Political Roundtable Part XXXI

[dobrojim]

Most explosive testimony yet during today’s hearing..
Given what has been described, it’s no wonder the GOP has to pretend
there’s nothing to see here.

Devastating testimony from Mark Meadows’ aide Cassidy Hutchison.

[closg00]

Most explosive testimony yet during today’s hearing..
Given what has been described, it’s no wonder the GOP has to pretend
there’s nothing to see here.

Devastating testimony from Mark Meadows’ aide Cassidy Hutchison.

Jaw dropping testimony, the DOJ will have to act, I assume that they are.

They should have had her testify behind a screen or something, now she will feel the wrath of cray MAGA.

[Wizardspride]

I'd like to hear Popper's thoughts on this?

[dobrojim]

It should be jaw dropping but I fully expect there to be widely and wildly
divergent responses to this based on the starting point of the respondee.
The video I posted on the last page demonstrates why.

But you’re totally right. DOJ has to charge people. Or invoke the Ginni
Thomas response and banish them to Elba(Gitmo).

[dobrojim]

Most explosive testimony yet during today’s hearing..
Given what has been described, it’s no wonder the GOP has to pretend
there’s nothing to see here.

Devastating testimony from Mark Meadows’ aide Cassidy Hutchison.

Jaw dropping testimony, the DOJ will have to act, I assume that they are.

They should have had her testify behind a screen or something, now she will feel the wrath of cray MAGA.

Re your last statement, Liz offers more teasers at the end about attempts
at witness tampering.

[dobrojim]

Meadows fiddling while Rome burned.

[Zonkerbl]

Fox News is talking about Hunter Biden right now :eyeroll:

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[Zonkerbl]

Badum tish!

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[Pointgod]

Most explosive testimony yet during today’s hearing..
Given what has been described, it’s no wonder the GOP has to pretend
there’s nothing to see here.

Devastating testimony from Mark Meadows’ aide Cassidy Hutchison.

Jaw dropping testimony, the DOJ will have to act, I assume that they are.

They should have had her testify behind a screen or something, now she will feel the wrath of cray MAGA.

Re your last statement, Liz offers more teasers at the end about attempts
at witness tampering.

I don’t know how DOJ doesn’t file same major witness tampering charges.

[Wizardspride]

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[Wizardspride]

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[verbal8]

Jaw dropping testimony, the DOJ will have to act, I assume that they are.

They should have had her testify behind a screen or something, now she will feel the wrath of cray MAGA.

Re your last statement, Liz offers more teasers at the end about attempts
at witness tampering.

I don’t know how DOJ doesn’t file same major witness tampering charges.

I suspect that is exactly what the DOJ is closing in on. It would explain both the recent Search Warrants and the Hutchison testimony.

[popper]

I'd like to hear Popper's thoughts on this?

Thanks for invitation WP. As I've said for years, I hope Trump is wounded and unable to run. He, like Biden, Bush, Clinton and Obama are idiots or worse. The country faces deep, deep, deep problems. I'm not hopeful in the ability of the average voter to ascertain the best path forward. It makes me sad because I have children and grandchildren that will suffer because of our collective ignorance.

[Pointgod]

I'd like to hear Popper's thoughts on this?

Thanks for invitation WP. As I've said for years, I hope Trump is wounded and unable to run. He, like Biden, Bush, Clinton and Obama are idiots or worse. The country faces deep, deep, deep problems. I'm not hopeful in the ability of the average voter to ascertain the best path forward. It makes me sad because I have children and grandchildren that will suffer because of our collective ignorance.

I see you can’t condemn Trump without trying to create a false equivalency between Bush, Clinton, Obama (like WTF) and Biden (even more WTF).

I think you’ve said before you’re a Desantis guy right?

[Pointgod]

Most explosive testimony yet during today’s hearing..
Given what has been described, it’s no wonder the GOP has to pretend
there’s nothing to see here.

Devastating testimony from Mark Meadows’ aide Cassidy Hutchison.

My concern is that the Committee hearings are pinning this on Trump and clowns like Giuliani when the indictment should be on the whole Republican Party. There were way more members of congress and state level politicians that pushed the election lie and violence than the reps who seeked pardons.

I know it’s not entirely the committee’s job to make the case but WTF is the DNC, DCC and all the other Democratic Party organizers doing? Even members of Congress should be amplifying this but all I’m seeing is crickets. They need to hammer every single Republican on this from now until the party is purged of liars, conmen and extremists. The current Republican Party is truly a cancer to the country.

[Zonkerbl]

Secret service guys willing to testify no lunging and/or attempted strangling happened.

Come testify guys, I have lots of questions for you.

MSNBC overplaying the lunging incident right now. Come on guys, read twitter.

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[Zonkerbl]

Ooh Rachel Maddow pivoting on the lunging thing in real time, well done

[pancakes3]

it's been an absolutely abysmal month in terms of news. i think both Left and Right can agree on that.

- mass shootings
- a string of horrific SCOTUS decisions that go beyond just Dobbs (New York doesn't have the sovereignty to pass gun laws bc of 2A? accused aren't able to present exculpatory evidence in a petition for habeas based off ineffective counsel? Dismantling of the establishment clause? And WV v. EPA headed down the pike?)
- Jan 6 committee findings
- 50 migrants cooked to death in the back of a tractor trailer

just take a second and try and absorb the absolute deluge of human suffering that go along with each one of these pieces of headline news, and take a second and ask yourself, which party is enabling it? which party is outright advocating for it? yes, the Dems are only paying lip service, but it's an entirely different level of heinousness to have these news stories designated as "wins" for your platform.

gun regulations save lives. there's date from the world over that shows this.

Dobbs is already causing legal chaos in the states where trigger laws go in effect and women's health have suffered on day 1 (google ectopic pregnancy).

The Kennedy decision reversed the Lemon Test, a constitutional staple in law schools for 50 years, providing guidance as to prevent the establishment of religion in public schools.

January 6 - Trump openly advocating for a violent insurrection. There's no more hiding or mincing words.

People are dead in a trailer, cooked alive, for the chance of a better life. These aren't rapists or murderers. Some were children. All were fleeing gang violence. They stowed away in a trailer in 100 degree Texas heat so they can avoid being raped or murdered and died anyway. How very pro-life of republicans. I'm so glad we have a wall.

I hate this. I hate everything about this. I'm genuinely shook.

How much more obvious do the signs have to be? How awful does the state of affairs need to get? How many more people need to suffer? die? How do you republicans sleep at night? These are real issues that affect real people.

Popper talks about him worrying about his children and grandchildren, well I sincerely doubt it. At the very least, the worry is misplaced. West Virgina v. EPA, if republican rehtoric prevails, will make it so that the EPA does not have power to regulate fossil fuel emissions. It will not be a decision based on law, or even legal principles. It will be handwaved, just like Dobbs, Kennedy, et. al were decided in this term.

SCOTUS has run amok, and I'm not even saying that as a liberal. Legal scholars on both sides are stunned at the court's activism this term.

Earlier this year, SCOTUS ruled in Ted Cruz v. FEC that Ted Cruz is able to loan his campaign money, wait until after he won re-election, and then have donors donate after he won and the campaign is over, and then take that money and pay himself the loan back. There's no worry in paying Ted Cruz back before he wins. Donors can back whoever they want. But to donate after he wins? That's election integrity 101. If you donate to a candidate after he wins, that's BLATANT corruption. Corporate interests can just wait until who wins, and the buy the votes after the fact. The opinion calls these donations: "the most fundamental First Amendment activities."

Spending money on elections is a FUNDAMENTAL 1A activity. That's bonkers. That has no precedent, no basis, historical or otherwise. Even the Court's logic doesn't make sense. Roberts says that being paid back a loan isn't considered a benefit. It is when you're loaning the money to yourself! Ted Cruz lent money to the Ted Cruz campaign to run ads. Ted Cruz is then getting that money back. Ted Cruz then has effectively spent $0 for the benefit of being able to run ads. That's the benefit. Like, sure, if I lent Popper money to buy a new car, and then Popper pays me back my money, I have my money back, no car, ok. No benefit to me. But that logic doesn't apply to the set of facts in Cruz v. FEC, and to put that idiocy in writing just shows how little thought the Court put into the opinion, and just needed to get something on paper to make it formal. That's not precedent. There's nothing usable in that opinion to guide future law. The takeaway is that there is no such thing as campaign corruption, do whatever you want.

The cherry on top is that Ted Cruz can charge whatever interest he wants. One congresswoman (guess which party) charged herself 18% interest. She took a $150k loan, and collected $200k in compound interest alone.

Seriously. It's insanity right now. Insanity. The Jan 6 stuff isn't even on my radar. The institutional damage that Trump's justices on the Court has done to this country are almost irreversible. The inability of our nation to mitigate climate change will kill millions. It's not hyperbole. Scientists have been saying it for 50 f*cking years. At this point, if there was an asteroid headed for the planet, I bet 40% of Americans would call it fake news, and a convenient way to score political points.

It's really bad, guys. It's really really bad.

[Pointgod]

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Do some of these people that yell and blame Democrats understand how government works?

-Democrats currently don’t have 60 votes in the Senate to codify abortion rights, neither did Obama.
-Democrats don’t have 50 votes to get rid of the filibuster. We can argue whether or not that makes sense (I believe the filibuster is trash and shouldn’t exist) but it doesn’t change the numbers.
-If any Federal law is passed it would most likely be struck down by a Republican Supreme Court. Remember states rights and all.

The most baffling thing is that all the people yelling at Biden and Democrats to do something is that they don’t acknowledge Roe vs Wade wasnt reversed through legislation. It was Republicans focusing on the courts, state legislations, Governorships, Senate seats and gerrymandering the hell out of states to corruptly maintain power that led to this point. Wouldn’t it stand to reason that Democratic voters need to do the same thing? Show up for every election, vote Democrats up and down the ballot, don’t give up like they did during the 2010 midterms or like they’re ready to do now because Democrats haven’t solved every single problem in a year and half.

This is a long term endeavour that requires a precise, focused strategy. And yes I fully recognize that the Democratic Party response has been pathetic. Joe Biden could at least try and do more (such as providing access to abortions on Federal lands) but the problem begins and ends with Republicans. They’re just getting started, it’s going to get a lot worse.

[Zonkerbl]

Completely apropos of nothing, I googled "why did Stalin love white guard" and hot this great article about my favorite Soviet author. I never knew the details of his phone conversation with Stalin, it's heart breaking

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.standard.co.uk/culture/theatre/stalin-s-secret-love-affair-with-the-white-guard-6705761.html%3famp