News bits: About Garland; Spamouflage in the election; Hate & death threats from the pulpit

The New Republic hits the nail right on the head:

Merrick Garland Is Too Weak to Be Attorney General

Over and over again, the Biden appointee has proven to be painfully naïve in the face of Republican bad faith

Hur’s report, the findings of which were released late last week, cleared Biden of criminal wrongdoing, as expected. It revealed Republican efforts to attack Biden’s handling of classified documents as what they were: A smear aimed at clouding Trump’s brazen criminality. But none of that mattered. Instead, the report has been an unmitigated disaster for Biden, all because Hur used his 388-page report as a means of pushing another of the right’s favorite attacks: That Biden is not only old and doddering, but senile. The Hur report, in gratuitous fashion, presented the president as a Mr. Magoo-like figure, unable to remember basic facts like the year of his son’s death or his own term as vice president—details that were wholly irrelevant to the investigation itself.

Garland should have seen this coming. He didn’t. Three years into Garland’s term as attorney general, it’s clear that he has failed.  

During his tenure, Garland’s noble goals have, again and again, rendered him overly passive to the threat posed by the right. Perhaps fearing backlash, the attorney general slow-walked the investigation into Donald Trump’s role in the January 6 insurrection, only appointing Jack Smith as special counsel in late-November of 2022, after Trump formally declared his bid for the presidency.  

Garland, it’s worth noting, should know better. He is arguably the poster child of the GOP’s deviation from norms and their general adherence to bad faith in all areas of politics.

Note the use of the phrase bad faith. Along with ill-will, that is the epitome of radical authoritarian TTKP politics. Pure bad faith, loaded with hate and malice.

TTKP = Trump Tyranny & Kleptocracy Party, formerly the Republican Party

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The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) is excited about the upcoming presidential election in the US. Digital Dispatches reports:

Pro-CCP ‘Spamouflage’ network pivoting to focus on 

US Presidential Election

The long-running influence campaign suspected to be run by the CCP and often referred to as ‘Spamouflage’ is already pivoting to focus on the expected competition between President Joe Biden and Republican forerunner Donald Trump. Spamouflage has been active since at least 2017. In April 2023 the US Department of Justice charged 40 employees of the Chinese Ministry of Public Security’s 912 Special Projects Working Group for their involvement in an influence campaign which, based on details in the indictment, appears extremely likely to be Spamouflage. According to the indictment, the operation is coordinated from Beijing and implemented in offices around China. It is infamous among researchers both for its sprawling size and for its failure to generate any noteworthy engagement from real social media users.

Analyzing the narratives of the campaign is nonetheless useful as a method for understanding the likely broader strategy of the CCP going into the election year. It is also important to continue to keep an eye on Spamouflage’s tactics as they evolve. 

Key narratives include:

The election will be divisive and damaging for America: This appears to be one of the two most common election-specific narratives being promoted by Spamouflage. It portrays the election as a source of division and strife which compounds America’s existing problems.

Negative Biden narratives: Alongside painting the election as divisive, negative narratives about President Biden appear to be the other most significant focus of Spamouflage’s election-related efforts as of January 2024.

Ambiguous Trump narratives: Narratives relating to Trump are noticeably less common than those relating to Biden. Interestingly many of them are also somewhat ambiguous – while the authors may intend them to be negative, Trump supporters might read many of them differently.

This appeals to most DJT supporters?

(probably)

Well, at least it looks like spamouflage probably is not going to be a major election influencer this time around. I hope.

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 LGBQT Nation reports about a Christian nationalist hater spewing poison from his taxpayer subsidized pulpit:

Another hate preacher affiliated with the wildly anti-LGBTQ+ New Independent Fundamental Baptist Movement, or New IFB Church, has called for the public execution of gay people.

“That’s what fa**ots deserve, is the death penalty!” railed “Brother” Robert Larson in a sermon at the Bible Believers Baptist Church in Union Gap, WA last week. “And they should do it publicly for everybody to see.”

“Bring back the electric chair!” Larson encouraged to his congregation. It’s “a little more painful” than the alternatives.

Larson asked his flock in Union Gap last week, “What does God say the homos deserve? In Leviticus 20:13, a famous verse, it says, ‘If a man also lie with a man as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them.’ That’s what fa**ots deserve.” 

“Every single sodomite, every single homosexual should get the electric chair,” Larson continued. He added, his voice rising, “And they should do it publicly for everybody to see, so that they know that’s what happens to these freaks! These rapists, these child molesters.” 

Us taxpayers are forced by law to subsidize this filth and moral rot. That is a fact, not an opinion. 

It would not be at all surprising if the enraged freak “Brother” Larson is projecting when he slanders his targets as rapists and child molesters. One can reasonably wonder if he has murdered some people. Of course that’s just speculation, not proven fact.

Qs: Why do actual, real Christians not stand up and openly and constantly denounce the obvious hate, bigotry and tyranny that Christian nationalism is fomenting among millions of self-professed Christians, or should that be the job on agnostics, atheists and other non-Christians? Should taxpayers be forced by tax laws to subsidize religion? 

I sure don't want one penny of my tax dollars going to any religion, especially Christian nationalist churches.