In The Shadow Of Mt Hollywood

Over the weekend, since the third Trump indictment, I've begun to see renewed references to the 1876 election, the Compromise of 1877, and the Electoral Count Act of 1887. Trump's strategy, given assertions that the 2020 vote counts in several states were irregular, was to throw the election into the House of Representatives per the Twelfth Amendment of the US Constitution, as intepreted by the Electoral Count Act of 1887. This post at the National Constitutional Center from December 15, 2020 , anticipates and explains this strategy: Federal law requires the states to deliver certified electoral college results to the vice president, serving as president of the Senate, and other parties by December 23. Then a joint meeting of Congress is required by the 12th Amendment to count the electoral votes and declare the winners of the presidential election. The session on January 6, 2021 starts at 1 p.m. Objections at that meeting about electors will be settled using a process ...

One pattern that's kept reemerging in the Trump story since 2016 has been a constant stream of narratives that have been sold as verities, yet they've wound up collapsing into hoaxes years later. The first was the 2016 "pee tape" story that alleged Trump conspired with Russia to interfere in that year's election. This wasn't effectively refuted until the Muller Report in 2019 . However, the Wikipedia summary at the link raises what may become a prophetic issue: The investigation intentionally took an approach that could not result in a judgment that Trump committed a crime. This decision was based on an Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) opinion that a sitting president is immune from criminal prosecution, and Mueller's belief that it would be unfair to accuse the president of a crime even without charging him because he would have no opportunity to clear his name in court[.] So the problem with the overall "pee tape" narrative was that it gav...

The YouTube video above is from the Hindustan Times, one of the few media outlets that's essentially repeating a New York Times story that's behind a paywall. The Gateway Pundit has an excerpt: “Equipped with advanced American weapons and heralded as the vanguard of a major assault, the troops became bogged down in dense Russian minefields under constant fire from artillery and helicopter gunships. Units got lost. One unit delayed a nighttime attack until dawn, losing its advantage. Another fared so badly that commanders yanked it off the battlefield altogether. […] Now the Western-trained Ukrainian brigades are trying to turn things around, U.S. officials and independent analysts say. Ukrainian military commanders have changed tactics, focusing on wearing down the Russian forces with artillery and long-range missiles instead of plunging into minefields under fire. A troop surge is underway in the country’s south, with a second wave of Western-trained forces launching mo...

Yesterday, Joe Biden pitched 2024 campaign merch based on a Dark Brandon theme, a mug showing a portrait of himself with eyes gleaming a demonic red. Fox News gives the context: President Joe Biden advertised a mug for his reelection campaign Thursday by sharing a video appearing to drink a cup of coffee emblazoned with his "Dark Brandon" persona. President Joe Biden tweeted, "A cup of Joe never tasted better," along with a video of himself appearing to drink a cup of coffee from a mug showing his face with glowing laser eyes. He declared in the video, "I like my coffee dark." The story continued with reaction: "The ‘great unifier’ is back with a Dark Brandon flex just hours after indicting his main political rival AGAIN," Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas, tweeted. "When tyrants speak, BELIEVE THEM." Podcaster Tim Pool wrote, "[I’m] glad they embrace the ‘biden is evil’ memes." I've been looking at Biden's characte...

Over the past several days, I've begun to see more little hints that the Democrats are looking for a Plan B. A few weeks ago, I noted that they were quietly dusting off two potential candidates , California Gov Gavin Newsom and Illinois Gov JB Pritzker. Just this past Tuesday, the Sacramento Bee noted , Gov. Gavin Newsom is taking fundraising steps often used by potential presidential candidates, setting up multiple committees that in their first three months have raised and spent millions of dollars. . . . Newsom has repeatedly denied any interest in running for the nation’s highest office next year. But whether President Joe Biden wins or loses, there will be no Democratic incumbent in 2028. As governor of the nation’s largest state, the big winner of two elections and a recall, Newsom would be well-positioned for a White House run. And as of yesterday, Ron DeSantis agreed to debate Gov Newsom : Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced on Wednesday evening that he has ...

Accounts of Devon Archer's testimony to the Comer committee on Monday give what appears to be a broad outline of the events that led up to the removal of Viktor Shokin as prosecutor in Ukraine to relieve pressure on Burisma: Archer, a former Hunter Biden business associate, testified that Hunter Biden was being pressured in December 2015 to do something about Viktor Shokin, the Ukrainian prosecutor who was investigating Burisma Holdings, the Ukraine energy firm for which they both worked, lawmakers said. In the same month, then-Vice President Joe Biden began applying pressure in a series of moves that got Shokin fired. Archer also reportedly told the House Oversight Committee, to which he gave the closed-door testimony Monday, that Burisma would not have survived had it not been for the influence of the Biden family. However, the existing record gives considerably more detail without the need for Mr Archer to corroborate it. For now, at least, the fire-Shokin story begin...

While the fallout from Devon Archer's closed-door testimony to the Comer committee is likely to continue over coming days, this piece at Breitbart raises a parallel question, which is the role current Secretary of State Blinken played in the Bidens' Ukraine influence-peddling in the 2015-16 period. 6) October 2015: Senior State Department official Amos Hochstein raised concerns with then-Vice President Biden, as well as with Hunter Biden, that Hunter Biden’s position on Burisma Holdings’ board enabled Russian disinformation efforts and risked undermining U.S. policy in Ukraine. 7) November 2015: Burisma hired Blue Star Strategies, a Democrat lobbying firm, linked to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and instrumental in Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin’s firing. Antony Blinken's career has been tied to Joe Biden's, especially through his wife, Even Ryan. According to Wikipedia , she worked in the Obama-Biden White House as assistant to the vice president a...