Vote Like Your Country Depends On It, Con't

The inestimable Will Bunch lays out the dark future ahead unless Democratic voters get the hell over themselves and vote in 2022.

Despite the polls and the ugliness this past week on the House floor, most punditry and many political junkies remain more fixated on 2024 — the return of Trump to the main stage, or questions over Biden running again — than the political crisis that seems likely to come before it. If the Democrats aim to pull off a “do you believe in miracles? ... yes!” comeback in the midterm elections, there are a couple of things that need to happen. The first is to make clear to an electorate that gave Biden a 7-million vote margin in 2020 what the consequences of GOP rule in Congress will be ... such as:

— A Biden impeachment. The most extreme Republicans on Capital Hill have been champing at the bit to hold Biden impeachment hearings. In fact, four GOP House members filed lost-cause impeachment articles against the 46th president back in September, citing a hodgepodge of supposed causes such as the temporary chaos in Afghanistan, last spring’s surge in migrants at the border, and his handling of the then-eviction moratorium. Given the party’s Trump-inspired push for tit-for-tat revenge against Democrats, it’s not hard to picture a 2023 effort to put Biden on a par with POTUS 45, who was impeached twice for the Ukraine scandal and the January 6 insurrection.

— The end of accountability for January 6 and Trump’s failed coup. Within weeks of arguably the most dangerous day for American democracy since the end of the Civil War, the overwhelming majority of GOPers on Capitol Hill made clear their belief that any investigations into the causes and the leaders of the insurrection are a partisan witch hunt over what they now insist was over-caffeinated Capitol rotunda “tourism.” Any lingering threads from the current House probe will be left hanging, and it’s possible that Attorney General Merrick Garland would himself be impeached if he attempted to criminally charge Trump or other ring leaders.

— A revenge-obsessed 118th Congress that will spend most of its time on Benghazi-style hearings aimed to embarrass members of the Biden administration as well as the president and vice president, and on efforts to censure the left-wing members of the so-called Squad that includes Ocasio-Cortez and lightning-rod allies like Rep. Ilhan Omar, and to remove them from committees as happened with Gosar and GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Any issue-related bills from a McCarthy-led House would likely ignore the economy or other critical issues, in favor of banning abortion and the teaching of “critical race theory.”

There are number of reasons to fear this scenario and yet also feel a bit baffled. Any GOP “wave election” in 2022 would be driven by independent swing voters who are said to be disappointed that Biden hasn’t done more to stop inflation or end the COVID-19 crisis, yet there’s no Republican agenda for dealing with these, or any of the other actual problems facing America. Of course, GOP candidates like Virginia governor-elect Glenn Youngkin succeeded not with ideas but by whipping up cultural resentments.

Democrats are being politically naive (not exactly a new phenomenon) in thinking that a strong package of spending bills — on infrastructure and probably to expand pre-K and extend child tax credits — or that even rosy predictions from no less than Goldman Sachs of record-low unemployment in 2022 will change the dynamic. They need to remember that Biden won last year not so much on his economic promises but by framing the election to Trump-exhausted voters as “a battle for the soul of America.”

So far, 2021 has only showed that winning a key battle did not end this war. If anything, what Republicans are willing to do with Trump out of power could ultimately prove an even greater threat to democracy than actually having the authoritarian-yet-inept Trump in the White House. Democrats need to begin sounding this alarm today — that voters who turned out in near-record numbers in 2020 to defeat the culture of Trumpism need to defy history and show up next November, to prevent something even worse. Yes, today’s electorate is tired of chaos, but they should wait until 2023 — because they ain’t seen nothing yet.

 

Let's take a look at what a GOP-controlled America would look like, starting in Wisconsin.

Republicans in Wisconsin are engaged in an all-out assault on the state’s election system, building off their attempts to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential race by pressing to give themselves full control over voting in the state.

The Republican effort — broader and more forceful than that in any other state where allies of former President Donald J. Trump are trying to overhaul elections — takes direct aim at the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission, an agency Republicans created half a decade ago that has been under attack since the chaotic aftermath of last year’s election.

The onslaught picked up late last month after a long-awaited report on the 2020 results that was ordered by Republican state legislators found no evidence of fraud but made dozens of suggestions for the election commission and the G.O.P.-led Legislature, fueling Republican demands for more control of elections.

Then the Trump-aligned sheriff of Racine County, the state’s fifth most populous county, recommended felony charges against five of the six members of the election commission for guidance they had given to municipal clerks early in the pandemic. The Republican majority leader of the State Senate later seemed to give a green light to that proposal, saying that “prosecutors around the state” should determine whether to bring charges.

And last week, Senator Ron Johnson, a Republican, said that G.O.P. state lawmakers should unilaterally assert control of federal elections, claiming that they had the authority to do so even if Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, stood in their way — an extraordinary legal argument debunked by a 1932 Supreme Court decision and a 1964 ruling from the Wisconsin Supreme Court. His suggestion was nonetheless echoed by Michael Gableman, a conservative former State Supreme Court justice who is conducting the Legislature’s election inquiry.

Republican control of Wisconsin elections is necessary, Mr. Johnson said in an interview on Wednesday, because he believes Democrats cheat.

“Do I expect Democrats to follow the rules?” said the senator, who over the past year has promoted fringe theories on topics like the Capitol riot and Covid vaccines. “Unfortunately, I probably don’t expect them to follow the rules. And other people don’t either, and that’s the problem.”

The uproar over election administration in Wisconsin — where the last two presidential contests have been decided by fewer than 23,000 votes each — is heightened by the state’s deep divisions and its pivotal place in American politics.

Some top Republican officials in Wisconsin privately acknowledge that their colleagues are playing to the party’s base by calling for state election officials to be charged with felonies or for their authority to be usurped by lawmakers.

Adding to the uncertainty, Mr. Johnson’s proposal has not yet been written into legislation in Madison. Mr. Evers has vowed to stop it.

“The outrageous statements and ideas Wisconsin Republicans have embraced aren’t about making our elections stronger, they’re about making it more difficult for people to participate in the democratic process,” Mr. Evers said Thursday. The G.O.P.’s election proposals, he added, “are nothing more than a partisan power grab.”

Yet there is no guarantee that the Republican push will fall short legally or politically. The party’s lawmakers in other states have made similar moves to gain more control over election apparatus. And since the G.O.P. won control of the Wisconsin Legislature in 2010, the state has served as an incubator for conservative ideas exported to other places.

“In Wisconsin we’re heading toward a showdown over the meaning of the clause that says state legislatures should set the time, manner and place of elections,” said Kevin J. Kennedy, who spent 34 years as Wisconsin’s chief election officer before Republicans eliminated his agency and replaced it with the elections commission in 2016. “If not in Wisconsin, in some other state they’re going to push this and try to get a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on this.”

 

Again, some brutal Supreme Court decisions are going to make it very clear next summer what will happen if the GOP gets back in power. I don't care if the Democrats disappointed you. Hell, they disappoint me daily.

But I will be damned if I give this country back to those Republican assholes. 

Vote, America.

StupidiNews: Rittenhouse Acquitted

After 4 days of deliberations, the jury in the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse has acquitted him on all charges stemming from killing two and injuring a third in Kenosha, Wisconsin last year during unrest over Black Lives Matter.

Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager who killed two people and shot another during unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, was acquitted Friday of first-degree intentional homicide and four other felony charges. 

Rittenhouse, wearing a dark jacket with a burgundy tie and shirt, stood behind the defense table as each not guilty verdict was read. He tried to hold back tears, then sobbed and appeared to collapse forward on the table, where he was held by one of his lawyers. 

The panel of five men and seven women deliberated more than 25 hours over the past four days in a closely watched case that polarized an already divided nation. 

They had asked the court a handful of questions, including requests Wednesday to rewatch much of the video evidence of the shootings. In the end, the panel agreed with the defendant's testimony that he feared for his life and acted in self-defense. 

The judge praised the jury, saying he "couldn't have asked for a better jury." 

After the verdict was announced, lead prosecutor Thomas Binger told the court, "The jury has represented our community in this trial and has spoken."

 

I will say that quite frankly, "stand your ground" laws like this were designed to produce not guilty verdicts when the killer is white, and the victims are non-white or allies of those who are non-white. Rittenhouse went to Kenosha that night with the intent to use deadly force at his discretion, and the law allowed him to do so. 

Working as intended for him.

For the rest of us, it's always been open season on taking our lives at a moment's notice. I am Black in America and I only continue to draw breath as a living being because a cop or armed white person hasn't decided to take my life yet.

 

All of us Black and brown folk live with this reality daily, and hey, other white folk who side with us can now be killed with impunity too.

Remember that.

Stay safe.

Ridin' With Biden, Con't

Americans are convinced that the economy is in the dumpster and on fire, even though it's far better than this time a year ago, and they are Very Angry At Daddy Biden™ for not fixing it faster.

Reeling from Republican wins in elections earlier this month, Democrats are pounding the pavement ahead of next year's midterm elections.

But President Joe Biden's success passing the bipartisan infrastructure bill is bumping up against the facts that the country's inflation rate has reached a 30-year high and Americans increasingly feel the economy is in trouble.

A new ABC News / Washington Post poll found that 70% say the economy is in bad shape, a 12-point increase since last spring. More than half of those polled -- 55% -- disapprove of Biden's handling of the economy while 39% say they approve. But that approval number has plummeted six points since September and 13 points since the spring.

While only 50% blame Biden directly for inflation -- which has now reached a 6.2% increase compared with the same period last year, 3% of Democrats say the economy is excellent, 47% say it's good, 35% say it's not so good and 14% say it's poor.

In a series of ABC News follow-up interviews with poll respondents who were Biden voters but expressed disappointment with the state of the economy, people expressed a range of views about what they think went wrong and who is to blame.

Judith Steele, a registered Democrat from California, told ABC News she feels the Biden administration did a bad job in preparing for economic woes faced by certain Americans.

"His administration has been behind the curve in anticipating how bad this was going to get for lower- and middle-class families -- that they tend to take a 'wait and see approach,' or, 'this is going to pass,' and then it's too late," Steele, who plans to switch her party affiliation from Democrat to Independent, said in an interview.

Steele assigns some of the blame for the poorly-performing economy to legislative squabbles in Congress.

"They should have gotten the infrastructure bill done months ago. They had the votes to do it. But they had to push. I do like the second bill, but they should have gotten the first one passed and signed, and started putting people back to work at decent union jobs," she said. "I don't know what they're ever going to get done with this. And they're always consumed with investigations and committee work and not getting anything done."

Although Biden's overall approval rating reached a new low (41%) in a new ABC/ Washington Post poll, his legislative plans have majority approval among respondents, with 63% support for the $1 trillion infrastructure bill passed by Congress and 58% support for the now nearly $2 trillion social spending bill still under debate.

 

So Biden signs bill into law that has the programs and policies you wanted, your response is "Screw the Democrats, I'm an independent now!" 

Sadly, assholes like Ms. Steele here vote too. Not going to matter much in California, but there you are.

But in other states, Biden is being openly trolled by Republicans who have a higher approval rating than he does, and they're having fun doing it.

 

Florida’s special legislative session can be summed up in one phrase: What Gov. Ron DeSantis wants, he gets.

DeSantis called the special session in October to fight the Biden administration’s coronavirus vaccine mandates and after just three days the Florida House and Senate approved four bills that undermine President Joe Biden’s vaccine push.

DeSantis never made an appearance during the special legislative session in Tallahassee but used his huge political sway over the Republican-dominated Legislature to get his bills passed.

One measure gives workers exemptions if they don’t want to get the shot and includes a provision fining small businesses $10,000 and larger companies $50,000 for firing workers who don’t want the vaccine.

“The governor can do anything he wants to do,” state Rep. Ardian Zika (R-Land O’ Lakes) said this week. He spoke on the House floor while Democrats grilled him over a measure giving the governor $1 million to study the state withdrawing from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which wrote the Biden administration’s plan to mandate vaccines for large businesses.

Lawmakers also approved a bill barring the state surgeon general from mandating vaccines during a health emergency and another that keeps hidden from the public complaints filed by employees who weren’t given vaccine exemptions.

DeSantis, though, never commented on the process or publicly stepped foot in the Capitol. The governor is widely popular with Republicans across the country and has an increasingly large platform as he prepares for reelection and a potential 2024 White House bid. As a result, Republicans in the state Legislature both do not want to cross DeSantis for fear it could hurt their own political futures, but also don’t want to do anything to sap momentum from his political ascent.

“Ultimately this is about power, right?” said state Rep. Fentrice Driskell (D-Tampa). “This entire special session was a power play on the governor, so it does not behoove the legislative leadership, who seems to be in lockstep with this governor, to speak out in a way that would be contrary to him.”

It was a common line of attack from Democrats who were outnumbered and could do very little to slow passage of the bills. Democrats also noted that the Republican-led Legislature previously would fight GOP governors’ legislative priorities, including during the tenure of former Gov. Rick Scott.

“I’ve seen this room where the governor calls for something and we bat it down vociferously. ... We are now not seeing that,” said state Rep. Nicholas Duran (D-Miami) during a lengthy floor session speech. “We are cheapening the reason for a special session.”

So at this point, Florida businesses, and businesses in several other red states, will face fines if they don't vaccinate employees under federal law, and fines if they do vaccinate employees under state law. The Supreme Court siding with DeSantis and blowing a hole in the country as we know it may actually be the Dems' best chance in 2022.

School Of Hard-Right Knocks, Con't

President Biden and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona are making good on promises to protect the civil rights of kids in schools, under attack as they are in states like Texas.

 

The U.S. Education Department’s civil rights enforcement arm is investigating allegations of discrimination at the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake, Texas, the agency and the school district confirmed Wednesday.

The department’s Office for Civil Rights notified the suburban school district’s officials last week that it had opened three investigations into complaints about discrimination against students based on their race, gender and national origin. The agency declined to provide details on the allegations and doesn’t comment on pending investigations, a spokesman said.

Karen Fitzgerald, a Carroll spokeswoman, confirmed that the district had received three notification letters and is “fully cooperating with this process.”

“Our focus will always be what is best for our students as we prepare them for their next steps in their educational journey,” she said, noting that federal law prohibits her from commenting on cases involving specific students.

The Carroll school system’s handling of discrimination allegations has been the focus of national media attention this year, placing Southlake at the center of a growing political battle over school programs, books and curricula on race, gender and sexuality that some conservatives have misbranded under the umbrella of critical race theory.

The Office for Civil Rights, or OCR, is responsible for enforcing federal laws that protect students from discrimination. Brett Sokolow, president of the Association of Title IX Administrators, a consulting firm that advises school districts on how to resolve civil rights complaints, said when the agency opens an investigation, it’s often the beginning of a process that can take months or years. If the investigation confirms violations of students’ rights, the agency can require a school district to make policy changes and submit to federal monitoring.

“Opening a complaint means that OCR believes that there is a likely violation based on the complaint,” he said. “And then they’re going to do their due diligence to find out more information.”

The federal investigations come three years after leaders in the Carroll school system, 30 miles northwest of Dallas, promised and ultimately failed to make sweeping changes to address racism in the district following the release of a video of white high school students chanting the N-word. After the video went viral, dozens of parents, students and recent graduates came forward with stories of racist and anti-LGBTQ harassment at Carroll, a majority-white district that has grown more diverse in recent years.

The district’s proposal to address the issues, the 34-page Cultural Competence Action Plan, would have required diversity training for all students and teachers, a new process to report and track incidents of racist bullying, and changes to the code of conduct to hold students accountable for acts of discrimination, among other changes. But after the district unveiled the plan in August 2020, conservative parents packed school board meetings, formed a political action committee and funded a civil lawsuit to block the changes.

They argued that the plan would have created “diversity police” and amounted to “reverse racism” against white children. Opponents took particular issue with a district proposal to track incidents of microaggressions — subtle, indirect and sometimes unintentional incidents of discrimination.

 

Now, we'll be treated to months of "Biden's corrupt Justice Department targeting concerned parents!" but that was going to happen for the rest of this administration anyway, there's no point in giving in to these clowns. 

The right move here by Education Department.

The Big Lie, Con't

The FBI has long been investigating Mesa County, Colorado Clerk Tina Peters over possible election tampering and using her position to feed Trump's Big Liars like MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, and yesterday the feds raided Peters's office and home.

 

A law enforcement task force searched four western Colorado locations amid an investigation into allegations that an elections clerk was involved in a security breach of elections equipment earlier this year, a district attorney said.

The FBI, the Colorado Attorney General’s office and local authorities conducted the searches, which were authorized by a federal court, on Tuesday in Mesa and neighboring Garfield counties, Mesa County District Attorney Dan Rubinstein told Colorado Politics.

Rubinstein didn’t disclose the locations that were searched, telling The Associated Press in an email that “all documents related to these operations are sealed” by court order. The searches involved ”potential criminal activity by employees of the Mesa County Clerk and Recorder’s Office and others associated with those employees,” Rubinstein’s office said in a statement Wednesday.

Tina Peters, the elections clerk for Mesa County, which includes the city of Grand Junction, said her home was searched, the Colorado Politics media outlet reported.

“The FBI raided my home at 6 a.m. this morning, accusing me of committing a crime,” Peters said. “And they raided the homes of my friends, mostly older women. I was terrified.”

The FBI office in Denver didn’t immediately respond to an email requesting comment. Lawrence Pacheco, spokesman for Attorney General Phil Weiser, said the state is working with Mesa County on an investigation into the alleged election system breach but could not comment further on the continuing probe.

The searches came amid an ongoing dispute between Peters, who presided over elections in conservative Mesa County in 2020, and Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat and vocal presence nationally for ensuring election integrity.

Peters has become an advocate for those who believe, without evidence, that the 2020 election was fraudulent — although she has said elections in Mesa County, which voted overwhelmingly for Trump, were secure and accurate. In contrast, Democrat Joe Biden handily defeated Trump in Colorado in 2020, and Democrats control the governor’s office, the state Legislature and all statewide offices.

Colorado Politics reported that Peters commented about the searches during an appearance on an online channel operated by Mike Lindell, the MyPillow CEO and a supporter of Peters and former President Donald Trump who has repeatedly made discredited claims that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump.

Peters, a Republican, is being investigated by the FBI and by Colorado state officials in an alleged breach of elections equipment in Mesa County in May. Griswold successfully sued to have Peters and a deputy, Belinda Knisley, prohibited by a judge from administering the November midterm election. Peters has denied any wrongdoing.

 

Once again, the actual election fraud and voting fraud in 2020 were committed by Republicans. I hope Peters goes away for a long time.

StupidiNews!

• Two Republicans joined all House Democrats in a 223-207 vote to censure GOP Rep. Paul Gosar over a viral video he posted showing him killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
• A Trump voter was arrested on Monday on charges of making threats against Connecticut Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont, his bail was set at $30,000.
• The Biden Administration has reportedly asked non-OPEC nations such as Japan, China, and India to release strategic crude stockpiles in order to lower the global cost of energy.
• Nine states are offering COVID-19 booster shots to all adults as CDC experts caution that state health officials may be "jumping the gun" and going against CDC guidelines.
• A European company has introduced a new firefighting tool to help first responders put out fires caused by electric vehicle batteries.
  

Last Call For Sinema Verite', Con't

Democratic (for now) Sen. Kyrsten Sinema really wants you to know she's friends with senators in the other party but she's a Democrat. No really. Arizona Maverick!

Sinema laid out some of her thinking, explaining that she generally supports adding paid leave to the Democrats’ social spending bill but not raising tax rates on corporations and some high-income earners, saying she “will not support tax policies that have a negative impact on our economic climate.” And, unlike her colleague Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), she views the bill’s climate provisions as the “most important part of what is under discussion.”

Yet, even after an extended interview, the first-term Democrat holds onto the air of mystery that’s become a signature part of her political brand. Sinema won’t say she’s running for reelection, nor will she respond to Rep. Ruben Gallego’s (D-Ariz.) flirtations with a primary challenge.

And even though she’s quietly informed Democrats for weeks that she’s supportive of Biden’s social spending and climate bill and publicly signaled she wants to clinch a deal, she still won’t explicitly say she’ll back it — even after the House passed her infrastructure legislation.

“If you're in the middle of negotiating things that are delicate or difficult ... doing it in good faith directly with each other is the best way to get to an outcome,” Sinema said just a few minutes after returning from Biden’s signing ceremony. “I'm still in the process of negotiating the second provision of the president's agenda … and I don't negotiate in the press.”

However, she will criticize her party for its complicity in setting unachievable, sky-high expectations, just like the Republicans who promised to repeal Obamacare under former President Donald Trump. A $3.5 trillion social spending bill, sweeping elections reform, a $15 minimum wage and changes to the filibuster rules were always a long shot with Sinema and Manchin as the definitive Democratic votes in the Senate.

“You’re either honest or you’re not honest. So just tell the truth and be honest and deliver that which you can deliver,” Sinema said. “There's this growing trend of people in both political parties who promise things that cannot be delivered, in order to get the short-term political gain. And I believe that it damages the long-term health of our democracy.”

 

Sure. It's her Republican friends like Mitch McConnell who make sure Dems can't deliver, and you're doing everything you can to make sure they maintain that power, but Dems overpromising is why  America's in trouble.

Jesus, this woman is obnoxious as, well, a Republican.

Here's the kicker though:

There are some signs that Sinema’s approach could pay off politically too, provided she survives a primary. A September poll from OH Predictive Insights found she had a 40 percent favorability rating among Republicans, a contrast to fellow Arizonan Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly. The same poll found that 73 percent of Republicans viewed Kelly unfavorably.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a prospective successor to McConnell, went as far as to say he “would be surprised if Republicans tried to unseat her” in 2024 if she runs.

Sinema sometimes even serves as a go-between with Republicans for her Democratic colleagues, capitalizing on the years she spent in both the House and Senate cultivating relationships with the GOP. She insists those relationships are not transactional but instead reflect the fact that “I’m a human who has friends.”

 

Steve M. makes it very clear what Sinema's game is here. 

This is news. Assuming Sinema either survives a Democratic primary in 2024 or runs as an independent, the GOP might just take a dive and let her win.

That, of course, is what happened in Connecticut in 2006, when Senator Joe Lieberman, running for reelection and still a big supporter of George W. Bush's war in Iraq, lost the Democratic primary and then ran as an independent: The Republican candidate, Alan Schlesinger, all but disappeared, spending only $38,001 on the race (Lieberman and Democratic nominee Ned Lamont each spent millions). In Arizona three years from now, Republicans might well decide to save their money and nod-and-wink to their voters that they should support Sinema, too. (Expect her to make frequent appearances on Fox News during the general election capmaign.)

Why not? On the one thing Republicans really care about -- pampering rich people -- Sinema is in complete agreement with their party. And if she runs indie and they need her in order to attain a Senate majority, I'm sure she'll agree to caucus with them once she's safely reelected. Just don't ask her during the campaign whether she might do that -- she'll undoubtedly say it's a rude question and she's entitled to her privacy.

 

Unless Dems have a larger majority, a tall order given trends, Sinema will be an independent in 2024. 

And odds are good she'll be siding with the GOP if reelected.

Infrastructure, Weak, Con't

Who could have guessed that Republican voters are suddenly completely against the infrastructure bill?

Our latest POLITICO/Morning Consult survey found 50% support overall for the legislation. That’s down from 58% when Morning Consult first asked the question in mid-August, shortly after the Senate passed the bill.

While support among Democrats (roughly 80%) and independents (45 to 50%) has remained relatively steady, there’s been a striking drop among Republicans. In mid-August, 40% of Republicans supported the bill; now, just 22% do. GOP support dropped 10 points over the past two weeks, when Morning Consult surveyed voters after the House approved the bill.

 

Gosh, what happened in the last two weeks?

Oh, right.

Former President Donald Trump on Sunday denounced Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Republicans over the passage of President Joe Biden's infrastructure bill through the lower chamber.

The U.S. House passed Biden's infrastructure bill late Friday in a 228-206 vote largely along party lines. 13 Republican representatives broke with the party to vote in favor of the bill.

At least one said their rationale was mostly to hit back against progressive Democrats, six of whom voted against it.

"Very sad that the RINOs in the House and Senate gave Biden and Democrats a victory on the 'Non-Infrastructure' Bill," Trump said in a statement. "Where only 11% of the money being wasted goes to real infrastructure."

"How all of those Republican Senators that voted thinking that helping the Democrats is such a wonderful thing to do, so politically correct. They just don't get it!," he continued.

 

So yeah, that was ten days ago.  FOX News has been attacking the bill since it passed the House and made it very clear the money is being "wasted" on "Democrat special interests" and that the 13 Republicans who voted for the bill must be destroyed.

 

In the days and months ahead, expect every awful, racist, demonstrably false, ridiculous and mind-numbingly terrible charge to be flung at this bill. Just like Obamacare. Just like everything else the Democrats do to save the country.

Insurrection Investigation, Con't

Another day, another Jon Karl tidbit kept from voters until well after the 2020 and 2021 elections as our Republic faced mortal peril in the form of Trump's coup attempt. It wasn't just his "brain trust" pressuring VP Mike Pence to sent the electoral count to the states (and a Trump win), it wasn't just the January 6th insurrection, it was also drafting the US Armed Forces to step in and intervene in the damn election too.

In the aftermath of the 2020 election, some of Donald Trump's closest allies embarked on an unprecedented effort to get the Department of Defense to chase down outlandish voter fraud conspiracy theories in hopes of helping Trump retain power, ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl writes in his new book.

In "Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show," scheduled to be released today, Karl reports that former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump attorney Sidney Powell tried to enlist a Pentagon official to help overturn the election.

According to the book, Flynn -- who had just received an unconditional pardon from President Trump after pleading guilty in 2017 to lying to the FBI during the Russia probe -- made a frantic phone call to a senior Trump intelligence official named Ezra Cohen (sometimes referred to as Ezra Cohen-Watnick), who previously worked under Flynn at both the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and the National Security Council.

"Where are you?" Flynn asked the DoD official, who said he was traveling in the Middle East.

"Flynn told him to cut his trip short and get back to the United States immediately because there were big things about to happen," according to the book. Karl writes that Flynn told Cohen, "We need you," and told the DoD official that "there was going to be an epic showdown over the election results."

Flynn, according to the book, urged Cohen that "he needed to get orders signed, that ballots needed to be seized, and that extraordinary measures needed to be taken to stop Democrats from stealing the election."

"As Flynn ranted about the election fight, [Cohen] felt his old boss sounded manic," Karl writes in the book. "He didn't sound like the same guy he had worked for."

"Sir, the election is over," Cohen told Flynn, according to the book. "It's time to move on."

Flynn, according to Karl, fired back: "You're a quitter! This is not over! Don't be a quitter!"

Karl writes that after a heated few minutes, Flynn hung up the phone -- and that was the last time the two men talked.

 

So it seems in addition to everything else, Jon Karl was sitting on evidence of a seditious conspiracy involving Michael Flynn, Sidney Powell, and Trump's Middle East pointman at the Pentagon, Ezra Cohen. 

And Karl didn't think it prudent to inform the American people that this was going on, months earlier?

These people are absolute ghouls.

StupidiNews!

• Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee has declared a state of emergency due to flooding along the Canadian border, closing Interstate 5 and knocking out power to thousands.
• A Nevada Trump voter who illegally used his late wife's mail ballot to vote in the 2020 election was sentenced to probation and a $2,000 fine for voting fraud.
• The House will vote today on censuring and committee removal for GOP Rep. Paul Gosar for posting a video showing several Democrats, including President Biden, being harmed or killed.
• President Biden says he will announce this week whether he will reappoint Fed Chair Jerome Powell or bring in Fed governor Lael Brainard.
• Video game maker Activision's CEO Bobby Kotick is facing an employee walkout and calls to resign after a report found failure to inform board members of widespread claims of harassment.
  

Last Call For The Road To Gilead, Con't

Americans are overwhelmingly in support of Roe v Wade as settled legal precedent and access to abortion as a Constitutional right, but that of course doesn't matter in the slightest, only the opinions of nine SCOTUS justices do.

Americans say by a roughly 2-to-1 margin that the Supreme Court should uphold its landmark abortion decision in Roe v. Wade, and by a similar margin the public opposes a Texas law banning most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.

The lopsided support for maintaining abortion rights protections comes as the court considers cases challenging its long-term precedents, including Dec. 1 arguments over a Mississippi law banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

The Post-ABC poll finds 27 percent of Americans say the court should overturn Roe, while 60 percent say it should be upheld, attitudes that are consistent in polls dating to 2005. More broadly, three-quarters of Americans say abortion access should be left to women and their doctors, while 20 percent say they should be regulated by law.

While Americans have long supported limiting access to abortion after the first trimester of pregnancy, the poll suggests Americans widely oppose recent efforts in conservative-leaning states to enforce more severe restrictions.

Asked about a Texas law that authorizes private citizens anywhere in the country to sue anyone who performs or aids someone in obtaining an abortion in Texas after about six weeks of pregnancy, the Post-ABC poll finds 65 percent say the court should reject the law, while 29 percent say it should be upheld. The Supreme Court is considering the role federal courts can play in evaluating the Texas law, which was intended to avoid federal court review. A separate question finds 36 percent support state laws that make it more difficult for abortion clinics to operate, while 58 percent oppose such restrictions, including 45 percent who oppose them “strongly.”

 

Americans are overwhelmingly for a lot of things that Republicans in Congress and conservatives in the courts are against, but it sure doesn't seem to matter when it comes to voting the GOP out of office. Republicans keep blocking gun safety legislation, voting rights legislation, civil rights legislation,  women's rights legislation, and LGBTQ+ equality legislation, all popular with a broad spectrum of American voters including Republicans, but they keep electing the people against it.

Then they complain about why the Democrats can't pass anything if they control Congress, and go back to watching Ben Shapiro videos on Facebook, and decide that voting is for suckers anyway because both sides screw the little guy, so why bother?

And down the road to Gilead we go.

Insurrection Investigation, Con't

Republicans are threatening retaliation for the indictment of Trump regime chancre Steve Bannon, as if somehow the first this House Republicans would do if they took over in 2023 wasn't retaliation.

 

Republicans are rallying around former White House adviser Stephen K. Bannon after his indictment on charges of contempt of Congress on Friday, warning that Democrats’ efforts to force Bannon to comply with what they say is an unfair subpoena paves the way for them to do the same if they take back the House in 2022.

Bannon, like former president Donald Trump, has refused to comply with an order from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection to turn over records and testify about his actions leading up to the attack, when a pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol trying to stop the certification of President Biden’s electoral college win.

Bannon is expected to turn himself in to law enforcement Monday ahead of a court appearance that afternoon. Democrats and a handful of anti-Trump Republicans argue that the indictment was necessary to enforce subpoenas issued by the Jan. 6 committee to Trump associates who are resisting cooperation and to witnesses summoned by other congressional panels.

Many GOP leaders, however, are seizing on Bannon’s indictment to contend that Democrats are “weaponizing” the Justice Department, warning Democrats that they will go after Biden’s aides for unspecified reasons if they take back the House majority in next year’s midterm elections, as most political analysts expect.

“For years, Democrats baselessly accused President Trump of ‘weaponizing’ the DOJ. In reality, it is the Left that has been weaponizing the DOJ the ENTIRE TIME — from the false Russia Hoax to the Soviet-style prosecution of political opponents,” Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), the third-ranking House Republican, tweeted Saturday.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) suggested that Republicans would seek payback if the GOP regained control of the House, signaling that in challenging the doctrine of executive privilege, Democrats were making it easier for Republicans to force Biden’s top advisers to testify before a future GOP Congress.

“Joe Biden has evicerated Executive Privilege,” Jordan wrote on Twitter. “There are a lot of Republicans eager to hear testimony from Ron Klain and Jake Sullivan when we take back the House.” Sullivan is Biden’s national security adviser and Klain is the White House Chief of Staff.

 

First of all, Bannon's indictment for refusing to testify on a seditious conspiracy and the threatened indictment of Biden advisers is not exactly apples and apples, folks. Second, when Republicans help Lois Lerner and Erick Holder in contempt, both of them were cooperating, and Republicans still sent them up for prosecution, which not even the Trump DOJ would do.

Second, Boebert and her goon friends are promising politically-motivated indictments of Democrats for crimes to be created later. Does anyone care that Republicans are openly threatening to abuse power to harm opponents? Isn't that the real story here?

Third, why is this being reported as "but both sides disagree" by the broken media here? Boy, they really want the GOP back in power to sell clicks, papers, and access, don't they?

It's all ridiculous.

Retribution Execution, Con't

Donald Trump is about to claim another head of a Republican who didn't bow to him, because the only thing that matters to Republicans is loyalty to Dear Leader.

Rep. Fred Upton (Mich.), one of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach former President Trump in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, revealed on Sunday that he has not yet decided if he will run for reelection in 2022.

Asked by co-host Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union” if he is committed to running for another term next year, Upton said he is unsure because redistricting is still underway in Michigan.

“Well, we don't know what our districts look like yet,” Upton said.

“We're in the midst of looking at maps. Michigan loses a seat. We will evaluate everything probably before the end of the year in terms of making our own decision. We have never made a decision more than a year out,” he added.

If Upton ultimately decides not to run for reelection next year, he will be the third GOP lawmaker who voted for Trump’s second impeachment to announce their retirement this year.

Rep. Anthony Gonzalez (R-Ohio) declared in September that he would not seek a third term in Congress, and Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) revealed last month that he will not run for reelection when his term expires.

Gonzalez in a statement said it is “clear that the best path for our family is not to seek re-election next fall,” but added that the “current state of our politics, especially many of the toxic dynamics inside our own party, is a significant factor in my decision.”

Kinzinger, in a video announcing his retirement, recalled a moment from his first campaign when he told himself, “If I ever thought it was time to move on from Congress, I would,” adding, “That time is now.”

The Illinois Republican also cited deep political divides in Washington.

“In this day, to prevail or survive, you must belong to a tribe. Our political parties only survive by appealing to the most motivated and the most extreme elements within it. And the price tag to power has skyrocketed, and fear and distrust has served as an effective strategy to meet that cost,” Kinzinger said.

“Dehumanizing each other has become the norm. We’ve taken it from social media to the streets. We’ve allowed leaders to reach power selling the false premise that strength comes from degrading others and dehumanizing those that look, act or think differently than we do. As a country, we’ve fallen for those lies, and now we face a poisoned country filled with outrage blinding our ability to reach real strength,” he added.

 

There's a reason why I say there's no good Republicans left, because not only are the ones who oppose Trump like Upton being eliminated, but the ones on the way out like Kinzinger still blame both sides, as if Democrats are somehow as awful as the GOP right now. 

"Just enough bravery to stick your head up to get it chopped off" isn't a virtue, folks. 

And speaking of getting their heads chopped off, GOP Rep. Liz Cheney needs to check her neck.

The Wyoming Republican Party will no longer recognize Liz Cheney as a member of the GOP in its second formal rebuke for her criticism of former President Donald Trump.

The 31-29 vote Saturday in Buffalo, Wyoming, by the state party central committee followed votes by local GOP officials in about one-third of Wyoming’s 23 counties to no longer recognize Cheney as a Republican.

In February, the Wyoming GOP central committee voted overwhelmingly to censure Cheney, Wyoming’s lone U.S. representative, for voting to impeach Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Cheney has described her vote to impeach Trump as an act of conscience in defense of the Constitution. Trump “incited the mob” and “lit the flame” of that day’s events, Cheney said after the attack.

It’s “laughable” for anybody to suggest Cheney isn’t a “conservative Republican,” Cheney spokesman Jeremy Adler said by text message Monday.

“She is bound by her oath to the Constitution. Sadly a portion of the Wyoming GOP leadership has abandoned that fundamental principle and instead allowed themselves to be held hostage to the lies of a dangerous and irrational man,” Adler added.

Cheney is now facing at least four Republican opponents in the 2022 primary including Cheyenne attorney Harriet Hageman, whom Trump has endorsed. Hageman in a statement called the latest state GOP central committee vote “fitting,” the Casper Star-Tribune reported.

“Liz Cheney stopped recognizing what Wyomingites care about a long time ago. When she launched her war against President Trump, she completely broke with where we are as a state,” Hageman said.

 

The vote was symbolic, and I don't think Kevin McCarthy would reject her from the GOP Caucus, but I don't see how Cheney survives the primary. She could always pull a Lisa Murkowski and run as an independent, but I don't know enough about Wyoming politics to know if that would open the door for a Democrat.

It's going to be messy either way.

Last Call For The Vax Of Life, Con't

After temporarily blocking the Biden administration's vaccine mandate for private employers last month, the conservative 5th Circuit has now officially ruled the entire vaccine mandate unconstitutional.

A federal appeals court in New Orleans has halted the Biden administration’s vaccine or testing requirement for private businesses, delivering another political setback to one of the White House’s signature public health policies.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, helmed by one judge who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan and two others who were appointed by President Donald Trump, issued the ruling Friday, after temporarily halting the mandate last weekend in response to lawsuits filed by Republican-aligned businesses and legal groups.

Calling the requirement a “mandate,” the court said the rule, instituted through the Labor Department, “grossly exceeds OSHA’s statutory authority,” according to the opinion, written by Judge Kurt D. Engelhardt and joined by Judges Edith H. Jones and Stuart Kyle Duncan.

“Rather than a delicately handled scalpel, the Mandate is a one-size fits-all sledgehammer that makes hardly any attempt to account for differences in workplaces (and workers) that have more than a little bearing on workers’ varying degrees of susceptibility to the supposedly ‘grave danger’ the Mandate purports to address,” they wrote.

They said they believed that the ruling imposed a financial burden on businesses and potentially violated the commerce clause of the Constitution.

“The Mandate imposes a financial burden upon them by deputizing their participation in OSHA’s regulatory scheme, exposes them to severe financial risk if they refuse or fail to comply, and threatens to decimate their workforces (and business prospects) by forcing unwilling employees to take their shots, take their tests, or hit the road,” they wrote.

The New Orleans-based 5th Circuit is considered one of the country’s most conservative appeals courts.

The vaccine mandate was released by the Biden administration last week after weeks of deliberation. It says private employers with more than 100 employees must require staff to get vaccinated — or face weekly testing and mandatory masking. Workers who don’t work on-site or with others are able to be exempted.

Even though the testing option makes it softer than many of the requirements instituted by private companies and state and municipal governments, it has faced strong blowback from a chorus of conservative groups, businesses and mostly Republican officials.

The court halted the policy, scheduled to take effect Jan. 4, and ordered the Occupational Safety and Health Administration not to take further steps to implement or enforce the mandate. It is not clear whether the 5th Circuit will determine the fate of the mandate. The Biden administration had asked the 5th Circuit to hold off on ruling until a judicial lottery can take place next week to consolidate several challenges to the mandate before a single appeals court.

Federal officials spent weeks hammering out the policy, aware of the high number of legal challenges it would face but believing that the order was well within the Labor Department’s powers to keep workplaces free of “grave dangers” in times of emergency.

If the 5th Circuit is right, there's basically no government agency with the authority to regulate anything.

Which, as I said last week, is what they're going for.

Knowing that this would be the perfect case for the Federalist Society ghouls on SCOTUS to dismantle everything since the New Deal, the Justice Department says it will defend the mandate anyway.

We'll see how far it goes.  But I think by July 4th, we'll have a drastically different new legal landscape in America.

Kamala Chameleon

It's hard enough trying to cat herd all the Dems in one direction these days, but the one thing that all Democrats seem to agree on is that Kamala Harris is somehow a "major problem".

Worn out by what they see as entrenched dysfunction and lack of focus, key West Wing aides have largely thrown up their hands at Vice President Kamala Harris and her staff -- deciding there simply isn't time to deal with them right now, especially at a moment when President Joe Biden faces quickly multiplying legislative and political concerns. 

The exasperation runs both ways. Interviews with nearly three dozen former and current Harris aides, administration officials, Democratic operatives, donors and outside advisers -- who spoke extensively to CNN -- reveal a complex reality inside the White House. Many in the vice president's circle fume that she's not being adequately prepared or positioned, and instead is being sidelined. The vice president herself has told several confidants she feels constrained in what she's able to do politically. And those around her remain wary of even hinting at future political ambitions, with Biden's team highly attuned to signs of disloyalty, particularly from the vice president. 

She's a heartbeat away from the presidency now. She could be just a year away from launching a presidential campaign of her own, given doubts throughout the political world that Biden will actually go through with a reelection bid in 2024, something he's pledged to do publicly and privately. Or she'll be a critical validator in three years for a President trying to get the country to reelect him to serve until he's 86. 

Few of the insiders who spoke with CNN think she's being well-prepared for whichever role it will be. Harris is struggling with a rocky relationship with some parts of the White House, while long-time supporters feel abandoned and see no coherent public sense of what she's done or been trying to do as vice president. Being the first woman, and first woman of color, in national elected office is historic but has also come with outsized scrutiny and no forgiveness for even small errors, as she'll often point out. 

Defenders and people who care for Harris are getting frantic. When they're annoyed, some pass around a recent Onion story mocking her lack of more substantive work, one with the headline, "White House Urges Kamala Harris To Sit At Computer All Day In Case Emails Come Through." When they're depressed, they bat down the Aaron Sorkin-style rumor that Biden might try to replace her by nominating her to a Supreme Court vacancy. That chatter has already reached top levels of the Biden orbit, according to one person who's heard it. 

She's perceived to be in such a weak position that top Democrats in and outside of Washington have begun to speculate privately, asking each other why the White House has allowed her to become so hobbled in the public consciousness, at least as they see it. 

"She's very honored and very proud to be vice president of the United States. Her job as the No. 2 is to be helpful and supportive to the President and to take on work that he asks her to take on," said Eleni Kounalakis, the lieutenant governor of California and a longtime friend. Kounalakis spoke with the vice president last Monday morning before Harris departed for a diplomatic mission to France. 

"It is natural that those of us who know her know how much more helpful she can be than she is currently being asked to be," Kounalakis said. "That's where the frustration is coming from." 

An incumbent vice president should be a shoo-in the next time the party's presidential nomination is open. But guessing who might launch a theoretical primary challenge to Harris has become an ongoing insider parlor game. Other politicians with their own presidential ambitions have started privately acknowledging that they are trying to figure out how to quietly lay the groundwork to run if and when Harris falters, as they think she might.

 

I'd say all this is CNN slander against the first Black woman veep, but as J. Jonah Jameson reminds us in the first Spider-Man film on the subject of slander, "It is not. I resent that. Slander is spoken. In print, it's libel."

 

The knives are definitely out for Harris, and in an America that treated Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton as badly as they did, here in 2021 Harris is getting the worst of both. Everyone it seems wants to dunk on her, and while Joe Biden could actually put a stop to it among Democrats, apparently he doesn't want to right now.

I shouldn't be surprised by this. Nobody should. This is what happens to Black women with even a modicum of power, they are dismantled and destroyed, their careers ended. We've seen it time and time again, because it's so easy to do in order to clear the decks for others to come in, corporate, entertainment, political. Every time.

And I will do my best to every time call it out.