Democracy gone Astray: Friday, October 06, 2023

Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.

This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Friday, October 06, 2023

Georgia Sheriff Recalls 'Heartbreaking' Realization During Trump Booking

Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat has recalled the moment that Donald Trump became the first-ever U.S. president to have his mug shot taken.

“On a personal level, it was heartbreaking to see someone of that stature who represents our country in that fashion having to go through this,” Labat told CNN’s Erin Burnett in his first interview since Trump was booked last month at Fulton County Jail in the racketeering case over his alleged bid to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election result.

Conspiracy theorist Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) was called out on social media on Monday after she gave secession yet another shoutout.

“If the Biden admin refuses to stop the invasion of cartel led human and drug trafficking into our country, states should consider seceding from the union,” wrote Greene, a close ally of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).

There's been abundant international attention this summer to Donald Trump's copious criminal quandaries; not so much to his presidential bid.

It may be time to start paying attention.

Trump is not just the overwhelming favourite to win the Republican presidential nomination; early polling for next year's general election suggests he could win that, too.

A luxurious yet battle-ready massive green train has rolled across North Korea’s border into Russia carrying leader Kim Jong Un to a meeting with President Vladimir Putin.

Since taking power in 2011, Kim has made seven international trips and crossed the border into South Korea twice, using a train emblazoned with a yellow strip for the majority of his overseas travel.

Donald Trump filed a request Monday for Judge Tanya Chutkan to recuse herself from his election obstruction case, claiming she’s already “prejudged” his liability in the matter.

Trump, who’s known for drawing out his legal battles with complicated pretrial litigation, made the request with Chutkan herself, who’s overseen a number of trials against rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and has handed down some of their toughest sentences.

U.S. auto workers are poised to launch what could be a never-before-seen simultaneous strike against the “Big Three.”

The United Auto Workers union’s contracts with Ford, General Motors and Stellantis ― owner of the historic Chrysler brands ― are set to expire at midnight Friday morning, and both sides remain far apart on several key issues. The union’s president, Shawn Fain, has said repeatedly that workers are prepared to strike any company where they haven’t secured a satisfactory deal.

The White House is sharply criticizing plans crafted by top advisers for former President Donald Trump to deeply cut taxes for U.S. corporations, setting the stage for a traditional clash over economic policy during the 2024 presidential election.

Some Trump advisers, according to plans discussed in a Washington Post report on Monday, would like to further push the tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations Republicans passed during Trump’s first term in office, potentially lowering the corporate tax rate from 21% to 15%. Before the 2017 tax law’s passage, the rate stood at 35%, and President Joe Biden has proposed increasing it to 28%.

Ukrainian forces have regained control of several gas and oil offshore drilling platforms close to Crimea from Russia, Ukraine’s military intelligence (GUR) has said.

In a statement on the Telegram messaging app on Monday, the GUR said that Kyiv’s forces had retaken the drilling platforms known as the “Boyko Towers” in a “unique operation”.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin held their first-ever summit in 2019.

Kim travelled to Vladivostok in his armoured train where the men spent two days enjoying folk dances, feasting on borscht and reindeer dumplings, and toasting the burgeoning relationship between their two countries.

At that time, broadly supportive of the United Nations sanctions imposed on Pyongyang over its weapons programme, Putin promised to do what he could with China and the United States to break the impasse in denuclearisation talks.

Whether they intend to be or not, third-party groups such as No Labels and the Green party are in effect front groups for Trump in 2024.

No Labels has pledged to spend $70m to support a third-party candidate in 2024 who could easily draw enough votes from President Biden to tip the presidential election to Trump.

No Labels has already qualified as a presidential party that can run candidates on the ballot in 10 states, including in both Arizona and Florida.

Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC), the conservative Hungarian educational institution funded by Viktor Orbán’s rightwing government, has been expanding internationally. It opened a centre in Brussels, bought a university in Vienna and has plans for new branches in other western European cities, including London.

I did a fellowship with MCC in Budapest last year and am concerned about the institution’s expansion. Its views are closely aligned with those of Orbán, and it funds academics who disseminate Orbán’s positions. In a way, it serves to extend his influence across Europe and beyond.

For years, Tucker Carlson seemed untouchable at Fox News. His position as the channel’s most popular host allowed him to wield power over viewers and the Republican party alike, his political influence reinforcing his position as the king of rightwing cable TV.

That changed in April, however, when Fox News, after settling a defamation lawsuit for $787m, gave Carlson the boot.

The move was as unexpected as it was sudden, and left viewers and pundits wondering what Carlson, who had used his position to push far-right conspiracy theories and elevate rightwing figures, would do next.

The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has rowed back on comments suggesting Vladimir Putin would be able to attend next year’s G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro without fear of arrest.

The international criminal court (ICC) has issued a warrant for the Russian leader’s arrest for alleged war crimes in Ukraine and, as a signatory of the Rome statute, Brazil is duty-bound to cooperate with the court. But on Saturday Lula raised eyebrows by telling an Indian interviewer there was “no reason” Putin would be detained if he travelled to the November 2024 summit in Brazil.

In his quest to uncover evidence of corruption by President Joe Biden, House Oversight Committee chair James Comer (R-Ky.) has only managed to undermine his key allegations against the president, according to the committee’s top Democrat.

“Chairman Comer’s investigation has conclusively disproven the Republican allegations against President Biden,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) said Monday in a statement accompanying a report summarizing the committee’s work so far this year.

There’s a “perfect storm” brewing in the House in the coming weeks, and it could pose a threat to Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s speakership, Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) said Sunday.

“On the one hand, we’ve got to pass a continuing resolution,” Buck said during an interview on MSNBC’s “Inside with Jen Psaki.” “We also have the impeachment issue. And we also have members of the House, led by my good friend, Chip Roy, who are concerned about policy issues. They want riders in the appropriations bills, amendments in the appropriations bills that guarantee some type of security on our Southern border.

Kim Jong Un will visit Russia “in the coming days,” the Kremlin announced Monday following speculation about an upcoming visit by the North Korean leader.

Kim’s visit will take place “at the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin,” the statement said.

Kevin McCarthy is facing the greatest peril to his speakership since he clawed his way into the job eight months ago, with multiple factions of his party feuding and a looming revolt ahead during the battle to fund the government.

Ultra-conservative members of the House GOP are talking in unsubtle terms about turning on McCarthy if he does not take a hard line in negotiations with the Senate and the Biden administration.

More centrist Republicans, too, are increasingly fed up with McCarthy’s efforts to placate the far right. They want him to stop giving ground to lawmakers they see as holding the party hostage to unrealistic demands.

Mehdi Hasan suspects “the real” Vivek Ramaswamy was appalled by former President Donald Trump’s actions on Jan. 6, 2021.

Hasan on Sunday spoke with fellow MSNBC host Ayman Mohyeldin about the former’s viral interview with the GOP presidential candidate last week.

Hasan had asked Ramaswamy about a January 2021 tweet in which he said what Trump did was “downright abhorrent.”

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) gushed misinformation on Fox News when he repeated the evidence-free claim that windmills have been fatal to whales. (See the video below.)

“All this climate change alarmism is based on bad science, completely ignoring the impact of clouds to basically be a heat sink,” Johnson inaccurately told host Dagen McDowell on Sunday. “Again, the climate has always changed, always will. I’m not an alarmist and I’m not in denial. ... These windmills, according to an earlier report on your network, are killing whales.”

GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley took aim at the Defense Department for beginning a policy at the center of Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-Ala.) hold on 300-plus military promotions in the Senate. (Check out Haley’s remarks in the video below.)

In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, the former South Carolina governor said the department “never should have done” the policy that reimburses service members who travel to get an abortion in another state, which is what Tuberville is protesting with his holds.

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is a man who stays in motion — enthusiastically greeting tourists at the Capitol, dashing overseas last week to the G7 summit of industrial world leaders, and raising funds back home to elect fellow Republicans to the House majority.

But beneath the whirlwind of activity is a stubborn standstill, an imbalance of power between the far-right Republicans who hoisted McCarthy to the speaker’s role yet threaten his own ability to lead the House.

Donald Trump threw another fit on his social media website on Sunday, this time challenging a host of rivals to a “mental acuity test.”

Trump, who is refusing to debate any of his Republican presidential rivals but instead offered to debate Meghan Markle, is demanding that President Joe Biden, right-wing media mogul Rupert Murdoch and others take a test of his choosing, at a place of his choosing.

Former Democratic National Committee Chair Donna Brazile on Sunday said “Democrats should be concerned” ahead of the 2024 election.

“I’m not sleeping at night thinking all is well, OK?” Brazile admitted on Sunday’s broadcast of ABC News’ “This Week.”

Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) didn’t hold back when asked Sunday about conspiracy theorist Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and her relentless push to impeach President Joe Biden.

MSNBC’s Jen Psaki noted a shift in tone from Greene, who over the weekend posted on X (formerly Twitter) that there shouldn’t be a “rush” impeachment vote.

But Buck ― a staunch conservative and a member of the hard-line Freedom Caucus ― pointed out that Greene filed to impeach Biden one day after he was sworn in to office.

Holding her newborn daughter, Lynne, 33, feels apprehensive about the future. Her elder son, though adorable, is already draining the family coffers and he hasn’t even started school yet. His private kindergarten in Beijing costs 80,000 yuan (US$11,ooo) a year. Extracurricular classes, including 10 hours a week of English, sports, painting and online tutorials, cost another 60,000 yuan (US$8,300). She already knows that his five-month-old sister won’t get the same resources.

China has sent a carrier strike group and dozens of warplanes into the region around Taiwan in one of its biggest operations in months. The activity comes as Beijing accuses the US and Canada of “inciting conflict” by sailing through the Taiwan Strait, and as Xi Jinping calls for “comprehensive” military combat readiness of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

The Republic of China military, which uses Taiwan’s formal name, on Monday said a Chinese carrier strike group passed 111km to the south-east of the island on its way to the western Pacific for training. It said 11 Chinese warplanes were detected in Taiwan’s air defence identification zone (ADIZ) since 5am. They added to 26 planes and 13 ships detected around Taiwan in the previous 24 hours, one of the biggest daily totals since July.

Brazil’s leader has withdrawn his personal assurance that Russian President Vladimir Putin would not be arrested if he attends next year’s Group of 20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, saying it would be up to the judiciary to decide.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva also questioned Brazil’s membership in the United Nations war crimes court, saying on Monday that “emerging countries often sign things that are detrimental to them”.

Vladimir Putin’s warmongering land grab has pushed European Union leaders to make their own plans to expand. Moves are now under way to bring as many as eight new members into the 27-country bloc.

But the historic drive for enlargement poses its own risks for the EU.

Adding new states — potentially including the agricultural powerhouse of Ukraine — would open a Pandora’s Box of challenges. Sweeping internal reforms would be required, and that would likely trigger years of toxic infighting between current EU members.

Shortly after Miami Mayor Francis Suarez announced he was dropping his presidential bid, he found himself on the phone with someone who had paid him little attention up to that point: Donald Trump.

Suarez, who ran as a traditional conservative and did not vote for Trump in 2016 or 2020, had barely registered in the polls and spent all of 11 weeks campaigning. His departure from the race created nary a ripple. Those familiar with the call declined to reveal the specifics of what was discussed. But the fact that the runaway Republican frontrunner felt compelled to touch base with the also-ran offered a window into how Trump and his team view the race.

The Supreme Court’s decision in the 2010 Citizens United case transformed the world of politics. It loosened restrictions on campaign spending and unleashed a flow of anonymous donor money to nonprofit groups run by political activists.

In the months before the ruling dropped in January of that year, a group of conservative activists came together to create just such an organization. Its mission would be to, at the time, block then-President Barack Obama’s pet initiatives.

The activists included Federalist Society leader Leonard Leo and his ideological soulmate, a hard-edged activist named Virginia Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

After a year and a half of fighting in Ukraine, Russia needs to replenish its supplies of ammunition for what could be a long war of attrition. Along with ramping up its domestic arms production, Moscow is turning to an old ally with a vast arsenal — North Korea.

Estimates say the reclusive and isolated Asian country has tens of millions of artillery shells and rockets that could give a huge boost to the Russian army.

U.S. officials expect North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to visit Russia in the coming days to seal a possible deal on munitions transfer with President Vladimir Putin. That would be a remarkable reversal from the 1950-53 Korean War, when the Soviet Union provided the communist North with weapons and ammunition.

OTTAWA, Ont. — As Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre strides into his party’s convention with a surge ahead of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the polls, a prominent U.K. Brexiteer says conservatives around the world should take note.

Lord Daniel Hannan tells POLITICO that Poilievre is one of the most interesting center-right leaders “on the international stage right now” for having “already transformed the demographics of his party, reaching out to young people.”

Hannan will share his praise of Poilievre with Canadians as the closing keynote speaker at this week’s Conservative Party convention, a three-day confab in Quebec City that will invigorate a party dead-set on ousting Canada’s eight-year old Liberal government in the next election.

As the House returns next week, the relationship between Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell could face its greatest test yet.

For the first few years of President Joe Biden’s administration, the seniormost Republicans in the House and Senate were in lock step on most issues.

They tag-teamed the left’s multitrillion-dollar social spending plan. They worked together to crush plans for a bipartisan commission on the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol siege. And they railed against the president’s bungled pullout of Afghanistan. More recently, McConnell even deferred to the younger McCarthy during negotiations over the debt ceiling, backing up the new speaker every step of the way as he demanded spending cuts in return for increasing the nation’s borrowing cap.

Not long ago, it looked like Kristi Noem’s star was flaming out. Following a turbulent first term, the South Dakota governor elected not to run for president, and the media turned its focus elsewhere.

But if the 2024 primary is in part a tryout to be former President Donald Trump’s next running mate, Noem’s national standing appears to have been rekindled. She’s suddenly front and center in the veepstakes.

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) repeatedly said Sunday that Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s one-person blockade of military nominations was “paralyzing” the Defense Department.

“To hold up the top brass from being promoted and lower brass, I think, is paralyzing our Department of Defense,” said McCaul, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former top infectious disease expert in the U.S., isn’t sounding alarm bells on the rising number of coronavirus cases in the U.S. yet, but he did caution that the trend will continue into the fall and winter months.

“I wouldn’t say that I’m alarmed but I’m certainly keeping an eye on it,” Fauci said on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. The former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is now a professor at Georgetown University.

Russia’s foreign minister has hailed the G20 summit in Delhi as a success, after Moscow was shielded from criticism over the Ukraine war in a joint declaration.

“We were able to prevent the west’s attempts to Ukrainise the summit agenda,” Sergei Lavrov said as the two-day meeting drew to a close.

India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, hailed a diplomatic triumph after all members of the group, including China, reached a toughly negotiated consensus and signed a joint declaration on issues covering climate, economic cooperation and, most divisively, the war in Ukraine.

Exactly one week after the August 26 racist murder of three black people in Jacksonville, Florida, two neo-Nazi rallies were held about 140 miles south in Orlando, where masked and uniformed men shouted racist and antisemitic slogans. These events are signs of a new wave of neo-Nazis who are more eager for street violence than their predecessors in recent years.

The smaller of the two rallies was held at Disney World and organized by the Order of the Black Sun, a local neo-Nazi group. It drew about a dozen people who displayed slur-emblazoned banners and signs. According to Diego, an activist with the anti-fascist group Miami Against Fascism who asked to be identified only by first name for safety reasons, similar Disney World rallies occur nearly every month.

The unofficial end of summer marked the beginning of freak-out season for some Democrats as polls from both The Wall Street Journal and CNN showed President Joe Biden in a tight race with his most likely GOP opponent, former President Donald Trump, more than a year before the election.

The Journal poll has Biden’s approval rating at just 42%, and it shows him earning 46% of the vote to Trump’s 45%. The CNN poll had Biden’s approval at a measly 39%, with the projected presidential race at 45% to 46%. Both polls found a majority of voters believed Biden was too old for the presidency and thought little of how he had handled the economy.

Donald Trump was “really, really upset” when he learned that his former White House adviser Peter Navarro had been convicted of contempt of Congress, according to the ex-president’s close ally Rudy Giuliani.

“This one really got to me,” Giuliani – the former New York City mayor and Trump attorney – said Friday on the far-right media outlet Newsmax. “I was with former president Trump when we found out about it [on Thursday], and I’ve got to tell you, he was really, really upset about it.”

It took exhausted Indian diplomats 200 hours of non-stop negotiations, 300 bilateral meetings and 15 drafts, but in the end the G20 countries reached a consensus declaration on the war in Ukraine – one that largely retreated into generalised principles rather than the specific condemnation of Russia that the same group of leaders agreed when they met in Bali a year ago.

Moreover, no invitation was extended to Ukrainie’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to address the gathering, meaning the only direct combatant around the table was Russia, represented by its foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has praised a joint declaration by G20 leaders in Delhi that avoids condemning Moscow for its war against Ukraine.

Russia had not expected consensus and agreement on the wording was "a step in the right direction", said Mr Lavrov.

The closing G20 statement denounced using force for territorial gain but made no mention of Russian aggression, prompting criticism from Ukraine.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has said that Russian leader Vladimir Putin will not be arrested in Brazil if he attends the Group of 20 meeting in Rio de Janeiro next year.

Lula, speaking to the Firstpost news show at the sidelines of the G20 meeting in Delhi on Saturday, said Putin would be invited to next year’s event.

He added that he himself planned to attend a BRICS bloc of developing nations meeting due in Russia before the Rio meeting.

NEW ORLEANS — A federal appeals court Friday significantly whittled down a lower court’s order curbing Biden administration communications with social media companies over controversial content about COVID-19 and other issues.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans on Friday said the White House, the Surgeon General, the Centers for Disease Control and the FBI cannot “coerce” social media platforms to take down posts the government doesn’t like.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is calling for Russia and North Korea to intensify their ties amid rumors that he could meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in the coming days.

“I am convinced that thanks to our joint efforts we will continue to strengthen … bilateral ties on all fronts,” Putin said in a letter addressed to Kim on Friday, quoted by AFP and North-Korean media.

A former British army soldier was found dead in a body of water in Ukraine with his hands tied behind his back after he went to the country to fight alongside Ukrainian forces, it has emerged.

Jordan Chadwick, who served in the Scots Guards from 2011 to 2015, travelled to Ukraine to fight in October last year. Eight months later, on 26 June, Lancashire police told his mother, Brenda, that her son, known as Joe, had been killed. British government officials later confirmed his death.

Vladimir Putin must be feeling fairly desperate if he’s relying on Kim Jong-un for friendship and support. There’s a reason why North Korea’s unpredictable dictator is among the world’s most ostracised leaders.

Nobody likes him and he don’t care, as the saying goes. Yet Russia’s despised, isolated war-criminal president is in much the same leaky boat these days, slowly sinking, calling out for help.

The G20 leaders have agreed a joint declaration, Narendra Modi announced on Saturday, alleviating fears that disagreements over the Russia-Ukraine war would prevent a consensus for the first time.

Speaking at an afternoon session of the G20 summit in Delhi, the Indian prime minister said he had “just got the good news that due to the hard work of our teams and your cooperation, a consensus has been reached on the New Delhi G20 leaders’ summit declaration”.

On August 17, Arikana Chihombori-Quao, former permanent representative of the African Union to the United States, claimed the recent military coups in Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Guinea were part of the early stages of an “African revolution” against Western neocolonialism.

“What is going on now in Africa is a revolution similar to what we saw with the demise of the mighty Roman Empire, similar to what we saw with the fall of the mighty British Empire,” Chihombori-Quao said in an interview with New York-based Nigerian news channel Arise TV.

Every once in a while, Sarah Palin tries to escape the purgatory of irrelevancy by doing or saying something that the failed Congressional candidate is likely convinced will inject her back, however briefly, into the cultural zeitgeist.

It must be galling for the former Republican “it girl”– who was plucked from obscurity and thrust into the ego-swelling limelight as John McCain’s running mate in 2008 – to watch from afar as the diabolical duo of Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert slowly and inevitably overtook her in the calcified hearts and conspiracy-consumed minds of the party’s looney tunes faithful.