Tracker

House Republican Asked for Safety Plan for GOP Members On 1/5 Because Trump Supporters Would Go Nuts There have been previous reports on this site in which it was noted that the bits of previously available evidence painted a picture in which it seemed as though some members of Congress, especially Republicans, knew that the Capitol would at least be vulnerable to MAGA supporters in a rage over the election certification on January 6th. For example, when Rep. Jim Jordan heard the chaos descending on the House, he said something about helping and protecting “the ladies” and reached for Liz Cheney, who said ‘Get away from me. You f*cking did this,’ and many of us have long believed that to be a very personal message to Jordan, that Cheney knew that “this” was part of a plan in which Jordan was personally involved. Today, the Committee presented evidence that even the MAGA Republicans that were planning to “Object” on January 6th knew that it could be violent and explosive around the Capitol. The Committee played the haunting voice of Rep. Debbie Lesko of Arizona, a woman who objected to Biden’s clear victory, talking on a conference call on January 5th about her concerns for a plan for “members’ safety” for the next day. Like every good MAGA, Lesko noted that “Antifa will be there” (except they were not), but then went on to admit that Trump had pushed his supporters to the point that they expect Congress to reverse the election and when that didn’t happen, “they will go nuts.” “We also have, quite honestly, Trump supporters who actually believe that we are going to overturn the election, and when that doesn’t happen — most likely, will not happen — they’re going to go nuts” It is stunning to hear from Republicans who knew beforehand that they’d put themselves and the nation at risk in their zeal to please Trump. They know that Trump was on Twitter on December 19th, 2020 saying it would be “wild.” And yet they went ahead with the objections, according to his plan. To the extent that Trump’s followers believed that they would overturn the evidence, it was because members promised to object! And yet we hear her voice, talking about a plan for members’ safety, knowing that Trump’s followers are “going to go nuts,” and she must have sensed that these are some of the country’s most violent people. It is very telling. Lesko referenced “antifa,” but that must have been by instinct alone. Because it was only after describing these many Trump followers and their anger when the election isn’t overturned that she said things might go nuts. Lesko knew which side presented a violent threat. https://www.politicususa.com/2022/07/12/gop-rep-member-security.html .

Trump Tried To Contact A Jan. 6 Committee Witness, Liz Cheney Says Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said former President Donald Trump attempted to contact a Jan. 6 committee witness. During a hearing Tuesday, Cheney said the witness, who has not yet appeared publicly, did not answer a call from Trump and informed their attorney about the attempted contact. The committee turned over information about the attempted contact to the Department of Justice, Cheney said. Cheney said Trump called the witness after the last hearing, during which Cassidy Hutchinson, a former assistant to Donald Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows, made a series of bombshell claims about the former president’s actions on Jan. 6. Cheney did not name the witness. “Let me say one more time: We will take any effort to influence witness testimony very seriously,” Cheney said. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-jan-6-witness_n_62cdd1cfe4b0aa392d45562c

Another General Killed as Russian Leak Admits ‘Big Shot ******* Command post’ Was Obliterated As Ukraine reports a devastating blow to Russia’s military, one of Putin’s troops is caught telling a friend of “12 dead” among the senior commanders.

In skimming through the comments on riderfans, I was pleasantly surprised at the number of posters who have condemned Marino and some even called for him to be thrown out of the league. Marino's defenders are spitting vitriol at anyone who dares be critical of Marino.

More confirmation that stoopidity is contagious.

Mitchell was/is effective when all is perfect. He does not do well in adversity.

2h 32 degrees C (90 F) recorded in Inuvik, NWT, Canada last week. That town is well inside the Arctic circle and near the Arctic Ocean…

Jan. 6 Hearing To Lay Out Ties Between Trump Advisers and Groups That Attacked Capitol The committee plans to reveal coordination between Trump associates like Roger Stone and Michael Flynn and the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys. WASHINGTON ― Donald Trump advisers Roger Stone and Michael Flynn were in communication with the extremist groups that led the attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot, and it plans to lay out that evidence at a hearing Tuesday. Their roles took center stage after the Electoral College ratified the former president’s loss to Democrat Joe Biden on Dec. 14, a committee aide said Monday on condition of anonymity. “In the weeks leading up to the 6th, Donald Trump grew more desperate and summoned the mob to Washington,” the aide said, describing a meeting Trump held with Flynn, his first national security adviser, and lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell on Dec. 19. The then-president posted a tweet an hour later telling his followers to come to Washington on the day of the ceremonial election certification in Congress. “That was a pivotal moment for the chain of events,” the aide said. The committee also intends to lay out the role of the QAnon movement, “which is based on deranged and often antisemitic conspiracy theories in which Donald Trump is a savior figure fighting against the dark forces in the ‘Deep State,’” according to the aide. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jan-6-hearing-trump-advisers-extremist-groups_n_62cc8de7e4b0359fa47f4984

Like the "trade" or not, the RedBlacks really had no choice. I have no bone to pick with Arbuckle- he has just never had the same supporting cast he had back in Cowgary.

No doubt Marino will be a marked man and out of the league by the end of the year. Okay- maybe Chris Jones might pick him up.

I would like the Riders to have tp pay Marino for the rest of the year and have that count against the cap. That would ensure that the team suffers for keeping the jackhole around when they knew who he was.

Cassidy Hutchinson Forced into Hiding For Telling The Truth About Trump In a sign of the dark change in the American right, Cassidy Hutchinson has been forced into hiding after testifying about Trump. Too many of us are even now a bit intellectually lazy. We still think that this is the America we grew up in, the country it was from the 70s, through 9-11, and even when some of us dared to hope for change. No, we are not with the times. At the state level, in the U.S. Senate, and in rallies thrown by a bellicose, narcissistic terrorist, this country has far more in common with contemporary Russia than what we hoped to be a more enlightened America. Alexander Vindman once said, “Here, truth matters.” Truth does matter but in a new way. Vindman ended up summarily fired for telling Trump truths. And now, when Cassidy Hutchinson bravely tossed aside her Trump-protecting attorney, to tell the truth, she is forced into hiding. It is Putinesque, a new era. As reported by the New York Times, it was Hutchinson who received the message before her deposition: A person “let me know you have your deposition tomorrow. He wants me to let you know he’s thinking about you. He knows you’re loyal. And you’re going to do the right thing when you go in for your deposition.” The shockingly bold witness tampering and Hutchinson’s testimony about Trump’s behavior on January 6th forced the Committee to schedule her public hearing four days later as an anonymous witness, in order to protect Hutchinson and keep her relatively safe. She also likely hid during the interim four days, though that’s speculation. She is hiding now, that’s a fact, according to the Times: Now unemployed and sequestered with family and a security detail, Ms. Hutchinson, 26, has developed an unlikely bond with Ms. Cheney, a Wyoming Republican and onetime aide to former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell during the George W. Bush administration — a crisis environment of another era when she learned to work among competing male egos. More recently, as someone ostracized by her party and stripped of her leadership post for her denunciations of Mr. Trump, Ms. Cheney admires the younger woman’s willingness to risk her alliances and professional standing by recounting what she saw in the final days of the Trump White House, friends say. It is heartening to hear that Hutchinson has been taken under the wing of Cheney. Despite being irretrievably conservative in her economic and regulatory approach to government, Cheney has emerged as an unlikely hero of classic Western Liberalism and an inspiration to young women everywhere. Hutchinson is up against raw, unapologetic, purposefully-intimidating power radiating from Trump World, and as much as liberals despise the dynastic Cheney-Halliburton-Bush-MI Complex ecosystem, it at least provides Hutchinson a modicum of “pushback power” and she likely won’t be unemployed long. For that, we should be thankful. Our schools are stuffed with proto-women that will need a more relatable role model in the future. And yet it is unbelievably sad that the witness who changed history, the brave young woman who told Trump truths is forced into a position that looks far too much like that of dissidents and journalists who tell the truth about Putin or MBS, despite the fact that Joe Biden, a retro-All American guy himself is president. What if Trump gains power again? Hawley? DeSantis? Is Hutchinson safe? Could she work as an executive at Halliburton, headquartered in Houston? We cannot know. Not yet. This country’s future starts to get really hazy after mid-November 2024. We absolutely know that all things Trump, MAGA, and even GOP. abhor transparent truths and relish revenge. They are already gearing up to investigate the investigators. The witness who changed history has a vague and dangerous future. Similar to witnesses in Russia, one wonders if this patriot has a future in this country, especially if Trump is charged with a crime, forcing Hutchinson into the role of witness again. Hard to know. For now, even we liberals can be thankful that Hutchinson is firmly within Cheney-World while vilified by Trump-World. At least the Cheneys want the old America back, one in which truth mattered, the one we assumed would last, and the one in which Hutchinson would be safe.

Judge Refuses To Delay Trial For Trump's Ex-adviser Steve Bannon. WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Monday declined to delay the upcoming trial of Steve Bannon, a one-time adviser to former President Donald Trump who faces contempt of Congress charges after refusing for months to cooperate with the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. Bannon is still scheduled to go on trial next week despite telling the House committee late Saturday that he is now prepared to testify. It’s unclear whether Bannon will again decline to appear before the committee with the trial pending. Bannon was also barred from asserting several potential defenses or calling House Speaker Nancy Pelosi or members of the House committee to the stand. The series of rulings by U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols left one of his attorneys complaining that the one-time White House senior official, now host of the “Bannon’s War Room” podcast, wouldn’t be able to defend himself at all. Barring an appeals court ruling or another delay, the trial will begin as the committee continues its series of high-profile hearings into the riot. Testimony by former White House aides has revealed new allegations that Trump knew the crowd was heavily armed and that he tried to join the people marching to the Capitol.

I had thought it was John Barry.

A functional self-preservation instinct?

There appears to be no bottom to the quality and sanity of GOP candidates. We are truly blessed that our air has not yet decided to move to China.

Until a Kent Austin-type passer comes along.

The pedophiles in the ranks of the GOP have been exposed and tolerated.

A complete aberration of democracy. The right-wingers in the recent past have wailed and wrung their hands about "judicial activism" overturning established law and precedent as well as the consensus of the American public. Now that their bought-and-paid-for judges have installed a judicial coup, they are beside themselves with malevolent joy.

There's a joke in here somewhere...... Summer corn and fresh blueberries meet in this decadent cannabis-infused frozen dessert Excerpted from The Art of Cooking with Cannabis: CBD and THC-Infused Recipes from Across America by Tracey Medeiros (Skyhorse Publishing, May 2021). The cannabis-infused ice cream base used in this recipe pairs nicely with a strain high in pinene (or a-pinene), such as Northern Lights, to accentuate the fresh aromatic flavor of the thyme. The richness of the ice cream complements the pungently sweet, earthy, and piney flavors of this popular cannabis strain.

Biden is more a figurehead than a dynamic leader. The real power lies in the Congress and Senate which are just as fractured as the rest of America.

As a post-script to the above post, for people that I see for grief resolution, I often recommend that they listen to a lot of Mozart. There is a lot of good research that music in minor keys (which he used a lot in his compositions) helps to resolve turbulent emotions and even improve academic test scores if listened to for 20 minutes prior to writing or standing for oral exams. BTW: Do you know what happened to him after he died?\ Answer: he decomposed.

Study: Music Can Ease Pain. Music May Have the Most Benefits for the Anxiety Prone, Researchers Say Losing yourself in music really may help take the sting out of a root canal or other painful medical procedure -- especially if you are feeling anxious about it. In a new study, 143 people listened to music while they received a painful shock in their fingertip. Participants were asked to follow the melodies, and identify unusual tones in an effort to take their mind off the pain. It seemed to do the trick. Participants’ pain decreased as they became more and more absorbed in the tunes. Those who were the most anxious reaped the most pain-relieving benefits when they became engaged in the music. “Our results suggest that engaging activities like music listening may be most effective for reducing pain in high-anxiety persons who can easily become absorbed in activities,” conclude researchers led by David H. Bradshaw, PhD, from the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. The study did not look at different types of music and whether soothing music worked best. Bradshaw says the type of music isn’t as important as how well it holds the patient’s interest. The findings appear in The Journal of Pain. The researchers measured the participants' responses to pain via electrical activity in the brain, dilation of their pupils, and other methods. These are considered more objective than self-reports about pain. Doctors have understood the power of music for years, commonly using it as a way to distract worried patients. Roger Fillingim, PhD, says the study shows it may be more effective in people who are overly anxious. “The concern was that whatever we were doing to help pain will be thwarted by anxiety, but this study suggests that certain types of distraction can actually make anxiety and pain better,” says Fillingim, a professor in the College of Dentistry at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Raffi Tachdjian, MD, MPH, has watched music take children away from their pain through his work at the Children’s Music Fund, a nonprofit group that provides musical instruments and music therapy to kids, teens, and young adults with chronic conditions and life-altering illnesses. He is also an assistant clinical professor of medicine and pediatrics at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine. “Music helps show [kids] they can get through it,” Tachdjian says. Besides just a simple distraction, music may also have acupuncture-like effects at interrupting pain pathways, he says. “Let’s say floor one is your finger, and your brain is the penthouse,” he says. “Music helps block the elevator.” This way the pain signal can’t travel to the brain and cause you to feel and say “ouch.” For those of us who want a little extra help at that next dentist visit, Bradshaw offers this suggestion: “Listening to music with headphones or playing a video game with sound effects that you can listen to with headphones are effective, as the sounds can mask the sound of the dental instruments,” he says. https://www.thedailybeast.com/scientists-learn-how-music-could-lead-to-pain-relief-in-the-body?ref=home

That would make the term, "attacking the opposition" a very apt phrase.

It was probably a good thing that he did not have to suffer behind the O-line the Lions had last year or he would have needed a lot of crazy glue for this year.