Pelosi on Trump

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi released to the public a letter to her Democratic colleagues Tuesday in which she charged President Trump with missteps in handling the coronavirus pandemic that "caused unnecessary death and economic disaster" in the United States.

The truth is that Donald Trump dismantled the infrastructure handed to him which was meant to plan for and overcome a pandemic, resulting in unnecessary deaths and economic disaster.

The truth is that in January Donald Trump was warned about this pandemic, ignored those warnings, took insufficient action and caused unnecessary death and economic disaster.

The truth is that Donald Trump told his most loyal followers that the pandemic was a hoax and that it would magically disappear, thus endangering lives and paving the way for economic disaster.

The truth is that we did not have proper testing available in March despite Trump repeatedly claiming that we did; and even now, we do not have adequate tests, masks, PPE, and necessary equipment, which creates unnecessary death and suffering.

The truth is because of an incompetent reaction to this health crisis, the strong economy handed to Donald Trump is now a disaster, causing the suffering of countless Americans and endangering lives.

The truth is a weak person, a poor leader, takes no responsibility. A weak person blames others.

Virus Vaccine

I WANT TO REMIND EVERYONE (feel free to google this before you debate me)... there is NO VACCINE and NEVER was a VACCINE invented or created after decades for CoronaVirus: SARS (2002) and CoronaVirus: MERS (2012) ... So don't think there will be one for COVID-19 ... Big Pharma will see no reason or money in it (*even with previous mass deaths)... as they didn't with any other Corona Virus ... Scientifically they also cannot make one that simply (As soon as they become available from their duties, I will be doing a video with two Henry Ford M.D.s to explain why Corona Virus’ cannot be simply “vaccinated against” due to cell memory, which is why you can always get a cold your whole life) - Only some level of herd immunity will work based on previous interest. STOP SAYING we will be okay until there is a Vaccine ... if you had SARS 20 years ago ... They didn't create one then and won't today. The only healing will be global immunity via biological adaptation (otherwise known as Evolution). When you get a cold and you heal from it, that is proof of evolution, the body God created adapts as it is meant to ... or it doesn't ... and the only ones to blame for this is Human Kind, our over destruction of biological environments where animals that carry diseases we weren't meant to eat or come into contact with via bodily fluids happened. We can however choose properly to get busy getting with political pressure; communicating to our elected officials that adverse behavior overseas from adverse agendas in other countries where these things continue to happen needs to stop... help protect the environment and exotic creatures (As the story of Noah reminds us to do) ... and No! ... do not dare debate me that referencing the old testament is 'racist' ... My fellow Christians, Jews and Muslims all share this same chronicle.

Sam Logan Khaleghi

Trump's Titanic

If Trump were captain of the RMS Titanic:

There isn't any iceberg.
There was an iceberg but it's in a totally different ocean.
The iceberg is in this ocean but it will melt very soon.
There is an iceberg but we didn't hit the iceberg.
We hit the iceberg, but the damage will be repaired very shortly.
The iceberg is a Chinese iceberg.
We are taking on water but every passenger who wants a lifeboat can get a lifeboat, and they are beautiful lifeboats. Look, passengers need to ask nicely for the lifeboats if they want them.
We don't have any lifeboats, we're not lifeboat distributors.
Passengers should have planned for icebergs and brought their own lifeboats.
I really don't think we need that many lifeboats.
We have lifeboats and they're supposed to be our lifeboats, not the passengers' lifeboats.
The lifeboats were left on shore by the last captain of this ship.
Nobody could have foreseen the iceberg.

Linda

BERNIE SANDERS SUSPENDS HIS CAMPAIGN

Dear America

With Bernie Sanders suspending his campaign today dies any hope I had in a better country or world. We are fucked, for lack of a better word.

No presidential candidate in the history of elections has won Iowa, NH and Nevada and not secured the nomination. Let me say it again: NO ONE IN THE HISTORY OF PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS HAS WON THESE SWING STATES AND NOT WON THE NOMINATION EVER! Rest assured the powers that be saw this and took control to RIG, VOTER SUPPRESS AND CHEAT this election. Biden could not win a prize in a Cracker Jacks box, let alone a primary.

I have never been more disgusted in a country or a fake election process in my life. Bernie raised more money than any other candidate based on donations of $27 or LESS. Do you know how many people have to donate small amounts to reach 46 million per quarter? A LOT. No corporations, no billionaires, no big oil, big Pharma, banks or media companies.....JUST WORKING CLASS AMERICAN PEOPLE.

Benies rallies exceeded the thousands every damn time, even in the freezing temperatures. In the larger cities they were always 25-35 THOUSAND PEOPLE. Joe Biden was lucky to have 200, if he even bothered to campaign at all.

The Exit polls were so skewed that if this happened in ANY OTHER COUNTRY the UN would have intervened. Off by over 10% in most states, the sign of election fraud is anything over 3%. You guys bitch and moan about Venezuela and Brazil and intervening in their elections so they can live in a "democracy", WELL LOOK AT YOUR OWN COUNTRY PEOPLE!

Polling locations were closed in poor, latino and college communities, but your precious TV would not comment on that because they are paid off as well. EVERY SINGLE STATION. This includes NPR and all the ones you think are legit. They are NOT.

And yesterday we saw the absolute lowest point in the history of this countries faux election process, with people in line to vote for hours, risking their lives IN A GLOBAL PANDEMIC. If you think for one second the Supreme Court of Wisconsin was not paid off to overturn the governors ruling you are not paying attention.

This is Nazi America, and no I don't say that lightly.

But when your basic right to vote, the basic foundation that this country was founded on is taken away then what are you left with?

When we are being stripped of every right to choose even when it comes to mandating medical procedures (ie vaccines) you are teetering on complete fascism.

When we are the only industrialized country without national healthcare, because we are lied to and told we cant afford it, then what are we?

When we watch this sham of a government continually bail out TRILLIONS TO Wall Street, BIG BANKS and CORPORATIONS, while we beg for a measly ONE TIME PAYMENT OF $1200 to make sure our kids eat, what are we? When we are out of work and the economy is tanking but yet we still are supposed to pay rent and bills WITH NO HELP FROM OUR OWN MONEY what is that?

When Big Pharma and Big Insurance are so dominating that if you get a cancer diagnosis or an auto immune disease there is a good chance you will have to declare bankruptcy and most likely have to start a Go Fund Me to pay for it, what is that? When people are dying because they cant afford medications in this country what should we call ourselves?

When "WE the People" have lost all control of a nation that is supposedly "For the People and By the People", then what are we left with?

We are supposed to have "NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION", let me assure you :
THERE IS NO ONE REPRESENTING YOU....

So we pay trillions in taxes with ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO SHOW FOR IT, and we don't even bother to protest or wonder why there is no one who gives a shit when we need help. And yes I mean right now. No one is fighting for you.

Except Bernie.....

He was our only hope.

Biden can't win, the Democratic Party may as well hang it up because the DNC will be decimated by this. I know I will #demexit today, along with the millions of others who are Bernie or Bust. It was a promise and not a threat. We said look at 2016 and learn, but you didn't. You just beat the same damn dead horse again. Biden is Trump-lite and Hilary 2.0.

Biden is also a RAPIST. And the rape apologizing that I have seen from #MeToo, #TimesUp and the Women's March is one of the most disturbing things I have ever witnessed. You can no longer say "I dont know why women dont come forward"....BECAUSE NOW YOU KNOW.

We fought hard, but its the dying of the light....we cant fight this....it is way to powerful and they have way too much money...
.
AND WHEN YOU OWN THE MEDIA YOU OWN THE MINDS OF THE PEOPLE OF THIS COUNTRY.

Your only hope America is to:
THROW YOUR TV OUT!
IT IS A BRAINWASHING DEVICE. YOU CAN NOT THINK FOR YOURSELF AND WATCH IT. YOU CAN NOT BE "WOKE" AND WATCH IT. YOU CAN NOT CLAIM YOU ARE "EDUCATED" AND WATCH IT. There is absolutely no excuse left to watch it. You know it is bought and paid for propaganda, so stop watching. Take responsibility.

They own the media, so they will keep winning.

I know I will be turning off Facebook. It was my last link to the media and I will be damned if I support this massive mind fuck. The algorithm is so powerful you cant fight it, same with YouTube and Google. Censorship is real, and we are being manipulated on all fronts.

And this isn't about Trump. It never was. You can hopefully see now, "they" get whoever they want in office. Trump didn't "accidentally" get elected people. They put Trump there and then told all of you he was the big bad wolf...When really THEY ALL ARE THE BIG BAD WOLF. The whole machine is bad. But you fell for it hook line and sinker and blamed Trump for all of it, lets just beat Trump and it will all be ok. We were fighting the whole disease, not the symptom. We were fighting the cancer, not the nausea. But you never got it, because you won't turn off your TVs.

This is a joke and I am done.

I am going to leave this mess to go to the country and work on my spiritual healing, it is all I have left. The collective consciousness is in pain, Mother Earth is hurting, people are suffering on a massive scale and we somehow think Joe Biden is going to save us. Its literally the most hilarious thing I have ever heard. I am going to grow vegetables in the middle of nowhere and if I need to move out of America I will.

This is that bad.

To all of my friends and comrades who have fought, knocked on doors, made phone calls, protested, shared knowledge, donated money, created visibility and in general just helped the cause, I thank you and I applaud you. It is not easy being the ones who fight. We have been bashed, shamed and made fun of this whole time by friends, family and all the moderate Normies who just don't see yet.

But I see you.
And I love you.
But today my hope dies.
Trump will win 4 more years easily....
Welcome to the Hunger Games.....
May the Odds be Forever in Your Favor....

Lara

Voter Suppression

In an interview on the Fox News Channel on Monday, Trump explained his objection to Democrats’ efforts to appropriate billions of dollars for election security in the $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief package. “The things they had in there were crazy,” he told the hosts. “They had things, levels of voting that if you’d ever agreed to it, you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again.” On Wednesday, the Georgia House Speaker, Republican David Ralston, echoed Trump. He opposed sending absentee ballots to the state’s registered voters because the effort would lead to higher voter participation. That would “be extremely devastating to Republicans and conservatives in Georgia.”

They are saying out loud what scholars of politics have known for a long time: the Republicans are a minority party. They win by keeping their opponents from voting, or by making sure their votes are undercounted. 

A democracy is in crisis if the majority of its people do not support the party in power. We can manage a glitch or two, but a systemic perversion of the government through manipulation by one group or another will destroy our faith that our government truly represents us. 

Manipulating the vote has a long and shameful history in America, but modern media and computer modeling has enabled today’s Republican Party to carve out its voters with surgical precision. 

The process of culling voters began in 1986, when Republicans who knew that Reagan’s budget cuts were unpopular began to talk of cutting down black voting. In a secret memo later made public by a judge, an official for the Republican National Committee explained that paring the voting rolls down in a call for “ballot integrity” “will eliminate at least 60-80,000 folks from the rolls.” Referring to a Senate race, the official noted, “If it’s a close race, which I’m assuming it is, this could keep the black vote down considerably.” (After the memo came out, the chair of the RNC stated “there has never been, nor is there now, any program at the Republican National Committee designed to intimidate or discourage any voter from exercising his or her right to vote…. [T]he purpose of the program was to help election officials make certain that no dead or fictitious persons vote.”)

When Democrats tried to expand voter registration in 1993 with the Motor-Voter Law, which permitted people to sign up to vote when at certain state offices-- including the Department of Motor Vehicles and welfare offices-- Republicans insisted that the Democrats were simply trying to register more of their own “special interest” voters and fought the law.

The next year, losing Republican candidates for office began to charge that they had lost because of “voter fraud,” and in 1996, House and Senate Republicans each launched year-long investigations into what they insisted were problematic elections, including the one that put Dianne Feinstein into the Senate from California. The loser in that contest, who had spent more than $28 million of his own money on his campaign, insisted on national television that there were serious voting irregularities. “I think, frankly, the fraud is overwhelming,” he said. Every study has shown that voter fraud is so rare as to be virtually nonexistent, but Republican leaders kept the case in front of the media for close to a year, helping to convince Americans that voter fraud was a serious issue and that Democrats were winning elections thanks to illegal, usually immigrant, voters.

In 1998, the Florida legislature passed a law to prevent such voter fraud, and the law quickly became a purge of black voters, people presumed to vote Democratic. In the election of 2000, Republican George W. Bush won the state of Florida and thus the election by 537 votes. A later investigation by the United States Commission on Civil Rights revealed “an extraordinarily high and inexcusable level of disenfranchisement,” primarily of Democratic African American voters, in that election.

When Democrat Barack Obama won the presidency in 2008, Republicans set out to guarantee he had a hostile Congress to keep him from accomplishing anything. They raised money from corporate donors to elect Republicans to state legislatures in 2010, so Republicans would redistrict key states after the 2010 census, in a process called “gerrymandering.” They called the plan “REDMAP,” for Redistricting Majority Project. Republicans won control of the key states of Florida, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Ohio, and Michigan, as well as other, smaller states, and they used computer modeling to redraw congressional maps to their advantage. In the 2012 election, Democrats won a majority of 1.4 million votes for House candidates. And yet Republicans came away with 33 more seats than Democrats in the House of Representatives.

The next year, in 2013, when the Supreme Court gutted the 1965 Voting Rights Act with the Shelby County v. Holder decision, by ruling that states could change their voting laws without preclearance by the Department of Justice, Republican state officials immediately began to introduce voter ID laws and bills restricting voter registration.

And now, as the coronavirus pandemic sweeps the nation right before the 2020 election, Trump and the Republican National Committee have launched a multimillion-dollar legal fight to keep Democrats from changing voting rules to enable people under 65 to vote from home, rather than risking their health or violating stay-at-home policies by gathering at polling places to cast ballots. (Republicans are fine with permitting older Americans to vote by mail, recognizing that older voters skew toward them.)

Trump has insisted without evidence since 2016 that he lost New Hampshire that year because of voter fraud, and that if you “deduct the millions of people who voted illegally,” he actually won the popular vote. (Once in office, he set up a voter fraud commission that disbanded in 2018 after finding no widespread voter fraud.) Trump has pointed to voter fraud again this week for his opposition to mail in ballots, and has called for voter ID, which tends to disfranchise Democrats far more than Republicans.

The attempt to suppress the majority in order to stay in power is more than partisanship. It is an illustration that the leaders of today’s Republican Party feel entitled to govern even though they are not popular, entitled to enforce policies they know voters would reject if they could. It also means that Republicans increasingly do not have to answer to the people; their seats are secure.

Opposition to this manipulation of our political system is not about electing Democrats; it is about protecting democracy, as Michael Waldman of the non-partisan Brennan Center wrote in USA Today on Tuesday. Using the Trump technique of accusing an opponent of his own tricks, though, a senior Trump campaign counsel, Justin Clark, says: “It is beyond disgusting that the Democrats are using this crisis to try to dismantle the integrity of our voting system…. The American people won’t stand for this, and the campaign and the party intend to fight with them for a free, fair, and open vote in November.”

Clark made the news late last year when a tape leaked from a private event in which he told Republican leaders in the key state of Wisconsin: “Traditionally it’s always been Republicans suppressing votes in places…. Let’s start protecting our voters. We know where they are. ... Let’s start playing offense a little bit. That’s what you’re going to see in 2020. It’s going to be a much bigger program, a much more aggressive program, a much better-funded program.”

Sign up for this free newsletter at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com

——

Notes:

Trump and Ralston: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-georgia-house-speaker-turnout

“ballot integrity” https://www.nytimes.com/1986/10/25/us/gop-memo-tells-of-black-vote-cut.html

Feinstein election: https://www.nytimes.com/1994/11/30/us/lame-duck-congress-california-feinstein-opponent-hopes-uncover-ballot-fraud.html

U.S. Commission on Civil Rights: https://www.usccr.gov/pubs/vote2000/report/main.html

Trump:

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump

In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally

November 27th 2016

44,447 Retweets141,002 Likes

Voter fraud commission: https://apnews.com/f5f6a73b2af546ee97816bb35e82c18d/Report:-Trump-commission-did-not-find-widespread-voter-fraud

Republican opposition to mail in ballots: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/03/trump-2020-election-legal-battle-coronavirus-162152

Clark: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/trump-top-adviser-traditionally-it-s-always-been-republicans-suppressing-n1106031

Impeachment Statement from Gary Peters

 Senator Gary Peters

RESPONSES TO STATEMENT FROM SENATOR GARY PETERS:
 

Diane Grove Mienk: You are a disgrace! Making allogations against our good President and presenting them as facts is not, and hopefully never will be the American way! You know that the Bidens dealings are corrupt and self rewarding, yet you and your swamp friends insist on making it look like Trump did this because Joe Biden is running against him. That's just stupid! You will be voted out of office for your corrupt actions and for trying to influence the 2020 elections with your lies here on social media.

Lori LaFave: Absolutely Senator. Only wish your republican colleagues were as honorable. Yeah,

Bret Huntman: Thank you Senator. It is beyond belief that all the evidence is ignored by those in trumps camp and especially...”critical new evidence showing that White House officials were preparing to halt the release of almost $400 million in military aid to Ukraine on July 24, the day before the President's July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Lyle E. Studer III So, do you support the second amendment as well??

 

Judy Peterson Bloodworth: Thank you for taking your oath seriously.

Sandra Scott Karlson: Thank you Senator Peters for standing against the flaunting of our Constitution by trump and those Senators and lawyers who support trump's lawlessness. I, too, hope they would all stand by the Oath of Office they took in the beginning and again as Jurors. Thank you for doing what is right, not what is expedient.

Michael J Morris: The precedent the Democrats just set is very scary... If someone is running for office they can't be investigated of a crime. Quid Pro Joe and company will answer when the President is acquitted of this circus.

Dawn Wolfe Weirauch: Too bad you've voted to confirm Trump's cabinet nominees and you haven't done near enough to stop Trump judges from being confirmed. But, that said, thank you for this. I will of course be voting for you, though I'd prefer an actual progressive.

Impeach

"My dad suggested that the impeachment managers address the talking point that Trump hasn’t committed impeachable offenses thus":

We are not here today to impeach the president for starting the false rumor that President Barack Obama was born in Kenya – called birtherism.

We are not here today to impeach the president for ruining the lives of 5 young black men who were falsely accused (by him) of raping women in Central Park - the Central Park Five.

We are not here today to impeach the president for defrauding students at Trump University.

We are not here today to impeach the president for using Trump (charitable) Foundation for personal gain.

We are not here today to impeach Donald John Trump for being part of a slumlord family that was so horrible Woody Guthrie wrote songs about his dad.

We are not here today to impeach Donald John Trump for violating the emoluments clause by refusing to separate himself from his business interests, cashing in and allowing his children to cash in on the favors world businessmen are willing to give them in trademarks, real estate deals, and other business deals worldwide.

We are not here today to impeach Donald Trump for allowing Don Jr. to shoot an endangered mountain sheep in Mongolia only to have his father’s office “fix” the poaching situation for him with the Mongolian government.

We are not here today to impeach Donald John Trump for defrauding the American Public of over $100 million dollars to visit his own golf club properties spending one in every five days of his presidency.

We are not here to impeach Donald John Trump for putting his children who could not even pass security clearance in charge of things like Middle East Peace while eviscerating the State Department.

We are not here to impeach Donald John Trump to call on our adversaries, like China and Russia to hack the emails of Sec. Clinton and the DNC in broad daylight.

We are not here to impeach Donald J Trump for denigrating the family of a slain Muslim American service member.

We are not here to impeach Donald J Trump for mocking a disabled journalist.

We are not here to impeach Donald J Trump for engaging in sexual assault and then bragging about it on a hot mic.

We are not here for impeaching Donald J Trump for dodging the draft by paying off some slimy doctor that he had bone spurs and have the temerity to call John McCain a loser.

We are not here to impeach Donald J Trump for inciting rally goers to violence.

We are not here to impeach Donald J Trump for calling Nazis very fine people and refugees rapists and murderers.

We are not here to impeach Donald Trump for allowing deadly anti-Semitism and bigotry flourish by signaling acceptance of White Nationalism, saying he is a nationalist, embracing David Duke’s support while denying he knows him- saying virtually nothing to discourage it as people are mowed down in their places of worship, attacked while in public, cemeteries desecrated, homes vandalized.

We are not here to impeach Donald Trump for spending 6 hours of “executive time” a day irresponsibly watching Fox News and tweeting their propaganda at all hours, conducting foreign policy in 280 characters or less. A normal president would read news clips from around the world, stand in front of a microphone to inspire and comfort people after the many tragedies we have endured, and used complex plans with diplomats.

We are not here to impeach Donald Trumps for not helping our fellow Americans in Puerto Rico, humiliating them by throwing them rolls of paper towel in lieu of real aid after a devastating hurricane or threatening Californians that they will get no help for devastating wildfires until basically they rake the leaves there and cutting the forest service budget.

We are not here to impeach Donald John Trump for arbitrarily banning people from Muslim countries from coming here and then dropping the other bigotry shoe by basically ending refugee settlement and referring to the countries from which people with extra melanin in their skin come as “shithole countries”.

We are not here to impeach him for lying about the size of his inaugural crowd size on his first day in office, and then proceeding to lie about everything from the paths of hurricanes to how well he knew all his campaign people from Papadopoulos to Flynn who have been indicted and or convicted of serious crimes.

We are not here to impeach Donald J Trump for running the country like one of his bankrupt casinos with a bunch of unqualified flunkies who are “interim” cabinet members, or “acting this or that”. Acting Chief of Staff, Acting Defense Secretary. Who is our Ambassador to the UN now? Who is the head of the NSA? CIA? Pompeo’s back in for now?

We are not here to impeach Donald Trump for the extrajudicial killing of a foreign general of a country we are not at war with thereby almost starting a war, and when that country retaliated against US military bases by firing rockets at them, causing traumatic brain injury for some service members he said they just had headaches.

We are not here to impeach Donald John Trump for the everlasting national shame and human rights violation of separating refugee children, including infants from their families and leaving them in detention camps where they sleep on concrete with mylar blankets, are not allowed human contact, are not allowed crayons, toothbrushes, soap, babies die alone with no one to hold them, traumatized for life, their emotional growth stunted – families separated forever after the last attempt to escape whatever horror they were fleeing in their home countries – poverty, starvation, gang violence, war. Thousands of those children remaining in what amount to concentration camps to this day.

We are not here to impeach Donald J Trump for packing the federal courts with dozens of judges who have been deemed unqualified to serve on the bench by the American Bar Association.

We are not here to impeach Donald John Trump for threatening our free press and calling journalists the enemy of the people, banning legitimate news outlets from WH Press Briefings for being critical of him, and causing so much disruption the press briefings have basically been suspended because his press secretary can’t explain away the chaos and lies. So no more briefings and people just forget how bad it is.

We are not here to impeach Donald Trump for turning a blind eye to the brutal torture and dismemberment of a Washington Post journalist by the Saudi Regime while giving them big defense contracts – to build US weapons.

We are not here to impeach Donald Trump for threatening and insulting all of our allies while defending and playing footsie with dictators and our enemies from Kim Jong Un to Putin. And in the case of Putin, taking his word that he didn’t interfere with our elections over the word of our own intelligence agencies.

We are not here to impeach Donald Trump for surrounding himself with a criminal element, recently joined by Congressman Chris Collins who was an early supporter and pleaded guilty to to securities fraud, conspiracy and making false statements'. According to ABC news last month, 14 Trump aides, donors and advisers have been indicted or imprisoned since the days when the first-time candidate promised that he would only hire "the best people." That includes a US General, Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort - his former campaign manager. You know, fine people.

What we are here to impeach the president for is the abuse of his august power by trying to intimidate a new and vulnerable Ukrainian president to dig up fake dirt on Trump’s opponent in exchange for aid (otherwise known as quid pro quo) to defend against an invading power and the very country which did interfere with our elections, Russia, and then obstructing Congress. To say nothing about having the Ambassador to Ukraine followed and possibly her safety threatened by his own associates before being dismissed without reason."

"A foolish faith in authority is the worst enemy of truth."— ALBERT EINSTEIN