Friday Morning Male Beauty

 

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The MAGA Base Now Defines the GOP

Once upon a time in what seems a galaxy far, far away the Republican Party was a serious political party where education, science and knowledge were respected and country mattered more than party.  Indeed, Richard Nixon resigned from the presidency when some leading congressional Republicans visited him and told him the gig was up.  Fast forward to today and we see on daily display the celebration of ignorance - in no small party due to the sway evangelicals, the least educated religious demographic , hold over the GOP - and congressional Republicans only concerned about their next primary and not facing a MAGA challenger.  The good of the nation and national security simply no longer matter and perceived self-advancement is the only apparent motivation that matters.   All of which now means the MAGA base - evangelicals, Christofascists and white supremacists - defines the GOP and adoration and total subservience and self-prostitution to Donald Trump are the order of the day.  Hence the lies and contortions emanating from congressional Republicans as they seek to defend Trump and betray national security concerns in the process.  A piece in Salon looks at the sad state of affairs.  Here are excerpts: 

Donald Trump was arraigned on 37 federal felony charges for his decision to abscond with extremely sensitive classified documents, store them haphazardly in his wide-open beach club and then refuse to give them back to the government when asked politely to do so. Unless the special counsel's office has found some evidence that will explain this bizarre behavior, we will probably be left arguing about Trump's motives forever. Was it a psychological need to hoard them or simply a product of his extreme mental disorganization? Did he see a monetary value in them or perhaps he had it in mind to use them as leverage for his political future, as he did when he extorted the Ukrainian president to help him sabotage Joe Biden's campaign? We may never know why he did it, but the government doesn't need to prove that. It's enough that he committed a very serious national security breach and then refused to cooperate when they offered for over a year to let it slide.

There was some nervousness as to whether his calls to the MAGA faithful to protest would result in big crowds descending on the Miami courthouse and causing a confrontation along the lines of January 6. A motley crowd of fringe weirdos marched around dressed in costume and carrying huge Trump flags but it was very tame. The Proud Boys didn't even turn up and they're headquartered in Miami.

Trump followers don't really protest, they gather in large numbers to party and see their Dear Leader speak, and he clearly had no intention of holding a press conference on the courthouse steps as another defendant might do. He rolled in with a large convoy and then sneaked out the back in his SUV . . . .

[W]hile nobody seems to be eager to violently storm another government building at the moment, MAGA is operating on a number of different fronts these days. Republicans in Congress have jumped into the protest breach with threats of hearings and work stoppages and blocking of nominations as a way of showing their support for Trump. Activists are writing hysterical social media posts and the right-wing media is fulfilling its duty to the movement as well . . .

So far the GOP presidential candidates are unable to quit Trump's Grand Pageant either despite the fact that their rival has now been indicted on very serious charges of endangering national security. Even those voters who really want a different candidate than Trump have to see that for the pathetic weakness it is.

With the exception of former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie not one of them has offered a full-throated condemnation of Trump's behavior. Most of them can't even bring themselves to say "everyone is innocent until proven guilty and I will await the verdict of the jury." They're all rushing to defend him with shallow "whataboutism" and attacks on the "deep state" and alleged unequal justice that somehow is supposed to give Trump a get-out-of-jail free card.

We all knew that he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and not lose any voters but it's still a little jarring to realize that the Republican Party is so thoroughly Trumpified that they don't even care if he is found to have stashed nuclear secrets next to the toilet.

It is a truism that elected Republican officials are terrified of that Trump base and that's why they cannot bring themselves to defy him, no matter what he does whether it's bragging about assaulting women, coddling dictators or inciting insurrections. Now he's charged with serious violations of national security laws and they are once again falling in line behind him. But maybe that conventional wisdom is backwards now. Trump is actually in a weakened state but these GOP leaders have absorbed the self-serving Trump crusade against the "deep state." They have convinced themselves it is true and/or beneficial for them to claim that Democrats have done the same and got away with it.

Some, like Senate Intelligence Committee member and former Trump critic Marco Rubio wring their hands over how terribly divisive it is and warn that Democrats have opened Pandora's box by, I guess, failing to fire the whole Justice Department for bringing charges against Trump . . . .

This is yet another sign of the ideological bankruptcy of the Republican Party as it goes into the 8th year of Trump's dominance. It's not that Trump's crazy base is ungovernable and they have no choice but to go along if they want to keep their seats. The establishment has taken back the wheel and they are now driving the MAGA bus. They don't have to do this. They want to. 

More Thursday Male Beauty

 

LGBT Americans Could Become a :New Class of Political Refugees"

Under both Governor Terry McAuliffe and Ralph Northam, Virginia was welcoming to everyone.  Glenn Youngkin is striving to reverse that welcome and make Virginia only for certain segments of society, namely heterosexual evangelicals, and has sought to limit access to abortion and to roll back protections for LGBT citizens, especially transgender Virginians.   To date his efforts have been limited thanks to Democrat control of the Virginia Senate which has resulted in many of Youngkin and his Republican allies' bills ending up in the trash can.  Just this week, as the Virginian Pilot reports, the Virginia Beach School Board rejected the Youngkin's policies for public schools that would have targeted transgender students, outed them to parents and made life much harder of LGBT students in general.  Should Republicans gain full control of the Virginia General Assembly in the November, 2023, elections, Virginia would find itself on a fast tract to emulate the fascist policies that have been implemented in Florida (a state I will likely no longer visit) and other Republican controlled states as Republicans prostitute themselves to the Christofascists in the party base.  Interestingly, Ron DeSantis' efforts in this regard appear to be backfiring with women voters as noted in a piece in Florida Politics.  Meanwhile, a column in the New York Times looks at the realities of these anti-LGBT laws and the fact that growing numbers of LGBT citizens are becoming political refugees and fleeing to other more LGBT friendly states.  Here are highlights from the Times column:

Eleanor McDonough used to be a legislative aide in the Florida State House of Representatives. She was, she believes, the only openly transgender person working there. That was until the wave of oppressive, anti-L.G.B.T.Q. — and specifically anti-trans — legislation being passed in Tallahassee became too much for her to bear.

Two weeks ago, she resigned her position and fled Florida for New Hampshire.

As McDonough told me, it became a “difficult situation” working in the Capitol and “having people debate your existence on both the House and Senate floors, of whether or not you’re going to be able to use the restroom in the building.”

“When you have to take a look at history and what other authoritarians have done when seeking power,” she said, “you have to make a decision of: At what point is it too dangerous to stay?”

McDonough isn’t alone among trans people, queer people in general, and their families registering the danger and considering relocation.

As Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, told me recently, “I think for the first time, at least in my history of the movement, we are seeing this new class of political refugees that are moving to different states because they believe that they’re not safe in their own.” These are gender refugees. Here, in America. Americans.

According to research by the Clark University professor Abbie Goldberg published in January by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, which surveyed 113 parents in Florida who are L.G.B.T.Q. in the wake of the passage of Florida’s Don’t Say Gay law, “56 percent of parents considered moving out of Florida and 16.5 percent have taken steps to move out of Florida.”

The study found that some respondents were already saving money and looking for jobs and houses elsewhere. But the fight-or-flight dilemma that these families face is fraught because, as the study points out, “many felt conflicted,” noting that “they loved their families, friends and communities.” They’re being pushed to choose between the comfort of their chosen tribe and the safety of their families — something no one should have to do. It’s a predicament underscoring that anti-trans laws aren’t noble, but wicked; they don’t protect, they prey.

And as the study notes, for some families with L.G.B.T.Q. members, “moving was currently impossible,” as they were “caring for older family members or other dependents or had jobs that they could not find elsewhere.”  . . . . Uprooting and moving to get away from political persecution is a privileged option that’s just not feasible for everyone, at least in the short term.

One high-profile family that resolved to leave Florida is that of Dwyane Wade, who won three N.B.A. championships with the Miami Heat, and the movie and TV star Gabrielle Union. The couple has a transgender daughter, 16-year-old Zaya, and Wade has said that Florida’s anti-L.G.B.T.Q. laws are among the reasons they decided to move. In April, he said “My family would not be accepted or feel comfortable there” and in May, he said of Miami, “As much as I love that city, and as much as I’m always going to be a part of it, I can’t — for the safety of my family, that’s what it was for me — I couldn’t move back.”

But, of course, Wade and Union are wealthy and have flexibility and resources — commodities that are beyond the scope of many.

[O]ut of more than 525 anti-L.G.B.T.Q. bills introduced around the country in this year’s legislative sessions, “over 220 of those target the transgender community.” . . . “We’re hearing from families all the time who are terrified, who are facing very concrete, practical issues of: My kid is about to lose health care; or my doctor, our family physician who we’ve been seeing for years now, says they won’t treat my child anymore.”

The fear and desperation are so great, Robinson told me, she has even talked to parents who are considering giving custody of their trans children to family members in friendlier states.

This situation — the support for and passage of these laws — is not only sad, it’s obscene and infuriating. And it is deeply rooted in dehumanization and denial.

Last week, a federal judge in Florida granted a preliminary injunction for three trans youths against certain provisions in a state law meant to ban gender-affirming care for minors. In the judge’s scathing ruling, he wrote two short sentences that ring profoundly because they seem to be so often ignored in the crusade against trans people: “Gender identity is real. The record makes this clear.”

The reality that “variations in gender identity and expression are normal aspects of human diversity” should be commonly understood, but it isn’t. Instead, far too many people falsely view gender diversity . . . as a choice rather than a medical condition. They conflate the condition with its effective treatment: transitioning.

The truth is that the broader L.G.B.T.Q. community and the trans community in particular are being bullied in this debate, and the willful ignorance around gender identity is being exploited. L.G.B.T.Q. Americans are being used as pawns in a political battle. We’re being scapegoated by scammers. Safety, even the safety of children, is being callously sacrificed so that public favor can be won.

It’s sick. And it has put many queer people in an impossible, existential bind.

If you live in Virginia, please vote a straight Democrat ticket in November so that Virginia does not become another Florida where the rights of a religiously extreme minority erase the rights of many others, particularly women and LBGT citizens.

Thursday Morning Male Beauty

 

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The United States v. Donald Trump

Donald Trump was arrested and arraigned yesterday under the Espionage Act for the willful and deliberate retention of national security documents after leaving the White House and obstructing federal government efforts to recover the purloined documents, some of which reportedly contained extremely sensitive information that would thrill America's foreign adversaries should they ever gain access to them.  Disturbingly, the federal case is at least initially before the unqualified, arguably incompetent and likely highly biased Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, who was basically severely bitch slapped by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals for her improper rulings when the documents case first ignited (a column in the Washington Post examines why Cannon needs to be removed from the case).  While many Republicans motivated by perceived personal advantage and fear of the MAGA base continue to attack the Department of Justice and lie about Biden's role in the indictment - the indictment was handed down by a grand jury - the truth of the matter is that what Trump did was very dangerous for the safety of the nation and was all the result of Trump's refusal to return the government documents despite special treatment and deference (you or I would have simply been arrested at the get go).  A piece in The Atlantic looks at the case against Trump and Trump's mindset that he is above the law.  Here are excerpts: 

Donald Trump was arrested and arraigned today—without incident—and he has now pleaded not guilty to 37 charges tied to the alleged mishandling of classified documents. But before we see more possible indictments (from Georgia or the January 6 investigation), Americans should not lose sight of the astonishing charges read to Trump today in Florida.

Perhaps former Attorney General William Barr—not a man I am given to quoting approvingly—said it best:  I was shocked by the degree of sensitivity of these documents and how many there were ... and I think the counts under the Espionage Act that he willfully retained those documents are solid counts … If even half of it is true, then he’s toast.

I’m not so sure about the “toast” part. Trump lucked out by drawing Judge Aileen Cannon, whom he appointed and whose last involvement with one of his cases produced a decision so biased in his favor and so poorly reasoned that a federal appeals court—including two more Trump appointees—overturned her ruling in a judicial body slam. And a Florida jury raises the odds that someone on the panel will simply refuse to convict no matter how strong the case.

[B]efore the inevitable blizzard of motions and delays and general mayhem, I thought we should review the actual charges in the indictment itself.

First, here’s what the government claims Trump took to Florida:

The classified documents TRUMP stored in his boxes included information regarding defense and weapons capabilities of both the United States and foreign countries; United States nuclear programs; potential vulnerabilities of the United States and its allies to military attack; and plans for possible retaliation in response to a foreign attack. The unauthorized disclosure of these classified documents could put at risk the national security of the United States, foreign relations, the safety of the United States military, and human sources and the continued viability of sensitive intelligence collection methods.

Remember, no one on the Trump team is really disputing this. Some Republicans, in a desperate struggle with reality, are suggesting that Trump did nothing wrong, but Trump—who cannot stop talking—says he had the right to take anything he wanted . . .

But perhaps the materials were at least in a safe place: Between January 2021 and August 2022, The Mar-a-Lago Club hosted more than 150 social events, including weddings, movie premieres, and fundraisers that together drew tens of thousands of guests.

Ah. But Trump has a Secret Service detail; could they help protect the documents?

[The Secret Service] was not responsible for the protection of TRUMP's boxes or their contents. TRUMP did not inform the Secret Service that he was storing boxes containing classified documents at The Mar-a-Lago Club.

Meanwhile, Trump’s aides—including his alleged co-conspirator, Walt Nauta—were moving this stuff around. (Nauta was indicted on six counts, including obstruction and making false statements, and he has not yet entered a plea; he requested an extension on his arraignment, now set for June 27.) When some of the boxes toppled over, Nauta apparently took a picture of classified material:

On December 7, 2021, NAUTA found several of TRUMP’s boxes fallen and their contents spilled onto the floor of the Storage Room, including a document marked “SECRET//REL TO USA, FVEY,” which denoted that the information in the document was releasable only to the Five Eyes intelligence alliance consisting of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. NAUTA texted Trump Employee 2, “I opened the door and found this …” NAUTA also attached two photographs he took of the spill. Trump Employee 2 replied, “Oh no oh no,” and “I’m sorry potus had my phone.” 

Unfortunately, one of Trump’s own lawyers made sure to memorialize Trump’s comments on that issue—because lawyers, despite the Stringer Bell Rule, know when to protect themselves by taking notes:

Well what if we, what happens if we just don’t respond at all or don’t play ball with them?

Wouldn’t it be better if we just told them we don’t have anything here? Well look isn’t it better if there are no documents?

In one of the more widely publicized moments described in the indictment, Trump was apparently recorded, during a meeting with a writer working on a book (who was accompanied by his publisher) and two of Trump’s staff, saying that he had a U.S. war plan against a foreign nation (read: Iran) in his hand. He is recorded as admitting both that the document is classified and that he no longer has the power to declassify it. But for those of us who have worked with classified information, Smith adds an important detail:

At the time of this exchange, the writer, the publisher, and TRUMP’s two staff members did not have security clearances or any need-to-know any classified information about a plan of attack on Country A.

If this happened, Trump released classified information to people who should not see classified information.

This incident is particularly galling because one of the president’s former attorneys, Robert Ray, has been arguing that although the charges in the indictment are serious, they don’t show evidence of damage to U.S. national security. This is a risible claim: No one, at this point, can say with any confidence whether American national security has or has not been damaged. We do not live in a movie where intelligence leaks produce clear and instant disasters.

But more to the point, even Ray admitted that the government doesn’t need to prove such harm; that’s not how any of this works.

As a former Defense Department employee, I can only imagine what would have happened had I spirited boxes of classified information to my home and then, after my arrest, said, “Well, sure, I took it, but there’s no evidence I’ve hurt national security. At least not yet.”

Donald Trump is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Unfortunately, it will likely be a long time before we find out if our justice system is capable of holding a former president to account. But if these charges were leveled against any other American citizen, they would be, in Bill Barr’s words, toast.

Trump remains a threat to both democracy and America's national security.

Wednesday Morning Male Beauty

 

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