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I am very much reminded of the behavior of King James II (I bet you weren't expecting THAT, friends!) after he was deposed and replaced by his daughter and son-in-law William of Orange and Mary Stuart (King William III and Queen Mary II) in 1688. James, who was admittedly a whole lot smarter than TFG but also pretty deranged, was sustained in France, where he hung out with his buddy Louis XIV, and maintained a fantasy "court in exile" as well as trying to encourage his son Charles (from his second marriage) to invade England via Scotland--against his own half-sister. The dumb-show of the court is mimicked by TFG, who has a pretend office, with a pretend desk, and a pretend seal that he uses for his fundraising letters. Because, like James II, he is broke and isn't paying anyone. That is why he is having trouble finding competent lawyers to represent him, because they know he will stiff them. The Ghastly Ones People are almost identical to the Tories after 1688, who would go to visit James at his pretend court, play strategy games to get him back on the throne (which they actually did not want to happen, but it was a convenient way to muck up parliamentary activity and keep the sitting royals discomfited), and play up to the old guy because it suited their purposes. And he would try to hit them up for money because he was broke.

The GAO announced that, although TFG's hotel in the Old Post Office was the scene of forelock-tugging by foreign nationals who wanted his favor by paying extortionate rates for rooms there, it nevertheless lost an obscene amount of money (70 million is I think the number). TFG's organization is trying to sell the hotel but to no avail because, well, it is a dog. Which is an insult to dogs.

If anyone finds any of the behavior by TFG to be unusual, that person has been living in a media-free universe for the last, oh, 30 years or so. Because gaslighting is the ONLY technique he knows how to play.

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Nine months have passed, nine months, and the real perpetrators are still strutting around, pretending to be normal politicians doing "normal" politics... even pretending to be President... Thankful they're not in Saudi where they'd not have kept their heads for nine hours, thankful to be in a nation of laws (and shyster lawyers) which they can turn into Looking-Glass-Land, with a Looking-Glass President, a Looking-Glass Party of preening narcissistic pervert politicians, and a large Looking-Glass population that's fallen (or been misled) through the mirror.

Is America drugged? Why the hell can't the country wake up from this absurd dream and put its house in order?

Nine months. What other cosmic monster is coming to term?

The wheels of injustice are well-oiled, there's sand in the wheels of justice.

In this perma-putsch there are little green men everywhere, armed with... sand buckets...

Is the Republic suffering from dementia... that it suffers this subversion so long without reacting?

Are your media so drowned in money and virtualized unreality that they can't tell white from black, can't call a spade a spade?

Unworthy. An obscene, shameful farce.

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Thank you for this well-reasoned Letter, Dr. R. No matter what comes of the House Select Committee's efforts, nobody will ever convince me that Loser 45 and his gang did not plan January 6 well before the 2020 election. Guilty at every turn.

Vote Blue in '22 and Once More in '24.

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"If the committee can be held at bay until after the 2022 election, a Republican victory might end its investigation." That is a very scary thought.....if this committee is held up and fails at its investigation of January 6th and the trump cabal is never indicted, tried, and brought to justice after such a blatant attack on the Capitol, we are doomed and will have been taken over by a terrorist group.

We have been wringing our hands for 5 years about the lying, cheating, criminal, violent, godawful character trump is (including 2 impeachments and his complete disregard for this country's constitution, rule of law, and government) for over five years. The wheels of justice may grind slowly, but continuing to allow the likes of trump and bannon to "roam the country freely" is the death knell and the thumbs up to mcconnell and the rest of the republicans to continue their dismantling of the government and solidifying a dictatorship and oligarchy that mimics putin, et. al.

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This:

“If the committee can be held at bay until after the 2022 election, a Republican victory might end its investigation.”

Nothing is more predictive in Dr. Richardson Cox’s excellent report than this sentence. This will be in the courts so long we will have forgotten how to spell T-r-u-m-p.

The Committee is doing the most brilliant work under the toughest circumstances. And this turd is effectively slamming the brakes on everything.

I repeat to the Georgia and New York DA offices:

Indict Trump.

Arrest Trump.

Perp walk Trump.

Try Trump.

Convict Trump.

Imprison Trump.

And I’m not over-concerned about the order that they do the above. They can start at the bottom for all I care.

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Thanks for your report.

For me, the biggest takeaway from your excellent coverage of this matter is: what will it take to put these thugs in prison where they belong?

So many Americans possessing influence and wealth can literally get away with murder and not be held accountable for their crimes.

Yet, the expendable footsoldiers stupid enough to believe Trump and company have been prosecuted, jailed or awaiting trial, while Trump reaps millions from his cult; Eastman has not been disbarred; many politicians who coordinated with the insurrectionists have not been identified; and Bannon is threatening violence with twenty thousand alleged followers.

But that is the way of a world dangerously unbalanced.

Moreover, if the GOP retakes the House next year, all bets are off that Trump and his politically powerful thugs will ever being prosecuted.

Thanks for keeping me informed.

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The many Trump lawsuits are an attempt to use wealth to run out the clock until the Mafia Mob Party can return to power. It is hard to accept, but this tactic has a chance to succeed. Our justice(?) system has a penchant for protecting the powerful and politically connected operatives and keeping them out of prison. The Sacklers essentially seem to have run a drug cartel during an active "war on drugs," and the justice system protected them and their money. Rampant corruption leaves the nation and its people insecure.

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Remember this from the narcissist- in - chief in January, 2016? This is actually the way this lowlife thinks:

"I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK?" Trump remarked at a campaign stop at Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa. "It's, like, incredible."

Yep, it indeed is “like incredible,” as history will reflect about about the Republican game plan since Goldwater, all of which has manifested itself in the person of djt and all those who support him, whether the rich and powerful or the brainwashed, frightened carlson/hannity sheep.

Time to get busy everybody.

It’s Germany and it’s the late 20’s, early 30’s.

This is not “a test,” this is “an actual emergency.”

Hmmmmm, I seem to have woken up particularly worried today. Maybe the fact that I watched a WWII documentary last night has something to do with my concern about what the course of events and one malignant man can do.

“It’s like incredible.”

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WOW!! Yes, the real action is in the Committee reports - none of the grandstanding for the cameras, pompous attacks on the witness and Committee members from the other party. A compelling read. Thank you, again, for keeping us informed in a clear, articulate manner.

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Thanks again, Heather, for keeping us updated. It appears there is an open-and-shut case of conspiracy to obstruct Congress (not sure of the proper legal terminology) to be made against Steve Bannon and several other Trump intimates, and a very good possibility that this is just the tip of the legal iceberg and a small sample of likely perpetrators.

However, it worries me that we are hearing so little from the DOJ, the State of New York and the State of Georgia. Are the prosecutors literally afraid of TFG? Do they really need the politicians to open the road for them?

He's now a private citizen. Does the law apply to Trump et al or not? Arrest, interrogation, detention, if necessary. Then trials. Soon. Now would be better.

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Thank you, dear Heather, for unpacking this compelling report for us!

What is quite worrisome though is that 45 is trying to stall the committee's work until the 2022 elections, correct?! The trouble is that those of us who never fell for DT's alternative facts are impatient for the truth plus a full and abundant measure of accountability, asap. Patience is not one of my virtues at present, and I can't wait to see all of the responsible parties held to account before any more Republicans -- G_d forbid -- are voted into congressional seats.

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While just about every part of this letter conveys an important investigative view towards a number of people and events, I was struck by the last line of this paragraph:

"Congress established the committee, the report says, “to identify how the events of January 6th were planned, what actions and statements motivated and contributed to the attack on the Capitol, how the violent riot that day was coordinated with a political and public relations strategy to reverse the election outcome, and why Capitol security was insufficient to address what occurred.”"

Why was Capitol Security insufficient to address what occurred? At the time (as I watched from home; it was a red letter day for me, since I had just received my initial COVID-19 vaccination) while I watched a horribly overmatched, outnumbered, and poorly equipped law enforcement team try to hold back that angry crowd I wondered whether it was an abject command and control failure, a complete intel breakdown, or something more sinister involving the command and control team. Individual officers who were on that line acted with bravery and courage in an attempt to prevent the assault on the Capitol. Other individual officers took selfies with the rioters; some of whom were themselves officers of other police departments.

The interagency co-responsibility for the area (Capitol PD and Metropolitan PD being the most prevalent as having responsibility for the Capitol's security itself and for the surrounding areas outside the Capitol) was on good display, but where was the intel regarding this event? I knew from reading run of the mill Facebook posts that there would be a protest and an attempt to circumvent the election; how could the command and control structures of those two agencies (plus the other Federal intelligence agencies) NOT have that information? Why was there no riot control team equipped and on standby? Where were the SWAT teams? The only special team I saw in the initial stages of the riot was the Metro PD Bike team, and bicycle cops are not overly equipped with protective gear. I'd love to see the After Action reports...

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OPINION

PAUL KRUGMAN

Joe Manchin Versus West Virginia

Oct. 18, 2021

President Biden’s policy agenda is hanging by a thread. And the reason can be summarized in two words: Joe Manchin. (Well, also Kyrsten Sinema, but does anyone know what’s going on with her?)

Manchin, the Democratic senator from West Virginia — whose vote is essential given scorched-earth Republican opposition to anything Biden might propose — is reportedly against the Clean Energy Payment Program, the core of Biden’s attempt to take action on climate change, and wants to impose work requirements on the child tax credit, a key element in plans to invest in the nation’s children.

You might be tempted to view this impasse as an indictment of America’s wildly unrepresentative political system, which effectively allows the interests of a small state — West Virginia has substantially fewer residents than the borough of Brooklyn — to dominate national concerns. But it’s actually worse than that: Manchin appears ready to veto policies that would be in the interests of his own constituents.

Let’s talk about what considerations should sway a politician serving the people of West Virginia.

At first glance, West Virginia might seem less exposed than many other states to the effects of climate change. It’s landlocked, so rising sea levels aren’t a direct threat; it’s relatively rainy, so it’s not in immediate danger of sharing in the disastrous droughts afflicting the U.S. West.

But climate change is bringing more severe weather in general, including more heavy rain — and West Virginia turns out to be extremely vulnerable to flooding, in part because of the damage done by past coal mining.

MORE: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/18/opinion/joe-manchin-biden-climate-child-care.html?unlocked_article_code=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEIPuonUktbfqohlSFUaCybSRdkhrxqAwvrIzfk5j3n1LCmTDDxDw-kTRoOE-kLEeacmbNsy2zjeT9ZbPfkvWPl2hKd5DnBadjOJ8NGCiYhXZGI8s56yVWc7mJiXUe1i_DO6K2XgIbg6mefl4VePaDLpRKPag3F1I1tkpcBidEq4miBdntezGeZz3tl42v0hAIkrBmtTIXnX4IS7Tkl2K96EbRnD6gApW-E_WTjbntCU6r5oYxwFQBudDys5uTBgnYsabNAHP6__LwojeN78gtgSC29oKoSrA_4hVj6mfcslsvcXRfdXk8JUiXk&smid=url-share

(This will be my last gifted link for the month, used 'em all up!)

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“The truth behind a President’s actions can be found only in his official papers,” Harry S. Truman said in 1949, “and every Presidential paper is official.”

Today those records are both paper and electronic. From not taking notes himself, barring others from taking notes, tearing up notes and tossing them *to* refusing to log into official computer systems with automatic backup, permitting the use of private electronic devices, and deleting records

*to* having White House lawyers to decide which materials were to be scanned and catalogued *to* denying funding for the transfer of records during the obstruction of the transfer of power - the Trump administration has compromised the historic record. What has not been preserved is gone, what is not catalogued is untraceable and inaccessible.

I say 'the Trump administration' because it took a village of the damnable to raise the Trump presidency to this 'bad eminence.' There is almost no legal remedy or consequence. Cases have been thrown out of court for 'micromanaging the president.' In a Catch22, the Supreme Court has already denied Congress access to Trump records. Congress wanted the records to see how Trump may have slipped through loopholes in the law, so that they could write better laws. The Court said they had to detail how the president’s information would advance possible legislation - ie Congress needed to know what was in the documents to make the case for seeing the documents.

The Trump DOJ pushed a seemingly unrelated and relatively insignificant case (regarding a sheriff who used files he was authorized to access for personal purposes) to the Supreme Court and then argued for draconian punishments for those who access files without administrative approval. (One justice even asked 'why are we hearing this?') I think it was part of the Trump takeover of the civil service. Throughout the Executive and including the military, Trump notoriously demoted and reassigned career civil servants and then replaced them with Trump loyalists and sycophants. These panderers then became the gatekeepers of agency records - without their explicit permission, staff could not even access documents they had created without fear of retaliation.

This somewhat explains the timidity of the National Archives and Records Administration in the face of the Trump administration. The Archives administration had little legal authority and were afraid of having their top managers replaced by Trump. They gambled that their strategic compromises would be less harmful than risking putting the Archives under complete Trump domination. This manifested itself most publicly in context of celebrating women's suffrage - signs criticizing Trump were airbrushed out of a wall sized photomural of The Womens March.

When bureaucrats do not need to be told but decide on their own to doctor the historical facts to fit the executive's fancies - this is very bad. This is the ascendency of authoritarianism. This is 'the banality of evil' - not that evil is commonplace, but that cowed bureaucrats cravenly just do their job without consideration of the larger consequences - and see their job as bowing to one big man rather than serving the nation.

https://time.com/5308542/trump-presidential-records-nixon/

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/11/23/will-trump-burn-the-evidence

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Steve Banonn’s Lawyers are stating that unless or until TFG has Executive Privilege he will not testify

.My question : Who was our President the day after Election Day ? Or is our New President Official the Day after Inauguration Day ? But it still remains that Bannon had no Official Capacity involved in TFG’s Admin. I have also heard and read this could take years to resolve. Bannon , at worst will face a yr in Prison and fines if it ever gets there. In hindsight I think about daily how is it possible that the person who sits in the highest office in our Country, a Democracy based on laws that started out with a Gideons Bible and now can fill a football field stacked 15 ft high with Law books that this Executive seat is Free from them all ? Do we elect Presidents or Kings ? If I did intentionally commit Voting Fraud my punishment would be swift and severe. I think at this juncture we as a Country need to go back to the drawing board if all those Law books do in fact come down to “No One is Above The Law.” Least of all the leader of our Nation.

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While we're second-guessing the 1/6 commission, I think we have to remember that the Constitution actually failed us, and in precisely the way James Monroe predicted it might: party factionalism. Trump was successfully impeached, not once, but TWICE. There were two opportunities for the Constitutional process to throw him out of office, bury him in shame and ignominy, and forever prohibit his return to politics. Both attempts failed, because of the GOP factionalism. The Constitution has no backup plan for this.

So the 1/6 commission is trying to salvage a boat that has already had a hole shot through it. They have NO appropriate tools for the job. They are making do as best they can, with the tools they have. Which are not adequate.

If the US falls, it falls by the treason of the GOP, under a list of names starting with Mitch McConnell as Majority Leader of the traitorous faction, and working its way down to the lowest freshman.

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