The Conversation -- October 3, 2024
Mead Gruver of the AP: ?A judge ripped into a Colorado county clerk for her crimes and lies before sentencing her Thursday to nine years behind bars for a data-breach scheme spawned from the rampant false claims about voting machine fraud in the 2020 presidential race. District Judge Matthew Barrett told former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters -- after earlier sparring with her for continuing to press discredited claims about rigged voting machines -- that she never took her job seriously. 'I am convinced you would do it all over again if you could. You're as defiant as any defendant this court has ever seen,' Barrett told her in handing down the sentence. 'You are no hero. You abused your position and you're a charlatan.' Jurors found Peters guilty in August for allowing a man to misuse a security card to access to the Mesa County election system and for being deceptive about that person's identity. The man was affiliated with My Pillow chief executive Mike Lindell, a prominent promoter of false claims that voting machines were manipulated to steal the election from ... Donald Trump. The discredited claims trace back to Trump himself...."
Sickly Old Man Running for Prez* Again. Emily Baumgaertner & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "As a presidential candidate in 2015, Donald J. Trump declined to release his medical records, instead offering a four-paragraph letter from his personal doctor proclaiming that he would be 'the healthiest person ever elected to the presidency.' In 2020, when he was hospitalized with Covid and running for re-election, Mr. Trump's doctors gave minimal information about his condition, which, it emerged later, was far more dire than their public descriptions let on. In 2024, days before becoming the official Republican presidential nominee for the third time, he was grazed by a would-be assassin's bullet, yet his campaign did not hold a briefing on his condition, release hospital records or make the emergency physicians who treated him available for interview. Now, just over a month from an election that could make Mr. Trump, 78, the oldest person ever to serve as president (82 years, 7 months and 6 days when his term would end in January 2029), he is refusing to release even the most basic information about his health."
Maggie Astor of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump said on Wednesday that, if elected again, he would revoke the legal status of tens of thousands of Haitian immigrants who have been the target of false accusations by the former president and his running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, over the past month. Mr. Trump's administration tried to do that during his first term, too, but courts temporarily blocked it, and President Biden's administration renewed the immigrants' status after he took office in 2021. The immigrants in question are living and working in the United States legally through the Temporary Protected Status program, which Congress created in 1990 for people from countries experiencing war, natural disasters or other crises. The Department of Homeland Security designates countries for up to 18 months at a time based on the current conditions, and the designation can be renewed indefinitely. Haiti was initially added in 2010, under President Barack Obama, after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake devastated the country. It has since experienced a major hurricane and a cholera epidemic." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Let us hope Trump's cruel announcement helps those dithering "undecideds" understand that nobody is safe when the Nastiest Turdblossom in the USA is president*, so they'd better vote for Harris.
Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "Melania Trump, the former first lady, said in a video on Thursday that there was 'no room for compromise' on a woman's right to 'individual freedom,' a day after a reported excerpt from her coming memoir said she supported abortion rights. Mrs. Trump's comments landed as ... Donald J. Trump and his party are trying to soften their opposition to abortion, a key issue threatening his support with female voters and his attempt to return to the White House. They were released in a promotional video for a new memoir scheduled for release on Tuesday. Her husband, who opposes federal abortion rights and has taken credit for helping overturn Roe v. Wade, did not immediately comment." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Oh, super-duper. The first lady has no role in government, Trump & elected Republican men think of women as child-producing chattel & Melanie is hardly ever home except maybe when designing blood-red decor for the Christmas party. So I hope all you young women are feeling safe and protected now that the future First Lady in Absentia might have said she supports abortion rights. Think she's gonna rush in to the Oval & tear up the national abortion ban bill while Donald is still in the residence fixing his hair? I don't. ~~~
~~~ Steve M.: "Some people might think Melania Trump is going rogue, but this looks like strategy to me[.]... I don't think it's a coincidence that this was timed for just after the vice presidential debate -- J.D. Vance has been much more of an anti-abortion zealot than Donald Trump...." ~~~
~~~ Oh, Look, More Strategery. Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "Melania Trump describes in her new memoir how she made her husband ... Donald Trump drop a signature hardline immigration policy under which migrant children were separated from their parents, stoking domestic and international uproar. 'This has to stop,' the former first lady says she told her husband, 'emphasizing the trauma it was causing these families' and seeing him swiftly comply, ending the policy on 20 June 2018." ~~~
~~~ Hadas Gold & Pamela Brown of CNN: "Nearly two months ago, CNN reached out to Melania Trump's book publisher to request an interview with the former first lady ahead of her upcoming memoir. After several exchanges about a possible interview..., Skyhouse Publishing laid out strict terms for an interview and use of material from the book.... On top of that, the agreement stipulated that 'CNN shall pay a licensing fee of two hundred fifty thousand dollars ($250,000).' CNN did not sign the agreement. Days later, after a separate CNN journalist asked Skyhorse Publishing about the exorbitant interview fee, the publisher said it had sent the payment demand by mistake.... Paying a public figure for an interview, especially the spouse of a political candidate, is highly frowned upon in most newsrooms...."
Marcy Wheeler: "John Roberts not only rewrote the Constitution to protect Donald Trump. He forced prosecutors to spend 14 pages arguing that it is not among the job duties of the President of the United States to attack Republicans who've crossed him on Twitter.... This is the all-powerful President John Roberts wants to have. Someone who can sit in his dining room siccing mobs on fellow Republicans.... The 14 pages analyzing mean Tweets follows the analysis of two rally speeches, in which prosecutors first show the January 4 Georgia speech was a campaign event, and then (among other things) lay out the similarity between that speech and Trump's January 6 one. Among the things Trump included in both speeches was an attack on the Supreme Court: '... [Georgia...]: 'I'm not happy with the Supreme Court. They are not stepping up to the plate. They're not stepping up.' Ellipse...: 'I'm not happy with the Supreme Court. They love to rule against me.'... The inclusion of Trump's attacks on them also might get these partisan hacks to think more seriously about the nearly identical exhortations Trump made on Truth Social before they decided to rewrite the Constitution in his favor." ~~~
~~~ Marie: I am convinced that John Roberts' Immunity Ruling for the Ages was his attempt to regain his "relevance." Clarence, Sam & the Three Trump Stooges were going to rule for Trump anyway, so Roberts just wanted to get back in the majority club. He did it with a splash, didn't he? (Maybe a splash of Eau de Roger Taney, but oh well.)
Danielle Douglas-Gabriel of the Washington Post: "A federal judge will allow a temporary restraining order that prevented President Joe Biden from discharging student loan debt for more than 25 million Americans to expire Thursday, clearing the way for the administration to move forward with the plan. The decision delivers a small victory in the Biden administration's ongoing fight to alleviate federal student loan debt..." MB: The reasoning behind the order is complicated, as is what may happen next; you'll just have to read these article. Here's the NBC News story, which may be a tad clearer than the WashPo report, but the underlying facts are still complicated.
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Presidential Race
We are here for the long haul. -- Kamala Harris, in Augusta, Georgia, Wednesday ~~~
Erica Green of the New York Times: "Vice President Kamala Harris surveyed damage from Hurricane Helene on Wednesday in Georgia, promising residents that the federal government was rushing to help with the recovery.... Standing in front of a house covered in fallen trees in the Meadowbrook neighborhood of Augusta, Ga., Ms. Harris announced that the federal government would cover 100 percent of the costs of debris removal and other emergency protective measures for three months to help the state recover. She described how much of the community did not have power, with many lacking access to water, and how she had met one woman who lost her husband. She called the damage 'extraordinary' and the loss of life 'particularly devastating.' Ms. Harris also met with local officials and received a briefing on recovery efforts, during which she praised emergency responders who were working even amid their own personal struggles...." ~~~
~~~ Chris Megerian, et al., of the AP: "Vice President Kamala Harris handed out meals, embraced a shaken family and surveyed Hurricane Helene's 'extraordinary' path of destruction through Georgia on Wednesday as she left the campaign trail to pledge federal help and personally take in scenes of toppled trees, damaged homes and lives upended. She visited Augusta, where power lines stretched along the sidewalk and utility poles lay cracked and broken.... Harris and President Joe Biden, who visited the Carolinas on Wednesday, were seeking to demonstrate commitment and competence in helping devastated communities after Republican ... Donald Trump's false claims about their administration's response.... Harris also toured a Red Cross relief center and received a briefing from local officials, praising those working to 'meet the needs of people who must be seen and must be heard.'"
Shane Goldmacher & Reid Epstein of the New York Times: "Vice President Kamala Harris has cast herself as a candidate of the future, but she has been yanked back by the problems of the present as the Middle East lurches toward a wider war, a longshoremen's strike threatens to undermine the country's economy and Americans across the Southeast struggle to recover from a deadly hurricane.... The rare moment of turbulence for Ms. Harris interrupts what has been mostly smooth sailing in her two months as the Democratic presidential nominee. It also captures a conundrum of the vice presidency, a prestigious if mostly ceremonial posting.... The overlapping developments just as the calendar turned to October were a reminder that while Ms. Harris has framed her candidacy as a fresh start for the nation, she very much is part of the administration still in charge."
Marin Scotten of Salon ties Trump's cancelling a traditional "60 Minutes" interview to "an especially scattered and hard to follow" press conference Trump gave in Milwaukee Tuesday. "Several of his remarks were unintelligible, including a claim that Democrats want to 'keep Black and Hispanic children trapped in family government.'"
Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "Half an hour into Tuesday night's vice-presidential debate, JD Vance lodged a whiny protest. 'Margaret,' he said to moderator Margaret Brennan of CBS News, 'the rules were that you guys weren't going to fact-check!' It was a lie on top of another lie, supplemented by a pair of other lies, in support of an even bigger lie. There was no 'rule' against fact-checking. And Vance had just told a whopper. He had alleged that, in Springfield, Ohio, 'you've got schools that are overwhelmed, you've got hospitals that are overwhelmed, you have got housing that is totally unaffordable because we brought in millions of illegal immigrants.'... The senator said Harris 'became the appointed border czar.' She received no such appointment.... There is no 'open border.'..., and the thousands of Haitian migrants ... have legal status.... He said 'over $100 billion' of Iranian assets were unfrozen 'thanks to the Kamala Harris administration.'... Kamala Harris isn't the president.... On health care, he served up the howler of the night when he said that Trump 'saved' the 'collapsing' Affordable Care Act.... In reality, of course, Trump tried his best to kill Obamacare.... Vance capped the night by saying that Trump 'peacefully' surrendered power four years ago." (Also linked yesterday.)
JayDee, Junior Scapegoater. Rachel Siegel of the Washington Post: "Throughout Tuesday's vice-presidential debate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) blamed soaring housing costs on a spike in immigration over the past few years -- promising that a crackdown on illegal immigration and 'kicking out illegal immigrants who are competing for those homes' would help affordability.... That claim has been debunked by economists and housing experts, who say that other forces have played a much bigger role in driving up prices and that illegal immigration is not a top reason prices are high. Immigration may be helping to keep rents elevated in some areas, though. Foreign-born workers also make up roughly a third of the construction workforce, a crucial part of the push to build millions of new homes and fix years-long shortages. That means the strict immigration crackdown Vance and ... Donald Trump are proposing could send prices even higher." ~~~
~~~ Junior Scapegoater, Ctd. Jasmine Garsd of NPR highlights some more ills that during the debate JayDee blamed on immigrants, such as claiming they lowered U.S. citizens' wages. "Most labor economists disagree with the claim that immigrants depress native-born worker wages.... He falsely claimed guns are smuggled into the U.S. over the border with Mexico (in fact, it's the other way around).... Both candidates spoke about fentanyl as related to immigration, which remains a pervasive myth: Fentanyl is overwhelmingly brought into the U.S. by people crossing legally, through ports of entry. The street supply of fentanyl is also drying up."
Philip Bump of the Washington Post elaborates on a point both Zack Beauchamp of Vox & Will Saletan of the Bulwark made in posts linked here yesterday: that Trump & "his allies are making it clear, repeatedly, that the only outcome they will accept without hesitation is one where he is the victor." Marie: And I am here to remind you that none of this would be an issue if we had direct election of presidents because the difference between the number of votes cast for Harris & for Trump is likely to be in the millions.
⭐ Alan Feuer & Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "In a sprawling legal brief partly unseale on Wednesday, the special counsel, Jack Smith, laid out his case for why ... Donald J. Trump is not immune from prosecution on federal charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election. The redacted brief, made public by Judge Tanya S. Chutkan of the Federal District Court in Washington, adds new details to the already extensive public record of how Mr. Trump lost the race but attempted nonetheless to cling to power." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ "So What?" Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "The much-anticipated 165-page filing from special counsel Jack Smith offers a searing portrayal of Trump just a month before the 2024 election. It describes in more extensive detail than before how many people -- including Vice President Mike Pence, party and state leaders, his own campaign officials, his own campaign lawyers, and others -- told Trump there was no proof the election was stolen, and how Trump nonetheless waged a campaign to overturn the result. Prosecutors reconstructed behind-the-scenes interactions, including one in which an aide rushed to the dining room to share with Trump, who had been watching the events on TV and tweeting, that action was being taken to ensure the safety of Pence, who was in the Capitol building. 'The defendant looked at him and said only, the filing alleges." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Katelyn Polantz, et al., of CNN: "The 165-page document comes from Smith"s office and is the fullest accounting yet of evidence in the election subversion case against Trump. Throughout the document, Smith argues that the actions Trump took to overturn the election were in his private capacity -- as a candidate -- rather than in his official capacity, as a president.... The filing weaves together what prominent witnesses told a federal grand jury and the FBI about Trump, along with other never-before-disclosed evidence investigators gathered about the former president's actions leading up to and on January 6, 2021." (Also linked yesterday.)
When the defendant lost the 2020 presidential election, he resorted to crimes to try to stay in office. -- Motion for Immunity Determinations, p. 3
Under the Constitution, the Executive Branch has no constitutionally assigned role in the state-electoral process. To the contrary, the constitutional framework excludes the President from that process to protect against electoral abuses. -- Motion, p. 111 ~~~
⭐ ~~~ The motion is here. (Via CNN.) (Also linked yesterday.) MB: I found this CBS News copy of the motion to be more easily searchable. ~~~
~~~ Melissa Quinn & Robert Legare of CBS News have a "key takeaways" report here. It summarizes a good deal of detail that appears in the motion. ~~~
~~~ "So What," "Make Them Riot," "It Doesn't Matter if You Won or Lost the Election." Aaron Blake of the Washington Post analyzes the impact of some of the evidence which the motion newly makes public. Dan Friedman of Mother Jones also has a good summary of the new evidence in the motion and its significance. ~~~
~~~ Rachel Maddow said on-air that even though she knew much of the detail laid out in the motion, Smith's narrative put it together for her in a way that others had not. (Without citing chapter & verse), she gave as an example of this passage on p. 81: "The defendant issued the incendiary Tweet about Pence despite knowing -- as he would later admit in an interview in 2023 -- that his supporters 'listen to [him] like no one else.' One minute later, at 2:25 p.m., the Secret Service was forced to evacuate Pence to a secure location." You don't need to be a genius to suspect cause-and-effect here. ~~~
~~~ "Accessories After the Fact." Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "It's infuriating to be reminded in such detail about the behavior that the Republicans on the Supreme Court sought to immunize, particularly since any 'opinion for the ages' horseshit notwithstanding the opinion was clearly tailored to provide the broadest possible immunity for specifically for Trump's attempt to violently steal the election. John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Sam Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett are all full in knowing accessories after the fact to the Plot Against America." Lemieux republishes a portion of Rick Hasen's firewalled Slate essay, noting that "Hasen observes that Jack Smith's brief is as much an indictment of John Roberts and the Dred Scott of the 21st century as it is of Trump."
Marie: Speaking of "searing portraits" of Trump, RAS shares this one. It is not a portrait that will come as a surprise to you, but it is a second-hand account that puts meat on the bones of many an article we've linked about Trump's stiffing contractors.
Marie: Two days ago, I linked to a New York Times story that reported, "In his remarks, the former president repeatedly said that he had come bearing gifts to help the disaster response: semitrailer trucks filled with relief supplies and a tanker of gas, distributed by the evangelical Christian humanitarian aid group Samaritan's Purse. Still, as he underlined his contributions to the storm response...." So just maybe that left you with the impression that Trump had at least dug into his campaign coffers, if not his personal piggy bank, to bring along rolls of paper towels to lob at desperate residents. In fact, Trump, his campaign and some right-wing media outfits also left that impression, if they didn't say so unequivocally. BUT NO. According to J.D. Wolf of MeidasTouch Network (a partisan liberal site), it appears that Franklin Graham's outfit Samaritan's Purse was wholly responsible for buying, packing, delivering & distributing the truckloads of relief supplies.
digby -- with help from Chris Hayes (I got a virus-warning message on the link to Hayes' article); Rick Perlstein, writing in the American Prospect, & psychologist Julie Hotard, writing on X -- examines the mindset of the "undecided voter." They are not, as journalists repeatedly tell us, dithering over whether they like Trump's healthcare plan (oops! he doesn't have one quite yet) or Harris's reproductive rights policies. Nope, the "undecided voter" is trying to decide between falling into the fascist fantasy that Trump will protect them and ... reality. ~~~
~~~ And Paul Campos, in LG&$, highlights this coda to Perlstein's essay: "I certainly don't disagree that Trump is becoming more cognitively impaired and out of touch with reality. But might not these impairments render him a better fascist seducer, as his invitations to infantile regression become ever more primal, ever more basic, ever more pure?" Campos: "This is disturbingly plausible. In other words, Trump's decompensation is allowing him, either consciously or semi-consciously or even unconsciously, to deliver the uncut version of the ideological meth he;s been selling for nine and a half years now." ~~~
~~~ Marie: I disagree with the original premise though I go along with the idea that Trump's own infantalism may be exceptionally appealing to the infantile undecided voters. Still, I think every voter -- including the vast majority of us "decided voters" -- is looking for a protector. Most of us are realistic, many to the point of cynacism, about just how much protection we'll actually get. But what divvies us into right and left camps is the question of just what the dangers are -- that is, what we need protection from. As JayDee amply demonstrated, people on the right seem to think they need protection from immigrants, for instance. Or from overreaching government that would take away their guns and make them wear protective gear in certain situations. Or from taxes. Those of us on the left want protection from overreaching government, too, but the difference is where the government is doing its overreach: into the doctor's office? Into our bedrooms? Onto the streets where we're peacefully protesting? Into our libraries? We also want protection from the natural & periodic vicissitudes: hunger, unaffordable shelter, illness, old age. We want protection from bad actors -- like gunslingers and crooks -- as well as from physical dangers -- and inhospitable surroundings -- like crappy bridges & roads, not to mention climate-change-induced catastrophic weather events.
Zach Montague & Jacey Fortin of the New York Times: "President Biden on Wednesday took an aerial tour of the devastation from Hurricane Helene and ordered the Pentagon to deploy up to 1,000 active-duty troops to assist with aid efforts as rescue workers continued dangerous rescue missions in remote mountain communities. Mr. Biden's visit to the Carolinas came as the death toll from the storm rose to more than 17 people on Wednesday, making Helene the deadliest hurricane to strike the mainland United States since Katrina, which caused nearly 1,400 deaths in 2005, according to statistics from the National Hurricane Center." (Also linked yesterday.)
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Israel/Palestine, et al.
The Washington Post's live updates of developments Thursday in Israel's wars are here: "An Israeli airstrike in Beirut's Bachoura neighborhood killed six people and injured seven others, Lebanon's Health Ministry said. It was the second and deadliest airstrike inside the capital since Israel's conflict with Hezbollah began. The late-night strike hit the office of the Islamic Health Authority, a health services institution run by Hezbollah, and paramedics were among the casualties, an IHA spokesperson said. The Israel Defense Forces said it conducted a 'precise strike' in Beirut. In southern Lebanon, Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants engaged in what appeared to be their first direct ground confrontations." ~~~
~~~ The New York Times' live updates for Thursday are here.
Yasmeen Abutaleb, et al., of the Washington Post: "The White House is working to limit the Israeli response to the barrage of ballistic missiles that Iran fired into the country Tuesday, as some U.S. officials worry the Middle East could be edging closer to the all-out war that President Joe Biden has sought to prevent for nearly a year.
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Reader Comments (14)
A weather report from Trump Fantasy Land
The differences between right and left versions of reality (ie, fascist fantasy land vs fact based reality) could not be more obvious than the ongoing natural disaster that was Helene.
The aftermath of the hurricane, which spread death and destruction across the southeast, will require rebuilding of entire towns washed away, decimated infrastructure, and recovery of families suffering terrible losses. Insurance estimates are already topping $145 billion.
The proximate cause, the storm, is one thing. The origin of that storm is climate change, a real world situation the right pretends does not exist. Trump and his allies still call it a hoax. In North Carolina, a state woefully unprepared for the devastation of a violent storm made much worse by warmer water temperatures created by global warming, made it illegal a few years ago to use the phrase “climate change” in official reports and documents, as if plugging one’s ears and saying “nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, I can’t hear you” will make it all go away.
Yesterday I linked a ProPublica report on the actions of the Heritage Foundation which has “investigators” combing through tens of thousands of government records looking for employees who use “climate change” in emails, text messages, and official reports, the goal of which is to fire their asses as soon as Trump steals the election.
In fact, Project 2025, a Heritage production, goes out of its way to exacerbate the effects of climate change by:
“Directing the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to favor fossil fuels over renewables and raise market prices received by fossil fuel companies (see page 400). These policies would make energy markets less competitive and pave the way for more utility monopolies, raising prices for consumers.
Gutting Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) enforcement (see page 425) by directing the agency to ignore the effects of greenhouse gases on public health and the environment. Project 2025 would also limit the number of industries that are required to report their emissions to the EPA from 41 high-emitting industries to just a handful.
Rolling back Democrats’ investments in clean energy production that are cutting pollution and lowering emissions (see page 365). Project 2025 would repeal the Inflation Reduction Act, which is helping to combat climate change and spurring billions of dollars in clean energy investments throughout the country that are expected to create millions of jobs.
Removing key protections for public lands (see page 532), threatening these vital natural resources that also support state and local economies throughout the country.”
(From a Joint Economic Committee report at senate.gov)
In fact, they also plan on gutting the National Weather Service by cutting its budget and turning it into a taxpayer funded data collection agency to serve for-profit operations like AccuWeather.
Then there’s the gaslighting. Trump parachutes in to devastated areas, blames Democrats for the problem then claims credit for supplies brought in by someone else.
This, in a nutshell, is the difference between living in a fantasy bubble of “fascist protection” versus the admittedly more complex real world. And it would be one thing if we could just leave the morons to their authoritarian wet dreams and let the fuckers drown, but Trump and his Party of Traitors push policies based on fantasies that affect us all.
GOTV.
(By the way, those Heritage “investigators” are also targeting anyone using that expression as well.)
Referring to the Traitor Supremes as accessories after the fact is spot on. In fact, that description fits their interference in free and fair elections as well.
Just consider the tsunami of PoT schemes to screw with fair elections: the suppression, the voter roll purges, this obvious bullshit of sweeping rule changes at the last minute, new regulations requiring hand counts of millions of votes, conferring the power to reject election results upon unelected party hacks, continued attacks on how elections are rigged (they are…just not the way Trump says it).
All of this election tampering is the direct result of Little Johnny and the Dwarfs gutting the Voting Rights Act. This—supreme interference in free and fair elections, in aid of one party only—is exactly what they were hoping for. And now they have it.
Republicans at all levels, up to and including the traitors on the Supreme Court (especially those motherfuckers) realize that 1. Their policies are unpopular with vast number of Americans, 2. Demographics are increasingly against them, and 3. Without the Electoral College, they’d never win another presidential election without many thumbs on the scale.
What to do? Kill the Voting Rights Act and let the cheaters, fraudsters, liars, schemers, and haters of democracy do their worst.
Then sit back and smirk, and sniff “We did it for democracy”.
Akhilleus,
And when they scream, "We're losing our country," they are right.
They are losing the country they thought they owned.
They probably screamed the same thing after the Civil War.
LG&M
"Another commenter observation to front page from Tzimiskes:
I have struggled to understand how people can actually believe Trump’s American carnage nonsense that goes along with Trump’s crazy and the economic stuff.
My current thinking is that for a lot of people it’s about the morality that we grew up with. They really believed that oppressing minority groups was essential to stability so now that gay people are getting married and trans people are allowed to exist this has to be translating into chaos and crime. They then seek out sources that will support this.
And so on. I have also come around to thinking that this, rather than actually supporting Republicans, is what drives Fox News. They are chasing a market that wants to believe all the small minded BS I grew up hearing is actually true and it creates an alternate reality where all that crap I heard actually did result in the consequences I was told it would. Fox News provides this reality and this false reality then informs the right wing, rather than the right wing driving reality."
It struck me this morning that the Electoral College, which was put in place (I believe) to secure the votes of the South for the Constitution, could be responsible for the South finally winning the Civil War.
This Project 2025 is absolutely unbelievable. Thank you, Akhilleus, and why is this not on the front page in the NYT and WaPo every single day?
The most damning statement to me is t**** to pence: "You're too honest."
@NiskyGuy
Had the same take. In the Pretender's and MAGA's worlds, honesty is the highest of crimes.
@Nisky Guy & @Ken Winkes: Exactly. As one of the MSNBC hosts opined last night, that's what is gonna get Trump (should his Accessories after the Fact, a/k/a the Supremes, ever let the exchange between Trump & pence into evidence or even let the case go to trial). By accusing mikey of being "too honest," Trump admitted that he himself was NOT being honest about winning the states he had challenged and that he knew he did not "honestly" win those states.
I'm so excited!!!
JayDee is in our little town today. Dozens of helicopters have been
buzzing around since early morning. Roads have been closed.
People hiking have been told to go home, you can't be in this area,
etc, etc.
He's at a development that's a gated community of billionaires on
the lakeshore (Lake Michigan).
I wasn't invited. I'm about a billion dollars short of being a billionaire.
And Donald is on the other side of the state having a lie-fest today.
It's all so exciting. Time for my nap.
Back to the Dwarfs
We shouldn’t get too fired up about the Fat Traitor going on trial for his seminal role in the J6 insurrection. Whatever Judge Chutkan decides will be appealed (again) to the PoT Star Chamber, still referred to (laughingly) as the Supreme Court.
Those (un)worthies (the PoTs) must be outraged that the squidgee immunity grant they gifted to Trump has been filleted by a legal mind far sharper and more honest than theirs, certainly one more bound to Constitutional grounding and a belief in the rule of law.
So…back we all go to Chez Johnny et les Nains. I’m guessing we’ll get an earful from Dopey (Thomas), Grumpy (Alito), Sleezy (Gorsuch), and Drunky (guess).
My guess is they’ll huff and they’ll puff and they’ll blow the Constitution down (sorry for mixing fairy tales, but…well, you know) and send it back to Chutkan for more bullshit. If they actually do allow a trial, it will be for jaywalking only, and won’t happen until 2026 or later.
If, however, this were a case involving a Democrat, they’d already be in chains in the Black Hole of Calcutta, sentenced to 100 years and a day with food and water once a week only.
Aw, Forrest. You shoulda brung JayDee a jelly doughnut what with him being too incompetent to buy his own.
I think you're right, Marie.
Roberts wanted to make sure his tenure would always be known as The Roberts' Court. And with the "immunity" ruling, he sure succeeded.
So much to be proud of.
Doesn’t Justice roberts realize he is only one “wrong” decision away from having a mob show up at his doorstep with a gallows, like his fellow conservative mike pence?
Don’t vote for me? You can all die.
You know how Fatty has been lying about the Biden administration denying emergency funding to predominantly Republican areas affected by the hurricane? There’s a good reason he came up with that idea. It’s exactly what he would do.
“According to a Thursday report from E&E News, in 2018 — as wildfires ravaged large swaths of California — Trump initially refused to approve aid to the state because he felt some of the affected regions didn’t like him enough.”
Aides had to show him voting data. Once they proved the affected area was MAGA enough, he approved the funding.
A prick of historic levels of evil.