How About South Korea, Huh?

 

The political roller-coaster of President Yoon Suk Yeol’s declaration then suspension of martial law was extreme even by the standards of South Korea. https://t.co/snAiREZDmH

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) December 4, 2024

I have literally no insight into South Korean politics, but I really think that guy chose poorly.

The Red Line for Journalism

 

I wonder why Speaker Johnson is so passionately weighing in on the Ronna firing… oh… https://t.co/Ek1OdMBDyN pic.twitter.com/uh7JEewLpr

— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) March 28, 2024

This is what I was talking about: the GOP would take the opportunity to read McDaniels' firing as being about cancelling Republicans when it is really about not giving a platform to election deniers and insurrectionists. Maybe she was "normie" by the standards of today's GOP, where asking if the 2020 vote was legitimate is now a qualifying question. But what if we just altogether derided the absolutely batshit claims that got us here--the Venezuelan voting machines, the German servers, the Italian satellites, the Chinese thermostats, that absolutely shit-pilled people seem to have believed in and are now losing their livelihood for--

I'm talking about Jeff Clarke, for whom this shit was that real. 

Or maybe for Mike Lindell. 

Ginni Thomas doesn't have a "job" per se, but she believed in the German severs.

There is a lot of rubbish otherwise sane people seem to have believed or pretended to. All of it pretty loosie-goosey bullshit.

These ideas are toxic waste, and were deployed by the Trump administration as if they were actually real, when they look like, in the clear light of day, nonsense.  Why in the world would any reputable news outlet support anyone who lent support to so much bullshit? 

UPDATE: The RNC is considering limiting NBC's access because of the McDaniel firing. But, but--they fired her first? LOL. 

TWGB: Hiding, and Also in Plain Sight

 

Former Trump campaign strategic adviser Boris Epshteyn to @AriMelber: "Yes, I was part of the process to make sure there were alternate electors."https://t.co/v06GFV4vpO

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) January 22, 2022

It's kind of funny, that, on one hand, we're hearing about secret meetings that happened in the White House with Mark Meadows and other conspirators to overturn the 2020 elections, and we've seen Trump fight releasing White House docs to the January 6th Committee all the way to the Supreme Court (and lost, 8-1, about which, hmmm), but on the other hand, I can't even bat an eyelash about Boris Epshteyn admitting to the alternate elector scheme and describing Rudy Giuliani as having spearheaded it because, well--yes. Obviously?

It actually is pretty shocking to see the actual draft of an EO to seize the voting machines and appoint a special counsel. But there was already solid reporting that Flynn and Powell proposed exactly this (with a strong likelihood that Powell is the author and proposed special counsel pick) and the thing is, they also said that's exactly what they wanted to anyone who would listen. 

It's sort of like when mail boxes and sorting machines were being stowed back before the election--you could see what they were doing. Trump both decried voter fraud (since 2016!) and actually encouraged Republicans to do it (they apparently heard him in The Villages).  It's overt and intended to shock you into compliance with it. Because in the mind of the Trumpists, nothing they do can be wrong, whether it's the extortion of world leaders or election officials. 

They would have a soft coup over basically an uploading error in Antrim Co. for "national security" making American great. But they wouldn't mind thug tactics and head cracking from RW militias along the way. It's a sick joke. 

I am nearly past laughing, though.  Except for gallows humor. 

Sincere Believers in Their Own Bullshit

 

Just a little bit in advance of Mark Meadows being held in contempt of Congress (unless he realizes that he has little choice but to, shall we say, be less contemptible?) and interesting item comes to light from the trove of documents already handed over the the 1/6 Committee: an email indicating that the National Guard was to be put on standby to protect Trump supporters. From whom?

Just to put a pin in the whom question--this is what Former Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller already testified that Trump told him. They were to protect Trump's demonstrators. 

From the hordes of antifa super-soldiers bearing soup cans and malice, once has to assume. After all, it was goldurn liberals and whatnot who were going to go hog wild according to the Claremont war games, and the police would need to take shocking bloody measures to put them down. Especially the antifa and BLM elites in their upper middle class urban enclaves.

That's what they were counting on. Outlandish stereotypes detached from reality. Their own people were the thugs, but they never thought that was how Trump supporters would be viewed.  That's how sincerely they believed their own bullshit.

UPDATE: And I will not stop laughing that part of the referral for Meadows' contempt charge is due to his having written a book partially covering the subject matter. It's just very choice. Stable genius, even.

TWGB: Tell Me Lies, Tell Me Sweet Little Lies

 

I'm not actually a lawyer or anything, but when it looks like US senators who looked into the voter fraud claims entirely noped out of challenging them a la Ted Cruz or Josh Hawley, maybe they weren't good claims at all. In fact, it turns out that the Trump campaign knew that all the Dominion claims were totally bunk back in November. You know, when the election happened, before the Stop the Steal rallies and all the Elite Strike Farce lolsuits and all that. We didn't need to go through all that. It was just a time and money suck for idiots to save face and reap fundraising. 

And as far as I know, the fundraising on utter lies is still happening. So. That's a thing that MAGAs are entirely supporting. Getting bank account molested by total liars. With weekly auto-withdrawals and lies about matching funds and shit, no less. 

They knew that all the Chinese thermostat and Italian satellite stuff was bogus way back in November. But they needed time, because they had a little plan--from Claremont Institute's (and former Clarence Thomas clerk) John Eastman. We got a draft's version yesterday, but apparently, there were six pages of misguided bullshit about how, maybe, Mike Pence could have just stole this shit for Trump. Because if now now, when, and if not us, who, and also more Flight 93 Mike Anton type bullshit which I already said was basically terrorism to democracy. 

And the thing of it is, there were still members of congress on board. There really still were. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley and so on. Were they clued in to the larger scheme? I assumed because the claims were so obviously ridiculous that they were just pulling a political stunt for the punters, but this is actually more deep than that, isn't it? I wondered about the "misdialed" calls from Giuliani and Trump to Mike Lee, apparently intended for Tommy Tuberville, and wonder. Did the White House/Trump campaign think there was already more buy-in--or where they using thug force to manipulate it?

Maudit

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Statement from Senate President @FannKfann #AZSenate #Audit pic.twitter.com/H7xDHdRiK3

— AZSenateRepublicans (@AZSenateGOP) August 23, 2021

I did not know that "Covid-19 ate my homework" was going to be a part of the finale of the Cyber Ninja clownshow, but ok, I'm down for farce also being a little bit tragic while we're at it. Maybe they feel a little under pressure, and maybe they absolutely should be, because they are a sham. But, because I also think karma can be a thing, maybe COVID-19 really is delaying the full report, because the Venn diagram of people who think Trump really won and the folks who think vaxxes are for lax asses have some considerable overlap because they drink from the same scummy pools.

Not that you'll ever find me wishing COVID-19 on anyone, because I like to do my individual maledictions in private. But I do have to say, when I read this shocking turn that everyone was quite sick and also too, the auditors got the things we wanted so late, I really made the worst kind of snorting laugh because of course. 

Oh sure. By all means get your asses better and then report with a promptness. Which I am sure will not be hilarious and biased. 

A Republic, If You Can Keep It

Fundamental to democracy is the peaceful transition of power; without that, there is Belarus. Any suggestion that a president might not respect this Constitutional guarantee is both unthinkable and unacceptable.

— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) September 24, 2020

This is from the sole Senate Republican who voted against Trump regarding the impeachment. Romney Tweeted this in response to Trump's failure to guarantee that he would stand by the results of the election, basically implying that if it went against him he would try to invalidate it (just as he peremptorily has been doing by talking trash about mail-in ballots and "rigging").

The Founders always knew that the idea of a democratic republic was a bit dodgy, and we are merely blessed that our first president had the outstanding wisdom to know when to say goodbye. But Trump seems a little stuck on the idea that maybe he can litigate the will of the people. Like he can throw out ballots or appoint better electors.

But I don't consent. I cried the night I knew this idiot was somehow elected by a trick of the white men of property who inserted the electoral college nonsense into the constitution, but I understood there were enough deeply wrong people who voted for him to make this happen, so we'd just have to endure. I wanted investigations of the obvious fuckery of his campaign's apparent coordination with Wikileaks, and therefore, probably Russia, but he was our president. Nobody domed him.

I don't like his vicious militias and his bloated tick of an AG, and I don't like his impeached ass fucking up our foreign policy. I think he's been a singular failure, and that his fan club are practically cultists, believing in things unseen and in fact, unreal, just to make their idiot bigot president palatable.

The media should not try to call the pandemic election early. Of course mail-in ballots matter just like they have mattered before Trump tried to invalidate them. The media should employ all restraint to allow for a complete and fair vote, and if he tries to invalidate it--call him out! Call it a coup! Call it what it is! And if the vote is against him--talk about the will of the people and don't "both-sides" this shit.

He said he might not even talk to the American people again if we voted against him. I want him to make that good. I genuinely wish to never hear from this fool again. It would be better for our Republic that way.

So, I Was Wrong About Turkish Democracy

The way I was seeing it, Turkish president Erdogan would have understood that democratic fervor and social media basically saved his ass, and he should have seen his return to power as reflecting new respect for democratic values and openness of political speech.

This is exactly what we are not seeing. His government has now seen fit to punish more people for the coup than actually ever could have participated in the coup, because if so many had, it might have actually been successful. It was almost as if he had an "enemies list" handy, to have found so many intellectuals and academes culpable.

This is, of course, an appallingly wrong way to do democracy--for the love of stability, Erdogan should want to reinforce the idea that he is most definitely not a tyrant and follow up with more liberalization of the media. Give people a reason to think you actually want to do better and be accountable.

He is doing the idea of democracy a mischief, the way he is doing it.

The Coup in Turkey Could Mean Democracy Wins?

I have not actively covered how much Recep Tayyip Erdogan is  a minute away from being some kind of dictator, but I think the military coup attempt sort of highlights just how much he isn't especially liked, except for the weird thing, which is that even though he's not greatly popular, the folks in Turkey seem to have come out for democratic ideals.  Now this theory could totally crumble in a minute. but I would very much like to think that if the coup crumbles, it is sort of proof that democracy is only the worst form of government, except for all the others. And it might just remind us of how fragile, after all, is a government build on a certain degree of popular consensus.

It is very terrible when a significant population ceases to believe in the government at all. Which is why a government should take pains to stay believable.