News bits: Another DJT rape lawsuit?; Republican extremism & moral rot

DJT is the fascist tyrant wannabe that won't go away. A HuffPo opinion piece argues for not ignoring a new allegation filed in court about an alleged 1994 rape of a Jane Doe when she was a 13 year old girl. The article goes through DJT's history of credible allegations of sexual assault, including some filed in courts. Since this is a civil lawsuit, the plaintiff only has to prove rape liability by a preponderance of evidence. That is far easier to do than satisfying the criminal evidence standard of beyond a reasonable doubt. 

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In what recent evidence shows to be business as usual for fascist Republican elites, concerns for ethics and morals are non-existent. Other than unrestrained lust for more power and wealth, operating in as much secrecy as possible with as much plausible deniability as possible are core moral values. Respect for democracy, truth, transparency and honest governance are nowhere to be seen. The WaPo reports:

Judicial activist directed fees to Clarence Thomas’s wife, urged ‘no mention of Ginni’

Leonard Leo told GOP pollster Kellyanne Conway to bill nonprofit, then use money to pay spouse of Supreme Court justice

Conservative judicial activist Leonard Leo arranged for the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to be paid tens of thousands of dollars for consulting work just over a decade ago, specifying that her name be left off billing paperwork, according to documents reviewed by The Washington Post.

In January 2012, Leo instructed the GOP pollster Kellyanne Conway to bill a nonprofit group he advises and use that money to pay Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the documents show. The same year, the nonprofit, the Judicial Education Project, filed a brief to the Supreme Court in a landmark voting rights case.

Leo, a key figure in a network of nonprofits that has worked to support the nominations of conservative judges, told Conway that he wanted her to “give” Ginni Thomas “another $25K,” the documents show. He emphasized that the paperwork should have “No mention of Ginni, of course.”

A frustration with the MSM: As usual, the MSM (the WaPo in this case) still does not understand what it is dealing with, and/or it has been neutered by capitalism. What we are seeing among Republican Party elites is not conservatism. Republican judges are not conservatives. Most of the people involved are radical right extremist authoritarians, not principled conservatives. Nearly all of those elites are morally rotted plutocrats or theocrats, kleptocrats and tyranny supporters.   

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Another example of the MSM not getting it/being neutered: The NYT calls this rot "conservatism": 

One Family Has Spearheaded Montana’s Unflinching Conservatism

Three members of the Regier family now hold leadership positions in the Montana Legislature as the state’s conservative shift has left even some Republicans wary

During a legislative hearing in 2011 that was a prelude to Montana’s debates on abortion, State Representative Keith Regier displayed an image of a cow and made the argument that cattle were more valuable when pregnant.

The comparison drew a prompt rebuke from some women in the room, but Mr. Regier, a Republican, declined to apologize. Over the years, the former schoolteacher and sod farmer has seldom demurred from his growing brand of combative Christian-oriented politics, in which the Ten Commandments are the foundation of good law and some of the biggest battles have been with moderates in his own party.

Mr. Regier has now emerged as the patriarch of a new family political dynasty that has injected fresh conservative intensity into debates over abortion, diversity training and, this spring, transgender rights.

Moderate politicians in the Republican Party? That is dubious at best. Decades of RINO hunts have been quite successful. What is called a moderate Republican Party politician is a hard core conservative that the radical right just has not got around to kicking out of power yet.

Cows are worth more when pregnant, therefore ban abortion? What wonderful dark ages reasoning.

Qs: Is that more like conservatism than radical right extremism? More like secular democracy than bigoted, misogynist, Christian nationalist theocracy?