There are multiple stories to report on for today. The first one is from HCR's blog, which points out that the Jim Crow Party is still tilting at windmills, but is getting plenty of blowback now from the new Attorney General. Then there is a matter of concern about a business model that Jeff Bezos has built into his Amazon company. You might recall that Upton Sinclair published a book in 1905 - The Jungle - which exposed how immigrants were employed and swallowed up into the dangerous, unhealthy, and deadly meat packing industry. Not quite as disturbing, Amazon has built itself into the largest retailing giant, using the latest and greatest logistical success in marketing and delivering products. However great it may be, the employees who do the grunt work of unloading and loading, picking and stowing merchandise for the wonders of robotics to perform are kind of in the same boat of those who were abused over a century ago - but in a different style. If you do not have access to the NY Times, you are missing this article by Pulitzer Prize journalist Jodi Kantor, but you can get a peek at it with this interview with Rachel Maddow and Jodi Kantor. The Times article is very long, but full of information.

June 15, 2021

Heather Cox Richardson

Jun 16

This morning, the Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released a series of emails and documents that show just how hard former president Trump worked to overturn the 2020 election and retain an illegal grip on power.

On December 14, 2020, which was the day electors in each state certified the votes of the Electoral College, then-president Trump's assistant wrote an email to then–Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen talking about alleged voter fraud in Michigan. The email was titled "From POTUS"—that is, from the President of the United States—and it included a long list of talking points to offer about why the votes should not be certified. That email had a number of documents that allegedly proved voter fraud.

Minutes after that email went out, another Justice Department official, Richard Donoghue, sent the same documents to the U.S. Attorneys for the Eastern and Western Districts of Michigan. Forty minutes later, then-president Trump tweeted that Attorney General William Barr would be stepping down and would be replaced by Rosen. Donoghue would become Rosen's deputy.

On December 29, then-president Trump's assistant emailed Rosen, Donoghue, and Acting Solicitor General Jeffrey Wall with a draft of a legal brief to file in the Supreme Court. It demanded that the court declare that the Electoral College votes of six states—ones that Trump lost—"cannot be counted" and asked the court to order a redo of the election in those states.

From then on, Trump and his aides, including White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, repeatedly pressured officials at the Department of Justice to overturn the election results. Meadows forwarded information suggesting, among other things, that Italians changed U.S. votes through satellite technology and that Trump clearly won the election. Their complaints were so far-fetched that Rosen and Donoghue referred to them as "Pure insanity."

And yet, the Big Lie that Trump won the 2020 election continues to poison our country. On January 6, that lie led Trump's supporters to try to stop the counting of the certified electoral votes by storming the Capitol and threatening the lawmakers there. Just hours after the insurrection, 147 Republicans voted to challenge the election results.

And some of them remain firmly in the camp of the Big Lie, now downplaying the events of January 6. Today, 21 House Republicans voted against awarding the Congressional Gold Medal, Congress's highest award, to all the law enforcement officers who protected the Capitol on January 6. The measure passed with 406 lawmakers of both parties voting in favor. Republican Adam Kinzinger of Illinois said to those voting no: "How you can vote no to this is beyond me."

But some have gone further in challenging the seriousness of the attack on the Capitol. Today at a hearing of the House Oversight Committee, a number of the Republicans spent their time expressing concern for the insurrectionists. Representative Glenn Grothman (R-WI) suggested that as many as 1000 of the people in the Capitol on January 6 were tourists who had wandered into the building inadvertently (the Capitol was closed to tourists because of the pandemic). Representative Paul Gosar (R-AZ) argued that the Capitol police officers were "lying in wait" for Ashli Babbitt, who was shot as she tried to break into a secure area. According to Gosar's construction, Babbitt was "executed" by police. He demanded to know the name of the officer involved in the shooting.

Today, Attorney General Merrick Garland released the nation's first ever National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism. It emphasized that the Department of Justice would seek to prevent violence, not protected expression, and would be evenhanded: "The definition of 'domestic terrorism' in our law makes no distinction based on political views—left, right, or center—and neither should we," it said. The plan calls for streamlined information sharing among law enforcement officials, a focus on the transnational elements of domestic terrorism, an effort to reduce access to recruitment materials and weapons, and screening of government employees—including military and law enforcement—before hiring to make sure they do not harbor illegal and violent views.

The new plan also takes a longer view, saying that conquering our long tradition of domestic terrorism will require tackling racism, gun violence, and mass murders. Ending domestic terrorism means paying better attention to mental health and creating "the type of civics education that promotes tolerance and respect for all and investing in policies and programs that foster civic engagement and inspire a shared commitment to American democracy." And, the document continues, "it means ensuring that there is simply no governmental tolerance—and instead denunciation and rejection—of violence as an acceptable mode of seeking political or social change."

Also today, Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, the third ranking Republican in the Senate, told a right-wing society that he wants to make President Biden "a one-half-term president" by retaking power in Congress in 2022 and blocking Biden's agenda.

The president is in Europe, of course, but his spokesperson Andrew Bates illustrated that the administration intends to move beyond the Trump loyalists. In a statement, Bates said: "The President looks forward to continuing to deliver for the American people, continuing to make government work for them again, and continuing to bring our country together—after having reduced cases of the worst public health crisis in over a century by more than 90%, signed historic economic legislation that helped fuel unprecedented job growth for any administration's first 100 days in office, protected Americans' health care, and restored our leadership and competitiveness in the world."

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