The hypocritical party

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Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal reported that casino mogul Steve Wynn, the Finance Chairman of the Republican National Committee, had engaged in serial sexual harassment and assault. The report was based on dozens of interviews in which people described how Wynn engaged in a “decades-long pattern of sexual misconduct” including “pressuring employees to perform sex acts.”

For 24 hours, the Republican Party said nothing. The silence was particularly remarkable in light of the GOP’s reaction to reports in October that Harvey Weinstein sexually assaulted numerous women. The same day the first report was publish, the Republican Party demanded the Democratic Party and all Democratic officials return money from Weinstein, who was a major donor to Democrats.

The GOP finally released a statement on Steve Wynn — and it’s pathetic – ThinkProgress

And here is that statement they finally put out:

Today I accepted Steve Wynn’s resignation as Republican National Committee finance chair.

No mention off:'

• The reason of his dismissal
  
• Women, the accusations
  
• The money ($2.5M) he donated to the party and whether they are going to return that.
  

Also keep in mind:

• All the accusations they threw at liberals, liberal media and liberal Hollywood
  
• The silence about the rot in their own camp (Fox news, Trump, etc.)
  
• The fact that invariably it's the liberal media who discover this stuff
  

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Keep in mind, Jason Chafetz was the one who led the endless Benghazi inquiries..

JASON CHAFFETZ: I'm all about openness and transparency but you cannot use the tools and levers of government to go on these political witch hunts to just try to destroy people without some underlying evidence that there is something criminal that's gone on. And the doors that they are opening now, they will pay the political price over the long term. I think the American people get it, that you should not be able to use these as bludgeoning tools in a fishing expedition to try to hope that they can put and couple something together. And I think they're going to overreach, I think they have an insatiable desire to do something that they couldn't win at the ballot box.

Previously:
Fox's Jason Chaffetz denounced Democrats' "insatiable desire to investigate" Trump
Pentagon finds the repetitious Benghazi hearings have cost millions

Fox's Jason Chaffetz: "You cannot use the tools and levers of government to go on these political witch hunts to just try to destroy people"

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The Tarrant County Republicans in Texas will vote this week to remove their vice chairman because he is Muslim. Republican Dorrie O’Brien is leading a group of colleagues in an attempt to unseat Shahid Shafi, a trauma surgeon in Forth Worth, the largest city in Tarrant County. “We don’t think he’s suitable as a practicing Muslim to be vice chair because he’d be the representative for ALL Republicans in Tarrant County, and not ALL Republicans in Tarrant County think Islam is safe or acceptable in the U.S.,” O’Brien wrote in a Facebook post.

Texas county GOP set to vote this week to remove leader because he is Muslim | TheHill

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Pretending to be a persecuted minority..

The rapidity of that cultural shift, though, should not obscure the contours of the society that the religious right still aspires to preserve: a world where women have no control over whether to carry a pregnancy to term, same-sex marriage is illegal, and gays and lesbians can be arrested and incarcerated for having sex in their own homes and be barred from raising children. The religious right showed no mercy and no charity toward these groups when it had the power to impose its will, but when it lost that power, it turned to invoking the importance of religious tolerance and pluralism in a democratic society.

Sohrab Ahmari and the Rise of America's Orbánists - The Atlantic

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Take Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), an outspoken Trump critic turned ally:

• In 1999: “You don’t even have to be convicted of a crime to lose your job in this constitutional republic if this body determines that your conduct as a public official is clearly out of bounds in your role,” he said about Clinton, who faced charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. “Impeachment is not about punishment. Impeachment is about cleansing the office. Impeachment is about restoring honor and integrity to the office.”
  
• Today: “Impeachment over this? What a nothing (non-quid pro quo) burger. Democrats have lost their minds when it comes to President Trump,” he said in a September statement in reaction to a summary the White House released of the call between Trump and Zelensky.
  

Senate Republicans see Trump’s impeachment inquiry as very different than Clinton’s - Vox

There are at least a dozen other examples in the article..

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FreedomWorks, a conservative-leaning organization best known for its support of the Tea Party movement and its longtime opposition to government bailouts, has applied for a Small Business Administration loan through the Paycheck Protection Program, Congress’s emergency response to the economic downturn. The loan is to support the group’s foundation arm. As first reported in the New York Times, nonprofit groups are permitted to apply for SBA loans intended to prop up struggling businesses in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Those nonprofit groups include the FreedomWorks Foundation. The Times quoted FreedomWorks President Adam Brandon as saying, “I would love someone to give us free cash.”

FreedomWorks has long opposed federal bailouts, describing the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 as “unconstitutional.” In response to the passage of the Phase 3.5 bill earlier this week, FreedomWorks’ Jason Pye said, “The line has long been crossed. No more spending. Period. At this point, we should be focused on reopening the economy and getting Americans back to work.” And as I reported earlier this week, FreedomWorks is connected to many of the anti-stay-at-home-order protests taking place across the country. 

FreedomWorks and PPP: FreedomWorks is supporting the anti-shutdown protests while applying for a bailout - Vox

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Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee Sen. Lindsey Graham said in an interview airing Sunday that the public should not expect a vacancy on the Supreme Court to remain open this election year, despite what happened last time.  Graham, a South Carolina Republican, told journalist Greta Van Susteren that 2020 presents a different situation than in 2016 when Merrick Garland's nomination languished ahead of the election when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) denied then-President Barack Obama the opportunity to replace Justice Antonin Scalia upon Scalia's death. President Donald Trump appointed Neil Gorsuch to the seat in 2017.

Supreme Court Election Year Vacancy 'Would be Different' This Time From Merrick Garland in 2016, Says Lindsey Graham | Common Dreams News

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Blue Lives Matter is officially dead. People may continue to chant and post the slogan, but it is dead. Senate Republicans killed it last week when they voted to acquit Donald Trump of inciting an insurrection that left one officer dead and 138 injured. (Two officers who responded to the insurrection later died by suicide.) As The New York Times reported:

“One officer lost the tip of his right index finger. Others were smashed in the head with baseball bats, flagpoles and pipes. Another lost consciousness after rioters used a metal barrier to push her into stairs as they tried to reach the Capitol steps during the assault on Jan. 6.” The Times continued that the injuries to officers “ranged from bruises and lacerations to more serious damage such as concussions, rib fractures, burns and even a mild heart attack.”

After conservatives condemned football player Colin Kaepernick for kneeling during the American national anthem at N.F.L. games, a violent mob assembled and encouraged by Trump assaulted the American Capitol. Trump himself said the following about Kaepernick and Black Lives Matter protests:

“Wouldn’t you love to see one of these N.F.L. owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out! He’s fired. He’s fired!’ You know, some owner is going to do that. He’s going to say, ‘That guy that disrespects our flag, he’s fired.’ And that owner, they don’t know it [but] they’ll be the most popular person in this country.”

And then, a member of the mob in January acting at Trump’s behest used a flagpole flying that very same American flag to attack an acting D.C. police officer. As NBC Washington reported:

“A man with a backpack and long, brown hair is shown repeatedly slamming a flagpole with an American flag toward the ground. The victim is off-camera but a police shield can be seen. The crowd chants ‘USA,’ with some wearing red Make America Great Again hats.” 

In September, Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina introduced the Protect and Serve Act, which would make it “a federal crime to knowingly cause, or attempt to cause, serious bodily injury to a law enforcement officer. Offenders are subject to imprisonment for up to 10 years.”

As Tillis posted on his website: “We cannot sit idly by and allow for the streets to be filled with dangerous, violent criminals who face no consequences.” And yet, Tillis voted to acquit the man responsible for filling D.C.’s streets with dangerous, violent criminals who attacked police officers, even though Tillis conceded:

“It is important to note that a not-guilty verdict is not the same as being declared innocent. President Trump is most certainly not the victim here; his words and actions were reckless and he shares responsibility for the disgrace that occurred on January 6.”

Tillis’s bill was co-sponsored by 15 other Republican senators. All of the ones who remained in the Senate after the election voted to acquit Trump except one: Richard Burr, the other senator from North Carolina... In the Senate’s acquittal — or more accurately, abetting — of Donald Trump, they stripped away the facade of the opposition to Black Lives Matter and the elevation of Blue Lives Matter.

It was never about preventing the desecration of American symbols. Members of the insurrection mob smeared feces throughout the Capitol after they broke into it. This was never really about the protection of officers, generally speaking, but about allowing officers to treat with more impunity the people who protested the maltreatment of Black people.

Opinion | Blue Lives Matter Is Over - The New York Times

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I'd always wondered about the kind of mind that could simultaneously believe Trump deserves all the credit for developing the COVID-19 vaccines while also believing that the vaccines are part of a sinister plot to surreptitiously implant nanobots that will make all red-blooded Republican men want to go antiquing with Armistead Maupin and his boyfriend before spending the remainder of the afternoon sipping cosmos at an adorable sidewalk French cafe. Or whatever the conspiracy theory is this week. Maybe the vaccine just makes your balls fall off. Frankly, in many cases, that would be an acceptable side effect. Then there's this guy, who ratchets the cognitive dissonance up to 11.

WALTER MASTERSON, EXPERT PRANKSTER: "Trump does not get enough credit for rushing the vaccine and getting it on the market."
TRUMPY MAN: "Oh, he was instrumental in 'let's get rid of the red tape and let's do business and see what we can do' ..."
MASTERSON: "Like you said, like a businessman."
TRUMPY MAN: "Well, who do you want in charge?"
MASTERSON: "Exactly!"
TRUMPY MAN: "What's the biggest business in the United States?"
MASTERSON: "The government."
[Jump cut]
MASTERSON: "You're not getting the vaccine."
TRUMPY MAN: "Naw."
MASTERSON: "I feel like it was a little too rushed."
TRUMPY MAN: "Yeah. Is it FDA approved and all that yet? You know what I'm getting at."
MASTERSON: "Yeah, it was rushed out there."
TRUMPY MAN: "Yeah, usually it takes years and years and years. Yes, hopefully Donald, Mr. Trump there, you know, president, got that through, right, because you know he did. He said he was gonna. If he said he was gonna do this … he does what he says he's gonna do."

Trump supporter who's concerned that vaccine was too rushed gives Trump all the credit for rushing it - Alternet.org

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Fox News is turning the White House’s upcoming push for COVID-19 vaccinations among the federal workforce into just another front in its right-wing culture war and campaign to undermine public health — even though Biden’s upcoming policy will be seemingly identical to Fox’s practices in its own offices. To be exact, federal workers would reportedly be given the choice of either showing proof of vaccination or instead submitting to regular testing. This policy will in fact be very similar to what is already going on at Fox News’ own offices, under a program called the “Fox Clear Pass” in which employees who provide their vaccine information are allowed to bypass daily health screenings. But Fox hosts have railed against the possibility of vaccine passports as “segregation,” “medical Jim Crow,” and “East German-style ‘show me your papers.’”’

Fox News attacks the Biden administration for implementing Fox’s own vaccine policy for its employees | Media Matters for America