There's no reason to think this is anything other than the show trial it seems to be. If they had anything at all, they would be doing this in a court of law where they could do some real damage. Of course, if they did that they would have to allow the defense to.......defend itself. And we can't have that from the party that claims to be defending democracy!
When all is said and done the purpose of this charade is to affect the November elections, and they just said they are pushing this into August, September, but September will come and go and they'll still be hanging around in October.
I myself am hoping for Jan. 6 all day, every day -- not the hearings. It's The People's House, you corrupt self-serving sacks of shit. The people should be able to walk into their house at any time and address grievances. Sick of having my substance eaten out.
Well, actually, "The People" can walk into Their House and address grievances. There is a relatively simple process for doing so. It's not possible to barge in unannounced behaving like morons and think this is how you do it. Whether or not anyone gives a shit is, of course, unknown, with the highest probably being no one will give even 1/2 a shit. And of course they're all self serving sacks of shit. Do I need to educate you, my son, with how little intelligence the world is governed?....apologies to Oxenstierna...
I'm curious...If your neighbor thinks you're doing something they don't like, is it the right thing to smash stuff, yell and demand action, or otherwise "air grievance" like a 2 year old with diapers full of shit? Are people aware there are ways to address stuff without going apeshit?
"If your neighbor thinks you're doing something they don't like, is it the right thing to smash stuff, yell and demand action, or otherwise 'air grievance' like a 2 year old with diapers full of shit?"
It's what inevitably happens when your diaper is full of shit and the people whom you are paying to change it don't do their fucking jobs. I'm not making any judgments about "right." In your construement here, the public is a crying, whiny baby, which should quit fussing, shut up, and listen to Daddy-says-so, but anyone who has dealt with babies knows they have a way of getting what they want in the end.
The elite leadership class bought this ticket. The ride's gonna suuuuck. As I think Taibbi is pointing out, it's already sucking for them when for some vague and mysterious reason a preponderance of the public doesn't regard their gussied-up kangaroo court with the pomp and majesty they believe to be its natural due. This should be a Marie Antoinette self-realization moment for the permanent state and the institutional Democratic Party that has become its butt buddy, but Marie was kinda notoriously slow on the uptake.
...ever been on that silly little monorail in the basement of Congress? It's kind of like the ones in Disneyland and downtown Detroit.
Been listening to Queen -- who, IMHO, much more effectively mocked and satirized the English inherited leadership class/landed gentry than the showboat gimmick Sex Pistols -- a lot lately. Especially this track. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZBtPf7FOoM
And yeah again, the public is a crying, whiny baby, which should quit fussing...and then forget the rest of the tirade and insert...."get involved in how it's put together and operates"....which leads to a realization that these people are all disgusting, and doing the work necessary to make change is horrifyingly awful, and reverting back to the crying, whiny part. Or, we could go VO or Erdogan, which has it's attractions, but then....(?) The mopes on this thread are testament to TK's increasing irrelevancy and Taibbi's apparent slipping down the polls in who gets to be on Maher or Rogan.
I remember when the monorail was first proposed and then built in what was the emptying out husk of Detroit. It was a shining educational moment into how the system works. We were the paid crew dismantling and demolishing the old factories in the city's core industrial area around Hamtramck. We all wished we could be filming it, but video back then involved a 35 pound camera. It was way better than any Hollywood imagined dystopia.
Poor analogy. My neighbor has little/no control over my life and does not see fit to order me around. If my neighbor collected my metadata, arrested me for being near his front lawn, and told me that I voted for this by moving in next door, well then, yes. I might smash his stuff.
Which isn't even what the "rioters" did. Most were peaceful, even those who've been locked up for more than a year. At least 2 are dead at the hands of the capitol police.
"If my neighbor collected my metadata, arrested me for being near his front lawn, and told me that I voted for this by moving in next door, well then, yes. I might smash his stuff."
Just wait until your neighbor Pavlik Morozovs you to the authorities and you get shot with a Hellfire missile from a Reaper drone as an "enemy combatant" for incorrect political beliefs.
"....we the people..." is now being sold as a "construct" as in there is no such thing as a man or woman. Check out the Beauchard article on the N.S. Lyons SUBSTACK. It's a slow read but an eye opener.
I'm with you. I'm sorry I didn't attend. But what THEY are showing is the fringe of what happened. NO GOOD CONVERSATION has been made for the right to demonstrate without INFILTRATION.
Epps and Sullivan need to be put before the PEOPLE.
People are developing fatigue? NO, they have completely switched off...did you hear that inflation is approaching 10%, gas is at least double what it was a year ago and that folks are starting to get laid off...and we are being led by a feckless man who can barely tell us what day it is and what state he's in...God help us.
Definition of “show trial” - A show trial is a public trial in which the judicial authorities have already determined the guilt or innocence of the defendant. Show trials tend to be retributive rather than corrective and they are also conducted for propagandistic purposes.
Definition of investigation - a searching inquiry for ascertaining facts; detailed or careful examination.
This whole thing is the first, and certainly not the second. Charade is also a fair characterization of this nonsense.
Maybe too many nights all alone has you too wrapped up in your own head to see propaganda in front of you La Bebe Monstro.
I thought about this some more and I think that it is not a show trial, it is political theatre. Whether it is drama, tragedy or farce depends on your point of view. A little of all to me.
There are no judicial authorities, no one will be found guilty or innocent and there will be no punishment afterwards. So it doesn't really meet any of your defiintions.
Certainly many weaknesses in the political system of checks and balances have been found and will need further legislation,
It is a charade. Investigations seek the truth. These motions literally hired a production crew to try to create a fake narrative. The fact you are too blind to see that only shows how gullible you are. Almost time for your 5th shot!!!! They work and are totally safe!!! 😂
The people who've been watching the 1/6 hearings with bated breath all this time are the very same people who quote their seven-year-old son making suspiciously on-the-nose anti-Trump statements.
Same with the Republicans when they cornered Hillary over Benghazi. No questions about why she "architected" the invasion (against UN resolution) and destruction of a fairly prosperous nation, complicit with the killing of the nation's leader, what the US ambassador was doing in a CIA outpost (directing arms into Syria) when the 3 were killed when all other Western nations had left.
So why did the Republicans, the opposition party, not demand answers to what she/ambassador John Christopher Stevens were doing there and why she (laughing, We came, We saw, He died) pushed this "internationally illegal" horror story that's ended up in a failed state?
Simple - the Republicans and Democrats are simply flip sides of the same coin. That's your "democracy", the one that the Dems want to preserve.
Funny how with all the “ Russia,Russia,Russia” hysteria, in six years, not once has Hillary’s sale of 25% of America’s uranium come up. Nor did the fact Mr. Impeccable, Robert Mueller’s signing off on it as member of CFIUS.Or that we bribed Putin with a backdoor deal allowing the sale of arms to Iran… to gain his support for the JCPOA. Funny how that works.
John McStain,Lindsey Graham, Jeff Flake, Bob Corker along with Bob Menendez,Mark Warner,Dick Durbin, approving the overthrow of Egypt’s Mubarak, invading Libya,Syria and arming the neo-Nazi Azov Regiment to overthrow the elected leader, creating the Maidan massacre which ultimately led to the Annexation of Crimea. The UniParty and their Deep State corporate multinational globalist donor owners
We're here at SUBSTACK because the American national dialogue has been stolen. J6 like Russiagate is a propagandist airball that runs cover for a corrupt and venal D.C. We don't talk about the things in your comment because they're blowback from the "realpolitik" power of WEF/CCP international finance. D.C. is complicit and guilty in aiding and abetting these international criminals.
The U.S. Government wastes a lot of money, especially when CIA and DOD are arming opposing groups of "freedom fighters." Maybe fund public schools instead?
It is pretty chilling when well-described and well-remembered comments like this get into one’s brain. Wow - look who is “leading” this place!...too bad average citizens don’t seem to have the time/wherewithal to actually hold this stuff in their thought processes. Because that really might be an insurrection.
Your right rather then focus on why we toppeled or even the lack of after planning . We got 13 hours and a focus on the fake video that explained the attack on our consulate. Both are important, but would not have happened with the war which many gop were happy about
"what the US ambassador was doing in a CIA outpost (directing arms into Syria)"
This is what US ambassadors do. It's baked into the job description.
The State Dept. is there for the CIA to use it, not the other way around, as the naïve like to imagine. CIA is the Master of Blaster, the Videodrome to Max Renn, the Kuato in George. "Don't get upset when you see him." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXpxFoaH_R4&t=11s
Hillary Clinton is still claiming the 2016 election - when she "lost" - was stolen. And congressional ratification has been protested by Democrats (Bush II elections). Nothing new, just the MSM/DNC framing.
It's a bi-partisan game....let me be more blunt - it's a con.
Accountability has been a myth we cling to as some sort of checks and balances, but little evidence of it in our polity, not now or much in the past.
Regarding whether or not the election was stolen - the way the game is played it doesn't matter. The person who takes the oath of office is president. I think that's what AG Barr (a smooth operator working for business as usual inc.) meant when he claimed at the 1/6 committee hearing: I told him (Trump) he lost and it's nuts to say otherwise. Smart move by Barr...I interpret that as - it doesn't matter if there's fraud, that's part of the game...and they all know that unsolicited mail-in ballots increase that multi-fold.
Believe what you want - the operating system demands that you believe the election was perfectly fair - more so than ever before!!!!
I think the absurdity of the January 6 commission is that it flies in the face of how one determines whether something is true or not. In science you have a hypothesis, and one may have to do many experiments, or garner facts which substantiate it's validity before you conclude your hypothesis is correct, and the same approach should occur in a court of law. If someone is accused of murder, well you have a prosecutor to present his facts, but the accused has his, or her lawyers to counter those facts with others facts, or attack the validity of the facts presented. The January 6 committee says he's guilty and brings in people of their choice to prove it, and no one to challenge them on what they say, what they present. What the hell!
I don't know whether I'm repeating myself or not, it's late.
All things considered this seems quite unusual to me. You have a party, the democrats, who tried to remove an elected president using any means possible, lies, and made up stories, then they impeach him, and it ends with their claim he fostered an insurrection and then these "truth tellers" establish a kangaroo court to reassure you that everything they every said about him is true.
That't what a trial is for, this is the results of the House investigation. Some of the evidence presented will results in a trail, where there will be a chance to present exculpatory evidence. I doubt Trump will ever have a trial. I sure hope not, but I would like to see some of his cronies in jail. I am sure that I will get my wish too!
Better describe what is going on now, as an inquisition. If you have been listening, truth is not what they are seeking, but to foster mistruths and provide an account of why Trump is guilty on all counts. Their bias is not in anyway difficult to perceive. No more then it was when the democrats tried to remove an elected president from office, especially using the lie of Russia-gate. "Inquisition definition, an official investigation, especially one of a political or religious nature, characterized by lack of regard for individual rights, prejudice on the part of the examiners, and recklessly cruel punishments" You have to admit the inquisitors have a lot, a whole lot of prejudice. The whole thing is a grand absurdity being used to bolster their wins in the upcoming November elections.
Leaving aside Russia-gate where we probably agree on most things, let's talk about the topic at hand, the Jan. 6 investigation committee.
Yes it's a political, that's what politicians do, they do political things. They can also reveal things that were not known before, perhaps incidental to their political efforts or maybe even in this case as a deliberate effort.
I remember a year ago when Taibbi commentators all mostly of the attitude "let's get all the facts out there and let people make up their mind." Now you all seem to be "it's just a magic show, it doesn't mean anything." Maybe it's not the exact same people, but it's pretty instructive of the political dialogue. No one is immune to being propagandized, not even you and me, and I try my best to seek out a wide variety of opinions. I think Trump and his supporters have had plenty of opportunity to present their case as well and still continue to do so.
You can't really leave Russia-gate aside, since it strongly supports the claim that the democrats , including a complicit media wanted to oust an elected president. The Congressional impeachment was also a sham. There were some 8 senators and over 130 Congress people who wanted to look at the electoral results of a number of states which didn't happen because of the RIOT. That didn't happen due to the riots, which in no way benefited Trump. I heard Trump say go peacefully that day, and many left long before he finished his speech. Because he challenged the electoral results does not translate into he wanted his base to take back the reins of power via an insurrection. It's absurd on it's face. By all means get the facts out there, but this January 6 committee is not doing that since their purpose is politically motivated, and not a search for truth. I have a background in science, a masters degree in that area, and one does not prove a hypothesis by setting up experiments that are skewed to support your perspective on what you deem, or want to be the truth. This committee is set up to prove Trump is guilty. Let's not forget this is a democrat run committee with two assigned republicans, both of whom hate Trump.
I only knew about it because Matt promised to blog. It's the first time I'm paying attention to this "trial" with my actual eyeballs. It's more boring than the Rittenhouse trial, if such a thing is possible.
The Rittenhouse trial was a lot more interesting then this, and they did have a regular trial with actual attorneys representing the accused and challenging the prosecutor’s witnesses. This is a bore because it's not a trial, and whatever conclusion they reach, it has absolutely no validity.
I never heard the speech Trump made at the end of the day to calm the crowd and send them home, but it's interesting that the video clip is introduced by Elaine Luria and she said in essence it took him a long time to address the crowd, whom she referenced as a "mob" he had sent armed to the capital. Amazing she can make that statement, when that "armed crowd" had no weapons. If this were a normal trial one would interrupt her and refute her claim the people had weapons, and Trump knew it. The implication behind this lie is to reinforce the idea this was an insurrection since one does not take over the reins of government unarmed.
The whole "armed crowd" narrative really speaks to how corrupted and shitty the mainstream media has become. The only weapons present were carried by cops. If there actually were some FBI plants, they probably had guns, but nobody in the crowd has been charged with having a weapon on their person that day.
No doubt some had guns, many people carry them legally and didn't bring them to topple the American government. If there is one thing everyone can agree on, it's this "insurrection" was extremely disorganized, and was accommodated by the capital police who let these "topplers", in through the front door of the Capital building. I saw it myself. Getting back to your gunman, the article claims he lost it, and didn't shoot anyone. I know there have been all kinds of numbers thrown about on this issue, but think hard on this, only one person was shot, shot to death, and that was a young woman who was unarmed and killed for no apparent reason by a police officer. Since Trump's presidency so many lies have been told by the democrats, mistrust is the order of the day for me, as it should be for most if not all Americans. I would have to look into what you provided here even though it was provided by the Department of Justice. Let me ask, were you equally concerned that the democrats, the CIA, the media, etc. were all complicit in the lies used to try to oust an elected president, or does that not concern you, do to your obvious anti-Trump bias?
I would use the words (sorry, cheating with 2) "rowdy crowd." There is a long tradition of rowdy crowds in our democratic republic. Andrew Jackson invited one into the White House to eat a giant cheese. It did not topple the government. https://npg.si.edu/blog/big-cheese-presidential-gifts-mammoth-proportions
I agree, and it was really needed, since the press was highly biased against this young man, as was the left. The so called left, liberals now strike me as very autocratic. Soon their head gear will be crowns.
Yes he was defending his city against a blm mob after Biden and his Ilk sacrificed Kenosha to be incinerated by a mob of nihilistic discontents and chomos hell bent on destruction
Well sure, of course what you're saying is factually correct. That's why I put "trial" in quotes. But I found the Rittenhouse trial excruciating much of the time because of the sheer incompetence of D.A. Binger.
Are they talking about Ivermectin? I think I heard something like that today. It's a super, super easy discussion: "This is between you and your doctor."
They did........ the first 40 minutes no Dr Kory. They spoke a bit and that part was good. Mostly Dr Kory explaining how it worked and what the evidence is. Kinda silly. Steve needs a debate format that actually goes back and forth.
Why thank you kindly. I tried 'liking' several more of your comments in the thread, but it's always a toss-up as to this platform's viability in that department. So here ya go in real time. Good evening from Alaska, NC.
😉. Anytime (I’m hoping one if these updates fixes that whole liking issue, though I probably need to give up on it because the website on a computer has it too 🙃)
I like Dr. Kory. Berenson reminds me of the pain in the ass geek who was always right ( in his own mind), but was wrong. So he had to disparage the person who was factually en pointe. The tattletale
You're unclear on the concept. These are hearings to determine facts. If the facts warrant prosecution, it will be forwarded to the Justice Department for trial. So far, all of Trumps biggest supporters are all on record indicating he is a complete lunatic. The revelations are not coming from Democrats; they are coming from Trumps supporters, his people, his aides, and his family.
What about all these facts that are being provided by Trumps supporters? Is this also just show?
Yes, Kurt, the shyster politicians in congress found the light and are on a divine hunt for the Truth. Thank goodness we have a bunch of crack gumshoe legislators picking up the pieces where FBI and justice department fell short. It's unfortunate that due to their busy schedule the only time congress can afford to investigate these matters is during prime time television slots just before the midterms. I'm so proud of our hardworking elected officials! I have no doubt that Garland has assigned someone from the justice department to monitor the phone lines 24/7 in case the elusive referral comes so they can leap into action.
After this is all over I hope that Adam Schiff and Liz Cheney can start driving around Washington DC in a groovy red and blue bipartisan van solving mysteries!
It's not the job of congress to investigate, they don't even have the ability to bring charges. Congress is a legislative branch-- they are not involved with enforcement. The justice department does that. All congress can do is refer things they think the justice department should look into, and there is absolutely nothing stopping the FBI or justice department from doing so of their own volition. In fact they probably have. And if they actually found anything substantial you better believe Trump would already be in jail. This is nothing but a show for the dwindling number gullible dupes who uncritically consume television news.
Congress has been conductive investigations almost since its beginning.
How would Trump be in jail, who would have put him there? He already had two trials in Congress and I don't believe he should be charged again, though I have no idea if it would be Constitutional for him to have a judicial trail or not.
I am not personally interested in seeing Trump charged and I think it would be bad for the country, but I am sure happy to see some of his cronies go (presuming they are found guilty, get due process, etc of course).
"Broad as the power of inquiry is, it is not unlimited. The power of investigation may properly be employed only “in aid of the legislative function.” 4 Its outermost boundaries are marked, then, by the outermost boundaries of the power to legislate. In addition, Congress may not issue a subpoena for the purpose of law enforcement—that is, to “try” someone before a committee for any “crime or wrongdoing, as such an action would intrude on powers “assigned under [the] Constitution to the Executive and the Judiciary.”
Dude, there's a guy, on tape, in multiple instances telling people to "GO INTO THE CAPITOL!" Both on the evening of January 5 and the morning of January 6.
He has not been questioned by the committee, and he was even taken OFF the FBI's most wanted list.
I won't even put his name down, because apparently, according to the New York Times, he's a victim of character assassination. But even the red-hatted ULTRA MAGA people that people think are deplorable were calling him out as a false-flag bearing Federal Employee.
If video of this idiot never comes up during the hearings, then you know it's all bullshit on top of horseshit.
Perhaps - but if the members of the committee are claiming that "inciting a riot in the house of congress" is an act of insurrection, or sedition, even , surely they'd want to speak to the person on tape suggesting that people do just that, right?
If they aren't interested in even speaking to this imbecile, why? They had no problem making an issue of the idiot in the viking hat, or the moron who stole Fancy Nancy's Laptop. Why does this nitwit escape their probe?
As always, the coverup is more telling than the crime.
When one side behaves like control-freaks (denying the other side's picks for the committee, for example), no chance of rebuttal from the other side, cherry picked evidence, you end up persuading no one. Maybe the died in the wool types without something better to do mid-summer are gorging on this feast but most people actually respect some semblance of fairness. Nobody likes a control freak. People might care if they tried just a teeny, tiny bit to look like it's fair.
I think it is you who are unclear on the concept. Hard to have hearings to determine facts, or what happened, when your agenda is to find Trump guilty, and you're even willing to lie to get that outcome. Yesterday Lauria went rambling on about what happened prior to the "insurrection" and said Trump sent his followers on their way to the Capital and that they were armed. If you know the facts, they were not. There was of course no one to challenge this deliberate lie as there would be if this were a trial, or they were committed to seeking the truth as to what happened that day. Lauria put forth this lie because as anyone knows you need to be armed if you're going to overturn a government. Too bad Trump didn't tell the old folk to stay home, since two died of natural causes from excitement, or all that walking, and indeed he should have said no customs. When you have a committee whose objective is to find the former president guilty then you will never determine what the truth is. If you should doubt that this is the objective of this committee then you are out of touch with the previous 4 years of Trump's presidency and the lies spun to remove him from office.
Some of them were most certainly armed. I still have to wonder who told you this "fact" that they were not armed and why you seem to cling to this false believe so stubbornly.
Right. This iteration of TK is validation of the Churchill quote….”the best argument against democracy is a 5 minute conversation with the average voter”.
Not a Trump fan, and open to being convinced he committed an actual crime - but history to this point is that whatever the Democrats accuse Trump of doing, it turns out later that they were the ones actually doing it. Hookers and blow in Russia? Check. Taking six-figure checks from Moscow and Beijing? Check. Siccing federal agencies on political opponents? Check.
I'd add that it's not just Democrats; it's also establishment Republicans. Remember, this is the uniparty here we're talking about. It's the giant blood sucking vampire squid and it's war production, the energy industry, NATO, global imperialists, et all.
It all hinges on the petrodollar, too. The last thing they want is people getting wise to the trillions they've stolen from the value of the dollar.
If nothing else - and his refusal to admit he lost the damn election in my mind removes him from any serious role moving forward - Trump may have inadvertently triggered the greatest political realignment since FDR. If enough Republicans representing a multi-ethnic working-class constituency get elected this November, we might see some real change.
I’d prefer a different candidate, but I’ll vote for Trump if he runs again for the entertainment. Also, I don’t just refuse to vote for Democrats now because the people setting policy are literally insane and hate both this country and humans generally, but also because Trump’s policies are far better than average. I refuse to vote for neocons (in either party). Trump is just annoying.
I say this as someone who voted for far more Democrats than Republicans in the 2 decades I’ve been old enough to vote (undergrad and grad did more to indoctrinate me than I realized for a while). I’m voting for the policies I prefer, of the choices I actually have (not a fairytale I wish was reality) and even wacky “extreme” Republican policies aren’t nearly as destructive or cruel as average Democrat policies these days.
I disagree. In fairness I’m voting based on policies, but the entertainment will be priceless.
The problem isn’t that people vote based on entertainment, as Joe Biden was hiding instead of entertaining for the majority of the campaign. While the evidence I’ve seen does point to voter fraud that could have turned the election in WI, AZ, GA, and possibly PA, it’s still clear tens of millions actually voted for Joe Biden, and they did so even though the disaster we got was entirely predicted (not just predictable). The issue is too many people no longer have a sense of humor, and those people vote based on whatever “feelings” and “beliefs” nitwits in the captured msm told them to “feel” and “believe.”
People who are so insulated from the consequences of an election that they — and they are exclusively MALE — can consider the entertainment value of a candidate should never be allowed to vote. You only make the world worse.
I read it. He's a bit of a priggish fucker. Likes the smell of his own farts.
I trust Parker and Stone over poseurs like Postman and McLuhan any day. All politicians are entertainers working the crowd like Robin Williams at the Comedy Store.
Here's the fucking deal: People who spend a lifetime shuffling in and out of politics/military/corporate life have fucked over the common citizen.
The ratification of the 22nd Amendment may be the single most important political act of the 20th century. Now we need more amendments to limit total number of years on the federal payroll teat.
Want it to be public service rather than public rape? Limit the amount of time one can do it. Then make a living on your fucking own. But this pandering for votes while not doing a god damn thing for the populace has to stop.
Considering that the democrats tried to remove Trump from office, Russia-gate, etc, it should be something that makes the possibility of a stolen election much more plausible. Also the media, the mainstream press and left were equally complicit in the lies the democrats spun. Did you notice how the neocons shifted their allegiance to the democrats as well? Well, when I thought about it, it made me think the election could have been stolen. Saw 2000 Mules, by Dinesh D’Souza, and he presented a very credible case. You cannot make the statement the election was not stolen, since you have no proof that it wasn't, no research, but others have done that, and I just mentioned one, and they conclude it was. So, just lets say there is a possibility it was stolen, all things considered.
Ok, but by that standard ‘there is a possibility’ that every election in the history of the country was stolen. ‘What proof do you have they weren’t?’
Not all the judges in Trump’s post-election cases dismissed them on procedural grounds, you know. Quite a few took a look at the evidence he presented them with, and all of them found it insubstantial. If it was truly stolen from him, he ought to be able to prove it in court.
I find it nearly impossible that there was enough rampant fraud to flip the election. To play devil's advocate, though, none of the individual precincts would have constituted enough fraud to flip a state, even if there were enough statewide. It's easy to say there isn't enough here to change the result, while simultaneously having enough statewide to do it.
In reality, he got outplayed by the D's that changed election laws all over the country and harvested the shit out of ballots. If he had joined the party, he would have won handily by seeing the other results. He just got outdone by a bunch of pros.
Mass mail in ballots without signature match checks funded by zuckerberg desperate to avoid being blamed for the electoral choices of americans by sore losers who still think 2016 was stolen.
Sadly no, the Republicans won't change and they'll do exactly what they always do. And when the majority of people in this country are disillusioned with that, the Dems will have their chance to prove their worth once again. Repeat ad infinitum. A real political realignment is more like the death of the Whigs and birth of the Republicans; we are long overdue for that.
Seriously, this push to charge Trump with “a crime”, when nobody seems to be able to specify exactly what crime he committed, reeks of Lavrenti Beria’s “find me the man and I will find you the crime” promise to Stalin. Orwellian shit -- but hey, since they’re putting on a Soviet-style show trial with no cross-examination of witnesses allowed and exculpatory evidence (like Trump’s admonition to protest “peacefully and patriotically”) deliberately excluded, might as well go full authoritarian.
This has been pointed out a few times, but I'll do it again.... This isn't a trial; it's a hearing where facts established. So far, all of Trump's own people, including his family members, are testifying to his multiple failures. All of this will be forwarded to the DOJ, who will decide if it should be prosecuted. THEN, you get a trial with all that stuff you are accusing the hearings of withholding.
No they won't. Same old, same old, as we use to say. To think we know the democratic party tried to oust as elected president, and we're investigating Trump is the grand absurdity of this January 6 inquisition. In science we don't have a predetermined conclusion, and try to prove it which is what is going on in this January 6th commission.
Please tell me how Democrats (or any other Republican Congressperson for that matter) were responsible for the January 6th attack on the Capitol. I'm all ears.
Allow me: by insisting, as they did, throughout the BLM riots of 2020 -- including the ones that forced the President into a bunker for his safety -- that rioting and breaking in and looting were now and henceforth to be considered acceptable forms of political protest. Imagine yourself an attendee of the Jan. 6th rally after what you saw the media and the Democrats make excuses for the prior year. Hey, what's good for BLM is good for me, right?
Or organizing the Senate invasion - er, "occupation" - in October 2018 to block the Senate from voting on the confirmation of a Supreme Court justice. "This is what democracy looks like." And now it turns out that this week's arrests of members of Congress at the Supreme Court were also orchestrated at the highest levels ...
They refused extra security and the guards let them in? They told people who doubted the 2020 election results that they were traitors and would not allow an honest investigation after spending four years refuting the 2016 election results and investingating it non-stop (to no avail)? The people who broke into the Capitol are guilty of trespassing but the Dems cheered these idiots on all the way after telling them there was no other recourse for their concerns. So they are culpable if not responsible.
Aoc climate protestors and kavanaugh hearing disruptors were given $250 fines at worst for the same charges that their opponents got a year in solitary without trial for.
The January 6th committee is a gullibility test for the urban/suburban "knowledge" class ( I grew up in Swarthmore, PA and hold degrees from Northwestern and Yale. I know these people better than they know themselves. And they are artlessly unaware of their class hatreds and fundamentalist brand of left wing politics).
Anyone not in the sway ofBob Jones style cum Left Wing fundamentalism understands that if the Democrats had a case they would have arrived at the strength of their evidence early and often. Instead, what we get is a new development every 12 days as nothing takes hold. Cassidy overheard a conversation! The Secret Service deletes texts! Perry Mason has an 11th hour witness!
They have nothing. Things are drawn out (poor Benny Thompson and covid!) , because they need time to formulate a new twist back at the Goebbels Memorial Labs, where the their best xen have been on the job since 2016.
Serious prosecutions present a case up front. And they allows witnesses for the defense. What is happening is not serious. And quite evil. It is what totalitarians do. Simply make their political enemies, enemies of the state.
With good conscience you can be for single payer healthcare, ADC, student loan forgiveness, universal income, affirmative action, fear abortion bans. etc. I may disagree with these positions, but they are all debatable in a democratic society. And worthy of debate. I have no interest in declaring people who wish to debate left wing issues as undemocratic. This is at the heart of democracy.
What is undemocratic is what the current Democratic Party leadership is doing. Quite frankly they know they have no case. What they are doing is evil. It is high time those who feel they hold high-minded progressive values-values that are worthy of debate, throw away their "my political religion right or wrong" and call them on it.
I agree. The knee jerk collusion and parroting are relatively new. They once used to compete for the news. Now they compete for who can be most subservient.
The 1996 Telecom Act, signed into law by President Bill Clinton, removed the ownership caps on all mass media, setting off a series of acquisitions and buyouts that resulted in the tight little media monopoly of only six owners that we have today.
Nicely said. Speaking of Yale, when I was there the president was a humble public servant who at least tried, perhaps ineptly, to do the right thing, and who left office to retire to his home town and live a modest middle class life while doing good works. He still does He didn't move to NYC and Washington to enrich himself.
"[T]hese people ... are artlessly unaware of their class hatreds and fundamentalist brand of left wing politics"
I'm convinced that at the root of this is an unshakable belief in (to the point of making a fetish of) a moral, not just a functional, value of intelligence (and to a lesser extent, Western styles of achievement), combined with a belief in their ability to measure on such scales, and of course their own unquestioned and unquestionable ubiquitous superiority. All supposedly demonstrating their "self-esteem", LOL. These attitudes have probably always existed to some extent, but today's seem far more flippant and mean-spirited than even just a generation ago. I am trying to understand what really drives it.
My own wake-up call on this -- questioning who today's Democrats really are -- was when "esteemed" Rep. Pat Schroeder in the 1990s had the cluelessness to repeat James Carville's complaint about "dragging a hundred-dollar bill through a trailer park" after Gennifer Flowers accused Bill Clinton of sexual assault.
Let us never forget that the original knowledge class of America were the Puritan divines-who lived in a certain, unquestioned rectitude and authority over the merchant class, until a growing economy, and the Great Awakening (uncredentialed people gaining a voice. How horrible!) challenged this. This is the Ur-cultural conflict in America and -as you point out, it is very much alive today.
In the 90's, the politics of personal destruction went from a sidebar strategy (Eagleton) to a major political strategy. Increasingly it is becoming the only political strategy used by cynical political puppet masters to unstintingly keep up the morally frothed outrage of a completely unreflective knowledge class. "Bob, get me someone who is willing say they saw Brett Kavanaugh eat live toddlers in 1979- stat!"
I am close to people who know Carville's family well. Interestingly enough, his is a marriage that could never happen today in the political classes: Politically diverse and self-consciously so. This can only happen when people still believe that political life is only part of life and not the all encompassing sitz im leben of a medieval religion
Also: "I may disagree with these positions, but they are all debatable in a democratic society. And worthy of debate. I have no interest in declaring people who wish to debate left wing issues as undemocratic. This is at the heart of democracy."
Exactly. A *functioning* democracy, as well as a deep understanding of its value, *is* the central issue here. (Unfortunately some on the Right are getting tangled up in the red herring that we are "instead", not "also", a republic.)
So, apparently in the eyes of these self-professed "smart" people, and probably often at a subconscious level (due to the cog dis it may produce in some): If you're intellectually inferior, you really have no right to self-governance -- the "experts" will do it all for you. So, somehow, the supposed intellectually inferior don't even have a right to *understand and choose which experts* smell least like horseshit. "Don't worry your pretty little head over it!" I've even seen on the Big Brother vehicle, Firefox's Pocket, articles supporting avoiding news, as it may get you too "upset", and we need to keep you clear-eyed and bushy-tailed, presumably to stay on the hamster wheels.
Just keep watching the TeeVee (and FB, etc.) for the psy-op-ing ads and news, then *everyone* march to the polls (the GOTV campaigns), and pull those levers as your now-primed gut tells you!
Hundreds of people have been convicted by the FBI and dozens more will be convicted in a trail with a judge and jury due to the evidence uncovered by the House investigation committee.
It's okay, you don't believe in the rule of law. Four legs good, two legs bad and all that.
I believe that The House has the investigatory power given to them by The Constitution and that they are using that power legally. The are not a judicial body and no one will go to jail directly as a result of those hearings. Some of the evidence will results in charges.
FBI convicts! I hereby sentence you to 42 hours of Schoolhouse Rock. With two hours off for being so transparent about your knowledge gap on Constitutional law.
Explain his alleged gaps, if you would. I didn't find anything he wrote to be factually incorrect. Lots of mopes in this convo might be outraged that he had the temerity to express facts, and if that's the problem, I understand.
Oh, yea, it's that simple. That's what's going on here.
Some of us who have been watching for several decades recognize that the US judicial system has degraded to FUBAR status regarding its impartiality in high-profile politically sensitive matters.
Yes I read that story. Glenn was strictly true but also sensationalistic in his story, like Glenn usually is. I notice that no one has sought judicial remedy for these supposed over reaches, some of which are admittedly disturbing. The Bannon contempt trial will be instructive.
Right. In the fever to remain relevant, GG goes off the rails. He senses he doesn't matter anymore, and he's turning into all the things he used to despise. Matt's take on this thing is equally idiotic. He used to investigate relevant issues and provide great takes. Recently, he's just another frantic mope manufacturing narratives to keep the natives restless and subscribed.
Mostly right, except special credence given to GG is stretching. The committee never made any such claim, Congress has the power to investigate citizens, and there are judicial limits that GG is conveniently ignoring in the effort to claim eyeballs. He was, at one time, a brilliant journalist. Same as Matt. Both are having a hard time of it nowadays, so they're turning into all the things they used to despise. They're fucking journalists frantic to stay relevant and keep a paycheck. That's all.
I'm working hard here on your logic ... please help me ...
"[T]here are judicial limits that GG is conveniently ignoring in the effort to claim eyeballs."
I'll assume you identified these in GG's comments, or otherwise know where they can be found, could you give us a link? Or, just give some brief points here, thanks so much.
"[1] Both are having a hard time of it nowadays, so [2] they're turning into all the things they used to despise."
[1] That's a bit sweeping, could you identify how you believe "hard times" are upon them?
[2] So, Glenn's and Matt's primary goals are to make a buck, and if that becomes problematic, well ... they're *just the types* who will morph into whatever will sell. That's your go-to explanation, no other could make any sense (assuming the driving assertions -- for Glenn, at least -- are true in the first place). Again, the evidence for this take?
Who knows, maybe they're even part of some long-con team, a honeypot for the upcoming Domestic Terrorism Unit of the DHS, especially since that the (first effort at a) propaganda unit was smoked out. Why, anything's possible, if you let your mind ... be free .... (courtesy of a little nudge, of course).
So what's your own goal here? I mean, why do you subscribe to this Substack?
Because I read all of Matt's books, have followed him for years, and frankly I think he's fallen into the dilemma that any author/journalist/zeitgeister falls into absent a steady corporate gig....having to reinvent himself every day. It's an impossibility. I've seen it in GG's stuff too.
We get hot takes and frantic bomb throwing, not studied analysis. They got a deadline, and they hit it with stuff that would be better left in the trash can. I've posted that I would be fine getting something every couple weeks or months if it was really good stuff. This thing of cranking out a new outrage every couple days is crap, I suspect he knows it most of the time, but he's trapped in having to compete with overwhelming media conglomerates. They want to keep focaccia on the table, they find amenable constituencies for their bomb throwing, and the bombs keep coming. They're not doing what they're really good at. They're doing what they, in the past, derided others for. It's not pretty.
I'd hold up Matt's Loudon County (and other stuff) reporting as some of the best stuff I've seen in years. I'd hold this piece of shit up as some of the worst.
You obviously haven't got the first damned clue about the Constitution (or, apparently, what parts of English history influenced it), because if you did you would understand that criminal investigation and prosecution, which is what this affair really is, belongs to the executive branch, not the legislative. Looks like you're wrong about "no one will go to jail directly as the result of these hearings," whereas that is where Mr. Bannon is headed as of today.
What you believe in is power for the Democratic Party at all costs
Note he drops the degrees from elite universities to claim some imagined advantage in the conversation....then immediately goes to describing all the things that would happen at a trial.
Again, for those not inclined to understanding the differences in hearings and trials, this is a HEARING. The findings will be forwarded to the DOJ for possible prosecution. That's when all the stuff Mr. Elite University Credentials is demanding will be brought forth.
I guess a Wildcat and Yalie isn't taught these things...
And for those not inclined to understand the differences between a Congressional investigation and a show trial, this is a SHOW TRIAL. Show trials do not have "findings," they have canned performances.
Mr. Elite University Credentials also needs remedial education in word usage, as in the meaning of "trial". One more time, there is a difference between a hearing and a trial. A show trial takes the form of a prosecution, a defense, and a verdict.
You should stop now while you only appear moronic.
It's all theater. In the post-modern age, one demonstrates one’s commitment to a particular truth or cause through performance. The caterwauling on social media and television is performance designed both to signal one’s commitment to a supposed truth and also identify the heretics who choose not to perform.
Now THIS...THIS is true. It's political theater. It's not an indictment, nor a trial, let alone a show trial.
If folks want to caterwaul on social media about how the theater is unfair, biased, or otherwise dipshit, these same folks would at least be forming their minds to accommodate actual information.
The nutbags are running the asylum. Just today I saw that Glenn Greenwald is a liar and a Nazi because he reported something Gaetz said. These children don’t seem to understand the difference between reporting what someone said/did and actually doing/saying it yourself. But the social media oligarchy was allowed to brainwash people this way... so here we are. Good thing they donate to the DNC I guess.
I'll watch for a very short time, since I don't want to give this charade any credibility. If the democrats had played fair and square and not made a concerted effort to remove him from office I might say, well, maybe there might be something to their allegations. But that's just not so!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!~
Maybe it isn't so!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.....but it is a discomforting for the Trumpers to hear their guys own people and family members providing sworn testimony that he's a loon. So, it's understandable that you don't want to hear any of it.
The real tell here is thinking anyone in the game, Dem or Pub, plays "fair and square". It speaks to the general populations understanding of politics. Fair and square...sheeesh....
You know, I didn't vote for Trump in 2016, always the democrat, but in no way was I voting for war mongering Clinton. Sometimes I voted third party, but never voted for a republican. So I wasn't a Trumper during his presidency, but I watched the party I was affiliated with engage in all manner of malicious propaganda, spew lies, like the lie of Russia-gate. I watched them impeach him in the Congress, and accuse his supreme court pick of being a rapist. It was so obvious they tried to remove an elected president from office based on lies and hate. During this period the mainstream media, corporately owned, went along for the ride, like they did during our many middle eastern wars that killed millions, and destroyed countries, whether carried out under Bush, or Obama. What to do? I became an independent and never will I vote for a democrat again. I just made a promise to myself, and let me just say that Biden whose past record in politics is not only unremarkable, but a disgrace, and he's no better now, only worse, or as obama would say, "Don't Underestimate Joe's Ability To Fuck It Up." His administration is only assuring me that my decision is right on. The kangaroo court set up to determine Trump's s degree of guilt in the so called insurrection is nothing more then a kangaroo court. How can you lend any credibility to a committee that has predetermined his guilt and brings in witnesses to substantiate what they already believe, and the two republicans on there have a decided anti-Trump bias. So much for your assessment of me, or things in general.
Well, we're in agreement that they all suck. No where have I ever lauded the Dems; they're corrupt as it gets. What I don't get is how the Dems being assholes somehow makes Trump a good guy. Binary thinking.
I can lend credibility to the committee because all of the testimony is by Trumps own people. His people. All his people, including family members, testified to stuff that if the Dems had done 1/10th of it, we'd all be demanding the guillotine. How can anyone not lend credibility to the committee? Because they're trained as binary thinkers.
Of course the Dems are corrupt and despicable. Of course the Pubs are treacherous liars. It's government. I'm amazed that people in here think there's a good side. This crowd is conditioned to think in a binary fashion; the folks doing the controlling like it that way. Two sides. Choose up, everyone. Just like the money likes people to think.
And, apparently, Matt's gone binary too. His last two columns haven't just sucked; they're delusional pandering.
I am still perfectly capable of evaluating Trump's policies, no war was good, and other policies he implemented were not, and by the way many democrats went along with them. I have not lost my objectivity because I am aware the democrats played dirty. Disgusting really. I don't think Matt has gone binary. Do you know what happened to Greenwald when he wanted to write an article on Biden for a publication he started, The Intercept? Well, they wouldn't let him. The democrats created a very divided world and not only by attacking Trump but his base, those "half basket of deplorables". The so called liberals went along with that assessment which also affects the perspective of those watching the January 6 committee and the intent of the protesters. You are defining me as binary, what about I am trying to be objective and not fall into what too often is little more then an elitist perspective on Trump's presidency rather then questions on issues of his policies. Too often I see writers, many on the so called left, write on a topic, then slip in a line or two on the horrors of Trump, and unrelated to the main thesis of the article. Their intent, of course, is to say to their readership, hey, I am on the right side of things because I hate Trump, ergo my opinions expressed here are also correct.
Do you really believe the US secret service was involved in a coup attempt??? That’s nuts. If that was the case, then why doesn’t the pro Trump secret service depose the obviously mentally incapacitated President Biden??? Perhaps because the US Secret Service doesn’t do coups! This whole January 6th thing, like every other get Trump derangement escapade by the democrats and RINOs, is yet another sham. Talk about coup attempts? They spent all of Trumps
Tenure trying to impeach him…before, during, and even after his term. Now they are trying to preempt him before he even runs again!! Stop giving ANY possible credibility to this January 6th bs.
I mean, the FBI informants were telling people to go to the capitol and "go inside". That's all they seem to be doing these days: grooming mass killers and manufacturing event after event while the corporate media pumps everyone full of fear over it all.
Yeah, I mean, it turned out that the Michigan "coup" against the governor was planned by an FBI plant. I guess they've solved all the actual crimes in the country, and now have to manufacture new ones to keep busy ...
what did the thieves take? and it was all at the same time the dnc emails were released by wikileaks. it was determined russia had nothing to with it and it was an inside job.
They're still pretending the FBI was clueless about the whole thing despite their office being in the middle of the route from where Trump spoke to the capitol.........
The United States is the most defended country on the planet, something Matt confirmed recently in his article about billions in defense-related pork that passed under a media blackout from both sides. Yet the same people want us to believe that a handful of conspiracy nuts, senior citizens, and racist tweakers almost overthrew the government of this country. More rioters died of overdoses and heart attacks than US law enforcement died from violence (that number being zero) btw. But holy shit guys, Existential Threat was Existential af. I just can’t listen anymore, my brain is dying.
It's truly the dumbest fucking thing. The 2011 Act 10 protests in Madison over then-Gov. Scott Walker's measure to all but end collective bargaining for most of Wisconsin's public workers was also an "insurrection" then, and in many ways it was worse.
I know it's hard to fathom but if you were following the "stop the steal" movement, as I was, listening to Steve Bannon's War Room podcast -- mainly out of curiosity, though my friends on the left would condemn for that curiosity -- it was clear what their intentions were. They genuinely believed that Trump could successfully make his case in congress, as Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz were doing. Trump believed that because that was the plan. Why would he then plan a violent riot if all it did was end his argument and hand absolute power to his enemies? It makes no sense. Also, and this is not reported anywhere or even investigated - Trump supporters, especially those who faithfully attend his rallies, are proudly non-violent. They don't want to destroy American property. They want to protect it. That is their only point of superiority over the left. The left protests violently, they don't.
Were there Trump supporters angry enough to bust into the Capitol? Well apparently so. But the head didn't know what the tail was doing because these two things ran counter to each other. Because of that, I was immediately skeptical about why that one time did the crowd become violent? This question was never asked because most people don't believe this. The riot was the best piece of anti-Trump propaganda our government has ever gotten and they're milking it for everything it's worth, at great cost to our country, IMO.
The reason it's a show trial -- though no one is getting shot or put in a gulag -- is that they came in with a conviction then went looking for any evidence they could find to prove it.
It also keeps their base from looking over the hedge at more conservative and middle of the road news events.
All they can do is try and make enough noise to drown out the massive wave of disgust that's about to wash them off of the beach in November and then again in 2024.
If it's not Trump, it'll be someone else who saw the value in breaking the fourth wall of political theater for people who hate their government.
Not saying they'd actually DO anything good, just saying that the game has changed and the dinosaurs are all stamping around trying to squash all the rodents fruitlessly.
I didn’t know you had a Substack until you were on the fucking Megan Kelley show yesterday! I was like oh shit it’s that chick who has great takes on tk news lol !!
On trump…“Why would he then plan a violent riot if all it did was end his argument and hand absolute power to his enemies?”
I agree that argument doesn’t hold water but it was a social media driven qanon 3hr riot by a bunch of (mostly) unarmed dudes overdosed on egg McMuffins.. imagine how fucked the dems would be without Jan 6
"... though no one is getting shot or put in a gulag... "
True. But:
First, these things progress in stages, and it's abundantly clear that we've already passed through many destructive stages since, say, 9/11. Our Bill of Rights is in flames, a fact well documented by the Rutherford Institute, among many others Left and Right.
Second, rhetoric rules. Once they appear, they will *never* call them "gulags", they will be "safety camps"; and I wouldn't put it past them, at all, even to call police "shots" a new name, say, "projectile restraining devices", once they start using them regularly against the "domestic terrorists". After all, they had to call the Russiagate *conspiracy theory* an investigation into "collusion"; mass shooter gun deaths are caused solely by "guns", while police gun deaths are caused solely by "racism" (when will there be deadly firearms control for the police?); and American blacks get a new name about every 10 years or so.
All Trumps's enemies and nobody on his side doesn't sound like anything but theater. Why isn't Marjorie Taylor Greene on the committee? Lauren Boebert? Because they might cross examine and who in the world would want that?
They really are terrified of him, and us too, I guess.
And Trump tried to grab the wheel of his limo and drive to the capital too.
Cmon Matt........the vast majority of us are WAY WAY beyond caring about the hearings or Jan 6th generally.
The whole setup, right from the beginning was a show trial designed to keep Trump from running again. It was never about "finding out what happened". It was just nail Trump. We get it. We give the damn thing no credibility and we are perfectly prepared to move on and have been for a long time.
Most of us do not find it to be any worse than all the riots the summer before.
We get it...Trump is an asshole and everyone on the democrat side, to include never Trump republicans is terrified that he might actually be able to get elected again. They should be. God help them, if after all this, he gets in again. BUT....if by some chance he DOES get in again, they have nobody but themselves to blame. They have screwed the pooch on SO many things and then tried stuffing noxious progressive social policy and cultural mores down our throats. Never mind they have cried wolf so many times that it is just background noise now.
I don't think it's to stop Trump from running again. I think it's to keep him in the media spotlight because they don't have a good alternate Emmanuel Goldstein on tap.
1. These morons that are out to get him have simply refused to do the ONE thing that would eliminate him as a threat....IGNORE him. Every time they mention his name they keep him in the spotlight. Every time they go on TV or write an article talking about how bad he is, and how urgent it is to get rid of him, they make him look powerful and therefore relevant and because he ticks them off so much it endears him to those who are fed up and disgusted with them. Their very actions make him relevant.
2. The idiots prosecuting this stuff do not even realize that they are playing with fire and that winning, in the form of actually getting a successful prosecution of Trump, would simply make him a martyr. Even a failed prosecution would make him one. For those people out there that believe he was cheated out of the election, and there are reasonable arguments to be made that to one degree or another he was or that at least the game was rigged, that would be an invitation to an ACTUAL insurrection.
For those that oppose Trump, the single greatest thing they could do for themselves it to make him not relevant, but they cannot help themselves.
I absolutely agree, and I feel so strongly about it I switched parties, since I was a registered democrat. I don't want to be on the side of what could only be said to be a bunch of autocrats thinking they can get away with just about anything, including removing an elected president from office. There are so many out there to make hate trump truth.
You had perfect timing. They say the democrats were on a right wing slide since the Carter years and under Clinton they really veered right. He's the SOB that drew 3 countries into NATO, and we promised Gorbachev we wouldn't. It was down hill from there. Too bad Gore didn't win, and I do believe that election could very well have been stolen.
Oh, I agree, and this is a neocon agenda, and we have those in the Biden State Department, and they were in Obama's State Department as well. We were heading down this road for decades. In my opinion, although most don't want to give him credit, Obama is someone who got this rolling by supporting the 2014 coup even lending his support to a neo-nazi brigade to get it done.
There can be a witch hunt and Trump can be guilty of high treason. Both of these things can happen. The witch hunt is not a reason for Trump to do what he did. Two wrongs do not make a right.
This is true. I think it’s all overblown but am staying open-minded about whether Trump attempted a coup, mainly because I trust Andrew Sullivan and Batya Ungar-Sargon to not drink the modern progressive kool-aid, and both of them seem concerned about it. Batya had a good piece for Common Sense saying yeah, the media’s way overdone Jan 6, but Trump still did some bad stuff and represents a genuine threat to the rule of law.
This is my question. Trump clearly wanted to go to the Capitol with protesters he knew were heavily armed. My question is this. What was he going to do when he got there? I read somewhere that he wanted to enter the House Chamber with an armed mob while the congress people were there. What would have happened then? Would the mob start attacking the congress people? Thankfully, we'll never know but I have to admit, I am curious.
Are you trolling the comments section? You don’t actually believe the bullshit you just threw, do you? Heavily armed? Trump leading them into the House chamber? You are a whole other level of deluded.
The piece that Batya Ungar - Sargon did was deservedly skewered in the comments. It was nothing that couldn't be found anywhere else in Corporate Trump-hating media.
It's really quite easy to understand, Matt, though I wonder if you are hoping the landscape will change if for no other reason than it would be "fun" to write about it:
Matt wrote: "For six years now, investigators of every stripe and hue, from the FBI to the CIA to the NSA to Intelligence Committees in both the Senate and the House, have been pursuing Donald Trump......... (speaking of tonight's Democrat show) Part of the reason multiple previous impeachment and prosecution efforts failed is because investigations often failed to deliver evidence at moments just like this." (IMHO, Matt should have written "always" instead of "often".
The reason the Demos, Rino's, never-Trumpers, the corporate media, social media etc. have "failed to deliver evidence" is that after "6-years" THEY HAVE FOUND NOTHING!!! Tonight will be no different, as Matt tacitly admits.
It's rather alarming to see how many Dems in the NYT comment boards are either plugging her for potus, or say they'd vote for her. TDS is a real thing.
AOC faking being cuffed with her hands behind her back. That is just another example that the entire Democrat party has been corrupted to a bad Hollywood act. The Jan-6 show trial is just a really bad Netflix series. And for most voters it reminds them of someone washing their dirty dishes while their neighborhood is on fire.
Watching a defiant AOC being "led away" at the protest, I was very impressed by her civil disobedience fashion sense. Made me think we need a protest/show trial version of "Live From the Red Carpet!" The world yearns to know "who" she was wearing. Joan Rivers interviewing The Squad or Liz Cheney. Now that WOULD have been worth watching.
I’m grateful for this hearing. Otherwise I might have to contemplate how we gave 54 billion for Ukraine to fight off the new hitler while the msm cheers europes ability to receive oil and gas from the new hitler
in the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, the president of the universe is a buffoon that entertains everyone else. i often think of that for everthing in DC. its all one big shitshow
Are you covering this for posterity? Literally no one I know has paid one second of attention to this side show. It appears to be directly focused at a small subset of low information Democrat base voters that they know will believe anything they say.
From a historical perspective it is a black mark on our history. I would have never believed we would have Soviet style star chambers in my lifetime in the United States.
Yep. He is like a predator that strengthens the flock by taking down the weak. Just look at how the uniparty came together to defend their power base against him. It’s a freakin Nat Geo spectacle on the Savanah except it’s politicians and bureaucrats instead of lions and gazelles.
I made the connection while recently reading Frank Herbert’s Dune books where he makes the same allusion to one of the characters. Herbert was a genius!
And Biden genuinely deserves to be impeached, if just on a charge of not enforcing out immigration laws, but also selling our strategic petroleum reserves to our enemies, and ... there’s a long, long, valid list.
What we are governed by does not have the innocence of children. Children may do silly things, but they still haven't sold their souls for money and power.
There's no reason to think this is anything other than the show trial it seems to be. If they had anything at all, they would be doing this in a court of law where they could do some real damage. Of course, if they did that they would have to allow the defense to.......defend itself. And we can't have that from the party that claims to be defending democracy!
When all is said and done the purpose of this charade is to affect the November elections, and they just said they are pushing this into August, September, but September will come and go and they'll still be hanging around in October.
Keep it on the front page as long as they can. But people are developing Jan 6 fatigue.
"But people are developing Jan 6 fatigue"
I myself am hoping for Jan. 6 all day, every day -- not the hearings. It's The People's House, you corrupt self-serving sacks of shit. The people should be able to walk into their house at any time and address grievances. Sick of having my substance eaten out.
Well, actually, "The People" can walk into Their House and address grievances. There is a relatively simple process for doing so. It's not possible to barge in unannounced behaving like morons and think this is how you do it. Whether or not anyone gives a shit is, of course, unknown, with the highest probably being no one will give even 1/2 a shit. And of course they're all self serving sacks of shit. Do I need to educate you, my son, with how little intelligence the world is governed?....apologies to Oxenstierna...
I'm curious...If your neighbor thinks you're doing something they don't like, is it the right thing to smash stuff, yell and demand action, or otherwise "air grievance" like a 2 year old with diapers full of shit? Are people aware there are ways to address stuff without going apeshit?
I'm surprised I have to explain this stuff....
"If your neighbor thinks you're doing something they don't like, is it the right thing to smash stuff, yell and demand action, or otherwise 'air grievance' like a 2 year old with diapers full of shit?"
It's what inevitably happens when your diaper is full of shit and the people whom you are paying to change it don't do their fucking jobs. I'm not making any judgments about "right." In your construement here, the public is a crying, whiny baby, which should quit fussing, shut up, and listen to Daddy-says-so, but anyone who has dealt with babies knows they have a way of getting what they want in the end.
The elite leadership class bought this ticket. The ride's gonna suuuuck. As I think Taibbi is pointing out, it's already sucking for them when for some vague and mysterious reason a preponderance of the public doesn't regard their gussied-up kangaroo court with the pomp and majesty they believe to be its natural due. This should be a Marie Antoinette self-realization moment for the permanent state and the institutional Democratic Party that has become its butt buddy, but Marie was kinda notoriously slow on the uptake.
...ever been on that silly little monorail in the basement of Congress? It's kind of like the ones in Disneyland and downtown Detroit.
Nicely done. Thanks👍
Been listening to Queen -- who, IMHO, much more effectively mocked and satirized the English inherited leadership class/landed gentry than the showboat gimmick Sex Pistols -- a lot lately. Especially this track. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZBtPf7FOoM
Well, yeah...
And yeah again, the public is a crying, whiny baby, which should quit fussing...and then forget the rest of the tirade and insert...."get involved in how it's put together and operates"....which leads to a realization that these people are all disgusting, and doing the work necessary to make change is horrifyingly awful, and reverting back to the crying, whiny part. Or, we could go VO or Erdogan, which has it's attractions, but then....(?) The mopes on this thread are testament to TK's increasing irrelevancy and Taibbi's apparent slipping down the polls in who gets to be on Maher or Rogan.
I remember when the monorail was first proposed and then built in what was the emptying out husk of Detroit. It was a shining educational moment into how the system works. We were the paid crew dismantling and demolishing the old factories in the city's core industrial area around Hamtramck. We all wished we could be filming it, but video back then involved a 35 pound camera. It was way better than any Hollywood imagined dystopia.
Poor analogy. My neighbor has little/no control over my life and does not see fit to order me around. If my neighbor collected my metadata, arrested me for being near his front lawn, and told me that I voted for this by moving in next door, well then, yes. I might smash his stuff.
Which isn't even what the "rioters" did. Most were peaceful, even those who've been locked up for more than a year. At least 2 are dead at the hands of the capitol police.
"If my neighbor collected my metadata, arrested me for being near his front lawn, and told me that I voted for this by moving in next door, well then, yes. I might smash his stuff."
Just wait until your neighbor Pavlik Morozovs you to the authorities and you get shot with a Hellfire missile from a Reaper drone as an "enemy combatant" for incorrect political beliefs.
I exaggerate for effect, but not too much.
"....we the people..." is now being sold as a "construct" as in there is no such thing as a man or woman. Check out the Beauchard article on the N.S. Lyons SUBSTACK. It's a slow read but an eye opener.
The People. Serve The People. Wei Renmin Fuwu! 子 为人民服务!
Def a construct.
I'm with you. I'm sorry I didn't attend. But what THEY are showing is the fringe of what happened. NO GOOD CONVERSATION has been made for the right to demonstrate without INFILTRATION.
Epps and Sullivan need to be put before the PEOPLE.
People are developing fatigue? NO, they have completely switched off...did you hear that inflation is approaching 10%, gas is at least double what it was a year ago and that folks are starting to get laid off...and we are being led by a feckless man who can barely tell us what day it is and what state he's in...God help us.
Exactly.
"Charade"? Truther much?
Definition of “show trial” - A show trial is a public trial in which the judicial authorities have already determined the guilt or innocence of the defendant. Show trials tend to be retributive rather than corrective and they are also conducted for propagandistic purposes.
Definition of investigation - a searching inquiry for ascertaining facts; detailed or careful examination.
This whole thing is the first, and certainly not the second. Charade is also a fair characterization of this nonsense.
Maybe too many nights all alone has you too wrapped up in your own head to see propaganda in front of you La Bebe Monstro.
I thought about this some more and I think that it is not a show trial, it is political theatre. Whether it is drama, tragedy or farce depends on your point of view. A little of all to me.
There are no judicial authorities, no one will be found guilty or innocent and there will be no punishment afterwards. So it doesn't really meet any of your defiintions.
Certainly many weaknesses in the political system of checks and balances have been found and will need further legislation,
It is a charade. Investigations seek the truth. These motions literally hired a production crew to try to create a fake narrative. The fact you are too blind to see that only shows how gullible you are. Almost time for your 5th shot!!!! They work and are totally safe!!! 😂
"The fact that you are too blind to see only shows how gullible you are, Almost time for your 5th shot!!!!"
Persuasive.
The people who've been watching the 1/6 hearings with bated breath all this time are the very same people who quote their seven-year-old son making suspiciously on-the-nose anti-Trump statements.
Same with the Republicans when they cornered Hillary over Benghazi. No questions about why she "architected" the invasion (against UN resolution) and destruction of a fairly prosperous nation, complicit with the killing of the nation's leader, what the US ambassador was doing in a CIA outpost (directing arms into Syria) when the 3 were killed when all other Western nations had left.
So why did the Republicans, the opposition party, not demand answers to what she/ambassador John Christopher Stevens were doing there and why she (laughing, We came, We saw, He died) pushed this "internationally illegal" horror story that's ended up in a failed state?
Simple - the Republicans and Democrats are simply flip sides of the same coin. That's your "democracy", the one that the Dems want to preserve.
Funny how with all the “ Russia,Russia,Russia” hysteria, in six years, not once has Hillary’s sale of 25% of America’s uranium come up. Nor did the fact Mr. Impeccable, Robert Mueller’s signing off on it as member of CFIUS.Or that we bribed Putin with a backdoor deal allowing the sale of arms to Iran… to gain his support for the JCPOA. Funny how that works.
John McStain,Lindsey Graham, Jeff Flake, Bob Corker along with Bob Menendez,Mark Warner,Dick Durbin, approving the overthrow of Egypt’s Mubarak, invading Libya,Syria and arming the neo-Nazi Azov Regiment to overthrow the elected leader, creating the Maidan massacre which ultimately led to the Annexation of Crimea. The UniParty and their Deep State corporate multinational globalist donor owners
We're here at SUBSTACK because the American national dialogue has been stolen. J6 like Russiagate is a propagandist airball that runs cover for a corrupt and venal D.C. We don't talk about the things in your comment because they're blowback from the "realpolitik" power of WEF/CCP international finance. D.C. is complicit and guilty in aiding and abetting these international criminals.
As is the case 50% of the time, the "like" function malfunctions on this platform.
So: "Like."
Yeah it’s got a delay for some reason. If you refresh the page they often appear. Get it together Substack!
I can’t get the “ like” to function on any non-bid tech site
Everybody just needs to imagine I "like" their posts, especially and specifically the posters who make lousy posts.
Well said!! The question should have been WHY did we invade Libya and WHY did we arm the fake “ freedom fighters” aka Al Qaeda, ISIS and the CIA.
I always trot out Sy Hersh's oldie-but-a-goodie when this topic comes up: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v38/n01/seymour-m.-hersh/military-to-military
The U.S. Government wastes a lot of money, especially when CIA and DOD are arming opposing groups of "freedom fighters." Maybe fund public schools instead?
It is pretty chilling when well-described and well-remembered comments like this get into one’s brain. Wow - look who is “leading” this place!...too bad average citizens don’t seem to have the time/wherewithal to actually hold this stuff in their thought processes. Because that really might be an insurrection.
Your right rather then focus on why we toppeled or even the lack of after planning . We got 13 hours and a focus on the fake video that explained the attack on our consulate. Both are important, but would not have happened with the war which many gop were happy about
"what the US ambassador was doing in a CIA outpost (directing arms into Syria)"
This is what US ambassadors do. It's baked into the job description.
The State Dept. is there for the CIA to use it, not the other way around, as the naïve like to imagine. CIA is the Master of Blaster, the Videodrome to Max Renn, the Kuato in George. "Don't get upset when you see him." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXpxFoaH_R4&t=11s
Very true.
Spot on.
So you support the efforts to overthrow the election results, the assaults on the police (140 at least), the looting of Congress and the rest?
And you would prefer that there be no legal or public accounting of the perpetrators, is that right?
How about the election results? Was the election "stolen"?
Hillary Clinton is still claiming the 2016 election - when she "lost" - was stolen. And congressional ratification has been protested by Democrats (Bush II elections). Nothing new, just the MSM/DNC framing.
It's a bi-partisan game....let me be more blunt - it's a con.
Accountability has been a myth we cling to as some sort of checks and balances, but little evidence of it in our polity, not now or much in the past.
Regarding whether or not the election was stolen - the way the game is played it doesn't matter. The person who takes the oath of office is president. I think that's what AG Barr (a smooth operator working for business as usual inc.) meant when he claimed at the 1/6 committee hearing: I told him (Trump) he lost and it's nuts to say otherwise. Smart move by Barr...I interpret that as - it doesn't matter if there's fraud, that's part of the game...and they all know that unsolicited mail-in ballots increase that multi-fold.
Believe what you want - the operating system demands that you believe the election was perfectly fair - more so than ever before!!!!
You and Hillary can believe whatever you want of course.
Nothing is perfectly fair in life but Trump got less votes, the evidence is overwhelming.
Easy killer. Don't hyperventilate.
No answer then.
This is what I think. Now settle down before you hurt yourself.
https://euphoricrecall.substack.com/p/stop-sensationalizing-the-capitol
Okay I will read it. The first few paragraphs look good.
I think the absurdity of the January 6 commission is that it flies in the face of how one determines whether something is true or not. In science you have a hypothesis, and one may have to do many experiments, or garner facts which substantiate it's validity before you conclude your hypothesis is correct, and the same approach should occur in a court of law. If someone is accused of murder, well you have a prosecutor to present his facts, but the accused has his, or her lawyers to counter those facts with others facts, or attack the validity of the facts presented. The January 6 committee says he's guilty and brings in people of their choice to prove it, and no one to challenge them on what they say, what they present. What the hell!
I don't know whether I'm repeating myself or not, it's late.
It’s basically just the Dems performing their own version of the Benghazi hearings. Expect it to become a regular thing for both parties now.
All things considered this seems quite unusual to me. You have a party, the democrats, who tried to remove an elected president using any means possible, lies, and made up stories, then they impeach him, and it ends with their claim he fostered an insurrection and then these "truth tellers" establish a kangaroo court to reassure you that everything they every said about him is true.
Hunter is on deck when the Rs win in November...
That wouldn't surprise me.
I always love that the USA repeats all of the USSR's mistakes but doubles down. It's analogous to Yakov Smirnoff's old routine.
"Show trials? You ain't seen nothin' yet!"
"You occupied Afghanistan for 10 years and failed? We occupied it TWICE AS LONG and failed TWICE AS HARD! Take that, Ivan!"
"ONE-party system? We got a TWO-party system that does the same thing TWICE AS GOOD!!!"
"When we politically and economically collapse, we are going to do it TWICE AS FAST and TWICE AS HARD. AMERICA, FUCK YEAH!!!"
Freedom costs $1.05.
That't what a trial is for, this is the results of the House investigation. Some of the evidence presented will results in a trail, where there will be a chance to present exculpatory evidence. I doubt Trump will ever have a trial. I sure hope not, but I would like to see some of his cronies in jail. I am sure that I will get my wish too!
Better describe what is going on now, as an inquisition. If you have been listening, truth is not what they are seeking, but to foster mistruths and provide an account of why Trump is guilty on all counts. Their bias is not in anyway difficult to perceive. No more then it was when the democrats tried to remove an elected president from office, especially using the lie of Russia-gate. "Inquisition definition, an official investigation, especially one of a political or religious nature, characterized by lack of regard for individual rights, prejudice on the part of the examiners, and recklessly cruel punishments" You have to admit the inquisitors have a lot, a whole lot of prejudice. The whole thing is a grand absurdity being used to bolster their wins in the upcoming November elections.
Leaving aside Russia-gate where we probably agree on most things, let's talk about the topic at hand, the Jan. 6 investigation committee.
Yes it's a political, that's what politicians do, they do political things. They can also reveal things that were not known before, perhaps incidental to their political efforts or maybe even in this case as a deliberate effort.
I remember a year ago when Taibbi commentators all mostly of the attitude "let's get all the facts out there and let people make up their mind." Now you all seem to be "it's just a magic show, it doesn't mean anything." Maybe it's not the exact same people, but it's pretty instructive of the political dialogue. No one is immune to being propagandized, not even you and me, and I try my best to seek out a wide variety of opinions. I think Trump and his supporters have had plenty of opportunity to present their case as well and still continue to do so.
You can't really leave Russia-gate aside, since it strongly supports the claim that the democrats , including a complicit media wanted to oust an elected president. The Congressional impeachment was also a sham. There were some 8 senators and over 130 Congress people who wanted to look at the electoral results of a number of states which didn't happen because of the RIOT. That didn't happen due to the riots, which in no way benefited Trump. I heard Trump say go peacefully that day, and many left long before he finished his speech. Because he challenged the electoral results does not translate into he wanted his base to take back the reins of power via an insurrection. It's absurd on it's face. By all means get the facts out there, but this January 6 committee is not doing that since their purpose is politically motivated, and not a search for truth. I have a background in science, a masters degree in that area, and one does not prove a hypothesis by setting up experiments that are skewed to support your perspective on what you deem, or want to be the truth. This committee is set up to prove Trump is guilty. Let's not forget this is a democrat run committee with two assigned republicans, both of whom hate Trump.
I didn’t even know if was on. I was watching Dr Kory make Alex Bernenson look kinda silly. 😂 (I like them both)
I only knew about it because Matt promised to blog. It's the first time I'm paying attention to this "trial" with my actual eyeballs. It's more boring than the Rittenhouse trial, if such a thing is possible.
The Rittenhouse trial was a lot more interesting then this, and they did have a regular trial with actual attorneys representing the accused and challenging the prosecutor’s witnesses. This is a bore because it's not a trial, and whatever conclusion they reach, it has absolutely no validity.
I never heard the speech Trump made at the end of the day to calm the crowd and send them home, but it's interesting that the video clip is introduced by Elaine Luria and she said in essence it took him a long time to address the crowd, whom she referenced as a "mob" he had sent armed to the capital. Amazing she can make that statement, when that "armed crowd" had no weapons. If this were a normal trial one would interrupt her and refute her claim the people had weapons, and Trump knew it. The implication behind this lie is to reinforce the idea this was an insurrection since one does not take over the reins of government unarmed.
https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2022/07/22/trump-outtakes-jan-6-video-2022-january-6-hearings-vpx.cnn
The whole "armed crowd" narrative really speaks to how corrupted and shitty the mainstream media has become. The only weapons present were carried by cops. If there actually were some FBI plants, they probably had guns, but nobody in the crowd has been charged with having a weapon on their person that day.
https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1351661/download
https://www.justice.gov/opa/page/file/1353311/download
https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1351686/download
https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/indiana-man-pleads-guilty-carrying-gun-and-assaulting-law-enforcement-officers-jan-6
Why do you believe and spout bullsh*t? Who do you trust that is lying to you?
"whom she referenced as a 'mob'"
It is funny that when people in elite positions use this word it sends the opposite signal of the one they intend to send.
Words mean things. The US citizenry is getting sick of being described derogatorily as a "mob."
Some were armed. Did you miss the charges?
https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/indiana-man-pleads-guilty-carrying-gun-and-assaulting-law-enforcement-officers-jan-6
It was a planned violent attack to overturn the results of a lawful democratic election. Maybe not an "insurrection" but what word would you use?
No doubt some had guns, many people carry them legally and didn't bring them to topple the American government. If there is one thing everyone can agree on, it's this "insurrection" was extremely disorganized, and was accommodated by the capital police who let these "topplers", in through the front door of the Capital building. I saw it myself. Getting back to your gunman, the article claims he lost it, and didn't shoot anyone. I know there have been all kinds of numbers thrown about on this issue, but think hard on this, only one person was shot, shot to death, and that was a young woman who was unarmed and killed for no apparent reason by a police officer. Since Trump's presidency so many lies have been told by the democrats, mistrust is the order of the day for me, as it should be for most if not all Americans. I would have to look into what you provided here even though it was provided by the Department of Justice. Let me ask, were you equally concerned that the democrats, the CIA, the media, etc. were all complicit in the lies used to try to oust an elected president, or does that not concern you, do to your obvious anti-Trump bias?
"what word would you use?"
I would use the words (sorry, cheating with 2) "rowdy crowd." There is a long tradition of rowdy crowds in our democratic republic. Andrew Jackson invited one into the White House to eat a giant cheese. It did not topple the government. https://npg.si.edu/blog/big-cheese-presidential-gifts-mammoth-proportions
The Rittenhouse trial also turned more more peoples opinions than this
I agree, and it was really needed, since the press was highly biased against this young man, as was the left. The so called left, liberals now strike me as very autocratic. Soon their head gear will be crowns.
Yes he was defending his city against a blm mob after Biden and his Ilk sacrificed Kenosha to be incinerated by a mob of nihilistic discontents and chomos hell bent on destruction
And Antifa didn't get to determine the rules of evidence
Well sure, of course what you're saying is factually correct. That's why I put "trial" in quotes. But I found the Rittenhouse trial excruciating much of the time because of the sheer incompetence of D.A. Binger.
Ohh how I miss Binger.. the call of duty memes alone were worth his incompetence
Yeah, but he convinced a jury he was innocent. Not bad.
LOL. Yup, the D.A. did an excellent job for the defense.
Are they talking about Ivermectin? I think I heard something like that today. It's a super, super easy discussion: "This is between you and your doctor."
They did........ the first 40 minutes no Dr Kory. They spoke a bit and that part was good. Mostly Dr Kory explaining how it worked and what the evidence is. Kinda silly. Steve needs a debate format that actually goes back and forth.
Dr Kory vs Berenson? Where? When was?
(I'm all-in with Kory, Berenson is over the top in his audible ("Me! Me! Me!") navel-gazing.
You have to fast forward a while. It’s just Alex and Steve a bit. 😂
https://rumble.com/c/VaccineSafetyResearchFoundation
Why thank you kindly. I tried 'liking' several more of your comments in the thread, but it's always a toss-up as to this platform's viability in that department. So here ya go in real time. Good evening from Alaska, NC.
😉. Anytime (I’m hoping one if these updates fixes that whole liking issue, though I probably need to give up on it because the website on a computer has it too 🙃)
I like Dr. Kory. Berenson reminds me of the pain in the ass geek who was always right ( in his own mind), but was wrong. So he had to disparage the person who was factually en pointe. The tattletale
You're unclear on the concept. These are hearings to determine facts. If the facts warrant prosecution, it will be forwarded to the Justice Department for trial. So far, all of Trumps biggest supporters are all on record indicating he is a complete lunatic. The revelations are not coming from Democrats; they are coming from Trumps supporters, his people, his aides, and his family.
What about all these facts that are being provided by Trumps supporters? Is this also just show?
Yes, Kurt, the shyster politicians in congress found the light and are on a divine hunt for the Truth. Thank goodness we have a bunch of crack gumshoe legislators picking up the pieces where FBI and justice department fell short. It's unfortunate that due to their busy schedule the only time congress can afford to investigate these matters is during prime time television slots just before the midterms. I'm so proud of our hardworking elected officials! I have no doubt that Garland has assigned someone from the justice department to monitor the phone lines 24/7 in case the elusive referral comes so they can leap into action.
After this is all over I hope that Adam Schiff and Liz Cheney can start driving around Washington DC in a groovy red and blue bipartisan van solving mysteries!
There is no reason that the FBI and Congress can't both do their jobs.
What do the coup plotters have to hide?
It's not the job of congress to investigate, they don't even have the ability to bring charges. Congress is a legislative branch-- they are not involved with enforcement. The justice department does that. All congress can do is refer things they think the justice department should look into, and there is absolutely nothing stopping the FBI or justice department from doing so of their own volition. In fact they probably have. And if they actually found anything substantial you better believe Trump would already be in jail. This is nothing but a show for the dwindling number gullible dupes who uncritically consume television news.
https://www.senate.gov/about/powers-procedures/investigations/overview.htm
https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/article-1/section-8/clause-18/implied-power-of-congress-to-conduct-investigations-and-oversight-doctrine-and-practice
Congress has been conductive investigations almost since its beginning.
How would Trump be in jail, who would have put him there? He already had two trials in Congress and I don't believe he should be charged again, though I have no idea if it would be Constitutional for him to have a judicial trail or not.
I am not personally interested in seeing Trump charged and I think it would be bad for the country, but I am sure happy to see some of his cronies go (presuming they are found guilty, get due process, etc of course).
Did you bother to read your own link?
"Broad as the power of inquiry is, it is not unlimited. The power of investigation may properly be employed only “in aid of the legislative function.” 4 Its outermost boundaries are marked, then, by the outermost boundaries of the power to legislate. In addition, Congress may not issue a subpoena for the purpose of law enforcement—that is, to “try” someone before a committee for any “crime or wrongdoing, as such an action would intrude on powers “assigned under [the] Constitution to the Executive and the Judiciary.”
"I hope that Adam Schiff and Liz Cheney can start driving around Washington DC in a groovy red and blue bipartisan van solving mysteries!"
I will watch this show in order to see Adam and Liz fall through a very obviously delineated trap door.
Old man Trump was using a projector to make it look like the Capitol Building was haunted so he could take over the government!
He would have gotten away with it too if it weren't for those meddling kids.
Me too! A new reality series.
Dude, there's a guy, on tape, in multiple instances telling people to "GO INTO THE CAPITOL!" Both on the evening of January 5 and the morning of January 6.
He has not been questioned by the committee, and he was even taken OFF the FBI's most wanted list.
I won't even put his name down, because apparently, according to the New York Times, he's a victim of character assassination. But even the red-hatted ULTRA MAGA people that people think are deplorable were calling him out as a false-flag bearing Federal Employee.
If video of this idiot never comes up during the hearings, then you know it's all bullshit on top of horseshit.
So what? If someone tells me to commit a crime and I go do it, I am still a criminal.
Perhaps - but if the members of the committee are claiming that "inciting a riot in the house of congress" is an act of insurrection, or sedition, even , surely they'd want to speak to the person on tape suggesting that people do just that, right?
If they aren't interested in even speaking to this imbecile, why? They had no problem making an issue of the idiot in the viking hat, or the moron who stole Fancy Nancy's Laptop. Why does this nitwit escape their probe?
As always, the coverup is more telling than the crime.
Trumps own people testified. You're bamboozled.
Trumps own people want to keep working in DC. You're out to lunch.
Yes, of course. So, how does that recommend Trump as the guy with an answer, let alone answers?
When one side behaves like control-freaks (denying the other side's picks for the committee, for example), no chance of rebuttal from the other side, cherry picked evidence, you end up persuading no one. Maybe the died in the wool types without something better to do mid-summer are gorging on this feast but most people actually respect some semblance of fairness. Nobody likes a control freak. People might care if they tried just a teeny, tiny bit to look like it's fair.
Trumps own people did the testifying.
Once again, they need jobs.
Sure, but how does that tie us to Trump as the answer? Bamboozled.
Then let's release ALL the videos and call ALL the witnesses! Let's get Nancy Pelosi on the stand! Let's FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENED!
I think it is you who are unclear on the concept. Hard to have hearings to determine facts, or what happened, when your agenda is to find Trump guilty, and you're even willing to lie to get that outcome. Yesterday Lauria went rambling on about what happened prior to the "insurrection" and said Trump sent his followers on their way to the Capital and that they were armed. If you know the facts, they were not. There was of course no one to challenge this deliberate lie as there would be if this were a trial, or they were committed to seeking the truth as to what happened that day. Lauria put forth this lie because as anyone knows you need to be armed if you're going to overturn a government. Too bad Trump didn't tell the old folk to stay home, since two died of natural causes from excitement, or all that walking, and indeed he should have said no customs. When you have a committee whose objective is to find the former president guilty then you will never determine what the truth is. If you should doubt that this is the objective of this committee then you are out of touch with the previous 4 years of Trump's presidency and the lies spun to remove him from office.
Some of them were most certainly armed. I still have to wonder who told you this "fact" that they were not armed and why you seem to cling to this false believe so stubbornly.
I think I already responded to one your comments dealing on this issue. Have a good day!
Delusional and bamboozled....see "Sagan, the Bamboozled".
If you are referencing me as the one who is delusional then for sure it is you.
The retard-adult version of "I know you are but what am I?"
Okay.
It's not a trial. The fact that you can't tell the difference between a trial and a public investigation makes you an unreliable narrator.
We know it's not a trial, that's why I called it a SHOW TRIAL.
Right. This iteration of TK is validation of the Churchill quote….”the best argument against democracy is a 5 minute conversation with the average voter”.
You strike me as pretty average.
Below average. And you actually commented on it.
Yes, but it appears that Taibbi fell for it.
Amen!!!!!!!!!!!!
Not a Trump fan, and open to being convinced he committed an actual crime - but history to this point is that whatever the Democrats accuse Trump of doing, it turns out later that they were the ones actually doing it. Hookers and blow in Russia? Check. Taking six-figure checks from Moscow and Beijing? Check. Siccing federal agencies on political opponents? Check.
Maybe they'll prove me wrong this time ...
Best comment so far.
I'd add that it's not just Democrats; it's also establishment Republicans. Remember, this is the uniparty here we're talking about. It's the giant blood sucking vampire squid and it's war production, the energy industry, NATO, global imperialists, et all.
It all hinges on the petrodollar, too. The last thing they want is people getting wise to the trillions they've stolen from the value of the dollar.
Pff.
That house of cards is coming down.
If nothing else - and his refusal to admit he lost the damn election in my mind removes him from any serious role moving forward - Trump may have inadvertently triggered the greatest political realignment since FDR. If enough Republicans representing a multi-ethnic working-class constituency get elected this November, we might see some real change.
I’d prefer a different candidate, but I’ll vote for Trump if he runs again for the entertainment. Also, I don’t just refuse to vote for Democrats now because the people setting policy are literally insane and hate both this country and humans generally, but also because Trump’s policies are far better than average. I refuse to vote for neocons (in either party). Trump is just annoying.
I say this as someone who voted for far more Democrats than Republicans in the 2 decades I’ve been old enough to vote (undergrad and grad did more to indoctrinate me than I realized for a while). I’m voting for the policies I prefer, of the choices I actually have (not a fairytale I wish was reality) and even wacky “extreme” Republican policies aren’t nearly as destructive or cruel as average Democrat policies these days.
Electing politicians for the entertainment value is a big part of the problem - we're happy enough to be entertained.
I disagree. In fairness I’m voting based on policies, but the entertainment will be priceless.
The problem isn’t that people vote based on entertainment, as Joe Biden was hiding instead of entertaining for the majority of the campaign. While the evidence I’ve seen does point to voter fraud that could have turned the election in WI, AZ, GA, and possibly PA, it’s still clear tens of millions actually voted for Joe Biden, and they did so even though the disaster we got was entirely predicted (not just predictable). The issue is too many people no longer have a sense of humor, and those people vote based on whatever “feelings” and “beliefs” nitwits in the captured msm told them to “feel” and “believe.”
People who are so insulated from the consequences of an election that they — and they are exclusively MALE — can consider the entertainment value of a candidate should never be allowed to vote. You only make the world worse.
Ah my bad, I incorrectly assumed you were in it for the lulz.
Amusing Ourselves to Death...Postman, folks should have read it.
I read it. He's a bit of a priggish fucker. Likes the smell of his own farts.
I trust Parker and Stone over poseurs like Postman and McLuhan any day. All politicians are entertainers working the crowd like Robin Williams at the Comedy Store.
Here's the fucking deal: People who spend a lifetime shuffling in and out of politics/military/corporate life have fucked over the common citizen.
The ratification of the 22nd Amendment may be the single most important political act of the 20th century. Now we need more amendments to limit total number of years on the federal payroll teat.
Want it to be public service rather than public rape? Limit the amount of time one can do it. Then make a living on your fucking own. But this pandering for votes while not doing a god damn thing for the populace has to stop.
I was looking for that and came across another of his, Technopoly. It was very good.
The phrase "Trump - HIllary 2024, the rematch of the century!" flashed across my twitter feed. CNN + FOX would love it.
Can’t like your post for some reason. But I like it.
It's some weird thing where you have to like a preceding comment for it to take.
well said
Considering that the democrats tried to remove Trump from office, Russia-gate, etc, it should be something that makes the possibility of a stolen election much more plausible. Also the media, the mainstream press and left were equally complicit in the lies the democrats spun. Did you notice how the neocons shifted their allegiance to the democrats as well? Well, when I thought about it, it made me think the election could have been stolen. Saw 2000 Mules, by Dinesh D’Souza, and he presented a very credible case. You cannot make the statement the election was not stolen, since you have no proof that it wasn't, no research, but others have done that, and I just mentioned one, and they conclude it was. So, just lets say there is a possibility it was stolen, all things considered.
Ok, but by that standard ‘there is a possibility’ that every election in the history of the country was stolen. ‘What proof do you have they weren’t?’
Not all the judges in Trump’s post-election cases dismissed them on procedural grounds, you know. Quite a few took a look at the evidence he presented them with, and all of them found it insubstantial. If it was truly stolen from him, he ought to be able to prove it in court.
I find it nearly impossible that there was enough rampant fraud to flip the election. To play devil's advocate, though, none of the individual precincts would have constituted enough fraud to flip a state, even if there were enough statewide. It's easy to say there isn't enough here to change the result, while simultaneously having enough statewide to do it.
In reality, he got outplayed by the D's that changed election laws all over the country and harvested the shit out of ballots. If he had joined the party, he would have won handily by seeing the other results. He just got outdone by a bunch of pros.
Mass mail in ballots without signature match checks funded by zuckerberg desperate to avoid being blamed for the electoral choices of americans by sore losers who still think 2016 was stolen.
Sadly no, the Republicans won't change and they'll do exactly what they always do. And when the majority of people in this country are disillusioned with that, the Dems will have their chance to prove their worth once again. Repeat ad infinitum. A real political realignment is more like the death of the Whigs and birth of the Republicans; we are long overdue for that.
Seriously, this push to charge Trump with “a crime”, when nobody seems to be able to specify exactly what crime he committed, reeks of Lavrenti Beria’s “find me the man and I will find you the crime” promise to Stalin. Orwellian shit -- but hey, since they’re putting on a Soviet-style show trial with no cross-examination of witnesses allowed and exculpatory evidence (like Trump’s admonition to protest “peacefully and patriotically”) deliberately excluded, might as well go full authoritarian.
This has been pointed out a few times, but I'll do it again.... This isn't a trial; it's a hearing where facts established. So far, all of Trump's own people, including his family members, are testifying to his multiple failures. All of this will be forwarded to the DOJ, who will decide if it should be prosecuted. THEN, you get a trial with all that stuff you are accusing the hearings of withholding.
I'm amazed this has to be explained....
No they won't. Same old, same old, as we use to say. To think we know the democratic party tried to oust as elected president, and we're investigating Trump is the grand absurdity of this January 6 inquisition. In science we don't have a predetermined conclusion, and try to prove it which is what is going on in this January 6th commission.
Please tell me how Democrats (or any other Republican Congressperson for that matter) were responsible for the January 6th attack on the Capitol. I'm all ears.
Allow me: by insisting, as they did, throughout the BLM riots of 2020 -- including the ones that forced the President into a bunker for his safety -- that rioting and breaking in and looting were now and henceforth to be considered acceptable forms of political protest. Imagine yourself an attendee of the Jan. 6th rally after what you saw the media and the Democrats make excuses for the prior year. Hey, what's good for BLM is good for me, right?
Or organizing the Senate invasion - er, "occupation" - in October 2018 to block the Senate from voting on the confirmation of a Supreme Court justice. "This is what democracy looks like." And now it turns out that this week's arrests of members of Congress at the Supreme Court were also orchestrated at the highest levels ...
You mean the "arrests" of Sandy Cortez and Ilhan "Fuck the Country That Rescued My Miserable Ass" Omar and their invisible handcuffs?
Well said.
So if I see someone selling drugs then that means I can sell drugs? If I heard that someone was raped than its okay if I rape people?
What a strange sense of morality you have.
They refused extra security and the guards let them in? They told people who doubted the 2020 election results that they were traitors and would not allow an honest investigation after spending four years refuting the 2016 election results and investingating it non-stop (to no avail)? The people who broke into the Capitol are guilty of trespassing but the Dems cheered these idiots on all the way after telling them there was no other recourse for their concerns. So they are culpable if not responsible.
The Capitol Police are accountable to Nancy Pelosi.
Funny how the Commission has omitted all inquiry in that direction, isn't it?
And Capitol Police got a 1.9 Billion payoff through her.
I'm amazed anyone still imagines Trump is not a certified loon, but I'd be all for Pelosi getting indicted.
Aoc climate protestors and kavanaugh hearing disruptors were given $250 fines at worst for the same charges that their opponents got a year in solitary without trial for.
Yes. Institutional capture is on the left.
What don't you read what I wrote and ask a reasonable question that actually refers to that?
Too bad you aren’t at least partly brains.
.. and also by stealing the election, of course.
This is absolute bullshit that ONLY Trump fans could believe.
lol - you just knew the Karens would have to weigh in ...
This exactly
Don't hear that argument much now that there's far more reason ...
The January 6th committee is a gullibility test for the urban/suburban "knowledge" class ( I grew up in Swarthmore, PA and hold degrees from Northwestern and Yale. I know these people better than they know themselves. And they are artlessly unaware of their class hatreds and fundamentalist brand of left wing politics).
Anyone not in the sway ofBob Jones style cum Left Wing fundamentalism understands that if the Democrats had a case they would have arrived at the strength of their evidence early and often. Instead, what we get is a new development every 12 days as nothing takes hold. Cassidy overheard a conversation! The Secret Service deletes texts! Perry Mason has an 11th hour witness!
They have nothing. Things are drawn out (poor Benny Thompson and covid!) , because they need time to formulate a new twist back at the Goebbels Memorial Labs, where the their best xen have been on the job since 2016.
Serious prosecutions present a case up front. And they allows witnesses for the defense. What is happening is not serious. And quite evil. It is what totalitarians do. Simply make their political enemies, enemies of the state.
With good conscience you can be for single payer healthcare, ADC, student loan forgiveness, universal income, affirmative action, fear abortion bans. etc. I may disagree with these positions, but they are all debatable in a democratic society. And worthy of debate. I have no interest in declaring people who wish to debate left wing issues as undemocratic. This is at the heart of democracy.
What is undemocratic is what the current Democratic Party leadership is doing. Quite frankly they know they have no case. What they are doing is evil. It is high time those who feel they hold high-minded progressive values-values that are worthy of debate, throw away their "my political religion right or wrong" and call them on it.
Thank you. This is evil and the coordination between the media, elites and corporations is doing a great deal to undermine civil society.
I honestly believe the mainstream media is the worst thing to happen to this country since 9/11.
I agree. The knee jerk collusion and parroting are relatively new. They once used to compete for the news. Now they compete for who can be most subservient.
The 1996 Telecom Act, signed into law by President Bill Clinton, removed the ownership caps on all mass media, setting off a series of acquisitions and buyouts that resulted in the tight little media monopoly of only six owners that we have today.
The group think between the political elite and the media is repulsive.
It’s prerevolutionary?
Nicely said. Speaking of Yale, when I was there the president was a humble public servant who at least tried, perhaps ineptly, to do the right thing, and who left office to retire to his home town and live a modest middle class life while doing good works. He still does He didn't move to NYC and Washington to enrich himself.
I thought you were discussing Giamatti and got confused.
As well you should have, I apologize. I should have said, "At the time I attended Yale the President of the U.S. was" etc.
But Giamatti was also a modest and honest president, who left us far too soon .
Baseball never recovered
Is that so? I don't follow it, so I wouldn't know. I do know that he was only in office a few months
Tragic. Hated by the entrenched elite, I might note.
Now, are you referring to Jimmy or Bart?
Touché.
"[T]hese people ... are artlessly unaware of their class hatreds and fundamentalist brand of left wing politics"
I'm convinced that at the root of this is an unshakable belief in (to the point of making a fetish of) a moral, not just a functional, value of intelligence (and to a lesser extent, Western styles of achievement), combined with a belief in their ability to measure on such scales, and of course their own unquestioned and unquestionable ubiquitous superiority. All supposedly demonstrating their "self-esteem", LOL. These attitudes have probably always existed to some extent, but today's seem far more flippant and mean-spirited than even just a generation ago. I am trying to understand what really drives it.
My own wake-up call on this -- questioning who today's Democrats really are -- was when "esteemed" Rep. Pat Schroeder in the 1990s had the cluelessness to repeat James Carville's complaint about "dragging a hundred-dollar bill through a trailer park" after Gennifer Flowers accused Bill Clinton of sexual assault.
Let us never forget that the original knowledge class of America were the Puritan divines-who lived in a certain, unquestioned rectitude and authority over the merchant class, until a growing economy, and the Great Awakening (uncredentialed people gaining a voice. How horrible!) challenged this. This is the Ur-cultural conflict in America and -as you point out, it is very much alive today.
In the 90's, the politics of personal destruction went from a sidebar strategy (Eagleton) to a major political strategy. Increasingly it is becoming the only political strategy used by cynical political puppet masters to unstintingly keep up the morally frothed outrage of a completely unreflective knowledge class. "Bob, get me someone who is willing say they saw Brett Kavanaugh eat live toddlers in 1979- stat!"
I am close to people who know Carville's family well. Interestingly enough, his is a marriage that could never happen today in the political classes: Politically diverse and self-consciously so. This can only happen when people still believe that political life is only part of life and not the all encompassing sitz im leben of a medieval religion
Also: "I may disagree with these positions, but they are all debatable in a democratic society. And worthy of debate. I have no interest in declaring people who wish to debate left wing issues as undemocratic. This is at the heart of democracy."
Exactly. A *functioning* democracy, as well as a deep understanding of its value, *is* the central issue here. (Unfortunately some on the Right are getting tangled up in the red herring that we are "instead", not "also", a republic.)
So, apparently in the eyes of these self-professed "smart" people, and probably often at a subconscious level (due to the cog dis it may produce in some): If you're intellectually inferior, you really have no right to self-governance -- the "experts" will do it all for you. So, somehow, the supposed intellectually inferior don't even have a right to *understand and choose which experts* smell least like horseshit. "Don't worry your pretty little head over it!" I've even seen on the Big Brother vehicle, Firefox's Pocket, articles supporting avoiding news, as it may get you too "upset", and we need to keep you clear-eyed and bushy-tailed, presumably to stay on the hamster wheels.
Just keep watching the TeeVee (and FB, etc.) for the psy-op-ing ads and news, then *everyone* march to the polls (the GOTV campaigns), and pull those levers as your now-primed gut tells you!
The 1% mollifying the top 5% who won’t be invited to join them - ever
Hundreds of people have been convicted by the FBI and dozens more will be convicted in a trail with a judge and jury due to the evidence uncovered by the House investigation committee.
It's okay, you don't believe in the rule of law. Four legs good, two legs bad and all that.
I believe that The House has the investigatory power given to them by The Constitution and that they are using that power legally. The are not a judicial body and no one will go to jail directly as a result of those hearings. Some of the evidence will results in charges.
I believe in the rule of law and you do not.
FBI convicts! I hereby sentence you to 42 hours of Schoolhouse Rock. With two hours off for being so transparent about your knowledge gap on Constitutional law.
Explain his alleged gaps, if you would. I didn't find anything he wrote to be factually incorrect. Lots of mopes in this convo might be outraged that he had the temerity to express facts, and if that's the problem, I understand.
Silly Rabbit. Everyone knows the Constitution doesn't let the FBI convict anybody. That power is constitutionally reserved for the 4-H club.
You got the first part correct. The rest of it is non sequitur.
Kurt you need to get out and do something fun. Best to you
"I believe that The House has the investigatory power given to them by The Constitution and that they are using that power legally."
Glenn G had a different take: "Congress's 1/6 Committee Claims Absolute Power as it Investigates Citizens With No Judicial Limits" [https://greenwald.substack.com/p/congresss-16-committee-claims-absolute]. Could you tell us what Glenn got wrong here?
"I believe in the rule of law and you do not."
Oh, yea, it's that simple. That's what's going on here.
Some of us who have been watching for several decades recognize that the US judicial system has degraded to FUBAR status regarding its impartiality in high-profile politically sensitive matters.
I'm glad you added that piece from Glenn, which is right on the mark
Yes I read that story. Glenn was strictly true but also sensationalistic in his story, like Glenn usually is. I notice that no one has sought judicial remedy for these supposed over reaches, some of which are admittedly disturbing. The Bannon contempt trial will be instructive.
Right. In the fever to remain relevant, GG goes off the rails. He senses he doesn't matter anymore, and he's turning into all the things he used to despise. Matt's take on this thing is equally idiotic. He used to investigate relevant issues and provide great takes. Recently, he's just another frantic mope manufacturing narratives to keep the natives restless and subscribed.
"[N]o one has sought judicial remedy for these supposed over reaches, some of which are admittedly disturbing."
There's a lot going on, and as the committee closes hearings, the fallout will certainly continue.
Mostly right, except special credence given to GG is stretching. The committee never made any such claim, Congress has the power to investigate citizens, and there are judicial limits that GG is conveniently ignoring in the effort to claim eyeballs. He was, at one time, a brilliant journalist. Same as Matt. Both are having a hard time of it nowadays, so they're turning into all the things they used to despise. They're fucking journalists frantic to stay relevant and keep a paycheck. That's all.
I'm working hard here on your logic ... please help me ...
"[T]here are judicial limits that GG is conveniently ignoring in the effort to claim eyeballs."
I'll assume you identified these in GG's comments, or otherwise know where they can be found, could you give us a link? Or, just give some brief points here, thanks so much.
"[1] Both are having a hard time of it nowadays, so [2] they're turning into all the things they used to despise."
[1] That's a bit sweeping, could you identify how you believe "hard times" are upon them?
[2] So, Glenn's and Matt's primary goals are to make a buck, and if that becomes problematic, well ... they're *just the types* who will morph into whatever will sell. That's your go-to explanation, no other could make any sense (assuming the driving assertions -- for Glenn, at least -- are true in the first place). Again, the evidence for this take?
Who knows, maybe they're even part of some long-con team, a honeypot for the upcoming Domestic Terrorism Unit of the DHS, especially since that the (first effort at a) propaganda unit was smoked out. Why, anything's possible, if you let your mind ... be free .... (courtesy of a little nudge, of course).
So what's your own goal here? I mean, why do you subscribe to this Substack?
Because I read all of Matt's books, have followed him for years, and frankly I think he's fallen into the dilemma that any author/journalist/zeitgeister falls into absent a steady corporate gig....having to reinvent himself every day. It's an impossibility. I've seen it in GG's stuff too.
We get hot takes and frantic bomb throwing, not studied analysis. They got a deadline, and they hit it with stuff that would be better left in the trash can. I've posted that I would be fine getting something every couple weeks or months if it was really good stuff. This thing of cranking out a new outrage every couple days is crap, I suspect he knows it most of the time, but he's trapped in having to compete with overwhelming media conglomerates. They want to keep focaccia on the table, they find amenable constituencies for their bomb throwing, and the bombs keep coming. They're not doing what they're really good at. They're doing what they, in the past, derided others for. It's not pretty.
I'd hold up Matt's Loudon County (and other stuff) reporting as some of the best stuff I've seen in years. I'd hold this piece of shit up as some of the worst.
You obviously haven't got the first damned clue about the Constitution (or, apparently, what parts of English history influenced it), because if you did you would understand that criminal investigation and prosecution, which is what this affair really is, belongs to the executive branch, not the legislative. Looks like you're wrong about "no one will go to jail directly as the result of these hearings," whereas that is where Mr. Bannon is headed as of today.
What you believe in is power for the Democratic Party at all costs
Note he drops the degrees from elite universities to claim some imagined advantage in the conversation....then immediately goes to describing all the things that would happen at a trial.
Again, for those not inclined to understanding the differences in hearings and trials, this is a HEARING. The findings will be forwarded to the DOJ for possible prosecution. That's when all the stuff Mr. Elite University Credentials is demanding will be brought forth.
I guess a Wildcat and Yalie isn't taught these things...
And for those not inclined to understand the differences between a Congressional investigation and a show trial, this is a SHOW TRIAL. Show trials do not have "findings," they have canned performances.
Love, Mr. Elite University Credentials
Mr. Elite University Credentials also needs remedial education in word usage, as in the meaning of "trial". One more time, there is a difference between a hearing and a trial. A show trial takes the form of a prosecution, a defense, and a verdict.
You should stop now while you only appear moronic.
Oh, I see. Thank you
You're welcome.
Thought I'd give you your first like Kurt. Cheer up.
Shit. I was proud of everyone not liking. You've ruined everything.
I can't imagine watching something this contrived, deceitful, and poisonous to our culture. But have fun!
It's all theater. In the post-modern age, one demonstrates one’s commitment to a particular truth or cause through performance. The caterwauling on social media and television is performance designed both to signal one’s commitment to a supposed truth and also identify the heretics who choose not to perform.
Now THIS...THIS is true. It's political theater. It's not an indictment, nor a trial, let alone a show trial.
If folks want to caterwaul on social media about how the theater is unfair, biased, or otherwise dipshit, these same folks would at least be forming their minds to accommodate actual information.
Oh, no. Matt has our sympathies. Unless there’s a drinking game involved.
The nutbags are running the asylum. Just today I saw that Glenn Greenwald is a liar and a Nazi because he reported something Gaetz said. These children don’t seem to understand the difference between reporting what someone said/did and actually doing/saying it yourself. But the social media oligarchy was allowed to brainwash people this way... so here we are. Good thing they donate to the DNC I guess.
My favorite people are the ones who ask Glenn/Matt "What happened to you?"
Nothing at all, they're still attacking the power structure. What happened to #Resistence? It turned into #Insurrection really quickly, didn't it?
Elon Musk was right when he posted that meme: "I support the current thing."
I'll watch for a very short time, since I don't want to give this charade any credibility. If the democrats had played fair and square and not made a concerted effort to remove him from office I might say, well, maybe there might be something to their allegations. But that's just not so!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!~
Maybe it isn't so!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.....but it is a discomforting for the Trumpers to hear their guys own people and family members providing sworn testimony that he's a loon. So, it's understandable that you don't want to hear any of it.
The real tell here is thinking anyone in the game, Dem or Pub, plays "fair and square". It speaks to the general populations understanding of politics. Fair and square...sheeesh....
You know, I didn't vote for Trump in 2016, always the democrat, but in no way was I voting for war mongering Clinton. Sometimes I voted third party, but never voted for a republican. So I wasn't a Trumper during his presidency, but I watched the party I was affiliated with engage in all manner of malicious propaganda, spew lies, like the lie of Russia-gate. I watched them impeach him in the Congress, and accuse his supreme court pick of being a rapist. It was so obvious they tried to remove an elected president from office based on lies and hate. During this period the mainstream media, corporately owned, went along for the ride, like they did during our many middle eastern wars that killed millions, and destroyed countries, whether carried out under Bush, or Obama. What to do? I became an independent and never will I vote for a democrat again. I just made a promise to myself, and let me just say that Biden whose past record in politics is not only unremarkable, but a disgrace, and he's no better now, only worse, or as obama would say, "Don't Underestimate Joe's Ability To Fuck It Up." His administration is only assuring me that my decision is right on. The kangaroo court set up to determine Trump's s degree of guilt in the so called insurrection is nothing more then a kangaroo court. How can you lend any credibility to a committee that has predetermined his guilt and brings in witnesses to substantiate what they already believe, and the two republicans on there have a decided anti-Trump bias. So much for your assessment of me, or things in general.
Well, we're in agreement that they all suck. No where have I ever lauded the Dems; they're corrupt as it gets. What I don't get is how the Dems being assholes somehow makes Trump a good guy. Binary thinking.
I can lend credibility to the committee because all of the testimony is by Trumps own people. His people. All his people, including family members, testified to stuff that if the Dems had done 1/10th of it, we'd all be demanding the guillotine. How can anyone not lend credibility to the committee? Because they're trained as binary thinkers.
Of course the Dems are corrupt and despicable. Of course the Pubs are treacherous liars. It's government. I'm amazed that people in here think there's a good side. This crowd is conditioned to think in a binary fashion; the folks doing the controlling like it that way. Two sides. Choose up, everyone. Just like the money likes people to think.
And, apparently, Matt's gone binary too. His last two columns haven't just sucked; they're delusional pandering.
I am still perfectly capable of evaluating Trump's policies, no war was good, and other policies he implemented were not, and by the way many democrats went along with them. I have not lost my objectivity because I am aware the democrats played dirty. Disgusting really. I don't think Matt has gone binary. Do you know what happened to Greenwald when he wanted to write an article on Biden for a publication he started, The Intercept? Well, they wouldn't let him. The democrats created a very divided world and not only by attacking Trump but his base, those "half basket of deplorables". The so called liberals went along with that assessment which also affects the perspective of those watching the January 6 committee and the intent of the protesters. You are defining me as binary, what about I am trying to be objective and not fall into what too often is little more then an elitist perspective on Trump's presidency rather then questions on issues of his policies. Too often I see writers, many on the so called left, write on a topic, then slip in a line or two on the horrors of Trump, and unrelated to the main thesis of the article. Their intent, of course, is to say to their readership, hey, I am on the right side of things because I hate Trump, ergo my opinions expressed here are also correct.
Do you really believe the US secret service was involved in a coup attempt??? That’s nuts. If that was the case, then why doesn’t the pro Trump secret service depose the obviously mentally incapacitated President Biden??? Perhaps because the US Secret Service doesn’t do coups! This whole January 6th thing, like every other get Trump derangement escapade by the democrats and RINOs, is yet another sham. Talk about coup attempts? They spent all of Trumps
Tenure trying to impeach him…before, during, and even after his term. Now they are trying to preempt him before he even runs again!! Stop giving ANY possible credibility to this January 6th bs.
I mean, the FBI informants were telling people to go to the capitol and "go inside". That's all they seem to be doing these days: grooming mass killers and manufacturing event after event while the corporate media pumps everyone full of fear over it all.
Yeah, I mean, it turned out that the Michigan "coup" against the governor was planned by an FBI plant. I guess they've solved all the actual crimes in the country, and now have to manufacture new ones to keep busy ...
Nothing new, they were the ones orchestrating many of the 'terror plots' they broke up when the War on Terror was still a baby.
And Building 7 just collapsed out of sympathy.
they cant figure out who killed seth rich......too busy playing dick tag, making frame ups, watching porn and paying hookers
If a street robbery-murder in DC going unsolved sounds fishy to you, you're too far
Not a robbery
what did the thieves take? and it was all at the same time the dnc emails were released by wikileaks. it was determined russia had nothing to with it and it was an inside job.
Project Censored
2012 - FBI Agents Responsible for Majority of Terrorist Plots in the United States
https://www.projectcensored.org/4-fbi-agents-responsible-for-majority-of-terrorist-plots-in-the-united-states/
2018 - Ongoing FBI Use of Entrapment in Terror Cases
https://www.projectcensored.org/ongoing-fbi-use-entrapment-terror-cases/
FBI Paid Geek Squad Employees as “Confidential Human Source” Informants
https://www.projectcensored.org/14-fbi-paid-geek-squad-employees-as-confidential-human-source-informants/
Is there a good link on that? I’d like to have a good source for that if there’s one out there.
They're still pretending the FBI was clueless about the whole thing despite their office being in the middle of the route from where Trump spoke to the capitol.........
I believe they were probably involved. But I don’t think it was a coup. They wanted an excuse to bury trump.
Hear hear!
The United States is the most defended country on the planet, something Matt confirmed recently in his article about billions in defense-related pork that passed under a media blackout from both sides. Yet the same people want us to believe that a handful of conspiracy nuts, senior citizens, and racist tweakers almost overthrew the government of this country. More rioters died of overdoses and heart attacks than US law enforcement died from violence (that number being zero) btw. But holy shit guys, Existential Threat was Existential af. I just can’t listen anymore, my brain is dying.
It's truly the dumbest fucking thing. The 2011 Act 10 protests in Madison over then-Gov. Scott Walker's measure to all but end collective bargaining for most of Wisconsin's public workers was also an "insurrection" then, and in many ways it was worse.
I wondered when someone was going to bring this up. Was anyone held accountable for the damage to the Wisconsin Capitol?
As far as I know, no. Definitely not left to languish in jail.
I know it's hard to fathom but if you were following the "stop the steal" movement, as I was, listening to Steve Bannon's War Room podcast -- mainly out of curiosity, though my friends on the left would condemn for that curiosity -- it was clear what their intentions were. They genuinely believed that Trump could successfully make his case in congress, as Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz were doing. Trump believed that because that was the plan. Why would he then plan a violent riot if all it did was end his argument and hand absolute power to his enemies? It makes no sense. Also, and this is not reported anywhere or even investigated - Trump supporters, especially those who faithfully attend his rallies, are proudly non-violent. They don't want to destroy American property. They want to protect it. That is their only point of superiority over the left. The left protests violently, they don't.
Were there Trump supporters angry enough to bust into the Capitol? Well apparently so. But the head didn't know what the tail was doing because these two things ran counter to each other. Because of that, I was immediately skeptical about why that one time did the crowd become violent? This question was never asked because most people don't believe this. The riot was the best piece of anti-Trump propaganda our government has ever gotten and they're milking it for everything it's worth, at great cost to our country, IMO.
The reason it's a show trial -- though no one is getting shot or put in a gulag -- is that they came in with a conviction then went looking for any evidence they could find to prove it.
It's not a coincidence that the 'riot' prevented the country from actually hearing the evidence of election fuckery. Pretty lucky for some people!
It also keeps their base from looking over the hedge at more conservative and middle of the road news events.
All they can do is try and make enough noise to drown out the massive wave of disgust that's about to wash them off of the beach in November and then again in 2024.
If it's not Trump, it'll be someone else who saw the value in breaking the fourth wall of political theater for people who hate their government.
Not saying they'd actually DO anything good, just saying that the game has changed and the dinosaurs are all stamping around trying to squash all the rodents fruitlessly.
Yes, but sadly for them, Jan. 6th is polling (or was, at least) lower than all the stuff that America already hates them for........
https://simulationcommander.substack.com/p/supreme-court-losses-reveal-ugly
(poll is about halfway down)
I didn’t know you had a Substack until you were on the fucking Megan Kelley show yesterday! I was like oh shit it’s that chick who has great takes on tk news lol !!
On trump…“Why would he then plan a violent riot if all it did was end his argument and hand absolute power to his enemies?”
I agree that argument doesn’t hold water but it was a social media driven qanon 3hr riot by a bunch of (mostly) unarmed dudes overdosed on egg McMuffins.. imagine how fucked the dems would be without Jan 6
Compliments of the FBI.
It's their little event, and the media's Big Show.
To me, it's trifling and just obnoxious at this point.
"... though no one is getting shot or put in a gulag... "
True. But:
First, these things progress in stages, and it's abundantly clear that we've already passed through many destructive stages since, say, 9/11. Our Bill of Rights is in flames, a fact well documented by the Rutherford Institute, among many others Left and Right.
Second, rhetoric rules. Once they appear, they will *never* call them "gulags", they will be "safety camps"; and I wouldn't put it past them, at all, even to call police "shots" a new name, say, "projectile restraining devices", once they start using them regularly against the "domestic terrorists". After all, they had to call the Russiagate *conspiracy theory* an investigation into "collusion"; mass shooter gun deaths are caused solely by "guns", while police gun deaths are caused solely by "racism" (when will there be deadly firearms control for the police?); and American blacks get a new name about every 10 years or so.
All Trumps's enemies and nobody on his side doesn't sound like anything but theater. Why isn't Marjorie Taylor Greene on the committee? Lauren Boebert? Because they might cross examine and who in the world would want that?
They really are terrified of him, and us too, I guess.
The Democrats would not seat anyone they did not deem respectable. The Dems power play is somewhat unprecedented
Pol Pot would probably enjoy their playing.
Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert? The Missing Link and a high school dropout who got her GED in 2020? That's the best you got?
When did the entire Democrat party turn into middle school girls?
Look at all of the protesters. It is the party of tantruming middle school girls.
Are MTG and LB the heavy hitters of the republican party these days?
And Trump tried to grab the wheel of his limo and drive to the capital too.
Cmon Matt........the vast majority of us are WAY WAY beyond caring about the hearings or Jan 6th generally.
The whole setup, right from the beginning was a show trial designed to keep Trump from running again. It was never about "finding out what happened". It was just nail Trump. We get it. We give the damn thing no credibility and we are perfectly prepared to move on and have been for a long time.
Most of us do not find it to be any worse than all the riots the summer before.
We get it...Trump is an asshole and everyone on the democrat side, to include never Trump republicans is terrified that he might actually be able to get elected again. They should be. God help them, if after all this, he gets in again. BUT....if by some chance he DOES get in again, they have nobody but themselves to blame. They have screwed the pooch on SO many things and then tried stuffing noxious progressive social policy and cultural mores down our throats. Never mind they have cried wolf so many times that it is just background noise now.
I don't think it's to stop Trump from running again. I think it's to keep him in the media spotlight because they don't have a good alternate Emmanuel Goldstein on tap.
Two things...
1. These morons that are out to get him have simply refused to do the ONE thing that would eliminate him as a threat....IGNORE him. Every time they mention his name they keep him in the spotlight. Every time they go on TV or write an article talking about how bad he is, and how urgent it is to get rid of him, they make him look powerful and therefore relevant and because he ticks them off so much it endears him to those who are fed up and disgusted with them. Their very actions make him relevant.
2. The idiots prosecuting this stuff do not even realize that they are playing with fire and that winning, in the form of actually getting a successful prosecution of Trump, would simply make him a martyr. Even a failed prosecution would make him one. For those people out there that believe he was cheated out of the election, and there are reasonable arguments to be made that to one degree or another he was or that at least the game was rigged, that would be an invitation to an ACTUAL insurrection.
For those that oppose Trump, the single greatest thing they could do for themselves it to make him not relevant, but they cannot help themselves.
So true.
Or both
The whole thing is preposterous. The witch-hunt to get Trump has been the biggest threat to our democracy.
I absolutely agree, and I feel so strongly about it I switched parties, since I was a registered democrat. I don't want to be on the side of what could only be said to be a bunch of autocrats thinking they can get away with just about anything, including removing an elected president from office. There are so many out there to make hate trump truth.
I have been a Green in protest of Democrat betrayals since 1996.
You had perfect timing. They say the democrats were on a right wing slide since the Carter years and under Clinton they really veered right. He's the SOB that drew 3 countries into NATO, and we promised Gorbachev we wouldn't. It was down hill from there. Too bad Gore didn't win, and I do believe that election could very well have been stolen.
The CIA and the Pentagon are thrilled t on have a proxy war and a failed state on the Russian border.
Oh, I agree, and this is a neocon agenda, and we have those in the Biden State Department, and they were in Obama's State Department as well. We were heading down this road for decades. In my opinion, although most don't want to give him credit, Obama is someone who got this rolling by supporting the 2014 coup even lending his support to a neo-nazi brigade to get it done.
Good for you, and Welcome Aboard!
Thanks.
There can be a witch hunt and Trump can be guilty of high treason. Both of these things can happen. The witch hunt is not a reason for Trump to do what he did. Two wrongs do not make a right.
I am unclear whether Trump did anything actually illegal. I am also unaware why anyone categorizes January 6th as anything but a riot.
Branding and marketing. Trump was much better at it though.
This is true. I think it’s all overblown but am staying open-minded about whether Trump attempted a coup, mainly because I trust Andrew Sullivan and Batya Ungar-Sargon to not drink the modern progressive kool-aid, and both of them seem concerned about it. Batya had a good piece for Common Sense saying yeah, the media’s way overdone Jan 6, but Trump still did some bad stuff and represents a genuine threat to the rule of law.
Interesting that you still access Common Sense for the news because since the Trump years they lost any journalistic integrity they once had.
This is my question. Trump clearly wanted to go to the Capitol with protesters he knew were heavily armed. My question is this. What was he going to do when he got there? I read somewhere that he wanted to enter the House Chamber with an armed mob while the congress people were there. What would have happened then? Would the mob start attacking the congress people? Thankfully, we'll never know but I have to admit, I am curious.
Fat, Drunk, and TDS is no way to go through life, son.
Heavily armed? 🤣
As far as I am aware not a single gun was confiscated at the “insurrection”.
But almost all protestors had TWO ARMS!!!!!11111oneone
Yeah but, L&D's question is "what was he going to do when he go there?" I've wondered, too. Any guesses?
Are you trolling the comments section? You don’t actually believe the bullshit you just threw, do you? Heavily armed? Trump leading them into the House chamber? You are a whole other level of deluded.
Nobody was armed.. it was old veterans and church ladies..
Then Antifa showed up in Trum gear and started.. so obvious
Heavy armed? come on now...
The piece that Batya Ungar - Sargon did was deservedly skewered in the comments. It was nothing that couldn't be found anywhere else in Corporate Trump-hating media.
It's really quite easy to understand, Matt, though I wonder if you are hoping the landscape will change if for no other reason than it would be "fun" to write about it:
Matt wrote: "For six years now, investigators of every stripe and hue, from the FBI to the CIA to the NSA to Intelligence Committees in both the Senate and the House, have been pursuing Donald Trump......... (speaking of tonight's Democrat show) Part of the reason multiple previous impeachment and prosecution efforts failed is because investigations often failed to deliver evidence at moments just like this." (IMHO, Matt should have written "always" instead of "often".
The reason the Demos, Rino's, never-Trumpers, the corporate media, social media etc. have "failed to deliver evidence" is that after "6-years" THEY HAVE FOUND NOTHING!!! Tonight will be no different, as Matt tacitly admits.
you're right - "often" removed.
What's Liz Cheney going to get out of all this? Will she be the new Ukraine Reconstruction Czar vis-à-vis her father's ties to Haliburton?
A sweet gig on some MSNBC show as a 'principled republican' who will always toe the line.
It's rather alarming to see how many Dems in the NYT comment boards are either plugging her for potus, or say they'd vote for her. TDS is a real thing.
Oh they'd sober up before they cast that ballot.
AOC faking being cuffed with her hands behind her back. That is just another example that the entire Democrat party has been corrupted to a bad Hollywood act. The Jan-6 show trial is just a really bad Netflix series. And for most voters it reminds them of someone washing their dirty dishes while their neighborhood is on fire.
Watching a defiant AOC being "led away" at the protest, I was very impressed by her civil disobedience fashion sense. Made me think we need a protest/show trial version of "Live From the Red Carpet!" The world yearns to know "who" she was wearing. Joan Rivers interviewing The Squad or Liz Cheney. Now that WOULD have been worth watching.
I’m grateful for this hearing. Otherwise I might have to contemplate how we gave 54 billion for Ukraine to fight off the new hitler while the msm cheers europes ability to receive oil and gas from the new hitler
in the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, the president of the universe is a buffoon that entertains everyone else. i often think of that for everthing in DC. its all one big shitshow
"really bad Netflix series" is redundant lol
Are you covering this for posterity? Literally no one I know has paid one second of attention to this side show. It appears to be directly focused at a small subset of low information Democrat base voters that they know will believe anything they say.
From a historical perspective it is a black mark on our history. I would have never believed we would have Soviet style star chambers in my lifetime in the United States.
The only thing that held Democrats together since 2016 is Trump. When he's actually gone, they will be completely lost.
Yep. He is like a predator that strengthens the flock by taking down the weak. Just look at how the uniparty came together to defend their power base against him. It’s a freakin Nat Geo spectacle on the Savanah except it’s politicians and bureaucrats instead of lions and gazelles.
Oh I do like this post.
I made the connection while recently reading Frank Herbert’s Dune books where he makes the same allusion to one of the characters. Herbert was a genius!
You should have taken credit but I respect your integrity.
i think the "low information" part of "low information Democrat base voters" may be redundant.
🙏🥁🛎🤣😂The man has already been impeached twice by the HOR! Biden will probably go through the same , & probably the next president as well
And Biden genuinely deserves to be impeached, if just on a charge of not enforcing out immigration laws, but also selling our strategic petroleum reserves to our enemies, and ... there’s a long, long, valid list.
We are governed by children.
What we are governed by does not have the innocence of children. Children may do silly things, but they still haven't sold their souls for money and power.