Republican Assault on Democracy and March Towards Fascism

[AnBr]

Jul 28, 2022 18:51:37 GMT LFC said:

I followed up by watching another interview with him and he was even more brutal about Garland. You can pick up at 2:50 for his laying out of the DOJ.

I have always liked Nance.

[LFC]

CPAC pulls the classic fascist Republican (but I repeat myself) move of blaming the other side of what it's side is doing. This time it's full-throated support for now loud and proud racist Viktor Orbán. We always knew so much of the right's grievances were about race. It just too Trump to make them feel comfortable voicing and defending it.

CPAC Leader Decides Leftists Are The Real Fascists

Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) organizer Matt Schlapp already made it clear earlier this week that far-right Hungarian Prime Minister and CPAC special guest Viktor Orbán’s Nazi speech attacking “race mixing” was nbd, but yesterday Schlapp fully went to bat for his buddy via Twitter.

• As you probably expected, Schlapp complained that Orbán was a victim of “cancel culture.”

• “The most tragic part is that the left is guilty of the fascism they always charge,” Schlapp lamented in defense of a leader who’s actively trying to kill democracy in his country.

• And yet CPAC wasn’t afraid to cancel a guest appearance last year when it turned out he’d peddled anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. Huh!

[LFC]

FINALLY! We have a Democrat, and a former Republican, calling for prosecution of those who the attempt to overthrow the 2020 election in their state.

State Rep. Joe Tate (D-Detroit) joined the former head of the Michigan GOP and a national elections expert on Thursday to talk Jan. 6 committee hearings in the U.S. House, while doubling down on his call to have some of his GOP colleagues investigated.

“An assault on our democracy, to steal the vote from the people and subvert our election results in Michigan, is an assault on our nation and its founding ideals,” Tate said.

The Democrat joined Jeff Timmer, former Michigan GOP executive director who is now a consultant for both the Lincoln Project and Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel’s campaign; and Noah Bookbinder, president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW) for the virtual press conference.

Tate last week introduced a House resolution urging the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate 11 Republican House members for the crime of seditious conspiracy.

State Reps. Gary Eisen (R-St. Clair Twp.), John Reilly (R-Oakland Twp.), Julie Alexander (R-Hanover), Matt Maddock (R-Milford), Daire Rendon (R-Lake City), Beth Griffin (R-Mattawan), Michele Hoitenga (R-Manton), Brad Paquette (R-Niles), Rodney Wakeman (R-Saginaw Twp.), Greg Markkanen (R-Hancock) and Jack O’Malley (R-Lake Ann) all put their names to briefs in a failed lawsuit that sought to overturn election results.

Maddock, Rendon, Reilly, Griffin and Alexander also attempted to enter the Michigan Capitol on Dec. 14, 2020, with a slate of 16 fake Republican electors.

During the virtual press conference Thursday, Tate said he has only had “brief interactions” with the Republicans who were named in his resolution since introducing it, but “nothing in terms of substance.” He did not elaborate what the interactions entailed.

When pressed on why he specifically believes the 11 state representatives may have committed the crime of seditious conspiracy — a federal offense that carries up to 20 years in prison — Tate said the members went against their oath of office to protect and defend the U.S. Constitution.

“For us not to look into this … it reduces the faith and confidence in our elected system as well as our democratic institutions,” Tate said.

Tate, Timmer and Bookbinder also discussed how former President Donald Trump and his allies, including in key states like Michigan, attempted to illegally overthrow the election in his favor. They cited the Jan. 6 House panel, which recently held its final hearing this summer and showcased what Trump failed to do during the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

The press conference was hosted by the Defend Democracy Project.

“I, at least, have been blown away by how much we have learned at every single one of those eight hearings, and particularly what we’ve learned in terms of the vast evidence of what Donald Trump and his allies knew,” Bookbinder said.

Reiterating that Trump knew he had rightfully lost the election but chose to pursue the election anyway, Bookbinder added: “When you have a president who seeks to stay in power, despite losing an election, despite the will of the people, that is an attempt to install a dictator. That is an attempt to install a dictatorship.”

Timmer served as the Michigan Republican Party Executive Director from 2005 to 2009. He left the party during the Trump era.

“I never thought I would have to be standing here, telling my former Republican colleagues that truth and facts matter,” Timmer said.

He shared that within conversations he’s had with high level officials in the Republican Party, those officials say that the “rhetoric from Trump on down about the stolen election has left them with no choice but to continue this … façade.”

“They know that there wasn’t fraud, that there weren’t irregularities, but they feel that they have no choice given where their base, where their voters come down on this issue.”

Timmer emphasized that this effort did not stop after Jan. 6, 2021, but it is a process that is “continuing.”

[LFC]

The DOJ is zeroing in on the fake electors. Once again this should have been done ages ago once they had proof positive that fake electors where actually submitted, something I suspect is a crime outside of all of the rest of the coup details. Thank heavens for the Jan 6 committee. I don't have any faith that Garland would have stirred without what they did and presented publicly.

The Justice Department is reportedly seeking communications to and from the Republican National Committee’s “election integrity” director in its Jan. 6 investigation, Politico reported Saturday.

In recent weeks, the DOJ has issued subpoenas seeking information in all seven battleground states where the Trump campaign attempted to assemble a slate of fake electors as part of Trump’s efforts to subvert the election results.

At least three witnesses in the DOJ’s Jan. 6 probe of the fake electors — two in Arizona and another in Georgia — have received subpoenas requesting communications to and from Joshua Findlay, who currently serves as the RNC’s national director for election integrity, according to Politico.

Findlay reportedly appears in the DOJ’s subpoenas to the Georgia and Arizona witnesses. The three subpoenas request the witnesses to share all documents and communications from Oct. 2020 on , “[t]o, from, with, or including” a list of people, which includes Findlay.

Prior to serving in the RNC, Findlay worked for Trump’s 2020 campaign, which involved being part of the team responsible for the planning of the 2020 Republican National Convention. Following the convention, he was a lawyer on the Trump campaign’s legal team.

[LFC]

Another "Constitutional sheriff" who wants to jail people for being honest while praising people who actually broke election laws. How very Republican.

A Wisconsin sheriff who’s argued for months that the state’s top elections officials should be charged criminally actually celebrated a local right-wing activist who admitted that he filled out ballot request forms using other people’s names.

The activist, Harry Wait, went online to request absentee ballots for himself in the names of Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R) and Racine Mayor Cory Mason (D).

“Basically, I committed a crime when I ordered them,” Wait told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Lying on absentee ballot request forms is illegal, but Wait said he did so to make a political point about how the state’s online absentee ballot request form, and in fact “all absentee ballots,” should be discontinued.

Wait told Racine County Sheriff Christopher Schmaling what he’d done.

“He said, ‘Thank you so much for breaking this open,’” Wait recalled of his conversation with Schmaling, the Washington Post reported. “So I said, ‘Does that mean you’re not going to arrest me?’ And he said, ‘Hell, no.’”

On Schmaling’s Facebook page, the sheriff referred to Wait as a “complainant” who “requested the ballot of two prominent government officials and numerous individuals from around the state.”

“This complainant reported he was successful in ordering these ballots be sent to the complainant’s home because he knew these individuals’ dates of birth and without showing any form of photo identification,” the sheriff wrote. “Based upon this serious threat to voter integrity, the Sheriff’s Office has contacted the Wisconsin Attorney General’s Office and the Wisconsin Elections Commission.”

Schmaling added, making Wait’s point, “I am disheartened by the apparent vulnerabilities in My Vote Wisconsin that are ripe for fraud.”

‘What Exactly Is A Sheriff’s Job?’

Schmaling’s reported celebration of Wait’s stunt is in keeping with the worldview of the “constitutional sheriffs” movement. “Constitutional” sheriffs assert that they are the highest law enforcement authorities in their counties — above even state and federal authorities — and also that they have a duty to ignore laws they personally deem unconstitutional.

[LFC]

The AZ House Speaker is now swimming against the tide his party churned up over the course of decades.

Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers (R) on Sunday clarified that he does not plan to vote for former President Trump again if he were to launch a re-election bid in 2024, a month after saying that he would vote for Trump if the former president challenges President Biden in 2024.

Bowers is running in the GOP primary for the Arizona state Senate this week amid backlash from Republicans, following his public testimony before the Jan. 6 Select Committee last month. Bowers is set to face off against Trump-endorsed candidate David Fansworth in the GOP primary. Bowers was also censured by the state GOP earlier this month.

In an interview with ABC News that aired Sunday, Bowers stood by his congressional testimony last month and his refusal to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in Arizona. Bowers testified to the Jan. 6 Select Committee about Trump’s attempts to pressure him into tossing out the election results. Bowers detailed his conversations with Trump and his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, who demanded that Bowers replace Arizona’s electors with fake ones to falsely declare Trump’s victory in the battleground state.

“The idea of throwing out the election of the president is like, OK, so what part of Jupiter do I get to land on and colonize?” Bowers said.

[LFC]

After threatening to hold up the Veteran's benefits bill they supported Republicans finally listened to the only thing that really matters to them, the political value of what they're doing. Apparently telling a bunch of Veterans to suffer and perhaps die after being poisoned by the U.S. military doesn't play well. Who woulda' thought.

Clean up on aisle four!

Facing overwhelming backlash after tanking a previously-approved veterans health benefits bill (known as the PACT Act) out of spite over Democrats’ climate and tax legislation, the Senate’s Republican leadership now seems to have realized that the tantrum isn’t worth it.

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), one of the 25 Republicans who had abruptly switched their initial “yes” vote to a “no,” signaled on Monday that the bill, which provides aid for veterans suffering from toxic exposures, will overcome the blockade when Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) puts it up for a vote again.

“It will pass this week,” McConnell said.

A similarly squirmy Senate Republican Conference chair John Barrasso (R-WY), the third-ranking GOP senator and another Republican who had changed his vote, told Politico that he would “expect it to pass.”

Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-SD), who voted against the legislation both times, said that at “some point” the bill “is going to pass and it will pass big.”

The leaders’ backtracking marks an attempt at damage control as Republican senators find themselves getting raked over the coals for blocking the PACT Act, which had initially passed the Senate in a largely bipartisan 84-14 vote last month but was brought to a vote again last week due to a technical error.

When the legislation was put to a vote again, 25 Republicans who’d voted for it the first time inexplicably blocked the bill; a move that was widely understood to be a flailing attempt at politically motivated retaliation after Schumer and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) announced a deal on a bill to address climate change, drug pricing and corporate taxes.

[LFC]

Love the title!

Senate Passes Vet Bill After GOPers Get Over Themselves

Republicans who tried to kill the PACT Act (the bipartisan bill to provide aid for veterans suffering from toxic exposures) out of revenge over Democrats’ climate and tax bill reversed course after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) brought it to a vote again on Tuesday night. GOP Senate leaders made it pretty clear yesterday that the caucus had realized their tantrum was backfiring, big time.

[Bact PhD]

The best spot for this analysis.

www.gainesville.com/story/news/politics/2022/08/05/desantis-florida-governor-controversy-removal-prosecutor-warren-tucker-carlson-applauds/10245320002/

DeSantis has become a magnet for this type of heated rhetoric over the last year as he uses his authority aggressively. He has quickly become one of the most powerful and polarizing chief executives in state history.

“His history is one of very aggressive decision making, no question about it," said University of South Florida emeritus political science professor Susan MacManus. "He’s hardly a wallflower.”

Nothing demonstrates that power more than removing another democratically elected official from office.

[snip]

Warren [the Hillsborough County prosecutor removed by Supreme Emperor earlier this week] wasn’t accused of a single major misstep. Instead, local law enforcement leaders said he was soft on crime and DeSantis agreed, saying he didn’t do enough to enforce certain laws while also complaining about letters he signed stating he wouldn't enforce laws on abortion and transgender medical care.

“It’s basically a disagreement about policy and ideology and the governor’s trying to remove a prosecutor who was elected twice by the people of Tampa," said University of Central Florida political science professor Aubrey Jewett.

DeSantis’ executive order removing Warren says the prosecutor’s actions amounted to “neglect of duty.”

Warren said it was pure politics. He accused DeSantis of having the 2024 Republican presidential primary in mind.

“I think the governor's trying to make a good impression on the Iowa caucus voters for 2024,” he said.

[LFC]

CPAC, a.k.a. Facistfest, loved what Orbán had to say to them about white Christian nationalism. Bold absurdity mine.

Warning of what he called a “clash of civilizations” throughout the world, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán pushed back against criticism of his policies and accusations of racism by asserting that “a Christian politician cannot be racist.”

In an address Thursday at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Dallas Texas, the prime minister took on a range of both political and cultural issues from globalism and illegal immigration to marriage and gender ideology.

Orbán, who was reelected in April on a platform of what he called a “brand of Christian democratic, conservative, patriotic politics,” told CPAC attendees he sees some parallels between Hungary and Texas’ reputation for valuing independence and freedom.

“If this is true — and it must be true, as I look around — then we have something in common, even if Hungary is over 5,000 miles from Dallas,” he said. “My country, Hungary, is the Lone Star State of Europe.”

Following criticism over a recent speech in which he attacked what he called an “ideological move” by the “internationalist Left” to claim that Europe is inherently “populated by peoples of mixed race,” Orbán pushed back against allegations of racism over his statement about not wanting to become "mixed race," saying, “a Christian politician cannot be racist.”

“I can already see tomorrow’s headlines: ‘Far-right European racist and anti-Semite strongman, the Trojan horse of Putin, holds speech at conservative conference,’” he said. "But I don’t want to give them any ideas. They know best how to write fake news.”

Orbán called on American conservatives to fight against regimes that are opposed to what he described as the West’s Judeo-Christian heritage.

“The horrors of Nazism and communism happened because some Western States in continental Europe abandoned their Christian values. And today’s progressives are planning to do the same. They want to give up on Western values, and create a New World, a Post-Western World,” he said.

The 59-year-old prime minister pointed to the Obama administration as an example, saying that under former President Barack Obama, the U.S. pressured Hungary to “delete Christian and national values from it.”

Both Obama and former President George W. Bush refused to take meetings with Orbán. The Obama administration also denied visas for Hungarian officials who had allegedly been suspected of corruption in 2014.

[jackd]

Orban is correct. If a politician is racist, he/she cannot be Christian. Calling oneself Christian does not make it so.

[LFC]

More on Orbán's speech at Facistfest.

This author took on Rod Dreher's torture defenses and waffling over Orbán's naked racism. Rod is hiding behind the "poor choice of words" defense rather than accepting what Orbán is clearly saying. It was abundantly clear to us that Hungary was slipping away from both democracy and morality but Rod's blind spot when it comes to his own is massive. This came after laying out Rod's history in the culture wars.

Orbán’s Next Step—and Rod’s Response

But Orbán’s recent speech shifts things even further in an anti-liberal direction. I urge you to read it for yourself. There’s nothing complex about it. It is admirably blunt—so much so that I can summarize its contents quite easily in a single paragraph:

Europe is spiritually and demographically dying. Some of its countries, encouraged by Soros’ money, are seeking to address this issue by inviting in hordes of Muslims, which is creating a problem of “population replacement or inundation.” Following Jean Raspail’s notoriously racist and xenophobic 1973 novel The Camp of the Saints, which he calls (without so much as a touch of ambivalence) an “outstanding” book, Orbán laments that many Europeans are failing to defend themselves against these invaders from an alien race whose presence in Europe will only hasten its demise. Europeans can happily mix with each other, but Europe must avoid becoming “mixed race” in the sense of allowing itself to blend with outsiders from the Islamic world. Resisting this fate is the only way for Europe to save itself.

To my mind, it can be acceptable (if morally unsavory) for a politician to oppose immigration for all kinds of reasons, even cultural considerations. But to invoke race as the primary criterion of exclusion is different. Rod knows this, which is why he tries to deny, in bold type, that this is what Orbán really means:

He is using the term "race" as a symbol of religion and culture (and I wish he would not have done that, because it makes it hard to explain what he means).

Of course Orbán could have invoked culture if this is what he wanted to talk about, but he didn’t. I think that’s because he didn’t mean culture. He meant race. How do I know? Because he invoked and praised one of the most grotesquely racist and xenophobic novels in recent European history to help illustrate his point!

As he often does, Rod has updated his post several times in response to critics, and as he’s done so, his position has wavered. (Rod has also written a pair of follow-up posts that don’t do anything to change my judgment of his stance on the speech.) In his second update, Rod worries that Orbán’s invocation of “race” is like his ill-advised use of the term “illiberal democracy” in a high-profile speech from 2014 to describe his political goal. But as I indicated above, I think that term perfectly describes Orbán’s aims and (supposed) accomplishments. I also have no idea why Rod would reject that descriptor when his closest ideological compatriots in recent years (including Patrick Deneen, who has also spent considerable time in Hungary) are explicit anti-liberals.

Then there’s The Camp of the Saints, to which Rod also circles back in his second update, quoting from one of his own posts, written in 2015, about the novel, which he called back then “a bad book” but an “important” one. I agree with that assessment of the novel, which describes an armada of a million dark-skinned, filthy, sexually profligate Muslims invading and easily bringing weak-willed, self-loathing Europe to its knees. If you want to understand the contemporary right’s great, primal fear of outsiders in general and Muslims in particular, there may be no better source to study. Doing so can help prepare a more cogent response. (It was in this spirit that I advocated empathetic imagination about the right in my inaugural post.)

But that’s not how Orbán invokes the book. He calls it “outstanding” and recommends it “to anyone who wants to understand the spiritual developments underlying the West’s inability to defend itself.”

Rod’s response is … more conflicted. He says he wishes Orbán hadn’t cited the book, but other than the resulting PR problem, it’s unclear exactly why, because much of Rod’s defense of Orbán’s speech, including new material added in Update 2, tries to bolster the worldview out of which Raspail’s novel was written. Among other things, Rod shares a chart that paleoconservative writer and VDARE columnist Steve Sailer calls “the most important graph in the world.” As Rod points out, the chart shows that Europe’s population is stagnant but Africa’s is surging, “and those Africans are not going to stay in Africa.” That is a dire threat, Rod thinks, and could lead to a shooting war against the invaders.

[LFC]

TPM has a list of meltdowns on the right. Take a look through it all but the big themes they call out are:

• You can't investigate a former president
• Defund / destroy the FBI
  
• McCarthy is vowing revenge
• Civil war is here
  

[goldenvalley]

Aug 9, 2022 16:54:23 GMT LFC said:

TPM has a list of meltdowns on the right. Take a look through it all but the big themes they call out are:

• You can't investigate a former president
• Defund / destroy the FBI
  
• McCarthy is vowing revenge
• Civil war is here
  

I'm hoping Capitol police, DC police and the National Guard in Virginia and Delaware were forewarned about the execution of the search warrant and its possible fall out.

[LFC]

Another threat by a Republican lawmaker who clearly has no respect for the law. I'm putting these reactions in this thread instead of under the Trump thread because they are perfect illustrations of how lawless and outright fascist these people have become. Anybody who dares to uphold the law against one of their own must be punished!

A Republican Florida lawmaker has called for his state’s legislature to break away from federal agencies in the wake of an FBI raid on Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home. State Rep. Anthony Sabatini, who is running for Congress, made his radical proposal in the early hours of Tuesday morning. “It’s time for us in the Florida Legislature to call an emergency legislative session & amend our laws regarding federal agencies,” Sabatini wrote. “Sever all ties with DOJ immediately. Any FBI agent conducting law enforcement functions outside the purview of our State should be arrested upon sight.” MAGA fans have reacted angrily to the search of the former president’s property, which is reportedly related to an investigation into classified documents Trump may have improperly removed during his final days in the White House. Sabatini previously supported Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election result and last year proposed renaming U.S. Highway 27 to the “President Donald J. Trump Highway.”

[LFC]

More and more of the crazies are screeching for a civil war. If anybody needed more evidence of Republican fascism (though I can't understand how they could) well here it is.

On Donald Trump’s social media platform, Truth Social, fervent MAGA supporters are pleased with the idea of a civil war following the FBI’s search of the ex-president’s Florida residence. “Biden is trying to start a Civil War,” a Truth user whose bio states “Conservative Truth Shaman,” said. Likewise, a verified pro-Trump user wrote: “Is it just me or does it now feel like we’re one step closer to a Civil War?” But it didn’t end there. “Fuck a civil war, give them a REVOLUTION. We out number all of the 10 to 1,” one user said. Another supporter whose bio says he’s “ULTRA MAGA” added: “And this time we will be armed with more than just flags.” A Truth Social representative didn’t return The Daily Beast’s request for comment on Tuesday. Vice News further reported on Tuesday morning that “MAGA, QAnon, and far-right message boards and Telegram channels lit up Monday night with calls for a violent response to what some extremists see as a political attack directed by the Biden administration.” That said, it’s not only extreme MAGA users suggesting civil war, as former Trump adviser Sebastian Gorka said Monday night that the FBI’s actions are a “declaration of war.”

To be fair there should be declarations of war. How about the War on Terror, as we're waging against the Republican insurrectionists who supported Trump's coup attempt? The War on Fascism which targets nearly every Republicans in Congress and thousands across state and local gov't now? The War on Lies which targets nearly ever Republican and their propaganda outlets? These are all wars that I think real Americans should embrace.

[goldenvalley]

Aug 9, 2022 19:47:59 GMT LFC said:

Another threat by a Republican lawmaker who clearly has no respect for the law. I'm putting these reactions in this thread instead of under the Trump thread because they are perfect illustrations of how lawless and outright fascist these people have become. Anybody who dares to uphold the law against one of their own must be punished!

A Republican Florida lawmaker has called for his state’s legislature to break away from federal agencies in the wake of an FBI raid on Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home. State Rep. Anthony Sabatini, who is running for Congress, made his radical proposal in the early hours of Tuesday morning. “It’s time for us in the Florida Legislature to call an emergency legislative session & amend our laws regarding federal agencies,” Sabatini wrote. “Sever all ties with DOJ immediately. Any FBI agent conducting law enforcement functions outside the purview of our State should be arrested upon sight.” MAGA fans have reacted angrily to the search of the former president’s property, which is reportedly related to an investigation into classified documents Trump may have improperly removed during his final days in the White House. Sabatini previously supported Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election result and last year proposed renaming U.S. Highway 27 to the “President Donald J. Trump Highway.”

He's like the secessionists.  Florida gets to pick and choose as if the United States is a supermarket of federal agencies.

[LFC]

Aug 9, 2022 20:11:03 GMT goldenvalley said:

He's like the secessionists.  Florida gets to pick and choose as if the United States is a supermarket of federal agencies.

Just don't touch the spigot of those oh so sweet federal dollars being spent in the state.

[LFC]

No surprise that Suckabee is talking out of both sides of her doughy, sad looking, Droopy Dog face.

Rank GOP Hypocrisy Over Raid Furor In Two Tweets

Back in 2016, future Trump White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders (who is now Arkansas’ GOP gubernatorial nominee) had this to say in response to criticism over the FBI’s Clinton email probe:

Fast forward to now:

As I mentioned in today’s Morning Memo, the outrage we’ve been seeing from conservatives over the past 24 hours exposes the hollowness of the GOP’s “law and order” and “respect the police!” mantra.

[LFC]

Pence continues to represent Republican Fascism-lite. He's such a miserable little puke.

Pence Once Again Flaunts Utter Lack Of Dignity

We’ve all witnessed the grim spectacle of ex-Vice President Mike Pence kissing up to the man who actively encouraged a violent mob to go after him during Capitol attack, but it never gets any less cringe every time Pence does it:

He could just take a page from the book the majority of Republican senators are following and not say anything quite yet. What’s he hoping to gain here?

[goldenvalley]

Aug 9, 2022 20:40:32 GMT LFC said:

Pence continues to represent Republican Fascism-lite. He's such a miserable little puke.

Pence Once Again Flaunts Utter Lack Of Dignity

We’ve all witnessed the grim spectacle of ex-Vice President Mike Pence kissing up to the man who actively encouraged a violent mob to go after him during Capitol attack, but it never gets any less cringe every time Pence does it:

He could just take a page from the book the majority of Republican senators are following and not say anything quite yet. What’s he hoping to gain here?

Still courting the Trump cult...has had years of practice doing that so it's practically a reflex now.

[Bact PhD]

Aug 9, 2022 19:47:59 GMT LFC said:

Another threat by a Republican lawmaker who clearly has no respect for the law. I'm putting these reactions in this thread instead of under the Trump thread because they are perfect illustrations of how lawless and outright fascist these people have become. Anybody who dares to uphold the law against one of their own must be punished!

A Republican Florida lawmaker has called for his state’s legislature to break away from federal agencies in the wake of an FBI raid on Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home. State Rep. Anthony Sabatini, who is running for Congress, made his radical proposal in the early hours of Tuesday morning. “It’s time for us in the Florida Legislature to call an emergency legislative session & amend our laws regarding federal agencies,” Sabatini wrote. “Sever all ties with DOJ immediately. Any FBI agent conducting law enforcement functions outside the purview of our State should be arrested upon sight.” MAGA fans have reacted angrily to the search of the former president’s property, which is reportedly related to an investigation into classified documents Trump may have improperly removed during his final days in the White House. Sabatini previously supported Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election result and last year proposed renaming U.S. Highway 27 to the “President Donald J. Trump Highway.”

Sabatini not only drank the Kool-Aid, he bathed in it, too.
In other words, he’s cuckoo even compared to many residents of Flori-DUH…

[LFC]

We all knew there were too many in law enforcement who were fascist and couldn't be trusted to uphold the law but in Indiana two of them effectively kidnapped a candidate they didn't like to keep him from running for town council. The right-wing, goose stepping their way to power one fascist move after another.

Two Indiana officers were suspended after a stunning courtroom revelation that police thought a potential town council candidate was anti-police and arrested him, stopping him from running for office.

During a July 19 hearing, Franklin County Prosecutor Chris Huerkamp dropped charges that included drug possession against Trevin Thalheimer after an officer and witness recounted how Brookville police talked about Thalheimer. Huerkamp, who also did not pursue a rape charge police had investigated, said he was “disturbed beyond words” by the alleged police conduct and reported the incident to the Indiana State Police, which launched a criminal investigation. The transcript of the hearing was made public Monday.

Brookville Police Chief Terry Mitchum and the investigating officer, Ryan Geiser, were suspended with pay from the nine-person force Thursday by the town’s council, which ordered them to stay away from other officers and town property. The council installed an interim chief in a brief emergency meeting and said it would begin searching for a permanent replacement.

Local police say they’ve already implemented many of Biden’s reforms

Thalheimer said he decided not to run in the May 3 primary race for town council since the arrest rocked his hometown of 2,500 people and consumed his life. Immediately after he got out of jail, where he was held for about an hour, he said he couldn’t leave his bed. He said he felt he had been “destroyed” by the criminal charges, which exacerbated his depression and anxiety.
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“I have a bad taste in my mouth about politics,” he said. “I knew politics was dirty, but I didn’t know I’d have to dumpster dive.”

The town council president, Curtis Ward, said there has been no finding of wrongdoing and noted the presumption of innocence in criminal cases. Mitchum and Geiser did not respond to requests for comment.

The controversy comes after Brookville police have not worn body cameras, which the town council could require. Huerkamp said they are the only full-time agency in the jurisdiction without any recording devices.

The news also coincides with federal prosecutors charging police officers who shot and killed Breonna Taylor with falsifying information, drawing attention to past cases when police misled judges who signed off on search warrants.

After his arrest, it took months before the hearing that cleared Thalheimer’s charges.

[LFC]

The cellphone seized from Rep. Scott Perry (R-PArt of the Coup) was apparently part of the investigation of the fake elector scheme attempted by Republicans in multiple (seven, I think) states. For now he's apparently being treated as a witness but I fully expect that to change. He's just too deep in the coup.

The FBI’s seizure of Rep. Scott Perry’s (R-PA) phone on Tuesday was reportedly in connection with a federal investigation into attempts by several allies of former President Trump to subvert the 2020 election results, two people familiar with the matter told the New York Times.

On Tuesday, Perry told Fox News that three FBI agents approached him with a warrant for his phone while he was traveling with his family. Perry said the agents handed him a warrant and requested that he turn over his phone. Perry claimed the FBI made “no attempt to contact my lawyer, who would have made arrangements for them to have my phone if that was their wish.”

Investigators reportedly returned Perry’s phone back to him on Wednesday, one of his lawyers, John Irving, told the Times.

Irving reportedly said prosecutors told Perry that he is a witness, not a subject of, their inquiry.

“The Justice Department informed us that Representative Perry is not a target of its investigation,” Irving said in a written statement to the Times. “Representative Perry has directed us to cooperate with the Justice Department in order to ensure that it gets the information it is entitled to, but to also protect information that it is not entitled to.”

The seizure of Perry’s phone followed the seizure of phones and other electronic devices from Trump cronies Jeffrey Clark and John Eastman, both of whom were key players Trump’s fruitless attempt to overturn the election results, in June. Clark, a former DOJ official, attempted to weaponize the department as a tool to disrupt the certification of Joe Biden’s electoral victory on behalf of Trump. Eastman, a conservative lawyer, was part of a pressure campaign for then-Vice President Mike Pence to toss out the results of the 2020 election.

Perry isn't the only one they're looking to talk to:

A new report says that yesterday and today a lot of Jan 6th-involved Republicans in the Pennsylvania state legislature got visits or subpoenas from the FBI. The issue seems to be the fake electors scheme and people who either worked with or had knowledge of the actions of federal Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA).

I know it's too much to reasonably hope for but I would dearly love to see this Republican rats' nest torn out of Pennsylvania. We are a slightly bluer than 50-50 state but we're plagued with some of the worst shitbags in the nation.

[pnwguy]

Aug 11, 2022 18:09:35 GMT LFC said:

We are a slightly bluer than 50-50 state but we're plagued with some of the worst shitbags in the nation.

So many shitbags, so few subpoena judges available...