GOP Oregon State Rep Welcomes Expulsion, Future ‘Jeopardy!’ Fame
Yep, more shocking news about soon-to-be-former Rep. Mike Nearman.
After video emerged that appeared to show Oregon state Rep. Mike Nearman giving tips on how angry protesters could breach the state Capitol last December with his help — which he then gave! — his fellow Republican House members signed a letter that “strongly recommends" he GTFO. It wasn't just a couple Adam Kinzingers, either, but every Republican in the chamber.
"Given the newest evidence that has come to light regarding the events of December 21, 2020, it is our belief as friends and colleagues that it is in the best interests of your caucus, your family, yourself, and the state of Oregon for you to step down from office," the letter states.
In the December 16 video, Nearman discussed a so-called “Operation Hall Pass," where someone would grant people protesting anti-COVID-19 restrictions access to the Capitol if they called a random selection of digits that happen to be his cell phone number. Surveillance video from December 21 showed Nearman leaving through a locked door and allowing far-Right demonstrators to enter the Capitol. They clashed with State Police, who claimed that "a protester sprayed some kind of chemical irritant."
Nearman was charged in April with first-degree official misconduct and second-degree criminal trespass. Democratic House Speaker Tina Kotek has demanded Nearman's resignation since January but after seeing the "Operation Hall Pass" video, she introduced a resolution that would officially send him packing.
“The severity of Representative Nearman's actions and last week's revelation that they were premeditated require a special committee to immediately consider expelling him from the House of Representatives," Kotek said. "He knowingly put the physical safety of everyone in the Capitol – lawmakers, staff and law enforcement – in jeopardy. As we saw in January at the U.S. Capitol, the ramifications could have been dire if law enforcement had not stepped in so quickly. This is an unprecedented situation facing the Legislature. It is beyond a workplace conduct issue and must be treated as such."
Expulsion requires a two-thirds vote in the House. Democrats hold 37 seats so they'd need three Republicans to also say, “Hasta la vista, baby." That's not a big stretch now that the entire GOP caucus has cut bait on Nearman. He's not too worried about it, though, and even admitted to conservative radio host Lars Larson that he'd planned to allow people into the Capitol, presumably on some sort of high-minded, insurrection-related principle. He acknowledged that Kotek has the votes to expel him, but he's already looking on the bright side.
Nearman noted that no House member has been expelled in state history, and seemed to indicate he'd allow an expulsion vote to occur. "Someday you're gonna be watching 'Jeopardy' and somebody's gonna say, 'Who is Mike Nearman?' And that's gonna be the right answer," Nearman said.
We're all very proud of you, Mike.
Back in February, the House Conduct Committee determined that Democratic state Rep. Diego Hernandez had violated legislative harassment rules. Hernandez resigned in March rather than face a likely successful expulsion vote. He apparently is not a fan of "Jeopardy!"
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Noted Crackpot Naomi Wolf To Headline ‘Juneteenth’ Anti-Vax Freedom Fest
Yes, this is as offensive as it sounds.
Conspiracy theorist and all-around weirdo Naomi Wolf is a featured guest at an upcoming fundraiser called “Liberate Our Five Freedoms." The five freedoms, which when combined can form a blazing sword, are listed on promotional material as “No Mask Mandates, No Vaccine Passports, Freedom Of Assembly, Open Schools Now, and No Emergency Law."
The event is scheduled for June 19, which is also Juneteenth, the day that marks the end of US slavery (more or less — those prisons won't fill themselves, after all). Obviously, other things have happened on June 19. It's Paula Abdul's birthday. It's when 1992's Batman Returns starring Michelle Pfeiffer and some other people was released in theaters. There's a lot to celebrate, and Black people aren't territorial. However, the event specifically states that it's taking place on Juneteenth, because these people are assholes.
Organizer Kathryn Levin told journalist Eoin Higgins that scheduling the event on Juneteenth was deliberate and appropriate. That's her opinion, which she is free to have because she's not literally a slave.
"The 19th is a day of emancipation, and it's a day when we claim our freedom," said Levin. "It's when we see that we are not slaves to mandate. It's when we take our power back."
On June 19, 1865, General Gordon Granger informed enslaved people in Texas that they were free. Technically, President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation had already outlawed slavery in secessionist states effective January 1, 1863, so Black Texans had been “free" for more than two years already. It was like the “hilarious" ending to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. There was no Twitter in those days, and news took a while to reach remote parts of the country. Also, as with today, the federal government must enforce Black people's rights in Southern states or it's all just academic.
If Levin and her fellow flakes had to wait another two and a half years before learning the pandemic was (almost) over, she might have cause to lean into the Juneteenth comparison. Instead, she just considers herself oppressed because Trader Joe's wants her to wear a mask while she's shopping.
Enslaved Black people endured centuries of white Americans' brutal whims, which included psychological torture and rape. Higgins asked Levin how she could possibly compare this to "the temporary restrictions over the last 15 months due to the pandemic," which were admittedly a minor inconvenience.
"We have been enslaved by our government," she replied.
No, ma'am, you have not “been enslaved by the government." You just have to wear a mask on an airplane. My ancestors would've eagerly worn any number of masks if that meant no longer being a slave. They'd have gone full Zorro with the cape and all that shit. It seems like Kathryn Levin has no clue what slavery was actually like, but I am happy to educate her. I could spend the rest of my life running a Slavery Fantasy Camp For White People Who Can't Metaphor Good.
Naomi Wolf was banned from Twitter last week after months of spreading misinformation about COVID-19. She'd recently tweeted that vaccinated people's urine and feces needed to be separated from the general sewage system ... for reasons. She'd also claimed that the vaccines are a “software platform that can receive uploads," which is both bizarre and false. She'd also compared Dr. Anthony Fauci to Satan, but that just makes her a common Republican.
Wolf was once an adviser to both Al Gore and former President Bill Clinton, but I doubt either would take her phone calls now. She's likened vaccine passports to population separation efforts in Nazi Germany. She's nuts is what she is, so she's a fitting headliner for Kathryn Levin's insulting hyperbole festival.
[Substack]
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New Texas History GOP-Tested, Fox News-Approved
These assholes just keep proving why we needed ‘The 1619 Project.'
Conservatives keep walking into racist rakes with their ongoing backlash to The 1619 Project, which suggested that slavery played a significant part in American history. Monday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed a law establishing an "1836 Project" that would promote “patriotic education" instead of The 1619 Project's more divisive “education." The state has already banned the teaching of The 1619 Project.
You can educate people or you can promote "patriotic education" but you can't do both.— Adam Serwer 🍝 (@Adam Serwer 🍝)1623102610.0
Abbott tweeted yesterday:
To keep Texas the best state in the nation, we can never forget WHY our state is so exceptional.
I signed a law establishing the 1836 project, which promotes patriotic education & ensures future generations understand TX values.
Together, we'll keep our rich history alive.
No, it seems like Abbott and Rep. Tan Parker, who filed the bill, want to keep Texas's rich history filled with lies.
They claim the 1836 Project is named after the year Texas gained its independence from Mexico. What really happened is that an increasingly large population of American settlers waged an armed rebellion against the centralist Mexican government. Immigration to Texas was opened to Americans in 1820 and by 1835 there were 10 times more Americans than Mexicans in Texas. Mexico should've built a wall.
A major catalyst for the Texas Revolution was — you guessed it! — slavery. The Texas economy was dependent on cotton, which was only profitable when enslaved people picked it for free. Vicente Guerrero, then president of the Republic of Mexico, declared that all enslaved people were emancipated, and those were fighting words for Anglo settlers.
From Texas Monthly:
"We are ruined forever should this measure be adopted," wrote John Durst, a prominent landowner and politician. Stephen F. Austin replied, "I am the owner of one slave only, an old decrepit woman, not worth much, but in this matter I should feel that my constitutional rights as a Mexican were just as much infringed, as they would be if I had a thousand."
Stephen F. Austin is known as the “Father of Texas" and the founder of “Anglo Texas" because of his successful “colonization" of the region. By 1825, he'd brought 300 families to the territory. Several Texas schools and colleges, and of course the state capital, are named after Austin. However, that “old decrepit woman" he enslaved had an inherent value even if he failed to recognize it. (Also, can you imagine how old a Black woman is if she actually looks old? Even under the brutal conditions of slavery, this poor, enslaved woman could've been over 100. White people are kinder to elderly dogs.)
Anglo Texans found cruel workarounds to Mexico's slavery ban. Before crossing into Mexican Texas, white Americans would meet with a notary public, who'd give the people they held in bondage a specific value. Even if the enslaved person gained their freedom once they entered Mexican Texas, they would now how to pay off the debt they “owed" to the sorry-ass excuse for a human who'd enslaved them. They were now a prisoner of their former “master." The costs for food, clothing, and housing were deducted from their measly wages of $20 a year (about $540 today). The debt was more oppressive than the worst student loan, and when they died, their children inherited the massive debt and the same horrific conditions.
These are the people Texas history books claim fought Mexico for their independence.
After defeating Mexico, the new Republic of Texas created a constitution that was a precursor to what the future Confederate states would attempt when they seceded in 1861. The Republic's constitution "protected slavery in no uncertain terms, much beyond what the U.S. Constitution did," according to University of North Texas historian Andrew Torget. The 1836 constitution prevented the Republic's congress from passing any law that would negatively affect slavery. Free Black people in Texas were considered a threat to the barbaric institution because enslaved people might try to escape. The history of slavery and America in general consists of Black people saying, “Please, God, no!" and white people saying, “But think about our profit margins!"
Last October, Texas Monthly writer Emily McMullar detailed how the Texas history taught to children is a pernicious myth that "erases the stories of Black and Hispanic Texans." Even the “Old 300" moniker for Austin's settlers ignores the enslaved people they brought with them from Alabama, Louisiana, Missouri, and Tennessee. The 1836 Project is just more of the same, but as Fox Mulder once said, “You can't bury the truth." As long as I'm alive, I'll keep telling Americans the truth about them to their face.
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It’s Not Against The Law To Protect Democracy From Republicans
The republic will survive Democrats not getting their asses kicked on the regular.
When Senate Republicans laughed in Democrats' faces last year and confirmed Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, breaking their own new rule about Supreme Court confirmations in election years (that they never actually believed), Chuck Schumer warned that nothing would be “off the table" in 2021. Barrett's drive-through confirmation was supposed to “radicalize" Democrats, but here it's June and Democrats are about as radical as Mrs. Cleaver. Democrats theoretically control the Senate, but moderate Democrats such as Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin still want to find "bipartisan consensus" with GOP gangsters.
After Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death (and months before the GOP enabled repeated assaults on democracy), Wonkette declared that "It's time to reach down deep inside and find the inner strength to be bigger motherfuckers than we ever have. America's survival as a free and democratic nation depends on it." We don't expect Democrats to read all our posts, but that was an important one. We don't have to be thugs like the GOP -- and we shouldn't commit crimes -- but we shouldn't be chumps, either. There's a happy medium where Democrats don't just let Republicans run off with our democracy without leaving a forwarding address.
However, folks still insist on Democrats playing nice. Take this Twitter thread from lawyer Teri Kanefield, which implies that Democrats must continue getting our asses kicked for the sake of democracy.
For Democracy and rule of law to survive, at least one side has to use democratic means. If Democrats also break… https://t.co/XdoYs6thSm— Teri Kanefield (@Teri Kanefield)1622992438.0
KANEFIELD: Here's the problem. The Republicans are trying to destroy democracy, so they are breaking rules and cheating. For Democracy and rule of law to survive, at least one side has to use democratic means. If Democrats also break rules and cheat, this would mean both sides are torpedoing democracy. This would make it true that "both sides are the same."
Kanefield is probably much smarter than I am — almost everyone is — but this doesn't make any sense. Yes, Republicans are "trying to destroy democracy" (and succeeding!), but not everything they're doing is “breaking rules and cheating." They're corrupt motherfuckers, but much of what they're doing is using the law to their sinister advantage. It's not illegal for the Supreme Court to gut the Voting Rights Act, and it's not illegal for Republican legislatures to pass obvious voter suppression laws on a party-line basis. Blocking Obama's judicial appointments wasn't illegal. Blocking Merrick Garland wasn't illegal. Ramming through rightwing judicial appointments under Trump wasn't illegal. It's sketchy AF, possibly immoral, but not illegal. Conversely, it's not illegal for Democrats to protect voting rights, expand the Supreme Court, and make DC and Puerto Rico states. It's not illegal if this happens on a party-line vote. It's not even illegal if those actions directly benefit Democrats. Democrats playing hardball isn't immoral because our objectives aren't immoral.
KANEFIELD: My Republican acquaintances save face by telling me that the "Democrats are just as bad." As of now, they are not. Why would we want to make it true?
Democrats aren't “just as bad." They couldn't be even if they tried. Kanefield's Republican acquaintances are cynical bullshit artists. How dare they say this after Republicans tried to overturn a free and fair election and now refuse to investigate an attack on the nation's Capitol because it's politically inconvenient?
Stacey Abrams doesn't want to pass voting laws that prevent rural white evangelicals from voting. She just wants everyone to have access to the ballot. She's an American hero, a champion of democracy. She is nothing like the crooks who want to literally keep (Black) souls from the polls.
Kanefield went on:
KANEFIELD: To once more quote (Daniel Ziblatt) and Steven Levitsky: Democracy is slow, grinding work. Change is slow.
That's not a comforting homily if you're a person of color or LGBTQ or a member of any group the GOP seeks to marginalize. As Dr. Martin Luther King wrote in a Birmingham jail:
We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was "well timed" in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word "Wait!" It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This "Wait" has almost always meant "Never." We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that "justice too long delayed is justice denied."
We're also not talking about quick fixes. Democrats aren't Luke Skywalker, who must resist using the Dark Side when confronting Darth Vader. We're only suggesting that Democrats acknowledge who Republicans are and behave accordingly. That's perfectly legal and won't help the GOP shred democracy.
Republicans are actively fixing things so they never lose another election and can overturn any outliers where Democrats win. There's no polite way to deal with wannabe fascists. We need to be motherfuckers.
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