Republicans have no scruples but blame all the world problems on conspiracies

The moment the MV Dali smashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge, MAGAlomaniacs knew where to assign blame. Echo opinion by Fred Grimm published in the Orlando Sentinel in Florida. 

The Dali container ship entangled in the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Md., March 29, 2024. Clearing the debris from the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge will be a complex but urgent task, officials said. And rebuilding it may take several years, they cautioned. (Erin Schaff/The New York Times)

“DEI did this,” former Florida state representative and failed congressional candidate Anthony Sabatini tweeted Tuesday, as the Coast Guard searched for six maintenance workers lost when the span’s severed superstructure collapsed into the Patapsco River.

From 900 miles away, Sabatini could ascertain that a deadly combination of diversity, equity and inclusion had done to the container ship what an iceberg did to the Titanic.

The website of Laura Loomer, another Florida wingnut and wannabe member of Congress, was festooned with posts this week blaming the tragedy on the “high priority” Synergy Marine, the Singapore-based company that manages the Dali and 670 other cargo ships, assigns to “a diverse workforce” and “an environment where everyone feels they belong.”

So much for the prevailing theory that after a sudden loss of power, wind and river currents pushed thefoundering cargo ship into a support pillar. Today’s far right knows that nothing quite predicts a marine disaster like a diverse workforce. 

The horrors of DEI have become all the rage — and I do mean rage — in right-wing politics. MAGA politicians complain that DEI steals jobs from deserving white workers (despite a national unemployment rate of only 3.9%) and that DEI makes white students feel sad about their racial legacy. (Like how politically correct liberals tried to guilt-trip Sabatini for donning blackface back in his university days.)

Last May, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill prohibiting the expenditure of state or federal money to promote DEI at state colleges and universities. DeSantis said the bill would “prevent woke ideologies from continuing to co-opt” state schools.

In January, the Florida Board of Governors told universities and colleges that they could no longer support programs or campus activities that “advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion” or “promote or engage in political or social activism.” (One wonders how white students survived before Ron DeSantis cleansed state schools of racial and ethnic sensitivities.)

Like Sabatini, Utah Republican congressman and gubernatorial candidate Phil Lyman charged that DEI has sabotaged American infrastructure. “This is what happens when you have governors who prioritize diversity over the well-being and security of citizens,” Lyman posted on X after Tuesday’s disaster.

Ideologues pushing a racial explanation can’t quite articulate exactly how diversity toppled the Francis Scott Key Bridge. 

The Washington Post reported that the Dali’s not-so-diverse 21-man crew were all Indian nationals. The six maintenance workers who lost their lives Tuesday were all Central Americans.

But apparently, diverse simply means “not white.” 

MAGA logic argues that if Caucasians had manned the Dali, maintained the span and controlled Baltimore City Hall, the Key Bridge would still be intact.

A post on X that generated 25.7 million views and 6,000 reposts blamed the tragedy on “Mayor DEI.” As if Brandon Scott, the Black mayor elected in 2020, with 70% of the vote, had been foisted on Baltimore by the likes of George Soros, Anthony Fauci and Joe Biden.

Of course, other MAGA grievances were also blamed for the mangled metal trusses blocking the Patapsco River. 

Marjorie Taylor Greene, the loony Georgia😼😵😳 congresswoman who blamed California’s 2018, spate of wildfires on lasers from space,👽 suggested on X that the bridge had come under “an international attack.” 

(She added that the collision could have been avoided if the Biden administration had not frittered away money on Ukraine.)

Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo and thousands of X posters blamed the crash on Biden’s border policies.

Alex Jones, the scurrilous peddler of conspiracy theories from whom the families of Sandy Hook mass shooting victims extracted $1.5 billion in court for his lies about their dead children, warned that this calamity was no accident. “WW3 has already started,” Jones said.

Matt Schlapp of the American Conservative Union told Newsmax the wreck was another sign of a “drug-addled” workforce.

But the MAGA consensus blames the wreck on DEI, this political season’s all-purpose liberal scapegoat. If the Baltimore tragedy had occurred in 2023 or 2022 or 2021, MAGA constituents would have claimed the bridge had been torpedoed by drag queens or liberal prosecutors or Black Lives Matter protestors or Trump-hating judges or whatever the far-right’s latest imagined menace might have been at the time.

But we’ve learned in the age of MAGA that disgrace and mendacity no longer disqualify politicians. Anthony Sabatini still has stature in the GOP, despite calling Disney World “pedo world,” the U.S. capitol police “the gestapo” and the Iraq-born wife of his 2022 primary opponent “anti-Christian.” (Sabatini is running again, this time against three-term incumbent Daniel Webster.)

Same with Laura Loomer, who won 44% of Republican congressional primary vote in 2022 against Webster, despite her assertions that Parkland survivors had been paid actors in a faked massacre. (She hinted Monday on Twitter that she was considering running against incumbent Laurel Lee in a Tampa-area district.)

Marjorie Taylor Greene livestreamed her 2019 ambush of Parkland survivor David Hogg on Facebook, chasing him down the street, uttering unhinged accusations, which turns out to be admired behavior in MAGA politics. Her cruelty💀😈
was rewarded by two terms in Congress and influence in party politics.

But, never mind the lies and lunatic conspiracy theories espoused by MAGA leaders. If something goes awry, the party can always blame Black Lives Matter critical race theory DEI.

Fred Grimm, a longtime resident of Fort Lauderdale, has worked as a journalist in South Florida since 1976.

Donald Trump does not know how to read a Bible

Donald Trump, Blasphemous Bible Thumper
On this holy weekend, one man is taking the Resurrection personally.

Echo opinion published in the New York Times by Maureen Dowd  an opinion columnist for The Times.

Donald Trump is (hypocritally!) presenting himself as the Man on the Cross, tortured for our sins. “I consider it a great badge of courage,” he tells crowds. “I am being indicted for you.” Instead of Christ-like redemption, he promises Lucifer-like retribution if resurrected.

In January, he put up a video on Truth Social about how he is a messenger from God, “a shepherd to mankind.”

Trump is, as the nuns who taught me used to say, “a bold, brazen piece.” He is a miserable human who cheated on his wives, cheatsat golf, cheats at politics, incites violence, targets judges and their families and looked on, pleased, as thugs threatened to hang his actually pious vice president.

Yet, more and more, Trump is wallowing in his Messiah complex.
Two-Corinthians 📖 

Trump wouldn’t know the difference between Old and New Testaments. 

So, obviously, he does not realize that, rather than a sacrificial lamb, he is the Golden Calf, the false god worshiped by Israelites when Moses went up to Mount Sinai to get the Ten Commandments.Just as the Israelites melted their ornaments and jewelry to make the calf, Trump is trading tacky products for gilt to pay gazillions in obligations. After his $399 golden “Never Surrender High-Top Sneaker,” Trump is selling a $99 “Victory” cologne for “movers, shakers and history makers” with “a crisp opening of citrus blends into a cedar heart, underpinned by a rich base of leather and amber, crafting a commanding presence.” 

A gold bust of Trump tops the bottle. (“Victory” perfume for women comes in a Miss Universe-shape bottle.)Weaponizing his martyrdom, Trump is selling $59.99 “God Bless the USA” Bibles adorned with a flag and the chorus of Lee Greenwood’s song handwritten by the singer, plus the Constitution, Declaration of Independence and Pledge of Allegiance.

“Happy Holy Week!” he wrote on Truth Social. (Trump is spiritually ignorant. There is no such thing as a happy Holy Week. Trump obviously has zero understanding about what this solomn Christian observance is about.)

“Let’s Make America Pray Again. As we lead into Good Friday and Easter, I encourage you to get a copy of the God Bless The USA Bible.

David Axelrod says that, even as a secular Jew, he’s offended: “This is a guy who has violated 11 of the Ten Commandments.”

Trump posted a promotional video claiming “Christians are undersiege” and vowing to “protect content that is pro-God.” He held up the Bible — recalling the appalling moment in 2020 when Ivanka handed him a Bible from her designer bag and he clutched it in front of St. John’s Church, opposite the White House, moments after the police tear-gassed protesters and journalists in adjacent Lafayette Square at a demonstration about George Floyd’s murder.

“All Americans need a Bible in their home, and I have many,” Trump barked. “It’s my favorite book.” Maybe the Bible has replaced that Hitler book Trump’s ex-wife said he kept by his bed. But it’s all a scam. Running for president is about enriching himself, just as when he peddled NFTs, steaks, ties, suits, bath towels, vodka, water, office chairs, Trump University and mug-shot mugs. He even sold pieces of the suit he was wearing when he took the mug shot.

“I want to have a lot of people have it,” Trump said of his Bible. “You have to have it for your heart, for your soul.”

Just what the world needs: a soul cleanse with a grifter Bible, where the profits could well be going to pay legal costs in trialsabout breaking commandments — bearing false witness to try to steal democracy, coveting a porn star, then paying the star hush money to keep quiet about the sex.

What could be more Elmer Gantry than that? As Sinclair Lewis wrote about his corrupt, power-hungry, narcissistic, womanizing preacher, “He had, in fact, got everything from the church and Sunday school, except, perhaps, any longing whatever for decency and kindness and reason.”

Religious snake-oil salesmen have a storied history in American literature and films, from Flannery O’Connor’s “Wise Blood” to Peter Bogdanovich’s beloved movie “Paper Moon,” about a conniving Bible salesman and his small helper. But it’s shockingwhen the charlatan might be in the Oval.

In her 2016, book, “The Confidence Game,” Maria Konnikova explained that we’re easy prey for faux Nigerian princes because of all the chaos in our world. “The whirlwind advance of technology heralds a new golden age of the grift,” she wrote. “Cons thrive in times of transition and fast change.”As Donie O’Sullivan reported for CNN, no sooner had the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed in Baltimore than a bunch of crazy conspiracy tales blossomed about terrorism, D.E.I., Obama, Israel and Ukraine.

Declining faith in religion and rising faith in conspiracies create fertile ground for a faker like Trump. If the profane pol is re-elected, we’ll all reap the whirlwind.
More on Donald Trump
If there is one thing Trump knows how to do, it’s exploit chaos he creates.

There has to be a yearning in the populace that the con man can channel; and, at a time when religion and patriotism are waning, people are searching for more. Unfortunately, these days that search often takes the form of conspiracy theories.

Donald Trump uses law enforcement for a hypocritcal photo-op during visit to police officer's wake

The problem(s) with Trump (tRumpti-Dumpty!) pitching himself as a law enforcement ally: Although he called deceased veterans "losers and suckers", Donald Trump desperately wants to be seen as an ally to law enforcement. The suspected felon's record makes his pitch demonstrably ridiculous. An echo opinon published on the Rachel Maddow blog by Steve Benen. 

Donald Trump finds himself in a precarious situation continuously fighting allegations of wrongdoing while defended by Mike Pence, Paul Ryan, Ivanka and Jared. (KYO Gallery)

NEW YORK CITY Officer 👮Jonathan Diller* (our condolences 😔😢) was gunned down during a traffic stop. The 31-year-old officer leaves behind a wife and 1-year-old son.

Diller’s wake was held yesterday on Long Island, and Donald Trump thought it’d be a good idea to attend. The New York Times reported:

Afterward, as rain poured down outside, Trump said the officer’s death was a horrible tragedy and, as he often does on the campaign trail, broadly called for a crackdown on violent crime without mentioning specific policies. “The only thing we can say is maybe something is going to be learned,” Mr. Trump said. “We’ve got to toughen it up. We’ve got to strengthen it up.”

The report added that before the former president spoke to reporters, “a line of police officers, some uniformed and some in tactical gear, were deliberately posed behind him.”

It was a familiar sight: “The former president often takes pictures with the police who accompany his motorcade on the campaign trail, and his aides regularly share videos of the interactions on social media to highlight the officers’ support.”

None of this is especially subtle. The presumptive Republican nominee wants to be seen as “tough on crime” and a “strong” ally of law enforcement. His partisan allies are eager to feed the narrative: House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (Ohio State's child abuse cover-up, i.e. "Gym-Jim Jordan), a Trump acolyte, declared via social media yesterday, “No one Backs The Blue more than President Trump.”

As a matter of election-year politics, the message makes sense. As a matter of reality, this is demonstrably ridiculous.

For now, let’s not dwell on the irony of seeing a man currently facing dozens of criminal counts push a “tough on crime” message, though it’s likely Trump was the only accused felon at yesterday’s wake.

Let’s instead consider the Republican’s record. (hypocrite~❗)

• While in the White House, Trump repeatedly lashed out at those he described as “dirty cops,” as part of a larger offensive against federal law enforcement.
• Trump also attacked law enforcement with conspiracy theories, condemned common law-enforcement tools, undermined the judicial system by abusing his pardon powers, and urged law enforcement to enforce his political vendettas and help Republicans win elections. 
• Indeed, the then-president (former guy!) made it painfully clear during his tenure that he saw law enforcement as a political weapon he can wield at his convenience.
• After his 2020, defeat, Trump’s posture toward law enforcement managed to get worse, as he condemned law enforcement “fascists” and equated the FBI with “the Gestapo.”
• Perhaps most notable of all is Trump and January 6. The former president hasn’t just promised day-one pardons for insurrectionists, many of whom violently clashed with police officers, he’s also facing civil suits from officers who sustained injuries during the riot the Republican instigated.
• As recently as November, Trump also appeared to express support for prosecuting members of the Capitol police. 
• Months earlier, the presumptive GOP nominee also lashed out at the officer who shot Ashli Babbitt as a “thug” and a “coward” who deserves to be vilified.

To see Donald Trump as some kind of ally to law enforcement is to look past everything we know about Donald Trump.

*Governor Hochul Directs Flags to Half-Staff to Honor Fallen NYPD Officer Jonathan Diller:  “New Yorkers are in mourning over the loss of Officer Jonathan Diller, a heroic young man who dedicated his life to public safety and serving the people,” Governor Hochul said.

Mike Johnson's do nothing one vote GOP majority statistically rounds out to zero

An echo opinion by journalist Molly Jong-Fast published in Vanity Fair magazine:

Mike Johnson’s (right wing!) House Is Imploding

At a time when Republicans want voters to give them more power, by putting them in control of the Senate and White House with ballots in November, let’s take a look at the job they’ve done running the House. The 118th Congress, first under -right wing- Speaker Kevin McCarthy and now Mike Johnson, has truly been a do-nothing Congress, responsible for an anemic 47 laws; the original “do-nothing Congress,” which Harry Truman ran against in the 1940s, actually passed 906 bills. And several of the bills passed by the current GOP majority have simply been meant to keep the government open, with Johnson and company again bringing the country to the brink of a shutdown before Congress passed a $1.2 trillion spending bill a little after 2 a.m. on Saturday.

The GOP majority have simply been meant to keep the government open, with Johnson and company again bringing the country to the brink of a shutdown before Congress passed a $1.2 trillion spending bill a little after 2 a.m. on Saturday.

Johnson, of course, is in way over his head, having vaulted from backbencher to the most senior official in the House after three Republicans with more leadership experience failed to get the votes. What pushed Johnson over the top was not his talent for legislating nor his dexterity with vote counting, but instead the work he did with Donald Trump’s election-denial scheme. 

In fact, (Bible thumping!📖) Johnson promoted the fringe “independent state legislature” theory that even the Trumpified Supreme Court shot down. 

This is the person Republicans chose, unanimously, for the Speaker job, which is a really hard gig, even if Nancy Pelosi made it look easy.

The ascension of Johnson came in the weeks after McCarthy was ousted by the “Gaetz eight” for passing a debt-limit deal and helping prevent the economy from crashing (though it may have also been payback from Matt Gaetz for a congressional ethics investigation). And now Johnson finds himself potentially on the chopping block for keeping the government funded. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a charter member of the burn-it-all-down 🔥GOP caucus, filed a motion to remove Johnson after the (essential❗💲) spending package passed.

“I filed a motion to vacate today, but it’s more of a warning and a pink slip,” Greene told reporters Friday. It was a statement that, in typical MTG fashion, made little sense; something that is a pink slip is very much not a warning but a firing. Greene, a former McCarthy ally who opposed his removal, added that she did “not wish to inflict pain on our conference and to throw the House into chaos.”

Good luck! Greene’s motion to vacate was a topic of conversation on the Sunday shows, with CNN’s Jake Tapper asking Chip Roy if he’d support it. Roy “suggested that Johnson should not put a bill that would approve funding for Ukraine on the House floor when answering the question,” The Hill noted.

Congress is on vacation for two weeks, so maybe Greene will forget about it. But the mood was grim as members of the House and Senate left Washington, with Punchbowl summing it up in Monday’s newsletter headline: “Everyone’s mad at each other.” As John Bresnahan wrote, “The 118th Congress is the least productive in decades. And everyone left town mad as they do the bare minimum legislatively with the November election looming.”

The bad news about Johnson is that he’s a Trumpist—ergo, he doesn’t really believe in democratic norms and cares more about his religion than your rights. But the good news about Johnson is that he’s truly terrible at being Speaker and his majority keeps shrinking. This is yet another case of American democracy being saved by Trumpists’ incompetence rather than institutional guardrails.

House Republicans, who held a five-seat majority six months ago, will soon only have one vote to spare. 

Mike Gallagher recently announced he’ll be leaving early, an exit that will follow those of McCarthy, George Santos (though not by choice), and Ken Buck, who voiced his disgust on the way out.

“It is the worst year of the nine years and three months that I’ve been in Congress, and having talked to former members, it’s the worst year in 40, 50 years to be in Congress,” said Buck, who criticized his own party, which has been trying to impeach Joe Biden despite not having any evidence of wrongdoing. “We’ve taken impeachment, and we’ve made it a social media issue as opposed to a constitutional concept—this place keeps going downhill, and I don’t need to spend more time here.”

House committee chairs Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Mark Green announced last month that they will not seek reelection, while Kay Granger, who also won’t be running for reelection, plans to give up early her perch as House Appropriations Committee chair. Members of Congress with powerful committee assignments tend not to leave those posts. McCarthy, for all his faults, was able to keep his caucus together. Not so with Johnson.

Johnson has committed a breathtaking number of unforced errors along the way. He decided not to whip the vote against removing fraudster and inadvertent comic genius George Santos, and though all of the House GOP leadership voted against removing him, Santos ultimately didn’t have the numbers to stay. This made leadership look incompetent. Perhaps this was a case in which good old-fashioned math would have been more helpful than prayers? Johnson later said it was a “regrettable day,😕” and with that, he completely ceded the moral high ground after expelling a member.

Then there’s the vibes-based impeachment crusade against Biden, which has been egged on by the twice-impeached former guy. Star impeachment witness Alexander Smirnov, who has been charged with lying about the Bidens, was described as a “fraudster” in a previous case and is known to have had credibility issues. Then there’s the impeachment of Alejandro Mayorkas, a stunt that, while passing by one vote in the House, is unlikely to go anywhere in the Senate. As Democrat Glenn Ivey told The New York Times, “I think the dog caught the truck here; they’re stuck and they don’t know how to move forward.”

Once again, Republicans have let Trump drive the party straight into a ditch. However, McCarthy, on CBS this past weekend, urged Republicans to “just move forward” with the very slim majority they still have. “Do not be fearful of a motion to vacate,” McCarthy said on Face the Nation on Sunday. “I do not think they could do it again.”

Okay, but one should never doubt the burn-it-all-down caucus’s capacity for self-immolation.

Alabama special election surprise

Marilyn Lands, a who ran on reproductive rights, flips Alabama House seat echo report by Alander Rocha in Alabama Reflector.

Democratic candidate Marilyn Lands, who campaigned on ending Alabama’s near-total abortion ban and protecting access to contraception and in vitro fertilization, won a special election Tuesday for a Huntsville-area state House seat.

Decision Desk HQ, a website that reports election results, called the race for Lands shortly after 8:30 p.m.

As of 9:22 p.m. Tuesday, Lands had 3,715 votes (62.3%) in unofficial returns. Madison City Councilman Teddy Powell, the Republican nominee, had 2,236 votes (37.5%). The district covers south Huntsville, southern Madison County and parts of the city of Madison.

Lands will succeed former Rep. David Cole, R-Madison, who resigned in August after pleading guilty to voter fraud charges.

In a statement, Lands said that “Alabama women and families sent a clear message that will be heard in Montgomery and across the nation.”

“Our Legislature must repeal Alabama’s no-exceptions abortion ban, fully restore access to IVF, and protect the right to contraception,” the statement said. Lands also said in the statement that she looks “forward to representing everyone in District 10 and building a brighter future for Alabama.”

Lands, like Democrats in the state and nationwide, ran on protecting reproductive rights. In a previous interview, she discussed having an abortion in the past, and said she wanted to protect medical treatment that was available 20 years ago.

Lands said reproductive rights became a priority in her campaign after the Alabama Supreme Court’s Feb. 16 ruling on in vitro fertilization, which declared frozen embryos are children and led to at least three clinics halting IVF treatment.

Powell ran on issues like additional funding for infrastructure. He said previously that he wanted to ensure north Alabama continued to develop economically. He also took a moderate approach to the state’s CHOOSE Act, which provides up to $7,000 in an Educational Savings Account (ESA) for non-public school expenses, saying the law may have to be changed in future.

Powell conceded to Lands shortly after the polls closed at 7 p.m.

In a statement, Powell started with wishing Lands “the absolute best.” He said it was an honor to be considered for the seat and thanked voters for their support.

“We are proud of the campaign we ran. We ran a tough and respectful race and that is something that we are incredibly proud of. Our state has so much to offer and I believe if we come together, we can accomplish great things,” he said in the statement.

Lands’ win marks the first net gain for the Democrats in either chamber of the Alabama Legislature since 2002, when they picked up a seat in the Alabama Senate. Democratic Rep. Phillip Ensler, D-Montgomery, flipped a Republican-held seat in 2022, the first such flip for Democrats since 2010. But Rep. Dexter Grimsley, D-Newville, lost to current Rep. Rick Rehm, R-Dothan, that same year.

Speaker Bible thumper Mike Johnson's Republicans ignore Ronald Reagan prophesy

Echo opinion published in The Boston Globe:  The Republican House fails the Ronald Reagan test by Scott LeHigh. 

With time running short, the House recesses without approving aid for Ukraine.  

Failed Again! 

Following its Friday failure to deliver a new package of aid for Ukraine, it’s time for a title change in the US House of Representatives.

As we saw yet again, the House has a speaker in name only. Mike Johnson, the spectral figure who holds that title, is little more than a zombie, 👽👾👺fated to flit fecklessly about in pursuit of fantasies that eternally fade to frustrating failure rather than take shape as legislative accomplishments.

But zombies, in their cinematic incarnation anyway, are at least possessed of a certain bite. Not Johnson. He imagines himself the Lord’s chosen legislative leader, but perhaps the House’s Lowly Ghost is a more apt appellation.

Certainly, the last few days have demonstrated, yet again, the full extent of his dilemma — and his utter inability to resolve it. On Friday morning, the House finally gave approval to a fiscal package needed to keep funding the US government. But that measure depended disproportionately on Democratic votes for the two-thirds majority required under suspended-rules circumstances. More than half of House Republicans voted no.

At a time of increasingly urgent need in Ukraine, the spending plan included no aid for that beleaguered nation. Nor did such a package move independently.

Instead, the House left for a two-week Easter recess with that matter unaddressed, effectively lending aid and comfort to Russian czar Vladimir Putin as he continues to assault Ukraine.

But not before the mere act of keeping the federal government open triggered a reaction from the Republican Party’s reduce-it-to-rubble reactionaries. Taking advantage of the rules concession Kevin McCarthy made to secure his own doomed speakership, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, the pugnacious MAGA conspiracy theorist who has emerged as a hard-right Republican “thought” leader, promptly filed a vote to vacate the chair. That is, to oust Johnson.

After all, from her pixilated perspective, Johnson had double-crossed Republicans by working with Democrats to keep the government funded and functioning. Imagine, for a moment, the Lowly Ghost’s plight: Not only having the Sword of Damocles hanging over his head, but with MTG controlling the horsehair by which it dangles. (Maybe it’s time to rebrand that famous instrument of apprehension: the Sword of Deranged Fleas.)

Will Greene force such a vote or — like Dionysius I, who supposedly suspended the blade over the cranium of a covetous courtier, simply to subject him to the fears that rob royalty of its pleasures — is she principally intent on creating a sense of immobilizing anxiety?😬😆

In this case, it’s a distinction without a difference. At a time when this country badly needs a functional government, one half of Congress is all but paralyzed.

We’re back about where we were in the last days of McCarthy. Like him, Johnson can’t govern without help from the Democrats. Yet he is reluctant to seek it. In mid-March, Johnson told Politico he was going to push ahead with aid for Ukraine, even while conceding such a move would likely require Democratic support.

That was a laudable declaration, the exact sort of thing that anyone who favors democracy over despotism would do.

But to accomplish that, he has to contend with the Putin-admiring Donald Trump and his messengers, who are not-so-subtly rallying MAGA against aid for the nation the Russian despot has invaded.

That means, as with the government-funding bill, Johnson would need the help of House Democrats. If Democrats then promised they would help him survive any resulting motions to vacate the chair, he wouldn’t be ousted as a result. Representative Jim McGovern, a Democrat from Worcester and ranking member on the House Rules Committee, intimates that those conversations have already quietly occurred.

“He knows that Democrats will be there for the vote and if there are procedural votes and moves to oust him, I think he already knows that there are Democrats who will have his back,” McGovern told me.

Then why won’t Johnson choose that option, which would put him on the right side of history on one of the biggest foreign policy issues of our time? Because Trump and MAGA would view that as a betrayal, and their future opposition would keep House Republicans from again choosing him as their leader.

“That means that, no matter what happens in the next election, he would no longer be speaker nor minority leader,” McGovern said.

So the Lowly Ghost faces this choice: Do what’s best for the world or what’s right for him.

What in God's name is happening?

Somewhere, Ronald Reagan must be wondering: What in God’s name has happened to my once resolute, tyrant-opposing party?

Let’s hope voters are discerning enough to assign responsibility where it belongs.  

Elise Stefanik fails screen test to be Trump "cult diva" president of vice - VP

New York #21 Representative Elise Stefanik is a lot of things, but this week, she made a good case that she’s not a historian.

Echo opinion published in The New Republic by Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling:

Rep. Elise Stefanik is a Trump cult diva

During a (botched !) speech on Super Tuesday, Stefanik tried to insert a callback to a famous campaign line by Ronald Reagan, in which he coyly questioned the progress made during President Jimmy Carter’s term. But the House Republican Conference chair had none of the charm—or apparently any memory—of what happened during the previous administration.

“Are you better off today than you were four years ago? The answer for hard-working Americans around the country is a resounding no,” Stefanik said.

This time four years ago, the nation was being ravaged in a dystopian way by the Covid-19 pandemic, with former President Donald Trump ordering sick passengers to stay quarantined on the Grand Princess cruise ship to keep case numbers inside the country low.

Droves of viewers with working memories were quick to glom onto the scripted error, including several of Stefanik’s Democratic colleagues.

One user on X (formerly Twitter) pointed out that “4 years ago this month Covid exploded out as Trump endlessly lied about the seriousness of it and there were so many dead bodies from it that cities had to rent trailers to stuff full of corpses.”

“Four years ago, people were rationing toilet paper and dying in hospital hallways,” posted Virginia Representative Gerry Connolly.

“The gentlelady from NY seems to have forgotten about body bags in Central Park, a collapsing economy, loss of faith in US democracy around the world and a tax-dodging, COVID-denying rapist President who was preparing his final act of sedition,” said Illinois Representative Sean Casten.

Rep. Don Beyer (on X- formerly Twitter) "Do these people have amnesia? Four years ago we were in a pandemic that killed hundreds of thousands of Americans, people couldn't safely leave their homes, the economy was taking the biggest hit since the Great Depression, and Trump was lying to the country about all of it.

Other wanna-be contenders to be Trump’s Number Two include one-time Democratic presidential primary candidate Tulsi Gabbard, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, Florida Representative Byron Donalds, biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, the last of whom has already outright rejected the offer (“I am not doing that.”) 

And the list continues to grow. Just last week, Trump added Texas Governor Greg Abbott to his dumpster fire pick list.

Don "Pooorleone" or Broke Ass Don: IOW Trump is Broke

Echo report published in The New Republic by Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling: Donald Trump has had to admit that he cannot afford his legal comeuppance—a punishment that might have been even worse for the self-proclaimed billionaire than the actual 💲454 million penalty in his New York civil fraud trial.

“Well, of course, he’s embarrassed because his entire net worth, the constant reiteration that ‘I’m worth at least 💲10 billion,’ maybe even more, obviously goes to his id, his ego, his super-ego,” former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen told CNN.

“And so, that’s now super deflated, because it’s just not true,” he continued. 

“They had to acknowledge, HELLO❓ that they don’t have it❗ 

It wasn’t that long ago that he stood on the stand, and he told everybody that he was worth many, many, many, many billions of dollars and has a very low debt-to-value ratio.”

Trump’s last-ditch effort to postpone paying the full amount in lieu of a $100 million bond was rejected by a New York appeals court judge. The judge did, however, grant some relief after Trump’s legal team argued in an 1,800-page court filing that it would be “impossible” to secure a bond covering the full amount of the multimillion-dollar ruling. The granted request will allow Trump to continue borrowing money, though the ruling is temporary until a full panel of judges deliberates on the order.

Failing to obtain a loan, however, could result in the seizure of Trump’s assets, warned New York Attorney General Letitia James.

“I mean, what is he going to do?” Cohen continued. “What’s he going to call like a J.G. Wentworth and say, ‘I need cash now’? How was he going to raise more than this half a billion❓💰💲”

Justice Arthur Engoron had originally slapped a 💲354 million fine on Trump for committing real estate–related fraud in New York, but by last week, that sum had grown to 💲454.2 million thanks to added interest, which is tacking on an additional 💲112,000 with each passing day.

The penalty also came with an addendum that Trump cannot serve as an officer or director of a New York company for three years, including his own Trump Organization. His two adult sons were also penalized by the ruling:  Additionally, they were fined 💲💲4 💰million each and will have to stay out of New York business for two years. They will also be prevented from obtaining loans from any New York financial institutes for three years.

Donald Trump default on his bail is the result of a litany of criminal behaviors

Trump fails to obtain bail for the $464 million for fraud conviction

Reasons Trump is the political “boogeyman” is because Trump has no moral character.  Echo opinion letter published in the Holland Sentinel a Minnesota newspaper:

The facts are these:

• Found guilty to have sexually assaulted a woman
• Twice impeached by our Congress
• Tax dodger for HIS benefit
• Draft Dodger for HIS benefit.
• Gave tax breaks to billionaires for HIS own benefit.
• Created a fraudulent charity for HIS own benefit.
• Received millions from foreign enemies in office for HIS benefit (as did HIS own family).
• Stole classified documents AND showed them to our enemy.
• Loves Putin, Chairman Xi and Kim Jong-Un — admires them greatly.
• Lied about the value of his properties for HIS benefit.
• Committed treason trying to usurp our election for HIS benefit.
• Currently has 91 criminal indictments in 4 criminal cases.

This list goes on and on and on ...

He lies, lies, lies, and lies again. All while he claims in every trial that “he is a victim.” He’s “doing this for you.” Give me a break!

Trump is morally bankrupt and it astounds me that anyone with a moral conscience would even consider him for office again. Yes, I do see this man as the “boogeyman” because I respect moral character. I know you do as well. Think about the moral choice between these men.

From Michael Mooney in Park Township, in Ottowa County, Minnesota

Trump using costly court delays because he is guilty of over 90 felonies

Trump’s delaying tactics- Echo opinion letter published in The Press Democrat in Santa Rosa California:

Dear EDITOR: If I were Donald Trump and I believed or felt like I was falsely accused of over 90 felonies, I would demand an immediate opportunity to prove my innocence. An innocent person would complain about delays, not cause them. An innocent person would present “perfect” evidence at a “beautiful” press conference with charts, graphs, photos and Sharpies.

Then, when acquitted, an innocent person could use the exoneration as a cudgel against the Democratic Party. Not that Trump is vindictive, 😮, but such a stunning reversal would humiliate the haters and guarantee his reelection. 

With the limelight so attractive, Trump might even boast and crow a bit while surrounded by only the best people. It would be huge! It would be epic! It would be historically huge and epic — a spectacle worthy of The Donald.

A guilty person, on the other hand, will do everything he can to delay his day of reckoning. A guilty person will blame the court, the officers, the witnesses, the families and the political party of all involved. Everyone except himself.

(Maine Writer postscript- So instead of seeking a quick verdict to potentially exonerate, he is now #BrokeDon begging his campaign contributors for cash to pay his mounting legal bills and making up funny money to convince the New York DA about how "rich" he is.  I suspect Trump's lawyers shared his financial shortfalls with the court is because they are not getting paid! Trump's lawyers are as corrupt as their client but they are not into committing perjury.)

Sad. Pathetic. Trump.
From Patrick Corcoran in Occidental, California

Trump begins his "bloodbath" campaign driven by revenge and desperation

The bloodbath Trump promised has begun.

Former president Donald Trump speaks to supporters during a rally on March 16, in Vandalia, Ohio. (Scott Olson/Getty Images in The Washington Post)

Echo opinion by Dana Milbank published in The Washington Post "Democracy Dies in Darkeness:

These are difficult times for American Jews, facing a wave of antisemitism from the far left because of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas’s October 7, attack. 

And now, in one of Trump’s first acts since clinching the Republican presidential nomination, he has decided to attack American Jews from the right. Dayenu! ✡️(The song is about being grateful to God for all of the gifts given to the Jewish people, such as taking them out of slavery, giving them the Torah and Shabbat.)

Compounding the insult was where Trump made it: On the podcast of his former White House aide Sebastian Gorka, who went to a Trump inaugural ball wearing the medal of Vitezi Rend, a far-right Hungarian nationalist group with Nazi roots. Gorka said he wore the decoration to honor his late father and isn’t a member of the hateful group; its officials have said otherwise.

Now that (unbelievably😳❗) Trump has locked up the nomination, we’re in for seven months of this ugliness before the election — and potentially four more years of it if that election goes badly. But fear not, dear reader: I will watch Trump so you don’t have to.

“Right,” Gorka said as Trump went on with his rant. “Yeah … yeah.”

Trump disparaged millions of American Jews in the service of propping up his fellow aspiring autocrat Benjamin Netanyahu, the deeply unpopular Israeli prime minister. Netanyahu is clearly prolonging the war in Gaza because when the fighting there ends he will likely be voted out of power and held to account for the government failures that led to October 7.

Because American Jews (like many Israeli Jews) want to end the Netanyahu nightmare, they hate their religion and the Jewish State? The chutzpah (extreme self-confidence or audacity.)

In the torrent of crazy and dangerous utterances coming from the man, we tend to bounce from one to the next. I will attempt to pause at week’s end to build a record of his greatest (or, rather, worst) hits so there will be no doubt about what Trump would do if returned to the White House. His apologists once said that Trump should be taken seriously but not literally❓ From experience, we now know to take him literally: Fact is, Trump is going to do, or at least try to do,
what he says.

As the general election campaign begins, Trump isn’t doing much campaigning. While President Biden is barnstorming the country, Trump visited only one battleground state since Super Tuesday, instead playing golf, making voluntary court appearances and granting interviews to friendly outlets from his Mar-a-Lago residence. This might be because he’s broke.

Trump's campaign is struggling to raise both small- and large-dollar contributions, and donations have been diverted to cover his legal bills. Last Saturday’s rally had been planned for Arizona, but Trump’s campaign moved it to Ohio, where a group affiliated with Senate candidate Bernie Moreno agreed to foot the bill. Trump’s lawyers, meanwhile, said this week that he doesn’t have enough cash to post a bond for the $464 million judgment against him for business fraud, after asking about 30 insurance companies to underwrite the bond.

If Trump, for all his self-proclaimed business acumen, isn’t a good risk for 30 different insurers, how could he possibly be a good risk for the country?

So what did Trump  say over the last week?

• He said that certain immigrants are “not people” but are in fact “animals” and “snakes.” 
• He affirmed his view, seemingly lifted from “Mein Kampf,” that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.” 
• He said his plan for mass deportations, modeled after “Operation Wetback” of the 1950s, “will be very evident” and “will go very quickly.”
• He saluted those who have been duly convicted of attacking the Capitol on January 6, 2021, calling them “hostages” and “unbelievable patriots.” 

I continue to ask this?  With all the videos released about January 6th, nothing yet shown reveals who constructed this "Hang Mike Pence" gallows. This construction was not serendiptous. It had to have been planned and the tools to construct it were carpentry grade. Who paid for it? Who built it?

Trump’s former vice president, Mike Pence, who those “patriots” wanted to kill on January 6, called that language “unacceptable” and told CBS News that he “cannot in good conscience” support Trump. 

In that principled refusal Pence is joined by GOP Sens. Todd Young (Ind.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Mitt Romney (Utah).

• Trump suggested that he would support a nationwide abortion ban. “The number of weeks now, people are agreeing on 15, and I’m thinking in terms of that,” he told WABC radio.
• Trump said his former adviser Peter Navarro, who reported to prison this week after being convicted of contempt of Congress, was “treated very badly” by the legal system. 
• And he said his former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, convicted of bank and tax fraud related to his work for pro-Russian interests in Ukraine, is “another person that was treated badly, and he was a patriot.” 

The Washington Post’s Josh Dawsey reports that Manafort will likely return as a Trump adviser this year. Trump went on a show hosted by the anti-immigrant British politician Nigel Farage, where he threatened to expel the Australian ambassador to the United States and said he might deport Prince Harry. 

But asked whether Russian dictator Vladimir Putin is a person he could negotiate with, Trump replied: “Yeah, I think he is.”

Oh, and he said this at a rally in Ohio: “If I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole — that’s going to be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country.” He was speaking in the context of automobile imports. But given his history of provoking actual bloodshed, this was small reassurance.

Trump routinely criticizes Biden for allegedly having a light schedule and declining mental faculties, but the presumptive Republican nominee struggled mightily at his only campaign event of the week.

“We want to have a rock-solid majority in the Senate,” he told the crowd. “We want to take over the House,” he added, apparently forgetting that the Republicans already control the House.

Trump used to boast that “I don’t use teleprompters,” even arguing that “if you run for president, you shouldn’t be allowed to use teleprompters.” But, when Trump suffered a teleprompter malfunction because of windy weather outside Dayton, OH, he was lost.