Not to throw fuel on the am_Unition fire, but they literally used the word "fake" in their email threads.
As the CEO of my company likes to say, you should address every email you ever write to "Your Honor". Discovery will out.
You've summoned a burning pile of ammo. Regret. It's debatable whether large-scale, high-level "seditious conspiracy" or "conspiracy obstruction of government proceedings" prosecutions are winnable in a court of law, I agree with that. But if you (both the proverbial “you”, and userski b_b) still have any questions about... almost anyone involved's state of mind, I dunno how. Obviously Trump did not conceive of every potential action himself, but he certainly shared them with other top-level loyalists and coordinated a multi-pronged effort with them. Fascist regimes, mobs/gangs, The Apprentice, people in all the bad power structures; They are so hell-bent on amassing their own little islands of power that there's no way they can resist directly telling and coordinating (sometimes desperate) ideas with The Boss. For the non-violent J6 offenders, I think there's now more than enough folks caught on record understanding their actions were illegal to strengthen conspiracy charges. I don't know how many people DoJ would need to flip to make the highest-level (Trump and immediate underlings) charges stick, but the evidence already in the public domain is wild/creative. We still have almost no new info on what went down at the Pentagon, btw. If the J6 committee finds anything, that's probably evidence confidentially submitted to DoJ.
"Winnable in a court of law" is not and should not be the goal here. A felony conviction would not prevent Trump from running again. You need to recognize that you are not watching a legal proceeding, no matter how much it appears to be one - you are watching a public shaming ritual and it is absolutely vital to the future of the country. The "state of mind" canards have one purpose: convince Trump's supporters that the charges don't matter. You are not and never have been a Trump supporter so of course this all appears ludicrous to you but in a top-down loyalty-based organization like the Republican Party, the entire game is to topple the figurehead. This is made particularly tricky without a decent figurehead to replace him with. Look at the trail of dead: Bobby Jindal. Nicky Haley. Sarah Palin. Marco Rubio. Paul Ryan. Chris Christie. All tainted in some way, all inapplicable to take over the role since the Republicans made it extremely Trump-shaped. If you wanna talk about "voter suppression", the J6 committee is it. The whole game is to get Trump supporters to waver in their Trump support. As of right now, Ron Blart Mall Governor is 24 points ahead in Florida, 12 points ahead in New Hampshire and within the margin of error in Michigan - Trump became the 2016 nominee because he absolutely slayed every primary but as of right now, Republican Dukakis is leading. This is a bad read. Trump has spent his whole life surrounded by opportunists because he himself is an opportunist. There's a reason he has had zero competent political counsel - the savvy opportunists did the costs-benefits analysis and put their ambitions on pause while this Trump thing burns itself out. It's not a lack of altruism that has gotten us here, it's a lack of opportunity. You never heard of Jason Miller or Stephen Miller before this and you'll never hear of them again. Mnuchin for Treasury Secretary? The showcase of mediocrity that was the Trump administration is something we aren't likely to see again in our lifetimes. This is also a bad read. Bob Woodward's last book makes it annoyingly, irritatingly clear that the entire military command and control structure was going to quietly, privately maintain the republic come hell or high water for the simple fact that their command and control comes from structure. If Trump had had the military the game would have been up but not only was the chain of command extremely disinterested in a coup, the military supported Trump less than any Republican on record.They are so hell-bent on amassing their own little islands of power that there's no way they can resist directly telling and coordinating (sometimes desperate) ideas with The Boss.
We still have almost no new info on what went down at the Pentagon, btw.
Are we still on this state of mind thing? Trump acts corruptly in almost every endeavor he undertakes. There was this great audio clip of him from back in the 90s where he was laughing about lying to the New Jersey gaming board about using junk debt to finance his new casino. He something like “you say what you have to say at the time to get what you want.” They played this on NPR before the 2016 election as a point/counterpoint piece about how often trump is lying. The verdict was “all the time”. I was making a joke about all the defenders in the impeach 1 hearings and the comey firing before that, who kept repeating that moronic line about his state of mind. “You have to prove he acted corruptly.” As if there was an iota of doubt in anyone’s mind.
LOL, nooooo, I thought you were stuck on it! You were kidding. Damnit, plaintext!
Not "/s" or the absence of it. just "🍑🍆🍑🍆🍑🍆🍑🍆🍑🍆🍑🍆", please My keyboard just refused to ctrl+v those fruits and vegetables, I had to go through my right click mouse menu. My OS loves me!
We are so fortunate that most people involved with this were totally incompetent grifters.
I've come around to the conclusion that the incompetence was the core motivating force, not a fortunate quirk. If Trump was better at the game he would have played it earlier, built up alliances, built up history, learned to play a political game. He would have had a rolodex full of competent people to do competent things and barter with other competent people. Instead, Trump's competence was in an entirely separate field: "When you're a star they let you do it." Call it a Kardashian presidency. The animating energy was pure star power, for star power's sake, driven entirely by starfuckers practicing starfuckery. I don't care what you think of Chris Christie, he's not going to get his son-in-law to go on Facebook and ask around for COVID policy. "Fake it 'til you make it," however, has been Trump's guide star since he was sent to military school as a troubled kid. "Appear competent" has been more valuable to him than "be competent" since he was a teenager. That the grifters seized power says more about the health of the Republican Party than it does about anything else. That, I believe, is where Trump saw opportunity. He was able to push over the entire power structure and bend it to his will, so why the fuck would he stop with one lost election? Those 187 minutes are the timeline between Trump taking his best shot and Trump realizing it wasn't enough. Everything since has been Trump probing for weakness and opportunity. In an editorial in January 2016, David Leonhardt observed that many of the rules we think govern the country are actually customs, and that Trump became president by ignoring those customs. His entire presidential reign was about testing the strength of those customs. I've come to recognize January 6 as a vaccine - a brutal one, but a successful one. The live virus made us sick but it awoke the antibodies most of us thought we didn't need. I'm sure you can quote me agreeing with you - Somewhere I have an article entitled "our next demagogue will not be incompetent" or something. But Trump has proven that you have to succeed within the customs if you want to take it all the way. Trump has demonstrated the depth and breadth of those customs and unless they're changed, no one will ever be able to take it as far ever again.
I agree that most minions were of little help except as worker bees, but some, like Eastman, Dershowitz (for impeachment #1), Flynn, Kash Patel, Mike Pillow, Giuliani (only kinda), and many others are pretty high-ups, mostly developing “legal” arguments (quotes ‘cuz there were none, so lip-sticking a pig, basically) while also PR'ing, and coordinating overall plans. Quick aside: I hope we get a Curb episode re-enacting when Larry David confronted Dershowitz at Martha’s Vineyard. edit: Trump also seems to have had at least one SCOTUSboi and wife on his roster for J6 plans. In addition to e.g. my senator, amongst many other GOP legislators. Honestly though, I doubt I could have done any better, even if I vigorously studied constitutional law, because ultimately any coup plans would have to hinge around actions that are obviously illegal and against the spirit of the constitution. Sadly, as we have seen time and time again with Trump, a disregard of legal constraints gives the lawbreakers some serious leverage if the laws aren’t enforced. I think Congress should pass laws designed to more explicitly protect our elections, but perhaps mostly to keep all of this in the public eye, because, clearly, it wasn’t the illegality that was bothersome to the coup plotters. After all, if a coup of the executive is successful, the ability to enforce the law against the coup'ers is irrelevant. obvz
Eastman Dershowitz Flynn Kash Patel and Mike Pillow only got access to the White House because they were on TV and the president was a TV addict. Larry Kudlow, FFS, was on Leeza Gibbons' show with Jim Cramer. Then he was on Kudlow & Kramer until it became clear that he was a drag on Jim Cramer of all people, then he was his own lame show that nobody watched, then he was on his other own lame show that nobody watched, then the Republicans declined to run him for any sort of office, then all of a sudden holy shit he's the director of the National Economic Council because he had been on television. Much like Dershowitz, who has been an ambulance-chasing gloryhound for 30 years. We've had this discussion before, and we'll doubtless have it again: If thee or me were to overthrow the government, we'd have a 30-point plan of attack backed up by 30 other players with 30-point plans and we'd have debated every contingency and assessed the probability. Trump? Trump has been at "I think I can do it therefore I can do it unless I can't" since he was a boy. Since he's failed up every time there's no reason not to try. I could tell you stories from the Apprentice where Trump would try things like "the crew doesn't actually need any space at the club for their gear and craft service despite the fact that they asked for it" that works with some crews and not with others. The crews it doesn't work with don't get invited back? But they also get crafty. Trump's entire history is one of people who won't be abused being replaced by people who will, of people who can do the calculus being replaced by those who can't.Honestly though, I doubt I could have done any better, even if I vigorously studied constitutional law, because ultimately any coup plans would have to hinge around actions that are obviously illegal and against the spirit of the constitution. Sadly, as we have seen time and time again with Trump, a disregard of legal constraints gives the lawbreakers some serious leverage if the laws aren’t enforced.