country,” DeSantis said...

They're so bone- deep afraid of the Malignant Loser and his cult that they're willing to humiliate and prostrate themselves in the vain hope they can somehow thread the needle and wrest the GQP nomination out of the cult leader's grip, even if he's on his way to prison.  They can't even be trusted to relate what the charges against their cult leader are really about:

In reality, neither the federal indictment on Aug. 1 nor the Georgia indictment Monday night charges Trump with pursuing recounts or legal challenges seeking to overturn his election losses or even for lying about a “stolen” election. Rather, both accuse him of conspiring to defraud voters by pressuring his own vice president to accept forged elector slates for Trump from states he had actually lost ― a scheme that morphed into the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, when Pence refused to go along with the original plan.

Liars, cowards, sociopaths.  Not so unlike their cult leader after all.

(Image: Scott, Pence, Malignant Loser, Bootsie, Haley, Ramaswamy / via New York Times)

QOTD -- They'll Do It Again

An excerpt from Will Bunch in the Philadelphia Inquirer, on "Why The Right Hates America And Democracy":

Russell Moore, the editor-in-chief of Christianity Today, told NPR last week that preachers whose sermons include the basics of the New Testament such as Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, in which Christ is quoted as urging his followers to “turn the other cheek” when struck, now generates a confused and sometimes angry response from today’s evangelicals. Moore said the minister is invariably asked: “Where did you get those liberal talking points?”

Moore’s comments are only shocking if you haven’t been paying attention. A 2022 poll found that more than 60% of Republicans would support declaring America as “a Christian nation,” even though a majority also recognized this is unconstitutional. They just don’t care anymore. Jesus, and his gospel of the poor, is weak. The thrice-married Donald Trump who talks of smiting their enemies is strong, the authority figure they truly want to worship from the pews.  [snip]

When all else fails — the canceling of elections, the voter suppression, the rule changing, the growing assault on the free press that makes a shocking raid like Marion County possible — force is their last resort. It was their last resort on Jan. 6, 2021, and they’re telling us now in the bright, deep-fried daylight of an Iowa fairgrounds that they’ll do it again...

And that's why they must be stopped again, part infinity.

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.

House MAGAts Get A "Thunderous Bubble-Popping" At FBI Hearing

 

 

The usual dark conspiracies were spun with plenty of what-abouts thrown in.  The usual fact-free questions were asked, and the usual Christofascist MAGAts like Reps. "Gym" Jordan, Matt Gaetz, Chip Roy, and Harriet Hageman were asking them.  And once again, the hearing intended to expose the FBI's (!) bias against conservatives and love of the Bidens blew up in their simian faces:

... [T]he steaming hot conspiracy bubbles belching up from the right-wing fever swamps are occasionally pierced by facts, and a rather thunderous bubble-popping took place Wednesday during a House Judiciary Committee hearing featuring FBI Director Christopher Wray.  [snip]

So the Republicans who want to defund and discredit the FBI, the ones who eagerly dragged the FBI director through the mud Wednesday with absurd allegations grounded in zero facts, want you, the American people, to believe this: The nation’s premier law enforcement agency has been weaponized against Republicans under a director who is a lifelong Republican and who reached his current post by being selected and confirmed to positions by two Republican presidents and two Republican-led Senate bodies. 

Forget that all this is in defense of former President Donald Trump, a one-term, twice-impeached lifelong con artist who now faces more than 70 felony charges in two cases, with more indictments on the horizon.

Forget that Hunter Biden was actually charged with two misdemeanor tax offenses and a felony firearm offense.

Forget that, despite relentless investigation, Republicans have produced nothing linking President Biden to his son’s activity, or the fact that the person they touted as a key whistleblower was just charged with arms trafficking and acting as an unregistered agent for China.

This is a standard part of the Republican playbook: "When your guy is a proven charlatan, make up stuff about their guy" (viz., Obama's birth certificate, her emails, etc.).  Their guy, the Malignant Loser, is a national security risk, pathological liar, deranged narcissist, crook and cheat, sexual assaulter, would-be dictator.  Ours is... Joe Biden.  Time to weaponize government!  So, get the smear bucket out, time's a-wastin'!

As California Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu noted,  

“It is not the fault of the FBI that Donald Trump surrounded himself with criminals,” Lieu concluded. “Donald Trump brought that upon himself. Thank you to the FBI for exposing the cesspool of corruption of these Trump associates.”

(Photo:  "Nailed it!" / Gym and Gaetz/ Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Republican Crime Blotter: The Constitushonal Sheriff

 

 

Crackpot Republican sheriff gets busted in Virginia:

A Virginia sheriff who prosecutors say offered police badges and gun permits in exchange for payments or political contributions has been indicted on bribery charges.

Federal prosecutors alleged that Culpeper County Sheriff Scott H. Jenkins (R) accepted at least $72,500 in cash and campaign contributions beginning in 2019 from donors he agreed to appoint as “auxiliary deputy sheriffs,” according to a 38-page indictment unsealed Thursday. In prosecutors’ telling, Jenkins schemed to enrich himself while at the same time using his office to expand access to firearms in the suburban Virginia county.

Jenkins, 51, was first elected in 2011 and is running for a fourth term in November. Staff at the Culpeper County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to questions about the indictment Thursday. Jenkins and three co-defendants were scheduled to appear in federal court in Charlottesville on Thursday afternoon. All four were in custody, court records show.

“Scott Jenkins not only violated federal law but also violated the faith and trust placed in him by the citizens of Culpeper County by accepting cash bribes in exchange for auxiliary deputy badges and other benefits,” said U.S. Attorney Christopher R. Kavanaugh of the Western District of Virginia, whose office is prosecuting the case with the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section. “Our elected officials are expected to uphold the rule of law, not abuse their power for their own personal, financial gain.”

Following a mass killing in Virginia Beach in May 2019, Culpeper County officials voted to become a “Second Amendment Constitutional County” and established the auxiliary deputies, who are unpaid volunteers with some police powers and firearms-carrying privileges that go beyond what those who don’t work in law enforcement can get.  [snip]

Prosecutors said Jenkins charged between $5,000 to $21,000 to would-be auxiliaries, including three Virginia men who were indicted alongside him: Rick Tariq Rahim, 55, of Great Falls; Fredric Gumbinner, 64, of Fairfax; and James Metcalf, 60, of Manassas. They were charged with conspiracy, fraud and bribery and could face up to decades in prison. No lawyer was immediately listed for the men in court records.

Jenkins let each of them know the badge and identification card issued by the sheriff’s office authorized them to carry a concealed firearm in any state without obtaining another permit, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said Jenkins also accepted bribes from others who were not named in the indictment, including two undercover FBI agents. One of the undercover agents gave Jenkins an envelope with $5,000 immediately after being sworn in as an auxiliary deputy and receiving a badge, the indictment says. The second undercover agent posed as a convict. Federal law generally bars people convicted of felonies or domestic violence from possessing firearms. The agent gave Jenkins an envelope with $10,000 after being sworn in as an auxiliary deputy, according to the indictment. [snip]

“I appreciate what support you've given me, but you didn't do it for nothing,” Jenkins said about Rahim in a 2022 conversation quoted in the indictment. “You got a … a clean slate to carry a, not only carry a gun, we followed it up with swearing you in. Name another sheriff in the whole state of Virginia that would do that.”...

Well, hopefully, you're unique in Virginia at least, Scotty boy.

Meanwhile, wtf Culpeper voters?  The guy's not only a crook but one of those "constitutional sheriffs" who are basically Posse Comitatus flakes with a badge (which he'd be happy to sell to you, of course), named by the Anti-Defamation League as an anti- government extremist group.  Just the kind of person you want keeping the peace.

(Photo:  Ok, we'll go there -- oink -- / via Twitter/@mgreen7762 and @LynneVogt09)

 

Republican 2024 Budget Plan's Attack On Seniors

 

Once again showing their aptitude for comforting the comfortable and afflicting the afflicted, House Republicans are planning to reduce or limit earned benefits for seniors in their upcoming 2024 budget plan. Their agenda will be to make the Malignant Loser's tax giveaway to the ultra wealthy and major corporations permanent, while at the same time hammering senior benefits due from Social Security and Medicare. From Roll Call:

"The largest bloc of House conservatives offered up a fiscal blueprint Wednesday that promises to balance the federal budget in seven years, make GOP tax cuts permanent, and slash domestic spending.

The plan offered by the 175-member Republican Study Committee would gradually raise the age at which future retirees can start claiming full Social Security benefits from 67 to 69, a politically fraught proposal that's all but certain to appear in Democratic campaign ads. [snip]

While defense spending would be allowed to grow modestly, nondefense spending would gradually shrink over the decade, though both categories of spending would decline as a share of the economy.

Base budget authority for defense would grow from $886 billion fiscal 2024, a 3 percent increase over the current fiscal year, to $969 billion in fiscal 2033. But nondefense budget authority would be slashed by about 30 percent next year to $522 billion, inching up very slightly to $553 billion in fiscal 2033. 

The plan also promises to shore up the solvency of Social Security and Medicare, though the budget document is light on details.  (our emphasis)

The Republican budget document is "light on details" because they know the details would be so unpopular that they'd lose the House in 2024 if they had to run on them honestly. The same is true for the Malignant Loser's tax giveaway being made permanent, which blew a giant, multi-trillion dollar hole in the deficit.

President Biden and the Dems should be out on the hustings talking loudly about this Republican agenda, before the Republican House starts shutting down Government agencies in the fall over this reactionary plan.

It's Who They Are (UPDATED)

 

Yesterday, the deranged, twice- indicted sex assaulter Malignant Loser appeared at the North Carolina Republican Convention (he also showed up at Georgia's Republican klavern, er, convention).  On the same day, as yet another sign of how extreme these Christofascists have become, the North Carolina party took a look at its conservative Republican Senator, Thom Tillis, and did this:

Republican delegates in North Carolina voted Saturday at their annual convention to censure Thom Tillis, the state’s senior U.S. senator, for backing LGBTQ+ rights, immigration and gun violence policies.

As Sen. Tillis has gained influence in Congress for his willingness to work across the aisle, his record of supporting some key policies has raised concerns among some state Republicans that the senator has strayed from conservative values.

Several delegates in Greensboro criticized Tillis, who has held his seat in the Senate since 2015, for his work last year on the Respect For Marriage Act, which enshrined protections for same-sex and interracial marriages in federal law.

Both the state and national GOP platforms oppose same-sex marriage. But Tillis, who had opposed it earlier in his political career, was among the early supporters of the law who lobbied his GOP colleagues in Congress to vote in favor of it.

Others criticized him for challenging former President Donald Trump’s immigration policies and for supporting a measure that provided funds for red flag laws, which allow state courts to authorize the temporary removal of firearms from people who they believe might pose a danger to themselves or others...

This is the same bunch of bigoted rubes that ate up the deranged, twice- indicted, sex assaulter Malignant Loser's hateful, meandering rants, including this revealing beauty:

TRUMP: Boy, what a bunch of easily manipulated rubes you people are, it's amazing, even after all this time I still can't believe how stupid you are
AUDIENCE: Woo hoo! You tell 'em, Trump! Yeah! https://t.co/SO4fWJDJaT

— Paul Waldman (@paulwaldman1) June 11, 2023

 

 What a shame to have to share a country with these things.

UPDATED:  Hate words have consequences --

Several Target stores throughout Oklahoma City along with other areas in Central Oklahoma were evacuated late Saturday according to Oklahoma City Police.

Moments before the evacuations an email was sent out to several newsrooms including KFOR’s and state lawmakers threatening a detonation of a bomb.  

The email starts by writing, “We are going to play a game” and includes the date of April 19, 1995, which is the same date as the deadly Oklahoma City bombing.

It then goes on to say “2 of these Target locations have bombs in them. We hid the bombs inside some product items. The bombs will detonate in several hours, guess which ones have the bombs. Time is ticking.”  [snip]

The event comes just days after Target was slammed on social media for its LGBTQ+ children’s merchandise being sold in several stores, which has since been taken off shelves.

Again, that we have to share a country with these blocks, these stones, these worse than senseless things...

QOTD -- Weaponization

 

"... [E]ven before the indictment was unsealed, voters were treated to an onslaught of GOP comments tarring the case as corrupt and unconscionable. See House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) decrying a 'grave injustice.' Listen to former vice president and 2024 presidential candidate Mike Pence contort himself into an impossible position arguing simultaneously that no one should be above the law and that the indictment shouldn’t have moved forward.

"If anyone is guilty of turning the legal system into a political hand grenade, it has been the Republicans themselves. In the 2016 campaign, when questions were raised about Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server, Mr. Trump himself urged rally crowds to chant 'lock her up. This time, however, they’re the ones on the defense with regard to the possibly illegal handling of sensitive government information." -- Washington Post editorial board on the reaction by his cultists and their exploiters to the indictment of the Malignant Loser on 38 felony counts. 

In a bonus article, Philip Bump writes about "The Three Tiers of Trump Sycophancy," which does a pretty nice job of sorting out the clueless dead- ender base from the exploiters and the re- directors.  One of the slicker operators is oleaginous Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn "Red Vest" Youngkin, who gets some needed blow- back for his accusation that a "two- tiered system of justice" is what's to blame for the Malignant Loser's indictment.  What a two- dimensional phony (meaning he has a bright future in the Republican/ Seditionist/ Forced Birth Party).

QOTD -- Threats

 

"...[M]any business leaders, media executives and others desperately want to duck the radicalism of the Republican Party. They suggest there is a sensible center that each party should aim for, and they cast left-leaning figures such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) as equally problematic as former president Donald Trump.

"A months-long, heavily hyped standoff that ended with a bipartisan compromise will encourage this wrongheaded analysis of what ails American politics. We are now headed toward a presidential election in which a truly radical, antidemocratic person (Trump or Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis) looks to have a strong chance of being elected president. And the biggest priority of many in the news media and the business community will be to play down that person’s radicalism to show objectivity and neutrality.

"We didn’t default. That’s good. But the extremism of today’s Republican Party remains a huge threat to the country. This deal is a relief. It’s not cause for celebration." -- Perry Bacon, Jr., concluding a Washington Post op/ ed, summarizing the problems we still face after the debt ceiling disaster was averted:  a radical Republican/ Seditionist/ Shooters Party and a craven media unwilling to stand up for the truth and democracy.

 

QOTD -- Death Rattle

 

"...The right is surely growing more focused on creating a kind of Christian cultural hegemony in public institutions in part because Christianity is in a steep decline. Three decades ago, about 90 percent of Americans identified as Christian. Today, the number has fallen to the low 60s and the decline is likely to continue.

"Something similar is happening politically in Texas. Republicans have a lock on power, yet the state continues inexorably moving away from them, culturally and demographically.

“'I think this is the death rattle of a dying worldview,' [Democratic State Rep. James] Talarico told me. 'In some ways, the far right is like a wounded animal here in Texas. They know that Texas is becoming increasingly diverse, Texas is becoming younger, and that new Texas is not going to stand for these extreme policies.'” -- Paul Waldman, in the Washington Post, on how "The Texas legislature explores new frontiers of Christian Nationalism."  Whether Rep.Talarico's faith in demographic change coming to Texas is borne out remains to be seen.  What is clear, though, is that in Texas and in every state where the Republican/ Christofascist/ Shooters Party holds power, they will use every means available to hold on to that power, whether it's constitutional or not, legitimate or not.

Bootsie's Abortion Ban Suicide Mission

 

On Thursday, the Governor of "citadel of freedom" Florida, Ron "Bootsie" DeSantis, sealed his fate as a potential general election candidate by declaring war on a woman's right to make her health care decisions:

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed a bill that would ban most abortions in the state after six weeks, according to a release from the governor’s office late Thursday night.

The six-week ban would not go into effect until the state Supreme Court overturns its previous precedent on abortion.

“We are proud to support life and family in the state of Florida,” DeSantis said in the release.

The law would make Florida one of the most restrictive states in the country to obtain an abortion and follows moves by other Republican-led states to swiftly curb the procedure since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last summer. The measure passed the state Senate on April 3 and the Florida House on Thursday before heading to DeSantis’ desk for his signature. 

Under the law, most abortions in Florida would be banned after six weeks. Opponents of the legislation have argued that six weeks is before many women know that they are pregnant.

“Let’s be clear about the silent part: You just don’t want women to have choice,” House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell, a Tampa Democrat, said Thursday during debate on the bill.

Victims of rape, incest and human trafficking could obtain an abortion up to 15 weeks into a pregnancy, under the legislation, if the woman provides a restraining order, police report, medical record or other evidence.

The bill would also ban doctors from prescribing an abortion via telehealth and require medication for abortion be dispensed by a physician, not by mail.

Bootsie already senses he's the meatball dog that caught the car:

Though DeSantis has signaled his support for further restrictions on abortion in Florida, the typically outspoken governor has remained uncharacteristically reserved about where he thinks lawmakers should draw the line. Asked at a March news conference if he supported exemptions for rape and incest until 15 weeks, DeSantis called it “sensible” and said he would “welcome pro-life legislation,” but quickly pivoted to another topic. 

More recently, at fraud family Falwell's Liberty University yesterday, Bootsie never mentioned his just- signed forced birth bill, opting to go to his standard magic racist incantation word:

To hear Ron DeSantis tell it, Florida is the greatest state that has ever existed. No. 1 in all the metrics. The very best at everything. The only thing Florida isn’t good at is being woke, because Florida is where “woke goes to die.”

Florida’s Republican governor extolled the unwoke virtues of the Sunshine State at one of the nation’s largest Christian universities Friday morning. But he sidestepped one very timely matter — the six-week abortion ban he signed into law not 12 hours earlier.  [snip]

... DeSantis ignored the law altogether in his 20-minute remarks, except for a nod to the “sanctity of life.” The omission was glaring considering the timeliness (DeSantis had just signed the bill last night) and setting (a university with thousands of young evangelical voters who packed its weekly convocation).

He can run, but he can't hide. Democrats and pro- choice advocates won't be shy about bringing up Bootsie's radical, anti- women policy at every opportunity:

“We’re going to make him own this, and his agenda, everywhere he goes,” said a national Democratic operative granted anonymity to discuss party strategy. “Goes to Michigan? Abortion ban. Goes to Ohio next week? Abortion ban. And that will take different forms but we’ll hang this incredibly toxic abortion ban and his agenda around his neck with different tactics.”  [snip]

“Planned Parenthood advocacy and political organizations will make sure everyone knows his dangerous and radical record on abortion rights,” Jenny Lawson, vice president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund said in a statement. The organization is considering door-to-door canvassing, digital ads and direct mail, Olivia Cappello, a spokesperson said in a recent interview.

The Planned Parenthood network has poured millions of dollars into voter outreach in response to the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade last year. In the leadup to the decision, arms of the organization announced a $16 million ad campaign, and spent more than $50 million on the 2022 midterms a few months later.

It bears repeating that the anti- medical abortion pill, forced- birth policy of the Christofascist Republican Party is wildly unpopular.  From a February PRRI poll:

• Six in ten oppose laws that do not allow abortion except in cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother (36% favor vs. 60% oppose).
• More than six in ten oppose laws that ban abortion after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, usually around the sixth week of pregnancy (34% favor vs. 63% oppose)
• More than seven in ten oppose laws that make it illegal to use or receive through the mail FDA-approved drugs for a medical abortion, also known as the abortion pill (26% favor vs. 72% oppose)   
  

In subcontracting his political career to the forced birth Christofascists, Bootsie joins other Republican Presidential wannabes in appeasing the un-appeasable, whose vision of an American Gilead is the recipe for electoral disaster.   We happily look forward to the reckoning.

BONUS:  Scott Lemieux noticed Bootsie's problem, too.

BONUS II:  Take The Onion's Florida history test!

(Photo:  We never get tired of this.)