January 6 Hearings Live

[Angry Floof]

It didn't get released... too much "deep state" in the way of the Coup.

Thank Goddess for the Deep State. We still could lose our communist democracy, though, if we're not vigilant against those pesky Ture Patriots.

 

[ZiprHead]

Capitol riot: Off-duty Seattle police officers fired over assault

Two off-duty police officers who stood by as President Donald Trump's backers stormed the US Capitol in Washington DC on 6 January have lost their jobs.

Alexander Everett and Caitlin Everett, a married couple from Seattle, were fired following the recommendations of an inquiry into the attack.

It says they trespassed onto restricted grounds and stood by in the immediate vicinity of an "active insurrection".

 

[Worldtraveller]

Arrests now up to over 570.

I'm guessing there are still quite a few left to go.

 

[TomC]

Arrests now up to over 570.

I'm guessing there are still quite a few left to go.

But what's really happening?
According to post #1982, police who stood by(yards away) and participated only lost their police jobs. Why aren't they in jail? Why aren't they fleeing the country?
Tom

 

[Elixir]

It didn't get released... too much "deep state" in the way of the Coup.

Thank Goddess for the Deep State. We still could lose our communist democracy, though, if we're not vigilant against those pesky Ture Patriots.

After reading that book ("I Alone...") it seems more likely than not that we will lose our democracy.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

It didn't get released... too much "deep state" in the way of the Coup.

Thank Goddess for the Deep State. We still could lose our communist democracy, though, if we're not vigilant against those pesky Ture Patriots.

After reading that book ("I Alone...") it seems more likely than not that we will lose our democracy.

Seems pretty certain that is our path.

 

[SLD]

After reading that book ("I Alone...") it seems more likely than not that we will lose our democracy.

Seems pretty certain that is our path.

I concur. We will likely go the way of Hungary and Poland, with a court stacked by Republicans and a white plurality that won’t give up power without a fight. They will gerrymander districts to keep a solid Republican lock on the House. They will find other ways to ensue the electoral college works in their favor.

 

[ideologyhunter]

Maybe in the short run. A generation. (Of course, that's long enough to ensure that climate change reaches doomsday proportions.)
But the demographics are grim for Repubs. 2042: the projected end of the Caucasian majority. Today's GOP skews toward the aging, white, and disgruntled. And delusional -- considering the adoration of the Donald.

 

[SLD]

Maybe in the short run. A generation. (Of course, that's long enough to ensure that climate change reaches doomsday proportions.)
But the demographics are grim for Repubs. 2042: the projected end of the Caucasian majority. Today's GOP skews toward the aging, white, and disgruntled. And delusional -- considering the adoration of the Donald.

Yeah forget economics and politics. If you want to understand the future, look at demographics. But this graph explains the Republican Party strategy in a nutshell, and why they are reacting so violently. They have no choice. Or so they think. They must institute a permanent white rule now or they will lose the future for sure.

 

[TomC]

But this graph explains the Republican Party strategy in a nutshell, and why they are reacting so violently. They have no choice. Or so they think. They must institute a permanent white rule now or they will lose the future for sure.

Abraham Lincoln was a Republican. GOP wasn't always the party of the rich and the racist.

But it started coming apart back in the 60s. Democrat LBJ rather famously pointed out that the Democrats, supporting Civil Rights for Black people, "Would have the nigger vote for a hundred years!". This was true.

The Republicans responded with the Southern Strategy. Play to the whites who didn't want equality. It's taken decades, but becoming the party of immorality has been coming back to bite the GOP in the ass for awhile now.
The last time a Republican non-incumbent candidate won a presidential election was the 80s. And Bush nearly was an incumbent, having been VP for the previous 8 years.

Yeah, they're getting desperate. Gerrymandering, voter suppression, flat out lies...

Tom

 

[LoAmmo]

The last time a Republican non-incumbent candidate won a presidential election was the 80s. And Bush nearly was an incumbent, having been VP for the previous 8 years.

The last time a Republican non-incumbent candidate won a presidential election was in 2016.

 

[Swammerdami]

After reading that book ("I Alone...") it seems more likely than not that we will lose our democracy.

Seems pretty certain that is our path.

I concur. We will likely go the way of Hungary and Poland, with a court stacked by Republicans and a white plurality that won’t give up power without a fight. They will gerrymander districts to keep a solid Republican lock on the House. They will find other ways to ensue the electoral college works in their favor.

I am also a severe pessimist. Democracy is extremely fragile — history has demonstrated this — and America's is already tottering on the edge. Trumpist rhetoric sounds like a civil war is already starting. Even in Europe right-wing anti-democracy parties are on the rise.

The Taliban would have no chance to win an election in Afghanistan, but look how quickly that country fell. Those who think America is so completely different might want to read up about events on the Sixth of January.

The Democratic Party has a near-majority in the Senate (though not a super-majority), and also has the Presidency and the House of Reps. After December 2022 this fortuitous conjunction will never happen again. The Dems are pushing for new voting rights legislation — perhaps the last chance to save American democracy — but it will probably be blocked by the Kochist lackey Joe Manchin. (And even if the bill passes, would the GOP-packed Supreme Court allow it?)

Many will call us pessimists Cassandras, but the hand-writing is already on the wall. GOP-controlled states are passing laws allowing them to overturn elections.

Maybe in the short run. A generation. (Of course, that's long enough to ensure that climate change reaches doomsday proportions.)
But the demographics are grim for Repubs. 2042: the projected end of the Caucasian majority. Today's GOP skews toward the aging, white, and disgruntled. And delusional -- considering the adoration of the Donald.

When democracy is already subverted, 51% of the voters mean little. And even less when lies on social media dupe citizens.

Consider the upcoming recall election for Governor in California. California is so solidly Democratic that the General Elections pit Dem vs Dem. But the rules for this election are rigged so that the Democratic incumbent needs 50% of the vote, but a Republican challenger could become Governor with as little as 2%, no run-off needed! Arnold Schwarzenegger became Governor last time this happened — fortunately: he was much better than alternatives. Are the bookies taking bets on the outcome of the coming election? Caitlyn Jenner's name will be on the ballot!


~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The last time a Republican non-incumbent candidate won a presidential election was the 80s. And Bush nearly was an incumbent, having been VP for the previous 8 years.

The last time a Republican non-incumbent candidate won a presidential election was in 2016.

TomC meant "won the popular vote;" I don't know why he thought it cutesy to omit the clarification.

That silliness should be stifled. You don't win a tennis match by winning the most points: you need the most sets. You might prefer different rules of tennis, but they are what they are. It's largely happenstance (and NOT any deliberate gerrymandering) that the Electoral College system happens to favor the Rs lately.

If we were to make a List of the Twenty Biggest Threats to American Democracy, the electoral college system would not make the list.

 

[ZiprHead]

The number is real... and it's funny.

 

[lpetrich]

Federal Judge in Michigan Sanctions Pro-Trump Attorneys Who Alleged Vote Fraud - WSJ

A federal judge sanctioned attorneys who sued Michigan officials alleging that widespread fraud denied former President Donald Trump the election there, saying that they presented claims without evidence and abused the judicial system.

“This case was never about fraud—it was about undermining the People’s faith in our democracy and debasing the judicial process to do so,” U.S. District Judge Linda Parker in Detroit said in a 110-page ruling on Wednesday.

Federal judge sanctions Sidney Powell, Kraken team over election case

Attorneys allied with former President Donald Trump who tried to use a conspiracy-laden lawsuit to overturn Michigan's election results have received federal sanctions from a judge in Michigan and could face a host of other disciplinary measures.

The attorneys must also pay legal fees for the city of Detroit and others that defended against the lawsuit and take 12 hours of training — including six hours focused on election law — in the next six months.

...
In addition to harshly chastising the attorneys who filed the suit in her ruling, U.S. District Judge Linda Parker ordered her sanctions be sent to the Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission and similar associations around the country. Other courts and state bar associations have the capacity to disbar or otherwise punish these attorneys.

"The attorneys who filed the instant lawsuit abused the well-established rules applicable to the litigation process by proffering claims not backed by law; proffering claims not backed by evidence (but instead, speculation, conjecture, and unwarranted suspicion); proffering factual allegations and claims without engaging in the required prefiling inquiry; and dragging out these proceedings even after they acknowledged that it was too late to attain the relief sought," wrote Parker in a 110-page opinion, issued Wednesday.

"And this case was never about fraud — it was about undermining the people’s faith in our democracy and debasing the judicial process to do so."

...
Parker called one affidavit a “master class on making conjectural leaps and bounds," stating it was worthless because "a document containing the lengthy musings of one dog walker after encountering a 'smiling, laughing' couple delivering bags of unidentified items in no way serves as evidence that state laws were violated or that fraud occurred."

About Mellissa Carone's claims,

Parker said Carone's affidavit demonstrated "no misconduct or malfeasance, and amount(ed) to no more than strained and disjointed innuendo of something sinister.”

On some of Trump's lawyers comparing themselves to journalists who use unnamed sources,

"Attorneys are not journalists. It therefore comes as no surprise that Plaintiffs’ attorneys fail to cite a single case suggesting that the two professions share comparable duties and responsibilities," Parker wrote.

"Perhaps this confused understanding as to the job of an attorney, and what the law says about the attendant duties and obligations, is what led plaintiffs’ counsel to simply copy and paste affidavits from prior lawsuits. Perhaps not. But what is certain is that plaintiffs’ counsel will not escape accountability for their failure to conduct due diligence before recycling affidavits from other cases to support their pleadings here."

She stated that these lawyers' claims are due to their belief that Trump must be President.

"In other words, by failing to take the basic pre-filing steps that any reasonable attorney would have taken and by flouting well-established pleading standards — all while knowing the risk associated with failing to remain professionally skeptical, plaintiffs’ counsel did everything in their power to ensure that their bias — that the election was fraudulent, as proclaimed by Former President Trump — was confirmed," Parker wrote.

Judge Parker mentioned the Jan. 6 insurrection

... "and the dangers posed by narratives like the one counsel crafted here."

"An attorney who willingly continues to assert claims doomed to fail, and which have incited violence before, must be deemed to be acting with an improper motive," Parker wrote.

The text of her ruling:
gov.uscourts.mied.350905.172.0_3.pdf

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-wisconsin-lawsuit/

...
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers is asking U.S. District Judge Brett Ludwig to make former President Donald Trump personally the state's legal expenses related to the multiple failed lawsuits he and his campaign filed in an effort to overturn the 2020 election results.
...
Law and Crime reports that Evers attorney Jeffrey Mandell wrote a 17-page legal brief to Ludwig outlining exactly why Trump should reimburse the state for all the resources it had to expend to shoot down his "audacious" lawsuits.
"Trump provides no legitimate defense of litigation conduct that went beyond mere procedural missteps, constituting a deliberate abuse of the judicial process and attempt to overturn the votes of 3.3 million Wisconsinites," the brief states.
...

Woot! Woot! This made my day.

 

[ZiprHead]

The Jan. 6 Committee has requested the phone records of Republican Reps. Lauren Boebert, of Colorado; Jim Jordan, of Ohio; Mo Brooks, of Alabama; Madison Cawthorn, of North Carolina; Matt Gaetz, of Florida; Louie Gohmert, of Texas; Marjorie Taylor Greene and Jody Hice, both of Georgia; Scott Perry, of Pennsylvania; and Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar, both of Arizona. There could be requests for more records coming.

 

[lpetrich]

POLITICO Playbook: About Jim Jordan’s other Jan. 6 call with Trump - POLITICO

SCOOP: MORE THAN ONE JAN. 6 TRUMP-JORDAN CALL — We know that DONALD TRUMP and Rep. JIM JORDAN spoke once on the day of the Capitol riot, but the Ohio Republican has said he doesn’t remember when their conversation took place. We have some new details that could help clear up that timeframe — including confirmation of at least one more phone conversation between Jordan and the then-president during the siege.

After a group of lawmakers were evacuated from the House chamber to a safe room on Jan. 6, Jordan was joined by Rep. MATT GAETZ (R-Fla.) for a call during which they implored Trump to tell his supporters to stand down, per a source with knowledge of that call. The source declined to say how Trump responded to this request.

When asked about those calls, JJ spewed a lot of irrelevant verbiage about how he talked to Trump about a lot of stuff.

New details about Trump-McCarthy shouting match show Trump refused to call off the rioters - CNNPolitics

How many other Republican Congresspeople tried to get Trump to call off his supporters? I recall Susan Collins stating that she had trouble getting through to the White House or some such.

 

[lpetrich]

Jan. 6 probe takes first step to obtaining phone records — possibly those of lawmakers - POLITICO - "The panel probing the Capitol riot didn't identify the names of the people whose communications it's seeking, but the list could include fellow lawmakers."


Sidney Powell spent $1.2 million to set up a new DC law office as disbarment looms: report - Raw Story - Celebrating 17 Years of Independent Journalism

According to a report from Politico, embattled attorney Sidney Powell, who has been at the forefront of legal efforts to get the results of the 2020 presidential election thrown out based upon accusations of fraud, is setting up a new law office in Washington D.C.

Of note, the report from Politico's Josh Gerstein is the fact that the attorney -- who is facing sanctions, possible disbarment and a multi-billion dollar lawsuit filed against her by Dominion Voting Systems -- paid $1.2 million through a limited liability corporation (LLC) to purchase a former antique shop to house her offices.

noting
Trump 'Kraken' lawyer Sidney Powell lands in Washington - POLITICO

ETA:
Election fraud conspiracy theorist Sidney Powell pressed by Australian reporter: 'Do you ever hear yourself and think it sounds ridiculous?'

At one point during the interview, Powell responded to a line of questioning by asking Ferguson if she works for Smartmatic and stated that she was confused about why Ferguson came to interview her in Highland Park, Texas.

"Because you've made a series of very strong allegations against Smartmatic and against Dominion containing many errors of fact," Ferguson responded.

Shortly after, Powell attempted to stop the interview, saying it was "wholly inappropriate" because of pending litigation.

Sidney Powell gets brutal grilling from Australian reporter: 'Do you ever hear yourself and think it sounds ridiculous?' - Raw Story - Celebrating 17 Years of Independent Journalism

"What you're describing is a massive, countrywide fraud involving the FBI, the DOJ, the Department of Homeland Security, the organizations who certify elections, and on and on, all the way up to the attorney general. And thousand of local elections officials. Are you saying that thousands of Americans participated in a fraud?" Ferguson asked.

"I'm saying that thousands of Americans had some role in it, knowingly or unknowingly. It was essentially a bloodless coup where they took over the presidency of the United States without a single shot being fired," Powell said.

"Do you ever hear yourself and think it sounds ridiculous?" Ferguson asked.

"No, I know myself very well, I've been in me a long time. I know my reputation, I know my level of integrity," Powell replied.

 

[ZiprHead]

Trump offers sympathy for those charged with Jan. 6 offenses

“Our hearts and minds are with the people being persecuted so unfairly relating to the January 6th protest concerning the Rigged Presidential Election,” Trump said. “In addition to everything else, it has proven conclusively that we are a two-tiered system of justice. In the end, however, JUSTICE WILL PREVAIL!”

 

[ideologyhunter]

I thought Trump called them the scum of the earth and said they all committed treason. Or, no...that's what he says about anyone who investigates him.