Right-Wing Absurdity

From today's Daily Mail: "(...) Mike Pence insists that Donald Trump instructed him to ignore the Constitution by blocking certification of the election results in January 2021 after the ex-President pushed-back on the claims this week. (...) Pence dodged on Sunday morning questions on whether he's a so-called 'MAGA Republican', (...) he did agree that Trump is being treated unfairly by President Joe Biden's Justice Department. (...)".

So ... Pence says Trump told him to ignore Constitutional rules but feels that Trump is being treated unfairly by the Justice Department?! Can it get more crazy? Next, he may tell us that he is a Martian. Anything goes!

Related:

• Video from NBC News

• Pence Squirms When Asked Whether He’s a ‘MAGA Republican’ 

• Mike Pence "doesn't recall" if he was told about plans to overturn 2020 election results.

Lauren Boebert tries to sound angry: The president has abandoned the American people while he is on vacation; Maui is not getting urgent support.

Lauren Boebert / @laurenboebert on Twitter:

There is a total crisis in Maui.

3000 destroyed homes. 

80 people dead. 

Where’s Joe Biden? 

On vacation of course. 

There is no bottom for this president.

~~~

Coach D / @CoachD_Speaks reacts on Twitter: 

Since the fires began, this is the only mention of #Maui by Lauren Boebert. Not a call for donations. Not a repost of someone gathering care packages for the victims. Not a repost of a go fund me. She doesn’t care about the people or homes destroyed, just scoring #maga points.

~~~

Facts: 

LAST WEEK: '(...) President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. declared that a major disaster exists in the State of Hawaii and ordered Federal aid to supplement state and local recovery efforts in the areas affected by wildfires beginning on August 8, 2023, and continuing.

The President’s action makes Federal funding available to affected individuals in Maui County.

Assistance can include grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses, and other programs to help individuals and business owners recover from the effects of the disaster.

Federal funding also is available to state and eligible local governments and certain private nonprofit organizations on a cost-sharing basis for debris removal and emergency protective measures in Maui County, and assistance for emergency protective measures for Hawaii County.

Lastly, Federal funding is also available on a cost-sharing basis for hazard mitigation measures statewide.

Mr. Maona N. Ngwira of FEMA has been appointed to coordinate Federal recovery operations in the affected areas. 

Damage assessments are continuing, and additional forms of assistance may be designated after the assessments are fully completed. (...)'. Read more from the 'Hawaii Disaster Declaration': https://whitehouse.gov/.

Donald Trump can not be anything, in future history, but a symbol of mediocrity personified.

We read: (...) 'Just 35% of Americans have a favorable view of Trump compared to 62% who view him unfavorably, according to an Associated Press-NORC poll released Wednesday. The survey, which was conducted from last Friday to Monday, also found that 53% of all voters say they definitely wouldn't vote for Trump for president in 2024.' (...) Another 11% said they probably wouldn’t support his White House comeback bid. (...)

The lackluster numbers for Trump extend to opinions about the efforts to prosecute him for trying to overturn his loss in the 2020 election. (...). Source: https://news.yahoo.com

~~~

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. DONALD J. TRUMP, Defendant (Extract)

INDICTMENT

The Grand Jury charges that, at all times material to this Indictment, on or about the dates and at the approximate times stated below: 

INTRODUCTION 

1. The Defendant, DONALD J. TRUMP, was the forty-fifth President of the United States and a candidate for re-election in 2020. The Defendant lost the 2020 presidential election. 

2. Despite having lost, the Defendant was determined to remain in power. So for more than two months following election day on November 3, 2020, the Defendant spread lies that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that he had actually won. These claims were false, and the Defendant knew that they were false. But the Defendant repeated and widely disseminated them anyway—to make his knowingly false claims appear legitimate, create an intense national atmosphere of mistrust and anger, and erode public faith in the administration of the election. 

3. The Defendant had a right, like every American, to speak publicly about the election and even to claim, falsely, that there had been outcome-determinative fraud during the election and that he had won. He was also entitled to formally challenge the results of the election through lawful and appropriate means, such as by seeking recounts or audits of the popular vote in states or filing lawsuits challenging ballots and procedures. Indeed, in many cases, the Defendant did pursue these methods of contesting the election results. His efforts to change the outcome in any state through recounts, audits, or legal challenges were uniformly unsuccessful.

4. Shortly after election day, the Defendant also pursued unlawful means of discounting legitimate votes and subverting the election results. In so doing, the Defendant perpetrated three criminal conspiracies:  

a. A conspiracy to defraud the United States by using dishonesty, fraud, and deceit to impair, obstruct, and defeat the lawful federal government function by which the results of the presidential election are collected, counted, and certified by the federal government, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371; 

b. A conspiracy to corruptly obstruct and impede the January 6 congressional proceeding at which the collected results of the presidential election are counted and certified ("the certification proceeding"), in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1512(k);and

 c. A conspiracy against the right to vote and to have one's vote counted, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 241. 

Each of these conspiracies—which built on the widespread mistrust the Defendant was creating through pervasive and destabilizing lies about election fraud—targeted a bedrock function of the United States federal government: the nation's process of collecting, counting, and certifying the results of the presidential election ("the federal government function").

COUNT ONE
(Conspiracy to Defraud the United States—18 U.S.C. § 371) 

5. The allegations contained in paragraphs 1 through 4 of this Indictment are realleged and fully incorporated here by reference. The Conspiracy 6. From on or about November 14, 2020, through on or about January 20, 2021, in the District of Columbia and elsewhere, the Defendant, (...) Read more: https://www.justice.gov/storage/US_v_Trump_23_cr_257.pdf

MSNBC reports '(...) Bombshell: MAGA’s Roger Stone pushed elector plot before 2020 race was even called' (...). 

We read: 'In exclusive video obtained (...) Trump adviser and ally Roger Stone is seen pushing a plot to overthrow the 2020 Election. Melber interviews Christoffer Guldbrand, the documentary filmmaker who reported on Stone and recorded the footage, and attorney John Flannery, about the tape's significance amidst probes and cases indicting Trump and allies for trying to steal the election. (...). 

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=di86okS9snk.

'Donald Trump Gives Rudy Giuliani Money Amid Fears He'll Flip': https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-gives-rudy-giuliani-money-legal-defense-fund-bedminster-1821954

'(...) Donald Trump's Bedminster Golf Club in New Jersey will reportedly host a lavish $100,000-per-ticket fundraiser to raise money for Rudy Giuliani's legal defense fund. (...)'. More.

Vivek Ramaswamy's anti-immigrant stand is confusing.

Kica Matos (the president of the National Immigration Law Center* and Immigrant Justice Fund) pointed this out: '(...) It is deeply distressing to see that a child of immigrants, himself a person of color, would be lifting talking points from neo-Nazis (...) It legitimizes that kind of dangerous talk. (...)"

She continues: (...) 'It seems like this is a real example of them pulling up the ladder behind them,” she said. “They benefited from opportunities offered to immigrants, and now … they are stomping on other immigrants. (...)' - Source: nbcnews.com.

* Organization devoted to defending and advancing the rights and opportunities of low-income immigrants and their family members. Twitter: NILC and NILCJusticeFund.

~~~

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene appears on Twitter in a fake mugshot photomontage with a Fulton County Sheriff's logo to show her support for Donald Trump.

- She writes: 'I stand with President Trump against the commie DA Fani Willis who is nothing more than a political hitman tasked with taking out Biden’s top political opponent. “Persecution, not prosecution. (...)'

Could Trump mugshot merch make MAGA millions?

Related: Mugshot mug (online store).

~~~

We read: 'As the right-wing movements of intolerance gain greater and greater hold over the levers of American political and judicial power today, historians have begun to examine their roots in earlier periods of American history. Timothy Egan's A Fever in the Heartland draws powerful and uncomfortable parallels between the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s and the rise of the MAGA movement in the past decade. (...)' More www.ncronline.org

Related: nytimes.com (book review).

Other Headlines

7 ways MAGA Republicans differ from other Republicans

There Can Be No Saving the Republican Party

Undercover With the New Alt-Right