President Donald Trump has been criticized by Democrats and Republicans alike for his recent spate of pardons, including corrupt ex-congressmen and the father of Jared Kushner. I was one of those who immediately criticized those pardons as manifestly unjustified and inimical to our legal system. However, none of that makes the comments of senior U.S. District Judge Robert Pratt of the Southern District of Iowa any less troubling. Judge Pratt gave an interview slamming the pardons in a departure from judicial ethics rules barring jurists from engaging in such political commentary.
I have previously criticized Judge Emmet Sullivan for using his courtroom to air grievances against President Trump. Platt however dispensed with any pretense of judicial function in airing his grievances over the pardons. He told the Associated Press that “It’s not surprising that a criminal like Trump pardons other criminals. But apparently to get a pardon, one has to be either a Republican, a convicted child murderer or a turkey.”
Pratt was discussing pardons that included former Ron Paul campaign chairman Jesse Benton and campaign manager John Tate, who were convicted at trial of concealing $73,000 in payments that went to a state senator. Again, my concern with the comments is not the merits but the messenger.
Pratt was appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1997 and remains an active judge on a reduced docket as a senior status judge. As such, he remains subject to the Code of Judicial Ethics. State judges have been sanctioned for yielding to such temptations to vent their opposition or criticism to Trump. Federal judges however have engaged in such public commentary without sanctions.
Pratt’s comments raise serious questions under three of the most basic canons of judicial ethics barring judges from engaging in political activities and positions:
CANON 1
A judge shall uphold and promote the independence, integrity, and impartiality of the judiciary, and shall avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety.CANON 3
A judge shall conduct the judge’s personal and extrajudicial activities to minimize the risk of conflict with the obligations of judicial office.CANON 4
A judge or candidate for judicial office shall not engage in political or campaign activity that is inconsistent with the independence, integrity, or impartiality of the judiciary.
Calling the President of the United States a criminal and denouncing pardons would seem overtly engaging in a political commentary or activity. It is a troubling dismissal of the long-standing avoidance of such commentary by judges to preserve judicial impartiality.
Making it worse is the fact that Pratt was involved in Sorenson’s case. He sentenced him to 15 months in prison in 2017 — a surprising departure from the recommended probation of the prosecutors due to Sorenson’s guilty plea and cooperation. Indeed, Sorenson helped convict Benton, Tate and former Paul deputy campaign manager Dimitri Kesari. His sentencing was troubling for many of us in the defense bar because the recommendation for probation was consistent with past cooperation cases. Pratt’s sentence was not. Nevertheless, the sentence was within his discretion.
A federal judge has every right to sentence defendants harshly for conduct that they believe warrant added punishment. However, that should be the full extent of their role. They are not grand inquisitors who continue to hound or condemn defendants. They are certainly not appropriate figures to denounce such individuals if they secure commutations or pardons. This is not a personal vendetta and judges should not be seen as wiping up public sentiments against previously sentenced defendants. Even once a judge leaves the bench, I would argue for continued reticence in making such public comments. However, Pratt has not left the bench. He is still hearing cases while engaging in political commentary.
Much like Judge Sullivan’s use of his final order to condemn former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, this is a gratuitous and injudicious act. Indeed, Pratt is more troubling than Sullivan’s as commentary outside of the courtroom. Republicans and even Trump associates could well come before Pratt in future cases — facing a jurist who gives public interviews to denounce Trump as a criminal.
Not surprisingly, there has been little beyond praise for Pratt. Call it another example of Trumpunity in our age of rage and hypocrisy. Legal ethicists and experts stretched ethical rules to the breaking point to support actions against Republican lawyers for filing election challenges. Yet, they are again conspicuously silent on these controversy. Indeed, many Democrats recently denounced public comments by Justice Samuel Alito but have no criticism of Pratt or liberal jurists like the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in far more serious public comments.
What Pratt said publicly was wrong. It undermines not just his credibility but that of his court and his other colleagues.
Jonathan: Despite the judicial canons Judge Pratt’s comments were no doubt outrage at Trump’s misuse of the pardon power to reward those involved in the Sorenson corruption scandal. Those involved were properly convicted and sentenced. Judge Pratt said: “political corruption will slowly corrode the foundations of our democracy until it collapses under its own weight”. This echoes George Mason’s warning about the misuse of the presidential power to pardon: “…because he may frequently pardon crimes which were advised by himself . It may happen, at some future day, that he will establish a monarchy and destroy the republic”. Clearly, Judge Pratt was more concerned about defending the rule of law and the Constitution than any breach of judicial codes of conduct. Some times speaking truth to power takes precedence.
No president has so misused the pardon power than Trump. He has used it to reward crimes and corruption by his friends and political supporter. His pardons were so lacking in justification he had to bypass the normal DOJ vetting process. One of the most egregious cases involves pardons for the 4 Blackwater guards who were convicted of massacring 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians, including 2 children, in 2007. At the time Blackwater was owned by Eric Prince, the brother of education secretary Betsy DeVos. Do doubt this was a gift from Trump for DeVos’s loyal support right up to the end. The UN has just issued a statement condemning the Blackwater pardons because they violate US obligations under international law–a subject you rarely or never cover. The Geneva Convention obliges member states to hold war criminals accountable for their crimes–even when they act as private security contractors. General David Patraeus and Ryan Crocker, respectively the commander of US forces and US Ambassador in Iraq at the time, describe Trump’s pardons as “hugely damaging, an action that tells the world that Americans abroad can commit the most heinous crimes with impunity”. We know what Trump thinks of international law. He disregards it when it does not serve his political interests–like in the assassination of foreign leaders.
Judge Pratt’s comments are shared by many who view Trump’s abuse of the pardon power as a drive by shooting of the rule of law.
Dennis…..have you ever had a unique thought of your own?
Was Bill Clinton’s brother not duly convicted of his offenses but got pardoned by Bubba?
Was Eric Holder wrangling a Pardon by Bubba of Marc Rich not a poke in the eye of Justice?
We could do an analysis of every Pardon done by every President and come up with a laundry list of Pardons that stunk to high heaven.
While we are doing that….why don’t you start with just accounting for sheer numbers of Pardons and see who of the Presidents Pardoned the most people and work down through that one single List.
I believe you doth protest too much.
Judge Pratt’s comments no matter how widely shared does not in any way grant them either accuracy or propriety.
Must be a friend of Judge Emmett Sullivan.
Who is a friend of Obama, who is a friend of Karl Marx and who are all mortal enemies of the U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights and America.
What would George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, George Mason, John Hancock, Ben Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison et al. do?
WWGWD?
“Throw off,” you say?
_________________
“But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
– Declaration of Independence, 1776
Dennis, politicians are within their right to question the pardons. Legislation could be brought forward to change the power of the pardon. This action would require a new writing of the constitution. We could even ask judge Pratt to write the changes. Oh my, I’ve forgotten that the Judge is not a member of the legislative branch. You say that the judges comments are shared with you. As a private citizen you have the right to voice your opinion, but a judge forgoes such a right in order to appear without prejudice. To defend his action with the thought of other like minds agree is an argument well made for you and your friends, but not for a person trusted with the idea of equality under the law. Dear members of the jury. We are going to listen to the evidence but we all know the SOB is guilty. You can live in such a country if you want, as for me I’ll take a pass. For you I recommend Russia, China or Venezuela. You comfort awaits there.
.
The Nisour square incident took place in a dangerous environment. The driver of the Kia that precipitated the firing, was innocent, but was making a traffic mistake driving the wrong way in the wrong lane towards the Blackwater guys who tried to wave him off before he got too close. they thought it was a car bomb. Yes car bombs have been used in the sandbox to kill a lot of Americans and so they were not entirely unjustified in their fears. But the car kept coming and the Blackwater guys got spooked and opened fire. Some kept on firing when they should have stopped. It was a tragedy compounded by a lack of fire discipline on the side of the contractors.
To call it a “heinous crime” is perhaps overselling it. There were convictions for manslaughter. Manslaughter is generally tragic, but we usually reserve heinous for first degree murder with malice aforethought.
Perhaps the more heinous crimes were not the actions of a few scared contractors, but the strategic bombing of Iraq that occurred at the outset of war. A war of dubious necessirty that had the full backing of the DC political establishment. One wonders if the Nisour square incident was not taken as an opportunity to scapegoat the people who “executed” American policy in Iraq by a political establishment that was never really held accountable, not for the collateral damage of the war, ie, the civilian losses, nor even to the American people that were lied to among others, by one we well know, Robert Meuller. who was acting FBI director and lied his backside off about the “WMDS” that never existed in the first place
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4740652/user-clip-mueller-wmd-21103
One can call that comment whataboutism, but whataboutism is a factor also called “equity” in all our political considerations, like it or not.
Saloth Sar
1 was convicted of murder, 3 were convicted of manslaughter.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nisour_Square_massacre
Murder is a heinous crime. They killed kids along with adults.
Not quite an accurate history of Iraq. A clear majority of Democratic House members opposed the war and voted against the authorization. Senate Democrats were more evenly split with a slight majority in favor. Support among Republicans in Congress was near unanimous and of course the Bush administration sold it on falsehoods. Hillary, Kerry, and Biden supported the authorization with mealy mouthed caveats – because they knew better but were being strategic – and that was almost the certainly the difference in the 2008 Democratic primary. All admitted they were wrong for their support – Kerry before the 2004 election. Almost none of the Republicans who overwhelmingly supported it have apologized for that colossal screw up and now one would think no one supported it or voted for W. The same will be true when you try to find Trump supporters in a few years.
Jonathan: Despite the judicial canons Judge Pratt’s comments were no doubt outrage at Trump’s misuse of the pardon power to reward those involved in the Sorenson corruption scandal.
No. That’s not possible, He fabricated something unrelated in lying about the President’s being a criminal.
Judge Pratt’s comments are shared by many who view Trump’s abuse of the pardon power as a drive by shooting of the rule of law.
He called Trump a criminal, which is a stupid, deranged lie regardless of whether Trump used the pardon power in a way the “judge” doesn’t like.
Dominion’s Corruptibility and Its Never-Ending “China Problem”
Here are two brief excerpts from a 2019 letter to Staple Street Capital, the parent of Dominion Voting Systems:
“We are particularly concerned that secretive and ‘trouble-plagued companies,’ owned by private equity firms and responsible for manufacturing and maintaining voting machines and other election administration equipment, ‘have long skimped on security in favor of convenience,’ leaving voting systems across the country ‘prone to security problems.'”
In 2019, “researchers recently uncovered previously undisclosed vulnerabilities in ‘nearly three dozen backend election systems in 10 states.’ [. . .] These problems threaten the integrity of our elections and demonstrate the importance of election systems that are strong, durable, and not vulnerable to attack.”
The letter includes a long list of such “vulnerabilities,” specific demands, and lots of references to original sources.
It was *not* written by some “right-wing conspiracy nut.” It was penned, on congressional letterhead, by Representative Pocan, and Senators Warren, Wyden, and Klobuchar — all democrats.
https://www.warren.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/H.I.G.%20McCarthy,%20&%20Staple%20Street%20letters.pdf
Dominion’s Darkening China Cloud
In the fall 2019, Dominion Voting Systems (DVS) transferred ownership of *18 patents* to The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC). (You can do a “patent assignment search” to verify that.) On the “patent assignment,” HSBC is listed as the “collateral agent.” Such agents can be used when there is a group of investors and/or when the investors are outside the jurisdiction — say, in China. While it is true that HSBC is nominally headquartered in London, the fact is that some 80% of its revenue comes from Hong Kong and China.
For years, HSBC has been romancing the communist Chinese government. China is its strategic plan — so much so that the bank openly supports China’s brutal suppression of Hong Kong dissidents. Such a company is capable of doing anything. And as the collateral agent for the DVS investors (whoever they are), HSBC can make life very easy or very difficult for Dominion.
So is the above sufficient evidence to prove that China put the screws to Dominion? No. But it (along with other, similar evidence) is more than sufficient to trigger serious criminal and journalistic investigations — if individuals of integrity still exist in those fields.
Finally, this question: If Dominion wants to avoid even the appearance of foreign entanglements, why on earth did it do business with HSBC — a bank that is up to its neck in a foreign entanglement, with communist China? You don’t stay clean by hugging a pig that’s been rolling in the mud.
P.S. HSBC’s largest shareholder is Ping An Insurance (China). Ping An’s co-Founder and Chairman of the Board is Ma Mingzhe — a long-time member of the Communist Party of China.
That is how dictators and complex frauds gain an air of legitimacy. They’re like nesting dolls — a company inside a subsidiary, inside a cutout, inside an LLC, all wrapped inside an agent.
Want to uncover the truth about the China-Dominion connections, and about China’s manipulations of the U.S. election? — de-nest the false flags.
Clinton appointee. I’m shocked, shocked! Basically we’re at the point where, when I read about a case that’s going to court, I look up who appointed the judge. Any Obama appointee rules straight party line. Clinton ditto. To say it’s not supposed to be this way is an understatement. The real question is, when judges abandon all pretense of impartiality, what are the consequences? Oh I know, no consequences as long as you’re a leftist (I refuse to use the word “liberal” to describe such tyrants) and you own the media, the judiciary, and most of the legislature..
At ~ 7:00 minutes, you see the State Farm Arena, Georgia, vacated of officials, most workers and observers, suit cases pulled and unobserved, unsupervised counting begin by workers who were instructed to stop and leave.
The only fraud in the election is scum like you that keeps spouting lies like this.
https://www.factcheck.org/2020/12/video-doesnt-show-suitcases-of-illegal-ballots-in-georgia/
Try taking Trump’s dick out of your mouth for a few moments long enough to see you are on the losing side.
A believer! A true believer in Fact Chekers!!!
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
It’s spelled “fact Chekas”.
Oh, my.
“Scum?”
A bit of an overreaction, wouldn’t you say?
Biden won, right?
Why so frantic?
Do the facts and the truth frighten you?
Let’s hear them in a court of law.
Oh, my.
Why do you ask so many loaded questions?
Why so frantic?
Do the facts and the truth frighten you?
Your comments are full of overreactions, George.
Dozens of cases have been heard in court. Trump lost.
Why so frantic?
Why not sit on the beach in Tahiti drinking Mai Tais and watching bikinis?
What are you so afraid of?
Biden won, right?
Oh, I know, it was that Gallup Report: Most Admired Man of 2020 – President Donald J. Trump.
How could that be?
How could the Most Admired Man lose an election to a dementia patient?
Answer/Factcheck: He couldn’t. He didn’t.
TRUMP WON!
Nope, calling you scum was quire accurate. And Trump won that by getting 15% of the vote. Presidents commonly win that, but what is noteworthy is that Trump did not win that two of his four years. Obama beat him even when he was doing nothing. And also for someone who has dementia he speaks far more eloquently then Trump ever has.
George, your predilection for loaded questions underscores the weakness of your arguments.
If you didn’t understand that I was being sarcastic in echoing them, now you do.
And Ohio and Florida completed the election and the win for President Donald J. Trump on Tuesday without a hitch.
It was simply coincidence that a few key states stopped the counting, manipulated the vote in the middle of the night and took days to produce the final “fake” results for Biden.
Again, Biden won, right?
Why so hysterical?
Why so frantic?
George – look at me! Florida allows mail in ballots to be counted when they arrive. Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan do not and when the administrations in those states appealed to their legislators to change the law to allow for that – expecting huge numbers – those GOP controlled legislatures declined. You can figure out the rest of what happened from here, right?
And Ohio and Florida completed the election and the win for President Donald J. Trump on Tuesday without a hitch; convoluted communist prevarication notwithstanding.
Florida is the 3rd most populous state and yet their election tabulations were never disputed
PA?
SCOTUS should grow a pair and throw out the election “results”. Order re-do election with in person voting only with valid identification just like the rest of the world. Watch the Dems lose it
Hot off press, new Lott study estimates 11,350 absentee votes lost to @potus Trump in Georgia. Another 289,000 “excess (fraudulent) votes” across GA, AZ, MI, NV, PA, WI. As promised this a.m. on Bannon’s War Room. Postpone GA Cesspool election!! ~Peter Navarro
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3756988
A Simple Test for the Extent of Vote Fraud with Absentee Ballots in the 2020 Presidential Election: Georgia and Pennsylvania Data
John R. Lott
US Department of Justice
Date Written: December 21, 2020
Abstract
This study provides measures of vote fraud in the 2020 presidential election. It first compares Fulton county’s precincts that are adjacent to similar precincts in neighboring counties that had no allegations of fraud to isolate the impact of Fulton county’s vote-counting process (including potential fraud). In measuring the difference in President Trump’s vote share of the absentee ballots for these adjacent precincts, we account for the difference in his vote share of the in-person voting and the difference in registered voters’ demographics. The best estimate shows an unusual 7.81% drop in Trump’s percentage of the absentee ballots for Fulton County alone of 11,350 votes, or over 80% of Biden’s vote lead in Georgia. The same approach is applied to Allegheny County in Pennsylvania for both absentee and provisional ballots. The estimated number of fraudulent votes from those two sources is about 55,270 votes.
Second, vote fraud can increase voter turnout rate. Increased fraud can take many forms: higher rates of filling out absentee ballots for people who hadn’t voted, dead people voting, ineligible people voting, or even payments to legally registered people for their votes. However, the increase might not be as large as the fraud if votes for opposing candidates are either lost, destroyed, or replaced with ballots filled out for the other candidate. The estimates here indicate that there were 70,000 to 79,000 “excess” votes in Georgia and Pennsylvania. Adding Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, and Wisconsin, the total increases to up to 289,000 excess votes.
Not a trustworthy author.
From 2016: Lott had “been caught pushing studies with severe statistical errors on numerous occasions. An investigation uncovered that he had almost certainly fabricated an entire survey on defensive gun use. And a blogger revealed that Mary Rosh, an online commentator claiming to be a former student of Lott’s who would frequently post about how amazing he was, was in fact John Lott himself. He was all but excommunicated from academia.” – https://archive.thinkprogress.org/debunking-john-lott-5456e83cf326/
Not a peer-reviewed study. Had it been reviewed, it would have been rejected for reasons like the following.
Austan Goolsbee: “#econtwitter looked at the Lott paper. His identification is to compare precincts where fraud is alleged to precincts where it wasn’t alleged & finds trump did surprisingly badly where fraud was alleged. But trump alleged fraud in places he did badly. It’s completely backward, yes?”
Lott refused to acknowledge that Trump’s own actions were the reason for the depression of absentee voting by GOP voters compared to prior years. Instead, Lott assumes the reduction in GOP absentee voting was the result of voter fraud.
Y’all are desperate.
“Not a trustworthy author.”
I’m not rendering an opinion on who is and who is not trustworthy, but this poster must be an idiot to claim lack of trustworthiness based on claims from Think Progress.
http://www.DefendingTheRepublic.org
Allied Security Operations Group
Antrim Michigan Forensics ReportREVISED PRELIMINARY SUMMARY, v2Report Date 12/13/2020
Client: Bill BaileyAttorney: Matthew DePernoA. WHO WE ARE
1. My name is Russell James Ramsland, Jr., and I am a resident of Dallas County,Texas. I hold an MBA from Harvard University, and a political science degreefrom Duke University. I have worked with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT),among other organizations, and have run businesses all over the world, many ofwhich are highly technical in nature. I have served on technical governmentpanels.
2. I am part of the management team of Allied Security Operations Group, LLC,(ASOG). ASOG is a group of globally engaged professionals who come fromvarious disciplines to include Department of Defense, Secret Service,Department of Homeland Security, and the Central Intelligence Agency. Itprovides a range of security services, but has a particular emphasis oncybersecurity, open source investigation and penetration testing of networks. Weemploy a wide variety of cyber and cyber forensic analysts. We have patentspending in a variety of applications from novel network security applications toSCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) protection and safe browsingsolutions for the dark and deep web. For this report, I have relied on theseexperts and resources.
B. PURPOSE AND PRELIMINARY CONCLUSIONS
1. The purpose of this forensic audit is to test the integrity of Dominion VotingSystem in how it performed in Antrim County, Michigan for the 2020 election.
2. We conclude that the Dominion Voting System is intentionally and purposefullydesigned with inherent errors to create systemic fraud and influence electionresults. The system intentionally generates an enormously high number of balloterrors. The electronic ballots are then transferred for adjudication. The intentionalerrors lead to bulk adjudication of ballots with no oversight, no transparency, andno audit trail. This leads to voter or election fraud. Based on our study, weconclude that The Dominion Voting System should not be used in Michigan. Wefurther conclude that the results of Antrim County should not have been certified.
We conclude that the Dominion Voting System is intentionally and purposefullydesigned with inherent errors to create systemic fraud and influence election results.
This is preface to Biden’s sham presidency.
This is the same Russell Ramsland who confused Minnesota (MN) and Michigan (MI) data in his earlier “analysis.” His “audit” wasn’t an actual audit, and it was debunked by a hand count.
This comes from a numbskull who seldom has an idea in his head but criticizes a simple mistake instead of dealing with the concepts presented..
If you think that confusing data from counties in Michigan with counties in Minnesota is “a simple mistake” and ignore that Ramsland’s “analysis” was already debunked by a hand count, then you must be the numbskull you criticize.
“confusing data from counties in Michigan with counties in Minnesota is “a simple mistake””
It was a simple mistake, not a good one, but has happened to many. Coming from another area of the country they mixed up the initials of the two states. That happens to smart and dumb people but they aren’t dumb you are. You have nothing to say so you latch onto anything you can find. Typical of a bottom feeder.
No ““analysis” was already debunked by a hand count” A hand count might equal another prior count but with all the fraudulent activity out there that doesn’t show anything.
We need the legal process followed. It wasn’t
We need voter verification. Not done.
We need onlookers to make sure no one breaks the rules. That didn’t happen.
I don’t know how much more has escaped that tiny brain you own but you are a fool almost every time you open your mouth.
“An audit conducted Thursday of the votes cast in the November presidential election in Antrim County, the heart of a conspiracy theory about Dominion Voting Systems, affirmed the outcome with a net gain of 12 votes for Republican President Donald Trump, out of 15,962 votes cast, officials said.
The hand tally of every vote cast for president in Antrim County in the November general election could put the conspiracies to rest after state and local election officials have spent more than a month explaining that the incorrect unofficial results reported by the county on election night stemmed from human error. ….”
https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2020/12/17/antrim-county-hand-tally-certified-election-results/3937898001/
Trump should not concede the election. Not with this much evidence of fraud.
Americans will get an education when Senator Josh Hawley contests the EC results on Jan 6. Regardless of the US House dismissing it, with Pelosi’s showboating impeachment for 4 years to demoralize Trump, Biden already enters contested.
Delicious.
2021 will build on the travesty of Democrats 2020. Should be fun
What evidence?
Don’t be shy.
FACTCHECK:
Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone gunman in the JFK assassination.
The MLK and RFK hits were just random coincidences.
“Fake News” AP and CNN Propaganda and Indoctrination Operative “Launches” FactCheck.Org.”
There you have it!
The American Communist Deep Deep State certifies “fake news” for Americans.
That’s something akin to Karl Marx starting up the lede prevaricator, the New York Times.
______________________________________________________________________
“FactCheck.org was launched in December 2003 by Brooks Jackson, a former Associated Press, Wall Street Journal, and CNN reporter who had covered Washington and national politics since 1970.[8] As a special assignment correspondent at CNN during the 1992 political campaign season, Jackson became well known for his “Ad Police” reports, which monitored candidates’ advertising and financing strategies throughout the campaign.[9] In 2003, Kathleen Hall Jamieson of the Annenberg Public Policy Center approached Jackson about forming FactCheck.org,[10] and the site was online in December of that year.”
– Wiki
Oh snap! 😲
George-The majority of the nation is aware of the massive election fraud the problem is those who are supposed to protect us from this are part and parcel to the fraud. The fear and hatred of a guy elected from outside their corrupt world forced them to openly expose themselves. In the end we the people will be responsible to bringing an end to the empire they have built for themselves.
Judges have a right to their opinion. If you ever go before this judge and you are a republican you should do everything you can to not let your affiliation be known. You should not be naive enough to think that the women balancing the scales of justice will hear your case without prejudice. This judge has made sure that the eye covering of Lady Justice is of the see through variety. I wonder how he voted.
Turley: I have no problem with calling Trump a criminal. He *is* a criminal.
And in respect to this: ” I was one of those who immediately criticized those pardons as manifestly unjustified and inimical to our legal system. “…, well that may well be true. In your private time or with a stray throwaway sentence in one of your blog posts, perhaps. Thing is, taken as a whole everyday, your blog posts are overwhelmingly in the ‘let trump be trump’ category. You’re clearly a surrogate for the interests that put trump in office. Your perogative entirely. Just like my calling Trump a criminal is sort of calling out the obvious, it’s equally as obvious that you shill for the Trump campaign and you carry talking points to his base on this blog. My guess is it’s quite rewarding in social media influencer money, no? More power to you for capitalizing and monetizing in a trailblazing sort of way. I’m not from the south so I’ll spare you the “…bless your heart” but hey, they might be on to something there, who knows.
Personally, it’s fascinating on some level to see how it works…, the reaction from the base to having red meat tossed their way, the rationalizations you ammend to your blog posts in attempted sanitization of a shady message, all of it. And I’m always interested in keeping up with where you’re at dating all the way back to the advent of your entry into young republican lawyer-dom during the Clinton years.
Really curious to hear your thoughts on the bats&*t Gommert lawsuit in Texas. Let’s talk about the real madness, shall we?
Elvis Bug
Elvis bug Anon. The point of the article is the participation of a member of the judiciary being involved in politics. You have a right to your opinion. However, you attack Professor Turley and by inference support the actions of a judge who has taken an oath to uphold the law without prejudice. All one can hope for is that the time should arise that you stand before a judge who is of an opposite affiliation and she has read your posts. Your position is of course more important than the danger of justice being unequally applied. When the coin has flipped it will be Professor Turley who will come to you defense. Rest assured, he will never call on the likes of you to come to his. More and more comments from the short sighted. Google “honor”.
Clearly, I have much more respect for Turley than do you.
Elvis Bug
And I suppose googling sanity would be a good start for you, Allan. We’re not going to be able to deal with your lack of critical thought without that foundation. Perhaps we can make progress there first. The room temperature IQ is probably not going to be as responsive, but maybe you can come up a few points in the process.
Elvis Bug
Ha, ha, another fool who joins the stupid one and starts calling clearly another poster, Allan. Thinkitthrough is not Allan, at least I don’t think he is, but then again maybe everyone posting good ideas is Allan.
Back in the days, Allan made mince meat of you. Apparently you aren’t worth his effort any longer or maybe Allan isn’t posting or maybe…
I don’t think that TIT is Allan either, but Allan is definitely posting comments under other names. One of the names that he posts under is S. Meyer. See the December 28, 2020 at 10:24 AM comment from Prairie Rose noting S. Meyer’s comments as Allan, and S. Meyer’s December 29, 2020 at 2:33 PM response acknowledging himself as Allan –
https://jonathanturley.org/2020/12/22/fox-news-got-it-exactly-right-amen-de-blasio-double-downs-on-plan-to-redistribute-wealth/comment-page-2/
10:39 AM Anonymous, I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re Allan. He likes to compliment himself.
You have to face it anonymous Allan’s comments were sharp and generally on target. He knew what he was talking about and when you faced him you looked like an idiot.
You can call me Allan as well because I am complimenting him, but in reality I am showing how utterly contemptible and ignorant you are.
No, Allan’s comments were generally ignorant and insulting.
I do think you’re Allan, because a Google search doesn’t show any results for “Aletheia” on Turley’s site, which makes it very likely that this is “Aletheia”‘s first comment, and why would someone who had never commented before show up in the middle of hundreds of comments to cover for Allan right after I showed that Allan is posting under other names, and why would someone compliment Allan as if they knew his comments, when he hasn’t posted under his own name in almost two months and you’ve never commented before today? How do you even know who Allan is “Aletheia”? It’s the kind of thing Allan would do to attempt to provide cover for himself.
You are the “utterly contemptible and ignorant” person you condemn.
Allan called you Anonymous the Stupid. I was on the blog before Allan and was blocked more than once so I reinvented myself more than once. I am a come and go poster getting tired very quickly of the senseless banter your type provide.
I thought we needed some historical advantage so I decided to post again. You call everyone Allan so I guess you can call me Allan as well. I will be in good company among the Allan’s but not so much if I was among the anonymous.
So, If I can adopt Allan’s best line and call you Anonymous the Stupid, is that acceptable? You are actually dumber than your namesake but it quickly gets to the point.
I tried Googling names on Turley’s site as well but found that names I knew were on there didn’t pop up. Since you apparently have a better way why don’t you tell me how you do it. Then again you say my name never popped up before. Maybe it did and maybe it didn’t. That will be a tough one for you, Anonymous the Stupid.
Altheia, anonymous has accused me and multiple others of being Allan. I think he has given up that idea with me in part because I wasn’t here when Allan must have pushed him on his butt and damaged his brains.
Anonymous is a nasty cuss.
LMAO. Thanks for confirming yourself as Allan the Stupid. You’re even talking to yourself, as “the nice Anonymous” (who isn’t nice) is another of your socks.
Actually anonymous I don’t know ‘the nice Anonymous’. I am happy to be called Allan so do so with vigor and frequency. It boosts my ego. I hope you are just as happy being called stupid.
You are insane.
There is certainly no shortage of stupid, nasty, and mentally ill. Welcome to the internet.
Turley: I have no problem with calling Trump a criminal. He *is* a criminal.
You are a moron. There is no basis for thinking he’s a criminal aside from conclusory statements (lies) from liars. None.
There has never been any genuine (i.e., fact-based) accusation of criminal conduct by the President.
to clinton groupies.
watch this: not one of them will try to defend clinton’s role in the holocaust of 800,000 rwandans explain why he lied about not lending them a helping hand. He would have saved tens of thousands with a phone call.
The hatred they have for Trump compared with how they adore that mass murderer is sick.
It is comments such as these that make people such as me believe there is no independent judiciary. We believe Judges are biased against any conservative, conservative law, conservative challenge to any law and will go out of their way to assist the prosecution in securing convictions against defendants by refusing to allow exculpatory evidence or failing to hold the prosecution accountable for failing to provide that evidence. Sorry Professor but our judicial system is more corrupt than our political system.
The “news” media is corrupt and biased as well.
Read “Slanted” by Sharyl Attkisson, among others who document what really goes on and how it works in the so-called “news” business.
That is laughably superficial. Look into the history of propaganda Ever heard of Samuel Flowerman? Or NBC?
I respect your attempts to keep preaching truths but it isn’t going anywhere. The Press and DNC are one entity now. The left hates this country and we will soon see one party rule.
Judges like Sullivan and Pratt will soon be the admired so-called “People’s” court judge Roland Freisler. They will play to an audience of grateful sycophants often completely ignoring fact, logic, reason, and law to please the party and which ever left-wing crazy is running it at the time. The media will oh, and ah, and attempt to find new targets to take down and make sure other “journalists” are towing the line or they too will be reported and stand in front of Pratt and Sullivan for a berating and a swift hanging.
Right On!
Our courts and the judges who represent them are a disgrace. Their behavior can only get worse. There is nothing restraining them, at all, anywhere. It is interesting to see you refer to the Canons, Jon. They have no teeth. They inspire no fear in anyone. They are a sad joke.
The singular American failure is the judicial branch, with emphasis on the Supreme Court.
The judicial branch has fundamentally and criminally transformed into a second legislative branch.
The judicial branch has no power to legislate or modify legislation as its sole duty is to assure that actions comport with statutory and fundamental law.
The judicial branch is an abject failure permeated with dishonor through its attempted usurpation of power and commission of crimes of high office.
The ultimate and concluding, egregious failure of the judicial branch is its failure to allow the hearing of compelling evidence of manifest 2020 election fraud and vote tampering, commencing with the blunder of
not constraining the election to valid “…Times, Places and Manner…” and identified and certified voters, all of which are the understood components, necessary to constitute an authentic and legitimate election.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
“…courts…must…declare all acts contrary to the manifest tenor of the Constitution void.”
“To deny this…affirm[s] … that men…may do…what their powers do not authorize,…[and] what they forbid.”
“[A] limited Constitution … can be preserved in practice no other way than through the medium of courts of justice, whose duty it must be to declare all acts contrary to the manifest tenor of the Constitution void. Without this, all the reservations of particular rights or privileges would amount to nothing … To deny this would be to affirm … that men acting by virtue of powers may do not only what their powers do not authorize, but what they forbid.”
– Alexander Hamilton
Talk About Irresponsible!
TRUMP DEMANDS RESIGNATION OF GEORGIA’S REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR
TWEETS REFERENCE TO BLATANTLY FALSE CONSPIRACY
President Trump on Wednesday called for Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp to resign, escalating his criticism of a fellow Republican who has refused to intervene in the state’s presidential election or embrace Trump’s baseless claims of widespread fraud.
“@BrianKempGA should resign from office,” Trump said in a tweet. “He is an obstructionist who refuses to admit that we won Georgia, BIG!”
“Also won the other Swing States,” Trump claimed, continuing a series of false claims he has made since President-elect Joe Biden was projected as the winner nationally.
Trump’s latest criticism of Kemp came in a tweet that urged his supporters to watch a broadcast of a Senate hearing in Atlanta on purported election irregularities.
In fact, no credible evidence of widespread fraud has emerged in Georgia or other states since the Nov. 3 election. Biden’s narrow victory has withstood multiple recounts, court challenges and other examinations of the voting process, including some spurred by Trump’s unfounded allegations of fraudulent mail-in ballots.
On Tuesday, the Georgia secretary of state’s office announced the results of a signature audit conducted of mail-in ballots from the election cast in Cobb County.
Working with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the secretary of state’s office said it reviewed signatures on 15,118 ballot envelopes, finding none were fraudulent and that all but two included signatures that matched that of the voter on file — demonstrating that election officials who examined the signatures before the vote had a 99.99 percent accuracy rate.
Trump’s call for Kemp to resign comes amid the closing days of a pair of Senate runoff elections in the state that will determine control of the chamber in Washington next year.
Kemp has come under heavy criticism from Trump, including in tweets late Tuesday night.
“I love the Great State of Georgia, but the people who run it, from the Governor, @BrianKempGA, to the Secretary of State, are a complete disaster and don’t have a clue, or worse,” Trump wrote. “Nobody can be this stupid.”
Trump’s tweets included a reference to a conspiracy theory involving someone who shares the last name of Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger (R) but is not related to him.
“Now it turns out that Brad R’s brother works for China, and they definitely don’t want ‘Trump’. So disgusting!” Trump wrote.
Edited from: “Trump Calls For Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, A Fellow Republican, To Resign”
Today’s Washington Post
Phone us. We are welcoming you to return to our LGBTQA-eieio drug treatment center. You were making such great progress. We have your photos in the recreational room wearing a suit and tie, looking all butch and alpha. Miss Anita Mann informed us you stole her wigs and heels, stole a laptop and now cruising the internet as a legal commentator. Crystal meth will do that
Phone us….we will throw in a string of pearls!
https://www.wehoville.com/2013/12/02/crystal-meth-gay-men-start-load-road-addiction/
Crystal Meth: How Gay Men Start Down the Long Road of Addiction
Tina, ice, crystal, glass, P-N-P, blowing clouds, Get to the Point, T — are all common codes that can be found on any gay hook up site, suggesting, in “tweaker” language, a night of using meth and most likely having sex. The sex is almost always unprotected because most don’t have thoughts about tomorrow when they are using tonight.
“I thought it was cocaine.” “It was just a little bump.” “He was so hot, and he said sex would be so much better.” “I wanted to fit in.” Those are some of the many reasons members of our community give as to why they tried meth in the first place.
Meth has grabbed the gay male community in a disproportionately and epidemic stranglehold, causing HIV, Hep C, and other STD’S and STI’S to run rampant. Slamming, which is slang for injecting meth into the vein, not only spreads disease but causes major scarring, infections and skin erosion. Smoking, or blowing clouds, can cause lung impairment, secondary burns and mouth infections
+ 10
😂
+10 😀
REGARDING ABOVE: Nurse Butch was posted by our blog troll, Estovir. He then replied to his own comment as gray Anonymous and Diogenes.
Trump is the enema of the people.
Trump won! Don’t be afraid!
It’s the last time…to make things better.
You wonder…what’s ever under his skin..
He lives in France…and will get better.
(To tune of Hey Jude)
TRUMP WON!
Trump lost. No matter how much you whine, he will be leaving the WH on 1/20.
Truth lost, criminality won
Biden lost.
But since they stole the election in plain sight, and since we have corrupt, fake news media, and partisan, activist judges, we will be forced to watch a senile, corrupt old fool named Joe Biden and a phony as phuck Kamala get sworn in. We are doomed as a country.
Let me get this straight: you think Biden stole the election, but he didn’t think to steal the election for down-ballot Democrats, and all of the Republican-appointed judges are conspiring with Biden to let him get away with it? Really? How stupid do you have to be to believe your conspiracy theory?
actual histories and case studies of electoral fraud have shown that targeted ballot fraud for certain offices but not others has happened. ie, not “down ballot” or “sideways”. this goes back decades. it is not a stupid theory. it may not be proven to the satisfaction of judges but it is not preposterous.
I could provide my sources but i have already done so before the election and they were always ignored. i tire of the conversation. I just wanted to identify this narrow and particular “conspiracy theory” as completely plausible.
saloth sar
Show me one of these case studies, especially one involving a President who may be blocked by a Senate with a majority from an opposing party.
It is absolutely stupid to think that a Presidential candidate would engage in widespread fraud but not bother to make sure he also got a majority of the Senate and House.
Just link to one of these comments you claim to have posted before the election.
Of course, you also ignore the other half of what I said, which is that you’d ALSO have to believe that all of the Republican-appointed judges are conspiring with Biden to let him get away with it.
Yeah, they got to Clarence Thomas!
These cry babies need to grow up. They’re the minority party and have way more power than they deserve by the vote. Hey, they’re used to winning with losers like W in 2020 and Trump in 2016 and think it’s their due.
You don’t sound like you are thinking straight.
“TRUMP WON!”
By a landslide. However, in order to actually serve his second term he will have to successfully overturn the fraudulent election results. The DNC and some RINOs are dead set on enacting their coup.
He lost the election.
He and his allies have also lost dozens of related lawsuits.
This demonstrates a lack of sophisticated thinking.
Firstly the election was stolen and Trump won by a landslide. Democrats made sure the election would not be secure so they could do their dirty work. Too much has been revealed but at this time the type of proof desired by the courts cannot be produced even thought the evidence is there.
It’s like having absolute certainty that a killer did the deed but time was needed to find the weapon and the body. If the time constraints were the same for murderers as in this election, a large number of those murderers would be roaming free.
So then Ron, thousands of conspirators across multiple states pulled this off and you don’t have any evidence yet. Is that what you believe?
Seek help. You lost. It happens. You’re not getting another President in office you like but who most American voters rejected. Twice in 16 years is more than enough.
Joe. if you weren’t wrong most of the time I would consider discussing this with you, but you repeat the same garbage over and over again denying proven fact. The claims have been listed on this blog over and over again. Pick out what you perceive to be the best claims stated and tell us why they aren’t valid.
You can’t do that. Go back to fantasy land. This name of yours has been used up like all the others.
Unlike you and your comrades Ron, I regularly post quotes with links to reputable sources to support my position.
To sum up:
1. Trump and his supporters to this day still repeat the lame reasoning he planted before the election to think it was rigged: He would be/was in the lead on election day but then overcome by late votes and that must indicate cheating. Hellloooo! There is a pandemic raging which caused many voters to mail in for the 1st time and he did nothing to mitigate that, and even installed a new Postmaster General who upended normal procedures. GOP controlled state legislatures in Wisconsin, Penn, and Mich all turned down requests by their administrations to allow counting mail ins as they arrived – that’s what they do in Florida – thus guaranteeing the very scenario he set up. He knew he was going to lose – national polls showing him behind by about 5% were right and he lost by 4.5% – and built in this lame excuse that people like you are still buying.
2. Counties with Dominion systems in the 6 swing states mostly went for Trump. Audits in multiple states, including hand counts of ballots have all confirmed Dominion results.
3. Complaints that Pennsylvania allowed late acceptance of mail ins – justified by the pandemic. mail problems, and overwhelming numbers (some states allow postmarks, not delivery, as controlling) – are irrelevant as there were 10k such ballots and Trump lost the state by 40k votes.
4. Georgia has done 3 vote counts, one by hand, and they are all the same. Signatures were checked and found to be 99.9% accurate.
5. None of the state or local officials – and they are of both parties – have agreed with Trump and have vigorously defended the system which is under their control, not Nancy Pelosi’s or Mitch McConnell’s.
6. Trump’s own head of cyber security, a former MIcrosoft employee, verified the accuracy of the election as thge most secure ever and noted the various improvements.
What else do you have Ron?
Bring it!
Since there’s a good chance that ‘Ron’ is Allan, might be a long wait, Joe.
Elvis Bug
I will leave you alone because you demonstrate no semblance of intelligence. Instead of discussing the election you focus on finding Allan. Find Waldo instead. That would relieve the blog of your banal comments
It’s Allan-Anon freak again. Seek help. If not for your sake, then for ours. PLEASE!
So far you haven’t adequately characterized any of the problems. Pure Joe nonsense.and selective reading of the events.
Answer the significant questions and work your way down from there.
The state constitution decides how the election process should take place. Any deviation from the law is illegal. That places a lot of votes in question because some of the voting processes were illegally permitted.
There must be observers watching the ballot counting but Republican observers were kept out of the counting room. That is illegal.
Deal with two of the legal questions first, or do you presume that illegal voting is permissible? The pandemic doesn’t reflect the law and the bodies that make law were there and didn’t include illegal voting procedures.
Unless you answer the questions about illegality there is no reason to discuss anything with you.
Questions of the legality of voting procedures are questions first for the state courts and then feds if involving civil rights, etc. They both have heard your arguments 60 times and have ruled against them each time except for one procedural vote.
Next
Not so. Most of the rulings sidestepped the issues and some were blatantly wrong. When there is such a violation of law that affects other states that is a case for elevating the case. If lawlessness is how things are being run then lawlessness is what we get.
Does the legislature in some states have the exclusive right to determine the voting process when the state constitution says it does? Answer in the affirmative or simply say no.
Questions of the legality of voting procedures are questions first for the state courts and then feds if involving civil rights, etc.
They’re questions for the Feds if they involve Presidential electors.
Hey Allan, you’re starting to lose track of the many personalities that you’re posting under. You’ve got “Ron” using multiple icons.
Republican observers weren’t kept out of the room. The GOP lawyers admitted that in court.
The PA Supreme Court has already ruled on this. SCOTUS rejected the Texas suit. Trump lost. Biden will be inaugurated in less than 3 weeks.
I’m with the Allan crowd. Good. That means I am smart you are dumb.
I made one mistake in typing and that changed the icon’s appearance. That is what dummies consider to be a big victory.
“Republican observers weren’t kept out of the room. The GOP lawyers admitted that in court.”
You better read the transcript.
Biden will likely be inaugurated, but he won because of cheating. That is the left’s claim to fame. The other claim is stupidity.
The left will remain unhappy (see some of the polls) while the right will continue to function happy and productive.
Here’s the relevant exchange from the court transcript. Diamond was appointed by GW Bush. He’s a judge in the Eastern District of PA.
Judge Diamond: “Are your observers in the counting room?”
Mr. Marcus, Trump Campaign lawyer: “There’s a non-zero number of people in the room.”
Judge Diamond: “I’m asking you as a member of the bar of this court: are people representing the Donald J Trump for president, representing the plaintiffs, in that room?”
Marcus: “Yes.”
What this proves is that you have little to no comprehension of what you read. Obviously you didn’t read the entire transcript. Most likely a small portion was fed to you that at best is confusing but proves nothing. The left’s media counts on the inadequacy of their readership.
The most one can glean from this incomplete transcript is that one observer may have been in the room. We don’t know the state or the city. We don’t know the time or what that observer saw or what the others saw. We don’t know if anyone in the room was able to adequately observe the counting process. WE don’t know how many people were needed in the room to observe the process. We don’t know the counting process was visually blocked at times when votes could be added even if an observer was present in the room.
What we heard was that at one time or another a minimum of one person who may or may not be a Trump supporter said something that led to this short inadequate picture of the process. It doesn’t tell us if the counting process was properly observed or if for one reason or another Republican observers were prevented in one way or another from doing the job they were there to do.
Try again. You failed. Find Allan and ask him to help you out.
What’s obvious is that you haven’t quoted anything from the transcript, and I doubt that you’ve read anything in it beyond what I quoted.
You, Allan, simply like to insult people you disagree with. You apparently can’t even keep track of the difference between singular and plural nouns.
“What’s obvious is that you haven’t quoted anything from the transcript”
What is the purpose of my reading the transcript? Am I supposed to prove your claims for you? Do you need a nanny or your bottle? I think it was you who made a claim about 302’s and you couldn’t produce the information there either. Your reading comprehension skills are very low. You didn’t understand what you posted as proof. For the purpose you posted it, it was junk. You would be better off taking a reading comprehension course rather than complaining that others don’t proof read their material.
if you weren’t wrong most of the time I would consider discussing this with you, but you repeat the same garbage over and over again denying proven fact.
Ron,
You’re right about Friday (bythebook). He has his truth. Only facts and evidence that prove his truth are legitimate. This is why after 4 years of evidence proving the Trump/Russia conspiracy was a hoax, he still clings to snippets out of the Senate Intel Committee report. He and his ilk’s only response to the overwhelming evidence is, no one has been charged. He reminds me of Steve Martin in The Jerk, with the exception that Steve figured out why the cans were defective.
Olly, as always you are correct. Joe was a liar the first day he came to the blog and has continued on that path no matter which alias he chose. The only thing he has learned since day one is not to be embarrassed by his ignorance and lies. Today he is proud of being ignorant and holds fast to his lies.
It’s not that it demonstrates a lack of sophisticated thinking as that it shows an utter lack of thought. The zombie minions of the cult of DiMarxoKKKrazis are capable only of parroting what their masters tell them.
A wordy and repetitive numbskull.
Trump won the legitimate vote. While historically this coup may succeed, if it does this nation is forever a banana Republic and Joe Xiden will be illegitimate. Like you.
Well, there may or may not have been any crimes committed by Trump – but we KNOW crimes were committed by this judge.
You haven’t identified any.
Corruption, bias, favor, subjectivity and political acts by courts are crimes of the high office of U.S. District Judge Robert Pratt of the Southern District of Iowa.
The President shall…have Power to grant…Pardons….
The power of the President to grant pardons for offences against the U.S. is not qualified by the Constitution, notwithstanding cases of impeachment, and is, therefore, absolute.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Article 2, Section 2, Clause 1
The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.
______________________________________________________
Article 2, Section 4
The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.
Pratt is a lame and unjust socalled judge
I pulled his bio. trust me, it’s not impressive.
the only thing impressive about him is his office, that of article III blackrobed tyrant
he’s trying to become a somebody by taking a swipe at trump on the way out. Lame!
Sal Sar
I know right? A much more honorable response would’ve been a bag of flaming dog crap in his golf cart.
Elvis Bug
Judge Pratt should be fully retired from the bench. His conduct demonstrates a profound lack of judicial temperament.
Friends, I’d like to go off topic for a moment. I want to discuss something that’s been bothering me for a long time: cultural appropriation.
Today’s “progressives” are not progressive. They are radicals at best. In some cases, they are out-and-out communists and criminals. They have stolen the name “progressive” to cloak themselves in a legitimacy they could never deserve.
True progressives hated monopolists and loved the US Constitution. Many progressives were also devout nationalists. Today’s frauds and anti-socials have taken the exact opposite positions: monopolists are great if they hinder free speech, America is systemically racist, and Beijing is the new model of social justice.
Teddy Roosevelt was a true progressive. I recall his statue was abused by criminals claiming to be “progressives.” See the contradiction?
We need to stop using the term “progressive” in the current context. Words matter. Thank you.
Regarding the notion that Trump is a criminal. Why not let the case of the rape in the Bergdorf Goodman’s dressing room play out? And the New York State and City Tax Fraud investigations and the two pending federal felony indictments at SDNY Court? Then there will no longer be any inaccuracies in describing Trump as a criminal. Good grief, penetrating glimpse into the obvious, the legal cover, the shield of the Presidency is all he cares about.
They can play out, but first one requires proof. That is what you guys fail to learn.
4Years of investigation of Trump and all we got from it was a bunch of criminality from those that believe in the deep state as recognized by Clinton, Obama, Biden and most of the democrats.
What “investigation”? Trump refused to disclose his tax returns and financials, procured the noncooperation of key witnesses, refused to produce documents, refused to be deposed and Mueller couldn’t get Russians to cooperate, either. There was no thorough “investigation”, but there was proof that Russia helped Trump cheat–there was proof that his campaign provided confidential, insider polling information to Russians, and that they manipulated social media in certain key precincts in swing states where support for Hillary Clinton was soft enough that the lies told by the Russians could help flip them. It did. And, when Dan Coats, the head of US intelligence agencies, refused to back down from telling this truth, he got fired.
Don’t worry, though, the State of New York will be going after Trump, and he cannot pardon his way out of state charges, nor does his DOJ control N.Y. prosecutors. So, the truth will eventually come out.
When will they investigate clinton for his role in killing 800,000 rwandans? Murder is not bound by SOL. When will you denounce him for lying about what he knew and when he knew it? never
Yes, Natacha, the “truth will eventually come out.” Look out, Joe Biden and family, because your money laundering operation will be fully exposed when the establishment decides they have had enough of you and your ‘malarkey.’ Watch out for the great fall of Biden, Inc and Joey and ‘Call me Doctah’ Jill. It won’t be pretty.
Natasha. Your brilliant. You have found the proof of Trump criminality that your previous hero Mueller could not find. Your legal mind is so superior to Mueller and the twelve Democrats on his team. You will exclaim that Mueller’s evidence proves criminality. Do you think that if he could have prosecuted he would have held back? You and your CNN and MSNBC fellow travelers were giddy in anticipation of findings by Mueller that would lead to a Trump wardrobe composed of orange jumpsuits. You are no different than the Trump supporters who claim Biden didn’t win. Like them, it is your fantasy and by god and your sticking to it. I am so sorry that if due to my comments your crown is to be found rolling on the ground.
👍🏽
He did hold back.
Elvis Bug
Mueller testified under oath that he didn’t consider indicting Trump because of the OLC memo.
There’s plenty of evidence of Trump criminality in the Mueller Report and the SSCI Reports.
The jerk is at it again. It must be lunchtime for the monkeys.
“Mueller testified under oath that he didn’t consider indicting Trump because of the OLC memo.”
Yes, he said those words, and they are no doubt true – and millions of members of the cult of “Orange man baad “ took it to mean that that was the ONLY reason he didn’t do so. I sure wish I had legions of minions as dumb and gullible as you.
The OTHER reason he didn’t indict was that they failed to reveal a shred of evidence of wrongdoing. Of course, Mueller literally had no idea about any of that. He did not personally get involved in any of the investigation, as evidenced by his testimony before the Senate where he was not aware of even the most rudimentary facts of the case. This was a star chamber of 17 angry Democrats, and Mueller was there in name only to give the shockingly thin veneer of “impartiality.”
Have you read the Mueller Report and the SSCI reports? If so, you’re either deluded or lying to say that “they failed to reveal a shred of evidence of wrongdoing.”
What “investigation”? Trump refused to disclose his tax returns and financials, procured the noncooperation of key witnesses
You’re an idiot. Investigators don’t need Trump’s permission to see Trump’s tax returns. And key witnesses? Regarding what? There was never anything that there could be witnesses to!
I am beginning to think Trump Derangement Syndrome is real. Pratt has just put his honor in a hole over an ill advised comment. I cannot tell if it was a flippant comment that somehow gotten loose or he truly believes Trump is a criminal. Either way, it is a grade C move for what should be a grade A judge.
TDS is real. There is no other way to explain such behavior.
Oh there is. It is purely strategic. It is not craziness.
Remember Saul Alinksy’s rules? Read them again and you will see how their approach to Trump follows the template
Saloth Sar
You are absolutely correct that the Political left follows Alinsky’s rules. The right should make similar use of them but they don’t. However, the individual response to Trump, though amplified by Alinsky’s rules, is psychiatric and TDS is real.
What you see as derangement, I see as people with strong group instincts, who follow their leadership with passion. They are foolish, they are mislead of course, they are lemmings, perhaps. But with teeming hordes of zealous patriots such as this, aimed at billionaires, they would be finished.
But billionaires understand human nature and how to establish control over the masses. They select competent, if sociopathic, leadership to guide the sheep. These are mostly Democrats, but in all the important institutions.
It is impossible to beat the billionaires without 2 things. The first is an ideology that comprehends their power and influence, explains how it is adverse to the interests of the people, and has embraced a plan to cancel them as a group, and put the powers they have stolen to themselves, back into the nation-state.
The second is the force which must be applied thoroughly to implement it.
The problem with the average good hearted American patriot is that he is too wedded to the tropes of democracy and individual rights and law and order. All three of these are concepts that are thoroughly “owned” by billionaires and their functionaries. They are not tropes in themselves, rather, they are good ideas. But, billionaires control their iteration and that is how they reduce them to tropes.
Hence, democracy means, in their limited version of it, bogus elections.
Hence, individual rights, means things like gay marriage and civil rights cancel culture. Spurious things that only serve to disrupt the majority and keep them off-balance.
Hence law and order means, courts that are strong when billionaires want them to be, and are weak when they want them to be. Cops that lock people up for trying to run a law abiding small business, but let tens of thousands of looters pillage at will.
If that is all democracy, individual rights, and law and order are allowed to mean, well then. Are we better off with or without them?
Seems to me the time comes when disruption and and rebellion and chaos may just be what the doctor ordered– if it is aimed at the system of negative social control and exploitation run by billionaires, our enemy
Saloth Sar
Kurtz you dip s..t, I’ve never seen Alinsky’s rules, let alone read them, though you apparently have. If you’re so lame – and from your robo “billionaire” posts, you are – that you can’t counter someone else’s arguments without claiming it’s unfair because they have some secret sauce, that’s a reflection on you or the soundness of your position.
Here joe friday insults me again for the hundredth time. I think i called joe a fool a few times, but i lack his colorful vocabulary
my posts are not robotic, they are focused. i am not aiming them at you because you are no billionaire. you may be a social climber and successful retiree, but you are no billionaire. even if you like to shine their boots, in hopes of further climbing perhaps.
as for alinsky’s rules they have been posted and reposted on this comments page about a thousand times by other people, i will do it again below.
alinsky was a cunning genius of political organizing and a mentor of POTUS Obama in case you never heard. His rules have worked on mobilizing you joe friday whether you understood them or not. and indeed I think you do know them because you constantly ridicule other posters here. take a look folks and see how joe friday employs these concepts whether he claims to know them or not.
Sal Sar
oh why not post them anyhow. from wiki:
“The Rules
“Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have.”
“Never go outside the expertise of your people.”
“Whenever possible go outside the expertise of the enemy.”
“Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.”
“Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. There is no defense. It is almost impossible to counterattack ridicule. Also it infuriates the opposition, who then react to your advantage.”
“A good tactic is one your people enjoy.”
“A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.”
“Keep the pressure on.”
“The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself. ”
“The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition.”
“If you push a negative hard and deep enough it will break through into its counterside; this is based on the principle that every positive has its negative.”
“The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative.”
“Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it. “
Joe Friday, you should read Alinsky. You employ his rules everyday in your comments. He puts his ideas succinctly to the page. The difference between Alinsky and you is that his ideas were put together in an organized manner for a plan of action. You could be more effective if you studied his work. One of your heroes quoted his words exactly in a speech. Her name was Michelle Obama. Just saying, there might be a lesson there. The thoughts of your great leader Obama were formulated by his knowledge of Alinsky. You should want to know if you stand in agreement. Your lack of curiosity in order to solidify your position seems strangely adverse to the effort of growing your understanding. Be careful, your mind might be changed and you might have to abandon your sacred cows. I wish you great courage in expanding your knowledge. Let us know how it goes.
There is no TDS. There is however a group political strategy wherein Democrats selected Trump as their most opportune object of vile, hatred, and division. This is a calculated political strategy. it is actually not crazy nor is it as filled with animosity as it seems. it is STRATEGIC
Every month I come on here and refer people to the work of Carl Schmitt. In concept of the political, he talks about “enmity” as the key factor in politics. And he was really not the first to understand this. Von Clausewitz said how war was a continuation of politics by other means or something like that. Nor was he the first to understand it
All the way back to the first walled cities of ancient Sumer, ENMITY’ is the key dynamic in politics. Who is in the group and who is outside. How the groups compete for resources in whatever arenas.
So keep on talking about TDS friends if you like but every time you do, you miss the point.
The Democrats take politics seriously and act on their plans.
Republicans are a pathetically incompetent “political” group as a whole.
Trump by contrast to the rest of them, understood this “concept of the political” in his very bones.
This is why he picked opponents on a seemingly daily basis to vilify on Tweeter. It is why Democrats feared him: he had the cunning instincts of a Democrat that are rarely seen among the Stupid Party, Republicans.
Now let me remind people, BILLIONAIRES ARE OUR ENEMY. Not any one, but the group as such. They are driving us into the poor house, the sick house, and the mad house. It will be them or us in the end. Everything else is mostly their own contrived conflicts to keep us weak
Saloth Sar
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/schmitt/
Doofus, Trump claims to be a billionaire and his biggest legislative achievement was a huge tax cut for corporations – and he’s your hero. You are f..ing phony tassle loafer wearing lawyer pretending to be a working class hero.
As to how clever he is. he’s a compulsive liar and attention whore who appealed to marks like you. He doesn’t think farther ahead than than his next meal and the next day’s headlines – see his holding up signing the Covid relief bill to the point where he caused millions of Americans to lose unemployment benefits and got nothing for it. Here’s WH personnel on how clever he is:
“President Trump, the official said, is not playing “the sort of three-dimensional chess people ascribe to decisions like this. More often than not he’s just eating the pieces.”
I do have a pair of tasseled Bruno Magli shoes but I got them as hand me downs
as for Trump he is soon to be gone, so I am not going to waste a lot of energy on his current activities
I am also not going to waste energy talking tax policy with you, it will just go over your head
and until we are talking about a tax that will bite the billionaires I am not that interested. trust me the sorts of tax reforms we see discussed the past 20 years from both parties do nothing to harm the billionaires and only give different segments of the lower population a little bit of relief here or there. wake me up perhaps if there is something new
i did hear a rumor that the equalizing the ordinary and capital gains tax rates might come into play., now that is one the billionaires would hate. it might hurt me a little but I would trade my own petty losses to take a big piece out of them. if someone wants to have an intelligent debate about tax policy they can say something worth replying to and for now I wont hold my breath
you are free to believe I am a mark just as I believe you are a lace curtain social climber who puts on airs
Saloth Sar
You can believe what you want about me Kurtz, but as I’ve posted before when you accused me – without knowing anything about me – of being a social climber, lace curtain type, my parents never went to college and I went to Big State U where I paid $125 a semester and worked. I still operate a small business, drive a 2005 F-150 that needs paint, have always shopped at JC Penney’s for clothes and buy Wranglers at Target because Levi’s are too expensive. I wear the same 2 year old pair of Merrills every day, have worked in every construction trade except Heat AC and ran a 30 head cow-calf operation for about 15 years and my pals were farmers white and black. While I have several ex-client friends who are docs, but my main group all are under $100k types and have more kayaks and bikes than boats or houses. I never joined the Elks or CofC.
Joe, I finally felt a sting of sympathy for you. I wish you were on our side.
You and Sal made me laugh so hard with this exchange that I nearly passed out. Thank you for that 🙂
Joe Friday is a Trump supporter! March on! Trump4Eva!
Hey Joe, You were a small business rancher. If you were smart you formed a corporation so that you could write off your honest business expenses. Somehow you are in favor of the political party that is willing to apply the highest corporate taxes in the world. Your granddaddy and daddy was a Democrat so your a Democrat. All I can deduce from your phenomena is you just don’t think about what you just don’t think about.
My 2005 F-150 finally had to go. Busted the drive shaft and both ball joints at the same time. It was like WWlI pilots movie as the steering wheel shook in my hand as I pulled it off the road and then coasted down a hill to the nearest service station! Loved that truck though. I did haul a bit of stuff in its day.
Elvis Bug
Aha…..a PPRUNE Lefty!
There is no TDS.
Kurtz,
You claim the concept of the political is not understood by Republicans. I will accept that is true. But the flaw in your conclusion, that there is no TDS, assumes all of those that are affiliated/aligned with the Democratic party do understand the concept. I would suggest only a minority within that group understand the concept and the majority are what Kant describes as trapped in self-incurred tutelage. This unenlightened majority have been told by their political masters in the minority who their political enemy is and they lack the will or courage or ability to even question it. While there may be a psychologically technical name for it, in the interim,TDS works just fine.
First you tell us about the use of enmity for political gain by Trump and then you use enmity against the devil billionaires. Russia employed the use of enmity against very poor farmers who through hard physical labor had more wealth than the common serf. Stalin used enmity against the farmers and he made it a crime for them to eat even one grain of what they themselves produced. The result was the starvation of the people who knew how to produce food. Of course, the finale result was the starvation of 6,000,000 people. So Anon Solace Sar, tells us of the brilliant use of enmity by Trump and the Democrats. You must pit one group against another to gain power and power for power’s sake is the ultimate end goal. The founders wrote a document with the understanding that just such schemes existed. So much for Anon Solace Sar’s commitment to brotherly love.
No a just society is the proper goal of politics, but justice follows existence, and not vice versa. First society must survive. And survival in the short and long term always means resource competition, at the very least, if not more intense forms of conflict.
Groups are motivated by the deep human instinct of enmity. You can mock me but “thinkithrough”
You are the result of countless generations of human successful enough in their groups and lives to outcompete and survive their foes and successfully reproduce
Don’t be a snowflake. Yes. Enmity lead to tragedies. But it also lead to victories. When Leonidas and his 300 men and a 800 some thebans et al. stacked up tens of thousands of dead Persians like cordwood over a few days before they got wiped out, they did it for love of their families and cities and “Greece” but they also were motivated by hate for the invading force of Persians who were hailing arrows down on them like rain
Did love for Americans motivate the founders? Sure it did. But they also were motivated by enmity for the Crown. Obviously.
Im not the advocate of love. But I tell you, if you love your family, you hate those who would destroy it. That’s the basic human dynamic. I embrace the dark side as well as the light
Enmity is a group instinct. It separate the sheep from the wolves. Groups that lack it in sufficient amount, fail to cohere, coordinate, and thus survive. It’s as simple as that.
Sal Sar