#two failed impeachments

[bllsbailey]

#There are 10 #000 reasons why Nancy Pelosi is singularly negligent in the U.S. Capitol’s comprehensive security failures on January 6th. Instead of addre #she is pointing her finger at the person whose help she ignored #President Donald Trump. #The predictable hallmark of a left-wing coverup is to somehow find a way to scapegoat the 45th president of the United States #Donald Trump #for their own abysmal missteps and errors. The Democrats’ twisted creativity in pursuing this anomaly is truly something to behold. #The mainstream media fallout from January 6th was a godsend to Democrats who found themselves on the heels of the disproven Russia Hoax #a spectacularly underwhelming performance by Robert Mueller #two failed impeachments #and no significant policy achievements during their tenure in the majority. #At that point #their win record was abysmal at best. As America suffers from Democrats and their failures #the Left pounced on January 6th in a desperate attempt to distract the country from their own incompetence. #But the facts weren’t out about that day. Many remain undiscovered. And today #to the annoyance of hysterical Democrats hellbent on advancing their theatrical narrative about January 6th #Republicans are raising one looming question that remains overtly (and purposefully) ignored by the Democrats’ Partisan Witch-hunt Committe #Why did Nancy Pelosi fail to properly protect the Capitol while President Trump #on January 4th #requested 10 #000 National Guard Troops be available to provide security to Americans and the United States Capitol on January 6th? #The Left would very much like for you to ignore this question. Its answer fundamentally undermines the January 6th Partisan Witch-hunt Comm #” “trying to overthrow the Republic #” or “subverting the democratic process #” you wouldn’t have asked for 10 #000 National Guard troops to protect the institution you were trying to overthrow! #What does Pelosi know? And why won’t she testify? #The simple fact is #Nancy Pelosi’s failures on January 6th exposed the U.S. Capitol’s vulnerabilities during the certification (and constitutionally-valid obje #Pelosi’s blunders were not anomalies in her leadership

[wilwheaton]

The conservative justices had an opportunity to rally to the defense of democracy, to gird the system against further attack, to righteously defend the rule of law, and to protect its own prerogatives and powers against a wannabe tyrant who is counting on them to be his supplicants. They could have drawn a sharp line. They could have summoned indignation and outrage. They could have overlooked their partisan priors in favor of principle – or more cravenly in favor of self-preservation. With the possible and limited exception of Justice Amy Coney Barrett, they did none of that. They failed in the worst possible way at the most crucial time.

Rogue SCOTUS Abandons Democracy In Her Hour Of Greatest Need

Say this with me: This SCOTUS majority is not an impartial arbiter of law. This SCOTUS majority has no respect for precedent, the will of the people, or its fundamental role in government.

This SCOTUS majority is doing through force what the other members of their movement could not achieve through elections: change laws to take equality and freedoms away from as many people as possible, to completely remake America into something we don’t recognize.

Donald Trump and his cult are the greatest threat America has ever faced in its history, with this corrupt, venal, activist group of unelected liars (and at least two rapists) enabling him.

Democrats absolutely have to expand the court and begin an impeachment inquiry into Thomas and Kavanaugh the instant they have congressional majorities. 

I don’t think it’s too late, but it’s about five seconds away from being too late. If Congress doesn’t act hard and fast, these seven people will turn America over to corporations and megachurches.

We have to stop this, and the only way we have any chance at all is to turn out in massive numbers this November to overwhelmingly defeat the people who will put Project 2025 into action.

#uspol #scotus

[genderfcker]

here's a list of fun things that the supreme court has decided in just the past week:

affirmative action is illegal. this is what lets colleges account for race when admitting students in, and getting rid of it in california a few years ago has shown that diversity in schools takes a MAJOR hit. (also, like roe v. wade, this law had DECADES of legal precedent under its belt)

that the dept. of education (and biden) can't go thru with that loan forgiveness plan he put out months ago. you know, the one that would forgive half or even all of some students' debt.

the first amendment lets a web designer refuse to do gay weddings. this means anyone can legally discriminate against queer people. it's a fun time to live in america right now, isn't it?

an important note is that all of these decisions were 6-3, with the more conservative justices overruling the more liberal ones. and if you need ANOTHER reason to care about the supreme court having checks & balances, two of the conservative justices (alito & thomas) have come under scrutiny these past few years for ethics violations, but the chief justice (aka the guy in charge, roberts) has failed to follow through on his promises to make an ethics code.

and i can assure you that they think they can get away with all of this because they know they can never be held accountable for their decisions—it's a lifetime appointment, and it's tricky to get impeached.

so tl;dr: voting is important. we might not vote for these guys, but we DO vote for who appoints them & who confirms their nomination. and the only way we can ever get our rights back is by appointing people to legislative offices so they can enshrine our rights in something a little stronger.

#current events #scotus #lgbtq+ #queer #supreme court #affirmative action #loan forgiveness

[porterdavis]

Impeach him....now.

#grifters gonna grift #scotus #clarence thomas

[erik-even-wordier]

I really don’t owe my Trump-supporting friends an apology. I’ve been critical of Trump these last several years, and am still exhausted from the experience.

But to be fair, Trump wasn’t that bad…………..other than when:

1. he incited an insurrection against the government,

2. mismanaged a pandemic that killed a million Americans,

3. separated children from their families, lost those children in the bureaucracy,

4. tear-gassed peaceful protesters on Lafayette Square so he could hold a photo op holding a Bible in front of a church,

5. tried to block all Muslims from entering the country,

6. got impeached,

7. got impeached again,

8. had the worst jobs record of any president in modern history,

9. pressured Ukraine to dig dirt on Joe Biden,

10. fired the FBI director for investigating his ties to Russia,

11. bragged about firing the FBI director on TV,

12. took Vladimir Putin’s word over the US intelligence community,

13. diverted military funding to build his wall,

14. caused the longest government shutdown in US history,

15. called Black Lives Matter a “symbol of hate,”

16. lied nearly 30,000 times,

17. banned transgender people from serving in the military,

18. ejected reporters from the White House briefing room who asked tough questions,

19. vetoed the defense funding bill because it renamed military bases named for Confederate soldiers,

20. refused to release his tax returns,

21. increased the national debt by nearly $8 trillion,

22. had three of the highest annual trade deficits in U.S. history,

23. called veterans and soldiers who died in combat losers and suckers,

24. coddled the leader of Saudi Arabia after he ordered the execution and dismembering of a US-based journalist,

25. refused to concede the 2020 election,

26. hired his unqualified daughter and son-in-law to work in the White House,

27. walked out of an interview with Lesley Stahl,

28. called neo-Nazis “very fine people,”

29. suggested that people should inject bleach into their bodies to fight COVID,

30. abandoned our allies the Kurds to Turkey,

31. pushed through massive tax cuts for the wealthiest but balked at helping working Americans,

32. incited anti-lockdown protestors in several states at the height of the pandemic,

33. withdrew the US from the Paris climate accords,

34. withdrew the US from the Iranian nuclear deal,

35. withdrew the US from the Trans Pacific Partnership which was designed to block China’s advances,

36. insulted his own Cabinet members on Twitter,

37. pushed the leader of Montenegro out of the way during a photo op,

38. failed to reiterate US commitment to defending NATO allies,

39. called Haiti and African nations “shithole” countries,

40. called the city of Baltimore the “worst in the nation,”

41. claimed that he single handedly brought back the phrase “Merry Christmas” even though it hadn’t gone anywhere,

42. forced his Cabinet members to praise him publicly like some cult leader,

43. believed he should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize,

44. berated and belittled his hand-picked Attorney General when he recused himself from the Russia probe,

45. suggested the US should buy Greenland,

46. colluded with Mitch McConnell to push through federal judges and two Supreme Court justices after supporting efforts to prevent his predecessor from appointing judges,

47. repeatedly called the media “enemies of the people,”

48. claimed that if we tested fewer people for COVID we’d have fewer cases,

49. violated the emoluments clause,

50. thought that Nambia was a country,

51. told Bob Woodward in private that the coronavirus was a big deal but then downplayed it in public,

52. called his exceedingly faithful vice president a “p---y” for following the Constitution,

53. nearly got us into a war with Iran after threatening them by tweet,

54. nominated a corrupt head of the EPA,

55. nominated a corrupt head of HHS,

56. nominated a corrupt head of the Interior Department,

57. nominated a corrupt head of the USDA,

58. praised dictators and authoritarians around the world while criticizing allies,

59. refused to allow the presidential transition to begin,

60. insulted war hero John McCain – even after his death,

61. spent an obscene amount of time playing golf after criticizing Barack Obama for playing (far less) golf while president,

62. falsely claimed that he won the 2016 popular vote,

63. called the Muslim mayor of London a “stone cold loser,”

64. falsely claimed that he turned down being Time’s Man of the Year,

65. considered firing special counsel Robert Mueller on several occasions,

66. mocked wearing face masks to guard against transmitting COVID,

67. locked Congress out of its constitutional duty to confirm Cabinet officials by hiring acting ones,

68. used a racist dog whistle by calling COVID the “China virus,”

69. hired and associated with numerous shady figures that were eventually convicted of federal offenses including his campaign manager and national security adviser,

70. pardoned several of his shady associates,

71. gave the Presidential Medal of Freedom to two congressmen who amplified his batshit crazy conspiracy theories,

72. got into telephone fight with the leader of Australia(!),

73. had a Secretary of State who called him a moron,

74. forced his press secretary to claim without merit that his was the largest inauguration crowd in history,

75. botched the COVID vaccine rollout,

76. tweeted so much dangerous propaganda that Twitter eventually banned him,

77. charged the Secret Service jacked-up rates at his properties,

78. constantly interrupted Joe Biden in their first presidential debate,

79. claimed that COVID would “magically” disappear,

80. called a U.S. Senator “Pocahontas,”

81. used his Twitter account to blast Nordstrom when it stopped selling Ivanka’s merchandise,

82. opened up millions of pristine federal lands to development and drilling,

83. got into a losing tariff war with China that forced US taxpayers to bail out farmers,

84. claimed that his losing tariff war was a win for the US,

85. ignored or didn’t even take part in daily intelligence briefings,

86. blew off honoring American war dead in France because it was raining,

87. redesigned Air Force One to look like the Trump Shuttle,

88. got played by Kim Jung Un and his “love letters,”

89. threatened to go after social media companies in clear violation of the Constitution,

90. botched the response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico,

91. threw paper towels at Puerto Ricans when he finally visited them,

92. pressured the governor and secretary of state of Georgia to “find” him votes,

93. thought that the Virgin islands had a President,

94. drew on a map with a Sharpie to justify his inaccurate tweet that Alabama was threatened by a hurricane,

95. allowed White House staff to use personal email accounts for official businesses after blasting Hillary Clinton for doing the same thing,

96. rolled back regulations that protected the public from mercury and asbestos,

97. pushed regulators to waste time studying snake-oil remedies for COVID,

98. rolled back regulations that stopped coal companies from dumping waste into rivers,

99. held blatant campaign rallies at the White House,

100. tried to take away millions of Americans’ health insurance because the law was named for a Black man,

101. refused to attend his successors’ inauguration,

102. nominated the worst Education Secretary in history,

103. threatened judges who didn’t do what he wanted,

104. attacked Dr. Anthony Fauci,

105. promised that Mexico would pay for the wall (it didn’t),

106. allowed political hacks to overrule government scientists on major reports on climate change and other issues,

107. struggled navigating a ramp after claiming his opponent was feeble,

108. called an African-American Congresswoman “low IQ,”

109. threatened to withhold federal aid from states and cities with Democratic leaders,

110. went ahead with rallies filled with maskless supporters in the middle of a pandemic,

111. claimed that legitimate investigations of his wrongdoing were “witch hunts,”

112. seemed to demonstrate a belief that there were airports during the American Revolution,

113. demanded “total loyalty” from the FBI director,

114. praised a conspiracy theory that Democrats are Satanic pedophiles,

115. completely gutted the Voice of America,

116. placed a political hack in charge of the Postal Service,

117. claimed without evidence that the Obama administration bugged Trump Tower,

118. suggested that the US should allow more people from places like Norway into the country,

119. suggested that COVID wasn’t that bad because he recovered with the help of top government doctors and treatments not available to the public,

120. overturned energy conservation standards that even industry supported,

121. reduced the number of refugees the US accepts,

122. insulted various members of Congress and the media with infantile nicknames,

123. gave Rush Limbaugh a Presidential medal of Freedom at the State of the Union address,

124. named as head of federal personnel a 29-year old who’d previously been fired from the White House for allegations of financial improprieties,

125. eliminated the White House office of pandemic response,

126. used soldiers as campaign props,

127. fired any advisor who made the mistake of disagreeing with him,

128. demanded the Pentagon throw him a Soviet-style military parade,

129. hired a shit ton of white nationalists,

130. politicized the civil service,

131. did absolutely nothing after Russia hacked the U.S. government,

132. falsely said the Boy Scouts called him to say his bizarre Jamboree speech was the best speech ever given to the Scouts,

133. claimed that Black people would overrun the suburbs if Biden won,

134. insulted reporters of color,

135. insulted women reporters,

136. insulted women reporters of color,

137. suggested he was fine with China’s oppression of the Uighurs,

138. attacked the Supreme Court when it ruled against him,

139. summoned Pennsylvania state legislative leaders to the White House to pressure them to overturn the election,

140. spent countless hours every day watching Fox News,

141. refused to allow his administration to comply with Congressional subpoenas,

142. hired Rudy Giuliani as his lawyer,

143. tried to punish Amazon because the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post wrote negative stories about him,

144. acted as if the Attorney General of the United States was his personal attorney,

145. attempted to get the federal government to defend him in a libel lawsuit from a prominent lady who accused him of sexual assault,

146. held private meetings with Vladimir Putin without staff present,

147. didn’t disclose his private meetings with Vladimir Putin so that the US had to find out via Russian media,

148. stopped holding press briefings for months at a time,

149. “ordered” US companies to leave China even though he has no such power,

150. led a political party that couldn’t even be bothered to draft a policy platform,

151. claimed preposterously that Article II of the Constitution gave him absolute powers,

152. tried to pressure the U.K. to hold the British Open at his golf course,

153. suggested that the government nuke hurricanes,

154. suggested that wind turbines cause cancer,

155. said that he had a special aptitude for science,

156. fired the head of election cyber security after he said that the 2020 election was secure,

157. blurted out classified information to Russian officials,

158. tried to force the G7 to hold their meeting at his failing golf resort in Florida,

159. fired the acting attorney general when she refused to go along with his unconstitutional Muslim travel ban,

160. hired notorious racist Stephen Miller,

161. openly discussed national security issues in the dining room at Mar-a-Lago where everyone could hear them,

162. interfered with plans to relocate the FBI because a new development there might compete with his hotel,

163. abandoned Iraqi refugees who’d helped the U.S. during the war,

164. tried to get Russia back into the G7,

165. held a COVID super spreader event in the Rose Garden,

166. seemed to believe that Frederick Douglass is still alive,

167. lost 60 election fraud cases in court including before judges he had nominated,

168. falsely claimed that factories were reopening when they weren’t,

169. shamelessly exploited terror attacks in Europe to justify his anti-immigrant policies,

170. still hasn’t come up with a healthcare plan,

171. still hasn’t come up with an infrastructure plan despite repeated “Infrastructure Weeks,”

172. forced Secret Service agents to drive him around Walter Reed while contagious with COVID,

173. told the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by,”

174. fucked up the Census,

175. withdrew the U.S. from the World Health Organization in the middle of a pandemic,

176. did so few of his duties that his press staff were forced to state on his daily schedule “President Trump will work from early in the morning until late in the evening. He will make many calls and have many meetings,”

177. allowed his staff to repeatedly violate the Hatch Act,

178. seemed not to know that Abraham Lincoln was a Republican,

179. stood before sacred CIA wall of heroes and bragged about his election win,

180. constantly claimed he was treated worse than any president which presumably includes four that were assassinated and his predecessor whose legitimacy and birthplace were challenged by a racist reality TV show star named Donald Trump,

181. claimed Andrew Jackson could’ve stopped the Civil War even though he died 16 years before it happened,

182. said that any opinion poll showing him behind was fake,

183. claimed that other countries laughed at us before he became president when several world leaders were literally laughing at him,

184. claimed that the military was out of ammunition before he became President,

185. created a commission to whitewash American history,

186. retweeted anti-Islam videos from one of the most racist people in Britain,

187. claimed ludicrously that the Pulse nightclub shooting wouldn’t have happened if someone there had a gun even though there was an armed security guard there,

188. hired a senior staffer who cited the non-existent Bowling Green Massacre as a reason to ban Muslims,

189. had a press secretary who claimed that Nazi Germany never used chemical weapons even though every sane human being knows they used gas to kill millions of Jews and others,

190. bilked the Secret Service for higher than market rates when they had to stay at Trump properties,

191. apparently sold pardons on his way out of the White House,

192. stripped protective status from 59,000 Haitians,

193. falsely claimed Biden wanted to defund the police,

194. said that the head of the CDC didn’t know what he was talking about,

195. tried to rescind protection from DREAMers,

196. gave himself an A+ for his handling of the pandemic,

197. tried to start a boycott of Goodyear tires due to an Internet hoax,

198. said U.S. rates of COVID would be lower if you didn’t count blue states,

199. deported U.S. veterans who served their country but were undocumented,

200. claimed he did more for African Americans than any president since Lincoln,

201. touted a “super-duper” secret “hydrosonic” missile which may or may not be a new “hypersonic” missile or may not exist at all,

202. retweeted a gif calling Biden a pedophile,

203. forced through security clearances for his family,

204. suggested that police officers should rough up suspects,

205. suggested that Biden was on performance-enhancing drugs,

206. tried to stop transgender students from being able to use school bathrooms in line with their gender,

207. suggested the US not accept COVID patients from a cruise ship because it would make US numbers look higher,

208. nominated a climate change sceptic to chair the committee advising the White House on environmental policy,

209. retweeted a video doctored to look like Biden

210. had played a song called “Fuck tha Police” at a campaign event,

211. hugged a disturbingly large number of U.S. flags,

212. accused Democrats of “treason” for not applauding his State of the Union address,

213. claimed that the FBI failed to capture the Parkland school shooter because they were “spending too much time” on Russia,

214. mocked the testimony of Dr Christine Blasey Ford when she accused Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault,

215. obsessed over low-flow toilets,

216. ordered the rerelease of more COVID vaccines when there weren’t any to release,

217. called for the construction of a bizarre garden of heroes with statutes of famous dead Americans as well as at least one Canadian (Alex Trebek),

218. hijacked Washington’s July 4th celebrations to give a partisan speech,

219. took advice from the MyPillow guy,

220. claimed that migrants seeking a better life in the US were dangerous caravans of drug dealers and rapists,

221. said nothing when Vladimir Putin poisoned a leading opposition figure,

222. never seemed to heed the advice of his wife’s “Be Best” campaign,

223. falsely claimed that mail-in voting is fraudulent,

224. announced a precipitous withdrawal of troops from Syria which not only handed Russia and ISIS a win but also prompted his defense secretary to resign in protest,

225. insulted the leader of Canada,

226. insulted the leader of France,

227. insulted the leader of Britain,

228. insulted the leader of Germany,

229. insulted the leader of Sweden (Sweden!!),

230. falsely claimed credit for getting NATO members to increase their share of dues,

231. blew off two Asia summits even though they were held virtually,

232. continued lying about spending lots of time at Ground Zero with 9/11 responders,

233. said that the Japanese would sit back and watch their “Sony televisions” if the US were ever attacked,

234. left a NATO summit early in a huff,

235. stared directly into an eclipse even though everyone over the age of 5 knows not to do that,

236. called himself a very stable genius despite significant evidence to the contrary,

237. refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power and kept his promise.

238. Don’t forget that he took many classified & top secret documents with him when he left the White House, many of which have not been recovered & may have been compromised.

I’m sure there are a whole bunch of other things I can’t remember at the moment.

Plz copy and paste. Whoever wrote this deserves credit but I don't know who it is.

#donald trump #popular #long post

[uboat53]

You know, it's become fairly obvious that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is playing fast and loose with ethics, waltzing right past the line on many occasions, but it's also obvious that he fails to recognize what part of it hurts him the most.

The things he did are bad, yes, but what really makes him look bad is the fact that we're still not hearing about any of it from him.

Think about it, the revelations of the expensive vacations and private travel that Harlan Crow provided to him came four and a half months ago. If he'd come clean then and publicly disclosed everything that he had done, he might have at least salvaged some shred of trust, but he didn't. Instead, he continued to obfuscate and claim that, as a Supreme Court Justice charged with carefully analyzing some of the most complex legal issues in the land, he wasn't capable of fully understanding a basic ethics and disclosure requirement.

Now we find out that he's been helping right-wing legal groups raise money, right wing legal groups that routinely come before him in his capacity as a Supreme Court Justice. And we didn't hear it from him, we heard it from investigative reporting. Again.

The real question now isn't about all of the extremely unethical things Thomas has done, though there are certainly enough of them at this point that a reasonable person would begin to consider impeachment a possibility. No, the real question now is how many more of these ethical lapses Justice Thomas is hiding, when the dogged reporting of ProPublica will uncover them, and whether the Supreme Court can maintain any sort of reputation for fairness by the time it is all over.

#charles koch #politics #us politics #clarence thomas #harlan crow #us supreme court #supreme court #scotus #propublica

[originallandlockedmariner]

2023

Pickleball. Generative AI. Lula takes office in Brazil, Amazon Rainforest throws a party. Prince Harry refusing to stop talking about his frozen penis no matter how many times society begged him to stop. UFOs are real. Viral cat dubbed ‘largest cat anyone has ever seen’ gets adopted. Pee-Wee’s big adventure ends. Musk & X. Turkey-Syria earthquake kills thousands. India surpasses China as ‘country squeezing in the most peeps’. Tucker Carlson ousted. Miss USA and her 30 lbs moon costume. Wildfires in Kelowna and Hawaii. Macron tinkers with retirement age of the French. Paltrow can’t ski. Big Red Boots. Bob Barker leaves us. Alabama mom delivers 2 babies from her 2 uteruses in 2 days. Charles III. Ukrainian counteroffensive against Russian forces as the war drags on. Taylor Swift is Time’s Person of the Year. African ‘coup belt’. Flo-Jo dies in her sleep. Chinese spy balloon shot down. Hollywood writers strike. Human ‘nice mugshot’ Shitstain and his 91 indictments. Highest interest rates in 2 decades. The Bear’s Christmas episode. War in Gaza. Shinzo Abe is assassinated. Alex Murdaugh. Ocean Cleanup removes 25 000 lbs of trash from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Vase purchased for $3.99 sells for $100 000 at auction. Barbenheimer. A third of Pakistan is flooded. Lionel Messi is the GOAT. Travis Kelce. The Sphere opens in Las Vegas. Regulators seized Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, resulting in two of the three largest bank failures in U.S. history. “The Woman In Me”. WHO declares COVID ain’t a thing no more. Titan sub sinks, rich people die. Matthew Perry drowns. Dumbledore Dies (again). Massive sales of ‘Fuck Trudeau’ flags for jacked-up micro-dick trucks. Everything Everywhere All At Once. June-August was the hottest three-month period in recorded history across the Earth. Tina Turner dies. And the Beatles release a new song?! Wow… You got big shoes to fill 2024.

Archives for context:

2020

Kobe. Pandemic. Lockdown. Koalas on fire. Harry and Meg retire. Toilet paper hoarding. Alcoholism. Impeach the f*cker. Parasite. Bonnie Henry. Tiger King. Working from home. Sourdough bread. Harvey Weinstein guilty. Zoom overdose. Dip your body in sanitizer. 6 feet. Quarantine. OK Boomer. Home schooling (everyone passes). Murder hornets. Dolly Parton. Don’t hug, kiss or see anybody, especially your family. Chris Evans’ junk. TikTok. Glory holes. Face masks. CERB. West Coast wildfires. Stay home. Small Businesses lose, big box stores win. F*ck Bozos. ‘Dreams’ and cranberry juice. Close yoga studios, but thumbs up to your local gym. Speak moistly to me. George Floyd. BLM. F*ck Trump. Phase 2, 3 and Summer. RBG. Baby Yoda. Biden wins. Bond and Black Panther die. No more lockdown. Back to school and work. Just kidding... giddy up round 2. Giuliani leaks shit from his head. Resurgence of chess. UFOs are real. Restrictions. Dave Grohl admits defeat. Monolith. “F*ck... forgot my mask in the car”. No Christmas shenanigans allowed. Bubbles. Alex Trebek. Use the term ‘dumpster fire’ one too many times. Jupiter and Saturn form 'Christmas Star'. Happy New Year Bitches!!!! 2021... you better not sh*t the bed!!

2021

“We love you, you’re very special”. Failed coup attempt at the Capital. Twitter, FB and IG ban Donny. Hammerin’ Hank goes to the Field of Dreams. Bozo no longer richest man but still a twat. Leachman, Tyson, and Holbrook pass. The economy is worse than expected. Kim and Kanye split. Brood X cicadas. Dre has an aneurysm and nearly has his home broken into. Bridgerton. MyPillow CEO is a douche. Covid restrictions extended indefinitely. Captain Von Trapp dies. Proud Boys officially a Terrorist Organization. Richard Ramirez. Cancer takes Screech. Travel bans. Impeachment trial (again?… oh and this was barely February? WTF??!!) Suez Canal blockage. Myanmar protest. Kong dukes it out with Godzilla, while Raya watches. Olympics. Friends compare elective surgeries. F9. Canada Women’s Soccer Gold. Free Britney. Multiverses. Residential Schools in Canada unearth children’s bodies. Kate is Mare of Easttown. Cuomo resigns. Disney and Dwayne cruise together. Wildfires. Delta variants. Musk passes Bezos. Candyman x 5. Capt. Kirk goes to space. F*ck Kyle Rittenhouse. Astros didn’t win. Squid Game. Goodbye Bond. Dune is redone. Angelina is Eternal. Astroworld deaths. Meta. Omicron. Three Spidermen. Tornados in December? World Juniors cancelled. Pills against Covid. School opening delayed. And Betty White dies. 2022… my expectations are ridiculously low…

2022

Wow… eight billion people. Queen Elizabeth II passes away after ruling the Commonwealth before dirt was invented. The monkeypox. Russia plays the role of global a**hole. Wordle. Mother Nature rocks Afghanistan. Hover bike. Styles spits on Pine. Olivia Newton John, Kristie Alley, and Coolio leave us. Pele was traded to team Heaven. FTX implodes. Madonna and the 3-D model of her vagina. Pig gives his heart to a human. Beijing can brag that it is the first city ever to host both the Summer Olympics and Winter Olympics. Uvalde. $3 trillion Apple. Keith Raniere gets 120 years. The Whisky War ends with Canada and Denmark going halfsies. Mar-a-Lago. Nick Cannon brood hits a dozen. Shinzo Abe is assassinated. Inflation goes through the roof (if you can actually afford to put a roof over your head). Volodymyr Zelensky. European heat wave. Bennifer. Salman Rushdie is stabbed on stage, Dave Chappelle tackled, and Chris Rock is only slapped. Thích Nhất Hạnh. Heidi Klum goes full slug. Cuba knocked out by Ian. Liz Truss and 4.1 Scaramuccis. Taylor Swift breaks Ticketmaster. Human shitstain Elon Musk ignores helping mankind and buys Twitter instead. Riri becomes a mommy. NASA launches Artemis 1. Trump still a whiny little b*tch. Music lost Loretta Lynn, Christine McVie, and Meat Loaf. Democracy died at least three times. Pete Davidson continues to date hottest women on the planet (no one understands how?!) Microplastics in our blood. Alex Jones is a c*nt. So is DeSantis. Argentina wins the World Cup. Meghan and Harry. Eddie Munson rips Metallica in the Upside Down. tWitch. Roe vs Wade is overturned by the micro dick energy of the Supreme Court. CODA. James Corden shows he is a "tiny Cretin of a man". Amber (and the sh*t on the bed) Heard (round the world). Sebastian Bear-McClard proves he’s one of the f*cking dumbest men alive. Latin America's ‘pink tide’. Anti-Semitic rants by Ye. Bob Saget. A verified blue checkmark. Godmother of punk Vivienne dies. And, Tom Cruise feels the need for speed yet again. 2023… whatcha got for us?!? Nothing shocks me anymore.

@daily-esprit-descalier

#me #my words #doodles

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

A stunt impeachment inquiry.

December 13, 2023

ROBERT B. HUBBELL

          House Republicans will vote to open an impeachment inquiry of President Biden on Wednesday. Why? They can’t say—because they don’t know. Oh, sure, they have baseless conspiracy theories—but no evidence (a common situation with conspiracy theories). So, because they have no evidence to support baseless conspiracy theories, they argue they need an impeachment inquiry to help them pursue imaginary evidence—thereby maintaining the illusion of corruption where none exists.

          Of course, the real reason they will open an impeachment inquiry is because Donald Trump told them to do so. Trump was impeached twice—a level of disgrace achieved by no other president. Trump's solution is to denigrate and debase impeachment so he can argue that impeachments are nothing more than partisan retribution. As always, Trump seeks to undermine the institutions that dare to hold him accountable. Here, he is assaulting the Constitution because its provisions were (rightly) applied in a way never before witnessed in the history of our nation.

          The efforts of House Republicans to evade answering the “Why impeach Joe Biden” question would have been funny if they were not tragic and dangerous. Indeed, several House Republicans admitted that they did not have evidence to impeach Joe Biden—which is why (they claim) they need to open an impeachment inquiry. See Talking Points Memo, As They Admit There’s No Evidence, House Republicans Will Still Greenlight Impeachment Inquiry.

          The tragedy of the stunt impeachment inquiry is that it comes at a time when congressional Republicans are failing at every level in discharging their constitutional duties. Ukrainian President Zelensky visited with President Biden and senior congressional leaders on Tuesday—and left empty-handed. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell—a strong ally of Ukraine—expressed doubt that Congress will authorize additional funds for Ukraine before January, a month after the US will reportedly run out of funds earmarked for Ukraine. See Politico, McConnell: Border-Ukraine deal this year ‘practically impossible’.

          But if action on funding Ukraine is delayed until January, it will be swept into the maelstrom of two deadlines for government shutdowns. Current government funding expires on January 19 and February 2, 2024. While Senate negotiators are reportedly hard at work to reach a compromise, any compromise requires resolving intractable, decades-old issues relating to the management of the US southern border. By tying funding for Ukraine to the resolution of long-standing immigration issues in the US, congressional Republicans seem to be carrying water for Vladimir Putin and (therefore) Donald Trump. 

          Speaker Mike Johnson set an unattainable bar in setting conditions for aid to Ukraine. He said,

What the Biden administration seems to be asking for is billions of additional dollars with no appropriate oversight, no clear strategy to win and with none of the answers that I think the American people are owed.

          Johnson is demanding that the US exercise “oversight” of Ukraine’s “strategy” for defeating an invading Russian army. As the brave Ukrainian people have demonstrated, their “strategy” is to resist Putin’s vastly larger army with every ounce of determination and bravery they can muster. That bravery has held the Russian army at bay for more than 600 days, a stupendous achievement that continues to defy predictions that Ukraine would collapse in a week. The Ukrainian bravery and battlefield success is apparently not enough for the milquetoast Mike Johnson.

          President Biden responded to the vacuous, mealy-mouthed statement by Johnson, saying it was a “Christmas gift” to Vladimir Putin. Biden also noted that news commentators in Russia’s state-controlled broadcast network celebrated the Republican stonewalling of aid to Ukraine. Biden said,

This host of a Kremlin-run show said: ‘Well done, Republicans. That’s good for us,’” If you’re being celebrated by Russian propagandists, it might be time to rethink what you’re doing. History, history will judge harshly those who turn their back on freedom’s cause.

          The GOP’s impeachment and the reluctance to provide more military aid to Ukraine are rooted in Donald Trump's scheme to use his control over Republicans in Congress to inflict political damage on Biden—even if that vendetta hurts the interests of the American people and its allies.

          The good news (explained below) is that Democrats are making progress toward regaining control of the House. Indeed, Speaker Johnson’s stunt impeachment and abandonment of Ukraine will hasten that outcome.

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]

#Robert B. Hubbell #Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter #stunt impeachment #Ukraine #Russia #Russian interference #war in Ukraine #Putin #House Republicans #Kremlin caucus

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

On Thursday, the Justice Department announced charges against an FBI informant with inventing the claims that the Ukrainian energy company Burisma had hired Hunter Biden as a way of channeling bribes to Joe Biden. David Weiss—the Trump-appointed special counsel who had also levied charges against Hunter Biden—announced the charges, contending the informant had “transformed his routine and unextraordinary business contacts” into salacious allegations targeting the president.

The informant, 43-year-old Alexander Smirnov, had allegedly given agents false information in 2020 and was known to strongly dislike Joe Biden. According to the indictment, Smirnov’s story fell apart upon questioning in 2023. He was arrested in Las Vegas on Wednesday.

So just how much does it matter to Republicans that this FBI informant has been charged with fabricating his claims? How much does it change the narrative about the “Biden crime family” that has become entrenched among both right-wing politicians and media?

We can’t assume the development will be taken seriously on the right, given Trump supporters’ distrust of the FBI. On Fox News, the biggest peddler of this narrative, the hosts ignored the news. But if it were taken seriously, it would come as a significant blow.

The FBI informant, who had not been publicly named previously, was the star figure of possibly the most credible accusation against the president. You may recall the whole drama from May 2023 in which Rep. James Comer and Sen. Chuck Grassley demanded the FBI release “an unclassified record alleging a criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Joe Biden and a foreign national.” That was the form that contained this fabrication from Smirnov.

Known in the Fox News internet sleuth community as the FD-1023 form, it contained claims from an informant asserting that the then-unnamed Smirnov had spoken with Burisma’s founder and discovered that Burisma officials had tried to pay the two Bidens $5 million each for their help in ousting Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin, who had been investigating Burisma for corruption. If that had been true, it would have been a true bombshell: As vice president, Joe Biden would have leveraged his power over U.S. foreign policy to protect a foreign company from prosecution in exchange for a bribe. In other words, it would have been a clear-cut case of corruption. But there was a real reason the FBI resisted sharing this form: It contained an unsubstantiated allegation from a dubiously reliable source. In 2020, the Trump DOJ had investigated Smirnov’s claims and failed to find any evidence supporting them. There was no reason to present the allegations as legitimate.

The FBI was right to worry that releasing the form would be dangerous. When it gave a redacted version of the form to the legislators, the Republican hype machine went into overdrive. In his position as chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Comer repeatedly alluded to proof of corruption, seemingly based on the form. But more importantly, Fox News latched onto the allegations, accusing the FBI of covering up for the Bidens and portraying the informant as highly credible and in danger of retaliation. Sean Hannity emerged as the form’s biggest booster. According to data from the liberal group Media Matters, his show aired 85 segments promoting the bribery claim in 2023. On Fox, the president’s corruption became an assumed truth. Smirnov’s claims also became central to the House GOP’s failed effort to impeach Biden.

One might hope that there would be vast recriminations and public embarrassment now that the feds have formally charged the source of so much drama with making it all up. But the damage in public perception from this episode is done and likely can’t be corrected with the news of the informant’s arrest. Even if the right took it seriously, though, Fox News still has a few other “Biden crime family” storylines to mine that are not connected to Smirnov or his form.

As the Media Matters data showed, while Smirnov’s claims were the most exciting accusations, Hannity had even more segments (though fewer triumphant monologues) on Comer’s vague claims that Hunter Biden had used shell companies to “launder the money they were receiving from foreign nationals.” (The Washington Post reported that these were all actually legitimate businesses, except for one short-lived company that may have been unconnected to Hunter Biden.)

Then there’s the connected claim from a Comer memo that the committee had found more than $20 million in payments from “foreign sources” to Biden family members or their associates. None of the payments were directly connected to Joe Biden, and the Post found that only $7 million of that total went to Biden family members.

There’s also the 2017 email in which a Hunter Biden associate used the phrase “10 held by H for the big guy?” in discussions of a partnership between Hunter and his uncle Jim Biden and the Chinese energy conglomerate CEFC China Energy. The draft agreement and later official agreement that resulted from this exchange made no mention of Joe Biden; there’s no evidence the president was involved in any of this.

And finally, there’s a threatening 2017 WhatsApp message that Hunter sent to a Chinese executive: “I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled.” Democrats have maintained that this was pure bluster from Hunter, who was struggling with drug addiction at the time. An associate of Hunter’s testified that they were trying to create the “illusion of access.”

There are even more snippets the right has fixated on. For years now, the right-wing media world has been meticulously scouring all communications and documents related to Hunter Biden for evidence of his father betraying the American public. While officials have found evidence of Hunter’s illegal and unethical behavior around his taxes and use of firearms, there has been nothing officially tying Joe Biden to any wrongdoing. Smirnov’s claims were the most likely source of anything solid showing that the president was involved. Joe Biden may have been reckless in failing to prevent his son from using his family name for clout, but the Republicans’ case for actual corruption is now a lot emptier.

#us politics #news #republicans #conservatives #president joe biden #hunter biden #house oversight committee #impeachment #2024 #fbi #David Weiss #Alexander Smirnov #Rep. James Comer #sen. chuck grassley #Viktor Shokin #Burisma #Media Matters #the washington post #CEFC China Energy

[tomorrowusa]

« That Trump would say what he's said and done what he's done is no surprise; he is a profoundly damaged human being, emotionally and psychologically. And he’s been entirely transparent about who he is. The most troubling aspect of this whole troubling drama has been the people in the Republican Party who, though they know better, have accommodated themselves to Trump’s corruptions time after time after time. Some cheer him on; others silently go along for the ride. A few gently criticize him and then quickly change topics. But they never leave him.

By now I know how this plays out: For most Republicans to acknowledge—to others and even to themselves—what Trump truly is and still stay loyal to him would create enormous cognitive dissonance. Their mind won’t allow them to go there; instead, they find ways to ease the inner conflict. »

— Peter Wehner writing at The Atlantic (archived).

Donald Trump is powerful because Republicans permit him to have power over them. They have known about his anti-democracy tendencies since 2016. But the GOP chose to stick with Trump because they thought his demagoguery could help them politically.

They had several occasions to jettison him, including two impeachment trials, but instead decided to cling to him. Some may claim privately that they wish he would go away but then they fail to do anything to make him go away.

Donald Trump is a product of the Republican Party. A political organization that would give rise to one totalitarian would certainly be fertile ground for others.

Republicans like Trump and his sycophants get elected not just because people vote for them but because others fail to vote against them.

#donald trump #trump's nazi comments #normalizing trump #republicans #the gop #totalitarianism #failing to stop trump #republicans accommodate trump #peter wehner #vote blue no matter who #election 2024

[beardedmrbean]

WASHINGTON – Hunter Biden, the president’s son, was indicted on charges he failed to pay his income taxes, Justice Department special counsel David Weiss announced Thursday.

The announcement came months after a plea deal over tax and gun charges collapsed. Under the agreement, which a federal judge rejected, Hunter Biden was set to plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts of failing to pay taxes in 2017 and 2018.

Biden is charged in a California federal court with three felony tax offenses and six misdemeanors. He engaged in a scheme in which he failed to pay at least $1.4 million in self-assessed taxes from 2016 through 2019, and also evaded tax assessment for 2018 when he filed false returns, according to the indictment.

From 2016 to 2020, Biden spent money "on drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and rental properties, exotic cars, clothing, and other items of a personal nature, in short, everything but his taxes," according to the indictment.

Separately, Weiss has charged Hunter Biden in Delaware with three federal gun charges, basically alleging he lied about using drugs when he bought a revolver in 2018. Biden pleaded not guilty to the charges Oct. 3.

"Based on the facts and the law, if Hunter’s last name was anything other than Biden, the charges in Delaware, and now California, would not have been brought," said Abbe Lowell, an attorney for Hunter Biden, in a statement.

"Now, after five years of investigating with no new evidence -- and two years after Hunter paid his taxes in full -- the U.S. Attorney has piled on nine new charges when he had agreed just months ago to resolve this matter with a pair of misdemeanors," Lowell said.

Biden faces a maximum penalty of 17 years in prison if convicted on the tax charges, the Justice Department said in a press release. It noted that actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than maximum penalties.

Congressman Jason Smith, who heads the House Ways and Means Committee, said in a statement that the new charges further confirm the need for Congress to conduct an impeachment inquiry of Joe Biden "in order to uncover all the facts." The charges address years in which Hunter Biden earned millions of dollars by selling access to a family brand that was built on Joe Biden's political career, he said.

What are the tax charges?

While failing to pay his taxes, Biden allegedly spent millions on an extravagant lifestyle. In 2018, for example, he made about $383,000 in payments to women and spent about $151,00 on clothes and accessories, according to the charges.

Biden faces two felony charges of filing a false return and one felony charge of tax evasion. The six misdemeanor counts are for allegedly failing to file returns or pay his taxes when required.

Prosecutors have said Hunter Biden took in $2.4 million in income in 2017 and $2.1 in 2018 through Ukrainian energy firm Burisma, a Chinese-development firm, as well as domestic business interests and legal services.

Leo Wise, an assistant U.S. attorney, said at a July court hearing that an accountant prepared Biden's taxes both of those years, but his corporate and personal taxes were not paid. During this period, Hunter Biden made large cash withdrawals and covered other expenses like car payments on a Porsche, Wise said.

Hunter Biden told the court a "third party" paid the back taxes along with interest and fees pursuant to a personal loan he has not begun to repay.

Why did the judge reject the plea agreement?

Prosecutors had recommended probation for the two misdemeanor tax charges in the plea agreement, despite each carrying a maximum sentence of 12 months in prison. The agreement over the gun charge anticipated a pretrial diversion program that would wipe the charge off Biden’s record if he complied.

House Republicans called the agreement a “sweetheart deal” for lack of jail time.

U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika rejected the deal because of a dispute between prosecutors and defense lawyers over what it meant. Biden's lawyers argued that he would be protected from prosecution in future cases, but prosecutors denied that.

#nunyas news #someone opened the door for this #time to clean out the muck

[grits-galraisedinthesouth]

The January 6th riots were obviously a national embarrassment. The January 6th theatre we’ve witnessed since is a global, historical, unadulterated farce.

Yesterday’s partisan committee hearing on January 6th was nothing short of a national embarrassment. No doubt the January 6th riots were, too. Had pipsqueak Pence done his job, the country would look far different today. But two wrongs don’t make a right. How Democrats continue to abuse their power for the partisan persecution of their political opponents will remain a stain on America’s body politick for generations to come.

The most humiliating moments – especially for the audiences watching from around the world – saw all four “stars” of the “show” crying for the television cameras.

Crying over havoc.

Harry Dunn, Adam Kinzinger, Aquilino Gonell, and Adam Schiff all boo-hooed on international television, signaling nothing but weakness to America’s adversaries. But why should they care? These men are more concerned about climate change activist shaman than they are about the Chinese Communist Party. More on that, later. Schiff, recall, was once the latest in a string of purported titans who were set to “take down Trump,” in the failed impeachment proceedings. Yesterday, he reverted to his natural state of sobbing little manlet, keen to play up his “human” side for the cameras. A crock, if ever there was one. ‘The Worst Attack EVER!’

The narrative has suggested that January 6th was “the worst attack” on the United States since, like, ever. The moderate position appears to be that it was the worst attack since my people (the British) burned the White House down. And yet, anyone with even a cursory knowledge of American history would righty guffaw at such claims. Hell, anyone with a functioning memory should be able to see through the pantomimish postulation. Consider 1954, when four armed Puerto Ricans took positions in the gallery overlooking the chamber of the House of Representatives and opened fire. They wounded five Members of Congress: two Republicans and three Democrats. It was a pretty heinous attack. Of course Jimmy Carter commuted the terrorists’ life sentences later on.

Or how about in 1971, when a left-wing protester planted an actual bomb that actually exploded outside the Senate.

“The Congressional reaction was generally restrained,” the New York Times reported at the time. No such luck this time.

Or consider 1983, when a massive blast tore through the Capitol building, luckily killing no one, but leading to the modern identification requirements needed to enter the building. In a way, this attack killed the openness of America’s legislature, which had been almost totally open to the public prior. The culprits – Laura Whitehorn, Marilyn Buck, and Linda Evans – were all radical Marxists.

Whitehorn served 14 years and is now a lauded figure on the left. Buck served 25 years before being released to die from cancer a month later. Evans served 11 years, got parole, and then had her sentence commuted by Bill Clinton.

You could also take the 1915 bombing, carried out by Harvard University professor Frank Holt aka Eric Muenter. Or perhaps more contemporaneously, the storming of the Senate by hundreds of left-wing activists intent on stopping the confirmation of a Supreme Court judge.

Over 60 Secret Service personnel were assaulted and injured when far-left activists descended on Trump’s White House in 2020, frustrated at the then-President’s seeming cruise to re-election. Shortly after, Democrats would abandon plans to “storm” or “besiege” the White House and fixated their efforts on changing election laws around the country, as The National Pulse originally reported. Of course, there are a number of similar incidents, none of which attracted the condemnation nor the committee hearings as January 6th.

(Hat-tip to Yossi Gestetner on Twitter for assembling this list of incidents).

Friends in High Places.

Much like some of the Marxist revolutionaries who found comfort in the arms of Carter and Clinton, some of yesterday’s characters have friends in high places, too.

Police officer Harry Dunn, who spent a not insignificant amount of time in yesterday’s hearing ragging on America and “racism,” appears to be represented by long-time Democrat lelgal creep Mark Zaid.

Zaid, if you recall the name, is the guy who very much enjoys frequenting Disney Land alone, as a grown man. His YouTube contained videos such as “Top 10 prettiest disney channel stars” and “Selena Gomez from child to women.”

(Zaid’s creepy YouTube page.)

Zaid – who once declared that a “coup” against President Trump was underway – is one of the most critical lawyers in Democratic Party circles. But he’s nowhere near as important as Dunn’s other mates: Nancy Pelosi and Jamie Raskin.

Raskin was another of the Democrats’ failed impeachment managers, against Trump. Pelosi, we all know, is drunk Satan.

Crooks and Dunn.

It boggles the mind how lawmakers and police officers can cry about feeling threatened during a committee meeting, but then make their partisan preferences so abundantly clear. No Republican on Capitol Hill could possibly feel safe again, after yesterday’s display. Not least because Dunn appears to be an ardent support of a Marxist movement, linked to the Chinese Communist Party. Black Lives Mao-tter.

Dunn’s Twitter page is adorned with BLM propaganda.  He doesn’t even try to hide it.

The same group that terrorized Washington, D.C. including the Capitol Hill neighborhoods Dunn is supposed to concern himself with is one of Dunn’s faves.

After they burned St. John’s Church, besieged the White House, lay waste to businesses across the Capitol, and injured and killed dozens across the country, Dunn endorsed BLM. Who’s the real danger to America?

(Dunn and daughter pose at ‘BLM Plaza’.)

But Dunn’s links to the group aren’t just concerning given their recent, domestic terrorist activities. BLM is a front organization for radical communists inspired by and working with the Chinese Communist Party. In other words, hostile foreign actors now have guns on the ground on Capitol Hill. Refresh your memory, if you need to, about the hardline Marxist authoritarian goals of the group: from praising mass murderer Mao to launching blatantly genocidal attacks on Israel. Forget just Republicans feeling unsafe around Dunn. Jewish Members of Congress and staffers on the Hill should probably watch out, given his subscribed ideology and thought leaders. Critical race theory proponents have also been on Chinese Communist-sponsored trips, as reported by The National Pulse.

Crying-on-Crying-on-Crying.

Naturally, in response to my live online commentary about the farcical nature of yesterday’s events, left-Twitter went mental. Again. Especially Luke O’Brien – himself a Chinese Communist-linked researcher who attempted to intimidate me by giving away where I like to drink in Washington, D.C., which is hardly a secret but O’Brien was obviously dog-whistling to his violent followers. In other words, their response to the children crying on television yesterday was to cry at me some more on Twitter. Truly a meta-pathetic American altercation. I hesitate to say it since this country has been so kind to me, but folks, the whole world is now laughing at you. From your Women’s Soccer Team celebrating a 3-0 loss, to your athletes winning awards for dropping out of the Olympics, to your elections being an evident farce, to your lawmakers and elected officials crying on television. This isn’t the America anyone from abroad falls in love with. This is a national and international embarrassment. And it’s only just the beginning. Full Fraud Farce.

We know the full fraud farce is coming into full effect. As I posted to GETTR at the unreasonable hour of airport-o-clock this morning, “One of the most deeply concerning parts of the political establishment’s stupidity-arrogance complex is how easily fooled they’re going to be when nefarious actors and foreign agents plant fake, malicious “evidence” about political adversaries writ large. The state will rush to deny their own citizens the most fundamental rights. Trump/Russia was a very basic test case and US institutions totally failed.” Not only are Democrats willing to take the knee – even when they’re draped in the cloth of literal slavers – they’re willing to use the apparatus of state to aggressively and violently persecute the opponents of foreign, Communist, hostile powers.

China doesn’t need to start a war with the United States. They’ve started a war within the United States.

In search for intellectually unachievable omnipotence, Democrats are more than willing to fight it for them.

The January 6th riots were obviously a national embarrassment. The January 6th theatre we’ve witnessed since is a global, historical, unadulterated farce.

#january 6 #The National Pulse #Fraud #Farce #Banana Republic #january 6 committee #January 6 commission #Free the prisoners

[noneedtoamputate]

End of Month Roundup - January 2024

Stuff I've Been Reading:

I'm still working on finishing up Masters of the Air by Donald Miller. I'm really enjoying it, but it's long and I haven't had a lot of dedicated time to sit down to read.

The final chapter of The Darkening Sky by @mercurygray dropped a few days ago. This was one of the first fics I found when I joined the BoB fandom this summer, and it was one of the fics that inspired me to create a BoB female OC. The developed, varied female characters in the fic is a revelation. Congrats on finishing it and thanks for sharing it with all of us. (And Merc, I owe you one final comment on the fic, but I need some time to process.)

Come Back Home by freyafrida is from the Anne of Green Gables fandom, and imagines if Walter Blythe survived WWI. There are so many beautiful lines in the fic, and it's replaced canon for me.

Stuff I've Been Watching:

Finished the first two episodes of Masters of the Air. My husband doesn't care much for historical TV shows, but at one point in episode two, he turned to me and said, "I'm really glad your grandpa failed flight school." It's been intense. I'm not sure where the series is going, but I'm also intrigued. Can I say how much I love Harry?

Little NoNeed and I watched the 1985 version of Anne of Green Gables together this month. There's something about watching someone watch something you love for the first time, and they end up loving it, too. Wasn't expecting them to ask, "Mom, what would happen if I got one of my friends accidentally drunk?"

I also binged all two seasons of The Bear. I love all of the Chicago references, the soundtrack bangs, and the found family aspect to the show ... chef's kiss.

American Crime Story: Impeachment took me back to the Bill Clinton scandal that dominated my high school years.

Stuff I've Been Making:

I cooked three new recipes this month, as part of my goal to cook more dinners at home in 2024. I'm working on my Blind Dates OC fic and brainstorming my next chapter of Every Beautiful Thing. I wanted to post a chapter every month, but I am not going to make January. I'm giving myself grace. It's been a busy month, and it's okay if life gets in the way sometimes.

#personal #monthly roundup 2024

[cmesinic]

Come November, we need to vote these clowns out! Close to nothing has been passed of significance in the house representatives in these last two years. We need a Congress that works for the people.

#cmesin

[mariacallous]

As the new House Republican majority stumbles into power, with all the chaotic, embittered bumbling of a rich man’s son who can only seem to fail upwards, another, peculiar kind of political transition is taking place: Nancy Pelosi, 82, is leaving the House speakership, almost certainly for the last time.

Perhaps no individual has come to symbolize the Democrats more to the people who do not like the party. To Republicans, Pelosi has long taken on a kind of mythic malice. To the Fox-watching white male, Pelosi symbolizes liberal elitism, a vague but totalizing specter of corruption, and that particular kind of liberal decadence that can be evoked by the name of the city that makes up nearly all of her longtime congressional district: San Francisco. She’s a woman in power, and she’s long been supportive of gay rights, and she opposed the Iraq war. She’s been a reliable opponent of conservatives’ favorite culture war crusades: she supports gun control and opposes Confederate statues. In an association facilitated by misogyny, her very face is a shorthand for liberal extremism, a visual code that denotes secularism, taxation and frightening new pronouns.

Which was always a bit of a stretch, because the fact of the matter is that the American left tends to hate Pelosi, too. To them, her two terms as speaker – first from 2007 to 2011, and then again from 2019 until this coming January – were eras of strictly enforced centrism. Under Pelosi’s tenure, the congressional agenda was kept well to the right of the base’s preferences, and leftist stars like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were needlessly sidelined.

Pelosi has taken positions that frustrate and disappoint the Democratic rank and file. She allegedly knew about waterboarding during the war on terror, and she didn’t object to it; she has backed Israel even in its most flagrant violations of Palestinian rights. And for all the fear and hatred she provokes in Republicans, some Democrats found her insufficiently willing to attack them. Under her leadership, the House impeached Donald Trump twice. But the Rubicon of impeachment was crossed only belatedly, in the face of Pelosi’s long, obstinate resistance. Many Democrats felt that the impeachments – along with other congressional oversight efforts against the Trump administration – were too tepid, and came too late.

Neither of these understandings of Pelosi really capture the most striking aspect of her career – which has been characterized, above all, by an almost preternatural ability to discipline her caucus. Perhaps no speaker has been so successful at securing votes and cultivating the loyalties of her members; in interviews, Democratic House members speak of her with awe, like she’s something between a charismatic high school teacher and an emotionally withholding mom. This charisma is carefully cultivated: she famously tells no one her secrets, but has a long memory – both for past favors and past grievances. Some members seem to be eagerly seeking her approval. None seem willing to cross her. She has a natural’s instinct for politics, able to anticipate what will persuade someone to do what she wants them to do before they often know themselves.

Pelosi cultivated this talent from a young age. At the beginning of her political career, Pelosi painted herself as a mom and housewife, the devoted spouse to Paul, an obscenely wealthy financier, and the doting mother of five. But this pretended humility was always a rather flimsy facade. In reality, Pelosi is the scion of an influential Democratic political family from Maryland: her father was a congressman, and both her dad and brother served as mayors of Baltimore. Her job as speaker was one she had been training for since infancy, or at least since she attended her first presidential inauguration, at 12.

After she and her husband moved to San Francisco, Pelosi swiftly rose in the ranks of the California Democratic party, in part because Nancy, with her comfort among elites and the almost coercive power of her charm, was very good at raising money. She was elected to Congress in 1986, and never looked back; she quickly stood out as a charismatic voice in public and an aggressive negotiator in private. Pelosi became the leader of the House Democrats in 2003, and ascended to become the first – and so far, the only – woman to serve as speaker, in 2007.

Under Pelosi’s tenure, the House Democrats have achieved some herculean tasks of political maneuvering. Everything that the Democrats have accomplished legislatively since 2007, they have accomplished thanks to Pelosi’s control of her caucus. She forced through the Dodd-Frank campaign finance reform bill in the face of the kind of fearsome opposition that a politician of weaker will would have balked at. She managed to pass the massive Affordable Care Act, expanding healthcare coverage to millions, in a show of persuasion and strength that could terrify grown men, and did.

These are the kinds of bruising political battles that would end a different congressperson’s career, but Pelosi’s district is among the safest blue seats in the country. She has never faced a real challenger for her spot; during her election years, she doesn’t even engage in debates. Her re-election campaigns are little more than formalities: everyone, in San Francisco and elsewhere, knows that seat belongs to Nancy Pelosi for as long as she wants it. This safety is what allowed Pelosi to turn to her bigger, more national ambitions. Her real constituency has long been the whole country – or at least, the whole of the Democratic party.

But recent years have taken the shine off of Pelosi. She stood in the way when Democrats wanted to pass ethics reforms that would have forbidden members of Congress from trading individual stocks; this past summer, she made the dangerous choice to travel alone to Taiwan, in a show of defiance against Xi Jinping. And the constant attacks on her personally from the right have begun to take a grim toll. This fall, a crazed man, deluded by rightwing media, broke into her California home with a hammer, and attacked Pelosi’s elderly husband, fracturing his skull; the intruder was there looking for Pelosi.

Perhaps the quintessential moment of this part of Pelosi’s career came during the January 6 hearings, when footage of the speaker taken during the Capitol attack emerged. In the hidden location where the House members had been taken, she makes brisk phone calls, searching for a way to clear the Capitol. Her calm competence, contrasted with her extreme physical frailty, made for a portrait of integrity, endurance, courage. But even then, Pelosi seemed out of place. In the video, her institutionalism, and her faith in the legal process, shines through. You get the sense that she feels strongly that everything will be all right, if only she can make the right phone call. As the mob stormed the Capitol, and Trump orchestrated them on Twitter like a symphony conductor, Pelosi’s technocratic proceduralism could not have stood in starker contrast. She looked, perhaps for the first time, like a figure from a lost era.

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 12.29

1170 – Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, is assassinated inside Canterbury Cathedral by followers of King Henry II; he subsequently becomes a saint and martyr in the Anglican Communion and the Catholic Church. 1503 – The Battle of Garigliano was fought between a Spanish army under Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba and a French army commanded by Ludovico II, Marquess of Saluzzo. 1607 – According to John Smith, Pocahontas, daughter of Powhatan leader Wahunsenacawh, successfully pleads for his life after tribal leaders attempt to execute him. 1778 – American Revolutionary War: Three thousand British soldiers under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Campbell capture Savannah, Georgia. 1812 – USS Constitution, under the command of Captain William Bainbridge, captures HMS Java off the coast of Brazil after a three-hour battle. 1835 – The Treaty of New Echota is signed, ceding all the lands of the Cherokee east of the Mississippi River to the United States. 1845 – The United States annexes the Republic of Texas and admits it as the 28th state. 1860 – The launch of HMS Warrior, with her combination of screw propeller, iron hull and iron armour, renders all previous warships obsolete. 1874 – The military coup of Gen. Martinez Campos in Sagunto ends the failed First Spanish Republic and the monarchy is restored as Prince Alfonso is proclaimed King of Spain. 1876 – The Ashtabula River railroad disaster occurs, leaving 64 injured and 92 dead at Ashtabula, Ohio. 1890 – On Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, 300 Lakota are killed by the United States 7th Cavalry Regiment. 1911 – Mongolia gains independence from the Qing dynasty, enthroning 8th Jebtsundamba Khutughtu as Khagan of Mongolia. 1913 – Cecil B. DeMille starts filming Hollywood's first feature film, The Squaw Man. 1930 – Sir Muhammad Iqbal's presidential address in Allahabad introduces the two-nation theory and outlines a vision for the creation of Pakistan. 1934 – Japan renounces the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and the London Naval Treaty of 1930. 1937 – The Irish Free State is replaced by a new state called Ireland with the adoption of a new constitution. 1940 – In the Second Great Fire of London, the Luftwaffe fire-bombs London, England, killing almost 200 civilians during World War II. 1972 – Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 (a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar) crashes in the Florida Everglades on approach to Miami International Airport, Florida, killing 101 of the 176 people on board. 1975 – A bomb explodes at LaGuardia Airport in New York City, killing 11 people and injuring more than 75. 1989 – Czech writer, philosopher and dissident Václav Havel is elected the first post-communist President of Czechoslovakia. 1989 – The Nikkei 225 for the Tokyo Stock Exchange hits its all-time intra-day high of 38,957.44 and closing high at 38,915.87, serving as the apex of the Japanese asset price bubble. 1992 – Fernando Collor de Mello, president of Brazil, tries to resign amidst corruption charges, but is then impeached. 1994 – Turkish Airlines Flight 278 (a Boeing 737-400) crashes on approach to Van Ferit Melen Airport in Van, Turkey, killing 57 of the 76 people on board. 1996 – Guatemala and leaders of Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity sign a peace accord ending a 36-year civil war. 1998 – Leaders of the Khmer Rouge apologize for the Cambodian genocide that claimed over one million lives. 2003 – The last known speaker of Akkala Sami dies, rendering the language extinct. 2006 – The UK settles its Anglo-American loan, post-WWII loan debt. 2013 – A suicide bomb attack at the Volgograd-1 railway station in the southern Russian city of Volgograd kills at least 18 people and wounds 40 others. 2013 – Seven-time Formula One champion Michael Schumacher suffers a massive head injury while skiing in the French Alps. 2020 – A large explosion at the airport in the southern Yemeni city of Aden kills at least 22 people and wounds 50.

#Events