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A California man is facing five years in prison for threatening to shoot and bomb employees of the Massachusetts-based Merriam-Webster company because he objected to the reference book publisher’s definitions of the words “girl,” “female,” and “woman.” 

According to the Department of Justice, Jeremy David Hanson, 34, of Rossmoor, California, posted several threatening messages on the company website’s “Contact us” page, which resulted in the company closing its New York and Springfield offices for five business days. The messages Hanson allegedly posted were suffused with vicious anti-LGBTQ rhetoric.

From the DOJ press release:

Specifically, it is alleged that on Oct. 2, 2021, Hanson used the handle “@anonYmous” to post the following comment on the dictionary’s website definition of “female”: “It is absolutely sickening that Merriam-Webster now tells blatant lies and promotes anti-science propaganda. There is no such thing as ‘gender identity.’ The imbecile who wrote this entry should be hunted down and shot.”

Hanson also allegedly sent the following threatening message via the website’s “Contact Us” page: “You [sic] headquarters should be shot up and bombed. It is sickening that you have caved to the cultural Marxist, anti-science tranny [sic] agenda and altered the definition of ‘female’ as part of the Left’s efforts to corrupt and degrade the English language and deny reality. You evil Marxists should all be killed. It would be poetic justice to have someone storm your offices and shoot up the place, leaving none of you commies alive.”

It is further alleged that on Oct. 8, 2021, Hanson posted another threatening comment on the dictionary’s website and a threatening message via the “Contact Us” page that threatened to “bomb your offices for lying and creating fake…”.

As noted by the New York Times, the company, the oldest dictionary publisher in the U.S., has in recent years updated its definitions of certain words to “to be more inclusive of shifting attitudes around gender.”

The FBI tracked Hanson down through his IP address after Merriam-Webster reported the postings last October. In the course of its investigation, the agency found what it describes as “related” posts by Hanson directed to “the American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International, Land O’ Lakes, Hasbro, Inc., IGN Entertainment, the President of the University of North Texas, two professors at Loyola Marymount University and a New York City rabbi.” 

As reported by Jonathan Edwards, writing for the Washington Post, Hanson was interviewed by the FBI shortly after the Merriam-Webster postings were made:

In an October 2021 interview with the FBI, Hanson said he knew threatening people was illegal, apologized for doing so and promised to stop. He told agents that he struggled to control his rage and used the Internet as an outlet.

His mother told agents that her son had become “fixated” on transgender issues and was prone to what she called “verbal hyperbole.” Hanson has been diagnosed with autism and depression, she said, and while they impair his ability to grasp the consequences of his actions, she believed he wouldn’t act on his threats “because he is reclusive, she supervises him, and he has no access to weapons.”

According to the Post, Hanson had been previously questioned by the FBI after he’d threatened in 2014 to “rape and kill multiple people.” He apparently expressed remorse at that time and made no further threats for five years. But after the Hasbro corporation announced it was removing the “Mr.” from its “Mr. Potato Head” toys, Hanson sent the following threat:

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One of North Dakota’s most powerful lawmakers announced his plans to resign Monday after reportedly exchanging texts with a jailed man facing child pornography charges. According to the Associated Press, the Republican senator identified as Ray Holmberg is the state’s longest-serving senator. His career spanned more than 46 years. While his term was expected to end on Nov. 30 and he had no intentions to rerun, he said Monday he would resign effective June 1.

“Recent news stories have become a distraction for the important work of the legislative assembly during its interim meetings,” Holmberg wrote in an email announcing his resignation. “I want to do what I can, within my power, to lessen such distractions. Consequently, in respect for the institution and its other 140 members, I shall resign my Senate seat effective June 1, 2022.”

He added: “This date will give District #17 leaders enough time to go through the process and select a replacement.”

The decision comes days after a report was published about his text message exchange with an imprisoned man. Initially, Holmberg had announced that he would step down on April 20 from his role as head of the panel that oversees the legislature’s business between sessions. His decision to resign from office comes less than a week later.

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The text message exchange was first reported by the Forum of Fargo on April 15. According to that investigative report, Holmberg exchanged at least 72 text messages in August with Nicholas James Morgan-Derosier. Morgan-Derosier is serving charges of possessing thousands of images and videos of sexually abused children. Prosecutors allege that Morgan-Derosier not only possessed pornographic images of children, but also took two children under the age of 10 from Minnesota to his Grand Forks home with intention of abusing them.

While Holmberg first told the Forum he was aware of a local story about the charges, in an interview later he denied this.

When asked about the text messages, he told the Forum that his text messages with Morgan-Derosier were related to “a variety of things,” including patio work Morgan-Derosier did for him. He also claimed he no longer had the messages. He said: “They’re just gone.” The Forum obtained the jail log that recorded the text message exchange through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request—the text messages themselves were not public.

But this isn’t the first time Morgan-Derosier’s text messages have made headlines. Pulling from a transcript of proceedings, the Forum of Fargo reported comments made by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Puhl during a Jan. 4 detention. In that hearing, Puhl referenced text messages from August to a “77-year-old man from Grand Forks.”

While the man was not identified in court, the text messages requested Morgan-Derosier to bring his boyfriend over for a massage. Since Holmberg was 77 at the time and represents that area, questions were raised if he could be the man in question.

Following the report, Democratic Party Chairman Patrick Hart called for Holmberg to step down from Legislative Management and release the text messages. According to the AP, Holmberg chaired the Legislative Management Committee, which decides committee assignments and chooses topics that often inspire legislation. Amid chairing this committee, he served on multiple others, making him a powerful legislative.

But while some called for his resignation, GOP state Senate Majority Leader Rich Wardner defended Holmberg and told the AP that he is only guilty of bad judgment.

”He sent 72 messages to a bad, bad person,” Wardner told the AP. “That’s not illegal, and until there is more information, I think [his committee resignation] is a step in the right direction… If there is any evidence of any wrongdoing, we will act, and we will act quickly. Right now, all we have is that it looks bad.”

Prior to announcing his resignation, Holmberg planned to retire this year due to medical reasons.

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The situation on the ground in Ukraine continues to see only small changes, with Russian forces continuing to stage small attacks as Ukrainian defenders publicize equipment captures behind Russia’s frontlines. Russian state television continues to be apoplectic in their fury over … the rest of the world existing, for the most part.

Most concerning might be the Russian capture of Kurulka, due south of Izyum; that puts Russian troops only 5 miles from a critical Ukrainian rail line. Ukraine is likely to mount a substantive to push those attackers back. Ukraine also appears to be creeping nearer to Kherson, though the probability of a major Ukrainian offensive there seems, for the moment, small.

Russia continues to show no apparent battle plan other than the current probing attacks,
The mass of European and American artillery, tanks, and other heavy weaponry being rushed to Ukrainian forces continues to flow towards the frontlines, making every day of the current near-stalemate considerably more dangerous for Russia than for the country they are invading.

However, the weekend’s biggest news was the continued tendency of major infrastructure inside Russia to violently and inexplicably explode. Two massive fires are burning in Bryansk, 90 miles from Ukraine, after explosions rocked two large oil depots in the city. One of those depots is next to a Russian “artillery and missile storage” site. The cause of both explosions is currently unknown; this, after fires destroyed a Russian missile research facility, a Russian space program facility, and Russia’s largest (and absolutely critical) chemical plant in recent days. It also coincides with a string of bloody murder-suicides plaguing the Russian oligarchy since Russian strongman Vladimir Putin issued his orders to invade.

We remain in the same position as before. Ukrainian defenders around Izyum are in a precarious spot, with any significant Russian advance posing a potential existential risk to the Ukrainian trenchlines that have held for eight years now. But Russia continues to suffer losses not compatible with victory, backed by supply shortages that will put a time limit on its ability to press its assault. The most recent news updates:

• Mariupol holds (and is resupplied!), and is Russia really reaching for Kryvyi Rih?
• Russian state TV delusion reaches new heights as they advocate for Baltic invasion
• Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is …
• No major attacks, no major counterattacks, but lots of small movements
• It’s groundhog day, as Russia learned no lessons from its Kyiv failures

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If you scroll down on the Daily Kos homepage, you may have noticed a list of anti-racist resources and a message of solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. Well, both of those resources are the handiwork of the Daily Kos Equity Council, which aims to do exactly what the name suggests: build a better company and community by highlighting issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

I’m a co-chair of the council along with content strategist Cara Zelaya, and we’re excited to announce that Daily Kos will be devoting front page space each month to celebrate a cultural holiday or monthly observance specifically highlighting those pushed to the margins of society.

Since 2021, that space has been used to showcase Black History Month content in February, and that’s a tradition we’d like to continue. We’re also looking to cover historical celebrations from Juneteenth and Pride Month to Hispanic Heritage Month, National Disability Employment Month, and National Native American Heritage Month. We’re starting with Asian Pacific American Heritage Month in May.

Part of the reason we are prioritizing this work is because we want the issues facing these communities to be recognized and respected.

RELATED STORY: Microaggressions: How to recognize them and reduce their frequency and impact (VIDEO)

None of us should have to accept a society that only tolerates us and in some cases, threatens and harms us because we are different. Staff Writer Aysha Qamar has written at length about Asian communities targeted with attacks rooted in xenophobia and ignorance. Marissa Higgins has tracked legislative effort after legislative effort aimed at endangering trans youth and the families who protect them. We write about both blatant cases of violent racism against Black communities and more subtle microaggressions that have become unfortunate workplace and schoolyard norms for people of color in this country. 

Disability rights and inclusion activist ​​Imani Barbarin said during an Equity Council panel on ableism that even language more readily identifiable as ableist is often rooted in white supremacy. She gave as examples words like “crazy” and “tone deaf.”

RELATED STORY: We held a panel on ableism, and we listened. Your turn

”When something happens that shakes the system […] people try to tie it to disabilities to create the idea that that person is then disposable or should be gotten rid of,” Barbarin said. “We do this with mass shooters. We do this with Republicans, extremists, and it’s the idea behind it that really bothers me the most, which is that simply by tying somebody to a disability means that we can then disregard them. We can discard of them.”

We don’t discard people here. We celebrate each other. We laugh with each other, and we respect and support each other. We want that work to continue every day and to expand to the larger site community until it’s no longer work, until respecting each other and valuing each other is innate. 

RELATED STORY: Trans rights: How to center trans voices and tips for allies (VIDEO)

RELATED STORY: More than 25 Black-owned businesses to support this month and every month

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Earlier in April news came out that the former White house doctor for Donald Trump—the guy who said Trump had “good genes”—Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX) was under investigation by the House Ethics Committee. Why? It still isn’t clear. What is clear is that the new congressman who has spread lies like “In 2022, illegal immigrants will have MORE FREEDOMS and easier access to healthcare and ballot boxes than most Americans,” is likely being investigated for the kinds of things that racist, dubious, opportunist, craven doctors-turned-politicians can be investigated for: Anything and everything.

On Monday, Roll Call reports that Jackson seems to have spent “more than $2,300 in costs associated with membership at a private social club in Texas.” The campaign money Jackson spent was at the Amarillo Club in Texas. According to Federal Election Commission filings, Jackson seems to have broken the Federal Election Commission Act (FECA). That’s illegal, as in against the law. Here are a couple of things you aren’t allowed to spend campaign funds on:

• “Country club memberships”
• “Dues and fees for health clubs or recreational facilities”

You need only a third-grade reading level to understand that Jackson’s FEC filings seem to reek.

RELATED STORY: Rep. Ronny Jackson, the ex-White House doc who praised Trump’s ‘good genes,’ is under investigation

The Representative from the 13th District of Texas, best known as “Candy Man” for his willingness as a doctor to sign off prescriptions on anything and saying that Donald Trump was in amazing health, joins other fiscally irresponsible GOP candidates like North Carolina’s Madison Cawthorn in his willingness to spend other people’s money on his good time. A Jackson spokesperson told Roll Call that the membership costs to the this Texan country club “are strictly associated with campaign and fundraising events.” Of course, this is only legal if the costs were incurred during an event for fundraising. Having a year-round membership, unless all of your fundraising is done at this country club year-round, is not legal.

When charges solely listed as being for food and drink are included, the congressman’s main campaign campaign committee, Texans for Ronny Jackson, reported spending more than over $6,400 at the Amarillo Club since 2020.

RELATED: Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson’s anti-immigrant lies appear to leave CNN’s fact-checker exasperated

Here’s the FEC’s explanation of fees that they consider “Automatic personal use.”

Campaign funds may not be used to pay for dues to country clubs, health clubs, recreational facilities or other nonpolitical organizations unless the payments are made in connection with a specific fundraising event that takes place on the organization’s premises.

The looseness with which MAGA monsters like Jackson are willing to dip into their campaign tills to pay for their own recreation and entertainment is pretty astonishing. Even more so when you consider that such a large part of the GOP platform is stifling any and all legislation that would help their constituents by arguing for “fiscal responsibility.”

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In the scheme of things, $2,300 isn’t a lot of money for a campaign powered by GOP hate and Trumpian butt-kissing, but it does show how cavalier the Republican Party’s candidates have become with run-of-the-mill corruption.

All of this comes just a few days after revelations that Oath Keeper insurrectionists were exchanging private texts about Jackson’s need for militia protections during the Jan. 6 invasion of the Capitol building by people like the Oath Keepers. Jackson denies knowing any of the faktriots who were burning up their text threads worrying about him on Jan. 6, 2021.

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Given the ongoing Republican effort to dismantle human rights and, as of late, especially LGBTQ+ rights, it can feel exhausting to figure out where to begin when it comes to combatting such hate. As Daily Kos continues to cover, for example, conservatives have made critical race theory (CRT), the existence of trans youth (and their accessing gender-affirming health care), and youth reading books by and about LGBTQ+ people and people of color into their latest rallying cries. Anything to distract from the Republican Party’s failure to lead during a literal global pandemic, after all.

In addition to organizing and voting, what can people do to push back? Well, as reported by The Texas Tribune, people are getting creative when it comes to book bans, at least. Seven residents of Llano County recently filed a federal lawsuit against the county judge, commissioners, library systems director, and library board members for banning and restricting books in its public library system. According to the lawsuit, this includes both suspending access to digital books, removing several books from shelves, and stopping new library book orders. 

The suit also alleges that the library board violated the First and 14th Amendments by closing meetings to the public.

RELATED: Who is ready for a Banned Book Club here at Daily Kos?

Plaintiffs in the suit include Jeanne Puryear, Leila Green Little, Kathy Kennedy, Richard Day, Rebecca Jones, Diane Moster, and Cynthia Waring. According to the lawsuit, the plaintiffs tried to check out several books that had been removed from the system and were denied access to those texts. They believe their constitutional rights have been violated because public officials censored the books based on their content. They also believe the public officials did not give proper notice or opportunity for the community to comment on the decision.

Listen to Jennifer Fernandez Ancona from Way to Win explain how Democrats must message to win on Daily Kos’ The Brief podcast with Markos Moulitsas and Kerry Eleveld

“When government actors target public library books because they disagree with and intend to suppress the ideas contained therein,” the lawsuit states in part. “It jeopardizes the freedoms of everyone.”

Rather brilliantly, the suit also points out public libraries are not places of government “indoctrination” where people in power can “spoon-feed one-sided information” and dictate what people are allowed to read and discover. 

Defendants listed in the lawsuit include Llano County Commissioners Jerry Don Moss, Peter Jones, Mike Sandoval, Linda Raschke, Milum, library board members Gay Baskin, Rhonda Schneider, and Rochelle Wells, along with Llano County Judge Ron Cunningham and library system director Amber Milum.

According to the suit, the infamous list of more than 800 titles that the Texas Education Agency took issue with came into play here, with some of the titles being removed from the county’s libraries after the list circulated. The suit does allege that the defendants removed a few children’s books even prior to the list.

The suit alleges Milum was directed to remove “all books” that depict “any type” of sexual activity or “questionable” nudity. According to the plaintiffs, there are still books that include nudity and sex on the shelves but the ones removed were part of a “censorship campaign” that targeted books that “conflicted” with the defendants’ political and religious beliefs. 

At the end of the day, it’s never just about one book or another. It’s about what these books represent and teach us: empathy, compassion, and the lived experiences, thoughts, and perspectives of people who aren’t like us. Reading is a fundamental tool for teaching people more about the wider world and diversity, and of course, conservatives are eager to write these texts off as radical or inappropriate.

Why? Because they don’t want to risk young people widening their worldview and realizing that conservative beliefs are not the objective, moral truth they want them to be. After all, it’s a lot more difficult to vote against someone’s basic rights when you actually view them as a fellow human, huh?

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There were weeks of discussions drumming up support for so-called election fraud claims. There was strategy and gaming-out of unconstitutional theory in support of a president who was willing to usurp the will of over 80 million voters in order to remain in the White House. And when the mob finally arrived—as incited—there was fear. Then, long after they left, there was talk of invoking martial law. 

These are just shades of what was exposed Monday when CNN exclusively obtained and published a portion of some 2,319 text messages that former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows turned over to the Jan. 6 committee before abruptly ending his cooperation last year. 

RELATED STORY: Former Trump aide says Meadows was warned about violence coming to D.C. on Jan. 6

The messages stretch from Election Day through the inauguration of President Joe Biden and come from a wide cast of high-ranking White House officials as well as Trump’s closest family members, attorneys, and allies in and outside Washington. 

There are heaps of messages from sitting Congress members and Trump’s reelection campaign staffers, too, as well as organizers who planned rallies for Jan. 6. in D.C. 

Meadows is presently battling the committee to keep any further testimony and records hidden. And while the Justice Department idles on an indictment for Meadows following his criminal contempt of Congress referral from the House, the committee is aggressively pursuing access to key information through the courts—and airing out damning witness testimony it has received in the process. 

RELATED STORY: Texts show they were all in for Trump overturning the election—until a lack of key evidence got in the way

Election Day and through November

Before Monday’s dump of text messages, it was already established by the committee that Meadows was effectively ground zero for grievances about Trump’s defeat in 2020. Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., just 48 hours after the election and as votes were still being counted, messaged Meadows: “We have operational control Total leverage. Moral High Ground POTUS must start 2nd term now.”  

And it was already revealed that in the days right after the election others, like Sen. Mike Lee of Utah and Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, flooded Meadows with texts. Though they privately sought guidance from the White House on how to promote Trump’s conspiracy theories and effectively overturn the election results, in public they acknowledged Biden as the rightful victor.

According to the new messages made public Monday, from Nov. 3 to Nov. 22, Meadows was fielding texts from people like Fox News personality Sean Hannity and American Conservative Union chairman Matt Schlapp, husband to former Trump White House aide Mercedes Schlapp.

Hannity wanted Meadows to give him guidance about which states to discuss on air. Schlapp told Meadows to get “4 or 5 killers” to make the case in remaining battleground counties and states. 

“Need outsiders who will torch the place. Local folks won’t do it. Lawyers and operators. Get us in these states. Worried that ronna not in mi,” Schlapp wrote, appearing to refer to Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel. [Text message punctuation and abbreviation original]

Meadows replied: “I may need you and Mercy to go to PA.”

Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona also pitched Meadows right after the election, suggesting to Trump’s chief of staff that states’ legislatures should step in and appoint new electors. 

“If I understand right most of those states have Republican Legislature’s. It seems to be comport with glorified Bush as well as the Constitution. And, well highly controversial, it can’t be much more controversial than the lunacy that were sitting out there now. And It would be pretty difficult because he would take governors and legislators with collective will and backbone to do that. Is anybody on the team researching and considering lobbying for that? [Spelling, grammar original]

Meadows was thrilled.

“I love it,” he wrote. 

Before Thanksgiving, others like Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Trump spokesman Jason Miller shared their strategies and conspiracy theories. Perry, according to one text sent less than one week after the election, told Meadows that he had the “silver bullet” to prove fraud. 

“Pam Bondi has seen and agrees,” Perry said. 

Perry has denied sending the texts but CNN says they route back to his number and name.

It was revealed in 2016 that the Trump Foundation illegally donated $25,000 to a group that supported Bondi’s run for Florida Attorney General. 

As for Jason Miller, he, like many others in Trump’s orbit, pumped Meadows with Soros-based conspiracies. Ginni Thomas, the Republican activist and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, was also lighting up Meadows’s phone. 

On Nov. 22, Thomas asked Meadows why it seemed that distance was being created between the Trump administration and Sidney Powell. 

“She doesn’t have anything or at least she won’t share it if she does,” Meadows said of Powell. 

RELATED STORY: Nothing to see here says pro-Trump election lie advocate, Ginni Thomas

A frantic December

By December, Trump was enduring defeat repeatedly in the courts and, in reality, the doors to his pathway to victory had long slammed shut. 

Meanwhile, meetings at the Willard Hotel with administration officials and attorneys like Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, and Jenna Ellis were rolling, according to records and depositions already obtained by the committee.  

One of the self-professed coordinators of those meetings, former New York Police Department Commissioner Bernie Kerik, told Meadows he was on the way from the battleground state of Michigan to Arizona on Dec. 1.

“We’re going to need a hotel for the team and two vehicles to pick us up,” Kerik said. 

It is unclear if Meadows responded. 

That same day, Trump’s spokesman Schlapp sent a text saying he was prepared to walk the attorney general through the evidence. 

Attorney General Bill Barr would resign two weeks later after a blowout with Trump over their divergent views on election fraud; Barr found none. 

Interestingly, Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, texted Meadows four days later with a link to a site fact-checking a presentation by Giuliani in Georgia suggesting, falsely, that suitcases were stuffed with bogus ballots at a Georgia polling center.  

Kelli Ward, the Arizona GOP chairwoman, also sent Meadows semi-regular texts through December and purported to have the goods and sources of election fraud in her state. Ward told Meadows she reached out to Trump’s executive assistant with the proposals and a person in her state that could help advance their agenda.

“I will call him,” Meadows wrote on Dec. 9.

Mere days before Christmas, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell also reached out in a rambling message, writing to Meadows that he heard talk of plans to seize voting machines.

“Everything Sidney has said is true!” Lindell wrote of attorney Sidney Powell’s voting machine conspiracy theory. “We have to get the machines and everything we already have proves the President won by millions of votes! I have read and not validated yet that you and others talked him out of seizing them… If true .. I pray it is part of a bigger plan... I am grateful that on the night of the election the algorithms of the corrupt machines broke and they realized our president would win in spite of the historical fraud!” Lindell wrote. [Emphasis original] “I look for deviations every day in my business … when I find one I investigate relentlessly until I know why it happened and how it happened… ( this is my gift from God that has made my business so successful) From 11:15 pm on the night of the election I have spent all my time running impossible deviations and numbers from this election… I also was blessed to be able to get info and help Sidney Lin General Flynn and everyone else out there gathering all the massive evidence! I have been sickened by politicians ( especially republicans ) judges, the media not wanting to see the truth ( no matter what the truth would be!) This is the biggest cover up of one of the worst crimes in history! I have spent over a million$ to help uncover this fraud and used my platform so people can get the word not to give up! The people on both sides have to see the truth and when they do …. there will not be no civil war , people ( including politicians!) are fearing! The only thing any of us should fear is fear of the Lord! Every person on this planet needs to know the truth and see the evidence!!! Mark .. God has his hand in all of this and has put you on the front line… I will continue praying for you to have great wisdom and discernment! Blessings Mike”

“Thanks brother. Pray for a miracle,” Meadows responded. 

Powell was sued for defamation by Dominion Voting Systems after claiming that the company used rigged machines manipulated by foreign entities. When pressed in court and facing high fines, Powell chalked up her own statements to opinion and said “reasonable people” would not accept what she said as fact. She lost the suit and was ordered to pay damages. 

As for members of Congress, in December, Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama called on Meadows for advice on how to handle press calling his office about the GOP’s strategy for Jan. 6. 

“Does the White House want me to reply or be mum? Also, it is one thing to discuss (in general terms) our meeting beforehand. It is another to discuss afterwards. If you believe discussion is a positive, I suggest message should be: 1. Progress is being made. 2. More are joining our fight. 3. We can’t allow voter fraud & election theft occur if we are going to be a republic. Your choice. Let me know,” Brooks wrote.

Energy Secretary Perry followed up on his texts to Meadows a few days after Brooks reached out, noting that time was running out until Jan. 6. There were just 25 days until inauguration, he noted. 

“We gotta get going,” Perry wrote on Dec. 26. 

Then, he urged Meadows to call “Clark” multiple times over the next two days, making a reference to Jeffrey Clark, Trump’s pick at the Department of Justice. Clark, according to testimony already provided to the committee, was preparing a scheme to oust the current leadership at the Justice Department at Trump’s behest. 

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia buzzed Meadows on New Year’s Eve. 

“Good morning Mark, I’m here in DC. We have to get organized for the 6th. I would like to meet with Rudy Giuliani again. We didn’t get to speak with him long. Also anyone who can help. We are getting a lot of members on board. And we need to lay out the best case for each state. I’ll be over at CPI this afternoon,” she wrote. 

January

As the nation careened toward the day Congress would meet to certify electors, Meadows was also at the fore of messages around the planning of the Jan. 6 rally at the Ellipse. 

In one message, Trump adviser Katrina Pierson appeared exasperated and worried about the event ahead. 

On Jan. 2, she texted Meadows: “Good afternoon, would you mind giving me a call re: this Jan 6th event. Things have gotten crazy and I desperately need some direction. Please.”

Tension was dogging the ranks of rally organizers at the time. ProPublica reported last summer that text messages it obtained indicated organizers knew threats of violence were possible on Jan. 6 and that local law enforcement would be taxed if things got out of hand. There was also the growing issue of more extreme right-wing allies and conspiracy theory peddlers who wanted in on Trump’s event at the Ellipse. 

To keep the optics clean, Pierson reportedly led a plan to have certain speakers deemed “too extreme” to instead speak at events scheduled for Jan. 5. Alex Jones and ‘Stop the Steal’ rally organizer Ali Alexander would end up speaking to Trump’s supporters that night. Ali Alexander led a group of protesters that night in a chant of “Victory or death!”

Pierson and Women for America First chair Amy Kremer were in agreement over the decision but on Jan. 3, Pierson texted Meadows again and told him to “scratch” her earlier request for help. 

“Caroline Wren has decided to move forward with the original psycho list. Apparently Dan Scavino approved??” Pierson wrote.

She added: “So I’m done. I can’t be part of embarrassing POTUS any further.”

A few days later, Jim Jordan texted Meadows. 

It was 24 hours before certification and Jordan sent a message saying Pence, as president of the Senate, should object to votes he believed were unconstitutional. 

Jordan has chalked up that message to a forward he sent from the inspector general at the Pentagon, Joseph Schmitz.

The message read:

”On January 6, 2021, Vice President Mike Pence, as President of the Senate, should call out all electoral votes that he believes are unconstitutional as no electoral votes at all — in accordance with guidance from founding father Alexander Hamilton and judicial precedence. ‘No legislative act,’ wrote Alexander Hamilton in Federalist No. 78, ‘contrary to the Constitution, can be valid.’ ‘The court in Hubbard v. Lowe reinforced this truth: ”That an unconstitutional statute is not a law at all is a proposition no longer open to discussion.’ ‘226 F. 135, 137 (SDNY 1915), appeal dismissed, 242 U.S. 654 (1916). ‘ Following this rationale, an unconstitutionally appointed elector, like an unconstitutionally enacted statute, is no elector at all.

Meadows appeared to reply to Jordan on Jan. 6. 

”I have pushed for this not sure it is going to happen,” he wrote. 

As the mob breached the Capitol, according to the record published by CNN, a series of rapid-fire texts from lawmakers, officials, and media personalities alike flew into Meadows’s phone. 

Rep. Greene of Georgia texted Meadows: “Mark I was just told there is an active shooter on the first floor of the Capitol Please tell the President to calm people This isn’t the way to solve anything.”

A few weeks later, on Jan. 17, Greene would text Meadows again, this time telling him that after a “private chat with only Members,” the predominant belief they shared was that martial law should be invoked to stop Biden’s inauguration. 

”In our private chat with only Members, several are saying the only way to save our Republic is for Trump to call for Marshall law. I don’t know on those things. I just wanted you to tell him. They stole this election. We all know. They will destroy our country next. Please tell him to declassify as much as possible so we can go after Biden and anyone else!” Greene wrote.

Two days later, on Jan. 19, Hannity was in despair. Biden would be inaugurated. And Mitch McConnell, then the Senate Majority Leader, was on the floor of the Senate saying the attack was “provoked by the president and other powerful people.”

“Well, this is as bad as this can get,” Hannity wrote. 

Hundreds of police officers were brutalized during the Capitol assault and five people died. 

According to The Washington Post, McConnell told Jonathan Martin, author of the book This Will Not Pass, that he was partially relieved about what Trump had wrought on the nation. 

“I feel exhilarated by the fact that this fellow finally, totally discredited himself,” McConnell said.“He put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger. Couldn’t have happened at a better time.”

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Republican censorship at school libraries is making its way to censorship at public libraries—as predicted—with “don’t say gay” language forcing the cancellation of a romance book club and a sexual assault awareness display at a library in Enid, Oklahoma.

The recent policy from the city’s library board says that library programs and exhibits “will not make as their object the study of sex, sexual activity, sexual perversion, sex-based classifications, sexual preferences, sexual identity, gender identity, or subjects that are of a sexual nature.” Books can stay on the shelves (so far), they just can’t be highlighted by the library for things like, say, sexual assault awareness or reading the most popular genre of fiction in the country.

RELATED STORY: Here comes the wave of copycat ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bills in red states

“In light of recent changes to program and display policies at the Public Library of Enid and Garfield County,  2 programs have been canceled for the month of April,” the library posted on Facebook. “The Sexual Assault Awareness program/display and the Shameless Romance book club discussion have been canceled.  Displays or programs that focus on sexual content are not allowed at the library.  The library respects the authority of the library board to set library policies.”

Vivian Topping, director of advocacy and civic engagement at the Equality Federation, and Shannon Minter, legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights

Cindy Nguyen, policy director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma, pointed out to CNN that the library board’s language appears to be borrowed directly from a bill introduced in the state legislature but currently stalled. That bill focuses on schools and school libraries and would ban “books that make as their primary subject the study of sex, sexual preferences, sexual activity, sexual perversion, sex-based classifications, sexual identity, or gender identity or books that are of a sexual nature that a reasonable parent or legal guardian would want to know of or approve of prior to their child being exposed to it.”

Theri Ray, the Enid Public Library’s interim director, said at a public meeting that the policy might prevent the library from posting Mother’s Day or Father’s Day displays since they speak to sex-based classifications and gender identity.

That is, so far, a hypothetical, but the cancellation of the sexual assault awareness is not. A library has been banned from a display educating the public about a very common crime. Words fail here.

Romance novels constitute 18% of adult fiction sales, and while the genre has diversified dramatically, I’m going to hazard a wild guess that the library in Enid, Oklahoma, was not having its romance book club read Alyssa Cole’s How to Find a Princess, Courtney Milan’s Hold Me, Olivia Waite’s The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics, Chencia Higgins’ D’Vaughn and Kris Plan a Wedding, or other LGBT romance.

The cancellation of the romance book club and the sexual assault awareness display are really top-notch examples of just how far these broad bans on content can go in practice. Liberals are routinely mocked for warning that things like this can happen, because obviously that’s an exaggeration that wouldn’t really happen. Yet here we have real-life direct effects of such a policy, in a public library for everyone in a community, after a piece of Republican legislation that is just starting to take off at the state level as applied to schools made the jump over to local policy on public libraries, with instant and significant effects.

Censorship is a very real part of the Republican agenda, and it’s extremely unpopular. It’s malpractice for Democrats not to run hard against book-banning in general, with cases like this as example No. 1.

RELATED STORIES:

Polls show book banning is hugely unpopular, but that’s not stopping lawmakers from doing it

2021 swept in an ‘unprecedented campaign to remove books’ from libraries

Florida is on the attack again, this time targeting math books they claim contain CRT content

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We noted earlier this month that a number of Republican states didn’t waste any time in suing over the Biden administration’s just decision to end use of Stephen Miller’s Title 42 order by the end of next month. That was not surprising, but what was surprising was that Texas—which has steadily used the courts to sabotage the administration’s immigration actions—was not among them.

But that changed last Friday when the state’s very corrupt attorney general sued. Ken Paxton, who has yet to go to trial for felony securities fraud charges, touted the lawsuit as his 10th immigration-related suit against the administration.

RELATED STORY: GOP states waste no time suing over Biden admin’s termination of anti-asylum Title 42 policy

Paxton’s statement is chock-full of anti-immigrant imagery and makes no secret of the fact that Miller’s policy has never been about public health and the pandemic, but rather about blocking vulnerable people from their U.S. asylum rights. “The suit adds that if the Biden administration follows through with lifting the order, Texas will have to pay for social services for the migrants who enter the country,” The Texas Tribune reported. 

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But it’s been Texas Gov. Greg Abbott who has been using taxpayer funds to bus asylum-seekers to Washington, D.C., as a disgusting fuck you to President Joe Biden. Thankfully, local advocates have pledged to aid families despicably used as human props by the governor. More recently, the Biden administration has urged a judge to deny the initial lawsuit brought on by the Republican attorneys general of Arizona, Louisiana, and Missouri. CNN reports that since they launched their lawsuit earlier this month, more than a dozen states have joined them in the litigation.

Back in Texas, Paxton had asked the GOP judge who last month ruled that the president can’t exempt unaccompanied children from Title 42 to amend that lawsuit in light of the administration’s recent move to end use of the policy. That judge, appointed by the insurrectionist president, surprisingly declined to do so. Texas has again sued.

“They’ve sued the administration over everything from mask mandates to blocking the Keystone XL Pipeline, but Paxton’s favorite target is immigration,” America’s Voice Legal Adviser David Leopold has previously said. “The Republicans start by attacking Biden’s immigration policy before Trump appointed judges in Texas, all the while knowing that whatever happens they’re all but guaranteed a warm reception in the 5th circuit court of appeals.” Republicans truly believe that Democrats have no right to govern.

The lawsuits and court proceedings come as LGBTQ migrant advocacy groups recently reminded people of the farcical nature of the Title 42 policy. Immigration Equality Executive Director Aaron Morris told the Los Angeles Blade that the order was “the brainchild of Stephen Miller long before COVID-19 even existed.” The New York Times reported nearly two years ago that Miller had already decided he would use public health as his excuse to deport vulnerable people back to danger, he just needed a virus.

Paxton was also quick to go to court when needed even as he’s managed to delay his own trial for years.

“The initial criminal case dates back to 2015,” Texas Standard reported last year. “Paxton is accused of duping people in a McKinney, Texas,-based investment scheme. He was indicted and released on bond, but thanks to a range of delays, the case has yet to face trial. The case has been transferred from Collin County to Harris County and then back to Collin, after Hurricane Harvey forced courts to close at the time.” He’s faced other accusations of misconduct since then. So that’s just one reason why Paxton would rather talk about immigrants.

RELATED STORIES: Texas’ corrupt attorney general is using the courts to sabotage Biden’s immigration agenda

Border state advocates say they’re ready to welcome asylum-seekers following Title 42 announcement

LGBTQ advocates remind us that Stephen Miller was scheming policy ‘long before’ COVID ‘even existed’

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On Monday morning, after spending nearly three years confined, human rights attorney Steven Donziger held up the release papers he’d been waiting 993 days for and sent a brief video message to followers of his social media accounts proclaiming “it’s over.” Donziger served an excessive sentence for refusing to compromise attorney-client privilege in the face of an order filed by Chevron to obtain devices like his computer and cellphone because, the company alleged, they believed Donziger had engaged in conspiracy and criminal conduct. To those new to Donziger’s personal legal saga, the thought of a multibillion dollar super-polluting company using all its might against a single individual seems absolutely ridiculous. What’s even worse is Chevron has vowed to spend a “lifetime” waging war against Donziger and the clients he represented—all because they challenged the company for dumping 16 billion gallons of contaminated water into waterways in Ecuador that include parts of the Amazon rainforest.

Donziger first took up the case in 1993 and ultimately won those impacted by Chevron’s actions an $18 billion judgment against Chevron, the amount of which was reduced to $9.5 billion but still stood. For holding Chevron accountable, the fossil fuel company’s legal team mounted a defense that included alleging Donziger had bribed the judge who oversaw the case in Ecuador. That judge was, for a time, paid a $10,000 monthly salary by Chevron and later admitted to rehearsing his testimony with Chevron’s team dozens of times. Chevron was relentless in its attacks on Donziger. The polluter filed RICO charges against him and found a sympathetic judge who once had ties to the tobacco industry to hear the case. The back-and-forth led to Donziger’s law license being suspended in 2018; he was eventually disbarred in New York in 2020. The judge ordered Donziger to submit his electronic devices to Chevron, Donziger refused to do so and appealed, and the judge charged him with six counts of contempt of court. This is just a brief summary of the harassment Donziger’s endured and the havoc Chevron has wreaked against him, which has been condemned by the U.N., U.S. lawmakers, environmentalists and activists across the world, and Nobel laureates.

RELATED: Lawmakers urge release of human rights lawyer Steven Donziger, who took on Chevron in Ecuador

Days before his release, Donziger released a video message thanking supporters but shifting the focus on the Ecuadoreans he represented, vowing to continue the fight to hold polluters like Chevron accountable. This echoes statements from his newly launched Substack, Donziger on Justice, which the lawyer is hoping continues driving the community built in support of his release toward the sustained goal of environmental justice. Donziger, a former journalist, said he’s eager to return to writing as a means of further the cause. “I love journalism and I can’t wait to begin writing in this space on regular basis,” Donziger said, though he admitted that mainstream media coverage of cases like his are rarely covered with the same fervor as with “the governmental persecution of human rights lawyers in other countries.”

“In fact, Attorney Ted Boutrous of Gibson Dunn both represents the New York Times on media issues while trying to destroy my life on behalf of Chevron, work for which he bills $1,200 per hour,” Donziger continued. He had more charges against the paper but also concluded by vowing not to “turn my back on my clients in Ecuador nor on the larger battle for human rights and judicial accountability around the world.” Indeed, Donziger hasn’t given up the fight, just as Chevron has stuck to its company goals of raking in as much cash as possible—consequences to the planet and the vulnerable be damned. Also on Monday, Accountable.US released a report on the drastic uptick in compensation Big Oil CEOs received in 2021 compared with 2020. On that list? Chevron’s Mike Wirth, who got a $4.5 million bonus last year for god knows what, moving his total compensation well above $22 million for 2021. In contrast, Donziger’s entire way of life and primary career have been crushed by the company.

But his spirit certainly hasn’t. Donziger will be attending and celebrating his release at a block party in Manhattan later this evening.