Fiendish Thingy
Fiendish Thingy's JournalSince January, three Democratic representatives over 70 have died
Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” just passed by one vote.
Think about that for a minute.
Vote splitting could give Conservatives wins in ridings with as little as 35% of the vote
I live in Nanaimo on Vancouver island, and our current MP is NDP. Before her, our MP was one of three Green Party MP’s in parliament. My riding is extremely progressive, with both provincial and federal offices held by the NDP (except one term with the Green MP) for many years.
This election, both the liberals and greens are running candidates in my riding, even though polling shows neither of them will pull more than high single digit proportions of the vote, diminishing the proportion for the current NDP incumbent, and enabling the conservatives to win with as little as 35% of the vote.
The ethical and strategic move would be for the Liberal and Green candidates to drop out and throw their support to the NDP. This happened a few days ago in a riding in, IIRC, Ontario, where the NDP candidate, polling in the low single digits, withdrew from a race where the Liberal and Conservative candidates were neck and neck.
There are more ridings like this across Canada, and folks need to realize these vote splitting ridings are Polievre’s most likely path to victory.
For more information on my riding, but with a broader context for the whole election, go to:
Stopthesplitnanaimo.ca
Funny how so many see Smith's report, and it's mention of "timeliness", as an indictment of Garland
Rather than of the delay and obstruction by the Roberts court.
Haters gonna hate, and hate and scapegoating are so much easier, and emotionally satisfying, than wrestling with facts and using critical thinking…
In other news, the report also lays out Smith’s reasoning in declining to prosecute Trump for the crime of Insurrection. This means, even if Trump had gone to trial before the election, and been convicted of all charges, he could still have been elected and served as president.
To reiterate: convictions on these charges would not have disqualified Trump from running for or holding the office of president under the 14th amendment .
There is no credible evidence that convictions prior to the election would have prevented Trump from being elected- it’s all speculation and conjecture (and frankly, fantasy).
On the contrary, As we saw on election day, 70+ million Americans didn’t give a flying fuck if Trump was a convicted felon, adjudicated sexual offender, or tried to overturn an election. He wasn’t an old man with a stutter, and he sure as hell wasn’t an intelligent Black/Asian woman, and for many, that’s all that mattered.
In addition, millions of Americans who voted for Biden in 2020 stayed home, either in misguided protest or saying in effect “we’re tired of all of this shit”.
And, of course, none of the above is Merrick Garland’s fault
I predict Smith’s report will sink like a stone and disappear from the media’s radar and the general public’s consciousness within 48 hours, possibly even just 24 hours. With Hegseth’s and others’ confirmation hearings, inauguration hoopla (did you hear Carrie Underwood will sing? ), and, what about Greenland? there are just too many other shiny objects to distract folks from spending their very valuable attention on this report.
That is the sad state of America these days.
And that’s not Merrick Garland’s fault either.
Cannon's injunction against releasing Smith's report expires TONIGHT (1/13) at 11:59pm
There has been some confusion over this- here’s some clarification:
https://www.stevevladeck.com/p/117-judge-cannon-and-the-special
Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 6(a)(1)(C),5 when a court order gives a time period in days, we “include the last day of the period, but if the last day is a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday, the period continues to run until the end of the next day that is not a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday.” In other words, Cannon’s injunction, if it’s not modified, will expire (clearing the way for the public release of the January 6 volume) at the end of the day, today (and not, as many assumed, yesterday).
Jack Smith responds to Trump's motion to block release of his final report- Garland could release report on Friday
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flsd.648653/gov.uscourts.flsd.648653.680.0.pdfKey excerpt from emptywheel:
(Bolding and italics are mine)
https://www.emptywheel.net/2025/01/07/yes-trump-is-trying-to-prevent-the-release-of-jack-smiths-report/
So, no, contrary to reports on DU, Garland has not received Smith’s final report, and won’t until later today.
The report will be in two separate volumes, one for each batch of federal charges.
The earliest we could see the report is this Friday.
"Gravity is imaginary"
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Don’t believe everything you read, even if it feels “truthy”, and you agree with it.
To quote Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa:
Survey: MAGA voters don't believe Trump will do the bad things he said he would
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They don’t believe he will do any of the bad things he promised he would, so why did they vote for him?
One possible answer: they do believe he will conduct mass deportations (interestingly, not included in the chart above)
More, including a discussion of why so many Democratic voters stayed home, at link:
https://digbysblog.net/2025/01/04/why-did-they-sit-it-out/
Emptywheel: the Opportunity Costs of Conspiracy Theories About Merrick Garland
(Somebody needed to post it, might as well be me)
https://www.emptywheel.net/2024/12/30/the-opportunity-costs-of-conspiracy-theories-about-merrick-garland/
You can spend the next few weeks laying the groundwork for making a big stink about the fact that the aspiring FBI Director tried to help Trump steal classified documents.
Or you can spend it clinging to false claims about Merrick Garland so you can blame him for the fact that Trump won reelection rather than blaming the guy directly responsible for preventing a trial (and the guy who’ll remain responsible for Trump’s license going forward), John Roberts, to say nothing of the failed Democratic consultants and voters themselves.
(Snip)
I could give a flying fuck about Merrick Garland. What I care about is that at a time when we need to start establishing means of accountability for a second Trump term, much of the Democratic world has chosen instead to wallow in false claims about the Trump investigation in order to make Garland a scapegoat, rather than the guy directly responsible, John Roberts. It’s classical conspiracy thinking. Something really bad happened (Trump got elected), it’s not entirely clear why (because almost no one bothers to learn the details I’ve laid out here, to say nothing of considering the political work that didn’t happen to make Trump own this), and so people simply invent explanations. Every time those explanations get debunked, people double down on the theory — it’s Garland’s fault — rather than reconsidering their chosen explanation.
And those explanations have the effect of distracting attention from Roberts. Rather than talking about how six partisan Justices rewrote the Constitution to give the leader of the GOP a pass on egregious crimes, Democrats are choosing to blame a guy who encouraged prosecutors to follow the money in March 2021.
It’s a choice. And it’s a choice that guarantees maximal impotence. It’s a choice that eschews actual facts (and therefore the means to actually learn what happened). It’s a choice that embraces irrational conspiracy thinking (which makes people weak and ripe for manipulation by authoritarians). It’s a choice that distracts from Roberts’ role.
And there is a better, more urgent, option.
(Bolding is mine)
Much, much more detailed, evidence-based opinion and analysis (with supporting links) at the link, including a very interesting discussion about what might be in Jack Smith’s report, it’s potential impact, and the chance Trump may seek to enjoin its release.
Reminder: scapegoating takes minimal effort, effective resistance takes critical thinking and hard work.
You have a choice.
I triple-dog-dare you to read the whole thing.
Yours sincerely, from the reality-based community,
FT
#FirstLaddyTrump
That's the best descriptor I've seen of the current pecking order of the incoming administration.
The media seems to be picking up on the "Who's In Charge?" narrative...
Let's give credit where credit (and blame) is due for the imminent shutdown:
To the incoming Musk/Vance administration, with an assist from First Laddy Donald Trump.
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