2020 Election: Predictions, Results and Reactions

[N.E. Brigand]

OK, this is amazing:

I guess we have Pelosi's answer to Frelga's question

While I don't condone violence, and I don't think Pelosi would actually have pummeled Trump in cold blood, I do appreciate how that situation could push her to say something like that and also that she acknowledged the consequences for herself.

And as I have previously noted, if he actually had gone to the Capitol, we might have had a gunfight between the Secret Service and the Capitol Police.

I am reminded a little of how conservative columnist William Safire wrote in 1996 that First Lady Hillary Clinton was a "congenital liar."

In response, President Bill Clinton said he'd like to "punch him in the nose."

Safire, who also wrote about language, penned a column about whether "in the nose" or "on the nose" was more correct when describing punches.

[N.E. Brigand]

I guess we have Pelosi's answer to Frelga's question

While I don't condone violence, and I don't think Pelosi would actually have pummeled Trump in cold blood, I do appreciate how that situation could push her to say something like that and also that she acknowledged the consequences for herself.

And as I have previously noted, if he actually had gone to the Capitol, we might have had a gunfight between the Secret Service and the Capitol Police.

I am reminded a little of how conservative columnist William Safire wrote in 1996 that First Lady Hillary Clinton was a "congenital liar."

In response, President Bill Clinton said he'd like to "punch him in the nose."

Safire, who also wrote about language, penned a column about whether "in the nose" or "on the nose" was more correct when describing punches.

Meanwhile, in Miami, a Trump supporter is on trial for attacking Biden supporters on Election Day 2020. Jury selection is underway, but potential jurors keep getting rejected because of political bias. One was asked: if you heard that there was an altercation between supporters of two opposing political candidates, which candidate's supporters would you assume started the fight? "Trump," she replied.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

At the Oathkeeper's sedition trial, a turn that I certainly didn't see coming. (note, possibly NSFW if you click on the tweet and look at the full thread)

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Not sure what this is about, but Windom is the AUSA in charge of the DoJ's 1/6 investigation.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

This is big.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Here is the court's order. It is pretty juicy reading.

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap ... .372.0.pdf

[N.E. Brigand]

Texts from Loeffler’s phone shed light on activities ahead of Jan. 6 and 2021 runoff (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

Appointed in January 2020 to succeed the retiring Johnny Isakson, Kelly Loeffler was U.S. Senator from Georgia for just over a year before she lost to her Democratic challenger, Rev. Raphael Warnock, in a special election.

The opening two paragraphs of that article are confusingly written. But the AJC has obtained 59 pages of selected text messages from late 2020-early 2021, and among things, they show how Congresswoman-elect Marjorie Taylor-Greene of Georgia and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas both sought Loeffler's support in the January 6, 2021 challenge to Biden's victory. Loeffler initially agreed to vote against certification, but changed her mind after the violence on January 6th.

I wonder who leaked these to the Journal-Constitution and for what purpose.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[N.E. Brigand]

In court today, this message from Oathkeepers leader Stewart Rhodes was read:

"Either Trump gets off his ass and uses the insurrection Act to defeat the ChiCom puppet coup or we will have to rise up in insurrection (rebellion) against the ChiCom puppet Biden. Take your pick."

I think that destroys Rhodes's attempt to argue that he was acting as part of an authorized militia. Ironically, it might help Trump though.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[N.E. Brigand]

Bannon should have been fined $200,000. As the government pointed out, he specifically said he'd rather pay the maximum fine than ever comply, so why not hold him to that? Still, apparently getting this judge to go above the minimum in a Trump-related case takes effort.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

And here's it is


Good luck with that!

[N.E. Brigand]

Apparently the Committee has reason to believe that Trump is still in contact with militia members even now? Because they've asked for his messages with member of the Oathkeepers, Proud Boys, and so forth from September 20, 2020 through today.

Edited to add, in light of Voronwë's suggestion: the Committee did use that date range for a number of other requests, but not for all of them.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

CYA

[N.E. Brigand]

Another insurrectionist is going to jail: Mark Mazza of Illinois was sentenced today to five years' imprisonment. Mazza had pleaded guilty to assaulting police, and he acknowledged bringing a gun to the Capitol.

Also today, insurrectionist Matthew Bledsoe of Tennessee was sentenced to four years' imprisonment. Bledsoe was convicted by a jury for breaching the Capitol: he scaled a wall in order to get in through a fire door.

Additionally today, insurrectionist Alan Byerly of Pennsylvania was sentenced to nearly three years' imprisonment. Byerly pleaded guilty to assaulting the police and a member of the media. He was carrying a stun gun at the Capitol.

All three men were there supporting Donald Trump's efforts to stop Congress for certifying Joe Biden's election win. And two of them were armed.

[N.E. Brigand]

There absolutely was fraud in the MI election, but the other way:
https://www.michigan.gov/ag/0,4534,7-35 ... --,00.html

Oh that's right! I totally forgot about Jack Burkman and Jacob Wohl, who have also been charged by the district attorney right here in Cleveland, Ohio for similar robo-calls that engaged in voter suppression.

There's a former federal prosecutor now in private practice in Los Angeles named Ken White who co-hosts a podcast for radio station KCRW called "All the President's Lawyers." White had joked for a couple years that Wohl, a notorious (but still quite young) mischief maker on the right, would someday go too far and break the law, or as he put it, commit a "big boy federal crime." White recently indicated his disappointment that these antics that got Wohl in real trouble are only state crimes.

The problem is, just as with Russia's interference in 2016, it's nearly impossible to quantify what effect these ploys have on the vote. In the case of Russia, researchers have said the phony messaging they created was viewed hundreds of millions of times on Facebook alone. But how many votes for Trump did that translate into? (Whether by changing minds, getting a Trump-leaning viewer to vote for him, or getting a Clinton-leaning viewer to stay home.)

White recently indicated his disappointment that these antics that got Wohl in real trouble are only state crimes.

Yeah, but president can't pardon state crimes.

Almost two years later in Cleveland: Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman pleaded guilty to the fifth-degree felony of telecommunications fraud. That state crime carries a maximum possible penalty of one year's imprisonment. It's not clear what they will actually be sentenced to, but they did agree to pay the maximum fine of $2,500 as part a deal in which prosecutors dropped 14 counts of telecommunications and bribery.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[N.E. Brigand]

The right wing spin machine is not disputing* that Trump knew he lost the election and his claims had no legitimacy (even though he took millions of dollars from his supporters to "fight the lie")* that he was prepared to lead an armed mob to disrupt the peaceful and legitimate transfer of power, and was only concerned that he was not going to be hurt* that it's increasingly provable that the Vice President was in imminent danger of being murdered, and so were some SenatorsAnd on and on.

I don't know what 'right wing spin machine' you're talking about, but everything you said above would be considered ludicrous in actual right wing circles. ...

Turning to the FBI, their classic M.O. for 'thwarting' terrorist plots (find a hapless muslim, radicalize him, suggest a terrorist plot, fund the plot, then go arrest him when he tries to carry it out (The Hill), was used in the fake Whitmer kidnapping. It's interesting to note that the FBI agent in charge of that failed and humiliating operation was promoted to the Washington field office shortly afterwards (revolver), before the plot was revealed to be a sting operation and the defendants acquitted at trial. He would thus have been in charge of operations at the Capitol on Jan.6. Of course, the FBI refused to say how many operatives they had at the Capitol that day, or if any of them perpetrated acts of violence. (FBI)

Emphasis mine.

Since this was the most recent post to mention the 2020 plot to kidnap Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer, let me note here that following two days of deliberation, the two ringleaders of that plot, Adam Fox and Barry Croft, were convicted today in federal court of conspiring to kidnap Whitmer and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction, and Croft was additionally convicted of possessing an unregistered destructive device. They likely face many years in prison.

This was a retrial after a jury four months ago hung on the charges against Fox and Croft and acquitted two others then alleged to have been part of the plot. Two other plotters, Ty Garbin and Kaleb Franks, previously pled guilty to kidnapping conspiracy charges and testified in this trial. Another ten members of the group are facing state charges.

A jury has convicted three more men in the Whitmer kidnapping plot. So much for the narrative that it was all a set-up by the FBI?

[Sunsilver]

Let's hope so! But some of the die-hard right wingers will believe ANYTHING!!