US Politics: Dominoes falling, GOP failing, what a time to be alive!

[LongRider]

17 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

I think technically you and the horsey can be Speaker, so take a number.

Why do people keep calling her Dr? She's a turd lawyer and doesn't have a PhD as far as I know. At least call her a Doctorb.

Wiki sez; she received a JD, or "A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence,[1] or Doctor of Law[2] (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree in law."  Plus " Notwithstanding the use of the word "doctor" in the title, JD holders typically do not use the honorific "Dr".  She is not entitled to be called 'Dr" like say, Dr. Jill Biden is, as Biden's Phd degree allows for that.

Edited October 25, 2023 by LongRider

[LongRider]

About Meadows immunity, apparently there are at least two types of of legal immunity, Teri Kanefield, an attorney I've followed for a couple of years said she saw he was granted 'use immunity" which is different from (transactional immunity) and different from a 'flip'.  I hope one of our attorneys will weigh in on this.

717. TRANSACTIONAL IMMUNITY DISTINGUISHED

Title 18 U.S.C. § 6002 provides use immunity instead of transactional immunity. The difference between transactional and use immunity is that transactional immunity protects the witness from prosecution for the offense or offenses involved, whereas use immunity only protects the witness against the government's use of his or her immunized testimony in a prosecution of the witness -- except in a subsequent prosecution for perjury or giving a false statement.

717. Transactional Immunity Distinguished | JM | Department of Justice

Edited October 25, 2023 by LongRider

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

15 minutes ago, Gorn said:

How likely is it that we will start seeing House Republicans in "Biden" districts switching parties if this farce goes on much longer?

I'd be surprised if they switched parties completely, but maybe some could in theory become Independents who caucus with Democrats though that would mean the end of their current careers. 

I still don't see this unity concept happening, however, Republicans going alone seems to also not have much of a future. The next round of voting starts soon and reporting is that Johnson doesn't have the votes and even if he makes it he probably wrecks Republicans in the 2024 elections. 

14 minutes ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

Irony doesn't work on the internet, I get that. However, when I call that diimwit, whom her superiors tried to fire from her job at traffic court for incompetence, then you cam assume a smug grin on my part. Ultimately, it was concluded, that she performed the job to the best of her abilities.

11 minutes ago, LongRider said:

Wiki sez; she received a JD, or "A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence,[1] or Doctor of Law[2] (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree in law."  Plus " Notwithstanding the use of the word "doctor" in the title, JD holders typically do not use the honorific "Dr".  She is not entitled to be called 'Dr" like say, Dr. Jill Biden is, as Biden's Phd degree allows for that.

Lol, that's why esquire is a dope term. This post just makes me think about reading Dracula. In the book Van Helsing has basically all the graduate titles. 

[Zorral]

CAUTIONS ON ABC’S HUGE MARK MEADOWS SCOOP

https://www.emptywheel.net/2023/10/24/cautions-on-abcs-huge-mark-meadows-scoop/

Quote

 

.... But I caution against concluding too much about what the testimony means. Most importantly, there’s no hint that Meadows has flipped. Meadows has testified (which a past ABC scoop made clear). But giving immunized testimony is not flipping, and the two ABC stories raise far more questions about the story Meadows has told.

I say that for several reasons. First, ABC doesn’t describe the dates for any of his interviews. I’ll return to that, but it’s important that ABC doesn’t reveal whether Meadows’ testimony to Jack Smith precedes or postdates the Georgia indictment and subsequent failure to get the Georgia indictment removed to Federal courts. An earlier big ABC scoop describes April grand jury testimony, and it’s not clear that this would be a different time frame or grand jury appearance.

I offer cautions, as well, because virtually all of ABC’s reporting says that Meadows was asked not about what Trump did on a given day, but whether Meadows believed what Meadows had said publicly. Here’s an example.

Sources told ABC News that Smith’s investigators were keenly interested in questioning Meadows about election-related conversations he had with Trump during his final months in office, and whether Meadows actually believed some of the claims he included in a book he published after Trump left office — a book that promised to “correct the record” on Trump.

Again, click through to see how much of the rest is of the same sort.

As I noted in my post on that prior big ABC scoop, there are still loads of details — especially about January 6 — missing from the public timeline that Meadows surely knows.

There’s a lot that’s missing here — most notably Meadows’ coordination with Congress and any efforts to coordinate with Mike Flynn and Roger Stone’s efforts more closely tied to the insurrection and abandoned efforts to deploy the National Guard to protect Trump’s mob as it walked to congress. Unless those actions get added to charges quickly, Meadows will be able to argue, in Georgia, that his actions complied with federal law without having to address them. If and when they do get charged in DC, I’m sure Meadows’ attorneys hope, his criminal exposure in Georgia will be resolved.

Importantly, that earlier ABC scoop served to signal co-conspirators how Meadows changed his testimony after prosecutors obtained proof his claims about his ghost-writers — the same ghost-writers whose book remains at the center of ABC’s scoop! — were proven wrong by further evidence.

That story suggested Meadows was only going to be as truthful as evidence presented to him required him to be.

And this story is of the same type. It describes how, as he did in the stolen documents case, Meadows said he didn’t believe what he wrote when it was legally necessary.

Finally, that post also lays out that the narrative told in the DC indictment, while useful for Jack Smith, is different than the narrative told by Fani Willis, where Mark Meadows has not given cooperative testimony. The right column (his story to Jack Smith) in this table is helpful for Jack Smith, but probably not true; the left column (where he didn’t cooperate) is more damning. ....

 

 

[Fragile Bird]

CNN has reported that Mike Johnson has been telling members of the press that he will win on the first ballot.

Other Republicans have told them he’s the person with the least number of enemies.

On the other hand, not only did he support attempts to overturn the 2020 election, as someone said, he drove the bus. He was on Trump’s defense team when Trump was impeached. He voted against certifying the 2020 election.

On the positive, he’s sponsored more bills that got passed than any of the other candidates, maybe more than anyone else in the House (I was distracted when they talked about that), so he obviously has the ability to listen to people.

[Kalbear]

4 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

 

On the other hand, not only did he support attempts to overturn the 2020 election, as someone said, he drove the bus. He was on Trump’s defense team when Trump was impeached. He voted against certifying the 2020 election.

I don't see how this is on the other hand - this is a net positive for him. The freedom caucus will vote for him, and the rest of the Republicans will fall in line.

Jordan probably lost because he tried to bully the others into voting for him via some real shitty tactics. If he just didn't do that chances are good he would have won.

 

[Fragile Bird]

7 minutes ago, Kalbear said:

I don't see how this is on the other hand - this is a net positive for him. The freedom caucus will vote for him, and the rest of the Republicans will fall in line.

Jordan probably lost because he tried to bully the others into voting for him via some real shitty tactics. If he just didn't do that chances are good he would have won.

 

Lol, I’m looking at him as a disinterested bystander (to the Speaker nonsense) also concerned about the state of democracy in the US. This guy was leading the charge. He actually wrote the amicus brief for the state of Texas, or at least was a lead writer.

[Kalbear]

7 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

Lol, I’m looking at him as a disinterested bystander (to the Speaker nonsense) also concerned about the state of democracy in the US. This guy was leading the charge. He actually wrote the amicus brief for the state of Texas, or at least was a lead writer.

Yep! And that is who Republicans are. When Trump called Emmer a RINO he was speaking factually. 

[Jaxom 1974]

 

 

[LongRider]

@Jaxom 1794  Does Johnson know where that hand has been?   

[Ormond]

15 hours ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

The Franklin Tennessee Nazi sympathizer appears to be losing pretty badly in her race for mayor along with all the Trumpanista “At Large” alderman candidates.

Well done Phil Williams!

https://x.com/nc5philwilliams/status/1716971675311321409?s=46

This is good news -- but one must remember that Franklin is one of the Nashville suburbs that most fits the "highly educated well-off suburban" stereotype which are normally turned off by Trumpist candidates. 64.3% of Franklin's residents over age 25 have a bachelor's degree or higher. 

[Fez]

Johnson seems likely to win on the first vote on the floor. All the Republicans either like him or are too exhausted to keep going. Bacon, one of the most moderate members left, just voted for him. And Buck, who is OG crazy conservative but also anti-MAGA and opposed Jordan because of his 2020 denialism, has said he'll vote for Johnson.

It seems likely Johnson will happily allow a shutdown to happen next month, and then it'll be a question of if he ever blinks (and therefore goes the way of McCarthy) or if the moderates eventually revolt again. The flashpoint may be even sooner, over the Ukraine/Israel aid package that the Senate will pass.

[JGP]

9 minutes ago, Fez said:

Johnson seems likely to win on the first vote on the floor. All the Republicans either like him or are too exhausted to keep going. Bacon, one of the most moderate members left, just voted for him. And Buck, who is OG crazy conservative but also anti-MAGA and opposed Jordan because of his 2020 denialism, has said he'll vote for Johnson.

It seems likely Johnson will happily allow a shutdown to happen next month, and then it'll be a question of if he ever blinks (and therefore goes the way of McCarthy) or if the moderates eventually revolt again. The flashpoint may be even sooner, over the Ukraine/Israel aid package that the Senate will pass.

Unfortunate.

Johnson has that same politically expedient, greasy fuck type sheen that Pierre Poilievre has up here.

[Fragile Bird]

5 minutes ago, JGP said:

Unfortunate.

Johnson has that same politically expedient, greasy fuck type sheen that Pierre Poilievre has up here.

Not quite - Johnson is a smart Constitutional Law expert, taught as a law professor, way above PP’s pay grade.

Jenna Ellis said one of her failures was to trust other lawyers and what they said were the facts., that she should have done more research. I wonder if Mike Johnson was one of them.

[JGP]

2 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

Not quite - Johnson is a smart Constitutional Law expert, taught as a law professor, way above PP’s pay grade.

Jenna Ellis said one of her failures was to trust other lawyers and what they said were the facts., that she should have done more research. I wonder if Mike Johnson was one of them.

I was referring to the lean and slide of his politics, Fragile.

Edited October 25, 2023 by JGP

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

And that's that. So now we have a Speaker who wants to ban all abortions, thinks climate change is made up, thinks LGBTQ+ individuals have no rights, voted to overturn the election, defend Trump and says he did nothing wrong and also wants teachers to lead prayers in schools, but only Christian ones. 

Awesome. 

Edited October 25, 2023 by Tywin et al.

[Frey family reunion]

1 hour ago, Fragile Bird said:

CNN has reported that Mike Johnson has been telling members of the press that he will win on the first ballot.

Other Republicans have told them he’s the person with the least number of enemies.

On the other hand, not only did he support attempts to overturn the 2020 election, as someone said, he drove the bus. He was on Trump’s defense team when Trump was impeached. He voted against certifying the 2020 election.

On the positive, he’s sponsored more bills that got passed than any of the other candidates, maybe more than anyone else in the House (I was distracted when they talked about that), so he obviously has the ability to listen to people.

He’s from my area, he’s a right wing religious tool.

[Mindwalker]

4 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

I think technically you and the horsey can be Speaker, so take a number.

Why do people keep calling her Dr? She's a turd lawyer and doesn't have a PhD as far as I know. At least call her a Doctorb.

I don't care about her per se, or whether she gets immunity (unlike others) but I do care about the hypocrisy.

[Mindwalker]

1 hour ago, Tywin et al. said:

And that's that. So now we have a Speaker who wants to ban all abortions, thinks climate change is made up, thinks LGBTQ+ individuals have no rights, voted to overturn the election, defend Trump and says he did nothing wrong and also wants teachers to lead prayers in schools, but only Christian ones. 

Awesome. 

Funny what counts as moderate these days...

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

4 minutes ago, Mindwalker said:

I don't care about her per se, or whether she gets immunity (unlike others) but I do care about the hypocrisy.

I bemoan the hypocrisy all the time, but it's getting closer and closer to just letting that ship sail right now. The sad thing is I see no path to fixing this problem, maybe ever in our lifetimes. I always believed some massive calamity would shake Republicans from their insanity, but be it the pandemic or Jan. 6 its only made them worse. 

3 minutes ago, Mindwalker said:

Funny what counts as moderate these days...

He's no moderate and Republicans these days only say they want the most conservative person possible, even if that means voting for someone that tells them they should try to swim on the sun.