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FOCUS: The 'Good' Republicans Are Bad, and the Bad Ones Are Batshit |
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Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=51076"><span class="small">Molly Jong-Fast, The Daily Beast</span></a>
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Thursday, 08 July 2021 10:54 |
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Jong-Fast writes: "Since no one in Trumpworld has been punished for anything, Republicans have learned that you do anything at all and no one will ever hold you accountable."
President Donald Trump delivers his acceptance speech for the Republican Party nomination from the South Lawn of the White House. (photo: Saul Loeb/Getty)
The 'Good' Republicans Are Bad, and the Bad Ones Are Batshit
By Molly Jong-Fast, The Daily Beast
08 July 21
Since no one in Trumpworld has been punished for anything, Republicans have learned that you can do anything at all and no one will ever hold you accountable.
 hip Roy from Texas’ 21st Congressional District didn’t vote to overturn the election of the 2020 election, which made him slightly better than 147 of his colleagues who voted to change the election results because they didn’t like them.
Roy released a statement with a small group of Republican reps who wanted to follow the law despite the fact that their guy lost, warning that trying to overturn the election would “strengthen the efforts of those on the left who are determined to eliminate it or render it irrelevant.” He even went as far as to challenge the seating of representatives from states where members of his party were challenging the results of the election—a pretty bold move considering one of the people who was challenging the results was his old boss Ted Cruz.
But what a difference six months makes. Roy is no longer Team Electoral College and the Constitution. He’s joined the rest of his party—with the exception of soon-to-be-purged Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney—on Team Own the Libs Even If It Means Killing Your Supporters.
This weekend he was sounding like a mini-Newt, telling a group in a recently surfaced video that “Honestly, right now, for the next 18 months, our job is to do everything we can to slow all of that down to get to December of 2022, and then get in there and lead.” When CNN followed up, “Roy responded to coverage of his earlier comments in a statement standing by his remarks, saying he plans to ‘oppose almost everything that Congress does,’ and pledging ‘to fight with every ounce of my being to stop the radical left—and weak Republicans.’” And then of course there was his weird anti-vaxxer tweet: “come inject it.” A great message when the most contagious delta variant is taking hold and new polling from the Washington Post-ABC shows that 47 percent of Republicans “aren’t likely to get vaccinated.”
This is the Republican brand now: death before decency. What Roy’s colleague Paul Gosar learned from Trumpism is that working with terrifying far-right extremists is totally cool. Gosar is now even more far-right than Steve King, who was censured for his white nationalist statements back when Republicans at least pretended to give a shit.
Now Gosar is being praised by white nationalist Nick Fuentes—and minority “Leader” Kevin McCarthy is fine with that, just like he’s fine with Marjorie Taylor Greene raving about the Jews and Matt Gaetz (R-Sex Creep) staying on the House Ethics Committee so that he could question the head of the FBI while continuing to be investigated by the FBI.
Meanwhile Stop the Steal speaker Mo Brooks is now running for Senate in Alabama. Brooks, who was a planner of the Jan. 6 rally, according to a deleted video from Ali Alexander, claims in a new civil filing that he only spoke at the rally-turned-riot because the White House told him to. That was in the same legal filing in which he said he believes that Trump still won the election (Trump did not).
Since no one in Trumpworld has been punished for anything, Republicans have learned that you do anything at all and no one will ever hold you accountable. Local Republicans continue trying to make it harder for the “wrong people” to vote, including Native Americans in Montana this week. It’s not about racism, they insist; it’s about stopping groups that back Democrats who oppose racism.
Trump taught Republicans that they can be as shitty as they want, and no one will stop them, as long as they don’t cross Trump. Just look at former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, who resigned after he was indicted on felony charges after cheating on his wife with a woman he blackmailed and abused. He’s running for Senate now, and a GOP mega-donor just gave him $2.5 million because allegations of sexual assault are no longer a barrier to entry in today’s GOP; they may even be the mark of a “real man.” Just ask Donald.
These people will continue to break rules and wreck our democracy until someone—are you listening, Merrick Garland?—holds them accountable.
If Chip Roy is the best of this rotten bunch, it’s time to toss the whole barrel. William Butler Yeats must have been writing about the Republicans when he wrote that “the best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity.”
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There Will Be No Bipartisan Bill on Infrastructure Unless There Is Also Major Legislation Addressing Climate Change |
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Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=44519"><span class="small">Bernie Sanders, Bernie Sanders' Facebook Page</span></a>
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Thursday, 08 July 2021 08:12 |
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Sanders writes: "Look around the world right now. Just last week, temperatures in Portland, Oregon reached a record-breaking 116 degrees."
Sen. Bernie Sanders. (photo: Getty)
There Will Be No Bipartisan Bill on Infrastructure Unless There Is Also Major Legislation Addressing Climate Change
By Bernie Sanders, Bernie Sanders' Facebook Page
08 July 21
 ook around the world right now. Just last week, temperatures in Portland, Oregon reached a record-breaking 116 degrees. Much of the West Coast is experiencing severe drought that could trigger another unprecedented wildfire season. In the Midwest, record rainfall overwhelmed Detroit’s ability to handle the storm which resulted in cars being abandoned on flooded highways. In New York City an emergency alert was sent to all cell phones asking people to conserve energy or risk blackouts. Meanwhile, in the Atlantic Ocean, we have the earliest fifth-named storm ever in Tropical Storm Elsa.
There is no longer any doubt: failure to act on climate change and cut carbon emissions will mean more heatwaves, more drought, more rising sea levels, more flooding, more extreme weather disturbances, more failing electrical grids, more blackouts, more mass migrations, more disease, more acidification of the oceans and more human suffering.
So you will forgive me for not having a lot of patience when some of my colleagues in the Senate tell me that we can’t afford to act on climate change. Really? The question that we must be asking, as loudly as possible, is how can we afford not to act?
That is one of the reasons I say there will be no bipartisan bill on infrastructure unless there is also major legislation that addresses the existential threat to our planet of climate change. The bad news is that addressing the climate crisis cannot simply be done with a few tweaks around the edges. The good news is that we can meet the challenges of this moment, create millions of good-paying jobs in the process and help lead the world in a new energy direction.
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FOCUS: The Company Behind the Keystone XL Pipeline Would Like $15 Billion of Your Money, Please |
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Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=11104"><span class="small">Charles Pierce, Esquire</span></a>
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Wednesday, 07 July 2021 11:42 |
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Pierce writes: "They're the ones who walked away!"
Anti-pipeline protesters. (photo: Daniel Slim/Getty)
The Company Behind the Keystone XL Pipeline Would Like $15 Billion of Your Money, Please
By Charles Pierce, Esquire
07 July 21
They're the ones who walked away!
 his week’s edition of Amazing Stories Of Chutzpah comes to us courtesy of a press release from TC Energy, the Canadian gargantua that planned to construct the now-deceased Keystone XL pipeline, the continent-spanning death funnel and longtime Republican fetish object. TCE has a bad case of the mad on and it’s looking to get paid. Let’s let it speak for itself.
TC Energy will be seeking to recover more than US$15 billion in damages that it has suffered as a result of the U.S. Government’s breach of its NAFTA obligations. The Notice of Intent was filed with the U.S. Department of State, Office of the Legal Adviser.
Let us pause here to remind ourselves that NAFTA really did suck pond water in many ways, and that the previous administration*’s adjustment of its font size—or whatever—didn’t make it suck any less pond water.
Anyway, Nebraska Democratic chair Jane Fleming Kleeb, who made her bones as an organizer putting together the coalition that won its long battle against the pipeline when the administration cancelled TC’s permit, causing the company to announce that it was walking away from the project, answered back on the electric Twitter machine:
What a disgusting yet predictable move from @TCEnergy and Canadian government. America didn’t want your pipeline. You took the risk. Taxpayers are not going to pay $15 billion for your failed and risky investment. You lost. This is how capitalism works.
This is a company that treated the farmers and other citizens of Nebraska like doormats for years—surveying their property without permission, running amok in the state legislature, all in pursuit of a death-funnel that would transport the world’s dirtiest fossil fuel dangerously close to one of the largest underground freshwater sources in the world, one that already is under stress due to the climate crisis which, experts say, the fuel that TCE proposed to run through its pipeline would exacerbate almost beyond repair. It thought it had the state wired. It was wrong.
It’s important to remember that TCE walked away from this project. It gave up, showed the white feather, ran up the white flag, and now it wants $15 billion from American taxpayers for having done so. And the truly hilarious part is that TCE may lose its action because it relied on the previous president*’s having known what he was doing.
This time may be different if TC Energy chooses to proceed with a claim. NAFTA has been replaced by a new agreement — the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). Unlike NAFTA, USMCA does not permit Canadian investors to sue the U.S. government (or American investors to sue the Canadian government).
Legacy claims for investments that had occurred prior to the USMCA coming into force are permitted until 2023. But TC Energy’s claim may now be weaker because the permit issued by the Trump administration explicitly stated that it could be rescinded, essentially at the president’s whim.
That NAFTA even allows this nonsense to get a hearing is one of the elements of that agreement that fairly reeks of pond water.
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Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=30317"><span class="small">Arwa Mahdawi, Guardian UK</span></a>
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Wednesday, 07 July 2021 10:49 |
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Mahdawi writes: "The former president is not in immediate danger of jail, but his problems are piling up fast. Not least the fact that, in his family, loyalty means nothing."
Melania Trump with Ivanka, Eric and Donald Jr. in 2016. (photo: Tasos Katopodis/AFP/Getty Images)
The Trump Kids Look Likely to Turn on Their Dad – and I Suspect Ivanka Will Go First
By Arwa Mahdawi, Guardian UK
07 July 21
The former president is not in immediate danger of jail, but his problems are piling up fast. Not least the fact that, in his family, loyalty means nothing
 othing in life is certain except death and rich people jumping through complicated hoops to avoid paying taxes. In case you needed any more convincing about the tax side of that, please see the latest travails of the Trumps.
On Thursday, the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, were charged with a “sweeping and audacious illegal payment scheme” of tax-related crimes. While that may sound juicy, it is duller (but no less devious) when you dig into the 15-count indictment. There is no smoking gun, just mounds of details about company perks, such as payment of school fees and rents that weren’t reported properly. Lots of grubby ruses that add up to massive, and possibly illegal, tax savings.
Don’t mistake a lack of style for a lack of substance, however. The devil – and Donald Trump’s potential downfall – is in the detail. While it is unlikely that Trump (who is not facing criminal charges yet) is going to jail imminently, Thursday’s indictment may well mark the beginning of the end of his business empire. That end will come sooner rather than later if Weisselberg, who has worked for the Trump family for nearly 50 years, decides to turn against Trump and cooperate with the investigation. So far, Weisselberg seems loyal, but that could always change. Weisselberg’s family, it is worth noting, aren’t all as pro-Trump as he is. Jennifer Weisselberg, his former daughter-in-law, has handed over numerous financial documents regarding her ex-husband, who was also a Trump Organization employee.
You think the Weisselbergs sound dysfunctional? Wait until the Trumps start turning on each other. It could be any day. On Thursday, Mary Trump, Donald’s estranged niece, told the cable news host Rachel Maddow that she believes the former president’s adult children won’t think twice before sacrificing their father to save themselves. “His relationship with them, and their relationship with him, is entirely transactional and conditional,” she said. “They’re not going to risk anything for him, just as he wouldn’t risk anything for them.”
Trump’s children, to be clear, haven’t been charged with anything yet. However, they have a lot to be worried about. As Donald Trump’s biographer said recently, one reason Weisselberg is in trouble is that he was allegedly paid as an employee and a nonemployee contractor – allowing various tax write-offs. A New York Times investigation reported that Ivanka Trump was similarly paid more than $700,000 (£500,000) in consulting fees while also collecting a salary as a full-time employee of the Trump Organization. It is likely Eric and Don Jr had similar arrangements in place – we only know for sure about Ivanka because she had to disclose the payments when she gave herself a job at the White House.
If any of the Trump kids are going to turn on their dad, my money is squarely on Ivanka. Indeed, she already seems to be distancing herself strategically from her no-longer-particularly-useful father. A couple of weeks ago, for example, there were reports that Trump’s complaints about the “stolen” 2020 election were driving Ivanka and Jared Kushner away. These reported leaks about Javanka are not new phenomena – they happened frequently throughout Trump’s presidency, leading some to suspect it was a PR tactic by a couple keen to remain in the good graces of liberals as well as the Maga crowd.
While Ivanka appears to be coolly attempting to control her own narrative behind the scenes, Donald Jr and Eric reacted to the Trump Organization criminal charges by having histrionics on camera. Eric Trump told Newsmax last week that “Don, Ivanka and I live really nice, clean lives”. Meanwhile, Don Jr posted a 13-minute video on Facebook calling the charges against his dad “banana-republic stuff”. He also (rather unhelpfully) acknowledged that the allegations Trump paid for Weisselberg’s grandchildren’s school fees were true. “My dad did that,” he said, because he is a “good guy”. A “good guy” who probably wishes he raised smarter kids. With children like these, who needs enemies?
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ric Boehlert’s not-to-be-missed-subscribe-now-ya-bastids Press Run 
