Thursday, August 24, 2023

News bits: About the GOP debate; Rot in the Secret Service; Civil war watch

Media people who watched the GOP debate last night are commenting this morning. One opinion in the NYT caught my eye because of the phrase, moral cowardice:
What I Saw on That G.O.P. Debate Stage Was 
Complete and Utter Moral Cowardice

Ron DeSantis faulted Donald Trump for the Covid lockdowns during his presidency. Nikki Haley slammed him for runaway government spending. They did so early during the Republican presidential debate on Wednesday night and they did so readily, as if showing voters just how dauntless and independent they were. What guts!

What bunk. When they were later asked to raise their hands if they would support Trump as the 2024 Republican nominee even if he’d been convicted of a felony, up shot DeSantis’s arm. Haley’s, too. No hesitation. No equivocation. No concern about which of Trump’s 91 felony counts might be under discussion. No insistence that they’d have to see how strong the evidence turned out to be. Just fealty. It’s what the Republican electorate seems to insist on, so it’s what all eight candidates onstage in Milwaukee except Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson pledged.
Cowering behind moral cowardice is how I see radical right Republican elites and now also the radicalized rank and file. 

The huge issue here is incentives that reward election and re-election. Politicians are not rewarded for the moral courage needed to speak inconvenient fact, true truth and sound reasoning. The Republican electorate has grown intolerant of inconvenience because it has been taught by the elites to be intolerant. Compromise is treason. 

The moral cowardice problem in radical right politics appears to be intractable. It took decades of divisive, rancid, hateful dark free speech to teach the lesson. Now the lesson has been learned. In my opinion, moral cowardice among political leaders is potentially lethal to secular democracy, the rule of law and civil liberties.

Yes, the same problem plagues Democrats, but at least they are still nominally sort of in favor of democracy, civil liberties and the rule of law. There are two choices here, bad and God awful tyranny.
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Ethics watchdog CREW reports contacts between the Secret Service and the domestic terrorist group Oath Keepers. CREW reports:
Internal Secret Service emails obtained by CREW show special agents in close communication with Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes, while failing to acknowledge the group’s ties to white nationalists and clashes with law enforcement.

In September 2020, a Secret Service agent sent an email to others within the agency, informing them that he had just spoken to Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes about an upcoming visit by then-President Trump to Fayetteville, NC. The agent, who referred to himself as “the unofficial liaison to the Oath Keepers (inching towards official),” described the group as “primarily retired law enforcement/former military members who are very pro-LEO [law enforcement officer] and Pro Trump. Their stated purpose is to provide protection and medical attention to Trump supporters if they come under attack by leftist groups.”

That sounds to me like the Secret Service is too concerned about being friendly to an allegedly pro-LEO terrorist group, and not concerned enough about doing its job. Whoever is in charge of personnel there needs to be fired and replaced.
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The civil war we are now in against radical right authoritarianism deserves more attention. If the insurgents win, tolerant secular democracy, civil liberties and the rule of law will all bite the dust. The WaPo writes about another direct threat of violence by the authoritarian cult demagogue:
Trump suggests in Carlson interview that U.S. could see more political violence

The former president also again defended the mob of his supporters that attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021

Former president Donald Trump suggested that the United States could see intensifying political violence, saying in a new interview that tensions in the country were reaching a boiling point.

Asked by former Fox News host Tucker Carlson whether the nation is headed toward open conflict, Trump responded: “I don’t know. I can say this: There’s a level of passion that I’ve never seen. There’s a level of hatred that I’ve never seen. And that’s probably a bad combination.”  
Trump compared the current volatile mix of passion and hatred to the crowd on Jan. 6, 2021, and pivoted to defending his supporters who attacked the U.S. Capitol that day — falsely describing the violent assault as a day of “love and unity.”
He justifies his violent coup attempt as merely a day of “love and unity”? WTF?

That DJT is still out on bail and allowed to openly foment civil war is outrageous. One has to take this as more evidence of our failing two-tiered system of law enforcement. Elites get treated far better than the rest of us. The demagogue really is above the law.
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The NYT writes about GOP candidates responses to a global warming question:  
It was an unusual litmus test for a Republican primary debate, one that quickly descended into personal attacks and obfuscation: The candidates were asked whether humans had contributed to climate change.

There is no scientific dispute that the answer is yes, but hardly any of the Republican candidates gave a straight answer.

Vivek Ramaswamy, the millionaire entrepreneur whose campaign has dabbled in conspiracy theories, seized on the moment to deny the scientific consensus on climate change.

“Let us be honest as Republicans — I’m the only person on the stage who isn’t bought and paid for, so I can say this — the climate change agenda is a hoax,” he said.

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