#goplovespower — Public Fediverse posts

These are typical, sleazy, disingenuous attacks by Republicans and people on the right who know they can't survive politically without lying early and often! This isn't about democracy or the health of our country, this is only about the power they and their donors want and their attempts to destroy our democracy and undermine it with lies to get their way! They have no integrity and they aren't interested in being public servants. They are addicted to money and power and are psychologically and emotionally sick and deranged! Yet the people they manipulate are oblivious to the ring they have put in their noses!

Jim Jordan spearheads 'cynical' and 'wildly partisan' GOP effort to chill anti-disinformation research - Alternet.org https://www.alternet.org/jim-jordan-2661568445/

#GOPHatesDemocracy
#GOPLovesPower
#GOPLies
#GOPInBedWithTheRich
#GOPTreason

"A combination of universities and think tanks have been sounding the alarm about disinformation, warning that outright lies could influence the outcome of elections in the United States. But some Republicans, according to the New York Times, are not happy about their work — including House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (D-Ohio) and former Donald Trump aide Stephen Miller.

In an article published by the New York Times on June 19, journalists Steven Lee Myers and Sheera Frenkel report that Jordan and others GOP lawmakers are claiming that the anti-disinformation efforts are designed to suppress conservative speech online.

"The House Judiciary Committee, which in January came under Republican majority control, has sent scores of letters and subpoenas to the researchers — only some of which have been made public," Myers and Frenkel explain. "It has threatened legal action against those who have not responded quickly or fully enough…. Targets include Stanford, Clemson and New York Universities and the University of Washington; the Atlantic Council, the German Marshall Fund and the National Conference on Citizenship, all nonpartisan, nongovernmental organizations in Washington; the Wikimedia Foundation in San Francisco; and Graphika, a company that researches disinformation online."

In Louisiana, Miller, who heads the MAGA group America First Legal, has filed a class-action lawsuit against anti-disinformation researchers — making, Myers and Frenkel report, similar claims to Jordan on the House Intelligence Committee. The Trump ally has described his lawsuit as "striking at the heart of the censorship-industrial complex," but Miller's critics believe he is the one trying to silence those he disagrees with.

Jeff Hancock, founding director of the Stanford Social Media Lab, views the GOP attacks on anti-disinformation researchers as disingenuous and misleading.

Hanocck told The Times, "We see it in the media, in the congressional committees and in lawsuits, and it is the same core argument, with a false premise about the government giving some type of direction to the research we do…. We have not only academic freedom as researchers to conduct this research, but freedom of speech to tell Twitter or any other company to look at tweets we might think violate rules."

Jameel Jaffer, who serves was executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at New York City's Columbia University, is critical of the Republican lawmakers as well.

Jaffer told the Times, "I think it's quite obviously a cynical — and I would say wildly partisan — attempt to chill research.""

The GOP leaders and elected representatives plot daily to undermine our democracy and turn the country into an authoritarian oligarchy/theocracy. They violate their oaths of office and are antisocial, greedy, power-hungry sociopaths! And, their supporters/base are all on board with this it seems. They are fine with voter suppression, insurrection, discrimination and violence against minorities, gaming the judiciary and installing a gun-worshipping theocracy as long as it maintains their privileges and prejudices. Sad and discouraging but at least they are a minority and we know what we are up against.

The GOP is an anti-America party - Republicans hate America and don’t care about national security -- Salon
https://read.letterhead.email/standing-room-only/letter/16388?

#GOPHatesDemocracy
#GOPLovesPower
#GOPInBedWithTheRich
#GOPHatesTheConstitution

"Republicans hate America and don’t care about national security

In the least surprising results ever, a new poll from CBS shows only 12% of Republican voters think it’s a crime now to steal nuclear secrets and put them in a ballroom for Russian and Chinese spies to thumb through. Trump was right that they’d forgive him if he committed murder. After all, he sent a mob to murder Mike Pence, and they don’t have a problem with that.

This news is still causing centrist pundits to reel, because they believed the lie that Republicans are a “national security” party. If they ever were — a big if! — that time has long passed. This isn’t just about loyalty to Trump. The GOP has become an anti-American party, so of course they don’t really care if foreign adversaries gain knowledge they could use to undermine or even destroy us.

Harsh, I know, but consider this: Trump attempted a coup to overthrow our democracy. His reward has been that he’s fast-tracked to the Republican presidential nomination in 2024. His fellow Republican politicians talk about him like he’s their god. This isn’t because they’re unaware that he’s a fascist. It’s because they agree with him and think he’s still got the best shot at accomplishing the goal of ending the American experiment.

That’s why Republicans don’t care if truly evil actors like Vladimir Putin or Xi Jinping get some kind of leverage against the U.S. Tearing the U.S. down and replacing it with a fascist government is also the goal of GOP primary voters. In that sense, foreign adversaries are their allies. For the fans of Tucker “I Heart Putin” Carlson, having some outside help as they rip this country apart is a good thing. So of course they shrug at Trump violating the Espionage Act. "

'Zero courage': Ex-GOP strategist torches members who stand by Trump
https://www.rawstory.com/zero-courage-ex-gop-strategist-torches-the-sergeant-schultz-brigade-of-republicans-defending-trump-2661189855/?

#GOPHatesDemocracy
#GOPLovesPower
#GreedKillsDemocracy

"An MSNBC panel on Sunday fiercely rebuked the defiantly nonchalant reactions by many Republicans to the historic federal felony charges filed against former President Donald Trump.

"I don't know. After reading those forty-nine pages, it was impossible for the special counsel to not indict Donald Trump," host Jonathan Capehart opined.

Capehart's guest, ex-Republican strategist Matthew Dowd, showed no mercy toward Trump's defenders.

"Well, you know, it, it's as if, if Mike Pence is saying, 'if Donald Trump breaks the law, nobody should ever hold him accountable.' That's actually what he's saying. And as I listen to Christina, who's absolutely right about this, about Mike Pence — but Mike Pence is just one of many — is that I'm reminded of what Maya Angelou said, which is courage is the most important of all the virtues because it's the only one that allows us to practice the other virtues consistently," Dowd said.

"There is a complete abject lack of courage of Mike Pence, Ron DeSantis, every, uh McCarthy, Speaker McCarthy," Dowd continued. "All these others have zero cur courage, zero courage, and the other one — so you put that in one bucket — the other bucket that I think is most, is also upsetting is the sort of 'Sergeant Schultz Brigade' of the Republican Party, which is, I see nothing. I know nothing. I'll say nothing.

"And they just sit by apathetically understanding Donald Trump and the corruption that exists around Donald Trump and the danger of Donald Trump, but will absolutely act like their fingers are in their ears. They close their eyes and they want nothing to do with saying or doing anything about 'em. And I put Mitch McConnell in that bucket.""

He should have been expelled long ago, but he fit right in with the general corruption, dishonesty and lack of integrity that the rest of the GOP wears like a badge of honor. They lie to their constituents, they lie when they take their oath of office to defend the Constitution, and they and their votes are for sale to the highest bidder. He fits right in with the them! If he wasn't so flagrant and obvious, that it calls attention to their own sleaziness, they'd happily embrace him forever. Even then, most of the GOP voted not to refer him.

Video: 221-204: The House votes to send Democrats’ resolution to expel Rep. George Santos (R-NY) to the House Ethics Committee.

#GOPCorrupt
#GOPLovesPower
#GOPLongGrift

https://flip.it/rV9bW0

Lacking the mandate through our election process to achieve the policies that the GOP wants, they've decided, again, to hold our economy hostage using the debt ceiling, a dated relic that no longer serves any useful purpose. Again, they couldn't achieve these policies with the votes and power that our democracy accords political parties, so instead the GOP uses this relic to hold our economy hostage to the demands that their donors have placed upon them. This is not the way democracy works! This is yet another example of a party that doesn't care about democracy using any trick it can, to get its way, when democracy did not give it the mandate to do so legitimately.

GOP Hostage-Taking on Debt Ceiling Must Be Stopped to Avoid Economic Calamity https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/debt-ceiling-economic-calamity-gop

#GOPHatesDemocracy
#GOPLovesPower
#GOPInBedWithTheRich
#DebtLimit
#DebtLimitHostageTaking

"(If) nothing is done except the federal government fails to fulfill its spending obligations, economic calamity will ensue: People who depend on programs like Social Security and food stamps will suffer, and the spillover effects on the larger economy would certainly cause a recession—and a truly horrible one if the stalemate lasted for any significant amount of time.

The factor forcing this terrible outcome would not be any implacable economic reality, it would simply be Congressional Republicans weaponizing the absurd political institution that is a statutory debt limit that can only be adjusted through acts of Congress. With a responsible Congress, the debt limit would be a silly inconvenience to policymaking. But twice in the past 12 years, Republican-led efforts in Congress have brought the nation to a near-crisis—and the current near-crisis could still graduate into a real crisis in coming weeks.
...
In 2011 (the last instance of protracted debt limit brinkmanship), the GOP demands for large spending cuts did mammoth damage to the living standards of U.S. families by sabotaging the economic recovery from the Great Recession and financial crisis of 2008–09. This time around, the GOP demands are not just for recovery-damaging spending cuts, but also for a complete do-over on already passed legislation; Speaker McCarthy’s recently released list of demands includes rolling back student debt relief as well as the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) climate provisions and enhanced enforcement against the nation’s rich tax cheats.

The cuts to IRA climate provisions would be literally catastrophic—the act’s climate provisions are the only thing keeping the U.S. economy on a path of needed emissions reductions to contain the worst damages of climate change. Further, hundreds of billions of dollars of planned private investment have already begun based on the incentives provided in the IRA. Stripping these climate provisions away would snap the economy back to a path toward climate catastrophe and be a huge waste of society’s resources.

All of this clearly calls for abolishing the debt limit to keep irresponsible Congressional majorities from holding the nation’s economy hostage to its policy preferences in the future. But what makes today’s debt limit showdown so bad is how normalized it has become—often with the encouragement of too many in D.C. policymaking circles who should know better. Many institutions and people who had argued forcefully in the past that the debt limit should not be wielded to force policy concessions—from business lobbies to former Treasury Secretaries to bipartisan think tanks—have instead this time blessed the absurdly shallow “deal” put forward by Speaker McCarthy. If this drive to normalize debt limit brinkmanship does not spark an economic meltdown this time, we all know where it leads next time.

This makes it imperative that the Biden administration does whatever it takes to keep the debt limit from binding our nation’s continued prosperity (yes, the nod to Mario Draghi is intentional). Their negotiations with Speaker McCarthy cannot include spending cuts or special legislative processes that make it easier to enact cuts going forward (no supercommittees).
...
If the Speaker doesn’t agree to that deal, then the administration should use the range of accounting and legalworkarounds available to them to keep the debt limit from binding. These are all suboptimal relative to debt ceiling abolition in the short run, but in the long run they will end up implicitly codified (unless the Supreme Court wants to take responsibility for forcing an unnecessary economic crisis) and will take the prospect of a debt limit crisis off the table of future presidents and Congresses. This would be a huge gift to the future."

All the GOP wants is power!! They really don't care at all about democracy! They lie, cheat and steal to have power and this woman has been behind this dogged determination to disenfranchise voters and entrench the GOP in power for decades. Why? Could be Christian nationalism, could be fear of liberalism and progress, could be racism, could be she hungers for power and the rewards the obscenely wealthy lavish on her to enact their agenda. She is a traitor to our democracy and she has lots of company there!

"EXCLUSIVE AUDIO: Trump coup attorney Cleta Mitchell wants to "combat" voting on college campuses, citing North Carolina and Wisconsin, and says that when Republicans win the state Senate in Virginia, they can eliminate 45 days of early voting and same day voter registration."

#GOPHatesDemocracy
#ChristianNationalism
#GOPLovesPower
#GOPInBedWithTheRich

Here's a link to the audio:
https://twitter.com/i/status/1649075730687352833

The mainstreaming of the Republican effort to suppress the vote. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/04/republican-effort-to-suppress-the-vote.html

#GOPHatesDemocracy
#GOPLovesPower
#GOPInBedWithTheRich
#GOPFascism
#GOPTreason

"It’s bad enough when a trio of voter suppression groups led by charlatans gets together at an annual secret conference that is sponsored, in part, by a group created by the Federalist Society’s Leonard Leo to talk about all the ways they might make it harder for people to register or vote in future elections. But it is much worse when the participants in that secret conference also include secretaries of state and other top election officials from 13 Republican-led states, plus Don Palmer, a member of the United States Election Assistance Commission, plus counsels to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and the House Administration Committee’s Republican staff, and a sitting Texas state senator. The entire conference—whose existence was revealed in a blockbuster report by the Guardian and Documented last week—shows that there is a thriving network of interlocking organizations working with elected and election officials to use unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud to try to mess with fair elections for partisan advantage.
...
Dark money donors capture the courts and the levers of government to make actual vote tallies irrelevant to who holds power. This story didn’t start in Tennessee or the Amarillo district court. For nearly two decades, we have been chronicling the actions of members of the Fraudulent Fraud Squad who have been active in perpetuating claims of voter fraud to make it harder for people to vote.
...
former President Donald Trump’s aborted Voter Fraud Commission. Documents from that commission later revealed a purposeful effort to generate enough smoke around nonexistent election shenanigans to cajole Congress into allowing states to require documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote. In other words, the commission was an elaborate search for a solution to a problem that never existed, but it made a play that has since been repeated elsewhere.
...
All of this voter suppression requires an infrastructure. To help support it, Heritage and PILF have teamed up with Leonard Leo’s Orwellian-named “Honest Elections Project” (HEP), headed by Jason Snead, to run a new conference for election officials and the representatives of Republican lawmakers. Leo, lest we forget, has been in charge of reshaping the federal courts, selecting Donald Trump’s judicial nominees, and figuring out how best to spend gobs of billionaire-donated money to reshape culture and democracy. The chillingly dishonest HEP not only supports these efforts to make voting harder but also the “independent state legislature theory,” ...
The election suppression noises are truly coming from inside the house.
...
this is no longer just a lobbying effort shored up with big, often untraceable money, coming from players outside the system. What’s no longer hidden is the involvement of lawmakers and their staffs, who say the quiet parts out loud. Their enthusiastic participation in these efforts shows that these groups are not offering false and exaggerated claims of voter fraud merely to raise funds or even to delegitimize Democratic electoral victories by convincing the Republican base that when Democrats win elections, it is inevitably by fraud. Instead, the conference is powerful evidence of coordination between the decades-old voter fraud–industrial complex and state and government officials who actually have the power to make rules over how elections are run. To put it in the simplest terms, the election suppression noises are truly coming from inside the house.
...
Finally, the very existence of this conference also highlights the coming together of the fringe elements of the Republican party with its allegedly saner mainstream."

Opinion | At the NRA convention in Indianapolis, nonsense floated on guns - The Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/04/16/nra-convention-republicans-guns-democracy/

#GOPInBedWithTheRich
#GOPHatesDemocracy
#GOPLovesPower
#GunsBeforeReason

"The nonsense floated in Indianapolis — based on the idea that our national addiction to high-powered weaponry has nothing to do with America’s unique mass shooting problem — speaks to a deep ailment in our democracy. It has both partisan and (perverse) philosophical roots.

The GOP’s conversion to gun absolutism is the heart of the problem. But politics doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It often follows from cultural and moral innovations.

For roughly four decades, American conservatism has identified firearms as a marker of a manly rejection of urban cosmopolitanism and gun ownership as a right more important than any other. As DeSantis said in his video, the right to bear arms is “the foundation on which all our other rights rest” and essential to Americans’ “ability to rule themselves.”

“Why do Joe Biden and the liberals want our guns?” asked Gov. Kristi L. Noem of South Dakota, another speaker. “Because it will make it easier for them to violate all our other rights.”

It comes down to a variant of the old Maoist slogan: All liberty grows out of the barrel of a gun. When Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani told a White House rally before the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, “Let’s have trial by combat,” he was speaking for a sentiment that runs deep in the gun rights movement.

A particularly dramatic example of how opposition to gun regulation is increasingly linked to efforts to undermine democracy itself: the Tennessee House Republicans’ recent vote to expel two duly elected legislators for protesting against the body’s inaction on guns after the Nashville school massacre.

It was no accident that the two since-reinstated representatives, Democrats Justin Jones and Justin J. Pearson, are not only both young and Black but also represent urban areas — Jones is from Nashville, Pearson from Memphis. Republican legislators, in Tennessee as elsewhere, regularly diminish the power of the big metro areas through gerrymandering and state overrides of local control.

Republican legislators may tout states’ rights, but with many cities in red states growing into significant islands of Democratic influence (and support for gun regulation), local control is not part of the GOP’s program.

Undercutting the ability of voters to cast ballots is another habit of those who privilege the Second Amendment over all the others. As Politico’s Kathy Gilsinan reported, Tennessee’s election laws allow gun permits as voter IDs but not college student identifications. There is no waiting time to buy a gun, but citizens have to register at least 30 days before an election. “It is absolutely easier to get a gun than to vote in Tennessee,” Democratic state Sen. Charlane Oliver told Gilsinan.

Our attitudes toward guns are often ascribed to our frontier past and a veneration of the Old West. But in truth, radical opposition to gun regulation is a relatively recent development, even in the NRA. Founded in 1871 by two Union Civil War veterans and a former New York Times reporter, the organization was initially devoted to improving urban marksmanship.

The group was long open to sensible rules around weapons, and the NRA helped Franklin D. Roosevelt draft the 1934 National Firearms Act and the 1938 Gun Control Act. It was not until 1977 that the NRA was engulfed by extreme ideologues. Our country, including the Supreme Court, thus embarked on a dangerous new path.

The good news in this story is that radical opposition to sensible gun laws is not embedded in the American character. It’s the product of an ideology that overtook a less dogmatic form of conservatism and seized control of a political party.

With Americans increasingly angry over the violence wrought by weapons of war in our schools, our banks, our shopping centers — pretty much everywhere we gather — the era of gun absolutism could finally be over, if the popular will on guns is allowed to prevail. But this depends on defending the democracy that so many, at the Indianapolis gathering and in Tennessee, deeply mistrust."

Yet another example of Fox News covering for Trump and the GOP, and acting more like a cheerleader and ally, than a real news organization. Also, yet more examples of Trump and his lieutenants being in bed with and beholden to Putin. Putin did everything he could to get Trump elected and was hoping for a big payoff for his efforts. Treason was running through the highest levels of the Trump administration, including Trump. Yet, the GOP and their base turned a blind eye to all this so they could have power, control, own the libs and more tax breaks for the obscenely wealthy. They would sell out our entire country to get their way yet strut around like they are real patriots. They are just the opposite, they are treasonous and adversaries of our democracy!

Trump Said He Might Have Let Russia “Take Over” Parts of Ukraine. Fox News Edited It Out. – Mother Jones https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/03/trump-ukraine-hannity-fox-news-russia-take-over/

#GOPHatesDemocracy
#GOPLovesPower
#GOPInBedWithPutin
#TrumpWasPutinsBitch

"Last week, Donald Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that he could have stopped the invasion of Ukraine by allowing Russia to “take over” parts of the country.

“I could have negotiated. I could’ve made a deal to take over something,” Trump said in a radio interview Monday. “There are certain areas that are Russian-speaking areas, frankly, but you could’ve worked a deal.” The Daily Beast reported last week that Hannity left those newsworthy remarks out of excerpts of the interview that he played that night on his primetime show.

What seems most notable here is that Trump is explicitly saying he might have given Russian president Vladimir Putin something the leader has sought since 2016.

The deal Trump said he could’ve “worked” sounds a lot like the “peace plan” that Konstantin Kilimnik, who the Senate Intelligence Committee described as a “Russian intelligence officer,” pressed on Paul Manafort, then Trump’s campaign chief, in a secret meeting in August 2016 at a New York City cigar bar. The two men continued to discuss the plan until 2018, according to Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

Manafort famously gave Kilimnik some of the Trump campaign’s polling data to pass on to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who was known to be close to Putin. What gets less attention is what else happened in the same meeting. Kilimnik also asked Manafort to seek Trump’s support for a plan to end fighting between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists, along lines highly favorable to Russia. The idea was to create an autonomous republic in Ukraine’s east, giving the Kremlin sway over a valuable industrial area, along with continued control of Crimea, which Russian troops seized in 2014. Kilmnik later said in an email to Manafort that the plan needed only “a very minor ‘wink’ (or slight push)” from Trump if he won in 2016.

Remember: Russia was helping Trump through its hack and leak of Democratic emails. (Kilimnik himself “may have been connected to the hack and leak operation targeting the 2016 U.S. election,” the Senate Intelligence Committee report said.) The Trump campaign—both Mueller‘s investigation and the Senate’s found—worked to capitalize on Russia’s leaks. That makes Trump’s comments especially interesting. Andrew Weissmann, a Mueller deputy who prosecuted Manafort, later wrote that the plan for an autonomous republic outlined to Manfort by Kilimnik was the “quo” Putin wanted for the “quid” of assisting Trump against Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton..."

It's not like these breaches of ethics are going to stop occurring. The whole court has been gamed to give partisan advantage to the GOP. They can't effect the policies they want through democracy, so they have abandoned democracy and created a court that undemocratically has resorted to creating and changing laws and policies that are outside its purview. The court keeps accruing to itself power it should never have and making decisions that aren't just or well-reasoned but purely partisan in nature. it is a rightwing attempt to end-run around democracy and seize power.

'This defines the Roberts Court': Chief justice's wife earns millions placing lawyers at firms that argue cases - Alternet.org https://www.alternet.org/this-defines-the-roberts-court/

#PartisanCaptureOfJudiciary
#PartisanSupremeCourt
#SupremeCourtEthics
#JudiciaryEndRunAroundDemocracy
#GOPLovesPower
#GOPHatesDemocracy

"The highly controversial and highly unpopular U.S. Supreme Court isn’t just facing a historic loss of confidence, it’s now facing yet another ethics scandal that is likely to lower even further public opinion of the far-right institution that in under two decades has seen its approval rating slashed.

Although it will not hear arguments, the issue before the Supreme Court and the American people’s view of it, is, should a justice’s spouse – in this case the spouse of Chief Justice John Roberts – be able to make millions of dollars recruiting attorneys who are placed into top law firms that argue cases before it?

That’s the latest allegation, and already a spokesperson for the Court has issued a statement denying any ethical violations.

The New York Times reports that “a former colleague of Mrs. Roberts has raised concerns that her recruiting work poses potential ethics issues for the chief justice. Seeking an inquiry, the ex-colleague has provided records to the Justice Department and Congress indicating Mrs. Roberts has been paid millions of dollars in commissions for placing lawyers at firms — some of which have business before the Supreme Court, according to a letter obtained by The New York Times.”

The GOP, the Rich and corporations want power. They couldn't care less about democracy or American sovereignty. An oligarchy looks just fine to them. Putin would love to have them working

Russiagate: The Opposite of a Hoax
https://politicususa.substack.com/p/russiagate-the-opposite-of-a-hoax#details

#GOPHatesDemocracy
#GOPLovesPower
#IlliberalDemocracy
#TheRichRWannabeOligarchs
#GOPInBedWithPutin
#GOPInBedWithRich
#GreedKillsDemocracy

"Now Timothy Snyder*, a Yale professor...put the Russia story in badly needed context

*Full thread by Snyder:

In April 2016, I broke the story of Trump and Putin, using Russian open sources. Afterwards, I heard vague intimations that something was awry in the FBI in New York, specifically counter-intelligence and cyber. We now have a suggestion as to why.

The person who led the relevant section, Charles McGonigal, has just been charged with taking money from the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. Follow this thread to see just how this connects to the victory of Trump, the Russian war in Ukraine, and U.S. national security.

The reason I was thinking about Trump & Putin in 2016 was a pattern. Russia had sought to control Ukraine, using social media, money, & a pliable head of state. Russia backed Trump the way that it had backed Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, in the hopes of soft control 2/20

Trump & Yanukovych were similar figures: interested in money, & in power to make or shield money. And therefore vulnerable partners for Putin. They also shared a political advisor: Paul Manafort. He worked for Yanukovych from 2005-2015, taking over Trump's campaign in 2016.

You might remember Manafort's ties to Russia from 2016. He (and Jared Kushner, and Donald Trump, Jr.) met with Russians in June 2016 in Trump Tower as part of, as the broker of the meeting called it, "the Russian government's support for Trump"

Manafort had to resign as Trump's campaign manager in August 2016 when news broke that he had received $12.7 million in cash from Yanukovych. But these details are just minor elements of Manafort's dependence on Russia.

Manafort worked for Deripaska, the same Russian oligarch to whom McGonigal is linked, between 2006 and 2009. Manafort's assignment was to soften up the U.S for Russian influence. He promised "a model that can greatly benefit the Putin government."

While Manafort worked for Trump in 2016, though, Manafort's dependence on Russia was deeper. He owed Deripaska money, not a position one would want to be in. Manafort offered Deripaska "private briefings" on the campaign. He was hoping "to get whole."

Reconsider how the FBI treated the Trump-Putin connection in 2016. Trump and other Republicans screamed that the FBI had overreached. In retrospect, it seems the exact opposite took place. The issue of Russian influence was framed in a way convenient for Russia and Trump.
...
It is entirely inconceivable that McGonigal was unaware of Russia's 2016 cyber influence campaign on behalf of Trump. Even I was aware of it, and I had no expertise. It became one of the subjects of my book
...
I had no personal connection to this, but will just repeat what informed people said at the time: this sort of thing was supposed to go through the FBI counter-intelligence section in New York, where tips went to die. That is where McGonigal was in charge.

The cyber element is what McGonigal should have been making everyone aware of in 2016. In 2016, McGonigal was chief of the FBI's Cyber-Counterintelligence Coordination Section. That October, he was put in charge of the Counterintelligence Division of the FBI's NY office.

We need to understand why the FBI failed in 2016 to address the essence of an ongoing Russian influence operation. The character of that operation suggests that it would have been the responsibility of an FBI section whose head is now accused of taking Russian money.

Right after the McGonigal story broke, Kevin McCarthy ejected Adam Schiff from the House intelligence committee. Schiff is expert on Russian influence operations. It exhibits carelessness about national security to exclude him. It is downright suspicious to exclude him now. 16/20

Back in June 2016, Kevin McCarthy expressed his suspicion that Donald Trump was under Putin's influence. He and other Republican members concluded that the risk of an embarrassment to their party was more important than American security.

The Russian influence operation to get Trump elected was real. It serves no one to pretend otherwise. We are still learning about it. Denying that it happened makes the United States vulnerable to ongoing Russian operations.
...
The McGonigal question goes even beyond these issues. He had authority in the most sensitive possible investigations within U.S. intelligence. Sorting this out will require a concern for the United States that goes beyond party loyalty."

The GOP, the Rich and corporations want power. They couldn't care less about democracy or American sovereignty. An oligarchy looks just fine to them. Putin would love to have them working

Russiagate: The Opposite of a Hoax
https://politicususa.substack.com/p/russiagate-the-opposite-of-a-hoax#details

#GOPHatesDemocracy
#GOPLovesPower
#IlliberalDemocracy
#TheRichRWannabeOligarchs
#GOPInBedWithPutin
#GOPInBedWithRich
#GreedKillsDemocracy

"Now Timothy Snyder*, a Yale professor...put the Russia story in badly needed context

*Full thread by Snyder:

In April 2016, I broke the story of Trump and Putin, using Russian open sources. Afterwards, I heard vague intimations that something was awry in the FBI in New York, specifically counter-intelligence and cyber. We now have a suggestion as to why.

The person who led the relevant section, Charles McGonigal, has just been charged with taking money from the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. Follow this thread to see just how this connects to the victory of Trump, the Russian war in Ukraine, and U.S. national security.

The reason I was thinking about Trump & Putin in 2016 was a pattern. Russia had sought to control Ukraine, using social media, money, & a pliable head of state. Russia backed Trump the way that it had backed Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, in the hopes of soft control 2/20

Trump & Yanukovych were similar figures: interested in money, & in power to make or shield money. And therefore vulnerable partners for Putin. They also shared a political advisor: Paul Manafort. He worked for Yanukovych from 2005-2015, taking over Trump's campaign in 2016.

You might remember Manafort's ties to Russia from 2016. He (and Jared Kushner, and Donald Trump, Jr.) met with Russians in June 2016 in Trump Tower as part of, as the broker of the meeting called it, "the Russian government's support for Trump"

Manafort had to resign as Trump's campaign manager in August 2016 when news broke that he had received $12.7 million in cash from Yanukovych. But these details are just minor elements of Manafort's dependence on Russia.

Manafort worked for Deripaska, the same Russian oligarch to whom McGonigal is linked, between 2006 and 2009. Manafort's assignment was to soften up the U.S for Russian influence. He promised "a model that can greatly benefit the Putin government."

While Manafort worked for Trump in 2016, though, Manafort's dependence on Russia was deeper. He owed Deripaska money, not a position one would want to be in. Manafort offered Deripaska "private briefings" on the campaign. He was hoping "to get whole."

Reconsider how the FBI treated the Trump-Putin connection in 2016. Trump and other Republicans screamed that the FBI had overreached. In retrospect, it seems the exact opposite took place. The issue of Russian influence was framed in a way convenient for Russia and Trump.
...
It is entirely inconceivable that McGonigal was unaware of Russia's 2016 cyber influence campaign on behalf of Trump. Even I was aware of it, and I had no expertise. It became one of the subjects of my book
...
I had no personal connection to this, but will just repeat what informed people said at the time: this sort of thing was supposed to go through the FBI counter-intelligence section in New York, where tips went to die. That is where McGonigal was in charge.

The cyber element is what McGonigal should have been making everyone aware of in 2016. In 2016, McGonigal was chief of the FBI's Cyber-Counterintelligence Coordination Section. That October, he was put in charge of the Counterintelligence Division of the FBI's NY office.

We need to understand why the FBI failed in 2016 to address the essence of an ongoing Russian influence operation. The character of that operation suggests that it would have been the responsibility of an FBI section whose head is now accused of taking Russian money.

Right after the McGonigal story broke, Kevin McCarthy ejected Adam Schiff from the House intelligence committee. Schiff is expert on Russian influence operations. It exhibits carelessness about national security to exclude him. It is downright suspicious to exclude him now. 16/20

Back in June 2016, Kevin McCarthy expressed his suspicion that Donald Trump was under Putin's influence. He and other Republican members concluded that the risk of an embarrassment to their party was more important than American security.

The Russian influence operation to get Trump elected was real. It serves no one to pretend otherwise. We are still learning about it. Denying that it happened makes the United States vulnerable to ongoing Russian operations.
...
The McGonigal question goes even beyond these issues. He had authority in the most sensitive possible investigations within U.S. intelligence. Sorting this out will require a concern for the United States that goes beyond party loyalty."

The GOP, the Rich and corporations want power. They couldn't care less about democracy or American sovereignty. An oligarchy looks just fine to them. Putin would love to have them working

Russiagate: The Opposite of a Hoax
https://politicususa.substack.com/p/russiagate-the-opposite-of-a-hoax#details

#GOPHatesDemocracy
#GOPLovesPower
#IlliberalDemocracy
#TheRichRWannabeOligarchs
#GOPInBedWithPutin
#GOPInBedWithRich
#GreedKillsDemocracy

"Now Timothy Snyder*, a Yale professor...put the Russia story in badly needed context

*Full thread by Snyder:

In April 2016, I broke the story of Trump and Putin, using Russian open sources. Afterwards, I heard vague intimations that something was awry in the FBI in New York, specifically counter-intelligence and cyber. We now have a suggestion as to why.

The person who led the relevant section, Charles McGonigal, has just been charged with taking money from the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. Follow this thread to see just how this connects to the victory of Trump, the Russian war in Ukraine, and U.S. national security.

The reason I was thinking about Trump & Putin in 2016 was a pattern. Russia had sought to control Ukraine, using social media, money, & a pliable head of state. Russia backed Trump the way that it had backed Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, in the hopes of soft control 2/20

Trump & Yanukovych were similar figures: interested in money, & in power to make or shield money. And therefore vulnerable partners for Putin. They also shared a political advisor: Paul Manafort. He worked for Yanukovych from 2005-2015, taking over Trump's campaign in 2016.

You might remember Manafort's ties to Russia from 2016. He (and Jared Kushner, and Donald Trump, Jr.) met with Russians in June 2016 in Trump Tower as part of, as the broker of the meeting called it, "the Russian government's support for Trump"

Manafort had to resign as Trump's campaign manager in August 2016 when news broke that he had received $12.7 million in cash from Yanukovych. But these details are just minor elements of Manafort's dependence on Russia.

Manafort worked for Deripaska, the same Russian oligarch to whom McGonigal is linked, between 2006 and 2009. Manafort's assignment was to soften up the U.S for Russian influence. He promised "a model that can greatly benefit the Putin government."

While Manafort worked for Trump in 2016, though, Manafort's dependence on Russia was deeper. He owed Deripaska money, not a position one would want to be in. Manafort offered Deripaska "private briefings" on the campaign. He was hoping "to get whole."

Reconsider how the FBI treated the Trump-Putin connection in 2016. Trump and other Republicans screamed that the FBI had overreached. In retrospect, it seems the exact opposite took place. The issue of Russian influence was framed in a way convenient for Russia and Trump.
...
It is entirely inconceivable that McGonigal was unaware of Russia's 2016 cyber influence campaign on behalf of Trump. Even I was aware of it, and I had no expertise. It became one of the subjects of my book
...
I had no personal connection to this, but will just repeat what informed people said at the time: this sort of thing was supposed to go through the FBI counter-intelligence section in New York, where tips went to die. That is where McGonigal was in charge.

The cyber element is what McGonigal should have been making everyone aware of in 2016. In 2016, McGonigal was chief of the FBI's Cyber-Counterintelligence Coordination Section. That October, he was put in charge of the Counterintelligence Division of the FBI's NY office.

We need to understand why the FBI failed in 2016 to address the essence of an ongoing Russian influence operation. The character of that operation suggests that it would have been the responsibility of an FBI section whose head is now accused of taking Russian money.

Right after the McGonigal story broke, Kevin McCarthy ejected Adam Schiff from the House intelligence committee. Schiff is expert on Russian influence operations. It exhibits carelessness about national security to exclude him. It is downright suspicious to exclude him now. 16/20

Back in June 2016, Kevin McCarthy expressed his suspicion that Donald Trump was under Putin's influence. He and other Republican members concluded that the risk of an embarrassment to their party was more important than American security.

The Russian influence operation to get Trump elected was real. It serves no one to pretend otherwise. We are still learning about it. Denying that it happened makes the United States vulnerable to ongoing Russian operations.
...
The McGonigal question goes even beyond these issues. He had authority in the most sensitive possible investigations within U.S. intelligence. Sorting this out will require a concern for the United States that goes beyond party loyalty."

The GOP, the Rich and corporations want power. They couldn't care less about democracy or American sovereignty. An oligarchy looks just fine to them. Putin would love to have them working

Russiagate: The Opposite of a Hoax
https://politicususa.substack.com/p/russiagate-the-opposite-of-a-hoax#details

#GOPHatesDemocracy
#GOPLovesPower
#IlliberalDemocracy
#TheRichRWannabeOligarchs
#GOPInBedWithPutin
#GOPInBedWithRich
#GreedKillsDemocracy

"Now Timothy Snyder*, a Yale professor...put the Russia story in badly needed context

*Full thread by Snyder:

In April 2016, I broke the story of Trump and Putin, using Russian open sources. Afterwards, I heard vague intimations that something was awry in the FBI in New York, specifically counter-intelligence and cyber. We now have a suggestion as to why.

The person who led the relevant section, Charles McGonigal, has just been charged with taking money from the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. Follow this thread to see just how this connects to the victory of Trump, the Russian war in Ukraine, and U.S. national security.

The reason I was thinking about Trump & Putin in 2016 was a pattern. Russia had sought to control Ukraine, using social media, money, & a pliable head of state. Russia backed Trump the way that it had backed Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, in the hopes of soft control 2/20

Trump & Yanukovych were similar figures: interested in money, & in power to make or shield money. And therefore vulnerable partners for Putin. They also shared a political advisor: Paul Manafort. He worked for Yanukovych from 2005-2015, taking over Trump's campaign in 2016.

You might remember Manafort's ties to Russia from 2016. He (and Jared Kushner, and Donald Trump, Jr.) met with Russians in June 2016 in Trump Tower as part of, as the broker of the meeting called it, "the Russian government's support for Trump"

Manafort had to resign as Trump's campaign manager in August 2016 when news broke that he had received $12.7 million in cash from Yanukovych. But these details are just minor elements of Manafort's dependence on Russia.

Manafort worked for Deripaska, the same Russian oligarch to whom McGonigal is linked, between 2006 and 2009. Manafort's assignment was to soften up the U.S for Russian influence. He promised "a model that can greatly benefit the Putin government."

While Manafort worked for Trump in 2016, though, Manafort's dependence on Russia was deeper. He owed Deripaska money, not a position one would want to be in. Manafort offered Deripaska "private briefings" on the campaign. He was hoping "to get whole."

Reconsider how the FBI treated the Trump-Putin connection in 2016. Trump and other Republicans screamed that the FBI had overreached. In retrospect, it seems the exact opposite took place. The issue of Russian influence was framed in a way convenient for Russia and Trump.
...
It is entirely inconceivable that McGonigal was unaware of Russia's 2016 cyber influence campaign on behalf of Trump. Even I was aware of it, and I had no expertise. It became one of the subjects of my book
...
I had no personal connection to this, but will just repeat what informed people said at the time: this sort of thing was supposed to go through the FBI counter-intelligence section in New York, where tips went to die. That is where McGonigal was in charge.

The cyber element is what McGonigal should have been making everyone aware of in 2016. In 2016, McGonigal was chief of the FBI's Cyber-Counterintelligence Coordination Section. That October, he was put in charge of the Counterintelligence Division of the FBI's NY office.

We need to understand why the FBI failed in 2016 to address the essence of an ongoing Russian influence operation. The character of that operation suggests that it would have been the responsibility of an FBI section whose head is now accused of taking Russian money.

Right after the McGonigal story broke, Kevin McCarthy ejected Adam Schiff from the House intelligence committee. Schiff is expert on Russian influence operations. It exhibits carelessness about national security to exclude him. It is downright suspicious to exclude him now. 16/20

Back in June 2016, Kevin McCarthy expressed his suspicion that Donald Trump was under Putin's influence. He and other Republican members concluded that the risk of an embarrassment to their party was more important than American security.

The Russian influence operation to get Trump elected was real. It serves no one to pretend otherwise. We are still learning about it. Denying that it happened makes the United States vulnerable to ongoing Russian operations.
...
The McGonigal question goes even beyond these issues. He had authority in the most sensitive possible investigations within U.S. intelligence. Sorting this out will require a concern for the United States that goes beyond party loyalty."

The GOP, the Rich and corporations want power. They couldn't care less about democracy or American sovereignty. An oligarchy looks just fine to them. Putin would love to have them working

Russiagate: The Opposite of a Hoax
https://politicususa.substack.com/p/russiagate-the-opposite-of-a-hoax#details

#GOPHatesDemocracy
#GOPLovesPower
#IlliberalDemocracy
#TheRichRWannabeOligarchs
#GOPInBedWithPutin
#GOPInBedWithRich
#GreedKillsDemocracy

"Now Timothy Snyder*, a Yale professor...put the Russia story in badly needed context

*Full thread by Snyder:

In April 2016, I broke the story of Trump and Putin, using Russian open sources. Afterwards, I heard vague intimations that something was awry in the FBI in New York, specifically counter-intelligence and cyber. We now have a suggestion as to why.

The person who led the relevant section, Charles McGonigal, has just been charged with taking money from the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. Follow this thread to see just how this connects to the victory of Trump, the Russian war in Ukraine, and U.S. national security.

The reason I was thinking about Trump & Putin in 2016 was a pattern. Russia had sought to control Ukraine, using social media, money, & a pliable head of state. Russia backed Trump the way that it had backed Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, in the hopes of soft control 2/20

Trump & Yanukovych were similar figures: interested in money, & in power to make or shield money. And therefore vulnerable partners for Putin. They also shared a political advisor: Paul Manafort. He worked for Yanukovych from 2005-2015, taking over Trump's campaign in 2016.

You might remember Manafort's ties to Russia from 2016. He (and Jared Kushner, and Donald Trump, Jr.) met with Russians in June 2016 in Trump Tower as part of, as the broker of the meeting called it, "the Russian government's support for Trump"

Manafort had to resign as Trump's campaign manager in August 2016 when news broke that he had received $12.7 million in cash from Yanukovych. But these details are just minor elements of Manafort's dependence on Russia.

Manafort worked for Deripaska, the same Russian oligarch to whom McGonigal is linked, between 2006 and 2009. Manafort's assignment was to soften up the U.S for Russian influence. He promised "a model that can greatly benefit the Putin government."

While Manafort worked for Trump in 2016, though, Manafort's dependence on Russia was deeper. He owed Deripaska money, not a position one would want to be in. Manafort offered Deripaska "private briefings" on the campaign. He was hoping "to get whole."

Reconsider how the FBI treated the Trump-Putin connection in 2016. Trump and other Republicans screamed that the FBI had overreached. In retrospect, it seems the exact opposite took place. The issue of Russian influence was framed in a way convenient for Russia and Trump.
...
It is entirely inconceivable that McGonigal was unaware of Russia's 2016 cyber influence campaign on behalf of Trump. Even I was aware of it, and I had no expertise. It became one of the subjects of my book
...
I had no personal connection to this, but will just repeat what informed people said at the time: this sort of thing was supposed to go through the FBI counter-intelligence section in New York, where tips went to die. That is where McGonigal was in charge.

The cyber element is what McGonigal should have been making everyone aware of in 2016. In 2016, McGonigal was chief of the FBI's Cyber-Counterintelligence Coordination Section. That October, he was put in charge of the Counterintelligence Division of the FBI's NY office.

We need to understand why the FBI failed in 2016 to address the essence of an ongoing Russian influence operation. The character of that operation suggests that it would have been the responsibility of an FBI section whose head is now accused of taking Russian money.

Right after the McGonigal story broke, Kevin McCarthy ejected Adam Schiff from the House intelligence committee. Schiff is expert on Russian influence operations. It exhibits carelessness about national security to exclude him. It is downright suspicious to exclude him now. 16/20

Back in June 2016, Kevin McCarthy expressed his suspicion that Donald Trump was under Putin's influence. He and other Republican members concluded that the risk of an embarrassment to their party was more important than American security.

The Russian influence operation to get Trump elected was real. It serves no one to pretend otherwise. We are still learning about it. Denying that it happened makes the United States vulnerable to ongoing Russian operations.
...
The McGonigal question goes even beyond these issues. He had authority in the most sensitive possible investigations within U.S. intelligence. Sorting this out will require a concern for the United States that goes beyond party loyalty."

The GOP, the obscenely wealthy and large corporations want power. They couldn't care less about democracy or American sovereignty. An oligarchy looks just fine to them. Putin would love to have them working with him to erode liberal democracies in the world so there is no one to stand up to his corruption and tyranny. They see what Putin has and they start drooling.

Russiagate: The Opposite of a Hoax
Don’t be gaslit anymore. Russia is a danger to western democracy. They’ve been working hard to undermine the U.S..
https://politicususa.substack.com/p/russiagate-the-opposite-of-a-hoax#details

#GOPHatesDemocracy
#GOPLovesPower
#IlliberalDemocracy
#TheRichRWannabeOligarchs
#GOPInBedWithPutin
#GOPInBedWithRich

“That rather astonishing discovery of the former FBI chief who seemingly betrayed his country to Russia didn’t happen in a vacuum, though. Globally, this story is quite frankly disconcerting. In the past week, there was a shocking accusation by a whistleblower that MI5 refused to investigate a Russian spy's “infiltration” of the conservative Tory party in Britain, news that "a vast cache of hacked emails shows that, under the leadership of Rishi Sunak, the UK Treasury issued special licenses in 2021 to let the oligarch override sanctions and launch an aggressive legal campaign against a journalist in the London courts." “The UK government helped the boss of Russia’s murderous mercenary army to circumvent its own sanctions and launch a targeted legal attack on a British journalist, openDemocracy can reveal.” Rishi Sunak has been the conservative Prime Minister since October, 2022 when the head of lettuce lasted longer than Liz Truss. He previously held two cabinet positions under conservative Boris Johnson.  Also, the European Court of Human Rights is demanding a response from the British government over a legal claim by opponents accusing it of failing to investigate alleged Russian interference in elections and referendums like Brexit. The thread between all of these stories is Russians-to-conservatives. Now Timothy Snyder*, a Yale professor whose course on Ukraine I am watching on YouTube and highly recommend, put the Russia story in badly needed context (full thread in next toot).

...Don’t be gaslit anymore.

Russia is a danger to western democracy. They’ve been working hard to undermine the United States of America, and Republicans, from leadership on down, have been willing to help them. Those who might be doing so unwittingly certainly have had every opportunity to know better. Those who have simply remained silent are also now complicit.

In 2019, a Senate investigation determined: “The congressional probe into the National Rifle Association’s relationship with Russia shows a U.S. tax-exempt organization working as a conduit to provide Russian officials access to Republicans with the quid pro quo of ‘lucrative personal business opportunities.’”

I pointed out then, “Looking for that quid pro quo Republicans claim doesn’t exist? Here it is, but with the Russians and elected officials of the NRA variety.”

Since then, Russia has spent millions spreading anti-vax conspiracies just to harm small d democracy, including paying influencers to lie and fear-monger about the vaccines.

Republicans and conservative activists mock journalists who bring up Russia because they want to shut down the discussion. But this discussion needs to be had. We all need a government that actually puts “America first” –- but the Republican Party is not currently on board with that most basic and primitive premise of patriotism."

The GOP, the obscenely wealthy and large corporations want power. They couldn't care less about democracy or American sovereignty. An oligarchy looks just fine to them. Putin would love to have them working with him to erode liberal democracies in the world so there is no one to stand up to his corruption and tyranny. They see what Putin has and they start drooling.

Russiagate: The Opposite of a Hoax
Don’t be gaslit anymore. Russia is a danger to western democracy. They’ve been working hard to undermine the U.S..
https://politicususa.substack.com/p/russiagate-the-opposite-of-a-hoax#details

#GOPHatesDemocracy
#GOPLovesPower
#IlliberalDemocracy
#TheRichRWannabeOligarchs
#GOPInBedWithPutin
#GOPInBedWithRich

“That rather astonishing discovery of the former FBI chief who seemingly betrayed his country to Russia didn’t happen in a vacuum, though. Globally, this story is quite frankly disconcerting. In the past week, there was a shocking accusation by a whistleblower that MI5 refused to investigate a Russian spy's “infiltration” of the conservative Tory party in Britain, news that "a vast cache of hacked emails shows that, under the leadership of Rishi Sunak, the UK Treasury issued special licenses in 2021 to let the oligarch override sanctions and launch an aggressive legal campaign against a journalist in the London courts." “The UK government helped the boss of Russia’s murderous mercenary army to circumvent its own sanctions and launch a targeted legal attack on a British journalist, openDemocracy can reveal.” Rishi Sunak has been the conservative Prime Minister since October, 2022 when the head of lettuce lasted longer than Liz Truss. He previously held two cabinet positions under conservative Boris Johnson.  Also, the European Court of Human Rights is demanding a response from the British government over a legal claim by opponents accusing it of failing to investigate alleged Russian interference in elections and referendums like Brexit. The thread between all of these stories is Russians-to-conservatives. Now Timothy Snyder*, a Yale professor whose course on Ukraine I am watching on YouTube and highly recommend, put the Russia story in badly needed context (full thread in next toot).

...Don’t be gaslit anymore.

Russia is a danger to western democracy. They’ve been working hard to undermine the United States of America, and Republicans, from leadership on down, have been willing to help them. Those who might be doing so unwittingly certainly have had every opportunity to know better. Those who have simply remained silent are also now complicit.

In 2019, a Senate investigation determined: “The congressional probe into the National Rifle Association’s relationship with Russia shows a U.S. tax-exempt organization working as a conduit to provide Russian officials access to Republicans with the quid pro quo of ‘lucrative personal business opportunities.’”

I pointed out then, “Looking for that quid pro quo Republicans claim doesn’t exist? Here it is, but with the Russians and elected officials of the NRA variety.”

Since then, Russia has spent millions spreading anti-vax conspiracies just to harm small d democracy, including paying influencers to lie and fear-monger about the vaccines.

Republicans and conservative activists mock journalists who bring up Russia because they want to shut down the discussion. But this discussion needs to be had. We all need a government that actually puts “America first” –- but the Republican Party is not currently on board with that most basic and primitive premise of patriotism."

The GOP, the obscenely wealthy and large corporations want power. They couldn't care less about democracy or American sovereignty. An oligarchy looks just fine to them. Putin would love to have them working with him to erode liberal democracies in the world so there is no one to stand up to his corruption and tyranny. They see what Putin has and they start drooling.

Russiagate: The Opposite of a Hoax
Don’t be gaslit anymore. Russia is a danger to western democracy. They’ve been working hard to undermine the U.S..
https://politicususa.substack.com/p/russiagate-the-opposite-of-a-hoax#details

#GOPHatesDemocracy
#GOPLovesPower
#IlliberalDemocracy
#TheRichRWannabeOligarchs
#GOPInBedWithPutin
#GOPInBedWithRich

“That rather astonishing discovery of the former FBI chief who seemingly betrayed his country to Russia didn’t happen in a vacuum, though. Globally, this story is quite frankly disconcerting. In the past week, there was a shocking accusation by a whistleblower that MI5 refused to investigate a Russian spy's “infiltration” of the conservative Tory party in Britain, news that "a vast cache of hacked emails shows that, under the leadership of Rishi Sunak, the UK Treasury issued special licenses in 2021 to let the oligarch override sanctions and launch an aggressive legal campaign against a journalist in the London courts." “The UK government helped the boss of Russia’s murderous mercenary army to circumvent its own sanctions and launch a targeted legal attack on a British journalist, openDemocracy can reveal.” Rishi Sunak has been the conservative Prime Minister since October, 2022 when the head of lettuce lasted longer than Liz Truss. He previously held two cabinet positions under conservative Boris Johnson.  Also, the European Court of Human Rights is demanding a response from the British government over a legal claim by opponents accusing it of failing to investigate alleged Russian interference in elections and referendums like Brexit. The thread between all of these stories is Russians-to-conservatives. Now Timothy Snyder*, a Yale professor whose course on Ukraine I am watching on YouTube and highly recommend, put the Russia story in badly needed context (full thread in next toot).

...Don’t be gaslit anymore.

Russia is a danger to western democracy. They’ve been working hard to undermine the United States of America, and Republicans, from leadership on down, have been willing to help them. Those who might be doing so unwittingly certainly have had every opportunity to know better. Those who have simply remained silent are also now complicit.

In 2019, a Senate investigation determined: “The congressional probe into the National Rifle Association’s relationship with Russia shows a U.S. tax-exempt organization working as a conduit to provide Russian officials access to Republicans with the quid pro quo of ‘lucrative personal business opportunities.’”

I pointed out then, “Looking for that quid pro quo Republicans claim doesn’t exist? Here it is, but with the Russians and elected officials of the NRA variety.”

Since then, Russia has spent millions spreading anti-vax conspiracies just to harm small d democracy, including paying influencers to lie and fear-monger about the vaccines.

Republicans and conservative activists mock journalists who bring up Russia because they want to shut down the discussion. But this discussion needs to be had. We all need a government that actually puts “America first” –- but the Republican Party is not currently on board with that most basic and primitive premise of patriotism."

The GOP, the obscenely wealthy and large corporations want power. They couldn't care less about democracy or American sovereignty. An oligarchy looks just fine to them. Putin would love to have them working with him to erode liberal democracies in the world so there is no one to stand up to his corruption and tyranny. They see what Putin has and they start drooling.

Russiagate: The Opposite of a Hoax
Don’t be gaslit anymore. Russia is a danger to western democracy. They’ve been working hard to undermine the U.S..
https://politicususa.substack.com/p/russiagate-the-opposite-of-a-hoax#details

#GOPHatesDemocracy
#GOPLovesPower
#IlliberalDemocracy
#TheRichRWannabeOligarchs
#GOPInBedWithPutin
#GOPInBedWithRich

“That rather astonishing discovery of the former FBI chief who seemingly betrayed his country to Russia didn’t happen in a vacuum, though. Globally, this story is quite frankly disconcerting. In the past week, there was a shocking accusation by a whistleblower that MI5 refused to investigate a Russian spy's “infiltration” of the conservative Tory party in Britain, news that "a vast cache of hacked emails shows that, under the leadership of Rishi Sunak, the UK Treasury issued special licenses in 2021 to let the oligarch override sanctions and launch an aggressive legal campaign against a journalist in the London courts." “The UK government helped the boss of Russia’s murderous mercenary army to circumvent its own sanctions and launch a targeted legal attack on a British journalist, openDemocracy can reveal.” Rishi Sunak has been the conservative Prime Minister since October, 2022 when the head of lettuce lasted longer than Liz Truss. He previously held two cabinet positions under conservative Boris Johnson.  Also, the European Court of Human Rights is demanding a response from the British government over a legal claim by opponents accusing it of failing to investigate alleged Russian interference in elections and referendums like Brexit. The thread between all of these stories is Russians-to-conservatives. Now Timothy Snyder*, a Yale professor whose course on Ukraine I am watching on YouTube and highly recommend, put the Russia story in badly needed context (full thread in next toot).

...Don’t be gaslit anymore.

Russia is a danger to western democracy. They’ve been working hard to undermine the United States of America, and Republicans, from leadership on down, have been willing to help them. Those who might be doing so unwittingly certainly have had every opportunity to know better. Those who have simply remained silent are also now complicit.

In 2019, a Senate investigation determined: “The congressional probe into the National Rifle Association’s relationship with Russia shows a U.S. tax-exempt organization working as a conduit to provide Russian officials access to Republicans with the quid pro quo of ‘lucrative personal business opportunities.’”

I pointed out then, “Looking for that quid pro quo Republicans claim doesn’t exist? Here it is, but with the Russians and elected officials of the NRA variety.”

Since then, Russia has spent millions spreading anti-vax conspiracies just to harm small d democracy, including paying influencers to lie and fear-monger about the vaccines.

Republicans and conservative activists mock journalists who bring up Russia because they want to shut down the discussion. But this discussion needs to be had. We all need a government that actually puts “America first” –- but the Republican Party is not currently on board with that most basic and primitive premise of patriotism."

The GOP, the obscenely wealthy and large corporations want power. They couldn't care less about democracy or American sovereignty. An oligarchy looks just fine to them. Putin would love to have them working with him to erode liberal democracies in the world so there is no one to stand up to his corruption and tyranny. They see what Putin has and they start drooling.

Russiagate: The Opposite of a Hoax
Don’t be gaslit anymore. Russia is a danger to western democracy. They’ve been working hard to undermine the U.S..
https://politicususa.substack.com/p/russiagate-the-opposite-of-a-hoax#details

#GOPHatesDemocracy
#GOPLovesPower
#IlliberalDemocracy
#TheRichRWannabeOligarchs
#GOPInBedWithPutin
#GOPInBedWithRich

“That rather astonishing discovery of the former FBI chief who seemingly betrayed his country to Russia didn’t happen in a vacuum, though. Globally, this story is quite frankly disconcerting. In the past week, there was a shocking accusation by a whistleblower that MI5 refused to investigate a Russian spy's “infiltration” of the conservative Tory party in Britain, news that "a vast cache of hacked emails shows that, under the leadership of Rishi Sunak, the UK Treasury issued special licenses in 2021 to let the oligarch override sanctions and launch an aggressive legal campaign against a journalist in the London courts." “The UK government helped the boss of Russia’s murderous mercenary army to circumvent its own sanctions and launch a targeted legal attack on a British journalist, openDemocracy can reveal.” Rishi Sunak has been the conservative Prime Minister since October, 2022 when the head of lettuce lasted longer than Liz Truss. He previously held two cabinet positions under conservative Boris Johnson.  Also, the European Court of Human Rights is demanding a response from the British government over a legal claim by opponents accusing it of failing to investigate alleged Russian interference in elections and referendums like Brexit. The thread between all of these stories is Russians-to-conservatives. Now Timothy Snyder*, a Yale professor whose course on Ukraine I am watching on YouTube and highly recommend, put the Russia story in badly needed context (full thread in next toot).

...Don’t be gaslit anymore.

Russia is a danger to western democracy. They’ve been working hard to undermine the United States of America, and Republicans, from leadership on down, have been willing to help them. Those who might be doing so unwittingly certainly have had every opportunity to know better. Those who have simply remained silent are also now complicit.

In 2019, a Senate investigation determined: “The congressional probe into the National Rifle Association’s relationship with Russia shows a U.S. tax-exempt organization working as a conduit to provide Russian officials access to Republicans with the quid pro quo of ‘lucrative personal business opportunities.’”

I pointed out then, “Looking for that quid pro quo Republicans claim doesn’t exist? Here it is, but with the Russians and elected officials of the NRA variety.”

Since then, Russia has spent millions spreading anti-vax conspiracies just to harm small d democracy, including paying influencers to lie and fear-monger about the vaccines.

Republicans and conservative activists mock journalists who bring up Russia because they want to shut down the discussion. But this discussion needs to be had. We all need a government that actually puts “America first” –- but the Republican Party is not currently on board with that most basic and primitive premise of patriotism."

The GOP only cares about the deficit when democrats are in charge. They are more than happy to run it up using tax breaks for the wealthy, as they have done numerous times. They don't have real policy ideas to help Americans, they just want to benefit the wealthy. They are more than happy to blow up the economy and destroy social security and medicare as they think creating chaos will help them take control of the senate and white house. They don't care about Americans, they are only interested in power and pandering to the wealthy.

“Who’s going to pay to run this government? The Republicans are real clear on that: not the rich folks,” she said."

Warren: Debt Ceiling Crisis Wouldn’t Even Exist Without Trump Tax Overhaul - Truthout https://truthout.org/articles/warren-debt-ceiling-crisis-wouldnt-even-exist-without-trump-tax-overhaul/

#GOPLovesPower
#GOPHatesAvgAmericans
#GOPInBedWithRich
#GOPHatesDemocracy

"Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) dug into Republicans for their willingness to “wreck the economy” over the debt ceiling, pointing out that the GOP is only interested in protecting their rich allies and creating an economic crisis that would reflect poorly on President Joe Biden.

In an appearance on MSNBC, Warren said that the conservative regressive tax policies that the GOP has pushed for decades has led to the current crisis with the debt ceiling.

“If the Republicans had not pushed just two things, the Republican tax cuts that went mostly to those at the very top and the biggest corporations and hollowing out the IRS [Internal Revenue Service] specifically so they could not hold wealthy tax cheats accountable, wouldn’t be able to audit them,” she said. “If those two things had not happened, then we wouldn’t even hit the debt ceiling at any time during the first Biden administration.”

“This is a manufactured crisis. The real issue at stake here is, who’s going to pay to run this government?” the Massachusetts senator said. “The Republicans are real clear on that: not the rich folks.”

Indeed, as Warren pointed out in her op-ed published in the Boston Globe this week, the 2017 tax cuts have cost the government nearly $2 trillion, while Republicans have steadily eroded the IRS’s funding for decades, costing the government potentially trillions owed from wealthy tax cheats.

Congress has raised the debt ceiling twice under Biden, by about $3 trillion. Republicans voted three times to raise the debt ceiling under President Donald Trump, who added nearly $8 trillion to the national debt.
...
“If this were really about the national debt, then there are plenty of places we could go to stitch up loopholes — like no more of these tax havens abroad — that we could get that under control. But that is not where the Republicans want to go,” Warren said.

Even though the huge deficits in government funding have been caused in large part by Republican policies, the party is using its control of the House to threaten a debt default, which would spell disaster for the economy, unless their demands are met; some Republicans are planning to use the debt ceiling to force through cuts to crucial programs like Social Security, for instance.

Meanwhile, Republicans made it clear in their first few weeks with House control that their top priority is to protect corporations and the wealthy. The first bill they passed was to revoke billions of dollars pegged for the IRS to go after wealthy tax cheats, which analyses say would more than pay for itself.
...
Warren said that Republicans don’t care about the ramifications of their political gamesmanship. Rather, they want to cause chaos and destruction in order to win political points, she said.

“If there are cuts to Social Security that they can turn around then and blame on the Democrats, if the economy goes over a cliff, if the worldwide economy blows up,” said Warren. “There are Republicans, particularly in the House, who think, ‘Hey, that’s going to make it easier to get our guy back in the White House.’”

“And so long as that’s their mindset, that’s not a position of negotiating to try to make things better, safer in this country, to make this country work better for hardworking families,” she continued."

The GOP only cares about the deficit when democrats are in charge. They are more than happy to run it up using tax breaks for the wealthy, as they have done numerous times. They don't have real policy ideas to help Americans, they just want to benefit the wealthy. They are more than happy to blow up the economy and destroy social security and medicare as they think creating chaos will help them take control of the senate and white house. They don't care about Americans, they are only interested in power and pandering to the wealthy.

“Who’s going to pay to run this government? The Republicans are real clear on that: not the rich folks,” she said."

Warren: Debt Ceiling Crisis Wouldn’t Even Exist Without Trump Tax Overhaul - Truthout https://truthout.org/articles/warren-debt-ceiling-crisis-wouldnt-even-exist-without-trump-tax-overhaul/

#GOPLovesPower
#GOPHatesAvgAmericans
#GOPInBedWithRich
#GOPHatesDemocracy

"Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) dug into Republicans for their willingness to “wreck the economy” over the debt ceiling, pointing out that the GOP is only interested in protecting their rich allies and creating an economic crisis that would reflect poorly on President Joe Biden.

In an appearance on MSNBC, Warren said that the conservative regressive tax policies that the GOP has pushed for decades has led to the current crisis with the debt ceiling.

“If the Republicans had not pushed just two things, the Republican tax cuts that went mostly to those at the very top and the biggest corporations and hollowing out the IRS [Internal Revenue Service] specifically so they could not hold wealthy tax cheats accountable, wouldn’t be able to audit them,” she said. “If those two things had not happened, then we wouldn’t even hit the debt ceiling at any time during the first Biden administration.”

“This is a manufactured crisis. The real issue at stake here is, who’s going to pay to run this government?” the Massachusetts senator said. “The Republicans are real clear on that: not the rich folks.”

Indeed, as Warren pointed out in her op-ed published in the Boston Globe this week, the 2017 tax cuts have cost the government nearly $2 trillion, while Republicans have steadily eroded the IRS’s funding for decades, costing the government potentially trillions owed from wealthy tax cheats.

Congress has raised the debt ceiling twice under Biden, by about $3 trillion. Republicans voted three times to raise the debt ceiling under President Donald Trump, who added nearly $8 trillion to the national debt.
...
“If this were really about the national debt, then there are plenty of places we could go to stitch up loopholes — like no more of these tax havens abroad — that we could get that under control. But that is not where the Republicans want to go,” Warren said.

Even though the huge deficits in government funding have been caused in large part by Republican policies, the party is using its control of the House to threaten a debt default, which would spell disaster for the economy, unless their demands are met; some Republicans are planning to use the debt ceiling to force through cuts to crucial programs like Social Security, for instance.

Meanwhile, Republicans made it clear in their first few weeks with House control that their top priority is to protect corporations and the wealthy. The first bill they passed was to revoke billions of dollars pegged for the IRS to go after wealthy tax cheats, which analyses say would more than pay for itself.
...
Warren said that Republicans don’t care about the ramifications of their political gamesmanship. Rather, they want to cause chaos and destruction in order to win political points, she said.

“If there are cuts to Social Security that they can turn around then and blame on the Democrats, if the economy goes over a cliff, if the worldwide economy blows up,” said Warren. “There are Republicans, particularly in the House, who think, ‘Hey, that’s going to make it easier to get our guy back in the White House.’”

“And so long as that’s their mindset, that’s not a position of negotiating to try to make things better, safer in this country, to make this country work better for hardworking families,” she continued."

The GOP only cares about the deficit when democrats are in charge. They are more than happy to run it up using tax breaks for the wealthy, as they have done numerous times. They don't have real policy ideas to help Americans, they just want to benefit the wealthy. They are more than happy to blow up the economy and destroy social security and medicare as they think creating chaos will help them take control of the senate and white house. They don't care about Americans, they are only interested in power and pandering to the wealthy.

“Who’s going to pay to run this government? The Republicans are real clear on that: not the rich folks,” she said."

Warren: Debt Ceiling Crisis Wouldn’t Even Exist Without Trump Tax Overhaul - Truthout https://truthout.org/articles/warren-debt-ceiling-crisis-wouldnt-even-exist-without-trump-tax-overhaul/

#GOPLovesPower
#GOPHatesAvgAmericans
#GOPInBedWithRich
#GOPHatesDemocracy

"Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) dug into Republicans for their willingness to “wreck the economy” over the debt ceiling, pointing out that the GOP is only interested in protecting their rich allies and creating an economic crisis that would reflect poorly on President Joe Biden.

In an appearance on MSNBC, Warren said that the conservative regressive tax policies that the GOP has pushed for decades has led to the current crisis with the debt ceiling.

“If the Republicans had not pushed just two things, the Republican tax cuts that went mostly to those at the very top and the biggest corporations and hollowing out the IRS [Internal Revenue Service] specifically so they could not hold wealthy tax cheats accountable, wouldn’t be able to audit them,” she said. “If those two things had not happened, then we wouldn’t even hit the debt ceiling at any time during the first Biden administration.”

“This is a manufactured crisis. The real issue at stake here is, who’s going to pay to run this government?” the Massachusetts senator said. “The Republicans are real clear on that: not the rich folks.”

Indeed, as Warren pointed out in her op-ed published in the Boston Globe this week, the 2017 tax cuts have cost the government nearly $2 trillion, while Republicans have steadily eroded the IRS’s funding for decades, costing the government potentially trillions owed from wealthy tax cheats.

Congress has raised the debt ceiling twice under Biden, by about $3 trillion. Republicans voted three times to raise the debt ceiling under President Donald Trump, who added nearly $8 trillion to the national debt.
...
“If this were really about the national debt, then there are plenty of places we could go to stitch up loopholes — like no more of these tax havens abroad — that we could get that under control. But that is not where the Republicans want to go,” Warren said.

Even though the huge deficits in government funding have been caused in large part by Republican policies, the party is using its control of the House to threaten a debt default, which would spell disaster for the economy, unless their demands are met; some Republicans are planning to use the debt ceiling to force through cuts to crucial programs like Social Security, for instance.

Meanwhile, Republicans made it clear in their first few weeks with House control that their top priority is to protect corporations and the wealthy. The first bill they passed was to revoke billions of dollars pegged for the IRS to go after wealthy tax cheats, which analyses say would more than pay for itself.
...
Warren said that Republicans don’t care about the ramifications of their political gamesmanship. Rather, they want to cause chaos and destruction in order to win political points, she said.

“If there are cuts to Social Security that they can turn around then and blame on the Democrats, if the economy goes over a cliff, if the worldwide economy blows up,” said Warren. “There are Republicans, particularly in the House, who think, ‘Hey, that’s going to make it easier to get our guy back in the White House.’”

“And so long as that’s their mindset, that’s not a position of negotiating to try to make things better, safer in this country, to make this country work better for hardworking families,” she continued."

The GOP only cares about the deficit when democrats are in charge. They are more than happy to run it up using tax breaks for the wealthy, as they have done numerous times. They don't have real policy ideas to help Americans, they just want to benefit the wealthy. They are more than happy to blow up the economy and destroy social security and medicare as they think creating chaos will help them take control of the senate and white house. They don't care about Americans, they are only interested in power and pandering to the wealthy.

“Who’s going to pay to run this government? The Republicans are real clear on that: not the rich folks,” she said."

Warren: Debt Ceiling Crisis Wouldn’t Even Exist Without Trump Tax Overhaul - Truthout https://truthout.org/articles/warren-debt-ceiling-crisis-wouldnt-even-exist-without-trump-tax-overhaul/

#GOPLovesPower
#GOPHatesAvgAmericans
#GOPInBedWithRich
#GOPHatesDemocracy

"Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) dug into Republicans for their willingness to “wreck the economy” over the debt ceiling, pointing out that the GOP is only interested in protecting their rich allies and creating an economic crisis that would reflect poorly on President Joe Biden.

In an appearance on MSNBC, Warren said that the conservative regressive tax policies that the GOP has pushed for decades has led to the current crisis with the debt ceiling.

“If the Republicans had not pushed just two things, the Republican tax cuts that went mostly to those at the very top and the biggest corporations and hollowing out the IRS [Internal Revenue Service] specifically so they could not hold wealthy tax cheats accountable, wouldn’t be able to audit them,” she said. “If those two things had not happened, then we wouldn’t even hit the debt ceiling at any time during the first Biden administration.”

“This is a manufactured crisis. The real issue at stake here is, who’s going to pay to run this government?” the Massachusetts senator said. “The Republicans are real clear on that: not the rich folks.”

Indeed, as Warren pointed out in her op-ed published in the Boston Globe this week, the 2017 tax cuts have cost the government nearly $2 trillion, while Republicans have steadily eroded the IRS’s funding for decades, costing the government potentially trillions owed from wealthy tax cheats.

Congress has raised the debt ceiling twice under Biden, by about $3 trillion. Republicans voted three times to raise the debt ceiling under President Donald Trump, who added nearly $8 trillion to the national debt.
...
“If this were really about the national debt, then there are plenty of places we could go to stitch up loopholes — like no more of these tax havens abroad — that we could get that under control. But that is not where the Republicans want to go,” Warren said.

Even though the huge deficits in government funding have been caused in large part by Republican policies, the party is using its control of the House to threaten a debt default, which would spell disaster for the economy, unless their demands are met; some Republicans are planning to use the debt ceiling to force through cuts to crucial programs like Social Security, for instance.

Meanwhile, Republicans made it clear in their first few weeks with House control that their top priority is to protect corporations and the wealthy. The first bill they passed was to revoke billions of dollars pegged for the IRS to go after wealthy tax cheats, which analyses say would more than pay for itself.
...
Warren said that Republicans don’t care about the ramifications of their political gamesmanship. Rather, they want to cause chaos and destruction in order to win political points, she said.

“If there are cuts to Social Security that they can turn around then and blame on the Democrats, if the economy goes over a cliff, if the worldwide economy blows up,” said Warren. “There are Republicans, particularly in the House, who think, ‘Hey, that’s going to make it easier to get our guy back in the White House.’”

“And so long as that’s their mindset, that’s not a position of negotiating to try to make things better, safer in this country, to make this country work better for hardworking families,” she continued."

The GOP only cares about the deficit when democrats are in charge. They are more than happy to run it up using tax breaks for the wealthy, as they have done numerous times. They don't have real policy ideas to help Americans, they just want to benefit the wealthy. They are more than happy to blow up the economy and destroy social security and medicare as they think creating chaos will help them take control of the senate and white house. They don't care about Americans, they are only interested in power and pandering to the wealthy.

“Who’s going to pay to run this government? The Republicans are real clear on that: not the rich folks,” she said."

Warren: Debt Ceiling Crisis Wouldn’t Even Exist Without Trump Tax Overhaul - Truthout https://truthout.org/articles/warren-debt-ceiling-crisis-wouldnt-even-exist-without-trump-tax-overhaul/

#GOPLovesPower
#GOPHatesAvgAmericans
#GOPInBedWithRich
#GOPHatesDemocracy

"Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) dug into Republicans for their willingness to “wreck the economy” over the debt ceiling, pointing out that the GOP is only interested in protecting their rich allies and creating an economic crisis that would reflect poorly on President Joe Biden.

In an appearance on MSNBC, Warren said that the conservative regressive tax policies that the GOP has pushed for decades has led to the current crisis with the debt ceiling.

“If the Republicans had not pushed just two things, the Republican tax cuts that went mostly to those at the very top and the biggest corporations and hollowing out the IRS [Internal Revenue Service] specifically so they could not hold wealthy tax cheats accountable, wouldn’t be able to audit them,” she said. “If those two things had not happened, then we wouldn’t even hit the debt ceiling at any time during the first Biden administration.”

“This is a manufactured crisis. The real issue at stake here is, who’s going to pay to run this government?” the Massachusetts senator said. “The Republicans are real clear on that: not the rich folks.”

Indeed, as Warren pointed out in her op-ed published in the Boston Globe this week, the 2017 tax cuts have cost the government nearly $2 trillion, while Republicans have steadily eroded the IRS’s funding for decades, costing the government potentially trillions owed from wealthy tax cheats.

Congress has raised the debt ceiling twice under Biden, by about $3 trillion. Republicans voted three times to raise the debt ceiling under President Donald Trump, who added nearly $8 trillion to the national debt.
...
“If this were really about the national debt, then there are plenty of places we could go to stitch up loopholes — like no more of these tax havens abroad — that we could get that under control. But that is not where the Republicans want to go,” Warren said.

Even though the huge deficits in government funding have been caused in large part by Republican policies, the party is using its control of the House to threaten a debt default, which would spell disaster for the economy, unless their demands are met; some Republicans are planning to use the debt ceiling to force through cuts to crucial programs like Social Security, for instance.

Meanwhile, Republicans made it clear in their first few weeks with House control that their top priority is to protect corporations and the wealthy. The first bill they passed was to revoke billions of dollars pegged for the IRS to go after wealthy tax cheats, which analyses say would more than pay for itself.
...
Warren said that Republicans don’t care about the ramifications of their political gamesmanship. Rather, they want to cause chaos and destruction in order to win political points, she said.

“If there are cuts to Social Security that they can turn around then and blame on the Democrats, if the economy goes over a cliff, if the worldwide economy blows up,” said Warren. “There are Republicans, particularly in the House, who think, ‘Hey, that’s going to make it easier to get our guy back in the White House.’”

“And so long as that’s their mindset, that’s not a position of negotiating to try to make things better, safer in this country, to make this country work better for hardworking families,” she continued."

I rarely agree with these two New York Times conservatives about policy, but, the GOP has gotten so crazy that these conservatives don't feel at home and think the party has gone too far down the rabbit hole. The current GOP is bad for a modern liberal democracy but good for nutcases and the obscenely wealthy.

Veteran conservatives decry 'authoritarian' GOP’s 'bad path to the bottom' - Alternet.org https://www.alternet.org/Bank/marjorie-taylor-greene-2659204132/

#GOPHatesDemocracy
#GOPIsTheRichsTool
#GOPLongs4Authoritarianism
#GOPLovesPower
#GOPIsALooneyBin

"Although the New York Times’ opinion section is famous for its liberal columnists — including Michelle Goldberg, Jamelle Bouie and economic Paul Krugman — it has had some well-known conservative columnists as well. Two of them are Bret Stephens and David Brooks, neither of whom are happy with the direction that the Trumpified Republican Party has taken in recent years.

In an opinion piece published in the Q&A format on January 11, Stephens and Brooks discuss the GOP’s dysfunction and “path to authoritarianism.” The GOP, they lament, has abandoned traditional Reagan conservatism and taken a radical, anti-intellectual turn. And the conservative columnists cite some of the precursors to Trumpism.

Brooks told Stephens, “My thinking about the GOP goes back to a brunch I had with Laura Ingraham and Dinesh D’Souza in the ’80s that helps me see, in retrospect, that people in my circle were pro-conservative, while Ingraham and D’Souza and people in their circle were anti-left. We wanted to champion Edmund Burke and Adam Smith and a Reaganite foreign policy. They wanted to rock the establishment. That turned out to be a consequential difference because almost all the people in my circle back then — like David Frum and Robert Kagan — ended up, decades later, Never Trumpers, and almost all the people in their circle became Trumpers or went bonkers.”

Brooks went on to describe President Ronald Reagan, Jack Kemp and Sen. John McCain as Republican “internationalists” of the 1980s and 1990s who were “cosmopolitan” and “believers in the value of immigration” — all the things that “populist” MAGA Republicans are not.

“Then the establishment got discredited: Iraq War, financial crisis, the ossifying of the meritocracy, the widening values gap between metro elites and everybody else,” Brooks told Stephens. “And suddenly, all the people I regarded as fringe and wackadoodle — Pat Buchanan, Donald Trump, anybody who ran CPAC — rose up on the wave of populist fury. Everybody likes a story in which the little guy rises up to take on the establishment, but in this case, the little guys rode in on a wave of know-nothingism, mendacity, an apocalyptic mindset, and authoritarianism.”

Brooks went on to say that while he had been a big admirer of McCain and voted for him in 2000’s GOP presidential primary, he ended up voting for Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election after McCain decided to make then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin his running mate.

Stephens told Brooks, “There have been previous Republican presidents who rode to office on waves of populist discontent, particularly Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. But as presidents, they channeled the discontent into serious programs and also turned their backs on the ugly fringes of the right. Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency and expanded the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Reagan established a working relationship with Democratic House leaders to pass tax reform and gave amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants.”

Brooks asked Stephens where the “old core of the conservative movement” can “go” when the GOP has become “Matt Gaetz’s clown show.” And Stephens responded, “When people get on a bad path, whether it’s drinking or gambling or political or religious fanaticism, they tend to follow it all the way to the bottom — at which point, they either die or have that proverbial moment of clarity.”

Part 2
“This is a protection operation,” Johnson told me, one designed to “protect the insurrectionists.” Because Jordan and other House Republicans are implicated in the events of Jan. 6, Johnson added, this is really “a self-protection operation.”"

Church Committee aide rips House Republicans: ‘A sad spectacle’
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/01/12/jim-jordan-gop-weaponization-committee-frank-church-trump/

#GOPLies
#GOPCorrupt
#GOPWontGovern
#GOPLovesPower
#GOPDisinfo

"In other words, the Church Committee led to serious, bipartisan reforms undertaken for the public good and in defense of the rule of law. The reforms were far from perfect, and serious abuses still do take place.

But intelligence oversight is much better than it was, and the Church Committee was key to that. Yet Republicans now want to turn their committee into a hyperpartisan weapon to spin the current “deep state” as more lawless than its previous iteration. Perversely, their goal is to place Trump beyond accountability and the law — and to portray people who sought to violently destroy democracy’s underpinnings as persecuted victims.

The best historical touchstone for today’s GOP effort is not the Church Committee, Johnson points out. It’s Sen. Joe McCarthy’s anti-communist witch hunts. “It’s a wrecking operation, more than anything constructive,” Johnson said of the Republicans’ committee.

The ultimate absurdity here is that Republicans are blocking exactly the sort of reform-and-accountability moment the Church Committee represented — which we need right now in the wake of similarly convulsive scandals — while hijacking its good name to that nefarious end.

“For them to appropriate the name of the Church Committee for the mischief that they’re up to," Johnson told me, "is wrenching for those of us who were involved.”":

"“This is a protection operation,” Johnson told me, one designed to “protect the insurrectionists.” Because Jordan and other House Republicans are implicated in the events of Jan. 6, Johnson added, this is really “a self-protection operation.”"

Church Committee aide rips House Republicans: ‘A sad spectacle’
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/01/12/jim-jordan-gop-weaponization-committee-frank-church-trump/

#GOPLies
#GOPCorrupt
#GOPWontGovern
#GOPLovesPower
#GOPDisinfo

"Because Rep. Jim Jordan is widely known as a statesman of world-historical stature, Republicans have been comparing the new investigative committee he will chair to the Church Committee of the 1970s. Just as that storied panel exposed rampant intelligence abuses, the Ohio Republican vows his committee will boldly expose contemporary “weaponizing of the federal government” that’s similarly corrupt, lawless and pervasive.

But the analogy doesn’t ring true to a onetime aide to Sen. Frank Church of Idaho, the former chairman of the Senate Select Committee to Study Government Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, which was colloquially named for its chair.

“That is really an absurd comparison,” Loch Johnson, who wrote a book about his experiences as Church’s top staffer on that committee, said in a phone interview. “It’s really a sad spectacle.”

Yet the GOP attempt to reboot the Church Committee tells us a good deal about our current political moment, about the GOP-controlled House’s obvious intention to abuse its oversight function to protect former president Donald Trump and about what’s happened to today’s Republican Party.

Jordan’s committee will examine the executive branch’s “collection of information” on U.S. citizens, “including criminal investigations.” It will have access to highly sensitive information available only to the House Intelligence Committee. Republicans say Jordan’s panel will reveal how “the radical left” weaponized law enforcement against ordinary Americans.

The Church Committee of the mid-1970s actually did uncover extraordinary abuses by intelligence services directed at U.S. citizens — mostly of the left-wing variety. The committee was established after revelations that the CIA had been spying on antiwar activists for more than a decade, and its investigation probed FBI covert actions directed at the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. anti-Vietnam War protesters and many others (though some on the far right were also targeted).

It is widely understood that Republicans on today’s committee hope to paint a similarly lurid tale, this time depicting conservatives as mass victims of jack-booted oppression. But they are unlikely to find anything similar to what left-wing activists actually did experience in the 20th century.

“Driven by ideology and revenge,” is how Johnson, a professor emeritus at the University of Georgia, describes the new GOP committee. He predicts an endless “search for the mythical deep state,” the imagined instrument supposedly used by the left to persecute conservatives inside the MAGA information bubble.

Jordan’s committee will also likely seek to harass and undermine criminal investigations of Trump and even prosecutions of rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. We know this because GOP rage rises to its highest pitch in response to law enforcement activity directed at Trump. The GOP version of the Church Committee has no discernible aim of meaningful reform, but rather seeks to smear in advance what by all indications are legitimate law enforcement investigations into Trump.

“This is a protection operation,” Johnson told me, one designed to “protect the insurrectionists.” Because Jordan and other House Republicans are implicated in the events of Jan. 6, Johnson added, this is really “a self-protection operation.”

To be fair, Republicans have gotten some things right. The Justice Department’s inspector general found serious procedural failures in FBI wiretapping to investigate Russian electoral interference. But the IG deemed the investigation legitimately authorized, destroying a ubiquitous GOP talking point.

Which highlights another deep absurdity in the Jordan-Church comparisons.

Things such as that IG investigation and congressional oversight of our intelligence agencies constitute genuine achievements of the Church Committee and other post-Watergate reformers. During the Cold War and the era’s domestic turmoil, the intelligence services did become highly insular and engage in extraordinary abuses of power. That led to the creation of congressional intelligence committees and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which attempts to restrain intelligence gathering within lawful bounds."

Part 2

Congress must listen to working families and overhaul healthcare, minimum wage and education | Bernie Sanders | The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jan/09/congress-healthcare-minimum-wage-education-us-families

#GreedKills
#CorporateGreed
#GOPCorrupt
#GOPLovesPower
#GOPInBedWithRich

"...While psychologists tell us that the first four years of life are the most important in terms of human intellectual and emotional growth, it’s hard to deny that our childcare system is in disarray. The cost is unaffordable for many working parents, there are not enough slots available, the quality is spotty and the pay and benefits childcare workers receive is unconscionably low. This is not how we should be treating our children, the future of America.

The situation in K-12 education is not much better. For a variety of reasons – lack of respect, low pay, the stress of Covid and the politicization of school boards – thousands of gifted and dedicated teachers are quitting the profession, leaving students unprepared for the challenges they face as they enter the adult world. The future of this country depends upon the quality of education we provide our kids, and there is no reason why we cannot create the best public educational system in the world.

In terms of higher education, we face the absurd situation of hundreds of thousands of bright young people who have the desire and ability to get a college education but cannot do so because their families lack the money. How many great doctors, scientists, and teachers are we losing as a result? There are also millions of young people who need training in order to become skilled mechanics, carpenters, welders, and electricians who are not getting the post-high school training they need. Further, 45 million Americans are struggling with student debt – sometimes in the hundreds of thousands of dollars."

In terms of labor and our economy, we must recognize that we live in a period of more income and wealth inequality than at any time in the last hundred years. While the very rich become richer and three people now own more wealth than the bottom half of American society, 60% of American workers live paycheck to paycheck and millions are trying to exist on starvation wages. Meanwhile, we have a pathetic federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour which has not been raised since 2009.

As more and more workers try to improve their standard of living by forming unions, they are facing fierce and illegal union busting from such employers as Starbucks, Amazon, McDonalds and other major employers.

There is a lot of discussion in the media about how “divided” our nation is and, on many issues, that is absolutely true. But what we don’t appreciate is that on some of the most important issues facing our country the American people – Democrats, Republicans, independents – are quite united.

The American people know we are being ripped off by the drug companies and they want lower prescription drugs prices.

The American people know that our healthcare system is outrageously expensive and they want universal and lower cost health care.

The American people know that education is essential to our lives and the future of this country and they want high quality and affordable education from childcare to graduate school.

The American people know that no one can survive on a $7.25-an-hour minimum wage, and they want to raise the minimum wage to a living wage.

The American people know that workers have a constitutional right to form unions and that corporations that engage in illegal union busting activities must be held accountable.

And these are just a few of the issues within the jurisdiction of the Help committee that a strong majority of the American people want us to address.

At a time when too many Americans are giving up on democracy, now is the time to attempt to restore faith in our government. Now is the time for Congress to have the courage to take on the lobbyists and powerful special interests and show the American people that our government can work for them, and not just the 1%. Let’s do it.""

Part 1

Over time, corporations and the wealthy have used donations and lobbying to structure our economy and government so that it serves their interests but not the interests of the people. The GOP especially has done virtually nothing but lavish tax cuts and regulation breaks on corporations and the wealthy. Their first order of business, besides decimating the ethics office and creating a committee to investigate the "weaponization" of the government against conservatives, was to again starve the IRS solely so that wealthy tax cheats don't have to pay their share. Besides throwing the red meat of culture war issues to their base, that will be all they do for the country. Yet the people keep voting them in!

Congress must listen to working families and overhaul healthcare, minimum wage and education | Bernie Sanders | The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jan/09/congress-healthcare-minimum-wage-education-us-families

#GreedKills
#CorporateGreed
#GOPCorrupt
#GOPLovesPower
#GOPInBedWithRich

"Americans are united on some of the most important issues facing our country and they want government to address them

I am proud to be assuming the chairmanship of the US Senate’s health, education, labor and pensions committee (Help), a committee with wide jurisdiction over some of the most important issues facing the American people. As I move into that position I’m thinking about how we can best address some of the serious challenges facing my fellow Vermonters and working families all across the country.

Today, in terms of health, we have a dysfunctional healthcare system in which we spend the astronomical and unsustainable sum of nearly $13,000 for every man, woman and child, twice as much as most developed countries and almost 20% of our GDP. Yet, despite that huge expenditure, 85 million Americans are uninsured or underinsured and we have worse health outcomes and lower life expectancy than many other nations. While the insurance companies make huge profits, over 500,000 people declare bankruptcy each year from medically related debt, and over 68,000 die because they can’t afford the care they need. Our complicated and fragmented system is so broken that it cannot even produce the number of doctors, nurses, dentists and mental health personnel that we desperately need.

As a nation, we must focus on the reality that the function of a rational healthcare system is to provide quality care for all, not simply huge profits for the insurance industry.

Today, as we pay by far the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs, the pharmaceutical industry is making record-breaking profits and more than a few executives in drug companies are becoming billionaires. Meanwhile, despite billions in government investment in prescription drug research and development, nearly one out of four Americans are unable to afford the medicine their doctors prescribe and too many seniors are splitting their lifesaving pills in half because they can’t afford them. And because Medicare doesn’t cover dental, hearing and vision, there are millions of seniors who are trying to survive without these basic healthcare needs.

The American people know that no one can survive on $7.25 an hour minimum wage
But it’s not just our healthcare “system” which needs a major overhaul. In terms of education, we need to take a hard look at how we are educating our kids – from childcare to graduate school."

Part 3
The greedy people who care only about money and possessions are destroying our country!!

What motivates Republicans to say they’re for the “little guy” when the only policies they'll pursue are to cut taxes for the rich, gut unions, destroy public schools & ship jobs overseas?

Why Must Americans Walk Life's Tightrope Without a Safety Net?
https://hartmannreport.com/p/why-must-americans-walk-lifes-tightrope?

#GOPInBedWithRich
#GOPLovesPower
#GOPHatesDemocracy
#WantTheirSerfsBack
#GOPGreedy
#GreedKills

"It’s not about immigrants taking jobs from working-class Americans.

After “reforming” our immigration laws in 1986, Ronald Reagan stopped enforcing the laws against wealthy white employers hiring people who are here without documentation (even though those employers were — and are — committing a crime by hiring undocumented workers).

As a result, entire industries like construction and meatpacking that once provided good union jobs have been de-unionized, their former American-citizen union employees replaced by low-wage workers without documentation.

And when the spotlight gets shined on those industries, Republicans are more than happy to put poor, hard-working Brown people in jail, but there’s no way they’re ever going to go after wealthy white employers. The Trump administration, for example, kicked off the midterm election year of 2018 by raiding over ninety 7-Eleven stores, hauling off undocumented Hispanic people for the cameras they invited to the arrests. Not a single employer went to jail, although they were the ones who initiated the “crime.”

Republican politicians don’t give a damn about your job, particularly when they can find somebody else to do it cheaper, although they do have to put on a little show from time to time to keep the racists happy.

It’s not about putting America or Americans “first.”

Reagan and Bush the Elder negotiated NAFTA and revived the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) so businesses could offshore entire factories. Since the Reagan administration instituted neoliberalism in 1981, over 60,000 factories have left America, taking along with them at least 15 million jobs.

Donald Trump‘s rewrite of NAFTA even gave American companies a huge new tax break if they’d move their factories from America to Mexico.

At the end of the day, all Republican politicians care about is money. Greed is their principle animating force, and what binds them to their morbidly rich donors.

The greed embraced by Republican politicians — and the billionaires and CEOs who fund them — is why average Americans can’t have nice things. It’s why we and our children must walk the tightrope of life without the same safety net other countries — from Canada to Costa Rica, France to Taiwan — offer their citizens.

It doesn’t matter to Republican politicians how many Americans die unnecessarily, how many of our fellow citizens struggle in misery and poverty, how many children’s growth is stunted or bodies and brains are poisoned by industrial and mining waste being poured into our air and rivers.

As long as the money keeps rolling in and the GOP’s billionaire patrons keep paying less than 3 percent in income taxes, greed is all Republican politicians care about or are willing to fight for."

Part 2
The greedy people who care only about money and possessions are destroying our country!!

What motivates Republicans to say they’re for the “little guy” when the only policies they'll pursue are to cut taxes for the rich, gut unions, destroy public schools & ship jobs overseas?

Why Must Americans Walk Life's Tightrope Without a Safety Net?
https://hartmannreport.com/p/why-must-americans-walk-lifes-tightrope?publication_id=302288&post_id=94123524&isFreemail=true

#GOPInBedWithRich
#GOPLovesPower
#GOPHatesDemocracy
#WantTheirSerfsBack
#GOPGreedy
#GreedKills

"It’s not about charity.

Republicans say that the housing, healthcare, and other needs of poor people should be taken care of through “private philanthropy” instead of government. What they’re really saying is that they don’t want to pay their fair share of taxes to maintain a healthy society.

By cutting government support for poor and working-class people, as Anand Giridharadas documents so well, those very average Americans will become more dependent on the noble philanthropists among the billionaire class and less bonded to their own nation’s government.

It’s not about Christianity, although they’re constantly invoking Jesus for everything from pushing the death penalty on women who want to get an abortion to giving bigots the legal right to discriminate against gay, lesbian, and trans people.

Jesus never once mentioned abortion and decried bigotry, but they regularly ignore and even flout His teachings in the Sermon on the Mount and His warnings in Matthew 25. They protect multimillionaire evangelists’ tax-free status, and the preachers repay them by preaching politics from the pulpit.

It’s not about saving Americans from the pandemic or concern for public health.

Trump used the Defense Production Act, for example, to force mostly Brown and Black meatpackers back to work, not to keep Americans safe. As long as the factories are humming and the stock market is rising, a few hundred thousand dead Americans are just collateral damage.

It’s not about conservatism.

They’re not interested in slowly or “cautiously” improving society, or “conserving” anything other than the balances in their own checking accounts. They like to use the word “conservative,” but they’ve rendered it meaningless at best and code for “racist” at worst.

It’s not about making the world a better place.

Republican politicians deny climate change, deregulate industries that poison our air and water, and do everything they can to screw working people out of unions, good wages, and decent benefits. They’re totally down with pesticides that are killing our pollinators while they poison our atmosphere with their carbon emissions, all just to make a buck.

It’s not about having a better-educated electorate or populace.

They’ve spent decades trying to destroy our public education system that was, in the 1960s, the envy of the world. When they did away with free and low-cost college education during the Reagan years they kicked off almost $2 trillion worth of student debt which is preventing people from starting families, opening small businesses, or even buying their first house. But it sure is profitable for Republican-donor bankers!

It isn’t about “culture.”

They do a good-old-boy NASCAR/Duck Dynasty routine to bring in the rubes, but there’s no way Donald Trump would ever invite the average Republican voter with a giant flag and a pickup truck to any of his golf clubs, nor would Ted Cruz want to vacation with one of them or their families in Cancun.

It’s not about “gun violence.”

As long as their investments in weapons manufacturers are profitable and the problem of gun violence is limited to poor- and working-class Americans, Republican politicians don’t give a rat’s ass about “gun safety.” Although they’re happy to use guns as a wedge issue to bring in male voters who are insecure about their own masculinity.

It’s not about “protecting our children.”

The main through-story of the GOP attacks on queer people is that “they’re coming for your kids.” If Republican politicians actually cared about our kids, they’d do something about America being the only country in the world where gun violence is the leading cause of childhood death.

Republican politicians know that most pedophiles are straight men, but attacking defenseless minorities has been the cheap trick of craven demagogues from the eras of crusades, pogroms, and witch burnings to this day."

Part 1
The greedy people who care only about money and possessions are destroying our country!!

What motivates Republicans to say they’re for the “little guy” when the only policies they'll pursue are to cut taxes for the rich, gut unions, destroy public schools & ship jobs overseas?

Why Must Americans Walk Life's Tightrope Without a Safety Net?
https://hartmannreport.com/p/why-must-americans-walk-lifes-tightrope?publication_id=302288&post_id=94123524&isFreemail=true

#GOPInBedWithRich
#GOPLovesPower
#GOPHatesDemocracy
#WantTheirSerfsBack
#GOPGreedy
#GreedKills

"Republicans are about to seize control of the US House of Representatives, where the Constitution says all taxation and spending must originate. And the result won’t be difficult to predict.

This Spring will be the 20th anniversary of my radio program. During that entire time, I’ve run a contest for anybody who can name even one single piece of legislation from the past 40 years (since Reagan) that was:
— authored by Republicans,
— principally co-sponsored by Republicans,
— passed Congress with a Republican majority,
— signed by a Republican president,
— and benefited average working people or the poor more than it did the GOP’s donor class.

Outside of a feeble-attempt bill to regulate spam callers during the first Bush administration and legislation reversing the Osage Allotment Act of 1906, nobody has ever won the autographed book prize.

Every developed country in the world has some variation on a free or low-cost national healthcare system, and free or subsidized higher education.

In most developed countries homelessness is not a crisis; nobody goes bankrupt because somebody in their family got sick; and jobs pay well enough and have union pensions so people can retire after 30 or 40 years in the workforce and live comfortably for the rest of their lives.

But not in America. Republican politicians have fought tooth-and-nail for generations to prevent any of those things from happening here.

Which raises the question: “Why?”

Why do Republican politicians promote hateful messages and cruel policies? Why are Republican-run states the real “shithole” parts of the US with the highest rates of poverty, violence, early death, disease, and illiteracy?

What motivates these Republican politicians to say they’re for the “little guy” when the only policies they pursue are to cut taxes on the rich, gut unions, destroy public schools, and ship jobs overseas?

It’s not about ideology.

Republicans don’t hate Social Security and Medicare, for example, because they’re afraid that those programs are going to somehow turn America into a “socialist” country. They hate those programs because they’re paid for with tax dollars, and greedy Republicans hate to pay their fair share of taxes.

It’s not about racism, although it often appears that way.

The reason Republicans work so hard to keep Black and Brown people down is because they subscribe to a weird economic theory that “requires” an underclass who do most of the hard work for very little money. Thus, morbidly rich Republican “donors” — being part of the overclass — can reap the benefits of increased corporate profits while keeping their taxes low so they can stuff the extra cash into their money bins.

If their use of racist language and Confederate iconography brings in a few more low-IQ white voters, that’s just icing on the cake. They can use the racist yahoos to get themselves reelected so giant corporations will continue to stuff their SuperPACs with lobbyist cash they can use for their own retirement."

Kevin McCarthy And Senior House Republicans Implicated In George Santos Fraud https://politicususa.substack.com/p/kevin-mccarthy-and-senior-house-republicans

#GOPHatesDemocracy
#GOPCorrupt
#GOPLovesPower

"Senior House Republicans knew that George Santos was lying about his educational and work history and even joked about it.

The George Santos scandal that House Republicans are attempting to sweep under the rug was already bad. Santos has confessed to defrauding the voters of New York’s Third Congressional District, but given how the Republican Party is being led by one of the nation’s most notorious alleged fraudsters, House Republicans were set to turn a blind eye and seat Rep. Santos anyway.

Then the story got much bigger.

The New York Post reported:

Senior House Republicans were apparently aware of the inaccuracies and embellishments in the member-elect’s resume, and the topic became a “running joke,” multiple insiders close to House GOP leadership told The Post over the weekend.

“As far as questions about George in general, that was always something that was brought up whenever we talked about this race,” said one senior GOP leadership aide. “It was a running joke at a certain point. This is the second time he’s run and these issues we assumed would be worked out by the voters.”

Kevin McCarthy and the GOP’s attitude appears to have been that if the voters didn’t catch on to Santos defrauding them, they weren’t going to do anything about it.

Since McCarthy and senior House Republicans knew that Santos was defrauding voters, this scandal is much bigger."

The right-wing partisans on the supreme court are attempting to steal the power to control the direction of the country. The least we can do is use the few actions at our disposal that could help illuminate the partisan corruption that underlies their actions!!

'Let’s do that!' Internet cheers Republican warning that Supreme Court Justices' tax returns could go public - Raw Story - Celebrating 18 Years of Independent Journalism https://www.rawstory.com/lets-do-that-internet-cheers-republican-warning-that-supreme-court-justices-tax-returns-could-go-public-2658992856/

#PartisanCaptureOfJudiciary
#PartisanSupremeCourt
#GOPLovesPower #GOPHatesDemocracy

"On social media, given the historic unpopularity of this Supreme Court, many applauded the idea of its justices having their tax returns made public – something that likely would never happen

“Yes!” declared Carnegie Mellon University professor Uju Anya. “Tell us who bought and paid for the Supreme Court Justices. Please and thank you.”

“Great!” exclaimed Mother Jones editor-in-chief Clara Jeffery. “Let’s do that!”

READ MORE: ‘It’s the Transgender, LGBTQ’: Secret Recording Reveals Superintendent Telling School Librarians ‘Pull Books Off Shelves’

Swedish economist and former Atlantic Council Senior Fellow Anders Åslund criticized Brady.

“Shameful! What the US lacks most of all is transparency. It should start with tax returns and be followed by campaign financing, now often dark money. Politicians who advocate financial secrecy effectively advocate corruption.”

Georgetown Law professor Josh Chafetz said, “Hadn’t even thought of this — that would be great!”

“Congress has had this authority for a long time,” noted retired journalist Dan Murphy. “If legitimate concerns arise that a member of the Supreme Court is abusing the office to enrich him or herself, as there are in the case of Trump, getting those returns would also be a good thing.”

“And that’s a bad thing?” mocked U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA).

“Don’t tempt me with a good time…” mocked journalist Walker Bragman, a theme repeated by dozens of other Twitter users"

Part 2
Increasingly the GOP's goal in capturing the supreme court and the judiciary is becoming clear as they use the judiciary to end run around democracy, grab power and impose their partisan policy preferences without the voters consent. The GOP doesn't need democracy to steal power if they can use the unelected judiciary to control US policy.

Biden COVID response: 5th Circuit blocks vaccine mandate for federal contractors. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/12/biden-vaccine-mandate-federal-contractors-fifth-circuit.html

#PartisanCaptureOfJudiciary
#JudicialPowerGrab
#JudicialEndRunAroundDemocracy
#GOPUsingJudiciarytoSkirtDemocracy
#PartisanJudges
#GOPHatesDemocracy
#GOPLovesPower

Judge James Graves dissented on the grounds that his colleagues erred in extending the major questions doctrine to presidential executive orders. Noting that the Procurement Act had frequently been used in social policymaking, Graves observed that Biden’s order was in line with the act’s first use in 1965: implementing anti-discrimination provisions forbidding contractors from discriminating on the basis of race, creed, color, national origin—a use which the 5th Circuit subsequently upheld. Graves also compared Biden’s order to a second prior Procurement Act case requiring federal contractors to electronically verify their employees were authorized to work in the U.S. Like the e-verify requirement, Graves asserted, Biden’s order requiring federal contractors to verify employees had COVID vaccinations did not govern employees’ conduct but merely imposed requirements on employers.

Finally, Graves observed that Biden’s executive order mirrored current “mainstream” policies of private employers requiring employee vaccinations, analogizing the mandate to other health measures like regulating smoking at federal workplaces. “Just like requiring vaccine mandates,” he wrote, “the reason to prohibit smoking while at a federal facility is to prevent dangerous disease from spreading, whether it be COVID or harms from secondhand smoke, which hampers the economy and efficiency of federal contractors’ operations.”

As Graves noted, the president “does not suffer from the same lack of political accountability that agencies may, particularly when the President acts on a question of economic and political significance.” Unlike a federal agency, the president is elected and therefore accountable to U.S. citizens—a core difference in whether it is appropriate to extend that major questions doctrine to presidential executive orders. Moreover, the 5th Circuit majority did not—and could not—cite to another case where the major questions doctrine had been extended to a presidential executive order. That federal courts had never ventured into this forbidding territory, Graves suggested, is tantamount to a default understanding that the doctrine simply does not extend to that context.

Graves is right. The 5th Circuit’s expansion of the major questions doctrine is unwarranted, unnecessary, and dangerous to democracy. Old doctrines can be used for new tricks—but we need to be very careful in such contexts, lest aggressive judicial incursions into executive policymaking powers undermine settled legal doctrine. The overextension of the major questions doctrine is also symptomatic of other recent attempts to shift power from the executive to the judicial branch. The 5th Circuit opinion was issued at a time when courts are making headlines by using settled doctrine in new ways, seemingly to impose ideological objectives; witness, for example, the rejection of stare decisis in the overturning of Roe v. Wade in June. These acts put courts—and the legal principles they interpret and enforce—on increasingly shaky ground, and threaten to undermine fragile public trust. We must remember that federal judges, like federal agencies, are also unelected. But unlike bureaucrats, judges serve for life.

It should make us uneasy when federal courts apply well-settled doctrine in novel contexts. As it is increasingly forced to explore territories unknown, U.S. law had best meander cautiously along, in the tradition of its pioneer forbears, cautiously guiding the judicial wagon and its precious cargo along well-worn grooves. Applying doctrines in radically different contexts can be irresponsible judicial activism—the equivalent of sending that wagon hurtling off a cliff, to the peril of all."

Part 2
Increasingly the GOP's goal in capturing the supreme court and the judiciary is becoming clear as they use the judiciary to end run around democracy, grab power and impose their partisan policy preferences without the voters consent. The GOP doesn't need democracy to steal power if they can use the unelected judiciary to control US policy.

Biden COVID response: 5th Circuit blocks vaccine mandate for federal contractors. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/12/biden-vaccine-mandate-federal-contractors-fifth-circuit.html

#PartisanCaptureOfJudiciary
#JudicialPowerGrab
#JudicialEndRunAroundDemocracy
#GOPUsingJudiciarytoSkirtDemocracy
#PartisanJudges
#GOPHatesDemocracy
#GOPLovesPower

Judge James Graves dissented on the grounds that his colleagues erred in extending the major questions doctrine to presidential executive orders. Noting that the Procurement Act had frequently been used in social policymaking, Graves observed that Biden’s order was in line with the act’s first use in 1965: implementing anti-discrimination provisions forbidding contractors from discriminating on the basis of race, creed, color, national origin—a use which the 5th Circuit subsequently upheld. Graves also compared Biden’s order to a second prior Procurement Act case requiring federal contractors to electronically verify their employees were authorized to work in the U.S. Like the e-verify requirement, Graves asserted, Biden’s order requiring federal contractors to verify employees had COVID vaccinations did not govern employees’ conduct but merely imposed requirements on employers.

Finally, Graves observed that Biden’s executive order mirrored current “mainstream” policies of private employers requiring employee vaccinations, analogizing the mandate to other health measures like regulating smoking at federal workplaces. “Just like requiring vaccine mandates,” he wrote, “the reason to prohibit smoking while at a federal facility is to prevent dangerous disease from spreading, whether it be COVID or harms from secondhand smoke, which hampers the economy and efficiency of federal contractors’ operations.”

As Graves noted, the president “does not suffer from the same lack of political accountability that agencies may, particularly when the President acts on a question of economic and political significance.” Unlike a federal agency, the president is elected and therefore accountable to U.S. citizens—a core difference in whether it is appropriate to extend that major questions doctrine to presidential executive orders. Moreover, the 5th Circuit majority did not—and could not—cite to another case where the major questions doctrine had been extended to a presidential executive order. That federal courts had never ventured into this forbidding territory, Graves suggested, is tantamount to a default understanding that the doctrine simply does not extend to that context.

Graves is right. The 5th Circuit’s expansion of the major questions doctrine is unwarranted, unnecessary, and dangerous to democracy. Old doctrines can be used for new tricks—but we need to be very careful in such contexts, lest aggressive judicial incursions into executive policymaking powers undermine settled legal doctrine. The overextension of the major questions doctrine is also symptomatic of other recent attempts to shift power from the executive to the judicial branch. The 5th Circuit opinion was issued at a time when courts are making headlines by using settled doctrine in new ways, seemingly to impose ideological objectives; witness, for example, the rejection of stare decisis in the overturning of Roe v. Wade in June. These acts put courts—and the legal principles they interpret and enforce—on increasingly shaky ground, and threaten to undermine fragile public trust. We must remember that federal judges, like federal agencies, are also unelected. But unlike bureaucrats, judges serve for life.

It should make us uneasy when federal courts apply well-settled doctrine in novel contexts. As it is increasingly forced to explore territories unknown, U.S. law had best meander cautiously along, in the tradition of its pioneer forbears, cautiously guiding the judicial wagon and its precious cargo along well-worn grooves. Applying doctrines in radically different contexts can be irresponsible judicial activism—the equivalent of sending that wagon hurtling off a cliff, to the peril of all."

Part 2
Increasingly the GOP's goal in capturing the supreme court and the judiciary is becoming clear as they use the judiciary to end run around democracy, grab power and impose their partisan policy preferences without the voters consent. The GOP doesn't need democracy to steal power if they can use the unelected judiciary to control US policy.

Biden COVID response: 5th Circuit blocks vaccine mandate for federal contractors. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/12/biden-vaccine-mandate-federal-contractors-fifth-circuit.html

#PartisanCaptureOfJudiciary
#JudicialPowerGrab
#JudicialEndRunAroundDemocracy
#GOPUsingJudiciarytoSkirtDemocracy
#PartisanJudges
#GOPHatesDemocracy
#GOPLovesPower

Judge James Graves dissented on the grounds that his colleagues erred in extending the major questions doctrine to presidential executive orders. Noting that the Procurement Act had frequently been used in social policymaking, Graves observed that Biden’s order was in line with the act’s first use in 1965: implementing anti-discrimination provisions forbidding contractors from discriminating on the basis of race, creed, color, national origin—a use which the 5th Circuit subsequently upheld. Graves also compared Biden’s order to a second prior Procurement Act case requiring federal contractors to electronically verify their employees were authorized to work in the U.S. Like the e-verify requirement, Graves asserted, Biden’s order requiring federal contractors to verify employees had COVID vaccinations did not govern employees’ conduct but merely imposed requirements on employers.

Finally, Graves observed that Biden’s executive order mirrored current “mainstream” policies of private employers requiring employee vaccinations, analogizing the mandate to other health measures like regulating smoking at federal workplaces. “Just like requiring vaccine mandates,” he wrote, “the reason to prohibit smoking while at a federal facility is to prevent dangerous disease from spreading, whether it be COVID or harms from secondhand smoke, which hampers the economy and efficiency of federal contractors’ operations.”

As Graves noted, the president “does not suffer from the same lack of political accountability that agencies may, particularly when the President acts on a question of economic and political significance.” Unlike a federal agency, the president is elected and therefore accountable to U.S. citizens—a core difference in whether it is appropriate to extend that major questions doctrine to presidential executive orders. Moreover, the 5th Circuit majority did not—and could not—cite to another case where the major questions doctrine had been extended to a presidential executive order. That federal courts had never ventured into this forbidding territory, Graves suggested, is tantamount to a default understanding that the doctrine simply does not extend to that context.

Graves is right. The 5th Circuit’s expansion of the major questions doctrine is unwarranted, unnecessary, and dangerous to democracy. Old doctrines can be used for new tricks—but we need to be very careful in such contexts, lest aggressive judicial incursions into executive policymaking powers undermine settled legal doctrine. The overextension of the major questions doctrine is also symptomatic of other recent attempts to shift power from the executive to the judicial branch. The 5th Circuit opinion was issued at a time when courts are making headlines by using settled doctrine in new ways, seemingly to impose ideological objectives; witness, for example, the rejection of stare decisis in the overturning of Roe v. Wade in June. These acts put courts—and the legal principles they interpret and enforce—on increasingly shaky ground, and threaten to undermine fragile public trust. We must remember that federal judges, like federal agencies, are also unelected. But unlike bureaucrats, judges serve for life.

It should make us uneasy when federal courts apply well-settled doctrine in novel contexts. As it is increasingly forced to explore territories unknown, U.S. law had best meander cautiously along, in the tradition of its pioneer forbears, cautiously guiding the judicial wagon and its precious cargo along well-worn grooves. Applying doctrines in radically different contexts can be irresponsible judicial activism—the equivalent of sending that wagon hurtling off a cliff, to the peril of all."

Part 2
Increasingly the GOP's goal in capturing the supreme court and the judiciary is becoming clear as they use the judiciary to end run around democracy, grab power and impose their partisan policy preferences without the voters consent. The GOP doesn't need democracy to steal power if they can use the unelected judiciary to control US policy.

Biden COVID response: 5th Circuit blocks vaccine mandate for federal contractors. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/12/biden-vaccine-mandate-federal-contractors-fifth-circuit.html

#PartisanCaptureOfJudiciary
#JudicialPowerGrab
#JudicialEndRunAroundDemocracy
#GOPUsingJudiciarytoSkirtDemocracy
#PartisanJudges
#GOPHatesDemocracy
#GOPLovesPower

Judge James Graves dissented on the grounds that his colleagues erred in extending the major questions doctrine to presidential executive orders. Noting that the Procurement Act had frequently been used in social policymaking, Graves observed that Biden’s order was in line with the act’s first use in 1965: implementing anti-discrimination provisions forbidding contractors from discriminating on the basis of race, creed, color, national origin—a use which the 5th Circuit subsequently upheld. Graves also compared Biden’s order to a second prior Procurement Act case requiring federal contractors to electronically verify their employees were authorized to work in the U.S. Like the e-verify requirement, Graves asserted, Biden’s order requiring federal contractors to verify employees had COVID vaccinations did not govern employees’ conduct but merely imposed requirements on employers.

Finally, Graves observed that Biden’s executive order mirrored current “mainstream” policies of private employers requiring employee vaccinations, analogizing the mandate to other health measures like regulating smoking at federal workplaces. “Just like requiring vaccine mandates,” he wrote, “the reason to prohibit smoking while at a federal facility is to prevent dangerous disease from spreading, whether it be COVID or harms from secondhand smoke, which hampers the economy and efficiency of federal contractors’ operations.”

As Graves noted, the president “does not suffer from the same lack of political accountability that agencies may, particularly when the President acts on a question of economic and political significance.” Unlike a federal agency, the president is elected and therefore accountable to U.S. citizens—a core difference in whether it is appropriate to extend that major questions doctrine to presidential executive orders. Moreover, the 5th Circuit majority did not—and could not—cite to another case where the major questions doctrine had been extended to a presidential executive order. That federal courts had never ventured into this forbidding territory, Graves suggested, is tantamount to a default understanding that the doctrine simply does not extend to that context.

Graves is right. The 5th Circuit’s expansion of the major questions doctrine is unwarranted, unnecessary, and dangerous to democracy. Old doctrines can be used for new tricks—but we need to be very careful in such contexts, lest aggressive judicial incursions into executive policymaking powers undermine settled legal doctrine. The overextension of the major questions doctrine is also symptomatic of other recent attempts to shift power from the executive to the judicial branch. The 5th Circuit opinion was issued at a time when courts are making headlines by using settled doctrine in new ways, seemingly to impose ideological objectives; witness, for example, the rejection of stare decisis in the overturning of Roe v. Wade in June. These acts put courts—and the legal principles they interpret and enforce—on increasingly shaky ground, and threaten to undermine fragile public trust. We must remember that federal judges, like federal agencies, are also unelected. But unlike bureaucrats, judges serve for life.

It should make us uneasy when federal courts apply well-settled doctrine in novel contexts. As it is increasingly forced to explore territories unknown, U.S. law had best meander cautiously along, in the tradition of its pioneer forbears, cautiously guiding the judicial wagon and its precious cargo along well-worn grooves. Applying doctrines in radically different contexts can be irresponsible judicial activism—the equivalent of sending that wagon hurtling off a cliff, to the peril of all."

Part 1
Increasingly the GOP's goal in capturing the supreme court and the judiciary is becoming clear as they use the judiciary to end run around democracy, grab power and impose their partisan policy preferences without the voters consent. The GOP doesn't need democracy to steal power if they can use the unelected judiciary to control US policy.

Biden COVID response: 5th Circuit blocks vaccine mandate for federal contractors. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/12/biden-vaccine-mandate-federal-contractors-fifth-circuit.html

#PartisanCaptureOfJudiciary
#JudicialPowerGrab
#JudicialEndRunAroundDemocracy
#GOPUsingJudiciarytoSkirtDemocracy
#PartisanJudges
#GOPHatesDemocracy
#GOPLovesPower

"On Monday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit ruled 2–1 that President Joe Biden lacked authority to issue an executive order imposing a requirement on companies with whom the U.S. government contracts that employees be vaccinated against COVID-19, affecting thousands of companies and up to 25 percent of the U.S. workforce.

Responding to the demands of Louisiana, Indiana, and Mississippi, the 5th Circuit kept in place a ban on the implementation of Biden’s executive order on the grounds that the president lacked authority to impose this requirement, and that the order violated an obscure-sounding administrative law principle: the major questions doctrine. Monday’s ruling, Louisiana v. Biden, has far-reaching consequences for federal contractors, but its legal substance also has stark and serious consequences for American law.

Federal agencies make and implement rules under authority that Congress has granted under statute. When a statute is ambiguous, courts have traditionally deferred to the agency’s interpretation of it, since agencies have much more expertise than federal judges. Courts used to invoke the major questions doctrine infrequently, as a narrow exception for extraordinary cases. But in recent years, federal courts’ invocations of this doctrine have vastly increased. They are increasingly unwilling to defer to agency interpretations on issues involving substantial “economic or political significance.”
...
But in Louisiana v. Biden, the 5th Circuit extended this doctrine to the president himself. The case involves an executive order that Biden issued in 2021 that would require the federal government to include a clause in contracts with companies requiring employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

The 5th Circuit’s expansion of the major questions doctrine is unwarranted, unnecessary, and dangerous to democracy.
The Justice Department argued that Biden issued this order under his authority pursuant to the Presidential Procurement Act, in his role as the purchaser of services, to promote economy and efficiency. It also analogized this contracting requirement to the vaccine mandate imposed on most hospital workers—a rule that the Supreme Court upheld earlier this year.

Judge Kurt Engelhardt, joined by Judge Don Willett—both Donald Trump nominees—rejected these arguments in the majority opinion. Engelhardt reasoned that under the major questions doctrine, Congress had not clearly authorized Biden’s vaccine mandate. Although the major questions doctrine had never been extended beyond the agency context to encompass presidential policymaking under executive orders, the majority defended this novel application for two reasons: First, the Supreme Court had never explicitly limited the major questions doctrine to agencies rather than the president; and second, the president is responsible for the executive branch’s actions under Article II of the U.S. Constitution, suggesting that delegations to agencies and the president should be treated the same. Engelhardt also stated that implementing Biden’s order would set precedent penetrating beyond the contractor workplace into the realm of private health, affecting employee behavior...."

Part 1
Increasingly the GOP's goal in capturing the supreme court and the judiciary is becoming clear as they use the judiciary to end run around democracy, grab power and impose their partisan policy preferences without the voters consent. The GOP doesn't need democracy to steal power if they can use the unelected judiciary to control US policy.

Biden COVID response: 5th Circuit blocks vaccine mandate for federal contractors. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/12/biden-vaccine-mandate-federal-contractors-fifth-circuit.html

#PartisanCaptureOfJudiciary
#JudicialPowerGrab
#JudicialEndRunAroundDemocracy
#GOPUsingJudiciarytoSkirtDemocracy
#PartisanJudges
#GOPHatesDemocracy
#GOPLovesPower

"On Monday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit ruled 2–1 that President Joe Biden lacked authority to issue an executive order imposing a requirement on companies with whom the U.S. government contracts that employees be vaccinated against COVID-19, affecting thousands of companies and up to 25 percent of the U.S. workforce.

Responding to the demands of Louisiana, Indiana, and Mississippi, the 5th Circuit kept in place a ban on the implementation of Biden’s executive order on the grounds that the president lacked authority to impose this requirement, and that the order violated an obscure-sounding administrative law principle: the major questions doctrine. Monday’s ruling, Louisiana v. Biden, has far-reaching consequences for federal contractors, but its legal substance also has stark and serious consequences for American law.

Federal agencies make and implement rules under authority that Congress has granted under statute. When a statute is ambiguous, courts have traditionally deferred to the agency’s interpretation of it, since agencies have much more expertise than federal judges. Courts used to invoke the major questions doctrine infrequently, as a narrow exception for extraordinary cases. But in recent years, federal courts’ invocations of this doctrine have vastly increased. They are increasingly unwilling to defer to agency interpretations on issues involving substantial “economic or political significance.”
...
But in Louisiana v. Biden, the 5th Circuit extended this doctrine to the president himself. The case involves an executive order that Biden issued in 2021 that would require the federal government to include a clause in contracts with companies requiring employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

The 5th Circuit’s expansion of the major questions doctrine is unwarranted, unnecessary, and dangerous to democracy.
The Justice Department argued that Biden issued this order under his authority pursuant to the Presidential Procurement Act, in his role as the purchaser of services, to promote economy and efficiency. It also analogized this contracting requirement to the vaccine mandate imposed on most hospital workers—a rule that the Supreme Court upheld earlier this year.

Judge Kurt Engelhardt, joined by Judge Don Willett—both Donald Trump nominees—rejected these arguments in the majority opinion. Engelhardt reasoned that under the major questions doctrine, Congress had not clearly authorized Biden’s vaccine mandate. Although the major questions doctrine had never been extended beyond the agency context to encompass presidential policymaking under executive orders, the majority defended this novel application for two reasons: First, the Supreme Court had never explicitly limited the major questions doctrine to agencies rather than the president; and second, the president is responsible for the executive branch’s actions under Article II of the U.S. Constitution, suggesting that delegations to agencies and the president should be treated the same. Engelhardt also stated that implementing Biden’s order would set precedent penetrating beyond the contractor workplace into the realm of private health, affecting employee behavior...."

Part 1
Increasingly the GOP's goal in capturing the supreme court and the judiciary is becoming clear as they use the judiciary to end run around democracy, grab power and impose their partisan policy preferences without the voters consent. The GOP doesn't need democracy to steal power if they can use the unelected judiciary to control US policy.

Biden COVID response: 5th Circuit blocks vaccine mandate for federal contractors. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/12/biden-vaccine-mandate-federal-contractors-fifth-circuit.html

#PartisanCaptureOfJudiciary
#JudicialPowerGrab
#JudicialEndRunAroundDemocracy
#GOPUsingJudiciarytoSkirtDemocracy
#PartisanJudges
#GOPHatesDemocracy
#GOPLovesPower

"On Monday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit ruled 2–1 that President Joe Biden lacked authority to issue an executive order imposing a requirement on companies with whom the U.S. government contracts that employees be vaccinated against COVID-19, affecting thousands of companies and up to 25 percent of the U.S. workforce.

Responding to the demands of Louisiana, Indiana, and Mississippi, the 5th Circuit kept in place a ban on the implementation of Biden’s executive order on the grounds that the president lacked authority to impose this requirement, and that the order violated an obscure-sounding administrative law principle: the major questions doctrine. Monday’s ruling, Louisiana v. Biden, has far-reaching consequences for federal contractors, but its legal substance also has stark and serious consequences for American law.

Federal agencies make and implement rules under authority that Congress has granted under statute. When a statute is ambiguous, courts have traditionally deferred to the agency’s interpretation of it, since agencies have much more expertise than federal judges. Courts used to invoke the major questions doctrine infrequently, as a narrow exception for extraordinary cases. But in recent years, federal courts’ invocations of this doctrine have vastly increased. They are increasingly unwilling to defer to agency interpretations on issues involving substantial “economic or political significance.”
...
But in Louisiana v. Biden, the 5th Circuit extended this doctrine to the president himself. The case involves an executive order that Biden issued in 2021 that would require the federal government to include a clause in contracts with companies requiring employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

The 5th Circuit’s expansion of the major questions doctrine is unwarranted, unnecessary, and dangerous to democracy.
The Justice Department argued that Biden issued this order under his authority pursuant to the Presidential Procurement Act, in his role as the purchaser of services, to promote economy and efficiency. It also analogized this contracting requirement to the vaccine mandate imposed on most hospital workers—a rule that the Supreme Court upheld earlier this year.

Judge Kurt Engelhardt, joined by Judge Don Willett—both Donald Trump nominees—rejected these arguments in the majority opinion. Engelhardt reasoned that under the major questions doctrine, Congress had not clearly authorized Biden’s vaccine mandate. Although the major questions doctrine had never been extended beyond the agency context to encompass presidential policymaking under executive orders, the majority defended this novel application for two reasons: First, the Supreme Court had never explicitly limited the major questions doctrine to agencies rather than the president; and second, the president is responsible for the executive branch’s actions under Article II of the U.S. Constitution, suggesting that delegations to agencies and the president should be treated the same. Engelhardt also stated that implementing Biden’s order would set precedent penetrating beyond the contractor workplace into the realm of private health, affecting employee behavior...."

Part 1
Increasingly the GOP's goal in capturing the supreme court and the judiciary is becoming clear as they use the judiciary to end run around democracy, grab power and impose their partisan policy preferences without the voters consent. The GOP doesn't need democracy to steal power if they can use the unelected judiciary to control US policy.

Biden COVID response: 5th Circuit blocks vaccine mandate for federal contractors. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/12/biden-vaccine-mandate-federal-contractors-fifth-circuit.html

#PartisanCaptureOfJudiciary
#JudicialPowerGrab
#JudicialEndRunAroundDemocracy
#GOPUsingJudiciarytoSkirtDemocracy
#PartisanJudges
#GOPHatesDemocracy
#GOPLovesPower

"On Monday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit ruled 2–1 that President Joe Biden lacked authority to issue an executive order imposing a requirement on companies with whom the U.S. government contracts that employees be vaccinated against COVID-19, affecting thousands of companies and up to 25 percent of the U.S. workforce.

Responding to the demands of Louisiana, Indiana, and Mississippi, the 5th Circuit kept in place a ban on the implementation of Biden’s executive order on the grounds that the president lacked authority to impose this requirement, and that the order violated an obscure-sounding administrative law principle: the major questions doctrine. Monday’s ruling, Louisiana v. Biden, has far-reaching consequences for federal contractors, but its legal substance also has stark and serious consequences for American law.

Federal agencies make and implement rules under authority that Congress has granted under statute. When a statute is ambiguous, courts have traditionally deferred to the agency’s interpretation of it, since agencies have much more expertise than federal judges. Courts used to invoke the major questions doctrine infrequently, as a narrow exception for extraordinary cases. But in recent years, federal courts’ invocations of this doctrine have vastly increased. They are increasingly unwilling to defer to agency interpretations on issues involving substantial “economic or political significance.”
...
But in Louisiana v. Biden, the 5th Circuit extended this doctrine to the president himself. The case involves an executive order that Biden issued in 2021 that would require the federal government to include a clause in contracts with companies requiring employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

The 5th Circuit’s expansion of the major questions doctrine is unwarranted, unnecessary, and dangerous to democracy.
The Justice Department argued that Biden issued this order under his authority pursuant to the Presidential Procurement Act, in his role as the purchaser of services, to promote economy and efficiency. It also analogized this contracting requirement to the vaccine mandate imposed on most hospital workers—a rule that the Supreme Court upheld earlier this year.

Judge Kurt Engelhardt, joined by Judge Don Willett—both Donald Trump nominees—rejected these arguments in the majority opinion. Engelhardt reasoned that under the major questions doctrine, Congress had not clearly authorized Biden’s vaccine mandate. Although the major questions doctrine had never been extended beyond the agency context to encompass presidential policymaking under executive orders, the majority defended this novel application for two reasons: First, the Supreme Court had never explicitly limited the major questions doctrine to agencies rather than the president; and second, the president is responsible for the executive branch’s actions under Article II of the U.S. Constitution, suggesting that delegations to agencies and the president should be treated the same. Engelhardt also stated that implementing Biden’s order would set precedent penetrating beyond the contractor workplace into the realm of private health, affecting employee behavior...."

GOP conspires to undermine democracy via the judiciary by stacking the courts with GOP partisans!

While advising Trump on judges, Conway sold her business to a firm with ties to judicial activist Leonard Leo https://www.politico.com/news/2022/12/20/trump-conway-leonard-leo-00074690

#PartisanCaptureOfJudiciary
#GOPCorrupt
#GOPLovesPower
#GOPHatesDemocracy
#GOPIsTheRichsBitch

"Longtime judicial activist Leonard Leo appears to have helped facilitate the sale of former White House senior adviser Kellyanne Conway’s polling company in 2017 — as she was playing a key role in advocating for Leo’s handpicked list of Supreme Court candidates
...
The transaction came at a critical moment for Conway — shortly after her ownership of The Polling Company had come under scrutiny from a congressional oversight committee for potential “conflicts of interest,” likely creating pressure to unload it even though its value was unclear because she was its biggest asset and committed to her White House job.
...
It’s the latest example of how Leo has used his network to secure and protect allies at the highest levels of government to successfully advance his decadeslong agenda of shifting the Supreme Court rightward for the next generation.
...
If Leo helped facilitate the transaction, it could violate ethics laws designed to prevent executive branch employees from obtaining benefits from people with whom they interact in their official capacities, said Bruce Freed, president of the nonpartisan Center for Political Accountability, which tracks corporate spending in politics. Federal ethics laws prohibit executive branch employees from using their positions for private personal gain and from accepting gifts.

“It really shows Kellyanne as a vehicle for Leo, the leading role Leo has played and how Trump became his instrument,” said Freed, after reviewing the documents.
...
The financial deal between Conway and CRC adds to an emerging picture of the extent to which groups associated with Leo — who now controls more than $1.6 billion in conservative donor funds — interacted with key players in the conservative movement’s efforts to reshape the judiciary. The New York Times first reported the windfall donation to a Leo-controlled group, among the largest single contributions ever to a political nonprofit.

Leo served on the board of a group led by Virginia Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas, and he and the Thomases have maintained a longstanding friendship. Leo’s network has been among the most prolific forces behind the new conservative majority, successfully advocating to confirm Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett as well as to block former President Barack Obama’s nominee Merrick Garland.
...
Yet she lobbied inside the White House for the specific conservative justices Leo preferred as part of his decadeslong agenda of shifting the balance of the court sharply rightward, according to news reports, her recent memoir and other public records.
...
During the same time frame Conway was a senior adviser to Trump, she was under pressure to sell The Polling Company. In a May 9 statement, then-House Oversight Committee Chair Elijah Cummings, a Democrat from Maryland, said the White House had not produced evidence of a certificate of divestiture. The sale to CRC a few months later reduced political pressure on her.

Ethics specialists pointed to the possible involvement of BH Fund as a key question looming over the sale.
...
Brett Kappel, a lobbying and government ethics counsel at the Harmon Curran law firm in Washington who also reviewed the documents at POLITICO’s request, said the transactions appear to be connected.

“Based on the available documentation and the timing of the filings, it certainly appears as though these transactions are related,” said Kappel, who has represented candidates and political committees on both sides of the aisle. Still, Kappel cautioned it may depend on whether Conway was advising the president on court nominations at the same moment she sold to constitute a clear violation of ethics rules.

Kyle Herrig, president of Accountable.US, a non-partisan progressive group that investigates corporate influence in politics and alerted POLITICO to the financial records and timestamps, said it was concerned about whether the Leo-affiliated groups rewarded Conway for her advocacy by purchasing her business at a time when its value was unclear.

It also raises “serious concerns” about how Leo will use his new, “no-strings-attached” $1.6 billion windfall, arranged through a series of transactions that appear to have avoided tax liabilities, to influence the White House, Congress and the Supreme Court, said Herrig."