#RNC CORRUPTION

[icubud]

#REALITY OF CONSPIRACIES #unite and fight TPTB #radicalized liberal democrats #doj corruption #dnc corruption #RNC CORRUPTION #CONGRESS CORRUPTION #federal govt corruption #Wake Up

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal Constitution

* * * *

Why Ronna McDaniel’s hiring and “firing” by NBC matters.

March 25, 2024

ROBERT B. HUBBELL

Opening thoughts

In the span of 72 hours, NBC announced the hiring and partial “firing” of former Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel. McDaniel’s hiring sparked a firestorm of protest within NBC internally and by viewers of MSNBC and NBC that caused the network’s executive to announce that she would not appear “on air” on the MSNBC cable network. (As of Sunday evening, it appears she will continue to appear on NBC as a political contributor.)

NBC’s decision to hire McDaniel was deeply troubling on many levels. The backlash by viewers and journalists at MSNBC and NBC was instructive and encouraging. But this story also serves as a morality tale for the challenges we will face in the next seven months as the media and pundits normalize and dismiss the attempted coup and insurrection.

Indeed, the hiring and partial retraction of McDaniel’s employment occurred amidst a renewed round of handwringing by pundits and consultants who are freaking out about the possibility of Biden losing in November. That fear is rooted in a stubborn refusal to acknowledge the stakes of the 2024 election and an obsessive compulsion with “favorability ratings.”

It’s a good thing none of those pundits or consultants were in charge of the Continental Army during the American Revolution when George Washington’s battlefield record was six victories, seven losses, and four draws. The modern-day pundits would have surrendered after the first loss, and America would be a colony of the United Kingdom today.

We will be forced to endure a constant barrage of defeatism from the political class in the months to come. Why? They are reserving their pre-emptive “I told you so” rights so that if things turn out badly, they can claim to be geniuses. If Biden wins, no one will remember or hold them accountable for their defeatism.  For the pundits, it’s a “Heads I win, tails you lose” proposition.

So, let’s burst the “I am a genius” balloons of the pundits now. The 2024 presidential election will be a close race. It takes no great skill or insight to wring your hands and say you have a bad feeling about the election. At this point, pundits and prognosticators are dead weight, holding back those of us who refuse to retreat at the first hint of trouble.

Most of the analysis by the self-proclaimed experts is incredibly superficial—about a quarter inch deep. For example, a reader sent me an “economic outlook” from the large Wall Street bank managing her retirement account. The Wall Street bank said that the markets are beginning to anticipate a Trump victory because Biden’s unfavorability ratings remain high.

The reader’s retirement advisers apparently do not understand that Americans actually vote for president and that elections are not determined by “favorability ratings.” Voters are not securities traded in an efficient market. They are people motivated by a multitude of factors.

The investment advisers do not appear to believe that women (or men) care about having their reproductive liberty controlled by religious zealots, allowing weapons of war to be carried in public without a permit, rolling back climate protections after the hottest year on record, disenfranchising Black voters, denying equal dignity to LGBTQ people, or allowing Americans to choose their leaders.

Nor do the investment advisers appear to be concerned that one of the candidates for president has 91 felony indictments, will sit through one criminal trial before the election, has promised to be a dictator, is threatening to blow up the strongest military alliance in the world, and appears (again) to be supported by Russia in his bid for the presidency.

We are in uncharted waters. Old maps do not apply. But pundits, pollsters, and Wall Street gurus insist on looking back to templates and spreadsheets that applied in “normal” times.

We are living through an exceptional moment in which we can make our own rules. Recognizing that fact and having the audacity to break “the old rules” to create a new template for success is critical to controlling the outcome of the 2024 election. Don’t allow yourself to be weighed down by consultants re-litigating the 1992, 2000, 2008, or 2016 elections.

I could go on, but you get the point. We control our destiny—but only if we ignore people who tell us we are sheep, shares of stock, or widgets. We are not. We are Americans wielding the awesome power granted us by the Constitution.

But how is Ronna McDaniel’s hiring and firing related to the shortsighted defeatism of the consulting class? Read on!

Rona McDaniel’s hiring illustrates the normalization of the insurrection and coup among the media and political class.

There is a direct line between normalizing the coup and panicking about Biden’s prospects in 2024. Hear me out.

Ronna McDaniel was aware of the fake elector's plot in real-time and did nothing to stop the attempted coup. Worse, she participated in a call to pressure local elections officials in Michigan to refuse to certify election results based on non-existent fraud. When the media reported on her participation in the election interference plot, she accused MSNBC of ‘spreading lies’ and employing ‘prime time propagandists.’” She repeatedly claimed that the 2020 election was “rigged.”

Regardless of whether Ronna McDaniel has criminal liability for the attempted coup, she cheered loudly for its success and smeared journalists who spoke the truth about the first-ever effort to prevent the peaceful transfer of power. That alone should ban her for life from any role at a legitimate news platform.

It is reprehensible that Comcast / NBC would hire Ronna McDaniel as a political consultant after her election denialism and active involvement in at least one overt act to overturn the Constitution. And yet, dozens of executives at NBC apparently view the attempted coup as part of the game of hardball election politics. They are ready to forgive and forget despite the lack of accountability for Trump and his advisers—including members of the RNC.

By reducing the attempted coup and insurrection to mere “partisan politics,” NBC is misleading the American people about the stakes in 2024 by denying the reality of what happened in 2020. And if you ignore the stakes, if you ignore the unprecedented nature of the 2024 election, then perhaps it isn’t unreasonable to say, “Well, in 1992, George H.W. Bush’s favorability ratings were X and he lost.” But Bill Clinton in 1992 isn’t Donald Trump in 2024. The world has forever changed because of the insurrection and the incipient fascism that is roiling beneath the surface.

We cannot allow NBC to continue in its misguided view of what is at stake in 2024. Read on!

The backlash against NBC was partially successful.

Hundreds of readers of this newsletter—and tens of thousands of Americans (an estimate) let NBC know that they strenuously objected to the presence of Ronna McDaniel on the network. Journalists at NBC and MSNBC also spoke out. The combined pressure worked—at least at MSNBC. See WaPo, Former RNC chair Ronna McDaniel faces sharp criticism after NBC hiring. (This article is accessible to all.)

According to WaPo, the president of MSNBC, Rashida Jones, sent an internal memo assuring MSNBC staff that Ronna McDaniel would not be forced on the hosts at MSNBC as an on-air contributor or commentator. Good! The pressure campaign worked.

But it is not enough.

McDaniel appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday and attempted to dismiss her previous election denialism by saying that as chair of the RNC she “had to take one for the team.” One reasonable interpretation of that statement could be, “I lied because I was paid to lie.”

Chuck Todd was part of an NBC panel that dissected McDaniel’s interview on Meet the Press by Kristen Welker. Chuck Todd said,

Our bosses owe you [Welker] an apology for putting you in this situation because I don’t know what to believe. . . . I have no idea whether any answer she gave to you was because she didn’t want to mess up her contract. There’s a reason why there’s a lot of journalists at NBC News uncomfortable with this, because many of our professional dealings with the RNC over the last six years have been met with gaslighting, have been met with character assassination.

Good for Chuck Todd! (Not usually on my list of “go to” sources.) Let’s hope he speaks for a substantial portion of the NBC News staff—and that NBC management is listening.

The deluge of comments from listeners had an immediate effect on the editorial and staffing decisions at MSNBC! There is a lesson in that for all of us! We can fight the normalization of the coup and insurrection. Indeed, we must! Otherwise, voters will be misinformed about the stakes of the 2024 election.

There is more to be done.

As of Sunday evening, Ronna McDaniel appears to remain at NBC as a “contributor.” Thanks to a reader (Susan O. S.) for identifying the executives at NBC who oversee the news function at the NBC network (not to be confused with the cable-based MSNBC). The email addresses are:

President, NBC: [email protected]

SVP of Politics: [email protected]

Keeping Ronna McDaniel “off the air” at a legitimate media outlet is imperative. She lied before she joined NBC and smeared NBC’s journalists for telling the truth. She participated in at least one act designed to overturn the election. She should not be trusted with any news platform that reaches persuadable voters—because we have no reason to believe that she will tell the truth going forward.

The stakes are simply too high, and the time is too short for NBC to “see what happens” if NBC “gives her chance.” McDaniel has proven who she is; we should believe her.

Let NBC know how you feel about its cynical willingness to play politics with our democracy.

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]

#RNC corruption #NBC #MSNBC #political coverage #RNC Gaslighting #Robert B. Hubbell #Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter

[grits-galraisedinthesouth]

Color me shocked.

Fox News is hosting the GOP debate in Wisconsin.  During this build up segment, Martha MacCallum introduces the “random Republican voters” in Wisconsin who will watch the debate.  Except, well… there’s a little problem.  MacCallum introduces Chris Lawrence as a “Wisconsin GOP voter” who seemingly supports Ron DeSantis.  However, MacCallum fails to mention that Chris Lawrence actually works for the Koch Network, who have recently pledged to spend $70 million to defeat President Trump.

@RaheemKassam

Hi I looked into “Wisconsin voter” Christopher Lawrence, why didn’t you tell people he’s a paid activist belonging to the open borders network that recently pledged $70M to stop Trump?

‘Globalist’ Koch Network Blows $70M of Donor Cash to ‘Stop Trump’.

From Sundance Treehouse Blog: "The ‘Koch network’ group Americans for Prosperity Action is dropping $70M+ on a bid to stop President Donald J. Trump becoming the 47th President of the United States, according to a new report which suggests the libertarian billionaire backed organization is campaign in the Republican primaries “for the first time in its nearly 20 year history”.

The money is in addition to a $200M+ fund established by corporate backers for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s campaign, and will likely be used for “digital advertising on the issue of electability in the presidential race,” in addition to direct mail. In such scenarios, high percentages of donor cash ends up in the pockets of campaign consultants and vendors.

The Koch network includes groups such as Americans for Prosperity, Stand Together, i360, the American Legislative Exchange Council, the State Policy Network, the CATO Institute, Americans for Tax Reform, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the Atlas Network, the Heritage Foundation, the Independent Women’s Forum, the Manhattan Institute, the Reason Foundation, the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and many more.

 The organization’s LIBRE initiative even campaigns in favor of amnesty for illegal migrants.

 The co-option of the Tea Party movement was spearheaded by the Kochs, who turned it from a citizen-led organization into a pro-corporate, libertarian shell, before dumping it when press attention became too inconvenient.

“The globalist Koch Brothers, who have become a total joke in real Republican circles, are against Strong Borders and Powerful Trade,” Trump tweeted in 2018. “I never sought their support because I don’t need their money or bad ideas.”

Not only has Chris Lawrence worked for the Koch Network for the past 9 years, he is also the Senior Field Director for the Koch group Americans for Prosperity.  In essence, Lawrence is a political operative planted in the group by Fox News to support Ron DeSantis and make it appear like he is an innocuous voter.  Fox News and Martha MacCallum should be embarrassed, but they won’t be. 

Don’t forget, Ron DeSantis supporters Eric Erickson and Guy Benson sit on the Koch Network AfP Advisory Board (see here).

It’s all one big game of illusion, and Fox News is once again a big part of the Republican fraud.  Proving yet again, that everything in the Ron DeSantis orbit is astroturf, phony, manufactured and made up."

#debates #faux news #corrupt media #Dishonest DeSantis #the national pulse #corrupt GOP RNC #rigged #koch brothers #ron desantis

[kinialohaguy]

Caucus Training

Aloha kākou and Happy Lunar New Year. East Hawai’i County Republican Party held a caucus training session with precinct and delegate elections at Wailoa River State Park today. We learned a lot of interesting information. We got there early to help with the setup and potluck lunch for the afternoon. Met a lot of like-minded new friends. Volunteered to be a precinct Capt’n. Live music during the…

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#Caucas #Corruption #Election 2024 #GOP #MAGA #Marxist Democrats #republican #RNC

[wilwheaton]

"The decision to jettison McDaniel’s preparations for a robust ground game that was similar in scope and strategy to the RNC’s efforts to boost Trump in 2016 and 2020 appears to have originated at the top," said the report. "Trump repeatedly told McDaniel in conversations before he pushed her out of the chairmanship that he did not need the RNC to focus on 'get-out-the-vote' activities. Rather, knowledgeable Republican sources told us, the former president informed McDaniel he wanted the committee to prioritize 'election integrity' efforts."

GOP's 2024 'ground game' in limbo after Trump's MAGA coup

Shitler and his allies know they can’t win this election, so they aren’t even trying. They’re going to put their money, their resources, and all of their energy into stealing the election by using violence and corruption.

It’s concerning that I can see this, just by following where they are spending their money and where they are putting their dwindling resources, yet none of the national media or dedicated political reporters are even talking about it.

#uspol

[liberalsarecool]

When you elect Republicans, you 100% get corruption.

Politicians, judges, Presidents.

All the Right Wing institutions support the corruption: Federalist Society, RNC, FOX, Heritage Foundation, Chamber of Commerce, Koch Brothers.

The evidence is manifest.

#scotus

[soberscientistlife]

More and more powerful signs that rank-and-file Republicans see the writing on the wall for 2024. Romney and Murkowski speaking quite openly in the past couple of days, House members abruptly retiring with more rumored, the blatant over-the-top corruption of RNC fundraising for one last big score…I’ll bet Susan Collins is getting concerned about the future of galpal Lindsay Graham.

Stolen from Some Random Dude on Facebook

Democrats we need to win every single seat that Republicans vacate.

We can do this.

[vomitdodger]

Ronna Romney “left” the RNC chair to go to the commie talking heads.

Can you imagine STILL supporting the Jan 6 narrative as the head of the RNC? Corrupted GOP party. Be done with it already.

[tomorrowusa]

Another crooked far right Republican.

Republicans become outraged at the thought of raising the minimum wage. But the fanatically pro-Trump Republican National Committee committeewoman from California Harmeet Dhillon paid herself $120,000 for a two-hour work week. And that's just the tip of a corrupt iceberg.

Since becoming an RNC committeewoman for California in 2016, she made hundreds of appearances in conservative media, predominantly Fox News. From 2019, these appearances were often based on lawsuits sponsored by that non-profit she helms, the Center for American Liberty (CAL), and aimed at rightwing bugbears like Covid restrictions, leftist street protesters and gender-affirming healthcare. The Guardian has found that at least $1.32m has been transferred from the CAL to her law firm, Dhillon Law Group, in a move one charity expert described as “problematic”. Additionally, state and federal filings show Dhillon takes a $120,000 salary from CAL for a two-hour work week. Meanwhile, the non-profit has entered into a close relationship with a well-heeled rightwing foundation whose financial generosity has been matched by a seat on the non-profit’s board. CAL was founded in 2018, initially under the name Publius Lex, by California lawyers with extensive connections to Republican politics and rightwing legal organizations, according to state and federal filings.

There a variation of "double dipping" going on here.

Dhillon’s position as CEO in a non-profit whose biggest contractor is Dhillon Law Group is a “conflict of interest”, according to Joan Harrington, a fellow at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at the Santa Clara University, and an expert on non-profit law and ethics. Harrington added that non-profits can navigate this, and that “the board can accept conflicts of interest if they are brought to the board’s attention annually”. But another ethical problem “the board can’t fix”, Harrington said, is the issue of compensation.

In the world of Trump-style business practices, ethics is for losers.

[Mark] Trammell, the executive director [of CAL], wrote on the extensive use of Dhillon Law that “the organization’s day-to-day legal operations are managed by me, its executive director”, adding, “I select the law firms the Center for American Liberty partners with on its public interest litigation.” Trammell also wrote: “We select law firms based on their expertise, geographical location, and interest in representing our clients at nonprofit legal rates.” But Harrington added that “transparency protects donors, and this is not a transparent situation”. With Dhillon acting as CEO and legal contractor, running cases sponsored by the non-profit, and making Fox News appearances in both guises, Harrington said: “It looks like Dhillon Law and the non-profit are overlapping to the extent that its hard to tell the difference.”

#harmeet dhillon #republican national committee #california #center for american liberty #dhillon law group #joan harrington #non-profits #mark trammell #fox news #republicans

[popolitiko]

NBC News on Friday announced that it had hired Ronna McDaniel, the former Republican National Committee chair who has repeatedly attacked the network and its journalists, assailed the news media as “fake news” and promoted false claims around the 2020 vote, as an on-air commentator ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

“It couldn’t be a more important moment to have a voice like Ronna’s on the team,” Carrie Budoff Brown, senior vice president of politics at NBC News, said in a memo to staff.

McDaniel exited the RNC earlier this month after leading the organization since 2016.

During her time as chair, McDaniel repeatedly attacked the press, which has become increasingly popular in Republican circles over the last several years as Donald Trump demonizes journalists and news institutions.

McDaniel echoed many such attacks, labeling the press as “fake news” and calling the media “corrupt.” At times, she even targeted NBC News and MSNBC with dishonest attacks.

In 2019, for instance, McDaniel accused Richard Engel, NBC News’ chief foreign correspondent, of “actively cheering for an economic downturn.”

“How can NBC let him keep his job when he’s made his bias so clear?” McDaniel asked.

McDaniel has a lengthier history attacking the progressive cable news channel MSNBC, which she will appear on in her new role. In recent years, she has repeatedly attacked the channel for “spreading lies” and blasted those she described as the network’s “primetime propagandists.”

An NBC spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment about her attacks on the news media and NBC.

In her role as RNC chief, McDaniel also fanned the flames of election denialism after the 2020 presidential contest.

McDaniel was involved in a phone call in 2020 to pressure Michigan county officials not to certify the vote from the Detroit area, where Joe Biden had a commanding lead. McDaniel told the officials, regarding the certification: “Do not sign it. … We will get you attorneys.”

The Michigan Department of State’s office condemned her claims of supposed voter fraud in the wake of the election, stating they had “no merit.” The state’s “elections were conducted fairly, effectively and transparently and are an accurate reflection of the will of Michigan voters,” it said in a detailed fact check posted online.

NBC’s hiring of McDaniel, however, plays into a recent trend at the network’s outlets, which has seemingly softened its stance on Trump as he inches toward the Republican nomination for president.

Earlier this month, CNBC hosted Trump for a lengthy phone interview in which the network’s anchors allowed him to peddle lies and conspiracy theories on air without scrutiny.

MSNBC has even started carrying Trump’s remarks live on television, a practice that the network boasted for years it would not do. Star host Rachel Maddow, who has said carrying Trump’s lies on the air is dangerous, even objected to the network broadcasting a recent speech from the presumptive Republican nominee, calling it “irresponsible.”

MSNBC has no plans to have former Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel on the cable network, its president told employees following the news of her hiring at NBC News.

Rashida Jones, the cable network’s president, has been seeking to address internal backlash in the wake of an internal Friday announcement by NBC News regarding McDaniel’s hiring as an on-air contributor.

In that internal memo, the political chief, Carrie Budoff Brown, said McDaniel would contribute “across all NBC News platforms,” causing turmoil among several of the network’s on-air hosts and staffers, people familiar with the matter said. MSNBC is part of the NBC News division.

Rashida Jones daughter of Quincy Jones & Peggy Lipton

https://www.wsj.com/business/media/msnbc-has-no-plans-to-have-ex-rnc-chief-on-network-0d88e70c

In February, Ms. McDaniel urged Republicans to unite behind Mr. Trump after his victory in the New Hampshire primary, irking Nikki Haley, his rival who had not yet dropped out of the race. Mr. Trump has since installed his daughter-in-law and a close adviser to lead the R.N.C., tightening his hold over the party.

Other prominent Republican commentators at NBC News include Marc Short, who served as chief of staff to former Vice President Mike Pence, and Brendan Buck, a former top aide to Paul Ryan and John Boehner. NBC’s Democratic commentators include former Senator Claire McCaskill and David Plouffe, Barack Obama’s former campaign manager.

Ms. McDaniel’s NBC debut will be on this Sunday’s edition of “Meet the Press.”

#NBC News #MSNBC #Ronna McDaniel

[icubud]

“Everything appears to be a cover up,” says the decorated police chief

EXCLUSIVE: Capitol Police Chief Called Jan 6 Events ‘A Cover Up’ in Tucker Carlson Interview HIDDEN By Fox News Former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund told then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson that events surrounding the January 6th riots at the U.S. Capitol appear to have been a “cover up,” in never-seen-before footage published exclusively by The National Pulse. In the hour-long interview, Sund…

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#45=47 #American Spring #corrupt DOJ #CORRUPTION #DNC corruption #government #j6 #leadership #politics #President Trump #RNC corruption #truth #UNIPARTY = TPTB #USA

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

December 29, 2022

Heather Cox Richardson

Today, President Joe Biden signed into law the bipartisan year-end omnibus funding bill passed by the House and the Senate before lawmakers left town. The $1.7 trillion measure addresses key goals of both parties. It funds the military and domestic programs. It funds public health and science, invests in law enforcement, and funds programs to prevent violence against women. It funds veterans’ services, and it provides assistance to Ukraine in its struggle to protect itself against Russia’s invasion. It updates the Electoral Count Act to prevent a president from trying to overturn a presidential election, as former president Trump did. Biden said, “This bill is further proof that Republicans and Democrats can come together to deliver for the American people, and I’m looking forward to continued bipartisan progress in the year ahead.” But on his social media platform, Trump took a stand against the bill that funds the government. “Something is going on with [Senate minority leader] Mitch McConnell [(R-KY)] and all of the terribly and virtually automatic ‘surrenders’ he makes to the Marxist Democrats, like on the $1.7 Trillion ‘Ominous’ Bill,” Trump wrote. “Could have killed it using the Debt Ceiling, or made it MUCH better in the Republican House. Nobody can be this stupid.” Then he went on to blame the deal on McConnell’s wife, Trump’s own Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, using a racist slur. This exchange reveals the dynamic dominating political leadership at the end of 2022. Biden and the Democrats are trying to show that the government can produce popular results for the American people. They are joined in that effort by Republicans who recognize that, for all their talk about liberty, their constituents want to see the government address their concerns. Together, they have passed the omnibus bill, as well as the CHIPS and Science Act, the bipartisan infrastructure law, and gun safety legislation. This cooperation to pass popular legislation is an important shift in American politics. But Trump and his cronies remain determined to return to power, apparently either to stop this federal action Trump incorrectly calls “Marxism” or, in the case of extremist Republicans, to use the government not to provide a basic social safety net, regulate business, promote infrastructure, or protect civil rights—as it has done since 1933—but instead to enforce right-wing religious values on the country. They reject the small-government economic focus of the Reagan Republicans in favor of using a strong government to enforce religion. The determination of Trump and his team to dominate the government, and through it the country, has been illustrated powerfully once again today with the release of more transcripts from testimony before the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol. Former White House director of strategic communications Alyssa Griffin recalled how Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, dismissed the idea that the Trump administration should coordinate with the incoming Biden officials over the coronavirus pandemic. “It was the first COVID... meeting that Jared led after [Biden won],” Griffin recalled, “& Dr. Birx... said, "Well, should we be looping the Biden transition into these conversations?" & Jared just said, ‘Absolutely not.’” Similarly, in an extraordinarily petty exchange, the chief of staff to former first lady Melania Trump, Stefanie Grisham, recalled that Trump wanted to fire the chief White House usher, Tim Harleth, for being in contact with the Biden team about the presidential transition. (Secret Service agents told Trump about the contact, raising more questions about the role of the agents around Trump.) Melania Trump stopped the firing out of concern for the stories Harleth could tell about the Trump family, but he was let go just before Biden’s inauguration, leaving the Biden’s standing before the closed doors of the White House for an awkwardly long time when they entered for the first time. This determination of far-right Republicans to bend the country to their will presents a problem for the Republican Party. Establishment Republicans came around to backing Trump in 2017 after he promised them lower taxes and less regulation, the goals they had embraced since the presidency of Ronald Reagan. But Trump managed to stay in power by feeding the reactionaries in the party: those who reject the idea of American equality. Trump’s base is fiercely opposed to immigration and against the rights of LGBTQ Americans, while also in favor of curtailing the rights of women and minorities. Rejecting the equality at the heart of liberal democracy, many of them hope to enforce religious rules on the rest of the country and admire Russian president Vladimir Putin and Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán for replacing democracy with what Orbán has called “Christian democracy,” or “illiberal democracy” that enforces patriarchal heterosexual hierarchies. As Trump encouraged them to, many of them reject as “fraudulent” any elections that do not put their candidates in power. Now, as Republican establishment leaders recognize that Trump’s star is fading and his legal troubles seem likely to get worse—his tax returns will be released tomorrow, among other things—they seem eager to cut Trump loose to resurrect their anti-tax, anti-regulation policies. But those Americans who reject democracy and want a strong government to enforce their values are fighting for control of the Republican Party. The far right has turned against Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel, whom Trump hand-picked and who helped arrange the false electors in 2020. Trump loyalist Mike Lindell, the pillow magnate, is challenging McDaniel. Of more concern to her is the challenge of Harmeet Dhillon, a prominent election denier who has provided legal counsel for Trump in his struggles against the January 6th committee, calling it “a purely political witch-hunt, total abuse of process & power serving no legitimate legislative purpose.” Orbán supporter and Fox News Channel personality Tucker Carlson and Turning Points USA founder Charlie Kirk are backing Dhillon. Kirk, who is a prodigious fundraiser, has warned the RNC that the party must listen “to the grassroots, our donors, and the biggest organizations and voices in the conservative movement” or it would lose in 2024. “If ignored, we will have the most stunted and muted Republican Party in the history of the conservative movement, the likes of which we haven’t seen in generations.” The far right is also challenging the bid of House minority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) for House speaker, creating such havoc that today former Republican representative, senator, and secretary of defense William S. Cohen and former congressional staff director and presidential senior fellow emeritus at the Council on Foreign Relations Alton Frye published an op-ed in the New York Times warning that “the Republican caucus is dominated by campaigns and commitments that gravely encumber efforts to define common ground in the political center.” They urged House members to recruit a moderate speaker from outside the chamber and to “fortify those Republicans who seek to move the party beyond the corrosive Trump era.” They called for a secret ballot, so Republican members won't have to fear retaliation. Cohen and Frye suggested that organization of the House by an outsider would allow for “meaningful coalition building,” but the Republicans about to take control of the House have so far indicated only that they intend to investigate the Biden administration before the 2024 election, a throwback to the methods party leaders have used since 1994 to win elections by portraying the Democrats as corrupt. Representatives James Comer (R-KY) and Jim Jordan (R-OH), who are expected to take over the House Oversight Committee and the House Judiciary Committee, respectively, have already demanded records from the White House. When White House Special Counsel Richard Sauber said the White House would respond to those committees after the Republicans were in charge of them—a position administrations have as taken since the 1980s—Comer and Jordan took to social media today to complain that “at every turn the Biden White House seeks to obstruct congressional oversight and hide information from the American people.” (Jordan, of course, refused to respond to a subpoena from the January 6th committee.) The year 2022 has seen an important split in the Republican Party. The party’s response to voters’ dislike appears to be either to reject democracy altogether or to double down on the old rhetoric that has worked in the past, although you have to wonder if they have gone to that well so many times it’s drying up. In the meantime, the Democrats have worked with willing Republicans to demonstrate that lawmakers in a democracy really can accomplish big things for the American people, and for the world. Which vision will win out will be a key political story of 2023.

—

Notes:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/12/23/statement-from-president-joe-biden-on-passage-of-the-bipartisan-year-end-omnibus/

Angela McGuire💙🌊🌊🌊🌊 @angelaretailDang! Cheato Von Tweeto be all up in Mitch's business!

12:56 AM ∙ Dec 29, 2022222Likes27Retweets

Joyce Alene @JoyceWhiteVanceAlyssa Griffin transcript: “It was the first COVID, like, morning meeting that Jared led after [Biden won]..& Dr. Birx..said, "Well, should we be looping the Biden transition into these conversations?" & Jared just said, "Absolutely not." & then we just moved on.”

9:38 PM ∙ Dec 29, 202213,484Likes3,602Retweets

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/12/28/transcript-jan-6-panel-interviews-00075698

https://www.businessinsider.com/bidens-reportedly-left-outside-white-house-trump-sent-staff-home-2021-1

https://january6th.house.gov/sites/democrats.january6th.house.gov/files/20220518_Stephanie%20A.%20Grisham%20%281%29.pdf

https://www.axios.com/2022/12/29/trump-fire-usher-bidens-white-house-ex-press-secretary

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/21/us/politics/biden-white-house-usher.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/28/us/politics/ronna-mcdaniel-harmeet-dhillon-rnc.html

Paul Bedard, “Trump lawyer: Subpoena was ‘assault’ on Constitution,” Washington Examiner, December 29, 2022.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/23/charlie-kirk-rnc-ronna-mcdaniel-harmeet-dhillon/

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/conservatives-look-curtail-ballot-measure-process-rcna62484

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/12/29/jim-jordan-james-comer-oversight-requests-00075710

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/29/opinion/kevin-mccarthy-house-speaker-vote.html

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

#Letters From An American #Heather Cox Richardson #RNC #Democracy #US House of Representatives #Corrupt GOP #Criminal GOP

[thrown-away-opinions]

The most pathetic shit in the world are people who get THIS CLOSE to acknowledging the blatant bullshit of the US Government and it’s track record of manipulation, corruption, mass media control, propaganda, international meddling, etc, and then land on the conclusion that every major news network is just all part of some colossal conspiracy to uphold... The Republicans and Fascism. Even worse when they follow it up with a quote from Lenin or Mao or some shit.

The Right-Wing of American politics is the single greatest, most inept boogeyman that can barely win elections and nearly every RNC politician ends up voting for the same lefty bullshit anyways because they belong to the same corrupt, out of control system. Make no mistake that they’re just as guilty as all the lefty politicians who are frothing at the mouth for nuclear war. It’s not Good Guys and Bad Guys. It’s all the same evil bullshit, just in different uniforms. Always has been.

I just see people looking at the unbelievable acts of evil being perpetrated by a massive, global system of media and information manipulation and they still settle on this commie retardation that it’s actually those nasty right-wingers and Fox News pulling the strings so the struggling proletariat can’t have $50/hr minimum wage, free health care, UBI, unlimited maternity leave, zero guns and all kinds of other utopian nonsense that they believe we could all totally have if not for the fascists at CNN and Washington Post aiding the right-wing corruption machine so bigots and incel terrorists can get away with oppressing minorities or some equally moronic schizo bullshit.

Leftist brainrot is just too fucking strong. 

[mariacallous]

We are less than one year away from Election Day and although there has been no new evidence or litigation regarding election fraud in the 2020 election, many people continue to believe that the 2020 election was flawed. In the summer, a poll by the Associated Press showed that 22% of Republicans and 71% of Democrats have high confidence in votes being counted accurately in 2024. A more recent Washington Post poll found that among New Hampshire Republicans, over 50% believe Biden’s win was fraudulent, including 85% of Trump supporters.

Chief among those who continue to believe that the 2020 election was fraudulent is the former president, Donald Trump, who can’t seem to stop talking about it. In one post, he goes after the Republican Party for not doing enough — “… the RNC, and Ronna McDaniel, must spend their time working on this, instead of meaningless Debates where I am up by more than 50 points.”

So, where’s the fraud?

The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, has been monitoring election fraud cases state by state. Election fraud covers a range of activities — such as registering someone to vote and forging their signature, filling out an absentee ballot for someone who has died or moved away, voting while ineligible, or pretending to be someone else at the polling place and voting. They find that there have been 1,465 proven cases of election fraud — 1,264 of these resulted in criminal prosecutions and the remainder resulted in civil prosecutions, diversion programs, judicial findings, or official findings.

These may sound like big numbers, however, they must be examined in context. The findings encompass more than a decade of data during which, nationally, hundreds of millions of votes have been cast. For instance, in Texas, Heritage found 103 cases of confirmed election fraud. However, those 103 ranged from 2005 to 2022 during which time over 107 million ballots were cast. There were 11 million ballots cast in the 2020 presidential election alone. The fraud in Texas amounted to 0.000096% of all ballots cast — hardly evidence of a fundamentally corrupt system.

Of course, true conspiracy believers will argue that Trump opponents knew that Trump was going to win Texas, so they didn’t bother to commit fraud there — fraud was only rampant in the swing states. But the story is much the same in swing states. For instance, in Arizona, where President Biden won by a mere 10,457 votes in 2020, Heritage documents just four cases of fraudulent voting in the general election. Furthermore, while former Republican gubernatorial candidate and 2024 Senate candidate Kari Lake falsely claimed widespread fraud following her loss in 2022, there have been zero reported cases from that year thus far. To put these cases (or lack thereof) in perspective, Arizonans cast over 6 million votes in the 2020 and 2022 general elections. There is also minimal evidence to suggest that the few fraudulent votes benefited Democratic candidates. In one 2020 case, a 64-year-old Arizona Republican cast a Republican ballot on behalf of her deceased mother in an apparent effort to counteract what she believed was widespread voter fraud by Democrats.

Other swing states have also recorded negligible numbers of election fraud. In Georgia, Heritage has reported no cases of fraud in the 2020 or 2022 general elections, in which nearly nine million votes were cast. Otherwise, just one case of fraud has been reported in the state in the last four years. It involved a 62-year-old convicted felon who filled out and submitted a ballot sent to the wrong address during the January 2021 Senate runoff election. And yet Trump’s attempts to overturn the election results in Georgia are based on his assertion that there was enough voter fraud to flip the state.

In Florida, there were nine cases of election fraud between the 2020 and 2022 elections but many of those involved individuals who were confused over whether or not they had the right to vote.

In 2018, voters in the state passed a constitutional amendment allowing people convicted of felonies to vote once they had served their time. Subsequently the Florida legislature passed a law requiring felons to pay all fines before they could vote. In fact, some of those convicted of voter fraud were even given a Florida voter ID card and specifically told by local election officials that they would be able to vote. This was contested as a violation of the constitutional ban on poll taxes. The administrative back and forth left some would-be voters confused about their right to vote (or rather, lack thereof). Whether or not this is evidence of widespread fraud is questionable to say the least.

So, what’s going on here? Nothing. Confirmed conspiracy theorists never take no for an answer, so they will certainly insist that there was massive fraud or that prosecutors were bought off. But one fact about elections is often overlooked. The political parties at the national, state, and local level have an intense interest in who votes and how. That’s why, come election years, both parties mobilize thousands of attorneys who, armed with blank injunctions, are ready to run to court at the slightest sign of illegal behavior. In Pennsylvania alone, for example, it is estimated that litigation attempts cost $4 million in taxpayer dollars. Despite the millions of dollars spent on litigation attempts regarding the 2020 election, 61 out of the 62 lawsuits filed had failed by January 2021 alone.

To believe that massive fraud could occur against the Republican Party means that one also has to believe that the Republican Party was asleep at the switch — that they did not mobilize attorneys or that the attorneys they did mobilize didn’t do their job. In fact, Donald Trump is attacking his own hand-picked and loyal Republican National Committee Chair, Ronna McDaniel, for not spending more time preventing fraud. The same woman was party chair in 2020 — if she had really cost Republicans the election by failing to find evidence of fraud that would stand up in court, why did Trump keep her around?

Heritage admits that their tracker is not complete, and we have no doubts that there are probably cases out there still to be discovered or prosecuted. But thus far, the amount of proven election fraud is miniscule.

[nsomniacsdream]

The RNC and the DNC are both companies, which produce and sell Candidates. The only people who can afford their products, are the wealthy, so that's who those Candidates are tailored for. This is all easy to understand and follow so far, right? This is why we say that whoever gets to the level of President in this country is going to be dedicated to the maintenance of the wealthy and capitalism, it's class war.

Now, imagine a ferrari parked next to a busted as hell Taxi. Both are fundamentally the same thing, they'll get you where you wanna go. The Taxi is all you need, tbh. That's the RNC. They've sanded off all the paint, they cut out all the safety features, the brakes are just there enough to stop 9 times out of ten. It still will go from here to point B. The ferrari is nice looking, it's comfortable, safe, but at base, it still only gets you from here to point B. Most people will pick the ferrari tho, because it's pretty. That's the DNC, they're still putting the work in on aesthetics. Civil rights, racism, social security. But it's a lot more expensive, because of upkeep. You have to go to the garage after every trip, the brake pads alone cost as much as the taxi does.

The RNC is the economical choice for the wealthy, it'll get your job done and none of the extras, but you run the risk of them seizing power or stealing your money. No safety features, remember? This is the entire reason the RNC still exists when everything they do is hugely hated and kills millions of people.

So Trump right now is the really rickety taxi cab, you'll probably get to where you're going, but enough of the parts have failed that there's a strong chance it explodes before it gets there. Biden is, not a ferrari, but lets say a Chevy Equinox. Some people find it aesthetically pleasing, it has all the side curtain airbags and everything. It's SAFE. And it's still headed in the direction you want it to go. If you're one of the target consumers, the wealthy.

Now I'll say it explicitly. The Parties are not for us, they're both wholly and completely owned by the wealthy. The Candidates the parties put forward will NEVER act against the interests of the wealthy, because that's not their job, and they know it. This is where the presidential election is decided, not at the ballot box, not during the campaign, not the debates. It's WHO gets to decide who gets the money to run in the first place. And that ain't us, pals.

Your vote decides if we have guardrails on the 4 year push to just openly enslaving everyone in the United states below the wealthy class. When a leftist is telling you that Voting doesn't matter, the system is corrupt, this is what they're talking about. They're not arguing about the abstract practice of Voting. In theory, voting is great! In practice, in the United States, it's pointless. You are voting on what color of car you're getting, but you have no input on what kind of car, or where you're going in it.

[feministdragon]

— When the 2000 election recount ordered by the Florida Supreme Court was halted by five corrupt Republicans on the US Supreme Court — handing the White House to George W. Bush by a disputed 537 votes — nobody knew at the time that Florida Governor Jeb Bush’s Secretary of State, Katherine Harris, had commissioned a huge purge of voters, using a list of Texas felons that was 68% Black and Hispanic.

Harris did this because the national pool of Black and Hispanic names is relatively small: Black felons in Texas with names like Jim Washington or Jose Gonzalez are extremely likely to have similarly named counterparts in any other state with large Black and Hispanic populations like Florida. 

Thus, when those Texas names were compared via a “loose match” (didn’t require a birthday or middle name match) with Florida voters’ names, disproportionate numbers of Black and Hispanic Florida voters were deemed to be possible felons who’d somehow recently moved to Florida from Texas, and tens of thousands were removed from the voter rolls. As the US Commission on Civil Rights noted:

“14.4 percent of Florida’s black voters cast ballots that were rejected. This compares with approximately 1.6 percent of nonblack Florida voters who did not have their presidential votes counted. … [I]n the state's largest county, Miami-Dade, more than 65 percent of the names on the purge list were African Americans, who represented only 20.4 percent of the population.”

— When Donald Trump was certified the winner of the 2016 election, nobody knew at the time that Russia had illegally poured millions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of man-hours into targeting swing state voters identified by the RNC, whose names were handed off to Russian Intelligence by Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort.

When Robert Mueller’s FBI team determined this crime had helped put Trump in the White House, and that Trump had personally intervened in investigations ten separate times in ways that could be prosecuted as criminal obstruction of justice, Bill Barr kept the news from America until the story had largely faded from the headlines.

What will it be this November? We have some clues.

— With the blessing of five Republicans on the 2018 Supreme Court, Republican-controlled states with large Black and Hispanic populations are purging voter rolls like there’s no tomorrow. Just between 2020 and 2022, fully 19,260,000 Americans — 8.5% of all registered voters — were purged. The purge rate in Red states was 40% higher than the rest of the country. We won’t know this year’s purge numbers until well after the election is over.

— The GOP is trying to organize an “army” of 100,000 rightwing warriors to show up at polling places to “oversee” elections and challenge voters they think look suspicious. They’ll also be challenging signature matches on mail-in ballots, particularly in Blue cities in Red states.

— Republican elected officials from the state level all the way up to the US Senate are refusing to say that they’ll accept or certify the result of the election this fall if Donald Trump doesn’t win. Multiple Republican members of Congress have asserted that only the House of Representatives should decide the presidential election this year (which would throw the election to Trump regardless of who the voters or electoral college choose).

— In multiple states, Republicans have passed laws allowing them to manipulate and change the location of polling places, criminalize voter registration drives, replace Democratic and nonpartisan election officials with partisan GOP hacks, and in Georgia and Arizona throw out ballots from entire precincts. As Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt noted for The Atlantic: “Throwing out thousands of ballots in rival strongholds may be profoundly antidemocratic, but it is technically legal, and Republicans in several states now have a powerful stick with which to enforce such practices.”

— Typically, when politicians engage in nakedly deceptive politicking or election theft they’re outed in the press and punished at the polls. Since 2020, however, Republicans have rewarded their politicians who tell lies and engage in underhanded tactics, suggesting there will be no limits to what the Trump campaign might do or say in the weeks leading up to the election, including the use of deepfakes and AI.

— Saudi Arabia and Russia — both allies of Trump — have cut oil production by over 1.4 million barrels a day to drive up gasoline prices leading up to this November, just like they did in a dress rehearsal during the fall of 2022. History shows that gas prices spiking over $5 or even $6 a gallon will have a measurable impact on inflation and thus the election.

— Russia fielded a small army of online trolls to assist Trump’s electoral efforts in 2016 and 2020. Expect the same in November, except this time, according to Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, China is also getting into the act on the GOP’s behalf. 

— Benjamin Netanyahu defied President Obama when he was engaged in delicate negotiations with Iran, visiting the US and addressing Congress at the invitation of Republicans. He’s expected to do the same slap-in-the-face gesture this fall to Biden, along with defying the president’s wish that Israel minimize civilian casualties in Gaza. Netanyahu will do everything he can to ensure Trump comes back into office if for no other reason than keeping himself out of prison; demoralizing young progressive voters will almost certainly be at the top of his list.

But these are all things we know about right now, even if there’s little we can do about most of them.

Given the Nixon/Reagan/Bush examples, our biggest concern should be to find the things we’d otherwise look back on after the inauguration and say about them, “Nobody knew at the time…”