#like they tried storming the capital literally last election. like | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

newstfionline · 3 years

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Friday, February 19, 2021

NASA rover lands on Mars to look for signs of ancient life (AP) A NASA rover streaked through the orange Martian sky and landed on the planet Thursday, accomplishing the riskiest step yet in an epic quest to bring back rocks that could answer whether life ever existed on Mars. Ground controllers at the space agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, leaped to their feet, thrust their arms in the air and cheered in both triumph and relief on receiving confirmation that the six-wheeled Perseverance had touched down on the red planet, long a deathtrap for incoming spacecraft. The landing marks the third visit to Mars in just over a week. Two spacecraft from the United Arab Emirates and China swung into orbit around Mars on successive days last week. All three missions lifted off in July to take advantage of the close alignment of Earth and Mars, journeying some 300 million miles in nearly seven months. Perseverance, the biggest, most advanced rover ever sent by NASA, became the ninth spacecraft since the 1970s to successfully land on Mars. Over the next two years, Percy, as it is nicknamed, will use its 7-foot (2-meter) arm to drill down and collect rock samples containing possible signs of bygone microscopic life. Three to four dozen chalk-size samples will be sealed in tubes and set aside to be retrieved eventually by another rover and brought homeward by another rocket ship.

Share of U.S. workers holding multiple jobs is rising, new Census report shows (Reuters) The share of Americans working more than one job to make ends meet has been growing over the past two decades, and the pay from second jobs make up a substantial share of workers’ earnings, according to a paper published by the U.S. Commerce Department on Wednesday. An estimated 7.8% of U.S. workers had more than one job as of the first quarter of 2018, up from 6.8% in 1996, according to new data unveiled by the Census bureau. The earnings from the workers’ second jobs make up an average 28% of their total earnings, showing that workers are likely relying on that pay, researchers said. In general, women were more likely to have multiple jobs than men, with 9.1% of women holding multiple jobs as of 2018, compared with 6.6% of men.

Desperate for Light and Warmth (NYT) Halfway through the week that Texas froze over, everything seemed to be in a state of frigid chaos. Some homes had no water at all while others watched it gush from burst pipes into their hallways and living rooms. On Wednesday more than 2.5 million people were still without power [now down to 330,000], while at least twice as many were being told to boil their water. In Houston, Catherine Saenz and her family, like most of their neighbors, have had no power or water for days, as the city remains in the grip of the fiercest winter in memory. But they are fortunate: They have a fireplace. Even fireplaces have to be fed, though, and to keep the two parents, two daughters and two grandmothers from freezing, her husband has spent hours in the afternoon scouring the neighborhood for fallen trees and rotten wood. “I never imagined that we would be in this situation,” said Ms. Saenz, who grew up in Colombia but has lived in Houston through Hurricanes Ike and Harvey. “No one is prepared, it is dangerous and we are very vulnerable.”

A silent killer inside: Carbon monoxide (Washington Post) With no electricity in their home for hours, the Houston family tried to fight off the freezing cold by running their car in the attached garage, authorities say. When Houston police officers entered the property to conduct a welfare check, they found the two adults and two children, police said in a statement Tuesday morning. The woman and girl did not survive, and the man and boy were taken to a hospital. The deaths are among a rising number of reports of people being poisoned by carbon monoxide as Texans face a deadly winter storm that has brought record-low temperatures and demands for electricity that overwhelmed the state’s grid, leaving more than 3.2 million people in the dark and with no heat for more than 24 hours. As more reports of poisoning emerged Tuesday, government officials sounded the alarm. “SPREAD THE WORD: The number of people being admitted to local hospitals for carbon monoxide is rising at a disturbing rate. Do not bring any outdoor appliances (grills, etc.) inside, or run your car inside the garage,” Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo wrote on Twitter.

Word of flight to Cancun from frozen Texas lands Senator Ted Cruz in hot water (Reuters) U.S. Senator Ted Cruz faced widespread criticism on social media on Thursday after images went viral online that a journalist said showed him flying to a resort in Cancun while his home state of Texas struggled through a deadly deep freeze. Photos circulating on social media appeared to show the Texas Republican in airport line, in a passenger lounge and aboard an airliner. “Just confirmed @SenTedCruz and his family flew to Cancun tonight for a few days at a resort they’ve visited before. Cruz seems to believe there isn’t much for him to do in Texas for the millions of fellow Texans who remain without electricity/water and are literally freezing.” former MSNBC anchor David Shuster tweeted shortly after midnight.

Rare Earths (Financial Times) It takes 417 kilograms of rare earth minerals—more difficult-to-obtain bits of the periodic table that have uses in elaborate semiconductors and instrumentation—to build one F-35 fighter jet, a critical set of components that are about to be much harder to find. China is considering an export ban on rare earth minerals, and given that they control about 80 percent of the global supply, that would put Lockheed Martin, which makes the aircraft, in a bit of a pinch. As it stands now, even ore mined in the United States has to be sent to China for refining.

Migrants on the move again in Mexico and Central America (AP) In the first Mexican shelter reached by migrants after trekking through the Guatemalan jungle, some 150 migrants are sleeping in its dormitories and another 150 lie on thin mattresses spread across the floor of its chapel. Only six weeks into the year, the shelter known as “The 72” has hosted nearly 1,500 migrants, compared to 3,000 all of last year. It has halved its dormitory space due to the pandemic. That wasn’t a problem last year because few migrants arrived, but this year it’s been overwhelmed. Latin America’s migrants are on the move again. After a year of pandemic-induced paralysis, those in daily contact with migrants believe the flow north could return to the high levels seen in late 2018 and early 2019. The difference is that it would happen during a pandemic. The protective health measures imposed to slow the spread of COVID-19, including drastically reduced bedspace at shelters along the route, mean fewer safe spaces for migrants in transit.

Weary of COVID restrictions, Finns take up running in deep snow in socks (Reuters) Finns keen to avoid gyms and other indoor sports venues this winter because of the coronavirus pandemic have found a new way to keep fit—running in the snow wearing no training shoes, just thick woollen socks. Finland has seen particularly heavy snowfall this winter and running outside in just socks provides great exercise as well as a sense of freedom, said Pekka Parviainen, a helicopter pilot and an avid barefoot runner. “This is traditional Finnish crazy stuff, I think we all agree,” said Parviainen. In Finland, where taking a sauna in winter and then running through snow to jump into an ice-cold lake is a traditional pastime, barefoot running has become popular in the past few years during the warmer months. Running in socks through heavy snow, now about half a metre deep in many places, takes this to the next level. Parviainen recommends wearing at least two, preferably three, pairs of woollen socks to get the most out of the run.

Two journalists jailed for two years in Belarus for filming protests (Reuters) A Belarusian court sentenced two Belarusian journalists from Poland-based TV news channel Belsat who filmed protests against President Alexander Lukashenko to two years in prison on Thursday. Katsiaryna Andreyeva, 27, and Darya Chultsova, 23, were detained in an apartment in November from where they had been filming protests taking place over the death of a protester who was killed several days earlier. Both women pleaded not guilty after being accused of orchestrating the demonstrations by filming them. Neighbouring Lithuania urged Minsk to end a “spiral of repression” while Poland said Belarus should end its persecution of journalists. More than 33,000 people have been detained in a violent crackdown on protests against Lukashenko’s rule following a contested election last August that his opponents say was rigged to extend his rule. He has been in office since 1994.

Protesters out again in Myanmar, police use water cannon in capital (Reuters) Protesters were out again across Myanmar on Thursday to denounce the Feb. 1 coup and arrest of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, with police resorting to force to disperse crowds, using water cannon in the capital and catapults in a northern town. The daily protests and strikes that have paralysed many government offices show no sign of easing despite a junta promise of a new election and appeals for civil servants to return to work and threats of action if they do not.

Facebook blocks news access in Australia (AP) In a shocking act of retaliation Thursday, Facebook blocked Australians from sharing news, a milestone in the increasingly frantic jockeying between governments, media and powerful tech companies. Australia’s government condemned the decision, which also blocked some government communications, including messages about emergency services, and some commercial pages. The digital platforms fear that what’s happening in Australia will become an expensive precedent for other countries. Facebook took the drastic action after the House of Representatives passed legislation that would make Facebook and Google pay for Australian journalism, said Treasurer Josh Frydenberg. Facebook said the proposed Australian law “fundamentally misunderstands the relationship between our platform and publishers who use it.” Both Google and Facebook have threatened retaliation if Australia enacts the law, which the government contends will ensure media businesses receive fair payment for their journalism being linked on those platforms.

Jerusalem’s Old City turns white after rare snowfall (Reuters) Jerusalem woke up to the rare experience of seeing its holy sites covered in snow on Thursday, with the Dome of the Rock and the Western Wall under a layer of white after an overnight snowstorm. Before dawn children were up hurling snowballs at each other outside the Old City gates, as the faithful trudged to sites holy to Judaism, Islam and Christianity. The snowstorm began on Wednesday evening, leading the authorities to shut down public transportation and block the main road to Jerusalem.

After delay, Israel allows vaccines into Hamas-run Gaza (AP) Israel allowed the Palestinian Authority to deliver the first coronavirus vaccines to the Gaza Strip on Wednesday despite objections from Israeli lawmakers who suggested they be used as a bargaining chip for the release of captives held by the territory’s militant Hamas rulers. Israel has faced international criticism for largely excluding Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza from its highly successful vaccination campaign. It held up the shipment for two days as the government faced questioning from a parliamentary committee before ultimately approving it. The dispute highlights the Palestinians’ reliance on Israel even as they struggle to combat the pandemic on their own.

#headlines #news

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19bubba78 · 3 years

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GOP Ranking Members Demand Pelosi Explain Why She Refuses to Turn Over Documents on US Capitol Security and Why She Delayed National Guard Response for One Hour During Siege

@NevadaElJefe follows back!

I'll tell you why Dirty Nancy "Delayed" calling the National Guard! Nancy and the Democrats started that Antifa Riot, and she "Delayed" because she was trying to sucker Patriots into the fray! All in an attempt to blame President Trump, and divert attention from the subject of the day - the Democrats' Fraudulent Stealing of the 2020 Presidential Election! Trump Won!

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/02/gop-ranking-members-send-letter-pelosi-refused-protect-us-capitol-jan-6-delayed-national-guard-response-one-hour-siege/

621 likes91 comments436 reposts

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Lee Lowell<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> Is Nancy the only person in Washington with info on Capital Security??

Gundylady<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> You got some 'splainin' to do, Nancy.

Jimbohsliice<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> Because she’s a traitor.

Wyatt<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> Absolutely. I agree entirely

Carol Poches<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a>, She needs to be put in jail.

Jessiebush<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> She needs to be locked up!

Kalayaan<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> Why will Patriots disrupt a proceeding that can help expose all the fraud schemes of the Democrats??? Wouldn’t we rather see everything play out??? The Democrats seem to have made a pact with the devil! The devil is their leader!!!!

Xarver Bea Kris<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> agree. There should be an investigation.... just like they do with conservatives

MagaPatriotRN<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> yep! It has her written all over it. Plus the hurry up to Impeach once her laptop went missing. She really thinks we don't see through her.

Luckymee2<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> Thank you for seeing the truth and letting us know.

Crusty_55<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> She is not going to answer. The GOP members won't push either.

WOO<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> She just needs some time to doctor them.

Celestia Vargas<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> Why cant they just DEMAND She hands them over, and if She doesnt, Maybe shes the one to be impeached? Since impeachment is soooo normal nowadays

ChupieChiChi<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> Arrest her already!!!

Dostacos4u<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> distraction from the election fraud

senior_director<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> I believe it, all a set up by Nazi Nancy

BommyC.<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> But she’s thinking of a 9/11 commission to determine what happen. 🤣😂 she needs to go!!!!!

R.Daneel.Olivaw<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> That's not a complete reasoning. The more important aspect of this delay and attempt to get patriots to engage in illicit behaviors is so that they can then label them in the "Terrorist" category. This opens many doors for them to abuse every last American. Many doors. When they open mine, I'll shoot. I may well shoot when they open my neighbor's door too. Care to join me?

CountryYall<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a>

PopyPanayotou<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> I posted the exact thing on Twitter and got suspended!😆

jg255025503<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> Hang her

EdwardBernays10101<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> They are just creating more crimes to delay. I want the Obama dirt from 4 years ago. Then work through all the crimes that occurred after, that they have created.Fuck this nothing burger

grmpasteve<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> Nasty Pelosi.

StarKittys1Mom<a href="https://gab.com/grmpasteve" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@grmpasteve</a> <a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> I call her Nasty Peelousy

Deb Silcox<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> She may have a stroke with everything backfiring on her! They are all going down fighting as hard as they can - sorta like Kamikaze pilots! but missing their targets!

Lady_Victorias😆 <a href="https://gab.com/DGHS" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@DGHS</a> <a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a>

Sherry M<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> Why is she wearing panties on her face?

Jill Vaughn<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> The Win is still coming!

Ditch_Mitch<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> <a href="/tags/abcnews" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#abcnews</a> <a href="/tags/cbsnews" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#cbsnews</a> <a href="/tags/foxnews" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#foxnews</a> <a href="/tags/msnbc" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#msnbc</a> <a href="/tags/nbcnews" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#nbcnews</a> <a href="/tags/pbsnewshour" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#pbsnewshour</a> <a href="/tags/nyt" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#nyt</a> <a href="/tags/washingtonpost" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#washingtonpost</a> <a href="/tags/cnn" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#cnn</a> Thoughts???

PetulantPeasant<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> I bet Mitch had a hand in planning the "attack", too.

CLRThinking2020<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> I’ve come to the same conclusion too.

GeneralPatton<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> That is funny, she's not gonna tell them shit. She will delay because her head is not quite on the chopping block yet. GOP demands... that is even funnier, A demand from any GOP politician holds as much weight as a ping pong ball.

MarsNAO<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> this seems like a plausible theory of what really happened. Anyone want to start laying wagers on which of the swamp creatures starts trembling on TV first?

John L Brown<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> Pelosi must have studied 1st century Roman emperors. She acts just like them. If the Democrats had as much sense as the ancient Roman Senate, she's be gone by now ... or dead.

Ascension Magnet<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> Keep your boobs off my eyes, Nancy. ty, the mgmt

TheDeplorableSoldier<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> That is likely why she was sooo very worried about her laptop...

McMike27<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> She’s not that smart. Smells like Hoyer.

Storm Riders<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> same ol' same ol' Luciferian symbolism on on pee pee pants Pelosi's neck line here...

Jack Kodiak<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> Yes, this is what happens when braindead sheeple, the coward RINO party, the ChiCom-puppet Democrat party and the big tech eunuchs nurture cancer that is pretending to be human. I won't put any money on the frightened RINOs doing anything about it. They're batting a thousand in the world series of worthless idiots.

Dgrewe<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> that's exactly what she did, and mitch and the rest were in on it, that building is full of thieves and villains

filewis<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> Sounds right.

Linnyw1<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> Pelosi was in on it! So was Bower! McConnell, Schumer, they all knew!

merrylinda<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> you are so right, she planned it all and she needs to be arrested for colluding with her goons to attack the capitol and for the murder of Ashli

Elryza<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a>

Lillblondee<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> Shes what I know as a dirty c***. Learned from her daddy 🤔

Lone Stubblejumper<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> Nancy is one wicked woman...

Linnyw1<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> Spot on! I believe this too! This is why the House could not call witnesses and why Pelosi was as pissed as she was, bc she is SO devious!

Ava<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> Put pressure on her. Do not back down

SuzyQpatriot<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> Nasty bitch!

Martha Lou<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> She needs to be brought up on all the false charges she has presented against President Trump. She slandered him for four years to cover up democrats’ crimes. It’s her turn to face the jury.

Dave Fowler<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> Now that's the truth!!!!!

Dale Redcay<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a>

Choice America<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a>

Foxiediva70<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> I'm glad that I'm not the only person who believes that she was TOTALLY involved in the planning of the INSURRECTION! When our President's lawyers threatened to call her as a witness the House Managers quickly did an about face because she would have to answer some really tough questions that would have caused HER TO BE IMPEACHED!

Tac10<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> Amen!! Biden is not the legal president! This election was a complete fraud! More and more evidence is pouring in! Soon it will be undeniable that this was an illegal election and a coup!! States all RED states need to engage and start their own investigations!! The American citizens deserve justice! The constitution deserves defending!! One man one vote!!

AdvQcateQ1960<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> 3.5 hours

Faithoverfear307<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> 🖕🖕🖕

maighread1364<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> Pelosi will do anything she thinks that would work for her advantage. It seems more and more like a set up. They knew Trump was having a rally, and none of his rallies are not small, so all anti Trump forces were out to make trouble. Would not surprise me if others than Pelosi knew something may happen. Too much did happen.

Deedee2558<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> No doubt about it

NoisyAcres<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> She's a cunt...

Katana55<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> Wait, Trump caused it but tried to prevent it? Can he be impeached for trying to prevent something he apparently started? <a href="https://gab.com/commonsensepdx" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@commonsensepdx</a> begs to differ

LuckyURanch<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> Exactly!

WiseScribe<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> Guantanamo!

Liberty4all<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> I loathe this woman. She and her nephew, Newsome, literally don't care that people are crapping and sleeping in tent cities all over CA. These "leaders" have no basis in the reality of hardworking Americans. How does this happen?

Klondikeone<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> yes and she controled the D C police.

Patriot Frost<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> I agree

ChiComDestroyer<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> She knew there were infiltrators and agitators in the crowd to fire them up She didn't want a force strong enough to stop it After it was over anyone who questioned the election results was demonized and the certification was rushed through that night without a 10 day investigation Sen Cruz wanted Who did the riot help? President Trump OR the swamp and the Chi-Coms!

KatSki<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> Yup! That’s exactly what happened. Who had more to gain from stopping the proceedings. Uh huh.

TruthSerumMedia<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> Oh, it's showtime! The thing about liars and their lies, is that TRUTH can be proven! Lies can only catch up to the LIARS!

The Cat<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> Dirty-Piglosi "hired" riot whore like BLM/Antifa for the riot of 6 Jan. She planned it out together with Cocaine-Mitch & possibly Schumer! Start interrogating Piglosi and her gang of bandits over this! She did it so that he can lay blame on Trump and launch an impeachment!

Bruce D.BudnikLET'S SEE IF THE GOP REALLY MEANS WHAT THEY ARE SAYING ABOUT THE DOCUMENTS. <a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> If the GOP really means Pelosi and her criminal members turn over the US Capitol Documents then they should get on ALL the media outlets, write demands on their websites, STAND ON THE CONGRESS FLOOR AND DEMAND THE RELEASE, and run ads demanding Pelosi turn over the documents immediately.

Paula L 🇺🇸🗽🌻<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> You are exactly right!!

Beanguin<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> Only for optics. They’re all in on it

PatriotSkye<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a>, The Speaker of the House, is actually responsible for security at the Capital. Yet, Schiffted Shady Pelosi, definitely made sure that thousands of National Guardsmen, where ordered to D.C. for the fraudulent inauguration!

Cleanitnow<a href="https://gab.com/PatriotSkye" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@PatriotSkye</a> <a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> Don't forget her accomplices. Mitch and Chucky.

Jennifer 🙏🕊️⚖️🇺🇸<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> Impeach Nancy Pelosi

Trunkletrouser<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> Well there's probably enough Dems in her party that would prob be ok using the 14th amendment against her to get her out of their way.

No Libturds Allowed<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> She needed time for the photo ops.

LadyFreedomReader<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> PRISON!

Roy L Plummer<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> She will have to circle back on that.

Wildwood59Absolutely 100% right on!!!

Carolyn1776<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> Yep!!

RJHardy<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> I WISH CALIFORNIA WOULD JUST RECALL OR FIRE THE HAG!

PatriciaVa<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> Crook

Outwest<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> You don't even need to stretch to see this one.

1OldKid<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> I hope that someone with enough clout will hold her feet to the fire...

Rick<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> HOLD HER FEET TO THE FIRE AND MAKE HER ANSWER FOR WHAT SHE DID AND WHY SHE DID IT, 75 MILLION OF US WANNA KNOW!

Alintuit333<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> Epic fail.

FollowTheMoney<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> Wow! The tax payers buy Pelosi really nice outfits!!! This picture is reminiscent of a newly remodeled bathroom in a haunted house.

Curlyred1126<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> This witch belongs to PRISON!!

Ani4real<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> <a href="https://gab.com/Cah217_17" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@Cah217_17</a> Witch Pelosi belongs in prison ... not just any prison.... one to be transformed to operate just like the prisons of her beloved China. No A/C or heat ... right? After six months of no Botox and no hair coloring ....she will be unrecognizable. The prison guards will use her pictures to put on kitchen floor to scare the rats and roaches away.

MaeMorgan<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> it will be news when she is held publicly accountable for her actions surrounding Jan.6, 2021.

Tanner Lynd<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> Trump won and the democrats can not stay.

Funnyb<a href="https://gab.com/NevadaElJefe" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@NevadaElJefe</a> Most corrupted woman in our government !

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dezzy-137 · 4 years

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Sad and Struggling

I don’t normally do blog posts on this site, but i am struggling and need to get this out.

Amidst the backdrop of what is going on in this country, I am faced with a tough decision on whether to end my friendship with my best friend, who I will refer to as A.

I met A about 13 years ago when we both worked for the same company and I was essentially his assistant at a popular freight carrier. We are now and have always been very different people, and often we would remark at how our friendship “shouldn’t make sense.” It just did. He is an older white, straight, cis man who is married, has 4 kids, and his life and responsibilities are completely different than mine. I am a little younger than him, Hispanic, queer, female, and single with no children. What started out as a funny dynamic at work where we bonded over music and made silly jokes, turned into a deep friendship. Him and his wife have a great trusting marriage (which is excedingly rare) and she was cool with us going to bars and clubs (mostly gay ones) to dance and have a few drinks. In turn, our friendship deepened, and his wife M, and I have become really close, along with their grown daughters who have turned to me for support, kind of like a quirky Aunt. this has been a fulfilling friendship and their family as a whole has gotten me through some rough times in my life. I consider them to be like my chosen family.

This all began to deteriorate over the last 4 or 5 years. I can’t quite pinpoint the turning point or exactly the beginning, but I feel like we began to decline as A struggled with being in a high paying but physically and emotionally demanding job. I’ve seen him withdraw and really not reach out to me or us hang out like we normally did. He began to depend on alcohol a lot, and no matter what I did, it just wasn’t the same as before. He would say certain things like “i know I’m not being a good friend. . .” This would be frustrating because on one hand, I would be sympathetic that he is unhappy and struggling, but on the other hand, he would make no moves to improve our friendship.

during this time, I began to spend more time with his wife M. She is kind of the antithesis to her husbands personality. While A, has always enjoyed being a lovable asshole, M is kind, loving, and mild mannered. She had a fairly traumatic childhood, to the point where I am in awe that she remained so tender and lion hearted after everything she’s been through. She’s been a true ally.

This all culminated when Trump was elected. . . .

I have very strong political stances, I like to be politically aware and up to date on what is going on in my country. For the record, I despise Trump. He is everything wrong in this country. To quote a well known activist in the Black Lives Matter movement, “this country is on fire, and Trump that lit the match. “ I don’t believe has done anything good for this country. NOT ONE THING. I believe he is a rapist, racist, misogynist, xenophobic piece of shit. There is a laundry list of his misdeeds, hypocrisy, lies, and in the midst of this pandemic he is inciting violence in this country. There is no ambiguity about this in my point of view.

to be fair, I have never been one to thrust my beliefs on someone else. As I wouldn’t want anyone to do that to me. I have several friends, where we don’t exactly align or we just believe in different things. Some of that just doesn’t affect me or i have to let them do their own thing.

A has always been fairly liberal, at least out loud. He has high standards of the people around him, but thought he has a “live and let live” mentality. I knew he didn’t really like Obama, but was under the impression from the small conversations we had at the time, that his stance had to do with healthcare.

I never would have imagined that i would find out that A voted for Trump. I couldn’t understand, why in the world he would vote for him. He had a staunch position on Hillary, and he pulled the whole “but her emails!” It just seemed so far in the other direction, especially since he has 4 daughters and a progressive wife that he would pick a person who is openly misogynistic as well as a sexual predator. Not to mention his stances on race, and an economy that has effected him and his family’s finances.

i was convinced by a mutual friend that you just gotta let him believe what he’s going to believe, and for a long time I let it go. I felt like I knew this guy. We’ve cried, laughed, shared many meals and deep personal secrets. We’ve been intensely vulnerable with each other, and I felt like he’s a good man, husband, and father. We will just not discuss politics.

Cue to a few years ago, when there was the beginning of the Me Too Movement. I feel strongly about this as I have been a victim of sexual abuse, harrassment, and have been touched without my consent. I have told him this story and he’s also been witness to his wife’s story, who has been through the same thing. I posted my story onto Facebook, and imagine my shock and hurt when he made a joke about it. I called him out on it, and he apologized, but it’s something that stuck with me. I forgave but never forgot.

A few weeks ago, before the protests, we got into another online fight when I posted something about the people who are protesting the lock downs. You see the videos of these privileged people who want haircuts and to go to bars and restaurants, and I am appalled at their stupidity, lack of medical knowledge, and overall ignorance. Not to mention the white privilege of those who stormed capital buildings with assault weapons and blocked entrance to hospitals.

Once again, I was blindsided when A stood up for them and said it wouldn’t save us and that he thought the mask thing was stupid. It’s not that serious and he resents having to be told to wear one for his job. I went off on him, and told him that i thought he was being ridiculous when so many people are dying and his illustrious president let this happen. It was so heated, that i thought that it was the end of our friendship. I was so frustrated that this person who I thought I knew so well, was literally one of those people you see in videos coughing in people’s faces and saying its all a hoax and that we are sheep.

I didn’t reach out to him and figured that was that. My friendship with M seemed to be intact, and even though I remained hurt, I needed to move forward.

Yesterday, A texted me and told me he missed me. This struck me dumb, since we left our previous argument unresolved and he was acting like it never happened. I was reluctant but tried to have some perspective and tried to forgive him.

Then today . . .I posted on FB about Trumps call for military intervening in the protests. We have all seen the countless videos, posts, and such about the brutality that the police and national guard are committing against peaceful protests. It’s there in full view and if you cannot not see that, its hard to make sense of how you can be on the other side of this. He condemned my views, and praised Trump. This enraged me. I told him he needed to educate himself and learn who the real criminals are. He told me, I’ll believe what I believe and vice versa. Dismissive.

i was shaking and my blood was boiling, not to mention that I felt like my heart was breaking as I saw this man who I love dearly and he’s spouting this. How do I reconcile this person in comparison to these abhorrent beliefs. Am I perpetuating this judgement by wanting to end our friendship because we don’t believe the same thing? Am I ending/complicating my friendship/relationship with M and their family by ending my friendship with him? Is this the kind of woman I want to be who has strong beliefs, but doesn’t have the courage to back them up by continuing my friendship with someone who’s values are diametrically opposed to mine? I think Trump is banking on the dividing this country, and am I falling into this paradigm because this is dividing someone who I have considered like my brother?

I always want my heart to be ready to do the right thing? i can’t be blind to the injustices that I am seeing everyday. These directly effect me, my family, people I love. This country, my future, the future of this world.

What do I do?

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bountyofbeads · 4 years

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Biden-Graham friendship, forged in war zones, fractures under the pressures of impeachment and Trump(May Lindsay Graham BURN IN HELL)

By Greg Jaffe and Matt Viser | Published December 21 at 4:44 PM ET |

Washington Post | Posted Dec 23, 2019

Joe Biden and Lindsey O. Graham were hurtling over the Hindu Kush mountains, bound for Kabul and a war that both men knew was veering badly off track.

Biden was two weeks away from being sworn in as vice president and had chosen Graham, who he said had the “best instincts in the Senate,” to accompany him on the trip. Graham, eager to carve out a new role in a changing Washington, jumped at the invitation.

Both men wanted to send a message to then-Afghan President Hamid Karzai — and to their fellow Americans — that the 2008 election was behind them, and that Republicans and Democrats were now united in their resolve to arrest the long-neglected Afghanistan war’s decline.

“The campaign is over,” Graham said, “but the war is not.”

Nearly 11 years, two presidential elections and a historic presidential impeachment hearing have passed since Biden and the Republican senator from South Carolina flew off together to Kabul. Today their friendship, their war zone trip and its bitter aftermath offers a view into how two of the most prominent politicians of their era have tried to adapt to a changing Washington, a norm-breaking presidency and the country’s rancorous politics. The pressures have tested their ideals, their friendship and, at times, their faith in their country.

As impeachment shifts to the Senate, the two men seem to be on a collision course.

Graham’s attacks threaten not only their friendship but also the very rationale of Biden’s Democratic presidential campaign, one that promises to return the country to a less partisan time — an era when Biden could work with Republicans as partners and friends. It’s a vision that even some in his own party dismiss as naive. If Biden can’t break through with Graham, critics wondered, what chance does he have with other Republicans?

Last month, in an attempt to shift attention away from President Trump’s alleged misdeeds in Ukraine, Graham asked the State Department for materials related to Hunter Biden’s work for a Ukrainian energy company. He also demanded the declassification of transcripts of calls between the elder Biden and Ukrainian officials.

Only a few weeks earlier, Graham said he had no intention of investigating the Bidens. “I’m not going to turn the Senate into a circus,” he vowed.

Then, under pressure from the White House, Graham insisted that his relationship with Biden shouldn’t preclude a proper Senate investigation.

The line of inquiry infuriated Biden. “Lindsey is about to go down in a way that I think he’s going to regret his whole life,” the former vice president said, shaking his head.

A few days later, Biden’s frustration spilled out in an exchange with an 83-year-old Iowa farmer who suggested that Biden and his son had acted improperly in Ukraine. “You’re a damn liar!” said Biden, striding toward the man, who held his ground. “That’s not true. No one has ever said that.”

It was, in fact, similar to what Graham had suggested.

In January 2009, such rancor between the two men seemed inconceivable. As Biden and Graham huddled on their plane, the senators pored over CIA reports that showed al-Qaeda was reestablishing training camps in Pakistan’s tribal areas, just outside the reach of U.S. forces. In Afghanistan, the U.S. military and CIA reports spoke to staggering levels of government corruption, mounting Afghan casualties and a resurgent Taliban that was rapidly advancing toward the capital.

Their military plane approached Kabul International Airport, ringed by snow-covered mountains. Down on the tarmac, a clutch of generals and Foreign Service officers waited in the cold. Soon their traveling party would board a Blackhawk helicopter that would whisk them to the presidential palace, where Karzai was waiting.

They agreed that they were going to push the Afghan leader to crack down on longtime political allies and family members who had been looting the country, according to contemporaneous interviews done for Bob Woodward’s 2010 book, “Obama’s Wars.” Neither had much faith that their pressure on Karzai would work.

“I dread this meeting,” Graham said.

“Me, too,” Biden replied.

POWER OF THE SENATE TO HEAL

Five days after their joint meeting with Karzai, Biden and Graham were back in Washington, where Biden took to the Senate floor to bid farewell to the place that shaped his view of the nation and its politics.

There were no female senators when Biden was elected. No computers. No fax machines. By the time he was leaving, there had been 1,900 senators in American history, and Biden had served with 320 of them. “The United States Senate has been my life, and that is not a hyperbole,” he said. “It literally has been my life.”

His speech that day focused on the power of the Senate — and friendships like the one he was building with Graham — to alter the course of American politics and heal the wounds of slavery and segregation.

Biden recalled his bonds in the Senate with three former segregationists: Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.), Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) and Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.). From his deathbed, Thurmond asked Biden to speak at his funeral. To many Democrats, Thurmond was an unrepentant racist. To Biden he was a man saved by his service in the Senate.

“Every good thing I have seen happen here, every bold step taken in the 36 years I have been here, came not from the application of pressure by interest groups, but through the maturation of personal relationships,” Biden said.

It was Thurmond’s retirement at age 100 that opened a pathway for Graham’s ascendance to the Senate. In the years that followed, Graham and Biden crisscrossed the globe together with their mutual friend Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

When the Iraq War looked lost in 2005, Biden and Graham traveled to Baghdad, returning home to warn President George W. Bush that the country was on the brink of civil war. Their 2009 trip to Afghanistan had been just as eventful. Over dinner, Biden and Graham hammered Karzai on his failings, the country’s growing heroin trade and his brother’s alleged corruption.

“We can’t come to Afghanistan without hearing about your brother,” Graham told Karzai. When the Afghan president accused the Americans of indifference to civilian deaths, Biden abruptly ended their meal. “This is beneath you, Mr. President,” Biden said. He and Graham stormed out together. Back in Washington, President-elect Barack Obama told reporters that he was drafting Graham as “one of our counselors in dealing with foreign policy.”

This was the kind of politics — collegial, bipartisan, conciliatory — that Biden wanted to celebrate. As he bid goodbye to the Senate, Biden recalled his relationship with one more reformed segregationist, former Democratic senator John Stennis of Mississippi.

In 1988, Stennis had given Biden a prized conference table from his office where he and his fellow Dixiecrats had gathered to plot the demise of the civil rights movement. Stennis had dubbed it “the flagship of the Confederacy.”

“It’s time this table passes from the man who was against civil rights into the hands of a man who was for civil rights,” Biden recalled Stennis telling him. By that point in his life, cancer had ravaged Stennis’s body and cost him a leg. From his wheelchair, Stennis told Biden of his late-in-life conversion and belief that the civil rights movement had done “more to free the white man than the black man.”

“It freed my soul,” Stennis said. “It freed my soul.”

To some, the table would have been a symbol of hatred, a reminder of the men who fought to perpetuate America’s original sin and the racism that still infected the nation’s politics. To Biden, it represented possibility and the transformative powers of the Senate.

SHAPED BY DIFFERENT ERAS

In a dark conference room at the National Guard Memorial Museum, Graham stood to Biden’s right, dressed in his crisp Air Force uniform. It was late June 2015. After 33 years as a lawyer in the reserves, he was retiring. Biden, just two weeks removed from his son Beau’s funeral, had come to help send him off.

A few days later, Graham was touring Iowa as part of his long-shot presidential run. In the back seat of a rental car, he grew emotional as he spoke about Biden. “If you can’t admire Joe Biden as a person, then you’ve got a problem,” he told HuffPost. “You need to do some self-evaluation, because what’s not to like?

“He’s the nicest person I think I’ve ever met in politics,” he continued. “He is as good a man as God ever created.”

Graham’s comments in the back of the rental car came just days after Trump glided down the golden escalator at Trump Tower, launching his presidential campaign with an unprecedented attack on Mexicans and McCain’s heroism in Vietnam.

Graham responded by calling Trump a “jackass” who was “appealing to the dark side of American politics” and had no place in the Republican Party. “He’s a race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot,” Graham added later in the year. “I’d rather lose without Donald Trump than try to win with him.”

Graham voted for Evan McMullin, a long-shot independent, in 2016. By 2017, though, he was already acceding to the demands of Trump’s Washington. Graham dined with Trump at the White House and gave the president his new cellphone number. Trump had broadcast his old one from a campaign stage in a fit of pique. He became a regular Trump golf partner and, in what was becoming the most direct path to power and influence in the Trump White House, a cable news defender of the president.

Though they were friends, Graham and Biden had been shaped by different eras. Biden entered a Senate dominated by World War II veterans and the apocalyptic demands of the Cold War. Graham came to Washington in 1995, when American power was at its apex and lawmakers could spend months focused on President Bill Clinton’s infidelities with a White House intern. He was the floor manager during the Clinton impeachment hearings, where he tried and failed to persuade the Senate to call Monica Lewinsky to provide live testimony.

Before his death in 2018, McCain had asked both men to eulogize him. Their speeches captured their contrasting views of America and its politics.

Biden recalled a moment during the Clinton years when party leaders chastised him and McCain for sitting next to each other in the Senate chambers. “This is the mid-’90s,” Biden said. “It began to go downhill from there.”

But at an even stormier moment in American politics, Biden’s eulogy was unapologetically optimistic. “Many of you travel and see how the rest of the world looks at us. They look at us a little naive, so fair, so decent,” Biden said. “We’re the naive Americans. That’s who we are. That’s who John was.”

Graham also praised McCain’s courage and capacity for forgiveness in the wake of his captivity in Vietnam and his presidential defeats. But in eulogizing his old friend, Graham focused on his own and his country’s limits. Unlike McCain, Graham wasn’t a war hero or political maverick who could buck the president or his party on hot-button issues such as health care, immigration and climate change.

“The void to be filled by John’s passing is more than I can do,” Graham said on the floor of the Senate as he fought back tears. “Don’t look to me to replace this man.”

INEVITABLE CONFRONTATION

So far Biden has built his presidential campaign around many of the same “soul of America” sentiments that surfaced in his McCain eulogy. Graham, meanwhile, has moved ever closer to a full embrace of Trump, the president who McCain pointedly banned from attending his funeral.

Until recently, Graham and Biden had been able to avoid a direct confrontation. But Biden’s presidential aspirations and the increasingly contentious impeachment battle have made a confrontation inevitable.

Trump has put Biden at the center of his impeachment defense, insisting that Biden used his influence over U.S. foreign policy to engineer the firing of a Ukrainian prosecutor who was investigating Burisma, a Ukrainian gas company that employed Hunter Biden. There’s no evidence that Biden acted to protect his son or that Hunter was ever a target of the probe. Even as he has described Biden as “a fine man,” Graham has defended Trump’s efforts to dig up dirt on his rival and suggested that Biden and his son might be guilty of wrongdoing.

The Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Graham, has no clear oversight role regarding Ukraine, but Graham has asked for transcripts of Biden’s calls with Ukraine’s former president and records of Hunter Biden’s interactions with State Department officials. “I hope there’s nothing there. Reveal the transcripts. Trump released the transcripts,” Graham said in an interview with Fox News Radio last month. “All I’m asking is that somebody look at this line of inquiry. It does look very suspicious to me.”

Biden responded by trying to shame Graham. Asked by CNN if he had any words for his friend, Biden paused for several seconds to think, and replied: “Lindsey, I . . . I . . . I’m just embarrassed by what you’re doing, for you. I mean, my Lord.”

The two men have spent part of the past two weeks pondering the state of their relationship and what it says about the nation’s increasingly bitter politics. “My friendship with Joe Biden, if it can’t withstand me doing my job, it’s not the friendship I thought we had,” Graham said. “Everything I said about him in 2015 is true. I admire him as a person. I think he’s always trying to do right by the country. . . . But we’re not going to allow a system in America where only one side gets looked at.”

As Biden’s campaign bus rolled through Iowa recently, reporters asked what was driving Graham to investigate him and his son. Biden offered a simple explanation: “Donald Trump. Donald Trump. Donald Trump.”

🎄⛄🎄🎅🎄🎅🎄🎅🎄⛄🎄

#trumpism #president donald trump #trump scandals #trump administration #trump #news today trump #trump impeachment #impeach trump #u.s. senate #senate #lindsay graham #biden2020 #joe biden #hunter biden

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omginstantpaperbouquetblr · 7 years

Link

By Andrew Levine / Counterpunch.

Photo by Coco Curranski | CC BY 2.0

The 2018 midterm elections are still more than a year away, but, according to press reports, Democratic “hopefuls” are already courting “the donor class” in anticipation of the presidential election in 2020.

It is the same old same old that got us a Trump-Clinton election in 2016 and, worse, that stifled or derailed many of the most promising progressive initiatives of the preceding years.

Something like that is on track for happening again, the difference being that the background conditions are worse this time around: the ravages brought on by increasing inequality are more acute, there is a greater likelihood of a nuclear Armageddon, and the inevitable ecological catastrophes caused by anthropogenic climate disruption are advancing at a greater pace.

It doesn’t have to be this way, but all credible solutions involve the (small-d) democratization of the political sphere and, ultimately, the end of capitalism or at least of anything like capitalism as the world has so far known it. This would require restructuring our political economic system — from one dedicated to furthering what Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) called “private” interests to one geared towards discovering and implementing “the general will.”

Nowadays, anything like that seems utterly out of reach everywhere. Timid versions of social democracy and New Deal-Great Society liberalism survive – in the United States, that’s what Bernie Sanders was about — but radical and revolutionary politics are, for all practical purposes, off the agenda. This lamentable state of affairs is, at once, a consequence of objective conditions and a cause of them.

Meanwhile, “democracy deficits” — gaps between what majorities want and even vote for, and what they get – are everywhere on the rise.

There is and always has been too little real democracy – too little government of, by, and for the people. But the situation has become qualitatively worse in recent years thanks mainly to economic exigencies in capitalism’s current neoliberal, globalizing phase.

The situation in the United States, at the national level especially, is exceptionally awful – in large part, for reasons peculiar to the American scene.

Fearing the demos, the “people” as distinct from social and economic elites, our “founding fathers” concocted undemocratic ways of electing Presidents, Vice Presidents, and Senators. Some of the procedures they established were partially democratized in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; some were not.

They also made it exceedingly difficult for democratic majorities to change the outcomes of presidential elections during the four-year span of a presidential term.

Other liberal democracies, and many American states, have easier mechanisms in place – recall elections, for example, or, in parliamentary systems, votes of no confidence. For nearly two centuries, impeachment was the only way to unseat an American president.

With the passage of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment in 1967, removal on grounds of inability to serve, unfitness for office, became a second way. But the intent behind the Twenty-Fifth Amendment was apolitical; its authors were thinking of certifiable cases of physical or mental impairment — not the kinds of unfitness for office that Donald Trump so conspicuously displays. The Twenty-Fifth Amendment is about continuity of government, not enhancing popular control over the government’s executive branch.

Thus impeachment is still the only feasible, constitutionally permissible way to unseat a duly elected president. It is a difficult and time-consuming process.

As we saw last year, our institutions do not guarantee majority rule in presidential elections. Even so, “we, the people” do have some control over who becomes our president. However, that control goes away after Election Day and stays missing for four long years.

Even if a president dies or is removed from office by impeachment or in the ways specified by the Twenty-Fifth Amendment, we still don’t get a say. The founders saw to it that were any of that to happen, we wouldn’t hold new elections; the Vice President would just move up a notch.

Another reason why our democracy is exceptionally undemocratic is our two party system. Our laws, and the customs that have grown up around them, do not literally proscribe but do effectively marginalize independent and “third party” electoral activity.

Therefore, votes for candidates who are not running as Democrats or Republicans are, in effect, protest votes only. In our present circumstances, party building is all but out of the question. If the duopoly couldn’t be broken in 2016, the chances of breaking it any time soon are nil.

And so we have elections in which two highly polarized but ideologically like-minded political parties, differing mainly on “social” matters of little or no economic consequence, fight each other if not to the death, then to the next best thing.

Democrats are generally less odious than Republicans, but on matters of substance, they are not much better; they are not even all that different. Ours is essentially a one-party state in which the ruling party has two right wings, each at odds with the other.

Also, thanks to wrong-headed Supreme Court rulings going back more than four decades and culminating in the infamous Citizens United case of 2010, American “democracy” legitimates political corruption by ruling “campaign contributions” constitutionally protected free speech. Thus our laws, as currently understood, effectively mandate plutocratic rule.

Therefore, instead of democratic deliberation and debate of the sort that Rousseau and other democratic theorists envisioned, we have mindless political operatives, hucksters, selling candidates to target audiences. And instead of leaders endeavoring collectively to do what is best for the polity they lead, we have politicians groveling for money.

And, as if all these structural and institutional factors weren’t bad enough, we are now bearing the brunt of the “perfect storm” of contingent circumstances that led to the presidency of a billionaire buffoon, with Mike Pence waiting in the wings.

***

The United States had more than its share of awful Presidents in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but two of the twenty-first century’s three Presidents are in a class by themselves.

The one who is not, Barack Obama, was a decent enough steward of the status quo – knowledgeable, thoughtful, and cautious. He was also weak, and therefore easy prey for some of Washington’s most nefarious lobbies. And like other Democrats nowadays, he became a flunky of the “economic royalists” FDR inveighed against.

Obama’s inveterate cautiousness was reinforced by an intuitive understanding of the shallowness of the blather about a “post-racial” America that his election set off. He therefore went out of his way not to rattle the cages of the kinds of miscreants who now comprise the Trump base. This made him even more ineffectual.

He also empowered, or let his fist Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, empower, a gaggle of liberal imperialists who, for their own reasons, made the situations they inherited from their predecessors worse. Whether deliberately or only by happenstance, Obama became their willing accomplice. With his kill lists and drones, the Nobel laureate quickly morphed into an aficionado of murder and mayhem.

His war of choice against Libya epitomized all that was wrong with his foreign and military policies. Of course, that misadventure was mainly Clinton’s doing; but, ultimately, the responsibility lies where the buck stops.

As the doomed Arab Spring unfolded, the attack on Libya, along with other clueless Clinton-led machinations in Syria and elsewhere, unleashed a continuing refugee crisis across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. The human, economic, and geopolitical costs have been staggering.

Obama and the people around him also reinforced the obviously sound idea that, for countries in the empire’s crosshairs, nuclear disarmament is a losing strategy. The North Koreans have taken that lesson to heart – with consequences that could soon become devastating.

Obama did sometimes try to do good, but he was blocked at every turn by Republican obstructionists. Even after he had squandered the political capital he acquired from the 2008 election, he still had a strong hand to play, and he did the best he could to play it. But very little came of it. Republicans are not good at much, and they are certainly not the brightest bulbs on the tree, but when it comes to sheer obstinacy, nobody does it better. Obama tried, but, in the end, he was just too damn reasonable to prevail.

It would therefore be a gross understatement to say that Obama disappointed the hopes that arose out of his election. Compared to other modern presidents, however, he wasn’t unusually awful.

Indeed, some good came out of his electoral victories in 2008 and 2012. Although he governed as if ours was in fact a post-racial society, doing almost nothing aimed specifically at improving the lot of African Americans and other persons of color, he did advance the cause of racial equality. He did it just by being there.

With Trump in the White House, he is and will continue to be sorely missed. He would have been missed too had Clinton not blown a sure victory in 2016, though not to the same degree, inasmuch as she is just a more hawkish, less thoughtful, and more incompetent version of him.

However that may be, Obama was a paragon of excellence compared to his predecessor, George W. Bush, the worst president ever – before Trump.

Aided, abetted and guided by Dick Cheney, Bush broke the Middle East. The harm he did there was monumental. It spilled over too – to the larger Muslim world and beyond.

Indeed, the Bush-Cheney Global War on Terror made real or imagined terrorism a fact of life for people around the world, including the United States. It also served, and continues to serve, as a recruiting tool for terrorists, with consequences that will reverberate far into the future.

Moreover, in the name of that war, Bush and Cheney and their underlings diminished Americans’ rights and liberties to a degree that seemed unthinkable before.

They also presided over economic policies that contributed to global warming, exacerbated inequality, and that very nearly set off a major worldwide depression.

But Trump is worse, worse by far.

He has not yet done has much harm as Bush and Cheney did; ironically, what has prevented him so far is his own incompetence. It keeps him from getting much of anything done.

But the man is psychologically unhinged and in way over his head. A world in which someone of his caliber controls a nuclear arsenal capable of ending life on earth “as we know it” is in grave and constant peril.

Additionally, because he needs them to govern or at least to seem to be trying to get things done, and because he knows little and cares less about public policy except insofar as it affects his and his family’s bottom line and his vanity, he has turned his administration over to some of the most execrable cabinet officers and agency heads that Republican operatives hell bent on “deconstructing” the affirmative state and undoing the advances of the past hundred years could dig up.

How pathetic that we must rely on “mad dog” military men to be what media pundits call “the adults in the room.”

Whether they can hold Trump in line remains to be seen. Liberals welcome their presence because they and the liberal imperialists of the Obama years are essentially of one mind. But their influence puts civilian rule in peril.

With Trump’s unwitting cooperation, the United States has undergone something very much like a military coup. Defenders of the status quo, along with those of us who see the need to change the status quo radically for the better, ought vehemently to object. The sad fact, though, is that the more power Mattis, McMaster and Kelly assume, the less we are at his the mercy of a Commander-in-Chief capable of lashing out uncontrollably at any moment, leaving only death and destruction in his wake. Compared to that, who would not go with the generals?

Generals! Trump plainly has a thing for them, just as he does for outlaw sheriffs and tough cops.

Like many troubled boys with rich parents, the young Donald was sent to a Military School to chill. Then, becoming eligible for the draft and with service in the Vietnam War looming, he, like many another in similar circumstances — George W, for example – found ways to keep himself out of harm’s way. Despite this, or because of it, his days at the New York Military Academy seem to live on in the dark recesses of his mind.

Why else would a billionaire whose ego knows no bounds and who feels entitled to do pretty much anything he wants kowtow to military men with stars? If the world survives Trump, this is a question people will be pondering for years to come.

But even with those generals doing their best to rein him in, the danger he poses is clear and present.

Therefore, even if he is not yet the most lethal president ever, he is certainly the worst.

Poor George W! He lost that title after only eight years.

***

The Atlantic hurricane season is a metaphor for life in Trump’s America.

Hurricane Harvey and then Hurricane Irma arose seemingly out of nowhere, the one following close upon the heels of the other, each made fiercer and deadlier by the exigencies of an overripe and fundamentally irrational political economic system.

Almost until they actually made landfall, no one was entirely sure where the storms would go; the computer models offered too many possibilities. And even after they did reach land, their trajectories were impossible to establish with precision. The only sure thing was that, wherever they would end up, the devastation would be terrible.

With revolutionary institutional change out of the question – not forever perhaps, but certainly in the time remaining in Trump’s term in office — the current state of affairs, awful as it is, may be as good as it can get.

The prospects wouldn’t be quite so bad if Democrats were less useless than they have become since the Clintons and their co-thinkers turned the party of the milquetoast center-left into a party of kinder-gentler (Trumpians would say “more politically correct”) Eisenhower or Rockefeller era Republicans. One would think that they’d have learned their lesson after getting schlonged (Trump’s word again) last November. However, they seem to have learned nothing at all.

It seems that since she was involuntarily retired from politics, Clinton has been cashing in on her defeat by writing a book — or, rather, by working with ghostwriters, editors, and publicists who are composing a book under her name. If reports of its contents are any indication, she, at least, has learned nothing. Indeed, her misperceptions seem to have hardened.

Many, maybe most, Democrats are in a similar frame of mind.

Nevertheless, a disorganized “resistance” is scurrying back under the Democratic tent — either out of conviction, hard as that may be to conceive, or on lesser evil grounds. They comprise a timid opposition with no program and no leader. The only thing they have going for them is Trump himself.

It does not follow that the Democrats’ fortunes will continue to decline. Quite to the contrary, Trump is such an embarrassment and such a menace – and Republicans are so utterly execrable — that Democrats will probably do well in next year’s midterm elections.

But then all we will get out of those elections will be a restoration of the conditions that brought about a Trump-Clinton electoral contest, and a Trump victory, two years before.

This could change in an instant if a real resistance were to arise; an aroused citizenry, as dedicated to smashing the Democratic Party — to replacing it or changing it beyond recognition — as it is to ridding the world of the Trumpian menace. Unfortunately, there is no sign of anything like that developing any time soon.

There are, of course, extraordinary initiatives taking place at the local level within the framework of the Democratic Party; and, if the bigwigs don’t succeed in quashing them, some good might come of them. For the time being, though, Trump faces no real opposition. Democrats are still, almost without exception, part of the problem.

And so, unless he has the good sense to cut and run, which he so far shows no sign of doing, Trump continues to be the specter haunting our future – unless and until the weight of impeachable offenses forces him out. If and when that happens, thanks to those damn founding fathers, he will be replaced by Mike Pence.

Trump or Pence. Which is worse? It is a close call.

Pence isn’t erratic like Trump and, if only because he has no personality, he isn’t nearly as likely to rile up neo-Nazis and the Klan. But he is a theocrat and a bona fide reactionary, while Trump has no views at all, only animosities towards people of color and pathological attitudes directed at women and immigrants.

Pence is a lame brain, who will restore serenity to the ruling classes. Trump goes wherever his bloated ego leads him, and whichever way he thinks will best serve his brand.

He can’t get much done, however; this has been demonstrated time and again over the past eight months.

But Pence can. Because he isn’t scary, and because the country will breathe a sigh of relief once Trump is gone, he will have a field day, at least for a long enough span of time to do grave and irreparable harm.

I would therefore say that, but for the bomb, it would be better to have Trump in place and hamstrung than to have Pence calling the shots. Needless to say, that is one colossal “but for…”

But inasmuch as ours is such a poor approximation of a real democracy, it hardly matters what I or anyone else, outside a small circle of “donors” and political operatives, think. It doesn’t even matter what Robert Mueller and his investigators discover. All that matters is what the GOP’s grandees do about it.

What a prospect! And to make matters worse, elections are again gearing up. Soon they will be sucking up all the oxygen in the room.

Unless “we, the people” break down the encumbrances that have for so long kept democratic rule at bay, we are about to go from extremely bad to even worse.

We are not in a position at this point to deal with the structural and institutional encumbrances; for that, we need to embark on a protracted struggle to build a twenty-first century version of the currently defunct historical Left.

But the problems posed by more contingent factors are more immediately tractable. High on the list of those is the Democratic Party itself – in its present, Clintonized form.

The actually existing Democratic Party, enfeebled as it is, still commands powerful resources – in corporate media above all. This makes it hard for people even to see what the problems with that wretched party are.

But before the same old same old gets too far ensconced in the months ahead, dealing with those problems is or ought to be as high a priority, or nearly so, as dealing with Republicans, and with Trump and Pence.

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