January 6 hearings - the grift
Today's hearings, for those who did not watch, had some instructive points.
One of the things that struck me was the evolution from a normal election loss to a grift for money and ego assuaging. People who were around Trump as part of the professional re-election campaign were telling Trump even before the election that the numbers were not there. On election night, they repeated this assessment. Trump couldn't stand losing and eventually, he gave access to the nut burgers like Giuliani and Powell who would tell him what he wanted to hear - the election was stolen, not lost.
Trump also used the issue to separate people from their money. Fundraising ramped up tremendously and donors were asked to contribute to a non-existent "Election Defense Fund". The fund never existed. Money went into a PAC's general coffers. Everyone wet their beaks from this.
A prominent Republican election lawyer, Ben Ginsberg, detailed how election litigation was supposed to work and how Trump's efforts were different. Normally, you litigate when there are a few hundred votes separating the final totals. In places such as Arizona, where Biden's lead was 10,000+ votes, there was never a chance in hell of succeeding and so it was with the other states. Ginsberg and earlier, Attorney General Barr and Deputy Attorney General Donoghue detailed the various conspiracy theories (mysterious suitcases in Atlanta, truckloads of fraudulent ballots in Philadelphia, software corruption, interlocking cabals in China and the Philippines and Germany and Italy, etc.) and how these were all investigated and found to be "bull_shi_t".
Of the 60+ lawsuits filed, about half were dismissed on procedural grounds - people sued who did not have the right to do so, or the claims were so outlandish as to be dismissed outright. But about half went to trial and none of these were upheld. Ginsberg also noted that the courts were not the only method available to contest the totals - recounts also did not uphold the claims.
Some crazy-ass movie - 2000 mules - was mentioned. I looked it up. QAnon meets Hollywood. Dismissed by the Justice Dept for being more "bull-sh_it".
Former US Attorney Pak detailed the Atlanta investigation and gave an insight into the methods used to examine the claims made. It was interesting to get confirmation, at the very least, that for the most part, the claims being bandied about by the conspiracy theorists were based on an ignorance of the actual procedures by which votes were counted. Every misunderstood action became fraud in their minds but it was not the case in actuality.
The elections commissioner in Philadelphia showed the death threats to himself and his family that he received as a result of the lies Trump and his team told.
On the one hand, I was not surprised. I'm from NY and we know Trump. He lies, separates rubes from their money, creates his own reality by repeating it over and over. On the other hand, he only did this with financial dealings in the past. Now, he was in a position where his lies had real world consequences for a large segment of the population that had been primed to believe him because of the information echo chambers they inhabit and January 6 was the result.
It might not have been anything I hadn't heard before but it was good to hear it all at once and told as a cohesive tale instead of headlines.
