Glenn Kirschner skipped a day (I hope he’s all right.) Harry Litman will stand in.
The Lincoln Project – Last Week in the Republican Party – October 25, 2022
MSNBC – Rep. Himes: The U.S. Has To Decide We Won’t Allow The GOP To Mess With Election
Ring of Fire – Journalist Claims Trump Conned His Son Barron With COVID Misinformation
Cole and Marmalade – MEET MAZ AND CALYPSO! (Cole left for the Rainbow Bridge last year)
Beau – Let’s talk about whistles, DOD policy, and what’s next….
Yesterday, the radio opera was L’Inganno Felice (The happy deception), another early (1812) and rarely performed opera, but this time by Gioachino Rossini. It’s in one act, and is a flimsy little story about a faithful wife, who is slandered and kidnapped by a lech she turns down. He follows up by having his sidekick put her out to sea in a leaky boat. Now, if you or I were put out to sea in a leaky boat, we would drown, but this never happens in opera. She is rescued and, in the end, restored to the happiness she had with her husband. Rossini was very much a bel canto composer, at least until he retired, so there are arias and cabalettas whoch follow formulas, but that doesn’t keep them from being highly different and highly original. Also, it’s so early it still has recitativo, the sort-of-singing-but-more-like-talking lines which move the story forward. It was considered a comedy because it has a happy ending, but today we would call it a romantiv melodrama. One thing that is unintentionally funny, though, is that the character who rescues the heroine and takes her under his wing for the ten years between the murder attempt and the resoluttion, presents her as his niece, and calls her “Nisa.” (The Italian word for niece, “nipote,” doesn’t sound at all like “niece” – but “Nisa” does.)
In other news, the Lakota people )the Standing Rock Sioux) in South Dakota are holding a Get-Out-the Native-Vote evens which includes cultural events both for adults and for children, and they are live streaming it all weekend. If you have ever wanted to see some Lakota traditions which you would normally only see at powwows, now is the time. And this is the link.
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Crooks and Liars – Finally: Here’s What Early Abortion Tissue Really Looks Like
Quote – Sometimes, patients want to see the tissue after an abortion. “They are stunned by what it actually looks like,” says Fleischman. “That’s when I realized how much the imagery on the internet and on placards – showing human-like qualities at this early stage of development – has really permeated the culture. People almost don’t believe this is what comes out.”
Click through for details. Figures don’t lie, but liars do figure. Pictures may not lie, but enough liars lie about them so that they don’t have to. All those pictures you see that are supposed to be fetuses and look like babies are lies, and it’s time that was publicized,
truthout – Report: DOJ Prosecutors Say There’s Enough Evidence to Prosecute Trump
Quote – A group of prosecutors within the Department of Justice (DOJ) believe there is enough evidence to charge former President Donald Trump with a crime relating to his improper removal of government documents from the White House to his Mar-a-Lago home, following his departure from office. According to Bloomberg, which cites unnamed sources with knowledge of the matter, DOJ prosecutors believe Trump could be charged, at minimum, with obstruction.
Click through for story. The headline is imprecise, even misleading, if one doesn’t read at least the first two paragraphs, as it implies there might be enough evidence to charge him with any and every crime he has committed, and that’s not what it says at all. It says obstuction. My personal belief is that the smartest way to charge him is with whatever crime(s) will make the maximum nomber of Americans furious with him, and the minimum number of (armed) Americans go riot in the streets. Espionage might accomplish that. Ordinary obstruction maybe not so much. But we’ll see.
Food For Thought
Glenn Kirschner – DOJ prosecutors conclude they have enough evidence to indict Donald Trump for obstruction of justice
Meidas Touch – Herschel Walker SKIPS DEBATE and moderator’s response GOES VIRAL
Lincoln Democracy Institute – Pressure
MSNBC – Ron Klain: GOP Has ‘Horrible, Horribler, And Horriblelist’ Ideas To Cut Social Security
Farron Balanced – Trump’s Attorney Is FURIOUS He Won’t Be Indicted Before The Midterms
Beau – Let’s talk about the most important midterm issue….
Yesterday, an email from Faithful America informed me that the group was a contributor to a PBS Frontline documentary calledc”Michael Flynn’s Holy War,” which had aired Tuesday night. I went looking for it to see whether I could stream it, and I did find it here. So, I streamed it. The URL does not look like one needs to be a Passport member to stream it, but I am one, so I can’t be sure. But I’m sharing it anyway, because this is important information in my opinion. Also yesterday, I filled out my ballot, signed and sealed the envelope, stamped it, and added the most aggressively patriotic stickers I could find. I dated it as of today, so I’ll try to get it out before the mail is delivered/picked up. On top of that, (don’t faint!) Trump** sat for a deposition in the Carroll defamation case. No content released yet. This is a civil suit, which means if he took the Fifth, the fact that he did s CAN be used against him.
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First we have a story from a collection of sources regarding John Durham and the investigation Bill Barr instigated into Christopher Steele, which has taken three and a half years. In all that time, he only charged three people, of which only one resulted in conviction (on a plea deal, with a sentence of probation only, which is not nothing, but it’s also not much. Incidentally, the one charge that person pled to was unrelatred to the investigation.) Two people went to trial, and the second has just been acquitted of all remaining charges (one charge was dropped.) The first trial also resulted in acquittal. Durham still hadn’t given up, but will likely now get more pressure to do so. The “investigation” appears to be simply a scavenger hunt for mares’ nests.
The Daily Beast – Humans Are Hardwired to Cheat. Here’s How We Stop Ourselves.
Quote – What evolutionary and economic theories have to do with stuffing fish filets into fish and sneaking an (alleged) vibrating butt plug into a chess match may not be immediately apparent. But behavioral scientists like University of Arizona associate professor Mary Rigdon think about sporting competitions in much the same way that biologists like Strassmann study evolution. “We have this idea that competition should naturally lead to better athletes and more exciting and entertaining sporting activities,” Rigdon told The Daily Beast. “But we started to ask the question: Is there a possibility that competition can actually generate unethical behavior?”
Click through for article. It’s not about elections, but it certainly has some application to them. But it also has application t other things. Have you ever said, or wanted to say, “It isn’t a competition” in a conversation when one person appeared to be “one-upping” others? I certainly have. Is it possible that the discomfort (or more) that many white people feel about white privilege stems from a feeling that they are being accused of cheating? I think I’ll be saving this article.
Food For Thought
Glenn Kirschner – J6 panel subpoenas Trump; Supreme Court rejects Mar-a-Lago docs case; could indictments be next?
Meidas Touch – Bombshell January 6 Footage EXPOSES GOP LIES about Nancy Pelosi (Repetetive, but at least short)
The Lincoln Project – Time for Answers
Ojeda Live – Politics IS NO JOKE!
Tiny Foster Kitten Becomes King Of His House
Beau – Let’s talk about Biden, Hannity, and a voicemail….
Yesterday, I got the email that my ballot is in the mail to me. So I dropped what I was doing and reviewed the last three (out of 11) measures I hadn’t already revieed, and marked my cheat sheet Then I started on the county and local measures, and discovered part of the flyer was missing (it hadn’t been stapled.) I don’t live inside any city limits, but I do live in a school district (obviously) and two special districts – water/sewer and fire. I think the rest of the flyer may be in the car, and I will check when I get a chance, but in the meantime I was able to find a sample ballot on the web for my county, and none of those districts have any measures on the ballot. So I think I’m ready.
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The Bulwark – The Munich Model for Trump’s National Security Extortion
Quote – And even if these documents fail to work as a get out of jail free card, Trump has another card to play. He could call on his waiting army of supporters to threaten more violence on the public order. He has done this—and carried out such a threat—before. And he has already said, plainly, that he might do so again. Those in charge of prosecuting the former president should keep in mind history’s clearest example of everything wrong with appeasing a narcissist: the calamity of Munich.
Click through for full op-ed. I am beginning to think that, or at least to wonder whether, the delay in indicting is due in whole or part to exactly this – and wanting to gat defense mechanisms in place in advance to miniize the destruction. And that the presebce of MAGAts in police forces, national guards and other agencies complicates the effort, in part by making secrecy dauntingly difficult. It’s not as if we have’t see agencie formed for our protection include individuals bent on destruction.
Letters fron an American – October 15, 2022
Quote – Kinzinger’s point was that Trump clearly knew he was leaving office because he was deliberately trying to create chaos for his successor. When he abruptly pulled the U.S. out of northern Syria in October 2019, he abandoned our Kurdish allies, forcing more than 160,000 Syrians from their homes and making them victims of extraordinary violence. The Pentagon considered Trump’s November 11 instructions “a rogue order,” since they had not gone through any of the appropriate channels, and disregarded them.
Click through for full letter. There is a great deal more analysis. I picked this quote to demonstrate that complete and total obedience in the military is neither desirable nor expected. This example demonstrates how not obeying an order which is not lawful is supposed to work – and does work more often than you might think.
Food For Thought
Glenn Kirschner – J6 committee subpoenas Trump, and he responds with a letter that is . . . sharply self-incriminating
Meidas Touch – BREAKING: New York AG Files EMERGENCY MOTION to STOP Trump’s Continuing FRAUD (It won’t be breaking any more when you see this – but so much else was happening, it may have slipped under the radar. BTW, Meidas Touch is putting up a lot, but it’s getting very difficult to find anything under 10 minutes, let alone under 5 minutes.)
The Lincoln Project – What They Believe
Mothers Against Greg Abbott – No Choice
Parody Project – RUBLES WORTH NOTHIN’ – a Parody of Money for Nothing
Beau – Let’s talk about Pirates, Emperors, Russians, and Ukrainians….
Yesterday, President Biden designated Camp Hale as a National Monument. It’s the site, high in the Rockies, where the Army’s 10th Mountain Division trained during World War II. “It was the first and only division of the U.S. military trained to fight in mountain terrain, and many of the soldiers came back to the area to help build the local ski industry.” Of course, Colorado Republican heads exploded. They are painting it as a “land grab,” but the entire area is already protected anyway. This is just a designation of a piece of Federal land as a Monument. It may possibly increase funding (which is needed.) I thought a little good news would be helpful today. I’m breaking my own (unwritten) rule today to use two short takes from the same source. That’s because, though each highlights a different person, both center on a crook from China, and the facts in both articles are from the same investigation. We certainly have some egregious crooks in the US – but we have no monopoly on them. Also, I’ll be watching the hearing today, so I won’t be saying anything about it till tomorrow.
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ProPublica – How a Chinese American Gangster Transformed Money Laundering for Drug Cartels
Quote – As they investigated [Xizhi] Li’s tangled financial dealings, U.S. agents came across evidence indicating that his money laundering schemes involved Chinese government officials and the Communist Party elite. China’s omnipresent security forces tightly control and monitor its state-run economy. Yet Li and others moved tens of millions of dollars among Chinese banks and companies with seeming impunity, according to court documents and national security officials. The criminal rings exploited a landscape in which more than $3.8 trillion of capital has left China since 2006, making the country the world’s top “exporter of hot money,”
Click through for the beginning of the onvestigation (and probably ore than you ever wanted to know about money laundering.)
ProPublica – The Globetrotting Con Man and Suspected Spy Who Met With President Trump
Quote – In July 2018, President Donald Trump met at his New Jersey golf club with a Chinese businessman who should have never gotten anywhere near the most powerful man in the world. Tao Liu had recently rented a luxurious apartment in Trump Tower in New York and boasted of joining the exclusive Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey. But Liu was also a fugitive from Chinese justice. Media reports published overseas three years before the meeting had described him as the mastermind of a conspiracy that defrauded thousands of investors.
Click through for Part Two of the investigation. This is more information which doesn’t exactly make the Secret Service look good.
Food For Thought
