Glenn Kirschner – J6 hearings & pardons: Kushner drafting them; Perry and Eastman requesting them; Rudy/Don Jr/Ivanka?
Glenn (two in one day because this one is an extra) – Justice Matters Special Edition: Proof beyond a reasonable doubt of Donald Trump’s criminal intent
Meidas Touch – Texas Paul REACTS to Despicable Texas GOP Platform
The Lincoln Project – Lady Ruby
MSNBC – Schiff: Trump Used His Big Lie As A Bludgeon To Bend Officials To His Will
Beau – Let’s talk about that ad in Missouri and a conflation of terms….
Yesterday, I got to thinking about a red flag that hit me in the gut back in the seventis. When I retuend from overseas duty, the Catholic Charismaic Movement was in full swing, as was the evangelical trend in Christianity. Both trends appeared to be good. The Jesus evangelicals then worshipped was then the real one, and many Catholics, wittingly or not, were looking for the same kind of emotional commitment to spirituality that evangelicals appeared to have found a way to achieve (the Cursillo movement was also prominent and was a more intellectual approach but looking for the same kind of commitment.) But the charismatic movement also had its intellectual side, and there was authorized iterature under a heading of “Life in the Spirit.” However, by the end of the decade, “Life in the Spirit” had been officially changed to “You Will Receive Power.” Even though the material was then the same, the change in emphasis struck me as a huge red flag. The way I put it to myself was that the movement was going to attract all the “wrong kind of people” – which sounds bigited, but I didn;t mean any ethnic or gender or any other kind of superficial group, I just meant “people who want power.” And forty years later, here we are.
Of course like everyone else, I grew up with Lord Acton’s “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” It’s a good thing to keep in mind, but I think it’s flawed. I think there are two kinds of people – those who want power, and those who don’t (and the latter probably want autonomy – power over one’s own life but not those of others – but I haven’t thought that through so I’ll say no more at this point.) It’s easy to see how the first group would be attracted to public office and public influence, and harder to see how the second group would, but it does happen, thank God. And of course, it’s the second kind we need to be in office if we want to maintain a democracy. Because, not wanting power, they can resist the corruption that comes with power. [After reading and thinking a little more, I came back here to add that, though we need this second type in [ower, we also need them to learn when it is and is not legitimate to use the power they are entrusted with, and must not be afraid to use it appropriately. Refraining from using it inappropriately is good, but failing to use it when it is needed is not.] If you have the time and energy, think about that for a little while, and then go back to the hearing and this conversation: Pence: “I wouldn’t even want that kind of power.” Trump**: “Oh, come on, Mike, wouldn’t it be cool to have that kind of power?”
One last observation – people who are driven by wanting powe also respond to others who ae the same. Bullies follow bullies; even if they are not the top bully, they can respond to, and feel that they vicariously share, the bullying power of their leaders. Also, many – maybe most – of us will never learn which kind of person we are (or even what the two types are.) We all tend to think other people think and feel like us until proven otherwise. I apologize for the rant, but I needed to say it.
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HuffPost – The Anti-Abortion Movement Killed People. Now Victims’ Families Face A Post-Roe World.
Quote – From 1977 to 2020 in America, anti-abortion activists committed at least 11 murders, 26 attempted murders, 956 threats of harm or death, 624 stalking incidents and four kidnappings, according to data collected by the National Abortion Federation. They have bombed 42 abortion clinics, set 194 on fire, attempted to bomb or burn an additional 104 and made 667 bomb threats. Click through for story (which is part of a series). It’s not as if we didn’t know that conservatives and terrorists have a major overlap. Liberals are more likely to attempt to use rational thinking to persuade.
The 19th – Medication abortion and clinics on federal land: Here are Democrats’ ideas to protect abortion access
Quote – To that end, the senators suggested a host of potential actions the administration could take via federal agencies. Among those: educating the public about and expanding access to medication abortion, the two-pill reigmen that can be administered from home to terminate pregnancies within the first trimester; providing vouchers for people who will have to travel out of state for abortions once Roe is overturned; assessing whether abortions can be provided on federal lands, even in states that have restricted access; and using existing laws and regulations to limit cell phone applications’ ability to sell data that might reveal whether someone got an abortion. Click through for details. Meds are a great option if they’re an option – they aren’t always (and they’re not pain free). I love the thought of clinics on federal land in reactionary states. There aren’t many ways for us to give them the finger that they understand
Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”
I don’t suppose the headline of this article is a surprise to anyone – nor that it is the first time the thesis has crossed your mind. (And there are a lot of those groups. Besides the Proud Boys, the article mentions Oath Keepers, The Base, the Aryan Brotherhood, the KKK, and Hutaree. In addition to those, there’s the Three Percenters, Opus Dei, whatever the cult is that Amy Coney Barrett wwas a “handmaiden” in – and more others than I could possibly remember (unless maybe I set them to music, as Tom Lehrer did with the chemical elements.) The thing they have in common is that all are bad news – and, of course, all are white.
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Regardless of seditious conspiracy charges’ outcome, right-wing groups like Proud Boys seek to build a white nation
Members of the Oath Keepers stand at the east front of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta
Those charges can be difficult to prove in court. But regardless of the outcome of any prosecution that alleges these groups worked to overthrow the government, ourresearch has shown that the more committed members of these and other extreme right-wing groups believe that the U.S. government, as currently constituted, is illegitimate and should be overthrown and replaced with one that is based on white supremacy.
Like any street gang, the Proud Boys as a national group is made up of semi-autonomous chapters of varying numbers and abilities. They are in different degrees of contact and coordination with other chapters. It’s not clear the level of interest – or capability – that most members have in actually following through with overthrowing the government.
Oath Keepers is an anti-government group that calls itself a “militia” focused on defending the Constitution and fighting tyranny. Former Oath Keepers spokesman Jason Van Tatenhove stated that the group is actually “selling the revolution,” meaning that the group is pushing conspiracy theories and propaganda to facilitate confrontations with federal law enforcement.
While members of the Proud Boys have concentrated their confrontations on anti-fascists or other protesters, Oath Keepers have participated in several armed standoffs against the government.
But prosecuting far-right groups has tended to be much more difficult. In 1988, Louis Beam, a figurehead in the white power movement, and 13 white supremacists from groups such as the Aryan Brotherhood and the Ku Klux Klan were acquitted of conspiring to kill a federal judge and an FBI agent and plotting to overthrow the federal government to establish an all-white nation in the Pacific Northwest.
In 2012, charges of seditious conspiracy against members of Hutaree, a militant far-right Christian nationalist group, were dismissed after the judge concluded the government had not proved there was an actual conspiracy.
============================================================== Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone, members of these groups think they are in the right. Yet, on some level, they must know they aren’t – they know they need to hide from law enforcement certainly. I would speak in favor of departation – except that – who would have them? Even Russia, Belarus, Hungary, the Phillippines (not that they’s want t go there) – I can’t imagine anyone wanting them. We certainly don’t. We need solutions – and we need them faster than we may realize.
Glenn Kirschner: BOMBSHELL AFTER BOMBSHELL! Justice Will Come for Bannon, Meadows & Donald Trump! (not his show, but some juicy stuff in a less formal tone. Remember in Rocky Mountain Mike’s parody on “My Life” (called “Big Lie”), he said his friend who used to be “real gross” now “listens to Stephanie’s show from LA”? Well, this Stepahie is THAT Stephanie (often has Glenn and John Fugelsang as guests too.)
Meidas Touch – Eric Swalwell SHREDS Republicans in SPEECH OF THE YEAR over inaction after Uvalde
Meidas Touch – Texas Paul REACTS to Top Republican whining that Republicans Can’t Lie to the FBI
The Lincoln Project – Pat [sic] Attention
MSNBC – Cuffed: Trump Aide Navarro’s Arrest Puts Heat On Coup Plot After MSNBC Confession
MSNBC – Chris Hayes And Ari Melber Discuss Peter Navarro Indictment (yes, two from MSNBC – they are related
Ring of Fire – Conservative Writer Says Base Is Getting ‘Bored’ With Trump
Beau – Let’s talk about teachers, cats, and gas stations…. (possible hanky alert)
CNN – He helped decode Mark Meadows’ texts. What he found scared him (Long but meaty. Partial transcript here.) https://crooksandliars.com/2022/06/intelligence-expert-says-jan-6-data
The Daily Show – The Story of Covfefe: Based on a True Typo
Beau – Let’s talk about Georgia showing Wyoming the way….
Yesterday, I finished that last new cartoon for June, which is for the 28th. It kind of got me thinking. Some of us have probably heard about the “Habsburg jaw,” which this Habsburg certainly had, and the beard didn’t do much to hide it. These days I see a lot of jokes about moronic and generally poor MAGAts who perhaps result from inbreeding – but historicall, all the way back to ancient Egypt, it was not the poor butthe wealthy who famously inbred (presumably under theimpression that no one but others in their class were good enough for them.) Tutankhamen for instance – his mummy has been examined and by modern specialists, who indicate he had so many deformities he may never have had a pain free day in his short life. In Eurpoe, not only the Habsburg jaw but the Russian royal family’s hemophilia came from inbreeding. Of course it sometimes occurred among the poor as well, particularly if there were some reason which required them to live in isolation, such as the Sawney Bean case in Scotland – that family was anything but rich (although modern Scots with the surname Bean are thoughy to be descendants of MacBeth, so go figure.) I also have established my list to make a record for July of which cartoons from 2014 I can reuse and which I can’t. I haven’t started that actual reviewing yet, and I won’t start this week fur sure, but when I am ready, I’m prepared.
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The Daily Beast – This QAnon Leader Could Control Key Elections in 2024
Quote – While the 65-year-old Willott remains all but unknown outside of QAnon, he’s a figure with growing influence in both the conspiracy-theory universe and the broader conservative movement. Along the way, many of Willott’s supporters have come to believe he’s John F. Kennedy Jr. in disguise. He’s also befriended Q-friendly celebrities, including comedian Roseanne Barr and The Passion of the Christ star Jim Caviezel…. Despite his growing influence, almost nothing has been reported about Willott’s background. The Daily Beast has amassed the most extensive reporting on Willott yet, from his background as a second-rate investigator looking into Bill Clinton in the 1990s to his reinvention as the cosmopolitan secret agent Juan O. Savin, to his new role as a power broker on the far right. Click through for more than you will find anywhere else… stuff we probably ought to be aware of.
Politico – ‘It’s going to be an army’: Tapes reveal GOP plan to contest elections
Quote – The plan, as outlined by a Republican National Committee staffer in Michigan, includes utilizing rules designed to provide political balance among poll workers to install party-trained volunteers prepared to challenge voters at Democratic-majority polling places, developing a website to connect those workers to local lawyers and establishing a network of party-friendly district attorneys who could intervene to block vote counts at certain precincts. Click through for story. I’m aware Politico is considered to be right leaning. But they seem to publish a lot of stuff one would think the right would not want us to know
Democratic Underground – The Party of the Brave
Quote – Republicans are more afraid of a teenaged boy wearing mascara than a teenaged boy buying an AK-15….
They are more afraid of losing their ‘white privilege’ than they are of losing their country….
They are more afraid of being called-out by Sean Hannity than they are of being called-up by the January 6 Committee. Click through for full post. Nance Greggs is a community member at DU, but is highly respected aby other members, and this post may suggest why.
