Posted on 07/20/2025 4:56:23 AM PDT by Alas Babylon!
O’Rourke: Dems Have to Be ‘Absolutely Ruthless About Getting Back in Power’
Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” former Rep. Beta O’Rourke (D-TX) said Democrats have to be “absolutely ruthless about getting back in power.”
Host Jake Tapper said, “The Texas legislature, run by Republicans, their special session begins tomorrow. Democrats say they’re going to use whatever means necessary they can to block this redistricting effort but Democrats are in the minority, as you know. Realistically, what are the Democratic options to block this?”
O’Rourke said, “Donald Trump’s policies, whether it’s the Big, Beautiful Bill that’s going to take nearly 2 million Texans off of Medicaid or transfer nearly $1 trillion of wealth to the richest 1% at the expense of working families. His policies are deeply unpopular. He doesn’t want to face accountability from the voters, and he’s worried about keeping his very slim majority in Congress. So he’s trying to pick up five seats through this redistricting process in Texas. Now to your question about how we fight back, there are a number of things that we can do. One, the Democratic state legislators can deny their Republican colleagues a quorum to be able to move forward on this.”
He added, “There’s more that we can do. Governor Gavin Newsom in California has talked about a redistricting in his state. I think it’s time that we match fire with fire. I think Democrats in the past too often have been more concerned with being right than being in power. And we’ve seen the Republicans only care about being in power regardless of what is right.”
Tapper said, “So you support the Newsom effort because California right now has an independent commission that does districts in as fair a way as possible in nonpartisan way as possible. You’re saying Democrats should, even though you don’t approve of it, Democrats should do it, too?”
O’Rourke said, “We have to get serious. We have to be absolutely ruthless about getting back in power. So, yes, in California, in Illinois, in New York, wherever we have the trifecta of power, we have to use that to its absolute extent. And then the last thing this may end up biting Republicans in the. You have the possibility that they will disperse Republican voters to make up these three or 4 or 5 new congressional districts and put those districts in play. So in Texas, we’ve got to get out there and register and meet the voters who are going to decide the outcomes in these next elections. If they’re successful with this redistricting, our group powered by people is doing this right now on the ground. We can’t wait for 2026. We’ve got to do the work right now in 2025.”
Beta.... You mean to tell me calling Trump and the Republicans/Conservatives Nazi's, Fascists, white supremacists, racists, misogynists, homophobes, transphobic, Islamophobic, hates immigrants, hates brown people, are criminals, deplorables, bitter clingers, evil, garbage wasn't enough?
we have the trifecta of power, we have to use that to its absolute extent... <-- Note the details. He's talking lawfare, too.
Byron Donalds(our next governor) and Anna Paulina Luna two Florida rock stars next.
As I learned yesterday I’m a rapist/pedophile lover and likely guilty of being one. It occurred to me they may be right, I did fly on an airplane to an oasis full of young children, granted it was Delta Airlines and Disneyworld but given the apparent creative writing skills of the alphabet agencies.......😯
If there’s one thing I’ve learned from watching all these so-called investigations over the years, it’s that the outcome depends almost entirely on who’s running it. If it’s a squish, an institutionalist, a deep-state loyalist, someone new to the issue, or anyone easily misled or compromised by the system, nothing will come of it, no matter how damning the facts are.
When it comes to charging anyone for the Obama-led conspiracy to frame Trump for Russia collusion, the issue isn’t whether it’s chargeable. We already know the facts. The only question that matters is who’s in charge? Because only a tiny handful of people have what this moment demands, which is both the hard-earned knowledge that comes from years of fighting in the trenches, and the rare kind of integrity that can’t be faked or bought. You can’t parachute someone in at the last minute and expect them to understand the depth of this rot. It has to be someone who’s lived it, tracked every lie, and never sold out. Someone like Ed Martin.
So again, the only question that matters right now is who’s running this?
As Hans indicates, we have the facts. Will Pam Bondi deliver or will shed go the way of Jeff Sessions?
“Institutionalist” is the most common description used to describe Kash. He’s one of those “99% of the FBI is good”, we just need to let them do their jobs, types.
Bryon will be our next governor and he might be better than DeSantos...(If you can get someone better than Ron!)
The notion that the fed gov needs to fund local decisions about spending needs to be cut out of our society. No responsible, rational adult spends themselves into poverty to subsidize their favorite charity. If they do, the kids generally start looking for a special place to put mom or grandma, and take away their credit cards to minimize future damage.
Ana up now. will we ever see any accountability here? She says yes we will.
Ana says lying will get you 7 years and a quarter of a million fine. This is about health and the sanctity of the country and needs to be prosecuted.
Maria asks Donalds how did the lie the dems get away with it? Big media did not fact check or due diligence and went with it. Byron says Ana is correct. People need to go to jail to set an example.
Maria says its ups to kash patel and pam bondi, Maria wants to know why the ten year hit against trump she says this is the core definition of corruption and it needs to be corrected.
Byron says it's about dirty dems who want continuous power for their agenada. Dems hate Trump and want their radical ideology to the forefront.
"DOUBLE DOWN ON THE BIRTHDAY CARD!!!"
Great quesiton. I guess we shall see who is who and who goes after whom.
Good question. We do know from the comments of Strzok and Lisa Page that there was an "insurance plan" to stop Trump. What many forget is that the FBI was spying on the Trump Presidency for almost 9 months after he took office using the Carter Page FISA warrant.
It is good that Tulsi is coming out with this information, but where was John Ratcliffe when he held the same position? He is now head of the CIA.
The late, great Angelo Codevilla wrote on February 12, 2020 an article, Abolish FISA, Reform FBI, & Break Up CIA , which seems prescient now. Some excerpts from the article, which should be read in its entirety:
America’s Intelligence agencies are the deep state’s deepest part, and the most immediate threat to representative government. They are also not very good at what they are supposed to be doing. Protecting the Republic from them requires refocusing them on their proper jobs.
Intelligence officials abuse their positions to discredit opposition to the Democratic Party, of which they are part. Complicit with the media, they leverage the public’s mistaken faith in their superior knowledge, competence, and patriotism to vilify their domestic enemies from behind secrecy’s shield.
Pretenses of superior knowledge have always tempted the Administrative State’s officials to manipulate or override voters. Hence, as Justice Robert H. Jackson (who served as chief prosecutor of the Nuremberg trials) warned, they often turn their powers against whomever they dislike politically, socially, or personally and try to minimize the public’s access to the bases upon which they act.
But only the Intelligence agencies have the power to do that while claiming that scrutiny of their pretenses endangers national security. They have succeeded in restricting information about their misdeeds by “classifying” them under the Espionage Act of 1921. Thus covered, they misrepresent their opinions as knowledge and their preferences as logic. Thus acting as irresponsible arbiters of truth at the highest levels of American public life, they are the foremost jaws of the ruling class vise that is squeezing self-rule out of America.
As Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) truly told President Trump, “Let me tell you, you take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you.” As we shall see, Intelligence officials have proved Schumer correct.
What follows begins with an overview of the threats today’s intelligence agencies pose to self-government in America.
Next, it touches on U.S. intelligence’s dismal professional record, and suggests that the measures needed to refocus them on professional performance would also separate them from domestic politics.
In sum, we find:
CIA is obsolete. Cables show agents’ intelligence takes are inferior to diplomats’. Agent networks are unprotected by counterintelligence. FBI success at counterintelligence ended when the Bureau was politicized and bureaucratized in the 1970s. CIA bottlenecks and incompetently controls strategic intelligence, while the Army and Marines show demonstrable tactical superiority.
As a result, CIA is ideologically partisan. Its strength is in leading or joining domestic campaigns to influence public opinion. FBI has followed suit.
Senior intelligence officials were the key element in the war on Donald Trump’s candidacy and presidency. CIA used meetings that it manufactured as factual bases for lies about campaign advisors seeking Russian information to smear Hillary Clinton. Intelligence began formal investigation and surveillance without probable cause. Agents gained authorization to electronically surveil Trump and his campaign and defended their bureaucratic interests, sidelining Lieutenant General Michael Flynn and denying or delaying Trump appointments and security clearances.
Partisanship produces failure. FISA has incentivized political abuse. “Profiling” has failed repeatedly in high-profile cases like the Atlanta Olympics bombing and the anthrax mail attacks. Perjury trapping has become commonplace.
Finally, we outline the steps that presidents and Congress might take to improve matters:
FISA must be repealed legislatively or through Constitutional challenge in court. It unconstitutionally mingles judicial and executive power in secret. It gave Intelligence a blank check. Hardly “an indispensable tool” for national security, it is now indispensable for partisanship. Broad consensus exists for a legislative “fix,” but none is possible. The secret court’s existence, the heart of the law, allows partisan bureaucrats and allied judges to do what they want in secret.
Functions currently performed by CIA should be sheared down. Data infrastructure and consultant networks should be eliminated. Bipartisan opposition to the Intelligence threat should use fierce resistance and lobbying from Intelligence as evidence of why cuts are in the national interest.
CIA must be disestablished. Its functions should be returned to the Departments of State, Defense, and Treasury. FBI must be restricted to law enforcement. At home, the Agencies are partisan institutions illegitimately focused on setting national policy. Abroad, Agencies untied to specific operational concerns are inherently dangerous and low-value.
Intelligence must return to its natural place as servant, not master, of government. Congress should amend the 1947 National Security Act. The President should broaden intelligence perspectives, including briefs from State, Defense, and Treasury, and abolish CIA’s “covert action.” State should be made responsible for political influence and the armed services for military and paramilitary affairs.
Angelo Codevilla: Angelo Maria Codevilla (May 25, 1943 – September 20, 2021) was an American professor of international relations at what is now the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University. He served as a United States Navy officer, a foreign service officer, and professional staff member of the Select Committee on Intelligence of the United States Senate. Codevilla's books and articles range from French and Italian politics to the thoughts of Machiavelli and Montesquieu to arms control, war, the technology of ballistic missile defenses, and a broad range of international topics. Articles by Codevilla have appeared in Commentary, Foreign Affairs, National Review, and The New Republic. His op-eds have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The American Spectator and The Washington Post.[3] He has also been published in Political Science Reviewer, Intercollegiate Review, and Politica.
In 1977, Codevilla joined the U.S. Foreign Service but quickly transitioned to Capitol Hill, where he served on the staff of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence as an aide to Senator Malcolm Wallop, a position he would hold until 1985. During this time, he also began teaching political philosophy at Georgetown University.
By 1980, Codevilla was appointed to the teams preparing the presidential transition for the United States Department of State and the Central Intelligence Agency. His contributions to national security included helping to conceive the technology programs that, in 1983, were relabeled the Strategic Defense Initiative. Throughout his time in government, Codevilla published on intelligence and national security and taught.
In 1985 Codevilla returned to full-time academic life as a senior research fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He was professor of international relations at what is now the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University from 1995 to 2008.
Among the almost 20 books he authored, the one most conservatives know about is The Ruling Class: How They Corrupted America and what We Can Do about it
This is surreal. Here in America, the Director of National Intelligence @DNIGabbard is now stating emphatically that a former President of the United States @BarackObama attempted a coup against the @POTUS @realDonaldTrump
This is why @TulsiGabbard was attacked so relentlessly over the past few weeks and months. They knew if there were anyone with the guts to investigate the attempted coup, it would be her.
WELL DONE!
And more to come.
Checkmate!
I think they started 9 months BEFORE he took office. The FISA warrant on Page was from 2016.
Susan Rice sent this email to herself January 20, 2017 documenting a White House meeting earlier that month with President Obama, FBI Director Comey and others about "Russian hacking" during the 2016 election.
Rice emphasized their work was to be done "by the book."
These records, I first posted in May 2020, have taken on new signifiance with the declassified records release @DNIGabbard
What president in the last 50 or more years has NOT used the autopen, at least for large amounts of signatures, like for congratulations to members of large groups, or season’s greetings and the like?
It is good that Tulsi is coming out with this information, but where was John Ratcliffe when he held the same position? He is now head of the CIA.
One of my biggest worries is how many of Trumps picks will we be having problems with? He's notorious for not making the best of picks. Is that his fault? Hard to say he has so much on his plate and it takes hours and hours of research to find out who is who. Pres. Trump likely winds up depending on others to help make his choices.
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ABC up now with Donna my primadonna lying her ass off as usual. Sarah Isgur is shocked by too many executive orders. No action on Tik Toc. Rence Priebus trying to be the voice of sanity but it falls on deaf ears at ABC.
Molly Ball Wall Street Journal a publication that hates Trump accd. to Steve Bannon from the Warroom. Ball comes up with a bunch of smaller complaints and like the other dems ignores the huge accomplishments while lying her ass off about trumps accomplishments.
. ...........................
Meanwhile on cbs mayor of LA Karen Bass doing chatting points about why ice wears masks. She wants them unmasked so her criminals she runs can go after them. She keeps saying 1/2 of L.A.s 3.85 million residents are Hispanic many illegal. She hates Trump and the nat. guard,marines. She says state officials are not being saluted. She's a huge waste,nothing but lies.
How many permits are being let in LA? They have no permanent fire chief only a replacement. They are searching for a fire chief on a national basis. No question about permits at all.
i think the network is staying away from birthday card story - maybe because Rupert stepped in, maybe due to pending litigatin now.
This is surreal. Here in America, the Director of National Intelligence @DNIGabbard is now stating emphatically that a former President of the United States @BarackObama attempted a coup against the @POTUS @realDonaldTrump
This is why @TulsiGabbard was attacked so relentlessly over the past few weeks and months. They knew if there were anyone with the guts to investigate the attempted coup, it would be her.
WELL DONE!
And more to come.
Checkmate!
..................
Kudos to Tulsi Gabbard,the ultimate patriot!!
super Maria inteview w/Tulsi with new info - it repeats later today. Tulsi says MORE is coming next week.
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