News & Articles

“Red Scare” stupidity 
Representative Tom Tiffany (R-WI) appears to be living in the 1950s and the “red scare” era of Joe McCarthy. In his September 13th e-newsletter he is, once again, whipping up fear of Chinese communists. 

This time he says, “It’s no secret that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) presents the greatest external threat to American values and our national security.“ But the only “secret” is where Tiffany comes up with this rubbish.

China is our third largest trading partner. Many of the household consumer products in American big box retail stores are made in China (with cooperation from and good profit margins for American businesses). “Shop-til-you-drop” is one of the most cherished and widely practiced “American values.” So China is actually allowing us to fulfill the American Dream rather than subverting our values. 

China threatening our national security is laughable. Outside of the threat of nuclear weapons, China is a very small military threat. There are no Chinese warships patrolling off California or in the Gulf of Mexico (as we are doing in the South China Sea and Straights of Taiwan). Nor do the Chinese have military bases in Mexico or Canada (as we do in Japan, Okinawa and the Philippines). The truth is, the U.S. is the nation doing the threatening and creating dangerous tensions with China (and this is bipartisan foolishness).

If Tiffany really wanted to reduce the military threat of China, he would be supporting negotiations (under the U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons) to reduce and eventually abolish nukes – the only enemy weapons that can reach and actually hurt America. 

But Tiffany makes it clear in his newsletter that the real objective is his usual bashing of Democrats. He says, “While the Biden-Harris administration and Tim Walz have spent their years in politics cozying up to Communist China with appeasement, it’s clear that this has only made the CCP more ruthless.”

Like his rants on crime, immigrants, taxes and “big government,” Tiffany is only fear mongering to gain votes. Ridiculous red scares and falsely accusing your opponents of “appeasing communism” have been a mainstay of Republican campaign tactics since the 1950s.

Bribery is “free speech”
Larry Householder, the former Republican speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives,  was convicted in 2023 of racketeering and sentenced to 20 years in federal prison. This was the largest bribery case in Ohio’s history and Householder was easily found guilty.

Householder is now appealing his conviction by arguing that bribery is constitutionally protected free speech. Relying on several U.S. Supreme Court rulings that weakened campaign finance laws (Citizens United v. FEC and McCutcheon v. FEC), Householder is claiming the bribes he accepted were constitutionally protected campaign contributions and not bribes. 

According to the current Supreme Court, in politics money is free speech. 
Householder will probably lose his appeal. But the case still speaks volumes about “law and order” Republicans and the current partisan Supreme Court’s rulings like granting Trump unlimited immunity. 
As Lily Tomlin once said, “No matter how cynical you get, it’s impossible to keep up.” 

China week in the House
The Republican-controlled House of Representatives can’t pass a budget or get a continuing resolution to keep the federal government functioning but they have time to waste on bashing China.
Last week the Republicans advanced 28 bills to allegedly “get tough” on China. This includes a wide variety of actions to mess with trade, technology, business and educational cooperation with China and Chinese business interests. Republicans want to convince voters that they are protecting American from Chinese economic and military threats.

Most of these actions have some Democratic support. None of this addresses real issues affecting most Americans. But unnecessary grandstanding and bad policies are often bipartisan. The real threat to America is the inability of our political leadership address problems rationally and find sensible ways to reduce tensions with China.

Blind and stupid
Former Republican National Committee (RNC) chair Michael Steele called former President Donald Trump’s remarks to House Republicans about ensuring the inclusion of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act in a stopgap bill to prevent a government shutdown, “the blind being led by the stupid.”