Today began with Maggie Haberman and Luke Broadwater at the New York Times reporting on previously undisclosed emails from the weeks before the January 6 insurrection, in which advisors openly referred to the slates of alternative electors they had prodded supporters to produce as “fake.”
The good thing about getting Trump on conspiracy to commit election fraud is it avoids all the bullshit shiny objects of "His free speech," "he couldn't know what they'd do after he spoke," etc., etc. The crime is proven by the existence of the fake documents, The conspirators are shown by the signatures on the documents. You think any of those small gargoyles are the kind who will go to jail for Trump? Hah! They'll be lining up to turn state's evidence. And all the questions the prosecutors are asking in the grand jury are "what did you say to the president?" "When did you say it?" "What did he say?"
It might be the equivalent of getting Al Capone for tax evasion instead of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, but it still puts him away for 20 years.
As I have stated, Trump will be investigated, charged, convicted and jailed... by this DOJ led by this AG. It is all over but the shouting.
The One Six committee has helped enormously by educating the public that cares, but DOJ got there first... and the American public will now face the music:
President Trump is a congenital pathological liar and a hardened criminal. He is going to jail for as long as President Biden wants him there. His supporters will watch as their evil hero wears a suit the color of his dyed face. And the midterms will adjust the outcome accordingly.
President Ford pardoned President Richard M. Nixon as Veep Spiro T. Agnew was allowed to walk and Nelson A. Rockefeller was elevated to veep with the agreement that he would never run - because he was divorced.
President Biden will have a decision to make, and it will only matter when - and why - he makes it. To pardon or commute the sentence of President Trump - of leave him in jail to rot.
Donald J. Trump with the orange face and yellow hair will face jail - lose weight, and be visited by his favorite daughter, who has turned states evidence against him to keep herself and her strange and dishonest husband out of jail. The Trump dynasty is in flames, and the GOP or Republican Party will need new leadership... and has no one but One Six co-chair GOP Rep. Liz Cheney qualified to direct that process. No one.
Cults die, sooner or later.
The Trump Republican Party is in flames and will die. The party will find new leadership and our two party system will struggle again.
Perhaps racism, the cult’s cause and driving force, will receive attention - and tolerance will be sought.
One can hope. That leadership can begin with an eye on Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson... who just may end up as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
That rumbling noise in the distance, growing ever louder, is a building tsunami of irrefutable evidence, evidence that will crash upon Trump and his closest associates and ruin their lives. The water metaphor is appropriate. It will be a cleansing, not of them, but the nation.
*Additional thought: how many propagandized Trump Big Lie believers will wake up? What will it take? Or will they just become more hardened in their irrational beliefs — and continue to undermine democracy in small and large ways?
'Justice Dept. investigating Trump’s actions in Jan. 6 criminal probe'
'People familiar with the probe said investigators are examining the former president’s conversations and have seized phone records of top aides.' (WAPO)
How's that for the Washington Post's front page headline? Can it be true? You bet it is. Today's Letter and news outlets around the country are providing Americans with a wakeup call! As mind blowing this is -- how will it go over with the MAGAs? The Biden administration along with organizations such as the Lincoln Project need to get into high gear and design an educational campaign about the REAL DONALD TRUMP.
As good as this news is concerning the Justice Department investigation of President Donald Trump’s actions as part of its criminal probe of efforts to overturn the 2020 election results this news is also EXPLOSIVE.
Who are the MAGAs?
'The demographic composition of the MAGA movement is overwhelmingly white, male, Christian, retired, and over 65 years of age. They’re attracted to the following groups, ones that include gun rights, charities, pro police, anti-lockdown, pro-life, and “stop the steal.” They’re extremely politically active, all in support of the Republican Party. However, only roughly 60 percent are solid Republicans, the rest either “lean” Republican or Independent. The MAGA movement overwhelmingly believes Trump’s election fraud claims, would have supported him for a “third term”(had it been an option), and don’t believe that voting should be made easier.'
Where do MAGA supporters live?
'... the MAGA movement has a presence in every state in the continental U.S. '... MAGA presence corresponds with population density. As expected, less populous states in the Mountain West and Great Plains regions showed less activity. More populous states such as California, Texas, Florida, and other states in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic region registered more MAGA activity. '...MAGA presence was not constrained to rural areas, as contemporary rhetoric about the urban-rural divide might lead us to expect. In most states, MAGA respondents were clustered around major cities like Atlanta, Chicago, and Dallas.'
This information comes from Panel Study Of The MAGA Movement led by Rachel M. Blum, Assistant Professor, University of Oklahoma and Christopher Sebastian Parker, Professor, University of Washington. 'The Panel Study of the MAGA Movement (PSMM) is a survey designed to assess the attitudes and behavior of the people who consider themselves part of the “Make America Great Again” movement, popularized by the Trump campaign in 2016.'
'The MAGA movement, it seems, is not a isolated phenomenon. Movement sympathizers make up a healthy portion of the Republican electorate, and they are well-represented throughout the country.' (PSMM) See link below.
It feels as though democracy in the USA is getting a gigantic lift. This is also a time to recognize that Trump, the far-right, the militias, the MAGAs and the Republican Party will not take this sitting down.
So Help Me God is the name of Mike Pence’s new autobiography.
So Help Me God seems a fitting title for the man who served as Donald Trump’s handmaid for four years before his master tried to incite a lynch mob to hang him.
The default setting of societal stupidity that national media narratives demand now cast the unctuous charlatan as a hero for failing to throw two centuries of American democracy away on January 6, 2021, by refusing to go along with Trump’s coup. The late politician Daniel Patrick Moynihan was definitely on to something when he talked about “defining deviancy down.” By Steve Schmidt...
"put homeless people in camps on the outskirts of cities" I fear that such rash ideas have wider appeal than one would wish.
Concrete proposals to humanely and effectively deal with the visible homeless problems in major cities would boost support for Democratic candidates. I'm sorry to say that I'm not aware of any such proposals. I'd be grateful to hear of any.
Overwhelming...is it the hour and once again through a long day, the tick of my 84th year, swinging through the anguish and the telling of tales on "the others", the right wing, the Republicans, also Americans, disruptive and dishonest, gathering at the feet of this single man and his corruption...for what do they splinter their lives and ours?
And every day, I wake and read, relieved the letter will come and the pictures fade of painted days and nights and dead children and big guns and wonder at actions and lack of...through it all comes the truth and where hiding and why?
Prayer for the words and letters of this American to stay the storm bringing us set to rebuild each other, our lives, our constitution our democracy, our America, beautiful for spacious skies...
OH, WHAT A DAY! Another blow for Trump, a far right network and its viewers.
'OAN, a Dependable Trump Promoter, Faces a ‘Death Blow’
After Verizon drops the network at the end of this week, OAN’s cable TV audience will shrink dramatically.'
'One America News’s headquarters in San Diego. The cable network will soon have lost its presence in some 20 million homes.'
'The future of One America News, which established itself as a powerful voice in conservative media by promoting some of the most outlandish falsehoods about the 2020 election, is in serious doubt as major carriers drop it from their lineups and defamation lawsuits threaten to drain its finances.'
'By the end of this week, the cable network will have lost its presence in some 20 million homes this year. The most recent blow came from Verizon, which will stop carrying OAN on its Fios television service starting Saturday. That will starve the network of a major stream of revenue: the fees it collects from Verizon, which counts roughly 3.5 million cable subscribers. In April, OAN was dropped by AT&T’s DirecTV, which has about 15 million subscribers.'
'OAN’s remaining audience will be small. The network will soon be available only to a few hundred thousand people who subscribe to smaller cable providers, such as Frontier and GCI Liberty, said Scott Robson, …' (NYTimes)
My heroine of the day is Zsuzsa Hegedus, Orban’s longtime assistant who resigned, telling him in no uncertain terms that she could not condone his Nazi rhetoric. Although she must have accepted a great deal of questionable policies prior to this, it had to take exceptional courage to stand up to Orban in that autocratic country. I never understand how any job is worth forfeiting honor, integrity and ethics, let alone democracy. Obviously, however, many value other things more. So we continue the struggle to fashion a more perfect union and to encourage embodiment of the values that will make that possible. Thanks, Heather, for a great summary of a busy news day. Nice to see some promising news.
All these lawyers and all this hokus pokus. They are all Federalist Society or Heritage Foundation, or Koch what have you’s. Pull hard enough on their network threads and they lead somewhere concrete. I think these lawyers hold a belief or knowledge that the Supreme Court had their back, and knowing that fact, gave certain air of confidence to their anti democratic conspiracy plot. How else can you explain their brazenness? Maybe Ginni Thomas can help us and the committee with that?
To me they are as dangerous to democracy, maybe more so than the violent mob of Jan 6th.
I am pleased that President Biden is taking the fight to the orange despot, and I hope he continues to do that … Dems can take the high road while calling out the previous administration for its racist, misogynist and elitist mindset and for its ever obvious criminality.
If we succeed in sidelining TFG, we still have a DeSantis problem.
I admire the January 6 Committee for apparently learning from the failures of the Mueller Investigation and the two impeachments. Its scripting, timing, and pacing are setting new standards for public information. I hope at some point we will be able to meet and congratulate its staff members.
CPAC visited Orban in May, and will host him with Trump inext week. This is headline news but barely any coverage. Why no bios of this dictator? His is clearly the Cnservative agenda.
Heather, your work goes on & on lifting hope in so many of us. Thank you this evening for another Letter that bolsters our understanding of how complex the network of political cronies and wannabe’s is and how it’s unraveling as each hour, day, week goes by with consistent hard work from so many reporters. I am going to sleep with the enduring belief that truth will win and our democracy will become stronger and more humane, responsive to the needs of all of us.
The good thing about getting Trump on conspiracy to commit election fraud is it avoids all the bullshit shiny objects of "His free speech," "he couldn't know what they'd do after he spoke," etc., etc. The crime is proven by the existence of the fake documents, The conspirators are shown by the signatures on the documents. You think any of those small gargoyles are the kind who will go to jail for Trump? Hah! They'll be lining up to turn state's evidence. And all the questions the prosecutors are asking in the grand jury are "what did you say to the president?" "When did you say it?" "What did he say?"
It might be the equivalent of getting Al Capone for tax evasion instead of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, but it still puts him away for 20 years.
Whatever works.
As I have stated, Trump will be investigated, charged, convicted and jailed... by this DOJ led by this AG. It is all over but the shouting.
The One Six committee has helped enormously by educating the public that cares, but DOJ got there first... and the American public will now face the music:
President Trump is a congenital pathological liar and a hardened criminal. He is going to jail for as long as President Biden wants him there. His supporters will watch as their evil hero wears a suit the color of his dyed face. And the midterms will adjust the outcome accordingly.
President Ford pardoned President Richard M. Nixon as Veep Spiro T. Agnew was allowed to walk and Nelson A. Rockefeller was elevated to veep with the agreement that he would never run - because he was divorced.
President Biden will have a decision to make, and it will only matter when - and why - he makes it. To pardon or commute the sentence of President Trump - of leave him in jail to rot.
Donald J. Trump with the orange face and yellow hair will face jail - lose weight, and be visited by his favorite daughter, who has turned states evidence against him to keep herself and her strange and dishonest husband out of jail. The Trump dynasty is in flames, and the GOP or Republican Party will need new leadership... and has no one but One Six co-chair GOP Rep. Liz Cheney qualified to direct that process. No one.
Cults die, sooner or later.
The Trump Republican Party is in flames and will die. The party will find new leadership and our two party system will struggle again.
Perhaps racism, the cult’s cause and driving force, will receive attention - and tolerance will be sought.
One can hope. That leadership can begin with an eye on Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson... who just may end up as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
That rumbling noise in the distance, growing ever louder, is a building tsunami of irrefutable evidence, evidence that will crash upon Trump and his closest associates and ruin their lives. The water metaphor is appropriate. It will be a cleansing, not of them, but the nation.
*Additional thought: how many propagandized Trump Big Lie believers will wake up? What will it take? Or will they just become more hardened in their irrational beliefs — and continue to undermine democracy in small and large ways?
'Justice Dept. investigating Trump’s actions in Jan. 6 criminal probe'
'People familiar with the probe said investigators are examining the former president’s conversations and have seized phone records of top aides.' (WAPO)
How's that for the Washington Post's front page headline? Can it be true? You bet it is. Today's Letter and news outlets around the country are providing Americans with a wakeup call! As mind blowing this is -- how will it go over with the MAGAs? The Biden administration along with organizations such as the Lincoln Project need to get into high gear and design an educational campaign about the REAL DONALD TRUMP.
As good as this news is concerning the Justice Department investigation of President Donald Trump’s actions as part of its criminal probe of efforts to overturn the 2020 election results this news is also EXPLOSIVE.
Who are the MAGAs?
'The demographic composition of the MAGA movement is overwhelmingly white, male, Christian, retired, and over 65 years of age. They’re attracted to the following groups, ones that include gun rights, charities, pro police, anti-lockdown, pro-life, and “stop the steal.” They’re extremely politically active, all in support of the Republican Party. However, only roughly 60 percent are solid Republicans, the rest either “lean” Republican or Independent. The MAGA movement overwhelmingly believes Trump’s election fraud claims, would have supported him for a “third term”(had it been an option), and don’t believe that voting should be made easier.'
Where do MAGA supporters live?
'... the MAGA movement has a presence in every state in the continental U.S. '... MAGA presence corresponds with population density. As expected, less populous states in the Mountain West and Great Plains regions showed less activity. More populous states such as California, Texas, Florida, and other states in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic region registered more MAGA activity. '...MAGA presence was not constrained to rural areas, as contemporary rhetoric about the urban-rural divide might lead us to expect. In most states, MAGA respondents were clustered around major cities like Atlanta, Chicago, and Dallas.'
This information comes from Panel Study Of The MAGA Movement led by Rachel M. Blum, Assistant Professor, University of Oklahoma and Christopher Sebastian Parker, Professor, University of Washington. 'The Panel Study of the MAGA Movement (PSMM) is a survey designed to assess the attitudes and behavior of the people who consider themselves part of the “Make America Great Again” movement, popularized by the Trump campaign in 2016.'
'The MAGA movement, it seems, is not a isolated phenomenon. Movement sympathizers make up a healthy portion of the Republican electorate, and they are well-represented throughout the country.' (PSMM) See link below.
It feels as though democracy in the USA is getting a gigantic lift. This is also a time to recognize that Trump, the far-right, the militias, the MAGAs and the Republican Party will not take this sitting down.
https://sites.uw.edu/magastudy/maga-and-politics/
So Help Me God is the name of Mike Pence’s new autobiography.
So Help Me God seems a fitting title for the man who served as Donald Trump’s handmaid for four years before his master tried to incite a lynch mob to hang him.
The default setting of societal stupidity that national media narratives demand now cast the unctuous charlatan as a hero for failing to throw two centuries of American democracy away on January 6, 2021, by refusing to go along with Trump’s coup. The late politician Daniel Patrick Moynihan was definitely on to something when he talked about “defining deviancy down.” By Steve Schmidt...
"put homeless people in camps on the outskirts of cities" I fear that such rash ideas have wider appeal than one would wish.
Concrete proposals to humanely and effectively deal with the visible homeless problems in major cities would boost support for Democratic candidates. I'm sorry to say that I'm not aware of any such proposals. I'd be grateful to hear of any.
Overwhelming...is it the hour and once again through a long day, the tick of my 84th year, swinging through the anguish and the telling of tales on "the others", the right wing, the Republicans, also Americans, disruptive and dishonest, gathering at the feet of this single man and his corruption...for what do they splinter their lives and ours?
And every day, I wake and read, relieved the letter will come and the pictures fade of painted days and nights and dead children and big guns and wonder at actions and lack of...through it all comes the truth and where hiding and why?
Prayer for the words and letters of this American to stay the storm bringing us set to rebuild each other, our lives, our constitution our democracy, our America, beautiful for spacious skies...
OH, WHAT A DAY! Another blow for Trump, a far right network and its viewers.
'OAN, a Dependable Trump Promoter, Faces a ‘Death Blow’
After Verizon drops the network at the end of this week, OAN’s cable TV audience will shrink dramatically.'
'One America News’s headquarters in San Diego. The cable network will soon have lost its presence in some 20 million homes.'
'The future of One America News, which established itself as a powerful voice in conservative media by promoting some of the most outlandish falsehoods about the 2020 election, is in serious doubt as major carriers drop it from their lineups and defamation lawsuits threaten to drain its finances.'
'By the end of this week, the cable network will have lost its presence in some 20 million homes this year. The most recent blow came from Verizon, which will stop carrying OAN on its Fios television service starting Saturday. That will starve the network of a major stream of revenue: the fees it collects from Verizon, which counts roughly 3.5 million cable subscribers. In April, OAN was dropped by AT&T’s DirecTV, which has about 15 million subscribers.'
'OAN’s remaining audience will be small. The network will soon be available only to a few hundred thousand people who subscribe to smaller cable providers, such as Frontier and GCI Liberty, said Scott Robson, …' (NYTimes)
There is hope!!
My heroine of the day is Zsuzsa Hegedus, Orban’s longtime assistant who resigned, telling him in no uncertain terms that she could not condone his Nazi rhetoric. Although she must have accepted a great deal of questionable policies prior to this, it had to take exceptional courage to stand up to Orban in that autocratic country. I never understand how any job is worth forfeiting honor, integrity and ethics, let alone democracy. Obviously, however, many value other things more. So we continue the struggle to fashion a more perfect union and to encourage embodiment of the values that will make that possible. Thanks, Heather, for a great summary of a busy news day. Nice to see some promising news.
All these lawyers and all this hokus pokus. They are all Federalist Society or Heritage Foundation, or Koch what have you’s. Pull hard enough on their network threads and they lead somewhere concrete. I think these lawyers hold a belief or knowledge that the Supreme Court had their back, and knowing that fact, gave certain air of confidence to their anti democratic conspiracy plot. How else can you explain their brazenness? Maybe Ginni Thomas can help us and the committee with that?
To me they are as dangerous to democracy, maybe more so than the violent mob of Jan 6th.
I am pleased that President Biden is taking the fight to the orange despot, and I hope he continues to do that … Dems can take the high road while calling out the previous administration for its racist, misogynist and elitist mindset and for its ever obvious criminality.
If we succeed in sidelining TFG, we still have a DeSantis problem.
I admire the January 6 Committee for apparently learning from the failures of the Mueller Investigation and the two impeachments. Its scripting, timing, and pacing are setting new standards for public information. I hope at some point we will be able to meet and congratulate its staff members.
CPAC visited Orban in May, and will host him with Trump inext week. This is headline news but barely any coverage. Why no bios of this dictator? His is clearly the Cnservative agenda.
Nothing like the able example of the leadership of DA Fani T. Willis, of Georgia, to release the DOJ from its widely perceived Trump paralysis.
Heather, your work goes on & on lifting hope in so many of us. Thank you this evening for another Letter that bolsters our understanding of how complex the network of political cronies and wannabe’s is and how it’s unraveling as each hour, day, week goes by with consistent hard work from so many reporters. I am going to sleep with the enduring belief that truth will win and our democracy will become stronger and more humane, responsive to the needs of all of us.