TWGB: You Can Consider All The Options

 

Recently seen unfurled at Yankee Stadium was an absolutely enormous banner reading "Trump or Death". It showed the dates "1776-2024" which sort of suggests something happened in 1776 that would definitely end in 2024. I guess the opposition of the United States to monarchy, since the weirdos brandishing this flag seem to want to install Trump in office regardless of how the rest of us feel about him.

I encourage Trump followers, of course, by all means, to consider all of their options. No one here gets out alive, etc. 

Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas, father of Sarah, pastor (?), tv host and promoter of cartoon pseudohistory, certainly seems to think that if Trump loses in 2024 it will be the last election decided by ballots rather than bullets. Wild, if true, right? He subscribes to the idea that Trump is being persecuted for his political beliefs, when those beliefs were that he should be president for life and the hell with what the voters said. OK. Trump's beliefs are very much a problem. The idea that violence is the answer to your candidate losing an election because he isn't popular is the actual stuff of banana republics. Your political candidate deciding he should be president for life is a problem--and yes, this is a thing Trump hinted at. 

TWGB: Here's to the Losers

 

Once upon a time, in a far-off land called TrumpWorld, a would-be king promised there would be "so much winning" that people would get bored of winning.  I still don't know what that means, and I've studied it like it was my job. It sounds like something a conman would say. But lately--there has not been a lot of winning. One term, two impeachments, three marriages, four indictments, five deferments, six bankruptcies  (six point drop after missing the first GOP primary 2024 debate), seven trials, probably going on eight (Arizona? Michigan?) or even nine. 

The losers for August 30th include Pete Navarro, who can't claim executive privilege that Trump didn't claim for him and will go to trial in a whole minute for contempt. He seems to have thought Trump won in 2020, (or alleged to), but the sign held up behind him reminds us Trump most certainly did not. And any rational person would realize that, by the utter lack of Trump in the White House right now. Navarro tried to wrest the sign away from the protester and was advised he was on camera and you know. 

Loser. 

TWGB: The Truth Has a Way

 

A funny old thing just happened--Mike Lindell lost in arbitration a stupid claim that he would pay $5 million to someone who proved his stolen election data wrong. Of course it was proven to be bullshit. Trump lost. He just did. He didn't win the popular vote the first time around, and in 2020 he massively lost the popular vote and didn't win the electoral either. He lost it by too much to plausibly even steal it. His whole ass got kicked in by Joe Biden. 

I get that people like Pete Navarro think that Trump had a path to victory via state legislatures doing the most. This is of course stealing and a fraud. It's funny he cops to that in order to slag "The Kraken"--Sidney Powell. She was operating at the time as a whole soldier though--she was probably instrumental in acquiring the breached data that TrumpWorld was going to use to challenge Georgia's vote--you know, the vote interference that Fani Willis and Special Counsel Jack Smith are both looking into. 

Powell's stupid conspiracy theories were bad and looked bad. The line Navarro wants to use is--why screw about with theories as to why the vote totals don't work out in Trump's favor when state legislatures can just overrule them anyway? 

The theories are dumb--the steal is smart. 

Want to Hear an Identity Politics?

 

Garrett Ziegler, a former Trump WH aide, lost his mind after his interview with the @January6thCmte yesterday.

He accused the committee of being “anti-white” and referred to his female colleagues who spoke out against Trump as “thots and hoes.” pic.twitter.com/S7wOdH3tY1

— The Republican Accountability Project (@AccountableGOP) July 20, 2022

You know, I've voiced my fears before that there are people who experience morality as a category error, in the sense that for them, morality is based on who you are, not what you do. It's why they can't understand how religious leaders, who are by identity always moral, can be perverts, or how cops, who are supposed to represent the law, can ever be perpetrators. Men based on identity are heads of household and common sense leaders, women are emotional and subordinate. White people are in good neighborhoods, etc. Christians are good, heathens bad. 

"Identity politics" is a term right wingers use, I think badly. It's fine for groups to make political alliances that are advantageous for them. They accuse Democrats of using identity politics ("the black card" or "the gay card", feminism, etc.) to signify allyship for political support, but man, have they ever weaponized the white, Christian identity folks. 

TWGB: The "Keeping Secrets" Service?

 

There is something very wrong with a picture wherein a government agency charged with protecting the physical well-being of the president and the vice-president becomes engaged in the protection of the president in what looks for all the world like a violation of his oath to defend the republic from all enemies, foreign and domestic. But that's what it looks like we have when the Secret Service seems to be engaging in shenanigans regarding their texts regarding what was witnessed in the lead-up to the events of January 6th, 2021. 

With the story of why the texts haven't materialized changing several times, it appears that now the texts have been recovered? Why, how fascinating! Is it possible the stories were a stall tactic that wasn't going to work if a whole lot of scrutiny fell on an agency that should also, being law enforcement recognize both their responsibility to hold on to data for record keeping purposes as a federal agency and also the ability of cyber forensics to recover data that isn't really gone? 

Yeah. Probably something like that. Should we feel weird about what those texts will say--like, knowing Mike Pence has a good instinct about the threat kind of weird?

Steve Bannon and the Indefensible Contempt

 

Steve Bannon's defense attorney asked aloud: "What’s the point of going to trial if there are no defenses?”

The judge responded: "Agreed"

Nevertheless, Bannon has seven days to get ready to face a DC jury

https://t.co/o30ucl3E1V

— Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) July 11, 2022

You know, you could really laugh at all of Bannon's delay strategies not working yesterday, and actually, why not? After all, if I were going to explain his justification for missing the deadline to turn over information it would be "Simon Says"--Trump didn't say "Simon Says" (because of executive privilege) and therefore, Bannon wasn't doing. Even a child would understand that if Trump did not claim executive privilege, there is no "Simon says" conflict.

Also, even a child would recognize that Trump is no longer "Simon", but that's why we're still playing these games, isn't it? Some of the players haven't yet come to that very important distinction and have decided Trump should be "Simon for life".

It would be great if these grown people would realize they are not on a playground. 

TWGB: *Whom* the Law Binds, Now?*

 

Peter Navarro was tremblingly aggrieved today to find that the act of dodging a lawfully issued subpoena caused him to be treated like a common criminal. Who in the world did they, the Department of Justice, think they were dealing with? It's not like in the time he was working diligently for the public that anyone who mattered thought he was the unethical toady of a vicious moneyed would-be tyrant. (I mean, except for the people who did. But did they matter?) They intercepted him at the airport for crying out loud! As if they were watching him! (Do you think!?)

It's getting so conservatives can't even lie to Congress or the Feds, noted legal mind Louie Gohmert opined. If you're a conservative, of course. He's thinking of how Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussman was acquitted of lying to the FBI because it wasn't actually proven, and how Michael Flynn, who plead guilty to lying to the FBI (and apparently, was unmasked quite innocently in a scandal that wasn't, thank you so much), was absolutely railroaded by having his sentence shortened by Trump AG Bill Barr before being pardoned by Trump himself. It's the damnedest thing when Republicans can nearly be held accountable for stuff they did and you can hardly hold Democrats responsible for stuff you want them to be punished for. 

Amusingly, or not, Navarro was just telling the world how when Trump was back in power all the people would pay. That's a lot of moxie for a guy who was pretty open about how he and Steve Bannon were staging the Green Bay Sweep. Next, they are going to be saying trying to steal an election is a bad thing--even if you're a Republican. It's a god-damned upside-down world. 

Now, about that stealing elections thing--I know I'm going to come across as some kind of stickler, but with each bit of material gleaned from the Trumpers (especially Mark Meadows, MVP, whose texts are a source of abundant context), it sure does look that it was they, not anyone else, who were fixing to steal an election, and apparently detailed what they were going to do in assorted memoranda. (Insert jokes regarding taking notes on a criminal conspiracy here. I'm too tired.)  It didn't even entirely occur to them that subverting the will of millions of voters would even matter in the end so why not be a little aggressive about it? (I mean, better to ask forgiveness than gain permission and all that? Or even coerce forgiveness in the form of compliance by way of martial law. You know. Strongman shit.) 

And did the 81 million Biden voters really matter? Particularly the ones whose votes could just be thrown away?  Probably ones in dodgy areas like the Philly metro area--I wonder if that was something Mark Meadows discussed with Scott Perry before those notes went up in smoke. Why Republicans think heavily Democratic-voting areas are rife with fraud is certainly a puzzlement is it not?  (Looking at which voters the Republicans will choose to intimidate in the future and insert it in the very real context of who has gotten to vote in this country historically, it certainly is not.) 

In order for democracy to work, it is necessary that even Republicans be bound by the law. But upon hearing they might be so bound, they sure are fit to be tied. 

UPDATE: AS an entire afterthought--isn't the least bit problematic that the former president wanted a mob to kill the former VP? Because I know the former VP is all like, "bygones", but in the real world, that kind of depraved indifference is basically murderous. (Sorry, l wasn't paying much more attention than the former VP seems to be feeling about that. But he totally could have died and Trump would have been okay with it. ) 

*We acknowledge the valuable contribution of our internet sages at Strangely Blogged.

TWGB: "More Likely Than Not"

 

A federal judge ruled Monday that President Donald Trump “more likely than not” attempted to illegally obstruct Congress when he tried to subvert the 2020 election on Jan. 6, 2021.

from @kyledcheney @joshgerstein & mehttps://t.co/7hAY1gvB1J

— Nicholas Wu (@nicholaswu12) March 28, 2022

More likely than not that Trump committed some felonies? You know, people are saying that. All over, actually. So what are we talking about:

Carter, who sits in federal court in California, said that the plan Eastman helped develop was obviously illegal and that Trump knew it at the time, but pushed forward with an effort he says would have effectively ended American democracy. 

“If Dr. Eastman and President Trump’s plan had worked, it would have permanently ended the peaceful transition of power, undermining American democracy and the Constitution,” Carter wrote. “If the country does not commit to investigating and pursuing accountability for those responsible, the Court fears January 6 will repeat itself.”

Trump and his little friends committed felony obstruction pursuant to the fraud they perpetrated that the election was "stolen" from Trump, to steal the election for Trump.  And by spreading that fraudulent message far and wide, they framed it in words that indicated violence would be necessary. 

And what is additionally disgraceful is that US senators and congressional representatives were actively helping.  In my opinion, that makes them accomplices--more likely than not. 

TWGB: The Call Came From Inside the White House

 

So here's a funny thing--the batshit idea that dead Hugo Chavez elected Joe Biden from beyond the grave by being backdoor-hacked into the Dominion voting machines is apparently a whole thing once authorized under the White House auspices. Like, Pete Navarro, the dude who openly admitted to the Green Bay Sweep plan, was the boss of the office where someone, somehow, determined that maybe foreigners could be fucking with the election. 

Wow. 

That feels convenient. 

It's almost like someone used the office of the presidency to construct a narrative where the election was invalid because they already knew they would not win outright, and wanted to create a distraction that would arouse partisans to their fabricated cause.

The idea was so weird that they couldn't decide who to consider the plausible author of it.

And this thing was apparently worked on before the election, but wasn't used to halt the election or create an amendment to how it was carried out, just to provide a cloak of fuckery when Trump ultimately lost.

He was always going to lose based on the polls, but I guess hope springs eternal in the mind of the true-believer? 

Long story short: I guess Trump used the office of the presidency to also create a basis for the lie that the voting machines were wrong, just in the same way he encouraged lawyers to create a narrative for invalidating the vote, and ultimately, put into play a narrative where Pence would have a justification to  follow the Eastman plan. Trump and his supporters seem to be anathema to the concept of democracy. 

Trump needs to be held accountable for any violations of the law, but I don't know how to correct the culture that was so willing to overthrow democracy for the sake of this ignorant and arrogant person. He is and was a dumbass and hardly a person I would sacrifice any principle for. 

I guess many Republicans felt differently.