On being civil to incivility, or...

[b.c.]

Behind Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Masterful Interrogation Of Michael Cohen | HuffPost

"Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) went viral again yesterday.

This time it wasn’t because of her dancing skills or an epic Twitter clapback, but thanks to her sharp questioning of Michael Cohen at the House oversight committee hearing on Wednesday.

The freshman New York congresswoman “expertly laid a trap” to get ... Donald Trump’s tax returns, and “won” the Cohen hearing, according to two raving press accounts.

Ocasio-Cortez’s testimony focused primarily on Trump’s alleged deflation of his financial assets in order to lower his tax burden."


meanwhile:

DC Attorney General Subpoenas Trump’s Inaugural Committee records

"WASHINGTON — The attorney general for the District of Columbia has subpoenaed documents from ... Trump’s inaugural committee, the third governmental body to delve into how the fund raised $107 million and spent it to celebrate Mr. Trump’s swearing-in.

The latest subpoena follows similar demands for documents by federal prosecutors in Manhattan and by New Jersey’s attorney general. It cites a civil statute that governs the operation of nonprofit organizations like the inaugural committee.

Mr. Trump’s inaugural committee raised and spent at least twice as much as its predecessors, but it ended in acrimony amid allegations of misspent funds. Federal prosecutors are examining whether foreigners illegally contributed to events using Americans as straw donors, a possible violation of criminal law."

 

[b.c.]

Seems like the press, new media pundits, and others, online and in broadcast, are still just coming to the realization (that I immediately came to, FIRST time I saw it) of the implications of AOC's line of questioning to Cohen, which took less than FIVE frkng MINUTES:

Like a boss, AOC comes at Trump for tax evasion and insurance fraud

from the above:

"She was crisp, succinct, and very focused on raising some previously undiscussed potential criminal liability issues for Trump that Cohen’s testimony suggested (e.g, insurance fraud), including several where the hot-button issue of Trump’s missing tax returns might be germane.

AOC may have implicated Trump in a whole new case altogether in less than 5 minutes. No wonder Republicans are terrified of her."

 

[b.c.]

"SDNY may legally indict a sitting president, if warranted by a serious enough charge" - Here it Is.

 

[b.c.]

TRUMP'S SOCIALISM

A MUST SEE for EVERY LIBERAL and progressive. (Conservatives needn't bother... it'd be wasted on THEM):

So YES, though Trump and the GOP just LOVE "socialism" that benefits THEM, THEY have started in on this "SOCIALIST" mantra, the theme they'll be using up through Nov. 2020, to attack ANY Democrat speaking of government's responsibility to it's citizenry.

Just as I PREDICTED they'd do had Bernie Sanders won the 2016 nomination, contrary to certain other's contention that he'd have attracted more right wingers.

Only NOW, the right winged mischaracterizations and dog-whistle rhetoric about "socialist" tend to sound less hollow, as more Democrats have shifted to the left on issues such as medicare for all, and other "progressive" ideas (ALSO contrary to certain other's contention that we, "collectively", are "screwing progressive candidates").

And (as I've said before) we have Trump and the GOP to thank for THAT:

Opinion: GOP cries of 'socialism’ have lost sting for Democrats

 

[Fred90]

"I have to tell you, I like what Bernie stands for. I can say the same thing about Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren- ...none of them are going to be criminals, racists or incompetent."

Warren fraudulently passed herself off as a native-American in order to advance her career and enrich herself. She's no saint.

 

[gr8gatsby]

Warren fraudulently passed herself off as a native-American in order to advance her career and enrich herself. She's no saint.

Trump fraudulently passed himself off as a successful businessman for the same reasons.

 

[b.c.]

Dropping shoes, bagless cats, and tightening nooses:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/powe...4d6b7840b82_story.html?utm_term=.700165c3a36a
House Judiciary chairman says he will launch probe of Trump’s ‘abuse of power’ https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/03/house-democrats-want-trumps-communications-with-putin/
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/03/house-democrats-want-trumps-communications-with-putin/
House Democrats Want Trump’s Communications With Putin – Mother Jones
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/20...a-debate-primary-buried-a-story-to-help-Trump
Bombshell report: Fox News rigged a debate primary, buried Stormy Daniels story before 2016 election
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/20...ng-gun-could-be-holstered?utm_campaign=recent
the House judiciary document request may contain the core of Individual-1's collusion

BREAKING: New York state officials subpoena AON, Trump Org's insurance broker

 

[b.c.]

The GOP uses whatever means, and creates whatever bullshit narrative they think would fly, to attack Democrats, particularly Democratic WOMEN, and ESPECIALLY women of color. Hence Hillary is a crook, Warren an imposter, AOC a "commie" and Ilhan Ormar, anti-Semitic. That's the way they ROLL.

Only, in the last case, even some panicky Democrats JOINED in the spin:

GOP Gaslighting Ilhan Omar, Meanwhile Steve King Retweets an Actual Anti Semite... Again.

Bernie Defends Ilhan Omar, Says "Legitimate Criticism" of Israel Is Not Anti-Semitism

What we have learned from the attacks on Rep. Ilhan Omar
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/20...tacks-on-Rep-Ilhan-Omar?utm_campaign=trending

 

[b.c.]

"Civility" dispensed... calling a fraud a fraud, and a lie a fkng LIE... Calling THEM OUT, for what they ARE:

'This Nation Is Being Conned' By Trump, Khizr Khan Says | HuffPost

"Gold Star father and Muslim-American Khizr Khan, who made a name for himself standing up to ... Donald Trump’s Islamophobic rhetoric and criticism of his family, slammed the commander in chief’s seesawing on North Korea’s responsibility for the death of Otto Warmbier.

“He has disappointed the nation,” Khan told CNN’s Anderson Cooper in an interview Friday, rebuking [Trump's] lack of sympathy for the American college student who died after being imprisoned under dictator Kim Jong Un’s regime.

“Basically, the element of that empathy is missing and without that, we will continue to go through this ordeal whatever time is left, whatever time we have to endure” with Trump in the Oval Office.

“I am disappointed, it doesn’t surprise.”

... on what @AndersonCooper calls [Trump's] “sheer number of lies,” Khan said:

“It was so obvious that this nation is being conned, is being misled, misguided, something that wasn’t there was being sold and the nation is finding out,” he said.

“The disappointing part is that our Republican leaders, members of the Congress, they have forgotten their leadership, they have forgotten what their obligations are to the Constitution, to our democracy, to the rule of law.”"


... and to THE AMERICAN PEOPLE I might add.

LMFAO DEPT.

House and Senate Democrats introduce the MAR A LAGO Act requiring publication of WH visitor logs

"Democrats in the House and Senate on Tuesday introduced a bill mandating the publication of visitor logs at the White House and other personal properties where ... Trump conducts business.

Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.), co-founder and co-chair of the Congressional Transparency Caucus, introduced the Making Access Records Available to Lead American Government Openness Act.

The legislation was first introduced in the previous congressional term.

“No one should have greater access to or influence over the president or the administration just because they are wealthy, well-connected, or a regular at one of the president’s private clubs,” Udall said in a statement. “

AND:

John Oliver robocalls Ajit Pai and Trump's FCC every 90 minutes, telling them to end robocalls

 

[b.c.]

... what I've BEEN saying for... how many years now??

Samuel L. Jackson Issues Blistering Warning To People Staying Silent About Donald Trump | HuffPost

The “Captain Marvel” star said that “if you’re not saying anything, then you’re complicit.”

 

[b.c.]

Calling it out for what it IS:

What the Christchurch attacker's manifesto tells us.

"Before embarking on his attack, the 28-year-old gunman who killed at least 49 people at a pair of New Zealand mosques Friday posted a detailed manifesto explaining his motivations. The document is packed with rhetoric and themes popular with the online white nationalist communities that gather on message boards such as 8chan, where he announced his spree minutes before it began.

The manifesto has also caused some confusion as snippets have circulated around Twitter—in part because of some peculiarities in the ideology he describes, and in part because of passages that read like ironic shitposting. Neither should confuse from the central lesson from the attack and the manifesto: that we are confronting a global movement of white hate, one that has inserted far too many of its tendrils into the firmament of respectable politics."



AND, as shown below, living PROOF that this kind of right winged fascist ideology can be BOUGHT INTO and defended by people of color as WELL, including assholes like Candace Owens:

With the New Zealand mosque massacres, conservative media has more blood on its hands

""LOL!"

That was right-wing commentator Candace Owens' response to news of the mosque massacres in Christchurch, New Zealand, that claimed the lives of 49 people. It was a telling glimpse into the mindset of a radical brand of conservative pundits who traffic in white nationalism and xenophobia and who fuel the fires of hate.

Indeed, one of the suspected gunmen in the New Zealand massacre wrote up his so-called manifesto and cited Owens’ work as an inspiration. (Her "LOL" tweet was in reference to being named as inspiration by the gunman.) The killer also singled out Trump for praise.

What we're witnessing is the spread of global white supremacist terrorism, and conservative media in America functions as a central conduit for the disease. The conservative media both fuels the hate and belittles those who ring alarms about the dangers.

Recall that Owens made headlines earlier this year when she defended Adolf Hitler, suggesting everything he did to transform Germany in the 1930s, prior to its invasion of neighboring countries, had been positive—when in fact that's when Hitler was stripping citizens of their rights and burying democracy in Germany.

She has also "called for the imprisonment of Hillary and Bill Clinton, former FBI director James Comey, special counsel Robert Mueller and the TV anchors Jake Tapper, Rachel Maddow and Anderson Cooper, among others," as NBC reported. And note that Owens recently claimed that concern over rising white nationalism is “stupid.""

 

[b.c.]

From the very start, the theme of this thread has been the proper response to right winged ideology, in its present form, and to their proponents, sympathizers, supporters, apologists, et al., a response that could be grouped in two forms, proactive and reactive.

Proactive, being the frank recognition and unapologetic calling out of WHAT that ideology IS, what it entails, supports, and promotes, and the kind of MENTALITY that subscribes to it. Reactive, being the rightful outcry, condemnation, and opposition to it in various forms, including lawful protest, involvement, activism, and participation in the political process.

The purpose of which is the full acknowledgement that the time has COME, where we can no longer afford to mince words in our condemnation of an ideology based upon narrow minded, retrogressive, hate based sentiment, or engage in dispassionate discourse and fence sitting with those who defend the indefensible.

Some have argued that unabashed, in your face, condemnation of right winged ideology and those who support it serve no purpose except to further alienate and entrench those who've bought wholly into their dogma.

I, on the other have said that frank discussion of the NATURE of what we are facing is for the benefit of those of US who've yet to wake the fk UP, NOT in the hope or expectation of converting Trump and the GOP's core "basket" of supporters.

Because, as I have opined, a number of times over, THAT would be a totally WASTED effort. And now, it seems there is DATA that SUPPORTS exactly what I have long held:

POLL: The FOX News Audience is a Fanatical, Irredeemably Warped Cult of Right-Wing Extremists

from the article:

"Navigator Research interviewed 1,000 voters to ascertain the ideological gaps between members of both parties and their viewing of Fox News. The results were published in their paper: "Stepping Inside the Fox Hole, The Media Echo-Chamber of Fox News," It revealed stark differences that were directly attributable to frequent exposure to the propaganda on Fox. According to Navigator Research:

"There is an alternate reality in American politics, and it plays an outsized role in the way many experience and form opinions on the most important issues facing the country. Progressives should be mindful of the challenge from the Fox News echo-chamber and how it skews public perceptions."​

"... there was "near unanimity" between the Fox News viewing Republicans (what they call the "Fox Hole") and the Trump world of "alternative facts." These voters have opinions that are "vastly different from the rest" of the American people, and even from other Republicans who don't watch Fox. For instance:

• 90% of the Fox Hole approve of Trump's job performance. Compared to only 71% of the non-Fox GOP and 10% of non-GOP, non-Fox viewers.
• 89% of the Fox Hole approve of Trump's tax reform. Compared to only 62% of the non-Fox GOP and 6% of non-GOP, non-Fox viewers.
• 84% of the Fox Hole approve of Trump's national emergency declaration to fund a border wall. Compared to only 50% of the non-Fox GOP and 7% of non-GOP, non-Fox viewers.
• 89% of the Fox Hole agree with Trump's claims of "fake news." Compared to only 76% of the non-Fox GOP and 11% of non-GOP, non-Fox viewers.
• 78% of the Fox Hole agree that Trump accomplished more than any other president in two years. Compared to only 49% of the non-Fox GOP and 4% of non-GOP, non-Fox viewers.
• 78% of the Fox Hole that think that Robert Mueller's Russia investigation should be shut down. Compared to only 60% of the non-Fox GOP and 12% of non-GOP, non-Fox viewers.

this tells us is what many of us have already known for years. Fox News viewers are a segment of the electorate who are almost completely unpersuadable on political matters. They are no more open to debate than members of a cult. ... It's a total waste of time and resources."

 

[b.c.]

Calling them OUT... for what they ARE:

Clyburn: Trump and his family are ‘greatest threats to democracy of my lifetime’ - POLITICO

Clyburn: “To allow anybody to discredit the press, discredit the military, to discredit our leadership in — both in the Congress and outside — we are asking for dire consequences and I think it’s time for the Congress, House and Senate, to grow spines and do what is necessary to protect this democracy,” he said. “This man and his family are the greatest threats to democracy of my lifetime.”


Trump poses a terror danger. The press needs to say so

EXCERPT:

"Donald Trump’s disgraceful response to the New Zealand mosque massacre, in which he downplayed the mounting threat posed by white global terrorists and spent the weekend legitimizing dangerous voices on the radical-right fringe, once again confirmed that he poses a threat to U.S. security.

Trump and the GOP want Americans to think only Muslim terrorists pose a threat, not white men with guns committed to an eliminationist agenda. And the media plays along.

... news that a black TV actor had been charged with faking the claim that he was the victim of a hate crime received five times more coverage than did the shocking news that a white nationalist lieutenant in the U.S. military had planned an assassination spree in order to spark a civil war and establish a "white homeland" in America."

 

[b.c.]

Hillary Clinton and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Unite to Mock Jared Kushner’s Email Hypocrisy – Mother Jones

"The revelation on Thursday that Jared Kushner, [Trump's] son-in-law and senior adviser, uses the encrypted messaging service WhatsApp to conduct official government business was met with instant charges of hypocrisy, with many recalling Donald Trump’s frequent attacks against Hillary Clinton over her use of a private email server.

Others wasted no time sarcastically questioning whether Kushner would be “locked up” as Trump supporters demanded of Clinton during the 2016 campaign."


And in other news:

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on cover of Time: 'Represents vision of the future of the Democratic Party'

 

[b.c.]

An op ed from the Kos:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/20...se-I-m-Calling-Bullsh-t?utm_campaign=trending
None of This Makes Any Sense. I'm Calling Bullsh*t.

EXCERPTS:

"... let’s recall a couple of things about Barr. He is notorious for having engineered the pardons given to Iran-Contra criminals. You can see Bloomberg’s summary here. Key paragraph:

The most significant single act of Barr’s career in the Department of Justice was to advise President George H.W. Bush to pardon six officials from Ronald Reagan’s administration, including Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, for crimes associated with the Iran-Contra affair. At the time, Barr was — you guessed it — attorney general. His recommendation gave Bush the cover he needed to issue the pardons.​

This effectively crushed the Iran-Contra investigation. Barr was allowed to use his own judgment in assessing whether pardons should be given.

Barr is also, to put it bluntly, a right-wing religious fanatic. From Americans United for Separation of Church and State:

Addressing a conference of governors on juvenile crime in Milwaukee on April 1, 1992, Barr blasted public schools for no longer providing moral instruction. He asserted that public schools had undergone a “moral lobotomy” and blamed it on “extremist notions of separation of church and state.”​

About six months later, Barr struck again. During an Oct. 6, 1992, speech in Washington, D.C., to the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, a traditionalist Catholic group, Barr called for the imposition of “God’s law” in America.​

“To the extent that a society’s moral culture is based on God’s law, it will guide men toward the best possible life,” Barr said. He also attacked “modern secularists” for supposedly ushering in cultural decline, remarking, “The secularists of today are clearly fanatics.”​

So, to put it bluntly, I don’t trust this SOB any farther than I can throw him.

And what we have received today is a Barr Whitewash.

No collusion? No conspiracy? Interesting. Then could someone please explain to me the following:

• The firing of James Comey over the Russia investigation.

• The multiple attempts Trump made to fire Robert Mueller or cripple the investigation, including efforts made by Steve Bannon.

• The constant smears and attacks directed against Mueller by Sean Hannity, probably at Trump’s behest, including Hannity’s description of the investigation’s participants as the “Mueller Crime Family” [sic]?

• Trump’s assertion that Mueller’s office was merely “13 Angry Democrats”

• Trump’s refusal to testify under oath in public. (Point of reference: We were all forced to listen Bill Clinton being interrogated in the most ugly and vulgar way on national TV during the Lewinsky Affair. But Trump doesn’t have to. How does that work?)

• Trump’s rage at Jeff Sessions for recusing himself from the Russia probe.

• --The attacks on Mueller made by Rudolph Giuliani.

• Lindsey Graham’s blocking of the release of the full report, at Trump’s behest?

Do those seem like the acts of someone who thought a fair investigation would exonerate him?

 

[Klingsor]

About six months later, Barr struck again. During an Oct. 6, 1992, speech in Washington, D.C., to the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, a traditionalist Catholic group, Barr called for the imposition of “God’s law” in America.

Maybe start by putting God in the Constitution. He's not there now.

 

[b.c.]

Maybe start by putting God in the Constitution. He's not there now.

Won't matter to those of THAT ilk. They create their god in their OWN image.

MEANWHILE:

Sarah Kendzior blunt reaction to Mueller report: “No, it sucks to be right.”

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Just Pointed Out the “Real Conversation” the Country Needs to Have About Trump – Mother Jones

William Barr doesn’t get to exonerate Donald Trump.

Bernie: I don't want a summary of the Mueller report. I want the whole damn report. Updated.

 

[b.c.]

Democratic lawmakers indicate they'll move quickly to demand Mueller report—and Barr testimony

Democrats demand to see Mueller report by April 2nd!

and in other news:

AOC: "As horrific as this president is, he is a symptom of much deeper problems"

 

[b.c.]

When you KNOW the GOP has become the party of supremacists, fascists and bigots:

George HW Bush voted for Hillary in 2016, Barbara stopped considering herself a Republican

"According to a forthcoming biography by USA Today’s Washington bureau chief Susan Page, the Bush family matriarch and patriarch were so disgusted by the idea of a Trump presidency that he voted for Hillary in 2016—the only vote for a Democrat in his life—and she stopped considering herself a Republican.

She also kept a clock counting down to the end of Trump’s term beside her bed until the day she died.

USA Today has these and other facts drawn from The Matriarch: Barbara Bush and the Making of an American Dynasty, which comes out April 2. It is based on exclusive interviews during the last six months of Barbara Bush’s life as well as her diary entries going back decades.

The emotional onslaught of Trump’s nonstop personal attacks is causing emotional damage to the entire nation, if not world.

This is a real thing and was part of Putin's plan to weaken the USA, as division and chaos is part of the Russian psyops playbook."

 

[pp_ryder]

I think by exonerating Trump, Barr himself may be guilty of obstruction. I'd like to see him indicted next and keep it going until the whole Republican cesspool is drained. Apparently it went from a swamp to a toilet.