U.S. Politics megathread (merged)

[Unknown user]

2 hours ago, All roads lead to Gorgie said:

I was in NY 25 years ago but only for a stop over. I really have to go back for long enough to see it properly. I have been watching a lot of YouTube live streaming from NY and it really whets the appetite to go back.

Appreciate your historical knowledge of the Big Apple

 

Funny enough, I hated it when I visited, far too many people for my taste.

 

But there's this PBS documentary from the 90s on its history, it's 12 episodes, each about 90 minutes, and it's one of the best things I've ever watched, even though it's got Trump in it as a property expert. I should have watched it before visiting really!

 

It keeps getting put up on YouTube and taken down again, but I highly recommend having a nibble - if you're like me you'll be hooked.

 

This is one of my favourite discoveries from it - before the statue of liberty went up the city had to raise funds for the plinth, even though the statue itself was a gift from France. But New York's never been into public projects, things either pay for themself or they don't happen.

 

So to raise funds they put up the arm in Madison Square and charged people to go up for a look, leading to this magnificent photo.

 

 

 

[Watt-Zeefuik]

On 03/07/2022 at 23:07, ri Alban said:

A lot of Americans used claim Scots and Ulster Scots (Scot Irish) descent. Is this still a thing?

 

Not as much as it once was, but yes. The term "Scots Irish" is so often mistaken to mean "either Scottish or Irish" when of course it means nothing of the sort.

 

A good number of my biological ancestors were Ulster Scots—we even have the town name they were settled in in Ulster before leaving. Another tranch of them were straight from Scotland—most of those came from Old Kilpatrick. A number of the families migrated en masse and kept together for several generations after arriving here. A few years ago I found the online parish baptism, marriage, and death records and from that and what we've been able to cobble together from family records I must be related to about 2/3 of those who lived in the village in 1680.

 

Anyway, a lot of the stuff is mythical. By all accounts Elizabeth Warren actually believed she had Native ancestry, as she'd been told by her whole family, until someone finally explained to her that claiming an undocumented Native ancestor was a common ploy for getting a hold of land allotments in lots of places, but particularly Oklahoma, where she's from. I gather the equivalent is the "pure British stock" myth in the UK, something that apparently probably about 1% of the population can claim in any realistic sense?

Edited July 5, 2022 by Led Tasso

[JFK-1]

ANXIOUS TRUMP WOLRD PREPS FOR "WORST-CASE" AS STAR GOP LAWYER SAYS TRUMP WILL BE INDICTED 

 

In this video they make an estimate that around 30 to 35% of the population will still support Trump, even if they believe he tried to execute a coup and countless other crimes well before the election.

 

It's said that these people want some sort of authoritarian state and I believe that too. That's obviously troubling in a number of ways, just one of them that I would further speculate that this 30 to 35% hold a massively disproportionate percentage of the guns.

 

Say Trump is indicted, locked up even, the irony, "lock her up" This 30 to 35% with well over half the guns and I have seen estimates that they hold up to 90% of the guns. While there's a supreme court saying they can walk around kitted out for war if they want to.

 

What's going to be the response from that quarter? Or in this case third.

 

One in three of the population, that's Nazi Germany like. The last election conducted in Germany before Hitler declared dictatorship the Nazi's got around one third of the votes. 

 

 

Edited July 6, 2022 by JFK-1

[Maple Leaf]

[JFK-1]

GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene went viral after suggesting that the July 4 Philadelphia and Highland Park shootings were false flags meant to push Republicans to back gun control measures.

 

It’s bad enough that this lunacy is coming from a sitting member of Congress — but what’s worse, is that the party is letting this nonsense flow freely to its base as it goes unanswered.

 

 

[JFK-1]

I'm becoming ever more convinced Trump can't get away with this. The evidence of guilt isn't just compelling, it's clearly guilty as sin and still more to come. I think the DOJ may wait to see if Georgia will indict him first.

 

Trump will probably try to appeal to the supreme court if convicted, they will throw it out. Even they can't be that blatant. I would love to see Trump testify, he's a total idiot who would end up confessing everything without even realising it.

 

Quote

 

Millions of Americans have been watching the Jan. 6 hearings, and most now think Donald Trump should be prosecuted for plotting to overturn the 2020 election results, according to new polling.

 

Meanwhile, the investigation continues to heat up as Trump’s former White House counsel is set to testify before the panel. MSNBC’s Ari Melber is joined by former Watergate prosecutor Nick Akerman to break down some of the key moments from past hearings.

 

Trump 'Up To His Eyeballs In Criminality' Ahead Of W.H. Counsel’s Jan. 6 Testimony

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JFK-1]

First time I have seen a prominent US commentator on a major network say that the British parliamentary system is superior to theirs. It's blasphemy to some to suggest anywhere is superior to them in any way.

 

 

[JFK-1]

Trumps White House counsel Pat Cipollone has testified behind closed doors to the Jan 6 committee for over 8 hours. Plus breaking news, Steve Bannon looks as if he may be about to fold as he faces jail time.

 

‘Crimes’: Surrender By Trump Lawyer Who Warned Of WH Felonies As Congress Gets New Jan. 6 Testimony 

 

 

[Unknown user]

Just now, JFK-1 said:

Trumps White House counsel Pat Cipollone has testified behind closed doors to the Jan 6 committee for over 8 hours. Plus breaking news, Steve Bannon looks as if he may be about to fold as he faces jail time.

 

‘Crimes’: Surrender By Trump Lawyer Who Warned Of WH Felonies As Congress Gets New Jan. 6 Testimony 

 

 

Great, this is the stuff I've been waiting for, will we see Bannon get grilled? 

[Watt-Zeefuik]

17 hours ago, JFK-1 said:

First time I have seen a prominent US commentator on a major network say that the British parliamentary system is superior to theirs. It's blasphemy to some to suggest anywhere is superior to them in any way.

 

 

15 years ago I never would have said this but what this has shown (and what GWB and in retrospect Clinton has shown) is that it's we are far too reticent to dump Presidents when they make major mistakes.

 

Every single impeached President, including Clinton (who, hand up, at the time I thought never should have been impeached and was furious about it), should have been removed from office: Johnson, Nixon, Clinton, and Trump. GWB should have been impeached and removed, and Cheney along with him. The fact that none of them were actually convicted in a Senate trial shows that our constitutional system needs reform.

[JFK-1]

11 hours ago, Led Tasso said:

 

15 years ago I never would have said this but what this has shown (and what GWB and in retrospect Clinton has shown) is that it's we are far too reticent to dump Presidents when they make major mistakes.

 

Every single impeached President, including Clinton (who, hand up, at the time I thought never should have been impeached and was furious about it), should have been removed from office: Johnson, Nixon, Clinton, and Trump. GWB should have been impeached and removed, and Cheney along with him. The fact that none of them were actually convicted in a Senate trial shows that our constitutional system needs reform.

 

I pondered your Clinton instance and thought well, The Monica whatshername thing, not fitting for a statesman of a leading nation, if it's discovered that is. The thing is the way I see it, they're human beings too, what do we want? A saint or a smart leader?

 

And if no one had ever known about this absolutely no damage would have been to the nation on any level. But in saying that I then began to think okay say I dunno Tony Blair had been exposed in a similar fashion, blowjob in the cabinet room or something, with a hot cleaner.

 

The hot cleaner snitches, she's smart like Monica, she has incontrovertible evidence. Is Blair finished I though. And the answer eventually came back as very likely indeed. And probably relatively swiftly.

[JFK-1]

An excerpt from an Atlantic magazine article for which I will provide a link at the end for anybody who wants to read it all. I cut this section out because the author appears to feel pretty much as I do about Trump.

 

That he's as boring and tedious as hell, and I find it baffling anyone would actually want to go out of their way to watch this complete idiot talk utter shite. I would pay good money to avoid being bored by the idiot. I would find sitting outside in the dark trying watch the grass grow more interesting.

 

Quote

Well, no. I never found Donald Trump to be remotely captivating as a stand-alone figure. He’d been around forever and his political act was largely derivative. His promise to “drain the swamp” was treated as some genius coinage, though in fact the platitude had been worn out for decades by both parties.

 

Nancy Pelosi promised to “drain the swamp” in 2006, just as the Reagan-Bush campaign had vowed to “Make America Great Again” in 1980.

Trump said and did obviously awful and dangerous things—racist and cruel and achingly dumb and downright evil things.

 

But on top of that, he is a uniquely tiresome individual, easily the sorest loser, the most prodigious liar, and the most interminable victim ever to occupy the White House.

 

He is, quite possibly, the biggest crybaby ever to toddle across history’s stage, from his inaugural-crowd hemorrhage on day one right down to his bitter, ketchup-flinging end.

 

Seriously, what public figure in the history of the world comes close? I’m genuinely asking.

Bottom line, Trump is an extremely tedious dude to have had in our face for seven years and running.

 

THE MOST PATHETIC MEN IN AMERICA

Why Lindsey Graham, Kevin McCarthy, and so many other cowards in Congress are still doing Trump’s bidding.

 

https://www.hmfckickback.co.uk/index.php?/topic/181731-us-politics-megathread-title-updated/page/569/#comment-9187596

 

[Geoff Kilpatrick]

And yet, for all this, Trump still remains the favourite for 2024.

 

Maybe Covid will mutate and kill us all to spare us the misery of that.

[Sharpie]

On 02/07/2022 at 09:46, Led Tasso said:

 

Welcome to hell, mate.

 

But someone will be along shortly to tell us that the Democrats, who merely are feckless and bickering at about the standard level of your normal political party, are somehow just as bad as this shitshow.

 During the election I was favoring Biden because I just could not see Trump do a second term.  I now watch Biden, dithering, mumbling, struggling to make statements, I have no space to be critical about age, but Biden is well past his best by date for such a serious office. I watched him on the news this morning surrounded by security with a look of tension on their faces, were they worried about an attack, I don't think so they were planning what they would do when he as he must falls off that stupid bike again. I often hear comments such as he is an old seventy, he is a young eighty, Biden to me is reasonably physically fit for his age, but his movements actions and obvious thought process are old aged.I admit to all I was wrong he was not a better replacement for Trump he just replaces Trump with as many but different problems.

 

[Watt-Zeefuik]

13 hours ago, JFK-1 said:

 

I pondered your Clinton instance and thought well, The Monica whatshername thing, not fitting for a statesman of a leading nation, if it's discovered that is. The thing is the way I see it, they're human beings too, what do we want? A saint or a smart leader?

 

And if no one had ever known about this absolutely no damage would have been to the nation on any level. But in saying that I then began to think okay say I dunno Tony Blair had been exposed in a similar fashion, blowjob in the cabinet room or something, with a hot cleaner.

 

The hot cleaner snitches, she's smart like Monica, she has incontrovertible evidence. Is Blair finished I though. And the answer eventually came back as very likely indeed. And probably relatively swiftly.

 

No one is indispensable.  Al Gore would have been a perfectly fine President, and then he would have been running in 2000 as the current resident of the White House.

 

You have a relationship with one of the people in your administration, especially a fairly young intern with no power, that's entirely inappropriate and potentially abusive. He should have stepped down for it.

 

2 hours ago, Sharpie said:

 During the election I was favoring Biden because I just could not see Trump do a second term.  I now watch Biden, dithering, mumbling, struggling to make statements, I have no space to be critical about age, but Biden is well past his best by date for such a serious office. I watched him on the news this morning surrounded by security with a look of tension on their faces, were they worried about an attack, I don't think so they were planning what they would do when he as he must falls off that stupid bike again. I often hear comments such as he is an old seventy, he is a young eighty, Biden to me is reasonably physically fit for his age, but his movements actions and obvious thought process are old aged.I admit to all I was wrong he was not a better replacement for Trump he just replaces Trump with as many but different problems.

 

 

Sorry but this is absolute nonsense. Biden has a slight speech impediment. He's been prone to verbal gaffes his entire career, that's not down to age. The problem in his administration is that he still thought he could cut deals with the GOP and get things passed, when the GOP has been completely parasitised by the MAGA brainworms. Even those who want to be moderate and cut deals are scared to, and McConnell's only policy agenda is to block non-conservative judges, approve conservative ones, and paralyze the government to allow for the ongoing corporatization of all aspects of life.

 

I repeat that Biden was far down my list of preferred candidates in 2020 but the notion that he's no better than Trump is patently insane. Have a word with yourself.

[Des Lynam]

22 minutes ago, Led Tasso said:

 

No one is indispensable.  Al Gore would have been a perfectly fine President, and then he would have been running in 2000 as the current resident of the White House.

 

You have a relationship with one of the people in your administration, especially a fairly young intern with no power, that's entirely inappropriate and potentially abusive. He should have stepped down for it.

 

 

Sorry but this is absolute nonsense. Biden has a slight speech impediment. He's been prone to verbal gaffes his entire career, that's not down to age. The problem in his administration is that he still thought he could cut deals with the GOP and get things passed, when the GOP has been completely parasitised by the MAGA brainworms. Even those who want to be moderate and cut deals are scared to, and McConnell's only policy agenda is to block non-conservative judges, approve conservative ones, and paralyze the government to allow for the ongoing corporatization of all aspects of life.

 

I repeat that Biden was far down my list of preferred candidates in 2020 but the notion that he's no better than Trump is patently insane. Have a word with yourself.

 

 

Biden is suffering from a decline in his mental faculties which has everything to do with his age. 

[Watt-Zeefuik]

4 hours ago, Des Lynam said:

 

 

Biden is suffering from a decline in his mental faculties which has everything to do with his age. 

This is every bit as stupid and made up as the “Hillary conquers the stairs” horseshit. Come up with a better excuse for fascist apologetics.

[JFK-1]

4 hours ago, Led Tasso said:

This is every bit as stupid and made up as the “Hillary conquers the stairs” horseshit. Come up with a better excuse for fascist apologetics.

 

Agreed, it's utter drivel. The man doesn't speak well, he never has and granted that wont improve with age. But he is fully compos mentis. Trump on the other hand is a babbling idiot. What's his excuse?

 

Take a look at this which I have posted before. If this had been Biden I would have said okay you may have a point.

Anyone who thinks Biden is senile because he doesn't speak well tell me WTF this is supposed to be if not senility. I think Biden can remain on topic. If you ask him about the economy he's not going to ramble about something entirely unrelated.

 

Video primed to begin at the significant time.

 

 

[Watt-Zeefuik]

3 minutes ago, JFK-1 said:

 

Agreed, it's utter drivel. The man doesn't speak well, he never has and granted that wont improve with age. But he is fully compos mentis. Trump on the other hand is a babbling idiot. What's his excuse?

 

Take a look at this which I have posted before. If this had been Biden I would have said okay you may have a point.

Anyone who thinks Biden is senile because he doesn't speak well tell me WTF this is supposed to be if not senility. I think Biden can remain on topic. If you ask him about the economy he's not going to ramble about something entirely unrelated.

 

Video primed to begin at the significant time.

 

 

Sorry, not watching, my blood pressure needs to stay down.

 

But on Biden, at the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, he spoke on the record quite extensively about the subtleties of diplomacy with regards to Putin. Foreign policy has long been known as his strength and just a few months ago he showed why.

 

Just like months after the whole Clinton stairs video came out, post-2016 election, folks ran into cruising up a fairly steep trail in the NC mountains.

 

But that's the state of the world when folk treat YouTubers as reliable sources of information . . .

[Seymour M Hersh]

Good to see "the big guy" is looking after his son by selling 1 million barrels of oil from America's SPR no less to a Chinese company that Hunter just happens to be involved in. 

[Watt-Zeefuik]

One of the surprises of the 2020 election was that both Democratic candidates in Georgia won, including Raphael Warnock, becoming the first Black Senator from Georgia in a special election. Because his election was due to a retirement, he's up again this year, and the GOP has nominated former University of Georgia and NFL star Hershel Walker.

 

It's a bit like Scotland nominating Bomber Brown to represent them in the EU. (if it were in the EU of course.)

 

Anyway, here's him talking about the Green New Deal and the environment, or . . . something. (See the second video in particular—Twitter is showing the first one too for some reason.)

 

 

[ShakenNotStirred]

On 11/07/2022 at 01:48, Led Tasso said:

 

Sorry, not watching, my blood pressure needs to stay down.

 

But on Biden, at the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, he spoke on the record quite extensively about the subtleties of diplomacy with regards to Putin. Foreign policy has long been known as his strength and just a few months ago he showed why.

 

Just like months after the whole Clinton stairs video came out, post-2016 election, folks ran into cruising up a fairly steep trail in the NC mountains.

 

But that's the state of the world when folk treat YouTubers as reliable sources of information . . .

I might as well throw my name in the hat for 2024; certainly couldn't be any worse right?👍

[Maple Leaf]

1 hour ago, Led Tasso said:

One of the surprises of the 2020 election was that both Democratic candidates in Georgia won, including Raphael Warnock, becoming the first Black Senator from Georgia in a special election. Because his election was due to a retirement, he's up again this year, and the GOP has nominated former University of Georgia and NFL star Hershel Walker.

 

It's a bit like Scotland nominating Bomber Brown to represent them in the EU. (if it were in the EU of course.)

 

Anyway, here's him talking about the Green New Deal and the environment, or . . . something. (See the second video in particular—Twitter is showing the first one too for some reason.)

 

 

 

Putting Herschel Walker forward as a candidate for the Senate demonstrates the GOP's disdain for the American people. That guy is as thick as the proverbial plank.  He is not suitable for any elected position higher than dog catcher in Smalltown USA, yet the GOP leaders think he should be one of only 100 people approving the laws of the nation.

It's shameful. 

[Watt-Zeefuik]

32 minutes ago, Maple Leaf said:

 

Putting Herschel Walker forward as a candidate for the Senate demonstrates the GOP's disdain for the American people. That guy is as thick as the proverbial plank.  He is not suitable for any elected position higher than dog catcher in Smalltown USA, yet the GOP leaders think he should be one of only 100 people approving the laws of the nation.

It's shameful. 

 

The most charitable take on it, which may very well be the real one, is that he suffers from the impacts of CTE from his playing career.

 

Regardless, he is entirely unfit in character, in experience, or in knowledge to run. Aside from happily toeing the MAGA/Trumpist line, his main qualifications to the GOP appear to be that he is famous and Black, and therefore somehow is supposed to split off Black Georgia voters.

 

There's hope both in that Warnock has proven to be both a very good Senator and a very good candidate, and that Abrams has built a voter turnout machine in Georgia that will be fully deployed for her Governor's race too.

[Watt-Zeefuik]

1 hour ago, ShakenNotStirred said:

I might as well throw my name in the hat for 2024; certainly couldn't be any worse right?👍

 

You couldn't possibly be any worse a candidate than Cal Cunningham!

 

[ShakenNotStirred]

39 minutes ago, Led Tasso said:

 

You couldn't possibly be any worse a candidate than Cal Cunningham!

 

That is very true! Amazing to me how he ever got a start in politics to begin with.

[JFK-1]

And people think Biden has trouble speaking? And that makes the man with the lifelong stammer senile? What's Trump's excuse? Hairspray weighing down on the few remaining brain cells?

 

Trump Rally Goes Horribly Wrong, Supporters Visibly Disoriented

 

 

 

Edited July 13, 2022 by JFK-1

[Ked]

17 minutes ago, JFK-1 said:

And people think Biden has trouble speaking? And that makes the man with the lifelong stammer senile? What's Trump's excuse? Hairspray weighing down on the few remaining brain cells?

 

Trump Rally Goes Horribly Wrong, Supporters Visibly Disoriented

 

 

 

Had to stop watching.

 

[ShakenNotStirred]

19 minutes ago, JFK-1 said:

And people think Biden has trouble speaking? And that makes the man with the lifelong stammer senile? What's Trump's excuse? Hairspray weighing down on the few remaining brain cells?

 

Trump Rally Goes Horribly Wrong, Supporters Visibly Disoriented

 

 

 

Their both terrible friend imo. I will say it as I have said it before, pretty damn pitiful on how big the United States is, and all the candidates we come up with are all pretty bad.

[Dawnrazor]

https://www.ft.com/content/44ca7e19-b34e-46d6-9d5a-28bc03bad8ad

[JFK-1]

On 13/07/2022 at 15:48, Ked said:

Had to stop watching.

 

 

Yeah it's eminently cringe worthy. This is a bona fide cult, and for the life of me I will never grasp what they see in this idiot. 

[JFK-1]

The DOJ Must Prosecute Trump

 

Donald Ayer, (author of article) served as United States attorney and principal deputy solicitor general in the Reagan administration and as deputy attorney general under George H. W. Bush.
 

The January 6 committee has provided overwhelming evidence that the former president was not some bit player along for the ride, but the central driver of a nefarious plot.

 

After seven hearings held by the January 6 committee thus far this summer, doubts as to who is responsible have been resolved. The evidence is now overwhelming that Donald Trump was the driving force behind a massive criminal conspiracy to interfere with the official January 6 congressional proceeding and to defraud the United States of a fair election outcome.

The evidence is clearer and more robust than we as former federal prosecutors—two of us as Department of Justice officials in Republican administrations—thought possible before the hearings began. Trump was not just a willing beneficiary of a complex plot in which others played most of the primary roles.

 

While in office, he himself was the principal actor in nearly all of its phases, personally executing key parts of most of its elements and aware of or involved in its worst features, including the use of violence on Capitol Hill. Most remarkably, he did so over vehement objections raised at every turn, even by his sycophantic and loyal handpicked team. This was Trump’s project all along.

 

Everyone knew before the hearings began that we were dealing with perhaps the gravest imaginable offense against the nation short of secession—a serious nationwide effort pursued at multiple levels to overturn the unambiguous outcome of a national election.

 

We all knew as well that efforts were and are unfolding nationwide to change laws and undermine electoral processes with the specific objective of succeeding at the same project in 2024 and after. But each hearing has sharpened our understanding that Donald Trump himself is the one who made it happen.

 

As former prosecutors, we recognize the legitimacy of concerns that electoral winners prosecuting their defeated opponents may look like something out of a banana republic rather than the United States of America; that doing so might be viewed as opening the door to prosecutorial retaliation by future presidential winners; and that, in the case of this former president, it might lead to civil unrest.

 

But given the record now before us, all of these considerations must give way to the urgency of achieving a public reckoning for Donald Trump. The damage to America’s future that would be inflicted by giving him a pass far outweighs the risks of prosecuting him.

 

The committee’s evidence to date establishes multiple significant points for prosecutors. (A comprehensive summary of the evidence—offense by offense—is available at Just Security’s “Criminal Evidence Tracker.”)

 

First, contrary to speculation that Trump may have genuinely believed he won the election, and thus in his own mind was seeking rough justice in trying to change the outcome, the committee has demonstrated repeatedly that he knew beyond all doubt that he had lost fair and square.

 

Trump’s former attorney general Bill Barr told the president that claims of widespread voter fraud were “bullshit.”

 

Numerous reinforcements of that message were delivered by many others, including Barr’s successor, former Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen; former Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue; and multiple Trump-campaign officials.

 

Second, Trump’s involvement in carrying out the scheme was systematic, expansive, and extraordinarily personal. As if to illustrate how personal his intervention was (and is), Republican Liz Cheney, the committee’s vice chair and the representative from Wyoming, dropped a bombshell at the end of Tuesday’s hearing: Sometime since the previous hearing on June 28, Trump himself had contacted a witness, something that his lawyers certainly could have told him could easily lead to charges of witness tampering. Cheney announced that the committee has notified the Justice Department of Trump’s latest misconduct.

The committee’s previous hearings showed that in the months after the 2020 election, Trump himself—not some aide or lawyer or other ally—tried to interfere with the state vote-counting processes.

 

Among the most memorable incidents was his 67-minute January 2 call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger asking him to “find” 11,780 nonexistent votes, creating a Trump win.

 

Trump himself also called to try to influence the state’s chief elections investigator, Frances Watson, and spoke with Georgia Governor Brian Kemp to urge him to call a special legislative session to appoint alternative electors.

 

There is also evidence that Trump spoke with Republican Pennsylvania House Speaker Bryan Cutler after he had declined repeated calls from Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis, two Trump-campaign attorneys, to bring the legislature into session to decertify the state’s election results.

 

And Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel and Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers, also a Republican, both testified that Trump phoned them in December to ask for their help in implementing the infamous bogus-elector scheme. (John Eastman, another Trump lawyer, and Giuliani were also involved with those calls.)

 

Trump tried persistently to obtain the help of the Department of Justice in creating a false public impression that the election had been fraudulent. After he failed in mid-December to persuade Bill Barr to assert election fraud, Trump called Rosen, Barr’s successor, nearly every day in the same pursuit. And when this effort too failed, at a White House meeting on January 3, he undertook to replace Rosen with Jeffrey Clark, a second-tier DOJ official whom Trump had spoken with personally and found more compliant. This effort failed only when Donoghue and Rosen told Trump that the entire department’s leadership would resign if Clark were installed.

Crucial to the whole plot, of course, was the unlawful scheme to pressure Vice President Mike Pence into rejecting or delaying the electoral count. Multiple witnesses testified about being present to hear Trump’s “heated” call with Pence on the morning of January 6. One witness said that Trump called Pence a “wimp.” Ivanka Trump testified that she had never previously heard her father treat Pence that way, and she told another witness that Trump had used the “P-word” to denigrate the vice president’s manhood.

Ample evidence has also shown Trump well knew that Pence could not properly do as Trump urged. Mike Pence’s counsel, Greg Jacob, testified that Trump was present at a January 4 White House meeting where John Eastman admitted the unlawfulness of his and Trump’s plan to have the vice president not certify the electoral count two days later.

A third significant point for prosecutors is that the hearings have put into sharp focus Trump’s personal involvement and advance knowledge of the dangerous circumstances surrounding the January 6 insurrection.

 

Cassidy Hutchinson, who was the principal aide to Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, testified that she overheard Trump complain just before his January 6 speech on the Ellipse that supporters were not being allowed into the security area for his speech while armed, and thus were staying outside. She recalled Trump asking to have the magnetometers removed, saying that he did not care if attendees were armed, because “they’re not here to hurt me.”

Hutchinson also testified that Trump expected to go to the Capitol after his speech and was angry when the Secret Service denied his request to do so, testimony that others have corroborated.

 

He wanted to be part of and lead an armed mob aimed, at minimum, at intimidating Congress and Mike Pence. That is significant evidence demonstrating criminal intent in connection with the crime of inciting an insurrection. Told that the mob had threatened to hang the vice president, Trump apparently responded that he “deserves” it.

Finally, the committee has persuasively established that Trump continued to facilitate the insurrection, even after he returned to the White House once the Secret Service refused to take him to Capitol Hill. Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley testified that during the violence, Pence called him to request the National Guard to restore order; Trump made no such call. In fact, Trump did nothing for more than three hours to quell the insurrectionists.

To the contrary, Deputy White House Press Secretary Sarah Matthews testified that by tweeting that Pence “didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done” to overturn the election, Trump was “pouring gasoline on the fire.”

All of that was enough to show Trump’s personal leadership of the Big Lie effort and his complicity in the violence of January 6. But in addition, at Tuesday’s hearing, the committee focused attention on Trump’s December 19 tweet inviting his supporters to a “big protest in D.C. on January 6th.” He added, “Be there, will be wild!”

 

The committee showed evidence of communications among the militant Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, and Three Percenters hours after the tweet demonstrating that it was the signal that prompted previously unaligned groups to cooperate in developing military-style operational tactics for the violent Capitol invasion.

 

In assessing the importance and priority to be given to a DOJ decision to prosecute, the Justice Department Manual lists three factors with special relevance here: “the nature and seriousness of the offense,” “the deterrent effect of the prosecution,” and “the person’s culpability in connection with the offense.”

On the first point, it is hard to imagine an offense that would more urgently call for criminal accountability by federal prosecution than a concerted and nearly successful effort to overthrow the result of a presidential election. It is an offense against the entire nation, by which Trump sought to reverse a 235-year-old constitutional tradition of presidential power transferring lawfully and peacefully.

The fact that a related state grand-jury investigation is proceeding in Fulton County, Georgia, relating to the part of the plot aimed at the Georgia vote count and certification process does not alter or lessen the urgency of this federal interest. Separate state and federal prosecutions can and should proceed when federal interests are as strong or stronger than the local interest.

Nor can there be any doubt about the crucial need to deter future attempts to overthrow the government. For the past 18 months, and presently, Trump himself and his supporters have been engaged in concerted efforts across the country to prepare for a similar, but better-planned, effort to overcome the minority status of Trump’s support and put him back in the White House. Moreover, if the efforts of the former president and his supporters garner a pass from the federal authorities, even in the face of such overwhelming evidence, Trump will not be the only one ready to play this game for another round.

As many have pointed out, deterrence requires that the quest for accountability succeed in achieving a conviction before a jury—here most likely made up of citizens of the District of Columbia. And the Department’s regulations make the odds of the prosecution’s success an important consideration in determining whether to go forward. In the case of a person who has made a career out of escaping the consequences of his misconduct, this is no small issue for the attorney general to take into account.

But as former prosecutors, we have faith that the evidence of personal culpability is so overwhelming that the case can be made to the satisfaction of such a jury. One of us—Gerson—has tried many difficult cases before D.C. juries with success. As a defendant, Donald Trump would open the door to all sorts of things that wouldn’t come into a normal trial, and the prosecutor could have a field day in argument about how this would-be tyrant tried to overthrow the government that has kept our nation free for two and a quarter centuries. Bottom line: Given what is at stake, even with the risk of a hung jury—leaving room for a second trial—there is no realistic alternative but to go forward.

Any argument that Donald Trump lacked provable criminal intent is contradicted by the facts elicited by the January 6 committee. And the tradition of not prosecuting a former president must yield to the manifest need to protect our constitutional form of government and to ensure that the violent effort to overthrow it is never repeated.

 

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/07/prosecute-trump-january-6-doj/670511/

 

 

 

[JFK-1]

Trump's Lawyers Think Mark Meadows is Going Down

 

 

[JFK-1]

A new conservative report shows that there is "absolutely no evidence of widespread fraud" in the 2020 election, and debunks "each and every" one of former President Donald Trump's false claims.

 

The authors of the report, conservative lawyers and judges, are urging the GOP to "cease obsessing over the results of the 2020 election," and hoping their work helps re-instill trust in our institutions.

 

Former federal judge Thomas Griffith and Republican elections lawyer Ben Ginsberg join Morning Joe to discuss their report, "Lost, Not Stolen: The Conservative Case That Trump Lost And Biden Won the 2020 President Election." 

 

New Conservative-Led Report Debunks Every Single Trump Claim Of Election Fraud

 

 

 

[Unknown user]

55 minutes ago, JFK-1 said:

A new conservative report shows that there is "absolutely no evidence of widespread fraud" in the 2020 election, and debunks "each and every" one of former President Donald Trump's false claims.

 

The authors of the report, conservative lawyers and judges, are urging the GOP to "cease obsessing over the results of the 2020 election," and hoping their work helps re-instill trust in our institutions.

 

Former federal judge Thomas Griffith and Republican elections lawyer Ben Ginsberg join Morning Joe to discuss their report, "Lost, Not Stolen: The Conservative Case That Trump Lost And Biden Won the 2020 President Election." 

 

New Conservative-Led Report Debunks Every Single Trump Claim Of Election Fraud

 

 

 

In case you ever wonder why you bother, I watch a fair amount of these and I'm always glad you post them 🤘

[JFK-1]

5 hours ago, Smithee said:

In case you ever wonder why you bother, I watch a fair amount of these and I'm always glad you post them 🤘

 

I'm sure others look at them, but even if they don't it's creating a personal chronological narrative of events as they unfold I can look back on. Once this has all been concluded and I don't just mean the Jan 6th committee.

 

By concluded I mean at some point say over the next few years or so, it may even take longer. Before it could be considered completely concluded to the best of our ability. It's now behind us.

 

But there are aspects of it that will be permanently ingrained. How long would it take the British to get over it if say some far right wanna be authoritarian tried to pull a similar stunt in Britain, and came close to pulling it off.

 

I think a very long time. But the US is a very different case I can't be bothered going into right now.

[JFK-1]

Marjorie Taylor Greene Accuses James Webb Telescope of Making Other Galaxies Available to Jewish Lasers

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has accused NASA's James Webb telescope of finding new galaxies for Jewish space lasers to destroy.

“It’s bad enough that the Rothschilds’ lasers are wreaking havoc on our own solar system,” the Georgia congresswoman told reporters. “Now, thanks to the so-called Webb telescope, no corner of the universe will be safe from the international banking family’s ravaging space-beams.”
 

https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/marjorie-taylor-greene-accuses-james-webb-telescope-of-making-other-galaxies-available-to-jewish-lasers

[Jambos_1874]

1 hour ago, JFK-1 said:

Marjorie Taylor Greene Accuses James Webb Telescope of Making Other Galaxies Available to Jewish Lasers

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has accused NASA's James Webb telescope of finding new galaxies for Jewish space lasers to destroy.

“It’s bad enough that the Rothschilds’ lasers are wreaking havoc on our own solar system,” the Georgia congresswoman told reporters. “Now, thanks to the so-called Webb telescope, no corner of the universe will be safe from the international banking family’s ravaging space-beams.”
 

https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/marjorie-taylor-greene-accuses-james-webb-telescope-of-making-other-galaxies-available-to-jewish-lasers

 

That cannot be serious. Please say this is a spoof article.

[ShakenNotStirred]

2 hours ago, Jambos_1874 said:

 

That cannot be serious. Please say this is a spoof article.

How freaking crazy that dumbass woman is, I would lean more towards its real.

[XB52]

31 minutes ago, ShakenNotStirred said:

How freaking crazy that dumbass woman is, I would lean more towards its real.

Sadly not real, the clue is in the title, 'humour' and when you open it, it says satire 

[ShakenNotStirred]

2 hours ago, XB52 said:

Sadly not real, the clue is in the title, 'humour' and when you open it, it says satire 

Didn't even see that on the link friend thanks lol.But just shows what people think of her to even write stuff like this.

[XB52]

1 hour ago, ShakenNotStirred said:

Didn't even see that on the link friend thanks lol.But just shows what people think of her to even write stuff like this.

I know, I was more than willing to believe it was true which says so much about the shit show that is the gop in America 

[JFK-1]

10 hours ago, ShakenNotStirred said:

Didn't even see that on the link friend thanks lol.But just shows what people think of her to even write stuff like this.

 

I though it was great, and hardly far fetched in a sense given the actual known insanity of this individual.

[Watt-Zeefuik]

This is the what happened to the first pregnancy we had. We desperately wanted to have a kid. The fetus never got a heartbeat, but remained, as a "silent miscarriage." The D+C prevented what likely otherwise would have been a painful and possibly dangerous outcome.

 

These sociopathic shitstains have outlawed the procedure in their fanatical obsession with reducing people to a uterus support system.

 

https://www.vice.com/en/article/z34n44/abortion-bans-force-women-to-carry-nonviable-fetuses

[JFK-1]

A closer look at Steve Bannon’s criminal contempt trial kicking off and the January 6 committee revealing Trump personally attempted to contact a witness in the investigation.

 

 

[Sharpie]

On 17/07/2022 at 02:03, JFK-1 said:

 

I'm sure others look at them, but even if they don't it's creating a personal chronological narrative of events as they unfold I can look back on. Once this has all been concluded and I don't just mean the Jan 6th committee.

 

By concluded I mean at some point say over the next few years or so, it may even take longer. Before it could be considered completely concluded to the best of our ability. It's now behind us.

 

But there are aspects of it that will be permanently ingrained. How long would it take the British to get over it if say some far right wanna be authoritarian tried to pull a similar stunt in Britain, and came close to pulling it off.

 

I think a very long time. But the US is a very different case I can't be bothered going into right now.

 

I read every one of your submissions, I don't agree with all but in the main I do agree, I think that is what makes a healthy relationship although sometimes they can get a wee bit narky.

[Geoff Kilpatrick]

4 hours ago, Led Tasso said:

This is the what happened to the first pregnancy we had. We desperately wanted to have a kid. The fetus never got a heartbeat, but remained, as a "silent miscarriage." The D+C prevented what likely otherwise would have been a painful and possibly dangerous outcome.

 

These sociopathic shitstains have outlawed the procedure in their fanatical obsession with reducing people to a uterus support system.

 

https://www.vice.com/en/article/z34n44/abortion-bans-force-women-to-carry-nonviable-fetuses

I'm sorry for your loss. I remember the discussions over abortion law in Northern Ireland and why the 1967 Act was never extended to Northern Ireland. In all that debate, a situation like this would never be allow to occur in the sense of a D&C not being allowed. There were perfectly valid medical grounds to terminate the "pregnancy". The fact that the anti-abortion groups in the US have gone to the other extreme is actually mindblowing in the sense that the polarisation of debate is jaw dropping. It is yet another reason to support why I said earlier on this topic that legislation was the correct route to follow and the problem was simply relying on the Supreme Court judgement.

[JFK-1]

Looks like Trump is going to run for President again in a last ditch bid to escape prosecution. Imagine how low he would go if his freedom were on the line.

 

Personally I don't doubt for a moment this character, if he could and it was the only way out for him, would trigger a full blown civil war.

 

 

 

[JFK-1]

The Jan 6 committee will now deal with Trumps activities during the hours long assault into the Capitol building. Supposedly the final committee report but many believe there will be more.

 

They must have compelling evidence, we have a guy in this clip who was a Republican till Trump started the stolen election shit, and now wont be standing again come the midterms.

 

He says "this is gonna open peoples eyes in a big way"

 

They're going to prove that Trump not only plotted the entire assault, but was gleefully enjoying it on TV as the entire shit show played out. Capitol breached, the entire house in hiding. Exactly what he needed to prevent the certification of Biden.

 

 

[JFK-1]

6 hours ago, Led Tasso said:

This is the what happened to the first pregnancy we had. We desperately wanted to have a kid. The fetus never got a heartbeat, but remained, as a "silent miscarriage." The D+C prevented what likely otherwise would have been a painful and possibly dangerous outcome.

 

These sociopathic shitstains have outlawed the procedure in their fanatical obsession with reducing people to a uterus support system.

 

https://www.vice.com/en/article/z34n44/abortion-bans-force-women-to-carry-nonviable-fetuses

 

Video primed to start from a time significant to your point.