As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op eds.
ABC's chief White House correspondent Jonathan Karl's new book, "Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show," reveals yet another instance of the extent to which the Malignant Loser's lickspittles were conspiring to stage a coup on January 6. Here's a portion of ABC News' account of the revelation:
In a memo not made public until now, then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows emailed to Vice President Mike Pence's top aide, on New Year's Eve, a detailed plan for undoing President Joe Biden's election victory, ABC News' Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl reports.
The memo, written by former President Donald Trump's campaign lawyer Jenna Ellis, is reported for the first time in Karl's upcoming book, "Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show" -- demonstrating how Pence was under even more pressure than previously known to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Ellis, in the memo, outlined a multi-step strategy: On Jan. 6, the day Congress was to certify the 2020 election results, Pence was to send back the electoral votes from six battleground states that Trump falsely claimed he had won.
The memo said that Pence would give the states a deadline of "7pm eastern standard time on January 15th" to send back a new set of votes, according to Karl.
Then, Ellis wrote, if any state legislature missed that deadline, "no electoral votes can be opened and counted from that state."
Such a scenario would leave neither Biden nor Trump with a majority of votes, Ellis wrote, which would mean "Congress shall vote by state delegation" -- which, Ellis said, would in turn lead to Trump being declared the winner due to Republicans controlling the majority of state delegations with 26.
The day after Meadows sent Ellis' memo to Pence's aide, on Jan. 1, Trump aide John McEntee sent another memo to Pence's chief of staff, Marc Short, titled, "Jefferson used his position as VP to win."
Although McEntee's memo was historically incorrect, Karl says, his message was clear: Jefferson took advantage of his position, and Pence must do the same.
The January 6 select committee appears to be serious about holding the seditionists accountable, and there's a decent likelihood that there's already a grand jury (either the one that indicted Bannon or a separate one) that will be ready to indict these mooks after the select committee makes their referrals.
Meanwhile, the thugs warn of "payback" if their coup plotters are pursued legally:
Bannon is expected to turn himself in to law enforcement Monday ahead of a court appearance that afternoon. Democrats and a handful of anti-Trump Republicans argue that the indictment was necessary to enforce subpoenas issued by the Jan. 6 committee to Trump associates who are resisting cooperation and to witnesses summoned by other congressional panels.
Many GOP leaders, however, are seizing on Bannon’s indictment to contend that Democrats are “weaponizing” the Justice Department, warning Democrats that they will go after Biden’s aides for unspecified reasons if they take back the House majority in next year’s midterm elections, as most political analysts expect.
"Unspecified reasons" = Trumped- up bullshit. Don't be distracted or deterred, Democrats!
In fact, the much- maligned- by- his- own- team AG Merrick Garland is making a lot of progress that doesn't get media attention. Here's James Sullivan at Palmer Report (found via Fair and Unbalanced):
In the last eight days, the Justice Department has sued the state of Texas over the pernicious SB 8 bill that drew significant backlash in September, sued for fairer voting rights, went to court to prevent an egregious merger between publishing giants Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster, and worked on an expansion for legal aid access for those who need it. This sounds like a pretty significant week – even if the Biden administration and congressional Democrats hadn’t scored a massive win with infrastructure this week.
Antitrust law is something that Amy Klobuchar, Chair of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee has been passionate about for a while, and a number of giant conglomerates got even bigger over the last four years, as the Trump administration only tried to prevent one major merger between AOL Time Warner and AT&T from happening – just on the basis that Donald Trump was trying to get back at CNN for saying mean things about him. Of course, that didn’t fly and the merger happened anyway. Monopolies are bad for competition and the market in general, and we should be seeing more lawsuits like the one Garland is bringing against Simon & Schuster.
The wheels of justice ...
Cheryl Rofer has a short piece on the anti- vaxxers, which concludes thusly:
The anti-vaxxers are part of a small anti-government movement that includes “militias,” sovereign citizens, and other kooks. Because they are willing to be loud and violent, and because the media get off on covering them, they look stronger than they are.
Public opinion is strongly in favor of the legislation Congress has passed and is considering; again, the nay-sayers are in the minority. Two of Biden’s significant recovery bills have passed. Unfortunately, the nay-sayers have inordinate power in Congress.
We outnumber them. We have to use that wherever we can to crush them.
She's right. Look around you at the countless people going about their lives, doing the right thing for their families and communities. We can't let these violence- prone crackpots and their representatives foil the will of the majority. Unfortunately, it's not a quick battle, but rather a long struggle.
Finally, you'll find much more to delight, stimulate, mind boggle, etc., at Infidel 753's link round-up. He also directs you to his recent posts, including a post on historical cycles of cultural darkness and light. Always thought- provoking.
