"Tonight, I say this to our Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible: there will come a day when Donald Trump is gone—but your dishonor will remain."
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| CNN Headline |
'You know it tells you a lot about the priorities of a ruling class that the rest of us are getting yet another lecture about January 6th tonight from our moral inferiors, no less. An outbreak of mob violence, a forgettably minor outbreak by recent standards, that took place more than a year and a half ago, but they've never stopped talking about it."
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| Fox Headline |
Liz Cheney was the star last night. She is a Republican and her evidence was the testimony of other Republicans, including former Attorney General Bill Barr and Trump's daughter, Ivanka. Cheney is smart, decisive, and clear. She looks and sounds like a leader in full command of the facts. She laid out a case showing parallel plans for Trump to stay in office notwithstanding the election results. He pressured election officials to change the results in the states. He pressured state legislatures to overturn results, since the election officials wouldn't do it. He pressured Vice President Pence to toss out results, since the legislatures wouldn't do it. He tried to replace Justice Department appointees who wouldn't lie to justify overturning the election He encouraged the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers to intimidate Congress into doing so since the other plans failed. January 6 wasn't a one-day event, she said. It was a long multi-part plan of law and violence, and Trump was at the center of it.
Her call for Constitutional integrity was center stage everywhere except where it matters. It wasn't anywhere at all on Fox. They had a different story. The prime time hearings are a Democratic and mainstream media plot to distract Americans from the deep trouble that Biden and Democrats brought us. We have inflation and high gasoline prices. We have an assassination plot against Justice Kavanaugh likely inspired by Chuck Schumer. Why isn't the media covering that story, they ask? We have Hunter Biden's laptop to discuss, but the rest of the media downplays that. There is a video of Nancy Pelosi's husband's DUI arrest that the Napa, California DA won't release. We have a crisis at the southern border the media doesn't cover. We have Kamala Harris who is a disaster, but the rest of the media doesn't cover that, either. We have Biden going on Jimmy Kimmel and looking old, senile and vacant, and Democrats won't admit it and talk about it. We have a bunch of whiny Democrats making a mountain out of a molehill on January 6.
These aren't the Watergate hearings and they won't have the same result. Republican primary election voters aren't watching. Republican elected officials are not open to knowing what the president knew and when he knew it. Most of them know full well that Trump misbehaved dishonestly--dangerously--but they won't say it aloud. No use stepping in front of a stampede.
Liz Cheney will look very good in the history books, but for now she looks like an outcast. Democrats respect her but won't vote for her because, after all, she is a committed, dedicated, genuine conservative. That earns her no credit with Republicans because she embarrasses them. She has the integrity and courage they don't dare demonstrate. The stampede is still running.
Won't there be a smoking gun that finally gets through to GOP voters? There are multiple smoking guns. Americans saw them live on TV and heard the audio tapes months ago. A majority of GOP voters don't care. GOP voters don't necessarily believe Trump, but they like him. As they see it, Trump is a scamp and con man doing petty crimes, but he is their scamp and con man and he fights Democrats. They have their fingers in their ears and they are sticking with him.
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10 comments:
“They [GOP voters] know Trump is a scamp but he is their scamp, so he isn't dangerous...”
A scamp is defined as someone who is mischievous in a likable or amusing way. Trump is a psychopath, his GOP cult is as dangerously crazy as he is and there’s nothing amusing about their crimes.
As a Democrat I was struck by the damming evidence that Trump did everything in his power to overthrow democracy. Saying maybe the mob had a good idea to hang Mike Pence, strikes me as beyond being ok. I will watch all the hearings and am reminded how close we came to outer chaos. If republicans want to stick their heads in the sand and vote for Trump then maybe a break up of America is a good idea. I hope charges are filed for all those republicans who sought pardons because they deserve to go to jail as does Trump as well.
I forgot how disgusted I was with Trump.
The good news is that some Republican voters, albeit narrowly, are rejecting some of the more extreme candidates and it would seem slowly backing away from Trumpism. It would indicate that saner ones are regaining some ground. Not so good is that the minority supporting Trump is still in control of the party, evidenced by McCarthy and FOX parroting the Big Lie narrative as the hearings demonstrate the exact opposite.
Democrats, the two visible Republicans, and those hiding in the bushes are doing all they can to expose the criminal attempt to impose an authoritarian regime. They are trying to convince the apathetic, the unconcerned, and hopefully a few of their Republican colleagues of the danger they are facing. They will make the case, but what remains is whether the DOJ will act on a resolution to indict Trump and the rest.
In my view Democrats, and Cheney, have nothing to lose by pushing all the way. If the 1/6 Committee and the House fall short at the end, this will all be swept aside and relegated to partisan politics.
Two summers ago, Antifa took-over downtown Portland for more than 100 days with rioting and burning. There were murders. Antifa burned the Hatfield Federal Building, which is an attack on America (and a Federal crime), yet Kate Brown and Ted Wheeler kept their fingers up their asses and did nothing. ZIP! Nada! Brown and Wheeler should be prosecuted as criminal co-conspirators. They are the worst "leaders" in America.
Two summers ago, Antifa took-over the University District in Seattle for two months. There were murders, and the Seattle mayor foolishly called it the "Summer of Love". Is that what democrats call a criminal insurrection? A Summer of Love?
Those were REAL insurrections. The incident in Washington DC on January 6th was a joke perpetrated by circus clowns. The protestors didn't have guns. (I wouldn't attend a real insurrection without a gun). Nobody was assaulted or killed by the protestors. The FBI was an instigator and participant in this incident, and Capitol employees willingly allowed the protestors into the Capitol Building. Nancy Pelosi turned-down 20,000 National Guardsmen for Capitol protection. If anyone screwed-up, then it was Pelosi. This incident wouldn't have happened if the National Guard were there.
America has turned into a crap-hole under Biden's watch. He's screwed-up everything he's touched. Been to the grocery store lately? There are still thousands of Americans stranded in Afghanistan by Biden. Democrats can't defend Biden's record, so they've invented a fake insurrection by Republicans, which is minor in nature compared to what they've done in Seattle and Portland.
The Democrats hired a partisan TV producer to make a "doctored" video to smear the protestors and their actions. It was a "cut-and-paste" smear job that didn't tell the true story.
Liz Cheney might as well resign her position as a Republican, because she'll be permanently removed from the GOP in November. Cheney is not a conservative, and conservatives don't like her. Liz Cheney is a swamp rat who lives in Virginia, and not Wyoming. She's a RINO whose gig is up. We won't miss her, and she's done nothing to deserve historical recognition. Liz is a puke like her Daddy.
Curt Ankerberg
Medford, OR
Cheney recently told other Republicans, "one day Trump will be gone, but your dishonor will remain." How true.
From one conservative's perspective, anyway, Cheney and Carlson are to some extent both correct, as are many of the the characterizations in this post. As usual the takeaway is a mixed bag.
Cheney was indeed the star last night, albeit made easier merely by contrast with marble-mouthed and soft-headed Bennie Thompson (the "Klu" Klux Klan and "John" Hopkins University?!).
Cheney is correct about the the lasting dishonor that is Trump's response to election defeat. The indelible stain is that such a thoroughly selfish and vulgar person was elected, period.
Carlson is correct about the Democrats overstating the case, though he overstates his own case in turn. It was far from "forgettable" or "minor". It was a national disgrace of historic proportions.
Nonetheless, had the 1/6 mob actually succeeded in intimidating Mike Pence as intended, the SCOTUS would have set matters right within days if not hours. A new version of the old Two Popes problem was never remotely feasible logistically and legally.
Partisan politics is always prospective. Looking backwards is of value if it makes a difference in the next election cycle. With the newest consumer price index numbers and the blithe economic incompetence of Biden, Yellen and Co., Democrats remain in big trouble.
Two summers ago our President was Donald John Trump. Federal agents used black unmarked van to arrest protesters without warning and hold them without charges.
Last night, the Jan. 6 Committee laid out a compelling case for why Trump and his accomplices should be on trial for treason. Real conservatives who care about the Constitution, such as Lynne Cheney, are appalled. So-called conservatives try to minimize the significance of what he did, but none have any credible rebuttal to the facts presented by the panel. The treachery of these Trumplicans will live in infamy.
That a disorganized mob of clowns and morons was allowed to break into the Capitol on January 6, 2020 was an unconscionable display of bureaucratic incompetence. Treating that breakin as though it were a well-organized military coup is an act of hyperexaggeration and hysteria.
I am more interested in fixing the problems that led the seat of our government to be so incompetently defended than I am in delving into the details of how that mob was created and incentivized. If that mob had not been able to gain entry to the Capitol, it would have posed no threat whatsoever to the continuity of our government.
We should fix the important problem first. We can get to the clowns and morons once we accomplish that.
Wow, insulting Rep. Bennie Thompson (age 74) because he talks like someone from a tiny town in Mississippi (pop. less than 1,000). Elitist much?
Just because someone doesn't talk the way you do, doesn't mean that the person is stupid or incompetent. I have made the same mistakes about the KKK and JHU. We can't all be perfect all of the time.
I can only imagine what Rep. Thompson has had to overcome to get to where he is today. He is an American success story.
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