babylonsister

babylonsister's Journal

June 20, 2022

Expert: Racketeering Charges Likely Against Trump

https://crooksandliars.com/2022/06/expert-racketeering-charges-likely-against

Expert: Racketeering Charges Likely Against Trump
CNN legal analyst Norm Eisen predicted that former President Donald Trump will be charged with racketeering when he "finally faces accountability" for trying to overturn the presidential election in Georgia.

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By David — June 20, 2022

CNN legal analyst Norm Eisen predicted that former President Donald Trump will be charged with racketeering when he "finally faces accountability" for trying to overturn the presidential election in Georgia.

Eisen made the remarks ahead of a Jan. 6 Committee hearing on Trump's efforts in Georgia, where he was recorded pressuring officials to find new votes for him after the election.

"What kinds of crimes do you believe [Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis] in Georgia would be looking at?" CNN host Fredricka Whitfield asked the attorney on Sunday.

Eisen predicted that Trump is in danger of being charged with solicitation of election fraud.

"You can't ask for those 11,780 votes that don't exist," he pointed out. "She prosecuted the Atlanta teaching scandal as a RICO [Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act] case -- Georgia state RICO. A racketeer and corrupt influence in organizations. In this case, that would be Trump and the Trump campaign. I think she'll do RICO here."

"I think charges in Georgia are looking increasingly likely," Eisen continued. "Atlanta is the place where Trump may finally face accountability."

"Wow," Whitfield replied. "That would be -- I mean, that's extraordinary."

June 20, 2022

DeSantis' College Teammate: 'He Was The Biggest D*ck We Knew'

https://crooksandliars.com/2022/06/desantis-college-teammate-he-was-biggest

DeSantis' College Teammate: 'He Was The Biggest D*ck We Knew'
This is probably why conservatives like him.
By Conover Kennard — June 20, 2022

If former President Donald Trump wants to run in 2024, he might have a formidable contender if Ron DeSantis runs, too. A recent Denver poll shows DeSantis winning 71% of the vote to Trump’s 67%. Trump's iron grip on his party is slowly loosening.

Republicans are afraid of the twice-impeached former President. Sen. Lindsey Graham praised Trump on Friday for making everybody "afraid" while he served in the White House.

"You know what I liked about Trump? Everybody was afraid of him, including me," the South Carolina Republican said.

However, Ron DeSantis is more frightening, in my humble, but always right opinion. DeSantis has similar narcissistic traits as the former President, but he's smart. In contrast, Trump is an idiot. That's not the only similarity the two share.

The New Yorker published an interesting profile on DeSantis. He's cruel like Trump.

Some recalled that DeSantis was so intensely focused that he wasn't much of a teammate. "Ron is the most selfish person I have ever interacted with," another teammate told me. "He has always loved embarrassing and humiliating people. I'm speaking for others—he was the biggest dick we knew." But the same teammate praised DeSantis's intellect. "This is the frustrating part. He's so fucking smart and so creative," he said. "You couldn't even plagiarize off his work. He'd take some angle, and everyone knew there was only one person who could have done that."

Like Trump, DeSantis likes humiliating people. I'm starting to see a pattern here with Republicans. Cruelty is the point.

June 19, 2022

Opinion: Democrats shouldn't be so quick to throw Biden overboard

Opinion: Democrats shouldn't be so quick to throw Biden overboard
Opinion by Julian Zelizer, CNN Political Analyst
Updated 11:02 PM ET, Thu June 16, 2022
"Julian Zelizer, a CNN political analyst, is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. He is the author and editor of 24 books, including, "The Presidency of Donald J. Trump: A First Historical Assessment." Follow him on Twitter @julianzelizer. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion on CNN."

snip//

Barring any major bombshells or revelations, the notion that Biden should relegate himself to one term doesn't make much sense on paper.Although his opponents like to paint him as a total failure, Biden's legislative accomplishments stack up well compared to other presidents at this stage in their first terms.

The American Rescue Plan and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act are two major initiatives that passed despite intense polarization and the Democrats' narrow majorities in Congress. And both pieces of legislation have been integral to the nation's recovery from the pandemic. The Biden administration also oversaw the swift rollout of the Covid-19 vaccines, which have been key to protecting the country against the damage caused by new variants.

On foreign policy, Biden has enjoyed considerable success strengthening NATO and ratcheting up economic sanctions against Russia while providing critical aid to Ukraine. As New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman wrote about his off-the-record lunch with the President, "What I felt afterward was this: For all you knuckleheads on Fox who say that Biden can't put two sentences together, here's a news flash: He just put NATO together, Europe together and the whole Western alliance together—stretching from Canada up to Finland and all the way to Japan—to help Ukraine protect its fledgling democracy from Vladimir Putin's fascist assault."

snip//

Nor is it clear that there is another Democrat who would be in a better position come 2024. None of the major Democratic candidates in 2020 proved capable of mounting an appealing and formidable campaign. And some of those candidates, including Vice President Kamala Harris, are now weighed down by new questions about their viability and do not appear to be strong candidates against Trump in the current economic and political environment.

more...

https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/16/opinions/biden-reelection-2024-democrats-zelizer/index.html

June 18, 2022

The Rude Pundit: Call It What It Was: An Assassination Attempt on Mike Pence

The Rude Pundit
Proudly lowering the level of political discourse
6/17/2022
Call It What It Was: An Assassination Attempt on Mike Pence

I have despised Mike Pence longer than most of you, even before he was that fuckin' conservative prick in Congress from 2001-2012, even before he was that motherfucking governor who refused to allow a needle exchange program in a town with a high rate of HIV (until he prayed and partially gave in). Yeah, see, I was damned to live in Indiana in the late-1990s when Pence was a right-wing radio twatmite, advocating for laws against adultery and railing against the cartoon Mulan for daring to say that women could be in the military with men and hating on LGBT people with a fervor that could only be described as protesting way, way too much. When I say, "Fuck him in every hole from ass to eye," I mean it.

So if I say anything that is perceived as a kind word about him, just know that I really think he's lower than worm shit.

That said, yeah, Pence did one good thing with his sad, homophobic, nutzoid Christian life. He stood firm against a wave of spittle and being called a "pussy" and "wimp" from Donald Trump, as well as Trump's caricature of a mob boss threat that "I don't want to be your friend anymore if you don't do this," and ratified the electoral count in the 2020 presidential election. I don't think he did that for honorable reasons. He consulted with, among others, former Vice President Dan Quayle, who told him, "I also know what the law is. You listen to the parliamentarian. That’s all you do. You have no power" when Pence sought his blessing in overturning a clean election, which would have thrown the country into dictatorship. Pence had spent the last five years being Trump's most loyal lickspittle, a remora suctioned onto Trump's ass so tightly that he may as well have been Trump's vestigial tail. Pence wasn't strong. Pence certainly wasn't a goddamn hero. He was scared that he'd break the law and end up in prison if it all went sideways. He didn't want to commit a crime. He didn't do the right thing so much as he didn't do the wrong thing. So, fuck it, may as well act like the great defender of the Constitution.

And what did Pence get for his trouble? As his chief of staff Marc Short told the January 6 committee, he was so worried "that the president would lash out in some way" over Pence's disloyalty that Short contacted the head of Pence's Secret Service detail to make sure they were ready in case shit went south. And south it went.

Let's stop beating around the goddamn bush with this shit. The January 6 attack on the Capitol was, among other things, a coordinated assassination attempt on Mike Pence, one that was cheered on, if not directed, by the President of the United States, who really was Donald Trump.

more...

https://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2022/06/call-it-what-it-was-assassination.html

June 18, 2022

U.S. Captives Surface in Russian Propaganda Videos

U.S. Captives Surface in Russian Propaganda Videos
ENEMY HANDS
Alexander Drueke, 39, and Andy Huynh, 27, were looking worse for wear in videos shared by Russian state media on Friday.
Allison Quinn
News Editor
Updated Jun. 17, 2022 5:53PM ET / Published Jun. 17, 2022 5:42PM ET

Two of the American fighters thought to have been captured by Russian forces in Ukraine last week have suddenly surfaced in Russian propaganda videos, confirming their families’ worst fears that they’ve wound up in enemy hands.

Alexander Drueke, 39, and Andy Huynh, 27, were seen looking worse for wear in videos shared by Russian state media on Friday. Though the two had officially joined Ukraine’s military as volunteers in the war, the Russian headlines described them as American “mercenaries.”

In what appears to be a heavily edited video released by Russia’s Izvestia newspaper, Huynh said he had been influenced by “propaganda” and “exaggerated facts” in the news before joining the war. He went on to deny reports of Russian troops killing civilians.

“When I came here, I discovered that that wasn’t the case,” he said.

more...

https://www.thedailybeast.com/us-captives-alexander-drueke-and-andy-huynh-surface-in-russian-propaganda-videos?ref=home

June 17, 2022

Chris Hayes Says It Out Loud: Trump Tried To Have Pence Killed

If this isn't grounds for the DOJ to do something, I don't know what is.

https://crooksandliars.com/2022/06/chris-hayes-says-it-out-loud-trump-tried

Chris Hayes Says It Out Loud: Trump Tried To Have Pence Killed
The most reasonable interpretation of the facts is it was an assassination attempt. Wow, but true.
By Frances Langum — June 17, 2022

I don't know why

TRUMP TRIED TO GET MIKE PENCE KILLED

isn't the headline in every major outlet today. Wait, yes I do.

The sitting so-called president was okay with this. That's the actual headline. Our corporate media is too chickenshit to say it. https://t.co/ATM09RrrHX

— Frances Langum 🧶🇺🇦 (@bluegal) June 16, 2022

Chris Hayes has to couch his language but is courageous enough to say it out loud with a carefully worded preface:

HAYES: Establishing clearly, they [the White House] knew there was violence at the Capitol when he sent the tweet...

Trump Tweet about Pence Credit: Screenshot/PBS NewsHour

...I think the most reasonable interpretation of the facts, not necessarily the most definitive one, but the most reasonable interpretation of the facts as introduced...

...is that the President of the United States tried to get the Vice President killed.

Saying that sentence sounds...a little nuts, but what closed the loop for me on this today? Was the definitive establishing in the testimony today that they knew when he sent the tweet [that the mob was violent]. That was always...it seemed clear at the time...we were all watching it on TV...but the fact he had been briefed, the fact they told him how hairy it had gotten, how scary it had gotten. There were internal communications going to the President, and he sent that tweet. It is very difficult to find an interpretation, that is NOT that... the President decided to sic the crowd on the Vice President.

Lawrence Tribe also says a thing:

Trump’s 2:24 pm tweet on 1/6/21 calling Pence a coward is in retrospect the smoking gun.

— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) June 17, 2022

June 17, 2022

Grift Made Donald Trump and the Modern Republican Party, and It Could Take Them Down

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/joan-mccarter/102010/grift-made-donald-trump-and-the-modern-republican-party-and-it-could-take-them-down

Grift Made Donald Trump and the Modern Republican Party, and It Could Take Them Down
by Joan McCarter | June 16, 2022 - 8:07am
— from Daily Kos

Grift made Donald Trump. Grift made the modern-day Republican Party. It seems almost inevitable that the two would eventually come together to present the greatest threat to the nation in more than a century: January 6, 2020.

Few of the revelations unveiled by the Jan. 6 committee on Monday about Trump’s fundraising were really new. After all, months after the event, former Trump fixer and attorney Michael Cohen declared Trump’s claims of election fraud the “greatest grift in U.S. history.” He said that Trump “has made it very clear that he is grifting off of the American people, these supporters, these individuals that are just sending money to him at record levels.”

But the connection the committee made to that grift—the Big Rip-off, as Rep. Zoe Lofgren termed it—to the violent and horrifying events on Jan. 6: that clicked. As did the case the committee seems to be making for felony wire fraud. That’s the takeaway from one prosecutor, anyway: New York state Attorney General Letitia James. “The new details revealed tonight related to January 6 are disturbing,” James tweeted Monday. “It’s my duty to investigate allegations of fraud or potential misconduct in New York. This incident is no exception.”

snip//

That’s the very dangerous side of the tradition of grift that the Republicans have been perfecting for the past 60 years, as author and historian Rick Perlstein told The Washington Post’s Greg Sargent. “This phenomenon of conservative Republican leaders seeing their constituencies as a pool of marks to squeeze money out of really does go back to the beginnings of the conservative takeover of the Republican Party in the 1960s,” Perlstein said. “As is so often the case in the Republican Party under the Trumpist reign, it takes normal historical patterns of behavior and turns them up to 11.”

“Right-wing voters are acclimated into an understanding of the world in which they are being victimized by dark forces,” he continued. “That’s a great way for conservative leaders to get money shoveled in their direction. But it’s also a great way to form what Marxists used to call a ‘cadre,’ a group of fanatically dedicated followers.”

“Now we face the phenomenon of millions of people, many of them armed, who are identifying their own safety, comfort and flourishing as human beings with the political success of Donald Trump and his allies. […] If you think the stakes are whether civilization itself survives, and that you’re dealing with a cabal of shadowy enemies, of course you’re licensed to use any means to stop them,” Perlstein said.

“If the stakes are racial replacement, and the shadowy enemies are the Jews said to be controlling the replacement of Whites, then it’s okay to kill Jews. It’s okay to shoot up Black churches. It’s okay to shoot up a Walmart.”

Or it’s okay to attack the U.S. Capitol and attempt to overthrow Congress and threaten to kill the vice president.

June 16, 2022

Ex-Judge Has Stark Message for January 6 Committee

https://politicalwire.com/2022/06/15/ex-judge-has-stark-message-for-january-6-committee/

Ex-Judge Has Stark Message for January 6 Committee
June 15, 2022 at 8:57 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 31 Comments

Retired federal Judge J. Michael Luttig, a staunch conservative long admired by many Republicans, will testify before the House’s Jan. 6 committee on Thursday with an urgent and stark message, CBS News reports: “America’s democracy was almost stolen from her.”

“Luttig will also likely state that the Republican National Committee is wrong to have referred to some of the events of Jan. 6, 2021 as ‘legitimate political discourse’ and warn fellow conservatives to not ignore the gravity of what Trump did as he scrambled to hold onto the presidency that day.”

George Conway to MSNBC: “I really want to hear this testimony. I think it’s going to be a blockbuster moment in these hearings.”

June 15, 2022

Every State But Florida Ordered Vaccines for Kids

He's such a total ahole.

https://politicalwire.com/2022/06/15/every-state-but-florida-ordered-vaccines-for-kids/

Every State But Florida Ordered Vaccines for Kids
June 15, 2022 at 3:49 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard

“Every state has placed an order with the federal government to ensure coronavirus vaccines for young children are delivered as soon as regulators authorize their use — except for one,” McClatchy reports.

“Florida has yet to request delivery of Covid-19 pediatric vaccines for children under 5, missing yesterday’s deadline for pre-orders and guaranteeing a delay in access for parents across the state.”

June 15, 2022

Man Given Jan. 5 Tour of Capitol Complex Captured Yelling Threats During Riot, Report Says

Man Given Jan. 5 Tour of Capitol Complex Captured Yelling Threats During Riot, Report Says
SHOW US THE VIDEO
The Jan. 6 committee reportedly has footage of the man making threats against lawmakers outside the Capitol while the riot was underway.
Allison Quinn
News Editor
Published Jun. 15, 2022 7:37AM ET

A man who took part in a tour of the U.S. Capitol complex on Jan. 5, 2021, with Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) was reportedly captured on video hurling threats at lawmakers during the insurrectionist riot the next day.

The man, who has not been identified publicly, was outside the Capitol as the attempted insurrection was underway, and he does not appear to have been charged in connection with the events of that day, according to Punchbowl News, which broke the news of the Jan. 6 committee having video of both the man being given a tour, and his alleged threats.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is said to have been among those at the receiving end of his alleged threats. Members of the House select committee investigating the circumstances of the deadly Jan. 6 riot have reportedly been discussing what to do with the footage.

Releasing the footage to the public is said to be among the options under consideration.

snip//

In a January 2021 letter to the U.S. Capitol Police, more than two dozen Democratic lawmakers asked for an “immediate investigation” into “an extremely high number of outside groups” visiting the Capitol complex the day before the riot.

“Members of the group that attacked the Capitol seemed to have an unusually detailed knowledge of the layout of the Capitol Complex,” the letter noted.

more...

https://www.thedailybeast.com/man-given-tour-of-capitol-complex-by-gop-rep-loudermilk-captured-yelling-threats-during-riot-report-says?ref=scroll

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Gender: Female
Hometown: NY
Home country: US
Current location: Florida
Member since: Mon Sep 6, 2004, 09:54 PM
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