I apologize for not posting more today. Last night starting at about 2 a.m. the bleeping carbon monoxide monitor (I think that’s what it is) in the bedroom started chirping. Loudly. It wanted new batteries, I assume. No way I could go back to sleep. And it was too high on the wall for me to reach. Eventually I put earbuds in my ears and listened to Bach’s Goldberg Variations (played on piano by Jeremy Denk, which is a great recording) on a loop until dawn, which let me doze a bit. But I’ve been barely functional all day. The super hasn’t been by yet, but at least the battery must have died, because chirping stopped some time this afternoon.
If you missed Rachel Maddow’s indictment special last night, be sure to see this snip of remarks by Chris Hayes. He is a real genius at getting to the foundational, fundamental core of an issue.
Lincoln asked at the battlefield at Gettysburg “whether a nation of, by and for the people can long endure,” says @chrislhayes. “I feel profoundly gratified by reading this document because it calls the question in a way that it has not quite been called yet.” pic.twitter.com/KI9D9y6tPT
— All In with Chris Hayes (@allinwithchris) August 2, 2023
Arraignment tomorrow in D.C., 4 pm EST.
I'll keep my calendar clear for 4:00 tomorrow. I was pleased to hear that the sheriff in Fulton County says Trump will be required to provide a mug shot. I'll be looking forward to seeing that mugshot.
On top of being brilliant, and able to explain the toughest subjects, Chris Hayes is very funny.
BTW, maha, my fave Goldberg Variations was recorded Vladimir Feltsman.
BTW 2: I played a few of them when I was much, much younger.
Bach can be a relentless master. He demands perfection.
Also, Glenn Gould recorded the Variations at two points in his life: When he was young, and again, shortly before his untimely death. Interesting comparison.
I did not know you were a musician, much less one so accomplished! I am impressed!
The Jeremy Denk recording is way better than Glenn Gould, IMO. I'll look for the Vladimir Feltsman.
I'm not sure but it looks like Trump's lawyers are considering a strategy that Trump was misled by his lawyers into believing that he had won the election. Jack hits the lies pretty hard, especially demonstrably false claims about different aspects of ridiculous claims. None of them came FROM Trump independently – all of them were supplied TO Trump by all those evil co-conspirators. Poor President Trump was a victim of those lawyers. According to Rolling Stone:
"…if the case goes to trial, [Trump’s] current legal team is preparing an “advice of counsel” argument, attempting to pull blame away from the former president for any possible illegal activity. Plans for such a defense have been percolating since last year, the two sources say."
Problem: How do you get those lawyers to take the fall and not turn evidence against Trump since they were witnesses to the conversations about the various schemes to steal the election. Promise they all pardons if/when Trump wins the election? How many years of your life would you bet on A) Trump winning and B) Trump keeping his promise. Oh, and how do you make the deal? Any lawyer who presents the offer is guilty of witness tampering.
If Jack Smith charges the co-conspirators separately, it's to simplify Trump's trial and limit the opportunities for delays. It looks like the pick for the judge in DC is as good as the pick for judge in FL was bad. Expect the first few moves to be to try to move the trial and swap out the judge.
I'd be really happy if Georgia drops charges on Trump this week.
It's probably a smoke alarm. Whatever it is, it's an important safety device, and standing on a chair to replace the battery is probably worthwhile.
Do NOT make recommendations about standing on a chair unless you know something about the health of the person. Do they have dizzy spells? You made a well-intentioned suggestion that works fine for you. The suggestion may be a big risk for an older person like me and (this is not true for Maha) if they aren't strong-willed, they may follow bad advice to very bad results.
My days of standing on furniture are long over. And the only chair I own right now is a wobbly office chair, on wheels. I'm taking enough chances just sitting in it.
Same thing recently happened to me – returning to my apartment with a chirping smoke alarm around 10 pm. No way was I going to put up with this noise all night / until maintenance arrived.
I had a step ladder, but was unable to open it enough to yank out the battery. I fortunately still had internet access (one week before final move-out in California), looked up the model #, and realized it had a landlord feature that makes it hard for tenants to disable the unit. Between the info I found on-line, and the tools I had lying around, I was able to silence the beast, and get some rest.
I'm not sure, but it's possible this beast is hardwired, so just removing the batteries (assuming I could get to it) might not shut it up. And of course the circuit box is rigged so I can't open it to check. And the thing started chirping again at 1:25 am last night. I've left two requests for help with the super, but if he doesn't show up this afternoon I'm going to rig up someplace to sleep in the living room. Since I don't have a sofa either this will involve hauling the mattress into the living room. If I close the bedroom door and wear earplugs I can barely hear the chirp from the living room, especially with the air conditioner running. I don't know what else to do. I feel absolutely wrecked.
Update — a petite and ancient lady with a nearly impenetrable and unidentifiable accent appeared, and I understood eventually that she waas there to change the battery. She climbed onto an end table (no way I could have done that) and did the job. I will take a nap now.
Raven's comment is well-intentioned and probably made with an assumption that anyone reading and/or commenting here has reasonable awareness of their own physical capabilities or limitations. Now I've got so many bananas lying about on the floor exhausted and passed out from all the dancing, it has become dangerous to walk across the room, clearly Maha is to blame if I slip and fall.
Smoke detectors and CO2 detectors are both available as 10-year sealed battery models.They're a bit more expensive but well worth it.
That's up to the landlord.
I have a few conservative friends who fly. One f them brought up Trump a month or so back and my flying friend went ballistic when I pointed out that Trump lost the election and lied about it to provoke J6. He refused to consider the premise of my argument – Trump lost.I don’t mean he didn’t agree with my conclusion – he refused to consider the premise. He insisted the discussion MUST begin with my accepting that the election was fraudulent and Trump won.
Regardless of the venue, this will be an obstacle to securing a conviction if any Republicans are seated on the jury. And there will be some. But suppose the filtering process of jury selection DOES seat jurors who sincerely commit to deciding the case on the evidence alone AND keep the promise to exclude news sources during the duration of the trial. Yes, they will sit down predisposed to expect that Trump's lawyers will demolish Jack Smith in a jury trial.
A month ago I wished that I could shut off the Limbaugh-like talking heads while someone took my friend step-by-step through the known facts and testimony. And that's EXACTLY what a trial will do. Yes, some cultists will manage to shake off all the facts and evidence, but IMO, not many. Not if they've kept the deal with the judge and shut off Fox and Newsmax. Because Trump's lawyers don't have much of a defense for the crimes I think Jack can prove.
Your mileage will vary, but with people like your friend, I would ask "where is your evidence that he won?", and counter with the fact that high-powered, expensive GOP attorneys lost every court case regarding the election – because they had no evidence.
Mere opinions without any evidence mean nothing. That's my rebuttal to idiots who insist on accepting their premises without providing any evidence. I have told people "Put up or shut up" countless times in this situation. I follow it with: "You've got Nothing".
Right-wing media constantly conflates facts with opinion, further weakening peoples' ability to reason, and gets them to believe in things purely on emotion / join the cult.
Don't listen to lawyers talking about the case in the media.
What they rarely mention is that prosecutors do this for a living, they've dealt with all kinds of defenses, and the U.S. Attorneys of the country have a better than 95% conviction rate. They don't lose.
Trump's lawyers for the most part are idiots. Great facts make great lawyers, and Jack Smith has great facts, and thousands of them.
re Co-Conspirator #4 (Jeffrey Clark), the wannabe Attorney General who, when told his plans would spawn riots in the street, responded with “that’s why there’s an Insurrection Act” – WaPo has a frightening story about him: Jeffrey Clark plotted to reverse Trump’s loss. Now he’s a GOP luminary.
It ain’t over until all of these clowns answer for their crimes. I cannot get into the mind of someone like Clark. He’s now a star in Wingnut World.
Superb critique of the facts of the indictment w/out opinions.
https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/trump-jan.-6-indictment-the-facts
Busted, really busted and gagged. Might as well be solitary.
Neal Katyal, Why the Trump trial should be televised
Beyond what Neal wrote, it’s so strategically important to get the truth out before the viewers, to knock the wind out of the right-wing lying machine. Progressives could go more on offense (and win), instead of battling the continual headwind of hate and nonsense.
Ty Cobb said the trial could go to trial early next year, four to six weeks for the prosecution and he doesn't see that the defense has much of a case.
IMO, Trump will make a series of motions and try to appeal on all of them, Trump wants the trial moved out of DC. I predict Trump will want a different judge. Trump will want the case delayed until after the election. I can see the appeals court moving swiftly on all f these and the USSC quickly opting to hear none of them.
The 28th is the next meeting – there will probably be discussion of dates. I'm looking for the judge to lay down the law on timely submissions of motions, possibly with a drop-dead deadline. Something like, "all pre-trial motions from both sides by Halloween." (Trick or Treat, Donald.) Give 'em 90 days to thrash around with appeals and then 30 days from then, the gavel drops on the trial. That's six months.
Opinion: Trump expected to be charged with Insurrection. For that, Trump had PR prepared – First Amendment and free speech. The experts (and I'm not one) seem to think that Jack deftly sidestepped a First Amendment issue by going for the conspiracy to pressure states, then the conspiracy with fake electors, then the campaign to force Pence, all of it illegal and based on fraud to overturn the election that he lost. Trump may be forced by the trial to make a defense that Trump's lawyers fooled Trump into thinking he'd won. Because Trump has no court case to argue that there was enough irregularities to overturn the election. Problem: the defense that tries to shift blame to the lawyers also says that Trump DID lose the election, a fatal blow to the true believer. Or maybe not as they can believe seven impossible things before breakfast.
Small turnout in DC today. Trump is gonna have a hard time finding voluteers to riot.
The issues the defense can appeal before trial are few.
I am so tired of this nonsense of people believing TFG won. This is not rocket science.
1) We have secret ballots in this country.
2) Every state has control of the election process in their state, through the Secretary of State; so long as those election processes do not violate federal laws. Nobody has a right to interfere in the due process of running those elections, a concept that has been affirmed by the SCOTUS including a stipulation that the activities of all election workers are included in the protection from interference.
3) There is actually no way anyone can possibly "know" that the outcome of an election was any different that the outcome arrived at through the due process in any given state and certified by the Secretary of State. If somebody claims to "know" (or says "every body knows") that the certified outcome in any given state is not accurate, the obvious questions are: a) How do you know that the actual vote counts in a given state are any different than what the authorized process reported and certified? b) What the hell are you doing looking at secret ballots? c) How could you possible count hundreds of thousands of votes when it is illegal for you to get independent access to them?
3) If someone suspects there was some improper or illegal activity during the election process, there are ample avenues for seeking a remedy. Direct presentation of issues to the department of the Secretary of State; actions in the courts; recounts. Random allegations based on fantasy should not and will not lead to a remedy; you have to back it up with evidence, otherwise anyone on any side can muck up every election at will. Once the established formal processes for correcting irregularities or charging infractions or improprieties have had their chance, that is it. That is how election winners are determined. Period. A declaration by some pompous bloviator has no validity at all. In fact any reasonable person with common sense can understand this; you don't need a college degree to see this.
From the outset the BS was obvious.
If I can find a lawyer who is willing to tell me he thinks it would be legal for me to rob a bank, and I go ahead and do that, would I be able to use that defense to get acquitted?
I'm just asking.
Call the RNC for a recommendation. I'm sure they'll be able to provide a lawyer willing to give you the go ahead to rob a bank. If not, check to see if one of Trump's coconspirators who still have their law license want to pick up a new client. No problem if the price is right.