925 Comments

Well said officer Fanone!

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Law without law enforcement is meaningless.

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Alec, the same can be said about the courts

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Must be said about the courts.

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How many in law enforcement are sympathetic to the MAGgot movement?

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Too many. Bush/Cheny started that by militarizing the PDs and sheriff’s departments with surplus’s military and the funds to buy it. Silly us. We thought it was to help them serve and protect us.

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Yup. "Military toys to play with " was something I heard more than once.

That said, I was grateful for one such armored vehicle that was sent to a call where our deputies had been shot at, pinned down, and were rescued even as rifle rounds bounced off the armored vehicle, including one on a trajectory that would have killed the operator of the vehicle. No way my agency could afford a law-enforcement built commercial armored vehicle, but that "military surplus" did save my friends' lives.

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Thank you, Ally, for giving us an inside look. And I also agree with your post below that says far too many LE individuals support death star. I had the "pleasure" of engaging with a couple of them on one of your Facebook posts. Here in Salem we have some problems with LE helping out Proud Boys and harassing citizens. Then there are the Oath Keeper sheriffs. I can remember one of my ex-students who became LE and who voiced his antigay stance. He was of course, a fundamentalist "Christian" as well. I thought at the time, that he would love throwing his weight around and being able to express his prejudicial views. I have an ex-colleague (Jewish) who is married to a Salem police officer and I am sure he is an excellent officer. My husband has a cousin (Lakota ancestry) who was in the military and spent 30 years in the Dallas TX police department. She was a R and changed to a D. And then there is your many years of service in Lane County.

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Thank you. Yes, that conservative bent is all too common in the LEO community. I was one of a relatively vocal handful of staunch liberals. We had quite a crew that worked graveyard together for several years... that was a lot of fun.

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The so called christians??? who follow trump are not followers of Christ and any organization that supports them have no religious background. Maybe they are devil worshippers taking their orders from trumpie, the orange devil.

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LE….. Law-enforcement

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Has that story been published?

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Depends what you mean by "published". It is just one of many encounters that law enforcement has that really does not rise to the level of "news". I need to add that we have no "local" paper (ours was taken over by Gatehouse, then Gannet, and now we're a USA Today Lite) and that 2 of our 3 local stations are Sinclair stations. Not worth a lot of press because no one was injured or died, basically. I just did a search for "LCSO Butler Road Shooting" and got several links.

Some explanation: the DA's team investigates all law enforcement shootings.

Local News coverage:

https://kval.com/news/local/elmira-man-arrested-after-firing-several-shots-at-police-sparking-stand-off

LCSO Press Release:

https://www.lanecounty.org/government/county_departments/sheriff_s_office/public_information/current_news_releases/suspect_in_butler_road_shooting_arrested

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Far, far too many.

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He and the other officers who testified are absolute diamonds, and I know they're not the only ones ♥️

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Michael Fanone says it best about the traitors in congress doing Felonious trump's bidding. He's a hero victimized by the rats.

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“It appears that Trump is trying to turn the Republican Party into an instrument he can use as he wishes”.

I would say that it is a fait accompli at this point.

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How can he be stopped?

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From Thomas L. Friedman, who wrote an op-ed in the NYTimes, The G.O.P. Bumper Sticker: Trump First. Putin Second. America Third. (Accessible to all.)

Friedman writes,

“How should we react? Should we despair? Should we shrink from another story that seems to turn the world on its head? No. We need only recognize that the rot in the GOP is beyond repair and that electing Joe Biden is a necessary condition to preserving democracy.

There is no gray area in the 2024 election. A vote for Trump is a vote for Putin. A vote for RFK Jr. is a vote for Putin. A vote for No Labels is a vote for Putin. Staying home is a vote for Putin. A vote for Joe Biden is a vote for Democracy. It’s that simple.”

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Sky 777, that's excellent. Thanks for sharing.

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Yes, Sky 777 you put the voting scenario in very clear language. When I post Heather's letters on Facebook, I usually end with vote D. This am I ended with vote D as if your life depended on it because it does.

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What do you mean vote D?

Do you mean Democrat?

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Yes.💙💙

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Yes. I am usually posting first thing after I get up and tend to shorten things.

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Trump will be history by November 2024. Relax.

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We still don’t know what’s up his sleeve when he loses. Did he assemble another “army” to storm state capitals? Does he have people in key places to overturn the results?

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I agree. He will stop at nothing. He is a cunning, desperately evil madman (as suggested in one of Heather's quotes above, as well as by others). He manipulates by fear

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Doug, Mike Murphy's comment that "The bottom line is he's completely unhinged. He is literally off his rocker" is exactly the same comment I've been making for eight years. What makes this true assessment of him most dangerous, is that supposedly "hinged" men and women might recognize this, but will never admit it because they DON'T CARE or they've sold their soul to Trump- the devil.

As I was reading the Letter just now, despair and disbelief took over my usually optimistic nature, but I know that sitting in a chair being despaired is not going to change anything.

It's past time to get out of the chair and do what we can to promote Biden's bid for the survival of our

democracy.

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It’s a bluff. Trump may have backing but he’s still a mad bluff.

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Thanks to AG Garland, most of Trumputin's brownshirt militia leaders are serving time. But he grows new ones daily.

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Garland should have begun the process much earlier. Thank goodness for the 1/6 committee.

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MaryPat, may I copy that name the for the former pres?

‘Trumputin’ ?

Very apt.

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MaryPat:

I wish Prof. Heather would stop calling hm former President trump. This is a mobster who was a mobster before, during, and now after he sat in a presidential chair planning the overthrow of the nation's government.

Beside the low in intellect followers occupying a cell at a low restriction prison and at our expense, some legislators should be there with them. They had the brains and power to incite the attack and the power to stop it. Who can forget the picture of Josh Hawley hotfooting it to a safe room after inciting the mob? Hand up and a fist in the air.

Put them in with the prison crowd.

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Yes. This is the problem. Trump has power because he personifies the government a msjority of white voters want. It’s that simple, and, ironically, that’s what makes it an almost impossible problem to solve, even if by some miracle decent human beings manage to outvote them.

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"Trumputin". Love it!

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Honestly, it isn't so much the rioters that worry me, it's the anti-American seditionists/secessionists/perjurers and suborners of perjury within various elected bodies at the federal and state levels around the country. What is to stop fake electors again? What is stopping the seditionist republican legislatures in former Confederate states from defying court-ordered redrawing of voting maps to allow actual representation of all Americans? Remember the infamous quotation attributed to president Jackson, defying the Supreme Court over Worcester v. Georgia (1832), when he (allegedly) stated, “John Marshall has made his decision now let him enforce it.” The lies are insidious and seductive, and stupid, ignorant (wilfully or not), ill-informed, selfish, venal, corrupt people are all too ready to be seduced. And the lies are backed by threats, so those not willing to be corrupted are also not willing to be endangered.

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Ominous possibilities. We already know what lies Trump is capable of, and the perverse results.

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Millions of European Jews thought the same thing about Hitler.

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Blue Wave coming. I feel it.

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The primary turnout for Biden in South Carolina was 4%. MAGats have to be removed in the primaries. Even if tfg/wmd melts into a puddle, there are too many MAGats in Congress ready to take his place. All must be voted away or removed for their Jan 6 crimes.

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If Trump goes down, GOP implosion may be next. Losing the House, a few more Dems in the Senate.... the polls likely won't do a great job "forecasting" the fine structure of opinion and voting intentions.

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Yes. Know them. Say their names. Confront their BS, their hipocrisy. Be ready with facts. Take no prisoners!

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Not in Texas

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Counting on Colin Allred to defeat Cruz, he’s exactly what both Texas and the US Senste need!

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I know. But in enough places where it will make a difference.

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I wish I felt this.

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🤞🏽🙏🏽🤞🏽🙏🏽🤞🏽🙏🏽

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So hope the voting demographics works out thus! Saw a poll the other day that said younger voters have a growing minority of liberal and extremely liberal views generally, increasingly so in the younger age cohorts. Liberal views are held most widely among the Dems, about 65% among the "independents", a minority among the Reps. Blacks have a relatively high percent of liberal minded. Despite all the complaints about Biden's age or his administrations policies in the Gaza war. And what's with voter's so persistently negative sentiments over the economy, which has done nothing but bounce back after high inflation and high unemployment. The business press has been singing high praises now for some time.

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Frank, I agree that demographics are on our side - in the long run. But this year we have two very big problems relative to younger voters.

Gaza - the death stats and the video images.

Age bigotry - many of the young can't relate to the wisdom of Biden.

I will vote for Joe Biden because he has been the finest president in my lifetime. Young people don't have the perspective that comes with age.

Our job now is to challenge every young person we encounter to vote. To make what Heather said today very clear. ANY vote not for Joe Biden is a vote for Trump and a vote for Putin. ANY vote not for Joe Biden is a vote for fascism, murder and mayhem. ANY vote other than for Joe Biden is a callous decision to abandon democracy. It has never been so stark a choice. It has never been so dangerous.

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Gen Z will take up the torch, and we older folks need to support them however we can. Those younger voters 18-29 care about climate and gun control . It is the cheating the GOP are using to undermine voting and set up questions about the next election that many of our institutions are crumbling under.

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The big question for skeptics will be the alternative to Biden and the Dems. I'm only hoping the current negative polls don't pan out come the voting booth.

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On the economy thing:

All the rose-tinteds keep pounding on 'US leads the world in recovery' and the like, when in fact most USians don't give a rat's patoot about the rest of the world. They really do not care, unless they happen to have close relatives somewhere other than USA.

Also, most people will complain about prices pretty much no matter WHAT they are. Gas high? Maybe, depends. Compared to when? They are not making distinctions. Point being the economic reporters are not wrong but the citizenry is not listening nor caring. It simply does not matter what gets reported, neither its truth (if so) nor its impact.

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Well, there is a steady propaganda machine at work. Truth also includes, more much of it, or most of it, top level political policy makers have little influence of the course of economic well being, regardless who's being blamed or taking the credit for it.

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And if he has the republicans in the right place to mess with the electoral counts at counting time it is game over.

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Relax? Hrmph. I assume you realize that the current class of horror-clowns are going to remain in power for more than a year. That's a lot of damage and I've no idea how to stop it. Which means you're right, Mr. Saperstein, we might as well just bend over and relax, at least until November 2024.

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Or be a good boy scout - be prepared. Leave the bending and relaxing part to the "black belts" among us.

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You got that right.

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I do hope you are right.

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I disagree. Fear of a possible physical and rhetorical reaction if the courts turn Trump into history by November will prevent the courts from doing that very thing. He will be on the ballot in 50 States. History will have to wait. A presidential election year is never a time to 'relax.' Make sure you vote and get others to do so, as well. Do not 'relax.'

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From your mouth. If the Supreme Court justices uphold their oaths in the case to be argued today, he will be.

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There are two many justices that are given $$$$$$$$ to not do truth.

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🙏🏻

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We all hope so but if he is defeated by extremist Nikki Haley and she becomes the GOP’s presidential candidate I fear being defeated by her at the ballot box has more probability than being defeated by Nutcase.

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So we have said ad nauseam…

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We can't relax. Some of the supreme court judges are in his cult. He is a criminal and should be in jail now. He isn't because of our court system. He is already setting the stage to delegitimize the 2024 election.

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I hope to to the salvation of our democracy this is TRUTH

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I wish that were true. If he loses, he will repeat January 6th, only much worse this time I’m afraid. Again, I can think of only one way to stop him.

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The polls seem to indicate otherwise. I know, I know, the polls often are not reliable. But time after time, pols are taken, and Biden trails TFFG. I sure hope you are right. And I would not rely too much on our system of justice - Trump's team seems to have that problem largely in hand with their delay tactics. Much is going well with our economy, and there is a well-worn statement in politics - "It's the economy stupid". So as long as the economy continues to do well, that is a great arrow in the quiver. And, as long as Republicans keep suffering own-goals, like yesterday's three debacles, and as long as Trump keeps becoming more and more unhinged, then sooner or later, the voting public must abandon their idiotic support for this monster and the party that has become his. Seems like the polls ought to be showing that by now, don't ya think?

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That's what my husband says, and I'd like to believe it but...

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"Trump first. Putin second" is just appearances.

The reality behind how it's dressed up to look is that the second is first, while the zombified first functions as automatic transmission for the seeming second.

And the more meaningless chaos, the better.

Bedlam if he wins and a personal promise of Bedlam if he's denied.

Take yer pick.

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I prefer denying him and let the chips fall where they may. Letting him win is asking for defeat. Fighting him is healthy.

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Beyond absolutely on that one, Susan.

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'Ukraine Worries About Losing Its Biggest Weapon: U.S. Military Aid

Without it, Kyiv could hold out for part of the year, one expert said, but would then begin losing the war.' (NYTimes) By Andrew E. Kramer and Marc Santora

Reported from Kyiv, Ukraine

'In the two years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion, Ukraine has had its back to the wall many times, in many forms: fighting with Molotov cocktails and guns handed out to the population, coping with blackouts and fleeing refugees. But there was always the prospect of more American aid on the horizon.'

'That support was critical, analysts and leaders in Kyiv say. The United States has provided about half of the foreign military assistance to Ukraine’s arsenal, roughly $47 billion.'

'But this week leaders in Kyiv have waited anxiously to see if that lifeline will come to an end, as a stalemate between lawmakers in the United States Congress threatens to end, for now, American support for the war against Russia.'

'A measure that would allow American arms to flow to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan and fund border security was defeated in a Senate vote on Wednesday amid growing Republican opposition and deep division on Capitol Hill.'

'After the vote, the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, said he would try an alternate path, pushing a vote on foreign military aid stripped of the more contentious measures on immigration. Democrats and Republicans alike expressed some optimism for the new measure, but by Wednesday evening, lawmakers were bogged down again. Mr. Schumer recessed the Senate until noon on Thursday.'

'But even if the Senate approves the aid, its fate in the House remains uncertain.'

'Ukraine’s army would not suddenly be overwhelmed, analysts say, but the degradation of its forces would be inexorable. European nations lack American-level stockpiles of weapons and ammunition, and would be unlikely to fill the gap, military analysts say.'

“Ukraine could effectively hold for some part of this year” without more American military aid, Michael Kofman, a Russia expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, said in a telephone interview. “But over time there would be no prospect to rebuild the military, and they will start to lose slowly.”

'The absence of further American help, he said, would “point to a dour, negative trajectory in the latter half of this year.”

'Not since the first chaotic months of the invasion, when Russian troops poured across the borders from every direction and the country rose up en masse to resist, has Ukraine faced such a precarious moment in the war.' (NYT) See gifted link below,

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/07/world/europe/ukraine-us-military-aid-russia.html?unlocked_article_code=1.T00.DW2w.SiQe50vzA_nt&smid=url-share

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Fern, if THIS is not high treason, what is?

If this, and every millisecond of the non-stop MAGA PermaPutsch is not insurrection, what is?

By their fruits you will know them.

Return said fruits to sender, c/o Kremlin, Moscow.

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The international consequences of USA's failure to deliver over metastatic political cancer will reverberate into the century. MAGA has destroyed whatever international credentials GOP ever had.

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That is if 'we' address Climate Change or, perhaps, quicken its lethal impact.

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I feel like we are living in silence next door to the gas chambers while ignoring the stench.

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I grew up during the Cold War. Seeing US Senators and Representatives praise Putin is almost impossible to imagine. Are there really so many people who know nothing of history?

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I pick Bedlam when he's denied, because if he's elected, then we'll be the insurrectionists.

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He’ll threaten bedlam again, but look how all those threats of bedlam if he’s indicted/arrested/loses in court/etc. have panned out.

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Putrump.

Trumputin.

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My computer has crashed, MaryPat, maybe because I was giving readers lessons in Afrikaans.

Ah, they do have some wonderful words in that language, and readers can probably imagine why I was explaining the sonorous adjective VERKRAMPTE (conservative or REACTIONARY, especially as regards APARTHEID) and the noun (a person holding BIGOTED and REACTIONARY views).

This led me to add a neologism, VERKRAMPTE-VERTRUMPTE for the kind of parasitic wotsits that can on occasion worm their way into even the greatest of Great Minds.

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TaDa!!

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As someone fluent in Dutch and familiar with a lot of Afrikaans, I heartily endorse "vertrumpte"! Modern Dutch, to my knowledge, doesn't use "verkrampte/verkrampen" in a political sense or to describe a bigot or reactionary -- at least Van Dalen's complete dictionary or idiomatic dictionary doesn't mention it as a usage -- so it must be specifically Afrikaans, or is quite idiomatic. I like "vertrumpte" and may mention it to my Dutch friends!

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Sure.

With the Pu pronounced... pooooo (hold yer nose)ooooo...

And sing Trumpski-Dumpski s*at on his Wall...

Yes, that Beeoootiful Wall [to be paid for by the Mexicans, cos' in Trumpskiworld, someone else always pays... while HE fills his pockets. Art of the Cardsharp Deal].

Come to think of it, We Too, have a pocketfull of sharp nicknails for that broad bum.

That said, let's not waste time. Let's leave him and his in their unchanged diapers and keep to wanting all we want and getting what we really want!

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It would be best if the Supreme Court would take him off the ballot now. Why let him go on to the election and continue to wreak havoc by continuing to hurt our country. Republicans. Need to bite the bullet and untangle yourselves from this person who loves himself so much that he will harm our country in order to enrich himself and hang on to power.

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They are probably hoping the Supreme Court will do this.

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It doesn’t look like they will with the odd questions that they asked

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World headlines share your view.

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Trumputin.

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Thx for sharing that Sky 777! Friedman nailed it!

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Let’s hope so but we must not take this result for granted as T. Friedman stresses.

Hopefully he will finally be brought to court in DC, Florida and Georgia to answer for his crimes and the Supreme Court will rapidly reject his claim for absolute immunity or even better let the Federal Court’s decision stand and refuse to take up the case.

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Yup. Ina nutshell.

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Clarification, Sky 777: The words you quoted are by Substack author Robert Hubbell writing today about Friedman's article.

https://roberthubbell.substack.com/p/america-last

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Truth

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OMG, you are right. I had copied from Hubbell and then gone to get the link for the Freeman article and somehow forgot to close the loop and say it was from Robert Hubbell’s post.

I have to start writing comments in notes and proof-reading then copy and paste into comments.

Mea culpa. And thanks for clarifying. Appreciate it.

Robert Hubbell is on my always read list.

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Thomas Friedman absurdly lies. The Democratic National Committee is a money-grubbing parasite that has inserted itself between the voters and the selection of a presidential candidate. Bernie Sanders was the choice of the people. (I'm not a big Bernie fan, but I would have voted for him.) Corporate Joe "Creepy Snuggles" Biden (and Hillary before him) was the choice of the DNC.

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💩

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So we’ve gone from ‘don’t feed the trolls’ pleadings to poo emojis?

What’s next, gonna start dropping f-bombs like TCinLA?

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