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Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto, delivers a speech in favor of impeaching President Donald Trump on the House floor in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 13. Courtesy Rep. Anna Eshoo’s YouTube channel.
Granted only 30 seconds to speak on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, Rep. Anna Eshoo did not mince words regarding President Donald Trump during Wednesday’s impeachment hearing.
On Jan. 13, Trump was impeached on a charge of inciting an insurrection on Jan. 6 after speaking at a rally where hundreds of supporters and right-wing extremists marched to the U.S. Capitol where both houses of Congress were voting to certify the election of Joe Biden and stormed the building. Five people died as a result of the insurrection, including one U.S. Capitol police officer. The chaos included beatings of law enforcement officers, threats against congressional leaders and the ransacking of legislators’ offices, according to law enforcement officials. A gallows was erected outside, and many of the rioters carried weapons ranging from bear spray to metal pipes.
Representatives, senators, staffers and journalists were forced into hiding for hours before Vice President Mike Pence approved sending in the National Guard after Trump allegedly declined to intervene, multiple news agencies have reported.
Eshoo said in an interview while in hiding from rioters on Jan. 6 that she would immediately vote to impeach Trump, and expanded on her reasons for supporting Trump’s removal after the historic vote on Wednesday.
“Future generations are not going to know the names of each member who is voting in the chamber today, but they will know what we did and why. We must impeach the president because he incited a mob that attacked the Capitol of the United States, the tabernacle of our democracy. He is incapable of honoring his oath and our Constitution, and he has proven to be unfit and dangerous. I will vote to impeach this traitor to our country,” she said.
The House voted 232-197 for impeachment, with 10 Republicans joining the majority. The articles of impeachment could now be forwarded to the Senate for a hearing and vote on whether to convict Trump.
During a phone interview on Wednesday afternoon, Eshoo said the mood in the Capitol is “somber.”
“Make no mistake about it. What took place a week ago today was historic. There has never been a domestic attack in the Capitol,” she said. “They came to kill and they did.”
Eshoo called for an in-depth investigation. Several factors suggest there was cooperation from the inside, but authorities investigating the breach and insurrection have not identified whether there was cooperation from inside the Capitol police or the Sergeant at Arms Office or elsewhere, she said.
“There has to be a broad and deep investigation. There was a massive failure, not just a security failure. We were defenseless,” she said.
This week, the nation’s capital is fortified for any potential assault in the days before Biden’s inauguration.
“Look out the window — it’s an armed camp. There are 10,000 to 15,000 security agents,” she said.
While some of her Republican colleagues called for healing after the attack, Eshoo said they must engage in more than mere words.
“You have to have accountability before you can heal. You have to accept the facts. We owe it to the American people,” she said.
Eshoo thinks the effort to remove Trump from office is gaining momentum, perhaps even among Republicans. Of a Senate trial and conviction, she believes “they will and they should.”
The argument that a Senate trial is too time-consuming is belied by how swiftly Amy Coney-Barrett’s confirmation hearing was accomplished.
“Anyone complaining and saying it’s gonna take time … you confirmed a justice of the Supreme Court in a matter of hours over five days,” Eshoo said.
The experience of last week’s riot for all of the legislators in both houses was not abstract. They didn’t hear about the insurrection over the phone or read about it from a piece of paper. “They experienced it themselves,” she said.
If the Senate does vote to convict Trump, whether he can pardon himself remains a question, she said. The Constitution grants the president the ability to pardon someone else, but it’s an open question whether that would apply to a president pardoning him or herself, she said.
If the Senate doesn’t convict Trump, he will still face a host of charges across the legal spectrum, including questionable financial dealings in New York and possibly his alleged attempts to illegally overturn the state’s presidential vote in Georgia, she said.
Eshoo voted to ask Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment, which would have removed Trump from office with the approval of a majority of his cabinet on grounds that he is unfit or unable to carry out his duties. Pence would then have taken over the presidency. The House approved the resolution on Tuesday night, although Pence had said in a letter hours earlier that he does not intend to invoke the amendment.
Eshoo’s first preference was to see the president resign, she said.
“It would be the best thing for the American people. They could take a deep breath” and feel safe before the transfer of power, she said.
As legislators wrestle with Trump’s possible conviction, efforts to avoid disrupting the work of the incoming president and the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, Eshoo said she is concerned about the future.
But “I have faith we can do more than one thing at a time,” she said.
The pandemic, and moving vaccines forward, is a paramount concern as new record numbers of infections and deaths are made every day.
“We need to do everything we can to fight this tiger to the ground,” she said.
When Biden takes power, Eshoo said she hopes he will put the Defense Production Act in place to rapidly ramp up vaccine production and that the federal government will make sure to help small businesses and local governments. Eshoo, who was once on the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, said she understands what they face.
“Our states and local governments really need help. They have exhausted their rainy day funds,” she said.
The COVID-19 pandemic has also taken “a horrible toll” on small businesses, said Eshoo, who understands the challenge on a personal level: Her father owned a jewelry business.
“I told my sister, ‘Imagine if Daddy still had his business. He would’ve lost it,'” she said.
Here is his speech:
“Republicans are constantly fighting like a boxer with his hands tied behind his back. It’s like a boxer, and we want to be so nice. We want to be so respectful of everybody, including bad people. We’re going to have to fight much harder and Mike Pence is going to have to come through for us. If he doesn’t, that will be a sad day for our country because you’re sworn to uphold our constitution. Now it is up to Congress to confront this egregious assault on our democracy. After this, we’re going to walk down and I’ll be there with you. We’re going to walk down. We’re going to walk down any one you want, but I think right here. We’re going walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators, and congressmen and women. We’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.
We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing and only count the electors who have been lawfully slated, lawfully slated. I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard. Today we will see whether Republicans stand strong for integrity of our elections, but whether or not they stand strong for our country, our country. Our country has been under siege for a long time, far longer than this four-year period. We’ve set it on a much straighter course, a much … I thought four more years. I thought it would be easy.
. . .
So we’re going to, we’re going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue, I love Pennsylvania Avenue, and we’re going to the Capitol and we’re going to try and give… The Democrats are hopeless. They’re never voting for anything, not even one vote. But we’re going to try and give our Republicans, the weak ones, because the strong ones don’t need any of our help, we’re going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.
So let’s walk down Pennsylvania Avenue. I want to thank you all. God bless you and God bless America. Thank you all for being here, this is incredible. Thank you very much. Thank you.”
How did this incite and instigate an insurrection?
Nice Reader’s Digest version from Nancy. The actual speech, with brief annotations and contexts offered by a lawyer, is here: https://threader.app/thread/1347908845281095680
How does Eschoo keep getting reelected? She has done nothing of consequence during her terms in office.
Poster cuts out Trump’s incitement in her highly edited posting.
What I am going to write may cause some people to assume that I voted for Trump. I did not (either time) and I do not support him in any way. That said, I think both sides need to choose their words carefully and dial back the rhetoric. The majority of Palo Alto voters may not be among them, but there are 74 million voters in this country who voted in favor of Trump. Logically, this number must include a large number of law-abiding, regular people who support a more conservative agenda than that proposed by the Democrats. Their President failed them badly and some truly ugly groups rallied around him, but that doesn’t make all those voters bad people. Since the Republican Party is now in tatters, conservatives are pretty much adrift. They will eventually attach to something. That will, hopefully, be a rational, functional political affiliation b/c if the divisive partisanship continues, millions of Americans are going to feel they do not have a voice in Washington. That is bad for all of us. Should this happen, I fear this nation’s problems will continue, possibly even worsen. Please, no more “fighting words”.
@plantfruittrees: As if an “annotated” version from a lawyer is supposed to lend credence? Trump’s speech that day has been carefully evaluated and picked apart by many “learned” people, and it seems as if only the left interpret them as words meant to incite. Why is that, do you think? The bottom line is that the folks that rioted that day (a MINUTE fraction of the Americans who attended the rally to support having their concerns about the election addressed in Congress) were already prepared to do what they did. I’m outraged that the media and the Democrats lump the law-abiding, peaceful supporters together with the violent perpetrators.
Annette .. you make some valid points, however I don’t believe most Trump supporters feel he failed them. The country did pretty well with his policies and had it not been for the effects of COVID on the economy and country as a whole, and it being used as a political bludgeon against him, he would have cruised to reelection IMO. And lets not forget to mention the organized daily assault on his presidency by Democrats and the media before he even took the oath of office and continues non-stop even as it has today with the second impeachment vote in congress.
Secondly, there were a very small number of “ugly” (your word, not mine) groups that rallied around him but those numbers were infinitesimally small by comparison to the groups that rioted, looted, destroyed property, injured law officers, burned cities and resulted in over 19 deaths under the guise of “peaceful” protests this summer. And as of yet we don’t know who all these people are.
Thirdly, the Republican Party is not in tatters. I believe the Democrats are and it’ll be interesting to see how Pelosi and Schumer handle the left wing radicals who are trying to take over the party. There will be much in fighting going on as most reasonable Democrats don’t want a radical, socialist form of government. I believe that Nancy and Chuck were hoping the Republicans held on to the Senate so they wouldn’t have to deal with AOC and her ilk. Now they’re stuck in a quagmire they didn’t see coming.
The country really does need a viable third party of sensible people made up of Americans who want sanity, honesty and cooperation in government and a party that supports term limits and across the board nationwide election laws that don’t allow any legal voter to feel they’ve been invalidated. All too many states have questionable practices that create distrust in the system on both sides.
Sadly, I think the divisiveness will be around for awhile …. it’ll take a really strong leader to bring us all together and I don’t believe it’s Biden.
Midtowner … it’s violent protesters when they’re Trump supporters and peaceful protesters when cities were being destroyed over the summer by those on the left. Portland is still under attack almost nightly and no media coverage. It’s a double standard and any reasonable person should be able to see the hypocrisy.
I’ll never forget the image of the CNN reporter on live TV insisting the protests were peaceful while buildings in downtown Minneapolis were burning to the ground right behind him. Yet the media continues to deny the violence of those protests to this day insisting they were peaceful and slobbering all over themselves reporting on the violence at the Capitol building.
@Annette,
You make some valid points, but 40% of the electorate will vote for a Republican if it’s a rotting log. I’ve been listening to people all this time, especially in the lead up to the election, I pretty much only heard reasons given by Republicans for their support that were based on lies and false suppositions from the right. Per Stuart Stevens, a rightwing political operative who got a lot of conservatives elected including presidents, the right has been engaged in a kind of self-delusion and industrial lying (for a long time) that he says has no equivalence on the left.
Among them lies about the economy, one reason people make excuses for themselves to support policies that go against their supposed own interests and belief systems, such as evangelicals. Democrats are not Communists, in fact the hard evidence is that the economy does better under Democratic presidents than Republicans by virtually every measure for the last 100 years, in fact, something like 12 of the last 13 recessions have begun under Republican presidents (enough into their presidencies — and presidencies being different lengths — that it’s not explained by inheriting). Moody’s analysis predicted the recovery would be better under Biden than Trump.
You can convince yourself of anything with faulty reasoning, partial information, and lies, like @What Will — for example, that everything as okay before the pandemic. Trump’s policies had actually thrown manufacturing into a recession by 2018, devastated American farmers and their contracts (if any Democrat made them all so dependent on government programs, they’d be vilified), and hugely increased the taxes of millions of middle class Americans in blue states to give the money to the ultra-wealthy, among other problems. Trump inherited a good economy from Obama, and took credit for it, but his actual policies were damaging what he inherited.
You can’t separate his performance before the pandemic with after because the pandemic was the first real test of his presidency. Having a national strategy is what prevented other nations with a tiny fraction of the per capita deaths we’ve had, and no recessions, from doing as badly as we have. Our economy suffered because of the gross incompetence and bad propaganda from this administration, and no national strategy. He did seem to care far more about making blue states look bad and dividing us for his political fortunes than making America great.
@Will
Please stop repeating lies about the social justice protests. The vast majority of political violence resulting in injury and death in this country since 9/11 has been domestic rightwing.
@Will,
Here is an article before the potus incited his followers to attack our national government before and after the election and on Jan 6:
“White supremacists behind majority of US domestic terror attacks in 2020
Data stands in stark contrast to claims by Donald Trump, who has argued that leftwing violence is a major threat”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/22/white-supremacists-rightwing-domestic-terror-2020
Prior to that, rightwing, mostly white supremacist and other rightwing hate extremists involved the greatest portion of domestic political violence, including the horrendous mass shooting at El Paso and the Pulse nightclub in Orlando.
Stop spreading misinformation.
Data stands in stark contrast to claims by Donald Trump, who has argued that leftwing violence is a major threat
The potus and his minions have regularly attacked private citizens, the media (to the point of their safety being compromised), any opponents, Democrats, blue states, Obama and anyone he things might make him look bad because they’re better and more hardworking than he is, civil servants who don’t do his corrupt bidding or tell him what he wants to hear, using inflammatory and violent language.
In May, he retweeted a video from a Republican official saying that “the only good Democrat is a dead Democrat” and “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.”
He has repeatedly encouraged crowds to chant about locking up his political opponents or anyone he doesn’t like, to “lock them up,” even when his own justice department found no cause and Trump himself did worse. He has repeatedly used language to “other” Democrats and anyone who isn’t sycophantic to him, to deliberately divide our nation. It’s an old propaganda tactic that makes it easier to get followers to wreak violence on their fellow human beings.
No one on the left has ever nor would ever do anything like that. We need to heal, but there really needs to be truth and reconciliation, or the right will endanger us again by yet another incompetent, lying demagogue.
John Earle Sullivan, a BLM activist, was one of the people arrested at the capitol during the “Trump Riots”. He said he had seen the private individuals planning for the storming of the capitol many days before, and wanted to join in. Trump didn’t incite anything, the die was cast long before Trump’s speech.
You’ll also note that, a few days ago, prosecutors announced no charges would be filed against the officers who shot Jacob Blake, the unarmed black man, in the back. Did you see any BLM riots? Any protests? Even a letter to the editor?
No. That’s because BLM serves only as a manipulation tool to convince upper class white women that they need to vote Democrat to save the world from the bad influence of the Caucasian males. Because there is now no longer any election to influence, BLM couldn’t care less about Jacob Blake. Before the election, a black man who died from a Covid- and drug overdose- and panic attack- induced heart attack meant riots in the streets and a bunch of white congresspeople dressing in African garb kneeling to try to cement in your mind that his heart attack was somehow related to the kneeling, when the video of the arrest clearly showed him melting down long before.
But now that the election is over? Well, shoot an unarmed black man in the back with no charges filed, and no one even spit on the sidewalk. You are being manipulated. Wake Up. Maybe you should stop drinking the cool aid and think for yourself. Think: Why did no one protest Jacob Blake’s killers being released without charges? It’s because you’re so easy to manipulate, and now they have no use for you. See you at the next election, suckers.
Wow. I am very disconcerted by the majority of the comments on this article.
@CGPA
The person you cite appears to have no ties to antifa, BLM, or the mob of white supremacists, neonazis and trumpists who stormed the capitol. What was your purpose in highlighting that? Continuing to use lies and out-of-context examples to mischaracterize what happened in order to avoid responsibility is such an old rightwing tactic. Stop lying to us and to yourself.
The white supremacists re-enacted George Floyd’s murder on the capitol steps — the person you mentioned had nothing to do with that.
Trump held a rally after weeks of claiming falsely and relentlessly that the election had been stolen and that there was a conspiracy against him, when there was no evidence of this, even where ballots were handcounted.
The good thing about giving the impeachment hearings some time is that people can put together a montage of the potus’s violent rhetoric — snippets of course, since there is way too much to sit and watch all at once. Because the extreme Republican lawmakers were already doing what the above poster is doing, trying to use out-of-context examples and false claims to try to avoid responsibility and falsely blame others. Everyone who cares about preventing this from happening again should really stop letting those things slide and answer every dog whistle lie with truth — because if you don’t, just as with the potus’s constant lies about the election, it becomes a false foundation upon which worse happens.
@Midtowner: The annotations offer some context from the point of view of a lawyer who teaches about propaganda techniques. In this case he’s in his teacher role, showing the reader how Trump is manipulating the crowd, although for the most part he simply lets Trump do the talking. Ignore his notes, disagree with him, that’s fine–the point is that he gives us Trump’s own words for us to judge Trump by. I posted the link because I imagined there would be people who would want to know, as I did, exactly what Trump had actually said, not sound bites and not heavily edited and skewed bits like Nancy posted in what appears to be an effort to exonerate him. He said what he said.
And there it is for you.
This is why we really should have the potus’ tax returns. If it’s true as the NY Times reported that he owes hundreds of millions of dollars that he can’t repay or is beholden to foreign entities — and it is a fact that he’s used lawsuits (he’s filed some 3,000+ lawsuits) in the past to get out of repaying hundreds of million in debt before, then he has a huge incentive to do whatever it takes to stay in office. If it’s true that he evaded taxes, too, there again he has an incentive to stay in office by putting himself over the good of the country and lying to stay in office. Hopefully we’ll hear more about that in the impeachment trial. A lot will probably happen right after he gets out of office, and it will probably go worse for him if he does anything else stupid between then and the impeachment hearings. It’s been such a relief not to have that constant bullying on the airwaves.
Government should not be valued as entertainment on a daily television show. Government should have its citizens’ backs and should work for the benefit of all without much noise, totally unlike the dangerous Trump administration has behaved over the past four years.
Anna Eshoo has always done an excellent job without much fanfare.
Thank you, Anna!
two words for Anna Eshoo…term limits!
> two words for Anna Eshoo…term limits!
Two words for you: Newt Gingrich!
He promised term limits in his Contract On America, but never delivered. Another Newt failure.
More words for you: Anna runs every two years. Try running a reasonable republican against her, instead of those losers she trounces every time.
Example:
Anna Eshoo*
Democrat
217,388 – 63.2%
Rishi Kumar
Democrat
126,751 – 36.8%
I don’t know Annette but I am certainly grateful for her post and wisdom. The country is descending into ever deepening divisions and that is dangerous. That is extremely dangerous. No one reading this should want that. People need to dial it back, have some respect for others and appreciate that each side – each party – has some bad elements. The conversation should be about best policies and how best to get us all through this awful pandemic.
The news media and dangerous tech like Facebook will try to sell anything it can – we should demand focus and responsibility and not allow monopoly or bias. There is no question that extremists are out there on both sides but we can’t let them poison our dialogue. We also can’t allow cancel culture to purge the defeated party. Cancel culture is a cancer that can come for anyone. As a new government begins, we should hope they stop squabbling and get on with the solutions we all need
A few more observations to add:
– The Republican Party is not in tatters, we’re actually very strong despite all the MSM lies and propaganda and the hysterical Democrats like Nancy and Ana Eshoo. In fact, in the past four years we’ve added more Americans from ALL walks of life, ALL economic backgrounds and ALL ethnic backgrounds than we have in the past 20+ years.
– This massive increase in support from Americans of African, Asian and Latino ancestry who understood we represent the party of freedom and opportunity is precisely what made the Democrats go into full on panic mode by 2017 (more Americans of African ancestry voted for Trump in 2016 than any recent Republican candidate) – this put them in panic mode and why they tried their best, illegally and wrongly, to frame the Trump Administration in the now widely proven fake Russia Hoax investigation, then the FAKE Kavanaugh hoax, then the 100% politically driven fake impeachment.
– All of that wasn’t enough to stem the bleeding of Americans who were supporting Trump in record numbers leading up to the 2020 campaign. Then how convenient this is when we received the gift from Wuhan labs, and just in time for Democrats to weaponize a national crisis for their political purposes (including so many creative new voting techniques).
– It is curious, we know for a fact that the Republican Party support grew tremendously from 2017-2020, yet the election seemed to show something different. I think there should be a bipartisan election commission to fully investigate EVERYTHING leading up to Nov 3rd election and all that transpired since. There are about 75 million Americans that still have many questions regarding this election. We also must have election systems that are transparent and 100% fully auditable. Our sytems should NOT be built by overseas firms nor have software embedded in them written by foreign entities. Our election systems should be rock solid and trusted by ALL Americans.
– Now let’s see, who in the world benefits most from Americans losing confidence in their election systems, tearing eachother apart like wild dogs over racial differences, and new groups of extremists and anarchists from left and right? Hmmm….let me think….could it be the CCP? And sure, let’s add Russia and Iran for good measure. Wouldn’t the three of them just love to see us rip each other apart? It’s a win-win for them.
-When I listened to President Trumps speech on January 6th (on TV as I wasn’t there), I did not hear anything close to inciting an insurrection. I did hear hundreds of Democrats and their media arm state during the 8+ months of violent riots that killed many people and destroyed hundreds of American’s businesses say “since when are protests supposed to be peaceful!?” Or “Riots are the voice of the unheard.”? The Democrats fomented riotous violence throughout 2020, how did they think that would end? Did they think it would not attract extremists on the right at some point? Actually, we now know from the FBI that the Capitol assault was pre planned and had commenced before Trumps speech, and there were BLM and antifa “professional” rioters on the scene helping to set it up. This does not excuse the hundreds of extremist Trump supporters from storming the Capitol, that was very wrong. However they do NOT represent true Trump supporters. That riot was pre planned by extremists on both sides.
I remain optimistic that there is still time for the vast majority of law abiding and patriotic Americans who sincerely wish to see our Republic survive to stand up today and refuse to participate in the wolf packs running around wildly (Eshoo and Pelosi are in those packs).
I do agree with the poster above who says both sides have to ratchet down the rhetoric. Yes indeed! Let’s start by every American making a commitment to not seek vengeance against those with different political views. Let’s start by being true Americans, civilized and respectful.
@ Martha
Stop promoting falsehoods about the election. You and the Republicans LOST get over it. The election wasn’t rigged. Could it be that a known conman and liar promoted a false narrative about the election being rigged months before the election began? Could it be that this same liar and conman absolutely can’t handle losing so he promoted falsehoods over social media and you fell for that nonsense? Why is it that you don’t question Russian interference in 2016 but now that your candidate lost in 2020 somehow the whole system was rigged against him? So in 2016 the elections ran fairly when he won but now in 2020 there’s some great set up? What an amazing four years of work behind the scenes to set him up! Sure. Why is it that when he won the electoral college against Hillary Clinton it was a landslide but now that he lost it by the same amount to Biden it’s a set up? Also, why did almost all of the other Republicans running win their senate elections but he lost? Were those also rigged or not? Why aren’t those being recounted. I’m so confused right now! Also, how many recounts do you want done by hand to prove there was no fraud? How many court cases have been laughed out of courts? You LOST. The 74 million voters(NOT 75 million) lost to the 81 Million Biden voters and are NOT owed any other explanation other than that. Why is it that when the Republicans lose everyone is owed an explanation? What garbage. There was nothing wrong with the voting machines either. More conspiracy theory nonsense.
Finally, the Democrats didn’t “weaponize” the Coronavirus crisis. Your candidate completely mismanaged the crisis even pathetically making mask wearing a political issue and even told people to drink bleach. 400,000 dead Americans on his watch and counting. More Coronavirus deaths than troops died in World War 2. This do nothing couldn’t even get the vaccines rolled out as Operation Warp Speed had a fancy name and was empty just like that Health Care Plan he never got around to introducing. If anything a nearly 80 year old Joe Biden has a huge mess to clean up because of this do nothing golfer that golfed on the taxpayers dime during 25% of his Presidential days. Why are you on here defending a now twice impeached President that caused an insurrection against the United States of America?
The Republican Party is currently in tatters not only disgraced by Trump but also others such as Cruz and Hawley. Also, stop with the CCP/Russia Republican line nonsense. Your candidate was in Putin’s little pocket this whole time. You WILL respect your new Democratic President beginning on January 20th. They have to have an army protecting poor Joe Biden on the 20th because this loser wouldn’t concede and admit there was no fraud and submit to a peaceful transfer of power. It’s a National disgrace. I don’t want to see another word from you here Martha about election fraud.
https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-ap-fact-check-joe-biden-donald-trump-technology-49a24edd6d10888dbad61689c24b05a5
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.inquirer.com/news/luzerne-county-ballots-pennsylvania-election-trump-fraud-investigation-justice-department-20210115.html%3foutputType=amp
@voice of Palo Alto,
Interesting choice for your nickname, so typical of a radical leftist to assume they speak for everyone. Your hysterical commentary definitely does not express the views of all Palo Alto residents, guaranteed.
You do seem very confused as you state in your emotional rant.
In 2016 the Obama administration approved illegal spying on then candidate Trump, that’s a matter of public record now. After many millions spent on a pointless investigation, no Russia collusion was found by the campaign. Was there Russian meddling in the 2016 election? Definitely by Clinton, and her fake Steele dossier charade, which Clinton paid for, produced by Russians.
I hate to break this news to everyone, though most well informed people understand this: there is Russian, Chinese, Iranian, etc, interference in every recent US election since they all have espionage and information operations on the internet and social media. Though I always wonder what kind of Americans decide who to vote for based on what they read on Twitter or Facebook? I’ve never subscribed to either of these two gossip/chatter ad platforms, yet millions do (yet millions are now leaving both daily as their gig is up). My advice to any young person: never make a decision about voting based on what you read on social networks, read the actual policy positions of all candidates, demand they tell you what they plan to do. Then make your decision.
By the way, communist interference in American politics goes back to early 1900s, and many here may also recall the SDS in America in 1960s, also very much included Soviet funding and influence. In our most recent 2020 election there was likely Chinese, Russian and some Iranian “influence” as usual. It appears, according to the director of national intelligence who reported on this recently, the CCP did have a lot of influence on the 2020 election. More of that will come out in coming months.
Also, one only has to remember how Rep. Swalwell was sleeping with a CCP spy, and Senator Feinstein’s chauffeur was a CCP spy for many years, to understand that the CCP has a very active espionage network right here in the Bay Area. With 1.5 billion people, China has plenty of spies running around America, they’re deeply networked in Silicon Valley.
This time, the social network oligarchs of Facebook/Twitter/Google actively influenced the election as well, burying the Biden story about his family’s deep financial ties with the CCP. Many of the children working at Facebook and Twitter are very friendly with the CCP as they just graduated from the indoctrination centers of Ivy League and other Confucius institute influenced schools, where the CCP money flows to all those friendly to them. I’m glad I graduated from an Ivy League school back when free thinking was still allowed.
Yes, the Republican Party is very strong and getting stronger by the day, as we are the only party protecting freedom of speech, freedom of association, and all the other freedoms in our Constitution. Moreover, we are the party that promotes American achievement, personal responsibility and character over identity politics. We promote private enterprise, opportunity and wealth creation over socialism and wealth destruction by the left.
Most independent thinking Americans understand that both impeachments of President Trump were purely political and the Democrats only accomplished two things with both impeachment’s: 1) they diluted impeachment and made it less effective going forward as they used it as a purely political tool, and 2) in the process they have weakened the executive branch as any President in the future of either party will know that if they sneeze they could be impeached.
I won’t get into the Capitol assault here, we know that is a complex tragedy that was preplanned by extremists on both right and left. More will come out soon on this. One thing that is certain: the morons that stormed the Capitol did not represent the GOP or citizens like me. For anyone here to suggest otherwise is only engaging in hateful and deceptive communications. That would be like me saying you “NOT the voice of Palo Alto” are responsible for all the death and destruction of the blm and antifa riots the past year. We don’t do that, we don’t engage in hateful deceptions.
Of course Pelosi and Shumer didn’t care they were acting against the intention of the constitution with their two impeachments, in fact “anything for more power” is Pelosi’s motto. She’s happy if the legislative branch weakens the Presidency, no matter what it does to our country.
This latest development, the attack on free speech (the left’s definition of hate speech is “anything you say I don’t agree with”) is only energizing the Republican Party more. Our party continues to grow since we represent the best policies for the economy, education, trade, “peace through strength”, etc. The more the left engages in vengeance, political persecution, free speech attacks, etc, the stronger we get.
In honor of MLK today, I recall how as a sophomore in high school we were asked to give a speech about a hero. I chose MLK and learned more about his great appeal to human character over human skin color. One of our stars in the GOP is Candace Owens, an incredibly brilliant thinker and leader. You ought to take time to listen to a few of her speeches. If anyone in our GOP communicates our values and vision best, it’s Candace. I have a dream today like MLK, I have a dream that someday I can vote for Candace Owens as our first female President, a great American who happens to be of African ancestry.
Let’s choose love over hate today, as MLK would want us to do. Let’s try to be AMERICANS again, focused on what brings us together, not what tears us apart.
politics as a whole, tends to be an unsavory business regardless of one’s positional stance.
no lawmaker is exempt from their personal flaws and self-serving or self-righteous motives.
that said, there are many social issues remaining and to be resolved.
outgoing state assembly member and recently-appointed CA secretary of state Shirley Waters has authored Assembly Bill 3121 to create a state commission to study reparations to all African-Americans citing past restitutive measures then by Germany and the United States to stone for the wrongful incarceration of Jewish people and Japanese-Americans during the World War Two period.
while this not is not a California exclusive responsibility, it has been suggested by the Legal Redress Committee of the NAACP that the incoming Biden administration consider reparations to tens of millions African-Americans along with a formal apology for 400 years of economic discrimination and past slavery.
perhaps a step in the right direction as the nation strives towards further healing efforts.
“Our party continues to grow since we represent the best policies for the economy, education, trade, “peace through strength”, etc. The more the left engages in vengeance, political persecution, free speech attacks, etc, the stronger we get.”
Who knew that white supremacy, selling pardons, profiting from events at one’s own properties, grabbing women’s genitals, discrimination, calling neo-Nazi’s “very fine people” and inciting riots, emulating authoritarians like Putin and Erdogan and refusing to accept responsibility for any of their “alternative facts” and made-up conspiracies like Qanon (all Democrats are pedophiles and deserve to die) and the mythical “anti-fa” are / were the best policies. Live and learn.
See also today’s New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/17/us/politics/Capitol-conspiracy-theories-blm-antifa.html?campaign_id=2&emc=edit_th_20210118&instance_id=26119&nl=todaysheadlines®i_id=8807495&segment_id=49577&user_id=6c4d178fba68999471f847058ff07cec
How Republicans Are Warping Reality Around the Capitol Attack
Loyalists to President Trump are increasingly relying on conspiracy theories and misinformation, drawing false equivalence with last summer’s racial protests and blaming outside agitators.
typo/correction: “to ATONE for the wrongful incarceration of…”
1. “radical leftist to assume”/Your hysterical commentary”/You do seem very confused as you state in your emotional rant
Typical Trumpian language. Democrats are “hysterical” or on “the radical left” when they disagree with your conspiracy theory nonsense. On your previous post “you wanted to tone down the rhetoric.” Now that the radical right and Trump had the bully pulpit for four years and constantly spewed hate, the new “let’s all tone down the rhetoric” statements from Republicans is a phony way to try to quiet Democrats because a radical part of the right left a permanent stain on our Democracy with the insurrection.
I like how you tried to twist back that I’m confused. Sure Martha. That was sarcasm on my part. You didn’t actually answer, “Should all of the other Senate races in which Republicans ran be recounted also because according to your conspiracy theory about the elections being rigged?” Why are they only rigged against Trump? Are you the one confused? Of course you can’t explain it so you try to say my post was emotional. What you don’t understand Martha is this isn’t a comment section, it’s an operating table and I’m the surgeon.
2. “Definitely does not express the views of all Palo Alto residents”
More silliness from you and sort of self defending. I could care less if Palo Alto residents share my views. It’s politics. Some people will agree and others will disagree. That wasn’t the purpose of my post. The main thing I did was I exposed your weird conspiracy theory beliefs about the election. (“74 million voters want answers” and “Democrats used creative voting Techniques”) Just like in sports, one team wins and the other loses. If a basketball team loses 100-80, no one says let’s go back over that game and throw out some of their points so we can win! You lost. Get over it.
3.Obama/Clinton
More Trumpian nonsense from you. Claiming the Democrats are so crooked and denying the Russian interference in the 2016 election for Trump. Why ELSE do you think Trump railed against Mail In voting this year? You can’t hack the mail in votes. Don’t be glib. Oh and look at this link! There WAS Russian interference in 2016 for Trump even though you tried to blame Obama/Clinton! Please explain Martha!
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2020/08/18/us/politics/senate-intelligence-russian-interference-report.amp.html
4. CCP/Social Media Rant
This is all more conspiracy theory nonsense from you. America’s elections are free and fair. This is also where people like you put on full display “how they think they have the inside information and know better than everyone else and have seen the light and must enlighten others.” It’s always the flaw with you people. It shows just how far down the rabbit hole you have already fallen Martha.
5. “Most independent thinking Americans understand that both impeachments of President Trump were purely political and the Democrats”
First, you have no actual evidence about how “independent thinking Americans” feel about the impeachments. That’s just conjecture on your part and you trying to reach for an excuse for the embarrassment of your candidate being the only President In history to be impeached twice. Second, no they weren’t done for purely political reasons. He incited an insurrection and he committed an abuse of power. Stop writing it off and “blaming the Democrats.” Since you invoked MLK, “you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free” Martha. Also, based on your posts you are not an independent thinker but instead you are drowning in conspiracy theory nonsense. I am your intellectual superior.
6. “I won’t get into the Capitol assault here, we know that is a complex tragedy that was preplanned by extremists on both right and left. More will come out soon on this.”
Of course you don’t want to “get into it” because you know what happened disgraced the Republican Party and left it in tatters nationally for years to come. Also, no Martha it wasn’t all planned by extremists and now you are even somehow trying to blame the Democrats for this also here. Pathetic. So now the radical right and radical left have somehow gotten together to plan this attack? The radical left and radical right became best friends! Sure Martha. Your candidate called a mob to Washington on January 6th over the same social media that you went on a diatribe about nonetheless, and incited an insurrection. Do not ty to downplay what happened. That doesn’t represent all of the GOP obviously but the majority were at the very least Republican/Trump supporters. There were some extremists in the mix sure, but wake up. It’s not really that complex. The insurrection was carried out by the Republicans and incited by the Republican leader and was an act of Domestic Terror. But, yes, please post that evidence you are going to have “when it comes soon.”
7. “Of course Pelosi and Shumer didn’t care they were acting against the intention of the constitution with their two impeachments”/The more the left engages in vengeance, political persecution, free speech attacks, etc, the stronger we get.”
More twisted logic. The lame Republican go to inspired by Trump of blaming Pelosi for everything. Pelosi and Schumer only bravely stood up to a wannabe tyrant and did the right thing but they were the ones that didn’t act in accordance of the constitution. Sure Martha! But the guy who incited the insurrection did. Also, no, impeachment wasn’t “diluted” as you postulated. That’s again just conjecture on your part. And no it’s not the left that’s been using the bully pulpit for the last four years and are so vengeful now that they have to clean up this mess. The hate speech and bullying came from Trump and the Republicans that felt emboldened to copy him.
This is the last word since I know you will post in response with more of your nonsense. Again, congratulations for supporting a twice impeached President that incited an insurrection against the United States and who also completely mismanaged the pandemic, but Martha the alternate reality and twisted misleading information days are over. Biden gets sworn in on the 20th and You WILL respect your New Democratic President. Regardless of party affiliation, I am just happy we will have a qualified person in the White House that will actually know how to do the job instead of golfing all the time.
You are welcome everyone!
it was in the 1700s that a French essayist, Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle, posed a question some historians still find interesting: “What is history but a fable agreed upon?”
given what has transpired, there will be many interpretations of what transpired on the 6th of January 2021 in Washington DC and what gave rise to the insurrection.
there are many disenfranchised Americans who feel they’ve been given the short end of the stick regardless of their ethnicities and political leanings.
in many ways, big business is to blame for its reliance on cost-effective overseas manufacturing and the subsequent loss of American jobs and overall prosperity.
racial inequality will also need to be addressed further.
the question remains, is the Biden administration up to the task of not only improving the American economy but also keeping adversarial nations such as Iran and The People’s Republic of China in check?
the pandemic has radically altered everyday life in America and the new millennium has brought its share of new problems which will require continual attention including global and domestic terrorism, political dissent, economic recovery, social and judicial equality, and curtailing the current and mutating coronavirus.
Trump was successful in uniting some disgruntled factions but created further divisiveness in other areas. the Republican Party will probably bifurcate into a Tea Party-Trump movement coinciding with the existing and remaining Republican Party members.
sedition has no place in American politics or society but there are a lot of citizens who feel their voices and concerns were not being heard.
Trump created a coalition of sorts and now it is the mission and responsibility of the incoming Biden administration to reunite the country in a common goal.
if he fails, 2022 and 2024 will only bring more discontent and devisiveness.
@“the voice of Palo Alto” – but not really the voice of all residents of Palo Alto.
Well, I will not stoop to your level of anger you are spewing at me. You reveal yourself in your own words and tone.
Once again, just because I have different political opinions, you communicate directly to me with obvious anger, emotion and incivility.
I’m not posing any conspiracy theories about the election. I’m merely stating facts that many tens of millions of Americans have serious questions about the 2020 election. Depending on the poll it’s anywhere from 50% – 90% of about 75 million Americans. There’s nothing “conspiracy” theory about simply wanting a bipartisan election commission that could report fully on what happened and how perfect or not perfect the dominion machines and related software are. If there’s nothing to hide then why would any American not want to know their voting systems are fully transparent and working properly?
As I summarized above, the Chinese, Russians and others have all been meddling in US politics and elections for many years. They have very sophisticated espionage and information warfare networks, especially the Chinese as the CCP has the most money to throw around. Americans need to understand this and be prepared to protect our country from these threats. We can only hope our CIA, FBI, DIA, etc are all doing best they can. The world has always been a dangerous place and our freedom is never guaranteed. And yes, most independent thinking Americans understand this, at least the thousand plus Americans I’ve interacted with who demonstrate their independent thought capabilities.
BTW, about 75 million Americans no longer consider the NYT, WAPO or other MSM as credible sources anymore, they are definitely biased. Most Americans have a very low opinion of those publications, based on majority of polls. In fact, many Americans, that same almost 75 million, think those media are political advocates for the Democrat party, not actual professional journalists.
You also mention hate speech as if it only comes from the right or suggesting President Trump is the only person in America that engaged in hate speech, using very old and tired wrong accusations. I think his tweets could be controversial, always directed at people who attacked him. As for that Charlotte comment he made, it was true that there were people at that demonstration who were fine people. Unfortunately they participated in a rally where many extreme right people were there too. Just like at blm riots, there were plenty of law abiding Americans who went out to protest peacefully and they were not directly involved in any of the violence of those hundreds of violent riots. That quote has been twisted out of context for years and your repeating it shows how effective the left wing propagandists are.
I remember many thousands of instances of hate speech from the left these past 4 years. One example could be the Hollywood “comedian” who held up a bloody severed head of President Trump, or Madonna saying she wanted to blow up the whitehouse. So the extreme right does not hold a monopoly on hate speech.
I tried to attend the inauguration in 2017 and was nearly physically assaulted by leftwing extremists trying to block our entry. My sister and I had no political clothing or buttons, just dressed up nicely with our wool coats and yet we had to walk through a terrifying gauntlet of leftwing extremists just to peacefully attend the inauguration.
As for the horrible assault on our Capitol, I’ve roundly condemned that tragic assault as has every GOP leader. It is a fact that extremists from both sides were there. I have no doubt there are at least a few thousand mentally disturbed people who do support President Trump. According to NAMI.org about 20% of all Americans suffer some mental illness every year. Of the almost 75 million who voted for President Trump, even if 3,000 of them were involved in that violent riot and assault, that would represent much less than .0001% of that total number. Same with the many thousands of Antifa and blm supporters across America who engaged in violence, do they represent the Democrat party and all those that support Biden? From the widespread violence and mayhem that occurred all year long, I have no doubt there are many thousands of Americans who don’t have good control over their emotions. As NAMI tells us, 20% of Americans suffer some form of mental illness. I’m also very sad to see the decline in civility in America.
The fact is the Republican Party did grow a lot in the past four years, and just like my own family is now comprised of Americans from all walks of life and ethnic backgrounds. We are so delighted to see our party grow, as it attracts new Americans of African, Asian, Latino, etc ancestry. Most American families are like mine, a mini United Nations of sorts. Candace Owen, the leader of Blexit, is a fantastic American leader, you ought to listen to her speeches to better understand the GOP of today. The party of Lincoln has the best vision for our future, and Candace eloquently describes this.
If you really want to go forward in peace and love, then the best thing to do is acknowledge America is currently very divided, and has a large number of extremists from both sides, and don’t add fuel to the fire. It’s a very unfortunate state of affairs. I for one refuse to partake in extremist views on either side, instead I surround myself with reasonable and civil people and seek common ground on all solutions.
It’s ok “voice of Palo Alto”, I forgive you misdirecting your anger at me. I’m a law abiding citizen with conservative views about certain policies. I consider myself a moderate Republican, and I’m sure you wouldn’t speak to me as you do above in person, or I should hope not.
Nice quote from MLK:
“We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.”
Tump to his face, in the Oval Office, that his claims the elections were rigged, and that he had won were “bullshit”.
Any claim at this point, after not shred of evidence as been presented or discovered, after all legal challenges have been soundly rejected, and after all 50 states have certified their votes and Congress has certified the results are pure sedition.
I can’t believe that a GOP operative is allowed to spew the voter irregularities” nonsense on this forum and the editors don’t delete her seditious propaganda and don’t bar her completely from posting extreme right wing propaganda.
Trump incited an angry mob to insurrection against the Constitution, he is, and always will be a traitor. He should have been removed from office after each one of his impeachment and faced cextremely serious criminal charges. The senators who refuse dto remove him will face History’s wrath.
Of course when you lose the debate you will come back 20 times. I’ve seen you on other threads. No need for your condescending forgiveness Martha. You lost any debate here with The Voice with your so called Ivy League education.
Your LONG posts are all the same:
Mention me. Mention your wacky belief system and conspiracy theories and back them all up with fake evidence based on an alternate set of facts. Then end with “let’s all move together with peace and love.”
No one has accused you of being a right wing extremist. Stop it and don’t be silly. Your stuff about Russia and The CCP just shows how far down the rabbit hole you have fallen. Again you mentioned the voting machines(that I destroyed you on already) that have already been proven to be accurate and election interference from other countries that never happened except to manipulate for Trump in 2016. You didn’t explain that either! But Martha please answer my questions from my first post. Namely if the Election was rigged against Trump does that mean the Senate Elections that Republicans also won were rigged? Like you said many Americans now have questions about those victories now! Of course you can’t explain it because it’s all conspiracy theory nonsense.
Hilarious how you now talk about “moving forward with peace and love” but you keep defending Trump and his hate speech. Like I said it’s all phony. You also started in right away by stating I was “hysterical,” “confused,” and the “radical left” straight out of Trumps little playbook when I called you out on your conspiracy theory nonsense but you said let’s ease the rhetoric in the next breath. You are a total hypocrite but you don’t see yourself Martha and so I forgive you.
More nonsense from you:
“As for that Charlotte comment he made, it was true that there were people at that demonstration who were fine people. Unfortunately they participated in a rally where many extreme right people were there too.”
They weren’t fine people. Sorry Martha.
Have a great day Martha and please don’t drink that Kool Aid! I AM The Voice.
“. I’m merely stating facts that many tens of millions of Americans have serious questions about the 2020 election. Depending on the poll it’s anywhere from 50% – 90% of about 75 million Americans.”
Sure, if you listen to the “alternate facts” from Fox, Newsmax and OAN although every govt agency has said there was no election fraud. (And that’s under Trump!)
“BTW, about 75 million Americans no longer consider the NYT, WAPO or other MSM as credible sources anymore, they are definitely biased.”
ALL Republicans?? Wow.
After 30+ years of listening to Fox (who sued for the right to lie) and Trump et al rave about the “lying media” etc. no surprise. I even had an acquaintance call the NYT “The New York Slimes.” She also claims Bill Gates only wants to heal the world so “they” can come here “and take OUR jobs” — like she never heard of contagious diseases and US jobs lost to outsourcing.
Every dictator / conspiracy nut says everyone else is lying ALL the time.
And now we’ve got 400,000 dead from Covid, millions infected, millions unemployed and a mess to clean up.