Miscellaneous political stuff - Part 2

"Like others on the far right, Rhodes appeared to believe conspiracy theories about Trump secretly holding onto damaging secrets that would destroy the left. Rhodes encouraged Trump to leak those supposed secrets on fringe sites like 8chan.

“At the very least, do the mass declassification and data dump,” Rhodes wrote. “You still have absolute authority as President and Commander-in-Chief to declassify any files held by the CIA, FBI, NSA, etc. Use trusted elite units you know are still loyal to the Constitution to get it done (to seize the servers and dump the data on 4Chan, 8Chan, etc).”

Rhodes included the text of that letter in an email blast to Oath Keepers titled “OATH KEEPERS WARNING ORDER PART I.” In it, Rhodes warned followers of the “very high possibility” that the Biden administration would supposedly take out the power grid and begin carrying out targeted strikes on conservatives.

“Within the short term, we face a very high possibilty [sic] of an intentional ‘comms down’ scenario where black hats take down/shut down all communications in the US - No cell service, no internet, no land lines. A comms blackout. This could also include a take down of electrical power. An intentional power blackout. Worst case scenario would be an EMP [electromagnetic pulse] strike,” Rhodes told Oath Keepers on Jan. 13. “The purpose of such a comms down/blackout will be to minimize our ability to communicate and to pin people in their homes as the black hats and their terrorist allies conduct a ‘night of the long knives’ decapitation strike to arrest or otherwise take out patriot leaders, potential leaders, and highly skilled personnel.” (The reference to the “night of the long knives” was the second time Rhodes compared the Biden administration to Nazis in that email.)"

www.thedailybeast.com/oath-keepers-panicked-that-the-left-would-decapitate-them-after-failed-capitol-putsch

When you live inside a cult that sees the world in black-white, good-evil, with us-against us dichotomies, this is how you view the world and your fellow citizens. What a horrible place to live. What a deluded existence.

She just gets better and better

Oh joy.....

10/13/21

GOP may be losing big business on some states..

Republicans have been closely allied with big business since the Gilded Age, when a party originally based on opposition to slavery was in effect captured by the rising power of corporations," Krugman notes. "That alliance lost some of its force in the 1950s and 1960s, an era in which the GOP largely accepted things like progressive taxation and strong labor unions, but came back in full with the rise of Ronald Reagan and his agenda of tax cuts and deregulation.

But thanks to the "rise of Trumpism," Krugman adds, "Republican politicians are at odds with Corporate America on crucial issues."

"It's not just vaccines," Krugman observes. "Corporate interests also want serious investment in infrastructure and find themselves on the outs with Republican leaders who don't want to see Democrats achieve any policy successes…. Just to be clear, corporations aren't being good guys. They support vaccine mandates and infrastructure investment because they believe that both would be good for their bottom lines."

In the past, Krugman writes, businesses "could live with a bit of craziness" from Republicans "so long as they got their tax cuts and deregulation. But "Trumpism," according to Krugman, has made the GOP's "craziness" much worse.

"The conflict between the GOP and corporations is a striking new turn in American politics," Krugman emphasizes. "And I wonder if some corporate leaders find themselves asking, in the privacy of their own minds, 'My God, what have we done?' For the truth is that the Republican Party has been growing increasingly radical — and decreasingly rational — for a long time."

www.rawstory.com/economist-paul-krugman-increasingly-radical-republicans-are-scaring-businesses-in-gop-led-states/

Oh my, how good to hear... Madison Cawthorn = open mouth insert foot!!
Well done Dr Cooper!!

Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) attempted to corner an expert witness during a hearing on violent extremism, but he quickly backed down after she easily parried his attack.


youtu.be/PHXmRhgem7w

www.rawstory.com/madison-cawthorn-militia/

More threats from former ...
Of course that just opens it up to him to claim fraud...

Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday put out yet another statement complaining about his loss in the 2020 presidential election -- and his time he issued a threat against the Republican Party.


www.rawstory.com/trump-2020-election-lies-2655292506/

The thought of either Jim Jordan or McCarthy as Speaker of the House is really scary. #2 in line to the Presidency

Fantastic- tell your cult not to vote again, since that worked so well for you in 2020. 👍🏻

Yes!!! Former is ordered to give a deposition, Monday Oct 18, 2021!!

One of the many lawsuits that President Donald Trump has faced involves a September 2015 rally outside of Trump Tower in New York City, where a group of Mexican protesters say they were assaulted. And a judge in the Bronx, Doris Gonzalez, has ordered Trump to sit for a videotaped deposition in connection with the lawsuit, according to ABC News.

The lawsuit, which alleges that Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric encouraged violence, names not only Trump, but also, his 2016 presidential campaign and Keith Schiller, who was his head of security in 2015.

Judge Gonzalez declared, "Donald J. Trump shall appear for a deposition October 18, 2021 at 10 a.m.... or, in the event of illness or emergency, on another mutually agreed to date on or before October 31, 2021."

www.rawstory.com/judge-orders-trump-to-give-a-videotaped-deposition/

Good luck Texas.... Isn't Southlake the town that's been in the news lately?

A top administrator with the Carroll Independent School District in Southlakem, Texas, is under fire for advising teachers to present "opposing" viewpoints if they're going to provide books to their students about the Holocaust, NBC News reports.

Gina Peddy, who is the Carroll school district's executive director of curriculum and instruction, made the remarks during a training session this Friday that was called in response to a parent's complaint about a fourth grade teacher who had an anti-racism book in her classroom.
***
"And make sure that if you have a book on the Holocaust, that you have one that has an opposing, that has other perspectives," Peddy continued.

"How do you oppose the Holocaust?" one teacher said in response.

"Believe me," Peddy said. "That's come up."

www.rawstory.com/texas-holocaust-books/

Shaking head.....

Don't tell me these are nice people!!!

President Joe Biden was greeted with profane taunts from Trump supporters on Friday despite the fact that he was in the presence of children.

According to NPR White House correspondent Scott Detrow, Biden on Friday travelled to a daycare center in Hartford, Connecticut to promote childcare plans that are part of his "Build Back Better"



www.rawstory.com/biden-in-hartford/

Surely this needs its own thread but.... Here it is...
This is only the begining of the commentary... Frightening and very direct and thought provoking.

Trump and his dead-ender's hateful plan revealed
Thom Hartmann
October 15, 2021

Trump's agenda is to destroy democracy in America, and the GOP and their billionaire donors are going along with it while much of the media are treating it like politics as usual. It's a two-part plan that involves both corrupting our election processes and fomenting a violent "rebellion" by white supremacists to shatter our society.

Part one is to end free and fair elections in America.

The latest bombshell has become the most under-reported and misunderstood story of the week, when Donald Trump threatened the Republican Party.

Wednesday afternoon I got a fundraising email (he averages around 5 fundraising pitches a day) from desk@deskofdonaldjtrump.com that included this statement:

"If we don't solve the Presidential Election Fraud of 2020 (which we have thoroughly and conclusively documented), Republicans will not be voting in '22 or '24. It is the single most important thing for Republicans to do."

But the media treated this threat of Trump's as either 1) a tantrum demanding more fealty from Republicans or 2) a sign that Trump is losing his grip and probably going to alienate the Republican Party before he's done. It was neither.

This statement from Trump was, instead, a clear and open declaration of war on democracy itself.

What he was really saying was, "If the rest of you Republicans who still hold office don't do like a few states have already done and pre-rig the 2024 election results, you are going to lose office and lose power…and I'll lose my chance to get back into the White House."

Which is true, particularly in swing states. So they're stepping up their game.

"Election Fraud" is the canard Republicans have used since the 1960s and William Rehnquist's Operation Eagle Eye to justify preventing largely Democratic voters — mostly BIPOC, urban, poor, young and elderly people — from either voting or having their votes counted if they manage to get their hands on a provisional ballot.

Now, though, it has an entirely new meaning: they're using it to destroy democracy altogether.

www.rawstory.com/trump-2024-plan/

Just adding the last two paragraphs...

What they've created, though, has taken on a life of its own and is now tearing America apart. This week Steve Bannon, in an echo of Hitler's promise of a Reich that would last 1000 years, predicted, "We're putting together a coalition that's gonna govern for 100 years."

As Bannon and his billionaire backers will be the first to tell you, 2022 and 2024 is probably their last chance to replace American democracy with an oligarchy they can fund and benefit from. And we can't let that happen.