No accountability, no peace. Just the way that GOPs want it

With the rising anger in the country over the last week, I am reminded of this excellent series of tweets by Pro Publica writer Alec MacGinnis at the end of last year.

The decade started with the failure to hold to account the finance connivers who brought about the Great Recession, a failure that fueled both the Republican sweep of the 2010 midterms and Trump's election. See @noamscheiber's “Escape Artists” & @eisingerj's “Chickenshit Club.”

— Alec MacGillis (@AlecMacGillis) December 29, 2019

In 2016, Mitch McConnell smashed norms by refusing to even hold a hearing for Merrick Garland. Not only did McConnell get away with this, the gambit played a huge role in electing Trump, by giving wary religious conservatives a reason to vote for him. For more, see “The Cynic.”

— Alec MacGillis (@AlecMacGillis) December 29, 2019

Now add "cops who kill Americans and don't get held to account." Also add in the corporations who took on massive debt in the late 2010s, got a huge tax cut from Trump/GOP, and then immediately got trillions in bailout money as soon as the economy tanked this March.

And certainly add in a president who illegally impounded hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to Ukraine, and held it as ransom for political favors, along with the too-numerous-to-count examples of using government to pad the pockets of himself, his family, and his donors. He was allowed to get away with it because GOP Senators like Ron Johnson are also hooked up with this crookedness, and allowing the president to avoid accountability allows them to avoid that same accountability.

Some people rightfully have had enough of this two-tier society, where the connected can do whatever they want while the rest of us have to battle just to stay stable. But as I've watched some of the fires and looting in the Twin Cities this week, my heart sank, as I knew it would give a reason for far too many would ignore the unacceptable inequalities that led to these awful outcomes.

But I also smelt a rat. It was so tactically wrong to vandalize and damage communities, that I immediately suspected it wasn't people who wanted justice for George Floyd. And sure enough, we're seeing Minnesota's public officials explicitly are saying today that there is ratfucking going on.

Remarkable info coming out of this presser: Gov. Tim Walls, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter and now MN attorney general Keith Ellison ALL alleging outside forces, domestic and possibly foreign, have post-Tuesday infiltrated the state, and are

— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) May 30, 2020

Also, the national conversation is continuing to focus on George Floyd and racial injustice. Let me be clear: that’s important but it isn’t what Minnesotans are talking about right now. They’re wondering why white men with Wisconsin plates are setting fires in residential areas.

— Will Stancil (@whstancil) May 30, 2020

Planting right wing Wisconsinites in a crowd of protestors who were taking away people's rights? Why does this sound familiar?

Oh yeah, this phone call. Around the 4:30 mark.


This is who today's GOPs are, and they have lost the benefit of the doubt. Especially with Trump 11 points underwater in the polls and the GOP heading toward a big loss in November. Those guys absolutely would try to cause problems to make the public fearful, and lead enough weak white people to support Republicans out of resentment against those who back social justice.

House Democrats in both Minnesota and DC need to be having hearings identifying who these vandals are, and who's giving the order for them to travel to hotspots to cause violence and chaos. We also need to ID the politicians that are giving those vandals a wink and a nod. And we can't afford to wait until November to make the bad guys feel consequences for the mess of a country that they have left us in.

Be smart, and be watchful.