Month: August 2022

Categories
GOP The Biden Administration

Naming Names: White House Lists The ‘Extreme’ MAGA Republicans Who Promote Violence

Republicans are beside themselves because President Joe Biden referred to some of the most extreme MAGA members of the party and their political leanings as “semi-fascism,” which is an apt description of the ones who urged the January 6, 2021 storming of the Capitol and were even given tours of the building just a day before the insurrection took place that left five people dead and caused millions of dollars in damage.

At Wednesday’s press briefing, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked by CBS News correspondent Nancy Cordes to address the controversy which has arisen in response to the president’s remarks:

“Over the past week or so, we’ve heard many Republicans argue that this President ran a uniter. And now he’s calling MAGA Republicans, which is a very large swath of the American populace, ‘semi-fascists.’ He is arguing that they’re a threat to democracy. Does the White House believe that this is a fair criticism by Republicans that this is not unifying language?”

Jean-Pierre came prepared, responding with names and specifics:

“Representative Paul Gosar (R-AZ) has posted videos depicting him attacking the President and members of Congress.

“You have Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) who has “publicly expressed support for shooting prominent Democratic elected officials and suggesting physically assaulting transgender school officials.

“You have Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC), [who] has said falsely if our election system ‘continues to be rigged and continues to be stolen, then it’s going to lead to one place, and that’s bloodshed.’ And just last week, you had Governor Ron DeSantis suggesting that Dr. Fauci should be physically assaulted. And former President Trump has done the same many, many times.”

The press secretary also referenced a headline from the New York Times earlier this month:

“‘As right wing rhetoric escalates, so do threats and violence.’ And so these are things that we have to call out.”

Jean-Pierre concluded by noting:

“I was talking about the ‘soul of the nation,’ something the President has talked about since 2017. When he wrote that article in The Atlantic, and he’s called it out then, he called it out January 6, he called it out Inauguration Day. He called it out last week. He called it out yesterday. So there is been a consistent call out from the President, what he’s seeing from an extreme part of this party of the Republican Party. And historians, I would argue, would say the same.”

Categories
Crime Donald Trump Espionage WTF?!

Trump Attorney Whines: I Can’t Believe DOJ Wants To Charge My Client With ‘Mundane’ Crimes Like Espionage

Alina Habba is an attorney for disgraced, one-term, twice-impeached former president Donald Trump, and she’s absolutely flabbergasted that the Justice Department might want to charge her client with “mundane” crimes such as violations of the Espionage Act.

Speaking with right-wing activist Charlie Kirk on Real America’s Voice, Habba whined:

“So what they did was to try and criminalize Donald Trump, as they always do. They found these three mundane statutes, espionage and the two others, obstruction.

“And they’re trying to claim that there was some sort of criminal activity. But their papers say it’s under the Presidential Records Act. So your admission is the power that we’ve all been saying he does have. You can take a picture of top secret documents, Charlie, and show the world a label.”

Habba added:

“But if they’re declassified, as he has the right to do that, he has the right to have them.”

Time for a fact check: Habba is trying to cloud the matter by suggesting everything was covered under the Presidential Records Act, and that means Trump should have turned all his records and documents over to the National Archives.

The documents were not declassified because there is no paper trail proving that. Trump cannot just wave his hand over a piece of paper and call it declassified. There’s a process that requires quite a lot of paperwork and numerous steps before something is officially declassified.

Additionally, as Mediaite notes, there are several laws Trump is suspected of having violated, and they’re a hell of a lot more serious than Habba is suggesting:

The warrant allowing the FBI to search Mar-a-Lago cited three potential statute violations by Trump:

18 USC 2071 — Concealment, removal or mutilation
18 USC 793 — Gathering, transmitting or losing defense information
18 USC 1519 — Destruction, alteration or falsification of records in Federal investigations

18 USC 793 is the Espionage Act, which Habba referenced.

Categories
Donald Trump Social Media

Trump Has Furious Meltdown After Murdoch-Owned Newspaper Urges The GOP To Dump Donald

Disgraced former president Donald Trump had a social media meltdown Tuesday evening after a newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., The New York Post, published an op-ed urging Republicans to finally cut Trump loose.

The editorial begins:

Attorney General Merrick Garland’s raid on Mar-a-Lago has ex-President Donald Trump back in the news. That’s a problem for Republicans, who need to move beyond him.

Noting that the 2022 midterm elections should have been a cakewalk for the GOP, the Post lamented:

But if the focus is on Trump instead, enraged Democrats will unite, pause their internecine warring while independents will abstain or vote against the GOP.

The only solution? For Trump to go away.

Those GOPers know Trump’s already an albatross: His “stolen election” derangement in late 2020 is why Dems control the Senate now, and his endorsements in this year’s primaries have helped saddle Republicans with enough weak Senate candidates this year that retaking the chamber seems increasingly out of reach. Plus, for all the tens of millions Trump has raised since leaving the White House, he hasn’t yet spent any of it even to help the candidates he’s endorsed.

On his pathetic Twitter imitation, Truth Social, the twice-impeached loser ex-president fumed, claiming the Post was “once my favorite newspaper” He also suggested the Post editorial was an attempt to defend Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who recently warned some of the GOP’s Senate candidates were so extreme they may be unelectable come November, telling the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce:

“I think there’s probably a greater likelihood the House flips than the Senate. Senate races are just different — they’re statewide, candidate quality has a lot to do with the outcome.”

That comment enraged Trump, whose handpicked Senate nominees are all in danger of losing badly.

Here’s the failed former president’s Truth Social posts after the editorial ran:

 

Categories
education History Right Wing Morons WTF?!

WATCH: Texas Mom Doesn’t Want Kids Learning About Gandhi Because That Would Be ‘Critical Race Theory’

An angry Texas mother told the Texas State Board of Education on Tuesday that she doesn’t think it’s right for first graders to learn about the life and teachings of Mahatma Gandhi because that would be teaching “CRT” which is also known as Critical Race Theory.

The woman, who identified herself as “Jenna,” began her tirade:

“You refer to our flag, bonnets and mockingbirds as a significant symbol to a Texas community. No, these are emblems of identity and instill pride and connection with our home.”

It would inappropriate to teach children about “the importance of collaborating with various cultures” Jenna continued, because first they need to learn about their own culture:

“This revision wants to teach a first grader who is still putting notes to the tooth fairy under her pillow about following Gandhi’s lead to a peaceful protest. A first grader! CRT is already rampant and baked into our curriculum and we don’t want to be good little global citizens where are borders are considered a military zone.

“It’s a border and it’s good! Teach that. This is the land of the free, home of the brave. Be brave!”

State Board of Education Member Marisa B. Perez-Diaz countered Jenna by noting that she had failed to cite what Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) contain the standards that she was so enraged by:

“Be specific about what you’re talking about so that we understand that you actually have a legitimate concern or it’s not something you’re just hearing and reading and repeating. I guess I want to understand what on the history of how borders were created do you know about?”

That further angered the mother:

“I’m not an expert. I don’t appreciate your, um, belittling. I didn’t come here with a Ph.D. and I didn’t come up here as an educator or somebody on one of these work groups. I’m coming up here as a parent.”

Perez-Diaz reassured Jenna she wasn’t trying to belittle her in any manner:

“You just told our chair that you’d read it somewhere or you heard it, you don’t know. And that is not a belittling. I’m just acknowledging what you have yourself said.

“My point in asking you the question about borders is that is a clear example of why we need the standards the way that they have been written because this country did not always have borders. This country, we’re sitting on stolen land.”

After audience members in attendance applauded the board member’s remarks, she continued:

“That isn’t something that is in the standards. But what is in the standards is understanding our indigenous roots and understanding how indigenous communities have been impacted and those sorts of pieces of our history are very important.

“And so, again, I ask, what do you remember about learning about indigenous histories?”

Jenna was then forced to admit she didn’t learn much in history class when she was a student:

“I don’t remember very much about indigenous histories. I’m sorry I can’t answer your question about what I learned about indigenous communities and the border. I know our border is open right now and thousands are flooding over!”

Categories
Donald Trump GOP Ron DeSantis

Insecure Trump Accuses Ron DeSantis Of Ripping Off His Hand Gestures And ‘Style’

As if he doesn’t have more than enough problems at the moment, disgraced, one-term, twice-impeached former president Donald Trump is now obsessing over what he perceives to be a threat to his primacy as head of the Republican Party: The hand gestures being used by Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis when he speaks on the stump.

According to a fascinating article in Rolling Stone, Trump has even suggested he might want to sue DeSantis for using his gestures and “style,” as if such things are protected by copyright.

Trump has a distinctive (and much-satirized) way of gesticulating while casually talking, delivering political speeches, or even “firing” contestants on his former game show. The sources note that when Trump has seen video clips of of DeSantis speaking at public events over the past year and a half, the former president has scornfully mocked the ascendant Florida Republican for appearing to imitate his body language, movements, and even, at times, speaking rhythm. One of the other sources recalls Trump joking at a dinner event earlier this year that he should sue DeSantis for copyright infringement.

Even some members of the ex-president’s inner circle have noticed the imitations and suggested that it goes far beyond just gestures, suggesting that DeSantis even steals policy ideas from the Donald:

The alleged rip-offs have raised eyebrows with other members of “America First” royalty. Donald Trump Jr. has told those close to him that he has noticed an uncanny pattern: Often he will tweet something from @DonaldJTrumpJr — a culture-war grievance or a burgeoning trend among the online right — and then very soon after, he will see those specific topics incorporated into the Florida governor’s talking points. This has happened enough times that Trump’s eldest son has come to believe, according to a person familiar with the matter, that DeSantis and his staff likely look to his Twitter account for inspiration and to raid it for their latest policy ideas or red-meat-hurling rhetoric.

Of course, all of this is emblematic of a much larger fissure taking place inside the GOP as 2024 approaches and both DeSantis and Trump may wind up facing each other for the presidential nomination, which remains unclear since Trump may well be under indictment by the time the primaries are held.

But if the two do wind up facing each other in 2024, the primary debates should be a blast to watch, especially if Trump accuses him of imitating his “style,” which of course is little than bravado and bullshit.