Replies to post #46941 on Franklin, Andrews, Kramer & Edelstein

[BullNBear52]

Fauci was right. We now have 2 Americas.

[scion]

Trump told chief of staff Hitler ‘did a lot of good things’, book says

* Remark shocked John Kelly, author Michael Bender reports

* Book details former president’s ‘stunning disregard for history’

Martin Pengelly in Washington
@MartinPengelly
Wed 7 Jul 2021 01.00 EDT
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jul/06/donald-trump-hitler-michael-bender-book

On a visit to Europe to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of the first world war, Donald Trump insisted to his then chief of staff, John Kelly: “Well, Hitler did a lot of good things.”

The remark from the former US president on the 2018 trip, which reportedly “stunned” Kelly, a retired US Marine Corps general, is reported in a new book by Michael Bender of the Wall Street Journal.

Frankly, We Did Win This Election has been widely trailed ahead of publication next week. The Guardian obtained a copy.

Bender reports that Trump made the remark during an impromptu history lesson in which Kelly “reminded the president which countries were on which side during the conflict” and “connected the dots from the first world war to the second world war and all of Hitler’s atrocities”.

Bender is one of a number of authors to have interviewed Trump since he was ejected from power.

He reports that Trump denied making the remark about Hitler.

But Bender says unnamed sources reported that Kelly “told the president that he was wrong, but Trump was undeterred”, emphasizing German economic recovery under Hitler during the 1930s.

“Kelly pushed back again,” Bender writes, “and argued that the German people would have been better off poor than subjected to the Nazi genocide.”

Bender adds that Kelly told Trump that even if his claim about the German economy under the Nazis after 1933 were true, “you cannot ever say anything supportive of Adolf Hitler. You just can’t.”

Trump ran into considerable trouble on the centennial trip to Europe, even beyond his usual conflicts with other world leaders.

A decision to cancel a visit to an American cemetery proved controversial. Trump was later reported to have called American soldiers who died in the war “losers” and “suckers”.

Kelly, whose son was killed in Afghanistan in 2010, left the White House in early 2019. He has spoken critically of Trump since, reportedly telling friends the president he served was “the most flawed person I have ever met in my life”.

Bender writes that Kelly did his best to overcome Trump’s “stunning disregard for history”.

“Senior officials described his understanding of slavery, Jim Crow, or the Black experience in general post-civil war as vague to nonexistent,” he writes. “But Trump’s indifference to Black history was similar to his disregard for the history of any race, religion or creed.”

Concern over the rise of the far right in the US grew during Trump’s time in power and continues, as he maintains a grip on a Republican party determined to obstruct investigations of the deadly 6 January assault on the US Capitol by supporters seeking to overturn his election defeat.

Trump has made positive remarks about far-right and white supremacist groups.

During a presidential debate in 2020, Trump was asked if he would denounce white supremacists and militia groups. He struggled with the answer and eventually told the far-right Proud Boys group to “stand back and stand by”.

In 2017, in the aftermath of a neo-Nazi march in Virginia which earned supportive remarks from Trump, the German magazine Stern used on its cover an illustration of Trump giving a Nazi salute while wrapped in the US flag. Its headline: “Sein kampf” – his struggle.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jul/06/donald-trump-hitler-michael-bender-book

[scion]

FBI infiltrates group whose members wanted to test homemade bombs, surveil Capitol, secede from US, court records show

By Hannah Rabinowitz and Katelyn Polantz, CNN
Updated 1248 GMT (2048 HKT) July 7, 2021
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/07/politics/capitol-riot-bible-study-group-fbi-virginia/index.html

(CNN)The FBI has infiltrated a "Bible study" group in Virginia that after the January 6 riot had members discussing surveilling the US Capitol and their wish for secession from the US, and investigators closely followed one member's plans to build and test Molotov cocktails, according to recently unsealed court records.

The startling new case, landing six months after the pro-Trump insurrection, adds to the more than 500 Capitol riot federal criminal cases already in court and fleshes out what's known about the Justice Department's understanding of the continued interests of right-wing extremists to allegedly interfere with the US government and discuss with each other how to do so. The new case highlights one group member's apparent interest in a second American civil war.

The newly disclosed criminal case against Virginia man Fi Duong -- who also goes by "Monkey King" and "Jim," according to the court record -- arose after Duong interacted with undercover law enforcement officers several times on January 6 and into recent months, when the FBI ultimately gained access to his group in Virginia then accompanied him to an old jail as Duong allegedly pursued bomb-building.

Law enforcement's undercover interactions with Duong and his contacts since January are laid out in a 14-page statement from the FBI filed in court in recent days to support his arrest and initial charges.

January 6 charges

Duong was arrested last week, after the Justice Department charged him with four federal crimes, including entering the restricted grounds of the Capitol and obstruction of an official proceeding related to his alleged participation in the siege on January 6, according to his court record.

On January 6 in downtown Washington, Duong spoke with an undercover Metropolitan Police officer, according to his charging papers. Duong was dressed in black, in an alleged effort to disguise himself as the leftist group antifa, investigators say. During the conversation, Duong asked the undercover officer if they were a "patriot," and identified himself as an "operator," according to FBI records supporting his arrest.

As the riot progressed, the undercover officer saw him again, kneeling by a marble fence on a terrace of the Capitol -- an area that was normally restricted, according to court records. Investigators say Duong also videotaped himself inside the Capitol and was captured on the building's cameras wearing a white mask shaped like a wide grin.
The charges Duong faces are minor compared with what other right-wing extremists have faced for their alleged roles in the insurrection. He has not yet been formally indicted, and his charges could be expanded or rewritten in the coming weeks.

He has not been charged with crimes related to any post-January 6 conduct, including the alleged bomb planning.

Duong's attorney declined to comment on Tuesday.

He has not yet entered a plea.

FBI connects with group

In mid-January, an undercover agent from the FBI made contact with Duong, who was a member of a secretive "loosely affiliated, unnamed group of like-minded individuals" in Virginia, according to court records made public on Tuesday describing the additional allegations against him.

Though Duong put a member of the militia-like extremist group the Three Percenters in contact with his group, the FBI noted in court, his group appeared to exist separately from any known major groups previously identified as taking part in the Capitol riot.

Duong added the FBI agent to one of the group's encrypted chats, then the agent attended one of the group's meetings with Duong and other group members, according to the FBI.

"For me, right now, my goal is in building the infrastructure first, to then building up the individuals that will compose of this, perhaps long after I'm gone," investigators say Duong told the undercover FBI agent in March. He also said he had written a "manifesto," the court record says.
"If I get into a gun fight with the feds and I don't make it, I want to be able to transfer as much wisdom to my son as possible," investigators noted him saying, according to a court filing.

'Bible study' group

Duong told the FBI agent that his group tried to be "cloak and dagger" and wanted to "build resistances," according to court records. The agent then attended what the group members called a "Bible study" meeting at an Alexandria, Virginia, house in February, where the group members discussed the Bible and secession, weaponry and combat training, and using methods to make their communications private, according to court records.

One person in the group commented at the meeting about creating "a semi-autonomous region" for Virginia. "I like the Constitution; I don't like the Democratic sh*t this region keeps voting for," the person said, according to the FBI.

In early February, Duong and associates began to use encrypted messages to discuss gathering intelligence on the restricted zone that the National Guard had established around the Capitol, according to the FBI.
One group member, identified in court records as "Associate 1," said he took video of Capitol entrances and would share it over an encrypted messaging app. He later claimed to have deleted the video but said that Duong had a copy, according to the charging documents.
"How do we feel about an Intel run around the Capitol tonight?" the FBI said the person wrote. "Fewer of them out. Posture may be lowered. Good opportunity to expose weaknesses."

Collecting weapons

Duong had compiled a cache of weapons at his home in Alexandria, investigators say, including an AK-47 and five boxes full of materials to make and test Molotov cocktails.

At one group meeting at Duong's house in May, the undercover agent saw five cardboard boxes filled with about 50 glass bottles, and heard him and another person discuss what they could fill them with to make explosives, according to the court papers.

The agent later asked Duong more about the Molotov
cocktails and his plans for them, keeping tabs on interest he had in testing them. Places they discussed included a rock quarry in West Virginia, Duong's backyard or at a former prison in Virginia, according to the court record.

Ultimately, Duong and the undercover FBI agent met another undercover agent in mid-June at the former prison to discuss testing homemade bombs, the FBI wrote in its statement supporting Duong's arrest. Duong asked them about holding training at the site, too, according to the FBI.

"Give it about another three weeks," Duong told one of the undercover agents, as they were leaving the jail site, about his plans for testing. "Money's really tight right now. I gotta have a few boring weekends, stay at home and no do sh*t."

Later that day, Duong riffed to the undercover FBI agent about the cost of peace versus standing one's ground.

"We're not a point where people are out in the street rioting. It's coming soon. I'd give it about another six weeks...whatever supplies you can get now, get 'em now," Duong told the undercover FBI agent as they left the old jail, according to the court record.

Duong appeared for the first time last Friday in federal court in DC. A judge released him from detention, after the Justice Department agreed he could be released, according to his court record.

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/07/politics/capitol-riot-bible-study-group-fbi-virginia/index.html

[scion]

Mitch McConnell, naked and afraid

Opinion by Dana Milbank Columnist
July 9, 2021|Updated yesterday at 4:38 p.m. EDT
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/07/09/mcconnell-biden-desert-island/

On rare occasions, Mitch McConnell can summon the ability to mimic human emotions.

Ten days ago, for example, the Senate Republican leader was asked, at a Chamber of Commerce event, to imagine: “You’re stranded on a desert island and you can only have one companion. Your choices are Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton or Jimmy Carter. Who do you choose?

McConnell had little hesitation. “Biden and I did four bipartisan deals during the Obama administration. I consider him a personal friend,” he said. “I was the only Republican who went to his son Beau’s funeral. So that would be an easy choice. I think Biden is a first-rate person.”

McConnell’s desert-island answer gave me the unfortunate mental image of the two septuagenarians competing together on Discovery’s reality TV show “Naked and Afraid,” in which an unclothed pair are dropped in the wilderness for 21 days with only one survival item apiece. For reasons of good taste, I picture our contestants clothed: marooned Biden wearing Ray-Bans and shirtsleeves and marooned McConnell in pinstriped suit. Biden’s survival item is a cup for boiling water. McConnell’s survival item is a filibuster. Instead of squabbling over campsite placement, they’re bickering about covid relief.

That’s just what our two castaways did this week. At an event in his home state, McConnell complained about Biden’s “wildly out of proportion” $2 trillion American Rescue Plan — while in the same breath mentioning what a boon it will be for Kentucky: “Not a single member of my party voted for it,” he said. “I didn’t vote for it. But you’re going to get a lot more money. Cities and counties in Kentucky are getting close to seven or 800 million dollars. If you add up the total amount that’ll come into our state, $4 billion, that’s twice what we sent in last year.”

I hate this windfall that will be so awesome for my constituents!

McConnell’s struggle for coherence prompted Biden to needle his desert-island pal. “Mitch McConnell loves our programs,” he teased. “He’s bragging about it in Kentucky.”

The confusion isn’t limited to covid relief. McConnell takes every opportunity to undermine this “first-rate person” and “personal friend” — both politically and personally.

McConnell waited more than five weeks before acknowledging Biden’s victory, allowing Donald Trump and his allies to delegitimize Biden — and the election — in the eyes of tens of millions of Trump supporters. McConnell didn’t speak up because he wanted Republicans to win Senate runoffs in Georgia. “Look, we need the president in Georgia and so we cannot be frontally attacking him right now,” McConnell told the attorney general, according to Jonathan Karl of ABC News.

McConnell withheld support for the new Senate’s organizing resolution for weeks, delaying consideration of his friend Biden’s nominees.

Asked about Trump’s election lies, McConnell instead attacked his friend. “One hundred percent of my focus is on stopping this new administration,” he said, also tagging friend Biden with the “socialist” moniker.

McConnell vowed to fight the covid relief legislation “in every way that we can.” He filibustered bipartisan legislation to create a commission to examine the Jan. 6 insurrection. He filibustered equal-pay legislation requiring employers to show that they don’t discriminate against women. He filibustered voting rights legislation and upended bipartisan talks on legislation to address police brutality.

He has so far failed to endorse bipartisan infrastructure legislation, while saying he would wage a “hell of a fight” if Democrats go it alone.

And he stands by as his staff portrays Biden as senile. McConnell aides “have taken to describing the White House chief of staff as ‘Prime Minister Klain,’” the Hill reported, attempting “to undercut public perception of Biden as a leader who is totally with it.”

With friends like these …

McConnell is not a man you’d want in your foxhole — or on your desert island. But his treachery would make for good television. I propose a “Naked and Afraid” spinoff: "In the Swamp.”

Episode One: Biden erects a tent. McConnell knocks it down. Biden builds a hut. McConnell burns it down. Biden digs a shelter in the ground. McConnell fills it with scorpions and snakes.

Episode Two: The survivalists go fishing. Biden spears a fish. Biden goes foraging for kindling to cook the fish but returns to discover that McConnell has eaten the whole fish raw. McConnell blames Biden for his upset stomach.

Episode Three: McConnell introduces Biden to an orangutan he has befriended with blaze-orange fur. The orangutan destroys their camp, eats all their food, contaminates their water supply, then attacks the Discovery camera crew. But McConnell tells Biden he cannot stop the orangutan because there is a Senate runoff in Georgia.

Episode Four: Biden “taps out” and calls for a helicopter evacuation. McConnell, chased by the orangutan, clambers aboard, too. The men have survived only three days together. Each ends with a PSR (Primitive Survival Rating) score of zero.


Opinion by Dana Milbank
Dana Milbank is an opinion columnist for The Washington Post. He sketches the foolish, the fallacious and the felonious in politics. Twitter
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/07/09/mcconnell-biden-desert-island/

[scion]

Congressman Andrew Clyde – who was photographed barricading the House of Representatives chamber – told a hearing that, based on TV footage, “you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit”. His colleague Louie Gohmert added: “I just want the president to understand. There have been things worse than people without any firearms coming into a building.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jul/06/republicans-effort-to-deny-the-capitol-attack-is-working-and-its-dangerous

Bryan Smith @bryrsmith · May 18

Andrew Clyde (@rep_clyde ), the person screaming at the far left of this photo, is the person who recently likened the brutal, wildly out of control, deadly violent Jan. 6 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol to overthrow the will of the people, to a "normal tourist visit."

Andrew Clyde (@rep_clyde), the person screaming at the far left of this photo, is the person who recently likened the brutal, wildly out of control, deadly violent Jan. 6 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol to overthrow the will of the people, to a "normal tourist visit." pic.twitter.com/bs4twxu1lZ

— Bryan Smith 🇺🇸 🇺🇦 (@bryrsmith) May 18, 2021