Lessons of History and Trying To Avoid the Same Mistakes

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CNN is now confirming what we've all suspected for a while now: House Republican caucus and committee leaders have been in regular communications with the coup-attempting Donald Trump, keeping him personally up to date on the status of committees and investigations launched to help cover up Trump’s suspected crimes.

"Not only are Trump, his aides and close allies regularly apprised of Republicans’ committee work, they also at times exert influence over it," reports CNN. And those communications have "emerged as a crucial method for Trump to shape Republicans’ priorities in their newly-won House majority."

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/3/29/2160916/-Top-House-Republicans-have-been-coordinating-committee-investigations-with-Donald-Trump-himself?detail=emaildkre&pm_source=DKRE&pm_medium=email

 

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A self-styled far-right propagandist from Florida was convicted Friday of charges alleging that he conspired to deprive individuals of their right to vote in the 2016 presidential election.

Douglass Mackey, 33, of West Palm Beach, Florida, was convicted in Brooklyn federal court before Judge Ann M. Donnelly after a one-week trial. On the internet, he was known as “Ricky Vaughn.”

In 2016, Mackey had about 58,000 Twitter followers and was ranked by the MIT Media Lab as the 107th-most important influencer of the then-upcoming presidential election, prosecutors said. He had described himself as an “American nationalist” who regularly retweeted Trump and promoted conspiracy theories about voter fraud by Democrats.

“Today’s verdict proves that the defendant’s fraudulent actions crossed a line into criminality,” he said.

The government alleged that from September 2016 to November 2016, Mackey conspired with several other internet influencers to spread fraudulent messages to Clinton supporters.

Prosecutors told jurors during the trial that Mackey urged supporters of then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to “vote” via text message or social media, knowing that those endorsements were not legally valid votes.

At about the same time, prosecutors said, he was sending tweets suggesting that it was important to limit “black turnout” at voting booths. One tweet he sent showed a photo of a Black woman with a Clinton campaign sign, encouraging people to “avoid the line” and “vote from home,” court papers said.

Using social media pitches, one image encouraging phony votes utilized a font similar to one used by the Clinton campaign in authentic ads, prosecutors said. Others tried to mimic Clinton’s ads in other ways, they added.

By Election Day in 2016, at least 4,900 unique telephone numbers texted “Hillary” or something similar to a text number that was spread by multiple deceptive campaign images tweeted by Mackey and co-conspirators, prosecutors said.


(full article online)

Far-right influencer convicted in voter suppression scheme

Douglass Mackey, 33, of West Palm Beach, Florida, was convicted in Brooklyn federal court before Judge Ann M. Donnelly after a one-week trial.

www.politico.com

 

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https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/3/31/2161280/-Climate-Deniers-Get-Expelled-From-National-Science-Teaching-Association-Conference?detail=emaildkre&pm_source=DKRE&pm_medium=email

 

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Trump’s Republican Rivals Are Missing an Obvious Opportunity

Now is an ideal moment for Republicans to free themselves from the former president. They’re not exactly taking advantage of it.

www.theatlantic.com

 

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Nashville school shooting updates: Students demand gun control; shooter fired 152 rounds​

Nashville school shooting updates: Students demand gun control; shooter fired 152 rounds

Follow along live for the latest updates Monday in the aftermath of a deadly shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville.

news.yahoo.com

 

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It’s weird how some Southerners are so keen to commemorate the brief period (160-odd years ago!) when their ancestors committed treason against the U.S.—all so they could continue to torture and “own” other human beings—and then got their ruddy arses stomped into the dirt, along with their vile ethos. Seriously, isn’t that bizarre? It would be like a white person throwing an elaborate party in 2023 to commemorate the time their grandpa got ferociously drunk at the county fair, screamed racist vulgarities at a group of Black children, and then proceeded to lose an arm on the Tilt-a-Whirl.

But hey, they love their “heritage” so much they can’t stop regurgitating it all over the rest of the country, whether we like it or not. So what Americans get are statues of traitors all across the United States and grotesqueries like Mississippi’s Confederate Heritage Month.

And as a little bonus chef’s kiss, the state’s Republican governor dated his Heritage Month proclamation “April 31, 2023”—a date that will
surely live in infamy - because it does not exist.

For the fourth year in a row, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves has signed a proclamation declaring April as Confederate Heritage Month in Mississippi, keeping alive a 30-year-old tradition that former Republican Gov. Kirk Fordice first began. Black people make up 38% of Mississippi’s population, which is the highest for any state.
A branch of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, the SCV Camp 265 Rankin Rough & Ready’s, posted a copy of the proclamation on its Facebook page on Tuesday afternoon.
“Whereas, as we honor all who lost their lives in (the Civil War), it is important for all Americans to reflect upon our nation’s past, to gain insight from our mistakes and successes, and to come to a full understanding that the lessons learned yesterday and today will carry us through tomorrow if we carefully and earnestly strive to understand and appreciate our heritage and our opportunities which lie before us,” the proclamation says.

That’s a lot of words just to say “we’re a bunch of racist shitheels who want to wave our shitty loser flags in Black people’s faces.” But as historians are quick to point out, flags, statues, and other commemorations of the short-lived and morally bankrupt Confederate States of America were never about history and heritage. They were created to help reestablish white supremacy in the wake of the Civil War, Reconstruction and, much later, the Civil Rights Movement.

NPR:

"Most of the people who were involved in erecting the monuments were not necessarily erecting a monument to the past," said Jane Dailey, an associate professor of history at the University of Chicago."But were rather, erecting them toward a white supremacist future."
The most recent comprehensive study of Confederate statues and monuments across the country was published by the Southern Poverty Law Center last year. A look at this chart shows huge spikes in construction twice during the 20th century: in the early 1900s, and then again in the 1950s and 60s. Both were times of extreme civil rights tension.
...
James Grossman, the executive director of the American Historical Association, says that the increase in statues and monuments was clearly meant to send a message.
"These statues were meant to create legitimate garb for white supremacy," Grossman said. "Why would you put a statue of Robert E. Lee or Stonewall Jackson in 1948 in Baltimore?"

(full article online)

Mississippi's GOP governor signs Confederate Heritage Month proclamation and dates it ... April 31

It’s weird how some Southerners are so keen to commemorate the brief period (160-odd years ago!) when their ancestors committed treason against the U.S.—all so they could continue to torture and “own” other human beings—and then got their ruddy arses...

www.dailykos.com

 

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[ No we do not need government help. Ever. Oh, wait..... ]

It took less than 3 months in office for Gov. Huckabee Sanders to ask 'big government' for money

All the way back on Jan. 16, 2023, newly elected governor of Arkansas, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, went to her twitter account and barfed up this gem: “As long as I am your governor, the meddling hand of big government creeping down from Washington, D.C.,...

www.dailykos.com

 

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Gender Fluid Teen Pushes Back Against 'False' Viral Story Their Mom Gave to Conservative Outlet

Bari Weiss' new outlet, the Free Press, reported that the teen's mother regrets approving puberty blockers. The teen says the story is full of misinformation.

jezebel.com

 

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[ Why not simply censure the three Representatives? Why this show of power to get rid of Democratic voices? ]


Tennessee Republicans are expelling three Democrats from the state House of Representatives for peacefully protesting for gun control.

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This is what Republicans called an “insurrection”.

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And this is what Republicans called a “normal tourist visit” on January 6.

Fascist Republicans purged three duly elected Democratic lawmakers today, while denying the violent insurrection that nearly toppled our democracy.

Tennessee Republicans didn’t expel a lawmaker accused of sexual assault.

Congressional Republicans didn’t expel Rep. Paul Gosar or Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene for threatening to kill other members of Congress.

But when three Democrats dared to peacefully protest for less than a minute in honor of the victims of gun violence, Republicans meted out the ultimate punishment.


Crazy Eight PAC

 

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