I’m so happy that those Democratic lawmakers walked out today here in Texas! I can’t go myself, but my tribe is headed to Austin tomorrow to participate in a demonstration against this proposed law HB3. Go TCDWC! If it were to become law, democracy pretty much is done in Texas. The legislature could change the results of an election even if it’s uncontested. And voting would be restricted and harder for POC to vote. Hope we can get rid of it!
The Republicans won’t admit it, but Texas is turning Democrat. Hope it happens in time!
Here's a good summary of what's now in the bill. An interesting disclosure note at the end of each Texas Tribune article notes that the TX Sec'y of State has been a financial supporter of the publication, which is a "nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization" (list of supporters linked).
Somebody, please, explain to me how an attorney who has filed garbage affidavits, that have never been verified and are nothing more than a publicity stunt, still has a licence to practice law. Then explain to me how it's possible that there is a whole boatload of lawyers filing frivolous lawsuits and getting away with it. I have been banging my head against the wall over this since November. Unbelievable.
Daria, Today in Michigan Federal Court, Judge Linda Parker held a 6 hour hearing regarding sanctions against 9 such pro-Trump attorneys including Sydney Powell to answer your 2 questions. Judge Parker asked who drafted the complaint and separately who drafted the amended complaint. I was able to attend the hearing (digitally, of course) as part of the Public audience. 2-20 CV 13134 LVP. Rachell Maddow covered the hearing in her MSNBC show tonite; Rachel did a good job too.
I wonder the same thing. I am a practicing attorney and I can tell you that if I signed an affidavit like this, I would absolutely get sanctioned in my home state.
Thank you Ian, I am a retired attorney with over 30 years experiece in CA State & Fed Courts in the Bay Area. CA. Severe sanctions are likely per the Attorney (David Fink) for a moving party, the City of Detroit. Also, In the Court's initial statement on the record, she specifically cited the "inherent powers of the Court" & also Fed Rule 11(d) as additional authority to act.
Furthermore, one of the pro-Trump attorneys, Lin Wood, appeared to breach an existing Court Order DURING the hearing by publishing a portion of the hearing Live on an unauthorized Channel/ App. I would not be surprised to see the Judge issue an OSC why counsel should not be held in contempt. The Judge is merhodical.
The cases must have landed in the courtrooms of sympathetic judges. I can't imagine that a judge who adheres to legal rules of procedure would tolerate these stunts.
Actually, no. All but one of the dozens of lawsuits filed by the Trump lawyers were dismissed, including some by Trump-appointed judges. In all of the court hearings, these lawyers were careful never to claim fraud. (These claims were only made in affidavits.) This would have subjected them to court sanctions if unable to persuade a judge they had credible evidence to back up their claims. The case heard today in Michigan against the Trump lawyers was brought by the city of Detroit and state of Michigan, which want them penalized for baselessly challenging the election.
Morning Ted! I’m posting a vid of Katie Porter speaking g about her town hall event that was disrupted by opposition. She is quite fierce and a representative to be proud of.
It is just astounding how far this Trump-cult continues to persist. How did a reality “star” manage to accumulate such a hold on a major political party? Let me answer my own question - a generation’s worth of propaganda made possible by the fall of the Fairness Doctrine. How does this end? No rhetorical question - I’m really asking - how does this country move beyond this insanity?
We need to create an independent oversight board to establish guidelines for reporting news, with penalties for presenting inaccurate "facts." My understanding is that in the EU, news may not be called news unless it meets certain parameters. Here, in the US, anything flies, due to the lapse of the Fairness Doctrine.
Which only restriction so far has been "not yelling fire in a crowded theater." It has been misinterpreted almost as much as the Second Amendment, where instead of a "well regulated militia," any insane civilian can buy military weapons designed solely to kill humans in combat and turn them on innocent soft target groups of humans.
Perhaps not. You are free to say anything you want. The restriction would be in facing sanctions for calling something "news" that did not meet agreed upon criteria for truthfulness, as opposed to "truthiness."
RT was formerly Russia Today and was broadcast via MhZ in the US. RT has broadcasts that target markets in several languages around the globe. Its notoriously unreliable. MhZ airs several foreign news services and is/was carried on some PBS digital stations.
I've never had ROKU and got MgZ via one of the PBS stations in Denver. Among other things it broadcasts or did broadcast France 24, BBC, DW News (Germany), Japan Today, NHK. and yes, also RT and a Chinese State sponsored news program.
An evangelical christian produced the Apprentice? Astounding. It seems these evangelical Christians have no morals or boundaries, and are untethered to reality.
He was a fake “evangelical” Christian, Diana. See TCinLA and Ted Keyes’ conversation above. If anyone is interested, “evangelical” is a misnomer claimed by far right literalist conservative “Christians in high tension with society. If they are evangelical, I’m a sandbox.
Yes, Ted, it was the siren song of changing the SCOTUS to kill Roe v Wade and we will see that happen. It was his 'I'm one of you - we have to drain the swamp' line that reeled them in. I believe the main reason his disciples (I use that intentionally) are so single-minded, but cannot engage in any logical discussion for longer than a few sentences, is because they have NO historical or political perspective and no critical thinking ability. None. Here's where HCR comes in: thank goodness I found her and her scholarship.
The guy who produced the Apprentice is not an Evangelical Christian. He's a Brit whose only desire was (and is) to make money, regardless. I took a meeting with him when he was head of MGM a couple years ago over turning one of my books into a movie. I was quite proud of myself, that I was polite to him (just kept my focus on what we were there for, it's an old Hollywood mind trick).
He later became "evangelical" when he married Roma Downey (after he got into bed with Trump and the Apprentice), but there wasn't much religiosity about him when we met. Like I said, he's a guy who will do anything to get what he wants and he wanted Roma. - any "conversion" was skin-deep, if that.
The Letter started today with a 'meandering' untethered Trump. I heard little clumps of his speech; in one bit, he was describing what a lovefest it was between the January 6th visitors to The Capitol and the Capitol Police. I'm sure the audience at Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) was swooning. I wish a few from the Capitol Police had been in attendance, too. The Letter ends informing us that Biden will be in Philadelphia today to speak about voting rights. Let's say this Letter was on both ends of America.
Speaking of voting rights, here's a morsel from governor Abbott: ‘When asked why not just let 24-hour and drive-thru voting continue after it proved to work, Abbott said the state was expanding voting hours and that drive-thru voting could allow voters to be swayed by passengers in the car.’
"If you do drive-thru voting, are you going to have people in the car with you?" Abbott said. "It could be somebody from your employer or somebody else that may have some coercive effect on the way that you would cast your ballot, which is contrary to you going into the ballot box, alone and no one there watching over your shoulder." (Houston Chronicle)
Now, is that a beaut or bute, you pick.
More from Texas: July 12th, 2021, filling two chartered airplanes flying out of Texas, 50 or 51 elected Democrats in the state legislature are getting out of town in order to stop the Republicans from passing voter suppression bills. When the planes landed, the Democrats boarded buses heading to Washington, D.C. I saw some seated in a bus, and they waved to us. Many Americans saw some of the fifty determined and smiling souls who left their homes, families and jobs to camp-down in Washington, D.C
They are heading for the Capitol to convince United States senators to vote For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. What else can they do? The walls of Democracy from the Supreme Court, The Republic Party, the Red States and their legislatures to millions upon millions of Americans who won’t take the vaccines to protect themselves and their neighbors against Covid, nor do they believe that Joe Biden is the legitimate president of the United State of America.
What else can the good Democrats of Texas do, and what are the good people of America going to do?
Time to peacefully, "en masse", hit the streets, to fill the recalcitrants' message machines, e-mail accounts and the corridors leading to their offices. Time to find ways to hurt them financially in any way possible. Time to pirate and poison their every public engagement and private moment. Time to make them understand that the people will be rid of them whatever they do now.
‘When asked why not just let 24-hour and drive-thru voting continue after it proved to work, Abbott said the state was expanding voting hours and that drive-thru voting could allow voters to be swayed by passengers in the car.’
"If you do drive-thru voting, are you going to have people in the car with you?" Abbott said. "It could be somebody from your employer or somebody else that may have some coercive effect on the way that you would cast your ballot, which is contrary to you going into the ballot box, alone and no one there watching over your shoulder." (Houston Chronicle)
I don't understand this argument at all. Wouldn't the voter show up at the drive-thru with a voted, signed and sealed envelope? Even if the voter changed their mind at that moment and kept driving, it would be very difficult to alter the ballot.
That was my first thought too. Then I realized it was the Republican governor of Texas speaking, so it was obviously BS. He is a nasty bit of work, a thoroughly despicable person in my eyes.
Syd, he’s also confined to a wheelchair, and implying that other Texans in the same situation are incapable of voting in accordance with the rules. I wonder which, and many, of his staff “assist” him when he votes? His remarks reek of privilege, immho.
I don't think drive-thru voting and drop-box voting are the same thing. I think with drive-thru you actually vote while sitting in your car. Still doesn't mean Abbot's remarks aren't crazy.
I'd be willing to bet large sums of money (if I HAD that LOL) that the vast majority of people standing in line or sitting in their cars in line have long decided who they will vote for. And how many of them would be giving a ride to a 'friend' who's diametrically opposed? It's a ridiculous 'argument' that will easily capture the very limited imaginations of the pre-programmed masses who believe all these lies - big and small!
They are crazy, but as with the objection that bumper stickers on cars could violate electioneering rules, he is technically correct. Once we admit that, we can fix it. For example, volunteers at drive in entrances to cover any bumper stickers with removable tape, posted rules One voter per car.
In Texas: Curbside voting, long available under Texas election law, requires workers at every polling place to deliver onsite curbside ballots to voters who are “physically unable to enter the polling place without personal assistance or likelihood of injuring the voter’s health.”
Daria, in NC, too. The flip side that I personally watched (which doesn't make curbs to curbside ok) was when that same GOP 'poll watcher' I've mentioned before came up to the precinct with a mini-van full of VERY elderly (as in, went to the local nursing home and loaded them up. apparently), 'voters', then requested curbside voting. I didn't see their ballots, of course, but either they were all registered in that precinct, or were allowed to vote a provisional ballot. Either way, it stank.
(I’m still thinking about “Restrictive Covenant” from yesterday.) I shared that with my stylist today when we were chatting about business and politics. She looked at me and said, “really? That sounds like a cult.” Ha! I’m going to trend the term somehow in regards to the Repubs.
I fear that if Capitol Police had been present and tried to object to the “love fest” description, they would have been physically attacked by the hyped-up crowd.
I believe that you are correct, Danielle. The Capitol Police have had way too much violence done against them by Trump Cult. As for the Far Right-Wing's law and order, they need renaming as 'the ANTI-law, ANTI-order, ANTI-health, ANTI-science, ANTI- Democracy & ANTI-THE PEOPLE party'.
I dream of a day when this will all be old, sad history, almost unbelievable, that so many people could be so easily fooled by a grifter, a cheating, misogynistic, racist conman.
What do people see in a mass murderer taking no responsibility for proudly ignoring science, an egomaniac liar who proudly pays no taxes because he's smart, bully. All Republicans voted against continuing debate on voting rights. Are they fooled, bullied, or bribed? A reliable source has told me that their brains were removed by aliens (from a faraway planet) and replaced with sawdust. And now you know the rest of the story.
Well you have to find an empty space to put it once soiled and the cat demands that you do your job and get rid of it! It is after all made up of perfectly natural substaces and doesn't ruin the ecological environment. Its perhaps the origin of the expression..."sh*t for brains". One can at least credit the Republicans for this invention.
My new, all time heroes are the democratic state house Representatives from Texas. One of them was due to be married on Thursday. Postponed. Their state salary is $7,000 for a six month session. They all leave their jobs and families and businesses to do the work of the People. My Lord they are beautiful humans, and I dedicate the work I am doing all to their honor. We must all be doing something!
Wait. The lawyer Juli Haller started to CRY during the HEARING? Now I’ve heard everything. HCR you are too kind to the whole CPAC bunch of deranged losers. If anyone wants another view I recommend reading Lucian Truscott’s presentation of it. And the WaPo article about the hearing in Michigan. Which is a doozy.
These people need to be taken to the woodshed. I am so done with this nonsense.
The WaPo article about the hearing in Michigan--don't get too excited about the judge's ruling, but do be assured it is a step in the process:
"If Parker decides to discipline the lawyers, she could require them to pay the fees of their opponents in the case, the city of Detroit and Michigan state officials. But she could also go further — assessing additional monetary penalties or recommending grievance proceedings be opened that could result in banning the attorneys from practicing in Michigan or disbarring them altogether.
The Michigan hearing is part of a broad move underway nationally to hold responsible Trump and his backers who spread falsehoods about the election, the so-called “big lie” that led to the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6."
This is not the WaPo article you had in mind, but this article from Oct. 2020 about the white supremacists is also a doozy (and notably pre-Jan. 6 insurrection):
After a detailed scary list of violent actions..."On top of these decades of organizing, we now encounter a new urgency among white power activists, who have capitalized upon the Trump administration’s many green lights, the anti-mask movement and the social anxieties of pandemic and racial justice protest to launch new campaigns of violence. This is a movement expressly dedicated to the violent overthrow of the United States and the destruction of democracy and its institutions. We have to stand against it. Read, vote, spread the word. Keep each other safe."
After graduating from the University of Alabama School of Law in 1968, I clerked for a U.S. District Judge in Birmingham and later practiced law in Birmingham.
Back then, American citizens ignoring election results and lawyers filing affidavits without any factual basis were unthinkable. Frivolous lawsuits in federal court were unthinkable.
If that lady federal judge does not sanction those lawyers with stiff money fines and suspension of their federal license to practice law in the U.S. Courts, then I will wonder what got into her?
The American psychiatrist M. Scott Peck wrote a book entitled, "People of of the Lie." The truth was not in them.
In the Gospels, Jesus called Satan, the Father of Lies, and he told people who believed in him, if they abided in him and his word, they would know the truth and the truth would set them free.
I wonder how Jesus feels about Christian MAGAs and Republicans who parrot Trump's stolen election claims?
I have seen many TV reports and photos of Trump's white mobs. They remind me of Alabama Governor George Wallace's white mobs.
Yes…the truth sets us free and it’s what helps us live our lives in closer accord with the teachings of Jesus and all the great teachers in our own lives.
I'm looking forward to the day when the Kraken lawyers lose their law licenses. It will be more than deserved, as the professor explains so well. From reading the Washington Post article about today's proceedings, I suspect the lawyers' torrent of disrespect directed at the judge was all part of the increasing penchant among Trumpists to put on a show for the base — and to encourage donations. A show I wish I could unsee was Q cultist Lauren Boebart prancing back and forth on the CPAC stage over the weekend, spewing nonsense. Bless her small heart, she was over the moon in love with her performance.
And Donovan actually is someone to stand with. Amazing how many campaigns around the country, not just our state, that we are contributing to and focusing on like a laser.
Thanks, Ted and Ellie. Right before I watched the video you provided, Ellie, I was thinking these "kraken" people need to get some four-leggeds to care for to bring reality back into their lives...and, voila, there's Kerry Donovan doing just that!
I really love her message about what real toughness is.
"Release the Kraken!" is a long time joke, referring to bringing a "whoop-ass" on one's opponent. It does refer to the Swedish sea monster. In this case, Trump was re;easing his "crack team of lawyers" (the Kraken) on the republic.
The line was said by Liam Neeson in the remake of Clash of the Titans. Sir Lawrence Olivier said it in the original movie. The sea monster was bad to the bone...
I thought it was from one of the Pirates of the Caribbean films. "Release the Kraken." Which was, in fact, a giant (GIANT) squid, as in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, with James Mason, Kirk Douglas, and Peter Lorre.
I heard in an Indivisible meeting last night this nugget about our worthless senator, Marsha Blackburn: when a constituent calls to urge her to vote for, say, S1, she turns to a staff member to comment she’s doing her job when she makes “the libs” angry.
Republican arguments at the CPAC meeting were characterized as HCR points out as "untethered to reality." Nothing new about that! The September 2017 issue of the Atlantic included a lengthy and comprehensive article (updated on Dec. 28, 2017) on our nation's dysfunction which started with a question asking "When did America become untethered from reality?" It headlined Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan's famously saying “You are entitled to your own opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts” as well as historian Daniel J. Boorstin's words as far back as 1961 in his "The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America" as saying "We risk being the first people in history to have been able to make their illusions so vivid, so persuasive, so ‘realistic’ that they can live in them.”
Being that "untethered from reality" can call for psychiatric intervention and it appears that we have reached that point. Anticipated and feared Republican victories in the 2022 elections, following the pattern they have established in States they control, will mean we will have given the keys to the asylum to the inmates. "Untethered" puts it too mildly, frighteningly and dangerously so.
Perhaps we should adopt Senator Moynihan's famous saying and repeat it whenever we can. I agree that their illusions are vivid, but they're not realistic to me!
But they were to 70 million voters in 2020, to the January 6 rioters, to many members of both houses of Congress and to innumerable State legislators! That is the problem.
Hi Lynell! What is real to me, I stated earlier. It is not 70 million anymore. Far less. And what affirms it for me is that our country IS a decent place because it is populated by a huge majority of decent people. What we see of Jan 6th and all media reports of conspiracy trumpeters is the exception. And I will not go down the rabbit hole in thinking that is the norm behavior of persons who lives on my street, my town, my state, my country, my continent, my world.
To do so is to give it a nod as being inevitable. I, too, am grown and there is naught in me that really believes that.
Almost every job requires certain qualifications but anyone can run for an elected office. People who have records, people who are just not very bright, and people who live in the land of conspiracy theories. Couldn't there be a basic test for all elected officials, state and federal, one that includes knowledge of how our government works, what the jobs entails, and the history of our country? And the people voting would be able to see how each person did on their test.
Easily done in regard to knowing what a particular job entails, but who would judge the answers concerning the history of our country and how our goverment works? In the eyes of many, both areas are debatable.
Good point these days! As far as how governement works, so many Republicans have recently stood up saying things (sorry can't remember specifics)that just are not possible in how one submits bills or passes laws. As far as history... perhap stating what they believe the Constitution says- At least we would know where people stood on interpretation before voting. Would be even better if they needed to document cases that back up their interpretation.
It’s becoming clear that this is a cancer which has metastasized immensely over the last six months. There was the explosion of January 6, but it’s becoming clear now that the drip, drip, drip of further events since then, propping up and extending the insurrection has become fantastically alarming.
It is not conceivable to me that this can be wound back by a sort of undrip, undrip, undrip series of events.
Had concomitant actions taken place in March and April on a one to one basis of the type that yesterday’s hearing in Detroit was, it would have been a sort of chemotherapy to check the cancer.
Alas, the “good guys” have stood by in stupefaction and done little to nothing. Or perhaps a more favorable interpretation is that their preparations to do something are taking so long that when action is finally taken, it may conclude with something similar to the old saw, “The operation was a success, but the patient died.”
Here I cannot help but point the finger at the DOJ. I’m sure that Merrick Garland is a fine man. But he’s *decidedly* in the wrong place at the wrong time. Way too slow.
What was needed was a man of action. I am reading Andy Slavitt’s book now. He is an example of the type needed. The leader of the Texas Democrats who spoke so eloquently on Rachel Maddow last night is another.
When (and if) the big indictments come now (Trump, Trump Jr, Ivanka, Kushner - take your pick - and a host of others), the effect will be grim. Had they been taken 3 months ago, it would been a series of gut punches to the Republicans which would have crumpled them. Now what is done to restore order will probably be the spark to start the war.
'..the “good guys” have stood by in stupefaction and done little to nothing.' WHAT, what did more than 50 Democrats in Texas' state legislature do yesterday? Didn't they get your attention because they're getting plenty of it? Justice Department releases videos of 1/6 cop-dragging attack near pro-Trump rioter who died. Haven't you seen the horrific clips of violence at The Capitol; they are impossible to miss unless you don't have a TV or just watch Fox News. AG Merrick Garland Restores Asylum For Women, Families, And Others Facing Domestic Violence, Gangs, & Similar Threats; Georgia Democrats Back AG Garland’s Lawsuit On Voting Laws And Say They Are Being Purged Over Race.
I am tired of naysayers making cancer comparisons. We need more Americans to be organized, to raise their voices and march with John Lewis in support of fair and free elections - not chemotherapy, except for those who need it. This is no time for sad songs, Hell No!
Put on your walking shoes, make phone calls, talk to friends, family and neighbors, scrutinize, organize and sing:
Fern, I think the succinct way of rephrasing what Eric was saying, is that the Democrats are fighting a defensive war.
It's the hand they were dealt: they are trying to defend democracy from an absolutely demented attack by rabid, screaming, fascists who honestly don't care what comes after. They just want to burn down the country, in the name of whatever, and install their totem in the high place.
That's right Joseph. It is also correct that the major factors, which have put put us where we are have not been strongly and succinctly spelled out to the American public. Our numbers in the majority are part of our offense. Our obstacles in terms of Dark money; deep economic and social disparity based on the last 40 plus years; the media echo chamber; the Electoral College, redistricting, Mitch McConnell and political corruption -- the forces against the American people need to be clearly depicted. Frequent temperature taking as way to assess this war against Democracy is a form of self-indulgence, which I cannot encourage. The people have to know what this is about, understand the filibuster and how the voter suppression laws are against all of us. Democracy is still a word to many people; it's too vague. Democracy must be made synonymous with 'we the people' with US in a real sense. The case has not been made. The clearer the message the better the response.
Fern: MSNBC and CNN have been trying almost twenty-four hours a day to make the case you say must be made. I don't know how much clearer their messaging can be. The "forces against the American people" exist only because our democratic principles permit them to exist. In China or Russia they would not exist, but using their methods to solve the problem would be self-defeating.
Jack, You saw what the Texas Democrats did, and we need many more brave, surprising and truth telling actions. National, state, local political actions, community and grassroots organizations, college campus groups and high school students --- you haven't seen anything yet --- claiming our rights in countless ways. Think about it as our productions for the survival of democracy in the USA.
Yes, an effective message is essential, but the real problem is the advantages given to the white electorate by the Constitution and extreme gerrymandering. We have the numbers, but with no room to spare and getting worse as we speak because of voter suppression laws. We need billions in well targeted funding for massive, well-organized get-out-the-vote efforts. Without that, it’s curtains for US democracy in 2022.
Rex, the MESSAGE, champions of democracy, money, organization, strategy, committed citizens and timing are all essential. You and I are White, so don't count most of us as anti-democratic. Keep your curtains on your own windows, please.
Fern, at the risk of writing something unbecoming, I had a sort of epiphany last night when I saw the video on Maddow of the Texans who fled to fight injustice. If one could juxtaposition another video showing what they had left behind in the State Legislature, it would probably show a chamber filled with old, impotent, not very bright white guys, frustrated and foaming at the mouth...alongside two busloads of fired up and determined POC, WOMEN, and REAL MEN who are ready and willing to do whatever is necessary to protect voter rights.
Ellen, your vision was missing only one element, the empty seats in the chamber, which were occupied by the Democrats before they left. Those exuberant seats are now dancing and signing, "We Shall Overcome..." I can even hear Pete Seeger's voice.
Fern, I *did* mention the Texas Democrats, in particular their seeming leader interviewed by Rachel last night. You could look it up. :)
I applaud their action and wish that that kind of vigor was running the DOJ.
The other examples you mention are laudable and necessary. But until simple, dramatic retributive action is taken at the highest levels, the emboldening continues. You surely are noticing the in your face escalation of the other side.
Your tone is marvelously defiant. I love that and feel conflicted at the judgment I’m slowly being pushed towards. In January I sometimes felt like the only optimist. The way forward to obliterating Trumpism and forcing the Republicans seemed so clear and inevitable to me then. It looked like a slam dunk might come out of the 1/6 horror show.
Bit by bit my hopes diminished as I waited. Now we are six months out. I fear that the legal system and democratic norms may be too slow for the boots on the ground action by misguided and in many cases criminal actions.
I can’t march from Canada, still can’t even travel to the U.S. and my political contributions go to Canadian democratic causes. We have our issues.
Nonetheless, my hope is that you, and others of your fire and energy can start a bottom-up good conflagration.
Eric, You practically drowned the man you did not name, Texas State Representative Trey Martinez Fischer, in a flood of your tears or whatever smothered your 'declaration' of him. You sure didn't toot the horn for him or the notable band of Texas Democrats now in Washington, D.C.
Your hope that others and I start a 'good conflageration': 'an extensive fire which destroys a great deal of land or property' -- is never going to be on the agenda. On the other hand, if you ever have any spare cash, advocates of Democracy are encouraged to contribute to the work of Voting Rights Organizations here in the USA. Salud!
Your "too little, too late" message make sense. I think that too many Americans, including the Democratic Party, believe our country is basically a decent place, populated by decent people, who will be so repelled by the last ditch voter suppression tactics being used by the dying Republican Party at the State level and the gross Republican hypocrisy at the national level that they will turn out in massive numbers to repudiate them and save democracy. This will turn out to be as effective as crossing one's fingers and carrying about a rabbit's foot.
This seems like a variant of the "perpetual motion machine." It's a quite common thing for someone to claim, "I have a perpetual motion machine, and I want a patent." The patent examiner says, "Okay, show me how it works." The inventor says, "No way, you have to grant me a patent first." It's a plea for attention.
This is similar. These legalists (I won't call them attorneys) are saying, "We want our day in court: the election was corrupt." The judge says, "So show me some plausible evidence." The legalists say, "No way, you have to give me a trial date. THEN I'll show you the evidence." It is a plea for attention.
I this case, it's scripted and utterly false, because they know it will show up in the news, and THAT is exactly the attention they want.
This has gone on for far too long. Our courts have tolerated this unprofessional behavior well beyond the limits of good sense.
Part of the intent behind the GRU's attacks on the West has been to undermine public confidence in our systems and in the democratic structure. As long as our courts let these baseless suits proceed and as long as they're treated as good-faith efforts instead of being abruptly slapped down and punished, the effort is a success. Confidence is undermined, and the bad guys appear legitimized. Our systems are based on "good faith" and that is being exploited as a weakness.
Even now, the former guy (Fat Donnie? Two-Scoops?) is pressing yet another lawsuit on spurious grounds; this time claiming a private business has trampled on his first amendment rights. The suit will lead nowhere, but the Big Lie gets perpetuated, time and resources will be consumed, and publicity will be generated.
It NEVER ends; it will keep on happening just as long as we allow it to continue.
As Michael Cohen said in his book, Disloyal, trump's m.o. was to get the lie out into the public and, as soon as the media picked it up, the masses would begin to believe it.
Doug Mastriano wants to make a lot of noise and ruffle feathers so he and the rest of the Republican-lead PA legislature can put a 7 BILLION DOLLAR SURPLUS into a “Rainy Day Fund” - ie a political slush fund.
In PA, if a local government or school district collects more taxes than it spends, it can only hold a very small amount, unless there is a legitimate one-time project on the horizon, such as a new school, or a new police vehicle fleet. Otherwise, that money must go back to the taxpayers. So what are these guys doing with 7 BILLION DOLLARS? That’s the question PA residents should be focused on.
Oh it’ll be more sophisticated than that. The money will leak out into special projects whose recipients paid a fraction of that money into state rep campaigns. They print a boxful of yard signs, and they get a lucrative contract in return.
Extra money in the hands of legislators is like a clogged kitchen sink full of stinky water, where the clog is the legislature and the water is the money. Walk away, and the water disappears down the drain, and we are left with the stinky clog.
I’m so happy that those Democratic lawmakers walked out today here in Texas! I can’t go myself, but my tribe is headed to Austin tomorrow to participate in a demonstration against this proposed law HB3. Go TCDWC! If it were to become law, democracy pretty much is done in Texas. The legislature could change the results of an election even if it’s uncontested. And voting would be restricted and harder for POC to vote. Hope we can get rid of it!
The Republicans won’t admit it, but Texas is turning Democrat. Hope it happens in time!
Thanks Heather! The best goes on….
I just donated to the Texas Democrats
🙏. Your post, and I’m doing the same. 🙏
Same here!
Can someone tell them not to fly all together on the same plane???????
I know one legislator drove. CNN talked to him in Tennessee on the road. 😂😂😂😂
They were in two planes.
The provision enabling the legislature to change the results of an election has been removed. "Both Senate Bill 1 and House Bill 3 remove some provisions from the original bill that drew strong pushback from Democrats including measures to restrict voting hours on Sunday and to make it easier for judges to overturn elections." https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2021/07/11/Texas-Legislature-advances-voting-rights-bill-overnight-hearing/4071626038012/
Here's a good summary of what's now in the bill. An interesting disclosure note at the end of each Texas Tribune article notes that the TX Sec'y of State has been a financial supporter of the publication, which is a "nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization" (list of supporters linked).
https://www.texastribune.org/2021/07/08/texas-voting-bill-special-session/
Somebody, please, explain to me how an attorney who has filed garbage affidavits, that have never been verified and are nothing more than a publicity stunt, still has a licence to practice law. Then explain to me how it's possible that there is a whole boatload of lawyers filing frivolous lawsuits and getting away with it. I have been banging my head against the wall over this since November. Unbelievable.
Daria, Today in Michigan Federal Court, Judge Linda Parker held a 6 hour hearing regarding sanctions against 9 such pro-Trump attorneys including Sydney Powell to answer your 2 questions. Judge Parker asked who drafted the complaint and separately who drafted the amended complaint. I was able to attend the hearing (digitally, of course) as part of the Public audience. 2-20 CV 13134 LVP. Rachell Maddow covered the hearing in her MSNBC show tonite; Rachel did a good job too.
Bryan, Thanks for your update. I'll watch Rachel Maddow's "rerun".
Thank you 🙏
Still, a fine or a reprimand does not seem to do it justice.
As Heather said: "... untethered from reality ..."
Actually tethered to fear of the cult leader. And very misguided about who the majority of our diverse country are.
I wonder the same thing. I am a practicing attorney and I can tell you that if I signed an affidavit like this, I would absolutely get sanctioned in my home state.
Thank you Ian, I am a retired attorney with over 30 years experiece in CA State & Fed Courts in the Bay Area. CA. Severe sanctions are likely per the Attorney (David Fink) for a moving party, the City of Detroit. Also, In the Court's initial statement on the record, she specifically cited the "inherent powers of the Court" & also Fed Rule 11(d) as additional authority to act.
Furthermore, one of the pro-Trump attorneys, Lin Wood, appeared to breach an existing Court Order DURING the hearing by publishing a portion of the hearing Live on an unauthorized Channel/ App. I would not be surprised to see the Judge issue an OSC why counsel should not be held in contempt. The Judge is merhodical.
The cases must have landed in the courtrooms of sympathetic judges. I can't imagine that a judge who adheres to legal rules of procedure would tolerate these stunts.
Actually, no. All but one of the dozens of lawsuits filed by the Trump lawyers were dismissed, including some by Trump-appointed judges. In all of the court hearings, these lawyers were careful never to claim fraud. (These claims were only made in affidavits.) This would have subjected them to court sanctions if unable to persuade a judge they had credible evidence to back up their claims. The case heard today in Michigan against the Trump lawyers was brought by the city of Detroit and state of Michigan, which want them penalized for baselessly challenging the election.
Giuliani can’t “practice” in DC or NY now, and Wood was penalized in GA.
The 60 cases filed were summarily rejected by every judge who heard them, including several Trump appointees.
When u have a % of the judiciary and a national media outlet, well, you have enough to kill the democracy experiment.
Yes. That became evident to me in Bush v Gore. I knew it was a threat to democracy, but I never actually thought it would go this far.
If the 2000 election gave us the “brooks brothers rebellion”, and 2020 gave us Jan 6th, what will the 2024 election deliver?
I am so proud of Katie Porter tonight. Her recent courage should be a source of inspiration to all of us here.
Morning Ted! I’m posting a vid of Katie Porter speaking g about her town hall event that was disrupted by opposition. She is quite fierce and a representative to be proud of.
https://youtu.be/3RccPC09fKU
I had no idea! Thank you for posting this.
Me too. She is extremely impressive!
Katie is The Bomb. Cold stop!
Yes, Katie is a national hero. She refuses to turn to name calling or hate, even when attacked.
Yep. Best way to kill an experiment is to smash the test tubes and throw out the petri dishes.
Read “Nothing is true and everything is possible” - Peter Pomerantsev … and you will have your answer.
A Very fine attorney once said to me years ago, “lawyers run this country”. At the time I didn’t know what he was saying but I do now
It is just astounding how far this Trump-cult continues to persist. How did a reality “star” manage to accumulate such a hold on a major political party? Let me answer my own question - a generation’s worth of propaganda made possible by the fall of the Fairness Doctrine. How does this end? No rhetorical question - I’m really asking - how does this country move beyond this insanity?
We need to create an independent oversight board to establish guidelines for reporting news, with penalties for presenting inaccurate "facts." My understanding is that in the EU, news may not be called news unless it meets certain parameters. Here, in the US, anything flies, due to the lapse of the Fairness Doctrine.
Yeah, unfortunately there's a little thing standing in your way, known as the First Amendment.
Which only restriction so far has been "not yelling fire in a crowded theater." It has been misinterpreted almost as much as the Second Amendment, where instead of a "well regulated militia," any insane civilian can buy military weapons designed solely to kill humans in combat and turn them on innocent soft target groups of humans.
Perhaps not. You are free to say anything you want. The restriction would be in facing sanctions for calling something "news" that did not meet agreed upon criteria for truthfulness, as opposed to "truthiness."
On a Euro trip in 2017, I was aghast watching RT for the first time. Wow. It was eye opening.
RT is Russian Times. My information must be incorrect then, if you watched RT in EU.
RT is Russia Today. Russian State propaganda. It was like Fox on steroids.
My German colleagues, “Putin speaks fluently German, but it’s creepy German.”
That's right. Late here.
RT was formerly Russia Today and was broadcast via MhZ in the US. RT has broadcasts that target markets in several languages around the globe. Its notoriously unreliable. MhZ airs several foreign news services and is/was carried on some PBS digital stations.
It's
MhZ is a channel on the ROKU device. It is not benign.
I've never had ROKU and got MgZ via one of the PBS stations in Denver. Among other things it broadcasts or did broadcast France 24, BBC, DW News (Germany), Japan Today, NHK. and yes, also RT and a Chinese State sponsored news program.
ROKU or MhZ?
He had help. The producer of the Apprentice is also an evangelical christian. Shame on NBC, or not?
An evangelical christian produced the Apprentice? Astounding. It seems these evangelical Christians have no morals or boundaries, and are untethered to reality.
He was a fake “evangelical” Christian, Diana. See TCinLA and Ted Keyes’ conversation above. If anyone is interested, “evangelical” is a misnomer claimed by far right literalist conservative “Christians in high tension with society. If they are evangelical, I’m a sandbox.
LOL. Good morning, Guy.
They are the easiest to influence. Single issue voters. Former guy was never pro life before 2015.
Yes, Ted, it was the siren song of changing the SCOTUS to kill Roe v Wade and we will see that happen. It was his 'I'm one of you - we have to drain the swamp' line that reeled them in. I believe the main reason his disciples (I use that intentionally) are so single-minded, but cannot engage in any logical discussion for longer than a few sentences, is because they have NO historical or political perspective and no critical thinking ability. None. Here's where HCR comes in: thank goodness I found her and her scholarship.
It would have interfered with the abortions he paid for....
He advocates any position that shows donations trending
Vulnerable minds. “The Cult” has been built from the bottom up over decades
The vulnerable minds explanation gives them a pass. They are the opposite: vicious minds determined to perpetuate white rule by any means available.
True.
May still not be, in fact …
Yup. Mark Burnett, producer of a whole raft of reality garbage. No offense.
Mark Burnett: Release the outtakes and expose the racism, ignorance and the real former guy.
Not going to happen. MGM has a contractual stipulations regarding access and release if out takes.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/01/07/how-mark-burnett-resurrected-donald-trump-as-an-icon-of-american-success
Company over country.
What does NBC producer Mark Burnett and Boris Berezovsky have in common? Hmmm
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Berezovsky_(businessman)
Red Notice-Bill Browder ( lobbyist for the Sergei Magninfsky Act)
To the garbage of course.
Fantasy Land by Kurt Anderson
Yep.
The guy who produced the Apprentice is not an Evangelical Christian. He's a Brit whose only desire was (and is) to make money, regardless. I took a meeting with him when he was head of MGM a couple years ago over turning one of my books into a movie. I was quite proud of myself, that I was polite to him (just kept my focus on what we were there for, it's an old Hollywood mind trick).
He later became "evangelical" when he married Roma Downey (after he got into bed with Trump and the Apprentice), but there wasn't much religiosity about him when we met. Like I said, he's a guy who will do anything to get what he wants and he wanted Roma. - any "conversion" was skin-deep, if that.
Is Roma evangelical? Is that his reason for his conversion?
Yes. He set her up with a company of her own at MGM to make "evangelical" movies. And yeah, he "converted" to get her.
Sold his soul for inauthentic love relationship. What dies that say about his character or lack there of?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roma_Downey
Very wise! Happy Birthday TC!
Shame on the church
LOTSA help! Vladimir Putin, ALEC, Moscow Mitch’s cabal, etc. etc.
“Also”?
By trying our best to stay sane and keep pushing back.
Well, he’s a racist, sexist, con man.
I think it started with Ronald Reagan.
Think back further. Perhaps a legitimate line might be drawn from William F. Buckley’s arrogant truth twisting?
And astounding that every form of media continues to amplify it and help spread it.
We constituents of those democrats here in Texas know they'd only be abandoning us if they stayed and let the republicans stomp all over our rights ❤️
The Letter started today with a 'meandering' untethered Trump. I heard little clumps of his speech; in one bit, he was describing what a lovefest it was between the January 6th visitors to The Capitol and the Capitol Police. I'm sure the audience at Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) was swooning. I wish a few from the Capitol Police had been in attendance, too. The Letter ends informing us that Biden will be in Philadelphia today to speak about voting rights. Let's say this Letter was on both ends of America.
Speaking of voting rights, here's a morsel from governor Abbott: ‘When asked why not just let 24-hour and drive-thru voting continue after it proved to work, Abbott said the state was expanding voting hours and that drive-thru voting could allow voters to be swayed by passengers in the car.’
"If you do drive-thru voting, are you going to have people in the car with you?" Abbott said. "It could be somebody from your employer or somebody else that may have some coercive effect on the way that you would cast your ballot, which is contrary to you going into the ballot box, alone and no one there watching over your shoulder." (Houston Chronicle)
Now, is that a beaut or bute, you pick.
More from Texas: July 12th, 2021, filling two chartered airplanes flying out of Texas, 50 or 51 elected Democrats in the state legislature are getting out of town in order to stop the Republicans from passing voter suppression bills. When the planes landed, the Democrats boarded buses heading to Washington, D.C. I saw some seated in a bus, and they waved to us. Many Americans saw some of the fifty determined and smiling souls who left their homes, families and jobs to camp-down in Washington, D.C
They are heading for the Capitol to convince United States senators to vote For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. What else can they do? The walls of Democracy from the Supreme Court, The Republic Party, the Red States and their legislatures to millions upon millions of Americans who won’t take the vaccines to protect themselves and their neighbors against Covid, nor do they believe that Joe Biden is the legitimate president of the United State of America.
What else can the good Democrats of Texas do, and what are the good people of America going to do?
Time to peacefully, "en masse", hit the streets, to fill the recalcitrants' message machines, e-mail accounts and the corridors leading to their offices. Time to find ways to hurt them financially in any way possible. Time to pirate and poison their every public engagement and private moment. Time to make them understand that the people will be rid of them whatever they do now.
This is encouraging. Very grateful to TX Democratic legislators. ❤️🤍💙
‘When asked why not just let 24-hour and drive-thru voting continue after it proved to work, Abbott said the state was expanding voting hours and that drive-thru voting could allow voters to be swayed by passengers in the car.’
"If you do drive-thru voting, are you going to have people in the car with you?" Abbott said. "It could be somebody from your employer or somebody else that may have some coercive effect on the way that you would cast your ballot, which is contrary to you going into the ballot box, alone and no one there watching over your shoulder." (Houston Chronicle)
I don't understand this argument at all. Wouldn't the voter show up at the drive-thru with a voted, signed and sealed envelope? Even if the voter changed their mind at that moment and kept driving, it would be very difficult to alter the ballot.
That was my first thought too. Then I realized it was the Republican governor of Texas speaking, so it was obviously BS. He is a nasty bit of work, a thoroughly despicable person in my eyes.
He's fighting for his political skin and figures the only way to win is to go hard to the dark side. I hope Beto stands up.
Syd, he’s also confined to a wheelchair, and implying that other Texans in the same situation are incapable of voting in accordance with the rules. I wonder which, and many, of his staff “assist” him when he votes? His remarks reek of privilege, immho.
I would bet that he votes by mail.
The drop box I used in Glendale, CO was clearly intended for completed, sealed ballots. Abbot's argument is insane.
I don't think drive-thru voting and drop-box voting are the same thing. I think with drive-thru you actually vote while sitting in your car. Still doesn't mean Abbot's remarks aren't crazy.
As though you can’t talk to the guy you’re in a six hour long line with…
I'd be willing to bet large sums of money (if I HAD that LOL) that the vast majority of people standing in line or sitting in their cars in line have long decided who they will vote for. And how many of them would be giving a ride to a 'friend' who's diametrically opposed? It's a ridiculous 'argument' that will easily capture the very limited imaginations of the pre-programmed masses who believe all these lies - big and small!
They are crazy, but as with the objection that bumper stickers on cars could violate electioneering rules, he is technically correct. Once we admit that, we can fix it. For example, volunteers at drive in entrances to cover any bumper stickers with removable tape, posted rules One voter per car.
Hmmm. Good point. I'll have to check on that.
In Texas: Curbside voting, long available under Texas election law, requires workers at every polling place to deliver onsite curbside ballots to voters who are “physically unable to enter the polling place without personal assistance or likelihood of injuring the voter’s health.”
https://www.texastribune.org/2020/11/02/texas-drive-thru-votes-harris-county/
Daria, in NC, too. The flip side that I personally watched (which doesn't make curbs to curbside ok) was when that same GOP 'poll watcher' I've mentioned before came up to the precinct with a mini-van full of VERY elderly (as in, went to the local nursing home and loaded them up. apparently), 'voters', then requested curbside voting. I didn't see their ballots, of course, but either they were all registered in that precinct, or were allowed to vote a provisional ballot. Either way, it stank.
Worth the watch:
https://twitter.com/JoyceWhiteVance/status/1414749550514950145?s=20
(I’m still thinking about “Restrictive Covenant” from yesterday.) I shared that with my stylist today when we were chatting about business and politics. She looked at me and said, “really? That sounds like a cult.” Ha! I’m going to trend the term somehow in regards to the Repubs.
Don Lemon on CNN makes similar remarks and faces.
Def worth the watch, Kelly. Thank you.
I love the tactic. Sometimes the only way to win the 'game' is not to play the game.
...and raise the game, gain attention and support For The People Act, while turning Texas Blue.
Edit: 'The walls of Democracy are buckling from...'
I fear that if Capitol Police had been present and tried to object to the “love fest” description, they would have been physically attacked by the hyped-up crowd.
I believe that you are correct, Danielle. The Capitol Police have had way too much violence done against them by Trump Cult. As for the Far Right-Wing's law and order, they need renaming as 'the ANTI-law, ANTI-order, ANTI-health, ANTI-science, ANTI- Democracy & ANTI-THE PEOPLE party'.
To that, today's AP story: https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-government-and-politics-capitol-siege-61007f50fb3ebe15a07982112f05730c?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MorningWire_July13&utm_term=Morning%20Wire%20Subscribers
As it concerns Texas, maybe "Butte?"
I was thinking more like "butt" as in butthead ;)
I dream of a day when this will all be old, sad history, almost unbelievable, that so many people could be so easily fooled by a grifter, a cheating, misogynistic, racist conman.
We shall overcome.
We shall overcome.
We shall overcome some day.
Isn’t it time we add a few more judges to the Supreme Court to level the playing field?
What do people see in a mass murderer taking no responsibility for proudly ignoring science, an egomaniac liar who proudly pays no taxes because he's smart, bully. All Republicans voted against continuing debate on voting rights. Are they fooled, bullied, or bribed? A reliable source has told me that their brains were removed by aliens (from a faraway planet) and replaced with sawdust. And now you know the rest of the story.
My reliable source says yours is mistaken. It’s cat litter.
Well you have to find an empty space to put it once soiled and the cat demands that you do your job and get rid of it! It is after all made up of perfectly natural substaces and doesn't ruin the ecological environment. Its perhaps the origin of the expression..."sh*t for brains". One can at least credit the Republicans for this invention.
Stuart, you have made my day. Laughing out loud!
Ah yes. My favorite Dick Tracy character - Sh*t for Brains. Thank you, Stuart.
HCR news: on Forbes 50 over 50
https://www.forbes.com/profile/heather-cox-richardson/?list=50over50%2F&sh=6f94e69a4ce4&fbclid=IwAR1rNOVbky9J3LOfxj6r6Qxap_MWmP7DiuRAgNygIXxZavHKrpQI0x-ZqiM
She is an inspiration. I am so thankful to have found her newsletter and this community of like-minded individuals.
Older women rule! ❤️🤍💙
It used to be call the Matriarcha...ask the Iroquois....Gaia.
Thanks, Ellie!
My new, all time heroes are the democratic state house Representatives from Texas. One of them was due to be married on Thursday. Postponed. Their state salary is $7,000 for a six month session. They all leave their jobs and families and businesses to do the work of the People. My Lord they are beautiful humans, and I dedicate the work I am doing all to their honor. We must all be doing something!
Lift where you stand!
Wait. The lawyer Juli Haller started to CRY during the HEARING? Now I’ve heard everything. HCR you are too kind to the whole CPAC bunch of deranged losers. If anyone wants another view I recommend reading Lucian Truscott’s presentation of it. And the WaPo article about the hearing in Michigan. Which is a doozy.
These people need to be taken to the woodshed. I am so done with this nonsense.
The WaPo article about the hearing in Michigan--don't get too excited about the judge's ruling, but do be assured it is a step in the process:
"If Parker decides to discipline the lawyers, she could require them to pay the fees of their opponents in the case, the city of Detroit and Michigan state officials. But she could also go further — assessing additional monetary penalties or recommending grievance proceedings be opened that could result in banning the attorneys from practicing in Michigan or disbarring them altogether.
The Michigan hearing is part of a broad move underway nationally to hold responsible Trump and his backers who spread falsehoods about the election, the so-called “big lie” that led to the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/sidney-powell-disciplinary-hearing/2021/07/12/61d44ac4-e0c9-11eb-9f54-7eee10b5fcd2_story.html
If the judge sanctions these clowns, do they have any right to appeal?
I guess they are going to need real lawyers...non-trumpian ones...to defend them!
This is not the WaPo article you had in mind, but this article from Oct. 2020 about the white supremacists is also a doozy (and notably pre-Jan. 6 insurrection):
After a detailed scary list of violent actions..."On top of these decades of organizing, we now encounter a new urgency among white power activists, who have capitalized upon the Trump administration’s many green lights, the anti-mask movement and the social anxieties of pandemic and racial justice protest to launch new campaigns of violence. This is a movement expressly dedicated to the violent overthrow of the United States and the destruction of democracy and its institutions. We have to stand against it. Read, vote, spread the word. Keep each other safe."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/10/08/white-supremacists-gretchen-whitmer/
A doozy and a half as it turns out, Ellie. I remember this article.
Sadly true
Haller called it a "true affidavit." "It would be what he believes to be true," she added.
"This is pure speculation. All right, moving on," the judge responded.
I'm wondering who writes the script for these dramas?
Great point Nancy. Scripted. As in a reality tv?
Ms Haller needs to find her big-girl knickers.
Like I have said before, Linda… Time to open a can of whoop ass. Preferably in the woodshed. Or by the woodpile.
Giant can of whoop-ass.
Wondering if Juli passed gas like Ghouliani did.
Does your woodshed have a tar pit?
Sanctions are coming.
After graduating from the University of Alabama School of Law in 1968, I clerked for a U.S. District Judge in Birmingham and later practiced law in Birmingham.
Back then, American citizens ignoring election results and lawyers filing affidavits without any factual basis were unthinkable. Frivolous lawsuits in federal court were unthinkable.
If that lady federal judge does not sanction those lawyers with stiff money fines and suspension of their federal license to practice law in the U.S. Courts, then I will wonder what got into her?
The American psychiatrist M. Scott Peck wrote a book entitled, "People of of the Lie." The truth was not in them.
In the Gospels, Jesus called Satan, the Father of Lies, and he told people who believed in him, if they abided in him and his word, they would know the truth and the truth would set them free.
I wonder how Jesus feels about Christian MAGAs and Republicans who parrot Trump's stolen election claims?
I have seen many TV reports and photos of Trump's white mobs. They remind me of Alabama Governor George Wallace's white mobs.
Bravo!
Right on target, Counselor!
“And Jesus Wept”
Yes…the truth sets us free and it’s what helps us live our lives in closer accord with the teachings of Jesus and all the great teachers in our own lives.
I'm looking forward to the day when the Kraken lawyers lose their law licenses. It will be more than deserved, as the professor explains so well. From reading the Washington Post article about today's proceedings, I suspect the lawyers' torrent of disrespect directed at the judge was all part of the increasing penchant among Trumpists to put on a show for the base — and to encourage donations. A show I wish I could unsee was Q cultist Lauren Boebart prancing back and forth on the CPAC stage over the weekend, spewing nonsense. Bless her small heart, she was over the moon in love with her performance.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/sidney-powell-disciplinary-hearing/2021/07/12/61d44ac4-e0c9-11eb-9f54-7eee10b5fcd2_story.html
Kerry Donavon is challenging Boebert in Colorado. Check her out. Fund her if u can.
Anything to get the gun totin’ Qnut out of there.
And Donovan actually is someone to stand with. Amazing how many campaigns around the country, not just our state, that we are contributing to and focusing on like a laser.
Now this is democracy.
someone here once called her a 'gunbunny'. I like that.
Don't flunk the write-in ballot! Kerry Donovan in CO running for Congress:
https://kerrydonovanforcongress.com/
Fabulous!
Thanks, Ted and Ellie. Right before I watched the video you provided, Ellie, I was thinking these "kraken" people need to get some four-leggeds to care for to bring reality back into their lives...and, voila, there's Kerry Donovan doing just that!
I really love her message about what real toughness is.
Is “kraken” a Nazi term? Used now by white terrorist supremest?
"Release the Kraken!" is a long time joke, referring to bringing a "whoop-ass" on one's opponent. It does refer to the Swedish sea monster. In this case, Trump was re;easing his "crack team of lawyers" (the Kraken) on the republic.
Norse legends and Norse mysticism were heavy in Nazi influence campaigns. These remain in white terrorist nationalist groups today.
The line was said by Liam Neeson in the remake of Clash of the Titans. Sir Lawrence Olivier said it in the original movie. The sea monster was bad to the bone...
Makes you think of the ancient maps where the unchrted seas were always peopled by such creatures.
Oy!
And he always pretended he was of Swedish ancestry.
About as real as "Nessie" and far less effective....other than in generating publicity.
No, its a legendary Scandinavian sea monster. Also a spiced rum. (haha!)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kraken
of course, Q wing nuts appropriated it.
And now they are krakenpots.
😂!!!
LOL! I like that! Thanks, Grace.
Then they should be onboard with addressing climate change, or else their beloved kraken will surely perish in a non-sustainable ocean!
The rising acidity of the rising sea burns the suckers on its tentacles...
They tend to compare themselves to these "ancient Norse mythical warriors". Pity to inflict guilt by association!
Yes, it is a pity.
I thought it was from one of the Pirates of the Caribbean films. "Release the Kraken." Which was, in fact, a giant (GIANT) squid, as in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, with James Mason, Kirk Douglas, and Peter Lorre.
Not to mention Jules Verne. Perhaps Moby Dick was the Kraken? Fact or fiction? What the hell?
https://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2020-55090145
Words and symbols have meaning…
https://www.fastcompany.com/90593569/camo-flags-and-the-kraken-experts-decode-the-symbols-of-the-capitol-insurrectionists
If you have ever heard of or seen 2010 movie version of Clash of the Titans, you’ll remember the word. Facebook picked it up with a scad of memes.
https://youtu.be/9HGMxZEl60k
Bess Levin at Vanity Fair feels your pain and says Biden plans to confront the lies. Good time to call senators and reps and quote what Biden says.
Levin Report. July 12. The Biden Administration is done coddling conservatives and their anti-vaccine bullshit.
Hope so. As one individual said, possibly on HCR's thread, our democracy is on the line. What could be more urgent than that?
Should he do this in Austin not Philly?
I heard in an Indivisible meeting last night this nugget about our worthless senator, Marsha Blackburn: when a constituent calls to urge her to vote for, say, S1, she turns to a staff member to comment she’s doing her job when she makes “the libs” angry.
Republican arguments at the CPAC meeting were characterized as HCR points out as "untethered to reality." Nothing new about that! The September 2017 issue of the Atlantic included a lengthy and comprehensive article (updated on Dec. 28, 2017) on our nation's dysfunction which started with a question asking "When did America become untethered from reality?" It headlined Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan's famously saying “You are entitled to your own opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts” as well as historian Daniel J. Boorstin's words as far back as 1961 in his "The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America" as saying "We risk being the first people in history to have been able to make their illusions so vivid, so persuasive, so ‘realistic’ that they can live in them.”
Being that "untethered from reality" can call for psychiatric intervention and it appears that we have reached that point. Anticipated and feared Republican victories in the 2022 elections, following the pattern they have established in States they control, will mean we will have given the keys to the asylum to the inmates. "Untethered" puts it too mildly, frighteningly and dangerously so.
Perhaps we should adopt Senator Moynihan's famous saying and repeat it whenever we can. I agree that their illusions are vivid, but they're not realistic to me!
But they were to 70 million voters in 2020, to the January 6 rioters, to many members of both houses of Congress and to innumerable State legislators! That is the problem.
Understood, Jack. Just voicing an opinion about what is real to me.
Hi Lynell! What is real to me, I stated earlier. It is not 70 million anymore. Far less. And what affirms it for me is that our country IS a decent place because it is populated by a huge majority of decent people. What we see of Jan 6th and all media reports of conspiracy trumpeters is the exception. And I will not go down the rabbit hole in thinking that is the norm behavior of persons who lives on my street, my town, my state, my country, my continent, my world.
To do so is to give it a nod as being inevitable. I, too, am grown and there is naught in me that really believes that.
TY, Christine!
Almost every job requires certain qualifications but anyone can run for an elected office. People who have records, people who are just not very bright, and people who live in the land of conspiracy theories. Couldn't there be a basic test for all elected officials, state and federal, one that includes knowledge of how our government works, what the jobs entails, and the history of our country? And the people voting would be able to see how each person did on their test.
Easily done in regard to knowing what a particular job entails, but who would judge the answers concerning the history of our country and how our goverment works? In the eyes of many, both areas are debatable.
Good point these days! As far as how governement works, so many Republicans have recently stood up saying things (sorry can't remember specifics)that just are not possible in how one submits bills or passes laws. As far as history... perhap stating what they believe the Constitution says- At least we would know where people stood on interpretation before voting. Would be even better if they needed to document cases that back up their interpretation.
It’s becoming clear that this is a cancer which has metastasized immensely over the last six months. There was the explosion of January 6, but it’s becoming clear now that the drip, drip, drip of further events since then, propping up and extending the insurrection has become fantastically alarming.
It is not conceivable to me that this can be wound back by a sort of undrip, undrip, undrip series of events.
Had concomitant actions taken place in March and April on a one to one basis of the type that yesterday’s hearing in Detroit was, it would have been a sort of chemotherapy to check the cancer.
Alas, the “good guys” have stood by in stupefaction and done little to nothing. Or perhaps a more favorable interpretation is that their preparations to do something are taking so long that when action is finally taken, it may conclude with something similar to the old saw, “The operation was a success, but the patient died.”
Here I cannot help but point the finger at the DOJ. I’m sure that Merrick Garland is a fine man. But he’s *decidedly* in the wrong place at the wrong time. Way too slow.
What was needed was a man of action. I am reading Andy Slavitt’s book now. He is an example of the type needed. The leader of the Texas Democrats who spoke so eloquently on Rachel Maddow last night is another.
When (and if) the big indictments come now (Trump, Trump Jr, Ivanka, Kushner - take your pick - and a host of others), the effect will be grim. Had they been taken 3 months ago, it would been a series of gut punches to the Republicans which would have crumpled them. Now what is done to restore order will probably be the spark to start the war.
'..the “good guys” have stood by in stupefaction and done little to nothing.' WHAT, what did more than 50 Democrats in Texas' state legislature do yesterday? Didn't they get your attention because they're getting plenty of it? Justice Department releases videos of 1/6 cop-dragging attack near pro-Trump rioter who died. Haven't you seen the horrific clips of violence at The Capitol; they are impossible to miss unless you don't have a TV or just watch Fox News. AG Merrick Garland Restores Asylum For Women, Families, And Others Facing Domestic Violence, Gangs, & Similar Threats; Georgia Democrats Back AG Garland’s Lawsuit On Voting Laws And Say They Are Being Purged Over Race.
I am tired of naysayers making cancer comparisons. We need more Americans to be organized, to raise their voices and march with John Lewis in support of fair and free elections - not chemotherapy, except for those who need it. This is no time for sad songs, Hell No!
Put on your walking shoes, make phone calls, talk to friends, family and neighbors, scrutinize, organize and sing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4cknWqVnVg
https://fairfight.com/
https://www.lwv.org/
https://www.rockthevote.org/
https://www.brennancenter.org/
Fern, I think the succinct way of rephrasing what Eric was saying, is that the Democrats are fighting a defensive war.
It's the hand they were dealt: they are trying to defend democracy from an absolutely demented attack by rabid, screaming, fascists who honestly don't care what comes after. They just want to burn down the country, in the name of whatever, and install their totem in the high place.
That's right Joseph. It is also correct that the major factors, which have put put us where we are have not been strongly and succinctly spelled out to the American public. Our numbers in the majority are part of our offense. Our obstacles in terms of Dark money; deep economic and social disparity based on the last 40 plus years; the media echo chamber; the Electoral College, redistricting, Mitch McConnell and political corruption -- the forces against the American people need to be clearly depicted. Frequent temperature taking as way to assess this war against Democracy is a form of self-indulgence, which I cannot encourage. The people have to know what this is about, understand the filibuster and how the voter suppression laws are against all of us. Democracy is still a word to many people; it's too vague. Democracy must be made synonymous with 'we the people' with US in a real sense. The case has not been made. The clearer the message the better the response.
Fern: MSNBC and CNN have been trying almost twenty-four hours a day to make the case you say must be made. I don't know how much clearer their messaging can be. The "forces against the American people" exist only because our democratic principles permit them to exist. In China or Russia they would not exist, but using their methods to solve the problem would be self-defeating.
Jack, You saw what the Texas Democrats did, and we need many more brave, surprising and truth telling actions. National, state, local political actions, community and grassroots organizations, college campus groups and high school students --- you haven't seen anything yet --- claiming our rights in countless ways. Think about it as our productions for the survival of democracy in the USA.
Yes, an effective message is essential, but the real problem is the advantages given to the white electorate by the Constitution and extreme gerrymandering. We have the numbers, but with no room to spare and getting worse as we speak because of voter suppression laws. We need billions in well targeted funding for massive, well-organized get-out-the-vote efforts. Without that, it’s curtains for US democracy in 2022.
Rex, the MESSAGE, champions of democracy, money, organization, strategy, committed citizens and timing are all essential. You and I are White, so don't count most of us as anti-democratic. Keep your curtains on your own windows, please.
The time to become really, really, worried is when they start openly wearing armbands ... but then it will be too late
Fern, at the risk of writing something unbecoming, I had a sort of epiphany last night when I saw the video on Maddow of the Texans who fled to fight injustice. If one could juxtaposition another video showing what they had left behind in the State Legislature, it would probably show a chamber filled with old, impotent, not very bright white guys, frustrated and foaming at the mouth...alongside two busloads of fired up and determined POC, WOMEN, and REAL MEN who are ready and willing to do whatever is necessary to protect voter rights.
Ellen, your vision was missing only one element, the empty seats in the chamber, which were occupied by the Democrats before they left. Those exuberant seats are now dancing and signing, "We Shall Overcome..." I can even hear Pete Seeger's voice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhnPVP23rzo
Better you than me pushing back on this one, Fern. I stand 1000% with you. And here you go….👏🏻👏🏻👏🏼👏🏼👏🏽👏🏽👏🏾👏🏾👏🏿👏🏿
Right on sisters and brothers!
Fern, I *did* mention the Texas Democrats, in particular their seeming leader interviewed by Rachel last night. You could look it up. :)
I applaud their action and wish that that kind of vigor was running the DOJ.
The other examples you mention are laudable and necessary. But until simple, dramatic retributive action is taken at the highest levels, the emboldening continues. You surely are noticing the in your face escalation of the other side.
Your tone is marvelously defiant. I love that and feel conflicted at the judgment I’m slowly being pushed towards. In January I sometimes felt like the only optimist. The way forward to obliterating Trumpism and forcing the Republicans seemed so clear and inevitable to me then. It looked like a slam dunk might come out of the 1/6 horror show.
Bit by bit my hopes diminished as I waited. Now we are six months out. I fear that the legal system and democratic norms may be too slow for the boots on the ground action by misguided and in many cases criminal actions.
I can’t march from Canada, still can’t even travel to the U.S. and my political contributions go to Canadian democratic causes. We have our issues.
Nonetheless, my hope is that you, and others of your fire and energy can start a bottom-up good conflagration.
Eric, You practically drowned the man you did not name, Texas State Representative Trey Martinez Fischer, in a flood of your tears or whatever smothered your 'declaration' of him. You sure didn't toot the horn for him or the notable band of Texas Democrats now in Washington, D.C.
Your hope that others and I start a 'good conflageration': 'an extensive fire which destroys a great deal of land or property' -- is never going to be on the agenda. On the other hand, if you ever have any spare cash, advocates of Democracy are encouraged to contribute to the work of Voting Rights Organizations here in the USA. Salud!
👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Christy, what are those hands doing?
They’re clapping. It’s a standing ovation! 😁
To Aretha!
I will write my postal cards, but I wish I had your fire.
She’s blowing a little O2 on all our embers 😁😁
You've got plenty of fire and clarity, and I could use more of both.
Your "too little, too late" message make sense. I think that too many Americans, including the Democratic Party, believe our country is basically a decent place, populated by decent people, who will be so repelled by the last ditch voter suppression tactics being used by the dying Republican Party at the State level and the gross Republican hypocrisy at the national level that they will turn out in massive numbers to repudiate them and save democracy. This will turn out to be as effective as crossing one's fingers and carrying about a rabbit's foot.
Jack, I agree 100%. As usual most Democrats think this will all pan out by itself because people are good. No they aren't and no it won't.
It's still well said!!
The wealthy are just eccentric, the poor are the crazy ones.
This seems like a variant of the "perpetual motion machine." It's a quite common thing for someone to claim, "I have a perpetual motion machine, and I want a patent." The patent examiner says, "Okay, show me how it works." The inventor says, "No way, you have to grant me a patent first." It's a plea for attention.
This is similar. These legalists (I won't call them attorneys) are saying, "We want our day in court: the election was corrupt." The judge says, "So show me some plausible evidence." The legalists say, "No way, you have to give me a trial date. THEN I'll show you the evidence." It is a plea for attention.
I this case, it's scripted and utterly false, because they know it will show up in the news, and THAT is exactly the attention they want.
All of them should be disbarred.
This has gone on for far too long. Our courts have tolerated this unprofessional behavior well beyond the limits of good sense.
Part of the intent behind the GRU's attacks on the West has been to undermine public confidence in our systems and in the democratic structure. As long as our courts let these baseless suits proceed and as long as they're treated as good-faith efforts instead of being abruptly slapped down and punished, the effort is a success. Confidence is undermined, and the bad guys appear legitimized. Our systems are based on "good faith" and that is being exploited as a weakness.
Even now, the former guy (Fat Donnie? Two-Scoops?) is pressing yet another lawsuit on spurious grounds; this time claiming a private business has trampled on his first amendment rights. The suit will lead nowhere, but the Big Lie gets perpetuated, time and resources will be consumed, and publicity will be generated.
It NEVER ends; it will keep on happening just as long as we allow it to continue.
As Michael Cohen said in his book, Disloyal, trump's m.o. was to get the lie out into the public and, as soon as the media picked it up, the masses would begin to believe it.
Goebels.
Constantly repeating works. And we can harness it. Build back better! For the people. And onward.
None of the courts let any of the 60 baseless suits proceed. Trump's Krakens were 0 for 60, even in courts with Trump-appointed judges.
And donations are encouraged....
One hundred percent!
Doug Mastriano wants to make a lot of noise and ruffle feathers so he and the rest of the Republican-lead PA legislature can put a 7 BILLION DOLLAR SURPLUS into a “Rainy Day Fund” - ie a political slush fund.
In PA, if a local government or school district collects more taxes than it spends, it can only hold a very small amount, unless there is a legitimate one-time project on the horizon, such as a new school, or a new police vehicle fleet. Otherwise, that money must go back to the taxpayers. So what are these guys doing with 7 BILLION DOLLARS? That’s the question PA residents should be focused on.
Probably into PACs not state coffers.
Oh it’ll be more sophisticated than that. The money will leak out into special projects whose recipients paid a fraction of that money into state rep campaigns. They print a boxful of yard signs, and they get a lucrative contract in return.
Extra money in the hands of legislators is like a clogged kitchen sink full of stinky water, where the clog is the legislature and the water is the money. Walk away, and the water disappears down the drain, and we are left with the stinky clog.