Author Archives: Hue White

I wonder if this guy understands the situation:

Amid recent surging coronavirus cases in Florida, a top Republican National Committee official in the state has spread anti-vaccine rhetoric and misinformation, comparing the Biden administration’s vaccine efforts to Nazi-era “brown shirts,” and twice calling the vaccines “the mark of the beast,” comparable to a “false god.”

A review by CNN’s KFile found that Peter Feaman, a lawyer and RNC committeeman from Florida made the comments on his blog the “The Backhoe Chronicles,” which he publishes regularly in a private group on MeWe. The social media platform bills itself as the “anti-Facebook” app.

“The Biden brown shirts are beginning to show up at private homes questioning vaccine papers,” Feaman wrote on July 20, incorrectly implying government officials would be showing up at people’s homes to question their vaccination status, comparing them to the Nazi Party paramilitary wing.

…

In May, Feaman called Covid-19 vaccines a “mark of the beast” — a reference to a symbol from the biblical Book of Revelations showing allegiance to Satan — and called Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer “diabolical” for encouraging vaccines. “Diabolical Michigan Governor Whiter wants her citizens to get the Mark of the Beast to participate in society,” Feaman wrote. [CNN/Politics]

This guy Feaman is preaching a behavior that will lead to sickness and death to those who hear and obey.

Other Republican doctrines have the potential to heavily arm these same people, as well as their potentially very angry relatives.

He could end up dead for his irrational preaching.

And that’s what it is. If we’re to trust our fellow citizens, who are scientists and study this sort of thing all their adult lives, it appears to be safe and effective to be vaccinated, at least so far. Feaman preaches distrust and disrespect.

If you’re a believer, remember this: the Divine, whatever it is, brought into being reality. Scientists study that reality, and are in that regard far more holy than mere pastors and prophets and lawyers like this guy – because they have implemented and try to improve verification procedures for those studies.

This guy just wants to retain his position of power and prestige, and he sees science as a threat because it has a claim on Truth that rivals and exceeds his.

I fear he may be endangering himself with his thirst for this power.

On the climate change front is this potentially disturbing news:

Scientists have long been worried about what many call “the methane bomb” — the potentially catastrophic release of methane from thawing wetlands in Siberia’s permafrost.

But now a study by three geologists says that a heat wave in 2020 has revealed a surge in methane emissions “potentially in much higher amounts” from a different source: thawing rock formations in the Arctic permafrost.

The difference is that thawing wetlands releases “microbial” methane from the decay of soil and organic matter, while thawing limestone — or carbonate rock — releases hydrocarbons and gas hydrates from reservoirs both below and within the permafrost, making it “much more dangerous” than past studies have suggested. [WaPo]

All tentative and contingent – but methane is more potent than CO₂, as I understand it.

I’ll be interested to hear if this decision is appealed to SCOTUS by the losing entity, a church:

The 11th Circuit on Wednesday struck down a Florida evangelical Christian ministry’s claim that it was discriminated against and defamed after the Southern Poverty Law Center labeled it a hate group, causing Amazon to deny its application to fundraise through the online retailing giant’s charitable website.

A unanimous three-judge panel of the Atlanta-based appeals court upheld an Alabama federal judge’s September 2019 decision to dismiss the lawsuit brought by Fort Lauderdale-based Coral Ridge Ministries Media (also known as D. James Kennedy Ministries) against Amazon, the AmazonSmile Foundation and the SPLC.

In a 15-page opinion, the panel found that Coral Ridge’s defamation claim against the Alabama-based SPLC fails because it did not show that the organization “acted with actual malice” when it listed the ministry on its “hate map” as an anti-LGBTQ hate group.

“Coral Ridge did not sufficiently plead facts that give rise to a reasonable inference that SPLC ‘actually entertained serious doubts as to the veracity’ of its hate group definition and that definition’s application to Coral Ridge, or that SPLC was ‘highly aware’ that the definition and its application was ‘probably false’,” U.S. Circuit Judge Charles Wilson, a Bill Clinton appointee, wrote on behalf of the panel. [Courthouse News Service]

That the SPLC (Southern Policy Law Center) is not a governmental entity is beyond dispute.

That it used standard criteria to find Coral Ridge belonged in its hate group listing appears to be a finding of the court. The use of a criteria approach, as I understand it, provides protection in the form of appeal to standardized processes, rather than just foaming at the mouth. While the First Amendment can be limited, this approach permits what it’s doing.

And is Coral Ridge Ministries Media a hate group? Hemant Mehta of Friendly Atheist sure thinks so, and advocating murder based on sexual orientation sure seems like a reason to be on the list to me.

But here’s the thing: SCOTUS, with the addition of Associate Justices Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, and Barrett to the court, has definitely taken to favoring religious organizations, even when it’s clearly a mistake. Will this case make it to them for examination? Keep in mind the 11th Circuit Court was composed of three judges, and it wasn’t a monoculture:

Wilson was joined on the panel by U.S. Circuit Judge Britt Grant, a Donald Trump appointee, and Senior U.S. Circuit Judge Gerald Tjoflat, a Gerald Ford appointee.

The legal issues seem clear and with little nuance – and Coral Ridge is hardly an honorable institution. In my mind, it’d be a tragedy just to have this heard by SCOTUS. Keep an eye out.

For my far-right readers, HuffPost has a report that titillates:

Kilonova:

Even before such evidence emerged, back in 1974, David Schramm and James Lattimer at the University of Texas at Austin proposed that a different cosmic smash-up might be the source of gold instead. If what we need to make heavy elements is a lot of neutrons, then perhaps their origins involve neutron stars? These are incredibly dense balls of matter – mostly neutrons, as the name suggests – left behind after certain kinds of supernovae. Neutron stars often form in pairs, then spin around each other until eventually smashing together in a cataclysmic explosion called a kilonova. The tide of neutrons that results, reckoned Schramm and Lattimer, could be enough to kick-start the r-process. [“How is gold made? The mysterious cosmic origins of heavy elements,” Sapphire Lally, NewScientist (24 July 2021, paywall)]

Which is just the only Ohio newspaper that I can think of. Jennifer Rubin in WaPo has a series of recommendations for news media and how they cover politics accurately, and I must admit her mention of Rep Jim Jordan (R-OH) fascinated me:

Sixth, it is incumbent on the media to describe the demeanor of Republicans more vividly. Anyone who does not watch congressional hearings would not know that Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) screams virtually nonstop and speaks at a frenetic pace. It is critical to provide an exacting description of Jordan. Put differently, reporters should stop making MAGA leaders more reasonable than they are.

I think the Plain-Dealer should put a guy with a web cam at a hearing which includes Jordan and record him. If he’s really the nutter Rubin suggests, don’t report it – show it. Feed it directly to the Plain-Dealer website. Let the readers watch him being a flying nutcase.

It won’t get him kicked out of his seat in 2022, but it might persuade a few more voters to stop giving him a free ride. And any complaints he registers on the matter will come off as whining, which is never appealing, except to other whiners.

Deadnaming:

Deadnaming is the use of the birth or other former name (i.e., a name that is “dead”) of a transgender or non-binary person without the person’s consent. Deadnaming may be accidental or used to intentionally dismiss, deny or reject a person’s gender identity. [Wikipedia]

Noted in the petition “Allow trans SCAD students to have preferred names on student IDs,” Change.org:

As the new school year begins many trans students will be attending school on various levels. College is the place where these students can finally feel open and present as their true selves. Preferred names are one way that these students take control of their situation. SCAD forces students to have students IDs with trans students dead names on them rather than giving the option to put their preferred name on their IDs. This not only emotionally harms these students but puts them at risk and opens up doors for misgendering and deadnaming. This petition is a call for action to give students the option to put their preferred name on their ID.

I’ve written that our defense budget is bloated based on expenditure comparisons to other countries. Last year, in Defense One Frederico Bartels published a rebuttal that establishes the point that using currency conversion rates is something of an irrelevancy:

If you account for differences in reporting structure, purchasing power, and labor costs, you find that China’s 2017 defense budget provided 87 percent of the purchasing power of American’s 2017 defense budget.

This runs counter to the conventional wisdom that the United States spends more on its military than the next 12 countries combined or that China lags annual U.S. military spending by close to $400 billion. Those misleading comparisons are based on simply converting Beijing’s reported defense budget from yuan to dollars by applying a market exchange rate. That produces a distorted picture. We must take into consideration several key factors to arrive at an accurate understanding of just how much Beijing is investing in its military.

And then, of course, is the problem that Communists and truth are not often bedmates:

One key factor—and perhaps the main one that makes accurate comparison so challenging—is how Beijing accounts for its military research and development. Put simply, it doesn’t include it in any of its reports on military expenditures.

And then there’s the problem of comparing fundamentally differing items, qualitatively speaking, and how money fits into the gig:

Further complicating accurate comparisons are the unique characteristics of China’s party-run military, such as military-civil fusion, usage of state-owned enterprise, theft of intellectual property, and the embedding of party organizations in private companies. Some of these elements, even if known, are simply unquantifiable. Thus if we seek to compare the resources Beijing dedicates to defense with what other countries are doing, our only recourse it so remove all military R&D from the calculations.

This sort of thing forces me to re-examine my position on our defense budget. Perhaps, most importantly, it’s a reminder that asking amateurs – or even less-than-amateurs – for their opinions is a fool’s errand.

What? Not seasoned him, yet?

Eat Locals (2017) echos a theme often associated with vampires throughout its structure, but, sadly, doesn’t quite have the follow-through to make it all work. That theme is Things are not what they appear to be: The Count is not nobility, but a monster is its most usual instance.

The nobility of the vampires in England, eight in number, are assembling for their semi-centennial meeting at a farmhouse in the English countryside, from the ancient Lord to the knitting grandmother to those of a lustier mien. One has brought a guest, a human. Why? He’s not dinner, it turns out, but a nominee to take the place of a vampire lord who has been exceeding his hunting quota.

Except he’s not willing to accept the honor, which is a woeful choice, for the existence of vampires must remain a secret, especially in this era of cameras, computers, and what-not. A leave-taking is not acceptable, except feet first, as the old saying goes.

Except that isn’t working, either. Is there something special about this gibbering fool of a hormone driven chap, or is he just damn lucky?

Meanwhile, that secret I mentioned? It turns out a special Catholic military unit is in on the secret, and they’re out to eliminate the vampire group. Rival ambitions or something, I’m sure. But what’s up with the group leader, and, for that matter, his superior, direct from the Pope, driven by hate and … dude, why’s there a scratch on your neck?

And your eyes are glowing…

From the overlord who doesn’t actually eat humans, to their farmhouse hosts, everyone seems to have a secret. However, it just doesn’t quite come together. I laughed a number of times, yet, at the end, it all felt a bit empty. It was fun, but missing something. Oh, are those angels?

Perhaps a finale on the theme, how we all have our secrets, vampire or human, and sometimes we’re the worse for it. That might have helped. Or not.

In January of 2018 I noted reports of China implementing a facial recognition system as a surveillance system in support of social credit. Now, it’s changing a bit:

Now, China is putting its freewheeling facial recognition industry on notice. Citing Guo’s case, China’s top court announced this week that consumers’ privacy must be protected from unwarranted face tracking.

“The public is increasingly worried about the abuse of facial recognition technology,” Yang Wanming, vice president of the Supreme People’s Court, said in a news conference on Wednesday. “The calls for strengthening protection of facial information are increasing.” [WaPo]

The trick here is to realize this is a change to the how, not the what:

That’s not too suggestive, is it?

Tower of Evil (1972) features T&A, slaughter of the promiscuous, and is a run of the mill example of the horror fare of the 1970s.

In other words, it’s quite exploitative.

Is it worth summarizing? The parents of a young woman accused of killing three of her companions during a visit to Snape Island, a barren bit of Scottish – I’m guessing – rock, are trying to clear her of the crimes. They hire a private investigator to this end, who teams up with a group who wants to search the island for archaeological remains. Between flashbacks, current character friction, and a lusty seaman, we get plenty of sex and distrust.

If you were permanently stuck down in some Scottish island cavern, you’d be giving everyone the finger as well. While you shivered. From the cold. Ba’al is a tropical denizen, after all. He felt cold and lonely, lording it over that God-forsaken rock and some maniacs. That’s merely an imaginative epithet, of course, the “God–forsaken” bit, Ba’al being a God and all that. Or at least a demon, which is, oh, God-like in its way – abrupt tempers, cruelty to strangers, not too nice to worshipful followers sometimes, disrespectful of rival supernatural divinities, it’s really just a matter of semantics. But, still, one must strongly believe that mere epithets don’t define reality, as I’d really hate to have Ba’al disappear in a puff of existential logic, because that would positively ruin this picture and therefore this Ph. D. thesis on 1970s horror movies.

Add in a couple of deranged inhabitants who are under the influence of a standard issue idol of Ba’al, the ancient and cruel God of Canaan – it’s not entirely clear if their relative has been bringing them groceries or if they’re eating kelp when they’re not brooding over dead Mama – and it turns into a rough ride for the group.

For the curious who have actually read this far, and I must say shame on you, the tower, besides an overt symbol of the real purpose of the movie – selling sex – is a lighthouse, long inactive.

Failing to build empathy for the victims or motivations for the nutters, we only watched out of morbid curiosity. But if you want to watch it – perhaps for your thesis on horror flicks of the seventies – here it is.

Oh, and, yes, this is the movie review to which this whale was referring.

Which sort of goes with an upcoming movie review.

Photographer Eric J. Smith captured a whale sneaking up on oblivious whale watchers. pic.twitter.com/0w7X8hGVuS

— All Things Interesting (@mrstrangefact) July 30, 2021

How many of my readers were subjected to the “scare the new drivers” film when they took Driver Ed? Maybe they don’t do that any more? Here, let me describe:

They show scenes of accidents. Here’s the dude who fell asleep while piloting a rig full of sewer pipes. When he hit the tree, the rig folded up, but the pipe just speared him in the head. Yeah, quite a mess. Too bad, he was only twenty-one.

Or this one, where someone was chatting too much and ran a stop sign. Hit by the SUV, both vehicles burst into flames and, hey, here’s the roasty-toasty corpses! Man, that’s gross.

Followed by an interview with a state trooper, sobbing over the baby he found in the water-filled ditch next to the wrecked station wagon. The baby was dead, of course.

Horrific. I’m not sure if they were effective, but then I can’t imagine they’d run an active study on that sort of thing.

So?

Consider this:

… in many regions of the country, including the Southeast where I live, up to two-thirds of the population chose not to protect themselves. I’ve heard all the reasons: “The vaccines are experimental.” “I am young and healthy; I don’t need the vaccine.” “So what if I get covid?” “The epidemic is over.” “The vaccine will destroy my fertility.” “The vaccine is a government plot.” “I have the freedom to choose.” “Nobody can tell me what to do.” “The doctors are lying to me.”

Like most of my fellow health-care workers, these comments stunned and stung me. We had spent a year fighting a raging pandemic. We suspended activities in our usual disciplines of medical care, rolled up our sleeves and provided care to the more than 30 million people who showed up in our ERs, clinics and hospitals. Covid was more than disruptive; it was exhausting. Most of us survived. But we were also fatigued and battle-worn. [Dr. Michael Saag in WaPo]

I think it’s time to use the tools of today to bring it all home.

Suspend patient privacy laws temporarily. Yeah, hard to do, but necessary.

Put webcams in the ERs and ICUs. Let them run 24/7. Feed the stream to a cable and/or broadcast channel. No censorship, , no blurring faces, no “this is too awful to show,” show it all. Show intubation, the frantic gasping for breath, the living, the dying. Show how the pressure is increasing on the hospitals.

Have a documentarian interview doctors, nurses, patients, and the relatives and friends of the deceased. Don’t hold back – sob over your lost wife, your sick child, your burned out colleagues. Don’t mince words. If you want to strangle the halfwits who think this is all a hoax, say it. This is not the time for diplomacy.

With today’s technology such interviews can be conducted and edited within hours by a dedicated team. Dump them on the feed.

Have local politicians visit the ICU. If you’re lucky, they’ll have a weak stomach and throw up on camera. For those who think this is all a hoax, the politician will change minds.

Some people – too many people – don’t trust government. Some remember Vietnam, others have been influenced by specious anti-government propaganda. This is the time when the medical profession, from doctors to medical systems, have to reach out and not politely ask people to take the vaccination, but yell as loudly as possible, You’re wrecking us by your intransigence, and if we’re wrecked, you will, in turn, be screwed. Knock it off and roll up your goddamn sleeves.

It may not work, but at least you’ll have tried using a different tool than before.

Note to former President Trump: Get out while the getting’s good:

President Donald J. Trump pressed top Justice Department officials late last year to declare that the election was corrupt even though they had found no instances of widespread fraud, so that he and his allies in Congress could use the assertion to try to overturn the results, according to new documents provided to lawmakers and obtained by The New York Times. The demands were an extraordinary instance of a president interfering with an agency that is typically more independent from the White House to advance his personal agenda. [The New York Times]

The Seychelles, Switzerland, any of those places that don’t engage in that dubious practice called extradition.

Quick, before the FBI arrives and hauls your sorry ass away.

For those readers who want to believe former President Trump is building a political movement, it worth examining his associates, including those he endorses. For example, Politico has showcased one of his latest and most full-throated endorsements, that of former aide and a candidate for the House, Max Miller:

Miller, 32, is the poster child of Trump’s post-impeachment retribution tour. In his mounting efforts to punish Republican apostates in next year’s midterms and to bolster his political sway for a potential run of his own in 2024, Trump has endorsed an array of supportive candidates in House, Senate and state-level races—but there’s nobody on the list like Miller. He’s not merely a loyalist—he’s a loyalist who worked on both Trump campaigns as well as in the White House and used proximity to the president to foster by all accounts an actual affinity and rapport. He’s not just one of Trump’s “Complete and Total” House endorsements—he was the first. And he’s pitted against one of the impeachment voters who galls Trump the most—in a state he won twice. While the statement that accompanied Trump’s late February endorsement called Miller “a wonderful person,” this rally on a sweltering summer Saturday marked a yet more full-throated and visual showing of his backing.

“An incredible patriot,” Trump said, “who I know very well.”

Maybe not well enough, according to police records, court records and interviews with more than 60 people. Ranging from people who grew up with Miller in the affluent Cleveland inner suburb of Shaker Heights to those he worked with and for in the White House and on Trump’s campaigns—some of whom were granted anonymity because they fear retaliation from Miller, Trump or both—these people told me Miller can be a cocky bully with a quick-trigger temper. He has a record of speeding, underage drinking and disorderly conduct—documented charges from multiple jurisdictions that include a previously unreported charge in 2011 for driving under the influence that he subsequently pleaded down to a more minor offense.

Not all of Trump’s endorsements are of dubious personalities, but it’s worth noting his associations with Paul Manafort, Roger “ratfucker” Stone, Ray Cohn, and many others who have had charges brought against them, convictions, and pardons.

And even when the endorsee appears to be clean, they may be vulnerable in other ways. Susan Wright, recently running to replace her late husband Ron Wright in a special election, had little exposure to the electorate, and while she was initially the favorite, polls eventually showed her behind. Trump endorsed her and bought advertising in the sum of $100,000 for her at the end.

The point is that she was vulnerable, and if she wins, Trump would claimed the credit and then expect her to be loyal – or else. Similarly, Trump associates with those with a dubious pasts. Not that reformation or redemption is impossible for them, but the fact that he is drawn to them as a group suggests not that he’s redeeming them, but that he’s building a group that isn’t a movement so much as collection of dependents. He knows the accusations and convictions against them, and these constitute a fulcrum with which he can leverage support.

Such an approach doesn’t lead to an ideologically coherent political movement; it’s reminiscent of a mob boss and his fellow criminals.

So for those looking forward to a renaissance in American politics deriving from Trump, forget it. This is all about ego, enrichment and building power.

And Wright lost her special election, and by quite a bit, to fellow Republican Jake Elzey. So much for the power of the Trump endorsement. Long time readers may remember other Trump endorsees who’ve lost. There’s no magic touch in Trump; indeed, it may be a noir moment for a candidate to receive a Trump endorsement.

Which makes Steve Benen’s comment today interesting:

* In Pennsylvania’s open U.S. Senate race, most Republicans are desperate to curry favor with Donald Trump, but political consultant Craig Snyder (R) kicked off his candidacy this week, running as an anti-Trump Republican. Snyder, among other things, created a political action committee in 2016 to support Hillary Clinton.

Will the currying continue? What happens if this Snyder wins the Republican nomination?

Utterly charming. Too bad about the resolution.

Quite lovely.

Pandiculation:

One thing is for sure: stretching feels good, particularly after a long spell of being still. We aren’t the only species to have worked this out. As anyone with a dog or cat will know, many animals take a deep stretch after lying around. This kind of stretching, called pandiculation, is so common in nature that some have suggested it evolved as a reflex to wake up the muscles after a spell of stillness. [“The lowdown on stretching: How flexible do you actually need to be?” Caroline Williams, NewScientist (17 July 2021, paywall)]

Decorpestration:

Well, maybe it’s made up. Noted in this video on art restoration.

A Heady Proposition – Part 1

From earlier this spring, a couple of lupine:

A day lily after a rain, but before blooming:

One hellacious weed, since pulled when it was up to my chin:

And literally right next to the weed – but out of frame above – are these, spurge and lungwort:

A nice break.

Businessman Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) won the GOP nomination for the governor’s race in Virginia this year. Given the mania for gun rights that pervades the GOP, this caught me by surprise:

The National Rifle Association [NRA] on Thursday declined to endorse Republican Glenn Youngkin in the Virginia governor’s race, even as it endorsed the two other candidates on the party’s statewide ticket.

The NRA issued endorsements for Winsome Sears, the GOP’s nominee for lieutenant governor, and Del. Jason Miyares of Virginia Beach, the party’s nominee for attorney general, both of whom had received top ratings from the gun lobbying group. The group was mum on Youngkin.

“On behalf of NRA members across the Commonwealth, @NRAPVF is proud to endorse @JasonMiyaresVA for attorney general and @WinsomeSears for lieutenant governor of Virginia,” the gun rights group said in a tweet Thursday afternoon, referring to the NRA Political Victory Fund.

Youngkin has so far declined to complete a candidate questionnaire issued by the advocacy group, which asks candidates questions on topics like banning assault weapons and limiting handgun purchases. Traditionally, the survey has been considered part of the NRA’s endorsement process, which, among other things, includes promotion among its grassroots network.

Youngkin’s campaign, reached for comment, did not directly address the NRA’s endorsement but said Youngkin “will work to make it harder for criminals to get guns.” [Richmond Times-Dispatch]

This goes along with Youngkin attempting to play the abortion issue very close to his vest; observers believe he’s trying to not alienate independent voters by displaying an extremist view he’s rumored – but not proven – to have.

Is this the same deal?

Or does the NRA have such strict requirements that Youngkin cannot meet them? He wants some common-sense rules that the NRA rejects?

I don’t think the Republicans are thought to have much of a chance at winning the Virginia governorship, but it’s still an interesting question. Could Youngkin lose – even lose big – without an NRA endorsement? What does it say if he keeps it respectable without the help of the NRA?

Does the NRA begin to fade into irrelevance, a victim of its own extreme positions?

A rare opportunity or perhaps just a joke:

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A post shared by Dan Bailey (@danbaileymt)

George P. Bush is son of former Governor Jeb Bush (R-FL) and nephew to President Bush (R). He’s running for Texas Attorney General, and, after Trump basically spat on his family, his campaign, in seeking former President Trump’s blessing, issued this back in early June, which I regret missing:

I missed out on the @georgepbush swag yesterday: The koozie says "this is the only Bush that likes me. This is the Bush that got it right. I like him" – Donald Trump #txlege pic.twitter.com/pFTzQCmoRG

— Scott Braddock (@scottbraddock) June 3, 2021

And did it work?

No.

Former President Donald Trump on Monday threw his support behind Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, who is being challenged for re-election in a primary by George P. Bush, the son of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. [NBC News]

Paxton, the author of the lawsuit Texas v Pennsylvania, which SCOTUS refused to even consider, also happens to be under multiple indictments for various bits of alleged corruption. So Bush is the bride left at the altar in favor of the alleged criminal who sucked up to Trump more than Bush did.

Or was at least considered more corrupt and, therefore, malleable.

I fear it makes me laugh, but in a cringey way, knowing that some people are so desperate for power they’ll risk all their self-respect for it.

Sort of like my favorite lickspittle.

Josh Marshall on TPM comments on former President Trump’s demand that the infrastructure deal being negotiated in the US Senate be scrapped:

Blah blah blah. Whatever. I don’t know how much impact this will have on [the] infrastructure deal. As I’ve argued earlier, the Dems approach to this seems, rightly, that they want Republicans to join but will move along without them. What this signals more is Trump’s role in the 2022 midterm.

Trump will not only intervene to push his issues to the forefront and maintain his own dominance of the GOP. He’ll also intervene just to undermine any potential rival power centers in the party.

Right. And it’s important to note that this is a form of exclusionary intolerance – My way or the highway, as a slogan from Trump’s era said.

His base will stick with him. At this point, the serious politicians, which is to say those that understand that governance is a serious business, have mostly leaked away, as has that part of the base with a conscience. This includes people such as former Representatives Amash and Walsh, who are themselves notably far-right conservatives, but NeverTrumpers as well. There are, of course, a few NeverTrumpers, like Representatives Cheney and Kinzinger, still in the ranks – but the state-level GOP parties seem intent on liquidating them as well.

So the Republican Party’s adherence to Trump will continue at eye-popping levels.

But the independents will continue move away from the Republican Party. The right-of-center members will vote, when possible, for former moderate Republicans who have turned independent, or centrist Democrats who decry, for better or worse, certain left-wing Democrat policies. Or they may not vote at all.

But the narcissism of Trump will damage, and possibly even destroy, the Republican Party as a national force. That selfish urge to control everything alienates voters who might otherwise agree with his policies, so long as announcements such as yesterday’s become public. Why? Because it becomes apparent that the policies they agree with are merely accidents of Trump’s selfish needs of the moment. They are not the children of rational approaches to the difficult questions of governance, but rather the foul brood of Trump’s narcissistic urges.

And the latter can change on a moment’s notice for reasons unintelligible.

Wise voters don’t vote for such people or their entourage, by whom I mean such names as Gohmert, Gaetz, Greene, and oh so many more. Yes men people are merely enablers of deeply untrustworthy leaders, and should be distrusted by voters.

And so Trump’s frantic need for control will result in so much squeezing of Jello. He may gain complete control of the Republican Party, but it’ll be a Party which has lessened in real influence. Only its voter suppression strategies may keep it relevant in some states.