The Political Junkie Thread

[OPK]

It really is mafia like activity. He has watched too many mafia movies. And no one has ever said no to him. He lives in his own crazy little world.

The Don owned casinos in Atlantic City. He has dealt with construction projects in NYC. He invests with, and pals around with, Russian oligarchs and Saudi powerbrokers.

He didn’t learn hid moves from watching movies.

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story ... me-213910/

[OPK]

It really is mafia like activity. He has watched too many mafia movies. And no one has ever said no to him. He lives in his own crazy little world.

The Don owned casinos in Atlantic City. He has dealt with construction projects in NYC and on the waterfront in NJ. He invests with, and pals around with, Russian oligarchs and Saudi powerbrokers.

He didn’t learn his moves from watching movies.

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story ... me-213910/

[CrazyNotCrazie]

I'm a glutton for punishment so out of curiosity I wanted to see what Fox News thought of today. I don't have the stomach to watch it so I went to the web site.

The lead story has the headline "Home of Rich and Famous votes to defund sheriff's office - even as crime skyrockets 137%". The subheadlines are about LA but in reality it is about West Hollywood and how they will have five fewer police officers.

Next two headlines are "Boebert wins Republican nod to represent Colorado District" and "Republicans clobber Biden admin for their message to pregnant teenagers".

Next two down are "Secret service agents willing to testify Trump did not lunge at steering wheel" and "Social media on edge after mysterious sighting over major US city" (San Diego, in case you were wondering)

So these people are truly seeing a completely different version of the news. They really are living in a different world with different facts, different priorities, etc. And Fox News' sole purpose is to stick it to the libs.

That being said, Hutchinson's testimony was incredible but I wouldn't not rest the case on the story of Trump grabbing for the steering wheel, since she was further removed from that than most of the other things she testified to. In typical Republican fashion, they might find out that it was incorrect and thus discount every single other word she said. This is why Dems have to unfortunately work that much harder to be bulletproof and have no sloppy mistakes.

Now I need to take a long bath and forget this whole experience...

[OPK]

I'm a glutton for punishment so out of curiosity I wanted to see what Fox News thought of today. I don't have the stomach to watch it so I went to the web site.

The lead story has the headline "Home of Rich and Famous votes to defund sheriff's office - even as crime skyrockets 137%". The subheadlines are about LA but in reality it is about West Hollywood and how they will have five fewer police officers.

Next two headlines are "Boebert wins Republican nod to represent Colorado District" and "Republicans clobber Biden admin for their message to pregnant teenagers".

Next two down are "Secret service agents willing to testify Trump did not lunge at steering wheel" and "Social media on edge after mysterious sighting over major US city" (San Diego, in case you were wondering)

So these people are truly seeing a completely different version of the news. They really are living in a different world with different facts, different priorities, etc. And Fox News' sole purpose is to stick it to the libs.

That being said, Hutchinson's testimony was incredible but I wouldn't not rest the case on the story of Trump grabbing for the steering wheel, since she was further removed from that than most of the other things she testified to. In typical Republican fashion, they might find out that it was incorrect and thus discount every single other word she said. This is why Dems have to unfortunately work that much harder to be bulletproof and have no sloppy mistakes.

Now I need to take a long bath and forget this whole experience...

Credit where credit is due:

https://twitter.com/ronfilipkowski/stat ... JMLrPqkHJA

The stunned silence when he finishes also speaks volumes.

[CameronBornAndBred]

I'm a glutton for punishment so out of curiosity I wanted to see what Fox News thought of today. I don't have the stomach to watch it so I went to the web site.

I did the exact same thing yesterday a few hours after the hearing, ha! I don't remember the last time I purposefully typed their URL. It took scrolling to the bottom third of the page before I even found mention of the hearing, most of the top two thirds were about how horrible Biden is, train wrecks, and dead immigrants in trucks.

[Phredd3]

Credit where credit is due:

https://twitter.com/ronfilipkowski/stat ... JMLrPqkHJA

The stunned silence when he finishes also speaks volumes.

Brett Baier's little smirk after the other guy says, "Sandra, are you still here?" is absolutely priceless.

[CameronBornAndBred]

You thought the 2020 election was stolen? The 2022 mid-terms have a keg of beer for you to grab a hold of. Already multiple primaries have been "stolen", with one of them actually being overturned by the election board!

The result of the Greenville County Council District 17 Republican primary on June 14 was overturned in a special meeting of the Greenville County Republican Party Thursday night after defeated County Council member Joe Dill filed a protest over alleged voting irregularities.

Now Joey Russo, who won last week's race by 132 votes, has until 3 p.m. Friday to file an appeal of the county organization's decision with the South Carolina Republican Party.

https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/ ... 710909001/

And then there's the lady in Colorado who was running for Sec of State, while being indicted for election fraud. She lost, but she knows it was stolen and she's not putting up with it! Go get 'em, Tina.

And then she did exactly what you would expect: She denied she lost, cried fraud, and vowed to keep fighting.

“It’s not over,” Peters reportedly told supporters at her watch party, while she was 15 points behind the actual winner, Pam Anderson, a former Jefferson County clerk.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/indicted-ele ... 11473.html

What's extra special about these that of course it's all GOP folks for right now, saying that other GOP folks stole their elections. These are primaries, not even general elections!

[Phredd3]

It really is mafia like activity. He has watched too many mafia movies. And no one has ever said no to him. He lives in his own crazy little world.

The Don owned casinos in Atlantic City. He has dealt with construction projects in NYC and on the waterfront in NJ. He invests with, and pals around with, Russian oligarchs and Saudi powerbrokers.

He didn’t learn his moves from watching movies.

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story ... me-213910/

That article was written well before the 2016 election, too. The voters spoke loudly and clearly that they don't care about character. This problem goes very deep into American culture.

[Phredd3]

The result of the Greenville County Council District 17 Republican primary on June 14 was overturned in a special meeting of the Greenville County Republican Party Thursday night after defeated County Council member Joe Dill filed a protest over alleged voting irregularities.

Now Joey Russo, who won last week's race by 132 votes, has until 3 p.m. Friday to file an appeal of the county organization's decision with the South Carolina Republican Party.

https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/ ... 710909001/

I think this also has a mob-like feel to it. All mobs are autocracies, and the ends justify the means. I mean, I don't know any of the facts. Maybe there were serious irregularities in Greenville. But after what we've seen from Trump on and before Jan. 6th, and from the changes in election law we've seen in several states giving legislatures direct power over selecting electors even while being given free reign by the Supreme Court to conduct extreme partisan gerrymanders, it is not difficult to read the situation in Greenville as bosses picking whomever they want to win, regardless of actual, you know, votes.

[Furniture]

I am intrigued on how much talk there is about two things. Firstly him throwing his lunch at the wall and how it was cleaned up. Secondly the incident with the driver, the grabbing of the steering wheel and an attempt (at least) to get at the throat of the secret service agents neck. How much of this moves the needle to a tRump arrest?
Lastly. What was tRump thinking he would do if he got to the capital?

[Phredd3]

I am intrigued on how much talk there is about two things. Firstly him throwing his lunch at the wall and how it was cleaned up. Secondly the incident with the driver, the grabbing of the steering wheel and an attempt (at least) to get at the throat of the secret service agents neck. How much of this moves the needle to a tRump arrest?"

I personally think that neither of those things moves the needle on an arrest. Throwing lunch against a wall isn't criminal, and just indicates someone who can't control their temper. And the witness didn't even see the throwing, she just helped clean up the mess. Trump is already known for losing his temper, so I think that's barely something that makes the radar, except as a way to paint the guy as an idiot. (Something which seems to get easier by the day.) The business in the car was clearly relayed as a second-hand story, and is being denied by the person who was related as having told it, and may be the least reliable piece of testimony Hutchinson gave. There's certainly not enough there for any kind of criminal charge unless a first-hand witness can corroborate details, and even then, we're talking about a relatively minor assault at worst. The story more serves to validate Trump's intent than anything else.

Lastly. What was tRump thinking he would do if he got to the capital?

There's no way to know for sure, but to me the most clear inference is that he was planning to do the same thing he did via Twitter: Incite his supporters into taking drastic measures on the capitol for the purpose of disrupting the counting of electoral votes. Trump's MO has always been to get others to do his dirty work, so it's not like he was planning to lead the charge himself. But IMO, it's very likely that he intended to make absolutely sure that his (known armed) supporters would take matters into their own hands. It's something they did anyway, but my best guess is that he wanted to be sure by keeping the crowd pumped up.

[CameronBornAndBred]

Hutchinson's testimony is getting "cross examined" in way of Tony Ornato disputing the account that she gave the committee, AND by way of Eric Herschmann saying it was he who wrote the note that was displayed on the screen. The first would seemingly be more troublesome, but they did point blank ask Hutchinson if that was her handwriting, so if it were to turn out that it wasn't, that would be another black eye on her testimony, which of course Team Trump has been doing their best to dispute.
If two events turn out to be untrue or embellished, then the rest of it all might as well be thrown out the window.
I'm not saying that I doubt her, but I know the reality of what will happen in the above scenario.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/trump-white-h ... d=85898838

[Phredd3]

I am intrigued on how much talk there is about two things. Firstly him throwing his lunch at the wall and how it was cleaned up. Secondly the incident with the driver, the grabbing of the steering wheel and an attempt (at least) to get at the throat of the secret service agents neck. How much of this moves the needle to a tRump arrest?"

I personally think that neither of those things moves the needle on an arrest. Throwing lunch against a wall isn't criminal, and just indicates someone who can't control their temper. And the witness didn't even see the throwing, she just helped clean up the mess. Trump is already known for losing his temper, so I think that's barely something that makes the radar, except as a way to paint the guy as an idiot. (Something which seems to get easier by the day.) The business in the car was clearly relayed as a second-hand story, and is being denied by the person who was related as having told it, and may be the least reliable piece of testimony Hutchinson gave. There's certainly not enough there for any kind of criminal charge unless a first-hand witness can corroborate details, and even then, we're talking about a relatively minor assault at worst. The story more serves to validate Trump's intent than anything else.

Lastly. What was tRump thinking he would do if he got to the capital?

There's no way to know for sure, but to me the most clear inference is that he was planning to do the same thing he did via Twitter: Incite his supporters into taking drastic measures on the capitol for the purpose of disrupting the counting of electoral votes. Trump's MO has always been to get others to do his dirty work, so it's not like he was planning to lead the charge himself. But IMO, it's very likely that he intended to make absolutely sure that his (known armed) supporters would take matters into their own hands. It's something they did anyway, but my best guess is that he wanted to be sure by keeping the crowd pumped up.


***Too late to edit the quote tags, which should have looked like this.

[Phredd3]

Hutchinson's testimony is getting "cross examined" in way of Tony Ornato disputing the account that she gave the committee, AND by way of Eric Herschmann saying it was he who wrote the note that was displayed on the screen. The first would seemingly be more troublesome, but they did point blank ask Hutchinson if that was her handwriting, so if it were to turn out that it wasn't, that would be another black eye on her testimony, which of course Team Trump has been doing their best to dispute.
If two events turn out to be untrue or embellished, then the rest of it all might as well be thrown out the window.
I'm not saying that I doubt her, but I know the reality of what will happen in the above scenario.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/trump-white-h ... d=85898838

I disagree with the bolded. The limo story was second-hand, and she identified it as such. I'm quite sure she didn't write it down at the time, and she may well have been reasonably mistaken about the details of an event for which she acknowledges she did not witness, and which was relayed to her in the course of a long and stressful day. In the scheme of things, the specific story are not as important as the narrative that Trump VERY much wanted to head down to the capitol with his (armed) mob. I don't think there is much doubt about that overarching story.

As for the note, she's trying to recall details from months ago, and maybe her handwriting looks similar to Herschmann's. The important thing about the note is not who precisely wrote it, but what it says and why it never became a presidential message. Nobody doubts the existence of the note, nor do they doubt the substance or implications of it.

I don't think either one of these issues clouds her overall credibility all that much. She was never going to be 100% accurate on such detailed testimony. People on the far right were going to throw out her testimony on its face, anyway, because it doesn't support their narrative. The question is whether or not her credibility is so far in doubt that she is not a useful trial witness. I don't think that's the case.

[dudog]

This tweet re the Hutchinson/Secret Service dispute is factual, what's fun are the replies:

https://twitter.com/JustSchmeltzer/stat ... 9603666944

My favorite: George Costanza "It was a lean! Not a lunge! A lean!"

[dudog]

"Post-Roe polls: Midterm support for Democrats soars after Supreme Court strikes down abortion access"

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... li=BBnb7Kz

Now if they can just get past voter suppression and gerrymandering.

[CrazyNotCrazie]

"Post-Roe polls: Midterm support for Democrats soars after Supreme Court strikes down abortion access"

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... li=BBnb7Kz

Now if they can just get past voter suppression and gerrymandering.

Since the decision pushed a lot down to the state level, I think this could be where the biggest impact is. For instance, we just had our gubernatorial primary here in NY and the Democrat (incumbent Kathy Hochul) is already going hard after the Republican Lee Zeldin on abortion. Hopefully it will also help in more purple states like Pennsylvania.

[CameronBornAndBred]

As with any poll, taken with a grain of salt (or a whole shaker), this one shows Abrams - Kemp tied in Georgia and Warnock leading.
I'm watching both with interest, but in my head I think by election day that Warnock will have a "healthy" lead of 5 points or so as Walker is further exposed as being totally unqualified.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/georgia-poll ... 09094.html

[CameronBornAndBred]

For instance, we just had our gubernatorial primary here in NY and the Democrat (incumbent Kathy Hochul) is already going hard after the Republican Lee Zeldin on abortion.

Poor Andrew Giuliani...totally trounced.

[CrazyNotCrazie]

For instance, we just had our gubernatorial primary here in NY and the Democrat (incumbent Kathy Hochul) is already going hard after the Republican Lee Zeldin on abortion.

Poor Andrew Giuliani...totally trounced.

He is a moron. Even if he had somehow won the primary, he had no chance in the general election. New York's congressional districts got radically redrawn so I'm not sure exactly what Long Island looks like, but he might have been wise to go after Zeldin's old house district.

One of my few Trumper friends on Facebook posted something today about how the whole story about Trump grabbing for the steering wheel was a lie so Hutchinson perjured herself. And therefore everything else she said was a lie to him. Why these people don't make the leap that Trump is constantly lying so therefore we shouldn't believe anything he says is beyond me. I composed a number of responses but decided to let his stupidity stand for itself (I rarely post on Facebook).