Category: Recommended

GOP seditionists are suddenly worried about divisiveness

Posted on by Kerry Eleveld

Republican lawmakers who have spent four solid years embracing Donald Trump's hate speech and targeting of Democrats, liberals, people of color, and women are suddenly very concerned about divisiveness.

It's a convenient time for Republicans’ craven conversion as they prepare to be relegated to minority status in Washington and spend the next few years pointing fingers and whining. And naturally they have zero shame about their hypocrisy, mainly using their unity calls as a club to chastise Democrats over their efforts to impeach Trump.

But the most glaring aspect of the calls for unity is who they are coming from. Naturally, it's the worst of the worst offenders—the GOP lawmakers who backed Trump at every turn, echoed his dangerous and deceptive fraud claims, and voted for his objections to certification in what amounted to a fascist effort to disenfranchise the will of the people.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy last week lamented that impeachment would "only divide our country more."

"I've reached out to President-elect Biden today & plan to speak to him about how we must work together to lower the temperature & unite the country to solve America’s challenges," McCarthy tweeted. 

Save it, Kev. The only worthy thing McCarthy has left to offer the country is to resign his position and leave Congress after he poured gasoline on the fire that exploded at the Capitol last week.

Same goes for Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who was among the first Senate Republicans to say he would join GOP House members in opposing certification of the Electoral College votes. The very day of the violent assault, Cruz, who was uniquely responsible for stoking the unhinged fervor that ultimately cost lives, was blaming people who had no role in the incitement.

"Stop stoking division. Stop spreading hatred," Cruz tweeted last Wednesday at Beto O'Rourke after O’Rourke noted that Cruz's "self serving attempt at sedition" had helped inspire the attack and attempted coup.

Hearing these seditionists now make calls for unity after they nearly destroyed the country in a matter of four years is truly special. If there's one saving grace here, it's that calls for the resignations of McCarthy, Cruz, and Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri continue to flow. 

Dem. Sen. Whitehouse (Judiciary): “The Senate Ethics Committee must consider the expulsion, or censure and punishment, of Senators Cruz, Hawley... Because of massive potential conflict of interest, Senators Cruz, Hawley, and Johnson need to be off all relevant committees."

— j.d. durkin (@jiveDurkey) January 11, 2021

Tomorrow, I’m introducing my resolution to expel the members of Congress who tried to overturn the election and incited a white supremacist coup attempt that has left people dead. They have violated the 14th Amendment. We can’t have unity without accountability.

— Cori Bush (@CoriBush) January 10, 2021

“We can't have unity without accountability” is exactly right. If people like McCarthy, Cruz, Hawley, and others who helped push Trump supporters into this frenzy escape without consequence, they will simply continue poisoning the well in perpetuity to their own benefit. 

Capitol assault brings Democrats to a boil. 191 now say they support second impeachment

Posted on by Meteor Blades

The right-wing insurgent assault on the nation’s Capitol—with its calls for lynching the vice president, the killing of a police officer, the beatings, the thefts, and the vandalism, all directed at smashing democracy and incited by Donald Trump—has kicked the needle of the Democratic anger gauge deep into the red zone. The outrage has persuaded 191 House Democrats to publicly support impeachment—according to an ongoing tally by Daily Kos Elections—and sparked some unusually furious responses to Republicans trying to downplay the gravity of the attack.

For instance, here’s the representative from Pennsylvania’s 2nd congressional district giving the junior senator from Texas F-bombed advice to stop spreading manure on Twitter:

Dear @tedcruz - Just stop. You know better. I know you know better. It’s not a fucking game. 5 people were killed. What the fuck is it going to take for you to end this shit? How many more 20-yr old staffers do you want to be terrorized and hiding in our offices? https://t.co/Hc1LQGNuhs

— US Rep Brendan Boyle (@RepBrendanBoyle) January 9, 2021

As Cruz knows, calling Nazis Nazis isn’t what’s tearing the country apart. It’s people behaving like Nazis.

And then there’s Sen. Sherrod Brown from Ohio:

Both @HawleyMO and @SenTedCruz have betrayed their oaths of office and abetted a violent insurrection on our democracy. I am calling for their immediate resignations. If they do not resign, the Senate must expel them.

— Sherrod Brown (@SenSherrodBrown) January 9, 2021

And Rep. Haley Stevens from Michigan’s 11th congressional district:

If you are an elected Member of Congress or any office, and encouraging or excusing an insurrection in the U.S Capitol, then you are a traitor to this nation & the oath that you took. And if you were trying to overturn the election, you are as well. You just weren’t successful.

— Haley Stevens (@HaleyLive) January 8, 2021

Some Republicans want Democrats to chill out for the sake of the nation. That at least is the message of a small group who sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Friday night:

The lawmakers, led by Representative Ken Buck of Colorado, warned in a letter to Biden on Saturday that Trump’s impeachment would inflame his supporters anew, and damage Biden’s efforts to unify the country.

“In the spirit of healing and fidelity to our Constitution, we ask that you formally request that Speaker Nancy Pelosi discontinue her efforts to impeach President Donald J. Trump a second time,” they wrote. [...]

They added that impeachment “would undermine your priority of unifying Americans, and would be a further distraction to our nation at a time when millions of our fellow citizens are hurting because of the pandemic and the economic fallout.”

These lawmakers want everyone to forget that if they and a solid minority of their colleagues had supported the first impeachment, Trump wouldn’t have been around to make the pandemic and economic downturn as bad of disasters as they are. The incredible notion that Rep. Buck and his compatriots are putting forth is that if Democrats just lay off the guy whose incendiary efforts incited a lethal operation against the seat of American government, then the healing will go smoother is as delusional as the guy still squatting in the Oval Office for the next 11 days. They seem to believe there will be no second attack on or before Jan. 20. They pretend these thugs and their thug mouthpiece in the White House are finished with their insurrection.

Trump isn’t going to just fade away. Yes, he’ll be evicted Jan. 20, but that doesn’t mean he’ll be gone from public life unless an impeachment conviction bars him from running for elected office in 2024. Yes, getting that conviction is a huge long shot as the first impeachment obviously showed. But the tough odds are not an excuse for failing to even try.

Happily, 191 Democrats have publicly given support for moving ahead with impeachment. That’s good news. Not a distraction. Not a mistaken tactic. A necessity. The last thing Democrats should do right now is chill out.

Trump is sorry … that he didn’t do more to support the violent mob of insurrectionists

Posted on by Mark Sumner

Democrats in the House have now gathered over 140 names on new articles of impeachment against Donald Trump that will be introduced on Monday. If all goes well, they’ll be voted on the same day. At the same time, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and soon-to-be Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer continue to press Mike Pence to act using the 25th Amendment. However, as more Cabinet members resign and Pence huddles in silence, the odds of that happening seem ever smaller. 

Meanwhile, the Twitterless Trump is casting about for one last desperate act. In addition to Trump, Twitter has been hacking down accounts that have suggested another, even more violent, assault on the capital on Jan. 17 or Jan. 20. Over on Parler, they’ve very definitely not been taking down any efforts to organize an attack on either those dates or Jan. 19. And if there’s one thing that Trump has made clear to his remaining staff, it’s that he’s sorry. Not sorry about arranging and inciting a violent assault on the nation. But sorry that he ever ever told the insurgents to leave the Capitol building.

Trump was ecstatic to see his supporters shoving through barriers, overwhelming an unprepared police force, and taking the Capitol by storm. As the insurrectionists prowled through the halls of Congress in hopes of turning legislators into hostages, and Trump supporters cast down the American flag to raise his own banner, Trump strolled around the White House in excitement. The fact that other people weren’t seeing this as a good thing completely baffled him. It was, after all, exactly what Trump had been wanting for years. 

As The New York Times reports, after a stunned nation recoiled in disgust, and Joe Biden came out to demand that Trump end this rampage by his followers, Trump did take to Twitter to deliver a brief statement—one in which he told the insurrectionists they were “very special” and assured them “I love you.” Even so, Trump did include a statement that the violent criminals who were even then smearing human excrement along the halls of Congress should “go home in peace.”

It’s that last part that Trump regrets.  The part where he told them to leave, and gave some hint that he would allow an orderly transition—though without naming Biden or including the word “peaceful.”

At the end of a week in which his followers attempted a violent overthrow of the American government, the only thing that Trump regrets is that it didn’t work. And that after planning it, bringing in every white supremacist he could find, and shoving them toward Congress, he didn’t do more to cheer for their victory.

Impeach Trump IMMEDIATELY. He is a direct threat to U.S. national security and the republic itself

Posted on (Updated by Kerry Eleveld

Nearly 30 Democratic members of the House have expressed a desire to impeach Donald Trump a second time following his incitement Wednesday of an armed insurrection at the U.S. Capitol as lawmakers attempted to certify the results of the November presidential election. 

They are absolutely right. Trump is a direct threat to the sovereign. For more than two months, Trump has spewed a constant stream of disinformation about the election being stolen from him and his supporters being disenfranchised. On Wednesday morning, Trump spent some two hours urging his followers to storm the U.S. Capitol at a “Save America” rally. “We will never give up. We will never concede,” Trump told several thousand of his cultists who had gathered on the Ellipse to see him speak. 

His supporters, hopped up on conspiracy and grievance, then marched over to the Capitol and staged a violent insurrection—pushing back Capitol police, shooting mace at them, threatening lawmakers and journalists, breaking windows, destroying property, and ultimately overtaking the building along with several others on the Capitol complex. 

Several hours after images of the violent takeover had flooded new outlets and social media streams, Trump finally posted a video urging his cultists to go home peacefully. But even that video was riddled with more conspiracy and grievance-stoking by Trump. 

“I know your pain. I know your hurt. We had an election that was stolen from us. It was a landslide election and everyone knows it, especially the other side,” Trump falsely stated before telling his followers to go home. He then went straight back at it, lamenting, “There's never been a time where such a thing happened, where they could take it away from all of us—from me, from you, from our country.” And finally, “So go home. We love you. You're very special,” Trump concluded, offering a warm embrace to the terrorists who had stormed the Capitol to stage a coup attempt.

The unfathomable breakdown of law enforcement during this entire episode will be investigated and parsed for years to come. But what we do know is that it took hours for the D.C. National Guard to be called up to provide reinforcements, partly because it is not controlled by the D.C. mayor but rather the president. After D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi both sent a formal request to the Department of Defense to deploy the National Guard, Vice President Mike Pence finally approved the deployment, not Trump. Trump, still the commander in chief, apparently couldn’t be bothered to send in reinforcements to protect U.S. lawmakers, the Capitol complex, and all its denizens. 

To recap, Trump spent months pumping his low-information voters full of crap; he then personally directed them to storm the Capitol on the day of congressional certification; when his supporters did storm the Capitol, he posted a video justifying their ire and lavishing praise on them while also declining to deploy troops in order to protect U.S. lawmakers and federal property. Many of those protesters—who were inexplicably allowed to exit the building on Wednesday evening without suffering any consequences—told journalists and others they planned to return at a later date with their guns. 

And finally, once the worst of the occupation appeared to be over, Trump celebrated the seditious actions of his cultists. “These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long,” Trump tweeted Wednesday evening. Twitter finally locked Trump’s account by day’s end, but lasting damage to the heart of our democracy had already been done.

What unfolds over the next 14 days between now and the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden remains entirely unclear. What is clear is that Trump’s cultists aren’t done yet, and Trump himself is perfectly happy to stoke their worst impulses while leaving the nation’s Capitol, along with our duly elected U.S. lawmakers, unprotected. Donald Trump is a clear and present danger to American democracy, our systems of government, and the republic itself. He must be impeached immediately after Congress finishes the business of certifying the Electoral College votes. As Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego of Arizona told MSNBC Wednesday evening, “Democracy's not safe right now. … I don't trust this president.”

Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota announced Wednesday afternoon that she was drafting articles of impeachment. Omar was among the first of several lawmakers to express support for impeaching Trump following his direct involvement in one of the most shameful episodes in our nation’s history. The effort has quickly attracted the backing of a diverse group of Democratic lawmakers, from progressive representatives like Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Pramila Jayapal of Washington to more moderate members like Seth Moulton of Massachusetts and Jim Cooper of Tennessee. 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi must take up the matter immediately following congressional certification. Few if any instances in American history have ever posed such an obvious and urgent existential threat to the United States of America. 

As Democrats gather support for second impeachment, more voices call for invoking 25th Amendment

Posted on (Updated by Mark Sumner

Impeachment and removal from office is what Donald Trump deserves. Of course, it was what Trump deserved a year ago when Republicans gave him a free ride through the Senate. Several of those—including Mitch McConnell—making loud noises today, were key to making sure that Trump sailed through without even having to face a single witness in a trial where they knew he was guilty. 

Rep. Cori Bush has already drawn up new articles of impeachment based on Trump’s support for the insurrection taking place on Wednesday. Over a dozen other Democratic members of Congress have already signed on. However, it’s unclear how quickly action could be taken to both impeach Trump a second time and remove him from power. And that’s assuming Republicans do something they haven’t done in decades: place nation ahead of party. But others are calling for a Trump to be removed through other means. It begins with Mike Pence transmitting to both Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and, for the moment at least, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. That letter would express that Trump is no longer able to carry out the duties of his office under the 25th Amendment.

And there are some people who believe that action is already underway.

Thursday, Jan 7, 2021 · 12:58:40 AM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

The President incited an insurrection in the U.S. Capitol today. The 25th amendment should be invoked, and he should be removed from office. What we witnessed in Washington today was an assault on the citadel of democracy.

— Rep. Richard Neal (@RepRichardNeal) January 7, 2021

Thursday, Jan 7, 2021 · 1:16:41 AM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

It is too dangerous to have him as president over the next two weeks before an inauguration. He cannot be trusted with the sacred honor the American People gave him. I hope the 25th Amendment is put into action or an immediate bipartisan impeachment.

— Congressman Tim Ryan (@RepTimRyan) January 7, 2021

Thursday, Jan 7, 2021 · 1:30:03 AM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

More information showing why it’s vital that the 25th Amendment be invoked. Trump was perfectly willing to allow the Capitol to remain under siege rather than taking action to help. 

NEW: Trump initially rebuffed and resisted requests to mobilize the National Guard, according to a person with knowledge of the vents. It required intervention from White House officials to get it done, according to the person with knowledge of the events.

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) January 7, 2021

Thursday, Jan 7, 2021 · 1:31:02 AM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

The @sfchronicle Editorial Board: "He should be removed from office immediately, whether through resignation, impeachment or the 25th Amendment’s prescription for dealing with a president unfit to serve."https://t.co/M6yiHpjSpt

— Marc Rumminger (@mentalmasala) January 7, 2021

Thursday, Jan 7, 2021 · 1:35:44 AM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

From the Washington Post Editorial Board: Trump caused the assault on the Capitol. He must be removed. https://t.co/ZPHJGvmdTP pic.twitter.com/T9wqtBwJBx

— Washington Post Opinions (@PostOpinions) January 7, 2021

Thursday, Jan 7, 2021 · 1:54:42 AM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Trump can NOT remain in office any longer.

— US Rep Kathy Castor (@USRepKCastor) January 7, 2021

Thursday, Jan 7, 2021 · 1:58:01 AM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

I am calling on Vice President Pence and the Cabinet to invoke the 25th amendment and protect our country. Enough is enough.

— Rep. Sylvia Garcia (@RepSylviaGarcia) January 7, 2021

Thursday, Jan 7, 2021 · 1:58:23 AM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

CBS News reports members of the Cabinet are considering the 25h Amendment: pic.twitter.com/fN47wXj0G7

— The Recount (@therecount) January 7, 2021

Calls for the application of the 25th Amendment aren’t new when it comes to Trump. His 26,000+ documented lies, his frequent lapses into lengthy conspiracy theories, and his refusal to admit an error even when it’s obvious have made Trump’s ability to carry out any reasonable action long open to challenge. But in the light of what happened on Wednesday, with Trump both encouraging an invasion of the U.S. Capitol, and then reassuring the insurrectionists that they are “very special” and he “loves” them, the idea of moving Trump out immediately through this action has reached a new level.

Conservative organizations like the National Association of Manufacturers have called for Pence to remove Trump by invoking the 25th Amendment. So have members of Congress and former officials. 

But it goes beyond people calling for the 25th Amendment. Several people have wondered if that amendment has already been invoked. When the National Guard was finally authorized to come to D. C. and assist in regaining control of the Capitol building and surrounding area, it wasn’t Trump’s name on the order. It was Pence.

That has surprised a number of people, and led to some serious speculation. So have the statements about Pence that seem to be coming in from a number of Republicans.

Again, this seems like 25A may have already been triggered. https://t.co/BJSEfJxByn

— Dr. emptywheel (@emptywheel) January 6, 2021

Considering the frightening video that Trump put out on Wednesday afternoon, and the equally disturbing tweet he issued an hour later, this certainly seems justifiable. And it seems like even some of his staunchest Republican supporters might be finding that sticking with Trump is becoming more difficult.

I asked @RepAnnWagner today whether @realDonaldTrump should resign or whether @Mike_Pence should invoke the 25th Amendment. Here's her response: pic.twitter.com/hNtILUQenF

— Jason Rosenbaum (@jrosenbaum) January 6, 2021

If Pence has taken action … good. But that’s no reason to halt the efforts at impeachment. There is absolutely no law that says both actions can’t go be in the works at the same time.

Thursday, Jan 7, 2021 · 12:01:55 AM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

.@Acosta: "I will tell you, Jake, I talked to a source, a GOP source close to the president who speaks with him regularly, and I take no pleasure in reporting this, but this source tells me that he believes the president is out of his mind." pic.twitter.com/Ld7r2hLnSH

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 6, 2021

Thursday, Jan 7, 2021 · 12:05:38 AM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

The president has had not one word of criticism for the domestic terrorists who stormed the US Capitol today, who left a pipe bomb outside the RNC. Not one word.

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) January 6, 2021

Thursday, Jan 7, 2021 · 12:22:23 AM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Tonight, I am asking Vice President Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment and begin the process of removing President Trump from office.

— Rep. Lucy McBath (@RepLucyMcBath) January 7, 2021

Thursday, Jan 7, 2021 · 12:24:53 AM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

This makes it sound like Pence has taken over, but without invoking the amendment. 

More evidence that the Vice President is carrying out the duties of the presidency to secure the Capitol and more.👇 From Vice President Mike Pence’s office: pic.twitter.com/DtXkHvgzNK

— Ryan Goodman (@rgoodlaw) January 7, 2021

Some Democrats want to move past Trump. But ignoring his seditious acts threatens American democracy

Posted on by Kerry Eleveld

New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries delivered a message Monday about the posture of House Democrats' leadership team regarding Donald Trump's relentless attempts to engineer a fascist takeover of the American republic. 

“We’re not looking backward," Jeffries told reporters during a press conference. "We’re looking forward to the inauguration of Joe Biden on January 20th.” 

That forward-looking vision came less than 24 hours after the Washington Post posted smoking-gun audio of an hour-long phone call in which Trump (aka Mafia Don) attempted to threaten and cajole Georgia's top election officials to "find" enough votes to overturn the state's election results. 

Nonetheless, Kate Bedingfield, an adviser to President-elect Joe Biden offered a similar take to Jeffries, saying, "The country is ready to move forward."

But the problem with simply rushing past Mafia Don's political grave is that ignoring his seditious acts is as much a threat to the future of American democracy as Trump's failed efforts were in the first place. In short—seditious, traitorous acts left unchecked beget seditious, traitorous acts. In fact, Senate Republicans with the twinkle of 2024 presidential bids in their eyes are already lining up in support of Trump's effort to tear down democracy in order to maintain his grip on power. Trump's final gambit is all but certain to fail on Wednesday during a joint session of Congress to certify the election results, but the major takeaway is that plenty of future GOP Trumps are waiting in the wings to trash representative democracy on the way to meeting their own political ends unless a price is exacted for doing so. And the lesson those Republicans have learned so far—just as Trump learned from his acquittal—is that there's no serious price to pay, political or otherwise, for betraying the country.

Both the incoming Biden administration and Congress have a role to play in safeguarding our democracy for generations to come. One is criminal and the other is a matter of governance. Biden must appoint smart, resolute leaders to the Justice Department and then simply get out of the way and let them do their jobs. Hamstringing justice in any way with regard to Trump's endless assault on the law and the Constitution would be disastrous for the country's future. But Biden can easily make those appointments to the Department of Justice and then rightfully send the message that his administration is focused on the task of righting the ship in regard to the pandemic and the faltering economy. 

House Democrats, however, cannot afford to simply move along, as if the threat to our democracy ends once Trump is summarily booted from the White House residence. That is a patently false contention given the upheaval we are already witnessing in the Republican party. Trump must be held to account. That can be done in several ways, a couple of which are already in process.

One way is by making a criminal referral to the FBI over Trump's attempted election crimes, an investigation that Reps. Ted Lieu of California and Kathleen Rice of New York are already urging FBI Director Chris Wray to undertake.

Another possibility is censuring Trump over his call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Georgia Rep. Hank Johnson introduced a censure motion on Monday with the support of 90 of his colleagues. That number will likely grow in the coming days and weeks as Congress gets back to work—or at least, it should grow, since there are presently 222 Democratic members of the House.

Impeachment is another potential option, but to what end at this point? Trump is just over two weeks away from removal and, as we have already seen, the effort would surely be blocked by the GOP-controlled Senate. Heck, more than a quarter of the Senate Republican caucus has jumped aboard Team coup at this point. 

What does seem a worthy effort, however, is continued investigations of Trump and his minions. Not only do the facts need to come out, but if Democrats are to draft legislation to safeguard our democracy against future Trumps, they will need to know exactly what actions he and his enablers took in their extensive efforts to kneecap America's institutions and systems of governance. 

But none of those three options—a criminal referral, censure, and ongoing investigations—amount to simply "looking forward." What is past will haunt the nation and Democrats, in particular, if it is buried before an autopsy can be conducted and people held to account for their roles in assaulting and undermining America’s democracy. 

It is well past time to confront the truth of the Republican Party’s threat to democracy

Posted on by RETIII

Watching the depressing and alarming spectacle of 17 Republican state attorneys general joining Texas’s bad faith, frivolous Supreme Court application to overturn the election in favor of Donald Trump, I am reminded that in September 2015, I wrote a post titled “The Dark Truth of John Boehner’s Resignation.”

What was that “dark truth”?

What is important here is not that Republicans object to the limits of their power, but that Republicans apparently cannot accept that such limits even exist. 

It sounds crazy, I know, but this represents the true "dark side" of Boehner's resignation: It is another significant step in the Republican Party's shocking withdrawal from our system of democratic governance.  

Five years ago, the notion that Republicans were abandoning democracy was considered to be a somewhat important observation, something to be widely shared and discussed. Today? Well, let’s consider a few of the developments since 2015.

Folks, this is insane. It’s an open, ongoing assault on the fundamental tenets of this country, unseen since the run up to the Civil War. 

Admittedly, defeating this Republican problem is hard and complex, and viable solutions will take discussions longer than this one post. But allow me to propose we rediscover an essential concept: scandal.

The first and necessary step back requires that our country, our politics, and our media rediscover how to label, report, and resist scandalous behavior. Remember Watergate? Whitewater? Benghazi? None of them compares to this threat to democracy (yes, not even Watergate).  

That means reporting this for what it is, and not inviting any co-conspirators on for polite interviews. It means having a panel of historians and civic leaders on, regularly, to discuss the scandal, not a D-list of political hacks. It means consistent front page reporting on this crisis. It means not reporting this as “horse race” politics. And it means that Democratic leadership has to be fighting against this, openly and all the time.

Shutting this down requires that, as a basic first step, we all begin to treat this as the five-alarm fire scandal that it is. 

I once called the Republicans’ hunger for power a “dark truth.” Five years later, sadly, it is an open, proud and largely unchallenged truth.

We can’t let this continue.

CIA director hanging by a thread as Trump eyes releasing US intelligence on Russian interference

Posted on by Kerry Eleveld

When White House counsel Pat Cipollone opposes something Donald Trump is intent on doing, you know it's got to be bad. But it's exactly where Cipollone stands on Trump's deep desire to declassify U.S. intelligence on Russian interference in the 2016 election, which would be incredibly damaging to national security and U.S. intelligence-gathering moving forward.

Trump has always viewed the Russia investigation as a cloud hanging over his tenure from Day One, delegitimizing his big triumph in 2016 as impossible without the help of foreign interference. It may be the one instance where he's right. But his intention to declassify U.S. intelligence on Russia to support his pet project at any cost to national security has met with stiff opposition from CIA Director Gina Haspel and divided Republicans into two camps, according to The New York Times. You're either a Trumpist or a traitor.

Trump also remains miffed at the CIA over the agency's failure to neutralize the whistleblower complaint regarding the July 2019 call with Ukraine that ultimately led to his impeachment. But releasing the intelligence on Russia appears to be the main motivation behind Trump's fixation on axing Haspel, who has shared her concern with congressional members.

The Times writes that GOP lawmakers "came subtly to Ms. Haspel's defense" Tuesday when Majority Leader Mitch McConnell invited her to a meeting at his office—a signal of support for her, however weak. Of course, McConnell isn't willing to do something more overt because he's too busy kowtowing to Dear Leader so Republicans can get Trump’s help in the upcoming Georgia runoffs, which will decide the fate of the Senate majority.

Trump has already moved to consolidate power in the intelligence community, installing loyalists this week at key intelligence posts at the Defense Department and National Security Agency. Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, who oversees the 17-agency intelligence apparatus, is already a tried and true Trumpist. So the only major barriers to Trump's near-total takeover of the intelligence community are Haspel and FBI Director Chris Wray, who reportedly have both been on Trump's post-election chopping block.

Just imagine what Trump would have done if he had won.

The assault on the 2020 election is more dangerous than anything else Trump has done

Posted on by Mark Sumner

Way over on the farthest left, there’s a cliff; a dark potential called communist totalitarianism. The horrors that wait beyond that cliff have been more than adequately demonstrated by everyone from Joseph Stalin to Pol Pot, and progressives of every nation are extremely aware that the pathways to that cliff must be constantly challenged, heavily patrolled, and always eyed with concern. Likewise on the right, there’s an yawning gyre called fascist totalitarianism. The edges of that pit are lined with the bones of millions, and whether the followers wear brown shirts or black, this system has proven to be extraordinarily effective at hastening a nation from rationality into murderous dystopia.

Only there’s a difference when it comes to how the specters on the left and demons on the right have been handled. Because for decades, but especially within the last four years, the right has worked to take their ogre and simply relocate it to the left; to describe fascism not as something that belongs to them, but as “liberal fascism.” And there’s a reason for this that goes well beyond not just wanted to have themselves associated with goose-stepping men in armbands—a reason that plays directly into what’s happening right now following the 2020 election.

On Monday, Attorney General William Barr ordered the Department of Justice to investigate claims of election fraud for which there is no evidence. Sen. Lindsey Graham said the only reason why Republicans lose races is because Democrats cheat. And the two Republican senators from Georgia attacked their own state over claims that they failed to run a proper election, providing no more evidence than that they allowed Donald Trump to lose.

All of this stands in stark contrast to every election in recent history. Even the most rancorous campaigns of the past have swallowed their pride, made that concession call, and done so swiftly, because they understand the cost of not conceding.

That Republicans would so joyfully attack the machinery of free elections seems extraordinary, even considering the efforts applied for more than a century to make sure that only the right kind of white people get to the polls in the first place. But it shouldn’t be. After all, elections are just another institution, and Republicans have more than adequately demonstrated that they can smash, or subvert, any institution designed to act as a check on power. See impeachment. See the courts. See the Senate report that was quietly released admitting that Trump’s campaign did in fact have repeated contact with Russian agents, regularly coordinated with Russian objectives, and made promises to Russia in exchange for assistance. Nothing came of that. And why should it, considering that Republicans had just voted that they didn’t even have to hear the witnesses before declaring Trump innocent of anything, anywhere, at any time.

The reason that right-wing media is saturated with claims that fascism is “of the left” is simple enough: If there is no gyre, no demons, nothing dark waiting out there beyond the current bounds, then there is never any reason to stop moving to the right. Fling open Overton’s window and let the right winds blow. There are no paths on the right that need to be guarded, nothing bad to watch out for. It’s all good stuff over there.

Historically, of course, this is nonsense. The whole concept of left and right, for more than a century, was specifically designed to describe the space where democracies could operate between those two walls. Fascism is intrinsically of the right. To claim otherwise would certainly be a shock to actual fascists, who not only railed against the left, but did not hesitate to lock up their citizens for the crime of expressing socialist sympathies—when they didn’t simply kill them en masse.

But that’s also part of the goal of the fascism relocation project. It doesn’t mean to assert there’s nothing to fear on the right; it’s an invitation to a new dimension, one that takes the far right off the axis to place it above politics as usual. Once that’s done, everything is permissible, anything is excusable in the defense of moving the nation more toward that wonderful, always brighter, place on the right—even if it means tearing down the whole engine of democracy. 

Donald Trump is worried about going to jail if he loses. Yeah, ya think?

Posted on (Updated by Hunter

In a piece describing Donald Trump's incessant whining to his staff about election woes and his staff's continued efforts to gaslight him into thinking he's ahead in the polls rather than face another one of his screaming fits, the Trump whisperers at The New York Times bring us this tidbit from inside Trump's team: "In unguarded moments, Mr. Trump has for weeks told advisers that he expects to face intensifying scrutiny from prosecutors if he loses. He is concerned not only about existing investigations in New York, but the potential for new federal probes as well, according to people who have spoken with him."

Yeah. Ya think? Ya THINK?

There's all the investigations that Attorney General William Barr has personally squashed or slow-walked in an attempt to let Trump's various crime-doing loyalists off the hook. There's four years worth of press reporting on things in Trump's taxes that look, smell, and taste like fraud. There's the charges brought up in impeachment—which implicate a few of Trump's cabinet members in an international extortion scheme, and that’s not going to just go away if Trump slouches off toward Mar-a-Lago.

Unfortunately for Trump, even though he knows that keeping the presidency is the only way to hold back a tide of criminal investigations, he's still too scatterbrained and incompetent to mount a reelection bid not dependent on mass public delusion. Yeah, that stuff is going to come up just as soon as you lose presidential immunities. Golf clap for you, buddy, for figuring it out.

If Trump loses, and let us presume for a moment that he does, it seems almost certain that his close-of-office action will be blanket pardons to himself, his family, everyone he knows, and anyone who's ever cut him a check for eeeeeverything. That'll be what's on the pardon proclamation: "I pardon myself and these other people for absolutely all crimes, including all the stuff nobody found out about yet."

It might actually work, for federal crimes. The states? Not so much.

I still say there is a damn good chance Donald J. Trump becomes the first American president to flee prosecution and ask for foreign asylum. Air Force One could make it to Moscow without refueling, right? Honestly, we'd probably tell Putin to keep the plane while he's at it—we'd just be that thrilled to be rid of him.

Then again, there are other possibilities as well:

FWIW I’ve repeatedly heard a theory that Trump’s refusal to say he’d commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he lost is really a ploy to negotiate no future investigations/prosecutions of him and his businesses https://t.co/OX7NBLcxCZ

— Evan Siegfried (@evansiegfried) November 2, 2020

That seems literally too stupid a premise to believe, but this is Donald Trump we’re talking about. He is an accused rapist, tax cheat, pedophile, money launderer, and extortionist already; using the U.S. Army to hold the nation hostage for immunity negotiations isn’t quite out of the realm of possibilities for this fascist jackass.