Question

I continue to get this junk because I've been known to go to the websites and troll his little "surveys".

And also too, it doesn't matter how often I "unsubscribe". I'm on the list and there's no escape.

Anyway, here's the question:

How exactly do you build a party by whittling it down to a tiny core of rabid true-believers?

"Addition by subtraction" is another bullshit concept being pimped by a conservative movement that's been built on very similar lies - like "Creative Destruction" and "Healthy Forests Initiative".

For Trump, I just can't see how this is about building anything but his donor base. As always, it's about bilking the rubes, which finances his plan to command a percentage of the hardcore GOP voters big enough to set himself up as King-Maker.

Don't Look Away

There's a common thread that runs through the conservative fuckery we've been subjected to over these last forever years.

And I think it has to do with something from Judith Herman's work on trauma and recovery:

“It is very tempting to take the side of the perpetrator. All the perpetrator asks is that the bystander do nothing. He appeals to the universal desire to see, hear, and speak no evil. The victim, on the contrary, asks the bystander to share the burden of pain. The victim demands action, engagement, and remembering.”

--Judith Herman, MD - Trauma and Recovery

Empathy is what Dr Herman is getting at, and it's a thing that's started to come back into vogue fairly recently.

When I overlay this Empathy Deficit on practically everything we've been bombarded with - "the Nanny State" and "Just Do It" and "get in touch with your inner warrior" and "no mercy - take no prisoners" and "real men don't eat quiche" and "a free market is driven by animal instinct" and all the hyper-macho bullshit that I used to suck up like mother's milk - when I see it in the context of a deliberate attempt to strip away everything that makes us human (ie: humane), then it gets a little easier for me to grok.

And even though I'm still tallying up what it cost me to walk away, I'm coming to realize I've been making the right decisions.

We can hope the investigation into the Jan6 Attempted Coup may act as a clarifying agent - a way to focus on the simple fact that we need to stop a minute and think about the implications of these Qult45 assholes mounting an outright assault on our democracy, and how the Republicans are in the process of getting us to ignore the fact that we're the ones being victimized (democratic self-government, dontcha know). We can't just look away and move on.

EJ Dionne, WaPo: (pay wall)

Four law enforcement heroes made abundantly clear at Tuesday’s inaugural hearing of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol why this inquiry is essential and why so many Republicans wanted to keep it from happening.

Their dramatic, heartfelt testimony also made an airtight case that right-wing extremism is a clear and present danger to the United States.

“What makes the struggle harder and more painful is to know so many of my fellow citizens, including so many of the people I put my life at risk to defend, are downplaying or outright denying what happened,” D.C. police officer Michael Fanone said.

“I feel like I went to hell and back to protect them and the people in this room,” he went on, “but too many are now telling me that hell doesn’t exist, or that hell actually wasn’t that bad.”

His next point was devastating as a commentary on what large sections of the Republican Party are committed to doing — and in its accuracy.

“The indifference shown to my colleagues is disgraceful,” he said, “nothing, truly nothing, has prepared me to address those elected members of our government who continue to deny events of that day. And in doing so betray their oath of office.”

Yes, they do.

At Tuesday’s hearing, D.C. police officers Fanone and Daniel Hodges, Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn and Sgt. Aquilino Gonell made clear why so many Republicans want us to forget what happened on Jan. 6.

Republicans don’t want us to focus on “the hit man,” in Dunn’s resonant phrase.

They want to let Donald Trump off the hook.

And they resolutely do not want to do what Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) rightly said the committee must do: try to account for “what happened every minute of that day in the White House — every phone call, every conversation, every meeting leading up to, during and after the attack.”

A thorough investigation of what happened will necessarily be an inquiry into the right-wing extremism that is bleeding into the mainstream of the Republican Party. The best among the Republicans know how dangerous this is for their party and the country. Unfortunately, they do not currently have the upper hand in the GOP, which is why Cheney and Rep. Adam Kinzinger (Ill.) were named to the committee by a Democratic House speaker, not by their own leadership.

That both acquitted themselves with honor, dignity and intelligence served as a rebuke to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and his decision to wage political war against them while embracing his party’s far right.

The extremism exposed on Tuesday was inextricably linked to racial backlash and outright racism. Gonell brought this home by noting the politicized inconsistency in the right wing’s attitudes toward the police: thoroughly positive when officers were responding to racial justice protests but not when they were defending democracy and the nation’s lawmakers from attack.

In 2020, Gonell said, the Capitol Police were given “all the support we needed and more” during Black Lives Matter protests. He did not sense the same support before Jan. 6.

“Why the different response?” he asked.

With four words, he opened up a moral inquiry the nation must undertake.

“There are some who expressed outrage when someone simply kneeled for social justice during the national anthem,” Gonell said. “Where are those same people expressing outrage to condemn the violent attack on law enforcement officers, the U.S. Capitol and our American democracy?”

Where indeed?

The double standard was underscored by Hodges, who spoke of the flags carried by the rioters, including a Christian flag, and another: “I saw the thin blue line flag, a symbol of support for law enforcement, more than once being carried by the terrorists as they ignored our commands and continued to assault us.”

And there was nothing subtle about the racism confronted by Dunn, who testified that the rioters repeatedly addressed him with an unprintable racial epithet. “Other Black officers shared with me their own stories of racial abuse on January 6,” he said.

Trump has described the crowd that gathered to hear him speak before the attack as “loving.” Asked about this by Cheney, Gonell replied: “I’m still recovering from those hugs and kisses that day.” The officer added that the former president’s comments were “a pathetic excuse for his behavior, for something that he helped to create, this monstrosity.”

What happened on Jan. 6 was monstrous, the product of a dangerous, anti-democratic sickness haunting parts of the American right. This is the sort of event that a free nation must come to terms with, not ignore; investigate, not sweep under the rug; and understand, not dismiss as a one-off display of violence. That’s why this committee’s work is so important.

We've excised the main body of the tumor,

but the prognosis is only slightly improved.

The need for continued aggressive treatment is imperative.

Today's Reddit

Security guys do their job, cuz banners aren't allowed. The crowd's reaction is the payoff.

Yeah - we're about done with that Trump shit now.

"A Reichstag Moment"

First, the WaPo story about Mark Milley and Nancy Pelosi hearing and voicing concerns over Trump's authoritarian tendencies.  

WaPo: (pay wall)

Joint Chiefs chairman feared potential ‘Reichstag moment’ aimed at keeping Trump in power

In the waning weeks of Donald Trump’s term, the country’s top military leader repeatedly worried about what the president might do to maintain power after losing reelection, comparing his rhetoric to Adolf Hitler’s during the rise of Nazi Germany and asking confidants whether a coup was forthcoming, according to a new book by two Washington Post reporters.

As Trump ceaselessly pushed false claims about the 2020 presidential election, Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, grew more and more nervous, telling aides he feared that the president and his acolytes might attempt to use the military to stay in office, Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker report in “I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump’s Catastrophic Final Year.”

Milley described “a stomach-churning” feeling as he listened to Trump’s untrue complaints of election fraud, drawing a comparison to the 1933 attack on Germany’s parliament building that Hitler used as a pretext to establish a Nazi dictatorship.

“This is a Reichstag moment,” Milley told aides, according to the book. “The gospel of the Führer.”

A spokesman for Milley declined to comment.

Portions of the book related to Milley — first reported Wednesday night by CNN ahead of the book’s July 20 release — offer a remarkable window into the thinking of America’s highest-ranking military officer, who saw himself as one of the last empowered defenders of democracy during some of the darkest days in the country’s recent history.

The episodes in the book are based on interviews with more than 140 people, including senior Trump administration officials, friends and advisers, Leonnig and Rucker write in an author’s note. Most agreed to speak candidly only on the condition of anonymity, and the scenes reported were reconstructed based on firsthand accounts and multiple other sources whenever possible.

Milley — who was widely criticized last year for appearing alongside Trump in Lafayette Square after protesters were forcibly cleared from the area — had pledged to use his office to ensure a free and fair election with no military involvement. But he became increasingly concerned in the days following the November contest, making multiple references to the onset of 20th-century fascism.

After attending a Nov. 10 security briefing about the “Million MAGA March,” a pro-Trump rally protesting the election, Milley said he feared an American equivalent of “brownshirts in the streets,” alluding to the paramilitary forces that protected Nazi rallies and enabled Hitler’s ascent.

Late that same evening, according to the book, an old friend called Milley to express concerns that those close to Trump were attempting to “overturn the government.”

“You are one of the few guys who are standing between us and some really bad stuff,” the friend told Milley, according to an account relayed to his aides. Milley was shaken, Leonnig and Rucker write, and he called former national security adviser H.R. McMaster to ask whether a coup was actually imminent.

“What the f--- am I dealing with?” Milley asked him.

The conversations put Milley on edge, and he began informally planning with other military leaders, strategizing how they would block Trump’s order to use the military in a way they deemed dangerous or illegal.

If someone wanted to seize control, Milley thought, they would need to gain sway over the FBI, the CIA and the Defense Department, where Trump had already installed staunch allies. “They may try, but they’re not going to f---ing succeed,” he told some of his closest deputies, the book says.

In the weeks that followed, Milley played reassuring soothsayer to a string of concerned members of Congress and administration officials who shared his worries about Trump attempting to use the military to stay in office.

“Everything’s going to be okay,” he told them, according to the book. “We’re going to have a peaceful transfer of power. We’re going to land this plane safely. This is America. It’s strong. The institutions are bending, but it won’t break.”

In December, with rumors circulating that the president was preparing to fire then-CIA Director Gina Haspel and replace her with Trump loyalist Kash Patel, Milley sought to intervene, the book says. He confronted White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows at the annual Army-Navy football game, which Trump and other high-profile guests attended.

“What the hell is going on here?” Milley asked Meadows, according to the book’s account. “What are you guys doing?”

When Meadows responded, “Don’t worry about it,” Milley shot him a warning: “Just be careful.”

After the failed insurrection on Jan. 6, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called Milley to ask for his guarantee that Trump would not be able to launch a nuclear strike and start a war.

“This guy’s crazy,” Pelosi said of Trump in what the book reported was mostly a one-way phone call. “He’s dangerous. He’s a maniac.”

Once again, Milley sought to reassure: “Ma’am, I guarantee you that we have checks and balances in the system,” he told Pelosi.

Less than a week later, as military and law enforcement leaders planned for President Biden’s inauguration, Milley said he was determined to avoid a repeat of the siege on the Capitol.

“Everyone in this room, whether you’re a cop, whether you’re a soldier, we’re going to stop these guys to make sure we have a peaceful transfer of power,” he told them. “We’re going to put a ring of steel around this city and the Nazis aren’t getting in.”

At Biden’s swearing-in on Jan. 20, Milley was seated behind former president Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama, who asked the general how he was feeling.

“No one has a bigger smile today than I do,” Milley replied. “You can’t see it under my mask, but I do.”

And then what sounds like some heavy confirmation of the "rumors" about something being up with Trump's behavior while in Russia, and Vegas, and and and (ie: odd sexual proclivities?).

Remember - I can "leak" a little something that ticks all the boxes in people's minds, without actually containing any confirmable truth. And to reinforce it, all I have to do is pretend I'm issuing a non-denial denial, or some such, and just let people's imaginations run a little wild, filling in the details for themselves.

The point is to stoke the chaos - the more you can crowd-source the details, the better. (QAnon, anyone?)

So, everybody got the whole "grains of salt" thing?

Good - let's get to the juice.

The Daily Beast:

Kremlin Leak Appears to Confirm Existence of Trump ‘Kompromat’

A document believed to be from the Kremlin cryptically refers to “certain events” that happened during Trump’s “non-official visits to Russian Federation territory.”

For years, there have been whispers that the Russian government holds compromising materials on Donald Trump. Now, an alleged leak from the heart of the Kremlin appears to show them boasting about “kompromat.”

The supposed leak obtained by The Guardian reportedly claims that President Vladimir Putin personally approved a nefarious plan to throw Russia’s support behind Trump’s 2016 campaign. The document states that Putin, his spy chiefs, and top ministers agreed that a victory for a “mentally unstable” Trump would permanently weaken the United States.

The document also reportedly states that the Kremlin has so-called kompromat—or damaging intelligence—on Trump. It cryptically refers to “certain events” that happened during “non-official visits to Russian Federation territory.” The purported leak doesn’t explain what those events involved—only referring to an appendix that wasn’t attached the obtained document.

The Daily Beast has not reviewed the supposed Kremlin leak, and The Guardian has not definitively proven it the be authentic. However, it has quoted experts on Russian spy agencies and Kremlin diplomacy who say they have no reason to doubt that the document is genuine.

Trump is known to have visited Moscow on multiple occasions in the decades before he was elected in 2016. One memorable section of the Steele dossier threw up some extraordinary but unsubstantiated claims about the former president and some Russian prostitutes in a Moscow hotel room when he jetted in to Russia for the 2013 Miss Universe pageant.

The document reportedly offers more detail on what Kremlin leaders allegedly thought of Trump before he became president and why they wanted him to win. It reportedly describes the future president as an “impulsive, mentally unstable and unbalanced individual who suffers from an inferiority complex,” and, therefore, the “most promising candidate.”

The Guardian reports that the papers state that a Kremlin plan to back Trump was agreed at a meeting of the national security council on Jan. 22, 2016. The document reportedly recommends that the Kremlin and its spy agencies use “all possible force” to push Trump to victory in the election and help him sow “social turmoil” in the United States.

The document reportedly predicts that a Trump win “will definitely lead to the destabilization of the U.S.’s sociopolitical system,” and a “social explosion.” The papers threaten to insert “media viruses” into American systems to help exacerbate the chaos of a Trump presidency.

Trump has historically denied that Russia helped elect him as president, and that the Kremlin has any kompromat on him.

Months after the January 2016 meeting, Russian hackers broke into the servers of the Democratic National Committee and released thousands of private emails in an attempt to damage Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

When contacted by The Guardian, Putin’s spokesman Dmitri Peskov described the supposed leaked papers as “a great pulp fiction.”

The Ex-Emperor's New Old Clothes

The GOP is, itself, a fraud - fast losing even the hope for Paper Tiger status.

Listen to Lindsey Graham (eg) and you get the idea that Trump is the golden ticket. Graham has said straight out that Republicans are going nowhere without Trump - that he is absolutely the key to their hope chest.

But, then there's this at HuffPo:

GOP Leadership Reportedly Hid Trump's Weak Numbers At Recent Retreats

Internal data reveal that voters in "core districts" have unfavorable views of Trump — but rank-and-file Republicans don't want to hear it.

The Republican Party might be high on Donald Trump, but key voters are not, The Washington Post reported Saturday.

Internal GOP polling data revealing Trump’s weak numbers in key battleground districts was kept under wraps by the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) at recent retreats for Republican lawmakers, sources told the Post. NRCC staffers reportedly held back the bad news, even when a member of Congress asked directly about Trump’s standing at a retreat last month.

The Post obtained the full results of the party’s data, which found that Trump’s unfavorable ratings were 15 points higher than his favorable ones in “core districts.” In addition, nearly twice as many voters had a strongly unfavorable view of him than those who had a strongly favorable one in those areas, the newspaper reported.

The internal NRCC poll found that President Joe Biden was “perilously” (for the GOP) popular in core battleground districts, with 54% favorability, compared to Trump’s 41%. Vice President Kamala Harris was also more popular than Trump.

Trump’s weak numbers were reportedly also sharply downplayed at a retreat in March for GOP ranking members of congressional committees. Both situations revealed that the GOP leadership was eager to hide information to dodge the truth about Trump and the possible damage he could wreak on future elections. The debate over Trump’s potentially negative impact on swing districts is likely to escalate as vulnerable Republicans prepare for reelection.

The poll numbers were part of an extensive story in the Post about Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and her battle with colleagues over Trump. She has repeatedly bashed the former president for his lie that the presidential election was rigged, and for his incitement of the Capitol insurrection. While Trump’s weak numbers could theoretically bolster her fight, Cheney’s dissent may result in her removal from House leadership in an upcoming vote.

Despite the internal numbers — and Trump’s loss in the presidential election — the Republican Party appears to be marching into his camp more strongly than ever, and GOP leaders appear at a loss about where else to turn.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) declared on Fox News on Thursday that the Republican Party “can’t grow without” Trump. “There is no construct where the party can be successful without him,” Graham said.

But Cheney warned in a Post op-ed earlier this week, “The Republican Party is at a turning point. Republicans must decide whether we are going to choose truth and fidelity to the Constitution.”

It's not time for the happy dance - Dems have plenty to worry about, including a coupla snags of their own in Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema - but it's really starting to pan out now that the more closely the Republicans cling to Trump's leg, the weaker they actually are.

And it's a little weird.

I've been saying for a long time: "Trump has not remade the GOP in his image - he's the near-perfect reflection of what that party has been morphing into for decades", meaning the party has been playing on lies and paranoia and racist bullshit for a long time, so it comes as no surprise when the voters in that party flock to a racist lying asshole in record numbers.

But except for poor little old Liz Cheney - bless her heart - it's like the Republican "leaders" have kinda recently decided they no longer have any chance to countervail all that negative sentiment (the monster they created can't be controlled and is on the loose), so they can't very well reverse course now - they'll have to double down again by fully embracing all that shit, thus becoming the totally empty null set that Trump himself is.

• We criticized them for being greedy, and they said, "Yup - we're greedy alright. Greed is good."
• We said they weren't treating people kindly, and they said, "Even Granny has to pull her own weight or get outa the boat."
• We said they were sounding kinda racist and intolerant, and they said, "Well, what about black-on-black crime, and the welfare queens in the inner cities?"
• We said maybe we oughta be doing something to cut back on pollution, and they invented "rollin' coal".
• We said they were behaving deplorably, and they adopted "Deplorables" as one of their nicknames.
• We pointed out 30,000 lies during 45*'s term, and now we've got QAnon, and Jewish Space Lasers, and fealty to a "president" who first became gravely ill with a disease he called a hoax, and then got vaccinated against the same disease that he continues to refer to as a hoax.
• and on
• and on
• and on...

...until they don't stand for anything but whatever's expedient at any given moment - or sounds about right, as long as nobody remembers what they said yesterday, which was exactly opposite of what they said this morning, which was exactly opposite what they said 30 minutes ago.

So, as they press towards the logical extreme (flying in tighter and tighter circles, as all Geejy Birds do) it just makes sense that they're about to disappear up their own assholes.

But remember the kicker: 

The rank-n-file Republican voters - the ones who aren't all that stoopid - the ones who just want low taxes and a police force willing to keep White Supremacy in place without it looking quite so obvious - those "good Republicans" are bailing out.

Being a Republican just isn't fashionable anymore. And maybe that's enough for now.

On Looking Bad

So today, we have the story of another deep state AntiFa mole who infiltrated the GOP 15 or 20 years ago, so he could land a cushy Qult45 appointment with the State Dept, which put him in position to dress up like a Trump supporter and participate in a fake attack on the capitol building to stop the certification of an election that benefited his interests - and he did it just to make the GOP look bad.

Flash: The GOP doesn't need anybody's help to look bad.

WaPo: (pay wall)

On Thursday, the FBI arrested a political appointee of former president Donald Trump on charges that he stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, according to a criminal complaint, marking the first member of the administration arrested in connection with the insurrection.

Federal agents arrested Federico G. Klein, 42, a former State Department aide, on multiple felony charges related to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, according to a criminal complaint published by the New York Times. (Politico first reported the arrest.) The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment early Friday.

Klein, who is also a former Trump campaign employee, did not immediately respond to a request for comment early Friday. It is unclear if he has hired a lawyer.

Klein was still employed at the State Department as a staff assistant on Jan. 6 when he joined a mob in a tunnel leading into the U.S. Capitol, the FBI said. Then he allegedly “physically and verbally engaged with the officers holding the line” at the building’s entrance, according to the complaint. After ignoring officers’ orders to move back, he assaulted officers with a riot shield that had been stolen from police, the complaint said, and then used the shield to wedge open a door into the Capitol.

At one point, Klein was caught on video shouting for more insurrectionists to come to the front lines, where officers were struggling to hold back the mob.

“We need fresh people, need fresh people,” he said, according to the complaint.

Klein’s arrest is the most direct link yet between the Trump administration and the rioters, despite attempts by some conservatives to dissociate the insurrection from the former president. Many of the 300-plus people who have been charged in connection with the insurrection have described themselves as Trump supporters, while some have ties to extremist groups like the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers.

Klein had a top-secret security clearance that was renewed in 2019, the FBI said. A LinkedIn profile the FBI identified as Klein’s also lists a top-secret security clearance and shows that Klein has been politically active in the Republican Party since at least 2008, when he began volunteering for political campaigns. Before joining the State Department in 2017, Klein worked for the Trump campaign, which paid him a $15,000 salary.

According to a financial disclosure form filed by Klein, he was appointed as a staff assistant in the State Department on Jan. 22, 2017, days after Trump was sworn in as president. He worked as a special assistant in the Office of Brazilian and Southern Cone Affairs, where he was paid $66,510, according to a ProPublica database of Trump appointees and the criminal complaint.

After the insurrection, Klein continued working in the State Department until Jan. 19, when he resigned the day before Biden’s inauguration, per the complaint.


The Trump appointee faces several felony charges for his alleged role in the riot, including knowingly engaging in any act of physical violence against any person or property in any restricted building or grounds.

Klein’s mother, Cecilia Klein, told Politico that her son had admitted to being in D.C. on Jan. 6 but said he did not specify whether he had entered the Capitol building.

“Fred’s politics burn a little hot,” she told Politico, “but I’ve never known him to violate the law.”

The Other Plague

We have multiple problems to contend with, and one of the big ones is that we have a Republican party unwilling to acknowledge any of it, much less pitch in and try to help.

COVID-19 and Racism and Climate Change are daunting in their scope, but now we're also seeing the cycle of ignorance poverty and crime expanding into the suburbs, and beginning to include people who used to be considered "safe" from the worst aspects of this creeping Plutocracy.

It's axiomatic that power and money always gravitate up - more and more wealth (and the power that goes with it) become concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, which means more more people have less and less, because in economics, there's always always always a Net-Zero Balance. Whenever there's a surplus somewhere, there's always a corresponding deficit somewhere else.

Always.

Always.

Always.

So the obvious question is, "Why won't Republican office-holders do anything?", which leads me to ponder the fact that they aren't as dumb as they'd have to be to believe the shit they say, and if that's true, then I have to consider the conclusion that they're doing pretty much exactly what they intend to do.

They know that when people are left with nothing more to lose, they'll rally to the Strong Man and do what he wants.

We're seeing one of the standard plays being run now. The Q-MAGAts are being fed a steady diet of grievance, and told it's the Elite Libtards doing all these horrible things to them, and if they don't rise up and "take back our country", there'll be nothing left and blah blah blah.

Richmond Times-Dispatch: (pay wall)

Police uncover 'possible plot' by militia to breach US Capitol on Thursday

The U.S. Capitol Police say they have intelligence showing there is a "possible plot" by a militia group to breach the U.S. Capitol on Thursday.

The revelation was detailed in a statement from the Capitol Police. It comes at the same time the acting police chief is testifying before a House subcommittee.

The statement differs from an advisory that was sent to members of Congress by the acting House sergeant-at-arms this week, saying that Capitol Police had "no indication that groups will travel to Washington D.C. to protest or commit acts of violence."

The threat comes nearly two months after thousands of supporters of then-President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol in a violent insurrection as Congress was voting to certify Joe Biden's electoral win. So far, about 300 people have been charged with federal crimes for their roles in the riot. Five people, including a Capitol Police officer, died.

The threat appears to be connected to a far-right conspiracy theory, mainly promoted by supporters of QAnon, that Trump will rise again to power on March 4, which was the original presidential inauguration day, until 1933, when it was moved to Jan. 20.

Many of the accounts that helped promote and organize the Jan. 6 riots on platforms like Facebook and Twitter have since been suspended, making it more difficult for the groups to organize.

We shall see what we shall see tomorrow.

...or maybe the next time. Or the time after that.

About That Nazi Shit

Press Poodles have to stop asking the assholes if they're really assholes.

Laura Ingraham throws a Nazi salute in prime time at the 2016 convention.

"Very fine people" after Charlottesville in 2017.

"Stand back and stand by" in 2020.

"March on the Capitol" and "stop the steal" in 2021

And a host of other instances of Qult45 telling us straight up and out loud that they're fascists, and that they have no intention of stopping - they'll go right on pushing for authoritarian minority rule, while denying it the whole time.

WaPo: (pay wall)

As CPAC dismisses claims that its stage resembled a Nazi insignia, Hyatt calls hate symbols ‘abhorrent’

For four days at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Orlando, speakers at the Conservative Political Action Conference shared a number of contentious views, from echoing false claims about election fraud to undermining the seriousness of a pandemic that has killed more than 512,000 Americans.

But some critics also took aim at a seemingly more mundane detail: the shape of the conference stage.

Images of the CPAC stage went viral this weekend as many noted a resemblance to the Odal or Othala Rune, a symbol emblazoned on some Nazi uniforms. The Anti-Defamation League has classified the insignia as a hate symbol, which has been adopted by modern day white supremacists.

CPAC’s organizers vehemently denied any link between the stage design and the Nazi symbology, calling the criticism “outrageous and slanderous.”

“We have a long standing commitment to the Jewish community,” Matt Schlapp, chair of the American Conservative Union, said on Saturday in a tweet. “Cancel culture extremists must address antisemitism within their own ranks. CPAC proudly stands with our Jewish allies, including those speaking from this stage.”

As the controversy continued on Sunday, Hyatt Hotels said in a statement that it had addressed the concerns with the conference and denounced any use of hate symbols.

“We take the concern raised about the prospect of symbols of hate being included in the stage design at CPAC 2021 very seriously as all such symbols are abhorrent and unequivocally counter to our values as a company,” said Hyatt, which had faced pointed criticism for hosting the event.

The hotel noted that it allowed the event to continue after organizers “told us that any resemblance to a symbol of hate is unintentional.”

The blowback comes after CPAC organizers disinvited a scheduled speaker, social media figure Young Pharaoh, after liberal media watchdog Media Matters for America reported he had made anti-Semitic comments on Twitter. Pharoah tweeted that Judaism is a “complete lie” and “made up for political gain,” and said Jews are “thieving.”

According to the ADL, hate crimes against Jewish people in 2019 reached the highest number since the organization started keeping track in 1979, with 2,107 incidents, a 12 percent increase from the previous year.

Christian nationalists and QAnon followers tend to be anti-Semitic. That was seen in the Capitol attack.

The Othala Rune, which was derived from the Germanic alphabet used in pre-Roman Europe, was used by Nazis in an “attempt to reconstruct a mythic ‘Aryan’ past,” according to the ADL. The rune was used as insignia for two units in the Waffen-SS, which was “heavily involved” in carrying out the Holocaust, according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

More recently, neo-Nazis and white supremacists have reused the symbol. Members often feature it in tattoos, in logos, or on flags, according to the ADL. The symbol was reportedly seen on at least one a banner at the deadly 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville.

"Reportedly".  Fuck you, Press Poodles. I was there that day. I saw that Nazi shit.

Antisemitic symbols were also used by some members of the pro-Trump mob that violently stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. One man wore a “Camp Auschwitz” shirt, and many held “America First” flags, a reference to a podcast hosted by Nick Fuentes, whose followers call themselves “Groyper Army.” According to the ADL the group embraces racist and anti-Semitic views.

CPAC this weekend gave a notable platform to Trump, who used the conference to attempt to solidify his hold on the GOP. The former president also said he would consider running again in 2024.

Trump’s campaign has had to disavow Nazi symbology in the past. In November, his reelection campaign posted dozens of ads on Facebook with red inverted triangle, a symbol used by Nazis to identify political prisoners in concentration camps. Facebook deactivated the ads.

Tim Murtaugh, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, claimed that the shape is an “antifa symbol.”

“We would note that Facebook still has an inverted red triangle emoji in use, which looks exactly the same, so it’s curious that they would target only this ad,” Murtaugh said.

The GQP

NYT is in classic Press Poodle form with this one.

‘It’s Embarrassing’: Marjorie Taylor Greene Tests the Limits of Some Voters

In her Georgia district, voters saw Ms. Greene as a conservative voice that would be impossible to ignore. Now the revelation of past social media posts has unsettled some who backed her.

"Some"

Billy Martin does not care much for politicians. But the retired teacher and coach liked what he heard from Marjorie Taylor Greene, who promised to arrive in Washington as a defiant force, intent on rattling the establishment.

For his community in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, which he believed had long been overlooked, Ms. Greene had a voice that was impossible to ignore.

But in recent weeks, it has also been impossible to ignore the torrent of troubling social media posts and videos in which Ms. Greene had endorsed violent behavior, including executing Democratic leaders, and spread an array of conspiracy theories, including that the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the Pentagon and the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., were hoaxes.

“Sometimes people say things they regret, speak before they think,” Mr. Martin said as he got in his pickup in downtown Summerville, a town of 4,300 people represented by Ms. Greene, a Republican who was elected to Congress in November in an unopposed race that drew national attention because of her promotion of the pro-Trump movement QAnon.

He found her posts and statements puzzling. Still, he added, he was not sure what to believe. “I don’t think they treat you fairly anymore,” Mr. Martin said, referring to the news media and Democratic politicians.

As Democrats push to strip Ms. Greene of committee assignments and as some Republicans condemn her statements, she has argued that the resistance confronting her only “strengthens my base of support at home and across the country.”

To some degree, that was true, as her most fervent supporters saw in the treatment of Ms. Greene a reminder of all that they loathed about Washington. But in a congressional district proud of its ranking as one of the most conservative in the country, voters drawn to her unapologetic intensity were now also brushing the limits of their support.

“It’s embarrassing,” Ashley Shelton, a stay-at-home mother who voted for Ms. Greene, said of the controversy. She thought former President Donald J. Trump would serve another term and saw Ms. Greene as “a backup, a comfort.”

“I think she’s kind of a loose cannon,” Ms. Shelton said before paraphrasing a line from the Old Testament: “The wise are the quiet ones,” she said. “The more she opens her mouth, the less evidence of her wisdom.”

Georgia has been gripped by a political tug of war, as the once reliably Republican state was won by President Biden in November, the first Democrat to do so in nearly three decades. And last month, the state’s two Republican senators were replaced by Democrats, tilting control of the Senate to that party.

Ms. Greene’s district represents the other end of the rope — a largely white and rural corner of the state dominated by Republicans. Sprawled across a dozen counties, the 14th Congressional District reaches from the outer suburbs of Atlanta to the outskirts of Chattanooga.

Despite her promotion of conspiracy theories during the tightly contested primary and runoff, Republicans said Ms. Greene gained traction by hewing to core conservative themes — defending gun rights, opposing immigration and supporting Mr. Trump. She covered a lot of ground, too, sometimes attending as many as five campaign events in a day.

“A lot of people here feel like they really know her,” said Luke Martin, a local prosecutor and chairman of the Republican Party in Floyd County, which is in her district. “They’ve met her. They’ve spoken with her. She never talked about that stuff. It’s kind of confusing to a lot of people. The person they think they know is not this person.”

The recent cascade of past social media posts, which also included a conspiracy theory that a space laser controlled by Jewish financiers started a California wildfire, Luke Martin said, has weakened her support. “You can’t justify it,” he said of her statements and social media activity. “It’s indefensible.”

But local Democrats contend that Republicans should not have been surprised. Some have written letters to the editor of newspapers in the district calling for her to step down.

“I didn’t think she was fit for office back then,” John Lugthart, who wrote one of the letters published in The Daily Citizen-News in Dalton, said of his opinions of Ms. Greene during the election. “More and more has come out, and my hope is that many others in our district now realize she’s not the one to represent us.”

Others, having long been resigned to the minority position held by Democrats in the region, said they hoped an infusion of energy in the party could bolster its chances in the next election.

But emotion filled Teresa Rich’s voice as she stood outside the radiator shop she owns with her husband, bemoaning the way Ms. Greene has been treated and the failure of other Republicans to adequately defend her.

“I love her,” she said of Ms. Greene, describing her as a fighter taking on the political establishment. “She fought them. If the party was like it was supposed to be, she wouldn’t be in a corner by herself.”

"Leadership" in the GQP is practically nonexistent. And when you've cultivated a base of voters with lies about women and minorities and "real America" and all the other shit they've been peddling for 50 years, you can't feign surprise to find out the people who're determined to step into leadership roles are as crazed as a buncha scorpions with heat stroke.

Like Driftglass says:

"I'm shocked - shocked - to find the Republican Party is filled with Republicans".

Crafty manipulators like MTGreene get elected by idiot voters who can't figure out what a lie sounds like because that's what the Party and Dumfux News have been drumming into everybody's heads for decades.

Unfortunately, we can't really tell anymore if MTGreene is the crafty cynical manipulator I think she is, or if she's dumb-as-a-fuckin'-stump like her idiot supporters.

And after NYT spills their ink all over this thing, their style book comes shining through - they still try to shoehorn some kind of middle ground into it - a safe place for them to land. They managed to put 4 whole sentences in the piece that sound critical to the rubes, but the rest of it pulls up way short of telling those rubes that we really really really need them to get their heads outa their asses "Cuz you're not fucking it all up just for yourselves, morons. The rest of us have to live with your stoopid fuckin' decisions too".

But hey - at least some of them are starting to get a little uncomfortable with some of the Qrazy shit.

How It Happened

Jonathan Swan at AXIOS lines out the events from Election Day to Jan6.

First 3 episodes from AXIOS (more to follow):

And Again

We have to keep coming back to this because it's important.

If Trump had addressed the pandemic the way he should have done, we'd be into his 2nd term now, and he'd be pushing to make that term permanent.

WaPo: (pay wall)

Federal Reserve Chair Powell says ‘nothing more important’ to economy than vaccinating Americans

Powell’s comments come as the Biden administration ups pressure on Congress to pass relief bill with massive funding for vaccines

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell said Wednesday that getting Americans vaccinated is the most important thing to help the economy, comments that could boost President Biden’s push to pass a massive new relief package that includes big spending on vaccines.

“There’s nothing more important to the economy right now than people getting vaccinated,” Powell said at a news conference following the Fed’s regular policy meeting.

“That is really the main thing about the economy, is getting the pandemic under control, getting everyone vaccinated, getting people wearing masks and all that,” Powell added. “That’s the single most important economic growth policy that we can have.”

Powell’s comments came on the same day Biden’s covid-19 response team held its first public briefing, with senior adviser Andy Slavitt emphasizing that they cannot reach their goal of vaccinating all Americans unless Congress acts to pass Biden’s $1.9 trillion relief package.

...

- and -

The economy is getting even worse for Americans with a high school diploma or less education

Last week, the Biden administration took over an economy that has been severely hobbled by the coronavirus pandemic. While unemployment has risen for all types of workers, jobs have recovered slowly but steadily for Americans with some college education, according to Labor Department data. That was true for lower-education workers too, until winter struck.

Standard measures of unemployment don’t capture the full scope of the problem, because they exclude the millions of Americans who are out of work but say they cannot look for a job because of the pandemic.

A better way is to look at the trend among all Americans age 25 or older. In December 2019, 53 percent of these Americans with a high school education or less were employed. By December 2020, that dropped to 48 percent. That means that one out of every 20 has lost employment in the past year. A fifth of those losses occurred in November and December.

These workers tend to be concentrated in the sort of industries that are most directly affected by government restrictions in response to covid-19, such as eating and drinking places, construction and hotels.

...

- and -

The covid-19 recession is the most unequal in modern U.S. history

Job losses from the pandemic overwhelmingly affected low-wage, minority workers
most. Seven months into the recovery, Black women, Black men and mothers
of school-age children are taking the longest time to regain their employment.

...

We dodged a bullet. 45* tried to mount an out-n-out revolution - armed rebellion - a fucking coup. He didn't just intend to overturn this one election. He was trying to shit-can our system of self-government. He tried to kill American democracy itself.

We won't be that lucky if we allow a "next time". And there's no mistaking it - next time is already under way.

Josh Hawley

Tom Cotton

Rand Paul

These guys, and others like them, are smart and capable and getting bolder and more ruthless.

Meantime, Kevin McCarthy made a little pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago.

We don't know exactly what it was about, but it's a fair bet McCarthy wasn't down there just looking in on an old friend.

Fuck You, Proud Boys

From WSJ

(I don't know how long this stays up, or if it'll get put behind the pay wall or what, but here it is for now)

Today's Parody

Had to get this one in before Trump fever breaks and these idiots start to fade back into the slime.

South Park Parody

What They Wanted

Qult45 wants us to believe the Jan6 coup attempt was just a spontaneous thing, and it was  supposed to be peaceful, but some folks got a little carried away, and gee whiz, why are you libtards always being so divisive?

Fuck that shit.

Reuters:

Federal prosecutors offered an ominous new assessment of last week’s siege of the U.S. Capitol by President Donald Trump’s supporters on Thursday, saying in a court filing that rioters intended “to capture and assassinate elected officials.”

Prosecutors offered that view in a filing asking a judge to detain Jacob Chansley, the Arizona man and QAnon conspiracy theorist who was famously photographed wearing horns as he stood at the desk of Vice President Mike Pence in the chamber of the U.S. Senate.

The detention memo, written by Justice Department lawyers in Arizona, goes into greater detail about the FBI’s investigation into Chansley, revealing that he left a note for Pence warning that “it’s only a matter of time, justice is coming.”

“Strong evidence, including Chansley’s own words and actions at the Capitol, supports that the intent of the Capitol rioters was to capture and assassinate elected officials in the United States government,” prosecutors wrote.

A public defender representing Chansley could not be immediately reached for comment. Chansley is due to appear in federal court on Friday.

The prosecutors’ assessment comes as prosecutors and federal agents have begun bringing more serious charges tied to violence at the Capitol, including revealing cases Thursday against one man, retired firefighter Robert Sanford, on charges that he hurled a fire extinguisher at the head of one police officer and another, Peter Stager, of beating a different officer with a pole bearing an American flag.

In Chansley’s case, prosecutors said the charges “involve active participation in an insurrection attempting to violently overthrow the United States government,” and warned that “the insurrection is still in progress” as law enforcement prepares for more demonstrations in Washington and state capitals.

They also suggested he suffers from drug abuse and mental illness, and told the judge he poses a serious flight risk.

“Chansley has spoken openly about his belief that he is an alien, a higher being, and he is here on Earth to ascend to another reality,” they wrote.

The Justice Department has brought more than 80 criminal cases in connection with the violent riots at the U.S. Capitol last week, in which Trump’s supporters stormed the building, ransacked offices and in some cases, attacked police.

Many of the people charged so far were easily tracked down by the FBI, which has more than 200 suspects, thanks in large part to videos and photos posted on social media.

Michael Sherwin, the Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, has said that while many of the initial charges may seem minor, he expects much more serious charges to be filed as the Justice Department continues its investigation.

Ending With A Whimper

Sec'y Of State Mike Pompeo has been denied meetings with foreign leaders, as the days of Qult45 dwindle down to nothing.

The latest of which being Luxembourg's Foreign Minister, Jean Asselborn:

"Mister Trump is a criminal, a political pyromaniac who should be sent to criminal court. He's a person who was elected democratically but who isn't interested in democracy in the slightest."

- and -

"The 6th of January 2021 was a 9/11 attack on democracy itself, and Trump was the one who egged it on."

- and -

"The people who are truly responsible are Trump and members of the GOP. People like Ted Cruz and other elected Republicans are responsible because they acted like Trump's poodles."

USNews

Luxembourg, EU Snub Pompeo in Final Europe Trip, Diplomats Say

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo cancelled his Europe trip at the last minute on Tuesday after Luxembourg's foreign minister and top European Union officials declined to meet him, European diplomats and other people familiar with the matter said.

The Europeans snubbed Washington's top envoy days after the storming of the U.S. Capitol by thousands of supporters of President Donald Trump, an unprecedented attack on American democracy that stunned many world leaders and U.S. allies.

Pompeo, a close ally of Trump, had sought to meet Jean Asselborn in Luxembourg, a small but wealthy NATO ally, before meeting EU leaders and the bloc's top diplomat in Brussels, three people close to the planning told Reuters.

Pompeo had originally planned to go to Luxembourg, but that leg of the trip was scrapped, one diplomatic source said, after officials there showed reluctance to grant him appointments. The Brussels leg was still on until the last minute.

But Pompeo's final visit schedule in Brussels was not going to involve any meetings with the EU or any public events at NATO. A third diplomatic source said allies were "embarrassed" by Pompeo after the violence in Washington last Wednesday.

Trump encouraged his supporters at a rally to march on the building that houses the Senate and the House of Representatives while lawmakers were certifying Democrat President-elect Joe Biden's Nov. 3 election victory. Republican Trump claims, without providing evidence, that the election was stolen from him.

Pompeo condemned the violence but made no reference to the role Trump's baseless claims played in galvanizing the march on the Capitol.

Appalled by the violence, Luxembourg's Asselborn had called Trump a "criminal" and a "political pyromaniac" on RTL Radio the next day.

Luxembourg's foreign ministry confirmed the previously planned stop there was cancelled, but declined to give further details. The EU declined to comment.

And of course, they needed something to cover for the snub and save face.

The U.S. State Department, in a statement, attributed the cancellation to transition work before Biden takes office on Jan. 20, even if until recently Pompeo had been reluctant to unequivocally recognise Biden's win. The State Department declined further comment on European officials' rejection of meetings with Pompeo.

Meanwhile, down there is Texas...

Chicago Tribune:

Trump takes no responsibility for riot, tours Texas border wall construction after days spent out of sight and banned from Twitter

ALAMO, TEXAS — President Donald Trump on Tuesday took no responsibility for his part in fomenting a violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol last week, despite his comments encouraging supporters to march on the Capitol and praise for them while they were still carrying out the assault.

“People thought that what I said was totally appropriate,” Trump said.

He made the comments during his first appearance in public since the Capitol siege, which came as lawmakers were tallying Electoral College votes affirming President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. Trump arrived in Texas on Tuesday to trumpet his campaign against illegal immigration in an attempt to burnish his legacy with eight days remaining in his term, as lawmakers in Congress appeared set to impeach him this week for the second time.

In Alamo, Texas, a city in the Rio Grande Valley near the U.S.-Mexican border — the site of the 450th mile of the border wall his administration is building, Trump brushed off Democratic calls on his Cabinet to declare him unfit from office and remove him from power using the 25th Amendment.

“The 25th Amendment is of zero risk to me, but will come back to haunt Joe Biden and the Biden administration,” Trump said. “As the expression goes, be careful of what you wish for.”

The rampage through the halls of Congress sent lawmakers of both parties and Trump’s own vice president into hiding, as crowds called for Mike Pence’s lynching for his role overseeing the vote count. The scene also undermined the hallmark of the republic — the peaceful transition of power. At least five people died, including one Capitol Police officer.

And that's quite enough of that shit.

First, c'mon, Trib - 450 miles of wall? At least try to get things right. Qult45 has built about 50 miles of new wall and the rest of it is Rebuild-n-Rehab.

And that "speech"?