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babylonsister
babylonsister's Journal
babylonsister's Journal
February 1, 2022
The American Prospect
Home Blogs TAP
Trump May Yet Save the Democrats
Today on TAP: The idea of pardoning January 6 insurrectionists will split Republicans, scare off voters.
by Robert Kuttner
January 31, 2022
I keep writing that the Democrats’ not-so-secret weapon for 2022 will be Donald Trump—and the man keeps proving me right. As more and more details emerge about the January 6th coup attempt, thanks to the superb work of the House Select Committee, public opinion will keep turning against what was a flagrant attempt to violently overthrow a democratically elected president and install a dictator. (A special shout-out to the superb work of Rep. Jamie Raskin.)
snip//
A presidential pardon for Trump’s thugs who face criminal charges for a failed coup! Republican House and Senate candidates for 2022 need this like they need herpes.
Nearly all sitting Republicans voted against impeaching Trump for his role in the January 6 coup, and nearly all refused to cooperate with the Select Committee. Mostly, they just want this to go away.
But thanks to the Select Committee on one flank, aided by Trump on the other, the coup will become more and more headline news. No polls are out yet on public support for Trump’s pardon offer, but I will eat my shirt if voters don’t oppose it by at least 2-to-1.
What exactly will Republicans say when their Democratic opponents keep raising all this in the fall campaign? Will they go down to defeat defending Trump? One certainly hopes so. And we can count on Trump to keep providing more such ammunition.
Trump May Yet Save the Democrats
https://prospect.org/blogs/tap/trump-may-yet-save-the-democrats/The American Prospect
Home Blogs TAP
Trump May Yet Save the Democrats
Today on TAP: The idea of pardoning January 6 insurrectionists will split Republicans, scare off voters.
by Robert Kuttner
January 31, 2022
I keep writing that the Democrats’ not-so-secret weapon for 2022 will be Donald Trump—and the man keeps proving me right. As more and more details emerge about the January 6th coup attempt, thanks to the superb work of the House Select Committee, public opinion will keep turning against what was a flagrant attempt to violently overthrow a democratically elected president and install a dictator. (A special shout-out to the superb work of Rep. Jamie Raskin.)
snip//
A presidential pardon for Trump’s thugs who face criminal charges for a failed coup! Republican House and Senate candidates for 2022 need this like they need herpes.
Nearly all sitting Republicans voted against impeaching Trump for his role in the January 6 coup, and nearly all refused to cooperate with the Select Committee. Mostly, they just want this to go away.
But thanks to the Select Committee on one flank, aided by Trump on the other, the coup will become more and more headline news. No polls are out yet on public support for Trump’s pardon offer, but I will eat my shirt if voters don’t oppose it by at least 2-to-1.
What exactly will Republicans say when their Democratic opponents keep raising all this in the fall campaign? Will they go down to defeat defending Trump? One certainly hopes so. And we can count on Trump to keep providing more such ammunition.
February 1, 2022
Fitz's Opinion: A fortunate cartoonist emerges from quarantine with long-haul frustration
David Fitzsimmons Jan 29, 2022
The following column is the opinion and analysis of the writer:
snip//
Two of my children and a grandchild survived COVID. Close friends died from COVID. As vulnerable friends struggled with family members who refused to get vaccinated against COVID, I became infected with corrosive rage, fury for the fools contaminated with cognitive dissonance, the bellowing biohazards among us who upended any collective will to contain the lethal plague that repeatedly hit close to our hearth.
snip//
During home quarantine I wondered about the self-imposed isolation that politicians enthusiastically embraced, where they remained cloistered far from the suffering they invited into our communities. They must have had friends like I did. Old and young friends? With every death I mourned for them knowing they must have experienced raw merciless terror as their lungs failed them and the quicksand of death swallowed them as they searched for familiar faces that were not there.
When my fevers came I recalled an earlier visit to a Walmart where I couldn’t help but glare at the unfit citizens who gleefully defied the store’s mask policy. I watched in horror as the accomplices of a lethal killer breezed past anxious masked seniors and despairing exhausted parents who steered their strollers in the opposite direction.
snip//
As I recover, my faith in our institutions and our fellow citizens will never recover. Health care, school and social welfare systems are overrun, overwhelmed and abandoned. Our indifferent public-health-undermining, conspiracy-peddling politicians in Phoenix answer by plotting electoral thievery.
Back at my board I sketched the most tragic long-hauler I know, our democracy. I discarded it, relished the gift of a deep breath, looked out my window at the beautiful day and hesitated to venture out.
A fortunate cartoonist emerges from quarantine with long-haul frustration
https://tucson.com/opinion/local/fitz-s-opinion-a-fortunate-cartoonist-emerges-from-quarantine-with/article_c5e962c8-7fad-11ec-b496-2718dc5c90d6.htmlFitz's Opinion: A fortunate cartoonist emerges from quarantine with long-haul frustration
David Fitzsimmons Jan 29, 2022
The following column is the opinion and analysis of the writer:
snip//
Two of my children and a grandchild survived COVID. Close friends died from COVID. As vulnerable friends struggled with family members who refused to get vaccinated against COVID, I became infected with corrosive rage, fury for the fools contaminated with cognitive dissonance, the bellowing biohazards among us who upended any collective will to contain the lethal plague that repeatedly hit close to our hearth.
snip//
During home quarantine I wondered about the self-imposed isolation that politicians enthusiastically embraced, where they remained cloistered far from the suffering they invited into our communities. They must have had friends like I did. Old and young friends? With every death I mourned for them knowing they must have experienced raw merciless terror as their lungs failed them and the quicksand of death swallowed them as they searched for familiar faces that were not there.
When my fevers came I recalled an earlier visit to a Walmart where I couldn’t help but glare at the unfit citizens who gleefully defied the store’s mask policy. I watched in horror as the accomplices of a lethal killer breezed past anxious masked seniors and despairing exhausted parents who steered their strollers in the opposite direction.
snip//
As I recover, my faith in our institutions and our fellow citizens will never recover. Health care, school and social welfare systems are overrun, overwhelmed and abandoned. Our indifferent public-health-undermining, conspiracy-peddling politicians in Phoenix answer by plotting electoral thievery.
Back at my board I sketched the most tragic long-hauler I know, our democracy. I discarded it, relished the gift of a deep breath, looked out my window at the beautiful day and hesitated to venture out.
February 1, 2022
Posted on Tue, Feb 1st, 2022 by Jason Easley
Laurence Tribe: Trump Confessed To Seditious Conspiracy And Could Face 20 Years In Prison
Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe said that Trump confessed to seditious conspiracy and would face 20 years in prison if charged.
Tribe said on MSNBC’s The Last Word:
more...
https://www.politicususa.com/2022/02/01/laurence-tribe-trump-confessed-to-seditious-conspiracy-and-would-face-20-years-in-prison.html
Laurence Tribe: Trump Confessed To Seditious Conspiracy And Could Face 20 Years In Prison
Posted on Tue, Feb 1st, 2022 by Jason Easley
Laurence Tribe: Trump Confessed To Seditious Conspiracy And Could Face 20 Years In Prison
Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe said that Trump confessed to seditious conspiracy and would face 20 years in prison if charged.
Tribe said on MSNBC’s The Last Word:
He essentially confessed publicly and openly, without any coercion, without any pressure, to having committed the crime of conspiracy to engage in sedition. Seditious conspiracy, because the United States government, punishable by 20 years in prison, because he quite specifically said that he thought he had a right to overturn the election.
And that Vice President Pence had better straighten up and overturn the election for him. He also confessed publicly to inciting and fomenting and, more importantly, giving aid and comfort to an insurrection. Which is punishable by ten years in prison, and importantly by permanent disqualification from ever again holding office under the United States. There are other less serious crimes to which he confessed, but just take a step back and recognize how extraordinary this is. He basically is daring the United States government, and the attorney general, and the Justice Department, to enforce the rule of law.
He is saying make my day, if you come after me, I am going to stir up my angry mobs, and you will suffer. He has been so threatening to the district attorney in Atlanta, that she now has formally announced that she is criminally investigating him, and needs FBI protection. Merrick Garland has said that he will not stop just with the people on the ground, he will follow the evidence where it leads.
But he does not have to follow a trail of bread crumbs here. As Jamie Raskin pointed out, Representative Raskin, the impeachment manager for the second impeachment, as he pointed out the other day, this is a smoking gun. You do not have to look any further.
And that Vice President Pence had better straighten up and overturn the election for him. He also confessed publicly to inciting and fomenting and, more importantly, giving aid and comfort to an insurrection. Which is punishable by ten years in prison, and importantly by permanent disqualification from ever again holding office under the United States. There are other less serious crimes to which he confessed, but just take a step back and recognize how extraordinary this is. He basically is daring the United States government, and the attorney general, and the Justice Department, to enforce the rule of law.
He is saying make my day, if you come after me, I am going to stir up my angry mobs, and you will suffer. He has been so threatening to the district attorney in Atlanta, that she now has formally announced that she is criminally investigating him, and needs FBI protection. Merrick Garland has said that he will not stop just with the people on the ground, he will follow the evidence where it leads.
But he does not have to follow a trail of bread crumbs here. As Jamie Raskin pointed out, Representative Raskin, the impeachment manager for the second impeachment, as he pointed out the other day, this is a smoking gun. You do not have to look any further.
more...
https://www.politicususa.com/2022/02/01/laurence-tribe-trump-confessed-to-seditious-conspiracy-and-would-face-20-years-in-prison.html
February 1, 2022
Trump's Promise to Pardon Jan. 6 Rioters Is Worse Than Watergate
Yes, I know, r/w Matt Lewis, but when you're right, you're right.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-promise-to-pardon-jan-6-rioters-is-worse-than-watergate?ref=home
Opinion
Trump’s Promise to Pardon Jan. 6 Rioters Is Worse Than Watergate
NIXON WAS AN AMATEUR
By the time Nixon resigned, Republicans were ashamed and appalled by Watergate. That’s not today’s GOP.
Matt Lewis
Senior Columnist
Updated Feb. 01, 2022 5:12AM ET / Published Feb. 01, 2022 5:04AM ET
snip//
Watergate hastened some wide-ranging “good government” ethics reforms. But arguably more importantly, it chastened a generation of political staffers and operatives. This is not to say that there won’t always be very many skeevy, bad actors plumbing the depths of D.C. politics, but post-Watergate you always knew that if you crossed the line, there would be a price to pay. You might be humiliated. You might be fired. You might even do time.
Trump’s attempt to steal the 2020 election failed because enough people close to the levers of power—advisors, staffers, bureaucrats, etc.—thought better of it. This is partly because (a) some were law-abiding patriots who value the Constitution, and (b) some feared there would be ramifications for breaking the law.
Nixon didn’t have some of the advantages Trump has enjoyed, such as a major cable news outlet dedicated to supporting him and an army of disinformation propagandists on the internet. Worse still for Tricky Dick, the GOP of 1974 still had the capacity for shame, as well as the courage and will to hold powerful people accountable.
If Trump and his accomplices go scot-free, future staffers and bureaucrats may well reason that “just following orders” is the path of least resistance. If Trump were president again, and he follows through on his pardon pledge, what would be the disincentive for any of his supporters considering political violence?
snip//
That’s why justice needs to be served for the crimes committed. Someone needs to go to jail. Someone has to pay.
February 1, 2022
https://www.thedailybeast.com/national-archives-records-sent-to-jan-6-committee-arrived-ripped-up-by-trump?ref=home
National Archives Records Sent to Jan. 6 Committee Arrived Ripped Up by Trump
PUZZLING
AJ McDougall
Breaking News Intern
Published Jan. 31, 2022 7:40PM ET
National Archives Records Sent to Jan. 6 Committee Arrived Ripped Up by Trump
https://www.thedailybeast.com/national-archives-records-sent-to-jan-6-committee-arrived-ripped-up-by-trump?ref=home
National Archives Records Sent to Jan. 6 Committee Arrived Ripped Up by Trump
PUZZLING
AJ McDougall
Breaking News Intern
Published Jan. 31, 2022 7:40PM ET
The National Archives said Monday that some of the Trump administration records turned over to the House select committee probing the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol last month had been reconstructed after being “torn up” by the former president. Donald Trump apparently continued to rip up his presidential papers, a habit in potential breach of the Presidential Records Act, well into the final days of his term. To comply with the law, Politico first reported in 2018, aides were forced to painstakingly scotch-tape the records back together. In a statement to The Washington Post, the National Archives confirmed that the trove of Trump White House documents sent to the committee “included paper records that had been torn up by former President Trump.” The archival agency continued that “White House records management officials during the Trump Administration recovered and taped together some of the torn-up records.” More than 700 pages were turned over, but it is not known how many, or which, were shredded by Trump.
February 1, 2022
Both Sides Don't Make Up Rules For SCOTUS Nominations
What if... we followed Republicans' rules for appointing Supreme Court justices?
By Christopher Reeves — January 31, 2022
snip//
Republicans do not care and do not pay a price
Mitch McConnell can say whatever he wants about the filibuster, about the Supreme Court, about legislation—and then immediately throw it away as soon as he sees the need to do so. The Republican base will never, at any point, call him out for his hypocrisy. They won’t do it, because they believe at their core that this is the cost that must be paid in order to bring their ideas forward. If that requires subverting the process, they are more than willing to do it. So be it.
On the Democratic side, we have a tendency to wring our hands and talk about process and procedure, or fear our own base will have problems with our decisions. Without mountains of data, I will say I firmly believe that the impact of a slow supreme court hearing process will not in any way help the Democratic cause. It only gives Democratic candidates a case to make that President Biden continues to work on fulfilling his promises to place a well-respected woman on the court, to work on the infrastructure plan which was passed, to highlight that #DemocratsDeliver, a hashtag used by many candidates this year.
Part of what that delivery has to include is the nomination and placement of a Supreme Court justice.
more...
https://crooksandliars.com/2022/01/both-sides-dont-make-rules-scotus
Both Sides Don't Make Up Rules For SCOTUS Nominations
Both Sides Don't Make Up Rules For SCOTUS Nominations
What if... we followed Republicans' rules for appointing Supreme Court justices?
By Christopher Reeves — January 31, 2022
snip//
Republicans do not care and do not pay a price
Mitch McConnell can say whatever he wants about the filibuster, about the Supreme Court, about legislation—and then immediately throw it away as soon as he sees the need to do so. The Republican base will never, at any point, call him out for his hypocrisy. They won’t do it, because they believe at their core that this is the cost that must be paid in order to bring their ideas forward. If that requires subverting the process, they are more than willing to do it. So be it.
On the Democratic side, we have a tendency to wring our hands and talk about process and procedure, or fear our own base will have problems with our decisions. Without mountains of data, I will say I firmly believe that the impact of a slow supreme court hearing process will not in any way help the Democratic cause. It only gives Democratic candidates a case to make that President Biden continues to work on fulfilling his promises to place a well-respected woman on the court, to work on the infrastructure plan which was passed, to highlight that #DemocratsDeliver, a hashtag used by many candidates this year.
Part of what that delivery has to include is the nomination and placement of a Supreme Court justice.
more...
https://crooksandliars.com/2022/01/both-sides-dont-make-rules-scotus
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Current location: Florida
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