Sunday Reads: The Republican Attack on democracy and the Constitution

Happy Sunday, Sky Dancers!

The Krampus parade rolled last night in my hood. I have a long list of those I’d like them to put in their baskets and carry off. Most of them will show up in this post of infamy today. I can’t even remember when I did a Sunday post, but here it is!

Enjoy the Krampus pix and think about which of my neighborhood Krampus I should send off to the Beltway. The guy with the red eyes is headed for Mar-a-Lago. The Former Guy’s speeches are getting truly horrifying and more demented than ever.

This is from the Washington Post. “Trump attempts to spin anti-democracy, authoritarian criticism against Biden. The former president declared his 2024 campaign as a ‘righteous crusade’ against ‘tyrants and villains.'” He gave his speech in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. His projection is prominent. If he blames someone else for doing it, it’s because he’s done it multiple times already.

Republican polling leader Donald Trump moved to deflect from criminal charges that he tried to overturn the 2020 election and from his own pledges to take revenge on his opponents if he returns to the White House, seeking to parry warnings that he presents a danger to democracy.

His speech on Saturdaywas an effort to turn the tables on rising alarms from Democrats and some Republicans that Trump’s return to power would imperil free elections and civil liberties. As candidates ramp up appearances in Iowa ahead of the caucuses on Jan. 15, the former president, who refused to accept his 2020 election loss and inspired his supporters to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power, responded by comparing President Biden to a fascist tyrant, and the campaign distributed signs reading ‘BIDEN ATTACKS DEMOCRACY.’

“Biden and his radical left allies like to pose as defenders of democracy,” Trump told a raucous crowd of a couple thousand supporters here. “But Joe Biden is not the defender of American democracy. Joe Biden is the destroyer of American democracy. … This campaign is a righteous crusade to liberate our republic from Biden and the criminals and the Biden administration.”

The speech showed that Biden’s framing of the 2024 election as democracy versus authoritarianism is resonating with voters, according to Jennifer Mercieca, a historian of American political rhetoric at Texas A&M University. Trump’s strategy to “accuse the accuser” could confuse voters about the real threat and help reassure his own supporters, she said.

“Trump’s Iowa speech continues his use of fascist rhetoric: it’s us versus them, he tells his supporters, and ‘they’ are enemies who cheat,” she said. “Authoritarians have a lot of rhetorical tricks for explaining away anti-democratic actions as actually ‘democratic.’”

The Daily Beast has this headline for the event. This is even more bizarre than his claim that the Democratic Party is coming for your dishwashers. He must be the only person that doesn’t know that dishwashers save energy and water. This is by Mark Alfred. He filed it under the category of ‘unhinged.’ “Trump (Accidentally) Has a Rare Moment of Truth at Iowa Rally. But it was fleeting, and then he was quickly back on his usual BS.”

Former President Donald Trump accidentally admitted what his critics have long accused him of at an Iowa rally on Saturday night, telling the crowd: “We’ve been waging an all-out war on American democracy.”

But just as quickly as he made the shocking remark, he corrected himself to say his “opponents” are the ones guilty of attacks on democracy.

Trump, throughout the rally, argued that he was on a “righteous crusade” in support of democracy while his team handed out “BIDEN ATTACKS DEMOCRACY” signs to rally-goers.

Trump, of course, faces dozens of charges for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and seize another term despite having lost the election, and on the eve of the rally, a federal judge ruled that he cannot rely on presidential immunity to shield him from prosecution.

He appeared as unhinged as ever during his speech in Cedar Rapids: Mocking the late Senator and veteran John McCain, vowing for the eighth year in a row to repeal Obamacare, and warning that the left is coming to take away voters’ dishwashers.

“Obamacare is a disaster and I say we’re going to do something about it,” Trump said—a promise he has made since 2015 and has yet to carry out.

“I saved Obamacare when we got John McCain’s negative vote, you know he voted against it. He said ‘uhhhhhh thumbs downnn.’ That was an amazing night,” Trump continued, making a crude impression of McCain, who was battling brain cancer at the time.

Biden has already sought to seize on Trump’s renewed vow to gut the landmark health-care law. “To those who want to repeal this lifesaving law, let me be clear: I won’t let it happen on my watch,” Biden said on Friday.

The Affordable Health Care Act is one of the most popular laws to come out of Congress in years. Good Luck with that endeavor, Orange Caligula! Here’s another way that Republicans are killing women and democracy at the same time. “The Dirty Tricks the GOP Is Using to Keep Abortion Off the Ballot in 2024. Republicans are getting killed on reproductive rights, and they’re taking desperate measures to prevent their constituents from having a say next year.” This is from The Rolling Stone.

TIFFANY CAMPBELL USED to describe herself as a “hardcore, church-going Republican.” That changed back in 2006, when she was still running an in-home daycare in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and learned she was pregnant with twins. The prognosis was dire: one twin’s heart was pumping blood for both of them and, without intervention, neither would survive. She has a healthy 16-year-old son today because she was able to obtain an abortion. After that experience, she threw herself into politics; today she is working full-time for the campaign to restore pre-Dobbs abortion protections in South Dakota.

If the South Dakota measure makes it to the ballot, it has a good shot at passing. Since the Supreme Court struck down Roe in June of 2022, the reproductive rights movement has gone seven for seven at the ballot box, defeating efforts to restrict abortion in states like Kansas, Kentucky, and Montana, and enshrining protections in swing states like Michigan and Ohio. It’s hardly a wonder why Republicans are emptying their bag of dirty tricks to make sure it doesn’t work: inventing astronomical “costs,” conspiring with anti-abortion groups to change the ballot language, and fighting to ban petition collectors from public spaces, among other strategies.

In South Dakota, anti-abortion activists, with assists from GOP officials, have tried out a variety of  tactics in recent months. Activists have been harassed, videotaped and repeatedly called the police on petition collectors, while local officials have sought to pass ordinances banning them from collecting signatures in public places. Most recently, the attorney general warned in a letter that he was in possession of “video and photographic evidence” that could allow opponents to challenge the signatures that have been collected so far.

“The organized opposition is more aggressive than I’ve encountered in any of these fights in the past,” says Adam Weiland, who has worked on various ballot measures in the state for years. “It’s the first time I’ve ever encountered people who don’t even want you to get on the ballot and let the voters vote. That’s the whole focus of their campaign.”

Liz Cheney continues to take on the Republican Party while promoting her new book. This is from Politico. “Liz Cheney would rather see Democrats win in 2024. She warned of the “threat” from within her own party.”

Former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney would rather cede power to Democrats than see members of her own party win in 2024, she said, calling a Republican majority a “threat,” and warning of an existential crisis leading up to next year’s election.

“I believe very strongly in those principles and ideals that have defined the Republican Party, but the Republican Party of today has made a choice and they haven’t chosen the Constitution, and so I do think it presents a threat if the Republicans are in the majority in January 2025,” the Wyoming Republican said during an interview with CBS, when asked whether she would prefer a Democratic majority in 2025.

The Independent reports this on the Georgia “fake electors” case. Kenneth Cheesebro is cooperating.

The state-level criminal investigation into the 2020 election “fake electors” plot in Nevada has secured the cooperation of a key witness — Kenneth Chesebro, the lawyer who orchestrated the scheme to overturn Joe Biden’s win in the state.

Both CNN and The Washington Post report that Mr Chesebro has agreed to meet with investigators in the state in a bid to avoid prosecution there.

He pleaded guilty to charges relating to the plot in Georgia and as part of that plea deal has agreed to cooperate with the prosecution in the sprawling racketeering case against former president Donald Trump and 14 other co-defendants.

Mr Chesebro also agreed to cooperate with any relevant cases in the future both inside and outside the state.

The fake elector plot was to put forward slates of alternate pro-Trump Electoral College voters in multiple states — Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and New Mexico — with Mr Chesebro spelling out in a series of memos what they should do to return Mr Trump to the White House and snatch the election from Mr Biden.

Mr Chesebro acknowledged in one of the memos that the strategy was “controversial” and even a conservative Supreme Court would likely reject it.

In Nevada, six Republicans signed false Electoral College votes in December 2020 for then-president Trump despite the state going for Mr Biden.

Several of the fake electors are still active in politics for the Republican Party causing internal tensions between those still loyal to Mr Trump, and those who believe there need to be repercussions for the attempt to subvert democracy.

You never need to look farther than Texas to see how absofuckinglutely crazy Republicans are these days. This is from the Texas Tribune.” Texas GOP executive committee rejects proposed ban on associating with Nazi sympathizers and Holocaust deniers. Some members of the committee said such a ban, proposed two months after a prominent conservative activist was caught meeting with a famous white supremacist, might be a “slippery slope” or too vague.”

Two months after a prominent conservative activist and fundraiser was caught hosting white supremacist Nick Fuentes, leaders of the Republican Party of Texas have voted against barring the party from associating with known Nazi sympathizers and Holocaust deniers.

In a 32-29 vote on Saturday, members of the Texas GOP’s executive committee stripped a pro-Israel resolution of a clause that would have included the ban.In a separate move that stunned some members, roughly half of the board also tried to prevent a record of their vote from being kept.

In rejecting the proposed ban, the executive committee’s majority delivered a serious blow to a faction of members that has called for the party to confront its ties to groups that have recently employed or associated with outspoken white supremacists and extremists.

In October, The Texas Tribune published photos of Fuentes, an avowed admirer of Adolf Hitler who has called for a “holy war” against Jews, entering and leaving the offices of Pale Horse Strategies, a consulting firm for far-right candidates and movements.

Pale Horse Strategies is owned by Jonathan Stickland, a former state representative and at the time the leader of a political action committee, Defend Texas Liberty, that two West Texas oil billionaires have used to fund right-wing movements, candidates and politicians in the state — including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Matt Rinaldi, chairman of the Texas GOP, was also seen entering the Pale Horse offices while Fuentes was inside for nearly 7 hours. He denied participating, however, saying he was visiting with someone else at the time and didn’t know Fuentes was there.

Defend Texas Liberty has not publicly commented on the scandal, save for a two-sentence statement condemning those who’ve tried to connect the PAC to Fuentes’ “incendiary” views. Nor has the group clarified Stickland’s current role at Defend Texas Liberty, which quietly updated its website in October to reflect that he is no longer its president. Tim Dunn, one of the two West Texas oil billionaires who primarily fund Defend Texas Liberty, confirmed the meeting between Fuentes and Stickland and called it a “serious blunder,” according to a statement from Patrick.

Well, a column about Republican nutballs wouldn’t be complete without Lady Lindsey, who has gone entirely off the leash since John McCain passed.

This is by Cobin Bolies, reporting for The Daily Beast. They watch the Republicans on Sunday Shows, so we don’t have to. “Lindsey Graham Dodges on Palestinian Civilian Deaths: ‘What’s Too Many?'” Just WTF does Trump have on this man? It must be career-ending.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on Sunday seemed to dismiss thousands of dead Palestinians as merely collateral damage in Israel’s war against Hamas, asserting that the Israeli government can do whatever it needs to win.

Appearing on CNN’s State of the Union, Graham was asked about the restarted fighting following the temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Graham urged the U.S. to put more pressure on Iran, a supporter of Hamas, before launching into a tirade against Vice President Kamala Harris’ declaration that too many Palestinian civilians have been killed.

“Here’s the big question: Vice President Harris has said, ‘Israel has a right to defend themselves. How you do it matters.’ The secretary of defense said it would be a strategic failure for Israel to have killed too many Palestinians,” Graham said. “I don’t want any Palestinian to die, but how do you do this? Vice President Harris, tell Israel how to destroy Hamas in a way not to hurt innocent Palestinians and I’ll pass it along.”

Graham said that Hamas allegedly embedding among civilian life in Gaza has dampened Israel’s ability to protect innocent lives. “The reason so many Palestinians are dying, I think, is because Hamas wants them to die,” Graham said. “If you have ideas about lessening civilian casualties, let me know, I’ll tell Israel. But the idea of Hamas still standing when this is over would be the ultimate strategic failure.”

CNN anchor Dana Bash further pressed Graham, asking him if he agreed with Harris and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin that too many Palestinians have died. The indignant senator demurred.

I’ve always been fiercely against Home Schooling, which is another Republican pet project. This story will trigger the heck out of you, so tread gently. It’s from the Washington Post. “What homeschooling hides: A boy tortured and starved by his stepmom. Roman Lopez was 11 when he went missing. His years of torment were concealed by homeschooling.”

NHis family had searched, taping hand-drawn “missing” posters to telephone poles and driving the streets calling out the 11-year-old’s name. So had many of his neighbors, their flashlights sweeping over the sidewalks as the winter darkness settled on the Sierra Nevada foothills. The police were searching, too, and now they had returned to the place where Roman had gone missing earlier that day: his family’s rented home in Placerville, Calif. Roman’s stepmother, Lindsay Piper, hesitated when officers showed up at her door the night of Jan. 11, 2020, asking to comb the house again. But she had told them that Roman liked to hide in odd places — even the clothes dryer — and agreed to let them in.

Brock Garvin, Roman’s 15-year-old stepbrother, was sitting in the dimly lit basement when police came downstairs shortly after 10:30 p.m. He ignored them, he said later, watching “Supernatural” on television as three officers began inspecting the black-and-yellow Home Depot storage bins stacked along the back wall.

Brock had no idea what had happened to Roman. But he did know something the police did not: Much of what his mother had said to them that day was a lie.

When she reported Roman’s disappearance, Piper told the police she was home schooling the eight kids in her household. This was technically true. It was also a ruse.

Most schools have teachers, principals, guidance counselors — professionals trained to recognize the unexplained bruises or erratic behaviors that may point to an abusive parent. Home education was an easy way to avoid the scrutiny of such people. That was the case for Piper, whose children were learning less from her about math and history than they were about violence, cruelty and neglect.

There’s something deeply wrong with us when one party in a two-party system is more interested in billionaires and power than the humanity and needs of their constituents. Like Liz says, Vote them out.

What is on your reading and blogging list today?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rbgp7TMDAM

Padded with power, here they come
International loan sharks backed by the guns
Of market-hungry military profiteers
Whose word is a swamp and whose brow is smeared
With the blood of the poor
Who rob life of its quality
Who render rage a necessity
By turning countries into labour camps
Modern slavers in drag as champions of freedom
Sinister, cynical instrument
Who makes the gun into a sacrament —
The only response to the deification
Of tyranny by so-called “developed” nations’
Idolatry of ideology
North, south, east, west
Kill the best and buy the rest
It’s just spend a buck to make a buck
You don’t really give a flying fuck
About the people in misery
IMF dirty MF
Takes away everything it can get
Always making certain that there’s one thing left
Keep them on the hook with insupportable debt
See the paid-off local bottom feeders
Passing themselves off as leaders
Kiss the ladies, shake hands with the fellows
Open for business like a cheap bordello
And they call it democracy
And they call it democracy
And they call it democracy
And they call it democracy
See the loaded eyes of the children too
Trying to make the best of it the way kids do
One day you’re going to rise from your habitual feast
To find yourself staring down the throat of the beast
They call the revolution
IMF dirty MF
Takes away everything it can get
Always making certain that there’s one thing left
Keep them on the hook with insupportable debt
And they call it democracy
And they call it democracy
And they call it democracy
And they call it democracy

by Bruce Cockburn