It’s a political pandemic ….
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Retribution For Dummies TPM reports on the latest Trump boot licking move by the House Republicans: Now that they finally have a new House speaker, some congressional Republicans are mounting an effort to question the select committee investigation into the January 6 attack that wrapped up last year. Their push is the perfect fox and the henhouse type scenario. Some of the members most loudly attempting to question the official probe — including the new speaker — played a part in elements of the conspiracy-fueled push to challenge the 2020 presidential election results that was a major focus of the investigation. The latest calls to investigate the select committee’s work gained momentum on Friday after Johnson announced a plan to release some of the security footage of the attack that involved thousands of supporters of former President Trump storming into the U.S. Capitol building as his loss was being certified on January 6, 2021. Johnson, who became speaker late last month after weeks of contentious votes and intraparty fighting, had campaigned on a promise to air out the footage.
That’s gotta be some kind of crime How will the U.S. Supreme Court take to having a lower court essentially invalidate its recent Voting Rights Act decision in Allen v. Milligan? New York Times: A federal appeals court moved on Monday to drastically weaken the Voting Rights Act, issuing a ruling that would effectively bar private citizens and civil rights groups from filing lawsuits under a central provision of the landmark civil rights law. The ruling, made by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, found that only the federal government could bring a legal challenge under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, a crucial part of the law that prohibits election or voting practices that discriminate against Americans based on race. The opinion is almost certain to be appealed to the Supreme Court. The court’s current conservative majority has issued several key decisions in recent years that have weakened the Voting Rights Act. But the justices have upheld the law in other instances, including in a June ruling that found Alabama had drawn a racially discriminatory congressional map. Yeah, that’s bullshit.
“We” are losing the country to “them.” Very recent comments by now-Speaker Mike Johnson brought to mind Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s “God damn America” sermon for the Bulwark’s Tim Miller. Asked if America faces a time of judgment, Johnson replied: You all know the terrible state that we’re in. . . . The faith in our institutions is the lowest it’s ever been in the history of our nation. The culture is so dark and depraved that it almost seems irredeemable at this point. The church attendance in America dropped below 50 percent for the first time in our history since they began to measure the data sixty years ago. And the number of people who do not believe in absolute truth is now above the majority for the first time. One in three teen girls contemplated suicide last year. One in four high school students identify as something other than straight. We’re losing the country. The divergent right-wing outrage over Wright’s sermon and non-response to Johnson’s criticism of America reflects more than a double standard for black preachers and white politicians, Miller finds.
It takes long term repetition to penetrate the minds of the voters If Trump taught them nothing else, he should have taught them that: Here’s Mark Esper from yesterday: Mark Esper, who served as the United States secretary of defense under Donald Trump, warned the former president “is a threat to democracy” — telling CNN Trump is “not right” and can’t beat President Joe Biden in the general election. Esper on Tuesday was asked about a Washington Post article that revealed many of Trump’s former Cabinet members — including former chief of staff John Kelly — believe he’s unfit to hold office. “You have previously said that Trump ‘unprincipled’ and should not be in the position of public service,” CNN’s Poppy Harlow began. “Will you work to publicly fight the lead that he has now or are you going to stay on the sidelines?” “I have been very clear about this matter for three years since my book came out,” Esper said. “I have been on the record multiple times and I don’t think he should be president. I don’t think he is qualified.
Biden has an opening to change the script on immigration The Trump immigration plan is so extreme that if normal people actually see what it is, their hair will stand on end. But they have to be told and they have to be convinced that they are dead serious about implementing it. Which they are: As [Steven] Miller put it: “Trump will unleash the vast arsenal of federal powers to implement the most spectacular migration crackdown…The immigration legal activists won’t know what’s happening.” “What former President Trump and Stephen Miller are laying out has crossed a line that should set off alerts for every American.” “What former President Trump and Stephen Miller are laying out has crossed a line that should set off alerts for every American,” Vanessa Cardenas, executive director of America’s Voice, said during a recent press call with reporters. “Calling his political opponents ‘vermin,’ saying that the blood of America is being poisoned, and the continuous calls to violence, election denialism, and white nationalism cannot be normalized or go unchallenged.
Some things never change Robert Reich reminds us that the “populist” MAGA movement is backed by some very rich fellows: Donald Trump is going full fascist these days and gaining the backing of prominent billionaires. Earlier this month, on Veterans Day, Trump pledged to “root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical-left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country”, whom he accused of doing anything “to destroy America and to destroy the American dream”. (Notably, he read these words from a teleprompter, meaning that they were intentional rather than part of another impromptu Trump rant.) Days before, Trump claimed that undocumented immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country”. The New York Times reported that he’s planning to round up millions of undocumented immigrants and detain them in sprawling camps while they wait to be expelled.
On the public dime Republicans do not have a governing majority, argues Jennifer Rubin. What Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D- Calif.) did with her thin Democratic margin as speaker, Republicans cannot with theirs. Not without the Democrats’ help. This leaves Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) in a unique position. He has the best of both worlds: He’s not responsible for electing a speaker whose Christian fundamentalist views and financial questions make him a weight around the necks of Republicans in swing districts. He can castigate Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) for his noxious views and effectively produce legislation that does not compromise Democrats’ minimum standards. At a Wednesday news conference, Jeffries emphasized, “House Republicans are unable to govern on their own. Period, full stop, no further observation necessary.” Ask Rep. Chip Roy (R-Tex.). Rubin describes what Democrats are able to do (and have) from the back seat. “Now, imagine what Democrats could do if they had the mathematical majority,” she concludes. Gerrymandering and sluggishness have left Democrats here in North Carolina in a far weaker position.
Timidity and irresolution and menace After a Colorado court ruled against barring Donald Trump from the ballot there, I commented on the atmosphere of menace Trump has created around any attempts to hold him accountable before the law for any of his actions. This includes attempts to disqualify him from holding elected office via the 14th Amendment. I focused on the fact that three different judges had cited three different reasons for not giving Trump the boot. That’s not so say (and I did not mean to suggest) the rulings were in error. But I did not address what the ruling did or did not do for Trump cases on appeal. Kim Wehle does so this morning at The Bulwark. The 102-page ruling contains findings of fact that Colorado District Judge Sarah B. Wallace clearly wrote “with an expectation that judges at higher state courts and likely even the U.S. Supreme Court would wind up studying her analysis on an appeal petition,” Wehle writes.
And they have plenty of other friends in high places too The Iowa caucuses are right around the corner and even Donald Trump has deigned to appear in the state recently despite his obvious belief that it’s beneath him to have to compete for the nomination he, and everyone else, knows is already his. But he does enjoy his rallies and he’s clearly decided that it’s time to gather the flock just to make sure they all know what’s expected of them. Here’s a sample of what he’s talking about on the campaign trail these days: Hannah Knowles of the Washington Post reported from the rally: Children wandered around in shirts and hats with the letters “FJB,” an abbreviation for an obscene jab at President Biden that other merchandise spelled out: “F— Biden.” During his speech inside a high school gym in Fort Dodge, former president Trump called one GOP rival a “son of a b—-,” referred to another as “birdbrain” and had the crowd shrieking with laughter at his comments on Rep. Adam B.