Ginger Mint  🌻🌻🌻

January 6^th:  Those of us paying attention, as in those of us not watching only Fox or its mini me imitators or only reading Rupert Murdoch owned newspapers, have known the general outlines of the FG’s coup attempt for a while but still the details emerging from the televised hearings continue to be astounding in a sick and depressing way.  Yesterday’s hearing featured Arizona’s Republican House Speaker Rusty Bowers, Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, his chief operating officer Gabriel Sterling, former longtime Georgia election worker Shaye Moss and her mother Ruby Freeman who had stepped up to be an election worker to fill in for COVID related staff shortages. Raffensperger, Sterling and Bowers all relayed how they honored their oath to the “divinely inspired?” US Constitution by standing up to pressure from the FG, his team of malevolent manipulators and an assortment of Republican politicians, details made more credible by the tape of the FG’s conversation with Raffensperger, the one where the FG repeatedly implores and then insists that Raffensperger find 11,780 votes or else while also maligning Shaye Moss and her mother Ruby as “professional vote stealers and hustlers” while falsely asserting that a ginger mint passed between the two was really a thumb drive chock full of faux Biden votes. The tape of the FG begging for votes never grows old, and Raffensperger who at the end of the day is just another Republican official all in on voter suppression, is to be commended for having the foresight to tape and then share the call. In addition to revealing the FG’s desperation and his willingness to do anything to snatch victory from defeat, Raffensperger’s tape and testimony demonstrate that he really is an election nerd, there wasn’t a vote that he couldn’t account for, no way thousands off zombie voters or cartons of bamboo printed Chinese votes were getting into the official tally on his watch.  The even more uptight divinely inspired Bowers, another life-long Republican who had voted for Trump, relayed how the FG, Rudy Giuliani and kraken lawyer Jenna Ellis who is now working for Doug Mastriano, Pennsylvania’s Republican gubernatorial candidate another January 6 insurrectionist, asked him to convene the Arizona legislature to investigate their unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud, to “set in motion a strategy to replace chosen electors” with a more friendly set. Of course, despite his assertions that he had scads of proof to back up the claims of fraud Rudy never produced any.

Home Invasion: In addition to providing some incriminating details about how an array of Republican characters including Arizona Congressman Andy Biggs, Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson and RNC Chair Ronna Romney McDaniel were either in on the scheming or well aware of it, the day’s testimony addressed the personal consequences, none of them good, of being targeted by the leader of the free world.  Most notably, Shaye Moss and her mother Ruby have seen their lives turned upside down, they had to leave their home for weeks and Shaye appears to still be suffering from FG induced PTSD. Though the mother daughter team has suffered the most, they’re not the only ones.  The house of Raffensperger’s widowed daughter-in-law’s was broken into and Bower’s dying daughter’s last days were made even worse by the FG’s fanatical followers.  The FG must be getting a wee bit nervous about the hearings, we know that because he’s now on record criticizing GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy, accusing him of abject stupidity for his decision to keep his team of offensive Republicans off the committee, a stupid decision that the FG probably supported back when it was made.  Also reports are the FG has found his preferred patsy, and it’s not daughter Ivanka but Kraken lawyer John Eastman who he hopes to make his designated fall guy. And one more thing, it turns out that there are more tapes, the image obsessed FG was being followed by a British documentary team, selected by son in law Jared, of course,  during the last six weeks of his election campaign through and including insurrection day.  Yesterday, Alex Holder, that documentarian, revealed that he had complied with a subpoena, has provided his tapes to the Committee and will be meeting with them shortly.

Guns and More:  While the hearing dominated yesterday’s news cycle everywhere except on right wing media that is, a number of other notable things happened.  On the same day that we learned that the police response to the Uvalde school shooting was even more incompetent than initially reported, the Senate agreed on gun “safety” legislation.  Though it’s far short of adequate it’s something and it does address the “boyfriend” loophole, even Republican leader Mitch McConnell has signed on. All 50 Democrats are on board as are Republicans Cornyn, Tillis, Collins, Graham,  Cassidy, Blunt, Burr, Romney, Portman, Moore-Capito,  Ernst, Murkowski, and Young.  Murkowski is facing a tough primary battle against an FG endorsed candidate so her participation, ordinarily not surprising, is notable here. On the subject of primaries, Katie Britt, the candidate that the FG endorsed after he un-endorsed Alabama Congressman Mo Brooks won her primary runoff.  He’ll count that in his win column, but she’d been the favorite all along since she was also supported by the Republican establishment including the state’s retiring Senator Shelby and leader Mitch.  In Georgia, two of the FG’s candidates lost runoffs, albeit to candidates who also align with his way of thinking.  In New Mexico, where a group of Republican county officials had initially refused to certify primary results because they didn’t feel like doing so and because votes had been tabulated using Dominion voting machines, the votes were finally certified after a judge ordered the County crazies to do, over the objection of one hold out, an official who is currently facing charges for his participation in the insurrection.. That this was even an issue is likely a harbinger of bad things to come.  That said, the Dominion Voting machine company had a good day yesterday as a Delaware judge ruled that their defamation case against Fox can move forward.    

And:  While we’re still waiting for SCOTUS to eliminate reproductive rights and loosen gun ownership restrictions yesterday they took a chunk out of church and state separation by ruling that Maine can not bar church related schools from a tuition program.