From the fascism and crackpot files: GOP-style election integrity, etc.

Let the brainwashed cool off first, then maybe they can vote

Newsweek writes: 

If red states and blue states were to "divorce" each other, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene called it possible that people who move from a Democratic state to a Republican state would be barred from voting for a temporary "cooling off" period.

California's seen an influx in people moving out of the state and many have opted to go to Texas and Florida, where residents can get more bang for their buck. However, some, including Greene, have complained that those who are leaving California are bringing their political beliefs with them and potentially shifting the political landscape.

On Wednesday, the Georgia congresswoman posted on Twitter that "brainwashed people" who move from California and New York need a "cooling-off period." Her comment was in response to a Twitter user who wrote he supports discriminating against Democratic transplants, including restricting their ability to vote for a period of time. He also wrote that they should have to "pay a tax for their sins." 

"After Democrat voters and big donors ruin a state like California, you would think it wise to stop them from doing it to another great state like Florida," Greene tweeted.

What can one say in the face of Marjorie's style of . . . . "excellence"? At least she is honest about her fascism and hate. One can only wonder about how many other Republicans, elites and rank and file, see the Democrats as brainwashed and their right to vote as optional. 40%? 70%? Who knows?

Ex-president accuses the House 1/6 investigation committee of bad intent 

Axios writes in an article, Trump accuses Jan. 6 panel of "seeking evidence of criminal activity":

Former President Trump's legal team on Wednesday accused the House committee investigating the Capitol riot of seeking to uncover evidence that would support a criminal referral against him.

The select committee is acting as “an inquisitorial tribunal seeking evidence of criminal activity,” Trump lawyer Jesse R. Binnall wrote in the brief, adding that such action is “outside of any of Congress’s legislative powers.”

“The Washington Post has confirmed what was already apparent — the Committee is indeed seeking any excuse to refer a political rival for criminal charges, and they are using this investigation to do so," Binnall added.

By gosh, maybe Trump has a point. The House committee just might be seeking evidence of criminal activity related to his 1/6 coup attempt. But, he's really got nothing to worry about. Neither Biden nor Attorney General Garland have any interest in vindicating the rule of law against Republican politicians or elites for their crimes, corruption, insurrection, treason, shootings or anything else. They will blow off any House criminal referral just like Trump blew off concerns about ethics, rationality, truth and the rule of law during his time in office.

Two historians got their shorts in a twist -- we need to be like Antifa

The courier journal, a Kentucky newspaper writes in an opinion piece, 
Two Kentucky historians agree the GOP is steering the US straight toward authoritarianism:

Two Kentucky historians agree it’s past time for Democrats to start warning voters — loudly, clearly and unceasingly — where Donald Trump and his truest true believers in the GOP are steering the country: Straight toward white supremacy and authoritarianism.

“This is real, this is serious and it’s frightening,” said Brian Clardy, a Murray State University history professor. “We must build a democratic resistance that amounts to a counter-fascist coup — In short, we must all become ‘antifa,’ or antifascists,” said John Hennen, a Morehead State University history professor emeritus.

Clardy said Trump largely won on a white backlash triggered by Barack Obama’s election. Clardy was in the crowd when our first African American president was inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2009. 

“While we’re celebrating here in Washington, folks back home are seething,” he said to a woman standing near him. He meant white folks.

Hennen said Trumpism has deep roots. “The eruption of violent white nationalist authoritarianism in our country is the shocking manifestation of less noisy currents of fascist politics which have evolved for decades.”

At least, I'm not alone in seeing Republican Party fascism as a dire, imminent threat to democracy, the rule of law and civil liberties. More people are slowly waking up. Whether the awakening is too little and/or too late is hard to tell. Elections in 2022 and 2024 ought to shed some light on the state of what's left of American democracy, elections, the rule of law, civil liberties and social cohesion.

I wondered how much ill-will and anger Obama's election created in the GOP. I suspected it was a lot. Apparently at least some others see it about that way too. The night Obama was elected in 2008 and walked out on the stage in Chicago, all I could think was 'don't shoot him', 'don't shoot him', 'don't shoot him.' 

Toothless federal government ethics

The New York Times writes:

As House ethics investigators were examining four cases this fall detailing a sweeping array of improper financial conduct by lawmakers, they ran into an obstacle: Two of the lawmakers under scrutiny refused to meet with them or provide documents.

The investigators were not too surprised. Over the past decade, fewer and fewer House members have been willing to cooperate with congressional investigations, a development that ethics experts warn could reduce accountability for misdeeds and erode trust in the institution of Congress.

Omar Ashmawy, the staff director of the Office of Congressional Ethics, an independent entity that reviews allegations against House members and refers misconduct cases to the House Ethics Committee, acknowledged the growing resistance to his office’s work, but said he was undeterred: “It has never prevented us from being able to gather the facts and determine what happened and whether or not the subject was culpable.”

Still, the trend is unmistakable.

In 2009 and 2010 — the first Congress scrutinized by the Office of Congressional Ethics, which was created in 2008 — three lawmakers refused to cooperate with the office’s 68 investigations, a noncooperation rate of just 4 percent.

This year, six out of 14 House lawmakers under investigation have refused to participate — a rate of 43 percent, the highest on record.  

There is no requirement that lawmakers cooperate with the Office of Congressional Ethics, but legislators who do so often are able to resolve what had appeared to be violations of ethics rules.

The fact that many will no longer even meet with ethics investigators reflects a troubling trend in American politics in which improper behavior is no longer a political liability, ethics experts say.

Maybe ethics investigators can gather facts to determine what happened as is claimed, or maybe they can't. How can they know what is being withheld from them? Given the open hostility of both Democrats and Republicans to ethical concerns, it seems reasonable to think that Congress is becoming increasingly corrupt and autocratic. 

One outside ethics expert commented: “What people used to think was a career-ending mistake has been proven to not be a career-ending mistake. Many people have noticed a shift in ethical norms. It used to be the case that when a member violated the ethics rules, if not a fine, there would be a fairly stiff political price to pay. I worry that has gone away.”

Indeed, concern for ethics has gone away. That, along with unwarranted opacity, is one of the key hallmarks of a corrupt government.

Should we require an intelligence test to vote?

 There are multiple links on Google search (or whatever your search engine is) that asks the question: Should passing an intelligence or IQ test be required to vote? 

Ideally not. But when the truly ignorant, bigoted, and ill-informed can vote, what does that say about our ability to vote wisely?

Consider: The senior, who is barely able to still contemplate the world around him or her, being coerced by their kids to vote a certain way. 

Consider: A uneducated poor rural family, who have limited access to the internet or news other than Fox.

Consider: A tribe that gets told how to vote by their local leader, or an urban slum resident who lacks a highschool education but is "taught" how to vote by his or her local activist.

Consider: The bigot, who has made no bones about his or her feelings about those different from themselves.

I have read opinions both in favor of and against this idea. Because ONCE you start down this slippery slope, who ELSE will be denied a vote? Already moves are under way to make voting harder for minorities or those without "proper" IDs. 

Now imagine asking people to be informed or intelligent to vote. BUT AGAIN, why not? We need to know how to drive to get a driver's license, right? Yeah but, we can also be as dumb as doorknobs to have kids and no one can say different. Same, apparently, for voting.

SO the question remains: Should we require that voters at least have some level of knowledge, learning, and intelligence to vote?

Random stuff from the internet

There is just so much going on. 

Satan returns for Christmas to the capitol building

In the Illinois capitol building, The Satanic Temple out up its annual Christmas display with its God Baphomet shown as a baby in a basket. Baphomet is the goat headed thing with a human body and hoofs. Grumpy Catholics were there protesting its presence. 

Catholics protesting the baby Baphomet

Ban blasphemy, gol' darn it!

Insulting the president during a Christmas good will phone call

In Oregon, a man who joined a public phone call with Biden closed by insulting the president. The man, southern Oregon parent, 35-year-old Jared Schmeck, ended his initially polite conversation with, “Merry Christmas and let’s go, Brandon.” The schmuck Schmeck lied when denied he was a Trump supporter and complained that he was being attacked online, commenting "now I am being attacked for utilizing my freedom of speech." After the call, he wore a MAGA hat to an interview with the toxic traitor Steve Bannon. CNN comments: "Aww, poor "victim" Schmeck. Apparently, he thinks he should be able to tell Biden to basically go f**k himself while on a family friendly holiday call, but no one should be able to take issue with his actions."

One has just gotta love that freedom of speech thingie. And liars with their lies.

Democrats really did steal the election!

In a novel rationale to explain why Trump lost the 2020 election, the always delightfully crackpot Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), adduced a novel explanation grounded in evil, underhanded deeds. Here's what the Dems did to win, and (microaggression alert) this isn't for the faint of heart: They went out and legally convinced some voters to vote for Biden. The horror . . . the horror . . . . how could they sink so low? 

The Independent comments on this catastrophe: 

Kentucky senator Rand Paul was mocked on social media after he accused Democrats of “stealing elections” legally by convincing potential voters to support them.

Sharing an article from The American Conservative on how “Mark Zuckerberg’s millions and the Centre for Technology and Civic Life turned Wisconsin blue in 2020,” Mr Paul wrote: “How to steal an election.”

He then cited a paragraph from the report that suggested that Democrats planned to seed “an area heavy with potential Democratic votes with as many absentee ballots as possible, targeting and convincing potential voters to complete them in a legally valid way, and then harvesting and counting the results”.

My God (Baphomet), what is this country coming to?

I don't know what I am talking about, but it is

my right to talk, blah, blah, blah! 

Yup, the Republican leadership still blithers about the election

Making elections have integrity again

Reuters reports that the new laws in Georgia are being used to purge Black Democrats from county election boards. Reuters writes:

Now a faction of three white Republicans controlled the board – thanks to a bill passed by the Republican-led Georgia legislature earlier this year. The Spalding board’s new chairman has endorsed former president Donald Trump’s false stolen-election claims on social media.

The panel in Spalding, a rural patch south of Atlanta, is one of six county boards that Republicans have quietly reorganized in recent months through similar county-specific state legislation. The changes expanded the party’s power over choosing members of local election boards ahead of the crucial midterm Congressional elections in November 2022. 

"What we want to make sure is that we have election integrity,” said Butch Miller, the No. 2 Republican in the Georgia Senate, a leading advocate for Senate Bill 202 and a sponsor of the bill to reconstitute the Lincoln County election board.

In five of the Georgia counties that restructured election boards - Troup, Morgan, Pickens, Stephens and Lincoln - the legislature shifted the power to appoint some or all election board members to local county commissions, all of which are currently controlled by Republicans.

By golly, we're gonna get so much election integrity in 2022 and 2024 that it will slop over the top of the bottle and spill over into the swamp in Washington. That will cause all the swamp creatures to prodigiously reproduce. No wait. That's not right. The swamp creatures will go away. That's it -- they'll go away.

Republicans didn't even need the 1/6 insurrection

Republicans in congress were ready to commit the coup without street violence

The (medium credibility) Baily Beast writes:

A former Trump White House official says he and right-wing provocateur Steve Bannon were actually behind the last-ditch coordinated effort by rogue Republicans in Congress to halt certification of the 2020 election results and keep President Donald Trump in power earlier this year, in a plan dubbed the “Green Bay Sweep.”

In his recently published memoir, Peter Navarro, then-President Donald Trump’s trade adviser, details how he stayed in close contact with Bannon as they put the Green Bay Sweep in motion with help from members of Congress loyal to the cause.

But in an interview last week with The Daily Beast, Navarro shed additional light on his role in the operation and their coordination with politicians like Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) and Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX).

“We spent a lot of time lining up over 100 congressmen, including some senators. It started out perfectly. At 1 p.m., Gosar and Cruz did exactly what was expected of them,” Navarro told The Daily Beast. “It was a perfect plan. And it all predicated on peace and calm on Capitol Hill. We didn’t even need any protestors, because we had over 100 congressmen committed to it.”  

Staffers for Cruz and Gosar did not respond to requests for comment. (Well, duh! What a shocker!)

I'll just assume the medium credibility Daily Beast (DB) isn't just making this stuff up. Some of it is fact checkable. Of course regarding the interview, Navarro can now just deny that he said what the DB says he said. He would do that if he was told to say he didn't say those things because it just looks soooo darn bad for Republicans. Well, probably to at least some Republicans based on their "don't play into their hands" talking point. 

Caveat: This brings up a common problem in modern day politics. Here, we've got the medium credibility news source DB talking about a rabid, no credibility Republican Trump supporter. So, even if Navarro changes his mind and denies all of it, the DB still gets the benefit of the doubt. Why would Navarro makes up lies like that to the DB -- to trap the DB or make it look bad? 

But of course, minds will differ on this. This is why I prefer and usually use high credibility sources over lower or no credibility sources.