The Speaker of the House, and Donald Trump: two peas in a pod.
The Speaker of the House Is An Open Insurrectionist. (Past and future.)
I bring you the exact words of current Speaker of the House (transcribed by me):
As you know, we have to blur faces of some of the persons who participated in the events of that day because we don’t want them to be retaliated against, and be charged by the DOJ, and to have other concerns and problems.
Open support for the insurrection – at a fucking public press conference, by the Speaker of the House.
Watch it for yourself. It’s even worse than reading the words. Listen to the tone of his voice change in the clip – the Speaker is clearly outraged at the injustice – to him, it would be a travesty of justice if the people who stormed the capital suffer any consequences, let alone be charged with the crimes they committed.
The Speaker of the House is telling you they have to blur the faces of those who laid siege to the Capitol because they don’t want them to be held accountable for any crimes.pic.twitter.com/p2p0HUuq9V
— Jack E. Smith ⚖️ (@7Veritas4) December 5, 2023
The Former President, He Did It Before, He’ll Do It Again (via Jack Smith – in a DC Filing)
The Government will provide the defendant and the Court extensive advance notice of the intrinsic evidence it plans to introduce at trial, including through its exhibit and witness lists, motions in limine, and a detailed trial brief setting forth the Government’s planned trial presentation. In an abundance of caution, the Government below notices evidence that, although intrinsic to the charged crimes, pre- or post-dates the charged criminal conspiracies. If the Court were to find that any part of the noticed evidence below is extrinsic, the evidence is also admissible under Federal Rule of Evidence 404(b), because the Government will offer it not to show the defendant’s criminal propensity, but to establish his motive, intent, preparation, knowledge, absence of mistake, and common plan.
Sections from the filing (PDF)
IANAL, but it seems to me that Jack Smith has Trump coming and going.
A. Historical Evidence of the Defendant’s Consistent Plan of Baselessly Claiming Election Fraud
B. Historical Evidence of the Defendant’s Common Plan to Refuse to Commit to a Peaceful Transition of Power
C. Evidence of the Defendant and Co-Conspirators’ Knowledge of the Unfavorable Election Results and Motive and Intent to Subvert Them
D. Pre- and Post-Conspiracy Evidence That the Defendant and Co-Conspirators Suppressed Proof Their Fraud Claims Were False and Retaliated Against Officials Who Undermined Their Criminal Plans
E. Pre- and Post-Conspiracy Evidence of the Defendant’s Public Attacks on Individuals, Encouragement of Violence, and Knowledge of the Foreseeable Consequences
F. Post-Conspiracy Evidence of the Defendant’s Steadfast Support and Endorsement of Rioters
Time will tell, of course. But in these dangerous times, I am very glad we have a functioning DOJ and Jack Smith.
Open thread.
Math Guy
Now, if only we had a functioning press.
StringOnAStick
I listen to the Jack podcast by Allison Gill and Andy McCabe while working out; the calm and clear discussion by these two and McCabe’s legal knowledge is a great antidote to the doomer cycles that get going here occasionally. Jack Smith is focused and relentless; tRump is going to get more and more freaked out as this prosecution closed in.
Old School
The DOJ doesn’t have access to these videos?
Manyakitty
Does DOJ already have all that footage? If not, IANAL, but it sure sounds like Mikey is tampering with evidence.
WaterGirl
@Old School: I have been wondering that, too. It seems that they must, or at least that they should. Someone here will likely know for sure.
StringOnAStick
@Math Guy: The group we really need to reach and activate are the youngs, and the MSM might as well be buggy whips to them. They are already freaked out about Roe and climate change, and I have heard that there is a Biden social media campaign designed to reach them.
dmsilev
Hasn’t DOJ had access to the un-blurred tapes for, like, 2.5 years now? It’s awful that the GOP and the Speaker in particular are posturing about “protecting” the insurrectionists, but as far as prosecutions goes, that’s all this is, posturing.
Edit: I see we’re all thinking along similar lines.
MagdaInBlack
I appreciate this post WG, and I’m glad we have Jack Smith.
( after the last post and this one may I request a respite puppy/kitten/critter thread)
WaterGirl
@Manyakitty: I think the DOJ has been able to identify a lot of the insurrectionists from photos they have released, where someone in the public has ID’d the person.
I wonder if there is more footage than what they have? Surely the Jan 6 commission would have asked for everything and gotten white the Dems were still in the majority. Surely, she said hopefully.
If not, that’s the only thing that might make sense about the Speaker’s decision to blur the faces before they release it all to the public Not wanting more people to be *identified.
Oh, I’m sorry, I meant to say retaliated against by the DOJ. (smoke coming out of my ears)
matt
What do we do with terrorists? Imagine if there was a member of Knesset doing this with Hamas members.
teezyskeezy
@Math Guy: It functions, but not to accurately inform about abuses of power by the privileged. It’s functioning quite well in its purpose to obfuscate them, however.
Math Guy
@StringOnAStick: I hope you are right. Reading – and occasionally commenting- on this site is the extent of my social media involvement. The Democrats have really got to get their message out (on a multitude of issues) in a way that speaks to the gut and then hammer away at that constantly.
Martin
@Manyakitty: Well, he’s not tampering because the DOJ already has it all. But is he trying to influence these cases? Sure looks like it.
Manyakitty
@WaterGirl: after today’s news so far, I’m practically in a state of Max Headroom glitching. And I saw on Bluesky, but without a source, that Zelensky had to pull out of today’s planned speech. Worrying about that, now, too.
smith
@Old School: Aren’t these videos the ones made available to the J6 committee? I can’t think of any source they would have gotten them from other than DOJ. And DOJ hasn’t been shy about publicizing pictures of rioters they want to have identified by the public.
If that’s the case, I don’t think Johnson’s actions will have any effect on criminal investigations, but it’s still outrageous that his avowed motive is to shield criminals from prosecution.
WaterGirl
@MagdaInBlack: Yes, I get that.
I really appreciated the filing from Jack Smith so I didn’t have to just post the first part, feeling enraged
I really didn’t think they should shock me with their depravity, but I found it really shocking to see the speaker of the fucking house openly supporting the insurrectionists, suggestion that it’s the DOJ that is behaving lawlessly.
Good thing we have so many steady people at the helm in government right now.
Manyakitty
@Martin: whatever lies he tells his gormless followers is one thing. If DOJ has all the footage already, I’m slightly less concerned.
teezyskeezy
@StringOnAStick: I wouldn’t make the buggy whip analogy when it comes to the msm vs. social media in terms of being informed. Social media is not the *superior* technology with regard to being accurately informed. More like junk food vs. crack, the msm being the junk food with *some* nutritional value, and social media being the crack.
Villago Delenda Est
Remind me again: what is the traditional punishment for treason?
H.E.Wolf
@Math Guy:
What we *can* have – and it’s powerful and effective – is a functioning community-activist volunteer corps, made up of us.
Rather than miring ourselves in doom-saying and placing blame on Those Others who are responsible for what’s wrong, we can decide to take concrete, positive action – both as individuals, and as a community.
I encourage us all to find something small to do. Small is great, because it’s doable! Writing a postcard, donating a dollar… these are big actions when we join with others who are doing the same things.
It is also remarkable how taking one small, concrete action reduces one’s cynicism and despair.
WaterGirl
@teezyskeezy: I don’t really agree.
It all depends on who you follow on social media, and how discerning you are.
The young are not stupid, and I would venture to guess that they are more discerning than MAGA peeps.
smith
Ok, some good news for today — Tuberville has finally given up on his quest to gut the armed forces. Woke has won!
Villago Delenda Est
@smith: He’s still trying to block promotions to O-10, but because there are just not a lot of four stars, this should be easy to counter.
Matt McIrvin
@smith: He says he’s still going to hold four-star generals, but, well, that’s giving up nearly everything.
WaterGirl
I am super pleased to find that even though Trump wasn’t charged with insurrection, that insurrection is going to be front and center in the case against Trump in DC.
Villago Delenda Est
@Matt McIrvin: Prezactly. The real log jam is in the lower ranks, particularly field grades.
WaterGirl
@smith: What I want to know is whether we are going to be able to handle at least 350 of the promotions in one fell swoop, as they say.
teezyskeezy
@Manyakitty: So much that is good is going to shit, and so much that is bad seems ascendant. And for none of it is there a good fucking excuse. Weimar Germans at least had the very real hardships from the terms of the Treaty of Versailles to use as an excuse for their desperate bad choices–we have modest (and subsiding) inflation in an economy that’s humming along. I guess people in democracies can get apathetic about their freedoms for even less than previously imagined. (no, not all of us are apathetic, but too many Republicans and voters in the “swing” states seem to be.)
WaterGirl
What else is in the news today?
I am juggling a lot of things (a day ending in Y?) but I guess it feels like more because I was out doing the final things in the yard – and it was really cold out there!
WaterGirl
@teezyskeezy:
I can agree with that. But there’s also a lot of bad things that are getting better, and some good that seems ascendant.
Why focus on just one side of that coin? That’s what is so tiresome. Why can’t some people see the bad and the good? Or the good and the bad?
Matt McIrvin
@teezyskeezy: I think it’s arguable that present-day Americans are more inherently Nazi than 1930s Germans. They at least had a depression going on.
teezyskeezy
@WaterGirl: Okay, you *can* find solid honest voices in social media, but I have only found them by first seeing a core set of them in mainstream publications and then exploring their networks on twitter, etc. If you just start raw on social media and let the algorithm guide you, it often goes to misinformation crack mode. A lot of people are using it in crack mode.
RepubAnon
@Manyakitty: Accessory after the fact, or Speaker of the House? Why not both!
WaterGirl
@teezyskeezy: So what are you trying to do about it? Because writing mostly pessimistic comments on Balloon Juice doesn’t seem to do a thing to help turn the ship around.
Ken
Hopefully, Johnson’s stunt will backfire by reminding the public of the videos. Who knows, it might even get a few more people identified — “Hey, wasn’t Uncle Jack in DC that day, and isn’t that the stupid MAGA T-shirt he wore to Thanksgiving….”
Manyakitty
@RepubAnon: plus, Ken Chesebro would like a word.
cain
These people do know that with AI and others you can take a photo and image search it and get the unblurred image, right? It’s not like the DOJ doesn’t have all the footage.
teezyskeezy
@WaterGirl: Because if Trump wins and lets people enact Project 2025, all the good things that are happening could be wiped out in short order. Maybe I’m over-estimating the extent and duration of damage Trump II could cause, but to me that looks like a steam roller on a path to run over all the good stuff happening. That *amplifies* the tragedy for me. All these good things going on…if that steam roller isn’t diverted, they won’t be there in a few years.
NotMax
@Villago Delenda Est
For those convicted during the 20th century? Imprisonment.
Ben Cisco
This is posturing for the stenographers and goobers.
Anyway
From WaPo:
Why?
teezyskeezy
@WaterGirl: Getting my ducks in a row to survive the worst outcome.
Old School
HuffPost says DOJ has the video.
Martin
@Matt McIrvin: I think the theory is that all populations have a certain not small subset that will give to authoritarianism, and whether or not they do succumb to it is a product of two things:
But the people open to the populist movement are always present. The key to avoiding that fate is to avoid at least one of the two catalysts.
Geminid
@Anyway: Reid Hoffman may think Haley can knock Trump out, or at least damage him. I don’t see it myself.
Martin
@Anyway: Because if your goal is to defeat Trump at all costs, you have two opportunities to do that – one in the GOP primary and the other in the general election, and you fund the former until it fails, and then you fund the latter.
Martin
@Geminid: I agree, but if you have effectively infinite money, you might as well do both.
If your only interest is that Biden win, your best strategy *might* be for Trump to be the nominees, which makes it MORE likely that Trump will win the general. If your only interest is that Trump LOSE, you don’t care if the GOP nominee can beat Biden so long as it isn’t Trump.
WaterGirl
@Anyway: All the big money people have started backing Haley. Including the Koch brothers.
They appear to think she has the best shot if Trump falls.
Brachiator
OT, Finally. From CNN.
Elsewhere, the people of Venezuela voted to annex part of neighboring Guyana. Oil reserves are involved. Perhaps a regional issue to watch.
WaterGirl
@teezyskeezy: What you’re describing looks like the kissing cousin of the survivalists. Another version of I’ve got mine, fuck you.
Why not fight for the outcome you want?
WaterGirl
@Old School: I was speculating about that at #9, glad to have confirmation!
teezyskeezy
@Brachiator: Actually, this is one of the “good things” I think is actually encouraging. Putting a bunch of good military people in Trump’s way and not leaving him easy openings to fill is one of the things that can thwart him if he wins. He will attempt to fire them one after another until he gets a core set who would open fire on americans (and some would be happy to, let’s admit), but it could get real real ugly for him before he completes that task.
trollhattan
Hah, joke’s on Speaker Johnson. All we need is to have David Rossi stand over Penelope’s shoulder while she has the frame up on her monitor, and say, “Enhance!”
Face, address, MAC address, mobile #, current location all appear.
NotMax
@WaterGirl
Brother, singular.
Charles and David are the politically active brothers who helmed Koch Industries. David has been dead since 2019.
Hoodie
@Old School: Johnson playing to the MAGA crowd. He knows the DOJ already has the footage, but he’s assuming (probably correctly) that his idiot followers don’t. He’s still trying to keep the numbskulls riled up.
Somewhat related, did I miss a thread discussing the Cheney interview with Maddow? It was kind of interesting, but I’d trust Cheney about as far as I could throw her father. Rachel did tread around asking her why she thought the GOP was vulnerable to becoming an authoritarian cult of personality, but kind of backed off, giving me the sense that question violated some previously agreed boundary. However, that’s a question that really needs to be answered before anything other than a temporary truce with Republicans who are willing to work against Trump. What I’ve yet to see is people like Cheney bringing themselves to say is that “principled” conservatives made a deal with the devil when they realized their ideas on economics and other issues aren’t particularly popular and resorted to racism, xenophobia and other paranoia to lure away non college educated white voters who they couldn’t appeal to in any other way. Her discussion of other GOPers’ sycophancy towards Trump after the election and J6 is a textbook example of where that ended up.
Trivia Man
@Villago Delenda Est: the O-10 are by far the most important, but the low quantity makes one by one votes feasible
teezyskeezy
@Matt McIrvin: To be fair, a lot of people are in a world of hurt financially, but that’s a situation that has been slow to build for decades and didn’t start with Biden, and I don’t know how in the hell they think Trump is gonna solve it for them.
Matt McIrvin
@Martin: What we seem to be discovering is that the economic crisis doesn’t even have to be entirely real. (There was a very real one sparked by the COVID pandemic but it’s essentially over, and what we’re left with is the aftermath of a fairly short period of inflation and broken supply lines. But the vibes are still terrible–as if people want to believe the economy is in collapse.)
Anyway
But they’re big Rethug funders and I see why they’d get behind Haley- this guy is a Dem and gives to liberal causes. Hope he’s also giving to the D PACs
DFH
You’re right, it’s best to hear the guy’s voice, the effrontery he put into it. It’s clear as day he supports violence in pursuit of a goal. Protecting J6 insurrectionists is not something the good guys do.
Martin
@teezyskeezy: I disagree with this.
Social media doesn’t *reliably* inform, but that’s because it’s largely unmanaged. It’s up to you, the reader/viewer, to steer toward those creators that do reliably inform.
But in that sense, I would argue that social media has substantially greater capacity to inform because it doesn’t have the dependency on the privileged that traditional media does. And that’s not a theoretical, that content is there and in decent volume. I think the fact that young people are much less supportive of people in power than other generations is probably indicative that social media is in practice better at it.
So I think you have a shift from people who are fairly uniform in their level of information, but with a consistent bias in favor of those in power, to a system where people are all over the damn place, but those that are informed are better informed.
Ryan
Isn’t the government obliged to disclose Brady information favorable to the accused on the theory that this information justifies the righteousness of their cause, according to their theory of the case?
Matt McIrvin
@teezyskeezy: Yeah. I mean, there’s a lot of economic inequality and a crisis in housing and education prices, and funding health care is still a problem.
But all that was true under Trump, too, yet somehow that wasn’t his fault. In fact, the current inflation fear seems in part born of a fear of wage inequality getting LESS bad. People want it to be worse.
Trivia Man
@Old School: Exactly- crowd sourcing can be a powerful weapon. Everyone in that video has friends who do not yet know they were involved. Well, maybe not all of them have decent friends but all will have a coworker or neighbor or barber or bartender willing to drop a dime.
Hoodie
@teezyskeezy: As has been discussed ad nauseum, “economic anxiety” is mostly horseshit when talking about the current US. We had worse inflation in the ’70’s. People were waiting in miles long queues for gas. Unemployment was nearly 8% in the late 70’s. Yes, some people are in a bad way, but a relative few in the current US are in anyway near the widespread economic straits Germany experienced in the 20’s and 30’s. This is more about tribal differences that have been brewing for decades.
teezyskeezy
@trollhattan: The irony would be if they blurred it with some cheapo bullshit software a staffer downloaded for free and it’s a completely reversible blur algorithm. It doesn’t look like it though…but that would be funny.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Anyway: They’re throwing their money away on Haley, and I say let them. The Rs will never vote for her. Why don’t they see that?
OlFroth
The Speaker just admitted, in public, that he committed a crime by taking actions to obstruct justice.
topclimber
How are the GQP faithful going to identify all those Antifa provocateurs if faces are blurred out? Gotta ID those lefties and deep state operators who egged faithful patriots into beating on cops.
teezyskeezy
@Hoodie: Economic anxiety is bullshit for the active trump supporter, yes. I’m talking more about voter apathy than hardcore maga supporters. I’m talking about people who don’t like Trump but who don’t figure it ultimately matters to them who wins. Those people feeling apathetic toward voting period, thinking neither party is helping them, sometimes have a valid economic gripe that has been brewing since Reagan. However, they are gravely mistaken if they imagine letting the election go to trump to send a message is going to be in their interest.
WaterGirl
@NotMax: I know that one of them died. As long as his money’s being spent, I will refer to them as the Koch brothers. :-)
Old Man Shadow
Life would be easier if I could get this Taoism thing down.
Then I wouldn’t seethe with the knowledge that nothing will happen to Johnson for obstructing justice.
WaterGirl
@Anyway: Oh, did not realize he was a Dem, sorry! Sorry I didn’t realize and sorry he’s giving to her.
Hedging his bets?
Geminid
@Martin: I can only speculate as to Hoffman’s intent. But he might think that Haley would be a weaker candidate than Trump.
That is difficult to judge; there is definitely a component of Trump’s following that will stay home if their guy isn’t the nominee, but I couldn’t say if its a little or a lot.
But I still don’t think Haley can win that nomination. And Hoffman being a well-known Democratic donor, his contribution might hurt her more than it helps.
WaterGirl
@DFH: He wasn’t just throwing red meat to the MAGAs. He absolutely sounds like s a true believer.
WaterGirl
@Ryan:
Yes. But I don’t know about the timing of the disclosure. One of our BJ attorneys will surely know.
Brachiator
@teezyskeezy:
Yep. Good point.
I don’t think that Trump stands a chance of winning, but this may be an extra layer of assurance.
WaterGirl
@OlFroth: That’s kinda how I see it, too. But IANAL.
teezyskeezy
@Martin: I can agree with that, but if you start raw with social media without anything else guiding your judgment, the algorithm will likely put you in a misinformation bullshit bubble. If you jump into social media looking for voices you’ve seen in more established publications (whether those publications are the msm or other reputable outlets), you can get stuck in a good informational bubble. Starting from a position of ignorance, it’s not a matter of intelligence which road one takes…it’s kind of just dumb luck. I feel you still need some fiducials grounded in traditional media of some kind not to get totally disconnected from reality in social media.
Fake Irishman
@WaterGirl:
Yes. Schumer will ask for unanimous consent to confirm [insert nominees numbers and names here] Lindsay graham and Joni Ernst will jam a ball gag in Tuberville’s mouth while Mitch McConnell smiles faintly. The presiding officer will hear no objection and 300+ military nominees will be confirmed. (In fact they do something like this once every month or two for routine foreign service and non general officer appointments. Check the senate journal from last Thursday for an example)
Then every other senator will kick Tuberville in the shins on the way out of the chamber.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Because they are business conservatives and tend to be somewhat socially liberal. You’d be surprised at the corporate culture at some of the organizations helmed by conservatives (like Home Depot). You have a diverse workforce, where they are primarily interested in attracting talent that makes them more money. They look down on the Christofascist racists, but are willing to ally with them to keep taxes and regulation low.
Jeffro
He is.
I hope at least one of the mainstream news orgs covers this. It makes it so much easier to post and forward and put in folks’ faces.
Along with a hearty “Can you imagine if Antifa had sacked the Capitol when trump was elected, and then Nancy Pelosi insisted on blurring out the rioters’ faces so that they wouldn’t get prosecuted???!?”
Bill Arnold
@cain:
Does the DOJ have all the footage? Different branch of government; did the Democrats turn it over when they were in power?
At any rate, there was an enormous amount of self-incrimination on e.g. social media like Parler, including a lot of first-person video.
Best documented insurrection ever !
Ken
I encourage the senators to aim high.
Matt McIrvin
@Hoodie: The real problems are high inequality combined with what economists call Baumol’s cost disease (or something similar).
Technological progress and globalization caused plummeting costs of manufactured goods, that made up to some degree for stagnant real wages. That’s what causes the situation, baffling for older Americans, where people can be just scraping by and still afford things that read as luxuries to them, like TVs and cell phones.
But there are sectors of the economy whose productivity isn’t affected by those things: real estate and housing, education, health care. And those segments are competing for skilled workers with the segments that do gain, while not getting the gains. And that makes all those things way more expensive over time, in real terms.
This causes real suffering.
But what it doesn’t cause is suffering that’s worse under Democrats than under Republicans. Any claim of that type is pure horseshit.
Dan B
@cain: And…. Why is Mike Johnson protecting BLM, Deep State infiltrators, and the radical socialist liebruls who led Jan. 6 from retaliation by the DOJ?
Oh, LOGIC, nevermind. Too confusing to MAGATs.
WaterGirl
@Jeffro: Absolutely!
WaterGirl
@Ken: It’s always better to aim higher, right?
Martin
@Matt McIrvin: I think it’s a mistake to say that just because we have these measures that say the economy is good, that the economy is good.
None of the measures we rely on measure inequality, homelessness, affordability of critical goods, etc. They measure aggregate output, unemployment, inflation as a broad measure. But if that aggregate output accumulates primarily to the upper class, results in low wage job creation, and drives down the cost of some part of the basket of goods but not other parts.
A few material effects: 30% of Americans’s can’t afford a used car – the thing we say you MUST buy, in order to hold a job. It’s basically a mandatory purchase and is out of reach of a large number of people. The US is 6.5 million units short on housing. This doesn’t just manifest as higher rent it also results as people unable to move do different housing – cheaper, closer to a new job, etc. It’s not uncommon for people here in CA taking jobs to have to live in a hotel for months before they can get picked on a wait list for an apartment. On the other side, it’s GREAT for people like me because it means the equity in my house goes up. What’s bad for renters is good for owners – a growing inequality. There are jobs but what’s the nature of the jobs? Do workers have agency, do they have reliable hours, etc. The data doesn’t measure job quality, job security, just the presence of them and I think the rapid increase in support for unionization is a measure that overall, job quality, at least along qualitative measures has gone down.
And the economy is purely subjective. Middle class is a moving target as we define features into it or out of it, so people’s perception of their place in it is also subjective. So even if the measures look good, what matters is whether it feels good. And that’s even harder when a cohort is determined to feel bad about it. But we do have an enduring problem left over from 2008 which is that the lesson for anyone who wasn’t already in a career was that the only way to get ahead in this economy was to grift people – because the people who did that in 2008 got away with it at the expense of people who were playing by the rules. So you have everything from crypto to drop shipping to horse dewormer scams to passive income bullshit plus gig economy jobs holding a LOT of people together. And they’re almost all going to end in disaster, but hey, that’s our economy and we tolerate it, because grifting is the American Dream now.
So I would argue that yes, the metrics all look good, but the distribution is catastrophically bad, our tolerance for economic activity that is blatantly harmful to the citizenry is incredibly high, and there are critical shortcoming with affordable housing. I think Democrats are making a mistake by not working harder to address these.
Matt McIrvin
@Hoodie: It amazes me when people talk about the experience of the last couple of years as “runaway inflation” like we’re carrying around Zimbabwean trillion dollar bills. I remember the US in the 1970s and this wasn’t even close to that, and that was nothing like true hyperinflation either.
JaySinWA
@Old School: The blurring is mostly a stunt, to allow delayed release and keep things in the news IMHO, and make sure they don’t end up incriminating themselves in public opinion at any rate. They want to say they are releasing everything, so they put out innocuous stuff first, and have a reason to delay dumping everything (that includes obviously or arguably criminal stuff) all at once.
It does limit social media sleuthing, which has found some number of previously unidentified people, but I doubt that is the reason for blurring. There might be some prominent (to Johnson) people that haven’t been charged for some reason that they want to protect, but that seems less likely to me.
Sloegin
If the videos were previously unavailable to the public without blurring, that would be a lot of excellent evidence to pour over for the sedition hunters.
But since it’s blurred, it’s just obstruction.
Matt McIrvin
@Martin: Sure… it’s just that the same people who are saying the economy sucks now, say it was awesome under Trump. Even though all the objectively bad things you’re talking about were also present then.
And that’s the sign that they’re blowing smoke.
Suzanne
I could use some inflation like that! Pay off my student loans in about 20 seconds! BOOYEAH!
I officially enrolled in auto-debit on my student loans today, feels like a new era. SEE, REPUBLICANS, I PAY ON TIME.
JaySinWA
@Matt McIrvin: In the 70’s we had inflation ramping up at a slower pace. That is the absolute rate of inflation was higher but the acceleration of the rate of inflation increases was at a slower pace. The dramatic run up from basically 0 to IIRC 9% annualized inflation this time around was a sucker punch. In the 70’s we were in a “expected” inflationary state with quarterly increases in the rate of inflation but it didn’t seem to jump that dramatically from one reporting period to the next. Yes things got worse then, with about double the annual inflation rate we had recently, but it took a while to get there.
piratedan
While I enjoy the fact that Johnson just publicly thru his support behind the J6 insurrectionists, our media may simply shrug, I am hoping that our DOJ, FBI and any other related law enforcement agency that hasn’t gone MAGA is taking notes on next steps once the head of the snake is lopped off.
One of the biggest improvements we can make in our country is to hold those accountable for J6 pay for their crimes. It would restore our faith in our institutions and hold those that seek to pervert them accountable. While there’s a lot of simmering issues in the country, addressing this and kicking those in the government itself that aided this and putting their asses outta of office (at a minimum) or into jail (preferred) would give us a breather in shutting down all of the bullshit obstructionism and culture war campaigns.
Martin
@teezyskeezy: Yeah, I don’t disagree with any of that, but I’m looking at the results, and young people seem to be navigating it quite well – with far stronger support for Democrats and against existing institutions than any other generation.
I think it’s older generations that put trust more in the aggregate – in Fox News as an entity, or cable news as an entity, that struggle with having to constantly evaluate and critique each source which is necessary to operate in social media. And social media does criticism of itself better than conventional media does. They’ll do a 4 hour point by point teardown of other creators who plagiarize their content. Even when MSNBC goes after Fox, it’s pretty tame and not particularly evidentiary. Traditional media might consider a bit more cancel culture. Lord knows there’s enough talent there that needs it – and Medhi Hasan was not one of them.
JaySinWA
@piratedan: We need a truth and reconciliation process for the Trump years. Not that there is much chance of such a thing happening here.
ETA it would allow us to get to some level of sanity if we could get to a common understanding of at least some of the truth.
Steeplejack
“We have to blur some of the faces . . .”
RevRick
@Martin: I disagree with the point about fascism being rooted in capitalism. Fascism is a much more primitive, atavistic force, because it is rooted in beliefs about superiority of race/ethnic groups and is therefore obsessed with purity of blood and issues from the emotion of disgust.
Mussolini, after all, boasted that he would Make Italy Great Again, the fasces being a symbol of Roman imperial power.
And Hitler snarled that he would Make Germany Great Again, overthrowing the Allies and purging Germany of “vermin.”
And the Japanese militarists would Make Japan Great Again, through their superior Samurai code.
Of course, the original modern fascism was American slavery and Jim Crow, which is why our country is prone to fascist outbreaks.
Ryan
@RevRick:
I feel like making something Great Again is the common link.
RevRick
@Ryan: Yup. The assertion of racial/ethnic greatness is always coupled with an existential threat within and without.
Cheryl from Maryland
I finally have enough funds in the bank (being a widow is hard) to donate to Four Directions, Montana. Thank you Watergirl and anyone else who set that up. These efforts over the last few years have been stellar, well-directed, and extremely effective. I was at another blog earlier today where many who also lived in very blue states were lamenting that they didn’t need to support candidates in their respective states and that they have been burned selecting candidates on their own (cough, Jaimie Harrison, Amy McGrath), so they were looking for information. I posted they should consider here — several said yes, great, so I hope they find their way to this community. Targeted donations are incredibly effective, especially to boots-on-the-ground organizations for GOTV.
Baud
@Fake Irishman:
That’s bipartisanship I can get behind.
schrodingers_cat
@Matt McIrvin: Indeed, there is constant shifting of goal posts even from our supposed allies about what constitutes a good economy.
In macroeconomics terms we have a good economy
Unemployment is at record lows, GDP is growing, CPI has stablized
But now the goal posts of a good economy have moved everyone having a house and a car. Biden and the Ds are judged by unrealistic standards IMHO even by so called allies.
cain
@Martin:
Firing him shows how deep corporate media is invested in zionism. I’m both pro-palestinian and pro-jew – but the people behind zionism try to de-humanize palestinians.
Israel exists that’s a fact. Both camps need to figure out how to move forward. Neither can do a ‘ one takes all ‘ mentality both have a right to be there although I give the nod to the Palestinians with the greater right.
schrodingers_cat
@RevRick: Indeed and as we all know Communist countries were a fountain of liberty and justice for all. Not.
cain
@schrodingers_cat: I never understood those countries. It doesn’t seem like anything any of these leftists promised it would look like.
JaySinWA
@schrodingers_cat: The economy is good from certain perspectives. It is terrible from others.
You can’t just ignore housing and transportation costs. It’s not really moving the goal posts to recognize that many the economic numbers we look at don’t seem to reflect the reality of lived experience for a large segment of the population
ETA everyone should be able to afford housing and access to reliable transportation. That may not mean a house or a car but rents and mortgages seem to be at unsustainable levels relative to median incomes. Cost of car ownership is up dramatically and public transportation isn’t filling in the gap.
Kay
I’m on a Zoom call w/Sherrod Brown. He’s thanking us for the wins in August and November. But really blunt in this talk as it goes on “we know they’re going to try to cheat by stopping black people and young people from voting..” – he sounds angrier than he has sounded in the past.
Martin
@Matt McIrvin: I think you’re making the mistake. It doesn’t matter who they give credit/fault to. What matters is that the underlying problem exists. Even if the charismatic leader was the cause of it, by virtue of being the charismatic leader, they convince people they can solve it or that someone else was at fault.
The _only_ thing that matters is that there is a sufficient economic crisis and that there be someone who can leverage that into a populist movement.
I agree that this doesn’t feel like a sufficient economic crisis, but I think we make a mistake of downplaying some of the real economic problems that are out there just because the topline numbers look good. Biden should tout those things, but he has to keep up with the ‘but there’s more work to do’ and acknowledge what that work should look like. I think it’s really alarming that we’ve got about 6% of the US population being underhoused. That’s a BIG number.
Ryan
“and Medhi Hasan was not one of them.”
This is all bullshit. Let’s wait for Mehdi to wade into this and see what he has to say. I will correct myself if I am wrong. But I am not all there on blaming anti-Arab sentiment just yet.
Matt McIrvin
@schrodingers_cat: Well, even if you don’t have a house, the rent is too damn high. Has been for a long time, isn’t getting better.
But there are conflicting incentives there too. If housing prices go down, for everyone who HAS a house, that’s a disaster, they’re ruined!! There are a lot of things that are not going to be good for both the haves and the have-nots.
Kay
Sherrod loves Raphael Warnock.
I think they’re genuinely friends but he’s going ON AND ON about him :)
smith
I’d suggest that the fierce tribalism that underlies American fascism is a manifestation of white racism, and its effects include not just slavery and Jim Crow, but the genocide of Native Americans as well. All cut from the same cloth. I think it’s also useful to focus on the racism more than its products because too many current day racists can argue that slavery, Jim Crow, and genocide are in the past, while denying that the underlying motivation is still with us.
HumboldtBlue
schrodingers_cat
@JaySinWA: There are certain macroeconomic measures that an economy as a whole is judged by, I mentioned them in my comment above.
Biden is being held to a different standard by the media
Also macroeconomic indicators being positive doesn’t mean that everyone has all their needs met.
Matt McIrvin
@Martin: I guarantee you, most Trump fans would be ENRAGED if we actually tried to fix the problems you’re talking about. They’d see it as the government making things even worse–now you’re wasting their tax money on housing for layabouts and Communist public transit, or whatever.
Basically, I have zero faith that what’s good is also what’s politically successful.
schrodingers_cat
@Matt McIrvin: Is the rent high in places where everyone wants to live like NYC and the Bay Area or is it high across the board.
Old School
@Ryan:
His show may have been canceled, but Mehdi is still employed by MSNBC. He’s going to keep doing on-air commenting. I’m not expecting him to wade into his cancellation at all.
TBone
Squeaker Johnson *spits* is merely following precedent
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/02/24/tucker-carlson-jan-6/
RevRick
@schrodingers_cat: Totalitarian regimes never provide liberty or justice. Lord Acton was on target when he said,”Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely. “
schrodingers_cat
@Matt McIrvin: Also no matter what happens like clockwork, people who call themselves progressives and RWNJs will find a way to blame elected Ds.
Dan B
@RevRick: And there’s an assertion that trans and drag queens will destroy the fabric of America! Ask the neo-fascists how and…. confused crickets. Meanwhile ministers and priests are getting convicted almost daily for pedophilia and molestation. Drag Queens and trans are at zero so far this year. But, the fabric of society will be ripped asunder!
JaySinWA
@schrodingers_cat: Talk to FRED
https://fredblog.stlouisfed.org/2019/04/the-climbing-cost-of-renting/?utm_source=series_page&utm_medium=related_content&utm_term=related_resources&utm_campaign=fredblog
The graph shows rent increases for the general population (purple line) is increasing at a rate higher than CPI (Light blue line)
ETA
RevRick
@smith: Fascism includes both racism and misogyny, and it’s important not to overlook the gendered component. For instance, today’s rightwing panic about The Great Replacement is not only the racist fear of brown people “polluting” our population, but also the dual fear that white women are failing to get on the reproduction assembly line and that they may choose to fuck non-white guys.
schrodingers_cat
@JaySinWA:
Ok so rents are increasing higher than the CPI but why are increasing rents a sign of bad economy? What does that have to do with the President? Is he making the zoning laws?
WaterGirl
@Cheryl from Maryland: Congratulations on being in at least a slightly better spot financially!
You might be interested in the post I am putting together for tomorrow. It will have 5 SHORT audio clips from our zoom:
JaySinWA
@schrodingers_cat: Rent increases higher than median wage increases mean people are getting behind, paying a higher percentage of their wage for essential housing.
Rents are increasing faster than other CPI factors. That’s bad for people living at less than median income. So bad for some.
JaySinWA
@schrodingers_cat: Presidents always get blamed for the perceived economy, fairly or not. Nobody has moved the goal posts for that, they should, but they haven’t.
ETA they should move the goal posts to fairly reflect the responsibility for the parts of the economy they have control over and not the stuff that they don’t.
schrodingers_cat
@JaySinWA: Biden is getting zero credit for the lowest unemployment rate in decades. I don’t remember Presidents being held responsible for rents.
Dan B
@schrodingers_cat: My take is that Jay feels that housing and transportation costs are bringing down the rosy news about the overall economy and it would be good for democrats to address these issues and how to address them.
cmorenc
@Ryan:
if Trump loses any of his criminal trials, his attorneys will definitely try to spin up Brady “failure to disclose evidence favorable to the defendant” claims – which will be every bit based in horseshit as Trump’s election validity lawsuits were. But Trump’s MAGA followers will, as with “stolen election” claims, credulously believe them.
Suzanne
@schrodingers_cat:
It’s up, dramatically, everywhere. Something like 40% of Americans who rent are officially rent-burdened. So is ownership. The historical average for the median cost of a house relative to the median household income was in the neighborhood of 4x. We’re now somewhere between 6x and 7x.
JaySinWA
@Dan B: That is what I was trying to say. Thanks.
As to presidents not being held responsible for rents, it’s all part of the economy. Gas prices, housing, cost of borrowing. If people see less disposable income they are not happy with their economy. If they have no disposable income they are at risk of becoming homeless.
History shows that they often take out that frustration on the president in power. It has nothing to do with actual responsibility
ETA you can tell them all about the great economy, but a lot of people are facing genuine hardship. Ignoring that or not addressing that is bad politics.
smith
@cmorenc: They’re already teeing that up, with motions to acquire the “missing” J6 Committee evidence that’s a fable currently circulating in the RW bubble, and also any information that any branch of the federal govt ever obtained regarding the insurrection. That’s been denied, but we’ll see it again come the time for appeal.
RevRick
@Dan B: Oh, most definitely. What provides the fertile ground for fascism is what Prof. Karen Ashcraft terms “Manly Grievance, ” which she describes as a feeling that is real, but not true, the feeling that manhood is under attack (which makes policing the boundaries all the more important).
Suzanne
@schrodingers_cat:
JFC.
No one is going to tell you that the economy is good if they are working their asses off and not getting ahead for it.
This is, like, a staggeringly stupid take.
People work in order to have money to buy stuff. If they are working and yet still don’t have enough money to buy what they want…. that really fucken sucks. They’re going to tell you that “the economy is bad” and they will be right.
This has been a slow-motion crisis since 2008, when the number of new housing starts took a giant dive and didn’t really recover until recently and now we have a huge deficit of a vital, basic requirement for living.
Sister Golden Bear
This is your government on Republicans.
In NH, where they hold a trifecta, they’re planning to introduce a ban on abortion after 15 DAYS of pregnancy.
Geminid
@WaterGirl: Have you answered Rep. Budzinski’s email yet? May you could send her tomorrow’s post.
Her staff could be interested, and she might appreciate it too. This may be Nikki Budzinski’s first elective office, but she is a veteran of the Clinton and Pritzger campaigns and knows electoral politics well.
Speaking of Jay Pritzger, there is a really funny (to me) parody account called “Nomadic Warriors for Pritzger.” It turns out the guy who runs it lives in Champaign now. It’s worth checking out just for the header picture of a smiling Jay Pritzger in Mongol armor, with a fierce-looking hawk perched on his forearm.
H.E.Wolf
I did a research project some years ago, which found me reading the early 1930s weekly column of Henry W. Bunn, an American columnist whose “beat” was Europe. He was super ultra anti-fascism, and a snarkmeister to boot.
And he agrees with you about the misogyny and the forced-birtherism:
“11-17-33: The Fascist authorities are very much worried about the fall of the birthrate of Italy. … The rewards for babies by way of rent reductions, &c., have not brought results.”
“09-28-34: But at last the Duce has brought his people around, and Italy is aswarm with babies as never before. … On this issue at least he joins hands heartily with the Vatican.”
H.E.Wolf
Let ’em try. Their trifecta will be rejecta’d.
Jay
@Brachiator:
there were 2 million yes votes, on 5 different sections, (1 vote per section), so a total of 400,000 people voted yes.
Venezuela has 20.6 million eligible voters.
It’s an SSDD thing. Maduro sucks donkey balls on what matters most, the economy, so he’s trying and failing to gin up Nationalism to keep his ass in the corruption flow.
The Venezuelan Government has done this same move a dozen times since 1889.
JaySinWA
@Suzanne: Yes.
Working hard but getting behind seems to be a reality for many.
Burnspbesq
@Manyakitty:
He is, but he probably has a pretty good defense based on the Speech and Debate Clause. I wouldn’t mind seeing him get indicted, and have to argue it.
JaySinWA
@Burnspbesq: Wait a minute, someone can be charged with evidence tampering when making a copy and doing selective edits for non court use?
That doesn’t seem right
ETA I think the DOJ has all of this already, but even if they didn’t and wanted to get them they would still have to present originals. I presume the people doing the blurring are modifying copies and not damaging originals.
Surely this isn’t a Nixon’s secretary moment?
smith
@Geminid: Californians get prickly when their guv’s name is spelled with an extra “e”, so I guess it’s fair game for Illinoisians to insist that our guv’s name also be spelled correctly — with a “k”, not a “g.” It’s Pritzker, please.
Geminid
@smith: Thank you for the correction and the heads-up on Prairie State sensitivities. But I know it’s Pritzker with a k and just screwed up that time.
RevRick
@H.E.Wolf: Thank you for this anecdote from the past.
Cheryl from Maryland
@WaterGirl: Great. Thanks for all of your work. I just hope the seeds I planted at the other blog sprout.
Martin
I disagree. My understanding is that fascism rises out of contradictions in capitalism – that labor is not receiving what is deserved from the capital class – wages, working conditions, job openings, etc. which the charismatic leader takes hold of and blames on those racial, religious, etc divisions that they see in the population (as you describe). A marxist/leninist revolution taps into the same problems but doesn’t blame it on anyone other than the capitalists. The reason why fascism emerges is that the capitalists, not wanting their heads on sticks, align with the charismatic leader to help channel that blame, thereby preserving their place.
So fascism doesn’t attack capitalism directly. It may blame low wages on Jewish business owners (getting rid of your competition always appealing), or on immigrants taking your jobs or whatever, but it’s never the contradictions that are inherent to capitalism when regulation is inadequate that are to fault.
Fascism doesn’t seek to change the economic order. It seeks to change the social order and it uses state manipulation of the economy toward that end, usually with the state taking over parts of industry, etc. but to the public, the capitalist/market order remains mostly intact. That’s why guys like Henry Ford got on board with fascism – he would stay right where he was. Marxism, etc. seek to change the economic order by blaming the failings of capitalism on capitalism. Marxism is an economic revolution that says very little about the desired social order, where fascism is a social revolution that says very little about the desired economic order (other than promising fairness or whatever) – but relies on the same economic failings to motivate anger – it just channels it in a different direction. But both are driven by the failings of capitalism. This is why socialism/communism and fascism tend to arrive together. You got a lot of both after the depression because they were both responding to the same economic problems.
Martin
@Matt McIrvin: Could be. Problem with fascism is that if you address he problem before the cult forms, you can possibly prevent the cult from forming, but once the cult forms, there’s nothing you can do to pull them out of it. That’s why antifascists are wiling to take such drastic actions – because fascists aren’t open to persuasion, only violence.
RevRick
@Martin: I don’t deny that capitalism can find a comfortable home in fascist states, because fascism is supremely hierarchical. But capitalism is not it’s driving force.
The driving forces are fear and resentment. On the global stage, the fascist regimes of the 20s and 30s peddled resentment of the Big Three Allies for their postwar impositions and their not giving Italy and Japan their due coupled with the fear of being left out. Internally, they obsessed about degeneracy sapping the vitality of the folk. After all, Hitler gained a lot of political support from the petit bourgeoisie.
Kathleen
@schrodingers_cat: That’s because we’ve never had a President who picked a Black lady for VP slot. He must be punished!!!!
Matt McIrvin
@schrodingers_cat: It’s like Greenwald and the drones: I wasn’t going to knock him too much for criticizing Obama over the drone war, figured he was just anti-whoever was in power. But when Trump got in, actually increased the drone attacks, and Greenwald mostly attacked anyone who criticized Trump… that made it clear what he was.
WaterGirl
@smith: They can try to bring that up on appeal, but I don’t think it will get anywhere. There is a requirement that you have to be specific about what you are asking for, and they were not specified at all.
Gretchen
@schrodingers_cat: It’s not high here in Kansas City compared to NYC and Boston, but it’s still pretty high compared to average wages. $2000 for rent for a one-bedroom isn’t unusual. They’re building more luxury apartments, not more affordable, basic buildings.
WaterGirl
@Geminid: What email? Pritzker account where? on twitter?
WaterGirl
@Cheryl from Maryland: Yes, thank you for that! I hope so, too.
Martin
@Suzanne: What’s more, homeowners increasingly own their homes outright – 40% of homeowners carry no mortgage – the highest level in decades.
And this is what I was getting at with 2008 being an ongoing problem. Those of us who bought homes before the crisis and managed to stay in their homes brushed the whole thing off, and now have massive equity. I bought this house just before the crisis for $400K and it’s now $1.6M – and I don’t have a mortgage. And this is not a wealthy neighborhood at least in terms of who bought in – this is a 3BR/2.5BA zero lot line. It’s nice, but not extravagant. You cannot fit 3 people in my kitchen. I was a public employee. One of my neighbors was a medical supply salesman. The other neighbor was a fucking janitor. But a mortgage payment for this neighborhood if you come in with 10% down is $9K/mo. Even if you want to carry 50% of your take-home on housing, that’s $280K gross to buy into this neighborhood.
So how does my community vote on expanding housing, or support for low income individuals going to look when a lot of us not only have ZERO adverse impact by the housing situation, we benefit from it. It’s only through our kids that we have awareness or concern. And this is where the danger lies when people like me don’t actively advocate for, and actively support those being shut out of these systems. A lot of options go on the table when you’re priced out of something so fundamental as housing. Don’t fuck with the foundation of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs – danger lies there.
Geminid
@WaterGirl: The Nomadic Warriors for Pritzker account is on Twitter.
I thought you said you had gotten an email from Rep. Budzinski. It sounded like a mass email to constituents, or to 13th District Democrats.
I’m serious, though, about sending them the post. These are relatively new and different ways to support candidates, and as political professionals Rep. Budzinski and her staff may want to know about them.
WaterGirl
@Geminid: I thought you might have meant some email where she is inviting people to get in touch. There wa a veteran’s town hall and a “lots to be thankful for email” but nothing inviting us to get in touch.
The Nomadic Warriors also have a website. That photo is funny!
Gretchen
@Martin: Agreed. We bought our house in the 90s and it’s worth about 3x what it was. There is a lot of tearing down and putting up million-dollar houses. Yet when the city council said maybe we should encourage diversity and rezone an old church property for apartments, all hell broke loose. They tried to recall a mayor who ran unopposed SIX TIMES in two years after he backed the idea, and floated a plan to reduce the size of the city council to bounce the members who were open to the idea. I went to a meeting about it, and the anger was like those school board meetings you see. Ugh. Ironically, the people who are fighting against “changing the character of the neighborhood” are the ones who came in and demolished the little ranches and cape cods and replaced them with McMansions.
Geminid
@WaterGirl: I am reluctant to task anyone and especially someone who does so much already. But I will still suggest you send the post as if they had asked for this kind of feedback, like you were a peer of those staffers (which you are). Rep. Budzinski strikes me as a very canny politician who could appreciate what you and the blog are doing.
WaterGirl
@Geminid: I’ll give it some thought, thanks.
Sally
@WaterGirl: Maybe someone else has noted this, but surely, if they have done anything wrong during the Jan 6 “event”, the DOJ won’t charge them with anything? Surely … They should be quite happy to be identified.
brantl
@Geminid: I don’t see any useful goal in that, she’s just Stumpy in heels.
brantl
@NotMax: There were actually 3 brothers, one is only minimally involved in their continuing political shit, and one is dead.
Miss Bianca
@Geminid: That is really funny!