Seeing is believing. I will wait to see what happens with all of the information that the January 6 committee has gathered, and I am glad to have your analysis Professor Vance. I was also experiencing Schadenfreude today at the problems McCarthy is having to get himself seated. It was on German news tonight on ZDF, the station I usually watch. This is the beginning of the Republicans revealing to the rest of the world how they get nothing done. In fact, the Democrats should start encouraging Moderate Republicans that they might be better off if they switch parties, if they actually want to govern. I was tempted to email McCarthy and suggest that he put up the new guy, George Santos for Speaker of the House, since the credentials required are to be a slimy liar, and he is batting 1000 in that respect. However, ultimately I will save my energies for something I actually would like to have happen. Yay on making the Abortion pills available in pharmacies without having to go to a doctor's office to get them. https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/03/politics/fda-abortion-drugs-pharmacies-mail/index.html
An excellent summary as always! And I’m glad you mentioned popcorn as I must but a large bag before tomorrow afternoon’s House session. (Gotta wait until morning due to the tornado watch in our area. Turn on Spann and be safe.)
For future reference, those three little dots to the right of "Collapse" below you post, if you click on them, a box will pop up saying "edit post". click that and you can correct your post. Handiest thing Substack has and a bunch of us had to yell at them for a year to get it for all of us "accurit typist." :-)
Why wouldn't "all I need is 11000 votes, just find me 11000 votes" be enough to put him away for several years? The fact that he made the call at all should secure a conviction for election tampering, even without the recording. And then there are the files; no one other than he is responsible for files found in his personal office in Florida, or the basement of his home, 18 months after his term ended. Pleading ignorance shouldn't absolve him, and he hasn't actually pleaded ignorance. He's stated that they aren't classified, when they most obviously are. And, whether or not, they should have never left the White House, other than to be returned or sent to the National Archives.
With all the advisors, aides and cabinet members at their disposal, presidents certainly cannot credibly assert ignorance of the law.
I think Trump shows his lifelong (rooted in childhood) habit of making up the most ludicrous lies when he's caught doing something he shouldn't. "I declassified them by waving my MAGA wand," and lo and behold, people believed him. Or pretended to.
Allow me to add to that. I got hooked on Mary L. Trump early (even with her last name). She's intelligent, got screwed by her uncle in different ways, went to really good schools, and psychology is her field. "Unc" called her over at an event where he was with wife and told her a twisted lie. Mary called him (I prefer saying "it" as in he can't be a human) on the obvious lie and he said something to the effect, if he said it the real way it happened, people wouldn't listen to him. That's how the mentally ill narcissists (plural) operate.
Interesting important article today, Joyce, thank you.
The republicans today, reminded me of what happens if we throw a few kernels of corn into the hen yard, to get them out of the hen house to clean. But the hens are cuter. I'll share my popcorn with the hens.
How long have you been able to read and knit simultaneously? Wondering how much knitting experience I must have to be able to do that without errors galore
I’m with you Tracy. I can knit and watch TV, if it’s a dialogue-heavy show (currently re-watching West Wing) rather than something more visual. But I can’t read and knit without making mistakes and dropping stitches. I think the report was going to be released on Audible though - I need to check and see if it’s out. That, I could manage.
Knitting turns into autopilot (including fixing a mistake). I watched a sis and my mom do it a lot. I preferred riding the tractor and mowing the lawn or fishing to meditate.
Excellent overview. I've ordered the hard copy so I can have fun flipping through it.
am also enjoying the "disarray" you mentioned - including the "non swearing in" of the new GOP candidates including Santos "if that's his real name". Cracking up to some degree about the requirement for the speaker to step aside (rules package Kevin has promised) if a small group requests it. Presumably whoever they'd put in place could be as easily toppled.
For fun I wrote my obedient Red Rep and asked him to give up his salary for as long as the GOP is doing this performative making out in public.
With Kevin’s capitulation to the rule of removing the Speaker with an easily accomplished no confidence vote, I can envision them electing Kevin thus allowing the business of swearing in to proceed, then calling an immediate no confidence vote to remove him. Nothing will surprise me anymore with these Republican toddlers. *my apologies to real toddlers
I wondered if the censors need to note the rating of watching the fascists - any of them. Warning: Sex, Violence, Lies. Not suitable for anyone under 30 years old. The only thing not on that list is smoking (that can be added when smoking guns are in play).
I am baffled that the testimony already given during the J6 Committee hearings and the additional evidence we've seen and heard may not be not sufficient to indict and prosecute the former president. To imagine that he can somehow be found innocent because others carried out his bidding (think fake electors, "we're going to march down there and .....) suggests to me that justice may be unattainable. Why should he have to admit verbally what is patently obvious from multiple eyewitness testimonies? He lost the election, he knew it and her persisted in increasingly extreme and illegal schemes to reverse the electoral college count. Had he accepted the loss and stood down, none of the following events would have occurred. Seems simple enough to me...
"When you strike the king, you must kill him." They have to have proof beyond a reasonable doubt, way beyond, to make sure of conviction. If he was tried and not convicted, that would be a disaster.
I find myself wondering if all the stress will affect his health. He's 76, overweight. Who knows what drugs he's propping himself up with these days. I keep wondering how much time Trump has left.
Hopefully not much. Let him have The Final Hamberder Too Many and have his massive fatal myocardial infarction mid-rant in front of the Trumpscum on the first hatealong he finally schedules.
He was never honest about his health. He not only almost died of covid, but he has had doctors lie to the public about what an amazing specimen of manhood he is, and at least on one occasion, Trump was carted off to Walter Reed on a weekend, with no word as to why.
It was a circus. I was watching CNN when they covered Trump's stunt where he went for a ride in an SUV with 2 Secret Service guards, risking their health and his own just so he could pretend he was Elvis waving to his fans.
When he returned to the WH and climbed the stairs, I hoped he would slip and fall all the way to the bottom.
I keep hoping that happens. Knowing it was ill with covid when giving the Mussolini speech is an added bonus. The problem is "it" has been like this all its lowly life and it hasn't killed "him/it" yet doggone it. But things look far worse than ever before, so I'll have some hope.
The problem I keep reading and hearing about is it just takes one malignant narcissist supporter on a jury to toss out any conviction. The pink-gross FL palace is the easiest to prove (and the stupidest event since the DOJ let this sit for so blasted long). Here's the law, here are the documents found that were stolen.
Insurrection is much harder to prove even though we know he micromanaged it. It was, after all, just a day for tourists (they didn't say being murdered as they knew would happen).
That’s why it was such a sin that McConnell didn’t whip the votes to convict him in the second impeachment. He’s been around long enough to know what a steep hill it was for for DOJ to climb to successfully prosecute him in a criminal court, and yet that’s what he left them to do, the bastard. Extra glad he is still the minority leader and probably has “ragrets” as the kids today say.
Yep and he did it to take the heat from the base off him. He manipulates for his own and his donors' greed not to help the real constituents. He set up the play by stacking scotus with idiots.
I recommend the 'January 6 Report' Edition with Ari Melbar's Introduction which tracks parallel events complete with a context graphic suitable as an Exhibit for a Jury.
I bought two (2) copies one to keep new & unmarked for a next generation handoff.
Yeah, I just might have to break down and buy it. Downloaded and reading pdf is quite frustrating with footnotes not being a bookmarked page flip away....like real books.
Poor Jack Smith has been left with the tortoise like investigation by Garland's ever so slow moving DOJ. As I said in a Twitter post, if I committed half of the crimes committed by Trump, I would be serving the first year of three consecutive life sentences. The January 6 attempted coup was two years ago, yet the SNAIL DOJ is pleading for all the January 6 Committee work product as DOJ has been so slow and leaderless in the effort. Hopefully, Jack Smith can right the ship that has been nearly sinking under AG Garland.
Thank you for pulling on some of the threads for us, Joyce. Your brain, like your knitting needles, seems to be working overtime these days. Enjoy that cup of tea. I’ll be joining you with my own cup at Noon. Just wish we were sitting in the same room together.
I was glad to see this, and although I realized almost immediately that I will need a lot more time than I expected I could at least tell that it will be worth it. I'll be back!
Seeing is believing. I will wait to see what happens with all of the information that the January 6 committee has gathered, and I am glad to have your analysis Professor Vance. I was also experiencing Schadenfreude today at the problems McCarthy is having to get himself seated. It was on German news tonight on ZDF, the station I usually watch. This is the beginning of the Republicans revealing to the rest of the world how they get nothing done. In fact, the Democrats should start encouraging Moderate Republicans that they might be better off if they switch parties, if they actually want to govern. I was tempted to email McCarthy and suggest that he put up the new guy, George Santos for Speaker of the House, since the credentials required are to be a slimy liar, and he is batting 1000 in that respect. However, ultimately I will save my energies for something I actually would like to have happen. Yay on making the Abortion pills available in pharmacies without having to go to a doctor's office to get them. https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/03/politics/fda-abortion-drugs-pharmacies-mail/index.html
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/10/mexico-abortion-access-americans
Joyce,
An excellent summary as always! And I’m glad you mentioned popcorn as I must but a large bag before tomorrow afternoon’s House session. (Gotta wait until morning due to the tornado watch in our area. Turn on Spann and be safe.)
tom j...bluff Park
Yes, nasty weather tonight! Stay safe.
*buy
For future reference, those three little dots to the right of "Collapse" below you post, if you click on them, a box will pop up saying "edit post". click that and you can correct your post. Handiest thing Substack has and a bunch of us had to yell at them for a year to get it for all of us "accurit typist." :-)
Thanks mucho TCinLA; we all need accurate typing & savy prgrammers to reprogram to auto wreck ... no .. not an automobile wreck, I mean auto correct.
I Laughed Out Loud - loudly!
Thank you so much!!!!
Why wouldn't "all I need is 11000 votes, just find me 11000 votes" be enough to put him away for several years? The fact that he made the call at all should secure a conviction for election tampering, even without the recording. And then there are the files; no one other than he is responsible for files found in his personal office in Florida, or the basement of his home, 18 months after his term ended. Pleading ignorance shouldn't absolve him, and he hasn't actually pleaded ignorance. He's stated that they aren't classified, when they most obviously are. And, whether or not, they should have never left the White House, other than to be returned or sent to the National Archives.
With all the advisors, aides and cabinet members at their disposal, presidents certainly cannot credibly assert ignorance of the law.
I think Trump shows his lifelong (rooted in childhood) habit of making up the most ludicrous lies when he's caught doing something he shouldn't. "I declassified them by waving my MAGA wand," and lo and behold, people believed him. Or pretended to.
Allow me to add to that. I got hooked on Mary L. Trump early (even with her last name). She's intelligent, got screwed by her uncle in different ways, went to really good schools, and psychology is her field. "Unc" called her over at an event where he was with wife and told her a twisted lie. Mary called him (I prefer saying "it" as in he can't be a human) on the obvious lie and he said something to the effect, if he said it the real way it happened, people wouldn't listen to him. That's how the mentally ill narcissists (plural) operate.
I second that.
Interesting important article today, Joyce, thank you.
The republicans today, reminded me of what happens if we throw a few kernels of corn into the hen yard, to get them out of the hen house to clean. But the hens are cuter. I'll share my popcorn with the hens.
You are the best!
How long have you been able to read and knit simultaneously? Wondering how much knitting experience I must have to be able to do that without errors galore
I’m with you Tracy. I can knit and watch TV, if it’s a dialogue-heavy show (currently re-watching West Wing) rather than something more visual. But I can’t read and knit without making mistakes and dropping stitches. I think the report was going to be released on Audible though - I need to check and see if it’s out. That, I could manage.
And it is out - almost 24 hours long. I just downloaded it, almost 1.4 GB.
Good to know - I can listen and sew then.
Knitting turns into autopilot (including fixing a mistake). I watched a sis and my mom do it a lot. I preferred riding the tractor and mowing the lawn or fishing to meditate.
Jan. 6, 2023 we saw the chaos the extremist Freedom Caucus has created in the GOP.
Theatre of the absurd and they are “some majority?”
Excellent overview. I've ordered the hard copy so I can have fun flipping through it.
am also enjoying the "disarray" you mentioned - including the "non swearing in" of the new GOP candidates including Santos "if that's his real name". Cracking up to some degree about the requirement for the speaker to step aside (rules package Kevin has promised) if a small group requests it. Presumably whoever they'd put in place could be as easily toppled.
For fun I wrote my obedient Red Rep and asked him to give up his salary for as long as the GOP is doing this performative making out in public.
I was thinking more that their salaries should be withheld until they get back to doing the work that the people "hired" them to do.
With Kevin’s capitulation to the rule of removing the Speaker with an easily accomplished no confidence vote, I can envision them electing Kevin thus allowing the business of swearing in to proceed, then calling an immediate no confidence vote to remove him. Nothing will surprise me anymore with these Republican toddlers. *my apologies to real toddlers
I wondered if the censors need to note the rating of watching the fascists - any of them. Warning: Sex, Violence, Lies. Not suitable for anyone under 30 years old. The only thing not on that list is smoking (that can be added when smoking guns are in play).
And Santos lied on his website, announcing that he had been sworn in. That has since been taken down.
And correctly reported by Michelle Price at AP News not negligently like The Hill or fraudulently like Faux News.
‘Performative making out’ 💯brilliant analogy to today’s gop disarray.
There was talk with congressman Allred (D-TX) this morn. He said he didn't know if he was getting paid. I believe him.
I am baffled that the testimony already given during the J6 Committee hearings and the additional evidence we've seen and heard may not be not sufficient to indict and prosecute the former president. To imagine that he can somehow be found innocent because others carried out his bidding (think fake electors, "we're going to march down there and .....) suggests to me that justice may be unattainable. Why should he have to admit verbally what is patently obvious from multiple eyewitness testimonies? He lost the election, he knew it and her persisted in increasingly extreme and illegal schemes to reverse the electoral college count. Had he accepted the loss and stood down, none of the following events would have occurred. Seems simple enough to me...
"When you strike the king, you must kill him." They have to have proof beyond a reasonable doubt, way beyond, to make sure of conviction. If he was tried and not convicted, that would be a disaster.
I find myself wondering if all the stress will affect his health. He's 76, overweight. Who knows what drugs he's propping himself up with these days. I keep wondering how much time Trump has left.
Hopefully not much. Let him have The Final Hamberder Too Many and have his massive fatal myocardial infarction mid-rant in front of the Trumpscum on the first hatealong he finally schedules.
He was never honest about his health. He not only almost died of covid, but he has had doctors lie to the public about what an amazing specimen of manhood he is, and at least on one occasion, Trump was carted off to Walter Reed on a weekend, with no word as to why.
I was praying like nobody's business the entire time he was there, that he would become America's Prime Covid Death.
It was a circus. I was watching CNN when they covered Trump's stunt where he went for a ride in an SUV with 2 Secret Service guards, risking their health and his own just so he could pretend he was Elvis waving to his fans.
When he returned to the WH and climbed the stairs, I hoped he would slip and fall all the way to the bottom.
I keep hoping that happens. Knowing it was ill with covid when giving the Mussolini speech is an added bonus. The problem is "it" has been like this all its lowly life and it hasn't killed "him/it" yet doggone it. But things look far worse than ever before, so I'll have some hope.
The problem I keep reading and hearing about is it just takes one malignant narcissist supporter on a jury to toss out any conviction. The pink-gross FL palace is the easiest to prove (and the stupidest event since the DOJ let this sit for so blasted long). Here's the law, here are the documents found that were stolen.
Insurrection is much harder to prove even though we know he micromanaged it. It was, after all, just a day for tourists (they didn't say being murdered as they knew would happen).
That’s why it was such a sin that McConnell didn’t whip the votes to convict him in the second impeachment. He’s been around long enough to know what a steep hill it was for for DOJ to climb to successfully prosecute him in a criminal court, and yet that’s what he left them to do, the bastard. Extra glad he is still the minority leader and probably has “ragrets” as the kids today say.
Yep and he did it to take the heat from the base off him. He manipulates for his own and his donors' greed not to help the real constituents. He set up the play by stacking scotus with idiots.
I recommend the 'January 6 Report' Edition with Ari Melbar's Introduction which tracks parallel events complete with a context graphic suitable as an Exhibit for a Jury.
I bought two (2) copies one to keep new & unmarked for a next generation handoff.
Yeah, I just might have to break down and buy it. Downloaded and reading pdf is quite frustrating with footnotes not being a bookmarked page flip away....like real books.
My working copy is a handy coffee-cup-plate too when I am on-line. :)
Oh, man. That photo at end shows congresswoman holding a tin of Garrett’s popcorn. Yum!
Poor Jack Smith has been left with the tortoise like investigation by Garland's ever so slow moving DOJ. As I said in a Twitter post, if I committed half of the crimes committed by Trump, I would be serving the first year of three consecutive life sentences. The January 6 attempted coup was two years ago, yet the SNAIL DOJ is pleading for all the January 6 Committee work product as DOJ has been so slow and leaderless in the effort. Hopefully, Jack Smith can right the ship that has been nearly sinking under AG Garland.
Thank you for pulling on some of the threads for us, Joyce. Your brain, like your knitting needles, seems to be working overtime these days. Enjoy that cup of tea. I’ll be joining you with my own cup at Noon. Just wish we were sitting in the same room together.
Well,phooey! I do not have popcorn in the house! Will chips and dip be good enough?
Why not 😀
Even better!
Very helpful summary and review. It seems we are on the beginning of new steps. (Quite metaphorical-/if there is such a word-- for the New Year)
I was glad to see this, and although I realized almost immediately that I will need a lot more time than I expected I could at least tell that it will be worth it. I'll be back!