How Alarmed Should We Be?

He's a Christo Fascist and the Dominionists love him, one to the tune of $1.6B on which not $1 of taxes were paid. Sweet deal and in the little hands of a zealot.

 

Far-Right Activist Laura Loomer Refuses to Concede, Sobs About Voter Fraud

Loomer previously won a Florida Republican primary race for Congress in 2020 but lost to her Democratic opponent, Representative Lois Frankel, by more than 16 points in the general election. She insisted that she was the true "winner" on Tuesday and argued that "big-tech election interference" could be to blame for the primary's outcome.

"I'm not conceding, because I'm a winner and the reality is our Republican Party is broken to its core," Loomer told supporters in a speech following her loss. "What we have done tonight has really honestly shocked the nation. We have further exposed the corruption within our own feckless, cowardly Republican Party."
https://www.newsweek.com/far-right-...efuses-concede-sobs-about-voter-fraud-1736325

Loomer is an admitted proponent of Islamophobia yet was competitive in her race. It speaks volumes about the POT.

 

Another jilted "victim".

 

It seems that the reality of rejection, voters not wanting an overt bigot to represent them, hits these folks like a cold splash of water.

 

These Bills Aim To Curb the Power of the Courts

In 2022, states have continued to consider new laws that would limit voting or undermine democracy. But another trend that shouldn’t be overlooked is a growing number of proposed laws that directly target the judicial system. In many states, when thwarted by the courts from enacting the legislation they want, lawmakers are attacking the courts instead. The Brennan Center recently surveyed all the proposed laws this year that would undermine the role and independence of courts. In its report titled “Legislative Assaults on State Courts — 2022,” the Brennan Center breaks down the kinds of laws that states are considering and where they are in the legislative process. In today’s Data Dive, we walk you through the report and highlight a few examples.
https://www.democracydocket.com/news/these-bills-aim-to-curb-the-power-of-the-courts/

Like cockroaches, these folks are always trying to find new ways to foul democracy.

 

For goodness sake never divulge your identity.

 

They are among the few Neocons still extant, of course they are gas lighting and they'll continue to gas lighting. And just like you they worship at the altar of the current governing paradigm which is beginning to come apart at the seems. The only question now is when and how the collapse finally happens. And how long takes to cobble together a replacement and what that replacement will look like.

 

3. Bills that reduce court resources in retaliation for unfavorable decisions.

Ohio Republicans introduced a bill that would cut the state Supreme Court’s budget. The bill was introduced after the court’s series of decisions against gerrymandered legislative districts forced the state to hold two separate primaries this year. Rather than abide by the court’s decisions, Ohio Republicans seem more interested in retaliation — some have also called for impeachment of the court’s Republican chief justice.

 

More like a wet fish.....

 

Response to Trump Search Highlights Violent Rhetoric From the Right

One week after a team of F.B.I. agents descended on his private club and residence in Florida, former President Donald J. Trump warned that his followers were enraged by the search — and that things could get out of hand if the Justice Department kept the heat on him.

“People are so angry at what is taking place,” Mr. Trump told Fox News. “Whatever we can do to help because the temperature has to be brought down in the country. If it isn’t, terrible things are going to happen.”

This week, one of Mr. Trump’s closest allies, Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, issued a similar warning that Mr. Trump quickly reposted on his social media platform. Mr. Graham, in a Fox News appearance on Sunday, predicted that if the search of Mar-a-Lago led to a prosecution of the former president, there would be “riots in the streets.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/30/us/politics/trump-search-violence.html

Is Lindsey making a prediction or a threat?

 

Republicans Sue To Limit Drop Box Use in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania

WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Thursday, Sept. 1, America First Legal — a conservative group founded by Mark Meadows and Stephen Miller — filed a lawsuit on behalf of voters in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania against the Lehigh County Board of Elections challenging the rules regulating the use of drop boxes throughout the county. The plaintiffs allege that the current lack of guidance regarding the use of drop boxes violates the Pennsylvania Election Code, which the plaintiffs argue requires that “mailed and absentee ballots must be returned either by mail or in person by the person to whom the ballot belongs.”

This lawsuit is the latest in a string of conservative-sponsored litigation to upend mail-in voting in Pennsylvania. In their complaint, the plaintiffs reference a 2021 investigation into drop boxes by the Lehigh County district attorney, after which the district attorney announced that he would station detectives at drop box sites to monitor them. However, following the district attorney’s announcement, the Pennsylvania secretary of the commonwealth and the American Civil Liberties Union advised the district attorney that such monitoring amounts to unlawful “voter intimidation” under state law.
https://www.democracydocket.com/ale...t-drop-box-use-in-lehigh-county-pennsylvania/

Repubs are relentless in their pursuit of voter suppression.

 

Caught on tape.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/06/poli...chine-breach-coffee-county-georgia/index.html

A brazen disregard for the law.

 

Threat.

 

Democrats funded several Trump candidates in the 2022 GOP Primaries. Was this one of them?

Karine Jean-Pierre Easily Tagged As An ‘Election Denier.’

'The central hypocrisy of President Biden’s indictment of the “MAGA Republicans” – as well as the Pelosi-picked panel on January 6 – is all the evidence of liberals and Democrats being “election deniers.” Democracy is crumbling when Republicans question election results, but everything Democrats say and do should be categorized as exercises in idealism.'

'In the September 6 Biden press briefing, Fox White House reporter Peter Doocy started to point out what press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre tweeted in 2016. She said “Oh, I knew this was coming.” Doocy said “You tweeted Trump stole an election. You tweeted Brian Kemp stole an election. If denying election results is extreme now, why wasn’t it then?”'

'On December 17, 2016, almost six weeks after Trump’s upset victory over Hillary Clinton, Jean-Pierre tweeted, “Stolen emails, stolen drone, stolen election…..welcome to the world of #unpresidented Trump.”'

'On April 2, 2020 – about 17 months after Stacey Abrams lost her election in Georgia – Jean-Pierre tweeted over an MSNBC video link: “Reminder: Brian Kemp stole the gubernatorial election from Georgians and Stacey Abrams.” Why so late? Liberals at that time were suggesting Kemp (like Trump) was one of those GOP COVID mass murderers.'

'Jean-Pierre tried to call the comparison “ridiculous,” that “I was talking specifically at that time of what was happening with voting rights and the — what was in danger of voting rights.” That changes absolutely nothing. The hypocrisy remains. They spent most of Trump’s presidency treating him as a Russian-imposed fraud, but that’s somehow not being a dangerous “election denier.”'

'Democrats and denying elections — it’s different when they do it, somehow:'

NARRATOR'S VOICE: IT'S NOT DIFFERENT WHEN THEY DO IT.

 

In 2020, Republican canvassers in Michigan almost blocked the certification of the election.
After every election, the Michigan Board of State Canvassers meets in what is supposed to be little more than a formality. The Board, consisting of two Democrats and two Republicans appointed by the governor, merely compiles and certifies the election results that have already been confirmed by county election officials. This body has no power to audit election results or conduct investigations — the Board has a purely “ministerial” duty according to legal experts. So when the Board met in November to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election, it should have been a boring affair, with all four members voting in favor — just like they had done in 2016 when the margin was much narrower.
https://www.democracydocket.com/analysis/what-happened-in-michigan-is-a-warning/

Threats to democracy are sometimes under the radar, just just as insidious as other more notable threats.

 

The Supreme Court Is Now Ignoring Precedent It Doesn’t Like

The Supreme Court’s recent overruling of Roe v. Wade and other foundational decisions makes clear that key precedents are no longer safe. But as we take account of the court’s last term and look ahead to the next one, it is critical to understand that the aggressive conservative supermajority has also embraced a new, quieter way of annulling other long-established legal rules — a tactic I call barricading precedent. Any assessment of the court’s fidelity to past judicial decisions should include a tally not just of decisions the court overrules but also those it walls off from any future extensions.

Take Egbert v. Boule, a case last term involving whether federal officers could be held liable for violating a person’s Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable seizure. The Supreme Court held in a previous case that officers could indeed be held liable for conducting unreasonable seizures in the course of “conventional” law-enforcement investigations. And — as Justice Neil Gorsuch “candidly” acknowledged in his separate opinion — the Egbert case bore earmarks of a conventional investigation. At the same time, the six Republican appointees stressed that “if we were called to decide [the previous case] today, we would decline” to recognize this type of liability at all. That created a quandary for those justices: Should they follow the rule of the old case or overrule it?
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/09/16/supreme-court-cases-precedent-00056689

This court has thrown stare decisis out the window.

 

Election chief on mounting threats to poll workers ahead of midterms

The nation's top election security official broke down as she recounted the vitriol targeting election officials, including those in her home state of Washington. "It's unnerving," said Kim Wyman, now the senior election lead at the nation's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).

"Threats like 'we're going to hang you.' And 'I hope somebody puts a bullet in your head,'" Wyman told CBS News in her first TV interview since accepting her new role.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/electi...eats-to-election-officials-ahead-of-midterms/

Semi-fascists do that sort of thing.

 

US Is Becoming A ‘Developing Country’ On Global Rankings That Measure Democracy, Inequality

The United States may regard itself as a “leader of the free world,” but an index of development released in July 2022 places the country much farther down the list.

In its global rankings, the United Nations Office of Sustainable Development dropped the U.S. to 41st worldwide, down from its previous ranking of 32nd. Under this methodology – an expansive model of 17 categories, or “goals,” many of them focused on the environment and equity – the U.S. ranks between Cuba and Bulgaria. Both are widely regarded as developing countries.

The U.S. is also now considered a “flawed democracy,” according to The Economist’s democracy index.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/...al-rankings-that-measure-democracy-inequality

Developing countries are where ex-presidents attempt coups. It isn't supposed to happen here.

 

GOP Nom To Run Arizona Elections Straight-Up Says Certifying A Biden 2024 Win Is A ‘Fantasy

Don’t Say He Didn’t Warn You
Arizona GOP secretary of state nominee Mark Finchem, an election-denying Oath Keeper who was outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, told Time magazine that as secretary of state, he would certify a Biden victory in 2024 “if there’s no fraud” – but “I think you’re proposing something that, quite frankly, is a fantasy.”

• Finchem argued that Biden’s 2020 victory in Arizona “strains credibility” because he apparently “can’t find anyone who will admit” they voted for him. Checkmate!
• By the way, Finchem had a fundraiser on Sunday that was co-hosted by a Sandy Hook and 9/11 truther (and yep, she’s a QAnoner).

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo/arizona-elections-finchem-biden-certify-fantasy

It's going to be chaos when these election deniers get power.

 

Here’s Where Each Conservative Justice Stands On The Theory That Could Upend Democracy

The Supreme Court will hear a case this term that could give state legislatures unprecedented power over federal elections and the laws that govern them.

In Moore v. Harper, North Carolina Republicans argue that the state Supreme Court overstepped its constitutional power when it struck down the legislature’s gerrymandered congressional districts as a violation of the state constitution.

The legislators are arguing that a reading of the federal Constitution — a once-fringe idea called the independent state legislature theory — empowers state legislatures to govern federal elections to the exclusion of state courts, neatly eradicating a critical check on the lawmakers’ power. The state judiciary is particularly indispensable in redistricting disputes, since the Supreme Court barred partisan gerrymandering cases from being heard in federal courts.

But the independent state legislature theory, if accepted by the right-wing majority, would not be confined to redistricting. It rests on a super literal reading of two clauses of the Constitution: The Elections Clause giving state legislatures the power to dictate the “times, places and manner” of holding elections, and the Electors Clause giving state legislatures the power to appoint presidential electors in the “manner” they choose.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/supreme-court-independent-state-legislature-theory

At one time it would have been inconceivable to think the SC to rule in favor of the NC Repubs. No longer. Not since McTurtle decided to usurp the authority to nominate SC justices from two Dem prez's.

 

Racist GOP appeals heat up in final weeks before midterms

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) suggested at a rally in Nevada this month that Black people are criminals. A day later in Arizona, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) appeared to refer to a specious conspiracy theory about immigrants that has been associated with white nationalists — baseless claims that at least two GOP candidates for the U.S. Senate have echoed.

And in Wisconsin and North Carolina, Democratic candidates for the Senate have faced a barrage of ads on crime that feature mug shots of Black defendants.

As the campaign heats up in the final weeks before November’s midterm elections, so have overt appeals to racial animus and resentment. And the toxic remarks appear to be receiving less pushback from Republicans than in past years, suggesting that some candidates in the first post-Trump election cycle have been influenced by the ex-president’s norm-breaking example.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...-appeals-heat-up-final-weeks-before-midterms/

I don't think there is any doubt this is the effect of the unmistakable stain Trump has left on what was the GOP.

 

“Anybody who’s got a title in the party could say something — senator, governor, anybody,” said Michael Steele, a former chair of the Republican National Committee, who noted a deafening silence in the party after Tuberville’s comment. “Anyone could stand up and say, ‘Can we stop this please?’ But they won’t.”

Why won't they? Because they are all racists? No. Because it is politically dangerous to point out the appeal to Trump's base from racist rhetoric? Obviously yes. What else explains it?

 

America’s Trumpiest court just declared an entire federal agency unconstitutional

Three judges appointed by former President Donald Trump handed down an astonishing decision on Wednesday, effectively holding that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the federal agency charged with protecting consumers from a wide range of predatory activity by lenders and other financial services, is unconstitutional and must be stripped of its authority.

The decision by the conservative United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit relies on a novel reading of an obscure provision of the Constitution, and is entirely at odds with a Supreme Court decision that rejects the Fifth Circuit’s reading of that provision. This is not unusual behavior from the Fifth Circuit, which often reads the Constitution in novel and unexpected ways that benefit political conservatives and the Republican Party.

Indeed, Judge Cory Wilson admits in the court’s new opinion in Community Financial Services v. CFPB that “every court to consider” the arguments presented in this case has deemed the CFPB to be “constitutionally sound.”
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-poli...rcuit-supreme-court-trump-community-financial

Repubs have had a hardon for the CFPB ever since its inception. Apparently they hate consumer protections because it keeps their corporate masters from ripping off citizens.

 

America Can Have Democracy or Political Violence. Not Both.

Over the past five years, incidents of political violence in the United States by right-wing extremists have soared. Few experts who track this type of violence believe things will get better anytime soon without concerted action. Domestic extremism is actually likely to worsen. The attack on Paul Pelosi, the husband of the speaker of the House of Representatives, was only the latest episode, and federal officials warn that the threat of violence could continue to escalate after the midterm elections.

The embrace of conspiratorial and violent ideology and rhetoric by many Republican politicians during and after the Trump presidency, anti-government anger related to the pandemic, disinformation, cultural polarization, the ubiquity of guns and radicalized internet culture have all led to the current moment, and none of those trends are in retreat. Donald Trump was the first American president to rouse an armed mob that stormed the Capitol and threatened lawmakers. Taken together, these factors form a social scaffolding that allows for the kind of endemic political violence that can undo a democracy. Ours would not be the first.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/03/opinion/political-violence-extremism.html

Aside from the violence and the rhetoric and the threats one of the more alarming aspects is right wingers are in denial about it. Perhaps because it has escalated since Trump was elected.

 

U.S. Supreme Court rejects challenge to Republican-drawn Texas electoral district

Nov 21 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday turned away an appeal by Black and Hispanic voters accusing the Republican-led Texas legislature of intentionally redrawing a state Senate district to diminish their political clout, part of broader challenge to congressional and state legislative maps in the state.
The district is currently held by Democratic state Senator Beverly Powell. But she dropped her re-election bid last April, calling the race "unwinnable" because of the way the legislature had redrawn the district's boundaries. Following the Nov. 8 election, the newly configured district will be represented by Republican Phil King, who ran unopposed.
https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-su...an-drawn-texas-electoral-district-2022-11-21/

As it has proven again the SC under the control of the conservative majority is no longer a venue where grievances regarding hyper partisan gerrymandering can get redress.