Trump Ended Abortion Rights And Stoked Culture Wars

945 WORDS

 

DONALD TRUMP AND ALEX JONES DEGRADE AND PERVERT OUR CULTURE

Political discussion has always been full of aggressive, rude, and false accusations. But it’s gotten a lot worse! Here are facts, impressions, and my opinions. I highly recommend Sarah Posner's well-researched book detailing how Trump co-opted the Evangelicals for their votes.

It’s now much worse since Trump began his presidential campaign in 2016. His deviant, outlandish, and disgusting styles were well displayed in the GOP presidential debates. His actual incompetence as a president quickly showed up in the first months of his presidency and steadily went downhill (Woodward, 2018: Titled, FEAR: Trump in the White House). 

Who voted for him? 

About 85% of voting Evangelical Christians voted for Trump. Writer Sarah Posner’s 2021 book UNHOLY is subtitled, HOW WHITE CHRISTIAN NATIONALISTS POWERED THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY, AND THE DEVASTATING LEGACY THEY LEFT BEHIND.  Spawned by conspiracy theorists from churches and pulpits, the Evangelicals believed that:

“To Trump’s religious devotees, God specially prepared him for this role [of a really strong leader, like King Cyrus, who reigned  from 539-530 BC!]. Rose Troyer, who traveled to the Values Voter Summit [my emphasis] with her husband, Mark, from Lititz, Pennsylvania, tells me she began to see that Trump was a leader prophesied in the Bible during the 2016 Republican primaries, after listening to evangelist Lane Wallnau and author Fox News personality Jonathan Cahn, both of whom claim to have received divine prophecies about Trump’s victory” (Posner, 30).

Wallnau told the excited crowd at the Values Voter Summit that, “God can anoint a wrecking ball.” And, “Foretelling that Trump would be a wrecking ball president is one of eleven prophecies Wallnau claims to have made about Trump that have come true, all proving his victory in a spiritual battle between satanic and godly forces” (Posner, 31).

I finished reading Poser’s excellent book a full two years ago. But I did not pay enough serious attention to how Christian activists were vilifying “LGBTQ rights as a dark movement forcing anti-LGBTQ Christians to accept a radical, fringe set of norms about gender and sexuality, in violation of their religious freedom” (Posner, 30).

So when I tried to comprehend the political animus against LGBTQ, I didn’t see the importance of the Christian Nationalist views that their rights were being abused because LGBTQ people were becoming more noticeable and protected by policies. 

Conservative Christians were complaining like they were the actual victims. But in fact, many governors were enacting many laws (1) removing protections for LGBTQ school children,  (2)  censoring LGBTQ books, and (3) intimidating such children from expressing their LGBTQ  tendencies.

 

 

OBSERVERS OF AMERICAN CULTURE SAY WE’RE MORE AGITATED AND INTOLERANT

https://www.reuters.com/technology/musk-poll-shows-x-users-want-us-conspiracy-theorist-jones-account-back-2023-12-10/

In 2023, after Elon Musk bought Twitter; and, he sought to allow more so called freedom of speech on the platform. Musk ran a poll which he said showed 70% of the voters wanted to allow the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones back on X(Twitter). Musk wrote that, “The people have spoken and so it shall be.”  Previously, Twitter employed content moderators which attempted to filter out offensive content. News reports suggest there are fewer moderators now.

 

From The Bulwark’s Charlie Sykes, 11/16/2021, Alex Jones has lost four separate defamation lawsuits against Sandy Hook families.  He now owes over a billion dollars to the victims of his awful lies.

Jones has repeatedly broadcast from Infowars that the Sandy Hook massacre was a “hoax.” Jones said it was fake, something made up. And in a sneaky, clever, insincere manner (i.e. disingenuously) Jones was quoted as saying: “I couldn’t believe it at first. I knew they had actors there, clearly, but I thought they killed some real kids. And it just shows how bold they are, that they clearly used actors. I mean they even ended up using photos of kids killed in mass shootings here in a fake mass shooting in Turkey—so yeah, or Pakistan. The sky is now the limit.”

Alex Jones has pushed out much dramatic falsehood hurtful to grieving parents. Further examples are:

Jones labeled as 100% “false  flags,” the mass murders in Aurora, Colorado; the Columbine school shootings, and the nightclub attacks in Orlando, Florida and San Bernadino, California.

Just imagine how any parent would feel when their child’s death was called a falsehood and monetized by an unsavory businessman like Alex Jones and his Infowars.

 

VOTING AND POLLING DATA HAS SCARY IMPLICATIONS

There is a lot of voting data that can only be explained by voter ignorance. Trump is an anomaly. Lots of people hate him but vote for him anyway. Debriefed voters often justify their vote by misinformation. For example, republican voters asked why they plan on voting for Trump say Biden has ruined the economy so we need Trump; however, Biden and his administration have been very active and participated with Congress in passing laws and bringing the economy back from high interest rates and inflation; and at present, our economy is in pretty good shape.

The threatened recession has not happened. Biden has been flying around the world and interacting with many heads of state. Biden may be old, but he has a competent cabinet who gets things done. On the other hand, from the early days of Trump’s presidency, there was chaos due to his ignorance of federal government, his supreme arrogance, his distractability and that he was unable to benefit from the staff that had been given to him.

The candidate most Americans believe is going to be the next president, the “wrecking ball” president Trump, is said by historian raters to be one of the worst ever, getting the lowest grades for leadership.  This from USA Today. https://www.usatoday.com/staff/2646358001/susan-page/  When Trump mentions Obama, Trump badmouths him. But the routinely cordial Obama ranks in the top ten of presidents!

 

Any references not found above are on the page  BIBLIOGRAPHY / WORKS CITED  in the VotersGettingControl.blogspot.com/ blog.

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U.S. Rep. Scott Perry's Cell Phone Seized

828 Words

 

INTRODUCTION

We will find State of Pennsylvania Representative Scott Perry to be a capable and honorable man who surely knew the boundaries between right and wrong--but of course, especially in politics, there is no bright yellow line between right and wrong. 

If you read about Scott Perry on Wikipedia, you will be impressed. He doesn't stand out as a flamboyant right wing radical. But he is a conservative republican who in 2021 was elected Chairman of the seriously conservative Freedom Caucus. And he is said to be quite loyal to Trump. 

It seems very clear to me that he worked hard to overturn the 2020 election.

Was he committing criminal acts? Or, was he just being a typical professional politician comfortably distorting reality and misstating facts to win at almost any cost?

 

 

MR. PERRY REFUSES TO COOPERATE WITH AN INVESTIGATION

In May of 2022 Mr. Perry was subpoenaed by the House committee investigating the January 6th Capitol attack. He refused to cooperate with that committee, which later in 2022 referred Perry's case to the House Ethics Panel for of his having refused to comply with the subpoena.

Immediately after after Trump's 2020 election loss there were signs of election fraud or irregularities. The vote counts were very accurate, and the few inaccuracies were so small they could not alter the Trump loss to Biden. 

Many lawsuits were filed claiming election fraud; all of them failed, including the one reaching the Supreme Court.

Trump had announced before the election that if he lost it would be due to election fraud. Moreover, Trump intensely disliked the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the FBI because both were extremely objective (hard facts count, opinions and personal feelings irrelevant). Some time prior to January 3, 2020, Representative Perry (very conservative and loyal to Trump), Chief of Staff Mark Meadows (Trump loyalist), and like-minded colleagues were brainstorming conspiracy theories for making a case to overthrow the election results.

DOJ environmental attorney Jeffrey Clark had found several conspiracy theories from QAnon and other sources; and he planned for these conspiracy theories to be brought into the DOJ, accepted on some official basis, and somehow used to ultimately overturn the election results. 

Representative Scott Perry provided support and influence to Jeffrey Clark. Mr. Clark passed these conspiracy theories to AGs Rosen and Donoghue, who sent these theories to be investigated by the FBI, which found them bizarre and without any merit. So, at this point in time (January 3rd), the DOJ wasn't buying Trump's ideas for overturning the election results.

On January 3rd, Jeffrey Clark and President Trump met with AGs Rosen and Donoghue to convince them to use the conspiracy theories to [somehow] start the process of overturning the election. This meeting and final result is fully described in my blog, "Dept of Justice Stands Up To Trump & He Backs Down Jan 3rd 2021."  GO DIRECTLY TO THAT BLOG BY CLICKING THE FOLLOWING LINK, BUT DO RETURN BACK HERE AFTERWARDS. 

https://votersgettingcontrol.blogspot.com/2023/08/dept-of-justice-stands-up-to-trump-he.html

EVENTUALLY TRUMP AND JEFFREY CLARK ARE INDICTED

By 2023 Special Counsel Jack Smith had listed Jeffrey Clark as an unindicted co-conspirator under Trump's federal indictment. And at the state level, in Georgia, Clark turned himself in at the Fulton County jail--booked on felony racketeering charges.

But as of today, Representative Scott Perry has not been charged with any crime. 

According to the Washington Post, 

"Of all the fantastical false claims of fraud and vote manipulation in the 2020 presidential election, “Italygate” was one of the most extreme. And Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) was at the heart of bringing it to Donald Trump’s attention." 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/06/23/scott-perry/

According to Wikipedia, the Italygate conspiracy was QAnon related and alleged that:

• the 2020 election was rigged for Biden to win
• using satellites and
  
• military technology
• to remotely switch votes to Biden
  
• and managed out of the U.S. Embassy in Rome (with Vatican involved). 

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Italygate&oldid=1186024563

CRIMINAL JUSTICE NOW HAS ACCESS TO PERRY'S CELL PHONE MESSAGES

Scott Perry sued to prevent the criminal justice system from reading thousands of messages on his phone. 

But the finding of the D.C. District Court of Appeals is that 1659 of 2055 messages can be viewed by investigators to determine if Scott Perry committed any election crimes.

My prediction is that Perry's messages will be found to "smell bad" but to fall within the acceptable range for devious political talk and attempted influence. Scott Perry is an impressive man who has played by the rules and been consistently found honorable and capable at many very responsible life positions. He's been successful in business, in politics, and served in active war zones. He achieved the rank of Brigadier General! 

Let's hope it will be found that he might have been supporting a devious political tactic but, while other strayed over the line, he did not.

Any references not found above are on the page  BIBLIOGRAPHY / WORKS CITED  in the VotersGettingControl.blogspot.com/ blog.

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The SENATORS taught Tuberville a lesson and Tuberville backed down. Update.

 

 

Note: This is an updated blog on 12-27-23 (first published 9-14-23).

I have closely followed republican Senator Mitt Romney since 2015. 

ROMNEY HAS ALWAYS BEEN AN HONORABLE POLITICIAN--GIVING US IMPORTANT INFORMATION IN A STRAIGHT-FORWARD MANNER. 

When Trump launched his 2016 campaign to be the republican nominee for the Presidency,  Romney told us of Trump's seriously bad moral character. Romney said Trump was NOT A SUITABLE CANDIDATE.

Tuberville's bid for his first congressional run was supported by election-denier and liar Donald Trump. 

Tuberville has a lot to learn about serving all of his state of Alabama and also serving the whole of the United States. 

Tuberville is a baby politician and lacking in common sense--he felt he could serve only his own personal interests (rabidly anti-abortion) holding the whole Military hostage to punish Senators and Citizens just because they didn't agree with Tuberville. This went on for months and months.

Thank goodness there were enough experienced Senators who could pressure Tuberville so he could learn an important lesson on how to function as a senator.

MITT ROMNEY HAS COMMON SENSE AND INTEGRITY

What's that familiar word "integrity" actually mean? It means the following:

• a person has good moral character when he or she
  
• is honest and doesn't lie;
• believes in ethical principles (doing the the right things);
• follows the rules of whatever game they're in (whether football, cards, or politics); and,
  
• has a value system appropriate to their life situation(s).

• The important values vary across different situations. In sports most everything is public, transparent and well defined; each game comes to an end and competitors accept the outcome. But politics is hundreds of times more complex, obscure, messy, nasty and inescapably important.

• Persons with integrity try really hard to consistently uphold the situation's values and respect their fellow men and women.

 

Even as Romney in 2016 on TV called out Trump for being a "fraud," he cited publicly available facts which together made the use of the word fraud appropriate. In contrast to this, there are those in Congress who slander other politicians, even going to the extreme of calling them "pedophiles." 

Romney showed his honorable integrity and respect for the Constitution by voting for Trump's impeachment; and in Trump's trial in the Senate, Romney voted to find Trump guilty for his part in the insurrection.

Romney just recently announced he'll not run for re-election. Since I first got acquainted with Romney, he has never disappointed me--even if we didn't agree on everything.

I CONTINUE TO RESPECT MIKE PENCE FOR HIS INTEGRITY 

I'm a moderate Republican and he is very much more a far right conservative. I greatly respect Pence for several things I want to spread the word on.

• I sort of think he wanted to be vice president and that he knew Trump's liabilities but as a loyal American politician he bravely offered himself as VP.

• He comes across as "straight-laced," rarely smiles, and for his four years as VP appeared to be both loyal and long suffering.

• My impression from reading multiple accounts of Trump's presidency, is that Pence supported what he could of Trump's policies. And he probably had a moderating effect upon Trump. Pence on January 6th, though fearing for his safety, did certify the electoral votes; Congress reconvened later in the evening and Biden became the next President. 
  

• Pence probably worked to bring out the best from those working in the White House. Both AG Bill Barr and National Security Advisor John Bolton have said Trump was damaging to our American democracy. Bob Woodward's writing includes nonstop examples of the White House staff minimizing the damage from Trump's ignorance of government process and his impulsivity.
   

 When Pence announced his run for the Republican nomination for President, he began to publicly separate himself from Trump's chronic liabilities. He said he was "incredibly proud" of  what  he and Trump had accomplished. But he added, referring to Trump:

"I believe that anyone who puts themselves over the Constitution should never be president of the United States, and anyone who asks someone else to put them over the Constitution should never be president of the United States again." 

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4038723-pence-argues-jan-6-is-disqualifying-for-trump-as-he-launches-campaign/

 

January 6, 2021 was the insurrection at the Capitol. That's 2 years and 9 months ago. 

But only in the past six months are we learning the full extent of the organizing which led to the riot and to the Trump-directed criminal interference with the elections in at least half a dozen states.

 

BUT MIKE PENCE IS SUPPORTING COACH TUBERVILLE'S GRIDLOCK

There are many odd, counter-intuitive procedures in Congress. Sometimes these procedures cause significant problems such what Senator Tuberville has seen fit to do. 

In an unprecedented manner he has held up about 300 military promotions until such time as the U.S. Military changes its policy of giving military personnel access to abortions and other reproductive medical care.

It’s a classic Washington standoff with rippling effects across the country, placing the lives of service members effectively on hold as they await what has traditionally been routine Senate approval for their promotions.

https://apnews.com/article/senate-military-nominations-holds-tommy-tuberville-e38d853526de044ac59338d32d7a0e10

It is obvious from the various online news and pictures that Tuberville is pretty cocky about what he has done.  And he has no intentions of changing his mind.

Tuberville, is not a veteran. He has been a life long football coach. His candidacy was endorsed by Trump and Tuberville is serving his first term in the Senate. 

 

Today, USA Today reported that Mike Pence at a campaign stop commented: 

"Touting his 'traditional moral values,' he defended Sen. Tommy Tuberville's military holds and abortion fight with the Pentagon, and he again opposed transgender health care for children."

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/09/14/mike-pence-town-hall-tuberville/70844117007/

What I see happening in Mike Pence and Senator Tuberville is that they believe abortion should be entirely or almost entirely criminalized. This is reasonable for them to believe; and there are millions of Americans who feel the same way. 

However, Pence and Tuberville support manipulating Congressional procedures and perhaps laws to ban abortion access for everyone. 

For several years, most if not all opinion surveys show Americans are in favor of freedom of choice in the matter of abortion.  

What this amounts to is Pence and Tuberville are heading in the direction of forcing (inflicting, perhaps) their particular antiabortion value system upon the entire nation. First inflict it on the military, because Tuberville can; then gear up for the next battle to restrict freedom of choice for abortion.  

I will end today's blog by giving my opinion on whether our democracy can be saved. I believe we're going to be OK because:

• At the Federal and State levels the criminal justice investigations are methodically producing the hard evidence, the facts, and the witnesses to testify and hold wrong doers accountable for their actions.
  

• Hundreds of January 6th rioters have been sentenced--including long prison sentences for members of Oath Keepers and Proud Boys.

• Misbehaving lawyers are in hearings for losing their licenses for violating their ethics standards.  Many have been indicted.   

• Trump has been indicted four times for a total of 91 criminal charges. He cannot receive a presidential pardon for a state level crime. 

• More and more republican Congressmen are publicly speaking the obvious--that Trump lost. Duh!

• In the last several months, I've seen no public media even implying Federal election fraud. I believe we've reached a tipping point after which more and more citizens will open their hears and minds to election realities.

• Several news organizations and talk show hosts have settled lawsuits for irresponsibly reporting conspiracy theories and false information that interfered with the elections. Literally hundreds of bogus lawsuits by election deniers have been thrown out of court.
  

WORKS CITED

Woodward, Bob. FEAR: Trump in the White House. Simon & Schuster, 2018

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