JaneAusten

Or he can't find a lawyer. Isn't Guliani going to be disbarred? Who's left? Lin Wood?

Yeah I am not seeing much influence these days. He's not the darling of the moment he once was. And is now in full conspiracy mode since he's been fired from The Intercept. He's now in full Michael Tracey mode and it's all about where he can grift. The extreme right is a much more gullible audience

I'm beginning to thing Biden picking a loyalist in Lloyd Austin is a good thing regardless of the fact he'll need a waiver. I was wary for that reason.

Wasn't he the one in the Buzzfeed article that asked to have his name held for fear of retaliation?

I get your concerns but I think people are giving Manchin too much influence here. The GOP lost the senate some are assuming because of the lack of action on the $2000 check. I am not going to fret over this. I think Biden is going to get what he wants whatever that happens to be. I actually read over some of his initial economic plan and I am actually pretty pleased. And those concerns Manchin claims to have can shake out if everyone gets a payment and it's reconciled at tax time, because lots of people never got any help because it was based on 2019 income. And yeah excluding people on SS is a no go. I am more concerned about his comments on the filibuster which is a relic and should go. And I think Biden has mixed feelings on it.

Who's trying to get Murkowski to change parties? Twitter? She's never going to become a democrat. But I have honestly been surprised for a long time she's not an independent. She didn't get the backing of the GOP who ran someone else and why she ran that write-in campaign she won. That's about the only thing I can see her doing and she would probably have more leverage with that now then she would if she stayed a republican.

There is a whole lot more going on here and I really wonder how clueless some of these GOP congressional members are who voted to certify are that people they sit next to were in on a plot to potentially have them killed. There are a whole lot of members in the House and possibly Johnson, Cruz, and Hawley who knew and collaborated with what happened, from hostage taking to potential executions including Pelosi, McConnell , Schumer, and of course Pence. Along with this that letter published in USA Today signed by all those former Sec of Defense was apparently organized by Powell - there was intended to be a military presence on the streets not to participate in the "coup" effort that day. Maybe they intended it as a distraction. The leadership of the Capital Police Force had to be involved in some capacity also. The only black hole for me is the FBI. That weak stmt from Wray makes no sense neither does all these pictures being shown asking for the publics help. There is technology where they can ID cell phone numbers that were in the capital building and it would be easy to get that list and then filter out capital building staff, etc out of that list to get a list of people who were carrying their phones into the building. Some of the more experienced folks I am sure have burner phones. I see it as a false flag to perhaps give some people a false sense of security and that the FBI knows more but have been wary who to communicate to so are perhaps waiting for the new admin who may already know. I know this all sounds far fetched I know but the gullibility of some of these GOPers astounds me. Can they be this stupid? Biden is not dumb. Do these people really believe they have not discussed it?

Does anyone find it strange we have not heard from Christopher Wray? I'm speculating on why and it's potentially scary.

Woah adios Parler

Larry Summers is a dead end. And my guess is these people saw the stock market drop after this news came out and are busy trying to justify what Manchin said. They need to re-evaluate how they are providing relief( I refuse to call it stimulus) because it cannot be based on 2019 taxes - that leaves out a lot of people that are hurting. I say send it to everyone and then reconcile it at tax time.

I'm not worried about Manchin. Why he chose now to talk about this no clue but he'll do what he's asked to do. ANd for gods sake it would probably help 70% of the people in his own state.

AMEN my friend!!! I am off today and was taking a break from some painting I am doing in my home this morning, and I turned on The View for about 30 minutes. Not a bad show today but I listened to Meghan McCain again say how we need to really understand the 74 million people and how THIS PARTICULAR woman got radicalized. Sunny refuted her point of many of these people JUST getting radicalized versus being given permission to behave this way for the last not just 4 years but 12 years because SOME of this started when Obama was elected and we need to stop giving it oxygen. I was already exhausted then Nutmeg said but this woman was a veteran. I heard that and rolled my eyes. So was Timothy McVeigh and I'll bet her reason for storming the capital and his reason for blowing up that building in Oklahoma City were about the same. No one was bending over backwards to understand him at the time and we should refuse to understand and empathize with this woman.

Maybe he's going to be pardoned. He also committed election fraud with that call he made to the Ga Sec of State in November. Don't forget.

If democrats were smart they'd ride that and push to get him to resign. Like go after her and indirectly Thomas aggressively. That's what the GOP would have done.

I've seen some debate about Chris Wray at the FBI and if he should stay. Biden has said he wants him to stay but that was before yesterday. The FBI allegedly insured congress that everything was safe for Jan 6th and what happened seems to be a major failure at all levels including the FBI. How is it they had no idea what was planned when it was all over social media? This is the same agency that rooted out the plot to kidnap and murder Gov Whitmer. I also have to say I find this "help us ID who these people are" plea to Americans a little uncomfortable and frankly disingenuous. They have facial recognition software so how is it they need Americans to ID people? Makes me a tad uncomfortable, especially considering what appears to have been an intelligence failure on their end.

Long time well respected senator from Missouri John Danforth who has been a mentor of sorts to Josh Hawley has now said it was the worst mistake of his life. Messenger: Danforth calls his support of Hawley the ‘worst mistake’ of his life | Tony Messenger | stltoday.com

Come on you know she's in process of becoming a pariah. Can't happen to a more repulsive person. Hard to believe anyone could be worse than Sarah Sanders but KKKayleigh accomplished that. At lease she came in first for something. I am sure OANN or Newsmax has a seat for her.

How's your mom doing?

I wish I cared what Mark Zuckerberg thought. Too little too late. Same for Instagram and Twitter. But I guess it's better than nothing. I am actually furious congress is not returning until the 19th. This is appalling. He needs to be removed from office I don't care how. It just proves again that no matter what, these people are never held accountable. On a side note I hope everyone here is ok along with your family. I read your post yesterday @vee about your mom and I pray she doesn't lose hope or her fire. My mom is suffering from dementia and this past year has been tough as is has for so many others, but she has the support of a good retirement home, my brother who lives with her there, and wonderful caregivers. But I think she would he horrified to see what is happening after the years of struggle she and my father both went through in their younger years - all to give their children a better life.

I will wait until it all settles before I cry about Schumer being Senate Majority Leader. Fresh blood. I nominate Amy Klobuchar or Sherrod Brown

Beating McConnell makes me feel happier than Biden beating Trump, especially after what McConnell has done since 2009 How many recounts for these races? 3 or 4?

Wasserman just called the other race for Ossoff. I honestly am in shock. I figured one but not both. Those organizers in Georgia deserve a whole lot of something. Amazing work and the democratic party should clone those organizers over the entire southeast.

The problem in general is you can't put enough rules or laws in place to defer leaders who have autocratic tendencies. And there is a percentage of the population that is fine with it. There was an article I read some years back long before Trump that outlined how white evangelicals in particular and a percentage of working class whites are fine with it. A functional democracy only functions if you have leaders who have good intentions. The answer is to make gvmt work again - it's not and hasn't for quite sometime. And then convince people that gvmt not one person can help improve their lives. FDR had a huge following, I tend to believe while much of it was leveraging the gvmt to help them, many saw him as their daddy figure which lent support.

He could probably land on Air Force one and switch to his own plane and then fly somewhere else - like maybe Dubai. I'm still convinced he's going to flee.

I would never wish anyone harm or ill will but karma coming to McConnell even in a small sense seems apropos.