Freedom Caucus insurrectionist leaders

 I used to be a Republican.  The Freedom Caucus drove me out off the Republican Party.  They were not politicians, they were revolutionaries who only obstructed and did all they could to destroy government.  But we need government. So I walked away from the Republican Party.  It turns out they are worse than I had realized.  They led, at the behest of the Former Guy, the insurrection of January 6, 2022.  We have testimony given to the House Select Committee.

Historian Heather Cox Richardson reports:

"We knew that both former energy secretary Rick Perry of Texas and Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH) had texted with Meadows about possible avenues for overturning the election. We knew that Representatives 

• Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and 
• Lauren Boebert (R-CO) had recorded videos before the insurrection that suggested they supported it. ... 

In last night’s filed motion was part of the testimony to the committee from Cassidy Hutchinson, a former special assistant to the president and the chief of staff. When asked which members of Congress were involved in calls about overturning the election—including calls saying such efforts were illegal—Hutchinson named:

• Representatives Greene, 
• Jordan, 
• Boebert, 
• Scott Perry (R-PA), 
• Louie Gohmert (R-TX), 
• Andy Biggs (R-AZ), 
• Mo Brooks (R-AL), 
• Jody Hice (R-GA), 
• Paul Gosar (R-AZ), and 
• Debbie Lesko (R-AZ).

The heart of this group was the “Freedom Caucus,” which was organized in 2015 to move the Republican Party farther to the right. 

• Its first chair was Jim Jordan; 
• its second wasMark Meadows. 
• Its third was Andy Biggs. 
• Mick Mulvaney, who would go on to Trump’s White House, and 
• Ron DeSantis, who is now governor of Florida, were key organizers."

And, by the way, Liz Cheney, Republican from Wyoming, denounces the "Putin Wing" of the Republican Party for supporting Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

And I remember John Boehner, Republican Speaker of the House when the Freedom Caucus first descended on the House.  A quote from him:

“They can’t tell you what they’re for. They can tell you everything they’re against. They’re anarchists. They want total chaos. Tear it all down and start over. That’s where their mind-set is.”  

What they are tearing down is not just "Big Government" but Democracy itself. I deeply hope that they are charged with attempting to overthrow an election and permanently barred from political office per the 14th Amendment, Section 3.  And prison seems a proper consequence of trying to end democracy, it seems to me.

Religious wars just keep happening

 There are many ways to think about the Russian invasion of Ukraine- Putin trying to restore the Soviet empires boundaries. Russia’s revenge for being ignored after being the world’s second leading superpower, once the Soviet Union collapsed. Putin’s poll numbers plunging so he Wags the Dog and starts a war to raise his approval and stay in power.

But the one that strikes me now, is to what degree this is a religious war. Our own right wing nationalist white supremacist Christians in America have long seen Putin as a stern example of a white Christian leader who hates the same things they do, especially especially gay and women’s rights. The Russian Orthodox Christian leader has apparently blessed this war against what he sees as Western immorality and depredations. White hyper-masculine macho men in both America and Russia are just terrified and disgusted by gay men, and are driven to bigotry, cruelty, insurrection, and war.  My bet is they are terrified of their own repressed sexual urges, however small.  Their need to be seen as big and strong and scary causes so much pain and destruction.  I would feel more sorry for them if they weren’t so destructive.  

Help protect us from religious fanatics, please.  Their religions just seem to be the cover stories for their agendas of brutal domination and intolerance, which seems to me to be their twisted response to their own fears of “weakness” and being less than Manly Men. 

Ketanji Brown Jackson and Q-Anon

The first black woman, Ketanji Brown Jackson, has been appointed to the Supreme Court, and I celebrate that historic event.

But a very frightening thing happened during the hearings where she went before the Senate Republicans.  Those Republican Senators like Tom Cotton, Josh Hawley, Lindsey Graham, and Ted Cruz who want to run to become the Republican nominee for President did a very dangerous thing - they accused her of abetting child porn and pedophilia. 

Dana Milbank did some counting - "In four days of hearings last week, “the phrase ‘child porn’ (or ‘pornography’ or ‘pornographer’) was mentioned 165 times. There were also, according to transcripts, 142 uses of ‘sex’ (‘sexual abuse,’ ‘sexual assault,’ ‘sexual intercourse,’ ‘sex crimes’), 15 of ‘pedophile,’ 13 of ‘predators,’ 18 of ‘prepubescent’ and nine of general pornography.”

The charges are false, of course, but why are they so dangerous?  Because it demonstrates that they are courting the votes of the dangerously violent and deluded Q-Anon cult, who believe amazingly stupid conspiracy charges such as liberals are Satan worshiping pedophiles who kill babies and drink their blood.  It is hard for me to wrap my head around the Q-Anon stuff, but apparently about 10% of the American people are either believers or partial believers.  "Q" is apparently some guy named Jim Watkins in the Philippines of 4-Chan and 8-Chan fame (extremist social media)

Another reason they went after Ketanji is because she was the judge who sentenced the Q-Anon Pizzagate" conspiracy lunatic that went into a Washington DC pizza parlor firing an AR-15 rifle to "rescue" the children.

Dec. 4 (2016) incident at the Comet Ping Pong restaurant. Prosecutors say he was self-investigating an online conspiracy theory — dubbed "Pizzagate" — that claimed the pizzeria was harboring a child sex-trafficking ring with connections to influential Democrats. Washington police and the FBI denied the theories had any substance.

The MAGA Cult includes the Q-Anon cult, and you saw many "Q" signs and clothing emblems in the January 6 violent insurrection to overthrow the 2020 election.  This is a violent group of people, who apparently are pretty much beyond persuasion to leave the cult.  And the social media forums where they express themselves are filled with violent threats.

By the way, the fundamental charge that "liberals" or Democrats are Satan worshipping pedophiles that skin babies, drink their blood, and eat them is one of the oldest slanders in human history.  To get a secret chemical that will keep them young:

"...the supposed harvesting of the chemical adrenochrome. Q followers believe that the satanic human trafficking operation is all a means to abduct children and extract adrenochrome from their brains, injecting the chemical to stay young."  Spoiler alert - this chemical is a mild hallucinogens that is not in human beings. 

It was a slander that the Nazis used against the Jews to justify the holocaust, and apparently it goes all the way back to the second century against the early Christians to justify killing them as well.  

We have very deluded and very violent folks amongst us and I find it very disturbing that the Republican Party political candidates are seeking their votes with no regard to the violence that they are condoning and encouraging by legitimizing their violent delusions.

Ego and death

It seems to me that the invasion of Ukraine, and the planned takeover of the Balkan States, are the result of the ego of the Russian leader, Putin. Mikhail Khordokovsky, former richest man in Russia until he challenged Putin and thrown into prison some years ago, told Farid Zakria on his Sunday show that Putin has enormous wealth but as an aging tyrant he has a need to have a legacy.  Putin has made it clear what he thinks his legacy is supposed to be - to reestablish the Russia Empire to the glories of the Soviet Union.  

So he attacks. He kills. He crushes. His ego demands death. 

Khordokovsky also confirmed that the Oligarchs have no power in Russia.  Putin’s inner circle is not going to overthrow him.  Only force can stop him.  Putin is a lifelong criminal whose life has only been a life among criminals and only force can affect him and criminals like him.  It is a world view.  A mindset.  

Putin’s horrific brutality, admired by some in America, is apparently shared by his military, who are butchers,

Witness their atrocities:

“Anatoly Fedoruk , mayor of Bucha , told AFP that the city has already buried 280 people in a mass grave. Corpses littered the streets, he said, some as young as 14 years old. “All these people were shot, killed, in the back of the head,” Fedoruk said. 

Many of the bodies had white bandages on them “to show that they were unarmed,” he said.”

Khordokovsky praised Biden for stating his view as the moral leader of democracies around the world that the Russians must overthrow this depraved tyrant. He also suggested that a united U.S. led NATO could force Putin to the negotiating table. This is not going to be easy.