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Dan Tyminski and his band were the Soggy Bottom Boys in "O Father Where art Thou". He is the leader in Union Station with Allison Kraus.

Summer Session Info

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CNN reports on testimony fallout from today's hearing.

Reuters reports Trump said he never tried to grab steering wheel or attack Secret Service officer (That should be easy to check with a subpoena to the valet and SS officer)

And in other BIG news, Turkey withdraws objections to Sweden and Finland joining NATO.

Just a few thoughts on today’s rather stunning testimony. The crazy drama in the presidential limousine is certainly the wildest and most explosive part. Legally, the most important is what seems to me like very specific evidence that the former President is guilty of seditious conspiracy, among numerous other crimes. That detail about the magnetometers (Trump ordered the metal detectors turned off!) is key. According to this witness, the President knew the crowd was heavily armed and prepared for violence. He continued to exhort them to march on the Capitol. He specifically said that he didn’t want federal authorities to try to disarm the rioters because they weren’t there to hurt him.

You know they’re violent. You know they’re armed. But you want to allow them keep their weapons because they’re on your side. You send them on to the Capitol, knowing they’re armed and violent, to confront your enemies.

Big picture, we know what the President is guilty of. But the criminal law almost always turns on the small pictures, the specific concrete actions. And this testimony had lots of those small pictures.

The majority of women cyclists at the USA Cycling Pro Road National Championships in Knoxville took a knee during the national anthem on Friday and Sunday in protest of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

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“The mob takes the Fifth Amendment,” (Trump) said at the time, deriding those who assert their right against self-incrimination. “If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?”

John Eastman, a Republican lawyer who allegedly played a leading role in the overall coup scheme, reportedly pleaded the Fifth — by some accounts, roughly 100 times.

Roger Stone, a longtime Trump adviser and GOP operative, said two weeks later that he also pleaded the Fifth.

Alex Jones, by his own admission, pleaded the Fifth nearly 100 times when the professional conspiracy theorist sat down with congressional investigators.

Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department official, also pleaded the Fifth, reportedly more than 100 times.

Michael Flynn, the beneficiary of a Trump pardon despite having previously pled guilty to felonies, pleaded the Fifth in response to investigators’ questions in March.

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CRIME
Tennessee Secretary of State charged with DUI after leaving Bonnaroo

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The war on democracy instigated by the former president and his political party allies on January 6 was the natural and foreseeable culmination of the war for America. It was the final fateful day for the execution of a well-developed plan by the former president to overturn the 2020 presidential election at any cost, so that he could cling to power that the American People had decided to confer upon his successor, the next president of the United States instead. Knowing full well that he had lost the 2020 presidential election, the former president and his allies and supporters falsely claimed and proclaimed to the nation that he had won the election, and then he and they set about to overturn the election that he and they knew the former president had lost.

The treacherous plan was no less ambitious than to steal America’s democracy.

Judge Michael Luttig statement to the Committee:

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Several things came out in the hearings.

!. Trump's scheme to have Pence throw out the electoral votes in states he lost was illegal and everybody told him that it was illegal.

2. Trump pressured Pence to commit that crime.

3. At least seven Congressmen petitioned Trump for a pardon in connection with this crime.

4. The Proud Boys were going to kill Pence because Trump wanted them to.

5. The most respected Conservative Judge, for whom Ted Cruz and John Eastman clerked, Mike Luttig testified that Trump and his supporters are a clear and present danger to American Democracy and must be opposed by all Americans.

6. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas must resign or be impeached. His wife, Ginni, should go to jail.

7. Given that all of this is from testimony by high ranking Republicans, all of it so far, it is virtually impossible for Trump to escape criminal charges.

What else?

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At the end of the Jan 6 hearings the committee must come out for two things:

1. The filing of criminal charges against any and all who conspired to overthrow a duly elected President, regardless of who they are or were.

2. A constitutional amendment to elect the President by a direct vote of the citizens of the United States of America.

Torture Memo Lawyer John Yoo Devises Theory for Stealing Presidential Elections

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We'll see how this changes as the Jan 6 lays out its case. All Trump has to do is respond to the Committee and testify under oath. Wouldn't that be fun?

Sixteen months after the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol, a slight majority of Americans say former president Donald Trump should be charged with a crime for urging his supporters to march to the building on Jan. 6, 2021, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll. The poll finds 52 percent saying Trump should be charged and 42 percent saying he should not.

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I think this boils down to a simple statement: Democrats want to protect you and your children, Republicans want to protect the NRA.

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Trump turns out to be stupider than we know, maybe stupider than we CAN know. Here's a sample. Much more at the link:

During the racial-justice protests in June 2020, President Trump was briefly taken into a bunker under the White House. Days later, he fumed to assembled military, law enforcement, and West Wing officials about this fact being leaked to the press.

“‘Whoever did that, they should be charged with treason!’ Trump yelled, according to Bender. ‘They should be executed!’”

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The story of American corruption in Ukraine is a disgrace, and in part has led to the human disaster in Ukraine. The corruption did not start in the Trump era, but years before. It started in the K Street sewer firms where Roger Stone, Rick Gates, Paul Manafort and Rick Davis thrived.

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