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Response from Randy Rainbow to one of Trump’s rage tweets: Biden has been won this election so many times he is now the 67th president of the United States. 😂😂

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Can the Republican Party redeem themselves and become, once again, the party of Lincoln? I seriously doubt it. The underpinnings of the modern Republican Party are riddled with dry rot. There's nothing substantial left to rebuild on.

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Four years ago I circled November 3, 2020 in red. That would be the day I could vote to defeat Donald Trump. As it turned out, I deposited my mail-in ballot in an official drop box on October 3. I then waiting anxiously for election day and all ballots to be counted. Living in a state that doesn’t permit mail-in ballots to be processed until the in-person polls closed, I realized that the results of the election would not be known for several days. I, along with millions of other Americans, waited on pins and needles to learn if America would continue its slide into oligarchy or begin to claw its way back to democracy. Then on November 7, Pennsylvania was called for Biden and I began to celebrate democracy’s return. That is until the baseless, evidence-free law suits and challenges began.

Since then a slow motion tennis match has been playing out in my head. On November 7, the score was Advantage Biden, with match point scheduled for December 14 in the Electoral College. But somehow, the Trump team could not accept the clarity of the election results and forced play to continue. They would file a lawsuit and the score would shift to Deuce; the suit would be laughed out of court and the score would revert to Advantage Biden. This farcical play reached its nadir when Texas’ AG filed suit in the Supreme Court. With Alito’s and Thomas’ statement yesterday, the stands (again) at Advantage Biden and Match Point is still scheduled for Monday.

As a Biden supporter I should be happy about what should happen on Monday. But these are not normal times. I remain anxiously optimistic that Biden will be inaugurated on January 20. But I fear the shenanigans that Trump and his minions will pull between now and then.

Under ‘normal’ circumstances, an incoming administration faces daunting challenges - nuclear threats in North Korea and Iran, military tension between China and India, growing disparity of wealth domestically, increased racial tension, etc., etc. Layer on the incompetently managed pandemic and the obstructionist approach to the transition by Trump and Biden will have more that his handful of issues to contend with.

I pray that he and his team are up to the challenges they face and that at the end of his term America will find itself well on the path towards democracy and that oligarchy will be rightly discredited and placed in the trash bin of history.

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Section 3 of the 14th Amendment states:

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

Are these Trump-Republicans getting close to giving up their seats in our United States, or their own state governments?

Just wondering...

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Morning, all!! Morning, Dr. R!! A rose by any other name...will still carry the same ideologies today as it did yesterday. But if, as Dr. R reminds us, democracy demands we have a two-party system, what should that other party look like?

Today I received an email from Senator Mark Warner (D-VA). Here is an excerpt:

"I am eager to work with the incoming Biden-Harris Administration to get the virus under control, provide comprehensive relief to struggling Americans, and ensure a successful and equitable distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine. The good news is that I’m not waiting for January 20th to take action. Over Thanksgiving, I teamed up with a bipartisan group of colleagues to put forward a bipartisan framework to provide emergency COVID-19 relief...As negotiations continue, I remain hopeful that Congress will get behind our effort before the holiday so that it can help get Americans through the winter months and serve as a bridge to the incoming Administration."

And then he goes on to ask for my -- !!! -- input for what issues he needs to focus on in the coming year. Color me optimistic, but this sure feels like democracy to me!

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AGAIN...We must win those Senate seats in GA...So Critical!!! Please Support candidates Wernock and Ossoff monetarily if you can!!!!..........

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Each elected official who supported the ‘big one’ lawsuit rejected by SCOTUS is guilty of sedition. Those newly elected or re-elected who supported it should not be seated in either house. They must face charges. A new election should be held.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2384

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The Republican Party has faced this potential schism before for different reasons; the External Tarrif battles of the period between the Civil War and the 1914-18 catastrophy. The tarrif shield essentially protected the weathy industrialists of both North and South, greasing the wheels of their monopolistic exploitation of the American people and the people's often meagre purchasing power. They faced it too in the attempts of T. Roosevelte and W. Taft to seriously dent the control exercised by "Morganic" Trusts on the American economy. It has always been the same battle; money against the people. The Republican Party only ever represented the world of Free Labour once...and only once...under the Presidency of Lincoln and in war. It never really got to the first stage of implementing it as doing so meant effectively splitting the party. There has ever since been this fundamental conflict in the Republican party ....People versus Money. Money has mostly won out and paid for the support of the Party leaders. Time for the supporters of the People to step out and effectively split from the corrupt Money Leaders. Hail the Lincoln Project....may they become the true descendants of the party that Lincoln brought to power. BUT that will not make the Money Republicans go away nor will they permit the split to happen peacefully. It is going to be WAR inside the Republican Party.

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I find it extremely interesting Haether's suggestion that the speed of flow and universality of access to information....of all sorts....helps limit the ability of the "confederate" republicans to achieve their ends of directly controlling the country in an autocratic, oligarchic fashion. Effectively, the media of all sorts are the messengers and not the message (with apologies to Marshal McLuhan) and Trump has been at great pains to "filter" and taint the messages that these different channels can carry....Fake News insults to non-compicit media....and to control the message that gets to the "mudsills" without regard for reality and for his own benefit.

The inability of the Trump Orcdom to silence the media who were saying the "The Emporer has no clothes" has stopped him imposing unilaterally and universally his "story". Competing stories have effectively undermined Trump's ability to transform the political environment permanently and destroyed his momentum. He got a long way along the road (74million votes), but in the election that he figured that he had effectively "rigged" by his lies and deceit that was not enough and the competing facts won the day.

The prevalence of the competing story in the "fake news" media didn't allow the Trump Orcdom to fully control the image that they projected. Their organizational incompetence, ideological blindness and uncaring attitude were clear to see...if you cared to look and were able to understand. The assumption that it won't happen again or even go further this time depends on that assumption that people will understand where their true interests lies, will listen and will act upon them when they are warned by the "fake news" media of impending danger. Some will, some won't!

The first lesson from this is that the "fake news" media telling facts, interpretations and opinions that are unhelpful to the Trump Orcdom are a danger that they cannot permit to continue...the next time around. Free press and free opinion need to be eliminated if the Trumpites are to succeed. No competing messages can be permitted. This is standard "revolutionary" strategy and makes taking over the key media a key military objective in any coup d'étât. It has rarely been necessary in a "democratic" revolution. In a democratic eruption, journalists are often in the lead tank and broadcasters are sitting right behind them (Hommage to Ed Morrow). The second lesson is that people have to understand the message, and see its implications for their lives. If they have little or no education and are not helped to think for themselves then they let other people think for them with often disastrous results for themselves and everyone else...fund it and organize it better. The third lesson that I would like to draw is that the variety of messages and opinions put out for all reasons is essential; censureship is rarely good for anyone and certainly not for the people eager to see what messages are out there before making up their mind. No private or public interest should be allowed to dominate the messages that are passed on; organizations such as the Sinclair media empire must be broken up and locally inspired news coverage supported. Finally, one comes back to the Fairness Doctrine as access to the "messaging system" and its different channels imposes obligations as well as offering rights. We don't ask people to necessarily tell every side of every story, but if they were obliged to distinguish clearly between what is fact and what is opinion it would help. If they are reporting hearsay, then make them say so and if they are reporting rumour do likewise. Maintaining that freedom of access is one of the key requirements of a democratic system. Maintaining its multiplicity and its freedom is essential to our lives.

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"As God is my witness, I'll never trust this Republican Party again." ~ Scarlett O'Hara, 2020

What I view to be a treasonous gambit by 126 Republicans has fully exposed the dark under-belly of the Republican (RIP) body politic. The remaining Republican Congress is complicit via its silence. In January, they will raise their hands and lie to the country as they take this solemn oath, i.e., the promise that Americans who voted for them expect/expected them to keep:

“I, XXX, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”

It's important to note that one-third of the U.S. Congress will make the same promise in January. How many of them will be salivating about ways to break trust with the people in ways large and small once the obligatory swearing-in has been completed?

Several earlier comments promote my core belief that The Lincoln Project (TLP) seems the most viable pathway to forming a new, viable, trustworthy, re-named, conservative third party. We've been following them closely since their inception. I can't speak to each member's detailed creds. But I'm placing my battered trust in their combined leadership. They made it clear from the get-go that they're in this for the long haul, i.e., beyond the November 2020 election and its chaotic aftermath. Miracle workers? No. But well worth following closely, IMO.

As for the 126 legislators and their comrades in the Senate, we know who you are. We know your names. And you'd better believe we'll be working our posteriors off to defeat you in 2022. We keep our promises.

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The only thing keeping me from screaming into the void and running for the hills (figuratively) this morning is that I listened to a wonderful podcast interview of HCR and attorney Steven Harper by Bill Moyers last night. Trying to hang on to some shred of hope.

https://billmoyers.com/story/podcast-democracy-on-the-edge-cox-richardson/

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As always, thank you from Texas. I am grateful to you for helping us through this precarious time with your informative and eloquent writing. When “the news” broke yesterday evening, I felt myself exhale, really exhale for the first time in over a month. Cheers.

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I like that the letter ends with the thought that Republicans can still reclaim the party of Lincoln.

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Ruth Marcus, Washington Post opinion writer, points out how shameless these seditious scumbags are. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/12/11/these-republicans-may-not-be-capable-shame-you-should-know-who-they-are/

I was frankly surprised to not see Devin Nunes' name among them. Seven NC congress idiots signed on, some of whom were no surprise, like Virginia Foxx. Mark Walker must really, really want Richard Burr's seat in the Senate, too have sold his Baptist preacher soul for it, by siding with this crew.

As I told a friend yesterday, "My daddy didn't go off to war in 1942 just so 70 odd years later a bunch of feckless, fascist wannabes could try to overthrow a duly elected government."

And it never would have occurred to him that many would be members of the opposition party of said government. He must be spinning in his grave.

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Imagine what we could accomplish”for the people” if we were a country with the united goal of improving lives for all, instead of having to constantly protect our democracy from the demons who are hell bent on destroying it

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What? Wait...”New Nevada State”, “New California State?” My chin is on the floor! So this is IT...solidifying the start of the New Civil War? As we binge watch The Man In the High Castle and try to bathe in the Christmas Spirit, our country falls into an abyss greater than the Grand Canyon.

With the wisdom of the Supreme Court decision, we’ve only won another battle but the war rages on. I can predict the Trump Republicans will now discount and delegitimize the Court, just as they did the other entities that tried to block them or shine a light on their corruption (FBI, media, elected officials, individual citizens, etc). And the blind followers will believe and financially support them, just as the Confederates donated to “the Cause”.

Heather, the Southern Democrats-aka Confederates, fought for a cause spelled out by Hammond and others to protect their economy and way of life.

What are the present Trump Republicans fighting for? Power? Greed? To do what? What’s their “Cause”. How will history explain the current Need to Secede?

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