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I do not know if this question is related. But I want to know how we can demand the Logan Act be used to stop Trump from running a “shadow foreign policy” while Joe Biden is POTUS. No private citizen (which Trump is) is supposed to meet with or have his people meet with foreign governments the way Trump is!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan_Act

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I made the same comment on another Substack. I don’t understand how tfg hasn’t been charged with violating the Logan Act. But then, there’s so much he’s managed to violate and get away with.

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Who should we be writing to insist that they initiate this? I mean, our do nothing House of Reps as led by Mike Johnson, of Seven Mountain Madness, is getting nothing done except to avoid legislating and taking recesses. Does he even take himself seriously? If so, how sad for him.

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Does anybody know what the excuse is for taking another recess?

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Indeed. Another 10 day vacation as the world burns, people starve and are threatened with extermination?

Moscow Mike will be recorded as the Benedict Arnold of our time.

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Hey! Don’t insult Benedict Arnold! Arnold was a great patriot and a revolutionary hero. He stymied the British invasion into northern New York at the battle of Valcour Island, and was the most important American commander at the decisive battle of Saratoga. His treason was largely a matter of professional frustration and personal pique. After he went over to the British, he led a Loyalist campaign in Virginia, so that he has the distinction of being the best general on both sides in the same war. In the 1930s and ‘40s, Kenneth Roberts wrote a series of novels that dealt with Arnold’s story. You can find them on Amazon.

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I hear you Jon. I have read of his contributions and his military expertise. Point taken. But regardless, the name has come to symbolize treason and we jump to it when we look for analogies.

In the future, I suspect another name may supplant it.

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Our reps in Congress get more recesses than kids in pre-K.

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And they act more like pre-K kids than some 4 year olds I know.

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Exactly so, and with much more cause that the Benedict Arnold of the Revolutionary War.

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"Moscow Mike" will be recorded as a stupid, spineless sycophant.

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Are you talking the Zelensky puppets?

Where did the Trump -Putin connection come from? It was a fantasy cooked up by the Clinton's and echoed by the media. Its a lie. Brennan briefed Obama in the summer of 2016 that the Clinton campaign was planned to tie Trump to Putin to take attention away from her email scandal.

BTW Clinton kept and stored highly classified documents illegally. When those records were subpoenaed she bleached bit the server and destroyed her phones with hammers. Of course when the FBI investigated they didn't to prosecute. NO raids, no indictments, nada.

Why? Because she is a leftist democrat.

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I wish there was one shred of logic in your proposal. Once Hillary Clinton lost the election, who was president? If there was anything there there with Clinton don't you think Trumps operatives would have discovered it?

But wait, maybe all those emails are still in the basement of the pizza parlor along with Hunter Bidens laptop and all the guns he owned. That's probably the same basement they buried Tony Soprano!

See? I can invent conspiracies for fun as well?

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It seems they have hardly been back in session 🤷🏻‍♀️

Ukraine needs help NOW!!

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Oh come on. They've been hard at work on the Stop Unaffordable Dishwasher Standards Act, the Liberty in Laundry Act, the Affordable Air Conditioning Act, the Clothes Dryer Reliability Act, the Hands Off Our Home Appliances Act and the Refrigerator Freedom Act.

I wish I was joking.

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becky, you know all these appliances are so very important and now need congressional protection because having energy efficient appliances is not patriotic. I hate it when the dishwasher rebels. And now the dryer has put up an American flag and the washer is complaining about us being woke. We have a houseful of books about those subjects that a true American shouldn't know about and the heat pump has threatened to burn them.

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I wish you were joking, too, Becky 😕

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Their misplaced attention to "home appliance patriotism" is inexcusable, but may provide some fruitful campaign statements from their Denocrat opponents.

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I wish you were joking, too….

Do people even KNOW that is what the House has been up to instead of dealing with things like our own border security, Asian security issues, Israel and Gaza, and Ukraine!

Hands off our Home Appliances Act!! …. !

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Just more Republican Political Theatre. The clown show continues....

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It seems like our kitchen appliances are getting more consideration and more support for their freedom than people are.

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Well done, Becky! Perfecto. 🤣

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But they were also hard at work investigating and impeaching Sec'y Mayorkas, and today the Senate gave the repubs their well deserved reward! It went something like, "Go home and get your shine-box"

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Let's just all resolve NOW to be very vocal about this come November! Vote Republican = recess; Vote Democrat = action. Obviously, I'm not in the advertising business, but you get my drift.

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I wish we could be as vocal and as active NOW as in decades ago when people gathered in front of the Congress and the Supreme Court and protested the lack of representation of their views. While I dread violence as threatened by the MAGAfascists ultra-extremists, I hate being sidelined, silenced, hogtied by threats. It seems like we're already in a non-democratic country when we see our views and our institutions disregarded and abused by what is clearly a violent minority answering to a vengeful Trump and Putin combination.

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Yeah, the world has changed SO much, Roxanna. I can recall going to a local Vietnam war moratorium here in Cleveland, maybe 1970ish, and there were probably 20,000 people who showed up! Can't imagine much of anything drawing that kind of protest response today. But stay tuned; I can kinda feel a change in the air, and it could get very interesting real soon. As Heather says, "Democracy Awakening"!!

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I think some anti-Israeli folks have done some protesting.

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Spot on...I like it, Daniel!

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Even "Big Media" can find a way to play with that.

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Thats what I was wondering - they just literally got back from a "recess"! I have to wonder - is there any "rule, norm or possibility etc" to prevent these one after another "recesses" & maybe have them do their job? You know the supposed reason for their being there & raking in over $170k a year!!!!!!!

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The Representatives are exhausted by all the work they are doing. Or, Mike Johnson has to make another visit to Mar-a-Lago to get instructions from the Orange Speaker of the House.

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He wants to remain speaker and if they are in recess, nothing can happen. And they have to fund raise since the RNC now exists to pay death star's legal bills. We are now seeing ads for Ds in the House primaries here in Oregon, so the Ds are busy helping candidates who can actually win in November.

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Michele

Your answer is less tongue-in-cheek than mine. I think you are right on both counts: Remaining Speaker for two more weeks and the need to raise campaign funds.

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Lynell.. Recess? Obviously, to me anyway, they're all constipated as-the-devil and about to piss-their-pants as well..! Perhaps it's their diet of spoiled goods. Maybe quit accepting care-packages from their friends in the Russian "Intelligence" community residing close by. And, I'm not referring to the ones with diplomatic plates either!

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That was exactly the question I had this morning.

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Morning, Lynell. I don't, this is the first I have heard of it.

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Afternoon, Ally! Well, we'll probably never know why another recess. Why should we? We're just the ones paying their salaries.

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His confusion is showing up as a huge internal conflict between his complete adoption of Christianity as a national priority, and his role in government which specifically bans it. That's intrusion.

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MAGA Mike is a pseudo Christian. If actions are not good news for the poor and vulnerable of society,it's heresy. Period. To leave Ukraine so vulnerable when we could help is sinful. MAGA Mike and his ilk are trying to force a form of Christianity on the country. That is the opposite of what Jesus did.

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These ChINOs are only interested in punishing the poor and vulnerable for being poor and vulnerable. God favors the godly with riches and strength. That's how you know who's who.

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True, Becky. The only gospel *any of them* have read is Osteen’s prosperity gospel.

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Hmmm. Jesus asked people to give up their riches and follow him.

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I, personally, would expect that he firmly believes he is doing God’s work. Most likely God wants peace and fewer bombs with Putin going forward to rebuild a Soviet homeland. There is no earthly explanation for what Mike Johnson is doing. Let’s remember his stated, “If you want to know my world view, read the Bible.” The centuries old fiction writing surely offers anyone who reads it great clarity.

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I just read Genesis....KJV. As far as I can tell God is promising a lot of really old guys(hundreds of years old) that their lines will rule in one case from the Nile to the Euphrates. Later this became smaller as it wasn't really practical. There is a lot of concern about perpetuating "seed", that is, patriarchal family descendants. There's also incest, rape, and violence and in Eden God is angry because his creations discovered sex, as that is what the Tree of Knowledge was about. So then He had to make all sorts of promises about male lines. After Lot's wife turned to salt, his two daughters were so concerned with the continuance of his seed that they got him drunk and laid with him. Now that's devotion.

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Got to remind ourselves that the concept of God is an idea, however that does or does not affect anyone; further interpretations should not in any way be the business of government. Each of us has a responsibility to govern our own minds - as any literate Jew can tell you from our 2k years of talmudic and weekly contemplating of those mysterious life instructions.....

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Right on!!

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Yeh.. And, Separation of Church & State.., what a great concept. Seems to be partly woiking. I mean they(?) are tax-exempt right...? Well, that was certainly a start, huh. But, it seems to have gone adrift too. Gotta 'right' the ship.Taking the "oathe of office" seriously would be a start.

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Who should we be writing to insist that they initiate this?

DOJ. Ask for a preliminary injunction, if not a TRO. https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/temporary_restraining_order

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Thank you. I have just contacted the Department of Justice via their contact form asking them to apply the Logan Act to both Trump and Grenell. https://www.justice.gov/contact-us

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Thank you! One more request sent to the DOJ.

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And another

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Thanks for making it easy for us to make the request to the appropriate department to apply the Logan Act to former President Trump!

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Just sent. Thank you for this info.

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How many of trumps sycophants work at DOJ?

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Thanks for the contact. I wrote, too.

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One more request sent.

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Me too.

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That anything but a BLUE TSUNAMI might work is as big a joke as the hostage positioned MAGAs. Been there.Done that. We’re in year four of delays, justice subterfuge, and strangle hold tactics spelling nothing but chaos and desperation from their House. It’s not OUR HOUSE. Until the complicit are voted out it won’t be. The Logan Act? Seems to me well intentioned stopgaps are now just vague laws reinterpreted by again …the hostage people….PRINCIPLE IS DAMNED….all the way through the SCOTUS.

The continuous Democratic wins/seats taken/ground swelling grass roots fund raising steadily tells the story louder and louder…

I’d like to hear your list complete with the date THEIR position is up. Mine is growing …Massie wasn’t on it..wasn’t …is now. It started with the 147 at first impeachment. There are no innocents.Its FAR too late for a feigned stand.

I’m not running scared . I’m disappointed with my own knowledge of how this SHOULD BE working. Apparently there’s boatloads like me. (Today’s class is The Logan Act -thanks btw).

See I was under the impression that my regular vote would install people carrying forth The American Dream..what my father died for in ‘44 . I’m not sure when it changed..but IT DID. IT was a very contemplated sneaky plan ..long in perpetuity. Many see TFG as the culprit , he played into the plan , a gloved fit , hand made.

Are the majority of Americans really White Supremists that came out of the woodwork in 2016? Or can the Constitution be again a stand for ‘all people are created equal’?.. . 11/5/2024 will tell.

I am hard pressed to understand the ever present Russian influence , they stood beside us against Hitler but seemingly are present everywhere war breaks out having ‘gone in and disrupted covertly’ ( well acknowledging US has done this a few times too) .

I can’t change my mind Ukraine is probably the last foothold in Europe .Needs to be fully supported. When Zelensky this week stated Israel isn’t a NATO alliance and yet US is supporting ( the hostages strangling here I know) …really underscored the volumes already written.

💙💙VOTE OUT ALL THE COMPLICIT💙💙

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Thank you for your post, which I fully agree with. I heard Zelensky's interview and his well taken point that Isreal is not a part of NATO and yet is fully supplied

with weapons. I

understand not

wanting to start a

proxy war with Russia, but its obscene that Mike Johnson is withholding critical support from Ukraine, as their infrastructure is being destroyed and people killed. If Ukraine is allowed to be destroyed, there will such chaos throughout the world as Russia continues its aggressive & destabilizing strategies. We need to be stopping that now, before it happens, not watching Mike Johnson & our House of Representatives continue to delay providing essential support for Ukraine.

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I also listened to Zelensky and thought, he's going about this the wrong way, he needs to stress that Israel is not the only place where Jews were attacked, he is also a Jew and Russia, in it's attempt to devour Ukraine, is killing fellow Jews. In the thousands of children taken to Russia for reprogramming, how many are Jewish?

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Good point that adds to this terrible tragedy unfolding!! 😢

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Thanks, Sunni

We are a growing voice ,paying attention , and speaking up more and more. HALELUJAH !

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Linda, “Seven Mountain Madness” sounds like a dystopian (un)amusement park.

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Errr ‘all men are created equal’…that’s part of the debate and left for us, sisters…also on 11/5/2024.!

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Patricia, a dream of mine is to see the ERA ratified & adopted in my lifetime (time’s a-wasting!!).

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I’m with ya! Love your posts🫶

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Sad for us

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It's not sad It's a very serious situation for Ukraine and our Country. There is alot at stake!

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I would go out on a limb and say he has gotten away with more stuff, more crimes than any other private US citizen has managed to get away without repercussions.

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Trump claims the Dems are trying to take him out politically. He claims they're after him. That's paranoia. His paranoia does not mean he did not commit crimes.

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He is also teaching young people how to get away with murder. Deny, sue, lie, deny sue.

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Not to mention Jared Kushner.

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Especially Jared Kushner (now at $4 Billion?).

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Why IS there no call for and investigation of that deal and some legislation such as “The Son in law Post WH Corruption Prevention Act”?

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Jared failed to meet the criteria to receive a security clearance and so daddy-in-law had to grant him the clearance. I hope you are right about Jared being investigated once the election is over and the Democrats take back the House.

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Where is Jared in all of this? In China? In Saudi Arabia? Looking after trump's interest in the new real estate deal in the mid east (Oman?) He's not making statements like the rantings of Don Jr, no videos, no press......sounds of silence. probably eating Ivanka's home made latkes or a Seder dinner. Wait! those are Jewish things, and doesn't trump not like Jewish people?

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Perhaps keeping a low profile is one’s best hope of making sure the whole unsightly mess fades in that distant trash pile chock full of the forgotten debris of short attention spans.

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If tRUMP had to deal with one more indictment ie violating the Logan Act, he wouldn't have time for his naps in court. And if you're going to add more crimes, how about tacking on the fact he never stopped making money off all his businesses while he was prz. The Emoluments (even spel-chek didn't help me out with this one but you know what I mean) clause. That's uncounted millions of profit.

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What a dumpy little multi-tasker! I never even dreamed of dozing off in trafic court, but I did breastfeed my infant there.

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Don Snoreleone will likely fall asleep many times in court over the next 8 weeks.

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Gwen, given TFFG’s apparent health/mental health issues, particularly increasing dementia-related observations, it is not surprising that he may nod off & be disruptive when he is supposed to sit still and comport himself appropriately.

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Why are so many Trump condos and properties sold to Russians and/or dark LLC’s? Why are almost all the Trump licensee deals in counties within the Russian sphere of influence? Yes, emoluments clause is appropriate here.

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Pecuniary emoluments should be curtailed for all elected in positions of trust.

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"emoluments" is the correct spelling. Not that this dyslexic sees that word as "emlouments" every time...

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The biggest contributors were the Chinese. I would guess the US might be second with all of the golf games he had.

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And the Democrats, especially Biden, are bending over backward to avoid fanning the flames of dt’s incessant incendiary claims that his criminal issues are merely partisan uses of the judiciary… but when is the point when the gloves come off, when some fire extinguishing equipment will be used and will that happen ? Would it help?

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Hard telling. I would get great satisfaction from that though.

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This is why we have to pursue his current trials and why voting is so important. Those few years Trump had in power gave him the power to install what we are now calling loyalists, I call them traitors. He needs more lawsuits? He needs to focused upon for the crimes for which we have indictments and get him removed from society. And yes, he should. Perhaps from prison.

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If it is a rule, law, or tradition-none applies to him.

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SPW, I have been wondering about this too. It is simply outrageous. In history many times there were shadow governments and now we have one too.

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Steve, I was pondering this very issue today whilst running errands…my thoughts kept going to the shenanigans TFFG is doing & his meddling….to the point of him mentioning that he has an “envoy” (forget the guy’s name), receiving foreign dignitaries at Mara Lago (didn’t he call it the “southern White House” when he was in office?) & that Congress members meet/speak with him regularly & seem to follow his direction (shame on them!!!). I tried to remember if any former prez has done anything similar, but could only recall situations when former presidents, sometimes more than one, would work together in coordination with the administration-in-office for humanitarian causes. My jaw has hit the floor so many times in response to what he does that I’ll probably need reconstructive surgery!!!!

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Better get that surgery soon if trump takes the presidency my guess is that All health care will go out the window, except for "true believers"!

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That picture of him in court. He looks as though he is 100% healthy as his doctor proclaims. Looks VERY old, and the republicans claim Biden is old.

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I don't think so. Trump and his cronies will get the best health care--not so much for the rest of us.

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Have you seen the statement by Chris Sununu explaining??? why he will be voting for the dumpster (or endorsing - not sure which - maybe both). Because according to him 51% of people will vote for tffg. This is the "honest, upfront, vocal" conservative Sununu up to this point!! (Sorry the exclamation points get away from me these days)

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Maggie, A couldn’t believe that a governor of a northern state said that.

Yes, NH has been known as bent Republican for a long time, but that statement? Another little t sycophant. Like Barbara Keating my jaw has dropped so many times I too may also need plastic surgery.

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Samm, to me ANYONE in Congress or Fed/state elected office that endorses/chooses to vote for TFFG is pretty much on board with the ideas/plans (long ago hatched) in the “mandate” Project 2025, irrespective of who might be the next “R” POTUS.

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I don't believe it. I've been hearing the 50/50 scenario between the Democrats and the Republicans for a long time, but not so much about the Independents which outnumber both! My guess is the majority of those Independents will heavily lean toward retaining Democracy over voting for an autocratic criminal madman!

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It may come to a rational decision by those foreign governments once Iran has nuclear weapons ( thanks to Mango Unchained). Israel is not the only country in Iran’s nuclear crosshairs.

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Mango Unchained 😂

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Mango Unchained!!!! Brilliant! Just brilliant!

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🤣👍 Mango Unchained….perfect!

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Great question!

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We all agree. And the answer?

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Me too. Republicans have been doing it since Reagan with great success and no consequences.

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Since Nixon worked put a deal with Vietnam to undermine President Lyndon B. Johnson to hold off on a plan to end the Vietnam war until after the election.

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Yes his “secret plan” otherwise known as steal the election.

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AMEN! …tell ‘em like it is Dotty!🫶

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Yes! I sent a letter to the White House 2 weeks ago about this very thing. Why do we sit back and let this man take over?

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Just a thought, maybe Biden can assign TFFG as ambassador to, um, Siberia? Antarctica? Namibian desert? Cape Horn?

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Do they have golf courses in these far away places?LOL

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I’ve wondered that too and despite many attempts to find out I’ve never found out…surprise, surprise!

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That is a great question. I remember Heather mentioning about the Logan Act in one of her newsletters.

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Thanks. I don’t remember Heather mentioning it. Hope she does again sometime soon!

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Yes she did. I remember reading about it in her newsletter.

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My guess on that is that although this law goes back to 1799, only 2 people were ever charged, both in mid 1800’s and both not convicted. In today’s courts of delay,delay delay, appeal, appeal, appeal, my guess is too little too late. It must be vote Blue in all ballots local to federal until this ship can be righted and return to real governing by the people, for the people.

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Some people are above the law, Haven't you noticed?

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Someone should have explained that to Jimmy Carter, who in his post-presidential years was not shy about conducting a personal foreign policy.

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I'm SO with you!! This has been horrifying me, that they are able to do this! It's like they're now completely trying to ignore that the elected government exists and just bully on past!

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You mean the same way the Clinton rolled around the world selling influence and collecting envelopes? The world was a hell of a lot safer when Trump was President. Dictatorships stayed in their lane because they were afraid of Trump.

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The Logan Act is essentially incomplete. It states what is not allowed but provides no implementaional text. It's one more situation where we expected our legislators to deal in good faith and with good intentions toward the nation's best interests.

Mending the gaps in the Act is the job of the same corrupt do-nothing Repub Congresscritters abusing it, but since they're currently benefitting from those weaknesses they are utterly non-motivated to do so!

VOTE BLUE in 2024

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Thanks!

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Yet one more item to "fix" when all 3 branches are Democrats!

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I can't wait!

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Good luck with fixing SCOTUS. Hopefully a Alito and Thomas will retire when Biden wins reelection -- one way or another.

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Just like our Constitution apparently.

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Thank you for pointing out the lack of implementation language in the Logan Act. Yes… this defect needs to be corrected!

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Good point, Gary.

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