Right Wing Watch

There's no hate quite like Christian love.

RWW Blog

During the last ReAwaken America event, anti-vax activist Jim Meehan uncorked an unhinged rant urging right-wingers to seize power & punish their enemies: "I've got a message to the Luciferian cabal, to the overlords: We're coming for you ... We're gonna knock you into the dirt."

This one's almost as good the one about "trans-humanist robots".

GOP Warns Of War

So fuckin' sick of the GOP trying to bluster their way out of being held to account for their actions by threatening political war - like that's not what we've got now?

Fuck 'em - follow the law.

BTW - notice how their "arguments" make the Republicans sound just like Putin when he tries to rationalize his invasion of Ukraine.

Straight out of The Abuser's Handbook

1. I did an unreasonable thing
2. You reacted in a reasonable way
3. I twist your reaction into justification for me to do some more unreasonable things
4. It's your own fault - you make me do this

The Hill:

Republicans warn Justice Department probe of Trump would trigger political war

Republican lawmakers are warning that any Department of Justice prosecution of former President Trump will turn into a political battle, setting a high bar for Attorney General Merrick Garland to act on an expected criminal referral from the House’s Jan. 6 committee.

The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol previewed its likely referral to the Justice Department in a court filing made public last week and experts say the evidence assembled by House investigators would provide a strong impetus for prosecutors to act.

But Republican lawmakers and strategists warn that any federal prosecution of Trump will be accused of being politically motivated, boost Trump within the GOP and turn into a partisan food fight at a time when President Biden is pivoting to the center and trying to keep his 2020 campaign promise to unify the country.

Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) said any criminal referral from the House “would probably have as much political taint on it as you can get.”

“To me it’s clearly politically driven,” he said.

Braun said Democrats are scrambling to change up the political narrative in response to Biden’s moribund job approval ratings and predicted launching a federal prosecution of Trump would be viewed along partisan lines.

“At least half the country would say it’s all politically motivated,” he said.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said “the Department of Justice has a high bar” to clear before launching an investigation of Trump and raised concerns over the partisan fighting that surrounded the formation of the Jan. 6 committee.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) blocked House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) picks to serve on the panel, Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Jim Banks (R-Ind.).

She instead tapped Reps. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) and Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), two outspoken critics of Trump’s election fraud claims, to participate in the Democratic-led investigation.

“I don’t mind looking into the events but I think that Speaker Pelosi did not do the process justice by the way the members were ultimately seated,” Tillis said. “It’s going to be perceived as political."

“Everybody is going to perceive the referral as a conviction on one side and they’re going to view it as the continuation of a witch hunt on the other side,” he added. “The bar that the House committee has is far lower than anything that would ultimately result in moving forward with a federal investigation and a conviction.”

Republican strategists close to Trump are predicting a battle royale if the Department of Justice moves to indict the former president."

“I think it could backfire in a way that they have no clue,” said Republican pollster Jim McLaughlin. “I think it’s going to backfire because it just so political and it’s tainted.

“The country wants to move on. Nobody is proud of what happened on Jan. 6 but people are like, ‘With all the problems we have going on in the country right now, this is going to be the focus of the Democrats?’ ”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a close Trump ally and senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told The Hill Thursday any recommendation to prosecute from the House select committee would lack credibility.

“I don’t see anything coming out of this committee not tainted by politics,” he said.

The likelihood of a stirring up a major political storm with a federal investigation of Trump could serve as a powerful disincentive for the Justice Department moving forward if it receives a recommendation to prosecute from the Jan. 6 committee.

Biden privately told advisers after his victory in the 2020 election that he didn’t want his presidency consumed by investigations of Trump, NBC News reported at the time, citing five people familiar with the discussions.

A filing by lawyers for the Jan. 6 panel in a California federal court as part of its effort to obtain conservative lawyer and Trump adviser John Eastman’s emails is widely seen as a precursor to a criminal referral to the Justice Department later this year.

The lawyers wrote the committee has “a good-faith basis for concluding that the president and members of his campaign engaged in a criminal conspiracy to defraud the United States” by obstructing the counting of electoral votes during last year’s joint session of Congress.

Senate Democrats, even though they all voted last year to convict Trump on the impeachment charge of inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection, have been careful to avoid the appearance Garland is under political pressure to bring charges. They say the decision is up to Garland alone.

But some Democratic senators privately caution that Garland needs to win any case he brings against Trump. They worry that the former president would seize on an acquittal as complete vindication, much like he did after former special counsel Robert Mueller declined to bring charges after investigating allegations of collusion between Russian officials and the Trump campaign in 2016.

Albert Alschuler, a professor emeritus of law and criminology at the University of Chicago Law School, said the Department of Justice would appear to have a strong case against Trump based on the public evidence of his attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

“It looks like a quite strong case for criminal prosecution, particularly conspiracy to defraud the United States and maybe obstruction of official proceedings charge,” he said. “I see a lot of comment and some people seem to be saying, ‘Well, it’s so hard because they have to prove that the defendant really was lying by projecting all these false claims, you have to prove that he actually did not believe them himself.’ "

“But it seems to me the evidence is pretty strong,” he added. “Juries infer intent from the circumstances all the time, and they infer a criminal intent beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Alschuler noted that multiple advisers including former Attorney General William Barr told Trump directly that his claims of widespread election fraud were untrue.

Barr discussed his conversations with Trump shortly after the 2020 election in a recent interview with NBC’s Lester Holt.

“I told him that all this stuff was bullshit about election fraud and, you know, it was wrong to be shoveling it out the way his team was,” Barr recounted. “He started asking me about different theories and I had the answers. I was able to tell him this is wrong because of this ... He obviously was getting very angry.”

Alschuler noted that Barr “was one of several people who did that.”

He pointed out that “with conspiracy to defraud what you have to show is knowledge is that what you’re saying is false.”

He said, however, that while the evidence against Trump appears to support a criminal prosecution, Garland may hesitate to pull the trigger because of the likely political backlash.

“Garland has said he will follow the evidence wherever it leads. If an overwhelming case is presented he may prosecute but I think he would probably prefer not to. That’s just a guess. Even if it’s a very strong case, I think they’re worried about the fact that we’re talking about prosecuting somebody who has millions and millions of devoted, passionate followers who would see this as a political prosecution and be very angry, possibly violent,” he said.

Republicans also warn that any federal prosecution of Trump would likely be answered by congressional investigations of Biden and his son Hunter if Republicans take over the House and possibly the Senate in the 2022 midterm elections.

COVID-19 Update

The weekend slump hit big, at under 2,800 New Cases and under 100 New Deaths.

Now we wait to see if the normal mid-week boom is down as well.

AMA - moving from pandemic to endemic - always with a caveat that we don't see another mutation that can sidestep our immunity.

Ukraine

We can't let these guys down.

Sky News - Ukraine cities under bombardment

Today's Tweet

Conservatism in a nutshell: riling up white people to drive in circles fighting something that doesn't exist.

— I Smoked Marco Rubles (@BlackKnight10k) March 6, 2022

Black American History #33

Dr Clint Smith - Crash Course - School Segregation and Brown v Board

COVID-19 Update

96 pages of New Plan

NBC News Update:

Abuser 101

Straight out of the handbook, Putin floats the classic bullshit.

• I had to hit you because you told me not to, and I don't take orders from you.
• I keep hitting you because you keep telling me not to.
• If you stop telling me not to hit you, I'll still hit you because you've hurt my feelings and you have to be punished for that.
• So it's your own fault - you made me do it.

WaPo: (pay wall)

After temporary cease-fires break down, Putin threatens Ukraine’s government
Residents flee cities as officials warn of a humanitarian catastrophe

MUKACHEVO, Ukraine — Cease-fire agreements intended to let civilians leave besieged Ukrainian cities broke down Saturday just hours after being reached, and Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that Ukraine could lose its sovereignty if its leaders continue to resist his military forces.

In his first extended remarks about the fighting since ordering his forces across Ukraine’s border, Putin threatened the very existence of the government of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has rallied his military and inspired everyday citizens to repel the Russian advance.

“The current leadership needs to understand that if they continue doing what they are doing, they risk the future of Ukrainian statehood,” Putin said. “If that happens, they will have to be blamed for that.”

Against the incongruous backdrop of a meeting with female airline employees, during which Putin cracked jokes, the Russian leader escalated his rhetoric as the crisis entered its ninth day. He compared international sanctions against Moscow to a “declaration of war” and said that any country who participated in a no-fly zone over Ukraine would be considered “participants in a military conflict.”

Putin’s comments signaled that he had little intention of halting his campaign to seize huge portions of the country and remove its government. Negotiations between Ukrainian and Russian teams meeting in Belarus have produced no tangible results.

Citizens fled cities amid shelling as local officials warned of a humanitarian catastrophe for those who remained. And U.S. and European officials have quietly begun making plans to help establish and support a Ukrainian government in exile, assuming that Russian military forces, which have faced noticeable setbacks, will ultimately prevail.

Speaking in Poland at a border crossing with Ukraine, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, “Putin has made a terrible, terrible, terrible mistake in many ways, but it starts with the proposition that somehow Ukraine doesn’t exist as an independent country. What Ukrainians are showing every single day is, of course, exactly the opposite.”

“We’re in it with Ukraine one way or another,” Blinken said. “The short-run, the medium-run, the long-run. We’re in this together. We will succeed together. Ukraine is going to prevail.”

During a virtual a meeting with members of Congress, Zelensky sought additional U.S. help to fend off the Russian invasion by asking for more fighter jets and a ban on the purchase of Russian oil. The White House on Friday said it was considering the latter measure.

In a call over Zoom attended by more than 280 lawmakers, Zelensky described “the urgent need” for more military support and humanitarian aid. The call came after the Biden administration on Thursday requested $10 billion in aid for Ukraine.

The Ukrainian president’s message was “close the skies or gives us planes,” Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) said in a statement after the call, which lasted just under an hour.

In comments afterward, lawmakers seemed genuinely moved to step up aid. But the U.S. and European officials have steadfastly resisted calls to create a no-fly zone, worried about the potential for direct conflict with Russia.

“The only way to actually implement something like a no-fly zone is to send NATO planes into Ukrainian airspace and to shoot down Russian planes, and that could lead to a full-fledged war in Europe,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said.

In the face of U.S. reluctance, Zelensky asked lawmakers for help with another way to limit the damage from Russia’s devastating aerial raids: more planes for Ukraine.

“His main ask was for the U.S. to allow Poland and Romania to transfer Soviet era jets to #Ukraine, and for the U.S. to compensate by giving more advanced planes to those two NATO allies,” Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) said in a Twitter post.

Ukraine and Russia are aiming to meet Monday for another round of talks, Ukrainian negotiator David Arakhamia said.

Biden and Zelensky talked for about 30 minutes on Saturday evening, during which the U.S. president reiterated that the administration “is surging security, humanitarian and economic assistance to Ukraine and is working closely with Congress to secure additional funding.”

Evacuations continued in Kyiv and air raid sirens sounded repeatedly as Ukraine’s defense minister warned of a gathering threat to the capital from approaching columns of Russian troops.

Ukrainian officials accused Russia of violating temporary truce agreements in the southern cities of Mariupol and Volnovakha. In Mariupol, where the mayor on Friday warned that the coastal city was facing a “humanitarian catastrophe,” the city council on Saturday advised citizens to evacuate, before reversing course and urging people to hunker down because, they said, Russian forces continued to shell the city.

Britain’s Defense Ministry accused Russia of proposing a cease-fire in Mariupol to “deflect international condemnation” and give its forces time to reset.

“By accusing Ukraine of breaking the agreement, Russia is likely seeking to shift responsibility for current and future civilian casualties in the city,” the ministry said in a statement.

Volnovakha, a city of about 21,000, also endured “heavy artillery” assaults during the cease-fire, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister said. Russia denied breaking the truce, accusing Ukraine of using civilians as “human shields.”

Also Saturday, a powerful explosion struck a residential area in Bila Tserkva, 50 miles south of Kyiv. Local officials said they suspected a Russian rocket attack. Several people were injured, but there were no immediate reports of fatalities.

That city of around 200,000 people — with the same population as Des Moines, Iowa — would be a strategic prize in any Russian effort to choke off Kyiv, but for the moment it remained at the mouth of one of the few relatively safe passages in and out of the capital. Streams of people fleeing Kyiv clogged checkpoints as they made their long drive away from the shelling.

How large are Ukraine’s cities? Some U.S. comparisons.

Bila Tserkva is also a hub for humanitarian aid and military deliveries into the capital and further east. Much of the energy of the military volunteers and city officials was focused on getting the right materials to the places they are needed.

The U.N. human rights office said Friday that at least 331 civilians have been killed during the conflict, while Ukraine’s emergency services put the number of civilian fatalities much higher, at more than 2,000. Nearly 1.3 million people have been evacuated by train since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, Oleksandr Kamyshin, chairman of Ukrainian Railways, said Saturday.

The International Monetary Fund warned that Ukraine will suffer “devastating” economic damage if Russia’s invasion of the country continues to escalate. The Russian bombardment is also inflicting a “substantial” economic toll because numerous airports, sea ports, roads and bridges have been closed, damaged or destroyed, the IMF noted in a news release.

“While the situation remains highly fluid and the outlook is subject to extraordinary uncertainty, the economic consequences are already very serious,” the agency wrote. “While it is very difficult to assess financing needs precisely at this stage, it is already clear that Ukraine will face significant recovery and reconstruction costs.”

The IMF said Ukraine has requested more than $1.4 billion of emergency financing.

As Russia tries to advance on several fronts, pummeling cities and towns with heavy weapons, Ukraine’s defense minister Oleksii Reznikov warned Saturday in a Facebook post that “the main effort of the invaders has been focused on encircling Kyiv.” The city’s defenders, he added, “continue to fight back the enemy’s offensive and inflict losses up on its offensive groupings.”

An outgunned but resilient Ukrainian military is adopting a two-prong strategy in the face of a flawed but fierce Russian assault, relying on hit-and-run tactics and the fortification of major cities as Putin’s campaign enters a more perilous phase, military experts said.

The odds remain stacked against Ukraine. Russian forces have begun employing siege tactics, aiming to flatten civilian infrastructure and exact maximum punishment for Ukrainian resistance. While Russia has mostly failed, so far, to seize major cities and effectively supply its soldiers with food and fuel, the Pentagon believes it is probable that Russia will regroup and press its massive advantage in firepower.

The main threat to Kyiv appears to be a massive Russian convoy, about 40 miles long, approaching Kyiv from the west and believed to be about 20 miles from the capital and stuck near a cargo airport.

Western officials have said the convoy has stalled because of resistance from Ukrainian troops as well as logistical setbacks, including shortages of fuel. But military analysts have not ruled out tactical reasons for the delay in moving the convoy forward, as Moscow waits for its forces to advance other fronts.

In a media briefing earlier this week, John Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman, said Ukrainian resistance and “logistical and sustainment” challenges had hampered the convoy’s progress. But the United States also believed that “the Russians are deliberately, actually, regrouping themselves and reassessing the progress that they have not made and how to make up for lost time.”

Can Kasapoglu, director of the Security and Defense Studies Program at EDAM, a Turkish think tank, said the convoy’s delay was partially the result of Russia’s effort to shift away from a failed battle plan that had initially aimed at quickly decapitating the Ukrainian government with a “hybrid” military force — of a type Moscow had previously used, including during its annexation of Crimea in 2014. The Russian forces are trying to transition to a “Soviet-type heavy fire power and armor-focused operations,” he said. But, he said, “the transition to a massive invasion is not easy, especially for logistics.” In addition, Russian trucks had been targeted by Ukrainian forces.

A briefing from the Institute for the Study of War on Friday concluded that while the convoy’s progress from the west remained slow, “Russian troops have moved more rapidly from the east and are arriving in the capital’s outskirts on the Sumy axis,” referring to a city about 180 miles east of Kyiv.

U.S. armed Ukraine to hit Russian aircraft, tanks and prep for urban combat

The Sumy axis “is currently the most successful and dangerous Russian avenue of advance on Kyiv,” the authors said, adding that the Russian forces had likely proceeded along terrain that is “flat and sparsely populated, offering few good defensive positions.” As the Russians drew nearer to Kyiv, they “may begin to encounter the sorts of challenges that have slowed their comrades’ advances on the west bank of the Dnipro, depending on the strength and capability of Ukrainian forces attempting to defend on the east,” referring to the river that divides Kyiv.

As Putin railed against sanctions, Visa and Mastercard announced they would suspend their operations in Russia, following a plea from Zelensky.

“We are compelled to act following Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, and the unacceptable events that we have witnessed,” Al Kelly, chairman and chief executive officer of Visa, said in a statement. “This war and the ongoing threat to peace and stability demand we respond in line with our values.”

In its statement, Mastercard noted the “unprecedented nature of the current conflict and the uncertain economic environment.”

As the crisis deepened, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met with Putin in Moscow for about three hours in the Kremlin, an Israeli official said. The head of Israel’s National Security Council, Eyal Hulata, also attended, along with Zeev Elkin, Israel’s minister of housing and construction, who is from Kharkiv, a city in northeastern Ukraine that has come under intense Russian shelling.

Bennett spoke with Putin about the impact of the conflict on Israelis and Jewish communities, the official said.

Israel has said it will maintain communications with Moscow to help de-escalate the conflict and has offered to mediate between Russia and Ukraine. Israel has been trying to support Ukraine, which has a large Jewish population, without alienating Moscow.

Israel has walked a diplomatic tightrope in its response to the war. Israeli officials have voiced support for Ukraine, whose president is the only other Jewish head of state in the world. They have called Ukraine a liberal democratic ally. But mindful that Russia backs the Syrian regime on Israel’s northern border, Israel is concerned about provoking Moscow.

The Russian news agency TASS also announced that Russian authorities had arrested WNBA player Brittney Griner on suspicion of illegally bringing drugs into the country after being searched at the airport and found with hash oil in her luggage.

The report stated that Griner was stopped by customs control at Sheremetyevo International Airport in February upon arrival in Moscow from New York when a service dog indicated the presence of drugs. The two-time Olympic gold medalist’s luggage was searched and run through X-ray equipment, and vape cartridges of liquid cannabis oil were found.

“We are aware of and are closely monitoring the situation with Brittney Griner in Russia,” the Phoenix Mercury said in a statement. “We remain in constant contact with her family, her representation, the WNBA and NBA. We love and support Brittney and at this time our main concern is her safety, physical and mental health, and her safe return home.”

Black American History #32

Dr Clint Smith - Crash Course - The March on Washington Movement

Today's Quote

Human speech is like a cracked kettle on which we tap crude rhythms for bears to dance to, while we long to make music that will melt the stars.

Gustave Flaubert - Madame Bovary, 1856