(10 minute read)
Opening comments:
It occurs to me that if perhaps I put a picture of a voluptuous woman at the top I would draw more male readers. I’ll have to find a public domain picture to use. That could complicate things. Nope. Found one. Technically Marilyn Monroe was a movie star, but she did start out as a pin-up model. She’s definitely iconic.
I try not to take it for granted that people automatically know things, like what defines an oligarch. The ones that we have now in the United States are becoming more visible.
My intention today is to write about the last House January 6th Committee hearing. It’s available on C-Span. They wrapped everything up and then voted to issue a subpoena to former President Trump. They also showed some new video. The clips are making the rounds on social media.
I’ll do a little recap of some things that I’ve already said and where we’re headed now that races are tightening up. I’ll also add it’s a 10 minute read if you don’t look up the sources that I’ve listed.
Merriam-Webster
Definition of oligarch
1 : a member or supporter of an oligarchy
2 in Russia and other countries that succeeded the Soviet Union : one of a class of individuals who through private acquisition of state assets amassed great wealth that is stored especially in foreign accounts and properties and who typically maintain close links to the highest government circles
// But what does it really mean to be a Russian oligarch …? … in Russian politics, the term first came about in the 1990s to describe a dozen or so powerful men who amassed immense wealth following the collapse of the Soviet Union. — The Business Insider
// The task force will pool the resources of the countries' law enforcement divisions to track down the assets of Russian oligarchs stashed overseas, a difficult task complicated by the opaque or complicated financial instruments frequently used by Russian financial elites to hide their holdings from public view.— Jeff Stein
//… young Armenians, who joined the protests in droves, angry that the same small club of politicians and oligarchs has controlled the country since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.— Neil Macfarquhar
Old stuff
For Trump Republicans the January 6th Committee hearings are a partisan witch hunt and meaningless. This in spite of the fact that the overwhelming majority of witnesses have been Republicans including those that worked directly with then President Trump as well as his attorney. But, they would have had to watch the hearings to know that. Even when they do they don’t believe what they’re hearing and seeing with their own eyes. Trump Republicans will forever be unindicted co-conspirators when it comes to overthrowing our current form of government.
Overthrowing our government? Now, why do I say such a thing? Well, all three branches of government upheld the results of the election.[1] Those three branches being the Executive, Legislative and Judicial. The people working for the President told him that he lost. His people. At the time he acknowledged losing to them. Now he lies about losing. His surrogates lie about him losing. His followers lie about him losing.
That doesn’t alter the truth.
New stuff
The videos and information provided by the committee did provide some new insight as to what took place. We got to see video of Republicans and Democrats huddled together trying to figure how to get back to doing their job. (NOT all Republicans wanted to get back to doing their job of certifying the election. Just some of them.) A former Capitol police officer said it best when he stated that Nancy Pelosi was Commander in Chief that day since President Trump refused to act.
Thanks to the hearings we know from Trump’s own people that he was laying plans to hold onto power before the election even took place. We know that Trump was involved with the fake electors, soft coup attempt as well. We know that members of congress were working in concert with him. We know now that Trump was involved in planning the insurrection on January 6th.[2]
What was made abundantly clear is that President Trump hung those defending the Capitol out to dry. What is even more astonishing is that his Secret Service (SS) helped him do it. His SS was originally going to help him get to the Capitol after the rally. The SS even staged protective gear because they knew in advance that there was going to be violence on the 6th.[3] It’s less of a surprise now that they deleted their phone information from that day. They’re covering up their support of the coup attempt. The problem they ran into was that things got too violent even for them.
They couldn’t protect their Duce.
Hearings are complete
For all practical purposes the January 6 hearings are complete. I can’t imagine that any of Trump’s current attorneys would advise him to show up if he can avoid doing so AND he can. All he has to do is run out the clock before the midterms. If he does testify, he can be expected to plead the 5th amendment like he did for the New York civil case.[4] Oh they’ll have a final report but regardless they have to wrap things up. There’ll be a lot of theater over whether Trump will testify or not. Just theater. The stakes are too high for him to take a chance and incriminate himself.
He's guilty.
Battle of the oligarchs!
The oligarchs and PACs are weighing in again. They are weighing in with tens of millions of dollars across the nation. Times used to be simpler in regard to talking about oligarchs. We had the Kochs[5] for the Republicans and Soros[6] for the Democrats. Now we’ve got oligarchs galore in the news helping out this or that candidate. In the United States there are either 725 or 937 depending upon who is doing the figuring.[7] The conservative oligarchs outnumber the liberal oligarchs.
It isn’t an oversimplification to say that the wealthy, especially the oligarchs, do better when Republicans are in charge.[8] Especially billionaires to the tune of a trillion dollars.[9] They don’t put America first. They put money first. Even most of the liberal-backing oligarchs.
Billionaires like Peter Thiel are backing candidates that undermine democracy with claims of non-existent voter fraud.[10] They can pour in tens of millions into a race and barely make a dent in their wealth.
Billionaire President Trump appointed Betsy DeVos to be Secretary of Education. She’s worth a couple of billion.[11] Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was only worth $400 million.[12] Trump’s cabinet had a combined net worth of $6.2 billion dollars.[13] Biden’s cabinet comes in with a paltry net worth of $118 million. How embarrassing.
So, who did the Democrats back for the senate in Missouri? Trudy Busch Valentine, worth an estimated $69 million to $219 million.[14] The Busch family is worth $17 billion. As of January 2020, 48% of congress members are at least millionaires.[15] It’s hard to pin down how many are wealthy because they only have to give ranges of their net worth.
The rich are running the country.
Midterm messaging
Republicans are campaigning on, well, the Politics Girl said it best—freedom, eagles, the flag and the constitution.[16] (If you haven’t watched her you should check out the link.) And she does it in 3 minutes. They aren’t campaigning on their goal to reduce Medicare and Social Security.[17] Or having the poor pay taxes.[18] McConnell says that Republicans aren’t going to do that. His word is worthless. Trump Republicans want him out of his leadership position and they’re going to be in charge in the senate after the midterms.
Trump Republicans want everything to be discretionary spending so that Congress can fight about it and do away with it every few years.[19] You know, things like Social Security and Medicare. Right now I wan to make it clear that Social Security does NOT add to debt. It is funded and in the black. The worry is that there won’t be enough income in the future to match what’s being paid out.
Speaking of debt Republicans are NOT concerned about debt when they’re in charge like they are when Democrats are in charge. Republicans added 7.8 trillion to the national debt during Trump’s term.[20] That’s when they were in complete charge of the government for just 2 years. There’s a lot they didn’t accomplish then.
They have accomplished some things. They voted against lowering drug costs. They opposed a lot of Democrat’s legislation to assist working people. Trump’s Supremes banned abortion and will go to work on taking away the rights of LGBTQ people and women at the federal level. It’s what they do. That’s their success.
Trump had 4 years to build his wall and not only couldn’t get it done Mexico never paid for any of it. No health care plan either. They are still trying to undermine the Affordable Care Act. They could have fixed that as well when they were in charge. Same goes for the crime-ridden America that they continue to campaign on. They have a dystopian view of America and how bad we are as they continue to undermine our country. America is horrible!
That’s their message.
USA! USA! USA!
After the midterms Republicans will continue talking about how the vote is corrupt in America even if they win. Kari Lake, talking head, who is running for governor in Arizona, will only commit to accepting the election results if she wins.[21] Heard that before? Count on hearing it from now on until Trump Republicans get democracy “fixed” to where only they can win with all their voter suppression laws.
Republicans to date introduced at minimum 405 voter restriction laws. (They didn’t all pass.) twenty one states have passed 42 voter restriction laws.[22] In 20 states 33 will be in place just in time for the midterms. We have already seen the successful results of some of these laws. Texas had a 13% rejection rate of mail in ballots instead of a little over 1%.[23] That’s what Republicans like to see especially because the failures were higher in Democratic areas. Voter fraud is a myth and Trump Republican leaders know it. They have NEVER submitted any evidence of widespread fraud that would have altered the outcome of the election to a court. That makes what they have done an insidious perversion of our democracy.
It's where they excel.
One note
I believe that Democrats felt that they could get Republicans to lose because of their uncompromising position on abortion. While it is an important issue the economy appears to be taking center stage. Abortion only directly effects a small number of people on a daily basis.
Biden keeps talking about how great the economy is and that’s a hard sell to those that the economy isn’t working for. The fight for the “soul of the nation” is too esoteric a battle for people struggling to feed their families, go to work and pay the bills.[24] I think they would have been better talking about the economic circumstances that Trump Republicans put us in and that the global economy is suffering inflation.
The character or quality of any particular candidate also isn’t on the table. Take Herschel Walker for example. He really has too many flaws to go into them all but will still have the backing of Trump Republicans because he’s one of theirs.[25] Trump Republicans deride President Biden’s age but they’ll line up to vote for 89 year old Senator Grassley who is running for another 6 year term.[26]
There is a struggle between good and evil going on. The struggle is ageless.
Too many times evil wins.
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SfBN3wdfPg
[5] https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2021/01/05/the-koch-coup-charles-kochs-political-machine-bankrolled-senators-who-will-attempt-to-steal-election-for-trump-tomorrow/
[6] https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/708-million-how-much-george-soros-spent-politics-one-year-alone-167068
[7] https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/07/magazine/billionaires.html
[8] https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/511492-after-trillions-in-tax-cuts-for-the-rich-republicans-refuse-to-help/
[9] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-30/u-s-billionaires-got-1-trillion-richer-in-trump-s-first-term?leadSource=uverify%20wall
[10] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/oct/15/peter-thiel-who-is-he-republican-donor-tech-entrepreneur
[11] https://moneyinc.com/betsy-devos-net-worth/
[12] https://www.foxbusiness.com/money/how-much-is-steven-mnuchin-worth
[13] https://indianexpress.com/article/world/us-president-joe-biden-administration-net-worth-7382588/
[14] https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/why-beer-heiress-and-nurse-trudy-busch-valentine-wants-to-be-missouri-s-next-us/article_3deabd37-1155-53d6-a684-8074e60e88e4.html
[15] https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/jan/22/facebook-posts/yes-congress-has-disproportionate-share-millionair/
[16] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpQRsjBLZRs
[17] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9j22-8gmENI
[18] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTnjOXMq_nQ
[19] (1m30s): https://www.youtubeThey.com/watch?v=gm3n7CQZw-A
[20] https://www.propublica.org/article/national-debt-trump
[21] Kari Lake: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xupeP3tAx4A
[22] https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/voting-laws-roundup-october-2022
[23] https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/03/17/texas-republicans-voter-suppression-law/
[24] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiPVOx-cAfQ
[25] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/i-don-t-care-if-herschel-walker-paid-for-an-abortion-or-if-he-blew-up-the-planet-alderaan/ar-AA12Fm4A?rc=1&ocid=winp1taskbar&cvid=e69fa394e8344ec6b0b2494b872bffb9
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please avoid name calling, personal and/or abusive language. In other words be civil. We need a lot more of that these days. Try and confine your comments to the topic of the post.