Do Call It Sedition, What trump's Rioters Did (w/ Update)

In the ongoing legal drama that has been the aftermath of the January 6th Insurrection to interfere with Congress' duties to confirm the 2020 Electoral College results: A major courtroom matter involving the most serious charges yet - direct allegations of seditious conspiracy - got resolved today, with guilty verdicts for one of the major trumpian supporters. More via Ryan Lucas and Carrie Johnson at NPR: 

Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the far-right Oath Keepers, has been found guilty of seditious conspiracy and other offenses in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

A federal jury in Washington, D.C., also convicted Rhodes of obstructing an official proceeding and tampering with documents. He was acquitted of two other conspiracy counts.

Rhodes did not enter the Capitol during the riot, but instead stood outside like a "battlefield general" surveying his troops, prosecutor Jeffrey Nestler said.

All five defendants on trial in this case were charged with seditious conspiracy but only one in addition to Rhodes, Kelly Meggs, was found guilty. The three other defendants — Jessica Watkins, Kenneth Harrelson and Thomas Caldwell — were acquitted on that central charge...

The jury did seem to consider the weight of applying sedition to all five standing trial: They determined those three were not as involved as Rhodes or Meggs. Still, they were found guilty on other charges related to the insurrection:

But all of the defendants were found guilty of obstructing an official proceeding as well as a mix of other charges.

Jurors returned their verdict after nearly three full days of deliberations...

The prosecution of the Oath Keepers leader and his co-defendants is the most consequential Jan. 6 case yet to have gone to trial.

Prosecutors accused the five of plotting to prevent, by any means necessary including force, the peaceful transfer of presidential power to Joe Biden.

Rhodes and the other Oath Keepers were the first Jan. 6 defendants to go to trial on seditious conspiracy charges. Two more seditious conspiracy trials — one involving more Oath Keepers and the other a group of Proud Boys — are set to start in the coming weeks...

The earliest trials of those arrested for their attack on the nation's Capitol to disrupt the Electoral College vote had focused on lesser charges, focusing mostly on assault and trespass and such. Those cases - either leading to guilty convictions or guilty plea deals - all built up to the evidence needed to convict Rhodes and Meggs on charges of seditious conspiracy, which is a very serious matter because - at least as I understand it - this opens up the door to pursue conspiracy charges with the insurrection's coordinators - hi Roger Stone and Steve Bannon! - who were tied to Rhodes' Oath Keepers and other groups involved in the violence.

The thing about a conspiracy: If you can prove one end of the partnership guilty of it, you ought to be able to convict the other partners of that conspiracy as well.

Every link between Stone, Bannon, and anybody else - especially any Congresscritters who aided in planning and staging the riots - to the Oath Keepers should now be under full legal scrutiny, and for there to be ANY justice at all in this matter those partners in sedition deserve getting charged for their crimes as well.

This was a good day for America (also because the U.S. Men's Soccer team beat Iran 1-0 and advanced in the World Cup. That's right. Americans are finally good at soccer!) but this day needs a follow through.

This sedition didn't start with Rhodes or his Oath Keepers or Roger Stone or Steve Bannon. It started with donald trump refusing to admit he lost, and demanding violence to keep himself him power. All conspiracy links point to him. trump needs to see his day in court for this sedition as well.

Still waiting on trump to get arrested. Let justice be done.

Update 11/30/22: David A Graham at the Atlantic does a good job spelling out the importance of nailing Rhodes with sedition:

Sedition (or seditious conspiracy, as federal law defines the crime) is likely unfamiliar to many people, and for good reason: It’s extremely rare. The charge involves “conspir[ing] to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States … or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States...”

Tellingly, the federal law against seditious conspiracy dates to the Civil War; on January 6 of last year, rioters carried the Confederate battle flag in the halls of the Capitol, a desecration that never happened during the war. But actual cases are few and far between, in part because instances of seditious behavior that actually amount to anything—much less a ransacking of the Capitol—are rare. The last time the government successfully prosecuted someone under the charge was in a mid-1990s case against the radical Muslim cleric Omar Abdel-Rahman and some followers for a plot to bomb New York City landmarks. In 2010, the Justice Department charged members of a bizarre far-right militia called the Hutaree with seditious conspiracy, but they were acquitted two years later.

These rare successes made some observers wonder whether DOJ had erred in bringing the charge against the Oath Keepers, either because it might be too hard to prove or because it might open the door up to dubious future prosecutions. But the convictions offer some vindication for the decision. Not only did the prosecutors succeed in convicting Rhodes and company, but by convicting him of this particular charge, they put the lie to the idea that what happened on January 6 was simply a few overzealous people who got a little excited but posed no threat to the peaceful transfer of power. It also shows why the riot at the Capitol was not equivalent to violence that broke out in cities in summer 2020 after the murder of George Floyd, which was lawless but not part of any conspiracy against the federal government...

What happened on January 6 2021 was a concerted, planned attack to disrupt a constitutional confirmation of a legal Presidential election. It wasn't a protest, it wasn't a groundswell of outrage by the majority of Americans. It was a very small, very violent minority of trumpian worshippers riled up by lies, fearmongering, and rage to seize power they feared was no longer theirs.

The Justice Department has successfully proven there was a conspiracy behind it all. Now they need to go after the ones who planned it and especially go after the one who demanded the attack. Still waiting on trump to get arrested.

The Revolutions Will Not Be Localized

Gets to you, doesn’t it? That’s what a reckoning sounds like. You want it to stop, but it just keeps coming. It’s when it stops, that’s when you’ll really want to start to fret.
-- Maarva (Fiona Shaw) from the episode "Reckoning" for Star Wars: Andor

I mentioned a few months back that Iran erupted into nationwide protests over the death of a young woman Mahsa Amini, who had been killed by authorities punishing her for improper wearing of the hijab.

The protests did not abate. Riots remain commonplace even as the Ayatollahs crack down harder on their own people. The protesters even went as far as to burn down Ayatollah Khomeini's museum/birthplace. 

The Iranian government is escalating violence in the Kurdish regions, as Amini was Kurdish and her ethnic group isn't beholden to the religious extremism of the Shia leadership. Via Oliver Holmes at the Guardian:

A nationwide uprising has convulsed the country since the death in September of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was allegedly beaten into a coma by the Islamic Republic’s “morality police” after they arrested her for wearing a headscarf they deemed inappropriate.

Since then, hundreds of people have been killed in a bloody crackdown on a popular revolt calling for an end to the decades-long authoritarian rule of the country’s top clerics.

Government attacks on rallies escalated at the weekend in predominantly Kurdish areas of Iran, with videos showing scenes reminiscent of a war zone.

Hengaw, a Norway-based rights group that monitors abuses, posted footage on Monday of what it said were state forces travelling to the cities of Bukan and Mahabad. The armed convoy included pickup trucks with mounted machine guns...

The Guardian article provided a map:

The protests are focused on the capital Tehran, but all those dots are everywhere in Iran. The frustration with the Islamic regime has been there for decades, and it's not going away:

Facing one of the boldest challenges to its hardline rule since the 1979 revolution that overthrew the western-friendly Shah of Iran, Tehran has shut down internet access in many areas. It has repeatedly blamed foreign enemies and their agents for orchestrating the protests and accuses “terrorists” of killing several dozen security force members.

However, the UN office of the high commissioner for human rights (OHCHR) said more than 300 people had been killed so far in Iran’s crackdown, including more than 40 children. These killings occurred across the country, with deaths reported in 25 of 31 provinces...

OHCHR spokesperson Jeremy Laurence said reports from mainly Kurdish cities were particularly distressing, with accounts of more than 40 people killed by security forces over the past week.

“Significant numbers of security forces have also been deployed in recent days,” he said.

“We urge the authorities to address people’s demands for equality, dignity and rights, instead of using unnecessary or disproportionate force to suppress the protests,” he added. “The lack of accountability for gross human rights violations in Iran remains persistent and is contributing to the growing grievances...”

These rulers, these religious extremists, cannot stop violating the rights of their citizens because they've never really cared for their citizens in the first place. All they cared about are the power and control, and Fear - via public displays of punishment and violence - was the only tool they have to keep that power and control.

Now the corrupt clerics in charge of this theocratic prison are going to test the limits of uprising again: To see if they can kill enough protesters to terrify the rest of Iran into submission, or if they run out of bullets first.

Iran's not the only nation coping with a restless and frustrated population. I woke up this morning to reports coming out of China of nationwide protests against the corrupt one-party rule there. Via Helen Davidson and Verna Yu also with the Guardian:

People opposed to China’s stringent Covid restrictions have protested in cities across the country in the biggest wave of civil disobedience on the mainland since Xi Jinping assumed power a decade ago.

Protests triggered by a deadly apartment fire in the far west of the country last week took place on Sunday in cities including Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu, Wuhan and Guangzhou, according to footage shared on social media, in defiance of a series of heavy-handed arrests of demonstrators on Saturday night.

In the early hours of Monday in Beijing, two groups of protesters totalling at least 1,000 people were gathered along the Chinese capital’s 3rd Ring Road near the Liangma River, refusing to disperse...

This is more widespread than just Tiananmen Square. It's in a number of China's biggest metros:

The protests erupted on Friday in Urumqi, the regional capital of the far west Xinjiang region, after footage of a fire in a residential building that killed at least 10 people the day before led to accusations that a Covid lockdown was a factor in the death toll.

Urumqi officials abruptly held a news conference in the early hours of Saturday to deny Covid measures had hampered escape and rescue. Many of Urumqi’s 4 million residents have been under some of the country’s longest lockdowns, barred from leaving their homes for as long as 100 days...

Personally, I'm not entirely in agreement with what the protesters here are fighting against: COVID is still out there and the people do need to protect themselves from the spread of the virus. However, I do understand where the frustration is coming from: Here in the United States, we had numerous protests by anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers opposed to the quarantine restrictions we had here (which were never as severe as overseas). As a result, even two years (now maybe three) on since the outbreak, my own nation isn't even reporting on the severe uptick in COVID cases as we head into winter. There's pandemic fatigue everywhere, and everyone is struggling to abide by the safety rules.

But I may be wrong. Even global health care experts note that China's restrictions are pretty harsh even for their tastes:

China has stuck with Xi’s zero-Covid policy even as much of the world has lifted most restrictions. While low by global standards, China’s case numbers have hit record highs for days, with nearly 40,000 new infections on Saturday, prompting yet more lockdowns in cities across the country. Beijing has defended the policy as life-saving and necessary to prevent overwhelming the healthcare system.

Speaking to US political talk shows on Sunday, Dr Anthony Fauci, the outgoing director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, described China’s approach to Covid as “very severe and rather draconian”.

“A prolonged lockdown without any seeming purpose or endgame to it … really doesn’t make public health sense. In many respects it baffles me,” Fauci said.

The frustrations the Chinese people are feeling may be justified if their own government isn't working towards a more amenable - yet hopefully effective - quarantine policy. There is a tone-deafness in the leadership contributing to that anger.

There is also - at least in my reading of events - an underlying and unspoken problem at the root of the protests: Anger at how Chairman Xi has taken total control of the Chinese government for his own corrupt ends:

In an unusually bold act that appeared to indicate the level of people’s desperation, a crowd in Shanghai late on Saturday night called for the removal of the Communist party and Xi during a standoff with police, chanting: “Communist party! Step down! Xi Jinping! Step down!” Chinese people usually refrain from criticizing the party and its leaders in public for fear of reprisals...

Widespread in-person protests are rare in China, where dissent has been all but eliminated under Xi, forcing citizens mostly to vent their frustrations on social media where they play cat-and-mouse games with censors.

Just this October, Xi staged a takeover - complete with public removal of power-sharers and potential rivals - of the Chinese Communist Party that holds one-party rule over the mainland. He's essentially completed the process every autocrat/dictator performs en route to authoritarian dominance. As a result, everything that happens in China happens on Xi's orders. It now literally is all about him, and the people really didn't have much say it thanks to a government that offers no choices.

Xi may be talking about "fighting corruption" as he seizes full control of it all - not just the political but also the financial and social and spiritual well-being of China - but you need to remember Putin promised the same reforms for Russia and he turned his reforms into a massive shakedown that spread more corruption wherever he got his hand in. I can't be the only one who remembered that. I get the feeling the Chinese people remembered that as well, and are terrified by the same outcome.

So now we have a nation of billions rising up against a one-party communist regime ruled by hundreds that is giving orders to armies of millions to keep the billions in line. This is where we've seen it before - not just Tiananmen but also the Hong Kong protests eight years back - and it was bloody and shameful then and it will be again. The only difference is now all of China is rising up, and it's not a question of how soon the anger will ebb.

Now the corrupt despots in charge of this sweatshop prison are going to test the limits of uprising again: To see if they can kill enough protesters to terrify the rest of China into submission, or if they run out of bullets first.

I'm not repeating myself as a joke. History keeps repeating because the Cycle of Revolution just leads to the same dictators and crooks replacing each other. Something new needs to rise up in Iran, and in China, AND in Russia: To end the one-party corruption that has gripped those nations for decades in one form or another. A rebellion towards justice and moderation, towards open speech and better choices.

This is what a reckoning sounds like: Frustrated people unwilling to be prisoners anymore.

The Long Wait for Justice Upon trump

I wrote earlier this month that my impatience over the handling of donald trump's legal woes - especially into the matter of him stealing hundreds if not thousands of classified documents when he left the White House in 2021 - would hopefully get satisfaction once the Midterms were over and his fate wouldn't affect the decision-making of American voters.

Well, damn the Man. It's pretty much the end of November. We're all still waiting for that hammer to drop.

Even as every day after the votes have been counted, there is more movement towards making trump accountable for all the crimes he's committed in violation of our voting rights and in violation of our national security.

Just this Tuesday before Turkey Day, trump faced a number of legal defeats that all signal his time running out (via Robert Katzberg at Slate):

On Tuesday, a three-judge panel from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral argument on the federal government’s contention that Judge Aileen Cannon overstepped her authority in limiting the Justice Department’s access to and use of the documents seized earlier this year at Donald Trump’s home in Florida, Mar-a-Lago. Despite the technical nature of the hearing’s dialogue—one that covered, among other things, the nature of interlocutory appeals, the scope of Rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, and the limits of equitable jurisdiction—it appears that the government’s position will, at least in part, win the day. Throughout the session, counsel for the former president was unable to satisfactorily respond to skeptical questions from all three panel members. Ignoring the wisdom that one can never predict what a court will do based upon oral argument, it seems that the panel will either rule that Judge Cannon had no jurisdiction to rule on the investigation in the first place, and will vacate all of her prior rulings, or it will severely curtail the review process that she created. In sum, the government had a good day...

If the 11th Circuit does what now seems likely, once the newly appointed special counsel gets up to speed, an indictment of the former president for unlawful possession of the materials found at Mar-a-Lago should quickly follow. The case is both a prosecutorial “slam dunk” and the most effective way to begin prosecuting all matters related to the Jan. 6 riot and the attempts to overturn the 2020 election.

As has been noted by a number of legal observers, the Mar-a-Lago prosecution is much like a simple drug possession case. Donald Trump was in possession of something proscribed by law: not a controlled substance like heroin, but documents that were legally required to remain with the government. The materials in question did not even have to have been classified for their removal to have broken federal law...

Given that there's been already 100 documents deemed classified that shouldn't have been in trump's possession, and trump is facing more than just the Presidential Records Act he violated. Back to Katzberg:

And speaking of the defense, as someone who prosecuted and defended federal white-collar criminal cases for more than four decades, there is none. The ongoing absurdities the former president and his supporters have put forth—whether his undocumented, magical declassification of the top-secret materials; the alleged planting of the documents at his home by the FBI; or any of the other risible claims made—may have provided helpful fodder in the right-wing media, but none of it will help the former president in a court of law.

Everything trump's argued about in social media can't stand in a courtroom under oath. trump nor his lawyers can't prove planted evidence, especially when he's been complaining that the documents in his possession are his to begin with. Gaslighting the media is easy: Gaslighting a judge leads to perjury.

The only rational way trump can get out of his blatant violation of the Presidential Records Act is to argue the law itself is Unconstitutional. trump's only defense is that Executive Privilege extends even to former Presidents, but to do so would grant ex-Presidents powers that would conflict with the authority of the current Chief of State. Would this Far Right Supreme Court even go THAT far to protect trump?

For the Justice Department to dig this long - and fight this hard against trump's delaying tactics via judge-shopping for Cannon's help - it would be folly to not follow through on this case. That trump is at least facing a courtroom for his theft of these documents - at the earliest by 2023, to avoid his presumed Presidential run for 2024 - has to be a settled thing. It's now a question of when (it just better be SOON dammit).

For all that happened this past Tuesday, the Reuters newswire documented more:

The conservative-leaning U.S. Supreme Court cleared the release of Trump's tax returns to the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee...

The committee in its request invoked a federal law that empowers its chairman to request any person's tax returns from the tax-collecting Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Trump's lawyers have said the committee's real aim is to publicly expose his tax returns and unearth politically damaging information about Trump...

Although Reuters didn't go into the reason(s) why the Ways and Means were looking at trump's taxes, if I recall from other sources it was because the Committee was digging into trump's many violations of the Emoluments Clause. trump had been using his properties to entice and squeeze as much money out of the government (forcing the Secret Service to reside at his hotels at double-billing!) and foreign lobbyists since Day One. It had been this long going after trump on this open grift - delayed either by Republican control of Congress or trump's control of the Justice Department - that only now have the courts cleared this matter.

Problem is, the current Democratic control of Ways and Means is going to end in a month: Republicans won a narrow victory to control the House, and there is no way the MAGA wingnuts running the GOP caucus is going to expose their God-Emperor trump to public scrutiny. If there's anything the current committee can use the tax returns info they now have, they better make it quick before Christmas.

If there's anything else that should get resolved before Christmas, well the New York criminal trial into the Trump Organization got a lot of testimony during the first half of the month, leading up to the prosecution resting their case with the defense resuming matters after Turkey Day (via the Guardian and the AP newswire):

Prosecutors in the Trump Organization’s criminal tax fraud trial rested their case on Monday earlier than expected, pinning hopes for convicting Donald Trump’s company largely on the word of two top executives who cut deals before testifying that they schemed to avoid taxes on company-paid perks.

Allen Weisselberg, the company’s longtime finance chief, and Jeffrey McConney, a senior vice-president and controller, testified for the bulk of the prosecution’s eight-day case, bringing the drama of their own admitted wrongdoing to a trial heavy on numbers, spreadsheets, tax returns and payroll records...

The Trump Organization’s lawyers opened their defense by calling to the witness stand the accountant who handled tax returns and other financial matters for Trump, the Trump Organization and hundreds of Trump entities since the 1980s.

Donald Bender, a partner at Mazars USA LLP, said McConney would call him “numerous times” a week about various tax issues and that he got emails from Weisselberg so often, he even made time to respond while away in the mountains or vacationing in Paris.

Bender said he interacted far less frequently with Trump, his biggest client, attending his 2005 wedding, but otherwise talking to him maybe a couple times a year.

Once Trump became president in 2017, Bender said he would visit him twice a year at the White House so he could sign his tax extensions and returns but those trips ended when the Covid-19 pandemic began.

Trump blamed Bender and Mazars for the company’s troubles, writing on his Truth Social platform last week: “The highly paid accounting firm should have routinely picked these things up – we relied on them. VERY UNFAIR!”

trump's defense is obviously an attempt to dodge accountability for himself, but considering trump himself was the company CEO - had sold himself for years as a great decision-maker and leader - it's kind of hard to tell a jury and the world that he was kept out of the loop for major financial decisions that kept his businesses afloat. Harder still to admit his own business "savvy" didn't clue trump into the many tax dodges happening under his authority.

While trump himself won't face criminal liability here - by a quirk in the law, it's his corporation that's on trial - if the New York legal system can prove guilt here and issue judgment on Trump Organization to where trump can't use it to manage his ongoing cons, this would be a huge victory for holding the corrupt in high office accountable for their sins.

All of this going on while trump jumps into the 2024 Presidential campaign two years early in an obvious attempt to use his status as a "candidate" to avoid any criminal prosecution heading his way. In spite of Attorney General Garland hiring a Special Prosecutor to take over not only the Mar-A-Lago investigation but a multitude of other trump-related investigations as a response.

All we can hope for, all we've been able to hope for since 2015, is the long arc of justice to find trump guilty of the crimes he's openly committed for decades. If justice can be done by the time we're gathered at the Christmas trees to open the presents, please and thank you.

Here's hoping for a festive Saturnalian season.

A Few Things To Be Thankful For 2022

I am thankful that the Democrats held onto the US Senate this midterms.

I am thankful that we are one day closer to donald trump facing criminal charges for violating the Presidential Records Act.

I am thankful we all survived to witness the 10th anniversary of the almighty Butt Fumble.

I am thankful that today at Thanksgiving dinner I get to meet a nephew I haven't seen in 20 years and a niece I've never met.

I am thankful I get one more chance to share the greatest Thanksgiving television episode of all time.

 REPEAT AFTER ME: "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly."

Look For Me On Counter Social Now (w/Update)

With all the talk the last two weeks of Elon Musk's destruction of Twitter as a corporate entity - his mass firings, driving the employees to flee under demands of "hardcore" doubling down on work, pushing for fee-based services that would drive users away, and allowing for extremist BS to spread that would drive advertisers away - most everybody hadn't actually quit Twitter because we were enjoying the drama too much, and some of us were masochistic enough to stay to watch the pending technological collapse of the media app in real-time.

It would have to take an act of sadism and cluelessness for Musk to drive people away from Twitter even as he was driving the app over the cliffs, and Musk reached that today with the announcement that he's letting donald trump - who lied, bullied, lied more, mocked people, lied a lot more, and made outrageous demands through his Twitter feed on an hourly basis until he crossed too many lines and got banned - back on twitter without restraint.

With that, I made my announcement and made my peace. Goodbye, Twitter.

I will not support a Twitter where Elon Musk brings back a lying, racist monster like trump without consequences to let him poison this forum any further. I am gone. Goodbye Twitter, and good luck. look for me on @pwartenberg@counter.social#RIPTwitter #ElonMuskIsATroll

— Witty Librarian For Ukraine (@PaulWartenberg) November 20, 2022

I am done with Twitter now, and if it falls apart under the strain of too few workers keeping it together with duct tape and spit, then I will just have to read about it on NPR's website when it happens.

I will miss you all. Except for the ones I know on Discord and Facebook, mostly the Lost Golden Horde Battalion of the TNC.

You can find me now on the alternative social media app Counter.Social under @pwartenberg and I wish you good luck in your journeys ahead.

More to say about this hectic month later. A little too busy with NaNo and with working a vendor table at Lake County Comic Con this Sunday.

I will part with this, my most famous tweet of all time:

that's how it starts, with the oohing and the ahhing. then comes the screaming and the running... pic.twitter.com/iZDXx7T4EQ

— Witty Librarian For Ukraine (@PaulWartenberg) April 9, 2017

Update: I'm also looking into this HIVE app, but it's mobile-only.

Even Further Update (12/5/22): Well, damn. HIVE turned out to be a bit unhelpful. Counter Social works okay but I'm having a hard time finding people and following them. In the meanwhile, Musk may have invited trump to rejoin Twitter but it turns out trump signed an exclusive rights deal with his own (failing) social media app, meaning trump legally can't get on Twitter even if he wanted to. It all turned into Much Ado About Nothing, I suppose. Anyway, Musk is turning out to be a real idiot running the company into the ground, and violating a ton of international labor laws in the process. I will see you back on the Titanic on the Twitter feed, peeps.

Even Further Revision to the Update (12/11/22): Going back to Twitter is not a good idea. Elon Musk is intentionally promoting every bad-faith right-wing meme on the site, in the process of defaming former Twitter officials in order to justify letting extremists promoting violence and misinformation to return to the site. Other people I know are going back to quitting the site, refusing to let their traffic contribute to Musk's stat numbers. Musk is intentionally starting fights to get views. It's disgusting.

Let the GOP Backstabbing Begin (w/Update)

I'm not entirely in the mood to discuss the Shitgibbon's attempt tonight to use the excuse of a Presidential campaign to avoid DOJ prosecution, so I'll discuss the entire act of party implosion happening for the Republican Party this post-midterms.

While the Republicans reaped huge gains in Florida thanks to DeSantis' gerrymandering and the state Democrats' ineptitude, the national party didn't do so well. High expectations of a "Red Wave" - bolstered by historical trends of the President's party suffering in midterms (at least since the 1960s) - turned into a self-immolated debacle of bad Far Right candidates losing key races. Instead of gaining 25 seats in the US House, Republicans are looking at either missing control (there are still two-three seats that can favor Dems) or gaining the House with the slimmest margin in modern history (which would embolden the wingnut factions to make impossible demands on the Speakership).

It got worse in the Senate, where the GOP were expecting to break the 50-50 deadlock - which favored Democrats with Vice President Harris as the tiebreaker - by flipping Senate races in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia, and Nevada to their favor. Instead, they lost those races leaving the Dems at that 50-50 advantage, with one outstanding recount for the Georgia race where Dem incumbent Warnock ought to outgain the hypocritical and addled Republican challenger in Herschel Walker. Dems should count on having a 51-seat majority in 2023 that should improve their ability to free up legislation from Senatorial gridlock.

There's a lot of anger among the Republican ranks, with finger pointing and accusations in every direction. Even their standard bearer trump got attacked because he pushed a number of extremist candidates who mostly flamed out, killing the "Red Wave" narrative. Other factions are lashing out at the existing party leadership, using this opportunity to seize the reins of power for their own greedy ambitions.

This is where Rick "Medicare Fraud" Scott enters the picture. He is openly challenging Republican stalwart Mitch McConnell for party leadership in the Senate. Via Brian Slodysko and Mary Clare Jalonick at AP News:

Florida Sen. Rick Scott said Tuesday that he will mount a long-shot bid to unseat Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, opening the latest front in an intraparty battle between allies of McConnell and former President Donald Trump over the direction of the GOP following a disappointing showing in last week’s midterm elections.

The announcement by Scott, who was urged to challenge McConnell by Trump, came hours before the former president was expected to launch a comeback bid for the White House. It escalated a long-simmering feud between Scott, who led the Senate Republican’s campaign arm this year, and McConnell over the party’s approach to reclaiming a Senate majority...

It should be noted that Scott is a junior member of the Senate, having been elected into the seat back in 2018. There are a number of other Senators with more seniority some of whom aren't in Mitch's corner on this, and part of me wonders why they're not making this move.

Because Rick Scott is a goddamn hypocrite on this challenge. Scott was the one in charge of the campaign financing this midterms, and he's the one who failed to keep a lot of those Senate campaigns afloat, squandering money on his own self-promotion. If anyone among the current GOP Senate ranks deserves most of the blame, it's Rick "What Part of Fraud Did You Overlook" Scott. I mean, I wrote this back in August:

The other thing mentioned in that WaPo article is how Scott has been spending a lot of the party's money on himself, filming his own campaign spots - even though he's not running this cycle, his so-called buddy Marco Rubio is instead - as though he is the only one who matters. Scott also pushed out - against the advice of other party leaders - a policy agenda for Republicans that was a mix of "Contract On America" calls to patriotism, vague promises of culture war victories, and slashing popular federal social programs like Social Security.

If Scott thinks any of this is going to help him run a Presidential primary in 2024, he's not only a crook he's a goddamned idiot...

Rick Scott is quickly showing his true nature: A self-serving creature looking to put himself above others at their expense. Granted, you can say that about half the Senators who ever served in that capacity, but Scott is making himself far worse - well, okay, he's at par with Ted "Cancun" Cruz now - than any of them.

None of the other Senators should back Scott on his power play, because all it will do is expose them to the dangers of allowing this fraud to keep ripping them off for his own benefit.

And yet they will, because donald trump is backing Rick Scott, and for all the blame and public denouncing trump's been getting, the second he demands the party fealty he will get it because they dare not antagonize the MAGA voting base still in love with that con artist.

If Mitch McConnell has anyone to blame, it's himself. Through his long game of obstruction - to ensure a packed Federalist Society judiciary and a twisted conservative Supreme Court - McConnell pandered to the Far Right elements of the GOP that's now turning on him. He may not be at fault for the Republicans' failures to retake the Senate this cycle, but he did little to stop the avalanche of disaster to roll over them in the first place.

It will be interesting to note how this coup attempt in the GOP Senate plays out, who will side with Scott - and allow a known fraud to take over their entire Senatorial operations - and who will side with McConnell - who is honestly aging out and ought to step aside for "younger" leadership to assume a new direction - for the upcoming acts of obstruction and cruelty the GOP can inflict on the nation.

Personally, I'm rooting for that comet we keep hoping will hit the Far Right wingnuts and wash their toxins into the sea.

Update (the very next day!): Well that was quick. McConnell squashes Scott's coup attempt with a quick vote 37-10 with one abstaining. Now the fun is going to be watching how Mitch kicks Rick Scott off every committee and isolate him from every GOP fundraiser for the next four years.

Update (11/21/22): Thanks to Batocchio for adding me to this Monday's Mike's Blog Round-Up at Crooks & Liars! But Bato, my man, my brah, my mentor, you gotta give me a heads up if you want to add me to a Round-Up. I need to set the table and bake a cake! (also places the Silver trophy for Nonfiction Blogging on the table)

(I gotta crow a little...)

About That Royal Palm Literary Award Thing 2022 Edition

I kind of realize I didn't dedicate a full article here about the Florida Writers Association Royal Palm Literary Awards given out back in late October. I was a Finalist with two articles - "Hark! A Ranking of Nirvana Albums" and "Irrational" - and so I went to the awards banquet with guarded hopes.

"Irrational" won the Silver (second place) trophy!

Florida Writers Association then sent me a set of award stickers I can use to stick to the book(s) that had won!

Except what had won was an online blog article. There's nothing I can stick the stickers to (unless I can sticker every computer monitor out there).

I mean, I do have books I can put stickers to - my story anthology collection Last of the Grapefruit Wars, any of the Strangely Funny anthologies I'm in, the nonfiction essays of Surviving the Age of Obstruction... except those aren't the things that won. It'd feel wrong to sticker those.

Also, the books I self-published through the POD service - Grapefruit Wars and Surviving the Age - are years old, and just not selling (as a librarian, I've confronted the sad fact I have to weed out my Surviving the Age book because no one's checked it out since 2018). I've been thinking of cancelling those books altogether, and redoing what I had published into something else.

I *could* gather more of this blog's articles together to print in a book, but I'd need a unifying theme to bind them together, rather than a loose collection of random thoughts. It'd be nice to include the "Irrational" article with it, to justify adding the stickers.

I am serious asking the nine people I've got following this blog, the few who actually pay attention: Any suggestions on what articles to collect and print?

Dark Days for Florida in 2022

I woke up to a gray day.

Not only because of an incoming Hurricane in mid-November - remember when hurricane seasons ended in October? Thanks to climate change, not anymore! - making it a dreary rainy day.

It was a gray dreary day because here in Florida for the 2022 midterms, I woke up to news that Republican Governor Ron DeSantis - that racist, immigrant-bashing, blasphemous moran - not just won re-election but he won in a blow-out by nearly double digits over Charlie Crist.

There was a similar result with Marco Rubio - that wet noodle of a Senator who barely shows up and only for television interviews - winning big against Val Demings for the U.S. Senator seat.

It was basically a massive blowout statewide in Florida for Republicans, while at the national level the GOP suffered with poor results, failing to flip the Senate (so far, some states are undecided but the Democratic incumbents are holding on) and barely winning the U.S. House despite poll predictions having them win 25-plus seats to wreak havoc on President Biden's hopes.

So today was me sitting around waiting for a hurricane to hit muttering to myself "What the hell happened?"

Previous midterm elections - with Florida's Governor races as part of the ballots - were never this bad for Democrats. In 2018, DeSantis eked out a win over Andrew Gillum with 4.07 million over 4.04 million votes. In 2014, Rick Scott won against Charlie Crist with 2.86 million votes over 2.8 million.

But this time, 2022 with DeSantis facing Crist who was running his second chance as a Democrat (Crist was a Republican Governor 2006-2010 but switched parties when he lost favor with a growing extremist GOP), the results were 4.6 million for DeSantis and 3.1 million for Crist. The voter turnout for the Senate race was pretty much the same: Rubio at 4.6 million and Demings at 3.1 million. 

Democrats just... lost over a million Florida voters somewhere. In a midterms where Democratic voter turnout saw moderate or better gains across most of the nation. What the hell happened?

In my darkest, angriest mindset, I'm going to the conspiracy angle of hard voter suppression happening. Republicans didn't gain voters all that much between 2018 to 2022, but the Democrats obviously lost them. I would be screaming about somebody somewhere blocking Democratic voters in likely Blue districts... except there's been no reports of that on social media or regular media.

Hey, if QAnon can run around screaming "stolen elections," I have a right to scream the same thing. It's just... dammit, where's the evidence of it? Alas.

The only other rational explanation was voter disinterest. All those Democratic voters just... refused to vote for the party this year. There's two reasons why that could be the culprit.

One of the bigger voter suppression stunts DeSantis pulled this election cycle was aggressively redoing the U.S. Congressional districts with extreme Republican-friendly gerrymandering. It was so blatantly partisan a gerrymander it ought to have been voted down by even the Republican legislature, or at least stricken down by the courts. And yet, nobody fought it.

Worse, the Florida Democratic party failed to challenge for every district in spite of that gerrymandering. Several districts had no Democratic congressional candidate, increasing the voter disinterest to turn out for the other important races for Governor and Senator.

Study after study shows that extreme partisan gerrymandering affects voter turnout. When DeSantis redid the Congressional map, he not only improved the odds of state Republicans winning extra U.S. House seats, he also improved his own odds to win re-election by depressed Democratic turnout.

The second reason for the drop in Democratic voter turnout? There had been complaints before - and this time around seemed to prove it - that the Democratic voting base just didn't like or trust Charlie Crist. Due to the fact he used to be Republican, the fact he still stood as a more Centrist moderate candidate to a base that would prefer progressives, and the fact he just didn't seem to reach more people this time around all hurt the overall ticket. How this affected Val Demings - who had a better rapport with the Democratic base, and should have seen better results - still doesn't make sense outside of the anti-Crist factions just refusing to show up at all.

And for all the evidence that the Democratic Party is failing to reach Hispanic voters - especially here in Florida, where the Cuban and Puerto Rican voting blocs are heavily social conservatives - I don't think that is a major reason for the missing voters from 2018: If the Hispanics were flipping parties, we'd be seeing an increase in Republican turnout this 2022 over 2018. Still, the failure by the Democratic Party at both the state and national level to appeal better to Latino voters is a major setback that the Dems have to address.

My mood is not lightened by the reports of Democratic gains elsewhere, especially in Midwest states where Dems gained control of state legislatures in Michigan and Minnesota. There may be a chance that the Democrats keep control of the Senate - only with gaining one extra seat, which may not be enough to break the filibuster/cloture stranglehold - but the Republicans are about to gain control of the House (due in strong part to DeSantis' gerrymandering, damn him). The reports are that the GOP will have a slim lead in the House, but that a schism between more hardcore wingnut factions could undercut the fight for Speakership. I doubt it: Republicans will unite even if it's behind a spineless cur like McCarthy if there's a chance to get their Cruelty agenda passed.

So here I sit, waiting for another storm to hit Florida, praying that at least this hurricane can well hit Mar-A-Lago like a bullseye and wash it all into the sea.

I've been raging and fuming ever since 2010, ever since sanity failed my state when the Republican voters eagerly put into office a documented Medicare Fraud. It's only gotten worse since then: The cruelty, the failures of leadership, all to "own the libs" even as the state literally falls apart bit by bit, disaster by disaster.

I'd like to move away, I'm at that point of giving up on the state I've lived almost my whole life. But I'm too old to go job-hunting across states anymore, and damn it all the rent is too damned high.

Gods help us.

Election Day 2022: VOTE BLUE, DAMMIT

Today is Election Day.

I already voted this morning.

For the first time in years, there was a line formed outside my precinct in the morning. It turns out they had to merge two precincts to one spot because the place I'd been going to - a Baptist Church - apparently went out of business (the slow erosion of Christian churches - and the fact most counties use churches as voting precincts - is a discussion for another time)!

Most previous voting trips in the mornings - I've been a Tuesday evening worker ever since I worked in BROWARD County and that's been 25-plus years, people - were rarely this packed, but having doubled up a spot I guess would explain away the voting line. It's not even the longest line I've ever seen on Voting Day: I worked at a library in 2008 whose meeting room was a precinct locale and it snaked out through the entire parking lot.

I am hopeful that the voting turnout is heavily on the young and Democratic, although I am in the middle of Florida and the goddamn Far Right wingnuts are already crowing that DeSantis has won the Hispanic vote (which is horrifying considering how DeSantis is so racist about Latino immigration).

I am begging and praying to the Divine Powers and Providence that watched over this United States for 250 years: For the LOVE OF GOD let the Democrats win the big elections. Let there be 81 million voters again this 2022 like it was in 2020, so we can ensure Congress stays Democratic and avoids falling into the madness of Republican obstructionism.

GET THE VOTE OUT, AMERICA. AND FOR THE LOVE OF EVERYTHING VOTE DEMOCRAT.

 

Still Waiting for the Hammer on trump. Soon. It Should Be Soon.

The buzz on donald trump facing justice from the Department of Justice is picking up as the midterm elections wrap up this Tuesday. Via Alexander Bolton at The Hill website: 

Republican aides and strategists privately expect Attorney General Merrick Garland to pursue an indictment of former President Trump within 60 to 90 days after Election Day, predicting the window for prosecuting Trump will close once the 2024 presidential campaign gains momentum...

Gods, we gotta wait another 60 days? We've been waiting half the year ever since the Mar-A-Lago warrant search revealed trump's potential espionage and obstruction stealing documents that should have gone to the National Archives. At least hit trump with violating the Presidential Records Act, you've got him dead to rights on that.

GOP aides also warn that an indictment of Trump by the Biden administration would further polarize the nation and likely strengthen Trump’s support from the Republican Party’s base as the former president and his allies would frame the Department of Justice’s prosecution as a political witch hunt...

trump's been screaming "Witch Hunt" for years now, ever since the Mueller investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 elections (and trump's likely ties to Russia during all that). trump's been screaming "Witch Hunt" about the Mar-A-Lago search for stolen documents. None of that has changed. We're already polarized as a nation regarding trump's illegal behaviors. Just fucking arrest him already.

I understand the Justice Department has delayed this long out of courtesy to the election cycle, because any move they would do before could influence voter behavior. We've seen that when FBI Director Comey screwed up and reported investigations into Hillary's emails before November 2016, which all turned out to be nothingburgers but likely cost her voters in battleground states.

But as soon as the election's done and the ballots are mostly counted, by Wednesday November 9th at the earliest, by that Friday November 11th at the latest, just fucking charge donald trump for the crimes the Justice Department can prove he's committed. Gods.

trump will scream that the DOJ shouldn't charge him, that there's never been a history of the feds charging a Presidential candidate for office before, because trump will claim he's a candidate already even though 2024 is still two years away. trump - and his Republican lackeys - all keep forgetting that the Justice Dept. only does that as a courtesy, not as a rule or as a law from Congress. The guys at Justice have never done it before because they've never had before an openly corrupt con artist like donald trump breaking federal laws that he's broken. If running for President made a crook untouchable, John Gotti would have run for the White House decades ago.

Confronted with the reality and evidence that donald trump has violated serious federal laws - regarding the Presidential Records Act, regarding likely acts of espionage by keeping and exposing hundreds of still-classified documents, regarding likely acts of obstruction hiding away documents detailing trump's involvement in January 6th Insurrection and/or other cases the government is investigating now - the United States government has no choice but to charge trump for what he's done. Otherwise, they expose our government to the horrors of allowing trump to repeat the same crimes, and worse stop themselves from ever honestly upholding those laws ever again. The hypocrisy of letting trump walk will never wash away.

Republicans and trump can scream "Partisan witch hunt" all they want. It can't hide the facts that trump broke a number of laws, and that he's perfectly willing to break more laws to serve his own needs.

Just fucking arrest trump already. Okay. We can wait until Wednesday. You better arrest him then.

Update 11/13: Apparently the midterm elections aren't entirely finished, as Georgia is looking at a finalist round for the Senate race between Warnock and Walker (neither of them clearing the 50 percent hurdle the state requires). As I've noted above, the DOJ as a courtesy will hold off on any major politically-tinged indictments until that vote is done (mid-December, perhaps? I need to find the timeline). Although that election is technically moot as the Democrats confirmed 50-seat control of the Senate this midterms, the courtesy remains. Meaning we got to wait another month before popping the champagne. 

This also applies to other ongoing criminal matters such as Matt Gaetz's impending doom regarding his buddy Greenberg, who just got a lighter sentence recommendation from the feds for his cooperation. All signs are pointing to Gaetz facing at least one felony charge, but given the leniency shown to Greenberg there's a good chance Greenberg gave up some serious shit on Gaetz (and other Florida Republicans).

Write-In for Florida US District 18

I know this is late to the game and all, but I'm looking at my Polk County FL ballot and I'm a little perturbed by what I see for my Congressional district - 18th District, stretching from Polk County southward to Lake Okeechobee - choices.

There's no Democrat running this midterm. As a result, the choices I have are either the establishment Far Right Conservative Republican candidate, the Far Right Conservative Independent candidate with ties to the NRA (boo hiss), and a Write-In slot.

...

Fuck it, I'm using the Write-In slot. And since I don't know anybody else to write in... Fuck it, I'm writing myself in on the Ego ticket.

So if anybody else in Central Florida with the 18th District as your stomping ground, if you want a center-left candidate to vote for, well what the fuck write me in.

Here's my platform:

• I support a woman's choice to her own body and health.
• I will let teachers teach without interference from politicians and censors.
• I will raise taxes on billionaires because let's be honest they're the only ones who can afford to pay taxes anymore.
• I support universal background checks on ALL gun sales, I support a ban on ALL assault rifles, I support all laws to prevent angry guys getting any access to a gun as a means to reduce domestic violence.
• I will fight to get nurses and teachers paid like baseball players.
• I support any immigration reform that makes it easier for law-abiding families to enter the U.S. on work plans and become citizens like my ancestors did.
• I will fight to reduce the high costs of rent.
• I will punish any deejay who talks over the last 30 seconds of Pat Benatar's "Love Is a Battlefield." You bastards, when the whistling starts is not a cue to start blabbing. The song's not over yet!
• I will push for clean water and clean air laws to help Florida and the nation be balanced with our nature, and make it safe to live here.
• I will fight for election laws that will end gerrymandering, that will promote voter rights without interference from suppression, and will ensure that the majority of people will get the representation that truly reflects their needs.
• I support all law enforcement reforms that will de-escalate situations to reduce police brutality and ensure all our civil rights are upheld.
• I will serve the public trust for both Florida and the nation.

There you go. That's me.

I know this is late, just days before the midterms election itself. But goddammit, someone's got to stand up for this district and for Florida.

And the good news, I won't spam you fifty times a day begging for campaign funds!

So if you're between Lakeland to Palmdale and Lakeport, between Mulberry to Sebring, if you wanna test your handwriting, write in Paul Wartenberg for the 18th Congressional!

...

Yes, I will be surprised if you all spell my last name correctly.

Going Mad Another Midterms in 2022

I swear to God I'm gonna die of an anxiety attack some day.

I just want more Floridians to show up to vote Democratic in the big elections - Governor, Senator, at least half the Congressional seats to spite DeSantis' extreme gerrymandering, State Attorney General, et al - this midterms cycle. I'm sick of watching my state succumb to the stupidity and pandering and ignorance that the Republican campaigns bring out in people.

And yet, I just get this nagging painful feeling that too many Latino voters, too many suburban households, too many trump-worshipping coal rollers around me are going to wallow in the MAGA madness and make this state suffer another two-four years. All because God forbid Democrats ever win anything in the Sunshine State again.

Even though nearly 20 straight years of Republican misrule has led to poisoned rivers, a failing home insurance industry, collapsing condos, broke schools, and about twenty to fifty other things making Florida a sadder, angrier place to live.

Gods, please. Please reach the minds and hearts and souls of 6 to 8 million voters to make them realize we need changes in our elected leaders, that we need Crist as Governor and Demings as Senator and more Democrats in office to counter the damage the Republicans are continuing to inflict on us. 

GET OUT THE VOTE, FLORIDIANS. VOTE DEMOCRATIC. VOTE CRIST. VOTE DEMINGS. VOTE FOR OUR LIVES AND OUR CHILDREN'S FUTURES.

November 2022: Midterms. GET THE DAMN VOTE OUT, DEMOCRATS

This is it, Florida. This is it, United States of America.

Election Day is November 8th. One week away.

Some states will have Early Voting going on until this Friday or Saturday. You can still go in early if you're worried about long lines at the precincts next Tuesday November 8th.

Early Voting turnout is reaching 2018 levels, which set a record or two for midterm cycles results. That congressional cycle favored Democrats, in spite of Republican efforts to restrict turnout.

In the face of those Far Right efforts to curtail, suppress, restrict voters from showing up this midterms, massive voter turnout is still the best way to defeat those violations of our civil right - our obligation - to vote for our government.

We need to vote, people.

And we need to vote Democratic.

We need to vote for the party (Dems) that won't take away women's rights to their health care and to control their own bodies the way Republicans are. We need to vote for the party (Dems) that won't nuke Medicare and Social Security the way the Republicans plan. We need to vote for the party (Dems) that won't steal from the poor by raiding food stamps and other poverty-fighting programs the way the Republicans have across Red States for decades.

We need to hold Republicans here in Florida accountable for their failures to fix the broken property insurance system. We need to hold DeSantis accountable for his expensive and illegal stunts of kidnapping legal migrants for political photo ops. We need to kick out Marco Rubio from a Senate job he barely ever shows up for, to which he contributes little while posing and preening on television. I mean, Grassley and Feinstein show up to serve their constituents, and they're senile and way past retirement age.

We need another Blue Wave, Florida: One that washes away the corruption and violence and gaslighting of the Far Right.

We need every pro-choice, pro-infrastructure, pro-wages, pro-environment, pro-housing, pro-justice voter to show up and support every Democratic candidate on the ballot.

Get the damn vote out, everybody.

The state of Florida, the whole bloody nation needs your voice and your commitment to each other.

I will see you at the ballot box on Tuesday (I'm a traditionalist, plus I work late so I can vote early in the morning).