{"id":19308,"date":"2023-07-17T17:24:40","date_gmt":"2023-07-18T00:24:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/?p=19308"},"modified":"2023-07-17T17:41:45","modified_gmt":"2023-07-18T00:41:45","slug":"theyre-telling-us-who-they-are-and-what-they-will-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/2023\/07\/17\/theyre-telling-us-who-they-are-and-what-they-will-do\/","title":{"rendered":"They&#8217;re Telling Us Who They Are, and What They Will Do"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Maya Angelou: &#8220;When people show you who they are, believe them the first time.&#8221; (<a href=\"https:\/\/dancingthroughtherain.com\/when-people-show-you-who-they-are-believe-them\/\">source<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.brainyquote.com\/quotes\/maya_angelou_383371\">source<\/a>)<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> How Trump and his acolytes are openly planning to set up an authoritarian government, should he rewin the Presidency;\n<li> Similarly, Republicans in Ohio and Alabama are defying the will of the voters, and the decisions of the Supreme Court, when those results don&#8217;t go their own way;\n<li> How the fringe conservatives are Nazis and racist conspiracy theorists;\n<li> How &#8220;Creation Care&#8221; is the evangelical substitute for rational response to climate change, and how homeschooling mothers still dissemble to their children.\n<\/ul>\n<p>Today&#8217;s examples are how they&#8217;re telling who they are, yet again.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2023\/07\/17\/multimedia\/17pol-trump-2025-lqpz\/17pol-trump-2025-lqpz-superJumbo.jpg\" width=\"200\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Front page of today&#8217;s New York Times<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/07\/17\/us\/politics\/trump-plans-2025.html\">Trump and Allies Forge Plans to Increase Presidential Power in 2025<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;The former president and his backers aim to strengthen the power of the White House and limit the independence of federal agencies.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Donald J. Trump and his allies are planning a sweeping expansion of presidential power over the machinery of government if voters return him to the White House in 2025, reshaping the structure of the executive branch to concentrate far greater authority directly in his hands.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Their plans to centralize more power in the Oval Office stretch far beyond the former president\u2019s recent remarks that he would order a criminal investigation into his political rival, President Biden, signaling his intent to end the post-Watergate norm of <a class=\"css-yywogo\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/06\/15\/us\/politics\/trump-indictment-justice-department.html\">Justice Department independence<\/a> from White House political control.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Trump and his associates have a broader goal: to alter the balance of power by increasing the president\u2019s authority over every part of the federal government that now operates, by either law or tradition, with any measure of independence from political interference by the White House, according to a review of his campaign policy proposals and interviews with people close to him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Trump intends to bring <a class=\"css-yywogo\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.donaldjtrump.com\/agenda47\/agenda47-liberating-america-from-bidens-regulatory-onslaught\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">independent agencies<\/a> \u2014 like the Federal Communications Commission, which makes and enforces rules for television and internet companies, and the Federal Trade Commission, which enforces various antitrust and other consumer protection rules against businesses \u2014 under direct presidential control.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>And what do we call it when one group wants to take more and more control of the government?<\/p>\n<p>What fascinates me in the piece is this comment from one of Trump&#8217;s masterminds behind this plan.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cOur current executive branch,\u201d Mr. McEntee added, \u201cwas conceived of by liberals for the purpose of promulgating liberal policies. There is no way to make the existing structure function in a conservative manner. It\u2019s not enough to get the personnel right. What\u2019s necessary is a complete system overhaul.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I can&#8217;t quite understand how the structure of the government would influence liberal or conservative policies. Well, unless because democracy is a liberal policy? And conservative policies would be authoritarian and fascist? Don&#8217;t these people realize they are defying the wisdom of the Founding Fathers, who set up this tripartite government precisely for such reasons?<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cWhat we\u2019re trying to do is identify the pockets of independence and seize them,\u201d said Russell T. Vought, who ran the Office of Management and Budget in the Trump White House and now runs a policy organization, the Center for Renewing America.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Some pushback:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cIt would be chaotic,\u201d said John F. Kelly, Mr. Trump\u2019s second White House chief of staff. \u201cIt just simply would be chaotic, because he\u2019d continually be trying to exceed his authority but the sycophants would go along with it. It would be a nonstop gunfight with the Congress and the courts.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\\\\<\/p>\n<p>Local examples:<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/onlysky.media\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/abortion_ohio_issue_1.jpg\" width=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Adam Lee, OnlySky, 17 Jul 2023<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/onlysky.media\/alee\/when-you-cant-win-change-the-rules\/\">When you can\u2019t win, change the rules: Abortion and Ohio\u2019s Issue 1<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Overview:<\/p>\n<p>American voters support abortion rights, even in traditionally conservative states. Ohio is the next state where polls show the pro-choice position could cruise to victory\u2014and to prevent that, Republicans want to make it harder for citizens to make their voices heard.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\\<\/p>\n<p>And:<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/compote.slate.com\/images\/5de2443f-dc17-4e8c-af39-ecf0e753a4c2.jpeg\" width=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Slate, Mark Joseph Stern, 17 Jul 2023<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/news-and-politics\/2023\/07\/alabama-republicans-supreme-court-voting-rights-dare.html\">Alabama Republicans Are Daring the Supreme Court to Uphold Its Own Voting Rights Ruling<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Alabama Republicans took a major step toward openly defying the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, advancing a new congressional map that fails to comply with the court\u2019s landmark Voting Rights Act decision in June. In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/opinions\/22pdf\/21-1086_1co6.pdf\"><em>Allen v. Milligan<\/em><\/a>, Chief Justice John Roberts ordered the state to draw an additional congressional district that gives Black voters a meaningful opportunity to elect the representative of their choice; instead, Republican legislators have drawn a white-majority district that Donald Trump would have handily carried in 2020. Lawmakers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lagniappemobile.com\/news\/committee-approves-map-uniting-gulf-coast-splitting-black-belt\/article_e994fc92-24ce-11ee-bae6-2ff3b7b84948.html\">passed<\/a> this map out of committee on a party-line vote, and the GOP-controlled Legislature appears likely to adopt it by Friday.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\\\\<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the conservative fringe are outing themselves as full-out Nazis.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/am11.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2023\/07\/nick-fuentes-america-first-1200x671.png\" width=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>MediaIte, 17 Jul 2023<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/trump\/trumps-neo-nazi-dinner-guest-delivers-horrifically-anti-semitic-speech-endorsing-trump-and-declaring-holy-war\/\">Trump\u2019s Neo-Nazi Dinner Guest Delivers Horrifically Anti-Semitic Speech Endorsing Trump and Declaring \u2018Holy War\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Nick Fuentes endorses Trump, of course, as as the headline says, has been Trump&#8217;s dinner guest. The article cites passages from the Talmud &#8212; taken out of context, it&#8217;s claimed, but why do we matter anymore what ancient desert tribes thought??<\/p>\n<p>\\<\/p>\n<p>RFK Jr. is barely any better.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/media.cnn.com\/api\/v1\/images\/stellar\/prod\/230715141702-rfk-jr-071423-restricted.jpg\" width=\"200\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>CNN, 15 Jul 2023<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2023\/07\/15\/politics\/rfk-jr-covid-jewish-groups\/index.html\">Jewish groups denounce RFK Jr.\u2019s false remarks that Covid-19 was \u2018ethnically targeted\u2019 to spare Jews and Chinese people<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Oddly, RFK Jr. is gaining Republican supporters.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/976\/cpsprodpb\/569A\/production\/_130407122_gettyimages-1543184043.jpg.webp\" width=\"200\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>BBC News, 17 Jul 2023<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-us-canada-66226103\">RFK Jr&#8217;s conspiracy theories and Republican supporters<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Opening with:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><b class=\"ssrcss-hmf8ql-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">Robert F Kennedy Jr is running for US president as a Democrat, but the unusual backing he is receiving from right-wingers and his history of amplifying conspiracy theories has raised suspicions about his motivations.<\/b><\/p>\n<div class=\"ssrcss-11r1m41-RichTextComponentWrapper ep2nwvo0\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-7uxr49-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi1\">\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph eq5iqo00\">Over the weekend, Mr Kennedy doubled down on remarks suggesting Covid-19 may have been &#8220;ethnically targeted&#8221; to &#8220;attack&#8221; Caucasians and black people but spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ssrcss-11r1m41-RichTextComponentWrapper ep2nwvo0\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-7uxr49-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi1\">\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph eq5iqo00\">Arguing he had &#8220;never implied that the ethnic effect was deliberately engineered&#8221;, the candidate alleged he was being smeared and cited a <a class=\"ssrcss-k17ofw-InlineLink e1no5rhv0\" href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/32664879\/\">study<\/a> published by the National Institutes of Health looking at how human genetic factors contribute to Covid transmission.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ssrcss-11r1m41-RichTextComponentWrapper ep2nwvo0\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-7uxr49-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi1\">\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph eq5iqo00\">But an author of the study told the BBC&#8217;s US partner, CBS News, that its findings had &#8220;never supported&#8221; Mr Kennedy&#8217;s claims.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\\\\\\<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/onlysky.media\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/creation-care.jpg\" width=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>OnlySky, Captain Cassidy, 13 Jul 2023<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/onlysky.media\/ccassidy\/meet-creation-care-the-evangelical-substitute-for-environmental-activism\/\">Meet \u2018creation care,\u2019 the evangelical substitute for environmental activism<\/a>, subtitled &#8220;Evangelicals can\u2019t care about anything unless they can feel like they literally own it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>This is curious as an example of how people (not only conservatives) can accept certain evidence about the world only if they can fit it into their pre-existing worldview.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Overview:<\/p>\n<p>As a substitute for accepting reality about climate change, evangelicals have decided that Jesus has given them ownership of the entire planet. Thus, they really ought to take care of it so he doesn&#8217;t get mad at them for breaking his gift. That sounds good\u2014until you read the Christianese terms and conditions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>What struck me was this passage about an evangelical mother homeschooling her son. Every time I read or hear about a family homeschooling their children, I am suspicious: what are these parents trying to shield their children from? Most of the time, I gather, it&#8217;s about prioritizing the Bible. In this, the reality a climate change, with a nonsensical comparison.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>A long time ago, I saw a short clip of an evangelical mother homeschooling her young son. The lad looked about nine years old and was decidedly <em>not<\/em> enthused about being filmed while engaging with substandard pseudoscience at his home\u2019s kitchen table.<\/p>\n<p>Somehow, he feigned interest in his mom\u2019s placement of two cups of water in front of him. She\u2019d carefully made sure that the water in the cups was exactly one degree (Fahrenheit, I assume) different.<\/p>\n<p>Now, she asked him to test the temperature of the two glasses with his finger. He did so. She asked him if he could tell her which cup contained the warmer water. He could not.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSee?\u201d she asked triumphantly. \u201cOne degree isn\u2019t a big deal.\u201d Then, she swooped in for the kill: <em>Global warming is obviously fake, just some liberal ploy to, I don\u2019t know, put oil companies out of business<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>All those people saying that the Earth couldn\u2019t get one degree warmer or bad things would happen? They were wrong. One degree is no biggie.<\/p>\n<p>Tentatively, the lad agreed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>She was wrong. The writer goes on to explain&#8230;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Because yes, a planet that is one degree warmer is a huge freaking ginormous big deal, Homeschooling Evangelical Moms of the World.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This long article goes on with many examples of the dangers of &#8220;Christianese.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>If the world survives Climate Change, it will be despite these people.<\/p>\n<p>\\<\/p>\n<p>Enough for today. Well, this.<\/p>\n<p>\\\\<\/p>\n<p>There on the shore is a city&#8230; a sky filled with music&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ane5P_LRUJo&#038;list=RDU1es7AkaHfw&#038;index=4<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Maya Angelou: &#8220;When people show you who they are, believe them the first time.&#8221; (source and source) How Trump and his acolytes are openly planning to set up an authoritarian government, should he rewin the Presidency; Similarly, Republicans in Ohio &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/2023\/07\/17\/theyre-telling-us-who-they-are-and-what-they-will-do\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,16,17,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conservative-resistance","category-culture","category-music","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19308"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19317,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19308\/revisions\/19317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markrkelly.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}