Posts Tagged ‘CHIP ROY’
2024 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, ABC NEWS, ADOLF HITLER, ALTERNET, AMAZON, AMERICABLOG, ANDY BIGGS, ANTHONY FAUCI, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BBC, BISEXUALS, BLOOMBERG, BLOOMBERG NEWS, BUD LIGHT, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CHARLES SUTHERLAND, CHICK-FIL-A, CHIP ROY, CNN, CORONAVIRUS, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOS, DAILY KOZ, DAN CATHY, DEI (DIVERSITY EQUITY INCLUSION), DISNEY, DONALD TRUMP, DONALD TRUMP JR., DRUDGE RETORT, ERIC MCREYNOLDS, ERNST ROHM, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FOX NETWORK, FREEDOM CAUCUS, GAYS, GROOMERS, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HUFFINGTON POST, IVANKA TRUMP, JIM JORDAN, JOSH DUGGAR, KELLOGG, KEN BUCK, KEURIG, LESBIANS, LIZ CHENEY, MATT GAETZ, MEDIA MATTERS, MIKE HUCKABEE, MITT ROMNEY, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, MUSLIMS, NATIONAL ANTHEM, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES, NAZI GERMANY, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NFL, NORDSTROM, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, PEDOPHILIA, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, QUEERS, RALPH NORMAN, RAND PAUL, RAW STORY, REUTERS, RON DESANTIS, SALON, SCHUTZSTAFFEL, SCOTT PERRY, SEAN HANNITY, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, STARBUCK'S, STORMTROOPERS, TALKING POINTS MEMO, TARGET, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, THIRD REICH, THOMAS MASSIE, TIME, TODD MCMURTRY, TRANSGENDERS, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, WONKETTE
In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Politics, Social commentary on June 6, 2023 at 12:10 am
Right-wingers love to attack those they hate as “snowflakes,” and boast about how easy it is to “trigger” them into anger.
Yet it is Right-wingers whose sensitive feelings can be “triggered” by something as innocuous as a word: DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion).
Target, Bud Light and Disney have all faced backlash for their support of the queer community, which is officially known as LGBTQ (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer).
Other companies that have found themselves targets for Right-wing ire have been:
- Keurig (for dropping advertising on Sean Hannity’s show on the Right-wing Fox Network)
- The NFL (for its players sitting or kneeling during the National Anthem
- Amazon (for supporting Washington State in a federal lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order barring people from seven majority-Muslim countries from entering the United States)
- Starbucks (for its CEO opposing the same executive order)
- Nordstrom (for cutting ties with Ivanka Trump’s brand of clothing)
- Kellogg (for dropping advertising on the Right-wing Breitbart website)
Now comes Chick-fil-A as the latest business to enrage the self-appointed holy warriors of the Right. Its crime: Hiring a vice president of DEI.
And even worse for the Right: He’s black.
Erick McReynolds has been a longtime employee of Chick-fil-A. According to the company’s official statement:
“Erick McReynolds joined Chick-fil-A in February 2007 as a Business Consultant. Since then, he has been promoted to various positions like Team Captain, Director – Service Team, Executive Director (Midwest Region), and Executive Director (DEI).”
In 1988 he had earned an MBA from Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University He then worked as a Sales Representative at International Paper till June 2001. He served as a Senior Business Analyst at Sprint for five years till January 2007.
Erick McReynolds
Chick-fil-A has long championed Right-wing causes. By 2012, it had donated over $5 million to anti-LGTBQ groups. When the company faced backlash for this, Republicans like Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee led counter-protesting efforts such as “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day.”
Its owner, Dan Cathy, publicly denounced same-sex marriage, citing the “biblical definition of the family unit.” This enraged liberals but ignited support among Republicans.
The company promised in 2019 to stop donating to anti-LGBTQ groups. It would instead focus its philanthropic efforts on hunger, education and homelessness.
Although McReynolds has served as VP of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion since November, 2021, the Right was unaware of his appointment until May 30, 2023. That was when Right-wing strategist Joey Mannarino tweeted:
“We have a problem. Chick-Fil-A just hired a VP of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. This is bad. I don’t want to have to boycott. Are we going to have to boycott?
“It’s only a matter of time until they start putting tranny semen in the frosted lemonade at this point.”
Joey Mannarino
Adding to Mannarino’s resentment was McReynolds’ public statement:
“Chick-fil-A restaurants have long been recognized as a place where people know they will be treated well. Modeling care for others starts in the restaurant, and we are committed to ensuring mutual respect, understanding and dignity everywhere we do business. These tenets are good business practice and crucial to fulfilling our Corporate Purpose.”
Other Right-wing eruptions on Twitter included:
Director of Citizens for Renewing America Wade Miller: “Everything good must come to an end. Here @ChickfilA is stating it’s commitment to systemic racism, sexism, and discrimination. I cannot support such a thing.”
@BrandonStraka: “As a liberal I boycotted Chick-fil-A. As a conservative I’ll be boycotting them again. I will not support any company that pushes the disingenuously named diversity, equity, inclusion agenda.”
@amuse: “Sadly, Chick-fil-A is embracing DEI and ESG [Environmental Social and Corporate Governance] after being co-opted by race & trans activists who have made it impossible for the organization to reflect the Christian values of its founder. Marxists won’t allow belief in Jesus Christ.”
The Right generally and Republicans in particular have long been fixated on issues involving sexuality. This is especially true for those where children are supposedly victimized.
Thus, fetuses become “babies” even when they’re no bigger than a microdot. This allows Rightists to claim they’re “pro-life”—while they champion the “right” of criminals, terrorists and the insane to own military-style firepower
And even though 90% of child molesters are heterosexual family or friends, the Right continues to charge all homosexuals with pedophilia.
Anyone who dares to challenge its agenda is charged with being a “groomer”—someone who builds an emotional connection with children or young people to sexually exploit them.
Totally ignored by Republicans are supposed Right-wing moral paragons who turn out to be “groomers” like Josh Duggar (of the “19 Kids and Counting” series) who was sentenced in 2022 to 12 years’ imprisonment for possession of child pornography;
A useful rule of thumb: Be wary of those who loudly preach their own virtue—such as Charles Sutherland, an elementary school librarian who spray painted “groomer” around the D.C. area during the 2022 Pride week. When police arrested him for possessing child pornography, they found a child-sized doll in his bed.
Meanwhile, Right-wing politicians—most notably Florida Governor and Presidential candidate Ron DeSantis—continue to exploit the fears and hatred of their equally Fascistic constituents.
With the 2024 Presidential campaign now underway, expect more of the same to come.
2024 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, ABC NEWS, ADOLF HITLER, ALTERNET, AMAZON, AMERICABLOG, ANDY BIGGS, ANTHONY FAUCI, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BBC, BISEXUALS, BLOOMBERG, BLOOMBERG NEWS, BUD LIGHT, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CHARLES SUTHERLAND, CHICK-FIL-A, CHIP ROY, CNN, CORONAVIRUS, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOS, DAILY KOZ, DAN CATHY, DEI (DIVERSITY EQUITY INCLUSION), DISNEY, DONALD TRUMP, DONALD TRUMP JR., DRUDGE RETORT, ERIC MCREYNOLDS, ERNST ROHM, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FOX NETWORK, FREEDOM CAUCUS, GAYS, GROOMERS, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HUFFINGTON POST, IVANKA TRUMP, JIM JORDAN, JOSH DUGGAR, KELLOGG, KEN BUCK, KEURIG, LESBIANS, LIZ CHENEY, MATT GAETZ, MEDIA MATTERS, MIKE HUCKABEE, MITT ROMNEY, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, MUSLIMS, NATIONAL ANTHEM, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES, NAZI GERMANY, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NFL, NORDSTROM, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, PEDOPHILIA, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, QUEERS, RALPH NORMAN, RAND PAUL, RAW STORY, REUTERS, RON DESANTIS, SALON, SCHUTZSTAFFEL, SCOTT PERRY, SEAN HANNITY, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, STARBUCK'S, STORMTROOPERS, TALKING POINTS MEMO, TARGET, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, THIRD REICH, THOMAS MASSIE, TIME, TODD MCMURTRY, TRANSGENDERS, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, WONKETTE
In Bureaucracy, History, Medical, Politics, Social commentary on June 5, 2023 at 12:10 am
“All revolutions,” said Ernst Rohm, leader of Adolf Hitler’s brown-shirted thugs, the S.A., “devour their own children.”
Fittingly, he said this as he sat inside a prison cell awaiting his own execution.
Ernst Rohm
On June 30, 1934, Hitler had ordered a massive purge of his private army, the S.A., or Stormtroopers. The purge was carried out by Hitler’s elite army-within-an-army, the Schutzstaffel, or Protective Squads, better known as the SS.
The S.A. Brownshirts had been instrumental in securing Hitler’s rise to Chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933. They had intimidated political opponents and organized mass rallies for the Nazi Party.
But after Hitler reached the pinnacle of power, they became a liability.
Ernst Rohm, their commander, urged Hitler to disband the regular German army, the Reichswehr, and replace it with his own legions as the nation’s defense force.
Frightened by Rohm’s ambitions, the generals of the Reichswehr gave Hitler an ultimatum: Get rid of Rohm—or they would get rid of him.
So Rohm died in a hail of SS bullets—as did several hundred of his longtime S.A. cronies.
SS firing squad
Eighty-six years later, even the most Right-wing Republicans learned there’s a price to pay for disagreeing with The Leader.
Case in point: Representative Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) the House Republican Conference Chair—and the only female member of the House GOP leadership.
On July 21, 2020, she became the target of members of her own party.
Her GOP Freedom Caucus attackers included
- Representative Jim Jordan (R-Ohio)
- Matt Gaetz (R-Florida)
- Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky)
- Chip Roy (R-Texas)
- Andy Biggs (R-Arizona)
- Scott Perry (R-Pennsylvania) and
- Ralph Norman (R-South Carolina).
Jordan, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, praised Cheney for defending President Donald Trump during the impeachment trial in February. But he attacked her for publicly disagreeing with Trump’s intention to remove troops from Germany and Afghanistan.
He also assailed Cheney for her recent rebukes of Trump—for his mishandling of the Coronavirus and his Twitter rants.
Cheney remembered that Jordan’s Right-wing Freedom Caucus had caused problems for the GOP’s leadership when the party held the majority in the House.
“I look forward to hearing your comments about being a team player when we’re back in the majority,” replied Cheney.
Representative Roy (Texas) assailed Cheney for supporting Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, and complained that his Democratic opponent had retweeted some of Cheney’s tweets.
Cheney defended Fauci, who had served under Republican and Democratic Presidents as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984.
“At this moment when we’re trying to find every way we can to defeat the virus, when we’re trying to find therapeutics and vaccines, we need all hands on deck, and I can’t imagine anybody better than Dr. Fauci to continue to play that role,” Cheney told reporters after the meeting.
Trump was jealous of Fauci’s popularity for speaking the hard truth about Coronavirus—and the Federal Government’s failure to combat it.
Anthony Fauci
Trump also resented that his own popularity was steadily falling as COVID cases and deaths rose—and he offered only rosy predictions that “one day it will be gone.”
Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona, the head of the Freedom Caucus, said that if someone had a problem with Trump, they should keep it to themselves. He said Cheney undermined the GOP’s ability to win back the House, which Democrats won in November, 2018.
Matt Gaetz, who once split with Trump over a war powers resolution, later tweeted: “Liz Cheney has worked behind the scenes (and now in public) against @realDonaldTrump and his agenda. House Republicans deserve better as our Conference Chair.”
Gaetz’ tweet was quickly backed by such major Republicans as Senator Rand Paul (Kentucky) and Trump’s son, Donald, Jr.
Republicans, tweeted Trump, Jr., “already have one Mitt Romney, we don’t need another.”
Senator Mitt Romney (R-Utah) was the only Republican to vote to convict Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress during the February, 2020 impeachment effort.
“Donald Trump Jr. Is not a member of the House Republican Conference,” Cheney dismissed the attack later.
During the conference meeting, Gaetz and Massie complained that Cheney was supporting a primary challenge to Massie.
Cheney told Gaetz that she looked forward to seeing an upcoming HBO documentary, “The Swamp,” about him, Massie and a third Republican congressman, Ken Buck of Colorado.
Cheney told Massie that his issue was with Trump, not her. Trump had called Massie “a third rate grandstander” and said he wanted Massie ousted from the Republican party. Despite this, Massie had beaten Todd McMurtry, a primary challenger.
Cheney had donated to McMurtry, but later asked that the money be returned after his past racist social media posts became public.
Anyone in Nazi Germany could be accused of disloyalty to Adolf Hitler. Now anyone in the Republican party could be accused of disloyalty to Donald Trump.
“Fanatics can justify practically any atrocity to themselves,” wrote the author Mercedes Lackey. “The more untenable their position becomes, the harder they hold to it, and the worse the things they are willing to do to support it.”
ABC NEWS, ADAM B. SCHIFF, ADAM KINZINGER, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, ANDY BIGGS, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BBC, BILLY GRAHAM, BLOOMBERG NEWS, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CHIP ROY, CNN, COMMUNISM, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOS, DAN BISHOP, DEMOCRATS, DONALD TRUMP, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FRANKLIN GRAHAM, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HATE, HOMOSEXUALITY, HUFFINGTON POST, JAMES KIRCHICK, JANUARY 6 COMMITTEE, JANUARY 6 COUP ATTEMPT, JOE BIDEN, KIM JONG-UN, LAUREN BOEBERT, LIZ CHENEY, LOVE, MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE, MATT GAETZ, MEDIA MATTERS, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, MUELLER REPORT, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NICOLAS MADURO, NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY ORGANIZATION (NATO), NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, RUSSIA, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SOCIALISM, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UKRAINE, UNITED NATIONS, UPI, USA TODAY, VENEZUELA, VLADIMIR PUTIN
In Bureaucracy, History, Military, Politics, Social commentary on February 9, 2023 at 12:10 am
Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), running for reelection in 2022, minced no words in her fundraising email: She opened by attacking “Joe Biden’s Communist Green New Deal.”
Then, after slandering Reps. Liz Cheney (R-WYO), Adam B. Schiff (D-CA) and Adam Kinzinger (R-ILL), she warned that Never Trumpers were colluding “with Communist Democrats to rig the 2022 and 2024 elections.”
And she attacked the January 6 House Committee—charged with investigating the treasonous attack on the Capitol Building by Donald Trump’s followers—as the “January 6 Witch Hunt Committee.”
According to Greene, President Biden was “crippling American energy production to impose socialism on America.”
“I know with your help, we can stop communism and save America,” Greene concluded.
Marjorie Taylor Greene
Since the late 1940s, attacking “Communism” and “socialism” has become standard operating procedure for Republicans running for election—and reelection.
Thus, President Donald Trump, addressing the General Assembly of the United Nations, on September 24, 2019: “One of the most serious challenges our countries face is the specter of socialism. It’s the wrecker of nations and the destroyer of societies.”
He cited Venezuela as an example of the failures of socialism, and denounced its president, Nicolás Maduro, as a “Cuban puppet.”
And Trump warned: “Socialism and communism are about one thing only: Power for the ruling class. Today I repeat a message to the world that I have delivered at home: America will never be a socialist country.”
Donald Trump
Yet despite such attacks on socialism and communism, many Republicans—including Trump and Greene—have found cause to empathize with infamous Communist dictators.
Trump stands out predominantly as the first American President known to have colluded with a Russian dictator.
This was an open secret—most explicitly advertised by both Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on June 28, 2019.
That advertisement came when the two met in Osaka, Japan—their first since the March 22 release of the Mueller Report, which documented Russia’s subversion of the 2016 Presidential election.
An NBC News reporter asked: Would you tell Putin not to meddle in the 2020 Presidential election?
“Yes, of course I will,” replied Trump, grinning. “Don’t meddle in the election, please.”
And he jokingly wagged his finger at Putin: “Don’t meddle in the election.”
Putin grinned back.
Vladimir Putin
Kremlin.ru, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Trump’s affinity for Communist dictators didn’t end with Putin. He boasted that, during an exchange of letters with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un, “we fell in love.”
Had a Democrat made such a boast, Republicans would have branded him a Communist traitor.
And while Trump has slandered literally hundreds of Americans and the leaders of the NATO alliance, he has never once criticized Russian president Vladimir Putin for anything.
Trump is by no means the only Republican to cuddle up with Communists.
Seven House Republicans—Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA), Matt Gaetz (FL), Andy Biggs (AZ), Lauren Boebert (CO), Dan Bishop (N.C.) and Chip Roy (TX)—voted against stripping Russia of “most favored nation” status after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Nor is admiration of Russia confined to Right-wing politicians.
Franklin Graham, the son of the late Reverend Billy Graham, praised Putin for a 2013 law that banned “propaganda” promoting “nontraditional” relationships for children.
“Isn’t it sad, though, that America’s own morality has fallen so far that on this issue—protecting children from any homosexual agenda or propaganda—Russia’s standard is higher than our own?” Graham wrote. “In my opinion, Putin is right on these issues.”
Franklin Graham
James Kirchick, an American reporter, foreign correspondent, author, and columnist, has indicted Republicans generally for their fervent embrace of Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
As he wrote in a July 27, 2017 essay, “How the GOP Became the Party of Putin”:
“For the past four years, I worked at a think tank, the Foreign Policy Initiative, that was bankrolled by Republican donors and regularly criticized the Obama administration….
“What I never expected was that the Republican Party—which once stood for a muscular, moralistic approach to the world, and which helped bring down the Soviet Union—would become a willing accomplice of what the previous Republican presidential nominee rightly called our No. 1 geopolitical foe: Vladimir Putin’s Russia.”
How did this come about?
“Russia’s intelligence operatives are among the world’s best. I believe they made a keen study of the American political scene and realized that, during the Obama years, the conservative movement had become ripe for manipulation. Long gone was its principled opposition to the ‘evil empire.’
“What was left was an intellectually and morally desiccated carcass populated by con artists, opportunists, entertainers and grifters operating massively profitable book publishers, radio empires, websites, and a TV network whose stock-in-trade are not ideas but resentments….
“Surveying this lamentable scene, why wouldn’t Russia try to ‘turn’ the American right, whose ethical rot necessarily precedes its rank unscrupulousness?
“Why wouldn’t a ‘religious right’ that embraced a boastfully immoral charlatan like Donald Trump not turn a blind eye toward—or, in the case of [evangelical pastor] Franklin Graham, embrace—an oppressive regime like that ruling Russia?”
For millions, the power of love plays a central part in their lives.
Yet, for other millions, hate serves as a force that gives meaning to their lives. And its power must never be underestimated.
2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, ABC NEWS, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, ANDY BIGGS, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BBC, BLAIR BRANDT, BLOOMBERG NEWS, BRAXTON BRAGG, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION (CDC), CHINA, CHIP ROY, CNN, CORONAVIRUS, COVID-19, COVID-19 HATE CRIMES ACT, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DONALD TRUMP, ELECTORAL COLLEGE, FACEBOOK, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FORT BENNING, FORT BRAGG, FORT LEE, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HENRY L. BENNING, HUFFINGTON POST, JIM JORDAN, JOE BIDEN, jOSH HAWLEY, KELLY LOEFFLER, KEVIN MCCARTHY, LAUREN BOEBERT, LOUIE GOHMERT, MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE, MATT GAETZ, MEDIA MATTERS, MO BROOKS, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REUTERS, ROBERT E. LEE, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, STEVE SCALISE, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, WONKETTE
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Medical, Politics, Social commentary on April 1, 2022 at 12:22 am
Republicans have made “cancel culture” an accusation hurled at Democrats.
Democrats, for example, who want to strip the names of Confederate traitor-generals from many of America’s most famous military bases. Among those bases:
- Fort Benning (Georgia) – Named after Confederate General Henry L. Benning, who fought against the Union armies at the Second Battle of Bull Run, Antietam and Gettysburg.
- Fort Lee (Virginia) – Named after Robert E. Lee, commander of the Army of Northern Virginia.
- Fort Bragg (North Carolina) – Named for Confederate General Braxton Bragg.
Republicans have also used “cancel culture” to denounce the ban imposed on former President Donald Trump by Facebook and Twitter.
Donald Trump
Throughout his Presidency, Trump had used Facebook—and especially Twitter—to attack and slander literally hundreds of people.
Trump’s reign of Twitter insults ended abruptly after he instigated an attack on the United States Capitol Building on January 6, 2021.
Desperate to stay in office by any means, he roused his legions of Stormtrumper followers to halt the counting of Electoral College votes certain to give former Vice President Joe Biden victory in the 2020 Presidential election.
Stormtrumpers attacking the Capitol Building
This treasonous behavior finally led Twitter to impose a permanent ban on Trump’s future tweets. Facebook quickly followed with a temporary ban of unspecified length.
Republicans were outraged. For decades they had aggressively demanded that corporations be free of government regulation. Now they demanded that Internet-related companies be stripped of their independence.
Their outrage reflected their support for what would have been the greatest “cancel crime” in American history: Trump’s unprecedented attempt to cancel the votes of 80 million Americans for Joe Biden and remain in office for at least another four years.
And on May 20, 2021, Republicans proved their willingness to cancel legislation to protect Asian-Americans from a recent rise in attacks on them.
These attacks can be attributed directly to Donald Trump. Desperate to divert attention from his own indifference to the rising death toll from Coronavirus, throughout 2020 he repeatedly blamed China for “The China virus” and “The China plague.”
In October, Trump tested positive for COVID-19.
Republicans quickly blamed China.
The blame lay with Trump, who had refused to mask up or socially distance from others, as his own Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had recommended.
But this didn’t stop Georgia Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler from tweeting: “China gave this virus to our President,” adding “WE MUST HOLD THEM ACCOUNTABLE.”
And Blair Brandt, a Trump campaign fundraiser, claimed that the “Chinese Communist Party has biologically attacked our President.”
Trump’s slanderous rhetoric—and the tensions it produced between the United States and China—has resulted in numerous attacks on Asian-Americans. In 2020, crimes targeting Asian Americans rose by 149% over those reported in 2019.
Introduced by Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act would:
- Expedite the review of hate crimes related to the pandemic;
- Expand the reporting of hate crimes to local and state agencies;
- Require the Justice Department to work with state and local agencies to address them.
In the United States Senate, Josh Hawley (R-MO) cast the only vote against the Act.
“It’s too broad,” he said. “As a former prosecutor, my view is it’s dangerous to simply give the federal government open-ended authority to define a whole new class of federal hate crime incidents.”
In the House of Representatives 62 Republicans tried to cancel the legislation.
Among these:
- Ohio’s Jim Jordan, who said falsely: “This violence, by and large, is happening in Democrat-controlled cities, many of which, interestingly enough, have defunded their police departments.”
- Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) said: “We can’t legislate away hate”––which was the same excuse Southern Republicans made to oppose the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
On May 20, President Biden signed the Act into law.
The following Republican House members joined Roy and Jordan in voting no:
- Matt Gaetz (Florida)
- Lauren Boebert (Colorado)
- Mo Brooks (Alabama)
- Marjorie Taylor Greene (Georgia).
- Robert Aderholt (Alabama)
- Rick Allen (Georgia)
- Jodey Arrington (Texas)
- Brian Babin (Texas)
- Jim Banks (Indiana)
- Andy Biggs (Arizona)
- Dan Bishop (North Carolina
- Ted Budd (North Carolina)
- Tim Burchett (Tennessee)
- Kat Cammack (Florida)
- Jerry Carl (Alabama)
- Madison Cawthorn (North Carolina)
- Michael Cloud (Texas)
- Andrew Clyde (Georgia
- Tom Cole (Oklahoma)
- Warren Davidson (Ohio)
- Byron Donalds (Florida)
- Jeff Duncan (South Carolina)
- Virginia Foxx (North Carolina)
- Louie Gohmert (Texas)
- Bob Good (Virginia)
- Lance Gooden (Texas)
- Paul Gosar (Arizona)
- Mark Green (Tennessee)
- Michael Guest (Mississippi)
- Andy Harris (Maryland)
- Diana Harshbarger (Tennessee)
- Kevin Hern (Oklahoma)
- Yvette Herrell (New Mexico)
- Jody Hice (Georgia)
- Clay Higgins (Louisiana)
- Ronny Jackson (Texas)
- Mike Johnson (Louisiana)
- Trent Kelly (Mississippi)
- Doug LaMalfa (California)
- Barry Loudermilk (Georgia)
- Nancy Mace (South Carolina)
- Tracey Mann (Kansas)
- Thomas Massie (Kentucky)
- Tom McClintock (California)
- Mary Miller (Illinois)
- Alexander Mooney (West Virginia)
- Barry Moore (Alabama)
- Ralph Norman (South Carolina)
- Steven Palazzo (Mississippi)
- Gary Palmer (Alabama)
- Scott Perry (Pennsylvania)
- August Pfluger (Texas)
- Tom Rice (South Carolina)
- John Rose (Tennessee)
- Matthew Rosendale (Montana)
- David Rouzer (North Carolina)
- John Rutherford (Florida)
- W. Gregory Steube (Florida)
- Thomas Tiffany (Wisconsin)
- Randy Weber (Texas)
Nearly one-third of the House Republican caucus voted against the measure, which was supported by Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Minority Whip Steve Scalise and newly appointed GOP leader Elise Stefanik.
2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, ABC NEWS, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, ANDY BIGGS, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BBC, BLAIR BRANDT, BLOOMBERG NEWS, BRAXTON BRAGG, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION (CDC), CHINA, CHIP ROY, CNN, CORONAVIRUS, COVID-19, COVID-19 HATE CRIMES ACT, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DONALD TRUMP, ELECTORAL COLLEGE, FACEBOOK, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FORT BENNING, FORT BRAGG, FORT LEE, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HENRY L. BENNING, HUFFINGTON POST, JIM JORDAN, JOE BIDEN, jOSH HAWLEY, KELLY LOEFFLER, KEVIN MCCARTHY, LAUREN BOEBERT, LOUIE GOHMERT, MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE, MATT GAETZ, MEDIA MATTERS, MO BROOKS, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REUTERS, ROBERT E. LEE, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, STEVE SCALISE, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, WONKETTE
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Medical, Politics, Social commentary on May 25, 2021 at 12:12 am
Republicans have made “cancel culture” an accusation hurled at Democrats.
Democrats, for example, who want to strip the names of Confederate traitor-generals from many of America’s most famous military bases. Among those bases:
- Fort Benning (Georgia) – Named after Confederate General Henry L. Benning, who fought against the Union armies at the Second Battle of Bull Run, Antietam and Gettysburg.
- Fort Lee (Virginia) – Named after Robert E. Lee, commander of the Army of Northern Virginia.
- Fort Bragg (North Carolina) – Named for Confederate General Braxton Bragg.
Republicans have also used “cancel culture” to denounce the ban imposed on former President Donald Trump by Facebook and Twitter.
Donald Trump
Throughout his Presidency, Trump had used Facebook—and especially Twitter—to attack and slander literally hundreds of people.
Trump’s reign of Twitter insults ended abruptly after he instigated an attack on the United States Capitol Building on January 6.
Desperate to stay in office by any means, he roused his legions of Stormtrumper followers to halt the counting of Electoral College votes certain to give former Vice President Joe Biden victory in the 2020 Presidential election.
Stormtrumpers attacking the Capitol Building
This treasonous behavior finally led Twitter to impose a permanent ban on Trump’s future tweets. Facebook quickly followed with a temporary ban of unspecified length.
Republicans were outraged. For decades they had aggressively demanded that corporations be free of government regulation. Now they demanded that Internet-related companies be stripped of their independence.
Their outrage reflected their support for what would have been the greatest “cancel crime” in American history: Trump’s unprecedented attempt to cancel the votes of 80 million Americans for Joe Biden and remain in office for at least another four years.
And on May 20, Republicans proved their willingness to cancel legislation to protect Asian-Americans from a recent rise in attacks on them.
These attacks can be attributed directly to Donald Trump. Desperate to divert attention from his own indifference to the rising death toll from Coronavirus, throughout 2020 he repeatedly blamed China for “The China virus” and “The China plague.”
In October, Trump tested positive for COVID-19.
Republicans quickly blamed China.
The blame lay with Trump, who had refused to mask up or socially distance from others, as his own Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had recommended.
But this didn’t stop Georgia Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler from tweeting: “China gave this virus to our President,” adding “WE MUST HOLD THEM ACCOUNTABLE.”
And Blair Brandt, a Trump campaign fundraiser, claimed that the “Chinese Communist Party has biologically attacked our President.”
Trump’s slanderous rhetoric—and the tensions it produced between the United States and China—has resulted in numerous attacks on Asian-Americans. In 2020, crimes targeting Asian Americans rose by 149% over those reported in 2019.
Introduced by Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act will:
- Expedite the review of hate crimes related to the pandemic;
- Expand the reporting of hate crimes to local and state agencies;
- Require the Justice Department to work with state and local agencies to address them.
In the United States Senate, Josh Hawley (R-MO) cast the only vote against the Act.
“It’s too broad,” he said. “As a former prosecutor, my view is it’s dangerous to simply give the federal government open-ended authority to define a whole new class of federal hate crime incidents.”
In the House of Representatives 62 Republicans tried to cancel the legislation.
Among these:
- Ohio’s Jim Jordan, who said falsely: “This violence, by and large, is happening in Democrat-controlled cities, many of which, interestingly enough, have defunded their police departments.”
- Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) said: “We can’t legislate away hate”—which was the same excuse Southern Republicans made to oppose the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
On May 20, President Biden signed the Act into law.
The following Republican House members joined Roy and Jordan in voting no:
- Matt Gaetz (Florida)
- Lauren Boebert (Colorado)
- Mo Brooks (Alabama)
- Marjorie Taylor Greene (Georgia).
- Robert Aderholt (Alabama)
- Rick Allen (Georgia)
- Jodey Arrington (Texas)
- Brian Babin (Texas)
- Jim Banks (Indiana)
- Andy Biggs (Arizona)
- Dan Bishop (North Carolina
- Ted Budd (North Carolina)
- Tim Burchett (Tennessee)
- Kat Cammack (Florida)
- Jerry Carl (Alabama)
- Madison Cawthorn (North Carolina)
- Michael Cloud (Texas)
- Andrew Clyde (Georgia
- Tom Cole (Oklahoma)
- Warren Davidson (Ohio)
- Byron Donalds (Florida)
- Jeff Duncan (South Carolina)
- Virginia Foxx (North Carolina)
- Louie Gohmert (Texas)
- Bob Good (Virginia)
- Lance Gooden (Texas)
- Paul Gosar (Arizona)
- Mark Green (Tennessee)
- Michael Guest (Mississippi)
- Andy Harris (Maryland)
- Diana Harshbarger (Tennessee)
- Kevin Hern (Oklahoma)
- Yvette Herrell (New Mexico)
- Jody Hice (Georgia)
- Clay Higgins (Louisiana)
- Ronny Jackson (Texas)
- Mike Johnson (Louisiana)
- Trent Kelly (Mississippi)
- Doug LaMalfa (California)
- Barry Loudermilk (Georgia)
- Nancy Mace (South Carolina)
- Tracey Mann (Kansas)
- Thomas Massie (Kentucky)
- Tom McClintock (California)
- Mary Miller (Illinois)
- Alexander Mooney (West Virginia)
- Barry Moore (Alabama)
- Ralph Norman (South Carolina)
- Steven Palazzo (Mississippi)
- Gary Palmer (Alabama)
- Scott Perry (Pennsylvania)
- August Pfluger (Texas)
- Tom Rice (South Carolina)
- John Rose (Tennessee)
- Matthew Rosendale (Montana)
- David Rouzer (North Carolina)
- John Rutherford (Florida)
- W. Gregory Steube (Florida)
- Thomas Tiffany (Wisconsin)
- Randy Weber (Texas)
Nearly one-third of the House Republican caucus voted against the measure, which was supported by Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Minority Whip Steve Scalise and newly appointed GOP leader Elise Stefanik.
2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, ABC NEWS, ADAM LANZA, AL PACINO, ALEX JONES, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, ANTHONY FAUCI, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BLOOMBERG, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CHIP ROY, CHRIS CILLIZZA, CLIMATE CHANGE, CLIMATE CHANGE DENIAL, CNN, CORONAVIRUS, CORRUPTION, COVID-19, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DONALD TRUMP, DRUDGE RETORT, FACEBOOK, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FOX NEWS NETWORK, FRANK SERPICO, GRETA TUNBERG, HEARTLAND INSTITUTE, JOE BIDEN, KOCH FAMILY, LAURA INGRAHAM, LIZ CHENEY, MEDIA MATTERS, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NBC NEWS, NEW YORK POLICE DEPARTMENT, NEWSWEEK, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REUTERS, SALON, SANDY HOOK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, SEATTLE TIMES, SERPICO (MOVIE), SLATE, STEPHEN KING, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ALEX JONES SHOW, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, WONKETTE
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on July 28, 2020 at 12:34 am
In Serpico (1973) audiences were led to cheer on the lonely and dangerous efforts of incorruptible Frank Serpico (Al Pacino) to combat widespread payoffs within the NYPD.
And even though a wounded Serpico is forced to resign from the NYPD, he leaves behind the Knapp Commission to investigate widespread police corruption.
The audience was not led to root for the men who dedicated their lives to deceit and corruption.
But for Right-wingers, the opposite is the case. Supporting those who peddle lies for profit is considered a patriotic duty. And so is attacking those who dare to stand up against lies and corruption.
Case #1:
On December 14, 2012, Adam Lanza, a mentally unstable, 20-year-old gunman, slaughtered 20 school children aged six and seven and six adult staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School, in Newtown, Connecticut.
Enter Right-wing broadcaster and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who hosts The Alex Jones Show from Austin, Texas.
On his program in January, 2015, he said: “Sandy Hook is a synthetic completely fake with actors, in my view, manufactured. I couldn’t believe it at first. I knew they had actors there, clearly, but I thought they killed some real kids. And it just shows how bold they are, that they clearly used actors.”
On August 1, 2018, families of four students and two educators who died in the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre filed a defamation lawsuit against Jones.
Alex Jones
Michael Zimmermann [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)%5D
According to the complaint:
“The Jones defendants concoct elaborate and false paranoia-tinged conspiracy theories because it moves product and they make money. Not because they truly believe what they are saying, but rather because it increases profits.”
Typically, Jones responded to the lawsuit with more lies:
“This is all out of context….And it’s not even what I said or my intent. I’m not going to get into the real defects of this, I’m going to wait until it’s thrown out with prejudice.”
Case #2:
On September 23, 2019, 16-year-old activist Greta Thunberg indicted world leaders at the United Nations for failing to act on climate change:
“You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. And yet I’m one of the lucky ones. People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!”
Greta Thunberg
“She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!” President Donald Trump tweeted sarcastically above a link to Thunberg’s speech.
CNN’s Chris Cillizza immediately recognized the sarcasm: “Unfortunately, it’s not at all surprising that Trump saw fit to make fun of Thunberg’s passion and emotion. This is who he is — a schoolyard bully who doesn’t differentiate between a 16-year-old girl and Joe Biden. Or a Gold Star family. Or a prisoner of war. Or white nationalists and those protesting their ideology of hate.”
Fox News host Laura Ingraham juxtaposed Thunberg’s speech with a clip from the 1984 horror film Children of the Corn, joking, “I can’t wait for Stephen King’s sequel, Children of the Climate.”
Ingraham’s brother, Curtis, wrote: “I can no longer apologize for a sibling who I no longer recognize.”
Many American commentators attacking Thunberg are tied to the Heartland Institute, funded by Big Oil, and which promotes climate science denial.
Other critics of Greta owe their allegiance to the Koch family, owners of the U.S.’s largest private energy company.
Case #3:
Dr. Anthony Fauci has served under six Republican and Democratic Presidents as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984.
Since COVID-19 struck the United States in January, he has dared to speak the hard truth about the pandemic—and the Federal Government’s failure to combat it.
Anthony Fauci
in doing so, he has occasionally contradicted President Trump’s statements filled with ignorance or outright lies. For example: Trump has been loudly touting hydroxychloroquine, used for treating malaria, as a miracle cure for COVID-19.
Yet Fauci has pointed out there have been no scientific trials of the drug for its effectiveness against Coronavirus. Given the medical condition of some patients, it could even prove fatal.
Trump resents that his own popularity is steadily falling as COVID cases and deaths rise—and he offers only rosy predictions that “one day it will be gone.”
Trump’s supporters are equally furious.
On July 21, Representative Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) the House Republican Conference Chair—and the only female member of the House GOP leadership—was attacked by members of her own party.
Her “crime”? Supporting Fauci.
Representative Chip Roy (Texas) complained that Trump’s Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, has retweeted some of Cheney’s tweets supporting Fauci.
Like Holocaust deniers, Right-wing shills like Alex Jones, Laura Ingraham and Chip Roy can’t afford to admit the corruption of the causes they support.
By demanding “Prove it!” and then attacking all evidence put forward, Rightists hope to keep their critics on the defensive.
Thus, the best course to take when a Right-winger makes a claim: Assume it’s a lie—because it is.
ABC NEWS, ADOLF HITLER, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, ANDY BIGGS, ANTHONY FAUCI, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BLOOMBERG, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CHIP ROY, CNN, CORONAVIRUS, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DONALD TRUMP, DONALD TRUMP JR., DRUDGE RETORT, ERNST ROHM, FACEBOOK, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FREEDOM CAUCUS, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, JIM JORDAN, KEN BUCK, LIZ CHENEY, MATT GAETZ, MEDIA MATTERS, MITT ROMNEY, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RALPH NORMAN, RAND PAUL, RAW STORY, REUTERS, SALON, SCHUTZSTAFFEL, SCOTT PERRY, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, STORMTROOPERS, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, THIRD REICH, THOMAS MASSIE, TIME, TODD MCMURTRY, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, WONKETTE
In Bureaucracy, History, Medical, Politics, Social commentary on July 27, 2020 at 12:19 am
“All revolutions,” said Ernst Rohm, leader of Adolf Hitler’s brown-shirted thugs, the S.A., “devour their own children.”
Fittingly, he said this as he sat inside a prison cell awaiting his own execution.
Ernst Rohm
On June 30, 1934, Hitler had ordered a massive purge of his private army, the S.A., or Stormtroopers. The purge was carried out by Hitler’s elite army-within-an-army, the Schutzstaffel, or Protective Squads, better known as the SS.
The S.A. Brownshirts had been instrumental in securing Hitler’s rise to Chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933. They had intimidated political opponents and organized mass rallies for the Nazi Party.
But after Hitler reached the pinnacle of power, they became a liability.
Ernst Rohm, their commander, urged Hitler to disband the regular German army, the Reichswehr, and replace it with his own legions as the nation’s defense force.
Frightened by Rohm’s ambitions, the generals of the Reichswehr gave Hitler an ultimatum: Get rid of Rohm—or they would get rid of him.
So Rohm died in a hail of SS bullets—as did several hundred of his longtime S.A. cronies.
SS firing squad
Eighty-six years later, even the most Right-wing Republicans are learning there’s a price to pay for disagreeing with The Leader.
Case in point: Representative Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) the House Republican Conference Chair—and the only female member of the House GOP leadership.
On July 21, she became the target of members of her own party.
Her GOP Freedom Caucus attackers included
- Representative Jim Jordan (R-Ohio)
- Matt Gaetz (R-Florida)
- Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky)
- Chip Roy (R-Texas)
- Andy Biggs (R-Arizona)
- Scott Perry (R-Pennsylvania) and
- Ralph Norman (R-South Carolina).
Jordan, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, praised Cheney for defending President Donald Trump during the impeachment trial in February. But he attacked her for publicly disagreeing with Trump’s intention to remove troops from Germany and Afghanistan.
He also assailed Cheney for her recent rebukes of Trump—for his mishandling of the Coronavirus and his Twitter rants.
Cheney remembered that Jordan’s Right-wing Freedom Caucus had caused problems for the GOP’s leadership when the party held the majority in the House.
“I look forward to hearing your comments about being a team player when we’re back in the majority,” replied Cheney.
Representative Roy (Texas) assailed Cheney for supporting Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, and complained that his Democratic opponent has retweeted some of Cheney’s tweets.
Cheney defended Fauci, who has served under Republican and Democratic Presidents as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984.
“At this moment when we’re trying to find every way we can to defeat the virus, when we’re trying to find therapeutics and vaccines, we need all hands on deck, and I can’t imagine anybody better than Dr. Fauci to continue to play that role,” Cheney told reporters after the meeting.
Trump is jealous of Fauci’s popularity for speaking the hard truth about Coronavirus—and the Federal Government’s failure to combat it.
Anthony Fauci
Trump also resents that his own popularity is steadily falling as COVID cases and deaths rise—and he offers only rosy predictions that “one day it will be gone.”
Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona, the head of the Freedom Caucus, said that if someone has a problem with Trump, they should keep it to themselves. He said Cheney undermined the GOP’s ability to win back the House, which Democrats won in November, 2018.
Matt Gaetz, who once split with Trump over a war powers resolution, later tweeted: “Liz Cheney has worked behind the scenes (and now in public) against @realDonaldTrump and his agenda. House Republicans deserve better as our Conference Chair.”
Gaetz’ tweet was quickly backed by such major Republicans as Senator Rand Paul (Kentucky) and Trump’s son, Donald, Jr.
Republicans, tweeted Trump,Jr., “already have one Mitt Romney, we don’t need another.”
Senator Mitt Romney (R-Utah) was the only Republican to vote to convict Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress during February’s impeachment effort.
“Donald Trump Jr. Is not a member of the House Republican Conference,” Cheney dismissed the attack later.
During the conference meeting, Gaetz and Massie complained that Cheney was supporting a primary challenge to Massie.
Cheney told Gaetz that she looked forward to seeing an upcoming HBO documentary, “The Swamp,” about him, Massie and a third Republican congressman, Ken Buck of Colorado.
Cheney told Massie that his issue was with Trump, not her. Trump had called Massie “a third rate grandstander” and said he wanted Massie ousted from the Republican party. Despite this, Massie had beaten Todd McMurtry, a primary challenger.
Cheney had donated to McMurtry, but later asked that the money be returned after his past racist social media posts became public.
Anyone in Nazi Germany could be accused of disloyalty to Adolf Hitler. Now anyone in the Republican party can be accused of disloyalty to Donald Trump.
“Fanatics can justify practically any atrocity to themselves,” wrote the author Mercedes Lackey. “The more untenable their position becomes, the harder they hold to it, and the worse the things they are willing to do to support it.”
.jpg)
Bureaucracybuster's Blog 
2024 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, ABC NEWS, ADOLF HITLER, ALTERNET, AMAZON, AMERICABLOG, ANDY BIGGS, ANTHONY FAUCI, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BBC, BISEXUALS, BLOOMBERG, BLOOMBERG NEWS, BUD LIGHT, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CHARLES SUTHERLAND, CHICK-FIL-A, CHIP ROY, CNN, CORONAVIRUS, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOS, DAILY KOZ, DAN CATHY, DEI (DIVERSITY EQUITY INCLUSION), DISNEY, DONALD TRUMP, DONALD TRUMP JR., DRUDGE RETORT, ERIC MCREYNOLDS, ERNST ROHM, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FOX NETWORK, FREEDOM CAUCUS, GAYS, GROOMERS, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HUFFINGTON POST, IVANKA TRUMP, JIM JORDAN, JOSH DUGGAR, KELLOGG, KEN BUCK, KEURIG, LESBIANS, LIZ CHENEY, MATT GAETZ, MEDIA MATTERS, MIKE HUCKABEE, MITT ROMNEY, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, MUSLIMS, NATIONAL ANTHEM, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES, NAZI GERMANY, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NFL, NORDSTROM, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, PEDOPHILIA, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, QUEERS, RALPH NORMAN, RAND PAUL, RAW STORY, REUTERS, RON DESANTIS, SALON, SCHUTZSTAFFEL, SCOTT PERRY, SEAN HANNITY, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, STARBUCK'S, STORMTROOPERS, TALKING POINTS MEMO, TARGET, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, THIRD REICH, THOMAS MASSIE, TIME, TODD MCMURTRY, TRANSGENDERS, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, WONKETTE
“ALL REVOLUTIONS DEVOUR THEIR OWN CHILDREN”: PART TWO (END)
In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Politics, Social commentary on June 6, 2023 at 12:10 amRight-wingers love to attack those they hate as “snowflakes,” and boast about how easy it is to “trigger” them into anger.
Yet it is Right-wingers whose sensitive feelings can be “triggered” by something as innocuous as a word: DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion).
Target, Bud Light and Disney have all faced backlash for their support of the queer community, which is officially known as LGBTQ (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer).
Other companies that have found themselves targets for Right-wing ire have been:
Now comes Chick-fil-A as the latest business to enrage the self-appointed holy warriors of the Right. Its crime: Hiring a vice president of DEI.
And even worse for the Right: He’s black.
Erick McReynolds has been a longtime employee of Chick-fil-A. According to the company’s official statement:
“Erick McReynolds joined Chick-fil-A in February 2007 as a Business Consultant. Since then, he has been promoted to various positions like Team Captain, Director – Service Team, Executive Director (Midwest Region), and Executive Director (DEI).”
In 1988 he had earned an MBA from Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University He then worked as a Sales Representative at International Paper till June 2001. He served as a Senior Business Analyst at Sprint for five years till January 2007.
Erick McReynolds
Chick-fil-A has long championed Right-wing causes. By 2012, it had donated over $5 million to anti-LGTBQ groups. When the company faced backlash for this, Republicans like Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee led counter-protesting efforts such as “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day.”
Its owner, Dan Cathy, publicly denounced same-sex marriage, citing the “biblical definition of the family unit.” This enraged liberals but ignited support among Republicans.
The company promised in 2019 to stop donating to anti-LGBTQ groups. It would instead focus its philanthropic efforts on hunger, education and homelessness.
Although McReynolds has served as VP of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion since November, 2021, the Right was unaware of his appointment until May 30, 2023. That was when Right-wing strategist Joey Mannarino tweeted:
“We have a problem. Chick-Fil-A just hired a VP of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. This is bad. I don’t want to have to boycott. Are we going to have to boycott?
“It’s only a matter of time until they start putting tranny semen in the frosted lemonade at this point.”
Joey Mannarino
Adding to Mannarino’s resentment was McReynolds’ public statement:
“Chick-fil-A restaurants have long been recognized as a place where people know they will be treated well. Modeling care for others starts in the restaurant, and we are committed to ensuring mutual respect, understanding and dignity everywhere we do business. These tenets are good business practice and crucial to fulfilling our Corporate Purpose.”
Other Right-wing eruptions on Twitter included:
Director of Citizens for Renewing America Wade Miller: “Everything good must come to an end. Here @ChickfilA is stating it’s commitment to systemic racism, sexism, and discrimination. I cannot support such a thing.”
@BrandonStraka: “As a liberal I boycotted Chick-fil-A. As a conservative I’ll be boycotting them again. I will not support any company that pushes the disingenuously named diversity, equity, inclusion agenda.”
@amuse: “Sadly, Chick-fil-A is embracing DEI and ESG [Environmental Social and Corporate Governance] after being co-opted by race & trans activists who have made it impossible for the organization to reflect the Christian values of its founder. Marxists won’t allow belief in Jesus Christ.”
The Right generally and Republicans in particular have long been fixated on issues involving sexuality. This is especially true for those where children are supposedly victimized.
Thus, fetuses become “babies” even when they’re no bigger than a microdot. This allows Rightists to claim they’re “pro-life”—while they champion the “right” of criminals, terrorists and the insane to own military-style firepower
And even though 90% of child molesters are heterosexual family or friends, the Right continues to charge all homosexuals with pedophilia.
Anyone who dares to challenge its agenda is charged with being a “groomer”—someone who builds an emotional connection with children or young people to sexually exploit them.
Totally ignored by Republicans are supposed Right-wing moral paragons who turn out to be “groomers” like Josh Duggar (of the “19 Kids and Counting” series) who was sentenced in 2022 to 12 years’ imprisonment for possession of child pornography;
A useful rule of thumb: Be wary of those who loudly preach their own virtue—such as Charles Sutherland, an elementary school librarian who spray painted “groomer” around the D.C. area during the 2022 Pride week. When police arrested him for possessing child pornography, they found a child-sized doll in his bed.
Meanwhile, Right-wing politicians—most notably Florida Governor and Presidential candidate Ron DeSantis—continue to exploit the fears and hatred of their equally Fascistic constituents.
With the 2024 Presidential campaign now underway, expect more of the same to come.
Share this: