It was never about winning, it’s about stealing

Sarah Kendzior tweeted:

The GOP are not afraid of or in thrall to Trump, the individual. They are afraid of and/or willing partners with the extensive criminal apparatus behind Trump which employs threats and blackmail to keep people in line — and offers elite criminal impunity as an incentive. The failure to dismantle this network early, or even call it out for what it is, led the US into its current quagmire. The longer officials obfuscate, the less our chances are of survival. If an attempted coup and the death of over half a million didn’t prompt action, what will?

She then quoted a tweet from Nov. 22, 2020, which is a quote from her book Hiding in Plain Sight.

A crime syndicate that transcends state borders in its pursuit of power and wealth...this elite criminal network has been building for decades...total domination is the outcome they seek...

So if the GOP did pull off a coup they in turn would be controlled by a transnational crime syndicate. The GOP may not be top dogs in the social hierarchy, but they would certainly be above – and have control over – 340 million people. That’s still way up there. In another thread Kendzior tweeted:

The GOP intends to grab power through rigging, not by winning people over. Voter suppression, voter intimidation, threats to state officials, new laws that give states the ability to toss votes. It was never about winning, it’s about stealing — with or without Trump. Facile debates about GOP “needing” Trump are dangerously ignorant of the main threat, which is structural rigging through new voter suppression laws. GOP would not bother with these laws if Trump had mass appeal OR if they were able to win voters over. They’re not even trying. The GOP goal is permanent tyranny of the minority. Popular will doesn’t matter for that goal. Actual vote tallies don’t matter. Appealing to voters is incidental; GOP voters are seen as dupes and pawns. Impunity is the prize of tyranny of the minority, and it’s already here. Dems could end this by killing the filibuster and passing voting rights protection laws. Their lack of interest in doing so — their preemptive surrender — should be examined as closely as the GOP’s open destruction of democracy. Why is Dem leadership making it easy?

That’s the big question. Are Dems naturally wimpy, or are they also compromised by that transnational crime syndicate? Is their opposition only for show? Ruth Ben-Ghiat introduced an essay on CNN with:

January 6 could be viewed as a trial run, as failed coups often precede successful ones. ‘That's what we f**king need to have, 30,000 guns up here,’ said one rioter. ‘Next trip,’ someone answered him.

Joan McCarter of Daily Kos reported last Friday that a bipartisan deal has been reached to form a commission to investigate the January 6 Capitol attack. There would be ten members, half appointed by each party. The report is to be issued by the end of the year. It was voted on in the House today. I haven’t heard the results. If the chair (Dem) and vice chair (GOP) agree they can issue subpoenas – more likely each preventing the other from issuing subpoenas. However, only the chair can get info from federal agencies, otherwise the commission could accomplish nothing. Yesterday McCarter reported several GOP members of the House have expressed support for the commission. GOP leaders oppose the bill, but have told members to vote their conscience. Sounds good! Alas, there are still several ways for this commission to not happen. First, Moscow Mitch will lead a filibuster. Second, Mitch could delay appointing the GOP members until there isn’t time to do anything by the deadline. Judd Legum responded to the news that the deal had been reached:

I'm unclear why the 9/11 commission in the model here. We now have people who helped provoke this attack by voting to overturn the election based on Trump's lies appointing HALF of the commission that will examine their actions. It's absurd. @GOPLeader should have to testify about his actions on January 6, including his conversations with Trump. He should not be involved in selecting the commissioners.

Steven Dennis tweeted:

Dems gave Rs two *big* asks on the 1/6 Commission: Evenly divided membership and R-picked members have *veto power* over subpoenas.

David Rothkopf added:

You've got to ask...what's the point? This is an exercise in futility and a guarantee that the process will not lead to anything like justice or accountability.

Another way to say that is the point is performative justice – telling the public “Hey, we’re going to bring about justice!” but doing it in a way that makes sure justice is not achieved. Democrats have done this before. I had written about the “audit” in Maricopa County, Arizona of last November’s vote, that there were may election protocols being violated. A few days ago the nasty guy issued a statement claiming the voter registration database in Maricopa County has been deleted. Also, seals on boxes holding ballots had been broken and ballots are missing. Stephen Richter, the Maricopa County recorder (though using his personal Twitter account) wrote:

Wow. This is unhinged. I’m literally looking at our voter registration database on my other screen. Right now. We can’t indulge these insane lies any longer. As a party. As a state. As a country. This is as readily falsifiable as 2+2=5. If we don’t call this out...

Nick Martin responded:

Wow. The Republican who took over Maricopa County elections *after* the 2020 vote is now calling Trump "unhinged" and saying that his party needs to call out the former president's "insane lies."

As for the broken seals and missing ballots, if the claim is true (and knowing who made the claim...), the last people touching it were the audit company. Laura Clawson of Kos reported that the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, majority Republican, sent a letter to the Karen Fann, president of the State Senate, which authorized the audit. The letter called the audit a “sham,” a “con,” and “a spectacle that is harming all of us.” The board also refused to meet with Fann, saying the meeting would be, “political theater broadcast on live stream by OAN,” a network more extreme than Fox. Also in the 13 pages of the letter from the Board, they say they can’t give passwords for various devices because they don’t have them. And Dominion (the company accusing various people for slandering its voting machines) won’t give them out because the company doing the audit is not accredited by the Elections Assistance Commission. The audit people also requested the full chain of custody documentation. The board called that a “spectacular lack of understanding” – that documentation had already been supplied. The letter concluded:

Unfortunately, this has become a partisan issue, and it should not be one. It is time to make a choice to defend the Constitution and the Republic. As County elected officials, we come from different political parties, but we stand united together to defend the Constitution and the Republic in our opposition to the Big Lie. We ask everyone to join us in standing for the truth. The November 3, 2020 general election was free and fair and conducted by the Elections Department with integrity and honor.

Alas, we know the GOP has already made their choice – and it isn’t the Constitution. Dan Price, who cut his CEO pay to share the wealth with his employees, tweeted:

Millennials hold 4.8% of all wealth. There are now 40-year-old Millennials. At the same age, Gen X had 9% of wealth. Boomers had 21%. The largest generation in history did what the system told them to do and became the most-educated in history. Now they're the poorest in history.

He added:

Out of curiosity I ran the numbers and Mark Zuckerberg single-handedly has 2% of all Millennial wealth.

Charles Gaba created a chart placing each state based on the percent who voted for the nasty guy and the percent of population vaccinated. He added a trend line that has the expected slope. Scroll down because the position of New Hampshire is a bit off. I’m not sure what it is with mailing labels, those little stickers that have my address that I can put on the return address part of an envelope. Yeah, they’re rather nice in that I don’t have to actually write out my address. However, it seems a wide variety of charities send them to me in hopes I’ll be so pleased I’ll donate to them. They think that’s going to do it? Today I opened an envelope with another 120 labels inside. That prompted me to go through my collection. I threw out over 500 mailing labels – flowers, kid art, flags. I kept 300. I probably could have thrown out out half of those. One thought is if I use a certain charity’s labels people will also donate to them. But labels that identify the charity go immediately into the trash. So, all you charities out there, skip the labels. Put the money to some better use and stop adding to landfills. My first encounter with a troll – and I don’t mean an internet troll that responds to everything he doesn’t like – was under a bridge in Seattle. Well, a statue of a troll. This particular one even had its hand on a car as if plucked from the bridge above. It is an amusing bit of public art. Now five trolls have taken up residence in the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in Boothbay, Maine. They are creations of artist Thomas Danbo, who made them out of recycled materials. Elizabeth Blair of NPR talked with the artist. The trolls stand 15-30 feet high. The Gardens are happy to have the trolls because they draw visitors. Danbo has created several other trolls. One was installed in Breckenridge, Colorado, but because he drew too many people, more than the town could handle, he had to be removed. There is a troll outside the Wynwood Walls outdoor museum in Miami and one serving somewhat as a lighthouse on the Puerto Rican island of Culebra. He had to be recreated after Hurricane Maria. The artist’s website, with many more trolls, is here.