I say YES. YOU say NO....Numero Tre! Enjoy!
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Illinois - interesting post on the expulsion of 10 senators in 1861. With all the MAGA, state's rights etc, how can anyone tolerate the attempt to overthrow the elections or allow one state to invalidate the votes of another state.
Glad to see an end to 2020 and wishing hard for a better 2021. Go Warnock and Ossoff. I was walking out the door this afternoon to get something from the car. Heard Trump on the radio. Do not remember what he said, but I found myself shouting F!#* Trump. Probably a good thing that nobody else was there to hear me. We are a great nation, just need to find our soul again. So heart breaking.
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Our rushing and our busyness create a fog layer that
encloses us, surrounding us with thicker and thicker
layers externally and building denser and denser fog
layers within. Pretty soon, we have lost touch with
that which guides our lives. We need contact with
our spirituality to be the people we would like to be.
Anne Wilson Schaef0 -
Wow !! From Paul Ryan indeed. So many Reps. trying to save the party if they can. I just think since there are tapes and you still choose to carry out such an ignorant stunt that you are as far gone as Trump. How can any of this be good for Reps. Also have been thinking -- the more sanity that is brought back to the government when Biden takes the reins, the worse so much of this will look. I hope when the all the dust settles, the Reps. ( what is left of them ) will end up horror-stricken at having and knowingly allowed a madman to take the reins of our government for 4 yrs.
I am sure they thought they could control him, but he was never sane and they are at each other now because they are on a rudderless ship and being given no concrete direction at all. Sort of -- you couldn't open the door for Trump fast enough and you stood by and enabled him every step of the way and now you will be stuck with the ashy residues of what you have done -- just now and in the next elections and in the history books -- not to mention your family coming after you.
ETA: Forgot to say how much I like the meme, Divine.
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All 10 living former defense secretaries declare election is over in forceful public letter
By Paul LeBlanc, CNN
CNN)All 10 living former US defense secretaries declared that the US presidential election is over in a forceful public letter published in The Washington Post on Sunday as President Donald Trump continues to deny his election loss to Joe Biden.
The letter -- signed by Dick Cheney, James Mattis, Mark Esper, Leon Panetta, Donald Rumsfeld, William Cohen, Chuck Hagel, Robert Gates, William Perry and Ashton Carter -- amounts to a remarkable show of force against Trump's subversion efforts just days before Congress is set to count Electoral College votes.
"Our elections have occurred. Recounts and audits have been conducted. Appropriate challenges have been addressed by the courts. Governors have certified the results. And the electoral college has voted. The time for questioning the results has passed; the time for the formal counting of the electoral college votes, as prescribed in the Constitution and statute, has arrived," the group wrote.
Since Election Day, Trump has falsely claimed that a second term is being stolen, even as there have been no credible allegations of widespread voting issues as affirmed by dozens of judges, governors, and election officials, the Electoral College, the Justice Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and the US Supreme Court.
Still, a wide swath of congressional Republicans are siding with the President and plan to object to Biden's win during Electoral College counting on Wednesday -- even though their efforts will only delay the inevitable affirmation of Biden's win. The former Defense secretaries, who collectively represent decades of tenure in the position, wrote that presidential transitions "are a crucial part of the successful transfer of power.
"They often occur at times of international uncertainty about U.S. national security policy and posture. They can be a moment when the nation is vulnerable to actions by adversaries seeking to take advantage of the situation
The letter follows Trump's removal of Esper in November as part of a set of sweeping changes atop the Defense Department's civilian leadership structure that included the installation of perceived loyalists to the President.
The shakeup put officials inside the Pentagon on edge and fueled a growing sense of alarm among military and civilian officials.
And while America's top military officer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, told Congress in August that the military won't help settle any election disputes, the group of former Defense secretaries reiterated in their letter that such an effort "would take us into dangerous, unlawful and unconstitutional territory."
"Civilian and military officials who direct or carry out such measures would be accountable, including potentially facing criminal penalties, for the grave consequences of their actions on our republic," the letter states.
Cohen, a Republican who served as Secretary of Defense under President Bill Clinton, told CNN's Ana Cabrera on "Newsroom" shortly after the letter was published that the "highly unusual" step was warranted given the "unconstitutional path" Trump has taken the country.
"It was really our attempt to call out to the American people. We believe all of them are patriotic. They've been led down a path by President Trump, which is an unconstitutional path. And so we felt it was incumbent on us as having served in the Defense Department to say: Please all of you in the Defense Department, you've taken an oath to serve this country, this Constitution, not any given individual," he said.
Perry, a Democrat who also served as secretary of defense under Clinton, said in a tweet Sunday evening that the idea for the statement came from Cheney, a Republican who was secretary of defense under President George H.W. Bush before becoming vice president to President George W. Bush.
"Each of us swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution; that oath does not change according to party designation," Perry said.
The former Defense secretaries ended their letter urging the Defense Department to "refrain from any political actions" that could undermine the election results or harm the transition to a new administration.
"We call upon them, in the strongest terms, to do as so many generations of Americans have done before them," the letter states.
"This final action is in keeping with the highest traditions and professionalism of the U.S. armed forces, and the history of democratic transition in our great country."
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I only wish the letter from the 10 former secretaries of defense, which I heard was Dick Cheney’s idea, would be published in more newspapers than just the WaPo, so a larger number of people could see and read it.
It's Trump's Privilege, Not His Mental Illness That Brought Us Here
January 4, 2021 / John Pavlovitz
For years, people have been talking about Donald Trump's "mental state," throwing around the term mental illness as a lazy catch-all for his erratic behavior, inexhaustible cruelty, and inexplicable recklessness. In the wake of the election, a growing choir has assembled singing the same refrain.
This has always struck me as particularly damaging, because it assumes something dangerous: that all mentally ill people are vengeful, bigoted, unrepentant sociopaths.
We are not.
As one of the 51 million Americans who battles a brain affliction, I can attest to the reality that the vast majority of us are not oblivious to the feelings of other people or unaware of the results of our actions—we are in fact, highly sensitive to them. It is precisely our illness that makes us feel the pain around us deeply, that causes us to notice the fractures and grieve the wounds of the world that many people are unaware of.
We are more emotionally tethered to humanity, not less.
Those of us navigating the daily minefield of depression, anxiety, PTSD, and bipolar disorders, do so while being profoundly burdened to be sources of healing and restoration here, to be agents of equity and fairness. We war with our demons while simultaneously fighting for other people in peril. Our illness and our kindness coexists every single day.
Mental illness does not make people more prone to racism, it doesn't make them predisposed to misogyny, it doesn't increase their enmity toward humanity. Donald Trump's life is not characterized by such things because he's mentally ill—but because he's a really terrible human being who lacks empathy of any kind.
Simply calling Donald Trump mentally ill assumes that his predatory behavior, his inability to accept reality, and his complete lack of accountability in these days are a product of a brain affliction. They are not. They are a symptom of sustained and stratospheric privilege.
Trump is the product of a life continually shielded from accountability; one where money and power have always afforded the luxury of buying or suing or lying or intimidating his way out of any responsibility for his criminality or any consequences of the injuries he causes. His entire existence has been spent in the cloistered penthouse opulence of gold-plated privilege, where reality is whatever he can pay for. He has never been inconvenienced by the truth in the way that he is now and soon will be.
This is why we're here: why nearly two months after a historic election loss, a sitting president is still titling at windmills of fraud and generating flagged tweets and assailing the courts—and it's why he's calling Secretaries of State, trying to muscle his way into overturning the will of the people, like a cut-rate film noir mobster shaking down a store owner.
It is not just because he is mentally ill that he is willing to discard democracy and obliterate the law (and ignore a pandemic all the while), it is because he has never had to lose (even when he has lost) and he has never had to reckon with a reality not of his own making.
Not only that, it is because he is buttressed by a cadre of similarly privileged human beings who recognize that they live in the same fragile house of cards and that their survival is tied to his. They not only recognize his desperate machinations, they share them. It is not a collective mental illness on display in his party, it is simply a shared vile, ugly, garden variety lust for power that will hold on to it at any cost.
Yes, Donald Trump has undiagnosed and or untreated mental illness, but these things do not explain him. His wealth, his whiteness, his upbringing, and an experience of the world that has made him impervious to other people's suffering, explain him.
I hope we can be more precise when talking about Trump and people like him, because the twenty percent of the world afflicted with mental illness deserve better than to be compared to a man whose complete lack of goodness and profound contempt for other human beings is something we will never be afflicted with.
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Wonderful articles and this last gives pause to those who aspire to take his place such as Cruz, Rubio and the ilk. This is how Hitler gained power and if we are not careful in who we elect we may find ourselves in a like position. drumpf is a fascist and so are many of his followers. They profess to dislike government interference in their lives but have they stopped to analyze how much interference bowing to the likes of a dictator will interject? They are too dumb to realize the personal freedoms they currently have will be sacrificed and once they are gone may never be regained. They all need to look at the stranglehold Putin has on Russia, Jung-un has on North Korea and Erdogan has on Turkey as well as some of the other autocrats out there including Saudi Arabia.
All these rogue repugnicans need to be voted out of office at their next re-election. I am not sure how to do this other than to become more politically involved at my local level. The past is prologue and we need to look at it, to see where we are headed if no interventions are taken. They took an oath to uphold the Constitution and have lost sight of both their moral an ethical compasses to appease a nutter. The next one who tries to fill his shoes may be smarter and more savvy than him and that is the biggest concern. We need to preserve out democracy from these malignant individuals who place their needs ahead of the populace.
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One person told me he found the 11,000 votes in his socks. I told him that they would be invalidated because nobody would want to sort through anything found in his socks. With people like Cruz in Texas leadership........ Texas deserved to lose the Alamo.
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Hi ladies and a belated Happy New Year...I just heard via the Post that DT tape of the convo....wow..... there's no chance even WITH Georgia he'd get in, which begs the question--what the hell IS he doing?
I think it's just to keep himself in the limelight....to do outrageous things like a desperate-for-attention 6-year old whose mommy has shooed out of the candy aisle. It isn't a political thing as he could care less WHAT happens to the Republican party. Hell, Trump isn't even a Republican (or an anything, really...) to begin with. Addicted to the spotlight, he has to --HAS to--keep his habit fed regardless.....it's the monkey on his back that will whip around and bite his face off it he stops feeding it the right kind of banana...
And the doofus GOP just trots along behind him, letting the dog that he is lead them on, having no idea where he's leading him or why....
It's almost farcical.
GOD, and I thought Nixon was such a scum-bag!!! Nixon by comparison looks like one of Mother Teresa's helpers in the leper colonies!
I almost wish Tricky Dick were around, to get his take on things....
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I enjoyed the article on mental illness as well. That said -- I have always found Trump in a class pretty much by himself ( I'm sure there are others but I don't know any of them ) where mental illness is concerned. While I don't recall all of them, Trump actually had several different aspects of mental illness going on with him. He was sociopathic, while having extreme narcissism, paranoia, prone to rages etc. Trump was mentally deficient, and I know a lot of it came from not having to live as normal people do and suffer consequences of his actions. Even had there been consequences, he still would have had the illness. My son was bi-polar and he was a wonderful person, but he did have that mental illness.
Like Betrayal, I think all those ( in time I hope they are not re-elected ) who enabled Trump should face consequences up to and including prison time if what was done was serious enough. At least, I do think none of the enablers should be re-seated in our government. None of the 12 who are ready to cause issues on Congressional certification day. Then again -- there is tape and as someone said -- maybe Josh Hawley should almost be thanked. Due to him and those who signed on -- all Reps. for sure will have to go on record -- patriot or non-patriot, depending on whether they choose to follow through with holding up the EC sign-off. That way -- forever ALL will know who is on the side of our democracy.
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Scotland hates him too. And would deport him ASAP if he's facing indictment. He's got to find a country with no extradition treaty with US, and, that would tolerate his evil arse.
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Trill, I think ( who can really know when you're dealing with the likes of Trump ) he is going for GA because if he could get just one state to turn ( GA is easiest because the vote was closer there ) for him, it would put so much more chaos and doubt in people's heads. But like you -- I don't really see the end game much. The most Trump might get is four more yrs. He would have to destroy our democracy totally -- so he could then be a king or dictator -- whatever exalted moniker he might want to put in front of his name. Also, if he could do any of that -- he likely could in fact avoid EVER paying up for ANYTHING he has ever don
So, he is hard at work because he is degraded, humiliated, and horror of horror is KNOWN as a loser. He is compelled by his whole being to change that and he doesn't much care how he does it. So used to not being called to account -- he freely while talking to Raffensberger, just blurts out all sorts of illegal asks and threats as well. He HAS to get this done and he cares not that any sane person would never get on a call with him and not tape it. I'm sure he didn't even think of anyone taping him -- from the other side. He just needed to get this FIXED properly and fast. Un-fortunately, as usual in his mental state he was quite un-wise but that is normal for him. We listen to that tape and it is a blaring fog-horn -- but to him nothing. Just his routine actions.
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He's right !!
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I will raise my hand proudly as high as I can get it:
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Jackie-- I try so hard to be philosophical and stay even-keeled....
BUT I AM SO FUCKING SICK OF THIS MAN I COULD SCREAM!! IN FACT RIGHT NOW I AM SCREAMING!!! YOU JUST CAN'T HEAR ME BUT BELIEVE ME I AM! JUST ASK PANTALOONY! SHE HAS HER PAWS OVER HER WIDDLE EARS!!!!
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We are all so sick of Trump. When Biden won it felt like such a reprieve. Even knowing that we still had to have the orange thing around for two months the euphoria of knowing an election finished him off didn't seem as temporary as it became. I/we all heard people say how horrid he would be for the two months or so left -- really just two months. It feels like a yr. I was so happy two months at first didn't seem as endless as Trump has made it. Well, try not to scream -- it hurts Pantaloon's ears but really, we are getting much closer. What is it now -- 17 days.
I think we have to be careful after the ( it is now 13 since Loeffler joined in ) 13 Senators do their non-acceptance of the EC votes. Far as I can tell that will pretty much be the final straw. I really don't see anything being overturned at that point. Hoping Trump has to start figuring his way out -- like is he going to
Scotland as some seem to say, or just to Mar-A-Lago and when. Before or after Inauguration for Biden.Don't despair -- hang in there. We have come all this way and always knowing it was going to be ugly and highly un-pleasant.
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Raffensperger, though he took the principled stand this time, is nonetheless no angel. He managed to kick >100,000 voters (mostly Black) off the rolls ahead of tomorow's runoffs.
Trump believes that the GA GOP's disenfranchisement efforts should have given him the state. He refuses to acknowledge "cheaters don't always prosper," because although he has before, there's always a first time.
Loeffler has announced that she will essentially shoot herself in the foot by joining the GOP's EC challenge Wed. (Assuming she's still a Senator by then). She's tacitly admitting that the vote total that was high enough to get her into the runoff was illegitimate. I guess she decided that shooting herself in the other foot instead (by not supporting Uncle Scam) would be a more serious wound to her career.
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The appalling corruption of a man who browbeats, begs, and threatens Republican state officials in Georgia would be beyond debate if American were not so worn down by the clownish but dangerous antics of Donald Trump. If President Trump had spent more than an hour on the telephone insisting that he just wanted to make sure that every vote was counted in Georgia and then he would accept the results, that would be one thing, but instead he said "I just want to find 11,780 votes." In other words, he was attempting to pressure the Georgia state election officials to "find" just enough events to overturn the results of the election. It wasn't about election integrity. It was about manipulating the votes to reverse the result.
Who will defend this? If President Trump made a call like this to Georgia officials, you can bet he has been calling Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, too, because even if he had been able to pressure Georgia into corrupting the election results, he would not have won the Electoral College tally. So Georgia cannot be his only target. I hope the officials in the other states will come forward with their own accounts of the pressure tactics.
Think about this. The PRESIDENT of the United States is on the phone cajoling, arguing, browbeating, threatening, begging. This is the very definition of desperation. It is also the definition of corruption. What would it be like to have the PRESIDENT of the United States putting maximum pressure on you to do the wrong thing, and yet still have the moral courage to stand up to him--when the officials are Trump Republicans!! Doesn't that tell you everything you need to know? If he cannot corrupt election officials from his own party and his own brand, that must mean that he has no legitimate case to make.
I want to write that no rational person can say that the President's phone call to Georgia was ok. But of course Trump minions are wearily making the case today for the legitimacy of what he did in that extraordinary phone call. To the extent that they are defending this latest of Trump's anti-democratic antics, they are genuinely deplorable. Including a dozen US Senators, scores of US Representatives.....
Everyone who cares about the US Constitution, the sanctity of our elections, or the future of the American Republic should not only be aghast and outraged, but should go out of their way to express that outrage.
In any other era, Trump's phone call to Georgia would be regarded universally as an appalling abuse of power. Only now, in the depth of our tribal paralysis and malaise, can there be people who will defend what Mr. Trump has done since November 3.
Clay Jenkinson
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I think Trump's (and his traitorous GOP enablers') endgame is to challenge every one of the states he thinks he won and drag out the process (2-3 hrs of debate for each contested state) long enough for riots to break out so he can invoke the Insurrection Act, suspend all Federal functions, and bring in the military (and, of course, his unlabeled goons in unmarked vehicles from this summer--some if not many of whom were likely civilian white supremacist militiamen). But as long as Biden is alive and can find a judge--any judge, even a Justice of the Peace*--to administer the Oath of Office on Jan. 20, the Constitution will make Biden President that day no matter what Trump tries to do. He can't postpone the Inauguration--oh, he can cancel the hoopla and ceremony of the Inauguration, of course, but not the administration of the Oath to Biden. Even if Biden has to govern in exile (i.e., not at the Capitol or near the WH), he will still be President until either 1/20/2025 or Harris succeeds him before that.
*Customarily, it's been the Chief Justice of SCOTUS who administers the Oath. But after JFK was assassinated, a judge who had traveled with the Kennedys & Johnsons on AFOne swore LBJ in while in-flight; and when Harding died, a rural VT Justice of the Peace swore Calvin Coolidge in at his country home in the middle of the night.
I only hope the Kenosha County D.A. brings serious enough charges against the officer who shot Jacob Blake, to avoid riots in Kenosha.
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Two interesting notes for history lovers: Vice-President Calvin Coolidge got the news of President Harding's death early in morning, while visiting family in Vermont. He took the oath of office by the light of a kerosene lamp; his father, a notary public, administered it using the family's Bible. Judge Sarah Hughes, who swore in Lyndon Johnson, lived in Dallas and was a personal friend of his. Johnson requested her for the job and she was called at her home and asked to come to the airport. She administered the Oath of Office before take-off. As of today, she is the only woman to have sworn in a president. Here is a part of an interview with one of the people involved by the name of Barefoot Sanders, who was United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas at the time:[11]
"(Johnson) called Irving Goldberg from the plane and asked, 'Who can swear me in?' Goldberg called me, and I said, 'Well, we know a federal judge can.' Then I got a call from the President's plane, with the command 'Find Sarah Hughes.' Coincidentally, Judge Hughes, Jan [Sanders' wife] and I [Sanders] were supposed to go to Austin that night for a dinner for President Kennedy. I reached her at home and said, 'They need you to swear in the Vice President at Love Field. Please get out there.'
She said, 'Is there an oath?'
I said, 'Yes, but we haven't found it yet.'
She said, 'Don't worry about it; I'll make one up.'
She was very resourceful, you know. By the time she got to the airplane, someone had already called it into the plane. We quickly realized that it is in the Constitution.0 -
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IN OTHER WORDS: WE DON'T LIKE FUCKING NONSENSE IN THE COURTS!!!
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