Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2

[Rick Plant]

The Orange Lunatic should've been removed via the 25th Amendment long before.

Steve Mnuchin called Mike Pompeo about invoking the 25th Amendment on Jan. 6: ABC's Jonathan Karl



Appearing on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Monday, ABC's Jonathan Karl revealed that former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin put in a call to former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on January 6th about invoking the 25th Amendment and removing Donald Trump from office.

Speaking with host Jonathan Lemire, Karl explained, "I learned rock-solid sourcing on this. I learned that Steven Mnuchin had a conversation with Mike Pompeo on the evening of January 6th. And I learned that Mnuchin had several conversations about the 25th Amendment and further, that Pompeo actually asked for a legal analysis of the 25th Amendment and how it would work."

"The idea quickly was jettisoned -- you had on January 7th cabinet members resign, DeVos resign, the labor secretary resign," he continued. "It became apparent that the 25th Amendment was not going to work. It would not be quick enough and it would be subject to legal challenges, but in the hours after the riot, there were high-level conversations about this."

Watch below:

[Rick Plant]

And some people scoff when Trump is compared to Hitler. This is right out Hitler's playbook. 

Plot to turn the military into Trump’s 'personal goon squad' revealed by 'sinister' memo: columnist

In his column for the Washington Post, conservative military expert Max Boot pointed to a memo submitted to Donald Trump making the case to fire Defense Secretary Mike Esper as evidence that the former president wanted to find someone else who would assist him in staying in power.

Boot started off by apologizing to Esper for not pushing back when the former president stuck his nose in military affairs that rankled the Pentagon.

With that in mind, he noted the memo listed 14 reasons for firing Esper, which ultimately happened three weeks later via Trump tweet. The memo, which was written by Trump's director of presidential personnel Johnny McEntee, was revealed by ABC's Jonathan Karl.

According to Boot, "The very premise of McEntee's memo was both sinister and ludicrous — a 30-year-old of no professional or intellectual distinction, whose path to power was carrying Trump's bags, was making the case for getting rid of a senior Cabinet officer for insufficient loyalty to the president."

According to the columnist, Trump was looking for a way to use the military for his own benefit.

Writing, "This revealing and chilling document deserves to be read not as a historical curiosity but as a terrible portent of what could be in store if Trump wins another term. He appears determined to turn the military into his personal goon squad," he then warned, "Trump tried to destroy the professional, apolitical ethos of the armed forces — and if given the opportunity, he will almost certainly do so again."

"The next time around, Trump would want to ensure that the 'guys with guns' are on his side," he cautioned. "If he wins a second term, Trump's next defense secretary (Johnny McEntee perhaps?) would almost certainly be somebody more devoted to him than to the Constitution. For anyone concerned about the future of U.S. democracy, that should be a cause of considerable alarm at a time when Trump and Biden are running almost neck and neck in polling matchups."

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-military-2655552412/


'Personal goon squad': Why a newly-reported memo by a Trump loyalist is 'cause of considerable alarm' for US democracy

ABC News' Jonathan Karl has reported that on October 19, 2020, Trump loyalist John McEntee — then serving as White House director of presidential personnel — issued a memo listing reasons to fire then-Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper from the Trump Administration. Never Trump conservative Max Boot discusses Karl's reporting and that memo in his November 15 column for the Washington Post, explaining why McEntee's memo should be a "cause of considerable alarm" if Donald Trump runs for president in 2024.

Boot was highly critical of Esper in the past, describing him as a Trump enabler. But in light of Karl's reporting, the conservative columnist now believes he "may have been too harsh on" the former defense secretary — who Trump fired on November 9."

Now that we have seen fresh evidence of how much Trump and his henchmen loathed Esper, he is rising in my estimation," Boot explains. "That evidence comes courtesy of ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl, who has unearthed a memorandum from Johnny McEntee, Trump's director of presidential personnel, listing 14 reasons for ousting Esper. That document was dated October 19, 2020. Three weeks later, Esper was fired by a Trump tweet."

Describing McEntee's memo as "both sinister and ludicrous," Boot notes that the Trump loyalist "was making the case for getting rid of a senior cabinet officer for insufficient loyalty to the president."

"This revealing and chilling document deserves to be read not as a historical curiosity, but as a terrible portent of what could be in store if Trump wins another term," Boot writes. "He appears determined to turn the military into his personal goon squad."

Boot goes on to note some of McEntee's reasons for wanting Esper fired. Esper, McEntee complained, "approved the promotion of Lt. Col. (Alexander) Vindman," a key witness during Trump's impeachment — and Esper "publicly opposed the president's direction to utilize American force to put down riots just outside the White House," McEntee wrote.

Boot observes, "This was a reference to Esper's brave decision in June 2020 to resist Trump's desires to deploy active-duty troops to suppress Black Lives Matter protests. Esper acted after he and Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had been lured by Trump into a bizarre photo op in Lafayette Square, which been cleared by force of peaceful protesters."

In the memo, Boot adds, McEntee (now 31) also wanted Esper fired for removing Confederate flags from military installations.

McEntee's memo, the Never Trump conservative warns, underscores the fact that a second Trump presidency —should he run in 2024 — would be disastrous for the United States.

"Trump would want to ensure that the 'guys with guns' are on his side," Boot warns. "If he wins a second term, Trump's next defense secretary — Johnny McEntee perhaps? — would almost certainly be somebody more devoted to him than to the Constitution. For anyone concerned about the future of U.S. democracy, that should be a cause of considerable alarm at a time when Trump and (President Joe) Biden are running almost neck and neck in polling matchups."

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-coup-memo-2655717243/

[Rick Plant]

Alex Jones handed a devastating loss in lawsuit filed by Sandy Hook parents

Connecticut court handed down a sweeping win for the families of eight victims of the Sandy Hook massacre against right-wing broadcaster Alex Jones.

A superior court judge ruled Monday that Jones was guilty by default because he refused to turn over financial records and other documents ordered by the courts in the defamation case filed by the parents of eight people killed in the 2012 mass shooting, which the conspiracy theorist claimed was a "false flag" by the U.S. government to confiscate firearms, reported the New York Times.

Jones claimed the families of 20 first-graders and six educators killed in the shooting were "actors" taking part in the scheme, and the Sandy Hook plaintiffs claimed he profited from spreading lies about their murders.

He also has lost three defamation cases in Texas, and juries in both states will determine how much money he must pay in damages, in addition to court costs.'

[Rick Plant]

Trump could face 3 years in prison for political coercion in office: watchdogs



The Department of Justice has additional cause to file charges against Donald Trump after the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) found 13 senior Trump officials violated the Hatch Act, two legal experts explained in a Slate column on Tuesday.

Prof. Claire Finkelstein of the University of Pennsylvania and Prof. Richard Painter of the University of Minnesota Law argued the report bolstered the case for a criminal investigation.

"Yet the OSC finding may be significant for another reason, namely its implications for another Hatch Act complaint we filed, this one a criminal complaint against Donald Trump brought last October with the Department of Justice. Although the president and vice president are immune to the ordinary Hatch Act prohibitions on use of public office for political purposes, there is a separate provision (18 U.S.C. § 610) under which it is a crime for any person to 'intimidate, threaten, command, or coerce … any employee of the Federal Government … to engage in any political activity.' Violations are punishable by up to three years in prison," the two noted.

They noted the complaint was filed with the Public Integrity Division of the Department of Justice.

"That means the decision of whether to investigate lies squarely in the hands of Attorney General Merrick Garland. The threshold legal determination Garland—or a special prosecutor appointed by Garland—must make is whether Trump coerced or ordered the political activity identified as Hatch Act violations by the OSC. If so, Trump could be liable to prosecution for political coercion under the aforementioned statute," they wrote.

The two noted Trump's habits while in office.

"Certainly, there are multiple accounts of Trump exerting precisely this kind of pressure on those in his inner circle. Numerous government officials, from the then head of the FBI, James Comey, to former White House lawyer Don McGahn, as well as state election officials like Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, and even Vice President Pence, have experienced the brunt of Trump's coercive tactics. The pattern of behavior throughout Trump's presidency suggests that the Hatch Act violations OSC has identified did not occur spontaneously," they wrote.

They wrote that DOJ has failed to act on their complaint for 13 months.

"Certainly, there are multiple accounts of Trump exerting precisely this kind of pressure on those in his inner circle. Numerous government officials, from the then head of the FBI, James Comey, to former White House lawyer Don McGahn, as well as state election officials like Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, and even Vice President Pence, have experienced the brunt of Trump's coercive tactics. The pattern of behavior throughout Trump's presidency suggests that the Hatch Act violations OSC has identified did not occur spontaneously," they wrote.

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-prison-2655746262/

[Rick Plant]

Trump was fed so many 'bonkers' coup memos it's getting hard to keep them straight: columnist



The accounting for the Jan. 6 insurrection has reached the point where multiple members of Donald Trump's inner circle advancing competing views for overturning his election loss.

Recent reporting has revealed that Trump legal adviser John Eastman wrote a memo laying out a theory for vice president Mike Pence to undo the election results, while former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark crafted a similar plan, and campaign lawyer Jenna Ellis and White House aide John McEntee also advanced strategies to subvert the election, reported MSNBC.

"We've reached an awkward point in American history: When the political debate turns to Team Trump's coup memo, we now have to ask, 'Which one?'" wrote columnist Steve Benen.

Pence ultimately concluded he didn't have the authority to overturn the election, but that doesn't excuse the multi-pronged effort to convince him otherwise -- and which provoked the deadly U.S. Capitol riot that came within a few strokes of luck from succeeding in keeping Trump in power.

"To be sure, by any fair measure, this strategy was utterly bonkers," Benen wrote. "Nevertheless, on New Year's Eve, the then-White House chief of staff thought it'd be a good idea to send a copy directly to Pence's top aide, as part of an effort to lobby the then-vice president to help overturn the results of an American election that Trump didn't like."

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-coup-memo-2655745887/


Trump took a 'dark, dark turn' after the election -- and anyone who pushed back was 'scared into silence': Jon Karl



Reporter Jon Karl talked with the Washington Post's Karen Tumulty on Tuesday about his new book about the final days of Donald Trump's presidency, titled "Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show."

In the interview, Karl talked about the role Trump loyalist Johnny McEntee played in systematically purging the Trump administration of officials whom he deemed to have insufficient fealty to the former president, which meant that those who remained in the White House at the end of his term were the hardest of the hardcore loyalists.

The result of this, said Karl, was that no one in the White House was willing to stop his potentially illegal efforts to overturn the results of the election.

"McEntee was able to get rid of officials who were not sufficiently loyal, and he was also able to frighten people into silence," Karl explained. "So when Trump took that dark, dark turn after the election, there was really nobody around him who was willing to question him, to push back on him, to rein him in, to challenge him... because they were all either fired, or scared into silence."

Karl then marveled that McEntee could wield such power in the White House despite being so young.

"That's Johnny McEntee, 29 years old, bossing around Cabinet secretaries and junior assistants and everybody in between."

Watch the video below:

[Rick Plant]

4 years of lies, 4 years of hot air, 4 years of empty promises and we got nothing from Criminal Donald except for an economic crisis, a covid crisis, daily chaos, daily corruption, and a deadly coup attempt. President Biden did what Trump could not do, he passed an historic Infrastructure bill that will revitalize America. We are building back better.

'Biden delivered': Devastating Lincoln Project ad mocks 'so-called builder' Trump on 'infrastructure week'



A devastating new ad from the Lincoln Project outlines the stark difference between former President Donald Trump's multiple failed attempts to pass an infrastructure bill during his term and President Joe Biden's newly-minted success in carrying the legislation over the finish line.

In the one-minute video, the Lincoln Project compiled clips of Trump's empty promises on infrastructure. Repeatedly, the former president promised to deliver a package to improve America's infrastructure, but that promise never came to fruition.

Since he was elected back in 2016, Trump and his administration promised to deliver a $1 trillion infrastructure package, but to no avail. Although the proposed bill gained bipartisan support back in 2019, the former president was still unable to get the proposal passed due to cost concerns raised by his own political party.

Per ABC News: "Trump and Democratic congressional leaders temporarily agreed to work toward a $2 trillion infrastructure plan that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, 'would be big and bold.' But that disintegrated as House Republicans raised concerns about cost, Trump declared a new North American trade deal a higher priority, and Democrats pursued impeachment."

The Lincoln Project notes how Biden managed to deliver where Trump failed. For the last several months, Biden pushed for a bipartisan agreement on infrastructure and refused to let negotiations falter.

Although Republican lawmakers are angry with Democrats over the passing of the bill, their own failure to execute and reach an agreement during the Trump era is what opened the door for Biden's plan.

[Rick Plant]

Trump’s legal strategy thwarted now that he’s no longer in office: report

Donald Trump's efforts to obstruct Congress from obtaining key information have been frustrated since he left office after losing the 2020 election to Joe Biden, according to a new Washington Post analysis.

"As president, Donald Trump stymied lawmakers seeking his financial records and the testimony of a close adviser by employing a legal strategy that worked to his advantage even when he lost in court. Trump has turned to these familiar tactics now in a bid to thwart House investigators pursuing accountability for the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, but legal observers say that in this latest test of executive power, such an approach may fail to achieve his desired outcome," The Post reported.

Former acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal explained how the dynamics have changed.

"Donald Trump just has one play in his playbook. Delay. He tries it everywhere," Katyal said. "It was easier for him when his folks controlled the Justice Department, but now that they don't, it's a much harder strategy."

This is not a new strategy for Trump, biographer Gwenda Blair noted. She cited his $100 million countersuit against the Department of Justice in the 1970s after being accused of racial discrimination.

Blair said Trump "stalls things indefinitely" while "punching back immediately."

"This is a legal system in which being able to afford a lawyer is very often the side that prevails," Blair noted.

That strategy is also no longer working, as Trump is facing a smart legal team representing Congress.

Read the full analysis:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/trump-january-6-strategy/2021/11/16/c17cbe1e-4624-11ec-b8d9-232f4afe4d9b_story.html

[Rick Plant]

The American right's actions are right out of the Nazi playbook
https://www.rawstory.com/the-american-right-s-actions-are-right-out-of-the-nazi-playbook-call-it-what-it-is/