A report card on the Biden administration

[Sandy Shanks]

Donald Trump is the acknowledged leader of the Republican Party, and the presumptive Republican nominee for the Presidency in 2024. Is Trump bent on destroying the Republican Party?

Despite the crazy logic of that question, there are indications that is exactly what Trump wants to do.

Or, Trump is no longer mentally sound.

Trump told his followers that unless he is restored as the President, Republicans will not vote in the next two elections.

"If we don't solve the Presidential Election Fraud of 2020 (which we have thoroughly and conclusively documented), Republicans will not be voting in '22 or '24," Trump said in a statement via his Save America PAC. "It is the single most important thing for Republicans to do."

Then, one has to look at who he is endorsing.

CNN reports, "Donald Trump is throwing his support behind a trio of candidates whose troubled pasts have come under scrutiny, as he continues to influence the standards of the GOP from his Mar-a-Lago perch.

"In Georgia, Trump has wholeheartedly endorsed former football star Herschel Walker for Senate, even though he's faced allegations of threatening multiple women over the span of a decade. In Ohio, Trump is backing former senior White House adviser Max Miller for Congress -- even as he faces allegations of abuse from his ex-girlfriend, former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham. And in Pennsylvania, Trump threw his support behind retired Army captain Sean Parnell, who is embroiled in a custody battle with an estranged wife who previously obtained two temporary protection from abuse orders against him."

Then there is a rather strange phenomenon regarding Donald Trump's endorsements.

Most Republican candidates want Trump's endorsement. Most Republican candidates are doing their utmost to avoid Trump and they don't want to appear on the same stage with him.

Go figure.

Case in point, Glenn Youngkin, the Republican candidate for the governor of Virginia.

The Hill reports. "Glenn Youngkin is running as Trump-lite; it's a challenging journey.
The GOP nominee for governor of Virginia is trying to thread a delicate political needle: to be Trumpian enough to energize the party's hard-core base, but not so much it turns off independent-minded suburban voters who have turned the state politically blue this century.

Why is there such a phenomenon? It's simple, really.

The Republican Party gets its support from the rural counties of America. For the most part they are farmers, ranchers and rural shopkeepers with limited education and little time for news sources. Their awareness of political matters is highly limited. All they know is, Trump is their savior without ever knowing why.

Just how uninformed are Trump Republicans?

A majority of Republicans still believe the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump, according to a Yahoo News/YouGov poll. The latest findings show how persistent this false narrative continues to be, despite the preponderance of evidence against it.

That uninformed!

 

[Who_Me?]

Trump has been unhinged for quite a few years.

 

[toobfreak]

WOW. Too funny. Looked in on a thread about giving Joe Biden a report card, and instead, the triggered woke OP is still babbling on about Trump.

 

[Sandy Shanks]

“We’re going to walk down to the Capitol. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.”

“When you catch somebody in a fraud, you are allowed to go by very different rules."

“We fight like hell and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

The House Jan.6 select committee is closing in on Trump.

CNN reports, "At least five former Trump administration staffers have voluntarily spoken with the House committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, CNN has learned.

"Those discussions come as lawyers working for the committee have also reached out to a range of other Trump aides to inquire whether they would be interested in speaking with the committee voluntarily, without the threat of a subpoena.

"The five former staffers who have had conversations with the committee have done so with either members or their staff. Some believe they have information worth sharing, while others are hoping to avoid being legally compelled to talk to the committee.

"The engagement could provide insight for the committee that's seeking to learn more about the actions of former President Donald Trump and his supporters in the lead up to the riot."

CNN continued, "The House select committee investigating January 6 has reached out to Chad Wolf and Ken Cuccinelli, two top officials from the Trump-era Department of Homeland Security, asking that they voluntarily speak with the panel.

"Cuccinelli said he has been asked to meet with investigators but he has not yet engaged in a discussion with the committee. A source familiar with the probe said that Wolf, who was acting secretary until he resigned in January, also has been contacted.

"The committee has not issued a subpoena for Cuccinelli or Wolf at this time. They are the first known DHS officials to have been contacted by the committee."

Despite his fiery speech that incited the insurrection, Trump maintains that he did no wrong while at the same time telling his associates to disobey Congressional subpoenas and asserting mythical executive privilege to keep White House documents from the prying eyes of the House committee.

CNN adds, "The showdown with Biden fuels Trump's attempts to turn efforts to investigate the tumultuous end to his presidency into fodder for a political comeback. He's already making the midterms and the 2024 presidential election into a platform for his falsehoods that power was stolen from him in a rigged election. Trump and his allies have branded Biden's refusal to cooperate with his political power grabs as evidence of a political vendetta against the ex-President."

Not surprisingly, his gullible and less than mindful fans will believe him. They don't require substantiation because Trump is their prophet for some unknown reason they can't define.

 

[toobfreak]

The House Jan.6 select committee is closing in on Trump.

Well, we all knew they weren't going to ever close in on anything else!

Meantime, Shitsky, they aren't even looking at what caused the event, from the very beginning, we all knew the only purpose of the hearing was to try to KEEP Trump from getting reelected by the People now that the deep state has colluded to illegally remove him.

So tell me Junior, after hearing that they were about to get Trump any day now in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and now 2021, how much closer do they need to get before they actually get him?

 

[Sandy Shanks]

Under the mistaken belief that Iran's nuclear program had a ten year expiration date, but mostly because the agreement was made during the Obama administration, Trump made an egregious error. He canceled the Iranian nuclear agreement which permanently barred Iran from making a nuclear weapon. The agreement was signed by the six major powers known as the P5+1 and Iran.

"Iran stopped complying with the deal after former US President Donald Trump pulled out of the agreement in 2018 and imposed a maximum pressure campaign on Iran with stiff new sanctions," CNN.

Due to Trump's lack of understanding, the U.S. destroyed the effective agreement. President Biden has been trying desperately to restore the agreement. Under pressure from the Biden government, Iran has changed her position.

CNN explains, "Under the Biden administration, the US has continuously called for Iran's return to the talks. However, Washington said last month that it was working on contingency plans if Iran continues to make nuclear advances and fails to return to negotiations.

"US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned earlier this month that the window for diplomacy with Tehran was closing. "I'm not going to put a specific date on it, but with every passing day and Iran's refusal to engage in good faith, the runway gets shortened," Blinken said.

CNN continued, "Iran has agreed to resume crucial nuclear talks "before the end of November," the country's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani said in a tweet on Wednesday.

"Bagheri Kani was meeting Enrique Mora, the EU's External Action Service Deputy Head, in Brussels on Wednesday, to discuss the resumption of talks that were suspended in June after six rounds.

"Iran had been holding the talks in Vienna with China, Germany, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and indirectly the United States (P5+1).

"The negotiations aim to resurrect the nuclear deal, known officially as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA, under which Iran agreed to limit its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions."

 

[Sandy Shanks]

Out of desperation caused by the fool who occupied the Oval Office before Biden, it is not surprising that Republicans are blaming our President for just about everything these days.

Biden is being blamed for the pandemic which in turn is responsible for the supply chain difficulties which is responsible for shortages of just about everything which is causing inflation. Without going into detail -- because there isn't any -- according to Republicans, our President is somehow responsible for the worldwide shortage of fuel which is driving prices still higher.

Unfortunately for Republicans the President is no more responsible for these temporary economic difficulties than Hoover being responsible for the Great Depression. In 2008, Bush was not responsible for the Great Recession, and Trump was not responsible for the pandemic induced recession during the spring and summer of 2020.

Unless our President loses a war, the President has little or no control over the largest economy in the world ... ours. Nevertheless, Americans blame our Presidents if the economy goes bad, and give credit to our Presidents if the economy is doing well.

Both the blame and the credit are undeserved. No one man is responsible for what our huge economy does. Our economy is in the hands of business leaders and the American worker.

That said, despite the lingering effects of the pandemic, our economy is doing quite well.

The stock market is a bellwether for future economic success or failure.

ABC News reports, "A broad rally for stocks on Wall Street sent the S&P 500 and Nasdaq to new highs Thursday, as the market more than made up for modest losses a day earlier.

"The S&P 500 rose 1%, posting its third all-time high this week. More than 80% of the stocks in the benchmark index closed higher. Technology stocks, banks and a mix of companies that rely on consumer spending accounted for much of the gains.

"The Nasdaq rose 1.4%, nudging the tech-heavy index above its previous record high set Sept. 7. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.7%, leaving it just shy of the all-time high it set on Tuesday.

"The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell to a pandemic low last week as the job market continues to recover from last year's coronavirus recession.

"Jobless claims dropped by 10,000 to 281,000, lowest since mid-March 2020, the Labor Department said Thursday. Since topping 900,000 in early January, weekly applications have steadily dropped, moving ever closer to pre-pandemic levels."

Does the President get any credit for our thriving economy?

As explained, hell no.

 

[Wyld Kard]

 

[Sandy Shanks]

Democrats seem to be doing everything within their power to ensure that Republicans regain control of Congress in November 2022 and that Biden is a one term President.

For President Joe Biden and his domestic agenda, there was no time left.

NBC News reports, "Biden raced this week to stitch together a $1.75 trillion revision of his "Build Back Better" plan, and he personally pressured House Democrats to vote for his $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill before leaving for Europe. He addressed the nation on the merits of both measures just hours before he departed for the trip overseas.

"The frenetic rush flowed from a confluence of deadlines.

"Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic nominee for governor in Virginia, urged the White House to deliver on the infrastructure bill before voters go to the polls Tuesday. And, perhaps most important, Biden didn't want to walk empty-handed into a major climate conference in Scotland that begins Sunday."

Unfortunately, the Democrats failed to give the President a win, and Biden met with other world leaders empty-handed. Democrats in the House and Senate seem to be determined to embarrass the American President as he faced world leaders..

Even though Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., the progressive caucus chair.has said her caucus unanimously approved the framework for Build Back Better, progressives vowed to vote down the infrastructure bill to ensure they could continue to negotiate on the Build Back Better framework that Biden struck with Senate moderates Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz.

“Members of our caucus will not vote for the infrastructure bill without the Build Back Better Act,” Jayapal said. “We will work immediately to finalize and pass both pieces of legislation through the House together.”

The Democratic failure to support the Democratic President wasn't entirely the fault of progressives.

The Times reports, "Senators Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, moderate Democrats who had forced the original $3.5 trillion proposal to be halved delivered halfhearted statements that pointedly did not promise that they would support the president’s new framework for a deal on the spending bill."

It is easy to see why House progressives would be hesitant.

There is no one person to blame. The Democratic Party as a whole is working together to provide the Republican Party victories in 2022 and 2024.

A lot could change before the elections.

That means Democratic lawmakers need to change what they are doing and support the Democratic President.

 

[Sandy Shanks]

No one man is responsible for what our huge economy does. Our economy is in the hands of business leaders and the American worker.

That said, despite the lingering effects of the pandemic, our economy is doing quite well.

Great news for the American worker providing they are not dumb enough to quit their jobs over their vaccination status

ABC reports,"Wages jumped in the three months ending in September by the most on records dating back 20 years, a stark illustration of the growing ability of workers to demand higher pay from companies that are desperate to fill a near-record number of available jobs.

"Workers have gained the upper hand in the job market for the first time in at least two decades, and they are commanding higher pay, more benefits, and other perks like flexible work hours. With more jobs available than there are unemployed people, government data shows, businesses have been forced to work harder to attract staff."

 

[Sandy Shanks]

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned earlier this month that the window for diplomacy with Tehran was closing. "I'm not going to put a specific date on it, but with every passing day and Iran's refusal to engage in good faith, the runway gets shortened," Blinken said.

CNN continued, "Iran has agreed to resume crucial nuclear talks "before the end of November," the country's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani said in a tweet on Wednesday.

We continue to pay a price for Trump's lack of experience and knowledge. Pulling out of the Iranian nuclear deal was a huge mistake for which the world is still paying.

"We're continuing to suffer from the very bad decisions President Trump made to pull out of the JCPOA," Biden said at the G20 in Rome, using the acronym for the formal name of the nuclear agreement -- the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

CNN reports, "The Iran nuclear deal was abandoned by the US under the Trump administration and talks to resurrect the deal in Vienna were suspended in late June after six rounds between Iran, China, Germany, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and -- indirectly -- the United States. The Biden administration has pledged to reenter the deal, but the President's negotiators have been faced with tough talks and decisions on how to do so. At the same time, Iran began enriching uranium again once the Trump administration pulled the US out of the deal and has become more belligerent in the Middle East, as hardline new leadership has risen to power and Iranian-backed militias continue to strike American troops.

"Biden held a meeting three of the leaders of nations who are party to that deal -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson -- on Saturday at the G20. The leaders said afterward they are "convinced that it is possible to quickly reach and implement an understanding on return to full compliance" of the Iran nuclear deal.

"The meeting came two days after the US imposed new sanctions on Iran related to its drone program and less than a week after Tehran announced it would return to nuclear talks in Vienna with following a four-month hiatus."

 

[Sandy Shanks]

The Republican Party is in the grip of grassroots Trump supporters with limited education and little understanding of what is happening around them.

The Republican Party gets its support from the rural counties of America. For the most part they are farmers, ranchers and rural shopkeepers with limited education. They don't know the truth about their party, they don't know what Trump has said and done, and they don't want to know. Theirs is a blind loyalty to Trump very similar to a cult.

Republicans are doing their level best to ignore what their party and their party's leader are doing. It is, indeed, a strange phenomenon. Take for example the governor's race in Virginia.

The Republican candidate for governor in Virginia says he agrees with Trump, but didn't want Trump to be anywhere near Virginia during his campaign.

CNN reports, "Virginia's Republican candidate for governor, Glenn Youngkin, has walked a fine line in his embrace of former President Donald Trump. He's declared Trump "represents so much of why I'm running," and has said he's "honored" by Trump's endorsement in the tight gubernatorial race against Democrat Terry McAuliffe. Before casting their ballots on Tuesday, Virginia voters deserve to know exactly what part of Trump's past would cause Youngkin to feel "honored" to have his support."

Does he feel "honored" by Trump's role in setting the stage for the January 6 insurrection, which resulted in roughly 140 police officers being injured? Is Youngkin "honored" to have Trump's support given Trump's behind-the-scenes efforts to overturn the votes of more than 81 million Americans? Or maybe Youngkin is "honored" to have Trump's endorsement because of his documented lies about the threat posed by Covid-19?

Little wonder why Republicans avoid mentioning their savior. They can be blindly loyal to him, but they don't have to talk about him.

Youngkin avoided Trump by emphasizing education in his campaign, which brings me to the Critical Race Theory. Essentially, Republicans are against it, but they have no idea what it is.

In the final days of the campaign, Youngkin did everything he could to suggest the contest was a referendum on what is being taught to Virginia's schoolchildren.

"There's no place for critical race theory in our school system, and why, on day one, I'm going to ban it," Youngkin told Fox News' Mark Levin over the weekend, adding that critical race theory "teaches children to see everything through a lens of race and then to divide them into buckets and have children [who] are called privileged and others [who] are victims."

But what is the Critical Race Theory? The problem for Republicans is illustrated in a video posted Monday by The Good Liars, in which a Virginia voter is asked what the most important issue is in the governor's race.

"Getting back to the basics of teaching children, not teaching them critical race theory," he responds.

He's then asked what critical race theory is.

"I'm not going to get into the specifics of it because I don't understand it that much but it's something -- what little bit I know -- I don't care for," he responds. Pressed further for any details about CRT, he responds: "I don't have that much knowledge on it but it's something that I don't care for."

Exactly my point.

 

[Sandy Shanks]

Republicans are doing their level best to ignore what their party and their party's leader are doing. It is, indeed, a strange phenomenon. Take for example the governor's race in Virginia.

November 2 was a good day for conservatives.

The best example of that was the governor's race in Virginia.

Republican Glenn Youngkin won the race by sidelining Trump, the Republican party leader. He paid lip service to Trump to keep the farmers and rural shop keepers in line, but he made clear he was not interested in campaigning with Trump and Trump was not invited to Virginia. Mercifully, Trump stayed away, an aberation for the headline hunting former President.

I was a Republican for a quarter of century, but Trump drove me out. I officially became a California conservative Independent in 2020.

That said, Youngkin is my kind of Republican, very much unlike Trump and his followers in Congress, some of whom are trying to avoid being subpoenaed because they wanted to overturn the votes of 81 million Americans.

The AP reports, "A former private equity executive, Youngkin presented himself as a nonthreatening suburban dad in a fleece vest. He embraced Trump just enough to win the GOP primary and rev up the party base but was also able to target more moderate voters by talking about fiscal management and investing in schools and campaigning without the former president at his side.

"According to AP VoteCast, a survey of voters, it paid off. While a majority of voters held an unfavorable view of Trump, about half had a favorable view of Youngkin.

"Youngkin’s arm’s-length approach to Trump didn’t seem to hurt him with GOP voters. Most Youngkin voters, about 8 in 10, said the candidate supports Trump the right amount."

Look for more Republicans next year try to model themselves after Youngkin in swing areas — refusing to disavow Trump but not hugging him too closely, and tailoring their messages to both the former president’s most hardcore voters and persuadable suburbanites, the AP

Here's hoping Youngkin is the Republican of the future, a Reagan/Bush Republican. My kind of Republican.

In addition, conservatives, and maybe even some Democrats, rejected an absolutely ludicrous proposal to replace the city’s police department with a new Department of Public Safety.

All in all, a good day for conservatives.

 

[Sandy Shanks]

Look for more Republicans next year try to model themselves after Youngkin in swing areas — refusing to disavow Trump but not hugging him too closely, and tailoring their messages to both the former president’s most hardcore voters and persuadable suburbanites, the AP

Here's hoping Youngkin is the Republican of the future, a Reagan/Bush Republican.

Screw Trump and the horse he rode in on.

Perhaps even Trump's base is tired of his baseless lies, and weary of trying to support those lies without a shred of evidence. Perhaps, too, they are tired of the abuse that has been heaped upon them when they try to deal with Trump and his lies.

This would be good for the Republican Party. Indeed, many of its leaders would breathe a sigh of relief. They are tired of being at the mercy of uneducated, uninformed grassroots Trump fans.

Zachary B. Wolf writes, "In Tuesday's elections, Republican candidates surged in blue states, cities rejected major police reform and suburban voters showed their independence. The major takeaways? This is a more moderate and centrist country than activists on either the right or left let on, and Donald Trump fever may be breaking.

"The system is working. Here's one thing everybody can be happy about: The election results, for the most part, are not being questioned. That may have a lot to do with Republicans doing well. But the results should prove to them that Trump's voter fraud myth is in fact a myth.

 

[Sandy Shanks]

November 2 was a good day for conservatives.

With respect to the 2022 mid-term elections, November 2 might prove to be a good lesson for Democrats.

Virginia Rep. Abigail Spanberger offered this piece of advice to the Democratic Party.

"Nobody elected him [Biden] to be F.D.R., they elected him to be normal and stop the chaos."

The Hill also had some advice for Democrats.

It said, "A poor night at the ballot box on Tuesday has left some Democrats questioning how best to move forward with President Biden’s spending plans and whether the party needs to refocus its agenda to win over voters."

Some "wondered if McAuliffe’s loss in a state Biden easily carried last year was a sign the party misread what moderate voters wanted when they put Democrats in office."

"Biden on Wednesday told reporters “people want us to get things done” and said lawmakers should have passed his agenda before Election Day, and Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), a former Virginia governor himself, told reporters the inability for the party to come to a compromise sooner hurt McAuliffe’s ability to sell his vision to voters," The Hill said.

But that might not be the problem at all. Perhaps the real problem facing Democrats is far different.

Consider this:

• Congress passed -- and Biden signed into law -- the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan.
• The Senate passed -- and the House is debating -- a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure deal that would fund much-needed repairs and updates on roads and bridges (and the like).
• Senate and House Democrats are considering a social safety net bill with an estimated price tag of $1.75 billion.

Total it up and you get almost $5 trillion in additional government spending in the first year of Biden's first term, to be disbursed over a decade. CNN

"The Biden view of the 2020 election was that the country was at a crisis moment -- created by the twin cataclysms of Donald Trump's presidency and a once-in-a-century pandemic -- and that he was elected to lead it through to the other side," CNN.

He may be right, but Tuesday indicates Biden may not be on the side of the angels.

"What Spanberger is suggesting is that Biden tried to govern like FDR -- massive government spending on huge social programs -- without FDR majorities or an FDR mandate from the public.

"Her belief is that Biden was NOT, in fact, elected to fundamentally reshape the country and the relationship its average citizen has (or wants) with the government. That he was actually elected to be a steady hand on the tiller -- in the wake of the Trump chaos -- and to steer the country, from a public health and economic perspective, back to some semblance of normal," again CNN.

And she may be right. The problem for Democrats -- and it is not just Virginia -- is that Tuesday is an indicator that she is.

 

[Sandy Shanks]

And she may be right. The problem for Democrats -- and it is not just Virginia -- is that Tuesday is an indicator that she is.

Regarding Tuesday's election, because it is a southern state, Virginia is unique. Maybe because it lost the fight, the confederacy is very pervasive among many southern whites.

Moreover, Virginia led the confederacy in the fight against the federal government. Robert E. Lee is a hero in Virginia (and elsewhere in the South). Lee was from Virginia, and he was a slave owner. He literally led the charge against the United States government.

Most southerners who were born in the South are quite sensitive when it comes to their state's history. Because it led the South in the Civil War, that is particularly true of homebred Virginians, and that is especially true when it comes federal government overreach.

While many in the northern states do not understand the relevance of the Critical Race Theory, this is why the CRT was so important to Virginia voters, and why Youngkin stressed it so much. While the CRT is not taught in Virginia schools, American history is, of which slavery and the Civil War are a part.

It is understandable that Virginians would be sensitive to their state's role regarding slavery.

There is little doubt all this played a role in the outcome of the November 2 election.

 

[Sandy Shanks]

Vladimir Putin, the Russian dictator who helped Trump become President in 2016, could not be happier. A major American party led by the American President attempted a coup that culminated in the January 6 insurrection.

The House January 6 Select Committee is investigating the Trump inspired insurrection, and Trump and his associates are looking very guilty, as they refuse subpoenas. Trump is claiming executive privilege as a former President. Such a claim has no precedence and is not supported by law.

Most Americans haven’t heard of Beryl Howell and Tanya Chutkan. Yet these two federal judges are poised to help deliver troves of hidden information to Congressional investigators over the next few weeks that could dramatically reshape the public’s understanding of the Jan. 6 insurrection. They see no merit to Trump’s unprecedented and expansive view of executive privilege for a former president. The decision to put his case on a rapid timetable is the first clue, according to Politico.

CNN reports, "Many of Trump's actions were done in public view, including dozens of ill-fated lawsuits and tweets that undermined the electoral process. However, perhaps the most disturbing aspect of Trump's attempted coup was how he relentlessly tried to weaponize the Justice Department to nullify President Joe Biden's victory. The Senate Judiciary Committee investigated Trump's conduct and concluded in a recent report that he "grossly abused the power of the presidency.'"

Graciously, CNN kindly provided a timeline of Trump's coup attempt which was aided by the Republican Party. Hours after the insurrection ended, six Republican Senators and 121 House Republicans voted against the electors chosen by the voters in Arizona. House members also objected to the electors chosen by voters in the cases of Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan and Nevada, according NPR.

After Election Day Trump immediately started pressuring local, state and federal officials to overturn the results. Trump pleaded with state officials in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Georgia. He and his allies filed meritless lawsuits across the country seeking to nullify the results. Trump and his allies repeatedly urged top Justice Department officials to help them overturn the results.

On November 19th, Trump attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell held a bizarre news conference filled with lies about fraud and unhinged talk of a worldwide conspiracy to rig the election. Powell says, "A full-scale criminal investigation needs to be undertaken immediately by the Department of Justice." No evidence of fraud was presented.

On December 1, William Barr tells The Associated Press in a bombshell interview that the Justice Department didn't find widespread fraud.

December 19, Trump tweeted, “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!”

January 6, 2021, insurrection, the capitol is ransacked, lawmakers fled for their lives, the vice-president is threatened, 140 police are injured, five died.

For much more, see Timeline of the coup: How Trump tried to weaponize the DOJ to overturn the 2020 election

 

[Sandy Shanks]

ABC News reports, "Hiring gained steam in October, with U.S. employers adding 531,000 jobs and the unemployment rate edging down by a fraction of a percentage point, to 4.6%, the Department of Labor said Friday.

"Job growth was widespread and beat economists' expectations. Major gains were seen in leisure and hospitality, professional and business services, manufacturing, and in the transportation and warehousing sectors, indicative of a post-pandemic rebound in the labor market after months of disappointing hiring figures. In September, employers added some 312,000 jobs, according to revised DOL figures released Friday."

In addition, the stock market is going up and up. Those with IRA's and other investments have to be happy.

 

[Sandy Shanks]

December 19, Trump tweeted, “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!”

January 6, 2021, insurrection, the capitol is ransacked, lawmakers fled for their lives, the vice-president is threatened, 140 police are injured, five died.

This may all become moot.

The Times reports, "The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol issued subpoenas on Monday for six close allies of former President Donald J. Trump who promoted false claims of election fraud or worked to overturn the results of the 2020 vote, including his former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn."

None of the six worked for the Trump administration during the three years prior to the insurrection on Jan. 6, nor were they working for the government. What exactly does that mean? Pleading executive privilege is like asking for favors from the tooth fairy.

The Times continued,"The subpoenas demand records and testimony from Mr. Trump’s campaign manager Bill Stepien and a senior adviser, Jason Miller, as well as others associated with a so-called war room of planners who sought to halt Congress’s counting of electoral votes before a violent mob overtook the Capitol. They include John Eastman, a lawyer who drafted a memo laying out how Mr. Trump could use Congress to try to overturn the election and Mr. Flynn, who discussed seizing voting machines and invoking certain national security emergency powers.

"The subpoenas demand that the witnesses turn over documents this month and sit for depositions in early December."

Will the committee get the documents and testimony from these six? Hell no!

The committee has gotten zilch from the original four, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, former White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications Daniel Scavino, former Defense Department official Kashyap Patel, and former Trump advisor Stephen Bannon.

It's been two weeks since Steve Bannon was referred to the Justice Department by the House, voting to proceed with criminal contempt of Congress, at the urging of the select committee investigating the January 6th insurrection. The DOJ has done nothing.

Eastman, Trump's lawyer who attempted to justify the vice president nullifying the votes of 81 million Americans on Jan. 6 appeared before the committee. He flipped them off, claiming executive privilege.

All this simply emboldens the ten Trump associates to say nothing to the committee.

The point being, the Jan. 6 select committee and the American people will never hear from Trump's close associates. Trump himself? Forget it. These people will draw this out in the courts until the November 2022 elections. That's the plan.

The point being, so what?

The Jan. 6 select committee is in the process of gathering reams of documents, hours and hours of videos, and hours and hours of testimony. By the time they report to the American people, they will have amassed sufficient evidence to be able to make decisions concerning responsibilities for the January 6 insurrection.

In addition, the unwillingness of Trump and his associates to explain their involvement in the attempt to change the will of the American people will make them look very guilty.

Prior to the November mid-term elections, in the court of public opinion, that is enough.

 

[Abatis]

Here, I found Puddinghead's report card. It was issued today by Suffolk Univ / USAToday. They asked 1000 people what they thought the single thing is that Biden should do over the next year:

This shows how registered Americans grade Xiden and the real grade for the Demagenda, the precise levels of importance . . .

And just to answer the question before it is asked:

https://www.suffolk.edu/-/media/suffolk/documents/academics/research-at-suffolk/suprc/polls/national/2021/11_8_2021_marginals.pdf

.