The Last Great GOP RINO Hunt: Looks Like the Fascists Will Win

Kevin McCarthy - seeking reconciliation, went from saying the

ex-president incited the attempted coup on Jan. 6 to the lie 

that “everybody across this country” bore some responsibility

Credit...

Context

Over the last 12 years, major changes occurred in the GOP leadership and the rank and file to a major extent. The election of Obama in 2008 accelerated three pre-existing trends, leading to what are essentially final outcomes. First, the GOP completed an ideological cleansing process from moderately rational and reality-based conservatism to mostly irrational radical right anti-democratic authoritarianism that some people, including me, now consider to be a form of fascism. 

Second, it transitioned from a party willing to be reasonably bipartisan to a party focused on single party rule and total opposition to the democratic party and policies. That change (i) caused compromise and democratic governance to die, and (ii) included attacks on opposition and minority voting rights to be greatly intensified. Intolerance if dissent within the GOP itself extended to party leadership. Politicians seen to be too independent either forced out and retired or were attacked and replaced by authoritarian radicals.

Third, despite their success, the RINO hunts were not over despite years of internal ideological and dissent cleansing. The ex-president took the existing trends to their final conclusion and led to the last great GOP RINO hunt, which is underway right now. The split is between GOP leadership who supports the ex-president and those who finally decided they could no longer support him. Most rank and file republicans (~75% ?) appear to still rabidly support the ex-president, so presumably they are a significant factor in forcing the last RINO hunt (for the foreseeable future) to play out.

The last RINO hunt

Several sources are reporting on the GOP split. It looks like the fascist wing of the party is going to take full control. Leaders of the ex-president's supporters in congress are openly workinig to get rid of the remaining "normal" republicans. The New York Times writes:

Two weeks after [California] Representative Kevin McCarthy, the top House Republican, enraged Donald J. Trump by saying that he considered the former president responsible for the violent mob attack at the Capitol, the two men met on Thursday for what aides described as a “good and cordial” meeting, and sought to present a united front.

The meeting at Mr. Trump’s private club in Palm Beach, Fla., came two weeks after Mr. McCarthy, in a speech on the House floor, said that the former president “bears responsibility” for the events of Jan. 6, when a throng of his supporters stormed the Capitol after a rally in which Mr. Trump urged them to “fight like hell” against his election defeat.

It was the latest evidence that top Republicans, many of whom harshly criticized Mr. Trump after the assault, have quickly swung back into line behind him and are courting his support as he faces a second impeachment trial.

On Thursday, aides released a photograph of Mr. McCarthy and Mr. Trump posing together in one of the ornate rooms at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago club, and issued a statement calling the meeting a “very good and cordial one.” The statement bore the hallmarks of Mr. Trump’s bombastic and often false assertions about himself, incorrectly claiming that his “popularity has never been stronger than it is today.”

“His endorsement means more than perhaps any endorsement at any time,” the statement, issued by Mr. Trump’s Save America political action committee, added, saying that Mr. Trump had agreed to work with Mr. McCarthy to try to take back the House majority in 2022.

Matt Gaetz (R-FL) - leading the last RINO hunt &

aiming for the big game called Liz Cheney (R-WY)

A short segment that NPR broadcast this morning focused on a recent trip to Wyoming by Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL) in aid of the ongoing GOP fascist wing RINO hunt. He spoke to Wyoming republicans and promised to support a challenger to Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY), the No. 3 House republican. Cheney criticized the ex-president and voted with nine republicans to impeach the ex-president on a charge of “incitement of insurrection.” The crowd loved the Gaetz attack on the RINO Cheney. They love the ex-president.

Whether they love it or not, or know it or not, an apparent majority of the GOP leadership and apparently most rank and file party member are settling into some form of demagogic fascism with an anti-democratic mindset. It is reasonable to believe that contempt for, or rejection of, inconvenient facts, inconvenient truths, inconvenient sound reasoning and inconvenient democratic norms will continue to dominate the rhetoric and behavior of the ascending fascist wing on the party. 

For now, the GOP will be unstable because the ex-president is its de facto leader and his approval rating among all Americans is low. Although the RNO hunt is not over, it seems that the pro-ex-president wing will win and take full control after the cleansing is completed in the next 2-4 years. At present, no major republican politician seems to have the gravitas to stop fascists from taking full control of the radical right GOP which has transitioned from a tribe to a personality cult.

Good News!: Housecleaning Is In Progress

Biden swearing in the professionals after kicking out 

the partisan authoritarians and rank amateur partisans

The New York Times writes about what Biden is doing to deep state republicans the ex-president installed in the federal government to sabotage it. This is excellent news. Apparently Biden gets it and is doing something about it right now. The NYT writes:

When President Biden swore in a batch of recruits for his new administration in a teleconferenced ceremony late last week, it looked like the country’s biggest Zoom call. In fact, Mr. Biden was installing roughly 1,000 high-level officials in about a quarter of all of the available political appointee jobs in the federal government.

At the same time, a far less visible transition was taking place: the quiet dismissal of holdovers from the Trump administration, who have been asked to clean out their offices immediately, whatever the eventual legal consequences.

If there has been a single defining feature of the first week of the Biden administration, it has been the blistering pace at which the new president has put his mark on what President Donald J. Trump dismissed as the hostile “Deep State” and tried so hard to dismantle.

From the Pentagon, where 20 senior officials were ready to move in days before the Senate confirmed Lloyd J. Austin III as defense secretary, to the Voice of America, where the Trump-appointed leadership was replaced hours after the inauguration, the Biden team arrived in Washington not only with plans for each department and agency, but the spreadsheets detailing who would carry them out.  

A replacement was even in the works for the president’s doctor: Dr. Sean P. Conley, who admitted to providing a rosy, no-big-deal description of Mr. Trump’s Covid-19 symptoms last year, was told to pack his medical kit. While all presidents eventually bring in their own doctor, Mr. Biden wasted no time bringing back a retired Army colonel, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, who was his doctor when he was vice president. 

At the National Security Council, the White House said in a statement, Mr. Biden has “nearly doubled the number of staff ready to start and onboarded than either Trump did in 2017 or Obama in 2009.” The White House offered no specific numbers, but said they reflected “the urgent need to build — in some cases rebuild — capabilities like climate, cyber, global health security and biodefense, and democracy from the ground up.” (emphasis added)

Biden is kicking out the bums and crooks loyal to the ex-president out and replacing them with competent people loyal to the Constitution, the rule of law and the American people. This is a real feel-good story.

WHAT GOD CREATED

 On the first day, God created the dog and said, "Sit all day by the door of your house and bark at anyone who comes in or walks past. For this, I will give you a life span of twenty years."

The dog said, "That's a long time to be barking. How about only ten years and I'll give you back the other ten?"

And God saw it was good.

On the second day, God created the monkey and said, "Entertain people, do tricks, and make them laugh. For this, I'll give you a twenty-year life span."

The monkey said, "Monkey tricks for twenty years? That's a pretty long time to perform. How about I give you back ten like the dog did?"

And God, again saw it was good.

On the third day, God created the cow and said, "You must go into the field with the farmer all day long and suffer under the sun, have calves and give milk to support the farmer's family. For this, I will give you a life span of sixty years."

The cow said, "That's kind of a tough life you want me to live for sixty years. How about twenty and I'll give back the other forty?"

And God agreed it was good.

On the fourth day, God created humans and said, "Eat, sleep, play, marry and enjoy your life. For this, I'll give you twenty years."

But the human said, "Only twenty years? Could you possibly give me my twenty, the forty the cow gave back,

the ten the monkey gave back,

and the ten the dog gave back; that makes eighty, okay?"

"Okay," said God, "You asked for it."

So that is why for our first twenty years, we eat, sleep, play and enjoy ourselves.

For the next forty years, we slave in the sun to support our family.

For the next ten years, we do monkey tricks to entertain the grandchildren.

And for the last ten years, we sit on the front porch and bark at everyone.

Life has now been explained to you.

There is no need to thank me for this valuable information.

I'm doing it as a public service.

If you are looking for me I will be on the front porch...

Supreme Court Dismisses Lawsuits Against the Ex-President, Endorsing Blatant Large-Scale Corruption

Cases 20-330 and 20-331 - dismissed as moot

The ex-president is off the hook

On Jan. 22, the justices met and decided what to do about various cases. Two cases, 20-330 and 20-331 were lawsuits against the former president for violating the emoluments clause. The cases had been pending for several years. In both cases, the ex-president lost his attempt to dismiss the cases at the federal appeals court level. In the Jan. 22 meeting, the justices voted to accept the cases for consideration than then dismissed both as moot. The justices ordered to lower court cases to be dismissed, leaving no federal appellate court opinion left on the record.

In essence, the court delayed long enough to allow the ex-president to illegally profit for all the time he was in office with no adverse legal impact. Going forward, the next corrupt president will have a roadmap of how to be corrupt and profit from being in office. All the president has to do is get out of office before the court finally gets around to dealing with lawsuits. The US supreme court has endorsed blatant, large-scale corruption by providing a roadmap of how to profit from being the president.

Some of the attorneys who argued cases against the ex-president claimed that one lower court decision would serve as a deterrent, but that is just speculation. An AP article commented: 

The cases never reached the point where any records had to be turned over. But Karl Racine and Brian Frosh, the attorneys general of Washington, D.C., and Maryland, respectively, said in a joint statement that a ruling by a federal judge in Maryland that went against Trump “will serve as precedent that will help stop anyone else from using the presidency or other federal office for personal financial gain the way that President Trump has over the past four years.”

What about the rule of law?

No justice dissented from the vote to dismiss these two lawsuits. Because of that, people who actually value and respect the rule of law can conclude that all nine justices should be impeached for gross incompetence, corruption and/or unreasonable political bias. Is that an unreasonable reaction? Maybe. 

It is the case that in February of 2021 the ex-president will be tried in the US Senate for insurrection even though he is and will be out of office. If he can be held responsible after leaving office for impeachable offenses, why can't he be held responsible for blatant corruption after leaving office? What great legal principle does this inexplicable incoherence rest on? None that I'm aware of, but I'm not a legal scholar. Or, will the impeachment case go up to the court and then dismissed as moot, once again protecting a corrupt and treasonous ex-president? Maybe that is how the 2nd impeachment case will crash and burn.

Maybe the ex-president was right to say that a US president is above the law. That is how it has played out so far.

Once again, the depressing weakness of the rule of law is on display. Powerful and wealthy people and politicians operate under a far more lenient set of laws than the rest of us unwashed masses. As discussed here before, laws don't really exist for the most part for the rich and powerful. This is another mark of the profound sickness that has descended on and engulfed American government and the courts. Wealth and power have been turned against the people. That is done in service to the wealthy and powerful, not the public interest.

Can you do it?

 

In regards to the impeachment trial of ex-President Donald J. Trump, all 100 U.S. Senators will today take an oath to do “impartial justice”:

"I solemnly swear (or affirm, as the case may be) that in all things appertaining to the trial of the impeachment of (the president’s name), President of the United States, now pending, I will do impartial justice according to the Constitution and laws: so help me God.”

There will be cases made on both sides as to whether Trump is guilty or not guilty as to the incitement of insurrection against the U.S. Government.

Your task here is to advocate for Trump’s innocence.  Playing the part of his lead lawyer, make your case(s) for your client’s innocence*.  How would you go about this task?

_______

*Does not imply you personally believe this argument. 

 

Thanks for taking the challenge.

Twitter launches 'Birdwatch,' a forum to combat misinformation

Twitter said it hopes to build a community of "Birdwatchers" that can eventually help moderate and label tweets in its main product.

Twitter unveiled a feature Monday meant to bolster its efforts to combat misinformation and disinformation by tapping users in a fashion similar to Wikipedia to flag potentially misleading tweets.

The new system allows users to discuss and provide context to tweets they believe are misleading or false. The project, titled Birdwatch, is a standalone section of Twitter that will at first only be available to a small set of users, largely on a first-come, first-served basis. Priority will not be provided to high-profile people or traditional fact-checkers, but users will have to use an account tied to a real phone number and email address.

“Birdwatch allows people to identify information in Tweets they believe is misleading or false, and write notes that provide informative context," Twitter Vice President of Product Keith Coleman wrote in a press release. "We believe this approach has the potential to respond quickly when misleading information spreads, adding context that people trust and find valuable."

While Birdwatch will initially be cordoned off to a separate section of Twitter, the company said “eventually we aim to make notes visible directly on Tweets for the global Twitter audience, when there is consensus from a broad and diverse set of contributors.”

Demos of the product viewed by NBC News showed a separate area in which tweets are discussed and rated in a format that combines elements of both Reddit’s and Wikipedia’s moderation tools.

Birdwatch users are able to flag tweets from a dropdown menu directly within Twitter’s main interface, but discussion about a tweet’s veracity will remain exclusively in the Birdwatch section. Twitter says it does anticipate some users linking directly to Birdwatch discussions underneath high-profile and controversial tweets, just as some users would link out to fact-checking sites.

Participants in Birdwatch are able to rate others’ notes, as a mechanism to prevent bad-faith users from gaming the system and falsely labeling true tweets as false. Those ratings are then assembled into a Birdwatch profile separate of a Twitter profile, not unlike Reddit’s user-rating system.

Twitter said it hopes to build a community of "Birdwatchers" that can eventually help moderate and label tweets in its main product, but will not be immediately labeling tweets with Birdwatch suggestions.

Twitter has faced increased pressure over the last year to address rampant misinformation on the platform. Aside from removal, it has relied on labeling, or adding context below tweets that spread misinformation. In March, facing a deluge of misinformation about the pandemic, it began removing “misleading and potentially harmful content” about Covid-19. By May, it had introduced labels to respond to tweets containing conspiracy theories about the origins of the disease and fake cures.

In February, Twitter rolled out a new “manipulated media” label, affixing it first to a tweet from then-President Donald Trump. In the months ahead, it would label many more for misinformation around the Covid-19 pandemic and the election. In just the final two weeks before the election, Twitter said it labeled some 300,000 tweets for “disputed and potentially misleading” content.

Twitter told NBC News it was encouraged by early trials of the program, which have been ongoing in the last year. NBC News first reported on a leaked demo of the program, which was then titled “Community Notes,” in last February.

Twitter heavily focused on the threat of “manipulation” by what it calls “swarms” of bad actors, who may seek to use the platform as another weapon in online information wars.

“We know there are a number of challenges toward building a community-driven system like this — from making it resistant to manipulation attempts to ensuring it isn’t dominated by a simple majority or biased based on its distribution of contributors. We’ll be focused on these things throughout the pilot,” Coleman wrote.

Researchers will also be able to download bulk data about Birdwatch entries, which he hopes will “enable experts, researchers, and the public to analyze or audit Birdwatch” and deter manipulation.

“We know this might be messy and have problems at times, but we believe this is a model worth trying,” Coleman wrote.

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/twitter-launches-birdwatch-forum-combat-misinformation-n1255552