US Politics: What will the InJustice League do next?

[Tywin et al.]

21 minutes ago, Varysblackfyre321 said:

It always only a joke, a troll, until they got power.

Partly, but you can't over look how repeating a lie makes you start to believe it. Five years ago their rhetoric largely felt performative. Now they 100% believe the crazy shit they said.

13 minutes ago, DMC said:

"It doesn't count -- I was high!" 

Hopefully I gave him a 12 year delayed contact high from  in the chamber. 

[Mindwalker]

In better news, Ketanji Jackson was sworn in today.

Decades and decades of honing her dissent writing skills ahead!

 

 

[mcbigski]

11 hours ago, Durckad said:

I can't wait for the barrage of emails I'm about to get from every Democrat past, present, and future on how they need my money RIGHT NOW so that they can continue to do absolutely fucking nothing.

Welcome to the party pal.  80% of the Republicans are on the same team as those guys which 

Spoiler

is entirely their team, but not at all our team.

 

[Jaxom 1974]

Whoops. Effed the quote.  Have to retry...

Edited July 1 by Jaxom 1974

[Jaxom 1974]

1 hour ago, Tywin et al. said:

Partly, but you can't over look how repeating a lie makes you start to believe it. Five years ago their rhetoric largely felt performative. Now they 100% believe the crazy shit they said.

This seems apt, again:

One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.

Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

[Zorral]

'More than a dozen' Trump allies offered free legal services by key political action committee: report

https://www.rawstory.com/more-than-a-dozen-trump-allies-offered-free-legal-services-by-key-political-action-committee-report/

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/30/us/trump-jan-6-lawyers-witness-pressure.html

The New York Times report is quite long; here's the first part:

Quote

 

WASHINGTON — Former President Donald J. Trump's political organization and his allies have paid for or promised to finance the legal fees of more than a dozen witnesses called in the congressional investigation into the Jan. 6 attack, raising legal and ethical questions about whether the former president may be influencing testimony with a direct bearing on him.

The arrangement drew new scrutiny this week after Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide in his White House, made an explosive appearance before the House panel, providing damning new details about Mr. Trump’s actions and statements on the day of the deadly riot.

She did so after firing a lawyer who had been recommended to her by two of Mr. Trump’s former aides and paid for by his political action committee, and hiring new counsel. Under the representation of the new lawyer, Jody Hunt, Ms. Hutchinson sat for a fourth interview with the committee in which she divulged more revelations and agreed to come forward publicly to testify to them.

It is not known whether Ms. Hutchinson’s change in counsel led directly to her willingness to appear at a televised hearing and provide a more detailed, wide-ranging account of what she witnessed, but some members of the panel believe that it played a role, according to two people familiar with the committee’s work.

Mr. Trump claimed that Ms. Hutchinson’s new lawyer could have prompted her to make false statements. “Her story totally changed!” he complained on his social media site, Truth Social.

The episode raised questions about whether Mr. Trump and his allies may, implicitly or explicitly, be pressuring witnesses to hold back crucial information that might incriminate or cast a negative light on the former president. Mr. Trump and his advisers have been accused before of trying to influence witnesses in past investigations involving him. The committee is known to ask witnesses frequently during closed-door interviews whether anyone has tried to influence their testimony.

Ms. Hutchinson has told the Jan. 6 committee that she was among the witnesses who have been contacted by people around Mr. Trump suggesting that they would be better off if they remained loyal to the former president. Representative Liz Cheney, Republican of Wyoming and the vice chairwoman of the panel, quoted two witnesses making such claims on Tuesday and suggested that the committee was looking into the possibility that the former president or his allies were trying to obstruct its inquiry, saying that, “most people know that attempting to influence witnesses to testify untruthfully presents very serious concerns.”

Unlike witness tampering, which is a crime, there is nothing illegal about a third party covering legal fees for a witness. Aides to former President Bill Clinton reported being overwhelmed with legal bills because of the various inquiries into his and his family’s personal and business affairs, and were dismayed when a legal-defense fund set up by Mr. Clinton’s allies to help the first family pay its multimillion-dollar legal debts did not help them. Mr. Clinton later pledged to help raise money to cover his former aides’ legal expenses, but did not make any major effort to do so.

In the case of Mr. Trump, several former aides have requested that he pay their lawyers’ fees, many of them citing financial hardship and the exorbitant cost of representation in connection with a major congressional investigation. Still, given Mr. Trump’s potential criminal exposure and interest in the inquiry’s outcome, the practice has come under added scrutiny.

According to financial disclosures, in May alone, Mr. Trump’s “Save America” political action committee paid about $200,000 to law firms. ...

 

 

Edited July 1 by Zorral

[Wilbur]

2 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

I really need to watch the local news more because I am dying with laughter. Here in MN apparently the Republican controlled Senate passed a bill without realizing they just legalized recreational edibles and beverages containing THC. There's some amount restrictions, but that really doesn't matter. You'll just have to eat two gummies to get the same impact as one sold in CA or CO. They're officially legal to purchase tomorrow if you're over 21. Nice! 

On the one hand it is funny.

On the other hand, the Republican Party used to be the party of adult government, where fiscally-prudent public servants knew how to operate the levers of government and worked diligently to ensure that the established due process of governing kept ticking over.

Today, more than half the politicians calling themselves Republicans are either too dumb or too lazy to read and understand a law, so they end up passing something by accident.

It is infuriating to see such widespread dumbassery in power, and it is additionally infuriating that the National Party apparatus, rather than taking substantive action to weed out morons from the ticket, encourages these electable fools so as to cling to power.

[Tywin et al.]

17 minutes ago, Jaxom 1974 said:

This seems apt, again:

One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.

Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

Eight letter word, take a guess, that's the most guilty party and why we're here.

7 minutes ago, Wilbur said:

On the one hand it is funny.

On the other hand, the Republican Party used to be the party of adult government, where fiscally-prudent public servants knew how to operate the levers of government and worked diligently to ensure that the established due process of governing kept ticking over.

When did this version of the Republican party exist, because it's never been that in my lifetime? The overwhelming majority of elected Republicans, long before the Tea Party and Trump takeover, were never even remotely fiscal conservatives. It was all just words, their actions didn't reflect them at all. And furthermore, these same Republicans went out of their way over and over again to intentionally sabotage the government, at pretty much every level. I'm sorry buddy, but your interpretation of the Republican party does not reflect what they've actually been doing for a long time because...  

Quote

Today, more than half the politicians calling themselves Republicans are either too dumb or too lazy to read and understand a law, so they end up passing something by accident.

It is infuriating to see such widespread dumbassery in power, and it is additionally infuriating that the National Party apparatus, rather than taking substantive action to weed out morons from the ticket, encourages these electable fools so as to cling to power.

This is actually who they have been the entire time. They just did a better job of camouflaging it before. Now there's no looking away from it if you're a sane and rational person, which we both know you are, but do not feed me this horseshit that Republicans in the last five decades have ever been fiscally responsible or good stewards of the government. 

[DMC]

23 minutes ago, Wilbur said:

On the other hand, the Republican Party used to be the party of adult government, where fiscally-prudent public servants knew how to operate the levers of government and worked diligently to ensure that the established due process of governing kept ticking over.

The Republican Party has been the party of moneyed interests since about 1912.

[Fragile Bird]

Did anyone mention this? After not posting since 2020, “Q” has shown up again, to attack Cassidy Hutchinson.

Her life just got worse.

[ThinkerX]

Okay...say the Republicans claim the white house and congress both come 2024.

This puts them in the position of actually having to govern - at least pretend to do 'stuff' now and again. Yes, they'll push full tilt towards dismantling large swaths of the federal government and enact all sorts of horrid laws.

But, if Trumps tenure is anything to go by, spectacular incompetence and stupidity will be the order of the day (and monumental corruption).

So...Say we get hit with a couple hurricane Katrina type events during this period, and there is NO effective federal response because the R's dismantled FEMA. Or a new, much more lethal pandemic - one that is almost as contagious as Covid, but with a fatality rate ten or twenty times greater. And the conservative response is 'fake news's and 'business as usual.' Yes, they'll blame the 'Deep State' or some 'woke corporation' or whatever, but that is likely to wear thin with the base.

There is also the backlash effect - R politicians who voted against repealing the ACA were violently confronted about this from their own people. Image a red state legislature trying to impose especially stupid 'conservative Christian values' (blatantly racist) or major 'blue' metropolises and the scale of the resulting riots. Then imagine the blowback when the relevant R governor sends in the national guard with 'shoot to kill' orders.

Point I'm getting at here is I don't think the R's could handle 'victory.'

 

[horangi]

2 hours ago, Jaxom 1974 said:

This seems apt, again:

One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.

Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

Given Sagan's warnings about Climate Change from the 1980's, its amazing how true he had mastered not only the science of the universe, but also the science of humanity.  For a certain, large portion of the population, there is no evidence that could get them to support global warming, for in doing so, they undermine a core part of their being, which is, never admit you are/were wrong.

[Varysblackfyre321]

5 hours ago, mcbigski said:

Welcome to the party pal.  80% of the Republicans are on the same team as those guys which 

How do you feel about republicans flirting with reintroducing Sodomy laws?

[straits]

7 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

Eight letter word, take a guess, that's the most guilty party and why we're here.

I don't think it can be boiled down to any eight letter word. Plenty of factors allowed the conservative movement in the US to turn into a pulsating sphere of narrativist extremism.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

4 hours ago, Varysblackfyre321 said:

How do you feel about republicans flirting with reintroducing Sodomy laws?

Has @mcbigski given a serious response to anything in 12 months?  I ran into a jackass on Facebook openly and without irony on a police blotter story argued for a return of Jim Crow laws.

We’re in a dark place.

Edited July 1 by Ser Scot A Ellison

[A Horse Named Stranger]

6 hours ago, ThinkerX said:

Okay...say the Republicans claim the white house and congress both come 2024.

This puts them in the position of actually having to govern - at least pretend to do 'stuff' now and again. Yes, they'll push full tilt towards dismantling large swaths of the federal government and enact all sorts of horrid laws.

But, if Trumps tenure is anything to go by, spectacular incompetence and stupidity will be the order of the day (and monumental corruption).

So...Say we get hit with a couple hurricane Katrina type events during this period, and there is NO effective federal response because the R's dismantled FEMA. Or a new, much more lethal pandemic - one that is almost as contagious as Covid, but with a fatality rate ten or twenty times greater. And the conservative response is 'fake news's and 'business as usual.' Yes, they'll blame the 'Deep State' or some 'woke corporation' or whatever, but that is likely to wear thin with the base.

There is also the backlash effect - R politicians who voted against repealing the ACA were violently confronted about this from their own people. Image a red state legislature trying to impose especially stupid 'conservative Christian values' (blatantly racist) or major 'blue' metropolises and the scale of the resulting riots. Then imagine the blowback when the relevant R governor sends in the national guard with 'shoot to kill' orders.

Point I'm getting at here is I don't think the R's could handle 'victory.'

 

So?

There'll be a backlash for maybe one GE cycle, Democrats take the WH and House (and if they are lucky narrowly the Senate) then the anger subsides and/or the electorate is unhappy about something. Republicans take the trifecta. Rinse and repeat. 

Dubya's war on terror should've put them out of Goverment for a generation. The lawlessness of the orange one, and the unwillingness of the GOP to confront him, should have tarnished them for at least another generation. Alas, who will presumably win the midterms?

 

[Tywin et al.]

2 hours ago, straits said:

I don't think it can be boiled down to any eight letter word. Plenty of factors allowed the conservative movement in the US to turn into a pulsating sphere of narrativist extremism.

But at the core of it is religion, albeit a completely distorted version of what they claim to support, and its developed a cult like fever pitch. 

[straits]

24 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

But at the core of it is religion, albeit a completely distorted version of what they claim to support, and its developed a cult like fever pitch. 

No, the core of it is tribalism with some weird calvinist-derived prosperity gospel. If it wasn't Christianity, it would have been some paradoxical, libertarian-inspired Cult of the Free Man, with privileges for the in-group.

[Fez]

1 hour ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

So?

There'll be a backlash for maybe one GE cycle, Democrats take the WH and House (and if they are lucky narrowly the Senate) then the anger subsides and/or the electorate is unhappy about something. Republicans take the trifecta. Rinse and repeat. 

Dubya's war on terror should've put them out of Goverment for a generation. The lawlessness of the orange one, and the unwillingness of the GOP to confront him, should have tarnished them for at least another generation. Alas, who will presumably win the midterms?

 

Right. But that's business as usual, a constant pendulum swinging between the parties; not a permanent right-wing dictatorship. 

[Which Tyler]

20 hours ago, Tywin et al. said: