Key GOP donor backs Dem after House Republican ousted over Trump impeachment

In an article in Politico called “Key GOP donor backs Dem after House Republican ousted over Trump impeachment” by Natalie Fertig, a “former Romney financier David Nierenberg says he is siding with moderation over far-right rhetoric in Washington State.”

A few key paragraphs are noted below. A link to the full article can be found at the end of the post.

“David Nierenberg has funded a lot of Republican candidates over the years. But when GOP Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler lost her primary in August, he switched sides to fund Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez over the Trump-backed Republican who advanced to the general election.

‘I immediately went to work,’ Nierenberg said. ‘And I think I’ve now transformed myself from Jaime’s largest bundler to Marie’s.‘

Gluesenkamp Perez’s campaign team confirmed Nierenberg has raised over $100,000 for her campaign from his network of moderate Republican donors since the August primary. But the money is only part of the story in a district that has been center stage in the fight for moderate Republican voters — and for the future of the GOP — since Herrera Beutler’s votein 2021 to impeach Donald Trump over the Jan. 6 Capitol riot earned her a primary challenge from Republican Joe Kent….

Most of his big money donations in the last decade have gone to Republicans, but Nierenberg says he’s generally looking for candidates willing to work across the aisle — a breed of politician that voters are choosing in rapidly declining numbers.“

I want Republicans in leadership positions in the party to see this. Not only has the GOP leadership embraced the unenviable requirement to believe The Big Lie and sow it seeds, they must also join in the petulant stance of destroying those who dared to speak the truth against the former president.

Quite simply, any governing body that punishes its truth tellers and exposing them and their family to threats of violence while aggrandizing its liars is not a party who has veritas and gravitas. How can someone take this party seriously if they let this kind of stuff happen? Again, just this weekend, the former president put a target on Senator Mitch McConnell’s back and made a racist remark against McConnell’s Asian-American wife, who just happened to be in Trump’s cabinet.

This is not just being “rough around the edges” as the former president’s sycophants like to say. On top of his many other attributes that are unbecoming of a president, much less a decent human being, putting people in danger and making denigrating racist comments is the simply the former president acting like a class A jerk. People who support him would not teach their kids to act like the former president does on a routine basis. They would not tolerate it. So, why should we not call it out?

I saw where the Mr. Pillow guy lost his appeal to avoid the continuance of the defamation lawsuit against him by Dominion Voting Systems. He is in a long line of people who flew to close to the Trump sun and got sucked in by its gravitational pull and are now suffering the consequences. I have long said the happiest people in America in 2016-17 were folks who declined Trump’s offer to work for him. The second happiest were their spouses.

I applaud Mr. Nierenberg for his funding a non-extreme candidate. We need more civil discourse, not less. We need more people to act the opposite way the former president acts. We need leaders who can disagree without taking someone’s head off.

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/10/03/gop-donor-backing-democrat-washington-00060099

Monday meanderings – October 3, 2022

I hope you had a great weekend and stayed safe. Ours was a little soggy here with the remnants of Ian.  Here are just a few meanderings on this October Monday morning.

A letter to the editor from a self-professed MAGA Republican noted how he hated RINOs and liked GOP Congressman Madison Cawthorn because he spoke his mind. It should be noted Cawthorn lost his primary in the spring. I am all for speaking one’s mind, but you need to have something of value to say. Like his peers Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, etc. his problem is saying stuff that is simply not true. If people want to be taken seriously, they need to be serious-minded. The truth would help.

Per an article in Rawstory called “Unhinged, deranged Trump may be a danger to himself and others: GOP Strategist” “During an appearance on CNN’s ‘State of the Union,’ Republican Party campaign consultant Scott Lennings launched a brutal attack on Donald Trump over his threatening social media post that claimed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has, as Trump put it, a ‘DEATH WISH.’ During the panel discussion on Sunday morning, Jennings, who is close to McConnell, claimed if you heard someone like the former president rant like that on the street, you’d call the authorities at 911 before they hurt someone. Asked about the Truth Social attack, Jennings replied, ‘It’s hard to know where to start, with the assassination instructions or the blatant racism.'”

In AP article called “Brazil’s Bolsonaro and the right outperform, defying polls,” “Jair Bolsonaro considerably outperformed expectations in Brazil’s presidential election, proving that the far-right wave he rode to the presidency remains a force and providing the world with yet another example of polls missing the mark. The most-trusted opinion polls had indicated leftist former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was far out front, and potentially even clinching a first-round victory. One prominent pre-election poll gave da Silva a 14 percentage point lead. In the end, Bolsonaro surprised to the upside and came within just 5 points. He will face da Silva in a high-stakes Oct. 30 presidential runoff.”

Between what happened in Italy and what is happening in the UK, I am not seeing a lot of evidence of good governance from the more extreme right politicians. In Australia during the summer, conservatives where swept out of office due to climate change inaction and not addressing paid time off and women’s rights issues. In the UK, Liz Truss may be one of the shortest tenured Prime Ministers after a series of very poor decisions and poor communications.

Bolsonaro is the Southern Hemisphere’s version of the former US president and that is not meant as a compliment. His modus operandi of bullying, lying and denigration would make Trump proud. Regardless of politics, in my view, no truly elected official should act in this manner. They serve the people, not the other way around. And, they certainly don’t threaten people and sic their more strident allies on the targets.

Trump will be indicted. The GOP should cut him loose (Charlotte Observer editorial)

An interesting editorial by Gene Nichol*, a law professor at the University of North Carolina, called “Trump will be indicted. The GOP should cut him loose now” is a must read. Here are a few paragraphs, with a link to the full piece below.

“The handwriting is now, at the least, on the wall. I know a lot of Tar Heels don’t want to hear this — but Donald Trump is, in the months ahead, going to be indicted. His lawbreaking is so habitual, so overt, so pervasive, so foundational, and so rule-of-law decimating, that it simply won’t be possible for the Department of Justice and law enforcement officials in Georgia and, likely, New York, to ignore it. Perhaps Trump couldn’t help himself. Maybe it’s like his lying — a lifelong, all-consuming practice. He can’t shake it. Or even try. Old dog. Old tricks. He’s the don, not just The Donald.

And when the indictments come, what’s going to happen? Sadly, we know this too. Trump has opened his mind, or at least his mouth. He told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt that ‘the people of the United States won’t stand for it.’ Filing charges against him would lead to ‘problems in this country, the likes of which we’ve never seen before.’…

Perhaps you think I overstate the peril. (I get that sometimes.) But do these various folks described above actually think that the other 60% or so of Americans will simply cower in the corner, surrendering their human rights and our nation’s long-declared meaning, because the MAGA coalition may be fueled by hatred and replete with arms? I wouldn’t bet on it.

There’s a lot more courage and commitment out here in the rest of the land than the Trumpists imagine. They make the same mistake Putin made about Ukraine. Democracy has its steel. Even if it’s hard to arouse. Won’t it be easier, even if unnerving, for the Republican Party to turn Trump loose now, than it will be after he again summons the gun thugs?“

As the niece of the losing former president said after the 2020 election result was finalized, “her uncle will burn it all down to avoid losing the election.” Yes, his ego is that shallow that he cannot admit defeat. He was told by attorney Roy Cohn, his mentor per his many biographies, “to never apologize and sue everyone.” Doing the math, I calculated that Trump averaged 1 1/2 lawsuits per week during his business career before the 2016 election.

To be frank, telling the truth is not top of mind when thinking to define the losing former president. Nor is playing fair, treating people with dignity and grace, or consistently acting in a legal manner. As Michael Cohen, his attorney and longtime fixer of all his problems, said under oath, “Donald Trump is a racist, he is a con-artist and he is a cheat.” It interested me that Cohen had sent out over 500 cease and desist letters to people and institutions threatening them into silence on any known Trump transgression.

Whether he is actually charged beyond the financial fraud civil charges for his company in New York, which the Attorney General refused to settle as she has a good case, remains to be seen. But, in my opinion, he needs to be.

Beyond his untruthfulness and bullying, the losing former president appears to be guilty of the alleged seditious actions against the United States. He appears to be guilty of allegedly taking classified documents, exposing secrets to foreign adversaries (note a Chinese national with cyberware in her possession was arrested at Mar-a-Lago a couple of years ago). And, he may be charged for election tampering in the State of Georgia.

At the barest of minimums, our country is more at odds with itself because we have a former president who is not man enough to admit he lost an election. I am very tired of his sycophants perpetuating this Big Lie. It is noted the wife of SCOTUS member Clarence Thomas testified to the January 6 House Select Committee and still voiced the Big Lie. The House members defined her testimony as “deranged.”

Folks, quite simply, whether Donald Trump can win in 2024 is beside the point. We were dumb enough as a country to elect him in 2016 and we are dumb enough to do it again. But, what we need to understand is he should not serve as president as we should not have a traitor at the helm. Because if a traitor leads us, all bets are off.

*Note: Contributing columnist Gene Nichol is the Boyd Tinsley Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina.

Read more at: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/opinion/article266413511.html#storylink=cpy

Reinforcement of why a person left the GOP

The following is an interesting article that furthers the message of my previous and earlier posts over my concerns for the Republican party called “I left the GOP because it seemed to be losing it way. Last week convinced me I was right” by Kurt Bardella of NBC News.

Here are few excerpts from the piece. The full article can be linked to below.

“I don’t think I’ve recently experienced a span of days that quite so neatly captures the difference between being a Democrat and being a Republican in today’s America.

Last week began with the GOP’s wannabe standard-bearer, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, using human beings as political props for a craven publicity stunt designed to stoke right-wing outrage toward migrants.

Then, the current Republican Party standard-bearer found himself in even more legal hot water after the New York attorney general’s lawsuit alleging Trump and his eldest children committed fraud. (This happened on the same day that a court-appointed special master called Trump’s bluff and ordered him to back up the conspiracy theory that the FBI planted evidence at Mar-a-Lago.)

The week concluded with House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy releasing a self-proclaimed “agenda” that is long on talking points but short on actual specifics. It further cements the Republican Party’s complete withdrawal from the public policy arena, leaving the GOP completely detached from the tangible challenges of today and the growing threats of tomorrow….

In short, Biden spent the week defending freedom and democracy on the world stage, while his predecessor defended himself from allegations of fraud and claims that he may have compromised national security. Republican governors plotted to fly human pawns to Martha’s Vineyard, while Democratic governors unveiled measures to combat the climate crisis. And Republicans in Congress unveiled a “commitment” agenda that just blames Biden and Democrats, while a global community of philanthropists announced specific action items to alleviate poverty, improve health care and economic development and tackle other systemic inequities.”

As a former Republican (and Democrat) and now Independent voter, my reasons for leaving the GOP about fourteen years ago could be summed up in their tendency to make things up. Both parties are untruthful and exaggerate, but it is not a normal distribution. I find myself arguing policy with Democrats, but arguing what is real with Republicans.

Per the above, what Governors Desantis, Abbott, and Ducey did with migrants from Venezuela is extremely poor form and they deserve all the negative push back they get. And, those supporters who echo that it is OK, need to really think about what is happening here as it is not very Christian like to screw people like this.

As for the losing former president, it will not surprise me to see him wind up in jail for his seditious actions. His untruthful and bullying nature and shallow ego are finally catching up with him, deservedly so. And, it is long past due for his sycophants to remember which country they live in. Wearing a flag pin and hugging a flag at an ultra-conservative rally are merely window-dressing just as holding a bible as a prop when you speak makes you no more a Christian.

It is hard enough to govern with facts and truth. It is nigh impossible to do so when you govern off lies. If our politicians cannot be in the ballpark of the truth, they need to step down. We need them to shoot straight with us.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/i-left-the-gop-because-it-seemed-to-be-losing-it-way-last-week-convinced-me-i-was-right/ar-AA12jHlC?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=0bd3a259b61d48d7bc56a3b61dc783a7

Truth be told

The following is another letter I forwarded to a few newspapers. Let’s see if one will print it. Please feel free to adapt and use.

As a former Republican and now independent voter, it saddens me that to be a legitimate Republican, one has to endorse untruthful pronouncements by the losing former president and his sycophants. I don’t mind people espousing conservative ideas, but I do expect them to be truthful. Governing is hard enough when using facts, but nigh impossible when making decisions off lies.

Truth be told, I expected this behavior from the former president as that has long been his modus operandi, but what I am frustrated by is his sycophants who perpetuate untruths, even when they know they are lies. The former president lost the election and cannot prove otherwise even after spending a lot of other people’s money to do so. He also instigated an insurrection against Congress putting people in danger. And, that does not include his mishandling of classified information and alleged financial fraud at his company.

We deserve better than those who are purposefully lying to us, regardless of party. Full stop.

Trump Family Fraud Charges

Let’s keep this simple.

The news out of New York regarding the civil fraud case against the Trump family and organization should not be a surprise as these folks have been investigating the Trumps for three years. While this is a civil action with severe financial consequences, the case has also been referred to the US Attorney General for possible criminal action.

For those who cannot believe the Trumps would do such things, they should look at the fraud case he settled before the 2020 election where the former president agreed to repay the Trump Foundation for about $1.6 million Trump used for personal benefit. The Foundation was then terminated and the funds were distributed to charities with no one named Trump allowed to be part of the oversight process. To add insult to injury, the Trump children on the Board of Trustees had to undergo philanthropic training.

So, the current charges are in keeping with previous precedent. It should also be noted the New York Attorney General, Letitia James, stiff-armed forays by the former president to settle the case beforehand. Why? Her team of prosecutors must have a very good case.

Random thoughts on a rainy Saturday morning

Good morning everyone. We are getting a nice rain this morning, not the loud kind with all of the electricity of a usual summer storm. I type beneath a skylight and it is soothing to hear the rain on the overhead window.

Here a few random thoughts on this rainy Saturday morning.

King Charles made a nice speech, but I was also impressed by his speaking and shaking hands with mourners outside the palace. It added a very human touch to his new role. I would love to see more of that from him. The country will need it the months and years ahead as the financial woes continue. Charles will be leading a more diverse country than his mother inherited.

On the flip side of how a leader must lead, Brazil is seeing more violence. Here is a paragraph from VOANews: “A supporter of far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro stabbed to death a backer of leftist former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, authorities said on Friday, in the latest example of rising political tensions ahead of the upcoming election. The violence happened in the west-central state of Mato Grosso, after tempers frayed during an argument over support for the two candidates. Bolsonaro trails Lula in the polls in an election riven by intense polarization.” If Bolsonaro loses, I do not see a very peaceful transition of power which will reflect poorly on the country.

Jean-Paul Sartre wrote a very enlightening play called “No Exit.” In essence, his definition of hell is to be locked in a room with people who exhibit traits you detest. Given his craving for attention and keen focus on perception, what irritates the former US president the most is when people publicly criticize him, but he can at least lash out. He is suing Fox News for airing a Lincoln Project ad which he does not care for addressing his con of MAGA fans, eg.

If Sartre is correct, the perfect way to torment the former president would be to ignore him. I think if news channels simply said “the former president made some statements that we have found to be untrue, so we are not going to air them,” that might get under his skin. I did see the former president approached CNN to become the new conservative network since the bloom is off his rose with some at Fox News. When I see a picture of the former president with a headline that he is mad at someone or something yet again, I just move on. He tends to be routinely angry, so why bother?

Liz Truss is the new Prime Minister of the UK. I may not agree with much of her politics, but I do like that she picked a lot of women to be in key seats. That has to unnerve a few of the old male guard. I do think the Queen’s passing has given her an opportunity to say the right things as a PM should. Yet, I worry greatly about her embracing an unproven model of trickle down economics (it has been shown not to work in five studies and almost bankrupted the state of Kansas), especially with the predicted and actual Brexit financial woes, which should continue. I said “predicted” as financial analysts predicted before the Brexit vote that it would be dilutive to GDP growth.

That is all for now. Have a great weekend. Pray for peace in the world and for leaders to somehow find the wisdom of Solomon.

A simple question

A simple question for elected officials in my old party – the Republican Party. What will you have to defend tomorrow, next week, next month…next year? And, will it be from an old, alleged crime or a new one. I have been asking this question of GOP officials for over four years now. There is always a new or newly discovered Trump alleged crime or some form of deceit that surfaces.

Accountability. Responsibility. Truth. These are words that are lacking these days to define the Republican party. Democrats are not perfect, but they are at least talking and doing something about issues of import. Yes, Dems stretch the truth, but it is not even close to the level of mainstream deceit that is required by the GOP. Seeing Sarah Palin claim election fraud yesterday was as predictable as the nose on my face. I told my wife last week that Palin will claim fraud at some point and I am not that prescient.

I also knew Donald Trump would claim election fraud and contest the election two months before he did as he had hired 1,000 attorneys and defamed and tried to hobble the mail in process. I wrote a post in September 2020 to that effect. Senator Bernie Sanders told a late-night TV audience in October 2020 with eerie accuracy what Trump would do the next month with the election claiming foul. It did not take a crystal ball to see this coming.

What I cannot figure out is why people buy Trump’s false bravado when he accepts accountability for nothing? I see a very shallow and weak-minded acting person who cannot admit he lost or made a mistake. What saddens me more are the sycophants who buy into and sell his bogus claims when they have to know better. Senators Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Lindsey Graham, et al routinely shame themselves falling over to defend this untruthful bullying and seditious acting person. These are Senators who should be leaders not fawners.

Any party that has to rely on groups like QAnon, InfoWars and opinion personalities to white wash what is happening or has happened deserves every bit of scrutiny it gets. And, what they should be doing is paying attention to those Republicans testifying under oath or taking risks to speak out against the lies and fraud committed by the former president. That is courage. Now, why would they stick their necks out when they know so many want to chop them off? Dems should not listen to their opinion hosts either, but the GOP has found some dark corners of disinformation that have been pulled into social media for discussion.

Biden is not perfect and critics try to use his imperfections as “what-about” responses, but I have never seen anything like what we are seeing now with the Republican party that conservative pundit Michael Gerson says is “in decay.” MAGA fans like to say Trump is being treated so unfairly. I would say the press reports on too many of his shortcomings, faults, and deceptions. They have made us numb reporting on non-important stuff, that we lose sight of the major concerns. The press has normalized his unaccountable and deceitful behavior.

Yet, Trump has brought all of this on himself with his inability to tell the truth with any degree of frequency and his bullying and firing of naysayers and critics who have concerns. “They just don’t like me” is a child’s response. What I don’t like is an elected leader lying to me, who takes credit for all good and blames others for all bad, who bullies people on a routine basis, and who appears to have acted seditiously toward the efforts of the United States. The fact he may have classified material including nuclear information is simply wrong on so many levels.

We need a viable conservative party, but what we have now is not it. Accountability. Responsibility. Truth. They could start there. They could also start by doing the opposite of what the former president says to do. Listen to the ones who are getting vilified for telling the truth, instead.

When you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice (an encore post)

I wrote the following post four years ago. It remains relevant today. Make a stand, march or picket, contact your leaders, and vote.

If you have followed this blog for any length of time, you will know that I love cleverly worded song lyrics. The above title comes from an unexpected source (if you don’t follow the band) – a song called “Free will” by the rock band “Rush.” I find this lyric, penned by drummer Neil Peart, compelling as it speaks to people who choose to do nothing in the face of obvious problems. Martin Luther King saved some of his criticism for the silent people who did not condemn Jim Crow actions.

People choose not to vote because they do not like the choices. But, “none of the above” is not an option and one candidate tends to be worse or represents worse. If you did not vote because you did not think Brexit or Trump would win, you water down your right to protest. And, I would add there are seven white supremacists running for office, empowered by a US President who won’t condemn racist actions and has made racist statements. So, your vote does matter.

If you witness a daily assault on civil rights, women’s rights, truth, media, science, allies and environment and don’t speak up, then you condone the actions as acceptable.

– It is not OK for leaders to lie multiple times a day.

– It is not OK to have governmental websites delete data that run afoul of unsubstantiated opinions by leaders.

– It is not OK to demean people because they dare criticize a leader’s point of view.

– It is not OK to promote violence toward these same people, as some people act on these suggestions and the assaulters and/ or the targets get hurt or go to jail.

– It is not OK to demonize groups of people or exaggerate causes of problems, as it is hard enough to solve real problems with real data.

– It is not OK to ignore real problems or have faux efforts to address them. Gun deaths, poverty, health care access and costs, infrastructure deterioration, increasing debt, environmental degradation, climate change, etc. are real problems.

Please do not remain silent. Speak up. Call or email your representatives. Attend marches and protests. Share diplomatically your opinion, but listen to theirs. Find a way to get your opinion heard and heeded. Calling someone a name is not the way to be heard.

The other day as I was looking for a new battery for my cordless mower, a store clerk and I chatted about the need to move toward renewable energy. While he supported the eventual move, he said renewable energy is “seven times” the cost of fossil fuel energy. I responded and said that is a ten-year old argument. The costs are now more on par. In fact, there is a city in Texas who chose to be 100% renewable energy powered as its CPA mayor said financially it is a better deal. Did he hear me? I don’t know, but he would not have  if I had not listened to his argument and responded.

Do not follow the words of the song lyric. Choose to decide.

There is a reason why classified information needs to be protected

People who claim the taking of confidential and classified documents from the White House by the former president is not a big deal, should be reminded of this story from April, 2019 as reported by the Associated Press under the headline and sub-headline: “Chinese woman arrested at Mar-a-Lago had device to detect hidden cameras – officials say Yujing Zhang ‘lies to everyone she encounters,’ Assistant U.S. Attorney Rolando Garcia told judge during a bond hearing.”

“A Chinese woman recently arrested at President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club lied repeatedly to Secret Service agents while carrying computer malware unlike anything a government analyst had ever seen and had more than $8,000 in cash at her hotel room, along with an electronic device that detects hidden cameras, federal authorities told a judge Monday. Assistant U.S. Attorney Rolando Garcia told Magistrate Judge William Matthewman during a bond hearing that ‘there are a lot of questions that remain’ about 32-year-old Yujing Zhang.

He said the FBI is investigating whether Zhang is a spy. Zhang was arrested March 30 after Secret Service agents said she lied to gain admission to the president’s Palm Beach resort and was found to be carrying two Chinese passports, four cellphones, a laptop computer, an external hard drive and a thumb drive containing the malware.”

Now why would she have gone to Mar-a-Lago and not another resort community? I do not care if the former president is a member of the Libertarian, Green, Republican, or Democrat Party or is an independent, we cannot have classified information in the hands of people who do not protect it or honor their oath to the constitution, as the former president has shown time and again.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/chinese-woman-arrested-mar-lago-had-device-detect-hidden-cameras-n992301