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Cassidy Hutchinson

Former Trump Aide Cassidy Hutchinson: 'Everybody Vote For Biden'  (VIDEO)

Cassidy Hutchinson, former aide to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, spoke with Jen Psaki on MSNBC on Monday. Hutchinson was there to continue promoting her best-selling memoir, Enough, which is about the Trump administration’s incompetence and corruption.

Psaki used the memoir to ask questions about Trump’s very public attacks and their deleterious effect on the many potential witnesses in his various criminal and civil cases. Hutchinson said she had personally experienced that wrath: “The American people should not ever have to live in fear of retribution from a president of the United States, or a former president of the United States. A president is here and is elected to protect the people, not to incite violence on those people.”

When Psaki asked Hutchinson who she was voting for in a race between President Joe Biden and Trump, Hutchinson gave this very stark response:

I will say that my door is completely shut to voting for Donald Trump, and the only reason that I will not endorse a candidate right now is because I still am hopeful that Donald Trump does not end up being the nominee next year.

I think our country will be in a much better place overall, not just for myself, but the ticket and the future of our country will be. But what I will say, too, though, is I think everybody should vote for Joe Biden if they want our democracy to survive.

Hutchinson has been a steady, relatively unimpeachable source for behind the scenes information on the Trump administration. Many of her claims have been supported by others, even Trump himself. The book has been doing very good numbers as we go into the holiday season. Whether or not there’s a slice of a demographic that buys books and also votes for Trump remains a mystery, but if just a few people get the message, that’s a few more votes going towards continuing our democracy.

Republicans are challenging labor leaders to fights and allegedly physically assaulting one another. Donald Trump says he will abolish reproductive rights entirely and is openly calling for the extermination of his detractors, referring to them as “vermin” on Veterans Day. The Republican Party has emerged from its corruption cocoon as a full-blown fascist movement.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Markwayne Mullin

GOP Senator Challenges Teamster Leader To Fistfight -- During Senate Hearing (VIDEO)

On Tuesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) chaired a Senate committee hearing titled “Standing Up Against Corporate Greed: How Unions are Improving the Lives of Working Families.” Labor representatives gave testimony, including Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien.

At the hearing, Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, a multimillionaire former business owner, tried to pick a fight with O’Brien. No, not a figurative fight—a literal fight. Instead of using the committee’s time to help improve workers’ lives, Mullin read tweets O’Brien wrote about the senator and then challenged the Teamsters president to fight him right there in the committee hearing room.

It was ridiculous. After Mullin stood up—yes, he stood up—Sanders told him, “Sit down! No, you’re a United States senator,” while O’Brien called Mullin a “clown” and wondered out loud if this was how the senator from Oklahoma dealt with every disagreement. During the exchange, the teamsters sitting behind O’Brien laughed at Mullin’s ludicrous bit of political theater.

The exchange went on with Mullin still trying to turn his time into a fight promo (you can watch at the link below), and O’Brien reminding Mullin that he had the opportunity to be one of the most “influential people in the country but you’re focused on debate that isn’t even relevant. You’re an embarrassment. An embarrassment.” The truth clearly continues to hurt Mullin.

The bad blood goes back to March, when the two men got into a heated argument during another Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing. O’Brien called out Mullin’s anti-labor “tough guy” schtick and the two exchanged barbs. Mullin came out looking pretty pathetic. O’Brien continued besmirching Mullin’s not-great name on social media, and in June, Mullin challenged O’Brien to a MMA-style fight for charity.

Mullin’s “self-made” business was originally his father’s, which he took over when his father got ill. Still, there are many questions about how he got so gosh-darned rich, as The New Republic reported earlier this year:

Mullin himself warrants his own level of scrutiny as to whether he is an “honest” millionaire. The Oklahoma Republican was already swimming in assets worth up to $29.9 million in 2020. The following year, his net worthexploded to be anywhere between $31.6 million and a gargantuan $75.6 million. Mullin received some $1.4 million in federal PPP loans and was among the members of Congress who helped tank the TRUTH Act, which would have required public disclosure of companies receiving those relief funds.

Pathetic.

And there’s always a tweet with guys like this.

You can watch the rest of the exchange here, at around the 1:41:00 mark.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Marjorie Taylor Greene

'Groping Vaping Boebert': Margie's Big Social Media Meltdown

On October 26, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene introduced a resolution to have Congress censure Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib, falsely claiming Tlaib’s pro-Palestinian statements at a peace protest amounted to “leading an insurrection at the United States Capitol Complex.” On Wednesday, 23 House Republicans joined Democrats to block Greene’s resolution, 222 to 186.

Unhappy with this outcome, Greene attacked these and other Republicans on X (formerly Twitter). First, she posted a list of the 23 Republicans who voted to block her resolution, writing, “List of feckless Republicans that voted WITH Democrats to table my censure resolution against Rashida Tlaib. This is why Republicans NEVER do anything to stop the communists [sic] Democrats or ever hold anyone accountable!! PATHETIC.” The extra exclamation point is for extra exclamation!!

“Conservatives on this list hide behind excuses with their white wigs on and quote the constitution,” she said, adding, “They are clutching their pearls because I called Oct 18th an insurrection.” The latter comment was aimed at Republican Chip Roy, who said he voted against the resolution because of how Greene described Tlaib’s actions.

Greene lit into Roy, writing, “Oh shut up Colonel Sander, you're not even from Texas, more like the DMV.” Greene, who was recently kicked out of the Freedom Caucus, added, “You voted to kick me out of the freedom caucus, but keep CNN wannabe Ken Buck and vaping groping Lauren Boebert and you voted with the Democrats to protect Terrorist Tlaib. You hate Trump, certified Biden's election, and could care less about J6 defendants being persecuted.”

On Thursday, Roy told The Hill, “Tell her to go chase so-called Jewish space lasers if she wants to spend time on that sort of thing.” Teehee!

Laura Loomer, who is sort of just another version of Greene, stepped into the fray, calling both Greene and Roy “showboaters.” Loomer added, “Both of you are useless. No need to fight amongst yourselves to get [t]he trophy prize of ‘biggest gaslighter sell out’ in Congress. You both have sold the American people out. Same with Hoebert.”

During the writing of this story, Greene posted a screenshot of a Google search for the definition of “feckless.” She followed that up by posting another shot of her “Liberty Score” showing she has an “A” rating for being conservative. One good thing about the GOP fighting within itself is that Americans get to really see what craven and vapid politicians they are.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

New Speaker's Spouse Marketed Quack 'Therapy' To Cure Homosexuality

New Speaker's Spouse Marketed Quack 'Therapy' To Cure Homosexuality

Kelly Johnson, the wife of the newly elected speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, runs a Christian counseling business affiliated with some very homophobic beliefs. According to HuffPost, Kelly Johnson’s Onward Christian Counseling Services has a business document breaking down its offensive understandings of the world, placing people who are gay and transgender in the same categories as sex with animals: “We believe and the Bible teaches that any form of sexual immorality, such as adultery, fornication, homosexuality, bisexual conduct, bestiality, incest, pornography, or any attempt to change one’s sex, or disagreement with one’s biological sex, is sinful and offensive to God.”

On top of this, Business Insiderreports that Kelly Johnson “advertised a specialty in temperament therapy.” Temperament therapy is based on “Creation Therapy,” which was created by Christian counselors Richard and Phyllis Arno. The basic idea behind these therapies is that people are born as one of five types: Melancholy, Choleric, Sanguine, Supine, and Phlegmatic. The Arnos based this idea on work by controversial right-wing fundamentalist Rev. Tim LaHaye, a co-author of the popular and anxiety-producing Left Behind apocalypse novels. LaHaye, in turn, lifted his un-Christian-like idea of temperaments from Hippocrates.

The fact that ancient Greek pseudoscience continues to exist in modern-day fundamentalist Christian counseling is not particularly shocking. The idea that fundamentalists, unable to manage the reality around them with their acutely myopic understanding of Scripture, might try and apply some of those medical practices to psychology is also unsurprising.

After her husband became speaker, Kelly Johnson’s business website became inaccessible. It is hard to say how much her counseling practice veers into the pseudoscience of temperament theory, but the Internet Archive’s WayBack Machine has this “memory” of the website dating to Oct. 26—the day after her husband was elected speaker—and her bio on the leadership page reads as such:

Kelly L. Johnson is a Licensed Pastoral Counselor, a Certified Temperament Counselor, Professional Clinical Member of the National Christian Counselors Association, President of Onward Christian Counseling Services, LLC, and CEO of Onward Christian Education Services, Inc.

Business Insider reports that neither Johnson nor the organization returned their requests for comment, but the organization does advise its counselors to hold malpractice insurance—so that’s modern.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Becca Balint

House Democrat Introduces Censure Resolution Against Margie Greene (VIDEO)

In July, Rep. Becca Balint of Vermont introduced a resolution to censure Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, saying, “Censuring Rep. Taylor Greene is about the health of our democracy and faith in government. Her antisemitic, racist, transphobic rhetoric has no place in the House of Representatives. I ran for Congress after watching on January 6th that anti-democratic messages and fear mongering have real consequences for our democracy.” The Democrat didn’t force a vote on it at the time, saying she was hoping to lessen escalating partisanship between two parties who need to come together to pass important legislation.

On Thursday, Greene decided to forge ahead with her Islamophobic resolution to force a vote of censure on Palestinian American Rep. Rashida Tlaib for “antisemitic activity, sympathizing with terrorist organizations and leading an insurrection at the United States Capitol Complex.” Tlaib spoke at a peaceful demonstration at the Capitol organized by the progressive Jewish Voices for Peace, who were calling for a ceasefire in the conflict between Israel and Hamas. Greene’s offensive piece of political theater attempts to equate peaceful protesters who did not illegally attempt to disrupt the democratic process of our elections with the criminals involved in the JanUARY 6. insurrection.

Balint decided to show her House colleagues what a serious resolution to censure a representative actually looks like. She read her eight-page resolution aloud on the House floor, detailing the relentless barrage of incendiary statements made by Greene during her relatively short tenure in office. Balint’s words were fiery and powerful, yet simple in their factually driven gravity.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Tearful Jenna Ellis Pleads Guilty, Apologizes, And Dumps Trump (VIDEO)

Tearful Jenna Ellis Pleads Guilty, Apologizes, And Dumps Trump (VIDEO)

On Tuesday, former Trump attorney Jenna Ellis became the latest Trump associate to cut a plea deal with prosecutors in Georgia regarding her role in the racketeering case to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

The bluster Ellis has been known for was gone on Tuesday as she semi-sobbed through a brief statement to the court during which she sort of took responsibility for trying to help reverse the decision of millions of Georgians while squarely blaming others for misleading her.

I endeavored to represent my client to the best of my ability. I relied on others, including lawyers with many more years of experience than I, to provide me with true and reliable information, especially since my role involved speaking to the media and to legislators in various states. What I did not do, but should have done, your Honor, was to make sure that the facts the other lawyers alleged to be true were in fact true.[...] If I knew then what I know now, I would have declined to represent Donald Trump in these post election challenges.”

Ellis finished by claiming some responsibility: “I have taken responsibility already before the Colorado Bar who censured me, and I now take responsibility before this court and apologize to the people of Georgia.”

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos

Mark Milley

Retiring Gen. Milley: 'We Don't Take An Oath To A Wannabe Dictator' (VIDEO)

On Friday, Gen. Mark A. Milley retired as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. President Joe Biden spoke at a ceremony honoring the general held at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall near Washington, D.C. Biden called the “partnership” he had with Milley “invaluable.” Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin described Milley as “a scholar and a warrior," saying, "We respect him for his wit, but we love him for his heart. And he’s thrown his whole heart into leading this tremendous joint force of soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, guardians.”

Milley spoke for some time, joking that the good news was no one need hear him speak in uniform anymore after Friday’s ceremony. His speech highlighted the people who helped him and the important work being done by the U.S. military around the world. But he saved a few choice words for the topic of the military’s place in the separation of powers that is essential to a healthy democracy:


We don't take an oath to a tribe. We don't take an oath to a religion. We don't take an oath to a king or queen, or a tyrant, or a dictator. And we don't take an oath to a wannabe dictator. We don't take an oath to an individual. We take an oath to the Constitution and we take an oath to the idea that this is America and we're willing to die to protect it. Every soldier, sailor, airman, Marine, guardian and Coast Guard: Each of us commits our very life to protect and defend that document regardless of personal price.

This is the first part of Milley’s speech. The second part will be posted below it as soon as it becomes available.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Jeanine PIrro

How Hypocritical Is Fox News On Trump Indictments? Hilariously

Republican hypocrisy knows no bounds. You need only to review the conservative propaganda landscape to see evidence of the pretzels that conservatives will twist themselves into in order to reverse what they once yelled about ad nauseam. You may remember when, in 2016, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was being investigated for her handling of government emails on a private server. If you happened to switch your channel to Fox News around that time, you would have been told, in no uncertain terms, that this investigation was grounds to disqualify Clinton from the planet Earth.

Fox News scream-machines like Jeanine Pirro proclaimed, “We cannot have a country led by a president subject to ongoing criminal investigations, potential indictments, and never-ending hearings.” Trump’s bestest buddy Sean Hannity claimed that the FBI investigation into Clinton’s emails would “put this country into a major constitutional crisis.” Former Fox host Tucker Carlson was so shocked back in 2016 that he exclaimed, “Holy smokes.” Even the brain of the GOP, former Rep. Newt Gingrich, implied a Clinton investigation would create chaos in her first two years in office.

I’m sure that now, in 2023, with former President Donald Trump having been investigated and indicted, these very same conservative voices are demanding their viewership look elsewhere for a leader. The folks over at MSNBC’s “The Mehdi Hasan Show” put together a video montage showing how much those old thoughts and feelings have mutated now that the candidate isn’t simply being vaguely investigated but is actually indicted—four times!

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

David Cole

Alabama GOP Legislator Arrested For Voter Fraud -- And Republicans Were Complicit

Republican Alabama state Rep. David Cole was arrested Tuesday and charged with fraudulently voting at an unauthorized location. Seeing as the people most likely to be charged for actually committing voter fraud often belong to the political party constantly screeching about voter fraud, Cole’s arrest is not much of a surprise. However, after all of the Republican Party’s talk about election integrity, it was not the Republican-controlled Alabama Legislature that brought Cole’s infraction to court—it was a Libertarian candidate who ran against him.

In order to run for election in District 10, Cole seems to have used someone else’s address. Tuesday’s charges mean that apparently, Cole was also using that same address to vote. The arrest stems from the well-documented questions surrounding Cole’s residency. After Cole won election in 2022, he was sued by Libertarian candidate Elijah Boyd, who finished third in the race. Boyd insisted that due to residency requirements, Cole was ineligible to run for the position in the first place. During a May deposition, Cole admitted under oath that he could not recall having spent a single night in the residence where he claimed to live.

The evidence that Cole did not live in the district seems to have been very clear since well before he won the nomination. But the Alabama Republican Party backed him the whole way, and considered him their best chance at winning the district. Boyd’s attorney told News 19, “Cole‘s hubris and loose relationship with the truth finally caught up with him. The voters in Madison County deserved better and I’m glad that our election contest was able to shine a light on his fraud.”

Alabama Republicans, like the rest of the Republican Party, have been making so much hay over the past decade about voter fraud and election security that it seemed inevitable this chicken would come home to roost. But they still tried their darndest to pretend Cole wasn’t breaking election laws.

In November, Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill reviewed the evidence and said a “rental agreement” signed just days before the filing deadline was good enough for him. Merrill released a statement saying, “The Alabama Republican Party certified Dr. Cole as a Republican candidate for the nomination for House District 10.”

Alabama Political Reporter’s Josh Moon has been following Cole’s troubles since November. At that time the Cole campaign’s excuses were less than sufficient. If you were to believe Cole’s side of the story, he and his family of five wanted to downsize from their home in District 4 to an apartment in District 10. But, since that was taking a lot of time, they rented from a friend, signing the lease just a couple of days before Cole would have been ineligible to run without proof of residency.

Then, if we are to believe Cole, he and his family of five moved into a rental—where another entire family was already living. Yeehaw! In an opinion piece he wrote after the arrest, Moon pointed the finger at many people and suggested Cole was doing what many others told him was okay to do. Moon points out that Republican lawmakers didn’t move an inch when Cole’s residency was fully exposed as a lie.

Madison County Democratic Party Executive Committee Chair Shelia McNeil gave a statement about Tuesday’s arrest, noting the Republican Party’s hypocrisy in the matter.

“Voter fraud is an assault on democracy and is especially egregious when perpetrated by an elected official. I’m happy to see that Madison County takes voter fraud seriously and is taking steps to protect the integrity of our electoral process.“But Mr. Cole isn’t the only one at fault here. The Alabama Legislature could have corrected this wrong itself, according to the Alabama Supreme Court. The GOP-dominated House of Representatives, apparently more concerned about politics and power than the voters of House District 10, declined to do so. The Madison County residents in District 10 deserve better than to be treated as tools of the GOP’s political priorities. We hope that Cole’s arrest will begin the process of restoring to them their right to elect legal, eligible candidates, regardless of party.”

Cole was released on $2,500 bail. The charge against him is a Class C felony, meaning a conviction could result in up to 10 years in prison.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Chris Veal

Right-Wingers Cheered Trump Mural -- Until It Was Completed (VIDEO)

Within hours of Donald Trump’s Fulton County jail mugshot getting plastered around the world, right-wingers were pretending that having the leader of their political movement indicted four separate times was a good thing. Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk’s inhalation of copium included calling it the “most iconic mugshot in American history,” and Lara Trump told Newsmax it would “backfire” on Trump’s detractors. Meanwhile, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene shared a poorly photoshopped mugshot of her own in the most superficial form of solidarity available to her.

On The Ingraham Angle, Fox News contributor Raymond Arroyo proposed that the mugshot would launch Donald Trump into a cultural landscape with famous musicians and “outlaws,” such as Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Frank Sinatra, and Tupac Shakur. He went so far as to say he had heard a “Black lady” call Trump “a gangsta,” which to Arroyo meant Trump now “has cred among a new block of voters that perhaps have never given him a serious look and now they are looking again.” In Arroyo and other right-wingers’ imaginations, Black people believe that anyone who gets a mugshot is cool.

On Sunday, Georgia-based artist Chris Veal painted a mural of Trump’s mugshot on a building that runs along Atlanta’s Eastside BeltLine Trail. Kirk and other right-wingers saw the beginnings of the mural’s creation on X, formerly known as Twitter, and championed it as proof positive that Atlantans were in revolt against Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.

Shortly after Kirk reposted the video, Veal finished his mural and surprise surprise! It wasn’t the pro-Trump message Kirk and others wanted so badly. A bubble had been added to the mural that read: “M.A.G.A. My Ass Got Arrested.” The repost eventually earned a community note.

As for the predicted “backlash,” Veal told Fox 5 that the mural took about three hours to complete. He said feedback has been positive, with people smiling and laughing and giving him “high fives.” Veal added, “I hope they get a kick out of it. I hope they keep up with it and get out and vote.”

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Sherri Tenpenny

Medical Board Suspends License Of Notorious Anti-Vax Doctor

A doctor whose false claims that COVID-19 vaccines could magnetize you (and that this was also somehow connected to 5G cell towers) has lost her medical license. The State Medical Board of Ohio decided that Dr. Sherri Tenpenny’s license should be suspended indefinitely due to her refusal to cooperate with its investigation into more than 350 complaints against her.

Tenpenny’s July 2021 testimony in front of Ohio legislators made headlines because of how bananas in the belfry her claims were, including her statements that videos of people claiming to be magnetized by vaccines were real evidence. "You can put a key on their forehead, it sticks,” she said with a straight face. “You can put spoons and forks all over and they can stick because now we think there is a metal piece to that.”

And while the board’s indefinite suspension of Tenpenny’s license was not directly tied to her erroneous claims, the report released with the decision includes a lot of unanswered questions regarding proclamations Tenpenny has made in her capacity as a medical professional over the years.

Some of the questions still lingering in the wake of Tenpenny’s investigation include:

“The Interrogatories asked for information regarding Dr. Tenpenny’s practice in general as well as asking specifically about her practice regarding recommendations concerning, and administration of, vaccines and whether any of her patients subsequently contracted certain illnesses. The Interrogatories also specifically ask how many doses of COVID-19 vaccines she had provided and whether she had personally received a COVID-19 vaccine. ”

And:

“The Interrogatories also asked Dr. Tenpenny what scientific evidence she had, and specifically asked that she cite her sources for this evidence, regarding COVID-19 vaccines causing people to become magnetized or creating an interface with 5G towers; regarding the COVID-19 vaccine not injecting a real virus but strips of genetic material and patients suffering complications such as abnormal bleedings, myocarditis, strokes, and neurological complications; and regarding some major metropolitan areas liquifying dead bodies and pouring them into the water supply.”

One of the board members, Dr. Amol Soin, explained the decision in language even a person with a spoon stuck to their forehead can understand.

“The license to practice medicine is not a right. It’s a privilege,” Soin said. “A privilege that is earned, and a privilege that you have to uphold. And as you get that license, and as you obtain that privilege, you consent to certain reasonable things. And a reasonable thing you consent to... is to cooperate when someone complains about you. In this case, 350 complaints. It is a very reasonable thing to cooperate in that scenario.”

The Trump administration’s botching of our public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic will go down in history as an epic failure. After spending a year trying to figure out how to blame the pandemic on everybody and everything and even helping to promote the idea that it wasn’t that bad in the first place, Trump realized that the only success his administration might be able to hang its hat on was getting an effective and safe vaccine to Americans in under a year.

Unfortunately for Trump and the Republican Party, the toxic cauldron of anti-science rhetoric and bad public health proposals meant they had trained the most vociferous members of their voting base to be anti-vaccine. In the months after the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were rolled out, anti-vaxxers made all kinds of unsubstantiated claims, and Tenpenny’s wild accusations were just one of the more headline-grabbing instances.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Matt Maddock

Michigan Republican Threatens 'Civil War' Over Fake Elector Charges

Michigan Republican state Rep. Matt Maddock hosted a pool party fundraiser in August for the 16 fake electors who were recently charged by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel for signing fraudulent paperwork claiming Donald Trump won the 2020 election. Maddock’s wife, Meshawn Maddock, is one of the Trump supporters facing several felonies for her role in the scheme. In a speech to the pool party attendees that was recorded by someone at the event and later leaked toThe Messenger, Maddock told supporters people were getting angry about the prosecutions and violence was a likely outcome.

Maddock warned the crowd that “If the government continues to weaponize these departments against conservatives and the citizens that are then the taxpayers … Someone's going to get so pissed off, they're going to shoot someone. That's what's going to happen. Or we're going have a civil war or some sort of revolution. That's where this is, where this is going.” But Maddock frames this coming civil war as a violent event and added that pool party attendees, and conservatives in general, are “going to get squashed.”

The “Free The 16 Electors Poolside Party!” took place at the Maddock’s residence and was hosted by Grand New Party PAC, which was founded in 2022 by Republican Rep. Steve Carra (Three Rivers), who has accused Michigan Republican Party leaders as being “too passive,” and “too moderate.” Get it? The Grand New Party as opposed to the Grand Old Party. The PAC is being driven by the same kind of anger and total disarray we’ve seen inside of the Michigan Republican Party recently, including late-night bar fights among members.

In a November 2022 press conference announcing the new PAC, Carra said he hoped it would help encourage more Michigan conservatives to “go the Ron DeSantis route.” The same Ron DeSantis flaming out at record speed in the Republican primary? Sounds like an excellent plan! But you get the general tenor of their politics.

In the roughly four-minute audio recording published by The Messenger, Michigan state Rep. James DeSana can also be heard telling the audience he hopes to “get a resolution up to impeach Dana Nessel,” the state’s attorney general. The comment drew applause and DeSana laid out their half-witted plan to impeach Nessel. DeSana released a statement on Thursday saying he stood by his statement, while Maddock’s statement hid behind his “right to free speech.”

Maddock’s wife Meshawn, along with Kathy Berden, William “Hank” Choate, Amy Facchinello, Clifford Frost, Stanley Grot, John Haggard, Mari-Ann Henry, Timothy King, Michele Lundgren, James Renner, Mayra Rodriguez, Rose Rook, Marian Sheridan, Ken Thompson, and Kent Vanderwood were charged in July with a slew of felonies. The indictment alleges all 16 charged in the scheme met in the basement of the Michigan Republican Party headquarters and signed “multiple certificates stating they were the ‘duly elected and qualified electors for President and Vice President of the United States of America for the State of Michigan.’ These false documents were then transmitted to the United States Senate and National Archives in a coordinated effort to award the state’s electoral votes to the candidate of their choosing, in place of the candidates actually elected by the people of Michigan.”

Each defendant is facing:

  • One count of Conspiracy to Commit Forgery, a 14-year felony.
  • Two counts of Forgery, a 14-year felony.
  • One count of Conspiracy to Commit Uttering and Publishing, a 14-year felony.
  • One count of Uttering and Publishing, a 14-year felony.
  • One count of Conspiracy to Commit Election Law Forgery, a 5-year felony.
  • Two counts of Election Law Forgery, a 5-year felony.

Serious charges with serious consequences. It’s understandable why Maddock would be stressed out that Trump’s attempt to overturn the election results didn’t go as planned, and they are leaning into the violence that got them to this point in the first place.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

E. Jean Carroll

Judge Tosses Trump's Defamation Suit Againt Carroll -- Because He 'Raped' Her

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan dealt another blow to Donald Trump’s attempts to cloudy up the $5 million liability ruling against him in the sexual assault and defamation case brought by E. Jean Carroll. Kaplan entered a new opinion, dismissing Trump’s counterclaim against Carroll that she defamed him during a 2023 CNN interview after the ruling.

This decision comes after Kaplan denied Trump’s request for a new trial and a reexamination of the $5 million compensatory and punitive decision awarded Carroll. In that judgment, Kaplan wrote that while Trump had not “raped” Carroll by the “narrow, technical meaning of a particular section of the New York Penal Law,” the jury’s decision and the damages awarded Carroll proved that Trump’s had indeed “raped” her by what most “people commonly understand” the word to mean.

Monday’s decision relied heavily on Kaplan’s previous decision explaining that Trump’s actions, proven in court, showed that Carroll’s assertions that the disgraced former president raped her were “substantially true.”

The decision comes as Carroll is bringing her second defamation lawsuit against Trump, where she is asking for $10 million in damages. Kaplan’s latest decision is in line with the previous one:

Ms. Carroll’s claim that Mr. Trump defamed her in his 2019 statements never has hinged on the precise manner in which she claimed he raped her, “rape” being a term of various meanings. It instead has been centered on whether Mr. Trump defamed her by asserting that she made up an entirely fictitious account of a forcible sexual assault by Mr. Trump in order to increase sales of her book and/or carry out a political agenda, among other things. While Ms. Carroll has used the word “rape,” the controversy between the parties has always centered on whether Trump attacked Ms. Carroll sexually, thus rendering his 2019 statements false and defamatory, not about the specific anatomical details of the assault.

Trump’s team of winner lawyers has tried to launch their defense based on the idea that because New York Penal law defines “rape” as having one’s vagina penetrated by a penis, Carroll was defaming the scumbag Trump because he was found guilty of forcibly penetrating her with his fingers.

“The finding that Ms. Carroll failed to prove that she was 'raped' within the meaning of the New York Penal Law does not mean that she failed to prove that Mr. Trump 'raped' her as many people commonly understand the word 'rape.' Indeed, as the evidence at trial recounted below makes clear, the jury found that Mr. Trump in fact did exactly that.”

Let that sink in. This guy is going to be the Republican nominee for president.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Jim Jordan

GOP 'Star Witness' Shot Down Claims Of Biden Corruption

When Hunter Biden’s former business partner Devon Archer gave closed-door testimony to the House Oversight Committee on July 31, it quickly seemed clear that none of it implicated President Joe Biden, and nothing much implicated Hunter Biden himself in any corruption shenanigans related to Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company. For a few hours after Archer gave his testimony, Republican officials kept mum. In contrast, Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) spoke with reporters about how much of a bust this witness was for conservatives trying to use their House majority to frame the Biden family.

Later that evening, Republican Reps. James Comer and Jim Jordan went on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show and claimed that the testimony, while not a smoking gun, was filled with all kinds of circumstantial evidence of corruption. Comer told Hannity that Archer said, “Hunter Biden was under immense pressure while they both served on Burisma’s board to call Washington, D.C., immediately and try to get Shokin fired. That’s the Ukrainian prosecutor. Not many days later, Joe Biden traveled to Ukraine, and we’ve all seen the video where Joe Biden brags about withholding foreign aid to Ukraine in exchange for the Ukrainian president firing the prosecutor who was investigating his son’s corrupt energy company.”

Calling bullshit, Democratic leaders demanded that Comer and Jordan release the transcript of the testimony to the public. “Release the transcript” became a trending topic on social media and finally, Republicans released the transcript for all to see. Surprise, surprise: Archer’s testimony not only doesn’t imply any of the things Comer and Jordan claimed, it supports the existing evidence showing the accusations against President Biden are ludicrous.

During his testimony, Archer insisted that he never witnessed any bribery talk involving the president or his son. Archer also told the committee that the president’s son was very clear that he wanted to follow the letter of the law. In fact, the Catch-22 being faced by conservatives is that for all of Hunter Biden’s personal problems with addiction, he understood that the Biden “brand”—the reason he was being paid a lot of money for his lobbying expertise—was tied up with his father’s integrity.

That led to this exchange about the strains on Hunter Biden as he was pressured to exert more influence:

Mr. Archer: It was a constant push-pull in that regard, you know.Mr. Goldman: Because Burisma wanted him—
Mr. Archer.:People always wanted more.
Mr. Goldman. Burisma wanted him to do more
Mr. Archer: Right.
Mr. Goldman:—with his connections.
Mr. Archer: Correct.
Mr. Goldman: And Hunter Biden understood that he could not do that, but he
was trying to—
Mr. Archer: Balance it.
Mr. Goldman:—balance it and prove value to a company that expected him to do
things that—
Mr. Archer: Right.
Mr. Goldman:—he was uncomfortable doing.
Mr. Archer: Right.
Goldman: And so as a Biden, it was important for him to follow the law. Is that fair?
Archer: That's fair.

And then there is the false claim by Republicans—the one that is foundational to the entire accusation—that Hunter Biden’s job at Burisma was to get then-Vice President Joe Biden to have Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin fired. The entire corruption conspiracy Comer and Jordan and Sen. Chuck Grassley have promoted alleges that Shokin posed a threat to Burisma because he was investigating them and putting pressure on the new company, and possibly holding up millions in dollars of assets locked in a bank account in England.

Archer’s testimony explained that the opposite was true. He said it was his understanding that Shokin was good for Burisma:

Mr. Goldman: Let's talk about legally, I think just pivot to that, because you had said earlier that—I believe the direct quote is that Burisma felt like they had Shokin under control.Mr. Archer: Correct.
Mr. Goldman: What did you mean by that?
Mr. Archer: That was like—that was a narrative that was told to me by various of the D.C. team, that the firing of Shokin was bad for Burisma because he was under control.
Mr. Goldman: What did you understand "under control" to mean?
Mr. Archer: Meaning that they were going to maybe give a slap on the wrist as opposed to—
Mr. Goldman: Okay.
Mr. Archer. -- you know, seize all his assets.

Once again, Archer is proving why anyone paying even a tiny bit of attention to the claims against President Biden considers these accusations baseless. Then-Vice President Biden went to Ukraine, pushed for the firing of a Ukrainian prosecutor because that prosecutor was not investigating possible corruption and potentially dubious assets, and the company Hunter Biden was being paid by not only didn’t benefit from this, they would have greatly preferred the prosecutor stay where he was—at least financially.

Whether or not the Republican witch hunters are taking their “investigation” behind closed doors because they are tired of being publicly embarrassed isn’t known. What is known is that when any of the facts are revealed to the public, it quickly becomes very clear that Comer and Jordan are trying their best to finish the fabricated narrative started by their swamp-king leader Donald Trump.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

George Santos

Judge Orders Disclosure Of Wealthy Benefactors Who Posted $500K Santos Bond

On Tuesday, Magistrate Judge Anne Y. Shields ordered the release of the identities of three people who signed on to help copiously indicted Republican Rep. George Santos post a $500,000 bond. Judge Shields gave Santos’ legal team until Friday at noon to appeal the decision.

The decision comes one day after Santos’ lawyer, Joseph Murray, said that his client would rather go to jail than release his benefactors’ identities. Murray argued that Santos was protecting these wealthy patrons’ safety, writing, “We truly fear for their health, safety and well being.”

Santos, a well-documented liar, faces 13 counts of fraud, including wire fraud, unemployment benefits fraud, money laundering, stealing public funds, and lying to Congress. There are also other outstanding investigations into Santos’ activities not covered in this specific case.

Shields’ decision is not surprising since it has been standard for the public to have access to judicial documents, including financial ones that are tied to the individual being charged. Add to this that Santos is a public official who is compelled by law to disclose his finances.

As Insider points out, in the recent high-profile case of Ghislaine Maxwell, associate of serial rapist and pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, offers poured in from people to post her bond. Those identities were released, as were the identities of Sam Bankman-Fried’s bond backers in his fraud case.

As to the three still-unknown names on the George Santos bond-backing list, there has been speculation that at least one of them could be indicted alleged fraudster and exiled Chinese billionaire Ho Wan Kwok. If that name doesn’t ring a bell, maybe Guo Wengui or one of his four other aliases does? Wengui is the name connected to Steve Bannon and that knucklehead’s own indictment.

Whether or not he is connected to Santos’ case remains to be seen. But considering how untoward Santos, Bannon, Guo, Trump, and the entire Republican establishment are at this point, it wouldn’t be surprising in the least.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Tuberville Sputters Openly Racist Remarks On Don Jr. Webcast

Tuberville Sputters Openly Racist Remarks On Don Jr. Webcast

Alabama Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville has long been known for saying wildly racist stuff out loud in the service of the conservative agenda. And he did it again during an appearance on Donald Trump Jr.’s web show, “Triggered,” while talking about all the “woke” problems in the world.

Making the rounds on Friday was a clip of Tuberville attacking teachers. More specifically, Tuberville blew his racist whistle, saying, “COVID really brought it out about how bad our schools are and how bad our teachers are in the inner city, most of them in inner city.” But he wasn’t done degrading “inner city” educators, adding, “I don't know whether they can read and write.”

Now, Tuberville says lots of racist things, but his appearance with Don Jr. did expose how racism often works for the Republican Party: as an attack on labor.

The full exchange between the two dunderheads gives away the game. Notice how quickly Tuberville’s racist convictions jump track to labor issues.

“And they want a raise. They want less time to work and less time in school. It's just we've ruined work ethic in this country.” They’re also lazy. Got all that old-timey racism?

But basic conservative racism aside, this is Tuberville’s real agenda: breaking unions and ridding Alabama of public schools. Tuberville, like virtually all Republican officials, is in the business of siphoning public school money to the private sector. The lynchpin of the conservative movement’s war on public education and teachers is “parents rights” (unless those parents’ children don’t agree with Christian conservative politics).

Tuberville just has a tendency to bang the racist gongs as loudly as possible, and the MAGA world needs racism the way that the general population needs soylent green. It is no coincidence that Tuberville’s blunt bigotry has found a home in the MAGA camp, pushing Big Lie election fraud claims, even saying this pretend election fraud against the Donald “makes me want to vote for him twice.”

Tuberville has been called out for his dangerous racist statements before. During a Trump rally in October of last year, Tuberville gave his jumbled version of an attack on Democrats and the fake crime wave, saying, ”They want crime, because they want to take over what you got. They want to control what you have. They want reparation because they think the people that do the crime are owed that. Bullshit. They are not owed that."

Tuberville hits pretty much every racist trope that Black Americans have fought against for hundreds of years. In the span of a few months, Tuberville has said, out loud and in front of cameras, that the descendants of slaves are criminals, uneducated (if not illiterate), and indolent. Tuberville’s lazy use of racist tropes exposes him as the low-rent George Wallace he is clearly modeling himself after.

Tuberville’s racist wisdom is always factually wrong, even if the majority of Republican officials believe it. Tuberville joins other bigoted right-wing charlatans in his use of racist dog whistles we all once believed were too archaic to be used anymore—even for racists.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

WATCH: House Democrats Laugh And Jeer As Margie Bangs Gavel For 'Decorum'

WATCH: House Democrats Laugh And Jeer As Margie Bangs Gavel For 'Decorum'

The House of Representatives is in session. In the clip below, while representatives speak to one another, as they do, notorious troll Marjorie Taylor Greene cuts through the murmuring to say, “The members are reminded to abide by the decorum of the House.” This leads to about 40 seconds of laughter from the Democratic representatives.

Enjoy!

Democratic representatives laugh at Marjorie Taylor Greene on the floor of the Houseyoutu.be


Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos