Whatyafraidof anyway?

Ex president in exile in Florida, Donald what’s his name, refuses to testify in what his spokesman Jason Miller terms as the the unconstitutional impeachment trial against him in the Senate. Heck, he could at least come in and plead the fifth.

“The President will not testify in an unconstitutional proceeding,” Trump spokesman Jason Miller said.

The statement from Miller came shortly after Trump’s defense team responded to a call from Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.) for the former president to testify and accused Democrats of waging a “public relations stunt.”

“As you certainly know, there is no such thing as a negative interference in this unconstitutional proceeding,” Trump lawyers Bruce L. Castor Jr. and David Schoen said in a letter to Raskin. “Your letter only confirms what is known to everyone: you cannot prove your allegations against the 45th President of the United States, who is now a private citizen.”

While Castor and Schoen did not explicitly say in their letter that Trump will not testify, they were dismissive of Democrats’ efforts.

“The use of our Constitution to bring a purported impeachment proceeding is much too serious to try to play these games,” they said.

Coulda been a good show.

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89 thoughts on “Whatyafraidof anyway?”

  1. cnn back in 2018:

    “If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment,” Trump said as a candidate in 2016, complaining about aides to his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, who faced inquires over the use of a private email service when she was secretary of state.
    “The mob takes the Fifth,” Trump declared.

    and from needtoimpeach:

    Trump has had a lot to say about the Fifth Amendment in the past.
    “You see the mob takes the Fifth,” he said. “If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?”
    Another time, he said, “Fifth Amendment. Fifth Amendment. Fifth Amendment. Horrible.”
    During a presidential debate, he said,
    “When you have your staff taking the Fifth Amendment, taking the Fifth, so they’re not prosecuted, when you have the man that set up the illegal server taking the Fifth, I think it’s disgraceful.
    But his lawyer, Michael Cohen, just took the Fifth Amendment. Based on Trump’s logic, he must be guilty then, right?

  2. loved the official statement from SAG-AFTRA* yesterday:

    SAG-AFTRA today released the below statement regarding Donald J. Trump’s resignation from the union in response to disciplinary charges filed by SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris and National Executive Director David White:

    “Thank you.”

    For more information on the disciplinary charges against Mr. Trump for his violation of the SAG-AFTRA constitution, see here: sagaftra.org/sag-aftra-national-board-orders-disciplinary-hearing-donald-trump

    See Mr. Trump’s resignation letter here: sagaftra.org/files/SAG-AFTRAResignationLetterfromPresidentDonaldJTrump.pdf

    *The Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists is an American labor union representing approximately 160,000 film and television actors, journalists,

     

  3. BTW, on his letter to SAG is his new questionable legal use of US seal

    from IBtimes:

    Former President Donald Trump may have left the White House for his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida, but a recent letter signed and sealed by him suggests he still considers himself to be the commander-in-chief of the United States.

    Trump has been banned from Twitter but a letter in which the ex-president tendered his resignation from the Screen Actors Guild—American Federation of Television and Radio Artists – a union representing actors, broadcasters and performing artists – is being widely circulated on social media.

    […]

    While the letter sparked controversy over Trump’s level of pettiness, social media users almost immediately noticed that Trump used a seal bearing an uncanny resemblance to the Presidential Seal and even signed the document as “President Donald Trump.”

    According to the Cornell Law School, “Whoever knowingly displays any printed or other likeness of the great seal of the United States, or of the seals of the President…shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.”

    Fact-Check

    The seal of the President of the United States is a symbol of presidency and is used to mark correspondence from the POTUS to the U.S. Congress and other members of the government. The central design of the seal comprises of the Great Seal of the United States – the country’s national symbol. The seal is surrounded by text that reads, “The Seal of the President of the United States.”

    While the seal used by Trump on his letterhead appears to look like the Presidential Seal, it is, in fact, bearing the Great Seal of the United States with the addition of three stars at the bottom and text that reads, “The Office of Donald J. Trump.”

  4. lincoln project had this to say about that:

    @ProjectLincoln

    Of course this is real.

    Image

    3:34 PM Feb. 4, 2021 

  5. from meaaw:

    Is Donald Trump still using Presidential Seal? Letterhead slammed as ‘illegal’ but here’s why it’s not a crime

  6. This morning I had the pleasure of watching C-SPAN2 of the Senate with Madam Vice-President President (of the Senate) providing the final vote to defeat a gqp amend ment to the COVID-19 Relief and then to pass the COVID-19 Relief which is going to end up on President Biden’s desk next week.
     
    This proceeding was so different from the past six years during which the gqp only passed far right people, not real judges in many cases, to federal judiciary positions and continuing resolutions.  The gqp did not vote for it, a nice thing for future elections “you were starving on the street after being evicted, and the Dems came to feed you and get you warmed up”

  7. BB, thanks for the good news.  here’s what CNBC has to say about it:

    The Senate passed a budget resolution, moving forward with the process toward passing a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill after a marathon of votes on dozens of amendments.

    The House approved a budget measure on Wednesday. The chamber will have to vote again after the Senate passes a separate version.

    […]

    Multiple amendments passed during the string of votes, though many were vague and it was not clear how they would affect final legislation. They included a measure to prevent high-income people from getting stimulus checks, another to set up a grant program for restaurants and one to bar tax increases on small businesses during the pandemic.

    An additional amendment that passed aims to prohibit undocumented immigrants from receiving direct payments.

     

  8. As the cycling season ramps up the UCI is banning the super tuck.  Not all riders use it so this affects just a few of them.  One change coming up next year is to make the barriers safer.  Many riders have been hurt slamming into those or riding over the feet holding them up.  Yes folks, an esoteric talk about a most niche, for America, sport.  Bicycle racing.

  9. Being a no-show is tantamount to pleading the Fifth Amendment.   If it looks like a duck and walks like a duck, but refuses to quack, it’s still a guilty duck. 

  10. patD – The resolution on that pic/my phone isn’t clear.  Is the eagle on the seal facing the olive branch or arrows?   If it’s facing the arrows, his followers would see it as a signal to war. 

  11. No super tuck?  The cyclists who blast down mountains on the ragged edge won’t like that. Yes, improve the barriers – safety equipment that causes accidents probably should be improved. 
    With a day to reflect on it I still think MTGQ’s speech yesterday was just ridiculous. 

  12. rachel talks about the seemingly misuse of the term “president” when it comes to the FORMER prez in his defense lawyers’ letters and re his testifying which she also addresses. 

    do wish the media would either refer to him by his  name only or use “former”

  13. Thoughts on what happens to the cult members if SFB goes room temperature from a heart attack or stroke.  Cult members make him a martyr and conspiracy kookiness goes bezerky. The rest of the world throws a party.  gqp ends up in the dumpster and a new party calling themselves the something else party.  The rest of the world throws a party.

  14. BB…..took the thoughts right outa my skull, but I was thinking of the prevailing notion among the True Believers that it was nefarious foul play from the Dip Stet, and baby eating Democrians.  Kinda like they tried to do with Scalia, but given the scene of his demise, were helpless to accomplish in that regard.

  15. Michael Beschloss has been doing a kind of fanciful bit of twitter writing about the weird desolate hermit fellow  hiding away in south florida……kinda funny.

  16. The way i sees it, he did finally acheive full-on Drooling Marius, but was rendered helpless by the institutions and thereby was unable to prosecute and lay waste to his myriad enemies  (I KNOW Rudy did…..lol.) Had he succeeded, there would have been blood in the streets, and heads on pikes.

  17. Is there a spectacle more deranged than that video of K. Gill-foiled dancing before the television as the insurrection was underway?
    It becomes more grotesque and macabre with each passing day.

  18. Aren’t so many of these voting bills going to impact their own voters as well as the regular humans?

  19. They may have voted for that mean-girl wanna be, but they’re going to avoid her dumb ass just like everybody else will. To them it’s not WHAT you believe, but HOW you go about believing it.

  20. Gee…   and everyone thought that once Joe Biden was sworn into office that things would get boring…  myself included.  Rick Wilson’s… Everything Trump Touches Dies…  was an eye opener.  So far….   our nation… and our democracy…  (thankfully to voters and the courts) are holding.  But the gqp….   not so much.  IMO, it’ll take a few years before this stuff shakes out.  But I firmly believe in this country…  it will shake out….   this too shall pass.
     
    But in the meantime…  I’ve come around to Craig’s position….   sit back…  get out the popcorn…  and enjoy the show!

  21. RR – I think the Biden administration is going far beyond anything I imagined.  But, within what I hoped for.  How many people remember the Puerto Rico aid being sidelined?  I had forgotten about it, but it was definitely on somebody’s list to take care of, and immediately.  So many things have been going on during these last two weeks that many are very surprised, like me.  And happy about it. 

  22. Hey, that approval rating for Joe is only 14 points above Dumbass’ highest approval level at 47.1% that he hit on exactly 1 occasion in 4 years.
    And as a fitting tribute to Dumbass’ mismanagement of the pandemic and economy, the economy added only 49,000 jobs in January – tepid at best.
     
    And from NYT:

    WASHINGTON — The Senate endorsed President Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus package just before sunrise on Friday, voting along party lines over unified Republican opposition to approve a budget blueprint that would allow Democrats to enact it with no G.O.P. support.
    After a 15-hour voting session that stretched overnight, Vice President Kamala Harris arrived early in the morning to the Senate dais, where she cast her first tiebreaking vote. The Senate adopted the budget measure by a vote of 51 to 50 at about 5:30 a.m.
    (…)

    Aren’t we happy Joe and Kamala won?

  23. Pogo….  what’s really important is that there will be republican voters who will be really happy when they see those checks in their mailboxes/accounts.

  24. Renee, you are exactly right. Be interesting to see if it changes any minds in 2022. As the saying goes, Money talks and bullshit walks. 

  25. Still hoping for that lightning strike as he golfs, so it’s public…and it looks like a thunderbolt from the almighty took him down, you know, for the ‘vangelicals. The borg collective must be completely separated from their master. However, space abhors a vacuum, so some other con artist will start scamming them. Junior or Ivanker, most likely.

     
    Can we go to a 25-letter alphabet, to completely rid ourselves of the Q?

  26. Looks like we are beginning to see the vast difference between the Dumbass “talk a good game” administration and the Biden “work the problem” administration.  From WaPo:

    More than 1,000 active-duty military personnel are poised to support state vaccination sites, the White House said on Friday as the Biden administration continues to look for ways to ramp up the national inoculation effort.

    [AND]

    The federal government is expanding Pfizer’s priority rating under the Defense Production Act to help the pharmaceutical giant gain access to the equipment it needs to scale up production of the vaccine it developed with German company BioNTech.

    In December, the Trump administration directed suppliers to fulfill Pfizer’s needs under the Korean War-era law when it struck a deal with the company for another 100 million doses of its vaccine, to be delivered in the first half of this year. The Biden administration is seeking 100 million more doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, and hoping that supply can be delivered through the summer.

    Doing something to make things happen – what a concept.

  27. If you’re black or brown, they are the “Law and Order Party”- if you’re white, they are the “Aw C’Mon, Everybody Makes Mistakes, Let’s Forgive and Forget Party”

  28. Watched MTG commentary about her lost of committee seats.  For a supposed “good Christian” woman she does an excellent imitation of a whiny, vicious bitch.

     

  29. OMG…. Craig.  I thought that I’d had enough with Bernie memes… but that was tooooooo funny!

  30. is it a bird? is it a plane? no, it’s SuperNancy!

    wapo:

    The House of Representatives voted largely along party lines to approve a budget plan on Friday that will pave the way for Congress to quickly pass President Biden’s stimulus plan without votes from congressional Republicans.

     

    The House voted 219-209 to approve the budget plan, which the Senate had already passed early Friday morning, beginning the process of turning Biden’s stimulus proposal into legislation. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Friday she aims to pass Biden’s stimulus plan within two weeks.

  31. Bink

    If you really did miss it, the great Q promulgated that the California wild fires were started by lasers from space controlled by the Rothschilds and other nefarious Jewish entities. 

     

    It was Bernies turn to sing “Light My Fire”.

  32. Ah- thank you.  i waded out of the online loony pool, years, ago- there’s only room in this noggin for so much bullshit.  So yes, i did miss that particular contrivance.

  33. I used to hear shitloads of stuff about the Rothschilds,  the illuminati, the knights of something or other, the masons, the Templars? All kinds of weird shit from way over there on the outskirts of out-there Land…….Don’t hear so much any more……mostly it’s just new cabinet innovations or something Bob Dylan may or may not have said to Ed Sullivan’s CBS authority, or cute animals scampering and cavorting in the wild…….or Columbo and Dragnet……….
    Not sure I’m up to any good rothschild’s crap, but the idea of jewish space lasers is hard to resist.

  34. And pondering quizzical old movie censorship oddities……..like how did”Dr Hackenbush” slip by the censors of the day.  I first learned what censored means from the cartoons which would have sometimes “CENSORED” banners plastered over the action of the cartoon…..way funny to the adults but very enigmatic to a yoot. What the hell does censored mean?   A classic was Mickey Rooney slipping in a whole series of lines with the word “BONER” in them.   One of those Judy and Mickey put together a show in the barn movies.
    One of the lines was actually: “Oh! Pardon my boner!”
    Ca-razy

  35. The Rothschilds –
    Their place in the pantheon of paranoia  goes something like this –
    They made their bones loaning money to kings to fight wars.
    Therefore,  it was in their interests to start wars.  
     
    A neat tidy package to wield against all jews.

  36. Yeah, CueUhNon is all the old anti-Semitic tropes, renamed and repackaged by some pimply basement-dwelling troll

  37. The  crash of “Ole’ King Coal”  continues unabated –

    Powder River Basin coal mine ceases operations, asks court to reject pension and health care obligations

     

    A Powder River Basin coal mine has closed down for the first time in modern history. At the end of January, mining ceased at the Decker coal mine in Montana after the owner of the mine filed for bankruptcy late last year. 

    Home to some of the world’s largest mines, the Powder River Basin is the epicenter for coal production in the country. But a dramatic decline in thermal coal demand has left many companies in trouble.

    https://trib.com/business/energy/powder-river-basin-coal-mine-ceases-operations-asks-court-to-reject-pension-and-health-care/article_ff0d270f-44d6-5740-87f0-0818a5809d3d.html
     
     

  38. Weirdest game of Clue, ever. 
    Bernie, in outer space, with a menorah.

    It’s a brand, new game

    qLUE

  39. Ummm, “I was allowed to believe…” sounds like cult-speak…or just a modifier for her bs. 

  40. oh yeah…  all those crazy conspiracy theories concerning the Rothschilds and Bilderbergs and such.  I remember something about the eye at the top of the pyramid  in the back of a $1 bill meaning something nefarious.  I once bought a book with all those things…   it was hilarious!

  41. I hope someone is planting more trees, because the avalanche  of books that are coming,  may strip all the forests in North America.  

  42. Funny how a $2.7 Billion dollar lawsuit  focuses the the mind of the corporate boardroom. 
     

    1. Sidney Powell gets called out for claiming Dominion flipped a county that Trump won.
    During the meeting, Powell told Trump that she could prove that Dominion voting machines flipped votes to President Joe Biden in a Georgia county.
    White House senior adviser Eric Herschmann, however, immediately spotted a flaw in Powell’s claims: Namely, Trump had actually won the county in question.
    “So your theory is that Dominion intentionally flipped the votes so we could win that county?” he asked her incredulously.

  43. That meeting is one of the funniest damn things ive read lately……..what a hoot……..

  44. Lou Dobbs fired, LMAO. Oh, the cancel culture on the right, amazing. Glad to see that crazy lunatic lose his stature.

  45. Why Peabody Energy Stock Sank 18% in Early Trading Today
    The coal miner posted earnings and investors were not pleased with the results. Here’s a quick rundown of how bad things are.
     

    What happened
    Shares of giant coal miner Peabody Energy (NYSE:BTU) fell sharply out of the gate today, losing as much as 18% at one point in morning trading. Although the stock had pared the loss a little by noon EST, it was still lower by a painful 14%. The big news behind that drop was earnings.
    So what
    The U.S. utility sector has been shifting from coal to natural gas for a very long time. That’s partly because natural gas is cleaner than coal, but it’s also because natural gas is priced competitively with, if not lower than, coal. This is a fact Peabody specifically noted in its fourth-quarter earnings release, though it also made mention of the other broad shift taking shape in the energy space: An increasing use of renewable energy. Unfortunately, this trend isn’t unique to the U.S. market and is taking place the world over. Worse, the headwinds Peabody is facing are likely to get worse over time, not better. And they are having a major impact on the coal miner’s business.  

    https://www.fool.com/investing/2021/02/04/why-peabody-energy-stock-sank-18-in-early-trading/
     
    This is a prime moment  for  Biden to turn the tables in coal country .  And, in turn begin to win again with blue collar workers . 
     

  46. “Cancel Culture”, they love to bleat,
    When all the while the board room knows
    the true and fearsome meaning of To Cancel.

  47. BB-
    I’m in the red French  hat , note the  down hole rock hammers , leaning on our gravel baskets.  This was taken at our LZ  behind  Park City.  ” Jumpin’ out of helicopters, and scaring the shit out of the wild life. “
     
     

  48. Sturgeone

    Good Timing on The Masons.  The History Channel sent over an article today 

    Secrets of the Freemasons

    The freemasons loom large in American history—after all, 13 of the 39 men who signed the U.S. Constitution were Masons. Founding Fathers George Washington, James Monroe, Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock and Paul Revere all counted themselves as members of the mysterious fraternal order.

     

  49. ‘The View’ Hosts Confront Van Jones for Giving Trump ‘Racial Cover’
    The ladies on The View dragged Van Jones. Oh, it was so well deserved. A bootlicker for Trump at times. 

  50. Sturg
    Spot on! Imagine! So many over at Fox and on the right have gotten away from ever being held accountable. Being sued has gotten to Fox. I hope that Maria B and Judge “box wine” Pirro are the next to be canceled. 

  51. This afternoon was a fun one.  I loaded my 4X5 field camera, tripod for that camera, bag of film holders, bag of necessary gear (light meter, hood/cape), into my jogging stroller.  Hooked Gale up on the lead and headed over to a street corner I wanted to take a picture of.  It was a nice walk, we met several other women walking their dogs, so we caught up on things and traded COVID stories and hopes for shots.
     
    When you set up a large format camera it is a performance on its own, a dance perhaps.  First stop and set the brakes on the stroller.  Put Gale out for a place to be safe.  Get the tripod out and placed for shooting.  Get the camera out, set it on the tripod, open it and adjust the rails, get the lens out of its bag, then mount it on the camera.  Remove the back plate of the camera so the ground glass is easy to see.  Drape the hood over the camera.  Adjust the camera for the picture, frame and focus.  Go under the hood/cape and using the loupe adjust focus until it is just right.  Remove the cape, test the lens and shutter.  Take out a film holder and insert into the back of the camera.  Take a breath, make sure everything is right,  pull the slide out of the holder, then push on the shutter release cable, push the slide back into the holder.  Rearrange the setting, then take another picture.  Take it all down and go home.
     
    The walkers by were great.  “What is that?  Is it a video camera?” Is that a Polaroid Camera?” “that is interesting, is it digital?”  The younger ones had never seen anything like it in their lives.  The very older had memories of their youth and saw cameras like it.  I learned large format photography on a Crown Graphic.  It is fun to do these things, and it is the base of my kick starting my creativity.

  52. Big Red #40 –
    Was owned by Brinkerhoff  Signal   drilling .  I encountered her  (Men name machines after women)  in the  first “Overthrust Belt” gas field.  She was drilling  infill holes .
    This notch in Utah  had been explored for years  with very rough methods .  Chaining bulldozers  to trees to winch  drills  through the trees.  Shooting off 50 lbs of explosives  on 3 foot stakes in a diamond pattern.  This method  was really bad , as it blew the woods to toothpicks , and left behind several hundred feet of tangled  cap wire. 
    When we landed on this job , I knew where we were , and I had been at that game for awhile.  This part of Utah is covered  in ” scrub oak “, very dense at ground level , and 8 to 12 feet tall. 
    So that morning , I popped out of the brush onto “Big Red’s”  pad , on my to  way to  catch my skid.   She took my breath away , a floor that was 50 feet  off the ground , with a BOP stack  that was over 40 feet .  Their crew had been seeing us flying around their site for days.  So, my appearance sparked some interest ,  I waved to the balcony  on the drilling floor , and keyed up my Lama pilot .
    I asked him to fly my drill  components right past them at eye level .  Then I disappeared back into the oak forest at the orange survey tape. 
    At the end of that day ,  I told the Lama pilot to fly our entire line  top to bottom, very low , and slow. 
    When I got back to the LZ .  I told that fat guy on the left with the broken hand , in front of the entire crew , I was  going to drill  1,000 feet that month.   Later on he told me he could have kissed me  for issuing that challenge. 
    We were digging 30 foot holes at the time , so drilling a thousand feet in one month , ment you were “slamming steel ” .
    That helo look I took , was the best ground I ever landed on .
     

  53. BB – Good for you giving yourself a kick in the creatives.  Where does one develop film these days?    It’s a lot different taking pictures with a non-digital camera.   You can take 50 shots on a camera phone to get one good one, but you don’t have to think much about it. 

  54. the best ground I ever landed on

     
    The worst  is in far Northwest Colorado.  A mear knob  on the Earth.  It is the last gasp  of a huge  volcanoes ,  ‘glassy throat’  into the past . 
    As one nears the top , a glass matrix of milky white embedded in Rome Red  appears , then these strange blue and white balls appear  in the center at the top. 
    I ran a rock hammer  on this for 3 hours ,  I made a 3 inch  ashtray 

  55. It is really beautiful glass , and it is not black. 
    Red and White milky swirls  with Blue spheres embedded in it. All of it glass . 
    I can show you on a map where it is , and my ashtray. 

  56. So Joe says no security briefings for Dumdass, citing him having no need for them and Dumbass’ erratic behavior. Good for you, Joe, good for you. 

  57. From WaPo

     

    In Friday’s interview [with CBS Evening News], [Norah] O’Donnell pressed Biden on his past characterizations of Trump.
     

    “You’ve called him an existential threat. You’ve called him dangerous. You’ve called him reckless,” she said.

    Biden replied, “Yeah, I have. And I believe it.”
     

    When asked to describe his “worst fear” were Trump to continue receiving classified information, to which he had unrestricted access as president, Biden said, “I’d rather not speculate out loud. I just think that there is no need for him to have the — the intelligence briefings.”

    No intelligence for you Dumbass (but we knew that).

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