The centerpiece of Republicans’ case for impeaching Democratic president Joe Biden is the allegation that he and his son Hunter each accepted a $5 million bribe from Ukrainian oil and gas company Burisma when Biden Sr. was vice president. But in the last week, that accusation has revealed quite a different problem, one that implicates Republicans.
Somehow, the R Party got roped into believing God created only them and their Russian agents. Poor lil’ babies. Now, it appears that the two Jimsters are up to their necks in dirty pool. It’s not that I am not happy about that, because I am sooo happy they are getting exposed as to who they work for and that their weak impeachment trial now comes to a raucous end! They got zippity doo-da! But, we cannot let this go unnoticed. After all, quite a few of the R’s took items that they were only privileged to see, not take, and they ran false narratives. They deserve to be ousted, fined, and possibly imprisoned. Congress Dems must call for this by asking DOJ to hold these monsters responsible. Part of their punishment is going on national news and on OAN plus Fox and telling their constituents what they did and how wrong they were. I am dead serious.
Yes! MTG was shown false information about the Bidens in a secure facility (suggesting it was Secret), photographed it and posted it. Why is that not a crime?
If it is a crime, then why do these criminals keep being allowed to break the law and dismantle our democracy? Where is the best organization for me to join and support that is standing and fighting with words, money and action against these traitors? Suggestions?
Perhpas the courts are bogged down with frivolous cases with delays in prosectution, e.g. like who is dating who v who is tampering with election results.
Ahh yes. I think I can hear the laughter amidst cheering going on, emanating from the "Intelligence Community" headquarters over there on Lubyanka Square, led by non-other than his Exc Alexander Bortnikov, HMFICC* of the "Intelligence" hahahaaahhaaa (INTELLIGENCE, such a mis-nomer).. hahahaahhhaa "agency" THE... one and only.., Federal Security Service, or as rarely referred to here in the US of A.., The FSB! Yes, they are laughing at us boasting about busting Mr. Smirnov, whom they purposely offered to us as an intentional sacrifice in order to make us (dummies) think we were on top of things. But, you can bet, with the drop of a shoe and a side-glance from Put-nik, his excellency Bortnikov was ordered BACK TO WORK!! Whewww!
*HMFICC = H ead M utherF---ker In C omplete C harge. (got it?)
Garland has been a HUGE disappointment. To say he dropped the ball is an understatement of biblical proportions. Charles Pierce posited that it is time for Garland to resign.
And I agree.
Garland has dithered on prosecuting the man who LED AN INSURRECTION. We did not have the gift of time with trump still at large instead of in a jail cell.
And then he appointed a known trumper to "investigate" President Biden. When Hur found nothing, he still delivered a blatant hit job.
Garland wants to look in the mirror and say "I was fair." And I want to look at him and say "You were an idiot."
Perhaps because prosecuting loudmouth Republicans like MTG (a carbuncle on the butt of the body politic), Comer and Gym Jordan would cause so many more screams of political persecution that its not worthwhile. If we truly believe in democracy, the we need to believe that these creatures will get their comeuppance.
Georgia Girl, "Why do these criminals keep being allowed to break the law and dismantle our democracy?"
That is a question that should be on every law-abiding citizen's mind!!
I watched a documentary on TCM on the life/death of John F, Kennedy and was so moved by the narrator's words as Jackie Kennedy was lighting the eternal flame at the graveside. He said, "Kennedy's bold words often reminded
the nation of its most splendid self."
What are Trump's inane words reminding the nation about?
Certainly not it's "splendid self." Have there always been so
many Americans who are willing to listen to and follow someone who blatantly wants to "dismantle our democracy?"
Trump's words do not remind us of the goodness of Americans and their fight for freedom. They remind us of our fearful, discriminating, and hypocritical selves."
Yes, there has always been Americans who are willing to dismantle our democracy. They've been lurking in the dark, their views unacceptable by most until being enabled by a psychopathic tyrant. If you condense what leaders do, it is one of two things. They either bring out the best or the worst in you. I don't believe it has ever been this obvious in our country than it is today. This is a classic struggle of Good vs Evil. The last struggle of any consequence was WW2. The momentum and energy of Evil is bringing us closer to a war.
These Letters that Heather writes are a constant reminder to pay attention to history because this has happened before.
It is in our DNA as humans to be at war with other humans starting in biblical mythology with Cain killing Abel. It is certainly not a myth, as recorded history has shown.
Our choices are simple, not easy: Stand up and resist or get run over.
Pam, I don't believe there were always so many Americans willing to listen to and follow (you know the rest.). Otherwise I don't see how my everyday observation of life in America could have missed seeing it. The Civil War, though, was such a time. I truly wish I could have learned enough from history to know how not to be doomed to see it's worst chapters repeated. All I can add is that for imperfect mortals as we all are, it bears repeating that we have nothing to fear but fear itself.
CONservatives respond to justice investigations rather ugly. Read Prequel. They use the protection of the speech and debate clause to perform their crimes. Or better abuse the protection. On the recent episode of NCIS, a candidate who was abusing that protection threatened the director with maybe you have too much funding for investigating him. It is what the CONservatives do.
I think we've talked a lot about how slowly/ineffectually Garland's DOJ is, so no surprise that MTG's crime has gone unindicted.
Your handle implies you're in or maybe from Georgia. I'd love to understand what is appealing about MTG. She seems to be too stoopid and/or misinformed to be a viable gov't official, but I've never lived in the south and have no idea what GA voters want/need from their reps. She's also unbelievably rude and vulgar, which I thought were no-no's in the south, but again, I have no experience of that culture. I'm not being snarky to you, Georgia Girl, I'd genuinely like you to help me understand whassup with your fellow Georgians.
If the facility where MYG photographed the 1023 was truly secure, phones would have been put in lockers to prevent a breach like that. Only the Rs have the power to hold her responsible, which means, of course, they'll do nothing.
It's time to start searching MTG before she sees anything classified. I don't know who would be up for that level of unpleasantness! And the search would have to be filmed so she couldn't claim assault later.
Not only MTG, but Grassley also passed on the information. Who allowed her to take the picture??? In a secure facility! Furthermore wouldn’t it have been easier to do a financial audit of VP Biden? 5 million would have shown up there, right? I don’t think Joe is rolling in the do re mi as they say...grasping at anything...
We need to start hounding TFFG and his running mate and Mike Johnson to release their tax returns since Biden became President. We know that New York has most of what TFFG hasn't buried, but it needs to be available for all to scrutinize.
And why hasn't Melania been charged. She signed their married filing jointly tax returns. If she committed a felony like her sugar-daddy then prosecute her.
We saw the poll of the worst President of all time, now let's do one on First Ladies.
Not enough is said or has been brought to light about Grassley because Maggie Q sucks up the oxygen of any room she's in,...and I Do mean Sucks.
Grassley became a politician at age 23 and is now 90. Do the math. The party of Putin wants to talk about age for only their targets. Grassley is hospitalized, has to ride a motorized scooter and is clearly sliding downhill mentally but, they still won't force him out.
Nikki says openly Joe B is "too old" and we need mental competency tests. So, what say you about Chuck, Nikki? And BTW, if those tests are required it should be for of ALL politicians because your MTGs, Bodirts, Santoses and the entire Chump Crime Family would have to pay someone to take it for them. Ooops, they already did that didn't they?
They probably think Biden pulled a Sen. Bob Menendez, who stuffed nearly half a million in his clothing and home. Of course Biden would need ten times more clothes to hide $5 million in cash. But that's a mere detail, right?
I don't follow her online posting on social media, but I doubt she took and posted "notes." Besides, if the material was classified and available only in a secure facility, notes would not be allowed either, would they? Asking the legal eagles here...?
How about Biden suing her? If you can sue Giuliani for defamatory lies about passing a ginger mint, why couldn't Biden sue MTG for defamatory posting of false accusations about the Bidens?
Yup.. and as dumb as she (MTG) appears, or has appeared, to be she knows taking a photo of stuff in a "secure facility" is against the law. Period. Stop. Even Ted Cruz knows that. When this kind of violation happens inadvertently, it's one thing, but when done intentionally and reported for all to see, it needs to be dealt with. Starting (for me) serving in SEA, too many of my friends are dead in the ground because of politicians of her ilk. She needs to be 'canned'.., taken away.., given a cell, and time to think about her behavior, her responsibility as a member of Congress and an American. She's pathetic.
Thanks for your note Marge. IMHO she gets re-elected, just like some other incompetents, on 'looks' together with expressions and sound-bites that are popular, but which, when applied in reality, fail miserably. So, here's a popular saying I'm fond of: She's so full of s--t her eyes are brown and the rest is toilet paper.
Marge, consider that SCOTUS's super majority makes it nearly impossible to convict any right-wing operatives that are doing its bidding. Biden needs to be reelected and more Democrats added to the legislature so that the imbalance in our judiciary can be remedied.
Why is she not being charged with a crime, just like the young military man who posted classified info. on a website to impress his "friends"? Who has the responsibility of doing this?
To raise an old saw: The Moral Majority is neither. That the Bill of Rights clearly states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;” would seem to blow a huge hole in GOP declarations to contrary, and yet, here we are.
Exactly! One of the most important statements in the entire document. Read American Crusade- How the Supreme Court is Weaponizing Religious Freedom by Andrew Seidel. They are winning - and it’s terrifying.
Many evangelicals ARE hoping that trump brings the Apocalypse. That is REALLY what they want (caps because italics aren't available). Not kidding here.
Centuries. One of the most salient in recent years was Harold Camping. Many of his flock quit their jobs and sold their homes to transfer funds to Harold and join him in Heaven. This is classic cult. https://apnews.com/general-news-451c6d432af74c0e9ed0251bfd9ff37d
Note the post below, Ted. This is what some of the "Christians" want. They think they will be headed to heaven when they should be in Dante's hell. And they will do their best to create a hell on earth for everybody else. It's already started as i am sure people saw on the news women discussing what is going to happen with their IVF treatments in god-forsaken Alabama. I keep waiting for the Rapture, so that they will bundled off somewhere, preferably down a black hole.
They too suffer for their folly, at least the ones who believe the cynical scammers will save them. But the "collateral damage" is monstrous. There is beauty and kindness in the world and there is evil and horror, but from where I sit honesty is the best policy, accepting that the world is what it is, and trying to explore the constraints of the possible to make it kinder, more just, and and more secure for our own species, with a more realistic appreciation of our place in the web of all life. Science is a strategy for learning from what is real. So is art. Were there no form of resonance with the real in art, it would make no sense to us; even for fantasies like "Lord of the Rings" or "Hamlet"; even in geometric abstractions, such as the Alhambra; we re-cognize something meaningful, or it would seem to be just "noise".
Reality is our mentor, our conveyance, and our sustenance, and always, our fate. Our poor powers can never capture it; but through the union of our nervous system with that which is (including our own organism) we are capable of experience, which is both amazing and sustaining; and we are capable of recording that experience in remarkably useful maps.
Ted, that is precisely what the Founding Fathers had in mind. "True Believers" can't comprehend this concept. Religious wars wracked Europe for two centuries prior to our winning our independence. The Founding Fathers knew the harm that religion caused to the governance process. The U.S. is now in a pickle, with six of the U.S. Supreme Court Justices being Roman Catholics sitting on the bench - authoritarian, anti-women's rights, etc. We've got a serious problem as the Court now takes on the role of being a Super Legislature, making new laws.
The god of power, money and greed. The god of fear and hatredof the "other". I call this their American Sharia Law. Remember when they were screaming about Sharia Law being introduced by middle eastern immigrants? This is the home grown version. They are such hypocrites. I'm amazed that people believe them!
Richard, religion can be used be for good or ill. There are many believers who do good things. Politics, power, and greed are always part of the bad things. The Inquisition was a golden opportunity to acquire your neighbors' wealth and position by making an accusation or merely to take revenge for a slight.
True, without a doubt, some of the finest people I know subscribe seriously to their religious beliefs. By the same token, I know some who have no religious beliefs at all, yet they follow what Jesus taught in Matthew 25: 34-46, which basically is the core practice of Democrats. I often cite Frances Perkins, the amazing woman who conceived and got FDR to implement the New Deal: "The people are what matter to government, and a government should aim to provide all the people under its jurisdiction the wherewithal to have the best life possible."
If you include all the war, slavery, and genocide fir which "God's Will" is claimed to justify, I would think that to be most certainly true. However, I see extreme variance between what Jesus is said to have said in the Bible and what tyrants do with it. I mean, Trump? That's an Orwellian conflation if there ever was one. Was Jesus really a capitalist? Who would Jesus shoot?
Irrespective of what you think of Jesus (I see him as a man, not a deity, and the Bible as a second hand account of his teachings) I think a lot of spin has been attached to religion by those in positions of power for which the foundational empathy and asceticism of Jesus' teaching is inconvenient. Thus much that is labeled "religion" is muddled with the notion that Jesus loves empire, Jesus loves tyrants, Jesus loves slavery, Jesus favors capital punishment and the white race, Jesus favors the USA, or France, or Germany or wherever its is that someone is saying this. I'd take it with a gain of salt.
Eight years ago Vladamir Putin aided by Jim Comey, The NY Times, Wikileaks/Julian Assange and a misogynist nation were able to install donald trump as President of the United States having lost by three million votes to Hillary Clinton. Other than wars and depression trumps reign was the most devastating in our country’s history. Now it is happening again, Comey and Assange have been exiled, but Putin, the Times and a host of other characters including the (PPP) Pro Putin Party are determined to reinstall Dictator trump. Déjà vu all over again?
Eight years ago it wasn't JUST Hillary, it was also Bill and many of the voters I talked to didn't want HIM back in the White House believing that HE would be - effectively - serving as President as well.
The audacity of Bill Clinton who left the white house with a 68% approval of the American Public think that he could be of benefit to our nation, I mean that is just sooooo I cant think of any thing worse.
And still, I'm betting....Comer and Jordan will just spin it and spin it....to keep the impeachment going. The press knew a year ago that the FBI document was unverified information with a less than credible source....yet it was hardly noted. It's time for the press to stay on the Rs high jinks and not let go.
Yes Marlene, I noticed that Gangrene and Gassy don't seem to understand why they are looking at something in a secure facility. If any of us did that, we would be in the jail asap. I agree that both should be prosecuted and I like the idea of them having to announce their treachery on national TV....sorta like being in stocks in the old days or standing up in front of the congregation and confessing sins.
One of my biggest frustrations with the Democrats is, until recently, their refusal to go on the attack. The Republicans spout lies, work with foreign autocrats, make false accusations, and use every dirty trick to win and mold the country to their abominable vision. Democrats have taken the high road, conducted methodical investigations, and received comparatively little media coverage, failing to make there point with the American people.
When you are in a bare knuckle street fight, turning the other cheek will not work. Democrats need to show the American people what the Republicans really are and respond to their subversive, illegal, and evil behavior with all of the tools available to them. This is not the time to remain passive, because, as joe Biden so aptly put it, we are in a fight for the soul of America. It’s time to take the gloves off.
the shear definition of conservatism is why: commitment to traditional values and ideas with opposition to change or innovation, then add proponents of theological conservatism
Wow, I read this and two thoughts came to my mind: 1) The Manchurian Candidate, and 2) the Scarlet Letter and Hester Prynne. The price for preserving freedom and democracy is eternal. The war on freedom and women's rights never ends.
You are correct, Frank, chilling. Based on a Korean War fictional account starring Angela Lansbury, Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh and others. It is a masterpiece. It hit the big screen in 1961 or 1962, if I am correct. Chilling. Chilling. Chilling.
Thanks for reminding me of the "star power" cast listing. Lot of movie memories there. I took it as an over the top political thriller, to be honest. "mind control" is always a forbidding dramatic theme, like "demonic possession". Another one i enjoyed was Black Sunday also b&w.
Let's consider even the far-right U.S. Supreme Court may have to honor the Constitution to which even its ideologue, bribed, and perjured took oaths.
We may be waiting now as long as we have due to first, the wrangling among themselves, and then the most-careful writing of an opinion (or two, in parallel to each other) which must uphold the Constitution.
Let's consider it unanimous, even from these justices, that America's fat, orange, racist, rapist, huckster fraud be held accountable, and that he is 1), not above and immune to the law and 2), as insurrectionist be deemed stricken from every ballot across the land.
As much as we may wish it to be otherwise, the decision in Trump v. Anderson (Colorado / 14th Amendment) is very likely to be reversed.
I agree they will twist themselves in knots and we may have multiple concurring opinions, but the end result is not really in question - the grounds on which the case is finally decided, however, are.
There was one small victory for justice announced Tuesday when the court upheld a Michigan decision sanctioning Trump attorneys. ‘’The justices’ decision, issued without elaboration, leaves in place a Michigan federal judge’s 2021 order imposing punishment on prominent conservative attorneys L. Lin Wood and Sidney Powell for their work on a lawsuit against the city of Detroit and other defendants.’’
If the results for our democracy are as you suspect, R., then sad, lamentable indeed.
But I like your look to "the grounds on which the case is finally decided."
Someone may write some succinct words as to the honor in honoring the Constitution.
Or, R., flaunting it? Putting demagoguery, violence, and white nationalist insurrection above the Constitution?
Will be choice to see how our ideologue, bribed, and perjured justices "twist themselves in knots," as you say, to push America into the model posed by murderer Putin, long-skirted, multiply-bejeweled Orthodox priests, fellow oligarchs, and the heads of every one of Russia's 700-plus universities and related schools of "higher" education.
Phil, Please understand that I am not an expert on this case or the Supreme Court, just a retired attorney with a keen interest in the law, so my opinions are just that – opinions.
What I meant by twisting themselves in knots and the question of the grounds on which they will base their decision, is that from listening to the questions the justices posed during oral argument, it was clear that across the political spectrum on the court - for example, Justice Jackson referring to a comment by Justice Gorsuch and expanding on it – none of the justices were keen to see the Anderson decision become law.
Some of their reasons may be the same, some different. But it seemed to me, that for every justice there was something they objected to, or about which they were genuinely concerned.
It also appeared to me that some of the justices would not have been unhappy with the idea of Trump being tossed from the ballot, but this just wasn’t the case to do it.
Regarding the grounds, it will be interesting to see which issue(s) they can all agree on to base their decision.
Yes, you are right.He is not above the law and neither are those members of Congress who aided and abetted him.They all need to be 14th Amendmented out of office. Talk about conduct unbecoming.
Alito, Thomas, Kavanaugh, Comey-Barrett, Gorsuch all pretend to be originalists. Apparently any amendments to the US Constitution aren't "original" parts of the Constitution and therefore they don't consider them part of the law.
lol, lazy reader me, didn't take that in. Hope some enthusiastic trolls here don't take this as a sign of "cognitive decline", not peculiar to the actual aged, but thanks to "Dem thinking". I jest.
Why doesn’t someone who takes pictures of a classified document in a secure location and publish them, then lose their security clearance? Shouldn’t that be automatic?
Because....the Rs are committing so many crimes...DOJ can't keep up. And then...we all know the DOJ doesn't want to appear weaponized by the Ds. But when a large percentage of Rs are commiting crimes...it's hard not to look that way. The DOJ needs to focus on the law and not appearances.
Some years ago I saw a listing of news articles about regular government employees who have been fired or jailed for fairly minor mishandling of sensitive documents. More serious breaches by bigger fish seem to be forgiven.
Perhaps you could specify who "ours" applies to? Members of Congress from your state? Particular members of Congress from other states? or Republican members of Congress? My state's congressional delegation ranges from outstanding (e.g., Katherine Clark, MA-05, currently the minority whip, and my congressman, Bill Keating, MA-09) to at least one who is not so great (sorry, not gonna name names here <g>), but none of them are traitors or anywhere close to it.
It is as if we need Big Bird and Sesame Street to do a skit/presentation on corruption, obstructive politics, Hofstadter fear & paranoia politics, and how Russian Propaganda works within the R party.
As an author, I have been told that the route to widespread sales of a book is to write it on a sixth grade level, since that is the intellectual level of the majority of American adults. (Unfortunately for me, I can't "write stupid" so my sales are limited to those with an - old - college freshman reading level, i.e., back in the early Jurassic when I was a college freshman dodging Tyrannosaurs to get to class)
All that is a long way of saying that a Sesame Street-level performance like you suggest would likely go much further than the efforts of all of us to get them to change their minds.
Truth, no matter how simplified for an inexperienced audience, is inimical to her reliance on "big lies". She holds her hands over her ears, and looks away from what is true. Her cult demands that the faithful reject the evidence of their eyes and of their ears. They (officially) define the violent invasion of the US Capitol as 'ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse'. Ummm....
I trudged though snow (well , quite a bit of snow actually) 12 ft. deep, clubbing tyrannosaurs all the way. I do think that the burden on the effective communicator is find a way to be understood, but here I sense little need to be limited to Newspeak. Powerful, accessible, articulate speaking is an art, and has, I think, an element of poetry in it's construction. "Of the people, by the people, for the people" is about as plain as you can get, but some don't want to hear it. It also hits the nail on the head.
Yet words are tools, and it's fun, even empowering, to have lots of tools in your kit. It's an editing of what Mark Twain actually said, but still a great aphorism:
"The right word, lightning. The almost right word, lightning bug"
Power (and the prospect of power) tends to corrupt, and Lord Acton was not the first to say so (though he underlined it). Thus we attempt to divide ultimate power (choice and responsibility) into equal shares, in the vote, or at least that's the theory. I get why we don't completely rely on direct democracy, but one person one vote should be considered an unalienable right, and extra-democratic influences on politcal outcomes minimized as a key social issues, as well as minimization of all self-serving abuses of publicly entrusted powers. Certainly one of the key missions of a just government is equal protection from all abuses of power, be it extortion or physical violence.
J L, if someone kills a million people they aren't prosecuted, if they kill a few, they are put away for life. Putin has murdered hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians including civilian women and children. He has murdered hundreds of thousands more sending them to the front lines to be slaughtered. And yet, he is praised by the MAGANAZIs by TFFG as being brilliant, not to mention many Congresscritters and Senators.
And mass murder in the name of the State may, in our world, be easier for the perpetrators to get away with than taking the life of a single individual.
“Laws are spider webs through which the big flies pass and the little ones get caught.”
― Balzac
But isn't that exactly what our form of government is supposed to be designed to prevent. Our goals are unattainable if we don't consistently and earnestly pursue them.
I lost my security clearance simply for being bipolar, and a government-paid psychologist coming up with nonsense that because I'm bipolar I'm subject to blackmail, even though I'm completely open about it! (Not for any security violations.) Yes, the government can and does discriminate in this area, and it is not right.
I don't give a damn about having a security clearance, except that my company has rules that many contracts require clearances even when the work is unclassified! And of course I want to continue to support my family. I'm now finding myself in the situation where I need to drum up my own work.
What is even crazier, is as soon as you encounter a mental health condition, that is something that is "Adverse" and you have to report it. And so many people will delay getting the treatment they need, and for good reason!
Deborah, I thought the same thing as I read your comment—those who deliberately publish classified material should automatically lose their clearance and face charges. But then I realized that many crimes of this nature are addressed not in the courts of justice, but through the exposure by main stream media and the subsequent shaming and rejection by the public. If the media and the public maintain awareness and a high moral compass, it won’t be necessary to clog the wheels of justice with every instance of bad behavior. The reaction of the public will be punishment enough. But then if they don’t, and the party does not police itself, and the institutions do not? Well then, here we are.
I wouldn't have my precious children if it weren't for IVF procedures and frozen embryos. Considering embryos as people is so far outside the realm of science - it's a religious belief that goes against science in every way. It's nakedly about power and control. No pretense anymore. The minority will only rule if the majority lets them. I'm still laughing at the NY Times article about how all of us activists are "exhausted." Sure we're tired of dealing with this BS, but we only get more and more resolved, organized, and determined every day. I'm so grateful for Heather, and to be in the company of all of you!
Yes, put women back in their traditional strait jackets. Kirke, Kuchen, Kinder, the belief of Hitler that women only had 3 positions in a worthy life, church, kitchen skills, and making babies. Hitler in Alabama.
Linda H, the next step is ruling that IUD’s and morning after pills prevent implantation of a fertilized egg, while birth control pills make the uterine lining inhospitable, so they need to be outlawed since they lead to the possible destruction of a fertilized egg.
Basically, you (and your doctors and medical professionals ) break the law if you try to have more or fewer children than the good Lord intended.
That's exactly what Heritage Foundation Project 2025 states. It's even worse that. NO TO IVF, NO TO BIRTH CONTROL, NO TO MORNING AFTER PILL, NO TO ABORTION. The answer is just no everything that's not white, not Christian, not male, and not rich. They are running the show here with their paid Russian assets. It's all connected.
By calling it Christian, supposedly supported by a god, they are also blaspheming actual Christianity and any religious beliefs, knowledge or genuine spirituality. The twisted nature of this is as bad as calling a person with no faith, knowledge or character traits worth emulating worthy of managing the country.
There is a big difference between Christianity and spirituality. If an alien came to earth and read the Bible's First Testament, they would think a malignant narcissist/ psychopath was in charge. It's insane. In Christian Nationalists terms Jesus would be a Marxist Leftist.
Whewwww. WHO wrote thet gotttdammned book anywho? When was it published..? By Harcourt and Braced? Who? Huh...? Errr ahh wait a minute, Huh? When.., really? C'mon.., YGTBSM! What was the 'reading level' of those scribes? Nahhh.., cain't be.. no way! Ain't no way. Whu pruf'd it? Huh.. not in Inglish? WTF? Welp.. according to MTG..., ooops.. sorry.., lost my notes. Bye bye for now.
Bingo! Unquestioned belief in the imaginary sky fairy. Here's a thought experiment. Let's train chatGPT4 (or whatever) on all the religious texts and ask it to discern the ultimate truth. What's your guess as to the answer?
Vlad's dark money flows through Leonard Leo's PACs. Leo has just created 2 new PACs due to Congress wanting to speak with him. He moves dark money around like a skilled chess player.
Yeah, and after that, women will be on trial for murder every month because the egg they lose could, potentially, could have been an embryo if fertilized.
Hey, Dutch Mike, you’re on to something. And thus male masturbation should be similarly outlawed. After all:
Every sperm is sacred,
Every sperm is great.
If a sperm is wasted
God gets quite irate.
And then there is Genesis 38:9-10
“But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his. So whenever he went in to his brother's wife he would waste the semen on the ground, so as not to give offspring to his brother. And what he did was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and he put him to death also.”
So, Republicans, if you’re really serious about Christian Nationalism….
Well, if she's "my type" I'll gladly test-i-fy that I did not fertilize that particular egg. Case closed. Huh..? Wait a minute.., I'm not on trial here. Fani, I need some advice.
I find it amazing that the Roman Catholic Church asks us to give up meat on Fridays for Lent, but permits eating eggs. Eggs, fertilized or not, aren’t chickens. Even in the eyes of the Church.
Women, time for men to take a chastity break. But of course, the perpetrators run amok while the women are the targets. Apologies to the men who are our comrades in arms. They are legion.
"Justice Tom Parker declared in a concurring opinion that the people of Alabama have adopted the “theologically based view” that “life cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God.”
WTF! Why would any OB/GYN practice in AL unless they were part of the religious patriarchy that hates women?
They've ignored the SCOTUS ruling on redistricting and they basically enslave their workers paying $7.50 an hour.
hnnn back to masturbation by males being considered a sin again? Believe it or not, i suspect it's always been an implicit form of birth control, apart from being a basic biological compulsion plain and simple, still on the "sin" list in some religious circles.
Frank, good point! Perhaps, for some, homosexual sex is wrong because it precludes production of a baby. I’ve been told that sexual urges are God’s way of tricking you into having children.
Sexual urges, esp males, are astronomically redundant esp in the modern era, and all in all they provide a pleasure opportunity, inherently no different than any of other pleasures, like good tasting interesting food. I remember a long time ago being thankful women can and do enjoy sex as well. As for social circumstances, and perhaps the entire biological infrastructure, well, it's often "complicated". Personally, I leave "God" out of it.
That is an eye roll! I guess i was taking "male" for granted, being one of course. I could regale you with some personal anecdote, apart from documented stuff, but will defer.
Oh, I wasn't eye rolling at you, Frank - that was meant for the faux-Christian nationalists who seem to want to punish women for having sex and getting pregnant.
does that include enjoying it? In traditional Christian asceticism, pleasure was singled out as part of our fellen, inherently sinful nature. Was a hard one to let go of, partly thanks to folk like Augustine who lamented the joy he felt at watching a spider spinning "her" web.
And yet , we need sperm to fertilize said ova/child , but no repercussions for men when they masterbate their supposed children into a kleenex ! Makes total sense !
It seems to me that the advances of the Renaissance, enlightenment, and modern science and liberalism supercharged advances in multiple fields, including technology, medicine, and a number of forms of liberation, including slaves, wage workers, women and gays. The "good old days" were never all that good, and were in many ways nasty indeed, though there are things that we would benefit to restore and/or preserve. There is no golden age to return to.
There are things that are worth preserving and repeating, but yeah, I increasing get the sense that overall, human life was nastier, more brutish, and shorter as you turn back the clock. As with just about anything human, there are counterexamples, but we know, just for example, the odds of reaching "old age" or even adulthood were much slimmer, and tyrants were having a field day, even as compared to now.
Strikes me often that the "good ol' days" that white MAGA long for were brought about by FDR's 12 years of democratic socialist reforms. Biden's first 3 years have already begun to rebuild that middle class prosperity and income equality, but for ALL this time.
It boggles the mind how much racism takes over its host and makes it shoot itself in the foot.
We best be prepared. They are coming after all of our personal freedoms. We must get out and vote at every opportunity in droves. It is our last great hope to pull us through this cloud of evil. I am not being overreactive this all is truly happening now. Should this guy take power even sites like this will be anti state. I have friends who have already left the country and made their homes elsewhere. It is getting to the point that I am strongly considering that choice. So far I want to stay and stand for the future of this great country. Getting a little scarier every day though.
Stop. The only thing we have to fear is fear itself FDR). Just another block upon which this country was built. We need you "Georgia Girl" particularly if you happen to be 'black' because if you are, when you speak you stand out. This country was built on people who stood tall and those people will stand out in our history. This country embodies the incredible strengths of people who have stood tall. Right this moment in our history there is an overt and covert effort to supplant democracy with fear, and that "effort" is insidious. Re: Mr Smirnov. Dig it?
We have our Ken due to IVF. Maybe we also could have adopted. But of course we wouldn't give up our precious Ken for anything. And if I recall correctly we have many many inviable frozen embryos. Heaven forbid if we were prosecuted for discarding them!
My nephew and his wife have been trying for 4 years to get pregnant with IVF. Last week they found out they are finally pregnant. It's a boy due in October. Thank goodness they live in California.
The assertion that frozen embryos are children is not just an illogical (against science) religious idea. It is illogical! What is POTENTIAL is not yet ACTUAL.
MT Greene and the others who photographed the classifieds documents should be prosecuted, or at the least expelled from Congress. [How did they get their cameras into the safe room? Who blew that?] Personally, I think prison, or more severe punishment is justified. Turns out the dots that most politicians refuse to connect are, in fact, written by Putin's agents to help put his puppet, Trump, in power. DOJ and the Courts are slow to protect us. I wonder how many moles are involved?
Yet, we are trying to put Julian Assange in prison for life?? for... espionage? journalism? embarrassing Debbie Wasserman Schultz? reporting war crimes with proof? Assange seems destined to end like Navalny while MTG seems destined to a life of perpetual celebrityhood.
Are you next going to claim the DNC did not create their own emails and "Russians" wrote them? Doing so looks increasingly like partisan stooges trying to pump a conspiracy theory. The DNC created their own mess through committing their own malfeasace. Imprisoning the publisher who reported the malfeasance is the act of persons every bit as psychopathic as Donald Trump.
Seems like you want people like Wasserman Schultz and the DNC that lied to the party rank and file, violated its own bylaws, and then got a judgment that they could pick the candidates for government in a smoke-filled back room to vet your information for you. I find the journalists more credible about journalism than I find partisan stooges credible about anything.
Having grown up as a pastors kid in former East Germany (where Putin was stationed as a young KGB) what I now experience in the US just feels like the wrong movie. Christian nationalism has never occurred to me as something possible. And preferring dictators to a Liberal society seems just absurd and contrary to all i stood up for and got in trouble with.
Thank you for this, Doc. "...absurd and contrary to all I stood up for..."
I have occasionally asked my MAGAt friends whether freedom from religion might not be included in the phrase "freedom of religion". We've had some interesting conversations, most of which stop when they decide that them forcing their religion on me might actually kinda be what the First Amendment is designed to prevent. There is always a quick subject change.
I have also experiences that much of the religious extremes actually come from a lack of religion. Many have lost their religion personally and now ask for the big guy to bring it back. Thus they do not notice that he does not know anything about the faith he proclaims to protect and to make the law of the land.
Ally, I want to amplify your point about "freedom from". Not long ago I was happy to read a piece wherein somebody pointed out that there are at least two kinds of freedom: freedom of, and freedom from. Until somebody gave voice to that distinction, it had not occurred to me that it's not a simple matter of "freedom". Somebody can have the freedom to evangelize, and to try to persuade me that I should adopt their beliefs. But I must insist that at the same time I can enjoy the freedom from their personal beliefs.
This is an essential tenet of true democracy. When our freedoms conflict, we must, as a civilized society, do the hard work to achieve consensus.
I don't like the inscription of "In God We Trust" on our nation's currency. The name of "God" is very specific to just one of the world's major religions. It seems improper. It begins to look like "an establishment of religion".
I think it is extremely important to allow everyone to choose any religion they wish, or to choose no religion at all. And the best approach to morality, for me or for anyone else, is The Golden Rule, to treat other people the way we wish to be treated. We can live by the Golden Rule without being religious.
After years of MAGA nonsense, even good news is appalling. Elected representatives are aggressively propagating Russian disinformation. And further, they are not paying a price for it.
In the meantime, people rising to the level of Supreme Court Justices regularly inject religious belief into decisions. Leaving Samuel Alito aside, Chief Justice Tom Parker in Alabama wrote in his concurring opinion. “We believe that each human being, from the moment of conception, is made in the image of God, created by Him to reflect His likeness.”
Of course, allowing the kids to buy semi-automatic weapons to blow apart their classmates is guaranteed by the Constitution according to their reading…
You ask a good question, Michael. I think it is a combination of many factors that have been woven together by the oligarchy and presented to people who are scared of the "others" who are"taking their rightful things" and "threatening their way of life." This has stewed in this country for a long, long time (by those who forget that our country was founded on genocide of Indigenous Peoples and on the backs of enslaved Black people) and is now being amplified by manipulated media outlets and spread far and wide on unregulated social media.
I have a yard flag that says (in a very abbreviated translation) "Equal rights for all do not take away your rights. It is not pie."
Justice Parker speaks of the 'wrath of a holy God'. Are there unholy Gods out there? And since it's Alabama, the whole concept of conception is confused by the court.
Yes, it is bad and I am afraid it will actually lead to more religious oppression at the end because of this overreach. I do think that we can only overcome the divide if we indeed want to protect all life. The life of mother and child and of all children be they in the womb or in school. Protecting a fetus against her mother is not the right way. As it is not to not protect unborn children at all.
Overreach exists across the isle, and people project their shadow selves into each other.
They're fools, all these Putin agents on the Republican side of Congress.
Our Heather correctly sees their next threat to democracy in the U.S. -- not just following the bread crumbs laid out by Putin's operatives, but also "Reworking the nation to impose Christian nationalism."
Putin has his cohort of eastern orthodox old men in long skirts and chains of jewelry, just as U.S. Republicans have their orange heavily made-up fat man, as well as their much younger Howdy Doody speaker of the House pushing his group hatred and religio-nationalism scripts.
Dems across America can respond. I know it's difficult. None went to any university where people learned the arts of quoting others. But they should appear in groups of three and four exactly to do that -- speak in public to the great American public issues in which their own best have been invested -- all across this land is your land, this land is my land:
Not only are the Republican'ts incapable of governing (as the paucity of their legislation proves), they are also incapable of holding hearings that provide credible information before they leap to conclusions about corruption and malfeasance. Their need to stage impeachment hearings without having a shred of evidence would be sad and pathetic if it weren't so dangerous. Restoring faith in the Congress will depend on our electing competent, honest, hard-working legislators in November.
And yet, with a plethora of solid evidence, including the former president’s own admissions, that he was withholding aid to Ukraine until President Zelensky came up with some “dirt” on Joe Biden, most Republicans refused to convict him in the first impeachment trial. To say nothing of the second trial, when the evidence unfolded before our eyes on television. They are a corrupt, compromised bunch who are deliberately trying to destroy the constitutional republic we hold so dear.
This seems to me the same thing the orange menace tried to start when he wanted "just an investigation" of then candidate Biden during the 2020 campaign. He destroyed Hillary Clinton with "just an investigation" into his emails. It's too bad he cries "witch hunt" whenever there are investigations into his REAL criminal activities!
Churchill called Mussolini a "sawdust Caesar". And here we have a would-be Sawdust Caesar. But to compare Agent Orange with the Duce, even gone to seed, is an insult to the Italian dictator's memory.
Mussolini let himself be manipulated by Hitler. America's would-be dictator doesn't even start out as his own man. He's Putin's willing tool, his would-be viceroy, his Quisling.
The WW2 critters are being resurrected by a new America First crowd. And the families of those who suffered the final price seem to think it’s fun and games. There is nothing fun about the suffering of the innocent, no matter the boundaries…
I'm encouraged by the Justins in TN and Maxwell Frost in FL. I think that they're out there, and that their local Dems will find them. And then those with money will donate while others will write GOTV postcards and make calls and text.
Beto stepped on the third rail, said that he was in favor of confiscating assault rifles. ‘ “ Hell, yes, we're going to take your AR-15, your AK-47," O'Rourke said during Thursday's Democratic presidential debate. "We're not going to allow it to be used against our fellow Americans anymore."’
I loved it, but most Texans didn’t, obviously. But many more are in favor of guns of war being taken off the streets than polls suggest. As the old woman said to me “I hate Joe Biden for putting all these guns on the streets,” the lies are beyond belief. The blather against Beto would have made Goebbels proud. In fact, the lies against anyone in the upcoming primary, cite cooperation with Dems as the act that cannot be forgiven. They won’t back down from their Nazi/religious position. The Texas nuts are worse than the Alabama nuts.
The grand scheme…in one way or another - is to force their ideology and their beliefs and their values down our throats. Wake up folks…get out there and organize and work our butts off. Or come November we will not recognize what we have become…
I just hope with all my heart that if Democrats regain control of the House that one of the first things they'll do is open a House investigation of Reps. Comer, Grassley, Jordan, et al! Something about all this business with Smirnov stinks to high-heaven and the DOJ might need to get to the bottom of it. Using fabricated information from Russian sources to attempt to impugn, smear, and impeach a sitting President is pretty serious stuff. "How complicit were they??" "How did they get hold of this information??" are but some of the questions that might need answering. Time to turn the tables.
It should be, and would be, if DOJ were up to the task. Sadly, it is too busy not upsetting the apple cart to worry about actual prosecution of those who fomented sedition against the government in which they are serving.
Of course, but in order to establish that there might be justifiable cause to relay the matter to the DOJ, the House and/or the Senate form investigatory committees, often run/chaired by whichever party happens to be in the majority, which then conduct hearings and investigations, eventually making recommendations to pass along to the Attorney General and the DOJ. The DOJ can then take up the case to do its own investigating via the FBI or whoever, or not. It may seem like a cumbersome system and be prone to political influences, as it often is, but is can also be a potent tool to get to the bottom of some things.
I understand, and yet I cannot. In this instance, moreover, "some things" seem bottomless.
How curious that in 2000 an electoral cliff-hanger could be terminated by the Supreme Court in a wild rush while, when Citizen Trump instructs the Speaker, the small splinter group of in-house ultra-insurrectionists and all GOP Representatives to take the House hostage, they hear and obey. People don't even seem to notice the coup. Just as no one noticed when Putin's "little green men" took Crimea. And now it's "Wait and see", there is apparently no redress.
Protocol and procedure... Decidedly the machinery of government needs radical reform. It is absurdly vulnerable to sabotage. No guns, no mobs are needed to conduct a coup. Just threats.
I have never been so terrified of my own country. My grandparents fled to this country to be free of intolerance, tyranny and hate. I was born into a world at war and amid Holocaust. I grew up and old in a country with huge flaws but with the possibility that it would always, if sometimes haltingly, move toward that place my grandparents hoped for. I can't grasp that the whole dream could descend into nightmare. These people are just...awful.
Democracy is as strong as the people who choose to support it. Americans have become complacent and entitled. We're learning the hard way, what it takes to protect our system of government when those who would destroy it rise to power.
The education system that serves Alabama, and, indeed, the so-called Christian right, has clearly failed. 70 years ago, growing up in West Virginia, I learned that our country was founded by people escaping religious persecution, and they were strongly AGAINST any form of religion in government. And I learned that many of our Founding Fathers were Episcopalians.
I am of the opinion that all of the tenets and actions of Christian nationalists are a direct violation of the First Amendment’s prohibition against an established religion, as well as of its Free Exercise clause. We should all be free to believe what we wish (if you are against abortion, don’t have one), but NOT to impose our beliefs on others. The founders referred to this package of rights as “freedom of conscience.” I would ask all of these kinds of Christians if they want to live in a world such as that of Putin’s Russia, where jail and poison await those who question the dogma of the moment.
Yes, denominational tyranny, where each one claims it's got all the right answers the rest need to conform to, Europe had just gone through 2 centuries of religious warfare and strife over just this problem. "true religion" has at times been something like a rampant social virus, sucking everyone into its orbit in an all or nothing way of thinking.
Oh, Frank, you just won the internet: "...Europe had just gone through 2 centuries of religious warfare and strife over just this problem. "true religion" has at times been something like a rampant social virus, sucking everyone into its orbit in an all or nothing way of thinking."
Sadly so, it speaks "kilometres" to human compulsions and the urge to coerce, which turns out to be a fundamental personal/social glue, not always for the better. There are times when i feel outright unnerved, thankfully this can and does work to our benefit. That reminds me of the little prayer which ends with the phrase, "grant me the wisdom to know the difference"....
Good day Professor. I bet it was heart wrenching for you because it was heart wrenching for us. I try to be positive here because that’s what we are. But I can’t understand the minds of these people Jim Jordan. I’ll leave it at that. thank you Professor I’ll probably have nightmares, but you are the best we must always face the truth regardless of how difficult it is I guess and hope for a brighter day tomorrow…sleep well all stay positive and stay true blue. America and Constitution and democracy it gives us a good life…. peace all. I’m sorry I had a rough day too. I’m tired and my grammar and punctuation is not the best.
Once again, allegations of "weaponization" of the justice system are really the accusers referring to themselves. For the GOP (Grovelers Obeying Putin), almost every accusation is a confession.
Why is proven interference in our Elections and Congressional processes not considered an "Act of War" or "Open Hostility"? And, why aren't people who participate considered to be "adhering" Or "aiding" prosecuted for their crimes? Just askin'.
Comer and Grassley were duped because they are already so steeped in their party myth that such American institutions as the FBI, the Justuce Department, and procedures like voting are being g corrupted. It's ironic that they are partly right, but the source of the corruption is their gullibility being manipulated by the likes of Smirnov. Smirnov probably is smirking less as the FBI proved its competence.
Sorry! McCarthy is a Republican, of course, not a Democrat. Fixed.
Somehow, the R Party got roped into believing God created only them and their Russian agents. Poor lil’ babies. Now, it appears that the two Jimsters are up to their necks in dirty pool. It’s not that I am not happy about that, because I am sooo happy they are getting exposed as to who they work for and that their weak impeachment trial now comes to a raucous end! They got zippity doo-da! But, we cannot let this go unnoticed. After all, quite a few of the R’s took items that they were only privileged to see, not take, and they ran false narratives. They deserve to be ousted, fined, and possibly imprisoned. Congress Dems must call for this by asking DOJ to hold these monsters responsible. Part of their punishment is going on national news and on OAN plus Fox and telling their constituents what they did and how wrong they were. I am dead serious.
Yes! MTG was shown false information about the Bidens in a secure facility (suggesting it was Secret), photographed it and posted it. Why is that not a crime?
It 'is' a crime.
If it is a crime, then why do these criminals keep being allowed to break the law and dismantle our democracy? Where is the best organization for me to join and support that is standing and fighting with words, money and action against these traitors? Suggestions?
Perhpas the courts are bogged down with frivolous cases with delays in prosectution, e.g. like who is dating who v who is tampering with election results.
Bingo…same ol’ tactics , 30 million vote/believe/more disciples of the Gang Of Putin et al …
and corporate media Loves frivolous scandal more than boring old RICO insurrection trials /s
Ahh yes. I think I can hear the laughter amidst cheering going on, emanating from the "Intelligence Community" headquarters over there on Lubyanka Square, led by non-other than his Exc Alexander Bortnikov, HMFICC* of the "Intelligence" hahahaaahhaaa (INTELLIGENCE, such a mis-nomer).. hahahaahhhaa "agency" THE... one and only.., Federal Security Service, or as rarely referred to here in the US of A.., The FSB! Yes, they are laughing at us boasting about busting Mr. Smirnov, whom they purposely offered to us as an intentional sacrifice in order to make us (dummies) think we were on top of things. But, you can bet, with the drop of a shoe and a side-glance from Put-nik, his excellency Bortnikov was ordered BACK TO WORK!! Whewww!
*HMFICC = H ead M utherF---ker In C omplete C harge. (got it?)
It could be that AG Garland doesn't have the intestinal fortitude to prosecute Republicans.
Garland has been a HUGE disappointment. To say he dropped the ball is an understatement of biblical proportions. Charles Pierce posited that it is time for Garland to resign.
And I agree.
Garland has dithered on prosecuting the man who LED AN INSURRECTION. We did not have the gift of time with trump still at large instead of in a jail cell.
And then he appointed a known trumper to "investigate" President Biden. When Hur found nothing, he still delivered a blatant hit job.
Garland wants to look in the mirror and say "I was fair." And I want to look at him and say "You were an idiot."
Way past time
Perhaps because prosecuting loudmouth Republicans like MTG (a carbuncle on the butt of the body politic), Comer and Gym Jordan would cause so many more screams of political persecution that its not worthwhile. If we truly believe in democracy, the we need to believe that these creatures will get their comeuppance.
Read Prequel...abuse of the speech and debate clause.
It certainly make one sick!!
Georgia Girl, "Why do these criminals keep being allowed to break the law and dismantle our democracy?"
That is a question that should be on every law-abiding citizen's mind!!
I watched a documentary on TCM on the life/death of John F, Kennedy and was so moved by the narrator's words as Jackie Kennedy was lighting the eternal flame at the graveside. He said, "Kennedy's bold words often reminded
the nation of its most splendid self."
What are Trump's inane words reminding the nation about?
Certainly not it's "splendid self." Have there always been so
many Americans who are willing to listen to and follow someone who blatantly wants to "dismantle our democracy?"
Trump's words do not remind us of the goodness of Americans and their fight for freedom. They remind us of our fearful, discriminating, and hypocritical selves."
Yes, there has always been Americans who are willing to dismantle our democracy. They've been lurking in the dark, their views unacceptable by most until being enabled by a psychopathic tyrant. If you condense what leaders do, it is one of two things. They either bring out the best or the worst in you. I don't believe it has ever been this obvious in our country than it is today. This is a classic struggle of Good vs Evil. The last struggle of any consequence was WW2. The momentum and energy of Evil is bringing us closer to a war.
These Letters that Heather writes are a constant reminder to pay attention to history because this has happened before.
It is in our DNA as humans to be at war with other humans starting in biblical mythology with Cain killing Abel. It is certainly not a myth, as recorded history has shown.
Our choices are simple, not easy: Stand up and resist or get run over.
Pam, I don't believe there were always so many Americans willing to listen to and follow (you know the rest.). Otherwise I don't see how my everyday observation of life in America could have missed seeing it. The Civil War, though, was such a time. I truly wish I could have learned enough from history to know how not to be doomed to see it's worst chapters repeated. All I can add is that for imperfect mortals as we all are, it bears repeating that we have nothing to fear but fear itself.
CONservatives respond to justice investigations rather ugly. Read Prequel. They use the protection of the speech and debate clause to perform their crimes. Or better abuse the protection. On the recent episode of NCIS, a candidate who was abusing that protection threatened the director with maybe you have too much funding for investigating him. It is what the CONservatives do.
The best organization? The Democratic Party.
I think we've talked a lot about how slowly/ineffectually Garland's DOJ is, so no surprise that MTG's crime has gone unindicted.
Your handle implies you're in or maybe from Georgia. I'd love to understand what is appealing about MTG. She seems to be too stoopid and/or misinformed to be a viable gov't official, but I've never lived in the south and have no idea what GA voters want/need from their reps. She's also unbelievably rude and vulgar, which I thought were no-no's in the south, but again, I have no experience of that culture. I'm not being snarky to you, Georgia Girl, I'd genuinely like you to help me understand whassup with your fellow Georgians.
If only it were noticed by “somebody”, huh?
If the facility where MYG photographed the 1023 was truly secure, phones would have been put in lockers to prevent a breach like that. Only the Rs have the power to hold her responsible, which means, of course, they'll do nothing.
It's time to start searching MTG before she sees anything classified. I don't know who would be up for that level of unpleasantness! And the search would have to be filmed so she couldn't claim assault later.
Not only MTG, but Grassley also passed on the information. Who allowed her to take the picture??? In a secure facility! Furthermore wouldn’t it have been easier to do a financial audit of VP Biden? 5 million would have shown up there, right? I don’t think Joe is rolling in the do re mi as they say...grasping at anything...
There is a financial audit of VP Biden. His tax returns. He , unlike the scammer, has his tax return on-line.
We need to start hounding TFFG and his running mate and Mike Johnson to release their tax returns since Biden became President. We know that New York has most of what TFFG hasn't buried, but it needs to be available for all to scrutinize.
And why hasn't Melania been charged. She signed their married filing jointly tax returns. If she committed a felony like her sugar-daddy then prosecute her.
We saw the poll of the worst President of all time, now let's do one on First Ladies.
She is complicit, with no consequences, nail her and her coat.
i have the impression Melania this round really wants to "stay out of it". Ever wonder why?
Not enough is said or has been brought to light about Grassley because Maggie Q sucks up the oxygen of any room she's in,...and I Do mean Sucks.
Grassley became a politician at age 23 and is now 90. Do the math. The party of Putin wants to talk about age for only their targets. Grassley is hospitalized, has to ride a motorized scooter and is clearly sliding downhill mentally but, they still won't force him out.
Nikki says openly Joe B is "too old" and we need mental competency tests. So, what say you about Chuck, Nikki? And BTW, if those tests are required it should be for of ALL politicians because your MTGs, Bodirts, Santoses and the entire Chump Crime Family would have to pay someone to take it for them. Ooops, they already did that didn't they?
Gassy should have been put out to pasture long ago, but he is still allowed to pollute the political environment with the equivalent of methane.
and how about Mitch McConnell and we know their are many more all geezers. And I don't forget the oldies in democrat party.
They probably think Biden pulled a Sen. Bob Menendez, who stuffed nearly half a million in his clothing and home. Of course Biden would need ten times more clothes to hide $5 million in cash. But that's a mere detail, right?
She said she only took notes. But that wasn’t supposed to happen either. Whole lotta leaking going on!
I don't follow her online posting on social media, but I doubt she took and posted "notes." Besides, if the material was classified and available only in a secure facility, notes would not be allowed either, would they? Asking the legal eagles here...?
My thought exactly! She and Grassley ought to be censured at the very least.
How about Biden suing her? If you can sue Giuliani for defamatory lies about passing a ginger mint, why couldn't Biden sue MTG for defamatory posting of false accusations about the Bidens?
I mistakenly thought all mobile devices must be left outside of secure areas, guess that only applies to democrats.
It does appear that laws are only written to apply to Democrats!
Yup.. and as dumb as she (MTG) appears, or has appeared, to be she knows taking a photo of stuff in a "secure facility" is against the law. Period. Stop. Even Ted Cruz knows that. When this kind of violation happens inadvertently, it's one thing, but when done intentionally and reported for all to see, it needs to be dealt with. Starting (for me) serving in SEA, too many of my friends are dead in the ground because of politicians of her ilk. She needs to be 'canned'.., taken away.., given a cell, and time to think about her behavior, her responsibility as a member of Congress and an American. She's pathetic.
Agreed!!!!
Thanks for your note Marge. IMHO she gets re-elected, just like some other incompetents, on 'looks' together with expressions and sound-bites that are popular, but which, when applied in reality, fail miserably. So, here's a popular saying I'm fond of: She's so full of s--t her eyes are brown and the rest is toilet paper.
Marge, consider that SCOTUS's super majority makes it nearly impossible to convict any right-wing operatives that are doing its bidding. Biden needs to be reelected and more Democrats added to the legislature so that the imbalance in our judiciary can be remedied.
Absolutely!
Why is she not being charged with a crime, just like the young military man who posted classified info. on a website to impress his "friends"? Who has the responsibility of doing this?
Exactly!
LOCK HER UP! 👏🏽LOCK HER UP!👏🏽
LOCK HER UP!👏🏽
I thought they were not allowed to take cell phones into those rooms?
Allowed? They do whatever they want and challenge you to do something about it. And not much happens.
you got that right. they do what they want, then scream how unjust it is that they get penalized.....
I mean who would want to search MTG?
To raise an old saw: The Moral Majority is neither. That the Bill of Rights clearly states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;” would seem to blow a huge hole in GOP declarations to contrary, and yet, here we are.
Exactly! One of the most important statements in the entire document. Read American Crusade- How the Supreme Court is Weaponizing Religious Freedom by Andrew Seidel. They are winning - and it’s terrifying.
It IS a crime!
Modern "Republicans" exhibit no fealty to anyone and anything except the cult. You never ask questions when God's on your side.
Instead of doing gods work on earth, it is as if they are trying their best to bring about the apocalypse.
Many evangelicals ARE hoping that trump brings the Apocalypse. That is REALLY what they want (caps because italics aren't available). Not kidding here.
Yup. 100%. I believe you.
Haven’t they been telling us “the end is near” for decades? Gawwwwd help us all!
Centuries. One of the most salient in recent years was Harold Camping. Many of his flock quit their jobs and sold their homes to transfer funds to Harold and join him in Heaven. This is classic cult. https://apnews.com/general-news-451c6d432af74c0e9ed0251bfd9ff37d
Note the post below, Ted. This is what some of the "Christians" want. They think they will be headed to heaven when they should be in Dante's hell. And they will do their best to create a hell on earth for everybody else. It's already started as i am sure people saw on the news women discussing what is going to happen with their IVF treatments in god-forsaken Alabama. I keep waiting for the Rapture, so that they will bundled off somewhere, preferably down a black hole.
totally! Amen! They are as crazy Al Qaeda!
Any fanatical (quasi-psychotic) cult. Some are harmless, some harm their adherents, so are synonymous with evil; a culture built on protected lies.
They too suffer for their folly, at least the ones who believe the cynical scammers will save them. But the "collateral damage" is monstrous. There is beauty and kindness in the world and there is evil and horror, but from where I sit honesty is the best policy, accepting that the world is what it is, and trying to explore the constraints of the possible to make it kinder, more just, and and more secure for our own species, with a more realistic appreciation of our place in the web of all life. Science is a strategy for learning from what is real. So is art. Were there no form of resonance with the real in art, it would make no sense to us; even for fantasies like "Lord of the Rings" or "Hamlet"; even in geometric abstractions, such as the Alhambra; we re-cognize something meaningful, or it would seem to be just "noise".
Reality is our mentor, our conveyance, and our sustenance, and always, our fate. Our poor powers can never capture it; but through the union of our nervous system with that which is (including our own organism) we are capable of experience, which is both amazing and sustaining; and we are capable of recording that experience in remarkably useful maps.
So I am reading at the moment The Vital Question by Nick Lane about the beginning of life and how cells work. It goes way beyond DNA.
God does not think highly of these folks.
The core problem is the supposition that there is a "God." Anyone can attribute anything to this "God." Look at what has been handed down through the centuries through Roman Catholicism and Islam. The tortures inflicted during the Inquisition are difficult to read about. https://news.berkeley.edu/2022/07/20/the-tortures-of-the-spanish-inquisition-hold-dark-lessons-for-our-time/
What god do the GOP and their followers follow? What god would have them? Get Christianity and all religion out of government!
Ted, that is precisely what the Founding Fathers had in mind. "True Believers" can't comprehend this concept. Religious wars wracked Europe for two centuries prior to our winning our independence. The Founding Fathers knew the harm that religion caused to the governance process. The U.S. is now in a pickle, with six of the U.S. Supreme Court Justices being Roman Catholics sitting on the bench - authoritarian, anti-women's rights, etc. We've got a serious problem as the Court now takes on the role of being a Super Legislature, making new laws.
The god of power, money and greed. The god of fear and hatredof the "other". I call this their American Sharia Law. Remember when they were screaming about Sharia Law being introduced by middle eastern immigrants? This is the home grown version. They are such hypocrites. I'm amazed that people believe them!
Exactly, Ted!!
Big business is the god of the GOP and mega churches!
So many troubles today starts with religion. Talk about cults.
I’m with you Richard. So many atrocities in the name of god then and now.
Richard, religion can be used be for good or ill. There are many believers who do good things. Politics, power, and greed are always part of the bad things. The Inquisition was a golden opportunity to acquire your neighbors' wealth and position by making an accusation or merely to take revenge for a slight.
True, without a doubt, some of the finest people I know subscribe seriously to their religious beliefs. By the same token, I know some who have no religious beliefs at all, yet they follow what Jesus taught in Matthew 25: 34-46, which basically is the core practice of Democrats. I often cite Frances Perkins, the amazing woman who conceived and got FDR to implement the New Deal: "The people are what matter to government, and a government should aim to provide all the people under its jurisdiction the wherewithal to have the best life possible."
Richard, I'd venture to guess more people have been slaughtered in the name of God throughout history than any other reason.
If you include all the war, slavery, and genocide fir which "God's Will" is claimed to justify, I would think that to be most certainly true. However, I see extreme variance between what Jesus is said to have said in the Bible and what tyrants do with it. I mean, Trump? That's an Orwellian conflation if there ever was one. Was Jesus really a capitalist? Who would Jesus shoot?
Irrespective of what you think of Jesus (I see him as a man, not a deity, and the Bible as a second hand account of his teachings) I think a lot of spin has been attached to religion by those in positions of power for which the foundational empathy and asceticism of Jesus' teaching is inconvenient. Thus much that is labeled "religion" is muddled with the notion that Jesus loves empire, Jesus loves tyrants, Jesus loves slavery, Jesus favors capital punishment and the white race, Jesus favors the USA, or France, or Germany or wherever its is that someone is saying this. I'd take it with a gain of salt.
God would puke on them.
They are all treasonous traitors and should be tried.
Try saying that three times!
Try them all, the treasonous traitors! My daughter knows I like alliteration.
Amen to that, Marlene!
You go, girl!!!!
Eight years ago Vladamir Putin aided by Jim Comey, The NY Times, Wikileaks/Julian Assange and a misogynist nation were able to install donald trump as President of the United States having lost by three million votes to Hillary Clinton. Other than wars and depression trumps reign was the most devastating in our country’s history. Now it is happening again, Comey and Assange have been exiled, but Putin, the Times and a host of other characters including the (PPP) Pro Putin Party are determined to reinstall Dictator trump. Déjà vu all over again?
Eight years ago it wasn't JUST Hillary, it was also Bill and many of the voters I talked to didn't want HIM back in the White House believing that HE would be - effectively - serving as President as well.
The audacity of Bill Clinton who left the white house with a 68% approval of the American Public think that he could be of benefit to our nation, I mean that is just sooooo I cant think of any thing worse.
And still, I'm betting....Comer and Jordan will just spin it and spin it....to keep the impeachment going. The press knew a year ago that the FBI document was unverified information with a less than credible source....yet it was hardly noted. It's time for the press to stay on the Rs high jinks and not let go.
Yes Marlene, I noticed that Gangrene and Gassy don't seem to understand why they are looking at something in a secure facility. If any of us did that, we would be in the jail asap. I agree that both should be prosecuted and I like the idea of them having to announce their treachery on national TV....sorta like being in stocks in the old days or standing up in front of the congregation and confessing sins.
One of my biggest frustrations with the Democrats is, until recently, their refusal to go on the attack. The Republicans spout lies, work with foreign autocrats, make false accusations, and use every dirty trick to win and mold the country to their abominable vision. Democrats have taken the high road, conducted methodical investigations, and received comparatively little media coverage, failing to make there point with the American people.
When you are in a bare knuckle street fight, turning the other cheek will not work. Democrats need to show the American people what the Republicans really are and respond to their subversive, illegal, and evil behavior with all of the tools available to them. This is not the time to remain passive, because, as joe Biden so aptly put it, we are in a fight for the soul of America. It’s time to take the gloves off.
Will anyone have the balls to do what you suggest. It could save us…
well a public mea culpa would be quite nice, but admitting lying is hard Republican "good practice". Lie switch lie.
Excellent. I agree 100 percent. But am dubious that they will be punished.
You are sooo right!!
the shear definition of conservatism is why: commitment to traditional values and ideas with opposition to change or innovation, then add proponents of theological conservatism
Wow, I read this and two thoughts came to my mind: 1) The Manchurian Candidate, and 2) the Scarlet Letter and Hester Prynne. The price for preserving freedom and democracy is eternal. The war on freedom and women's rights never ends.
I remember the Manchurian Candidate as a great b&w thriller from the early 60s if not slightly earlier?
You are correct, Frank, chilling. Based on a Korean War fictional account starring Angela Lansbury, Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh and others. It is a masterpiece. It hit the big screen in 1961 or 1962, if I am correct. Chilling. Chilling. Chilling.
Thanks for reminding me of the "star power" cast listing. Lot of movie memories there. I took it as an over the top political thriller, to be honest. "mind control" is always a forbidding dramatic theme, like "demonic possession". Another one i enjoyed was Black Sunday also b&w.
Updated to our view out the window…
And let’s also note that yesterday Nikki Haley concurred with the Alabama decision.
She is what she has always been, just thinks that she is a cut above chump. A cut above chump is still in the dungeons of hell.
Ugh.
Supreme Soviet Commisar, nonetheless. Busted.
Other things should be automatic, too, Marlene.
Such as article three of the 14th amendment.
Let's consider even the far-right U.S. Supreme Court may have to honor the Constitution to which even its ideologue, bribed, and perjured took oaths.
We may be waiting now as long as we have due to first, the wrangling among themselves, and then the most-careful writing of an opinion (or two, in parallel to each other) which must uphold the Constitution.
Let's consider it unanimous, even from these justices, that America's fat, orange, racist, rapist, huckster fraud be held accountable, and that he is 1), not above and immune to the law and 2), as insurrectionist be deemed stricken from every ballot across the land.
As much as we may wish it to be otherwise, the decision in Trump v. Anderson (Colorado / 14th Amendment) is very likely to be reversed.
I agree they will twist themselves in knots and we may have multiple concurring opinions, but the end result is not really in question - the grounds on which the case is finally decided, however, are.
There was one small victory for justice announced Tuesday when the court upheld a Michigan decision sanctioning Trump attorneys. ‘’The justices’ decision, issued without elaboration, leaves in place a Michigan federal judge’s 2021 order imposing punishment on prominent conservative attorneys L. Lin Wood and Sidney Powell for their work on a lawsuit against the city of Detroit and other defendants.’’
Source: https://www.reuters.com/legal/legalindustry/us-supreme-court-rejects-trump-allied-lawyers-appeals-election-cases-2024-02-20/; https://www.scotusblog.com/
If the results for our democracy are as you suspect, R., then sad, lamentable indeed.
But I like your look to "the grounds on which the case is finally decided."
Someone may write some succinct words as to the honor in honoring the Constitution.
Or, R., flaunting it? Putting demagoguery, violence, and white nationalist insurrection above the Constitution?
Will be choice to see how our ideologue, bribed, and perjured justices "twist themselves in knots," as you say, to push America into the model posed by murderer Putin, long-skirted, multiply-bejeweled Orthodox priests, fellow oligarchs, and the heads of every one of Russia's 700-plus universities and related schools of "higher" education.
Phil, Please understand that I am not an expert on this case or the Supreme Court, just a retired attorney with a keen interest in the law, so my opinions are just that – opinions.
What I meant by twisting themselves in knots and the question of the grounds on which they will base their decision, is that from listening to the questions the justices posed during oral argument, it was clear that across the political spectrum on the court - for example, Justice Jackson referring to a comment by Justice Gorsuch and expanding on it – none of the justices were keen to see the Anderson decision become law.
Some of their reasons may be the same, some different. But it seemed to me, that for every justice there was something they objected to, or about which they were genuinely concerned.
It also appeared to me that some of the justices would not have been unhappy with the idea of Trump being tossed from the ballot, but this just wasn’t the case to do it.
Regarding the grounds, it will be interesting to see which issue(s) they can all agree on to base their decision.
Here is the link to the audio of the oral argument in the case. If you have the time, I think you will find it worth a listen. https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/audio/2023/23-719
Yes, that was delicious!
It should be obvious that our laws cannot not bow to the persons who the public selects to fulfill them.
Yes, you are right.He is not above the law and neither are those members of Congress who aided and abetted him.They all need to be 14th Amendmented out of office. Talk about conduct unbecoming.
Alito, Thomas, Kavanaugh, Comey-Barrett, Gorsuch all pretend to be originalists. Apparently any amendments to the US Constitution aren't "original" parts of the Constitution and therefore they don't consider them part of the law.
Any lie will work, originalism is a ploy to take us back centuries. The founders would think that we have better sense.
Liars are what they are.
Jeez, if I fault you for a typo like that, I am truly a petty man.
We knew you knew that.
lol, lazy reader me, didn't take that in. Hope some enthusiastic trolls here don't take this as a sign of "cognitive decline", not peculiar to the actual aged, but thanks to "Dem thinking". I jest.
We knew what you meant!
He’s from California, where Republicans are rare. An easy mistake
You are so human, Heather!
Why doesn’t someone who takes pictures of a classified document in a secure location and publish them, then lose their security clearance? Shouldn’t that be automatic?
How does she do that without any consequences afterward????? smh
Because....the Rs are committing so many crimes...DOJ can't keep up. And then...we all know the DOJ doesn't want to appear weaponized by the Ds. But when a large percentage of Rs are commiting crimes...it's hard not to look that way. The DOJ needs to focus on the law and not appearances.
It's called corruption
Exactly. What is anyone doing with recording equipment inside of a SCIF?
Was the secure facility a SCIF or a different kind of location, do we know?
If you want a secret or fabrication shared around the world, invite MTG to a secure location, show it to her, and tell her it’s top secret.
Some years ago I saw a listing of news articles about regular government employees who have been fired or jailed for fairly minor mishandling of sensitive documents. More serious breaches by bigger fish seem to be forgiven.
"Consider a congressman. Then consider an idiot. Bah! I repeat myself!" - Mark Twain, 1873
Congress has been a problem since it was designed, given the kind of "sharp operators" it attracts.
Our “congressmen” are a breed that makes Twain’s assessment a compliment. Ours are traitors, and proud of it.
Some anyway.
Indeed, I should give credit to some of our defenders who serve with some real trash.
Perhaps you could specify who "ours" applies to? Members of Congress from your state? Particular members of Congress from other states? or Republican members of Congress? My state's congressional delegation ranges from outstanding (e.g., Katherine Clark, MA-05, currently the minority whip, and my congressman, Bill Keating, MA-09) to at least one who is not so great (sorry, not gonna name names here <g>), but none of them are traitors or anywhere close to it.
Sorry, Texas hadn’t sent our best…
I wish our current Congress were composed of mere idiots as Twain defined them.
It is as if we need Big Bird and Sesame Street to do a skit/presentation on corruption, obstructive politics, Hofstadter fear & paranoia politics, and how Russian Propaganda works within the R party.
As an author, I have been told that the route to widespread sales of a book is to write it on a sixth grade level, since that is the intellectual level of the majority of American adults. (Unfortunately for me, I can't "write stupid" so my sales are limited to those with an - old - college freshman reading level, i.e., back in the early Jurassic when I was a college freshman dodging Tyrannosaurs to get to class)
All that is a long way of saying that a Sesame Street-level performance like you suggest would likely go much further than the efforts of all of us to get them to change their minds.
I'm not sure empty greene is capable of reading and comprehending a cliff notes version of anything, much less the Constitution or any given law.
Truth, no matter how simplified for an inexperienced audience, is inimical to her reliance on "big lies". She holds her hands over her ears, and looks away from what is true. Her cult demands that the faithful reject the evidence of their eyes and of their ears. They (officially) define the violent invasion of the US Capitol as 'ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse'. Ummm....
I saw what you did there. :-)
Good for you!
I trudged though snow (well , quite a bit of snow actually) 12 ft. deep, clubbing tyrannosaurs all the way. I do think that the burden on the effective communicator is find a way to be understood, but here I sense little need to be limited to Newspeak. Powerful, accessible, articulate speaking is an art, and has, I think, an element of poetry in it's construction. "Of the people, by the people, for the people" is about as plain as you can get, but some don't want to hear it. It also hits the nail on the head.
Yet words are tools, and it's fun, even empowering, to have lots of tools in your kit. It's an editing of what Mark Twain actually said, but still a great aphorism:
"The right word, lightning. The almost right word, lightning bug"
As always, Twain is the go-to for good writing and the ways of so doing.
Me Mither (a Scot) always taught me that words are toys. "To be carefully played with."
So I try to have fun. Carefully.
Yes Sir! I’m on the phone to Big Bird now….
Power (and the prospect of power) tends to corrupt, and Lord Acton was not the first to say so (though he underlined it). Thus we attempt to divide ultimate power (choice and responsibility) into equal shares, in the vote, or at least that's the theory. I get why we don't completely rely on direct democracy, but one person one vote should be considered an unalienable right, and extra-democratic influences on politcal outcomes minimized as a key social issues, as well as minimization of all self-serving abuses of publicly entrusted powers. Certainly one of the key missions of a just government is equal protection from all abuses of power, be it extortion or physical violence.
J L, if someone kills a million people they aren't prosecuted, if they kill a few, they are put away for life. Putin has murdered hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians including civilian women and children. He has murdered hundreds of thousands more sending them to the front lines to be slaughtered. And yet, he is praised by the MAGANAZIs by TFFG as being brilliant, not to mention many Congresscritters and Senators.
TCinLA's quote from Mark Twain says it all.
Stalin said it as he knew best. The death of one man is a tragedy, the deaths of millions is a statistic.
COVID 19 seemed to demonstrate that. My wife read last night that measles (not an entirely benign disease) is spreading in Florida. I "wonder" why?
So surprised at the idiocy of the anti-vaxxers, settled science in my book.
And mass murder in the name of the State may, in our world, be easier for the perpetrators to get away with than taking the life of a single individual.
“Laws are spider webs through which the big flies pass and the little ones get caught.”
― Balzac
But isn't that exactly what our form of government is supposed to be designed to prevent. Our goals are unattainable if we don't consistently and earnestly pursue them.
I lost my security clearance simply for being bipolar, and a government-paid psychologist coming up with nonsense that because I'm bipolar I'm subject to blackmail, even though I'm completely open about it! (Not for any security violations.) Yes, the government can and does discriminate in this area, and it is not right.
I don't give a damn about having a security clearance, except that my company has rules that many contracts require clearances even when the work is unclassified! And of course I want to continue to support my family. I'm now finding myself in the situation where I need to drum up my own work.
I am stunned that this is even a thing. I am sorry.
wow, and considering depression itself is the most common mental diagnosis in modern societies.
Snared by the net of “inclusion.” A time when a little sorting would serve us better.
That is crazy. Can you hire a lawyer?
What is even crazier, is as soon as you encounter a mental health condition, that is something that is "Adverse" and you have to report it. And so many people will delay getting the treatment they need, and for good reason!
I did and wasted $30,000 on the effort.
Wars are lost when leaders start believing their opponents spies.
Yes; and charges for the crime, followed by justice.
Remember when TFG posted classified surveillance photos of the Iranian missile site? No consequences then, so now Rs feel they can act with impunity.
Yes. Also, they need to understand the English words “raw and unverified “ before broadcasting it as “gospel“ (pun intended)
Deborah, I thought the same thing as I read your comment—those who deliberately publish classified material should automatically lose their clearance and face charges. But then I realized that many crimes of this nature are addressed not in the courts of justice, but through the exposure by main stream media and the subsequent shaming and rejection by the public. If the media and the public maintain awareness and a high moral compass, it won’t be necessary to clog the wheels of justice with every instance of bad behavior. The reaction of the public will be punishment enough. But then if they don’t, and the party does not police itself, and the institutions do not? Well then, here we are.
I wouldn't have my precious children if it weren't for IVF procedures and frozen embryos. Considering embryos as people is so far outside the realm of science - it's a religious belief that goes against science in every way. It's nakedly about power and control. No pretense anymore. The minority will only rule if the majority lets them. I'm still laughing at the NY Times article about how all of us activists are "exhausted." Sure we're tired of dealing with this BS, but we only get more and more resolved, organized, and determined every day. I'm so grateful for Heather, and to be in the company of all of you!
Yes, put women back in their traditional strait jackets. Kirke, Kuchen, Kinder, the belief of Hitler that women only had 3 positions in a worthy life, church, kitchen skills, and making babies. Hitler in Alabama.
So how can we account for giving such power to a woman whose professional experience prior to being elected to Congress was running a gym?
Her gender does not make her unique, she is no different than the male "coaches" in similar positions of power.
Cf. Tuberville.
When you run a gym you get used to bad smells and find Congress quite similar
Great bumper sticker, Hitler in Alabama
Linda H, the next step is ruling that IUD’s and morning after pills prevent implantation of a fertilized egg, while birth control pills make the uterine lining inhospitable, so they need to be outlawed since they lead to the possible destruction of a fertilized egg.
Basically, you (and your doctors and medical professionals ) break the law if you try to have more or fewer children than the good Lord intended.
That's exactly what Heritage Foundation Project 2025 states. It's even worse that. NO TO IVF, NO TO BIRTH CONTROL, NO TO MORNING AFTER PILL, NO TO ABORTION. The answer is just no everything that's not white, not Christian, not male, and not rich. They are running the show here with their paid Russian assets. It's all connected.
By calling it Christian, supposedly supported by a god, they are also blaspheming actual Christianity and any religious beliefs, knowledge or genuine spirituality. The twisted nature of this is as bad as calling a person with no faith, knowledge or character traits worth emulating worthy of managing the country.
There is a big difference between Christianity and spirituality. If an alien came to earth and read the Bible's First Testament, they would think a malignant narcissist/ psychopath was in charge. It's insane. In Christian Nationalists terms Jesus would be a Marxist Leftist.
Whewwww. WHO wrote thet gotttdammned book anywho? When was it published..? By Harcourt and Braced? Who? Huh...? Errr ahh wait a minute, Huh? When.., really? C'mon.., YGTBSM! What was the 'reading level' of those scribes? Nahhh.., cain't be.. no way! Ain't no way. Whu pruf'd it? Huh.. not in Inglish? WTF? Welp.. according to MTG..., ooops.. sorry.., lost my notes. Bye bye for now.
Bingo! Unquestioned belief in the imaginary sky fairy. Here's a thought experiment. Let's train chatGPT4 (or whatever) on all the religious texts and ask it to discern the ultimate truth. What's your guess as to the answer?
The word that comes to mind is, fuckery. What truths? Like humans evolved from black women. I don't know if even chatGPT4 could handle that.☺️
OK.., you want that crap in English or Latin?
Did Vlad help write Project 2025?
Vlad's dark money flows through Leonard Leo's PACs. Leo has just created 2 new PACs due to Congress wanting to speak with him. He moves dark money around like a skilled chess player.
I don't think they needed his help in the writing. The funding, now...
Yeah, and after that, women will be on trial for murder every month because the egg they lose could, potentially, could have been an embryo if fertilized.
Hey, Dutch Mike, you’re on to something. And thus male masturbation should be similarly outlawed. After all:
Every sperm is sacred,
Every sperm is great.
If a sperm is wasted
God gets quite irate.
And then there is Genesis 38:9-10
“But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his. So whenever he went in to his brother's wife he would waste the semen on the ground, so as not to give offspring to his brother. And what he did was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and he put him to death also.”
So, Republicans, if you’re really serious about Christian Nationalism….
And so it is, Marge.
.
.
P.S. Laughed way to hard at this... Kudos for the Monty Python reference ;)
I'm quite a fan. Can recite along with so many lines.
"Help! Help! I'm being oppressed!"
Well, if she's "my type" I'll gladly test-i-fy that I did not fertilize that particular egg. Case closed. Huh..? Wait a minute.., I'm not on trial here. Fani, I need some advice.
horrifying
I find it amazing that the Roman Catholic Church asks us to give up meat on Fridays for Lent, but permits eating eggs. Eggs, fertilized or not, aren’t chickens. Even in the eyes of the Church.
KR, good point!
Yes, but it's the WASPS coming up with the rules of Gilead
The 100% Catholic conservative majority of SCOTUS goes right along
(except for Sotomayor, of course, who understands that her personal religion doesn't change the rule of law. Just like Biden.)
Women, time for men to take a chastity break. But of course, the perpetrators run amok while the women are the targets. Apologies to the men who are our comrades in arms. They are legion.
Lysistrata, anyone?
May be time, but there are plenty of men who support women as human beings,
Let them speak and reap the rewards…
We can be selective....
Women haters need to be kicked to the metaphorical curb.
More doesn't seem to be a problem, for some reason.
The peckerwoods think keepin' 'em barefoot and pregnant is a GOOD thing.
Think about the recent Alabama IVF ruling. Telling us how many children is going to be part of it.
"Justice Tom Parker declared in a concurring opinion that the people of Alabama have adopted the “theologically based view” that “life cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God.”
WTF! Why would any OB/GYN practice in AL unless they were part of the religious patriarchy that hates women?
They've ignored the SCOTUS ruling on redistricting and they basically enslave their workers paying $7.50 an hour.
The guns they so strongly support are one of the causes of life being wrongly destroyed. How do they justify that, I wonder.
hnnn back to masturbation by males being considered a sin again? Believe it or not, i suspect it's always been an implicit form of birth control, apart from being a basic biological compulsion plain and simple, still on the "sin" list in some religious circles.
Frank, good point! Perhaps, for some, homosexual sex is wrong because it precludes production of a baby. I’ve been told that sexual urges are God’s way of tricking you into having children.
Sexual urges, esp males, are astronomically redundant esp in the modern era, and all in all they provide a pleasure opportunity, inherently no different than any of other pleasures, like good tasting interesting food. I remember a long time ago being thankful women can and do enjoy sex as well. As for social circumstances, and perhaps the entire biological infrastructure, well, it's often "complicated". Personally, I leave "God" out of it.
Apparently only women are sinners <eye roll>
That is an eye roll! I guess i was taking "male" for granted, being one of course. I could regale you with some personal anecdote, apart from documented stuff, but will defer.
Oh, I wasn't eye rolling at you, Frank - that was meant for the faux-Christian nationalists who seem to want to punish women for having sex and getting pregnant.
does that include enjoying it? In traditional Christian asceticism, pleasure was singled out as part of our fellen, inherently sinful nature. Was a hard one to let go of, partly thanks to folk like Augustine who lamented the joy he felt at watching a spider spinning "her" web.
Unless they get pregnant by rape or incest. Then they MUST carry the fetus to term! Republicans have spoken.
Ellen DUH!
But diddling with littles boys is ok. Do the 80+ priests in MA accused of sexual misconduct go to confession and all is forgiven?
It seems like they just shuffle the priests around to a different parish. No harm no foul.
And yet , we need sperm to fertilize said ova/child , but no repercussions for men when they masterbate their supposed children into a kleenex ! Makes total sense !
It seems to me that the advances of the Renaissance, enlightenment, and modern science and liberalism supercharged advances in multiple fields, including technology, medicine, and a number of forms of liberation, including slaves, wage workers, women and gays. The "good old days" were never all that good, and were in many ways nasty indeed, though there are things that we would benefit to restore and/or preserve. There is no golden age to return to.
"no golden age to return to" boy is that an understatement.
There are things that are worth preserving and repeating, but yeah, I increasing get the sense that overall, human life was nastier, more brutish, and shorter as you turn back the clock. As with just about anything human, there are counterexamples, but we know, just for example, the odds of reaching "old age" or even adulthood were much slimmer, and tyrants were having a field day, even as compared to now.
AMEN!
Strikes me often that the "good ol' days" that white MAGA long for were brought about by FDR's 12 years of democratic socialist reforms. Biden's first 3 years have already begun to rebuild that middle class prosperity and income equality, but for ALL this time.
It boggles the mind how much racism takes over its host and makes it shoot itself in the foot.
We best be prepared. They are coming after all of our personal freedoms. We must get out and vote at every opportunity in droves. It is our last great hope to pull us through this cloud of evil. I am not being overreactive this all is truly happening now. Should this guy take power even sites like this will be anti state. I have friends who have already left the country and made their homes elsewhere. It is getting to the point that I am strongly considering that choice. So far I want to stay and stand for the future of this great country. Getting a little scarier every day though.
"get out and vote at every opportunity in droves"... amen!
ALL our personal freedoms
Stop. The only thing we have to fear is fear itself FDR). Just another block upon which this country was built. We need you "Georgia Girl" particularly if you happen to be 'black' because if you are, when you speak you stand out. This country was built on people who stood tall and those people will stand out in our history. This country embodies the incredible strengths of people who have stood tall. Right this moment in our history there is an overt and covert effort to supplant democracy with fear, and that "effort" is insidious. Re: Mr Smirnov. Dig it?
We have our Ken due to IVF. Maybe we also could have adopted. But of course we wouldn't give up our precious Ken for anything. And if I recall correctly we have many many inviable frozen embryos. Heaven forbid if we were prosecuted for discarding them!
My nephew and his wife have been trying for 4 years to get pregnant with IVF. Last week they found out they are finally pregnant. It's a boy due in October. Thank goodness they live in California.
That’s the plan, man. The arrogance is astounding.
The assertion that frozen embryos are children is not just an illogical (against science) religious idea. It is illogical! What is POTENTIAL is not yet ACTUAL.
And corporations are people.
Exhaustion is a luxury that those under attack by zealous, monied idiots cannot afford.
This is the second to last step. Last step is to outlaw birth control.
MT Greene and the others who photographed the classifieds documents should be prosecuted, or at the least expelled from Congress. [How did they get their cameras into the safe room? Who blew that?] Personally, I think prison, or more severe punishment is justified. Turns out the dots that most politicians refuse to connect are, in fact, written by Putin's agents to help put his puppet, Trump, in power. DOJ and the Courts are slow to protect us. I wonder how many moles are involved?
Yet, we are trying to put Julian Assange in prison for life?? for... espionage? journalism? embarrassing Debbie Wasserman Schultz? reporting war crimes with proof? Assange seems destined to end like Navalny while MTG seems destined to a life of perpetual celebrityhood.
Of course the fact he collaborated with the Russians to ratfuck the DNC emails means nothing to you.
He should be hog tied for life. Journalist, he ain’t.
Journalists recognize that he is. Two things partisans are not: (1) journalists (2) peer-reviewed researchers.
Fact?
https://www.racket.news/p/many-reporters-paid-for-covering
Are you next going to claim the DNC did not create their own emails and "Russians" wrote them? Doing so looks increasingly like partisan stooges trying to pump a conspiracy theory. The DNC created their own mess through committing their own malfeasace. Imprisoning the publisher who reported the malfeasance is the act of persons every bit as psychopathic as Donald Trump.
The guy who doesn't vet anything unless it's bad news for him or his so called business.
The guy who hid in an embassy for years to get out of a rape charge?
He's as credible as drumpf and his toadies.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/28/us/politics/julian-assange-wikileaks-charges.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article
Seems like you want people like Wasserman Schultz and the DNC that lied to the party rank and file, violated its own bylaws, and then got a judgment that they could pick the candidates for government in a smoke-filled back room to vet your information for you. I find the journalists more credible about journalism than I find partisan stooges credible about anything.
ABSOLUTELY!!
Having grown up as a pastors kid in former East Germany (where Putin was stationed as a young KGB) what I now experience in the US just feels like the wrong movie. Christian nationalism has never occurred to me as something possible. And preferring dictators to a Liberal society seems just absurd and contrary to all i stood up for and got in trouble with.
Thank you.
Amen! Thank You.
Please; pipe in with us relative to your lived experience Almut.
Thank you for this, Doc. "...absurd and contrary to all I stood up for..."
I have occasionally asked my MAGAt friends whether freedom from religion might not be included in the phrase "freedom of religion". We've had some interesting conversations, most of which stop when they decide that them forcing their religion on me might actually kinda be what the First Amendment is designed to prevent. There is always a quick subject change.
I have also experiences that much of the religious extremes actually come from a lack of religion. Many have lost their religion personally and now ask for the big guy to bring it back. Thus they do not notice that he does not know anything about the faith he proclaims to protect and to make the law of the land.
Ally, I want to amplify your point about "freedom from". Not long ago I was happy to read a piece wherein somebody pointed out that there are at least two kinds of freedom: freedom of, and freedom from. Until somebody gave voice to that distinction, it had not occurred to me that it's not a simple matter of "freedom". Somebody can have the freedom to evangelize, and to try to persuade me that I should adopt their beliefs. But I must insist that at the same time I can enjoy the freedom from their personal beliefs.
This is an essential tenet of true democracy. When our freedoms conflict, we must, as a civilized society, do the hard work to achieve consensus.
I don't like the inscription of "In God We Trust" on our nation's currency. The name of "God" is very specific to just one of the world's major religions. It seems improper. It begins to look like "an establishment of religion".
I think it is extremely important to allow everyone to choose any religion they wish, or to choose no religion at all. And the best approach to morality, for me or for anyone else, is The Golden Rule, to treat other people the way we wish to be treated. We can live by the Golden Rule without being religious.
Essential tenent indeed. I also refuse to say the words "under God" in the pledge of allegiance. Ever since 3rd grade...
As wrong as wrong can be
After years of MAGA nonsense, even good news is appalling. Elected representatives are aggressively propagating Russian disinformation. And further, they are not paying a price for it.
In the meantime, people rising to the level of Supreme Court Justices regularly inject religious belief into decisions. Leaving Samuel Alito aside, Chief Justice Tom Parker in Alabama wrote in his concurring opinion. “We believe that each human being, from the moment of conception, is made in the image of God, created by Him to reflect His likeness.”
Of course, allowing the kids to buy semi-automatic weapons to blow apart their classmates is guaranteed by the Constitution according to their reading…
Why is the country ‘breaking bad’?
Follow the money.
Yes, THAT is the true object of their worship. Moloch, too. Their "Gawd" is political mouthwash.
There it is JL. The word is apparently finally getting out; we got beat to stating that the other night by another; I like it.
You ask a good question, Michael. I think it is a combination of many factors that have been woven together by the oligarchy and presented to people who are scared of the "others" who are"taking their rightful things" and "threatening their way of life." This has stewed in this country for a long, long time (by those who forget that our country was founded on genocide of Indigenous Peoples and on the backs of enslaved Black people) and is now being amplified by manipulated media outlets and spread far and wide on unregulated social media.
I have a yard flag that says (in a very abbreviated translation) "Equal rights for all do not take away your rights. It is not pie."
Justice Parker speaks of the 'wrath of a holy God'. Are there unholy Gods out there? And since it's Alabama, the whole concept of conception is confused by the court.
Long time coming, was under cover, now out and proud.
Yes, it is bad and I am afraid it will actually lead to more religious oppression at the end because of this overreach. I do think that we can only overcome the divide if we indeed want to protect all life. The life of mother and child and of all children be they in the womb or in school. Protecting a fetus against her mother is not the right way. As it is not to not protect unborn children at all.
Overreach exists across the isle, and people project their shadow selves into each other.
They're fools, all these Putin agents on the Republican side of Congress.
Our Heather correctly sees their next threat to democracy in the U.S. -- not just following the bread crumbs laid out by Putin's operatives, but also "Reworking the nation to impose Christian nationalism."
Putin has his cohort of eastern orthodox old men in long skirts and chains of jewelry, just as U.S. Republicans have their orange heavily made-up fat man, as well as their much younger Howdy Doody speaker of the House pushing his group hatred and religio-nationalism scripts.
Dems across America can respond. I know it's difficult. None went to any university where people learned the arts of quoting others. But they should appear in groups of three and four exactly to do that -- speak in public to the great American public issues in which their own best have been invested -- all across this land is your land, this land is my land:
Jamie Raskin, Mallory McMorrow, Katie Porter;
Sheldon Whitehouse, Gretchen Whitmer, Ro Khanna, Justin Jones;
Pete Buttigieg, Eric Swalwell, Jasmine Crockett, Amy Klobuchar;
Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker, Ilhan Omar, Maxwell Frost;
Liz Warren, Raphael Warnock, Josh Shapiro, Zoe Lofgren;
Dan Goldberg, Gavin Newsom, Ted Lieu, Madeleine Dean;
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Wes Moore, Gary Peters, Robert Garcia;
Maxine Waters, Hakeem Jeffries, Jerry Nadler, Richard Blumenthal;
Chris Coons, Abigail Spanberger, Summer Lee, Jared Moskowitz;
Adam Schiff, Shontel Brown, Mikie Sherrill, Pramila Jayapal.
Above, my error.
It's Dan Goldman, not Goldberg.
What a wonderful, deep bench we have.
Not only are the Republican'ts incapable of governing (as the paucity of their legislation proves), they are also incapable of holding hearings that provide credible information before they leap to conclusions about corruption and malfeasance. Their need to stage impeachment hearings without having a shred of evidence would be sad and pathetic if it weren't so dangerous. Restoring faith in the Congress will depend on our electing competent, honest, hard-working legislators in November.
And yet, with a plethora of solid evidence, including the former president’s own admissions, that he was withholding aid to Ukraine until President Zelensky came up with some “dirt” on Joe Biden, most Republicans refused to convict him in the first impeachment trial. To say nothing of the second trial, when the evidence unfolded before our eyes on television. They are a corrupt, compromised bunch who are deliberately trying to destroy the constitutional republic we hold so dear.
Modern "Republicans" don't care how bad things may get, so long as they get to rule over it.
Chump lives chaos, as do MAGAts.
The ashes, you mean?
This seems to me the same thing the orange menace tried to start when he wanted "just an investigation" of then candidate Biden during the 2020 campaign. He destroyed Hillary Clinton with "just an investigation" into his emails. It's too bad he cries "witch hunt" whenever there are investigations into his REAL criminal activities!
His blather is so stupid, I thought, who is stupid enough to believe that. A carnival barker just selling his Schitt. And Schitt it is.
Churchill called Mussolini a "sawdust Caesar". And here we have a would-be Sawdust Caesar. But to compare Agent Orange with the Duce, even gone to seed, is an insult to the Italian dictator's memory.
Mussolini let himself be manipulated by Hitler. America's would-be dictator doesn't even start out as his own man. He's Putin's willing tool, his would-be viceroy, his Quisling.
Time for a uniform to match his face?
That, too, would be dangerously lenient.
Uniform makers would have to custom make the uniform. Generally, issue uniforms do not go much above a 36" waist size.
The WW2 critters are being resurrected by a new America First crowd. And the families of those who suffered the final price seem to think it’s fun and games. There is nothing fun about the suffering of the innocent, no matter the boundaries…
that's classic Trump and Republican demagoguery.
First you have to find them, then convince them to run, then run winning campaigns for them while drowning out the babble from the opposition.
I'm encouraged by the Justins in TN and Maxwell Frost in FL. I think that they're out there, and that their local Dems will find them. And then those with money will donate while others will write GOTV postcards and make calls and text.
In Texas, Dems don’t run, ballots have repubs non-stop.
Don’t forget Colin!
If Beto couldn't beat Ted, I doubt that Colin can. They cheat, or Beto would be our senator.
Beto stepped on the third rail, said that he was in favor of confiscating assault rifles. ‘ “ Hell, yes, we're going to take your AR-15, your AK-47," O'Rourke said during Thursday's Democratic presidential debate. "We're not going to allow it to be used against our fellow Americans anymore."’
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/09/14/politics/beto-orourke-assault-guns-confiscation-fact-check/index.html
I loved it, but most Texans didn’t, obviously. But many more are in favor of guns of war being taken off the streets than polls suggest. As the old woman said to me “I hate Joe Biden for putting all these guns on the streets,” the lies are beyond belief. The blather against Beto would have made Goebbels proud. In fact, the lies against anyone in the upcoming primary, cite cooperation with Dems as the act that cannot be forgiven. They won’t back down from their Nazi/religious position. The Texas nuts are worse than the Alabama nuts.
The grand scheme…in one way or another - is to force their ideology and their beliefs and their values down our throats. Wake up folks…get out there and organize and work our butts off. Or come November we will not recognize what we have become…
I’ve said it before, and Liz Cheney said it now, too: the GOP has become Putin’s party. A vote for Trump is a vote for Putin.
Add, a vote for MAGA GOP is a vote for a putin puppet
I just hope with all my heart that if Democrats regain control of the House that one of the first things they'll do is open a House investigation of Reps. Comer, Grassley, Jordan, et al! Something about all this business with Smirnov stinks to high-heaven and the DOJ might need to get to the bottom of it. Using fabricated information from Russian sources to attempt to impugn, smear, and impeach a sitting President is pretty serious stuff. "How complicit were they??" "How did they get hold of this information??" are but some of the questions that might need answering. Time to turn the tables.
Sorry, is not treasonous activity a matter for the DOJ and the judiciary, not the legislature?
True, they've planted plenty of brambles and poisonous weeds there too...
It should be, and would be, if DOJ were up to the task. Sadly, it is too busy not upsetting the apple cart to worry about actual prosecution of those who fomented sedition against the government in which they are serving.
Of course, but in order to establish that there might be justifiable cause to relay the matter to the DOJ, the House and/or the Senate form investigatory committees, often run/chaired by whichever party happens to be in the majority, which then conduct hearings and investigations, eventually making recommendations to pass along to the Attorney General and the DOJ. The DOJ can then take up the case to do its own investigating via the FBI or whoever, or not. It may seem like a cumbersome system and be prone to political influences, as it often is, but is can also be a potent tool to get to the bottom of some things.
I understand, and yet I cannot. In this instance, moreover, "some things" seem bottomless.
How curious that in 2000 an electoral cliff-hanger could be terminated by the Supreme Court in a wild rush while, when Citizen Trump instructs the Speaker, the small splinter group of in-house ultra-insurrectionists and all GOP Representatives to take the House hostage, they hear and obey. People don't even seem to notice the coup. Just as no one noticed when Putin's "little green men" took Crimea. And now it's "Wait and see", there is apparently no redress.
Protocol and procedure... Decidedly the machinery of government needs radical reform. It is absurdly vulnerable to sabotage. No guns, no mobs are needed to conduct a coup. Just threats.
I have never been so terrified of my own country. My grandparents fled to this country to be free of intolerance, tyranny and hate. I was born into a world at war and amid Holocaust. I grew up and old in a country with huge flaws but with the possibility that it would always, if sometimes haltingly, move toward that place my grandparents hoped for. I can't grasp that the whole dream could descend into nightmare. These people are just...awful.
Democracy is as strong as the people who choose to support it. Americans have become complacent and entitled. We're learning the hard way, what it takes to protect our system of government when those who would destroy it rise to power.
ESSENTIAL STATEMENT.
THANKS.
I’ve written this elsewhere, and I hope it doesn’t come to this. But we may need to have some 300,000,000 letters written that say,
Dear Mr. Franklin,
We couldn’t keep it.
👏
Agreed!
The education system that serves Alabama, and, indeed, the so-called Christian right, has clearly failed. 70 years ago, growing up in West Virginia, I learned that our country was founded by people escaping religious persecution, and they were strongly AGAINST any form of religion in government. And I learned that many of our Founding Fathers were Episcopalians.
I am of the opinion that all of the tenets and actions of Christian nationalists are a direct violation of the First Amendment’s prohibition against an established religion, as well as of its Free Exercise clause. We should all be free to believe what we wish (if you are against abortion, don’t have one), but NOT to impose our beliefs on others. The founders referred to this package of rights as “freedom of conscience.” I would ask all of these kinds of Christians if they want to live in a world such as that of Putin’s Russia, where jail and poison await those who question the dogma of the moment.
Yes, denominational tyranny, where each one claims it's got all the right answers the rest need to conform to, Europe had just gone through 2 centuries of religious warfare and strife over just this problem. "true religion" has at times been something like a rampant social virus, sucking everyone into its orbit in an all or nothing way of thinking.
Oh, Frank, you just won the internet: "...Europe had just gone through 2 centuries of religious warfare and strife over just this problem. "true religion" has at times been something like a rampant social virus, sucking everyone into its orbit in an all or nothing way of thinking."
So, so accurate.
Sadly so, it speaks "kilometres" to human compulsions and the urge to coerce, which turns out to be a fundamental personal/social glue, not always for the better. There are times when i feel outright unnerved, thankfully this can and does work to our benefit. That reminds me of the little prayer which ends with the phrase, "grant me the wisdom to know the difference"....
Good day Professor. I bet it was heart wrenching for you because it was heart wrenching for us. I try to be positive here because that’s what we are. But I can’t understand the minds of these people Jim Jordan. I’ll leave it at that. thank you Professor I’ll probably have nightmares, but you are the best we must always face the truth regardless of how difficult it is I guess and hope for a brighter day tomorrow…sleep well all stay positive and stay true blue. America and Constitution and democracy it gives us a good life…. peace all. I’m sorry I had a rough day too. I’m tired and my grammar and punctuation is not the best.
Mike, I chose not to read this Letter before bed. I am glad that I did that, because I slept pretty well last night.
Once again, allegations of "weaponization" of the justice system are really the accusers referring to themselves. For the GOP (Grovelers Obeying Putin), almost every accusation is a confession.
It's "swatting" (false reports of a crime to police as a form of harassment) writ large.
It's all projection as usual Eric. Same game.
Why is proven interference in our Elections and Congressional processes not considered an "Act of War" or "Open Hostility"? And, why aren't people who participate considered to be "adhering" Or "aiding" prosecuted for their crimes? Just askin'.
Comer and Grassley were duped because they are already so steeped in their party myth that such American institutions as the FBI, the Justuce Department, and procedures like voting are being g corrupted. It's ironic that they are partly right, but the source of the corruption is their gullibility being manipulated by the likes of Smirnov. Smirnov probably is smirking less as the FBI proved its competence.
Republicans claim to want "law and order", but never when it's inconvenient for them. Their "law" is a cudgel to be used against others.
Law and order of their particular preference JL.
JL: Their version of law and order combined with their version of the Bible - what a potent brew!
Manipulation by Putin!
Manipulation of the willing.
They helped create the party myth. Innocent, they are not