Glenn Kirschner – Trump’s lawyers make ABSURD request – ask Judge Chutkan set an April 2026 trial date in DC case!
The Lincoln Project – Roger Stone on November 5, 2020
Thom Hartmann – U.S. Rep. Vows To Use Force To Achieve Far Right Takeover…
Puppet Regime – Vladimir Putin, film critic
This Dog Stared At The Wall For Hours Until Finally Realized He Was Home
Beau – Let’s talk about Colorado, Alabama, and a General’s house….
[Trump** must want to be locked up. Why? To instigate another insurretion? What are we missing here?]
Glenn Kirschner – Trump’s arraignment: a speedy trial is coming; Trump’s threatening post; and possible consequences
The Lincoln Project – Clown Convention
MSNBC (Crooks & Liars) – [it’s probably findable on YouTube, but this is such a nice, tight clip I just went with it.]
Farron Balanced – Trump Supporters Hurl Racist Threats At Prosecutor Before She Indicts Trump
Dog Waits For Months For Mom To Come Home From The Hospital
Beau – Let’s talk about how the GOP indicted Trump….
Yesterday (actually Wednesday, but Heather Cox Richardson’s letters don’t arrive until after midnight), Richardson came up with an explanation why the military were slow to respond on January 6 which makes sense. Readers’ Digest version, they had gotten wind of Trump**’s considering using the Insurrection Act and were not sure whose side they’d be on – and didn’t want to be on the wrong side. I don’t know whether that’s original to her or whether it’s floating around. But it does make sense. The military were (quite reasonably) concerned about what Trump** might do, and at that point it wasn’t as widely known as it is now who was in on it. Also this week, our national credit rating was downgraded by Fitch Ratings Inc. (I never heard of them either, but I don’t run in those circles.) This is only the second time in history our credit rating has been downgradeed, the first being in 2011 by Standard & Poor. Both downgrades happened shortly after a fight in Congress over the debt ceiling – in other words, both were caused by Republicans in Congress – but both also happened during Democratic Presidencies. In 2012 Obama was reelected anyway. We’ll hope that the IQ of the American public has not degraded so much in the intervening 12 years as to hurt Joe’s reelection. Also yesterday, Colorado Public Radio reported that Colorado’s troll population has doubled. But not to worry. They’re talking about statues. Oh yeah, and Donald J. Trump** was arraigned. But you knew that.
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HuffPost Politics – The Republicans Still Defending Trump Would Be Totally Fine With This
Quote – Now, none of this is actually possible because Democrats, including Biden, and a small group of Republicans voted in 2022 to reform the Electoral Count Act to prevent the submission of phony elector slates and specify the vice president’s role as solely ceremonial. Most Republicans, however, opposed this reform. And in defending Trump today, they seem to think that it would be legal and fine for Biden to pressure elected officials to change vote totals, organize phony electors and for Harris to unilaterally steal the election for Biden.
Click through for logical conclusion. Not that we haven’t all figured it out already. But it’s well thought out all the way, and well said.
WDRB dot com (tip fro Crooks & Liars) – Kentucky woman convicted of mailing threats, racial slurs to neighbors sentenced by judge
Quote – The woman who mailed violent, racists threats to her neighbors in Lake Forest will spend nine years in prison for it. The case has been ongoing for about three years. According to court documents, Suzanne Craft sent a series of threatening letters to a family in the Lake Forrest neighborhood after being ordered to stay away from them. This happened between November and December 2020, prosecutors said.
Click through for details. Appears she has reached the “Find Out” part. I wonder whether nine years will be enough.
Food For Thought
Yesterday, I won’t say I overslept, becuse that implies I was planning to get up at a certain time, and I wasn’t. But I did sleep for a long time. I’m sure I needed it. But I did wake up in time to get ready for, and take in, a grocery order (which was rather a disappointment. But I did get everything I was actually out of, so at least I have time on my side.) Incidentally, I was also very late getting the Video Thread up – I had scheduled it for a day late and had to correct that, and I was late in discovering it. Sorry about that.
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The Daily Beast – Inside the DeSantis Doc That Showtime Didn’t Want You to See
Quote – The Daily Beast has obtained a transcript of that unaired documentary, “The Guantanamo Candidate,” which was anchored by Seb Walker, a longtime correspondent for the Emmy-winning newsmagazine. Among a number of insights into DeSantis’ past, the transcript features interviews with former prisoners and a former Naval staff sergeant-turned-Gitmo whistleblower who overlapped with DeSantis. All three allege inhumane treatment at the hands of the U.S. government, with the detainees directly implicating DeSantis—at the time, a junior-level military legal adviser—in approving and overseeing brutal measures…. Showtime’s decision to muzzle a report critical of a high-profile conservative politician also epitomizes the complaints that conservative politicians—including DeSantis—have habitually brayed in their crusade against so-called liberal “cancel culture.”
Click through for story. I can’t say I’m surprised that DeSaster didn’t want this to come out. Showtime – well, their defense woulf likely be the truth of the shade, but I can just see wanting to avoid an expensive lawsuit (especially since Republican candidates at all levels seem to be mostly deadbeats.) Of course VICE is not happy … but VICE is also apparently bankrupt.
Democratic Underground (quoted in full from Facebook, with permission) – Dear Jason Aldean – Father Nathan Monk
Quote – When I moved back to Tennessee a couple of years ago, I decided to stop by the corner store near my house to introduce myself to the neighbors. The lady working there was very friendly, and a guy was sitting in a rocking chair, going back and forth. It was country as hell, and I loved it. She starts to whisper in the way that Southern folks do when they are about to spill the sweet tea. She looks back and forth and then says, “Now, there is someone who lives on your street I wanna talk to you about. Now, sometimes, they dress as a man, but other times they dress as a woman…” I start to get nervous about what she will say next, but I bite my tongue and wait. “…well, you just better be okay with that. Because they are a nice fella and a sweet lady.”
Click through for full article, which is heartwarming. I’m not sure it’s even necessary to know what Nathan is responding to, but Jason Aldean (I don’t know for sure, but that’s probably him in the green T-shirt in the FFT) released a country song “Don’t Try That in a Small Town” (his “small town” is purely a majority white small town in the 1930’s or so) and it’s getting a lot of blowback. This is just one – but I think an outstanding one.
Food For Thought
Yesterday, I found a video (and partial transcript) of Jamie Raskin explaining exactly how Hunter Biden received no special treatment from the DOJ. I know everyone here knws this, but in case tou ever need to explain it to anyone else, I’m sharing the link. (Besides, Jamie Raskin is easy to listen to.) Speaking of easy listening, I probably don’t even need to say that Tony Bennett died at 96. Virtually no one missed that story. He was much and very widely loved.
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National Public Radio – ‘Active club’ hate groups are growing in the U.S. — and making themselves seen
Quote – These men, dressed in tactical gear and masks, were members of so-called “active clubs” — a term that may be relatively new to American audiences. They are a strand of the white nationalist movement that has grown quickly during the last three years and that has recently taken their message of hate into more public view. These decentralized cells emphasize mixed martial arts training to ready their members for violence against their perceived enemies…. “These clubs are decentralized and they’re forming on their own,” said Morgan Moon, an investigative researcher at the Anti-Defamation League, which estimates that there are active clubs now in at least 30 states. “We’re starting to see [the active club model] pop up in Europe as well as Canada now.”
Click through (and note they have filed this under “national security.”) To everyone who is counting on “the next generation” or “the younger generain” or “future generations” to end bigotry and misogyny, fuggedaboudit. Bigotry – or the lack thereof – can be taught, but it can’t be programmed. We are all born with a tendency toward, or against, bigotry – and that tendency may or may not match outr parents’ tendencies. If it doesn’t, sooner or later, each of us will find either his or her inner bigot or his or her inner lover of diversity.There are plenty of people like Stephen Miller, and Paul Gosar, and RFK Junior. And these renamed hate clubs are finding them young.
Letters from an American – July 19, 2023
Quote – In the 1980s, government officials threw out that understanding and replaced it with a new line of thinking advanced by former solicitor general of the United States Robert Bork. He claimed that the traditional understanding of antitrust legislation was economically inefficient because it restricted the ways businesses could operate. Instead, he said, consolidation of industries was fine so long as it promoted economic efficiencies that, at least in the short term, cut costs for consumers. While antitrust legislation remained on the books, the understanding of what it meant changed dramatically.
Click through (as always, click continue on the popup). Look at that Bork quote again. You might as well say thzt legislation against murder, rape, theft, and the like is inefficient because it restricts the way individuals can operate.
Food For Thought
Yesterday, two legal things happened with Trump**, and both Heather Cox Richardson and Joyce Vance addressed both. The first was Trump**’s motion to postpone the documents case trial indefinitely. This is both very Trump** and very ridiculaous (not that there’s much difference), and Glenn (and other legiti,ate attorneys) will tear it to shreds, though it won’t be in today’s Thread. Secondly – for background, the DOJ defended Trump** in E Jean Carroll’s original defamation case – it did so because he was President when he made the original defamatory remarks, and there might have been just the remotest chance that he was acting as President when he made them. But the new defamatory remarks he made last year – he wasn’t, thank God, President then, so no defense from DOJ. He’ll have to get his own lawyers, Honestly, I don’t know whether having DOJ defense the first time around even helped. I think if I had been on the jury, every time I looked at the defense table, those DOJ lawyers would have reminded me that our nation hadd been so misfortunate as to have this lunatic as President – which would not have inclined me to show him an atom of mercy.
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PolitiZoom – Why The Democrats Are Already More Strongly Positioned Than The GOP For 2024
Quote – In 2018, 2020, and 2022, non professional Democratic House candidates out fundraised deeply entrenched GOP incumbents by 4-5 to 1. Mostly by talking in living rooms and kitchens, grocery stores and Starbucks, and holding town halls where they actually listened to constituent concerns, and answered not in political bullsh*t, but in real life solutions. Little wonder they rocked like Bob Seger with Hollywood Nights. And the Democrats, not only the upstart contenders, but even the DNC seem to have gotten the memo.
Click through for opinion. Let me remind you that Murfster has vision issues (I can’t remember now whether it’s glaucoma, cataracts, both, or something else) and really is not able to prrofread to his own satisfaction, let alone anyone else’s. He’s still intelligent, though, and I hope he’s correct here.
The Daily Beast – GOP Board Whipped Up Homeless Hate. Then a Man Was Murdered
Quote – In January, the Board of Commissioners in Flathead County, Montana, proclaimed that the homeless had become a big problem in the little town of Kalispell due to charitable efforts to shelter and feed them. “Providing homeless infrastructure has the predictable consequence of attracting more homeless individuals,” read a preposterous letter signed by the three members, all Republicans. “When a low-barrier shelter opened in our community, we saw a dramatic increase.” The letter progressed from icy hearted to paranoid.
Click through for story. But that’s not how they’d tell it. After all, we are the violent ones coming to get them. Yeah. Right.
Food For Thought
Glenn Kirschner – DC Bar committee recommends Rudy be DISBARRED for “destructive” efforts in Trump election challenge
The Lincoln Project – Bidenomics is Working
Thom Hartmann – His Death Squads Killed Thousands Yet He Was Just Nominated For New Commission…WTF?
MSNBC – What to expect from Friday’s first pre-trial conference in Trump classified docs
Hopeful Owl Mom Fosters Two Abandoned Chicks
Beau – Let’s talk about Trump, Obama, Raskin, and McCarthy….
Glenn Kirschner – Trump’s danger continues: he posts Obama’s home address; armed Trump supporter heads to the address
The Lincoln Project – Last Week in the Republican Party – July 3, 2023
Robert Reich – Republicans Don’t Own Patriotism
Parody Project – Court for Sale
Sister Cats Take Turns Being Moms To Their Eight Kittens (I’m not sure whether they are blood sisters or “frosted” sisters – Dodo tends to “humanize” relationships)
Beau – Let’s talk about Chris Christie’s campaign….