{"id":44695,"date":"2025-10-23T13:11:50","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T20:11:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=44695"},"modified":"2025-10-23T13:11:50","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T20:11:50","slug":"senate-republicans-find-the-bottom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/10\/23\/senate-republicans-find-the-bottom\/","title":{"rendered":"Senate Republicans find the Bottom"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Robert Reich<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
Oct 22, 2025<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Paul Ingrassia, Trump\u2019s nominee to oversee whistleblower protections<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friends,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it comes to becoming part of the Trump regime, there\u2019s been only one litmus test, at least until now: Total loyalty to Trump. Pass that test and nothing else matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Senate Republicans have now set a limit to how low Trump loyalists can go if they want to be confirmed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least five Senate Republicans just opposed the nomination of Paul Ingrassia to lead the Office of Special Counsel \u2014 enough to block his confirmation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ingrassia was among Trump Republican operatives who have been exposed exchanging<\/a> racist, sexist, Nazi-loving text messages \u2014 calling Black people \u201cmonkeys\u201d and \u201cwatermelon people,\u201d talking about raping their enemies and driving them to suicide, lauding Republicans who they believe support slavery, imagining putting political opponents into gas chambers and subjecting them to \u201cthe greatest physiological torture methods known to man,\u201d calling rape \u201cepic,\u201d and writing \u201cI love Hitler.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

JD Vance brushed off the messages: \u201cKids do stupid things, especially young boys. They tell edgy, offensive jokes. That\u2019s what kids do. And I really don\u2019t want us to grow up in a country where a kid telling a stupid joke \u2013 telling a very offensive, stupid joke \u2013 is cause to ruin their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jokes? <\/em>Not funny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kids? <\/em>Members of the group range from 18 to 40. One is a state legislator. Others are in their 30s and well-established in Republican politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ingrassia, age 30, is now the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s liaison to Vance\u2019s and Trump\u2019s White House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his text messages, Ingrassia described himself as having \u201ca Nazi streak\u201d and suggests Martin Luther King Jr Day should be \u201ctossed into the seventh circle of hell.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But because of his utter loyalty to Trump, Trump nominated Ingrassia to lead the Office of Special Counsel, which investigates whistleblower complaints and allegations of political interference in the civil service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vance has responded quite differently to people making offensive comments about pro-Trump conservatives such as the late Charlie Kirk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCall them out,\u201d Vance angrily demanded about anyone saying anything negative about Kirk, \u201cand hell, call their employer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many who have expressed critical views about Kirk have now lost their jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least 21 teachers<\/a> in school districts across the country have been fired, put on administrative leave or placed under investigation by their employers for comments allegedly critical of Kirk. Firefighters, members of the military, a sports reporter, an employee of the Carolina Panthers and a city council official in Indiana have faced similar treatment or calls to resign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The State Department has even revoked visas of foreign nationals who have made slightly negative comments about Kirk on social media, including banal statements<\/a> such as \u201cKirk won\u2019t be remembered as a hero.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senate Republicans apparently don\u2019t share Vance\u2019s hypocritical tolerance for racist, sexist, and Nazi-loving comments by people Trump wants to confirm for positions in his regime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike Vance and the GOP operatives who feel that their loyalty to Trump allows them to promote the sickest and most hateful views imaginable, Senate Republicans have a bottom below which they won\u2019t sink.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s low but, hey, it\u2019s a bottom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robert Reich Oct 22, 2025 Paul Ingrassia, Trump\u2019s nominee to oversee whistleblower protections Friends, When it comes to becoming part of the Trump regime, there\u2019s been only one litmus test, at least until now: Total loyalty to Trump. Pass that test and nothing else matters. But Senate Republicans have now… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44695"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44695"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44695\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44697,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44695\/revisions\/44697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}