Author: clearandpresentdanger

All this Hunter Biden bullshit is part of a widespread Russian operation

A New Report Adds Evidence That Trump Was a Russian Asset

He helped Putin manipulate the U.S. election in 2020, as he did in 2016.

“Attacks on Biden and his son, Hunter, were part of this operation. Through “US officials and prominent US individuals, some of whom were close to former President Trump and his administration,” the report says Russia’s intelligence services “repeatedly spread unsubstantiated or misleading claims about President Biden and his family’s alleged wrongdoing related to Ukraine.” In this way, Trump’s circle “laundered” the Russian-planted stories, which were then recirculated—and promoted by Russia’s online proxies—as American news.”

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/03/trump-russian-asset-election-intelligence-community-report.html

The GOP, Fox News, and other right wing sites are now promoting and have been pushing this Russian produced bullshit, just like they did with John Kerry & the swift boat lies, HRC & her emails, Bill Clinton and women., Judge Kavanaugh, and the WMD in Iraq.  Republicans  are not burdened by the truth.

MAGAt Republicans are NOT “conservative,” not in the least, not conservative

Quoted from https://kindler.substack.com/p/whatever-the-maga-gop-may-be-it-aint

Words matter. One of the beefs I have with the media’s endless portrayal of all political debate as being between a liberal and a conservative side is that today’s Republican party can no longer truthfully be called conservative. To understand the monster the GOP has become under Trump’s ugly influence, it’s important to replace outdated terminology with language that portrays the reality we’re up against.

An observer of the French Revolution once commented: “Like Saturn, revolutions devour their children.” To me, this means a movement not just chewing up and spitting out the people who once served it, as it radicalizes, but also ravaging the principles with which it began. And so a Republican Party that once stood for recognizable and sometimes even acceptable concepts has now become a nihilist cult willing to blow up everyone and everything that gets in its way – even its own most sacred institutions, from business to the military.

Rather than granting it the fig leaf of conservatism, let’s subject the MAGA GOP to the harsh light of scrutiny, under which it fails even when judged by its own proclaimed values.

To define conservatism on its own terms, I drew on a Heritage Foundation webpage entitled “What is Conservatism?” that briefly summarizes traditional core principles of the right – for example, William F. Buckley, who in his book “Up from Liberalism” wrote that being conservative is about “freedom, individuality, the sense of community, the sanctity of the family, the supremacy of the conscience, the spiritual view of life.”

So can anyone claim with a straight face that Trump and his cronies abide by ANY of these principles? Let’s take the best-known tenets of conservatism one by one:

“Free market” capitalism

The right wing’s recent efforts to force businesses to conform to MAGA ideological strictures has been remarkable to watch, considering the GOP’s long pro-business history. Governor Ron DeSantis has been the worst offender recently, most famously in using the coercive power of Florida state government to punish the Disney Corporation for speaking out against his “Don’t Say Gay” law.

But DeSantis is no exception. The national Republican effort to divest from investment firms with ESG (environmental, social and governance) policies is a much broader and more insidious effort to cancel businesses that show leadership on such issues as climate change and diversity, equity and inclusion. As David Roberts discusses in a very informative Volts podcast, this whole assault makes no sense, as ESG is fundamentally a protocol to protect companies from real-life risks to their profits and investments.

But hey, who needs a “free market” when you can instead have one in which your strongman leader forces every business to do and say whatever he wants? Just be clear that’s not conservatism, it’s another -ism which happens to be an “f” word.

“Traditional family values”

Speaking of “f” words, if I were to conduct a national search for the nation’s top role models for family values, Donald Trump would not be among my first 200 million choices. Ask the over two dozen women who have independently accused him of sexual assault, the teenage beauty queens whose dressing rooms he invaded, the wives he cheated on – including with porn stars and Playboy models that he subsequently paid off. It’s a sordid history that speaks to an utter lack of respect for women, children or families.

Nor is Trump alone among MAGA leaders in this regard.  Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene filed for divorce last year, after allegedly engaging in multiple affairs. Rep. Lauren Boebert also recently filed for divorce after a messy marriage that included her husband exposing himself to two young women at a bowling alley.  And then there is Rep. Matt Gaetz, who remains under Congressional Ethics Committee investigation for charges including alleged illegal trafficking of and sex with an underage woman.

Not exactly a collection of pious saints.  But are they, despite their personal failings, making life any easier for everyday American families?

That’d be a no.  The GOP agenda for children includes loosening child labor laws, slashing school lunch programs and opposing helpful policies like paid family leave.  It’s as family-unfriendly as you can get.

“Law and order”

Well, this is becoming an increasingly easy one to mock, as Trump’s collection of indictments grows and grows and most Republicans just shrug and continue to support him as if, well, law and order doesn’t matter that much when it’s your guy committing the crimes. As a matter of fact, the brilliant MAGA response to the investigations of Trump has been to try to defund the FBI.

I mean, c’mon, there are few institutions in America as genuinely conservative or as hard core committed to enforcing the rule of law as the FBI. How can anyone take seriously a “conservative” political party that wants to shut down the nation’s premier law enforcement agency simply because it is trying to hold their beloved leader accountable?

“Personal freedom”

Many Republicans like to call themselves libertarians, who simply want to get government off our backs, away from our business and out of our bedrooms.  In Ronald Reagan’s words, “Government’s first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.”

So it’s a little hard for me to understand how such self-proclaimed libertarians can support a party that refuses to let women control their bodies, to allow individuals to engage in elective surgery or ti permit adults to choose forms of entertainment it doesn’t like. The MAGA movement clearly does not support a philosophy of “live and let live.” For example, regardless of one’s own preferences for or against drag shows, is it truly the conservative position for the Nanny State to shut such shows down or strictly regulate who can attend them?

And yes, we’ve all heard the pro-fetus rhetoric, but does it really justify disregarding the fundamental rights of the women in whose bodies these fetuses reside? For all the resounding Republican encomiums to personal liberty, their actual positions mostly reveal a desire to expand rather than restrict the power of government to regulate people’s personal lives.

“America first”

I have this fantasy of waking Reagan from the dead and informing him of how devoted key figures in his party have become to an imperialist Russian dictator.  Y’know, the Evil Empire?

The MAGA slogan “America first” is belied by the eagerness with which Trump has been willing to put the US second to Russia, most memorably in his infamous kowtow to Putin in Helsinki in 2018, at which he publicly absolved his Russian sponsor of responsibility for his cyber-attacks on the 2016 election.

While I’m waking up Reagan, I might as well rouse Eisenhower and the many other Republicans who fervently believed in the importance of a strong NATO to protect Europe – and show them how Trump literally tried to destroy the alliance.

Fast forward to today when Sen. Tommy Tuberville has created serious leadership gaps in the U.S. military as payback for President Biden’s policy of having the military reimburse service members for travel to another state as necessary for abortion services. As Democratic Senator Chris Murphy put it, “he is prepared to burn the military down.”

What do you call a Republican party that doesn’t care if it destroys the U.S. military? Not conservative by any definition that I’ve heard of.

“Society Must Change, But Slowly”

This line comes from Heritage Foundation’s summary of conservative thinker Russell Kirk key maxims, invoking a principle that fits with the small “c” dictionary definition of “conservative”, which includes such meanings as “cautious” and “moderate.”  Indeed, the arguments that led to the birth of modern conservate thought came from Edmund Burke’s reactions to the French Revolution – in which he explicitly opposed the very idea of being a calm, rational conservative to that of being a crazed, excitable revolutionary.

Being a conservative meant not trying to tear down present society and government so as to start anew but rather making incremental changes that maintain order while expanding rights and opportunities.

But that was your grandfather’s GOP. Since then, the party has been refashioned by such radical architects as Steve Bannon, who once said:

“I’M A LENINIST…LENIN WANTED TO DESTROY THE STATE, AND THAT’S MY GOAL TOO. I WANT TO BRING EVERYTHING CRASHING DOWN, AND DESTROY ALL OF TODAY’S ESTABLISHMENT.”

It’s hard to find a more concise summary of what the MAGA movement stands for.  It explains a right-wing Supreme Court willing to disregard such long-standing precedents as the 50-year-old Roe v. Wade decision. It explains the GOP’s determination to keep restricting the rights of voters to choose their representatives in state after state.  It explains their undying enthusiasm for a politician like Trump, who stands for nothing and against everything and everyone other than himself.  It is not conservative, but rather the blind fanaticism of a cult seeking to follow its guru wherever he might lead them, regardless of costs or consequences.

Questions to ask Republicans

So here are a few questions to ask the Republicans you may know or encounter:

  • If you call yourself a libertarian, why do you belong to a party fighting to take away the right of women to control their bodies and the right of adults to view the type of entertainment they choose – a party that is busy banning books from libraries and classrooms across the country, even Shakespeare?
  • If you call yourself a religious or moral conservative, why do you support a party that is hopelessly committed to a man accused by over two dozen women of sexual abuse – including one who recently won a case in court against him on those grounds?
  • If you’re an “America First” Republican, why does a majority of your party want to return Trump to the White House after all his kowtowing to Putin, and why is your party just looking the other way as Sen. Tuberville blocks the confirmation of over 300 military leaders?
  • If you’re a free market conservative, do you support the efforts by DeSantis and other Republicans to block companies from exercising their free speech on issues from diversity to climate change?
  • If you believe in “law and order”, how could you favor a party seeking to return the multiply-criminally indicted Trump to office, considering all the obvious evidence of his misdeeds?
  • Finally, what has Fox and other sources constantly pushing your buttons and playing on your emotions actually accomplished for you or the country? Or has it all been a game of distraction pulling you away from your principles rather than one in which you’re achieving tangible goals?

Yes, I know the odds are low of getting any of today’s Republicans to change their minds about anything. But perhaps getting the wheels in some of their head to start turning will have a positive impact somewhere with someone. In the meantime, we need to make sure that we and the press properly expose what the MAGA crowd actually stands for – which isn’t much.

Why are Republicans so angry? Because they lost . . . again.

 So Republicans like Gym Jordan and James Comer have been loudly demanding that a Special Counsel be appointed to investigate Hunter Biden. When they finally got their wish, they responded with outrage, (because when do Republicans respond with anything else these days?) A “distraction” they are calling it and an attempt to “whitewash” the supposed “crimes” of Hunter Biden. Leaving a whole lot of people baffled as to why they would be so furious because they got what they want. Outrage is reflexive in today’s GOP, remember that when Trump won they managed to be both self satisfied and angry simultaneously but there is a much more important reason for this particular temper tantrum. Yeah, they’re angry and it’s because…

1) As usual, Republicans acted on the assumption that Democrats would behave as dishonestly and unethically as they, themselves and so would never in a million years appoint a Special Counsel, even though the Democrats are as aware as anybody else that there is no evidence of wrongdoing because there was no wrongdoing. Republicans thought that they were safe to loudly and publicly demand a Special Counsel because they would never get one because they, themselves would never grant that if their positions were flipped. The fact that Republicans have long used a partisan DOJ to do their dirty work means that they can’t imagine an independent DOJ. Which brings us to…

2) Republicans know there is absolutely no fire behind their smoke screen, hell they created it out of whole cloth. An independent special counsel will ultimately find no “there” there and further erode their already absurdly thin case. They have been so desperate to produce real evidence of a crime that they have paraded convicted felons, unregistered lobbyists and discredited and disgruntled Federal employees through at least two different Congressional committees. It has been such an obvious horse and pony show that even Sen. Turtle McTurtleface is having none of it. Which means….

3) Hard line MAGAs aren’t going to get their impeachment vote because the Republicans in districts that Biden won now have a plausible cover: they can’t support impeachment until the Special Counsel is done. And while I have no doubt that Weiss will act independently and try to follow the evidence wherever it leads, it’s not going to be accomplished overnight and Republicans wanted, NEEDED an impeachment to take place prior to November 2024. But you want to know what? I don’t think that’s the only reason they’re pissed…

4) Republicans have been so desperate to find criminal wrongdoing and corruption that some of the “evidence” that they have presented may have been coerced or just made up, which could open some Republican politicians to criminal liability or at the very least, something hugely embarrassing right before an election. Remember, every member of the House of Representatives must run for re-election or leave Congress next year and while Republicans have no shame and apparently aren’t even embarrassed by entering revenge porn into a Congressional record, perjury, bribery and blackmail are tools that we know they aren’t afraid to use.

In summary then, Republicans have been outmaneuvered. By granting their wish, (which they never dreamed would be granted), Garland has killed any chance of McCarthy holding an impeachment vote and has possibly opened some of them up for either (further) political humiliation or even criminal liability. Of course they’re pissed off. By calling their bluff, Merrick Garland and possibly Dark Brandon just thwarted the fuck out of them by throwing their whole strategy out the window.

Judge in Trump’s document case is on the take

New reporting reveals how judge in Trump documents case benefits from Leo’s dark network

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, new reporting from The Guardian revealed that U.S. district court Judge Aileen Cannon, currently presiding over former President Trump’s criminal case for mishandling classified documents, is part of conservative kingpin Leonard Leo’s right-wing network. Cannon was gifted a luxury trip by the Leonard Leo-backed Scalia Law School — raising new questions about Leo’s decades-long efforts to curry favor with members of the American judiciary.

The Guardian revealed that Cannon accepted a 2021 trip to a Montana luxury resort from the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University, for which Leo brokered at least $30 million in donations to rename the school after Justice Antonin Scalia —and where Leo has been “directly involved” in hiring decisions. Nine speakers at the lavish event were Federalist Society contributors, including three federal circuit judges. Leonard Leo is a longtime Federalist Society leader, previously serving as its executive vice president and now, its co-chair.

In 2021 alone, the George Mason University Foundation, which manages the school’s private gifts and endowment, took over $5 million from Donors Trust, the “dark money ATM of the right.” Donors Trust is an integral part of Leo’s network, having raked in a portion of a massive $59 million donation from Leo’s Marble Freedom Trust in 2020. Over $368,000 was earmarked for the Scalia Law School’s Law and Economics Center, which ran Judge Cannon’s luxury trip.

Continued https://accountable.us/judge-cannon-gifted-luxury-trip-by-leo-backed-scalia-law-school/

Remember when Ivanka Trump got all those Chinese trademarks?

Remember when Jared Kushner got $2,640,000 (or more) from the Saudis?

China grants 18 trademarks in 2 months to Trump’s daughter
https://apnews.com/article/0a3283036d2f4e699da4aa3c6dd01727

Ivanka’s Trademark Requests Were Fast-Tracked In China After Trump Was Elected
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tommybeer/2020/09/22/ivankas-trademark-requests-were-fast-tracked-in-china-after-trump-was-elected/?sh=e14b20b1d60f

Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump made up to $640 million while working in White House, report finds
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/jared-kushner-ivanka-trump-income-b1799464.html

Jared Kushner’s private equity firm concealed the origins of Saudi-backed funds and used the SEC’s own rules to help them do it, report says
https://www.businessinsider.com/kushners-2-billion-investment-saudi-backed-fund-concealed-sec-rules-2023-2