Mr. Ected
Mr. Ected's JournalJust had a right-winger, a banker, in my office this morning
Helped him settle a second mortgage for a client. Mind you, I live in rural Georgia, and may be the only liberal within a hundred miles of this place.
After the closing, he told me that his bank, a small local entity, was planning on marketing the hell out of equity lines of credit and second mortgages in 2018.
I asked him if anyone had gotten the message, that the new tax law expressly eliminates the interest deductibility on new and existing home equity loans. He looked at me incredulously, and admitted he hadn't heard that bit of news.
He offered that, perhaps, maybe, there would be some sort of offset hard-wired into the bill that would balance the scales in this regard. I told him, "nope".
He said that the bank had dropped a mint into its upcoming campaign, and that he would be conversing with the Board as soon as he got back to the office.
The bad news is beginning to trickle down to the idiots that vote GOP. We will all suffer, for sure, but the suffering of those who felt so much faux pain over the past several years and elected a bunch of fascists as their saviors is particularly delicious.
Would audiotape of Trump, et al. agreeing to quid pro quo be enough?
Most of our speculation about whether or not Mueller can cobble together a case against the Trump cabal is based on witness testimony, intercepted emails, and other compelling circumstantial evidence.
But would the existence of audiotapes between our perps and the Russians be enough to sway the public? Would it be enough to rattle the Republican Congress and force them to impeach? One has to believe that such audio exists. We've been told for a long time that foreign intelligence agencies intercepted communications that compelled them to report nefarious activity to the FBI and the CIA. Malcolm Nance has spoken on the subject.
Of course the validity of the audiotapes would be challenged - it's the spin of choice for the GOP these days - but it seems that actually hearing Kushner, Jr., Pence, Turtle and Ryan, and Donnie 2 Scoops himself captured on tape committing a crime might be the tipping point to sway public opinion.
And if Trump tries to shut down Mueller...I could easily imagine intelligence agencies, domestic and foreign, allowing these tapes to trickle out to the media, another potential backstop to Republican obstruction.
In any case, I'd love to hear ONE audiotape leak that would act as a counterpunch to the current GOP maligning of the Special Counsel Mueller.
Those write-in votes ended up being the difference
Republicans who refused to vote for Jones but couldn't in good conscience vote for Moore.
That, coupled with a GREAT turn-out for Democrats spelled GREAT NEWS FOR ALABAMA.
Have You Noticed
There's a lot of people wondering if you've noticed something lately?
I just noticed that.
LOL....no ill will intended.
When will Congress enact anti-Nazi laws similar to Germany's Strafgesetzbuch section 86a?
Until Congress acts (and I'm looking at you, MAJORITY Republican leaders), they are complicit in this devolution of our society.
Each Congressperson needs to be on record as to their stance on such legislation. Against it? Fine. You get a swastika/klan hood next to your name the next time you run for re-election.
Democrats will be running against Trump and the Nazis in 2018. Make those SOBs in the GOP own this. And why not. It's defined them for decades.
All Quiet on the Russian Front
After weeks and even months of a steady (sometimes torrential) drip, drip, drip, it seems the spigot has been closed and few if any new revelations have been leaked or reported.
Does this mean that the sources have dried up? Has Mueller buttoned down the investigation leaving little to be learned by the general public?
I must admit, I rather enjoyed the deluge of damning information that we were privy to. It was my lifeline to reality; my one source of hope in the midst of pretty bleak circumstances. Nowadays, we're only hearing the right wing counterpoints to the long-standing allegations of Russia's attack on our election and Trump's collusion in advancing the Russian incursion. The Congressional investigations feel like they've been politicized beyond neutrality and the accused are lawyered up and speaking without rebuttal to the press. It's enough to make you feel there's been a momentum shift and the brownshirts are in the driver's seat.
So I guess what I'm trying to say is: RACHEL. Talk to me.
If the Founding Fathers had a crystal ball and could see the future
Would they have defined "treason" more broadly? Would they have limited the pardoning power of the President to exclude or diminish the power in the event that the President or his co-conspirators were the criminals being pardoned? Would they have included filters on the press to filter out overt lies and propaganda being conveyed to the general public under the guise of it being truthful, veritable news?
It seems there are gaping holes in our Constitution when it comes to a corrupt and criminal executive branch. The expansive authorities granted to the President allow him to circumvent punishment for the highest crimes imaginable. The checks and balances afforded Congress are meaningless under a 2 party system in which one of the parties is willing to subvert their duties in order to protect the party brand. Our rights as citizens to vote the criminals out is a once-every-four-years solution that still allows the criminals to ply their trade for FOUR LONG YEARS.
And all of that is meaningless when the press is able to spew out absolute lies and falsities without recourse.
Yes, my fear is that Trump will have the Special Counsel fired, and will then pardon himself, his family, and everyone associated with Trump/Russia, that the Congress will not impeach, and the press will come to the briefing room every day and allow the White House to propagate its lies and deceptions without video feed and without adequate refutation of FOX News talking points.
Can someone invent a time machine, go back to the Founding Fathers, and let them see what awaits this country?
Remember when Trump said, prior to the election, that he would refuse to concede to HRC if he lost?
He plunged America into uncharted territory when he repeatedly made that claim in the months preceding Election Day.
Just like Mitch McConnell "knowing" that he could stall the Merrick Garland hearings because a GOP victory was being manipulated by the Russians (and his fellow Republicans)...
...was Trump asserting his own prescience that the Russians were going to help him steal the election...to the extent that, if he lost, something would had to have gone awry with the collusion and quid pro quo?
Something about that statement has always tasted bitter in my mouth. With the daily uncovering of more and more Russian influence in the election, it seems apparent that Trump and his big mouth may have been alluding to the Big Fix and his potential incredulousness if the hack was not to be successful.
You are Trump. You have just colluded with a hostile foreign power in the run-up to the election.
Your co-conspirators are Russian. They are the masters of propaganda, of disinformation, of deflection.
There are 3 institutions which will expose you and bring you down: 1) The intelligence community; 2) The Press; 3) The Judiciary.
You pre-emptively attack all of these pillars of American society, incessantly, for inexplicable reasons.
You already know that 35-40% of Americans are brainwashed by right wing media outlets. You can count on them to believe your assertions if those assertions are propounded and regurgitated by the great right wing propaganda machine.
That's how we got here. Trump has hand-picked the institutions to demonize in order to protect his ass from criminal and political prosecution. He has muddied the waters in order to induce everyone to question reality.
The question now is: are those pillars of American society sturdy enough to withstand a formidable attack by the Republican Party, its embedded media, the executive branch and hordes of zombified true believers?
If not, I'm afraid it's goodbye USA. Once these fascists gain a toehold, their malignancy will know no boundaries.
Calling all Constitutional lawyer wannabes: What IS the crime?
We know it's a matter of days before the first proof of Trump/Russia collusion is the subject of a NYT or WaPo piece. The wrong-wingers are already telegraphing their defense: sure he colluded, but what's the crime in that?
So which laws, what statutes, were breached if Trump did indeed collude with the Russians to throw our elections, in and of itself? What crime is committed when that act is coupled with a diplomatic quid pro quo...during the transition?
The mouthpieces at FOX have proffered that none of this is a crime. I vehemently believe that it is, a monumental one, but I'm not qualified to dissect and enlighten on this subject.
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