The Eastman memo: A fascist plan to subvert an election

The Washington Post writes about a way to overthrow the US government that a legal adviser to the ex-president wrote to steal the 2020 election for him:

it’s a good bet that most people have never even heard of the Eastman memo.

That says something troubling about how blasé the mainstream press has become about the attempted coup in the aftermath of the 2020 election — and how easily a coup could succeed next time.

The memo, unearthed in Bob Woodward and Robert Costa’s new book, is a stunner. Written by Trump legal adviser John Eastman — a serious Establishment Type with Federalist Society cred and a law school deanship under his belt — it offered Mike Pence, then in his final days as vice president, a detailed plan to declare the 2020 election invalid and give the presidency to Trump.

In other words, how to run a coup in six easy steps.

Pretty huge stuff, right? You’d think so, but the mainstream press has largely looked the other way. Immediately after the memo was revealed, according to a study by left-leaning Media Matters for America, there was no on-air news coverage — literally zero on the three major broadcast networks: ABC, NBC and CBS. Not on the evening newscasts watched by more than 20 million Americans, far greater than the audience for cable news. Not on the morning shows the next day. And when Sunday rolled around, NBC’s “Meet the Press” was the only broadcast network show that bothered to mention it. (Some late-night hosts did manage to play it for laughs.)

“The Horrifying Legal Blueprint for Trump’s War on Democracy” read the headline on Jonathan Chait’s piece in New York magazine’s Intelligencer section. And in the New York Times, columnist Jamelle Bouie took it on with “Trump Had a Mob. He Also Had a Plan.” The Post’s Greg Sargent hammered away at it.

Some national newspapers paid attention, but not much. USA Today with a story; the New York Times with a few paragraphs dropped deep into a sweeping news analysis.

For the most part, the memo slipped past the public — just another piece of flotsam from the wreckage of American society, drifting by unnoticed.

Questions: 

1. Has the MSM failed to report responsibly on the Eastman memo, or is it merely an aberrant curiosity of little importance and the MSM did a fine job by mostly ignoring it?

2. Is corporate ownership and/or capitalism of news media mostly compatible with competent, professional journalism, or mostly incompatible? Does it matter that corporations are people and unlimited dark money can flow to politicians to buy them? 

Status check: The Democrats and judicial nominees

Under current broken government circumstances, political partisan appointments to the federal bench are the most direct way to move politics to the left, right or anywhere else. Congress is hopelessly broken by hyper-partisan fascist Republicans. Republicans in power don't compromise unless there is absolutely no alternative. Democracy demands compromise. Republican refusal to compromise is anti-democratic authoritarianism.

Under our fascist and crackpot ex-president backed by a fascist and crackpot Republican Party Senate, putting radical right judges on the federal bench was a top priority. Arguably the top priority. What is it under Biden and the Dems?

Wikipedia writes about the status of judicial nominees as of Sept. 30, 2021:

This is a comprehensive list of all Article III and Article IV United States federal judges appointed by President Joe Biden as well as a partial list of Article I federal judicial appointments, excluding appointments to the District of Columbia judiciary.[1]

As of September 30, 2021, the United States Senate has confirmed 14 Article III judges nominated by Biden: five judges for the United States courts of appeals and nine judges for the United States district courts. There are 27 nominations currently awaiting Senate action: eight for the courts of appeals and 19 for the district courts. There are currently five vacancies on the U.S. courts of appeals, 71 vacancies on the U.S. district courts, two vacancies on the U.S. Court of International Trade,[2][3] and 32 announced federal judicial vacancies that will occur before the end of Biden's first term (11 for the courts of appeals and 21 for district courts).[4][5] Biden has not made any recess appointments to the federal courts.

In terms of Article I courts, as of September 30, 2021, the Senate has not confirmed any judges nominated by Biden. There are currently two nominations to Article I courts awaiting Senate action; both for the United States Court of Federal Claims. There are currently four vacancies on the United States Court of Federal Claims, two on the United States Tax Court, and one on the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. On March 2, 2021, Biden designated Elaine D. Kaplan as Chief Judge of the Court of Federal Claims.[6]

Regarding Article IV territorial courts, as of September 30, 2021, the Senate has not confirmed any judges nominated by Biden. Biden has not elevated any judges to the position of Chief Judge.

Questions: 

1. What grade should Biden, Schumer and Senate Democrats reasonably get so far about putting Democratic judges on the federal bench, A, B, C, D or F? 

2. Should Biden's choices not be called Democrats, and if not, why not? Since Republican judges are clearly partisan Republican politicians, should Democrats take the "high ground" and not worry too much about political partisanship, or are we now past that and it's time to drop the pretense?

Words of inspiration… or not.

 

"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."  –Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

What do you think?  First, let me plant some mixed seeds in your brain, just for the hell of it:

• I believe it beyond question
• I believe it, but with caveats
  
• I don’t believe it, period
  
• What a crock, but it makes people feel better
  
• Only after we’ve exhausted every other possibility
• Correlates based on certain variables (e.g., skin pigmentation, bank account balance, how well-connected one is, based on one's GPS situation, other)
• Morality and justice are ECCs (essentially contested concepts) that are in the eye of the beholder
• The moral universe keeps changing the goal posts and can’t be kept up with in a timely manner
• There is no "universal arbitrator" of morality and justice
  
• God decides justice and morality, not man
• Justice is just a four seven letter word
• Idealistic, bleeding-heart bullshit
• Theoretical, not real.  Wake up and smell the corruption
  
• “The [arc] wall is high, and too hard to climb,” a la Juliette
• “I believe for every drop of rain that falls, a flower grows”
• “What’s morality got to do, got to do with it?”
• “A tree grows in Brooklyn,” but that’s about the extent of it
• “There is a rose in Spanish Harlem.”  And she’s mostly effed.

Okay, okay, getting a little weird here just for the dramatization (and I know it 😉).  Anyway, here’s the question:

Do you believe that the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice?

Bloviate.  And recommend.

Pragmatic rationalism: Another forlorn attempt to explain it

Germaine's predicament -- cognitive rocks are super heavy

This blog post is another of my proverbial lost causes. But I'm a modern day Sisyphus. In my opinion, my past attempts to explain my political anti-ideology ideology, pragmatic rationalism, have been unsatisfactory.

Nonetheless, Sisyphus is persistent. He keeps pushing that rock up the hill, hoping the spouse doesn't, uh, interfere?

Hey tweety pie, could you please let that thing go and get some groceries?? 

You can play with your rock later. I'll make sure it 

stays at the bottom of the hill. 

Aw, crud, do I have to?

Yesterday, I tried to explain why I now believe that the Republican Party and its rank and file supporters are fairly included in the label of FRP (fascist Republican Party). I got entangled in this quite useful politics back and forth, also known among experts as "to and fro."  

The following is from yesterday's discussion here about the fascism or lack thereof among Republican rank and file voters.

Opening volley: I don't think your description of the Republican party is either helpful or entirely fair. You basically are saying that there are 3 types of Republicans: Christian nationalists, Nazis, and the people deluded by Fox News. There isn't enough daylight between these groups to call them separate.

Most of the people who actually care about fiscal conservatism (read: tax cuts) are a separate group. The second group are the actual elites, and they don't care much about the first group (we'll call them the base). The elites don't have the same social priorities of the base, but they're happy to use them and let them have their way if it means feeding their interests. Likewise, the base is willing to parrot the points of the elites, but they don't really care about the priorities of the elites. Both are fine with authoritarianism, but for different reasons. The elites are fine with it because it solidifies their power. The base is fine with it because it lets them impose their will on others.

Sisyphus response 1: 

The second group are the actual elites, and they don't care much about the first group (we'll call them the base). The elites don't have the same social priorities of the base, but they're happy to use them and let them have their way if it means feeding their interests. .... Both are fine with authoritarianism, but for different reasons.

That is a really nice, clear way to describe the situation. Well done.

That is how I see it. The elites are happy to, and expert at, using the base to serve their own interests.

But I do not understand the unfairness you see in how I characterize and label the FRP. I'm missing something in your reasoning. Is fascism the wrong label, and if so, why? What is a better label, or is it better to assign labels to the different groups to be more accurate?

For example:
elites = three groups (i) anti-democratic laissez faire capitalists, (ii) anti-democratic radical Christian nationalists, and (iii) anti-democratic racists, fascists and/or White supremacists
R&F = ? (some of all of the above?)

Volley 2: The label of fascist is fine for the party as an organization. What's unfair is saying that there are only 3 types of Republicans: Christian nationalists, Nazis, and the people deluded by Fox News.

You stated that there are 2 groups. The elites, radical ideologues whose main goals include Christian nationalism, and the rank and file, 50% of whom are Nazis, and 50% of whom are deluded by Fox News. By your reasoning, all Republicans fall into one of those 3 groups. That's what isn't fair.

There are plenty of Republicans who joined the party because they are anti-tax and/or anti-regulation. They don't care about Christian nationalists, Nazis, or Fox News, both in the sense that they don't necessarily share that ideology but also in that they feel no need to oppose it. Saying there's no difference between that group of Republicans and those who fall into your 3 groups is unfair and inaccurate.

Response 2: I understand your point. Not all Republicans are strictly in one or more of those three major groups. That is true.

But here is my problem. Reference to the FRP includes in people who aren't in one of the three groups, but they are in the genus group called Republicans, which includes all groups, not just the big three. If these outliers vote for Republican candidates who advocate for anti-democratic policies and rely heavily on anti-democratic rhetoric and dark free speech, what are those people? They support the fascism of the FRP with their votes. Maybe there are enough Republicans outside the big three groups that they are a necessary block of votes to win state and/or federal elections for anti-democratic or fascist Republicans.

In their minds they are not fascists. But in practice, what does their meaningful behavior amount to?

Volley 3: If you're just going to paint them all with the same brush based on how they're voting, you don't need to go through the charade of separating them into categories that you're just going to ignore. If you're actually trying to understand them, though, you have to consider where they're coming from. The question, then, it what you're trying to do. Are you trying to justify screaming about them? Or are you trying to make a fair description of them?

Response 3: 

... you don't need to go through the charade of separating them into categories that you're just going to ignore.

It's not a charade on my part. It is an attempt to explain why the categories can collapse into the single FRP label. Some people accuse me of unreasonably lumping disparate groups into one genus and to be transparent, explaining the subgroups helps people understand my reasoning, which they are free to partly or completely accept or reject. At least when others decide, it will be on the basis of a reasonable understanding of why I lumped groups as I now do. I don't ignore the small groups but conclude that, by their actions or behaviors, they defensibly or rationally can be included in a larger generic group.

Are you trying to justify screaming about them? Or are you trying to make a fair description of them?

I am trying to make a fair description of them. I try not to engage in irrational screaming. Not all criticism amounts to irrational screaming. But unless I explain myself and my reasoning, people have no objective basis to decide if I am unjustifiably screaming or fairly describing something that is complicated and open to dispute.

Without an empirical basis to understand my beliefs, people default to politics as usual, i.e., people who agree will see my opinions as true, and ones who disagree will see them as false or flawed. I don't want to do politics as usual. IMO, politics as usual is inherently toxic and anti-democratic. I want to do pragmatic rationalist politics and that requires enough explanation to afford people a better basis to decide for themselves than mere uncritical agreement or disagreement with an opinion not supported by any facts, truths and/or reasoning.

Volley 4: You really don't seem like you're trying to make a fair description. Your three categories look more like of a collection of insults than any kind of serious effort to understand them, and your dismissal of anyone who doesn't fit one of those three as being a small minority not worth considering only compounds that impression. The entire post makes me think it's unlikely you have any friends or family that are conservatives.

Response 4: Fair enough. At least we understand each other and that is a good thing.

To recapitulate, nothing I have said to try to explain myself in this blog post and my comments to you is sufficient for you to believe that my assertion of facts, truths and reasoning is nothing more than mere insults with no respect or serious effort to understand the people my comments discuss. 

Just curious, exactly what do I not understand about the people you believe I unfairly and/or irrationally smear, slander and/or falsely lump together or characterize? Since you offer almost no details of your facts, truth or reasoning, I assume you completely reject everything I assert as false or worse, with little or no probative weight in fact, truth or reason.

 

I am not trying to be obtuse or disrespectful to you. I am trying to explain myself. So far, my explanation is completely unpersuasive in your mind. I accept that, but don't understand why.

FWIW, some of my family is deeply conservative, but not my immediate family. Some of my friends are conservative, but not hard core T**** supporters -- they are uncomfortable with the modern GOP. Would a different family and friends situation for me necessarily make a major difference in my analysis and beliefs? How many liberal friends and family do T**** supporters have and would a difference in

Volley 5: to be determined if there is a return volley

The point I want to make

The core point I want to make here is in the comments highlighted above. Whether one agrees or disagrees with my assessment of rank and file Republicans as fascists is beside the point here. 

My point is this: One cannot do rational pragmatism without at least some explanation of asserted facts, truths and/or reasoning. Absent that, there is no rational basis to evaluate most political opinions in dispute, ~98% in my opinion. In those cases, politics defaults to politics as usual where people agree with opinions they like and disagree with ones they don't.

Questions: Other than facts, truths and reasoning, what else is there to evaluate the acceptability or lack thereof in disputed political opinions, e.g., personal morals and self-interest? Are morals and self-interest built into truths? Is this blog post too wonky?

Fighting wave of misinfo, YouTube bans false vaccine claims

 YouTube is wiping vaccine misinformation and conspiracy theories from its popular video-sharing platform.

The ban on vaccine misinformation, announced in a blog post on Wednesday, comes as countries around the world continue to offer free immunizations for COVID-19 to a somewhat hesitant public. Public health officials have struggled to push back against a steady current of online misinformation about the COVID-19 shot since development of the immunization first got underway last year.

YouTube’s new rules will prohibit misinformation about any vaccine that has been approved by health authorities such as the World Health Organization and are currently being administered. The platform had already begun to crack down late last year on false claims about the COVID-19 vaccine.

YouTube, which is owned by Google, will delete videos that falsely claim vaccines are dangerous or cause health issues, like cancer, infertility or autism — a theory that scientists have discredited for decades but has endured on the internet. As of Wednesday, popular anti-vaccine accounts, including those run by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., were kicked off YouTube.

“We’ve steadily seen false claims about the coronavirus vaccines spill over into misinformation about vaccines in general, and we’re now at a point where it’s more important than ever to expand the work we started with COVID-19 to other vaccines,” YouTube said in a prepared statement.

The new rule will apply to general claims about vaccines as well as statements about specific vaccines, such as those given for measles or flu.

Claims about vaccines that are being tested will still be allowed. Personal stories about reactions to the vaccine will also be permitted, as long as they do not come from an account that has a history of promoting vaccine misinformation. ___

https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-technology-business-misinformation-public-health-d68aa3f6f6bc44e36c77c33cff4a450a

What took YouTube so long? OR will this be seen as censorship of opposing views? 

Is the label “fascist Republican Party” unduly unfair, inaccurate and/or offensive?

American fascists, Kansas City, MO, 2013

Context

Several people here have pointed out that not all Republicans are fascist, which in my opinion is probably true in some sense. That said, I put a lot of thought into the label before starting to use the FRP (fascist Republican Party) label after the 1/6 coup attempt. I understand that what we have now is not identical to fascism under Mussolini. But I believe the similarities are sufficient to warrant the label. And, what the FRP wants to do to this country is not done yet. If that party gets its way, I believe that the differences between Mussolini and what we are now would significantly narrow further. The overt, ongoing Republican Party attack on democracy, elections, the rule of law, civil liberties, inconvenient facts and inconvenient truths is not over yet. Its not close, at least among the elites and power players that dominate the FRP.

Has corporate power merged with the American state?

What is the modern FRP?

In my opinion, the FRP consists of two main different groups that dominate the party, the elites and the rank and file (R&F). The elites consist of radical ideologues, prominently radical fundamentalist Christian nationalists and radical wealthy laissez faire capitalists and special interests. One main goal of the elites is to install fascism in the name of trickling wealth and power up to the top few. The other man goal is to impose dark ages Christian morality and biblical law, basically Christian sharia, on what they see and/or claim is a nation deeply corrupted by horrors such as secularism, social tolerance, ferocious persecution of innocent Christians, racial impurity and sexual abomination. That group clearly is, among some other bad things, anti-democratic, anti-inconvenient truth (deeply mendacious), and fascist. This group utterly dominates the FRP and its divisive, polarizing rhetoric, policies and behaviors.

By contrast, the R&F are a different kettle of fish. Probably at least about 50% are strongly authoritarian or fascist and thus strongly aligned with the elites. Those are the White supremacists, racists, Nazis, capitalist autocrats, etc. The other ~50% see themselves as patriots desperately fighting to defend threatened democracy, truth and other democratic ideals. Most of this portion of the R&F firmly believe the lies and bullshit the elites have convinced them to believe after decades of ruthless radical right propaganda. Some of this portion of the R&F are supportive of violence to defend democracy, with some of those willing to participate in a violent defense with bloodshed.

The lies and bullshit The R&F has been deceived into believing are exemplified by slandering both Democrats and the Democratic Party like this description by one disgruntled conservative observer: 

Trump has returned to the explosive rhetoric of that day [1/6], insisting that he won in a “landslide,” that the “radical left Democrat communist party” stole the presidency in the “most corrupt, dishonest, and unfair election in the history of our country” and that they have to give it back. .... Looking ahead to 2022 and 2024, Trump insists “there is no way they win elections without cheating. There’s no way.” So, if the results come in showing another Democratic victory, Trump’s supporters will know what to do. Just as “generations of patriots” gave “their sweat, their blood and even their very lives” to build America, Trump tells them, so today “we have no choice. We have to fight” to restore “our American birthright.”

That is a direct call for civil war backed by gunfire. It is not an invitation to the opposition to come in for a coffee and donuts chat to compromise and settle differences amicably.  Although it is an authoritarian call for violent overthrow of democracy, most of the R&F see it as a call to defend threatened democracy, and defend it by violence if needed.

In addition to being falsely labeled as radical left communists, some of the R&F believe that the Democratic Party and rank and file Democrats are, among other awful things, 

    (i) cannibalistic pedophiles; 

    (ii) conducting a massive deep state conspiracy to install some form of fascism or other form of tyranny on the American people; 

    (iii) planning to confiscate all guns and then enslave most everyone; 

    (iv) planning to make Christianity illegal and apply force to convert everyone to atheism; 

    (v) planning to rig all future elections so that Republicans cannot win elections any more, because “there is no way they win elections without cheating.”; and/or

    (vi) planning to replace White people in power and White people’s rights with non-White immigrants who will (a) invariably vote for Democrats, and (b) enjoy rights superior to the rights of White people.  

That is mainstream FRP propaganda and talking points. Tens of millions of the FRP R&F believe at least some of that deranged crackpottery and lies. Some or many independents also believe at least some of it. Heck, even some Democrats believed, probably still do, that the 2020 election was stolen. That kind of vicious FRP propaganda has been going on for decades. It has worked with most of the R&F.

Back to the FRP label

People will partly or completely accept or reject that description of the modern Republican Party. I believe it is accurate and not overstated or understated. Nearly all Republicans will reject most or all of it. Opinions of others will vary widely. 

But based on my perception of the Republican Party, that is why I use the label FRP for both the elites and the R&F. I resisted lumping the two groups before the 1/6 coup attempt, but not after that. After 1/6, there was no excuse to keep the elites separate from the R&F. Most people either saw 1/6 as pro-democracy or anti-democracy, despite FRP propaganda painting it as just innocent tourists taking selfies in the Capitol. 

So, despite most, (~90 ?) of the Republican R&F strongly believing, actually “knowing,” they are not fascists, their beliefs and behaviors directly support and sustain elite FRP American fascism. If the R&F walked away from the Republican Party and stopped voting for the politicians in power now, the cancer of Republican Party fascism would die. 

People sometimes do act based on false belief(s), thinking they support X and/or oppose Y, but in fact their actions do the opposite. That is what is happening here. The Republican elites and their well-funded propaganda Leviathan have finally managed to deceive, manipulate and betray most of the Republican R&F. 

Questions: 

1. Under current circumstances in the Republican Party, is it unfair, inaccurate and/or offensive to label the Party, its elites and/or the R&F fascist? If not fascist, what label would be better, authoritarian, radical, autocratic, plutocratic, Republican, something else?

2. Assuming one believes that most of the Republican R&F are deceived and not aware of what they actually support, does that mean they are not fascists? Or, does the Republican Party not actually support fascism, but is mostly or completely benign and pro-democracy?

3. Should members of the Republican R&F leave the party in protest, or stay while believing that they and/or the GOP are not fascist?  

Some racists are in the mix