578 Comments
Apr 9, 2022·edited Apr 9, 2022

Why these people have not been indicted, tried, found guilty, and now living in orange jumpsuits behind bars is beyond me. It is a constant drip, drip, drip of "new" revelations of blatant evidence regarding the attempts to overthrow the government. The people of Ukraine are killing themselves fighting for democracy and we sit here letting democracy die on the vine.

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Watergate took two years and got a little boring along the way; people lost interest, but then when the evidence started getting publicized it turned into a dramatic climax, eventually sending almost 50 people to jail, and that with only 5 people at scene of the crime.

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Won't matter a hill of beans unless we get this investigation on television, during prime time, with a summary, an explanation, and a conclusion. Dumbed down to a 3rd graders' level (we all know we're dumber than 5th graders). The documentary running continuously would help.

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Yes, Lynn duffy, that proves how crappy our education system is and how stupid our legislators are to allocate so little for education and so incredibly much to kill people.

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As a former teacher, I can tell you that I can tell you there are bad teachers like there are bad doctors, lawyers, engineers, plumbers, electricians, contractors etc. Most of the teachers I knew worked hard-long hours, taking work home, low pay, and damned little respect. When was the last time anyone out there managed 25 6yr olds as the only adult in the room?! The legislators, especially Republicans, attack our education system and make the public think the schools are terrible when really it’s the legislators making the ultimate decisions about spending, curriculum, etc. that go against best known education practices.

Then there’s the reality that no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.

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I agree Jenn. I taught from preschool through college, and while there’s a wide range of teacher training and school curriculum throughout the states, I don’t think the teachers are to blame for the American people’s poor showing at the polls and in their ability to problem solve and analyze. Here’s “whatabouts?” These historical conditions: Poverty that prevents students from attending school or even eating three meals a day; students sleeping in unsafe housing; parents and families who have been caught in that cycle of poverty for at least the past 50 years, while repubs advise the poor to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, lack of affordable medical and dental care; overcrowded classrooms and substandard building conditions; uneven funding and racist policies. Compromised and inadequate curriculum. Tax breaks for the wealthy. Tax laws allowing the wealthy to get wealthier. You can add to this the inequality between states and regions. My list could go on for pages. We want answers and to place responsibility somewhere but these are complicated times.

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How very right you are! Well said!

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This is the same thing they did to Judge Jackson. Legislators failed to visits the laws and sentences for sex crimes and pedophilia. Then they attacked her for not doing enough and became enraged when she pointed out their failures. These facts have not been pushed enough. I sent letters to my Senators and Representative pushing for answers and actions of when they will fix these broken things. Tom Tillis wants to wait until things cool down, just like with mass shootings. So, Never. Judging by all the prominent GOP recently being investigated, charged and convicted for sex crimes I can see why they want to keep lighter sentences.

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Tillis is my senator also. He is just a Republican talking head. I have no use for him. He was horrible in the NC House and he’s horrible in the Senate.

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I have been yelling at the top of my "fingers" to legislators and everyone else about the treatment of teachers. Heather has told us that 40% of teachers quit this last year and I've told my legislators the same thing. If we don't start supporting you, stop further controlling what can and can't be taught in our schools there will no longer BE teachers.

I was involved HEAVILY with PTA starting in 1995 and learned that the place to have the greatest impact was as legislative V.P., first with one school then my county. I was quite aggressive, in fact won an award from the state for being so involved. My focus always was the children, then the teachers, then the parents. Bless you teachers.

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Sad and true!

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"Our" legislators (we're talking mostly about Republicans, I assume) are not stupid; they're getting exactly what they intended: dumb voters who accept any nonsense they promulgate, and lots of cash from the military-industrial complex (among others) in return for all the money spent on killing machines. Not that the Democrats have entirely clean hands, but the Republicans are in the pro league by comparison. We're the ones who are stupid for voting these people (not "folks") into office.

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Weren't the 1/6 hearings supposed to be on TV already?

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In May, based on what I read last night. Frankly, it would be a mistake to do so any earlier based on November elections.

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During Prime Time if I've heard correctly. Don't know if will be on regular broadcast channels (ABC, NBC, CBS) but certainly on CNN, MSNBC and C-Span.

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Stop dreaming. That won't happen. And if it did, who would watch it other than MSNBC's and CNN's audience which is already convinced. And there's another news network out there with more viewers than both combined, which won't even go near it.

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Viewers would also be able to watch it on CSPAN.

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Not enough Americans watch CSPAN regularly to make a difference ... and its numbers of viewers include all devices, not just TV. And in the months leading up to the 2022 election, college and NFL football will be dominating TV, providing strong competition.

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Jack, I agree with you. I'm sure you agree with this: "Football, beer, and above all, gambling, filled up the horizon of their minds. To keep them in control was not difficult." -- "1984" by George Orwell

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Apr 9, 2022·edited Apr 9, 2022

The network you refer to isn't a news network. Not even close.

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CSPAN isn’t meant to “report” the events in hearings, etc. it simply broadcasts them unedited as they happen.

The only deliberate, lengthy edit I’ve ever seen on CSPAN is the entire train time carrying George HW Bush’s coffin to College Station

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Right, CSPAN just shows the truth of what is happening in Congress.

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I was referring to Fox, which is the network that Jack Lipman undoubtedly cited.

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Are you kidding!!! This will draw viewers of every persuasion, people will be glued to their TV's, even streaming networks will not be able to compete with this. People love the drama!!!!

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Apr 9, 2022·edited Apr 9, 2022

How the story is told is critically important. What witnesses will be called? Will the questioning be effective? Will televised sworn testimony produce new revelations? No doubt the committee has tons of damning information to work with. But will it tell a compelling narrative? Suspect we will see some video for the first time. What would be decisive is revealing the identify of the pipe bomber.

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I don't think so.

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bet you five bucks

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I watched every minute of both impeachment hearings.

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Republican Senators watched them too, and ignored what you saw and heard.

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Sorry, but I remember both my own kids, my grand kids, as well as pretty much every kid I know, was a lot, I mean a heck of a lot, smarter in 1 st grade than some of the people I do not want to mention. Gives too bad of a taste in my mouth

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It's my understanding that the live Jan. 6 Committee hearings are to be in May during Prime Time. Don't know if it will be on regular broadcast channels (lots of lost revenue for prime time shows) but certainly on CNN, MSNBC and C-Span.

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I would like to see some of the Fox anchors called as witnesses, to see how they perform under oath. Sean Hannity had certainly been in the White House often enough to contribute to the fund of knowledge the Committee is amassing. And I wonder how many emails were exchanged betwen him and the defeated former president.

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Jeff, except we don't have 2 years. The midterms are upon us. The GOP have been clear that the anticipated change in power will bury this investigation.

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Apr 9, 2022·edited Apr 9, 2022

Linda Bailey - exactly. We only have a few months left. The only thing standing in the way of Republicans willfully turning this country into a right wing minority rule autocracy with the ability to stay in power indefinitely, shockingly, is the coming mid-term elections. Thanks to the cancer of Trumpism, and a system of laws that have opened the door to this disaster right before our eyes. Lose House and Senate, and not only do the investigations come to a screeching halt, but DOJ will probably get timid, Biden will have nothing left of power but temporary exec orders, Trump will kick off his campaign for re-election immediately, and he or someone just as bad or worse (Desantis?) will win in 2024. It is an unthinkable nightmare. Republicans know this - that is why they are seeking to draw out the entire process. It's as clear as the noses on our faces. What is worse, Democratic voters are infamous for ignoring mid term elections especially when they are in power. Republicans know this also. So what will get centrist and progressive minded voters riled up to go to the polls? And possibly get right wingers to go hide under rocks? Indictments, made public in searing technicolor, that even the right wing news feeds cannot ignore. Including Trump of course. Think of the talking points that will create. Far better that than for the investigators to continue to take their time and fall prey to the continued rope-a-dope delay tactics, thereby frustrating the progressives and centrists and destroying any hope they have left.

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Apr 9, 2022·edited Apr 9, 2022

Totally, absolutely! Great comment, Jay. We've heard of the MAD nuclear war doctrine "use it or lose it", right? Well, the same goes for the vote. The Trump loving 30% are a lost cause, but the somewhat uncomfortable old-style Republicans, the don't-know-what-to-do centrists, the ideological independents and the "huh, what election?" non-voters all need to vote Democratic in November as if their very lives depend on it.

Time to use the vote, or lose it.

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“A Republic, if you can keep it.” Ben Franklin

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James, you and I are absolutely on the same page. Historically, mid terms bode poorly for the Party "in power" and this time, the stakes are so much higher.

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If Trump runs again, 50/50 at best IMHO, he still has to win the nomination, and he WILL have competition. He has provided so much deranged material to be used against him in ads that he will feel like a firehose has been turned on him at full pressure. Same goes for the election. If you think he or DeathSantis are a sure thing, I'll take that bet. Both of them are their own worst enemies, same goes for Abbott, Hawley, Cotton, etc. What if Mitt Romney runs? He would have a heavy lift, but the contrast to the wacko fringe caucus would be interesting. Also, never forget that Joe Biden has the power of the veto, and no way will Rick Scott's platform and the crazies who will run against incumbent will get anywhere near a veto-proof majority. Elections do have consequences!!!!!

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Bill, if Trump runs again, he will win the Republican nomination. In the general, who knows? But the Republican nomination is Trump’s for the asking.

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Not only do Democrats ignore mid-term elections, the AOC/Socialist Democrats are actively, intentionally dividing the Democratic voters. Boogles my mind they honestly don’t care if they hand power to the Republicans in their sense of “righteousness.”

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Excellent insight on your part. Kudos!

You stated: “ So what will get centrist and progressive minded voters riled up to go to the polls? And possibly get right wingers to go hide under rocks? Indictments, made public in searing technicolor, that even the right wing news feeds cannot ignore.”

This is where I too hope that people will become motivated simply to vote for Democrats. But, I’m convinced that Pedophile Projecting, Putin Apoligist, Grift cheering Republicans will NEVER vote against their cult leaders.

Everything will depend on those who lean toward Republicans.

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Apr 9, 2022·edited Apr 9, 2022

Yes, and we all should remember that in Obama's first term. his party controlled the entire Congress. But in the mid-term election, he no longer controlled both houses of Congress. Come on Democrats, you must get the votes out both in May and November of this year. Otherwise, we'll be faced with autocracy from the GOP, and it won't be pretty.

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And Obama ignored filling so many lower court judgeships his first 2 years, presuming he had at least 4 years, despite McConnell’s public declaration of obstruction.

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Arresting anyone before the midterms gives Republicans huge momentum.

How is that good?

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Huge momentum? I can see the base getting riled up. But the base is something like 30% of the electorate. Indictments ought to REALLY get progressives and centrists riled up.

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You're probably right. It would stir up the base. But it could cut the other way too -- open some eyes and swing some votes.

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Lets be positive;

If the Blue gets "stirred" up there will be no gOP dominance or delay tactics with which to contend. So lets stir it up and

V O T E, V O T E, V O T E!!!

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If not before the mid-terms, then when? If a majority of American voters are "OK" with the shit Trump and the GOP have been been selling them these past few years, then they will get what they deserve, but not what most of us who read Heather's "Letter" deserve. Waiting until after the midterms for the shit to hit the fan will be way, way too late. It may already be too late!

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And that might be the signal for us to go 'underground' as those openly or covertly opposed to democracy did until Ronald Reagan gave them some legitimacy, at which point they emerged out of the darkness into daylight. Before then, William Buckley, the John Birch Society, etc. were mostly ignored ... but after 1980, their ideas became acceptble to many Americans, too many. I hope the Democrats win big in November, but if not, we should have a plan.

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It would be 'good' only if successful prosecution, sentencing and unsucessful appeals follow before the midterms and that is unlikely, so you are correct. I can just see those arrested, out on bail, appearing with Carlson, Hannity and Ingraham nightly.

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Apr 9, 2022·edited Apr 9, 2022

I don't think anything is going to come of it anyway. It will be over and wiped from the books after the Midterms. It's Mueller Report.2.

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So glad you mentioned this, Jeff. I think most of us would agree that looking back on an event seems to go much quicker than living through it. But fortunately (or not!) there's always somebody that never forgets so that we can relive those good old days again. See this “Watergate: Portraiture and Intrigue" at the National Portrait Gallery in D.C., running through September 25, 2022

https://wapo.st/35UsIOM

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But in those days there was the fairness doctrine and there was no Faux News to generate misinformation. I think there was more of a moral compass for legislators as well. Country mattered more than party....IMHO.

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We watched January 6th live. The committee has a gazillion emails, phone call records, evidence, witnesses, etc. of the day as well as the planning of the attempted coup. None of that existed during Watergate. Furthermore, there isn't one single republican currently in Congress who has an ounce of decency to do the correct thing. Nixon's own party told him to resign. Nixon may have broken the law but there is also a huge difference between his crimes and trump and January 6th.

The hand wringing and "justice moves slowly" are just excuses to not do what is correct under the law. Just like with the Mueller Report, there is now a real risk the work of the January 6th Committee is going to be for naught and the rule of law is toast (frankly, it has been for a while). And, as we have seen these criminals keep pushing for more chaos and government takeover.

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Ah, those were the days...

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I remember that. My Republican father couldn't understand at all. "President Nixon di no wrong," he told me many times.

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Most Republicans in the nation believed that, and Nixon was considering “rolling the dice” he would not be convicted by the Senate—until that Republican delegation informed him differently; Barry Goldwater’s famous “…and I’ll be the first one to vote against you” convinced Nixon resigning was more dignified than being the first US President convicted by the Senate.

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Dignity is a long forgotten trait in this Republican Party

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Apr 9, 2022·edited Apr 9, 2022

Jeff. Thanks.

It's been, roughly 1.3 years now since Trump's attempted coup? Is that correct?

Time's awastin' here Jeff.

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Wrong, Wring, Wrong. Clock ticking. Midnight in DC, Rep. Adam Schiff Time. One Six Rolling, perps talking, Ukraine fighting, grifters grifting, Putin Killing, Meta Data Troops listening to everyone 24/7, a paradigm shift, The Russian Army Contact Information Center open for business, hundreds of thousands admitted as members, Truthout Trump, Seven No Trump, Aces High, Lying Low, Big Lie Liar Lampooned, GOP hoisted, all but three, 6/3 will be 3/6, as SCOTUS isolates The Beer Boy, Schizoid White Black Clarence, the Me, Two Guy, Ginny, the Queer Queen of Cult In Drag, Colorado NG and Indiana ND Amy C FF, the white national opposite to LBJ’s opposite, KBJ The Loving Truth Teller from Slave America in three generations, KKK outed, Four Harvard Girls Giggling.. Zelenskyy & Company prevailing, Trump Turning on a Spit, One Six in Synch with DOJ, President Biden and Obama and Harris and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson smiling, wiping her tears, her innate BLACK class flipping three then a nation... fear not, fear itself is on the run... Trump is yesterday’s news, Black Women are Tomorrow’s News, and I am 83: Thank God and Her Parents and Jim Crow, the character Buildiers will save hs all. Now, to warming - Beer Boy.

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All but the shouting! Shout, America. Shout! Cry, America, Cry. KBJ came just in time. Zelenskyy’s Army came just in time. Cain’s Pain, The Book of Job, The Stranger, The Plague, Warming, God’s Test. Big Oil, Big Lie. Let’s Roll, America, God and the Devil, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson will lead us, none too soon. 

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I sure hope you're right, Sandy. I see it that way too but am too hesitant to say so. So, thank you.

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Character Builders Will Save Us All.

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Only if all of us Build Our Character.

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Yes, we can! Obama.

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❤️

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The character Buildiers will save Us all.

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Sandy, your writing reminds me of the epic poem Paterson by William Carlos Williams. Both are just great!

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Wrong, Wring, Wrong. Clock ticking. Midnight in DC, Rep. Adam Schiff Time. One Six Rolling, perps talking, Ukraine fighting, grifters grifting, Putin Killing, Meta Data Troops listening to everyone 24/7, a paradigm shift, The Russian Army Contact Information Center open for business, hundreds of thousands admitted as members, Truthout Trump, Seven No Trump, Aces High, Lying Low, Big Lie Liar Lampooned, GOP hoisted, all but three, 6/3 will be 3/6, as SCOTUS isolates The Beer Boy, Schizoid White Black Clarence, the Me, Two Guy, Ginny, the Queer Queen of Cult In Drag, Colorado NG and Indiana ND Amy C FF, the white national opposite to LBJ’s opposite, KBJ The Loving Truth Teller from Slave America in three generations, KKK outed, Four Harvard Girls Giggling.. Zelenskyy & Company prevailing, Trump Turning on a Spit, One Six in Synch with DOJ, President Biden and Obama and Harris and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson smiling, wiping her tears, her innate BLACK class flipping three then a nation... fear not, fear itself is on the run... Trump is yesterday’s news, Black Women are Tomorrow’s News, and I am 83: Thank God and Her Parents and KKK, and Jim Crow, the character Builders will save us all. Now, to warming - Beer Boy, Bottoms Up, Top Down, Liars Poker... you lose.

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Sandy,

Once, as an engineering student, I had to take a literature class, which, initially, I thought was a waste of time, but, during the class concluded it was the best systems engineering class I took.

I had to read a bunch of poems of different types and I remember one had this kind of cadence, although, I think it might have had separated lines.

At any rate, very nice writing.

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Apr 10, 2022·edited Apr 10, 2022

Thx Mike for bringing that up. Sandy’s poem made me recall a poem, actually a novel that’s one long epic poem called Paterson by William Carlos Williams. Sandy’s writing style, cadence reminds me of the poem. Great book!

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Apr 9, 2022·edited Apr 9, 2022

It was January 6, 2021. Not 2 years ago...just seems like it.

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Corrected Pati. Thanks. Brain switched to low this am.

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It takes a lot less time to convince the casual viewer/reader on social media to determine the guilt of anyone or anything. When was the last time the general public determined someone was innocent of something getting prime time coverage? BUT, when it comes to getting legal in court, convictions of guilt it takes that thing called evidence and proven fact. We may think the 1/6 committee has enough evidence but they are neither judges nor a court room of sworn jurists. If you were innocent and charged with a felony, you'd be glad of the requirements. Even then, most judges come from prosecution backgrounds and most jurists are automatically willing to assume guilt if the person was arrested by police. For this reason alone the SCOTUS and the American public will benefit from Justice Jackson on the Court (which may explain why the Republicans were so against her). Yes, there is a real need for the SCOTUS to lean in to rebuilding the public's faith in our justice system - and take it out of the political arena, which will not be an easy task - made more difficult by the very political process we have seen in recent years. We can only hope the behavior, verbal exchanges, mental processes, and critical analysis members of the Court will be applying to EVERY case that comes before it and STOPS hiding behind a Shadow Docket which is a far cry from an open and accountable administration and application of law.

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Propaganda works, what is the excuse for France leaning toward LePen. Could it be that Bannon’s overseas efforts are bearing fruit. Evil never sleeps. Do we need more proof…

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I've been obsessing over France's situation, Ukraine, (throw in an acquittal for the two boys in Michigan...) and the charades by the GOP monsters regarding the KJB hearing and I'm not sure why I am so depressed that I can hardly get out of bed in the morning... We seem to be sharing a collective horror in this country over the war in Ukraine, and yet we are nurturing these Putin-wannabees all across this country? The legislation passing against trans, 'say gay', abortions, etc. is like a wildfire and I'm not sure if we have enough resources to put them out.... I have always been an optimist, a believer in good will triumph....but me spirit has been beaten down... will soon send me a lifeline?

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The goal is to have us get exactly to that point. Depressed and inactive. Cowed. Fred Roger’s mother taught him that when tragedy happens, “Look for the Helpers.” They Are Always There. The resilient ones. The ones who bear all burden into the future, pragmatically, steadfastly, against-odds. Let us all do something today -Big or small- to make the world a better place. Be a Helper that some other despondent person needs to see. KBJ’s ancestors had every reason to give up. They were enslaved by a country which espoused “All were created equal”. Her parents had reason to give up during segregation, to not keep pushing, keep helping to make a better future. But Man o Man! I am so happy they did, every day, step, by, step. I am a white woman used to privilege. This moment in history hits me hard. Keeping this country together is going to be the hardest thing I have ever lived through. And there’s no guarantee it will not crash under the assaults. What can I do to help? I feel small and ineffectual. Yet I hear a faint voice over my shouting dispare: “Do Something! Write, Donate, Reach Out, Help Someone! Do Something to give the entropy of depression a push back! Don’t let the “Smash-Everything” Haters inactivate your heart and imagination - or kindness.

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Thank you for your insight. I really needed it this morning! And I too try to focus on the Black people in the South who fought for centuries and didn't give up so thank you for citing KBJ.

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Thank you Michele, I take your words very seriously and will keep them in my heart and mind. I have been keeping the Ukrainian people in my heart when I feel discouraged and helpless. If they can keep going I can, or should be able to fly!

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❣️❣️

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Attempted like. Do something, do anything but feel helpless.

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Apr 9, 2022·edited Apr 9, 2022

Cynthia O’Connor. Doesn’t matter that I do not know where you are or where you live. I can feel your spirit and your message in your post. I’m sending you Light and I contemplated that there will be birds around you sometime today that have a message of goodwill for you. Spirit can be “beaten down” but spirit is always a phoenix. When we batten down the hatches, we weather the storm and are ready to be fierce and faithful.

Salud!

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Thanks Christine! Even as I write I hear the birds and the incomperable 'chirping' of my daughter downstairs who came to visit yesterday... this should fill my tank for a few miles!!

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My lifeline is worn, tattered, and I am not confident in it. Over on "Another Fine Mess" TC posted a photo of a Russian bomb lettered with "for the children" that was ultimately fired into an occupied theater causing the deaths of at least 50 and injuring substantially more people (many of them women and children) attempting to flee the country.

My thoughts, feelings, and beliefs in this manner are unfit for publication, as they fail community standards.

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In understand... at least we have camaraderie...

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It is discouraging, Ally. And yet, we will continue to throw lifelines to as many as we can, no matter how tattered or worn. Because sometimes a thread of hope is all that is needed.❤️ Your caring, your lifeline, no matter what form, still matters, likely in ways you will never know.

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Cynthia O'Connor, I read Robert Hubbell on substack. He finds a way to be hopeful with all this depressing news. He usually skips the weekend but he did let us know that today he & his wife are celebrating their granddaughters 1st birthday. His goal is to leave the world a better place for her.

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Thanks! I will check him out... a drink a toast to the birthday peanut too!

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Cynthia, I just donated money to Doctors Without Borders. I listed it in your honor. You are not alone in this fight. Show yourself some compassion today. Fatigue and dispare are real. I believe soon you will catch your second wind. Women like you, who care deeply, never stay out of the fight for long. But everyone needs a time to acknowledge their humanness and pull back to find some breath. Peace.

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Michele! How kind of you.... I always bounce back, but it's so heavy right now.... but I won't be down for long ❤️

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Cynthia, I hear you and I am sharing your pain. There are days when I think it can’t get any worse and then it does.

Being an American used to make me proud and feel safe, often now it makes me feel ashamed and vulnerable.

How have we come to this?

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Look, I lived through the worst. It’s documented. I never quit for long. As a young child, I stopped eating and water. I was saved by one old Negro lady that loved me. She returned by taxi. She had been installed in Binghamton State (NYState) for terminal syphilis when I was 20 months. I only cared for her. At two. If you - Cynthia - want to assemble a ZOOM call with a few dozen folks feeling as you do - let’s talk. There’s always a way out of depression. Sandy

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Remember Winston Churchill. FDR. Fear itself!

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I hope I'm not mistaken, but my reading is that they'll vote "utile" for Mélenchon in the first round, to block Le Pen. In the 2002 elections, they took Jospin (Socialist) for granted and there were so many abstentions that her father got into the second round ahead of him. There was a huge public rally, the intervening weekend, and Chirac was elected. They didn't like him, but anything was better than Le Pen. One sign, carried aloft, said "Better to be f***ed by Chirac than r**ed by Le Pen." Another said "Vote Right - with your Left hand." And next we got Sarkozy, and I won't go into what happened after that.

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Le Pen definitely needs to be blocked. She is extremely dangerous.

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LePen will build a bridge for Putin to dance across.

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"Would", not "will".

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Thanks for the correction. Fingers crossed...

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That bridge will sink.

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She’s another one that admires Putin.

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And just nasty. Vichy France redux.

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Just checked and Mélenchon came in third, behind Le Pen, so the runoff will be between Le Pen and Macron on April 24. Polls have Macron beating Le Pen but the margin is narrow.

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Official results still coming in. There are huge differences in various parts of the country, places where Mélenchon has wiped out Macron and especially Le Pen. The Mélenchon supporters will vote for Macron. The Le Pens are against everything France stands for.

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Thanks. I certainly hope you're right. Both that Melenchon may yet overtake Le Pen and that, if not, his supporters will go to Macron if that becomes necessary.

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Mélenchon, addressing his crowded HQ, says the combat will continue, as long as life lasts. He talks about Sisyphus - the rock has fallen to the bottom, now we'll send it back up. He says "Not one vote must go to Madame Le Pen. Not a single one." And virtually all the eliminated candidates are giving the same message to their supporters.

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Big UGH on that. I hope Macron prevails.

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Jeri, I await the French vote myself to see the results of Bannon’s efforts. His persuadable-manipulation-machine seems to be a hypersonic weapon that we know not how to counter.

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I simply don't understand how a man who looks like the collision between an unmade bed and a drunk on a two week bender, could prove to be so persuasive. I wouldn't believe a thing he said...why should they?

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That description of Bannon was so funny. Thx for the laugh we all need.

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His targets resemble each other.

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I understand your frustration JW because the clock is ticking. However, I also understand that Jan 6th Committee has to get this right ! Whatever conclusion his handed down, the insurrectionist are waiting to punch holes in it.

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Oh, Lynnell, I'm just sick about it. When half the jury pool are trumpers here in Michigan, does justice have a chance? And YES, as Bill says, this is why the Jan. 6 Committee has to get this right - as well as the DOJ. We only get one chance to kill the king.

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I was both shocked and sickened by the verdicts yesterday, and agree with the statement put out by Gov. Whitmer that this will only embolden extremists.

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Apr 10, 2022·edited Apr 10, 2022

Yes, Shocking and sickening. Just “rough talk” said the defense lawyer. That’s what women always have to take—-until it gets worse. And then he praised our First Amendment and free speech. I am disgusted. I feel so bad for gov. Whitmer.

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Lynell, I heard about this yesterday. It proves to me we do not have a working judicial system in place.

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I saw this yesterday. I cannot fathom it..

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I know...I am deeply, deeply disappointed in a system that refused find those miserable belligerent specimens guilty.

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Michigan proved yesterday that an honest jury will be impossible to find. Justice is now partisan and you only need one of twelve to avoid conviction in an otherwise solid case

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That’s why I’m hoping it’s taking so long is for it to be Rock Solid so they can’t .

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Watching the men get off on all charges of attempting to kidnap the Michigan Governor, was hard to take in. “Boys-will-be-Boys”. I agree with the Governor that this will encourage other brazen plans. We are in a violent era in Michigan. The subtle bigotry and extremism is now empowered, armed and encouraged by our ineffectual “Justice” System. It’s more like a “Just Some” System. “Lock & Load Boys! It’s Open Season on them thar Michigan Women!”

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Apr 10, 2022·edited Apr 10, 2022

Yes, our wonderful governor, Janet Mills in Maine is having to put up with the most explicit and vulgar language I have ever seen. she’s our first woman governor . This didn’t happen before .It’s on bumper stickers and some cover the whole back windshield. It’s outrageous! Our kids see this!! It’s not ok. Social norms are gone. And I have to say our legislators are cowards on doing anything about this.

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Kyle Rittenhouse is their “ Poster Boy “.

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Can that decision be appealed?

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Mistrial. Can be re-tried. Odds go down, though, without new evidence

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They were acquitted of the most serious charge. The Jury is still out on the lesser ones.

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Apr 9, 2022·edited Apr 9, 2022

My almost immediate reaction to this boys-will-be-boys verdict in the Michigan kidnapping plot was "here comes the newest get out of conviction strategy:" If you plan, plot, and prepare to overthrow and are unsuccessful in executing the plot, you can't be found guilty. And if the FBI was at all involved in turning the planners into plotters (playing along with the other good old boys) the "victims" (those good old boy) have been entrapped. Anyone else expect this to become the January 6th insurrectionist defense? Shesh.

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I agree wholeheartedly, Bill. Well said.

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Apr 9, 2022·edited Apr 9, 2022

Janet,

Trump is not in jail because of lack of evidence. Trump is not in jail because he is rich, white and male.

There is no amount of evidence that one can collect, in America, against a white man, to put him in jail, if he is rich enough to pay off enough people to stay out of jail.

Prediction: Trump will be elected President again, and fire everyone in the justice department, before any arrest or charges are filed.

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I sure hope you're wrong Mike

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Apr 9, 2022·edited Apr 9, 2022

Lynn, I hope I am wrong too. Just to be clear.

But, there is very good data supporting a reasonable probability that I am right.

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I can't 'like' your remark..sorry... like the little kid with her hands over her ears yelling 'I CAN'T HEAR YOU I CAN'T HEAR YOU'!

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I pray you’re wrong. 😔

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I question your prediction, Mike. Although the first points in your post are spot on. I bet trump will not be the candidate in ‘24. But a newer-and-slicker version will be. The new acolytes watch and hone their approach. It will be a worse-than-trump candidate, one with a veneer of political normalcy. DeSantis is auditioning. Cruz and Harley are positioning also. They know not to be so double-down aggravating to the Persuadables. I predict this because the repeated phrase I hear from gop supporters who move away from trump is “ I liked his policies. But I didn’t like his style.” If trump would have been open to a modicum of style-change, he would have swept the ‘20 election.

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Michele,

I think you are right. Today I heard Trump say he might not run. But, I guess he plans to keep everyone in the dark as as long as possible to keep collecting campaign money.

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The model grifter, no?

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He also has 70 million citizens that have to be convinced that he's a perp.

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Apr 9, 2022·edited Apr 9, 2022

Correct. For 70 million Americans Trump is the equivalent of Moses.

Going to lead them to the promised land where:

no clean water exists,

a pipeline can be run across your front yard without even notifying you,

Walmart can take your land under "eminent domain" and build a superstore,

Koch industries can confiscate your farm for "patriotic purposes",

Monsanto can use your farm for "experimental" research into new "agent orange" agents

Uline (big red company) can build a gigantic warehouse on your property without notifying you that your land has been converted to "government use".

and even MORE GREAT THINGS THAT ARE PERFECT.

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😕🙁☹️🙁😕

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And that says "freedom" to those folk???? How strange, because it says "free-dumb" (emphasis on the DUMB) to me. How can they remain so willfully blind and ignorant???

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Great messaging, Mike.

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Thank you kindly.

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'say it isn't so, Joe..'

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Almost makes an octogenarian hope for a peaceful demise before January 2025.

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After the new NY AG "suspended" the criminal investigation, I wondered if perhaps a certain foreign mafia may have made him an offer he couldn't refuse.

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May be time for a couple of million of us in a ‘Lock Them Up’ rally in DC.

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Past time

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And don't forget, our justice department will have to investigate, as our congress has no "real" authority (how many folks have ignored their subpoenas now? I forget already). It is getting a little disgusting.

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Apr 9, 2022·edited Apr 9, 2022

They are. There must be absolute facts or they will slip the noose. Imagine if it was a month ago without all of these new bullets?

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Gee whiz, the Mueller investigation documented the defeated former president's criminality, but was buried under his crooked Attorney General's baloney. Similarly, the tough road with which our courts and jury system is paved is working against acting on the information documented thus far by the House Select Committee. (The case against those who planned to kidnap Michigan's governor just stumbled on that road.) In my opinion, Attorney General Garland's caution seems to be based on the possiblitity that cases against those who inspired insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, will similarly stumble, leaving the criminals with a veneer of innocence. Only massive Democratic victories in November, locally and nationally, showing that the public understands what happened on that date, can overcome this. Otherwise, the Select Committee's work will go the way of the Mueller investigation.

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There is that disconcerting chunk of history isn't there?

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HCR's daily postings, and most of the comments made here, relate to 'chunks of history,' recent or in the more distant past. That's because HCR is a professor of history and not of political science, economics or some other academic discipline. Most followers of LFAA recognize that, *whoever said it, 'those who ignore the lessons of history are condemned to relive them." That's why you're signed on here reading this, I suppose. (*Edmund Burke, George Santayana, Winston Churchill?)

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Apr 9, 2022·edited Apr 9, 2022

Reminding us that history is not a single point but a pattern, the chunks that an historian like HCR serves. News, on the other hand, more often picks off the plate of the present. Not sure who plagiarized this lesson,but it remains both a gem and truth. Sardonically, such chunks are disconcerting when brought back into the present turmoil as not our first rodeo in the battle for democracy. Stay in the saddle Jack.

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Oh God !

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Exactly, Janet. Ukraine is being attacked by outside forces; we are destroying our democracy from within.

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And both driven by Psychopaths with millions of followers who care not a wit about the lives of others, and each of whom could turn the US into a Ukraine by pushing a button. One button says Launch; the other a message to ‘take to the streets to defend me’.

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I think that HCR and others are jumping to conclusions about that e-mail from Donald Trump, Jr. to Mark Meadows. To sum up what they could well have intended, based on what could have been top-secret smoking-gun evidence of election fraud (from the Department of Defense's "Kraken" suite of cyber-espionage capabilities):

1. In 2006, Congress passed a law providing for "enemy combatants" to be locked up indefinitely without a hearing.

2. Further law provides for those accused of "cyber-warfare" to be tried in military courts.

3. Trump was ready to arrest hundreds and hundreds of Democratic officials, down to the county level, with sweeping charges of a massive plot to steal the election.

4. The President would declare them to be "enemy combatants" in a cyber-warfare insurrection, so they are all held without bail or a hearing. Maybe some of them would be offered a plea deal if they confess and name names.

5. Per the relevant act of Congress, these alleged cyber-warfare enemy combatant insurrectionists would be tried in military courts, and judgment would be very swift for those who happen to be Democratic electors.

6. Found guilty before the Dec. 14 convening of the Electoral College, these Democratic electors would be barred from serving as electors, per Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.

7. Trump wins in the Electoral College by a big majority of the reduced total.

8. Any Democratic Congresspeople or Senators who get convicted would now be barred from serving on Capitol Hill (per the same Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution), giving the Republicans big majorities in Congress.

9. Congress, empowered by the constitutional provision to guarantee republican governments in the individual states, goes on a rampage rooting out cyber-fascists.

10. The prisons are filled with mainstream news media directors and editors and reporters who are convicted of peddling "fake news" as accessories to the cyber-fascist insurrection.

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Juicy scenario. Thanks!

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Breathtaking ... !

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Everything will hang on the Nov 8th 2022 Elections. If the Republicans gain majority in the House - the 1/6/21 Committee investigation will be immediately ended. There will be total Republican obstruction from both Houses while SCOTUS hammers brings home the bacon of the far right agenda. All of which will set the table for the return of Trump in 2024 or his surrogate monster (and in my opinion even more deadly DeSantis).

I might add that of course there is current and huge ongoing effort to quash the investigations, subpoenas, and any substantive charges that are bogging, clogging and otherwise stonewalling forward progress.

It is my hope that in mid October ‘22 that the 1/6/21 Committee will release a coordinated hearing that lays out the entire coup plot. If it comes earlier the gerbil length memory span of the American people (and the Fascist propaganda machine) will make this another failed attempt to see justice.

Focus on getting incumbent Democrats returned and victory in contested seats will determine whether Democracy will prevail

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1. If Republicans take the House in November, they will not be able to end the Jan. 6 Committee before the new Congress convenes in early January.

2. The Jan. 6 Committee is not ignorant of this possibility and intends to issue their report either before Nov. 8 (we certainly hope) and if not, before the new Congress is seated. That report will be a matter of public record, issued so that it cannot be quashed by a majority Republican House.

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Yes, time is an issue because all the committee can do is submit the facts to D.O.J. , I think it is ? And then they have to sniff it and turn it over and over, look at it up to the light from all angles until the November elections ? : )

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Political Theatre? or a coming day of reckoning and redemption? Stay Tuned ;-)

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Don't forget the ankle irons, Janet.

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Pretty sure the reason No. 45 is running for president is if he IS president he can't be charged just impeached and we know how that went with both of his previous impeachments. Republicans no longer adhere to the rule of law in this country.

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For sure . . . and the longer republicans blatantly ignore the rule of law, the further down the proverbial poop chute we go! In their case, crime and downright unethical behavior has had a very favorable payout in the form of money and power. Those of us who are paying attention can anticipate what is going to happen but are helpless to prevent the negative outcome - kinda like the old Hitchcock movies!

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Of course that's the reason. Not charging a sitting president with a crime is just a "memo" though, right? We need to change that.

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The thing that really counts is NOT attitudes the year before the election, but attitudes the day of the election. That's when the vote happens.

The Trumpites will not be moved by anything from these hearings, or even in the courts. They will vote for Trump and his proxies. Period.

Anyone paying attention will vote against Trump proxies, provided we know who they are come election day.

The vast bulk of the public doesn't pay attention to any of this, and has a memory-span of some very short amount of time. A day? A week? Certainly less than a month. So -- at least in my opinion, such as it's worth -- the thing that must NOT happen is to allow the month before the election to go quiet.

I have no idea how much softening-up time is needed, but I'm pretty sure that too much time is harmful. It gives people time to make excuses, to mount counter-attacks, to confuse the issue.

I have to believe that politicians with decades under their belts, and their support staff, know that better than I do.

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I see your point about early campaigning's dangers. But waiting until the last month before elections may be fatal. I do not believe, however, that politicians and their staffs know how to time making their point any better than you or I do. Their actions are based on how much money is available to them.,

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Incredible, but I suppose they need to have a water tight case - I worry they will run out of time

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Thank you again, Professor Richardson. Still writing during your time away with Buddy. You are so dedicated and I love this community of dedicated supporters.

I was pleased yesterday to see Senator Brian Schatz bravely speaking the truth about Josh Hawley on the Senate floor. The Ukrainians are being so brave, we need to be brave too!

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Hawley needs to be stuffed in a seabag and thrown off the 14th Street bridge into the Potomac in mid-winter.

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Apr 9, 2022·edited Apr 9, 2022

It's funny how often comments here remind me of long forgotten moments. When I was about 13 I fell into the polluted Potomac River from a small sailboat and later was wrapped in a blanket and given my first ever cup of hot coffee. The worst part of it was the typhoid shot the next day. Thanks again, TC.

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I learned how to windsurf in the Potomac in my twenties. I shudder to think!

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Hi Kathy! I hear it's been cleaned up a bit in the meantime. Maybe Joe Manchin will fall off his yacht one of these days.

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Now there's another good thought! wish I could give it a thumbs up emoji.

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Good morning, David! Hope springs eternal, eh?

We are finally going to Rome! Tickets booked for early May, to attend a wedding and finally, finally, see our family. Giorgio was just talking to his sister about fave e pecorino, while I am wondering if artichokes and agretti will still be around, but mostly dreaming about mozzarella. We cannot wait.

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That's great Kathy! Have fun! Claudia and I are heading the other way for May and June, first to Boston, then PA, OR and CO before flying back to Le Marche. Our last giro of family and friends was in November of 2019. Hoping the next variant holds off for a bit longer.

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This reminds me of my own experience in December 1965 while I was in graduate school. I was crewing in a frostbite regatta on the Potomac, in a small boat that shipped some water. My foot slipped and I tore a strip off of my foot. After the race I went to first aid and first thing they did was give me a tetanus shot (I think that's what you received as well).

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Well Judith, it was a typhoid shot because the adults in my life at the time were worried I might have ingested some Potomac River water. An excess of caution, no doubt.

I'm sure my tetanus boosters were up to date, and I hadn't injured myself: no cuts, scrapes or puncture wounds.

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Since it's clear I ingested no Potomac River water (we never capsized), and only my foot wound was at issue, typhoid wasn't in question. An excess of caution is never excessive when it comes to either typhoid or tetanus.

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That is too kind for a traitor of his ilk…

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I'll get to work on being the real TCinLA... :-)

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Looking forward to the movie.

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And then some prankster needs to call/hack into Hannity while he squeals on air, asking how much a one-way ticket from the 14th Street bridge to the bottom of the Potomac costs, cause they want to buy one for Ali Alexandar.

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Jimmy Kimmel “hacking” into Hannity. This is genius !😂

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyB7RaOTw6E

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Thanks for posting it! Kimmel’s team did w great job. I thought it was right up there with The Lincoln Project. Hannity, a true POS!

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Excellent, thx Kathy!

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How about throwing him in the Missouri River so those of us from MO can watch and applaud!

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c'mon.

Josh Hawley is a model legislator in our "capitalist" democracy. He will do whatever anyone pays him enough to do. He is somebody's "boy" every day.

Fits right in in DC. Perfect fit I would say.

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How sad is that? However, as a Mainer, I really can't say that Susie Collins is much better, although she did vote for Ms. Jackson. She voted for Ms. Jackson, but she turned her back and walked out with the rest of her "tribe" for which discourtesy she should be getting a truckload of Mainer letters castigating her for her bad manners and terrible role modeling.

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I do think the Democrats do have to take a look at the Kavanaugh hearing a bit more to understand the Ketanji Jackson hearings better.

I agree that there was a "degree of disprespect". It was reprehensible.

However, I DO think there is a case to be made that the treatment of Brett Kavanaugh, by the Democrats, was inappropriate and, I would say, unfair. I am a Democrat. I think Kavanaugh's treatment could be partly responsible for Jackson's treatment.

A woman without any evidence came forward and claimed a crime ALMOST happened 30 years ago and she did that well BEFORE Kavanaugh's hearing began. Then, the information the woman provided, without any evidence, was held close until halfway through Kavanaugh's hearing and then leaked to the press. Upon that information being leaked to the press a circus began.

Much of the circus focussed on the fact that Kavanaugh is rich and white and was raised up like a rich white boy. Turns out Kavanaugh was a party boy at Harvard. Like that was some kind of sin, when EVERY rich, white boy parties drunk at Harvard. Kavanaugh sat through accusation after accusation that was supported by zero evidence.

Do I "like" Kavanaugh? Not at all. I was not a rich, white party boy and I don't think we should have guys like that in leadership. But, that would rule out most of Congress.

However, if the Democrats don't want total war against their own candidate, they should NOT prosecute total war against Republican candidates.

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Good thing this isn't on Facebook because I am Facebook jail and can't post today's letter because someone, probably an algorithm, found it to be abusive. I said in a comment sometime yesterday... Just cut your feet off... which probably was a comment on foolish behavior. In any case I can't even like someone's else post for 24 hours and horrors, no ads for 29 days. They even went back to 2021 when I said women and men could be equally greedy and that they said is hate speech. I am on the damn thing because it is how I keep up with friends and family and message certain people and I find lots of interesting things beyond politics. My husband sent today's letter to me, so it's there. And I agree about Hawley.

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Fleeceblock outlived its usefulness for me two years ago this coming July.

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I understand, but among other things, certain friends use it as a message vehicle. But today as far as I am concerned, F.....you Facebook.

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On a sub zero day.

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oooo, I do love that solution...although posting it anywhere but here could get one thrown into zuckertraz or any other social media's banned oubliette.

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Oh! There's my little red devil on my left shoulder, TC! However,I think we need a lot more than just one seabag these days. (Geeze, did I say that...or am I channeling TC now?

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So? Let's get it done! And maybe we could get some cement boots for a few more of this jerks...

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Hawley is exhausting, isn’t he? I’d like to see him packing up his desk but not before the Select Committee might want a word with him.

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That was the best thing that happened in a very long time...I have it on a loop so I can keep listening to it... it's keeping me alive!

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Good! Look up the meaning of "Schatz".

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He is a treasure, isn't he? Hawaii should be very proud!

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Lindsay Graham, who wouldn't know what a moral compass was if he tripped over one, an empty suit that blows in the winds of opportunism, a truly worthless pile of shit so desperate to be thought of as something other than the worthless piece of shit he knows in his heart that he is that he has never let a belief in anything get in the way of doing what he thought would get him the object of his desire, who is the most abject of all of them in his conscious decision to allow himself to be walked on by Trump in return for being thought "serious," will be the one who comes out of this time most denigrated by history, regardless of the way things go. He's our times' Franz von Papen, the German conservative who convinced Hindenburg to offer Hitler the Chancellorship, believing he could control him. Of all the Nazis tried at Nuremberg, he was the only one who got off because his lawyer could prove Hitler had never confided anything to him about what was really going on, because Der Fuhrer didn't think Von Papen was anything but a spineless piece of shit. He couldn't even qualify as a war criminal. That will be Graham.

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Are you the one who posted last year something about him being the pilot fish that follow behind the sharks? That image has stayed with me.

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Yes, I was. There are any number of degrading image/metaphors one can come up with about Lindsay Graham, all of them accurate. He's a many-faceted piece of something you scrape off your shoe.

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And South Carolina loves him, the home of our traitorous malcontents.

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This South Carolinian does not support Lindsey Graham in any capacity and I personally know many other ones who do not. He is a tremendous embarrassment to our state.

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Ruthie, remember, at least a million of you do not support Lindsey! I spent a few minutes looking up some numbers at United States Election Project (www.electproject.org) and I found that South Carolina’s Voting-Eligible Population (VEP) is about 3.9M. In 2020, Lindsey received about 1.4 M votes to Jaime Harrison’s 1.1M. That means that 1.4M people who could (at least theoretically) have voted did not. I’d like to see you get more support for voter registration and turnout.

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This South Carolinian doesn't support him either. TC has described him correctly.

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Ruthie, I sympathize. The problem isn't the state, just it's majority of voters.

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Why can’t SC vote the package out???

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Probably for the same reason we (Kentucky) can’t get rid of Moscow Mitch.

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The same reasons we have dangerous “leaders” here in Florida… Scott, DeSantis, Gaetz, etc.

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Oh, not true, there are plenty of people here in SC who would boot him to the curb. I had a small flickering hope for Jaime Harrison's campaign to unseat him when Harrison's poll numbers were creeping up, but there are just too many Trump flags (still) flying off all those lifted pick-up trucks for that to have happened. I have been completely embarrassed to share the same last name with my POS senator but especially after he turned into acting like a piece of TP for the former president's rotten behind. 😖

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Lindsay gives Graham Cracker new meaning.

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Love this comment too. When I read about certain other states, I am glad I am in Oregon, which has, for the most part, an excellent D delegation except for Kurt Schrader. I am in the new congressional district and no longer in his. He has a primary opponent. We'll see. As for the new district, no predictions as many are running.

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So much for the manners of a "Southern Gentleman" :(

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This image has been with me ever since.

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thank you! you keep me going with your remarks...

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Hey now, lest we damn with too faint praise, it might be that Lady G does genuinely believe that der Gröpenführer will genuinely piss on him one day while he frantically faps in sycophantic corybantic delight.

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Can almost hear his sounds of joyful fulfillment when that happens.

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Laura, you are a poet….

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I’ll get in the line to slap him silly. His nervous, spittle flying verbiage is disgusting.

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“His nervous, spittle flying verbiage” is so rich….

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That is some amazing statement you have made….wow.

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Love this. Thanks TC. And I do love the comment below about the pilot fish. That image will also stay with me with his face on the fish. I also now joke with people, asking them on a scale of one to ten, how religious they are. Ghastly man.

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Delightful! You're clearly having a good day, TC.

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Whoa, the most vicious cut of all.

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That little, red pointy tail is flapping now, TC. Go get 'em!

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“Eater of broken meats…”

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Apr 9, 2022·edited Apr 9, 2022

Ketanji Brown Jackson will out perform all of her detractors. She is such a classy lady. I hate what she was put through. But, she’s on her way to a great work for our country. Republican senators be damned.

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A major addition to the Court.

Given the 6-3 balance, Ms Jackson will spend her Supreme Court career writing the dissenting opinion.

Even Justice Roberts is of no consequence going forward. That’s a major loss. He personally saved the ACA.

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I've just been jousting again with my RWNJ friends over the differences between the qualifications of Justice Barrett and Justice Brown, and how the hearings for justice kavanaugh demonstrated not righteous anger but judicial instability. It hasn't gone well. These people are solidly cult45 members. There is no reasoning with them, since they so strongly believe the propaganda. (RWNJ = Right Wing Nut Job. I know it isn't fully accurate but it is easier to type.)

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You are one brave woman, Ally.

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Or stupid. I hate engaging, and then letting them live rent-free in my head. Interestingly, I have noticed a dearth of political postings of any substance on my page lately. Most of my friends have backed off, both liberal and conservative. It's an interesting thing.

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Your point about "letting them live rent free in your head" pretty much says what I feel most of the time. Wish I could be brave enough to Evict with Conviction. Ally, The Little Engine that Did.

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It’s not stupid to keep trying. Brave, rather. And perhaps, hopefully, less futile than it seems. Although people have an awfully hard time admitting they were wrong. Maybe someday…

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Very good point Pj!

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Apr 9, 2022·edited Apr 9, 2022

Heather, yours is another brilliant compilation of the news that gives us a fisheye view of important US occurrences from Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's celebratory words to Junior's proud declarations of righteous victory to tfg's inner circle of conspirators ready to destroy our democracy. Thank you!

That more and more are willing to speak out is a comfort. Patience, as they say, is a virtue of which I am low in reserve. How I wish that I had been a fly on the days when Javanka spoke with the 1/6 committee! And please don't get me started on Lindsey Graham, one of the most despicable and immoral players on our political scene!

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“Patience…a virtue of which I am low in reserve.” You spoke my name. Being assaulted daily by the lying likes of Josh Hawley, Lindsey Graham and Alex Jones, would test the metal of Ben Franklin. And they are only the tip of the iceberg. The rank and file “republicans” are the sheep who drain my patience to empty.

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Apr 9, 2022·edited Apr 9, 2022

Yes, patience running at low in the reserve tank. That’s why I will stop anyone with my bare hands that gets close enough to hurt my family or compatriots. It’s important now to get in touch with one’s “mettle”. Because the more that Democracy works in present day, the more the core of the insurrection works to amplify their lies and egregious behavior. I resent that their thinking is like despicable trump junior…”our hands are on all levers of control”. Wrong. Seriously misjudging the mettle of common people that will not be controlled. It’s why they hate the courage and mettle of the Ukrainians and people such as Judge Ketanji Jackson and millions of humans in this world. They might think us sheep. I’ll bleat in their face and stampede them bloody with the great herd of the multitude of my sisters and brothers of this planet.

Salud, Sister Rowshan!

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Christine, where I live, large herds of sheep pass by our house on a regular basis covering the road with... you guessed it. You go ahead and bleat and stampede, but I know what I would do as a sheep.

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Good to know David, as sheep shit on the road that traitors attempt to whitewash.

Salud!

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With you in the lead, we cannot fail, Christine! Salud, my sister!

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Yeah, he has always made my skin crawl, even when he was buddies with the likeable -- if horribly conservative -- John McCain.

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Incredibly correct, politically correct! Most despicable and immoral... and disgusting.

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Apr 9, 2022·edited Apr 9, 2022

On April 8, Salon published commentary by Col. Don Christensen (ret.), the former chief prosecutor of the U.S. Air Force, regarding Lindsey Graham's hypocritical stance on sentencing guidelines for those in the military convicted for child pornography.

"What has Sen. Graham done, then, to address how leniently the military sentences child pornography offenders? Has he proposed eliminating the "no punishment" sentencing option, imposing mandatory minimum sentences for child pornography offenses, authorizing the use of pre-sentencing reports, or giving military judges the same authority to place conditions on offenders after they have served their sentences? Has he either publicly or privately berated military leadership or military judges for light child pornography offenses? No. Instead, Graham has forcefully fought military justice reform, and worked to undermine his Senate colleagues who have sought such needed reform of the military justice system — often by using his years of service as a military lawyer to justify his opposition."

"Graham's indifference concerning the military's lenient treatment of child pornography, compared to his supposed disgust regarding Judge Jackson's sentencing record, is not only hypocritical. It is political theater at its worst. How we should sentence child pornography offenders is a legitimate debate. But after decades of inaction on his part to reform the military sentencing process, Graham's sudden concern about child pornography sentencing is no more than a cheap, hypocritical and destructive attempt to score political points."

https://www.salon.com/2022/04/08/lindsey-graham-is-a-total-hypocrite-on-jackson-and-child-porn-heres-why/

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Sigh. I have to start my comment with that today. (I find myself sighing all the time lately). These comments are so spot on and really tell the story of Lady Graham’s hypocrisy. Unfortunately the people who need to hear this never will. They are too walled off in their own echo chambers and many of them are too obtuse to understand it even if they heard it. Sigh.

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Annette, indeed. I sigh way too much these days.

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Write about it in newspapers and fox news.

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There is a very valid reason as to why there is so much reluctance for white men to view the existence of child pornography as something which should be punished harshly. While there may be bluster and talk regarding the horrors of child pornography, the bottom line is that there are far, far more that prefer a taste of rather than seeing punishment for that activity. I had not been aware of this component of Graham's philosophy, and it makes me even sicker than I was before.

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Apr 9, 2022·edited Apr 9, 2022

I, too, was unaware of this and happened upon it while digging through the news. I cannot actually say I'm shocked by this revelation. We have blindly entrusted the well-being of our children to men and women, at all levels of government, education and faith based communities, who are accept funding and support from predators while they themselves exhibit predatory behaviors.

PS – We had very nice lamb chops at El Apapacho last night.

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I was just telling a friend about our delightful lunch there the other day!

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Thanks for this, Daria. As TC has said, Graham is a piece of 💩. Needs to be called out over and over and over for his hypocrisy.

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Bam.

Salud, Daria.

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Apr 9, 2022·edited Apr 9, 2022

Salud. Had a very nice martini made with Oaxacan gin last night. Thought of you.

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Yum.

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Lying racist Senator Lindsey Graham - the posturing red faced schizophrenic senator - resembles a rotting hull in rough seas, a boat with no rudder, taking on water. Lying Trump likes him. Do they both cheat in golf?

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Trump doesn't even like him - he considers Graham a "useful idiot."

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Beats being a useless idiot, I suppose. In either case, it's just projection.

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And that’s exactly what he is, chalk one up for chump

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Trump likes no one. Especially not himself.

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Isn't it the other way around??

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Whom does TFG like? Just himself as far as I can tell.

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His daughter. Though, maybe not so much after her testifying before the 1/6 Committee this past week.

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Yes. In the rough, they will sneak to get the better lie, they will drop another ball and forget to score it, Trump hides Transcripts - threatened campuses, his daddy bought the ranch, sold his soul, and destroyed his character. That’s Seven No Trump.

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How could you even ask that question Sandy? The integrity of the game of golf requires scrupulous honesty and the unique requirement of the player to observe all of the arcane rules that govern the game. Cheaters are ostracized just ask Patrick Reed, the insipid clown and his ass licking sycophant have probably never walked off a golf course having not cheated.

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Apr 9, 2022·edited Apr 9, 2022

Yes, gentlemen. The analogy of the golf course is correct. Looks like trump never acquainted himself with M Scott Peck’s book Golf and the Spirit. Pity.

Golf and the Spirit: Lessons for the Journey https://www.amazon.com/dp/0517708833/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_KCMR7CD5AFC9S2RCDQYH

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Yes Sandy. They cheat themselves ultimately.

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Why is he never labeled a "flip flopper". That one took down John Kerry.

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Kerry was not vicious. He was weak and wealthy by marriage. He was the type that hides his family heritage, attends a very snotty antisemitic prep school and marries money. A Massachusetts type. Trump is a Queens type, a savage cowardly unprincipled predicable racist and lying rapist and a liar a frightful bankrupt stealing tax cheat and an ugly pampered bleached blond bully. These are his good points.

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I remember when Judge Keanji Brown Jackson was nominated. Lindsay Graham, as he is known to do, came out in support of her and said she was aptly competent to be a Supreme Court Justice and in fact and voted to confirm her for her current position on the Court of Appeals. But, typical to Lindsay Graham his opinion changes when the wind follows suit. In other words, he continues to be the biggest hypocrite in the Senate. Throughout the past administration he would show his disdain for the actions of DT, only to completely backtrack in the next few days acting as if we did not hear correctly. He is the epitome of gaslighting and does not deserve the office he holds.

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He's as useful as every other Senator from the Home Office of American Treason. South Carolina should have had done to it what Rome did to Carthage.

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I don’t disagree with you often TC but South Carolina is a truly beautiful place, I would suggest that Lindsay perhaps suffer the same fate as Hannibal did in the end.

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The place is pretty. the people... (well some of them, like the ones who come here, would have to be evacuated first)

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Let’s run that ad again….repeatedly, in 2022 and ongoing.

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How does he sleep at night? Lots of Prozac?

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Haldol

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Why do the voters keep returning him to the Senate? Just beyond me….

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I truly wish that there would be an investigation into his and McConnell's votes. He was begging for money just before the election. I think Trump helped him and now truly owns him.

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Propaganda works, the hated “socialists” per Rupert Murdoch, has been a success story like none other.

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Apr 9, 2022·edited Apr 9, 2022

Sad that a huge percentage of US citizens have no idea what the term socialist actually means - it is a badge I proudly wear. Jesus was a socialist and follower of the commandments of his tribe.

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Back when Yahoo allowed comments, I said that Jesus was a Liberal. OMG y'all shoulda seen th' replies I got from them thar good ol' Evangelical Christians!!

(In many cases, the grammar exemplified tfg's love of the poorly educated.)

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Apr 9, 2022·edited Apr 9, 2022

Well, their Jesus is a blue-eyed blonde, as white as the 1st century Palestinian was not. Sad to say, one cannot help them. Believe me, I've tried. They are fixated on their fairytales.

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Elizabeth, it’s South Carolina. The people there have been enamored with Ms. Lindsay for quite awhile. There was once a time, she was somewhat “normal” but alas, no more. She kisses the very big orange fat ass which to him, is like finding the Golden Egg.

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Much as I detest Graham’s behavior and lack of character, I also believe strongly in a person’s right to choose their own pronouns. Lindsay Graham’s preferred pronouns are he, him, his. Example: Graham has shown himself to be a perfect instance of spineless degradation.

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Hilarious….vote her out!!

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We tried... Jaime Harrison came as close as anyone could have but the flags flying from all the lifted trucks here in SC have trump chump's name on them alongside the stars and stripes, of course.

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I get it, believe me. I am a former North Carolinian, born and raised.

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You got that exactly right. You can’t have much of a spine if you spend all of your time on your knees licking the insipid one’s ass.

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…and that my friend, is the million dollar question. Are his constituents unable to comprehend his hypocrisy.

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Some of the most wonderful people I know live in South Carolina and voted for tRump and Lindsay. The power of propaganda.

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His personality profile carries all the markers of advanced mental disease.

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WOW...Lindsey Graham (R-SC) got it right! Justices who are "judicial activist, she/he (sic) gets the outcome she/he (sic) wants no matter how the law’s written, when it comes to crime, her/his record is very, very dangerous”...speaking of course of ​Roberts, ​Thomas​, ​Alito​, Gorsuch​, Kavanaugh​, Coney Barrett who disregard the principle of stare decisis and the plain text of the Constitution so as to avoid results anathema to GOP objectives.

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Dang, you beat me to it. Those words uttered by the senator from South Carolina are a perfect description of the Stench Court.

I have a bit of a personal struggle. I understand that referring to "Miss Lindsey" or using the personal pronoun of "she" for the senator from South Carolina are designed to denigrate with the assumption being that the senator is a closet homosexual. There is no crime in either being gay, or being in the closet. The real crime is living in a society where that reality is anathema and to be public about being a gay man from the south in congress would (in theory) result in losing that position. I have a great deal of difficulty using "Miss Lindsey" as a pejorative when speaking of him. "Lying, two-faced, inconsistent, sycophant" isn't as easy to utter.

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Apr 9, 2022·edited Apr 9, 2022

I agree Ally. I fight myself to keep from that kind of denigration quite often which serves to remind me that my own prejudice is alive and well. A work in progress.

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100% agree, Ally. It makes the struggle not to joke about him voting against Justice Jackson from the cloakroom quite difficult. But. I wonder about the vulnerability of people who hide secrets to the kind of secret arm twisting at which the TFG excels. And that is a legitimate concern about Graham.

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The only reason gayfolk are a security risk is because dominant culture makes it so.

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I don’t think gay people are a security risk, I think people with secrets are. Assuming that it’s true that Graham is gay (and honestly, who cares?), it’s sad and dangerous that our culture made him feel like he had to hide. But that’s the risk, not the gayness itself. Our dominant culture is messed up.

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Indeed we are not. It is an artificially constructed risk. Frankly, as long as a person is in a relationship with me, or my wife, it is none of my flipping business who or how many people a person is involved with.

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Exactly!

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Rather, the risk is really in the lengths to which he’s willing to go to protect his secret, and what TFG might have on him to make him do a 180.

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I do not say Ms Lindsay lightly, Ally, and only mean it in jest. I absolutely did not mean to offend anyone as I have called Graham that for many years. He always seems to be hiding behind that proverbial closet. In this day and age, I just don’t feel it’s necessary. He is a lousy despicable human being, if he is even that!

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Unfortunately for me, "Miss Lindsey" slides WAY too easily out of my mouth, and I really try to avoid being a hypocrite. Try being the operative word.

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Good call, Bradley, about the SCOTUS.

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As always, thank you Heather and hello LFAA community.

My wife and I watched the South Lawn proceedings this morning. Our hearts swelled with pride, joy and goodwill - if not hope. Justice Jackson is worthy of her appointment, and We the People are fortunate to have her.

Meanwhile...

“I voted no to Judge Jackson, and now I understand why the radical left wanted her so badly. She’s a judicial activist, she gets the outcome she wants no matter how the law’s written, when it comes to crime, her record is very, very dangerous.” - Sen. Lindsey Graham

Don’t people, influencers if you will, like Sen. Graham understand just how dangerous their rhetoric is, and the violence it can incite? His action was shameful and unbecoming of a statesman.

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The difference between his vile video and Jackson’s joyful, soaring rhetoric is stark. I know which America I want to live in.

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I so agree. His reckless term 'dangerous' incites real danger, and sickens me.

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They don't care because it serves their purpose and there are no consequences.

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I agree Kim. It’s not good that the Michigan plotters have gotten away scott free. And those that suffered consequences have gotten off pretty lightly thus far.

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Another reason to be patient and allow Garland to do a thorough job.

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I know that you dislike Graham cracker very much, but what makes you dislike women enough to smear their image as you have here?

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The more you write about the violent attempted overthrow of our government, the more chilling the reality becomes. Like a page-turner thriller, each letter reinforces the struggle we are all involved in to preserve our flawed, but democratic system. Thank god you are there, shining the light, in this, our darkest night….

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Videos should be played before the next election with the names of all those involved who are seeking reelection.

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Played on every single channel!

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I’m sure that Hollywood can’t wait to make the movie, or series, since the story is so filled with twists and turns. Nonetheless, the outcome….that’s the thing we await.

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The movie has already been made. “Don’t Look Up”

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Yes. Art is a mirror of our social condition.

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Apologetically, for lack of exact relevance; Ginni And Clarence Thomas have vanished from all news media. Were they abducted by aliens? No follow-up, investigative reporting? No legal repercussions?

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And yet, “the slap” continues to make headlines. Proof to me that the idiocracy will expand if we don’t activate now while the primaries begin. Watch Ken Burns’s documentary on Benjamin Franklin and “Idiocracy” for inspiration. Thanks for the reminder Russell and many thanks to HCR for starting this Letter with the quote about public service. Judge Jackson is indeed a danger to the likes of Graham, McConnell, Cruz, Manchin, 🎃💩tfg45 and their crowd who have never understood the concept of public service.

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"Idiocracy"; you're right! And as you say, to activate now is essential; a thesaurus of words could not achieve the expressive, hyperbolic escape velocity that represents its necessity. Continual drum-beating upon these divisive issues must be used to clarify the schism between the two dominant parties. GOP, red-herring arguments must be denuded: exactly what strategies are they using to dismantle democracy? What, in fact, is democracy? Specifically, how will its absence will affect the lives of everyone?

I was inclined to write "but the wealthy ", but rejected the phrase because it would be used to characterize the entire explanation of democracy — and any democrat who espouses the fundamental tenets of democracy — as an un-american brew of socialism; that word which arouses a religiously political frenzy among many who are easily led; sufficient to bear the pitchforks of their vote — or storm the Capitol.

But to your point, I wish among our well-spoken but polite senators and representatives were firebrands who spoke with such simplicity and clarity that the lines of battle for our democracy were drawn like a line of blood through the sand.

And thank you for the Ken Burns recommendation!

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Benjamin Franklin, Gigi, what a great history lesson. I hope it is shown in History classrooms country-wide.

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Public and Service are both oxymorons for tfg45 and their crowd…oh god.

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Keep asking where the hell they are….maybe The Kracken got them. That would simplify our lives considerably…..

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Ketanji Brown Jackson, our most revered and newest justice, will not be able to render much until she is fully instated, after Breyer retires. I cannot wait for her dissents! In the meantime, I have been reading an interesting book by Elizabeth Becker called “You Don’t Belong Here”. It focuses on three female journalists covering the Vietnam War. The lies we were told by Nixon and Kissinger plus Gen. Westmoreland were atrocious and yet Kissinger won a Nobel Peace Prize. I mention this book as it truly gives a perspective that is now mirrored by the women who are covering yet another costly and unnecessary war. I simply do not understand why mankind continually wishes to engage in these battles. We are already fighting against the evil forces within our own country…lies, deceit, religious zealots, white supremacy. The only good thing I can say right now is it certainly appears that the DOJ is making headway through the muck they’ve been dealt. Please please, let us see that these mongrels are sent to the slammer! Thank you, HRC, for your relentless pursuit of the truth while wading through the filth.

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You're right, Marlene, "You Don't Belong Here" is a terrific and important book by a superb reporter. You might also like reading, "War Torn," Stories of War from the Women Who Covered Vietnam. (Kate Webb also appears in "War Torn.") One more: "Shrapnel in the Heart," Letters and Remembrances from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

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Thank you, Laura, for these suggestions. My husband read the book before I did and then told me I needed to also. He is a Vietnam vet who served during ‘68-‘69. I have visited the Vietnam Memorial twice. I went once with my 1st cousins as we also went to the Holocaust Museum as our parents were victims, and then with our two daughters in 2019. The three of us also went to the Women’s March. My husband can’t bring himself to see it.

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My spouse was a 66-67 viet nam vet. He avoided all involvement with vet groups until the 25th anniversary of the wall. That was my first visit to DC. There after we went to his group's reunions. The guys shared stories, the women created their own group. Sadly, many are passing (including my spouse...almost 9 years ago). Getting together with guys he'd been in country with helped.

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Oh Betsy…my ❤️ is with all of us wives. We have suffered along with them too. I am currently in a partners group through the Oakland Vet Center. They have a very young enthusiastic African American woman as the director. At least, 30 years ago, I was in a group of Vietnam Wives, most of us white. Our facilitator was also a magnificent African American woman with whom I remained very close with until her unfortunate death. Miss her guidance and humor tremendously. My husband was also in a group of vets but became agitated that all they spoke of was the past. He wanted them to be more health conscious as he was but the problem was that he craved nicotine. 52 years together. He does have friends but like you said, that age group is dying off.

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Marlene Your husband is not alone in that. "Shrapnel in the Heart" has been used therapeutically in some programs that I'm aware of to help vets before they go to the Wall. Understandably, many feel dread at the thought. But it's to the power of the Memorial that more often than not, people feel they "found" their buddies again and the experience becomes healing rather than traumatic.

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Laura, I think so too but trying to convince my hubs of this is another story. Sigh…

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Marlene I went to the wall to say goodbye and remember them. I couldn’t face it. Too powerful. I was lucky to stagger out into the grass and barely able to get my composure back. Too much for me. Too much. I had no idea that would happen or I wouldn’t have gone.

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Oh Pat…I know. The entire wall is overwhelming. Dark, yet revealing. It was meant for us to never forget what war causes. Those names…those young soldiers…and now some who made it back are in their mid to late 70’s (my husband) and 80’s.

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I hear you M. As a war memorial it may well be the best in the world. As for me I would not take your husband there. Let him go if he wants to but let him go alone unless you are willing to watch him collapse to the ground in torment. I urge all people who had a small or no part in heavy combat to pay their respects.

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He doesn’t want to go and I never force him. About 38 years ago, Sacramento had a parade and a memorial to all soldiers from CA. who fought in Nam. I was pregnant with our youngest daughter. I persuaded him to go and told him our oldest daughter and I would go with him. At first, he was apprehensive but then decided to go. He was very happy he went as he spoke with many other vets. We all participated in the parade, marching several miles to the state capitol to where the memorial was. People lined the streets applauding and shouting “Welcome Home”! I was sobbing.

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What has happened to our two party system, our Democracy, when the peaceful transfer of power is blocked by the losing party? From before the election and continuing more than a year later. Those players include TFG’s family members and elected repubs. “Trump, Jr., offered a number of different ways in which Trump could nonetheless steal the election, most of which later materialized. Trump, Jr. apparently could not see why this would be a problem, since, "we have operational control.” “It's very simple," he texted: “We have multiple paths[.] We control them all.” ‘ The losing party continues to attempt to sabotage and make false claims about policies and actions by the Biden administration, including Lindsay Graham casting shadows on the confirmation of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. “ “I voted no to Judge Jackson, and now I understand why the radical left wanted her so badly. She’s a judicial activist, she gets the outcome she wants no matter how the law’s written, when it comes to crime, her record is very, very dangerous.” Twisting the truth and the facts. Lies.

A plan to distract from the daily news of repubs’ continuing plans to help TFG steal the election? We’re paying attention.

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And why a 2-party system? Over here we have the Democratic Socialists, the Green Party and the Free Democratic Part - with the smallest voice (they're the money guys) in what is called the traffic light coalition. The AFD (Trump's party, but smarter) didn't make it into the leading coalition.

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You are smarter in Europe than we have ever been…sad but true. We have corporate greed running the US. The parties are just for show….

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❤️

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Apr 9, 2022·edited Apr 9, 2022

The U.S. can only have a two-party system with our form of Democracy. The "winner" has to receive more than 50% of the votes cast. A third (or more) party would splinter the voters where 50% would be impossible. Even in a run-off it has to boil down to two issues (candidates or whatever.)

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In contrast, here the parties with the most votes have to agree to work together. Cooperation is not easy but is more fair. And then there's the issue of pandering for money from interests that make whatever candidate in the US a patsy for those interests. Not that every party person is an angel - it's just that they can't be bought, which is what every candidate in the US is required to be.

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Exactly my point. Without a major shift in election policy, this will remain in effect.

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The culmination of decades of lying slander. They smelled blood when chump was in power, now they are going for the kill, sad to say

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Apr 9, 2022·edited Apr 9, 2022

Thank you Heather.

The more I read about the plans that were in place to circumvent Biden's legimate win and the continuing gameplan to overcome this Administration , I am gobsmacked.

At first blush, I think my life is not horribly different than it was prior to January 6th. Sans pandemic protocol, I get up everyday, feed my animals, go to work, come home, go to bed and start all over again. My own version of "groundhog day".

Except it's not. The underpins of my life and yours are very different to a point that perhaps we just don't realize.

During the transition of power, someone had the edge of the rug we were standing on and couldn't quite pull it out from under us. It really was that close.

Be safe. Be well.

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Very true, Linda.

I firmly hold in my mind the image that the rug did not quite get pulled out because the heavy, gorgeous, burnished to a warm patina, wooden dresser of Democracy was firmly sitting on the edge on the opposite side.

Salud, Linda!

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Good morning Christine.

We have to be sure that dresser stays put. We need it now more than ever.

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I keep the image of buffing it every day.

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Ali Alexander is one witness whose testimony I’d like to hear.

If he goes in to the hearings claiming he had no knowledge of anyone planning unlawful acts, the members are going to be prepared to test the truth of that claim, and the sword of a possible perjury charge will be hanging very near his head.

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“I don’t recall”.

The Fifth Amendment.

Easy outs.

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May it decapitate him

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