2020 Election: Predictions, Results and Reactions

[River]

I feel like there's a cycle with Tara Reade: she emerges from wherever she's been, with her claims against Biden. The claims are evaluated by both skeptical and the credulous. There's fuss and bother about unsealing Biden's papers. And then it all falls apart and she disappears again. During the 2020 campaign season, when it all fell apart (again) one of the journalists who looked into her claims wrote up what happened. Apparently she has a history of grifting. In a way, it's not surprising she's back, given Biden's up for re-election, though defecting to Russia was kind of a weird move. Her claims of death threats are uncorroborated, though death threats and being a public figure seem to go together these days so I wouldn't be surprised if someone threatened her. Still, fleeing the country is such an extremem move I wonder if there's more to it. Maybe she's got bill collectors on her tail or something.

[Frelga]

There are also multiple continents full of countries that are not Russia to flee to, given that she is not fleeing the law, AFAIK. Why not go somewhere with a view of Mediterranean and good coffee?

Either Butina is an extremely effective agent, or Reade is not just a grifter but a spy as well.

[River]

There are also multiple continents full of countries that are not Russia to flee to, given that she is not fleeing the law, AFAIK. Why not go somewhere with a view of Mediterranean and good coffee?

Even if she were fleeing the law, you have a point. Russia isn't the only place she could go.

I don't think she's a spy. She's been out of the US government and drifting around living in the yurts and stuff for decades, so if she's a spy she's been kinda useless. Honestly, I don't see much use for her other than causing Biden embarrassment, which might be good enough for certain chunks of the Russian government. Maybe Butina played into Reade's attention-whoring and promised an end to her financial or other issues. Or maybe Reade's just a huge Steven Seagal fan.

[Frelga]

Or maybe it's this?

20230514_084932.jpg (99.5 KiB) Viewed 1296 times

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[Sunsilver]

HAPPENING NOW: Sentencing proceedings for Ed Vallejo, the Oath Keeper who remained stationed on Jan. 6 at a hotel in Arlington, VA., where the group had stashed a massive arsenal of firearms and other weapons/supplies.

Will be interesting to see what sentence Ed receives. I'm guessing it won't be light.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[N.E. Brigand]

Representatives Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene announced a couple days ago that Speaker Kevin McCarthy has agreed to release all January 6th footage to three right wing news outlets. A number of reporters are saying, "Why just to them?" Rep. Greene explains that if the footage were made available to the public, online sleuths might use it to identify people who committed crimes that day, and she doesn't want those criminals prosecuted.

She doesn't say it in exactly those words, of course, but that's the obvious meaning.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Another helpful Lawfare chart, this was showing the respective sentences of the OathKeepers convicted of seditious conspiracy and other related crimes.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

An interesting development in the Proud Boys case. I had not realized that Carmen Hernandez was a court-appointed attorney.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Remember at the beginning of the Proud Boy case (which seems like a very long time ago!) there was a big kerflooey over defendant Joe Bigg's attorney, Norm Pattis, who had previously been Alex Jones' attorney and had gotten suspended for revealing sensitive medical information, only to get that suspension delayed so he could represent Biggs? Well ...

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Regarding the above, it may be a waivable conflict, but it is a very real conflict. Rehl's best argument to limit his sentence is that he is less culpable than Biggs and Tarrio, and that argument obviously would be potentially damaging to Biggs to make.

Meanwhile, in the land of crazy:

[N.E. Brigand]

The Inspector General for the Department of Homeland Security, Joseph Cuffari, testified today to a House oversight committee that:

1. Before his office issued a 2022 report on the Secret Service, language was removed from the report about how agents had obstructed an investigation into why texts pertaining to January 6th had been deleted. Cuffari was asked: did you approve that change in the report? He said he did. Cuffari was then asked: why did you do that? Cuffari didn't respond, just sitting quietly for several seconds until time was up for the Democratic congressman asking him the question. (And naturally the Republicans on the committee didn't follow up to get to the truth.)

2. Cuffari himself has deleted texts from his government-issued cell phone.

FYI, Cuffari was appointed by Donald Trump in 2019.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I watched some of the clips from that hearing. He is really awful!

With regards to the Proud Boys case, the prosecutors are much less down with the idea of Pattis representing both Biggs and Rehl than Pattis had previously suggested.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I'm going to put this here, even though it is probably relevant to both special counsel investigations into Trump. This isn't really "news" in that it was almost certain that Meadows had already testified to the grand jury/ies, but it hadn't specifically been reported that he had.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Almost 2 and a half years after January 6, 2021, while we wait to see if the ringleader-in-chief gets charged (which is sounding more likely with the news of Meadows testimony), there are still significant arrests being made of those who breached the Capital.

[N.E. Brigand]

Also charged today (per NBC) for his role in Jan. 6th was actor and screenwriter Jay Johnston, who was twice nominated for an Emmy in the late 1990s for his comedy writing on Mr. Show. His extensive film and television credits include a regular role on The Sarah Silverman Program and multiple appearances on Arrested Development.

Johnston's presence at the insurrection has been known for some time, and apparently led to his dismissal from the animated television show Bob's Burgers about 18 months ago. He now "faces charges of felony obstruction of officers during civil disorder as well as several misdemeanor offenses ... Court documents say that Johnston entered the upper west tunnel, where some of the most violent attacks of the Jan. 6 attack took place and 'assisted at least three other rioters by pouring water on the rioters' faces.' He then used a stolen U.S. Capitol Police shield as rioters battled with police, the documents say."