Professor Richardson, your Letter today reads like a treatment for a film – a scenario for the overthrow of the American government, replete with nefarious characters, the designers of the plot, the strategies coordinated by diverse characters on multiple fronts (legal teams in Washington, rightwing militias in the hinterlands, insiders …
Professor Richardson, your Letter today reads like a treatment for a film – a scenario for the overthrow of the American government, replete with nefarious characters, the designers of the plot, the strategies coordinated by diverse characters on multiple fronts (legal teams in Washington, rightwing militias in the hinterlands, insiders – senators and representatives – influential power brokers – even the wife of a sitting Supreme Court justice – and of course, the president who, for reasons that will be revealed in the third act, cannot afford to lose. And the juiciest element for this reviewer – the unknown caller engaged in a cryptic conversation with the president just before the 7-hour blackout during which the Capital was stormed.
Jonathan V. Last did an article in Bulwark+ yesterday on Ginnie’s “power”. Evidently she is tolerated but not respected among the elite. I’ll go find it.
“Here is a secret no one in Washington is willing to say out loud: Ginni Thomas is an idiot. The only reason she was texting the president’s chief of staff instead of being the angry cat lady on Facebook is because she married a man who got himself appointed to the Supreme Court.
The Thomases were never a duo of intellectual equals, or a power couple where each member had their own thing going on, and where the merger of the two was like Voltron coming together.
This isn’t James Carville and Mary Matalin. Or Norman Podhoretz and Midge Decter. Or Irving Kristol and Gertrude Himmelfarb. Or any number of other famous couples. Heck, this isn’t even Sonny and Cher.
No. The Thomases are more like Ivanka and Jared: The senior partner in the arrangement held a position of such high importance that their society scrabbled around to find something for the dimmer partner to do in order to make them feel important. In Jared’s case, that has been destroying newspapers, losing money on real estate, and being tasked with brokering peace in the Middle East.
For Ginni Thomas it has meant creating makework for her at various conservative “activist” groups and letting her participate in listservs with people who have real jobs.1
I got my hands on some of the widely circulated emails Mrs. Thomas sent to one of these listservs and they are illustrative of the level at which she operates. Some examples:
From: Ginni Thomas <vthomas@*****.co>
Date: Sun, Oct 30, 2016 at 7:57 AM
Subject: WOW - Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke!!!
Compelling man. IMHO.
Well read.
Inspiring.
Please consider helping more eyes and ears use this video interview to absorb what Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke is saying about Trump, America, the media and what is needed right now.
P.S. As the Democrats feign new outrage about what FBI Director James Comey did to the Clinton investigation on Friday, recall the seemingly FAR MORE flimsy and actual indictment by Lawrence Walsh of Caspar Weinburger 24 years ago today ... to no discernable Democrat outrage then... a last minute controversy many believe caused Bill Clinton to beat George Bush.2 Just sayin'.
From: Ginni <vthomas@*****.co>
Date: Sun, Oct 1, 2017 at 7:44 AM
Subject:Rush Limbaugh’s Bo Snerdley Takes On NFL Protests And White Privilege
WOW!
Please listen to Rush Limbaugh's amazing call screener, James Golden, AKA "Bo Snerdley" on the NFL flap, white privilege and the Republican Congress!
Would love your help on social media with getting it heard by others too!
Cheers,
Ginni
From: Ginni <vthomas@*****.co>
Date: Sun, Feb 11, 2018 at 8:01 PM
Subject: James O'Keefe: talks of the courage it takes to tell the truth today -- my FINAL Daily Caller interviewee!
With one amazing 34 year old warrior, James O'Keefe, I end a nearly 7 year old series of bringing leaders who offer hope, information and inspiration to you through The Daily Caller. James is the perfect exclamation mark to my tenure with The Daily Caller News Foundation. Please enjoy and circulate, as James should be prayed for, supported and encouraged by all of us! Buy his book too!
It has been a joy to interview hundreds of people for your consumption. I am using the next few weeks to explore some options to keep me busy! Let me know if you have suggestions, as I love connecting leaders in the movement and listening to the grassroots!
Cheers, Ginni
From: Ginni <vthomas@*****.co>
Date: Sun, Jan 21, 2018 at 2:50 PM
Subject: Please take time to listen to Joe diGenova about the weaponization of law enforcement and intelligence to protect HRC and destroy DJT
Beyond the #SchumerShutdown....Please take time to listen and pass on this compelling Joe diGenova video, which is going pretty dang viral today (from my standards)! A Facebook friend said this today:
Barry Dale shared Ginni Thomas's post.
Must See. Every American needs to be aware of its seriousness.
My friend and fellow Patriot, Ginni Lamp Thomas, exposes what is known, what is suspected with confidence, and what is likely and unlikely to be proven.
Folks, if this plays out as seems likely, this is WAY worse than Watergate even if a former president cannot be definitively connected to it:
Traffic today keeps the post up high where it gets natural traffic at Daily Caller, and THIS IS EDUCATIONAL!!
Everything about these emails—from the bizarre capitalization and punctuation,3 to the references to “Facebook friends,” to the obsession with talk radio and her genuflection before grifters like O’Keefe, Clarke, and diGenova shows that what we’re dealing with isn’t an intellectual, or even a smooth operator, but a Boomer with an internet connection, an important spouse, and too much time on her hands.
To me, Ginnie is reminiscent of Martha Mitchell, wife of AG John Mitchell under Pres. Nixon. When Martha started drinking, she would rant on and on about what was going on in the WH. (She certainly had inside info from husband John.) I believe Nixon and John Mitchell promoted the idea that Martha was ill, and there was no substance in her ramblings.
With so many bad actors on so many fronts not even acting in concert with one another, but pursuing their particular slice of an agenda, it’s hard to see - almost unimaginable to be truthful - how this doesn’t veer out of control somewhere with disastrous consequences.
I have in my mind’s eye a world map with dozens of arrows, on each of which is painted “THIS WAY TO UNHINGED”. All point to America.
Mark Burnett and Greg Zucker get all the credit for giving 🍊💩 the platform to run for President. From that point on, we have to credit the Republican Party for putting a lifetime New York Democrat in the Oval Office. Remember that circus of R’s, that collection of clowns running in 2016? If anyone had been able to be objective, I think Michael Moore was the only one who called it, we would’ve seen how the backlash against the Obamas was inevitable. If we didn’t see it then, all of us certainly see it now. Jan. 6. Lie cheat steal politically, rampant abuse and twisting of the law to take us backwards.
74 million people, just under 50% of the electorate, voted for him in 2020 as well. Record turnout. My dad was one of them. A huge block of this country is obstinately stuck in the past, social lepers, the loonies of your arrows, Eric. I think the 2020 election might have been the turning point from white male (racist sexist, antisemitic anti-LGBT+ millionaires-dominant Christians-superior et al) Fred Flintstone society to society of diversity and equality, the society that you and I endorse (I’m not just speaking to Eric here, rather to each of you). The difference between now and 2016 is that we’ve had our eyes opened. No more illusions about how underhanded these creeps are, and how prevalent they are. American society is contaminated.
Well written Roland. I share your concern and disappointment with American society. On the one hand I am all on board with free and fair elections, for all, but this block of citizens is unhinged for various reasons none of them good. A dangerous block of voters who like you said came out in record numbers in 2020 to vote for a clearly corrupt and soulless and inept president. They would do it again, I think, even after what has been revealed by the 1/6 investigation. And, have paved the way for victory with the voter suppression laws being passed. There will always be unsavory elements to a human society, so they must be outvoted. But this - this unsavory element is a very large segment of our country. It's the most revealing political realization I have had in my life. I don't know what to do about it except cry out, and vote like my life depends on it.
I have to believe many who voted for him realize the error of their ways but some days my belief is waning. I also need to believe that Merrick Garland will push back these unconstitutional voter suppression laws. Who knows what the SCOTUS will do if anything.
The DOJ has been a force to tip the scales in the wrong direction for American democracy in the last two administrations.
The misdeeds of Sessions and Barr were open acts of commission. They have been documented ad nauseam and it is sufficient to dismiss their actions as playing corruptly by the corrupt rules of a corrupt President.
The new administration brought in Merrick Garland, an institutionalist par excellence working ever so carefully in a charged atmosphere.
The problem is that America needed an appointee who: a) saw that the institutions needed massive shoring up b) was unafraid of the risks associated with overshooting the target and c) was subsequently able to turn that charged atmosphere into a reality where the atmosphere was set by the types of criminal charges in law where they were most critically warranted after January 6/21 - the Administration figures, including Trump who plotted and did their damnedest to execute a coup against this country’s democracy.
We are 15 months into the tenure of Garland and not only have there been no charges of significant bad actors, there has almost certainly been no criminal investigation launched. The technical term for this grotesque failure is fecklessness.
Yes Merrick made a visit to the kindergarten class to which we all apparently belong now and patiently explained that investigations are built from the bottom up, getting people to flip is an art form etc etc. He also vaguely promised to follow the trail wherever it went, as did Lisa Monaco this week.
Garland’s condescending pitch was wrong. In this case you have the bottom level of clowns and villains who attacked the Capitol. 750 of them *have* been investigated and charged. Probably 745 of them knew nobody on whom they could have flipped.
At the same time there is no sign - none - that Trump, Eastman, Giuliani, Meadows, Bannon et al are being investigated for their much more important role in organizing and attempting to put a legal gloss on the destruction of America. The hackers and duffers did their coup de théatre on cue on J6. Before that, the really vile and dangerous stuff was done.
We are now 15 months away from that and there hasn’t been a hint of an investigation. You could argue, and I wouldn’t disagree, that the DOJ could easily have operated in stealth mode. But the criminals are serial babblers. Had any grand jury been empaneled, somebody would have let it out. If 20 people had been subpoenaed for their role in the coup, nineteen of them would have cried foul in the media. Experienced prosecutors with impeccable reputations - Preet Bharara, Joyce Vance, and Dan Goldman have made this point publicly at their peril. They have reputations to protect and cannot go into bug-eyed rants in public.
In fifteen months, how many bad actors and witnesses have forgotten critical details? How many scoundrels have coordinated their stories?
A judge in California tossed aside a civil suit by John Eastman who is still wanting to hold on to documents. In his disposition he provided a virtual road map for the DOJ to use in bringing this house of cards down. If nothing else, perhaps Garland can be embarrassed into launching an investigation into one of the seminal political crimes in America’s history.
President Biden must replace Merrick Garland as soon as possible, using whatever rationale he decides on. The DOJ is in danger of becoming not just a witness to the fall of America, but a silent actor in it.
You’re welcome, Gus. I’ve screwed up a few times. We’re still waiting to see if my prediction (hope, wish, prayer) ever comes true that the U.S. Congress goes blue the way California has gone supermajority Democratic. I do believe it will happen eventually, but no guarantee it will be in my lifetime. If recent history holds firm, Congress and the WH could keep flipping back and forth between D and R. But the trend is towards more and more blue.
The rise of right wing militias. This is augmented by Russian active measures to boost participation and radicalization mostly online. And it’s crazy. It’s a President working with McViegh and Nichols types. Unacceptable.
I suspect that by this time Putin was beginning to distance himself from Trump, having already gotten what he was looking for. He would not have wanted to be linked to what T et al were doing, because he had plans of his own. Interesting that as Putin pulled back from a failed US Presidency, he further isolated himself from reality in his own fantasy of a Russian empire. And from recent reports, it sounds like it is backfiring big time. One can only hope.
His ass is grass. That’s my opinion, and I’m sticking with it. I’m glad he and his military are incompetent at war. So now it’s desperation mode, shoot indiscriminately, because every successful strategy is failing
My Quess is Banon. That’s his link to Robert Mercer, the money, the financier, the Libertarian. And I’m sure Hanity/Murdoch.
We should make it illegal for our leadership to use burner phones. But can the receiver of the call from a burner phone be tracked? Who in congress was receiving calls from a burner phone?
Unfortunately, Ted, the most likely scenario is that both ends of the conversations were using burners, and probably had several on hand. Burners typically are destroyed and discarded. I keep wondering about this: witnesses at white house describe the intense interest Trump had in WATCHING the insurrection on tv but his total lack of interest in listening to info from his advisors, who had to pry him away to get him to make a "plea" to his followers to go home. Wimpy performance that had to be recorded several times before they got one that his advisors (who were basically frantic by this time) felt they could release. So I'm wondering if Trump (confess I had to stop myself from typing Fuhrer... ) simply was out of it during this period of time: his only reality was what he saw on tv. He probably even took a nap. He doesn't deal with reality very well, and napping is a good way to dissociate oneself when thing have clearly gone awry.
Your burner hypothesis seems highly plausible. Still, wouldn’t the phone conversations on those devices be captured somewhere in cellular data land? 🤷🏼♀️ Unlike fuhrer drumpf, I really know very little about burners.
While there’s nothing truly funny here, I got a little chuckle over “ He doesn't deal with reality very well!!”
As I understand it, you have to have at least one of the burners in functioning condition, or certain parts that an expert can siphon data from. That is why they are generally destroyed before discarding (usually in a hard to find location). BTW, not my burner "hypothesis". Lots of people talking about that to explain not only Trump's vacant spot, but it is known that many of the people involved in planning used disposable phones. I guess not all of them knew they needed to be destroyed before discarding.
Sadly, the reality is going to be more awful and scandalous than the Hollywood fiction ever could be!
'Russian state TV featured a Russian government official calling for 'regime change' in the United States, asking the people of the U.S. to replace President Biden with Trump 'to again help our partner Trump to become President.'"
Yeah, they haven't been shy about helping installing tfg in the WH. And back in Russia, their politicians brag about the tfg winning and their role in making that happen. Only Putin denies it to western outlets, but they use it domestically back in Russia as an ace in their pocket. TFG as president is the biggest accomplishment in the history of cyber warfare. Carl von Clausewitz would give Putin an A+ in getting your enemy to do what you want, without force, and without war. The goal of Putin is not to defeat the west. He doesn't have that much power nor strength. His goal is split apart the EU, cut Brittan off, cut the US off from the EU an Nato. Make the West more like Russia. Just bring them down enough to be on plane with Russia. This is the "EurAsia" policy. Putin also mixes in the Fascist and Nationalism flavor too.
Rowshan, that sounds more like a Russian bureaucrat dutifully following a script that he doesn't know is already outdated. But it is certainly revealing something about top level Russian thinking. I don't think it is a "payoff" so much as it was an attempted distraction from Ukraine, which does not seem to be going well for Russia. More info about young Russian soldiers going home, destroying their equipment first, or simply leaving it for Ukraine fighters. Untrained (also young) officers without a clue what their government expected: thus some doing nothing and some simply lobbing shells at easy targets. It's pathetic, at best. Some Russians with family in Ukraine are leaving Russia in disgust, some with the intent of actually going to Ukraine. It's chaos.
Putin will have to find a way out of this that leaves his ego intact, or he may escalate to salvage it. Same as Trump, but our system limited Trump to less lethal avenues of action (courts, lies, "executive privilege", back-stabbing, etc.) As designed by our founders. Something to think about.
Word is that a substantial portion of Russian people want Putin to leave Ukraine. Most Western media still focusing on what comes out of Kremlin, but there are non-profit and independent journalists and sources who work quietly to acquire info at ground level and get it out. It's starting to be picked up by some mainstream media now.
What took them so long? Combo of under staffing and lazy journalism: follow the crowd. Same thing that caused some of them to ignore Biden's strong, thoughtful speech to focus on one line that was taken out of context and immediately labeled "gaffe". That successfully diverted coverage and public attention away from the speech itself, and generated unwarranted speculation. Media watchers have been calling this out for a while. In the meantime, good journalism is ignored because too many of us bite into the clickbait.
So Ted. I respect your advice. Tell me how to become a member of the “Cabal.” Would I have, to take classes too, as you can see I have no real, what is thought as class act intellectual qualities. You might say I am classless. Would there be other things I need to do?
Our founders worried about this, Madison warned of it in the Federalist #68.
"Nothing was more to be desired, than that every practicable obstacle should be opposed to cabal, intrigue and corruption. These most deadly adversaries of republican government might naturally have been expected to make their approaches from more than one quarter, but chiefly from the desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant in our councils. How could they better gratify this, than by raising a creature of their own to the chief magistracy of the union? But the convention have guarded against all danger of this sort with the most provident and judicious attention. They have not made the appointment of the president to depend on any8 pre-existing bodies of men who might be tampered with before hand to prostitute their votes; but they have referred it in the first instance to an immediate act of the people of America, to be exerted in the choice of persons for the temporary and sole purpose of making the appointment. And they have excluded from eligibility to this trust, all those who from situation might be suspected of too great devotion to the president in office. No senator, representative, or other person holding a place of trust or profit under the United States, can be of the number of the electors. Thus, without corrupting the body of the people, the immediate agents in the election will at least enter upon the task, free from any sinister byass. Their transient existence, and their detached situation, already taken notice of, afford9 a satisfactory prospect of their continuing so, to the conclusion of it. The business of corruption, when it is to embrace so considerable a number of men, requires time, as well as means. Nor would it be found easy suddenly to embark them, dispersed as they would be over thirteen states, in any combinations, founded upon motives, which though they could not properly be denominated corrupt, might yet be of a nature to mislead them from their duty."
Read it in "The Road to Unfreedom" chapter 6, Tim Snyder. Our current struggles are exactly what Madison warned about in Fed #68.
Everyone should read The Road to Unfreedom again. I can not recommend this book enough. It will be one of the most important history books for understanding the world from Putin 1999, Ukraine, Europe, America, Rise of DT, to 2022+.
The flood of slime flowing from the Trump administration is so awkwardly peopled with shallow entities with loathsome attributes I doubt the mangled mess could ever be developed as fiction.
Absent all responsibility and cynical disregard for the Law the chaotic stream of unreality developed by these criminal sycophants can only be described by Historians like Heather.
Just as the more sinister aspects of Watergate still emerge the Trumpian Coup attempt will take decades to explain.
Art The deadly duplicity of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold could be a primer for a would-be author of a fictional account of Watergate or the ‘Trumpian Coup attempt.’
Screenwriters have already changed their scripts umpteen times just to keep up. By now though, they are all pitching Meryl Streep to play Ginni Thomas!
Sharon Personally I believe that Oswald acted alone in the assassination of JFK, but I still wonder who was involved in the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Regarding Watergate, PBS had a Watergate 30 Years Later documentary in which Magruder stated that he heard Nixon tell John Mitchell to bug the Democratic National Committee at Watergate.
"...the unknown caller engaged in a cryptic conversation with the president just before the 7-hour blackout during which the Capital was stormed."
Answer:
Holder-to-this-day of Top Secret clearance Senior Advisor to the Unpresidented tRump Jared Corey Kushner, a most unscrupulous landlord and major league Scum Bag!
I feared that right after tfg was declared winner in Nov. 2015, take the country down that is. That he had always been a vapid, racist twit always blowing his own horn and declaring bankruptcies and it just blew my mind to hear otherwise intelligent people say they’d be voting for him because Hillary was “so awful”. They had taken leave of all their senses. As time progressed, some even admitted they had 🙄. Duh!
In my mind's eye, the ending for this reality "film" has always been trump and all his corrupt minions looking up out of a foxhole at medical personnel holding the strait jackets and taking them away "ha, ha, ha, hee, hee, ho, ho to the funny farm . . . ." 🎼
If a prominent fiction writer had taken the story of Watergate or BIG LIE/1/6 Capitol Building insurrection to a major publisher before these events actually unfolded, the manuscript would have been summarily rejected. Even John Le Carre or Ian Fleming had insufficient imagination to concoct ‘the president bugged himself’ and ‘the president refused to accept the fraud-less results of a presidential election.’
Professor Richardson, your Letter today reads like a treatment for a film – a scenario for the overthrow of the American government, replete with nefarious characters, the designers of the plot, the strategies coordinated by diverse characters on multiple fronts (legal teams in Washington, rightwing militias in the hinterlands, insiders – senators and representatives – influential power brokers – even the wife of a sitting Supreme Court justice – and of course, the president who, for reasons that will be revealed in the third act, cannot afford to lose. And the juiciest element for this reviewer – the unknown caller engaged in a cryptic conversation with the president just before the 7-hour blackout during which the Capital was stormed.
Great fiction – awful reality.
The unknown caller. Stone? Cruz? Manafort? Koch? Mercer? Murdoch? …Vladimir perhaps?
Thomas? :)
Ginnie or Clarence?
Would have to be Ginnie! She obviously wears the pants in that family.
Jonathan V. Last did an article in Bulwark+ yesterday on Ginnie’s “power”. Evidently she is tolerated but not respected among the elite. I’ll go find it.
“Here is a secret no one in Washington is willing to say out loud: Ginni Thomas is an idiot. The only reason she was texting the president’s chief of staff instead of being the angry cat lady on Facebook is because she married a man who got himself appointed to the Supreme Court.
The Thomases were never a duo of intellectual equals, or a power couple where each member had their own thing going on, and where the merger of the two was like Voltron coming together.
This isn’t James Carville and Mary Matalin. Or Norman Podhoretz and Midge Decter. Or Irving Kristol and Gertrude Himmelfarb. Or any number of other famous couples. Heck, this isn’t even Sonny and Cher.
No. The Thomases are more like Ivanka and Jared: The senior partner in the arrangement held a position of such high importance that their society scrabbled around to find something for the dimmer partner to do in order to make them feel important. In Jared’s case, that has been destroying newspapers, losing money on real estate, and being tasked with brokering peace in the Middle East.
For Ginni Thomas it has meant creating makework for her at various conservative “activist” groups and letting her participate in listservs with people who have real jobs.1
I got my hands on some of the widely circulated emails Mrs. Thomas sent to one of these listservs and they are illustrative of the level at which she operates. Some examples:
From: Ginni Thomas <vthomas@*****.co>
Date: Sun, Oct 30, 2016 at 7:57 AM
Subject: WOW - Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke!!!
Compelling man. IMHO.
Well read.
Inspiring.
Please consider helping more eyes and ears use this video interview to absorb what Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke is saying about Trump, America, the media and what is needed right now.
http://dailycaller.com/2016/10/29/sheriff-clarke-americas-survival-depends-on-donald-trump-video/
Thank you! Ginni
P.S. As the Democrats feign new outrage about what FBI Director James Comey did to the Clinton investigation on Friday, recall the seemingly FAR MORE flimsy and actual indictment by Lawrence Walsh of Caspar Weinburger 24 years ago today ... to no discernable Democrat outrage then... a last minute controversy many believe caused Bill Clinton to beat George Bush.2 Just sayin'.
From: Ginni <vthomas@*****.co>
Date: Sun, Oct 1, 2017 at 7:44 AM
Subject:Rush Limbaugh’s Bo Snerdley Takes On NFL Protests And White Privilege
WOW!
Please listen to Rush Limbaugh's amazing call screener, James Golden, AKA "Bo Snerdley" on the NFL flap, white privilege and the Republican Congress!
http://dailycaller.com/2017/09/30/rush-limbaughs-bo-snerdley-takes-on-nfl-protests-and-white-privilege-video/
Would love your help on social media with getting it heard by others too!
Cheers,
Ginni
From: Ginni <vthomas@*****.co>
Date: Sun, Feb 11, 2018 at 8:01 PM
Subject: James O'Keefe: talks of the courage it takes to tell the truth today -- my FINAL Daily Caller interviewee!
With one amazing 34 year old warrior, James O'Keefe, I end a nearly 7 year old series of bringing leaders who offer hope, information and inspiration to you through The Daily Caller. James is the perfect exclamation mark to my tenure with The Daily Caller News Foundation. Please enjoy and circulate, as James should be prayed for, supported and encouraged by all of us! Buy his book too!
It has been a joy to interview hundreds of people for your consumption. I am using the next few weeks to explore some options to keep me busy! Let me know if you have suggestions, as I love connecting leaders in the movement and listening to the grassroots!
Cheers, Ginni
From: Ginni <vthomas@*****.co>
Date: Sun, Jan 21, 2018 at 2:50 PM
Subject: Please take time to listen to Joe diGenova about the weaponization of law enforcement and intelligence to protect HRC and destroy DJT
Beyond the #SchumerShutdown....Please take time to listen and pass on this compelling Joe diGenova video, which is going pretty dang viral today (from my standards)! A Facebook friend said this today:
Barry Dale shared Ginni Thomas's post.
Must See. Every American needs to be aware of its seriousness.
My friend and fellow Patriot, Ginni Lamp Thomas, exposes what is known, what is suspected with confidence, and what is likely and unlikely to be proven.
Folks, if this plays out as seems likely, this is WAY worse than Watergate even if a former president cannot be definitively connected to it:
http://dailycaller.com/2018/01/20/obama-administration-plot-exonerate-hillary/
Traffic today keeps the post up high where it gets natural traffic at Daily Caller, and THIS IS EDUCATIONAL!!
Everything about these emails—from the bizarre capitalization and punctuation,3 to the references to “Facebook friends,” to the obsession with talk radio and her genuflection before grifters like O’Keefe, Clarke, and diGenova shows that what we’re dealing with isn’t an intellectual, or even a smooth operator, but a Boomer with an internet connection, an important spouse, and too much time on her hands.
Not an intellectual is an understatement. The two of them would not make a dim bulb together. And yes, wow.
Yes, I read that also. I am glad you shared this. My "like" doesn't work.
Heart isn't working on your comment. Dim bulb is putting it mildly.
WOW is right!!!!!! (Heart isn't working on your comment)
Indeed she does
To me, Ginnie is reminiscent of Martha Mitchell, wife of AG John Mitchell under Pres. Nixon. When Martha started drinking, she would rant on and on about what was going on in the WH. (She certainly had inside info from husband John.) I believe Nixon and John Mitchell promoted the idea that Martha was ill, and there was no substance in her ramblings.
Wow. I’m speechless.
Oh yes of course! Or Kavanaugh? Both? … oh no
Ginnie and Bret and Vlad, Oh My!!!
Rosalind, As dreadful and sick-making as the whole thing is, it is this particular Holy Trimity that has made my skin crawl.
me too, Dean
😂
Somewhere I read it was Kelly Loeffler fwiw. But I’m going with Bill Cosby.
😂
or maybe Ghislaine Maxwell
🤣
🤣
Probably one of the right-wing militia involved in the insurrection.
A lot more than one.
With so many bad actors on so many fronts not even acting in concert with one another, but pursuing their particular slice of an agenda, it’s hard to see - almost unimaginable to be truthful - how this doesn’t veer out of control somewhere with disastrous consequences.
I have in my mind’s eye a world map with dozens of arrows, on each of which is painted “THIS WAY TO UNHINGED”. All point to America.
What a Pandora’s box Trump unleashed.
Mark Burnett and Greg Zucker get all the credit for giving 🍊💩 the platform to run for President. From that point on, we have to credit the Republican Party for putting a lifetime New York Democrat in the Oval Office. Remember that circus of R’s, that collection of clowns running in 2016? If anyone had been able to be objective, I think Michael Moore was the only one who called it, we would’ve seen how the backlash against the Obamas was inevitable. If we didn’t see it then, all of us certainly see it now. Jan. 6. Lie cheat steal politically, rampant abuse and twisting of the law to take us backwards.
74 million people, just under 50% of the electorate, voted for him in 2020 as well. Record turnout. My dad was one of them. A huge block of this country is obstinately stuck in the past, social lepers, the loonies of your arrows, Eric. I think the 2020 election might have been the turning point from white male (racist sexist, antisemitic anti-LGBT+ millionaires-dominant Christians-superior et al) Fred Flintstone society to society of diversity and equality, the society that you and I endorse (I’m not just speaking to Eric here, rather to each of you). The difference between now and 2016 is that we’ve had our eyes opened. No more illusions about how underhanded these creeps are, and how prevalent they are. American society is contaminated.
Well written Roland. I share your concern and disappointment with American society. On the one hand I am all on board with free and fair elections, for all, but this block of citizens is unhinged for various reasons none of them good. A dangerous block of voters who like you said came out in record numbers in 2020 to vote for a clearly corrupt and soulless and inept president. They would do it again, I think, even after what has been revealed by the 1/6 investigation. And, have paved the way for victory with the voter suppression laws being passed. There will always be unsavory elements to a human society, so they must be outvoted. But this - this unsavory element is a very large segment of our country. It's the most revealing political realization I have had in my life. I don't know what to do about it except cry out, and vote like my life depends on it.
I have to believe many who voted for him realize the error of their ways but some days my belief is waning. I also need to believe that Merrick Garland will push back these unconstitutional voter suppression laws. Who knows what the SCOTUS will do if anything.
The DOJ has been a force to tip the scales in the wrong direction for American democracy in the last two administrations.
The misdeeds of Sessions and Barr were open acts of commission. They have been documented ad nauseam and it is sufficient to dismiss their actions as playing corruptly by the corrupt rules of a corrupt President.
The new administration brought in Merrick Garland, an institutionalist par excellence working ever so carefully in a charged atmosphere.
The problem is that America needed an appointee who: a) saw that the institutions needed massive shoring up b) was unafraid of the risks associated with overshooting the target and c) was subsequently able to turn that charged atmosphere into a reality where the atmosphere was set by the types of criminal charges in law where they were most critically warranted after January 6/21 - the Administration figures, including Trump who plotted and did their damnedest to execute a coup against this country’s democracy.
We are 15 months into the tenure of Garland and not only have there been no charges of significant bad actors, there has almost certainly been no criminal investigation launched. The technical term for this grotesque failure is fecklessness.
Yes Merrick made a visit to the kindergarten class to which we all apparently belong now and patiently explained that investigations are built from the bottom up, getting people to flip is an art form etc etc. He also vaguely promised to follow the trail wherever it went, as did Lisa Monaco this week.
Garland’s condescending pitch was wrong. In this case you have the bottom level of clowns and villains who attacked the Capitol. 750 of them *have* been investigated and charged. Probably 745 of them knew nobody on whom they could have flipped.
At the same time there is no sign - none - that Trump, Eastman, Giuliani, Meadows, Bannon et al are being investigated for their much more important role in organizing and attempting to put a legal gloss on the destruction of America. The hackers and duffers did their coup de théatre on cue on J6. Before that, the really vile and dangerous stuff was done.
We are now 15 months away from that and there hasn’t been a hint of an investigation. You could argue, and I wouldn’t disagree, that the DOJ could easily have operated in stealth mode. But the criminals are serial babblers. Had any grand jury been empaneled, somebody would have let it out. If 20 people had been subpoenaed for their role in the coup, nineteen of them would have cried foul in the media. Experienced prosecutors with impeccable reputations - Preet Bharara, Joyce Vance, and Dan Goldman have made this point publicly at their peril. They have reputations to protect and cannot go into bug-eyed rants in public.
In fifteen months, how many bad actors and witnesses have forgotten critical details? How many scoundrels have coordinated their stories?
A judge in California tossed aside a civil suit by John Eastman who is still wanting to hold on to documents. In his disposition he provided a virtual road map for the DOJ to use in bringing this house of cards down. If nothing else, perhaps Garland can be embarrassed into launching an investigation into one of the seminal political crimes in America’s history.
President Biden must replace Merrick Garland as soon as possible, using whatever rationale he decides on. The DOJ is in danger of becoming not just a witness to the fall of America, but a silent actor in it.
131 more lawyers requested by DOJ to help with Jan 6, sounds good to me.
Dang Roland. Do you have to be right on the money ALL of the time?
(Thanks). Dang....
You’re welcome, Gus. I’ve screwed up a few times. We’re still waiting to see if my prediction (hope, wish, prayer) ever comes true that the U.S. Congress goes blue the way California has gone supermajority Democratic. I do believe it will happen eventually, but no guarantee it will be in my lifetime. If recent history holds firm, Congress and the WH could keep flipping back and forth between D and R. But the trend is towards more and more blue.
100%. Only the rule of law can fix it.
True. And I remain disquieted on that front.
Gotta keep the faith. Apathy creation is an active strategy to create a public full of disillusionment. Don’t fall for it.
No fear of that happening in this group, I expect ❤️
❤️
Remember Hope, hammering on the lid of the box to be let out, after all the others had swarmed off.
All the above.
Oh man. The letter is so informative, but presents even more space for curiosity of unknowns. It’s going to get really bad for the cabal.
Or for us, they have more than a few compatriots
Proud Boyz or Oath Keepers leader?
Both, a lot of them Retired Military. Makes me sick to know that.
The rise of right wing militias. This is augmented by Russian active measures to boost participation and radicalization mostly online. And it’s crazy. It’s a President working with McViegh and Nichols types. Unacceptable.
My pick: his pal vlad.
I suspect that by this time Putin was beginning to distance himself from Trump, having already gotten what he was looking for. He would not have wanted to be linked to what T et al were doing, because he had plans of his own. Interesting that as Putin pulled back from a failed US Presidency, he further isolated himself from reality in his own fantasy of a Russian empire. And from recent reports, it sounds like it is backfiring big time. One can only hope.
His ass is grass. That’s my opinion, and I’m sticking with it. I’m glad he and his military are incompetent at war. So now it’s desperation mode, shoot indiscriminately, because every successful strategy is failing
Vladimir!!!
Flynn?
Could be - he knows the secret phone drill.
Nixon from the grave.
👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 LOL. And Rose Mary Woods too. Who will come forward and take the blame for the accidental 7 hour stretch?
Even for Nixon this would be a bar too low.
Grassley can no longer put his words together logically but he still holds power thanks to an eternity in Congress
There’s way more players involved than them.
My first thought.....Putin!
My Quess is Banon. That’s his link to Robert Mercer, the money, the financier, the Libertarian. And I’m sure Hanity/Murdoch.
We should make it illegal for our leadership to use burner phones. But can the receiver of the call from a burner phone be tracked? Who in congress was receiving calls from a burner phone?
Unfortunately, Ted, the most likely scenario is that both ends of the conversations were using burners, and probably had several on hand. Burners typically are destroyed and discarded. I keep wondering about this: witnesses at white house describe the intense interest Trump had in WATCHING the insurrection on tv but his total lack of interest in listening to info from his advisors, who had to pry him away to get him to make a "plea" to his followers to go home. Wimpy performance that had to be recorded several times before they got one that his advisors (who were basically frantic by this time) felt they could release. So I'm wondering if Trump (confess I had to stop myself from typing Fuhrer... ) simply was out of it during this period of time: his only reality was what he saw on tv. He probably even took a nap. He doesn't deal with reality very well, and napping is a good way to dissociate oneself when thing have clearly gone awry.
Annie,
Your burner hypothesis seems highly plausible. Still, wouldn’t the phone conversations on those devices be captured somewhere in cellular data land? 🤷🏼♀️ Unlike fuhrer drumpf, I really know very little about burners.
While there’s nothing truly funny here, I got a little chuckle over “ He doesn't deal with reality very well!!”
As I understand it, you have to have at least one of the burners in functioning condition, or certain parts that an expert can siphon data from. That is why they are generally destroyed before discarding (usually in a hard to find location). BTW, not my burner "hypothesis". Lots of people talking about that to explain not only Trump's vacant spot, but it is known that many of the people involved in planning used disposable phones. I guess not all of them knew they needed to be destroyed before discarding.
Could slso be one of the militia leaders.
Putin
Farage?
Sadly, the reality is going to be more awful and scandalous than the Hollywood fiction ever could be!
'Russian state TV featured a Russian government official calling for 'regime change' in the United States, asking the people of the U.S. to replace President Biden with Trump 'to again help our partner Trump to become President.'"
They are already paying off their marionettes!!!!
What struck me was that "AGAIN HELP OUR PARTNER" part. Here's confirmation of Russian interference. From the Russians!
Yeah, they haven't been shy about helping installing tfg in the WH. And back in Russia, their politicians brag about the tfg winning and their role in making that happen. Only Putin denies it to western outlets, but they use it domestically back in Russia as an ace in their pocket. TFG as president is the biggest accomplishment in the history of cyber warfare. Carl von Clausewitz would give Putin an A+ in getting your enemy to do what you want, without force, and without war. The goal of Putin is not to defeat the west. He doesn't have that much power nor strength. His goal is split apart the EU, cut Brittan off, cut the US off from the EU an Nato. Make the West more like Russia. Just bring them down enough to be on plane with Russia. This is the "EurAsia" policy. Putin also mixes in the Fascist and Nationalism flavor too.
Well spotted.
Rowshan, that sounds more like a Russian bureaucrat dutifully following a script that he doesn't know is already outdated. But it is certainly revealing something about top level Russian thinking. I don't think it is a "payoff" so much as it was an attempted distraction from Ukraine, which does not seem to be going well for Russia. More info about young Russian soldiers going home, destroying their equipment first, or simply leaving it for Ukraine fighters. Untrained (also young) officers without a clue what their government expected: thus some doing nothing and some simply lobbing shells at easy targets. It's pathetic, at best. Some Russians with family in Ukraine are leaving Russia in disgust, some with the intent of actually going to Ukraine. It's chaos.
Putin will have to find a way out of this that leaves his ego intact, or he may escalate to salvage it. Same as Trump, but our system limited Trump to less lethal avenues of action (courts, lies, "executive privilege", back-stabbing, etc.) As designed by our founders. Something to think about.
Word is that a substantial portion of Russian people want Putin to leave Ukraine. Most Western media still focusing on what comes out of Kremlin, but there are non-profit and independent journalists and sources who work quietly to acquire info at ground level and get it out. It's starting to be picked up by some mainstream media now.
What took them so long? Combo of under staffing and lazy journalism: follow the crowd. Same thing that caused some of them to ignore Biden's strong, thoughtful speech to focus on one line that was taken out of context and immediately labeled "gaffe". That successfully diverted coverage and public attention away from the speech itself, and generated unwarranted speculation. Media watchers have been calling this out for a while. In the meantime, good journalism is ignored because too many of us bite into the clickbait.
A freebie from the Atlantic:
https://newsletters.theatlantic.com/wait-what/62446e05199fdd0021429452/midterm-elections-2022-trump-media-bias/
❤️❤️
Cabal.
So Ted. I respect your advice. Tell me how to become a member of the “Cabal.” Would I have, to take classes too, as you can see I have no real, what is thought as class act intellectual qualities. You might say I am classless. Would there be other things I need to do?
Respectfully, Pat.
Ps. I struggled in school if that helps?
Well, I don't think you would want to join any cabal. That would be weird, and probably impossible unless you got a few billion and an invitation.
A cabal is : the contrived schemes of a group of persons secretly united in a plot (as to overturn a government)
also : a group engaged in such schemes
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cabal
Our founders worried about this, Madison warned of it in the Federalist #68.
"Nothing was more to be desired, than that every practicable obstacle should be opposed to cabal, intrigue and corruption. These most deadly adversaries of republican government might naturally have been expected to make their approaches from more than one quarter, but chiefly from the desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant in our councils. How could they better gratify this, than by raising a creature of their own to the chief magistracy of the union? But the convention have guarded against all danger of this sort with the most provident and judicious attention. They have not made the appointment of the president to depend on any8 pre-existing bodies of men who might be tampered with before hand to prostitute their votes; but they have referred it in the first instance to an immediate act of the people of America, to be exerted in the choice of persons for the temporary and sole purpose of making the appointment. And they have excluded from eligibility to this trust, all those who from situation might be suspected of too great devotion to the president in office. No senator, representative, or other person holding a place of trust or profit under the United States, can be of the number of the electors. Thus, without corrupting the body of the people, the immediate agents in the election will at least enter upon the task, free from any sinister byass. Their transient existence, and their detached situation, already taken notice of, afford9 a satisfactory prospect of their continuing so, to the conclusion of it. The business of corruption, when it is to embrace so considerable a number of men, requires time, as well as means. Nor would it be found easy suddenly to embark them, dispersed as they would be over thirteen states, in any combinations, founded upon motives, which though they could not properly be denominated corrupt, might yet be of a nature to mislead them from their duty."
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-04-02-0218
Can’t heart this but WOW! Madison was quite the soothsayer!
Read it in "The Road to Unfreedom" chapter 6, Tim Snyder. Our current struggles are exactly what Madison warned about in Fed #68.
Everyone should read The Road to Unfreedom again. I can not recommend this book enough. It will be one of the most important history books for understanding the world from Putin 1999, Ukraine, Europe, America, Rise of DT, to 2022+.
Thank you!
The flood of slime flowing from the Trump administration is so awkwardly peopled with shallow entities with loathsome attributes I doubt the mangled mess could ever be developed as fiction.
Absent all responsibility and cynical disregard for the Law the chaotic stream of unreality developed by these criminal sycophants can only be described by Historians like Heather.
Just as the more sinister aspects of Watergate still emerge the Trumpian Coup attempt will take decades to explain.
Even then it will be crappy fiction.
Your first sentence is for the ages! 🤗
Art The deadly duplicity of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold could be a primer for a would-be author of a fictional account of Watergate or the ‘Trumpian Coup attempt.’
Your first sentence made me laugh for five minutes. I couldn’t help myself, Art.
Screenwriters have already changed their scripts umpteen times just to keep up. By now though, they are all pitching Meryl Streep to play Ginni Thomas!
I doubt that we all live long enough to see the full truth. As I doubt, I will ever know the full story of the Kennedy assassination.
Sharon Personally I believe that Oswald acted alone in the assassination of JFK, but I still wonder who was involved in the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Regarding Watergate, PBS had a Watergate 30 Years Later documentary in which Magruder stated that he heard Nixon tell John Mitchell to bug the Democratic National Committee at Watergate.
Keith, I believe there is a lot of things we will never know for sure about before we die!
"...the unknown caller engaged in a cryptic conversation with the president just before the 7-hour blackout during which the Capital was stormed."
Answer:
Holder-to-this-day of Top Secret clearance Senior Advisor to the Unpresidented tRump Jared Corey Kushner, a most unscrupulous landlord and major league Scum Bag!
First guess I agree with.
A good choice - but who would want to play him in a movie?
He’d play himself. Who else could play such a cold fish?
😂😂😂
Matt Damon or Leonardo DiCaprio, they've already sold their souls to Big Money.
No wonder I had great anxiety after Biden was called the winner, I knew that chump would not go quietly and would take the country down if he could.
I feared that right after tfg was declared winner in Nov. 2015, take the country down that is. That he had always been a vapid, racist twit always blowing his own horn and declaring bankruptcies and it just blew my mind to hear otherwise intelligent people say they’d be voting for him because Hillary was “so awful”. They had taken leave of all their senses. As time progressed, some even admitted they had 🙄. Duh!
Just as Michael Cohen predicted.
In my mind's eye, the ending for this reality "film" has always been trump and all his corrupt minions looking up out of a foxhole at medical personnel holding the strait jackets and taking them away "ha, ha, ha, hee, hee, ho, ho to the funny farm . . . ." 🎼
I remember that little ditty.
If a prominent fiction writer had taken the story of Watergate or BIG LIE/1/6 Capitol Building insurrection to a major publisher before these events actually unfolded, the manuscript would have been summarily rejected. Even John Le Carre or Ian Fleming had insufficient imagination to concoct ‘the president bugged himself’ and ‘the president refused to accept the fraud-less results of a presidential election.’
Yes! A complete script with guest appearances. Maybe they’ll even show up for their depositions or sentencing.
Orange coveralls and chains, shuffling.
From your lips to God’s ears!
Amen and amen…
I just posted my comment about Robert Ludlum "Bourne" novels and noticed you had the same take. Scary that reality follows art.
R Dooley, I love how you write as someone with intimate knowledge of film making.
Nice. I must say, the list of candidates in this group of comments is breathtaking. Unfortunately, also quite possible at this point.
And the Oscar for the best scenario for the overthrow of the American government goes to ....
More like Watergate revisited and cranked up on steroids.
I was thinking the exact same thing.