More than 140 military leaders, former national security officials, and elected officials from both parties have asked Congress to establish a commission to figure out what led to the January 6 insurrection, when rioters attacked the U.S.
Kevin McCarthy (R-Okiefornia) is the kind of spineless, braindead, careerist scumbag who defines the term "California Republican office-holder." They may have pushed things to the point of getting their recall vote on Governor Newsom, but the only way they can win a statewide election is with another Arnold Schwarzenegger - the last statewide Republican officeholder - and the best they've got is Reality-TV "star" Caitlyn Jenner, and given how hated the Kardashian scum are in the state, that's not much.
Word is the new judge in the Arizona "recount" case (after they got the Trumper judge who put the million dollar fee on stopping things to recuse himself on Monday) is going to shut the clown show down tomorrow. The Cyber Ninjas are trying to get hired to fuck things up all over again in Michigan and Pennsylvania now. State Police are in the stadium now securing the ballots, and the droolers are being observed by actual reporters now, not the ONANists.
I heard recently Rebecca Mercer is so the funder of OANN, Breitbart, bud of Bannon, and so on. What’s her beef she is trying to fund the end of democracy, the system that allowed her and her father to become so wealthy?
I recall the response to McCarthy ascending to Republican leadership as being essentially an eye roll, since he was a lightweight dunderhead. But after the crap Boehner went through no one wanted the job. I'd say he's living up to that rep.
Oh God. I forgot about Ryan, intentionally I think. His nasty smarm quotient was off the chart for me, he made me gnash my teeth. One of the brighter days in politics was when he decided to spend more time with his family.
I hope that you are right TC--it sounds like they are deliberately changing the ballots, which is of course a felony as voter fraud is a crime that they are apparently trying to perpetrate. And I don't know if anyone but I caught your clever "misspelling" of OANN . . .
Actually, TC's reference to "ONANists" is a pun--look up "Sin of Onan" and you'll see why. And one of my favorite internet moments was when Dan Savage's neo-definition of santorum went viral.
Please Good People let’s stop calling this an audit. This is not an audit. This is a political stunt by desperate people who are clinging desperately to Confederate America. Fox News, Rupert Murdoch, Delusion Party of America level theater.
Professor Richardson, the dark intensity of your missive today is difficult to endure because it is so important, so profound! As you write, "What is at stake is the future of the Republican Party. What is also at stake is the future of the country." It is almost too strange to be fiction, never mind reality.
The term The Big Lie has specific origins, "The original description of the big lie appeared in Mein Kampf. Adolf Hitler applied it to the behavior of Jews rather than as a tactic he advocated. Specifically, he accused Viennese Jews of trying to discredit the Germans’ activities during World War I." 1.
Joseph Goebbels wrote further, "“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” 1. The man who refuses to allow people to call him "the former president", but insists that he be called "the 45th President", thinks of himself and his followers as a government in exile.
We are in a dangerous place. "Lawyers from the Justice Department have been arguing in court lately that Trump’s continued lying about the election, along with the amplification of those lies by right-wing media, remains an ongoing threat." writes HCR.
It's real for me, too, Marlene. It COULD happen here, which is why we need HCR and many of her respondents to keep us alert, and thoughtful, and vocal, and ACTIVE. Sincere thanks to many, many of you.
In the year 2000, I was performing with a group of guitarists in a Nursing Home outside of Hanover, Germany. As I was playing, I started doing the math... I realized that the elderly people in the home that I was performing for were all in their late teens or 20's during the Second World War. It cast a different light on that entire performance for me. I didn't feel judgemental towards them, rather that I was caught in the weight of history. It was very heavy.
“The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie.”
Ah, but the perpetrators of the Big Lie are currently *not* the State. A not insignificant distinction. They flail.
A thought experiment. Let’s suppose that the current status quo endures through to November 2022. We’ll stipulate that Biden and Co. have not committed any illegalities or immoralities of the sort we witnessed in the former guy’s regime. We’ll stipulate that a new charismatic, talented and untainted leader has come along to lead the Republicans out of the bleakness of their current wilderness. And we’ll assume that HR1 has been passed, probably through some form of negation of the filibuster. I know, I know, there’s the quixotic Joe Manchin and the...unusual...Kirsten Sinema. But for the purposes of this thought experiment HR1 is enacted.
Given the above, do you believe still that politics will follow the timeworn cycle of throwing the bums out in the off-year and thus the Democrats’ world will come crashing down?
I, for one, do not think that way *at all*. For better or worse the Trump presidency has cast a long shadow over everything political. The old rules which we fear when they bode evil for us (and still view with suspicion when “it’s our turn”) are gone. Poof. It’s a different world.
My view is that, given the above stipulations, the Democrats will hold serve in 2022. They will at least maintain the House and it’s not a bad moment in the cycle for them to capture the Senate without need of a tie-breaking vote.
Should that happen, Biden/Harris or Harris/? will without doubt hold the WH in 2024. And if that transpires, then all bets are on for the kind of generational run that Roosevelt initiated in 1932 and Reagan created in 1980.
I write this because I read so many comments that 2022 is a write-off in this forum. It’s beginning to have the air of a self-fulfilling prophecy or a death wish. All in all it’s making me mental and anybody who knows me would tell you I’m not that far off to begin with. :)
Eric It is indeed a shame to see us so fearful, but it is also notable that without that fear factor we could complacently undergo an Election cycle repeating 2010. Truly we need to be alert but hopeful.
I have tried to find authentic site to Goebbels quote of the "Big Lie." No one ever gives a cite for the quotation and there are over 500,000 uses of it when Googled. Though I know Goebbels lied, I doubt that he would have announced it. He continually claimed that he told the truth, which is the bedrock of convincing propaganda. I have also read that the quote was made by Hitler in his book "Mein Kampf" when he was mounting his argument about the "evils" of Jews. THEY ( the Jews) tell big lies and hence should be eradicated. I agree that Trump is guilty of Big Lies, but I doubt that Goebbels publicly promoted it with such a statement. https://bytwerk.com/gpa/falsenaziquotations.htm
Tommy Robinson's Russian ties are not a surprise. Like Roger Stone's cutout was Julian Assange. Paul Manafort and Konstantin Kilimnik, Maria Butina and Paul Erickson, Rudy and Andrii Derkach, Donald T and Aras Agalarov, David Duke and Rinaldo Nazzaro. Christian Right leader Allan Carlson & Konstantin Malofeev, Flyn and Kisliak. And who did Eric Prince meet up in the Seychelles Jan 11 2017 by chance? And the this list goes on and on....
Why is that every faction leader of the Republican Party, whether it is in the NRA, the Christian Right, or "Terrorism Consultants" white supremist in the United States is only a few people or one away from a Russian agent? Richard Spencer, organizer of Unite the Right Organizer is married to Russian Nina Kouprianova, former translator for Russian Political Analyst, neo fascist Aleksandr Dugin, an special philosophical advisor to Putin?
Time for NSC and FBI to clean up this mess and serve some people one way tickets out of our country for good. Why are we putting up with this bullshit?
So, how in Hell's name do you link Julian Assange in your list? - OK - he's been demonised for over 10 years - even the Guardian is starting to apologise for their treatment of him. If there's one thing that Biden could do - that would cause a heartfelt sigh of relief by journalists world wide, would be to withdraw the charges against Julian Assange. Currently - currently God help any journalist who spills the beans on the misbehaviour of the US Gov't, especially the military. Perhaps go and read "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" - it may wake you up from your slumbers.
Assange is no journalist. He may have had some noble intentions once, but ended up a Russian stooge. releasing Poindexters emails moments after the Access Hollywood tapes became public tells us who he was working for all along. Julian became a useful idiot for Russian intelligence at the key moment in October 2016.
I agree about Assange. At first glance he seemed to be an honest whistleblower, but he's no Edward Snowden, let alone Chelsea Manning or Daniel Ellsberg. Everything he did worked to Russia's advantage.
100%. (a cut out is spy tradecraft to allow for plausible deniability)
Assange is the cut out 'twen Stone and the Russians. It was only a moment after the Access Hollywood (GRAB EM BY THE #) that the "stolen" Podesta emails where released to steal as much oxygen away from the tape of DT that should have cost him the election. The timing is extraordinary. That's not journalism, it is "rat Fu**ing". And Roger Stone is the king rat fu**er!
Just because it was an email hack, doesn't make it any less a "theft" or crime. This was the rat fu**ing BS from Watergate, just tuned/evolved for the cyber/information age. Dig?
Stone is G Gordon Lilly of 2016, but worse, he had help via Assange to coordinate a "counter" October surprise via Russian Intel Agents with military grade hacking tools and training. Assange didn't get those emails from anyone else but the Russians. Perhaps there is another cut out between Assange and the Russians, sure, but it doesn't matter. The timing is what is important. This was a political attack at a key moment. FBI reports Podesta emails got hacked in the Summer of '16. Those emails were held strategically, then released in October within minutes of the Access Hollywood expose'.
"In espionage there are no coincidences." -Malcom Nance
If the Mueller Report wasn't direct enough, Andrew Weissmann's book explains more in everyday language. Highly recommend to read before and after the Mueller Report, "Where Law Ends" -A. Weissmann
My read on Assange is that he began as a document dump site. He was loosely referred to as a "journalist." When he began, he carefully reviewed and redacted documents before dumping them on the internet. Then he grew tired of checking documents for authenticity, or fell in the the Russian machine, and began dumping unverified documents, dangerously exposing innocent agencies and people. Assange agreed to help Manning, an Army intelligence analyst, with cracking an administrative password to the military's classified internet system, resulting in the charge of "espionage." He has since used the claim that he is a journalist to protect his contacts.
Where would we be without the Russkies or the Chinese to blame? A great way of deflecting responsibility. It seems if someone goes against the general consensus - they are Russian trolls! - I've even been accused of being one!
Hugh I do applaud your points and you seem to be a good fellow. So keep up the decent attempt to keep us honest. I for one appreciate a muck raker with good intentions.
Living in Australia - and getting the blowout from what's going on in USA (our guvermint would love to ape USA - GOP)- and having a partner also ex USA citizen - we are very attuned to what's going on. I'm always surprised that some of the commentators on HCR react so vigorously (and venomously) to comments... cool it folk! It doesn't help rational discussion!
I can't wait to read the findings of a congressional commission on the 6th January insurrection, and all the more so, to see 45, his family, and lackeys (congressional and otherwise) convicted of treason by the DOJ.
I can't believe that I'm writing this: Brava to Liz Cheney for sticking to her guns (tongue in cheek!) while risking her standing in this warped GOP. It shows a healthy dollop of chutzpah and a moral spine, both of which are sorely lacking in McCarthy and other members of that Mafia, who can no longer be identified as a political party.
The ludicrous recounts of ballots that are taking place, plus the Big Lie and it's corresponding threats, re-echoed daily by 45 or his right wing media pundits leave me with a queasy feeling at the pit of my stomach. And yet, I refuse to allow them to overpower our democratic structures without a powerful grassroots struggle! We can be mighty if we stand together! We must, at the very least, give it a try!
Where are her vocal allies, though? If Chaney is going to stick her neck out, she deserves to have others of her party vocally support her. Where is Romney, for one? If they are truly concerned for the future of democracy in this country (and they damn well should be), why are they not speaking up?
I agree with your basic point and hope Chaney continues to oppose the RWNJ propaganda campaign. But I also keep in mind her years' long voting record (committee and floor votes) and public statements. She may be rejecting the current Looney Tunes, but she's always been very far right. If she's our best GOP-hero, we are in sad shape....
Yes! Ironic, isn't it, that we are looking hopefully to her, of all people, in this dark time? It really has gotten that bad over there on the Dark Side.
They are around, but allowing her to take the heat! Romney is in the Senate, so he's avoiding the House's shenanigans. Perhaps, it's beneath him, who knows ...
If he rides the public the way Hebrides horses, he would leave the hard work, care and training to others and only mount at the last minute to ride the best trained in the show competition.
Good morning everyone! Except our troll and bot collection: I hope you have a terrible morning. So one of the things I find super interesting is which of HCR's letterset targeted by whatever Russian operative is in charge of monitoring and sending out the trolls. When she talks about historical stuff, they rarely bother. But when the malfeasance of the Repugnicans is revealed and open to discussion--whoops! Out they come.
TC, I do sincerely hope that a judge shuts down this whole thing because the same group is supposedly starting up the same stupid fake recount in Michigan. Meanwhile, anyone who has half a brain is quietly stepping away from their adherence to the Ghastly Old-Men Party. The DoJ has been working like crazy--on a skeleton staff because the Ghastly Ones are still holding up under-secretary appointments in hopes to slow Garland down. But I suspect that the people who were rehired after quitting the Barr-fest in disgust are very interested in keeping the ball rolling. However, the wheels of real justice rotate slowly and it could be some time before we see federal indictments of the Trumpistas coming down. What I am hoping for is some more energy coming from NY's prosecutors.
Meanwhile, Garland is also initiating investigations of the Louisville police department, and probably others beyond that one and Minneapolis. Breonna's family might (I am hoping) get some justice after all.
I think it’s time to stop talking about what Trump followers “believe” and stop talking about trying to get them to see what is factual and true. Time even to stop talking about “lying.” We are dealing with a blatant attempt to make a coup. There’s nothing “delusional” going on here. There’s only an insurrection with a barely disguised attempt to create an avalanche of alternative reality in which any opposition is met with force. Americans who want a democracy are going to need to find new tools to cope with this juggernaut. We are going to need to fight fire with fire. I’m concerned that our “delusion”is that rational democratic tools can beat back this anti democracy army that’s being created right before our eyes. Dangerous times!!
I think you're right in many ways. There is no way to "bring the followers around" and have them see the facts; for them, the facts are only their "sincerely held beliefs" and everything else to the contrary is a lie. It is certainly time for the Democratic party to grow a backbone, and engage in combat (in a manner of speaking) rather than debate.
I see dangerous delusions in the GOP. It is like they all have serious personality disorders and some of the older ones, like Ms. Lindsey, has selective dementia. The mistruths, the stories they weave, should really be fiction but unfortunately they are not. This is going to be a battle to the finish. I just want us to the winners.
Is calling Lindsey Graham, "Ms. Lindsey" meant to be a gay slur? I am always uncomfortable when the left uses this name for him? Just curious about the intention.
It's actually a feminist slur, I think. A gay friend of mine once referred to him by an epithet I can't quite recall, but it painted him as a "hysterical woman." Look up "Lindsay Graham Nicknames." He has a lot of them, and his "stand" on any given issue seems to be more of a drunken stagger. He's quite well-known for that.
I agree, it's either a gay slur or uncomfortably close. There are plenty of other epithets to inflict on Graham. Still, if he is closeted, his support for viciously anti-LGBTQ policies is grotesque hypocrisy.
Self-hatred seems to be the underbelly of the GOP. But, I just read that one of the things he did was adopt (legal guardianship) his sister so she could receive his military medical benefits. So though a "conservative," he had no compunction to access federal benefits for his family. There is no end to the contradictions!
I always appreciate your contribution, Jan. Thank you for being here. I don't have much to say about the "Ms. Lindsey" term, it's my first time seeing that expression and I understand your concern.
I think the story of Lindsey Graham is a tragedy. A tragic story. A poor lost soul who, if it's true that he is in the closet, is yet another victim of this culture of the South (going back to antebellum society and then European colonists before that) that brutally oppresses the non-favored class, the class of anything except white straight men.
Mis-spoke. Too early, no coffee. I meant "mysogenic slur," or more generally a "sexist slur." The idea that he's a "hysterical woman." Which is technically an ugly sexist stereotype deliberately mis-applied to the wrong (in the context of sexism) sex. In the context of the conversation, referring to him as gay (even tangentially) would have been an unintended compliment.
And incidentally, any slur, of any context, is a slur: it is intended to insult, and the intent outweighs the context or the specifics, IMO. That's why "snowflake" has become such a toxic term. It has at least two contradictory origin stories, and neither explains its toxicity. When I first went to New York City (in college) I got introduced to a whole lot of ethnic slurs I'd never heard before (small town kid, what can I say). Same thing.
While I applaud the stand Liz Cheney took following the insurrection, I don't trust Liz Cheney as far as I can throw her. That apple does not fall far from the tree. Her father did a similar move following Watergate. That said if I had to choose between her or Trump Sycophant Kevin McCarthy to lead the Republican party, the choice is a no brainer.
The GOP is disintegrating. Fracturing in more ways than anyone can keep count. Who knows how the political power of the Great Old-Society Party of racists sexists and genderists will be exercised, but it’s going to get harder and harder to keep these people unified.
I fear the combination of the 1) radical right politicians, 2) the distortions and misdirection by the radical right media, 3) the control of state legislatures, and 4) the control of the Senate by less than 35% of the voters will continue to "unify" the radical right. What may beat them is a government that cares about the infrastructure, promotes effective regulations, and provides and expands a social safety net, and then broadcasts its accomplishments and intentions. If that doesn't clearly work, democracy is going to quietly transform into the appearance of a democracy without the reality.
I understand the fears, and of course as usual Jan your analysis is perfect. However here is where I part company with the fears: their time (the traditionalists) has come and gone. Their time was the 2000 year period of the age of Pisces. That was the era of rigid structure and rigid classes in society. We have entered the age of Aquarius. In this new 2000 year epoch in earth history, we as a civilization are moving into All For One and One For All. One Earth. One Grand Society of Equals. A global society. Our first real harbinger of the New Society was probably the US democracy followed closely by the French Revolution. The world wars were the final death knell for royalty and monarchy as center of government. Now we have more democracies than monarchies. That trend will continue. The Republicans and Trumpsters are fighting a losing battle, a desperate last gasp. In California they’ve already been relegated to permanent minority status. Eventually that will happen at the national level too. They are trying to cling desperately, holding on by their fingernails, but it won’t work. All of society is moving in the direction of equal power to everyone in every class. #MeToo. Shaming the Amy Coopers and in-the-closet white suburban racists. Biden’s Cabinet and appointees. The Republicans are history as a national power. They’re getting close to being done and dusted. It’s inevitable.
Roland, I hope we turn this into truth. We are almost there. Big steps: Biden, Harris, Warnock, the other GA Senator were accomplished as well as Garland as AG. We can only press our advantages and push the pols and the corporations into doing the right thing.
His supporters, those true belivers are also a front. They are the now his shiny objects with a splash of intimidation and offer themselves as the fake "realness" that the Oligarchy needs to "Perform" "show elections".
The trick is to see if they can somehow hang on to the base while sidelining Trump. I believe this is Ted Cruz's entire shtick these days, to be Trumpist enough so he is the obvious candidate when Trump declines to run or is prohibited from doing so.
Acceptance of the vote is the fundamental tenet of the peaceful transition of power in this country. If the majority of the members of the minority party will not accept this concept then we are in a crisis.
Slightly off topic, but I would like to know when the American people are going to see some accountability in the form of indictments and criminal trials of trump, his minions, and the insurrectionists. As far as it looks now, many people got away with crimes against this country, tax fraud (doesn’t the SDNY have the goods on Trump?). etc. That they seemingly “got away with it” continues to fuel the bizarrely dangerous behavior and actions of trump cultists and sympathizers. trump continues to sit on his palace gold toilet throne demanding loyalty (to him only) while spewing nonsense rhetoric to do it all again.
Like Marcy, I believe that the DOJ is busy doing all the groundwork for coherent cases to be brought when all the legwork has been done. And there's so much to do! Let alone how gutted the DOJ ended up (well, any of the institutions, like the State Dept) after the intentional tear-down done during the Orange Nightmare years. It's been less than 6 months since people who know their jobs got back in the driver's seat. I have every confidence that we will see solid cases brought against the people you mentioned, but like you, I'm anxious for those dominos to start to fall.
I think your assessment here is correct. Biden only last week got his #3 at DOJ cabinet pick approved and don't forget, it took two months to get Garland confirmed as AG. The DOJ was both gutted and corrupted under the former guy, and there had to be a LOT of work involved to get the investigation rolling, I also ask folks to remember that one of the US District Attorneys made a public statement that was of the nature that NEVER gets made during an ongoing investigation about 6-8 weeks ago (my 0500 google skills aren't good enough to find it on a cursory search).
The other issue is that these investigations take time to complete, and trial preparations are very complex in something like this; they really don't want to mess it up. (Note that it took 11 months to bring Chauvin to trial with a much simpler investigation.)
The DOJ is once again on the side of justice. It needs time to revamp after the harm done by Der PussenGropenFuhrer. Yet the mills of justice grind slow but exceedingly fine. Bulldog Garland's work will be slow but thorough, and ultimately, exquisitely complete.
I agree Ally and Natalie - the gutting of the DOJ was a huge setback and there was nothing we could do about it for 4 years. Given the seriousness of the crimes committed, I just hope we don't have another 4 years for things to start rolling! These cases are frightfully complicated and time consuming. However, I thought the SDNY had a lot of their leg work done and would have been able to drop some indictments on trump relatively soon. Part of my frustration is, as I have gotten older, my patience has waned as I wonder if I'll live long enough to see justice served :)
Hi Janet. I share your feeling of (mild to moderate) hopelessness and (mild) despair.
However I believe our feelings are misleading. My mind and my gut tell me that Felon45 will make it to prison in our lifetime. The sheer volume of serious, serious crimes and investigations into those crimes tells us that he cannot escape justice indefinitely. The breadth and depth of legal and criminal exposure is breathtaking. Something tells me Trump might even go the way of Cosby and Weinstein, or Al Capone (tax evasion, in DT's case the Trump Organization's financial sleaze). When we're focusing on just one side of the story, something else can blindside us that we weren't expecting or that we had temporarily forgotten about. So while paying attention to Raffensperger's audio recording (Fulton County DA) or January 6 or election finance crime à la hush money payments (SDNY), maybe something else pops out.
If you need something to boost your spirits, watch this again:
Not off topic,Janet. I have been wondering the same things. I think (and hope) the reason we are in the dark is the difference between this DOJ and the last one. This one actually works cases professionally. At least I hope that’s the reason for the silence.
And Justice For All, I have a hard time waiting. Many of us here have seen the disingenuousness of the iDJT and his followers. But if the wait will be as sweet, as the wait for Chauvin was, it will be worth it.
I am impatient for this, too, but believe that the DOJ and SDNY are busily building solid cases that cannot be easily swatted aside. The fact that they are being so deliberate is a good sign, as is the fact that, unlike Bill Barr and others like him, they are not litigating in the press or grandstanding.
Federal investigators FINALLY executed search warrants at Giuliani's home in Manhattan. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/04/28/nation/feds-execute-warrant-rudy-giulianis-nyc-home/. He has been under investigation for YEARS . . . this is what is so frustrating. Meanwhile, if he has half a brain cell left (and that is a generous statement), records would have been destroyed long ago. That is the problem with dragging things out so long.
'"Maybe if they hadn't deceived me, I could have done something,'' he told me. "Maybe I could have stopped the Iraq War."'
'Bonk, a former deputy director of the agency's Counterterrorist Center and an officer responsible for intelligence on Iraq in the year leading up to the U.S. invasion in 2003, spoke with me on background in June 2010 about events leading to the disastrous war.'
'And Bonk's statements—about deceptions that prevented solid intelligence on Iraq from reaching President George W. Bush, as well as other information kept from the public during the buildup to war—are once again in the news ...'
'And for any analysts unclear on what the administration wanted to hear, Vice President Dick Cheney... made sure they got the message on August 26, 2002, when he delivered a public speech that had not been vetted by the White House or cleared by Bush. "There is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction,'' he said. "There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies and against us."' (Newsweek: Dick Cheney's Biggest Lie, BY KURT EICHENWALD ON 05/19/15 AT 7:26 AM EDT}
It's natural to think of Dick Cheney, when I think of Liz Cheney. Her father was such a pivotal figure, the outsized Vice President of George W. Bush. I am not alone in thinking that he was the mastermind behind our invasion of Iraq. We go from Cheney's colossally horrific lie, what are the words to encapsulate what we did in the Middle East based on Dick Cheney's lie? Jump from Cheney's BIG LIE to Trump's. Slide from there to Liz Cheney, one of the very few Republicans, and the bravest of them, determined that American people know the truth. It is breathtaking to witness, from father to daughter.
Trump's LIE is already deeply embedded in the minds of many millions of American's. Could it spell catastrophe? My hunch is that Liz Cheney thinks it could. I believe that she's not standing up to the Republican Party out of self-interest as we have become accustomed to with other politicians.
Heather wrote:
'What is at stake is the future of the Republican Party. What is also at stake is the future of the country.'
Is Heather saying that unless the Republican Party parts with Trump and the LIE, it will not survive? If the Party sticks with Trump and the LIE, it will take itself and the country down?
The odds are that the Democrats will not do well in the 2022 elections. History tells us the president's party generally does poorly in the mid-term elections, and the Republican party is doing everything it can to gum up the works.
As nice and caring as Biden is; as skilled and efficient the administration has.... there is no peace, no security and no rest for the weary.
Oh Fern...I share that fear for 2022. Dystopia is ever so hanging over our heads.
As far as Tricky Dick Cheney, he was the architect of the war. His company, Halliburton, even awarded itself a government contract to build an airstrip in Iraq while the war was going on. Why has he never been held responsible for the atrocities? Oh that’s right. He’s a rich white guy.
Wow, it's unusual for me to find someone here with an even more gloomy assessment than mine! I still hold out a sliver of hope that the Biden strategy, which is to say, "This is what you could have if the Rs would get out of the way!" will have some efficacy. It's a sliver, but I am a bit hopeful. Abrams will take the Georgia governorship and keep Warnock in the Senate because he will be on the same ballot. Georgia, North Carolina, and Texas are becoming more purple by the day. There are some glimmers of hope. I'm far from sanguine, but I do believe that true conservatives are getting sick and tired of these antics.
This provocateur (Leon) sucked more attention and anger from the group than I’ve ever seen before (although I have to admit to being part of this amazing group for 8 months).
It was dispiriting and depressing to see the rage he induced and the pleasure he clearly derived from goading people on.
What I enjoy most about the HCR forum is that the most devoted members clearly have the mental chops and far ranging knowledge to engage in spirited discussion. There is disagreement but it is reasoned and I have even seen (gasp) people’s minds change.
Must have been a full moon last night.
There is lots to feel good about today.
The pressure is increasing on the “Cyber Ninja” group in Arizona and there looks to be a turn to the reasonable by Arizonans at large in regard to this spurious recount. I am deeply concerned that 2.1 million ballots, the most precious currency in democracy, have been turned over to a group which clearly has malfeasance as their agenda - malfeasance that, if successful, could set off a stampede in other states Trump lost. Should their effort be shut down in the next day or two, as seems possible if not probable, we can all breathe a huge sigh of relief. This is a cancerous and serious effort. More than mischief could result.
Heather pointed out today that the DOJ investigation is ongoing and that as many as 100 more may be charged. I have been reading a number of depressing posts on other fora espousing the theory that nothing will ever happen to those in power who aided and abetted the insurrectionists.
It was refreshing to hear the reassurance that there is no comment on ongoing investigations. We all know that intellectually of course, but emotionally we are (at least I am) fretful that some sort of whitewash will take place and those who trafficked from a position of power with militia groups will not be brought to justice. I was heartened by Heather’s comment and mentally gave myself a shake for my pessimism. The federal Republicans are waiting for the hammer to come down (has a federal party ever looked so hapless for so long?), and I think it will.
Finally, the FBI is on the case in Elizabeth NC where there appears to have been an especially egregious extrajudicial killing of a Black man last week. To this point, the sheriff’s office has been obfuscating in a particularly high-handed way in regard to transparency. No amount of transparency will restore a life, but justice and the appearance of justice must both be done. Perhaps the wall of near total silence will break soon.
All is not lost. There’ll be more discouraging days ahead, but I believe the tide is slowly turning in favor of decency and fairness. Something about the arc of the moral universe being long...
I finally found a genuine comment and not a peanut thrown to a troll! Thank you! And another bit of good news: Rudy's electronic equipment (and I assume that includes his phones) have been confiscated today!
Reid, This is like a 'new' math problem, for which there is no formula. There are so many factors,
1. census effect: the dems lost a few seats and the repubs gained a few.
2. The state legislatures: there are 30 repub state houses, 18 dems, 2 split.
The state repubs have been changing the rules to gain more control of elections. Not sure where that will be before the elections, lots of legal challenges!
3. Repub judgeships confirmed by Trump admin. - 234, including three associate justices of the Supreme, 54 judges for the United States courts of appeals, 174 judges for the United States district courts.
HOW MAY THE COURTS EFFECT STATE BILLS DESIGNED TO HELP THE REPUBS AND ELECTION DISPUTES?
4. Will the repubs still be tied to Trump and the lie, 6 months from now?
I see the election mess of my long lifetime.
5. What will the Justice Department sort out within the year?
6. What's with the investigation into 1/6 insurrection?.
7. Can Trump be legally eliminated within the year?
8. Where is the BIG LIE next year? How potent?
9. How is the Republican Party going to define itself in the next year?
10. Usually the President's party gets whooped in mid-term elections, so that's not good for the Dems. The Repubs did pretty well in the house in 2020, while losing the presidency and Georgia's senate seats.
This feels like a kaleidoscope filled with danger points - no heads or tails - and no bullets for me. We are in a vacuum as factors are in flux.
Why not include the BLM protests? If they can find a honest (hard to imagine ) bi-partisan panel to investigate the 01/06/21 insurrection then the contrast between the BLM protests and the Trump insurrection is so great it would make the point even shaper.
The BLM protests were remarkably peaceful, see The Washington Post 10/16/20
Monkey Cage
Analysis
This summer’s Black Lives Matter protesters were overwhelmingly peaceful, our research finds.....
The BLM protests were about something real--cops killing blacks--and remarkably peaceful. The Trump insurrection was about the "big lie" and not peaceful.
Why? Because the whole point of bringing in BLM is distraction and obfuscation. BLM has nothing whatever to do with the white supremacist “militia” groups who conspired to overthrow the government by overturning the election by force. There’s no equivalence here- - and that’s what RepubliCons want to make of it. That’s why.
On the surface, Jeannie, I agree with you. But I challenge all of us here to go deeper.
A racist looks for racist targets. People to blame. A racist, a sexist, looks for scapegoats to target. People of color. Women.
I wish it were as simple as just distraction, obfuscation. But isn’t it really a lot more insidious and filthy than that? ”We are the white males. We are the superior race, the superior species and gender. The problem is with POC and women, not with us.”
Notice how the nastiest attacks are directed at Kamala Harris, AOC, the Squad, & similar. Not Biden. He is still the protected species.
Criminal neglect of Puerto Rico after the disaster by a known racist New York slumlord. The examples are endless.
It doesn’t matter if they dress up in suits and ties on Fox, or in Congress, or in public office or as party officials. They try to look respectable, but underneath the very thin veneer, they are part of the same gang that includes Epstein, the white males that used to own women, both wives and slaves, etc. This is not a congenial intellectual exercise or ideological debate. It’s a filthy battle between right and wrong.
The commission, if it happens, won’t have unlimited time or resources. Including red herrings like “antifa” or “BLM involvement” in its remit would dilute the effort, and entrench the false equivalency that Jeannie identified. Work like the commissions has to be scoped carefully to be effective, and you can be certain Republicans know that very, very well.
Great summary, Roland. It is definitely more insidious than that. It reeks of one of the RWNJ's favorite debate points, "whataboutism". There are two components to the BLM protest events; those people protesting the killing of black men by police, and those anarchists that want to destroy things for the sake of destruction.
Since the WTO riots in Seattle in 1999, the west coast has had a very strong anarchist presence; we've dealt with them in Lane County, OR as they infiltrated some of the environmental protest groups, and known local anarchists were involved in Eugene's BLM protest that turned violent at the end of May last year. This group has now been lumped in with antifa. In Portland, the Proud Boys have intentionally clashed with loose groups of antifa protesters. It is that element that has been responsible for the violence in the Portland protests last summer; I cannot speak for Seattle, but I suspect that is the case there as well.
Trying to equate the 6 January insurrection incited by the outgoing POTUS with violent opportunists finding a riotous environment is worse than comparing apples and oranges; it goes to comparing bananas to turnips.
Good morning Roland, I absolutely agree that the nastiest attacks are towards POC. I agree that we focus laserlike on the women to keep them down. That is how we got the iDJT in the first place. We had a Black president who the racists revolted against and then Hillary who was reviled, raising all of the demons in our white nationalists. Hillary should never have lost, not that she would have been a great President, my point is that we as a nation are deeply racist and misogynistic. We knee jerked and in a Titanic convulsion we sank ourselves into 4 years of tRump. There were myriad reasons for the loss but l believe you have exposed our nation’s biggest problem. The thin veneer of respectability covering our filthy little secrets. We hate women and we hate POC
Agree completely. The “We” in “We hate women and POC” is the cultural conditioning and nasty habits of the past. That is the enemy. The enemy is tradition, the evil tradition of historic abuse and violence against the people who are not in the favored group (women, POC, native peoples, Asians and other immigrants, 🏳️🌈 🏳️⚧️, children, have-nots and poor people incl. homeless, et al)
Underneath the abuse, is the belief that the world is a hierarchy of abusive power, and the only question is where in that hierarchy any particular group and individual will be.
Yes. Perfectly stated. It's slimy, it's filthy, it's hideous. Whether you are Gaetz-Greene-Boebert, Ailes-O'Reilly-Hannity et al, Weinstein, Epstein, McConnell or McCarthy or any other Repub. politician or official like Cheney the Younger (the spawn of Cheney the Elder), you are part of the problem. Liz Cheney is no hero. Nor is Mitt Romney, nor Kinzinger or Sasse, nor Geo. Will, nor Lincoln Project. Certainly not Raffensperger. They just happen to value the traditions of democracy over the Trump spew. But they still are members of the spew cult of racism and sexism.
Being part of the solution means exiting the paradigm of Power Over (Power Hierarchy). Tradition is the enemy. Slavish adherence to that tradition of abuse, which includes every Republican voter whether they know it or not, puts you in the same gang as the 1800s white men who owned slaves + their wives + their children and, in their mind, were justified in killing the native people they found when they arrived here and stole their property.
Are you sure Hillary lost because our country is misogynist? She is married to Bill Clinton and historians are going to be very critical of the 90's Clinton administration, what they got done and what they didn't do. Other reasons:
The Dem Nat'l Committee dissed Bernie and his ideas, they thought they didn't need those voters. Blame for Trump's election is far bigger than - we don't want a women president.
What you said. Never mind the man behind the curtain. You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig. (I don't mean to insult our porcine friends, just a metaphor)
genuinely interested in your answer: why are you here? to convert? to fight? to annoy? you sound like a kid who had 4 older sisters that excelled in everything and you were at home crying about how nobody loved you as much as 'the girls'! Am I right??
I enjoy Heather's writing, I don't agree with it all the time, but it is good perspective, I posted one comment and got gang raped by a bunch of smurfs. Yes I am a small child, with serious mommy issues, clearly that's discernable from my comment's. Don't forget the Maga hat, diapers and hairy palms. I expressed an opinion that the Jan 6th event was an absolute staged event, and had been blown way out of proportion and the crew had an apoplectic child like temper tantrum, which then elicited a response and escalated from there.
If you equate intolerance and opposition to your comments as something as traumatizing and horrendous as gang rape, then you are a very entitled man. Don't make that mistake again, please.
Yes BLM is 100% obfuscation, Blake DOS, will never get their piece of the pie that was stolen from them through identity politics. They deserve their 40 acres and a mule, plus interest, and when and if they get it, they will want security.
Economic reform, is the only way we can reduce crime through reducing the demand for crime, instead of cracking heads, providing stability, and opportunity to families. This entire paradigm of White Fragility, White privilege and irreverent sociology babble, is a shell game. Identity politics and diction restrictions will not end racism. How many necks has Robin D’Angelo removed from the very real knee of systemic racism? Zero
Will breaking up the banks end racism? The same banks that prey on low income communities with high margin products and predatory lending, the same banks that created red lining, has refused black people their share of the American dream for centuries? It will do a whole hell of a lot more than firing tenured professors for using the term reverse racism, or thinking that any merit is inherently racist. This movement is theater, well rehearsed and orchestrated, enjoy the show.
Do you know what reverse psychology is? Clearly not as that would make no sense, I was making fun of a string of nonsensical characters, comparing them with the incoherent psycho babble that sociologists use.
While I agree that the BLM ✊🏿 protests were overwhelmingly peaceful, too include that nation wide movement in the focus of an investigation into the January 6 attack on our democracy, is a distraction and is meant to be one. We need to have a laser like focus on everyone that instigated and participated in it, without any distraction.
I totally agree Dick. BLM had nothing to do with the attack on January 6. This is a Republican move to try and obfuscate what actually happened. It is ridiculously off point and the Republicans definitely know this. Why not another recount to prove that
Trump really won and that these "patriots" were the ONLY ones who really got it.
"We need to have a laser like focus on everyone that instigated and participated in it, without any distraction." That's all this is: distraction. Pay no attention to the ones breaking in (or behind the screen), The POC did it all. Yeah, right. Let's stay focused!
The contrast between the BLM protests over the summer and the insurrection of 6 January is distinct. To meld them together into one investigation would be a huge mistake. One of these is a protest over the continued killings of Black men by police officers culminating with a horrific video of a white police officer kneeling on the neck of a Black man as he died (which was recently tried in a court of law). The other is an insurrection fomented and encouraged by the outgoing POTUS* and carried out by militant white people with the intent of voiding a national election and installing "their choice" over that of the people of the United States. Every trial deals with specificity of the "crime at issue" regardless of the environment that that crime occurred in; to merge these two events would be beyond the scope of a decent investigation.
*POTUS: it is important to acknowledge that the person who was at that moment the President of the United States is the one who encouraged the insurrection. That he also had lost the election that he was trying to overthrow is an important element of this case.
You are absolutely correct with regards to identify *POTUS and his machine as the instigators of the 6 January insurrection. The country was primed for four years, by Trump, to deny any outcome where he was not re-elected. It was a mantra at his rallies, press conferences and official appearances. By the time election day rolled around his base was ready to believe, regardless of legitimate vote count, that he was robbed.
The fact government officials, aides and staff of the administration have, thus far, not been held accountable for their actions leading to the insurrection is puzzling. If members of Congress were complicit they must be held accountable. From my perspective, it's all moving too slowly to effectively counter balance the toxic Trump rhetoric.
Yes, there are plenty of Tweets, FB posts, and in-person video to substantiate his pleadings to his supporters to come cause trouble in Washington. Sadly, his attorneys will use the DOJ memo stating that a sitting president can't be indicted, and that no one could possibly believe what he wrote and said.
This is so true. Even though both the insurrection and the protests are fundamentally part of the same problem of violent white supremacy (the insurrection acting it out, BLM protesting it), they were distinct instances that played out quite differently.
The Jan.6 insurrection was a big deal in its own right. It should have its own commission. Jamming BLM into that investigation would support the R's lying storyline that the insurrection was nothing really, especially compared to the violence from the summer.
Really ? It may show how the federal response was biased against BLM. I think it is important to preserve the history of the protests, and how the president militarized federal agents against them and then subsequently cheered on extra-judicial killings. This history is critical to BLM movement.
And even if they DID do something wrong, it's important to learn and improve.
We should never run from the facts, no matter where they lead...
That is all true, but a Congressional investigation of "BLM" or "BLM violence" will not be looking into those aspects. What you describe is solid investigative reporting by independent journalists, supplemented by carefully focused investigations within the Dept. of Justice. A Congressional investigation is too likely to give the R's a platform for their lies.
I agree with other responders here. Time and money are factors. I do wonder if it would serve any purpose to preemptively start an investigation of BLM protests after the insurrection is thoroughly investigated though. It does seem it would be wasted time in the sense that 2/3’s of republicans would not believe any investigation anyway. For me this mistrust in government is the larger concern. There is a large part of the electorate that will choose not to believe anything any of the investigating agencies does. On top of that there are multiple misinformation machines (FOX, Facebook, Russia etc....) that are more effective at entertaining and capturing the imaginations of voters. People are highly invested in being angry. And, on top of all that they are making a lot of money from the misinformation. As usual this is partially a follow the money thing. The only way that this country can be effective at home and abroad is for the anger level to come down, misinformation to be slowed (or for people to get bored with it) and for people to come together. I do not see that happening right now.
The protests against police killing of Black folx (which continues) were clearly within the rights outlined in the Bill of Rights. Plenty of people were arrested this summer and the majority of the charges have been dropped; in some cases, people were released without being charged at all. The causes of those protests (and there will be more this year if the slaughter of the citizenry by uniformed and armed thugs continues) is not in doubt.
As for the January 6th "protests", the events of that day went clearly beyond the rights outlined in those ten amendments to our Constitution. The purpose was to interfere with a fair and free election and to overthrow the legally elected government. Perhaps that was not the aim of every single person who participated (some of them were clearly not intelligent enough to have thought that far), but it was certainly the aim of the organizers and leaders.
The one needs no investigation because there is no central organizing team when people from all walks of life spontaneously take to the streets to protest violence against our brothers and sisters perpetrated by those hire to protect and serve. The other must be investigated and the central organizers must be brought to justice. The one is a protest against criminal behavior; the other IS criminal behavior.
"Tying the Republican Party to the Big Lie that caused the January 6 insurrection is a dangerous game. It is still unclear what will come out about the insurrection and the media lies that supported it and continue to support it."
I still believe that something could break open that even these most soulless, anti-American, democracy-destroying, egomaniacal, gaslighting, opportunistic, duplicitous, Big Lying SOBs cannot slime bucket their way out of.
Thank you for reminding us that we do not know much of what the Justice Department or various intelligence agencies have or may get.
I think I agree that there will be a BIG break in finding the truth to the Jan 6 insurrection. I believe Merrick Garland and his gang are moving stealthily to get to the TRUTH.
I wouldn't call it stealth, though. They are behaving the way that DOJ has always, with one glaring exception, has behaved; with dignity, probity, and care.
I don’t get it. If all these people, including trump, believe trump is still the xxxxxxxxx, then how is it that President Biden is in the White House. If trump was still legitimately in office why wasn’t this stopped? How can they not see what’s before their very eyes?
Hi Evelyn. What you are describing is exactly the disembodied news fact which has been uprooted from its natural garden and transplanted into the MSM sources you and I read.
The Big Lie is what the good guys call it, but in its natural habitat, it’s a living breathing lifeform. It’s a cult icon, the GOP’s pipe dream of an eternal Trump administration. It’s the modern day version of what I call the old order society of the 1800s and, regionally, the first half of the 1900s. In other words, the deluded souls living in the past are fantasizing, envisioning, their ideal world. In their ideal world, Trump is president forever, because he is their idol. To them, it’s not “a big lie” as much as what we would call a pipe dream. Again, that’s uprooting the plant and throwing it on the pavement. That’s taking it out of its natural habitat. Of course they don’t see it as a pipe dream, they see it as their idolized vision of reality. In its natural habitat, meaning in the world of white supremacy male supremacy boy girl supremacy society, it’s their totem. When you see those cretins running around with flags fixed to their pick-up trucks, you are looking at America in the era of slavery and Native American genocide and white male ownership of women and children. Our version of Nazi Germany, right here in America, alive and well. Those American flags waved by so-called patriots are their sacred symbol of a Trumpian world. To them, the American flag is sacred because it represents slavery and white male supremacy. When you’re burning the flag, you are desecrating the symbol of colonists and slaveowners and the Confederacy and the society that made women and children a commodity.
The Big Lie to that world is the Great White Hope and Great Male Domination of society. They don’t want to believe that their world has been taken away from them by women and non-whites and non-boy girl types. They would rather live in the delusion that their society is still running the show, is still in power.
Three things: 1) It is great to have you back. You were missed and yet, we know what you are dealing with; 2) As much as I enjoyed today's LFAA, I have had to scroll past so much trolling and feeding of the troll, that I haven't really been able to engage with the usual thoughtful members of the community; 3) I am looking forward to tonight, but with some trepidation, remembering the "You lie!" from another such event and hoping against hope that we will not be forced to observe yet another version of that tonight.
"When you're burning the flag, you are desecrating the symbol of colonists and slaveowners and the Confederacy and the society that treats women and children as commodities, as of course they have been treated for millennia."
I forgot. There was a 4th "thing": when you mention the American flag being used as their symbol, I think immediately of three other flags they are now brandishing - the Confederate flag, the blue line flag and the flag of their dear leader. How do they fit into the equation? Or are they all one and the same in that alternative universe?
Yes. That's the short answer. The different flags highlight different aspects of the alternate universe. Remember, though, that using the term "alternate universe" is misleading, because their society is a whole lot older than ours. They have centuries and millennia of history and tradition on their side.
Historically speaking, WE represent the alternative universe. The new universe sweeping the planet. The Age of Aquarius. The New Age. A golden age of society, golden-age-in-development that is. We are the Rebellion in Star Wars. We are the new revolutionaries in a new Revolutionary War. They are the Old Guard. The Evil Empire. The indomitable Borg.
In our world, we have the rainbow flag of diversity (and gayness) and the transgender flag. We should have a women's power flag, too, I suppose that would be the Rosie the Riveter image with the strong arm.
In their world, they have the new flag for the police, the Thin Blue Line flag. That should tell you something: that the police, as an institution, are on their side, not our side. (Sorry Ally and other police officers reading these words, I love you, but this is unfortunately how it works in the minds of the Trump world and in the historical context). That Thin Blue Line is enforcing white supremacy, so called "law and order." The Thin Blue Line, in their minds, is what Amy Cooper was calling on when she was in Central Park and called 911 on a birdwatcher. (excuse me while I retch)
The Trump flag is like a Hitler flag, an exalted leader, a hero of the cause, like MLK or JFK or RFK (or Che, if you lean that way, power to the people through workers and union power).
The Confederate flag is obvious: an homage to a historic relic of that old society. If I were a Trumpster, this would be my flag of choice. They also use the American flag, as I mentioned before, as a go-to symbol for their traditional racist and sexist society. Those are the pick-up trucks racing around.
Finally the Don't Tread on Me flag, they appropriated that symbol for their own purposes. I am going to split this bunch into 2 groups
(1) An anti-vaxxer or anti-masker would gravitate to this symbol. "Don't Tread on Me, stay out of my life." Hence opposition to the govt. The Cliven Bundy group, Malheur NWR, Waco, Ruby Ridge, all of these groups want to do their own thing and hate govt. interference. The Mormons fall into this group as well. They were hunted and hounded out of New York, then Illinois and the Midwest, and then finally they headed out into no-man's-land where only Native Americans lived, but at least no white society was persecuting them. The Mormons later were forced to give up polygamy when public sentiment and outrage from back East persecuted them yet again.
(2) As David'sinSC said elsewhere today, Obama caused a wicked backlash. There is a reason the Orange Popsicle opposed absolutely everything Obama did, tried to reverse all his policies. He's racist, yes, but there's more: Any Old Guard person is going to oppose Barack Obama (because he is black and he is ushering in the new society) and Joe Biden (same reasons). They reject the govt. of Obama and Biden and Harris. They are opposed to the new society that is forming, the society where power hierarchy is absent, where no one class of people is better than any other class. They are resisting the inevitable change that is sweeping the world, the change that gives women, non-whites, and LGBT+ equal power and standing. The original Don't Tread on Me flag was used by American colonists who opposed the tyranny of the English monarchy: these people were the non-Tories. The Democrats. The "Republicans" of their day, when the "Republic" of govt. by the people and for the people was in contrast to rule by one dictator, a monarch. "Republicans" nowadays, the Republican Party, is just a reincarnation of the Confederate slaveowning misogynistic society of the 1880s and prior, and the KKK society post-Civil War.
The World flag too, of course, how could I forget. The ecology flags and recycling logo and all that. Those are the symbols of the new age, the new world, our world.
Thank you Sir. My pleasure to serve. Thank you for informing me that it touches you. Like I told kimceann last week when she said one of my paragraphs "rocked her world," that's why I write and post. I am a teacher who missed his calling, until the book comes out anyway.
Evelyn you don't see them rejecting their lovely government stimulus checks from the Biden administration, do you? Or the enhanced child tax credit checks that are going out for the rest of the year because Biden and Harris made them retroactive to 2019? Or the enhanced unemployment compensation? So they are just the usual codswollopy mess of cynicism, mendacity, and greed combined with racism, sexism and homophobia. A large number of people are really, really good at not seeing anything that is before their eyes--or their noses. The people who lived downwind from the Nazi death camps in Germany and Poland insisted that they did not know they were there, even though a pall of smoke, the smell of burning bodies, and soot fell over their towns every single day.
Not to be simplistic, but it's largely conspiracy theorizing and distrust of the press. There's a reply to your post right here that lays it out quite plainly.
Indeed, paraphrasing Heather's text .....Maintaining the "Big Lie" requires the active proscription of the truth and access to it, otherwise the lie cannot survive..... Hence the projection on the mainstream media of their own information crimes and the attempted decrediting of any non-controlled sources of informations. In desperation, this can turn to physical and emotional violence against "enemy" journalists and attemps to physically disrupt or destoy any media organ not accepting the Lier's dictat. The world has been here before!
At the middle of the day I study this overflow of comments. We are in dire straits. The solution is not here on this very important website, thank you HCR. The energies spent here, I would hope, are a TENTH of the energies each contributor expends in writing congress, to local elected officials, reasoning with neighbors, urging law enforcement to follow up, etc etc etc. Bemoaning our disaster among ourselves produces little more than dismay.
I do call. I do write. I do participate in town halls with my Rep. Porter. Reasoning with trumplican neighbors??? Have you tried that? A couple days ago our conversation about masks ended after she told me that THOUSANDS of people have died from wearing masks and the news just doesn’t report it. I give up.
Well, I volunteer on a City Board and Board of a Local non-profit that serves my community. As a TN resident, I don't waste effort writing any of the elected officials...
Hello Bliss, this is my 2nd reply. I have been thinking about your statement re: directing our energies into changing the external world.
The most powerful act of change in the world is the act of changing oneself. By educating ourselves, by opening our eyes, by getting to the bottom of any issue, we exercise the greatest power possible because now *you are the change.* Now *I am the change.* Perhaps I am biased because I am a writer, a born teacher, and an introvert. So I am predisposed to seeing things this way. But I have the greatest power as a human being, be it conversing with my conservative Dad, or conversing with Trumpsters at work, or penning a letter to a public official, when I am clear in my own mind what is going on, and where I stand.
I don't want to dissuade anyone from being an activist, far be it from me to interfere in righteous activity. But thing about how much more powerful your arguments are when you have studied them thoroughly. For me, that's why this community has been invaluable, and why I dearly love so many people here. I have learned so much.
I am very male in my blanket assertions, something my wife has a problem with from time to time. I tend to be emphatic, and opinionated. Although an introvert, I am a double Leo, which is sort of a natural out-there speaker. But I don't speak glibly or rashly, normally. I have given a great deal of thought to my positions. I'm not a robot, I don't just read or hear something then begin to parrot it. And that's how you gain power: you reflect, you consider, you bounce your thoughts off others like the dear wonderful people here. And you improve your opinions, your beliefs, your values, your position. You get better all the time, you get stronger all the time.
Hi Bliss. Nice thoughtful comment. Just wanted to say that I am not bemoaning any disaster. I think the Republican Party is disintegrating and self-destructing. The knee-jerk reaction to Orange Cremesicle's loss is voter suppression bills (and the other stuff), but to me it looks like desperation moves, and closing the barn door after the livestock has left. To me it appears the Congressional Republican caucuses are heading the way of the California Republican Party, which has achieved permanent minority status. They are doing everything they can to drag it out, but it's like fighting the Borg, as TPJ once said. Resistance is Futile. Agent Orange and his buddies are spending more and more time and money paying attention to lawsuits and search warrants and the like. I like where things are going. Yes, I read the news like you do, but when has the institution of journalism ever used good news to make money? We are moving in the right direction. I am encouraged.
I agree that it is an actual pain to listen and read the dreck coming from the right wing - but what disturbs me more is that they react just as viscerally to those news sources that we find acceptable. Our brains have become wired differently on the right and on the left through our chosen steady diets of information that reinforces our already established identities and values. Possibly only the biconceptuals - those among us who are able to hold conservative values in some areas and progressive values in others - are able to be influenced. Those are the people we need to try to reach, rather than the ones who are just as far gone as we are.
I know there are some biconceptuals on this forum and it is valuable to heed what they say, because they can help us to approach some level of understanding of certain conservative viewpoints - and we can also work to get them to loosen up some of those conservative remnants they retain by demonstrating through shared values that our hope for good change in the world is in progressivism.
LOL, my youngest brother once told me that if it weren’t for abortion I’d be a Republican. I do sit in the middle. I should say, I DID. No more. This is no longer the GOP I once knew. I’m 69 years old.
The belief stems from every anomaly in the election going the same way, that no incumbent president has ever gained votes and lost, not saying he won, not saying I would vote for him, I'm saying both sides cheat in every election. If you really follow the MSM and their steady stream of lies and anonymous intelligence sources over the last four years, that mostly turned out to be fabrications one can see how this would be perceived as a sham. How can anyone trust this media, they get caught openly lying and then promoting the liars.
It’s almost unimportant because whoever it is, it’s someone so incompetent they can’t speak for themselves or so cowardly they won’t, not having the courage of their convictions, and either way they are not credible. But it would be interesting to know how much he’s being paid, as if it really makes such a difference in his life.
You believe the MSM? There is a very long list of overt fabrications that this government and media has corroborated over the last 4 years? You believe the Steele Dossier? You believe Trump told a Georgia official to find the fraud, you believe Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation, you believe te Trump Pee Pee tapes? This list goes on for days, the entire Russia collusion story was a sham, I guess you believe Saddam had WMDs, and that Russia really did pay bounties for US soldiers, how can you defend the media? All the tools of censorship and domestic spying that you and your blueberry kool-aid crew want so desperately to use against Republicans will be used against you when the pendulum swings.
So wait, you didn't hear Trump asking the GA Secretary of state to find him votes? I get that you're a very disappointed Bernie supporter. But, Bernie did not win in the primaries so he couldn't move on. Get over it.
So tell us, which media do you believe? What are your preferred news sources? And no, half baked, wanna be citizen journalists writing counter conspiracy theory laden junk from the blogosphere and who don't cite sources, named or otherwise, don't count.
You're right, the US has been involved in some very nasty operations, particularly in Central America and the Middle East. But dang, do you realize how unhinged you sound? Do you understand that you sound just as out of control as Trump's fervent, boot licking base?
Did you see the 50 front page news stories that quoted Trump on tape, verified by 17 different new agencies, that he said Find the votes and you'll be rewarded? It was a total lie, thats the point, I'm not defending Biff, I'm saying a lot of what your told is somewhere between cherrypicked to outright lies.
I heard ( with my own ears) trump not telling, but begging(!) Georgia officials to find him 74 votes....it was something along the ones of, "C'mon fellas....."
your precious media fabricated blatantly a recording that was non-real that said Trump had told Georgia officials to find the fraud it was ran on the front page and 6 news on every Network it was an absolute sham
For the record: I don't watch Maddow or Doberman, I get most of my information from print sources, domestic and international. You might try doing the same.
You're the worst and simplest kind of troll. What I'm actually saying is you cite sources written by hacks. You're a pissed Bernie Bro. I did not suggest that I read exclusively MSM. I spread sources as varied as Mother Jones, Reuters, Agence France, Rolling Stone, WaPo, The Economist and more, not half baked crap written by a bunch of aging by hipsters who make a living touting conspiracy theories. Retraction and corrections are SOP in journalism. I heard Raffensperger's recording with my own ears. Raffensperger did not dispute the recording or the reason why he made it. Grow up.
It always has and likely always will, you think there will never be a republican president again? You think the 73 million people that voted for Trump are all racist, homphobic white supremacists? It will swing, back, it always does.
If there will ever be another. Republican president, he will have stolen the Dems platform because he couldn’t create his own and he will never be a she, so i have serious doubts. The Repubs have shot their credibility was.
Think you need to crawl back into that little blue chamber of hate and refuel, I'm sure Olbermann or Maddow can feed you some more partisan rage. I'm not a supporter of Trump or Republicans, I just don't support the way our media blatantly publishes lies and gets away with it.
My goodness Jack, you’ve fallen into the rabbit hole of rage where everything is a projection. A terrifying state of mind.
There are elements of truth in your words, but, you manage to weave them into your own warped narrative.
You love Bernie and likely Elizabeth Warren as well. So do I. I believe they would ask you to get onboard the Biden train and help him accomplish his very progressive agenda.
How progressive will depend largely on how much support he has.
That is unless your only objective is destruction.
Directly dropping it would take a constitutional rewrite. Since the radical right controls a majority of state legislatures, you would not like the results of any constitutional convention.
Besides the Compact described by Annette, there is another option: Remove the limit on the size of the House of Representatives. It was capped in 1929, by law, to limit the power of the growing cities and the immigrants in them. Dump that cap. Once the House is truly proportional to population, the electoral college will be also, with a slight modifying effect due to the Senate. Also, grant statehood to D.C.
A constitutional amendment is needed, not a convention, though that could do it. But a constitutional conventional could also cause serious damage, so no thanks.
Merely dumping the cap could be done by repealing the law that set it. In practice, what might be needed is a new law that spells out some of the details. The basic idea could be that the population of the smallest state equals one representative, and all the others are proportional. Since that math will not work out as whole numbers, how are the partials handled. Given current realities, some forbidding of gerrymandering would be an appropriate add-on.
There is. The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact www.national popular vote.com is working for that. Please take a look and see what you can do. There are also Facebook groups you can join. I belong to the group in Florida.
He got 73 million votes the most ever for a losing Candidate, I get how dearly you cherish this narrative, and I'm not questioning it, I'm merely explaining that the 4 years of constant fabrication and endless Russaigate bullshit, has left people assuming that everything this media tells them is a lie.
I really don't get this argument. The logic seems to be since more people turned out to vote, and trump lost, it must be fraud. If that's it, it's not much to hang your hat on.
Also, why won't his base accept he's a Putin fanboy? Is there ANY evidence to the contrary? The #1 reason for his man crush is Putin has blessed his cultivation for years, by supporting his business bankruptcies, and conveniently, his political career when he ran against a Putin enemy.
Last time I saw "Bah" from TPJ was because of another person we all had trouble with. TPJ's "Bah" is a sign it's time for Heather to remove the person from her subscriber list.
Your claim of a disingenuous “media” is also lazy. First of all you need to understand the difference between news and commentary. Secondly you need to review the Mueller report. In no way shape or form did his result give the trump campaign a pass on their activities with Russian operatives.
You can make a difference in the perception by others by NOT continuing with your disingenuous comments.
Oh please, you honestly believe that the Democrats didn't try to cheat? The same organization that openly admitted rigging their primaries? This is who your standing up for, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and crew, please. Every political party in every country anywhere wins by any means necessary. Hold up, so you literally believe that the reason Trump won was becaue of Russiam meddling in the 2016 election?
I think there are some very respectable government agencies and personnel who have released information proving that “Russiagate” was NOT BS. Go somewhere else with your delusions. This forum deals with reality.
Its actually scary that people still belive that, the Steele Dossier has been absolutely, thoroughly debunked as horseshit, we literally spent tens of millions of dollars investigating this, its done, please just let it go. There are probably people that still believe Jeffrey Goldberg telling everyone that Saddam was connected to Al Queda, but he wasn't. Was he fired for inciting an illegal invasion that is still claiming a dozen US troops a day by suicide, and who knows how many million displaced, dead brown people, no, no he is at the apex of the same propaganda networks that brainwash people, like you.
By standing up for journalistic integrity, does not mean you support Biff.
There are countless, huge news stories this year that were knowingly, blatantly lies, and they are verified by a dozen MSM agencies, and then quietly retracted, or walked back months later.
Kevin McCarthy (R-Okiefornia) is the kind of spineless, braindead, careerist scumbag who defines the term "California Republican office-holder." They may have pushed things to the point of getting their recall vote on Governor Newsom, but the only way they can win a statewide election is with another Arnold Schwarzenegger - the last statewide Republican officeholder - and the best they've got is Reality-TV "star" Caitlyn Jenner, and given how hated the Kardashian scum are in the state, that's not much.
Word is the new judge in the Arizona "recount" case (after they got the Trumper judge who put the million dollar fee on stopping things to recuse himself on Monday) is going to shut the clown show down tomorrow. The Cyber Ninjas are trying to get hired to fuck things up all over again in Michigan and Pennsylvania now. State Police are in the stadium now securing the ballots, and the droolers are being observed by actual reporters now, not the ONANists.
I heard recently Rebecca Mercer is so the funder of OANN, Breitbart, bud of Bannon, and so on. What’s her beef she is trying to fund the end of democracy, the system that allowed her and her father to become so wealthy?
Yes! She is. She is a hard right Libertarian nut job.
Except with her. It's money and delusional thinking.
I recall the response to McCarthy ascending to Republican leadership as being essentially an eye roll, since he was a lightweight dunderhead. But after the crap Boehner went through no one wanted the job. I'd say he's living up to that rep.
As some conservatives over at the Bulwark put it, "spineless without a moral compass."
He had Ryan to lead the way.
Yes, Paul Ryan was a step down even from Boehner.
Oh God. I forgot about Ryan, intentionally I think. His nasty smarm quotient was off the chart for me, he made me gnash my teeth. One of the brighter days in politics was when he decided to spend more time with his family.
He didnt want to go to prison. I give him credit fir not being as stupid as Rudy, Donnie, Manafort, Stone, Flynn
I'd like to see the Cyber Ninjas at Radio City Musical Hall for the Christmas Show.
Sure, singing and kicking up their heels. It's springtime for Trump and America!
The Christmas Show, David. Your in the wrong season. Your thinking of Mel Brooks' Springtime with Hitler...that works!
So, I'm not the only one who thought that was funny? A bit tasteless, perhaps...
I liked it but didn't like it in my territory!
Fern is exercising strict control over her domain. But I loved your reference ❤️😉
Roland, I have clearly missed something. What is Fern's domain? NYC? This string of comments?
Don’t be stupid, be a smartie. Come and join the Tr*mpy party.
I hope that you are right TC--it sounds like they are deliberately changing the ballots, which is of course a felony as voter fraud is a crime that they are apparently trying to perpetrate. And I don't know if anyone but I caught your clever "misspelling" of OANN . . .
Hard to catch when 1: you're dyslexic and letters jumble and 2: That is what you think of every time you hear that santorum* of a "network".
* If you're curious, look that up in the Urban Dictionary. In my attempts to maintain some sort of adult behavior, I won't even post the link.
Actually, TC's reference to "ONANists" is a pun--look up "Sin of Onan" and you'll see why. And one of my favorite internet moments was when Dan Savage's neo-definition of santorum went viral.
I got that too, but still grateful for a medievalist in the house.
Oh, I get the Biblical reference...
Ally, you are on it today. Another upvote.
🤣
TC is a clever son of a gun. ONANist.
I did but my mind is always in the gutter. And anyone believing OANs drivel is an onanistic.
You have to laugh because what company with any integrity or knowledge calls themselves "Cyber Ninjas?" A group of young, deluded individuals?
Can’t Dominion sue Cyber Ninja too?
Why not? Just for grins.
Sure hope that’s true! Thanks. It blows my mind that they could even defy a judge’s order to explain publicly how it was conducting the audit.
Please Good People let’s stop calling this an audit. This is not an audit. This is a political stunt by desperate people who are clinging desperately to Confederate America. Fox News, Rupert Murdoch, Delusion Party of America level theater.
This is good news, thank you.
TC you are my hero, thanks for the timely updates.
Oh good.
Professor Richardson, the dark intensity of your missive today is difficult to endure because it is so important, so profound! As you write, "What is at stake is the future of the Republican Party. What is also at stake is the future of the country." It is almost too strange to be fiction, never mind reality.
The term The Big Lie has specific origins, "The original description of the big lie appeared in Mein Kampf. Adolf Hitler applied it to the behavior of Jews rather than as a tactic he advocated. Specifically, he accused Viennese Jews of trying to discredit the Germans’ activities during World War I." 1.
Joseph Goebbels wrote further, "“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” 1. The man who refuses to allow people to call him "the former president", but insists that he be called "the 45th President", thinks of himself and his followers as a government in exile.
We are in a dangerous place. "Lawyers from the Justice Department have been arguing in court lately that Trump’s continued lying about the election, along with the amplification of those lies by right-wing media, remains an ongoing threat." writes HCR.
1. https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/joseph-goebbels-on-the-quot-big-lie-quot
Both of my parents were Holocaust victims. Yes, this is very real for me.
I have no personal experience with this but will never forget with you, Marlene.
Thank you for carrying the terrible burden of bearing witness. We can never forget because the danger hasn’t passed.
I'm so very sorry for this!
My heart aches for you.
It's real for me, too, Marlene. It COULD happen here, which is why we need HCR and many of her respondents to keep us alert, and thoughtful, and vocal, and ACTIVE. Sincere thanks to many, many of you.
In the year 2000, I was performing with a group of guitarists in a Nursing Home outside of Hanover, Germany. As I was playing, I started doing the math... I realized that the elderly people in the home that I was performing for were all in their late teens or 20's during the Second World War. It cast a different light on that entire performance for me. I didn't feel judgemental towards them, rather that I was caught in the weight of history. It was very heavy.
Welcome to my life. Welcome to my world.
Oh Marlene, how tragic.... I ache for you.
“The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie.”
Ah, but the perpetrators of the Big Lie are currently *not* the State. A not insignificant distinction. They flail.
A thought experiment. Let’s suppose that the current status quo endures through to November 2022. We’ll stipulate that Biden and Co. have not committed any illegalities or immoralities of the sort we witnessed in the former guy’s regime. We’ll stipulate that a new charismatic, talented and untainted leader has come along to lead the Republicans out of the bleakness of their current wilderness. And we’ll assume that HR1 has been passed, probably through some form of negation of the filibuster. I know, I know, there’s the quixotic Joe Manchin and the...unusual...Kirsten Sinema. But for the purposes of this thought experiment HR1 is enacted.
Given the above, do you believe still that politics will follow the timeworn cycle of throwing the bums out in the off-year and thus the Democrats’ world will come crashing down?
I, for one, do not think that way *at all*. For better or worse the Trump presidency has cast a long shadow over everything political. The old rules which we fear when they bode evil for us (and still view with suspicion when “it’s our turn”) are gone. Poof. It’s a different world.
My view is that, given the above stipulations, the Democrats will hold serve in 2022. They will at least maintain the House and it’s not a bad moment in the cycle for them to capture the Senate without need of a tie-breaking vote.
Should that happen, Biden/Harris or Harris/? will without doubt hold the WH in 2024. And if that transpires, then all bets are on for the kind of generational run that Roosevelt initiated in 1932 and Reagan created in 1980.
I write this because I read so many comments that 2022 is a write-off in this forum. It’s beginning to have the air of a self-fulfilling prophecy or a death wish. All in all it’s making me mental and anybody who knows me would tell you I’m not that far off to begin with. :)
Eric It is indeed a shame to see us so fearful, but it is also notable that without that fear factor we could complacently undergo an Election cycle repeating 2010. Truly we need to be alert but hopeful.
So true. Vigilance is a way of life now. Sad that it’s become so necessary.
Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty
-- Thomas Jefferson
From your mouth to G-d's ears. Let's work for it.
I have tried to find authentic site to Goebbels quote of the "Big Lie." No one ever gives a cite for the quotation and there are over 500,000 uses of it when Googled. Though I know Goebbels lied, I doubt that he would have announced it. He continually claimed that he told the truth, which is the bedrock of convincing propaganda. I have also read that the quote was made by Hitler in his book "Mein Kampf" when he was mounting his argument about the "evils" of Jews. THEY ( the Jews) tell big lies and hence should be eradicated. I agree that Trump is guilty of Big Lies, but I doubt that Goebbels publicly promoted it with such a statement. https://bytwerk.com/gpa/falsenaziquotations.htm
https://novel-science.com/strategic-lies-deliberate-untruths-used-as-a-political-tactic-new-study/
I found this article about "deliberate untruths" in the U.K. to be pertinent to the U.S.
Tommy Robinson's Russian ties are not a surprise. Like Roger Stone's cutout was Julian Assange. Paul Manafort and Konstantin Kilimnik, Maria Butina and Paul Erickson, Rudy and Andrii Derkach, Donald T and Aras Agalarov, David Duke and Rinaldo Nazzaro. Christian Right leader Allan Carlson & Konstantin Malofeev, Flyn and Kisliak. And who did Eric Prince meet up in the Seychelles Jan 11 2017 by chance? And the this list goes on and on....
Why is that every faction leader of the Republican Party, whether it is in the NRA, the Christian Right, or "Terrorism Consultants" white supremist in the United States is only a few people or one away from a Russian agent? Richard Spencer, organizer of Unite the Right Organizer is married to Russian Nina Kouprianova, former translator for Russian Political Analyst, neo fascist Aleksandr Dugin, an special philosophical advisor to Putin?
Time for NSC and FBI to clean up this mess and serve some people one way tickets out of our country for good. Why are we putting up with this bullshit?
The Road to Unfreedom- Tim Snyder
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandr_Dugin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_B._Spencer
https://observer.com/2017/09/interview-nina-kouprianova-wife-of-alt-right-leader-richard-spencer/
https://www.justsecurity.org/68420/confronting-russias-role-in-transnational-white-supremacist-extremism/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/blackwater-founder-held-secret-seychelles-meeting-to-establish-trump-putin-back-channel/2017/04/03/95908a08-1648-11e7-ada0-1489b735b3a3_story.html
the plot to destroy democracy-Malcom Nance
Add Mitch mcCinnel and Oleg Deripaska
And the NRA ‘s connections. And Ron Johnson spending July 4th in Russia. There are a lot of dots here.
Yes there are. And All the dots end up at the Kremlin.
Oh!! And poor Rudy!!
I hear there’s an exchange coming...Rudy/Manafort/stone/Flynn for Snowden
Mitch McCynical
So, how in Hell's name do you link Julian Assange in your list? - OK - he's been demonised for over 10 years - even the Guardian is starting to apologise for their treatment of him. If there's one thing that Biden could do - that would cause a heartfelt sigh of relief by journalists world wide, would be to withdraw the charges against Julian Assange. Currently - currently God help any journalist who spills the beans on the misbehaviour of the US Gov't, especially the military. Perhaps go and read "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" - it may wake you up from your slumbers.
Assange is no journalist. He may have had some noble intentions once, but ended up a Russian stooge. releasing Poindexters emails moments after the Access Hollywood tapes became public tells us who he was working for all along. Julian became a useful idiot for Russian intelligence at the key moment in October 2016.
I agree about Assange. At first glance he seemed to be an honest whistleblower, but he's no Edward Snowden, let alone Chelsea Manning or Daniel Ellsberg. Everything he did worked to Russia's advantage.
100%. (a cut out is spy tradecraft to allow for plausible deniability)
Assange is the cut out 'twen Stone and the Russians. It was only a moment after the Access Hollywood (GRAB EM BY THE #) that the "stolen" Podesta emails where released to steal as much oxygen away from the tape of DT that should have cost him the election. The timing is extraordinary. That's not journalism, it is "rat Fu**ing". And Roger Stone is the king rat fu**er!
Just because it was an email hack, doesn't make it any less a "theft" or crime. This was the rat fu**ing BS from Watergate, just tuned/evolved for the cyber/information age. Dig?
Stone is G Gordon Lilly of 2016, but worse, he had help via Assange to coordinate a "counter" October surprise via Russian Intel Agents with military grade hacking tools and training. Assange didn't get those emails from anyone else but the Russians. Perhaps there is another cut out between Assange and the Russians, sure, but it doesn't matter. The timing is what is important. This was a political attack at a key moment. FBI reports Podesta emails got hacked in the Summer of '16. Those emails were held strategically, then released in October within minutes of the Access Hollywood expose'.
"In espionage there are no coincidences." -Malcom Nance
If the Mueller Report wasn't direct enough, Andrew Weissmann's book explains more in everyday language. Highly recommend to read before and after the Mueller Report, "Where Law Ends" -A. Weissmann
My read on Assange is that he began as a document dump site. He was loosely referred to as a "journalist." When he began, he carefully reviewed and redacted documents before dumping them on the internet. Then he grew tired of checking documents for authenticity, or fell in the the Russian machine, and began dumping unverified documents, dangerously exposing innocent agencies and people. Assange agreed to help Manning, an Army intelligence analyst, with cracking an administrative password to the military's classified internet system, resulting in the charge of "espionage." He has since used the claim that he is a journalist to protect his contacts.
Where would we be without the Russkies or the Chinese to blame? A great way of deflecting responsibility. It seems if someone goes against the general consensus - they are Russian trolls! - I've even been accused of being one!
There is a lot of clear reportage on the atrocious behaviour of Sweden, Ecuador (at the US behest), GB and of course USA. https://www.dw.com/en/the-case-of-julian-assange-rule-of-law-undermined/a-57260909. I suspect that the posting of the video from the helicopter gun-ship really triggered it -
Deflection effort...fail.
You mind is made up - so I won't try to confuse you with facts. Have a nice day.
We take 1 country's interference/espionage at a time here. We don't do the Fox data dump to confuse, overwhelm, obfuscate.
On this issue - https://nonzero.substack.com/p/show-some-courage-defy-your-tribe
Hugh I do applaud your points and you seem to be a good fellow. So keep up the decent attempt to keep us honest. I for one appreciate a muck raker with good intentions.
Living in Australia - and getting the blowout from what's going on in USA (our guvermint would love to ape USA - GOP)- and having a partner also ex USA citizen - we are very attuned to what's going on. I'm always surprised that some of the commentators on HCR react so vigorously (and venomously) to comments... cool it folk! It doesn't help rational discussion!
Good morning, HCR and friends!
I can't wait to read the findings of a congressional commission on the 6th January insurrection, and all the more so, to see 45, his family, and lackeys (congressional and otherwise) convicted of treason by the DOJ.
I can't believe that I'm writing this: Brava to Liz Cheney for sticking to her guns (tongue in cheek!) while risking her standing in this warped GOP. It shows a healthy dollop of chutzpah and a moral spine, both of which are sorely lacking in McCarthy and other members of that Mafia, who can no longer be identified as a political party.
The ludicrous recounts of ballots that are taking place, plus the Big Lie and it's corresponding threats, re-echoed daily by 45 or his right wing media pundits leave me with a queasy feeling at the pit of my stomach. And yet, I refuse to allow them to overpower our democratic structures without a powerful grassroots struggle! We can be mighty if we stand together! We must, at the very least, give it a try!
Morning, Rowshan!! Will be giving it a try along with you!
Thank you, Lynell!
Where are her vocal allies, though? If Chaney is going to stick her neck out, she deserves to have others of her party vocally support her. Where is Romney, for one? If they are truly concerned for the future of democracy in this country (and they damn well should be), why are they not speaking up?
Romney's afraid that he'll be reassigned to a broom closet in the basement.
Reid--
I agree with your basic point and hope Chaney continues to oppose the RWNJ propaganda campaign. But I also keep in mind her years' long voting record (committee and floor votes) and public statements. She may be rejecting the current Looney Tunes, but she's always been very far right. If she's our best GOP-hero, we are in sad shape....
Yes! Ironic, isn't it, that we are looking hopefully to her, of all people, in this dark time? It really has gotten that bad over there on the Dark Side.
Edit: "Cheney," not Chaney.
They are around, but allowing her to take the heat! Romney is in the Senate, so he's avoiding the House's shenanigans. Perhaps, it's beneath him, who knows ...
If he rides the public the way Hebrides horses, he would leave the hard work, care and training to others and only mount at the last minute to ride the best trained in the show competition.
Mittens Romney has the courage of his lack of conviction.
True!
A question regarding today's letter: Why would a Secretary of State hand over official ballots to any private company?
I wonder this too. If the ballots are reexamined, I would think their would need to be supervision to be sure they weren't tampered with.
Sounds like that ship has already sailed--they've cleared been tampered with.
Sounds like the FBI needs to investigate the investigators.
👍🏻
Sounds like both a federal crime. Sic 'em, Bulldog Garland!
The GOAT AG will be on it!
Unlike the "cyber ninjas" , I believe it was under court order, with which she complied.
A judge told her she had to.
Bingo!
Good morning everyone! Except our troll and bot collection: I hope you have a terrible morning. So one of the things I find super interesting is which of HCR's letterset targeted by whatever Russian operative is in charge of monitoring and sending out the trolls. When she talks about historical stuff, they rarely bother. But when the malfeasance of the Repugnicans is revealed and open to discussion--whoops! Out they come.
TC, I do sincerely hope that a judge shuts down this whole thing because the same group is supposedly starting up the same stupid fake recount in Michigan. Meanwhile, anyone who has half a brain is quietly stepping away from their adherence to the Ghastly Old-Men Party. The DoJ has been working like crazy--on a skeleton staff because the Ghastly Ones are still holding up under-secretary appointments in hopes to slow Garland down. But I suspect that the people who were rehired after quitting the Barr-fest in disgust are very interested in keeping the ball rolling. However, the wheels of real justice rotate slowly and it could be some time before we see federal indictments of the Trumpistas coming down. What I am hoping for is some more energy coming from NY's prosecutors.
Meanwhile, Garland is also initiating investigations of the Louisville police department, and probably others beyond that one and Minneapolis. Breonna's family might (I am hoping) get some justice after all.
Good morning, Linda. Thanks for “Ghastly Old-men Party.”
I've been going with GQP lately; I might just return to GOP with this lovely translation!
Germinfested Offingamerica Party.
I think it’s time to stop talking about what Trump followers “believe” and stop talking about trying to get them to see what is factual and true. Time even to stop talking about “lying.” We are dealing with a blatant attempt to make a coup. There’s nothing “delusional” going on here. There’s only an insurrection with a barely disguised attempt to create an avalanche of alternative reality in which any opposition is met with force. Americans who want a democracy are going to need to find new tools to cope with this juggernaut. We are going to need to fight fire with fire. I’m concerned that our “delusion”is that rational democratic tools can beat back this anti democracy army that’s being created right before our eyes. Dangerous times!!
I think you're right in many ways. There is no way to "bring the followers around" and have them see the facts; for them, the facts are only their "sincerely held beliefs" and everything else to the contrary is a lie. It is certainly time for the Democratic party to grow a backbone, and engage in combat (in a manner of speaking) rather than debate.
Past time. I'm sure there is a Lao Tzu quote that would be appropriate but I haven't had enough coffee yet.
Don't persuade, neutralize.
I see dangerous delusions in the GOP. It is like they all have serious personality disorders and some of the older ones, like Ms. Lindsey, has selective dementia. The mistruths, the stories they weave, should really be fiction but unfortunately they are not. This is going to be a battle to the finish. I just want us to the winners.
'selective dementia', that's a beauty for describing people of all ages. Thank you Marlene.
Is calling Lindsey Graham, "Ms. Lindsey" meant to be a gay slur? I am always uncomfortable when the left uses this name for him? Just curious about the intention.
It's actually a feminist slur, I think. A gay friend of mine once referred to him by an epithet I can't quite recall, but it painted him as a "hysterical woman." Look up "Lindsay Graham Nicknames." He has a lot of them, and his "stand" on any given issue seems to be more of a drunken stagger. He's quite well-known for that.
How did you determine that it is a "feminist slur"?
I agree, it's either a gay slur or uncomfortably close. There are plenty of other epithets to inflict on Graham. Still, if he is closeted, his support for viciously anti-LGBTQ policies is grotesque hypocrisy.
Self-hatred seems to be the underbelly of the GOP. But, I just read that one of the things he did was adopt (legal guardianship) his sister so she could receive his military medical benefits. So though a "conservative," he had no compunction to access federal benefits for his family. There is no end to the contradictions!
I always appreciate your contribution, Jan. Thank you for being here. I don't have much to say about the "Ms. Lindsey" term, it's my first time seeing that expression and I understand your concern.
I think the story of Lindsey Graham is a tragedy. A tragic story. A poor lost soul who, if it's true that he is in the closet, is yet another victim of this culture of the South (going back to antebellum society and then European colonists before that) that brutally oppresses the non-favored class, the class of anything except white straight men.
Oh, and I didn't answer your question. Pure association with previous conversations I'd had. Which has no universal relevance whatsoever.
In short: I guessed. :-)
Mis-spoke. Too early, no coffee. I meant "mysogenic slur," or more generally a "sexist slur." The idea that he's a "hysterical woman." Which is technically an ugly sexist stereotype deliberately mis-applied to the wrong (in the context of sexism) sex. In the context of the conversation, referring to him as gay (even tangentially) would have been an unintended compliment.
And incidentally, any slur, of any context, is a slur: it is intended to insult, and the intent outweighs the context or the specifics, IMO. That's why "snowflake" has become such a toxic term. It has at least two contradictory origin stories, and neither explains its toxicity. When I first went to New York City (in college) I got introduced to a whole lot of ethnic slurs I'd never heard before (small town kid, what can I say). Same thing.
While I applaud the stand Liz Cheney took following the insurrection, I don't trust Liz Cheney as far as I can throw her. That apple does not fall far from the tree. Her father did a similar move following Watergate. That said if I had to choose between her or Trump Sycophant Kevin McCarthy to lead the Republican party, the choice is a no brainer.
From what I’ve read recently it seems to me that the GOP is in a position where they can’t win with Trump and they can’t win without him.
The GOP is disintegrating. Fracturing in more ways than anyone can keep count. Who knows how the political power of the Great Old-Society Party of racists sexists and genderists will be exercised, but it’s going to get harder and harder to keep these people unified.
One can only hope.
I fear the combination of the 1) radical right politicians, 2) the distortions and misdirection by the radical right media, 3) the control of state legislatures, and 4) the control of the Senate by less than 35% of the voters will continue to "unify" the radical right. What may beat them is a government that cares about the infrastructure, promotes effective regulations, and provides and expands a social safety net, and then broadcasts its accomplishments and intentions. If that doesn't clearly work, democracy is going to quietly transform into the appearance of a democracy without the reality.
I understand the fears, and of course as usual Jan your analysis is perfect. However here is where I part company with the fears: their time (the traditionalists) has come and gone. Their time was the 2000 year period of the age of Pisces. That was the era of rigid structure and rigid classes in society. We have entered the age of Aquarius. In this new 2000 year epoch in earth history, we as a civilization are moving into All For One and One For All. One Earth. One Grand Society of Equals. A global society. Our first real harbinger of the New Society was probably the US democracy followed closely by the French Revolution. The world wars were the final death knell for royalty and monarchy as center of government. Now we have more democracies than monarchies. That trend will continue. The Republicans and Trumpsters are fighting a losing battle, a desperate last gasp. In California they’ve already been relegated to permanent minority status. Eventually that will happen at the national level too. They are trying to cling desperately, holding on by their fingernails, but it won’t work. All of society is moving in the direction of equal power to everyone in every class. #MeToo. Shaming the Amy Coopers and in-the-closet white suburban racists. Biden’s Cabinet and appointees. The Republicans are history as a national power. They’re getting close to being done and dusted. It’s inevitable.
Roland, I hope we turn this into truth. We are almost there. Big steps: Biden, Harris, Warnock, the other GA Senator were accomplished as well as Garland as AG. We can only press our advantages and push the pols and the corporations into doing the right thing.
Your mouth to God's ears....
His supporters, those true belivers are also a front. They are the now his shiny objects with a splash of intimidation and offer themselves as the fake "realness" that the Oligarchy needs to "Perform" "show elections".
The trick is to see if they can somehow hang on to the base while sidelining Trump. I believe this is Ted Cruz's entire shtick these days, to be Trumpist enough so he is the obvious candidate when Trump declines to run or is prohibited from doing so.
I wish I could sympathize with them —they’re in a tough place.
Acceptance of the vote is the fundamental tenet of the peaceful transition of power in this country. If the majority of the members of the minority party will not accept this concept then we are in a crisis.
We have been in this crisis for a while. Those who don’t believe Biden won would gladly accept a white nationalist as fuehrer.
Slightly off topic, but I would like to know when the American people are going to see some accountability in the form of indictments and criminal trials of trump, his minions, and the insurrectionists. As far as it looks now, many people got away with crimes against this country, tax fraud (doesn’t the SDNY have the goods on Trump?). etc. That they seemingly “got away with it” continues to fuel the bizarrely dangerous behavior and actions of trump cultists and sympathizers. trump continues to sit on his palace gold toilet throne demanding loyalty (to him only) while spewing nonsense rhetoric to do it all again.
Like Marcy, I believe that the DOJ is busy doing all the groundwork for coherent cases to be brought when all the legwork has been done. And there's so much to do! Let alone how gutted the DOJ ended up (well, any of the institutions, like the State Dept) after the intentional tear-down done during the Orange Nightmare years. It's been less than 6 months since people who know their jobs got back in the driver's seat. I have every confidence that we will see solid cases brought against the people you mentioned, but like you, I'm anxious for those dominos to start to fall.
I think your assessment here is correct. Biden only last week got his #3 at DOJ cabinet pick approved and don't forget, it took two months to get Garland confirmed as AG. The DOJ was both gutted and corrupted under the former guy, and there had to be a LOT of work involved to get the investigation rolling, I also ask folks to remember that one of the US District Attorneys made a public statement that was of the nature that NEVER gets made during an ongoing investigation about 6-8 weeks ago (my 0500 google skills aren't good enough to find it on a cursory search).
The other issue is that these investigations take time to complete, and trial preparations are very complex in something like this; they really don't want to mess it up. (Note that it took 11 months to bring Chauvin to trial with a much simpler investigation.)
The DOJ is once again on the side of justice. It needs time to revamp after the harm done by Der PussenGropenFuhrer. Yet the mills of justice grind slow but exceedingly fine. Bulldog Garland's work will be slow but thorough, and ultimately, exquisitely complete.
I agree Ally and Natalie - the gutting of the DOJ was a huge setback and there was nothing we could do about it for 4 years. Given the seriousness of the crimes committed, I just hope we don't have another 4 years for things to start rolling! These cases are frightfully complicated and time consuming. However, I thought the SDNY had a lot of their leg work done and would have been able to drop some indictments on trump relatively soon. Part of my frustration is, as I have gotten older, my patience has waned as I wonder if I'll live long enough to see justice served :)
May you live many years after the iDJT goes to jail.
Janet, you lived long enough to see justice served on Derek Chauvin. There is more to come -- SDNY seizing Rudy Drooliani's devices today.
Hi Janet. I share your feeling of (mild to moderate) hopelessness and (mild) despair.
However I believe our feelings are misleading. My mind and my gut tell me that Felon45 will make it to prison in our lifetime. The sheer volume of serious, serious crimes and investigations into those crimes tells us that he cannot escape justice indefinitely. The breadth and depth of legal and criminal exposure is breathtaking. Something tells me Trump might even go the way of Cosby and Weinstein, or Al Capone (tax evasion, in DT's case the Trump Organization's financial sleaze). When we're focusing on just one side of the story, something else can blindside us that we weren't expecting or that we had temporarily forgotten about. So while paying attention to Raffensperger's audio recording (Fulton County DA) or January 6 or election finance crime à la hush money payments (SDNY), maybe something else pops out.
If you need something to boost your spirits, watch this again:
https://www.abc.net.au/4corners/downfall:-the-last-days-of-president-trump/13110382
Not off topic,Janet. I have been wondering the same things. I think (and hope) the reason we are in the dark is the difference between this DOJ and the last one. This one actually works cases professionally. At least I hope that’s the reason for the silence.
Greg Olear has an excellent Substack blog and podcast. His recent one "And Justice for All (Eventually)" speaks to your question directly.
In summation, Merrick Garland is on fire. None of this will make news until the fat lady sings.
Repugs will rue the day they kept Bulldog Garland off the SC.
Right after TPJ posted about bulldog Garland, here’s what dropped in my mailbox
https://luciantruscott.substack.com/p/merrick-garland-stealth-bomber
Now that statement truly warms my heart. Thank You TPJ!!
And Justice For All, I have a hard time waiting. Many of us here have seen the disingenuousness of the iDJT and his followers. But if the wait will be as sweet, as the wait for Chauvin was, it will be worth it.
Derek Chauvin is STILL GUILTY !!!
https://gregolear.substack.com/
thanks for this . . .
Proud Greg Olear subscriber. Love that man.
https://gregolear.substack.com/p/and-justice-for-all-eventually
Yup, you are the one who turned me onto him. I've caught up on all his podcasts now.
I am impatient for this, too, but believe that the DOJ and SDNY are busily building solid cases that cannot be easily swatted aside. The fact that they are being so deliberate is a good sign, as is the fact that, unlike Bill Barr and others like him, they are not litigating in the press or grandstanding.
Yes, Reid, deliberate is good. Also "exquisitely painstaking."
Federal investigators FINALLY executed search warrants at Giuliani's home in Manhattan. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/04/28/nation/feds-execute-warrant-rudy-giulianis-nyc-home/. He has been under investigation for YEARS . . . this is what is so frustrating. Meanwhile, if he has half a brain cell left (and that is a generous statement), records would have been destroyed long ago. That is the problem with dragging things out so long.
Yes, there is a need for patience, but also a need to not allow them to get away with some pretty corrupt and unlawful practices and behaviors.
'"Maybe if they hadn't deceived me, I could have done something,'' he told me. "Maybe I could have stopped the Iraq War."'
'Bonk, a former deputy director of the agency's Counterterrorist Center and an officer responsible for intelligence on Iraq in the year leading up to the U.S. invasion in 2003, spoke with me on background in June 2010 about events leading to the disastrous war.'
'And Bonk's statements—about deceptions that prevented solid intelligence on Iraq from reaching President George W. Bush, as well as other information kept from the public during the buildup to war—are once again in the news ...'
'And for any analysts unclear on what the administration wanted to hear, Vice President Dick Cheney... made sure they got the message on August 26, 2002, when he delivered a public speech that had not been vetted by the White House or cleared by Bush. "There is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction,'' he said. "There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies and against us."' (Newsweek: Dick Cheney's Biggest Lie, BY KURT EICHENWALD ON 05/19/15 AT 7:26 AM EDT}
It's natural to think of Dick Cheney, when I think of Liz Cheney. Her father was such a pivotal figure, the outsized Vice President of George W. Bush. I am not alone in thinking that he was the mastermind behind our invasion of Iraq. We go from Cheney's colossally horrific lie, what are the words to encapsulate what we did in the Middle East based on Dick Cheney's lie? Jump from Cheney's BIG LIE to Trump's. Slide from there to Liz Cheney, one of the very few Republicans, and the bravest of them, determined that American people know the truth. It is breathtaking to witness, from father to daughter.
Trump's LIE is already deeply embedded in the minds of many millions of American's. Could it spell catastrophe? My hunch is that Liz Cheney thinks it could. I believe that she's not standing up to the Republican Party out of self-interest as we have become accustomed to with other politicians.
Heather wrote:
'What is at stake is the future of the Republican Party. What is also at stake is the future of the country.'
Is Heather saying that unless the Republican Party parts with Trump and the LIE, it will not survive? If the Party sticks with Trump and the LIE, it will take itself and the country down?
The odds are that the Democrats will not do well in the 2022 elections. History tells us the president's party generally does poorly in the mid-term elections, and the Republican party is doing everything it can to gum up the works.
As nice and caring as Biden is; as skilled and efficient the administration has.... there is no peace, no security and no rest for the weary.
Oh Fern...I share that fear for 2022. Dystopia is ever so hanging over our heads.
As far as Tricky Dick Cheney, he was the architect of the war. His company, Halliburton, even awarded itself a government contract to build an airstrip in Iraq while the war was going on. Why has he never been held responsible for the atrocities? Oh that’s right. He’s a rich white guy.
Going Backward, living in the present with foreboding for the future. This ain't fun!
Wow, it's unusual for me to find someone here with an even more gloomy assessment than mine! I still hold out a sliver of hope that the Biden strategy, which is to say, "This is what you could have if the Rs would get out of the way!" will have some efficacy. It's a sliver, but I am a bit hopeful. Abrams will take the Georgia governorship and keep Warnock in the Senate because he will be on the same ballot. Georgia, North Carolina, and Texas are becoming more purple by the day. There are some glimmers of hope. I'm far from sanguine, but I do believe that true conservatives are getting sick and tired of these antics.
This provocateur (Leon) sucked more attention and anger from the group than I’ve ever seen before (although I have to admit to being part of this amazing group for 8 months).
It was dispiriting and depressing to see the rage he induced and the pleasure he clearly derived from goading people on.
What I enjoy most about the HCR forum is that the most devoted members clearly have the mental chops and far ranging knowledge to engage in spirited discussion. There is disagreement but it is reasoned and I have even seen (gasp) people’s minds change.
Must have been a full moon last night.
There is lots to feel good about today.
The pressure is increasing on the “Cyber Ninja” group in Arizona and there looks to be a turn to the reasonable by Arizonans at large in regard to this spurious recount. I am deeply concerned that 2.1 million ballots, the most precious currency in democracy, have been turned over to a group which clearly has malfeasance as their agenda - malfeasance that, if successful, could set off a stampede in other states Trump lost. Should their effort be shut down in the next day or two, as seems possible if not probable, we can all breathe a huge sigh of relief. This is a cancerous and serious effort. More than mischief could result.
Heather pointed out today that the DOJ investigation is ongoing and that as many as 100 more may be charged. I have been reading a number of depressing posts on other fora espousing the theory that nothing will ever happen to those in power who aided and abetted the insurrectionists.
It was refreshing to hear the reassurance that there is no comment on ongoing investigations. We all know that intellectually of course, but emotionally we are (at least I am) fretful that some sort of whitewash will take place and those who trafficked from a position of power with militia groups will not be brought to justice. I was heartened by Heather’s comment and mentally gave myself a shake for my pessimism. The federal Republicans are waiting for the hammer to come down (has a federal party ever looked so hapless for so long?), and I think it will.
Finally, the FBI is on the case in Elizabeth NC where there appears to have been an especially egregious extrajudicial killing of a Black man last week. To this point, the sheriff’s office has been obfuscating in a particularly high-handed way in regard to transparency. No amount of transparency will restore a life, but justice and the appearance of justice must both be done. Perhaps the wall of near total silence will break soon.
All is not lost. There’ll be more discouraging days ahead, but I believe the tide is slowly turning in favor of decency and fairness. Something about the arc of the moral universe being long...
Thanks Eric! Love the (cautious) optimism. Hard work and eternal vigilance needed.
“ This provocateur (Leon) sucked more attention and anger from the group than I’ve ever seen before....
It was dispiriting and depressing to see the rage he induced and the pleasure he clearly derived from goading people on.”
Totally agree.
Solution: Ignore.
I finally found a genuine comment and not a peanut thrown to a troll! Thank you! And another bit of good news: Rudy's electronic equipment (and I assume that includes his phones) have been confiscated today!
Reid, This is like a 'new' math problem, for which there is no formula. There are so many factors,
1. census effect: the dems lost a few seats and the repubs gained a few.
2. The state legislatures: there are 30 repub state houses, 18 dems, 2 split.
The state repubs have been changing the rules to gain more control of elections. Not sure where that will be before the elections, lots of legal challenges!
3. Repub judgeships confirmed by Trump admin. - 234, including three associate justices of the Supreme, 54 judges for the United States courts of appeals, 174 judges for the United States district courts.
HOW MAY THE COURTS EFFECT STATE BILLS DESIGNED TO HELP THE REPUBS AND ELECTION DISPUTES?
4. Will the repubs still be tied to Trump and the lie, 6 months from now?
I see the election mess of my long lifetime.
5. What will the Justice Department sort out within the year?
6. What's with the investigation into 1/6 insurrection?.
7. Can Trump be legally eliminated within the year?
8. Where is the BIG LIE next year? How potent?
9. How is the Republican Party going to define itself in the next year?
10. Usually the President's party gets whooped in mid-term elections, so that's not good for the Dems. The Repubs did pretty well in the house in 2020, while losing the presidency and Georgia's senate seats.
This feels like a kaleidoscope filled with danger points - no heads or tails - and no bullets for me. We are in a vacuum as factors are in flux.
I'm sure this helped a lot!!!
I hope that the independent party is full of former Republicans horrified at he idea of a tRumpocalypse.
Why not include the BLM protests? If they can find a honest (hard to imagine ) bi-partisan panel to investigate the 01/06/21 insurrection then the contrast between the BLM protests and the Trump insurrection is so great it would make the point even shaper.
The BLM protests were remarkably peaceful, see The Washington Post 10/16/20
Monkey Cage
Analysis
This summer’s Black Lives Matter protesters were overwhelmingly peaceful, our research finds.....
The BLM protests were about something real--cops killing blacks--and remarkably peaceful. The Trump insurrection was about the "big lie" and not peaceful.
Bring the contrast on!
Why? Because the whole point of bringing in BLM is distraction and obfuscation. BLM has nothing whatever to do with the white supremacist “militia” groups who conspired to overthrow the government by overturning the election by force. There’s no equivalence here- - and that’s what RepubliCons want to make of it. That’s why.
On the surface, Jeannie, I agree with you. But I challenge all of us here to go deeper.
A racist looks for racist targets. People to blame. A racist, a sexist, looks for scapegoats to target. People of color. Women.
I wish it were as simple as just distraction, obfuscation. But isn’t it really a lot more insidious and filthy than that? ”We are the white males. We are the superior race, the superior species and gender. The problem is with POC and women, not with us.”
Notice how the nastiest attacks are directed at Kamala Harris, AOC, the Squad, & similar. Not Biden. He is still the protected species.
Criminal neglect of Puerto Rico after the disaster by a known racist New York slumlord. The examples are endless.
It doesn’t matter if they dress up in suits and ties on Fox, or in Congress, or in public office or as party officials. They try to look respectable, but underneath the very thin veneer, they are part of the same gang that includes Epstein, the white males that used to own women, both wives and slaves, etc. This is not a congenial intellectual exercise or ideological debate. It’s a filthy battle between right and wrong.
The commission, if it happens, won’t have unlimited time or resources. Including red herrings like “antifa” or “BLM involvement” in its remit would dilute the effort, and entrench the false equivalency that Jeannie identified. Work like the commissions has to be scoped carefully to be effective, and you can be certain Republicans know that very, very well.
Eleven Benghazi hearings... We can leave no rabbit hole uncovered nor unexplored.
Yeah like the Repugs are so smart.
They have a lot of experience with using investigations to smear opponents.
Great summary, Roland. It is definitely more insidious than that. It reeks of one of the RWNJ's favorite debate points, "whataboutism". There are two components to the BLM protest events; those people protesting the killing of black men by police, and those anarchists that want to destroy things for the sake of destruction.
Since the WTO riots in Seattle in 1999, the west coast has had a very strong anarchist presence; we've dealt with them in Lane County, OR as they infiltrated some of the environmental protest groups, and known local anarchists were involved in Eugene's BLM protest that turned violent at the end of May last year. This group has now been lumped in with antifa. In Portland, the Proud Boys have intentionally clashed with loose groups of antifa protesters. It is that element that has been responsible for the violence in the Portland protests last summer; I cannot speak for Seattle, but I suspect that is the case there as well.
Trying to equate the 6 January insurrection incited by the outgoing POTUS with violent opportunists finding a riotous environment is worse than comparing apples and oranges; it goes to comparing bananas to turnips.
Excellent clarification, thank you Ally.
Nailed this roland. I might add the hypocritical evangelical bully pulpit preachers also are clearly, on the wrong side of this battle.
Just another bunch of bigots.
Good morning Roland, I absolutely agree that the nastiest attacks are towards POC. I agree that we focus laserlike on the women to keep them down. That is how we got the iDJT in the first place. We had a Black president who the racists revolted against and then Hillary who was reviled, raising all of the demons in our white nationalists. Hillary should never have lost, not that she would have been a great President, my point is that we as a nation are deeply racist and misogynistic. We knee jerked and in a Titanic convulsion we sank ourselves into 4 years of tRump. There were myriad reasons for the loss but l believe you have exposed our nation’s biggest problem. The thin veneer of respectability covering our filthy little secrets. We hate women and we hate POC
Agree completely. The “We” in “We hate women and POC” is the cultural conditioning and nasty habits of the past. That is the enemy. The enemy is tradition, the evil tradition of historic abuse and violence against the people who are not in the favored group (women, POC, native peoples, Asians and other immigrants, 🏳️🌈 🏳️⚧️, children, have-nots and poor people incl. homeless, et al)
Underneath the abuse, is the belief that the world is a hierarchy of abusive power, and the only question is where in that hierarchy any particular group and individual will be.
Yes. Perfectly stated. It's slimy, it's filthy, it's hideous. Whether you are Gaetz-Greene-Boebert, Ailes-O'Reilly-Hannity et al, Weinstein, Epstein, McConnell or McCarthy or any other Repub. politician or official like Cheney the Younger (the spawn of Cheney the Elder), you are part of the problem. Liz Cheney is no hero. Nor is Mitt Romney, nor Kinzinger or Sasse, nor Geo. Will, nor Lincoln Project. Certainly not Raffensperger. They just happen to value the traditions of democracy over the Trump spew. But they still are members of the spew cult of racism and sexism.
Being part of the solution means exiting the paradigm of Power Over (Power Hierarchy). Tradition is the enemy. Slavish adherence to that tradition of abuse, which includes every Republican voter whether they know it or not, puts you in the same gang as the 1800s white men who owned slaves + their wives + their children and, in their mind, were justified in killing the native people they found when they arrived here and stole their property.
Hi Roland,
You totally get it and now imagine what it’s like.
Yes such a true comment— we are racists and misogynists and as I’m a woman wtf
Are you sure Hillary lost because our country is misogynist? She is married to Bill Clinton and historians are going to be very critical of the 90's Clinton administration, what they got done and what they didn't do. Other reasons:
The Dem Nat'l Committee dissed Bernie and his ideas, they thought they didn't need those voters. Blame for Trump's election is far bigger than - we don't want a women president.
Hey Harry— just go away .
I also want to add, it is good to see you today! Thinking of you as you walk the path you're on.
Same here Ally. And a double thumbs up for "bananas to turnips". Gonna use that one.
You too Ally!
Roland, you spelled that out quite accurately and clearly.
What you said. Never mind the man behind the curtain. You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig. (I don't mean to insult our porcine friends, just a metaphor)
Lipstick on a pig. Hmm. How about "spray painting a pile of dung"?
How about respecting pigs.
Ah yes, the proverbial painted pile of poop.
Yes pigs are adorable— let not insult them.
How about, “You can out a tie on a tRumpster”
...put...
Totes Roland--and I hope you are doing as well as you can. It is good to hear from you.
Thank you so much Linda. I was taking in your love when I went to sleep this morning. You are a sweetie.
Thank you! Spot On!!!
You nailed it Roland....
Hi Cynthia, good to see you 😘
Hey! I’ve been here, but just listening!
Ok‼️👌
Yes insidious and filthier.
You could write a book on this topic. There is so much evidence and such.
. . . and fill a library on the history of abuse by people who think their class has power over another class, thank you Joan.
How do you attack one side(justifiably) and leave the gaggle of war criminals and corporate slave owners on the other completely alone?
genuinely interested in your answer: why are you here? to convert? to fight? to annoy? you sound like a kid who had 4 older sisters that excelled in everything and you were at home crying about how nobody loved you as much as 'the girls'! Am I right??
I enjoy Heather's writing, I don't agree with it all the time, but it is good perspective, I posted one comment and got gang raped by a bunch of smurfs. Yes I am a small child, with serious mommy issues, clearly that's discernable from my comment's. Don't forget the Maga hat, diapers and hairy palms. I expressed an opinion that the Jan 6th event was an absolute staged event, and had been blown way out of proportion and the crew had an apoplectic child like temper tantrum, which then elicited a response and escalated from there.
Yawn.... maybe you should go to somewhere else where you might make some friends.....
"and got gang raped"
If you equate intolerance and opposition to your comments as something as traumatizing and horrendous as gang rape, then you are a very entitled man. Don't make that mistake again, please.
Hey Jack— Heather puts it all together. She frames the events of the day in an amazingly balanced way. Sorry you barely appreciate it.
I’m not sure but I don’t know too many criminals.
I agree!
Yes BLM is 100% obfuscation, Blake DOS, will never get their piece of the pie that was stolen from them through identity politics. They deserve their 40 acres and a mule, plus interest, and when and if they get it, they will want security.
Economic reform, is the only way we can reduce crime through reducing the demand for crime, instead of cracking heads, providing stability, and opportunity to families. This entire paradigm of White Fragility, White privilege and irreverent sociology babble, is a shell game. Identity politics and diction restrictions will not end racism. How many necks has Robin D’Angelo removed from the very real knee of systemic racism? Zero
Will breaking up the banks end racism? The same banks that prey on low income communities with high margin products and predatory lending, the same banks that created red lining, has refused black people their share of the American dream for centuries? It will do a whole hell of a lot more than firing tenured professors for using the term reverse racism, or thinking that any merit is inherently racist. This movement is theater, well rehearsed and orchestrated, enjoy the show.
Phphphphph.
Are you using reverse sociology babble but with sounds?
Did you mean "reverse psychology"? Lol!
Your internet behavior is an example of "reverse sociology".
If you want to up your game I can help with my mentoring program but this old dog only takes Bitcoin ;)
Aaaand the winner is . . . William by a mile!
Do you know what reverse psychology is? Clearly not as that would make no sense, I was making fun of a string of nonsensical characters, comparing them with the incoherent psycho babble that sociologists use.
While I agree that the BLM ✊🏿 protests were overwhelmingly peaceful, too include that nation wide movement in the focus of an investigation into the January 6 attack on our democracy, is a distraction and is meant to be one. We need to have a laser like focus on everyone that instigated and participated in it, without any distraction.
I totally agree Dick. BLM had nothing to do with the attack on January 6. This is a Republican move to try and obfuscate what actually happened. It is ridiculously off point and the Republicans definitely know this. Why not another recount to prove that
Trump really won and that these "patriots" were the ONLY ones who really got it.
"We need to have a laser like focus on everyone that instigated and participated in it, without any distraction." That's all this is: distraction. Pay no attention to the ones breaking in (or behind the screen), The POC did it all. Yeah, right. Let's stay focused!
Yes!
Hear, here.
Agreed
Republicans are False Equivalence junkies.
They also have no logic
And been ingesting too much 'dumbium'
I believe dumbium has been added to the periodic table of elements. Or it should be.
What would the abbreviation be? Db is taken (dubnium).
That is going to take some deep thought. Maybe I should consult a chemist, or my friend who teaches eighth grade science.
I didn't know that word! Nice to see another HCR reader in Tucson. We are snowbirds, returning to VT soon
It causes terminal dumbitis.
The contrast between the BLM protests over the summer and the insurrection of 6 January is distinct. To meld them together into one investigation would be a huge mistake. One of these is a protest over the continued killings of Black men by police officers culminating with a horrific video of a white police officer kneeling on the neck of a Black man as he died (which was recently tried in a court of law). The other is an insurrection fomented and encouraged by the outgoing POTUS* and carried out by militant white people with the intent of voiding a national election and installing "their choice" over that of the people of the United States. Every trial deals with specificity of the "crime at issue" regardless of the environment that that crime occurred in; to merge these two events would be beyond the scope of a decent investigation.
*POTUS: it is important to acknowledge that the person who was at that moment the President of the United States is the one who encouraged the insurrection. That he also had lost the election that he was trying to overthrow is an important element of this case.
You are absolutely correct with regards to identify *POTUS and his machine as the instigators of the 6 January insurrection. The country was primed for four years, by Trump, to deny any outcome where he was not re-elected. It was a mantra at his rallies, press conferences and official appearances. By the time election day rolled around his base was ready to believe, regardless of legitimate vote count, that he was robbed.
The fact government officials, aides and staff of the administration have, thus far, not been held accountable for their actions leading to the insurrection is puzzling. If members of Congress were complicit they must be held accountable. From my perspective, it's all moving too slowly to effectively counter balance the toxic Trump rhetoric.
Yes, there are plenty of Tweets, FB posts, and in-person video to substantiate his pleadings to his supporters to come cause trouble in Washington. Sadly, his attorneys will use the DOJ memo stating that a sitting president can't be indicted, and that no one could possibly believe what he wrote and said.
1/45 is not sitting any more, except on the can.
. . . eventually to be the can in his jail cell.
https://luciantruscott.substack.com/p/merrick-garland-stealth-bomber
Please, please, let it be so!
This is so true. Even though both the insurrection and the protests are fundamentally part of the same problem of violent white supremacy (the insurrection acting it out, BLM protesting it), they were distinct instances that played out quite differently.
Yes I’m aware former guy encouraged insurrection and wanted to be like Putin. When does he get the consequences?
Hopefully the numb will drop just before the congressional election 2022
The Jan.6 insurrection was a big deal in its own right. It should have its own commission. Jamming BLM into that investigation would support the R's lying storyline that the insurrection was nothing really, especially compared to the violence from the summer.
I agree Roger, compare and contrast. Our congress critters should be able to walk and chew gum at the same time.
Why not just have a separate BLM investigation? In that way we can also look to see if there was specific differential treatment.
Because it would make it look like BLM did something wrong that had to be investigated.
Really ? It may show how the federal response was biased against BLM. I think it is important to preserve the history of the protests, and how the president militarized federal agents against them and then subsequently cheered on extra-judicial killings. This history is critical to BLM movement.
And even if they DID do something wrong, it's important to learn and improve.
We should never run from the facts, no matter where they lead...
That is all true, but a Congressional investigation of "BLM" or "BLM violence" will not be looking into those aspects. What you describe is solid investigative reporting by independent journalists, supplemented by carefully focused investigations within the Dept. of Justice. A Congressional investigation is too likely to give the R's a platform for their lies.
I think it is premature to be negative declare that it will be so unfruitful.
THe Ds control Congress and can derive the investigation however they please and they have access to critical information.
I want to see facts, Memos, the chain of command etc on how Federal agents were deployed and the intelligence gathering apparatus used
I agree with other responders here. Time and money are factors. I do wonder if it would serve any purpose to preemptively start an investigation of BLM protests after the insurrection is thoroughly investigated though. It does seem it would be wasted time in the sense that 2/3’s of republicans would not believe any investigation anyway. For me this mistrust in government is the larger concern. There is a large part of the electorate that will choose not to believe anything any of the investigating agencies does. On top of that there are multiple misinformation machines (FOX, Facebook, Russia etc....) that are more effective at entertaining and capturing the imaginations of voters. People are highly invested in being angry. And, on top of all that they are making a lot of money from the misinformation. As usual this is partially a follow the money thing. The only way that this country can be effective at home and abroad is for the anger level to come down, misinformation to be slowed (or for people to get bored with it) and for people to come together. I do not see that happening right now.
The protests against police killing of Black folx (which continues) were clearly within the rights outlined in the Bill of Rights. Plenty of people were arrested this summer and the majority of the charges have been dropped; in some cases, people were released without being charged at all. The causes of those protests (and there will be more this year if the slaughter of the citizenry by uniformed and armed thugs continues) is not in doubt.
As for the January 6th "protests", the events of that day went clearly beyond the rights outlined in those ten amendments to our Constitution. The purpose was to interfere with a fair and free election and to overthrow the legally elected government. Perhaps that was not the aim of every single person who participated (some of them were clearly not intelligent enough to have thought that far), but it was certainly the aim of the organizers and leaders.
The one needs no investigation because there is no central organizing team when people from all walks of life spontaneously take to the streets to protest violence against our brothers and sisters perpetrated by those hire to protect and serve. The other must be investigated and the central organizers must be brought to justice. The one is a protest against criminal behavior; the other IS criminal behavior.
One does not use a wide-angle lens to capture the detail in the stamens of the delicate tulip.
Depends on the focal-length, actually ;)
Damn. Thought I had a perfect analogy (?). 😊
Today I feel so pedantic, yet petty.
It's probably the second Moderna dose yesterday that has just wiped me out.
I’ll pretend I didn’t read that. I get my 2nd Moderna in the morning.
Take the next day off if u get ur 2nd shot in the afternoon. Rest if u don’t feel good. Kicked my butt.
Best of luck. On the upside, they only give Moderna to good-looking folks!
"Tying the Republican Party to the Big Lie that caused the January 6 insurrection is a dangerous game. It is still unclear what will come out about the insurrection and the media lies that supported it and continue to support it."
I still believe that something could break open that even these most soulless, anti-American, democracy-destroying, egomaniacal, gaslighting, opportunistic, duplicitous, Big Lying SOBs cannot slime bucket their way out of.
Thank you for reminding us that we do not know much of what the Justice Department or various intelligence agencies have or may get.
I think I agree that there will be a BIG break in finding the truth to the Jan 6 insurrection. I believe Merrick Garland and his gang are moving stealthily to get to the TRUTH.
I wouldn't call it stealth, though. They are behaving the way that DOJ has always, with one glaring exception, has behaved; with dignity, probity, and care.
Probity the quality of having strong moral principles. Good word.
I don’t get it. If all these people, including trump, believe trump is still the xxxxxxxxx, then how is it that President Biden is in the White House. If trump was still legitimately in office why wasn’t this stopped? How can they not see what’s before their very eyes?
Hi Evelyn. What you are describing is exactly the disembodied news fact which has been uprooted from its natural garden and transplanted into the MSM sources you and I read.
The Big Lie is what the good guys call it, but in its natural habitat, it’s a living breathing lifeform. It’s a cult icon, the GOP’s pipe dream of an eternal Trump administration. It’s the modern day version of what I call the old order society of the 1800s and, regionally, the first half of the 1900s. In other words, the deluded souls living in the past are fantasizing, envisioning, their ideal world. In their ideal world, Trump is president forever, because he is their idol. To them, it’s not “a big lie” as much as what we would call a pipe dream. Again, that’s uprooting the plant and throwing it on the pavement. That’s taking it out of its natural habitat. Of course they don’t see it as a pipe dream, they see it as their idolized vision of reality. In its natural habitat, meaning in the world of white supremacy male supremacy boy girl supremacy society, it’s their totem. When you see those cretins running around with flags fixed to their pick-up trucks, you are looking at America in the era of slavery and Native American genocide and white male ownership of women and children. Our version of Nazi Germany, right here in America, alive and well. Those American flags waved by so-called patriots are their sacred symbol of a Trumpian world. To them, the American flag is sacred because it represents slavery and white male supremacy. When you’re burning the flag, you are desecrating the symbol of colonists and slaveowners and the Confederacy and the society that made women and children a commodity.
The Big Lie to that world is the Great White Hope and Great Male Domination of society. They don’t want to believe that their world has been taken away from them by women and non-whites and non-boy girl types. They would rather live in the delusion that their society is still running the show, is still in power.
Three things: 1) It is great to have you back. You were missed and yet, we know what you are dealing with; 2) As much as I enjoyed today's LFAA, I have had to scroll past so much trolling and feeding of the troll, that I haven't really been able to engage with the usual thoughtful members of the community; 3) I am looking forward to tonight, but with some trepidation, remembering the "You lie!" from another such event and hoping against hope that we will not be forced to observe yet another version of that tonight.
Thank you Ellen. Very kind of you to say so, re: (1).
Women and children were a commodity long before America existed.
Oh, I see. Let me rephrase.
"When you're burning the flag, you are desecrating the symbol of colonists and slaveowners and the Confederacy and the society that treats women and children as commodities, as of course they have been treated for millennia."
Yes.
Amen, Roland! That's some good preaching.
Allow me to anoint you. The donation basket is coming around now.
Is a tithe still 10%?
And I still don’t get them. But I’ve always had a hard time with cults in general.
I was born into the cult. My dad, born and raised in Munich, front row seat for the entire Hitler administration. I have had to wean myself away.
I forgot. There was a 4th "thing": when you mention the American flag being used as their symbol, I think immediately of three other flags they are now brandishing - the Confederate flag, the blue line flag and the flag of their dear leader. How do they fit into the equation? Or are they all one and the same in that alternative universe?
Yes. That's the short answer. The different flags highlight different aspects of the alternate universe. Remember, though, that using the term "alternate universe" is misleading, because their society is a whole lot older than ours. They have centuries and millennia of history and tradition on their side.
Historically speaking, WE represent the alternative universe. The new universe sweeping the planet. The Age of Aquarius. The New Age. A golden age of society, golden-age-in-development that is. We are the Rebellion in Star Wars. We are the new revolutionaries in a new Revolutionary War. They are the Old Guard. The Evil Empire. The indomitable Borg.
In our world, we have the rainbow flag of diversity (and gayness) and the transgender flag. We should have a women's power flag, too, I suppose that would be the Rosie the Riveter image with the strong arm.
In their world, they have the new flag for the police, the Thin Blue Line flag. That should tell you something: that the police, as an institution, are on their side, not our side. (Sorry Ally and other police officers reading these words, I love you, but this is unfortunately how it works in the minds of the Trump world and in the historical context). That Thin Blue Line is enforcing white supremacy, so called "law and order." The Thin Blue Line, in their minds, is what Amy Cooper was calling on when she was in Central Park and called 911 on a birdwatcher. (excuse me while I retch)
The Trump flag is like a Hitler flag, an exalted leader, a hero of the cause, like MLK or JFK or RFK (or Che, if you lean that way, power to the people through workers and union power).
The Confederate flag is obvious: an homage to a historic relic of that old society. If I were a Trumpster, this would be my flag of choice. They also use the American flag, as I mentioned before, as a go-to symbol for their traditional racist and sexist society. Those are the pick-up trucks racing around.
Finally the Don't Tread on Me flag, they appropriated that symbol for their own purposes. I am going to split this bunch into 2 groups
(1) An anti-vaxxer or anti-masker would gravitate to this symbol. "Don't Tread on Me, stay out of my life." Hence opposition to the govt. The Cliven Bundy group, Malheur NWR, Waco, Ruby Ridge, all of these groups want to do their own thing and hate govt. interference. The Mormons fall into this group as well. They were hunted and hounded out of New York, then Illinois and the Midwest, and then finally they headed out into no-man's-land where only Native Americans lived, but at least no white society was persecuting them. The Mormons later were forced to give up polygamy when public sentiment and outrage from back East persecuted them yet again.
(2) As David'sinSC said elsewhere today, Obama caused a wicked backlash. There is a reason the Orange Popsicle opposed absolutely everything Obama did, tried to reverse all his policies. He's racist, yes, but there's more: Any Old Guard person is going to oppose Barack Obama (because he is black and he is ushering in the new society) and Joe Biden (same reasons). They reject the govt. of Obama and Biden and Harris. They are opposed to the new society that is forming, the society where power hierarchy is absent, where no one class of people is better than any other class. They are resisting the inevitable change that is sweeping the world, the change that gives women, non-whites, and LGBT+ equal power and standing. The original Don't Tread on Me flag was used by American colonists who opposed the tyranny of the English monarchy: these people were the non-Tories. The Democrats. The "Republicans" of their day, when the "Republic" of govt. by the people and for the people was in contrast to rule by one dictator, a monarch. "Republicans" nowadays, the Republican Party, is just a reincarnation of the Confederate slaveowning misogynistic society of the 1880s and prior, and the KKK society post-Civil War.
The World flag too, of course, how could I forget. The ecology flags and recycling logo and all that. Those are the symbols of the new age, the new world, our world.
Now there's a world I want to live in.
I am in awe of how nicely you wrap all of this up. Thanks Roland!
Thank you Sir. My pleasure to serve. Thank you for informing me that it touches you. Like I told kimceann last week when she said one of my paragraphs "rocked her world," that's why I write and post. I am a teacher who missed his calling, until the book comes out anyway.
Evelyn you don't see them rejecting their lovely government stimulus checks from the Biden administration, do you? Or the enhanced child tax credit checks that are going out for the rest of the year because Biden and Harris made them retroactive to 2019? Or the enhanced unemployment compensation? So they are just the usual codswollopy mess of cynicism, mendacity, and greed combined with racism, sexism and homophobia. A large number of people are really, really good at not seeing anything that is before their eyes--or their noses. The people who lived downwind from the Nazi death camps in Germany and Poland insisted that they did not know they were there, even though a pall of smoke, the smell of burning bodies, and soot fell over their towns every single day.
I’ve asked many of them why, because of their strong beliefs, they don’t return all the “goodies” afforded them. “Well, why would I do that?”
Not to be simplistic, but it's largely conspiracy theorizing and distrust of the press. There's a reply to your post right here that lays it out quite plainly.
Indeed, paraphrasing Heather's text .....Maintaining the "Big Lie" requires the active proscription of the truth and access to it, otherwise the lie cannot survive..... Hence the projection on the mainstream media of their own information crimes and the attempted decrediting of any non-controlled sources of informations. In desperation, this can turn to physical and emotional violence against "enemy" journalists and attemps to physically disrupt or destoy any media organ not accepting the Lier's dictat. The world has been here before!
At the middle of the day I study this overflow of comments. We are in dire straits. The solution is not here on this very important website, thank you HCR. The energies spent here, I would hope, are a TENTH of the energies each contributor expends in writing congress, to local elected officials, reasoning with neighbors, urging law enforcement to follow up, etc etc etc. Bemoaning our disaster among ourselves produces little more than dismay.
LFAA and activism are not mutually exclusive. The former helps prepare for the latter. Knowledge is power; community is a blessing.
I do call. I do write. I do participate in town halls with my Rep. Porter. Reasoning with trumplican neighbors??? Have you tried that? A couple days ago our conversation about masks ended after she told me that THOUSANDS of people have died from wearing masks and the news just doesn’t report it. I give up.
Well, I volunteer on a City Board and Board of a Local non-profit that serves my community. As a TN resident, I don't waste effort writing any of the elected officials...
Hello Bliss, this is my 2nd reply. I have been thinking about your statement re: directing our energies into changing the external world.
The most powerful act of change in the world is the act of changing oneself. By educating ourselves, by opening our eyes, by getting to the bottom of any issue, we exercise the greatest power possible because now *you are the change.* Now *I am the change.* Perhaps I am biased because I am a writer, a born teacher, and an introvert. So I am predisposed to seeing things this way. But I have the greatest power as a human being, be it conversing with my conservative Dad, or conversing with Trumpsters at work, or penning a letter to a public official, when I am clear in my own mind what is going on, and where I stand.
I don't want to dissuade anyone from being an activist, far be it from me to interfere in righteous activity. But thing about how much more powerful your arguments are when you have studied them thoroughly. For me, that's why this community has been invaluable, and why I dearly love so many people here. I have learned so much.
I am very male in my blanket assertions, something my wife has a problem with from time to time. I tend to be emphatic, and opinionated. Although an introvert, I am a double Leo, which is sort of a natural out-there speaker. But I don't speak glibly or rashly, normally. I have given a great deal of thought to my positions. I'm not a robot, I don't just read or hear something then begin to parrot it. And that's how you gain power: you reflect, you consider, you bounce your thoughts off others like the dear wonderful people here. And you improve your opinions, your beliefs, your values, your position. You get better all the time, you get stronger all the time.
Hi Bliss. Nice thoughtful comment. Just wanted to say that I am not bemoaning any disaster. I think the Republican Party is disintegrating and self-destructing. The knee-jerk reaction to Orange Cremesicle's loss is voter suppression bills (and the other stuff), but to me it looks like desperation moves, and closing the barn door after the livestock has left. To me it appears the Congressional Republican caucuses are heading the way of the California Republican Party, which has achieved permanent minority status. They are doing everything they can to drag it out, but it's like fighting the Borg, as TPJ once said. Resistance is Futile. Agent Orange and his buddies are spending more and more time and money paying attention to lawsuits and search warrants and the like. I like where things are going. Yes, I read the news like you do, but when has the institution of journalism ever used good news to make money? We are moving in the right direction. I am encouraged.
they watch Fox News, watch it for a day or so and it's like OMG...
I have. At least I try. FOX and OAN & Newsmax. I can’t take it for very long. Better to turn the channel than throw a brick into the screen.
I have the world's best TV. It doesn't get Fox.
I agree that it is an actual pain to listen and read the dreck coming from the right wing - but what disturbs me more is that they react just as viscerally to those news sources that we find acceptable. Our brains have become wired differently on the right and on the left through our chosen steady diets of information that reinforces our already established identities and values. Possibly only the biconceptuals - those among us who are able to hold conservative values in some areas and progressive values in others - are able to be influenced. Those are the people we need to try to reach, rather than the ones who are just as far gone as we are.
I know there are some biconceptuals on this forum and it is valuable to heed what they say, because they can help us to approach some level of understanding of certain conservative viewpoints - and we can also work to get them to loosen up some of those conservative remnants they retain by demonstrating through shared values that our hope for good change in the world is in progressivism.
LOL, my youngest brother once told me that if it weren’t for abortion I’d be a Republican. I do sit in the middle. I should say, I DID. No more. This is no longer the GOP I once knew. I’m 69 years old.
So young! (I'm 66 :-)
It is hard to take but faux news writes its story very well, as does OAN, breitbart etc. I generally last about fifteen minutes.
Demagoguery is a powerful drug and hard to kick.
The belief stems from every anomaly in the election going the same way, that no incumbent president has ever gained votes and lost, not saying he won, not saying I would vote for him, I'm saying both sides cheat in every election. If you really follow the MSM and their steady stream of lies and anonymous intelligence sources over the last four years, that mostly turned out to be fabrications one can see how this would be perceived as a sham. How can anyone trust this media, they get caught openly lying and then promoting the liars.
Part of the Big Lie is to discredit the mainstream media, which is what you seem to be doing. Are you a mole or a troll?
I'm with Phil. Sweeping denunciation of "the MSM" is often a red flag.
Morning, TPJ!! I thought of you when I saw this story on the news yesterday. They say Jake is "operating" out of South Boston for now, but hopes to cover the entire city soon. https://people.com/human-interest/boston-artist-leaves-paintings-city-people-to-take/
Morning Lynell!! For the last couple of decades Southie's been pretty tame without Whitey Bulger around to provide, um, security.
Along with “both sides do it”
Troll, and a big one.
Cross a troll and a sealion and the result is . . . a mule. E.g. sterile.
Love this!
Love the love!
I wonder how much he’s paid to troll?
That is precisely what is happening here. He is paid to be here. I wonder who is paying him? I have my suspicions . . .
It’s almost unimportant because whoever it is, it’s someone so incompetent they can’t speak for themselves or so cowardly they won’t, not having the courage of their convictions, and either way they are not credible. But it would be interesting to know how much he’s being paid, as if it really makes such a difference in his life.
And a really BAD one. I'm thinking more along the lines of bot.
...a deflection to waste our time. So far, he's doing it!
Yes, look how much time and wasted energy we’ve spent on him. Wouldn’t it be better to ignore him and use the time for some better suggestions?
For a drooling Trumpmoron to be a troll or a mole would be a promotion far above his IQ pay grade.
Replace mainstream media with ...“reality” based journalism.
You believe the MSM? There is a very long list of overt fabrications that this government and media has corroborated over the last 4 years? You believe the Steele Dossier? You believe Trump told a Georgia official to find the fraud, you believe Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation, you believe te Trump Pee Pee tapes? This list goes on for days, the entire Russia collusion story was a sham, I guess you believe Saddam had WMDs, and that Russia really did pay bounties for US soldiers, how can you defend the media? All the tools of censorship and domestic spying that you and your blueberry kool-aid crew want so desperately to use against Republicans will be used against you when the pendulum swings.
So wait, you didn't hear Trump asking the GA Secretary of state to find him votes? I get that you're a very disappointed Bernie supporter. But, Bernie did not win in the primaries so he couldn't move on. Get over it.
So tell us, which media do you believe? What are your preferred news sources? And no, half baked, wanna be citizen journalists writing counter conspiracy theory laden junk from the blogosphere and who don't cite sources, named or otherwise, don't count.
You're right, the US has been involved in some very nasty operations, particularly in Central America and the Middle East. But dang, do you realize how unhinged you sound? Do you understand that you sound just as out of control as Trump's fervent, boot licking base?
Did you see the 50 front page news stories that quoted Trump on tape, verified by 17 different new agencies, that he said Find the votes and you'll be rewarded? It was a total lie, thats the point, I'm not defending Biff, I'm saying a lot of what your told is somewhere between cherrypicked to outright lies.
I heard ( with my own ears) trump not telling, but begging(!) Georgia officials to find him 74 votes....it was something along the ones of, "C'mon fellas....."
Right?
https://thepostmillennial.com/breaking-washington-post-retracts-claim-that-trump-told-georgia-election-official-to-find-the-fraud
That's dreck and you know it.
https://youtu.be/1dOYuPWFUAc
This is how much you can trust IQ45
your precious media fabricated blatantly a recording that was non-real that said Trump had told Georgia officials to find the fraud it was ran on the front page and 6 news on every Network it was an absolute sham
Ok, now we know you are delusional.
For the record: I don't watch Maddow or Doberman, I get most of my information from print sources, domestic and international. You might try doing the same.
Haha, Oberman. Sorry
Olbermann
Doberman, my husband's favorite canine. One day he'll adopt one!
What do you get from Russia?
You need more Doberman...
like the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times? Please explain what you were actually saying because that would be laughable
You're the worst and simplest kind of troll. What I'm actually saying is you cite sources written by hacks. You're a pissed Bernie Bro. I did not suggest that I read exclusively MSM. I spread sources as varied as Mother Jones, Reuters, Agence France, Rolling Stone, WaPo, The Economist and more, not half baked crap written by a bunch of aging by hipsters who make a living touting conspiracy theories. Retraction and corrections are SOP in journalism. I heard Raffensperger's recording with my own ears. Raffensperger did not dispute the recording or the reason why he made it. Grow up.
Answer Daria’s question.
It won’t swing the way you’re thinking it will
It always has and likely always will, you think there will never be a republican president again? You think the 73 million people that voted for Trump are all racist, homphobic white supremacists? It will swing, back, it always does.
If there will ever be another. Republican president, he will have stolen the Dems platform because he couldn’t create his own and he will never be a she, so i have serious doubts. The Repubs have shot their credibility was.
You're a persistent piece of something one scrapes off their shoes, aren't you LieOn?
If you haven't noticed, this forum leaves name-calling and hate at the door. Please don't denigrate its integrity. You owe Jack and apology.
Jack is trolling us. TC does not owe an apology for calling him out.
Yes, trolling, but overt name-calling goes against the grain on LFAA.
Name-calling still seems quite pervasive here which is a real shame.
Think you need to crawl back into that little blue chamber of hate and refuel, I'm sure Olbermann or Maddow can feed you some more partisan rage. I'm not a supporter of Trump or Republicans, I just don't support the way our media blatantly publishes lies and gets away with it.
My goodness Jack, you’ve fallen into the rabbit hole of rage where everything is a projection. A terrifying state of mind.
There are elements of truth in your words, but, you manage to weave them into your own warped narrative.
You love Bernie and likely Elizabeth Warren as well. So do I. I believe they would ask you to get onboard the Biden train and help him accomplish his very progressive agenda.
How progressive will depend largely on how much support he has.
That is unless your only objective is destruction.
What do Trumpsky supporters say?
"I'm not a supporter of Trumpsky."
Drumpfski
You may well be right TPC.
Go stick your head back up your assets, you senile old fool.
Thank you TC. You're the guy I want on my side in the trenches.
The election was a freaking landslide.
Amen, Liz. Why isn't there a serious push to eliminate the Electoral College? I don't get it.
Directly dropping it would take a constitutional rewrite. Since the radical right controls a majority of state legislatures, you would not like the results of any constitutional convention.
Besides the Compact described by Annette, there is another option: Remove the limit on the size of the House of Representatives. It was capped in 1929, by law, to limit the power of the growing cities and the immigrants in them. Dump that cap. Once the House is truly proportional to population, the electoral college will be also, with a slight modifying effect due to the Senate. Also, grant statehood to D.C.
A constitutional amendment is needed, not a convention, though that could do it. But a constitutional conventional could also cause serious damage, so no thanks.
Hi Joan, how would dumping that cap be achieved? Through legislation? Anything we the people can do to enliven this issue?
Merely dumping the cap could be done by repealing the law that set it. In practice, what might be needed is a new law that spells out some of the details. The basic idea could be that the population of the smallest state equals one representative, and all the others are proportional. Since that math will not work out as whole numbers, how are the partials handled. Given current realities, some forbidding of gerrymandering would be an appropriate add-on.
https://democracyjournal.org/magazine/55/why-435/
I do want DC to be a state. So many causes and so little time
It boils down to getting rid of the minority-rule filibuster.
Thanks Joan— I had no idea.
There is. The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact www.national popular vote.com is working for that. Please take a look and see what you can do. There are also Facebook groups you can join. I belong to the group in Florida.
Sorry the link didn’t post as a hyperlink but go ahead and type in the address. Sorry.
I have no idea— I’d love to get rid of the electoral college—how do we even start?
For The People Act
He got 73 million votes the most ever for a losing Candidate, I get how dearly you cherish this narrative, and I'm not questioning it, I'm merely explaining that the 4 years of constant fabrication and endless Russaigate bullshit, has left people assuming that everything this media tells them is a lie.
He also lost by the largest margin ever, more than 7 million votes.
I really don't get this argument. The logic seems to be since more people turned out to vote, and trump lost, it must be fraud. If that's it, it's not much to hang your hat on.
Also, why won't his base accept he's a Putin fanboy? Is there ANY evidence to the contrary? The #1 reason for his man crush is Putin has blessed his cultivation for years, by supporting his business bankruptcies, and conveniently, his political career when he ran against a Putin enemy.
1/45 supporters are innumerate; they believe that 74 is higher than 81. Bah.
Last time I saw "Bah" from TPJ was because of another person we all had trouble with. TPJ's "Bah" is a sign it's time for Heather to remove the person from her subscriber list.
:-)
Did I ever say it was a fraud?
What are you saying? You repeat the trope that his 73 million votes are the most a losing candidate ever received. What's your point?
Your “both sides do it” claim is a lazy response.
There is no proof of vote/voter manipulation.
Your claim of a disingenuous “media” is also lazy. First of all you need to understand the difference between news and commentary. Secondly you need to review the Mueller report. In no way shape or form did his result give the trump campaign a pass on their activities with Russian operatives.
You can make a difference in the perception by others by NOT continuing with your disingenuous comments.
Oh please, you honestly believe that the Democrats didn't try to cheat? The same organization that openly admitted rigging their primaries? This is who your standing up for, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and crew, please. Every political party in every country anywhere wins by any means necessary. Hold up, so you literally believe that the reason Trump won was becaue of Russiam meddling in the 2016 election?
How much are you being paid, Jack? And where do you live?
I think there are some very respectable government agencies and personnel who have released information proving that “Russiagate” was NOT BS. Go somewhere else with your delusions. This forum deals with reality.
Christy 100%
Who we gonna believe -- Jack O'Lantern or our own lyin' eyes???
Its actually scary that people still belive that, the Steele Dossier has been absolutely, thoroughly debunked as horseshit, we literally spent tens of millions of dollars investigating this, its done, please just let it go. There are probably people that still believe Jeffrey Goldberg telling everyone that Saddam was connected to Al Queda, but he wasn't. Was he fired for inciting an illegal invasion that is still claiming a dozen US troops a day by suicide, and who knows how many million displaced, dead brown people, no, no he is at the apex of the same propaganda networks that brainwash people, like you.
By standing up for journalistic integrity, does not mean you support Biff.
Do you trade in bicoins?
Jack, you have a weird reading list.
There are countless, huge news stories this year that were knowingly, blatantly lies, and they are verified by a dozen MSM agencies, and then quietly retracted, or walked back months later.
Hm, interesting.