In the state of Washington, Tim
Eyman is someone you “love” to hate. Eyman has never really had a “real” job;
coming out of Washington State University he used his business degree to set-up
a home mail order “business” engraving Greek letters into wristwatches for
college organizations (like fraternities). He supposedly made a living from
something that was nothing more than a vanity item for a few years
until—“inspired” by local right-wing curmudgeon Dave Ross—he got involved in signature
collecting for a referendum opposing a $250 million public funding proposal to
replace the old and ugly King Dome for Mariners baseball team. The “no” vote
won, but with the Japanese owners threatening to sell the team, then Gov. Mike
Lowry pushed through a bond levy that taxed restaurants and car rentals to pay
for a new stadium.
This upset Eyman so much that he decided
to become a one-man wrecking crew for anything he didn’t like. Eyman
occasionally got himself involved in social issues—he was behind the
anti-affirmative action I-200, and he tried and failed to gather enough
signatures for a referendum to strike sexual orientation from the discriminated
class—but mainly he was an anti-tax guy. He won some victories here and there,
notably on car tabs and the requirement of a two-thirds supermajority in the
state legislature to pass taxes, although the latter was ruled unconstitutional
by the state Supreme Court.
Eyman basically made his “living”
being what one “tongue-in-cheek” initiative proposal sought to do, to declare
him officially a “horse’s ass.” There were always questions about how Eyman was
using money to pay for his referendum and initiative scams; following a 2002 Seattle Post-Intelligencer expose, state
investigators discovered that Eyman had
paid himself almost a quarter-million dollars after claiming that he
took no money for personal use from contributors to his “Permanent Offense”
campaign. At the time, Eyman confessed to being a hypocrite to pretend to be
morally “superior” to his opponents, but promised to be “upfront” about his
expectation to be paid for his “work.”
But Eyman is as corrupt as he was
a liar. In 2019, his “associates” in his signature gathering campaigns were
fined $1 million for “secretly” funneling money into Eyman’s personal accounts,
and this past February the Associated
Press reported he was ordered to pay $2.6 million in penalties and banned
from any financial dealings with PACS, his or anyone else’s. Eyman was accused
of “soliciting kickbacks, laundering donations and flouting campaign finance
law in a long-running scheme to enrich himself.” The problem wasn’t so much
that Eyman took the money for personal use, but his failure to disclose to
donors how much he was enriching himself with their money was, and knowing how
much of their money was going into Eyman’s pockets would likely have soured
many people on contributing to his initiative campaigns at all—most of them which
have been either wholly or partially struck-down in the courts anyways.
Of course, Eyman isn’t the only
thief in town trying to earn something less than an honest buck. Take for
instance anyone who associated themselves with Trump. Vanity Fair noted that former graduates of Trump’s administration
have found homes on Fox News; Kayleigh McEnany has a seat on the oddly-named Outnumbered, which is the right-wing
version of The View. Chris Wallace is
one of the few at Fox who actually qualifies as being “outnumbered.” Sarah Sanders was a “contributor” until she
decided to run for governor in Arkansas, while that frequent Trump “explainer” on
Fox, Kellyanne Conway, appears to be heading in a different direction, not
surprising since her husband was one of the founders of the anti-Trump Lincoln
Project (and there was that insurrection thing). Conway is currently writing a “tell-all” book that has been suggested
by “insiders” will not be particularly flattering to Trump and his minions.
Mike Pompeo is hanging out with a
right-wing “think-tank” while he contemplates a presidential run in 2024; if it
is based on his “accomplishments” as Secretary of State, he will have even less
credibility than Hillary Clinton. Ben Carson, whose tenure at HUD could be described
as turning it into a homeless shelter for policy vagrants, is supposedly seeking to set-up a youth organization which is
supposed to be even more right-wing than the old Boy Scouts—something called
the “Little Patriots,” which wants to instill the spirit of the “real history
of America,” presumably “history” that leaves out the parts about how white
“settlers” created a country stealing the lands of Native Americans, used slave
labor, and imposed imperialism in this hemisphere and elsewhere.
But out of all of Trump’s
minions, who could be more radioactive than Stephen Miller? On occasion he
shows up on Fox News, but as a “guest” for which he isn’t supposed to be paid a
dime. It isn’t clear that his wife Katie has a job either, and the Millers have
had to sell their luxury condo in Washington D.C., for a somewhat lesser
habitat nearby. What hasn’t “moved” is Miller’s taste for evil (he even looks
evil), and so let’s dispense with the bullshit—Miller is a pure and
unadulterated racist, and you can throw the “legal” and “illegal” crap out the
window, because Miller has made clear that if he had his way, this country
would be populated by people with pallid complexions only. If the people
crossing the border were white, he’d be trying to find ways to make it easier
for them immigrate “legally.”
But talk is cheap and it doesn’t
pay the bills, and organizations that deny that they are hate groups don’t seem
eager to invite—let alone pay—for a Miller travelling road show making racist
speeches. So what is an unemployable white supremacist to do to make money?
Miller has come-up with an Eyman-like scheme to both get stoned on his Nietzschean
Kool-Aid—which one of his “mentors,” neo-Nazi Richard Spencer, claimed was his
own principle “inspiration”—and find a way to make it pay the bills too.
Miller—along with former “Freedom Caucus” legislative terrorist and Trump
chief-of-staff, Mark Meadows—has come up with something called American First Legal, a front for conning
people out of their money to finance efforts to blow-up Biden administration
policies in the courts. Here is a screen capture of the white nationalist
agenda Miller wants to “fight” for:
Like the Republican health care
“plan” website, it links to nowhere, doesn’t provide any details about what
they mean by such things as “equal rights under the law,” and the “join the fight” only asks for an email
address, so someone can get in touch with you to “ask” for money—and lots of
it. Frankly, I wonder if there are many people dumb enough to give Miller their
money, especially after reports of how Trump was forced to refund $122 million
in campaign contributions to trusting folks who were tricked into making repeat
donations without their knowledge. In a Wall
Street Journal report, ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero pointed out
that many Trump policies that Miller was behind were “overreach” and
“disregarded the plain language of statutes and legal precedent,” and thus just
begging to be disputed.
Like the numerous lawsuits
Trump’s stooges brought to overturn the 2020 election, it is to be expected
that Miller’s “legal” activities will have little success, although he may
initially forestall the inevitable by putting cases before judges installed by
Trump who place partisan politics above the law. If Miller piles-up a secession
of defeats, then one may expect donations from even the most rabid believers in
the “war on whites” to dry-up, and Miller will have to find a real “job,” and
that would surely be a serious come-down for a fanatical racist who no one but
another fascist like Trump would have given the time of day to, instead of being
told to leave the room, and not to come back, ever.
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