Category: Trump Administration

‘Ultimate betrayal of oaths sworn’: Michigan GOP congressman slams ‘treacherous snakes’ who ‘salivate for civil war’

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Rep. Pete Meijer (R-Mich.) is fed up with the pro-Trump conservative Republicans whom he describes as “treacherous snakes.” On Monday, May 31, Meijer, a military veteran, took to Twitter with a post in observance of Memorial Day as he criticized those “salivating for civil war.”

The freshman lawmaker, who is a U.S. Army veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, acknowledged the work of those who came before him as he noted his “struggle with Memorial Day” as a result of “browing-beating from the holier-than-thous.”

“Memories + knowledge that for too many it’s a reminder of a father, mother, wife, husband, son, daughter gone. Our shared obligation to make this nation worthy of their sacrifice,” Meijer tweeted. Continue reading.

Opinion: A frantic warning from 100 leading experts: Our democracy is in grave danger

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Democrats can’t say they weren’t warned.

With yet another GOP effort to restrict voting underway in Texas, President Biden is now calling on Congress to act in the face of the Republican “assault on democracy.” Importantly, Biden cast that attack as aimed at “Black and Brown Americans,” meriting federal legislation in response.

That is a welcome escalation. But it remains unclear whether 50 Senate Democrats will ever prove willing to reform or end the filibuster, and more to the point, whether Biden will put real muscle behind that cause. If not, such protections will never, ever pass.

Now, in a striking intervention, more than 100 scholars of democracy have signed a new public statement of principles that seeks to make the stakes unambiguously, jarringly clear: On the line is nothing less than the future of our democracy itself. Continue reading.

An Evangelical Battle of the Generations: To Embrace Trump or Not?

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As Liberty University plots its post-Falwell future, young people want to steer clear of politics. The trustees aren’t buying it.

For years, there was an adage around Liberty University that if God split Jerry Falwell in half, you would have his sons Jerry and Jonathan.

Jerry Jr. inherited his father’s desire to be a force in American politics, and his post as Liberty University president, while Jonathan inherited his father’s gift for evangelical uplift and became pastor of his church.

Now, 14 years after Jerry Falwell Sr. died and nine months after Jerry Jr. was ousted in a scandal, Liberty is enmeshed in a debate that could have profound implications for the nation’s religious right: Whether it should keep nurturing Jerry Jr.’s focus on politics and maintain its high-flying role in the Republican Party, or begin to change its culture and back away from politics, an approach increasingly favored by younger evangelicals. Continue reading.

Art of the deal: Historian says politics aside, Trump was an ineffective manager and leader

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One of the most intriguing aspects of current politics is the fealty of the Republican Party to Donald Trump. Central to this loyalty is the view that Trump was an effective leader. As a candidate in 2016, the future president claimed that he was uniquely qualified to lead the country, unite the public, and overcome gridlock in Congress. To accomplish these goals would require successful persuasion. Was this talented self-promoter able to win public support for his initiatives? Was this experienced negotiator able to overcome polarization in Congress and obtain agreement on his proposals? Was Donald Trump an effective leader?

Did the public follow the president’s lead?

At the core of Donald Trump’s political success were his public relations skills. He possessed well-honed promotional talents sharpened over a lifetime of marketing himself and his brand. Once in office, the president wasted no time in conducting a permanent campaign to win the public’s support. On the day of his inauguration, Trump filed for reelection with the Federal Election Commission. Less than a month afterwards, on February 18, 2017, he held the first of what were to be dozens of political rallies around the country.

Did he succeed in winning support for himself and his policies? I have shown in great detail, he did not. Instead, he consistently failed to win the public’s backing for either his policies or his own handling of them. Indeed, he seemed to turn the public in the opposite direction. He made the Affordable Care Act, which had been unpopular, popular, and the health care policies he backed unpopular. Similarly, in the face of a general desire to control our borders and protect the country from terrorists, Trump managed to alienate the public from his immigration policies. Perhaps most remarkably, his tax cut for nearly all taxpayers and businesses was unpopular. In addition, the public remained supportive of free trade and critical of his handling of trade policy. Continue reading.

How did America reach the point where one party is openly rejecting the democratic process?

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A Reuters/Ipsos poll released in April 2021 indicates that a majority of Republicans feel that the presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump. On January 6, when Congress convened to count and certify the electoral votes, 147 Republican members of the House of Representative voted against certification even after a mob had taken over the U.S. Capitol. This is unprecedented. Never before has a major political party rejected the results of a presidential election. What caused this phenomenon? When and how did forces come together resulting in an attack on democracy by a major political party?

American history is replete with presidential elections that could have been justifiably challenged. Many times results have been less than clear-cut and controversial. Before the 12th Amendment each elector would cast two votes. The candidate with the most votes became president and the runner-up vice-president. In the 1800 election, Jefferson and Burr, the Democratic Republicans, tied for first. It was left to the House of Representatives controlled by the Federalists to decide whether Jefferson or Burr would be president. They chose Jefferson, who was then accepted by all sides as our third president. Today it would be inconceivable for a Republican Congress to decide which Democrat is elected president. But that happened in 1800 as the Federalists accepted the Electoral College system as prescribed by the Founding Fathers.

In 1824, Andrew Jackson got the most popular votes but nobody won a majority of electoral votes. The House of Representatives then elected John Quincy Adams president with the support of failed candidate Henry Clay. Jacksonians complained of a “corrupt bargain,” but Adams was accepted as president. Continue reading.

The GOP push to revisit 2020 has worrisome implications for future elections

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Donald Trump’s “big lie” has spawned a movement that under the guise of assuring election integrity threatens to do the opposite, potentially affecting the election process with questionable challenges that could block or delay the certification of results and undermine an essential pillar of democratic governance.

Trump’s refusal to accept the 2020 results has kept alive the fiction that the election was stolen or the process was deeply corrupted. That fiction — fueled by conspiracy theories — has encouraged members of his party, elected officials and ordinary citizens, to take steps to address this; these actions could lead to worse outcomes in the future.

For some Americans, the 2020 election isn’t over, as unsubstantiated claims of fraud or widespread irregularities prompt continuing efforts to reexamine ballots and voting machines. Continue reading.

Americans demand court-martial for Flynn after call for military coup: ‘Honor veterans — arrest this traitor’

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Lt. Gen Michael Flynn proclaimed that he thinks there should be a military coup to replace President Joe Biden with Donald Trump in the White House. It’s something that sent many to demand he be court-martialed, the legal process of prosecution in the U.S. Military. 

It isn’t unheard of, Jan. 2020, the Navy Appeals Court decided that “a Navy retiree was properly court-martialed and convicted for a crime committed after he had left active duty,” reported the Military Times.

Even the Federalist Society noted that the Uniform Code of Military Justice allowed for some retirees to be court-martialed though they are rare. But in the civil case Larrabee v. Braithwaitethere is a question before the DC Circuit about whether a military member can be court-martialed for a civil crime. For advocating the overthrow of the government, it’s a different issue entirely. Continue reading.

Video reveals Michael Flynn calling for coup like ‘what happened in Myanmar’ to replace Biden with Donald Trump

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Raw Story’s Ray Hartman revealed some of the specifics of retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn’s shocking speech from the QAnon conference in Dallas where he proclaimed that he wasn’t a conspiracy theorist, while also claiming that Donald Trump won the 2020 election.

But as videos are being revealed, Flynn was also captured calling for a military coup in the United States to install their own leader in Donald Trump

“I want to know why what happened in Myanmar can’t happen here?” someone asked the audience as they cheered. Continue reading.

Four more indicted in alleged Jan. 6 Oath Keepers conspiracy to obstruct election vote in Congress

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Four more Oath Keepers associates have been indicted and three were arrested in Florida in recent days in the Jan. 6 breach of the U.S. Capitol, bringing the number of co-defendants charged in the largest conspiracy case from that day to 16, court records show.

Joseph Hackett, 51, of Sarasota, Fla., Jason Dolan, 44, of Wellington, Fla., and William Isaacs, 21, of Kissimmee, Fla., each face multiple counts in an indictment handed up Wednesday and unsealed Sunday in Washington. The three appeared Thursday before U.S. magistrates in Tampa, West Palm Beach and Orlando.

The name of a fourth defendant not known to be in custody was redacted. Continue reading.

Narcissistic people aren’t just full of themselves – new research finds they’re more likely to be aggressive and violent

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The big idea

We recently reviewed 437 studies of narcissism and aggression involving a total of over 123,000 participants and found narcissism is related to a 21% increase in aggression and an 18% increase in violence.

Narcissism is defined as “entitled self-importance.” The term narcissism comes from the mythical Greek character Narcissus, who fell in love with his own image reflected in still water. Aggression is defined as any behavior intended to harm another person who does not want to be harmed, whereas violence is defined as aggression that involves extreme physical harm such as injury or death. 

Our review found that individuals high in narcissism are especially aggressive when provoked, but are also aggressive when they aren’t provoked. Study participants with high levels of narcissism showed high levels of physical aggression, verbal aggression, spreading gossip, bullying others and even displacing aggression against innocent bystanders. They attacked in both a hotheaded and coldblooded manner. Narcissism was related to aggression in males and females of all ages from both Western and Eastern countries.