The media spent years pretending Trump could magically pardon his co-conspirators, consequence-free, at any time, even though nothing works that way. Now the media is pretending the GOP can magically filibuster, consequence-free, at any time. Nothing works that way. It gets old.

Every media pundit understands that there are always consequences to every move in politics. Yet they always frame the Republicans as being able to magically do anything they want, with no consequences, to try to scare/enrage you into staying tuned in.

"But the Republicans are indeed getting away with it all..." No they're not. They lost the Senate, the House, and the presidency. Their top leaders in the House are at each others' throats. They're out of power, adrift, losing donors. These are the consequences for their antics.

The catch is, it's just not the consequences you want. Because even as TV pundits convinced you that republicans were magically winning, liberal Twitter pundits convinced you that republicans could be defeated by imaginary simplistic magic wand solutions.

So now the pundits have spun you around to where you don't even realize your side won the election, you don't realize the Democrats are going be able to pass everything they want to pass, and you're pissed at Democratic leaders for imaginary reasons.

As Parler disappears from the Android and Ios app stores and faces being kicked off of Amazon's (and other) clouds, people who worry about monopolized corporate control over speech are divided over What It Means.

1/

There's an obvious, trivial point to be made here: Twitter, Apple and Google are private companies. When they remove speech on the basis of its content, it's censorship, but it's not GOVERNMENT censorship. It doesn't violate the First Amendment.

2/

And yes, of course it's censorship. They have made a decision about the type and quality of speech they'll permit, and they enforce that decision using the economic, legal and technical tools at their disposal.

3/

If I invited you to my house for dinner and said, "Just so you know, no one is allowed to talk about racism at the table," it would be censorship. If I said "no one is allowed to say racist things at the table," it would also be censorship.

4/

I censor my daughter when I tell her not to swear. I censor other Twitter users when I hide their replies to my posts. I censor commenters on my blog when I delete their replies.

Dress is up as "content removal" or "moderation" if you'd like, but it's obviously censorship.

5/

Four years ago, I started saving the best of the incredibly bizarre, stupid and bad vibes photos being rapidly produced by the Trump administration to cathartically post today. Here is my Surreal Trump Photo Dump

Hell Dinner

these are in vaguely chronological order, most are of trump, but some are of other related weirdness. It's been played to death, but this was definitely a tone-setter

Another early banger, a sensible oil of this should be his white house portrait

probably the GOAT, my mind still reels when I think about seeing the ORB for the first time

Post-impeachment, we can say this: Trump's presidency has amended the Constitution. Not formally, of course, but informally...which matters just as much. Here are the five Trump amendments. 1/9

1. "No president shall be removed from office for treason, bribery, or any other crime or misdemeanor provided a partisan minority of the Senate will protect him (which is always). Impeachment is thus a nullity and presidents can expect impunity." 2/9

2. "Congressional oversight shall be optional. No congressional subpoena or investigative demand shall be binding on a president who chooses to ignore it." 3/9

3. "Congressional appropriations shall be suggestions. The president may choose whether or not to conform with congressional spending laws, and Congress shall have no recourse should a president declare that his own priorities supersede Congress's express will." 4/9

4. "The president shall have authority to make appointments as he sees fit, without the advice and consent of the Senate, provided he deems his appointees to be acting, temporary, or otherwise exempt from the ordinary confirmation process." 5/9

Some thoughts from the update on the President’s condition:

They said illness for 72 hours? Seems to be a different timeline than we heard.

They also said he got antibodies 48 hours ago. That’s Thursday morning.

Also they said not on oxygen NOW. Repeatedly. Which suggests he had been on at some point.

Won’t talk about date of his last negative test. This is a BIG question.

I would like to see Democrats produce even one shred of evidence or just one example of President Donald Trump calling for violence. Just one. That's all.

Meanwhile, they can enjoy their own words calling for violence repeated back to them ...

“There will be blood in the streets” — USAG Loretta Lynch (D)

“Show me where it says that protests must be polite and peaceful.” — CNN's Chris Cuomo

“There needs to be unrest in the streets” — US Rep Ayanna Pressley (D)

“Protesters should not let up” — Sen. Kamala Harris (D)

“I just don't know why there aren't uprisings all over this country. Maybe there should be.” — US House Spkr Nancy Pelosi (D)

“You get out and you create a crowd, and you push back on them, and you tell them they're not welcome anymore, anywhere!” — US Rep Maxine Waters (D)

“I will go and take Trump out tonight.” — US Rep Maxine Waters (D)

“When they go low, we kick 'em. That’s what this new Democratic Party is about.” — USAG Eric Holder (D)

“How do you resist the temptation to run up and wring her neck?” — MSNBC's Nicole Wallace on WH Press Sec. Sarah Sanders

“I'd like to punch him in the face.” — Robert De Niro on President Trump

Prison sentence ended: Sholam Weiss, who was sentenced to more than 800 years in prison in 2000 for racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering re insurance fraud scheme

Robert Zangrillo, a Miami real estate developer who was charged with conspiring with a college consultant to bribe athletic officials at the University of Southern California to designate his daughter as a recruit to the crew team, received a pardon

William Walters, a wealthy sports gambler convicted in an insider-trading scheme, who paid tens of thousands of dollars to ex-Trump lawyer John Dowd to get him on Trump’s list. Prison sentence ended.

Commuted remaining prison sentence: Dr. Salomon E. Melgen, 66, a major Democratic donor and eye doctor who ran a series of clinics in Florida that fraudulently told Medicare patients that they had eye diseases and then performed medically unnecessary tests and procedure

FULL PARDON Former Uber Executive WHO HAD Pleaded Guilty to Trade Theft: Anthony Levandowski was charged with stealing driverless-car plans when he left Google to form a company, which Uber then acquired.

To those who have asked me, sincerely, how President Trump's "Do not be afraid of Covid" differs from Jesus's "Be not afraid," some thoughts:

First, Jesus often told his followers "Be not afraid." In fact, that phrase brackets his earthly life. I.e., the Angel Gabriel...

....says that to the Virgin Mary at the Annunciation. And after his Resurrection, the Risen Christ says it to his disciples. It's one of the few phrases Jesus utters several times in the Gospels. He is encouraging his followers to turn away from fear and rely on him. But...

....Jesus is not telling us to ignore the reality of human life. That is, God does not ask us to check our brains at the door and be stupid about our bodies. We don't jump off of tall buildings expecting not to get hurt. We don't drink poison expecting not to get sick....

God gave us brains for a reason. So "Don't be afraid of Covid" not only makes no sense, it's dangerous. Like Jesus, we have human bodies that must be cared for. There are also others whom we have to protect from illness. That's part of being pro-life: reverencing lives....

...both yours and those of others. That means taking the necessary precautions: going to the dentist, getting an annual physical, taking medicine when needed. Today this means taking precautions against Covid: wearing masks, maintaining social distance, washing your hands...

Mega Thread:

I am so fed up with right wing hardliners on impeachment. I need to go on a rant. The more I interact with these people on here the more I'm pushed away from their position. On 1/6 I was adamant about Trump being at fault. He did not handle that day well IMO 1/

by that weekend, however, I'd started to reflect upon what he'd said and the events and begun to move away from the absolute position that it was all his fault. There were many reasons for this. One was that his rally happened while the break-ins were occurring, 2/

another was that so few people relative to his total followers showed up. Another was the fact that most of his followers I know were similarly outraged and disapproving. Another was that he explicitly said peaceful in all his remarks. And another was that 3/

upon reflection, I realized nothing he said was an escalation in his normal rhetoric, which had never caused any violence beforehand. But now, weeks later, I'm being radicalized in my aforementioned position by the right-wing hardliners who cannot discuss 1/6 4/

without resorting to the most melodramatic hyperbole imaginable. You simply will not gaslight me into viewing a small riot at the Capital as somehow orders of magnitude more grave and dangerous than months of left-wing rioting, or a left-wing insurrection 5/

I had a GREAT call with my all time favorite POTUS, President Trump!

I’m so grateful for his support and more importantly the people of this country are absolutely 100% loyal to him because he is 100% loyal to the people and America First.

Cont’d...

This should have been enough.

This should have been enough.

This should have been enough.

This should have been enough.

This should have been enough.

NEWS: Trump Campaign Paid Organizers of Pre-Riot Rally $2.7 Million

Former President Donald Trump’s campaign paid more than $2.7 million to individuals and firms that organized the Jan. 6 rally that led to violent rioters storming the U.S. Capitol, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

The payments, which span Trump’s re-election campaign, show an ongoing financial relationship between the rally’s organizers and Trump’s political operation.

The payments were all made through Nov. 23, the most recent date covered by Federal Election Commission filings, which is before the rally was publicly announced.

Eight paid Trump campaign officials were named on the permit issued on by the National Park Service for the rally, including Maggie Mulvaney, the niece of Mick Mulvaney,

1. Ok, I'm liking @RepSeanMaloney

"I sure as hell didn't win 5 Xs as a gay guy in a Trump district"

Much more imp he just correctly pointed out that even liberal MSNBC gives the GOP a major assist by constantly talking about Defund the Police, socialism, & intraparty fighting

2. and @JoeNBC is right, in my "modernized moderates" plan, you have to have these candidates go on offense. Its CRAZY that @SpanbergerVA07 is defending her record as a moderate when she's running against an ideologue in Nick Freitas.

If you ask the wrong questions & ask them

3. the wrong way, the evidence & data will screw you. Such as it did in 2020 because there is no reality in which Dem congressional/senate candidates were well-served by pulling out all their registration and in-person voter contact while the GOP was doing it. It was a bold

4. decision that someone, looking at the weak or inconsistent findings of research on effects of GOTV and esp the diff between in-person and "remote" forms and decided "you know, there is likely no diff from in-person and remote & in fact, remote you can contact WAY more people."

5. And the fact is, maybe this is right. Maybe the Ds total bomb on the congressional map has nothing to do with the decision to suspend the field programs of the House & Senate campaigns. Maybe. I'll be interested in the analysis when the voter file is updated I'll be looking at

1. - Meat Loaf comms

01/04/2021 Ivanka Trump causes confusion by mistakenly tagging Meat Loaf instead of her Father in

Impressions of today's Walter Reed presser:

a) Conley's mea culpa: “I was trying to reflect the upbeat attitude of the team. Didn’t want to give any information that would steer the course of his illness.” Trump's fingerprints.

But even so, today was only slightly better. (1/8)

b/ Biggest news is that T had 2 episodes of hypoxia (down to 93-94% O2 saturation), & Conley evaded whether sat was ever <90. "Never in low 80s" is all he offered.

c/ Re: Chest CT: "There were some expected findings but nothing of concern." What the hell does that mean?...(2/8)

...To be clear, the "expected findings" on a chest CT is NORMAL. If it was normal, he should say that. Anything else should have been described.

(The only semi-benign interpretation would be if the prez has a known chronic finding – like a benign nodule – that was seen)...(3/8)

... But it seems far likelier that they found evidence of pneumonia or other manifestations of Covid lung involvement or inflammation, which is serious and raises the level of concern and risk. (4/8)

d/ They pulled trigger & started dexamethasone. So they were clearly concerned. Given documented low O2, dex definitely was indicated.

e/ Said they're starting to plan for possible discharge, as early as tomorrow. Even w/ WH's medical capacity, that seems like an awful call. 5/8

Ten doctors at Walter Reed discussing Trump’s health. Dr. Conley says they are “extremely happy” with the president’s profess.

Trump is going to stay on a five-day remdesivir treatment.

Trump’s not on oxygen. They say he hasn’t been in it at all today. Reporter doesn’t follow up if he was on it last night. Dr. Conley says he doesn’t anticipate Trump needing to go on oxygen this week. Won’t disclose “specific numbers” about Trump’s fever.

Has he ever been on supplemental oxygen? Not today or yesterday, Conley says. Avoids discussing whether Trump has been on it prior.

Conley won’t disclose or discuss when Trump was infected with the coronavirus.

It's trendy to suggest that Trump's attempt at stealing the election has finished off what was left of our democracy. But after everything we've been through in the past four years, I just don't buy that his endgame has been any more harmful than the rest of what he's done to us.

First of all, Trump DID manage to rig the 2016 election. The media largely swept that inconvenient fact under the rug when the evidence started to emerge shortly after he "won" because they were too excited at the ratings that a Trump presidency would give them.

But the reality is that Trump's successful theft of the 2016 election was obviously more harmful to the sanctity of our democracy than his failed theft of the 2020 election. It's just that the media now wants to get ratings out of his failed 2020 attempt.

Trump has spent four years systematically chewing at the fabric of every aspect of our democracy. We don't even know what our democracy is going to look like after this. His tantrum about losing, and zero-chance attempt at overturning it, is just a footnote at the end.

We've all known for four years now that if Trump lost the 2020 election, he'd try to overturn it by any illegal means possible. If you were paying attention, you also knew that if he got blown out, he would have zero chance of overturning it. This isn't some gasp-worthy surprise.