US Politics

[Tracker]

According to today's Washington Post, the most recent accounting of the 20 year war in Afghanistan reveals a cost to date of 2.3 Trillion dollars- that's 2.300 BILLION dollars. folks.

And in other US News, it appears that the FBI has been under-reporting the degree of conspiracy of the January 6th insurrection out of sympathy for Trump.

Is the FBI telling us the truth about the Jan. 6 coup attempt? Because it doesn't feel that way.  Reports from FBI and DHS suggest a dangerous rift in law enforcement over the Jan. 6 coup plot. We need the truth

The Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by Donald Trump's followers is the most documented crime scene in history.  On that day, Trump and his agents attempted to overthrow American democracy. We now know his conspiracy to nullify the results of the 2020 election was well underway. 

The world watched as Trump's attack force, possessed by white rage and Christian nationalist fervor, and fueled by a willingness to kill and die for Trump in the name of "patriotism," viciously attacked police who were protecting the Capitol and the people inside. A core group of Trump's attack force acted with military precision as they breached the Capitol building's defenses.  

Once inside, Trump's attack force continued to battle with police while running amok and chanting "Hang Mike Pence!" Some of Trump's followers hunted for Nancy Pelosi, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other Democrats and Republicans deemed to be "traitors," with the apparent goal of capturing and then executing them.

A potentially functional gallows was assembled in a park across the street from the Capitol. Homemade bombs and a cache of firearms were also found in a vehicle parked nearby outside. Trump's attack force was armed with an assortment of lethal weapons.

During the battle, a Capitol police officer was forced to shoot and kill one of Trump's political cultists. An internal investigation has exonerated the officer for his actions, noting that he

potentially saved Members [of Congress] and staff from serious injury and possible death from a large crowd of rioters who forced their way into the U.S. Capitol and to the House Chamber where Members and staff were steps away. USCP Officers had barricaded the Speaker's Lobby with furniture before a rioter shattered the glass door. If the doors were breached, the rioters would have immediate access to the House Chambers. The officer's actions were consistent with the officer's training and USCP policies and procedures.

A total disaster and mass casualty event was averted largely thanks to luck and the quick thinking and courage of the Capitol Police and other law enforcement agents. Otherwise, it's entirely possible that members of Congress would have been killed or seriously injured by Trump's attackers, potentially making a quorum impossible for the vote to certify Joe Biden's electoral victory. Trump could then have declared a national emergency, imposed martial law and remained in power for an indefinite period.

Hundreds of people who were part of Trump's attack force have been arrested by the FBI. Most will not face serious charges such as criminal conspiracy or sedition. Most important, Trump and his high-level confederates have not been arrested or charged with any crime. The Trump-controlled Republican Party and larger neofascist movement are instigating even more political violence and acts of right-wing terrorism. The coup attempt continues.

Yet, despite all of the public and other evidence about the events of Jan. 6, the FBI is now suggesting it was all something "spontaneous," not coordinated as part of a larger plot to overthrow American democracy. It almost seems the FBI is now following Donald Trump's Orwellian command not to believe your lying eyes. As Reuters reports:

The FBI has found scant evidence that the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol was the result of an organized plot to overturn the presidential election result, according to four current and former law enforcement officials.

Though federal officials have arrested more than 570 alleged participants, the FBI at this point believes the violence was not centrally coordinated by far-right groups or prominent supporters of then-President Donald Trump, according to the sources, who have been either directly involved in or briefed regularly on the wide-ranging investigations.

"Ninety to ninety-five percent of these are one-off cases," said a former senior law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation. "Then you have five percent, maybe, of these militia groups that were more closely organized. But there was no grand scheme with Roger Stone and Alex Jones and all of these people to storm the Capitol and take hostages."

FBI investigators have reportedly found that "cells of protesters, including followers of the far-right Oath Keepers and Proud Boys groups, had aimed to break into the Capitol," the report continues, but have found no evidence "that the groups had serious plans about what to do if they made it inside."

These findings strain credulity and must be viewed with suspicion. Who are these four "unnamed sources?" Are they Trump loyalists? Who was involved in completing this new FBI report?

Is the FBI telling us the truth about the Jan. 6 coup attempt? Because it doesn't feel that way | Salon.com

[iHeart]

seriously?

https://deadline.com/2021/08/sirhan-sirhan-robert-kennedys-assassin-granted-parole-1234823578/

[Tracker]

If This Texas Abortion Ban Takes Effect, The State Will Pay Citizens To Enforce It

A Texas law banning abortion at six weeks is set to go into effect in just a few days. And while the ban will make it nearly impossible for women to get abortions in the state, the six-week ban — abortion opponents’ garden-variety tactic of late — is not the most concerning part. 

What makes this Texas statute particularly troubling is that it deputizes private citizens to actively seek out and sue people “aiding or abetting” women who are attempting to get abortions in the state of Texas. If you successfully sue that person — whether it’s an abortion provider, a pregnant woman’s friend, or even the rideshare driver who dropped her off at a clinic — you receive a $10,000 bounty. 

If This Texas Abortion Ban Takes Effect, The State Will Pay Citizens To Enforce It | HuffPost

(Words fail me to describe how ******-up this is)

 

[Mark F]

20 minutes ago, Tracker said:

Words fail me to describe how ******-up this is)

texas is a very wierd place. 

[itchy]

43 minutes ago, Tracker said:

If This Texas Abortion Ban Takes Effect, The State Will Pay Citizens To Enforce It

A Texas law banning abortion at six weeks is set to go into effect in just a few days. And while the ban will make it nearly impossible for women to get abortions in the state, the six-week ban — abortion opponents’ garden-variety tactic of late — is not the most concerning part. 

What makes this Texas statute particularly troubling is that it deputizes private citizens to actively seek out and sue people “aiding or abetting” women who are attempting to get abortions in the state of Texas. If you successfully sue that person — whether it’s an abortion provider, a pregnant woman’s friend, or even the rideshare driver who dropped her off at a clinic — you receive a $10,000 bounty. 

If This Texas Abortion Ban Takes Effect, The State Will Pay Citizens To Enforce It | HuffPost

(Words fail me to describe how ******-up this is)

 

If they only worked as hard at protecting the lives there from COVID. Pro life my ass.

[bustamente]

Boot licking clown is really up there with the most despised Republicans

 

[FrostyWinnipeg]

On 2021-08-28 at 12:29 PM, Tracker said:

If This Texas Abortion Ban Takes Effect, The State Will Pay Citizens To Enforce It

A Texas law banning abortion at six weeks is set to go into effect in just a few days. And while the ban will make it nearly impossible for women to get abortions in the state, the six-week ban — abortion opponents’ garden-variety tactic of late — is not the most concerning part. 

What makes this Texas statute particularly troubling is that it deputizes private citizens to actively seek out and sue people “aiding or abetting” women who are attempting to get abortions in the state of Texas. If you successfully sue that person — whether it’s an abortion provider, a pregnant woman’s friend, or even the rideshare driver who dropped her off at a clinic — you receive a $10,000 bounty. 

If This Texas Abortion Ban Takes Effect, The State Will Pay Citizens To Enforce It | HuffPost

(Words fail me to describe how ******-up this is)

 

Probably start a war but its not the end all be all if abortion banned. Might force people to actually use birth control or take  the morning after pill. Got to be cheaper then an abortion. 

 

 

[JCon]

4 minutes ago, FrostyWinnipeg said:

Probably start a war but its not the end all be all if abortion banned. Might force people to actually use birth control or take  the morning after pill. Got to be cheaper then an abortion. 

 

 

Maybe, you don't need to tell others what to do with their bodies when it does not impact you or your health? 

[Tracker]

34 minutes ago, JCon said:

Maybe, you don't need to tell others what to do with their bodies when it does not impact you or your health? 

Butbutbut then it would affect someone's sense of moral superiority which gives them the God-given right to tell others what to do, when to do it and how to do it.

[FrostyWinnipeg]

57 minutes ago, JCon said:

Maybe, you don't need to tell others what to do with their bodies when it does not impact you or your health? 

So remember that one Winnipeg woman on drugs and booze who kept getting pregnant?

[the watcher]

My opinion on abortion : I'm an old man. I will never be some young girl who is alone, pregnant, scared , in a bad situation, and unable to raise a child. It's not my choice what she should do.

[Tracker]

13 minutes ago, FrostyWinnipeg said:

So remember that one Winnipeg woman on drugs and booze who kept getting pregnant?

Following this line of reasoning, we should park all cars because some of them crash.

Edited August 30, 2021 by Tracker

[17to85]

1 hour ago, FrostyWinnipeg said:

Probably start a war but its not the end all be all if abortion banned. Might force people to actually use birth control or take  the morning after pill. Got to be cheaper then an abortion. 

 

 

A lot of the reasoning for people not using birth control are education and access related. Besides that I don't think people generally use abortion as birth control anyway.

[Super Duper Negatron]

1 hour ago, FrostyWinnipeg said:

Probably start a war but its not the end all be all if abortion banned. Might force people to actually use birth control or take  the morning after pill. Got to be cheaper then an abortion. 

 

 

Even planned pregnancies can cause life threatening health issues for the mother, contraceptives can fail, women get raped.

Continuing to promote ways to avoid getting pregnant in the first place = good. Keeping abortions legal = also good.

[Tracker]

4 hours ago, 17to85 said:

A lot of the reasoning for people not using birth control are education and access related. Besides that I don't think people generally use abortion as birth control anyway.

There is absolutely an inverse relationship between education and unplanned pregnancies. However, the "righteous "moralists among the right wing. Militant about denying contraception, sex education and abortion to women but totally indifferent, even hostile to the welfare of women and children.

[TrueBlue4ever]

Making abortion illegal won’t eliminate abortions. Will just make it harder for the poor to access one safely. There are too many sleazy politicians with mistresses and live children around to risk banning abortions altogether, they’ll just make sure to keep it hush hush and available to them on the down low. 

[Tracker]

Just now, TrueBlue4ever said:

Making abortion illegal won’t eliminate abortions. Will just make it harder for the poor to access one safely. There are too many sleazy politicians with mistresses and live children around to risk banning abortions altogether, they’ll just make sure to keep it hush hush and available to them on the down low. 

Agreed, but the whole point of denying contraception/education and abortions to women is partially that the perpetrators assume (wrongly) that it is the poor and marginalized who are having sex and they must be punished. Banning RU486 in most states is a part of that bizarre thinking.

[Tracker]

Madison Cawthorn's office desperately tries to backpedal after he goes off the rails in conspiratorial screed
   
At a meeting of the Macon County Republican Party this weekend, freshman Rep. Madison Cawthorn deployed extremist and incendiary rhetoric about the Jan. 6 defendants and GOP claims about stolen elections.

In one section that caught attention on social media on Monday, the North Carolina Republican responded to a question about the people who have been charged with crimes related to the Capitol insurrection by calling the defendants "political hostages." He even suggested it would be appropriate to break in and free these people from federal custody — assuming he knew their location.

"The big problem is, we don't actually know where all the political prisoners are, and so if we were to actually be able to go and try and bust them out," he said, without fully completing the thought. It's possible he realized he was crossing a serious line by discussing forcibly releasing people from law enforcement custody.

Madison Cawthorn's office desperately tries to backpedal after he goes off the rails in conspiratorial screed - Alternet.org

[HardCoreBlue]

12 hours ago, Tracker said:

Madison Cawthorn's office desperately tries to backpedal after he goes off the rails in conspiratorial screed
   
At a meeting of the Macon County Republican Party this weekend, freshman Rep. Madison Cawthorn deployed extremist and incendiary rhetoric about the Jan. 6 defendants and GOP claims about stolen elections.

In one section that caught attention on social media on Monday, the North Carolina Republican responded to a question about the people who have been charged with crimes related to the Capitol insurrection by calling the defendants "political hostages." He even suggested it would be appropriate to break in and free these people from federal custody — assuming he knew their location.

"The big problem is, we don't actually know where all the political prisoners are, and so if we were to actually be able to go and try and bust them out," he said, without fully completing the thought. It's possible he realized he was crossing a serious line by discussing forcibly releasing people from law enforcement custody.

Madison Cawthorn's office desperately tries to backpedal after he goes off the rails in conspiratorial screed - Alternet.org

Ho hum just more insane words with no real consequences other than social media shaming. Next.

[JCon]

How insane is the US system?

A holdover Trump appointment is blocking a Senator's (legal) request for information and has done so for over 8 months.

What a ****ing miserable country. 

 

Edited August 31, 2021 by JCon

[bustamente]

When you have nothing to hide but have something to hide

 

[Mark F]

2 hours ago, bustamente said:

When you have nothing to hide but have something to hide

"nice little telecom business you've got there. it would be a shame if something were to happen to it "

[JCon]

'Murica. 

 

[Mark F]

22 hours ago, JCon said:

How insane is the US system?

just fire him.

let him sue them, who cares. 

do they want to get things done, or are they glad to have straws like this?

If  Biden, Democrats, cared, they would just boot him out and cancel all access.

 

Edited September 1, 2021 by Mark F

[Bigblue204]

On 2021-08-30 at 5:28 PM, TrueBlue4ever said:

Making abortion illegal won’t eliminate abortions. Will just make it harder for the poor to access one safely. There are too many sleazy politicians with mistresses and live children around to risk banning abortions altogether, they’ll just make sure to keep it hush hush and available to them on the down low. 

Yup. Making anything illegal doesn't stop it from happening. In the case of abortions it only puts more lives in danger. There are also cases of women who had miscarriages being arrested in places where abortions are illegal. Because they can look very similar. Outlawing abortions comes with a whole lot of issues that are completely unnecessary in our society today. I'm actually anti abortions, but I'm pro choice. Education is the key, not laws.