I thought it was those meddling kids!
So … I shouldn’t keep wearing my “COME ON, PETE !!!” t-shirt ??
[sad face]
I think he’s dumb, egotistical, and has a narcissistic personality disorder, but I do think he knew he lost.
It’s similar to his attitude about taxes; refusing to accept his obligation makes him “smart”.
So, I think Trump knows that he doesn’t have the votes. But I also think that Trump is cynical enough to believe that lots of elections have been “stolen fair and square”, and so he could worm his way to victory through whatever legal shenanigans or influence peddling he can manage.
It’s not that trump thinks he won as much as trump thinks that he can change the outcome notwithstanding the fact that he didn’t win. And the way to do that is to insist that he won, even though trump knows he didn’t.
I think this is the Final Answer.
I agree with this, too.
The tactic he employs with such success has always been to ignore the reality – of which he is absolutely aware – and simply pretend something different is reality, loudly and relentlessly. Many people just fall in line and pretend right along with you.
But he does know the truth, and this is evidenced by the lengths he went to hide or destroy the evidence.
Martha McSally for one. After an Air Force career with several distinctions she retired as colonel and went into politics Although she voted the Trump line about 95% of the time, for the 2016 election she did not endorse him and took no position on whether her House constituents should vote for him or not, calling his Access Hollywood comments “disgusting.”
For her senate run in 2018, though, she firmly latched onto the Trump teat, seeking and getting his endorsement but losing anyway and got her office by appointment. Despite voting with the rest of her party to block the resolution seeking 10 years of Trump’s tax returns in 2017, and despite during the Senate impeachment trial of 2020 voting to not hear any evidence and voting to acquit Trump of all charges, she was all but shoved off of the stage at his last appearance in Arizona, and lost again.
I pointed this out to her in the final letter I wrote the day before the election.
I’m still pretty pessimistic, especially after hearing committee members talking about how their job doesn’t involve making criminal referrals to the DOJ and they don’t intend to do so.
I think a lot of people have bought into the fantasy that it’s normal procedure for the DOJ to wait until Congress finishes their legislative investigation before investigating crimes on their own.
But I think that’s just a fantasy and I fully expect the DOJ to continue with their policy of aggressively refusing to pursue any action against anyone with an R after their name, although I’m sure they’ll continuing to harass anyone connected to Hillary Clinton over the minutiae of conversations that happened 7 years ago.
The hearings -which I feel were timed to minimize political impact - will end and the DOJ won’t do shit.
The FBI has taken the official position that there wasn’t a connection between the Stop The Steal movement. which Chris Wray characterized as “scattered online chatter” and the January 6th insurrection, and I haven’t seen anything that indicates that the DOJ feels differently.
I hope the people on this board that disagree with me are right, but I fear they aren’t.
Trump’s claim that he won forces others to be with or against that claim, giving him an effective way to distinguish loyal allies/toadies from everyone else (a.k.a. enemies). The fact that his claim is patently absurd is essential to the process, as anyone who promotes it is immediately identified as lacking integrity, i.e., someone Trump can use/manipulate (his working definition of “loyalty”).
The goal of working “The Big Lie” isn’t about the 2020 election; it’s only a means to his actual end: the accumulation of power and fear to make up for his real and perceived shortcomings as a person.
That headline is pretty misleading. In fact, every quote in the article contradicts the “committee will not make any criminal referrals” message.
“Our job is to look at the facts and circumstances around January 6 — what caused it — and make recommendations after that.” - Bennie Thompson
“The committee has not issued a conclusion regarding potential criminal referrals. We will announce a decision on that at an appropriate time.” - Liz Cheney
“Our committee has yet to vote on whether we will recommend criminal referrals to the Department of Justice. If criminal activity occurred, it is our responsibility to report that activity to the DOJ.” - Elaine Luria, D-Va.
“We haven’t had a discussion about that, so I don’t know that the committee has reached a position on whether we make a referral or what the referrals might be, I thought we were deferring that decision until we concluded our investigation.” - Adam Schiff
Spotted on Twitter:
Looking at Jared I’ve been reminded of Dorian Gray. An young looking unblemished face seemingly unaffected by the cares in the world hiding a heart of corrupt malignancy.
Somewhere hidden in the sub basement of 666 5th avenue, is a picture of an unspeakably hideous man.
What would have been even better would have been the justice department not waiting for the public hearings. This shows what bullshit the argument that they were working their way up was. Garland could’ve been questioning Barr & Stepien and the rest, but he was too chickenshit. Biden’s screwed the pooch on this appointment.
I don’t think he cared for the legality of it.
This presupposes there is such a thing as objective reality. I really think that much of what we would call facts, Trump and to a large extent his supporters view as opinions. So asking who won the election is like asking who was the best rock band of all time. The official vote counts may not come out in his favor but that didn’t mean that he didn’t win, anymore than Rolling stone saying that the Beatles are the best doesn’t mean that the Bangles might not be better.
Trump’s psychological need for getting more votes than his opponents in the last two elections is well known. And whether one number is greater than another IS objective reality.
That’s why we’ve been subjected to it for years - matters of opinion are one thing but a spin campaign to determine whether or not A > B is rather more difficult, hence the lies, obfuscation, and constant haranguing of toadies willing to say/do anything.
Hey, she gets paid by the decibel, not the clock!
In other news, here’s a nifty graphic from The Grid giving us some context on viewership for the first hearing in comparison to other recent big political events. Click the graphic to see the whole thing:
So bigger than any other Agent Orange-related event other than the inauguration.
‘My ratings are always the biglyest!’ DJT
Liz Cheney with a little preview of what to expect from this Thursday’s hearing.
Liz goes hard.
I, on the other hand, believe that Trump is a lying con man.
For example, my best buddy. A lifelong moderate republican, voted trump in 2016 as he hated Hillary, then halfway thru trumps term changed his party to Democrat and is now one of the biggest trump hated I know.
Yeah, some lifelong Republicans voted trump in 2016, due to Hillary hate, then learned their lesson.
Those three are critical and that last two is why the Kremlin pumps so much into “both parties are corrupt, why bother to vote?” propaganda.
That appears to be the plan.
