Today’s news all centered around the Big Lie that former president Donald Trump won the 2020 election. Yesterday, Trump spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), where the audience cheered through his meandering speech, in which he insisted that he won the 2020 election. “The entire system was rigged against the American people and rigged against a fair, decent and honest election,” he said. CNN’s Daniel Dale, who has fact-checked Trump’s speeches for years, called the speech “untethered to reality.”
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!
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.
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?
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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….
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.
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 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?
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.
HCR news: on Forbes 50 over 50
https://www.forbes.com/profile/heather-cox-richardson/?list=50over50%2F&sh=6f94e69a4ce4&fbclid=IwAR1rNOVbky9J3LOfxj6r6Qxap_MWmP7DiuRAgNygIXxZavHKrpQI0x-ZqiM
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.