On Tuesday July 12th, Day 7 of the January 6 hearings was held. Today’s title comes from a description of an Oval Office meeting in Dec.
Once again some truly jaw-dropping revelations emerged …
- A tweet by Trump in Dec was a galvanizing call-to-arms that motivated his supporters to come to Washington with the specific intent of disrupting the transition of power on Jan 6
- Testimony by Trump White House counsel Pat Cipollone confirmed that he, along with others had advised the President there was no evidence that the election was stolen from him.
- Two in-person witnesses described how they were radicalized by right-wing groups and Trump himself, how it destroyed their lives, and continues to pose a threat to American society.
- Six witnesses described an utterly insane December 18, 2020, Oval Office meeting that descended into a screaming match with participates yelling abuse at each other and threatening to physically fight each other. It was in this meeting that Trump watched his White House counsel and other White House lawyers completely destroy the baseless claims and ridiculous legal arguments offered by Sidney Powell, Mike Flynn and others …
“The screaming was completely — completely out there. … I’m telling them to shut the F up. I mean, it really was unprecedented,” Herschmann said. “It was late at night, and it had been a long day. And what they were proposing, I thought, was nuts.”
Giuliani resorted to name calling, saying the White House legal team was “not tough enough.”
“Or maybe I put it another way: You’re a bunch of p—— — excuse the expression — I’m almost certain the word was used,” Giuliani told the panel.
Flynn and Herschmann nearly got into a physical altercation. A retired Army lieutenant general, Flynn screamed at Herschmann that he was “a quitter,” Herschmann said.
“He kept on standing up and turning around and screaming at me,” Herschmann recounted to the committee. “And at a certain point, I had it with him. So I yelled back: ‘Either come over or sit your f’ing ass back down.’”
- Text messages revealed that Brad Parscale, Trump’s former campaign manager, privately acknowledged that he felt “guilty for helping him win,” and believed the former President’s rhetoric killed someone on January 6, 2021.
- Militants planned for violence on Jan 6. Trump allies, Flynn and Roger Stone, were directly connected to them.
One really good committee wrap-up quote was this one …
“American carnage: That’s Donald Trump’s true legacy, His desire to overthrow the people’s election and seize the presidency interrupted the counting of electoral college votes for the first time in American history, nearly toppled the constitutional order and brutalized hundreds and hundreds of people.”
“The Watergate break-in was like a Cub Scout meeting compared to this assault on our people and our institutions,”
Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.) wrapping up the Day 7 hearing
Moving on, below you will find my usual selection of some truly bizarre claims that have popped up during the last 7 days. Each is laced with my snarky commentary. With my usual hat tip to my various sources, let’s dive in.
Jan 6
Roger Stone says it was “anti-religous bigotry” for the Jan. 6 committee to show footage of him declaring the night before the insurrection that the effort to keep former President Donald Trump in office was a battle between “good and evil.”
- I do have to admit he is correct. However, the problem for him is that he was playing on team “evil”.
- Reminder: Roger Stone started his political career in the 1970s as one of Richard Nixon’s dirty tricksters who played a bit part in Watergate. It has been downhill ever since then.
Education
David Lane declares that “if America is to make it through, we must put a stop to pernicious public education, which invariably instills feral values and sinister anti-God attitudes in America’s youth.”
- Translation: It hard to con and grift off educated people, we need to keep them ignorant and also indoctrinated.
Christian Nationalism
US Senate Candidate Kelly Tshibaka Says God is Sending Her Into Government to ‘Rule’ and ‘Subdue’
- So let me try and grasp this. A cute blond chick has rocked up, and is now cracking a whip and demanding that you “submit” … are you sure you haven’t tuned into the bondage channel by mistake?
- Apparently she believes that “God created government”, and that God has specifically sent her to the “harvest field of government.”
- This is what happens when your entire library consists of just one book.
- Since she strictly adheres to the bible, then her opponent should simply quote 1 Timothy 2:12 at her: “I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; she is to remain quiet“, and then demand that she “submit”.
Christian nationalism isn’t enough for radical right-wing pastor Douglas Wilson: “How many of these Christian nations are there supposed to be? No set number is given, but the simple answer is: All of them. All the nations of man are to be brought into submission to Christ.”
- Here in 2022 we are back folks wanting knights riding off on Crusades to liberate nations from heathens because it was such a happy jolly lark last time around.
- There was a chap called Jesus who disagrees with him … “My kingdom is not of this world” – John 18:36
Dalton Clodfelter reveals himself to be a proud Christian nationalist who intends to cram his faith down people’s throats: “I want to make sure everyone believes in what I believe in. Everyone needs to believe in Christianity.”
- Given the vast diversity of Christianity that prevails, he needs to start by persuading all those other Christian variations that they are wrong and only he is right – let’s wish him luck with that one and advise he should not come back until he has succeeded.
Nick Fuentes lays out his vision for America where contraception, fornication, homosexuality, and pornography are illegal and women can’t go to school or vote, and are burned at the stake for being witches: “We want to go back to the Middle Ages.”
- “We want to go back to the Middle Ages.” proclaims a guy as he directly looks into a camera capturing a digital image of himself in front of the NYC skyline lit up at night with planes in the distance while all of this is being actively streamed to the Internet.
- This is the same guy who last May claimed that him having sex with a women would be “gay” and that being celibate was the only truly straight path. I think we are now beginning to understand why he is an involuntarily celibate.
David Barton asserts that he “literally can show you a Bible verse in the Bible and show you language in the Constitution, and you’ll go, ‘That is the same language.’”
- Challenge accepted: “There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses.” – Ezekiel 23:20. Yep, we are defeated, that is just the same as the Constitution.
- To also be a tad picky, about that “same language” claim. Unless the Constitution was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic, then no, sorry, literally not the same language.
- Perhaps he is claiming that Jesus spoke King James English, that Jesus also wrote the constitution, and was one of the original signers of the Declaration of Independence.
Michael Flynn also claims that 75 to 80 percent of the Constitution was “created by the Bible itself,” and insists that the 10 Commandments and the Bible are a model for the Bill of Rights and the Constitution.
- Literally None of that is true, but this is Flynn, so that remains true for more or less anything he says.
- I also know a couple of other guys that really do disagree with Flynn on this …
Homophobia on Steroids
Christian hate-preacher Steven Anderson says it’s okay to call for the execution of gay people because he’s never going to “have that kind of power”… at least not until “Christ returns in the Millennium.” Therefore, calm down, “gaytheists and f*gnostics.”
- He thinks this is the Gospel (“Good News”) … no wait, I’m giving him too much credit there when I used the word “think”.
- The new twist here is that “What would Jesus do?” becomes for him “How would Jesus execute you?“
- You will be glad to know that his church is tiny, very very tiny. They meet in a small office in a strip mall.
- He has also racked up a rather impressive collection of travel bans to more than thirty other nation states on the planet … so far. He appears to be determined to increase that.
Truly Bizarre
White nationalist streamer Jared Noble (aka “Woozuh”) is demanding that GOP Senate candidate Kelly Tshibaka pay him $100,000 or he’ll expose that she’s “in a race-mixed relationship.”
- She is not exactly trying to keep it a secret.
Fox brings on a guest who was a recent visitor to Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, to complain about his tour guide over-emphasizing TJ’s history as a slave owner: “I just thought that Monticello would be protected from this disease of wokeism.”
- This is literally akin to going for a visit to Dachau, and then becoming upset that they keep bringing up all that “woke” Holocaust stuff during the tour.
- Their anonymous recent visitor to Monticello who told Fox the tour is way too woke turns out to be a notorious white nationalist and neo-confederate writer and ideologue – see here.
- Permit me to replay this gem once again – a guy visits a PLANTATION, a place where over 600 slaves were kept, and is offended that slavery was a topic of discussion during the tour!!
- Personally I love being “woke”, it’s far better than being an ignorant racist twit. His stance gives a whole new meaning to the term “white wash”.
Laura Loomer believes that conservatives “should be investing all of their energy into destroying big tech and giving their executives and employees the worst fate possible for the treason they have committed against our country. And yes, they committed treason. And yes, our country has an appropriate punishment for treason.”
- Laura Loomer Translator: She has been banned by almost every single social media platform, Paypal, GoFundMe, Venmo, Uber, Lyft, plus many more, hence has a bit of an axe to grind about Tech.
- In essence her beef is this – not giving her insanity access on their platforms is apparently deemed by her to be “treason”.
Anti-vax activist Simone Gold was sentenced to 60 days in prison for storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, prompting right-wing commentator Eric Metaxas to tell her that “since you’re Jewish, I can just say I know in history this is exactly what happened in Germany.”
- Mr Metaxas knows this is BS. He simply says it to pander to a very gullible MAGA demographic. It tells us a great deal about his honesty and integrity.
Even though authorities released surveillance footage of someone planting explosives at the Georgia Guidestones, conspiracy theorist Stew Peters insists they were destroyed by lightning: “It’s entirely appropriate for God to personally destroy the Georgia Guidestones.”
- Truth and reality have never stopped Stew from cobbling up a weird claim, so why should this be any different.
- Lightening … so is he perhaps suggesting that the one true God is Thor?
- Meanwhile Lauren Witzke popped up a bit later and made the exact same claim. She is a co-host on Stew’s show, hence is just following his lead on this.
Speaking of Thor, One Million Moms is trying to boycott the new Thor movie because, among other things, “The alien character named Korg mentions having two dads, and he has hand sex with another member of his species.”
- The Bleeding Obvious Hint: The character within the movie is not human, but alien. It is also fiction.
- The deeply weird thing here is that the character is from species that doesn’t have separate sexes and so reproduction is done by holding hands over lava for a month, and that’s a “problem” for One Million Moms. Meanwhile, the movie also has an Omnipotent City, full of gods and no Jesus, but they apparently have no problem with this.
- If they are suggesting a ban, then I’ve just got to go see it now.
- Least you wonder who “One Million Moms” actually is, it is basically Monica Cole, she is the only staff member – So basically one very very religious mum and a few, very few, friends, rounded up to the nearest Million. She might be rather good at stirring up a bit of tabloid ink, but their website ranks #1,133,944, and their twitter follower count is only 4,151 … so yea, not exactly one million.
Climate
Lance Wallnau declares that “environmentalists are crazy”: “They are more fanatical than Al Qaeda. … They’re under the control of demons.”
- The far-right religious/political schtick these days is to say the weirdest most bizarre stuff you can possibly dream up and then accuse anybody not buying it of being either crazy or demonic.
- Who knew wanting clean air and water made me under control of Demons. Hail Satan.
- To be a tad more specific, that will be the, “it’s 105 and I don’t want to die of heatstroke” Demons.
- Lance appears to be old enough to have been part of the generation that grew up breathing lead fumes. That perhaps explains a lot of this.
The False Profit$
Kent Christmas lashes out at those who call him a false prophet for prophesying that former President Donald Trump would be reelected: “I did and he was. … In the eyes of God and the court of Heaven today, the president of the United States is Donald J. Trump.”
- Small flaw in his argument, not only is Biden his president, but Biden is now also Trump’s president.
- As somebody recently pointed out to me, playing this make-believe card is not new … Jehovah’s Witnesses: Jesus really really did come back in 1914, you just can’t see him. Roman Catholics: the bread really really does change into Jesus’ body, you just can’t see it, etc…
- I’d love to see him get a traffic ticket and then argue in court that he was not speeding … “in the eyes of God and the court of Heaven“, and see how well that flies.
- Perhaps the good news here is that we can roll with this and then point out that the idiot-in-chief can’t run in 2024 because he was already elected twice.
Dave Hayes (aka “The Praying Medic”) explains why Trump loves to talk about when the price of gas was $1.87: “[187] is Q’s code for homicide, and the price of gas is going to murder the Democrats in the November election.”
- Dave’s specialist skill is to throw random shit at the wall and hope something sticks.
- Fact Check: 187 was “code for homicide” way before Q. For example, 187 is a 1997 movie. It’s a reference to Section 187 of the CA penal code that defines murder.
Shane Vaughn (Yes, he is weird enough to get his own heading)
Shane Vaughn bellows that Black Americans who don’t celebrate Independence Day should leave the country: “We’re the greatest thing that’s ever existed. … You ought to celebrate it or leave!”
- Just Black Americans!!
- Reminder: This is the pastor who went to jail for insurance fraud.
- We appear to be fast becoming a nation where you either vote Democrat or vote for white supremacy
Interesting Articles
If you chose to read only one article, then make it this one …
- Kara Voght and Tim Dickinson @ Rolling Stone: SCOTUS Justices ‘Prayed With’ Her — Then Cited Her Bosses to End Roe.
These are also interesting …
- Peter S. Canellos and Josh Gerstein @ Politico: ‘Operation Higher Court’: Inside the religious right’s efforts to wine and dine Supreme Courtjustices.
- Andrea Suozzo @ ProPublica: Right-Wing Think Tank Family Research Council Is Now a Church in Eyes of the IRS.
- Frederick Clarkson @ Salon: He’s on a mission from God: Pennsylvania GOP candidate Doug Mastriano’s war with the world.
- Hemant Mehta @ OnlySky: Christian “prophet”: The Constitution requires Biden to have 20% popularity.
- Tim Dickinson & Kara Voght @ Rolling Stone: MAGA Preacher Sean Feucht Scored Millions From His Trump-Loving Flock.
- Johnathan Nicholson @ HuffPost: Trump’s Rhetoric ‘Killed Someone’ On Jan. 6, Says Former Campaign Manager.
- David Mack @ BuzzFeed: The Jan. 6 Committee Alerted The DOJ To A Phone Call Trump Tried To Make To A Witness.
- Will Sommer @ The Daily Beast: Allegations of Manosphere Pastor’s Gay Past Roil Macho Men.
- Travis Gettys @ Raw Story: Ohio girl’s rapist arrested hours after conservatives questioned case as ‘abortion story too good to be true’.
- Erik Maulbetsch @ The Colorado Times Recorder: Indicted CO Clerk Says Boebert Dined With Conan Hayes The Day After He Copied Election Files.
- Alan Feuer @ The New York Times: ‘It’s Just Been Hell’: Life as the Victim of a Jan. 6 Conspiracy Theory.