[Closed] The Great Turning Part 6

Posted by: @unk-p

@fjellvandre @laura-f  regarding a "national divorce", couldn't we just seek an "annulment" instead?  I mean, i've never consummated anything with them (because, eww!).   Or how bout a "trial separation"?  They could go live in say, N Korea, where they can worship Dear Leader until The Crapture finally comes and carries them away.

I have considered sending them the paperwork to renounce their citizenship. 🤔 isn’t that how you divorce your country? 

Garland just announced the DOJ filed a motion requesting the Trump warrant and property receipt be unsealed.

He also said he personally approved the filing for the Mar-a-lago search warrant.

And he seams a bit...pissed.

"I will not stand by silently when their integrity is unfairly attacked. The men and women of the FBI and the Justice Department are dedicated, patriotic public servants. Every day, they protect the American people from violent crime, terrorism and other threats to their safety while safe guarding our civil rights. They do so at great personal sacrifice and risk to themselves. I am honored to work alongside them," Garland said.

He also said this, and I think it might be a quote used when this time is discussed in history classes:

"Faithful adherence to the rule of law is the bedrock principle of the Justice Department and of our democracy. Upholding the rule of law means applying the law evenly, without fear or favor."

Wow!  That is a quote!!!

https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/attorney-general-garland-doj-remarks/index.html

Sending light to Merrick Garland, who just issued a statement concerning the search warrant.

First of all, the mere fact that a search warrant is being unsealed is an EXTREMELY BIG DEAL!  Warrants are usually sealed by the prosecution, in part to protect the rights of the defendant and to keep the potential jury pool from being tainted from media coverage.

Garland is SOOOOOO smart here.  He let Trump dig his own grave.  Remember, if not because of Trump, it is likely that we would never have learned about the search being conducted at all.  It was Trump who publically announced that the search occurred and lead to so many people getting threatened just for doing their jobs.  Had Trump kept his mouth shut or, alternatively, denied that a search was conducted and merely passed it off as a meeting between the Justice Department and his lawyers, the public would be none the wiser.

Trump was counting on Garland keeping the warrant secret so his right-wing nuts could spin conspiracies to their hearts' content.  He could release the warrant himself, as he has a copy, but he hasn't.  WHY?!!!!!

Yes, I am aware that he just issued a statement saying that he has "nothing to hide."  (Yeah, right!)  But if that was true, then why would Trump not release it?

Garland is taking that power out of Trump's hands with the unsealing of this warrant. Trump wanted transparency, so now he is getting it.

I wonder what Republicans will do if the warrant is unsealed.  Will we learn what I have suspected all this time?  Is Trump truly committing espionage by selling government secrets?  I think he is (which is why Garland stressed the importance of issuing a warrant, least the damage would get worse).  I can't imagine these documents are dealing with past crimes (such as Trump's blackmail of Ukraine or even of Janaury 6, 2021).  Otherwise, why did Garland suggest that the matter was urgent? 

So what does Trump do now?  Does he file a motion asking for the warrant to remain sealed?  He can, technically.  But then what?  Trump can't accuse the FBI of being secretive if he himself is trying to hide the paperwork after the FBI gives the green light to get it released.  It is like his argument that only guilty people take the Fifth Amendment and then proceeds to take the Fifth over 440 times during his deposition this week.

My gut tells me that Trump is literally feeding information to foreign powers for profit.  In other words, he is committing treason.  And if that link is shown, then the Republican Party becomes the party of traitors.  I can't think of ANY reason that can justify selling government information to countries like Russia and Saudi Arabia that Republicans can sell to the sane American voter (no, I don't include MAGA crowds in that group.  Technically, if they take any actions on Trump's behalf, they can be considered traitors too.  I suspect Lindsey Graham may fall in this category.)

I am SOOOO proud of Merrick Garland right now.  I knew he was working on this matter for us, and I know how frustrated we all were with how low key everything seemed at the surface and whether the Justice Department would let Trump slide on January 6, 2021.

Methinks Garland was letting the January 6, 2021 Committee work on Plan B.  Because Garland probably had bigger fish to fry.

@lovendures from emptywheel.net :

These documents are precisely the ones that Trump could have released all by himself, but chose not to. He could object now. But if he did, it would make clear — as if all the refusals to release it to journalists hasn’t already — that it’s really damning.

And now — in a short announcement where he took no questions, but where Garland made a fierce defense of DOJ and the FBI — Garland is calling Trump’s bluff.

Tune in tomorrow for another exciting episode of ...As the Tables Turn... 

@allyn 

I gotta say - I look forward to and enjoy reading your posts more than any of the news things I read online every day.

Today you have provoked the following thoughts:  How might it come to pass that the GOP is declared an illegal party and dissolved? Could that even happen? What would a peaceful break up of the union look like? Could that happen?

@unk-p

Thank you for your gift. I refer to your use of the term "the crapture." Adding it to my arsenal.

You know how the last few years have often seemed painfully slow, especially as we have waited for justice to occur and for our country to not only right the ship we've been traveling on but to create a better and healthier ship?

Well, we have arrived at the port and departing!

I believe we are going to have a difficult time keeping up with all the "actions of justice" which are headed our way. We are likely going to have whiplash trying to keep up with it all.  Add in the elections and all the relevant issues such as women rising over abortion implications and...and...and ...

I feel we just got off a slow airport  people-mover sidewalk and hopped onboard a bullet train speeding to the near future.

I wonder what shenanigans might have occurred during the Saudi backed golf tournament at Bedminster a week and a half ago and if this warrant is related.  It could even be related to something we haven't even conceived of yet.

I love that Garland called TFGs bluff. The judge in this case has set a deadline of 3 pm tomorrow for Garland to find out if TFG wishes to object to the unsealing. Fantastic-it doesn't give lots of wiggle room or time to manipulate the press. 

I also am wowed that they are asking to unseal attachments A & B. The  warrant typically gives generalized info (we're searching for documents, stolen goods, etc.).  Whereas attachments list why (these are crimes we suspect). 

You can read the filing here. It is striking to me WHO signed it: Jay Bratt. He's the Chief of Counterintelligence & Export Control. You can read about his past & expertise here. 

Very interesting. 

TFG can block the release, signaling that the DOJ has something on him, or let the docs be released, also showing DOJ has something on him. 🤣

@laura-f 

There will be no such thing as a "peaceful breakup" of the country (the Civil War proved that in 1865, and laws have been passed to ensure any such action would be akin to treason now).  I say that MAGA is the minority, and they don't like our country.  Their fantasies of breaking off and becoming other countries is just that-pure fantasy. 

What killed the Confederate South in the 1860s was less about battles and more about infrastructure.  The South had less resources and trade in place, and eventually inflation and food shortages worked together to weaken the South to its defeat.  If you look at the states that are MAGA states, they tend to be less populated and therefore less resource-rich than their blue state neighbors.  Also, there is no such thing as a pure MAGA state.  Even states like Texas have pockets of deep-blue democrats.  How will MAGA deal with them?  Shoot them?  Force them out of their homes? 

Spoiler alert-it won't happen.  Because most MAGA people are cowards at heart.  Millions were told to show up on January 6, yet only a few thousand show up.  Likewise, many took to the airways to threat the FBI recently, but only a few dozen showed up to protest publicly at Trump's home. 

I can't stress enough that the vast majority of these people are cowards at heart.  They truly are.  They whine and moan about alleged "prejudice" against them, but they have never witnessed firsthand what true prejudice is.  Prejudice is being automatically doubted based on your gender (whether you can get promoted to a job or whether you are telling the truth if you are raped).  Prejudice is being unable to jog down a street without having armed thugs come after you and shoot you down on a "suspicion" you burglarized a home.  Prejudice is having to go to the media because the DA and/or local government turns a blind eye to your suffering and refuses to impose justice.

These people don't have to build the same courage as the rest of us.  Instead of standing up and making concrete changes to improve their lives, they wallow in their alleged victimhood and use it as justification for subjecting the rest of us.  They aren't brave enough to tackle their own problems head-on, and instead take out their frustrations on the rest of us.  But when faced with united and strong opposition (such as the law) or the power of public opinion (voiced through social media and enforced by groups, employers, schools, etc.), they wilt and cry like babies. 

If they really want a war, then why don't they arm themselves and do it?  What is stopping them?  Why not form a group and take out the libs they despise so much?  If they are right, wouldn't others join their so-called "worthy cause?"

I think we know the answer to that.  If they tried that stupid stunt, they would risk incarceration or, at the very least, censure from society.  How many of these fanatics have lost their standing, their jobs, their families, etc. when their actions came to light?  How many of these January 6 defendants cried and begged from mercy from the courts after they were arrested?

It is inescapable.  The MAGA crowd are cowards.

Say we have another election that Trump loses in 2024.  Let's say that he tries another stunt.  The results won't be the same, because regardless of who wins, Biden will still be president on January 6, 2025, and he will absolutely call in the National Guard to assist DC officers, who probably will have their own scores to settle with anyone trying to break into the capital again.  And there will be no mercy for the ones who attempt such an action again in the eyes of so many Americans.  I wouldn't put it past Biden or the incoming president at the time to designate MAGA supporters as a terrorist organization, and its members would go through the same scrutiny that Muslim Americans did after 9/11.

As much as states put forward motions to succeed from the Union (such as Texas did earlier), nothing will come of it because they are afraid to take that final step.  They have fantasies of shooting guns at federal agents sent to invade them.  Instead, the government will simply barricade them in and wait them out.  Also, the government would be well within its rights to discontinue any payments such as grants, social security, veteran benefits, etc. to the offending state.  So unless the state has a way to make up for those lost payments or something in place to help people when programs are discontinued, they won't succeed.

For years, MAGA told us that if we didn't like how they ran things, we should go back to our own (blank) countries.  I won't go that far and tell them to leave.  But they are the minority, and they have no right to dictate their ideology on us.  They need to go back to their basements and secret cross-burning meetings, where they can spew their hatred as they please in the darkness and secret corners that they normally occupy and leave the rest of us alone.  If they can't do that and try to use violent means to terrorize the rest of us, there is a thing called law, and a nice place called a prison cell. 

Sadly, the Republican party can't be declared an illegal party.  Sad but true.  Nevertheless, they can become extinct, just like the Whig Party in the 1800s.  If enough people reject them, it will happen.

The survivors of MAGA rule are banding together using our power, the law, and everything at our disposal to win the day.  And we WILL win!  It may take years, and not all of MAGA people will be punished as we hope they will (in this life, anyway), but they will be stopped.  We have the numbers, we have the future (the vast majority of the young generation believes as we do), and we have the Republicans' own incompetence on our side.  Maybe next decade, we will look back on this time with a feeling of accomplishment (we beat Trump and his minions back then when they seems unstoppable, so now let's beat global warming!).  

I know that this good feeling won't last forever, and that MAGA will pool stunts to make us doubt our resolve.  Let them.  I am so encouraged by the recent strength I have seen from Democrats and the young generation recently.  

On a side note, Republicans have went off-script again and are bemoaning Trump's fate when they should be focused on inflation (admittedly a weak point for Democrats, as gas prices are continuing to go down).  The fact that they spend so much time focused on all these hearings they plan to conduct after they "win" instead of hammering on plans to combat inflation may doom them further down the road.  And they are still ignoring women about abortion.  If millions of women in red-state Kansas showed up to vote against a total ban, what do they think women in the country will do in November?  They are angry voters too, and they have more incentive to vote Republicans out than MAGA has to vote Republicans in.  For MAGA, the goal is to protect Trump above all else.  For women, it is to protect ourselves from becoming Handmaids in a country where even rape and saving a woman's (or girl's) life is not enough of a reason to keep from making her an incubator for a child that MAGA will refuse to help the minute it draws breath.  Methinks angry women will fill the voting booths this November, and Republicans will learn the fate of the dog that finally caught the car.

Just a note on the term MAGA. Women in Texas have repurposed this acronym to now mean Mothers Against Greg Abbott. They are running with this hardcore! 

https://mothersagainstgregabbott.com