2020 Election: Predictions, Results and Reactions

[Voronwë the Faithful]

In my opinion, Jordan's assholic-ness would have been the perfect foil for the commttee, particularly with Cheney on it and showing how a Republican should be acting. I believe it was a true missed portunity.

Now it can be dismissed as blatantly partisan effort (even with Cheney involved) and any information that is revealed completely disregarded.

[N.E. Brigand]

In my opinion, Jordan's assholic-ness would have been the perfect foil for the commttee, particularly with Cheney on it and showing how a Republican should be acting. I believe it was a true missed portunity.

Now it can be dismissed as blatantly partisan effort (even with Cheney involved) and any information that is revealed completely disregarded.

You're not going to dismiss it as blatantly partisan. You're not going to disregard the information that is revealed. Neither will many others.

In my opinion, those who are going to dismiss and diregard the committee's findings were going to do so anyway.

After all, how many Republicans have you heard citing the findings of the Republican-led Senate intelligence committee's investigation into the Trump-Russia scandal?

[Voronwë the Faithful]

True enough.

[N.E. Brigand]

Also, my O.J. Simpson analogy earlier was not idle. I think there's a reasonable chance that Jim Jordan has personal knowledge (or worse) of the most serious crimes committed in connection to the events of January 6th.

Broadly, I harbor suspicions that Donald Trump told Jordan and some other members of Congress to delay the day's proceedings as long as possible, because Trump hoped that there would be violence from anti-Trump protesters, to which his supporters would respond with further violence (i.e., I suspect that Trump, via Roger Stone, may have known that the Proud Boys, Oathkeepers, etc. had a "quick reaction force" stationed just outside D.C. with caches of weapons that they could bring to bear), which would get dangerous enough that he could use it as an excuse to invoke the Insurrection Act, call in active duty troops, and stop the certification of the vote. This appears to be what Gen. Milley feared when he was comparing Trump to Hitler.

My suspicions as outlined above extend only a little past what we already know. It's been reported that Trump met with Jordan and others a few days before Jan. 6th to discuss ways to stop Biden's victory from being certified. The QRF has been documented in numerous Jan. 6th indictments. The Oathkeepers acted as bodyguard for Stone on Jan. 5th. Stone is known to have regularly been in touch with Trump in the past. And on January 6th, as the attack was under way, CNN's Jim Acosta reported that a "source close to the White House who is in touch with some of the rioters at the Capitol said it's the goal of those involved to stay inside the Capitol through the night."

Jordan may be called as a witness by the committee. He might even take the Fifth.

[N.E. Brigand]

In that March 31 interview with the Washington Post reporters whose book just came out, Donald Trump said that "Indians were paid to vote" againt him in the 2020 election. This is a brand new insane rumor that I've never heard of before. Does anyone have a clue as to what he might be talking about?

[RoseMorninStar]

On the surface it may seem like Pelosi made a mistake to deny the five chosen from a political/partisan point of view of what is best for each party politically, but from a historical/long view it may be that she's done the wise thing. The 5 Republicans were not chosen in good faith to 'get to the bottom' of an attempted political overthrow of government. These 5 were on board to undermine the election and install an authoritarian government/change the current system of government as laid out in the constitution. They were chosen to give legitimacy to excuses, to downplay, cover-up, and otherwise disrupt the hearings of what happened on the 6th. It wouldn't be the beginning to an end, but a progression of more of the same.

N.E.: PolitiFact: Fact-checking Trump’s statement that Native Americans were paid to vote

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Pelosi considering adding GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger to the 1/6 select committee

I don't see how this could happen unless one of the current members of the panel is replaced. My understanding is that the language of the resolution that was passed gave Pelosi the ability to name 8 members and gave her veto power of the five members that McCarthy was allowed to name, but I don't believe that it gave her the power to name replacements for those five. But perhaps I am wrong. I guess I'll try to find the actual language and see what it says, rather than relying on what it reportedly says.

Edited to add: Okay, she does have the power. What it actually says is "The Speaker shall appoint 13 Members to the Select Committee, 5 of whom shall be appointed after consultation with the minority
leader." Then it goes on to say, "Any vacancy in the Select Committee shall be filled in the same manner as the original appointment."

Here is the Resolution: https://rules.house.gov/sites/democrats ... s503ih.pdf

So Pelosi would be well within the powers granted by the resolution to add Kinzinger.

[River]

Jordan may be called as a witness by the committee. He might even take the Fifth.

This is his right...and it would look pretty damn bad.

[N.E. Brigand]

Comparing present figures to historical Nazis is generally frowned upon as unnecessary hyperbole that undermines discussion.

So let me emphasize that I'm not comparing Donald Trump to Adolph Hitler.

No it was General Mark Milley, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who did that.

Milley was appointed to that position by Trump -- against the recommendation of Trump's Secretary of Defense, I might add -- and he continues in that role during the Biden administration. (The Chairs normally serve for four years and thus frequently serve under two Presidents.)

Following the election last year, as President Trump riled up his supporters and claimed that he hadn't actually lost, Milley told his staff that "this is a Reichstag moment . . . the gospel of the Führer," and that he worried that the result "could be the modern American equivalent of brownshirts in the streets."

That's according to a new book, I Alone Can Fix It, by Carol Leonnig and Phillip Rucker. (The authors also interviewed Trump himself for the book.)

The nation's top military official thought were on the verge of a coup. And he told his team that they needed to be ready to stop that from happening.

I think that the news about Milley is probably more important than the Guardian's Russia story (unless the part about the kompromat proves to be true). And here's some more notable information about the last days of the Trump administration from Leonnig and Rucker's book, although I will note that it seems to be sourced to people close to Mike Pence and thus may have been provided to the authors with the aim of improving Pence's reputation among centrists:

During the insurrection, the reason he wasn't driven to a safe location, as Pence's security team urged, and instead remained (underground) in the Capitol, is that Pence and his aides feared that Trump would then order the Secret Service to take Pence out of Washington, which would prevent Pence from overseeing the certification Joe Biden's victory.

During a two-hour speech tonight in Arizona, former president Donald Trump specifically mentioned the point I noted above, saying:

"The only reason I appointed Mark Milley in the first place is because two of the world's most overrated generals, James Mattis and John Kelly, could not stand him, had no respect for him, and would not recommend him under any circumstances. They even tried to send him to Europe so he wouldn't get the job. So when they didn't like him, I said: let's give this guy a shot."

What kind of person would select the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on that basis?

(Mattis and Kelly also were both Trump appointees, of course.)

- - - - - - - - - -
At least Trump did encourage Americans to get vaccinated in his speech tonight, sort of, when he said, "I recommend you take it, but I also believe in your freedoms." (He also said, "I came up with the vaccine.") But a lot of it was the usual deluded rantings. He got the crowd to boo Arizona's governor Doug Ducey, the Senate minority leader MItch McConnell, and former vice president Mike Pence, and the U.S. women's soccer team.

[River]

Trump really sucked at hiring, didn't he?

[RoseMorninStar]

How anyone can think of him as a good and competent manager of anything I do not comprehend.

(He also said, "I came up with the vaccine.")

As if he personally did this on his own. I truly do not understand how people follow his faulty and disjointed 'logic'.

[elengil]

How anyone can think of him as a good and competent manager of anything I do not comprehend.

(He also said, "I came up with the vaccine.")

As if he personally did this on his own. I truly do not understand how people follow his faulty and disjointed 'logic'.

I still can't get past the logical obstacle course of "Why do the evil democrats refuse to give Trump credit for the vaccine he came up with that his followers refuse to take for a virus that's a hoax."

[River]

How anyone can think of him as a good and competent manager of anything I do not comprehend.

(He also said, "I came up with the vaccine.")

As if he personally did this on his own. I truly do not understand how people follow his faulty and disjointed 'logic'.

You are, of course, assuming his devoted fanbase even looks for or cares about logic. I think they're more into the feelings he makes it okay for them to feel.

[Túrin Turambar]

These are the same people, I'm guessing, who believed that President Obama was a crypto-Muslim, disciple of a radical black preacher, Mau-Mau sympathising Marxist revolutionary and liberal east coast elitist.

[RoseMorninStar]

These are the same people, I'm guessing, who believed that President Obama was a crypto-Muslim, disciple of a radical black preacher, Mau-Mau sympathising Marxist revolutionary and liberal east coast elitist.

Don't forget drinks the blood of babies and runs a pedophile ring. I had always assumed such persons were small in number and perhaps not living life at large. I never would have guessed they'd be part of a major voting block.

[Frelga]

Is mau mau not a cat breed?

Do I want to know? I probably don't want to know.

[Túrin Turambar]

The Mau Mau uprising was a rebellion against British Rule in Kenya in the 1950s. There was some discussion back in the day that Obama's father or grandfather was somehow involved, giving Obama a naturally sympathy with anti-western insurgents. I can't remember the details.

[River]

I maintain that these people aren't being logical. They're getting their emotional buttons pushed and embracing the sensation.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

There are abundant articles that can be found at fringe sites about Obama's father's supposed involvement with the Mau Mau uprising. I'm not going to give any of them any attention

Pelosi has officially named Kinzinger to the 1/6 Select Committee.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/25/politics ... index.html

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I've changed my mind.