Showing posts with label Jan 6 charges. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jan 6 charges. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 14, 2025

Straws



I have to admit, resisters, it has been hard coming back to LSR to face four more years. Pollyanna LSR is having a hard time, and I know you all are too. 

It seems more bleak this time around. He has a different cabal surrounding him. Gone are the "adults in the room." Now it's oligarchs and the ass-kissingest yes-men to be found. (Though "Ass-Kissingest Yes-Men" would be a great name for a band!) And he has a darker agenda now. 

Yet, I must find Pollyanna and bring her out to quash bad thoughts. I really am an optimist at heart. And for my own mental health, it is important to stay in that world as much as I can. 

I chatted recently with a sister resister who is also struggling, and we decided that straw-grasping, as meager as it is, is where we must live for now. So let's grasp.

So what straws do we have?
  • We have the same idiot 
He is demented, and ego drives him. This may actually work in our favor, as those who would whisper in his ear are subject to his whims. He will likely become more paranoid, which does not make for good relationships. The very essence of an authoritarian regime is imbued with paranoia and distrust. With cognitive difficulties, his paranoia may become worse. This may actually work to our advantage, as he will continue to be disorganized, change on a whim, with no real plan, and fire and hire at will based on some warped sense of "loyalty." It's what he does; he did it last time and we can expect more. 

He has surrounded himself with a new set of idiots.Yes, they are bad actors, but they are also incompetent. Most do not have experience in government or in the area they are to run. This may be a positive in that it will be hard for them to get things done. It will be chaos, like it was last time.

While they are flailing, Congress, statehouses, the courts, and The People can put up guardrails.

Work with me, folks. Trying to find positives!

  • We have a subset of IQ47's voters: the FAFO voters 
They have fucked around. Now they are finding out. They are waking up and saying Wait a minute. This isn't what I voted for. 

We know from the FAFO world that people are disillusioned, in their own little warped way. For example, the Tech Bro Oligarchs are gunning for a reversal of the immigration issue when it comes to cheap foreign skilled labor. The Racist Right is clashing with the Let-the-Corporations-Do-What-They-Want Right. While they are fighting, Dems can get things done. Maybe?

Instead of "bringing prices down immediately," he is blathering about buying or invading other lands. Do even the die-hard MAGAts want this? 

Once the economy starts tanking, they will have buyer's remorse.

And once Leon's DOGE plans start taking shape, more people may wake up. Remember what he said, that we will have some "temporary hardship?" Voters do not like to face hardship, temporary or otherwise. They want their eggs at $2.99/dozen. Social Security and Medicare? Those are issues that are very dear to all people across the political spectrum.

They will sour on Musk. We may have people rebel.

  • They have a very narrow majority in the House
Currently it's 219-215 Repug in the 119th Congress, with Matt Gaetz's vacated seat still to be filled. It's a little stronger in the Senate. Currently at 51-45 and 2 Independents, there will be two seats to be filled by Repugs, WV and Assistant to the Vice President JD Vance's seat. 
  • We have mid-terms in two years
This one is big. The 2027 midterms will be exciting. There are 33 Senators whose terms end in 2027. Twenty-one of those are Repugs. Some of those are close to retiring. If things go south in the next two years, which they likely will, let's hope disaffected voters will go to the polls. If we can flip the two bodies of Congress, we can put the brakes on. Campaigns will begin in just one year!
  • We still have a triumvirate system of government 
I know: Only to an extent. Yes, the Supreme Court is corrupt and in 34's pocket, but we still have state and federal courts. They have the obligation to dismiss frivolous lawsuits and ensure that illegal acts are blocked. Mark Elias writes about it in Democracy Docket.

With that in mind, please donate if you can to organizations that are ready to use litigation to protect our rights.

President Biden has been on a federal judge appointment spree, and several federal judges who were set to retire withdrew their retirement after the election.
 
And see this from Brian Taylor Cohen. The Arizona courts may – just may – be able to bring some justice and get The Felon behind bars. They still have a case against some of the conspirators who tried to overturn Arizona's election results. There is a certain unindicted co-conspirator in the indictment, a guy who oversaw the conspiracy in his bid to remain president of the United States. It's possible that the case can circle back around and get him in the net.
 
Thanks Sister Resister Anne for sending this straw of hope!

 

  • We can learn from the past 
There have been fascist governments around the world, and we can learn from them. 

We can learn from Europe

We can learn from Timothy Snyder 

We can learn from Madeline Albright 

 

IDEAS NEEDED

One of the biggest obstacles to us who want freedom: information. We have a misinformation crisis in the U.S. To me, this is our biggest obstacle to making things better. 

FAUX News and the other right-wing media have been feeding lies to their huge, confused audience. "Mainstream" or "legacy" media have begun to "obey in advance." Their weakening independence is thanks in large part to being owned by oligarchs or by frightened corporations. 

The trouble with most legacy media outlets is that they are owned by bigger business entities who can benefit or be harmed by the next administration's whims. They have an interest in keeping their dollars, less so in keeping information flowing freely. The independent part of "an independent free press" is being threatened.

And legacy media has been taking a hit business-wise even before this election. Readership and veiwership has declined. There has been a steady stream of layoffs across platforms. 

Yet the legacy media is where journalists are. The hard-hitting, hard-working, question-asking, standards-upholding, educated journalists.

I hate where we are, because a good, thorough, and free press is integral to a democracy. There's a reason Freedom of Speech is enshrined in the First Amendment. 

The history of the media decline has to do with corporate conglomerate ownership and the rise of social media, influencers, and self-publishing platforms like YouTube and podcasts. 

There is a new media coming out. Outlets like Medias Touch, and Brian Tyler Cohen, who I shared above, are good pro-democracy outlets. There are many commentators and journalists blogging on platforms like Stubstack as well. Even though they are satiric, late night media can also give a dose of reality to the news. Watch The Daily Show, Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver. 

There are plenty of left-leaning media outlets. They are good for calling bullshit, but they are often hyper-biased, which also isn't healthy. All of these "alternative" media sources get their information second- and third-hand from the legacy media anyway. 

We shouldn't completely abandon the legacy media, but we need to be careful. As we know, The Washington Post, ABC (owned by Disney), the Los Angeles Times, and MSNBC have already shown their tendency to obey in advance. The New York Times and CNN have been known to sane-wash the lunatic's fever dreams. I don't trust the Washington Post any more at all. The others, I use with caution.

Consume carefully. Seek out the most unbiased and reliable sources. Here is our old friend, the Bias Chart from Al Fontes Media. You can also check with Media Bias/Fact Check or All Sides. These sources are on constant watch and update regularly.

Some of my favorites are The Atlantic, The Guardian, The Independent, ProPublica and PBS NewsHour. There's also AP, The Hill, NPR.

BREAKING! Here's one alternative. Storied columnist Jennifer Rubin has also resigned from WaPo. She turned to Substack and has teamed up with Norman Eisen, attorney, CNN commentator, and founder of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, to launch a new pro-democracy journalism site, The Contrarian. Thanks, Sister Resister Pagrs, for pointing me to this!

The Bigger Problem: How to reach the MAGA voters. The Traitor Tot's main weapon is lies. Misinformation and disinformation work to make everyone confused. There are so many lies and so much misinformation that they can't believe anything. It is Authoritarianism 101.



How can we undo the misinformation? The MAGAts won't listen to left-leaning outlets, or even least-biased sources. They're been told it's all "fake news." It is so distressing. If they were only properly informed and educated, they may make different choices at the ballot box.

The Lincoln Project has done brilliantly in their ad campaigns. Run by a bunch of good Republicans, they produce ads excoriating 45/47. Being Republicans, they know what speaks to that mind. Is it enough though?

We need a new way to reach the righties. Any ideas, resisters?

Sister Resister Anne has done old-fashioned leaflets and posters. It's a good idea. How can we do this on a large scale? Would people read a leaflet, in this memefied world? Would meme leaflets work? How to get factual information into their hands? How to get them to trust a source? Or can it even be done? These are big questions.


HAPPENINGS

Jack Smith resigned
As expected, he said goodbye to the justice department after two years of work on two large cases, the insurrection case and the stolen classified documents case. We owe him a big bunch of gratitude for his hard work, even though in the end it was for naught. 

Because of a standing DOJ policy to not pursue criminal cases against a sitting president, the cases were dropped (Pollyanna adds... for now).

He filed his final reports on the January 6 case and the stolen classified documents case last week. Though Judge Eileen "Loose" Cannon quashed the documents case against The Felon, there is still a case pending against two co-conspirators. That report is being held in deference to that case. (Yes, 47 could make the case against them go away, too, but let's cross that bridge later.) 

We got one of the reports 
Early this morning the report on the coup attempt was released to the public. It's 137 pages, and can be found here. 

A few takeaways
Smith called the undertaking an "unprecedented criminal effort" and but for the election, King Leer would have been convicted, saying, “Indeed, but for Mr. Trump’s election and imminent return to the presidency, the office assessed that the admissible evidence was sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial.”

Smith explained why he did not charge incitement. He had tread carefully; he cited free speech and evidentiary reasons for not charging incitement. He also said that, as a practical matter, Jabba the Gut's words did indeed incite the mob and it was a foreseeable consequence.

Smith explained how difficult the investigation was, with all of the assertions of executive privilege, witness intimidation, and reluctant witnesses there were. And of course, the immunity ruling by the corrupt Supreme Court, which made charges more difficult – but not impossible – to finesse. 

Smith rejected assertions that his work was politically motivated, calling it laughable: “Nobody within the Department of Justice ever sought to interfere with, or improperly influence, my prosecutorial decision making. And to all who know me well, the claim from Mr. Trump that my decisions as a prosecutor were influenced or directed by the Biden administration or other political actors is, in a word, laughable.” 

You can read more in the New York Times or The Guardian. Or go to the source.

Rudy Giuliani was held in contempt for the second time
Will he step up and finally pay the women he defamed? And stop defaming them more? The judge dressed him down and required that he file a declaration that the facts are the facts. She stopped short of ordering him to jail, but said that it would be her next move if he doesn't shape up. 

Politicizing fires in LA
It has been a horrible week in Los Angeles. Fires have decimated several communities, wiping the town of Pacific Palisades off the map entirely. 

And true to form, Orange Julius Caeser has shot his mouth off again, bringing lies and politics fresh off an historic tragedy. He hates "liberal" California and he doesn't understand how water works and he's an idiot. 

Here are some facts:


So much misinformation is floating around that Gov. Gavin Newsom made a website for the facts. Gov. Newsom also invited the Orange Anus to come see for himself:




This is such a maddening and sad by-product of a terrible, terrible calamity for thousands of families. Nothing like this should be politicized. Real people lost their lives, homes, and livelihoods. 

DonOld can eat shit. 

The Phone Call with Alito
The day before he was about to be sentenced, King Minus just happened to ring up his buddy Sammy Alito. The phone call was supposedly about a former clerk interested in a federal position. 

The "clerk" cover was so transparent. It's someone who clerked for the justice 13 years ago and has already been in a federal position. There was no need for this kind of phone call. Of course the call was another bid for a favor. 

Besides, even if it were an "innocent" and "perfect" phone call, it 👏 should 👏 not 👏 happen 👏. He has no business speaking to a justice of the United States Supreme Court! And Alito has no business taking the call! 

Ethics! We need ethics!

Yet...The Felon was sentenced the next day
SCOTUS did the right thing and blocked stay of sentencing (should have been 9-0, not 5-4, though! Surprise: Alito was one of the four), and The Felon was formally, if in name only, sentenced. There was no punishment. But a sentence, even this one of "Unconditional Discharge," means that The Felon is and forever will be a Felon. 34 times felon. He can't own a gun, but will have the button to nuclear missiles. 



The First Confirmation Hearing
Pete Hegseth's hearing for Secretary of Defense was today. I watched a bit of it, but every time a smarmy Repug senator came on, ready to nuzzle Pete's nether regions, I got sick to my stomach. Literally. Rather than throw things at the TV, I turned it off. I will say I caught Sen. Elissa Slotkin from Minnesota and she was on fire. We need more Slotkins in this country. 

She is ex-CIA and worked in the Department of Defense. She is one smart cookie.


And I saw a bit of Purple Heart Veteran Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.). Fierce:


And Tim Kane!
"....including the name of your own mother."

Hegseth: Anonymous false charges Kaine: They’re not anonymous.. We have seen records with names attached to all of these including your own mother

[image or embed]

— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) January 14, 2025 at 9:00 AM


The Distractions
The chatter about acquiring Greenland, the Panama Canal, and Canada continue. Some think it is all just a distraction, but The Guardian feels that these expansionist ideas should be taken seriously and should be nipped in the bud.


Jimmy Carter's funeral
President Carter was laid to rest, and all of the living former (and current) presidents were in attendance. The internet had a lot to say about the seating arrangements, the optics, and the doings of one certain former/future president. In a word: awkward!

Here are a few takes on it.



No heart to hold..... 






President Joe Biden is still hard at work
The President is working on lots of things before he leaves office. I've told you about some of his final acts, like commuting the sentences of most of the death row prisoners in the United States and expanding Social Security by signing the Social Security Fairness Act. 

He has done a lot more. For example, he extended temporary status for 800,000 Salvadoran and Venezuelan immigrants. He announced $2.5 billion for Ukraine; he blocked a takeover of a U.S. steel corporation by a Japanese firm; he banned offshore drilling along the Pacific and Atlantic coasts; he wiped medical debt from credit reports; he expanded Veterans' benefits; he imposed additional sanctions on Russia; he restricted exports of AI chips, and more. Read in Time. 

I am happy to live in California.
Gov. Newsom and the state have allocated $50 million for litigation to Drumpf-proof California, including resisting his efforts to use us to implement his mass deportation agenda. Keep your stinking paws out of our beautiful state, you loser! 

Keep your chin up.
David Cole, who was national legal director at the ACLU and argued many cases in front of the Supreme Court, believes that civil society will be a thorn in the authoritarian's side.

He cites the fact that last time, The Hungry Hungry Hippocrite controlled both houses of Congress and appointed bunches of federal judges but got very little legislation passed and "had the worst win-loss record in the Supreme Court of any president in history." Many of his own appointees ruled against him.

Cole talks about the ACLU's actions against 45's administration, their defense of civil liberties in general, and the readiness to go up against The Incompetent Incontinent again. Read his interview with Conor Friedersdorf in The Atlantic. 


YOUR MOMENT OF BEAUTY
How fun is this?!



YOUR MOMENT OF ACTION
Find the location of Saturday's People's March and go! Make a sign, get your friends, and march, darn it! 

And secondly, contact your Senators today and tell them to oppose the confirmation of Pete Hegseth for secretary of defense. Use Resistbot or 5 Calls. Or find your Senator's contact information here. 

LOOKING FOR MEMES?
Watch for the next post! Coming soon!


MY PROMISE
My promise, resisters, is to stay here. I will stay aware, devour media, and bring the news and my thoughts to you. As hard as it is, I must. Staying informed is activism. Writing is activism. Activism staves off the hopelessness. 

I will resist!







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Thursday, October 17, 2024

The Hope is in the Lines

Today we start with the Light from the Magic Wand


We have lots of positives to celebrate this week.

Early voting has started across the country
The blue wave is coming!

Georgia had a record-breaking first day of early voting on Tuesday, October 15. 

Georgia's previous first-day record was for 2020, with a first-day total of 136,000 votes. This year's first day saw a smashing 187,973 by 2 p.m. and by end of day, over 300,000 votes had been cast – more than twice as many as the last record. Amazing!

And one of those votes was by Jimmy Carter, 100-year-old resident of Georgia. He had been holding on to life in order to vote for Kamala Harris. He fulfilled his dream! 

I hope Mr. Carter can see her become elected, and then to be sworn in! 

Another Georgia voter who cast an early vote was 81-year-old Betty Cartledge. Her husband, who discouraged her from voting, died last year. This year Betty voted for the first time. She didn't disclose who she voted for. I hope she voted hard to make up for the dirty her hubby did to her. Go, Betty, go! 

A historic number of first-day ballots was also cast in New Mexico. 

A pic of the lines at the polls in Santa Fe:

Thank you, Big Sister Resister Pagrs, for the photo!

So far, almost 8,000,000 votes have already been cast across the country - with only 19 days to go!

See NBC's graphic below (accurate as of the time this was written), and follow this link for latest numbers. It's a pretty cool tool. You can filter by age, gender, party.

NBC News

Here's Little Sister Resister watching Georgia's early voting numbers come in.


This is an election of turnout. The bigger the turnout, the better chance for blue. Long lines are exciting!

Must certify
Speaking of Georgia, a Georgia judge ruled that election officials must count and certify the results. They cannot delay or decline to certify, even when they suspect anomalies. The judge stated that it isn't their place to judge or act on any suspected anomalies.

The same judge has blocked the 11th-hour rule that required a hand-count of every precinct's ballots in Georgia. 

And speaking of judges
Judge Tanya Chutkin today denied the Felon's motion to delay the release of the appendix items, i.e., evidence! in the January 6 case. We will get to see it tomorrow (Friday). 

Kamala Harris was strong 
She had an interview on FAUX News and was effective in pushing back against an interrupting, abrasive Brett Baier and his FAUX News talking points.

Showing up to the Snake Pit of FAUX News is a win in itself. But she held her ground in an interview peppered with interruptions and attempts to sanitize the Mango Mussolini's balderdash. The whole interview can be seen here, but these are my favorite bits. This here woman is presidential material!

Plus I love how the Momala in Kamala emerges and explains it real slow and gentle to Brett, Awwww, honey.... It's not supposed to be easy!

Then she lets him have it. Go, Kamala!

 



If you want to see the full clip of the edited version that Brett Baier showed, Kamala posted the full footage, full of "the enemy within" rhetoric, after the interview:


Kamala is showing she is strong and capable. She will assert her views and her words respectfully, but firmly. She will not back down to adversarial rhetoric.

I can imagine her speaking to world leaders about important topics, or in a room with lawmakers negotiating a bill.

This is the person I want in the White House, fighting for Americans and American interests. 


And this tickled me. She's strong everywhere!
Lookie how she handled these hecklers:


It's raining splats and logs
Get out your industrial strength umbrella. Shit keeps coming down fast and furious from the MAGAt side.

Working the fry machine
Doughnald is still obsessed with Kamala's statements that she worked at McDonald's while in college. He just can't get over it. He's about the only person in the United States who cares.

He is making good on his promise to go in to McDonald's and work a fry machine himself. This weekend, in Pennsylvania, he will disrupt the operations of a local McDonald's, don an apron, and dip the taters.

Why? 

The only logical reason is to get a free Supersize Fries and maybe a couple Big Macs too. 

More power to you, baby dude. More power to you. 



And it just keeps going. Li'l Donnie Junior doubled down on Fox: “I think my father knows the McDonald’s menu much better than Kamala Harris ever did," he said. 

Ummmm, ...I don't think that's the brag you think it is. 

The Heath Records
Kamala released her heath records this week. Predictably, they showed she is in excellent health except for occasional hives and some seasonal conjunctivitis and seasonal rhinitis. Translation: she has springtime allergies. 

Private Bonespurs of course refuses to release his records. Even if he did, he would ghost write them like he did in 2015. Remember Dr. Harold Borstein's report? "His physical strength and stamina are extraordinary. If elected, Mr. Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency."

This year, there is more gaslighting from the gasbag. It's all he knows how to do. He commented about why he is not releasing his medical records. On his social media account he posted a couple things: 

…I’ve put out more Medical Exams than any other President in History, and aced two Cognitive Exams (the Doctor stated that my “cognitive exams were exceptional!”). I am far healthier than Clinton, Bush, Obama, Biden, but especially, Kamala. Also, I am far too busy campaigning to take time, from the 22 days left, as I am using every hour, of every day, campaigning, because we have to take back our Country from the Radical Left people that are destroying it. 
…As to her completely desperate request for my Medical Statements, she is dying to see my Cholesterol (which is 180!), I have already provided them, many times, including quite recently, and they were flawless. However, I have just seen Kamala’s Report, and it is not good. According to her Doctor’s Report, she suffers from “urticaria,” defined as “a rash of round, red welts on the skin that itch intensely, sometimes with dangerous swelling.” She also has “allergic rhinitis and allergic conjunctivitis,” a very messy and dangerous situation. These are deeply serious conditions that clearly impact her functioning. Maybe that is why she can’t answer even the simplest of questions asked by 60 Minutes, and others. What is this all about? I don’t have these problems…
OMG!  She has hay fever! How can we pull her nomination?! Quick, before she gets the nuclear codes!!

All of this nonsense is just pure lies. There's nothing else to add. 

Univision Town Hall
DonOld appeared on Univision in a town hall meeting on Thursday. 

Florida citizen Ramiro Gonzalez is my new hero. He posed an important question in a great way. Watch Gonzalez's reactions. He's not buying this load of bullshit. Watch his thoughtful question, the orange turd's response, and Gonzalez's reactions below.

A day of love? A day of love??
Love these women's reactions as they consider this pile of turds:

And thank you, too, Sr. Saralegui, citizen of Arizona. Keep holding his feet to the fire about the dogs and cats!

Here's another bullshit bunch of words strung together for three long minutes in "response" to a serious question about climate change.

And this one. This one got me verklempt. This man probably picked strawberries that went into my very own mouth. He lives just an hour away from me. 

Diaper Don's answer is, predictably, from his same, tattered script. Beyond disrespectful! He doesn't know how to answer the real question. Maybe he didn't even understand the real question. And I hope the millions of Hispanic voters who watched this will see through his drivel.



Side note: can we have the interpreter pretty please read bedtime stories from now until Election Day? That voice! ❤️

Here is the whole Univision town hall with Latino voters. 

I believe this town hall is damaging to Trumplethinskin. Latino voters are a huge block, and this town hall is especially illustrative of this bag of' stinky false choice. 


FAUX News's Faux Town Hall with Women
Let's peek into this week's FAUX News Writers' Room:
Writer 1: Oh, here's a good idea! Let's have a town hall with women voters! 
Writer 2: Yeah, man! Shall we do it with the elusive "undecided" voter, with hard-hitting questions, like the audience at Univision? 

Writer 1: Or, maybe just regular off-the-street people. We could get a cross-section of everyday women's thoughts. 

Producer: Hells to the naw! We're FAUX News, dudes! Let's pack the room with his fawning minions. They should ask "questions" peppered with lines from The Supreme Leader's own screenplay! There's no need to bring substance and thoughtful people in there! In fact..... get the Georgia Federation of Republican Women on the horn. They can help us out! 
Writers in unison: Yayyyy! Keep the gene pool pure! Only Trump supporters allowed!

Producer to marketing team: Shhhh, though. Do not let anyone know that this is a MAGA Town-Hall Tickle-Fest. Just say "all women voters."

Producer to editor: Just make sure to edit out their chants of, "Trump! Trump! Trump!" Remember, we're fair and balanced, man! 
If you want to see this dripping pool of contamination, have at it. I couldn't find the whole event on YouTube, and I am kinda glad I didn't. And if you think I'm exaggerating about the planning meeting, you're wrong. 

I'll share just a couple pieces. I got the icks so bad when he called himself "the father of IVF." WTAF.



And this heartless, disgusting bit. 

The Bloomburg Interview, on the other hand: BRILLIANT
Another hero, not American, and this is probably why he was able to be so bad-ass. Here is intelligent and knowledgeable John Micklethwait interviewing the Traitor Tot in front of an audience of economists at the Economic Club of Chicago. Micklethwait torched him, all while wearing a beautiful British smirk.

Here he is asking about January 6.
And his ignorance of the way tariffs work was on display here:



Uhhhhh.... The question was about Google.


And here is my favey interaction. You can just see the toddler emerging. Arms crossed, slouched back, pouting, saying, "No, YOU'RE wrong!"




Here is the whole interview:


I still can't get over the 39-minute dance party
There is so much bizarro stuff that comes out of that man's holes, all of them, that the media and many of the rest of us just blip over the concerning stuff and shrug it off that it's Baby Hands being Baby Hands. 

It's hard to absorb and hold on to each and every concerning trait. This one, though, this is extra weird.

Can you imagine going in for an interview, and just as the boss was starting the Q & A, you say, "Let’s not do any more questions. Let’s just listen to music. Let’s make it into a music. Who the hell wants to hear questions, right?" And then you stand there, swaying and bopping around for the next half hour. 

Would you hire that person?!

This is insanity!

Vance is not dancing around the question anymore
Remember when he did his awkward and transparent pivot during the VP debate when Walz asked Prince Smarming if Dumpty lost the 2020 election? He's not dancing anymore. 

A reporter asked the direct question, "Did Donald Trump lose the 2020 election?" Vance answered, "On the election of 2020, I've answered this question directly a million times. No, I think there are serious problems in 2020 so did Donald Trump lose the election? Not by the words that I would use."

President Vance?
I've seen it in more than one place. There's chatter out there that The Heritage Foundation is banking on being able to apply the 25th Amendment or wait until he's convicted of a crime, thus ending a Rancid Cheeto presidency. Then they install their real candidate, JD Vance. This blogger laid out the scenario thoroughly. It's a scary thought. Vance is a scary man. 


Get on your broomsticks and ride, Resisters! We must vote the hell out of this election!!!

photo by LSR




 


I don't say it enough, but deep thanks to my Sister Resisters who send me stuff! It is always appreciated!

And there are not enough thanks to Karenone for making sure all my words make sense and all my hyphens are correct! 
😜
 
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Thursday, October 3, 2024

Beautiful Beach Bodies, Really Violent Days, and The Government's Motion for Immunity Determinations

But first...
Jimmy Carter's 100th birthday! 
President Carter reached his 100th year on October 1. He has been under the care of home hospice at his home in Plains, Georgia for the last 19 months. I am not the only one to predict that he would not have lived long after his beloved Rosalynn died in 2023, but here he is. 

It has been reported that he wants to hold on to be able to cast his ballot for Kamala Harris. Two weeks to go before early voting starts in Georgia on October 16. ❤️

Such a wise, gentle soul. He has done much for this country and the world. 

Happy Birthday, dear President Carter. I revere you.

Chris Britt

Steve Sack



Hurricane Response
Such a devastating tragedy for a wide swath of the South. Hurricane Helene roared fast and furious into the panhandle of Florida and went on to savagely beat up on Georgia and North Carolina. Many communities have been absolutely devastated. Here we are, six days after Helene made landfall, and there are 200 dead and hundreds still missing. More than a million citizens throughout Georgia and North Carolina are still without power and water. 

Lies came out of Donold's ass, of course. He cannot help but make a tragedy political. He lied his pants off and said President Biden did not call Georgia Governor Brian Kemp. He said that the President was "sleeping." He continued his lie-fest by saying that the President and his administration wanted to keep from assisting those states because they are Republican. Stop. Just stop!!

It feels dumb to clarify, but the President of course called Gov. Kemp, along with Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina and other elected officials throughout the region. And of course, OF COURSE, aid will be rendered wherever it is needed. 

The Mango Mussolini further politicized the tragedy by showing up at sites, against the advice of officials who believed his visit would disrupt rescue and clean-up efforts. He disrupted anyway, just so that he could have a photo-op while lying about providing relief supplies, which 👏 he 👏 did 👏 not 👏 do 👏.

Here he is in his photo op, after making workers take the bricks from a damaged building to build him a great big beautiful wall. 




Here's the lying bastard in action:


For the record, Kamala suspended campaign activities and was on the phone to FEMA right away, making a visit later when she was assured it would not disrupt recovery efforts. Biden made an aerial tour as his visit, and obviously he mobilized the full force of federal relief resources.

If you would like to help the victims of Helene, consider donating to Direct Relief International. They are an efficient, caring, and effective disaster response organization.

We remember Dolt 45's response to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. His presidential response to the citizens of Puerto Rico after the devastating hurricane was to block aid from FEMA, insult the governor, disavow being president of the island territory, mock their accent, and throw paper towels. 

Don't forget his response to Hurricane Dorian, which he insisted hit Alabama, going so far to use a sharpie to doctor a map. SO FUCKING WEIRD!!

At least he didn't throw paper towels this time. Oh, that's right. He's just a private citizen now, so the rolls of Bounty would have had to come out of his own pocket.

We know that if he were to be elected, future hurricane and other weather-realated disasters would be immeasurably more devastating because he will have gutted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). It's plainly spelled out in Project 2025 (page 696 and 709).


For reference, here is LSR's post about Hurricane Dorian in not-Alabama. For some reason, I didn't specifically post about Hurricane Maria, though I mentioned it in this post about Doughnald's blatant racism. 

"One Really Violent Day"
Ok, the rhetoric is getting very dark. 

Darth Hater went as far as to suggest a free-for-all day for cops to do whatever they want to citizens who shoplift. See below, if you have the stomach for it:




Speaking of Violent Rhetoric: The Traitor Tot Insurrection Trial
A big development came out yesterday! A prosecution filing was unsealed in Judge Tanya Chutkin's federal courtroom. 

Special Prosecutor Jack Smith wrote an exhaustive 165-page filing, detailing his plans to prosecute in light of SCOTUS's kingship ruling. In it, Smith outlined the actions that were specifically private – as a candidate, not as President – rather than official, during the period when The Unforgettable Liar attempted to stage a coup. 

Smith makes the point that the people helping in the coup scheme were campaign staff, private advisers, and private attorneys. The filing's main point is, "The Executive Branch has no authority or function to choose the next President.... As President, the defendant had no official responsibilities related to the states administration of the election or the appointment of their electors." 

With regard to his communications with Pence about that day's certification proceedings, the filing says, "Because the Executive Branch has no role in the certification proceeding -- and indeed, the President was purposely excluded from it by design -- prosecuting the defendant for his corrupt efforts regarding Pence poses no danger to the Executive Branch's authority or functioning."  

Boom. Done. 

I'm not a lawyer and I don't even play one on TV, but to me the biggest proof that his acts weren't official is that they failed. He used others in their official capacities. He used the courts; he tried to use local secretaries of state; he tried to use state and local election officials. He tried to use his own Vice President, for lord's sake! If his were official acts, he would have prevailed at every turn – or at the very least, one turn! It's obvious! But I'm not a whack-job Supreme Court justice, and no one asked me.

The only thing he had left was his power. His power to sway angry, vulnerable minds. And that's what he used on January 6, resulting in death, destruction, and the collective trauma we experienced. 

The fever dreams of a demented psycho dictator-wannabe is not governance. 

This in an important document, and reading it reaffirms my belief in good people and good election processes. 

The document is worth the read: here it is. It is chock full of sweet yummy bits! (BTW, I know it's hard to read with all the redacted names -- but the internet to the rescue! Here is a list of the Persons and Co-conspirators in the filing.)

We know most of the story already, but there were a few new tidbits of evidence to unwrap. Feels like Christmas!
  • While on Marine One, he said to his children and Melania that "it doesn't matter if you won or lost the election. You still have to fight like hell." This mirrors his rhetoric during his speech on January 6.
  • During the attack on the Capitol, King Ketchup was in his dining room, watching the carnage on FAUX News. He was alone with his phone. Forensics on his phone indicate that he was scrolling Twitter most of the afternoon. At 2:24pm, just as a police officer had been attacked and the breach of the building was underway, he (and not Dan Scavino, the only other person to have access to his account) tweeted, "Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!"
This tweet became a de facto order for his minions to kill Vice President Mike Pence. Jack Smith makes the point that this tweet "was not a message sent to address a matter of public concern and ease unrest; it was the message of an angry candidate upon the realization that he would lose power."

What he didn't do that afternoon, in an official capacity as President, which his staff was begging him to do during the riots: "quell the emergency at the Capitol."  

  • When told that Mike Pence had to run for his life and had been moved to a safe location, Dumbty replied, "So what?"
  • It was apparent that not only did he know his claims of election fraud were false, he and his team made up the numbers on the daily - inventing them and changing them regularly. For example, 🚼 and his team pulled out of their butts that 36,000 non-citizens had voted in Arizona, changing the number to "a few hundred thousand” a few days later, eventually bringing it back to “bare minimum … 40 or 50,000," then down to 32,000 and back up again to the original number of 36,000.
  • When Twitler was told that he was not going to prevail in court, he shrugged it off. "The details don't matter," he said.
  • We had known that Steve Bannon knew something in advance, based on his War Room podcast where he said that "all hell was going to break loose" on January 6. Now we know Smith has the receipts. Babyhands spoke to Bannon by telephone on January 5, a couple hours before the podcast.
  • There are more details about conversations between VP Pence and Cadet Bone-Spurs, both from Pence's book and from his contemporaneous notes. Pence kept pushing back on the idea that he had the power to change the results. 
On a Christmas Day phone call, Pence told him, "You know I don’t think I have the authority to change the outcome." The Deranged Pumpkin continued to push, at one point telling him, "When there’s fraud, the rules get changed." He told Pence to “be bold” and that “this whole thing is up to him." 

Smith skillfully framed the conversations between 45 and VP Pence as between running mates and not in their official roles. 

45's threats to Pence were scary. He continually threatened Pence that his followers would "hate [his] guts" and "I'm gonna have to say you did a great disservice." It swells my heart that Pence did what he did in the face of great peril. 

  • After the election, while votes were still being counted, TЯUMP and his team wanted to create chaos.  A member of the campaign visited a polling place in Detroit and attempted to pressure them to find a way to “find a reason it isn’t” favoring Biden in that location. When the election worker expressed concern that it would cause unrest, the campaign employee said, "Make them riot!" and "Do it!!!
  • King Minus also pressured RNC chairperson Ronna McDaniel to buy into the lies regarding voting machines in Michigan. She told him her feelings about the plan: "This is fucking nuts."
Another time, he asked McDaniel to arrange a meeting with Michigan officials. She declined, saying it could be construed as lobbying. Hello. A candidate's private act, anyone?
  • It is obvious he was only talking about his vote numbers, and did not at any time address the vote totals for candidates down-ballot, some of whom garnered more votes than he did. For example, in Michigan, he was told, "if he had received the same number of votes as the two local winning sheriffs he likely would have won Michigan."
  • He tried to pit one state against the other. He lied to officials in Michigan and told them that Georgia was ready to change their certification.
  • Remember Sidney Powell's whackadoodle theory about the late Hugo Chavez's involvment in rigging voting machines? It is noted in the filing that Diaper Don initially called her ideas, "crazy," before using them and inflating them.
  • It is a little funny to be seeing references to Star Trek (in relation to Sidney Powell; exact reference to which aspect of Star Trek is unspecified) and characters from the "Star Wars bar" (relating to a "motley" group of false electors).
  • The event at the ellipse was clearly described in all those tweets as a "rally," which Smith notes is a term reserved for campaign events, not official events. He points out that the rally was privately funded, and it was staffed and organized chiefly by campaign staff, not White House staff. They understood the Hatch Act.
  • Rudy did a boo-boo. He texted his fraudulent plans to ask Michigan lawmakers to overturn the results, texting: 
“So I need you to pass a joint resolution from the Michigan legislature that states that, *the election is in dispute,* there’s an ongoing investigation by the Legislature, and * the Electors sent by Governor Whitmer are not the official Electors of the State of Michigan and do not fall within the Safe Harbor deadline of Dec 8 under Michigan Law.”
The problem? He texted to a wrong number. You can't make this shit up! 
  • There's a whole section – multiple pages – about the Twidiot's Twitter communications. Smith was masterful at illustrating the use of Tweets as mostly unofficial throughout the campaign and indeed his presidency, and certainly throughout the post-election coup attempt. 
  • I love the sections where Jack anticipates the defense's reactions and tells how he will rebut those arguments.
  • I love the references to the Federalist Papers, which clearly express the Framers' wishes: 
The Constitution’s structure further reflects the Framers’ considered choice to exclude the incumbent President from playing a role in choosing the next President. The Constitution reflects an abiding concern that governmental “power is of an encroaching nature, and that it ought to be effectually restrained from passing the limits assigned to it,” not least to protect against “the danger to liberty from the overgrown and all-grasping prerogative of an hereditary magistrate.” The Federalist No. 48 (J. Madison); see Metro. Wash. Airports Auth. v. Citizens for Abatement of Aircraft Noise, Inc., 501 U.S. 252, 273 (1991) (“The abuses by the monarch recounted in the Declaration of Independence provide dramatic evidence of the threat to liberty posed by a too powerful executive.”). The Framers therefore designed a system of separated powers in part to ensure that “[n]o man is allowed to be a judge in his own cause, because his interest would certainly bias his judgment, and, not improbably, corrupt his integrity.” The Federalist No. 10 (J. Madison).

Smith's motion is a clear document that illustrates just how obviously he was acting as Candidate Donny and not President Dummy. Judge Chutkin now holds a roadmap to rulings that his acts are not official and do not fall under SCOTUS's immunity decision.

In short, SCOTUS did not change a thing about these charges. They just worked to delay, as I am sure was their goal. Jack Smith had to take extra time to delineate these unofficial acts, but to our benefit, We The People get to see more damning evidence. 

However, I am skeptical. Whatever Chutkin rules, there are sure to be appeals to higher courts, and the matter of private vs. official acts will eventually be decided by "his Supreme Court justices." Though this document is tight and brilliantly written, the Supreme Court has a bunch of loose cannons. This ain't over yet, by a long shot.

Gawd, I hope we see a trial.


Diaper Don is looking like he needs a li'l nap 
Or maybe a hospital bed. The man is in serious decline. He continues with weird, confused, low-energy speeches. Like this one. Dry bathrooms? Huh? So weird!


There's more. He's both slurring and saying very strange things about his body and Joe Biden's:


David Packman looks at more clips of his recent appearances. Venezuelan killers occupying midwestern towns? Two years ago there weren't flies? It's all quite alarming.

We can't let this person back into the White House!

Weird.
Ok, you know how every senator and representative has an official portrait? Here's JD's:



So, this morning Georgia Repug Rep. Mike Collins, for reasons known only to him, posted this version of the photo. May I introduce JD Prance:


Wut? What universe is this? It just keeps getting weirder!

Needless to say, the internet is going wild over this "yassified" version of Vance, and is adding their own photoshop miracles. Follow this link for those. My favorite among them, though, is the yassification of Rep. Collins himself:


A few more memes about the VP debate

The new Harris/Walz ad:
































And a catch-up of other memes and 'toons of the days we are living in

Hey, Mr. Whamond! Great minds...! 
 Dave Whamond


Did you see SNL's first cold open of the season?











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