Republican voters don't actually "believe" the Big Lie about January 6 — they're in on the con
Don't take what Republicans say to pollsters at face value — they are happy to lie in service of the fascist cause
By AMANDA MARCOTTE

Of the 725 people arrested so far for the January 6 insurrection incited by Donald Trump, perhaps one of the most telling stories is that of the very first person sentenced, Anna Morgan-Lloyd. On Facebook, Morgan-Lloyd's attitude about participating in a violent attempt to overthrow democracy was jubilant, declaring it the "best day ever." But, when faced with the possibility of prison time, she masterfully escaped punishment by pretending to be reformed. After talking up all of the studying she did in jail about the importance of democracy and evils of fascism — she even claimed to have watched "Schindler's List" — Morgan-Lloyd turned on ...

https://www.salon.com/2022/01/04/dont-a ... n-the-con/

MAGA Allies Convinced Trump That Using Jan. 6 Anniversary to Spew Conspiracy Theories Wasn’t the Best Idea: Report
Trump had blamed the “Fake News Media” for his decision to cancel his speech from Mar-a-Lago
By PETER WADE

Donald Trump’s planned Jan. 6 press conference is no more, and some Republicans are breathing a sigh of relief now that he seems to have realized using the anniversary of a deadly insurrection to push conspiracy theories isn’t a great idea. The former president on Tuesday canceled his event at Mar-a-Lago scheduled for one year after the insurrection, and did so at the behest of some of his most loyal allies — including Fox News host Laura Ingraham and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), according to Axios.

Maggie Haberman of The New York Times added that in addition to ...

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/p ... m-1278629/

LOL!
oh man, this is funny.
the MSM canceled him, but it was actually Hannity?

The War of 1812 vs. Jan. 6: Which was the worst attack on the U.S. Capitol?
British soldiers actually burned Washington in 1814 — believe it or not, the Jan. 6 insurrection was worse
By MATTHEW ROZSA

Former Maryland governor Martin O'Malley calls himself a history "aficionado," and we've had several conversations about the relationship between history and current events. Recently we found ourselves discussing the War of 1812 because of a major similarity with the coup attempt of Jan. 6, 2021 — namely, a direct attack on the U.S. Capitol.

As O'Malley reflected on the events of Jan. 6, he became emotional. He was thinking about his mother, who worked for former Sen. Barbara Mikulski, a Maryland Democrat who was the longest-serving woman in congressional history, and knew, he said, "every nook and cranny" of the Capitol. She had instilled in her son a deep love of American history and America's democratic institutions.

"As I was hearing reports about members of Congress barricading doors, huddling under desks and trying to be quiet — so the people outside in the mob wouldn't know they were there and attack them or take their lives — I was reminded of the story of ...

https://www.salon.com/2021/07/18/the-wa ... s-capitol/

USians are lucky they live in the US. In most countries a failed coup results in firing squads.

Arizona judge fines Cyber Ninjas $50,000 a day until it turns over election review records
BY OLAFIMIHAN OSHIN

An Arizona judge has fined Cyber Ninjas, a firm hired by the state Senate to conduct a review of Maricopa County’s election results, $50,000 a day until it turns over records from the review to The Arizona Republic, the outlet reported.

On Aug. 24, 2021, Maricopa Superior Court Judge John Hannah ordered the firm to turn over public records including emails and text messages, among others, to the Republic. In his Thursday ruling, Hannah found Cyber Ninjas in contempt of that order.

The Republic in June 2021 sued Cyber Ninjas and the state Senate for records and asked for $1,000 a day in sanctions against the company, according to the outlet.

Hannah said that Cyber Ninjas’s noncompliance was deserving of sanctions 50 times higher than the $50,000 a day he was imposing, the Republic reported.

“It is lucidly clear on this record that ...

https://thehill.com/regulation/court-ba ... turns-over

Donald Trump should be very afraid: This anniversary was not good news for him
Last year, Trump thought he could find a way to hang on. Now he's more worried about staying out of prison
By LUCIAN K. TRUSCOTT IV

Donald Trump must have awoken on the morning of Jan. 6 last year with a terrible sense of foreboding. It was the day his nemesis, Joe Biden, was scheduled to be certified as the winner of the presidential election. He had spent two whole months, November and December, trying to forestall what was going to happen that day. We now know from reporting on the period after the election that he didn't do anything except play golf and talk to his outside lawyers, like Rudy Giuliani, and outside advisers, like Steve Bannon, about possible ways the results of the election could be overturned.

He spoke with Bannon on Dec. 29 from Mar-a-Lago. Bannon told Trump he had to return from Florida and be present in Washington to prepare the ground for what they had planned for Jan. 6. This meant he would have to skip his big annual New Year's Eve celebration at his club in Palm Springs, no small matter in the world of Donald Trump, who loves to be surrounded with adoring fans who have paid big money to be in his presence. But Bannon pushed him and pushed him hard. He had to work on Mike Pence. He had to pay attention to ...

https://www.salon.com/2022/01/08/donald ... s-for-him/

Parts of Trump's base are turning on him, fueled by discontent with stances on vaccines and the Capitol riot
tporter@businessinsider.com (Tom Porter) - Friday

- In recent weeks a rift has opened between Trump and some of his most hardline supporters.

- Championing of COVID-19 vaccines, and axing a speech on January 6 sparked the discontent.

- Experts say parts of the Republican base are adopting more extreme views.

In the wake of the January 6 riot, many commentators believed Donald Trump's political career was over.

Instead, his supporters appeared to grow ever more loyal. However, as the first anniversary of the insurrection loomed, some of his base appear to be ...

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... id=winp-st

he was always threading a needle of discontent.

Sayonara, Cyber Ninjas: Dubious "audit" firm shutting down after judge imposes $50,000 daily fine
Company behind sham Arizona "audit" is now "insolvent" despite millions in donations from Trump supporters
By IGOR DERYSH

Cyber Ninjas, the Florida-based company hired to conduct a Republican-backed "audit" of the election results in Arizona's Maricopa County, said Thursday it is shutting down after a judge imposed a $50,000 per day fine for failing to turn over records.

"Cyber Ninjas is shutting down. All employees have been let go," Rod Thompson, a representative for the company, told NBC News.

Republican lawmakers released the results of the so-called "audit" of Arizona's most populous county in September, showing that President Joe Biden had defeated former President Donald Trump by 360 more votes than previously reported. Trump supporters instead seized on findings of potential irregularities in the election, but the Republican-led Maricopa County Elections Department on Thursday released a 93-page report debunking the review's "faulty and inaccurate conclusions."

Cyber Ninjas has been locked in a legal battle with the Arizona Republic, a newspaper that sued for the release of the company's records in the audit last summer. A Maricopa County judge on Thursday found the company in contempt of court and ordered it to pay a fine of $50,000 a day fine if fails to turn over the records, according to ...

https://www.salon.com/2022/01/07/sayona ... aily-fine/

it is always arrogance that brings down criminal enterprises.

North Carolina voters dispute Cawthorn candidacy over Jan. 6
By GARY D. ROBERTSON

A group of North Carolina voters told state officials on Monday they want U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn disqualified as a congressional candidate, citing his involvement in last January’s rally in Washington questioning the presidential election outcome before a Capitol riot later that day.

Cawthorn’s office quickly condemned the candidacy challenge of the Republican, which was filed on behalf of 11 voters with the State Board of Elections, which oversees a process by which a candidate’s qualifications are scrutinized. The voters contend that Cawthorn, who formally filed as a candidate for the 13th District seat last month, can’t run because he fails to comply with an amendment in the U.S. Constitution ratified shortly after the Civil War.

The 1868 amendment says no one can serve in Congress “who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress . . . to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same.”

The written challenge says the events on Jan. 6, 2021 “amounted to an insurrection” and that Cawthorn’s speech at the rally supporting President Donald Trump, his other comments and information in published reports provide a “reasonable suspicion or belief” that he helped facilitate the insurrection and is thus ...

https://apnews.com/article/north-caroli ... a26568d4e1

a compliment to both "woke" AND the Senator.

Oath Keepers Leader Charged With Seditious Conspiracy in Jan. 6 Investigation
The F.B.I. arrested Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the far-right militia, in a major step forward in the investigation into the attack on the Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump.
Alan Feuer and Adam Goldman

Stewart Rhodes, the leader and founder of the far-right Oath Keepers militia, was arrested on Thursday and charged with seditious conspiracy for organizing a wide-ranging plot to storm the Capitol last Jan. 6 and disrupt the certification of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s electoral victory, federal law enforcement officials said.

The arrest of Mr. Rhodes was a major step forward in the sprawling investigation of the Capitol attack and the case marked the first time that prosecutors had filed charges of sedition. According to his lawyer, Jonathon Moseley, Mr. Rhodes was arrested at shortly before 1 p.m.

Mr. Rhodes, a former Army paratrooper who went on to earn a law degree at Yale, has been under investigation for his role in the riot since at least last spring when, against the advice of his lawyer, he sat down with F.B.I. agents for an interview in Texas. He was at the Capitol on Jan. 6, communicating by ...

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/13/us/p ... hodes.html

surprising.

Robert Mueller successfully unveiled decades of Trump/Russia/KGB connections
By tplnews

President Trump and his associates spent years under investigation for colluding with the Russian government during the 2016 U.S. Presidential election. While this shouldn’t be new news to most Americans, questions have arisen as to how and why did Trump have any tie to Russia.

Answers to these questions require a look into Trump’s past and reveal that his associations with Russia began at least thirty years ago. Trump is an asset that Russian government has been courting and influencing for three decades, with hopes of one day helping launch him into high level American politics.

In the 1970s and 1980s Trump was a real estate developer on the rise in New York City. His goals were big and his ambition was even bigger. Trump wanted to be the best of the best, more successful than other New York City developers – and as wealthy as possible.

As Trump chased these goals and ambitions, he found success. His real estate development business made lots of money – that’s not to say that his businesses did not hit some bumps along the way, but he was always able to ...

https://tplnews.com/robert-mueller-succ ... nnections/

The way politics works in the U.S., it really doesn't do any good for Democrats to complain about Republicans changing voting laws, especially if they can't win in the Supreme Court. The places where they are changing the laws are pretty much solid Republican and all for the changes. Decisions like the one in Ohio last week are extremely scarce and with more and more courts ignoring law and justice and voting along party lines (on both sides) will become even more rare. Until voters in Republican states start to become concerned about the democracy they are supposed to live in things are just going to continue along the path they've been following. With a strong Republican Supreme Court in place for the next almost 40 years the possibility of a Republican authoritarian government in the near future is a real possibility.

I put a lot of the blame on the Democrats. Every time they get into government they circle the wagons and start shooting inward. And, when they aren't in government they do the stupidest things like issue AOC's New Green Deal or chase unwinnable but divisive causes like impeaching Trump. What's even worse is, even though history shows the Democrats have run the most fiscally responsible governments they offer only token rebuttal to the Republican meme about Dems being the "tax and spend" government or that the economy sags under Dem rule when, in fact, economies usually do far better under the Dems than under the
Republicans. Even more damning is the fact polling usually shows Democrat programs, if the party affiliation is removed, are very popular among Americans of both parties. A universal health care programs, for example, gain massive support in polls but the minute politics get involved they go nowhere. Dems have to weaponize that kind of support and really drill it home. It worked with the ACA, as watered down as it is, to the point that, when they forced it through its' popularity was such that the Republicans didn't dare try to take it away.

Right now the Republicans aren't even hiding the fact that they are trying to establish a one party authoritarian government. Even their hero Trump admitted it the other day when he confessed Republicans couldn't get elected if there were fair elections. That's why he and his followers keep harping on how the 2020 election was "stolen" and getting away with it. The Dems response is just a weak kneed, whining about how it was fair instead of confronting them head on and denouncing them in the same terms and with the same frequency.

In short, what I am saying is the Dems have to get together, all start marching in the same direction and fight back or they will be little more than the puppet the Republicans' use to make a false claim that America is a democracy.