The Destruction of Leviathan by Gustave Doré (1865). Public domain.
And though the past has its share of injustice Kind was the spirit in many a way But its protectors and friends have been sleeping Now it’s a monster and will not obey — from “Monster” by Steppenwolf (1969)
President-elect Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in part because people wanted their sense of normal back, and a sense of agency. Conspiracy theories such as QAnon arise in times when the world seems in chaos. People want a sense of being in control of their fates. “I want to do it myself,” says the two-year-old. As adults, we simply don’t say it aloud. Trump promised “great again” and delivered chaos.
And when we look for the causes of our misfortunes, we are wired to identify enemies by their faces: jaguars, not falling rocks. Or as Matt Taibbi once put it, there is “a lot of misdirected anger searching around for a non-target to mis-punish… can’t be mad at AIG, can’t be mad at Citi or Goldman Sachs.” Or technology. No face.
Anand Giridharadas spoke with writer Ayad Akhtar (“Homeland Elegies,”) about how corporations have managed to monetize our attention. With it, we ourselves are being monetized to facilitate the concentration of wealth in a system grown beyond our control:
AYAD: It’s definitely not in excellent health. I do tend to think that we live in something like a corporate autocracy. There is no way for people to participate in the decision-making bodies that are actually responsible for most of the infrastructural decisions in their lives.
I don’t know how we’re going to rein in the increasingly powerful, global transnational companies. I see the rise of authoritarianism across the world as connected to this. Really, it’s connected to the fact that there seems to be an organic dissolving of whatever these political systems are, which are no longer able to operate as meaningful checks against those who are actually in power.
To use an analogy from the Roman republic, the aristocrats have arrogated to themselves so much power that the only meaningful check against them is a strong emperor.
Hence the insurrectionist “patriots” who called for “Emperor Trump” on Jan. 6.
The problem is, like Trump, the people in charge by virtue of their wealth fail to recognize their wealth does not signify knowledge or wisdom. Akhtar recalls attending a dinner where invited artists among plutocrats functioned “as sort of adjacent jester figures.”
He elaborates:
AYAD: I was at a dinner one night where I think it really all kind of dawned on me. I won’t say who was at that dinner, but it was some prominent people. This is a dinner party of people sitting around a table and bandying about the latest theories on how to make the world a better place and all of that stuff. The conversation was so deluded. And it dawned on me that these were the people who were actually making decisions about the world.
Their analysis was so flawed and completely determined by the fact that they thought they knew something because they have money. Their social situation and the way that they were treated in the world because of their net worth encouraged them to believe that they actually knew something. And, oddly, they didn’t.
One person in particular corrected me for suggesting that Mohammed had been born after the alleged birth of Jesus Christ. This is a very prominent person who was correcting me about the timeline of Mohammed’s birth — and with derision, not even with a question.
I realized there’s something intoxicating to all involved, myself included, to be hobnobbing with those who pull the levers. Until you realize that those who pull the levers don’t know anything.
As if after four years of the Trump administration, the brain-dead antics of his enablers in Congress and in his party, and the election of QAnon believers to public office we have to be told.
Have a read anyway. It will give you the fleeting sense that there are still sane people in the world.
The National Mall set up for the inauguratioon of Joe Biden.
Trump America will go down in history as a greater failure than Trump steaks, Trump University, Trump casinos, or James Buchanan, often ranked the worst president in U.S. Time will tell, but it won’t take long.
Donald John Trump revels in superlatives, writes Tim Naftali at The Atlantic:
The first. The best. The most. The greatest. “No president has ever done what I’ve done,” he boasts. “No president has ever even come close,” he says.
Thankfully, no. Corruption, nepotism, incompetence. Impeached twice, 30,000 untruths, 400,000 coronavirus deaths, violent insurrection and the first non-peaceful transfer of power in U.S. history. Trump seems destined for greatness for his worstness (Washington Post):
“You never want to be ranked below William Henry Harrison, who was only president for one month. If you rank below him, it means you’ve harmed the country,” said presidential historian Douglas Brinkley of Rice University. “Now you’re getting into James Buchanan and Andrew Johnson territory. Trump will automatically be in that category.”
And very predictably.
“Adversity doesn’t build character; it reveals it,” the saying goes. Trump’s adverse occupation of the Oval Office did not reveal much about the man that was not obvious before the start of his accidental presidency. What his tenure has revealed is weaknesses in the country itself.
David Nakamura explains at the Washington Post:
Trump’s relentless attacks on civic institutions, provoking of racial and social divisions, trampling of political norms, broadsides against the free press and impugning of America’s international allies have raised profound questions about the nature of American governance and the endurance of the values the United States has long professed to cherish, scholars said.
“Trump and Trumpism have brought those flaws into sharp relief,” said Matthew Dallek, a political historian at George Washington University. “The fact that 74 million people could vote for someone who is a conspiracy theorist and a perpetual liar and encouraged violence and the Proud Boys and white supremacy — in that sense, the Trump presidency will be important for those reckoning with: ‘What does it mean to be an American?’ And also: ‘What does it mean to live in what a lot of people thought was the world’s greatest experiment in democracy, when it turns out that experiment is incredibly fragile?’ ”
Nakamura goes on to examine what makes Trump uniquely awful. There is no good analogy to other presidents before him. But perhaps we should “leave it right there,” as cable news hosts say, and consider what his presidency reveals instead about the country and ourselves.
Many of us are people of the lie. Like Trump himself, we believe our own bullshit about ourselves. Whatever soft-focused myths Americans embrace about courageous, straight-talking, truth-telling pioneers of the 19th century, Americans of the 21st elected an unprincipled, physical coward and con artist as their leader in 2016.
The Trump administration in its final hours released a report by its 1776 commission meant to convey its view of American history, “properly understood.” It reads like a John Birch publication from the 1960s. It is Trump’s parting gift to his evangelical believers. More lies told to themselves about themselves.
Diana Butler Bass (“A People’s History of Christianity”) tweeted:
And those dangerous ideas about history have long shaped conservative evangelicalism. Respected American historians have warned about this sort of propaganda in churches, Christian schools, and homeschooling since at least the mid-1980s.
“A vision of history – America’s godly past with its divinely-mandated mission and future – is fundamental to white evangelicalism,” she writes. “Almost akin to a biblical literalism, it is something one MUST believe to be considered truly Christian. It is that central.”
So are the myths Americans believe about themselves. Do not expect self-reflection in the aftermath of Trump’s disaster of a presidency. “Warts and all” is for losers.
It is said a portion of voters ascribed to President Barack Obama perspectives more reflective of their own aspirations than ones the man possessed. Another portion of America looked at Donald Trump and saw themselves. Those portions overlapped.
As a new president takes office, the National Mall is set up with flags taking the place of people who cannot be there as the coronavirus rages on. They will more than fill the sparceness of the crowd photo from the Trump inauguration (taken from the same vantage point) that launched his presidency on the lie that he had the largest inauguration crowd in history. Four years and a failed pandemic response later, Trump ends his presidency on a Big Lie about the election results and another about who we are as Americans.
Trump was president for just four years and now Americans can't even safely gather in the nation's Capitol. Don't ever let anyone tell you one person can't make a difference, a terrible, terrible difference. https://t.co/snHQxn9qNJ
Politicians reflexively repeated that the isurrection of Jan. 6 is not who we are. The world saw exactly who we are that day and every day of the Trump administration. And still we cannot face it.
Here’s a nice story about a good song with the right message for our time:
The New Radicals will perform their 1998 hit “You Get What You Give” as part of a virtual “Parade Across America” celebrating the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden this week, Rolling Stone reported.
The name-dropping, vaguely political one-hit-wonder was Doug Emhoff’s walk-on song during campaign rallies for his wife, VP-elect Kamala Harris, and Biden. As of Monday afternoon, it was also a trending topic on Twitter.
Now, the band, which wrote the song in the midst of Y2K fever but broke up shortly after its release, says it’ll be honored to come back together for the first time in more than 20 years to perform the song.
“If there’s one thing on Earth that would possibly make us get the band together, if only for a day, it is the hope that our song could be even the tiniest beacon of light in such a dark time,” frontman Gregg Alexander said in a statement to Rolling Stone. The New Radicals frontman Gregg Alexander said he was honored that his 1998 hit “You Get What You Give” has become something of a theme song for the Biden-Harris campaign and inauguration. The band will reunite for the first time in 22 years to perform the song again for the virtual “Parade Across America” event following the swearing in ceremony on Jan. 20, 2021.
“America knows in its heart that things will get bright again with a new administration and a real plan for vaccines on the way,” Alexander said. “That’s the message of the song… this world is gonna pull through.” Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff hand-picked the song “You Get What You Give” during rallies last year.
The song also has an emotional connection for Biden, who said in his autobiography that it was the “theme song” for his late son Beau during his battle with cancer.
“During breakfast, Beau would often make me listen to what I thought was his theme song, ‘You Get What You Give’ by the New Radicals,” Biden wrote. “Even though Beau never stopped fighting and his will to live was stronger than most – I think he knew that this day might come. The words to the song are: ‘This whole damn world can fall apart. You’ll be OK, follow your heart.’ ”
It will be the final act of the virtual parade which will be streamed online starting at 3:15.
No Inauguration Balls or parties and no public attendance because of the pandemic — and Donald Trump’s marauding insurrectionists. In fact, the whole thing is his fault because of his poor leadership and brainwashed cult.
Still, it will be a big relief. Pageants and parades are nice but they aren’t as important as getting that imbecile out of office.
Wake up kids We’ve got the dreamers disease Age 14 we got you down on your knees So polite, you’re busy still saying please Frienemies, who when you’re down ain’t your friend Every night we smash their Mercedes-Benz First we run, and then we laugh ’til we cry
But when the night is falling You cannot find the light You feel your dreams are dying Hold tight You’ve got the music in you Don’t let go You’ve got the music in you One dance left This world is gonna pull through Don’t give up You’ve got a reason to live Can’t forget We only get what we give
I’m comin’ home baby You’re tops, Give it to me now Four a.m. We ran a miracle mile We’re flat broke, But hey we do it in style The bad rich God’s flying in for your trial
But when the night is falling You cannot find a friend (friend) You feel your tree is breaking Just then
You’ve got the music in you Don’t let go You’ve got the music in you One dance left This world is gonna pull through Don’t give up You’ve got a reason to live Can’t forget We only get what we give
This whole damn world, could fall apart You’ll be ok, follow your heart You’re in harms way, I’m right behind Now say you’re mine You’ve got the music in you Don’t let go You’ve got the music in you One dance left This world is gonna pull through Don’t give up You’ve got a reason to live Can’t forget We only get what we give
What’s real, can’t die You only get what you give You only get what you give Don’t give up Just don’t be afraid to leave
Health insurance rip off lying FDA big bankers buying Fake computer crashes dining Cloning while they’re multiplying Fashion shoots with Beck and Hanson Courtney Love, and Marilyn Manson You’re all fakes Run to your mansions Come around We’ll kick your ass in
Don’t let go One dance left Don’t give up Can’t forget
Rumor has it that Trump isn’t going to pardon himself or his family before he leaves office. I won’t be surprised because I’m sure he’s been told by Republicans that the Democrats won’t have the nerve to let the DOJ do it and they are probably right. But there is a scenario in which it could happen and that’s if they assign a special counsel to look into something tangentially related and turn up crimes by Trump and his criminal gang. Then, I think, they won’t have any say in the matter.
Donald Trump is expected to issue more than 100 presidential pardons on Tuesday, during his final hours in the White House, but may not pardon himself or his immediate family, it was reported on Monday.
White House officials say Trump has privately debated with aides whether he should take the extraordinary step of pardoning himself. Some administration insiders have reportedly warned against it, arguing that it would make Trump look guilty.
On Sunday, Trump met his son-in-law Jared Kushner, daughter Ivanka Trump and senior advisers to thrash out a lengthy list of pardon requests, the Washington Post reported. The meeting took up much of the day. The president was personally engaged with the details of every case, it said.
Some scholars believe a self-pardon would go against the US constitution, since it violates the basic principle that nobody should be able to judge their own case. But the issue has never been tested.
Out of office, Trump will also be vulnerable to prosecution from federal and state authorities over his actions in office and regarding his business empire.
It is not clear whether Trump will act to pardon members of his inner circle including Steve Bannon, who has been charged with defrauding individuals who donated to a wall project on the US-Mexico border. Another possible name is Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s longtime personal lawyer, who led attempts to overturn the result of November’s election. Trump and Giuliani are said to have fallen out over unpaid legal bills.
CNN reported on Monday that the final batch of clemency actions was expected to feature criminal justice reform-minded pardons as well as more controversial ones for allies and friends. Lobbyists have been pushing for months to include their clients on Trump’s valedictory list.
“Everything is a transaction. He likes pardons because it is unilateral. And he likes doing favours for people he thinks will owe him,” one source familiar with the matter told CNN, adding that Trump wanted to help people who could in turn help him in his post-White House career.
Dr Salomon Melgen, a prominent eye doctor from Palm Beach who is in prison after being convicted on dozens of counts of healthcare fraud, is expected to be on the clemency list, CNN said.
Presidential pardons do not imply innocence – a fact President Gerald Ford clung to in the face of lasting opprobrium for his pardon of Richard Nixon, his predecessor who resigned in disgrace in 1974, over the Watergate scandal.
Last-ditch pardons and acts of clemency are common as presidencies come to a close. Infamously, in 2001, Bill Clinton pardoned the fugitive financier Marc Rich on his last day in the White House.
In an analysis of Trump’s pardons, the blog Lawfare concluded: “The clemency system is dominated by insider access to the president and almost exclusively serves the president’s personal and political goals and whims.”
On Sunday the New York Times reported on intensive lobbying for pardons as the Trump era draws to a close. Among startling details, an unnamed associate of Giuliani reportedly told an ex-CIA officer a pardon was “going to cost $2m”.
Participants in the Capitol riot have appealed directly – via television or their lawyers – for pardons from Trump. On Sunday Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a key Trump ally, appealed to the president directly, telling him not to pardon anyone associated with the attack.
I’d be surprised that Trump would pardon any of those people buying pardons without wetting his own beak.
Lauren Boebert tweeted out Nancy Pelosi’s location as the Capitol was being breached
68 elected officials from Colorado have sent a letter to lawmakers requesting a probe into Rep. Lauren Boebert’s actions before and during the day of the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol, according to multiple reports.
In the letter published by KUSA, Colorado officials of the 3rd Congressional District, expressed “deep concern about Boebert’s actions leading up to and during the protests that turned into a violent deadly mob.”
The calls for the newly-elected Republican Congresswoman to resign intensified after she tweeted out Nancy Pelosi’s location as the Capitol was being breached.
“Representative Boebert’s actions, including her statements on the floor immediately preceding the insurrection and her social media posts leading up to the riots were irresponsible and reprehensible,” the officials wrote. The letter says the congresswoman’s speech and tweets encouraged the “mob mentality” of her followers, as well as those who directly participated in the mob.
According to The Washington Post, Boebert, a gun rights advocate with links to the baseless QAnon conspiracy theory, has denied the allegations which she said have led to “death threats and hundreds of vile phone calls and emails.”
The Colorado officials asked not only for an investigation but for any appropriate disciplinary action against Boebert, who has been in office for less than two weeks.
In her very first speech before congress she said this, as the rioters were breaching the Capitol:
“Madame speaker, I have constituents outside this building right now. I promised my voters to be their voice!” Boebert said, quickly and loudly objecting to the counting of Arizona’s electoral college votes, which were upheld in federal court, and ultimately, by Congress itself. “Are we not a government, of, by and for the people? They know that this election was not right, and as their representative, I am sent here to represent them. I will not allow the people to be ignored.”
Her “constituents”
Prosecutors have charged a Colorado insurrectionist & so-called“militia”member Robert Gieswein for being at the riot at the Capitol Here he is in a photo taken in front of Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert’s bar, Shooter’s Grill. Lauren Boebert had been arrested for several times. https://t.co/wI3bz5wTX0pic.twitter.com/XmZ7RLrTqJ
He and his friend Pat Cipollone seen to have decided to try anyway. The latest Final Days dispatch from Jonathan Swan shows him as some kind of hero fighting to contain Trump during the Black Lives Matter protests, which is really rich. And it actually makes him look worse. If the account is true, he knew how nuts Trump was and didn’t say anything about it. And then he wrote that bizarre sycophantic resignation letter to boot.
Repeatedlyclaimmail-in ballots were prone to fraud in defiance of the evidence, a key part of Trump’s later attempts to undermine the outcome of the election
Treat overt threats against a judge from the Proud Boys as a technicality unworthy of a sentencing enhancement
Continue a policy of disciplining, firing, or criminalizing Department personnel who investigated Trump and his associates
Dedicate department personnel to chase conspiracy theories spun by Sidney Powell in a failed attempt to undermine a legitimate prosecution
Not only provide Rudy Giuliani direct access to the Department, but (by all appearances) undermine criminal charges against him for influence peddling involving now-sanctioned Russian agents
In short, over an extended period, Bill Barr laid the groundwork for the two-month effort to undermine the election that culminated in a coup attempt. The outcome of Barr’s actions — the disparate treatment by the department of Trump supporters, the empowerment of right wing terrorists, the continued influence of Powell and Rudy — was foreseeable. Nevertheless, Barr persisted with those policies that laid the groundwork for the January 6 insurrection.
In spite of that record, Barr continues to find journalists willing to spin a fairytale completely inconsistent with this record, one of Barr standing up to Trump as he pursued this path.
Consider this account of Bill Barr’s decision to quit from Jonathan Swan.
It provides a dramatic account of how Barr denounced Trump’s conspiracy theories — all rooted in claims about the delayed counting of mail-in ballots that Barr had stoked for months.
The president’s theories about a stolen election, Barr told Trump, were “bullshit.”
White House counsel Pat Cipollone and a few other aides in the room were shocked Barr had come out and said it — although they knew it was true.
It describes Barr’s frustration with Trump’s demands about the Durham investigation without mentioning that Barr repeatedly fed those expectations.
He was sick of Trump making public statements and having others do so to whip up pressure against U.S. Attorney John Durham to bring more prosecutions or to put out a report on the Russia investigation before the election.
It also allows Barr to call Rudy and Sidney “clownish,” without mentioning that those very same clowns had gotten Barr to squander the credibility of DOJ on similarly outlandish conspiracy theories, including but not limited to the Mike Flynn prosecution.
For good measure, the attorney general threw in a warning that the new legal team Trump was betting his future on was “clownish.”
[snip]
The president had become too manic for even his most loyal allies, listening increasingly to the conspiracy theorists who echoed his own views and offered an illusion, an alternate reality.
[snip]
But Barr’s respite ended after Election Day, as Trump teamed up with an array of conspiracy theorists to amplify preposterous theories of election interference, arguing that Biden and the Chinese Communist Party, among others, had stolen the election from him.
It presents the conflict over using the military to quell summer protests, without mentioning Barr’s own role in militarizing the response (to say nothing of treating BLM more harshly than right wing terrorists).
By the late summer of 2020, Trump and Barr were regularly skirmishing over how to handle the rising Black Lives Matter protests sparked by the death of George Floyd while in police custody. As the national movement unfurled, some protests had given way to violence and looting. Trump wanted the U.S. government to crack down hard on the unrest.
The president wanted to invoke the Insurrection Act and send the military into U.S. cities. He wanted troops in the street.
[snip]
Besides, Barr asked, what was the endgame for adding the military to the mix? Federal forces could end up stranded in a city like Portland indefinitely.
Trump grew more and more frustrated, but Barr pushed back harder, standing his ground in front of everyone in the room. He was ready, willing and able to be strong, he said. But, he added, we also have to be thoughtful.
In short, this dramatic profile presents a fictional character, wise old Attorney General Bill Barr, who stood up against the President’s worst instincts, wisely resisting the urge to politicize investigations, trump up claims of voter fraud, chase the theories of Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani, and back a violent crackdown against Trump’s opponents.
Except that profile is entirely fictional. That Bill Barr is a myth carefully crafted with the help of obliging reporters.
The reality is that over two years of not just tolerating these efforts, but usually taking affirmative steps to foster them, Billy Barr helped to create this monster, even though he was one of the people with the obligation to stop it.
With his corruption as Attorney General Bill Barr fostered this monster. He should get no credit for skipping out before the predictable outcomes of his own actions blew up on January 6.
You can replace Barr’s name in this story w/ any cabinet mbr w/ #NatSec responsibility. It happened over & over. In 2017, we assumed he could be contained. By 2020, it was obvious he could not. Barr & others should have told the public how dire the situation was b/f the election. https://t.co/bcvFQFMCCe
He knew and he went along. And, as you can see from Marcy Wheeler’s concise indictment, he was eagerly carrying out his own and Trump’s agenda.
That guy helped Trump evade political responsibility for what he did in 2016 when he mischaracterized the Mueller Report. And from there it was off to the races. He must never be allowed to whitewash his legacy.
Barr one said, “History is written by the winners.” He won’t be one of them. He will be remembered as one of American history’s greatest losers: a Trump collaborator.
This thread by forner Harry Reid staffer Adam Jentleson explains what this means:
A few quick thoughts on this: it’s fine. If Dems control the floor and gavels, and ties in committees advance bills or nominations to the floor, those are the powers that come with majority control. Lacking clear majorities on committees might test party unity, but seldomly.
“Power-sharing” is an overstatement. The functional reality of the Senate will not be noticeably different under this than it’d be if Democrats had a bigger majority. The only significant difference is that committees will be evenly divided, but if ties go to Dems, that’s fine.
How this works: the Senate has to approve an organizing resolution that sets committee sizes and membership. Under current Senate rules, that resolution needs 60 votes to pass. There’s, er, some debate about whether the Senate should go nuclear to abolish the 60-vote threshold…
The Senate must (and I think will) abolish the 60-vote threshold in the short-to-medium term. But even I think it’s unrealistic to go nuclear on the organizing resolution for two main reasons: First, the functional difference in the Senate’s daily operation is not major (^^^).
Second, the votes will be there for reforming the filibuster if (or rather when) it becomes clear that Republican obstruction is blocking major Democratic priorities. I believe that is inevitable sooner rather than later. But it’s not going to happen on the organizing resolution.
Also, this is how they did it in 2001 before Jeffords switched parties, right?
Yes. You could argue Dems didn’t improve on that deal. But you still need 60 and Rs are more entrenched than ever. As I said upthread, I’m 110% for getting rid of the 60 vote threshold and happy to push leadership. But that’s just not happening here.
It was spelled out right there on the sweatshirts: “MAGA Civil War January 6, 2021,” the font a kitschy tribute to a Marvel blockbuster. The three men wore their commemorative merch with Trump hats and self-satisfied grins, the violent insurrection for which they’d dressed coming to fruition nearby as a pro-Trump mob stormed the US Capitol.
In the wake of Wednesday’s deadly riot, images of the sweatshirts — presumably ordered days or weeks before the president’s supporters converged on Washington, DC — circulated widelyon Twitter as evidence of how much preparation had gone into the event. For anyone paying attention to far-right online communities, this proof was unnecessary: The Capitol rioters had been organizing openly online for weeks, and several national media outlets had run stories warning about potential violence. Supporters certainly would’ve had time to order gear from one of countless custom merch sites — the same mostly innocuous ones from which you might buy a niche novelty tee or a personalized mug for your coworker — for the occasion.
The invocation of a coming civil war was also familiar territory, says Michael Hayden, senior investigative reporter for the Southern Poverty Law Center: In recent years, such rhetoric has moved from the fringes of the white power movement and anti-government extremism into the political mainstream, especially around the 2020 election.
What’s striking about the merchandise is how openly and casually these extreme views are now being displayed — how an untold number of Americans now affiliate themselves with conspiracy theories, bigotry, and the breakdown of democracy the way they may have once shown their pride in a favorite band or sports team.
“It’s indicative that they think this is part of their team, their tribe, their culture now,” says Hayden.
That’s true even if — as with the MAGA Civil War design — the gear isn’t associated with a specific group like the Proud Boys or a movement like QAnon or neo-Nazis.
“That sort of sloganeering, shopping-mall vibe of those T-shirts is really, to stereotype, much more something you would be familiar with if you’re looking at the mainstream GOP base,” says Hayden. “To be wearing it like that in the middle of an insurrection really illustrates the degree to which that group of people in the United States has moved into a place that is much more openly radical and accepting of radical politics.”
Trump rallies have long been a safe space for his supporters’ most repugnant and divisive T-shirts. At a 2016 event, one attendee made headlines for a shirt that referenced lynching: “Rope. Tree. Journalist,” it read. “Some assembly required.”
Glenn Greenwald does a nice job today dealing with yet another example of journalistic double standards, dealing with the predictable excretory spew of Ann Coulter at this year’s CPAC vs Howie Kurtz’s recent spell on the fainting couch over few anonymous comments that were removed from the Huffington Post. But he highights this comment from Andrew Sullivan which just floored me
When you see her in such a context, you realize that she truly represents the heart and soul of contemporary conservative activism, especially among the young. The standing ovation for Romney was nothing like the eruption of enthusiasm that greeted her. . . .
Her endorsement of Romney today – “probably the best candidate” – is a big deal, it seems to me. McCain is a non-starter. He is as loathed as Clinton in these parts. Giuliani is, in her words, “very, very liberal.” One of his sins? He opposed the impeachment of Bill Clinton. That’s the new standard. She is the new Republicanism. The sooner people recognize this, the better.
I am very glad that Sullivan finally recognizes this. But Ann Coulter and her vicious tongue has been a huge star on the right since her first vomitous anti-Clinton screed. That was ten years ago. She’s been receiving riotous ovations at conservative meetings for years. Rush Limbaugh has been blowing his bile for even longer and he too is a highly respected member of the GOP establishment. The annual CPAC gathering has been selling items like “Happiness is Hillary’s face on a milk carton” and “Muslim = Terrorist” bumper stickers like they were going out of style since they started.
This hideous face of the Republican Party has been obvious to those of us who have been paying attention for a long, long time. It is the single most important reason why our politics have devolved into a filthy grudge match.
For a long time liberals were paralyzed or indifferent as the GOP demonized liberalism as the root of every problem and pathology in American society. We were derided as unamerican, treasonous and evil. After the congressional harrassment of the 90’s, the partisan impeachment, the puerile coverage of campaign 2000 and the resulting installation of a Republican president under very dubious circumstances, Democrats of all stripes heard both the Republicans and the media smirking at our outrage and telling us to “get over it.”
And all of this was after Bill Clinton had moved the party to the center, had governed as a bipartisan compromiser and the Republicans impeached him anyway. Clearly, the Democratic party was blind if they didn’t take the Republicans at their threatening words.
When Limbaugh said, “I tell people don’t kill all the liberals. Leave enough so we can have two on every campus – living fossils – so we will never forget what these people stood for,” we didn’t doubt him anymore.
When Ann Coulter said “we need to execute people like John Walker in order to physically intimidate liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed, too, otherwise, they will turn out to be outright traitors,” to rapturous applause at the 2002 CPAC, we knew she wasn’t just kidding.
And, yes, when Andrew Sullivan said that we liberals in blue enclaves formed a fifth column, you’ll have to forgive us for assuming he was among the people who wished to see us jailed or dead.
It continues today. Dinesh D’Souza just published a book saying that liberals are the cause of terrorism. Ramesh Ponneru calls us “The Party of Death.” And when Michele Malkin then creates a career out of calling the left “unhinged” the Washington Post treats her like she’s discovered the Holy Grail.
This is why it is so shocking to us when we see people like Howard Kurtz and various others call for the smelling salts when some members of the left have reacted in kind by saying hateful, violent things about Dick Cheney’s assassination attempt. (These anonymous commenters, by the way, are not best selling authors making a personal televised appearance at a gathering that includes most of the Republican presidential candidates, members of congress and even the Vice President himself.)I certainly agree that such appalling comments are not to be accepted. Indeed, I recall how my stomach turned when when I read what Coulter had to say at CPAC last year:
On Democrats: “Someday they will find a way to abort all future Boy Scouts.” College professors: “sissified, pussified.” Harvard: “the Soviet Union.” John Kerry: the other “dominant woman in Democratic politics.” Her post-9/11 motto: “Rag head talks tough, rag head faces consequences.” For good measure, she threw in a joke about having Muslims burn down the Supreme Court — with the liberal justices inside.
Then came questions. A young woman asked Coulter to describe the most difficult ethical decision she ever made. “There was one time I had a shot at Bill Clinton,” Coulter said.
Howard Kurtz didn’t say anything about that. I don’t recall Michelle Malkin having the vapors. Nobody apologized. Perhaps if they had, some random anonymous commenters on the left wouldn’t make the mistake of thinking that such ugly statements are acceptable. After all, that kind of disgusting rhetoric has been thoroughly acceptable in the highest reaches of the political establishment for years now and nobody but us unhinged liberals have said a word about it.
And you know what’s truly sad about the press’s indifference to these violent creeps? It isn’t just us they think should be killed:
Despite being touted by Republicans as the model for nonviolent protests, Martin Luther King Jr. faced nearly identical criticism in the 1960s as the Black Lives Matter movement faced last summer.
The Woodland Park, Colorado, resident was seen in photos wearing distinctive patches and military-style equipment on Jan. 5 and on Jan. 6 as he pushed through police barriers at the Capitol and confronted officers in the building alongside a number of rioters wanted by the FBI.
He is charged with assaulting, resisting or impeding a federal officer, depredation of U.S. property. obstruction of an official proceeding, and entering a restricted building with the intent to impede official functions.
Gieswein could not immediately be reached for comment, and it was not clear if he had been taken into custody.
Adam Rawnsley of The Daily Beast has more about Gieswein in a long tweet thread:
The FBI says Gieswein "appears to be affiliated with the radical militia group known as the Three Percenters." Working with @jsrailton, we found similar evidence. Here's a picture of Gieswein from his now-deleted Facebook page posing in front of CO Rep Lauren Boebert's bar pic.twitter.com/tsYj1P795S
Gieswein kneeling with the rifle in front of Beobert’s Rifle, Colo. bar (November 2019).
As Gieswein is a patron (one supposes from the photo) of Rep. Lauren Boebert’s (R-Colo.) bar, it is possible the pistol-packing congresswoman from QAnon knows this accused insurrectionist personally. Three Percenters provided security at a “We Will Not Comply!” rally Boebert helped organize at the Colorado State Capitol in Dec. 2019 to protest Colorado’s new “red flag” law. The FBI will want to know more about their connection in its investigation.
Boebert condemned a statement last week by U.S. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D- N.Y.) that it was possible the Nov. 6 Capitol rioters had inside help.
“Yesterday, on national television, Congressman Sean Maloney made false and baseless conspiracy claims about me that led to death threats and hundreds of vile phone calls and emails,” Boebert said. Maloney had not named her.
Speaking with host Jonathan Capehart, Maloney was asked about an accusation leveled at him by Boebert — that she had to retract — which opened the door for the blunt-talking Maloney to call out the GOP lawmaker in the thrall of QAnon conspiracies.
“You know, when you said bumper crop of crazy colleagues, it made me think of this back and forth that seems to be happening,” Capehart stated. “Let me read it to the audience what your colleague, Congresswoman Boebert said: ‘Sean Maloney’s comments were extremely dangerous and shameful. there’s not an ounce of truth to things he claimed about me.’ Having read that, and the comments you just made, even in past interviews, you’ve never named anyone. Why do you think your colleague from the other side of the aisle is singling you out?”
“Well because she’s incompetent,” Maloney quickly shot back. “Because she jumped to a conclusion and didn’t bother to look at what I said.”
Boebert has since apologized, Maloney said.
Make of that what you will as the investigation into the insurrection develops. But that is not what I found unnerving about Gieswein’s arrest. It was this creepy, “daily dose of bizarre” video Rawnsley found auto-generated from images on Gieswein’s now-deleted Facebook page.
This procedurally-generated video from the Facebook of Robert Gieswein, a Colorado 3% militia member who stormed the Capitol, is accidentally the most damning evidence you'll ever see that Facebook shouldn't exist. https://t.co/VqYzszT5Tvpic.twitter.com/BvDBh3LlAp
