The Screaming Moderate

Investigating January 6th

7/28/2021

Who is responsible for the riot/protest/insurrection/coup that occurred January 6th at the U.S. Capitol? I don't know, though I can name many who have some responsibility.

That’s why we need an objective commission to investigate the facts. It didn’t happen on its own – I’d say spontaneous combustion was responsible but then what about those folks who wore combat gear, carried radios to communicate with each other, moved in military fashion, stole shields from police officers to beat them, and more?

Honestly, I’m not sure former President Trump is organized or smart enough to know how to pull off a coup. He clearly said he thought the certification that day could be blocked. He wanted his Vice President to do it. But he definitely has a large amount of culpability for what happened that day.

But let’s focus for a moment on those four officers who testified before the special committee yesterday. If you could watch that and not shed tears at various points, you have no heart. Whether a protest gone bad or an attempted coup, those officers and their colleagues fought against the odds to protect the Congress.

These men who testified weren’t making stuff up. They definitely didn’t hug or kiss anyone in the mob. They surely didn't roll out the welcome mat. They testified that some in the mob told them “Trump sent us.” If you’ve read about the pre-President Trump, you know that, despite his despot-like character on “The Apprentice,” he seldom gave direct orders, never really fired people. He nearly always gave wishy washy direction that his subordinates then carried out, as they "knew" what he was ordering. That is his style. He doesn’t like leaving fingerprints. Just ask Michael Cohen.

Those officers testified with passion, belief and utter amazement that some elected officials now are trying to say January 6th was a bunch of tourists strolling through the Capitol. If they were that, the Capitol Police would not have reacted as they did. If January 6th was a peaceful protest, there wouldn’t have been a million dollars of damage done to the building, not to mention members and staff of both parties hiding behind barricaded doors in fear of the “protestors.”

As the officers’ testimony was being given, several Republican members of Congress held, or attempted to hold, a press conference outside the Department of Justice where they claimed those arrested in the aftermath of January 6th are political prisoners. Give me a break.

My guess is some of that mob were average citizens, supporters of President Trump who came to Washington to protest what Trump calls, in the biggest lie to threaten our democracy ever, a rigged election. Months before the election he was setting up that excuse as the only explanation if he lost.

Many Republicans are pointing the finger at Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, saying she was responsible for the riot, alleging she didn’t have the proper security measures in place.

If you research the chain of command for the Capitol police you won’t find the Speaker of the House in that line. Nor will you find the Senate Majority Leader. The chief of the Capitol police is responsible for security and he or she reports directly to the Capitol Police Board. The Speaker is not on that board, nor are any members of Congress. It's just one more delusion some are using to deflect responsibility.

Fact is, right or wrong, no one anticipated what happened January 6 could ever happen in America. Or could even imagine it.

“I feel like I went to hell and back to protect them (members of Congress)," said D.C. police officer Michael Fanone who suffered a heart attack and concussion from being beaten and threatened with death by his own gun. “… now, (members of Congress) are telling me that hell doesn’t exist or hell actually wasn’t that bad…The indifference shown to my colleagues is disgraceful.”

There is nothing wrong and everything right with having some objective-as-can-be commission investigate what happened Jan. 6 and who was involved in it.

(To my Republican friends who at this moment are saying, “Yeah, what about a commission to study those BLM riots?” For one, they aren’t comparable and if you don’t understand why I can’ make you understand. For example, no one at those protests was trying to kill the Speaker of the House and hang the Vice President. Or stop a constitutionally mandated formality of certifying the electoral votes. But, whatever.)

Republicans rejected a commission, negotiated with Republicans, with equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats and both parties would had have subpoena power. Pelosi then set up a special committee which, after she rejected two of the biggest flamethrowers in the Republican caucus, was boycotted by Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

(To my Republican friends would now claim that a couple of those Democrats are equal flamethrowers, I would just disagree they are in the same league. Adam Schiff is no Jim Jordan. But, whatever.)

January 6th didn’t just happen. It was planned. By whom is the question and Republicans clearly find the answer inconvenient because cooperating would mean the potential of learning that Trump was culpable in some way(s).

I’ve talked to friends who work for GOP Leadership on the Hill. They say this whole thing (the “rigged” election, the deference to the wants of Trump) is all about winning a majority in the mid-term elections. It’s all about McCarthy wanting to be speaker. Not a surprise, I know. Just another confirmation.

Are there politics on the Democratic side? Of course. They want to remain in control. But where there should be no disagreement is trying to find out what really happened on January 6th. And that's why Republicans Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger joined the panel. They do want the facts to come out. They know what other Republican members are saying privately while they publicly support Trump in fear of him opposing them in the elections -- that we need to understand what happened January 6h so it doesn't happen again.

An investigation is owed not only to the police who defended the Capitol against all odds but to the American people, to the world which is wondering if our democracy can survive and, if they think about it honestly, to all members of Congress whose lives were saved that day by a small number of police (when compared to the number in the mob), and to those police who literally gave their lives that day. Oh yeah, and they protected our democracy while it was under attack. A strong day at work.

(To my Republican friends who now would say “Yeah, what about Ashli Babbitt,” killed by police when she was at the front of a line trying to break through a door guarded by police, January 6th? I wish she wasn’t killed too. But she was trying to break in. Another sad casualty of a battle that should not have been fought.)

I know there will be a lot of “what aboutism” in response to this post by some Republican friends. The fact, though, is that our democracy was threatened that day. That mob’s aim was to stop the Congress from certifying the electoral vote thinking that would keep Donald Trump in office.

But it did happen, and we need to understand why and who is accountable for it.

Why? Because this still is America.

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Right-wing media coming around on the vaccine?

7/21/2021

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Right-wing media/pundits are beginning to change their tune.

Maybe it’s because now it’s primarily the unvaccinated who are dying from COVID. Maybe it’s because it finally hit them that the more they tell people not to get vaccinated, the more of their own voters and supporters are getting sick and dying (Okay, that’s a bit gratuitous. But it’s also true.) Maybe it’s because some developed a conscience (unlikely as that seems) and decided making this just another of their us-versus-them issues is a deadly mistake.

I don’t know which, or if any of that is true. But the tracking I do of the right-wing media (which is getting one round-up email a morning of what they’re saying) shows a distinct change in tune. For example, yesterday’s email from The Righting showed that Newsmax, a crazy right-wing niche outlet led by Trump good buddy Chris Ruddy, quoted Ruddy as saying:

“I like what Biden has done with the vaccine. At Newsmax, we have strongly advocated for the public to be vaccinated. The many medical experts that have appeared on our network have been near unanimous in support of the vaccine. I myself have gotten the Pfizer vaccine. There’s no question countless lives would have been saved if the vaccine was available earlier.”

Sean Hannity, Fox News’ former top right-wing idol (a title he’s lost to colleague Tucker Carlson), the other night on his show said: “It absolutely makes sense for many Americans to get vaccinated. I believe in science. I believe in the science of vaccinations.” Hannity said he will get vaccinated.

Meanwhile Carlson, who won’t say if he’s been vaccinated (but I’ve got a buck says he is), has been putting a decisive foot in each camp. According to Newsweek, “Carlson has repeatedly said that he isn't against vaccination. Rather, he said, he has been concerned with finding answers about ‘basic questions’ concerning COVID-19 vaccines. His show has repeatedly cast doubt about the vaccine’s safety.”

Whatever their reasons for highlighting their more pro-vaccine positions, I’m glad they’re finally doing it and I hope it’s not too late to save some lives. Ninety-nine percent of the people getting COVID today and dying are unvaccinated men and women. Some are true long-term anti-vaxxers, but many are following the lead of their favorite right-wing talking head.

This follows the defenses being used by some of those arrested in the January 6th insurrection who say they invaded the Capitol because “(President) Trump said to do so.”

The point is these pundits and thought-leaders do influence how many Americans react whether it’s to political news, cultural news or getting themselves vaccinated. The point is not every issue is an us-versus-them issue. Sometimes we’re mostly all on the same side. In this case, we all want to live.

It’s one reason the Biden Administration is trying to engage people key to various ethnic and age groups to push for vaccinations – not because the vaccine contains some kind of mind controlling ingredient, or a chip that controls what you do or think – but because the vaccine works. It protects you from dying. Also, it’s a reason they’ve called for a door-to-door campaign to push getting vaccinated. (And, no, those knocking on doors are not there to give you a shot.) Those who say this isn’t the government’s job are wrong. The government is there to protect us. To accurately inform us.

If former President Trump was a different kind of personality, he could take the lead among his base and lobby them to get vaccinated. The vaccine was created on his watch.

A guest on another Fox program stated the other day: “People are saying, ‘why get the vaccine if you’re not going to return to normal? What’s the use of doing it? Why?"

To which host Steve Doocy replied, “Well, you won’t die. That’s a good reason.”

Exactly. This is not about politics or mind control or a culture war or me-versus-you.

To paraphrase Doocy this “life or death.”

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The first meeting of 'the greats'

6/30/2021

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We scheduled June 20, at first not knowing it was Father’s Day, for the re-gathering of my kids, grandkids and me post-pandemic. The day offered extra joy because, for the first time, I’d be meeting my great-granddaughter, Ophelia, who was born in December.

We drove the two hours to my daughter’s house and upon reaching the deck of her home, I immediately saw my great-granddaughter playing with her father at the picnic table. She was, at first glance, even more beautiful than the pictures I’d been collecting of her from her birth. She also was smiling and clearly a very happy child.

I did not immediately approach her, assuming that babies can be a little apprehensive around new faces. I indeed was a new face as those gathered had all had met her. Her other set of great-grandparents visit her often since they live nearby and they sat close to her.

I made the rounds of hugging my kids for the first time in more than a year and took a seat at the opposite end of the table from Ophelia.

She peeked (I think) at me but it could have been her just looking around at the table full of relatives.
So there I sat, talking to my middle daughter for a bit, occasionally peeking over at Ophelia, anticipating holding her soon.

Eventually, my first daughter, the grandmother (I still haven’t fully accepted that my daughter is a grandmother) carried Ophelia toward me. She approached slowly. Carefully. And tenderly put Ophelia in my arms for the very first time. She took one look at me, scrunched up her mouth in what i thought was going to be her first smile at me. And…she wailed like a dangerous psycho was holding her!

I bounced her in my arms, I rubbed her belly as if she was a genie's bottle and she magically would stop crying. She didn’t. The experience lasted about two minutes before my daughter took control back. Ophelia calmed down.

We all chuckled.

Disappointing, yes, but understandable because, well, I was a new face.

The party went on and eventually my daughter again approached me softly, quietly with Ophelia in her arms. Ophelia looked at me as if she was acknowledging I was no longer a threat. She was placed gingerly in my arms and…she wailed even louder than the first time.

This time, I quickly handed her back to my daughter rather than have the child get even more upset.

My wife took a nice picture of me with Ophelia in my arms for the first time, crying her eyes out. I posted it on Facebook, because that’s what we do these days, right? It has so far gathered 217 likes. I don’t know what the normal total of “likes” average people get is, but for me, that was a record.

Why expose the lovely Ophelia now to the addition of a blog post about her? I mean do the literally tens of people who follow this blog need to know this?

Well, she’s just that cute…and she can’t read yet so I think we’re safe from the wailing.

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What's in a (my) name?

6/23/2021

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Most of us go through life and when someone asks, “what’s your name?” and you tell them, immediate reaction is to say “nice to meet you.”

My name leads to other issues. When folks ask my name I typically respond, “B. Jay Cooper.” Now that is easier to pronounce, say, than Georgeanne Pauladunkus, but it’s what happens after that gets more complicated.

For decades some folks call me “Jay” because, I guess, when they hear or see “B. Jay” they immediately think the “B” is silent and I become “Jay.” ("Jay” actually is a name I do not like on its own. Don’t ask me why because I don’t know. I just don’t like “Jay” out there naked and alone -- no offense to the Jays out there. Though I did like all the Jays in Jay and the Americans.) Most who call me Jay don't know me well or see me often so I don't correct them.

Others may hear my name and, if they write me an email or letter, it becomes “B.J. Cooper.” Now, in my 71 years of life – actually in my first 12 years of life – I’ve heard everything that B. J. can possibly stand for. Yes, that too. It’s an immature reaction to a name but then again I guess that’s what 12-year-olds do, or those whose intelligence stopped growing at the age of 12.

That's the reason I spell out "Jay" and my nickname is "B. Jay."

I also often get (this happened again just last week, in fact), “Oh, ha-ha, are you related to D.B. Cooper?” (For those too young to remember, look him up. Briefly though, D.B. Cooper was a name the media gave to Dan Cooper who in the 1970s hijacked a plane, was given $200,000 in ransom money and who proceeded to parachute out of the plane never to be seen again. He was presumed dead. But his body was never found. Thus he became a folk legend.)

The history of how I became “B. Jay” is brief but not simple. My full name is “Barry Jay Cooper.” When I was like 3 or 4 years old my mother nicknamed me B. Jay because, family lore has it, she had a friend who was called JB (John B.) and she liked the sound of it so I became “B. Jay.” (Interestingly decades later I reconnected with the daughter of “JB’ who told me he wasn’t called JB at all. )

Most of my childhood friends call me “B. Jay.” When I’d move to new areas where no one knew me, I often briefly became “Barry,” my legal first name. Like in college because that's the name the prof would use. Then again in my golf club identity, guys call me “B. Jay” and a few call me “Barry” because I originally gave them that name. Of course, when I sign anything legal, my name is “Barry.” I normally can tell where people know me from by what they call me. Or actually, really don’t know me.

When I worked for a newspaper and a story I wrote was going to earn me my first byline, the city editor nicely came by and asked what I wanted my byline to read. I said, well, my name is Barry so I guess Barry Cooper. He said, “yeah but everyone calls you ‘B. Jay and that’s a way cooler byline." Thus, my name professionally from that day on became “B. Jay Cooper.”

(Well, except for that one time that I wrote that I thought was a cute feature story on a bee hive that took up residence in a gift shop named “The Bee’s Nest.” To be extra cute, in the lede of the story I changed every “B” word to start with “bee-” instead of “B.” To be overly cute the fella who edited that story proceeded to change every “B” word in the entire story to start with “bee-.” Unbeknownst to me until I saw the paper the next day, he also changed my byline to “Bee Jay Cooper.” I said, too cute didn’t I?)

How’d I get the name “Barry?” Family lore (again) has it that my mother was going to name me Gary but ultimately decided that there already was a Gary Cooper (again, young folks, look him up) in the world and she didn’t want me teased about it my entire life. Yes, the same woman who dubbed me “B. Jay/BJ.”

There’s really no end to this story nor any point.

Just struck me as bee-musing.

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Voting law changes threaten our democracy

6/16/2021

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Both parties, understandably, seek partisan advantage in the debate over voting laws.

Republicans are trying to restrict voting to decrease the number of votes turned out among constituencies they consider more favorable to Democrats.

Democrats seek to stop the Republican efforts to restrict voting in areas that hurt them and to expand programs used during the pandemic (to lessen voters risks to the virus), such as expanding the time to submit and count absentee ballots and Sunday voting. Democrats believe the more voters vote in those areas, the better their changes of winning.

What no one in either party says is what is good for the average voter – the people those lawmakers are elected to represent.

What is that? I think it’s that voters want more options to cast legitimate ballots. Times have changed. Many families have both parents working. Those families led by a single parent need to balance work and child care and so need options on how to cast their vote.

Why should that be done? Because the spine of a democracy is voters casting ballots freely to determine who should be leading them at the federal, state and local levels. Seems a basic to offer those options to them.

Some new state laws take the secretary of state – the official in charge of election management – out of the process to decide when a vote is final and certified. Most if not all of those secretaries of state – Democrat or Republican -- take their jobs seriously. They only want oversee and certify a fair election. That is their sworn duty.

When that responsibility shifts to a state’s legislature it pushes that vote certification to people with a vested interest in the outcome. It brings partisanship into the counting where it doesn’t belong. State legislators in those cases become the ones deciding not necessarily who fairly won the election, but which way an election goes because it’s good for them or their party.

That’s not democracy.

There is some debate over whether we are witnessing the beginning of the end of democracy in America. If we lose the ability to have a fair and legal election, that will happen. Politicians will be deciding who wins, not the voters.

Donald Trump didn’t start this. His positions before and since the election, though, contributed mightily to the perceived need for major changes in election laws by claiming for years really that elections are not decided fairly. That is sparking the dozens of voting law changes around the country.

Trump has convinced about millions of American voters and a majority of Republican voters that the 2020 election was stolen from him. It was not.

Whatever one thinks about Trump and his policies, you have to admit his carnival barking rivals P.T. Barnum.

One reason Trump was so focused on getting the Republican secretary of state in Georgia to change the election results was because he thought if he could "demonstrate" one state got the counting wrong, he could move on to other states with more credibility. He knew the number of votes he needed and he considered that Republican secretary of state in Georgia “his” person since Trump is the leader of the party.

When that official, Brad Raffensberger, refused to cheat for Trump, Raffensberger demonstrated the ethics of all secretaries of state, dedicated to an honest election. With the changes some states are making, a Raffensberger will be removed from the certification process.

Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, never the statesman, recently said, “The idea of democracy and majority rule really is what goes against our history and what the country stands for. The Jim Crow laws came out of democracy. That’s what you get when a majority ignores the rights of others.”

Not exactly, Senator. That’s what you get when a misguided and/or prejudiced majority ignores the rights of others – just as your party is doing in the states now.

Independent Sen. Angus King of Maine, who lectured on politics at Bowdoin College before going to the Senate, called the American democracy, “a 240-year experiment that runs against the tide of humanity” and that tide usually leads from and back to authoritarianism. King fears the empowerment of state legislatures to decide election results. “This is an incredibly dangerous moment and I don’t think it’s being sufficiently realized as such,” he said.

Put in other words, the future of the country literally is at stake with some of the voting law changes being proposed, and adopted.

While people are focused on the pandemic, on providing for their families, on finding jobs, on health care, on child care and more, not many are likely focused on the changes being made and proposed to voting laws around the country. Understandably. A vast majority of Americans think that last election was fairly decided and recognize Joe Biden as President.

Neither side is 100 percent right on this issue. The principal on voting is simple: it ought to allow everyone the opportunity to cast a legal vote and have their vote counted – whichever way an election goes.

If we lose that, we do lose America.

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The new nearly normal

6/2/2021

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Things are not back to “normal” in this not-quite-post pandemic moment.

While many of us are fully vaccinated, many are not. While new cases are down (thanks to the vaccine), there sill are new cases. While deaths, thankfully, are down, there still are deaths.

That’s why, when I walked into the grocery store the other day, I wore my mask. As I headed to the deli counter, half a big-box store away, I all of a sudden saw people wearing masks – and NOT wearing masks. This was not the normal I’ve been living the past year. When I got to the counter, I asked the fella getting things I requested if we needed masks anymore. He said only if you’re more comfortable that way. Being fully vaccinated, I removed mine.

Then I walked around the grocery just wandering for a few minutes as I took in the new environment of non-mask wearing. I still, of course, wonder if the non-mask wearers were vaccinated or not. There’s obviously no way to tell.

It’s also not back to normal because I still see, every time a TV news story comes on about the pandemic, accompanying video of needles going into arms. Literally. This has been going on since the vaccine became available. Close-up shots of nurses putting needles in arms, the insertion causing an initial depression of the skin. Every time I see it, I react as if I’m being punctured. Seeing the pictures hurts more than the vaccine shot did, which the first time I didn’t know even went in.

I went into our local fish store yesterday, not a huge space. Prior to the “lifting” of restrictions she allowed only four individuals into a store at a time, masks required. I wore mine in yesterday, and asked the policy. Masks required only if you wanted. The store workers still wore their masks. The woman helping me said, “We see more people every day than others” so she was wearing the mask. She thanked me for asking if I needed a mask, though.

Again, that’s not a “normal” question. I likely will be asking it for a while before I feel “normal” again. I need, and I suspect some of you need, some time to remember what was normal before this hideous pandemic arrived.

With most restrictions being lifted, I still worry about more serious outbreaks around the country, with the victims those who refuse to get vaccinated. With bars, stadiums and other venues unlimited in number who can attend, the risk just multiplied many fold.

To try to motivate those not yet vaccinated to get their shots, many states are offering incentives. Like a million dollar lottery or two. I saw one kid, still in grammar school, won a full-ride college scholarship!

What gets me most about those programs to incentivize the unvaccinated is that we even need them. I don’t care that they may get a million bucks while I got nothing – well, except being protected against a deadly disease! That was plenty of incentive for me.

The feeling I got just scheduling the first dose was freeing.

President Biden and others are saying it’s a patriotic duty to get vaccinated. I agree. It’s also a human duty. It protects you and me and that person in the grocery store who I don’t know.

Mostly, it protects you. If you haven’t please get vaccinated. Don’t trust the vaccine? Look around, millions have gotten the vaccine with no ill effects at all.

You can enjoy the “freedoms” I now do without getting vaccinated. But there likely is a limit on that freedom. It isn’t risk-free.

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Oys! and Yos!

5/26/2021

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(The Screaming Moderate occasionally hands out awards for Yos! and Oys!, celebrating those individuals who do good deeds (Yo!) and bad ones (Oy!). The Committee on Yos! and Oys! meets when it feels like it.)

A gigantic Yo! to all those students (grammar, high school, and college) for adjusting and succeeding at distance learning the past year and to those graduates who endured/enjoyed their senior years without the traditional markers (proms, graduations) most of us had. It couldn’t have been easy and it had to take dedication and focus to ignore all the more fun things that surely distracted many from putting in the hours on their computers/tablets. Congratulations!

An equally gigantic Yo! to those first responders, health care workers and scientists who performed above and beyond to save as many people as possible from the pandemic at risk of their own lives. The scientists developed incredibly effective vaccines in an incredibly short amount of time that already is saving lives. Thanks, too, to former President Trump who okayed Operation Warp Speed which dedicated billions of dollars to rush the vaccine development. While he deserves credit for that, he also deserves a huge Oy! for his denial of the seriousness and neglect of pushing for mask-wearing and more to protect Americans. The battle is not over yet as more Americans need to be vaccinated, though. So, get vaccinated!

Oy! and yo! (Depending on your politics) to a group battling for the low ground to fill an eventual void of Donald Trump. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is doing his best Trump imitation not only by closing what should be public events to the press (except to his favored right-wing outlets like Fox or OAN) to trying to pull more and more power into the Governor’s hands and away from local officials.

Then there’s Georgia Cong. Marjorie Taylor Greene, whose every utterance is aimed at raising money. She is a money-raising machine as well as a bigot, racist, anti-Semite and more. For her outrageous and hurtful comments, several weeks ago the House (all Democrats and 11 Republicans) censured Greene and removed her from all her committee assignments. She is left to focus 100 percent on making outrageous comments and tweets, and to raise huge amounts of money, which seems to be the reason she ran in the first place.

This week’s mind-bending entry by Greene was comparing wearing masks to protect against COVID to the Holocaust. Yes, she did. Americans, she said, were tattooed with masks not unlike the tattoos forced on Jews in Nazi Germany to identify their backgrounds, and who went to their deaths in to the ovens.

Not much can be said about that. Speaks for itself. Greene, like her role model Trump, never apologizes, though she does take down Tweets (Lord, when did that become the bar?) Greene uses white identity and grievance politics just as Trump does. That’s because there’s a significant number of voters in the Party, or who at least vote for Trump, who agree with that.

Used to be someone ran for office out of ambition or arrogance or an honest devotion to service to his or her country. Now it seems people run so they can a get a big “commentator” cable news contract, to build a brand, raise money and say outrageous things. Another reason our D.C. politics is frozen. To apologize or admit mistake is to hurt your own brand. It’s done by politicians across the spectrum, but the standouts seem to on the right.

There are the runners-up in the “I want to be the next Trump” sweepstakes like Texas Sen. Ted Cruz who has buddied up to Trump despite Trump not only insulting Cruz’ wife during the 2016 Republican primary but accusing Cruz’ father of being among a conspiracy to assassinate President Kennedy.

Then there is Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton who hasn’t smiled since…well, I’m not sure he’s ever smiled and Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley who says he never raised his fist in solidarity with the January 6th insurrectionists despite photographic evidence that he indeed did.

Oy! to former President Donald Trump who has fought to keep his tax returns and other financial documents from the public eye (no, that’s not why this Oy!) but a few weeks ago the former President, who has yet to (and never will) concede he lost the 2020 election, had his lawyers argue to a judge, to keep those records private, in an official filing, “While the TRUST Act (key to this case) is not the clearest statute, the best reading is that it does not apply to former presidents,” the argument stated, Voila, clearly the former President will argue against himself when it comes to letting the public know anything official about his finances. But the Big Lie continues.

A big Oy! to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (a front-runner to succeed Trump as the 2024 presidential nominee) who is doing his best to centralize state power in the state capital and shoving Florida from purple to red by fiat (Trump attempted to do this in Washington too). To get there, DeSantis has to stomp on the wishes of local governments (and citizens), which also goes against the grain of the traditional Republican Party which believes (believed?) that power must go to the local and state governments as much as possible. It’s an all-out assault on home rule, from seizing control in health care emergencies to messing around in police budgets to voters’ abilities to launch ballot initiatives.

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RIP GOP.

5/10/2021

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It’s not often you can predict a death with precision. But this is one time:

The Republican Party will breathe its last on Wednesday.

That’s when Cong. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) will be removed from the caucus’ leadership. Her crime: telling the truth.

This is why the GOP is on the brink of death. The House Republican leadership is officially banning the truth Wednesday. The Republican National Committee already has let the party pass on with its chairman, Ronna McDaniel (nee Romney), who long ago pledged fealty to a different philosophy. Well, not a philosophy really. A man.

To coin a phrase, “They can’t handle the truth!”

The truth is (spoiler alert!) that Joseph Robinette Biden won the election last November, was sworn into office on Jan. 20 and is performing his duties as leader of the country and commander-in-chief. Yes, it’s true. And no phony recount in Arizona is going to change it.

But that is not the reality for the soon-to-be-late Republican Party. It now is (and you’ve heard this before many times) a cult. The Republican Party is being reborn, shedding its previous name of the Grand Old Party (GOP) and replacing and rebranding itself as the Cult of Trump (COT).

The Republican Party had a set of values it lived by and an ideology that led its thinking for many decades. The COT has neither. It has … Donald John Trump. Whatever Trump says, the party backs. Even his lies.

If you do not pledge fealty to Trump and his lie that he actually won the 2020 election, you are effectively blackballed from the party. Gone, Kaput. Ironically, you are "cancelled" – yes, the same “cancelling” that many in the COT have pointed fingers at liberals for their cancelling (but not really) Dr. Suess and Mr. Potato Head among other things.

As Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (COT-Georgia) said of Liz Cheney, “her first fist bump to Biden was when she voted to impeach President Trump.” The picture of the fist bump Cheney gave to Biden as he headed to the podium to give his first Joint Session of Congress speech, “is just the one that made it public,” Greene said.

And, yes, showing respect to the presidency also no longer is part of the former GOP’s values.

Now, Green and her cohort Matt Gaetz (COT-Florida) are on a countrywide tour to call out Republicans in Name Only (RINOs) because they are not toadying to Trump.

It’s funny they call it a tour to out RINOs because those RINOs include folks who represent past big Republican office-holding families that helped build the party. Folks like Mitt Romney, whose dad was governor of Michigan, and former President George W. Bush, whose family spans political involvement from the 18th to the 21st centuries. And, Ronald Reagan, once considered the gold standard of the modern party couldn’t get the nomination today.

Gaetz, a sitting congressman, makes time for the tour because it distracts from an investigation into his allegedly sleazy sex life involving girls (a female under 18) and other possible crimes.

Greene, a sitting congresswoman, has time because she was stripped by the House of all her committee assignments for her past incendiary comments and support of the Jan. 6 insurrectionists.

Meantime, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is so craven to be the Speaker of the House that he has buried any self-respect he earned when he first criticized Trump over the insurrection but then made his pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago to kiss Trump’s ring. As have other COT leaders.

A large part of the party now is promoting legislation across the country to suppress the votes of various constituencies that typically vote Democratic. They are using Trump’s Big Lie to justify those bills. They say they are tightening the security of elections because the last election was, well, it was secure and declared so by Trump Administration officials and multiple judges across the country, including many appointed by Trump.

One might ask of those pols, to coin another phrase, “Have you no sense of decency?”

McCarthy sees riding the Trump train as the way to achieve the Speakership because Trump is spending his first post-presidency months carrying out the Donald Trump Revenge Tour and finding candidates to primary anyone who ever took a stand against him.

Ironically, Cheney has a far better record voting for Trump policies than Rep. Elise Stephanik, who is likely to replace her as the House Republican Conference chair, third-ranking in GOP House leadership, which isn’t really much of a job but the title sounds good.

Cheney's vote ratings also make her among the more conservative of congressmen in the party. But being a conservative is no longer the measurement to be in the party, now it is being wholly dedicated to Trump.

Also remember that Cheney is the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney who led the charge against those Weapons of Mass Destruction that were never found during the Bush 43 presidency. And his daughter was shoulder to shoulder with him on that. She did not vote for Trump’s first impeachment but did for his second, thus her banishment from leadership and probably from her House seat next election, if not before.

The conventional wisdom is that Republicans have to suck up to Trump so that his supporters stick with the party’s Congressional and Senate candidates, who, if blessed by Trump, have a leg up in most primaries within the party. While primaries aren’t elections, it wouldn’t take many wins to retake the House and the Senate in 2022, which is all McCarthy and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has not pledged fealty to Trump, care about. In fact, McConnell is another long-time Republican leader that Trump would like to take out.

Then there is that poll, conducted by the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), whose mission is to elect Republicans to the House, that shows Trump’s support is weak in “key battleground states.” The poll was presented to Republican House members at a recent retreat.

But that negative information about Trump was left out of the presentation. Why? Because in the COT any informaiton negative to Dear Leader is hidden.

In the poll, Trump’s unfavorable ratings were 15 points higher than his favorable ones in “core districts.” This information was withheld even though a sitting congressman asked that specific question during the presentation. Let’s call it the Littler Lie. And it's information that House Republicans should have been given at that retreat.

The Republican Party once stood for smaller government and against budget deficits. Those were not highlights of the Trump Administration. While Ronald Reagan is famous, among other things, for proclaiming “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” Trump is famous for saying nothing ever to get Gorbachev’s successor, Vladimir Putin, upset.

Yes, I know, “what about the sanctions?” But you seldom heard Trump talk about them. He just kept saying nice things about Putin. Not to mention Trump's love letters pen pal, Kim Jong-un in North Korea.

Trump also upended the GOP’s long-held support of free trade by criticizing trade deals entered into before he was elected, most negotiated by Republican administrations. And, he accused our NATO allies of not pulling their weight, putting a huge strain on our formerly strong relationships with our allies. And our hard-earned role as Leader of the Free World.

In short, things the party stood for, for decades, don’t matter anymore. It has lost its policy way. In fact, at the 2020 Republican Convention, the party had no platform – Trump didn’t want one. No philosophy, no ideology, no roadmap for leadership.

It all, though, gets whittled down to the Big Lie, which is that Trump actually won the election he lost, in a landslide according to Trump’s own calculations of what a landslide is (because Biden’s margin was similar to Trump's in 2016).

If you don’t side with Trump on the Big Lie, you can’t belong to the former Republican Party, demonstrated this week by the all-but-certain vote that will boot Cheney from leadership. For those current and former Republicans who don’t agree with the Big Lie, there are limited places they can go:

They can become Democrats and form a true Conservative caucus within that party;
Or, they can create a third party, which likely would strengthen Democrats because that third party would split votes with the Republican Party.

Those are about the only options.

The party that for years called itself The Big Tent is now a Pup Tent.

3 Comments

Tucker Carlson. Seriously?

4/28/2021

2 Comments

When it comes to Fox News’ top-rated entertainer Tucker Carlson, logic, reason and facts no longer exist, if they ever did, during his many hours on-air five nights a week.

He must spend his non-on-air-time coming up with nutty conspiracy theories and other lies. I can’t imagine these dangerous comments just spew forth without forethought.

For example:

He thinks that if you see a parent outside with a child wearing a face mask, you should call children’s’ services to lodge a complaint of child abuse against that parent.
He thinks immigration, legal and illegal, is an attempt by Democrats to increase their number of registered voters to win elections.
He believes the jurors in the Derek Chauvin murder trial voted guilty because they were afraid Black Lives Matter would riot against any other verdict.
He doesn’t believe white supremacists had a role in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol.

In short Tucker Carlson is nuts.

Now I list all the above having not ever even once watched any (can I be any more redundant?) of his shows. But his crazy comments are covered by the media as if he is a real policy expert commenting on real issues. He isn’t. He’s making it up as he goes along. He wants and need eyeballs watching to justify the big bucks he is paid.

In a simpler time he may as well be Pinky Lee (look him up, his catch phrase was “ohh you make me so mad”) doing his TV show. The difference was Pinky didn't get the added audience boost of getting big media coverage.

Just like Pinky, Tucker is in it for the ratings. The moolah. That’s television. TV's goal hasn’t changed in decades.

Tucker’s not alone in his crazy right-wing-conspiracy-I-want-attention-mania though.

I’m sure you’ve read about Sidney Powell, former Donald Trump attorney, who claimed in a nationwide media tour that the 2020 election was rigged, including by a voting machine manufacturer whose machines were programmed to switch votes. After a billion-dollar suit was filed against her by that manufacturer, Powell said “no reasonable person” would have believed her claims of a fraudulent election. Uh, right except for those millions who did and do.

Then there’s Richard Barnett, that fellow sitting with his feet up on a desk in Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s office suite on Jan. 6 and ransacking papers on the desk, even stealing one. Barnett has been charged in connection with the insurrection.

Barnett also left a note in the Speaker’s office that read, “Hey Nancy Bigo was here b----.” His defense attorneys now argue that the final word in his note wasn’t “bitch.” Rather, it said, “Hey Nancy Bigo was here biatd.” (not a comma to be found in his note).

I guess he figures “biatd” lets him off the hook.

But wait, there’s more. Brendan Hunt, a vocal supporter of the former president, is on trial in New York on charges of making death threats to top Democratic leaders before and after the Jan. 6 insurrection. In court, Hunt now argues that his messages were not to be taken seriously.

When he testified yesterday, he blamed his threats on pandemic-induced boredom and depression. According to the Washington Post report, Hunt also was “confronted by prosecutors with violent, racist and anti-Semitic statements that he argued did not reflect his beliefs.”

Sounds like various Trump supporters are now arguing that what they say is not what they believe. I guess the “biatd” made them do it.

Hunt claimed he was “lonely and isolated” during the pandemic quarantine and turned to marijuana and alcohol use. This all led him, he claimed in a video, to demand that “patriots…put some bullets” in the heads of members of Congress. Specifically he called for the executions of then-Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, Pelosi and liberal New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

So, these violent demonstrators at the Jan. 6 riots/insurrections/rebellion were just out of their minds when they broke the law. They were just venting from pandemic-induced loneliness. They weren’t to be taken seriously.

Just like Tucker Carlson.

2 Comments

Tucker Carlson. Seriously?

4/28/2021

0 Comments

He thinks that if you see a parent outside with a child wearing a face mask, you should call children’s’ services to lodge a complaint of child abuse against that parent.
He thinks immigration, legal and illegal, is an attempt by Democrats to increase their number of registered voters to win elections.
He believes the jurors in the Derek Chauvin murder trial voted guilty because they were afraid Black Lives Matter would riot against any other verdict.
He doesn’t believe white supremacists had a role in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol.

In short Tucker Carlson is nuts.

Now I list all the above having not ever even once watched any (can I be any more redundant?) of his shows. But his crazy comments are covered by the media as if he is a real policy expert commenting on real issues. He isn’t. He’s making it up as he goes along. He wants and need eyeballs watching to justify the big bucks he is paid.

In a simpler time he may as well be Pinky Lee (look him up, his catch phrase was “ohh you make me so mad”) doing his TV show.The difference was Pinky didn't get the added audience boost of getting big media coverage. a

Just like Pinky, Tucker is in it for the ratings. The moolah. That’s television. TV's goal hasn’t changed in decades.

Tucker’s not alone in his crazy right-wing-conspiracy-I-want-attention-mania though.

I’m sure you’ve read about Sidney Powell, former Donald Trump attorney, who claimed in a nationwide media tour that the 2020 election was rigged, including by a voting machine manufacturer whose machines were programmed to switch votes. After a billion-dollar suit was filed against her by that manufacturer, Powell said “no reasonable person” would have believed her claims of a fraudulent election. Uh, right except for those millions who did and do.

Then there’s Richard Barnett, that fellow sitting with his feet up on a desk in Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s office suite on Jan. 6 and ransacking papers on the desk, even stealing one. Barnett has been charged in connection with the insurrection.

Barnett also left a note in the Speaker’s office that read, “Hey Nancy Bigo was here b----.” His defense attorneys now argue that the final word in his note wasn’t “bitch.” Rather, it said, “Hey Nancy Bigo was here biatd.” (not a comma to be found in his note).

I guess he figures “biatd” lets him off the hook.

But wait, there’s more. Brendan Hunt, a vocal supporter of the former president, is on trial in New York on charges of making death threats to top Democratic leaders before and after the Jan. 6 insurrection. In court, Hunt now argues that his messages were not to be taken seriously.

When he testified yesterday, he blamed his threats on pandemic-induced boredom and depression. According to the Washington Post report, Hunt also was “confronted by prosecutors with violent, racist and anti-Semitic statements that he argued did not reflect his beliefs.”

Sounds like various Trump supporters are now arguing that what they say is not what they believe. I guess the “biatd” made them do it.

Hunt claimed he was “lonely and isolated” during the pandemic quarantine and turned to marijuana and alcohol use. This all led him, he claimed in a video, to demand that “patriots…put some bullets” in the heads of members of Congress. Specifically he called for the executions of then-Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, Pelosi and liberal New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

So, these violent demonstrators at the Jan. 6 riots/insurrections/rebellion were just out of their minds when they broke the law. They were just venting from pandemic-induced loneliness. They weren’t to be taken seriously.

Just like Tucker Carlson.

0 Comments

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Investigating January 6th

Right-wing media coming around on the vaccine?

The first meeting of 'the greats'

What's in a (my) name?

Voting law changes threaten our democracy

The new nearly normal

Oys! and Yos!

RIP GOP.

Tucker Carlson. Seriously?

Tucker Carlson. Seriously?

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