#and then john quit and DIDNT come back. and then paul quit and DIDNT come back

[ralexsol]

wanting to play video game or watch youtube video or do really anything vs. i cant listen to favorite song while doing that :(

[destinyc1020]

For 2024 I have a few wishes for the Jacob Elordi fans:

1. Create your OWN blogs. Yall pop into Austin, Z, and Tom focused blogs, say your insults and leave. If you have your own blog focused on JE you can say whatever (inults and all), quite simple tbh.

2. Im aware Jacob and Olivia have a private relationship but the way almost NONE of his fans mention her name (even casualy) and still focus on his past relationships is wild lol he is with her and him being with a woman with her background is very telling to how he is as well.

3. Z doesnt want Jacob now, I REPEAT Z doesnt want that man lol Jacob doesnt want Z either. If they wanted to be together they couldve lasted or got back together by now but havent. They didnt even last a year lol goes back to point #2 where they dont even mention his current gf bt love to ship him with Z. I guess cuz Joey is officially married they feel lik that shipped has sailed and nobody gave af about him/Kaia, but just cuz Z is THE it girl dont mean she gotta b shipped with him. She has her own mind as does he.

4. People dont care for Jacob becuase of some of his cheating "antics" but more about some of the things he said in interviews-he can come across as pretentious, ungrateful and just arrogant. Im aware he is a multideminsional person, like the rest of us, so that may not be what he is like 24/7. Again goes back to #2 where his fans ignore Olivia or just dont get why hes with her- Jacob is probably ALOT more similar to Olivia than his fans think. People can not care for his personality because a lot of the main headlines where his name is included dont paint him out to b the best, due to his own words.

5. There are enough white men in the industry that can succeed at the same time. Like folks been saying Jacob is a colead, and has seemingly been doing well in those roles tbh. But a lot of the actors his fans are comparing him to- Austin, Timmy or Tom- have done more lead roles. It dont even make sense to compare him to them cuz if they were all nominated for something they would be leads and Jacob would be a supporting. Again, dont even make sense for his fans to pit him against them.

ALL of this... 👏🏾

TOTALLY agree w/Point #1. It's a very easy solution honestly.

Can you repeat Point #3 LOUDER for those in the back?? And ewww...I had no idea some people were still shipping Z with JE. 🤢 Umm....he's 2 gfs removed from Z already soooooo..... Like, let's get real.

The fact that she left him and went BACK to her ex is actually very telling.

TOTALLY agree w/Point #4.

And AMEN to Point #5! 👏🏾 JE stans are punching above their weight class right now, trying to compare JE to other actors who've actually done LEAD roles, and have had good box-office films, or have actually been nominated for prestigious awards. Like, seriously.... Maybe one day you all will be able to fairly compare JE to Tom, Timmy, Austin, Barry, Paul, etc... But as of right now?? Ummm....Yea, NO. You can't even compare JE to Michael B. Jordan, Jeremy Allen White, Daniel Kaluuya, or even John Boyega and Kelvin Harrison Jr.

ALL of those other actors have either:

Done lead roles

Been in a huge blockbuster film (in a lead or co-lead role)

Won or been nominated for serious acting awards

Been a box-office draw (as lead)

Right now, JE has done NEITHER of that. So, until he does at least ONE of those aforementioned things, I can't (with a STRAIGHT face) be comparing him to ANY of the actors above.

I'm sure JE will get there one day (he certainly seems hungry enough for it), but that day is not today. 🤷🏾‍♀️ And until then, his stans need to chill....cuz they're looking a little dumb rn.

[cultofbeatles]

beginners guide to the beatles

 made one of these a long time ago but i'm surprised by how short it was. so here we go again. doing it right this time lol. 

pov: you told a bad joke and now the beatles are judging you. 

john winston lennon. later in his life known as john winston ono lennon. 

born on october 9, 1940 

i believe in astrology bc how does john just happen to be a libra 

when john was four he started living with his aunt mimi who acted more as his mother figure 

his mother, julia, remarried and would visit him quite a bit.

it was julia who taught john how to play banjo and piano. and she bought his first guitar.

they both had a deep love for music and rock n roll 

he never really thought of her as his mother but more as a cool friend i suppose 

aunt mimi was more rough on him and did the disciplining 

his father was never really present growing up and his uncle passed away when he was young 

he thought he was a curse for the men in his family 

he had five half siblings. two of them, julia and jacqueline, he was pretty close to. the other three he barely knew. 

fashion icon.

hated school but loved art 

very early on he was insecure with himself 

teachers always shit on him and said he would go nowhere in life 

he met paul at a church fete on july 6, 1957 

paul taught him how to play guitar properly.

once told paul that he didnt know how paul carried on after his mother died bc he just didn't think he could do it 

john’s mother died from being hit by an off duty policemen. john was seventeen at the time. 

 he took her death really hard and became a bit of a recluse. 

first serious relationship was with cynthia (we stan her) 

once cynthia cut her hair short and he didn't talk to her for two days. 

hate men. kill all men. 

when he asked her to dance at a party she turned him down saying that she was engaged, and so he said “well i didn't ask you to fucking marry me, did i?” 

slapped her once bc he was drunk and another boy was talking to her.

only time her hit her.

read cynthia’s books about john pls. i beg. 

once a psychic told him that he would be shot in the states.

founder of the beatles and also came up with the name.

instruments he could play: guitar, harmonica, rhythm guitar, banjo, keyboard, piano, saxophone, bass guitar, and a little drums. 

main songwriter in the beatles along with paul.

was more open minded to change in the beatles music. 

was insecure in his relationship with paul after a while bc he thought he only needed him for songwriting. 

would bitch about paul all day long but the second anyone else said something about him he’d be on their ass. 

had a lot of issues and needed a good hug. 

suffered from eating disorders, drug addictions, depression, insecurities, and questioned his sexuality bc of the time. 

was super open minded and ahead of his time in many instances. 

once he was called “the fat beatle” and after that he stopped eating as much.

truly loved his first son, julian lennon, and would buy him presents all the time bc he was excited to see him play with them.

“your famous ex husband”

he enjoyed playing monopoly. 

he once claimed that he saw a ufo.

he had written three books but he always wanted to write a children's book.

 the last song he ever performed in front of a live audience was “i saw her standing there.” with elton john.

he was afraid of the dark. 

found out later in his life that he was dyslexic. 

was also legally blind without glasses.

never could catch a break huh.

said that his best lyric ever was “all you need is love” i agree.

the first time yoko and john met was not at her art exhibit but actually when she approached him about giving away songs for free.

wanted to write a musical with paul. 

once a friend dared him to masturbate ten times in one day and he managed to do it nine times.

would hold circle jerks with paul and a few other friends. 

just dudes being dudes. 

went on a holiday with brian epstein, who was gay, and told some people afterward that they did certain sexual things. but we will never know for sure.

yoko says that john was bisexual.

once in an interview he said that he would of married a rich man or woman if he wasn't in the beatles. 

hated his voice on records. would always ask for effects on his voice for final recordings. 

made a film with yoko where it was just his penis going from flaccid to erect for fifteen minutes in slow motion. 

only beatle not to of become a vegetarian while he was alive. 

murdered on december 8, 1980.

gave his autograph earlier in the day to the man who would murder him.

died at the age of 40.

“all my loving” was played while he was at the hospital.

and its spooky bc a lot of times in interviews he would say “when i'm 40..” 

and it’s sad bc he was finally becoming who he truly wanted to be. 

honorable john moments that i love:

“thanks for the purpler hearts” he says while receiving the silver heart 

“you are the first person from liverpool that i've ever seen” “great”

eric lennon on my mind today 

this come together performance where he messed up the lyrics lol

that interview where paul was sick and john keep checking on him 

john lennon speaking nothing but facts 

when he said that he could see the beatles going separate ways but that they'd always come back together.

SHUT UP 

“shut up while he’s talking..”

this interview breaks my heart sometimes 

and this interview is great as well 

sir james paul mccartney 

born on june 18, 1942

if you ever have spare time just check out this man’s natal chart. 

idk how he’s still alive with his chart tbh. 

he has a younger brother named mike and a step sister named ruth. 

his dad thought he was the ugliest baby he’d ever seen when he was born. 

when he was young paul would kill frogs in a way to prepare himself for the war if he ever was drafted. 

the first instrument he ever learned to play was the trumpet.

I don't even want to list every instrument this man can play but trust me when I say it’s a lot.

but for the beatles he mainly did bass, vocals, and piano. sometimes playing the guitar and the drums.

the beatles was just paul moving really, really fast. 

he lost his mother when he was 14 due to surgery for breast cancer.

never really learned how to cope well with loss of a loved one tbh. 

had the cutest chubby cheeks as a kid tbh 

met john and was accepted into his band 

sometimes they'd ditch school together and either work on music or would visit art galleries.

went to paris with john and john bought him all the banana milkshakes that he wanted.

connected over their love and admiration for music, and bc they had both lost their mothers. 

had a girlfriend’s mom who he would make comb his leg hairs. 

was an ass to his first girlfriend.

kill all men again. 

almost had to marry his girlfriend dot bc she was pregnant, but she ended up losing the baby.

was the one who introduced george harrison to john.

practically despised pete best and stuart stutcliffe bc they were bringing the group down. 

got arrested along with pete best bc they lit a condom on fire in hamburg.

still felt awful and a little guilty when stuart died suddenly. 

main force behind the beatles imo. 

without him we’d have not as much beatles music as we do. 

was dating jane asher throughout majority of the sixties. 

when they first met they talked about syrup and paul fell in love.

they broke things off after she walked in on him sleeping with another woman though.

directed magical mystery tour and it was amazing and I don't care what anyone says ok?

when john divorced cynthia he was the only one not scared of john and went against his wishes of not speaking to cynthia.

was a little controlling at times. 

has a good heart though. 

mal evans had to drive him home once after a beatles sessions bc he was crying so hard. 

was talking about getting the band back to touring when john said he was leaving the group. 

everyone kind of turned against him when the beatles were breaking up and i hate it.

he just wanted what was best for the band.

married linda and had a nice little farm. 

we love that story.

linda i'm free thursday if you want to hang out pls.

started up the whole “no meat monday” thing where you don't eat monday on mondays

food meat. not the other kind of meat.

children: james mccartney, stella mccartney, heather mccartney, mary mccartney, and beatrice mccartney. 

rip martha. 

WINGS!! 

he lost linda in 1998 due to cancer.

 cried for a whole year bc of it.

still has dreams about john and says they're nice.

wrote a sad song about john called “here today.”

really loved john. like..he truly, genuinely did. 

want someone to love me like paul does john. 

“think of me every now and then old friend.”

honorable paul moments:

his story about george’s dad 

“john? he was beautiful. very beautiful.”

humpty dumpty rap 

another story about him and george.

his google search video that I watch every week 

this 

george harrison 

born: February 24, 1943 

or at least we think 

bc he use to say that his birthday was february 25, but later started saying it february 24. 

why can't we change our birthdays its not like we picked it 

he was the youngest child.

baby of the family and of the beatles awwww

two older brothers named harry and peter. one older sister named louise.

when george’s mom was pregnant with him she’d play sitar music.

his mom was super supportive of his career choice 

when he was 16 he worked as an electricians apprentice.

his dad kind of hoped he would start a family business out of it.

george said nah

would ride the bus opposite way of his house just to spend time with paul 

headbutted a kid bc he didn't think they were worthy of paul’s friendship 

was brought into the band bc of paul insisting to john 

would follow john around like a lost puppy when he first met him 

once had an eight hour erection. don't ask me how idk he said it.

was 17 when he lost his virginity and the other band members were in the room watching and cheered him when he finished 

most sex craved beatle tbh 

once walked into a girls dressing room and asked if they could stand there so he could masturbate 

he was the first beatle to go to america 

got a black eye for defending ringo once 

would make john and paul take turns sharing rooms with ringo when he first joined the band so that he felt more welcomed 

when ringo left during the white album and then came back george decorated the studio with flowers for him 

during the beatles first recording session he told george martin that he didn't like his tie

became a vegetarian at 22 

favorite candy was jelly beans and purple was his favorite color 

used the phrase “grotty” in the hard days night movie, hated it, but everyone else picked up on the slang 

met his first wife, pattie boyd, on the set of a hard days night 

was turned down by her at first 

they married in 1966

wouldn't let her do modeling stuff and was kind of an ass 

a stylish couple but not the best image for a healthy relationship 

got into eastern religion around 1965 

during the Hamburg days he would eat chicken on stage 

had an affair with ringo’s first wife maureen 

got a divorce from pattie in 1977

in 1978 he married olivia who he stayed with until his death and had one son with. dhani.

was the first beatle to hit a number one single and album. 

was buddies with led zeppelin

inspired their “rain song” 

smashed a piece of cake on john bonham’s head and then was thrown into the pool by him 

he financed and produced films. had a production company.

tom petty said that george never shut up once you started talking to him 

but he was often referred to as “the quiet beatle”

formed another band called the traveling wilburys

he’d answer questions online in the 2000′s and it’s the cutest thing ever and his answers break my heart too.

“what do you miss most about john lennon?” “john lennon.”

in 1999 a schizophrenic person broke into his house and stabbed him 40 times 

thank god olivia was there bc she was the only braincell in the room 

had to get a part of his lung taken out 

died november 29, 2001 from lung cancer 

ashes were scattered into the ganges river 

honorable george moments:

this interview he did with ringo 

“i'm sad bc i can't play guitars with john anymore. but i did that...i know we’ll meet again some day.”

when he invented reaction videos 

“the wind was blowing.” “..blowing my girl?”

“what kind of girl do you like?” “john’s wife.”

sir richard starkey aka ringo starr 

born on july 7, 1940 

oldest member in the group 

has no siblings 

naturally was left handed but his grandma thought it was bad luck so he writes right handed, and plays drums with a right handed kit 

but does everything else left handed

when he was 6 he fell into a two month coma 

was a very sick child 

when he was 13 he was in the hosiptal for tuberculosis and formed a hospital band 

grew up poor 

loves and looked up to his stepfather a lot 

his step father bought him his first drum kit in 1957

wasn't that great in school bc he missed so much of it from being so sick 

he worked for a britain railway for a while 

also served drinks on a day boat for a job 

loves dancing 

Rory storm and the hurricanes 

got his nickname from all the rings he would wear

replaced pete best as the beatles drummer 

dealt with people hating him for a bit bc they liked pete more 

had to style his hair in a bowl cut to be in the band and i'm still mad at them for making him do that shit 

ringo i'm so sorry 

george martin didn't really like his drumming and had a session drummer come in for the first album 

in 1964 he had tonsillitis, pharyngitis, and high fever all at once and had to be in the hospital for a bit.

was worried the beatles would replace him for good 

he’s a cancer don't worry

was the first beatle to try weed 

drummers always go first huh 

married his first wife, maureen, in 1965 

she kissed paul, ringo, and george.

what a champ

honeymoon was ruined by reporters 

was really insecure in his relationship and needed a lot of reassurance 

had a great relationship with pretty much all the beatles 

but a great one with john 

john felt his most relaxed when he was with ringo

was once in a movie with roger daltrey 

divorced maureen in 1975 

his wife now is barbara bach who he married in 1981 

had alcohol problems 

once gotten so drunk that he beat barbara so badly that he thought he killed her 

put himself into rehab after that 

barbara lowkey looks like jan from the office 

children: zak, lee, and jason

zak is the drummer for the band the who 

peace and love 

but don't send me fan mail anymore 

peace and love 

ringo starr and the allstar band (starting 1981)

was the narrator for thomas the tank engine 

will play at paul’s concerts sometimes now for fun 

mad bc he came on stage during paul’s last concert show and it was on my birthday and I couldn't go to it 

honorable ringo moments:

“do you want me to come with you?”

stupid barbara walters 

talking about paul 

giving us a little dance 

[beatlevmania]

Dating the teddy beatles

Request: I just came back from reading your head cannons and I love them sm!!! Could you write some for what I’d be like dating each of the Teddyboy!Beatles? A/n: How could I possibly ignore this!? ALSO THANK YOU THANK YOU @myukulelegentlyweeps @casafrass and @spaceyantique FOR HELPING ME THROUGH MY WRITER’S BLOCK <3

JOHN

so. john as a teddy boy. 

let me tell you, i am VERY well educated on the subject

so we all know john has that very tough guy exterior

at first you were pretty intimidated by him and his friends 

but when he first laid eyes on you 

he just MELTED

he definitely went after you hardcore

he knew that you were perfect for him and he just needed you in his life

when you guys first got together, he never really let you see his soft side

but one day he had just had a really bad day 

and he didnt know who else to go to so he went to you 

he just completely let down his walls and you saw the real him. 

he just wraps those arms around you and just lets it all out 

and you stroke his hair and kiss his cheeck and whisper that you love him 

afterwards he gets kinda embarassed but you just remind him that you love him- all of him 

anyway enough with the sad parts

john DIES when you wear his leather jacket. like DIES

he wants everyone to know that you’re HIS girl 

he’s always touching you- holding your hand, sitting you on his lap, arm around your shoulders

he kinda just needs reassurance that youre gonna be there for him no matter what 

he always calls you “birdie”, “little girl”

so when he calls you by your actual name

he says it so tenderly and jsut with so much love in his eyes

Ok also a plus

Mimi LOVES YOU

SHes always inviting you around which makes you feel like part of the family

Anyway, John loves your alone time together

AND CUDDLING

he likes playing guitar for you 

not just his rock and roll songs, but love songs hes written

songs he’d never show anyone else

and he’s so gentle and soft and his sweet little voice-

AH

PAUL

so paul still never really wrapped his brain around the fact that you loved him back

like he just could not believe his luck

youre always reassuring him that you love him 

and that you’re his: “Paul, you know I’m already your girlfriend, right?”

and when you tell him you love him, he gets all red and blushy and smiles from ear to ear

he always flirts with you and is the cheekiest little bastard

he makes many a dirty joke that make you chuckle but blush at the same time 

but anyway just imagine the most romantic boy in the whole world

even though some of the boys make fun of him for being so open and vulnerable with you, he couldn’t imagine your relationship any other way

you guys are always fantasizing about when you will just run away together, to a little farm in the country 

paul is mature beyond his years with you

of course when he hangs out with the other boys hes an absolute crackhead but boys will be boys 

his favorite activity is kissing you and beware he will do it as often as possible 

ANYTIME, ANYWHERE

also, expect tons of little gifts

when you wear a pair of earrings he's bought for you, or a little necklace with both your initials

i mean- you know what this boy’s gonna do

he always brings you around with him wherever he goes

especially band practice

bc he just loves showing you off

but if any of the other boys start getting a little too close to u

they better watch out if u know what i mean

but Paul really is just the absolute best boyfriend we all know the deal

GEORGE

alright so lets establish the fact that teddy Geo is BABEY

also #boyf

continuing on

so our lil Georgie just fell head over heels for you the second he saw you 

we was just a nervous mess around you 

the boys literally had to ask you out for him because he was so nervous 

but you guys absolutely hit it off and became INSPEREABLE

you do everything together

going to the diner for breakfast, going to every concert together, 

you’re at each others houses 24/7, too

you always steal geo’s clothes and wear them 

tshirts, sweaters, jackets (leather jacket too), basically anything of his you have worn at some point 

he loves when you wear his clothes and thinks you look absolutely beautiful 

so we all know Geo could look very scary with his like 

fangs

and his big ol’ cheekbones

but damn is this boy a cuddlebug 

he wants to be cuddling/hugging all the time 

of course as the youngest of all 4 boys geo wants to seem like a tough guy

like he can fit in with the others, or he’s just as “man”

but when the two of you are alone, all he wants is for you to take care of him 

you love playing with the hair at the nape of his neck while he cuddles you 

also, since you go to all of his concerts and shows, they go on pretty late and you can get tired

so George always brings you around to his place and gives you his stuff to wear, and he takes such good care of you 

even gently brushing your hair and getting you ready for bed 

you both fall asleep with your arms wrapped around each other

george thinks you’re absolutely beautiful just wearing any old outfit, no makeup on 

but when you dress up 

this boy freaks the freak out 

he can’t stop staring at you just in awe

he gets all smiley and blushy 

and he smiles with those lil fangs

babey

RINGO

So teddy Ringo was quite intimidating looking

Like even the boys were afraid of him at first when the first met him

But I can imagine the first time you two talked, you both just immediately fell for each other

And you saw he was the absolute sweetest boy ever

FIRST OF ALL RINGOS LITTLE STUBBLE/BEARD THING IS SO HAWT

Anyway now that I got that off my chest

Ringo is so sweet and thoughtful

He loves calling you little nicknames like “honey” or “darling”

Like John, he always wants you in his arms

Literally at all times

He also is always giving you behind-the-back hugs, playing with your hair, kissing your knuckles

Always needing to show you how much he loves you

He loves when you come to band practice and sit on his lap when he plays the drums

He feels like a freaking winner of life

Another thing

He is so so proud that you chose HIM, of all people

He’s constantly reminding people that your “his bird”

Like to everyone

The boy loves you insane amounts

Sometimes you steal his rings and wear them around, and he literally smiles from ear to ear when he notices

You try to get Ringo to stop smoking

And it’s really hard for him but he knows he has to do it, for you

He really just wants you to be proud of him

And whenever you tell him, “good job, baby!” He just GLOWS

Also ometimes, when you guys are lying together on his bed after a show, he tells you about his dreams for the future

And how he wants you there by his side through it all

“I couldn’t imagine life without ‘ya, honey,” he says, kissing the top of your head as you doze off together

Ok let me live out my fantasies ok

Anyway I’m in love with teddy Ringo and thats period Pooh

[angrylizardjacket]

and then there was light [3] {Roger Taylor}

Anon asked: Prompt: angst Roger and y/n because he’s jealous after a party

A/N: 5981 words!! What?! Like, it’s not explicit, but I might have given the reader a slight praise kink. Some sexual content. There is mentions of cheating, just to let you know if that makes you uncomfortable. There might be a problem with pacing but like... suspend your disbelief. Also.... you’ve got a big storm coming.

[part 1] [part 2]

Your grip is white-knuckled on the armrest as you felt the plane rumble beneath you; anxiety is clutching at your chest as the world falls away beneath the wings of the machine and you’re rising into the sky. Roger isn’t outright laughing from where he’s sitting next to you, but it looks like he wants to. Thankfully, for his sake, he contains himself, resting a hand on your thigh, rubbing it in a gentle, comforting rhythm.

“You’ll be fine, love, these things hardly ever crash, and if this one does, it’ll make the news, probably.” He shrugged, and you glared at him, trying to push down the anxiety curling in your stomach.

“You’re the single least reassuring person I’ve ever met.” You snapped, but he just grinned wider, his hand moving higher on your thigh, your legs part just a little, out of instinct, and you’re too anxious about the flight to even blush at it.

“I could distract you instead.” He offers, giving your thigh a gentle squeeze. Something eases in your chest and you relax your grip on the armrest to put your hand on his. “Love?” He asks, watching how you’re leaning your head back against the headrest, eyes closed, like you were trying to go to your happy place, wishing you weren’t trapped inside this plane. His hand twitches to move away when he doesn’t get a response, but then your own hand is guiding his a little further up, and you’re wearing a little, playful smile, though it’s strained. Roger has to bite back a laugh.

“Could you please wait until the seat belt sign is off?” John’s voice interrupts both of you, pressing his face into the space between your headrests where he’s sitting behind you, sounding characteristically exasperated.

“Or wait until we land, like any decent human being.” You can hear Brian’s sigh from where he’s sitting beside John, his words followed by a world-weary sigh.

“You were both cuter when you thought we didn’t know.” Freddie says, matter-of-factly, and Paul hums in agreement, the two of them sitting in the two seats in front of you.

“So were you.” Roger snaps back, leaning back into his chair, sullen at the sudden onslaught of bullying from his band-mates. “And get your bloody face away from mine.” He smacks John’s forehead with his free hand, which has the man retreating, but you’re silently thankful. Despite this, you’re also flushing with embarrassment, which is only quelled when Roger flips his hand over on your thigh to lace his fingers with yours, giving your hand a comforting squeeze.

It’s weird, to be in public, well, sort of public, and to be allowed to actually be with Roger. You’ve always been so hyper aware of his image, careful to keep your distance where prying eyes might be lurking, the last-performance kiss notwithstanding, but here, in the relative safety of first class - and god, that was a mind-boggling realisation - he’d wrapped his arm around you. Once the seat-belt sign has been turned off and the in-flight movie has started, he pulls you into his lap on the luxuriously spacious seat. Everyone on the flight has headphones to listen along to the movie, and the plane is almost silent as everyone looks to the overhead screens. It starts innocently enough, except sitting on Roger isn’t exactly comfortable; he’s got one hand resting on your thigh, innocent enough, and the other on the armrest, but you find yourself shifting every few minutes trying to get comfortable, but it isn’t really working.

“Are you right there?” Roger moves your headphones off of one of your ears, speaking low and quiet, only to you. When you look at him, he’s not even looking you in the eyes, he’s looking at your lips, and you feel your chest tighten, though in a very different way to the plane taking off earlier.

“What?” And you shift again, trying in vain to get more comfortable before you feel him hard and pressing against your ass through his pants, and it dawns on you. After a moment, you lock eyes with him, finally, and wiggle again, deliberate, suppressing a smile. He leans in to kiss you, rough, insistent, his hand on your thigh moving dangerously higher.

“Let’s not ruin everyone’s movie,” he breathes as he pulls back, his hand moving to give your ass a light tap, and you take the hint, taking off your headphones and making a beeline for the bathroom. You find yourself waiting for almost five minutes in the stall before there’s a knock at the door and Roger’s whispering your name. You haven’t even fully locked the door before he’s pulling off your shirt, murmuring about how you both had to be quiet, though he was grinning in that way that made you melt, and made you want to be anything but quiet.

When you head back to your seats none of the others comment on it, though they do seem pretty enraptured with the movie. Your anxiety at flying had dissolved; you’re feeling all warm and syrupy in the afterglow, and Roger clicks down the armrest that separates your two seats, and shifts so that you he can still wrap his arm around you, but you’re sitting next to him, your legs stretched out and arching over his. He puts his own headphones back on, smile supremely satisfied, and you give yourself a little, mental pat on the back, but don’t bother with your own headphones, resting your head on his shoulder and falling asleep, feeling secure and safe with his arm around you.

When you land, you find yourself whisked almost directly to the new tour bus, and you suddenly find yourself filled with a new uncertainty. The space, at least compared to what you were used to, was lavish, not a single road case in sight.

“You guys live like this?” You crowed, eyes wide as you raced through the spacious vehicle, plopping yourself down on the cushioned bench beneath the back window while the rest of the band, and the crew travelling in this bus started getting settled in.

“Well yeah, was the other bus really that different?” Roger asks, joining you, sprawling himself out across the seat. The sheer absurdity of his question takes a moment to sink in, but after that you’re laughing, loud and a little bit uncontrollable, mind alight with memories of hot, bump afternoons riding along at the back of the equipment bus, sat atop a road case, holding a light and gels and trying not to touch the drum kit where it was stacked up beside you.

“God, I would have killed for a cushion.” You breathe, wistful, relaxing further, if it were possible, into the seats. After a beat, you look around at where everyone’s gone quiet; Freddie and John were setting up a board game and Brian was lounging on one of the sofas running along the inside of the bus; you’re pretty sure Roger’s the only one who hears you anyways. “I much prefer it to flying though,” you admit, shifting until you can rest your head on Roger’s shoulder.

“Really?” He asked, voice quiet enough that only you could hear it. “I thought it was a pretty decent flight.” And he reaches up to pinch at your side playfully when the bus starts up. The two of you dissolve into play-fighting, which the others don’t pay much attention to, entertaining themselves as the trip to the first destination began.

“You’re- you- they call you Spotlight, don’t they?” The voice that greets you before for the first crew meeting is bright, eager, faintly accented, and when you turn, you see it belongs to a sweet looking boy with big, brown eyes, clutching at a clipboard. Laughing a little awkwardly, you nod, and his whole face brightens at the confirmation. “I’m Robbie; I’m stage managing, and they’ve got me operating the lights.” He sounds so damn excited, it’s a little endearing, and after a beat, he’s peppering you with questions about the American leg of the tour, which you answer with ease.

You’d been worried, not that you’d ever admit it, integrating into a whole new crew; the American tour was staffed with people you’d been working with for years, and here, everything and everyone was new to you. Seeing Robbie smile, so kind and welcoming, it felt like you could breathe.

“How the crew?” Roger asks, and he’s stuck with fond deja vu, sitting behind his drums, watching you cut a whole new set of gels. You’re humming something he can’t quite pick, but you seem happy enough.

“Yeah good,” you concede, only half paying attention as you work, “they’re nice, very welcoming.” You tell him, and he makes his way to you, sitting beside you on the drum risers, picking up some scraps of the gel. After a moment, your hands still, and you watch his, smiling with confusion, before looking at him. “What-” but he’s looking back at you, and he leans in to kiss you once you look up. Putting the gel and the scissors down, you take his face in his hands, giving him an endearing smile.

“I’m working.” You said softly, but he just grinned, leaning in to kiss you again. It’s fun and easy to be with Roger at times like this, times when neither of you had to worry about what other people thought, or who saw you together; you were happy and so was he, and that’s what mattered.

It gets a bit harder, you realise, when in Glasgow you’re leaving the hotel with the band and a few paparazzi come after you; at first they’re shouting at the band but then they spot you where you’re by Roger’s side, trying to keep your face hidden. You see your picture in some gossip rag the next day when Robbie gives it to you with a long suffering and apologetic look. 

“The boss wants you to be more careful about being seen.” He’s rolling his eyes at the boss’s words, however, when you ask him what he means, you learn that you’d been photographed with them in America, and people were starting to speculate that you might be part of the tour group. The Boss thinks it reflects poorly. The rest of the band is in the photo, but you’re the one being accused of being a world-travelling gold digger in the article.

When you tell Roger, or more specifically show him the article and make an offhand comment about not really being seen with the band in public anymore, he throws the magazine across the hotel room, scowling.

“They’re printing lies, Spotlight, what do you care?” He asks. You’re gentle when you step towards him, resting your hands on his shoulders.

“I care about my career and my reputation, Roger, you understand, right?” Voice soft, you don’t move until he looks at you, expression a little hurt. “I know I’m not a gold digger, but if I want to get anywhere in life, I need other people to believe that too.” You explained, and he didn’t exactly seem happy about it.

“You’re fantastic at your job, babe, isn’t that enough?” He asked, and you felt yourself flush, suppressing a grin at the praise.

“I wish it was.” You told him, voice a little forlorn, and he leaned in to kiss you, a silent agreement to your request. After a moment you pulled back, actually letting yourself grin. “You think I’m good at my job?” You asked, giggling, and Roger’s expression brightened as he huffed out a laugh.

“You know I do.” And it’s the most gentle you think you’ve ever heard him, the sweet sincerity shifts as his hands come up to rest on your hips. He knows all too well the effect he has on you when he compliments your work. “How many times do I have to tell you?” He asks, a single eyebrow raised, teasing edge to his tone.

“I mean, if you told me too much I think we both know I’d never get anything done.” And your fingers are nimbly undoing his fly. With a cheeky grin, he kisses you again, rougher, biting at your bottom lip before you pull away.

“You say that like it’s a bad thing.” He muses, watching the way you wet your lips, smiling at him. “You’re very good at other things too, love.” 

“I know.” You watch him through your lashes, biting your lip to keep from laughing as his whole face lights up and he’s snorting out a laugh at your response, and you fall to your knees, already pulling down the waistband of his jeans.

He doesn’t like that you insist on leaving the hotel at different times, becomes a little clingy in the mornings when you go to get up, but he always manages to tug you back down to him, and you get lost in the way he smiles in the early morning sunlight, the feel of his lips on yours, the way he laughs softly against your skin. 

Despite this, he keeps his distance around other people. The band he doesn’t worry about, but he stays up by his drums during lunch, and sometimes during the after parties you attend, he’ll disappear for a few hours at a time, and you find him at the bar, reasonably hammered, surrounded by fans fawning over him. He always goes home with you though, so you try not to feel too jealous.

“Hey, Light? I’m getting lunch, do you want anything?” Things start going downhill the day Robbie pops his head in during your lunch break; you’re at the top of a ladder, fiddling with the angle of a parcan, and Roger’s at his drums.

“No thanks.” You call back, chipper, shooting the ASM a smile, and when he leaves, Roger frowns at you.

“Did he give your nickname a nickname?” He punctuates it with a laugh, but it sounds more angry than anything else.

“That’s Robbie,” your explanation does not seem to placate him. You’d been spending a lot of time with Robbie, the two of you bonding over both having worked on Bowie’s last tour. “He’s German.” You add, as if the fun fact might warm Roger to him.

“I know how to pick accents.” He snapped back at you, and you actually stopped your work to look at him, a little shocked and defensive at his tone. He’s not looking at you, he’s gone back to watching the door.

“He’s the ASM, Rog, chill out, we work together.” You tell him. He doesn’t respond, and all you can do is go back to your work, a squirming discomfort making itself known in your chest.

He disappears after the show that night, not coming to find you after bump out like he usually would, and you try to assume the best; that he’s too high from adrenaline and the endorphins of such a good show that he’d wanted to ride the hype the rest of the band. It wasn’t deliberate, you told yourself.

“You going to the after party?” Robbie asks carefully, hands in his pockets, still wearing his own theatre blacks. You realise you must look a little lost, and when you decide that you are, you tell him, and he offers to walk with him. He’s sweet, excitedly gushing about how he can’t wait for the Munich show so he could see his girlfriend, and you find yourself enthusing about how exciting it is to be travelling around Europe. Once you step foot in the pub, the two of you part ways, Robbie heading for the bar, and you seeking your own boyfriend.

His whole face lights up when he sees you, and the anxiety that had been building in your chest dissipates when he wraps his arms around you, spinning you around.

“I’m sorry, I got caught up.” He told you, but he doesn’t kiss you, just pulls you down to the sofa with him where Freddie’s in the middle of an animated discussion with Brian.

It happens again at the next stop, he leaves you behind and you make your way to the after party talking with Robbie. He’s kind, sweet, looking forward to marrying his high school sweetheart. If you’re being honest, it’s nice to have someone to talk to who understands your side of touring, being another interchangeable face to the talent you’re helping, someone down to earth and . He gushes about how jealous he is of your friendship with the band, starry eyed in the cool night air.

Again, when you arrive at the venue, Roger’s already there, and he doesn’t get up this time, just beckons you to him with a bright smile. It doesn’t ease your discomfort like you hoped his smile would.

“Are you mad at me?” You ask gently one night; the two of you were walking in relative silence, side by side, not touching for fear of paparazzi, you try to justify.

“No, why?” He asked, and you look at him, eyes narrowed as you examine him, and his smile is a little far away when he looks back at you. After a long moment of silence, he takes your hand, pulling you both to a stop, facing each other. He wraps his arms around you, still giving you that far away smile, and he kisses you. “I’m sorry I keep leaving you behind, love.” 

“So you’re not mad at me?” You confirm, stepping back and taking his hand, continuing to walk.

“Of course not; should I be?” And the way he says it, so perfectly fucking harmless, has the hairs on the back of your neck standing up.

“No!” You defend, and he’s laughing easily in the moonlight. 

It keeps happening, sporadically, and it always seems to coincide with whenever he sees you and Robbie together, or Robbie comes in to offer to get you lunch, and you know what’s happening before you dare to admit it.

On some of the nights where you opt to go straight back to the hotel, you’re woken by him flopping into bed beside you, wrapping his arms around you and pulling you to him, warm and protective, at odds with the discomfort in your chest.

“Missed you.” He yawns, smelling of alcohol and cigarettes, and one time, of faint, fruity perfume that you don’t recognise. When you ask him, he says that someone spilled a cocktail on him, and you realise you can’t even tell if he’s lying or not. 

“You jealous?” And you can hear the sleepy smirk in his words, and your own tired mind is unguarded, unfiltered.

“A little.” You whisper into the silence of the hotel room. He doesn’t answer you, but his grip on you tightens, and he hums, the meaning of which you can’t decipher. It takes you a long while to get to sleep after that.

It comes to a head a few weeks later, however, the night they perform in Paris.

“I miss her so much.” Robbie bemoaned you as the two of you walked together, his arm tucked into yours as he waxed poetic about his now-fiance. “She sent me a care package and I swear I almost cried in front of the sound operator.” 

“Why?” You laughed, and Robbie groaned.

“I opened it in the bio box because I picked it up from the front desk on my way here, like right after checking in.” By the time you get to the after party, the music is already blaring, and like always, you split up to go your respective ways. Roger greets you warmly, making room for you on the sofa he was sprawled on, wrapping an arm around you as he continued his conversation with a starry-eyed groupie, who didn’t even acknowledge your presence. You make conversation with John, who’s hovering near the arm of the sofa, bopping along to the music, looking a little bit longingly at the dance floor.

Roger goes to get a drink a little while later, smiling and asking if you’d like anything, and as soon as he’s gone, Robbie, now quite plastered, pours himself into the empty seat.

“I called her- Spotlight, I miss her so much - and she told me she loves me and she can’t wait until I get home; should I walk back to Germany? I wanna see her.” He asked, words blurring together a little from his accent and his inebriated state, and he rests his head on your shoulder.

“This is Robbie; he misses his fiance.” You explain to a confused looking Freddie, who’s expression melts into one of adoration, and he ‘aww’s at that. Robbie is starry-eyed for a long moment, before he turns to you.

“Should I walk to Munich? I miss her.” He reiterates, and you burst out laughing, petting his head fondly.

“No, don’t walk to Munich, you should go home, we’ve got a big day tomorrow.” You tell him, and he groans, clearly not having received the answer he wanted. Instead, you get to your feet and offer him your hand. “I’ll walk you back, we’re staying at the same hotel.”

You find Roger at the bar with one of your arms around Robbie’s shoulders where he’s pretty much legless, the lightweight. There’s a muscle jumping in Roger’s jaw when he sees you, and you hesitate, giving him a confused look.

“Hey, I’m just going to take Robbie back to his room, okay? I’m probably going to bed after.” You tell him. He doesn’t smile, just offers you the drink he got you and blinks slowly when you wave it away. “I’ll see you later, okay?” You ask gently, hoping to get a response from him, but he’s just giving Robbie a sour, calculating look. Robbie is transfixed by the lights behind the bar and does not notice.

When you finally get Robbie into bed, much later than you would have thought since he insisted on stopping at everything that caught his interest, and taking five minutes of standing still and explaining how beautiful his fiance’s eyes were, he’s still wearing his shoes. Once under the covers, he grabs your hands and looks you in the eyes, suddenly serious.

“You’re good. You’re a good sort, Spotlight.” He tells you, his accent coming in just a little thicker with his sincerity, and he pets your hands, before abruptly turning away from you and pulling the blankets up to his nose, clearly tapping out for the night.

The room you shared with Roger was just a few floors up, and you’re in the elevator when you realise you’d left your keys in your room. You usually did, you always went back with Roger, so you usually didn’t need them. When you approach the door, you think you hear murmuring from the other side, but it could have been from across the hall, you don’t think about it too much as you knock. There’s a giggled ‘shhh’ from the other side of the door that’s less easy to play off, but you’re tired enough to think it’s just mostly-asleep Roger. You knock again, but no-one replies. It’s too late to knock too much, and you know he’s a deep sleeper, so with a heavy, tired heart, you make your way down the hall.

“What do you want?” Paul’s frowning at you when he opens the door, wearing his blue pyjamas, squinting at you.

“Keys to the bus please, I need somewhere to sleep, Roger’s not answering.” You tell him, and punctuate it with a yawn. After a beat more of watching you, as if assessing your motives, he disappears back into his room and reappears with the keys.

“Don’t lose them.” He warned, before closing the door on you.

The sofa in the bus is long enough that you can spread out, and you find someone’s fur coat to use as a blanket. It’s comfortable enough, a little cold, and it’s only when you hear a banging on the door and feel the sunlight on your face the next morning that you get up.

Opening the door, you see Roger standing there, looking up at you, waiting for entrance. Moving back to your makeshift bed, you take a seat, giving him a confused smile.

“I... didn’t think you’d actually be here.” He already sounds like he’s in a mood, bitter, but a little bit hesitant.

“Of course I stayed here, I knocked but you didn’t answer- what was up with that?” You asked, punctuating it with a yawn, rubbing the sleep from your eyes. He watched for a moment before he slid his sunglasses down his nose to glare at you over them.

“What are you doing here?” He asked, voice a little hoarse and scratchy, moving from hesitant to just quietly angry, the venom in his words hurting like a physical slap, and you sat up straighter.

“I’m-” And you’re searching for the words, but none come to mind.

“Why are you still on this bus?” He explains in a hiss. After a beat, he slides his glasses back up his nose, and turns to look away from you, a clear dismissal.

You’re at a loss as to how to explain that you’re here because... well, you’re always here, it’s where you were now. He’s the one who’d brought you here. 

“What do you mean? You’re the one who wanted me here.” Standing your ground, you don’t dare let your voice betray how confused and hurt you were feeling. 

“Yeah, well now I don’t.” He snapped. His words hit you squarely in the chest, and he leaves you in your shocked, dazed silence, moving to the back of the bus. “Fuck off back to the equipment bus, since you prefer it so much better.” He snarled, and that’s what unfroze you. 

“Christ, I don’t get paid enough to deal with whatever this is and ride in that bus, so that’s a resounding ‘no thanks’. And more importantly; what the fuck has gotten into you?” Emotion comes crashing back into you, rage tearing through you like a tidal wave, and you turn on him, jaw clenched.

“’Whatever this is’” he snorted, low and bitter, “yeah, but you get paid enough to fuck that little, brown-haired cockhead?” He asked, and your eyes went wide.

“Who? Robbie?” You asked, voice dangerously calm. “You think I’m fucking Robbie? Our assistant stage manager? Who just proposed to his girlfriend at our stop in Munich? That brown-haired cockhead?” You snarled, advancing on Roger like a predator cornering her prey, bitter tension gathering across your skin.

“Was he the one crying on your shoulder last night at the after party?” Roger raised an eyebrow, but the sting had left his words. Narrowing your eyes, you confirm with a single, venomous ‘yes’. “Oh.”

“Is that why you locked me out last night? You thought I was-”

“I was angry, okay?” He cut you off, sitting down at the back of the bus, and though his tone is angry, his demeanour, the way he’s avoiding your gaze and fiddling, it’s... almost guilty. In that moment, it was as if you’d been splashed with cold water, an icy realisation slithering down your spine.

“What does that mean?” Voice level, you try not to jump to conclusions, but your heart is already sinking. He doesn’t answer. When he turns away, you see a hickey on his collar that wasn’t there yesterday. “Roger, what did you do?” You asked, and the hurt was already bleeding through into your words.

“I was... I was so fucking angry.” It’s not a real answer, it’s not even a real excuse. The way he says it, jaw clenched, heart in his throat, he’s all but bleeding guilt, too proud to ask for forgiveness.

“Bullshit.” Your can feel tears welling in your eyes and threatening to spill, but your hands are shaking with anger, hurt, betrayal, and you don’t even care. “You’ve been weird for weeks, you were just looking for the first out you could get.” 

“Y/N.” He stands, reaches out to grab your shoulder, but you step back, out of his reach.

“No.” Your voice is firm, but your lip is quivering. “I don’t want you to ever touch me again,” wrapping your arms across your chest, looking at his outstretched hand with disdain through your tears. “Being angry isn’t an excuse. Jumping to conclusions isn’t an excuse. I get that it must be fun fucking around with the girl who makes you work for it by your standards, but,” shaking your head, you sniffle, holding yourself a little tighter with one hand, you wipe away your tears with the other, “the moment you have to work, have to put in a little bit of fucking trust? You couldn’t even do that.”

“Spotlight, please-”

“I’m in fucking Europe for you, Roger! What in your fucking, dumbass mind thinks that I’m someone who travels halfway across the world with someone just to cheat on them?” You’re yelling now, grateful to be alone and worrying that others would join you at any minute. You didn’t want them seeing you like this.

“For me? You’re here for work! I’m opening doors for you in the industry that you’d never have opened yourself!” And he knows even as he’s saying it that it’s the wrong thing to say, but he’s too furious at himself, lashing out at the only person he could. He watches as your expression turns shocked, before shattering, and you start bawling your eyes out, holding your face in your hands. Regret floods through him, but as he steps forwards to comfort you, you yell for him to fuck off.

“I can’t- I can’t leave can I? If I leave the tour, they’ll think the tabloid are right, that I’m some dumb groupie.” And you turn, distraught, and curl up on the sofa along the inside of the bus, still bawling, loud and ugly, great heaving sobs wracking your body as you realise the full extent of what had happened, and what it would mean for you. “You’ve ruined my fucking career.”

“That’s a bit of an overstatement.” He can’t even bring himself to apologise, sitting back against the window of the bus, watching as you curl yourself into a ball, the only sound filling the silence being your sobbing. It hurts, his heart is fucking aching, but he couldn’t admit it. When you raised your head to look at him, your eyes red rimmed and lip trembling, he feels only a white hot guilt fill him from the inside out.

“You don’t get it, this industry is about who you know, and if all I am is some girl who Roger Taylor fucked, flew across the world, and got bored with, it doesn’t matter how good at my job I am, I’ll just be another groupie with aspirations.” And you bury your face in your hands again.

“We could... pretend like nothing happened, until the end of the tour.” He offers, quietly, the weakest hail mary pass you’d ever heard, and you roll your eyes at him.

“I’d rather have my dignity, thanks.” You spat, taking in a deep shaking breath as you finally sat up, wiping fruitlessly at your eyes as tears continued to flow, though you tried to pull yourself together.

“You’re not under contract, you can leave if you want.” And it might literally be last on the list of things you’d wanted to hear at that moment.

“I get it, Roger, you don’t want me around.” You snap, standing. “You are who you are; I was stupid to think you were better than that.” You sniffled. When you turn and leave, he’s silent, replaying your words over and over again in his head until he’s absolutely livid at what he’s done. 

When the rest of the band returns almost a full half an hour later, he’s trashed the entirety of the bus, even going to far as to rip up the cushioning on the bench beneath the back window. 

“So you’ve heard the news I take it.” Brian looks at the scene before them, voice and demeanour both surprisingly nonchalant, and Roger, breathing heavily amid the carnage, gives him a sharp look. “Spotlight’s heading home, something’s come up with her family.” He explains. Behind him, John’s already started picking up a fractured mug, and Freddie is just frowning at Roger.

“Yeah?” Is all Roger says, snatching up the cushions from where he’d thrown them, and flopping himself onto the back bench, facing away from them all. 

“She’s just talking to the production manager if you’d like to say goodbye.” Freddie offers, carefully neutral, and Roger suspects he knows something’s up with the story.

“She doesn’t want to see me.” He huffed sulkily, and the others lapsed into an uncomfortable silence. They can tell it’s a touchy subject but they don’t pry. They don’t hear from you, don’t even know how to contact you if they had been able to, instead they watch Roger pick up different girls night after night, trash hotel rooms, and grow shorter when interacting with the crew, especially the assistant stage manager.

“I am who I am.” Is all he says, lips around a cigarette where he’s chain smoking in the empty theatre at lunch when Freddie finds him and finally asks what’s wrong. Freddie wants to ask what happened, wants to ask why you really left, but he knows Roger well enough to figure most of it out. Roger’s a ticking time bomb nowadays, so he doesn’t pry. 

The band doesn’t talk about you, not when paparazzi and reports yell out asking where you are, not to the crew, they barely talk about you to each other, and they never talk about you around Roger. 

The bus is quieter now.

Roger’s louder now. 

There’s an ache in his chest that won’t go away, that he’s filling with meaningless sex and too much booze because he can’t stand waking up alone, and he still thinks about what you said, and the way you had smiled at him before it all went to shit. He remembers how you’d risked your life for a light beneath his drums, and sometimes at breakfast he finds himself thinking about how you’d thrown a plate of food in his face before you were even real friends, and he wants to yell, to scream, because how could he be so fucking stupid? You’d seen him for who he was, and chose to be with him despite it, you thought he could be better than his reputation, but he’d just managed to prove he wasn’t. 

It hits him when he’s got his hands on some girl whose name he doesn’t know that all he can think about is you, and he hates himself when he leans into the fantasy, not that the other girl notices. He’d rather fuck around than admit he’d developed feelings for you, and so he does, and pretends like he doesn’t miss your sleepy, morning grin, or the casual way the two of you would chat as you were rigging the spotlights for the band.

The day he finds out they’ve replaced you, the kid they’ve got is at the top of the ladder during lunch when he walks in, and he’s hit with such a sense of deja vu that he stops in his tracks.

“I was told this is the best time for me to get work done.” Her voice, thank god she sounds nothing like you, is hesitant, with none of the calm confidence you exuded at the top of the ladder.

“It’s none of my fucking business.” Roger snaps, and turns on his heel and leaves, pretending like it hadn’t felt like he’d just seen a ghost. He gets another drink.

[johns-prince]

You seem to have the fixated idea Paul truly thinks John is not bisexual/gay because he says so in interviews. Many celebrities friends of Rock Hudson and even one of his lovers said until they couldnt deny anymore he was straight. Rock was also married. So was Richard Pryor. Celebrities tell tales. Don't you find very curious that Paul denies John have interest in man but making sure to say indirectly if he was to have he would have interest in him (paul)?

I just believe what I’ve read and watched, and maybe I’m giving Paul way more credit than he deserves when it comes to his denial of John’s sexuality, or of John not making a pass at him ever. 

That being said, I could be 100% wrong that Paul legitimately believes what he’s saying/isn’t lying, and his denial of John’s bisexuality. It could be a complete, bald-faced lie that John never made a pass at Paul.  

I know people lie, nobody is immune to this. Paul has most definitely lied about a lot of things, or stretched the truth out. 

Oh, I don’t know if you’ve seen my other posts but I CONSTANTLY point that out and how that’s just so suspicious of Paul to say:

Not to mention the reason Paul claims it was all for publicity and simply taking the piss is because, and I quote what Paul said to Julia Baird–

[Julia] asked Paul McCartney, who laughed and said: ‘Why not me? I’m handsome.’ Then he said: ‘I was holed up with John in hotel rooms everywhere. There was never a suggestion of anything like that.’ I believe him.

and 

But as far as I was concerned I slept in a million places with John and there was never any hint of it. So I suspect it was something to sell a book.

Paul McCartney, Interview,

November 1983

And I feel like there’s another one out there, but I don’t know– point is, IN MY OPINION, Paul claims John wasn’t gay (bisexual) because John had never made a pass at him while they shared beds– Paul is basically saying, “John really fancied me, and I’m quite attractive and someone who could really communicate and connect with John on almost all levels. But he didn’t try anything gay with me, so obviously that means he wasn’t. Because he didn’t try anything with/to me while we slept in the same bed.”

Platonic or romantic, John was incredibly close to Paul, and perhaps Paul was aware of how close they were. But John never made a pass at him while they were jammed into the same bed (though I do believe Paul can be oblivious) and so, if Paul wasn’t John’s main target of “being gay,” then to Paul, it had to of been a joke, something indeed to sell in papers and books

and then on a separate post I commented:

Also isn’t it sort of interesting how Paul claims John wasn’t gay (bisexual) because John had never made a pass at him while they shared beds– like, in my opinion, Paul is basically saying, “John really fancied me, and I’m quite attractive and someone who could really communicate and connect with John on almost all levels. But he didnt try anything gay with me, so obviously that means he wasn’t. Because he didn’t try anything with/to me while we slept in the same bed.”

What I’m trying to say is, John was incredibly close to Paul, and perhaps Paul was aware of how close they were. But John never made a pass at him while they were jammed into the same bed (though I do believe Paul can be oblivious) and so, if Paul wasn’t John’s main target of “being gay,” then to Paul, it had to of been a joke, something indeed to sell in papers and books.

So because John apparently never made a pass at Paul while they were in the same bed (though I do believe Paul could be oblivious) Paul claims it was just a trick to get them more attention, to sell.

Am I making any sense, or just reading too much into it?

Perhaps it’s just Paul’s misconceptions of same sex attraction, of how being gay (bi) doesn’t mean you’ll try to fondle or fuck any passing guy or close friend. Also back in Paul’s time, being bisexual essentially just made you gay to others, especially in such an unforgiving and ignorant society at the time.

ALSO, why would Norman bring up Paul being a hopeless romantic when it comes to discussing John’s sexuality? Why did Paul think it was necessary to bring that point up???? Sure naive and idiot work, and claiming Paul’s just being secretive (private more like) but why throw hopeless romantic in there too?

One of these things is not like the other…🎶

So yes, it’s VERY curious.

[ringobean]

i've been trying to write my first fanfiction for fun, come to read it and tell me what do you think of it 😉 its not finish yet, but the rest of the story should arrive soon.

A strange meeting

Im (Y/N) i have 19 years old, as part of my studies at the university, I decided to leave for a year in England to perfect my English, as an absolute fan of the Beatles, I obviously chose the University of Liverpool. I absolutely wanted to immerse myself in this city that gave birth to my favorite band.

I managed to find a roommate in a big house with 3 other foreign students, there is Luna who is Spanish, Michelle is French, Eline is Dutch, we have about the same age, and the same passions, especially with Michelle, who owes her name to her mother who is also a Beatles fan.

All saturday night we like to go together to the Cavern Club, mythical place to listen to new bands and have a drink and meet lots of new people.

after a great new evening, we go home, and I go to bed listening as usual my playlist with all the Beatles albums by looking at their pictures, on different social networks, especially the photos of Ringo who is just the man of my dreams at any era, I also love to read fanfictions especially the smut ones with Ringo, until I fall asleep.

I wake up slowly with the presence of human warmth at my side and a sweet scent of cologne with musk mixed with the smell of tobacco, I gently open my eyes and I see a young Ringo sleeping peacefully at my side, even more beautiful than in my usual dreams, he opens in turn his beautiful blue baby eyes, I literally melted of love, my God that this dream looks so real! I don't want to wake up, and he says with his beautiful deep voice "Damn, I should'nt drink so much, I can't remember how I ended up in the bed of such pretty bird" WHAT? Wait a minute it's not a dream, I open my eyes wide and I get up with a start, dead with fear, he looks at me with big astonished eyes, and there I turn my head and I see lying on the floor of my room Paul, John and George, I think I'm going to faint, I didn't drink much last night, and I don't take drugs, what is this shit, they wake up slowly and there I start screaming and crying, shouting their names, and repeating that it's impossible, and that i need to wake up.

John looks at me amused and says "wow I know I'm used to make girls shout, but not at this point, especially since we are not very famous yet" and they start all 4 to laugh. "Not famous yet???" "you're just the biggest rock band of all time, and you tell me you're not famous?" Paul laughingly replies that they are quite popular in Liverpool, but not the best rock band in the world at the moment.

my roommates worried, quickly get into my bedroom.

"what's going on?" Says Michelle, "And what are these 4 boys doing in your room, when did you bring them back?"

"This 4 boys?, Are you kiding me, Michelle?? You don't recognize them?"

"Huuum sorry, but no..."

"Wow, Michelle what a lovely name and nice outfit" says Paul!

it was summer and we had only very light pajamas, which did not hide much of our bodies. But in 2019 it was not indecent, which wasn't the case in their time, hence their amazed looks.

"Thanks" she said, embarrassed by his insistent gaze, which undressed her from head to foot.

George said "see, we arn't so famous yet, your friends didn't know us, you're must be a crazy fan"

"Ok, ok it must be a fucking prank, where is the camera? Congratulations, girls you found great look-alikes, very similar by the way, but that's it, all the good jokes have an end"

"You've gone crazy (Y/N)", Luna told me worried, "or did you take drugs last night?"

I rolled my eyes, searching for my phone under my pillow.

"Wtf is that thing?" asks me Ringo.

"A phone... you brought guys as nut as you to what I see" Said Eline.

"Im not crazy and im gonna prove it, it's all of you, who're nuts!"

And then, no more Beatles playlist on my phone, no more pictures, and no more of their posters on my walls.

I do a quick search on google, and nothing about the Beatles, nothing, I start crying again, i didnt understand about what's going on.

Ringo look at my phone like a small kid who discovers the world.

"Wait a minute, love, why there is this date on your weird phone"

"Because we are in 2019, August 23, what year do you think we are?"

"What the hell, are you fucking kiding us" said John really afraid.

"We're in August, 23, 1962, we were at a party last night organized by our manager, to celebrate the arrival of our new drummer, and we have to record our first record in a few days" sais Paul.

Im trying to calm down, and explain to them as quietly as possible that something really strange is happening.

"Really, guys, just look at us, look at the style of the room, my phone, our clothes, our hairstyles, do you really get to see that in 1962?"

"And girls, look at them, do they really look like to boys of 2019?"

Ringo pulled out a cigarette pack from the pocket of his jacket, lighting a cigarette with an old vintage lighter.

"See, look at the pack, the lighter it no longer exists in our time"

"I must admit that they seem to have come from another time, says Michelle"

"but they come from another time, what Paul has just said is true, the first official Beatles concert with Ringo at the Cavern Club was on August 22, 1962, why am I the only one to remember them?"

"we should really stop drinking so much, what are we doing here, how did we get in 2019, what is this shit" said George panicked.

"I really don't know how you made it to land here, but we must find a way to get you back to your era, otherwise no more Beatles, and impossible for me to imagine a life without listening to your music."

[scythe-black]

Title-Not Welcome(1)

Pairing: McLennon (Paul McCartney x John Lennon)

Fandom: The Beatles!!

•——•——•——•——•——•——•——•—

1957

It was the 6th of July, For the past week one of Paul’s friends have been begging for Paul to meet on of his friends named John Lennon

Paul had seen him around, once or twice on the bus going to and back from school, he seemed like a dick.

Like he thought he was better than everyone else but eventually he said yes, now he was walking with his guitar strapped on his back (because his friend told him to bring it) to the garden fete behind St Peters church to watch the Quarrymen.

The wind blowing though his hair yet not slightly breaking the noce flatned hair but was making his white jacket look like a cape so he pulls it and does up the button

“So you really think I’ll like thing guy”

Paul question still skeptical about it

“Yer Paul, he can be a bit strait forward and he’s a smart ass”

paul looked at his friend with a smirk “I can be a smart ass too”

his friend chuckled “trust me i know”

They walked into the little celebration as the Quarrymen went on stage John had a short sleeved Red and yellow flannel shirt on with Elvis styled hair, soon they started playing

Oh Maggie Maggie May

They are taking her away

(Etc)

After a few songs they where done

“So, what ya think Paul” his friend asked expectantly

“They were alright, could use some work”

“Glad, well I wanted you to sorta play for John see what he thinks may want ya to join the group”

Paul let a sigh out “well I’m already here”

They walked into a large warehouse where the Quarrymen men had went into after the gig, the walls where completely white and had wooden floors.

They walk through a hallway before they get to a big open room where the Quarrymen resided

“Aye John, John. This es Paul guy from school, Paul plays too”

“What with himself” John replies getting a few giggles from the others

As he starts to walk closer to Paul he continues “I do all the time, good for your wrist muscles” he puts out his had to Paul with a smirk on his face, looking directly into Paul’s eyes

“I’m John” Paul smirks back then takes his hand and shakes it

“Paul”

It feels like a jolt of electricity ran through his hand when they touched, they stayed grasping echothers hands for slightly to long before Paul let go of Johns hand.

“So how alright are you on one of those” John points to the guitar slung on Paul’s back, Paul grabs it of his back and holds it (in the way of a left handed person would)

“Got that back to front haven’t you mate” John saids as the other Quarrymen gathered around

“Any requests” Paul asked

“Yer that pink carnation in you pocket it’s quite dandy can I borrow it some time” John teased, so Paul begun to sing

Well, I got a girl with a wrecking machine

When it comes to rocking she’s a queen

Saterday night all alone I can hold her tight

(Etc)

John looks sorta stunned but it doesn’t get missed by Paul that John didn’t look at his hand once, just continues to stare at Pauls face. Which Paul hates because it’s making him blush slightly

He finished the song and looks back a John

“How old are ya”

“Fifteen”

John stepped forward now extremely close to Paul, looking down on the younger boy

“Well it was nice meeting you an all, but we got to go and rehearse for our afternoon gig, alright princess” John said as he played with the flower in Paul’s breast pocket

“Yer I better get going” Paul was slightly confused at the nickname, John walked away to his group

Paul turned around and started to walk away as John watched the younger boys every move

Paul looked back, stoping in his tracks when they made eye contact, it was unreal everything else in the world didnt matter, it was as if time stoped, all the sounds left to just leave them.

sadly the moment was finished all to soon by Stuart

“(Fake cough) John”

John looked to the boy who had ruined the moment with dagger eyes, where as Paul just turned around and walked away, but that’s not to say his stomach wasn’t filled with butterflies and his heart was racing and all he could think about was John Lennon. With every step more and more of his mind was taken over by the older boy.

——————————

This story is slightly (this chapter is very much so) inspired by the film nowhere boy about John Lennon

[thecoleopterawithana]

Hi, I just found out your blog, and I really like it! Lots of things about John and Paul. I find their relationship very interesting and intriguing. About LSD, why do you think it took Paul so long to take it with John? I remember reading somewhere that Paul took it in the end of 1965 or in then begging of 1966 with some of his friends from London, but somehow he didnt want to take it with John. Do you think he was afraid?

Hey there, @righimoraes! I’m glad you’re enjoying what you came across so far! And yeah, your choice of words is absolutely perfect; I think it was those very same characteristics that captivated me so much in the first place (besides the utter beauty involved in a creative process of this magnitude).

I must warn you, this got terribly out of hand, so prepare for a proper testament! But I’d love it if you showed the patience to plough through to the end and let me know what you think!

Now, you can’t begin to imagine how happy I was when you brought up the LSD! Because, in my personal opinion, if there is a change in tune in the middle of this whole symphony that can be described as ‘intriguing’ it is that 1st acid trip they took together. For me, it’s only surpassed in terms of sheer mysteriousness by India.  But let’s look at the timeline that preceded it first.

As the story goes, John and George were the first to unwittingly come into contact with the famous lysergic acid diethylamide 25, somewhen between March and April of 1965, in the London home of Dr John Riley, George’s cosmetic dentist. 

The experience, as they describe it, was fantastic and life-changing. 

We’d just sat down and ordered our drinks when suddenly I feel the most incredible feeling come over me. It was something like a very concentrated version of the best feeling I’d ever had in my whole life. It was fantastic. I felt in love, not with anything or anybody in particular, but with everything. Everything was perfect, in a perfect light, and I had an overwhelming desire to go round the club telling everybody how much I loved them – people I’d never seen before.

- George Harrison, Anthology

John too seemed to have a rather good trip, as he fondly recalls all the crazy shenanigans they got up to that night.

George somehow or another managed to drive us home in his Mini. We were going about ten miles an hour, but it seemed like a thousand. And Pattie was saying, ‘Let’s jump out and play football, there’s these big rugby poles’ and things like that. I was getting all this sort of hysterical jokes coming out, like with speed, because I was always on that, too. George was going, ‘Don’t make me laugh!’ Oh God! It was just terrifying. But it was fantastic.

- John Lennon, Lennon Remembers by Jann Wenner

So amazingly reality-shattering was the whole ordeal, that the two Beatles felt it was crucial to share this new-found enlightenment with the rest of the band.

John and I had decided that Paul and Ringo had to have acid, because we couldn’t relate to them any more. Not just on the one level – we couldn’t relate to them on any level, because acid had changed us so much. It was such a mammoth experience that it was unexplainable: it was something that had to be experienced, because you could spend the rest of your life trying to explain what it made you feel and think. It was all too important to John and me. So the plan was that when we got to Hollywood, on our day off we were going to get them to take acid. We got some in New York; it was on sugar cubes wrapped in tinfoil and we’d been carrying these around all through the tour until we got to LA.

- George Harrison, Anthology

And so, on 25 August 1965, while on break from their tour, John and George share the wonders of LSD with Ringo. Roadies Neil Aspinall and Mal Evans respectively partake and stay straight to keep an eye on things. Paul declines.

Curiously, it was a particular encounter in this LA party that inspired John to write ‘She Said She Said’.

He was describing an acid trip he’d been on. We didn’t want to hear about that! We were on an acid trip and the sun was shining and the girls were dancing and the whole thing was beautiful and Sixties, and this guy – who I really didn’t know; he hadn’t made Easy Rider or anything – kept coming over, wearing shades, saying, “I know what it’s like to be dead,” and we kept leaving him because he was so boring! And I used it for the song, but I changed it to 'she'” instead of 'he’. It was scary. You know, a guy… when you’re flying high and [whispers] 'I know what it’s like to be dead, man.’ I remembered the incident. Don’t tell me about it! I don’t want to know what it’s like to be dead!

- John Lennon, All We Are Saying by David Sheff

In the same way Paul is absent from this episode, he is notably not featured in the Revolver track itself.

And so begins the months-long effort (especially on John’s part), to try and pressure Paul into dropping acid with them (him).

Paul felt very out of it 'cause we were all a bit cruel. It’s like, 'We’re taking it and you’re not.' 

- John Lennon, Lennon Remembers by Jann Wenner

As you see, making him feel excluded was one of the prefered methods of manipulation. And it came both in the form as literal exclusions from the song making process (see above) and perhaps more insidious attempts at eliciting jealousy. I think one of the pawns in John’s famous ‘mind games’ ended up being George himself. The latter seemed quite happy to fill the vacancy as the main travel companion, the one with the shared life experiences, and all the closeness that brought.   

After taking acid together, John and I had a very interesting relationship. That I was younger or I was smaller was no longer any kind of embarrassment with John. Paul still says, 'I suppose we looked down on George because he was younger.’ That is an illusion people are under. It’s nothing to do with how many years old you are, or how big your body is. It’s down to what your greater consciousness is and if you can live in harmony with what’s going on in creation. John and I spent a lot of time together from then on and I felt closer to him than all the others, right through until his death. As Yoko came into the picture, I lost a lot of personal contract with John; but on the odd occasion I did see him, just by the look in his eyes I felt we were connected.

- George Harrison, Anthology

Finally, John - his idol, his hero - regarded him as an equal! 

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to belittle John and George’s relationship, because the dynamic was also fascinating, and it was with each other that they could explore the more spiritual questions of their existence, something they couldn’t quite do with the more down-to-earth pair of Paul and Ringo. But that doesn’t invalidate the fact that the person John seemed most desperate to share this incredibly intimate experience with was Paul. 

On his part, Paul was, as you correctly supposed, rather afraid. We must remember that he was always the most cautious out of all the four. As he put it:

John – he’s got movement. He’s a very fast mover. He sees new things happening and he’s away. Me – I’m conservative. I feel I need to check things. I was last to try pot and LSD and floral clothes. I’m slower than John, the least likely to succeed in class.

- Paul McCartney, The Beatles by Hunter Davies

In the Anthology, he spells it out quite clearly.

But I really was… frightened of that kind of stuff. Cus it’s what you’re taught when you’re younger! ‘Hey! Watch out for them devil drugs!’. So… so when acid came ‘round, we’d heard you’re never the same. It alters your life and you’ll never be the same again. And I think John was rather excited by that prospect; I think I was rather frightened by that prospect! [huffs] Just what I need! You know? To have some funny little thing where I never get back… home again! You know? Oh, jeez, you know? May not be the greatest move… So I delayed. And I was seen to sort of stall a little bit, I think, within the group. Cus a lot of peer pressure- I mean, talk about peer pressure! The Beatles?

Paul McCartney, Anthology

It must have been a rough few months of resisting for Paul, as he recounts multiple times how straining it was to be the one on the side while your band, your closest family, continues to increase the rift between you in an effort to make you jump. 

Thoroughly worn down, Paul finally capitulates on 13 December 1965. That night, John and Paul had returned to the Scotch of St James nightclub, where on the previous day the Beatles had their end of tour celebrations. There they met  The Who’s John Entwistle and the Pretty Things’ former drummer Viv Prince, but most importantly Nicky Browne, Tara Browne’s wife, who invites them all back to their London home on Eaton Row. Paul and some others accept the offer. John declines.

This time, when Tara Brown suggests they drop acid, Paul relents.

I was more ready for the drink or a little bit of pot or something. I’d not wanted to do it, I’d held off like a lot of people were trying to, but there was massive peer pressure. And within a band, it’s more than peer pressure, it’s fear pressure. It becomes trebled, more than just your mates, it’s, 'Hey, man, this whole band’s had acid, why are you holding out? What’s the reason, what is it about you?’ So I knew I would have to out of peer pressure alone. And that night I thought, well, this is as good a time as any, so I said, 'Go on then, fine.’ So we all did it.

- Paul McCartney, Many Years From Now by Barry Miles

Of that first trip itself, Paul had this to say:

It was such a mind-expanding thing. I saw paisley shapes and weird things, and for a guy who wasn’t that keen on getting that weird, there was a disturbing element to it. I remember looking at my shirtsleeves and seeing they were dirty and not being too pleased with that, whereas normally you wouldn’t even notice. But you noticed and you heard. Everything was supersensitive.

- Paul McCartney, Many Years From Now by Barry Miles

You’ll notice that contrary to the other Beatles’ recounts of their experiences while on LSD, Paul’s are often described with more negative words, with ‘disturbing’ being a recurring adjective. 

Now, if you are wondering why Paul took LSD with a group of acquaintances but not with his own band (or rather John), that’s when we enter the realm of speculation. Might it have been a matter of pride, a small victory in the way of ‘okay, I saw what it was all about, but on my terms, not because you pushed me into doing it with you’? Might have. 

But again, here (as in most places) I find that the most likely motivator was fear. There was, after all, a lot more at stake in a life-changingly intimate experience with your best friend and partner – the same partner with whom you’re not entirely sure just how intimate you want/should/can be – than with a bunch of strangers. So Paul probably would rather sacrifice the heavy significance John was sure to place on ‘first times’, in order to more cautiously scout the whole affair. If this is the motivation behind these events, then it should be seen as a sign of just how important his relationship with John was to him, that he was so careful not to screw it up. (What a pity then that John himself seemed to require big bold moves, entire leaps of faith, as a declaration of true affection…)

Meanwhile, John had become increasingly enthralled with the escapism offered by acid and used it regularly. As his at the time wife, Cynthia - for whom the intimacy suggested by the chemical felt false and manufactured - recounts:

When John was tripping I felt as if I was living with a stranger. He would be distant, so spaced-out that he couldn’t talk to me coherently. I hated that, and I hated the fact that LSD was pulling him away from me. I wouldn’t take it with him so he found others who would. Within weeks of his first trip, John was taking LSD daily and I became more and more worried. I couldn’t reach him when he was tripping, but when the effects wore off he would be normal until he took it again.

- Cynthia Lennon, John

For Paul, however, his experiences with LSD seemed not to have freed him of his doubts, for it would only be on 21 March 1967, more than a year later, that he would finally choose to take acid with his songwriting partner, in the well-known episode.

While recording the song ‘Getting Better’ for Sgt Pepper, John mistakenly took and LSD pill instead of a stimulant.

I thought I was taking some uppers, and I was not in a state of handling it. I can’t remember what album it was but I took it and then [whispers] I just noticed all of a sudden I got so scared on the mike. I said, 'What was it?’ I thought I felt ill. I thought I was going cracked. Then I said, 'I must get some air.’ They all took me upstairs on the roof, and George Martin was looking at me funny. And then it dawned on me. I must have taken acid. And I said, 'Well, I can’t go on, I have to go.’ So I just said, 'You’ll have to do it and I’ll just stay and watch.’ I just [became] very nervous and just watching all of a sudden. 'Is it alright?’ and they were saying, 'Yeah.’ They were all being very kind. They said, 'Yes, it’s alright.’ And I said, 'Are you sure it’s alright?’ They carried on making the record.

- John Lennon, Lennon Remembers by Jann Wenner

In this particular instance, John is misremembering, for the session did not proceed when the others realised what was happening. As George Martin recalls it:

We stood there for a minute or two, with John swaying gently against my arm. ‘I’m feeling better,’ he announced. Then he looked up at the stars. 'Wow..’ he intoned. 'Look at that! Isn’t that amazing?“. I followed his gaze. The stars did look good but they didn’t look that good. It was very unlike John to be over the top in that way. I stared at him. He was wired-pin-sharp and quivering, resonating away like a human tuning fork.No sooner had John uttered his immortal words about the stars than George and Paul came bursting out on the roof. They had come tearing up from the studio as soon as they found out where we were.They knew why John was feeling unwell. Maybe everyone else did, too - everyone except for father-figure George Martin here!It was very simple. John was tripping on LSD. He had taken it by mistake, they said - he had meant to take an amphetamine tablet. That hardly made any difference, frankly; the fact was that John was only too likely to imagine he could fly, and launch himself off the low parapet that ran around the roof. They had been absolutely terrified that he might do so. I spoke to Paul about this night many years later, and he confirmed that he and George had been shaken rigid when they found out we were up on the roof. They knew John was having a what you might call a bad trip. John didn’t go back to Weybridge that night; Paul took him home to his place, in nearby Cavendish Road. They were intensely close, remember, and Paul would do almost anything for John. So, once they were safe inside, Paul took a tablet of LSD for the first time, 'So I could get with John’ as he put it- be with him in his misery and fear.What about that for friendship?

- George Martin, Anthology

He seemed especially fond of Paul’s attitude, for he reiterates the point in his own memoir.

Paul’s thoughtfulness in going home with John was typical of one of the best sides of his character.

- George Martin, All You Need Is Years

And so Paul drove both of them back to his home in Cavendish, where the moment had finally presented itself for him to go on a little journey with John.

I thought, ‘Maybe this is the moment where I should take a trip with him. It’s been coming for a long time. It’s often the best way, without thinking about it too much, just slip into it. John’s on it already, so I’ll sort of catch up.’ It was my first trip with John, or with any of the guys. We stayed up all night, sat around and hallucinated a lot.

Me and John, we’d known each other for a long time. Along with George and Ringo, we were best mates. And we looked into each other’s eyes, the eye contact thing we used to do, which is fairly mind-boggling. You dissolve into each other. But that’s what we did, round about that time, that’s what we did a lot. And it was amazing. You’re looking into each other’s eyes and you would want to look away, but you wouldn’t, and you could see yourself in the other person. It was a very freaky experience and I was totally blown away.

There’s something disturbing about it. You ask yourself, 'How do you come back from it? How do you then lead a normal life after that?’ And the answer is, you don’t. After that you’ve got to get trepanned or you’ve got to meditate for the rest of your life. You’ve got to make a decision which way you’re going to go.

I would walk out into the garden – 'Oh no, I’ve got to go back in.’ It was very tiring, walking made me very tired, wasted me, always wasted me. But 'I’ve got to do it, for my well-being.’ In the meantime John had been sitting around very enigmatically and I had a big vision of him as a king, the absolute Emperor of Eternity. It was a good trip. It was great but I wanted to go to bed after a while.

I’d just had enough after about four or five hours. John was quite amazed that it had struck me in that way. John said, 'Go to bed? You won’t sleep!’ 'I know that, I’ve still got to go to bed.’ I thought, now that’s enough fun and partying, now … It’s like with drink. That’s enough. That was a lot of fun, now I gotta go and sleep this off. But of course you don’t just sleep off an acid trip so I went to bed and hallucinated a lot in bed. I remember Mal coming up and checking that I was all right. 'Yeah, I think so.’ I mean, I could feel every inch of the house, and John seemed like some sort of emperor in control of it all. It was quite strange. Of course he was just sitting there, very inscrutably.

- Paul McCartney, Many Years From Now by Barry Miles

There it is then. The main event. And it was just as profoundly intimate as they’d hoped/feared. 

I urge you, again, not to get lost on the fantastically romantic imagery of eye contact to the point of merging, but to notice the slightly uneasy light in which Paul paints the entire episode, with the resurgence of ’disturbing’. And so my tag for the whole LSD scene is born: “How do you come back from it?”

Because these two got to the point of losing their own identities in the other, they truly became One, and they were not ready for it. It was everything John wanted and everything Paul was trying to avoid, and I think it started to destroy them.

And even if John thought this was the level of closeness he ought to be at with Paul (for reasons that I tried to express in the first posted opinion of mine), even he reckoned later that the LSD induced smashing of his ego was more detrimental to his mental and emotional health than beneficial.

I had many [bad trips]. Jesus Christ. I stopped taking it 'cause of that. I mean I just couldn’t stand it. I dropped it for I don’t know how long. Then I started taking it just before I met Yoko. I got a message on acid that you should destroy your ego, and I did. I was reading that stupid book of Leary’s and all that shit. We were going through a whole game that everybody went through. And I destroyed meself. I was slowly putting meself together after Maharishi, bit by bit, over a two-year period. And then I destroyed me ego and I didn’t believe I could do anything. I let Paul do what he wanted and say, them all just do what they wanted. And I just was nothing, I was shit. And then Derek [Taylor] tripped me out at his house after he’d got back from LA. He said, 'You’re alright.’ And he pointed out which songs I’d written, and said, 'You wrote this, and you said this, and you are intelligent, don’t be frightened.’ The next week I went down with Yoko and we tripped out again, and she freed me completely, to realise that I was me and it’s alright. And that was it. I started fighting again and being a loud-mouth again and saying, 'Well, I can do this,’ and 'Fuck you, and this is what I want,’ and 'Don’t put me down. I did this.’

- John Lennon, Lennon Remembers by Jann Wenner

Paul’s overall opinion on acid was as follows:

Sometimes it was a very very deeply emotional experience, making you want to cry, sometimes seeing God or sensing all the majesty and emotional depth of everything. And sometimes you were just plain knackered, because it would be like sitting up all night in a train station, and by the morning you’ve grown very stiff and it’s not a party any more. It’s like the end of an all-nighter but you haven’t danced. You just sat. So your bum might be sore, just from sitting. I was often quite wiped out by it all but I always thought, Well, you know, everybody’s doing it.

The thing I didn’t like about acid was it lasted too long. It always wore me out. But they were great people to be around, a wacky crowd. My main problem was just the stamina you had to have. I never attempted to work on acid, I couldn’t. What’s the point of trying, love?

- Paul McCartney, Many Years From Now by Barry Miles

On 17 June 1967, the whole ‘Paul admits to taking LSD’ debacle happens, and though he defends his statement and his position to the press, by then the bands interested in the substance had started to wane, when some of the disillusionment over the whole drug-cult started settling in. 

By 26 August 1967, the Beatles had publicly renounced drugs and started looking for the answers to life’s big questions with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and his system of Transcendental Meditation. 

(But we know how similarly those endeavours ended, with bitter disillusionment and an even greater rift within the band and John and Paul themselves. That, though, is another story.)

And in the end (for those brave few that endured this far), I too see this whole LSD dabbling as exactly what they thought it would be: life-changing. It was a definite turning point (so much so that I chronologically tag it as the Bridge of the piece) in their relationship. They had reached total togetherness. But something there, maybe the restrictions they imposed unto themselves of what is socially acceptable, maybe something even more crucial in human nature that repels us from totally losing a concept of self (despite how much escapism we sometimes desire), made it so they couldn’t handle that. And if this startling realization didn’t start, it definitely enlargened the fractures in the partnership.

But what do you guys think? I’d love to hear your opinions. Especially considering their ‘67 seemingly happy communal living. Maybe India was the true turning point. Maybe it was sooner, when they stopped touring and ‘living in each other’s pockets’. Please let me know your thoughts, and once again, thank you so much for this ask!

[patriotsnet]

How Many Republicans Voted For Trumps Impeachment

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/how-many-republicans-voted-for-trumps-impeachment/

How Many Republicans Voted For Trumps Impeachment

Overview Of Impeachment Process

See also: Impeachment of federal officials

The United States Congress has the constitutional authority to impeach and remove a federal official from office—including the president—if he or she has committed an impeachable offense. Impeaching and removing an official has two stages. First, articles of impeachment against the official must be passed by a majority vote of the U.S. House of Representatives. Then, a trial is conducted in the United States Senate potentially leading to the conviction and removal of the official.

In most impeachment trials, the vice president presides over the trial. However, in impeachment trials of the president, the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court presides. In order to remove the person from office, two-thirds of senators that are present to vote must vote to convict on the articles of impeachment.

Why Did Republicans Vote To Dismiss The Impeachment

The Senate just voted on my constitutional point of order. 45 Senators agreed that this sham of a “trial” is unconstitutional. That is more than will be needed to acquit and to eventually end this partisan impeachment process.This “trial” is dead on arrival in the Senate.

— Senator Rand Paul January 26, 2021

The senators were voting as to whether it is constitutional to impeach a former president, but not whether or not Trump is guilty of the charge against him. The constitutional language is vague on this issue and legal experts disagree, with both sides of the political spectrum arguing it is and isn’t. The main argument against impeachment relies on two parts of the constitution in Article II, Section 4, “shall be removed from office if convicted in an impeachment trial,” and in Article 1, Section 3 “shall not extend further than to removal from Office.” But there isn’t a consensus among the GOP with five of their members, Senators Collins, Murkowski, Romney, Sasse, and Toomey, voting against the motion and to proceed with the trial.

The Vote Echoed A Longstanding Dynamic Thats Poised To Continue

For years, Senate Republicans worked with Trump to pass tax legislation and appoint federal judges, and stayed silent during problematic moments in his presidency.

Forty-three Republicans ended up backing him yet again, indicating that while the party is somewhat split, the bulk of GOP lawmakers are still aligning themselves with him.

According to a Vox/DFP survey, there is a similar divide among likely Republican voters: 12 percent of Republicans would have backed his conviction, while 85 percent opposed it.

Trump’s support from the Republican base is likely a factor behind some lawmakers’ decisions: If they were to go against him, it’s possible they’d face a serious electoral challenge in 2022 or 2024.

Beyond showing just how closely Republicans are still tied to Trump, the vote also sent another major message about the party, revealing how open the majority of GOP lawmakers are to condoning an attack on the democratic process itself.

Will you support Vox’s explanatory journalism?

Millions turn to Vox to understand what’s happening in the news. Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment: to empower through understanding. Financial contributions from our readers are a critical part of supporting our resource-intensive work and help us keep our journalism free for all. Please consider making a contribution to Vox today from as little as $3.

Why Didnt The Trial Begin While Trump Was Still In Office

The articles of impeachment were not sent to the Senate immediately since the Senate wouldn’t be in session until the day before Joe Biden’s inauguration. The Democrats waited further until an agreement was reached in the Senate for the power-sharing structure that would regulate how the evenly split Senate would operate going forward. Under an agreement with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell the trial was delayed to give the Senate more time to get Biden’s nominees for his Cabinet approved.

Second Impeachment Of Donald Trump

Second impeachment trial of Donald Trump

Second impeachment of Donald Trump The House of Representatives votes to adopt the article of impeachment Accused January 13, 2021  ?–? February 13, 2021  Acquitted by the U.S. Senate Charges Voting in the U.S. Senate Accusation

Protesters gathered outside the Capitol on January 6, 2021 Background

The second impeachment of Donald Trump, the 45th president of the United States, occurred on January 13, 2021, one week before his term expired. It was the fourth impeachment of a U.S. president, and the second for after his first impeachment in December 2019. Ten representatives voted for the second impeachment, the most pro-impeachment votes ever from a president’s party. This was also the first presidential impeachment in which all majority members voted unanimously for impeachment.

Who Are The 10

Here they are in order of the most pro-Trump districts:

1. Rep. Liz Cheney, Wyoming’s at-large district: Trump won Wyoming 70% to 27%, and she’s the third-ranking leader in the House. So for her not just to vote in favor of impeachment but also issue a stinging rebuke is quite the step. Cheney was unequivocal in her statement, saying Trump “summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack.” She called what Trump did the “greatest betrayal” of a U.S. president ever.

2. Rep. Tom Rice, South Carolina’s 7th Congressional District: This is one no one saw coming. The congressman, who has served since 2013, comes from a pretty pro-Trump district , and there was no indication he would do so beforehand. Even during his vote, Twitter was alight with speculation that Rice had cast the wrong vote. Turns out, he cast it exactly as he wanted to. Later Wednesday, Rice : “I have backed this President through thick and thin for four years. I campaigned for him and voted for him twice. But, this utter failure is inexcusable.”

I have backed this President through thick and thin for four years. I campaigned for him and voted for him twice. But, this utter failure is inexcusable.

— Congressman Tom Rice January 13, 2021

— Adam Kinzinger January 14, 2021

Trump Impeachment Results: How Democrats And Republicans Voted

FEB. 5, 2020

67 votes needed to convict

Not Guilty

67 votes needed to convict

Not Guilty 0 53

The deeply divided Senate on Wednesday acquitted President Donald J. Trump on the two articles of impeachment — abuse of power and obstruction of Congress — brought by the House. See how every senator voted below.

The votes fell far short of the two-thirds majority required to convict and remove the president from office. The Senate rejected the abuse of power charge 52 to 48, largely along party lines. Senators then voted 53 to 47 to defeat the second article charging Mr. Trump with obstruction of Congress.

One Republican, Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, broke with his party and voted in favor of the first article of impeachment, supporting the effort to remove the president.

Motion to Consider Witnesses or Documents

Vote failed on Friday.

51

51

On Friday, Senate Republicans succeeded in blocking a motion to consider additional witnesses and documents in the trial, including testimony from John R. Bolton, the president’s former national security adviser.

The crucial vote was cast largely along party lines and paved the way for Mr. Trump’s acquittal in the third presidential impeachment trial in the nation’s history.

For the latest updates, .

Here Are The 10 Republicans Who Voted To Impeach Trump After The Capitol Riot

Tala Michel Issa, Al Arabiya English

URL Copied

Ten Republicans of the US House of Representatives voted to impeach President Donald Trump after rioters stormed the Capitol building last week, making him the first president in US history to be impeached twice.

Trump’s support within the Republican party appears to be wavering. While only 10 Republicans voted for impeachment, during Trump’s first impeachment in 2019 the party closed ranks, with zero votes for impeachment at the time.

All House Democrats voted in favor of the impeachment; 197 Republicans voted against it. The 10 Republican votes for this impeachment trial made history as the tally exceeded the previous record of five Democrat votes during Bill Clinton’s 1988 impeachment trial.

The US House of Representatives, the lower house of Congress, first decide if a President should be impeached. If the house finds in favor the Senate, the upper house of Congress, will then hold a trial overseen by the US chief justice.

The Senate’s response to the president’s second impeachment is yet to be determined. In order to render a guilty verdict, 17 Republicans would have to join .

As of yet, only a small number of Republican senators have shown interest in potentially convicting Trump in a Senate trial. The trial would begin after Trump has left office and after President-elect Joe Biden is sworn into office on January 20.

Trump Et Al V Deutsche Bank Et Al

Trump v. Deutsche Bank, AG

The House Financial Services and committees issued subpoenas to Deutsche Bank and Capital One Bank asking for financial records relating to Trump, his adult children, and his businesses. Trump’s personal attorneys tried to delay or prevent the information from being given to the committees by getting a court injunction. Although the defendants are Deutsche Bank and Capital One Bank, U.S. district judge Edgardo Ramos permitted representatives of the House committees to take part. Ramos canceled a May 9 preliminary hearing when the committees agreed to hand over “substantial portions” of the subpoenas to the plaintiffs. On May 22, Ramos affirmed the validity of the subpoenas. Trump’s lawyers had asked Ramos to quash the subpoenas, but Ramos said such a request was “unlikely to succeed on the merits”. The committees later reached an agreement with Trump’s lawyers to delay enforcement of the subpoenas while an appeal is filed, provided the appeal is filed in an “expedited” manner. On May 28, Ramos granted Trump’s attorneys their request for a so they could pursue an expedited appeal through the courts. and briefs for it were due by no later than July 12. On June 18, The Trump legal team filed a brief similar to the one in the Mazars case.

Oral arguments began on August 23.

Liz Cheney John Katko And Dan Newhouse Among 10 House Republicans Who Voted In Favour Of Motion

The U.S. House of Representatives voted to impeach President Donald Trump a second time on Wednesday. The House voted 232-197 in favour of an unprecedented second impeachment just one week after the violence at the U.S. Capitol.

Those 232 votes were cast in favour of the bill by 222 Democrats — along with 10 Republicans, members of Trump’s own party.

The Republicans include:

With Trump Facing His Second Impeachment Trial In The Senate Republicans Are Arguing It Would Be Unconstitutional To Try Trump Now That Hes A Civilian

Senator Rand Paul on Tuesday introduced a motion to dismiss the single article of impeachment against former President Donald Trump claiming it is unconstitutional. The argument goes that impeachment is for removing an incumbent president so the Senate does not have the constitutional authority to try Trump now that he has left office. The motion was defeated but forty-five of his colleagues agreed with him.

The size of the support among GOP members does not bode well for a conviction of the former president who was impeached by the House for a second time just over a week before he left office. Two-thirds of the Senate would need to vote to convict Trump after the trial which is set to begin 9 February. That means 17 Republicans would have to side with Democrats in finding him guilty of inciting insurrection.

December 2017 And January 2018 House Votes

On December 6, a second privileged resolution on articles of impeachment, H.Res. 646, was brought on the floor by Representative Al Green, Democrat of Texas. The resolution listed two articles, i.e. proposed reasons for impeachment: “Associating the Presidency with White Nationalism, Neo-Nazism and Hatred” and “Inciting Hatred and Hostility”. House majority leader Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California, moved for the resolution to be defeated ” rel=”nofollow”>tabled”), which was agreed to by a 364–58 vote with four members voting present.

Among Republicans, 238 voted to table the articles of impeachment and one did not vote. Among Democrats, 126 voted to table the articles of impeachment, 58 voted against tabling the articles of impeachment, four voted “present” and five did not vote.

Green’s effort did not receive the support of Democratic leadership. House minority leader Nancy Pelosi and minority whip Steny Hoyer issued a statement saying that “egitimate questions have been raised about fitness to lead this nation,” but “ow is not the time to consider articles of impeachment” given ongoing investigations by congressional committees as well as the investigation by the special counsel.

Drafted Articles Of Impeachment

Within hours of the storming of the Capitol, multiple members of Congress began to call for the impeachment of Donald Trump as president. Several representatives began the process of independently drafting various articles of impeachment. Of these attempts, the first to become public were those of Representative Ilhan Omar ” rel=”nofollow”>D–) who drafted and introduced articles of impeachment against Trump.

Representative David Cicilline ” rel=”nofollow”>D–) separately drafted an article of impeachment. The text was obtained by CNN on January 8. On Twitter, Cicilline acknowledged the coauthorship of Ted Lieu and Jamie Raskin, and said that “more than 110” members had signed on to this article. “Article I: Incitement of Insurrection” accuses Trump of having “willfully made statements that encouraged—and foreseeably resulted in—imminent lawless action at the Capitol”. As a result of incitement by Trump, “a mob unlawfully breached the Capitol” and “engaged in violent, deadly, destructive, and seditious acts”. On January 10, it was announced that the bill had gathered 210 cosponsors in the House.

House Impeaches Trump A 2nd Time Citing Insurrection At Us Capitol

This vote could expose some of them to potential primary challenges from the right as well as possible safety threats, but for all of them Trump had simply gone too far. Multiple House Republicans said threats toward them and their families were factors weighing on their decisions on whether to impeach this president.

Ten out of 211 Republicans in the House is hardly an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote, and clearly, most Republicans’ sympathies still lie with Trump — and his ardent base of followers. But the 10 represent something significant — the most members of a president’s party to vote for his impeachment in U.S. history.

Trump Calls For ‘no Violence’ As Congress Moves To Impeach Him For Role In Riot

This time, there will be more. Some Republican senators have called on Trump to resign, and even Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he is undecided at this point.

Trump’s impeachment won’t lead to his removal — even if he is convicted — because of the timeline. The Senate is adjourned until Tuesday. The next day, Biden will be sworn in as the 46th president. But there’s another penalty the Constitution allows for as a result of a Senate conviction that could be appealing to some Republican senators — banning Trump from holding “office” again.

While there is some debate as to the definition of “office” in the Constitution and whether that would apply to running for president or even Congress, that kind of public rebuke would send a strong message — that Republicans are ready to move on from Trumpism.

Republicans Who Voted To Acquit Trump Used Questions Of Constitutionality As A Cover

Following the vote, McConnell gave a scathing speech condemning Trump’s lies about election fraud as well as his actions on January 6, only moments after he supported acquittal.

That speech was emblematic of how many Republican senators approached the impeachment vote: Although GOP lawmakers were critical of the attack on January 6, they used a process argument about constitutionality in order to evade confronting Trump on his actual actions.

Effectively, because Trump is no longer in office, Republicans say the Senate doesn’t have jurisdiction to convict him of the article of impeachment. As Vox’s Ian Millhiser explained, there’s some debate over that, but most legal scholars maintain that it is constitutional for the Senate to try a former president.

“If President Trump were still in office, I would have carefully considered whether the House managers proved their specific charge,” McConnell said. McConnell, however, played an integral role in delaying the start of the trial until after Trump was no longer president.

His statement on Saturday was simply a continuation of how Republicans had previously approached Trump’s presidency: There’s been an overwhelming hesitation to hold him accountable while he was in office, and that still appears to be the case for many lawmakers.

Trump Et Al V Mazars Et Al

Trump v. Mazars USA, LLP

The House Oversight Committee issued a subpoena to the accounting firm for Trump’s financial information from before his election to the presidency. The President and his lawyers have tried to delay or prevent this information from getting to the committee by seeking a court injunction against both the committee’s leadership and Mazars.

On April 23, 2019 U.S. district judge Amit Mehta set a May 14 date for the preliminary hearing, although several weeks later he decided the entire suit would be heard on that date. May 20, Mehta ruled that accounting firm Mazars had to provide its records of Donald Trump‘s accounts from before his presidency to the House Oversight Committee in response to their subpoena. In a 41-page opinion, he asserted that Congress has the right to investigate potential illegal behavior by a president, including actions both before and after the president assumed office. The ruling was appealed by Trump’s personal legal team and briefs for such were due by no later than July 12, 2019, when oral arguments were scheduled.

Oral arguments took place on July 12, 2019, before a three-judge panel consisting of Neomi Rao, David Tatel, and Patricia Millett. On August 8, the Justice Department filed a brief supporting the president’s position. On October 11, 2019, the appeal panel affirmed the ruling 2–1 with Neomi Rao dissenting.

A 2/3 Majority Is Needed In The Senate To Remove Trump

Getty

It was easy to get the votes needed to impeach Trump in the House, but that won’t be so easy in the Senate. The Republicans have a majority there and very few are likely to cross party lines.

A total of 67 Senators would need to vote to convict and remove Trump during the impeachment trial, Reuters reported. This is because the law requires that a 2/3 majority of the Senate’s 100 members would need to vote for the President to be removed from office before Trump would actually be removed. There are 45 Democrat Senators and 53 Republican Senators, plus two Independents who typically vote Democrat.

Before the 67 votes needed to remove Trump could be reached, at least 20 Republicans would have to join with Democrats in voting to remove Trump , Reuters reported. This just isn’t likely to happen.

Sen. Chris Murphy has said that he only knows of a handful of Republicans who might vote to remove Trump, The Hill reported. He wouldn’t name them, but he said some in the Senate were considering it, but it was a small list that could be counted on one hand. That’s definitely not enough to meet the 20 Republican Senator count that would be needed.

He added that an anonymous removal vote wouldn’t be appropriate and, even if it happened, only a handful of Republicans would still consider voting to remove Trump. So don’t expect the rules to change in a Republican-led Senate that would allow for anonymous voting.

Ny Lawmakers Rejoice End To Tragic Chapter In Our States History As Cuomo Quits

Ten House Republicans crossed party lines on Wednesday and voted to impeach President Trump — which is 10 more than the amount to go against him the first time around.

The GOP lawmakers aligned with Democrats to formally charge the outgoing commander-in-chief with “inciting violence against the government of the United States” in last week’s storming of the Capitol by supporters he had addressed during a rally near the White House.

No Republicans voted in 2019 to impeach Trump the first time.

Here are the 10 GOP members who voted to impeach on Wednesday:

Trump Acquitted In Impeachment Trial; 7 Gop Senators Vote With Democrats To Convict

Dareh Gregorian

The Senate on Saturday voted to acquit former President Donald Trump on a charge of incitement of insurrection despite significant Republican support for conviction, bringing an end to the fourth impeachment trial in U.S. history and the second for Trump.

Seven Republicans voted to convict Trump for allegedly inciting the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, when a mob of pro-Trump supporters tried to disrupt the electoral vote count formalizing Joe Biden’s election win before a joint session of Congress. That is by far the most bipartisan support for conviction in impeachment history. The final vote was 57 to 43, 10 short of the 67 votes needed to secure a conviction.

Republican Sens. Richard Burr of North Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania all voted guilty.

The vote means the Senate cannot bar Trump from holding future federal offices.

Moments after the vote concluded, the former president issued a statement praising his legal team and thanking the senators and other members of Congress “who stood proudly for the Constitution we all revere and for the sacred legal principles at the heart of our country.”

“This has been yet another phase of the greatest witch hunt in the history of our Country. No president has ever gone through anything like it,” Trump said.

Efforts To Impeach Donald Trump

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This article is part of a series about

Various people and groups assert that U.S. presidentDonald Trump engaged in activity both before and during his presidency, and talk of impeachment began before he took office. Grounds asserted for impeachment have included possible violations of the Foreign Emoluments Clause of the Constitution by accepting payments from foreign dignitaries; alleged collusion with Russia during the campaign for the 2016 United States presidential election; alleged obstruction of justice with respect to investigation of the collusion claim; and accusations of “Associating the Presidency with White Nationalism, Neo-Nazism and Hatred”, which formed the basis of a resolution for impeachment brought on December 6, 2017.

On September 24, 2019, of the House of RepresentativesNancy Pelosi announced that six committees would undertake formal impeachment inquiries after reports about controversial interactions between Trump and the country of . This inquiry resulted in Trump’s first impeachment on December 18, 2019.

Protesters calling for impeachmentTrump’s inauguration

After The 2018 Midterm Elections

On March 11, 2019, Nancy Pelosi said, “I’m not for impeachment, Impeachment is so divisive to the country that unless there’s something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan, I don’t think we should go down that path, because it divides the country. And he’s just not worth it. No. I don’t think he is. I mean, ethically unfit. Intellectually unfit. Curiosity wise unfit. No, I don’t think he’s fit to be president of the United States.” She then scolded herself for “coming across too negatively”.

With the Democrats in control of the House, and with a direct impeachment inquiry deemed somewhat toxic, the work of investigations into Trump’s possible crimes were divided into several committees while waiting for some outside force, such as the Mueller probe or the Southern District to force the Democratic leadership’s hands.

[statetalks]

How Many Republicans Voted For Trumps Impeachment

Overview Of Impeachment Process

See also: Impeachment of federal officials

The United States Congress has the constitutional authority to impeach and remove a federal official from office—including the president—if he or she has committed an impeachable offense. Impeaching and removing an official has two stages. First, articles of impeachment against the official must be passed by a majority vote of the U.S. House of Representatives. Then, a trial is conducted in the United States Senate potentially leading to the conviction and removal of the official.

In most impeachment trials, the vice president presides over the trial. However, in impeachment trials of the president, the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court presides. In order to remove the person from office, two-thirds of senators that are present to vote must vote to convict on the articles of impeachment.

Why Did Republicans Vote To Dismiss The Impeachment

The Senate just voted on my constitutional point of order. 45 Senators agreed that this sham of a “trial” is unconstitutional. That is more than will be needed to acquit and to eventually end this partisan impeachment process.This “trial” is dead on arrival in the Senate.

— Senator Rand Paul January 26, 2021

The senators were voting as to whether it is constitutional to impeach a former president, but not whether or not Trump is guilty of the charge against him. The constitutional language is vague on this issue and legal experts disagree, with both sides of the political spectrum arguing it is and isn’t. The main argument against impeachment relies on two parts of the constitution in Article II, Section 4, “shall be removed from office if convicted in an impeachment trial,” and in Article 1, Section 3 “shall not extend further than to removal from Office.” But there isn’t a consensus among the GOP with five of their members, Senators Collins, Murkowski, Romney, Sasse, and Toomey, voting against the motion and to proceed with the trial.

The Vote Echoed A Longstanding Dynamic Thats Poised To Continue

For years, Senate Republicans worked with Trump to pass tax legislation and appoint federal judges, and stayed silent during problematic moments in his presidency.

Forty-three Republicans ended up backing him yet again, indicating that while the party is somewhat split, the bulk of GOP lawmakers are still aligning themselves with him.

According to a Vox/DFP survey, there is a similar divide among likely Republican voters: 12 percent of Republicans would have backed his conviction, while 85 percent opposed it.

Trump’s support from the Republican base is likely a factor behind some lawmakers’ decisions: If they were to go against him, it’s possible they’d face a serious electoral challenge in 2022 or 2024.

Beyond showing just how closely Republicans are still tied to Trump, the vote also sent another major message about the party, revealing how open the majority of GOP lawmakers are to condoning an attack on the democratic process itself.

Will you support Vox’s explanatory journalism?

Millions turn to Vox to understand what’s happening in the news. Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment: to empower through understanding. Financial contributions from our readers are a critical part of supporting our resource-intensive work and help us keep our journalism free for all. Please consider making a contribution to Vox today from as little as $3.

Why Didnt The Trial Begin While Trump Was Still In Office

The articles of impeachment were not sent to the Senate immediately since the Senate wouldn’t be in session until the day before Joe Biden’s inauguration. The Democrats waited further until an agreement was reached in the Senate for the power-sharing structure that would regulate how the evenly split Senate would operate going forward. Under an agreement with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell the trial was delayed to give the Senate more time to get Biden’s nominees for his Cabinet approved.

Second Impeachment Of Donald Trump

Second impeachment trial of Donald Trump

Second impeachment of Donald Trump The House of Representatives votes to adopt the article of impeachment Accused January 13, 2021  ?–? February 13, 2021  Acquitted by the U.S. Senate Charges Voting in the U.S. Senate Accusation

Protesters gathered outside the Capitol on January 6, 2021 Background

The second impeachment of Donald Trump, the 45th president of the United States, occurred on January 13, 2021, one week before his term expired. It was the fourth impeachment of a U.S. president, and the second for after his first impeachment in December 2019. Ten representatives voted for the second impeachment, the most pro-impeachment votes ever from a president’s party. This was also the first presidential impeachment in which all majority members voted unanimously for impeachment.

Who Are The 10

Here they are in order of the most pro-Trump districts:

1. Rep. Liz Cheney, Wyoming’s at-large district: Trump won Wyoming 70% to 27%, and she’s the third-ranking leader in the House. So for her not just to vote in favor of impeachment but also issue a stinging rebuke is quite the step. Cheney was unequivocal in her statement, saying Trump “summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack.” She called what Trump did the “greatest betrayal” of a U.S. president ever.

2. Rep. Tom Rice, South Carolina’s 7th Congressional District: This is one no one saw coming. The congressman, who has served since 2013, comes from a pretty pro-Trump district , and there was no indication he would do so beforehand. Even during his vote, Twitter was alight with speculation that Rice had cast the wrong vote. Turns out, he cast it exactly as he wanted to. Later Wednesday, Rice : “I have backed this President through thick and thin for four years. I campaigned for him and voted for him twice. But, this utter failure is inexcusable.”

I have backed this President through thick and thin for four years. I campaigned for him and voted for him twice. But, this utter failure is inexcusable.

— Congressman Tom Rice January 13, 2021

— Adam Kinzinger January 14, 2021

Trump Impeachment Results: How Democrats And Republicans Voted

FEB. 5, 2020

67 votes needed to convict

Not Guilty

67 votes needed to convict

Not Guilty 0 53

The deeply divided Senate on Wednesday acquitted President Donald J. Trump on the two articles of impeachment — abuse of power and obstruction of Congress — brought by the House. See how every senator voted below.

The votes fell far short of the two-thirds majority required to convict and remove the president from office. The Senate rejected the abuse of power charge 52 to 48, largely along party lines. Senators then voted 53 to 47 to defeat the second article charging Mr. Trump with obstruction of Congress.

One Republican, Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, broke with his party and voted in favor of the first article of impeachment, supporting the effort to remove the president.

Motion to Consider Witnesses or Documents

Vote failed on Friday.

51

51

On Friday, Senate Republicans succeeded in blocking a motion to consider additional witnesses and documents in the trial, including testimony from John R. Bolton, the president’s former national security adviser.

The crucial vote was cast largely along party lines and paved the way for Mr. Trump’s acquittal in the third presidential impeachment trial in the nation’s history.

For the latest updates, .

Here Are The 10 Republicans Who Voted To Impeach Trump After The Capitol Riot

Tala Michel Issa, Al Arabiya English

URL Copied

Ten Republicans of the US House of Representatives voted to impeach President Donald Trump after rioters stormed the Capitol building last week, making him the first president in US history to be impeached twice.

Trump’s support within the Republican party appears to be wavering. While only 10 Republicans voted for impeachment, during Trump’s first impeachment in 2019 the party closed ranks, with zero votes for impeachment at the time.

All House Democrats voted in favor of the impeachment; 197 Republicans voted against it. The 10 Republican votes for this impeachment trial made history as the tally exceeded the previous record of five Democrat votes during Bill Clinton’s 1988 impeachment trial.

The US House of Representatives, the lower house of Congress, first decide if a President should be impeached. If the house finds in favor the Senate, the upper house of Congress, will then hold a trial overseen by the US chief justice.

The Senate’s response to the president’s second impeachment is yet to be determined. In order to render a guilty verdict, 17 Republicans would have to join .

As of yet, only a small number of Republican senators have shown interest in potentially convicting Trump in a Senate trial. The trial would begin after Trump has left office and after President-elect Joe Biden is sworn into office on January 20.

Trump Et Al V Deutsche Bank Et Al

Trump v. Deutsche Bank, AG

The House Financial Services and committees issued subpoenas to Deutsche Bank and Capital One Bank asking for financial records relating to Trump, his adult children, and his businesses. Trump’s personal attorneys tried to delay or prevent the information from being given to the committees by getting a court injunction. Although the defendants are Deutsche Bank and Capital One Bank, U.S. district judge Edgardo Ramos permitted representatives of the House committees to take part. Ramos canceled a May 9 preliminary hearing when the committees agreed to hand over “substantial portions” of the subpoenas to the plaintiffs. On May 22, Ramos affirmed the validity of the subpoenas. Trump’s lawyers had asked Ramos to quash the subpoenas, but Ramos said such a request was “unlikely to succeed on the merits”. The committees later reached an agreement with Trump’s lawyers to delay enforcement of the subpoenas while an appeal is filed, provided the appeal is filed in an “expedited” manner. On May 28, Ramos granted Trump’s attorneys their request for a so they could pursue an expedited appeal through the courts. and briefs for it were due by no later than July 12. On June 18, The Trump legal team filed a brief similar to the one in the Mazars case.

Oral arguments began on August 23.

Liz Cheney John Katko And Dan Newhouse Among 10 House Republicans Who Voted In Favour Of Motion

The U.S. House of Representatives voted to impeach President Donald Trump a second time on Wednesday. The House voted 232-197 in favour of an unprecedented second impeachment just one week after the violence at the U.S. Capitol.

Those 232 votes were cast in favour of the bill by 222 Democrats — along with 10 Republicans, members of Trump’s own party.

The Republicans include:

With Trump Facing His Second Impeachment Trial In The Senate Republicans Are Arguing It Would Be Unconstitutional To Try Trump Now That Hes A Civilian

Senator Rand Paul on Tuesday introduced a motion to dismiss the single article of impeachment against former President Donald Trump claiming it is unconstitutional. The argument goes that impeachment is for removing an incumbent president so the Senate does not have the constitutional authority to try Trump now that he has left office. The motion was defeated but forty-five of his colleagues agreed with him.

The size of the support among GOP members does not bode well for a conviction of the former president who was impeached by the House for a second time just over a week before he left office. Two-thirds of the Senate would need to vote to convict Trump after the trial which is set to begin 9 February. That means 17 Republicans would have to side with Democrats in finding him guilty of inciting insurrection.

December 2017 And January 2018 House Votes

On December 6, a second privileged resolution on articles of impeachment, H.Res. 646, was brought on the floor by Representative Al Green, Democrat of Texas. The resolution listed two articles, i.e. proposed reasons for impeachment: “Associating the Presidency with White Nationalism, Neo-Nazism and Hatred” and “Inciting Hatred and Hostility”. House majority leader Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California, moved for the resolution to be defeated ” rel=”nofollow”>tabled”), which was agreed to by a 364–58 vote with four members voting present.

Among Republicans, 238 voted to table the articles of impeachment and one did not vote. Among Democrats, 126 voted to table the articles of impeachment, 58 voted against tabling the articles of impeachment, four voted “present” and five did not vote.

Green’s effort did not receive the support of Democratic leadership. House minority leader Nancy Pelosi and minority whip Steny Hoyer issued a statement saying that “egitimate questions have been raised about fitness to lead this nation,” but “ow is not the time to consider articles of impeachment” given ongoing investigations by congressional committees as well as the investigation by the special counsel.

Drafted Articles Of Impeachment

Within hours of the storming of the Capitol, multiple members of Congress began to call for the impeachment of Donald Trump as president. Several representatives began the process of independently drafting various articles of impeachment. Of these attempts, the first to become public were those of Representative Ilhan Omar ” rel=”nofollow”>D–) who drafted and introduced articles of impeachment against Trump.

Representative David Cicilline ” rel=”nofollow”>D–) separately drafted an article of impeachment. The text was obtained by CNN on January 8. On Twitter, Cicilline acknowledged the coauthorship of Ted Lieu and Jamie Raskin, and said that “more than 110” members had signed on to this article. “Article I: Incitement of Insurrection” accuses Trump of having “willfully made statements that encouraged—and foreseeably resulted in—imminent lawless action at the Capitol”. As a result of incitement by Trump, “a mob unlawfully breached the Capitol” and “engaged in violent, deadly, destructive, and seditious acts”. On January 10, it was announced that the bill had gathered 210 cosponsors in the House.

House Impeaches Trump A 2nd Time Citing Insurrection At Us Capitol

This vote could expose some of them to potential primary challenges from the right as well as possible safety threats, but for all of them Trump had simply gone too far. Multiple House Republicans said threats toward them and their families were factors weighing on their decisions on whether to impeach this president.

Ten out of 211 Republicans in the House is hardly an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote, and clearly, most Republicans’ sympathies still lie with Trump — and his ardent base of followers. But the 10 represent something significant — the most members of a president’s party to vote for his impeachment in U.S. history.

Trump Calls For ‘no Violence’ As Congress Moves To Impeach Him For Role In Riot

This time, there will be more. Some Republican senators have called on Trump to resign, and even Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he is undecided at this point.

Trump’s impeachment won’t lead to his removal — even if he is convicted — because of the timeline. The Senate is adjourned until Tuesday. The next day, Biden will be sworn in as the 46th president. But there’s another penalty the Constitution allows for as a result of a Senate conviction that could be appealing to some Republican senators — banning Trump from holding “office” again.

While there is some debate as to the definition of “office” in the Constitution and whether that would apply to running for president or even Congress, that kind of public rebuke would send a strong message — that Republicans are ready to move on from Trumpism.

Republicans Who Voted To Acquit Trump Used Questions Of Constitutionality As A Cover

Following the vote, McConnell gave a scathing speech condemning Trump’s lies about election fraud as well as his actions on January 6, only moments after he supported acquittal.

That speech was emblematic of how many Republican senators approached the impeachment vote: Although GOP lawmakers were critical of the attack on January 6, they used a process argument about constitutionality in order to evade confronting Trump on his actual actions.

Effectively, because Trump is no longer in office, Republicans say the Senate doesn’t have jurisdiction to convict him of the article of impeachment. As Vox’s Ian Millhiser explained, there’s some debate over that, but most legal scholars maintain that it is constitutional for the Senate to try a former president.

“If President Trump were still in office, I would have carefully considered whether the House managers proved their specific charge,” McConnell said. McConnell, however, played an integral role in delaying the start of the trial until after Trump was no longer president.

His statement on Saturday was simply a continuation of how Republicans had previously approached Trump’s presidency: There’s been an overwhelming hesitation to hold him accountable while he was in office, and that still appears to be the case for many lawmakers.

Trump Et Al V Mazars Et Al

Trump v. Mazars USA, LLP

The House Oversight Committee issued a subpoena to the accounting firm for Trump’s financial information from before his election to the presidency. The President and his lawyers have tried to delay or prevent this information from getting to the committee by seeking a court injunction against both the committee’s leadership and Mazars.

On April 23, 2019 U.S. district judge Amit Mehta set a May 14 date for the preliminary hearing, although several weeks later he decided the entire suit would be heard on that date. May 20, Mehta ruled that accounting firm Mazars had to provide its records of Donald Trump‘s accounts from before his presidency to the House Oversight Committee in response to their subpoena. In a 41-page opinion, he asserted that Congress has the right to investigate potential illegal behavior by a president, including actions both before and after the president assumed office. The ruling was appealed by Trump’s personal legal team and briefs for such were due by no later than July 12, 2019, when oral arguments were scheduled.

Oral arguments took place on July 12, 2019, before a three-judge panel consisting of Neomi Rao, David Tatel, and Patricia Millett. On August 8, the Justice Department filed a brief supporting the president’s position. On October 11, 2019, the appeal panel affirmed the ruling 2–1 with Neomi Rao dissenting.

A 2/3 Majority Is Needed In The Senate To Remove Trump

Getty

It was easy to get the votes needed to impeach Trump in the House, but that won’t be so easy in the Senate. The Republicans have a majority there and very few are likely to cross party lines.

A total of 67 Senators would need to vote to convict and remove Trump during the impeachment trial, Reuters reported. This is because the law requires that a 2/3 majority of the Senate’s 100 members would need to vote for the President to be removed from office before Trump would actually be removed. There are 45 Democrat Senators and 53 Republican Senators, plus two Independents who typically vote Democrat.

Before the 67 votes needed to remove Trump could be reached, at least 20 Republicans would have to join with Democrats in voting to remove Trump , Reuters reported. This just isn’t likely to happen.

Sen. Chris Murphy has said that he only knows of a handful of Republicans who might vote to remove Trump, The Hill reported. He wouldn’t name them, but he said some in the Senate were considering it, but it was a small list that could be counted on one hand. That’s definitely not enough to meet the 20 Republican Senator count that would be needed.

He added that an anonymous removal vote wouldn’t be appropriate and, even if it happened, only a handful of Republicans would still consider voting to remove Trump. So don’t expect the rules to change in a Republican-led Senate that would allow for anonymous voting.

Ny Lawmakers Rejoice End To Tragic Chapter In Our States History As Cuomo Quits

Ten House Republicans crossed party lines on Wednesday and voted to impeach President Trump — which is 10 more than the amount to go against him the first time around.

The GOP lawmakers aligned with Democrats to formally charge the outgoing commander-in-chief with “inciting violence against the government of the United States” in last week’s storming of the Capitol by supporters he had addressed during a rally near the White House.

No Republicans voted in 2019 to impeach Trump the first time.

Here are the 10 GOP members who voted to impeach on Wednesday:

Trump Acquitted In Impeachment Trial; 7 Gop Senators Vote With Democrats To Convict

Dareh Gregorian

The Senate on Saturday voted to acquit former President Donald Trump on a charge of incitement of insurrection despite significant Republican support for conviction, bringing an end to the fourth impeachment trial in U.S. history and the second for Trump.

Seven Republicans voted to convict Trump for allegedly inciting the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, when a mob of pro-Trump supporters tried to disrupt the electoral vote count formalizing Joe Biden’s election win before a joint session of Congress. That is by far the most bipartisan support for conviction in impeachment history. The final vote was 57 to 43, 10 short of the 67 votes needed to secure a conviction.

Republican Sens. Richard Burr of North Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania all voted guilty.

The vote means the Senate cannot bar Trump from holding future federal offices.

Moments after the vote concluded, the former president issued a statement praising his legal team and thanking the senators and other members of Congress “who stood proudly for the Constitution we all revere and for the sacred legal principles at the heart of our country.”

“This has been yet another phase of the greatest witch hunt in the history of our Country. No president has ever gone through anything like it,” Trump said.

Efforts To Impeach Donald Trump

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Various people and groups assert that U.S. presidentDonald Trump engaged in activity both before and during his presidency, and talk of impeachment began before he took office. Grounds asserted for impeachment have included possible violations of the Foreign Emoluments Clause of the Constitution by accepting payments from foreign dignitaries; alleged collusion with Russia during the campaign for the 2016 United States presidential election; alleged obstruction of justice with respect to investigation of the collusion claim; and accusations of “Associating the Presidency with White Nationalism, Neo-Nazism and Hatred”, which formed the basis of a resolution for impeachment brought on December 6, 2017.

On September 24, 2019, of the House of RepresentativesNancy Pelosi announced that six committees would undertake formal impeachment inquiries after reports about controversial interactions between Trump and the country of . This inquiry resulted in Trump’s first impeachment on December 18, 2019.

Protesters calling for impeachmentTrump’s inauguration

After The 2018 Midterm Elections

On March 11, 2019, Nancy Pelosi said, “I’m not for impeachment, Impeachment is so divisive to the country that unless there’s something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan, I don’t think we should go down that path, because it divides the country. And he’s just not worth it. No. I don’t think he is. I mean, ethically unfit. Intellectually unfit. Curiosity wise unfit. No, I don’t think he’s fit to be president of the United States.” She then scolded herself for “coming across too negatively”.

With the Democrats in control of the House, and with a direct impeachment inquiry deemed somewhat toxic, the work of investigations into Trump’s possible crimes were divided into several committees while waiting for some outside force, such as the Mueller probe or the Southern District to force the Democratic leadership’s hands.

source https://www.patriotsnet.com/how-many-republicans-voted-for-trumps-impeachment/

[adelaidecity]

'I thought it was my own flesh'

To put it simply, the clip of Amazing Race contestant Claire Champlin getting hit in the face with a watermelon is iconic. The video from the 2010 season of the reality show immediately went viral and has since been viewed millions of times on YouTube. Claire, who at the time was a Home Shopping TV host, went on the Amazing Race with her best friend Brook. In one of their first challenges, Claire had to fire a watermelon out of a slingshot and hit a target on the other side of a field. But it went spectacularly wrong and the watermelon came flying back at her head, striking her right in the face. News.com.au caught up with Claire to find out how it happened, what injuries she sustained and what its like to be known as watermelon girl. [embedded content] Lets start with the challenge. What do you remember from that day? I grabbed the watermelon and you had to try and knock down the knight. At the time I was so little so to get enough tension in the slingshot I had to lay all the way down. When I went to release it I had too much tension and the leather strap wrapped around the watermelon and flung back into my face. I didnt know what had happened. I was laying on my back and it was like Id been in a car accident, I was just in shock. I started pulling the watermelon off my face and I thought it was my own flesh. While youre in the Amazing Race, your sound crew and camera crew never leave your side and when the crew left, I was like, Im in trouble, this is bad. They called in a medical team and they asked me some basic questions and then they vanished and the camera crew came back. I said to Brooke, What do we do now? And thats when her big line came: You have to finish They dont call it the Amazing Race for nothing!

media_cameraHome Shopping hosts Brook Roberts (left) and Claire Champlin. Picture: John Paul Filo/CBS via Getty Images Did you sustain any injuries? I couldnt feel my face. My lip started swelling up and I had a little black eye. Another medical team were waiting for me (after the challenge) and they gave me some Panadol and told me I was going to be fine. Then a producer came up to me and said, Thanks for our Emmy this year. Brook comes across quite harsh in the clip, telling you to get up and complete the challenge. Theres a lot they didnt show. It was edited the perfect way and she did get a lot of sh*t for that, but shes really loving and endearing. The clip of you getting hit in the face leaked before that season of the Amazing Race started airing on TV. What was the reaction like at the time? When you go on the show you have to sign an agreement that you wont talk about it until it airs or you can get sued for $10 million, so I wasnt allowed to say a thing. I was out at my parents ranch and all of a sudden my emails started blowing up and my phone was full of messages asking if I was watermelon girl. The creator of the show called me and said, Claire, if you need anything, just let me know because this is getting out of control. I went in and woke up my dad and I said, You need to come see this video, its all over the internet. I know your friends are going to be calling you about it. He said, Claire, whatever you did, I will forgive you and love you forever. I was like, Dad, its not porn! Its from the Amazing Race! He said, Good Lord, why didnt you just say that in the first place? It was everywhere. It was on all the late night TV shows, I was named Turkey of the Season by ESPN. It was crazy.

media_cameraClaire copped it right in the face. You and Brook finished in second place on that season of Amazing Race, thats quite an achievement. We were nine minutes away from the million dollars. I think production had a little something to do with that because they wanted us to be on All Stars (you cant be on All Stars if you win), but Im not sure. Theyve asked us to come back three times but weve never been in the place to do it because were always having babies. What are you up to now? Im a mum who lives out in Arizona. I just started doing interior design so thats my new venture. Brook and I are still best friends. She actually just had a baby two days ago so Im going to fly out and help her with her three-year-old and newborn in a couple of weeks. And yes, I still get recognised occasionally, especially in the produce department.

media_cameraClaire and her family live in Arizona.Originally published as I thought it was my own flesh https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/entertainment/amazing-race-woman-hit-in-face-with-watermelon-reveals-what-really-happened/news-story/5949674e36336dd5040e0054df2b7b9b?from=htc_rss

[amoralto]

so paul always says now that hes grateful he and john reconciled before john's death, but ive always sort of wondered if they really did or if paul was saying that more as a coping mechanism. i mean, obviously we'll never know what happened in private, but based on what they were saying about each other in the press in 1980 they didnt seem so reconciled as paul claims. also, whenever paul refers to they getting along, he always uses the same "making bread phone call" ex.. as if its the only one

There are a variety of things I could bring up in the answering of this, but I think part of your question hinges upon your own definition of reconciliation, specific to John and Paul’s relationship, and how their actions square up within it. If it can only be adjudged reconciliation by an unequivocal reestablishment of their songwriting partnership, then they were never reconciled. If it can only be adjudged reconciliation if there was a singularly defined watershed moment of unadorned emotional clarity from whence they never ever said a remotely negative thing about each other in the press again ever, then they were certainly never reconciled. So how and where does one measure it? The least I can argue is that while John and Paul consciously uncoupled, they were never really emotionally estranged or emotionally uninvolved; they never even managed to go without communicating with each other for a third as long as that other ardently involved partnership, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, did. And it would be inimical to dismiss the depth and involvement of their relationship and the strength of their emotional ties to each other based on whatever ugly sentiments that were communicated and disproportionately amplified in public, especially when said sentiments are actually a glaring demonstration of how much they were not Over Each Other.

… They were never indifferent about each other, is what I’m saying. Half of what I say is meaningless, but I say it just to reach you.

(Well, John probably did perceive Paul’s no-comment-trucking-right-along manner of dealing with things as blissfully unconcerned indifference to and in comparison to his own markedly ostentatious divorce pangs, but that’s another issue for another time.) 

(More under the cut because this response got interminable.) 

Anyway, I think what you’re really getting at is whether Paul himself knows and/or sincerely believes they were on good terms at the point of John’s death, or wanted and willed himself to believe they were, and I would say that it’s a measure of both. John’s death left him grief-stricken and reeling and calling every exchange he’d had with John, spoken and unspoken, into question, and this was after his emotional security (with John and with himself) had already been significantly unseated by the Beatles’ break-up. (I’ve always found it striking that in Many Years From Now he describes much of his life as “filled with guilt and the knowledge that you’re probably not right”; indeed, one could reasonably read some of his more candid interview responses as basically him convincing himself or rationalising to himself out loud.) Even if their exchanges in John’s last years were entirely sunny and tension-free, I don’t think anything short of Unadorned Emotional Clarity (as previously phrased) between them matured over years of concentrated effort and growth and honest communication of each other’s most vulnerable feelings would have prevented Paul from feeling that doubt. Even if the doubt was ultimately unfounded. I think the doubt, tempered over time and reflection, became regret - not a questioning of the bond between them, but how he and John conveyed its importance to each other: If I never did it / I was only waiting / For a better moment / That didn’t come. From Dan Rather’s 48 Hours interview with Paul: 

PAUL: Late at night, or when you’re feeling good, or… I don’t know, you think, oh, it’d be great to – I hope I tell her ‘I love her’ enough, and all that. And then come the morning and you’ve got to get off to the office, and you say [in a hurry], “Goodbye, love you!” And life’s like that. And there’s never enough time – if you like your parents, for instance – to tell them, god, you know, just what you meant to me.

You always think, well, I’m saving it up. I’ll tell them one day. And what happens with a lot of people, with someone like John for instance, getting back to that subject – he died. I was lucky, the last few wee– uh, months that he was alive, we’d manage to get our relationship back on track and we were talking, and we were having real good conversations, really nice and friendly. But George actually… didn’t, I don’t think, got his relationship right. I think they were arguing right until the end, which I’m sure is a source of great sadness to him. And I’m sure, you know, in the feeling of this song, that George was always planning to tell John he loved him. But time ran out. And so that’s what the song is about, you know. There never could be a better moment than this one. Now. Take this moment to say… I love you. [laughs] It isn’t quite the same.

‘This One’ may apply perfectly well to George’s feelings towards John too, I suppose, but. Well. #projecting onto George (Other quotes from Paul about ‘This One’ here and here.)

(Anyway, I think it’s more than fair to say that both John and Paul were spectacularly incapable of talking about their feelings for each other with each other in an explicit and undeniable way. But we could always sing.)

As for the bread-baking story, it is merely one in an arsenal of Paul’s rinse-and-repeat anecdotes for the ages; it is a vetted and unambiguous little yarn which is positive and, perhaps most importantly, prevents further enquiry. It is quick and quaint, and that is very much to Paul’s liking, considering how many interviews he’s scheduled to do on a daily basis and how much of his life he is necessarily comfortable with broaching in public. That this is the anecdote he has decided on to trot out from interview to interview is in no way evidentiary of an absence of any other phone calls, conversations, and/or interactions in general with John up to his death. 

Paul actually has, in interviews past, spoken of the contents of other calls he and John had, and been honest about their fickleness and the fact that it was just as likely to end badly as it was to end well. But at not just the end of the day, but in the every day, why waste words when you can concentrate on the memories fond rather than the memories unfavourable? Which, as most people would be able to attest, is not at all unusual for anyone who’s lost a loved one, and which for Paul is certainly not an outlook maintained exclusively for his history with John. He’s always accentuated the positive. 

And for all that he can at times be an inarticulate emotional disaster traipsing the canyons of his mind in Freudian slippers, Paul has by and large been practiced and reticent in public, whether by actively evading discussion of the not necessarily unhappier but certainly heavier times in his life, or by self-consciously blunting any imbued emotional weight with the words he chooses. An obvious example is when he recounts one of the first things Yoko told him after John died. He opted for a benign “fond of” throughout 1982, like in his April/May Music Express interview:

I talked to Yoko the day after John was killed and the first thing she said was, ‘John was really fond of you, you know.’ It was almost as if she sensed that I was wondering whether he had… whether the relationship had snapped. I believe it was always there. I believe he really was fond of me, as she said. We were really the best of mates. It was really ace.

Or his May 3rd Newsweek interview:

I’ve talked to Yoko since then, and she’s said to me, ‘You know, he really was quite fond of you.’ I think we were pretty close. But, sometimes, with brothers, you argue. They can be the most intense arguments, too.

In Paul’s October 19th 1984 CBC interview he’s unwound enough to say “love”, which I suspect is what Yoko really told him:

And I know that when he died that was one of the great things Yoko did for me, was that she took me aside and said, “You know, he did love you.” She was gracious enough to do that for me. So that was great.

But then in Paul and Linda’s December 1984 Playboy interview, there’s actually an indicated hesitant pause before he settles for “really liked”: 

PLAYBOY: Once you began to understand Yoko, Paul, did you two talk about John?PAUL: Yes. We did. In fact, after he died, the thing that helped me the most, really, was talking to Yoko about it. She volunteered the information that he had… really liked me.

And as a further example of what Paul chooses to tell and what he chooses to withhold, in a 1989 BBC radio interview he mentions something else Yoko told him after John died - imbued with emotional weight, no less - which I can’t recall him ever mentioning in any other interview:

And I heard, in fact, little bits from Yoko, who was kind of nice enough after he’d died to sort of clue me in on that. Realising, perhaps, that those w– would be the kind of things that would hang me up, forever. “Did he, or didn’t he… hate what I did?” And she said some very nice things. She told me once that he’d sat her down with one of my albums, and they’d be sat down, and he’d be having a bit of a cry about it, and he’d be saying, “Ah… you know, I – I like him, really.”

In any case, it’s Paul’s prerogative to keep himself to himself. I am very certain there are many things, both good and bad, that he keeps close to his chest and that the general public will not be privy to for a long time, if at all. (He is large, he contains multitudes, etc.) 

As for John’s side of things re: negative comments made about Paul to the press in 1980, I touched upon them briefly in a previous ask. To end off, Dave Sholin’s account of the car ride he shared with John and Yoko after the conclusion of his interview with them, a few hours before John was killed: 

‘So John is saying, “Well, our car isn’t here. You’re going to the airport, would you mind giving us a ride?” I said, “Hop on in.” And on the way, I ask him about his relationship with Paul McCartney. He says, “Well, he’s like a brother. I love him. Families – we certainly have our ups and downs and our quarrels. But at the end of the day, when it’s all said and done, I would do anything for him, I think he would do anything for me.” And we said our goodbyes and dropped John and Yoko off at the studio.’ 

And from Dave Sholin’s interview with John: John talking about ‘(Just Like) Starting Over’ and meeting Paul for the first time (and in an instance of sweet and charming misremembering, claiming that he asked Paul right there and then to join him). 

[celticnoise]

Dave King cannot help himself.

He cannot help reminding the world what he is, and we all know exactly what he is.

His history haunts him, and it should.

But you know what? There are times when I kind of like the guy.

We could not have hoped for a better man to take over that club in the aftermath of the Charles Green years than this geezer.

As a Celtic fan, I wake up every day grateful for the hour in which David Cunningham King got his hands on the Ibrox NewCo. Honestly, he is the best thing to happen to us at Ibrox since Craig Whyte borrowed a quid on his way into his final meeting with David Murray.

Don’t get me wrong; Green wasn’t going to transform them into a football power.

But he and Ashley’s lieutenants at least had a plan.

They had something more going on than an appeal to the lowest common denominator.

With those guys at the helm, that club would have acted sensibly and lived within its means.

With this guy in charge, there’s no chance.

King has brought his club to the brink, and he believes demagoguery is a way to bluff and bluster his way through their situation. He is dead wrong about that. But he knows his audience, and he knows that in the absence of having a plan he can always play to the gallery.

And so it was last week that he congratulated the Ibrox fans on selling out their season tickets, and then said they have helped to make the club the biggest in the country again.

Celtic fans snorted derision.

But we were never the target audience.

He was, as ever, relying on the utter gullibility of his own customer base.

Except this time his rabble-rousing stunt didn’t have the effect he’d hoped.

Is the old magician losing his dark magic?

It appears so, because his latest crowd pleasing stunt failed to please even the crowd which usually laps up his every word.

To crow about his team being the biggest in the country is quite an incredible statement, and all the more so in the same week we finally begin to flex our considerable financial muscle.

It is fascinating to consider the level of delusion that kind of thinking requires, and it does make you wonder if he actually believes it himself.

Nothing would surprise me: I am reminded of what the South African judiciary famously said of him in 2010:

“We saw (him) testify … for four days and are unanimous in finding that he is a mendacious witness whose evidence should not be accepted on any issue unless it is supported by documents or other objective evidence. (He) showed no sign of embarrassment or any emotion when he conceded that he had lied … In our assessment he is a glib and shameless liar.”

But is he conscious of what he’s doing, or is it reflexive?

Is he oblivious to reality, or is he simply bending it to suit the needs of whatever moment he happens to be in?

It always makes me think of Orwell, of 1984, and his magnificent description of the mechanics of ‘doublethink’, the state of mind that makes King’s thought process possible.

“To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies; to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them; to use logic against logic … to forget whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again: and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself — that was the ultimate subtlety: consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed.”

Here’s what none of the slobbering nonsense from Ibrox, nor the whooping and cheering from his pals in the press boxes acknowledges, or wants to, although it’s a simple and straightforward fact, and what’s more it’s one that’s known by the club’s own fans;

King has been at Ibrox for four years now.

In that time, he has sacked three managers and hired three.

His side reached one cup final, which they lost to Hibs. They haven’t come close since.

Indeed, his tenure at Ibrox has coincided with the greatest spell of domestic dominance – for our club – ever enjoyed by any team in the game here.

Upon securing the place in the 2016 cup final, he told everyone that his club was “back” – from the dead one can presume – but instead of making good on that they have endured calamity after calamity after calamity.

They have continued to post losses, which have grown under his tenure year on year, and the “quality” of their squad remains laughably low.

And what’s more, their fans know this full well.

This summer, they have signed seven players for a combined total spend which is one tenth of what we just paid for a single footballer.

Four of these “signings” – because one of them is Steve Davis, who was there for the tail end of last season – were playing in the SPL last year, and none of them to the standard of David Turnbull, who we were ready to buy for £3.5 million.

All were available for free.

Of the other three signings, Aribo was signed on freedom of contract – but for whom they’ll have to pay a development fee – and at 22 was playing his trade in England’s third tier.

We have signed Luca Connell today from the same league; he’s 18 and already has done enough to pique our interest.

Aribo featured on the famous leaked list as a prospective target; we opted to go for Turnbull instead, and pay big for him.

There is Sheyi Ojo, on loan from Liverpool, who has been at five clubs in four years, and finally the defender, George Edmundson, who they signed from Oldham.

He is the one player they’ve actually paid a transfer fee for; £600,000 … which is a lot of money to spend on a player from English football’s fourth tier. They beat off “competition” for his signature from Peterborough.

There is no “game changer” signing; these are all squad players. No-one in that lot makes them a better team, or any more likely to overhaul the enormous gap between the clubs. This is all King can deliver for his manager, the cupboard is almost bare.

One of his most fundamental promises – to pull the club’s retail arm away from the iron grip of Mike Ashley – has failed on every level; the Sports Direct supremo has it in an ever tightening vice.

Under King, Celtic has moved further ahead – in every conceivable area.

Gerrard is about to go up against the Celtic manager with the second highest win ratio in our history. Indeed, only three Celtic managers have ever had a lower win percentage than Gerrard has at the moment, and even accounting for previous bosses at Ibrox, across the various clubs there, Ally McCoist, Mark Warburton, Pedro Caixinha, Alex McLeish and even Graeme Murty have a better wins to games average than he does.

Indeed, if you look at the histories of the various Ibrox clubs, and if you take, as a baseline, managers who have taken charge of more than 15 games whilst employed there, his record is worsted by only John Grieg, Jock Wallace, Paul Le Guen and Stuart McCall.

This is what King and his board would have you believe “progress” looks like.

They signed a defender this week from England’s fourth tier, for a few hundred thousand.

We paid £7 million for a a Ligue One player.

Their attacking midfield signing was a free transfer from Charlton.

But for a late discovery in the medical, we would have paid an additional £3.5 million for the most sought after young footballer in Scotland outside of Celtic Park.

We are on the brink of spending another £3 million on a left back.

That’s the gap, and it has massively expanded under Dave King’s “leadership.”

And King’s audience knows all of this, of course, which is why so many of them reacted with such frustration to his idiotic assertion that they are the biggest club in the country. Tom English was one of a number of media fools who giggled along with King in a manner more befitting of schoolgirls pulling a prank than serious journalists.

“Top trolling,” English called it.

“Talking crap” is how the rest of us would have put it.

Now Gerrard’s own frustrations are slowly coming to boil. He has made it clear that he still sees the need to sign a couple of “marquee” players to match the one we’ve just bought, and he and everyone else knows there are more to come at Celtic.

The difference is, even if we bring in players simply to enhance the squad as opposed to slotting right into the first team, they are still likely to be of a higher calibre than any footballer the Ibrox club is likely to sign.

Gerrard’s signings have “improved the squad” but their overall quality is about the same as what was there, and that wasn’t enough in the last campaign.

They will never be able to cope with a Celtic team that moves decisively forward, and he realises it.

If he’s feeling daring he may try to use the alleged interest from England to try and force King’s hand, but there are two problems with that; first, everyone knows the interest from Derby and Newcastle was largely nonsense in the first place, and second, King couldn’t fund him even if the bluff were not to be called.

The money to do it simply isn’t there.

By far the smartest thing people at Ibrox could do right now is learn to shut their mouths some.

Because all they are doing with the big-talk is setting themselves up for one Hell of a fall. Too many of their players are making bold predictions … the only thing that matters is what you do out on the pitch though, and that’s where they fail over and over again.

As Phil has correctly pointed out, they always win the “close season cup.”

They always win the PR war in the media. But already, in this window, all their claims to have made giant strides look kind of weak and their club kind of cheap.

King may boast that his club is the biggest in the land, but within a week of those words leaving his mouth we had paid ten times for one player what he has been able to give his manager to spend on seven of them so far.

His boast about 40,000 plus season tickets is hollow when we have 50,000 plus.

His manager’s record is horrendous where it matters and we are the club who just won the third domestic clean sweep in a row … and on his watch.

Not even the usual nodding donkeys in his own support bought it this time, and in the week since, as Celtic flexes its muscle and starts to show intent, they’ve become ever more restless, ever less sure that he really knows what he’s doing.

In short, they are worried.

And you know what?

They should be.

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[samanthasroberts]

Jimi Hendrix: ‘You never told me he was that good’

On the eve of the 40th anniversary of Jimi Hendrix's death, Ed Vulliamy speaks to the people who knew him best and unearths a funny, if intense, superstar

On the morning of 21 September 1966, a Pan Am airliner from New York landed at Heathrow, carrying among its passengers a black American musician from a poor home. Barely known in his own country and a complete stranger to England, he had just flown first class for the first time in his life. His name was James Marshall Hendrix.

On 18 September 1970, four years later, I picked up a copy of Londons Evening Standard on my way home from school, something I never usually did. There was a story of extreme urgency on the front page and a picture of Hendrix playing at a concert still ringing in my ears at the Isle of Wight festival, only 18 days earlier. The text reported how Hendrix had died that morning in a hotel in the street, Lansdowne Crescent in Notting Hill, in which I had been born, and a block away from where I now lived.

During those three years and 362 days living in London, Hendrix had conjured with his vision and sense of sound, his personality and genius the most extraordinary guitar music ever played, the most remarkable sound-scape ever created; of that there is little argument. Opinion varies only over the effect his music has on people: elation, fear, sexual stimulation, sublimation, disgust all or none of these but always drop-jawed amazement.

The 40th anniversary of Hendrixs death next month will be marked by the opening of an exhibition of curios and memorabilia at the only place he ever called home a flat diagonally above that once occupied by the composer George Frideric Handel, on Brook Street in central London, in the double building now known as Handel House. The flat will be opened to the public for 12 days in September and there is talk about plans for a joint museum, adding Hendrixs presence to that already established in the museum devoted to Handel. Involved in the discussions is the woman with whom Hendrix furnished the top flat of 23 Brook St, and with whom he lived: the only woman he ever really loved, Kathy Etchingham.

In a rare interview by telephone, (she has moved abroad), Ms Etchingham explains: I want him to be remembered for what he was not this tragic figure he has been turned into by nit-pickers and people who used to stalk us and collect photographs and evidence of what we were doing on a certain day. He could be grumpy, and he could be terrible in the studio, getting exactly what he wanted but he was fun, he was charming. I want people to remember the man I knew.

When she met Hendrix (the same night he landed in London), he had already lived an interesting, if frustrating, 23 years. He was born to a father who cared, but not greatly, and a mother he barely knew she died when he was 15 but adored (shes said to be the focus of two of his three great ballads, Little Wing and Angel). He had always been enthralled by guitar playing a natural, immersed in R&B on the radio and the music of blues giants Albert King and Muddy Waters. When he was 18, he was offered the chance to avoid jail for a minor misdemeanour by joining the army, which he did, training for the 101st Airborne Division.

His military career was marked by friendship with a bass player called Billy Cox from West Virginia, with whom he would play his last concerts, and a report which read: Individual is unable to conform to military rules and regulations. Misses bed check: sleeps while supposed to be working: unsatisfactory duty performance.

Hendrix engineered his discharge in time to avoid being mobilised to Vietnam and worked hard as a backing guitarist for Little Richard, Curtis Knight, the Isley Brothers and others. But, arriving in New York to try and establish himself in his own right, Hendrix found he did not fit. The writer Paul Gilroy, in his recent book Darker Than Blue, makes the point that Hendrixs life and music were propelled by two important factors: his being an ex-paratrooper who gradually became an advocate of peace and his transgressions of redundant musical and racial rules.

Hendrix didnt fit because he wasnt black enough for Harlem, nor white enough for Greenwich Village. His music was closer to the blues than any other genre; the Delta and Chicago blues which had captivated a generation of musicians, not so much in the US as in London, musicians such as John Mayall and Alexis Korner, and thereafter Eric Clapton, Peter Green, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page among many others.

As luck would have it, the Brits were in town and Linda Keith, girlfriend of the Stones Keith Richards, persuaded Chas Chandler, bass player of the Animals, to go and listen to Hendrix play at the Cafe Wha? club in the Village. Chandler wanted to move into management and happened to be fixated by a song, Hey Joe, by Tim Rose.

It was a song Chas knew would be a hit if only he could find the right person to play it, says Keith Altham, then of the New Musical Express, who would later become a kind of embedded reporter with the Hendrix London entourage. There he was, this incredible man, playing a wild version of that very song. It was like an epiphany for Chas it was meant to be.

To be honest, remembers Tappy Wright, the Animals roadie who came to Cafe Wha? with Chandler that night, I wasnt too impressed at first, but when he started playing with his teeth, and behind his head, it was obvious that here was someone different.

Before long, Hendrix was aboard the plane to London with Chandler and the Animals manager, Michael Jeffery, to be met by Tony Garland, who would end up being general factotum for Hendrixs management company, Anim. When he arrived, recalls Garland now, sitting on his barge beside the canal in Maida Vale, west London, where he now lives, I filled out the customs form. We couldnt say hed come to work because he didnt have a permit, so I told them he was a famous American star coming to collect his royalties.

It is strange, tracking down Hendrixs inner circle in London. His own musicians in his great band, the Experience Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell are dead. Likewise, his two managers, Chandler and Jeffery, and one of his closest musician friends, the Rolling Stone Brian Jones; the other, Eric Burdon of the Animals, declined to be interviewed. But some members of the close-knit entourage are still around, such as Kathy Etchingham and Keith Altham, wearing a flaming orange jacket befitting the time of which he agrees to speak, in defiance of a heart attack only a few days before.

Music in London had reached a tumultuously creative moment when Hendrix arrived and was perfectly poised to receive him. The performers were just your mates who played guitars, recalls Altham. It was tight everyone knew everyone else. It was just Pete from the Who, Eric of Cream, or Brian and Mick of the Stones, all going to each others gigs.

For reasons never quite explained, the blues both in their acoustic Delta form, and Chicago blues plugged into an amplifier had captivated this generation of English musicians more deeply than their American counterparts. Elderly blues musicians found themselves, to their amazement, courted for concerts, such as an unforgettable night at Hammersmith with Son House and Bukka White. Champion Jack Dupree married and settled in Yorkshire. People [here] felt a certain affinity with the blues, music which added a bit of colour to grey life, Altham continues. And as Garland points out: White America was listening to Doris Day black American music got nowhere near white AM radio. Jimi was too white for black radio. Here, there were a lot of white guys listening to blues from America and wanting to sound like their heroes.

Things happened at speed after Hendrix landed. Come down to the Scotch, Chas told me the day Jimi arrived and hear what I found in New York, recalls Altham. Jimi couldnt play because he had no work permit, but he jammed that night, and my first impression was that hed make a great jazz musician. That was the night, his first in London, that Hendrix met Kathy Etchingham. It happened straightaway, she recalls. Here was this man: different, funny, coy even about his own playing.

A short while later, recalls Altham, Chas took me to hear him at the Bag ONails club [in Soho] for one of his first proper gigs, turned to me and said, Whatya think? I said Id never heard anything like it in all my life. At a concert in the same series, remembers Garland, Michael Jeffery put an arm round Chas, another round me and said, I think weve cracked it, mate. They had: Kit Lambert, according to Altham, literally scrambled across the tables to Chas at one of the shows and said, in his plummy accent, he had to sign him. Chas needed a record contract, Decca had turned Hendrix down (along with the Beatles) and Lambert was about to launch a new label, Track Records, with interest from Polydor: The deal was done, on the back of a napkin, says Altham.

Hendrix had formed his band at speed: a rhythm guitarist from Kent called Noel Redding who had applied to join the Animals but to whom Hendrix now allocated bass guitar and Mitch Mitchell, a jazz drummer seeking to mould himself in the style of John Coltranes great percussionist, Elvin Jones. With a stroke of genius, Jeffery came up with the only name befitting what was to follow: the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Is there any line in rocknroll more assuredly seductive as: Are you experienced?/ Have you ever been experienced?/ Well, I have (from 1967s Are You Experienced)?

Paul McCartney, John Lennon and the other Beatles quickly converged to hear this phenomenon, along with the Stones and Pete Townshend. Arriving one night at the Bag ONails, Altham met Brian Jones walking back up the stairs with tears in his eyes. I said, Brian, what is it? and he replied, Its what he does, it chokes me only he put it better than that.

There was also curiosity from the emergent powerhouse of British blues: Cream and Eric Clapton. There was a particular night when Cream allowed Jimi to join them for a jam at the Regent Street Polytechnic in central London. Meeting Clapton had been among the enticements Chandler had used to lure Hendrix to Britain: Hendrix blew into a version of [Howlin Wolfs] Killing Floor, recalls Garland, and plays it at breakneck tempo, just like that it stopped you in your tracks. Altham recalls Chandler going backstage after Clapton left in the middle of the song which he had yet to master himself; Clapton was furiously puffing on a cigarette and telling Chas: You never told me he was that fucking good.

With a reputation, a recording contract and the adoration of his peers, Hendrix was allocated a flat belonging to Ringo Starr, in Montagu Square, in which he lived with Etchingham, Chandler and Chandlers Swedish girlfriend, Lotta. It was not ideal, but base camp for an initial tour as opening act for Cat Stevens and Engelbert Humperdinck, with the Walker Brothers topping the bill.

Something was needed, Chandler thought, whereby Hendrix could blow the successive acts off the stage and Altham had the beginning of an idea. He said: Its a pity that you cant set fire to your guitar. There was a pregnant pause in the dressing room, after which Chas said, Go out and get some lighter fuel. Garland remembers: I went out into Seven Sisters Road [in north London] to buy lighter fluid. At first, it didnt make sense to me there were too many things going on to worry about lighter fluid but it all became clear in the end.

Altham borrowed a lighter from Gary the third Walker brother and drummer and that night, at the Astoria theatre in central London, Hendrix set his guitar ablaze for the first time. One of the security guards said, Why are you waving it around your head? recalls Altham. Cause Im trying to put it out, replied Jimi. Actually, he only did it three times after, says Altham, but it became a trademark.

The touring began in earnest during that winter of 1966-7: around working mens clubs and little theatres in the north of England. Thats when I remember him at his very best, recalls Etchingham. And at his happiest. The small clubs in regional venues. When he was desperate to make a name for himself, but was also playing for himself. In the working mens clubs, they just wanted some music to enjoy while they drank their beer. In the small theatres, people had come to hear him. But that was his best music ever played for its own sake. None of these crazy expectations, no one hanging on just the people he knew, liked and trusted, and his own music.

But what was this music, this singular, uplifting, otherworldly, menacing, exotic and erotic sound? Hendrix was a magpie, says Altham. He would take from blues, jazz only Coltrane could play in that way and Dylan was the greatest influence. But hed listen to Mozart, hed read sci-fi and Asimov and it would all go through his head and come out as Jimi Hendrix. Then there was just the dexterity he was left-handed, but I remember people throwing him a right-handed guitar and Hendrix picking it up and playing it upside down.

And dont forget, says Tappy Wright, who acted as roadie at first, then joined the management team, we were using the cheapest guitars. These were no Fenders or Stratocasters. These were Hofners we bought for a few quid. Very basic, but stretched to the fucking limit.

The most precious insight comes from Etchingham. People often saw Jimi on stage looking incredibly intense and serious. And suddenly this smile would come across his face, almost a laugh, for no apparent reason, she says. Well, I remember that very well, sitting on the bed or the floor at home in Brook Street. Sometimes, he would play a riff for hours, until he had it just right. Then this great smile would creep across his face or hed throw his head back and laugh. Those were the moments he had got it right for himself, not for anyone else.

Touring ran concurrent with work in the studio first the singles: Hey Joe, the inimitable Purple Haze and The Wind Cries Mary, written for Kathy when Hendrix was left alone at home after she had stormed out from an argument, so the story goes (Mary is her middle name). I never realised quite how hard he worked, says Sarah Bardwell, director of the Handel House Museum, researching her new charge. The Experience would finish a concert up north, drive south, record between 3am and 9am, then return north for two more shows each day. LSD had yet to play a major role if the Experience were on amphetamines, it was to keep the schedule.

In various studios, ending up at west Londons Olympic, work began. I used to ring them up to book time, recalls Etchingham. Thirty quid an hour and theyd want the cheque there and then. Chandler was aware of this and would occasionally hasten things along by taking what the band thought was a warm-up to be the finished product. What? the band would say, recalls Altham. Thats it, Chas would reply. Now for the next one.

But the soundscape unique to Hendrix, pushing the technology to its limits, was not serendipity, nor was it only about Hendrixs genius: there was science behind the subliminal magic. This was not psychcolergic, as Eric Burdon used to call it, says Garland. Hendrix knew exactly what he was doing. And this process began with a man called Roger Mayer.

We call this the Surrey blues Delta, says Mayer, with a wave of his arms across the crazy-paving pathways of Worcester Park, near Surbiton. Eric over here, Keith down the road, the Stones from there. Mayer was an acoustician and sonic wave engineer for the Admiralty, a civil servant in the Ministry of Defence, but also an inventor of various electronic musical devices, including an improved wah-wah pedal and the Octavia guitar effect with its unique doubling effect. Id shown it to Jimmy Page, but he thought it was too far out. Jimi said, the moment we met, Yeah, Id like to try that stuff. One of my favourite memories of all, says Etchingham, is Jimi and Roger huddled together over the console and the instruments, talking about stuff way over my head, and then this glorious thing happening.

We started from the premise that music was a mission, not a competition, says Mayer, who describes himself as a sonic consultant to Hendrix. That the basis was the blues, but that the framework of the blues was too tight. Wed talk first about what he wanted the emotion of the song to be. Whats the vision? He would talk in colours and my job was to give him the electronic palette which would engineer those colours so he could paint the canvas.

Let me try to explain why it sounds like it does: when you listen to Hendrix, you are listening to music in its pure form, he adds. The electronics we used were feed forward, which means that the input from the player projects forward the equivalent of electronic shadow dancing so that what happens derives from the original sound and modifies what is being played. But nothing can be predictive it is speed-forward analogue, a non-repetitive wave form, and that is the definition of pure music and therefore the diametric opposite of digital.

Look, if you throw a pebble into a lake, you have no way of predicting the ripples it depends on how you throw the stone, or the wind. Digital makes the false presumption that you can predict those ripples, but Jimi and I were always looking for the warning signs. The brain knows when it hears repetition that this is no longer music and what you hear when you listen to Hendrix is pure music. It took discussion and experiment, and some frustrations, but then that moment would come, wed put the headphones down and say, Got it. Thats the one.

But I take none of the credit, insists Mayer. You can build a racing car just like the one that won the 1955 grand prix. But if you cant drive like Juan Manuel Fangio, youre not going to win the grand prix. Jimi Hendrix only sounds like he does because he was Jimi Hendrix.

Everyone knows that Hendrix had hundreds of women, often concurrently but that is not as interesting as the fact that, says Altham, Kathy Etchingham was the love of his life. Mayer recalls them oozing affection, even when there was a row he needed her very badly indeed. Hendrix called the flat into which he moved with her in 1968 the only home I ever had.

We knew we wanted Mayfair, says Etchingham, so we could walk to the gigs, but the prices were high, even though it was a little seedy 30 a week. The couple furnished the split-level, top-floor apartment together with prints and wall hangings from Portobello Road. When Hendrix found out that Handel had lived downstairs, he went round to HMV or One Stop Records to get Messiah, says Sarah Bardwell. What is so interesting is that they were both musicians from abroad, who came to London to make their name in this building.

It feels extraordinary now to walk over the venerable floorboards past a replica of Handels harpsichord, portraits of the composer and the score of Messiah in the room in which it was composed, then up a wooden staircase to Hendrixs whitewashed sitting room and bedroom above. Sarah Bardwells aim is for a joint Handel-Hendrix house museum of some kind. Blue English Heritage plaques accompany each other on the wall outside; Hendrix was added in 1997, a labour of devotion by Kathy Etchingham, who recalls English Heritage balking at the fact that the shop front below was a lingerie shop, all mannequins wearing suspenders and knickers, which needed covering up while the plaque was unveiled.

Now, it is the posh Jo Malone perfumery, though in our day it was Mr Loves cafe, she recalls fondly. On the corner of Oxford Street. And there was an Indian tea shop wed go to in South Molton Street, and always HMV or One Stop and wed walk to the gigs along Regent Street or across Hanover Square, and maybe take a taxi home.

The memories of the people who actually knew him overshadow the tragic, antiheroic Hendrix of popular imagination. Etchingham and Keith Altham recall a man with a sense of humour. If things were getting tense in the studio, says Altham, hed just play Teddy Bears Picnic. Adds Tony Garland: If I told Jimi to kiss my arse, hed answer, Youve got a rubber neck, do it yourself with a sly grin. You always knew you were with someone quicker-witted than yourself.

Altham also talks about Hendrix saying nothing to reporters, or contradictory things, on purpose. He would pat his fingers against his lips mid-sentence and go, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, in order to say, in effect, nothing. He wanted the music to speak. He also had this way of saying things that made you do a double take: Did he really say that? Such as, just before he went on to play with Clapton, who was his idol, for the first time, he told me, I want to see if he is as good as he thinks I am which is not at all the remark you first think it is.

But many of those who comprised Hendrixs inner circle in London now talk about some demise in his mental agility once he became popular in his native US, a mass commodity caught between the triangle of his own racially transgressive music, his blackness and the black power movement, and his overwhelmingly white audience. Even then, though, Hendrix closed the 1969 Woodstock festival with a version of The Star-Spangled Banner, which became the anthem for both the movement against the war in Vietnam and Hendrixs own complicated empathy with the young American fodder sent to fight it, as a former military man himself. Many of his childhood friends were over there, some never to return. The anthem made Jimi famous worldwide, veering into a vortex out of which emerged Purple Haze, a glorious, lyrical dirge for something, for everything; an endpiece not only to Woodstock but to so many dreams.

Chas Chandler would come into the studio and find two women in his chair, recalls Tappy Wright. Get out of my chair! hed say. And then, well, there were drugs, drugs, drugs. I never took any, because I had to make sure everyone got out of bed in the morning but they were around, too much around. Altham says that Chandler told him that he gave Jimi an ultimatum: Either I go or the hangers-on go. But there was no getting rid of them, so Chas quit and Jimi was left with Michael Jeffery.

Jimi was at his best when the fame never got in the way of the music, says Etchingham, and at his worst when the fame took over, when people who hardly knew him suddenly became his best friends. He had this thing, says Altham, of not being able to say no to people and this became a problem.

Even the flat on Brook Street became an open house, to journalists, anyone. Its funny, says Sarah Bardwell. Here we are trying to contact his old friends who are now superstars for our events and exhibition, and its like laying siege to Fort Knox! Yet Hendrix was available to anyone, perhaps almost too much so.

Despite the distractions, there was one project consistently dear to Hendrixs heart: the state-of-the-art Electric Lady Studios in New York, opened with a party on 26 August 1970, the night before he was due to fly back to England to play the Isle of Wight festival. Only Hendrix was almost too shy to appear and, when he did so, he retreated to the steps outside, where he met a young singer-songwriter too shy to enter the fray Patti Smith. It was all too much for me. Johnny Winter in there and all, recalled Smith in a past interview with the Observer. So I thought, Ill just sit awhile on the steps and out came Jimi and sat next to me. And he was so full of ideas; the different sounds he was going to create in this studio, wider landscapes, experiments with musicians and new soundscapes. All he had to do was get over back to England, play the festival and get back to work…

It had been a long weekend on the Isle of Wight and, for me, an exciting one. I was compelled not disgusted, as is the official history by the determination of French and German anarchists to tear down the fences so that it be a free festival. I loved the fact that Notting Hills local band, Hawkwind, played outside the fence in protest at the ticket prices. The strange atmosphere added to the climactic moment, after the Who and others: the one set, at 2am on the Monday, for which it was imperative to get down from among the crowds on Desolation Row and force a way right to the front and concentrate or, rather, submit to hypnosis. The set by Jimi Hendrix.

It is written in the lore of Hendrixology that this was a terrible performance. Hendrix had arrived exhausted, by the previous months events, the upcoming tour, the days violence and by walkie-talkie voices that somehow made their way into the PA system. But all I remember, having just turned 16, is a dream coming true: the greatest rock musician of all time (one knew this with assurance) dressed in blazing red and purple silks, actually playing the version of Sgt Peppers about which I had read so much in NME, playing Purple Haze, Voodoo Chile and a long, searing Machine Gun, just yards away. I remember the sound the sounds, plural bombarding me from the far side of some emotional, existential, hallucinogenic and sexual checkpoint along the road towards the rest of my life. I remember him playing the horn parts to Sgt Peppers on his guitar! I remember the deafening and painful silence after he finished his fusillade and in the crowd a mixture of rapture, gratitude, enlightenment and affection.

Afterwards, Hendrix went on a reportedly disastrous tour of Scandinavia and Germany (failing to meet one of his two children, by a Swedish girlfriend the other he had sired in New York and also never met), before returning to the Cumberland hotel and the room in which he gave his last ever interview, to Keith Altham. (To mark the anniversary, the Cumberland has designed and decorated these rooms in a swirl of colour, stocked it with Hendrix music and called it the Hendrix Suite, in which people can stay.)

There were two women in the room, recalls Altham. One of them was a girlfriend called Devon Wilson and she was dodgy she dealt him drugs and I can say that now because shes dead. But he knew me well by this time and he seemed better than Id seen him previously. The interview is a remarkable one, utterly devoid of all the nonsense that would ensue about suicide and a death wish. On the tape, Hendrix laughs and jokes; he tells Altham about plans to re-form the Experience and tour England again.

On the night of 16 September, Hendrix went to Ronnie Scotts without his guitar, hoping to jam with Eric Burdons new band, War. Burdon considered him unfit to play. The following night, he returned and joined his friend on stage. I was tired, I missed it, says Altham, though, of course, I regret that now. It was the last time Hendrix ever played the guitar.

Hendrix went on to a party with a German woman, Monika Dannemann, and back to her rooms at the Samarkand hotel in Lansdowne Crescent. There are so many accounts of exactly what happened next, but all converge on the fact that he had drunk a fair amount, taken some kind of amphetamines (Black bombers, I think, given to him by Devon Wilson, surmises Altham) and some of Dannemans Vesparax sleeping pills, not knowing their strength. He vomited during the deep ensuing sleep, insufficiently conscious enough to throw up; Danneman panicked, and telephoned Burdon, who urged her to call an ambulance. But the greatest guitarist of all time was dead upon arrival at St Mary Abbots hospital, aged 27. (Sadly, Danneman took her own life in 1996.)

So it was, back in September 1970, that I made my way up Lansdowne Rise and round the corner to the Samarkand hotel after reading the news today, oh boy. I was amazed to have the pavement outside the address at which Jimi Hendrix had died that morning all to myself for a good couple of hours not a soul. I went home, got some chalk, and wrote: Scuse us while we kiss the sky, Jimi on the flagstones (OK, but I was only 16) and retreated to watch. Nothing happened and after another hour, a man came out and washed the words away and I returned home to write a lament in my diary, which I still have, the Standards front page folded at the date.

Speculations about suicide and murder are too ridiculous to contemplate most of them are probably concocted in order to dramatise and distract from the awful reality of such a genius dying in this way but what does matter are Kathy Etchinghams reflections. Jimi died because the simple things got complicated. He was born to a father who was an alcoholic and a mother who died and he died because he was in that flat in Notting Hill with a complete stranger who gave him a load of sleeping pills without telling him how strong they were. Its as simple and as complicated as that.

Im older and wiser now, she says. I enjoy culture and the fine things in life. I can look back and see all that more clearly than I did at the time I was so young, only 24. Of the compelling memoir she has written, Through Gypsy Eyes, she says: Id like to go over it again, fill in a few things, but what I want now, most of all from this anniversary, is for people to understand that it was in Britain that he was welcomed, it was there he was happy and such fun to be around yes, grumpy at times, and a handful but such a man. Id like the young people to know that.

Lets face it, says Tappy Wright, if Jimi had stayed with Kathy, hed probably be alive and playing still. Plus, he always said he wanted to be buried in London, not Seattle, where he was born and his family lived. It wasnt just me he told that, it was plenty of people that this was home. Still, says Etchingham, at least weve got the plaque, the Handel House Museum, and Im looking forward to seeing everyone in September. They were great times and well take a trip down memory lane. Only 40 years is a long time and Jimi wont be there.

The Hendrix in Britain exhibition runs at Handel House museum, 25 Brook Street, London W1, from 25 Aug-7Nov. Hendrixs rooms will be open from 15-26 Sep

Source: http://allofbeer.com/2017/07/15/jimi-hendrix-you-never-told-me-he-was-that-good/

from All of Beer https://allofbeer.wordpress.com/2017/07/15/jimi-hendrix-you-never-told-me-he-was-that-good/

[patriotsnet]

How Many Republicans Voted For Trumps Impeachment

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/how-many-republicans-voted-for-trumps-impeachment/

How Many Republicans Voted For Trumps Impeachment

Overview Of Impeachment Process

See also: Impeachment of federal officials

The United States Congress has the constitutional authority to impeach and remove a federal official from office—including the president—if he or she has committed an impeachable offense. Impeaching and removing an official has two stages. First, articles of impeachment against the official must be passed by a majority vote of the U.S. House of Representatives. Then, a trial is conducted in the United States Senate potentially leading to the conviction and removal of the official.

In most impeachment trials, the vice president presides over the trial. However, in impeachment trials of the president, the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court presides. In order to remove the person from office, two-thirds of senators that are present to vote must vote to convict on the articles of impeachment.

Why Did Republicans Vote To Dismiss The Impeachment

The Senate just voted on my constitutional point of order. 45 Senators agreed that this sham of a “trial” is unconstitutional. That is more than will be needed to acquit and to eventually end this partisan impeachment process.This “trial” is dead on arrival in the Senate.

— Senator Rand Paul January 26, 2021

The senators were voting as to whether it is constitutional to impeach a former president, but not whether or not Trump is guilty of the charge against him. The constitutional language is vague on this issue and legal experts disagree, with both sides of the political spectrum arguing it is and isn’t. The main argument against impeachment relies on two parts of the constitution in Article II, Section 4, “shall be removed from office if convicted in an impeachment trial,” and in Article 1, Section 3 “shall not extend further than to removal from Office.” But there isn’t a consensus among the GOP with five of their members, Senators Collins, Murkowski, Romney, Sasse, and Toomey, voting against the motion and to proceed with the trial.

The Vote Echoed A Longstanding Dynamic Thats Poised To Continue

For years, Senate Republicans worked with Trump to pass tax legislation and appoint federal judges, and stayed silent during problematic moments in his presidency.

Forty-three Republicans ended up backing him yet again, indicating that while the party is somewhat split, the bulk of GOP lawmakers are still aligning themselves with him.

According to a Vox/DFP survey, there is a similar divide among likely Republican voters: 12 percent of Republicans would have backed his conviction, while 85 percent opposed it.

Trump’s support from the Republican base is likely a factor behind some lawmakers’ decisions: If they were to go against him, it’s possible they’d face a serious electoral challenge in 2022 or 2024.

Beyond showing just how closely Republicans are still tied to Trump, the vote also sent another major message about the party, revealing how open the majority of GOP lawmakers are to condoning an attack on the democratic process itself.

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Why Didnt The Trial Begin While Trump Was Still In Office

The articles of impeachment were not sent to the Senate immediately since the Senate wouldn’t be in session until the day before Joe Biden’s inauguration. The Democrats waited further until an agreement was reached in the Senate for the power-sharing structure that would regulate how the evenly split Senate would operate going forward. Under an agreement with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell the trial was delayed to give the Senate more time to get Biden’s nominees for his Cabinet approved.

Second Impeachment Of Donald Trump

Second impeachment trial of Donald Trump

Second impeachment of Donald Trump The House of Representatives votes to adopt the article of impeachment Accused January 13, 2021  ?–? February 13, 2021  Acquitted by the U.S. Senate Charges Voting in the U.S. Senate Accusation

Protesters gathered outside the Capitol on January 6, 2021 Background

The second impeachment of Donald Trump, the 45th president of the United States, occurred on January 13, 2021, one week before his term expired. It was the fourth impeachment of a U.S. president, and the second for after his first impeachment in December 2019. Ten representatives voted for the second impeachment, the most pro-impeachment votes ever from a president’s party. This was also the first presidential impeachment in which all majority members voted unanimously for impeachment.

Who Are The 10

Here they are in order of the most pro-Trump districts:

1. Rep. Liz Cheney, Wyoming’s at-large district: Trump won Wyoming 70% to 27%, and she’s the third-ranking leader in the House. So for her not just to vote in favor of impeachment but also issue a stinging rebuke is quite the step. Cheney was unequivocal in her statement, saying Trump “summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack.” She called what Trump did the “greatest betrayal” of a U.S. president ever.

2. Rep. Tom Rice, South Carolina’s 7th Congressional District: This is one no one saw coming. The congressman, who has served since 2013, comes from a pretty pro-Trump district , and there was no indication he would do so beforehand. Even during his vote, Twitter was alight with speculation that Rice had cast the wrong vote. Turns out, he cast it exactly as he wanted to. Later Wednesday, Rice : “I have backed this President through thick and thin for four years. I campaigned for him and voted for him twice. But, this utter failure is inexcusable.”

I have backed this President through thick and thin for four years. I campaigned for him and voted for him twice. But, this utter failure is inexcusable.

— Congressman Tom Rice January 13, 2021

— Adam Kinzinger January 14, 2021

Trump Impeachment Results: How Democrats And Republicans Voted

FEB. 5, 2020

67 votes needed to convict

Not Guilty

67 votes needed to convict

Not Guilty 0 53

The deeply divided Senate on Wednesday acquitted President Donald J. Trump on the two articles of impeachment — abuse of power and obstruction of Congress — brought by the House. See how every senator voted below.

The votes fell far short of the two-thirds majority required to convict and remove the president from office. The Senate rejected the abuse of power charge 52 to 48, largely along party lines. Senators then voted 53 to 47 to defeat the second article charging Mr. Trump with obstruction of Congress.

One Republican, Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, broke with his party and voted in favor of the first article of impeachment, supporting the effort to remove the president.

Motion to Consider Witnesses or Documents

Vote failed on Friday.

51

51

On Friday, Senate Republicans succeeded in blocking a motion to consider additional witnesses and documents in the trial, including testimony from John R. Bolton, the president’s former national security adviser.

The crucial vote was cast largely along party lines and paved the way for Mr. Trump’s acquittal in the third presidential impeachment trial in the nation’s history.

For the latest updates, .

Here Are The 10 Republicans Who Voted To Impeach Trump After The Capitol Riot

Tala Michel Issa, Al Arabiya English

URL Copied

Ten Republicans of the US House of Representatives voted to impeach President Donald Trump after rioters stormed the Capitol building last week, making him the first president in US history to be impeached twice.

Trump’s support within the Republican party appears to be wavering. While only 10 Republicans voted for impeachment, during Trump’s first impeachment in 2019 the party closed ranks, with zero votes for impeachment at the time.

All House Democrats voted in favor of the impeachment; 197 Republicans voted against it. The 10 Republican votes for this impeachment trial made history as the tally exceeded the previous record of five Democrat votes during Bill Clinton’s 1988 impeachment trial.

The US House of Representatives, the lower house of Congress, first decide if a President should be impeached. If the house finds in favor the Senate, the upper house of Congress, will then hold a trial overseen by the US chief justice.

The Senate’s response to the president’s second impeachment is yet to be determined. In order to render a guilty verdict, 17 Republicans would have to join .

As of yet, only a small number of Republican senators have shown interest in potentially convicting Trump in a Senate trial. The trial would begin after Trump has left office and after President-elect Joe Biden is sworn into office on January 20.

Trump Et Al V Deutsche Bank Et Al

Trump v. Deutsche Bank, AG

The House Financial Services and committees issued subpoenas to Deutsche Bank and Capital One Bank asking for financial records relating to Trump, his adult children, and his businesses. Trump’s personal attorneys tried to delay or prevent the information from being given to the committees by getting a court injunction. Although the defendants are Deutsche Bank and Capital One Bank, U.S. district judge Edgardo Ramos permitted representatives of the House committees to take part. Ramos canceled a May 9 preliminary hearing when the committees agreed to hand over “substantial portions” of the subpoenas to the plaintiffs. On May 22, Ramos affirmed the validity of the subpoenas. Trump’s lawyers had asked Ramos to quash the subpoenas, but Ramos said such a request was “unlikely to succeed on the merits”. The committees later reached an agreement with Trump’s lawyers to delay enforcement of the subpoenas while an appeal is filed, provided the appeal is filed in an “expedited” manner. On May 28, Ramos granted Trump’s attorneys their request for a so they could pursue an expedited appeal through the courts. and briefs for it were due by no later than July 12. On June 18, The Trump legal team filed a brief similar to the one in the Mazars case.

Oral arguments began on August 23.

Liz Cheney John Katko And Dan Newhouse Among 10 House Republicans Who Voted In Favour Of Motion

The U.S. House of Representatives voted to impeach President Donald Trump a second time on Wednesday. The House voted 232-197 in favour of an unprecedented second impeachment just one week after the violence at the U.S. Capitol.

Those 232 votes were cast in favour of the bill by 222 Democrats — along with 10 Republicans, members of Trump’s own party.

The Republicans include:

With Trump Facing His Second Impeachment Trial In The Senate Republicans Are Arguing It Would Be Unconstitutional To Try Trump Now That Hes A Civilian

Senator Rand Paul on Tuesday introduced a motion to dismiss the single article of impeachment against former President Donald Trump claiming it is unconstitutional. The argument goes that impeachment is for removing an incumbent president so the Senate does not have the constitutional authority to try Trump now that he has left office. The motion was defeated but forty-five of his colleagues agreed with him.

The size of the support among GOP members does not bode well for a conviction of the former president who was impeached by the House for a second time just over a week before he left office. Two-thirds of the Senate would need to vote to convict Trump after the trial which is set to begin 9 February. That means 17 Republicans would have to side with Democrats in finding him guilty of inciting insurrection.

December 2017 And January 2018 House Votes

On December 6, a second privileged resolution on articles of impeachment, H.Res. 646, was brought on the floor by Representative Al Green, Democrat of Texas. The resolution listed two articles, i.e. proposed reasons for impeachment: “Associating the Presidency with White Nationalism, Neo-Nazism and Hatred” and “Inciting Hatred and Hostility”. House majority leader Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California, moved for the resolution to be defeated ” rel=”nofollow”>tabled”), which was agreed to by a 364–58 vote with four members voting present.

Among Republicans, 238 voted to table the articles of impeachment and one did not vote. Among Democrats, 126 voted to table the articles of impeachment, 58 voted against tabling the articles of impeachment, four voted “present” and five did not vote.

Green’s effort did not receive the support of Democratic leadership. House minority leader Nancy Pelosi and minority whip Steny Hoyer issued a statement saying that “egitimate questions have been raised about fitness to lead this nation,” but “ow is not the time to consider articles of impeachment” given ongoing investigations by congressional committees as well as the investigation by the special counsel.

Drafted Articles Of Impeachment

Within hours of the storming of the Capitol, multiple members of Congress began to call for the impeachment of Donald Trump as president. Several representatives began the process of independently drafting various articles of impeachment. Of these attempts, the first to become public were those of Representative Ilhan Omar ” rel=”nofollow”>D–) who drafted and introduced articles of impeachment against Trump.

Representative David Cicilline ” rel=”nofollow”>D–) separately drafted an article of impeachment. The text was obtained by CNN on January 8. On Twitter, Cicilline acknowledged the coauthorship of Ted Lieu and Jamie Raskin, and said that “more than 110” members had signed on to this article. “Article I: Incitement of Insurrection” accuses Trump of having “willfully made statements that encouraged—and foreseeably resulted in—imminent lawless action at the Capitol”. As a result of incitement by Trump, “a mob unlawfully breached the Capitol” and “engaged in violent, deadly, destructive, and seditious acts”. On January 10, it was announced that the bill had gathered 210 cosponsors in the House.

House Impeaches Trump A 2nd Time Citing Insurrection At Us Capitol

This vote could expose some of them to potential primary challenges from the right as well as possible safety threats, but for all of them Trump had simply gone too far. Multiple House Republicans said threats toward them and their families were factors weighing on their decisions on whether to impeach this president.

Ten out of 211 Republicans in the House is hardly an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote, and clearly, most Republicans’ sympathies still lie with Trump — and his ardent base of followers. But the 10 represent something significant — the most members of a president’s party to vote for his impeachment in U.S. history.

Trump Calls For ‘no Violence’ As Congress Moves To Impeach Him For Role In Riot

This time, there will be more. Some Republican senators have called on Trump to resign, and even Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he is undecided at this point.

Trump’s impeachment won’t lead to his removal — even if he is convicted — because of the timeline. The Senate is adjourned until Tuesday. The next day, Biden will be sworn in as the 46th president. But there’s another penalty the Constitution allows for as a result of a Senate conviction that could be appealing to some Republican senators — banning Trump from holding “office” again.

While there is some debate as to the definition of “office” in the Constitution and whether that would apply to running for president or even Congress, that kind of public rebuke would send a strong message — that Republicans are ready to move on from Trumpism.

Republicans Who Voted To Acquit Trump Used Questions Of Constitutionality As A Cover

Following the vote, McConnell gave a scathing speech condemning Trump’s lies about election fraud as well as his actions on January 6, only moments after he supported acquittal.

That speech was emblematic of how many Republican senators approached the impeachment vote: Although GOP lawmakers were critical of the attack on January 6, they used a process argument about constitutionality in order to evade confronting Trump on his actual actions.

Effectively, because Trump is no longer in office, Republicans say the Senate doesn’t have jurisdiction to convict him of the article of impeachment. As Vox’s Ian Millhiser explained, there’s some debate over that, but most legal scholars maintain that it is constitutional for the Senate to try a former president.

“If President Trump were still in office, I would have carefully considered whether the House managers proved their specific charge,” McConnell said. McConnell, however, played an integral role in delaying the start of the trial until after Trump was no longer president.

His statement on Saturday was simply a continuation of how Republicans had previously approached Trump’s presidency: There’s been an overwhelming hesitation to hold him accountable while he was in office, and that still appears to be the case for many lawmakers.

Trump Et Al V Mazars Et Al

Trump v. Mazars USA, LLP

The House Oversight Committee issued a subpoena to the accounting firm for Trump’s financial information from before his election to the presidency. The President and his lawyers have tried to delay or prevent this information from getting to the committee by seeking a court injunction against both the committee’s leadership and Mazars.

On April 23, 2019 U.S. district judge Amit Mehta set a May 14 date for the preliminary hearing, although several weeks later he decided the entire suit would be heard on that date. May 20, Mehta ruled that accounting firm Mazars had to provide its records of Donald Trump‘s accounts from before his presidency to the House Oversight Committee in response to their subpoena. In a 41-page opinion, he asserted that Congress has the right to investigate potential illegal behavior by a president, including actions both before and after the president assumed office. The ruling was appealed by Trump’s personal legal team and briefs for such were due by no later than July 12, 2019, when oral arguments were scheduled.

Oral arguments took place on July 12, 2019, before a three-judge panel consisting of Neomi Rao, David Tatel, and Patricia Millett. On August 8, the Justice Department filed a brief supporting the president’s position. On October 11, 2019, the appeal panel affirmed the ruling 2–1 with Neomi Rao dissenting.

A 2/3 Majority Is Needed In The Senate To Remove Trump

Getty

It was easy to get the votes needed to impeach Trump in the House, but that won’t be so easy in the Senate. The Republicans have a majority there and very few are likely to cross party lines.

A total of 67 Senators would need to vote to convict and remove Trump during the impeachment trial, Reuters reported. This is because the law requires that a 2/3 majority of the Senate’s 100 members would need to vote for the President to be removed from office before Trump would actually be removed. There are 45 Democrat Senators and 53 Republican Senators, plus two Independents who typically vote Democrat.

Before the 67 votes needed to remove Trump could be reached, at least 20 Republicans would have to join with Democrats in voting to remove Trump , Reuters reported. This just isn’t likely to happen.

Sen. Chris Murphy has said that he only knows of a handful of Republicans who might vote to remove Trump, The Hill reported. He wouldn’t name them, but he said some in the Senate were considering it, but it was a small list that could be counted on one hand. That’s definitely not enough to meet the 20 Republican Senator count that would be needed.

He added that an anonymous removal vote wouldn’t be appropriate and, even if it happened, only a handful of Republicans would still consider voting to remove Trump. So don’t expect the rules to change in a Republican-led Senate that would allow for anonymous voting.

Ny Lawmakers Rejoice End To Tragic Chapter In Our States History As Cuomo Quits

Ten House Republicans crossed party lines on Wednesday and voted to impeach President Trump — which is 10 more than the amount to go against him the first time around.

The GOP lawmakers aligned with Democrats to formally charge the outgoing commander-in-chief with “inciting violence against the government of the United States” in last week’s storming of the Capitol by supporters he had addressed during a rally near the White House.

No Republicans voted in 2019 to impeach Trump the first time.

Here are the 10 GOP members who voted to impeach on Wednesday:

Trump Acquitted In Impeachment Trial; 7 Gop Senators Vote With Democrats To Convict

Dareh Gregorian

The Senate on Saturday voted to acquit former President Donald Trump on a charge of incitement of insurrection despite significant Republican support for conviction, bringing an end to the fourth impeachment trial in U.S. history and the second for Trump.

Seven Republicans voted to convict Trump for allegedly inciting the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, when a mob of pro-Trump supporters tried to disrupt the electoral vote count formalizing Joe Biden’s election win before a joint session of Congress. That is by far the most bipartisan support for conviction in impeachment history. The final vote was 57 to 43, 10 short of the 67 votes needed to secure a conviction.

Republican Sens. Richard Burr of North Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania all voted guilty.

The vote means the Senate cannot bar Trump from holding future federal offices.

Moments after the vote concluded, the former president issued a statement praising his legal team and thanking the senators and other members of Congress “who stood proudly for the Constitution we all revere and for the sacred legal principles at the heart of our country.”

“This has been yet another phase of the greatest witch hunt in the history of our Country. No president has ever gone through anything like it,” Trump said.

Efforts To Impeach Donald Trump

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Various people and groups assert that U.S. presidentDonald Trump engaged in activity both before and during his presidency, and talk of impeachment began before he took office. Grounds asserted for impeachment have included possible violations of the Foreign Emoluments Clause of the Constitution by accepting payments from foreign dignitaries; alleged collusion with Russia during the campaign for the 2016 United States presidential election; alleged obstruction of justice with respect to investigation of the collusion claim; and accusations of “Associating the Presidency with White Nationalism, Neo-Nazism and Hatred”, which formed the basis of a resolution for impeachment brought on December 6, 2017.

On September 24, 2019, of the House of RepresentativesNancy Pelosi announced that six committees would undertake formal impeachment inquiries after reports about controversial interactions between Trump and the country of . This inquiry resulted in Trump’s first impeachment on December 18, 2019.

Protesters calling for impeachmentTrump’s inauguration

After The 2018 Midterm Elections

On March 11, 2019, Nancy Pelosi said, “I’m not for impeachment, Impeachment is so divisive to the country that unless there’s something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan, I don’t think we should go down that path, because it divides the country. And he’s just not worth it. No. I don’t think he is. I mean, ethically unfit. Intellectually unfit. Curiosity wise unfit. No, I don’t think he’s fit to be president of the United States.” She then scolded herself for “coming across too negatively”.

With the Democrats in control of the House, and with a direct impeachment inquiry deemed somewhat toxic, the work of investigations into Trump’s possible crimes were divided into several committees while waiting for some outside force, such as the Mueller probe or the Southern District to force the Democratic leadership’s hands.