TRUMP 13

11 21

SEE TRUMP 14 722

see trump coup

authoritarian

fed judge basically says he committed crimes

noose tightens NY AG, GA? Jan 6 comm proves he was told many times by many ppl no fraud

jan 6 hearing #7

trump attack VP 8x, march to capit 1-4x, peace 1x; added after call to VP pussy

an 7 22

it not quite clear what, exactly, former President Donald Trump was doing and privately saying inside the White House during the five long, violent hours when more than 2,000 rioters invaded the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021.

It’s a key timeline that the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol is set to explore on July 21, 2022 during its latest – and possibly last – public hearing.

At the heart of the issue is Trump’s precise engagement, if any, with the rioters and several fringe nationalist militia groups, including the Proud Boys, Three Percenters and Oath Keepers, that stormed the Capitol.

Amy Cooter, a senior lecturer in sociology at Vanderbilt University, embedded with militia groups, mostly in Michigan, from 2008 through 2012. Knowing who these groups are – and how they have changed over time – makes it easier to understand the Jan. 6 attacks, Cooter said.

“Fifteen years ago, people thought of these groups as being niche, crazy people. That’s not really what I saw in my fieldwork – I saw people who were just more willing to be open about their political perspectives than maybe more mainstream Republicans were at the time. It seemed to me, both then and now, that their concerns resonate with a broad swath of the population,” Cooter said in a recent interview.

We asked Cooter to explain what drives these groups and their complicated relationship with Trump and the government.

What is your understanding of how Trump is seen by these nationalist groups?

Traditionally, militia groups have been very opposed to the federal government, regardless of whether we’re talking about Democrats or Republicans. However, with Trump, they really found sort of a mouthpiece. Not all of them truly liked him, but they really want somebody who speaks out against immigration and has a nationalistic and isolationist perspective. Trump gave them a sense of legitimacy. But there didn’t seem to be too many formal connections, as far as we know.

How does leadership and hierarchy work within these groups?

Many of these groups present themselves as top-down organizations with centralized leadership and then different state-level structures. But the degree to which that is reality varies enormously, especially with the Three Percenters but also with the Oath Keepers.

There are groups that kind of fit the stereotypical top-down model that make it easy to activate them for action. There are other groups who maybe were completely oblivious to this Jan. 6 plan.

What do you mean by activate? That sounds similar to language Trump used during a presidential debate in September 2020, to “stand back and stand by.”

Militias always see themselves as prepared for action. Usually, this means they’re prepared to defend themselves and their communities in the event of a natural disaster, or some kind of invasion. But as we saw leading up to Jan. 6, some of these groups were clearly planning more than just a defensive stance.

What was Trump getting from these groups, and what were they getting from Trump?

They get from Trump this idea that someone finally represents their interests, someone finally sees the state of the nation as they do, even though not all of them completely agree with him. They see it as an opportunity to push things in the direction that they would prefer.

I don’t think it’s much of an exaggeration to say that Trump sees an opportunity for a private armyfrom them. In 2018, he pardoned the Bundy ranchers, who were arrested for arson on federal land. Not a lot of people paid attention to this, but that was a signal to these groups that he had their back and would expect them to have his back in the future.

I think that Jan. 6 is really kind of proof of that, that he has activated people who in some cases do have military or police experience.

How have you seen these groups evolve over time, since you began researching them?

Before Trump, there had been very clear-cut tensions between different groups. That boundary has broken down substantially, and most groups have been pushed more toward an extreme than used to be true – in no small part because of how Trump and others in his administration legitimized the core fears that different groups had about being invaded.

Since Jan. 6, the groups as a whole have declined in size. Many of these people were really surprised at how Jan. 6 played out and were quite embarrassed –or they were appalled that it didn’t go far enough.

Now, many people have taken a step back even from these groups altogether. But the folks that have stuck around continue to be quite radical, and probably even more radical than they were before. Especially thinking about what is going to happen with the midterm elections, we are going to see a lot of invigoration.

Amy Cooter, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Vanderbilt University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

an 7 22

Donald Trump has lost the confidence of both of the major newspapers owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.

Under the headline, "The President Who Stood Still on Jan. 6,"The Wall Street Journaleditorial board harshly criticized the former president.

"No matter your views of the Jan. 6 special committee, the facts it is laying out in hearings are sobering. The most horrifying to date came Thursday in a hearing on President Trump’s conduct as the riot raged and he sat watching TV, posting inflammatory tweets and refusing to send help," the editorial board wrote.

"The committee’s critics are right that it lacks political balance," the newspaper wrote. "Still, the brute facts remain: Mr. Trump took an oath to defend the Constitution, and he had a duty as Commander in Chief to protect the Capitol from a mob attacking it in his name. He refused. He didn’t call the military to send help. He didn’t call Mr. Pence to check on the safety of his loyal VP. Instead he fed the mob’s anger and let the riot play out."

The editorial concluded, "Character is revealed in a crisis, and Mr. Pence passed his Jan. 6 trial. Mr. Trump utterly failed his."

Trump was also criticized by the NY Post editorial board under the headline, "Trump's silence on Jan. 6 is damning."

"As his followers stormed the Capitol, calling on his vice president to be hanged, President Donald Trump sat in his private dining room, watching TV, doing nothing. For three hours, seven minutes," the editorial board wrote.

"There has been much debate over whether Trump’s rally speech on Jan. 6, 2021, constituted “incitement.” That’s somewhat of a red herring. What matters more — and has become crystal clear in recent days — is that Trump didn’t lift a finger to stop the violence that followed," the NY Post wrote. "And he was the only person who could stop what was happening. He was the only one the crowd was listening to. It was incitement by silence."

The tabloid concluded he is unfit for office.

"His only focus was to find any means — damn the consequences — to block the peaceful transfer of power.

There is no other explanation, just as there is no defense, for his refusal to stop the violence," the newspaper wrote. "It’s up to the Justice Department to decide if this is a crime. But as a matter of principle, as a matter of character, Trump has proven himself unworthy to be this country’s chief executive again."

edit bd

...

Last night’s hearing, however, suggested one more layer.

A cover-up of the congressional coup.

By the Congress.

Hinting hard

The goal appears to have been getting enough members of the US Congress to vote to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The GOP had a Senate majority at the time. They could have, in theory, overruled the will of the people, at least temporarily. Ultimately, however, just 147 Republicans, including eight senators, objected.

I don’t know, had they amassed enough votes in the Senate, where things would have gone after that. Perhaps it would have triggered the 12th Amendment. Perhaps it would have thrown the process back to red states that Joe Biden had won, where friendly Republican legislators would have fixed things so Trump could stay in office.

In any case, the former president spent a lot of time talking about congressional Republicans and talking directly to congressional Republicans to such a degree as to suggest there was another layer of his grand seditious conspiracy that’s only now coming into light. That’s certainly what the J6 committee has been hinting hard at.

Co-conspirators?

Last week, the panel’s Stephanie Murphy saidTrump met in late December with US Reps. Matt Gaetz, Andy Biggs, Brian Babin, Jody Hice, Louie Gohmert, Andy Harris, Mo Brooks, Paul Gosar, Scott Perry and Jim Jordan. Margaret Taylor Greenewas there. So were Mike Pence, Mark Meadows and Rudy Giuliani. (Seven of these members asked for pardons. Ditto Meadows, Giuliani and Greene.)

They tried getting the former vice president to go along with the conspiracy. It called for him to reject the count all by himself or send it back to the states where state GOP legislators were waiting.

Pence had refused before. I’m guessing those at the meeting expected him to again. He did. The next step was finalizing a scheme to bring tens of thousands of Trump loyalists to the capital, including armed paramilitaries (eg, Proud Boys and Oath Keepers), in order to terrify not only Pence but GOP senators into reinstalling Trump.

Terrifying GOP senators

According to the J6 committee’s Elaine Luria, Trump was told 15 minutes after returning to the White House after his speech on the Ellipse that the US Capitol was under siege by an armed mob. After the briefing, Luria said, Trump began calling GOP senators for the purpose of persuading them to overrule the results of the election.

On the one hand, the former president had insurgents sacking and looting the seat of government, threatening lawmakers with death – in Mike Pence’s case, with hanging from a makeshift gallows. (It was revealed last night that Pence’s Secret Service detail believed they were going to die. They sent messages of love to their families.) On the other, Trump pushed GOP senators by phone to get on board.

During that time, White House staffers tried and failed to persuade Trump to respond to the assault. (He did not issue orders to anyone, not the secretary of defense, the secretary of homeland security, the attorney general, no one.) Instead of telling them to go home, as staffers had hoped, he posted a tweet accusing Pence of betrayal.

After “pouring gasoline on the fire,” as witness Sarah Matthews said, the former president made more phone calls to Republican senators. Later that evening, after Trump had called for the insurgents to go home, Rudy Giuliani made even more calls to Republican senators.

Indeed, the J6 committee’s Adam Kinzinger named them. They were: Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, Marsha Blackburn, Bill Hagerty, Tommy Tuberville and Lindsey Graham. Of that number,only three voted to overturn the results of the election: Cruz, Tuberville and Hawley.

The cover-up

Giuliani also called US Rep. Jim Jordan.

Jordan, as I wrote last week, was nominated to serve on the initial select committee to investigate J6. Speaker Nancy Pelosi vetoed his nomination, though. Good thing she did. The current committee would have been compromised by the presence of a congressman who was a serial witness to the serial crimes under investigation.

Jordan was nominated by Kevin McCarthy. As the J6 committee reminded us last night, the House minority leader talked to Trump after the attack. He said Trump said he had “some responsibility” for J6. McCarthy said he told Trump that the House Democrats were likely to pass an impeachment resolution and that he should resign.

Trump didn’t resign, of course.

Perhaps the fix was in.

Implication by omission

Liz Cheney, the vice chair of the J6 committee, reminded us that the committee’s work goes on. Hearings will resume in September, she said. Then the Wyoming congresswoman used some curious math:

Today, we know far more about the president’s plans and actions to overturn the election than almost all members of Congress did when President Trump was impeached on January 13, 2021, or when he was tried by the Senate in February of that year.

Fifty-seven of 100 senators voted to convict President Trump at that time, and more than 20 others said they were voting against conviction, because the president's term had already expired.

Cheney said “almost all,” I think, because a dozen GOP members had been deeply involved in or material witnesses to Trump’s conspiracy.

She said “57 of 100,” I think, because it takes 67 senators to remove and convict a president. She said “more than 20 others,” because she’s apparently giving these GOP senators the benefit of the doubt.

But that still leaves around 20 unaccounted for. Why?

Perhaps because some, or all, of these 20 or so Republican senators had been in contact with the former president as the insurrection was unfolding and therefore potential co-conspirators in the crime.

Perhaps because some, or all, of these 20 or so Republican senators voted against conviction, thus taking steps to cover up the crime.

In any case, it was implication by omission.

The appearance of a conspiracy

We know at least six of them were evidently in both camps. On the evening of J6, Rudy Giuliani called Blackburn, Hawley, Cruz, Hagarty, Tuberville and Graham hoping they would object to the vote count. (Three did.) This same group voted to acquit Trump of treason.

If that’s not a rigged outcome, it sure looks like one.

Liz Cheney seemed to be inviting us to put the former president’s second impeachment trial in light of what we know now.

She seemed to be asking us to consider what it means when at least a dozen sitting members of the House were material witnesses as well as grand jury members deciding on an indictment (impeachment).

She seemed to be asking us to see that at least six of those Senators were materially involved in a crime of which they sat in judgment.

If that’s not a conspiracy, it sure as hell looks like one.

1st fox cracks? JT is "fig leaf" and nc is straight news

7 22

Fox News legal analyst recently voiced his concerns about the revelations that have come to light in wake of the latest House Select Committee hearings. According to Jonathan Turley, the revelations were both “breathtaking” and “disturbing.”

On Wednesday, July 12, Turley appeared on Fox News where he weighed in on the recent hearings as he explained to viewers why the revelations are so damning. "You're in the Oval Office and people seem to be actually chest pounding," Turley said. "So this is very disturbing. All of these details should disturb everyone."

Per Rolling Stone, the legal analyst also shed light on what he described as an "unhinged” meeting between former Preside Donald Trump, a number of his allies, and other White House officials as they mulled over "ways to salvage an election victory for the president."

The committee also highlighted a text message from former White House aide, Cassidy Hutchinson, who provided damning testimony last month as she painted a disturbing picture of an unhinged West Wing under Trump's leadership.

In addition to Turley's remarks, Fox News' Neil Cavuto also weighed in with a critical assessment of Trump describing him as 'unstable' before asking former Deputy Assistant Attorney General Tom Dupree if the people close to Trump were engaging in 'illegal, criminal behavior' by pushing to keep him in office.

Dupree, in turn, said that “people giving him this advice were coming pretty darn close to that line, if not going over it.”

https://www.alternet.org/2022/07/donald-trump-boasts-path-reinstatement/

Wisconsin State Supreme Court on Friday ruled 4-3 that drop boxes for absentee ballots were illegal and declared that President Joe Biden's victory over former President Donald Trump in the 2020 election was illegitimate.

Biden won the popular vote in the Badger State and was thusly awarded its 10 Electoral College votes.

The decision "has critical implications in the 2024 presidential race, in which Wisconsin will again be among a handful of battleground states,"noted the Associated Press.

Tony Evers, Wisconsin's incumbent Democratic governor who is seeking reelection, condemned the court's transparently partisan opinion.

“Politicians should not be able to abuse their power to prevent eligible voters from casting their ballots or cheat by changing the rules just because they didn’t like the outcome of the last election,” he said. “Today’s decision is another in a long line of Wisconsin Republicans’ successes to make it harder for Wisconsinites to exercise their right to vote, to undermine our free, fair and secure elections, and to threaten our democracy.”

Justice Rebecca Bradley, who sided with the majority, asserted that the court was acting to prevent fraud, which she baselessly claimed had impacted the results of past contests – including the race in 2020.

“Thousands of votes have been cast via this unlawful method, thereby directly harming the Wisconsin voters,” Bradley wrote. “The illegality of these drop boxes weakens the people’s faith that the election produced an outcome reflective of their will. The Wisconsin voters, and all lawful voters, are injured when the institution charged with administering Wisconsin elections does not follow the law, leaving the results in question.”

Trump's attorney Christian Bobb expanded on this false narrative and went so far as to proclaim that the outcome of the 2020 election could be reversed.

"Joe Biden cheated, so they could either withdraw their electors or they could actually decide to award Trump electors, although I would anticipate they would just withdraw the electors," she said on the Right Side Broadcasting Network. "If that happens from three different states, three different resolutions go into Congress – and I'm sorry I'm sort of summarizing this, it's a complicated issue – but it would have to go into the US Congress whether they want to accept the resolutions, whether they want to act on them or not. So it's a complex issue that needs to be handled complexly by different state legislatures and the US Congress."

Bobb then suggested that if "many many elected officials" sign on, Team Trump's dream of overturning the 2020 election can be realized.

Bobb's hot take on RSBM motivated Trump on Saturday to boast on his Truth Social app that he will be president again if the GOP retakes Congress.

"The Wisconsin Supreme Court has just declared the 'Unlock' Boxes, or Ballot 'Stuffing' Boxes, to be ILLEGAL. Everybody knows what went on with the $417,000,000 that littleMark Zuckerberg 'INVESTED' in the corrupt 2020 Presidential Election, and that doesn’t even include the big Wisconsin Nursing Home Scandal where close to 100% of the residents voted (always is MUCH lower number). It’s now up to Robin Vosto do what everybody knows must be done. We need FAIR and HONEST Elections in our Country," Trump rambled.

"Other States are looking at, and studying, the amazing Wisconsin Supreme Court decision declaring Ballot Boxes ILLEGAL, and that decision includes the 2020 Presidential Election," he continued. "Speaker Robin Vos has a decision to make! Does Wisconsin RECLAIM the Electors, turn over the Election to the actual winner (by a lot!), or sit back and do nothing as our Country continues to go to HELL? Brave American Patriots already have a Resolution on the Floor!"

There is no mechanism in the Constitution that provides a framework for nullifying a duly completed and certified election, let alone installing a loser back into power. Even if Republicans retake control of the House of Representatives and the Senate in the November midterms, impeaching and removing Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris (requiring 67 Senators to agree) would hand the presidency to whomever the House Speaker is at that time. In theory, that person could tap Trump to be their veep and immediately resign, but the Senate would first have to approve of Trump's nomination.

Granted, Republicans could indeed drum up some cockamamy scheme to petition the right-wing United States Supreme Court to consider its position to oust Biden in exchange for Trump, in a manner similar to the North Carolina "independent legislature theory" case that the Court has agreed to hear in the fall session. Notably, the courts have so far thrown out Trump's challenges to the 2020 election, including his invocations of executive privilege to prevent evidence of his coup from surfacing.

Nevertheless, one must contemplate the possibilities, no matter how implausible they seem. Is what Trump wants impossible? No. Is it far-fetched? Quite, although it is, without question, on par with this current timeline.

an 7 22

no lnx

When Sen. Barry Goldwater of Arizona famously told President Richard Nixon, during the Watergate scandal in 1974, that he could not count on his support, it was obvious that he prioritized country over party — and Goldwater was by no means the only conservative Republican who felt that way. Nixon, realizing that both Republicans and Democrats were likely to remove him from office if an impeachment trial were held in the U.S. Senate, resigned; Vice President Gerald R. Ford was sworn in as president on August 9, 1974.

But much has changed in the Republican Party since 1974. Even after the January 6, 2021 insurrection, countless Republicans remain loyal to former President Donald Trump — including Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. And journalist Mark Leibovich slams them as examples of pathetic careerists in a scathing article published by The Atlantic on July 7.

The article’s headline is not subtle: “The Most Pathetic Men in America,” and Leibovich makes no effort to hide his disdain for Trump’s army of enablers in the Republican Party.

Leibovich recalls seeing Graham and McCarthy in public places in Washington, D.C. during Trump’s presidency, noting, “I would sometimes see them around the lobby or steakhouse or function rooms, skipping from table to table and getting thanked for all the wonderful things they were doing to help our president. They had long been among the most supplicant super-careerists ever to play in a city known for the breed, and proved themselves to be essential lapdogs in Trump’s kennel.”

READ MORE: Are we supposed to believe Republicans were duped?

The journalist adds, “McCarthy is a good bet to become the next speaker of the House in the likely event that Republicans win a majority in November. Graham remains perhaps Trump’s closest collaborator in the Senate, a frequent golf partner and nuanced handler of the presidential ego.”

Leibovich slams Graham and McCarthy as examples of “the slavishly devoted Republicans whom Trump drew to his side,” stressing that they were hardly alone in that regard.

“It’s been said before, but can never be emphasized enough: Without the complicity of the Republican Party, Donald Trump would be just a glorified geriatric Fox-watching golfer,” Leibovich writes. “I’ve interviewed scores of these collaborators, trying to understand why they did what they did and how they could live with it. These were the McCarthys and the Grahams and all the other busy parasitic suck-ups who made the Trump era work for them, who humored and indulged him all the way down to the last, exhausted strains of American democracy.”

Leibovich applauds the “handful of brave Republicans” who have been “willing to speak the truth about Trump in public,” including Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming. But he laments that they are the exception rather than the rule and predicts that Trump will have no shortage of sycophants if he runs for president in 2024.

READ MORE: Conservative insider denounces Republicans who wanted Trump to provide pardons for their involvement in his election scheme

“McCarthy will not be winning any Profile in Courage Award anytime soon,” Leibovich writes. “In fairness, that could make him a good fit for the cowardly caucus he is so eager to lead. Soon enough, 2024 will not be a long way away, and Trump is well-positioned to claim his third consecutive Republican presidential nomination. Again, Trump will do as he pleases and take what he can take. Because really, who’s going to stop him?”

Former President Donald Trump now has a new stream of income that appears to play on his political aspirations for the purpose of personal gain.

According to The Washington Post, Trump is now being paid to make public speeches with ticket prices costing anywhere from approximately $55.00 for general admission to VIP tickets as high as a reported $800 each and “presidential” tier tickets priced at $3,995 each.

While many would assume these funds would be going toward the former president's political action committee, which has raked in more than $100 million, The Post's Josh Dawsey, Isaac Arnsdorf, and Sarah Fowler have revealed the funds are actually going into Trump's personal pocket.

"Instead, it was a for-profit show, more like a rock concert," the writers reported. "The proceeds benefit Trump personally as part of a multimillion-dollar deal to speak at the events, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations."

They also noted: "The program, the 'American Freedom Tour,' is the work of a longtime motivational-speaker promoter with a trail of bankruptcy filings and business disputes across the country. A Trump adviser said very little vetting was done on the organizers."

Larry Ward, a Republican consultant and spokesperson for the political tour, has shared details about Trump's new venture but refrained from offering details about the financial aspects of it. "The tour was inspired by a nation of disappointed voters and a love for President Donald J. Trump,” he said

Taylor Budowich, a spokesperson for the former president, has also echoed similar sentiments. “There is a tremendous demand for President Trump in every corner of the country and he is driven by his love for America to continue leading the MAGA movement into 2022 and beyond by sharing his America First vision in front of massive crowds,” Budowich said.

Although some argue that these types of paid events are nothing new, Mark K. Updegrove —author of “Second Acts: Presidential Lives And Legacies After The White House— explained how Trump's venture differs.

“Paid presidential speeches are nothing new. It’s nice work if you can get it,” said Updegrove, who also serves as president of the LBJ Foundation. “The difference here is Trump is doing this under the guise of a political rally. There might be a little deception there.”

Jeffrey A. Engel, director of Southern Methodist University's Center for Presidential History, also highlighted the problematic conflict of interest in Trump's case.

“You have a person who is effectively running for president who is accumulating financial IOUs,” said Engel. “Donald Trump has never cared if his financial dealings appear improper. Trump plays by different rules.”

The latest report comes as speculation looms about Trump potentially running for re-election in 2024. Although he has not yet officially announced his presidential candidacy there is chatter about him possibly doing so "unusually early."

an 7 22

Fascism expert Ruth Ben-Ghiat provided fascinating insight — and a terrifying prediction about future Republican Party violence — when she was interviewed by CNN's Jim Acosta on Saturday.

On Tuesday, Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified that on Jan. 6, Trump was "irate" when the Secret Service would not drive him to the Capitol and lunged for the steering wheel of his presidential limousine.

Acosta began that interview by noting that weeks before Hutchinson's testimony, Ben-Ghiat had informed his audience that Trump had to go to the Capitol for the phase of a coup where the new order would be announced. Acosta described her analysis as "almost clairvoyant."

"And we have since learned that Trump did try to go to the Capitol on Jan. 6, but his Secret Service stopped him," Acosta said. "Ruth, what is your reaction to everything we learned this week, including this new CNN reporting that seems to back up what Cassidy Hutchison was saying?"

"I'm really disturbed, not surprised, about the role of violence," the New York University professor replied.

"It was very telling to me that Trump said chief of staff Mark Meadows, who seems to have been like the control center of this operation, she said that when the violence broke out, he didn't seem concerned at all, and he didn't seem perturbed, and that's because violence was part of the plan. It has to be in a coup," she explained.

"That's also why Trump wanted the, you know, weapons detectors removed, and so the other thing that stands out is that not only did he want to be driven there to the Capitol and be at the head of this, you know, violent thug march into the Capitol, but Ms. Hutchinson testified that there were conversations about him entering the chamber," she continued. "And what that says to me is first, you know, you've neutralized the presidential chain of succession. They were going to do something to Pence, they were hunting Pelosi, Nancy Pelosi, speaker, and so he was going to also have fixed the problem with the electoral counts because Pence wasn't there, and then he was going to declare himself at the head of this violent mob in the chamber as a legitimate president, and that's where that phase of the coup would have ended."

"It's extraordinary what we're learning from these hearings," she said.

Acosta asked Ben-Ghiat to compare Trump to other leaders she has studied.

She said Trump, "and his party are behaving in a desperate way, and when autocrats think they're going down, they will do anything -- and we've seen Jan. 6 -- to stay in power. What's really extraordinary is how Trump, who came from outside politics, put the GOP in such a state of authoritarian subjection and discipline that the whole party is completely compromised. We're learning from these hearings just how many people were involved," she said.

"And unfortunately, I think we can expect more extremist behavior, aggressive behavior from the party because they are acting out of fear. They're guilty, and their coup failed, and they've been exposed to the world by these hearings, and so they are -- they're in emergency mode," Ben-Bhiat warned.

Watch:

an 722

Former President Donald Trump is celebrating July 4th by raging against his detractors on his Twitter-knockoff app Truth Social.

In a trio of angry rants, Trump railed against Representative Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) – the vice-chair of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol – for suggesting on Sunday that the bipartisan panel is likely to make multiple criminal referrals to the Justice Department to indict Trump for trying to overthrow the federal government.

Trump rehashed his "no collusion" defense to then-Special Counsel Robert Mueller's 2019 report on Trump's 2016 presidential campaign's ties to Russia, referred to the "Fake Unselect Committee" as a "witch hunt," repeated his lie that the 2020 election was stolen, expressed how disappointed he is in the state of the country, and conceded that he is not, in fact, the president.

Post number one, 9:28 a.m.:

Warmongering and despicable human being Liz Cheney, who is hated by the great people of Wyoming (down 35!), keeps saying, over and over again, that HER Fake Unselect Committee may recommend CRIMINAL CHARGES against a President of the United States who got more votes than any sitting President in history.Even the Dems didn’t know what she was talking about! Why doesn’t she press charges instead against those that cheated on the Election, or those that didn’t properly protect the Capitol?

Post number two, 10:00 a.m.:

Why doesn’t the highly partisan Unselect Committee of political Thugs, the same people (all Trump haters & profiteers - books, speeches, etc.) that were involved with Impeachment Hoax #1, Impeachment Hoax # 2, the 'No Collusion' Mueller Report and, overall, the GREATEST WITCH HUNT IN THE HISTORY OF THE USA, go after the people who have been rioting, burning down cities, leading the massive crime wave, & killing many all over the U.S., including drug & human traffickers?No, let’s get 'Trump'!

Post number three, 10:20 a.m.:

I know it’s not looking good for our Country right now, with a major War raging out of control in Europe, the Highest Inflation in memory, the worst 6 month Stock Market start in History, the highest Energy Prices EVER, and that is the Good News. Happy Fourth of July!!! ((Don’t worry, We will MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, and remember, none of these terrible events would have happened if I were President!!!))

an 6 22 no twt

former President Donald Trump joined Newsmax for an interview that aired on Thursday morning in which he spewed out a laundry list of bizarre accusations against ex-White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson,whose sworn testimony before the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol on Tuesday was absolutely devastating for Trump.

A visibly agitated Trump complained about Hutchinson's recounting of his behavior during the insurrection.

"Some whack job can stay this stuff and get away with it, and other things, that I wanted guns at my rally. Okay, now I'm speaking, why would I want guns? I don't want people having, standing with guns in my rally," he said on Wake Up America.

Hutchinson recalled that Trump believed that his armed supporters were "not there to hurt me."

Trump maintained that "this woman, she wanted to work for me after January 6th. She was a big Trump fan. She wanted to work for me in Florida and we chose not to bring her down because I got very bad things."

Next, Trump repeated what he said on Tuesday – that "I hardly knew her," even though his and Hutchinson's West Wing offices were only a few yards apart. "And I said, 'well if she's no good, I got somebody called up, numerous people, that she's not good.''"

Trump then refused to say "why she's not good, plenty of reasons... she was not respected by the people in the White House. So they thought she shouldn't go down. I was going down to Florida with a group of people, great group of people, patriots, and her name was thrown out there and they said, 'stay away from her.' They said bad things about her."

Hutchinson's strange story about Trump trying to hijack his motorcade, which was told to her by Trump's then-deputy chief of staff Tony Ornato, made him particularly upset.

"And then I see her, and again, I hardly know who she is. And then I see this woman getting up and she's making up stories, like one after another, but the craziest of all was that I tried to commandeer – they used that word – I tried to commandeer a car with Secret Service agents telling them to take us down to the Capitol," Trump said. "It was totally false, and that a person can get away with it... and then I watch the Times and The Washington Post, and I get reviews on MSDNC, and CNN, they hardly even talk about the fact that she's been totally discredited."

That is untrue, given that so far, nobody has refuted Hutchinson's damning statements under oath.

Watch below via Vox's Aaron Rupar:[twt]

trump's reaction rekindled widespread suspicions that he is attempting to engage in witness tampering in order to obfuscate the truth.

===

https://www.alternet.org/2022/06/eric-holder/

smoking gun jan 6 trump crime

mo brooks sends email how to sedition from trump? admin?

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CDV note sys

https://www.alternet.org/2022/06/donald-trump-an-american-monster/

quite long]

...Dowd surmises that it never occurred to Donald Trump that a president openly plotting a seditious coup "would be a debilitating, corrosive thing for the country. It was just another way for the Emperor of Chaos to burnish his title." The House Jan. 6 committee's first prime-time hearing, she writes, played out as "a horror story with predatory Proud Boys and a monster at its center that even Mary Shelley could have appreciated":

In his dystopian Inaugural speech, Trump promised to end 'American carnage. 'Instead, he delivered it. Now he needs to be held accountable for his attempted coup — and not just in the court of public opinion.

...But who created this American monster? Donald Trump was not built by a deranged scientist in a secret lab. He is not an orphan, and did not emerge out of nowhere. He was the almost inevitable result of a decades-long assault by the "conservative" movement aimed at ending American democracy (especially multiracial democracy) and replacing it with a pseudo-democratic authoritarian state, perhaps organized under the system political theorist Sheldon Wolin described as "inverted totalitarianism."

As part of that long-term assault, most or all the historic victories of the civil rights movement, the women's rights movement, the gay rights movement, the labor and environmental movements and other struggles for human dignity and a more just society are being rolled back. If this project succeeds, America's already threadbare social safety net will be virtually eliminated. White Christian fascists and corporate plutocrats will forge a ruling coalition with near-total dominion over American life and society. The separation of church and state, along with the guarantee of free speech and most of the Bill of Rights, will disappear.

There is no longer a "normal" or "traditional" version of the Republican Party for so-called conservatives to return to. Even those conservatives who have disavowed or denounced the Trump movement are implicated in his rise. They are like political Dr. Frankensteins, horrified by what they have created but unable to kill it. Over the course of decades, they painstakingly built the monster and created the blueprint for American fascism.

As Wajahat Ali wrote this week in the Daily Beast, some of Trump's "most prominent enablers" are now trying to distance themselves from the "ongoing, concentrated, right-wing effort to overturn the 2020 election":

*Even though most of these ex-Trumpers will fail up in their careers—as is often the case in Washington, D.C. — it's important for the rest of us to recognize them as utterly complicit actors who deserve to wear that MAGA hat on their heads until the end of time….

If you believe that there is a 'team normal' in the modern GOP, then you'll also probably believe that fewer doors and arming teachers will reduce mass gun shootings, banning books will save your child from being transgender, and climate change is a hoax created by China.

Either way, you're not acknowledging that the GOP is now a weaponized cult that no longer produces 'rational' Republicans, but instead caters to the festering, fevered paranoid swamp of dangerous conspiracy theories and white supremacist ideologies. This persistent right-wing disinformation has now radicalized its base, in which many membersbelieve violence is necessary to 'take back' their country. The reality is that Team Normal and Team Crazy both play for the GOP, wear the same uniforms, and, for now, worship the golden calf known as Trump.*

Ultimately, Donald Trump is not some type of monstrous Other or outsider. He was not conjured up in some other dimension ruled by Lovecraftian demons, only to descend on America out of the ether to sow destruction, chaos, misery and death.

In reality, Donald Trump — as a man, a symbol and a political leader — and everything he embodies is the product of our society, driven by extreme social inequality, consumerism and greed, unfulfilled dreams, widespread alienation and loneliness, anti-intellectualism, racism and white supremacy, the cult of the spectacle, our fetish for violence and a range of related antisocial and anti-human values and tendencies.

In a recent essay for ScheerPost republished at Salon, Chris Hedges offers a powerful diagnosis of our corrupt and failing American political system, arguing that the House Jan. 6 committee will do nothing to correct it:

The two established wings of the oligarchy, the old Republican Party represented by politicians such as Liz Cheney, one of two Republicans on the committee, and the Bush family, are now united with the Democratic Party elite into one ruling political entity. The ruling parties were already in lockstep for decades on the major issues, including: war, trade deals, austerity, the militarization of police, prisons, government surveillance and assaults on civil liberties. They worked in tandem to pervert and destroy democratic institutions on behalf of the rich and corporations. They desperately work together now to stave off the revolt by enraged and betrayed white working men and women who support Donald Trump and the far right.

There are other systemic failures as well. America's mainstream news media, through both habit and laziness, have approached Donald Trump, and American politics more generally, as a running narrative of "great men" (and, more recently, "great women"), singular figures who are the main characters in an unfolding drama largely independent of history, culture or economic reality.

This partly explains the media's obsession with polling and public opinion, the addiction to horserace coverage and the drive to identify "winners" and "losers" on a daily basis. Of course the mainstream media is also driven by profit, and compelled to shape the news so as not to offend advertisers or alienate the political establishment and other social and cultural elites.

Media practitioners are also trained to avoid moral language when describing domestic politics, although they routinely use such language when discussing foreign affairs, and especially Americans' official enemies. The result is that most mainstream American political journalism remains an exercise in stenography and superficial commentary, almost always bending the knee to such totems as "moderation," "normal politics," "fairness" and "balance," concepts that were likely never helpful or transparent and are now totally inadequate to the task of confronting America's democracy crisis.

Many in the media still refuse to see the Trump movement and the modern Republican Party as destructive revolutionary forces, rather than as traditional political movements with an investment in the existing system. At this point, the media's willful or compulsive refusal to comprehend the nature of the threat has become a pathology. Journalists at mainstream outlets would benefit greatly from reading "The Authoritarian Playbook: A Media Guide," a new report from the nonpartisan nonprofit group Protect Democracy. It offers the following advice:

To the extent that the authoritarian playbook has a central theme, it is that democratic erosion is a process of power concentration and consolidation. While all political actors seek to accumulate power, authoritarians, uniquely, seek to entrench that power and protect it from external checks. Experts generally agree that democracies don't tend to die at the hands of individuals alone. Rather, contemporary attacks on democracy only succeed when they are coordinated, systemic, and undertaken by broad parties or movements.

If Donald Trump the American monster is somehow banished from American political life — through criminal prosecution, advancing age or some other force — another such monster will rapidly appear. In fact, Ron DeSantis and other leading Republican-fascists are eagerly waiting for Trump to leave the stage, and could well turn out to be more competent and more effective than him. Trumpism is a hydra-headed movement, no longer dependent on Trump as an individual: Chop off one of its heads and another will grow.The only long-term solution is to drain the swamp that birthed the monster.

===

https://www.alternet.org/2022/06/john-eastman-in-the-spotlight/ stoer edit bd

1/6 at the last possible moment did the right thing (berated belittled pssy from oval with fam; wife pulled curtains to hide; he knew for a month what trump/eastman were plotting and said nothing, after toady 4 yrs [fedsoc speech when?) vs Luttig tweets 2? jan 6.

6 22

The first thing to know about today’s hearing by the J6 committee is John Eastman, the coup-memo mastermind, is in deep deep doo doo.

The former professor of law at Chapman University and fellow at the Claremont Institute apparently thought it was a good idea to explain in writing that the J6 insurrection might not have happened if not for a mulish vice president refusing to go along with a bloodless coup.

Eastman moreover had no qualms about saying in front of witnesses that it’s OK for a Republican vice president to pick and choose who’s going to be president but nuh-uh for VPs from the other side. He also said – to the president – that his attempted coup would perhaps maybe I dunno yeah definitely violate the Electoral Count Act of 1887.

Former White House counsel Eric Herschmann said he told Eastman this: “I'm going to give you the best free legal advice you're ever getting in your life: Get a great f-ing criminal defense lawyer. You're going to need it.” (Evidently counsel advised mum’s the word. In deposition, Eastman invoked his Fifth Amendment rights 100 times.)

Eastman’s hare-brained scheme came down to this: Mike Pence, in his ceremonial role as president of the Senate, in the counting of the electoral votes, could do one of two things on his own, Eastman said.

He could reject the votes, thus declaring Donald Trump the winner.

Or he could send the votes back to the five to seven states that had determined the 2020 election’s outcome. (From there, it’s hard to tell what would have happened. Either the states would resend alternate slates of electors loyal to Trump, a dubious option. Or the election would have been thrown to the House, where state legislatures controlled by one party would get one vote to settle matters.)

Either way, Pence said no.

He said no from the start, according to Greg Jacob, former counsel for the office of the vice president. Jacob was today’s star witness. Thanks to his testimony, we know that those who did not believe that Mike Pence could decide the election on his own, included, in addition to the entire White House counsel’s office, the following people:

Mark Meadows.

Rudy Giuliani.

Donald Trump.

And John Eastman himself.

Indeed, Eastman conceded numerous time and in various ways that his conspiracy would not survive legal scrutiny or the Supreme Court, Jacob said. Eastman vacillated between requesting that Pence reject the votes outright, which he deemed too aggressive an option, or suspend the vote count, which he deemed more politically palatable.

Having gotten nowhere with White House attorneys, state elections officials and his own vice president, Trump mounted a pressure campaign on Pence knowing that neither statutory law nor the Constitution gave him the authority to do what Trump demanded.

Trump did it anyway.

The J6 committee made must-see good TV by illustrating how, starting in December, the former president began pressing Pence via television remarks, Twitter and in private meetings. On the morning of January 6, 2021, Trump called to ask Pence one last time. According to witnesses, Trump called him a coward, a wimp and the p-word.

Then Trump took the stage at the Ellipse. According to lead presenter California Congressman Pete Aguilar, the first draft of his speech made no mention of Pence. Trump revised it, however. Then on stage, he ad libbed. Video footage shows that with each mention, the crowd got more jacked up before being sent down Pennsylvania Avenue.

Most dramatic, I think, was the demonstration of cause and effect regarding Trump’s tweet at 2:24 p.m. By that time, Pence had begun counting the votes. White-power terrorist group the Proud Boys had already breached security and were pouring into the building.White House staffers told J6 investigators there was general agreement that Trump ought to send out a tweet in order to calm things down.

He was told an insurgency was brewing. He wrote:

“Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving states a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or incorrect ones which they were previously asked to certify. USA demands the truth!”

That, according to a witness, “was like pouring gasoline on the fire.”

Congressman Aguilar said an informant told the FBI that the Proud Boys were prepared to capture and kill House Speaker Nancy Pelosi if they found her. Same for Mike Pence. A makeshift gallows was raised on the Capitol grounds while the mob chanted “Hang Mike Pence!” [trump said maybe they have the right idea?!]

Like said, deep deep doo doo.

And John Eastman isn’t alone.

===

//NRA expose?

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/jan-6-committee-zeroes-in-on-trump-e2-80-99s-big-lie-fundraising

zoe takes lead;

no lnx

the Jan. 6 committee spent most of its second hearing Monday picking apart Trump’s relentless lies about the 2020 election outcome — lies he pursued despite findings from both his campaign staff and government investigators that the election results were legitimate.

But Monday’s hearing ended with an interesting change of topic: The panel zeroed in on Trump’s fundraising. Specifically, the committee found, Trump lied to his base in order to raise millions of dollars, and then used that money to pursue his own political and personal ends.

According to the committee’s senior investigative counsel Amanda Wick, it went like this: After Trump lost the 2020 election — and even after the “safe harbor date” that usually spells the end of election lawsuits —Trump and his campaign pursued a fundraising strategy based around a so-called “Election Integrity Fund”: A fund that they told donors would help “PROTECT THE INTEGRITY OF OUR ELECTION” in dozens of emails over several weeks.

But the Election Integrity Fund didn’t exist: Gary Coby, the campaign’s former digital director, agreed during a deposition that it was a “marketing tactic.” And the tactic worked: The committee found that Trump and his allies raised nearly $100 million in the first week after the election.

On Nov. 9, Trump created the “Save America PAC.” Wick said most of the money for the “Election Defense Fund” went to that account. And that PAC, in turn, made millions in donations to Trump-aligned groups: $1 million to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows’ charitable foundation, $1 million to the America First Policy Institute, which employed several former Trump administration officials, $204,857 to the Trump Hotel Collection, and over $5 million to Event Strategies Inc., the company that ran Trump’s White House Ellipse rally — the event that preceded the Capitol attack.

The campaign sent fundraising emails regularly, including one about 30 minutes before the Capitol was breached, Wick said.

...

===

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/06/how-john-durhams-probe-has-exposed-trumps-russia-con/

no lnx

How John Durham’s Probe Has Exposed Trump’s Russia Con

His three-year investigation has so far shown the only hoax was orchestrated by the former president.

DAVID CORN

Washington, DC, Bureau Chief

Special counsel John Durham leaves federal court in Washington last month.Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

Donald Trump has bad timing. On Friday, he sent a letter to the Pulitzer Prize Board reiterating his demand that it rescind the awards given to the New York Times and the Washington Post in 2018 for their coverage of the Trump-Russia scandal. (That’s not what he called it.) He based this request on the prosecution of Democratic lawyer Michael Sussmann, who was indicted by special counsel John Durham for allegedly lying to the FBI during a September 2016 meeting when he shared with the bureau computer data research that suggested there might be a connection between a Trump-related business and Alfa Bank, a large Russian financial entity. Trump claimed the Sussmann case showed the “Russia hoax was a dirty campaign trick promulgated by Crooked Hillary Clinton and her associates.” Five days later, the jury, after only several hours of deliberation, acquitted Sussmann. Oops.

The quick not-guilty verdict was a sharp slap at Durham’s three-year-long investigation, which was launched by William Barr, when he was Trump’s loyalist attorney general, and which has come across as a political crusade mounted to undermine the various Trump-Russia investigations. Durham was tasked by Barr to investigate the origins of the FBI’s probe of the Russian attack on the 2016 election (which, according to multiple investigations, was waged to help Trump win) and the interactions between Trump associates and Russian operatives. Put simply, Durham’s job was to find that Trump had been set up by the bureau. When the Justice Department inspector general in late 2019 issued a report concluding the FBI had legitimate cause to investigate the Russian assault and the Trump campaign, Durham, in an unusual move, released a statement declaring, “we do not agree with some of the report’s conclusions as to predication and how the FBI case was opened.” A-ha, Trumpists exclaimed. Durham was on track to reveal that the FBI investigation was bogus from the get-go and Trump was right: It was all a hoax and a witch hunt.

Yet after years of toil, Durham has produced nothing to suggest the Russia investigation was a Deep State hit-job against Trump. He has brought three cases that have nothing to do with the origins of the investigation. One involved an FBI lawyer who altered an email used to obtain a search warrant after the investigation was started. (The attorney pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a year of probation.)

Another led to the indictment of Igor Danchenko, a source for the so-called Steele dossier, for allegedly lying to the FBI about his sources. His trial is scheduled to begin in October. This prosecution, too, has nothing to do with the origin or legitimacy of the FBI’s investigation, which was not triggered by the Steele reports. The third was the Sussmann case that just exploded in Durham’s face. It, too, was essentially unconnected to the FBI’s core investigation, given that the meeting in question happened months after the bureau began examining the Russian assault and that the FBI quickly dismissed the Trump-Alfa Bank tie.

Despite declaring over two years ago that he had reason to question the FBI’s opening of the Russia investigation, Durham has failed to make good on his assertion. His investigation has yielded zilch in this regard. His prosecutions are all sideshows.

But Durham has done Trump and his cultists a great favor by providing material they can exploit for one of their favorite pastimes: deflection.

For over five years, Trump and his minions have endeavored to beat back the Trump-Russia scandal with denial and distraction. They have done all they could to change the subject from the basics of the affair: the Kremlin attacked the 2016 election to help Trump; while this assault was underway, the Trump camp had troubling interactions with Russian operatives and was told the Kremlin intended to covertly assist Trump; Trump hid from the public his effort to land a major development deal in Moscow (for which he sought help from Vladimir Putin); the Trump campaign aided and abetted the Russian attack by denying and/or downplaying it; and, as president, Trump tried to impede the investigation. All of these are confirmed facts that make a damning case that Trump committed a grand act of betrayal to become president. Trump and his defenders, though, have tried to change the subject: the problematic Steele dossier, an improperly obtained search warrant, baseless conspiracy theories about the Democratic Party’s computer servers being whisked away to Ukraine, and, most recently, the Sussmann meeting.

Look at Trump’s letter to the Pulitzer board. It dwells on details that came out during the Sussmann trial about the Clinton campaign promoting the Alfa Bank allegation. This case, Trump claims, shows that Clintonites were trying to spread opposition research about him, particularly iffy data about a purported computer server tie between his business and Alfa Bank. He declares he was the victim of “shameful smears” from the Clinton campaign—and these covert attacks were the basis for the FBI investigation. The Clinton crew, of course, was trying to disseminate negative information about Trump—especially worrisome material about a possible Trump-Russia connection. But this had nothing to do with the investigation already begun by the FBI, which was launched independently of the Clinton effort.

Trump writes, “I again call on you to rescind the Prize you awarded based on blatantly fake, derogatory and defamatory news. If you choose not to do so, we will see you in court.” Putting aside whether Trump can sue a journalism awards committee for content it honors, he is yet again engaging in deflection. Nothing in the Sussmann case undercuts the investigations or the reporting related to the central elements of the scandal. Trump is trying to turn the thin gruel Durham has served up into a feast.

In the reality-based world, Durham actually has undermined Trump and his bogus narrative. He has failed to demonstrate that the Russia investigation was a witch hunt or hoax cooked up by Trump’s enemies. His small-beer cases do not challenge any of the main findings of the investigations, which justifiably taint Trump’s 2016 victory and presidency. Durham’s work (so far) shows that Trump’s attempts to distract from the scandal have been nothing but a big con. Trump shrieks about Sussmann, the Steele dossier, and other matters so the public doesn’t see what’s clearly there: a record of misdeeds, lies, and treachery. In a way, Durham has provided a valuable service. His inability to uncover evidence of a hoax confirms that Trump’s denials and diversions have been the real hoax all along.

===

veep?

https://www.alternet.org/2022/05/elise-stefanik-donald-trump-2024/

===

https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/trump-pegged-as-the-least-masculine-president-in-modern-times-by-naval-war-college-professor-in-scathing-op-ed/

Donald Trump’s supporters think of him as the ultimate alpha male, but a scathing op-ed in **The Atlantic** makes the case that he’s “the least masculine man” to be elected president in modern history.

Tom Nichols, a conservative professor at the Naval War College in Rhode Island, writes that he is baffled that blue-collar white men continue to support Trump even as the president has whiny tantrums about being treated unfairly in the media.

“Courage, honesty, respect, an economy of words, a bit of modesty, and a willingness to take responsibility are all virtues prized by the self-identified class of hard-working men, the stand-up guys, among whom I was raised,” he writes. “And yet, many of these same men expect none of those characteristics from Trump, who is a vain, cowardly, lying, vulgar, jabbering blowhard.”

The most damning aspect of Trump, writes Nichols, is his utter refusal to take any responsibility for his actions.

“In this category, he exhibits one of the most unmanly of behaviors: He’s a blamer,” Nichols writes. “Nothing is ever his fault. In the midst of disaster, he praises himself while turning on even his most loyal supporters without a moment’s hesitation. Men across America who were socialized by team sports, whose lives are predicated on the principle of showing up and doing the job, continually excuse a man who continually excuses himself.”

Read the whole editorial here.

===

an 5 22

sixteen months into Joe Biden’s presidency, Republican strategists are doing something they did during Barack Obama’s eight years in the White House: promoting the GOP as the party of fiscal responsibility. But those Republican deficit hawks didn’t do a lot of complaining when Donald Trump was president and the United States’ federal deficit was rapidly increasing. And according to a new report by conservative economist Brian Riedl, Trump did more to increase the deficit than either Obama or the U.S. president who preceded him, George W. Bush.

Riedl’s report, titled “Trump’s Fiscal Legacy: A Comprehensive Overview of Spending, Taxes, and Deficits,” was released on May 12. And he discusses his findings in an op-ed published by the Daily Beast over Memorial Day Weekend on Sunday, May 29.

“Donald Trump’s final tab is in,” explains Riedl, who served as lead research fellow on federal budget and spending policy for the Heritage Foundation from 2001-2011. “Legislation and executive actions signed by former President Trump added $7.8 trillion in ten-year budget deficits. When accounting for non-legislative budget savings, the total projected budget deficits expanded by $3.9 trillion over the decade. These figures appear in my new report, ‘Trump’s Fiscal Legacy: A Comprehensive Overview of Spending, Taxes, and Deficits,’ which analyzes Congressional Budget Office data.”

Riedl notes that his report “begins with the ten-year, 2017-2027, budget baseline that Trump inherited in January 2017” and “then measures all subsequent changes to those ten-year estimates that occurred during his presidency.”

“When President Trump was inaugurated, the CBO projected $10 trillion in deficits over the 2017-2027 decade,” Riedl explains. “By the time Trump left office, CBO’s estimate had grown to $13.9 trillion. Reducing deficits from the $10 trillion projection should have been easy. During Trump’s presidency, faster-than-expected economic growth raised the ten-year revenue projections by $1.3 trillion, and lower-than-expected interest rates shaved the ten-year interest cost projections by $2.6 trillion.”

Riedl continues, “That’s $3.9 trillion in automatic budget savings without lifting a finger. Instead of building on those savings, the president helped enact $7.8 trillion in new initiatives, flipping his total fiscal imprint to a $3.9 trillion net cost.”

Riedl also criticizes Democratic lawmakers in his op-ed, writing that although they “understandably decried the Trump deficits,” they “share much of the responsibility.” But when Riedl makes a Trump/Obama/Bush comparison, he emphasizes that Trump did the most to increase the United States’ federal deficit.

“From a fiscal responsibility point of view, President Trump’s record compares poorly to his predecessors,” the former Heritage Foundation researcher writes.“Using the same methodology, former President Barack Obama added $5 trillion in legislative costs over a decade, while former President George W. Bush added $6.9 trillion.”

Riedl continues, “Not only did Trump sign more ten-year debt into law than his immediate predecessors, he also did it in just a single four-year presidential term, compared to his predecessors’ eight years in the Oval Office…. There is no dispute that President Trump left the federal budget outlook in poor shape. He departed the White House with the largest peacetime budget deficit in American history, and a national debt exceeding 100% of the economy for the first time since World War II.”

===

no lnx twt

'The coup is ongoing': Critics sound the alarm after Trump boosts message 'advocating or predicting civil war'

David Badash and The New Civil Rights Movement May 23, 2022

Critics are expressing anger and issuing warnings after Donald Trump, the former president, posted a message over the weekend on his own social media platform that well-known attorney George Conway described as “advocating or predicting civil war in the United States.”

*:{

}:*

Fox Nation propagandist and antisemitic conspiracy theorist Lara Logan had reposted a message from the right-wing “populist” President of El Salvador, that suggests the United States is “falling so fast” due to an “enemy” within.

A pro-Trump account on Trump’s Truth Social platform then commented “Civil War.”

Trump reposted that message.

“Nothing to see here,” George Conway wrote on Twitter. “Just a former president of the United States sharing a social media post advocating or predicting civil war in the United States. No biggie.”

Former GOP Congressman Denver Riggleman, a former National Security Agency contractor who calls himself a “Disinfo Hunter” commented: “Trump mirrors his base. Pay attention.”

GOP U.S. Congressman Adam Kinzinger:

“Tell me how … he has never egged on violence again?” asked Amanda Carpenter, a columnist at The Bulwark.

Veteran foreign correspondent and sports columnist Robert Lusetich:

“After seeking to overturn his election defeat, the former president is now endorsing the claim that we are in a ‘civil war.’ Incredibly dangerous,” wrote Brendan Nyhan, a political scientist and professor at Dartmouth College. “How long until the next gunman takes him literally and/or seriously? What about the next time he or his party lose another election?”

Attorney, journalist, SiriusXM host, and frequent cable news contributor Dean Obeidallah writes, “Trump’s suggestion of a Civil War appears to forget that on Jan 6 he and his forces tried that and FAILED. But the fact Trump can call for a civil war today is only possible because DOJ has still not prosecuted Trump–despite it being 502 days since Jan 6!”

Political commentator Lindy Li:...

===

retal kemp fail

https://www.alternet.org/2022/05/brian-kemp/

===

https://www.alternet.org/2022/05/dhs-report-manipulated-trump-ally/

collusion rept buried?

===

https://www.alternet.org/2022/05/trump-wanted-to-shoot-unarmed-protesters-following-george-floyds-former-defense-secretary/

esper, shoot them in the leg or something?"

===

mccarthy grovels on lies exposed by tape, trump ok 4 22

===

https://www.alternet.org/2022/04/trump-2657202486/

AG james subterfuge

===

rnc dumps debates --> 2024 run?

===

no lnx

'Personal goon squad': Why a newly reported memo by a Trump loyalist is 'cause of considerable alarm' for US democracy

Alex Henderson November 15, 2021

ABC News' Jonathan Karl has reported that on October 19, 2020, Trump loyalist John McEntee — then serving as White House director of presidential personnel — issued a memo listing reasons to fire then-Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper from the Trump Administration. Never Trump conservative Max Boot discusses Karl's reporting and that memo in his November 15 column for the Washington Post, explaining why McEntee's memo should be a "cause of considerable alarm" if Donald Trump runs for president in 2024.

Boot was highly critical of Esper in the past, describing him as a Trump enabler. But in light of Karl's reporting, the conservative columnist now believes he "may have been too harsh on" the former defense secretary — who Trump fired on November 9.

"Now that we have seen fresh evidence of how much Trump and his henchmen loathed Esper, he is rising in my estimation," Boot explains. "That evidence comes courtesy of ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl, who has unearthed a memorandum from Johnny McEntee, Trump's director of presidential personnel, listing 14 reasons for ousting Esper. That document was dated October 19, 2020. Three weeks later, Esper was fired by a Trump tweet."

Describing McEntee's memo as "both sinister and ludicrous," Boot notes that the Trump loyalist "was making the case for getting rid of a senior cabinet officer for insufficient loyalty to the president."

"This revealing and chilling document deserves to be read not as a historical curiosity, but as a terrible portent of what could be in store if Trump wins another term," Boot writes. "He appears determined to turn the military into his personal goon squad."

Boot goes on to note some of McEntee's reasons for wanting Esper fired. Esper, McEntee complained, "approved the promotion of Lt. Col. (Alexander) Vindman," a key witness during Trump's impeachment — and Esper "publicly opposed the president's direction to utilize American force to put down riots just outside the White House," McEntee wrote.

Boot observes, "This was a reference to Esper's brave decision in June 2020 to resist Trump's desires to deploy active-duty troops to suppress Black Lives Matter protests. Esper acted after he and Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had been lured by Trump into a bizarre photo op in Lafayette Square, which been cleared by force of peaceful protesters."

In the memo, Boot adds, McEntee (now 31) also wanted Esper fired for removing Confederate flags from military installations.

McEntee's memo, the Never Trump conservative warns, underscores the fact that a second Trump presidency —should he run in 2024 — would be disastrous for the United States.

"Trump would want to ensure that the 'guys with guns' are on his side," Boot warns. "If he wins a second term, Trump's next defense secretary — Johnny McEntee perhaps? — would almost certainly be somebody more devoted to him than to the Constitution. For anyone concerned about the future of U.S. democracy, that should be a cause of considerable alarm at a time when Trump and (President Joe) Biden are running almost neck and neck in polling matchups."

===

https://www.alternet.org/2022/04/roy-blunt-defends-acquitting-trump/

===

https://www.alternet.org/2022/04/donald-trump-personally-profiting-endorsements/

===

https://www.alternet.org/2022/04/donald-trump-endorses-dr-oz/

===

an 3 22

When Ronald Reagan was president during the 1980s, part of his big-tent view of conservatism was what he called “the 11th Commandment” — which was “never speak ill of any fellow Republican.” But Donald Trump, as president, had a totally different approach: insult, belittle, bully and threaten any Republican who dared to disagree with him about anything. And according to Daily Beast reporters Asawin Suebsaeng and Adam Rawnsley, one of Trump’s worst enablers during his four years in the White House was far-right GOP activist and conspiracy theorist Ginni Thomas — who is married to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

In contrast to Reagan’s view that there was room for a variety of Republicans in his 1980s coalition — from Goldwater Republicans to Rockefeller Republicans, from secular libertarians to theocratic Christian fundamentalists — Trump demanded unquestioning loyalty from fellow Republicans. Ginni Thomas, Suebsaeng and Rawnsley emphasize in an article published by the Beast on April 1, encouraged that type of behavior and offered lists of people she recommended hiring or firing.

The Beast reporters explain, “Years before she became one of then-President Donald Trump’s most prominent coup supporters, Ginni Thomas was already notorious in his West Wing for, among other things, ruining staffers’ afternoons byworking Trump into fits of vengeful rage…. Ever since she became a welcome guest at Trump’s residences, Thomas — an influential and long-time conservative activist, and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas — had perfected a proven formula of enthralling and manipulating the president’s emotions and mood.”

Suebsaeng and Rawnsley continue, “On multiple occasions throughout the Trump era, Thomas would show up in the White House, sometimes for a private meeting or a luncheon with the president. She often came armed with written memos of who she and her allies believed Trump should hire for plum jobs — and who she thought Trump should promptly purge — that she distributed to Trump and other high-ranking government officials. The fire lists were particularly problematic, as they were frequently based on pure conjecture, rumor, or score-settling, where even steadfastly MAGA aides were targeted for being part of the ‘Deep State’ or some other supposedly anti-Trump coalition, according to people who saw them during the Trump Administration."[TWT]

During his years in the White House, Trump fired a long list of right-wing Republicans who he decided weren’t MAGA enough — from former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to former Attorney General Jeff Sessions to former National Security Adviser John Bolton. And eventually, he even turned against former Vice President Mike Pence and former Attorney General William Barr when they refused to go along with his efforts to steal the 2020 presidential election. Ginni Thomas, according to the Washington Post and CBS News, aggressively promoted the Big Lie, urging former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to pursue efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.

// PUTIN UKRAINE FAIL] One of the reasons Trump was a failure as president was the fact that he wanted to be surrounded by yes-men, and according to the Beast’s article, Ginni Thomas did everything she could to encourage him.

A former senior Trump Administration official, presumably interviewed on condition of anonymity, told the Beast, “We all knew that within minutes after Ginni left her meeting with the president, he would start yelling about firing people for being disloyal. When Ginni Thomas showed up, you knew your day was wrecked.”

Trump wasn’t shy about hiring extremists if he thought they would be loyalists, and Thomas had plenty of recommendations. According to Suebsaeng and Rawnsley, her recommendations included “Fox News personality Dan Bongino, and the Trump-adulating Sheriff David Clarke” as well as Frank Gaffney — the former Pentagon official and conspiracy theorist who “accused conservative anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist of being a secret agent for the Muslim Brotherhood.”

A former Trump White House official told the Beast, “These fucking lists were so insane and unworkable. A lot of them were dripping with paranoia and read like they were written by a disturbed person.”

The Beast also interviewed former White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham, who recalled, “Trump loved talking to Ginni so much because he loved hearing about who was a Never Trumper, or allegedly one. He loved people who would flatter him, (as Ginni would do). But also, his obsession with loyalty aside, he just loved to gossip — all the time. That’s something else he got out of his series of meetings at the White House with Ginni Thomas.”

===

https://www.alternet.org/2022/03/robert-reich-explains-why-vladimir-putin-donald-trump-and-tucker-carlson-use-similar-culture-war-rhetoric/

===

asked mo brooks to rescind election 8 mos after?

https://www.alternet.org/2022/03/trump-mo-brooks/

defam?

https://www.alternet.org/2022/03/experts-trash-trump-clinton-lawsuit/

collusion?

no lnx twt docs

Former President Donald Trump is facing severe backlash for his latest outlandish legal stunt in the form of a lawsuit targeting former Democratic presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee (DNC).

According to Newsweek, legal experts and members of the DNC have torched the legal documents describing them as "absurd" and "garbage." The critical remarks began surfacing on social media platforms shortly after the former disgraced president's legal team filed their lawsuit in the Southern District of Fla. Per Newsweek, the former president alleges that Clinton and other DNC members "orchestrated an unthinkable plot—one that shocks the conscience and is an affront to this nation's democracy."

With his suit, Trump is seeking to recover an estimated $24 million for the cost of court fees and legal proceedings. On Thursday, March 24, legal experts lit into the former president and his legal team for filing such a frivolous lawsuit.

"An absurd lawsuit by an absurdly litigious former president who has only himself to blame for being compromised by Putin and thus looking like he is compromised by Russia," tweeted Tribe, a Harvard University Constitutional Law professor.

"These lawyers should be embarrassed for filing this lawsuit. In fact, every lawyer should be embarrassed that it even exists," Mark S. Zaid, a national security attorney, tweeted. "Don't be surprised when a Motion for Rule 11 sanctions are filled against both Trump and his lawyers," he added.

"It's difficult to put into words just how deeply flawed and utterly hopeless this lawsuit is," tweeted CNN legal analyst Elie Honig who also worked as a U.S. prosecutor.

Bradley P. Moss, an attorney with a concentration on U.S. national security, offered a stinging reaction to the lawsuit tweeting, "You couldn’t even pay me to read this garbage."

"As an indication of the quality of Trump's complaint, Count III alleges'injurious falsehood,' an obscure state law tort that is essentially trade libel. In support, Trump cites a federal law that has nothing to do with it. 18 U.S.C. § 2701 is the Stored Communications Act," Max Kennerly, a trial lawyer, tweeted.

===

an 3 22

'TV terrorist' Donald Trump blasted for telling followers they 'must lay down their very lives' to defend against CRT

David Badash and The New Civil Rights Movement March 13, 2022

Donald Trump is calling on his followers to “lay down their very lives” to defend the United States against critical race theory. The disgraced former president delivered that dangerous call to arms at his “Save America” rally Saturday night in Florence, South Carolina.

“Getting critical race theory out of our schools is not just a matter of values, it’s also a matter of national survival,” Trump told his MAGA supporters. So-called critical race theory is not something that is taught in K-12 grades, it is a college-level interdisciplinary means to examine social and institutional constructs surrounding race.

“We have no choice,” Trump continued, a claim he often makes when speaking falsely.

That’s when he laid the groundwork for weaponizing his followers in the racist battle inside his mind that one day may erupt in physical war on our streets.

“The fate of any nation depends upon the willingness of its citizens to lay down – and they must do this – lay down their very lives to defend their country. If we allow the Marxists and communists and socialists to teach our children to hate America there will be no one left to defend our flag or to protect our great country or its freedom.”

“Calling for political violence to stop the teaching of accurate history in our schools is what fascism looks like,” commented Indivisible’s Sarah Dohl.

“Trump doesn’t want a political party. He wants an army. He’s a TV terrorist yes. But he’s also a real fascist,” wrote Condé Nast Legal Affairs Editor Luke Zaleski. “Attacking the Capitol, waiting, calling it off, then telling them he loved them after they terrorized the country and got his message across was a kind of a hint, folks.”

Zaleski later added: “Trump is a traitor and political mob boss.”

Civil-rights lawyer Subodh Chandra described Trump’s remarks as a “call to a violent race war. Over nothing but the teaching of our actual history. (CRT is not taught in public schools.)”

“Donald Trump,” said Moms Demand Action founder Shannon Watts, “who seems to be in the running for 2024, tells a nation awash in guns to kill or be killed in order to stop anyone from ‘hating our country.'”

“Scenes from a slow civil war,” observed Vanity Fair contributing editor Jeff Sharlet, who exposed the international right-wing Christian fundamentalist theocratic organization known as The Family.

“What does this mean?” asked Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy professor Don Moynihan. “If you are a teacher in a state you probably feel less and less safe by the extremist nature of this rhetoric.”

“Encouraging his fanboys to commit political violence again. Why is he still at large?” asked Salon’s Bob Cesca.

===

https://www.alternet.org/2022/03/grave-failure-of-justice-prosecutor-who-quit-says-trump-is-guilty-of-numerous-felonies/

===

not tracking all legal stuff, 2 guys quit? oh, see above

https://www.alternet.org/2022/03/trump-probe/

apparently not Joe and Greta's fault?!:

no lnx twt

These 5 ‘deeply malevolent’ things that Trump did to hurt Ukraine must not be forgotten: journalist

Alex Henderson March 01, 2022

With Ukraine now being invaded by Russian troops on orders from President Vladimir Putin, MAGA messaging on the crisis has ranged from praising Putin to blaming President Joe Biden for the crisis. One of the most ludicrous MAGA talking points is that Putin wouldn’t have invaded Ukraine if Trump were still president.But liberal Washington Post opinion writer Greg Sargent, in a scathing column/listicle published on March 1, stresses that the things Trump did to hurt Ukraine and President Volodymyr Zelensky when he was president must not be forgotten.

“With the Russian invasion of Ukraine getting more horrific,” Sargent writes, “Donald Trump and his allies are frantically erasing the truth about Trump’s relations with Ukraine. Trump absurdly claims that as president, he stood strong behind Ukraine and NATO, even as his spinners comically downplay his corrupt and deeply malevolent betrayal of our ally.”

Sargent continues, “The obvious rejoinder to this spin is that Trump got impeached for withholding military aid to strong-arm Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky into manufacturing propaganda to help Trump’s reelection. This came even as Zelensky pleaded for help against Russian aggression, which the world is now witnessing unfold in all its horror.”

The columnist notes that when Trump was president, he repeatedly “aligned our interests with those of Russian President Vladimir Putin and against those of Ukraine, NATO and the West.” And Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman agrees. Vindman, who testified during House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry against Trump in November 2019, told Sargent, “Trump acted against U.S. interests with the consequence of aiding Russian interests.”

Sargent goes on to list and describe five examples of Trump doing things to hurt Ukraine. Trump, Sargent recalls: (1) “spread propaganda about Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election,” (2) “ousted the well-regarded U.S. ambassador to Ukraine,” Marie Yovanovitch, (3) “froze military assistance to Ukraine,” (4) “withheld a White House meeting from Zelensky,” and (5) “turned Ukraine policy over to (Rudy) Giuliani.”

“All this has important forward-looking implications, now that Trump may run for president again,” Sargent explains. “As president in 2025, he’d be stewarding relations with Russia, Ukraine and NATO, but after this war has unfolded. Right now, we’re seeing extraordinary unity among the United States and its allies as it imposes harsh sanctions on Russia and otherwise tries to dissuade Putin’s invasion. Trump would almost surely rupture that.”

Vindman, during his interview with Sargent, warned that it will be great for Putin if Trump becomes president again.

“With Trump as president in 2025,” Vindman told Sargent, “we’re quite likely looking at a world in which Russia may have achieved its objectives and folded Ukraine back into its sphere of influence.”

===

aha: af1 is signifier of prez-ity? thus qanon used as proof he was still prez? ceo must have pvt jet; giant flying penis?

https://www.alternet.org/2022/03/donald-trump-supporters-new-plane/

see pix brochure/online poll]

Former President Donald Trump was flying from New Orleans back to Palm Beach when he was forced to make an emergency landing. Now, he's asking supporters to send him money.

In an email to supporters mere hours after the news broke on his travel issues, Trump was asking them to pay for Trump Force One.

"Do you remember Trump Force One?" the email asks. "Before becoming the greatest President of all time, I traveled the Country in my plane, known as Trump Force One. I have a very important update on my plane, but I need to trust that you won’t share it with anyone: my team is building a BRAND NEW Trump Force One."

According to the email, paid for bySave America JFC, the work on the plane has been "under wraps." He claims that the media doesn't know about it, which is false given the reports that he purchased a new engine for the plane and that it had to make an emergency landing last year in Nashville.

Trump's plane was his personal ride, likely paid for by his company. So, it's unclear if the campaign PAC will be paying for the repairs. If the PAC pays for the repairs it's unclear if that means the Trump Organization can use it for its travel.

The plane Trump was flying on that had the emergency landing over the weekend wasn't his, it was owned by a trustee out of Utah, the Washington Post reported.Trump Force One was repaired in New York after Trump announced last May that he would bring it back. The emergency landing in Nashville was a short stop and it was then flown to Louisiana for other repairs. Trump isn't using it, however.

===

gop trying to use vlad invasion for drill baby drill

an 3 22

One Republican lawmaker is facing criticism for his attempt to rewrite the history behind former President Donald Trump's so-called "perfect call."

The latest fact-check is in response to a press conference on Tuesday, March 8 where Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) was asked to recall what transpired during Trump's 2019 phone call to Ukrainian President and "consider what 'rethinking' he had done on Trump withholding of foreign aid in hopes of luring the nation to announce an investigation of the Biden family."

In response to that statement, Scalise said:

"Zelensky had called President Trump to thank him for the leadership that he provided. In fact, when Zelensky got elected, he said he modeled his campaign after President Trump's -- and ultimately he got the relief money he was asking for."

CNN's Chris Cillizza analyzed what actually transpired during the call which the former president described as "perfect," noting the first words during the call were made by Trump, not Zelensky. "Congratulations on a great victory," Trump said to Zelensky at the time. "We all watched from the United States, and you did a terrific job. The way you came from behind, somebody who wasn't given much of a chance, and you ended up winning easily. It's a fantastic achievement. Congratulations."

So, according to Cillizza, Scalise's remarks are flawed. Zelensky did not place a call to Trump to "thank him for the leadership he provided."

During the call, Zelensky also noted that saying, "The first time you called me to congratulate me when I won my presidential election, and the second time you are now calling me when my party won the parliamentary election. I think I should run more often so you can call me more often, and we can talk over the phone more often."

Cillizza also pointed out other notable Trump quotes during the call:

"I will say that we do a lot for Ukraine. We spend a lot of effort and a lot of time. Much more than the European countries are doing, and they should be helping you, more than they are."
"I wouldn't say that it's reciprocal necessarily because things are happening that are not good but the United States has been very, very good to Ukraine."
"There's a lot of talk about Biden's son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the attorney general would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it. ... It sounds horrible to me."

During the call, Trump repeatedly reminded Zelensky of how much the United States has done for Ukraine, and according to Cillizza, "and how little, comparatively -- Ukraine does for the US."Then, Trump went in for the kill asking Zelensky to "look into the Bidens' activities in Ukraine."

Although the call was criticized at the time, Cillizza notes that it is far worse today.

===

trump 2x dn on putin after invasion

VP often/always a lagging indicator? looking to pick up pieces of gop after trump finally implodes? presumably fine w/ ass kissing of vlad 4 yrs? inner cold warrior?

https://www.alternet.org/2022/03/pence/

vp ~ djt

===

twit --> TRUTH no doubt fair and balanced; even he does not use it

https://www.alternet.org/2022/02/trump-truth-social/

===

https://www.alternet.org/2022/02/racism-2656767836/

===

accts bail mazers disaster

https://www.alternet.org/2022/02/trump-legal-experts/

https://www.alternet.org/2022/02/george-conway-donald-trump/

===

https://www.alternet.org/2022/02/marco-rubio/

doc box fla no crime, classified top secret

===

https://www.alternet.org/2022/02/trump-putin/

"tough smart"

===

https://www.alternet.org/2022/02/trump-2656651980/

rubber glue as 1/6 and criminal prosecutions tighten?

2 22

Former president Donald Trump issued a statement Saturday suggesting that unnamed members of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign staff should be put to death.

“The latest pleading fromSpecial Counsel Robert Durham provides indisputable evidence that my campaign and presidency were spied on by operatives paid by the Hillary Clinton Campaign in an effort to develop a completely fabricated connection to Russia,” Trump said in the statement from his Save America PAC. “This is a scandal far greater in scope and magnitude than Watergate and those who were involved in and knew about this spying operation should be subject to criminal prosecution. In a stronger period of time in our country, this crime would have been punishable by death. In addition,reparations should be paid to those in our country who have been damaged by this.”

Former president Donald Trump issued a statement Saturday suggesting that unnamed members of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign staff should be put to death.

“The latest pleading from Special Counsel Robert Durham provides indisputable evidence that my campaign and presidency were spied on by operatives paid by the Hillary Clinton Campaign in an effort to develop a completely fabricated connection to Russia,” Trump said in the statement from his Save America PAC. “This is a scandal far greater in scope and magnitude than Watergate and those who were involved in and knew about this spying operation should be subject to criminal prosecution. In a stronger period of time in our country, this crime would have been punishable by death. In addition, reparations should be paid to those in our country who have been damaged by this.”

Trump was responding to allegations put forth by Durham in a court filing this week.

“Lawyers for the Clinton campaign paid a technology company to ‘infiltrate’ servers belonging to Trump Tower, and later the White House, in order to establish an ‘inference’ and “narrative’ to bring to government agencies linking Donald Trump to Russia, a filing from Special Counsel John Durham says,” Fox News reported Saturday. “Durham filed a motion on Feb. 11 focused on potential conflicts of interest related to the representation of former Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussman, who has been charged with making a false statement to a federal agent. Sussman has pleaded not guilty.”

More below.

===

https://www.alternet.org/2022/02/trump-s-recent-rallies-suggest-he-is-taking-his-base-down-an-even-darker-path-than-before/

Former President Donald Trump may no longer be active on social media but he is still managing to effectively reach his base. In fact, a new analysis published by NPR explains why Trump's latest disturbing message could take his supporters down a darker conspiratorial path and cause more harm than his previous time in office.

To reach his base, Trump has resorted to holding campaign-style rallies again with more extreme racist rhetoric. NPR's Domenico Montanaro pointed out that the former president is once again attempting to spin circumstances by offering distorted views of what is really happening. From bashing the federal prosecutors investigating him to offering empty promises to Capitol rioters currently facing charges for their role in the insurrection, Trump made a number of disturbing claims.

"Trump alleged during a rally in Texas over the weekend that Black prosecutors investigating him are 'racist,' and he is again flirting with mob violence, calling for mass protests if they do anything he deems to be 'wrong or illegal,'" Montanaro wrote.

Montanaro also highlighted Trump's remarks at a recent rally in Arizona writing: "Here's how Trump distorted what New York is doing at a rally in Arizona earlier this month: 'The left is now rationing life-saving therapeutics based on race, discriminating against and denigrating, just denigrating white people to determine who lives and who dies,' Trump said. 'You get it based on race. In fact, in New York state, if you're white, you have to go to the back of the line to get medical help. If you're white, you go right to the back of the line.""

The former president also suggested he would pardon Capitol riot suspects charged for storming the federal building. Montanaro added, "And after teasing a 2024 run — 'to take back that beautiful, beautiful house that happens to be white' — he said one of his actions as president could be to pardon those convicted as a result of their actions during last year's insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. More than 750 people and counting have been charged with crimes."

Trump also suggested that Capitol rioters are not being treated fairly despite their roles in the insurrection. "If I run and I win, we will treat those people from Jan. 6 fairly," Trump said. "We will treat them fairly. And if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons, because they are being treated so unfairly."

However, Trump didn't stop there. Montanaro also noted that much of his rhetoric focused on "white grievances" as he attempted to motivate his supporters with the use of "race-based anger" and the conspiratorial "white replacement theory."

===

HYPE FEAR

origin of xian nat'l trumpism? recall his BS about ppl dancing in streets in NJ? birther obama other foreigner secret muslim; muslim travel ban

https://www.alternet.org/2022/02/christians-are-right-wing-radical/

k j salon

earlier this week, a new Pew survey foundthat the share of Americans who believe Donald Trump was largely responsible for the violence of Jan. 6, 2021, has declined by nearly 10 percent over the past year, while the percentage of people who think he bears no responsibility has increased by almost as much. On Wednesday, the Freedom from Religion Foundation and the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty released a new report that helps explain that shift:The same Christian nationalism that served as the unifying principle behind theJan. 6 insurrection is also driving efforts among the faithful to rewrite the history of that day.

As two of the report's contributors, scholars Andrew Whitehead and Samuel Perry, co-authors of "Taking America Back for God," noted in a launch event on Wednesday, Christian nationalist support for Jan. 6 rioters has doubled in the past year, while support for prosecuting those rioters has declined by 20 percent. That suggests, said Perry, "that this ideology is powerfully connected to a reinterpretation of these events" in a way that could become "a powerful motivator for future potential violence."

At more than 60 pages and drawing on the work of a number of academics, journalists and researchers, "Christian Nationalism and the January 6 Insurrection" is the most comprehensive account to date of the role of the movement in the attack. Within the political and cultural universe of Christian nationalism, America is a special place: It was created as a Christian nation and its founding documents were divinely inspired. Christianity should and must have a privileged position in public life, and "true Americans" are understood to be "white, culturally conservative, natural-born citizens."

That ideology, argues the report, served both as the unifying theme for the various factions that joined in the assault on the Capitol as well as the "permission structure" that allowed participants to justify their violence. To call those fringe ideas is misleading: Surveys repeatedly find that close to half of the country supports the idea of fusing Christianity and civic life.

Christian nationalism also lends itself to a number of other convictions, notes the report. Surveys in early 2021 found strong associations between Christian nationalist views, such as the proposition that thefederal government should declare America a Christian nation, and a whole range of far-right beliefs not directly connected to faith. Those include the disproved claim that Antifa or Black Lives Matter caused the violence on Jan. 6, while Donald Trump was blameless; support for various white supremacist and antisemitic beliefs; and even a willingness to accept the outlandish premises of QAnon.

Two-thirds of white Americans who strongly support Christian nationalist ideology believe that the 2020 election was rigged; 40 percent of them think that violence from patriotic Americans might be necessary to save the country; and more than 40 percent are convinced that Democrats are engaged in "elite child trafficking," said Whitehead.

The report includes some meditations on the movement's origins as well. Penn religion scholar Anthea Butler, the author of "White Evangelical Racism," writes that white Christian nationalism began moving more firmly into the mainstream after9/11, as the "Holy War" coding of the "War on Terror" helped popularize its ideology, laying the groundwork for Trump's rise. The seemingly contradictory beliefs of Christian nationalism — that America is the greatest nation on earth thanks to its foundation in Christianity, and also that America has been overtaken by alien and even demonic enemies — only serves to keep the movement in a state of tense mobilization, observed journalist Katherine Stewart, author of "The Power Worshippers."

"It's astonishing to so many of us that the leaders of the Jan. 6 attack styled themselves as patriots," Stewart added at Wednesday's event. "But it makes a glimmer of sense once we start to understand that their allegiance is to a belief in blood, earth and religion, rather than to the mere idea of a government of the people, by the people and for the people."

Most of the report was written by Andrew Seidel, a constitutional attorney at theFreedom from Religion Foundation and author of "The Founding Myth." It consists of a meticulous accounting, drawing on hundreds of hours of video footage, of Christian nationalism's ubiquitous role in the lead-up to Jan. 6 and its execution. There are the flags, the signs, the cross and gallows that we've all seen.

There are also some less familiar pieces of evidence, such as the 50-person Christian choir singing about swords and taking possession of the land while the attack was underway. Multiple rioters recounted how God's hand or voice had urged them to enter the capital. One avowed white supremacist had convinced his parole officer to let him travel to Washington that week to hand out Bibles. And then there's the man who broke down Nancy Pelosi's office door, believing that "the crowd would tear her 'into little pieces,'" and latertestified in court that God had been on Trump's side: "And if patriots have to kill 60 million of these communists, it's God's will."...

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2 22

flushed docs, took top secret to fla

https://www.alternet.org/2022/02/trump-2656622703/

===

rally dangle pardon 1/6

tease 2024 run

told mob to go after AG who prosecute him?!

===

trump if indicted riot

https://www.alternet.org/2022/01/trump-2656520563/

===

an 222

no lnx

The Trumpified GOP has a whole new generation of power brokers and 'kingmakers': report

Alex Henderson February 04, 2022

The fact that so many well-known right-wing Republicans endorsed Joe Biden during the United States’ 2020 presidential race —from former Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona to former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina to Sen. John McCain’s widow Cindy McCain — speaks volumes about how dramatically former President Donald Trump remade the GOP in his image, and how alienated they fell from the party. The GOP landscape is radically different from what it was during the Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama years, and journalists Jonathan Swan and Lachlan Markay describe that landscape in an article published by Axios on February 4.

“Paths to power and winning elections inside the GOP are changing rapidly and radically, spawning a new generation of kingmakers while diminishing the clout of many who lorded over the party for years,” Swan and Markay explain. “Why it matters: 14 of the Republican Party's top consultants and operatives across the country spoke in detail with Axios about how profoundly primary races have changed since 2014 — the last pre-Donald Trump midterm election and the last midterms in which a Democrat occupied the White House.”

The reporters continue, “What we found: Those sources — whose clients range from as Trumpy as they come to establishment Republicans — described a clear shift in the party's power brokers. They spoke of changes to the ecosystem across four categories: institutional upheaval, endorsements, conservative media and donors.”

Swan and Markay go on to list Republicans who “had the power” in the past — a group that includes the National Review, the National Rifle Association, the Drudge Report, Heritage Action and the “Koch network,” among others.

But their “who has the power now” list is much more MAGA.That list includesTrump and his “family and former aides” as well as Breitbart News, Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, Ben Shapiro’s the Daily Wire, former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon and the Susan B. Anthony List.

*:{

}:*

Swan and Markay also mention “online influencers, including Candace Owens, Ben Shapiro, Dan Bongino, Joe Rogan, Jack Posobiec, Charlie Kirk and Marjorie Taylor-Greene.”

“Most of these changes weren't gradual,” the Axios journalists note. “They were triggered by the shockwave of 2016. Much of the institutional GOP worked against Trump in 2016. Much of the heft they believed their endorsements carried evaporated as voters saw in real-time how Trump had little need for them and ultimately obliterated them.”

A Republican consultant, interviewed on condition of anonymity, told Axios, “You wouldn't know that these groups were paper tigers — unless you ever ran against one of them."

In 2020, Never Trump conservatives hoped that if Trump were voted out of office, the Republican Party would return to a pre-MAGA brand of conservatism. But a year into Joe Biden’s presidency, that obviously isn’t going to happen.

“Many movement conservative brands are shadows of what they used to be,” Swan and Markay emphasize. “Many of the major conservative think tanks supported policy positions — such as reforming Social Security or free trade — that Trump obliterated and proved elderly GOP voters didn’t actually support.”

===

an 222

reason for 180 on 1/6 cooperation? other 5 or 10K? trms

trump PAC transferred $1 million to a Mark Meadows nonprofit as House coup probe got underway

Daily Kos Staff February 02, 2022

nBC News is reporting that, only weeks after the formation of the House Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack on the United States Capitol, Donald Trump's "Save America" PAC donated a whopping $1 million to a conservative training "institute" headed in part by former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows—a man who was intimately involved with multiple parts of Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 election. What makes the donation especially conspicuous is that it's orders of magnitude above the Trump PAC's usual gifts.

The Trump PAC distributed a total of $1.35 million in the last half of 2021, reports NBC News. And that single $1 million donation to Meadows' group accounted for the lion's share of it.

It should be immediately clarified that this is not Donald Trump's own money. Trump's fascist-premised "Save America" fundraisers have been sucking the money out of Trump supporters' pockets just as every other Trump grift has, providing a means for Trump to give financial rewards to party allies without having to write any of the checks himself.

And Donald Trump is not known for writing checks himself. It is said that the reason Trump's fingers are so short is that whenever anyone comes to him asking him to write a check, the man bites his own fingers off so that nobody can make him pick up the pen. After the unpleasant visitor goes away, a team of surgeons reattaches each finger—always with a bit of loss, shrinking each digit by a few millimeters or so—and the cycle repeats. Or something. It is only a rumor I heard.

Trump's sudden shove of $1 million to Meadows is notable for its large size, even as the rest of his PAC spends its days trickling out money only a few thousand dollars at a time, but also because it has been clear from the beginning thatMark Meadows knows more about the Trump White House's attempts at self-coup than perhaps any other person, Trump included.Meadows participated in the call to Georgia election officialsin which Trump asked them to "find" enough Trump votes to overturn Joe Biden's victory in the state. Meadows was involved in discussions about taking pseudo-military action to erase or "redo" the election. Meadows was involved in Trump's efforts to gather a crowd of his most rabid public supporters and set them loose to "march" to the U.S. Capitol at the precise day and hour that a joint session of Congress would oversee the final constitutional acknowledgement of his loss.

Mark Meadows is, in other words, up to his ex-House-Republican eyebrows in a multipronged plan to overthrow the United States government, and Trump throwing a million bucks his way just after it became clear that House Republicans had not been able to halt the investigation of Jan. 6 and that Congress would be making an effort to haul Meadows' aiding and abetting ass into a hearing room, a donation absurdly out of scope of what the Trump PAC was doing before and since, can certainly be taken as a distribution of hush money.

And that might be an untoward accusation to make if Donald Trump had not already been caught red-handed handing out similar "hush money" in the past. And it's difficult to find examples of Trump spending money anywhere, at any time, that hasn't been directly linked to what the recipient has personally done for or said about Trump. We can be sure that Trump's PAC did not throw $1 million at Mark Meadows because Donald Trump—sincerely and urgently—believes in the "Conservative Partnership Institute" goal of training new conservative staffers for future generations. Donald Trump doesn't give a flying damn about anything that does not provide immediate and tangible benefit to Donald Trump.

So sure, maybe it's hush money. Maybe it's witness tampering with a big ol' check attached. One way to determine what the money is for is to watch how Meadows' group spends it. If it turns out the "institute" is suddenly spending $1 million or so on unexplained legal fees, as Meadows' own battles with the Jan. 6 committee heat up, well then golly gee won't that be something.

But it ain't gonna be spent on anything that Donald Trump did not personally want it spent on.

ref

no lnx

Trump gave $1M to Meadows nonprofit weeks after Jan. 6 panel's creation

The contribution was made to the Conservative Partnership Institute, where Mark Meadows, the former White House chief of staff, is a senior partner.

Trump's PAC gave to 69 candidates for federal and state offices, many of whom have embraced his lie that he was defrauded in the 2020 presidential election.

Feb. 1, 2022, 4:19 AM PST

By Jonathan Allen

WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump's political action committee donated $1 million to the conservative nonprofit organization where his former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, is a senior partner, according to a campaign finance report filed Monday night with the Federal Election Commission.

In December, the House voted to recommend that the Justice Department pursue contempt of Congress charges against Meadows over his refusal to cooperate with an investigation into the Trump-inspired Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The tax-deductible seven-figure contribution to the Conservative Partnership Instituteis by far the largest chunk of $1.35 million in donations Trump's "Save America" PAC made to political allies over the last six months of 2021, according to the campaign finance report.

[Jan. 6 committee recommends Mark Meadows for contempt of Congress

DEC. 13, 202104:15

Trump's PAC gave to 69 candidates for federal and state offices, many of whom have embraced his lie that he was defrauded in the 2020 presidential election. He lost to President Joe Biden by an electoral vote rally of 306 to 232 — and by more than 7 million raw votes.

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The contribution to Meadows's nonprofit stands out both for its size and for its timing. On July 1, the House voted to establish a select committee to investigate the Capitol attack. Trump's PAC donated to the Conservative Partnership Institute, which bills itself as a training ground for conservative staff and elected officials, on July 26.

"CPI is proud to have the support of President Trump, along with tens of thousands of Americans across the nation, for our work to build and unite the conservative movement," CPI chief operating officer Wesley Denton said in a statement to NBC News.

Tim Mulvey, a spokesman for the Jan. 6 committee, did not immediately respond to a text seeking comment on the donation to Meadows's employer.

"Save America" is one of the former president's several political fundraising vehicles, which collectively raised $51 million in the second half of 2021, according to Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich. It employs about two dozen people and its most frequent expense is Facebook advertising, according to Monday's disclosure.

[Fox News' Sean Hannity's text messages revealed, Capitol police prep for Jan. 6 anniversary

JAN. 5, 202202:28]

The PAC's largest contribution to a candidate, $10,000, went to Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who has been a guide to Trump in navigating Texas's Republican primary politics. Most of the donations were made in $5,000 increments, and they went to most of the candidates Trump has endorsed.

Recipients of "Save America" checks include several candidates running for statewide offices, including secretary of state and attorney general, that have influence over the administration of elections. For example, Trump gave $5,000 to Arizona state Rep. Mark Finchem, a secretary of state candidate who has called for the decertification of the 2020 election, and a matching amount to Rep. Jody Hice, R-Ga., who voted against certifying the election and is now running for secretary of state in Georgia.

Arizona and Georgia were the states decided by the smallest margins in 2020.

The PAC's contributions to Senate candidates included a donation to Republican Herschel Walker, the former University of Georgia and professional football star who played for Trump's team in the defunct USFL, the New Jersey Generals. And on theHouse side, Trump gave to Harriet Hageman, who is running a primary challenge to Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo.Cheney voted to impeach Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 attack and is one of two Republicans sitting on the committee investigating it.

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won't rule out voting for trump 2024

https://www.alternet.org/2022/01/susan-collins/

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starbuck candace owen ~

https://www.alternet.org/2022/01/madison-cawthorn-2656485066/

AN 122

NO LNX

Inside the secret 'endorsement operation' to get Trump's 'stamp of approval'

Meaghan Ellis January 15, 2022

Republican candidates, current lawmakers, and those seeking re-election have all adopted one disturbing common theme to get themselves across the campaign threshold: support former President Donald Trump and echo all of his claims of voter fraud in exchange for his endorsement which comes with overwhelming exposure and support from his relatively large base.

With the 2022 midterm elections fast approaching, NBC News' Jonathan Allen and Marc Caputo are now shedding light on Trump's "endorsement operation" and how it continues to give him the ability to exert power over the entire political party.

Republican candidates and lawmakers have certain requirements that must be followed in order for them to acquire the former president's endorsement but the work doesn't stop there.

"The most common theme of Trump's endorsements, particularly at the state level, is that he is backing candidates who have voiced support for his lie that the 2020 election was rigged against him," Allen and Caputo wrote. "Fifty-nine of the 91 have questioned the 2020 election results, according to an NBC News review, including those who voted against certifying President Joe Biden's victory in Congress."

On the other side of the spectrum, there is also a system in place for those who choose to challenge the former president's position. For those candidates and lawmakers, whom Trump refers to as "RINOs: Republicans in Name Only," there are countermeasures in place.

"He has also become enamored of the anti-endorsement, ripping into Republican incumbents who challenge him or his lie about the election," they wrote.

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) are current targets for the former president due to their decision to speak freely in a manner that goes against Trump's wishes.

"Rumors are that Doug Ducey, the weak RINO Governor from Arizona, is being pushed by Old Crow Mitch McConnell to run for the U.S. Senate," he said in a Friday statement, ahead of his weekend rally in that state. "He will never have my endorsement or the support of MAGA Nation!"

"I will never endorse this jerk again," Trump said last Sunday after Rounds admitted that the 2020 presidential election was legitimate.

The writers also highlighted another common trend as they noted that "Trump is looking to find races where his endorsement can be tied directly to a hopeful's fate."

"He has stayed away from several competitive GOP Senate primaries where multiple candidates are running as acolytes, including in Missouri, Arizona, and Ohio," Allen and Caputo explained. "In Pennsylvania, Trump endorsed Sean Parnell — only to see Parnell suspend his campaign amid domestic abuse allegations. That served as a warning that he needed a better vetting process."

There is also a process for uncharted territory. In regions where Trump does not have a solid relationship with a current Republican lawmaker or candidate, there is what is described as a more "strategic" approach.

"In cases where Trump doesn't have a long-standing relationship with the candidate — or isn't making the endorsement to thwart an adversary — Republicans familiar with the process describe a more cautious and strategic approach than the one he pursued as president or in the immediate aftermath of his defeat," the wrote.

A categorization of Republican candidates also exists. According to Allen and Caputo, there is a "two-tier process" in place. "The candidates Trump is going to endorse come hell or high water, and the lower-tier hopefuls who are getting vetted," they explained.

A Republican operative also weighed in with details about this process. "In the end, he makes these decisions, but he does it after having it run through channels," the operative said. "There’s nobody that would have stopped him from endorsing Jody Hice or David Perdue," Georgia candidates who are trying to unseat Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger and Gov. Brian Kemp, both of whom rejected Trump's false claims of foul play in their state in 2020. "No process would have stopped that."

So what does the future hold for the Republican Party? While that remains uncertain, it does not look like Trump's endorsement process will end anytime soon since he's been allowed to exert so much power over the political party.

"There's a lot of other people milling around and keeping a room at Mar-a-Lago and finding a way to spin by the table, but I don't think those people, by and large, have any sway in the process," said the GOP operative. "Not everybody gets a meeting. If they're considering [an endorsement], they meet with everybody who they're considering."

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cancelled 1/6 sp for 1/15 az:

1 22

In addition to supporting QAnon, Finchem has aggressively promoted the Big Lie— Trump’s false and debunked claim that he really won the 2020 election but was robbed of his victory because of widespread voter fraud. One recount after another has made it abundantly clear that now-President Joe Biden legitimately won that election; in fact, he defeated Trump by more than 7 million votes. Regardless, Finchem continues to promote Trump’s bogus election fraud claims.

The January 15 MAGA rally will feature an extremist who’s-who of far-right Big Lie promoters, including MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell; Kelli Ward, who chairs the Arizona GOP; Rep. Paul Gosar (who was censured by House Democrats for posting an animated video that depicted him murdering Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez), Rep. Andy Biggs and Kari Lake, a former Fox anchor who is running for governor.

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Personal goon squad': Why a newly reported memo by a Trump loyalist is 'cause of considerable alarm' for US democracy

Alex Henderson

November 15, 2021

ABC News' Jonathan Karl has reported that on October 19, 2020, Trump loyalist John McEntee — then serving as White House director of presidential personnel — issued a memo listing reasons to fire then-Defense ESPER...

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disloyal gop purge

https://www.alternet.org/2021/12/how-trump-and-his-maga-allies-are-purging-the-gop-of-disloyal-republicans-report/

11 21 AN

...There were certainly whistleblowers — but they were far too few.

There were the "adults in the room" who tried to rein in Trump's worst impulses, including the retired generals John Kelly, H.R. McMaster and Jim Mattis, who at least prevented him from starting a nuclear war or provoking another global catastrophe. But for the most part these "adults in the room" remained silent both during and after their time in Trump's administration, and did not act to remove him from office or aid in his impeachment.

There were opportunists, who for personal or political reasons (or both), found ways to advance their own agendas through Trump's malfeasance. They may have personally disliked or even detested Trump but, in the end, he was a valuable means to an end.

There were people with books to sell and other ways to cash in on their privileged access to Trump, often by hoarding the secrets about his misconduct that they had accumulated.

Miles Taylor, who worked as chief of staff to former Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, was one of the few members of the Trump regime who attempted to resist from within. Under the name "Anonymous," Taylor wrote the much-discussed 2018 New York Times op-ed "I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration," in which he warned the American people and the world about the great danger that Trump represented. Taylor also sought to reassure onlookers that there were rational patriots within that unhinged regime, doing their utmost to control Trump's worst inclinations.

One can debate the morality of Taylor's choice to remain inside the Trump regime as a truth-teller and human guardrail, but there can be no question he has paid a price, becoming a major enemy for Trump and his loyal supporters. Taylor has also been maligned by many in the political class and the media, as well as liberals and progressives, because he did not resign, make himself public and reveal what he knew.

Taylor later wrote the book "A Warning," still as "Anonymous," before later revealing his identity. His op-ed "Inside the fight for the GOP's soul" was recently featured in the Deseret News.

In this interview, to be published by Salon in two parts, Taylor discusses the threats that he and other former members of the Trump regime have endured for speaking out, and what this reveals about America's worsening democracy crisis. He also reflects on his initial decision to join the Trump administration, in hopes of goal of bringing some level of professionalism to what he and others knew would be a volatile and dangerous presidency.

Later in this conversation, Taylor explains his views of that the events of Jan. 6, which he says were utterly predictable, adding that senior officials in the Trump administration and the Republican Party's leadership knew all along that such a destructive outcome was more likely than not....

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