Making it plain
Donald Trump was at the center of this conspiracy”: Representative Bennie Thompson (D, MS-2). “There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain”: Representative Liz Cheney (R, WY).
Two presidents
In The New York Times, Mikhail Zygar describes Vladimir Putin’s world. As I read, I kept thinking of another president.
Charge!
Q Okay. Just so I understand, Dr. Eastman, you're invoking your Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination to question whether this opinion and commentary piece with the byline John C. Eastman, you’re invoking the Fifth Amendment right to not answer that question? A On advice of counsel, I’m invoking the Fifth.
Not telling, telling
Bob Woodward and Maggie Haberman, holding on to secrets for their books.
On January 6
The crisis of American democracy is a crisis of fact.
On January 6
Joe Biden speaks.
A gang of six
Andy Biggs, Mo Brooks, Louie Gohmert, Paul Gosar, Jim Jordan, and Scott Perry: fascists at work.
Four Seasons Total Documentary
The story of the Four Seasons Total Landscaping press conference and its aftermath.
Genuine headline
From Newsweek: “Confused QAnon Followers Question Whether Keith Richards Is JFK After ‘Reappearance’ Flop.”
“The Attack”
A monumental effort of reporting by The Washington Post on the events of January 6, before, during, and after.
Big news
“Two of these people have spoken to Rolling Stone extensively in recent weeks and detailed explosive allegations that multiple members of Congress were intimately involved in planning both Trump’s efforts to overturn his election loss and the Jan. 6 events that turned violent.”
Chris Miller again
The man who purportedly represents me in the Illinois House of Representatives, Chris Miller (R-110), is in the news again for telling the Big Lie.
Rewriting
The New York Times reports on Republican efforts to rewrite the events of January 6: “The message is clear: Adherence to facts cannot overcome adherence to the party line.” Cf. George Orwell: “The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”
Saying and believing
It’s the same tactic Donald Trump used re: Ukraine. Just say there’s an investigation of Hunter Biden. Just say that the election was corrupt.
Truth
“You’re downplaying an event that happened to the country itself, to democracy, to the rule of law”: Capitol Police Sergeant Aquilino Gonell, a few minutes ago, commenting on those who would minimize the events of January 6, 2021.
Here’s hoping
Harry Litman of the Los Angeles Times, on MSNBC just now: “Trump is going to be a criminal defendant, a civil defendant, or a prisoner for the rest of his life.”
0 for 2
A spine-shortage.
Stacey Plaskett again
Representative Stacey Plaskett (D, Virgin Islands), a House impeachment manager, this afternoon: “The defense counsels put a lot of videos out in their defense, playing clip after clip of Black women talking about fighting for a cause, or an issue, or a policy. It was not lost on me that so many of them were people of color and women, Black women, Black women like myself who are sick and tired of being sick and tired for our children, your children, our children. This summer things happened that were violent, but there were also things that gave some of Black women great comfort. Seeing Amish people from Pennsylvania standing up with us, members of Congress fighting up with us. And so I thought we were past that. I think maybe we’re not.”
$519,328,369
From The Washington Post: “President Donald Trump’s onslaught of falsehoods about the November election misled millions of Americans, undermined faith in the electoral system, sparked a deadly riot — and has now left taxpayers with a large, and growing, bill.”
Deadpan reportage
From a New York Times article about Lenka Perron, a one-time believer who found her way out of conspiracy thinking.
Heroes and villains
“Heroes don’t lie to the FBI about contacts they had with hostile foreign powers.”
What next?
As the walls close in and clichés multiply, how long before Donald L. Trump* makes an explicit claim that COVID-19 was created to destroy his chances of re-election?
Items in a series
Mara Gay, speaking on The 11th Hour a few minutes ago, suggested that it’s necessary to now marginalize Donald Trump* and bring people back to “reality, science, kindness, and democracy.”
Tweetstorm
Donald Trump*, spreader of disinformation, sower of discord, speaker at the headquarters of a landscaping company.
Revelations
“The picture that perhaps emerges most starkly from the mountain of figures and tax schedules prepared by Mr. Trump’s accountants is of a businessman-president in a tightening financial vise.”
Idiot, traveler, chicken
Alexander Vindman characterizes Donald Trump*: a useful idiot, a fellow traveler, and free chicken.
#TrumpKnew
From the Lincoln Project.
Orange Crate Art:
“Let me be as honest and clear as I possibly can. Donald Trump is the wrong president for our country. He has had more than enough time to prove that he can do the job, but he is clearly in over his head. He cannot meet this moment. He simply cannot be who we need him to be for us. It is what it is.”
Trump* Axios interview
Our well-being is in the hands of a psychopath. Read the manuals!
“Why should I?”
William Barr makes it easy to know what to think of him.