The Exodus – Can the GOP Survive?

Angry and vindictive, Donald Trump has destroyed the Republican Party. As an independent I want to see at least two functioning political parties. That arrangement ensures that extremists do not pull the nation in a direction that does not reflect the wishes and values of most people. His positions do not reflect the historic conservative views that many Americans appreciate. He used Republican positions when they suited him. He has made the Republican Party a reflection of his opinions. Trump delights in having the support of fringe groups like QAnon and right wing militia groups and anti-Semitic hate groups that support conspiracy theories.

The GOP has been the party of big business and free trade. During the 20th and 21st centuries the party came to be associated with laissez-faire capitalism, low taxes, and conservative social policies. The modern Republican Party supports states’ rights against the power of the federal government in most cases, and it opposes the federal regulation of traditionally state and local matters, such as policing and education. The Republicans advocate reduced taxes as a means of stimulating the economy and advancing individual economic freedom. They tend to oppose extensive government regulation of the economy, government-funded social programs, affirmative action, and policies aimed at strengthening the rights of workers.

“There’s Nothing Left’: Why Thousands of Republicans Are Leaving the Party,” NYT: “An analysis of January voting records by The New York Times found that nearly 140,000 Republicans had quit the party in 25 states that had readily available data (19 states do not have registration by party). Voting experts said the data indicated a stronger-than-usual flight from a political party after a presidential election, as well as the potential start of a damaging period for G.O.P. registrations as voters recoil from the Capitol violence and its fallout.

“The biggest spikes in Republicans leaving the party came in the days after Jan. 6, especially in California, where there were 1,020 Republican changes on Jan. 5 — and then 3,243 on Jan. 7. In Arizona, there were 233 Republican changes in the first five days of January, and 3,317 in the next week. Most of the Republicans in these states and others switched to unaffiliated status” says Richard Haass, President of the Council on Foreign Relations.

@RichardHaass: “I changed my registration to ‘no party affiliation’ after 40 years. I worked for Reagan & Bush 41 & 43. But today’s Rep Party no longer embraces the policies & principles that led me to join it. To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, I didn’t leave the Republican Party; the Party left me.”

Here’s Why Vaccinated People Still Need to Wear a Mask

I’m scheduled to be vaccinated on this coming Saturday. I have an appointment. The new vaccine will probably prevent me from getting sick with Covid. No one knows yet whether that will keep me from spreading the virus to others.

It may seem counterintuitive, but health officials say that even after you get vaccinated against COVID-19, you still need to practice the usual pandemic precautions, at least for a while. That means steering clear of crowds, continuing to wear a good mask in public, maintaining 6 feet or more of distance from people outside your household and frequently washing your hands.

The new Covid-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna seem to be remarkably good at preventing serious illness. But it’s unclear how well they will curb the spread of the coronavirus.
That’s because the Pfizer and Moderna trials tracked only how many vaccinated people became sick with Covid-19. That leaves open the possibility that some vaccinated people get infected without developing symptoms, and could then silently transmit the virus — especially if they come in close contact with others or stop wearing masks.

Before approving the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, the FDA asked the vaccine manufacturers only whether their products protect people from COVID-19 symptoms. They didn’t ask if the vaccines stop people who’ve been vaccinated from nevertheless spreading the virus to others. The emergency authorizations by the FDA that have allowed distribution of the two new vaccines cite only their ability to keep you — the person vaccinated — from becoming severely sick with COVID-19.

The Washington Post daily tracker indicates a very slow vaccination rate of less than 1% new recipients daily. That sends the message that unless there is a consequential increase in available vaccine we will be waring masks for all of 2021.

Liz Cheney’s Blockbuster Fox News Interview

Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney sat for an interview with “Fox News Sunday” anchor Chris Wallace in which she made clear that she has no plans of backing off her criticism of former President Donald Trump.

Her unwavering support of the rule of law and her allegiance to the constitution is not a political party issue. Every American should honor that belief. Her refusal to disavow conspiracy theories suggested by QAnon or other conspiracy groups will bring her respect from her political opponents.

Here were the key points she made to Wallace as identified by CNN’s Chris Cillizza. Her words provide the justification for finding Donald Trump guilty of the the charge of inciting a riot.

1. “The oath that I took to the Constitution compelled me to vote for impeachment and it doesn’t bend to partisanship, it doesn’t bend to political pressure. It’s the most important oath that we take.”

2. “I think, you know, that people in the party are mistaken. They believe that BLM and Antifa were behind what happened here at the Capitol. It’s just simply not the case, not true and we’re going to have a lot of work we have to do.”

3. “The extent to which the president, President Trump, for months leading up to January 6 spread the notion that the election had been stolen or that the election was rigged was a lie and people need to understand that. We need to make sure that we as Republicans are the party of truth that we are being honest about what really did happen in 2020 so we actually have a chance to win in 2022 and win the White House back in 2024.”

4. “I think this vote and conference made very clear, we are the party of Lincoln, we are not the party of QAnon or anti-Semitism or Holocaust deniers, or white supremacy or conspiracy theories. That’s not who we are.”

5. “People will want to know exactly what the president was doing. They want to know, for example, whether the tweet he sent out calling Vice President Pence a coward while the attack was underway, whether that tweet, for example, was a premeditated effort to provoke violence. There are a lot of questions that have to be answered and there will be many, many criminal investigations looking at every aspect of this and everyone who was involved, as there should be.”

6. “We have never seen that kind of an assault by a president of the United States on another branch of government and that can never happen again.”

7. “What we already know does constitute the gravest violation of his oath of office by any president in the history of the country, and this is not something that we can simply look past or pretend didn’t happen or try to move on. We’ve got to make sure this never happens again.”

8. “So it should not have gotten to the point that it did. I don’t believe the Democrats have any business determining who from the Republicans sit on committees, but we should have dealt with it ourselves.”

9. “Somebody who has provoked an attack on the United States Capitol to prevent the counting of electoral votes, which resulted in five people dying, who refused to stand up immediately when he was asked and stop the violence, that — that is a person who does not have a role as a leader of our party going forward.”

10. “We have to make sure that we are able to convey to the American voters, we are the party of responsibility, we are the party of truth, that we actually can be trusted to handle the challenges this nation faces like Covid, and that’s going to require us to focus on substance and policy and issues going forward but we should not be embracing the former president.”

The Meaning of “Fight like Hell”

Donald Trump exhorted his followers to “fight like hell” before they swarmed the Capitol on January 6. What did Trump mean? A quote from his speech that day: “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”

It appears the rioters chose to hear “fight like hell” over “peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”

Although we are just more than a month into the 117th Congress, Richard Shelby is the fourth GOP senator to say he won’t run for reelection — joining Sens. Pat Toomey (Pennsylvania), Richard Burr (North Carolina) and Rob Portman (Ohio) on the sidelines. (By contrast, no Democratic senators have announced their retirement at this point.)

With the exception of Shelby who is 86 years old. Toomey is 59 years old. Burr is 65 years old. Portman is 65 years old. Those three are relatively young senators. The average age of senators is 63.

So with the exception of Shelby what is the motivation for their decision not to run for re-election?

If all four of these men vote “not guilty” in the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump they have decided to move on to other interests than serving in the senate.

Which take precedent? Political party or defending the constitution?

Blonde at the Super Bowl

‘$4 isn’t much’

The Kroger company is the biggest retail grocery company in the United States. As the largest pure grocer in the United States (trailing only Walmart in overall grocery sales and at approximately double the revenue of number-two Albertsons.

Kroger owns many chains other than Kroger stores. Food 4 Less and Ralphs in metropolitan Los Angeles are two of its chains. When you shop in Ralphs, as I do, you see the Kroger name on many of its private label products.

The company has decided to close its stores in Long Beach (one Ralphs and one Food 4 Less) because the city council has ordered food markets to pay a $4-an-hour increase for grocery workers during the pandemic. The city called it hazards pay. This is not a permanent increase.

Kroger, which has enjoyed a big jump in profits during the pandemic, is pushing back. Customers and workers say that’s unfair. Kroger’s decision is most likely based on the fear that once the pay rate is increased it will never go back to the previous level and it will set precedent for the city and county of Los Angeles. That then could spread across the nation.

Ronald Fong, president of the California Grocers Association trade group, which filed a lawsuit over the Long Beach ordinance, said the group tried to warn the city about “unintended consequences” of the measure.

This is the best example of workers versus employers that we have seen since the last strike of grocery workers. The 2003-04 Southland grocery strike dragged on for 141 days. That work stoppage was estimated by some analysts to have cost the supermarket chains as much as $2 billion, with locked-out workers losing $300 million in wages.

One shopper at the Ralphs store told an LA Times reporter she supports the hero pay, in part because her son works in the retail grocery business. “It’s hard work for him!” she said. “$4 isn’t much.”

With a 2020 Net Income of $1.64 billion it seems the company needs to become a responsible member of a society that is struggling with a pandemic.

Donald Trump Is Not Going Away

The Trump campaign announced in early December that the president’s fundraising operation raised $207.5 million since Election Day.

The majority of that money is likely not going to any sort of legal account. Trump’s fundraising operation is instead sending it to a new political organization created by the president: a leadership PAC called Save America PAC, a type of vehicle popular with both parties on Capitol Hill but long derided by watchdogs as essentially a type of slush fund, with few restrictions on how the money they raise can be spent.

Trump’s Save America PAC started 2021 with more than $31M, filings show.

“The more money [Trump] stacks up in his committee, the greater his grip will remain on many elected Republicans who will fear those resources could be turned against them,” Rob Stutzman, a Republican consultant, told Politico.

Save America is on Facebook.

Trump is motivated by his popularity among the Republican party membership and the devotion of so many GOP members of congress.

As recently as January 6 Texas Senator Ted Cruz said “39% of Americans … 31% of independents … 17% of Democrats believe the election was rigged.”

Would Republicans in Washington stand by Donald Trump’s “big lie” if they knew it could cost the party a fifth of its voters?

A nationally representative Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in the days following the Capitol insurrection confirmed the large number of Republicans who believe Trump’s false assertion that the 2020 election was the result of illegal voting or rigging: 62% of the GOP, plus 17% who are “not sure” about the election’s legitimacy. However, the poll also shows how the remaining 21% of Republicans who believe the results were accurate and legitimate may be poised to vote for Democrats in the future.

We will be seeing Trump running for office in 2024. Even if he doesn’t win the nomination it will be an entertaining four years. The media, like a moth attracted to light, will not stay away.

Biden Will Lie to You

The Atlantic

Biden Will Lie to You

All presidents do.

JANUARY 26, 2021
Adam Serwer
Staff writer at The Atlantic

President Joe Biden — ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP / GETTY

All presidents lie. Even so, the Trump administration weaponized dishonesty to a remarkable degree.

Donald Trump did not merely lie to exaggerate his accomplishments, or smear his opponents. For Trump and the Republican Party, lies were a loyalty test. To reject Trump’s lies or exaggerations, even if they contradicted prior assertions by the now-ex-president, was to express disloyalty, the only Trump-era sin that was unforgivable by his faithful. This allowed the president to fashion for his supporters alternate realities whose tenets could not be questioned, such as his false allegations of voter fraud.

That was not the only lie of consequence, of course. The president manufactured terrorism threats from the left, and suppressed warnings about those on the right. He punished government officials who properly engaged in oversight and rewarded those who misled the public as he wanted. Most damaging, he lied about the scope and danger of a pandemic that is on course to kill half a million Americans. Listing his lies would require more time than I can offer here.

The Biden era presages a return to typical presidential dishonesty, without the cult of personality that defined the Trump era. But presidential lies were destructive long before Trump appeared, so the press and the public should resist the temptation to assume that the Biden administration will always be on the level, or that its dishonesties can be forgiven because Biden’s predecessor wielded falsehood with such abandon. There will be moments when the public interest conflicts with the political interest of the White House, and during some of these moments, the president will lie.

Presidents lie for all sorts of reasons. Lyndon B. Johnson lied about the Vietnam War, as did Richard Nixon. Bill Clinton lied about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky, Ronald Reagan lied about selling weapons to Iran to fund right-wing militants in Nicaragua. George H. W. Bush lied about raising taxes; his son George W. Bush lied to facilitate his push for war in Iraq. Barack Obama lied about how the Affordable Care Act would affect preexisting health-insurance plans. Prior to becoming president, Biden was known for bluster and exaggerations, including most memorably the falsehood that he was arrested while trying to visit an imprisoned Nelson Mandela. These are deceptions, not mere errors of fact, which all mortals make.

Sometimes presidents lie because the politics of their actions are inconvenient. Sometimes they lie because they believe the facts would harm national security.

Sometimes they lie to cover up their own misdeeds. Sometimes they lie to conceal friction between themselves and their political allies, or even their political adversaries. Sometimes they are simply bluffing; other times they will lie by omission, misdirection, or understatement. We are unlikely to be treated to the spectacle of obsequious Cabinet members publicly licking Biden’s boots on camera, but that is not the standard upon which presidents should be judged.

Already, Biden has sought to mislead the public by setting expectations for vaccinations that experts have said are too modest—which will allow the president to declare his approach a great success if the goal is exceeded. On Thursday, Biden insisted that 100 million vaccinations in 100 days was an ambitious goal that the press had declared impossible

I found it fascinating—yesterday the press asked the question: Is, you know, 100 million enough? A week before, they were saying, “Biden, are you crazy? You can’t do 100 million in 100 days.” Well, we’re going to, God willing, not only do 100 million, we’re going to do more than that. But this is—we have to do this. We have to move.

This was, in fact, false—the Trump administration had nearly reached that pace by the time Biden took office, despite its mishandling of both the pandemic itself and vaccine supply. Speaking to The Washington Post, the vaccine scientist Peter Hotez said that “1 million vaccinations per day is not nearly enough if the aim is to halt virus transmission in six months.” The Biden administration has since claimed that the 100 million target was “a floor, not a ceiling.” On Monday Biden announced a new target of 150 million vaccines over the next hundred days, a tacit acknowledgment that the original goal was not as ambitious as he had claimed.

Biden’s remarks are nowhere near as egregious as Trump’s insistence that the virus would “disappear,” but Trumpian lies should be neither floor nor ceiling. The standard should be the plain truth, even though the Biden administration will, at times, inevitably fail to meet it. Biden will lie. All presidents do.