Anti-democratic GOP aims to succeed in 2024

Republicans who have embraced baseless claims about the 2020 election being stolen are now running to serve as the chief elections officials in several states, a move that could give them significant power over election processes.

[...]

Secretaries of state, who are elected to office in partisan contests that have long been overlooked, wield enormous power over election rules in their state, are responsible for overseeing election equipment, and are a key player in certifying – making official – election results.

[...]

“This is an indication of wanting, basically, to have a man inside who can undermine,” said Sylvia Albert, the director of voting and elections at Common Cause, a government watchdog group. “Clearly these are not people who believe in the rule of law. And people who run our government need to follow the rule of law. So it is concerning that they are running.”

[...]

The role of a secretary of state can vary in each state, but in many places they wield enormous unilateral authority to create voting regulations and interpret election rules. That power was on display in 2020, when secretaries across the country made key decisions on access to drop boxes and sending out mail-in ballot applications, among other measures. After election day, Republican and Democratic secretaries of state in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and Nevada stood as bulwarks against Trump’s efforts to overturn the results, both by dispelling accusations of fraud and refusing to stop the certification of elections.

[...]

Winning secretary of state offices across the country would give conspiracy theorists enormous power to wreak havoc in the 2024 presidential election, including potentially blocking candidates who win the most votes from taking office.

[...]

“You have inherent in the position of bully pulpit to amplify truth, or in the cases of bad actors, perhaps amplify misinformation,” [Nevada secretary of state, Barbara Cegavske, a Republican,] said. “That’s another pernicious aspect of individuals who would seek to occupy this office as the state’s chief election officer who are not committed to telling the truth … they are instead committed to spreading the big lie or other misinformation that create chaos.”

  Guardian

Because they can't win if they don't cheat.

UPDATE:  In Texas...

Anti-democratic GOP preparing to steal 2024 election

Senate Republicans have blocked the creation of a special commission to study the deadly 6 January attack on the Capitol, dashing hopes for a bipartisan panel amid a Republican push to put the violent insurrection by Donald Trump’s supporters behind them.

Republicans killed the effort to set up a 9/11-style inquiry into the attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob despite broad popular support for such an investigation and pleas from the family of a Capitol police officer who collapsed and died after the siege and other officers who battled the rioters.

  Guardian

Vote them out.

[S]ix Republican senators broke ranks to back the commission, which was more than expected, but four fewer than the 10 needed to overcome a filibuster and for it to advance.

[...]

The six Republicans who voted for the commission to proceed were Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, Mitt Romney of Utah, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Rob Portman of Ohio.

[...]

“Shame on the Republican party for trying to sweep the horrors of that day under the rug because they’re afraid of Donald Trump,” Schumer said in a Senate floor speech immediately after the vote.

They're not afraid of Donald Trump. They're afraid of the American citizens who prevent them from retaining power unless they cheat to steal elections.

Observers believe that senior party figures do not want to anger the former president or his legion of supporters and may also fear what the commission might uncover in terms of links between some of the rioters and Republican lawmakers.

That, too.

The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, meanwhile, argued the vote on the commission bill brought “shame” to the Senate and would make the country less safe. She indicated that House committees, which are under Democratic leadership, would continue to investigate the attack. “Democrats will proceed to find the truth,” Pelosi said.

[...]

Though the commission bill passed the House earlier this month with the support of almost three dozen Republicans, Republican senators said they believe the commission would eventually be used against them politically.

With good reason.

Democrats proceeding "to find the truth" will not answer.  Republicans will just claim it's more Democrats' bullshit.  An independent counsel needs to be assigned.  Even that will be lambasted by Republicans, but it's at least a step away from Democratic control for Independents.  We're in trouble in this country.  

Friday’s vote marked Senate Republicans’ first official use of the filibuster to defeat a bill, and Schumer said he hoped this was not the beginning of a trend of Republicans blocking “reasonable, commonsense legislation”.

Beginning? 

UPDATE:

Incredible.

Not mere assholes

Despicable assholes.  Proud of their assholery.

The modern anti-democratic GOP is running amok

In the chaotic race to finalize a nearly $40 billion state budget, Arizona Republicans are moving to reverse a voter-approved ballot measure that would impose special excise taxes on the wealthy.

They’re also trying to undermine the secretary of state’s authority to administer and defend elections.

[...]

[T]he two measures are part of an emerging trend in Republican-dominated state legislatures across the country, and they’re raising questions about what happens when a party that loses an election refuses to honor the will of the voters.

After recent election losses at the state level, Republican legislatures have moved to restrict the power of the voters who delivered those defeats, either by limiting access to the polls, curtailing the authority of the incoming party or by ignoring the results of direct initiatives.

[...]

Republican officials and activists in both Wisconsin and Georgia have taken steps in recent days to emulate Arizona, where the GOP-controlled state Senate is conducting what it calls an audit of more than 2.1 million ballots cast last year in Maricopa County. T

[...]

In the weeks after the 2018 midterm elections, Wisconsin legislators passed measures limiting a governor’s authority over a lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act and the state’s economic development agency. Former Gov. Scott Walker (R), who had lost his reelection bid, signed the measures that hamstrung his successor, Democrat Tony Evers, from fulfilling campaign promises.

Georgia legislators became the first of a handful of states to pass a sweeping package of election law reforms this year, after President Biden narrowly carried the state in 2020. Critics say the new statutes will limit access to the ballot box.

[...]

In Missouri, Gov. Mike Parson (R) has abandoned a bid to fund Medicaid expansion after lawmakers refused to fund additional coverage for those making less than 138 percent of the federal poverty limit. A majority of state voters passed the expansion, authorized under the 2010 Affordable Care Act, in a November ballot measure.

That follows efforts in Florida in recent years to roll back constitutional amendments passed by more than 60 percent of its voters.

  The Hill

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

The insurrectionists

Who are they? What is driving them? And will we see more of them in the future?

Economic aid to Palestine

[Secretaray of State Antony] Blinken announced $110 million in economic assistance to Palestinians Tuesday, including $5.5 million in immediate relief, but the administration’s effort to keep Congress onside and Hamas at arms length — while battling donor fatigue among foreign governments — is already at risk of derailing crucial assistance.

Blinken said “we are in the process of providing $360 million in urgent support to the Palestinian people” — that compares to $440 million the Obama administration delivered to Palestinians in 2014, the year of the previous Gaza conflict. Meanwhile, Joel Braunold — managing director of the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace — told Global Translations that the biggest chunk of the “new” money, $75 million, “is an announcement of an intent to obligate [to Gaza] already budgeted assistance,” rather than totally fresh money.

It’s unclear whether Congress considers this $75 million compliant with the 2018 Taylor Force Act (which severely limits what cash Congress can send to the Palestinian Authority) or eligible for a “global health notwithstanding authority in order for it to not be subject to congressional holds,” Braunold said. Blinken said Wednesday he is committed to complying with the Act. Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) is leading the charge of Republican skeptics, calling “U.S. assistance to Hamas-controlled Gaza” a reward for Palestinian obstructionism, that should be “conditioned on Palestinian leaders returning to the peace table.”

[...]

The U.S. is left carrying the can. Canada says a previous $90 million Covid cash infusion it offered can cover reconstruction from the May conflict, and Norway has promised a small bump in humanitarian assistance. The rest of the world is largely silent about helping Gaza: either distrustful of who will spend the money (UAE is channeling cash through the Emirates Red Crescent rather the U.N. or Hamas, for example), or afraid Israel will blow up any new infrastructure, in the absence of a wider peace process.

  Politico

Wow.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Maybe pray it's not too late

It's too much to hope for

Frankly,  I can't see an American jury indicting an American president.  Not even one as criminal and dangerous as Trump.  Not even in New York where he is supposedly disliked immensely.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:  Trump didn't like it.

“No other President in history has had to put up with what I have had to, and on top of all that, I have done a great job for our Country, whether it’s taxes, regulations, our Military, Veterans, Space Force, our Borders, speedy creation of a great vaccine (said to be a miracle!), and protecting the Second Amendment.”

  The Hill

I don't think I can take this country seriously after having elected Trump for president.

UPDATE:  Also, there are civil suits...

Say it with me...

...Because they can't win if they don't cheat.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Uncovering hidden Trump admin despicable acts

A report from DHS’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) found the Trump administration separated families even in instances when parents facing deportation wished to return to their home country with their children.

“ICE removed at least 348 parents separated from their children without documenting that those parents wanted to leave their children in the United States,” OIG wrote in its report, referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

[...]

The Trump administration officially kicked off its "zero tolerance" policy in 2018, but the the OIG report found the more than 300 separations predated the family separation policy and were a result of “increasing criminal prosecutions in July 2017” where individual ICE officers carried significant discretion over separations.

“Even when ICE documented a parent’s choice to leave the child behind, some of the available records are significantly flawed, suggesting that not all parents who purportedly waived reunification did so knowingly and voluntarily,” the OIG concluded.

The Trump administration separated roughly 2,800 children from their parents under the 2018 policy, with October court documents showing more than 500 were never reunited with their parents.

The Biden administration's family reunification task force, however, is currently reviewing some 5,600 recently discovered files to determine if there were other affected families.

The administration also recently announced that families separated under Trump would have the option of reuniting and remaining in the U.S.

[...]

The Biden administration has thus far reunited four families separated under the Trump administration.

  The Hill

One family a month. This will take a while.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Insurrection fallout

It's Sunday

Yoga can legally be taught in Alabama public schools, after the southern state overturned a nearly 30-year ban.

[...]

The bill, brought for the third time by a Democrat, was approved by the state's Republican legislature and governor.

It limits yoga to stretches and poses, and prohibits non-English descriptions as well as "any aspect of Eastern philosophy and religious training".

Chanting is also not allowed. The use of the sound "om," and the Sanskrit-based word "namaste" are also still banned. Democratic lawmaker Jeremy Gray, a former football player and certified yoga instructor, introduced the measure. He noted some of the language in the bill was "very offensive", but necessary to appease conservatives.

[...]

In order for the bill to pass the state's Republican-majority Senate, the chamber introduced language stipulating that "school personnel may not use any techniques that involve hypnosis, the induction of a dissociative mental state, guided imagery, meditation, or any aspect of Eastern philosophy and religious training.

  BBC

Jesus wept.

The law, signed by Governor Kay Ivey on Thursday, leaves it up to individual local school boards to decide whether to offer lessons. Parents will also be required to sign a permission slip saying that they acknowledge that yoga is associated with the Hindu religion.

[...]

"A lot of the stuff you don't do anyway. You don't hypnotise people," [Gray] told local news site AL.com.

"Really, it just seemed very offensive," Mr Gray said. "Had some phobia in it. A lot of it just didn't really make sense."

Also (as noted in the JBCN article:

            · Improves Self-Control
            · Reduces Absences And Violence In School

            · Boosts Immunity And Improves Physical Appearance

            · Improves The Quality Of Sleep

            · Increases Self-Confidence And Self-Esteem

Short video clip:

But we're Christian Ameircans, dammit! We want our kids to be out of shape and hyper, just like us.  And paranoid.  Paranoid is good, too.

It's Sunday

Historical look at the rise of the religious right in America.

Here's the program to which they're referring:

Democracy in danger

: : "There are none so blind as those who will not see." The most deluded people are those who choose to ignore what they already know. The proverb has been traced back in English to 1546 (John Heywood), and resembles the Biblical verse quoted [below]. In 1738, it was used by Jonathan Swift in his 'Polite Conversation,' and is first attested in the United States in the 1713 'Works of Thomas Chalkley'..."

: : Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings by Gregory Y. Titelman (Random House, New York, 1996). Mr. Titelman agrees that this saying has its roots in the Bible, specifically Jer. 5:21 (King James version): "Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not."

  Phrases.org

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Nuts

Was Mike Flynn this nuts when he was an acting General in the US Army?  

And who are those other two numbskulls nodding along with the insanity Flynn is spouting?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Duped and Duper

In addition to his Trumpian chicanery, Bell also created a phony pro-Biden group called the “Best Days Lie Ahead” committee, which prosecutors say fraudulently took in some $100,000 in donations but returned them all after the organization was bounced from its online fundraising portal.

  Daily Beast

P.S.  Is that Trump throwing that MAGA hat? And if it is, can't he afford gloves that fit?  Maybe he buys them too big to try to pretend he doesn't have tiny hands.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Will Susan Collins be "concerned"?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Andrew Clyde

Pathetic.

“Watching the TV footage of those who entered the Capitol and walked through Statuary Hall showed people in an orderly fashion staying between the stanchions and ropes, taking videos and pictures,” Clyde continued. “You know, if you didn’t know the TV footage was a video from January the 6th, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit.”

[...]

Clyde’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. Asked last week about his remarks on the Capitol assault, the congressman told reporters that the media “didn’t take what I said in context at all.” Then he walked away, ignoring other questions as he climbed into a pickup truck.

  WaPo

To be fair, I suppose we don't know, maybe Clyde regularly barricades his office from tourists.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Leet the lawsuits begin

"More sweeping than we thought"

President Donald Trump’s Justice Department “secretly” obtained a CNN reporter‘s records related to phone calls and email, the network said on Thursday.

[...]

The news comes less than two weeks after The Washington Post reported that Trump’s Justice Department secretly got three Post reporters’ phone records and tried to get their email logs.

[...]

“This is a big story that just got bigger,” Bruce Brown, the executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said in a statement. “That a journalist from another news organization had communications records seized by the Trump Justice Department suggests that the last administration’s efforts to intrude into reporter-source relationships and chill newsgathering is more sweeping than we originally thought.”

  Politico

I think you can expect there to be a constant drip of stories about what fascistic, despotic, and illegal things the Trump administration did in the last four years.

Brown called on the Justice Department to give a “detailed explanation” of what happened and why, and how “it plans to strengthen protections for the free flow of information to the public.” [Justice Department spokesperson, Anthony] Coley told POLITICO that department leaders are convening with reporters “soon” to “hear their concerns” and “further convey Attorney General [Merrick] Garland’s staunch support of and commitment to a free and independent press.”

[...]

The Post’s story on Russia, which indicated then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak had said he discussed Russia-related topics with Jeff Sessions, a Trump campaign adviser at the time, drew the ire of Trump in the early months of his term. Two weeks after the story, Sessions — who at that time was attorney general — announced a crackdown on a supposed “culture of leaks.”

A Justice Department spokesperson, Marc Raimondi, said that the goal of the investigation involving Post reporters wasn’t to prosecute reporters.

“The targets of these investigations are not the news media recipients but rather those with access to the national defense information who provided it to the media and thus failed to protect it as lawfully required,” Raimondi said.

[...]

Under guidelines changed in 2013 under then-Attorney General Eric Holder after controversies about the department’s use of law enforcement mechanisms involving journalists, the DOJ is required to notify journalists about searches within 45 days, or 90 days under pressing circumstances.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

GOP goes from a worthless commission to no commission, overnight

"After careful consideration, I've made the decision to oppose the House Democrats slanted and unbalanced proposal for another commission to study the events of January 6th," said McConnell on the Senate floor. "As everybody surely knows, I repeatedly made my views about the events of January 6th very clear. I spoke clearly and left no doubt about my conclusions."

While House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy got loads of (mostly) negative attention for his announcement earlier this week that he opposed the commission -- despite authorizing fellow Republican Rep. John Katko of New York to hammer out an agreement with Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson of Mississippi -- McConnell's move is likely more impactful.

[...]

The chess pieces began moving -- against the bill -- shortly after McConnell's announcement. North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, who has been considered a potential "yes" vote for the commission, changed to a "no." Maine Sen. Susan Collins, one of a handful of Republicans who has shown a willingness, on occasion, to buck her party, said that she wouldn't support the bill unless its work was guaranteed to be concluded before 2022.

  CNN

Former President Donald Trump on Thursday expressed his displeasure with the 35 House Republicans who bucked his call to vote against the bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

  MSN

I'm surprised that many felt a conscience at vote time.

"See, 35 wayward Republicans — they just can’t help themselves," Trump said before lamenting Republicans such as Sens. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, and Ben Sasse, R-Neb., and Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo. "Sometimes there are consequences to being ineffective and weak. The voters understand!"

Trump's statement came after the House on Wednesday voted 252-175 to create the independent commission. However, the bill faces an uphill battle in the Senate where it needs at least 10 GOP votes and already faces opposition from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

[...]

Katko was one of 10 House Republicans to vote in favor of impeaching Trump earlier this year.

That's odd. Why did McCarthy choose him to negotiate the deal in the first place? Did he do it to set Katko up to fail?

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., also opposes the commission, though House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. said each of his requests for such an investigation outlined in a February letter to her were included in the agreed-upon format. McCarthy, like Trump, has said he wants such a commission to also investigate left-wing violence unrelated to the riot.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

Double jeopardy for McCarthy;

Any bets as to how Cornyn will vote on it?

Amen.

Fucking nuts

The Senate is set to vote this afternoon on a proposal from Jim Inhofe and Richard Shelby, the top Republicans on the Armed Services and Appropriations committees, that would force Congress to consider dollar-for-dollar increases in defense and domestic spending.

"What we want to do is just be sure that whatever product that we come out with, that we end up having parity between defense spending and non-defense spending," Inhofe said on the Senate floor.

  Politico

They all have a brain disease.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

What happened to their state pride?

Voters in five rural Oregon counties approved measures on Tuesday to consider joining the state of Idaho, a part of a long-shot grassroots movement to break with a state dominated by liberal voters west of the Cascade Mountains.

Voters in Malheur, Sherman, Grant, Baker and Lake counties all approved measures that would require county officials to take steps to promote moving the Idaho border west to incorporate their populations.

Oregon voters favored President Biden over former President Trump by a 56 percent to 40 percent margin in 2020, but voters in those five rural counties gave between 69 percent and 79 percent of the vote to Trump.

They join two other rural counties — Jefferson and Union — whose voters approved measures promoting a move to Idaho last year.

  The Hill

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Mother nature is desperate to rid herself of humans

In the past 20 years, new coronaviruses have emerged from animals with remarkable regularity. In 2002, SARS-CoV jumped from civets into people. Ten years later, MERS emerged from camels. Then in 2019, SARS-CoV-2 began to spread around the world.

For many scientists, this pattern points to a disturbing trend: Coronavirus outbreaks aren't rare events and will likely occur every decade or so.

Now, scientists are reporting that they have discovered what may be the latest coronavirus to jump from animals into people. And it comes from a surprising source: dogs.

[...]

The patients had what looked like regular pneumonia. But in eight out of 301 samples tested, or 2.7%, Xui and Gray found that the patients' upper respiratory tracts were infected with a new canine coronavirus, i.e., a dog virus.

[...]

"I thought, 'There's something wrong,' " says virologist Anastasia Vlasova. "Canine coronaviruses were not thought to be transmitted to people. It's never been reported before."

  NPR

Man's best friend no longer.

It won't pass, but it should

United States Senator and former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has introduced a resolution to block a $735m arms sale to Israel amid the close US ally’s continuing bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

Sanders introduced the legislation on Thursday, in hopes of blocking the sale of Joint Direct Attack Munitions and Small Diameter Bombs.

It comes a day after Democrats in the House of Representatives introduced similar legislation after being notified of the sale on May 5.

  alJazeera

Letitia James is rolling on

“We have informed the Trump Organization that our investigation into the organization is no longer purely civil in nature,” [New York Attorney General Letitia] James’ spokesman Fabien Levy told Law&Crime in a statement. “We are now actively investigating the Trump Organization in a criminal capacity, along with the Manhattan D.A. We have no additional comment at this time.”

[...]

When the attorney general’s office shifted gears remains unclear, but their lawyers told a judge late last year that their investigation was civil in order to secure the deposition of Eric Trump, who—in addition to being the ex-president’s son—serves as the president of Seven Springs LLC.

Last July, the Trump Organization resisted Eric Trump’s deposition after the attorney general’s office grilled the company’s longtime chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, arguing that the questions were “beyond the scope” of a civil inquiry. (Weisselberg, one of the organization’s top lieutenants and a fierce loyalist of the former president, since emerged as a key figure in Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance’s criminal probe into Trump.) After James’s office confirmed that there was no criminal investigation last autumn, a judge compelled Eric Trump’s deposition in late September, and the Trump son ultimately took the hot seat in October.

  Law & Crime

Sneaky.

Ken White, a former prosecutor turned defense attorney and First Amendment advocate better known by his legal nom de plume “Popehat,” remained skeptical that major developments since that time triggered the attorney general’s announcement.

“It’s unimpressive,” White wrote in a text, referring to James’s announcement. “If they have only now decided they’re investigating criminally they are far behind everyone else. By most accounts their scope is fairly narrow, the [New York Attorney General’s] criminal prosecution power is limited, and the manner of the announcement sounds more ‘we take things seriously’ and less ‘we’re riding in with indictments.'”

[...]

Unlike her campaign rhetoric, James’s actions have been relatively restrained. Her Trump Organization investigation has played out for years—more than half that time, secretly—before the recent announcement about its escalation.

[...]

On Wednesday morning, Trump reacted to the news in a meandering, 900-plus word fusillade on his website.

“There is nothing more corrupt than an investigation that is in desperate search of a crime,” Trump’s post reads. “But, make no mistake, that is exactly what is happening here.”

Trump then rattled off a series of statements James made on the campaign trail, quoting the then-candidate vowing to probe “every aspect” of his real estate dealings and boasting that she would “definitely sue” him.

“She declared, ‘just wait until I’m in the Attorney General’s office,’ and, ‘I’ve got my eyes on Trump Tower,'” Trump wrote.

[...]

In between shots at the attorney general, Trump’s stream-of-consciousness statement boasted about the Space Force and COVID-19 vaccine development, while complaining about a variety of grievances, from the Russia investigation to his impeachments.

I think it's safe to always assume Trump is still whining.

Michael Cohen, former President Trump’s ex-lawyer, said he thinks Trump will turn on his family following news that the New York attorney general is investigating the Trump Organization in a “criminal capacity” as well as a “civil capacity.”

“I think Donald Trump is going to flip on all of them. What do you think about that? Including his children,” Cohen told host Joy Reid on MSNBC’s "The ReidOut."

Cohen said that the “problem” with Trump is that “it’s never ever Donald Trump. It’s always somebody else.”

“He's gonna say Don Jr. handled that, Ivanka handled that, Melania, don't take me, take Melania, he's going to tell them to take everyone except for himself. That’s just the kind of guy he is,” Cohen added.

“Even Ivanka?” Reid asked, referring to Trump’s elder daughter.

“Everyone, Ivanka too,” Cohen responded.

  The Hill

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

And he'll probably win

Eric Greitens is tough competition for slimey politician, but I have faith in McCloskey.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Cleaning up Trump's mess

CDT welcomes President Biden’s decision today to revoke the Trump Administration’s unconstitutional Executive Order 13925 regarding social media. Issued by former President Trump nearly a year ago, the Executive Order on “Preventing Online Censorship” was an effort by then-President Trump to chill online speech and interfere with efforts to fight election disinformation. CDT filed a First Amendment lawsuit against this Executive Order in June 2020.

“As we have consistently argued, President Trump’s Executive Order was an attempt to use threats of retaliation to coerce social media companies into allowing disinformation and hateful speech to go unchecked,” said Alexandra Givens, President & CEO of CDT. “The Biden Administration has rightly rejected this deeply flawed approach. We applaud the timely decision by President Biden to fully repeal this unconstitutional order.”

  Center for Democracy & Technology

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Now, more than ever, if you're enlisted, Uncle Sam owns you

AS PART OF the Biden administration’s crackdown on domestic extremism, the Pentagon plans to launch a pilot program for screening social media content for extremist material.

[...]

Although in the past the military has balked at surveilling service members for extremist political views due to First Amendment protections, the pilot program will rely on a private surveillance firm in order to circumvent First Amendment restrictions on government monitoring, according to a senior Pentagon official.

  Intercept

That sounds like a loophole that needs to be closed.

Though the firm has not yet been selected, the current front runner is Babel Street, a company that sells powerful surveillance tools including social media monitoring software.

Babel Street has drawn criticism for its practice of buying bulk cellular location data and selling it to federal national security agencies like the Secret Service, who rely on the private company to bypass warrant requirements normally imposed on government bodies seeking to collect data.

[...]

In an email received after this article was originally published, a spokesperson for the House Armed Services Committee provided the following statement:

The Committee understands that the Department of Defense is exploring a means of implementing social media screening in conjunction with background investigations. We anticipate that any social media screening would be intended only as an additional means of vetting cleared individuals or those seeking to obtain a security clearance, not as a tool for ongoing surveillance of all men and women in uniform. That said, Secretary Austin has been clear about his intentions to understand to what extent extremism exists in the force and its effect on good order and discipline. We look forward to hearing the results of the stand down and the Department’s plan to move forward.

[...]

The pilot program will use keywords to identify potential extremists, though coming up with a list of terms without running afoul of speech protections has proven to be challenging, the senior Pentagon official said. To this end, the military plans to consult with experts from across the political spectrum to help develop the pilot program. As The Intercept previously reported, the military’s Countering Extremism Working Group drafted a list of potential consultants that included anti-Muslim and Christian conservative groups.

“Using key words to monitor social media isn’t just an unnecessary privacy invasion, it is a flawed strategy that will ensure it is short-lived,” said Mike German, a retired FBI agent who did undercover work in neo-Nazi groups and is now a fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice’s Liberty and National Security Program. “It will undoubtedly produce a flood of false positives that will waste security resources and undermine morale, without identifying the real problem, which is the tolerance for those that openly engage in racist behavior and discrimination.”

[...]

“Trying to suss out ‘extremists’ with an algorithm isn’t likely to identify problem employees within the department nearly as effectively as simply making clear that racist misbehavior and discrimination won’t be tolerated, requiring the troops and officers to report this misconduct when they see it, and then protecting them from reprisal when they do,” German said. “But, today, because the Defense Department doesn’t adequately protect whistleblowers, reporting such misconduct is often more risky to a person’s military career than actually engaging in racist misbehavior.”

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Jesus wept

In two parts.

Brave New World

Ring is effectively building the largest corporate-owned, civilian-installed surveillance network that the US has ever seen.

[...]

In a 2020 letter to management, Max Eliaser, an Amazon software engineer, said Ring is “simply not compatible with a free society”. We should take his claim seriously.

Ring video doorbells, Amazon’s signature home security product, pose a serious threat to a free and democratic society. Not only is Ring’s surveillance network spreading rapidly, it is extending the reach of law enforcement into private property and expanding the surveillance of everyday life. What’s more, once Ring users agree to release video content to law enforcement, there is no way to revoke access and few limitations on how that content can be used, stored, and with whom it can be shared. Amazon is cagey about how many Ring cameras are active at any one point in time, but estimates drawn from Amazon’s sales data place yearly sales in the hundreds of millions. The always-on video surveillance network extends even further when you consider the millions of users on Ring’s affiliated crime reporting app, Neighbors, which allows people to upload content from Ring and non-Ring devices.

[...]

[S]ince Amazon bought Ring in 2018, it has brokered more than 1,800 partnerships with local law enforcement agencies, who can request recorded video content from Ring users without a warrant. That is, in as little as three years, Ring connected around one in 10 police departments across the US with the ability to access recorded content from millions of privately owned home security cameras.

[...]

Ring’s cloud-based infrastructure (supported by Amazon Web Services) makes it convenient for law enforcement agencies to place mass requests for access to recordings without a warrant. Because Ring cameras are owned by civilians, law enforcement are given a backdoor entry into private video recordings of people in residential and public space that would otherwise be protected under the fourth amendment. By partnering with Amazon, law enforcement circumvents these constitutional and statutory protections, as noted by the attorney Yesenia Flores.

[...]

Although Ring doesn’t currently use facial recognition in its cameras, Amazon has sold this technology to police in the past. Following pressure from AI researchers and civil rights groups, Amazon placed a one-year pause on police use of its controversial facial recognition technology, but this moratorium will expire in June.

  Guardian

Jeff Bezos is Big Brother.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

We'll be finding out in which century America sits

"Israel has a right to protect itself"

A week of relentless Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip has destroyed power lines, smashed water pipes beneath roads and left human waste spilling out of the ground.

With 188 Palestinians having been killed, and families trapped under rubble, fears are mounting of a deepening humanitarian crisis in the enclave, where 2 million people live under an Israeli-Egyptian blockade in place for 14 years.

Six of Gaza’s 10 electricity lines are down and supply has been more than halved, according to Mohammed Thabet, a spokesperson for the Gaza Electricity Distribution Company. “There are some border areas completely cut off from electricity,” he said. Repair crews were unable to fix the lines due to continued attacks.

Throughout its intense bombing campaign, Israel has blocked access to the territory, including for aid workers, and prevented fuel from entering, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

  Guardian

The Israeli army spokesperson’s office said the strikes targeted Hamas’s “underground military infrastructure”. As a result of the strike, “the underground facility collapsed, causing the civilian houses’ foundations above them to collapse as well, leading to unintended casualties”, it said.

  Guardian

Seriously? Too bad your house is above the basement?

On Sunday, air-raid sirens sounded for the seventh consecutive day across southern Israel as Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza launched more rocket attacks into the country – and reaching further – than in the entirety of the 2014 war.

As the UN security council met in a specially convened session, foreign ministers and ambassadors called for a ceasefire and for both sides to respect international humanitarian law, but there was no sign of even a temporary truce to allow medics in Gaza to recover people – alive and dead – from under collapsed buildings.

[...]

The latest outbreak of violence began in East Jerusalem last month, when Palestinians clashed with police in response to Israeli police tactics during Ramadan and the threatened eviction of dozens of Palestinian families by Jewish settlers.

[...]

In a televised address, Netanyahu said Israel’s attacks were continuing at “full force” and would “take time”. Israel “wants to levy a heavy price” on the Hamas militant group, he said, flanked by his defence minister and political rival, Benny Gantz, in a show of unity.

And the Palestinian civilians are in the way.

In his staunch defence of Israel, Joe Biden is sticking to a course set decades ago as a young senator, and so far he has not given ground on the issue to the progressive wing of his party or many Jewish Democrats urging a tougher line towards Benjamin Netanyahu.

Biden has even been prepared to face isolation at the UN security council, at the potential cost of his own credibility on multilateralism and human rights.

  Guardian

That would be a grave mistake.

He was a staunch defender in the Senate for decades, supporting the Israeli bombing of a suspected nuclear reactor in Iraq in 1981, for example, and labelling himself “Israel’s best Catholic friend”.

His foreign policy outlook is based on the foundation of adhering to and strengthening America’s traditional alliances.

[...]

American Jews have grown increasingly sceptical of Netanyahu and his policies. A Pew Research Center survey published last week found that only 40% thought the prime minister was providing good leadership, falling to 32% among younger Jews. Strikingly, only 34% strongly opposed sanctions or other punitive measures against Israel.

The liberal Jewish American lobby, J Street, has growing influence in the Democratic party and has urged Biden to do more to stop the bloodshed and the Israeli policies that have helped drive the conflict.

“We’re also urging the administration to make clear publicly that Israeli efforts to evict and displace Palestinian families in East Jerusalem and the West Bank are unacceptable, as is the use of excessive force against protesters,” said Jeremy Ben-Ami, the group’s president.

[...]

US evangelicals such as Mike Pence and Mike Pompeo helped shape Trump policy on Israel. They are not a force in the Democratic party but a consideration in red and purple states Biden will have to win in next year’s midterm congressional elections to maintain a majority.

Maybe. But leadership in painting Netanyahu with reality and doing the right thing for Palestinians should be overriding.

Biden worked hard to cultivate the progressives during the campaign and afterwards, setting up policy workshops with them, but the current crisis has brought that honeymoon [to] an end.

What she said.

Daniel Levy, the head of the US/Middle East Project thinktank, agreed that the political ground is shifting under Biden’s feet. “It is premature to suggest that the special treatment Israel receives in American politics and policy, and that has previously traversed Republican and Democratic administrations, is definitively over,” Levy said. “Yet the dynamics are pushing in that direction and the signs of change are already visible – the question is how far and how fast those will move.”

Not fast enough.

A third United Nations Security Council emergency meeting in a week – amid the deadly Israeli offensive in Gaza – has again ended with no concrete outcome after the United States blocked a joint statement calling for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

The meeting on Sunday came after the US reportedly twice blocked over the last week resolutions that would have condemned Israel’s military response and called for a ceasefire.

  alJazeera

The assault has displaced about 34,000 Palestinians from their homes, the UN Middle East envoy, Tor Wennesland, told an emergency meeting of the UN security council, where eight foreign ministers spoke about the conflict.

Efforts by China, Norway and Tunisia to get the UN body to issue a statement, including a call for the cessation of hostilities, have been blocked by the US, which, according to diplomats, is concerned it could interfere with diplomatic efforts to stop the violence.

  Guardian

Jesus wept.

Arizona's elections officials have had all they can stand

Read the entire thread.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Paranoia

A network of conservative activists, aided by a British former spy, mounted a campaign during the Trump administration to discredit perceived enemies of President Trump inside the government, according to documents and people involved in the operations.

The campaign included a planned sting operation against Mr. Trump’s national security adviser at the time, H.R. McMaster, and secret surveillance operations against F.B.I. employees, aimed at exposing anti-Trump sentiment in the bureau’s ranks.

The operations against the F.B.I., run by the conservative group Project Veritas, were conducted from a large home in the Georgetown section of Washington that rented for $10,000 per month. Female undercover operatives arranged dates with the F.B.I. employees with the aim of secretly recording them making disparaging comments about Mr. Trump.

[...]

Central to the effort, according to interviews, was Richard Seddon, a former undercover British spy who was recruited in 2016 by the security contractor Erik Prince to train Project Veritas operatives to infiltrate trade unions, Democratic congressional campaigns and other targets. He ran field operations for Project Veritas until mid-2018.

[...]

The efforts to target American officials show how a campaign once focused on exposing outside organizations slowly morphed into an operation to ferret out Mr. Trump’s perceived enemies in the government’s ranks.

[...]

[O]ne of the participants in the operation against Mr. McMaster, Barbara Ledeen, [...] was a staff member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, then led by Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa.

[...]

The operation against Mr. McMaster was hatched not long after an article appeared in BuzzFeed News about a private dinner in 2017. Exactly what happened during the dinner is in dispute, but the article said that Mr. McMaster had disparaged Mr. Trump by calling him an “idiot” with the intelligence of a “kindergartner.”

[...]

Soon after the BuzzFeed article [...] the scheme developed to try to entrap Mr. McMaster: Recruit a woman to stake out the same restaurant, Tosca, with a hidden camera. According to the plan, whenever Mr. McMaster returned by himself, the woman would strike up a conversation with him and, over drinks, try to get him to make comments that could be used to either force him to resign or get him fired.

[...]

The operation was ultimately abandoned in March 2018 when the conspirators ended up getting what they wanted, albeit by different means. The embattled Mr. McMaster resigned on March 22, a move that avoided a firing by the president who had soured on the three-star general.

[...]

Who initially ordered the operation is unclear. In an interview, Ms. Ledeen said “someone she trusted” contacted her to help with the plan. She said she could not remember who.

  NYT

Yeah, that's believable.

According to Ms. Ledeen, she passed the message to a man she believed to be a Project Veritas operative during a meeting at the University Club in Washington. Ms. Ledeen said she believed the man provided her with a fake name.

Does she remember that name?

Documents obtained by The Times show the extent that Mr. Seddon built espionage tactics into training for the group’s operatives — teaching them to use deception to secure information from potential targets.

One role-playing exercise involved a trainee being interrogated by a law enforcement officer and having to “defend their cover” and “avoid exciting” the officer.

Another exercise instructs trainees in how to target a person in an elevator. The students were encouraged to think of their “targets as a possible future access agent, potential donor, support/facilities agent.”

“The student must create and maintain a fictional cover,” one document read.

The early training for the operations took place at the Prince family ranch near Cody, Wyo., and Mr. Seddon and his colleagues conducted hiring interviews inside an airport hangar at the Cody airport known locally as the Prince hangar, according to interviews and documents. Mr. Prince is the brother of Betsy DeVos, who served as Mr. Trump’s education secretary.

And I don't believe for a minute that we've seen the last of Erik Prince.

During the interview process, candidates fielded questions meant to figure out their political leanings, including which famous people they might invite to a dinner party and which publications they get their news from.

After finishing the exercises, the operatives were told to burn the training materials, according to a former Project Veritas employee.

[...]

Women living at the house had Project Veritas code names, including “Brazil” and “Tiger,” according to three former Project Veritas employees with knowledge of the operations. People living at the house were told not to receive mail using their real names. If they took an Uber home, the driver had to stop before they reached the house to ensure nobody saw where they actually lived, one of the former Project Veritas employees said.

[...]

Around the time Mr. McMaster resigned, Mr. Seddon pushed for Project Veritas to establish a base of operations in Washington and found a six-bedroom estate near the Georgetown University campus, according to former Project Veritas employees.

[...]

The plan was simple: Use undercover operatives to entrap F.B.I. employees and other government officials who could be publicly exposed as opposing Mr. Trump.

[...]

The group has previously assigned female operatives to secretly record and discredit male targets — sometimes making first contact with them on dating apps. In 2017, a Project Veritas operative also approached a Washington Post reporter with a false claim that a Senate candidate had impregnated her.

[...]

Project Veritas sued The Times for defamation last year over coverage of one of the group’s videos.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

It's Sunday

Stop supporting Israeli destruction of Palestinians

More on the 1/6 Commission

It was negotiated between the Democratic and Republican leaders of the Homeland Security Committee.

Predictably, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) immediately said he hadn’t agreed to the deal. What’s still unclear is how many Republicans will support it. The bill will pass in the Democratic-controlled House, but it will also need GOP support in the Senate, since it could theoretically be filibustered.

Perhaps the most important thing is that it focuses the scope of the commission on “the facts and causes” related to the Jan. 6 attack and to “the interference with the peaceful transfer of power.” It will also look at the “influencing factors” that “fomented” this attack.

Importantly, it describes Jan. 6 as a “domestic terrorist attack” waged against “American representative democracy.” That counters the GOP whitewash effort by framing the mission around the need to explore the deep radicalization that led to an effort to overthrow U.S. democracy itself.

  WaPo

I'm still skeptical that it will be anything but worthless.

Republicans will never go for calling it a "domestic terrorist attack."

They wanted the commission to also look at allegedly widespread leftist violence, including protests against police brutality. Their aim was to bury the role of right-wing radicalization in driving us into crisis, and the active efforts by President Donald Trump and Republicans to feed and exploit that radicalization.

[...]

It will have five members appointed by Democratic congressional leaders — including the chair — and five by GOP leaders. No current elected officials are allowed, which keeps away House Republicans who’d sabotage the inquiry.

Well, that is important, but I'm sure GOP leaders can find five Republicans outside currently elected officials who are Trumpists.

Subpoenas require a majority of the commission, or an agreement between the chair and vice chair (picked by Republicans), so Republicans might be able to block uncomfortable subpoenas.

And they will.

But the chair alone has the power to secure relevant information from federal agencies, and to appoint senior staff, which should give Democrats some real control.

[...]

“The Chairperson would be able to move ahead quickly with getting information from the government without needing a vote,” [New York University law professor Ryan] Goodman continued, noting that the chair can “appoint staff” who would help “shape how the investigation and hearings unfold.”

The next step is for House Democrats to hold a vote on this right away. This could put Republicans on the defensive.

That’s because, as a senior House GOP lawmaker told Punchbowl News, as many as 20 Republicans might be willing to support it.

[...]

Broadly speaking, Republicans want to bury some fundamental truths. Many of them actually did go all in with Trump’s effort to overturn the election. They actually did sustain his lies about our political system’s ability to render legitimate democratic outcomes.

That deception campaign actually did help inspire the deadly mob violence. Trump actually did incite that violence for the express purpose of disrupting the peaceful transfer of power.

[...]

Which brings us to [Capitol police officer Michael] Fanone. CNN obtained extraordinary footage from Fanone’s body cam that shows him under assault, screaming in pain and pleading for help.

[...]

This hints at how a real inquiry could look to the American people. Perhaps Republicans will oppose such an inquiry; perhaps they will not. But right now, the truth is overwhelming the lies. And that’s only going to continue, no matter what Republicans do.

CNN sourced video

There's enough in that video for the coup-supporters to claim the problem was only a few bad apples, though.

UPDATE:  Guess what?