#anti matt gaetz

[mugiwara-lucy]

My friend has done readings that Trump will be acting way too arrogant, irrational and will be acting and going way too fast which will be met with BIG LOSSES which will set him off.......

I think.....it's starting....ESPECIALLY after this post from yesterday.....

But remember guys even though this may be a victory we have a LOT of work in the coming days....

[cjznark]

Release the Matt Gaetz report.

Pass it on.

[tomorrowusa]

Yale historian Timothy Snyder has written and spoken extensively about democracy over the past nine years. He tells MSNBC's Ali Velshi that Trump's nominees for cabinet positions represent a concerted attempt to disrupt the US government which would benefit America's enemies.

Dr. Snyder says that the likes of Matt Gaetz, Tulsi Gabbard, RFK Jr., Pete Hegseth, etc. are not just unqualified but they are "anti-qualified".

He has some excellent advice for all of us. Watch the above video twice and then share it with somebody.

BONUS LINK!: He used his Substack to detail just what Trump and his minders are up to.

Decapitation Strike Preserving America from Trump's Appointments

It is a mistake to think of these people as flawed.  It is not they will do a bad job in their assigned posts.  It is that they will do a good job using those assigned posts to destroy our country. However and by whomever this was organized, the intention of these appointments is clear: to create American horror.  Elected officials should see this for what it is. 

The United States is under direct institutional attack.

Imagine 9/11 when the four hijacked planes had taken off — but before three of the four hit their targets. We need four GOP senators who are willing to put loyalty to American democracy ahead of servility to Donald Trump. Getting four Senate Republicans to block Trump's appointments is the equivalent of taking out all four of the hijacked planes on 9/11.

If your state is represented in the Senate by one or two Republicans, the burden is on you to persuade them not to go along with Trump's anti-qualified nominees.

It's true that about half of Republican senators are zombified Trump cult members. Those like Cotton, Tuberville, Scott, and Johnson are a waste of time. But almost a third of the GOP Senate caucus may be persuadable – under the right circumstances. Two GOP senators, Collins of Maine and Murkowski of Alaska, have already expressed displeasure over the appointments. So we may need as few as two more.

This is your job right now. Get your GOP senator(s) to go on record on Trump's nominees. If they express even the slightest reservations about the nominees, get to work. Flattery and encouragement have a better success rate than threats and name calling. Appeal to patriotism. Even promise to make a small donation to their primary campaigns if they are challenged by MAGA hotheads in 2026.

The real struggle in the US now is between pro-democracy and anti-democracy forces. All other contentions must take a back seat to this.

[skellybonesandtrees]

REALLY? Matt Gaetz is the thing you wanna regret your vote for? REALLY? Trump the rapist was there the whole time. I have no words for how fucking stupid his voters are. No words.

[anti-encomiums]

Gaetz statement is hilarious.

I had and excellent meeting - fuuuuuck!

I appreciate their thoughtful feedback - they said no.

The incredible support of so many - but some of them have daughters.

The momentum was strong - but it was downhill.

A distraction... - there's only enough room for one convicted sex offender on the team.

The critical work of the trump/ Vance transition - from a democracy to a total shitting mess.

Needlessly protracted Washington scuffle - I might go to jail.

I'll be withdrawing my name - and adding it to a sex offenders register.

trump's DOJ must be in place on day 1 - he's giving the job to MTG who can't even count to 1.

I am fully committed - trump says he'll pardon me.

I will forever be honored - I'm going to work for Faux Newz.

He will save America - with trickle down (it's a common problem for elderly men).

[gandercallsforaid]

Matt Gaetz from Florida? Slappy the Dummy from Goosebumps?

Ever see them in the same room?

[msclaritea]

[boytoykevinday]

Do I even want to know what happened in the last 24 hours 😭 I'm almost afraid to ask but I'm also insanely curious

You probably don't want to know but I'll tell you because you have no choice. This will be long and...awful. But there are sources so that's fun! Please keep in mind that this was all released within 24 hours on Thursday, September 20th, 2024 and that, unfortunately, I haven't mentioned everything.

But! The GOP was certainly having a wild one yesterday.

To start things off:

The first 'Big News' to break was about Mark Robinson.

For those saying 'who the fuck is Mark Robinson', he's the current (R) Lt. Gov of North Carolina that is running for Gov. Before yesterday, he was best known for openly hating LGBT+ and Jewish folks, being a Holocaust denier, being (forcefully) anti abortion, saying it was better when women couldn't vote, anti immigrant, hating the civil rights movement, etc, just being a hateful Evangelical nasty fascist. MAGA to his core. Trump has endorsed him, saying he should be cherished and calling him "MLK on steroids". (Robinson is Black).

So, yeah, that's bad enough right? Yesterday it got even worse. CNN released a report about some comments he made on a porn site forum 12 years ago, the most prominent being 'i'm a black NAZI'. He also commented that he wished slavery was legal and that he'd own a few, and called himself a 'perv' that used to 'peep' on women in public locker rooms when he was a teenager.

Also the tale as old as time that I'm sure you could guess when I mentioned 'GOP' 'loudly transphobic' and 'porn site scandal' - trans porn was a favourite of his. Because of course.

Also of course - the GOP hasn't taken him off the ticket, and he will continue to be the nominee for governor in North Carolina!

Read the article, there's more about him and the situation in general. Mind the warnings.

-

Now on to our favourite worm brained bear eating anti vaxxer conspiracy theorist, Robert F. Kennedy Junior! I'm putting this under a read more now.

The first thing to drop about him yesterday was the news of an investigation after he allegedly cut off the head of a dead whale and took it home 20 years ago. Now I bet you're thinking, wow that's bad! Unfortunately for RFK Jr yesterday got worse. It was then revealed that he (70) was having an affair with right wing journalist Olivia Nuzzi (31) after New York Magazine suspended her.

Everything I learn about RFK Jr I learn against my own will.

-

Saying goodbye to RFK for now, let's move on to Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida! This Matt Gaetz, with the botox if you didn't recognise him.

Scary lookin, right?

This isn't a completely new story (here's an article about how he alledgedly paid for sex with a minor) but new court filings were released yesterday alledging that he attended a drug-fueled sex party in 2017 with the 17-year-old girl at the center of the alleged sex trafficking scandal.

Sure is great to have such trustworthy men representing this country!

OKAY, on to the next.

-

This wasn't really breaking news because this is just Trump being Trump but he gave a speech at an ANTI ANTISEMITISM EVENT where he preemptively blamed the Jews for being the reason he'll lose this election, telling them they need to get their head checked if they vote for Harris (that's pretty much part of his stump speech by now though) and saying he'll reinstate his Muslim ban. White fascist blaming Jews? Wow, I did Nazi that coming.

-

I genuinely could go on, I really truly could.

Oh! Kamala Harris went on Oprah and it was really nice and not at all insane and she talked to the family of the first known victim of Trump's abortion ban and it was very touching. Trump's official social media then posted a clip of her talking about her gun and saying 'If somebody breaks into my house, they're getting shot' like it was a snatch when in reality Republicans in the comments are saying 'actually, this would make me vote for her'. Thanks, Trump Team for the free advertising!

Misc:

Chris Rufo (known racist and anti immigration right wing activist) got revealed to have an illegal immigrant wife, and then got revealed to be a user of Ashley Madison (database where people go to cheat on their partners)(Robinson was also on Ashley Madison).

Jasmine Crockett during her thing and ripping white republicans to shreds. (idk this was just fun to me)

Actually Republicans and Project 2025 got ripped to shreds and shut down in general by multiple Congress members.

GOP is on the brink of causing a government shutdown, because of COURSE they are.

Cards Against Humanity sues SpaceX over “invasion” of land on US/Mexico border.

Anyway there's actually MORE believe it or not but I can't remember if it happened yesterday. Thank you for reading, I'm always open to discussing current events. I don't think it's a well known fact that I'm into politics because I don't talk about it on tumblr because people are kinda stupid. Anyway!

[tomorrowusa]

Team Putin - Working for the Evil Empire

[themattress]

GAETZIZ!

Like many great artists I fear I will never be truly appreciated or understood.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Overkill. http://Newsday.com/matt :: Matt Davies

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

November 13, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson

Nov 14, 2024

Republican senators today elected John Thune of South Dakota to be the next Senate majority leader. Trump and MAGA Republicans had put a great deal of pressure on the senators to back Florida senator Rick Scott, but he marshaled fewer votes than either Thune or John Cornyn of Texas, both of whom were seen as establishment figures in the mold of the Republican senators’ current leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

Scott lost on the first vote. The fact that the vote was secret likely helped Thune’s candidacy. Senators could vote without fear of retaliation. 

The rift between the pre-2016 leaders of the Republican Party and the MAGA Republicans is still obvious, and Trump’s reliance on Elon Musk and his stated goal of deconstructing the American government could make it wider. 

Republican establishment leaders have always wanted to dismantle the New Deal state that began under Democratic president Franklin Delano Roosevelt and continued under Republican president Dwight D. Eisenhower and presidents of both parties until 1981. But they have never wanted to dismantle the rule of law on which the United States is founded or the international rules-based order on which foreign trade depends. Aside from moral and intellectual principles, the rule of law is the foundation on which the security of property rests: there is a reason that foreign oligarchs park their money in democracies. And it is the international rules-based order that protects the freedom of the seas on which the movement of container ships, for example, depends.

Trump has made it clear that his goal for a second term is to toss overboard the rule of law and the international rules-based order, instead turning the U.S. government into a vehicle for his own revenge and forging individual alliances with autocratic rulers like Russian president Vladimir Putin. 

He has begun moving to  put into power individuals whose qualifications are their willingness to do as Trump demands, like New York representative Elise Stefanik, whom he has tapped to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, or Florida senator Marco Rubio, who Trump said today would be his nominee for secretary of state. 

Alongside his choice of loyalists who will do as he says, Trump has also tapped people who will push his war on his cultural enemies forward, like anti-immigrant ideologue Stephen Miller, who will become his deputy chief of staff and a homeland security advisor. Today, Trump added to that list by saying he plans to nominate Florida representative Matt Gaetz, who has been an attack dog for Trump, to become attorney general.

Trump’s statement tapping Gaetz for attorney general came after Senate Republicans rejected Scott, and appears to be a deliberate challenge to Republican senators that they get in line. In his announcement, Trump highlighted that Gaetz had played “a key role in defeating the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax.” 

But establishment Republican leaders understand that some of our core institutions cannot survive MAGA’s desire to turn the government into a vehicle for culture war vengeance. 

Gaetz is a deeply problematic pick for AG. A report from the House Ethics Committee investigating allegations of drug use and sex with a minor was due to be released in days. Although he was reelected just last week, Gaetz resigned immediately after Trump said he would nominate him, thus short-circuiting the release of the report. Last year, Republican senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma told CNN that “we had all seen the videos he was showing on the House floor, that all of us had walked away, of the girls that he had slept with. He would brag about how he would crush [erectile dysfunction] medicine and chase it with an energy drink so he could go all night." 

While South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham said he would be willing to agree to the appointment, other Republican senators drew a line. “I was shocked by the announcement —that shows why the advise and consent process is so important,” Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) said. “I’m sure that there will be a lot of questions raised at his hearing.” Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) was blunt: “I don’t think he’s a serious candidate.”

If the idea of putting Gaetz in charge of the country’s laws alarmed Republicans concerned about domestic affairs, Trump’s pick of the inexperienced and extremist Fox & Friends host Pete Hegseth to take over the Department of Defense was a clarion call for anyone concerned about perpetuating the global strength of the U.S. The secretary of defense oversees a budget of more than $800 billion and about 1.3 million active-duty troops, with another 1.4 million in the National Guard and employed in Reserves and civilian positions.

The secretary of defense also has access to the nuclear command-and-control procedure. Over his nomination, too, Republican senators expressed concern.

While Trump is claiming a mandate to do as he wishes with the government, Republicans interested in their own political future are likely noting that he actually won the election by a smaller margin than President Joe Biden won in 2020, despite a global rejection of incumbents this year. And he won not by picking up large numbers of new voters—it appears he lost voters—but because Democratic voters of color dropped out, perhaps reflecting the new voter suppression laws put into place since 2021.

Then, too, Trump remains old and mentally slipping, and he is increasingly isolated as people fight over the power he has brought within their grasp. Today his wife, Melania, declined the traditional invitation from First Lady Jill Biden for tea at the White House and suggested she will not be returning to the presidential mansion with her husband. It is not clear either that Trump will be able to control the scrabbling for power over the party by those he has brought into the executive branch, or that he has much to offer elected Republicans who no longer need his voters, suggesting that Congress could reassert its power.  

Falling into line behind Trump at this point is not necessarily a good move for a Republican interested in a future political career. 

Today the Republicans are projected to take control of the House of Representatives, giving the party control of the House, the Senate, and the presidency, as well as the Supreme Court. But as the downballot races last week show, MAGA policies remain unpopular, and the Republican margin in the House will be small. In the last Congress, MAGA loyalists were unable to get the votes they needed from other Republicans to impose Trump’s culture war policies, creating gridlock and a deeply divided Republican conference. 

The gulf between Trump’s promises to slash the government and voters’ actual support for government programs is not going to make the Republicans’ job easier. Conservative pundit George Will wrote today that “the world’s richest person is about to receive a free public education,” suggesting Elon Musk, who has emerged as the shadow president, will find his plans to cut the government difficult to enact as elected officials reject cuts to programs their constituents like. 

Musk’s vow to cut “at least” $2 trillion from federal spending, Will notes, will run up against reality in a hurry. Of the $6.75 trillion fiscal 2024 spending, debt service makes up 13.1%; defense—which Trump wants to increase—is 12.9%. Entitlements, primarily Social Security and Medicare, account for 34.6%, and while the Republican Study Group has called for cuts to them, Trump said during the campaign, at least, that they would not be cut. 

So Musk has said he would cut about 30% of the total budget from about 40% of it. Will points out that Trump is hardly the first president to vow dramatic cuts. Notably, Ronald Reagan appointed J. Peter Grace, an entrepreneur, to make government “more responsive to the wishes of the people” after voters had elected Reagan on a platform of cutting government. Grace’s commission made 2,478 recommendations but quickly found that every lawmaker liked cuts to someone else’s district but not their own.  

Will notes that a possible outcome of the Trump chaos might be to check the modern movement toward executive power, inducing Congress to recapture some of the power it has ceded to the president in order to restore the stability businessmen prefer.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was himself a wealthy man, and in the 1930s he tried to explain to angry critics on the right that his efforts to address the nation’s inequalities were not an attack on American capitalism, but rather an attempt to save it from the communism or fascism that would destroy the rule of law. 

“I want to save our system, the capitalistic system,” FDR wrote to a friend in 1935. “[T]o save it is to give some heed to world thought of today.” 

The protections of the system FDR ushered in—the banking and equities regulation that killed crony finance, for example—are now under attack by the very sort of movement he warned against. Whether today’s lawmakers are as willing as their predecessors were to stand against that movement remains unclear, especially as Trump tries to bring lawmakers to heel, but Thune’s victory in the Senate today and the widespread Republican outrage over Trump’s appointment of Gaetz and Hegseth are hopeful signs. 

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[darkmaga-returns]

Nobody is more qualified than Patel, a true Trump loyalist with the courage to tackle the momentous task that is at hand.

Roger Stone

Nov 26, 2024

President Donald Trump’s cabinet is taking shape. With Attorney General selection Pam Bondi and the possible upcoming appointment of Matt Gaetz as special counsel to investigate federal corruption, the opportunity to bring the Deep State to heel is at hand.

There is a reason that President Trump faced repeated assassination attempts throughout the 2024 campaign, after the establishment realized they didn’t have the resources to rig the election like they had successfully done in 2020. They know Trump has the potential to drain the swamp and clean up the intelligence community that has been out of control since before the successful JFK assassination conspiracy.

But that potential will only be realized with the right appointment. If an individual like Bill Barr, Christopher Wray or John Kelly can worm their way into the post of FBI Director, there will be no substantial reforms. The deep state will be protected, and the infiltrators will give half-measures and pay lip service as the time runs out on Trump’s mandate. Already, the Neocons have tried (and failed) to shoehorn failed Michigan U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers into the role.

Trump has already made the correct choice for Director of National Intelligence with Tulsi Gabbard. Gabbard will be overseeing organizations like the NSA that have been caught red handed spying on all Americans in a clearly unconstitutional manner. The message has been sent to the spying apparatus that their actions against the 4th Amendment will not be tolerated. Now, that same message must be sent to the FBI.

[mugiwara-lucy]

Good afternoon, all!

This is just a quick reminder that while we’ve gotten rid of that piece of shit Matt Gaetz to NOT take your feet off the pedal!

We still have other pieces of shit to be rid of! And so make sure to put pressure on your senate and legislatures to make SURE Pete Hegsweth, RFK Jr and Tulsi Gabbard do NOT get approved!

Pete Hegsweth not only has White Supramacist tattoos but wants to indoctrinate young children to “prepare them for war” and believes that women should not be in combat roles as well as believing in “traditional gender roles” and wants to strip voting rights away from “most women”.

Tulsi Gabbard is a Pro-Russia tool that spouts Pro Russian Propaganda and RFK Jr is a dangerous Anti-Vaxxing conspiracy theorist that caused the deaths of over 80 children in Samoa with his Anti-Vaccine bullshit. And with Bird Flu becoming bigger and bigger alongside whooping cough and measles making a return, he will literally cause a bigger body count than Covid.

So yeah put the same amount of pressure about RFK Jr, Pete Hegsweth and Tulsi Gabbard that you all did with Matt Gaetz!!

[odinsblog]

False Equivalence

Why does the mainstream media keep depicting lunatic-right Republicans and normal Democrats as equidistant from the center?

With the final passage of the debt ceiling deal, Democrats got off easier than one might have expected, given that it was a deal between a mainstream Democratic president and a Republican House in thrall to the lunatic far right. In drastic contrast to the scorched-earth budget bill initially passed by the Republican-controlled House, the cuts were about par for the course in a divided government; and they spare the country a repeat of this debt-hostage ordeal for two years.

However, much of the media played the agreement as a compromise between two equal extremes. The New York Times story about the House passage of the deal included this astonishing sentence: "With both far-right and hard-left lawmakers in revolt over the deal, it fell to a bipartisan coalition powered by Democrats to push the bill over the finish line, throwing their support behind the compromise in an effort to break the fiscal stalemate that had gripped Washington for weeks."

Think about that for a moment. There is no doubt that Matt Gaetz, Elise Stefanik, Lauren Boebert, Paul Gosar et al. are far-right by any definition, as white supremacists, Christian nationalists, election deniers, and nihilists on fiscal policy.

But no Democrats in the House can fairly be described as hard left. Those who voted against the deal included moderate liberals such as Joaquin Castro, mainstream progressives like Rosa DeLauro and Jan Schakowsky, as well as self-described democratic socialists including Cori Bush and AOC. But none of them are "hard left," which suggests anti-democratic, any more than Franklin Roosevelt was hard left.

The Times coverage reinforces a narrative of false equivalence that the media keeps repeating, with lazy catchphrases like "partisan bickering." It also plays into the hands of corrupt No Labels and Third Way types, who promote the idea that the best course for the republic is to split the difference between neofascists and a normal mainstream Democratic Party and president.

Big media, obsessed as it is with the appearance of fair and balanced coverage, took years to give itself permission to accurately describe Donald Trump with the impolite word "liar." But its treatment of the two parties as in any sense symmetrical is far more insidious than using euphemisms to characterize Trump’s lies.

Our friend Peter Dreier, whose observations inspired this post, points out that by any reasonable definition, "even the most left-oriented Democrats (AOC, Bush, Bowman, Raskin, Jayapal) are not extremists. They are shades of social democrats. They are pro-union, pro-choice, pro-affirmative action, pro-LGBT equality, pro-Green New Deal, pro-progressive taxation. But the most right-wing Republicans are extremists and reactionaries."

(continue reading)

[mariacallous]

WASHINGTON — Long ago, when Adam Schiff was in Slovakia on a temporary assignment from the U.S. Justice Department, he decided to seek out his family’s ancestral home in Lithuania.

The idea left his grandmother perplexed.

“I think she said something along the lines of, ‘We fought like hell to get out of there. Why would you want to go back now?’” he recalled in an interview last week.

He went anyway, visiting the towns his great-grandparents had fled. Now, Schiff once again has a temporary title: senator-elect from California. And once again, he seems to be heading straight back into a situation that many others would flee.

The hostile territory, in this case, is Capitol Hill during a restored, and resurgent, Donald Trump presidency. Trump, livid at Schiff for investigating him and trying to remove him from office, has grouped the incoming senator under the broad category of “the enemy within,” a favorite phrase of the president-elect, and demanded that he be put to trial.

Schiff is not dismissing the prospect of legal action against him — especially when he looks at Trump’s nomination of former Rep. Matt Gaetz, who shares Trump’s proclivities for conspiracy theories and revenge. Gaetz’s nomination was stymied by a cascade of scandals, but Schiff says his name being put forward means “you can’t really exclude any possibility, right?”

So Schiff is enhancing his personal security — but said his wife and two kids asked him not to elaborate on that. He was more interested in drawing a link between Trump’s rhetoric about him and the broader threat he says the president-elect poses.

“They don’t want me to talk about it,” he said of the heightened security. “I mean, it’s more pronounced for me, I think, than many. But it’s not confined to me. It’s not confined to Congress. I remember talking to a school board member last year in the South Bay who said, ‘I’m not going to run for reelection. I have a young family. I’m getting death threats.’”

The exchange stunned Schiff. “You’re on the school board, you’re getting death threats. What? What’s happening?” he said. “And there is this very dangerous increase in the level of acceptance of the idea of political violence.”

Schiff, 64, said he feels the country is entering “totally uncharted waters” and is concerned about the threat Trump poses to democracy. It’s a shift from when he first entered Congress in 2001, after a career as an assistant U.S. attorney and four years in the State Senate. And he said he’s prepared to fight.

“Where it’s necessary to stand up to the president, to push back, to defend the rights and interests of Californians, I will do it, and I will do it unhesitatingly,” he said. “I think we are weak, very much weakened as a democracy. We are very fragile.”

Trump’s grievances against Schiff stretch back at least to 2019, when the California Democratic congressman led the first impeachment hearings against Trump. Schiff was also a member of the select committee to investigate the Jan. 6 Capitol riot that sought to overturn Biden’s 2020 election.

“These are bad people. We have a lot of bad people. But when you look at ‘Shifty Schiff’ and some of the others, yeah, they are, to me, the enemy from within,” Trump told Fox News Channel last month, using his nickname for Schiff that, with its suggestion of duplicity, some see as antisemitic.

And he’s already faced opprobrium: Republicans voted last year to censure him for his role in investigating Russian efforts to influence the 2016 elections, which Trump and his followers view as an overwrought and baseless partisan effort to delegitimize him. Schiff said he would wear the censure as a “badge of honor.” He was censured for “for misleading the American public and for conduct unbecoming of an elected Member of the House of Representatives.”

Democrats surrounded Schiff in a protective huddle as he stood in the well of the House to listen to then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, read the resolution, which censured Schiff  “for misleading the American public and for conduct unbecoming of an elected Member of the House of Representatives.”

He was born in Framingham, Massachusetts, and as a child, moved from there to Arizona and then to California. His family were members of Temple Sinai, a Reform congregation in the southern California city of Glendale. As an adult, he said, his family doesn’t belong to a synagogue, but they celebrate Jewish holidays and he says Jewish ethics guide him.

“‘What is required of us, but to do justice, to love mercy, and walk humbly with my God,’” he said, quoting a famous verse from the book of the biblical prophet Micah. ”I think that very much describes how I was brought up.”

Schiff becomes especially animated when he brings up how his family’s Jewish heritage inspires him.  He carries his grandfather’s watch with him on Election Day as a token of his Jewish heritage and said his great regret is that his father, who died earlier this year at 96, would not live to see him sworn into the Senate.

“He loved to say, ‘from the shtetl to the Congress in three generations, only in America,’” Schiff said.

He also sees himself as continuing the tradition of former Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, with whom he shares both Judaism and liberal politics. Boxer retired from the Senate in 2017, and Feinstein died last year. Schiff won the primary for her seat, beating out two more progressive challengers, and easily won election earlier this month against a Republican opponent.

“My father would talk often about his father and grandfather and standing on the shoulders of those who went before,” he said. “I think that ethic is very much the same as with Sens. Boxer and Feinstein.”

He said he has also carried his Jewish identity into Congress, where he and the 30 or so other Jewish Democrats, who will serve beginning next year alongside three Jewish Republicans, share a sensitivity toward protecting Jews from antisemitism. He feels anti-Jewish animosity has proliferated on the left and the right since Hamas invaded Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, launching the war in Gaza.

“It’s as if the taboo against being overtly antisemitic has lost its power. The taboo against a lot of other forms of bigotry has lost its power,” he said.

“I think all the Jewish members feel it acutely,” he continued. “We feel, I think, very much as representatives of the broader Jewish community, that the community is more isolated and vulnerable than it ever has been.”

He recalled traveling to Ukraine while serving in eastern Europe — he said he was “struck by just how successful this annihilation of the Jewish people had been” — as well as a trip to France a decade or so ago when he spoke with a Jewish community leader about rising antisemitism there under then-Prime Minister Francois Hollande.

“‘Hollande has said some really good things and we’re getting police protection at our shul,’” Schiff recalled the Jewish leader telling him. “I remember him saying that, and I remember thinking at the time, ‘thank God I don’t live in a country like that.’ And here we are.”

He has been a fixture at American Israel Public Affairs events, and the lobby’s affiliated political action committee endorsed him this year. He said that had he been in the Senate at the time, he would have opposed Sen. Bernie Sanders’ failed effort to block weapons shipments to Israel, noting enduring threats from Iran.

“I think we should continue to work with Israel to try to minimize the civilian loss of life and do a better job meeting the humanitarian needs of people in Gaza,” he said. “We need to keep pressing Israel, I believe, on thinking about the day after this war and how we get back to a path to two states. But I don’t think cutting off support for Israel right now is the right course.”

Right now, he’s focused on what’s happening in the United States. He’s worried about Trump’s threats to install controversial cabinet picks via recess appointments, sans Senate confirmation — a test of whether the body will stand up to the president-elect. He’s also concerned about Trump’s threat of mass deportations of undocumented immigrants.

He was the top Democrat on the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee for years, and is especially worried about Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence, the Russia-sympathizing former Democratic congresswoman-turned-Trump supporter Tulsi Gabbard. He says he believes top spy talent will quit if she is confirmed.

“It’s going to be those you most want to stay who will run for the exits if they have leadership they don’t trust,” he said.

And, of course, he’s worried about Trump’s threats of “retribution” against perceived enemies — including him.

Schiff worries, he said, about Trump’s “threats to turn the federal government, the apparatus of the federal government, into a tool of revenge and destruction, including the Justice Department, which I have a particular respect for, because I came out of that department, and I venerate the department.”

He’s not too concerned, though. He trusts the guardrails that are in place in the country’s justice system.

“I think our system is pretty resilient, and I have confidence that if they ever went down that road, they would run into a lot of legal constraints,” he said.

And he’s maintaining his sense of humor. During the 2019 impeachment drama, he recalled, The Washington Post profiled him and noted that years earlier, as an assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, he shopped a screenplay around Hollywood, a courtroom drama.

“This profile came to Trump’s attention, because for a little while after that, he referred to me as a ‘failed screenwriter,’” Schiff said. “I told my staff, I said, ‘He doesn’t realize what a great favor he’s doing me. Half of my constituents are failed screenwriters.’”

[ngdrb]

The Contemporary Intellectual Challenges Within Republican Politics

The age of idiots: "Are Republican politicians dumb? Let's break down the details for better understanding."

The Republican Party in the United States is facing significant intellectual challenges, particularly from within its ranks. The rise of the so-called "MAGA" (Make America Great Again) movement, spearheaded by former President Donald Trump and his ardent supporters, has brought to the forefront a concerning trend of anti-intellectualism, conspiracy theories, and a disregard for empirical evidence.

The MAGA Movement: A Departure from Reason

The MAGA movement, which has gained a strong foothold within the Republican Party, represents a departure from traditional conservative principles rooted in reason, logic, and intellectual discourse. Instead, it has embraced a brand of populism that often rejects expertise, dismisses inconvenient facts, and promotes a cult-like devotion to its figurehead, Donald Trump.

Prominent MAGA supporters such as Marjorie Taylor Greene, Donald Trump Jr., J.D. Vance, Ron Johnson, Lauren Boebert, Matt Gaetz, Elise Stefanik, Scott Perry, Kari Lake, Greg Abbott, and Ted Cruz have been at the forefront of propagating conspiracy theories, spreading disinformation, and undermining faith in democratic institutions.

The Denial of Reality

One of the most concerning aspects of the MAGA movement is its blatant denial of reality and its dismissal of empirical evidence. The refusal to accept the results of the 2020 presidential election, despite overwhelming evidence of its legitimacy, is a prime example of this dangerous trend.

Members of the MAGA movement have perpetuated the baseless claim of widespread voter fraud, even in the face of numerous court rulings, audits, and investigations that have found no evidence to support their allegations. This willful disregard for facts and the rule of law undermines the very foundations of American democracy.

The Erosion of Intellectual Discourse

The MAGA movement has also contributed to the erosion of intellectual discourse within the Republican Party. Instead of engaging in substantive debates and reasoned arguments, its adherents often resort to ad hominem attacks, whataboutism, and the demonization of those who dare to challenge their beliefs.

This hostility towards intellectual rigor and critical thinking has alienated many conservative thinkers and academicians, further exacerbating the party's intellectual challenges. The result is a political environment where emotionally charged rhetoric and conspiracy theories take precedence over evidence-based policymaking and rational debate

Threats to Social Cohesion and National Stability

The intellectual challenges within the Republican Party, fueled by the MAGA movement, pose significant threats to social cohesion and national stability. The promotion of divisive rhetoric, the demonization of perceived "enemies," and the rejection of established facts and institutions can lead to a further polarization of society and a breakdown of shared values and trust in democratic processes.

Moreover, the embrace of conspiracy theories and the normalization of disinformation can erode the foundations of an informed citizenry, which is essential for the proper functioning of a democratic society. When truth and reality are subjugated to partisan interests and personal agendas, the ability to engage in constructive dialogue and find common ground becomes increasingly difficult.

The Way Forward: Embracing Intellectual Integrity

To address these intellectual challenges, the Republican Party must recommit itself to the principles of reason, evidence-based policymaking, and respect for democratic institutions. This requires a willingness to reject conspiracy theories, disinformation, and the demonization of political opponents.

Additionally, the party must foster an environment that values intellectual discourse, welcomes diverse perspectives, and encourages critical thinking. This means embracing dissenting voices, engaging in substantive debates, and rejecting the notion that loyalty to a particular individual or ideology supersedes the pursuit of truth and the common good.

Ultimately, the path forward for the Republican Party lies in reclaiming its intellectual integrity and recommitting itself to the principles of reason, evidence, and democratic values. Only by doing so can it address the contemporary intellectual challenges it faces and restore its credibility as a party of serious thinkers and policymakers.