Mostly Monday Reads: Dangerous Don’s Dirty Dance of Theocratic Fascism
Posted: April 1, 2024 Filed under: Republican politics, U.S. Politics, Women's Rights | Tags: @repeat1968, “the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion”, Gas Lighting Trump Style, John Adams, John Buss, Louisiana threatens its librarians with jail, separation of church and state, Solemn Reverence by Randall Balmer., Trans Day of Visibility, Trump Bibles, Trump Media Stock 15 Comments
Good Day, Sky Dancers!
I wish the media would not confuse traditional conservatism with theocratic fascism. This country has had its share of offbeat religions doing offbeat things, starting with the so-called Pilgrims. There were so many forms of it in the colonial US that the first Continental Congress couldn’t even develop an opening prayer to please everyone. The March 2021 edition of Church and State published “A Word From John Adams: A 224-Year-Old Treaty Says The U.S. Was Not Founded As A Christian Nation.” It’s an excerpt from Solemn Reverence by Randall Balmer.
John Adams had considered entering the ministry before opting to study law. Educated at Harvard, he served in the Continental Congress, as ambassador to Britain, and as Washington’s vice president before his election as president in 1796. He served a single term, losing the 1800 election to Thomas Jefferson.
Though reared a Congregationalist, Adams became a Unitarian. He did not believe in the Trinity – the Christian doctrine, defined in the Nicene Creed, that God exists in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
“My religion you know is not exactly conformable to that of the greatest part of the Christian World,” Adams acknowledged in a letter to his wife, Abigail, in 1799. “It excludes superstition. But with all the superstition that attends it, I think the Christian the best that is or has been.”
Adams understood the value of religion. “I have attended public worship in all countries and with all sects and believe them all much better than no religion,” he wrote to Benjamin Rush, “though I have not thought myself obliged to believe all I heard.” The second president’s most candid remarks about faith appeared in a letter to his son, John Quincy Adams, in 1816, long after the elder Adams had left office. “An incarnate God ! ! ! An eternal, self-existent, omnipresent omniscient Author of this stupendous Universe, suffering on a Cross! ! ! My Soul starts with horror, at the Idea, and it has stupified [sic] the Christian World. It has been the Source of almost all the Corruptions of Christianity.”
Perhaps Adams’s most enduring contribution to the conversation about church and state in the United States is the Treaty of Tripoli, negotiated during the Washington administration but ratified during Adams’s presidency.
That treaty negotiation contains the most significant indicator of what the founding fathers intended, which eventually became embedded in the U.S. Constitution: the separation of church and state. Its first was written in that Treaty.
The Senate ratified the Treaty of Tripoli unanimously, without debate, on June 7, 1797.
The language of Article 11 is pretty clear – “the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion” – so anyone arguing that the United States is a Christian nation would need to explain away both Article 11 of the Treaty of Tripoli as well as the Senate’s unanimous ratification of the treaty. Clearly, those who constituted the government in the early years of the new nation – the executive and legislative branches – had no quarrel with the statement that the United States was not founded on Christianity.
The rebuttals of the Christian nation crowd are tortured, but they seem to rely on quoting the entirety of Article 11 (reproduced above in its entirety), not merely the opening phrase: “As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion . . .” Fair enough. Context is always important. It’s not clear to me, however, how the full article in any way changes the plain meaning of the phrase. The treaty makes the case that the United States has no “enmity” against Islam or Muslims. The treaty does not assert that the United States is a Christian nation; it states the opposite: “the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion.”
You may continue to read the excerpt of that book at the link. The book is still in print. You know me and my rabbit holes. You also know six of my direct ancestors ratified that Treaty. I feel like I have a lot of skin in this game. We all should have a lot of skin in this game. David Kurtz at Talking Points Memo has just published this. “The Easter Madness Of Donald J. Trump. INSIDE: Alvin Bragg … Wes Moore … Ammon Bundy.”
I trust that most of you were offline celebrating the holiday, warming to the Spring, welcoming baseball back, or watching college basketball. Congrats on missing another unhinged online weekend for Donald Trump.
Over the course of 70+ posts Easter morning, Trump vilified and attacked a wide range of his antagonists in ALL CAPS zeal. At the same time, he reposted articles declaring himself to be “The Chosen One.”
The contrast between the irreligious candidate embracing Christian nationalism and the lifelong Irish Catholic was, shall we say, striking:
It’s all so infantile and incredibly ridiculous that you can hardly be blamed for not wanting to be bothered about it over the weekend.
The New York Times’s Michael Bender wrote this today. “The Church of Trump: How He’s Infusing Christianity Into His Movement Ending many of his rallies with a churchlike ritual and casting his prosecutions as persecution, the former president is demanding — and receiving — new levels of devotion from Republicans.” I’m sorry, but watching all of this just makes me ill.
Mr. Trump has long defied conventional wisdom as an unlikely but irrefutable evangelical hero.
He has been married three times, has been repeatedly accused of sexual assault, has been convicted of business fraud and has never showed much interest in church services. Last week, days before Easter, he posted on his social media platform an infomercial-style video hawking a $60 Bible that comes with copies of some of the nation’s founding documents and the lyrics to Lee Greenwood’s song “God Bless the U.S.A.”
…
Mr. Trump’s braiding of politics and religion is hardly a new phenomenon. Christianity has long exerted a strong influence on American government, with most voters identifying as Christians even as the country grows more secular. According to Gallup, 68 percent of adults said they were Christian in 2022, down from 91 percent in 1948.
But as the former president tries to establish himself as the one, true Republican leader, religious overtones have pervaded his third presidential campaign.
Benevolently phrased fund-raising emails in his name promise unconditional love amid solicitations for contributions of as little as $5.
Even more than in his past campaigns, he is framing his 2024 bid as a fight for Christianity, telling a convention of Christian broadcasters that “just like in the battles of the past, we still need the hand of our Lord.”
On his social media platform in recent months, Mr. Trump has shared a courtroom-style sketch of himself sitting next to Jesus and a video that repeatedly proclaims, “God gave us Trump” to lead the country.
The apparent effectiveness of such tactics has made Mr. Trump the nation’s first major politician to successfully separate character from policy for religious voters, said John Fea, a history professor at Messiah University, an evangelical school in Pennsylvania.
“Trump has split the atom between character and policy,” Mr. Fea said. “He did it because he’s really the first one to listen to their grievances and take them seriously. Does he really care about evangelicals? I don’t know. But he’s built a message to appeal directly to them.”
I’m going to share Jennifer Ruben’s response to this with you.
The bigger problem is the Trump Snake Oil show has emboldened local theocratic fascists at all levels. Again, I dealt with them back in 1992 when the cry against anyone who wasn’t white and their brand of Christian was considered to be a multiculturist. They were as rabid back then as now against women’s Reproductive Rights and the GLBT community. I fled Nebraska for the safety of the French Quarter because of them. They’re insane. This is insane. This is from Piper Hutchinson, who is writing for the Louisiana Illuminator. “Ultra-conservative lawmakers target Louisiana libraries as culture war rages on.” This is radicalism. It’s theocratic fascism! The men who voted for that Treaty would be appalled; many were clergy.
With veto-proof majorities in both legislative chambers and the backing of a new governor, some Louisiana Republicans are taking aim at public libraries with legislation that could criminalize librarians.
Four conservative lawmakers have filed five bills that play off the library culture war currently raging across the nation, including in Louisiana.
Upset with what they view as sexually explicit materials in libraries and the “Marxist” American Library Association, far-right activists have filed thousands of book challenges in the past few years and pushed libraries to disaffiliate with the ALA. In Louisiana, public library oversight boards have mostly resisted calls to restrict book content, but some, including the State Library, have ended their ALA memberships.
The issue has captured the interest of Republicans in Louisiana, including Gov. Jeff Landry.
As attorney general, Landry set up a tip line to field complaints against libraries that he said failed to protect children from “early sexualization, as well as grooming, sex trafficking, and abuse.” Landry later drafted a “Protecting Innocence” report on libraries and supported legislation to restrict minors’ access to certain library materials.
Three bills filed could lead to criminal punishment for librarians.
House Bill 777 by Rep. Kellee Dickerson, R-Denham Springs, would prohibit any public employee from spending public funds with the American Library Association. Anyone who does would be subject to up to two years in prison or a fine of up to $1,000.
The bill would force public libraries, including parish and university libraries, to sever their memberships with the association and would prohibit libraries from sending their librarians to ALA conferences and other continuing education events.
Dickerson said in an interview she filed the bill because she wants money to be spent locally, rather than with a national organization.
The villainization of the American Library Association is something that perplexes most librarians.
“I’m not sure exactly what these people think go on at ALA conferences,” Suzanne Stauffer, an LSU library and information science professor said in an interview. “It’s workshops about how to better meet the needs of their community.”
“Frankly, the conferences are dull,” Stauffer added, laughing.
Michael Lunsford, a conservative activist who frequently targets the ALA, thinks otherwise. Lunsford, executive director of Citizens for a New Louisiana, a Lafayette-based advocacy group, has been on the frontlines of the library battle in Louisiana. He and his organization have been involved with attempts to restrict books before multiple parish library boards of control. The appointed volunteer boards oversee libraries and have the final say over what books are removed from the shelves
Lunsford described the American Library Association as a “Marxist” organization out to fundamentally change U.S. society.
“We’ve had an organization that comes out and says, ‘You have to have these erotic books in your children’s section or you’re a Nazi,’” Lunsford said.
Lunsford claimed he found a copy of “Let’s Talk About it” in the children’s section of the Lafayette Public Library. The graphic novel is a nonfiction young adult book that contains depictions of genitalia and descriptions of sex acts. The book is billed as a guide to coming of age, puberty, consent and sexuality and is targeted at readers 14 and older.
The books Lunsford and other ultra-conservative activists have targeted are primarily those with LGBTQ+ themes and those with sexual content are classified as young adult or adult books. Louisiana also recently adopted an extensive tiered card system that gives parents control over what types of books their children can check out.
Attendees at a Livingston Parish Library Board of Control meeting on July 19, 2022, show their opposition to a member who had submitted a list of books that she deemed inappropriate for children and young adult readers. Five of the books contained LGBTQ themes. (Piper Hutchinson/Louisiana Illuminator)
The weirdest temper tantrum this weekend is the conspiracy around the lunar calendar’s choice of Easter this year and the coincidence that it happened on Trans Day of Visibility. “Trending: Easter Controversy,” or: How little lies pave the way for the next big lie. No-News Weekend Internet is stupid-dangerous in the Trump era — as this weekend’s attack on the Transgender Day of Visibility shows.” This is from the Law Dork’s Chris Geidner.
This weekend’s gaslighting from the right around Easter falling on the same day as Transgender Day of Visibility is a stark sign of how empty the Republican Party has gotten — and how dangerous Donald Trump is, not only to transgender people, but to America.
If you, blessedly, have no idea what I am talking about, congratulations, you live a life free from what I think is best thought of as “No-News Weekend Internet.” In short, when nothing is happening, something must happen. It will always be stupid, but, in the past, sometimes that meant stupid-fun. Now, it means stupid-dangerous.
This time, it was two things. Easter moves around because it falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after March 21. Transgender Day of Visibility, which was founded in 2009, takes place on March 31.
This year, again, BECAUSE OF THE MOON, Easter is on March 31.
For a group of Republicans looking to demonize Joe Biden and transgender people, this was all that they needed to start a weekend of hate. Then, for kicks I guess, they added in an attack on the “new rules” for the White House children’s egg decorating contest — specifically, that submissions can’t be overtly religious — as a second anti-Christian thing that Biden has done despite the fact that the Biden administration didn’t change the rules.
It’s disgusting and done in extremely bad faith — but also dangerous.
Because of that danger, I’m going to go through what happened in detail and discuss why it’s so disturbing.
And, of course, the deplorable Caitlyn Jenner had to come join the gaslighting. This is from HuffPo. I really feel like I should drag out all the dumb jock jokes we used to tell in junior high school. It’s on that level.
Caitlyn Jenner, a trans woman, wrote on social media Saturday that she is “disgusted” Transgender Day of Visibility is on Easter this year. The annual event has been held on March 31 since its inception in 2009. Easter is a different date each year, however.
“I am absolutely disgusted that Joe Biden has declared the most Holy of Holy days – a self proclaimed devout Catholic – as Transgender Day of Visibility,” Jenner wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “The only thing you should be declaring on this day is ‘HE is Risen.’”
Tom Toles Editorial Cartoon
The last thing I will share with you is my absolute delight in having a new case study for my Graduate Students in Derivatives. This is from CNBC. “Trump Media plunges more than 20% after company reports net loss of $58 million in 2023.” So, the stock has a negative Price/Earnings ratio, which is incredible it even got listed in that situation. It’s the most shorted stock in history, which means people were paying a lot of money to bet it would crash. I’ve been carefully watching for a sign of a gamma squeeze. Also, its sponsor barely got out of serious hot water with the SEC before it could launch shares of JDT.
The share price of Trump Media fell sharply Monday morning after the social media app company closely tied to former president Donald Trump reported a net loss of $58.2 million on revenue of just $4.1 million in 2023.
Trump Media & Technology Group shares were trading down by more than 20% as of 12:30 p.m. ET.
Despite that plunge, the company’s market capitalization was still more than $6.8 billion after its 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission revealed the loss for last year.
Much of the net loss appears to come from $39.4 million in interest expense, according to the filing.
A spokesperson for the company did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the new filing.
The filing shows that in 2022, Trump Media had a net profit of $50.5 million and total revenue of only $1.47 million.
The company ended 2023 with just $2.7 million in cash on hand, the filing said.
The losses last year by Trump Media — the owner of the Truth Social app routinely used by the former president — could continue for some time, according to the company.
“TMTG expects to incur operating losses for the foreseeable future,” says the filing, which came a week after the company began trading under the ticker DJT on the Nasdaq.
The filing also warns shareholders that Trump’s involvement in the company could put it at greater risk than other social media companies.
TMTG also disclosed to regulators that the company had identified “material weaknesses in its internal control over financial reporting” when it prepared a previous financial statement for the first three quarters of 2023.
As of Monday, Trump Media said these “identified material weaknesses continue to exist.”
That’s what we in the business like to call the discipline of the market. You may follow those links if you want to get into the weeds.
What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
Finally Friday Reads: Right-Wing Media’s Ghoulish Conspiracy Fixations
Posted: March 29, 2024 Filed under: Foreign Affairs, just because, Republican politics, U.S. Economy, U.S. Politics | Tags: Chappy Lou Gossett Jr., Fox Racist Conspiracy Theories, Francis Scott Key Bridge accident, Rest in Power, Secretary Pete Buttigieg 4 Comments
Good Day, Sky Dancers!
I’m always astounded by the difference in coverage of national tragedies by traditional media and the new outlets created to make stupid people more stupid. This is the same media that schoolmarm us about how not to politicize mass shootings. The horrific collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore is a textbook example of news turned into hate speech and lies. This is from Forbes Magazine. The analysis was written by Janice Gassam Asare, an expert on DEI. “Baltimore Bridge Collapse Creates More DEI Attacks: How Allies Can Push Back.”
Amidst the horrific news of the bridge collapse, some chose to focus on Mayor Scott’s age and race and proceeded to blame DEI for the bridge collapse. Utah state Rep. Phil Lyman along with Florida congressional candidate Anthony Sabatini were among those blaming the incident on DEI. One X user tweeted that Mayor Scott was “Baltimore’s DEI mayor,” with that tweet garnering nearly 6,000 reposts at the time of this article, while another user tweeted that the mayor “looks like a teen.” The creator behind the Darkest Hue, a platform created as a safe space for dark-skinned Black girls, women, and femmes wrote in an Instagram post “It is becoming increasingly clear that DEI is being used as a dog whistle for Black people, as if to substitute racial slurs.”
DEI is a term that has become increasingly more polarizing. An acronym created to highlight the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion has been warped and distorted by DEI critics. The same way that terms like woke and critical race theory (CRT) have been hijacked, morphed, and mutilated, the term DEI is experiencing a similar fate. There is an increasing phenomenon where individuals who have very little understanding of DEI are critiquing its utility and effectiveness.
What follows is several points that include actual data debunking the right-wing screeds. This is the first point just for reference. You may learn more about it at the like to Forbes.
Those who understand the value of DEI and recognize how it can be a tool to fight against oppression and injustice can counteract the anti-DEI sentiment in a few ways.
1. Numbers don’t lie. One popular DEI myth is that it promotes the hiring of unqualified non-white job candidates. But what does the data say? Looking specifically at different industries will reveal prevalent racial disparities. If DEI was increasing the representation of non-white candidates, this would be reflected in the numbers but many industries, like the media and artificial intelligence, remain overwhelmingly white. The data will expose the anti-DEI myths for what they are, so those fighting DEI propaganda should lean on the data to combat DEI misinformation.
Arianna Coghill writes about the conspiracy theories adopted by the usual news outlets for lies and conspiracy theories at Mother Jones. “A List of Weird Stuff the Right Connected to the Baltimore Bridge Collapse.” Coghill compiled a short list of Twitter offerings showing responses from the usual suspects and Republicans running for high office. They’re ugly.
Aaron Rupar shows us “Matt Schlapp on Newsmax admits he’s “no expert” but tries to blame the Baltimore bridge collapse on “drug-addled” employees and covid lockdowns.”
In an interview with Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fl.), Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo appeared to suggest a “wide open” immigration policy at the border could be a factor here. Her rationale? The cargo ship had been flying under a Singaporean flag.
Over on Newsmax, Conservative Political Action Conference chairman Mike Schlapp invoked everything from “drug-addled employees” to Covid lockdowns while discussing the collapse. “We have to wake up as a country and realize that we have too many people who aren’t ready to do these jobs,” Schlapp, who conceded that he was not an expert on the situation, said.
Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg has even been accused of being an unqualified DEI hire. Secretary Buttigieg gave an interview to CNN’s Kaitlan Collins this morning and slammed the conspiracy theories and lies concerning the bridge’s collapse. This is from The Independent. “Pete Buttigieg slams conspiracy theories about Baltimore bridge collapse. ‘Unfortunately, it’s a fact of life in America today,’ Mr Buttigieg said about the prevalence of conspiracy theories.”
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins pointed out there have been “wild conspiracy theories” about what caused the disaster, ranging from a cyberattack, the captain having side effects from a Covid-19 vaccine, and blaming the Obamas.
She asked Mr Buttigieg whether he thought he would have to combat these conspiracy theories in the midst of a crisis?
“We’re in the business of dealing with roads and bridges and sometimes ships and trains,” he said. “So we are not in the habit as a Department of Transportation, of being in the business of dealing with conspiracies, or conspiracy theories or that kind of wild thinking. But unfortunately, it is a fact of life in America today.
“What’s really upsetting is when misinformation or disinformation circulates, that is not without victims.
“This is a human tragedy,” Mr Buttigieg said, adding that six men lost their lives.
While two workers were rescued from the immediate aftermath, six others went missing. They were all presumed dead after 17 hours of searching.
Two bodies were pulled from a submerged pickup truck the following morning, while four others have still not been found.
His department needs “good, factual information” into how that happened to make effective future decisions, like bridge design and shipping policies.
Policies based on “good, factual information” are not what the Republican Party is about these days, even though this is nothing new. The New Republic has this think piece by Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling. “The Insanely Racist Conspiracy Theory on Baltimore Key Bridge Collapse. Fox News is amplifying a racist conspiracy on the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse. Because of course it is.”
At about 1:40 a.m. EST on Tuesday, a 1,000-foot cargo ship careened past large concrete obstacles ahead of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, colliding with one of its structural pillars and toppling it into the Patapsco River. Mere hours later, conservatives were already hurling their racist conspiracy theories against the wall to see what sticks.
In an early morning broadcast, Fox Business attempted to tie the horrific situation—which was deemed a developing mass casualty event by the Baltimore City Fire Department—to the “wide-open border.” Via a clumsily worded, cross-wired question, Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo connected the catastrophic collapse to President Joe Biden’s immigration policy.
“Let me also get your take on what’s going on in terms of world affairs. The White House has issued a statement on this saying that ‘there’s no indication of nefarious intent in the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge,’” started Bartiromo. “The ship involved in the collapse of the bridge is 948 feet long, called The Dali, a Singaporean-flag container, but of course you’ve been talking a lot about the potential for wrongdoing or potential for foul play given the wide-open border. That is why you have been so adamant.”
Fortunately, we do have rational
people in the West Wing at the moment to deal with what may be a significant disruption to supply chains. This is from Heather Cox Richardson, writing in her Substack Letters from an American. Thank goodness we have adults in the Executive Branch today.
Yesterday the National Economic Council called a meeting of the Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force, which the Biden-Harris administration launched in 2021, to discuss the impact of the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge and the partial closure of the Port of Baltimore on regional and national supply chains. The task force draws members from the White House and the departments of Transportation, Commerce, Agriculture, Defense, Labor, Health and Human Services, Energy, and Homeland Security. It is focused on coordinating efforts to divert ships to other ports and to minimize impacts to employers and workers, making sure, for example, that dock workers stay on payrolls.
Today, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg convened a meeting of port, labor, and industry partners—ocean carriers, truckers, local business owners, unions, railroads, and so on—to mitigate disruption from the bridge collapse. Representatives came from 40 organizations including American Roll-on Roll-off Carrier; the Georgia Ports Authority; the International Longshoremen’s Association, the International Organization of Masters, Mates and Pilots; John Deere; Maersk; Mercedes-Benz North America Operations; Seabulk Tankers; Under Armour; and the World Shipping Council.
Today the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration announced it would make $60 million available immediately to be used as a down payment toward initial costs. Already, though, some Republicans are balking at the idea of using new federal money to rebuild the bridge, saying that lawmakers should simply take the money that has been appropriated for things like electric vehicles, or wait until insurance money comes in from the shipping companies.
One piece of really great news today. Orlando Mayorquin writes this in The New York Times. “Woman Who Received 5-Year Sentence in Voter Fraud Case Is Acquitted. A Texas appeals court reversed its earlier opinion that had upheld the conviction of Crystal Mason, who was found guilty of illegally casting a provisional ballot in 2016, even though she claimed she hadn’t known she was ineligible to vote. ”
In its decision to reverse her conviction and acquit her, the Second Court of Appeals said that the prosecution did not have enough evidence to prove that she knew.
A copy of the ruling was provided by the A.C.L.U. of Texas and the Texas Civil Rights Project.
“I was thrown into this fight for voting rights and will keep swinging to ensure no one else has to face what I’ve endured for over six years, a political ploy where minority voting rights are under attack,” Ms. Mason said in a statement Thursday. “I’ve cried and prayed every night for over six years straight that I would remain a free Black woman.”
Thomas Buser-Clancy, a lawyer with the A.C.L.U. of Texas who represented Ms. Mason, called her victory a win for democracy.
“We are relieved for Ms. Mason, who has waited for too long with uncertainty about whether she would be imprisoned and separated from her family for five years simply for trying to do her civic duty,” he said.
A Texas appeals court reversed its earlier opinion that had upheld the conviction of Crystal Mason, who was found guilty of illegally casting a provisional ballot in 2016, even though she claimed she hadn’t known she was ineligible to vote.
Today, we found out that one of Hollywood’s greats has passed. Lou Gossett has passed.
Louis Gossett Jr., the first Black man to win a supporting actor Oscar and an Emmy winner for his role in the seminal TV miniseries “Roots,” has died. He was 87.
Gossett’s first cousin Neal L. Gossett told The Associated Press that the actor died in Santa Monica, California. A statement from the family said Gossett died Friday morning. No cause of death was revealed.
Gossett’s cousin remembered a man who walked with Nelson Mandela and who also was a great joke teller, a relative who faced and fought racism with dignity and humor.
“Never mind the awards, never mind the glitz and glamor, the Rolls-Royces and the big houses in Malibu. It’s about the humanity of the people that he stood for,” his cousin said.
Rest in Power, Chappy.
What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
Mostly Monday Reads: More Court Room Drama
Posted: March 25, 2024 Filed under: Republican politics, U.S. Politics | Tags: @repeat1968, Final Draft Adrastos, John Buss, Ronna Retire!, The Ragin' racist misogynist Cajun, Trump Family Fraud Case, Trump Hush Money Case, Trump trials 11 Comments
“New York Attorney General Letitia James makes a statement.” John Buss, @repeat1968
Good Day, Sky Dancers!
Well, it’s another Monday, another Trump court appearance, and more drama. I’m wondering what all those TV court lawyers would do with all these cases! Trump has already tweeted that he’s like Jesus with a Psalm reference that predates the story of Jesus by about 600 years. I haven’t been a Christian for about 30 years, so please refresh my memory. Isn’t blasphemy a big deal? So, today’s courtroom drama is about the bond to be posted to secure the Trump family’s fraud verdict and the Hush Money. There’s just so much criming with these people that it’s hard to keep up. Anyway, the Jesus comparison came up during the Stormy Daniels case. The trolling on the social media platforms is epic.
He took to his social media platform to share a post an unidentified person sent him comparing him to Jesus in relation to his separate civil business fraud case, sharing the Bible verse, Psalm 109:3–8.
“Received this morning — Beautiful, thank you! ‘It’s ironic that Christ walked through His greatest persecution the very week they are trying to steal your property from you. But have you seen this verse…?'” he wrote.
Trump faced a Monday deadline to pay the $454 million fine or post bond in his business fraud case after Judge Arthur Engoron in February ordered him to pay $355 million after siding with New York Attorney General Letitia James in a civil suit. The payment shot up past $450 million with interest.
James accused Trump and top executives at the Trump Organization of conspiring to increase his net worth by billions of dollars on financial statements provided to banks and insurers to make deals and secure loans. Trump maintains that he did not engage in any wrongdoing, accusing James of targeting him for political purposes.
Trump received some good news from an appeals court on Monday, which reduced his bond to $175 million dollars, substantially lower than the $454 million bond ordered by Judge Engoron, and gave him 10 more days to pay those funds. Trump has not yet commented on the ruling.
He previously faced an end of the day deadline to pay the larger bond or James could have started seizing his properties and assets. The former president has been sharply critical of her handling of the case, on Monday releasing several statements on Truth Social accusing her of election interference.
Would you see this in a Perry Mason episode or a Matlock script? No crime writer would even dream up these storylines. David Cay Johnson wrote this today for The New Republic. “GAME OVER. Today Is the Day That 50 Years of Grifting Finally Comes to an End. Unless Donald Trump comes up with $454 million, he’s in deep doo-doo. But will his backers ever wake up to reality?” You’d think getting a break on this bond would hurt the brand more than the case itself. His big enterprise is unbondable!
Have you ever seen a millionaire begging for $5? Me neither. Yet I just watched Donald Trump in an internet video pleading for $5, or $10, or “even $25” from his supporters. That’s a pitch aimed at the people Trump says he loves, “the poorly educated,” who, after all, don’t have much money.
The supposed business genius with the Midas touch looked desperate—a better-dressed version of one of those troubled souls hanging out near traffic intersections hoping to cadge a dollar or two from people waiting for the light to turn green.
After more than 50 years of grifting, Trump has reached the end of his faux-gold brick road. Today, unless Trump somehow produces the cash to cover his bond, Letitia James, the elected New York State attorney general, is going to start grabbing up Trump properties like she landed on his Monopoly squares. That will constitute a kind of end, although Trump’s journey is never finished. He still enjoys solid support from malefactors of power who openly declare their intent to rend our Constitution and end our freedoms. Incredible as it seems, he still could move back into the White House.
Think of James as Dorothy, whose little dog Toto pulls back the curtain on the Wizard of Oz. There’s another cinema analogy that’s even more on point, which we’ll get to shortly. But with respect to Oz, the script from that delightful 1939 classic perfectly describes the con job Trump has pulled off for a half-century—until now. Millions of Americans—like the naïvely happy-go-lucky residents of the mythical Emerald City—believe he has godlike powers, so we should fear him and submit to his whims. “Do not arouse the arouse the wrath of the great Oz,” the magical image proclaims to Dorothy and her three friends amid smoke, lights, and loud noises.
Eventually, of course, Toto pulls back the curtain and reveals the traveling snake oil salesman from Kansas, who continues dissembling even when the fraud is uncovered. “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain,” he says, trying to cover his naked lies before admitting, yes, it’s true. “I’m a humbug,” he acknowledges, a pure fraud through and through.
Trump will never admit he’s a fraud. His mentor, the notorious lawyer Roy Cohn, taught him never to give an inch. When challenged by law enforcement or anyone else, Cohn taught Trump, attack them as corrupt, dishonest, and jealous enemies of an honest and successful man.
For nearly a month, Trump has been trying everywhere to get someone with deep enough pockets to cover the roughly half-billion dollars he needs to post to prevent the seizure of his bank accounts, real estate, and other assets to pay the judgment against him for persistent fraud.
Meanwhile, we have this Washington Post Live Coverage over the Trump N.Y. Hush money case.
New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan appeared deeply skeptical during a hearing Monday morning about claims by Donald Trump’s defense lawyers in his hush money criminal trial.
Trump’s lawyers said a late release of more than 100,000 pages of potential evidence should delay the case significantly, and they asked that the prosecutors be sanctioned. Merchan admonished Trump’s attorneys for making what he called very serious allegations and questioned why the defense did not seek the records from federal officials sooner.
A key question for Monday’s hearing is whether the judge will set a new trial date, after delaying jury selection until at least mid-April. The hearing stopped for a break shortly before 11:15 a.m. and is expected to resume around noon.
Trump’s physical and mental issues continue to attract the attention of professionals in the area. “Forensic psychiatrist on physical signs of Trump’s mental decline: “Changes in movement and gait” “His walk appears wide-based,” Dr. Elizabeth Zoffman notes of Trump. “He has developed a swing of his right leg.”” This article is in Salon, and the interview was conducted by Chauncy DeVega.
In an attempt to better understand what we are witnessing with Donald Trump’s behavior, I recently spoke with Dr. Elizabeth Zoffman, a forensic psychiatrist and an Associate Clinical Professor of Forensic and General Psychiatry at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Zoffmann shares her evidence-based preliminary conclusion that Donald Trump is displaying a range of behaviors that suggest cognitive challenges if not impairment. The former president appears to be suffering from Behavioral Variant Fronto-Temporal Dementia, Dr. Zoffmann concludes, and needs to be evaluated by neurologists who specialize in the condition.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity:
What do you see when you look at Donald Trump through a clinical lens?
My observations are garnered from viewing the phenomenon of Mr. Trump for the past decade. Also, observations from viewing old videotape interviews and coverage of Mr. Trump as a younger man form part of my impression that Mr. Trump might benefit from a thorough evaluation by a neuropsychiatrist with expertise in neurodegenerative disorders. My observations are as follows:
- Changes in speech patterns with many fewer and simpler words (decline in vocabulary) with fewer adjectives and adverbs.
- A decline in cognitive focus on speech subjects with incomplete sentences and an inability to focus on a topic long enough to complete a sentence when not reading from a teleprompter.
- Difficulty pronouncing words, word substitution and nonsense words – known as paraphasia
- Tangential thinking where the topic switches mid-sentence to some unrelated topic.
- Frequent repetition of words and phrases as if his mind is stuck in a loop.
- Disinhibition and an inability to control verbal outbursts.
- Socially inappropriate behavior – mocking a man with muscular dystrophy, disrespecting fallen soldiers as losers.
- Lack of self-awareness in that he apparently cannot see how inappropriate his behavior has become and use his judgment to stop himself.
- Changes in movement and gait. His walk appears wide-based and he has developed a swing of his right leg. He appears glued to the floor when he “dances” for his audience. If caught on camera standing still, he appears unnaturally immobile.
- The changes in judgment and impulse control have uncovered and perhaps worsened underlying personality traits that others have characterized as narcissistic and antisocial. The changes have led some experts to suggest a diagnosis of “malignant narcissism.”
Mr. Trump has stated that he passed a cognitive that he described in terms that suggested either the Mini-Mental Status Exam (MMSE) or the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MOCA) scale. These are both simple screening tests for suspicions of Alzheimer’s Disease.
Democratic Women in Louisiana are about troll James Carville just the way LSU evidently did when he quit his job. Mr Carville appears to have a woman problem. He wants them to shut up. Perhaps he should take it up with his wife, Mary Matalin. “James Carville ended LSU teaching gig after souring on campus culture, he tells New York Times.”
James Carville, the outspoken, ever-entertaining political consultant known for his love of New Orleans and his LSU Tigers, ended a teaching gig at his alma mater after souring on a campus culture that made him “scared to death in my job.”
The Ragin’ Cajun, who rose to fame as a top aide to President Bill Clinton during his 1992 campaign, told New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd that complaints from a student about an off-color joke in his class a few years ago earned him a visit from a dean — and prompted him to take it up a notch by reciting the famously raunchy “Aristocrats” joke.
The experience led him to step back from teaching, he said.
This was L.S. freaking U., not Oberlin,” Carville told the New York Times. “It was terrible. I wouldn’t take the coeds to dinner after class. I would take the male students. I was scared to death in my job. I was like: ‘I don’t need L.S.U.’s money. I don’t need to drive up there and listen to that crap.’ I just said: ‘That’s it. I’m done. This is not for me.’”
Moving forward to this week’s weirdness as reported at The Hill. “Carville: ‘Too many preachy females’ are ‘dominating the culture of the Democratic Party.‘ James Carville needs to STFU and sit his ass permanently in Mississipi. He hasn’t been relevant since 1992.
https://twitter.com/DarrigoMelanie/status/1772233615318937915
Democratic strategist James Carville argued “too many preachy females” in the Democratic Party could be to blame for President Biden’s bleeding support from key voters.
In an interview published Saturday with New York Times opinion columnist Maureen Dowd, Carville voiced concerns about the culture of the Democratic Party and how it could be impacting Biden’s support among voters, especially those that are male.
“A suspicion of mine is that there are too many preachy females … ‘Don’t drink beer, don’t watch football, don’t eat hamburgers, this is not good for you,’” he said. “The message is too feminine: ‘Everything you’re doing is destroying the planet. You’ve got to eat your peas.’”
Carville, who was a strategist for former President Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign, argued this culture and rhetoric is not addressing the concerns of male voters.
“If you listen to Democratic elites — NPR is my go-to place for that — the whole talk is about how women, and women of color, are going to decide this election. I’m like: ‘Well, 48 percent of the people that vote are males. Do you mind if they have some consideration?” Carville said.
When it comes to Biden’s low approval ratings, Carville quipped, “When I look at these polling numbers, it’s like walking in on your grandma naked. You can’t get the image out of your mind.”
Carville in recent weeks has also expressed concerns about Biden’s falling support among voters of color and called it a “problem” for the incumbent last week.
Like Carville, Ronna Romney McDaniel has that sweet gig with MSNBC/NBC. Maybe it’s time for the company to take a big brand hit. We were a Huntley Brinkley family when I was a kid, but this is ridiculous. She appeared on Meet the Press yesterday, and Kristen Welker and Chuck Todd apologized for the appearance. It’s an odd day when Chuck Todd is the stand-out guy.
This is Philip Bump’s analysis from today’s Washington Post. “Ronna McDaniel quickly demonstrates that her view isn’t worth the cost.”
There’s not a lot of value for journalists in interviewing an echo. Instead of standing inside a canyon trying to ask follow-up questions of the words bouncing off the walls around you, better to just go to the source.
Ronna McDaniel’s tenure as chair of the Republican Party unfolded in the Donald Trump era of American politics. She assumed the position a day before Trump was inaugurated in 2017 and remained there until Trump decided it was time for her to go. As the titular head of a party actually led by the former president, McDaniel’s Linda Yaccarino-like role was largely centered on having the party do the things it normally does and then appearing at news conferences to nod along with the things Trump was saying.
He’d shout; she’d echo. But last week NBC News decided it was worth paying her money to hear what she had to say.
McDaniel debuted her role as a contributor to the network on Sunday’s episode of “Meet the Press.” She tried to explain to host Kristen Welker that she did have a point of view that did extend beyond serving as Trump’s hypeman.
The article continues to cite example after example, ending with this thought.
(Among the social media posts identified as misinformation — unfairly, according to Jordan — was one from Newt Gingrich. It used the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision that signature-matching could be set aside to argue that “Pennsylvania democrats are methodically changing the rules so they can steal the election.” Untrue then, untrue now — and an obvious contributor to the false idea that the 2020 results should be considered suspect.)
Not only was Jordan’s interview recorded, allowing for corrections, he was treated as someone who could not be relied upon to offer unbiased information. He’s a politician, acting politically. McDaniel, in theory, is a private citizen free to speak her mind. But her debut on NBC News still resulted in familiar echoes of Trump. Viewers were presented with McDaniel doing what she has done for seven years, making Trump’s approach more palatable.
At one point, Welker asked McDaniel whether she’d facilitated Trump’s lies about the 2020 election. McDaniel claimed that her support for the nonsense that emerged in the wake of the election was simply her doing due diligence about the claims being elevated by Trump’s allies.
“So [from] where I was in 2020, and the quotes that are being taken from a very long time ago,” she said, “three and a half years ago, to where I am today, you’ve got to allow that process to play out.”
Less than a minute before, she had claimed that the results in Pennsylvania that year were dubious, which they weren’t. This is what NBC News is paying for.
This has been a challenging political environment for all of us. It does not help that all forms of media do not self-regulate themselves and question their role in our democracy. I can only hope the NBC family of companies and its stock takes a huge hit. For most of these businesses owned by billionaires, market discipline is the only thing that cleanses the rot. The justice system appears to have taken on the same stench of too much money and not enough justice. To watch yet another white man commit crime after crime and dodge it with the same ease as he did the draft back in the Vietnam War days is appalling.
Too many billionaires with only money on their minds own huge businesses, big politics, and the justice system these days. It’s time to make them pay. Pitchforks anyone? Guillotines?
What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
This is for my blogging buddy and RL friend Adrastos, whose wonderful cats have names from the show. Perry is cute. I miss Della Street and Paul Drake. My mother watched this show like a pious church lady going to church on Sunday.
Finally, Friday Reads: Texas blames its Victims
Posted: March 22, 2024 Filed under: Foreign Affairs, Republican politics, U.S. Politics | Tags: 18, 22, 26, 32, divided we'll fall, Gun Trafficking from Florida and Texas Gun Dealers, Texas hate laws, Together we'll stand, violence against women 8 Comments
Good Day, Sky Dancers!
It’s been hard to avoid Texas and Florida’s policy and political decisions these days. They’ve both taken a hard right turn and have elected officials who frequently create what is at the root of their biggest complaints. Chris Hayes sent me straight down the rabbit hole of Texas Gun Dealers and Smugglers when I first heard that Mexico was suing U.S. Gun Manufacturers. Russel L. Honoré woke me to the instances of gangs in Haiti and the breakdown of governance and its relationship to gun Smugglers from Florida. Both of the states are banning books, punishing women who require reproductive care, and terrorizing their LGBTQ communities. Both Texas and Florida have had instances of terrible mass shootings and have done nothing to address the root causes. They basically have no control over the explosion of the demand and access to automatic weapons. They appear indifferent that much of that demand comes from arms smugglers who constantly buy large amounts of guns and send them south.
No one needs a weapon of war. It’s a bigger version of the state of Vermont, whose lax gun laws have historically created a problem for its neighbors. Vermont has recently strengthened its laws and now stands as #18 for gun law strength. The biggest problem within Vermont was suicide by gun. They’ve now instituted a program and red-flag laws specifically tailored to address the issue. These statistics are from Everytown Research & Policy, which allows you to track many different public policies for your city and state. Texas is rated #32, while Florida is rated #22. Louisiana is #26. The South is plagued by a gun culture.
We don’t hear much about this, but the Biden-Harris DOJ has an initiative to stop the flow of guns out of the United States that are going to our neighbors in the South. Its primary focus is on the gun traffic to Mexico, which goes directly to the Cartels. Did you know that Mexican laws make it illegal to purchase or have a semiautomatic weapon? It’s our guns that are used to terrorize the locals and send them fleeing to us. It also gives these same folks money to purchase Fentynal to take care of the Opioid addicts in the US who use it in place of the OxyCotin they were given by their doctors who were told by Big Pharma Purdue that its pain drug wasn’t addictive. It is. It’s like the 21st Century Triangle Trade. (Read that link. It goes to UMass Law and a discussion of the company’s bankruptcy and how the Sackler family was shielded from liability.)
The Biden-Harris Administration continues to take significant and historic actions to disrupt the trafficking of illicit fentanyl and dismantle firearms trafficking networks. Drug traffickers’ supply of firearms enables them to grow their enterprises and move deadly drugs, including illicit fentanyl, into the United States. They use these weapons, which consist of everything from handguns to high caliber and assault weapons, against the Mexican people, including law enforcement and military personnel who try to stop their operations. That’s why discovering, disrupting, and dismantling firearms trafficking networks is critical to the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts to combat illicit fentanyl.
This is from the Arms Control Association. It’s written by Chad Lawhorm. “Mexican Lawsuit Against U.S. Gun Firms to Proceed.”
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit has revived Mexico’s $10 billion lawsuit against U.S. gun manufacturers, which previously was dismissed by a lower court.
Despite the broad immunity granted to gun-makers by the U.S. Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, the Boston-based appeals court unanimously found that Mexico’s lawsuit “plausibly alleges a type of claim that is statutorily exempt from the [act’s] general prohibition,” Reuters reported on Jan. 22.
Alejandro Celorio Alcántara, the lawyer leading the lawsuit for the Mexican government, told El País in an interview on Jan. 25 that the decision to revive the case was “historic.”
“Not only will we have the opportunity to present our evidence, we will be able to ask the defendant companies to share their evidence with us…. That’s the kind of information we’re going to get in litigation. It could be a gold mine,” he said.
The appeals court decision overturns a lower court’s 2022 dismissal, which found that foreign governments cannot sue under U.S. law. It marks a significant legal advancement for Mexico, supported by U.S. gun control advocates.
Mexico has argued that the actions of gun manufacturers have contributed directly to the violence within its national borders.
The lawsuit seeks financial damages and aims to hold these manufacturers accountable for their role in international arms trafficking and related harms, such as declining investment and economic activity in Mexico.
Other companies named in the suit are Beretta USA, Barrett Firearms Manufacturing, Colt’s Manufacturing Co., and Glock Inc. All have denied wrongdoing.
The U.S. law typically shields gun manufacturers from liability for the improper use of their products. The gun companies have argued that Mexico does not have legal standing to sue. (See ACT, September 2022.)
The lower court agreed with the immunity argument, ruling that the law prohibits legal action brought by foreign governments. The appeals court determined that the law was designed only to protect lawful firearms-related commerce and not the problem Mexico identified, namely, companies accused of aiding and abetting illegal gun sales by knowingly facilitating the trafficking of firearms into the country.
According to Celorio Alcántara, the gun-makers unsuccessfully attempted to distance themselves from the issue of gun trafficking by describing the scale and scope of supply chains and the number of individuals involved in those processes.
Mexico, on the other hand, focused on the U.S. law and why it did not apply. “We pointed out that [it] has no extraterritorial effect, that there is a direct violation of the machine gun export ban, and that the defendant companies violate state and federal laws,” Celorio Alcántara said.
The decision to revive the case could pave the way for other litigation against gun manufacturers on similar grounds, potentially affecting how firearms are marketed, distributed, and regulated within the United States and internationally.
“Other countries will surely be able to analyze whether this decision…gives them a window to sue, such as Jamaica, Canada, or other countries that are suffering from the same problem,” Celorio Alcántara said.
As the Mexican case proceeds, it likely will encounter more legal and political hurdles given the power of the gun lobby, contentious gun control debates in the United States, and intricate legal arguments surrounding the law.
Here is an academic publication on the topic. “Arms Trafficking Between the U.S. and Mexico. An examination of this complex issue — and why it often gets lost in the ongoing border debates.” As you can see, this is a typical ploy by the powerful men. Blame the victims at the border, but don’t blame the gun traffickers who are your neighbors.
The right to own a firearm is guaranteed in the constitutions of both the U.S. and Mexico, but the chances of a Mexican citizen legally obtaining a gun in Mexico are slim.
Gun laws in Mexico are highly restrictive–there is only one gun store from which Mexicans can buy firearms legally in the entire country. Meanwhile, the U.S. has the largest legal gun market in the world.
But many of the guns legally purchased in the U.S. do not stay in the U.S.
Over 2.5 million illicit American guns have crossed into Mexico over the last decade. Over that time, more than 215,000 people have been murdered in Mexico.
According to the Center for American Progress, the U.S. is the primary source of weapons used in violent crimes in Mexico. In 2018, more than 20,000 of the 30,000 intentional murders in Mexico were committed with firearms.
Most of the guns trafficked into Mexico are military and assault style rifles. For years, the Mexican government has urged the U.S. to reinstate the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, which made it “unlawful for a person to manufacture, transfer, or possess” a semi-automatic assault weapon. The law was adopted with a sunset clause and expired in 2004, even though the majority of Americans supported a ban at the time.
Today, 67% of Americans support a ban on military and assault-style weapons.
The semi-automatic, military style weapons that cross the U.S.-Mexico border, which were formerly banned under U.S. federal law, are now legal unless banned by state or local law. Arizona, for example, has not banned semi-automatic weapons, nor does the state require private sellers to initiate a background check when transferring a firearm.
More than 90% of Americans support background checks for all gun sales, yet a loophole in federal gun laws–known as the “private sale exemption” or “gun show loophole”–exempts unlicensed sellers from having to perform a background check before selling a firearm. This exemption helps legally purchased U.S. guns easily find their way into the hands of gun traffickers.
For some in Mexico, firearms trafficking is just another way to earn a living. Traffickers can purchase firearms in the U.S. and turn around to sell them in Mexico. They can get upwards of three times what they spent in Arizona at a gun show or through a private U.S. seller. Organized crime and drug trafficking operations take advantage of this supply chain and traffic both in bulk and little by little.
Between 2011 and 2016, over 70% of the 106,000 guns used in violent crimes in Mexico originated in the U.S. Those 160,000 guns represent a small fraction of the total number of weapons crossing the border from the U.S. into Mexico. In 2019, around 28,465 weapons, mostly handguns, were legally sold to Mexico. Yet, it is estimated that between 2010 and 2012, nearly 213,000 legally purchased firearms in the U.S. were illegally smuggled across the U.S.-Mexico border. These 213,000 firearms represented 2.2% of arms sales in the U.S. during that time, valued at around $200 million.
U.S.-sourced guns are not only contributing to lethal crime and political instability in Mexico, but also Central America. From 2014 to 2016, 49% of guns used in the commission of a crime seized in El Salvador, and 45% seized in Honduras, were originally purchased in the U.S. This supply chain leads to the displacement of Central Americans fleeing violence in their home countries.
A Black Transgender friend who moved from New Orleans, where she frequently performed in the Drag Cabaret where I provided music, sent out this missive from Houston last week. I want to share it with you. “Black trans woman gunned down in early-morning hours in southwest Houston. Diamond Brigman, 36, was transgender, which left some wondering if she was targeted when she was gunned down last weekend.” A friend of mine was chased off the street by a woman wielding a knife early this week. She also was one of the performers I worked with. State officials are complicit in these deaths.
On Tuesday night, friends gathered to mourn the death of a woman who was shot and killed over the weekend.
Diamond Brigman was transgender, which left some wondering if she was targeted.
She was only 36.
Brigman’s friends said her killing is a stark reminder of the violence that trans women, especially Black trans women, face. She was shot and killed while standing on the side of Country Creek Street in southwest Houston early Saturday morning.
A little after 1 a.m. that morning, Houston police said surveillance video showed a white Chevy Malibu circle the area several times before a man got out of the passenger side of the car and opened fire on Brigman.
“Shot numerous pistol rounds out of the car. And, of course, the result of that is this individual dead on the side of the road,” an investigator said at the scene.
The shooter was described as being about 5 feet, 5 inches tall. Police said the shooter and the driver ditched the car and ran. They still haven’t been found.
“She was larger than life she had a lot of energy and always smiling and personable,” Joelle Espeut said.
Espeut is a local trans advocate and a friend of Brigman. She said crimes like this shouldn’t be happening in 2024.
“The rate and level of violence that is inflicted on Black trans women is parallel to the violence that is inflicted upon Black cisgender women,” Espeut said.
She said the majority of the killers are the same, too.
“Both Black trans women and Black cisgender women are being killed and murdered through intimate partner violence,” Espeut said.
Diamond Brigman. Say her name. Violence against women continues to plague this country. “When Your Home State Also Becomes Your Abuser’ The leading cause of death for pregnant women is homicide, most often by an abusive partner with a gun. And Texas is forcing victims to stay pregnant while making it easier for abusers to get guns.” This is from HuffPo. It’s reported by Alanna Vagianos.
The leading cause of death among pregnant and postpartum women in the U.S. is homicide, most often by an abusive partner with a gun. Pregnant and postpartum women are more than twice as likely to be murdered than to die from sepsis, hypertensive disorders or hemorrhage.
Experts tell HuffPost other states with abortion bans are also seeing an increase in domestic violence, but Texas stands out for a few reasons. The state was the first to severely restrict abortion in 2021, forcing women to stay pregnant nearly a year before Roe fell and exposing domestic violence victims to more violence with fewer ways to escape. At the same time, the Lone Star state has the largest rate of gun sales in the country and continues to have lax firearm restrictions. The state is so firearm friendly that gun rights groups chose it as the testing ground for a Supreme Court case that will determine if domestic abusers get to keep their guns.
In the last decade, the amount of women shot and killed by an abuser has nearly doubled in Texas.
Ah, Texas! Such a Pro-life Haven!
The cruelty continues in the MAGAtrocity. “HOUSE REPUBLICANS WANT TO BAN UNIVERSAL FREE SCHOOL LUNCHES. The Republican Study Committee’s annual budget also calls to permanently defund UNRWA and eliminate the National Labor Relations Board.” This is from The Intercept and is written by Prem Thakker. It doesn’t get any more pro-life than starving children to death and letting women reach death’s door in nonviable pregnancies like the story told by this woman in the Arizona State Legislature. “A Democratic senator needs an abortion. She told her colleagues about Arizona’s ‘cruel’ laws. While Eva Burch spoke on the Senate floor about her planned abortion, almost all of her GOP colleagues found something else to do.”
This is also part of their budget plan to kill everyone that’s not enriching them. ” House Republican budget calls for raising the retirement age for Social Security. A budget by the Republican Study Committee, a group of more than 170 GOP lawmakers, highlights how many in the party would seek to govern if Republicans win in November. And of course, Louisiana’s new MAGAtrocity Governo has this on his agenda. “Under Jeff Landry, Louisiana Republicans target unions, workers’ comp, child labor law. The bills would limit collective bargaining, change how unions pay dues and raise the bar for workers’ compensation claims.”
Blame and punish the victim. It’s a Republican policy thing. These things wouldn’t even pass Richard Nixon’s muster. It’s a game to see how cruel we can be!
What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
Together we’ll stand, divided we’ll fall
Come on now people, let’s get on the ball and work together
Come on, come on let’s work together, now, now people
Because together we will stand, every boy, every girl, and a man
Before when things go wrong, as they sometimes will
And the road you travel, it stays all uphill
Let’s work together, come on, come on, let’s work together, ah
You know together we will stand, every boy, girl, woman, and a man
Oh well now, two or three minutes, two or three hours
What does it matter now, in this life of ours
Let’s work together, come on, come on
Let’s work together, now, now people
Because together we will stand, every boy, every woman, and a man
Oh, come on
Oh come on, let’s work together
Oh well now, make someone happy, make someone smile
Let’s all work together and make life worthwhile
Let’s work together, come on, come on
Let’s work together, now, now people
Because together we will stand, every boy, girl, woman, and a man
Ah, yeah
Well now, together we will stand, every boy, girl, woman, and a man
Ah, yeah
Songwriters: Wilbert Harrison
Let’s Work Together lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Monday Reads: #MAGAtrocity Edition
Posted: March 18, 2024 Filed under: just because | Tags: #MAGAtrocity, #MAGAtrocity at the State Level, @repeat1968, Donald Trump Fraud Case, John Buss, Trump and Violent Rhetoric, Trump No Surety Bond, TrumpIsBroke 6 Comments
“The Emperor has spoken, John Buss, @Repeat1968
Good Day, Sky Dancers!
The outrageous speech given by Trump in Dayton, Ohio, over the weekend, has grabbed the attention of the media. Despite Republican damage control, few believe that his use of the term “bloodbath” meant anything but calling the deplorables back to riot and insurgency if he doesn’t get his way. He has a lot of bad news this week, so be prepared for more rhetorical evil like this. Aaron Blake writes this at the Washington Post. “‘Bloodbath’ aside, Trump’s violent rhetoric is unambiguous. Trump has already warned of “riots,” “violence in the streets” and “death & destruction” if he’s wronged. All of that context is vital.”
In an interview with Donald Trump that aired over the weekend, Fox News host Howard Kurtz presented Trump with a not-exactly-novel theory: that Trump uses “over the top, sometimes inflammatory language” to draw attention.
Trump conceded that “if you don’t use certain words, that maybe are not very nice words, nothing will happen.”
The weekend provided ample evidence of that dynamic, particularly whenTrump invited yet another tempest with his violent rhetoric. This time, he warned of a “bloodbath” if he loses in November. Trump’s allies claim he’s being taken out of context and unfairly attacked.
To recap: Appearing at a rally in Ohio, Trump riffed on his proposal for a 100 percent tariff on Chinese-made cars to protect the U.S. auto industry.
“Now, if I don’t get elected,” he continued, “it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole — that’s going to be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country.”
Here’s what we can say: Trump might indeed have been speaking metaphorically in this case. But the broader context here is vital. And that context is that Trump has repeatedly invoked the prospect of actual violence by his supporters while speaking about similar circumstances — his losing or facing criminal accountability, for example. We also saw a pronounced example of his supporters seizing on his rhetoric when they stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Which makes it much more difficult to dismiss the “bloodbath” comment as overheated rhetoric. Trump is, at the very least, deliberately playing with fire. And this is merely the most recent example.
Trump backers and even some conservative Trump critics dismissed the comment as, more or less, standard-issue political rhetoric. Some suggested that Trump was merely talking about a “bloodbath” for the auto industry (even though he was clearly saying the “bloodbath” would extend beyond that industry).
I have no idea why anyone would give him any wiggle room on this unless they are scared of his rabid and well-armed idiots. We see more of his usual contempt for law and democracy in a new headline today in The Guardian. “Trump calls for Liz Cheney to be jailed for investigating him over Capitol attack. “Adam Gabbat reports the story.
Donald Trump has renewed calls for Liz Cheney – his most prominent Republican critic – to be jailed for her role in investigating his actions during the January 6 Capitol attack launched by his supporters in 2021, a move that is bound to raise further fears that the former president could persecute his political opponents if given another White House term.
In posts on Sunday on his Truth Social platform, Trump said other members of the congressional committee that investigated the Capitol attack – and concluded he had plotted to overturn his 2020 electoral defeat to Joe Biden – should be imprisoned.
Those statements followed Trump’s previous comments that he would act like a “dictator” on the first day of a second presidency if given one by voters.
Cheney, who served as vice-chair of the January 6 committee and was one of two Republicans on the panel, lost her seat in the House of Representatives to a Trump-backed challenger, Harriet Hageman, in 2022. She responded later on Sunday, saying her fellow Republican Trump was “afraid of the truth”.
Trump has been charged with four felonies in relation to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, including conspiracy to defraud the United States. The US supreme court is considering Trump’s claim that he has absolute immunity from prosecution in the case because he served as president from 2017 to 2021.
Elizabeth Crisp of The Hill reports on what one Trump primary challenger has faced recently. “Hutchinson says decision not to endorse Trump’ costly and difficult’.”
Hutchinson says in the piece that he voted for Trump twice, but that insight gleaned from former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wy.) and the Department of Justice on the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol changed his mind.
“In terms of history, we all witnessed the violent attack on our national Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, by those wishing to overturn the last election,” he writes. “This was not an act of patriots as Trump likes to say, but it was a real threat to democracy.”
Nearly 400 people have been charged with assaulting, resisting or impeding officers or employees during the riot, including more than 100 people who have been charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer.
“With Donald Trump’s domination of the GOP primaries and the elimination of all primary opponents, including the party leadership and Republican elected officials are clicking their heels in obedience to the victor and presumptive nominee. I have not endorsed Donald Trump for president, and I will not do so,” he writes.
I know what friends in other countries are saying about us and Trump’s befuddled lies and ugliness. They can’t believe we would let this happen, and I can’t either. Another headline in today’s Washington Post lets us know that we cannot ignore the Trump push to replace democracy with a MAGAtrocity. “Pro-Trump disruptions in Arizona county elevate fears for the 2024 vote. A meeting in the state’s largest county, Maricopa, ended chaotically last month, raising concern that the former president’s supporters could try to undercut the election.” They’re trying to make our elections mirror those of Putin.
As the board of supervisors for Arizona’s largest county abruptly ended a meeting late last month, a swarm of people rushed toward the dais, shouting that the members were illegitimate.
The Maricopa County leaders made a beeline for a side door and were swiftly escorted out of the chamber by security guards, who called for backup from the sheriff’s office. After the meeting’s live-feed went dead, a member of the crowd yelled that a “revolution” was underway.
“I’m here today to put you on public notice and to inform you that you are not our elected officials,” said Michelle Klann, co-founder of a pro-Trump group, from a podium she had commandeered. “This is an act of insurrection. Due to all the voter fraud, you have never been formally voted in.”
The scene at the Feb. 28 meeting terrified many Maricopa employees and others who were reminded of what happened after Joe Biden won the county — and, with it, Arizona — in the 2020 presidential race. Back then,Trump supporters used baseless fraud claims to try to pressure or scare elected leaders into changing the results for the metro Phoenix county, which is home to more than half of Arizona’s residents.
Louisiana has become the latest state to be taken over by White Christian Fascists. Big John Stanton writes about the latest shady moves through special sessions that throw our state back into the Dark Ages. “One Landry to Bind Them All: Under the watchful eye of Gov. Jeff Landry, Republicans push a regressive legislative agenda.”
The regular session of the state legislature has only just begun, but Republicans have already notched scores of key legislative victories thanks to two special sessions and a series of executive orders remaking the state government in Gov. Jeff Landry’s image.
The breakneck pace at which Republicans have dismantled the modest criminal justice reforms of the past decade has been nothing short of breathtaking. In less than two weeks last month, they not only undid decades of hard work to modernize the state’s justice system but instituted new punitive policies, including eliminating parole and authorizing new, inhumane forms of capital punishment.
And they’re not done. Lawmakers are proposing a number of additional criminal justice bills increasing prison sentences for some convictions to legalizing vehicular homicides under certain circumstances.
But those changes during the second special session are likely only the beginning of a broad push to impose a host of often cruel conservative policy positions. Lawmakers in the House and Senate are once again targeting the LGBTQ community — particularly transgender and gender nonconforming people — with a series of bills legislating their very identities.
Republicans and business interests also are gunning for what remains of Louisiana’s already weak labor protections, ranging from eliminating key child labor rules to banning public sector unions.
The rights of young people are also under assault in a host of areas, including proposals to require the Ten Commandments be posted in public schools, ban their ability to freely use social media, limit the types of books they can find in libraries and further restrict their ability to make health care decisions.
Even bar owners find themselves in the GOP’s sights this year, with bills to raise the age of bartenders, make concealed carry legal in their establishments and even put them on the hook for liability if someone underage is served and is involved in a DUI.
His latest move on education is frightening. It adds to the data that we live in a police state here.
States that adopt the MAGAtrocity agenda move back to the Dark Ages Quickly.
Our state and city have been hemorrhaging the population since 2015. Most of this is due to the anti-Economic growth policies of Republicans and their absolute denial of the impact of climate change while subsidizing the oil and gas industry.
What she’s saying: “Our recent policies are not supporting population gain,” Data Center chief demographer Allison Plyer told NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune.
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At issue is a confluence of short- and long-term factors, like affordability, education opportunities, hurricanes and health outcomes.
Will this movement continue even after Trump has left the building? His lawsuits are mostly delayed, but the impact becomes obvious, starting with the total takeover of the RNC. This headline from NBC News is an omen of things to come. “Trump has been unable to get bond for $464 million judgment, his lawyers say. In a filing to an appeals court, Trump’s attorneys said getting the bond needed to halt proceedings while they appeal is a “practical impossibility.” I guess everyone believes that the value of his assets is incredibly inflated and illiquid.
Former President Donald Trump has not been able to get a bond to secure the $464 million civil fraud judgment against him, his lawyers said in a court filing Monday.
Trump and his company need to post a bond for the full amount by next week in order to stop New York Attorney General Letitia James from being able to collect while he appeals. They’ve asked an appeals court to step in in the meantime and said Monday that they have not had any success getting a bond.
“Defendants’ ongoing diligent efforts have proven that a bond in the judgment’s full amount is ‘a practical impossibility,'” the filing said. “These diligent efforts have included approaching about 30 surety companies through 4 separate brokers.”
Their efforts, including “countless hours negotiating with one of the largest insurance companies in the world,” have proven that “obtaining an appeal bond in the full amount” of the judgment “is not possible under the circumstances presented,” the filing said.
The other bond companies will not “accept hard assets such as real estate as collateral,” but “will only accept cash or cash equivalents (such as marketable securities),” the filing said. The lawyers also noted those companies typically “require collateral of approximately 120% of the amount of the judgment” — which would total about $557 million.
“In addition, sureties would likely charge bond premiums of approximately 2 percent per year with two years in advance—an upfront cost over $18 million,” the filing said. That $18 million would not be recoverable even if Trump wins his appeal.
Karma is a bitch, Don the Con! #TrumpIsBroke is trending on X. Susan B Glasser continues her narrative on how to cover this pariah of a politician in a system and media set-up that just doesn’t seem to get it. “Susan Glasser Slams ABC Panel: Take Trump’s Words As Fact. The New Yorker reporter reminded her panel members that Trump is “peddling an alternate reality vision of America that is built on lies.” I wrote about her article on Monday. This is from Crooks & Liars.
Susan Glasser wrote a comprehensive article in the New Yorker highlighting the Traitor Trump’s reworking and rebuilding a whole new edifice of lies for 2024.
Glasser joined ABC’s This Week and, during a panel discussion, laid out the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about Trump’s words and lies.
“Yes. I mean, look, Donald Trump, it seems to me, it’s very hard, eight years into this, we still struggle with how to cover him as journalists. But in a way, the unhinged, rambling rants that you see from the former president of United States are baked in. And I think in a way, we are all desensitized and endured to the extraordinarily remarkable and very at times un-American and threatening things that the former president is saying.
I’m not saying it’s easy to understand how to cover it. I think we have to cover it when the former president, who’s already incited violence among his followers, says that there’s going to be a bloodbath. What? After the election, if he does not win, he is telling us what he is going to do.”
Too many journalists and his right-wing allies ignore Trump’s violent rhetoric and Hitler-like catcalls and instead sugarcoat and re-imagine what he’s actually saying.
After two other talking heads downplayed Trump’s behavior, and tried to pretend “we don’t know what a second Trump administration will be like,” Glasser came back with even more fire in her belly.
“I’m sorry, I just have to say something. Like Donald Trump is attacking, in a broad-brush sense, the basic pillars of American democracy, period, full stop. If that’s not news to you. It’s not about tariffs. That’s not the reason why millions of Americans are supporting Donald Trump. Let’s be real about that. You have a Republican congressman who came on here today, and he can’t even condemn in forthright, straightforward, honest terms, that ransacking of the United States Capitol by thousands of Trump supporters.
He says, well, you know, maybe there’s some problems with that. Donald Trump opens his campaign rally, Sarah, by saying, these are martyrs. These are victims. These are heroes. His whole campaign now is being built around an alternate reality, by the way, constructed on an enormous number of lie after lie after lie. That’s what he’s peddling to the American people. Not tariff policy. He’s peddling an alternate reality vision of America that is built on lies.”
No one should sit this election out. No one should make up excuses for what’s going on or shake off the danger. I left the Republican Party 30 years ago because it left me and it left well-researched effective policies in the trash heap. Liz Cheney is the only one who makes sense these days and look what is happening to her. My sister bailed in 2015 and did what I did then. Register as an independent if you have to and vote like your entire life depends on it because it does. Also, purity progressives need to drop the whining and suck up and vote like adults. We’re all in this. Not one of us will have an input into policy decisions if Trump gets back in. He didn’t casually mention detention camps; they’re suitable for many more people than you’d like to think.
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peej
Carissa
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Mama Lopez
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quixote
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Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
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