January 6th Committee

[johnw]

.

[Garret]

All this is indeed revealing - but it's also hearsay. What have they found that could be an open & shut case against Trump? I haven't heard it yet & we're dealing with Mr. Teflon here. One thing we don't need is a 2 year trial with Trump denying it all & his supporters crying "Witch Hunt!".

I'm sure underlings can be prosecuted - but don't yet see that the jerk himself can be.

[Hallam]

Grifter.....

[Joe (SoCal)]

That was messed up. Definitely signaling for the “base”.

Has anyone taken a look at TFG's posts on Truth Social? His base stands solidly behind him everything and everyone who is testifying is fake news.

I will say we now know that TFG is paying close attention to the hearings because he's posting 12 posts during the hearings and 1 post hawking the sale of his book "Our Journey Together" available at www.bla bla bla

[Jim Mahan]

No. The idea that Americans, as in, the public, will be outraged enough, on either side, is ridiculous. As always, everyone'll sit back, tut-tutting, and essentially do nothing. A few fanatics on the fascist side will make a noise and a few committed people on the other side will wave placards again but the inertia that is America will prevail. The whole embarrassing fiasco that is modern America will just keep stumbling along. Children will continue to be slaughtered, another million or so will die in the next pandemic, the whole thing will fade into history as soon as America can find another Middle-Eastern or Asian country to vent its rage on and justify the ongoing dominance of the MIC. And Australia, UK and the other US puppet states will simply go along with that, sadly. Nothing really meaningful will emerge from these hearings because there is a terminal lack of will. SNAFU.

Of course there is plenty and more reason to be cynical to this extent, but through all of it, I am optimistic. After all, the Rs, the party, both the populace and the incumbents in government are in a minority, and all this exposure and outing of the evil will be a rebounding catalyst for returning to widespread decency and genuine democracy again.

[Tom Montgomery]

Has anyone taken a look at TFG's posts on Truth Social? His base stands solidly behind him everything and everyone who is testifying is fake news.

I will say we now know that TFG is paying close attention to the hearings because he's posting 12 posts during the hearings and 1 post hawking the sale of his book "Our Journey Together" available at www.bla bla bla

Q: How do you milk sheep?

A: Claim the election was stolen and ask for money.

[C. Ross]

I thought the witness today was effective.

I don’t attribute to her much in the way of motives, though yes, her career as a Republican political operative is limited. Maybe she has self-serving motives. Doesn’t matter.

In my opinion, she agreed to or was subpoenaed to testify, and she decided not to perjure herself. It doesn’t appear she had any grounds to invoke the Fifth Amendment. So, the rest followed.

None of this will matter, except in the tight race between Trump and DeSantis. The “election integrity” joke for Trump means “salve my ego” whereas for DeSantis it means “suppress minority voting”. Either way, we end up with a system that favors Republicans for decades. The only thing that changes that trajectory is a surprising and overwhelming turnout by Democratic voters in the next 2-4 elections.

Right now I think we get DeSantis and a Republican House and Senate in 2024, and in order to feed red meat to their base they’ll need to find new ways to out-do each other in righteous evangelical vengeance. My guess is the next stage is to control big blue cities - justified by crime reduction but intended to control the libs, not just own them - and to disassemble any remaining pieces of social contract enabled by the voice of the people through their government. I’m quite pessimistic.

[Nicholas Carey]

Courtesy of a lawyerly friend of ours (she's a public defender in Snohomish County).

Original Twitter thread at https://twitter.com/timinhonolulu/st..._axir2U3iE6WmQ

He makes some (more like a lot, actually) good points.

[Jim Mahan]

What have they found that could be an open & shut case against Trump? I haven't heard it yet

Then you're either not paying attention or have a lense of cynicism clouding your perception. I think that is probably a popular sentiment and takeaway largely because the congressional hearings are not designed to culminate directly in indictments. And we are all still waiting for something that looks like arrests. But we can still expect them following close on the concluding of these hearings. At this point I am feeling confident that we will finally see trmp and the half dozen congressmen who asked for pardons, indicted and given due process and incarcerated. All of this is unprecedented. No one thought any of this could happen, not trmp's candidacy, not his election, not Russia's pervasive and ongoing clandestine efforts to undermine our democracy, and we have gone way, way down the road of trmp's unprecedentedness since he first showed up on the political scene touting the birther shiit.

[WI-Tom]

Jim, I sure hope you're right about all that. But I fear you're not.

Tom

[AndyG]

Beschloss tweeted: “Why does this sound like a hearing investigating a Mobster?”

Because...

[skuthorp]

And has the US ther legal and judicial chops and processes to carry it through? At least one forumite thinks not.

[Garret]

Then you're either not paying attention or have a lense of cynicism clouding your perception. I think that is probably a popular sentiment and takeaway largely because the congressional hearings are not designed to culminate directly in indictments. And we are all still waiting for something that looks like arrests. But we can still expect them following close on the concluding of these hearings. At this point I am feeling confident that we will finally see trmp and the half dozen congressmen who asked for pardons, indicted and given due process and incarcerated. All of this is unprecedented. No one thought any of this could happen, not trmp's candidacy, not his election, not Russia's pervasive and ongoing clandestine efforts to undermine our democracy, and we have gone way, way down the road of trmp's unprecedentedness since he first showed up on the political scene touting the birther shiit.

How can anyone not be cynical about the refuse heap of a former president? The man has sleazed out of court so many times I doubt anyone has kept full track. So what is the "guaranteed to put him away" evidence?

[John Smith]

Let's not be too hasty with the thanks. He provided the trial run. The next one, history suggests, may well succeed.

Tom

That's hard to predict. We don't know what suggestions this committee will make and/or whether any will become law.

[John Smith]

I'm glad she came forward, but what was her motive? Did she come to a "Darth Vader Moment" where she finally realized the Emperor (Trump) had to go or did she do it to save her own reputation and any chance of working in government again?
She sure did stir up a hornet's nest, though! Trump has already sent out a message that he "Hardly knew her" and that she is a terrible person.
The new details about invoking the 25th were interesting, too.
A lot to digest and work through.

I can't read minds, but there is the occasional person who simply decides to do the right thing, even if it costs. Vinman,(? spelling) testified at great personal peril.

[John Smith]

Same role John Dean played in Watergate, isn't it?

I'd like to know why Flynn took the 5th on believing in the peaceful transfer of power.

[Hallam]

Has anyone taken a look at TFG's posts on Truth Social? His base stands solidly behind him everything and everyone who is testifying is fake news.

I will say we now know that TFG is paying close attention to the hearings because he's posting 12 posts during the hearings and 1 post hawking the sale of his book "Our Journey Together" available at www.bla bla bla

If I recall I was one of the earliest here to post of Trump establishing a cult. For anyone who understands the psychology of how cults originate and consolidate the description of how TFG has operated is entirely applicable. Trump is now a cult leader and his followers are unable to critique outside of the paradigm he has cemented in their thinking.
I would like to see a comparative chart between Trump, LR Hubbard and Jones compiled. When challenged or backed into a corner cults rarely dissipate with a whisper but with an explosive suicidal act of madness. Surrounding this cult are a large assortment of bottom feeders milking it for all it’s worth while not actually being enmeshed in the cult. These are the alt right opportunists and social media commentators who are raking in the dollars or positioning for perceived political benefit. These are the antithesis of patriotic behaviour and under the current circumstances are where they are from abject ignorance or are the lowest of the low in stealing from the possessions of a gravely Wounded soldier of duty instead of tending her wounds,…..who incidentally has been deliberately wounded by a very sicko grifter engaging others to be soldiers to enable his fortune!
For a whole nation non other than the USA, ‘leader of the free world’, bastion of democracy, -to be led to this juncture is a morbidly fascinating study of human behaviour.

[Flying Orca]

For a whole nation non other than the USA, ‘leader of the free world’, bastion of democracy, -to be led to this juncture is a morbidly fascinating study of human behaviour.

I think the mythology is one of the things that has enabled Turnip to hijack the Republican Party. The USA stopped being "leader of the free world and bastion of democracy" no later than Reagan's day, if indeed it ever really was either of those things, but I don't think there's a Republican alive who can admit that's the case; they're desperately clinging to some idealized time of manly men like John Wayne, when "colored folk" knew their place, when the queers were firmly closeted or bashed for fun, when American manufacturing ruled the world through the grace of the atom bomb and the good fortune to have won a world war that wasn't fought on its land, when the poor could still get jobs instead of ODing on opiates. It was good enough for relatively wealthy straight white Christian men, by god!

Never mind the fact that it never really existed, and to the extent that it did, it wasn't much good for anyone else. It's their birthright, and they will embrace any grifter who dangles in front of them the illusion of its return.

[johnw]

I'd like to know why Flynn took the 5th on believing in the peaceful transfer of power.

Because his answer would be no, and he has acted on his beliefs.

[RFNK]

Of course there is plenty and more reason to be cynical to this extent, but through all of it, I am optimistic. After all, the Rs, the party, both the populace and the incumbents in government are in a minority, and all this exposure and outing of the evil will be a rebounding catalyst for returning to widespread decency and genuine democracy again.

I hope you're right, Jim! And I sincerely admire your optimism.

[leikec]

“This is like a game of Wordle, and it spells Trump, and now all the letters are filled in…” —David Axlerod

This calls it perfectly.

Jeff C

[RFNK]

How can anyone not be cynical about the refuse heap of a former president? The man has sleazed out of court so many times I doubt anyone has kept full track. So what is the "guaranteed to put him away" evidence?

It's like American Football ( based on my little knowledge of it). Everyone can see exactly what's happened because it's played and replayed to death on TV. Yet more time is spent with team officials and refs debating every little move than is actually spent making the moves. So the game lasts several hours instead of just - whatever it's supposed to be. Does it really matter if a ball landed .005mm short??

If anything at all comes out of these hearings and investigations, everyone involved will have already died of old age, frustration or boredom. I mean, in any other so-called democracy, a president clearly demonstrating that he did anything at all to hinder a legal electoral process would be enough to condemn him to political purgatory but not in the US. Capitol staff died through the negligence of this moron yet it takes years of investigations and political machinations to decide whether those clearly responsible can even be expected to provide testimony. A littany of legal manouverings. It's ridiculous.

[Hallam]

In court: aguy who steals some $100 worth of produce from a corner store:?
Prosecution: where you at the store on such and such a date?

Defenfant: No.

P: we have vision of you on CC video.
D: Wasn’t me.
P we have recorded phone convo from your mates phone co roberating the evidence.
D not me.

At the next sitting: Jury The defendant is guilty as charged.

No so with Trump it seems……

[skuthorp]

Originally Posted by Jim Mahan
Of course there is plenty and more reason to be cynical to this extent, but through all of it, I am optimistic. After all, the Rs, the party, both the populace and the incumbents in government are in a minority, and all this exposure and outing of the evil will be a rebounding catalyst for returning to widespread decency and genuine democracy again..

HAHAHAJHAHAHA……oh my aching sides……HAHAHAHAHA………..
Good joke Jim………..

(and I'm sure it was a joke)

(actually Jim I've been told you've never had a democracy………)

[gypsie]

Jim, you had the power all along.

Just click your heels together and say, "proportional representation, proportional representation......."

[Hallam]

Always good to hear Beau's thoughts and observations and this one is somewhat obvious but still one I hadn't really thought of ( doh!)

[Canoez]

Ginni Thomas’ lawyer wants more information about what she’s expected to testify about before she’ll testify.

Subpoena, anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

[ShorelineJohn]

Imprison or exile?
The only real question.

No I can't condone hanging on the steps of the Capital, but....

[Hallam]

So if any of this results in a case before the Supreme Court, Thomas will have to recuse himself........

[Canoez]

So if any of this results in a case before the Supreme Court, Thomas will have to recuse himself........

Fat chance. I thing we already know that.

[TomF]

Cheney disclosed this morning that one of those witness intimidation tweets she read yesterday in her closing statement had been sent to Cassidy Hutchinson.

[WI-Tom]

Capitol staff died through the negligence of this moron...

Nope. Capitol staff died because of the intentional pre-planned actions of this moron and his Republican enablers, all to support an armed insurrection aimed at completing a violent coup against the legitimate government. That's a crucial difference.

Tom

[George Jung]

Bingo. That is obvious to all, isn't it?

[Rich Jones]

Cheney disclosed this morning that one of those witness intimidation tweets she read yesterday in her closing statement had been sent to Cassidy Hutchinson.

Yep. Thinly veiled threats.
I don't know what that poor girl will do for a living now. No Republican will hire her.
I wonder what she's doing now.

[Bill Griffin]

It's going to be illuminating to see just who was sending those intimidating/threatening tweets. Sometimes a fight is picked on the wrong person.