The Shining City Upon a Hill

[SalesServiceGuy]

Re: The Shining City Upon a Hill

" I think Putin pays Trump!" as said to Republican House leadership by Kevin McCarthy/ Paul Ryan on their return in May 2017 from Ukraine, after meeting with the country's Prime Minister.

[SalesServiceGuy]

Re: The Shining City Upon a Hill

Two of Bannon’s co-defendants plead guilty to ‘We Build the Wall’ fraud


Two men indicted alongside former Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday to defrauding donors of hundreds of thousands of dollars in a border wall scheme.

Brian Kolfage and Andrew Badolato each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Kolfage also pleaded guilty to two counts of filing a false tax return and one count of wire fraud in connection with filing a false tax return.

“I knew what I was doing was wrong and a crime,” Kolfage told the judge. Both men will be sentenced on September 6.

The men are accused by federal prosecutors of using hundreds of thousands of dollars donated to an online crowdfunding campaign called We Build the Wall for personal expenses, among other things.

Bannon, who pleaded not guilty and denied any wrongdoing, was pardoned by then-President Trump in his final days in office. The Manhattan district attorney’s office is investigating Bannon for the same conduct and whether it violated state law. The pardon only covered federal crimes.

Timothy Shea, a fourth man charged in the fundraising effort, has pleaded not guilty. Last month he indicated to the judge that he would plead guilty, but changed his mind and is set to go to trial next month.

Bannon and Kolfage promised donors that the campaign, which ultimately raised more than $25 million, was “a volunteer organization” and that “100% of the funds raised … will be used in the execution of our mission and purpose,” according to the indictment.

But instead, according to prosecutors, Bannon, through a nonprofit under his control, used more than $1 million from We Build the Wall to “secretly” pay Kolfage and cover hundreds of thousands of dollars in Bannon’s personal expenses.

Kolfage, according to the charges, spent more than $350,000 of the donations on personal expenses, including cosmetic surgery, a luxury SUV, a golf cart, payments toward a boat, home renovations, jewelry, personal tax payments and credit card debt.

Kolfage, an Air Force veteran and Purple Heart recipient who had both his legs and his right arm amputated after being injured in a 2004 explosion in Iraq, had previously helped run several right-wing Facebook pages and websites that shared conspiracy theories and false political news.

... $20M is still at large and unaccounted for. This money was donations made by many duped Trump donors who thought they were helping to finance building the wall.

... It is not known what was the arrangement between Bannon and Trump as to where this money was ultimately intended to go. Undoubtedly, Trump guaranteeing Bannon a federal pardon for any Federal laws broken emboldened criminal behavior.

[Copier Addict]

Re: The Shining City Upon a Hill

Remember all those grandiose declarations you made when Biden was elected? Yeah, none of them come true. In fact, things couldn 't be any worse. If this were a Batman movie, the Joker would be in charge and played by Joe Biden. Crime, crime, crime. Runaway inflation. On the brink of nuclear war.

You want us to believe things are peachy? You're out of your skull.

Oooops. Is that more fear you are pushing? Sure looks like it.

[BillyCarpenter]

Re: The Shining City Upon a Hill

Oooops. Is that more fear you are pushing? Sure looks like it.

You have fear and truth mixed up. Point out the part that isn't true.

[bsm2]

Re: The Shining City Upon a Hill

Poor Mr Mississippi Doom and Gloom

Another week another day ANOTHER hour of Doom and Gloom

Best US GDP in Decades
Low unemployment
Jobs Everywhere but in Mississippi apparently
NATO United
The world United Against Russia
Yep it's Always been Russia Russia Russia
American Rescue Plan
Largest Road And Bridges program
ACA more popular than ever
220 Million Americans Vaccinated
Construction everywhere but Mississippi

[SalesServiceGuy]

Re: The Shining City Upon a Hill

January 6 to take center stage at disqualification hearing for Marjorie Taylor Greene


A potentially precedent-setting disqualification hearing will kick off Friday in an Atlanta courtroom to determine if Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia is constitutionally barred from running for reelection because of her role in the January 6 insurrection.

Greene is expected to be called as a witness during the marathon hearing – making her the first lawmaker to testify under oath about their involvement in the insurrection.

The outcome will reverberate beyond Georgia, because similar challenges are pending against other Republican officials and could be lodged against former President Donald Trump if he runs again in 2024.

The case resolves around a Civil War-era provision of the Fourteenth Amendment, which says any American official who takes an oath to uphold the Constitution is disqualified from holding any future office if they “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.” But how this applies to today is a hotly debated legal question.

Several of Greene’s constituents in her northwest Georgia district initiated the challenge last month with backing from a coalition of liberal activists and constitutional scholars. They claim Greene aided the insurrection by promoting voter fraud myths, posting videos before January 6 railing against the peaceful transfer of power, and allegedly coordinating with protest organizers.

The burden of proof will be on the challengers, to show by a “more likely than not” standard that January 6, 2021 was legally an insurrection, and that Greene helped the insurrectionists. State Judge Charles Beaudrot will preside over the administrative hearing and will issue a recommendation to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on whether Greene should be disqualified.

Greene can appeal Raffensperger’s decision in state courts. She has vehemently denied any wrongdoing regarding the insurrection at the US Capitol, maintains that she “never encouraged political violence” and says she wasn’t involved in planning any protests. Her lawyer thinks Friday’s hearing is a “show trial” and that the entire procedure is an egregious violation of her rights.

It’s notable that the disqualification hearing is even happening. Greene filed a federal lawsuit to shut down the state process – which is how GOP Rep. Madison Cawthorn fended off a similar candidacy challenge in North Carolina. But in a blistering 75-page ruling on Monday, a federal judge rejected many of Greene’s legal arguments and allowed the state case to move forward.

The anti-Greene challenge is backed by Free Speech for People, a legal advocacy group, and Our Revolution, the left-wing group founded by Sen. Bernie Sanders. Greene, who has become infamous for peddling far-right conspiracies, has found support from some conservative legal experts and from Trump himself, who released a lie-filled statement praising her on Thursday.

[BillyCarpenter]

Re: The Shining City Upon a Hill

January 6 to take center stage at disqualification hearing for Marjorie Taylor Greene


A potentially precedent-setting disqualification hearing will kick off Friday in an Atlanta courtroom to determine if Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia is constitutionally barred from running for reelection because of her role in the January 6 insurrection.

The outcome will reverberate beyond Georgia, because similar challenges are pending against other Republican officials and could be lodged against former President Donald Trump if he runs again in 2024.


her northwest Georgia district initiated the challenge last month with backing from a coalition of liberal activists and constitutional scholars. They claim Greene aided the insurrection by promoting voter fraud myths, posting videos before January 6 railing against the peaceful transfer of power, and allegedly coordinating with protest organizers.



how GOP Rep. Madison Cawthorn fended off a similar candidacy challenge in North Carolina. But in a blistering 75-page ruling on Monday, a federal judge rejected many of and allowed the state case to move forward.

The anti-Greene challenge is backed by Free Speech for People, a legal advocacy group, and Our Revolution, the left-wing group founded by Sen. Bernie Sanders. Greene, who has become infamous for peddling far-right conspiracies, has found support from some conservative legal experts and from Trump himself, who released a lie-filled statement praising her on Thursday.

You always talk about all the money you make in the stock market. Why don't you take some of that money and bet me on some of this stuff? Like all the other bullshit conspiracies that you post...this is going nowhere.

[SalesServiceGuy]

Re: The Shining City Upon a Hill

An incredibly damning quote from Mitch McConnell on January 6


Mitch McConnell knew that what happened on January 6, 2021, was deeply wrong. And that blame for the riot that day lay at the feet of then-President Donald Trump.

We now have definitive proof of that fact, thanks to a new excerpt published Thursday from the forthcoming book “This Will Not Pass” by New York Times reporters Alex Burns and Jonathan Martin.

“The Democrats are going to take care of the son of a bitch for us,” McConnell told two associates just days after the insurrection, referring to the effort to impeach Trump in the Democratic-led House, according to the Times’ reporters.

And of Trump’s guilt, McConnell was equally clear-eyed: “If this isn’t impeachable, I don’t know what is,” he said. There was even talk that McConnell himself might vote to convict Trump in a Senate impeachment trial.

But as the days passed, McConnell’s position on Trump changed – to the point that when the Senate voted on whether to convict Trump in mid-February 2021, McConnell voted “no.”

So what changed McConnell’s mind? Did he conduct an analysis of Trump’s behavior that day and find evidence that exonerated the President? Nope!

“I didn’t get to be leader by voting with five people in the conference,” the Times’ reporters quote McConnell as telling a friend by way of explaining his change of heart.

On one level, McConnell is absolutely right. The way that you rise into leadership – in any party – is by successfully channeling the collective will of your colleagues.

But there is a big difference between doing the things that can get you elected to leadership and being, you know, an actual leader.

Just a quick reminder of what happened at the Capitol on January 6: An armed mob stormed the building with the express purpose of disrupting the counting of the Electoral College votes. They did so because the sitting President of the United States at the time had, repeatedly and without any proof, told them that the 2020 election had been stolen.

Several people died as a result of that day. More than 100 police officers were injured. Roughly 750 people have been charged for their role in the riot.

This is not, in short, a debate over immigration or education policy. In those situations, it makes sense that McConnell would take the temperature of his fellow Republican senators before offering up his position.

But we are talking about an armed assault on the US Capitol here! This was – and is – a moment when real leadership is demanded. When political calculations about your standing in the Senate should go out the window because, well, democracy is literally being attacked right in front of you.

That’s not what McConnell did. Instead, he pulled back from his initial – and utterly justified – principled outrage over Trump’s actions (and inaction) because the majority of his party didn’t share his view.

That’s not leadership. It’s the opposite. And the abdication of leadership by McConnell, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and others within the Republican Party are why Trump is stronger than ever today – as he continues to actively work to undermine the public’s confidence in American elections.

[Copier Addict]

Re: The Shining City Upon a Hill

An incredibly damning quote from Mitch McConnell on January 6


Mitch McConnell knew that what happened on January 6, 2021, was deeply wrong. And that blame for the riot that day lay at the feet of then-President Donald Trump.

We now have definitive proof of that fact, thanks to a new excerpt published Thursday








But there is a big difference between doing the things that can get you elected to leadership and being, you know, an actual leader.

Just a quick reminder of what happened at the Capitol on January 6: An armed mob stormed the building with the express purpose of disrupting the counting of the Electoral College votes. They did so because the sitting President of the United States at the time had, repeatedly and without any proof, told them that the 2020 election had been stolen.

Several people died as a result of that day. More than 100 police officers were injured. Roughly 750 people have been charged for their role in the riot.

This is not, in short, a debate over immigration or education policy. In those situations, it makes sense that McConnell would take the temperature of his fellow Republican senators before offering up his position.

real leadership is demanded. When political calculations about your standing in the Senate should go out the window because, well, democracy is literally being attacked right in front of you.

And don't forget how he likes to suck up to dictators. And how he would like to be one.

[BillyCarpenter]

Re: The Shining City Upon a Hill

And don't forget how he likes to suck up to dictators. And how he would like to be one.

We haven't forget that Trudeau wants that. You've yet to come to terms with it. Here it is in black & white. Ouch. That must burn your Canadian ass that your hero loves communism.




Read:

Wearing a pale blue shirt and a smile, the fresh-faced Liberal Party leader answered Communist China.told the group of women

[Phil B.]

Re: The Shining City Upon a Hill

Is this the representative we want?

Ilhan Omar Blasted by Foreign Government for Violating 'Territorial Integrity' with Rare Move

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[Copier Addict]

Re: The Shining City Upon a Hill

We haven't forget that Trudeau wants that. You've yet to come to terms with it. Here it is in black & white. Ouch. That must burn your Canadian ass that your hero loves communism.




Read:

Sorry dude. You have me confused with someone else. Perhaps yourself. I have ZERO politician heroes.
That includes trudeau.

You on the other hand are carrying the water for a wannabe dictator. It's lucky for everyone that he is too dumb to pull it off.

[Phil B.]

Re: The Shining City Upon a Hill

Psaki May Soon Find Herself Under Federal Investigation for Disparaging Fox News: Watchdog

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[BillyCarpenter]

Re: The Shining City Upon a Hill

Sorry dude. You have me confused with someone else. Perhaps yourself. I have ZERO politician heroes.
That includes trudeau.

You on the other hand are carrying the water for a wannabe dictator. It's lucky for everyone that he is too dumb to pull it off.

Conversely, Trudeau has managed to pull off being the dictator of Canada rather smoothly.

Trudeau's coup de grace was arresting his opponents, throwing them in jail and seizing their bank accounts. All the while he had your full support.

You're a communist sympathizer if not a full blown one.

[Copier Addict]

Re: The Shining City Upon a Hill

Conversely, Trudeau has managed to pull off being the dictator of Canada rather smoothly.

Trudeau's coup de grace was arresting his opponents, throwing them in jail and seizing their bank accounts. All the while he had your full support.

You're a communist sympathizer if not a full blown one.

If by "his opponents" you mean people illegally blocking streets and basically shutting down a city, then yup.

And then three days later, he rescinded the act. Oooooo big coup. LOL

It doesn't take hero worship to understand that. It just takes some intelligence.

Trump on the other hand actually praised putin's invasion of Ukraine and you can't even bring yourself to admit the truth. Now that IS hero worship.