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You are here: Home / Jan 6: Insurrection / Late Night Fever Dreams Open Thread: MAKE THEM RIOT

Late Night Fever Dreams Open Thread: MAKE THEM RIOT

by | 102 Comments

This post is in: , , ,

This is not gonna come as a big surprise to anyone who’s been paying attention for the last four years, which leaves that considerable percentage of the voting public which hasn’t. As the overarching GOP quote goes, These are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Per the Associated Press, “Prosecutors lay out new evidence in Trump election case, accuse him of having ‘resorted to crimes’”:

Donald Trump laid the groundwork to try to overturn the 2020 election even before he lost, knowingly pushed false claims of voter fraud and “resorted to crimes” in his failed bid to cling to power, according to a court filing unsealed Wednesday that offers new evidence from the landmark criminal case against the former president.

The filing from special counsel Jack Smith’s team offers the most comprehensive view to date of what prosecutors intend to prove if the case charging Trump with conspiring to overturn the election reaches trial. Although a months-long congressional investigation and the indictment itself have chronicled in stark detail Trump’s efforts to undo the election, the filing cites previously unknown accounts offered by Trump’s closest aides to paint a portrait of an “increasingly desperate” president who, while losing his grip on the White House, “used deceit to target every stage of the electoral process.”…

The brief was made public over the Trump legal team’s objections in the final month of a closely contested presidential race in which Democrats have sought to make Trump’s refusal to accept the election results four years ago central to their claims that he is unfit for office. The issue flared as recently as Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate when Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, lamented the violence at the Capitol while a Republican opponent, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, refused to directly answer when asked whether Trump had lost the 2020 race…

The purpose of the brief is to persuade U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan that the offenses charged in the indictment were undertaken in Trump’s private, rather than presidential, capacity and can therefore remain part of the case as it moves forward. Chutkan permitted a redacted version to be made public, even though Trump’s lawyers argued that it was unfair to unseal it so close to the election.

Though the prospects of a trial are uncertain, particularly if Trump wins the presidency and a new attorney general seeks the dismissal of the case, the brief nonetheless functions as a roadmap for the testimony and evidence prosecutors would elicit before a jury. It is now up to Chutkan to decide which of Trump’s acts are official conduct for which Trump is immune from prosecution and which are, in the words of Smith’s team, “private crimes” on which the case can proceed.

The filing alleges that Trump “laid the groundwork” for rejecting the election results before the contest was over, telling advisers that in the event he held an early lead he would “declare victory before the ballots were counted and any winner was projected.”

Immediately after the election, prosecutors say, his advisers sought to sow chaos in the counting of votes. In one instance, a campaign employee described as a Trump co-conspirator was told that results favoring Democrat Joe Biden at a Michigan polling center appeared accurate. The person is alleged to have replied: “find a reason it isnt” and “give me options to file litigation.”…

Of the more than 1,200 Tweets Trump sent during the weeks detailed in the indictment, prosecutors say, the vast majority were about the 2020 election, including those falsely claiming Pence could reject electors even though the vice president had told Trump that he had no such power.

That “steady stream of disinformation” culminated in his speech at the Ellipse on the morning of Jan. 6, 2021, where Trump “used these lies to inflame and motivate the large and angry crowd of his supporters to march to the Capitol and disrupt the certification proceeding,” prosecutors wrote.

His “personal desperation was at its zenith” that morning as he was “only hours from the certification proceeding that spelled the end,” prosecutors wrote.

Reader Interactions

102Comments

  1. 1.

    thylacine

    I like this FU from Smith to the Supreme Court:

    In Trump v. United States, 144 S. Ct. 2312 (2024), the Supreme Court held that presidents are immune from prosecution for certain official conduct— including the defendant’s use of the Justice Department in furtherance of his scheme, as was alleged in the original indictment—and remanded to this Court to determine whether the remaining allegations against the defendant are immunized.

  3. 3.

    SomeRandomGuy

    I’m getting pissed off at the “they knew TFG lost!” people. (Pauses, thinks.) I’m getting A LOT MORE pissed off at the “they knew TFG lost!” people.

    Why do we do this? Why do we entertain the idea that maybe, in spite of *ZERO* repeat ZERO, none, nada, zilch, bupkis, evidence, they thought he *won*? Why do we *CARE*? The law doesn’t operate on what people *THINK*. It operates on evidence, on historical data (as best as we can recreate it in a courtroom), and stuff like that. Not “thoughts and prayers.” Yeah, it don’t work in *court*, neither.

    They knew he lost, and, all along, they hoped on J6, to have Mike Pence accept fake electors as real, and declare Trump the winner. When he refused, they wanted him to say “with competing slates of electors, I must return both slates to the states,” and he refused to do that, too. Because Biden had won. Even the veep most mocked in my memory, Quayle, said the job was to certify the winner, not choose the winner you prefer.

    Which, remember, we all already *knew*. But because a bunch of Republicans all started acting like maybe it wasn’t unmitigated horse shit, for some reason the Powers That Be decided that it was *not* sufficient evidence to merely note “it came out of the arse of a fookin’ ‘orse, mate!” and, here we are.

  4. 4.

    Jay

    @SomeRandomGuy:

    In most Banana Republics, the Coup Plotters would be in either jail or exile by January 10th,

    but you guys, do you.

    P1
    Steve Bannon

    P2
    Bill Stephen
    Campaign Manager

    P3
    Justin Clark
    Deputy Campaign Manager

    P4
    Jason Miller
    Senior Campaign Advisor

    P5
    Michael Roman
    Campaign Staffer

    P6
    Roger Stone
    DJT Advisor

    P7
    Mark Meadows
    WH COS

    P8
    Marc Short
    Pence COS

    P9
    Greg Jacob
    Pence Counsel

    P10
    Joseph DiGenova

    P11
    Victoria Toensing

    P12
    Jenna Ellis
    DJT Lawyer

    P13
    Jared Kushner
    DJT SIL

    P14
    Ivanka Trump
    DJT Daughter

    P15
    Nicholas Luna
    WH Aide

    P16
    Doug Ducey
    AZ Governor

    P17
    Brian Kemp
    GA Governor

    P18
    Rusty Bowers
    AZ House Speaker

    P19
    Liz Harington
    Campaign Spokesperson

    P20
    Kory Langhofer
    Bowers’ Lawyer

    P21
    Mark Meadows
    WH COS

    P22
    Brad Raffensberger
    GA SOS

    P23
    Cleta Mitchell
    DJT Lawyer

    P24
    Jacki Pick

    P25
    Gabriel Sterling
    GA Official

    P26
    Christopher Carr
    GA AG

    P27
    David Perdue
    GA Senator

    P28
    Kelly Loeffler
    GA Senator

    P29
    Ruby Freeman
    GA Election Worker

    P30
    Shaye Moss
    GA Election Worker

    P31
    Kurt Hilbert
    DJT Lawyer in GA

    P32
    Ray Smith III
    DJT Lawyer

    P33
    Brad Raffensberger
    GA SOS

    P34
    Ryan Germany
    GA Deputy SOS

    P35
    Alex Kaufman
    Raffensberger General Counsel

    P36
    Robert Cheerly
    DJT Lawyer

    P37
    Mike Shirkey
    MI Senate Majority Leader

    P38
    Lee Chatfield
    MI House Speaker

    P39
    Ronna McDaniel
    RNC Chairperson

    P40

    P41
    Scott Gragson
    NV Operative

    P42
    Molly Michael
    DJT EA

    P43
    Justin Reimer
    RNC Chief Counsel

    P44
    Sophia Lai
    RNC Spokesperson

    P45
    Dan Scavino
    DJT Media Director

    P46
    Bernie Keirk
    PA Republican Party Chair

    P47
    Al Schmidt
    Philadelphia City Commisioner

    P48
    Michael Coudrey
    Online Figure

    P49
    Brian Hagedom
    WI Supreme Court Justice

    P50
    Chris Krebs
    CISA Director

    P51
    Tucker Carlson
    Foz News Host

    P52
    William Barr
    AG

    P53
    Kelli Ward
    AZ GOP Chair

    P54
    Hannah Salem
    DJT Campaign Staffer

    P55
    Boris Epshteyn
    DJT Advisor

    P56
    Cleta Mitchell
    DJT Lawyer

    P57
    Lou Barletta
    PA Elector (Former Congresmen)

    P58
    Greg Jacob
    Pence Counsel

    P59
    Pat Cipollone
    WH Counsel

    P60
    Kayleigh McEnany
    WH Press Secretary

    P61
    Karen Fann
    AZ Senate President

    P62
    Ken Paxton
    Texas AG

    P63
    Eric Schmitt
    MO AG

    P64
    Caroline Wren
    J6 Rally Organizer

    P65
    Julie Fancelli
    J6 Rally Funder

    P66
    Dustin Stockton
    J6 Rally Organizer

    P67
    Shealah Craighead
    WH Photographer

    P68
    Raheem Kassam
    Commentator

    P69
    Peter Navarro
    WH Trade Advisor

    P70
    Ivan Raiklin
    Operative

    P71
    Eric Herschmann
    Deputy WH Counsel

    P72
    Pam Bondi
    DJT Campaign Adviser

    P73
    Dan Scavino
    WH Staffer

    P74
    Rudy Guiliani
    DJT Lawyer

    P75

    P76
    Sydney Powell
    DJT Lawyer

    P77

    WH Counsel Ethics

    CC1
    Rudy Guiliani
    DJT Lawyer

    CC2
    John Eastman
    DJT Lawyer

    CC3
    Sidney Powell
    DJT Lawyer

    CC4

    CC5
    Kenneth Cheesboro

    CC6
    Jeffrey Clark
    DOJ Official

  7. 7.

    Chet Murthy

    @Jay: In most Banana Republics, the Coup Plotters would be in either jail or exile by January 10th,

    QFT.  Yes, this is what bothers me the most.  The first job of a -state- is to protect itself, and our -state- cannot protect itself from a fuckin’ coup attempt.  It’s fuckin’ ridiculous, and yet The Great and The Good go along with this horseshit.

  9. 9.

    Chet Murthy

    @schrodingers_cat: This is a case against just TCFG (he’s the only listed defendant), right?  Maybe the “CC” is for co-conspirators, and the “P” is for Persons ?  Idunno.

  14. 14.

    piratedan

    just a question for those that are more familiar with the law than I….

    If you have evidence of a conspiracy, say a planned coup to overthrow the US Government, and you’re a member of said Government, isn’t it your Responsibility to inform the fucking FBI?  If not, why not?

  16. 16.

    opiejeanne

    There are multiple people declaring that it wasn’t Trump who said “make them riot”.

    I thought it was pretty clear that Trump said it, but they’re jumping on someone called #5 who said it, but argue that Trump is not #5. Their reasoning is that Trump is already named in the filing.

  17. 17.

    Chet Murthy

    @piratedan: Silly plebeian, oaths of office are for proles, not for high-and-mighty patricians!  For them, it’s all optional, even if they’ve sworn to it.

    “An individual, except the President, elected or appointed to an office of honor or profit in the civil service or uniformed services, shall take the following oath: “I, ___, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.””

    Yeah, it really pisses me off that this oath is entirely optional.  I remember what and when I swore my oath of naturalization, and I take it very, very seriously.

  18. 18.

    Chet Murthy

    @piratedan: And we all remember that when Col. Eugene Vindman blew the whistle on TCFG’s perfidy, he was punished for it.  -Punished-.

  20. 20.

    NotMax

    Sheesh. it’s not judicial Madlibs, folks. The redactions will disappear at triial.

    Premature speculation subsumes the meat of the charges and takes attention away from them.

  21. 21.

    Lapassionara

    This takes IOKIYAR to new heights. After all, the Brooks Brothers riot in Miami was successful and no one who participated in that event paid any price. It must therefore be ok to foment unrest so long as the goal is to keep a Republican in office.

    How does a country protect itself against being taken over by criminals if the criminals are allowed to run for office?

  24. 24.

    eclare

    @Chet Murthy:

    That was shameful.  Especially because he said his dad told him that nothing bad would happen to him as long as he told the truth.

    I think he has a good chance for a House seat, but I haven’t kept up.

  25. 25.

    eclare

    For any of you who read about my new kitty who can open my fridge in the prior thread, a child lock will be delivered today.  My tuna salad will be safe again.

  27. 27.

    Jay

    @eclare:

    No, it won’t.

    The only way to make a tuna salad or a tuna sandwich and be safe, is to use half a can, and offer the other half of a can on a plate or bowl to the house god/goddess as an offering,

    Then scarf it, the sandwich or salad, before they scarf their offering

    And may the  FSM have mercy on your soul if you bring home fresh Ahi tuna.

  31. 31.

    Chet Murthy

    @eclare: i thought it was the other way around wasn’t it?  His father had worried about him testifying, but he told his father That “in America right matters.”  Oh well.

    I really do hope he wins office.

  32. 32.

    eclare

    @Chet Murthy:

    Oh maybe I got it mixed up, I think you are right.  Either way, how people aren’t disgusted with themselves…I have no words.  Truly one of the lowest points of the past nine years, and there have been many low points.

  33. 33.

    eclare

    @Jay:

    I have only had this kitty a week, I am beginning to think I should put him in a separate room when I fix dinner or eat.

    My other cat comes running when she hears the Reddi Wip can.

  35. 35.

    eclare

    @Jay:

    I’m thinking separate rooms.  At least until he takes his revenge as I sleep and claws me in the face.

  38. 38.

    Central Planning

    @Jay: At dinner time, my wife usually feeds the two cats.

    Our 🐈‍⬛ kitten (1 year) is now jumping on her sister and then walks over to my wife and nips her foot. It’s just once, and it happens every night.

    i suspect the thought process is asserting her dominance and then saying “Hurry the fuck up!” She hasn’t drawn blood…yet.

  39. 39.

    David 🐝KHive🐝 Koch

    I had a cat who would not eat if I put his plate on the floor.  He would only eat if I put the plate on the table.

  41. 41.

    BretH

    OT but important. Huge conspiracy theories gurgling in the sewer pipes of the web abut the response to Helene – this one claims the Feds told residents of Chimney Rock they were going to bulldoze their houses and seize the land.

    x.com/chrismartenson/status/1841636020187431216

    Oh, and it “wasn’t public yet “ so people couldn’t talk about it. The sheer idiocy of this makes no difference – someone wants to start riots and get FEMA personnel killed.

  42. 42.

    lowtechcyclist

    @SomeRandomGuy:

    I’m getting pissed off at the “they knew TFG lost!” people. (Pauses, thinks.) I’m getting A LOT MORE pissed off at the “they knew TFG lost!” people.

    Why do we do this? Why do we entertain the idea that maybe, in spite of *ZERO* repeat ZERO, none, nada, zilch, bupkis, evidence, they thought he *won*? Why do we *CARE*? The law doesn’t operate on what people *THINK*. It operates on evidence, on historical data (as best as we can recreate it in a courtroom), and stuff like that. Not “thoughts and prayers.” Yeah, it don’t work in *court*, neither.

    Note: IANAL, nor do I play one on TV. But that said:

    For good or ill, intent plays a significant role in our legal system.  (I’d argue that it plays too big a role, but if you’re driving along and you get distracted at the moment someone steps off a curb in front of you, you should be charged with negligent manslaughter rather than murder one. You can’t dismiss intent from our legal system altogether.)

    So yes, a lot of effort is going into proving that this wasn’t a good-faith effort to contest an outcome that was genuinely in doubt, but rather a criminal fucking conspiracy that January 6, 2021 was the culmination of, and that TCFG intended it to be what it was, rather than intending it to be a peaceful protest where the protesters got out of hand on their own initiative.

    Maybe that seems obvious, but the lawyers have to nail down stuff that seems obvious or they can’t use it.

    Clarification and correction where needed from actual lawyers is welcomed.

  43. 43.

    Trivia Man

    Job #1: ask every candidate for both parties “do you now support Donald trump for president?”

    Start with the Senate and ask until you get a clear soundbite on tape.

  45. 45.

    sab

    @Chet Murthy: It was even worse. His twin Alexander blew the whistle on Trump by obeying a Congressional subpoena and testifying against Trump, and both Alexander and Eugene were punished by having their military careers destroyed.

  46. 46.

    New Deal democrat

    @Matt McIrvin:

    There will be no trial if Trump wins, so we have to be premature.

    And even if he loses, given their ruling in Trump v. US, there are 50/50 odds the GOP SCOTUS majority will concoct a way to reverse his conviction.

    I read this filing as also serving 2 non-trial purposes:

    (1) getting the record out there for voters before the election

    (2) making a record for the history books.

  47. 47.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Oh wow, so the reason why there was no plan for Jan 7th was the riot was all about punishing Pence for not going along.  Trump has to be the pettiest human alive on this planet.

  48. 48.

    satby

    Heather Cox Richardson this morning:

    It was all a lie.

    One hundred and forty police officers assaulted, close to $3 million in damage, close to 1,200 people charged, more than 450 serving prison sentences, a poisonous political movement taking root, and voter suppression laws…all because Trump couldn’t bear to have lost an election.

    “Post-truth politics” has real-world repercussions.

  50. 50.

    zhena gogolia

    I don’t get the framing of those tweets. As noted above, it wasn’t Trump who said “Make them riot.” He never says anything that clearly. He’s a mafioso.

  53. 53.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @NotMax: Probably a dead thread, but I do care who the coup muppets were because I don’t trust that we’ve done a good job of isolating them from important positions that can cause ongoing problems.

  54. 54.

    satby

    @zhena gogolia: as in the first tweet, the framing is “Trump and his people”. I think the second tweet is just contrasting the continued lying by the convict and his surrogates to what they themselves were saying behind the scenes.

  58. 58.

    TBone

    The redactions are serving the purpose of giving the coup attempt extra time and coverage in our fast-moving, head-dizzying news cycle.  May it continue to give this gift as long as possible.  It gives the talking heads enough to speculate on and to discuss for quite a while.  The (also redacted) Appendix to the motion will also be forthcoming (a coda), according to what I read last night.

  63. 63.

    Another Scott

    @SomeRandomGuy: My take is that they were working from their usual “kitchen sink” playbook.  If it boiled down to “people are saying” that something bad and hinky happened, then obviously they had to wait before certifying the winner – it’s just common sense!!  Then, they had to find a compliant court somewhere, or generate a riot as an excuse to impose martial law, or “whoops, those certificates were lost, so we have to use these other ones”, or they had to run to the back alley of the SCOTUS and argue the “novel theory” that the VP is kingmaker because a comma is out of place, or …

    The purpose was to break the system and delay.  Possession is 9/10 of the law, after all.  If they broke the required certification, like they broke the GSA contract rules with the Old Post Office, and everything else they broke or ignored, then they would be well on their way to making him king.

    But too many people refused to go along.

    We have to vote the monsters out, because the law will not restrain them when they are in power.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  64. 64.

    Ken

    @TBone: If the redactions were meant as a puzzle, they set the degree of difficulty low. “The defendant telephoned P17, the Governor of Georgia…” shouldn’t take even our current crop of journalists more than a couple of hours to work out.

  65. 65.

    Nora

    This filing reminds me a lot of the 9/11 commission report — written like a novel (not that anything was fictionalized, but that things are presented in a clear, chronological way) and all the more damning because it’s so straightforward.

  66. 66.

    Kay

    There was a J6 rioter arrested in this county 2 weeks ago. I had no idea they were still picking them up.

  67. 67.

    TBone

    @Ken: 👍 purposely made easy to follow along, not puzzling for the most part. Jack Smith is a genius.

    Good Morning America had a great segment lead off today, including playing clips of J6 combatants.  It wasn’t short, by their standards.  Front page news!

    Redaction gives the talking heads things to explain to the public at length.  Quoting directly from Jack Smith’s document.

  71. 71.

    TBone

    “Trump Resorted to Crimes” is a headline vociferously reported on front pages all over the net today, don’t know yet what the print papers are leading with.

  72. 72.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: Good! I don’t think Trump’s victims (all of us) will ever get the justice we deserve, but J6 continues to reverberate in surprising ways at lower levels.

    The horrible incumbent sheriff in my county lost his reelection bid thanks in part to his cooperation with the feds when they arrested the local insurrectionist known as “Sedition Panda.” The sheriff is a hard-right jerk who previously served as Rick Scott’s chief of staff.

    I thought we were stuck with him forever because incumbents just don’t lose here, but Dems banded together to support a less wingnutty challenger, and the Trumpiest Republicans were sulking about Sedition Panda, so the incumbent was defeated by a greater than 60-40 margin

    ETA: The incumbent outspent to challenger 2-to-1 and was endorsed by Ron DeSantis. Didn’t matter!

  74. 74.

    Kay

    I think it’s valuable apart (even) from legal process because it’s a complete written record of the conspiracy.

    I vividly recall that period – between the election and the eventual defeat of the insurrectionists. I wasn’t sleeping well and one of my younger sisters was as concerned as I was so we would text back and forth late night. She’s a lawyer too so we would try to figure out what they might do. But we didn’t know what was going on behind the scenes at the Trump White House and with the various Trump factions at the state level. This fills it in for the public. We need to know.

  77. 77.

    SFAW

    @satby: ​

    I don’t know if it makes me a bad person, but during that ad, I kept hoping that Pierce would slip into his Bunk Moreland persona, and say something like “and this motherfucker [picture of TFG] wants to hurt you and your family, so why even consider voting for him?”

  78. 78.

    satby

    @Betty Cracker: The FBI continues to put out “seeking information” bulletins on identifiable faces in the crowd captured on video footage. As they determine identities, the DOJ files appropriate charges. Sedition Hunters keeps tabs and publicizes them on Twitter.

  79. 79.

    TS

    @TBone:  Not the Post

    This is the top page headline I get there

    How Biden lost his grip on Israel’s war for ‘total victory’ in Gaza

    Why have something negative about trump when you can find something to attack Biden about. Maybe they forgot he is not running for President.

  80. 80.

    satby

    @SFAW: it’s a great ad, not just for the black men it’s ostensibly aimed at, but as a reminder for all people, especially younger ones, that there’s a long history of voter suppression directed at Black Americans. We expect them to know things that they don’t, for various reasons.

  82. 82.

    Kay

    @TS:

    It’s the top news story all over the world. It would be nuts for them to ignore it. It’s true too – Biden’s “bear hug” approach to the far Right government in Israel was a complete failure on every level. It’s not Harris’ fault but it is her problem.

  83. 83.

    Starfish

    @BretH: Oh, there are always conspiracy theories around storms. Some of them around this one are especially stupid.

    A dominant theory:
    Democrats are using HAARP to control the weather and intentionally had a hurricane hit the Republican states during hurricane season.

    And I am not kidding, there are numerous people talking about that theory.

  84. 84.

    Tony Jay

      NYT EDITOR’S CHOICE

    Brett Stephens

    @bebetterbrett

    ….truth is clear as day. America’s history is the history of successful insurrection. Washington, Adams, Jefferson – all successful insurrectionists. So successful we built a country on the back of their uprising against illegitimate power. That Democrat nitpickers want to muddy that proud title with the smut of Soros-funded lawfare just shows how far away they are from the centre of the American soul. Insurrection is what we’re made from. President and pauper alike. Let’s celebrate that truth at the ballot box with the same fervour and courage as we do on any other battlefield.

  86. 86.

    satby

    @Starfish: eclare and I are speculating on how rough and tumble William’s life was as a fed stray. Even with a person feeding strays, they tend to be very food obsessed. It takes quite a while, and sometimes strict feeding schedules, until they understand they aren’t going to go hungry randomly so better gorge now.

  87. 87.

    TBone

    @jonas: to combat that demand, we have placed water in human water glasses in unexpected locations around the house.  The more unlikely the location, the more likely the cats are to partake.  Of course, Noah still demands to drink directly from the bathroom faucet, but less now.

  88. 88.

    Geminid

    @Jay: I wonder if you saw this story. From Clash Report:

    BIG: Israel targeted multiple sites in Syria’s Jableh [Province?], including the Russian Khmeimim Air Base.

    Russian and Syrian air defenses together engaged Israeli missiles targeting Khmeimim.

    Warehouses inside Khmeimim were hit shortly after an Iranian shipment arrived at the base.

    Clash Report definitely lives up to its name these days. It’s basically a news aggregator like Visegrad24, but they recently added Ankara-based conflict reporter Levent Kemal as “Senior Contributing Editor” providing more in-depth rereporti in sose areas.

    Middle East Eye has carried Levent Kemal’s reporting on conflicts in Africa including the role of Russia’s Wagner Group and its successors. He and partners have a site named Acta Fabulae that reports on these subjects in detail.

  90. 90.

    TBone

    @TS: The Pist 😆

    I used “Trump Resorted to Crimes” as my search terms and received a very long list of news sites using Jack Smith’s exact words.

  91. 91.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Starfish: A friend with an interest in cheesy movies once noted that the “weather control machine” is a mainstay of James Bond pastiches and parodies, but not actually of James Bond movies because it’s just slightly too silly even for them. It’s just over the line where it’s the go-to scheme for “James Bond, but sillier”. But here we are, people just accepting that the conspiracy has them and is using them.

  92. 92.

    Geminid

    @Starfish: Most of the ~180 missiles were shot down, but satellite photographs are out now showing missile hits on an airbase Iran targeted. It sounds like the warplanes flew out before the missiles arrived.

    The missiles took only 12 minutes to fly from their launch sites to the base, but the Israelis expected this attack. There were reports that Iran warned the US of the attack and even disclosed the targets.

    The sole fatality was an unlucky civilian in the West Bank who was killed by a falling missile body. It was caught by a surveilance camera that provided some very bizarre footage. The man was an Arab from Gaza who was living in the West Bank at the time.

  93. 93.

    Another Scott

    @jonas: Our dog Ellie absolutely hates to get her whiskers wet.  Apparently it’s a thing.  (She’ll yowl and rub her face all over the carpet to dry them if they get wet.)  We only fill her bowl half-way, and it’s on a raised platform, to minimize splashing.

    Maybe your feline overlord is similar?

    They’re strange beasties…  :-)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  95. 95.

    Kay

    The WaPo story is interesting because it’s the first (US) media report that has admitted Israel deliberately blocked US humanitarian aid to Gaza. The Biden Administration has denied that for 9 months but it came out this week that Biden’s own State Department analysts concluded that Israel was blocking aid to Gazan civilians way back in January.

    It’s interesting that a US media outlet has finally decided to report the truth about it – perhaps once ot came out that the State Department itself had concluded US aid was being deliberately blocked there was no longer any point in denying it. It’s a war crime. Unequivocally and without a doubt. If it can be determined that Biden’s state department appointees lied to the public about war crimes since January they should be charged themselves.

  96. 96.

    RevRick

    While we now know a lot of story of the plot emanating from Trump, let’s not forget the coconspirators hiding in plain sight in the Halls of Congress. 147 GOP Senators and Representatives voted not to certify the election. And they damn well knew they had no basis for doing it.

  97. 97.

    Geminid

    @Geminid: Ironically, the only casualty in Iran’s April attack was also Arab. In that case it was an Israeli Bedouin girl who suffered a severe head injury when rocket debris slammed through her roof. She was in intensive care for weeks between several surgeries. Seven year-old Amina Alsouni (sp?) was able to speak again by June, and she left the hospital in a wheelchair three weeks ago.

    In the meantime her family had to fend off attempts by the Israeli government to evict them because their Bedouin village is considered illegal. The village might have had bomb shelters otherwise, although “legal” Arab towns in the Negev are not mearly as well provided with shelters as their Jewish neighbors.

    Those towns are at least protected by Israel’s Iron Dome anti-rocket system which distinguishes between rockets heading for populated areas and those heading for “open” spaces.

  98. 98.

    Geminid

    @Matt McIrvin: After Turkiye’s devastating earthquake in February of 2023, rumors spread that the USS Nitze triggered the earthquake with an electronic pulse weapon. The Nitze had just made a port call at Istanbul and was still in the Eastern Mediterranean when the quake hit.

    Some people said the US had done the same thing to Japan with the Fukushima earthquake; an act of intimidation intended to keep an ally in line.

    I don’t know if the rumor got much traction, but it fell on fertile ground because Turks are very suspicious of the US government. This is based on experiences over the last few decades, especially the period 1960-1997 when the Turkish military dominated civilian politics with support from the Pentagon and CIA.

  99. 99.

    Another Scott

    @Geminid: Yeah.

    The extinction of the human race will come from its inability to emotionally comprehend the exponential function. – Edward Teller.

    Moving continents around requires mind-bogglingly more power than human machines can hope to generate.

    Of course.

    The hunt for engagement and clicks and reinforcing tribalism are the handmaids of the forces that will have us living in caves again.

    Grr…,
    Scott.

  100. 100.

    Geminid

    @Another Scott: Ken Follet wrote a novel about a group of hippies that hijacked a piece of oil exploration equipment with the intent of triggering earthquakes. I think the title was The Hammer of Eden.

  102. 102.

    brantl

    @Tony Jay: Dear Brett Stephens (you whiny little twat), you lost the election, fair and square. The founders were bitching about taxation without representation, you had all the representation your sorry-ass amount of votes deserved. STOP WHINING, YOU GUTLESS LITTLE PUKE.

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