Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2

[Rick Plant]

Trump-backed candidate advocated charging women who get abortions with murder: unearthed interview



A newly unearthed 2019 interview with Trump-backed Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano reveals that he advocated charging women with murder if they get abortions.

NBC News reports that Mastriano told Pennsylvania radio station WTIF three years ago that he believed women who get abortions should face the same kinds of penalties that people get when they murder someone.

Mastriano was being asked about legislation he proposed that would bar abortions after a fetal heartbeat is first detected, which usually comes roughly six weeks into pregnancy.

"OK, let’s go back to the basic question there: Is that a human being?" Mastriano said of the fetus. "Is that a little boy or girl? If it is, it deserves equal protection under the law."

He was then pressed if he was specifically calling for women who get abortions to be charged with murder.

"Yes, I am," he replied.

In recent interviews, Mastriano has tried to downplay abortion as a central issue in his gubernatorial campaign, and has instead said it would be a matter for state legislatures to handle.

"My views are kind of irrelevant because I cannot rule by fiat or edict or executive order on the issue of life," Mastriano told right-wing network Real America's Voice.

Read More Here:

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/doug-mastriano-said-2019-women-violated-proposed-abortion-ban-charged-rcna49601

[Rick Plant]

Trump mocked for ‘sidelining’ his new $3 Million attorney: ‘Must have given him actual legal advice’

It's no secret Donald Trump has been virtually unable to hire highly-respected attorneys to defend him in the many legal and civil cases he is facing for a variety of alleged crimes and misdeeds, including his actions surrounding fraudulent efforts to overturn a free and fair election and the January 6 insurrection, his retention and refusal to return hundreds of classified documents, and his alleged real estate and tax fraud cases, and more.

One of the rumored reasons Trump, a former President, has been unable to retain quality legal representation is he "has a long history of allegedly not paying his bills," as Vanity Fair has noted.

Trump did manage to hire what many consider a qualified and respected attorney for his legal issues surrounding his classified documents case.

Chris Kise, the former solicitor general for Florida, agreed to work for Trump but only if he was paid up front.

Thanks to Trump's massive fundraising operation Kise is being paid millions, effectively by Trump supporters.

Kise is also no longer leading the case.

CNN reports Kise "has been sidelined from the Mar-a-Lago documents investigation less than a month after he was brought on to represent Trump in the matter, two sources familiar with the move tell CNN."

"Kise’s hiring came with an unusual price tag of $3 million, paid for by Trump’s outside spending arm. The retainer fee, paid upfront, raised eyebrows among other lawyers on Trump’s team, given the former President has a developed a reputation for not paying his legal fees."

Legal experts are mocking Trump for sidelining his top attorney.

"Obviously this means the lawyer must have given Trump actual legal advice," teased George Conway.

"Which is just RUDE," replied attorney Ken White.

MSNBC/NBC News legal analyst and anchor Katie Phang asked, "So Kise is a $3 million dollar benchwarmer?"

"Trump is already throwing over Chris Kise after signing a $3M retainer and convincing him to leave Foley & Lardner? That seems ... not smart," says Liz Dye, who writes about law and politics. "Chaos monkey gonna chaos monkey, I guess."

Dan Berman, CNN Politics managing editor for legal, immigration, and the Supreme Court serves up the perfect headline: "Trump's 3 Million Dollar Man is sidelined already."

LA Times columnist Harry Litman, a frequent guest on MSNBC and a former U.S. Attorney offered perhaps the most amusing response:

"The one credible lawyer that Trump has hired in years, Chris Kise, paying $3M up front, now has been demoted and is no longer leading the MAL defense. Must be Trump's payback for the fix he's now in w/ Judge Dearie. He thinks he's Goldfinger/Dr.No but he's really Austin Powers."

https://twitter.com/harrylitman/status/1574800159711453202

[Rick Plant]

Is a major bombshell coming? It sure looks like it



If there is one prominent through-line connecting the two most corrupt presidents in U.S. history, Richard Nixon and Donald Trump, it would have to be the person of Roger Stone. The man has been at the heart of every election scandal for the past 50 years and he's still at it, even today. It's quite a legacy for the guy who has Richard Nixon's face tattooed on his back. It's lucky he left his chest clear for his last great cause, Donald Trump. Stone's work on Trump's behalf provides the perfect coda to a legendary career as a political dirty trickster and world-class black-ops conspiracy-monger.

Stone has had his fingerprints on every nefarious deed the Republicans have pulled in the last half-century, starting when he was a kid working on Nixon's re-election campaign in 1972, and given the job of spying on rival campaigns and finding devious ways to embarrass them in the press. He has said that during the day he was a scheduler but at night, he was "trafficking in the black arts."

In 1977, at age 24, Stone was elected president of the Young Republicans with the help of his buddy Paul Manafort, after they had reportedly compiled "whip books," or files of personal information, on all 800 delegates to the convention. He went on to work on all of Ronald Reagan's presidential campaigns doing what he does best. Stone has claimed, for example, that he served as a go-between when Roy Cohn — the infamous mob lawyer and mentor to Donald Trump — got liberal Republican John Anderson on the New York general election ballot as a third-party candidate in 1980, splitting the vote and allowing Reagan to win the state. Stone has hinted that he delivered a suitcase full of money to a lawyer to make that happen.

Stone then teamed up with Manafort, Charlie Black and the infamous Lee Atwater to form a lobbying and consulting firm that became known as "The Torturer's Lobby" for its willingness to represent the world's most infamous dictators, along with such right-wing luminaries as Rupert Murdoch. He worked with Trump for years, as an adviser and lobbyist for his gambling interests and later as manager of Trump's brief campaign for the Reform Party's presidential nomination in 2000.

Yes, Stone was deeply involved in the 2000 Florida recount, taking credit for the famous "Brooks Brothers riot" that delayed the vote count long enough for the Supreme Court to intervene (others have disputed that he was actually behind that). Throughout the 2000s he perpetrated underhanded dirty tricks in various campaigns, including the formation of an anti-Hillary Clinton group in 2008 called Citizens United Not Timid, purely for the fun of using the crude acronym to own the libs. By 2015 he was egging on his old pal Donald Trump to run for president again, for real this time. He worked for the Trump campaign, at first in an official capacity and then off the books to practice his "dark arts."

Hurricane Ian has forced postponement of the Jan. 6 committee's next hearing. But it looks like the storm is coming for Roger Stone.

You may recall that in 2019 Stone was convicted on charges relating to his alleged coordination with WikiLeaks aimed at sabotaging Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign. But Attorney General Bill Barr rode to his rescue, overruling the career prosecutors and recommending a light sentence, which Trump then commuted. All four prosecutors withdrew from the case in protest. That was the closest call of Stone's career, and the only time anyone has ever seriously tried to hold him liable for his toxic influence on American politics. (Trump eventually pardoned him, which Stone no doubt knew would happen. He knows where all the Trump bodies are buried.)

The Jan. 6 House select committee had to postpone Wednesday's scheduled public hearing, with a major hurricane descending on Florida and dominating the news. But as with previous hearings, the committee teased some of its revelations earlier this week, and we know that Stone's involvement in the Trump coup plot and the Jan. 6 insurrection will feature heavily in their presentation. Some incriminating clips from an unreleased documentary about Stone shot during the 2020 election campaign and its aftermath have already been released.

In an interview with CNN, the Danish filmmakers have said that committee lawyers had flown to Copenhagen to see what they had regarding interactions between Stone, the Trump White House, the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers. Reportedly they identified around eight minutes of relevant footage. Even what we've seen so far is startling. In July 2020, the documentary crew captured Roger Stone saying:

What they're assuming is the election will be normal. The election will not be normal. "These are the California results." Sorry. We're not accepting them. We're challenging them in court. If the electors show up at the — at the Electoral College, armed guards will throw them out. "F*** you. I'm the president. F*** you. You're not stealing Florida. You're not stealing. I'm challenging all of it."

And the judges we're going to. Our judges. "I appointed you. F*** you. You're not stealing the election." That's what — that basically what Bush did to Gore.

So, you know, if they want to run a bunch of fake ballots, we'll have an investigation. We'll say, "These ballots are fake. Your results are invalidated. Goodbye." That's the way it's going to have to look. It's going to be really nasty. But you cannot count on, we're not going to get an honest election.

So, let's say that Trump is a little behind right now, which he probably is. That doesn't bother me. But even if he wins an honest election, we're not going to have an honest election. They're going to steal it. They're stealing this blindfolded right now. So, you know, it's not the first time it's happened in this country and it happens around the world.

So, he's going to have to — he's going to have to fight for the presidency in the courts. Our next election will be decided in the courts. Because they cheat and we don't cheat. We've never cheated.

Setting aside the unbelievable fatuousness of Stone's proclamation that "we've never cheated," which is deeply absurd coming from him, this pretty well lays out the conspiracy to overturn the election, three months before it was executed. He knew Trump was behind and likely to lose. The question before the House committee now is whether or not Roger Stone and Donald Trump were plotting this together and whether Stone was colluding with the violent extremists with whom he associated to start the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021.

If there is anyone in American politics who's capable of doing such a thing, it's Roger Stone. It would be the ultimate dirty trick of all time, the crowning achievement of a storied rat-f****** career.

https://www.rawstory.com/is-a-major-bombshell-coming/

[Rick Plant]

Former GOP congressman has 'legitimate concerns' Clarence Thomas was involved in 'push to overturn the election'



Questions surfaced after Justice Clarence Thomas was the only member of the U.S. Supreme Court to oppose the release of Mark Meadows' texts and information to the Jan. 6 committee. It turned out that in those text messages that the justice didn't want revealed were communications with his wife.

Former Rep. Denver Riggleman (R-VA), wrote in his new book that he thinks Justice Thomas is far more involved in his wife Ginni Thomas' 2020 election overthrow attempts.

Riggleman, who left the committee in April, included many of the text messages that had previously been released from Ginni Thomas, along with the note that he had a difficult time trying to get the House Select Committee to sound the alarm on her actions.

"Supreme Court spouses are typically low profile. Ginni’s involvement with political groups had already led to questions about whether Clarence would need to recuse himself in cases with a political component," wrote Riggleman. If Clarence had been in the logs, it would be a much bigger deal than all that. When I began to suspect Ginni and Clarence had texted with Meadows, I put together a technical brief outlining how we might be able to cement the identifications."

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) called him to express concern that telling Americans that such an influential figure had gone full-Q. Cheney was worried it would turn the whole committee into a political sideshow and overshadow all of the other work the committee was doing. The release of Riggleman's book has left the committee members furious over possible leaks after spending a year with so few.

Riggleman persisted in pressing Cheney to tell Americans about the Thomases.

"The committee needed to show the American people that there was an organized, violent effort to reverse the election—and that there were indications it could have been directed by the White House," he wrote. "Thanks to their prominence, Ginni and Clarence would make a lot of headlines, but those headlines might overwhelm the other important work we were doing."

The conversation with Cheney didn't go well, with the two "type A personalities" duking-out their arguments. Riggleman argued that data wasn't political. It wasn't right or wrong.

"I also thought that, given Clarence’s position and Ginni’s prominence in conservative circles, the American public had to know what she had been up to," argued Riggleman. "Some of the messages went beyond simply cheering Meadows on. It was legitimate for me to have concerns as to whether a Supreme Court justice had been involved in the legally questionable push to overturn the election. Was it possible that one of the country’s nine top judges was on board with an authoritarian interpretation of the Constitution? The implications were overwhelming. Cheney found it all improbable. I think she still had more faith in the institutional GOP than I did at that point."

AFP

[Rick Plant]

QAnon-promoting candidate said Air Force punished him for getting in a fight — he actually drove drunk at base



On Wednesday, the Associated Press revealed that, on top of not telling the truth about where he was stationed and what he was doing while he served in the military, pro-Trump Ohio House candidate J.R. Majewski also appears to have misstated the reason he was demoted from Airman First Class to Airman.

"Majewski’s campaign said last week that he was punished and demoted after getting in a 'brawl' in an Air Force dormitory in 2001," reported Brian Slodysko and James LaPorta. "Military records obtained since then by The Associated Press, however, offer a different account of the circumstances, which military legal experts say would have played a significant role in the decision to bar him from reenlisting. They indicate Majewski’s punishment and demotion were the result of him being stopped for driving drunk on a U.S. air base in Japan in September 2001."

This comes after another story revealing that Majewski -- who described himself in campaign promotional material as a "combat veteran" and said he was deployed to special operations in Afghanistan so harsh he was forced to go weeks at a time without showering -- actually worked loading aircraft at a U.S. air base in Qatar.

He subsequently tried to claim his actual mission had been "classified"; however, other veterans have said this is almost impossible.

"In a statement, Majewski acknowledged that he was punished for drunken driving, though he didn’t address why his campaign previously said his demotion was the result of a fight," said the report. "'This mistake is now more than 20 years old. I’m sure we’ve all done something as young adults that we look back on and wonder ‘what was I thinking?’ and I’m sure our parents and grandparents share these sentiments,' Majewski said."

"Eric Mayer, a former West Point graduate and Army infantry officer later turned military lawyer, reviewed Majewski’s documents at AP’s request," the report continued. "He said that 'the overall nature and quality of (Majewski’s) military service can be severely questioned simply by virtue of the fact that he got out as a E-2 after four years.'"

Majewski, who is running against Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) in a newly-redrawn district that narrowly voted for former President Donald Trump, was previously best known for performing in a rap song called "Let's Go Brandon Save America," and turning his lawn into a gigantic image of Trump's face.

He has also promoted QAnon, the far-right, conspiracy theory that Trump is working to save America from a circle of Satanic child-trafficking cannibals — although he has tried to distance himself from this since getting the congressional nomination.

Read More Here:

https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-afghanistan-ohio-campaigns-only-on-ap-14b98ee6b4e8ff023729a4498ade2ac0

[Rick Plant]

'That's still involvement': Reporter battles Ron Johnson on role in election overthrow plot



NBC 26 reporter Nina Sparano challenged Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) on his role in a plot to overthrow the 2020 presidential election results.

Johnson has previously said that his participation in the plot lasted only "seconds."

During an interview with NBC 26 this week, Johnson deflected questions about the Jan. 6 riot by pointing to violent protests that occurred during the summer of 2020.

"The news media focuses all on one day, which I condemned repeatedly," the senator said.

Sparano pressed Johnson on his participation in presenting an alternate slate of electors to then-Vice President Mike Pence in order to overturn the election results.

"I had virtually — you can't — I had no involvement," Johnson stuttered. "I received either three texts and I sent two texts or the other way around. My involvement, you know, my lack of involvement was seconds worth of texting."

"But that's still involvement," Sparano pointed out.

"But, you know, I was — was texted there had — something had to be delivered to the vice president," Johnson said. "I didn't know what it was. And was there somebody that could help arrange delivery? So then I talked to my chief of staff and he took care of it."

Johnson said he eventually discovered that Pence refused to accept the alternate slate of electors.

"That's the end of story," he insisted.

"But if he would have said yes, go ahead and deliver it, you didn't know what it was?" Sparano pressed.

"What — what — what would you do if you get a call from the president of the United States' lawyer wanting to get something to the vice president?" Johnson replied.

"But you didn't know what it was," the reporter pointed out. "Wouldn't you want to inquire what something is to hand to the vice president of the United States?"

"I didn't hand anything to the [vice president]," Johnson said. "I wasn't involved."

"But if he would have said sure," Sparano posited.

"I wasn't involved. You can make it seem — I wasn't involved," the senator repeated. "A couple texts. I few seconds of my time! I couldn't even remember what I had done, which is why it took a little while to piece it all together but, you know, we pieced it all together. I received three texts and I sent two."

Sparano wondered if Johnson's chief of staff went "rogue" in participating in the fake electors plot.

"He'd been to the White House," Johnson explained. "He knew these people. And they asked him to arrange and deliver something to the vice president. He contacted the people he knew. The vice president says we're not accepting anything. End of story."

"So, he knew what he was doing," Sparano observed.

"We weren't doing anything!" Johnson gasped. "Were we supposed to deliver something or not? Did the vice president want it? The vice president didn't. We didn't deliver anything."

Johnson went on to complain that the media was "trying to turn this into a story." He also refused to say whether he would testify if subpoenaed.

"There's nothing to subpoena me about," he asserted.

Watch video in link below:

https://www.rawstory.com/ron-johnson-fake-electors/

[Rick Plant]

Whenever there is a mass shooting in America, the Republican party screams about "mental illness" instead of addressing the root cause of the problem which are the guns that shouldn't be in the hands of violent criminals.

So yesterday, House Democrats put a bill on the House floor that addresses mental illness which Republicans continue to scream about.

If you have been paying attention to my posts you won't be surprised at the results of this House vote.

It's no surprise that EVERY single Republican (except for one) voted against addressing mental illness in the United States.

So, these right wingers use "mental health" as an excuse for why we can't ban certain assault weapons that have no business being in the hands of people on the streets. Then when Republicans can vote on a bill they constantly scream about, they vote against it.

Again, this is just more right wing political theatre. They pose and perform for the cameras but when it's time for action on legislation they all vote "NO". They have been doing this on almost every single bill that comes up for a vote which impacts the lives of Americans.

Republicans do not care about Americans and once again this "NO" vote proves it.