Politics, Everyday, All day... morning, noon and night....II

[gaminwench]

If someone could just shut him up. Please.

[lucky420]

Trump ended his statements by saying that "our culture is being destroyed and our history and heritage, both good and bad, are being extinguished by the Radical Left." He closed by saying that if we had Robert E. Lee leading our troops in Afghanistan, then "that disaster would have ended in a complete and total victory many years ago."

https://www.newsweek.com/trump-says-if- ... ry-1627286

What a fucking idiot that former guy is. Complete and unabashed

[some seeing eye]

California's recall ballot for Governor Newsom has a good chance of "success." The leading candidate is Larry Elder who has some strange ideas, despite having a good education. Make sure your friends in Cali vote, don't skip this election.

Larry Elder Presents Argument to Candace Owens That Slave Owners Had a Justification to Seek Reparations

https://atlantablackstar.com/2021/09/07 ... parations/

Rand Paul is being super annoying with his "gain of function" accusations. The right wing media is following along like Pavlovian dogs sensing ad view dollars.

[Simon of the Playa]

Trump tried hard to convince then–Vice President Mike Pence not to certify the electoral college votes from the states. Pence tried to oblige him, eventually turning to former Vice President Dan Quayle, who had served in the George H. W. Bush administration, to see if there was any way he could do what Trump asked. According to Woodward and Costa, Pence repeatedly asked Quayle if there was anything he could do. Quayle answered: “Mike, you have no flexibility on this. None. Zero. Forget it. Put it away.”

But Trump didn’t want to take no for an answer. When Pence refused, Trump allegedly told him: “I don’t want to be your friend anymore if you don’t do this.” He later told the vice president: “You’ve betrayed us. I made you. You were nothing.”

The account casts Pence’s role in the January 6 insurrection in a new light.

The book also says that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, was so worried that Trump’s mental state around the time of the election would lead him to attack China that twice Milley called his Chinese counterpart Li Zuocheng secretly to assure him that the U.S. would not launch a surprise attack. Milley was not the only one worried about the president: when Trump refused to concede the election, CIA Director Gina Haspel allegedly told Milley, “We are on the way to a right-wing coup. The whole thing is insanity. He is acting out like a six-year-old with a tantrum.” Haspel worried Trump might attack Iran.

Milley also allegedly told top military commanders that they should involve him if then-president Trump ordered a nuclear strike. That conversation was in part a reaction to a phone call with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), two days after the assault on the Capitol, in which the Speaker demanded to know: “What precautions are available to prevent an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or from accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike?”

When Milley tried to reassure her, she continued: "What I'm saying to you is that if they couldn't even stop him from an assault on the Capitol, who even knows what else he may do? And is there anybody in charge at the White House who was doing anything but kissing his fat butt all over this?"

“He’s crazy. You know he’s crazy,” Pelosi said, according to a transcript of the call Woodward and Costa saw. “He’s crazy and what he did yesterday is further evidence of his craziness.” Milley replied to the House Speaker: “I agree with you on everything.”

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.c ... er-14-2021

[Simon of the Playa]

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[Simon of the Playa]

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[rossjulie]

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You are inviting them to twitter

[Simon of the Playa]

thank goodness we stopped the actual steal...

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[lucky420]

You ^^ always come with the receipts.

[some seeing eye]

WaPo: Former GOP treasury secretaries tried defusing debt ceiling bomb in private talks with McConnell, Yellen

Paulson and Mnuchin have warned political leaders about the consequences of default, but the Biden administration and Senate Republicans don’t appear close to a deal.


Two former GOP treasury secretaries held private discussions this month with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) hoping to resolve an impasse over the debt limit that now threatens the global economy, according to four people aware of the conversations.

The previously unreported talks involving the GOP economic grandees — Henry Paulson, who served as treasury secretary under President Bush; and Steven Mnuchin, treasury secretary under President Trump — did not resolve the matter and the U.S. is now racing toward a massive fiscal cliff with no clear resolution at hand.

Paulson and Mnuchin have in recent weeks spoken with both McConnell and Yellen as the Biden administration tries to ensure the U.S. does not default on its debt obligations and spark a global financial crisis.

The backchanneling by Mnuchin and Paulson — who had previously worked together at Goldman Sachs — reflects the widespread alarm among economists and U.S. business interests about the consequences of an unprecedented default on the federal debt. If the U.S. was unable to borrow money to pay all of its bills, a number of economists have predicted that it would lead to a calamity that could trigger a meltdown in financial markets and plunge the economy into recession. Republicans have refused to help Democrats approve a new debt ceiling suspension despite approving three such measures during the Trump administration while the national debt rose by roughly $8 trillion under Trump.

Yellen has recently warned that the debt ceiling must be raised or suspended by some time in October or the country’s fiscal situation will be severe.

Paulson met with McConnell in his office in the U.S. Capitol last week and discussed the debt limit standoff, two people familiar with the exchange said. Paulson primarily listened to McConnell’s views on the matter as the Senate GOP leader made clear he was not bluffing about Democrats having to raise the debt limit without Republican support. Paulson expressed in the meeting a high degree of concern about the dangers and likelihood of a federal default and its implications for the global economy, the people said. Paulson worked closely with McConnell and other lawmakers in 2008 to address the financial crisis.

After the discussion, Paulson told the Biden administration that McConnell is serious that Democrats must approve the debt ceiling hike on their own through the budget reconciliation process, given their control of Congress and the White House and their pursuit of a partisan spending package, the people said. Democrats have said the debt ceiling must be approved on a bipartisan basis — with GOP support — as it has historically and given that the current national debt was created by spending approved by both parties.

Mnuchin called McConnell the week of Sept. 6 amid intensifying fears about the debt limit standoff, two other people familiar with the matter said. Mnuchin and McConnell discussed the legislative mechanics of how the debt limit would be lifted, as well as the difficult negotiations with Democrats over the debt ceiling under Trump in 2018. Mnuchin made clear his concerns about the consequences of default. Mnuchin also told the Biden administration that McConnell is not bluffing about Democrats needing to approve the matter on their own, the people said.

McConnell previously told Punchbowl News that he had relayed similar messages to several “intermediaries” he said had been sent by Democrats to talk him down from his position.

The debt limit standoff represents a crisis for the Department of Treasury — that Paulson and Mnuchin would be intimately familiar with — as it deploys all measures at its disposal to avoid a default that would hurt the U.S. economy. The prior debt ceiling suspension expired in August. Since then, Treasury has deployed a series of “extraordinary measures” to prevent a default but is rapidly running out of options.

But suspending the debt limit again may be outside Treasury’s control. Congressional Democrats have introduced a package that includes a debt ceiling suspension, funding to avert a shutdown of the federal government, emergency aid for those affected by natural disasters, and money for the resettlement of people who fled Afghanistan. That measure passed the House Tuesday night but is expected to fail in the Senate due to GOP opposition to supporting the debt ceiling suspension.

Yellen has personally spoken with McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) about the debt ceiling impasse, according to conversations previously reported by Punchbowl News.

Yellen has made other calls to senior congressional Democrats and Republicans about the debt limit. But her conversations have focused on the economic consequences of default, not the mechanics of approving legislation through Congress, a person familiar with the matter said.

Yellen has emphasized that Congress has historically resolved the debt limit with “broad bipartisan support.” She wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal this week warning of severe consequences of failing to act, a message punctuated by a letter from a Treasury advisory committee that helps manage U.S. debt.

“Near-term action by Congress is required to preserve the tremendous benefits that the U.S. Treasury market provides to taxpayers and to avoid the immense damage a missed payment could have on the Treasury market and U.S. economy,” wrote Beth Hammack and Brian Sack, chair and vice chair of the Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee, in a letter to Yellen on Tuesday. “To default would be unthinkable, but even to risk that outcome would be reckless and irresponsible.”

And

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-sho ... f-n1279839

"Republicans were certainly aware of the concerns. In April 2011, Politico reported https://www.politico.com/story/2011/04/ ... mit-053094 that then-House Speaker John Boehner had spoken directly with top Wall Street executives, asking how long he and his party could play with fire before it started doing real economic harm.

Plus

"Once a routine matter, raising the debt ceiling has become a political weapon of choice for Republicans in Washington ever since the 2011 arrival of tea party lawmakers who refused to allow the increase. At the time, they argued against more spending and the standoff triggered a fiscal crisis."

On a lighter note, House Appropriations Committee Chair Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn is rocking the hair!

[Simon of the Playa]

Federal prosecutors claim Jesse Benton and Doug Wead accepted $100,000 from an unidentified Russian foreign national in exchange for getting the person a meeting with then-candidate Donald Trump at a fundraiser in 2016. Allegedly, the two funnelled $25,000 to the Trump campaign’s joint fundraising committee and pocketed the other $75,000.

Benton, a former campaign manager for Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), worked for the pro-Trump super PAC Great America PAC in 2016. In December 2020, Benton was pardoned by Trump on charges tied to hiding bribes in a 2012 scandal.

https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2021/0 ... or-scheme/

[Simon of the Playa]

Facebook is not merely a website, or a platform, or a publisher, or a social network, or an online directory, or a corporation, or a utility. It is all of these things. But Facebook is also, effectively, a hostile foreign power.

This is plain to see in its single-minded focus on its own expansion; its immunity to any sense of civic obligation; its record of facilitating the undermining of elections; its antipathy toward the free press; its rulers’ callousness and hubris; and its indifference to the endurance of American democracy.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/ar ... er/620168/

[Simon of the Playa]

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[Simon of the Playa]

"The select committee had issued the subpoenas under the threat of criminal prosecution in the event of non-compliance, warning that the penalty for defying a congressional subpoena would be far graver under the Biden administration than during the Trump presidency."

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... -committee

[Simon of the Playa]

brother against brother...

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... 33825.html

[some seeing eye]

Where Biden’s vaccine mandate will hit and miss

The Biden administration is preparing to enact vaccine mandates covering workers at large businesses, health care employers, and federal employees and contractors.

The large-business mandate, which affects businesses with at least 100 employees, has the potential to dramatically boost the number of vaccinated Americans in counties where adult vaccination rates are lagging, according to a POLITICO analysis of U.S. Census Bureau and CDC data. Even so, pockets of unvaccinated adults would remain due to business size and because the mandate would not affect adults who aren’t working.

Light green Most adults are vaccinated.
Most workers are at a large business.

Dark green Most adults are vaccinated.
Most workers are NOT at a large business.

Tan Most adults are NOT vaccinated.
Most workers are at a large business.

Red Most adults are NOT vaccinated.
Most workers are NOT at a large business.




https://www.politico.com/news/2021/10/0 ... ies-515337

[Simon of the Playa]

"On this date five years ago, in the run-up to the 2016 election, the Washington Post broke the story of the so-called Access Hollywood tape, a video from 2005 in which Donald Trump told television host Billy Bush about his approach to women. "I don't even wait” to start kissing them, he said. “And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.... Grab 'em by the p***y. You can do anything."

Today’s events indicated that, as president, he took a similar approach to the Department of Justice."



https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.c ... ber-7-2021

[Simon of the Playa]

meanwhile, in the Upside-Down...

https://www.mediamatters.org/newsmax/ne ... sis-actors

[Simon of the Playa]

"Today, on the day that CNN reported that official deaths from coronavirus have reached 715,000, Ohio Republican representative Jim Jordan tweeted that Ohio should end all vaccine mandates. That would include vaccines against diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, polio, measles, mumps, and rubella, among other diseases.

Texas governor Greg Abbott went further. He signed an executive order prohibiting “any entity” from enforcing a vaccine mandate in Texas. This was not just a play to anti-vaxxers, but a declaration that his state is supreme over the federal government."

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.c ... er-12-2021

[some seeing eye]

After 9/11, China grew into a superpower as a distracted U.S. fixated on terrorism, experts say
In 2001, the Bush administration was focused on China and tensions had spiked. The 9/11 attacks were a "geopolitical gift to China,“ says one expert.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/nation ... d-n1278671

[Simon of the Playa]

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[Simon of the Playa]

Criminal defense lawyer Marc Fernich, whose past clients include Jeffrey Epstein, Mexican drug lord Joaquín Guzmán (“El Chapo”) and sex cult leader Keith Raniere, is also on Gaetz’s team.

https://floridapolitics.com/archives/46 ... aetz-case/

[Simon of the Playa]

In the affidavit, the new whistleblower reportedly describes an instance in which Facebook communications official Tucker Bounds allegedly said, as the company was facing scrutiny over Russian interference in the 2016 election, that legislators would "get pissy" but "in a few weeks they will move onto something else. Meanwhile we are printing money in the basement, and we are fine." The affidavit reportedly also accuses Facebook of undermining efforts to crack down on misinformation and hate speech due to concerns about angering former President Donald Trump and his allies or hurting user growth. And in an interview with the Post, the whistleblower alleged that when questioned about a policy exempting publishers including Breitbart News from its standard rules, Facebook's vice president of global public policy Joel Kaplan said, "Do you want to start a fight with Steve Bannon?"

https://news.yahoo.com/facebook-whistle ... 02906.html

[Simon of the Playa]

"Former president Trump’s loyalists set up a “command center” in mid-December at Washington, D.C.’s famous Willard Hotel to try to overturn the election. Those meeting to come up with a scheme to overturn the will of the voters included John Eastman, who wrote the memo outlining how Vice President Mike Pence could refuse to count the electors for certain states and thus throw the election to Trump; Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani; adviser Stephen K. Bannon; former New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik, a convicted felon pardoned by Trump; One America News reporter Christina Bobb; and Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn.

It is significant that as this story has hit the news, Eastman, the author of the infamous memo, is running from it. He went to the respected conservative magazine National Review to argue, quite preposterously, that his memo was simply a thought exercise that he did not endorse.

The very choice of the Willard, rather than Trump's own hotel, suggests an attempt to create distance from the president, but Kerik, who rented the rooms, billed the Trump campaign for the $55,000 hotel bill. (Those participating are likely to discover that campaign activity is not part of official duties and so cannot be covered by executive privilege.)

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.c ... er-23-2021

[Simon of the Playa]

"Some of the organisers of the pro-Trump rally in Washington that preceded the storming of the Capitol on 6 January have said they worked closely with several Republican politicians and officials and were assured a “blanket” White House pardon, according to a report.

Two sources described as being involved in planning the protest at the White House, where Donald Trump urged his supporters to march on the Capitol, told Rolling Stone they had “dozens” of planning briefings with members of Congress and Mr Trump’s team, and that former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows had the opportunity to prevent the protest from escalating."


https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... 44567.html

[some seeing eye]

(Humor)

GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert Catches Hell For Biblical Quote About Secrets

Critics flipped the passage back onto the conspiracy theory-endorsing Colorado Republican.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/lauren-b ... d9331a3288

[Simon of the Playa]

Gaslighting the Nation:

"In the series, Carlson strongly suggests that the insurrection was not orchestrated by Trump's fans but by his foes, including the violent leftist group Antifa and even in the FBI and other national security divisions. He plants the idea that the siege was a "false flag" operation to discredit Trump supporters."

https://www.npr.org/2021/11/03/10516079 ... y-new-show

[Simon of the Playa]

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[lucky420]

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Yep, just say it if ya feel the need.

[some seeing eye]

Ted is losing it again.

Ted Cruz Slams 'Government Propaganda' After Sesame Street's Big Bird Gets Vaccine

https://www.newsweek.com/ted-cruz-slams ... ne-1646733