There have been more developments today surrounding yesterday’s indictment of former president Trump for conspiring to defraud the United States, conspiring to disenfranchise voters, and conspiring and attempting to obstruct an official proceeding as he tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election and install himself in office over the wishes of the American people.
Democrats should be playing the Fitch downgrade as a klaxon warning of what will happen if MAGA Republicans' fiscal policies get reinstated. This has to have a huge media push or otherwise the Republicans will make it about "Biden's failed policies." Yes the timing of the announcement sucks but but this is a grenade that has to be tossed back into the Republicans lap ASAP.
The Insurrection Act and Trump's desire to use the military to quash dissent somehow got buried under all the recent crazy. Thank you, Heather, for focusing on the enormous threat it posed and reminding us of the actions taken to avert it by true patriots.
The connection between Eastman and Cruz in retrospect is terrifying. I had been wondering why Cruz was so low-profile recently. Perhaps he has recognized the legal peril he may be in.
That brings up the possibility that there may be further rounds of charges and indictments related to a larger conspiracy of the politicians who participated. That notable lack of action to date on the Republican members of Congress is thought provoking. So is the lack of mention of the others involved in the January 6th War Room. Perhaps there will be another superseding indictment here as well as in the espionage indictments.
Trump's lawyer, interviewed by NPR and elsewhere today, spewed lies and half truths . They were all designed to influence potential jurors. They included the free speech absurdity, "Biden's Justice Department" indicted Trump, and the former president was only following legal advice (a defense widely ridiculed by legal experts).
NPR's interviewer simply let the lawyer drone on with well-prepared talking point, barely ever daring to meekly challenge him. Chicken-sh*t journalism at its finest, which has become an NPR standard.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: the free press will be suppressed — or worse — if Trump wins.
William Barr: “As the indictment says, they're not attacking his First Amendment right. He can say whatever he wants. He can even lie. He can even tell people that the election was stolen when he knew better. But that does not protect you from entering into a conspiracy. All conspiracies involve speech. And all fraud involves speech. Free speech doesn't give you the right to engage in a fraudulent conspiracy.”
What a terrible mess - Trump must be stopped for the sake of all who live under the protection of the United States. These are dangerous times. A reader from county Clare, Ireland.
Thanks Heather! It appears that the indictment is a masterpiece in application of the law. When Nixon lied everyone was horrified on both sides of the aisle. When Trump lies he has the almost unanimous support (with few notable exceptions) of the GOP. What happened to citizenship?
So Trump almost remained President by using the military to impose his will on the country that had told him by 7 million votes that they wanted Biden and Fitch IS telling US and the world what it thinks of the Republican fiscal mayhem in the House and Senate….
What part of these horrors don’t we understand. Tomorrow afternoon at 4 in DC a very clear message about all of this is being formalized….Thank you Jack Smith.
"A story in the New York Times today ... outlined how former president Donald Trump and his allies are planning to create a dictatorship if voters return him to power in 2024."
If Trump is reelected, I believe he and his cronies will do exactly that. Then, having been installed as the newly elected President of the United States, he would be the lawful Commander in Chief of the military, and yes, he would then invoke the Insurrection Act to put down any protests. Senior military officers could resign rather than follow Trump's orders, but that would just push the problem down to the next lower level.
So we can't count on the military to protect our democracy from Trump's planned dictatorship. If he wins the election they'll be working for him, like it or not.
If you missed the July 17 letter, you should read it. It's scary. The Republicans are very open about what they plan to do, much more open than I would have expected.
Thanks Heather for making what is most important stand out from the chaos that dominates the social media headlines. While all of these developments are vile, I have to say something about the maniacal and pathetic Guliani. As a New Yorker, I could never stand him. As an education reporter during his administration, I saw how he screwed several City School Chancelors -- I think he went through four of them within a couple of years, micro-managing a complex school system in his ham-fisted style. As the niece of a former NYC police officer and later a top security official for the Twin Towers (he had the day off when the towers were hit, and never forgave himself for not being on the job that day to save more lives) I knew Guiliani put the entire complex, and city in jeopardy that day, by his egotistical need to house all the city security and communications staff in the building next to the towers, which was buried under the rubble. I read the link to the story about his sexual fantasies and possible rape of his assistant. WHO DO THESE SICK MEN (TRUMP, EPSTEIN, GUILIANI, BILL CLINTON, FORMER ELLIOT SPITZER) THINK THEY ARE!!! Watching a bit too much porn fantasy, and Shades of Grey domination fantasies. These degenerates need to be called out and humiliated in public, and never heard from again -- consensual? NOT! Sickening. Sorry for the rant
Reading the full indictment this evening, and it strikes me anew... this plan, and this guy, are really, really, really f#ck!ng stupid. Nefarious, and dangerous, and reckless, and evil, yeah yeah yeah all that. But stupid. It's not even well thought out! They're not even going about it that cleverly! So, so, so deeply stOoOoOoOped. And desperate. So pathetically desperate. They're just making crap up as they go along, even within the same conversation! Like, they wanna be the Kremlin, but they're ending up as the Keystone Kops, and expecting people to just... not notice? Or be too scared to say no? Too scared by what? Anytime there are quotation marks in this document the words in between reach a level of cringe comedy that defy belief, especially the dumbass phony vauge wannabe mobster cr@p plopping out of Agent Orange's head-hole, which sounds more like a kindergartner trying to convince someone they really did meet the tooth fairy last night. What an epically pathetic crybaby loser. A toddler playacting at dictatorship, as transparently obvious as that puke-streak-down-the-stall-wall mess of a combover.
To believe anything this idiot is saying about his own downfall, you'd have to genuinely think he is so smart he knows something everyone else doesn't, or sees something no one else will. BUT PEOPLE DO! THEY FELL FOR IT! TENS OF MILLIONS OF 'EM!!!!!(???[!!!]) Is there some widespread tradition in this country that I'm not aware of where folks bounce babies on their skulls like a basketball, so they don't learn anything past object permanence? Nah, just kidding, we all know what it is. These masses of morons have found their Moron Messiah, because finally these was someone who said all the horrible things out loud in a way that reflected their own brand of hateful stupid in a way that the educated charlatans they had been voting for before never could muster up with enough authenticity, and was finally willing to do what no one else was willing to do to crush those stupid libruls and their tyrannical insistence on niceness and book learnin' once and for all.
God, I'm so done with this horsesh!t, and these imbeciles. So, so done. I love this country, but ONLY IN AMERICA!
This is sort of hilarious in an odd way (OK, I have a weird sense of humor 😂) What a bunch of incompetent sociopathic wackos!
“Along with political consultant Steve Bannon, Epshteyn created a cryptocurrency called “$FJB, which officially stands for “Freedom. Jobs. Business.” but which they marketed to Trump loyalists as “F*ck Joe Biden.” By February 2023, Nikki McCann Ramirez reported in Rolling Stone that the currency had lost 95% of its value.”
On January 6, 2020, when war was declared against the United States by insurrectionists, people, ordinary people, people standing up to Trump and his minions, understood their duty and service to the United States. People serving in the pressured States by Trump did their sworn duty and protected the voting process. They protected the constitution and did not cave to the pressure being placed on them. These are the unsung heroes in the Trump insurrection. They joined, unknowingly, with the military leaders who understood their duty to protect the constitution and served their county. Add the Capital Police and others serving the House and Senate who put their lives on the line to defend the people in those institutions, and the United Stated was held together by ordinary people doing extraordinary service.
People protecting Trump during this chaos are the ones who need to be examined. They failed in their duty and failed as American citizens. The freedom spotlight needs to be shown on those failed individuals so they can never block and harass the voting process again.
I believe that a great proportion of the situation we’re in can be traced back to the Supreme Court decision:
“The court held 5–4 that the freedom of speech clause of the First Amendment prohibits the government from restricting independent expenditures for political campaigns by corporations, including nonprofit corporations, labor unions, and other associations.”
Maybe I am too deep into this stuff as many of my fellow readers here are: I pegged Boris as the 6th unnamed individual from the first day of the indictment! I posted the Fitch downgrade on my Facebook page moments after it was announced.
What’s frighteningly sad is that - even though it’s still a little early in the election year cycle, there are or is a poll showing Biden and Trump tied ... are you kidding me? You mean that there are that many people who pay no attention to the politics of America until the last minute, really have no sense or very limited knowledge about government and governance that it’s hard for them to distinguish right from wrong, or that we have that many racist, bigoted, low intelligence individuals among us that might indicate or suggest that our system of government(s) are just too sophisticated for them? Whatever the rational, there should be no validly logical explanation as too why Biden should be tied in the polls with this “idiot”? Is MT-G the only [conservative] person who recognizes and can tie all the good programs the Democrats have offered up that are liked, appreciated and beneficial to so many Americans?
Democrats should be playing the Fitch downgrade as a klaxon warning of what will happen if MAGA Republicans' fiscal policies get reinstated. This has to have a huge media push or otherwise the Republicans will make it about "Biden's failed policies." Yes the timing of the announcement sucks but but this is a grenade that has to be tossed back into the Republicans lap ASAP.
The Insurrection Act and Trump's desire to use the military to quash dissent somehow got buried under all the recent crazy. Thank you, Heather, for focusing on the enormous threat it posed and reminding us of the actions taken to avert it by true patriots.
The connection between Eastman and Cruz in retrospect is terrifying. I had been wondering why Cruz was so low-profile recently. Perhaps he has recognized the legal peril he may be in.
That brings up the possibility that there may be further rounds of charges and indictments related to a larger conspiracy of the politicians who participated. That notable lack of action to date on the Republican members of Congress is thought provoking. So is the lack of mention of the others involved in the January 6th War Room. Perhaps there will be another superseding indictment here as well as in the espionage indictments.
My favorite quote from Jack E Smith, when asked if he thinks the charges will stick:
"I didn't come back from the Hague to write him a parking ticket."
Trump's lawyer, interviewed by NPR and elsewhere today, spewed lies and half truths . They were all designed to influence potential jurors. They included the free speech absurdity, "Biden's Justice Department" indicted Trump, and the former president was only following legal advice (a defense widely ridiculed by legal experts).
NPR's interviewer simply let the lawyer drone on with well-prepared talking point, barely ever daring to meekly challenge him. Chicken-sh*t journalism at its finest, which has become an NPR standard.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: the free press will be suppressed — or worse — if Trump wins.
William Barr: “As the indictment says, they're not attacking his First Amendment right. He can say whatever he wants. He can even lie. He can even tell people that the election was stolen when he knew better. But that does not protect you from entering into a conspiracy. All conspiracies involve speech. And all fraud involves speech. Free speech doesn't give you the right to engage in a fraudulent conspiracy.”
EXACTLY!!!
What a terrible mess - Trump must be stopped for the sake of all who live under the protection of the United States. These are dangerous times. A reader from county Clare, Ireland.
Thank you Heather.
A U.S. government shutdown is coming -brought to you by a collection of GOP liars, extremists, incompetents, and criminals.
Thanks Heather! It appears that the indictment is a masterpiece in application of the law. When Nixon lied everyone was horrified on both sides of the aisle. When Trump lies he has the almost unanimous support (with few notable exceptions) of the GOP. What happened to citizenship?
So Trump almost remained President by using the military to impose his will on the country that had told him by 7 million votes that they wanted Biden and Fitch IS telling US and the world what it thinks of the Republican fiscal mayhem in the House and Senate….
What part of these horrors don’t we understand. Tomorrow afternoon at 4 in DC a very clear message about all of this is being formalized….Thank you Jack Smith.
On July 17 Ms Richardson wrote:
"A story in the New York Times today ... outlined how former president Donald Trump and his allies are planning to create a dictatorship if voters return him to power in 2024."
If Trump is reelected, I believe he and his cronies will do exactly that. Then, having been installed as the newly elected President of the United States, he would be the lawful Commander in Chief of the military, and yes, he would then invoke the Insurrection Act to put down any protests. Senior military officers could resign rather than follow Trump's orders, but that would just push the problem down to the next lower level.
So we can't count on the military to protect our democracy from Trump's planned dictatorship. If he wins the election they'll be working for him, like it or not.
If you missed the July 17 letter, you should read it. It's scary. The Republicans are very open about what they plan to do, much more open than I would have expected.
Thanks Heather for making what is most important stand out from the chaos that dominates the social media headlines. While all of these developments are vile, I have to say something about the maniacal and pathetic Guliani. As a New Yorker, I could never stand him. As an education reporter during his administration, I saw how he screwed several City School Chancelors -- I think he went through four of them within a couple of years, micro-managing a complex school system in his ham-fisted style. As the niece of a former NYC police officer and later a top security official for the Twin Towers (he had the day off when the towers were hit, and never forgave himself for not being on the job that day to save more lives) I knew Guiliani put the entire complex, and city in jeopardy that day, by his egotistical need to house all the city security and communications staff in the building next to the towers, which was buried under the rubble. I read the link to the story about his sexual fantasies and possible rape of his assistant. WHO DO THESE SICK MEN (TRUMP, EPSTEIN, GUILIANI, BILL CLINTON, FORMER ELLIOT SPITZER) THINK THEY ARE!!! Watching a bit too much porn fantasy, and Shades of Grey domination fantasies. These degenerates need to be called out and humiliated in public, and never heard from again -- consensual? NOT! Sickening. Sorry for the rant
Reading the full indictment this evening, and it strikes me anew... this plan, and this guy, are really, really, really f#ck!ng stupid. Nefarious, and dangerous, and reckless, and evil, yeah yeah yeah all that. But stupid. It's not even well thought out! They're not even going about it that cleverly! So, so, so deeply stOoOoOoOped. And desperate. So pathetically desperate. They're just making crap up as they go along, even within the same conversation! Like, they wanna be the Kremlin, but they're ending up as the Keystone Kops, and expecting people to just... not notice? Or be too scared to say no? Too scared by what? Anytime there are quotation marks in this document the words in between reach a level of cringe comedy that defy belief, especially the dumbass phony vauge wannabe mobster cr@p plopping out of Agent Orange's head-hole, which sounds more like a kindergartner trying to convince someone they really did meet the tooth fairy last night. What an epically pathetic crybaby loser. A toddler playacting at dictatorship, as transparently obvious as that puke-streak-down-the-stall-wall mess of a combover.
To believe anything this idiot is saying about his own downfall, you'd have to genuinely think he is so smart he knows something everyone else doesn't, or sees something no one else will. BUT PEOPLE DO! THEY FELL FOR IT! TENS OF MILLIONS OF 'EM!!!!!(???[!!!]) Is there some widespread tradition in this country that I'm not aware of where folks bounce babies on their skulls like a basketball, so they don't learn anything past object permanence? Nah, just kidding, we all know what it is. These masses of morons have found their Moron Messiah, because finally these was someone who said all the horrible things out loud in a way that reflected their own brand of hateful stupid in a way that the educated charlatans they had been voting for before never could muster up with enough authenticity, and was finally willing to do what no one else was willing to do to crush those stupid libruls and their tyrannical insistence on niceness and book learnin' once and for all.
God, I'm so done with this horsesh!t, and these imbeciles. So, so done. I love this country, but ONLY IN AMERICA!
This is sort of hilarious in an odd way (OK, I have a weird sense of humor 😂) What a bunch of incompetent sociopathic wackos!
“Along with political consultant Steve Bannon, Epshteyn created a cryptocurrency called “$FJB, which officially stands for “Freedom. Jobs. Business.” but which they marketed to Trump loyalists as “F*ck Joe Biden.” By February 2023, Nikki McCann Ramirez reported in Rolling Stone that the currency had lost 95% of its value.”
On January 6, 2020, when war was declared against the United States by insurrectionists, people, ordinary people, people standing up to Trump and his minions, understood their duty and service to the United States. People serving in the pressured States by Trump did their sworn duty and protected the voting process. They protected the constitution and did not cave to the pressure being placed on them. These are the unsung heroes in the Trump insurrection. They joined, unknowingly, with the military leaders who understood their duty to protect the constitution and served their county. Add the Capital Police and others serving the House and Senate who put their lives on the line to defend the people in those institutions, and the United Stated was held together by ordinary people doing extraordinary service.
People protecting Trump during this chaos are the ones who need to be examined. They failed in their duty and failed as American citizens. The freedom spotlight needs to be shown on those failed individuals so they can never block and harass the voting process again.
I believe that a great proportion of the situation we’re in can be traced back to the Supreme Court decision:
“The court held 5–4 that the freedom of speech clause of the First Amendment prohibits the government from restricting independent expenditures for political campaigns by corporations, including nonprofit corporations, labor unions, and other associations.”
Maybe I am too deep into this stuff as many of my fellow readers here are: I pegged Boris as the 6th unnamed individual from the first day of the indictment! I posted the Fitch downgrade on my Facebook page moments after it was announced.
What’s frighteningly sad is that - even though it’s still a little early in the election year cycle, there are or is a poll showing Biden and Trump tied ... are you kidding me? You mean that there are that many people who pay no attention to the politics of America until the last minute, really have no sense or very limited knowledge about government and governance that it’s hard for them to distinguish right from wrong, or that we have that many racist, bigoted, low intelligence individuals among us that might indicate or suggest that our system of government(s) are just too sophisticated for them? Whatever the rational, there should be no validly logical explanation as too why Biden should be tied in the polls with this “idiot”? Is MT-G the only [conservative] person who recognizes and can tie all the good programs the Democrats have offered up that are liked, appreciated and beneficial to so many Americans?