Stephan: Part of the strategy of the corporations and uber-rich, who own the MAGAt Party, is to rig the American judiciary to legalize their goals, so they can make yet more profit and have less regulation. It is all part of their attempt to restructure the United States into a fascist authoritarian nation. Here is a good essay explaining what they are doing.
Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehousedisplaying a list of dark money MAGAT sponsored “shadow docket” goals Credit: Tom Williams / Getty
On Tuesday evening, when hardly anyone was watching, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, took to the floor of the Senate to rail once again against the influence of dark money on the federal judiciary, and its influence specifically on the new, carefully engineered 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court of the United States.
Now the court’s 6-3 big-donor chosen supermajority is delivering massive wins for those donor interests. And the American people can smell what Justice Sotomayor aptly characterized as the stench of a captured court.
But Whitehouse’s way into his argument was a new one. In his remarks, he targeted the laughably toothless commission the administration put together, purportedly to study the problems with the federal judiciary. These problems, of course, have been caused in great measure by the deluge of dark money into the confirmation process, most of it coming from economic and ideological sources that have extensive business before the court. However, the […]
Ore Koren, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Indiana University - Raw Story / The Conversation
Stephan: In my entire life I have never before seen articles like this in the American media, and now I see variations almost every day. The Great Schism Trend is coming to a crescendo, and it comes down to each of us as to whether democracy survives.
The potential for violent extremism in America to erupt into full-fledged conflict across the country is a common topic of discussion nowadays.
Man holds gun in front of US flag Credit: Shutterstock.com
A recent FBI report highlights an increasing risk of violence against government institutions, private organizations and individuals. The possible perpetrators: primarily “lone wolves,” but potentially also militias and other organized groups such as animal activists, anti-abortionists and white supremacists.
Claims that America is at the greatest risk of civil war since, well, the Civil War, recently received additional support from some experts in the field of political science.
Before the 2020 election, I analyzed the risk of a so-called “Second American Civil War” that some speculated might ignite on or around Election Day. I concluded the risk was very low, while also emphasizing the uncertainty of the times.
Stephan: I found this too amusing not to publish it; a kind of cosmic joke.
Citation for the research paper cited in this article: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35007072/#affiliation-2
An illustration showing how cannabinoids can block the entry of SARS-CoV-2 from human cells.
Credit: the Journal of Natural Products
A groundbreaking new study published this week identified what could be an unexpected tool in the world’s fight against COVID-19: cannabis.
Yes, you read that right.
According to a peer-reviewed paper published this week in the Journal of Natural Products, titled “Cannabinoids Block Cellular Entry of SARS-CoV-2 and the Emerging Variants,” at least three compounds naturally occurring in the cannabis plant were shown in lab tests to be effective at stopping coronavirus molecules from entering human cells. The mechanism effectively mimics the activity of antibodies, with the cannabis compounds attaching themselves to the virus’ spike protein, one of the authors told Salon. The study concludes:
With widespread use of cannabinoids, resistant variants could still arise, but the combination of vaccination and CBDA/CBGA treatment should create a more challenging environment with which SARS-CoV-2 must contend, reducing the likelihood of escape.
In case any of that is confusing, the authors also included in the paper a handy illustration of the phenomenon:
Stephan: John Alexander, in this essay, makes what I think is a very significant and not properly appreciated distinction concerning the MAGAt community. There are two groups, the smaller group are people knowingly and actively trying to turn America into a White supremacy christofascist autocracy; the ones spewing out the disinformation, and plotting systematically to destroy democracy. The larger group is made up of people who are either too willfully ignorant or just too stupid to understand what is going on.
What is particularly important here, as Alexander points out, is that the the power structure of the MAGAT Republican party in Congress and out is, with two notable exceptions, Cheney and Kinzinger, either actively or passively completely on board with what is being attempted. I used to say you cannot be an ethical person and a Republican; I will now amend that to say: You cannot be a Republican and an ethical person who supports democracy. We, as a country, are now staring into the abyss of White supremacy christofascism, and an end to the America created by the Founders, and it is time to quit pussy footing around this, and hold these people accountable.
Trump and his MAGAts
The vast majority of Trump supporters fall into one of two categories, Deceivers and the Deceived. There is a third, very tiny subset, some of the very wealthy, who support Trump for their own financial interests. Terminally greedy, they do so at the expense of our country and their fellow Americans, but such is to be expected of them.
The largest group of Trump supporters are the Deceived, and there are tens of millions of them. By far the worst group is comprised of the Deceivers. These are the people who understand just how corrupt Trump is, yet profess support for him anyway. GOP politicians are fearful of the ill-advised, but energized Trump base. For them such support is justified as self-preservation. These are politicians that place their reelection above the well-being of their constituents and their sworn duty to the U.S. Constitution. Unfortunately, these are most of the currently elected GOP officials.
The Deceivers
Of course, the senior leadership of the GOP in Congress constitutes the worst of the worst. That certainly includes House Minority Leader, Kevin McCarthy, and Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell.
Stephan: I am publishing this piece because I want to make clear to my readers that the MAGAt strategy to end democracy is a coordinated effort playing out at the federal, state, and county level throughout the country. This is an emergency and the only thing that is going to stop it is massive, and I do mean massive citizen pushback at all those levels. If we are to continue as a democracy we each need to get involved. There is something you can do, find out what it is, and do it.
State Representative Jake Hoffman speaking with attendees at a rally in Arizona. Credit: Gage Skidmore/Flickr
Video that’s gone viral of Hoffman shows him defending signing the forged documents in which he falsely identifies himself as a duly elected elector for Trump.
His defense: “in unprecedented times, unprecedented action does occur.” He goes on to claim, “there is no case law, there is no precedent that exists as to whether or not an election that is currently being litigated in the courts has due standing.”
He called the forged electoral documents “dueling opinions” in this video:
The video has been viewed over 800,000 times in just 14 hours.
Hoffman, it turns out, was banned from Twitter after his company, Rally Forge, worked with Charlie Kirk’s far right wing political activist group, Turning Point USA during the 2020 election, establishing “a domestic ‘troll […]
