2020 Election - Thread #5

[SilverFang01]

Unfortunately, Democrats have shown that they have the integrity of wet tissue paper by acquiescing to Republican cries of no witnesses.

Even if it would not have changed minds, their accounts would be on the record which will be important once the Murdock Propaganda Machine starts distorting what happened in the minds of the people.

New party leadership is needed.

[Labster]

Yes, I'm pretty unhappy with the situation. Democrats decided they would rather get short term gains than to defend the rule of law. As a result, we now have a precedent that attempting to overthrow the government from within is not grounds for impeachment. No conduct, at this point, is impeachable.

Well, unless you're black. People want to impeach the Vice President now, because she supported an organization that posted bail for some Black Lives Matter protesters. No, really. Senators Lindsay Graham and Ted Cruz have both expressed support for impeaching Kamala Harris, because they cannot see the difference between working inside the legal system and attempting to overthrow it.

At this point, it's time to call a second Constitutional Convention under Article V. Whatever we're doing, it's very much not working. I don't see much to lose from opening this can of worms, even though one of the worms is dissolution of the union. We at least need to have a full discussion about what kind of country we want to have, because as far as I can tell one side wants a Roman style constitutional dictatorship, and the other wants a constitutional republic.

[Black Aeronaut]

RE: Impech Kamala Harris

I'd put that down to more the fact that they want to stop Biden's administration from undoing all the hard work their Golden Boy did for them during the last four years. If nothing else, Biden and Harris seem to be trying to deliver on their campaign promises.

[classicdrogn]

Well, that and the high crime of holding office while female and/or brown.

[Star Ranger4]

Well, if we couldn't impeach the orange-utang for holding office while clueless, what chance does this one have? I kind of have to agree with the article rob shared that the last two attempts at impeachment show it is a paper tiger.

[robkelk]

There might be hope. AP: Trump, Giuliani sued in federal court over role in Capitol riot

Hey, it worked against OJ...

[DHBirr]

Well, it's a sort of "honesty"....

David Ball, the chair of the Washington County [Pennsylvania] GOP, vented his anger at Sen. Pat Toomey, fellow Republican of Pennsylvania, who committed the apostasy of joining six other GOP senators in voting to convict former president Donald Trump of inciting insurrection.

“We did not send him there to vote his conscience,” Ball said on Monday. “We did not send him there to do the right thing or whatever he said he was doing. We sent him there to represent us.”

Isn't it good that this party official was sincere enough to confess that RepubliKKKans want their representatives to do the wrong thing if it's the RepubliKKKan thing?  And that they're supposed to be without conscience about it?

Edit: HuffPost's article on the same incident includes a "MeToo" Tweet from another representative:

Twitter users seized on Ball’s apparent suggestion that Toomey should have ignored doing “the right thing” and voted to acquit Trump.

“Reminds me of what an Iowa GOP voter said during my primary challenge to Trump,” tweeted former Illinois Rep. Joe Walsh, who ran a long-shot campaign against Trump for the 2020 Republican presidential nomination.

“She asked why I’d run against Trump,” he continued. “I said because it was the right thing to do. She screamed at me ‘We don’t want you to do the right thing. We want you to stand with our President. No matter what!’”

[Black Aeronaut]

My God, these people... They might as well start flying the NAZI Party flag.

[SilverFang01]

Why am I not surprised?

Amid fears of a backlash, state GOP lawmakers propose flurry of voting restrictions to placate Trump supporters
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/...GdFSOWKdNJ

[Jinx999]

https://www.washingtonian.com/2021/02/19...ing-elite/

What it's like to serve the ex-president dinner.

What jumped out at me was just how bland and childish his taste in food is. Always eating the same thing.

And when he threw a tantrum when he saw someone with a bigger steak than he had.

[DHBirr]

When North Carolina voted for congresscritters in 2020, they ... well, I hope they're not sending their best.  'Cause if Madison Cawthorn is the best NC can send to DC, they're in even sadder shape than I believed.  Case in point:  Representative Cawthorn's tweet that one of Vatican City's ordinances struck him as probably illegal.

As RawStory notes, Cawthorn has no medical degree, law degree, degree in religious studies, or any of a number of other accreditations that you might think would be useful when talking about this kind of thing. However, that didn’t stop him from denouncing Vatican City’s decision.

“This doesn’t sound legal,” he tweeted Thursday. ”One shouldn’t be forced against their will to be vaccinated. The vaccination is there for those who want it, and are in need of it due to medical vulnerabilities.”

He was, of course, promptly mocked for this overreach.  One message apparently from a member of the Society of Jesus seemed to me to be particularly well put:

Fr. Robert R. Ballecer, SJ
@padresj
Pssst...
The Vatican isn't in California.
- or the United States.
- or part of Country
It's a sovereign nation.
...
I'm pretty sure that you don't want OUR civil laws applying in California.
But, your call.
9:50 AM · Feb 19, 2021

Granted, any fraud could put "SJ" or "FRS" or "HRH" after his name in a Tweet; after all, the Dotard's Twitter handle proclaimed him to be "real."  But even if Fr. Ballecer turns out not to be a true Jesuit, his argument remains valid.

[hazard]

On the other hand, this offers an amazing rebuttal to all claims that God protects them and thus no vaccination is necessary.

The Holy See, and thus God's representative on Earth, who speaks with God's voice and in his name, not only says otherwise, but demands vaccination.

[nocarename]

I don't think we really want to rerun the Protestant split again though.

[Norgarth]

I don't think we really want to rerun the Protestant split again though.

well, judging by their actions and statements, a large number of Republican politicians (and quite a few of the extreme Right's voters) aren't actually Christian, seeing on how often they do/say things that ignore or go directly against Christ's teachings.  The split is already there, we just haven't acknowledged it.

[nocarename]

I don't think we really want to rerun the Protestant split again though.

well, judging by their actions and statements, a large number of Republican politicians (and quite a few of the extreme Right's voters) aren't actually Christian, seeing on how often they do/say things that ignore or go directly against Christ's teachings.  The split is already there, we just haven't acknowledged it.

I was thinking more about having people declare their split from the Vatican again.

If it's possible to pry Christians and Christian churches from the various right wing parties? Hurrah, god speed, and good luck!

But I don't know where to put the lever or the wedge for that fight except face to face and one at a time.

[Bob Schroeck]

More bad news for the ex-President: Supreme Court allows release of Trump tax returns to NY prosecutor

[Bob Schroeck]

Meanwhile, Dominion Voting Systems has hit Mike Lindell and his company MyPillow with a lawsuit for $1.3 Billion for defamation as they've been threatening to for a couple weeks.

[Bob Schroeck]

And finally for the evening, the FBI is "treating members of Congress as suspects in the MAGA riot probe" and "has swept up lawmakers' phone data during investigation".

[classicdrogn]

To that, I can give but one response:

[Norgarth]

I don't think we really want to rerun the Protestant split again though.

well, judging by their actions and statements, a large number of Republican politicians (and quite a few of the extreme Right's voters) aren't actually Christian, seeing on how often they do/say things that ignore or go directly against Christ's teachings.  The split is already there, we just haven't acknowledged it.

I was thinking more about having people declare their split from the Vatican again.

If it's possible to pry Christians and Christian churches from the various right wing parties? Hurrah, god speed, and good luck!

But I don't know where to put the lever or the wedge for that fight except face to face and one at a time.

Making them actually face up to the difference between what they claim they believe and how they act might convince some of them to actually be Christians.  The ones who'd be most likely to split from the Vatican (of the 'Roman Catholic' claimants at least, the 'Protestants' are split from the Vatican anyways) are just giving Catholics a bad name  as it is.

as to the link's Bob provided, there looks to be a number of people suddenly learning that what they say and do can actually be used against them.

[Black Aeronaut]

I think part of the reason why we're seeing such sweeping actions is not simply because Trump no longer has the protection of being in office anymore, but also that with Biden in the Office, there will be no further attempts to hamstring the Judiciary Branch. (Not that Trump could have done much anyhow, but still...)

[SilverFang01]

Matt Gaetz is suddenly worried about the power of the FBI to have access to his phone data

Which is funny considering how many times Congress has renewed the Patriot Act and made more secret laws in the name of “national security.”

Of course, they didn’t give a damn as long as it was other people who would be affected. But NOW he has problems with it.

[Mamorien]

Matt Gaetz* is suddenly worried about the power of the FBI to have access to his phone data

Which is funny considering how many times Congress has renewed the Patriot Act and made more secret laws in the name of “national security.”

Of course, they didn’t give a damn as long as it was other people who would be affected. But NOW he has problems with it.

I find I can bear the suffering of Matt Gaetz and his entire sixhead with enormous fivetitude.

[robkelk]

Reuters: No evidence Antifa or 'fake' Trump supporters spurred Capitol riot, FBI's Wray testifies

[robkelk]

AP: Man arrested in Capitol Hill attack was reportedly bodyguard for Trump confidant