Lindsey Graham Doubles Down On 'Riots In The Streets' Warning
"What I tried to do was state the obvious," Graham said, again raising the specter of violence if Trump is prosecuted for taking top secret documents from the White House.
Mary Papenfuss
Sep 3, 2022, 08:41 PM EDT


Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) dug an even deeper hole for himself Saturday after he was roundly slammed for warning earlier that there will be “riots in the streets” if Donald Trump is prosecuted for lifting classified documents from the White House as he left office.

snip//

He said “fascist states ... use the state and the law as a tool of their agenda,” and that he is worried about “trust” issues in the U.S., and a “double standard” for law enforcement.

Graham was sharply criticized after he raised the specter of violence for enforcing the law, and indicated that Trump is beyond legal restrictions, in an interview last Sunday with Fox News.

The Washington Post editorial board later called Graham’s remarks a clear threat, adding, “There is no excuse for this irresponsible rhetoric, which not only invites violence but also defies democratic norms.”

President Joe Biden, in a clear swipe at Graham, referred to turning on a television to see “senior senators and congressmen saying, ‘If such and such happens, there’ll be blood in the street.’ Where the hell are we?” Biden asked.

more...

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/lindsey-graham-doubles-down-riots-in-streets-trump-hillary-clinton_n_6313c6fde4b0ed021de88df9

https://www.thedailybeast.com/republicans-losing-the-midterms-would-be-a-political-chokejob-for-the-ages?ref=home


Republicans Losing the Midterms Would Be a Political Chokejob for the Ages
EPIC FAIL?
This was supposed to be a “gimme” election victory—but MAGA clowns are crashing the “red wave.”
Matt Lewis
Senior Columnist
Updated Sep. 03, 2022 3:03AM ET / Published Sep. 02, 2022 8:24PM ET


United they stand, divided they fall. That seems to be the normal midterm election mantra, where the president’s party (having governed and predictably overreached) is divided and on defense, while the “out” party is united with jaws slavering to rip apart the presidency.

But as the 2022 midterms approach, President Joe Biden’s party isn’t the one engaged in the most bitter backbiting (for a change).

snip//

The GOP’s problems almost universally stem from a party that has not only tolerated Donald Trump and his MAGA minions, but has largely embraced them. And now, the chickens are coming home to roost. So if you’re a Republican leader, do you call out the crazy and distance yourself from the downfall, or just keep digging your own electoral grave?

It’s lose-lose for the party that is clearly supposed to win.

Should Republicans fail to take back the Senate, will that finally cause whoever is in charge of the Republican Party to finally reject Trumpism? Or will the Trump Train continue whistling past the GOP’s graveyard?

https://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2022/09/dark-brandon-ascending-random.html

The Rude Pundit
Proudly lowering the level of political discourse
9/02/2022
Dark Brandon Ascending: Random Observations on a Patriotic Speech

snip//

2. However, setting all that aside, the bulk of the speech was truly an ass-kicker, the Dark Brandon meme come to life. Setting it at Independence Hall was a nice middle finger to the January 6 insurrectionists, as if Biden was saying, "This is what a real revolution is, you fucking children." And he spoke in no uncertain terms about how fucked up the hopes of the MAGA hordes are: "They refuse to accept the results of a free election. And they’re working right now, as I speak, in state after state to give power to decide elections in America to partisans and cronies, empowering election deniers to undermine democracy itself." This is pretty much undeniable, and it's happening in nearly every Republican-led state, including places like Georgia, which said that its 2020 results were totally legitimate yet somehow it needed to overhaul its voting laws because "fraud." It's fucking madness. It's like saying that you need to create a Leprechaun Crime Unit in your state because those motherfucking leprechauns keep shitting in clover patches. Or, you know, it's like saying your rights come from God. You don't base laws on fantasies.

Biden went on, "MAGA Republicans have made their choice. They embrace anger. They thrive on chaos. They live not in the light of truth but in the shadow of lies" as some jagoffs with bullhorns screamed "Fuck you" in a pure demonstration of the very thing Biden was saying. I appreciated Biden calling out the MAGA chodes for being the whiny little bitches that they are. I mean, it's one thing to want to challenge an election right after the results come in. It's another to be saying two years later that you think it should be tossed out. That's as juvenile as cosplaying soldier. When Biden said, "They don’t understand what every patriotic American knows: You can’t love your country only when you win," he was saying you are a bunch of titty babies suckling at Trump's teats and you need to grow the fuck up.

This was a Democrat standing up to bullies: not only the bullies in the streets and in Congress and in state houses, but the bullies in the right-wing media bullshit machine. When Biden said, "MAGA Republicans look at America and see carnage and darkness and despair. They spread fear and lies –- lies told for profit and power," he was talking about Fox "news" and Steve Bannon and Trump and every fuckwhore podcaster and SuperPAC making coin by driving weak-minded people mad. He took the fight directly to the bullies and didn't hedge (other than the distinction between "mainstream" GOP and MAGA GOP). That's gonna fuck up the brains of the spoogerags of the right. They're gonna go to Defcon Tan Suit over this outrage.

2a. The fact that so many Republicans condemned the speech pretty much proved that a "mainstream Republicans" is a MAGA drone.

snip//

4. Biden believes in this country. He believes in the goodness of those of us damned to live through this idiotic time in this degraded nation. He believes that's worth fighting for. We can either join him in the fight or capitulate to the worst assholes. Fuck that malarkey.

This was the only solution?


Township Chops Down Shade Trees In Park To Keep Homeless People Out
Homeless advocates have blasted a decision by Lakewood Township, New Jersey, to clear all the trees in its town square.
By Hilary Hanson
Sep 1, 2022, 09:24 PM EDT


A New Jersey township is facing criticism after cutting down the trees in its town square to prevent homeless people from congregating in the shade.

The trees in Lakewood Township’s town square, also known as Red Square, were chopped to the ground earlier this month, local news outlet The Lakewood Scoop reported at the time. But the story gained renewed attention after the Asbury Park Press covered the situation this week.

Lakewood Mayor Ray Coles told the APP that the township decided to get rid of the trees due to an unspecified number of complaints about homeless people “harassing” others in the square, as well as the presence of human feces. The police department’s “Quality of Life Unit” then recommended that the township chop down the trees, according to Coles.

snip//

“These trees were over forty years old, and offered shade to the poor and homeless that would come there to find respite and to socialize with their neighbors,” Brigham wrote on Facebook shortly after the trees were cut alongside a video showing the barren square. He posted additional video two days later of more trees being cleared at a public parking lot across the street from the square.

Brigham also accused the township of repeatedly taking away resources that homeless people used, including by demolishing a community center that people previously used for showers.

more...

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/lakewood-township-cuts-trees-homeless_n_63114ac4e4b020c4ffab605e

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/08/trump-stole-classified-documents-mar-a-lago-the-big-question-is-why/

August 31, 2022
Trump Stole Secret Government Documents. The Big Question Is Why.
To sell, to spite the Deep State, to weaponize, or to conceal?
David Corn


We know what Donald Trump did: He absconded from the White House with classified and top secret documents that belonged to the US government; he mishandled these highly sensitive records in his Mar-a-Largo lair (see this photo); he resisted the efforts of the government to retrieve these records; he employed a legal team that falsely certified that all classified material had been returned; and his actions prompted the Justice Department to investigate whether he and his crew obstructed justice or violated other federal laws, including the Espionage Act.

The big question is why. Why did FPOTUS, as he has been dubbed in Justice of Department court filings, run off with the most classified of documents, including records based on confidential human sources? It seems clear that this was no accident. Had it been inadvertent, Trump and his aides would have quickly responded to requests from the National Archives to return the goods, and they would have sent back all the requested material, not merely a portion. And if they had errantly not returned the full complement of super-secret papers, they presumably would have snapped-to and FedExed the rest back once informed by the Archives and the FBI that the former guy still improperly possessed hush-hush documents from his reign.

Though one can never discount incompetence in the course of such matters, the known evidence suggests Trump really, really wanted to keep these papers. In its legal filings following the FBI raid on Trump’s club, though, the Justice Department has not presented its view of Trump’s motives. But that hasn’t stopped a frenzy of speculation on the internet. Nor should it. Given that Trump ran for president in 2016 charging that Hillary Clinton had harmed national security by using a personal server for her email when she was secretary of state and vowing that he would “enforce all laws concerning the protection of classified information,” this scandal is yet the latest sign of the brazen hypocrisy and blatant corruption at the root of his MAGA demagoguery and its embrace by the Republican Party. This affair warrants full examination, and that includes the reasons for Trump’s apparent flouting of the law. So let’s look at a few possible explanations.

snip//

The Justice Department filings suggest Trump’s actions were intentional. He nicked these records and held on to them—in the face of pleas from the government for their return—for a reason. In most criminal investigations, motivation is a key element. The FBI determined that Hillary Clinton’s handling of records, which included classified material, was careless and violated the rules but that she did not intend to circumvent the law. If the Justice Department does pursue an indictment against Trump or his minions, it will have to address the issue of motive. Should that occur, Trump will not be able to plead ignorance. His statements from the 2016 campaign demonstrate he was well aware of the possible criminality of mishandling classified information. And there’s nothing surprising about how he has disregarded the law in this episode. What needs to be revealed is why Trump acted so recklessly. Considering how ineptly Trump’s legal response has been so far and how strong the Justice Department case appears at this point, Trump’s motive might eventually get its day in court.

https://digbysblog.net/2022/09/01/not-so-semi-fascism-alert/

(Not so semi) fascism alert
Published by digby on September 1, 2022
Trump 2.0 rolls around in the mud and loves it



Bookmark this for when someone tries to tell you that DeSantis is somehow better than Trump. There is no daylight between them when it comes to lying and character assassination. Popular Information reports:



snip//

This is DeSantis road testing his Orbanesque modern fascism attacking institutions to see how much the public will tolerate. Teachers are on his list because parents have been programmed into believing that the schools were closed not because a novel virus caused a global pandemic that was filling up hospitals and morgues all over the world but because lazy pedophile teachers wanted to hang out at home and eat bon bons.

This point can’t be made enough:
https://twitter.com/whstancil/status/1565361144168173575
DeSantis targets teachers because they are educated, mostly female, members of a public employee union who often vote for Democrats. He’s leveraging the frustration parents felt over the school closings to do it. And he’s going as dirty as it gets, pushing this grotesque “grooming” smear which has to be one of the grossest attacks I’ve ever seen. Sickening.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/house-oversight-committee-reaches-deal-to-obtain-trumps-financial-records?ref=home


House Oversight Committee Reaches Deal to Obtain Trump’s Financial Records
‘EGREGIOUS CONDUCT’
Dan Ladden-Hall
News Correspondent
Published Sep. 01, 2022 10:06AM ET

https://politicalwire.com/2022/09/01/trump-white-house-lawyers-to-appear-before-grand-jury/


Trump White House Lawyers to Appear Before Grand Jury
September 1, 2022 at 10:40 am EDT By Taegan Goddard

https://crooksandliars.com/2022/08/jim-jordan

Jim Jordan Mocks Image Of Top Secret Documents Strewn About
Jordan is the ranking Republican member of the House Judiciary Committee should be booted off the Committee immediately for mocking the severity of this breach of national security.
By John Amato — August 31, 2022


Rep. Jim Jordan, who was part of Trump's inner circle, used the House Judiciary GOP Twitter feed to attack the damning photo published by the Department of Justice late Tuesday night.

The photo shows a large number of documents marked "TOP SECRET" spread across the carpet at Mar-A-Lago. It's quite unbelievable to see US top secrets treated like they were Trump's old Hustler magazines getting ready for the bin. or maybe he just finished using them? (OK, that was icky)

Jordan, who runs the House GOP Judiciary Twitter feed, focused his ire not on all the classified documents strewn on the floor like garbage, but an image on the far right top that depicts a Time magazine cover.



Jordan is the ranking Republican member of the House Judiciary Committee should be booted off the Committee immediately for mocking the severity of this breach of national security.





Jordan routinely loses his mind over a negative text message of Trump or an email, but when he sees actual top secret documents being handled so moronically and with so much danger to US national security, he makes a joke.

Trump considers top secret documents nothing more than a discarded Time Magazine. I'm sure Chinese, Russian, and North Korean spies just loved walking into Mar-A-Lago.

The US now sees how bereft of integrity and honor Jim Jordan is when he pretends top secret US documents are nothing more that Trump's playthings.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/are-trumps-passports-the-fbis-smoking-gun?ref=home

Are Trump’s Passports the FBI’s Smoking Gun?
PROXIMITY TO A CRIME
DOJ’s latest filing suggests the proximity of Trump’s personal identification to top secret government documents could prove the former president is personally culpable.
Barbara McQuade
Updated Aug. 31, 2022 4:40PM ET / Published Aug. 31, 2022 3:45PM ET

snip//

The significance of the passports is enormous. As DOJ explained in an understated footnote, “The location of the passports is relevant evidence in an investigation of unauthorized retention and mishandling of national defense information.”

In other words, the presence of the passports in the same drawer as the classified records tends to tie the unauthorized possession of these documents to Trump himself. A photo included with the filing shows the items that were recovered from his office. Among the classification markings on the documents are “Top Secret,” meaning that the disclosure of the material could cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security of the United States.

snip//

One statute makes it a crime to retain government records. Another statute prohibits willful retention of “national defense information.” The third prohibits concealing documents to obstruct justice. Trump could declassify these documents all day and it would not make a bit of difference in his guilt or innocence of those charges.

Passports usually permit entry to other nations. These have opened the door for investigators.