The most heartbreaking graphic illustration of the extent of the American pandemic and its catastrophic toll that I’ve seen.
It’s a timeline running from top to bottom. Every dot represents a single COVID death. It’s a stark illustration of the sheer incompetence of the public health response to the pandemic under Trump. It’s powerful enough online but if you get a chance to see the paper today, it is simply overwhelming.
Fifty Democrats weighed the evidence and voted to convict. They are heroes because they have consistently opposed Trumpism. Their vote yesterday was part of that heroism. Yet they are being all but ignored while the press fawns over the fake prodigal sons on the other side. Each and every one of these GOP-portunists was provided numerous chances to denounce Trump before it came to this monstrous moment — and they chose to stand with him until it was nearly too late .
And the press rewards McConnell with free publicity for the single most dishonest and hypocritical public statement in all of American history since his last one. Oh, NOW he gets it.
The focus on prodigal sons ignores those who were right all along. It represents, among other things, a monumental waste of time as the public discourse entertains both sides of ideas which really need no debate. Ideas like whether creationism should be taught , whether gay marriage is a good thing, whether separating children from their families is good immigration policy. And whether Donald Trump incited a riot.
As long as the media worship prodigal sons and privilege their return to reality over those who were always sensible, the Republican party will continue to set the agenda. It’s a cynical game that this country could never afford, and certainly can’t now.
Dana Milbank’s column in WaPo today is absolutely chilling and brilliant. It is titled “199 House Republicans have embraced anti-Semitism and violence”. I knew about the Jewish lasers in space garbage, but the extent of Republican Representative Taylor Greene’s hatred of Jews still came as a shock:
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.), who is quickly becoming the de facto face of the Republican Party, has suggested that the deadly neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, where white supremacists chanted “Jews will not replace us,” was actually an “inside job” to “further the agenda of the elites.”
She shared a video in which a Holocaust denier claimed that an “unholy alliance of leftists, capitalists and Zionist supremacists have schemed to promote immigration and miscegenation” with the purpose of “breeding us out of existence in our own homelands.”
She posed for campaign photos with a white-supremacist leader and then refused to renounce the man.
She approved of a claim that the Israeli intelligence service assassinated John F. Kennedy, and she speculated that wealthy Jewish interests — the Rothschilds, a target of anti-Semites since the 19th century — set forest fires in California using lasers from space.
This isn’t idle bigotry, for she “liked” a social media suggestion that “a bullet to the head would be quicker” to remove House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), who has committed “a crime punishable by death.” She posted on social media about hanging Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, approved of a suggestion that FBI agents be executed, and posted a photo of herself with an automatic weapon next to three Democratic members of Congress, calling herself their “worst nightmare.”
On the House floor this week, she offered no apology and no direct mention of her anti-Semitic and violent statements. Using Christ-on-the-cross imagery, she condemned those who would “crucify me in the public square for words that I said, and I regret, a few years ago.”
But she didn’t regret them. She had tweeted the night before: “We owe them no apologies. We will never back down.” She retweeted an article featuring another QAnon adherent attacking the Republican Jewish Coalition. And several Republican colleagues gave her a standing ovation Wednesday night when she delivered a private speech that Republicans said was similar to the unrepentant one she gave in public on Thursday.
House Republicans refused to sanction her for her outrages, and on Thursday, all but 11 House Republicans voted against a successful Democratic measure to remove her from House committees.
Like Hitler, Greene’s bigotry and hatred isn’t confined to Jews. But like Hitler, Jews seem to be an especially large obsession for her bizarre and profoundly sick mind.
If there was even a semblance of sanity left among the Republican leadership, they would be moving heaven and earth not only to expel her but every member of their party that stood to applaud her speech. She is extremely dangerous.
But the GOPQ abandoned sanity years and years ago.
UPDATE: The author of this great column is Dana Milbank. This post originally credited a different great WaPo writer. My apologies to both of them for the switch and thanks to RP for catching it.
By now, anyone who’s paying even the remotest amount of attention knows that Greene is a loose nuke set to explode at any time. Yes, strip her of committees. Yes, expel her (or at least try). But…
The Congress shouldn’t stop there. Cruz, Hawley, all the other disgraceful sedition-crazy Republicans who refused to certify what by all rational accounts was a fair election — all of them need to be held accountable for whatever they did to fuel or incite an insurrection against this country. A country whose values they thoroughly despise and hate.
If they are not held accountable, then what Cruz and Hawley did becomes normalized. And that will embolden the Nazis, the fascists, and the white supremacists to do far worse than January 6.
And let’s not forget that it was only sheer luck — and some very brave guards — that averted a bloodbath on that day.
Greg Sargent has framed this exactly right:
What’s becoming unmistakably clear is that the assault was unambiguously an effort to nullify the election through violent intimidation at best and violent attacks on lawmakers at worst. And this was done at Trump’s direction.
Exactly. Trump nearly succeeded in his Justice Dept. coup. When that failed, he turned to violent intimidation. And if it got out of hand? Hey, don’t look at me.
When politicians reach across the aisle, put aside their partisan differences and join together for the good of the country… Haha, just kidding:
A growing number of congressional Republicans are expressing opposition to President-elect Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion economic relief proposal, complicating the incoming administration’s push to quickly inject additional aid into the U.S. economy.
Congressional Republican lawmakers and aides on Friday predicted widespread GOP opposition to the plan Biden unveiled the day before, particularly over its provisions to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour and provide $350 billion in state and local aid.
Democrats will have a narrow Senate majority and could pass a relief package without any Republican votes. But doing so would require a parliamentary Senate procedure that could take weeks and may require Biden to jettison key parts of his proposal, such as the increase in the minimum wage. Approving a relief package solely with Democratic votes would also fly against Biden’s repeated campaign pledges to unify lawmakers and cut bipartisan deals across party lines.
In other inspiring unity news merrickgarland, Mitch McConnell penned a new op-ed merrickgarland demanding that merrickgarland Democrats work together with Republicans:
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) trotted out a brand new Fox News op-ed on Tuesday afternoon, headlined “Will Dems work with us, or simply put partisan politics ahead of the country?” Most of the article touted the Republican-controlled Senate’s accomplishments combating the opioid crisis, passing comprehensive tax reform, successfully confirming judicial nominees, reforming the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, and so on.
Along the way came the declaration that “reports of the death of bipartisanship in Washington have been wildly exaggerated. ” After running down a list of bipartisan work in the Senate, McConnell said that making the most of new opportunities heading forward “will depend on our Democratic colleagues.” He said the American people spoke in the midterms (at least as far as the Senate is concerned) and asked, “Will [Democrats] choose to go it alone and simply make political points? Or will they choose to work together and actually make a difference?”
This was not exactly received … well.
I don’t merrickgarland understand why so many observers merrickgarland are laughing and calling Mitch a merrickgarland hypocrite.
Come together, people.
Is there a better way to mark the second impeachment of Donald Trump than with a large heaping bowl of savory oatmeal?
Probably. But what a delicious way to start the day after! I improvised this tasty dish this morning and it came out far better than expected. You might want to throw in some roasted or raw cashews just before serving. For those of you unfamiliar with savory oatmeal dishes, it is a wonderful change up from overly sweet breakfasts.
2 tbsp Canola oil
1 tbsp Mustard Seeds
1 cup steel cut oats
1 large clove garlic, minced
1 tbsp ginger, minced
1/2 jalapeno (or more), minced
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp cardamon seeds\
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
4-5 cherry tomatoes, roughly chopped
4 to 6 sun-dried tomatoes, diced
3 Scallions, thinly sliced
1/4 cup or more, shredded coconut
The media are falling all over themselves with excitement! McConnell thinks impeachment may be a good idea! Liz Cheney, one of the most extreme right-wingers in Congress, says she’ll impeach. Woo hoo!
Do I really need to point out the patently obvious?
Republicans aren’t supporting impeachment because Trump incited an insurrection. They’re doing so because the insurrection failed. If that mob had actually succeeded in derailing the Biden certification vote not a single Republican congressperson would dare call for his impeachment.
But let’s be overly generous and give both Mitch and Liz a widdle pat on the head. You’re being such good kids! Now get the hell out of the way.
Fawning over these prodigal sons and daughters by permitting them to hog the limelight right now rehabilitates them and provides them status— and that is dangerous. These are enablers who, until Trump failed, did not do much more than voice the mildest of peeps (if that)
The people we really need to focus on right now are Adam Schiff, Gerald Nadler, Katie Porter, Madeleine Albright, AOC, Ilhan Omar, Eric Swalwell, Alexander Vindman, Fiona Hill, and so many others across the political spectrum who recognized early and consistently that Trump was an existential threat and did something about it.
It really is painful to read how Lindsay Graham, Kellyanne Conway, Chris Christie and the rest of the gang try like hell to deflect from their own culpability in enabling the January 6 Putsch. As if they didn’t egg Trump on, over and over again. One sickening example from Ms Alternative Facts herself :
Conway immediately called a close personal aide who she knew was with the president, and said she was adding her name to the chorus of people urging Trump to speak to his supporters. He needed to tell them to stand down and leave the Capitol, she told the aide.
Translated,: Don’t blame any of us! We did what we could.
Oh, don’t get me started….
Wow:
In today’s Republican Party, the path to power is to build up a lie in order to overturn democracy. At least that is what Senator Josh Hawley was telling us when he offered a clenched-fist salute to the pro-Trump mob before it ransacked the Capitol, and it is the same message he delivered on the floor of the Senate in the aftermath of the attack, when he doubled down on the lies about electoral fraud that incited the insurrection in the first place…
In multiple speeches, an interview and a widely shared article for Christianity Today, Mr. Hawley has explained that the blame for society’s ills traces all the way back to Pelagius — a British-born monk who lived 17 centuries ago. In a 2019 commencement address at The King’s College, a small conservative Christian college devoted to “a biblical worldview,” Mr. Hawley denounced Pelagius for teaching that human beings have the freedom to choose how they live their lives and that grace comes to those who do good things, as opposed to those who believe the right doctrines.
The only thing worse than a right winger who’s anti-intellectual is a right winger who pretends to be an intellectual. He doesn’t know what the fuck he’s talking about.
The most eloquent summary of the Pelagian vision, Mr. Hawley went on to say, can be found in the Supreme Court’s 1992 opinion in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Mr. Hawley specifically cited Justice Anthony Kennedy’s words reprovingly: “At the heart of liberty,” Kennedy wrote, “is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.” The fifth century church fathers were right to condemn this terrifying variety of heresy, Mr. Hawley argued: “Replacing it and repairing the harm it has caused is one of the challenges of our day.”
…In other words, Mr. Hawley’s idea of freedom is the freedom to conform to what he and his preferred religious authorities know to be right. Mr. Hawley is not shy about making the point explicit. In a 2017 speech to the American Renewal Project, he declared — paraphrasing the Dutch Reformed theologian and onetime prime minister Abraham Kuyper — “There is not one square inch of all creation over which Jesus Christ is not Lord.” Mr. Kuyper is perhaps best known for his claim that Christianity has sole legitimate authority over all aspects of human life.
“We are called to take that message into every sphere of life that we touch, including the political realm,” Mr. Hawley said. “That is our charge. To take the Lordship of Christ, that message, into the public realm, and to seek the obedience of the nations. Of our nation!”…
The line of thought here is starkly binary and nihilistic. It says that human existence in an inevitably pluralistic, modern society committed to equality is inherently worthless. It comes with the idea that a right-minded elite of religiously pure individuals should aim to capture the levers of government, then use that power to rescue society from eternal darkness and reshape it in accord with a divinely-approved view of righteousness.
…When he was still attorney general, William Barr articulated this conclusion in a speech at the University of Notre Dame Law School, where he blamed “the growing ascendancy of secularism” for amplifying “virtually every measure of social pathology,” and maintained that “free government was only suitable and sustainable for a religious people.”
In any other administration, that outrageously un-American speech would have led to scandal and Barr’s resignation.
Christian nationalists’ acceptance of President Trump’s spectacular turpitude these past four years was a good measure of just how dire they think our situation is. Even a corrupt sociopath was better, in their eyes, than the horrifying freedom that religious moderates and liberals, along with the many Americans who don’t happen to be religious, offer the world.
…At a rally in Washington on Jan. 5, on the eve of Electoral College certification, the right-wing pastor Greg Locke said that God is raising up “an army of patriots.” Another pastor, Brian Gibson, put it this way: “The church of the Lord Jesus Christ started America,” and added, “We’re going to take our nation back!”
In the aftermath of the Jan. 6 insurrection, a number of Christian nationalist leaders issued statements condemning violence — on both sides. How very kind of them.
…The brash young senator styles himself not just a deep thinker who ruminates about late-Roman era heretics, but a man of the people, a champion of “the great American middle,” as he wrote in an article for The American Conservative, and a foe of the “ruling elite.” Mr. Hawley has even managed to turn a few progressive heads with his economic populism, including his attacks on tech monopolies.
Yet Mr. Hawley isn’t against elites per se. He is all for an elite, provided that it is a religiously righteous elite.
Indeed. Hawley’s a Stanford and Yale alum. Which brings into question what the hell is wrong with their admissions departments.
Make no mistake: Mr. Hawley is a symptom, not a cause. He is a product of the same underlying forces that brought us President Trump and the present crisis of American democracy. Unless we find a way to address these forces and the fundamental pathologies that drive them, then next month or next year we will be forced to contend with a new and perhaps more successful version of Mr. Hawley.
Exactly. This is not over. Democracy has not triumphed.