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Trump's Next Coup Has Already Started
There’s an excellent article by Baton Gellman from The Atlantic entitled “Trump’s Next Coup Has Already Begun.” Gellman’s main argument is that Donald Trump’s response to his 2020 election defeat was just a dry run of what he and Republicans will do in 2024 if they again come up short. Next time, the goal will be to make the coup attempt we witnessed during the presidential transition not look like a coup attempt at all. Republicans want to set up systems across the states they control in the country so they can determine which ballots will count and which can be thrown out. They are creating partisan mechanisms to certify or reject election results on the basis of party lines. As Gellman writes, “they are driving out or stripping power from election officials who refused to go along with the plot last November, aiming to replace them with exponents of the Big Lie.” In the meantime, Trump and his allies are working the public to believe that elections cannot be trusted and that there all along was reason to doubt the electoral process in the United States. All of these factors put together can make it so the next effort to subvert the electoral process is fine tuned and seemingly a fair game for them to play.
Tucker Carlson Sides with Putin on Ukraine
As Russian President Vladimir Putin amasses troops along the Ukrainian border, American right-wing propagandist Tucker Carlson is essentially giving him the go ahead on his nighttime Fox News program. Tucker gave an analysis about this news event that sounded largely anti-war and non-interventionalist. He played a clip of Iowa Senator Joni Ernst whom he believed to be going too far with her remarks about defending Ukraine and offering them assistance. But Carlson went so far as to criticize even leaving economic ramifications on the table if Putin makes this power move. He scoffed at the idea of instituting economic sanctions and cutting off natural gas pipelines if Russia crosses the red line. Tucker’s main goal with this commentary was less about Putin and Russia and more about Biden and the Democrats. The focus under Barack Obama for the right was to argue that he was treating Putin with kid gloves. Then under Donald Trump it was that America should end its hostility with Russia because they aren’t all that bad. Now, because Joe Biden is in charge, the right wants to say that even employing economic penalties against Russia is outside the bounds of reason. The “principle” for the right is more about attacking Democrats than anything else which is especially worrying when it comes to issues in geopolitics.
From yesterday’s show:
NYC Launches STRICTEST Vaccine Mandate in Country
As coronavirus cases go up in the United States and we head into what will likely be another winter wave of the pandemic, New York City has instituted arguably the strictest vaccine mandate in the entire country. Starting on December 27th, NYC’s vaccine requirement will expand to all private sector workers, what counts as immunization will change to two doses rather than one, and kids age 5 to 11 will also be subject to the rules. Unclear so far is what the consequence will be for people and businesses who do not comply with the mandate and that could ultimatley determine whether this holds up in the courts. If the penalty for not complying is a fine, that would likely stand up to a court challenge based on the precedent of the Jacobson v. Massachusetts ruling where the courts ruled the state had the power to fine people who refused the smallpox vaccine back in 1905. Without speaking to the legality or morality, vaccine mandates have been shown to work in accomplishing the goal of getting people to take the shots. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio is making this policy change with only weeks left in his term with Mayor-elect Eric Adams posed to oversee most of the rollout when he takes office on January 1st.
From yesterday’s show:
Fox Nut Blames "Liberal School Personnel" for Oxford School Shooting
Jeanine Pirro went on her Fox News program and blamed “liberal school personnel” for a recent school shooting. Fifteen-year-old Ethan Crumbley killed four people and injured seven others in Oxford, Michigan last week. Crumbley’s parents have also been charged for involuntary manslaughter for failing to secure the gun that was used in the shooting. Typically, the right would be in support of holding parents accountable for the actions of their kids. They love to talk about poor parenting, sometimes single-parent households, and overall parents failing to instill the right values in these perpetrators. But in this case, it’s not convenient for Pirro to be blaming the parents for the shooting because the parents happens to be Trump supporters. The mother, Jennifer Crumbley, once wrote a letter to Donald Trump praising him for his support of gun rights among other issues. So in this case, Pirro abandons the principle of focusing on bad parenting and instead goes after “liberal school personnel” whom she suspects could have done more to prevent the shooing. So often with these right-wing figures the principles they claim to hold up fall apart when it conflicts with the latest narrative they are trying to push and that’s exactly what happened here.
More on the show:
--President Joe Biden warns Russian President Vladimir Putin not to invade Ukraine, or there will be significant economic consequences
--COVID cases are spiking dramatically, but is the cause actually the omicron variant?
--Republican Congressman Dan Crenshaw slams Marjorie Taylor Greene and other "Freedom Caucus" members as grifters
--Radical right wing media personality Stew Peters wildly claims that the flu or COVID that he currently has was targeted at him like a weapon
--Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz has spoken to Donald Trump about making him Speaker of the House in 2022 if Republicans win back the House
--Mark Meadows reveals that Donald Trump was so sick with COVID that at one point he could not even hold a briefcase
--The Eggman calls in to recount a conversation he recently had with a Republican
--On the Bonus Show: Judge blocks Biden vaccine mandate, suicide pods now legal in Switzerland, progressives in Congress backing 4-day work week, much more...
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