The 01-06-21 Select Committee Thread

[TwiceHorn 31,996]

1 hour ago, Biff Tannen said:

That’s fine, but that 30% wasn’t always beholden to the whim of a charlatan that feeds them hate and fear of normal people and the common good of society. 

Like their stupidity, it's a focused and aggressive insanity.

[DigglerontheHoof 21,517]

22 hours ago, Pig Bellmont said:

 

I'm beginning to think Garland is a dotard plant....kidding...kinda.

Edited June 5, 2022 by DigglerontheHoof

[GopherRock 1,773]

8 hours ago, Biff Tannen said:

Yeah this is a fucking problem. When 30% of the country is insane, odds of getting one or more of them on a jury is very good. We are in fucking trouble. 

There was an unrepentant Trumper on Paul Manafort's jury, but that didn't prevent the jury from convicting him. Said Trumper was interviewed afterwards, and she said something to the effect of "There was so much evidence of his guilt I had to find him guilty."

[abuelo gringo 328]

52 minutes ago, GopherRock said:

There was an unrepentant Trumper on Paul Manafort's jury, but that didn't prevent the jury from convicting him. Said Trumper was interviewed afterwards, and she said something to the effect of "There was so much evidence of his guilt I had to find him guilty."

Two percenter.

[Biff Tannen 46,069]

5 hours ago, GopherRock said:

There was an unrepentant Trumper on Paul Manafort's jury, but that didn't prevent the jury from convicting him. Said Trumper was interviewed afterwards, and she said something to the effect of "There was so much evidence of his guilt I had to find him guilty."

Yeah, not gonna hang my hopes on the trumper with a heart of gold. 

[Neonmoon 38,130]

Exhibit #9,545,989 it was a coup

 

 

[Al Bundy's Napoleon Hand 13,619]

On 6/5/2022 at 10:32 AM, abuelo gringo said:

Two percenter.

Do not completely discount the effect of Trumpers being removed from their disinformation bubble. 

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/over-700-fox-news-viewers-000923606.html

[Sbbruin 22,096]

On 6/3/2022 at 1:07 PM, David Dennison said:

 

[Longhorn_Fan68 34,084]

 

[SydneyCarton 49,386]

No one who needs to watch will watch. 

[Red Five 41,612]

I wonder if they have anything nearly as damning as his Georgia phone call, that no one seems to care about and for which he wasn't even impeached. 

[Hagbard Celine 11,168]

the conclusion of the guardian article....

+++

Committee counsel recently told one witness who had been assisting the investigation for months that it didn’t expect to ask for any more assistance, according to two sources familiar with the inquiry. “We are pretty much done,” the counsel told that particular witness.

But the consequence of the decision to delay the start of public hearings, and the constant drip of news from the investigation, is that it might have driven some “6 January fatigue” – which Trump’s allies Reichsarbeitsgemeinschaft on Capitol Hill are intent on weaponising to defend Trump.

The former president’s most ardent defenders in Congress and top Republicans led by the House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, facists are planning aggressive counter-programming to the public hearings that slam the panel as partisan, according to party nazi lackeys aides.

The Republican National Committee Reichskommissariat Amerika has also circulated a one-page memo of talking points, Vox earlier reported, requesting that Trump surrogates attack the investigation as “rigged” – even though multiple federal courts have ruled the inquiry is fully legitimate.

Overcoming counter-programming to cut through to Republican and independent voters could pose a challenge, the panel’s members have privately discussed. After all, the sources said, the panel is not trying to convince Democrats of Trump’s role in the Capitol attack.

The prospect of collective public exhaustion over 6 January-related news, with each new revelation seemingly more shocking than the last, appears to have also pressed the select committee to cut its June hearings schedule from eight hearings to now six.

According to a draft schedule reviewed by the Guardian and first reported last week, the panel anticipates holding just the first and final hearings – on 9 June and 23 June – in prime time at 8pm. The other four – on the 13th, 15th, 16th and 21st – will be at 10am.

Still, the target audience for the select committee is not Republicans but swing voters, Ornstein said. “I don’t have any expectation that Republicans who believe the election was stolen will change their minds. But it’s about the other voters and whether it will jolt the Democratic base into understanding what the stakes are.”

+++

tl/dr: last call for alchohol for non-facist sane human fellow-citizens - the turnout has to continue to improve, every election, until we are voting 99.999999% of eligible voters.  there's still a chance to save the country and the planet.

[Beau Vine 55,838]

 

[bolverk 30,247]

From his former boss:

 

[WhatTheBuck 28,904]

10 hours ago, Neonmoon said:

Exhibit #9,545,989 it was a coup

 

 

I’ve always assumed that was the case. Why else would Trump fire Mark Esper as SecDef right after he lost the election and replace him with loyalist Christopher Miller? He also replaced a few other top officials with Trump loyalists at the same time. It was a strange time to make that move. I always figured the slow response to the Jan. 6 insurrection explained it.

https://www.npr.org/2020/11/11/933868828/shake-up-at-pentagon-puts-trump-loyalists-into-senior-roles

[henrygandorf 29,223]

Quote

When are the hearings’ dates and times?

The first hearing will start Thursday, June 9, at 8 p.m. Eastern. The committee hasn’t announced a formal schedule for the rest, but there could be as many as eight through June, with a final hearing in September — right before the November midterm elections.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/06/january-6-committee-hearing-schedule-how-to-watch/

september is not right before november.  these hearings should start thursday and stop the day after the midterms.

would be a dream to have the facts of the dems and the strategy of the gop, but alas.

 

[Hagbard Celine 11,168]

i hope that everyone who spends energy in the forum will concentrate on this thread for the next 10 days

cnn tv 30 minutes ago

+++

Follow CNN Politics

Email reveals Trump campaign told fake electors in Georgia to use 'complete secrecy'

By Katelyn Polantz, Zachary Cohen and Evan Perez, CNN

Updated 10:46 PM ET, Mon June 6, 2022

Reporter reveals 'remarkable email' about Trump's fake electors plot

(CNN)The Trump campaign directed a group of Georgia Republicans to meet in secret and obscure their objectives in an email obtained by federal prosecutors as part of their recent investigation into Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the election in several swing states.

The email is part of the intensifying Justice Department investigation focused on the Trump campaign's interactions with so-called alternate Republican electors in states Trump lost and whether a scheme to organize them could be charged as a crime.

The Georgia email has not been disclosed publicly until now. It was sent by Robert Sinners, Trump's election day operations lead in Georgia on December 13, 2020, 18 hours before the group of alternate electors gathered at the Georgia State Capitol, according to multiple sources familiar with it.

"I must ask for your complete discretion in this process," Sinners wrote. "Your duties are imperative to ensure the end result -- a win in Georgia for President Trump -- but will be hampered unless we have complete secrecy and discretion."

The Fulton County, Georgia, district attorney's office, which has seated its own grand jury to investigate Trump's attempts to overturn the election results in Georgia, and the US House select committee on January 6 have also obtained copies of the email, according to sources familiar with it.

The email underscores the Trump campaign's role in creating false election documents as a way to supplant Joe Biden's win in Georgia. CNN previously reported that Trump campaign officials oversaw efforts to put forward illegitimate electors in seven swing states Trump lost.

In the email, Sinners also told Trump's electors to misdirect security guards when they arrived at the statehouse, and to tell the guards they were attending a meeting with two state senators, Brandon Beach and Burt Jones.

"Please, at no point should you mention anything to do with Presidential Electors or speak to media," Sinners wrote.

The Washington Post also reported on the email Monday.

One source familiar with the campaign said the secrecy was needed because of restricted access at the statehouse during the coronavirus pandemic and post-election political tumult. The need to meet at the statehouse was paramount to make the fake electors' slate potentially viable under the law, if Biden's win were to be blocked, the source said.

The Trump campaign and the Georgia GOP didn't respond to requests for comment this week.

Elie Honig, a CNN senior legal analyst and former federal prosecutor, noted the email could become part of a conspiracy investigation because it could show the scheme went beyond idle chatter, and instead involved the campaign giving electors specific direction. He also noted the significance of asking electors to conceal their actions.

"A prosecutor would argue to a jury, 'Why the secrecy? What were they hiding?'" Honig said.

Federal probe growing in seriousness

In recent weeks, the federal criminal investigation into electors in Georgia and at least one other state has grown in seriousness.

A federal grand jury subpoenaed documents and the FBI interviewed witnesses about the Trump electors and the campaigns last month, seeking details about the signing and mailing of official election documents and the planning that brought together the slates. Subpoenas have asked witnesses for communications with Trump's electors, as well as with top Trump campaign officials.

The subpoenas represent a flurry of investigative activity in recent weeks by the Justice Department to move the sprawling investigation, the largest in Justice Department history, beyond the rioters who sacked the Capitol on January 6, and to scrutinize the role of people who worked in political organizing around Trump.

The escalating probe comes as Justice Department officials eye the calendar, with the midterm elections less than six months away. Top Justice officials are mindful that later this summer overt investigative activity, such as issuing subpoenas, may be put on hold, people briefed on the internal discussions say. Department guidelines traditionally call for prosecutors to generally avoid interfering with an imminent election.

Meeting wasn't ultimately secret

It is unclear if the individuals who received Sinners' directions even read the message or followed its calls for secrecy, one person familiar with it told CNN.

The email was sent a few hours after Trump campaign and GOP state operatives discussed how some state legislatures would be difficult for GOP electors to access. In Wisconsin -- another state where Trump put forward fake electors after his loss -- the electors also met in secret, CNN previously reported. One Trump elector in Wisconsin said the secrecy was for security reasons, though the Wisconsin Republican Party disputed that those electors met secretly.

Sinners told CNN this week that in late 2020 he was working at the direction of Trump campaign attorneys and the Georgia GOP chairman David Shafer, who was an elector. "I was advised by attorneys that this was necessary in order to preserve the pending legal challenge's longevity," Sinners said.

"Following the former President's refusal to accept the results of the election and allow a peaceful transition of power, my views on this matter have changed significantly from where they were on December 13," Sinners added. He now works in the office of Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who resisted pressure from Trump after the election.

Shafer's attorney told CNN that his client did not try to keep things secret.

"None of these communications, nor his testimony, suggest that Mr. Shafer requested or wished for confidentiality surrounding the provisional electors," attorney Robert Driscoll said. "Quite to the contrary, Chairman Shafer invited TV news cameras into the proceedings and both issued a statement and gave a televised news interview immediately afterward."

Beach and Jones, whom the electors were to say they were meeting, also didn't respond to requests for comment. Neither state official was set to be an alternate elector, but Jones stepped in as one when one of the Trump electors on the day of the meeting dropped out, according to documentation of the Trump electors released by the federal government.

The electors' meeting ultimately didn't occur under such a shroud of secrecy. At least one local news outlet captured video of the electors voting for Trump. Georgia Republican Party Chairman David Shafer was also interviewed on camera at the time explaining that the group wanted to provide an alternate slate in case Trump was successful in any of his court challenges.

He was not.

CNN's Sara Murray and Marshall Cohen contributed to this report.

 

[WhatTheBuck 28,904]

<sigh>  It’s not hard.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/06/politics/georgia-trump-investigation-fake-electors-email/index.html

[UpperWestside 6,263]

On 6/5/2022 at 6:39 AM, TwiceHorn said:

Like their stupidity, it's a focused and aggressive insanity.

Absolutely this right here. All it took to flick the switch was someone who fed them a reality that fit their construct of how life should be. Psychologists will be studying what transpired in this country during the GQP-era for decades.

[bluto 4,985]

6 minutes ago, UpperWestside said:

Absolutely this right here. All it took to flick the switch was someone who fed them a reality that fit their construct of how life should be. Psychologists will be studying what transpired in this country during the GQP-era for decades.

Lol at acting like this era is fleeting or even putting a past tense on it. 

[UpperWestside 6,263]

1 hour ago, bluto said:

Lol at acting like this era is fleeting or even putting a past tense on it. 

There is no implied past tense in that statement, but yes this will eventually end. How it ends no one knows for certain, but the study of everything that has happened will make for some really interesting case studies and books. 
 

I’m not going to spend a great deal of time worrying about this stuff because there are people who have situations in their part of the world that are far more dire than this three ring circus we get to witness.

[Neonmoon 38,130]

6 hours ago, UpperWestside said:

How it ends no one knows for certain, but the study of everything that has happened will make for some really interesting case studies and books. 

The bad guys don’t usually do case studies on how terrible they are. 

[TwiceHorn 31,996]

11 hours ago, Beau Vine said:

 

Unfortunately, this is probably not limited to Navarro.

The ruling class, who is responsible for imprisoning 10% of our society, seems to have no grasp of the realities of our CJ system.

 

[WhatTheBuck 28,904]

45 minutes ago, Neonmoon said:

The bad guys don’t usually do case studies on how terrible they are. 

They do studies on how they can be more successful at being bad guys the next time around. 

[GopherRock 1,773]

18 hours ago, SydneyCarton said:

No one who needs to watch will watch. 

The entire right wing smear-o-sphere exists solely to feed an alternative reality to those hooked on it.

Recall the Watergate hearings were in the 3-channel era in which all three channels showed nothing but hearings live all day, and then an unedited replay in prime time. No ducking it then.

[Captainant 28,415]

7 minutes ago, GopherRock said:

The entire right wing smear-o-sphere exists solely to feed an alternative reality to those hooked on it.

Recall the Watergate hearings were in the 3-channel era in which all three channels showed nothing but hearings live all day, and then an unedited replay in prime time. No ducking it then.

And that WAS the impetus for creating fox news and the conservative media apparatus - it's what protected reagan during the Iran/Contra crisis. Well, fox news and bill barr. 

[WhatTheBuck 28,904]

40 minutes ago, GopherRock said:

Recall the Watergate hearings were in the 3-channel era in which all three channels showed nothing but hearings live all day, and then an unedited replay in prime time. No ducking it then.

Remember the time Geraldo Rivera appeared on Sean Hannity’s show and told him that if he had been around back then, Nixon wouldn’t have been forced to resign? Nixon, who we all know was guilty as fuck and thoroughly corrupt. But Hannity’s job is to protect people like that and Geraldo (and Fox News) sees that as a desirable service to the guilty and the corrupt.

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/371945-geraldo-rivera-if-there-was-a-hannity-during-watergate-nixon-wouldnt

[henrygandorf 29,223]

which begs the question - if fox news didn’t air it, did it even happen?

35% of this country will answer no. 

[Neonmoon 38,130]

Fox News will be the sole reason for CW2

[PenelopeWitherspoon 19,280]

29 minutes ago, henrygandorf said:

which begs the question - if fox news didn’t air it, did it even happen?

35% of this country will answer no. 

Every cable provider in the country should accidentally make sure Fox News has issues during the hearings.  Oops.

[Longhorn_Fan68 34,084]

54 minutes ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

Every cable provider in the country should accidentally make sure Fox News has issues during the hearings.  Oops.

seriously, I just sent youtube tv a message asking them to take down FN. in the meantime...
 

Edited June 7, 2022 by Longhorn_Fan68

[WhatTheBuck 28,904]

I heard on Morning Joe today that Fox Business will be covering the hearings. 

[Blotto 23,975]

On 6/6/2022 at 1:17 PM, SydneyCarton said:

No one who needs to watch will watch. 

I get your point, but we're too far deep down a partisan divide in this country to hope to meaningfully sway public opinion. I'm not exaggerating when I state it doesn't matter what evidence they have against Trump. With the only two republicans involved in the committee being liberals Cheney and Kinzinger, the entire circus will be written off as fake news, deep state, etc.... That messaging will be reinforced by 90+% of the  GOP in congress. 

Even if the committee produces 100% incontrovertible evidence  that Trump broke the law, his actions will immediately be written off by half the country as necessary to make America great again. Truth has no bearing in Trumpland, laws are simply a hinderance to MAGA initiatives. For fucks sake, we just had a sitting US house member complain that the GOP cant even lie to the FBI or Congress without fear of prosecution. Dumbfuck Gohmert is actually complaining the GOP cant break the law. 20 years ago that comment would have been met with national outrage. This week, it barely registered, or only registered with half the country. And that's a problem. 

I'm not arguing the hearings shouldn't take place. They should if for no other reason to document for posterity what was uncovered. But the only result I can confidently predict is that this country will be in an even worse place politically than it was when the hearings began. 

 

[Goofyboy 3,428]

It’s the 100 million that didn’t vote that need to be swayed to get up and vote against the GQP party.

[Longhorn_Fan68 34,084]

5 minutes ago, Goofyboy said:

It’s the 100 million that didn’t vote that need to be swayed to get up and vote against the GQP party.

[SydneyCarton 49,386]

5 minutes ago, Goofyboy said:

It’s the 100 million that didn’t vote that need to be swayed to get up and vote against the GQP party.

 

Just now, Longhorn_Fan68 said:

You think most of those folks are either A) of voting age or b) watching anything on the three major networks or are going to stream them? Or aren't playing fortnite? 

Well, I guess hope is the only strategy we have left, so sign me up. 

[Goofyboy 3,428]

You think most of those folks are either A) of voting age or b) watching anything on the three major networks or are going to stream them? Or aren't playing fortnite? 

Well, I guess hope is the only strategy we have left, so sign me up. 

Considering the coup didn’t happen until after everyone had voted, maybe, just maybe seeing that jolted them enough to get the fuck up and vote. Maybe.

[SydneyCarton 49,386]

7 minutes ago, Goofyboy said:

Considering the coup didn’t happen until after everyone had voted, maybe, just maybe seeing that jolted them enough to get the fuck up and vote. Maybe.

That’s adorable. 

[Goofyboy 3,428]

That’s adorable. 

Moment of hope. I’m usually more inline with Brisket. Everything is fucked.

[SydneyCarton 49,386]

3 minutes ago, Goofyboy said:

Moment of hope. I’m usually more inline with Brisket. Everything is fucked.

I have a young son. I want desperately to be wrong. 

[Brisketexan 106,670]

3 minutes ago, Goofyboy said:

Moment of hope. I’m usually more inline with Brisket. Everything is fucked.

Now you're talking.

The time for hope is long since passed.  Get ready for the fight.  And know that it will involve actual violence.  Because that's how they want it, and are openly insisting on.

[Brisketexan 106,670]

1 minute ago, SydneyCarton said:

I have a young son. I want desperately to be wrong. 

Man, I've never wanted to be wrong more than I've wanted to be wrong these past 5-10 years.  I'm with you.  This is my homeland.  My family should have a future here.  I desperately want that.

I'm just not able to lie to myself and say that it will actually happen.

[Blotto 23,975]

Just now, Brisketexan said:

Now you're talking.

The time for hope is long since passed.  Get ready for the fight.  And know that it will involve actual violence.  Because that's how they want it, and are openly insisting on.

State and National GOP elected officials. Totally normal. 

[Satchel 6,982]

Cons may try not to watch, but millions of them will, and leading the way will be that orange hunk of trans fats.

[Biff Tannen 46,069]

8 hours ago, Captainant said:

And that WAS the impetus for creating fox news and the conservative media apparatus - it's what protected reagan during the Iran/Contra crisis. Well, fox news and bill barr. 

Man the Talking Heads were on so many drugs. 

[Pato del Muerto 53,351]

3 minutes ago, Satchel said:

Cons may try not to watch, but millions of them will, and leading the way will be that orange hunk of trans fats.

He is cis fats only. 

[Satchel 6,982]

9 minutes ago, Blotto said:

State and National GOP elected officials. Totally normal. 

Gun idolatry in its most disordered form.

[Biff Tannen 46,069]

48 minutes ago, Blotto said:

I get your point, but we're too far deep down a partisan divide in this country to hope to meaningfully sway public opinion. I'm not exaggerating when I state it doesn't matter what evidence they have against Trump. With the only two republicans involved in the committee being liberals Cheney and Kinzinger, the entire circus will be written off as fake news, deep state, etc.... That messaging will be reinforced by 90+% of the  GOP in congress. 

Even if the committee produces 100% incontrovertible evidence  that Trump broke the law, his actions will immediately be written off by half the country as necessary to make America great again. Truth has no bearing in Trumpland, laws are simply a hinderance to MAGA initiatives. For fucks sake, we just had a sitting US house member complain that the GOP cant even lie to the FBI or Congress without fear of prosecution. Dumbfuck Gohmert is actually complaining the GOP cant break the law. 20 years ago that comment would have been met with national outrage. This week, it barely registered, or only registered with half the country. And that's a problem. 

I'm not arguing the hearings shouldn't take place. They should if for no other reason to document for posterity what was uncovered. But the only result I can confidently predict is that this country will be in an even worse place politically than it was when the hearings began. 

 

Here’s a new one. My FIL is pivoting to everything bad in the world is because of China. Yeah, republicans “screwed up”, but the real threat is China. Now, I’m not saying we shouldn’t be concerned about China, but he is full on hand waving away EVERYTHING other than that. God forbid he have to admit his party completely and totally fucked us six ways from Sunday the past few years, er, decades. Nope. CHINA!!!

Edited June 7, 2022 by Biff Tannen

[Satchel 6,982]

49 minutes ago, Blotto said:

I get your point, but we're too far deep down a partisan divide in this country to hope to meaningfully sway public opinion. I'm not exaggerating when I state it doesn't matter what evidence they have against Trump. With the only two republicans involved in the committee being liberals Cheney and Kinzinger, the entire circus will be written off as fake news, deep state, etc.... That messaging will be reinforced by 90+% of the  GOP in congress. 

Even if the committee produces 100% incontrovertible evidence  that Trump broke the law, his actions will immediately be written off by half the country as necessary to make America great again. Truth has no bearing in Trumpland, laws are simply a hinderance to MAGA initiatives. For fucks sake, we just had a sitting US house member complain that the GOP cant even lie to the FBI or Congress without fear of prosecution. Dumbfuck Gohmert is actually complaining the GOP cant break the law. 20 years ago that comment would have been met with national outrage. This week, it barely registered, or only registered with half the country. And that's a problem. 

I'm not arguing the hearings shouldn't take place. They should if for no other reason to document for posterity what was uncovered. But the only result I can confidently predict is that this country will be in an even worse place politically than it was when the hearings began. 

 

We don’t have a choice but to do everything we can to break the fever. The democracy is teetering.

[David Dennison 19,442]

Just now, Satchel said:

We don’t have a choice but to do everything we can to break the fever. The democracy is teetering.

Knowing that the Fox News Channel exists makes me extremely pessimistic.