Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2

[Rick Plant]

'I approve this message': Campaign ad mashup exposes gun-obsessed GOP

If you're only going to watch one thing today, make it this.



Amid heightened calls for stricter U.S. gun laws after a massacre at a Texas elementary school, a video published Tuesday targets Republican political candidates—and right-wing Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia—for using firearms in campaign advertising to appeal to voters.

"If you're only going to watch one thing today, make it this," Indivisible tweeted, sharing the two-minute video produced by communications consultant Timothy Burke.

The video—already viewed over a quarter-million times on Twitter—comes after an 18-year-old gunman with a legally purchased firearm killed 19 children and two teachers last week at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.

"Along with many others Americans," Burke told Common Dreams, "I found myself angry last week and just needed some kind of outlet to manage that anger over the lack of movement in this county in terms of gun violence and mass shootings."

Burke, whose past work includes a viral video about Sinclair Broadcast Group, said he had the idea for the new mashup before he was sure it could actually be done.

"I wondered if there had been a school shooting in every state where one of these lawmakers who made one of these ads is from—and it turned out there was," he said of the GOP candidates featured.

Near the end of the video, there is a clip of President Joe Biden's remarks after the Uvalde shooting, demanding that policymakers stand up to the gun lobby—then part of a Manchin ad in which the West Virginian touts an endorsement from the National Rifle Association (NRA).

Manchin has repeatedly thwarted his own party's agenda in Congress. Burke said the inclusion of the Democrat's ad speaks for itself.

Minutes after sharing Burke's video, Indivisible noted that an elderly woman was fatally shot and at least two other people were wounded Tuesday after the Morris Jeff High School graduation ceremony in New Orleans.

"An average day in the United States of America doesn't have to be like this," the group said. "We need our leaders to take immediate action on universal background checks."

Watch video here: https://twitter.com/bubbaprog/status/1531695825742594048

[Rick Plant]

Fulton County grand jury investigating Donald Trump, others back in action

ATLANTA - A Fulton County special purpose grand jury investigating whether former President Donald Trump and others illegally tried to influence the 2020 election in Georgia is back in session today.

Twenty-three grand jurors and three alternates were chosen on May 2. Part of the session was shown live to the public. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, who is overseeing the special grand jury, told grand jurors they will be investigating actions surrounding the 2020 general election.

The Fulton County special grand jury will examine whether anyone broke the law during the tumultuous days leading up to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capital.

Anyone, including former President Donald Trump.

On a recorded phone call following his election defeat, the then-President directly urged Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to throw out what Trump considered to be fraudulent votes which would give him the electoral victory.

"We are looking at the issues surrounding the 2020 election. That call is part of that investigation," Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis told the I-Team.

The grand jury is also expected to hear testimony regarding Rudy Giuliani's claims before the Georgia legislature of stolen votes - claims that have been debunked.

Another topic for review, Sen. Lindsey Graham's call to Raffensperger when Graham asked Raffensperger if he could throw out all the absentee ballots in a county that had a high number of mismatched signatures on mail-in votes.

A spokesperson for Graham called it "a ridiculous accusation." While acknowledging the call, he said Graham "never asked the Secretary of State to disqualify a ballot cast by anyone."   

"The right to vote is very, very important. Making sure that that's not tainted or that it's not impacted in any way, it is a very serious thing," Willis said.

It's not clear what if any charges Willis could choose to pursue against Trump or anyone else. In a letter she sent to top-ranking state officials last year, she said she was looking into "potential violations of Georgia law prohibiting the solicitation of election fraud, the making of false statements to state and local government bodies, conspiracy, racketeering, violation of oath of office and any involvement in violence or threats related to the election's administration."

Grand jurors will have up to a year to complete their investigation.

https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/donald-trump-fulton-county-grand-jury-investigation-back-session

[Rick Plant]

He helped decode Mark Meadows' texts. What he found scared him.

Denver Riggleman, a former Republican congressman who helped the January 6 committee link text messages sent to and from Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, tells CNN's Anderson Cooper what scared him about what he uncovered about the January 6 insurrection.

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

Mark Meadows' texts 'paint a very clear portrait' of Team Trump's plot to overthrow the election: Maggie Haberman



On CNN Thursday, New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman analyzed the claims made by former Rep. Denver Riggleman (R-VA), an adviser to the January 6 committee, in an exclusive CNN interview with Anderson Cooper, about former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows's messages about the plot to over turn the 2020 presidential election.

"Denver Riggleman there saying that basically the text messages made him sick, they are a roadmap, a roadmap to what?" asked anchor John Berman.

"Look, they clearly are a roadmap," said Haberman. "I actually have had this conversation with people both working on the investigation and my own colleagues that if this committee did not have Meadows' texts, I'm not sure what they would have. They paint a very clear portrait of what was being discussed, who he was talking to. Where it all goes from here, we have seen some of the text messages, they are stunning. I assume there are others we haven't seen that we will learn about, but what it adds up to it after the public hearings, where this is all going, I think, is a big open question. There is no question that the events of January 6th were horrifying to watch. What happens? Do people get held accountable? We know a lot of people involved in the riot have been charged. Does anyone else get charged beyond contempt of Congress? We'll see."

"What do you think the stakes are for next week?" asked Berman. "In some ways we have known the hearings are coming, but I also think they're sneaking up on us. They're a big deal."

"One set of stakes is for the country," said Haberman. "That set of stakes is about the fact that what took place after November 3rd in the leadup to January 6th, there were aspects of it we have seen before in previous elections, mostly court challenges. And there were decidedly aspects we have not, conversations about at least in modern history, conversations about the Insurrection Act, conversations about seizing the apparatus of the elections. That is important, I think, to remind the public what we were talking about and how close things came to the brink. In terms of what it more immediately means in terms of explaining the investigation, I do think the committee has set a pretty high expectation for what might come out of these hearings. We have heard repeatedly, I think, that the former congressman said it, the current members of the House have said it, who are work on this investigation, there is going to be evidence that will blow the roof off the Capitol essentially. They have to make good on that."

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

This is what I have been warning about for months. Republicans are planning a massive election subversion program. We need to shine a spotlight on it, prepare for it, and realize that much of the fight will be in court. Cheating and stealing elections is the only way Republicans think they can win.

It’s going to be an army’: Tapes reveal GOP plan to contest elections

Placing operatives as poll workers and building a "hotline" to friendly attorneys are among the strategies to be deployed in Michigan and other swing states.

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/01/gop-contest-elections-tapes-00035758

[Rick Plant]

Trump 'neglected key national security considerations' by moving space agency to Alabama: Colorado lawmakers

On Thursday, CNN reported that a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report has criticized the former Trump administration's decision to relocate the headquarters of the Air Force's Space Command from Colorado Springs to Alabama — citing a lack of transparency.

"Space Command is the nation's newest warfighting combatant command, responsible for all military operations in outer space," reported Kristin Fisher. "The location of its headquarters has been the subject of intense debate since the final days of the Trump presidency when the administration recommended relocating it from Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado Springs to Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama."

Critics of the administration allege that the move was a solely political decision to reward Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL), who promoted former President Donald Trump's conspiracy theories about the election being stolen, and Colorado lawmakers, including usually pro-Trump Lauren Boebert, demanded an investigation into the matter.

"'Each of the senior military officials we interviewed stressed the importance of U.S. Space Command reaching full operational capability as soon as possible in order to counter national security threats and noted that the potential need to relocate personnel constituted an associated risk,' according to the report," CNN noted. "But the unclassified version of the GAO report that was released publicly did not weigh in on if the proposed relocation should be reversed. Instead, the report simply recommends 'that the Air Force develop guidance for future strategic basing decisions.'"

Air Force leadership has denied that there was any politics behind the relocation — but Trump himself seemed to confirm there was almost immediately after in a radio interview, bragging he "single-handedly" ordered the move because "I love Alabama."

The GAO did not comment on the suitability of Redstone Arsenal, but Colorado lawmakers blasted the decision.

“Over the past year, we’ve repeatedly raised concerns that the previous administration used a flawed, untested, and inconsistent process to select a location for U.S. Space Command. The reports from the Government Accountability Office and the Department of Defense Inspector General both confirm that the basing process lacked integrity and neglected key national security considerations," said Colorado U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet (D) and John Hickenlooper (D) and U.S. Reps. Doug Lamborn (R) and Jason Crow (D) in a joint statement.

“We now know that in a White House meeting in January 2021, senior military leadership recommended Colorado Springs as the preferred location for Space Command due to the unique ability of Peterson Space Force Base to reach Full Operational Capability significantly faster than any other potential location, and at a significantly lower cost. However, following this meeting a different location was announced as the selection, and justified with inconsistent documentation and unclear reasoning."

https://www.rawstory.com/space-force-base/

[Rick Plant]

The GOP is a party full of crazy conspiracy theorists. None of these people should be in government. What happened to all the sane and sensible Republicans?   

Missouri Senate candidate says he'll force Biden to replace Kamala Harris with Trump — then resign



On Thursday, Rep. Billy Long (R-MO), a candidate for Senate in Missouri and an avid promoter of election conspiracy theories, put forward a bizarre new plan on Twitter for how he will get former President Donald Trump reinstated to office.

Specifically, he said that he will get Vice President Kamala Harris to resign, have President Joe Biden appoint Trump as vice president in her place, and then have Biden himself resign, putting Trump first in line to ascend to the presidency.

He did not specify how any of the steps of this would work, including how he would get Harris or Biden to resign or how he would persuade Biden to choose Trump as his vice president.

Long, who worked as an auctioneer before being elected to Congress, has a history of controversial behavior. Earlier this week, he blamed mass shootings on women having abortion rights. He also issued a campaign ad that was removed from YouTube for promoting conspiracy theories about the 2020 election being stolen.

This comes as several other Republicans vie for the open Senate seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Roy Blunt.

One of the candidates who has attracted the most attention is Eric Greitens, the former governor who resigned amid a sexual assault scandal, and who more recently has been accused of domestic violence by his ex-wife.

https://www.rawstory.com/billy-long-2657448722/