Aka Propulism. Our house is on fire. Join the resistance: Do no harm/take no shit. My idiosyncratic and confluent bricolage of progressive politics, linguistic framing, the collaborative commons, next generation cognitive neuroscience, American pragmatism, de/reconstruction, dynamic systems, embodied realism, psychodynamics, aesthetics. It ain't much but it's not nothing.
Excellent essay on what contributed to recent Supreme Corp rulings and how the minority Party rules our government.
"They were enabled by a Democratic Party and its own cast of West Wing characters,
who in the name of bipartisanship, comity, and manners started
surrendering right when the putsch began. At precisely the moment
Roberts began his crusade, these Democrats constructed an entire
religion of normalism — the worship of norms, institutions, and etiquette above every other principle or inalienable right."
In the name of normalism Democrats caved on the nominations of Thomas and Roberts for the Corp instead of fighting them. Obama lashed out on progressives who fought Roberts. Biden has abandoned much of his legislative agenda in the name of getting along with fascists. He rejects expanding the Corp to counter its obvious agenda. He has fought against the filibuster excepting some weak and empty rhetoric like today.
What's required is to re-read and implement FDR's playbook. Work to expand the Corp. Biden can sign a bunch of Executive Orders, like one limiting the Corp's EPA ruling. Congress could start overriding the Corp with corrective legislation like a one-page Bill giving the EPA the needed power to regulate greenhouse gases.
Of course none of that fits into their usual normalism, which had done nothing but enable the fascists. You can't negotiate with terrorists so quit trying. They have to be fiercely fought and right fucking now. We need radical action. Save the normalism for when, if ever, things return to normal. They never will though unless we give it up for now and fight like hell.
Those who testified under oath with penalty of perjury or those who did not. If you believe the latter there's no delicate way to put it: You're a Twitiot.
"Flush with victory on abortion and guns, the formerly “Supreme” court
is expected to release additional decisions at the end of this court
term. Critics point out that Clarence Thomas, whose ownership by his
great grandfathers owner’s descendants will now be reinstated,
represents only 3/5 of a Justice which may allow President Biden to
appoint a Justice with a 40% vote on the court. Other rulings expected
to come soon:
Federal payments for health care (Medicare, Medicaid) will be
limited to treatments available when the constitution was written.
Government funding will be limited to blood letting and trepanning.
States are free to write their own rules regarding leaches. Anesthesia
is now outlawed as witchcraft.
Schools that receive government subsidies are prohibited from
teaching any fact that contradicts religious beliefs establishing severe
penalties for instruction that the earth is a sphere, or that the earth
is older than 6,000 years. Chemistry class will be limited to
discussions of “phlogiston.”
Mental Illness determined to be caused by evil sprits, federal
funds for Mental Health care are limited to treatments dating back to
the founding of the Republic. Federal mental health funds may only be
used to pay for exorcism.
The Pope has been found to have veto power over proposed
legislation, except in cases where there is a disagreement between
American Cardinals and the Pope. In those cases, the dispute must be
settled by Rupert Murdoch.
Freedom of the press is limited to use of a Gutenberg press to
imprint berry juice and carbon onto parchment. Any ideas discussed in
the printed matter must conform to rules established by the Heritage
Foundation.
Any woman who appears in public wearing trousers will be pressed
under heavy stones until death. Women who attempt to cast votes in an
election shall be confined to a mental health facility for being
“hysterical.”
"Two and a half centuries of discovery and progress have obviously
lead some Americans to believe that they have some say in their
governance. They do, of course, provided they a white male landowners.
The authors of our constitution were divinely inspired, and so we have
no rights that people in 1783 would not recognize or understand. Those
who disagree are within their rights to petition the government, but
selecting that government in the first place is none of their business."
They ruled today that the Environmental Protection Agency does not have authority to limit carbon dioxide emissions. Just as predicted here. The Gilead Gestapo marches on, intent to destroy the environment and humanity along with it.
"The U.S. Supreme Court's right-wing majority handed down a decision
Thursday that will severely limit the Environmental Protection Agency's
authority to regulate planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from
power plants, undermining the federal government's ability to combat the
climate emergency. In its 6-3 ruling in West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency, the court's conservative justices—led by Chief Justice John Roberts—sided with the coal industry and Republican attorneys general who sought to curb the EPA's rulemaking powers under the Clean Air Act."
Given Hutchinson's testimony, and Cipollone's refusal to offer any further information voluntarily, the Committee has issued the subpoena. Let's see if he will be like all the other cowards who place their allegiance to Twitler's seditious conspiracy instead of democracy and our country.
Unfortunately Omicron continues to mutate, now in it's 4th and 5th more transmissible iterations. BA.4 and BA.5 are substantially more resistant to current boosters causing more breakthrough infections. They're also more likely to make you sick and are more resistant to treatments.
Given these statistics it is insane that the US is proceeding like it's over by removing mask and social distancing recommendations in public. Especially given the number of breakthrough cases. NM used to track them but when over 60% of new cases were breakthroughs, with a growing percentage of hospitalizations and deaths too, they quit doing it. Seems the strategy is to hide our heads in the sand and ignore the medical facts now. That in itself is a devastating mental illness infecting our land, which continues to spread COVID and sicken and kill our loved ones.
Twitler knew the crowd was armed. He knew those weapons were not intended for him. He incited them to march on the Capitol. He wanted to lead them in their insurrection. And he agreed that Pence should be hanged.
The Corp said that a school football coach could pray with his team on the 50 yard line on school property, thereby violating the precedent of state-church separation. That's ok though, as they'll soon be overturning that too per instructions from their personal lord and savior.
She didn't name names in her closing statement, but she gives some examples of witness statements about threats made to them by former colleagues and others. I'm so looking forward to finding out the names of those who committed this crime. And even more, their criminal prosecution.
Hutchinson testified that on the evening of Jan. 2 Giuliani and Meadows had a meeting in Meadows' office. Afterward Giuliani told her that we're going to the Capitol and Trump will be there. He also told her to talk to Meadows, that he knew all about it. When she asked Meadows about it shortly thereafter he said that things are going to get real, real bad on Jan. 6.
On the evening of Jan. 5 Trump told Meadows to contact Flynn and Stone about the next day. Later that evening Flynn and Stone attended a 'war room' meeting at the Willard Hotel with Giuliani and Eastman. Meadows was planning on attending but "dialed in" instead. She does not know what went on in the meeting.
Cheney pointed out though that Stone was seen on both Jan. 5 and 6 with members of the Oath Keepers, who were purportedly his security detail. And as we know, members of the Oath Keepers have been indicted for seditious conspiracy for their part in the Jan. 6 insurrection. While evidence has yet to be presented that Stone acted as a liaison between the Oath Keepers and the White House to conspire in planning the Jan. 6 attack, it seems that is where the Committee might be going next.
As expected the Church supported the decision. But they also said what the meme below reports, something we won't hear about from the fake Christian Repugnaklans.
The video below gives a brief introduction. This article goes into more detail. Just the bullet points from the latter follow:
The First Fallacy: Reason Is Conscious. The Second Fallacy: One Can Reason Directly About the World. The Third Fallacy: Thought Is Disembodied. The Fourth Fallacy: Words Are Defined Directly in Terms of Features of the External World. The Fifth Fallacy: Reason Is Unemotional. The Sixth Fallacy: Reason Is Literal and Logical. The Seventh Fallacy: Categories Are Defined by Necessary and Sufficient Conditions. The Eighth Fallacy: Reason Exists Primarily to Serve Self-interest. The Ninth Fallacy: Conceptual Systems Are Monolithic. The Tenth Fallacy: Words Have Fixed Meanings, and Concepts Have Fixed Logics. The Eleventh Fallacy: The Truth Will Set You Free; If Enough People Know the Truth About Social Issues, They Will Change Their Attitudes to Society’s Benefit.
I finally got a chance to see this Cronenberg film last night. It is disturbing and shocking. But that's the point. It's set in the not too distant future where pollution and climate change are causing changes in human anatomy and physiology. It focuses on one such person, Saul Tenser, who grows new organs that his lover Caprice surgically removes for an audience during performance art. The growths are billed as personal, artistic creations.
Meanwhile a group of other mutants have intentionally engineered their bodies to eat and digest plastic. And of course providing a solution to all the harmful plastics that humanity has wrought on the planet. They consider it as technologically aiding the emerging evolution of humanity that has naturally occurred from the above causes. However they are considered criminals by a new police force that hunts them down. Ironically maybe they are the good guys? That is, if any such thing exists in this warped world.
There is much more to the plot, e.g. that this movement is widespread, where the 'new sex' is participating in shared bodily mutilation. But what can we expect from a future dystopia created by human-caused destruction of nature?
But an overarching relevant theme is the direction of humanity's next evolution. And how humanity can aid and participate in it via technology. The film though highlights that this so-called evolution is likely an unnatural nightmare gone wrong due to human causes in the first place. And to mistake that for natural evolution and try to engineer it only leads to even worse consequences. It's an urgent message for those of us with good intentions who think we know where human evolution is going and want to engineer it.
Excellent article on understanding and communicating with this huge voting block that decides elections. Pruitt describes them as the lowest income working class, those who struggle to make ends meet. They look down upon their non-working neighbors who take public benefits because it isn't fair to those struggling workers. They believe in the American ideal that hard work leads to stability and happiness. And those who don't work are responsible when they cannot achieve it.
Granted they are programmed to think this way by corporations and the upper classes who are responsible for their plight. They are the ones who ship their kind of labor overseas and leave them hanging. They are the ones who keep wages below subsistence level and create lousy working conditions that virtually enslave workers. But they are also good at manipulating this classes valid resentment against non-workers to deflect from the real causes of their situation.
However just stating the above truth with facts up front doesn't get through, especially when seen as coming from the privileged upper class Democrats who they have also been programmed to hate and blame for their plight. Pruitt recommends instead more practical ways to communicate with this class.
For example, tell workers "that their labor is seen and appreciated." Identify them by the kind of work they do, like steelworkers, machinists, food workers. Let them know that you will provide job training programs for them if some of their jobs are going extinct, like coal workers. Let them know how funding childcare helps them to keep their jobs. And quit "belaboring structural challenges," which sound to them like excuses and instead focus on the above solutions.
I'd add that since the working class has already been programmed to hate the privileged upper classes that we also take advantage of that. As the Jan. 6 hearing are so aptly doing, showing how Twitler and his co-conspirators are betraying their trust, conning them out of their money, committing crimes against our country while thinking they are above the law.
Hard-working people resent those that lie, cheat and steal to get ahead just as much if not more than those who don't work and take public benefits. We need to let them know that their resentment toward the latter is misplaced. We also must let them know that the real cause of their problems are the former who violate their most sacred values of honesty, integrity, law and order and fair dealing.
It is a legitimate fear and doubtless some of these backward States will try to make it illegal. But according to this article:
"But
can states decide that their residents can't travel out of state for an
abortion? No—and it's not even 'especially difficult as a
constitutional matter,' writes Kavanaugh in his concurring opinion.
[...] A state cannot bar its resident from traveling to another state to
obtain an abortion because people have a constitutional right to
interstate travel, suggests Kavanaugh."
But then again, we know he is a confirmed liar and the Gilead Gestapo Corp won't hesitate to overrule existing law to suit its agenda.
The NMDOH report is here, the CDC report here. As you can plainly see, most NM counties are in the red/high zone. Per the national picture 85% of US counties are also in the red/high zone. Bottom line: This is far from over and we need to quit acting like it is or we will keep spreading it forever.
Note: The NMDOH report said: "In order to mirror the data presented by CDC on their COVID Data Tracker, we modified the CDC transmission indicator table to represent daily case rate thresholds, rather than weekly case rate thresholds, by dividing the rates by 7 (see table below for NM Indicator thresholds)."
So the NM cases per 100k are daily while the linked CDC chart is weekly. Hence the CDC weekly number for the high category of ≥100 per 100k breaks down to about 14.29 per day, consistent with the NMDOH daily numbers.
"Trump abused your trust. He deceived you. That is a fact." She stated this based on several Republicans testifying to the Committee as well as the vast evidence. Here's hoping it will wake up at least a few of them.
The meme below refers to what Thomas said in his concurring opinion on Roe. The Gilead Gestapo has just begun our decent into The Handmaid's Tale.
"Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on
Friday called for overturning the constitutional rights the court had
affirmed for access to contraceptives and LGBTQ rights in an opinion
concurring with the majority to decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. [...] Thomas wrote, 'In future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court’s
substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and
Obergefell.'"
It would be a powerful statement of resistance at any event where the National Anthem is played. And thanks to Kaepernick for teaching us this effective method.
"After Apple employees in Maryland voted Saturday to
form the tech giant's first retail store union in the United States,
workers' rights advocates across the country celebrated the pathbreaking win for labor. Workers
at the store in Towson recently organized into the Coalition of
Organized Retail Employees (CORE) and have decided to join the
International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM)."
If would seem that Twitler admitting his guilt on numerous tapes, public statements and copious, irrefutable Jan. 6 Committee testimony just ain't enough.
Twitler's criminal intent was proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Twit: "Just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest up to me and my Republican allies in Congress." And some of those criminal co-conspirators revealed themselves by preemptively asking for pardons. Jim Jordan asked the Administration if they would be giving out pardons to members of Congress. Jeffrey Clark was the only Justice official who said he'd promote the Big Lie and yesterday his home was raided by federal investigators. "We're getting there."
The bottom line continues to be that Twitler and his Twitiots knew what they were doing was illegal and they continued to do it anyway. Are you listening AG Garland? If so, what are you going to do about it? And when?
You can't use the excuse that to prosecute a former President will cause a violent uprising. That is exactly what will happen if you do not, since to let fascists get away with these crimes will only inspire them to go all the way into their ultimate goal of martial law, arresting and disappearing dissidents, etc. Putting down a possibly much smaller violent uprising to nip the worse case scenario in the bud is your patriotic duty. Follow the example of all the Republican witnesses in the hearings as your pole star. They risked their careers and reputations for democracy and you should do no less.
Don't buy the misdirection against us. Being woke means you know who the real villains are. And that's exactly why the crapitalists and the fascists blame us. Join a union or a co-op and take back your power!
Biden proposes a federal gas tax holiday. But what would it do? Is it just more empty posturing? Why not go directly after the oil companies and return that money to us?
Continuing the last post, Zak
Stein is also trained in Fischer's model. In this interview he notes a
key difference between it and the model of hierarchical complexity. It
seems Nora's aversion is more to the MHC version as a modernist
"uni-dimensional invariant property," which I also criticized in "The root of the power law religion." It's also why I favor the much more
'fleshed out,' (embodied, embedded, enactive and extended) Fischer
developmental model.
"And
specifically in the work of Kurt Fischer’s dynamic skill theory, you
see what is a very abstract, almost mathematical construct as
articulated by Michael Commons, put in the context of a richly dynamical
embodied and embrained person. And so I think the important thing to
get that the model of hierarchical complexity is like a thermometer or a
ruler. It’s not a rich, descriptive psychology, it is a uni-dimensional
invariant property of psychological life that’s been distilled and is
measurable, but you have to put on that very abstract skeleton, a whole
bunch of psychological and even biological theorizing to have that
construct makes sense of human behavior in medius res, right in the
middle of things."
With Daniel Gortz and Nora Bateson. The below excerpts from Mascolo's paper sound to me more like how they ended the discussion of a different way to frame developmental theory. It might address some of Nora's criticisms and concerns. Mascolo, M. (2020). "Dynamic Skill Theory." Handbook of Integrative Developmental Science, New York: Routledge.
"Skill theory is not so much a theory of the development of children or adults, but instead a theory of the development of psychological structures. It is not a child or individual who operates at any particular level of development; it is the particular skill as it operates within a particular context (Bidell & Fischer, 1992). It follows that at any given moment in time, individual persons create particular skilled actions in order to meet particular adaptive challenges and environmental demands. As a result, although, at any given point in development, there are limits to the highest level of skill that an individual can construct, it makes no sense say that skills operate at any single level – even within individual persons and domains of action. The level of skill produced by an individual can change from moment to moment. [...] Both across and within particular domains of functioning, the level of skill that an individual creates changes as a function of the demands of the environment, and individual’s physical or emotional state, the level of support available, the novelty of the skill or context in question, and so forth.
"Against this backdrop, it makes little sense to think of development as a kind of unidirectional ladder or fixed staircase. It is preferable to conceptualize development as a kind of web, with multiple connecting and diverging strands (Ayoub & Fischer, 2006; Fischer & Bidell, 2006; Fischer & Rose, 2001). A representation of the developmental web is provided in Figure 5. Each strand in the web represents a different developmental pathway. The pathways in the web can represent developmental changes in different skills or skill domains within the same individuals or in groups of individuals. Within the web, development can move in multiple directions, converging or diverging from its current trajectory at any given point in time. Questions about the pathways that development actually takes in particular individuals, groups, skill domains and contexts are empirical one, and cannot be presumed beforehand through logical analysis alone or on the basis of the assumed structure of any particular skill developing at any particular time"
(10).
"Drawing on ideas from dynamic and epigenetic systems thinking, Fischer adopted the idea that structures of acting emerge in medias res – in the middle of things (Fischer & Steward, 1999). A person is not a disembodied or rational agent set off apart from the world; the person is an embodied and emotive actor whose actions are embedded in the world. [...] Fischer (1993) argued against the idea that cognition could be understood as kind of fixed inner competence. No fixed competences exist within the individual; structures of action and though emerge dynamically through the mutual interplay between person and context, cognition and emotion, biology and culture, and so forth.
"In this regard, it is helpful to think of developmental change processes in terms of vertical and horizontal coactions that occur within multiply-embedded epigenetic systems (Bidell & Fischer, 1997; Gottlieb, 2004). We can think of epigenetic systems as organized both horizontally and vertically. Vertical coactions occur between embedded 'levels' of the epigenetic system. Horizontal coactions occur within individual 'levels' of system functioning. From an epigenetic or systems perspective, the processes that organize development are not separate and distinct forces, but instead mutually influencing systems that produce both stability and order as well as flux and variation (Molenaar, 2015; Rose & Fischer, 2011). Ultimately, within such a view, the distinction between process and structure begins to erode (Giordano, 2017). There are not processes that operate on structures; there are only dynamically emergent systems -- structured processes that mutually regulate each other over time (Sawyer, 2002)" (14).
The Gilead Gestapo goes further down the fascist road with this ruling. Sotomayor accurately dissented: "Today the court leads us to a place where separation of church and state becomes a constitutional violation." Which is of course their ultimate agenda: Make The Handmaid's Tale a reality.
We the people have to do it ourselves. Our government is so corrupt that we cannot count on them for anything. Except perhaps for empty promises, which are as useless as hopes and prayers.
AZ House Speaker Bowers testified that he Twitler constantly pressured him to offer up a fake set of Electors. He not only refused because it was against the law but because it was against his values on honesty, integrity and oath to the Constitution. He also laid out how the Twit propaganda campaign against him led to Twitler-incited threats against his and his family's health, safety and even life.
Pretty much the same happened with the GA Sec. of State Raffensperger. Twit fed lie upon lie to Raff, who testified that after several extensive State investigations it was all a Big Lie. Still Twit persisted, even asking Raff to find the necessary votes or else he could be faced with criminal liability.
Finally Shae Moss, a GA election worker, was directly attacked with proven lies by Twit and company which caused her and her mother to suffer all sorts of attacks including death threats. It was a powerful, emotional testimony of the effects of Twit's callous and cowardly tactics to spread his Big Lie at the cost of endangering the lives of others.
There is no way around the fact that Twitler and his Twitiots are scumbag criminals who must be brought to justice.
Along the same lines, BBB that passed in the House is over 2000 pages long and is so complex it takes a bureaucrat to understand it. It was one of the legitimate reasons Repugs voted it down in the Senate. Granted it's rare indeed when they have a legitimate reason but this was one of them. So why have the Dems then not tried to pass simple, stand-alone Bills on specific issues from BBB?
Note: Bernie for example is indeed pushing to pass a renewal of the Child Tax Credit. But Repugs oppose it, as does Manchin in his own Party. So that too is standing in the way of such stand-alone Bills. Still, the main point stands that the Dems just have to throw everything including the kitchen sink in most Bills.
PS: Taking the above example, when we focus on such stand-along issues like the Child Tax Credit it makes it much easier to reinforce the accurate frame that Repugs hate children once they are born. It
also makes it much easier to attack the likes of Manchin, again
accurately framing him as one who takes blood money to sacrifice
children.
An issue that came up for me today was the discussion of how someone almost got his ass kicked by a street guy because he didn't recognize that mind-set.
Which for me in my current development deals with going back to my earlier street life in the working class. I didn't become an intellectual until much later in life, going back and getting my college degree at age 40. Subsequently not long afterward I got entranced in the integral movement and stage theory.
But talking with my working class friends all they could see in that intellectual stuff was exactly the problem with elite political leaders. They were more educated, more complex, and certainly into social engineering. They knew what was best for the working class. Which basically boiled down to just do your shit job, that's your place in this hierarchy, let the big decisions about society up to us since we know way better than you.
It turned out in 2016 that was a huge reason why the working class, even some former Obama supporters, voted for Trump. That political elitism had only served to further degrade working class lives to the point of struggling with more than one job by both parents just to make ends meet.
Hence in the last few years I've returned to my street smarts and street language and tactics in the hopes of reaching my working class roots. They are the class of people who decide elections and who gets elected, who then get to decide what political policy is enacted by and for whom. Coming from that context I know how they talk, how they feel, and how to communicate with them. And it certainly ain't trying to sell them some developmental model which is just more of the same shit that they detest.
The likes of Bernie and AOC and their progressive contingent are who we need to elect more of so that they control government. They are the ones who truly understand the working class and workers respond to that genuine authenticity. They see right though all of that elite complexity of the upper class which is all smoke and mirrors to enrich themselves at our expense. Bernie and AOC speak TO us from that context, not AT us like animals who need to stay in their fenced yard.
Hence some in meta-integral circle-jerks can only see my strategy as a developmental regression. Whereas I see it much more as working with a particular demographic in a particular context to achieve a specific result: To motivate the working class to vote and once again have faith that government can be their friend and help their lives instead of hurting it. And that takes knowing where they come from, from someone who has also come from that time and place, who speaks their language and intimately knows their pain.
That is not hyperbole. The Gilead Gestapo plan is to eliminate altogether executive regulatory agency rule-making.
A key example is the Environmental Protect Agency (EPA). If their plan succeeds then the EPA could not regulate greenhouse gases because the Corp would require that Congress makes all environmental rules explicit in legislation, rather then the EPA being responsible for implementing general policy with specific, explicit regulations.
This would eliminate all current EPA regulations and force Congress to start over, where the Repugs will never enact any law to limit greenhouse gases. Game over for the environment and ultimately humanity for short-term gain.
He is the kind of wealthy person with whom progressives can partner. All see the Patriotic Millionaires.
Cuban said in this interview: "You're going to have to practice compassionate capitalism. [...] Reset capitalism to where everybody is treated fairly and considerately. [...] Because to me, as a
capitalist, if I'm paying so little that my fellow taxpayers have to
subsidize my company, that's just wrong. That's not capitalism. That's
the ultimate socialism."
So said a former Watergate prosecutor. In any ordinary criminal case Twit's phone call with the GA Sec. of State would be sufficient evidence to convict. But this is GA after all, and their jury pool will contain some Twitiots who don't accept plain and obvious facts. Criminal cases require the 'beyond a reasonable doubt' standard. And there is no indication that they exercise even the slightest bit of reason.
She criticizes Repugnaklans for trying to minimize a violent insurrection that came dangerously close to representatives getting murdered, including Pence. Then she asks Boebert, Green and Gaetz if they were the ones asking for preemptive pardons. Why does she ask? Because Boebert was actively Tweeting the Speaker's location during the riot. And the others clearly opposed the Committee and stated repeatedly that they supported the insurrection and likely coordinated with it.
Chairman Thompson (D) told reporters that there will be
no criminal referral, saying "that's not our job." Murphy (D) agrees.
Cheney (R) is adamant that they should issue a criminal referral. Luria
(D) agrees with Cheney.
It's insane that this is even up for debate. Twitler and his co-conspirators committed crimes and need to be prosecuted by the Justice Dept. If the Committee doesn't do a criminal referral to Justice then it makes it less likely the timid Attorney General will do so.
The argument is over political risk. To hell with the risk to your personal political career. Cheney is throwing hers away because democracy is at stake here. And Democrats need to realize that too. An insurrection against our country needs to be prosecuted and legally punished to the maximum lest it happen again.
And make no mistake the fascists are continuing with that plan. As the distinguished conservative witness, retired federal judge Luttig, said Thursday that "the former President and his allies" are a "clear and present danger" to democracy because "they would attempt to overturn that 2024 election in the same way that they attempted to overturn the 2020 election."
Pressure the Committee to make the criminal referral!
He's right that the Committee is smart to use mostly Republicans for the testimony. It shows that it is not a partisan issue. It influences those Republican voters who are not totally programmed by Twitler. Who still believe in the American values of democracy, truth and justice, law and order. And how those values have been betrayed by Twitler and his fascist Repugnaklan co-conspirators.
We're grateful that some Republicans draw the line at obvious fascism. But they are just fine with its less obvious expressions like gerrymandering, voter suppression/purging and autocratic rule. Give credit where it's due but keep fighting it where it ain't.
"It is now readily apparent the interviews the Select Committee conducted are not just relevant to our overall criminal investigation but are likely relevant to specific prosecutions that have already commenced. Given this overlap it is critical that the Committee provide us with copies of the transcripts of all of its witness interviews."
They went through the evidence that Twitler knew his scheme of fraudulent Electors was illegal but ignored that and continued with it anyway. He did so to the point of repeatedly pressuring Pence to go along with it by denying the certification of legitimate Electors. Not only that, he incited his rabid followers to not only storm the Capitol but to find and execute Pence and other Congressional leaders.
"In a chilling video just released by the January 6 select committee investigating the Capitol attack, Georgia Representative Barry Loudermilk was caught on videotape on the eve of the insurrection - at a time when Capitol tours were prohibited - giving a tour of underground corridors connecting various congressional office buildings. Members of Loudermilk's group are seen taking photographs of hallways, stairwells and security checkpoints, areas of no tourist interest but areas that would be of keen interest if someone was doing recon tours to attack the Capitol the next day.
Indeed, the next day, one of Loudermilk's guys was caught on video threatening to drag Pelosi, Schumer and Nadler out of the Capitol, and carrying a flagpole with a sharpened point."
On a Pox Spews station of all places. When attacked as a socialist he said:
"Do you think raising the minimum wage to
$15 an hour is socialistic? Do you think doing what every major country
does – guaranteeing healthcare to all people – is socialistic? Do you
think expanding Medicare to cover dental care is socialistic?"
Hartmann shows some clips below. Biden, by the way, is no Bernie either.
Biden's letter is an empty gesture. I hope he has the guts to do an Executive Order on price controls like FDR did in 1943, since it's obvious that a large part of the current inflation is out of control greed. Although as we well know Biden is no FDR, much as we'd like or imagine him to be.
Hence
the evidence of the Jan. 6 Committee will have no effect on them. The
hope though is that it will indeed affect some of those good people who
identify as Republican who are not blind Twitler zombies. Hence the
Committee using Republicans in their evidence.
