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Most politicians (regardless) will rather not be the fall guy to stick their neck out against their own and leave it for another day to savour their existence. i.e. then collect their pension etc …
Oh the Republicans have shown exactly what they are and what their priorities are. Democracy and decency not being very high on the list.
Fantastic outcome for the world this. Trump or his brand standing next time would split the Republican vote. Had he been banned Republicans could have gathered themselves.
Fantastic outcome for the world this. Trump or his brand standing next time would split the Republican vote.
Exactly. Reports are that he's now planning revenge on anyone who didn't support him (i.e. Republicans, not Democrats). Three Republican senators have said they will not run for reelection in 2020. One is from Pennsylvania and one is from North Carolina, both of which are potential Democrat gains, plus Ron Johnson is running for re-election in Wisconsin, which is also a potential Democrat gain. Very good chance that Trump will lose those senate seats for them. Democrats have to defend seats in Nevada, Arizona, and Georgia, where Trump is attacking Republicans for not supporting him.
The Republican have created quite a weird hurdle for themselves - they're not claiming he's innocent they're claiming not to have provided t the sufficient votes to convict because 'technicalities'.
Where things get interesting now is - having established the guilt - from the BBC "Senator Mitch McConnell said Mr Trump had been "responsible" for the assault on the Capitol and called it a "disgraceful, disgraceful dereliction of duty" - but non the less voted against conviction because they can claim unconstitutional now that he was no longer in office.
However - Trump didn't act alone - no small number of senators and representatives were complicit - more so because of more than just words there's the actions they took, within the Capitol, during the invasion - like tweeting the whereabouts of senior democrats. There are similar mechanisms to impeachment for expelling senators. For those senators there's a greater weight of evidence - the president that it has been agreed that the invasion of the capitol was the result of deliberate intent and no technicality to quibble over about longer being in office.
It looks like the Demoncrats are very disappointed at the verdict. They must have thought that the world was on their side with their stance on "moral" high ground. They are not very cleaver people are they. 😆 I bet there will be a war with other country(s) in the next 3 years because they will need to boost their rating before the next election. If you wish to live in America this is your chance coz Demoncrat will be opening up all their boarders soon to allow new people to settle there. I might give it a go to collect a new passport if I am qualify, then vote Republican 😁
The Republican have created quite a weird hurdle for themselves – they’re not claiming he’s innocent they’re claiming not to have provided t the sufficient votes to convict because ‘technicalities’.
Do the opposite and kiss their career goodbye if they wish to gamble. Those few that voted against the party line, if they have one, will be gone soon not because the people who voted for them may not want them again.
Very simple. People are fed up with all the blood sucking politicians (on all sides and all over the world,regardless) and the politicians know that so need to play up to the people. They cannot be seen to be doing the opposite if they don't wish to risk their "career" and have a good fat pension at your expense.
Do the opposite and kiss their career goodbye if they wish to gamble.
Republican senators take two gambles if they vote, act or speak against trump - one is at the ballot box, the other is with their ability to live a safe, secure life. In the eyes of Trump supporters the only thing worse than a democrat is someone who doesn't support Trump enough.
They are not very cleaver people are they
Well, they have the Presidency and majorities in the House and Senate, plus the leader of the Republican party is disgraced in the eyes of the majority of voters and is now sulking and declaring war on his own party. Trump staying in politics and keeping on with his tantrums is the best thing that Democrats can hope for. You don't have to be clever when your opponents are that stupid.
They are not very cleaver people are they
They can probably spell.
Well, they have the Presidency and majorities in the House and Senate, plus the leader of the Republican party is disgraced in the eyes of the majority of voters and is now sulking and declaring war on his own party. Trump staying in politics and keeping on with his tantrums is the best thing that Democrats can hope for.
Normal behaviour for political parties all over to start the blame on themselves. They are in fantasy world but they just don't know it.
It's not up to the party if they do well or not, it is the people who will vote for them. Remember President Trump was an outsider when he won the previous election. Which means people voted for him because they are fed up with the entrenched politicians on both sides. People rather gamble than to continue voting for the predictable bad candidates.
You don’t have to be clever when your opponents are that stupid.
That I agree. Again, that's the norm.
They can probably spell.
Oopps ... clever not cleaver. Yes, I do have several cleavers for food preparation in the kitchen😅
I actually can't believe this bloke got away with it. Well... I sorta can hes white and privileged. How people who have been given power to do the right thing can just refuse to do it is really depressing.
Which means people voted for him because they are fed up with the entrenched politicians on both sides.
Nope. The Tea Party/Trumpist/QAnon voters are disenchanted with the Republican establishment. The mainstream Democrats are generally ok with Obama/Clinton/Biden type centrists, especially in contrast to a guy who set a lynch mob on congress because he wasn't willing to admit that he got beaten fair and square. The centrist Republicans thought Trump was a successful businessman back in 2016, not realizing that's just a character he plays on TV. Now that they've seen how utterly incompetent and dishonest he is, they are happier voting for Biden than Trump. Which means that it's pretty much impossible for a Republican to win the presidency unless they can get Trump out of the way and convince his supporters to vote for an establishment Republican who can split some centrist voters away from the Democrats. Trump's trick only worked once, now it's a huge liability.
... Obama/Clinton/Biden type ...
That's the problem. People are so fed up with this sort of mainstream politicians that do very little to improve the ordinary people life they even prepared to vote for an outsider like President Trump. Had it not for President Trump the rot would set in further.
Now I have feeling that Sleepy Joe will actually try to continue or to hang on to some of President Trump's ideas/policies as Demoncrats know 78 million voted for President Trump (they want some of that sweet juicy pie). An exception will be to try to increase their voter base by relaxing the boarder while at the same time continue with the so called "trade war" etc. Basically, Demoncrats and Republicans (prior to President Trump) ran out of ideas ... they were just cruising alone with empty tank and blinded by the decimation of their economy and industry. They were all afraid to do something drastic because they did not want to gamble with their good life and pension.
Trump’s trick only worked once, now it’s a huge liability.
Liability for who? Sounds like President Trump is more of a liability to Demoncrats than Republicans as in the way Demoncrats went all out to get President Trump. Perhaps also tried to end his political career in fear of a come back.
As for the centralist in the Republicans these are just opportunists trying to make sure they can retire with a fat pension. They are trying to play safe for themselves rather than do what the people actually voted them for.
People are so fed up with
this sort of mainstream politiciansincompetent crooks like Trump that do very little to improve the ordinary people life they even prepared to vote for anoutsider like President Trumpa moderate like Biden.
FTFY.
You'll notice that Biden is President now, after beating Trump by winning the largest number of presidential votes in history. Utterly thorough repudiation of Trumpism.
And he and the democrats can go into the mid terms with we beat covid vs we backed insurrection....
given the ingrained partisanship of US politics what do we think the normalized range is for presidential approval ?
You’ll notice that Biden is President now,...
Nope, what president? He is Sleepy Joe, China Biden or perhaps creepy Joe.
Remember the last few years the demoncrats and their supporters labelled former President Trump Mr so and so, "not my President" etc? It's only fair for this new bloke to get some nicknames from day one as well. Part of the political life really.
Biden lives in the White House. Trump will be bankrupt before the next election and will die before all the lawsuits are resolved.
Now things are about to get interesting.....
The result of the impeachment was a foregone conclusion. It wasn't about censuring Trump, it was about making him a ball and chain for the Republican party going forward, sticking a wedge into the fissure developing in the party.
The Senate was never the place where justice would be done. The courts however......
A lot of support among Republicans for splitting the party. Either Trumpists want to kick out centrists, or centrists want to kick out Trumpists. Democratic campaign managers must be laughing their arses off at how stupid Trump and his minions are.
https://twitter.com/NumbersMuncher/status/1361314057157038084
The GOP splitting into two parties may not be the silver lining of the Trump administration it appears to be.
The GOP higher command had pushed a far right agenda before Trump, the tea party was just a culture war to disguise the economic foundation of their policies. The moderate republicans are very far from being centrists. But if they create a new party they get to set the narrative that they are centrists and moderates and push the economic agenda again further to the right.
Bidens administration has so far concentrated on correcting the "culture war" that the GOP has inflicted in recent history. That is not a bad thing, but they need to push an economic agenda that improves peoples lives, especially the groundswell of normally disenfranchised voters who normally don't vote but came out in numbers this time to win it (lets not pretend this was won by swing voters, the numbers don't support that myth). If he doesn't do that then he is just applying republican economic policy by proxy, and they win either way.
It's a bit crap that, similar to Obama in 2009, even though the Democrats have control of congress they're starting out in the midst of a financial crisis which will curtail a lot of their plans. It's whether they can do enough before the mid-terms to keep control of congress, I suspect they won't as Democrat voter apathy will probably kick in. The only hope is the GOP splitting (very unlikely) or Trump supporting right-wing independents running against GOP candidates and that splitting the Republican vote enough that Democrats keep/win seats.
I actually can’t believe this bloke got away with it. Well… I sorta can hes white and privileged. How people who have been given power to do the right thing can just refuse to do it is really depressing.
Keeps getting away with it 🙂
He's got away with bankruptcy several times, not paying people for work done, not going to VietNam when drafted... Why should this be any different?
The GOP splitting into two parties may not be the silver lining of the Trump administration it appears to be.
If Trump started a MAGA party, he would take some, but not all Republican voters with him. In the last election, Biden beat Trump by about 5% of the total vote. Next time around, he'll have the benefit of incumbency, which is a big advantage. For any Republican to win, they will need to retain all their 2020 voters, plus either steal a big chunk of Biden voters or convince them to not turn out. Having Trump on the ballot has had the effect of motivating Democratic voters to turn out and centrists to switch from voting Republican to voting Democrat. He's an anchor for Republicans.
I think Trump would probably get at least 20% of the popular vote, but not more than 40% if he ran as a MAGA candidate against a Republican candidate. A Republican presidential candidate running against Trump and a Democrat would need to split a massive number of voters away from the Democratic Party. As the old cliche goes, you win elections through addition, not subtraction.
You missed the point.
If the GOP splits, the less looney but still far right section, will claim the centre ground, pretend they are moderates and centrists, they will keep control of the narrative. The dems will likely counter that (as they have done so for the past 40-50 years) be also moving to the right. The GOP wins by having right wing policies enacted whether or not they win the next election.
The dems will likely counter that (as they have done so for the past 40-50 years) be also moving to the right
I think that's unlikely.
Fantastic outcome for the world this. Trump or his brand standing next time would split the Republican vote. Had he been banned Republicans could have gathered themselves.
This has been my thought on all this, splitting the vote between the republican party and the Trump (whichever one it is) helmed narcissist/racist party just hands the other party victory. Let them fight amongst themselves while the Democrats get on with running the country, making America great again (maybe with less right wing retoric and more money spent on healthcare and not border walls) and bolstering their already strongish base.
As its been posted before, the right wing groups are already tearing themselves apart as it is, QAnon has left it's followers out to dry, and the orange buffoon sloped off with his tail between his legs to play golf. We won't see him for a while because putting his face back out there means he'll have to answer questions from all parties about why he lost and why he didn't hand out pardons to his loyal supporters when they marched on congress...…but did to his fraud committing and lying under oath mates.
QAnon has left it’s followers out to dry, and the orange buffoon sloped off with his tail between his legs to play golf.....
It seems like there's an unending appetitte amongst the Trumpist/ Far Right / Supremacist cohort for being duped.
while the Democrats get on with running the country, making America great again (maybe with less right wing retoric and more money spent on healthcare and not border walls)
Although, as this is America, the Democrats have just given Raytheon (sorry; awarded in a competitive tender) $740 million, before they finalised the $2000 cheque they said they'd give every American as "first business" so y'know, don't get your hopes up too high
lets see how sleepy joe is doing on the trump joans scale of presidential sucess ooh thats gotta hurt...
Trump, Guliani, Proud Boys and Oath Keepers are being sued under the 1871 Klu Klux Klan Act
link
The lawsuit accuses Trump and his allies of violating the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, which prohibits violence that disrupts Congress’ ability to carry out its constitutional duties.
And so it begins..... 👍
And continues. Supreme Court have just refused to block New York's subpoena for 8 years of tax and financial records from Mazars and Deutsche Bank.
The reckoning is about to begin..
The Georgiareloaded thing reminded me to post this.
I think the URL explains the content
That film. Wow. I mean, how do they get away with it?
I can just imagine Pirate Dan vigorously frotting as he wrote that script in a cocaine frenzy 😂
Kinda sad that they need to appeal to voters on the GI Joe / Iron Man level.
Does it remind anyone else of the Brooklyn 99 recruitment video?
That film. Wow. I mean, how do they get away with it?
The framing of the anti facism movement as terrorist perfectly displays the control the far right hold on the media, and exactly the kind of society that Murdoch and chums want to create. That and the framing of compassion as an elitist sentiment (but don't worry the billionaires are our friends if we just cut their taxes again we will all be better off).
The framing of the anti facism movement as terrorist..
Plus the framing of the right-wing as militaristic heroes, ready to ignore those pesky liberal laws, hush up those political enemies, and do what it takes to save 'murica. (i.e. fascism)
The framing of the anti facism movement as terrorist perfectly displays the control the far right hold on the media, and exactly the kind of society that Murdoch and chums want to create. That and the framing of compassion as an elitist sentiment (but don’t worry the billionaires are our friends if we just cut their taxes again we will all be better off).
That'll be the post-Steve Bannon media landscape. Bannon has been able to turn our liberal sentiments against us, framing us as an out of touch "elite" who are responsible for the many grievances of the working class. You only need to read the recent posts from our own pet troll to see how that sort of batshittery goes down with people who aren't equipped to think critically.
I can only refer you back to the James Delingpole video. People who can't differentiate between a polemicist with a degree in English Language and an expert in international trade love the notion that someone they admire is sticking it to people they've been told not to like and make up a significant proportion of voters. Keep them energised with hate and they'll turn out to vote en masse for the very politicians who despise them. Populism was ever thus.
That film needs a faulty parachute.
To quote Charlie Sykes:
The theme of this year’s CPAC is “America Uncancelled.”
But, by the end of business yesterday, CPAC had literally cancelled Young Pharaoh.
https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1363963089113260033?s=20
https://twitter.com/ehananoki/status/1363920080766201861?s=20
The CPAC shitshow continues. Not content to hold the event on a stage which appears to be themed on an SS rune, we have this remarkable mangling of the national anthem. Question: How many key changes? Answer: All of them.
I love the fact the golden statue was made in mexico!
I love the fact the golden statue was made in mexico!
Trump was right then. There are bad hombres and rapists getting sent out of there after all.
Question: How many key changes? Answer: All of them.
They where playing all the right notes, just not necessarily in the right order.
I love the fact the golden statue was made in mexico!
Isnt there something about not worshipping false idols or something in that book that most republicans are supposed to be keen on?
As for that "singing". I have to admire the republicans for doing their part in trying to increase inclusiveness and reduce discrimination. Just think now all those people who got rejected from pop idol for not enough talent will have something to aim for.
Blimey, they're really not letting up with their Third Reich fanboism this year:
Put it this way, if they emulate Nazis and openly embrace Nazi ideology then chances are they aren't going to play nice if they get in office. This sort of iconography is very much an in-joke with their audience, who once upon a time were Reaganites.
Oh and re the 6th Jan Capitol riot, the individual who bragged about stealing Nancy Pelosi's laptop and her efforts to sell it to the Russian security services has been profiled. The backstory is neither pretty, nor redeeming. From Bellingcat.
I couldn't help but notice Herr Drumpf going full on "stab in the back" with the election result. I do hope that someone (preferably Jewish or Black) hoofs him in the slats very soon.
Blimey, they’re really not letting up with their Third Reich fanboism this year:
I think the most depressing thing is how it is even considered possible for it to be deliberate.
If the tories did something similar then I dont think many people would consider it a serious possibility that it was anything other than a unfortunate coincidence and it would rapidly be bodged to remove the resemblance. Be an opportunity for a few choice headlines, political digs and jokes but not a nothing more. A few years back under Bush and it would be the same.
Trumps republicans though?
Now that most people who experienced the horrors of fascism in Europe and Japan have died from old age, there's been a change in narrative. Populists absolutely love the notion of a grass roots political movement based on grievance, now that folks' grandparents aren't around to tell them about what it's like to have your street bombed by the Luftwaffe, to be a soldier participating in the liberation of a concentration camp or to be a POW in the far-east, forced to build a railway and endure malnutrition and tropical diseases, we've a growing number of malcontents who'd happily see the above come to pass again provided it happens to those whom they've been told to blame for their quality of life being worse than it was twenty years ago. Notice that populists have given up trying to sell a notion of a better tomorrow, it's just "own the libs".
One of the trademarks of populism is that populist leaders hold those who support them in utter contempt. Although we're starting to see a realisation amongst Americans who were duped into voting for Trump that they'd been had, the endless narrative of stolen elections, or a secret cabal of liberal pederasts are likely to keep them coming back for more for a little while yet. If Trump were to disappear from politics tomorrow, there are plenty of others willing to step in to his place. They're in plain sight.
Don't forget the approval and support of the Republican Party as an organisation. They had the chance to condemn him and chose not to. Could that have encouraged 'normal' republicans to think this was acceptable?
And also, what the hell with Mitch McConnell??? Criticise for an insurrection, but not vote to convict on a technicality, then visit him, then tacitly support/endorse him???
Don’t forget the approval and support of the Republican Party as an organisation. They had the chance to condemn him and chose not to. Could that have encouraged ‘normal’ republicans to think this was acceptable?
Two key pieces of legislation have done much to change the landscape of the GOP:
Citizens United vs FEC 2009 - this simultaneously hindered the amounts that could be donated by Trade Unions and removed the limits on expenses only type campaigns.
McCutcheon vs FEC - this removed the limit on individual donations. This has meant that the GOP is subject to the whims of a tiny group of extremely monied individuals to dictate policy. If Charles Koch for example wants something, he merely threatens to turn off the funding taps and bends the Republicans to his will. There's a reason why threats from the Republican right to form a new party steeped in populism are frequently dropped.
I wasn't sure if it was the singer or the keybord player off key, hard to tell.
They where playing all the right notes, just not necessarily in the right order.
The Republicans have culturally appropriated freestyle Jazz music!!!
Criticise for an insurrection, but not vote to convict on a technicality, then visit him, then tacitly support/endorse him???
Making all of the right noises, just not necessarily in the right order.
Every time I see Mitch McConnell I think ..Evil Turtle 🙂
The very best thing that could happen to US politics is to re-democratise party funding by placing absolute limits on individual donation and the scope of "in kind" donation by businesses. I suspect that would be as much of a relief to McConnell as it would to (almost) everyone else.
The only thing Mitch McConnell cares about is his current power and re-election (assuming the world's unlucky enough that he'll live that long).
I wasn’t sure if it was the singer or the keybord player off key, hard to tell.
The "performance" was a cappella. The video with the keyboard player was him trying to play along with the recording.
Making all of the right noises, just not necessarily in the right order.
I think the criticism was a rare case of him developing a conscience about where his power grabbing policies have take the republicans and to some extent the country. He soon overcame it though.
A bit of insight into Trumps motivations in relation to his approach to managing a public health crisis perhaps - the measures he was resistant to putting in place would hit his own pocket.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56438914
About par for the course for the likes of Boebert and that awful Taylor-Greene woman.
there was a report from a Oklahoma Diner (a ward that went 90% trump back in november) Even with trumps (described as a New York Liberal) "encouragement" were not going to take COVID vaccine.
Every time I see those two I think ... a trump and a melaena
That Boebart post is a "clever" swipe at Biden for tripping on the AF1 stairs. Because of course Trump had a stellar record with stairs and ramps.
Oh my, this is majestic...reasonable people would not accept such statements as fact...
Somehow I don't think that Dominion are going to accept that plea with a straight face - Powell's "claims that await testing by the courts through the adversary process" were accepted as fact by millions and no doubt inspired some of the gullible idiots who rioted on the 6th Jan.
In other news one of the Elite Strike Force loony-lawyers on the end of a gazillion dollar voting machine manufacturer lawsuit reckons “No reasonable person would conclude that the statements were truly statements of fact,” (argued lawyers for Powell)
Not sure how the US legal system defines 'reasonable person', but I think it's fair to say if you're able to determine that if your claims are baseless to reasonable people you probably shouldn't be making them to anyone irrespective of their mental capacity.
At the end of the day it's only $$$ or jail that will focus the minds of these clowns.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/23/sidney-powell-trump-election-fraud-claims
The Washington Post version of the story:
Now she tells us.
Attorney Sidney Powell, you may recall, was the Madame Defarge of the recent attempt to overturn the election results. She knitted elaborate lawsuits from the yarns of unreliable witnesses, patterned with a vast conspiracy to rig voting machines, as the partisans she inflamed rolled their tumbrels toward the Capitol in search of such supposed traitors as then-Vice President Mike Pence and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).Sued for defamation by the voting-machine vendor in question, Powell is now scoffing in federal court at the idea that anyone could have taken her seriously. “Reasonable people would not accept such statements as fact,” Powell averred in her motion to dismiss the lawsuit. Instead, the allegations that helped to fuel the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol were mere “claims that await testing by the courts through the adversary process.”
When she said, as the nation was spinning into crisis, that she had evidence of “the greatest crime of the century if not the life of the world” — a world that in living memory has witnessed the Holocaust and other unspeakable crimes — Powell meant nothing of the sort, she now admits. That was just politics. Wrapping herself in an earlier court ruling, she quoted the “well recognized principle that political statements are inherently prone to exaggeration and hyperbole.”
In another remarkable contortion, Powell quotes her antagonists at the voting-machine vendor, Dominion Voting Systems, calling her charges “outlandish” and “impossible.” What more proof is needed, she concludes, that folks were onto her fictions and distortions all along?
She had promised a “Kraken,” a fraud so vast and many-tentacled that it would resemble the mythical sea monster, but delivered not so much as a goldfish — and now she’s in court saying, in essence, we should have known all along that Krakens aren’t real. In passing, she says she still believes her own story, but that’s in the context of a 90-page filing that insists no one else ever should have done so.Powell joins a roster of Stop the Stealers who have tried to wriggle out of their hype. In December, Fox News took the unusual step of airing a video that debunked election-fraud myths during programs hosted by Lou Dobbs, Jeanine Pirro and Maria Bartiromo. The right-wing outlet Newsmax likewise backed off.
Don’t be surprised if former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani soon joins the club. He, too, has been sued by Dominion for damages in excess of $1 billion — enough to make a guy sweat his hair dye. Yet another Dominion lawsuit calls out Mike Lindell on his extravagant claims of election fraud. The My Pillow man may want to pull the covers over his head, but sooner or later he is likely to emerge to offer his own strained “never mind.”
Powell’s confession that no reasonable person could take her seriously, even when she is leveling profoundly serious charges, is important in itself. The implications are perhaps even more important. For example, the former president of the United States, who touted Powell’s lawsuits and news conferences via his once-deafening Twitter megaphone, is not a reasonable person. Many of us have known that for years, but it’s useful to hear it from one of his most ardent supporters.It’s true that Team Trump, and its cowering minions in Congress, eventually parted ways with Powell as her professional demeanor gradually slipped to reveal her tinfoil hat. They took refuge in an abstruse argument over regulatory powers of election officials in assorted states. But the window-smashing, cop-battering, death-chanting mob at the Capitol wasn’t there for a discussion of delegated authority of various secretaries of state. They had swallowed the hash that Powell & Co. were slinging.
And Powell’s brief offers a fresh suggestion of the real reason why this hash was ever slung in the first place. Hype makes the cash register ring, Powell informs the court: “Public disclosure helps gain public and financial support.” In Powell’s case, the “financial support” poured into an affiliated website called Defending the Republic. Giuliani sought his “financial support” in increments of $20,000 per day from the Trump campaign. The former president continues to raise millions for his lightly regulated PAC from his cheerfully hoodwinked supporters.
As for the Fox News conspiracists, their business model remains unchanged. Election fraud is so yesterday; today, it’s anti-vaccine and cancel culture. Theirs is a steam-powered money machine, requiring only that the pot be kept boiling.The Post’s Annie Gowen reported recently on her visit with Jenna Ryan, the Texas real estate agent who touted her business on social media while assaulting the Capitol in January. Now facing federal charges, Ryan said: “I bought into a lie, and the lie is the lie, and it’s embarrassing.” Now she tells us.
Apologies for bumping this thread but has Sidney just pulled the biggest Edinburgh Defense in history?
It is particularly absurd even by Trumpers standrds
I assume so scared of the legal consequences and not having a real defense thats the best they could come up with.
Its like a scene from a school playground, I fully expect Sidney's last line of defence to be"A big boy did it and ran away" just before her pants burst in to flames.
It's amazing what the prospect of litigation can do. All of these grifters bought into a lie to placate Trump - Powell herself saw an opportunity to seize voting machines and impose martial law, no doubt she had herself in mind for a lucrative role in this.
Her "no reasonable person" defence will ring hollow with the supporters who were on the brink of violent insurrection, I hope that they feel suitably cheated.
Reasonable people would not accept such statements as fact,”
Technically though this is correct.
Granted I really don't have much of a grasp of US law, but is her defence against being sued essentially I was being in contempt of court, i.e. I took a case to court that I knew was untrue.
TBH it feels like she's had the options explained to her by someone with an actual brain, and they are pretty much
1) You have already ended your legal career but maybe you can write another book or become a popular right wing blogger or keep making dodgy PACs, or recant and build a career as a Qanon victim and survivor.
2) You have already ended your legal career and also you lose the case and end up owing a kabillion dollars, and bear in mind your lunatic mates do not like a loser
Granted I really don’t have much of a grasp of US law
That's OK, neither does Sidney.
Thing is, she does. Or she did- she was a proper rising star in her early career, apparently highly capable for the middle bit which is mostly just slogging and hard work... Not especially political, a strong supporter of victim's charities etc. Nobody really seems to know at exactly what point she got radicalised...
But I reckon it starts when she got her first bit of fame defending Enron execs, when the only defence that was at all workable was "this is all overreach" "government interference"... she spent a long time basically defending the guilty by attacking the legal systems and prosecutors. Then that leads to the books, which started to get her on right wing tv channels etc, then Flynn and Mueller. Hannity loved her, Trump spotted her as a result... Basically lurching further right must have always looked like a good career move. You wonder how much of it's real and how much is convenience or cynicism, or how much of the real stuff basically grew out of tactical decisions- let that stuff live in your head for a decade and bad stuff can grow.
Sort of like, at what point do you stop writing Daily Mail columns about single mothers and immigrants to pay the bills, and start believing it? When is lurching towards extremism convenient to write your weekly piece, vs something you do because you want to? Especially if you started out doing your dream job and doing what you believe is right- surely you haven't changed so much? Surely you didn't really sell out to the bad guys? Maybe you actually believed it all along?