"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross."
-- Sinclair Lewis
Thursday, September 24, 2020
Midnight Meme Of The Day!
>
by Noah
It's not hard for a normal person to see Moscow Mitch in the way he appears in tonight's meme. He's a very warped man. This has nothing to do with standards of physical beauty although perhaps Mitch's obvious anger at the world and his desire to overexert power over it and punish it has something to do with his actions. What often happens is that very warped, cruel people start to physically manifest what they are inside. In the case of Mitch McConnell, he seems to be a reverse of the Dorian Gray story. Perhaps, there's a normal looking, untainted version of him closed up in an attic somewhere. I doubt we will ever know.
Meanwhile, we have the record of his actions upon this country and now he is adding to them. For months now, he has refused to pass the Coronavirus bill that would help millions of us through the emotional, physical, and financial suffering wrought by his president's successful efforts in maximizing COVID-19's spread to every corner of the country. McConnell refused to bring his do-nothing $enate back into session to do the right thing and help Americans, but he could not even wait until Judge Ginsburg's body was cold before calling them all back to confirm his president's Supreme Court nominee that, it his hope, will increase the damage to American citizens by inhibiting workers rights, civil rights, better healthcare, voting rights, and providing for a cleaner, safer environment. The priorities of his party are as warped as can be. The cruelty is the goal.
by Noah Moscow Mitch shows his contempt, and his plans, for this country every day. He is a traitor. He wipes his ass with the Constitution. He wipes his ass with the American Dream itself. People talk about the insanity and anti-Americanism of Donald Trump but Trump has very little on Moscow Mitch in those departments. He will be remembered as the key henchman, in the efforts of Trump and Putin to destroy this country. His head hits the pillow every night and he smiles the smile of satisfaction and begins dreaming of the Russian mob cash provided to him through the oligarchs who connect him to the Republican big boss of bosses who operates out of the Kremlin. He's all in. Yes. He's all in. He's more and more emboldened. Nowhere is there more evidence of that than the plans he laid out Monday for the impeachment trial of his idol. Dead of night sessions to minimize the number of American citizens who get to watch the proceedings live or see summary coverage on that day's prime time TV. No witnesses. No evidence from the House of Representatives, not even written into the record. His party in lock step. They want no unraveling threads that would lead to each of their trails of "campaign contributions" that leads through Moscow Mitch all the way back to the Kremlin. The Republicans are all all in. In Washington, there are many cancers. Some are treatable. Some will inevitably kill.
by Noah Pay no attention to the arrow in the middle of the meme visual; the person who made the meme obviously liked the visual and went with it. What too many Americans aren't paying attention to is the treason and moral corruption of Moscow Mitch McTraitor and his Russo-Republican fellow travelers in the U.S. $enate, the "best" $enators rubles can buy. Here we are. It's January 18, 2020. The so-called impeachment trial of the worst president in our history is due to begin in just a few days. McTraitor, the $enate Majority Leader has already famously stated that he refuses to be impartial and that he's all in for Putin's boy Trump; oath to the U.S. Constitution be damned. Trump's pet doggie, Lindsey Graham is right there with him and only fools think that the rest of the Republican $enators aren't right there with Moscow Mitch too. Try finding one that hasn't drunk at the campaign cash trough that Moscow Mitch's Russian oligarch owners have been providing. The jury tampering is done. Susan Collins will be honest and keep an open mind? That's hilarious. Remember the integrity she showed in the Kavanaugh confirmation hearing? Of course you don't. It was never there. What about Psycho Mitt "Free Stuff" Romney? Ditto. Integrity and loyalty to America is not only unknown to these lowlifes, it is resented. It would be up to them and their ilk to prove us wrong but the odds of that would be like America buying a Powerball ticket and actually winning. If this country actually had a legal system that wasn't a total bullshit joke and Washington had even one ounce of integrity, Moscow Mitch would already be stripped of his assets, tried for obstruction, and thrown into a dungeon where he'd find Nixon's bones plus multi-legged roaches and rats instead of the two-legged kind that he's more used to, but then, those in the Putin-Trump White House who refused to testify before the House during the impeachment hearings would also already be hearing the scurrying of vermin in the darkness. To date, democrats Schiff and Nadler have let them off the hook. Like I say, Washington takes care of its own. It's a game played with a smirk. In this particular impeachment game, anything less than life imprisonment in some hellhole is a sellout of justice and a sentence of life imprison is itself a compromise. So, Washington, go ahead, make my day. Surprise me. surprise me with something new, something refreshingly like justice, something a lot like Nuremberg.
by Noah Putin's Russian mob is no different than the Cosa Nostra. They'll always want more and more favors for their election aid and money. They'll just keep pushing and they'll keep on escalating their demands. Ask yourself what they will demand of Moscow Mitch and Traitor Don after Mitch has orchestrated an acquittal for the Manchurian President.
Nancy Pelosi's in the clutches of a left-wing mob. They finally convinced her to impeach the president. All of you know your Constitution. The way that impeachment stops is a Senate majority with me as majority leader.
The above quote is from Moscow Mitch McConnell's latest facebook campaign ad. Obviously, he hopes that the citizens of Kentucky enthusiastically support Donald Trump's treason against the United States of America as much as he does. Moscow Mitch is, of course, determined to stop the removal of his American master if the impeachment of Trump comes to the $enate for trial. And why wouldn't he be. With his pockets stuffed with Russian rubles, he's as wrapped up in the Russian corruption of our democratic processes as anyone in Washington. Plus, his "wife" is a particularly slimy member of the cabinet of his godfather boss. Mitch is a made man and always has been.
Don't you love farce,
my fault, I fear.
I thought you'd want what I want.
Sorry my dear!
But where are the clowns?
Send in the clowns!
Don't bother, they're here!
- From Stephen Sondheim's "Send In The Clowns"
Labor Day has passed. Congress has returned to their den of iniquity/frat house and put their performing suits back on in a vain attempt to mask (vain only to the sentient among us) what what they really are. Washington will now revert to what it considers normal and good. The caretakers of the cesspool have returned! But, I had a dream last night! My dream was so realistic, for a dream: When I looked at the Capitol building last night, I swear I saw a huge banner that read "Welcome Back, Clowns!!!" "Send In The Clowns" played loudly across The Mall, from the Lincoln Memorial to the Capitol Building! The soundwaves bounced off the reflecting pool all the way up to the heavens. You could hear it on the International Space Station. Every ship in Space Force could hear it. By popular decree, it was the new national anthem! Simultaneously, the faces of Donald Trump and his entire administration swept across the foggy night sky in beams of light like so many bizarro world bat signals. Today, you can bet the DC clowns are spending a lot of time joking among themselves and trading what they perceive as war stories about having to spend their summer recess talking to the voters instead of the people they really listen to, their scumbag lobbyist money dealers back at the big domed club. "Oh to talk to K Street again!" "Where's the hookers?" "Gimme some of that adderall the president likes so much," they bellow as the glasses clink together. Now they get back to enabling a madman president who not only puts children in cages and laughs, he plays God and picks out specific children to die of cancer because he feels entitled to do so. THIS is Congress 2019 folks. Insanity, mayhem and death is their business. Fuck these people. Fuck this parade of chimps, assholes, and morons. Start with the dual drum majorettes of Congress, Pelosi and Moscow Mitch who caress and nurture this evil. Hand me a very large weed wacker! Better yet, we should put on suits of our own, hazmat suits, and just march them all into John Cleese's rotating blades, all the while humming "Send In The Clowns," of course. I have another dream, a dream that, one day, Washington will be judged not by what it wears, not by "The Mask," but by the content of its character, and then dealt with accordingly. This dream is much more unrealistic. So, now, where's that weed wacker? It runs on bile; never needs recharging. Sad.
by Noah Not only can Moscow Mitch McTraitor see Russia from his bank account, he can see the NRA in his living room and his home office. God knows what we'd find in his basement but would you go down there? I bet the whole atmosphere of the $enate Majority Leader's home is mega-disturbing. What else would we expect from a soulless little MAGA man who's very existence signifies the melding of creepiness with sleaziness? It's almost Labor Day and $enator McTraitor has done nothing, zero, zip about bringing his gang of political miscreants back to Washington to address gun violence and the insecurity of our elections; not that anything the clowns in suits would come up with would be all that effective. Still, saving a few lives is better than saving none, unless you're a personification of evil and mayhem. The White Supremacy inspired El Paso mass murder was 3 weeks ago but McConnell has taken the same approach to El Paso that his idol Trump took to Puerto Rico ie. try to ignore it and treat the place as if it isn't even part of America. I am half surprised that McConnell didn't go to El Paso and toss the citizenry rolls of paper towels to clean up all the blood. Gun violence and the insecurity of our elections are at the forefront of America's problems but Moscow Mitch and his fellow travelers in Republicanland are just fine with it all. "Viva la Status Quo!" Over the years, both parties allowed it all to get this bad but here we are in 2019 and Moscow Mitch and his treasonous owned and operated republican colleagues in the $enate have no interest in solving either problem; not when it helps them get elected and they can stuff so much cash from Russia and the NRA into their oily pockets. "Problem? What problem?" When the NRA and Russia say "lay down," they lay down. They seem especially grateful for the Russian cash that makes its way to them via the NRA itself. That's what the corporate suit and tie types call synergy. Talk about Republicans being pro-marriage to a fault, they view the marriage of the NRA and Russia as a blissful state of affairs. For them, it's mommy and daddy, Mother Russia and Daddy NRA, with them as the children holding out their hands for their hourly allowance. They are the eager children who have taken the typical corruption of politicians to a traitorous pinnacle and they're loving it. They wipe their asses with the American flag. It's who they are.
How Much Of The GOP Is Going Along With The Trump-McConnell Plan To Leave U.S. Elections Unprotected From Foreign Interference?
>
A couple of weeks ago we looked at what the group Republicans for the Rule of Law is and how they are targeting the pro-Putin agenda of #MoscowMitch. Tomorrow they will start running 30-second spots on Fox & Friends-- as well as on Fox News SundayM, on Meet the Press and in Kentucky, Oklahoma, Florida, Missouri and South Carolina. The ads target McConnell and 4 of his Senate allies: Marco Rubio (R-FL), Roy Blunt (R-MO), Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and James Lankford (R-OK).
The goal in airing ads nationally and in the home states of the 5 Republican senators is to increase pressure on Moscow Mitch to stop blocking election security legislation and allow votes in the Senate. Now, if only the budget were $4 million instead of $400,000, they might even persuade some of these senators to do something! The ad up top is the one that will run in Florida and this is the South Carolina ad:
The board of Republicans for the Rule of Law includes William Kristol, which is why they usually sound exactly like the Bullwark website he edits, Mona Charen, Linda Chavez, former New Jersey Gov. Christy Todd Whitman, former Congressman Bob Inglis (R-SC), Jennifer Horn (former chair of the New Hampshire Republican Party), Sarah Longwell (past national chair of the Long Cabin Republicans), prominent dermatologist Andy Zwick, and Chris Gagin, former chair of the Belmont County (Ohio) Republican Party chair, who resigned over Trump's assessing incident with Putin in Helsinki.
These two are the original spots the group put together to turn up the heat on Moscow Mitch-- the only one of the targeted Republicans facing a live or die election challenge next year, and widely considered the main culprit in keeping the backdoor to the American election system open to the Russians:
by Noah Moscow Mitch, inside man. He sees red, Russian red. Yeah, he's angry about being exposed but he's Republican and Moscow all the way. With everything else going on in this country, it's important not to lose sight of how deep the Russian infiltration, corruption and cooption of our government has gone. Hence tonight's meme. Moscow Mitch has Steven Law (Ironic name), his former Chief Of Staff, running an "independent" Super PAC called The Senate Leadership Fund that has received over $4,000,000 in Russian oligarch Len Blavatnik's Russian oil rubles. McConnell distributed some of the oily money to his fellow travelers on the Russo-Repbulcan side of the $enate aisle and, as if by magic, our sanctions on Putin's Russia were lifted as soon as Moscow Mitch brought the subject of the sanctions up for vote on the $enate floor. Now, that's what I call leadership! Russian leadership. Russian leadership of the United States $enate. Or, if you will, leadership by lackey; the lackey being of course, key Russian lackey Moscow Mitch McConnell. See, McConnell can get things to a vote when he wants to. He just needs the "proper" incentive to reach his bank accounts. Can a free villa on the Crimea be in Moscow Mitch's near future? I know there's a talking point out there being pushed by Republicans and conservaDems that says we shouldn't pay any attention to what's going on behind this curtain. They whine that Congress has more important things to do than expose treason. They say investigating Russia and what they're up to behind the closed doors of Washington takes away time from legislating things the American people need. Such useful idiots of Russia play right into McConnell's hopes for a Red November 2020. Those who push the talking point want us to ignore the fact that the House Of Representatives has been plenty busy writing and passing legislation. For instance, 9 bills written to help veterans alone. Of course, Moscow Mitch's Repug-controlled $enate ignores the House's bills when they land on his desk, so maybe the House democrats could try bribing Mitch and his cohorts like the Russians do, but, they'd have to brush up on their fake Russian accents and disguises first. Although... maybe Moscow Mitch has such a love for Mother Russia that he'd do whatever they asked for free.
Conservative Republicans Are Calling Out #MoscowMitch... On TV... In Kentucky
>
A group of conservative #NeverTrumpers ran the above ad-- or a 30 second version of it-- in DC (waste of time) and Kentucky (not a waste of time) this week. The ad was produced and paid for by Republicans for the Rule of Law, which calls itself "a group of life-long Republicans dedicated to defending the institutions of our republic and upholding the rule of law. We are fighting to make sure that the laws apply equally to everyone, from the average citizen to the president of the United States. We believe in fidelity to the Constitution, transparency, and the independence of prosecutors from politics." I suspect they'd impeach Trump before Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer would. So who are they? The umbrella group is called Defending Democracy Together and this is their "about us" statement:
“We believe in American exceptionalism,” reads the opening line of the 2016 Republican Party Platform. “We believe the United States of America is unlike any other nation on earth.” Yet today, the Republican Party finds itself entertaining some of the same unsettling nativist and authoritarian impulses that characterized Europe throughout the 20th century. These ideals are antithetical to what it means to be a Republican, and what it means to be American. Defending Democracy Together is a 501c4 advocacy organization created by lifelong conservatives and Republicans-- many of whom have served in Republican administrations and write for conservative publications. We are dedicated to defending America’s democratic norms, values, and institutions and fighting for consistent conservative principles like rule of law, free trade, and expanding legal immigration. Through research, education and grassroots activism, Defending Democracy Together is fighting abuses of power that threaten to undermine the integrity of U.S. elections, federal agencies, and the Republican Party as a whole. We aim to elevate voices across the conservative political spectrum who advocate for these principles. We hope Americans on the Left, Right, and Center will join us.
Their board includes William Kristol, which is why they usually sound exactly like the Bullwark website he edits, Mona Charen, Linda Chavez, former New Jersey Gov. Christy Todd Whitman, former Congressman Bob Inglis (R-SC), Jennifer Horn (former chair of the New Hampshire Republican Party), Sarah Longwell (past national chair of the Long Cabin Republicans), prominent dermatologist Andy Zwick, and Chris Gagin, former chair of the Belmont County (Ohio) Republican Party chair, who resigned over Trump's assessing incident with Putin in Helsinki.
The ad ran on Morning Joe and Fox & Friends and it is meant to help pressure McConnell into allowing a vote on the election security bill that he's blocking. It was passed by the House. When Joe Scarborough first gave him the Moscow Mitch nickname last week, he noted that McConnell "is aiding and abetting Vladimir Putin’s ongoing attempts to subvert American democracy, according to the Republican FBI, CIA, DNI, intel committee... all Republicans are all saying Russia is subverting American democracy and Moscow Mitch won’t even let the Senate take a vote on it. That is un-American."
by Noah I wasn't saddened by the news that Moscow Mitch had taken a spill and broken a shoulder. After all, I have a Moscow Mitch voodoo doll in my bigly collection of voodoo dolls. At first I wondered if fellow Kentucky $enator Rand Paul's next door neighbor had decided to be an instrument of karma and pay Moscow Mitch a visit. Or, maybe, I wondered, had Moscow Mitch just slipped on his own bullshit? But, then, it hit me that I, and you, are paying for Moscow Mitch's medical care when he would happily take ours away. Fuck you Moscow Mitch! Can't you just send your bills to your beloved Russia and ask them to pay them? Oh I know that you would probably pad your bills to make a tidy profit, but, come on Moscow Mitch McTraitor, you know your Russian sponsors would pay them! You know you can just call Russia and name your price! By the way, Moscow Mitch, I just bought a bunch more pins.
We are living at an inflection point.
43% of us cannot afford the basics. 78% live paycheck to paycheck. UN scientists give us twelve years to get our climate act together. The neoliberal project that has dominated American political and economic structures since Reagan cannot deliver the basic human material needs and meaning to hold us together as a culture. It cannot deliver the domestic cohesion or international cooperation necessary to decrease our carbon impact with the seriousness required to avert global human catastrophe. We either begin to create the democratic socialist structures that can deliver that necessary material dignity and solidarity, or new authoritarian structures will arise in their vacuum. While Trump does not represent the break from neoliberal norms that many claim, his nativist, authoritarian performance is a harbinger of a very real, authoritarian apocalyptic future. We either do this work now or there will be a wall with drones to mow down refugees fleeing from climate chaos and desertification. All of our current pluralist, performative concern for separated families will disappear into murderous necessity. Count on it. My friends on the so-called-left understand this. We understand that, at minimum, we need Medicare For All, a Federal Jobs Guarantee, Green Infrastructure, Free College & Trade Schools, Criminal Justice Reform and unprecedented International Cooperation on the biosphere or we are, to put it technically… Fucked. What we need to win those policies is an unprecedented discipline of purpose and action, beginning with the immediate presidential election cycle. We must begin by doing everything in our power to help Bernie Sanders win the nomination and presidency. There is only one DEM contender, who exhibits the history, the ideological commitment and the movement-building practice necessary to win the election and the following fight for policy.
Now, we must take the next step forward and guarantee every man, woman and child in our country basic economic rights-- the right to quality health care, the right to as much education as one needs to succeed in our society, the right to a good job that pays a living wage, the right to affordable housing, the right to a secure retirement, and the right to live in a clean environment. We must recognize that in the 21st century, in the wealthiest country in the history of the world, economic rights are human rights.. -Bernie Sanders
If you can give money, give money. If you can volunteer, volunteer. If you can do the social media dance, do it. If you can clarify the discourse, clarify the damn discourse. Every increment matters. Despite the wide array of DEM candidates, choice is an illusion for those who can afford to lose. Despite the widespread attempt to blur distinctions between Sanders and other performatively progressive candidates, those distinctions remain deep. They are differences in kind, not degree. Sanders is building his campaign around a clear commitment to transformative universal policies, like M4A, a Federal Jobs Guarantee and Free College + Trade School, all of which create the solidarity necessary to win them. The others are not. Sanders is using his campaign infrastructure and volunteers to create solidarity on the ground with workers and unions. The others are not. Sanders is coalescing the movement necessary to win the fight against powerful, monied interests. The others are not. None of the DEM candidates allegedly in Sanders’s lane exhibit even the most rudimentary understanding of the scale of this fight or the political power needed to win it. Sanders has made political revolution a mantra. If this distinction remains unclear, one only need look at the example of indisputably popular policy, like Medicare For All and its fever pitch industry opposition. Every other candidate, Warren and Harris included, are either outright opposed to M4A or flip-flopping and/or confusing the discourse with dishonest “multiple paths” claims… All in an effort to win points for support without a commitment to deliver. M4A will never happen under any of the current candidates other than Sanders. If you can afford to lose on M4A, you have a choice. If you can’t, you don’t. If confusion persists, see the powerful forces/individuals arrayed against Sanders. See the-behind-the-scenes anti-Sanders scheming among DEM organizations and candidates. See entrenched liberal organizations and media, like the Center for American Progress, MSNBC, Third Way and even the NY Times bad faith attacking, misrepresenting and/or expressing their explicit support of anyone but Sanders. They are not playing three-dimensional chess. They have identified the one candidate, who can help us transform the fundamental power relationships in our country. And they will do everything in their power to stop him. They are telling on themselves. We should thank them for their clarity and practice that clarity ourselves. Every elected official or organization, who claims to be committed to the aforementioned structural reforms needs to endorse Sanders and they need to do it now. Cardi B gets it. She’s leveraging the power of her celebrity for our movement early and often. AOC, The Squad, Justice Democrats, any allegedly left publication worth its weight needs to do the same… Now. I encourage every one of us to cease donating to candidates or organizations, who can’t muster the solidarity to fight with us. Let them know why our hard-earned ducats are going elsewhere. Let them know that they will win back our trust and support by committing to fight in solidarity with Sanders and us. There are no present-tense coalitions to be made with the other DEM candidates. There are no lessons to be learned from their performative policies and narratives. There is no pushing Sanders to be a better democratic socialist via competition with neoliberal reformists. There is no Overton window shift benefit. All of this is idealistic denial of the material necessity of a Sanders presidency, which our movement absolutely requires. We should all re-familiarize ourselves with Amber A’Lee Frost’s excellent “It’s Still Bernie” call to arms from way back in January:
There are no “impartial” spectators on this one; only partisans and compradors. This is not some college debate where you get extra points for novelty and precocious dissidence, and it’s not some office pool where heated but distant speculations on the tournament are an amusing pastime with colleagues around the water cooler. This involves nothing less than the real, live fate of every single person in America (and most people outside of it). -Amber A’Lee Frost
We must be clear and disciplined in our discourse. We are fortunate to have a candidate seasoned in the principles of democratic socialist solidarity. We should follow his lead and ground our conversations and arguments in material analysis and benefit. Medicare For All will guarantee the expansion of reproductive rights to all women in our country, not just those with money in blues states or elite urban enclaves. It will do so in a way that no other performative legalism or narrative can touch. We will create more material dignity for working class and everyday Black Americans, people of color and women via universal material policies like M4A, Federal Job Guarantee and Free College + Debt Forgiveness than any onslaught of perfected ally speech or means-tested policy can touch.
>
What we need instead are policies to eradicate the structural factors that preserve the relative status of dominant groups, including intergenerational resource transfers and exclusionary practices. One such policy — as William Darity, Jr., Alan Aja, Daniel Bustillo, and I have advocated in these pages — is a federal job guarantee, which would go a long way toward addressing racial disparities and building an inclusive U.S. economy. -Darrick Hamilton
Surface identity arguments will be weaponized against us, no matter the measurable diversity and committed pluralism of our movement. We are all “bros” now, no matter how we play this, so let’s not play. While the political field of battle requires that Sanders navigate these issues with rhetorical nuance, we are under no such obligation. We should familiarize ourselves with the theoretical and resulting real-life flaws in surface identity discourse. We should discipline our arguments and ground them in the material. Obviously, we are fighting for afflicted communities to participate equally in human thriving. Obviously, we welcome diversity of any kind. Obviously, we reject bigotry of any kind. But our movement is not about diversifying the winners in a game of craven Monopoly. Our project is about changing the damn game. To do that requires a rejection of surface identity claims, which serve the former. The Squad is not politically relevant to our movement, because they are women of color wielding power. They and any other political player are only valuable to our movement to the extent that they fight with us in solidarity to win policy that changes people’s lives for the better… That guarantees universal healthcare, jobs with living wages, education, the habitability of our biosphere. That is material. Everything else is idealistic performance and distraction that drains our movement. We are committed to something more transformative and more lasting than fleeting alliances. We are committed to working together to make the lives of everyday Americans livable, to make them meaningful… And then to extend that to every citizen of the planet. If we’re at all serious about maintaining an inhabitable biosphere, it will require unprecedented global cooperation, as well as the human thriving necessary to make that cooperation possible. Our movement understands this. It is not nihilistic. It is not idealistic. It is an embrace of the material reality we all face and the solidarity we need to generate in order to navigate that reality. It is an embrace of us. Time to wake up and win. There is much to do. The hour is late.
#MoscowMitch visted his constituents in Kentucky earlier this week.
The evil queen from Kentucky: "If I'm still Majority Leader of the Senate after next year, none of those things"-- and he's talking about Medicare-for-All, free public college, the Green New Deal, a minimum wage increase, LGBTQ workplace equality, background checks on gun sales...-- "are going to pass the Senate. They won't even be voted on. So think of me as the Grim Reaper." OK, but we already think of him as McTurtle, as a bribe taking crook, as the cock sucker from the Louisville's Pickle Park, as Cocaine Mitch and, most recently, as #MoscowMitch. And, speaking of which... a couple of days ago, the Louisville Courier-Journal looked into why McTurtle is so freaking out over his latest nickname. Maybe it hits too close to home. "[T]he more rocks people turn over," wrote Joseph Gerth, "the more it appears that Moscow Mitch may in fact be a Russian asset, like Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank called him recently. Oh, not in the sense of a Russian asset in an old cold war thriller who is planted here by the GRU as a child with the sole goal of growing up to help defeat the United States for Mother Russia. No. That’s not McConnell’s style."
#MoscowMitch by Nancy Ohanian
What is his style, though, is allowing anyone to get away with anything as long as it advances his own personal goals. He’ll allow a president who makes racist statements get away with them with nary a peep, as long as the president appoints whomever McConnell wants on the federal bench. He’ll push for an unqualified U.S. ambassador to the United Nations so long as it keeps open millions of dollars of coal industry money for his next election. And to some, it appears, he’ll allow the Russian government to interfere with our elections as long as he thinks it’s helping his party win elections and hold the White House.
So let’s talk about McConnell and Russia. In the weeks leading up to the 2016 election, President Barack Obama called top congressional Republicans and Democrats together and informed them of national intelligence assessments that found the Russians were using an internet disinformation campaign to influence the presidential election. Obama wanted to send out a bipartisan statement warning the Russians that such meddling wouldn’t be tolerated, but it also would have served notice to Americans that what they were reading online may have been placed there by Russian actors. McConnell objected. Not only did he refuse to sign the letter, the Washington Post reported later that McConnell said “he would consider any effort by the White House to challenge the Russians publicly an act of partisan politics.” One way-- and probably the most accurate way-- to interpret that is McConnell essentially told Obama that if he brought the Russian allegations to light, Republicans would undermine his warnings and claim he was saying it simply to help Hillary Clinton. Obama backed down, and the administration sent out a much weaker letter.
McConnell, amazingly, has since blamed Obama for not being forceful enough with the Russians, but he has never given an explanation of his role in keeping the intelligence assessments from the public. Then, we have Oleg Deripaska, the Russian oligarch and buddy of Vladimir Putin who was banned from doing business in the United States because of alleged ties to the Russian mafia. The Trump administration, however, cut a deal to allow Rusal, a Russian aluminum company 70% owned by Deripaska, to do business in the United States, as long as Deripaska reduced his ownership to less than 45%. When a bipartisan group of congressmen objected and tried to stop the Trump administration from doing that, McConnell stepped in and blocked them. Now, Rusal has said it plans to invest $200 million in the planned Braidy Industries aluminum plant near Ashland, Kentucky.
Just Wednesday, Politico reported that two of McConnell’s former staff members were lobbyists for Braidy. McConnell’s office refused to say whether they had lobbied McConnell directly. Finally, McConnell blocked passage by unanimous consent of two Democratic measures designed to tighten election security-- one of which would have required campaigns to report to the FBI if a foreign government offers to help influence an election. That one would have struck directly at Trump, whose campaign had contact with Russians during the 2016 election but doesn’t appear to have reported attempts by Russia to influence the race. McConnell has criticized the two bills as overly partisan. But, more than anything, he may be doing the bidding of Trump, who clearly benefited from Russian involvement three years ago. And it was that action that spurred the “Moscow Mitch” nickname and the claim he was a “Russian asset.”
McConnell, who has in the past embraced nicknames given him by his opponents-- from the “Grim Reaper” to “Darth Vader” to “Cocaine Mitch”-- took to the floor of the Senate on Monday and decried those impugning his character. Why did this upset him so, while he has embraced others? Maybe it hit too close to home. Perhaps, he knows our democracy is at risk and he’s not doing enough to protect it. Maybe he knows that his legacy won’t be the conservative judges he puts on the federal bench after all. Maybe he knows the legacy of “Moscow Mitch” will be that he looked the other way when he thought Russian influence could help him and his party and that he harmed America in the process. But if he thought the floor speech would make the nickname go away, it was a terrible error in strategy, because it revealed something that can get under the old sphinx's skin.
Memes abound on the internet with McConnell wearing Russian fur hats. The Democratic Party of Kentucky is selling Moscow Mitch shirts. Throughout our history, our politicians who have stood up to the Russians are the ones who have become heroes. Kennedy. Reagan. We don't honor those who capitulate. And if you believe this isn't going to come up repeatedly at Fancy Farm this weekend, I've got some ocean-front property to sell you in Severo-Yeniseysky.
by Noah Moscow Mitch and his favorite flag: Go ahead, Moscow Mitch McTraitor. Kiss that flag. Lick that flag. You know you want to. In fact, you'll do anything your masters Vlad Putin and Donnie The Red tell you to do. We know that and you know that. You've been such a good and loyal Trump apprentice in service to them both. I bet you've already sent Putin an autographed copy of this photo, haven't you? God knows what other photos you've sent him. It's obvious, now more than it ever was, that you'll send your spymaster any photos he requires. Blueprints for our newest aircraft carriers? No problem! Polling data for our elections? No problem. Oh wait, that's Trump's department. He has experience in that. Hey, Moscow Mitch McTraitor, now that you've wiped your pimply cellulite farm of an ass with that oath of office you took, that oath where you swore to protect the Constitution and defend America from all enemies foreign and domestic, why don't you just get on a plane to Moscow and go get your Hero Of The Russian Federation medal? I'm sure your buddy Vladimir will send a plane for you. If not, we can all set up a GoFundMe page to collect enough for a ticket; one way of course. A GoFuckYourself page would be more appropriate, though.
by Noah Moscow Mitch. Joe Scarborough sure got that one right when he came up with that, and he's a republican (now officially excommunicated)! It's a miracle!!! Moscow Mitch, you are Putin's number one guy in the $enate. Queen of the Russo-Republican Party. Traitor, fist puppet of oligarchs, aider and abettor of the Trump-Putin plan for America. Where's your tiara Moscow Mitch? Stashed in a closet with all those bags of Russian rubles? Those "campaign contributions" better known as bribes? Is your tiara emblazoned with special Baltic Sea amber? Is it in a suitcase, wrapped up in the blueprints for that aluminum smelting plant that your oligarch buddy Oleg Deripaska promised to build for you in your home state as an additional bribe? Yeah, in your deep red, and we mean red, home state of Kentucky? Moscow Mitch: You don't want to pass election security laws because demographics show that fair, honest, and un-fiddled with elections might give the democrats an advantage? You sell out your country. You smirk and say your Russo-Republican colleagues at the state level can "take care of it?" You know, as do we, that you need to assure your top, Donnie Trump, of his reelection by hook and by crook. One of the bills you boasted about sending to your "legislative graveyard" even proscribes a paper trail for every ballot. Can't have that now can we? How many more voting machine companies do we need to have owned by your Russian comrades? What's the frequency Moscow Mitch? How many will be enough for your Moscow Masters? I tell ya what, Moscow Mitch: Since your boy Trump's one man sleazefest, Attorney General William Barr, has called for bringing back the death penalty for federal crimes, how about we dust off an old antique electric chair to use on you after we find you guilty of your treason? Maybe the one we fried your role models Julius and Ethel in? How ironic would that be? You're so smug about this, Moscow Mitch. You operate in plain sight. Why? Because none of your Washington nest of accomplices, fellow travelers and comrades will do anything to rid us of you and your boss at 1600 Kremlin East. We're going to, in fact, need a lot more of those lovely antique electric chairs. Feel the nice smooth wood, Moscow Mitch, as we strap you in. I know part of you is going to kinda like that part. We're gonna need enough chairs for every $enate Repug and any of their Democratic accomplices who sit idly by and do nothing about Putin's lap-dancing dummy, aka your president. And let's make the new electric chairs in America and have good, patriotic, talented union electricians wire them. Even better and maybe more appropriate Moscow Mitch, let's put you in one of those cages our I.C.E Gestapo toss kidnapped kids in. We can electrify the cage and wrap you in one of those aluminum blankets and then turn up the dial. No need for cooking instructions. Low, medium, or high; your choice, Moscow Mitch, although I'd love it if you'd go for low. Choose a nice simmer, let all that fat just melt off slowly into a reeking puddle of Moscow Mitch ooze. Yeah, I know that toxic waste is a problem but, hey, we can feed it to some pigs. They'll eat anything.
Why Is #MoscowMitch Trending So Strongly On Twitter?
>
Former Florida congressman, former Republican Party hack, former Trumpanzee amigo Joe Scarborough first pounded and pounded and pounded on the term "Moscow Mitch" on his MSNBC morning show this past Friday. If you missed it, watch what may well wind up being an historic television moment in the video clip above.
You have Robert Mueller, a lifelong Republican, the most respected FBI director in the history of this country, a Vietnam War hero, a guy who made the U.S. Army Rangers Hall of Fame, a guy who said "Russia is trying to invade Americ right now"... Moscow Mitch says it's a hoax. You have his own Intelligence Committee in the Senate, led by Republican Richard Burr, saying that Russia tried to infiltrate all 50 states in 2016 and is going to it again. Moscow Mitch calls it a hoax. You have the Republican, Trump-appointed FBI director saying that the Russians infiltrated America's democracy and are going to try again. Moscow Mitch calls it a hoax. You have the Director of National Intelligence saving that the Russians tried to infiltrate our election system, tried to subvert American democracy [and] they're going to try it again. Moscow Mitch said it's a hoax. You have Trump's appointed director of the CIA saying that the Russians are trying to undermine American democracy, that the Russians tried in '16 [and] will try again. Moscow Mitch calls it a hoax. You have military intel community knowing-- because they were fighting the Russians in 2015-2016 and are still fighting them everyday to stop they from continuing to infiltrate American democracy... Moscow Mitch says it's a hoax. I understand that there's an oligarch that;'s going to be setting up a big aluminum plant in Moscow Mitch's home state...
"What am I supposed to call him," Scarborough continued, all worked up into a self-righteous rage, "Cocaine Mitch?... He's Moscow Mitch! He is aiding and abetting Vladimir Putin's on-going attempts to subvert American democracy according to the Republican FBI, CIA, DNI, Intel Committee... all Republicans-- are all saying Russia is subverting American democracy and Moscow Mitch won't even let the Senate take a vote on it. That is unAmerican!
McConnell is under fire-- and not just by Scarborough. Reporting for the New Republic, Seth Hettena, author of Trump/Russia: A Definitive Historywrote on Thursday that close to the end of Mueller's day of testimony, Raja Krishnamoorthi, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, "got Mueller to admit that the FBI currently has an ongoing investigation involving false statements by Michael Flynn, President Trump’s short-lived national security advisor... The job of FBI counterintelligence was and is to neutralize the threat posed by foreign intelligence-- which, in this case, means dealing with what the special counsel’s report called Russia’s 'sweeping and systematic' effort to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. But the investigation’s low visibility shouldn’t diminish its importance, which is no less than a probe into whether the president himself was acting on behalf of Russia’s interests.
The FBI, as the lead agency for exposing, preventing, and investigating intelligence activities on U.S. soil, sent officials with the bureau’s Counterintelligence Division to meet regularly with members of the special counsel’s team. For more than a year, FBI agents were embedded in Mueller’s office. Their purpose, according to a little-noticed section of the special counsel’s report, was “to review the results of the investigation and to send-- in writing-- summaries of foreign intelligence and counterintelligence information to FBIHQ and FBI Field Offices.” But not all of the information in those summaries appeared in Mueller’s final report. ...While Mueller may not have found enough evidence to support criminal charges over the Trump campaign’s ties to the Russian government, there is little doubt that the president’s behavior toward Russia and its leader, Vladimir Putin, poses a threat to national security. A criminal president is obviously a threat to the nation, but so is a president who can’t or won’t respond to the ongoing threat of foreign interference. Mueller said Wednesday that Russia’s efforts to interfere in U.S. elections were occurring “as we sit here,” and he almost seemed to regret that the danger posed by Russia wasn’t more strongly emphasized in his report. “Over the course of my career, I’ve seen a number of challenges to our democracy,” Mueller said. “The Russian government’s effort to interfere in our election is among the most serious.” Mueller warned that during the coming presidential election, the U.S. would face an even bigger threat than the one he investigated. “Many more countries are developing the capability to replicate what the Russians have done,” he said. “This deserves the attention of every American,” said Mueller, reiterating a plea from his brief May 29 press conference. But attention will not likely come from Trump. During last month’s G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, the president treated the threat to the 2020 election as an opportunity to further bond with his Russian counterpart. Responding to a reporter’s question, Trump playfully pointed his finger at Putin and said, “Don’t meddle in the election.” Putin just laughed. The president might think that the ongoing Russian effort to interfere in American democracy is still a big joke. Here’s hoping the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division still doesn’t.
Looking for something to do August 12th? Bring a Russian flag
What's this all have to do with McConnell and why #MoscowMitch is a thing. McConnell blocked Obama from going public with the information about Russia trying to steal the election in real time while it was happening. (I bet Obama is sorry he was such a woos and paid any attention to the treasonous McConnell.) And now McConnell is preventing the Senate from even voting on legislation from preventing Russian meddling again in 2020. Schumer, too scared to refer to McConnell as Moscow Mitch, said, not-memorably this week, "We are not going to let Leader McConnell put the bills passed by the House into his legislative graveyard without a fight. You're going to hear from us on this issue over and over again." The Senate Democrats are such a bunch of pussies they deserve this kind of non-leadership. But we don't. At least Wyden (D-OR) publicly called McConnell "Russia's biggest ally" and Durbin (D-IL) accused him of "abdicating his responsibility to protect American democracy so he can protect a President who unravels it day-by-day."
Miss McConnell MoscowMitch, with as straight a face as a compulsive liar and lifelong closet case can ever have, claimed the legislation he blocked was "partisan." One bill requires the use of paper ballots and the other mandates that candidates and campaign officials notify the FBI of assistance offers from foreign governments. That could only sound "partisan" to traitors working for a foreign pay-master.
I hate to see the endearing term "McTurtle" disappear, but... because it's Mitch McConnell, we're talking about, there's got to be even more money changing hands. And, sure enough, Nicole Goodkind's report last week for Newsweekcovered that:
"McConnell said he wouldn't allow a vote on the bills because they were 'so partisan,' but, as previously reported, earlier this year McConnell received a slew of donations from four of the top voting machine lobbyists in the country," wrote Goodkind. "The plans would likely burden the two largest electronic voting machine vendors in the United States, Election Systems & Software and Dominion Voting Systems, with new regulations and financial burdens. Together, the companies make up about 80 percent of all voting machines used in the country and both have far-reaching lobbying arms in Washington D.C. Many of those lobbyists have contributed to the McConnell campaign, reported Sludge last month, an investigative outlet that focuses on money in politics."
"It's not surprising to me that Mitch McConnell is receiving these campaign contributions," the Brennan Center for Justice's Lawrence Norden told Sludge last month. "He seems single-handedly to be standing in the way of anything passing in Congress around election security, and that includes things that the vendors might want, like money for the states to replace antiquated equipment." McConnell's actions seemed even more out of balance with his party, as the Senate Intelligence Committee—led by Republicans—released a report later on Thursday claiming Russians have targeted voting systems in all 50 states in 2016. Though there was no evidence votes were changed, in Illinois "Russian cyberactors were in a position to delete or change voter data."
Laughably, most Senate Republican zombies are absolutely behind McConnell on this; in other words: traitors. Last month it was Tennessee traitor Marsha Blackburn. This time it was Mississippi traitor Cindy Hyde-Smith-- who blocked two election protection bills and cybersecurity legislation on the Senate floor right after Mueller’s testimony and then dismissed the storm of criticism she got as nothing more than "political theater." Other Republicans are claiming it's too late to do anything for 2020 and they should focus on protecting the voting systems for the 2022 midterms and just let "nature" take its course for 2020; Oklahoma Republican James Lankford leads that camp.
A Spy Named McTurtle? Do We Need-- God Forbid-- Another HUAC Now?
>
Undoubtably one of the worst chapters in American history revolved around a House committee established in 1938-- HUAC: the House Un-American Activities Committee. Late in its existence it worked in tandem with Wisconsin's deranged fascist Senator Joseph McCarthy. But when HUAC was established Congress was firmly controlled by the Democrats, who were eager to investigate "disloyalty and subversive activities" by private citizens, public employees, and organizations suspected of having ties to the Russians. It wasn't formally abolished until 1975. The roots of HUAC were actually honorable-- Democrats John McCormack and Samuel Dickstein investigating fascist plots against America, including the plans for a Wall Street/DuPont coup (Smedley Butler) against FDR. When it morphed into HUAC, the first chairman was a Texas Democrat and with deep Nazi sympathies and rabid hatred for communists, Martin Dies. At first, HUAC was commonly known as the Dies Committee and was more a laughing stock than a genuine threat. Joe Starnes of Alabama ranted and raved about Greek playwright, "Mr. Euripedes" preaching class warfare and asked the head of the head of the Federal Theater Project (a part of the New Deal) if Christopher Marlowe had been a commie. HUAC stopped being a joke when it put together plans to round up Japanese-Americans and put them in concentration camps. When it was later suggested that the HUAC would be of more service to the country if it investigated the KKK, that was voted down and one white supremicist who was clearly ahead of his time and would probably be in Trump's cabinet today, Mississippi Democrat John Rankin noted admiringly that "The KKK is an old American tradition." Two decades later, in 1965, HUAC, finally took a few moments out of railing against commies to focus on the KKK. When HUAC became a permanent committee, the first chair was Edward Hart (D-NJ) and it was full steam ahead as an anti-Russian/anti-Communist vehicle.
It has been suggested that in light of the Republican Party pandering to Putin and the Russians, perhaps House Dems need to bring back HUAC and give it the mandate to look into the connects between McConnell's-- Moscow Mitch as Joe Scarborough has dubbed him-- and Trump's refusal to protect American elections from the Russians. One DWT corespondent suggested that he is "wondering if we are witnessing a latter-day Cambridge Five with Mitch McConnell declining to protect our electoral system from foreign hacking." Further, he thinks it significant that McConnell like Guy Burgess, Anthony Blunt, and Donald MacLean is a closeted gay man vulnerable to exposure. "McConnell is hiding a damaging [for him] sexual history. Is this a sell-out because of kompromat, or is this simply GOP politics? In either case, why are the Democrats not taking a page from the standard GOP playbook" to show how the Republicans are working with the Russians to undermine America? He wondered if the House should consider an actual resurrection of the House Un-American Activities Committee to investigate Republican connections to past and current election tampering in advance of the 2020 elections?
When I told my correspondent that just the thought of HUAC makes me shudder with horror, he later wrote that "Of course you are right. My impulse was irony that is expressing a frustration with what Teresa Tomlinson diagnosed so convincingly this morning on your site: the Dems don’t have balls. They need to learn some lessons from the GOP and do some forceful grandstanding that captures the nation’s attention. Unfortunately, as you point out consistently well, many don’t have any convictions to rally around. Alas. Willing to share the name of the hotel in Yangon that you referred to on Feldman’s show?" [The hotel is The Strand for anyone else wondering.]
Chip Proser, HUAC artist
In his New York Magazine column today, Andrew Sullivan wrote about why Mueller's testimony didn't shake the country up the way it certainly should have. (Keep in mind that when Sullivan uses the words "we" and "us" he always means elites and insiders.) "The Mueller hearings," he wrote, "told us almost nothing that we didn’t know already. We knew that the president welcomed assistance from a foreign power in order to win an election, and has fawned over his political patron in this endeavor, Vladimir Putin, since he became president. We knew that though he was not competent enough to construct a conspiracy, he was eager to collude with a foreign foe to defeat his domestic one. And we knew that he then lied about it as baldly as he lies about almost everything, and tried repeatedly to obstruct the investigation into the affair. His attorney general then blatantly lied about the key conclusions of the Mueller report, distorting the public debate for weeks as he kept the contents under wraps, and then bet that Americans, with our gnat-like attention spans, would simply move on. We also knew that in contemporary America, none of these facts matter in the slightest. The notion that the average citizen should care deeply about the rule of law and constitutional norms-- and even actively defend them-- has become terribly passé. Now, all that truly matters is whether we are entertained by someone who can command televisual excitement the way Trump does on a daily, hourly basis. If he can’t, whatever the underlying facts, no one gives a damn. American political elites are no better. The president’s assault on the Constitution has merely revealed the Democratic Party as the lame farce we knew it was. Its ancient, pusillanimous congressional leadership was never going to do what duty, rather than politics, requires."
