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Going out on a limb here...

— No red state that has enacted voter suppression laws will now rescind them based on the overwhelming and indisputable evidence they were duped into believing the Big Lie.

— Not a penny will be returned to the MAGAs who donated $250 million to Trump's non-existent election defense fund.

On a brighter note, Trump and his fellow fraudsters are imagining with more frequency what life behind bars will be like. It will be worse than they think.

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Jun 14, 2022·edited Jun 14, 2022

So, despite the fact that people like Stepien KNOW they are supporting bullshit and testify under oath they supported bullshit they continue to work for candidates who are knowingly spreading bullshit. How can this possibly be legal?

The millions trump raised under false pretenses–isn't that considered wire fraud, mail fraud or some such thing?

Updated: I know wire fraud was brought up in the Letter. As usual, I can't wrap my head around how some people get away with grafting and grafting their entire lives. In reality I know how but sometimes I'm naive enough to think this time they won't get away with it. As Mike S Upstate NY says, rich white men do whatever they want [and get away with it].

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"Notably, the committee itself is measured, polite, and serious, demonstrating to viewers what hearings used to be before they became ways to produce sound bites for right-wing media." Observing these fine representatives and the attorneys at the depositions gave me hope today. I don't know the outcome of the upcoming elections and whether Republicans will have rigged the game so that they can't be overcome -- for now. But I had forgotten how many decent people there are in the world, doing their professional best with courage to serve a higher purpose. I realized that I've been focusing too much on the corrupt, their zombie followers and those who've tuned out. That's a downer if you're trying to fight back against them day by day. Thank you Professor Richardson and all of you for doing what you do and being who you are to bring light and decency to this world.

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Rachel put forward an interesting possibility tonight in her analysis.

While mail-in voting had traditionally favored Republicans, with blue states having expanded mail voting because of COVID. Trump saw pushing his people to reject mail-in voting and to vote on election day, would expand the "red mirage," and give him more argument to cancel out mail voting. She thinks he decided it was easier or more permanent to steal the election to begin with than to try to win outright. I think it's an interesting hypothesis. That he was planning a coup to end voting period. President for Life.

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This was another amazing day for the J6 Committee unrolling the story around Jan 6. That DT actually made losing part of his grift ripping off small donors to the tune of $250 Million. It is so refreshing to have a sober respectful hearing that tells the story so well. Applause to Speaker Pelosi for rejecting Jim Jordan and Jim Banks from the Committee knowing what a chaotic circus they would make it into. Wish they'd stick to this kind of format in the future. The 5 minutes teeter totter between the two parties makes for pathetic disjoint TV. Will definitely continue to be glued to the hearings. The Committee gets an A+ in story telling.

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It’s important to recognize that even as a candidate before the 2016 election, Donald Trump was a rogue who had no interest in governing in the tradition of American democracy and yet he was elected and still has a staunch following. It speaks to the lack of education about government—what it means, how it can help its citizens, and how easily it can slip away if it’s citizens don’t take it seriously. The fact that Republican politicians still milk the Big Lie for votes bodes Ill for recovery and for the continued existence of democracy. When blatant lies are perpetrated by those who take an oath to support the Constitution, we’re on a very slippery slope.

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Thanks for another eloquent summary. Amazing how many people are saying _under oath_ what they did not say when it could have changed the course of political life and more. Shame on them. I didn't know the USFL/NFL story; Trump has been a con man forever---but why have people continued to believe him---although he does have an amazing "presence" if you look at videos and don't get turned off---think about the way he used nicknames to reduce people to virtually nothing (Jeb Bush and others). Well I go on too long. However, it looks to me like it may be simple wire fraud that brings a lot of people down--- Whatever one thinks of her politics, Liz Cheney is terrific in the hearings!!! Fierce prosecutor manner. It works. Peace and Courage. Looking forward to more hearings!!

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Jun 14, 2022·edited Jun 14, 2022

There is enough evidence of criminality in today's narrative to bury a multitude of political parties. I've been a student of American history since my childhood, and I have never seen any political party that has accumulated a history of wrongdoing and malfeasance that equals the one that Donald Trump co-opted and created. I've been cogitating about what it is and conservative orthodoxy that makes them so damn vulnerable to corruption. I think it has to do with something to do with their fear of weakness, and their instinctive distrust of other people. Conservatives are often the first to insist on the rule of law, which, in and of itself is unobjectionable; what they really want is a monopoly on the 'gotcha' laws that allow immoral things to be done under the rubric that they are 'strictly legal'. It is the law of the dominant against everyone else. Donald Trump thinks of himself as something like a Cosimo D' Medici, except that he's too stupid, and to careless to survive in Renaissance Florence. What is striking is that Trump proved to be so skilled at co-opting the institutions of government, bending them to his will. This is the legacy of the Reagan Revolution, its worship of power and office for their own sake. Reagan was held in check by a Democratic Congress. During his reign as Speaker, Newt Gingrich destroyed the honor of the House of Representatives. Mitch McConnell destroyed the honor of the Senate. And none of them were strong enough to withstand the rapaciousness and destructiveness of Donald Trump. So, we can see how the party of Trump is nothing more than a gang of thieves, devoid of patriotism, and any claim to decency and public morality. All I can say is that I am thankful that I don't work there anymore; I couldn't look at myself in the mirror. I worked before administrations in the 1970s and 1980s, three of which were Republican. None of them were as bad and demoralized as the Trump administration.

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“One of the key points the hearings raise is that all these senior officials who, now under oath, are saying that Trump lied and attacked our democracy against their advice and evidence, kept their mouths shut until forced to speak. They could—and should—have spoken up before January 6.”

As I watched and listened yesterday morning I became more and more angry at the glaring hypocrisy of all those Republican “patriots’” public silence in the weeks and months after the election and leading up to Jan. 6.

Cowards! All of them, especially Barr.

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Jun 14, 2022·edited Jun 14, 2022

A. brilliant précis of today’s hearing, Your prize line tonight, Heather … “But get this: the so-called Election Defense Fund was never real.” Love it!

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We need to make sure that everyone who supported the Big Lie is removed from office and exempt from running for any public office.

Those who practice moral gymnastics and fictional "facts" are a cancer in our society. They need to be excised and closely watched for the rest of their lives.

We've never truly been a country of white hats, but we were headed that way. Now we have the red caps. If you are familiar with the Red Cap mythos, you know they dipped their caps in blood. The MAGAs seem to be of the same ilk.

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I'm sure I oversimplify, but in contrast to the usual narrative that modern Republicans "hate government" or want "small government", it seemed to me from the get-go with Reagan, that the real target for destruction has always been democracy, not government per se, which the modern "GOP" has often wielded heavy-handedly. From systematic voting restrictions to the coup attempt, it has been access and benefits for ALL the people that have been sidelined and diminished; abandonment of the common weal; as their COVID and climate policy vividly demonstrate. Jan 6th followed a decades long and systematic move away from democratic principles, which while extreme, have to a large degree have already penetrated the public's sense of normalcy.

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A Way Out of No Way: A Memoir of Truth, Transformation, and the New American Story https://a.co/d/e3kMFPw

Folks, out today is a Black man’s truth - and he’s running to keep his Senate seat. Georgia’s white racists will join with Trump supporters and January 6 racists and Ted Cruz and DeSantis and Josh Hawley - all American racists - to suppress Black voters nationwide. Buy A Way Out of No Way and read it. MLK’s church and this author are at one with the racist truth of America and our Republican Party tonight. These racists prefer guns to Blacks and Hispanic children. Senator Warnock is the light, or there will be darkness in the land and more daily mass murders of Blacks and the folks with color in their beautiful skin. Heather Cox Richardson got it right tonight - finally. The slaughter she describes - finally - is one of many - then and now.

A Way Out of No Way: A Memoir of Truth, Transformation, and the New American Story https://a.co/d/e3kMFPw

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My initial reaction to the news that Bill Stepien was with his wife who was in labor was that he must have arranged for her labor to be induced so he could have a good excuse to avoid testifying in person. I am that skeptical of the GOP.

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If the JAN6 case had started with the D.O.J. and with closed-door grand jury hearings, we'd be hearing nothing about Trump and his minions. By allowing the JAN6 Committee to go first, while in secret the D.O.J. is building its own case, the country gets to see the evidence put on the table and hear the voices of the witnesses.

If there are to be bombshells, it will be in the last two hearings. The JAN6 Committee can only RECOMMEND that the D.O.J. indict Trump and his minions, people like Giuliani and Bannon and Eastman and Jeffrey Clark and Roger Stone, and the Big Money that funded Trump's gathering on the Ellipse on January 6th, and the Republican representatives like Mo Brooks who led reconnaissance tours at the Capitol in the days before the siege.

My strategy is that of George Carlin... start now to distance myself from the outcome. I know there is a good chance that the Democrats will lose the House and Senate in November, probably because of inflation, something Biden can do little to ease, and because of red-state cheating. That means we must suffer another round of right-wing in-your-face fascism. Unless, of course, the aliens get their green fannies down here ASAP and set things straight.

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