Sanchez repeatedly questioned the provenance of the administration’s list, asking which third parties were involved in providing the data. Donnelly could not answer, which Sanchez said raised questions about the reliability of the list.

I bet it was Grok. They fed it all the stolen DOGE data, told it to accept as fact that non-citizens were voting, and give it a list of names.

Trump called El-Sayed, a former Detroit health official, a “jihadist” who was “on the side of the terrorists” and would “have to go through a metal detector before he’s allowed to go into the Senate.”

That’s particularly ironic, because they did have to install metal detectors at Congress, but it was after Trump’s attempted coup:

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/metal-detector-installed-for-u-s-house-chamber

And, of course, when they did turn back a member who tried to bring a gun to the floor later that month, that member was a Republican:

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/capitol-police-probing-whether-gop-rep-andy-harris-tried-bring-n1255237

However, the California attorney general’s office said the letters contained errors. For example, Mendocino County officials received a list of people who were not residents there, according to the state’s court filing.

It seems clear to me that DOGE stole all sorts of data that it shouldn’t have access to, fed it all to Grok, and now it is generating all these “lists” full of AI hallucinations. (Or, they could have asked Grok some leading questions, like “I know there are loads of non-citizens here, go find as many as you can”.)

If Democrats really do manage to gain some power back, they need to do an immediate investigation regarding exactly how these “lists” were generated. If they can demonstrate that they were not entirely accurate, then there ought to be consequences, at least in a functioning Democracy.

There’s a world of difference between a pardon issues to prevent malicious prosecution for non-crimes and one issued to people you’ve been instructing to commit crimes

You’re not wrong, of course, but that’s not how the Constitution is written. The President’s pardon power (for Federal) crimes is absolute, with the only exception being in matters of impeachment. The whole notion of pre-emptive pardons seems silly, but Biden gave one to his son and that seems to have stuck.

However, there is an idea that giving a politically-motivated pardon for an actual crime can backfire, because if someone can no longer be prosecuted for something, it also means they have no reason to take the 5th amendment that prevents them from incriminating themselves under oath. So while individuals might be pardoned, the crime was still committed, and investigators are within their rights to bring charges against people they can prosecute. When the pardoned person is questioned under oath, they have to testify truthfully (with no recourse to the 5th amendment for the crime they were pardoned for) or else they can be prosecuted for perjury… which is a new crime that was not subject to any prior pardon.

So, the pardon power is in serious need of reform. That would take a Constitutional Amendment. But we can do anything in an amendment, as long as Congress and enough States agree. We can even retroactively nullify any pardon given by Trump! I doubt it would get the 38 states required to pass if it contained that clause, but a boy can dream, can’t he?

Also interesting to note that the process of passing an amendment does not require the President at all. It does need a 2/3 majority in both houses before it goes to the States, so it’s not something Democrats can do alone. But it would be the perfect middle finger to Trumpism if they can manage to build enough support to get it passed before Trump leaves office.

I still can’t believe that in a system where you need to register to vote, registered voters are not believed to be registered.

It’s because of a particular quirk in the law that Republicans have been mad about for years.

When you register to vote, there is no Federal requirement that you actually show proof of citizenship. You still have to affirm (under penalty of perjury) that you are a citizen on the form, and that affirmation comes with severe legal penalties if you are lying.

Republicans think that non-citizens are abusing this in droves. However, many non-citizens would like to be citizens someday. Why would they give the government a written document, with their address and identifying information, which confesses to a crime which leads to jail time and deportation, just for the opportunity to vote before they actually get their citizenship? State Governments have access to all the information after all, they would just need to look it up with the Feds to find out if it is correct, or needs to be flagged for review. It’s all bonkers. Registration fraud like this simply doesn’t happen.

But some Republicans believe that myth so much that, in Republican-controlled states, if you show up to register with the Federal form to register (and not their State form that requires proof of citizenship), they put you in a type of voting purgatory [pdf warning] where they only let you vote for Federal offices.

“If you get sworn in with a false name, I would imagine that’s pretty tough to remain,” he said,

Let’s see what Senator Rafael “Ted” Cruz thinks of that

Well yeah, as Trump’s mind dissolves he will start forgetting anything that happened in the past 40 years or so. But he remembers porn on Betamax, at least.

I am of the opinion that the pee tapes are not real. But, the Russian disinformation machine is doing its best to spread the rumor that they are.

What better way to feed into one man’s paranoid delusions than to manufacture a scenario that he knows is fake? That just makes him double down on being defiant, and not trusting anyone.

Trump, without using Reyes’ name, called her “a crazed lunatic whose courthouse tapes will reveal, may be insane?”

Ok, so Trump’s brain may be pudding, but one thing I can guarantee is that the thing about “tapes” didn’t come out of nowhere. He’s simply not creative enough to make shit up like that. Someone must have told him they feel there is something actionable in the court transcripts. In a few weeks we’re going to see Republicans complaining about something in the transcript that they can use as a bullshit technical point to blow the whole ruling up.

Remember when he went on and on about Fani Willis’s “boyfriend”, and we all thought he was nuts, then they used it to scuttle that investigation?

A key part of Trumpism is taking advantage of the fact that he is allowed to lie and cheat with impunity, while even an appearance of anything untoward by people working against him is routinely used to Trump’s advantage.

Haha, I’ve seen this shit from Nate before

By Tow Glhvartz

What will that matter, if a President can ignore the law and do whatever he wants? The President’s power (when exercising his core Constitutional duties) is only limited by his imagination. The SCOTUS said so!

Law School Graduate says it’s unknown if she’ll ever get to practice law…

Masterson added “Then she turned me into a newt! But I got better…”

Cool! We just need 16 more Republican Senators and then we can impeach him. But if we can’t get that, then these protests have no practical effect.

He’s just upset she didn’t give him a cut

If Vance was plotting this, the 25th is not the way to go. He would need to get half the Cabinet on board, and then when Trump inevitably challenges it it would take 2/3 vote in both houses to toss Trump out.

It would be much better if Vance simply built up support for an impeachment vote. Trump is doing a ton of things that would have gotten anyone else booted by now. And then all that’s needed of a simple majority in the House with no Cabinet input. Still 2/3 of the Senate, but that might end up being only about 15 Republicans after the elections.

I’m sure the feeling is mutual, and Zelenskyy thinks America should get a new President…

Didn’t FIFA already do this?

Isn’t this the sort of thing that should be done in a court? He’s acting like he never has to worry about ever leaving office and having a “committee of inquiry” set up to look into all his stuff