Friday, November 10, 2023

News bits: Project 2025 update; Corruption update; Body count games

MSNBC recently broadcast a segment on what the corrupt dictator wannabe, his corrupt dictator goons and other GOP elites are planning for when a Republican gets back in the White House. This is just a reminder. I posted about Project 2025 in September.


In accord with that, a WaPo article reports:
During the interview on the Spanish-language TV network, journalist Enrique Acevedo asked Trump if he would weaponize the FBI and Justice Department on his opponents in the same way he claims federal law enforcement agencies have been weaponized against him.

“Yeah. If they do this, and they’ve already done it, but if they follow through on this, yeah, it could certainly happen in reverse,” Trump told Acevedo, according to excerpts of the interview.

“What they’ve done is they’ve released the genie out of the box,” the former president continued, adding, “You know, when you’re president and you’ve done a good job and you’re popular, you don’t go after them so you can win an election.”

“They have done something that allows the next party … if I happen to be president and I see somebody who’s doing well and beating me very badly, I say, ‘Go down and indict them.’ They’d be out of business. They’d be out of the election,” Trump continued.
DJT’s intention to implement full blown dictatorship and persecute political opposition could not be clearer.   
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The one-way ratchet toward a kleptocratic plutocratic-autocratic-theocratic dictatorship is humming along nicely as the Repubs intend. The AP reports that Repubs successfully blocked consideration of corruption in the USSC:
Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee abruptly adjourned a meeting on Thursday without holding an expected vote on subpoenas for two conservatives who have helped arrange luxury travel and other benefits for Supreme Court justices.

The panel’s Democratic chairman, Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, gaveled out after Republicans on the committee made clear they would call for subpoena votes on a raft of Democratic officials and others, a protest of the planned subpoenas for Republican megadonor Harlan Crow and conservative activist Leonard Leo. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, the top Republican on the panel, warned majority Democrats that the hearing would be contentious.

Jammed with amendments and the possibility of hours of debate, Durbin gaveled out. He said in a statement after the meeting that there were “scheduling issues” but that they would try again.
See how easy it is to defend corruption and dictatorship? See how impossible it is to vindicate the rule of law? Just threaten to subpoena Dems and the Dems cave in. One has to ask, what are the Dems hiding? Nothing or something? As far as I'm concerned, the Repubs can subpoena and grill whoever the freak they want and the Dems should do exactly the same. If there's significant evidence of corruption or lawbreaking by anyone, anyone at all, turn it over to the DoJ for investigation and prosecution if the evidence supports it. 

In my opinion, this country desperately needs a secular, rational, evidence-based, more transparent, less corrupt political party.
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From the Well, Duh Files: The NYT reports about something that comes as no surprise to anyone who paid even a little attention to history:
A senior Biden administration official told Congress on Wednesday that the number of deaths in Gaza from Israel’s military campaign might be “even higher than are being cited.”

Testifying before the House Committee on Foreign Relations, Barbara Leaf, the assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, said that the Palestinian death toll, while difficult to assess accurately, was “very high, frankly — and it could be that they’re even higher than are being cited.”
Frankly, the body count probably is higher than what Israel claims and lower than what Hamas claims. But there’s no reliable way to know. So, we are left to pick a number that feels the best.   
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The endless Israel-Palestine disaster is intractable. It generates intense emotions. Rationality and facts are significantly or mostly replaced by irrational blither and lies. Parties and governments involved are lying about just about everything, making nearly all detailed information suspect. The Hill puts it in some perspective:
The highly charged debate over U.S. policy in Israel has exposed long-standing frictions among House Democrats, pitting Israel’s staunchest allies against pro-Palestinian liberals and posing a stark challenge for party leaders who are racing to ease the tensions.

The divisions surfaced last month, when 15 Democrats declined to support a resolution declaring U.S. solidarity with Israel following Hamas’s deadly terrorist attacks several weeks earlier. They bubbled up again last week over legislation providing U.S. military aid to Tel Aviv. And they were thrust into the spotlight once more on Tuesday, when 22 Democrats voted to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) for her harsh criticisms of Israel’s military response in Gaza.

The emotional clashes have chilled long-standing relationships between once-friendly lawmakers, sparked a potential challenge to at least one leadership post, and prompted talk of a bid to expel Tlaib, according to several lawmakers familiar with the private discussions.

Some Capitol Hill veterans said they’ve never seen the rancor so high within the caucus.

“It’s hell,” said one Democratic lawmaker, who spoke anonymously to discuss a sensitive topic. “I’m really worried about the hate that I’m seeing everyplace.”
Israel is a curse on mankind. So is religion. Or, is that too emotional or irrational?
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From the Corrupt Hypocrites & Liars Files: The Daily Beast reports:
House Oversight Committee chair James Comer (R-KY) on Wednesday subpoenaed President Joe Biden’s brother, James Biden, who Comer has implicated in unsubstantiated allegations of “shady business practices” in the Biden family.

Comer has in particular been trying to make hay out of two personal loan repayments from James Biden to his brother, for $40,000 and $200,000—with all transactions occurring in 2017 and 2018, when Joe Biden was neither in office nor a candidate.

But if Comer genuinely believes these transactions clear the “shady business practices” bar, he might want to consider a parallel inquiry into his own family.

According to Kentucky property records, Comer and his own brother have engaged in land swaps related to their family farming business. In one deal—also involving $200,000, as well as a shell company—the more powerful and influential Comer channeled extra money to his brother, seemingly from nothing. Other recent land swaps were quickly followed with new applications for special tax breaks, state records show. All of this, perplexingly, related to the dealings of a family company that appears to have never existed on paper.
The Hill reports about a blast of snark aimed at Comer and his hypocrisy:
Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) went after Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) on Thursday, mocking the House Oversight Committee chair for sending out subpoenas in his probe investigating President Biden’s family finances.

The Oversight panel posted a video Wednesday of Comer signing subpoenas for the president’s son Hunter Biden, brother James Biden and their business partner Rob Walker as part of Republicans’ impeachment probe into the president.

Moskowitz’s post recreated the video shot-for-shot with the congressman signing a prop “subpoena” for Comer instead, calling him a hypocrite over the investigation.

“It has been reported that Comer also loaned his brother $200k. We fully expect James to comply, just like the Trumps,” Moskowitz said on X.
Unlike the endless Biden saga which is probably a nothingburger, Comer just might have been caught with is dirty hand in the cookie jar, evading taxes and breaking whatever other laws he feels he needs to break. But, my minions have researched this. They tell me there is a ~0% chance that Comer will investigate himself. That sounds about right.

Meanwhile, Comer says he wants to wrap up the Biden nothingburger soon. The Daily Beast reports:
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) indicated on Tuesday that the impeachment inquiry he’s spearheading against President Joe Biden is in the “downhill phase” as he looks to “wrap it up as soon as possible.”

The announcement that Comer wants to quickly finish up his probe into the “Biden crime family” comes a week after he admitted he didn’t want to hold any more public hearings, claiming he “can do more with” depositions. In the inquiry’s only hearing last month, Comer was roundly mocked after his own witnesses said there wasn’t enough evidence to support an impeachment.  
“We know not only there were crimes, we know there are cover-ups,” the Kentucky congressman told Johnson. “We have mountains of evidence and now we’re ready to bring ‘em in. We’re in the downhill phase of this investigation now because we have so many documents and we can bring these people in for depositions or committee hearings, whichever they choose, and we can ask these questions with evidence.”
Yeah, Comer-style government is in the downhill phase for sure. Democracy and transparency are going downhill and dictatorship and corruption are going uphill. 

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