babylonsister
babylonsister's JournalDon Jr., Fox Stars Begged Meadows: Get Trump to Stop Capitol Riot
Don Jr., Fox Stars Begged Meadows: Get Trump to Stop Capitol Riot
BOMBSHELL
Liz Cheney revealed text messages from the president’s son, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham to Trump’s chief of staff on Jan. 6.
Jose Pagliery
Political Investigations Reporter
Updated Dec. 13, 2021 8:04PM ET / Published Dec. 13, 2021 7:33PM ET
snip//
“I’m pushing it hard. I agree,” Meadows responded.
“We need an Oval Office address. He has to leave now. It has gone too far and gotten out of hand,” the president’s son responded.
Several Fox News stars also texted Meadows to implore the president to act.
Trump confidant Sean Hannity texted: “Can he make a statement. Ask people to leave the Capitol.”
Primetime host Laura Ingraham wrote: “Mark, the president needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home. This is hurting all of us. He is destroying his legacy.”
more...
https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-jr-texted-mark-meadows-begging-his-dad-to-give-an-address-to-halt-jan-6-capitol-riot?ref=home
Eric Boehlert: Slow-walking the coup PowerPoint
Slow-walking the coup PowerPoint
Blueprint for sabotage
Eric Boehlert
1 hr ago
Twelve months after the press shied away from calling Trump’s coup attempt a “coup,” the Beltway media continue to go slow on the latest revelation about how deeply enmeshed the White House was in its blatant push to sabotage democracy following the Republican’s lopsided loss to Joe Biden.
The discovery of a pro-coup PowerPoint circulating within the White House last winter, designed to nullify millions of American votes, ought to be covered nonstop today, and used as proof that Trump is not suitable to hold office in this country. Instead, the PowerPoint has received mostly passing, disinterested coverage.
Titled “Election Fraud, Foreign Interference & Options for 6 JAN,” the 38-page presentation is a rocket ship ride into the Big Lie abyss. The proposed plan was for Trump to declare a national emergency and for all electronic voting to be rendered invalid, citing foreign “control” of electronic voting systems. The chilling PowerPoint came to light recently when Trump’s fourth and final chief of staff, Mark Meadows, turned the electronic presentation over to investigators at the January 6 Committee. Days later, Meadows stopped cooperating with the panel.
snip//
A criminal conspiracy to overthrow last year’s election, the PowerPoint is a heavy-handed plot twist that most Hollywood scriptwriters would dismiss as not being believable. Yet here we are, as Trump plans his re-election run and we learn more about the runaway criminal enterprise he oversaw as president.
We’re learning about it slowly though, and what seems to be reluctantly by the Beltway press, which instead of touting the PowerPoint as a smoking gun that reveals the GOP’s proudly anti-democratic ways, are treating the proposal timidly — an oddity that doesn’t demand much attention. Virtually none of the coverage I’ve seen has included key context, such as quotes from experts on authoritarianism regarding the stunning implications of a White House likely consulting a sabotage plan like that.
more...
https://pressrun.media/p/slow-walking-the-gops-coup-powerpoint
Fox News Is Fully Tucker TV Now That Chris Wallace Is Gone
https://www.thedailybeast.com/fox-news-is-fully-tucker-carlson-tv-now-that-chris-wallace-is-gone?ref=homeFox News Is Fully Tucker TV Now That Chris Wallace Is Gone
MASK OFF
With the consummate newsman gone, let there be no doubt that Murdoch will allow Fox News to more fully take on the grotesque form of Tucker Carlson.
Clive Irving
Updated Dec. 12, 2021 4:04PM ET / Published Dec. 12, 2021 3:46PM ET
The final fig leaf has fallen from Fox News, in the form of Chris Wallace’s exit. As it does, the nakedness of the Murdoch network assumes more clearly the grotesque form of Tucker Carlson.
There were several signs that the burden placed on Wallace as the de facto protector of truth at Fox was too much for him to endure for much longer.
Last month, in a long interview with Matthew Garrahan in the Financial Times, Wallace refused to comment on Carlson. Instead, he offered this bromide: “I am only responsible for and only have control over my piece of real estate. I’m proud of what we do… I feel a tremendous sense of responsibility to my audience and to the truth. Truth is non-negotiable. There’s no spin to truth. Truth is truth.”
With Carlson’s contempt for truth-telling going way beyond the range of Fox’s other primetime bloviators, the image of Wallace upholding his own guard rails—of him being the guarantor of the news division’s sanctity—was risible.
snip//
There are several layers of executives between Murdoch and Fox News. He’s long ceased to be the hands-on boss he once was. But nothing has ever happened in any Murdoch operation that he did not allow to happen. So no matter what spin Fox will put on the departure of Chris Wallace, let there be no doubt that allowing the face of Fox News to become predominantly that of Tucker Carlson has the Rupert blessing. He has to live with that.
Flynn's Fave Paramilitary Rebrands as Private Security Firm
You KNOW they're up to no good... 
Flynn’s Fave Paramilitary Rebrands as Private Security Firm
“The Shepherd Group,” a venture of 1st Amendment Praetorian, went live days before the right-wing group’s leader, Robert Patrick Lewis, was subpoenaed in a Jan. 6 probe.
William Bredderman
Researcher
Updated Dec. 12, 2021 2:31AM ET / Published Dec. 11, 2021 9:29PM ET
A far-right group that purports to recruit military and law enforcement veterans to provide personal bodyguards to Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn and other top conspiracy theorists revamped itself last month as an “intelligence, investigations, security and support” firm—shortly before the House Jan. 6 committee subpoenaed its leader.
Between Nov. 1 and Nov. 19, multiple social-media accounts associated with a California-based company calling itself “The Shepherd Group” went live, as did a website hawking its “holistic, boutique approach” to digital forensics, physical security, surveillance/counter-surveillance, and corporate intelligence.
“Our clients include private individuals and corporations, law-enforcement agencies and the U.S. Government with a focus on missions that strive toward the betterment of the Republic and humanity,” the page reads, although it provides no list of past jobs or customers.
But a little digging reveals that the Shepherd Group is not entirely new: rather, it appears to be a front for the militant group 1st Amendment Praetorian, previously a volunteer outfit that has deployed its self-described force of former armed forces and police personnel as security for right-wing leaders and events. The group’s name derives from the elite cadre of Roman soldiers who served as the emperor’s personal retinue.
Most prominently, the modern outfit chaperoned the conservative star-studded rally on D.C.’s Freedom Plaza on the eve of the Capitol riot. Experts suggested the pivot to a for-profit business model might represent a bid for legitimacy in the face of public scrutiny. After all, the shift came just weeks ahead of the order for its founder to appear before Congress, though it is unclear whether this timing was deliberate or fortuitous.
more...
https://www.thedailybeast.com/flynns-fave-paramilitary-rebrands-as-private-security-firm?ref=home
Fox anchor Chris Wallace leaving network for new adventure'
Fox anchor Chris Wallace leaving network for `new adventure’
Politics
Posted: Dec 12, 2021 / 10:27 AM EST / Updated: Dec 12, 2021 / 10:37 AM EST
WASHINGTON (AP) —
Veteran Fox News anchor Chris Wallace said Sunday that he is leaving the network after 18 years and was “ready for a new adventure.”
Wallace made the announcement at the end of the weekly news show he moderates, “Fox News Sunday.”
Wallace, 74, said he had been “free to report to the best of my ability, to cover the stories I think are important, to hold our country’s leaders to account. It’s been a great ride.’’
He said he was leaving after 18 years at the network because “I want to try something new, to go beyond politics to all the things I’m interested in. I’m ready for a new adventure and I hope you’ll check it out.’’
more...
https://www.wric.com/news/politics/fox-anchor-chris-wallace-leaving-network-for-new-adventure/
Donald Trump Defies Belief With New Spin On 'We Fight Like Hell' Speech From Jan. 6
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-jan-6-description-fox-news_n_61b4550fe4b089ee1c34a0a4
Donald Trump Defies Belief With New Spin On ‘We Fight Like Hell’ Speech From Jan. 6
The transcript of the former president's inflammatory address before the U.S. Capitol riot shows otherwise.
Lee Moran
12/11/2021 03:25am EST | Updated 24 minutes ago
Donald Trump attempted to spin his inflammatory speech ahead of the Jan. 6 insurrection into something much more mellow and measured on Friday night.
The former president, during an interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham, claimed the incendiary address that whipped his supporters up into storming the U.S. Capitol in a bid to overturn the 2020 election was “extremely calming.”
“Honestly, I have nothing to hide,” Trump told Ingraham during a conversation about a federal appeals court’s refusal to let him block the release of records to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 violence.
“I wasn’t involved in that,” Trump declared. “And if you look at my words and what I said in the speech, they were extremely calming, actually.”
Instead, Trump claimed, the insurrection took place on Election Day, and the attack on the Capitol was just a protest.
Watch the claim here:
https://twitter.com/i/status/1469513627950456832
A transcript of Trump’s speech on Jan. 6 shows him ranting repeatedly about the “fake news media,” pushing the baseless conspiracy theory that the election was “rigged,” and vowing to “never give up” and “never concede.”
“And we fight. We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore,” he added. After the violence, Trump was impeached for the second time for inciting insurrection.
Sure Looks Like Donald Trump Is Gonna Lose the Lightbulb War
Sure Looks Like Donald Trump Is Gonna Lose the Lightbulb War
LEDs may make him “look orange,” but these new standards will kill incandescents.
Oliver Milman
This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.
The Biden administration has moved to reverse the depredations endured by one of the more unusual targets of Donald Trump’s culture wars during his time as US president: the humble lightbulb.
The Department of Energy has put forward a new standard for the energy efficiency of lightbulbs that would essentially banish the era of older, incandescent technology in favor of LED lighting.
Incandescent bulbs cost Americans nearly $300 million extra in monthly electricity bills, to say nothing of the emissions.
The absence of lightbulb regulations helps worsen the climate crisis and wastes households money, according to the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. The group has found the use of wasteful incandescent lights is costing Americans nearly $300 million a month in needless electricity bills and releasing 800,000 tons of carbon dioxide over the lifetimes of the inefficient bulbs sold each month.
Trump, however, was not enamored by LED lights while he was in the White House. The twice-impeached president said that he looks “better under an incandescent light than these crazy lights that are beaming down,” complaining in 2019 that he “always looks orange” under LED lights. He claimed that if LEDs break they become “a hazardous waste site” and are “very dangerous with all of the gases.”
more...
https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2021/12/department-energy-standards-trumps-losing-incandescent-lightbulb-ban/
Jen Psaki Exposes Lindsey Graham And His Fake CBO Score In Front Of The Entire Country
https://www.politicususa.com/2021/12/10/jen-psaki-exposes-lindsey-graham-and-his-fake-cbo-score-in-front-of-the-entire-country.htmlPosted on Fri, Dec 10th, 2021 by Jason Easley
Jen Psaki Exposes Lindsey Graham And His Fake CBO Score In Front Of The Entire Country
Jen Psaki called out hypocrite Lindsey Graham and said that Build Back Better actually pays for the Trump tax cuts that Graham supported.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1469400693370929166
Psaki said when asked about Sen. Graham’s fake CBO score:
I would also note that there is a particular irony here. That shouldn’t be lost on Senator Graham. Maybe it is lost on Sen. Graham? I don’t know. That the plan that they proposed, and passed into law, the 2017 tax cuts, were $2 trillion were not paid for in any way shape or form and that didn’t seem to upset them at all. And I what I will say, and they can thank us in any way they would like for this, our projections, and the projections of our economists is for our plan as it continues in the second decade it would reduce the deficit by $2 trillion, so we’re covering their irresponsible tax cuts to corporations and high wealth individuals.
Jen Psaki took apart the hypocrisy of Lindsey Graham being concerned about adding to the deficit for programs that will lower the cost of prescription drugs, provide universal pre-k, and actually help people while being fine with blowing a two trillion dollar hole in the deficit to give rich people and corporations a big pile of money.
The Fox News crowd and Republicans will take the Graham sham seriously, but for everyone else, it is just another moment of Republican hypocrisy that reaffirms the point that the GOP is for the rich and not for thee.
Altercation: Understanding Tucker Carlson
https://prospect.org/politics/altercation-understanding-tucker-carlson/
The American Prospect
Altercation: Understanding Tucker Carlson
The only plausible explanation for his descent into racism and absurdity is that he plans to run for president.
by Eric Alterman
December 10, 2021
Tucker Carlson, easily the most popular host on cable news, has adopted a public persona that is simultaneously evil and insane. In addition to his naked racism and deliberate attempts to enable COVID to infect and kill as many people as possible, there’s his three-part documentary suggesting that the January 6 insurrection was a “false flag” operation. Not stopping there, he also has recently taken to defending Alex Jones. He said, for instance that “the truth is he [Jones] has been a far better guide to reality in recent years—in other words, a far better journalist—than, say, NBC News national-security correspondent Ken Dilanian or Margaret Brennan of CBS.” As Peter Wehner notes in The Atlantic, “Jones, the host of InfoWars, was found liable for damages in a defamation lawsuit brought by parents of children killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, whose victims included 20 young children. Jones claimed that the shooting was a ‘false flag’ operation carried out by ‘crisis actors.’ He mocked grieving parents, saying, ‘I’ve looked at it, and undoubtedly there’s a cover-up, there’s actors, they’re manipulating, they’ve been caught lying, and they were preplanning before it and rolled out with it.’”
snip//
(4) How can what we call “polite society” continue to treat Carlson’s employers, Rupert and James Murdoch, and their top lieutenants, and the others who enable them, as solid, respectable citizens, much less as owners of a legitimate news service that is rather more conservative than most, when instead they are destroying our democracy and promoting the destruction of the planet and mass death via purposeful lies and misinformation?
(5) Finally: What, ultimately, is Tucker up to? He can’t possibly believe the things he says. He’s not that stupid or that crazy. He is, however, pretty damn cynical. So my real question is: Where is he going with all this? Carlson is already number one among his competitors and makes more money than anyone can sensibly spend. I understand that it’s nice to be the most popular anything—but the most popular pro-fascist racist hate-monger and virus spreader? King of the goons? Is this what makes a parent proud these days?
The only thing that makes sense to me is that Tucker wants to run for president and he’s figured out—long before most of the rest of us—just how stupid, selfish, malevolent, and easy to manipulate the potential Republican constituency is. He’s going to be the “clubbable” version of Trump; the one who doesn’t rape women, steal from cancer charities, and appoint his idiot children (and their spouses) to run the country. Tucker may be evil but he looks … nice. After Trump, who’s to say it can’t work? But again, what a sad (and crazy) state of affairs that this is the way to do it.
Brian Williams, institutionalist...and a warning
~~~~Brian Williams
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