DDT Deeper in a Hole, GOP Loses Faith in ‘Fraudit’

Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) started his 2020 presidential campaign a few days after his inauguration in 2017, and he’s following the same pattern in 2021. Upsetting the GOP 2024 presidential primaries, he has told friends he would run in the next election if he has a clean bill of health—something he’s had no trouble purchasing. That leaves other wannabes in limbo. Think Florida Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Missouri’s Sen. Josh Hawley, Arkansas’ Sen. Tom Cotton, and South Carolina’s Tim Scott. And South Dakota’s governor Kristi Noem, Florida’s Rep. Matt Gaetz, and former U.S. officials Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley.

DDT’s problem is the skepticism and mixed opinions from leading Republicans about his potential run. In interviews with 20 congressional Republicans, Olivia Beavers and Burgess Everett found four different positions: 

“Burning” for Trump to run again: These include Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Brian Mast (R-FL) who don’t want a “carbon copy” but instead “the original.”

Picking political viability: Identifying whomever has the best chance of winning the White House, Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) said, “The person that can best save this country.”

“Fresh skin”: Privately some of the congressional members want DDT to step back, not be the GOP nominee but help the party.

“Thinking – Dear Lord, please not again: Reps. Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) have been open about this position, but others are anonymously voicing the same opinion.  

While Republicans badmouth Twitter and Facebook about banning DDT, they privately express relief about his lack of megaphones. Unfortunately for them, he’s starting his rallies in June to push conspiracy theories about the election and whine about every “Witch Hunt,” especially the newly convened grand jury in Manhattan to hear his criminal activities. The media will give air to DDT while President Joe Biden quietly carries forward with his agenda. One senior House GOP aide said:

“If we win the majority back in 17 months, it’s going to be in spite of Trump—not because of Trump. He will totally take credit if we win the House back—but it won’t be because of him. This guy is a disaster.”

DDT plans a road-trip with his “Contract with America,” in connection with Newt Gingrich who developed the first one in 1994. GOP leaders, however, know that DDT cannot keep to policy. Other DDT problems are that he may not exhibit the same vitality as a year ago and people may rapidly grow tired of him.

More DDT exposure may also reveal more scandals about him. The son of the late Arlen Specter told how DDT tried to bribe the former senator in 2008 to stop a congressional probe of the Spygate case about the New England Patriots. Shanin Specter said that his father specifically told him that DDT tried to bribe Specter, who died in 2012, when he was ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee to drop the investigation of the Patriots illegally filming an opponent’s hand signals. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell found the Patriots guilty of violating league rules by videotaping the defensive coaches for the New York Jets in 2007. The league stripped the Patriots of its first-round draft pick and fined the franchise $250,000. Bill Belchick was fined $500,000, the biggest amount for any NFL coach. Sen. Specter told Goodall he still had questions and would investigate Spygate on his own.

DDT’s spokesperson Jason Miller declared the accusation “completely false,” but he has his own baggage. For his failed $100 million defamation lawsuit, he owes $41,868 to G/O Media, formerly Gizmodo Media Group, parent company of now-defunct Splinter, that accurately published the story about Miller’s secretly sneaking an abortion pill into the drink of his pregnant mistress. The fetus was killed, and the woman came close to being in a coma. Miller lost his CNN job as a paid political commentator after his action was publicized. In 2019, a federal judge dismissed Miller’s case because the article was “a fair and true report.” A panel of judges from the 11^th Circuit Court upheld this ruling last month. The federal appeals court also ruled against Miller who claimed his documents were out of bounds, determining New York’s fair-reporting privilege protected the right to see the documents.

Miller also made an arrangement with political strategy firm Teneo to hide his income with the intent of dodging child support payments. Immediately after his resignation as Teneo’s managing editor in 2019 and telling a Florida court he was unemployed to “abate and modify” his payments, he signed a new secret contract with Teneo as a consultant through a rapidly-formed LLC, at the very same base compensation of nearly $500,000 doing the very same work.

Stephen Miller, the man behind all DDT’s hateful anti-immigrant policies including separation of families, is now suing the federal government to take money from women and minorities in the American Rescue Plan Act to give it to white people. With one victory in Texas, he may achieve his purpose because of the conservative majority on DDT’s Supreme Court. Miller’s lawsuits are about monies from the American Rescue Plan Act prioritizing women and historically marginalized groups. One lawsuit attacks $5 billion for debt relief, grants, and training for Black farmers and other “socially disadvantaged” groups. In the latter group, Miller wants to give the money to Irish, Italians, Germans, Jews, and eastern Europeans. Another attack is on the $29 billion Restaurant Revitalization Fund, prioritizing applications from women, veterans and “socially and economically disadvantaged” applicants during its first three weeks of implementation. A George W. Bush judge gave a temporary restraining order for distributing the money, but the plaintiff in the case filed a notice of dismissal for his case. An expert on constitutional law surmises the restaurant lawsuit may be an attempt to overturn former rulings protecting historically disadvantaged groups. 

More Arizona ballot “fraudit”: According to people close to Deposed Donald Trump (DDT), he believes the so-called recount “could undo” the results of the 2020 presidential election. Last Monday, he issued this statement:

“Arizona Republican State Senators are engendering such tremendous respect, even adoration, for the great job they are doing on the Forensic Audit of the 2020 Presidential Election Scam.”

Among the growing number of Republicans caught up in the havoc they have wreaked is state Senate president Karen Fann.  Republican Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates revealed she asked him to do an audit last November but told him she knows “there’s nothing to do this.” He watched two nationally-certified independent firms hired by the county to completely vet the election results from ballots to machines and reported “the election was safe, secure and fair … one of the best we’ve ever run.” Gates believes the Republicans are doing the current audit “to be reelected.”

Two Republicans voted against a restrictive voting bill requiring absentee ballots to list personal information—the voter’s birthday and either the last four digits of their Social Security number, a state-issued identification number, or a voter registration number. They would also have to complete an affidavit that the information they put on the ballot is correct. The new process would cost Maricopa County an additional $35,000 for additional steps, and insurance companies called the requirement “an identity thief’s dream come true.” State Rep. Jasmine Blackwater-Nygren (D) said the bill could hurt tribal voters because of birthdate discrepancies. Republicans are trying to put election and voting-related bills into the budget with amendments.

In 2016, DDT opposed an audit by Green Party candidate Jill Stein accusing her of having only “speculation” in her attempt to “disenfranchise Michigan citizens.” DDT’s lawyers wrote, “All available evidence suggests that the 2016 general election was not tainted by fraud or mistake.” The 2020 election shows no evidence of being “tainted by fraud or mistake” and indicates the entire attempt to “disenfranchise” citizens is based on “speculation.” Yet “fraudits” are crossing the nation.

For example, Wisconsin is diving into the “stolen” election swamp. On state GOP orders, the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau, did a separate audit of Wisconsin’s election results in February, but Republicans want another one. They plan to hire retired police officers and an attorney to re-investigate the 2020 election, according to GOP Rep. Robin Vos, speaker of the State Assembly, said he is hiring retired police officers and an attorney to investigate the thoroughly-investigated 2020 election. Yet Vos said he doesn’t expect the three month investigation will change election results in the state. Democrats commented:

“Wisconsin Republicans won’t fund healthcare, schools, or infrastructure … but they will authorize unlimited funds to desperately prove conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.”

These audits may lose GOP support. In Arizona, three-fourths of Republicans support the audit—as might be expected—but two-thirds of unaffiliated voters oppose it. That doesn’t bode well for the GOP in the 2022 election, especially with a higher percentage of Democrats than Republicans in the state. Only one-third of the states voters are more likely to support candidates backing the “fraudit.”

DDT, GOP in Trouble; Arizona Continues Corruption

President Joe Biden’s approval rating has increased to 62 percent, compared to the 45 percent Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) received in May 2017. Most of his ratings—economy, stimulating jobs, administering the government, etc.—are above 60 percent, and his worst rating, the one for handling immigration, is still at 53 percent. Approval of the Democratic Party went up to 55 percent while the approval of the GOP is still below 50 percent at 49 percent. Highly conservative Rasmussen Reports, one of the few polls to give DDT higher than a 50-percent approval rating, infuriated Republicans by finding Biden at 54 percent approval.

A grand jury has been convened to determine whether to indict DDT if Manhattan’s prosecutors present criminal charges in the investigation against the Trump Organization. The jury could also indict the business’s executives and the business itself. The jury will be in session three days a week for six months and may hear information beyond the Trump Organization probe. A major issue is whether DDT lied to lenders and insurance companies about his properties’ values to obtain larger loans and pay lower taxes. The investigation includes Trump Tower, the family estate Seven Springs, DDT’s Chicago hotel, and condo tower, and the hush money paid to shut up Stormy Daniels about her alleged affair with DDT. DDT is again whining, “Witch Hunt!”

Although the DOJ has released part of a memo from former AG Bill Barr, the department is appealing the order to disclose the entire memo. Barr used the 2019 memo from his Office of Legal Counsel to not make charges against DDT based on special investigator Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and its connections to DDT’s campaign. Part of the concealed memo provides factual and legal analyses of some incidents of possible obstruction. The judge earlier called Barr “disingenuous” in using the document to conclude DDT had not broken the law. She concluded that Barr used the memo “for a preemptive strike on the Mueller report.” The memo also stated the DOJ should decide whether DDT broke the law. The judge concluded the department’s intent was to legally justify a decision already made by DOJ leaders—to not accuse DDT of a crime.

Even out of office, DDT still claims he’s above the law (aka absolute immunity from civil lawsuits) in a lawsuit filed by Rep. Eric Swalwell of violating federal civil rights and local incitement laws. Donald Trump Jr, Rudolph Giuliani, and Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) are also defendants in the case, all of them for speaking at the rally near the White House on January 6 before the insurrectionists moved on to attack the U.S. Capitol. DDT’s defense is that he cannot be sued after being acquitted in an impeachment for the same conduct. DDT’s lawyer declared DDT is protected under the First Amendment. The lawyer stated about the presidency:

“While holding that office, former President Trump was free to advocate for the appointment and certification of electors, just as he was entitled to advocate for the passage or defeat of a constitutional amendment, or the reconsideration of a congressional act over his veto even though the President does not directly participate in those congressional acts.”

The U.S. Constitution declares a president can be subject to criminal or civil actions after leaving office. Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) has been joined by ten other congressional members and the NAACP in filing a similar lawsuit based on the Civil Rights Act of 1871, known as the Ku Klux Klan. It permits lawsuits against government officials for claims about conspiring to violate civil rights. That suit alleges DDT and Giuliani conspired with the extremist groups Proud Boys and Oath Keepers.

Gordon Sondland, DDT’s former ambassador to the EU who testified against him during the first impeachment, is suing him and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for $1.8 legal fees, costs from the 2019 impeachment probe. Sondland alleges Pompeo reneged on the State Department covering the fees. Top Pompeo aides supported Sondland’s claim, but Pompeo changed his mind about paying after Sondland’s testimony about the “quid pro quo” that didn’t support DDT. The lawsuit demands payment from the government or from Pompeo personally, claiming the promise was made for Pompeo’s “own political survival.” Sondland also explained high bills by DDT’s restriction of “access to materials essential to his preparation.” DDT fired Sondland two days after his impeachment acquittal.

After fighting a subpoena for years, former White House Counsel Don McGahn will testify to the House Judiciary Committee behind closed doors after the DOJ made a deal for his testimony about DDT’s obstruction attempt against Mueller’s Russian investigation. The committee will release the interview transcript. Members can ask him about events documented in the report about attempts to fire Mueller and block the Russia investigation as well as about the Mueller investigation’s accuracy. McGahn can decline answering questions on other topics.

DDT’s pet Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) went too far with her comparison of required mask wearing to gassing Jews during the Holocaust. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), silent for days, called the statement “appalling,” and House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) bravely said he “does not agree with these comments and condemns these comparisons.” McCarthy continued by blaming for anti-Semitism “on the rise in the Democrat [sic] Party” being “completely ignored” by Speaker Nancy Pelosi.”

Two years ago, Jewish groups considered comments about Israel from Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) as anti-Semitic. Pelosi forcefully demanded an immediate apology, and Omar said she didn’t mean to promote negative stereotypes of Jews with her comments on Israel. Another objection may be protests from some House members about Israeli’s killing Palestinians, driving them out of the homes, destroying their infrastructure, and preventing them from worshipping in their Jerusalem mosque. McCarthy didn’t make any suggestions about actions against Greene.

Greene was not pleased about McCarthy’s statements. She hastily reposted a tweet about McCarthy with her addition but then removed within six minutes:

[Quote from a tweet]: “Look you moron, nobody supported Israel in their recent conflict with Hamas more than MTG. Her analogy may not have been perfect but you seriously need to get a grip you feckless c**t. Pelosi is the villain here.” [Greene’s addition]: “Thank you for seeing the truth and how much I support Israel.”

Even Senate Minority Mitch McConnell (R-KY) openly turned against Greene. Asked by a reporter about whether she should be censured, he said:

“Well, she doesn’t serve in the Senate, but this is one of a frequent outbursts that are absolutely outrageous and reprehensible, but any punishment I assume would have to be administered by the House.”

More news from the Arizona vote counting fiasco: The so-called “audit” has now resumed with “counters” selected by an organization operated by DDT’s wealthy supporter and “stolen” election believer Patrick Byrne, formerly Overstock.com CEO. He is in charge of background checks, non-disclosure agreements, and volunteer agreements of “workers.”

Wake TSI, the Pennsylvania IT company running the audit, came to the end of its contract on May 14 and won’t be back. With little or no experience regarding elections, the company took the job after an Arizona senator, a bit advocate of the “Stop the Steal” movement, asked for it. A Scottsdale (AZ)-based tech company StratTech, possibly with no election or auditing experience, is taking over.

Arizona’s GOP-led House Appropriations Committee stripped legally-elected Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D) of her ability to “defend election lawsuits” after she expressed “grave concerns” about the audit. Her responsibilities have been transferred “exclusively” to Attorney General Mark Brnovich (R) through the end of the 2023 fiscal year. In further retaliation against Hobbs, the Republicans removed Hobb’s “oversight of the Capitol Museum” after state lawmakers when she “flew a gay pride flag from the building’s balcony” in 2019.

After determined to remain silent for over three weeks, Stephen Richer, the GOP recorder in charge of Maricopa County’s elections, said there was no “legitimate reason that would have prompted this audit.” About former audits, he pointed out that “all the tests came back clean. The parties themselves oversaw the hand-count auditing of 47,000 plus votes.” He also expressed frustration “that some professional, legitimate companies did make bids to the Arizona Senate to do this work and we would have welcomed that.” The county told the Senate to preserve all documents related to the audit administration in a litigation hold, looking into charges of defamation.  

An observer’s report of the audit told to Washington Post editor Sophia Nguyen—including horror of a “counter” who found “cheese powder” on a ballot. 

Will DDT be back on Facebook? Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill, possibly called the Trump Protection (TP) law, which fines social media platforms permanently banning political candidates in the state. A ban is limited to 14 days with a daily $250,000 fine after that. As almost everyone knows, DDT has made Florida’s Mar-a-Lago his residence. The law comes from the party believing in freedom for private business and no regulations. Florida has blocked free speech from private entities, violating the constitution’s First Amendment. Exempt are companies owning theme parks or entertainment venues larger than 25 acres, aka Disney World and Comcast’s Universal Orlando Resort. Another lawsuite in the wind.

Watch for much more about the Grifters’ Old Party. 

 

Republican Bizarre Bits

Last month, CNN commentator told a conservative youth group that “there was nothing” in America when European landed on its shores.” He called the land “a blank slate” and added, “Yes, we have Native Americans, but candidly, that—there isn’t much Native American culture in American culture.” Waiting for the backlash to dissipate, CNN gave up after 25 days and fired Santorum, a strong supporter for Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) and long espoused his widespread bigotry.  

“I mean, yes, we have Native Americans, but candidly, that — there isn’t much Native American culture in American culture.”

Santorum is miffed at the firing: he said he was hired to deliver a “different” perspective.

Another ousting came in the Louisiana state legislature. State Rep. Ray Garofalo insisted on teaching students “the good, the bad, the ugly” of slavery and was removed from chair of the House Education Committee after three weeks of protesting. In rebuttal, he accused GOP House Speaker Clay Schxnayder of “sacrificing me to the Black Caucus, who seem to be controlling the Louisiana House of Representatives this term” and throwing him “under the bus.” He could have resigned but instead played the martyr by declaring he “did not step down voluntarily as chairman.” The bill in question forbids teachers to teach information that allegedly “promotes divisive concepts,” such as critical race theory which examines how race and racism influence different aspects of life.

Garofalo’s racist comments match those in Texas where a bill stated the voter restriction law will “preserve the purity of the ballot box.” Democratic Rep. Rafael Anchía explained Republican Rep. Briscoe Cain, the bill’s sponsor and author, that the same provision was drafted specifically to disenfranchise black people, black voters, following the Civil War.” It “gave rise to all-white primaries” and was “used during the Jim Crow era to prevent black people from voting.” Anchía continued to educate Cain, who said he found the information “troubling” before he removed the term from the bill but not the substance. Cain added he’s grateful that “white primaries” no longer exist before Republicans passed the punitive anti-voting bill.

Texas has another bill to block the Alamo in Antonio from stating major figures in the Texas Revolution were slave traders. Idaho already has a law to block funding from schools teaching about the effects of slavery and racism, and Louisiana, New Hampshire, and Tennessee are following them with similar bills. (Every morning, the Texas students are required to “pledge allegiance” to “Texas, one state under God.”)

Texas law requires media witnessing to executions, but none saw the killing of Quintin Jones this month because state officials said they forgot to notify the reporters waiting across the street from the penitentiary. A spokesman apologized. Earlier in the day, Gov. Greg Abbott had said “our creator endowed us with the right to life” when he signed one of the nation’s most restrictive anti-abortion laws. Abbott was in office during over 50 executions. The parole board granted clemency to a white man with a similar case but denied one to Jones, possibly because of his race. 

A Connecticut lawmaker claimed Asian Americans have never faced racism during a meeting on housing segregation.

Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) has the highest number of missed votes—16.2 percent—among freshmen members of Congress and is sixth highest among all 535 congressional members. He has two reasons for missing all those votes: fulfilling his “service as a husband” after his marriage during his three-day honeymoon and disregarding votes for “Democrat garbage.” He told the conservative Real America’s Voice News his husbandly “service” is “more important than my service in Congress.” The young DDT supporter gained his seat with blatant lies, for example about the car wreck, his fault, which incapacitated him and the reason he was rejected by the Naval Academy. He won despite former college classmates urging his rejection on a number of issues including his “academic failures” and alleged sexual misconduct with at least three women. His lies extended to outrageous falsehoods about the 2020 election.

Sen. Ted “Kremlin” Cruz (R-TX) is not happy about his new nickname replacing “Cancun Cruz,” from sneaking off to warm climes during Texas’ “big freeze” power outage. An expert on Russia refused Cruz’s lie he didn’t share Russian election propaganda because Cruz hates communists. Expert and author on the Soviet and Russian era Tom Nichols disagrees with Cruz’s claim that Vladimir Putin has “always” been a “communist.” MSNBC’s Brian Williams used “Kremlin Cruz” in a piece about Cruz’s assertion regarding the U.S. military being “emasculated” when compared to the mighty Russian military. Cruz also accused “Dem politicians & the woke media … trying to turn” service members “into pansies.” He has since changed to declaring U.S. troops to be “the finest fighting force on the face of the Planet.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green (R-GA), having lots of time after being stripped of all committee assignments, wants attention, and she’s getting lots of it. Other than defending the obscene Arizona “audit” of ballots in a rally there, she compared being forced to wear masks on the House floor because fewer than half the Republicans may not be vaccinated to Jewish people being gassed during the Holocaust in Germany. Greene called House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) “mentally ill.” Even GOP congressional members are openly incensed by her statements, including Reps. Liz Cheney (WY), Adam Kinzinger (IL), and Peter Meijer (MI).

Only people of color can be terrorists, according to Greene’s definition. She called Black Lives Matter “the strongest terrorist threat in our county” and described the elections of two Muslims to Congress as part of “an Islamic invasion of our government.” Yet she expressed concern for white people attacking the U.S. Capitol on January 6 for their “being abused” in jail, with some “being held for 23 hours a day in solitary confinement.”

Other attention may be less desirable, especially legal trouble. Greene solicited donations to a super PAC accepting unlimited donations in a video specifically for that purpose, but candidates and elected officials cannot request contributions more than $5,000. In another legal problem, Greene is accused of having two active homestead exemptions with her husband. Georgia law allows only one of these huge tax breaks for a primary residence.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) dumped Cheney and protected Greene to please DDT. Now he’s hiding from the public to avoid answer questions. The Wyoming GOP is determined to vote out Rep. Liz Cheney in a primary because she says that the 2020 election was not “stolen” from DDT. Her primary opponent: At 18, Anthony Bouchard impregnated a 14-year-old girl. He bragged about marrying her when they were 15 and 19, but they divorced when she was 18. His ex-wife killed herself when she was 20. Bouchard said it’s “like the Romeo and Juliet story.”

In more ignorance from QAnon congressional members, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) called DDT the “peace president” because “things were so quiet” between Israel and Hamas from 2016 to 2020. A botched Israeli covert operation in the southern Gaza Strip killed seven Hamas militants and one Israeli soldier, leading to fighting for two days and nights before a ceasefire. Violence continued for two more weeks. Another conflict in May 2019 killed two Palestinians in Israel’s airstrikes; Egypt mediated a ceasefire after three days. The prolife representative cast one of two votes blocking patients from access to potentially life-saving bone marrow transplants because it was too expensive.

Former Maricopa County (AZ) Sheriff Joe Arpaio is gone after a conviction and DDT’s ensuing pardon, but he’s still costing taxpayers over $200 million by next year. Costs are for legal bills and complying with court-ordered demands of the sheriff’s office because of the county’s officers profiling Latinos in traffic stops. Arpaio’s conviction was for disobeying a court order to stop the profiling. He says he doesn’t regret his actions and claims he saved money when he reduced education and healthcare costs.

Former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos must testify in a class action lawsuit regarding her policy ignoring student debt loan forgiveness for borrowers defrauded by for-profit colleges, according to a court ruling. About 160,000 borrowers are participating in the lawsuit resulting in an “exceptional circumstances” warrant. DeVos will face questions about the department’s failure to keep records of loan forgiveness claims and lies about the rationale for vast numbers of rejections for forgiveness.

Michigan Rep. Matt Maddock and his wife, the state’s GOP co-chair Meshawn Maddock, have been noted for their lies about voter fraud and comparison of covid-19 to the flu. Because of media fact-checkers, Maddock’s new bill, the Fact Checker Registration Act, would require fact-checkers to register with the state and provide $1 million fidelity bonds. Anyone breaking the proposed law would be fined $1,000 each day. According to Maddock’s bill, anyone could sue a fact-checker over “any wrongful conduct that is a violation of the laws of this state.” The Maddocks were also part of the efforts to impeach Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and challenge Joe Biden’s presidential election victory. After Maddock spoke to the group rallying to attack the U.S. Capitol, the couple joined a Facebook considering civil war after the insurrection.

This is the tip of the iceberg–more later!

DDT’s Criminal Investigation, Arizona’s ‘Fraudit’

The new “social communications” platform (aka blog) from Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) landed a few weeks ago like a thud. Instead of typing out his own messages, DDT dictates his comments to aides. They type and print them, he edits them with a Sharpie, and then aides upload the statements to his “platform.” Almost no entries and demands for donations from anyone who wants to respond.  DDT feared irrelevance leaving the White House and largely received it. Last week, his website had fewer visitors than Petfinder or Delish, and shares of content about him on major mainstream platforms dropped 95 percent. DDT went from over 88 million Twitter and 35 million Facebook followers on January 6 to about 2,000 daily shares on Facebook. 

DDT was in the press last week with the announcement of possible criminal charges in New York. AG Letitia James said she is investigating the Trump Organization “in a criminal capacity” in cooperation with a case from Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance. Because of limitations, the charges could involve state agencies, including securities and tax fraud as well as prosecute lies in the investigations. James’ office notified the Trump Organization last month of its intent. The publicity may also increase pressure on people to cooperate because coordination between both state and city makes the investigation stronger. Vance’s office has previously working on cooperation from DDT’s CFO Allen Weisselberg, whose former daughter-in-law gave officials financial records.

James may pursue racketeering charges under RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corruption Organization) laws used in organized crime in the charges. The RICO laws are typically used in “a pattern of criminal behavior” through an “enterprise” for a person’s financial gain. These charges could include DDT’s use of the federal government for personal gain. RICO convictions have much longer sentences and bigger financial penalties. DDT released a 900+ word of whining outrage on his platform, using his favorite word “hoax.”

Another 14 lawsuits DDT faces.

Three of DDT’s children—Ivanka, Don Jr, and Eric—are also under criminal investigation in New York.  The probe into Ivanka concerns her potential tax crimes for vastly increasing Trump Hotel prices in D.C. during DDT’s inauguration. All three are officers or work for the Trump Organization, and the media has speculated whether DDT will save himself by flipping on them.

Meanwhile, the fraudulent vote counting continues in Maricopa County (AZ) as the GOP tries to prove a “stolen” election from DDT. Reputable Republicans are increasingly annoyed with becoming the “laughingstock” of the world.

Frustration rose to a high peak when state Senate President Karen Fann (R) tweeted DDT’s defamatory statement that the “entire database for Maricopa County in Arizona has been DELETED!” The five members of the County Board of Supervisors, 80 percent Republican, asked the Arizona GOP senators, some of them already disenchanted with their decision to hired an experienced company to recount the ballots for a third time, to stop the ballot count. GOP Stephen Richer, Maricopa County Recorder, called DDT’s comment “unhinged” and said he was “literally looking at our voter registration database on my other screen. Right now. We can’t indulge these insane lies any longer.”

Over a week ago, semi trucks moved the ballots, voting machines, and software out of the coliseum, scene of the project for three weeks, when high school graduations took over the facility. The building chosen for storage is considered unusable between May and September because of the heat, at this time averaging highs of 100 degrees.  According to election technology expert Ryan Macias, “the more likely the chain of custody will be broken and the less likely that the data is reliable.” Fewer than one-fourth of the 2.1 ballots were examined in the first 17 days.

Board Supervisor Chair Jack Sellers (R) claimed the GOP Senate was running a “grift disguised as an audit.” He added the supervisors will no longer explain anything “to these people who are playing investigator with our constituents’ ballots and equipment, paid for with real people’s tax dollars. People’s ballots and money are not make believe. It’s time to be done with this craziness.” He wrote that he will “not be responding to any more requests from this sham process. Finish what you call an audit and be ready to defend your report in a court of law. We all look forward to it.” Sellers refused to attend a May 18 meeting with Fann.

A lengthy letter from board members addressed the accusation of “spoliation of evidence” with detailed responses and explanations of the appropriate ballot handling and counting processes. In refuting the scurrilous statements from the Senate, the letter described the security process for delivering the ballots, voting machines, and software to the inexperienced Florida company, Cyber Ninjas, and possibly reasons for what outsiders perceive as “DELETED” information. At least half the letter answers accusatory questions concerning “no chain-of-custody documentation for the ballots”; other security measures such as the Senate’s perception of lack of “tamper-proof seals”; and lying about not having the passwords demanded by the Senate. The supervisors wrote, “We cannot provide what we do not possess.”

“This ‘audit’ is encouraging our citizens to distrust elections, which weakens our democratic republic,” according to the supervisors. They concluded by asking Fann “to recognize the obvious truth: your ‘auditors’ are in way over their heads. They do not have the experience necessary to conduct an audit of an election. They do not know the laws, nor the procedures, nor the best practices. It is inevitable that they will arrive at questionable conclusions.” The last paragraph:

“It is time to end this. For the good of the Senate, for the good of the Country and for the good of the Democratic institutions that define us as Americans.”

At the May 18 meeting with Fann and the chair of the state Senate Judiciary Committee, a representative from the private company leading the audit admitted they had discovered the files claimed “DELETED.” He said the workers didn’t know the settings and configurations used to copy the county’s databases or how to search them. Contractors assumed the missing directory was deleted because they looked in the wrong place. 

In fact-checks of the hearing, the county’s official Twitter account stated that Fann and then-Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Eddie Farnsworth started their efforts to get election data before the tallying of electoral college votes on January 6. To avoid having Democrats present, Fann held a meeting instead of a formal hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee. She also blocked the Senate Minority Leader Rebecca Rios (D-Phoenix), the media, and the public.  

Even Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), DDT’s sycophant, is disillusioned with the Arizona fiasco, likely because it’s damaging the GOP brand:

“I accept the results of the election. I don’t know what the audit is all about in Arizona. I don’t know the details. But I am ready to move on.”

Reps. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Matt Gaetz (R-FL), and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) defended the audit to the DOJ, which questions whether the process complies with federal law requiring the preservation of ballots for 22 months after an election.

Workers are actually performing two different audits. The one searching for bamboo in the paper and using UV lights to find watermarks has received more publicity, but other people are actually tallying the 2.1 million ballots by hand. A third one, looking at digital ballot images created by vote-counting scanners, will begin later.

None of these audits is being run by government election officials nor are they following the state procedures. They also don’t use all the 2020 election records and data provided to the state Senate per its order. Instead the entire process has been set up by the unknowledgeable Cyber Ninjas which fails to use key accounting controls to identify and investigate discrepancies to correct mistakes in the hand count. Specific processes and faults are described here. With their failure to create and cross-reference precise records, the end result is tainted in an endeavor, according to Republicans, to create “election integrity.” At least, counters have few disagreements because all of them are Republicans.

The Senate is paying only $150,000 for the debacle, but donors are providing the necessary millions of dollars for the project. Patrick Byrne, former Overstock.com CEO, has set up a fund called the America Project to gather money from the QAnon believers, including himself. Mike Lindell, CEO of MyPillow, is another donor, and the right-wing network One America News, allowed “unfettered access” to the event, is raising money. For the first 17 days, wages alone may be over $600,000.

Taxpayers, however, will be on the hook for about $6.1 million to replace the almost 400 voting machines turned over to Cyber Ninja. Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs said if the county doesn’t purchase new machines, she will decertify the existing ones.

The watchdog group American Oversight is suing the Arizona Senate for public records related to the fake audit. The lawsuit states the Senate violates public records law by refusing to turn over audit records including communications of Senate audit liaison Ken Bennett and the audit’s budget and funders.

Another “audit” fiasco will invade Fulton County (GA) if courts uphold a state judge permitting local GOP voters to inspect 147,000 mail-in ballots from the 2020 election. At least they won’t be touching the originals, which Fulton election officials will keep. Odd how people are convinced the only lack of “election integrity” occurs in locations where DDT lost and places where former audits have proved no fraud.

U.S. Involvement in Israel/Palestine Combat

After 11 days of Hamas-fired rockets and Israeli shelling destroying much of Palestinian infrastructure and killing 232 Palestinians, an Egypt-brokered ceasefire stopped—at least briefly—firing on both sides. Israel’s security cabinet unanimously approved the ceasefire, and Hamas agreed “as long as the occupation is committed.” Twelve Israelis died from the rocketing in the 11 days, including two children; Israel killed at least 65 Palestinian children. 

Hamas said that Israel had granted concessions on several points, but Israel said it only agreed to stop military operations. Israel Defenses said that the 200 hours of bombardment had succeeded in degrading the Hamas’ capability in Gaza. Devastated electricity and water systems are producing a humanitarian crisis, and Israel blocked trucks carrying medical supplies and relief workers into Gaza to help injured Palestinians. (Israel blames Hamas attacks for blocking the trucks.) Shelling also damaged the health and sewage systems, closed schools for 600,000 students, and displaced almost 100,000 people from their homes. 

After defending Israel’s attacks, President Joe Biden told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday that he “expected a significant de-escalation today on the path to a cease-fire.” The demand was a huge change from the previous administration giving Netanyahu anything he wanted. With a weak leadership in Israel’s parliament, Netanyahu is caught between needing the U.S. as an ally and the appearance of strength for his right-wing base. U.S. gives over $3 billion a year to Israel and is poised to sell Israel with $735 million of precision-guided weapons. Congress could block this sale, and members of Congress are pointing out that the U.S. knows its sale of billions of dollars of weapons to Israel will be used to displace and kill Palestinians.

Immediately after Biden asked Netanyahu for a “vital de-escalation,” Israel fired on a “variety of targets” in Lebanon. This past week Palestinian workers in Israel and occupied territories went on strike. Violence erupted in cities while stores were shuttered. Palestinians represent 20 percent of the Israeli population in a system of apartheid denying the same rights to Palestinians as to Jews.

Before the 11-day combat, unemployment in Gaza was about 50 percent, and everything going in and out of Gaza, including electricity and fuel, was controlled by Israeli and Egyptian governments. Israel also controls Gaza’s airspace, maritime access, and cellular data as well as restricts Palestinian access to farmland beside Gaza’s perimeter.

Journalists are targets for Israelis: an airstrike killed Palestinian Yusef Abu Hussein in his home and Reema Saad, four months pregnant, with her four-year-old son. Last weekend on the Jewish Sabbath, the military deliberately destroyed the building housing the Associated Press Gaza bureau and other news agencies. Israeli airstrikes damaged or destroyed the offices of at least 18 media outlets. For almost a week, Israel refused to process applications for journalists to cover the conflict, leaving them unsure of when news agencies not already on the ground of when they could be permitted entry. If the AP had not been in Gaza when its building was blown up, it could not get into the area. The AP can continue reporting, but its president described the effect of Israel’s destroying the building where the news agency had a bureau for 15 years:

“The world will know less about what is happening in Gaza because of what happened today.”

Israel’s autocratic behavior mimics the attitude of media-freedom abuse from the previous U.S. administration, and Biden’s administration must now address a principle of free expression and the anti-media sentiment developed during the past four years.

The combat was triggered by Israel’s refusal to permit Palestinians into Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa Mosque and its eviction of Palestinian families from their area in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah. Israeli law allows Jews to reclaim property they or families owned in Jerusalem before the division of the city into quarters before 1948 if they can prove their ownership, yet 750,000 displaced Palestinians cannot claim rights to property in Jerusalem or other parts of Israel, even if they prove ownership. Thus non-Jewish families are being evicted. Most countries do not recognize Israel’s sovereignty in East Jerusalem and claim that evictions violate international law.

Israeli security forces confronted Palestinian civilians on the most important night of their religious celebration of Ramadan, Laylat-al-Qadr, causing clashes at the Noble Sanctuary, the Temple Mount sacred to both Jews and Muslims. Surrounding countries—Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates—all made official statements of concern or condemnation. Yet the Arab countries all want continued diplomatic, commercial, and security cooperation with Israel.

U.S. presidents generally avoid the issue of Israeli settlements. President George H.W. Bush tried to stop loan guarantees to Israel if the country didn’t stop building settlements, and President Barack Obama pushed Netanyahu into a hiatus of settlement building. Yet, neither Bush nor Obama took action to bring Israel’s growing annexation, violating international law, to any end.

Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) assigned his son-in-law Jared Kushner to make peace between Israel and Palestine. Six months before DDT left the White House, he announced peace in the Middle East with the Abraham Accords agreement between Israel and four Arab countries—but no input from Palestine. The announcement of the deal in August 2020 promised the end of Israel’s annexation of Palestine’s West Bank, but the arrangement was only a business transaction to give Netanyahu everything he wanted.

The United Arab Emirates would invest in Israeli hi-tech firms, manufacturing, healthcare, and agriculture while cooperating on military production. Bahrain and Sudan also benefit, and the agreement causes problems in violating international law and diplomacy by recognizing Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara in opposition by the people of that territory. The arrangement also complicates U.S. relationships with Algeria, which supports Western Sahara’s right to self-determination, and North Africa. Palestine, however, is left to the mercy of Israel’s systematic ethnic cleansing while Israel expels Palestinians from their homes and ignores the needs of the other countries in the agreement. Close connections between Kushner and his family with Jewish investments guaranteed favoritism for Israel.

U.S. citizens are large donors to the non-profit Central Fund of Israel funneling money to the Israel Land Fund, which purchases land in Palestinian neighborhoods throughout occupied East Jerusalem to sell to Jewish settlers. These donors receive tax deductions to promote apartheid in the West Bank, giving over $220 million from 2009 to 2013 to Israeli settler organizations. The movement of Jewish settlers into Palestinian land is part of the plan to create Jewish dominance over Palestinians and destroy any hope of a Palestinian state with a capital in part of Jerusalem.

While in the White House, DDT favored not only Netanyahu but also all efforts to destroy Palestine. He removed any financial aid from Palestinians while declaring Jerusalem, belonging to different countries, the “capital” of Israel by moving the U.S. embassy there. He supported Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land and provide aid to Israel. Over a year ago, DDT exhibited how much he was willing to give Netanyahu with his “deal of the century” between Israel and Palestine: Israel wins and Palestine loses in a deal with no Palestinian input.

A February decision by the International Criminal Court (ICC) could cause problems for Israel with a ruling that ICC has jurisdiction over war crimes in Palestinian territories committed by Israel and Hamas. Netanyahu rejects the jurisdiction, but Palestinian officials welcome the news. Israel could face charges for the Gaza Strip blockade, settlement policies in which Jews occupy Palestinian land, and the number of Israel attacks against the Palestinians.

For the first time in a conflict between Palestine and Israel, the Democratic party is not acting in concert to support Israel. An authority in the continuing battle between Palestine and Israel, Sahar Aziz, explains that the change comes from the growing understanding in the U.S. of systemic racist oppression from the Black Lives Matter movement, particularly among the younger generation. Like Blacks, Native Americans, and Muslims, Palestinians have been demonized and dehumanized with impunity.

Between 2001 and 2011, over 50 percent of people in the U.S. had sympathies toward Israel compared with under 20 percent for Palestinians. The percentage began to equalize at 25 percent among Democrats in 2018 although Republican voters’ sympathy for Israel stayed at 79 percent. DDT’s xenophobic rhetoric along with the increasing videoed murders of unarmed Black men by police officers pushed a progressive, anti-racist movement among Democrats. By last March, 53 percent of Democrat wished the U.S. government to pressure Israel into compromising about Palestine.

On May 13, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), the first Palestinian elected to Congress, said, “We must with no hesitation demand that our country recognize the unconditional support of Israel has enabled the erasure of Palestinian life.” Twenty-one House members now co-sponsor the bill “Defending the Human Rights of Palestinian Children and Families Living Under Israeli Military Occupation.” It would create more oversight and restrictions on Israel’s use of U.S. foreign aid. Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN) succinctly explained the bill’s objective:

“Not one dollar more of US military aid can be used to demolish Palestinian homes, annex Palestinian lands, and torture or kill Palestinian children.”

Traditionally, such statements are associated with anti-Semitism, but an anti-racist movement is developing an understanding of Palestinian oppression in at least one U.S. political party.

Stefanik: The Newest Potential GOP Handmaiden

The night before Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) was stripped of her GOP leadership position after a voice vote, she gave an impassioned defense of democracy, but her history shows her strong Republican alignment. She steadfastly claimed President Obama was sympathetic to jihadists, defended torture, dismissed the constitutional right to due process, and portrayed Muslims in the U. as a national-security threat.

Last fall, she was reelected to the House toward her goal of becoming the majority leader despite the strong possibility she could get the Senate seat. She denigrated such GOP sacred cows as Reps. Jim Jordan (OH), Matt Gaetz (FL), and even DDT but voted with DDT 93 percent of the time. Although Cheney declared marriage equality to be “the law of the land,” her lesbian sister knows Cheney’s opposition to LGBTQ rights, clearly identified by Cheney’s vote against the Equality Act. Liz Cheney defended DDT’s remarks such as telling four congressional women of color, three of them born in the U.S., to “go back” to the “totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.”

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (CA) wants to run the House so he decided to “cancel” Cheney at the same time far-right House Republicans decried “cancel culture” about conservatives. The voice vote to dump Cheney removed any private voting. 

McCarthy pasted pasted another “big lie” on The GOP “Big Lie”:

“I don’t think anybody is questioning the legitimacy of the presidential election.”

In the House, 139 Republicans, almost 65 percent of the GOP membership, voted against legal votes in Arizona and Pennsylvania on January 6 during the announcement of the Electoral College votes. Eight senators, 16 percent, did the same without any proof of fraud or tampering. Arizona is still counting votes in Maricopa County by a company falsely stating the election was “stolen” from DDT, and other states indicate they will hire the same company if it ever finishes.   

After the company doing the “fraudit” in Arizona promised no connections with the internet, an observer discovered a wireless router connected to servers with voter registration data such as driver licenses, the last four numbers of Social Security numbers, and digital copies of signatures. At the same time, the state senate is threatening to subpoena the county’s election networking equipment to guarantee equipment was not connected to the internet during the 2020 general election. Wireless routers, which the election warehouse doesn’t have, facilitate entering a network by cyber criminals.

The company in charge of the third ballot recount—the fourth count—called the Cyber Ninjas will store its equipment—and ballots—in another building on the fairgrounds until May 23 before returning for five weeks until a gun show takes over the coliseum. No security procedures or policies are announced for the ballot moving or storage. The crew is counting about 100,000 ballots a week; thus far the total of 300,000 leaves another 1.8 million to examine.

The GOP handmaiden supposedly selected for Cheney’s replacement fits the Republican requirement—a woman believing the election was “stolen” from DDT. Molly Roberts writes that the “skirt for a skirt” replacement of Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) is “insulting,” especially when “a female frontman for the GOP frontman for the GOP obscures an aggressively anti-female agenda. The fact that Stefanik (who in 2014 had been the youngest woman ever elected to Congress) was the obvious choice speaks to the party’s shallow reservoir of ladies.”

In 2014, Stefanik, 28, campaigned on bringing women and fellow millennials into the GOP tent and praised her losing opponents for their democratic ideals. She believed in facts and trusted science; a former aid to GOP leadership called her “every Democrat’s favorite Republican.” Early in her second term, Stefanik focused on such local issues as support for rural farmers instead of extreme right-wing ones. She voted against the 2017 tax cuts, DDT’s only major legislation, because of their penalties on her state. The same year, she called environmental stewardship a “conservative principle” and introduced a House resolution to address the issue. Now the president of the conservative Club for Growth calls her “very much a liberal.”

About DDT’s proposed Muslim ban, the early Stefanik said:

“This is not who we are as a country… This is not according to our constitutional principle. And I associate myself with Speaker (Paul) Ryan’s comment just saying there is no place for what Trump said about Muslims in this country.”

Stefanik also voted to block DDT from withdrawing from the Paris climate accord and supported LGBTQ anti-discrimination bills. Even in 2019 and 2020, she had the seventh lowest score in the GOP of voting with Republicans and overall voting with Republicans 37 percent of the time. Former House Speaker Paul Ryan praised her:

“Elise isn’t just the future of the Republican Party. She is the future of hopeful, aspirational politics in America.”

Stefanik’s district moved from twice supporting President Obama to going for DDT, and she moved with them. She went from describing a GOP candidate in 2015 as “disqualifying themselves with untruthful statements” to giving Steve Bannon’s podcast conspiracy theories about Hunter Biden in 2021. In 2016, she avoiding mentioning DDT’s name in public as he ran for president and even said he had been “insulting to women” and his campaign “hurt the effort” to reach out to them. She also said his “inappropriate, offensive comments are just wrong” after DDT’s Access Hollywood scandal.

In August 2018, Stefanik went with DDT to a key military base in her district. When special investigator found widespread evidence that DDT obstructed justice in his inquiry into Russian election interference, Stefanik defended DDT by saying Democrats were persecuting him, going further right on the House Intelligence Committee. By the first impeachment, Stefanik became a member of the defense team, gaining approval from Fox and DDT. 

Former Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-VA) said the metamorphosis of the “handmaiden of Trump” was “embarrassing” and “sad.” Center-right commentator Margaret Hoover, now host of PBS’ Firing Line, who worked with Stefanik in George W. Bush’s White House, said:

“Elise could have been the face of a new generation of Republicans that could represent a real big-tent party, that could build beyond the base, that could lay the foundation for a coalition that could win elections nationally. It shows that she was never motivated by principles, and that’s deeply disappointing.”

By the election, Stefanik didn’t directly it was “rigged” or “stolen,” but she spread conspiracy theories about “irregularities” and “concerns” about “Dominion software.” In December, she joined 125 other Republicans signing an amicus brief for a case before the Supreme Court to reject election results in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Wisconsin. She followed that with a letter to her constituents announcing she would object to the legal votes from those states and voted to reject Biden’s bid in Pennsylvania after the January 6 insurrection. Despite no evidence of her claims, she protested the “lack of ballot integrity and security.” Her concern about “a lack of chain of custody” for ballots is now part of the Arizona recount fraudit.

In January, Stefanik said all these lies debunked by fact checkers:

“In Georgia, there was unconstitutional overreach when the Secretary of State unilaterally gutted signature matching for absentee ballots and in essence eliminated voter verification required by state election law. In addition, more than 140,000 votes came from underage, deceased, and otherwise unauthorized voters—in Fulton County alone. And many individuals testified to not being able to meaningfully observe the counting of ballots.”

Her alma mater, Harvard, removed her from the Senior Advisory Council of the Institute of Politics. Her concern about “a lack of chain of custody” for ballots is now part of the Arizona recount fraudit.

McCarthy’s closeness to DDT and his incitement of violence may come back to bite him. In March, McCarthy hired Brian Jack, DDT’s White House political director, to run his campaign. Jack was instrumental directly involved in setting up the rally, leading to that January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and asked Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) to speak at the event. The purpose of the rally was to push the “Stop the Steal” conspiracy theory that McCarthy now says nobody believes.

How much control McCarthy has over his caucus will be shown by whether Stephanik gets the leadership position in the Friday vote. Conservatives in the House and in organizations oppose her appointment, especially so soon after Cheney was tossed out. Some Republicans complained about feeling “boxed in” by McCarthy’s decision which they described as “far too orchestrated.”

Republicans have now developed another “big lie”: the mob attacking the U.S. Capitol on January 6 was just a group of orderly tourists looking through a public building. No mention of the five deaths, the 140 police officers injured, violent chants such as “Hang Mike Pence,” the feces, the broken statues, the stolen articles—just zero threat from a “normal tourist visit.” Republican delivered this message in a congressional hearing with former acting AG Jeffrey Rosen, former acting defense secretary Christopher C. Miller, and D.C. Police Chief Robert J. Contee III. 

The next big spin will be on Miller’s testimony that DDT actually requested National Guard troops for January 6—to protect the insurrectionists. Miller explained help was not sent for members of Congress after DDT’s supporters began their assault on the Capitol. That statement may be changed: DDT’s minions “revise” their testimony every time they appear at a hearing.

Arizona’s ‘Fraudit,’ Lies about ‘Stolen’ Election Continue

California has a $75+ billion surplus while Gov. Gavin Newsom is the object of a recall because he went to a dinner with lobbyists during a block on gatherings a year ago; it’s the sixth attempt in two years. He plans to give bonuses to the state’s residents next year. Will these people vote against him?

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is ousting Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) from her House leadership position because she won’t agree that the election was “stolen” from Dictator Donald Trump (DDT); McCarthy said he is doing it because “unlike the left, [Republicans] embrace free thought and debate.”

Rhode Island’s Gov. Dan McKee may also be history after he canceled a fundraiser co-hosted by a DDT supporter; he said:

“I do not like Trump…he is dishonest, divisive, and his ‘Big Lie’ is a threat to our democracy.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said the GOP is dead without DDT; his disowning of DDT after the January 6 insurrection was short-lived. 

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) wants to have both sides, but he also wants to unify the party with GOP policies. Republicans have no policies except supporting DDT and opposing Democrats—it’s their platform. Then they take credit for popular laws that they unanimously voted against.

“Cancel culture” is the only GOP comeback, and Republicans don’t know what it means. Today, Bob Baffert, trainer of Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit, used the expression because the horse failed its drug test. Baffert is suspended from Churchill Downs, pending an investigation, and he whined about losing his due process. At least four other horses trained by Baffert have been found with drugs in the past three years. Medina Spirit makes the 29^th violation noted in Baffert’s career.  

The insurrectionists won: they succeeded in continuing the false narrative of a “stolen” election.

Republicans lie to the world about the “peaceful” insurrection and the “stolen” election, but they also lie to other Republicans about DDT’s polling in core battleground districts: his unfavorable were 15 points higher than favorable, almost double.

Nowhere, however, has DDT World become more ridiculous than in Arizona. Maricopa County Sheriff Paul Penzone blamed the “Senate Republican Caucus’ audit of the Maricopa County votes” for “[jeopardizing] the entire mission of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office,” according to the Arizona Republic. The GOP senators demanded “certain routers,” causing a “significant security risk to Sheriff’s Office law enforcement data” if they are released. Another danger is the demand for “passwords to the county’s ballot tabulators used on Election Day at voting centers” to have “administrative access to voting machines.” County Attorney Allister Adel has told the Senate ballot-count fraudit liaison, Ken Bennett, the county has no more passwords beyond what it has released. Penzone stated:

“Access to this information would adversely affect the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office ability to protect critical evidence, data shared between law enforcement agencies, protected private information and individual passwords, all of which could be used to the detriment of citizens and law enforcement infrastructure.”

Penzone wrote that the move “puts sensitive, confidential data belonging to Maricopa County’s citizens—including social security numbers and protected health information—at risk as well.” GOP Supervisors Chair Jack Sellers agreed, stating problems with the routers would “cripple County operations and cost as much as $6 million.” Chris DeRose, a Republican Arizona election law attorney, wrote in a Washington Post op-ed that “no good can come” from the Senate’s efforts. 

Not satisfied with the third ballot recount in Arizona (making it the fourth count) by a private company who believes the election was “stolen” from DDT, QAnon conspiracy theorists want to invalidate all state election results since 2018 and immediately remove all elected officials. The citizens filing the lawsuit will then take over those elected positions—with no election. Among the group “We the People,” a common QAnon term, are a losing GOP candidate in 2020 and a prospective one for 2022.

One independent observer, Elizabeth Howard from Brennan Center, was permitted into the facility by a judicial order. She wrote:

“The point doesn’t have to do with election integrity based on procedures I witnessed. The procedures are drastically different from professional and effective procedures in use across the country by election officials. For instance, when counters are supposed to count ballots, the ballot is placed on a spinning turntable.

“Ballot counters are tasked with watching that ballot as it whizzes by, checking for marks for two races, marking the tally before the next ballot comes whizzing by them. It also allows for multiple instances where the counters’ tally sheets don’t match. In a normal post-election procedure where you are reviewing individual ballots, there would be a fair bipartisan official that agreed on how to count individual ballots. That’s not what we’re seeing at the colosseum. That’s another concern along with the fact they continue to change the procedures that are in use.”

Despite the $15 an hour frauditors are paid, only one-third of the counting tables are occupied. Tables spend between six seconds and 20 seconds or more on each ballot, and half the counters don’t do anything because of the time between batches of ballots.

One Republican senator who voted for the procedure is now disgusted with choosing auditors with “preconceived notions” and a focus on pursuing conspiracy theories. He said:

“There’s not even a perception of independence.”

Another GOP state senator, also voting for the current recount, now suffers buyers’ remorse. He said:

“It makes us look like idiots. Looking back, I didn’t think it would be this ridiculous. It’s embarrassing to be a state senator at this point.”

No, it’s just embarrassing to be a Republican state senator.

The Arizona clown show has become a joke throughout the world, and Republicans know it. Many of them just want the ninjas to leave. Georgia wants the circus show next, and Michigan and Wisconsin are considered the fraudits after that.

Investigative reporting reveals the foundation for the “big lie” about a stolen election was started in a Texas airplane hanger soon after the GOP 2018 losses. Behind it is Russell Ramsland Jr, a Republican businessman selling such bizarre products as technology beaming light into the human bloodstream for disease cures. Unsuccessful in his own congressional run, Ramsland held meetings on electronic vote manipulation for challenging election results. His funding came from Republicans whose wealth came from the oil, gas and fracking industries.

The project began with locating losing candidates, such as wealthy real estate developer Don Huffines who lost his second run for the Texas legislature. Huffines met James “Trey” Trainor III, a DDT-appointee for the Federal Election Committee, for advice in challenging his loss, but Huffines decided not to pursue a case against the election. Former Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) was the second subject. He complained to state AG Ken Paxton, but nothing came of it.

By 2019, Ramsland was spreading the lie about U.S. election software originating in Venezuela and massive voting manipulation. By 2020, he added the evidence-free claim about the Spain-based election technology firm Scytl, “housing all of our votes … in an insecure fashion.” The next claim listed a server in Frankfurt, Germany as the location. Raumsland gave a two-hour briefing to seven members of the House Freedom Caucus and MyPillow founder Mike Lindell information for his movie about alleged election fraud.

DDT started to spread these claims as a cover for his possible election loss later in 2020. After DDT’s loss, Ramsland and his associates continued briefing right-wingers such as Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) and DDT’s conservative lawyer Sidney Powell who had been in Rumsland’s loop for two years. Raumsland’s lies continued to be the source for burgeoning cases thrown out of court for months.

A major falsehood appeared from Raumsland’s misunderstanding of “errors”: he translated “ballot has been reversed” as evidence of tampering when it actually meant the ballot was spit out and the voter had to feed it back into the machine. Officials said that claims in his report were baseless. A hand recount in one county Raumsland considered highly problematic showed the original count was off by only 12 votes out of 16,000 ballots. DDT is still using that country as his proof of how the election was rigged. 

DDT’s Department of Homeland Security called the 2020 election the “most secure in American history,” but one-third of the U.S. population believe fraud caused DDT to lose—almost half of those thinking it was from hacked machines. Although many people believe the election was stolen, Ramsland’s organization was the font of inaccurate information shaping public perception. Florida’s “hanging chads” in 2000 had led to paperless touch-screen voting machines, cheaper but open to hacking and lacking any paper trail.

The lies will continue until Republicans revolt against DDT–and they won’t. 

DeSantis Anti-Voting Law, DDT’s Facebook Ban Consume Media

Update on Arizona ballot recount fraudit: Regarding the search for bamboo in ballot paper, an  Arizona Republic reader suggested putting a couple of pandas with the ballots to see which ones they eat. The third ballot recount in Maricopa County (AZ) has removed credibility from all 2.1 million ballots so Ken Bennett, former Secretary of State in Arizona and Senate liaison with Cyber Ninjas currently frauditing the vote, is negotiating with a California company to recount ballots again. 

Jovan Hutton Pulitzer, behind the bamboo myth, invented one of 50 worst gadgets of all time, the cat-shaped CueCat barcode scanner linking objects shipped throughout the country to barcodes in magazine advertising instead of typing a URL into a browser. Following the CueCat failure, revealing private data about its users, Pulitzer (originally named Jeffry Jovan Philyaw) became a “full-blown treasure hunter,” trying to be featured on The History Channel. [If you haven’t kept up with the fiasco, here’s an excellent summary.]

The media has been consumed with the decision from Facebook’s 20-member “Oversight Board” to block Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) for another six months while Facebook determines criteria for banning people from its social media platform. CEO Mark Zuckerberg, paying the group $130 million, refused to answer its 46 questions, including Facebook’s research about design decisions connected to the January 6 insurrection. 

Rep. Lauren Boebert, Colorado’s GOP gun-lover, promised to take action against Facebook in an ominous, now-deleted tweet warning “Facebook will pay the price.” The Turning USA youth leader dumped by Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University, Charlie Kirk, wants the Supreme Court to go after Facebook to illegally regulate a private company’s free speech rights.

DDT has launched his personal “communications platform,” allowing him to “speak freely and safely.” The free disappears on the blog-like source for readers who must donate to make responses. The “like” button doesn’t work, and the “platform” has no links to any other websites except for DDT’s own. 

DDT wanted his followers to repost his rants on Twitter, avoiding the company’s ban on him, but Twitter suspended accounts devoted to sharing DDT’s posts, accusing perpetrators of violating its policy against ban evasion. Twitter also added a prompt encouraging people to “reconsider” harmful or offensive tweets. Its test run showed 34 percent of people receiving the prompt revised tweets or didn’t send them. After getting one prompt, they “composed, on average, 11 percent fewer offensive replies in the future.”

The media is also following anti-voting laws spreading across the nation in red states. Florida’s GOP governor Ron DeSantis got a boost for the White House when DDT said he might pick DeSantis as his 2024 running mate. DeSantis followed his mentor DDT when he made an elaborate media production with Fox & Friends to sign a prototype of the state’s “non-pandemic” voting-restriction bill after lying about his COVID success. ’ latest production demonstrates how much he has learned from DDT about showmanship. DeSantis had claimed voting in his state had been nearly perfect before he passed greater restrictions on elections than the draconian ones in Georgia.  

The new law, addressed with multiple lawsuits hours after the signing, criminalizes giving food and water to people in voting lines; adds new ID requirements for absentee ballots; mandates absentee ballots requests before each election; limits number of ballot drop boxes and requires them to be monitored by election officials at all times; and restricts people who drop off ballots. Texas, already restricting voting, is next to pass new anti-voting laws. 

Florida Republicans are upset about their new law after promoting mail-in voting for several decades. In 2020, 35 percent of Republicans used this method to vote. The GOP passed a bill in 2018 requiring a drop box at every early voting site. DeSantis is the second Republican governor to sign anti-voting bills behind closed doors.

The anti-voting law also gives partisan election observers more power to raise objections and provides DeSantis greater freedom to appoint replacements for local political positions vacated by people running for higher office. This provision covers those running in a special election for the Democratic Rep. Alcee Hastings who recently died, an election DeSantis is stalling. Four weeks after the Democrat’s death, DeSantis announced November 2 as the date for a primary special election to fill the vacancy, delaying the selection until a general election on January 11, 2022—280 days after Hastings’ death, much longer than any other replacement timelines.

DeSantis has blocked representation for a largely Black district and signed a bill into law helping to block Blacks from voting, but he described U.S. having systemic racist policies as “a bunch of horse manure.” On Fox, he gave Laura Ingraham the same argument that the system is fine because “we’ve had people that have been able to succeed.”

Dumping former VP Mike as a running mate, DDT said about DeSantis, “He’s done a great job as governor.” Examples of the “great” jobs:

Thanks to DeSantis, people in a wealthy gated community received vaccinations in January before the other elderly got their doses. Thanks to the vaccinations, DeSantis received a $250,000 donation for his campaign from the vaccinated.

The accurate number of infections and deaths from Florida’s rapidly spreading COVID will never be known because DeSantis manipulated the statistics, even firing the data analyst because she refused to lie. The 2.2 million known infections put Florida with the third-most COVID cases in the U.S. since the pandemic began, and the 35,000 deaths mark Florida having the fourth-highest fatalities in the U.S. In February, DeSantis dismissed the possibility of COVID variants in his state, saying they were all in “blue states.” As usual, his Department of Health refused to share any data.

Over a week after the lack of restrictions during Florida’s late March spring break celebrations, the number of hospitalizations in Southwest Florida’s major hospital system almost quadrupled from two weeks earlier. The Miami Beach mayor had to declare a 72-hour state of emergency with an 8:00 pm curfew during spring break after a girl died from being drugged in a robbery and over 100 guns were discovered on revelers.

Following DDT’s rejection of any health guidelines to control the coronavirus, DeSantis suspended all Florida public health restrictions almost a week ago, calling his decision “evidence-based.” Within days, deaths from the new variants almost doubled. Florida came in second to California in the U.S. with its over 8,500 strains, and Palm Beach County, home to DDT’s Mar-a-Lago, reported over 600 variants, the fourth highest number in the state. Disney World is keeping its mask requirements and other health restrictions.

DeSantis’ executive order bans the so-called vaccine passport, identifying a person as vaccinated, causing Norwegian Cruise Lines to possibly refuse docking any of its 28 ships at Florida’s ports. DeSantis attacked the CDC for its guidance regarding COVID control.

DeSantis pushed the lie that only old people could catch COVID, but a study of 2020 hospitalizations showed Florida among the states with the highest coronavirus rates for residents under 25 years old, one-third higher than the national average. In March, Orange County reported people under 46 comprise one-third of COVID hospitalizations.

 Devoted to DDT, DeSantis promotes a bill fining social media platforms $250,000 a day that they ban politicians (aka DDT) from their services. The bill violates the First Amendment by preventing the speech of private people or businesses including forcing content on these businesses.

Florida residents worry about DeSantis’ and DDT’s mosquito experiment releasing tens of thousands of genetically-modified male mosquitoes on the Florida Keys as part of 1 billion being dumped in two states. The project, designed to reduce diseases such as dengue fever, Zika virus, and yellow fever, supposedly causes females to die as larva. About three or four percent can survive to adulthood, however, and could be fertile, thus producing hybrid offspring more resistant to insecticides than wild mosquitoes and increasing the spread of disease. The ecological damage could be disastrous if these mosquitoes spread into the wild population—especially in the midst of a pandemic that DeSantis isn’t stopping. 

DeSantis new law, “Combatting Public Disorder Act,” supposedly stops riots but violates the First Amendment’s right to assembly. The state already has laws against rioting, but this law can keep people from gathering in groups of more than two. A person arrested during a riot can indefinitely jailed without bail and gives a minimum six-month imprisonment for a person convicted of battery against a law enforcement officer during a riot. As in at least three other states—Iowa, Oklahoma, and Tennessee—people who drive their cars into rioters to strike and injure them are granted immunity. The bill creates a category of “mob intimidation,” allowing police to weaponize the law against minorities.

DeSantis is close to signing a new bill requiring state colleges and universities to issue campus-wide surveys gauging “intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity.” The results from faculty, staff, and students would be published and used to “make a policy decision.”

After Rush Limbaugh’s death in February, DeSantis ordered U.S. flags to be lowered to half-mast in Florida because, according to DeSantis, Limbaugh helped him be elected governor. Officials such as Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, St Petersburg mayor Rick Kriseman, and Palm Beach County, Limbaugh’s home, refused to comply, citing “hate speech, bigotry, and division”; “partisan political tool”; and “racism, homophobia,” etc. President Joe Biden had already directed flags on public buildings and grounds to be flown at half-staff to honor the 500,000 people who have died in the U.S. from the COVID-19 pandemic at that time, now almost 600,000.

DeSantis’ order failed—hopefully like his future plans.

Giuliani’s Disaster; Update on Arizona’s ‘Fraudit’

While Republicans fight about loyalty tests regarding lies about a stolen presidential election, Rudy Giuliani, former personal lawyer for Deposed Dictator Trump (DDT), faces more legal problems after the FBI seized his electronic equipment from his apartment and office. As DDT’s loyal defender, Giuliani allegedly committed criminal acts in Ukraine in trying to derail Joe Biden’s presidential campaign by smearing his son, Hunter Biden.

The probe evolved from arrests of former Giuliani business partners Lev Parnas and Igor Furman who were indicted on four counts of conspiracy regarding foreign donations in elections and lying to the Federal Election Commission. Warrants are investigating Giuliani’s role in the 2019 firing of Marie Yovanovitch, DDT’s former ambassador to Ukraine, at DDT’s request. She then testified in DDT’s first impeachment trial. Her insistence on following government protocol in meetings between Ukrainian and U.S. law enforcement officials stood in the way Giuliani finding disinformation on the Bidens.

At least one of the search warrants for Giuliani’s devices specifically stated that investigated crimes included violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Charges could result from proof that Giuliani tried to influence foreign policy for his associates’ interests. Another FBI warrant was for the phone of Victoria Toensing, a lawyer and collaborator of Giuliani in his Ukrainian investigations. If Giuliani solely represented DDT and didn’t work for Ukraine, he might not have broken the law. 

One warrant searching for ties between Giuliani and Ukrainian officials specified former president Petro Poroshenko and former top prosecutor, Yuriy Lutsenko, regarding hundreds of thousands of dollars in consulting fees to “Giuliani Partners,” supposedly to recover Ukrainian assets. Giuliani had asked Lutsenko to inquire into Hunter Biden when he was on the board of a Ukrainian energy company and wanted help from Ukrainian oligarch Dmitry Firtash, under indictment in the United States and represented by Toensing.

Giuliani now says he’s innocent of any wrongdoing, but two years ago, he bragged about how he ran a foreign operation against Yovanovitch. He had support from corrupt Ukrainian officials because of Yovanovitch’s anti-corruption policy.

In December 2019, Giuliani traveled to the Ukrainian capital Kyiv to meet with a lawmaker called “an active Russian agent” who was sanctioned for running an “influence campaign” against Biden. That operation involved other Ukrainian officials and political consultants acting as Russian proxies to block U.S. support for Ukraine as well as smearing Biden. The conservative One America News accompanied Giuliani on his trip to Ukraine and made a documentary of the events of unproved allegations about Hunter and Joe Biden by Ukrainian officials. After Giuliani’s visit to Kyiv, the U.S. sanctioned Andriy Derkach for being the Russian agent “for over a decade” and maintaining “close connections with Russian intelligence services.” 

Russians gave Giuliani false information to politically hurt Joe Biden. The FBI planned to warn Giuliani and alert congressional members such as Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) and OAN how they were being used in Russia’s plan to influence the election’s outcome but never briefed Giuliani. The FBI also warned the White House about Giuliani being a target of false Russian propaganda and his ties to people connected to Russian intelligence. Then-national security adviser Robert C. O’Brien cautioned DDT about the contamination of Giuliani’s information from Ukraine. Yet Giuliani again met with Derkach in New York in early 2020 when Derkach spread lies about U.S. funds to Ukraine either misused or missing during Biden’s vice-presidency when interviewed by Giuliani on a podcast.

Last summer, the FBI briefed Johnson about the Russian actions. Johnson said he felt the cautionary message had no substance, that it was a “defensive briefing” on his statements, all negative, about Biden family’s foreign business ventures. He said he thought the briefing was “to offer the biased media an opportunity to falsely accuse me of being a tool of Russia despite warnings.” Also warned, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) told the FBI it wasn’t their place to tell lawmakers what to investigate. GOP senators’ investigations haven’t found any affect of Hunter Biden’s board membership on U.S. foreign policy.  

Since Biden’s victory, the National Intelligence Council, part of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, reported on Russia’s attempt to influence the 2020 election by Derkach spreading disinformation about Biden among people close to DDT. Officials confirmed one of them was Giuliani. Russia’s false narrative alleged corrupt ties dating back to at least 2014 between Bidens and Ukraine. Johnson claimed he’s never talked with Derkach, but he met with former Ukrainian diplomat Andriy Telizhenko who passed along the lie that Ukraine instead of Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. election. Telizhenko also met several times with Giuliani, appeared on his podcast, and facilitated Giuliani’s December 2019 trip to Ukraine. Johnson claimed Telizhenko’s information was accurate, but at the end of DDT’s administration the Treasury Department sanctioned Telizhenko for attempting to influence the 2020 election.

Suffering from burgeoning legal bills, Giuliani considers tapping DDT’s campaign war chest of $250 million with charges for his work in overturning the 2020 election in DDT’s favor. Beyond the FBI searches of the lawyer’s electronic devices, he faces defamation suits by two voting machine companies. One of Giuliani’s defenders, former NYPD commissioner Bernard Kerik, called for DDT to pay Giuliani because he “worked for the campaign and the RNC and … should be compensated instead of being ignored.” An RNC spokesperson said, “Rudy Giuliani has never worked for the RNC and he has never acted at our direction.” DDT made no comment. Convicted for taking unreported bribes, Kerik was pardoned by DDT two days before Joe Biden’s inauguration.

Being close to either DDT or Giuliani may not be safe. DDT faces 29 lawsuits and three investigations while the Manhattan DA, working to flip the Trump Organization employee knowing about all its affairs, has DDT’s tax returns. Raids on Giuliani’s apartment and office leave DDT’s allies “feeling uneasy about what could come next.” People question whether Giuliani will turn on DDT and his family, as Michael Cohen, DDT’s former fixer, maintains. At the age of 76, Giuliani won’t like prison, and former AG Bill Barr is no longer in the DOJ to protect him. DDT no longer has any power to pardon Giuliani. According to Cohen, Giuliani developed the same tactics now used against him when he led the Southern District 30 years ago to use against others.

Before DDT left the White House, his DOJ delayed search warrants for Giuliani’s electronic records requested by New York federal prosecutors. Senior officials claimed it was too close to the election, but in late October 2016, 11 days before the election, then-FBI director James Comey announced he was reopening an investigation about Hillary Clinton’s emails as Secretary of State. His action may have caused her to lose the 2016 election to DDT. Political employees at the DOJ still refused to sign off on warrants for Giuliani after the election, claiming that he and DDT were still trying to overturn election results in several states. Career DOJ officials believed enough evidence of a crime existed to issue the warrant.  

Part of the evidence may have been a transcript from a 40-minute telephone call when Giuliani pressured Ukraine to investigate the Biden family, reminiscent of the DDT’s telephone call leading to his first impeachment. The call to two Volodymyr Zelensky aides came on July 22, 2019, three days before DDT’s call to Zelensky himself. One of the officials sent the transcript to Time magazine to repair Ukraine’s relationship with the Biden administration. Before Biden’s inauguration, Zelensky closed three Ukrainian media networks accused of spreading Russian disinformation about the Bidens during the U.S. presidential campaign.

During the series of trials before Biden’s inauguration when Giuliani kept trying to overturn Biden’s election, he was supposedly charging $20,000 a day, but DDT refused to pay as he became angrier with Giuliani’s failures. DDT wouldn’t even take Giuliani’s calls. Ken Frydman, Giuliani’s press secretary during the 1990s, commented:

“Lay down with dogs. Wake up with fleas and without $20,000 a day.”

Giuliani also shares part of DDT’s blame for inciting violence on January 6 when he called for “trial by combat.” He also faces a disbarment complaint in New York. And he didn’t get a pardon.

Last year, Giuliani’s payroll company received between $150,000 and $350,000 in taxpayer funds in the stimulus law’s PPP to save employees. The company, which lists Giuliani as CEO, has no employees and didn’t save any jobs. The money was given by DDT’s “go-to” bank, Signature.

Stories about the Arizona ballot-counting fraudit keep dribbling out despite the requirement that observers sign a non-disclosure agreement. (They observe to maintain integrity but can’t tell anyone if integrity is violated.) Because of the QAnon conspiracy theory about Southeast Asia delivering 40,000 ballots to swing the election to Biden, the team is now searching for bamboo in the paper’s fiber. Ballots are left unattended on counting tables, and laptop computers—open, unlocked, and unmonitored, sit abandoned. A court has ordered independent oversight, security for voter information, and publicize audit policies and procedures. About ten percent of the ballots have been counted in the first two weeks, and the fraudit has to leave the coliseum by May 14. Now that the integrity of the ballot count is completely compromised, the DOJ expressed concerns about all the problems—way past time. More specifics about the craziness.

Bullies Control the GOP

People have accused the GOP of being a personality cult since Deposed Dictator Trump (DDT) took it over in 2016. DDT is no longer in the white House, but the loyalty mandate to him as a Republican requirement has grown only stronger. With no policies or messages, the complete focus of the GOP is an agreement with the “big lie,” rejection of the 2020 election results if Democrats won. Across the nation, the GOP leadership is censuring its elected officials for recognizing Joe Biden as the president. 

A Michigan woman represents the GOP belief “that Trump has never done anything wrong.” About DDT’s lies that he lost the election to widespread fraud, she said, “He’s not just going to spew something out there that’s wrong and not verified.” She plans to help remove Jason Cabel Roe from state GOP executive director because he said that “the election wasn’t stolen” and that “there is no one to blame but Trump.”

DDT’s incited January 6 insurrection provides another GOP litmus test: officials are forced out for criticizing the party’s Dear Leader and believing people attacked the U.S. Capitol. A county leader in Iowa was called a “traitor” because he said DDT should be impeached for his “atrocious conduct” in pushing the attacks. Threats drove out Missouri’s state GOP executive director because she had failed to help overturn Biden’s election.

Charles Pierce points out that the GOP “swore undying fealty decades ago to supply-side economics, which has no more bearing on reality than does the idea that the 2020 election was stolen.” The party agreed with Reagan’s false claim about trees causing air pollution and then smeared the Clintons and President Obama. Now the one test for being a Republican: “Do you accept the results of the 2020 election?” Only those saying “no,” promoting the end of democracy in the U.S., can be GOP insiders.

Paul Waldman writes about the same theme:

“Today’s Republican Party believes many things. Taxes should be lower, particularly for rich people; health and safety regulations are presumptively bad; we have too many immigrants; abortion should be outlawed; we shouldn’t do much about climate change; America is simultaneously the most perfect nation that has ever existed and a cesspool of depravity and cultural decline….

“In states and counties and cities across the country…, state and local party officials who admit Joe Biden is the legitimate president are being censured, harassed and driven from their jobs…

“The arguments among Republicans have nothing to do with policy or substance… They all want to see ruthless voter-suppression laws passed and they all oppose Democrats’ efforts to reinforce voting rights.”

Waldman tracks the lack of GOP policy to Tea Party candidates elected in 2010—their only position being to destroy government. Lacking any policy, DDT followed their ascendancy in 2016 and stocked his administration with “grifters and extremists.” Republicans completely focus on loyalty to DDT, determined by their extent of cruelty, smears, and lies, highlighted by the hoax of “cancel culture” for anything they don’t want.

The next election, according to Waldman, will focus on the “culture war” and DDT’s legacy—perhaps even DDT running himself—on the right busy attacking anyone who disagrees with them and any issues important to the people on the left.

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), once the GOP standard bearer as its presidential candidate, was booed at his state GOP convention. DDT praised his followers for booing Romney and called the senator a “stone cold loser.”

The GOP leadership in the U.S. House plans to eject Liz Cheney (R-WY) from her position as GOP conference chair, but Cheney is fighting back. DDT tried to co-opt the term “big lie” with his statement, “The Fraudulent Presidential Election of 2020 will be, from this day forth, known as THE BIG LIE!” Cheney tweeted in response that “anyone who claims” the election was fraudulent “is spreading THE BIG LIE, turning their back on the rule of law, and poisoning our democratic system.”

After that tweet, she spoke with former House Speaker Paul Ryan at the conservative American Institute retreat in Sea Island (GA).:  

“We can’t embrace the notion the election is stolen. It’s a poison in the bloodstream of our democracy. We can’t whitewash what happened on January 6 or perpetuate Trump’s big lie. It is a threat to democracy. What he did on January 6 is a line that cannot be crossed.”

Cheney called for the “peaceful transfer of power” to be “defended” and described the U.S. Constitution as “our shield.”

Congressional sources say Cheney will be removed from her leadership position as soon as May 12 at the next scheduled meeting after Congress goes home for a couple of weeks. McCarthy tried to maintain getting rid of Cheney came from “concern about the job ability” and not her vote to impeach DDT. Cheney’s spokesman responded:

“This is about whether the Republican Party is going to perpetuate lies about the 2020 election and attempt to whitewash what happened on Jan 6. Liz will not do that. That is the issue.”

McCarthy, who has worked hard to get back into DDT’s favor after negative comments about DDT’s behavior about January 6, was caught on a hot mic before an interview with Fox’s Steve Doocy saying, “I’ve had it with her.” “Job ability” has been no concern regarding Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) who promotes QAnon conspiracy theories and was behind a new caucus to support only “Anglo-Saxon” beliefs. Or for Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who is being investigated for sex-trafficking, fraudulent actions,  showing photographs of naked women to his colleagues on the floor of the House chamber without the women’s permission, and several other crimes supported by witnesses.

On Fox and Friends, McCarthy said, “We all need to be working as one… Majorities are not given, they are earned.” It appears that earning the majority comes from the “big lie” about a stolen election. McCarthy has not said whether Cheney is right about the election not being stolen.

McCarthy has been attacked by a bigger bully, wannabe presidential candidate and chief DDT mimic Tucker Carlson. For the second Fox show in a row, Carlson went after McCarthy for his relationship with Frank Luntz, longtime pollster for conservative politicians, and accused McCarthy of giving Luntz “outsized influence over the Republican Party’s policy positions.” Carlson finished with “the top Republican in the House lives with a Goggle lobbyist.” McCarthy’s spokesperson finally confirmed that, during the pandemic, the House minority leader “rented a room in Washington at a fair market price from Frank.” Carlson wasn’t satisfied that McCarthy cosigned the television host’s attacks on Big Tech and so-called censorship of conservatives. The big sin is that Luntz, who created the language spins for Republicans, separated himself from DDT and the GOP.

White supremacist Carlson, a trust-fund child attending boarding school before rejected by the CIA after he graduated from college, went after George W. Bush’s former speechwriter David Frum as one of “the people you’d be worried about” to save the United States:

“It’s the Monday editorial meetings at The Atlantic magazine, where David Frum is treated as an important intellectual rather than some dopey middle-aged Canadian Twitter celebrity whose life goal is to force America into yet another unwinnable pointless war.”

Maybe Carlson got upset after Frum pointed out that he criticizes the Afghanistan and Iraq war after being a “FEROCIOUS advocate of both wars … when it mattered.” He described Carlson’s “cowardly,” amoral opportunism.

Carlson also bullies trans youth, he opposed them as athletes in 27 segments. That number is over 20 percent of the 126 anti-transgender student-athletes aired on Fox during the past year after the network hosts found nine of these athletes throughout the nation. Two of them had not competed in years, and no athlete dominated their sport.

The conservative mainstream press has come out against McCarthy. The editorial board of Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal wrote, “GOP leaders shouldn’t have to lie about 2020 to keep their job.” It continued:

“Mr. McCarthy knows Ms. Cheney is right. The election wasn’t stolen, yet Mr. Trump wants an endorsement of his stolen claim to be a litmus test for every Republican candidate. She may be ousted because she is daring to tell the truth to GOP voters and at personal political risk.”

The GOP’s and DDT’s narcissism and other behaviors are reminiscent of school bullies. People have reacted to his mental illness just as schools sometimes do to bullies, as if it’s a conflict and not serious. The “cure” always fails with this approach. The idea that there is right and wrong on both sides isn’t necessarily true, especially when one side is being victimized. Name-calling escalates into violence.

Bullies may be abused or neglected in their homes, leading to a need for control and a need to hurt others. Disciplinarian parents with high expectations create stress in children who then turn on others. Bullies can be bullied themselves. Often these bullies are never taught that their behavior is wrong. All these reasons apply to DDT because of how his father treated him. Now he promotes bullying in the entire Republican party.