tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71634418332456638272024-03-18T14:34:32.824-05:00HorizonsNancy LeTourneau's big picture look at politics and lifeNancy LeTourneauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12614317154146836694noreply@blogger.comBlogger4299125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163441833245663827.post-82424284869746073362024-03-16T16:01:00.001-05:002024-03-16T16:10:58.069-05:00"I'd much rather be us than them"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrnPambz6wnC0SXRpT_lKySlf-b_6tJm17KxkUZbZ4dd4Ana-MZry61ds67nKS7zwmyQ39SZu0kjDYEF8Cpwr-UK2IZDFZEurHO8wsoEdaL3DW_ojG-GUFOIff24kIx_Um4S1OzFDNvl_2uYos7ixSIfmcKS_WkAD2XN9-ErgcBNawTWhhyRbn1VEgl93O/s1200/trump-jordan-graham-cruz-cotton-nunes-11251.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="810" data-original-width="1200" height="432" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrnPambz6wnC0SXRpT_lKySlf-b_6tJm17KxkUZbZ4dd4Ana-MZry61ds67nKS7zwmyQ39SZu0kjDYEF8Cpwr-UK2IZDFZEurHO8wsoEdaL3DW_ojG-GUFOIff24kIx_Um4S1OzFDNvl_2uYos7ixSIfmcKS_WkAD2XN9-ErgcBNawTWhhyRbn1VEgl93O/w640-h432/trump-jordan-graham-cruz-cotton-nunes-11251.webp" width="640" /></a></div><p>According to the <a href="https://www.economist.com/interactive/us-2024-election/trump-biden-polls/" target="_blank">polling aggregate</a> at The Economist, if the 2024 presidential election were held today, it would result in a tie.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9KjZGLm5rm-uJhT7qNcIubvxzBI_7wZwYQO-Zty-RPlakVIXzA1we1B8e1Glx58bsNaD5lRIOnXrQd3uofXysM5mZ4TNq-Kp7kw4-vgGMKHhy4P_SJi7T-5wXcXObGYRJIBKyecXDKjumaQcVAQc6zVuO62S8KwcVgDNvtwHZ2Ln1EaOu3wKdzZY1TtVa/s703/Presidential%20race%20mid%20March.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="541" data-original-width="703" height="492" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9KjZGLm5rm-uJhT7qNcIubvxzBI_7wZwYQO-Zty-RPlakVIXzA1we1B8e1Glx58bsNaD5lRIOnXrQd3uofXysM5mZ4TNq-Kp7kw4-vgGMKHhy4P_SJi7T-5wXcXObGYRJIBKyecXDKjumaQcVAQc6zVuO62S8KwcVgDNvtwHZ2Ln1EaOu3wKdzZY1TtVa/w640-h492/Presidential%20race%20mid%20March.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">There's been a lot of chatter lately about whether these polls are accurate, and we won't know for sure until November. But if we put all of that polling controversy aside (which I am inclined to do), Simon Rosenberg has captured what's <a href="https://www.hopiumchronicles.com/p/id-much-rather-be-us-than-them-new" target="_blank">really important</a> right now when he says "I'd much rather be us than them." There are several reasons why that statement rings true.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Fundraising</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Typically a politician's ability to raise money has been deemed almost as important as their standing in the polls. I'm not totally convinced that's true anymore. But the fact of the matter is that not only is Biden <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/05/politics/biden-fundraising-february/index.html" target="_blank">raising more money</a>, a large portion of the funds <a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-legal-bills-debt-campaign-fundraising-shortfalls-07c9bafaaa5d4f27d93dbda3bd2624ea" target="_blank">raised by Trump</a> and the RNC are going to pay the former guy's legal fees. To the extent that money makes a difference in a presidential campaign, the edge on this one goes to Biden.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>A GOP in Disarray</b> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">While the mainstream press doesn't write much about it, there are huge battles going on amongst Republicans. We see that in the complete inertia in the Republican-controlled House, where Speaker Johnson can't take a step without pissing off one faction or another. But it is even more pronounced in <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/swing-state-republican-parties-turmoil-rcna132931" target="_blank">several swing states</a> like Florida, Michigan, and Nevada. State party leaders are a crucial part of getting out the vote in November, both up and down the ballot. This kind of upheaval will not only hamper those efforts, it could very well spread to other states.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Another way that disarray is affecting the GOP is that there is a contingent of Republicans that is overtly rejecting Trump. As we saw in the early primary states, 1/3 to 1/2 of Haley voters said they would not vote for him in the general election. Here's what they sound like:</div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">NEW: Republican Voters Against Trump<br /><br />We are elevating the voices of former Trump voters who have had enough of Donald Trump and will never vote for him again. <a href="https://t.co/agN4DODyB9">pic.twitter.com/agN4DODyB9</a></p>— Republican Voters Against Trump (@AccountableGOP) <a href="https://twitter.com/AccountableGOP/status/1767490728241115411?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 12, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
Many of the people who served in the Trump administration are saying the same thing.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Fact: the majority of the people who worked for Trump now say he’s utterly unfit for office.<br /><br />Never Trump. <br /><br /> <a href="https://t.co/IgbWZnxB4G">pic.twitter.com/IgbWZnxB4G</a></p>— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1767642099049025590?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 12, 2024</a></blockquote><p>Conventional wisdom has historically suggested that once a candidate becomes the nominee, they broaden their appeal to reach out to a larger audience for the general election. Given the split inside the GOP, you'd think there would be a massive outreach effort underway right now. But the RNC is doing the exact opposite. </p> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Lara Trump says when she becomes co-Chair of the Republican Party, “anyone” who doesn’t support Trump and MAGA will be told to “leave” the party <a href="https://t.co/R6nn5hsf2n">pic.twitter.com/R6nn5hsf2n</a></p>— DNC War Room (@DNCWarRoom) <a href="https://twitter.com/DNCWarRoom/status/1764785689344778249?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 4, 2024</a></blockquote><p><b>Issues</b> </p><p>Trump has made it clear that he is proud that the judges he appointed to the Supreme Court overruled Roe v Wade. He has also promised that he will not support any effort to halt gun violence and that he will <a href="https://www.eenews.net/articles/how-trump-could-exit-the-paris-climate-deal-and-thwart-reentry/" target="_blank">end efforts</a> to mitigate climate change. On day one he's promised to "drill baby drill."</p><p>I've <a href="https://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2024/02/sure-trump-is-unfit-for-office-but-his.html" target="_blank">already written</a> that the policies Trump is actually proposing would be a disaster for both the United States and the globe.</p><p>As of a few months ago, it looked like the Republican message would be focused on what they defined as Biden's failures: the economy, crime, and the border. The first of those two have been fairly neutralized with slowing inflation and an historic drop in violent crime. But once it became clear that Trump had ordered his minions to kill the bipartisan border bill, that one <a href="https://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2024/02/what-biden-and-democrats-learned-from.html" target="_blank">was neutralized</a> too. </p><p>Of course, Trump and Republicans will continue to lie about those issues. But they've botched things so badly that refuting their claims is not difficult. For example, they are actually attempting to revive the <a href="https://twitter.com/Smartypants60/status/1765422615827464218" target="_blank">Reagan question</a> about whether or not you're better off than you were four years ago when a pandemic that killed one million Americans was sweeping the country and the economy was in the midst of collapse. </p><p><b>Trumpism</b></p><p>This one could take a while to type out. So I'm simply going to let Seth Myers do the work.</p> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Donald Trump is going to be the GOP presidential nominee once again. Here’s a refresher on the former president. <a href="https://t.co/kjilDAKRx8">https://t.co/kjilDAKRx8</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ACloserLook?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ACloserLook</a> <a href="https://t.co/QEr8PuyGmt">pic.twitter.com/QEr8PuyGmt</a></p>— Late Night with Seth Meyers (@LateNightSeth) <a href="https://twitter.com/LateNightSeth/status/1765753486224834750?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 7, 2024</a></blockquote><p>Beyond all of that, mental health professionals are <a href="https://www.change.org/p/our-diagnostic-impression-of-trump-is-probable-dementia-for-licensed-professionals-only?recruiter=21702147&recruited_by_id=8e4865a0-e3d4-11e6-afb7-4f53edfc65d6&utm_source=share_petition&utm_campaign=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_content=cl_sharecopy_37915765_en-US%3A9" target="_blank">speaking up</a> to point out that not only is Trump a malignant narcissist, it is becoming increasingly clear that he is showing "unmistakable signs strongly suggesting dementia, based on his public behavior and informant reports that show progressive deterioration in memory, thinking, ability to use language, behavior, and both gross and fine motor skills."</p><p>The issue is that, unlike narcissism, dementia is a progressive disease - meaning that it will get worse over time. To the extent that Trump's handlers are trying to <a href="https://twitter.com/OurShallowState/status/1766896938291700039" target="_blank">cover it up</a>, they're probably just making it worse. In other words, this could be a real powder keg.</p><p>A caveat to all of this would be that eight months is a long time. All kinds of things can happen between now and November. Some of them might be good and others catastrophic. That's why I'll never be in the position of predicting outcomes to an election. </p><p>I also suspect that some people might respond to this list by saying that none of the above will affect MAGA voters - and I would agree. The point is to back up what Rosenberg is saying. Polls aren't everything. In the end, I'd much rather be us than them. </p> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>Nancy LeTourneauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12614317154146836694noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163441833245663827.post-52124073378041947842024-03-14T16:16:00.000-05:002024-03-14T16:16:10.557-05:00Right wing disinformation is fodder for fascism<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip59F_NBamjt0jcT01M7T3gUVu9HLg26xELhUIDKwDe5Efh76_hlTlBhjOeLmWHaegYbvKW9QH2tASf-bpxnFWK_8GXhBaq4I4nzvF7U8xeoA-8jriPesLvjslLc7L8sgJxc6FJjKL8_E4-fSQ8V1NnvvPgJHRD9OyPLXMTeBruuk5m6jnzrtHFjNuUwn9/s676/John%20Solomon.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="378" data-original-width="676" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip59F_NBamjt0jcT01M7T3gUVu9HLg26xELhUIDKwDe5Efh76_hlTlBhjOeLmWHaegYbvKW9QH2tASf-bpxnFWK_8GXhBaq4I4nzvF7U8xeoA-8jriPesLvjslLc7L8sgJxc6FJjKL8_E4-fSQ8V1NnvvPgJHRD9OyPLXMTeBruuk5m6jnzrtHFjNuUwn9/w640-h358/John%20Solomon.png" width="640" /></a></div><p>You might recall that it was John Solomon - working at The Hill - who <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/11/19/20971075/rudy-giuliani-john-solomon-ukraine-impeachment-trump" target="_blank">peddled</a> Rudi Giulian's <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/rudy-giuliani-fbi-warning-russia/2021/04/29/5db90f96-a84e-11eb-bca5-048b2759a489_story.html" target="_blank">Russian disinformation</a> claims about the Bidens (as well as lies about the <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-invention-of-the-conspiracy-theory-on-biden-and-ukraine" target="_blank">Clinton Foundation</a> in 2016). That's why <a href="https://justthenews.com/accountability/political-ethics/hlddemocrat-fed-taxpayer-funded-machine-exposed-anew-deceiving" target="_blank">this column</a> by Solomon is likely to break any irony meter that is still functional. </p><blockquote>Americans are being confronted by a painful reality that a Democrat-fed, taxpayer-funded media spin machine is increasingly creating false realities, untrue narratives and outright lies that are putting the country on a whipsaw rollercoaster where truth surfaces long after deceptive narratives or mistruths have affected elections or official actions.</blockquote><p>At one point, Solomon writes that "experts" warned that "the deceptions of Democratic Party actors and their allies in media and government will be an issue on the ballot this November" before quoting Newt Gingrich, <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/kash-patel-tells-members-media-government-after-trumps/story?id=105432592" target="_blank">Kash Patel</a>, and <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/tom-fitton" target="_blank">Tom Finton</a>. </p><p>So what we have are several of the biggest purveyors of disinformation claiming that it is Democrats who are running a spin machine that creates false realities, untrue narratives, and outright lies.</p><p>To understand why they're doing this, let's take a look at one of the right wing publications that has apparently put Solomon <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/authors/john_solomon/" target="_blank">on their payroll</a> - even after he left The Hill in disgrace. That would be RealClearPolitics (RCP), an organization that <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2023/12/the_risky_business_of_showing_all_sides__150206.html" target="_blank">bills itself</a> as "the only prominent news platform aggregating <i>all serious sides</i>" (emphasis mine).</p><p>A quick look under the hood demonstrates that, too, is a lie. For example, RCP recently handed out their new <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/2892540/samizdat-prize-makes-good-journalism-real-clear/" target="_blank">Samizdat Prize</a> to three journalists who "have shown First Amendment courage." Those three people are:</p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Dr. Jay Bhattacharya - who peddled <a href="https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/great-barrington-declaration/" target="_blank">disinformation</a> about COVID.</li><li>Miranda Devine - who peddled <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-miranda-devine-melts-down-when-its-suggested-hard-evidence-needed-impeach-joe" target="_blank">disinformation</a> about the Bidens. </li><li>Matt Taibbi - who peddled <a href="https://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2023/03/matt-taibbi-challenge-accepted.html" target="_blank">disinformation</a> about the so-called "Twitter files."</li></ol><div>In other words, RCP thinks that "first Amendment courage" is demonstrated by spreading right wing (usually Russian) disinformation. That's not very both sidsy of them, is it?</div><div><br /></div><div>But that's just one example. For a look at the bigger picture, an organization called Global Disinformation Index analyzes the disinformation risk level in various countries. In December 2022, they <a href="https://www.disinformationindex.org/country-studies/2022-12-16-disinformation-risk-assessment-the-online-news-market-in-the-united-states/">published</a> their report on the United States, identifying the news sites with the lowest and highest risk of disinformation. The results are profound.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZrciHs3eWmOOk1V1lZDpJHe5PF97d-8ndlLsxjg7SYVLmajSexJzzegRieJ1Y7d2c73i-VHCfMEhrGpopCA2uYcGf8YEtgkvSP_aK96nhcwOhfW8L-Or2uUFQCr-ezhK1K_YbahBAoERtaDkNWX-KXP3jD4QREA3ueuOL1_ZAOm-rkFtjwc6wfySpMjAe/s1364/Disinformation%20risk.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="910" data-original-width="1364" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZrciHs3eWmOOk1V1lZDpJHe5PF97d-8ndlLsxjg7SYVLmajSexJzzegRieJ1Y7d2c73i-VHCfMEhrGpopCA2uYcGf8YEtgkvSP_aK96nhcwOhfW8L-Or2uUFQCr-ezhK1K_YbahBAoERtaDkNWX-KXP3jD4QREA3ueuOL1_ZAOm-rkFtjwc6wfySpMjAe/w640-h426/Disinformation%20risk.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">We can first of all note that ALL of the sites at highest risk are right wing organizations - with RCP right in the middle of the list. You won't find a better example of what Ornstein and Mann <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/lets-just-say-it-the-republicans-are-the-problem/2012/04/27/gIQAxCVUlT_story.html" target="_blank">described</a> as "asymmetric polarization" than that. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">What's important to note about this analysis is that it is not based on fact-checking for disinformation. Instead, here's what they do:</div><blockquote>The GDI methodology looks at over 80 different signals in combination to generate an overall assessment of disinformation risk for a news website as a whole. The resulting score does not determine whether a site or a specific piece of content is disinformation or not. The summation of all the data collected does, however, allow GDI to measure the risk that a given site may disinform its readers.</blockquote><p>For example, when analyzing content, they look at whether certain groups are targeted, whether sources are credible and clearly identified, and whether headlines accurately describe the content. </p><p>So of course the publisher of RCP, David DesRosiers, had to <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2023/12/the_risky_business_of_showing_all_sides__150206.html" target="_blank">lie about</a> GDI's findings.</p><blockquote>GDI labeled RealClearPolitics as a high-risk news site for disinformation. All because we include voices they don’t like. That we pair such voices with those they agree with doesn’t seem to matter to them.</blockquote><div>What we have is a right wing media complex that is built on disinformation and lies. When they're held accountable, they respond with more lies. </div><div><br /></div><div>But leave it to John Solomon to take it even further. The biggest purveyor of (mostly Russian) disinformation accuses Democrats of building a "media spin machine" that is "increasingly creating false realities, untrue narratives and outright lies." That's what those of us in the mental health field call "projection." As Steve Benen <a href="https://washingtonmonthly.com/2011/04/29/karl-rove-and-the-affection-for-projection/" target="_blank">pointed</a> out years ago, he seems to have learned this skill from Karl Rove.</div><blockquote>More than anyone I’ve ever seen or heard of, Rove identifies some of his own ugliest, most malicious, most pernicious qualities, and then projects them onto those he hates most.</blockquote><p>In other words, Solomon says to Rove: "Hold my beer."</p><p>The most pernicious effect of all of this is that it undermines the idea that there is any truth to be found (ie, Democrats say this, Republicans say that. Who are you going to believe?). Those who believe THAT lie are <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/9/19/17847110/how-fascism-works-donald-trump-jason-stanley" target="_blank">simply fodder</a> for the fascists.</p>Nancy LeTourneauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12614317154146836694noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163441833245663827.post-62928299085623951322024-02-22T16:39:00.001-06:002024-02-22T16:43:23.555-06:00Sure, Trump is unfit for office. But his agenda would also be a monumental disaster!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgibgFDPSyH8G-UKt2wULBiCJUh5xwD9R8k10fYr-0jW-MZxTRe0jKO7upIMjhlUDy7JOr-HqvNGhyphenhyphenlKj4XQKBqrDGTzvwQLqq_qsZKAbPe60X-DRFpjmU7xicjNOiM41VOY9HSEmeus9LS8JKF1vNpF8lZjK7tMlwL7-DxFlFrG5kN7NueHsT0TkHpcOOW/s2000/Trump6.12.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1334" data-original-width="2000" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgibgFDPSyH8G-UKt2wULBiCJUh5xwD9R8k10fYr-0jW-MZxTRe0jKO7upIMjhlUDy7JOr-HqvNGhyphenhyphenlKj4XQKBqrDGTzvwQLqq_qsZKAbPe60X-DRFpjmU7xicjNOiM41VOY9HSEmeus9LS8JKF1vNpF8lZjK7tMlwL7-DxFlFrG5kN7NueHsT0TkHpcOOW/w640-h426/Trump6.12.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p>For just a moment, I'd like to back off the fact that Donald Trump is unfit for office, is a serial liar, has been found guilty of rape/fraud, and faces 91 criminal counts in 4 different indictments. Instead, let's take a moment to think about what he and his enablers say he will DO if elected president again. </p><p><b>Foreign policy</b></p><p>Trump will turn Ukraine over to Putin and is likely to pull the U.S. out of NATO. He's also said that he would encourage Russia to invade any NATO country that doesn't pay up. That is nothing short of an invitation to World War III.</p><p><b>Revenge</b></p><p>Trump has promised that a second term would be all about retribution.</p><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/donald-trump/?itid=lk_inline_manual_2"></a><blockquote>Donald Trump and his allies have begun mapping out specific plans for using the federal government to punish critics and opponents should he win a second term, with the former president naming individuals he wants to investigate or prosecute and his associates drafting plans to potentially invoke the Insurrection Act on his first day in office to allow him to deploy the military against civil demonstrations... </blockquote><blockquote>To facilitate Trump’s ability to direct Justice Department actions, his associates have been drafting plans to dispense with 50 years of policy and practice intended to shield criminal prosecutions from political considerations. </blockquote><p><b>Immigration</b></p><p>At almost every campaign stop, Trump makes this promise: </p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Trump calls for mass detention camps and rounding up millions of Latinos <a href="https://t.co/I6Odws74v8">pic.twitter.com/I6Odws74v8</a></p>— Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) <a href="https://twitter.com/BidenHQ/status/1756112768418103736?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 10, 2024</a></blockquote><p>To understand what that means, let's take a look at what Ron Brownstein <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/02/trumps-immigration-plan-is-even-more-aggressive-now/677385/" target="_blank">recently wrote</a>.</p><blockquote>Stephen Miller, Trump’s top immigration adviser, has publicly declared that they would pursue such an enormous effort partly by creating a private red-state army under the president’s command. Miller says a reelected Trump intends to requisition National Guard troops from sympathetic Republican-controlled states and then deploy them into Democratic-run states whose governors refuse to cooperate with their deportation drive.</blockquote><p>Blue state governors are likely to object to such a move and would have constitutional grounds to do so. At that point, Trump would invoke the Insurrection Act, which would give him almost unlimited authority to use any military asset for his deportation program.</p><p>Who would be targeted? Stephen Miller, the white nationalist that Trump would likely put in charge of such an operation, <a href="https://www.truthnetwork.com/show/the-charlie-kirk-show-charlie-kirk/72387/" target="_blank">told Charlie Kirk</a> that at minimum, they're talking 10 million people. Included in that number are people who have overstayed their visas and, according to Miller, people who were let in on visas but "whose views, attitudes, and beliefs make them ineligible to stay in the country." That aligns with what Trump <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/10/24/trump-religion-immigration/" target="_blank">said last October</a> (emphasis mine).</p><blockquote>“I will implement strong ideological screening of all immigrants,” he said, reading from the teleprompter. “If you hate America, if you want to abolish Israel,” he continued, apparently ad-libbing, “<b>if you don’t like our religion</b> — which a lot of them don’t — if you sympathize with the jihadists, then we don’t want you in our country and you are not getting in. Right?”</blockquote><p><b>Economy</b></p><p>To get some idea of what Trump's deportation operation would mean for our economy, let's take a look at what happened to Postville, Iowa in 2008 when one meatpacking plant was raided and about 400 undocumented immigrants were arrested. </p><p>According to the <a href="https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/investigations/2018/05/10/postville-immigration-raid-10-year-anniversary-town-reclaims-identity/587995002/" target="_blank">Des Moines Register</a>, not only were families torn apart, but a quarter of the town disappeared. Those left behind had to "pick up the pieces from an event that hit their town with the sledgehammer effect of a natural disaster." So just imagine that kind of thing happening in communities all over the U.S. - magnified exponentially.</p><p>Trump is also promising to <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/04/trump-floats-more-than-60percent-tariffs-on-chinese-imports.html" target="_blank">escalate</a> the U.S-China trade war he launched during his first term as president.</p><blockquote>Trump’s trade war with China cost Americans an estimated $195 billion since 2018, according to the American Action Forum, a conservative think tank. The economic battle also led to the loss of more than 245,000 U.S. jobs, according to the U.S.-China Business Council.</blockquote><p>Finally, there will be <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/09/11/trump-tax-cuts-2024/" target="_blank">more tax cuts</a>, which ballooned the deficit during Trump's first term.</p><p><b>Climate change</b></p><p>Trump <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/feb/06/trump-climate-change-fossil-fuels-second-term?utm_term=65c22d55b239d174e7522ad0a1f2ca42&utm_campaign=GuardianTodayUS&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&CMP=GTUS_email" target="_blank">has promised</a> to once again pull the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Accord and roll back as many of Biden's accomplishments as possible.</p><blockquote>Trump could slow down the progress of the clean energy transition as president by redrawing the rules for the IRA’s generous tax credits.<br /><br />He would, his allies say, also scrap government <a href="https://news.stanford.edu/2021/06/07/professors-explain-social-cost-carbon/">considerations of the damage caused by carbon emissions</a>; compel a diminished EPA to squash <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/may/16/epa-climate-rules-climate-crisis">pollution rules for cars, trucks</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/may/11/new-rules-us-fossil-fuel-power-plant-emissions">power plants</a>; and symbolically nullify the Paris climate agreement by not only withdrawing the US <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/nov/04/donald-trump-climate-crisis-exit-paris-agreement">again</a> but sending it to the Senate for ratification as a treaty, knowing it would fail.</blockquote><p><b>Abortion</b></p><p>While Trump hasn't stated a position on a national abortion ban, he made one thing perfectly clear.</p><p>
</p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Trump: I’m the one that got rid of Roe V Wade <a href="https://t.co/o24OhRNqV7">pic.twitter.com/o24OhRNqV7</a></p>— Acyn (@Acyn) <a href="https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1658613159823810565?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 16, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<b>Guns</b><p></p><p>Trump <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/09/trump-promises-nra-that-if-elected-no-one-will-lay-a-finger-on-your-firearms-00140818" target="_blank">promised</a> the NRA that if he is elected, "no one will lay a finger on your firearms."</p><p><b>Health care</b></p><p>Even as the rest of his party abandoned the idea, Trump <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/trump-doubles-saying-obamacare-sucks-must-replaced-rcna126978" target="_blank">continues</a> his promise to repeal Obamacare.</p><p>So there you have it. Even when we ignore the fact that this man is unfit for office, tried to foment an insurrection, and could end up in jail for the crimes he is alleged to have committed, a second term would be a monumental disaster for this country - on every major issue.</p> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>Nancy LeTourneauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12614317154146836694noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163441833245663827.post-33636525311199363532024-02-16T16:01:00.005-06:002024-02-16T16:39:14.621-06:00The latest right wing conspiracy theory: Trump/Russia was a CIA hoax and Putin actually favored Clinton<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS9bQ7-EHW0nfep0YSWeyYfuK7tLEZljegS1lOwiQCgtYLWUXDfQNsX46rkMVLh51OOFLdxvcA-cDNgu1YO1dAe18D6FjjJD6fS2PFJBRft1CjrNh3LQhsxkg9uBBFcsshd4vldPH4oQ-hK3k9_kNL8TJB6uEvgcF84bjFM3kqgsj1lDS2AiQ8SQhKgF2i/s2560/Trump%20Putin.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1707" data-original-width="2560" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS9bQ7-EHW0nfep0YSWeyYfuK7tLEZljegS1lOwiQCgtYLWUXDfQNsX46rkMVLh51OOFLdxvcA-cDNgu1YO1dAe18D6FjjJD6fS2PFJBRft1CjrNh3LQhsxkg9uBBFcsshd4vldPH4oQ-hK3k9_kNL8TJB6uEvgcF84bjFM3kqgsj1lDS2AiQ8SQhKgF2i/w640-h426/Trump%20Putin.webp" width="640" /></a></div><p>There have been a lot of big news stories lately, but a major focus has been on Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin. </p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>CNN reported that a 10-inch binder containing highly classified information related to Russian election interference went missing at the end of Donald Trump’s presidency.</li><li>Tucker Carlson interviewed Putin and is traveling around Russia telling us how everything is so much better there than it is here in the U.S.</li><li>Donald Trump said that he would encourage Russia to ‘do whatever the hell they want’ to any NATO country that doesn’t pay enough.</li><li>After the Senate passed the national security supplemental, including funding for Ukraine, Speaker Mike Johnson declared that it was "dead on arrival" in the House and sent representatives home for a couple of weeks.</li><li>Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died in prison - with the assumption being that Putin had the 47 year old murdered.</li><li>Putin said that Russia would prefer to see Biden win a second term, describing him as "more experienced and predictable."</li></ul><div>If you believe that last one, then Matt Taibbi, Michael Shellenberger, and Alex Gutentag are in the midst of telling a tall tale that you will love. I'm not going to link to the articles they've published over the last three days because they're behind a paywall and I'm certainly not going to spend any money going after them. </div><div><br /></div><div>But these guys are basically saying that the entire Trump/Russia story was a hoax perpetrated by former Obama CIA Director John Brennan - who they accuse of doing two things:</div><div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Kicking off the whole "Russia hoax" by asking our allies ("<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Eyes" target="_blank">Five Eyes</a>" intelligence services) to spy on 26 Trump associates in early 2016.</li><li>Cooking the intelligence behind the January 2017 assessment of Russian activities to suggest that Putin aspired to help Trump when he really favored Hillary Clinton for the "continuity and stability" she would bring.</li></ol><div>Here's Shellenberger on point #1:</div></div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Report: Deep state is scrambling to find a missing top-secret binder that shows how Obama's CIA set up the Russia hoax <a href="https://twitter.com/shellenberger?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@shellenberger</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/mtaibbi?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@mtaibbi</a> <a href="https://t.co/oBvKRrqkkp">pic.twitter.com/oBvKRrqkkp</a></p>— Jesse Watters (@JesseBWatters) <a href="https://twitter.com/JesseBWatters/status/1757590814719443014?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 14, 2024</a></blockquote><p>And here he is on point #2: </p> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">BOMBSHELL: a new report says Russia didn't want Trump to win in 2016, they wanted Hillary and the CIA knew it. Obama's CIA director, John Brennan, manufactured evidence for the Russia hoax, according to <a href="https://twitter.com/shellenberger?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@shellenberger</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/mtaibbi?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@mtaibbi</a> <a href="https://t.co/u8aMMvqsTb">pic.twitter.com/u8aMMvqsTb</a></p>— Jesse Watters (@JesseBWatters) <a href="https://twitter.com/JesseBWatters/status/1758307025602199990?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 16, 2024</a></blockquote><p>I'm not going to get into the weeds on all of the lies articulated in those two claims. But just to give you one example, in the second video Shellenberg says:</p><blockquote>[The CIA] used the Steele memo, the infamous political document commissioned by the Hillary Clinton campaign, to cook the intelligence...for the early January 2017 intelligence community assessment claiming that the Russians favored Trump falsely. That relied on the Steele memo.</blockquote><p>As a fact check on that one, let's actually go back and look at what Fox News <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/declassified-senate-intelligence-committee-documents-show-some-in-fbi-including-comey-pushed-for-inclusion-of-steele-report-in-classified-memo" target="_blank">reported</a> in July 2020. There we learn that, in preparing the January 2017 report, it was Comey and the FBI who wanted the Steele dossier woven in, over objections from Brennan and the CIA. The compromise that they all agreed to was to avoid any use/reference to the dossier and simply attach it as an appendix. </p><p>Shellenberger, Taibbi, and Gutentag didn't produce a single document to corroborate their claims. Instead, on several occasions they refer to their "multiple credible sources," but don't name them. They suggest that these sources are knowledgeable because of their involvement with the investigation done by the House Select Committee on Intelligence - the one that was initially chaired by <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2017/3/30/15126072/devin-nunes-source-white-house" target="_blank">Devin Nunes</a> and staffed by <a href="https://www.salon.com/2023/12/06/possible-cia-pick-threatens-to-come-after-media-critics-criminally/" target="_blank">Kash Patel</a>. </p><p>To assume that there is any credibility to these claims, all you have to do is take the word of people like that over the following:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/18/politics/full-mueller-report-pdf/index.html" target="_blank">the Mueller Report</a></li><li>the bipartisan <a href="https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/04/22/senate-intelligence-committee-drops-a-bombshell-on-the-durham-investigation/" target="_blank">Senate Intelligence Committee</a> report</li><li>Trump's first CIA director, <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/12/pompeo-cia-russia-findings-1409190" target="_blank">Mike Pompeo</a></li><li>DOJ's Inspector General <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/read-the-full-doj-inspector-generals-report-on-the-fbis-russia-probe">Michael Horowitz</a></li><li>Trump's attorney general, <a href="https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/12/23/on-his-way-out-the-door-barr-drops-a-bombshell-about-the-durham-investigation/">Bill Barr</a></li><li>Special Prosecutor <a href="https://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2023/05/durham-to-right-wingers-blame-hillary.html">John Durham</a> </li></ul><div>The story these guys are trying to sell hasn't made it into the mainstream media. But it's not just showing up on Fox. It's also landed at places like <a href="https://thefederalist.com/2024/02/14/sources-say-u-s-intelligence-agencies-tasked-foreign-partners-with-spying-on-trumps-2016-campaign/" target="_blank">The Federalist</a>, the <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2024/feb/14/missing-binder-at-center-of-new-claim-that-cia-dru/" target="_blank">Washington Times</a>, the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/cia-manipulated-evidence-to-hide-evidence-russia-wanted-clinton-to-win-in-2016-not-trump-report" target="_blank">Daily Wire</a>, and <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2024/02/15/shellenberger_brennan_oversaw_the_manipulation_of_allies_to_entrap_trump_aides_to_create_pretext_for_fbi_probe.html" target="_blank">RealClearPolitics</a>. Apparently, Taibbi will be on <a href="https://twitter.com/DonaldJTrumpJr/status/1758254978022420934" target="_blank">Don Trump, Jr's</a>. podcast tonight to talk about it. So of course, <a href="https://jonathanturley.org/2024/02/15/the-eyes-have-it-u-s-intelligence-allegedly-asked-foreign-countries-to-surveil-trump-associates/" target="_blank">Jonathan Turley</a> is also weighing in.</div><div><br /></div><div>If this nonsense goes the way that other rightwing conspiracies have developed, it is very likely that we'll be hearing it from Republican politicians soon. So the question becomes, why now? I suspect it has something to do with all of those stories I listed at the beginning of this piece up above. So I'll be watching how it plays into all of the other lies Putin/Trump are trying to sell.</div><p></p> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>Nancy LeTourneauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12614317154146836694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163441833245663827.post-4128824984320046502024-02-09T12:24:00.001-06:002024-02-09T12:28:26.259-06:00What Biden and Democrats learned from Obama<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN1wEWOQM1tMo0SDTN3xPoEcpw4P1Uf4A9vOTselwTX4qwEZolRiCgAASaP_awtBgKqI5ZiBCNm9UrJiLSu6H6hjGYPwglJaiDH9geEMXfZvze4-jbkeUSAPgISDzz-dKksR6lm4rlLpPkI-uVqaysn7ajW_U7GckGa1ktA3bST2vlLAZzl-cul2KdvTEA/s1920/Obama%20Biden.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN1wEWOQM1tMo0SDTN3xPoEcpw4P1Uf4A9vOTselwTX4qwEZolRiCgAASaP_awtBgKqI5ZiBCNm9UrJiLSu6H6hjGYPwglJaiDH9geEMXfZvze4-jbkeUSAPgISDzz-dKksR6lm4rlLpPkI-uVqaysn7ajW_U7GckGa1ktA3bST2vlLAZzl-cul2KdvTEA/w640-h360/Obama%20Biden.webp" width="640" /></a></div><p>Last October, the Biden administration was in the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/biden-considering-100-bln-funding-request-that-includes-israel-ukraine-aid-2023-10-17/" target="_blank">process of preparing</a> a supplemental funding request for aid to Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan. Here's how Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson <a href="https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2023/11/27/congress/johnson-house-speaker-gop-supplemental-israel-ukraine-00128707" target="_blank">responded</a>: </p><blockquote>What we've said is that if there is to be additional assistance to Ukraine, which most members of Congress believe is important, we have to also work in changing our own border policy.</blockquote><p>Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/senate-republicans-block-ukraine-and-israel-aid-as-they-demand-border-policy-changes" target="_blank">echoed that demand</a>, stating that "Legislation that doesn’t include policy changes to secure our borders will not pass the Senate."</p><p>In response, the Biden administration <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/10/20/fact-sheet-white-house-calls-on-congress-to-advance-critical-national-security-priorities/" target="_blank">released</a> a supplemental funding request that included measures to secure the border. But Republicans <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/06/politics/senate-israel-ukraine-border-security/index.html" target="_blank">rejected</a> that one because they didn't think it "adequately" addressed the border issue.</p><p>In response, a bipartisan group of Senators worked on a compromise. This week, they <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/new-immigration-asylum-reform-bill-released-senate-text-rcna136602" target="_blank">released</a> their bill, which basically embraced a lot of what Republicans have wanted. But once again, Republicans played the role of Lucy pulling the football just as Charlie Brown tried to kick it. Speaker Johnson immediately <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/speaker-mike-johnson-house-gop-members-react-bipartisan/story?id=106944092#:~:text=In%20a%20scathing%20new%20statement,“I%27ve%20seen%20enough." target="_blank">called it</a> "dead on arrival."</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg15OKi41APGjHmIDPQ3dOHckrQnCHQfKc91Eb9riwpqByHoG9dETcu5_xG5eR6uCf2rL-fpEO0crlr539Bvf6k2YyzvA_TnlaFjtHHchKPwv-eqxuygGDYKeaSZW16H52M5MYRJrdY1voNKDWOAIQwU0RAkb50UiQ6ivlH2w1eGRfbdy7qzKMbZ7TloxAK/s1199/Lucy%20Charlie%20Brown.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1199" data-original-width="1125" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg15OKi41APGjHmIDPQ3dOHckrQnCHQfKc91Eb9riwpqByHoG9dETcu5_xG5eR6uCf2rL-fpEO0crlr539Bvf6k2YyzvA_TnlaFjtHHchKPwv-eqxuygGDYKeaSZW16H52M5MYRJrdY1voNKDWOAIQwU0RAkb50UiQ6ivlH2w1eGRfbdy7qzKMbZ7TloxAK/w375-h400/Lucy%20Charlie%20Brown.webp" width="375" /></a></div><p>We could stop the story there and have a typical pundit-style conversation about how Democrats continue to be naive in thinking they can negotiate with Republicans - because this is what always happens.</p><p>But the truth is that the story is still unfolding. Yesterday <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/senate-expected-vote-ukraine-israel-aid-gop-blocked-border-bill-rcna137861#" target="_blank">this happened</a> in the Senate:</p><blockquote>The Senate voted Thursday afternoon to proceed with a stripped-down bill that would provide aid to Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan, one day after <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/chuck-schumer-push-stripped-israel-ukraine-aid-package-gop-blocks-sena-rcna137661">Republicans in the chamber rejected</a> a bipartisan border security and foreign aid bill.<br /><br />The vote of 67-32 means the Senate can begin consideration of the $95 billion package, although the next steps are uncertain and it’s not yet clear it will have the votes for final passage in the chamber.<p></p></blockquote><p>You might notice that what is under consideration in the Senate is what Biden initially proposed BEFORE Republicans had their temper tantrum about the border. So in a sense, we've gone full circle back to where this all started.</p><p>Commentators are right to suggest that Republicans in general - and Speaker Johnson in particular - blew this one big time. They had leverage (funding for Ukraine and Israel) to get most of what they wanted on border security. But to be successful, they'd have to compromise a bit and risk Trump's ire for taking the issue off the table. So they got nothing.</p><p>This whole scenario reminded me that during the Obama administration, Jonathan Chait <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/63933/the-obama-method" target="_blank">coined a term</a> for the president's approach to negotiations: "conciliatory rhetoric as ruthless strategy."</p><blockquote>This apparent paradox is one reason Obama's political identity has eluded easy definition. On the one hand, you have a disciple of the radical community organizer Saul Alinsky turned ruthless Chicago politician. On the other hand, there is the conciliatory post-partisan idealist. The mistake here is in thinking of these two notions as opposing poles. In reality it's all the same thing. Obama's defining political trait is the belief that conciliatory rhetoric is a ruthless strategy.</blockquote><p>Mark Schmitt captured it with this description of Obama's <a href="https://prospect.org/article/theory-change-primary/" target="_blank">theory of change</a>:</p><blockquote>The reason the conservative power structure has been so dangerous, and is especially dangerous in opposition, is that it can operate almost entirely on bad faith. It thrives on protest, complaint, fear: higher taxes, you won't be able to choose your doctor, liberals coddle terrorists, etc. One way to deal with that kind of bad-faith opposition is to draw the person in, treat them as if they were operating in good faith, and draw them into a conversation about how they actually would solve the problem. If they have nothing, it shows. And that's not a tactic of bipartisan Washington idealists -- it's a hard-nosed tactic of community organizers, who are acutely aware of power and conflict.</blockquote><p>I'm not suggesting that Biden and Democrats knew all along how this would play out. But they certainly drew Republicans into a conversation about how to solve the "border crisis." In doing so, they demonstrated that all the opposition has is fear-mongering - and they're not willing to give that up by actually solving the problem. </p>Nancy LeTourneauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12614317154146836694noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163441833245663827.post-37064440926609100662024-02-04T16:03:00.002-06:002024-02-04T16:13:45.507-06:00Republicans have used obstruction and lies to move the Overton Window rightward on immigration<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLGqibYWf6Lfa5vuUFUYP92aYroShI-B9vv6lG2wjLCOfbKEWnFry4yvztnelmZ6FzvQZtjsctxVYDpBBBm7T9VQ5VT-5yiUZQhNn62qKApNMXx4W3M3XheUcPEyU22k8qMRuZIMa8syWMQrCoUEpcBPAIph3XpZiQ0kXeJFXfnfvbWxw4s0q2twc9bthp/s610/great%20replacement.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="488" data-original-width="610" height="512" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLGqibYWf6Lfa5vuUFUYP92aYroShI-B9vv6lG2wjLCOfbKEWnFry4yvztnelmZ6FzvQZtjsctxVYDpBBBm7T9VQ5VT-5yiUZQhNn62qKApNMXx4W3M3XheUcPEyU22k8qMRuZIMa8syWMQrCoUEpcBPAIph3XpZiQ0kXeJFXfnfvbWxw4s0q2twc9bthp/w640-h512/great%20replacement.webp" width="640" /></a></div><p>It's been clear for a while now that, when it comes to the 2024 election, Republicans are determined to make immigration the one and only issue on the table. In doing so, many of their leaders are openly embracing the white nationalist's <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/what-is-great-replacement-theory-and-how-does-it-fuel-racist-violence" target="_blank">Great Replacement theory</a>. Trump didn't just say that immigrants are poisoning the blood of our country, he also posted this:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6Z1syj7CQOhTwr9MjUZPzz9lb6pqLbu8IvNNhQrAgzun71L_zSzjvndr1QpTZ-OSGNIeNCEg9vvFuOJIgijaY8UUqXsgmPiJwtMJkD_c8e-u4XBeaLd3poQAAKIzaXWXM7Y8CeCViv1TQceHNaG_h8ZO56T55r0XspwtmSmCN7qPR2Woh0E39g9M3x4cu/s1179/Trump%20on%20immigrants.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1105" data-original-width="1179" height="375" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6Z1syj7CQOhTwr9MjUZPzz9lb6pqLbu8IvNNhQrAgzun71L_zSzjvndr1QpTZ-OSGNIeNCEg9vvFuOJIgijaY8UUqXsgmPiJwtMJkD_c8e-u4XBeaLd3poQAAKIzaXWXM7Y8CeCViv1TQceHNaG_h8ZO56T55r0XspwtmSmCN7qPR2Woh0E39g9M3x4cu/w400-h375/Trump%20on%20immigrants.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><p>Over the last few days, right wing billionaire Elon Musk has gone all-in on the Great Replacement theory.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Biden’s strategy is very simple:<br /><br />1. Get as many illegals in the country as possible.<br /><br />2. Legalize them to create a permanent majority – a one-party state.<br /><br />That is why they are encouraging so much illegal immigration. Simple, yet effective. <a href="https://t.co/B9M5ypUOQB">pic.twitter.com/B9M5ypUOQB</a></p>— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1753590787130994745?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 3, 2024</a></blockquote><p>Last May, Speaker Mike Johnson <a href="https://mikejohnson.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=1301" target="_blank">said this</a> about the so-called border crisis: "The Biden administration has done this intentionally...For what reason? Everybody asks me all the time. I think that ultimately they hope to turn all these illegals into voters for their side."</p><p>The truth is that, spewing white nationalist conspiracy theories about immigrants has become an <a href="https://americasvoice.org/blog/when-republican-house-judiciary-committee-members-amplified-white-nationalist-conspiracy-theories/" target="_blank">everyday occurrence</a> for Republicans.</p> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<p>As Josh Marshall <a href="https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1753628161428816095" target="_blank">pointed out</a>, a decade ago those are the kinds of things you'd have to go to a site like Stormfront to see. Now they're part of everyday political discourse on the right. It's worth taking a moment to think about how we got here.</p><p>In 2012, Latinos <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/2012/11/07/latino-voters-in-the-2012-election/" target="_blank">voted</a> for President Barack Obama over Mitt Romney by 71% to 27%. In response, the RNC performed an autopsy. Included in <a href="https://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/6-big-takeaways-from-the-rnc-s-incredible-2012-autopsy" target="_blank">their report</a> were statements like this:</p><blockquote>We are not a policy committee, but among the steps Republicans take in the Hispanic community and beyond, must be to embrace and champion comprehensive immigration reform. If we do not, our Party’s appeal will continue to shrink to its core constituencies only...<br /><br />By the year 2050 we’ll be a majority-minority country and in both 2008 and 2012 President Obama won a combined 80 percent of the votes of all minority groups...The RNC cannot and will not write off any demographic or community or region of this country.</blockquote>That report was issued in mid-March 2013. By April, a bi-partisan group of Senators <a href="https://apnews.com/article/immigration-asylum-trump-biden-gang-of-eight-3d8007e72928665b66d8648be0e3e31f">introduced</a> comprehensive immigration reform that included a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, along with unprecedented resources for border security. By the end of June, it had passed the Senate by a vote of 68-32. But then-Speaker John Boehner, surrendering to his lunatic caucus, refused to vote on it in the House. They <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/house-leaders-vow-to-overhaul-replace-senate-immigration-bill-despite-dem-pressure" target="_blank">wanted</a> border enforcement, but no pathway to citizenship.<div><br /></div><div>Two years after the Senate passed bipartisan immigration reform, Donald Trump announced his candidacy for president by claiming that immigrants are criminals and rapists. That launched a continuous <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/making-sense/4-myths-about-how-immigrants-affect-the-u-s-economy" target="_blank">series of lies</a>, followed by horrific policies (ie, Muslim ban, family separation) once he was elected. The white nationalists in his administration <a href="https://washingtonmonthly.com/2018/01/15/how-the-trump-administration-ambushed-a-bipartisan-deal-on-daca/" target="_blank">even refused</a> to support the DREAM Act for young people who came here as children.</div><div><br /></div><div>What concerns me about this trajectory is that all of the obstruction and lies seem to have worked. Ten years ago the bipartisan bargain was to trade border security for a pathway to citizenship. But the current bipartisan Senate agreement doesn't even consider a pathway.</div><div><br /></div><div>It gets even worse. Great Replacement theorists like Trump, Johnson, and Musk are now suggesting that offering a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants is part of the Democratic plot to destroy (white) America. </div><div><br /></div><div>It is impossible to ignore the fact that Republicans have been successful in using obstruction and lies to move the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window#:~:text=The%20Overton%20window%20is%20the,population%20at%20a%20given%20time." target="_blank">Overton Window</a> to the right when it comes to immigration.</div>Nancy LeTourneauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12614317154146836694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163441833245663827.post-1177791726590247312024-01-18T11:53:00.002-06:002024-01-18T11:59:04.146-06:00For Republicans, the issue isn't immigration - it's all about racism<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibVDQYt_cdE6xF6MdigLs4ax2iANQdO6Q8nmWgBjSJgjqs4bfYvarwwETo5tVy8TdAsfAt-4Xiabi4CN_2NixI4GhMb0i-B9MF3saBBtmHj7m7ASFOPrkpWJZLMJpg1KWUXhb3w2GiQ9mxJZ7JHp_Q2hUv4PB5UvAGhMS3q5F6ApqBn1x8VFpOkmjKoaio/s970/We%20are%20all%20immigrants.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="970" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibVDQYt_cdE6xF6MdigLs4ax2iANQdO6Q8nmWgBjSJgjqs4bfYvarwwETo5tVy8TdAsfAt-4Xiabi4CN_2NixI4GhMb0i-B9MF3saBBtmHj7m7ASFOPrkpWJZLMJpg1KWUXhb3w2GiQ9mxJZ7JHp_Q2hUv4PB5UvAGhMS3q5F6ApqBn1x8VFpOkmjKoaio/w640-h296/We%20are%20all%20immigrants.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><p>According to a recent CBS News poll, 82% of registered Republicans <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cbs-news-analysis-most-republicans-agree-with-poisoning-the-blood-language/" target="_blank">agree with Donald Trump</a> that "illegal" immigrants are "poisoning the blood of our country." Among Iowa Republican caucus-goers, immigration <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/iowa-caucusgoers-see-immigration-as-more-important-than-the-economy-ap-votecast-says" target="_blank">beat out</a> the economy as their number one issue and three quarters of them said that immigrants are a negative for the country.</p><p>While the rest of us are focusing on the economy, democracy, and abortion, Republicans and their media propaganda machines are obsessed with fear-mongering about the so-called "border crisis." And from the results up above, it seems to be effectively stirring up the MAGA crowd.</p><p>So let's take the least onerous articulation of this fear and examine it. Are immigrants a negative for the country? By now we know that they're not <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/iowa-caucusgoers-see-immigration-as-more-important-than-the-economy-ap-votecast-says" target="_blank">taking our jobs</a>, they don't <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/fact-check-immigration-doesnt-bring-crime-u-s-data-say" target="_blank">commit more crimes</a>, and they're not the ones <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/08/09/1191638114/fentanyl-smuggling-migrants-mexico-border-drugs" target="_blank">bringing fentanyl</a> into the country. The most ridiculous lie about immigrants is the one put forward by James Varney <a href="https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2023/12/27/leprosy_polio_malaria_tb_measles__and_massive_unscreened_illegal_immigration_1000817.html" target="_blank">without a shred of evidence</a>. He suggested that they are responsible for bringing back diseases like polio and the measles - completely ignoring the fact that the whole anti-vax movement might be responsible.</p><p>Of course, there's also the more nebulous arguments like the one from Elon Musk, who <a href="https://hotair.com/john-s-2/2024/01/16/auto-draft-223-n605387" target="_blank">recently said</a>: "it’s very easy for the United States to get swamped by illegal immigration, just absolutely swamped." I have no idea what he meant by that, but let's take a look at the numbers. During FY2023, roughly 2.1 million migrants <a href="https://www.liberalpatriot.com/p/everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know" target="_blank">crossed the southern border</a>. In a country of 332 million, that is 0.6% of the population. I don't think that qualifies as "swamped."</p><p>In the end, all of these lies are simply code for tapping into the underlying racism of those who fear being "replaced" by black/brown immigrants. I am reminded of the fact that <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/01/shithole-countries/580054/">even Trump</a> said he wanted more immigrants from [white] countries like Norway after he suggested that we should get rid of those from "shithole countries" like Haiti. In other words, this isn't about immigration - it's all about racism.</p><p>The bottom line is that we have nothing to fear when it comes to these migrants. The real problem is that the system we have in place is not capable of handling this <a href="https://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2023/12/name-it-we-are-experiencing-refugee.html" target="_blank">refugee crisis</a> - which is why Congress needs to pass legislation to fix it. That is not a call to open our borders, but <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/news/2023/10/20/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-supplemental-funding-request" target="_blank">a pathway</a> towards staffing up to have an orderly and humane process.</p><p>The truth is that we are currently in the midst of a <a href="https://www.prb.org/articles/want-another-perspective-on-the-u-s-labor-shortage-talk-to-a-demographer/" target="_blank">labor shortage</a> due to the fact that baby boomers are aging out of the workforce. A well-ordered immigration process could play a part in solving that one. But for Republicans, the solutions are to <a href="https://stateline.org/2023/04/17/with-workers-scarce-some-states-seek-to-loosen-child-labor-laws/" target="_blank">eliminate child labor laws</a> and/or <a href="https://twitter.com/HouseJudiciary/status/1717183190463336780" target="_blank">outlaw abortion</a> (perhaps even birth control) so that women are forced to have more babies. In other words, they're willing to sacrifice women and children in order to maintain their white privilege. How sick is that?! </p>Nancy LeTourneauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12614317154146836694noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163441833245663827.post-2134818091430441302024-01-14T13:11:00.002-06:002024-01-14T13:15:06.267-06:00Next target for white supremacists: the Civil Rights Act of 1964<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-L0SYXfL0sE6b27YwcynpZSTnfAO74DxOIzGrjefBGpnjRAr91PnkNMJcARt68Asxl1fF5FYyLfFAZK71rsWiXu1WMMPvli7ZXbLme04R17NhqoLElizH4vgj5_ywtv6jsopono8Lm2LQqaxNrswYP-Dym7a7tcn0lMQXwv6qtiuWqNaWRBt-SqweGhD8/s420/Charlie%20Kirk.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="420" height="366" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-L0SYXfL0sE6b27YwcynpZSTnfAO74DxOIzGrjefBGpnjRAr91PnkNMJcARt68Asxl1fF5FYyLfFAZK71rsWiXu1WMMPvli7ZXbLme04R17NhqoLElizH4vgj5_ywtv6jsopono8Lm2LQqaxNrswYP-Dym7a7tcn0lMQXwv6qtiuWqNaWRBt-SqweGhD8/w640-h366/Charlie%20Kirk.png" width="640" /></a></div><p>In the interest of accountability, I need to acknowledge that something I wrote recently wasn't entirely accurate. I <a href="https://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2024/01/for-christian-nationalists-its-always.html" target="_blank">suggested</a> that, as we head into Martin Luther King Day, we'd be hearing lots of hypocritical praise of the civil rights leader from voices on the right. While that might still be partially accurate, I wrote that <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/charlie-kirk-tpusa-mlk-civil-rights-act/" target="_blank">before I saw this</a>: </p><blockquote>[Charlie Kirk] recently said that he plans to release content to discredit MLK on January 15, King’s birthday, which is a US federal holiday honoring King.<br /><br />“We're gonna be hitting him next week,” Kirk said on his podcast this week. “Yeah, on the day of the Iowa caucus, it's MLK Day. We're gonna do the thing you're not supposed to do. We're gonna tell the truth about MLK Jr. You better tune in next week. Blake has already been preparing. It's gonna be great.”</blockquote><p>"Blake" is a reference to Blake Neff, Kirk's producer who was apparently <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/10/media/tucker-carlson-writer-blake-neff/index.html" target="_blank">even too racist</a> for Fox <strike>News</strike>. </p><p>But these attacks aren't merely an attempt to discredit Dr. King. </p><blockquote>Kirk argues that the Civil Rights Act, which bars discrimination on the basis of race, ushered in a “permanent DEI-type bureaucracy,” referring to diversity, equity, and inclusion...<br /><br />“The courts have been really weak on this,” Kirk told the America Fest crowd. “Federal courts just yield to the Civil Rights Act as if it's the actual American Constitution.” The law is ultimately a way to “re-found the county” and “a way to get rid of the First Amendment,” according to Kirk.</blockquote><p>In other words, an attack on King is the entry point to an attack on one of the singular achievements of the Civil Rights Movement.</p><p>That tells us where this whole anti-DEI propaganda is headed. They've <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/newest-attack-voting-rights-act" target="_blank">successfully launched</a> attacks on affirmative action and the Voting Rights Act, so now they want to do the same thing to the Civil Rights Act - taking us back to the days when the Jim Crow laws of the south were legal. The claim is that the Civil Rights Act <a href="https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1746199268522692666" target="_blank">nullified</a> the First Amendment rights [of white people].</p><p>Simultaneously, it was <a href="https://twitter.com/jennycohn1/status/1746317410343518654" target="_blank">announced</a> that Charlie Kirk's Turning Point USA will partner with New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) leader Lance Wallnau to help re-elect Trump. Wallnau and NAR are <a href="https://www.salon.com/2024/01/02/meet-the-new-apostolic-reformation-cutting-edge-of-the-christian-right/" target="_blank">dominionists</a> - “the theocratic idea that … Christians are called by God to exercise dominion over every aspect of society by taking control of political and cultural institutions.” So once again we see Christian Nationalists joining forces with white supremacists to sow division via racism and undermine our democracy.</p>Nancy LeTourneauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12614317154146836694noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163441833245663827.post-72653915607234631182024-01-12T14:36:00.004-06:002024-01-12T14:49:06.685-06:00For Christian Nationalists, it's always been about racism<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoEkF9ygSO8HXi9B7MIFVnEatGW5xiREpGlJUzBzYQQpEkzvCtUFcXueQmi71UuRPZ9oMawZ6BPGYK4S4XlXskD2qusm4QY381gXTJyYkTv8cSjEu_rpqX1kr7FhZGvCNEapNjYSTTc0NaZr-Ca3frpdAaP8SNpNfCTcIueLrx1BYyCMlOhtqhikovHNLJ/s3000/Jerry%20Falwell.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1950" data-original-width="3000" height="416" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoEkF9ygSO8HXi9B7MIFVnEatGW5xiREpGlJUzBzYQQpEkzvCtUFcXueQmi71UuRPZ9oMawZ6BPGYK4S4XlXskD2qusm4QY381gXTJyYkTv8cSjEu_rpqX1kr7FhZGvCNEapNjYSTTc0NaZr-Ca3frpdAaP8SNpNfCTcIueLrx1BYyCMlOhtqhikovHNLJ/w640-h416/Jerry%20Falwell.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><p>On Monday we celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday. Even as Christian Nationalists attempt to dismantle everything he accomplished, we're likely to once again be subject to hypocritical praise of the leader of the Civil Rights Movement. So let's review some history.</p><p>We'll start with one of the founders of the current religious right - Jerry Falwell. Following the 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown vs. Board of Education, he gave a sermon titled "Segregation or Integration: Which?" and declared:</p><blockquote>If Chief Justice Warren and his associates had known God’s word and had desired to do the Lord’s will, I am quite confident that the 1954 decision would never have been made. The facilities should be separate. When God has drawn a line of distinction, we should not attempt to cross that line...<br /><br />The true Negro does not want integration…. He realizes his potential is far better among his own race.</blockquote><p>So according to Falwell, both God and "the true Negro" endorse segregation. </p><p>Then in 1965, Falwell gave another sermon titled "Ministers and Marches" in which he attacked MLK as a communist subversive and claimed that "preachers are not called to be politicians, but soul winners." He went on to blame the "marchers" for instigating hate and violence, saying:</p><p></p><blockquote>I am fearful that all the rioting and demonstrating has produced a great amount of hate as evidenced through recent murders and other forms of violence.</blockquote><p></p><p>The date of that sermon is significant. It came on March 21, 1965, a mere two weeks after this happened in Selma, Alabama:</p>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dPCF6_E2Tq4?si=5PuDC9AbKbkuCWkC" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe><div><br /></div><div>Two days after Bloody Sunday, white supremacists murdered civil rights activist James Reeb, who had come to Selma to participate in subsequent marches. Falwell seemed to suggest that it was non-violent protesters who were responsible for his death.</div><div><br /></div><div>Finally, Falwell's sermon was delivered on the SAME DAY that Dr. King joined John Lewis and others in a second march from Selma to Montgomery in the fight for voting rights.</div><div><br /></div><div>Years later, Falwell had to recant that sermon when he helped found the so-called "Moral Majority," the pre-cursor to Christian Nationalism. By then he was promoting the idea that preachers must involve themselves in politics. But contrary to what we've often been taught, <a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/05/religious-right-real-origins-107133/" target="_blank">he was NOT motivated</a> by the fight against the Supreme Court's 1973 decision in Roe vs. Wade, but due to the 1971 ruling in Green v. Connally which, based on Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, striped "<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180730080443/http://www.southerneducation.org/Our-Strategies/Research-and-Publications/Race-Ethnicity-Landing-Pages/A-History-of-Private-Schools-Race-in-the-American.aspx" target="_blank">segregation academies</a>" of their tax exempt status for discrimination. </div><div><br /></div><div>Of course, Christian nationalists are free to hypocritically cherry-pick quotes from Dr. King because, as long as we are still a democracy, they have the right to free speech. But the rest of us are also free to remind everyone of their past and current behavior - which is designed to undermine everything the Civil Rights leader stood for. </div>Nancy LeTourneauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12614317154146836694noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163441833245663827.post-13263441102590757252024-01-05T14:15:00.005-06:002024-01-05T14:25:22.884-06:00Speaker Johnson - who claims to base his political positions on the Bible - just told 7 lies in 4 minutes.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFEhbLalgp7x82ayCQQFQ_jFFRiQINKLoAILZkLZJ4UhO_WXs2t8HUII3JdIa5lFxtkRSR3FL05HV_E5y55ljvK8PwGz5-32zVWHYGexRvhNr9Q2YW-a_2AuAYpLbzB3BMHEEgLKjoEyUMhc0MZ4mh7KRDElHgNklPEsyD3G3wvkvZMlcbPGrtRESBVZ7s/s1920/Mike%20Johnson.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFEhbLalgp7x82ayCQQFQ_jFFRiQINKLoAILZkLZJ4UhO_WXs2t8HUII3JdIa5lFxtkRSR3FL05HV_E5y55ljvK8PwGz5-32zVWHYGexRvhNr9Q2YW-a_2AuAYpLbzB3BMHEEgLKjoEyUMhc0MZ4mh7KRDElHgNklPEsyD3G3wvkvZMlcbPGrtRESBVZ7s/w640-h360/Mike%20Johnson.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p>During his photo-op trip to the southern border, Speaker Mike Johnson was interviewed by CNN's Jake Tapper. </p>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zEOHevCgYKg?si=3kGCZnf2aaAXcMoE" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe> <div><br /></div><div>In just the first four minutes, Johnson told seven lies.</div><div><br /></div><div>1. Speaking about President Biden's supplemental $14 billion for border security, Johnson said (emphasis mine) "the White House is proposing more money to process and allow more <b>illegals</b> into the country." As the conversation progressed, it became clear that the Speaker was referring to funding for 1,600 asylum officers that would address the growing backlog of cases. But <a href="https://www.rescue.org/article/it-legal-cross-us-border-seek-asylum" target="_blank">according to U.S. law</a>, asylum seekers are NOT "illegal."</div><blockquote>The right to seek asylum was incorporated into international law following the atrocities of World War II. Congress adopted key provisions of the Geneva Refugee Convention (including the international definition of a refugee) into U.S. immigration law when it passed the Refugee Act of 1980.</blockquote><p>2. In trying to ramp up fear about the number of migrants crossing the border, Johnson said, "We have nearly two million got-aways that we know about, not to mention those who evaded capture." Here's what he's <a href="The pattern is unmistakable: Gotaways increased almost continuously in parallel with the use of Title 42 before falling sharply after it ended.">referring</a> to:</p><p></p><blockquote>Border Patrol refers to detected illegal entrants who it fails to arrest as “gotaways.” Thanks to nearly universal surveillance along the southwest border, successfully entering illegally without detection is very difficult, but Border Patrol often cannot reach the spot where a crossing occurs in time to arrest the person.</blockquote><p></p><p>As you may know, Trump instituted Title 42 during the pandemic to return border crossers to Mexico. Biden finally ended that policy last May. Here's what happened:</p><blockquote>The pattern is unmistakable: Gotaways increased almost continuously in parallel with the use of Title 42 before falling sharply after it ended.</blockquote><p>3. "We have...over 300 known terrorists apprehended at the border trying to come in. We don't know how many evaded capture and detection. They're in the country potentially setting up terrorist cells everywhere."</p><p>In other words, the Biden administration has <b>apprehended</b> 300 people at the border who are on the terror watch list. The Speaker should be congratulating them for that. Instead, with absolutely zero evidence, he claims that there are others who evaded capture and are "setting up terrorist cells everywhere."</p><p>4. "Fentanyl is the number one cause of death for Americans aged 18 to 49 flowing over the border like an open sewer." Here are <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/08/09/1191638114/fentanyl-smuggling-migrants-mexico-border-drugs" target="_blank">the facts</a>:</p><blockquote>[T]he vast majority of illicit fentanyl — close to 90% — is seized at official border crossings. Immigration authorities say nearly all of that is smuggled by people who are legally authorized to cross the border, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0EurNtLz0M&t=5232s">more than half</a> by U.S. citizens...Virtually none is seized from migrants seeking asylum.</blockquote><p>5. "[Biden] could issue executive orders and fix this overnight. You could reinstate the remain-in-Mexico policy." <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/mexico-rejects-effort-reinstate-remain-mexico-policy-asylum/story?id=96939554" target="_blank">Not true</a>. That's because it would require cooperation from Mexico.</p><blockquote>Mexico's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Monday it rejects any effort to reimplement the controversial Trump-era policy known as "remain in Mexico" for asylum-seekers...<div><br />"Regarding the possible implementation of this policy for the third time, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on behalf of the Government of Mexico, expresses its rejection of the U.S. government's intention to return individuals processed under the program to Mexico," the statement said.</div></blockquote><p>Besides, if Johnson is so worried about the cartels that are profiting off of this crisis, here's a bit about how they terrorized migrants who were "remaining in Mexico" under the <a href="https://www.wola.org/2022/04/u-s-migration-policy-is-enriching-cartels-at-the-busiest-and-most-dangerous-part-of-the-u-s-mexico-border/" target="_blank">previous policy</a>.</p><blockquote>I was struck by the level of control that organized crime has over the lives of residents, and especially of migrants...Cold War-era East German officials would be impressed. Nobody is allowed near the Rio Grande: riverfront parks sit empty. Those who try to cross without having paid a fee are beaten, or worse. Those who lack a “password” or other proof that they have paid cartels’ exorbitant fees are kidnapped. Migrants, including parents and children, get held in fetid stash houses, while their captors text terrifying videos to relatives in the United States, instructing them to transfer ransom payments in the thousands of dollars. If nobody pays, they are disappeared, enslaved—forced to perform labor for the cartels—or even killed.</blockquote><p>6. "<span style="background-color: whitesmoke; font-family: Domine, serif; font-size: 16px;">Y</span>ou could stop the catch-and-release policy that the Biden administration insists upon." I suppose this isn't technically a lie because he's referring to migrants who pass the "credible threat assessment" and are released pending their asylum hearing. It is theoretically possible that the U.S. could detain all of them. But where? Perhaps the bigger point is, "why detain them" when 95% <a href="https://www.factcheck.org/2021/04/factchecking-claims-about-asylum-grants-and-immigration-court-attendance/" target="_blank">attend </a>all of their court hearings.</p><p>7. "[W]e have hardened criminals who are coming from all these countries around the world...They're opening prisons and sending them here." This is the most outrageous lie of all. First of all, it's not clear what he's referring to. I doubt it is this <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/09/americas/nicaragua-political-prisoners-intl-latam/index.html" target="_blank">from last February</a>:</p><blockquote>The Nicaraguan government released more than 200 political prisoners, many of whom arrived in the United States on Thursday, according to officials, following years of repression by the country’s President Daniel Ortega. <br /><br />The authoritarian leader has jailed dozens of opposition figures and activists, particularly in the lead up to the last elections in November of 2021...<br /><br />The individuals, who all flew to Dulles International airport, will be granted humanitarian parole for two years, allowing them to remain US and giving them the time to apply for asylum if they wish.</blockquote><p>Those are precisely the kind of migrants our asylum laws are meant to protect. So it's more likely that Johnson was referring to this: </p><div></div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">🚨BREAKING🚨<br /><br />DHS confirms that Venezuela empties prisons and sends violent criminals to our southern border. <br /><br />President Trump warned us about this years ago.</p>— Congressman Troy E. Nehls (@RepTroyNehls) <a href="https://twitter.com/RepTroyNehls/status/1571595083513827329?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 18, 2022</a></blockquote><p>According to <a href="https://www.statesman.com/story/news/politics/politifact/2022/10/04/fact-checking-claim-on-venezuela-sending-prisoners-to-the-us-border/69535375007/" target="_blank">fact-checkers</a>, that one comes from an article in Breitbart based on "a source within" Customs and Border Protection who is "not authorized to speak to the media." It was subsequently repeated by Fox News and several other right-wing sites. But...</p><blockquote>PolitiFact searched the websites of the <a href="https://www.oig.dhs.gov/news/press-releases">DHS Office of the Inspector General</a>, <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/all-news-updates">DHS</a> and <a href="https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom">CBP</a> and found no public reports or mentions of Venezuela’s government releasing prisoners and sending them to the U.S.</blockquote><p>So there you have it. The guy who claims to base his political positions on the Bible is perfectly content to tell lies. I'm not sure what Bible he's reading, but it's certainly not the one that says this in Proverbs 12:22: "The Lord detests lying lips." </p> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>Nancy LeTourneauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12614317154146836694noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163441833245663827.post-27442303201366144052024-01-03T13:14:00.000-06:002024-01-03T13:14:36.523-06:00When it comes to immigrants, Republicans have nothing but lies.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwhJLbZWPc9Vt7ZmyvynVspciHxf8IvFJAwISi-uZP9DbB5MbGoQ6MHwAGgRUdvnXD4i68uY0TaBAfxS_0Lw3xMU1HCYKbkdrPJQAT1hVWYSIFinrp2YCtj8WerDlZHRtp7Kv8Nw2o5NnK9n4yVYl8uxnFZl-mEVksQjA_QIyQ95Rv0HyuPvA9hFKM3CBF/s970/We%20are%20all%20immigrants.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="970" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwhJLbZWPc9Vt7ZmyvynVspciHxf8IvFJAwISi-uZP9DbB5MbGoQ6MHwAGgRUdvnXD4i68uY0TaBAfxS_0Lw3xMU1HCYKbkdrPJQAT1hVWYSIFinrp2YCtj8WerDlZHRtp7Kv8Nw2o5NnK9n4yVYl8uxnFZl-mEVksQjA_QIyQ95Rv0HyuPvA9hFKM3CBF/w640-h296/We%20are%20all%20immigrants.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><p>If you don't pay attention to what MAGA Republicans are doing or what is being reported at right wing news outlets, you might not be aware of the fact that their attempts to fear-monger are now focusing almost exclusively on the so-called "border crisis." As I <a href="https://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2023/12/name-it-we-are-experiencing-refugee.html" target="_blank">noted previously</a>, with the economy doing so well and crime rates dropping, they don't have anything else to ramp up the rage on the right. </p><p>So today, NPR <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/01/03/1222600920/mayorkas-immigration-republicans-border-visit" target="_blank">reports</a> that immigration is shaping up to be a major campaign issue as House Speaker Mike Johnson leads a delegation of 60 Republicans on a visit to the Eagle Pass port of entry in Texas. </p><p>But even more noteworthy, Johnson has <a href="https://punchbowl.news/archive/1324-punchbowl-news-am/" target="_blank">signed off</a> on an effort to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas over his handling of the border. Proceedings will begin next week. The claim is that he refused "to enforce the laws passed by Congress, and that his failure to fulfill his oath of office demands accountability." Of course, that's all bullsh*t. Since Republicans won't be able to prove that Mayorkas committed any high crimes or misdemeanors, they simply want to use the opportunity to spread their fear-mongering lies. As an example, here's what they have planned for their first hearing:</p><blockquote>[Homeland Security Committee Chair Mark] Green’s first hearing is expected to be titled: “Havoc in the Heartland: How Secretary Mayorkas’ Failed Leadership Has Impacted the States.”<br /><br />The hearing will explore how Midwestern states have grappled with the flow of migrants that have increasingly come across the southern border in recent years.</blockquote><p>I doubt Green will want to hear from <a href="https://time.com/6185152/rural-america-immigrants/" target="_blank">people like</a> Robert Leonard, who lives in Knoxsville, Iowa (emphasis mine). </p><blockquote>We should help and welcome refugees because we can, but also, if you need a cold-hearted economic reason, <b>because we need them</b>. Iowa Workforce Development reports that in December of 2019, Iowa had 60,000 job openings, and 49,000 unemployed people. The job openings have nearly doubled since then. In February of this year, our job openings had grown to 109,000 jobs open, with 59,500 people unemployed. Inviting immigrants, and having the support system in place to help them as they arrive, isn’t a cost, it’s an investment.</blockquote><p>That's why it's important for the rest of us to understand what's going on and call out the lies. As I've documented, we are experiencing a <a href="https://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2023/12/name-it-we-are-experiencing-refugee.html" target="_blank">refugee crisis</a>, not a border crisis. Being clear about that shifts the focus away from fear-mongering and towards policies that will work. </p><p>There is one thing we can all agree on: encounters with migrants on our southern border have been rising - especially since 2021.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMaAYJvXu4X84WFPGkTm_EtpWsv6512TbUA1nnbC_UPQ7WSTn0oxmVACJFMT-34J9bYk9C-dlIcoXzYHbkipXG3LbtOyQZI88YFRZkFWdXb4R0VELhwWdHwZgECvAwbwt1X21r311kNMhREJDxMdu5iteMjv31HJ7D9xSwZbj1MdMDOorPMRLHDowsOiEK/s1268/Border%20apprehensions.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1224" data-original-width="1268" height="618" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMaAYJvXu4X84WFPGkTm_EtpWsv6512TbUA1nnbC_UPQ7WSTn0oxmVACJFMT-34J9bYk9C-dlIcoXzYHbkipXG3LbtOyQZI88YFRZkFWdXb4R0VELhwWdHwZgECvAwbwt1X21r311kNMhREJDxMdu5iteMjv31HJ7D9xSwZbj1MdMDOorPMRLHDowsOiEK/w640-h618/Border%20apprehensions.png" width="640" /></a></div><p>However, that's where the agreement ends because Republicans decided to embrace fear-mongering about immigration as part of their agenda back in 2013. It all started when House Speaker Boehner refused to bring up the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border_Security,_Economic_Opportunity,_and_Immigration_Modernization_Act_of_2013#:~:text=The%20bill%20contains%20provisions%20for,increased%20protections%20of%20U.S.%20workers." target="_blank">bi-partisan immigration reform bill</a> that had passed the Senate. At the time, the focus was on the 11 million undocumented migrants who were already in the country and workers from Mexico crossing the border illegally. </p><p>Arguments made by Republicans at the time <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/making-sense/4-myths-about-how-immigrants-affect-the-u-s-economy" target="_blank">focused on lies</a> about immigrants taking away jobs from "real Americans" and being a drain on our economy. With the advent of Donald Trump's foray into national politics, immigrants became a central issue of his 2016 presidential campaign and the lies shifted to the idea that <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/06/19/two-charts-demolish-the-notion-that-immigrants-here-illegally-commit-more-crime/" target="_blank">immigrants are criminals</a>. That one has morphed into a <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/08/09/1191638114/fentanyl-smuggling-migrants-mexico-border-drugs" target="_blank">lie tying fentanyl</a> to the so-called "border crisis."</p><p>These days we're hearing a lot about this whole thing being a Democratic plot.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-HApD-svyHxQkEdpdg9GdLjKAaPdO9XJ0tj0DT4fYQl-0cFPuh1L-K-9v_ZnSl9rJCtiJ9rZPO6MPmztwnl8CijjPyhWrwUhrrMTlExdI8YEeD7buWa1a655Tw_2nzyVOkxceQ-hRXevyIrsmRweWQ_azsOSxtCB5eMrORRhRgl4U-KRp_95Xnmj7LVYa/s1179/Trump%20on%20immigrants.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1105" data-original-width="1179" height="600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-HApD-svyHxQkEdpdg9GdLjKAaPdO9XJ0tj0DT4fYQl-0cFPuh1L-K-9v_ZnSl9rJCtiJ9rZPO6MPmztwnl8CijjPyhWrwUhrrMTlExdI8YEeD7buWa1a655Tw_2nzyVOkxceQ-hRXevyIrsmRweWQ_azsOSxtCB5eMrORRhRgl4U-KRp_95Xnmj7LVYa/w640-h600/Trump%20on%20immigrants.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><p>That leads directly to the white nationalist "great replacement theory." Putting an exclamation point on that one, Trump actually said that these immigrants are "poisoning the blood" of our country. </p><p>Adding to the fascist nature of these lies, today I saw the <a href="https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2023/12/27/leprosy_polio_malaria_tb_measles__and_massive_unscreened_illegal_immigration_1000817.html" target="_blank">first article</a> from a right wing news outlet (RealClearPolitics) claiming that immigrants are bringing in diseases like leprosy, polio, TB, and measles. That's right out of <a href="https://perspectives.ushmm.org/item/propaganda-poster-jews-are-lice-they-cause-typhus" target="_blank">Hitler's playbook</a>. </p><p>All of these lies have one thing in common: they are designed to spread fear about these migrants, which allows Republicans to blame Biden and Democrats for the crisis. But let's take a look at what they are actually proposing. </p><p>Republicans in the House passed the Secure Borders Act (H.R. 2) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) introduced similar legislation in the Senate. Here's some of what that legislation would do:</p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><i>Require the Department of Homeland Security to resume border wall construction</i>. A total waste of tax dollars given that the <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/10/17/us-mexico-border-open-borders-myth" target="_blank">southern border</a> is more fortified than it's ever been and asylum-seekers turn themselves in to Border Patrol.</li><li><i>Tighten asylum standards by requiring migrants to prove they are “more likely than not” to qualify for their asylum claim</i>. This would make it more difficult for migrants to pass the initial "credible fear assessment."</li><li><i>Narrow DHS’s power to unilaterally grant parole to migrants</i>. This is the program that was used to allow refugees from Ukraine and Afghanistan to enter the country. The Biden administration is now applying it to refugees from Nicaragua, Cuba, Haiti, and Venezuela - with <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/stuartanderson/2023/03/21/gop-state-lawsuit-could-end-effective-immigration-parole-programs/?sh=3a6d70eb5c19" target="_blank">extremely positive results</a>.</li><li><i>Stop NGOs from using tax dollars to transport or lodge migrants and provide them with lawyers</i>. Yes, Republicans want to stop federal dollars going to NGO's that provide shelter, transportation, and legal counsel to refugees while they await their asylum hearing.</li><li><i>Restrict DHS from using its CBP One app</i>. This is the phone app that allows migrants to schedule an asylum assessment at a port of entry. </li></ol><p></p><p>In summary, Republicans want to end two Biden programs that are working (the parole program and CBP One), make it harder for migrants to claim asylum, make life more difficult for migrants awaiting asylum hearings, and build a useless border wall. Other than wanting to take a sledge hammer to anything Biden has done, that sure looks like some weak sauce to me - especially after all of the hair-on-fire fear-mongering they've been doing. </p><p>In the end, those of us who live in the reality-based world need to reckon with two things (1) be clear that this is not a border crisis, but a refugee crisis, and (2) decide if there is any reason to fear asylum-seekers. If not, we need to beef up the processes for screening and welcome them into our melting pot. The <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/editorial-pittsburgh-needs-immigrants-and-immigrants-need-an-immigration-court/ar-AA1m5By5" target="_blank">truth is</a> - <a href="https://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2022/01/republicans-want-to-talk-about.html" target="_blank">we need them</a>!</p>Nancy LeTourneauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12614317154146836694noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163441833245663827.post-23632223050653442362023-12-31T11:46:00.000-06:002023-12-31T11:46:54.427-06:00Name it! We are experiencing a refugee crisis, not a border crisis.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3hsI0nenWsguUHMad7ivtSG7nlnqwXSNkJW9W3cQKoQwzOkSJmceybxqntcUi1kzkRniDjUTnbHIqI2tG3_3KH2C6qnkUC2Muv3VJeK3vsOj6J15paVaJgVKHzgZNg8sOjpPhoi4FvcssFZHk9yDx4jDnJ7BFwDZJDQHwf32RTCDF7pPQJBIdtwjphInA/s760/migrants%20await%20processing.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="507" data-original-width="760" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3hsI0nenWsguUHMad7ivtSG7nlnqwXSNkJW9W3cQKoQwzOkSJmceybxqntcUi1kzkRniDjUTnbHIqI2tG3_3KH2C6qnkUC2Muv3VJeK3vsOj6J15paVaJgVKHzgZNg8sOjpPhoi4FvcssFZHk9yDx4jDnJ7BFwDZJDQHwf32RTCDF7pPQJBIdtwjphInA/w640-h426/migrants%20await%20processing.webp" width="640" /></a></div><p>I recently <a href="https://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-gops-case-against-bidens-domestic.html" target="_blank">wrote</a> that the GOP's case against Biden's domestic policies is all based on lies. Since then Republicans have found it increasingly difficult to scare-monger about issues like inflation and crime. But images like this are ramping up the salience of the so-called "border crisis." </p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Good morning from Eagle Pass, the latest epicenter of the humanitarian crisis along the US-Mexico border.<br /><br />Thousands of migrants slept here, waiting for overwhelmed border agents to process them.<br /><br />More than 10,000 migrants crossed the southern border in the past 24 hours alone. <a href="https://t.co/xs9xxipfOW">pic.twitter.com/xs9xxipfOW</a></p>— Camilo Montoya-Galvez (@camiloreports) <a href="https://twitter.com/camiloreports/status/1737125601515831670?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 19, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>Let's be clear about what is going on here. Note that migrants are "waiting for overwhelmed border agents to process them" and that Eagle Pass is a port of entry on our Southern border. Taken together, we know that those thousands of migrants have voluntarily presented themselves to Border Patrol at a port of entry (as the Biden administration requires) in order to seek asylum. <div><br /></div><div>The first steps in that process are to undergo a background check and participate in a "credible threat assessment." The latter is designed to determine if there is a “significant possibility” they will face persecution on “account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion” if they return to their home country. </div><div><br /></div><div>Those who fail to pass this initial step (about 25%) are immediately subject to deportation (ie, from May-September 2023, over 253,000 individuals <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/news/2023/09/20/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-takes-new-actions-increase-border" target="_blank">were removed or returned</a> to 152 countries). Those who pass are released (often to family and/or NGO's) to await their day in court - which can take up to four years due to the <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/12/27/immigration-court-backlog-grows/72030952007/" target="_blank">current backlog</a> of cases. Those procedures are all codified in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refugee_Act" target="_blank">Refugee Act of 1980</a> - which passed the Senate unanimously and the House on a vote of 211-195.</div><div><br /></div><div>The numbers <a href="https://nfap.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/The-Historic-Refugee-Crisis.NFAP-Policy-Brief.January-2023.pdf">tell the story</a> of what is happening today.</div><ul><li>As of October 2022, there were more than 7.1 million refugees and migrants from Venezuela around the world. Approximately 1.8 million Venezuelans have gone to Colombia and 1.3 million to Peru. U.S. Border Patrol encounters with Venezuelans increased 15,164% between FY 2020 and FY 2022.</li><li>U.S. Border Patrol encounters with Nicaraguans increased 7,604% between FY 2020 and FY 2022.</li><li>U.S. Border Patrol encounters with Cubans increased 2,143% between FY 2020 and FY 2022.</li><li>Between FY 2020 and FY 2022, U.S. Border Patrol encounters increased 560% for Haitians, 465% for Salvadorans, 397% for Hondurans and 383% for Guatemalans.</li></ul>It is time we named this for what it is. We don't have a "border crisis" in this country. We are in the midst of a "refugee crisis." As Stuart Anderson <a href="https://nfap.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/The-Historic-Refugee-Crisis.NFAP-Policy-Brief.January-2023.pdf" target="_blank">wrote</a>:<blockquote>Criticism of the increase in Border Patrol encounters has implied that individuals would not come to the United States if U.S. immigration policy were sufficiently harsh. However, the countries from which people are seeking refuge have experienced economic and political upheavals. These upheavals or continuing violence and repression have created a large number of refugees.</blockquote><p>What images like the one in the tweet up above tell us is that, as a country, we are woefully unprepared to deal with the refugee crisis we are facing. But once we've correctly identified the problem, we can compare and contrast the solutions proposed by Democrats and Republicans.</p><p>Fist of all, not many people know that the first bill President Biden <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/01/20/fact-sheet-president-biden-sends-immigration-bill-to-congress-as-part-of-his-commitment-to-modernize-our-immigration-system/" target="_blank">sent to Congress</a> on January 20, 2021 was a comprehensive immigration reform bill. </p><blockquote>The legislation modernizes our immigration system, and prioritizes keeping families together, growing our economy, responsibly managing the border with smart investments, addressing the root causes of migration from Central America, and ensuring that the United States remains a refuge for those fleeing persecution...The bill creates an earned path to citizenship for our immigrant neighbors, colleagues, parishioners, community leaders, friends, and loved ones—including Dreamers and the essential workers who have risked their lives to serve and protect American communities.</blockquote><p>Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-CA) <a href="https://lindasanchez.house.gov/uscitizenshipact" target="_blank">has introduced</a> similar legislation.</p><p>Meanwhile, in order to address the backlog of asylum hearings, President Biden <a href="https://www.justice.gov/d9/pages/attachments/2020/01/31/25_immigration_judge_hiring_1.pdf" target="_blank">has added</a> 302 judges to immigration courts (a 54% increase) and has done several things to <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-is-title-8-immigration-law-vs-title-42-border-policy/" target="_blank">address the refugee crisis</a> directly.</p><p></p><blockquote>Migrants in northern and central Mexico can use a government phone app, known as CBP One, to try to secure an appointment to enter the U.S. at a port of entry along the southern border. The U.S. is distributing roughly 1,000 appointments per day...<br /><br />Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan and Venezuelan migrants also have the option of flying to the U.S. if U.S.-based individuals agree to financially sponsor them. The Biden administration's program allows for up to 30,000 of these arrivals per month.<br /></blockquote><p>Biden's supplemental budget request for aid to Israel, Ukraine, and the refugee crisis included funding for additional border patrol officers, asylum officers, and immigration attorneys, as well as detention beds, non-custodial housing and cutting-edge detection technology. Demonstrating that they're not interested in actually solving the refugee crisis, Republicans rejected that request. </p><p>In a subsequent piece I'll fact-check the lies Republicans are telling about this issue and demonstrate that they're not only proposing procedures that won't work - they also want to dismantle the Biden administration efforts that ARE working. </p><p></p>Nancy LeTourneauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12614317154146836694noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163441833245663827.post-37154016429995635242023-12-15T14:02:00.003-06:002023-12-15T14:08:58.311-06:00When Trump left the White House, the Brennan dossier disappeared<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP-Trcd95QkLJ5f5UzLbedOSDzaCvjmghv31Fr4nf1Hlzk9JBTJHyHhI88x7R3tmrz9rDAvfLhPLnQ43r9l0AZy1MpX8Pa9VIZKgSIDg9UJpYxjD8pP32PsQ2Qyvox-MA5obYTYuBtzR2F1rv_nWysyEqBg6bPacbdcGSPNLTq0p50_qWQeDZ5JWKvSLo_/s1600/Trump%20Brennan.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP-Trcd95QkLJ5f5UzLbedOSDzaCvjmghv31Fr4nf1Hlzk9JBTJHyHhI88x7R3tmrz9rDAvfLhPLnQ43r9l0AZy1MpX8Pa9VIZKgSIDg9UJpYxjD8pP32PsQ2Qyvox-MA5obYTYuBtzR2F1rv_nWysyEqBg6bPacbdcGSPNLTq0p50_qWQeDZ5JWKvSLo_/w640-h360/Trump%20Brennan.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><p>Today CNN reporters <a href="https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2023/12/politics/missing-russia-intelligence-trump-dg/" target="_blank">dropped</a> a bit of a bombshell.</p><blockquote>A binder containing highly classified information related to Russian election interference went missing at the end of Donald Trump’s presidency, raising alarms among intelligence officials that some of the most closely guarded national security secrets from the US and its allies could be exposed, sources familiar with the matter told CNN...<br /><br />The binder contained raw intelligence the US and its NATO allies collected on Russians and Russian agents, including sources and methods that informed the US government’s <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2017/01/06/politics/intelligence-report-putin-election/index.html">assessment</a> that Russian President Vladimir Putin sought to help Trump win the 2016 election, sources tell CNN...<br /><br />The Russian intelligence was just a small part of the collection of documents in the binder, described as being 10 inches thick and containing reams of information about the FBI’s “Crossfire Hurricane” investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia.</blockquote><p>I want to focus on the part of the binder that contained "Russian intelligence" because I'm pretty sure that I know the source of that material. In the past, I've <a href="https://washingtonmonthly.com/2018/09/19/trump-should-be-more-worried-about-the-brennan-dossier/" target="_blank">referred</a> to it as the "Brennan dossier." Here's what Greg Miller wrote in his book <i>The Apprentice: Trump, Russia and the Subversion of American Democracy </i>(emphasis mine)<i>. </i></p><blockquote>In the months leading up to the 2016 election, senior [CIA] officials held a series of meetings...seeking to make sense of disconcerting reports that Moscow had mounted a covert operation to upend the U.S. presidential race.<br /><br />By early August, the sense of alarm had become so acute that CIA Director John Brennan called White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough. “I need to get in to see the president,” Brennan said, with unusual urgency in his voice.<br /><br />Brennan had just spent two days sequestered in his office reviewing a small mountain of material on Russia…There were piles of finished assessments, but Brennan had also ordered up what agency veterans call the “raw stuff” — unprocessed material from informants, listening devices, computer implants and other sources. Clearing his schedule, Brennan pored over all of it...<br /><br />Brennan’s...call to the White House was driven by...extraordinary intelligence that had surfaced in late July and reached deep inside the Kremlin, showing that <b>Putin was himself directing an “active measures” operation aimed not only at disrupting the U.S. presidential race but electing Trump.</b></blockquote><p>Some of the material Brennan reviewed probably came from our allies, as The Guardian <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/apr/13/british-spies-first-to-spot-trump-team-links-russia" target="_blank">reported</a> back in 2017.</p><blockquote>GCHQ first became aware in late 2015 of suspicious “interactions” between figures connected to Trump and known or suspected Russian agents, a source close to UK intelligence said. This intelligence was passed to the US as part of a routine exchange of information, they added.<br /><br />Over the next six months, until summer 2016, a number of western agencies shared further information on contacts between Trump’s inner circle and Russians, sources said...<br /><br />The alleged conversations were picked up by chance as part of routine surveillance of Russian intelligence assets. Over several months, different agencies targeting the same people began to see a pattern of connections that were flagged to intelligence officials in the US. </blockquote><p>Miller and his colleagues at the Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/world/national-security/obama-putin-election-hacking/?utm_term=.80189b12cf6e" target="_blank">documented</a> what happened next.</p><blockquote>Early last August, an envelope with extraordinary handling restrictions arrived at the White House. Sent by courier from the CIA, it carried “eyes only” instructions that its contents be shown to just four people: President Barack Obama and three senior aides.<br /><br />Inside was an intelligence bombshell, a report drawn from sourcing deep inside the Russian government that detailed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s direct involvement in a cyber campaign to disrupt and discredit the U.S. presidential race.<br /><br />But it went further. The intelligence captured Putin’s specific instructions on the operation’s audacious objectives — defeat or at least damage the Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, and help elect her opponent, Donald Trump. </blockquote><p>As the latest CNN report noted, this was the intelligence that informed the "government’s <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2017/01/06/politics/intelligence-report-putin-election/index.html">assessment</a> that Russian President Vladimir Putin sought to help Trump win the 2016 election." </p><p>When former Attorney General Bill Barr initiated the Durham investigation, an attempt was made to blame the so-called "Russian hoax" on Brennan. As an example, here's what Margot Cleveland <a href="https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/12/23/on-his-way-out-the-door-barr-drops-a-bombshell-about-the-durham-investigation/" target="_blank">wrote about</a> that at The Federalist:</p><blockquote>The evidence suggests that the CIA and intelligence community—including potentially the intelligence communities of the UK, Italy, and Australia—created the contacts and interactions [between Russian agents and the Trump campaign] that they then reported to the FBI as suspicious…<br /><br />These are the questions Barr and Durham should be asking themselves to arrive at the bottom line: Were the Russia connections contrived by the CIA, and was Brennan the plotter-in-chief hoping to prevent a President Trump—or to destroy him later?</blockquote><p>In the end, Durham <a href="https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/12/23/on-his-way-out-the-door-barr-drops-a-bombshell-about-the-durham-investigation/" target="_blank">came up with nothing</a> on Brennan - so he simply <a href="https://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2023/05/durham-to-right-wingers-blame-hillary.html" target="_blank">smeared</a> Hillary Clinton in a not-so-veiled attempt to blame her for the whole thing. </p><p>Today we learned that when Trump left the White House, the Brennan dossier - with all of its raw intelligence data - disappeared. Nine months later, the CIA was <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/575384-cia-admits-to-losing-dozens-of-informants-around-the-world-nyt/">reporting</a> that a concerning number of U.S. informants were being captured and executed. We can only hope that the two events are not connected.</p><p>For his part, Brennan - who served under three different presidents - made his views about Trump's relationship with Putin perfectly clear back in 2018.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Donald Trump’s press conference performance in Helsinki rises to & exceeds the threshold of “high crimes & misdemeanors.” It was nothing short of treasonous. Not only were Trump’s comments imbecilic, he is wholly in the pocket of Putin. Republican Patriots: Where are you???</p>— John O. Brennan (@JohnBrennan) <a href="https://twitter.com/JohnBrennan/status/1018885971104985093?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 16, 2018</a></blockquote>Nancy LeTourneauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12614317154146836694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163441833245663827.post-22750160449028096912023-12-12T12:49:00.000-06:002023-12-12T12:49:39.533-06:00J.D. Vance is the one who has advocated for "open rebellion" against the United States<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJzi5q9KbiWoiGgt0OJfqiEQnNfKm4JT5OLhtKYANjexED8POZyKu1L-evzveqdz9_DokNQi7faWei2a2NEGWxHAS9jwUnUc_Vc6A__YC7weXp8bzP-9jo2CXTl3N4Oeqv2xOL42PI_pTBZhyphenhyphena1Ox3dmx1UvmIuohhYHBBUH3CrYLVfiR0ZAXPuXE3o71T/s1290/JD%20Vance.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="860" data-original-width="1290" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJzi5q9KbiWoiGgt0OJfqiEQnNfKm4JT5OLhtKYANjexED8POZyKu1L-evzveqdz9_DokNQi7faWei2a2NEGWxHAS9jwUnUc_Vc6A__YC7weXp8bzP-9jo2CXTl3N4Oeqv2xOL42PI_pTBZhyphenhyphena1Ox3dmx1UvmIuohhYHBBUH3CrYLVfiR0ZAXPuXE3o71T/w640-h426/JD%20Vance.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p>As a recovering therapist, my brain is still hard-wired to wonder about the motivations behind the absurd behavior of MAGA politicians. So when Sen. J.D. Vance all of the sudden is garnering headlines for doing things like <a href="https://twitter.com/JDVance1/status/1733180193861480741" target="_blank">raging</a> against diversity initiatives or <a href="https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1734288605751734631" target="_blank">smearing</a> Ukrainian President Zelinsky, I think that perhaps he's gotten jealous of all the attention the Republican chaos agents in the House have garnered lately. A sure-fire way to rouse the MAGA troops is to push the boundaries of extremism. So Vance is basically saying "Look at me! I can be a chaos agent too!"</p><p>But one of the other actions Vance took lately caught my eye. He <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/sen-vance-letter-biden-admin-accuses-wapo-writer-encouraging-open-rebellion-against-us" target="_blank">wrote a letter</a> to AG Garland and Sec of State Blinken demanding answers regarding a recent Washington Post op-ed that he said suggested "open rebellion" against the United States.</p><p>The article in question was written by NeverTrump Republican Robert Kagan, an opinion columnist at the Washington Post. The <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/11/30/trump-dictator-2024-election-robert-kagan/" target="_blank">rather lengthy piece</a> was focused on documenting the fact that the odds of an American dictatorship in the next few years are pretty good - given the possible election of Donald Trump. Near the end, Kagan devotes two paragraphs to a couple of options he thinks we'll have as citizens if he's right - both of which he dismisses as unlikely or ineffective. Here's the one Vance focused on:</p><blockquote>Resistance could come from the governors of predominantly Democratic states such as California and New York through a form of nullification. States with Democratic governors and statehouses could refuse to recognize the authority of a tyrannical federal government. That is always an option in our federal system. (Should Biden win, some Republican states might engage in nullification.) But not even the bluest states are monolithic, and Democratic governors are likely to find themselves under siege on their home turf if they try to become bastions of resistance to Trump’s tyranny.</blockquote><p>Personally, I didn't think that Kagan's article was based on solid reasoning - including that paragraph. But what I could have done is write a response documenting my own thoughts. That is what civil discourse in this country ought to look like.</p><p>That's not what Vance did. In his letter he accused Kagan of advocating for "secession, treason, and (likely) political violence," demanding that DOJ open an investigation.</p><p>Beyond the fact that such an investigation would take direct aim at free speech, I would remind Senator Vance that his <a href="https://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2021/12/what-happens-when-member-of-congress.html" target="_blank">MAGA colleagues</a> in the House have openly called for secession.</p><p>But the real reason all of this caught my eye was the blatant hypocrisy. As a reminder, here's what Vance said <a href="https://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2022/04/national-conservatives-are-openly.html" target="_blank">during an interview</a> with Jack Murphy, head of the Liminal Order men’s group. </p><blockquote>“I tend to think that we should seize the institutions of the left,” he said. “And turn them against the left. We need like a de-Baathification program, a de-woke-ification program.”...<br /><br />“And when the courts stop you,” he went on, “stand before the country, and say—” he quoted Andrew Jackson, giving a challenge to the entire constitutional order—“the chief justice has made his ruling. Now let him enforce it.”</blockquote><p>Vance wants Republicans to "seize the institutions of the left," and implement a "de-woke-ification program." If the courts get in the way, he'd basically tell them to f*ck off. </p><p>I know that it has become rather banal these days to point to Republican hypocrisy. But as long as I still have a voice, I'm determined to call out J.D. Vance for the fascist he's proven himself to be. He has no business lecturing anyone about "open rebellion" against the United States! </p>Nancy LeTourneauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12614317154146836694noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163441833245663827.post-13745569381706647842023-12-10T13:48:00.003-06:002023-12-11T16:48:25.639-06:00Trump wants us all to remember that he bragged about committing sexual assault<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixmjdEiH4oNEL3_F1gDNDehyF2VHacX4oQ0qSNRySZz-y5ubBAUsWXmc9F6NBRyvkdile2Y8959S42J0WIWGJULvS-jVk34NdQY91pWy3Y7j0aH-hOWLcHFHLntG0f9K_YNcx4gIcpwmlPlr-AbonpANqEn9786aUxNzimwrDfpRsCWz4qGVKje-_UwoXz/s2636/grab%20em%20by%20the%20pussy.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1757" data-original-width="2636" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixmjdEiH4oNEL3_F1gDNDehyF2VHacX4oQ0qSNRySZz-y5ubBAUsWXmc9F6NBRyvkdile2Y8959S42J0WIWGJULvS-jVk34NdQY91pWy3Y7j0aH-hOWLcHFHLntG0f9K_YNcx4gIcpwmlPlr-AbonpANqEn9786aUxNzimwrDfpRsCWz4qGVKje-_UwoXz/w640-h426/grab%20em%20by%20the%20pussy.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I am glad that so many people (and <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/01/donald-trump-second-term-policies/676176/" target="_blank">some journalists</a>) are beginning to call Donald Trump out for the fascist dictator he's promising to be if re-elected. But I don't feel the need to do that myself. That's because, like many of you, it's not news to me.</div><p>I've known it since: </p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>he <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/06/politics/donald-trump-central-park-five-death-penalty-comments/index.html" target="_blank">called for the execution</a> of five innocent young Black men in 1989 before they even stepped foot inside a courtroom. </li><li>he peddled the racist birther lie about Barack Obama - this country's first African American president.</li><li>he launched his presidential bid in 2016 by calling Mexicans rapists and criminals.</li><li>he bragged about being able to sexually assault women. </li></ul><p></p><p>All of that happened BEFORE he was elected in 2016!</p><p>Last night, Trump indicated that <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-weirdly-tries-to-make-his-locker-room-talk-all-profound" target="_blank">he doesn't want us to forget</a> that last one. </p><blockquote>The former president bizarrely tried to put a profound new spin on his infamous 2016 “grab ’em by the pussy” scandal at a gala for the New York Young Republican Club in New York City on Saturday evening, suggesting that his handling of the fallout (<i>so he’d been told</i>) transcends even the courage of war heroes...<div><br /></div><div>“We had a meeting when it was looking bad,” he said, describing the scandal as one of many “inescapable situations,” and recalling how he’d been urged to drop out of the race just weeks before the election.<br /><br />“But you know, the next day, or very shortly thereafter, we had the debate… I went onto that stage just a few days later, and a general, who’s a fantastic general, actually said to me, ‘Sir, I’ve been on the battlefield, men have gone down on my left and on my right, I stood on hills where soldiers were killed, but I believe the bravest thing I’ve ever seen was the night you went onto that stage with Hillary Clinton after what happened, and then that woman asked you the first question about it, and [you] said ‘locker room talk.’”</div></blockquote><p>Frankly, I don't have the words to describe how much of a low-life you have to be to say that. The man doesn't just want us to remember that he was BRAGGING about committing sexual assault. He wants us to think that he has the courage of a war hero for calling it "locker room talk."</p><p>The person who did have the words for this vile man was Michelle Obama - who gave this speech in New Hampshire a few days after the Access Hollywood tape was released. I share it here in case there's anyone out there who needs a reminder.</p><div></div>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SJ45VLgbe_E?si=9cbXnYoBHcuqeRTP&start=309" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe><div><br /></div><div>I was literally <a href="https://washingtonmonthly.com/2016/10/13/michelle-obama-it-is-cruel-its-frightening-it-hurts/" target="_blank">moved to tears</a> by that speech. She talked about how all of this was affecting us as women.</div><blockquote>This was a powerful individual speaking freely and openly about sexually predatory behavior, and actually bragging about kissing and groping women, using language so obscene that many of us were worried about our children hearing it when we turn on the TV...<br /><br />It is cruel. It's frightening. And the truth is, it hurts. It hurts...<br /><br />And all of us are doing what women have always done: We're trying to keep our heads above water, just trying to get through it, trying to pretend like this doesn't really bother us maybe because we think that admitting how much it hurts makes us as women look weak.<br /><br />Maybe we're afraid to be that vulnerable. Maybe we've grown accustomed to swallowing these emotions and staying quiet, because we've seen that people often won't take our word over his. Or maybe we don't want to believe that there are still people out there who think so little of us as women. Too many are treating this as just another day's headline, as if our outrage is overblown or unwarranted, as if this is normal, just politics as usual.<br /><br />But, New Hampshire, be clear: This is not normal. This is not politics as usual. This is disgraceful. It is intolerable. And it doesn't matter what party you belong to — Democrat, Republican, independent — no woman deserves to be treated this way. None of us deserves this kind of abuse.</blockquote><p>I don't know about you, but I needed to hear that in 2016 - and I needed to hear it again today.</p><p>But Michelle didn't stop there. She also had some words for the men in our lives (emphasis mine).</p><blockquote>I can tell you that the men in my life do not talk about women like this. And I know that my family is not unusual. And <b>to dismiss this as everyday locker-room talk is an insult to decent men everywhere.<br /></b><br />The men that you and I know don't treat women this way. They are loving fathers who are sickened by the thought of their daughters being exposed to this kind of vicious language about women. They are husbands and brothers and sons who don't tolerate women being treated and demeaned and disrespected.<br /></blockquote><p>Michelle tried to warn us all back then. Too many people didn't listen. Now the man who bragged about committing sexual assault wants us to remember just how cruel and disrespectful he can be. He thinks that makes him some kind of courageous hero. It actually makes him a vile human being worthy of nothing but contempt.</p>Nancy LeTourneauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12614317154146836694noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163441833245663827.post-38119905116936251002023-12-06T12:34:00.002-06:002023-12-06T12:34:51.799-06:00Conservative white men are allowed to call America sinful. Black preachers...not so much.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUfo_zTvzubPPvSr8Ulc0-4hegnBcG328DgQLrwmBvNVOAVqAfTOc8X_LLrOMljYnQfACWt7zwiJU1_7j5CYnKCiEhx3Il18SNIS5FFmOpyNqwMNaNi40cCnp0Yzai_hLN0PUPb2-7qJGAp4ze3pXVbgrh87hgqLsHrhgkcQJHReXkcadCIa3KrLtk_HLV/s1920/Mike%20Johnson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUfo_zTvzubPPvSr8Ulc0-4hegnBcG328DgQLrwmBvNVOAVqAfTOc8X_LLrOMljYnQfACWt7zwiJU1_7j5CYnKCiEhx3Il18SNIS5FFmOpyNqwMNaNi40cCnp0Yzai_hLN0PUPb2-7qJGAp4ze3pXVbgrh87hgqLsHrhgkcQJHReXkcadCIa3KrLtk_HLV/w640-h360/Mike%20Johnson.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div>At about the same time that Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson was talking publicly about <a href="https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1732069208404730041" target="_blank">obstructing justice</a>, he sent out a <a href="https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1732145450705170626" target="_blank">fundraising email</a>.</div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuulLLR6sAbPUV4EbTvnwU8m__q5p8lgPAXqnP5p9l_TYOcdl7QVV_9-xmK3gxiBKY_J2zVmWALDcObI8f48NgY0WcOHn7e_pi7tXsRqmfqSCLaeL9sUBN5nirjRlHvRBaqlVim73dg7_Df-v_U7qk4u4LSZwy3LMevLvOqM25o9pP6Qp_Cu3WM3kxX5l5/s900/Johnson%20need%20more%20god.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="581" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuulLLR6sAbPUV4EbTvnwU8m__q5p8lgPAXqnP5p9l_TYOcdl7QVV_9-xmK3gxiBKY_J2zVmWALDcObI8f48NgY0WcOHn7e_pi7tXsRqmfqSCLaeL9sUBN5nirjRlHvRBaqlVim73dg7_Df-v_U7qk4u4LSZwy3LMevLvOqM25o9pP6Qp_Cu3WM3kxX5l5/s16000/Johnson%20need%20more%20god.jpeg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">It's fine with me if an individual thinks that America needs more God. But Johnson is attempting to raise money for Republicans as Speaker of the House - not for a church or ministry. In that context, WTH does me mean when he talks about "returning America to God's good graces?"</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Beyond that question, I'd like to highlight a few lines from this email.</div><blockquote>I fear that America may be beyond redemption...<br /><br />I fear God may allow our nation to enter into a time of judgement for our collective sins...<br /><br />America needs to recognize that we have much to repent for if we want to avoid the judgement we so clearly deserve...</blockquote><p>That's pretty standard fare for Christian nationalists (aka, MAGA Republicans) these days. And as Tim Miller <a href="https://plus.thebulwark.com/p/mike-johnson-god-damn-america" target="_blank">noted</a>, it's also pretty standard fare for Johnson, who said this not too long ago:</p><blockquote>We are at a civilizational moment. The only question is: Is God going to allow our nation to enter a time of judgment for our collective sins which his mercy and grace have held back for some time or is he gonna give us one more chance to restore the foundation, to return to Him?</blockquote><p>In an absolutely brilliant move, Miller compared that sentiment to something Rev. Jeremiah Wright said that came close to toppling Barack Obama's candidacy in 2008.</p><blockquote>The government gives [citizens of African descent] the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law, and then wants us to sing “God Bless America.” No, no, no. Not “God Bless America”; God Damn America! That’s in the Bible, for killing innocent people. God Damn America for treating her citizens as less than human. </blockquote><p>What's striking is that both men believe that America is sinful and deserves God's judgment. In the end, both men also believe that through God, we can be redeemed. Here's what Wright went on to say:</p><blockquote>But I’m fixing to help you one last time. Let me tell you something. Where governments fail, God never fails. When God says it, it’s done. God never fails. </blockquote>I'm old enough to remember that the entire county practically lost it's mind when they heard about Rev. Wright's sermon. Things got so bad that Obama had to give an <a href="https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88478467#:~:text=In%20the%20white%20community%2C%20the,real%20and%20must%20be%20addressed%2C" target="_blank">entire speech</a> reminding us that the story of America is all about "perfecting our union."<div><br /></div><div>And yet, other than not using a four letter word, we hear the same sentiment from folks like Johnson on a daily basis. It's almost as if conservative white men are allowed to say that America is sinful and call forth God's judgement. But Black preachers aren't. Imagine that!<br /> <p></p></div>Nancy LeTourneauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12614317154146836694noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163441833245663827.post-70292730709066739192023-11-28T13:58:00.000-06:002023-11-28T13:58:50.688-06:00Can Republicans "moderate" their position on abortion?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg89qIBfhOhn7fYSFXnrpORi6mk8_Lnv7Z4nvCNDeu3l90sCPR3gaRdVrjKePgza1JH9Q-8zT8c4cQQDhXr2rpY2lzOSBDSgKq3k-vBli8tNLdHiLAKHi1O355vSwOs6akv8W46PJeVj4M0qCtKmloqCBs3BOUD8cLCo0vD9VB6c0IEvzihJFKGb6pQtR0p/s1200/Abortion%20saved%20life.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1200" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg89qIBfhOhn7fYSFXnrpORi6mk8_Lnv7Z4nvCNDeu3l90sCPR3gaRdVrjKePgza1JH9Q-8zT8c4cQQDhXr2rpY2lzOSBDSgKq3k-vBli8tNLdHiLAKHi1O355vSwOs6akv8W46PJeVj4M0qCtKmloqCBs3BOUD8cLCo0vD9VB6c0IEvzihJFKGb6pQtR0p/w640-h360/Abortion%20saved%20life.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><p>One of the most important stories coming out of recent elections is that, whenever voters have a chance to weigh in about abortion, they have chosen to support a woman's right to chose. That has supposedly made Republicans think twice about promoting their extremist views. </p><p>But as Kavitha Surana <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/abortion-ban-exceptions-trigger-laws-health-risks" target="_blank">reports</a> at ProPublica, anti-choice activists are successfully lobbying red states with abortion bans to oppose adding exceptions for rape, incest, and health risks. </p><blockquote>[I]n the most conservative states, Republicans ultimately fell in line with highly organized Christian groups. Those activists fought to keep the most restrictive abortion bans in place by threatening to pull funding and support primary challenges to lawmakers that didn’t stand strong.<br /><br />Their fervor to protect the laws reflects a bedrock philosophy within the American anti-abortion movement: that all abortion exceptions — even those that protect the pregnant person’s life or health — should be considered the same as sanctioning murder.</blockquote><p> This tells you all you need to know about how far these folks are willing to go:</p><blockquote>The Catholic Church and the anti-abortion movement also have a history of celebrating the stories of women who were willing to sacrifice their lives to continue their pregnancies.<br /><br />One of the most well-known stories is about Chiara Corbella Petrillo, a young Italian woman who refused chemotherapy in 2011 for cancer on her tongue because she was pregnant. As the cancer progressed, it became difficult for her to speak and see. A year after giving birth to a healthy baby boy, she died.<br /><br />Live Action, a major anti-abortion advocacy group, included Petrillo on a list of “7 Brave Mothers Who Risked Their Lives to Save Their Preborn Babies.”...<br /><br />In anti-abortion circles, Petrillo has been described as a “heroine for the 21st century” and a “modern day saint.”</blockquote><p>On the Protestant side, the movement <a href="https://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2023/11/what-you-need-to-know-about-speaker.html" target="_blank">Speaker Mike Johnson</a> is most closely aligned with - Christian reconstructionism - includes this in <a href="https://www.reformation.net/uploads/1/1/7/6/117618790/the_christian_world_view_of_the_family.pdf" target="_blank">their statement</a> on "The Christian Worldview of the Family:"</p><blockquote>We affirm that every human being begins life from the moment of conception; that the zygote, embryo, and fetus should therefore be entitled to full protection of law (Psalm 139:14,15; Jeremiah 1:5; Exodus 21:22-25); that killing the zygote, embryo, or fetus through abortion or any other form of violence is murder; that removal of the zygote, embryo, or fetus from the womb is justified only when leaving the child inside the mother would cause death for both mother and child; that the Church should encourage research to improve the chances of survival for a baby so removed; and that no baby should be deprived of nourishment or necessary medical care after birth for any reason (Deuteronomy 5:17).<br /><br />We deny that either the mother, the father, the civil government, or any other person or institution has a moral right to decree the death by abortion of any child for any reason, be it social, economic, psychological, etc.</blockquote><p>For these folks, any abortion from the moment of conception is murder - unless continuing the pregnancy would cause the death of BOTH the mother and fetus. That's as extreme as it gets. </p><p>When Republicans attempt to moderate their position on abortion, these are the folks that are determined to stop them. </p>Nancy LeTourneauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12614317154146836694noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163441833245663827.post-65088816238851002002023-11-25T16:05:00.001-06:002023-11-25T16:06:41.014-06:00What you need to know about Speaker Mike Johnson: He's a Christian Reconstructionist<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzEdE5QTQLfLXUff_eEaRuhyc6b8_2mVlGEOuhev6urllooucy6JICbGkJrl7cv0-4QfTq1LZykrJXyIg_CtsmtzjbyZT-9JpGSEAAuvUqJON2xeasZWD0fB6ggw9vEY5jy5Zu-9pca0DeuYprsU_cNt0B5f0wFZovHN0AvfVtsWEfxXLnNk1zj_XiiV9y/s1920/Mike%20Johnson.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzEdE5QTQLfLXUff_eEaRuhyc6b8_2mVlGEOuhev6urllooucy6JICbGkJrl7cv0-4QfTq1LZykrJXyIg_CtsmtzjbyZT-9JpGSEAAuvUqJON2xeasZWD0fB6ggw9vEY5jy5Zu-9pca0DeuYprsU_cNt0B5f0wFZovHN0AvfVtsWEfxXLnNk1zj_XiiV9y/w640-h360/Mike%20Johnson.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p>Now that the media has had some time to dig into Speaker Mike Johnson's past, most of the coverage has focused on his involvement with the so-called "culture wars," like his position on abortion, LGBTQ+ rights, and what Christian nationalists refer to as "<a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mike-johnson-christianity-public-schools_n_65565dfce4b0998d699f5f0d?um" target="_blank">religious freedom</a>" (ie, freedom for me, but not for thee).</p><p>While those are important, it is wrong to suggest that the Speaker's extremist views <a href="https://www.salon.com/2023/11/17/so-much-for-small-government-budget-fight-reveals-cares-mostly-about-culture/" target="_blank">are limited</a> to those issues. In order to fully understand Johnson, we must recognize the theological tradition with which he is most closely aligned: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_reconstructionism" target="_blank">Christian Reconstructionism</a>.</p><blockquote>It developed primarily under the direction of Rousas Rushdoony, Greg Bahnsen and Gary North and has had an important influence on the Christian right in the United States. Its central theme is that society should be reconstructed under the lordship of Jesus in all aspects of life. </blockquote><p>Way back in 1987, Bill Moyers introduced us to the Christian reconstructionist movement in a series titled "On Earth as it is in Heaven."</p>
<iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/126625952?h=650afcd548&title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" width="640"></iframe>
<p><a href="https://vimeo.com/126625952">Christian Reconstruction and God's Law</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/moyersandcompany">BillMoyers.com</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>
<p>When Johnson says that we can read the Bible to understand his position on ANY issue, he's aligning his politics with Christian reconstructionism. That shouldn't come as a surprise since the organization he worked for prior to his political career - the Alliance Defending Freedom - <a href="https://twocare.org/the-alliance-defending-freedoms-ties-to-christian-reconstructionism/" target="_blank">has always maintained ties</a> to Christian Reconstructionism.</p><p></p>As Moyers pointed out, the founder of this movement was Rousas Rushdoony. John Sugg <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2005/12/nation-under-god/" target="_blank">summarized</a> his views succinctly.<div><blockquote>Rushdoony, who died in 2001, articulated a doctrine called “presuppositionalism.” All issues are religious in nature, he posited, and people don’t have the right or the ability to define for themselves what’s true; for that they must turn to a literal reading of the Bible...<br /><br />At the heart of Rushdoony’s argument were two biblical passages. Genesis 1:28 commands men to have “dominion” over “every living thing.” And in Matthew 28:18-20, the “Great Commission,” Jesus commands his followers to proselytize to the world. Thus was born dominion theology...Adam and Eve broke their covenant with God, and Satan seized dominion. Christian Reconstruction claims it has a reconstituted covenant with God and the right to a new dominion in his name.<br /><br />In this worldview, the mandate for Christians is not just to live right or to help their neighbors: They are called upon to take over or eliminate the [Satanic] institutions of secular government.</blockquote><p>That is why, for <a href="https://religiondispatches.org/gary-north-1942-2022-sought-to-deny-religious-liberty-to-the-enemies-of-god-but-he-was-willing-to-wait-patiently-for-the-revolution-to-develop/" target="_blank">reconstructionists</a>, "there is no religious neutrality, no neutral law, no neutral education, and no neutral civil government." All institutions are either "biblically based" or satantic. </p><p>Katherine Stewart <a href="https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/174498" target="_blank">wrote</a> that "Rushdoony drew on two traditions that would prove essential in understanding the genesis of today’s Christian nationalist movement. The first was the proslavery theology of America’s antebellum preachers. The second was the economic libertarianism that took root in reaction to the New Deal."</p><p>Rushdooney was particularly influenced by the pro-slavery theology of Robert Lewis Dabny who <a href="https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/02/17/christian-nationalists-found-the-leader-theyve-been-looking-for/" target="_blank">argued that</a> opposing slavery was “tantamount to rejecting Christianity.” After the Civil War, Dabney, who referred to democracy as “mobocracy,” took up the cause of his “oppressed white brethren of Virginia and neighboring states to the south.”</p><blockquote>Their oppression consisted in, among other things, having to pay taxes to support a “pretended education to the brats of black paupers.” These unjustly persecuted white people, as Dabney saw it, were also forced to contend with “the atheistic and infidel theories of physical science.”</blockquote><p>Christian reconstructionists like Johnson have <a href="https://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2023/11/why-speaker-johnson-rejects-democracy.html" target="_blank">never embraced democracy</a> and have traditionally rejected the idea of paying taxes to support the education of "those people."</p><p>Any of that <a href="https://publicintellectualsproject.humanities.mcmaster.ca/essays/moms-for-liberty-white-christian-nationalism-and-the-war-on-public-education-in-the-united-states/" target="_blank">sounding familiar</a>?</p><p>Julie Ingersoll's book, "<i>Building God's Kingdom</i>," is an account of the history and goals of the Christian reconstructionist movement. She provides an important key to understanding them:</p><blockquote>Christian Reconstructionists argue that the Bible must govern every aspect of life. In their framework, known as “jurisdictional authority” or “sphere sovereignty,” God delegates biblical authority to three distinct, and severely limited, spheres of “government.” There is family government, ecclesiastical (church) government, and civil government, each with its own authority and sphere of legitimate influence.<br /><br />So, for example, in this view, education is entirely within the purview of the family government, not civil government. Reconstructionists believe public education and even regulation of private education by the civil government violates biblical law.<br /><br />Similarly, because Reconstructionists believe that economic activity is a function of the family’s call to dominion, economic regulation by the government is considered unbiblical—a fundamental tenet of what is known as biblical economics.</blockquote><p>We've seen how those views are being embraced by the movement to defund pubic education - primarily in red states. But reconstructionists also have very detailed views about taxes and government spending. Here is what Gary North - Rushdooney's son-in-law - <a href="https://www.garynorth.com/public/2315.cfm" target="_blank">wrote</a> about that.</p><blockquote>There is no discussion in the Bible of the proper limits of taxation. Taxation should therefore be discussed in terms of achieving other biblical goals and enforcing other biblical principles.<br /><br />The supreme biblical goal of taxation is to finance a civil government that is incapable of doing more than the Bible says it should...The state should be limited in a way analogous to the limits placed on the king in Deuteronomy 17. So, the biblical goal of modern politics is to shrink the state -- all branches -- to levels consistent with the biblical concept of civil government: negative sanctions only. The welfare state must be de-funded.<br /><br />Taxation therefore should be discussed, above all, in terms of limiting the expansion of the state, especially the central government. </blockquote><p>With that in mind, it should come as no surprise that one of the first things Johnson did as Speaker was to tie Israeli military aid to defunding the ability of the IRS to go after wealthy tax cheats. We haven't even begun to see how bullish he's going to be on defunding the entire social safety net.</p><p>There is no area of modern life that isn't covered by the "biblical worldview" of Christian reconstructionists. At the <a href="https://www.reformation.net/the-17-worldview-documents.html" target="_blank">Coalition on Revival</a>, they have documented the "Christian worldview" on government, law, family, economics, education, charity, social action, business, art, science, medicine, and psychology. If you want to know what kind of policies we're likely to see from the Republican Speaker of the House, feel free to skip the Bible and go directly to the source.</p></div>Nancy LeTourneauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12614317154146836694noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163441833245663827.post-98611736307963972023-11-17T12:22:00.001-06:002023-11-17T12:24:06.566-06:00"Toxic masculinity isn't shielding us from danger. It's the reason we're not safe."<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUbsxKjDzhoMhRBuxksyLjPWLi6fC_Kk9mi-cQz30YLXRijqeBCDNleZqkoKhcw4FjelHYsTQ8yOpYl-HPOZxF5Ek0y-zFEEIIydaMSsP7YgEcml-xeDRCyL5vUR6x55avrXDzORncuRUoQh1McfDd9Vp2YqjBQyRBXs42b73Jq4X_1ZDouh_m9xa3ieT_/s976/Women%20Wage%20Peace.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="549" data-original-width="976" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUbsxKjDzhoMhRBuxksyLjPWLi6fC_Kk9mi-cQz30YLXRijqeBCDNleZqkoKhcw4FjelHYsTQ8yOpYl-HPOZxF5Ek0y-zFEEIIydaMSsP7YgEcml-xeDRCyL5vUR6x55avrXDzORncuRUoQh1McfDd9Vp2YqjBQyRBXs42b73Jq4X_1ZDouh_m9xa3ieT_/w640-h360/Women%20Wage%20Peace.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><p>Amidst all the news coming out of the war in Israel/Gaza, the story of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/11/13/canada-peace-activist-vivian-silver-dead-hamas/" target="_blank">Vivian Silver</a> is the one that caught my attention. </p><blockquote>Silver moved from Winnipeg to Israel in 1974 and was a longtime member of Women Wage Peace and other organizations campaigning for peace in the region.<br /><br />She was dedicated to denouncing Israel’s treatment of Palestinians; she had fought against the blockade of Gaza, in place since 2007, and would pick up Gazan children at the border to drive them to Israeli hospitals.</blockquote><p>Vivian was killed by Hamas during the October 7 attack. I suspect that the people who murdered her didn't know who she was, but I'm also not convinced they would have cared. That's because nothing we've seen from Hamas (or Netanyahu) indicates they share Vivian's goal of peace between Israel and the Palestinians. As a matter of fact, a case can be made that women like her pose the <a href="https://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2023/10/the-aim-was-to-assassinate-any-chance.html" target="_blank">greatest threat</a> to the aims of both Hamas and Netanyahu. </p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Nearly 50 years of studying terrorism has taught me that the terrorists' worst enemies are always moderates & those who work for peace--sadly just like Ms. Silver. May her memory be a blessing. <a href="https://t.co/4X7B8f6b1f">https://t.co/4X7B8f6b1f</a></p>— Bruce Hoffman (@hoffman_bruce) <a href="https://twitter.com/hoffman_bruce/status/1724770179609985516?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 15, 2023</a></blockquote><p>The organization Vivian was involved with, <a href="https://www.womenwagepeace.org.il/en/" target="_blank">Women Wage Peace</a>, is the largest grassroots peace movement in Israel, including over 45,000 members. Here's their mission statement:</p><blockquote><b>Women Wage Peace</b> is a broad, politically unaffiliated movement, which is acting to prevent the next war and to promote a non-violent, respectful, and mutually accepted solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with the active participation of women through all stages of negotiations.</blockquote><p>Recently Women Wage Peace began a collaboration with Women of the Sun, their sister organization for Palestinian women. Just last year, Haaretz <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2022-10-13/ty-article/.premium/as-women-as-mothers-and-as-palestinians-we-must-speak-our-truth/00000183-d03b-d4bc-af87-d63f492c0000" target="_blank">interviewed</a> its directors, Reem Hjajara, Maram Zoual, and Layla Sheikh. About the collaboration, Hjajara says:</p><blockquote>[I]f we can talk about our experiences, we can discuss the most difficult questions. We want the Israeli women to know what our lives are like under the occupation. I want them to know that the army uses Deheisheh [a Palestinian refugee camp] as a training camp, and that there are always soldiers there. We’re always afraid.”<br /><br />She starts to cry and takes out her phone, showing me a shocking photograph of the bloody body of a young man lying on the street. “My son’s best friend in Deheisheh [Fadi Mohammad Ghattas] was recently killed by the army. He had been in our house only a few days before; he was a son to me,” Hjajara says.<br /><br />“I want Israeli women to understand what it means when they send their children to the army,” adds Sheikh. “I know you love and want to serve your country, and that you believe you are protecting yourselves. But I want you to know what it means to us when you put guns in the hands of your children.”<br /><br />As if in anticipation of the next question, Hjajara addresses Palestinian terror and extremism. “Settlers and soldiers attack Palestinians and some people break,” she says. “Our children do not feel they have a future and they’re depressed. Many commit suicide, and some of them hate so much that they attack Israelis – which is a form of suicide...<br /><br />Hjajara concludes that she is excited about the [collaborative events with Women Wage Peace], but worries about her son. “He did believe in peace, but now, since he lost his friend, I don’t know what he thinks. He stays in the house and cries, and doesn’t eat or sleep. There is too much anger and sadness inside of him. <br /><br />“Like most Palestinians, he wonders when his turn to be killed will come. That is why we must talk to each other and make peace, so mothers – both Palestinian and Israeli – won’t mourn their children anymore.”</blockquote><p>Women from the two groups came together last year to issue a "<a href="https://www.womenwagepeace.org.il/en/mothers-call/" target="_blank">Mothers' Call</a>." Here's the opening statement:</p><blockquote>We, Palestinian and Israeli women from all walks of life, are united in the human desire for a future of peace, freedom, equality, rights, and security for our children and the next generations.</blockquote><p>All of that happened before the Hamas attack on October 7th and the Israeli assault on Gaza. Now Vivian is dead and God only knows the fate of Reem, Maram, and Layla. Why? </p><p>As Amanda Marcotte <a href="https://www.salon.com/2023/11/02/from-911-to-benjamin-netanyahu-the-world-is-learning-that-masculinity-cant-keep-us-safe/" target="_blank">wrote</a>, it all boils down to the lie that toxic masculinity will keep us safe (emphasis mine).</p><blockquote>Feminists have long detailed how it's wrong to equate masculinity, especially toxic masculinity, with safety. For instance, the myth of chivalry is constructed around the idea that men need power over women in order to protect us. But, as feminists point out, what we're being "protected" from is male violence that only exists because men have so much power over women...<b>Toxic masculinity isn't shielding us from danger. It's the reason we're not safe</b>. </blockquote>If the last few weeks have taught us anything, it's that Netanyahu can't keep Israel safe and Hamas can't keep Palestinians safe. If we want peace, it's time to listen to the mothers.<br /><div> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div>Nancy LeTourneauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12614317154146836694noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163441833245663827.post-5216742505521665052023-11-09T14:27:00.001-06:002023-11-09T14:27:15.848-06:00The direct line from Ronald Reagan to MAGA Republicans<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEOuDCumlbOPsAf1VXjBztAxeNovcuYW3MXSoxQ1FawQf3krZIOIa_QXMrN6PpISmJpZA3XFmy0v_0EElQyngAPIdAq81GTiYbZXauhW3cnNru9W9denuuBFM7OqIG31w0oKFKsFLpAXXjYqPbNLdVzyp2ZOgceIjODRiYR92qplTCo_lCgauo_9Y5sKvS/s1280/Reagan%20Trump.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEOuDCumlbOPsAf1VXjBztAxeNovcuYW3MXSoxQ1FawQf3krZIOIa_QXMrN6PpISmJpZA3XFmy0v_0EElQyngAPIdAq81GTiYbZXauhW3cnNru9W9denuuBFM7OqIG31w0oKFKsFLpAXXjYqPbNLdVzyp2ZOgceIjODRiYR92qplTCo_lCgauo_9Y5sKvS/w640-h360/Reagan%20Trump.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p>I readily welcome the Republican NeverTrumpers into the ranks of those of us who are determined to protect our democracy from the MAGA Republicans. We need every vote we can get and I actually admire the courage it takes to put country over party.</p><p>But every now and then I see one of them harkening back to "the good old days" when Ronald Reagan led the GOP. As long as they do that, they'll never really understand what happened to their party - assuming it was simply Trump who came along and ruined a good thing.</p><p>The truth is that there is a direct line from Ronald Reagan to most of the politics that birthed the MAGA movement and put Trump in the White House. If a healthy Republican Party is ever going to emerge out of the ashes (I'm still pretty skeptical), they are going to have to grapple with the fact that these four issues from the Reagan presidency are what led to the GOP becoming the MAGA party.</p><p><b>Racism</b></p><p>In contrast to the bombastic racism of Trump, Reagan employed a more subtle (i.e. dogwhistle) approach. <a href="https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a34733508/reagans-showtime-racism-matt-tyrnauer-ian-haney-lopez-donald-trump/" target="_blank">For example</a>:</p><blockquote>He <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/13/opinion/13herbert.html">kicked off his run</a> as 1980’s Republican presidential nominee with an appearance at the Neshoba, Mississippi county fair, where he professed his commitment to states’ rights...Neshoba county was infamous for the 1964 Freedom Summer murders of civil rights activists James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner, and appeals to <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/08/ronald-reagan-richard-nixon-racism-monkeys-tape-jimmy-carter.html">states’ rights</a> have long been used to justify southern states’ refusal to enact civil rights measures. By touting himself as a states’ rights candidate near the site of one of the nation’s most famous hate crimes, Reagan offered voters a racism that was both obvious and unspoken.</blockquote><p>Other dogwhistles included constant references to things like "welfare queens" and "strapping young bucks using food stamps to buy steaks."</p><p>Similar to Nixon's "Southern Strategy," the purpose of Reagan's dogwhistles was to send a signal to racist white people that the GOP had their backs. Thus, Reagan continued the policy of marrying the Republican Party to racists - paving the way for Trump.</p><p><b>Christian Nationalists</b></p><p>Prior to the late 1970's, white evangelical Christians had pretty much stayed out of politics - at least in any organized way. But in 1979, Jerry Falwell and Paul Weyrich founded the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_Majority" target="_blank">Moral Majority</a>. The kick-off event was a conference for religious leaders in August 1980 - less than three months before the presidential election. Speakers at the Dallas event included Pat Robertson, James Robison, Jerry Falwell, Paul Weyrich, Phyllis Schlafly, and Tim LaHaye. </p><p>The keynote address was given by Reagan, who began his remarks by saying "I know this is non-partisan, so you can’t endorse me, but I want you to know that I endorse you." He sounded a lot like the new House Speaker Mike Johnson when he said that if he were shipwrecked and could read only one book the rest of his life, he would choose the Bible because “all the complex questions facing us at home and abroad have their answer in that single book.”</p><p>Observers referred to this event as a "marriage ceremony between Southern Baptists and the Republican Party." Eventually that evolved into a marriage between Christian nationalists and the GOP.</p><p><b>Democratic Policies are Socialist</b></p><p>In 1961, before beginning his political career, Reagan <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bejdhs3jGyw&t=10s" target="_blank">gave a speech</a> suggesting that Medicare was socialized medicine that would lead to a dictatorship. That one <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/09/american-socialism-racist-origins/675453/" target="_blank">goes way back</a> to the days after the Civil War.</p><p></p><blockquote>White southerners did not want Black men voting, they said, because formerly enslaved people were poor, and they would vote for leaders who promised to build things such as roads and hospitals. Those public investments could be paid for only with tax levies, and most of the people in the South with property after the war were white. Thus, although the infrastructure in which the southern legislatures were investing would help everyone, reactionaries claimed that Black voting amounted to a redistribution of wealth [ie, socialism] from white men to Black people, who wanted something for nothing.</blockquote><p>In the name of preventing socialism, Reagan cut taxes, reduced regulations, and slashed spending on social programs.</p><p>In 2018, Trump's White House Council of Economic Advisors issued a report dubbed "Congressional Democrats Want to Take Money From Hardworking Americans to Fund Failed Socialist Policies.” The 72-page report used the word "socialism" 144 times.</p><p><b>Government is the Problem</b></p><p>Perhaps the most insidious Reagan legacy is his insistence that "government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem."</p><p>Of course, he used that idea as justification to cut taxes, spending, and regulations - making it a self-fulfilling prophecy. Republicans have been banking on that one for decades. Way back in 2011, Mike Lofgren told us <a href="https://truthout.org/articles/goodbye-to-all-that-reflections-of-a-gop-operative-who-left-the-cult/" target="_blank">how this works</a> for them.</p><blockquote>A couple of years ago, a Republican committee staff director told me candidly (and proudly) what the method was to all this obstruction and disruption. Should Republicans succeed in obstructing the Senate from doing its job, it would further lower Congress's generic favorability rating among the American people. By sabotaging the reputation of an institution of government, the party that is programmatically against government would come out the relative winner.</blockquote><p>We've recently witnessed massive disruption by MAGA Republicans in the House, as well as attempts to sabotage institutions like the courts and the Department of Justice. All a MAGA politician has to do is utter the words "deep state" and their supporters salivate at the idea of our "evil government." </p><p>But take a moment to think about what it means for the people to view government as a "them," not "us." It makes us victims of government rather than citizens in a democratic republic. As Barack Obama said in 2012: "As citizens, we understand that America is not about what can be done for us. It's about what can be done by us, together through the hard and frustrating but necessary work of self-government." One of the more powerful ways that Republicans undermine our democracy is by insisting that government is "them," not "us."</p><p></p><p>There you have it - four ways that Reagan prepared the way for MAGA Republicans. I will continue to be pessimistic about our politics until the GOP starts to wrestle with freeing themselves from this legacy.</p>Nancy LeTourneauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12614317154146836694noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163441833245663827.post-5349053128367906832023-11-07T15:45:00.003-06:002023-11-07T16:14:49.592-06:00The GOP's case against Biden's domestic policies is all based on lies<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwMxc-BYBbzrBBSQCqbiex2JpWXkNz_2BEKnnIBsTWIrSrd85CreyteGw54Ty-s5Zb5tEL3PigKdqSkKAjCiC0iptJxLzt4TDqQQn9B_xW0YZd8Zd6b8FmmyHMGSbL5SN6yyFmxydZLMmCIP1J4N8FL53Po6OZvT19QIvAfc_6bXyeNWVCJfQPPWMR1Ua6/s660/Biden.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="441" data-original-width="660" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwMxc-BYBbzrBBSQCqbiex2JpWXkNz_2BEKnnIBsTWIrSrd85CreyteGw54Ty-s5Zb5tEL3PigKdqSkKAjCiC0iptJxLzt4TDqQQn9B_xW0YZd8Zd6b8FmmyHMGSbL5SN6yyFmxydZLMmCIP1J4N8FL53Po6OZvT19QIvAfc_6bXyeNWVCJfQPPWMR1Ua6/w640-h428/Biden.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p>When Republican politicians aren't talking about foreign policy or culture wars, they basically have a four-point critique of President Biden's domestic policies.</p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Inflation is out of control due to government spending</li><li>Violent crime is on the rise because Democrats are soft on crime</li><li>Climate change policies are stifling U.S. oil production</li><li>Biden's open border policies are creating a surge of illegal immigrants</li></ol><p></p><p> Every one of those is based on a lie. So let's take just a moment to unpack them.</p><p><b>Inflation</b></p><p>The Federal Reserve has traditionally targeted an inflation rate of 2% as optimal. We are currently <a href="https://lplresearch.com/2023/08/10/cpi-report-falling-probabilities-of-a-september-rate-hike/" target="_blank">approaching</a> that goal.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQpE0EGSB8wBgU6TUdwA4uekMAfRbudF6niXWA9miCTVZ4DlJupFIgUR5l_AcR5dPwA6GcerhiNPoAD26pC0Q3Wd62l1FFHUgJDmofwq7ndROcXHiX3rX8VZEx6T7tBUTkqwClXJZaVM3XvJQkgjSgawhK95YpKpgBKXaqG-7DcGb2FSSTm7R0L_9lsfMi/s1189/inflation.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="706" data-original-width="1189" height="380" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQpE0EGSB8wBgU6TUdwA4uekMAfRbudF6niXWA9miCTVZ4DlJupFIgUR5l_AcR5dPwA6GcerhiNPoAD26pC0Q3Wd62l1FFHUgJDmofwq7ndROcXHiX3rX8VZEx6T7tBUTkqwClXJZaVM3XvJQkgjSgawhK95YpKpgBKXaqG-7DcGb2FSSTm7R0L_9lsfMi/w640-h380/inflation.png" width="640" /></a></div>The idea that government spending is driving inflation is the excuse Republicans use in their attempt to gut the social safety net. What they don't want to talk about is the fact that the major contributor to deficits are tax cuts - especially for the wealthy. History shows us that it is Republicans who drive up deficits and Democrats bring them down.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Federal deficit by president for the past three decades. It's clear which is the party of fiscal responsibility. And it most definitely ain’t the radical Republican right. <a href="https://t.co/YJtNDMHQAb">pic.twitter.com/YJtNDMHQAb</a></p>— Michael Okuda (@MikeOkuda) <a href="https://twitter.com/MikeOkuda/status/1587454628647424001?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 1, 2022</a></blockquote><p>Here's what Biden has done on the deficit...so far.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHQvUuqRQRr_ItnCFOIs0nw3BitAqj3NSf1sNLKQMJN1CRPYwuQV_vZ-h7566YvUIhyphenhyphenj8QVeV-YZMNTj4gwLW6glP1DQ1IbaFHdXqtjM3o5KUD6S6vYdH6NcEUNxLJZxPqY9DuVD5MbynMWTpl3GOrrLJRRB5G8mXkpLmZnkpN5uW7Fx4BBrXSKx51D6uS/s640/Deficit.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="512" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHQvUuqRQRr_ItnCFOIs0nw3BitAqj3NSf1sNLKQMJN1CRPYwuQV_vZ-h7566YvUIhyphenhyphenj8QVeV-YZMNTj4gwLW6glP1DQ1IbaFHdXqtjM3o5KUD6S6vYdH6NcEUNxLJZxPqY9DuVD5MbynMWTpl3GOrrLJRRB5G8mXkpLmZnkpN5uW7Fx4BBrXSKx51D6uS/w512-h640/Deficit.jpg" width="512" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
When it comes to the economy overall, perhaps there's no better summary of Bidenomics than this:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">By a wide margin, the US has had the highest cumulative real (inflation-adjusted) economic growth of any G-7 country post-Covid. <a href="https://t.co/SMQTW9CY0X">pic.twitter.com/SMQTW9CY0X</a></p>— Steven Rattner (@SteveRattner) <a href="https://twitter.com/SteveRattner/status/1721942264715395216?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 7, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<b>Violent Crime</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The FBI recently <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/10/16/fbi-crime-statistics/" target="_blank">released statistics</a> on crime for 2022 (emphasis mine).</div><blockquote>Homicides and <b>violent crime overall decreased</b> in the United States in 2022, according to FBI data released Monday...After killings climbed in both 2020 and 2021, murder and manslaughter both fell by 6.1 percent in 2022, and the violent crime rate nationwide declined 1.7 percent.</blockquote>For some context, here's what that data looks like over time:<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBRkhM4O7P4-GyWYtpuHuc2QFey-6tR4uEoAaBtKJ2ESzhj1pj2OGSGh1N_gJiPdp46GGcR5nhzHLdoffJ1skAABPGMn2IUDDm8gRqjKi5J50txXakRYxKor_6j9lIQti86Zetg8dOksKpnUIwY4SYcYrnNMpUXTX0YswBUZYmSEwTVw65IrBGgvHfFDYg/s1000/violent%20crime.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="743" data-original-width="1000" height="476" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBRkhM4O7P4-GyWYtpuHuc2QFey-6tR4uEoAaBtKJ2ESzhj1pj2OGSGh1N_gJiPdp46GGcR5nhzHLdoffJ1skAABPGMn2IUDDm8gRqjKi5J50txXakRYxKor_6j9lIQti86Zetg8dOksKpnUIwY4SYcYrnNMpUXTX0YswBUZYmSEwTVw65IrBGgvHfFDYg/w640-h476/violent%20crime.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Domestic Oil Production</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The <a href="https://apnews.com/article/oil-fossil-fuels-climate-change-biden-df27160fc81f28d21fbf1fc5575b77bc" target="_blank">latest report</a> in October indicates that we're at an all-time high.</div><p></p><blockquote>The U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration reported that American oil production in the <a href="https://www.eia.gov/petroleum/supply/weekly/">first week of October</a> hit 13.2 million barrels per day, passing the previous record set in 2020 by 100,000 barrels. Weekly domestic oil production has doubled from the first week in October 2012 to now.</blockquote><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYKoBodWYkvWHpJ_ue6pAj10vqGOq87eh0DoTog1-YIyQwRkUwDHAHRmMfFl6b5lZxW7SJ6bJeqhmZJfRzOOpNrnjQ5mDtWVoUrl5MWWm1z2g3iVMwK5vjgZurdVy-8aCrNuqBvtlCfCDpM2j9M7QiDY8D9Gvk2cTalbwISNyrNnsNawsImzNw8os5IED-/s693/oil%20production.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="448" data-original-width="693" height="414" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYKoBodWYkvWHpJ_ue6pAj10vqGOq87eh0DoTog1-YIyQwRkUwDHAHRmMfFl6b5lZxW7SJ6bJeqhmZJfRzOOpNrnjQ5mDtWVoUrl5MWWm1z2g3iVMwK5vjgZurdVy-8aCrNuqBvtlCfCDpM2j9M7QiDY8D9Gvk2cTalbwISNyrNnsNawsImzNw8os5IED-/w640-h414/oil%20production.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Open Border</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Republicans constantly refer to "Biden's open border" policies. But I dare you to find even one of them who's willing to state what they mean by that. <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/10/17/us-mexico-border-open-borders-myth" target="_blank">Here's why</a> (emphasis mine):</div><blockquote>By using the term "open border," conservatives...are suggesting that anyone can get into the U.S. without much hassle. But the reality is that <b>the southern border is more fortified than it's ever been. <br /></b><br />Since 1992, the U.S. has <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/struggling-to-hang-on-to-20k-officers-border-patrol-looks-to-hire-5k-more/">quadrupled the number of Border Patrol agents </a>— from less than 5,000 to <a href="https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/typical-day-fy2022#:~:text=19%2C357%20Border%20Patrol%20agents,364%20Marine%20interdiction%20agents">nearly 20,000 today.</a><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.cbp.gov/node/293681/printable/print#:~:text=There%20are%20approximately%20354%20miles,a%20total%20of%20654%20miles.">Barriers, walls, and fences</a> have been erected along portions of the 1,951-mile U.S.-Mexico border, in addition to new Border Patrol outposts and high-tech surveillance systems.<br /><br /></div><div>The Border Patrol <a href="https://www.axios.com/2021/07/16/border-arrests-1-million-20-year-record-june">regularly breaks border arrest records</a>, highlighting the difficulty of entering the country illegally.</div></blockquote><p>What no one seems to want to talk about is that there has been a significant change in the migrants crossing our southern border over the last few years. It's true that the number who are "apprehended" is at an all-time high. But look a bit deeper and here's what you find:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgndLQUWKofQWcS-IoYGrW1zrW8UNgOnlQwAb1z4DUbRu3qKQ7AVpFoE3ptDxRtkr9R_6wA1i-g3Qt3hjT6GGqVHdxr7Il0cyVUJC-C6Sn-BHFBzhUSALgWLgThE9NTIOtZieE27Mw0Q44Gq0GeQjX88xrUs9CoMTnoHhTJEX-5KP90tYpraF919ieYSugC/s1200/migrants.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgndLQUWKofQWcS-IoYGrW1zrW8UNgOnlQwAb1z4DUbRu3qKQ7AVpFoE3ptDxRtkr9R_6wA1i-g3Qt3hjT6GGqVHdxr7Il0cyVUJC-C6Sn-BHFBzhUSALgWLgThE9NTIOtZieE27Mw0Q44Gq0GeQjX88xrUs9CoMTnoHhTJEX-5KP90tYpraF919ieYSugC/w640-h640/migrants.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The number of migrants from countries other than Mexico <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/01/13/monthly-encounters-with-migrants-at-u-s-mexico-border-remain-near-record-highs/" target="_blank">has soared</a>. </div><blockquote>In November 2022, a majority of the migrants encountered at the border (63%) were from countries other than Mexico and the Northern Triangle region.<br /><br />Some of the biggest increases in encounters have involved people from Colombia, Cuba, Nicaragua, Peru and Venezuela.</blockquote><p>Up above I put the word "apprehended" in quotation marks. That's because it is a bit of a misnomer. The majority of these migrants are not crossing the border illegally. They are seeking asylum, so they present themselves to border security voluntarily. That is <a href="https://www.rescue.org/article/it-legal-cross-us-border-seek-asylum" target="_blank">NOT illegal</a>.</p><blockquote>The right to seek asylum was incorporated into international law following the atrocities of World War II. Congress adopted key provisions of the Geneva Refugee Convention (including the international definition of a refugee) into U.S. immigration law when it passed the Refugee Act of 1980...<br /><br />To be granted asylum, one must meet the definition of a refugee. However, international law recognizes that the refugee status determination process can be lengthy and complex. Therefore, asylum seekers should receive certain protections before a state has officially recognized them as refugees. </blockquote>Those who want to live in the reality-based world (rather than the lies we're hearing from the GOP) should be asking two questions:<div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>What is driving this influx of refugees?</li><li>Is our system for dealing with asylum seekers adequate? It's clear that the answer to that question is "no." So what needs to change?</li></ol><p>There you have it. Every GOP critique of Biden's domestic policies is based on lies. We can count on the fact that they will repeat those lies and mainstream media will let them get away with it. Our only recourse is to speak the truth to as many people as possible. </p><div> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
</div></div>Nancy LeTourneauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12614317154146836694noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163441833245663827.post-85352115226939247132023-11-03T15:50:00.001-05:002023-11-03T15:55:23.639-05:00Why Speaker Johnson rejects democracy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0ey311K0CqptQ09MOvtgfsLm1bk4Pkl6gVN-3nRsQv4r1rY8eLZAl9FdMMRrrFi5FCxcz5AgGu8BAD_1kZ3ESnEDHD_gN_i4OZFSH1jTgxIYXnKYNpo11UcV8GeIa5OvIdT1qRHhGbDhzRZAwHfTzV2WVbHQZPhaU1qgvmEHRbgP87GJ7vDhARX3-aZSL/s1920/Mike%20Johnson.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0ey311K0CqptQ09MOvtgfsLm1bk4Pkl6gVN-3nRsQv4r1rY8eLZAl9FdMMRrrFi5FCxcz5AgGu8BAD_1kZ3ESnEDHD_gN_i4OZFSH1jTgxIYXnKYNpo11UcV8GeIa5OvIdT1qRHhGbDhzRZAwHfTzV2WVbHQZPhaU1qgvmEHRbgP87GJ7vDhARX3-aZSL/w640-h360/Mike%20Johnson.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p>Since Republicans elected Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) to be Speaker of the House, most of the media has been scrambling to provide us with some background on who this man is. We've learned that he is fully embedded in the Christian nationalist movement, meaning that he embraces their anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ rights positions. </p><p>But to really understand the new Speaker, it is important to look a little deeper. We know, for instance that he claims that his world view is <a href="https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1717718043525099743" target="_blank">based on the Bible</a>. But what does that mean? </p><p>A good place to start is this clip from a panel discussion at the Louisiana Right to Life Forum in 2013. </p>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/r_Gjo3kkzlc?si=Pef3tjo9xj08wkFj" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe> <div><br /></div><div>Quoting the founders, Johnson talks about the twin pillars/the foundations of the republic: religion and morality. He then claims that we are being led - from the [Obama] White House on down - to erase all of our moral codes.</div><div><br /></div><div>It's important to note that Johnson's views on this align perfectly with <a href="https://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2023/05/the-other-christian-nationalists.html" target="_blank">Opus Dei Catholics</a>, like former Attorney General Bill Barr - who gave a speech at Notre Dame in 2019, where he said this:</div><blockquote>From the Founding Era onward, there was strong consensus about the centrality of religious liberty in the United States.<div><br />The imperative of protecting religious freedom was not just a nod in the direction of piety. It reflects the Framers’ belief that religion was indispensable to sustaining our free system of government.</div></blockquote><p>Barr went on to explain why religion (which he referred to as Judeo-Christian) was "indispensable" (emphasis mine).</p><blockquote>By and large, the Founding generation’s view of human nature was drawn from the classical Christian tradition.<br /><br />These practical statesmen understood that individuals, while having the potential for great good, also had the capacity for great evil.<br /><br />Men are subject to powerful passions and appetites, and, <b>if unrestrained, are capable of ruthlessly riding roughshod over their neighbors and the community at large</b>.<br /><br />No society can exist without some means for restraining individual rapacity...<div><br /></div><div>In short, in the Framers’ view, <b>free government was only suitable and sustainable for a religious people</b> – a people who recognized that there was a transcendent moral order antecedent to both the state and man-made law and who had the discipline to control themselves according to those enduring principles.<br /></div></blockquote><p>Johnson echoed those remarks while rejecting the whole idea of democracy. </p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">"You know, we don't live in a democracy" but a "biblical" republic.<br /><br />That's what Mike Johnson said in a 2016 interview as he explained his views on the U.S. government.<br /><br />That's what the new Republican House speaker, who tried to overturn the will of the voters in 2020, believes. <a href="https://t.co/AEwQXwutpl">pic.twitter.com/AEwQXwutpl</a></p>— Ashton Pittman (@ashtonpittman) <a href="https://twitter.com/ashtonpittman/status/1717342823572259075?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 26, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<div><p>In Johnson's worldview, the majority of people in a democracy are like wolves - dangerous. So the founders set up a constitutional republic based on biblical principles of what a civil society is supposed to look like. IOW - to tame the wolves. </p><div><p>According to Johnson, everything started going downhill in the 1960s. </p><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">According to new GOP Speaker Mike Johnson, mass shootings are a result of the cultural revolution of the 1960s. In this clip, he blames the rise of mass shootings on "no-fault" divorces becoming legal, legalized abortion, and schools embracing the teaching of evolution. <a href="https://t.co/kmiJTQ48Sz">pic.twitter.com/kmiJTQ48Sz</a></p>— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) <a href="https://twitter.com/MeidasTouch/status/1717633089466429749?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 26, 2023</a></blockquote><p><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>The idea of blaming things like school shootings on the 60s is pretty standard fare for Republicans. But what Johnson suggests is that our only options are to embrace the "founder's natural law philosophy" (more on that later) or "moral relativism."</p><p>The bottom line is that, according to the new House Speaker, if we don't accept his "biblical world view," we are incapable of being moral human beings - making us dangerous. That is the giant us/them divide that is driving the apocalyptic visions on the far right these days.</p><p>These clips also provide a glimpse into how Johnson's "biblical world view" plays out in terms of policies. We'll revisit that one later. For right now I'll just say that Speaker Johnson is free to believe whatever he wants to believe and support whatever policies he prefers. But what he is NOT free to do is to suggest that anyone who disagrees with him is incapable of being a moral human being and poses a danger to society. </p><p>Instead, perhaps he could learn a thing or two from what President Obama <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-notre-dame-commencement" target="_blank">said to Notre Dame graduates</a> in 2009.</p><blockquote>Hold firm to your faith and allow it to guide you on your journey...Remember, too, that the ultimate irony of faith is that it necessarily admits doubt. It’s the belief in things not seen. It’s beyond our capacity as human beings to know with certainty what God has planned for us or what He asks of us. And those of us who believe must trust that His wisdom is greater than our own.<br /><br />And this doubt should not push us away from our faith. But it should humble us. It should temper our passions, cause us to be wary of too much self-righteousness. It should compel us to remain open and curious...And within our vast democracy, this doubt should remind us - even as we cling to our faith - to persuade through reason, through an appeal whenever we can to universal rather than parochial principles, and most of all through an abiding example of good works and charity and kindness and service that moves hearts and minds.</blockquote></div>Nancy LeTourneauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12614317154146836694noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163441833245663827.post-25326401140919731532023-10-15T15:21:00.003-05:002023-10-15T15:32:59.832-05:00"The aim was to assassinate any chance for peace"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIkuisnRqxjyz7CTSse1SO7MH9R0XF3-PeD3Tg6ilK1rOOYJRAoTvLlwKTuUCKiTrWIPj6ndGjrvGEWA14QSwmUaw0YioYp3pRsij0R1gVCJ1nX6hZkrRBN_ZWVmAfAL_KC6wGgd8ZOAavEq_QrylwPfQ0V92o_5ScGvKKnD00w5kpO9LS1YYXZYznuu20/s680/Not%20Netanyahu%20Not%20Hamas.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="479" data-original-width="680" height="450" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIkuisnRqxjyz7CTSse1SO7MH9R0XF3-PeD3Tg6ilK1rOOYJRAoTvLlwKTuUCKiTrWIPj6ndGjrvGEWA14QSwmUaw0YioYp3pRsij0R1gVCJ1nX6hZkrRBN_ZWVmAfAL_KC6wGgd8ZOAavEq_QrylwPfQ0V92o_5ScGvKKnD00w5kpO9LS1YYXZYznuu20/w640-h450/Not%20Netanyahu%20Not%20Hamas.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p>For days now I've wanted to write something about the events in Israel. But I knew that the first thing I needed to do was listen and learn. As I did so, I got mired in the complexities of the situation and fearful about the consequences. Nevertheless, I'd like to share a few thoughts.</p><p>More than anything else, the image above captured my sentiments. That is because my sympathies lie with the people of Israel and Gaza, not their leaders - both of whom have shared a similar goal. Let's start with Hamas.</p><p>I encourage you to take a few minutes to listen to the interview Christiane Amanpour conducted with Yuval Noah Harari.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">To discuss the atrocities committed by Hamas, the long-term implications, and lessons from history, I spoke with author and historian Yuval Noah Harari <a href="https://twitter.com/harari_yuval?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@harari_yuval</a>, who offered some powerful reflections. Watch our conversation here. <a href="https://t.co/qxH9B53hTy">pic.twitter.com/qxH9B53hTy</a></p>— Christiane Amanpour (@amanpour) <a href="https://twitter.com/amanpour/status/1712538821923885287?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 12, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
At about the 2:00 mark, he begins to explain why this attack from Hamas is different. He noted that they targeted civilians and wanted people to see the atrocities. Why? "It was psychological warfare not only to spread terror, but to sow seeds of hatred that will ensure this terrible conflict will go on for generations...Hamas, since its foundation, never accepted the existence of Israel and never accepted any attempt at peace. The aim was not just to destroy Jewish communities, but to assassinate any chance for peace."<div><br /></div><div>Negotiations towards some kind of peace between Israel and the Palestinians have always been premised on the idea of a "two-state solution" - something that Netanyahu <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2015/03/16/middleeast/israel-netanyahu-palestinian-state/index.html" target="_blank">rejected</a>. That led him to <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/for-years-netanyahu-propped-up-hamas-now-its-blown-up-in-our-faces/" target="_blank">align himself</a> with Hamas.</div><div><blockquote>For years, the various governments led by Benjamin Netanyahu took an approach that divided power between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank — bringing Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to his knees while making moves that propped up the Hamas terror group.<br /><br />The idea was to prevent Abbas — or anyone else in the Palestinian Authority’s West Bank government — from advancing toward the establishment of a Palestinian state.</blockquote><p>I highly recommend reading a piece by Zach Beauchamp <a href="https://www.vox.com/23910085/netanyahu-israel-right-hamas-gaza-war-history" target="_blank">titled</a> "Benjamin Netanyahu Failed Israel" that outlines the Prime Minister's approach. </p><blockquote>...Netanyahu has intentionally propped up Hamas rule in Gaza — seeing Palestinian extremism as a bulwark against a two-state solution to the conflict. <br /><br />“Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas,” the prime minister reportedly said at a 2019 meeting of his Likud party. “This is part of our strategy — to isolate the Palestinians in Gaza from the Palestinians in the West Bank.”</blockquote><p>For those skeptical that this was actually Netanyahu's plan, at least one of his confidants said it publicly. </p></div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">2/<br /><br />There has been some questions re this Tweet.<br /><br />That Netanyahu was soft on Hamas and did everything to undermine the PA has been common knowledge for years.<br /><br />Hacohen just said the quiet part out loud. Knowing him for 40 years. Many dispute his ideas, but not his honesty</p>— Daniel Seidemann (@DanielSeidemann) <a href="https://twitter.com/DanielSeidemann/status/1711110502883946780?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 8, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>Because qualifiers in these kinds complex situations are important, I agree with how Beauchamp ended his piece.<blockquote>To be clear: I am not...saying that Netanyahu, in place of Hamas, bears moral responsibility for Hamas’s horrifying atrocities against civilians. <br /><br />What I am saying is that Netanyahu’s policy...is a terrible one. It is both morally indefensible and strategically counterproductive. It is no concession to Hamas, nor legitimation of its violence, to recognize this reality.</blockquote><p>What we CAN say is that Hamas and Netanyahu shared a similar goal: to assassinate any chance for peace. Now we seem headed for war, with neither side having <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/03b8ea8a-891d-4457-811f-27448ced6c7b" target="_blank">an actual end-game</a> in sight. </p><p>God help us!</p>Nancy LeTourneauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12614317154146836694noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163441833245663827.post-68075459289425597542023-10-05T16:41:00.001-05:002023-10-05T16:50:18.262-05:00Newsweek says Biden is to blame for rise in violent extremism<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjQ5OOfF5wauCt8y0U0axcr1-IF71WUkkLcgyhSVbB_dJv-NHIUfhUY7yrYAb9-VO5O7hvzxUYm5WwcTEpYTvm4uwGAR66ZDgo2-wN-8VX_wQ_CGW29mc1KYPWMZ5GgQ9cEtpL-vVY4NSQBFhpCia0qqDmxs6P-ADBh1-q0d-uEoGqqnk5jha4ULlMz2Ii/s2048/gallows%20Jan%206.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjQ5OOfF5wauCt8y0U0axcr1-IF71WUkkLcgyhSVbB_dJv-NHIUfhUY7yrYAb9-VO5O7hvzxUYm5WwcTEpYTvm4uwGAR66ZDgo2-wN-8VX_wQ_CGW29mc1KYPWMZ5GgQ9cEtpL-vVY4NSQBFhpCia0qqDmxs6P-ADBh1-q0d-uEoGqqnk5jha4ULlMz2Ii/w640-h426/gallows%20Jan%206.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p>Less that two weeks after Donald Trump <a href="https://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2023/09/are-you-feeling-gaslighted-by-coverage.html" target="_blank">suggested</a> that General Mark Milley (former Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) should be executed, Newsweek <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/2023/10/13/exclusive-fbi-targets-trump-followers-2024-election-nears-1831836.html" target="_blank">published an article</a> titled "Donald Trump Followers Targeted by FBI as 2024 Election Nears." Here's the point they're trying to make:</p><blockquote>The revelations that some Trump supporters are being specifically targeted by the FBI fits with accusations from among them that the Bureau has them in its sights and is the political tool of a repressive deep state in Washington, D.C., bent on preserving the hold of the political establishment at the cost of democracy.</blockquote><p>In the end, they suggest that President Biden into blame for the rise in violent extremism.</p><blockquote>The senior intelligence official who works at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said Biden's rhetoric on domestic terrorism could goad his opponents into taking more extreme action—particularly those who have now lost their faith in elections or believe the system is rigged against them.<br /><br />"So we have the president increasing his own inflammatory rhetoric which leads Donald Trump and the Republicans to do the same, which influences the news media, which influences the rhetoric," he said. </blockquote>Just in case you haven't heard, in the run-up to the 2020 election, Newsweek <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2022/11/04/newsweek-embraces-anti-democracy-hard-right" target="_blank">took</a> "a marked radical right turn" and is now dedicated to supporting so-called "<a href="https://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2022/04/national-conservatives-are-openly.html" target="_blank">National Conservatives</a>." As such, they've become part of the right wing news echo chamber. So it's no surprise that the piece cited above has been picked up by <a href="https://thefederalist.com/2023/10/04/fbi-targets-trump-voters-as-domestic-terrorists-ahead-of-2024-election/" target="_blank">The Federalist</a>, <a href="https://redstate.com/streiff/2023/10/04/trump-supporters-now-a-special-target-of-the-fbi-they-have-their-own-cute-name-and-everything-n2164685" target="_blank">Red State</a>, <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/video/6338413928112" target="_blank">Laura Ingraham</a>, and many other right wing publications.<div><br /></div><div>Weeding through the entire Newsweek article it becomes clear that the data they are reporting doesn't support the narrative they're trying to sell (ie, "the FBI's data shows a dip in the number of investigations since the slew of January 6 cases ended"). </div><div><br /></div><div>But the focus has been on the fact that in October 2022, the FBI created a new sub-category of "anti-government, anti-authority violent extremists," which they defined as: "individuals motivated by a desire to commit violence against those with a real or perceived association with a specific political party or faction of a specific political party."</div><div><br /></div><div>So the FBI included <i>violent extremists who target people because of their political party</i>. But Newsweek and the other right wing publications turned that into the <i>FBI is targeting Trump supporters for their politics</i>. Do you see what they did there? </div><div><br /></div><div>The truth is that we have a Republican presidential candidate who in recent months has suggested that the Chair of the Joint Chiefs should be executed, warned of <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-warns-potential-death-destruction-charged-hush-money-probe-rcna76500" target="_blank">death and destruction</a> if he's charged with a crime, declared that the FBI, Department of Justice, and Democratic Party collectively comprised a <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/trump-says-us-like-person-dying-cancer-attack-democrats-fbi-1767904">“cancer”</a> that was killing the country, suggested that <a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-violent-rhetoric-retribution-authoritarians-2024-39e090680a33c0869312e79bcef106e8" target="_blank">shoplifters</a> should be shot, and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/25/trump-nbc-msnbc-comcast-country-threatening-treason" target="_blank">promised</a> to investigate news organizations for their "country threatening treason." </div><div><br /></div><div>As a result of this kind of rhetoric, the New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/24/us/politics/trump-prosecutions-threats-violence.html" target="_blank">reported</a> that since the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago for classified documents last August, threats against federal law-enforcement employees and their families have increased by 300 percent. And let's not forget that it was Trump supporters who, at his direction, stormed the Capitol on January 6th amid cries of "Hang Mike Pence."</div><div><br /></div><div>But according to Newsweek, it is Biden's warning about the danger of violent extremism that is to blame and the FBI is "weaponizing" the government by targeting Trump supporters merely for their politics. </div><div><br /></div><div>I remember the days when I'd see these kinds of lies and assumed that eventually the truth would become clear - proving that the purveyors of propaganda were wrong. But the gulf between right wingers and reality is so enormous now that I've had to accept that a day of reckoning isn't going to come. All I can do is hold fast to the truth and work to ensure that enough of us are doing so to defeat the liars in the long run.</div><div><br /></div>Nancy LeTourneauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12614317154146836694noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7163441833245663827.post-37958166397392831862023-10-04T12:03:00.001-05:002023-10-04T13:44:13.480-05:00What members of the Trump administration are saying about their former boss<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsD-Bn2b5ZJeAydjfGU7u4wT5GEtTJqiDcd3zNxwgnYBvF8oKeDwvOy58jI77VH5MlqiBmIoGZyw7yJHVxzioThKbwetKwJa1ieQzr3JoqdWbRiSASqlxLpl7brlDX6HRc14WudenXRUIRBrvQB42oMtUz-880iUTq4d5OZzSLPjYUUvvTBbDtGMyv2AdW/s1920/Trump%20Kelly.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsD-Bn2b5ZJeAydjfGU7u4wT5GEtTJqiDcd3zNxwgnYBvF8oKeDwvOy58jI77VH5MlqiBmIoGZyw7yJHVxzioThKbwetKwJa1ieQzr3JoqdWbRiSASqlxLpl7brlDX6HRc14WudenXRUIRBrvQB42oMtUz-880iUTq4d5OZzSLPjYUUvvTBbDtGMyv2AdW/w640-h360/Trump%20Kelly.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p>John Kelly, who was Donald Trump's chief of staff, recently <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/02/politics/john-kelly-donald-trump-us-service-members-veterans/" target="_blank">weighed in on</a> his former boss with what might be the most damning statement a member of a former administration has ever issued about a president. I'm going to quote the whole thing because it covers a lot of bases.</p><blockquote>A person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs are all ‘suckers’ because ‘there is nothing in it for them.’ A person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because ‘it doesn’t look good for me.’ A person who demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star family – for all Gold Star families – on TV during the 2016 campaign, and rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in America’s defense are ‘losers’ and wouldn’t visit their graves in France.<br /><br />A person who is not truthful regarding his position on the protection of unborn life, on women, on minorities, on evangelical Christians, on Jews, on working men and women. A person that has no idea what America stands for and has no idea what America is all about. A person who cavalierly suggests that a selfless warrior who has served his country for 40 years in peacetime and war should lose his life for treason – in expectation that someone will take action. A person who admires autocrats and murderous dictators. A person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law. <br /><br />There is nothing more that can be said. God help us.</blockquote><p>Of course, as a former General in the Marine Corps, Kelly is particularly disgusted with Trump's contempt for the military. In expressing that, he confirmed several reports that had been dismissed by the former guy and right wing media. So yes, a President of the United States called fallen soldiers "suckers" and "losers" - refusing to visit their graves in France.</p><p>But even more damning is that Kelly described Trump as someone who "has no idea what America stands for and has no idea what America is all about." He concluded his remarks by saying that the former president "has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law."</p><p>Coming from Trump's former chief of staff, these are not partisan critiques. They're from someone who spent countless hours with the president and obviously has nothing but contempt for the man. </p><p>Kelly isn't the first member of the Trump administration to criticize his former boss in this manner. Cassidy Hutchinson, who was an aide to former chief of staff Mark Meadows, <a href="https://twitter.com/AccountableGOP/status/1706764965099520265" target="_blank">recently said</a>, "I think Donald Trump is the most grave threat that we will face…to our democracy in our lifetime and potentially in American history."</p>Former secretary of defense, Mark Esper, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/02/politics/john-kelly-donald-trump-us-service-members-veterans/" target="_blank">said that</a> Trump is “unfit for office. … He puts himself before country. His actions are all about him and not about the country. And then, of course, I believe he has integrity and character issues as well.”<div><br /></div><div>Another former secretary of defense, James Mattis, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/06/james-mattis-denounces-trump-protests-militarization/612640/" target="_blank">wrote in 2020</a> that "Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership."</div><div><br /></div><div>John Bolton, who served as National Security Advisor, <a href="https://time.com/5892948/trump-former-officials-speak-out/" target="_blank">called Trump</a> a "danger for the Republic," and former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/11/general-mark-milley-trump-coup/675375/?gift=VprQFolBn-SJTHESpebcGC1eZl8s5hgxwBg-h1A_0o0&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social&fbclid=IwAR13b1ER4ti_lymvj8GOMAkrYU0NcP2030bvugtk7b_yqwlbLLhNj8yhkn4" target="_blank">referred to him</a> as a "f*cking moron."</div><div><br /></div><div>It might be possible to dismiss one or even two of these critiques as having something to do with sour grapes. But the chorus from former members of the Trump administration is pretty resounding. These people spent a lot of time "up close and personal" with the president and they're warning the American public about the danger their former boss poses to the country. </div><div><br /></div><div>Many of us have known this about Trump since he first announced his run for the presidency years ago. But this is the guy a majority of Republicans still support as their nominee for 2024. Frankly, that boggles my mind when the sirens warning us about him aren't simply blaring loudly. They're coming from inside the previous administration. </div>Nancy LeTourneauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12614317154146836694noreply@blogger.com2