Trump Allies Targeting Paul Ryan Again

In January 2013 every Democrat-- but far right Tennessee Blue Dog Jim Cooper-- joined 49 Republicans to pass aid for the New York and New Jersey victims of Hurricane Sandy. A lot has been made lately of the hypocrisy of Texas Republicans who voted against it-- like Blake Farenthold, Randy Weber, Lamar Smith, Pete Sessions, Joe Barton, Louie Gohmert, Jeb Hensarling, Pete Olson, Ted Poe, Mike McCaul...-- and who are now clamoring for aid to help the victims of Hurricane Harvey. Farenthold's, Weber's, Poe's, McCaul's and Olson's constituents are in real need of the same kind of federal help now that they opposed 4 years ago.

Derrick Crowe, the progressive Democrat running for the central Texas seat currently occupied by climate change denier Lamar Smith told us that "Natural disasters and the growing climate emergency require us to pull together as a nation to deal with challenges that one region could never shoulder on their own. That's what we mean by 'one nation, indivisible.' Lamar Smith's grandstanding on his extreme version of conservatism endangers his constituents and Texans generally by undermining people's willingness to support our area when it's our turn to need help. In fact, this whole attitude extends to his larger stance on issues like health care. When you add the fact that Smith has consistently opposed real action on climate change, it's clear that Smith's reactionary politics are a liability to the people of this district. Consider that just a few weeks ago, Smith wrote an op-ed where he said global warming and 'carbon enrichment' have great upsides for which we should be thankful. Tell that to the victims of Hurricane Harvey, who had to suffer unprecedented rainfall, of which up to 30 percent could be attributed to human-caused global warming."

Yesterday, Erik Wasson, writing for Bloomberg pointed out that the GOP "has been divided in the past over whether disaster spending needs to be offset by other domestic spending cuts, a debate that could return over Harvey response funding." Texas Republicans are desperate for aid-- and Democrats are ready to help-- but some of the far right of the party are balking. Costs could reach something between $30 and $100 billion but Trump is far more interested in getting his hands on that for his Great Wall boondoggle than in helping Texas.

But a staffer in New Jersey Congressman Frank LoBiondo's office told me that he thinks yesterday's tweet storm by his boss about this (above) wasn't just aimed at the Texas hypocrites but at the whole Republican caucus and, in particular, at the leadership, namely Paul Ryan. Ryan also voted against the Hurricane Sandy aid legislation. He tries passing himself off as a principled conservative rather than as the partisan hack and extremist ideologue his record shows him to be. Today he's doing back flips to come up with the right talking points when Congress passes an aide package for the Texas and Louisiana victims of Hurricane Harvey. I doubt he'll use the one that Eminem used Saturday night at the Reading MusicFestival in Glasgow:



And while he is, he has to face the murderous winds of a Hurricane Bannon aimed relentlessly at his own reelection. Over the weekend, Breitbart attacked him again-- this time for throwing in with leftists against Señor Trumpanzee in the matter of the Arpaio pardon. Ryan's very mild disagreement-- through a spokesman-- with the pardon turned into a virtual assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and Sofie for the fringe right. All Ryan's flack, Doug Andres, said was basically what everyone in the country except hardcore neo-Nazi Trump supporters think-- "The speaker does not agree with the decision. Law-enforcement officials have a special responsibility to respect the rights of everyone in the United States. We should not allow anyone to believe that responsibility is diminished by this pardon." Not a word of Señor Trumpanzee, of course. Here's the Bannon spin:

This comes after Ryan similarly threw in with leftists to criticize President Trump’s response to Charlottesville, running to leftist media outlet CNN to say in a town hall that the president “messed up” during his press conference at Trump Tower in New York City earlier this month when he bashed the media and violent leftists as well as neo-Nazis and the KKK.

Ryan’s decision to continue undermining the president in key moments of his presidency matches his behavior during the campaign. Ryan is not someone who has ever been supportive of the president. He actually, as Breitbart News reported earlier this year, encouraged fellow Republicans to abandon the president’s campaign against failed Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton in October of last year in the home stretch.

“I am not going to defend Donald Trump-- not now, not in the future,” Ryan said in a conference call with House Republicans, audio of which was published by Breitbart News this spring.

Ryan has a brutal to-do-list in September, with government funding bills, debt ceiling legislation, Obamacare repeal rejuvenation, and the beginning of tax reform coming up. It remains to be seen if he can prove he has the legislative chops necessary for governing. But for now he seems more focused on virtue-signaling to the left and the media that he does not stand with the president and will follow through on his October 2016 promise to not defend Trump “not now, not in the future.”

So when will neo-Nazi Suffolk County billionaire Robert Mercer write a 6-figure check to Ryan's primary opponent, Paul Nehlen, who is running around southeast Wisconsin promoting the popular fringe right conspiracy theory, manufactured by the Kremlin, that Hillary Clinton was operating a child sex ring out of a DC pizzeria. Nehlen's most recent line of attack on Ryan is that he failed to attack the leftists who the neo-Nazis claim were at fault for Charlottesville. "Paul Ryan," he said over the weekend, "is a coward. What he is doing is working to further divide the country so that he can keep his hands on the levers of power. People aren’t buying what Ryan is selling in terms of this fake narrative that there is only one side to the violence... We are waking up. And it is imperative that we, as the voice of true conservative values, don’t back down one inch on exposing the PC Marxists in our midst for what they are."

The Bannon-Mercer interpretation doesn't fit with the exposed online chats between the neo-Nazis and Klan members plotting violence in the lead up to Charlottesville.

Well before a white nationalist “Unite the Right” demonstration turned deadly in Charlottesville this month, attendees were planning for violence, according to leaked online chats. In private chat channels, they shared advice on weaponry and tactics, including repeatedly broaching the idea of driving vehicles through opposition crowds. After the vehicular attack which killed counterprotestor Heather Heyer, users of the channel celebrated the event.

The discussions took place on a private channel created using Discord, a service primarily intended for gamers. Hundreds of screenshots of the exchanges were released this week by Unicorn Riot, a left-wing activist group, which said they were shared by an anonymous source. The records also included audio recordings of planning meetings.

While much of the discussion centered on flags, chants, and other forms of speech, the leaked exchanges also included advice on weapon construction. “You want something designed for longitudinal stress,” wrote one poster. “[Three] whacks and that thing is breaking.” Other topics included body armor and shield design.

Users also shared memes alluding to using vehicles against opponents.

...The records could also have implications for future efforts to organize white supremacist events. While the First Amendment protects the right to speech and assembly for even the most heinous groups and ideas, it does not protect speech if it calls for and is likely to lead to “imminent lawless action.” According to legal experts speaking to Wired, signs of “preparation for illegal activity” could make it more likely that future events organized by related groups could be legally restricted.

Following the protest and attack, Discord suspended the group's private chat channel.