Stephan: I think this is very good news, and I am very glad the Democrats are making this a priority. We need to stop voter suppression, racist tactics that make it difficult for people of color to vote, and all the other little twists and turns being used to rig our elections.
Voting booth Credit: Vanderbilt News
Democrats plan to move quickly on one of the first bills of the new Congress, citing the need for federal election standards and other reforms to shore up the foundations of American democracy after a tumultuous post-election period and deadly riot at the Capitol.
States have long had disparate and contradictory rules for running elections. But the 2020 election, which featured pandemic-related changes to ease voting and then a flood of lawsuits by former President Donald Trump and his allies, underscored the differences from state to state: Mail-in ballots due on Election Day or just postmarked by then? Absentee voting allowed for all or just voters with an excuse? Same-day or advance-only registration?
Democrats, asserting constitutional authority to set the time, place and manner of federal elections, want national rules they say would make voting more uniform, accessible and fair across the nation. The bill would mandate early voting, same-day registration and other long-sought reforms that Republicans reject as federal overreach.
“We have just literally seen an attack on our own democracy,” said U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, […]
Stephan: As I told you yesterday, as time goes on we will learn more and more about how close we came to losing democracy in America, and that ultimately Trump will be the equivalent for the United States of Nero, Caligula, and Commodus for Rome -- the worst of the worst. But, I confess, I didn't think the revelations would come quite this quickly and be this bad.
Jeffrey Clark, a Trumpian roach, who led the Justice Department’s civil division, had been working with President Donald J. Trump to devise ways to cast doubt on the election results. Credit: Susan Walsh/Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department’s top leaders listened in stunned silence this month: One of their peers, they were told, had devised a plan with President Donald J. Trump to oust Jeffrey A. Rosen as acting attorney general and wield the department’s power to force Georgia state lawmakers to overturn its presidential election results.
The unassuming lawyer who worked on the plan, Jeffrey Clark, had been devising ways to cast doubt on the election results and to bolster Mr. Trump’s continuing legal battles and the pressure on Georgia politicians. Because Mr. Rosen had refused the president’s entreaties to carry out those plans, Mr. Trump was about to decide whether to fire Mr. Rosen and replace him with Mr. Clark.
The department officials, convened on a conference call, then asked each other: What will you do if Mr. Rosen is dismissed?
Stephan: Former President Trump's political organization, at his direction, paid millions of dollars to organize the rally that at his urging turned into an insurrection to overthrow democracy and capture Speaker Pelosi and hang former Vice President Pence. The facts are now clear and indisputable, Trump did everything in his power to end democracy in America, and to keep himself in power.
Trump attempting to destroy democracy in the United States
Former President Donald Trump’s campaign paid a total of $2.7 million to groups that organized the political rally that directly preceded the now-infamous riots at the United States Capitol building on January 6th.
Bloomberg reports that legal filings show the Trump campaign paid $1.7 million to Event Strategies Inc., the organization that was primarily responsible for the rally’s stage and production management.
In addition to Event Strategies, several prominent GOP operatives raked in campaign cash for organizing the rally, including Maggie Mulvaney, the niece of former Trump chief of staff Mick Mulvaney; Megan Powers, who was an operations manager for the rally; and GOP fundraiser Caroline Wren.Tired of ads? Want to support our progressive journalism? Click to learn more.
At the rally, Trump urged his supporters to march to the Capitol building to show “strength” that would convince members of Congress and Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
These supporters would go on to forcibly enter the Capitol building […]
Stephan: It will be interesting in the coming months to see if the Republican Party survives in its current form, or splits and the christofascist Trumpers go off to start their own party. Here is one of the signs that such a trend is developing.
Trumpian christofascist paraphernalia
As President Donald Trump departed Washington for the final time, leaving his diehard fan base despondent, some of his most ardent supporters were busy fantasizing online about what they see as the very real next phase of the MAGA movement: The Patriot Party.
Online forums were filled with citations of a Wall Street Journal report that Trump, irritated by a perceived lack of loyalty from Republicans in the aftermath of the Capitol Hill invasion he helped foment, was considering starting his own nationalist political entity. While it’s unknown how serious the incredibly forgetful and famously fickle former president is about the idea, his followers, desperate for a light in the void, latched onto it.
“All on board the Patriot party train!!!” said one user on Patriots.win, the latest iteration of a fanatically pro-Trump message board that was booted from Reddit last year. “Cuz if ya ain’t a Patriot, then yer a stinkin’ commie!…. Time to draw the line that matters,” followed up another user, angered by the GOP’s inability or unwillingness to install Trump as president despite his having […]
Stephan: It may be hard for you to believe but there is a growing secessionist movement in the United States being driven by members of the Republican Party. Here is proof of this trend, as published in a very conservative newspaper.
Wyoming GOP Chairman Frank Eathorne, secessionist
A top Republican official in Wyoming floated the idea of seceding from the United States after a high-profile member of his party from the Cowboy State embraced the impeachment of President Trump.
Wyoming GOP Chairman Frank Eathorne suggested the idea toWar Room Pandemic podcast host and former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon in a weekend interview focused on the decision by Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, the third-ranked Republican in the House, to vote in favor of impeaching Trump on a charge of incitement of insurrection related to the deadly riot that took place at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
“We need to focus on the fundamentals that’s been stated in this broadcast, and that is what Wyoming is,” Eathorne stated. “We are straight-talking, focused on the global scene, but we’re also focused at home. Many of these Western states have the ability to be self-reliant, and we’re keeping eyes on Texas too and their consideration of possible secession. Now, they have a different state constitution than we do as […]
