Another great essay, Thom. As someone who worked with classified information the whole of my professional life, I'd have been in jail for one-hundredth of the lapses in accountability for which Trump has not been held accountable. You can bet and be assured of a win that Putin has, in his hands, our national secrets.
None of that. I was expected to follow the laws, and to exercise responsibility and ethical behaviors. If I did not, I would have been reprimanded or worse. I expect no less from a president.
Fox and its employees all had some coverage. The carriers furnished the lawyers.
Umbrella insurance provides liability protection that may help pay expenses in a number of situations, such as alleged libel. Most authors have defamation coverage but policies exclude intentional or malicious acts, which means you cannot intentionally slander someone. I assume that companies have risk managers that would determine whether certain employees create uninsurable risks.
I am not sure of your point. This has nothing to do with defamation, slander and libel. It has everything to do with the laws governing handling of classified information. Are you real or a bot? Make it make sense, please.
I don't know what you are babbling about. Insurance covers a business or an individual from attack. It has nothing to do with the illegality of mishandling, purposely, classified information. Can an individual buy insurance, then go rob a a bank and use that insurance to avoid prosecution for the robbery? It cannot. Trump broke laws, serious laws, by his mis-handling of classified information. One cannot "insurance their way out" of those deeds.
Daniel, in my final two years in the service, I rode a desk as an Administrative officer, one of my duties was to secure classified material. The military has no insurance or insurance requirement, and if I breached security procedures I would be court martialed, in the blink of an eye.
I had a clearance. I heard cases that may/may not have involved the Secrets Act. I would have to get a special clearance to hear top secret cases.
I would ask the parties to create a privilege log, and I could seal the documents. All of us had private insurance to make sure we had counsel -- just in case. When DOL or DOJ told me that the Secrets Act was involved that ended the case 99% of the time.
I also heard nuclear whistleblower cases, and cases involving government contractors, i.e. the Service Contract Act, Defense Base Act, War Hazards Act, etc.. All the contractors had to be insured. In the Defense Base Act, for example, triparty agreements. Many dealt with classified material.
The main reason to obtain coverage is to have their lawyers represent you. In many cases, they take the cases under "reservations of rights."
Meanwhile the CIA officer who went to jail for disclosing secrets during the Obama Administration is from my home town. I am much older. His dad was a principal and I used him as an expert in some of my cases 45+ year ago. I'm now a Facebook friend. Federal employment may be hazardous. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kiriakou
Suzie: To whom were you addressing in that reply? I don't think it was me, or Daniel but certainly looks like it, the way substack posts comments. I have found it helpful, if I can remember, to include the screen name of the person who makes the comment.
My bad. I meant it for Solomon. I mis-typed. Apologies and I don't how to fix it. I always enjoy and mostly support your comments, William. Again, my bad.
Approving a person for a security clearance is an expensive, and time consuming process, the higher the clearance.
The lowest clearance is confidential, that can be issued by a commander. I don't recall at what level of command.
Next is Secret. A secret clearance, is given after a list of organizations, listed as subversive or enemy, is scrubbed, in other words a paper chase, or these days a computer search.
The Highest is Top Secret, that is expensive and time consuming and requires agents actually interviewing neighbors, former employers, associates and family.
And the demand for Top Secret Clearances exceeds the supply of investigative agents and that is how you wind up with an E-3 in the National Guard with Top Secret material.
All classified material is distributed and read on a Need to Know Basis.
There are, so I hear, categories higher than Top Secret, supposedly stuff like a Q, I never saw any in my administrative duties as a Classification officer, but do not doubt that they exist.
By the way, every step in the transmission of classified documents, their origination and disposal, is documented, that means who ever handles them has to sign for them. It is easy to follow the trail.
The folders seen on the bathroom floor of Mar A Lago, that had Secret or Top Secret on them with a bold border, also have a record of who handled them, thus the lawyers have a written trail of all involved, and why aren't they being called in to testify or be indicted.?
All of us were reviewed every 5 years. Like I said above. we needed to get a special clearance to hear top secret case -- only lasted for the life of the cases. My clearance data was stolen by the Chinese Army through OPM about 2014. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Personnel_Management_data_breach
A separate board hears security clearance appeals. A lot of candidates can not get clearance. We lost several prospects.
Historically all the background checks were done by the FBI, but under GWB OPM delegated many to private contractors.
The irony is that during GWB we "privatized" even our docket. The contractors may/may not have had the proper clarence for the level of the case we were hearing. When my wife was at the US Attorney's office in the 80's they privatized copying, and a Pakistani company got the contract for Miami.
Thanks for the update Daniel. I retired in 82, well before Dubya, was unaware that clearance investigations were conracted out. I wonder how many of the contractors work for the Chinese, Koreans, Iranians or Russians, or even the Saudis or the Emirates.
We know that Eric Prince, of Blackwater/Xi fled to the UAE
Daniel, ON this thread, down below, there is this post. I leave it to you to explain. I've tried. The problem starts with Carolyn, one of our notorious Jew Haters, accusing you and I of being bad guys.
Suzie has this thing about Insurance stuck in her craw. I think we are talking cross purposes here.
SuZieCoyote
Feb 29
·
edited Feb 29
Sorry, William. What he presents is a word salad that has nothing to do with the criminality of Trump's purposely mishandling classified information. Solomon says he's a lawyer who had a clearance. If he had a clearance (and if he is really a lawyer), he would know that "insurance" doesn't cover illegal handling of classified information. Anyone with a clearance is trained on the laws and the consequences when they are first awarded the clearance, then they are retrained no less than yearly. Insurance doesn't cover criminal behaviors. Full stop.
The media IS telling the truth! That’s how we know all this! (Even if slanted and on Page 12!) That’s NOT the problem!
The Problem is US! We refuse to believe it: Refuse to demand action: Refuse to get off our comfortable, materiality to take the massive effort necessary for enough action to stop this Traitor.
And That is the Truth as I see it from my 82 year old activist vantage point!
There is truth in your comment Dr Claire, the real corporate media, not right wing media, does tell the truth...WHEN THEY REPORT IT, but they don't report all the news, and all we should know, they self censor because they are owned by corporations and people whose interests would be adversely effected if they reported all the truth.
And then they are selective with their sources and what they wish to believe.
A current Example. HAMAS runs a "Health Ministry" parallel to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
It is primarily a propaganda outlet for HAMAS. It spits out figures and "facts" that the UN, News Agencies, etc take as fact, without caveat or suspicion.
On the other hand whenever the IDF posts a video, the news agencies, and the UN caveat it as "unverified".
When Martin Griffiths of the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator at the United Nations. was questioned about why he used, without question, the casualty figures from HAMAS. His obfuscatory reply is that they were "triangulated", what ever the hell that means. Triangulated with what,sources from HAMAS, Al Jazeera, Iran.
I smell bias in the bowels of the UN, and of course Muslim nations are almost half of the worlds nations (57 in all), and Arab nations have enough money to buy anything and anyone.
Call him by what he is: Donald J. Trump is a traitor to the United States and to democracy. We are so naive. We have allowed the spread of all of the disinformation that is out there. Those that want to destroy democracy and the United States are years ahead of us in their planning and their actions. I hope we are not too late.
Fifty years ago the Washington Post led the journalism world in asking WHY in their news reporting. Two of your veteran reporters asked WHY would a bunch of guys break in to the Democratic Campaign Headquarters? And they kept asking everyone who might know the answers to the WHY questions. Two years later they, and the rest of the legit news media and government, finally found the reasons for this burglary. The investigative process started with WHY questions.
Today there are many opportunities for journalists to ask WHY and dig for the reasons for former President Trump's actions and words. His indictments are public for everyone to read and they list the infractions. There is plenty of apparent wrong doing. But your reporters aren't asking WHY. WHY not?
Excellent and well written, thoughtful, you started out with praise, and then asked , essentially, what happened to the once great WAPO. I'll tell you what happened Bezo's happened.
I remember. IMO 50 years ago WAPO was a conservative disinfo center, that's what Katherine Graham set it up to be. NYT has never been liberal. It is and always has been establishment, same with WAPO.
For those who have the interest and time here is who runs WAPO, click on names of Board Members, very interesting they are either CEO's of other companies and/or were officers of other companies, and sit on other boards.
The Board of Directors of corporations are the ultimate authority, investigate the members and you learn their vested interests and dispel the myth of the "liberal media"/
business, has needed serious Antitrust enforcement for decades.
The whole "liberal media" notion has been a right wing myth designed to coerce voters into the belief that the nation has always swung too far left, when in reality, the opposite is true for almost all of the nation's history. They promote their media myths, anecdotally, by pointing a finger at individual journalists, who, like scientists & lawyers, in order to be effective, must limit their personal bias and view practicing their professions with an open minded approach. Many on the right see this, and a lack of strong right wing bias, as an indicator of liberalism and, see misinformation & lying as justifiable. (Thank you so much Rupert Murdock.)
The goal is to breed more right wing extremism and an unwavering right wing voting block. The same concept is true of the right's constant "socialism" refrains. What they are really opposing, in most cases, are social structures that the rest of the developed world sees as just basic humanity.
Put a very rich man in charge and most of the time you'll get a narcissist. The narcissist in charge model of governance is on full display with Putin, Orban, Erdogan, Un and Xi. Once they con their way into power, they never let go, unless their people get so fed up with the autocrat's insidious control and contempt for rights, the people foment successful violent revolution.
The right wing, assisted by the right leaning corporate media, has successfully conflated liberal with socialist and socialist with communist.
The word association might have some affect with old farts like me, who were taught duck and cover under their desks. What rank stupidity, as if wood will protect you from incineration.
The newer generations weren't raised with the nuclear scare, or the cold war scare, and don't have that knee jerk reaction to the words liberal, socialist, communist that my generation and the boomers have.
Don't run from labels, own them, throw them back in their faces, bestow labels upon them
For instance the evidence just falls of the stage, that MAGAts are deranged for Trump.
Thus they suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS), a label that they have tried to affix to the sentient, perceptive and intelligent who reject their lord and savior.
- Trump is an orange-colored avatar of 60% of the majority race's belief in their own supremacy
- However, can one actually be superior, if one enables (elects) a messiah who sells out one's country?
Then one would have to confess to being:
a. A duped dupe
b. Stupid AF
c. A complicit traitor angling for America to become a vassal state of Russia, as Russia is of China
As for the go-along to enrich themselves Australian/American cable-billionaires, they care about the nation as much as "Indian Traders" who sold Winchester rifles to so-called "Indians," in the 1800s.
My jaw was on the floor during yesterday's 'Deadline: White House' (CNBC - aka, the Never Trump Network). A correspondent interviewed a number of the Trump faithful at CPAC. I've also seen this done in other venues and rallies by the Daily Show. A sick form of comedy.
These are lost souls - millions of 'em - bowed to a false prophet with false beliefs that are solid to their core. It's sickening.
On Jimmy Kimmel, he showed a brief cell phone video of the audience at the Black Conservative Conference where Trump tried to identify with blacks, beccause he had a mug shot, stupid ass didn't know that he was stereotpying blacks as criminals, yet hardly a word from any of the MSNBC pundits, and zilch from the media.
Back to Kimmel, there weren't many in the audience, lots of empty chairs, and it was all white, save for one black in the background near the wall.
The Hartmann Report and Nicole Wallace's 'Deadline Whitehouse' are two of the top political programs in the country. I truly wish every American would support honest journalism and learn how to be an informed voter by listening to them frequently.
But for the extensive research and facts buttressing Tom’s essay, you’d might mistake it to be a bunch of conspiracy theories. That all he posits are factual is what renders things scary. Everything is happening in broad daylight and we shrug it off as if it’s some pesky sore that you wish away even as it grows into a canker! Tom is relentless in warning us about the impending danger. Are we listening?
That's why the GOP with their Russian GRU propaganda mentors generate so many fake conspiracies and false flags, to provide cover so the real conspiracies they are so often engaged in, won't catch any particular attention or outrage.
The media won't do that because to Trump, and his constituency, those that oppose him/them are the "traitors." After all, they are "patriots" "making America Great again" (as if it ever was; at least from where I sit). It's a variation on Jay Gould's theme: “I can hire one-half of the people to kill the other half.”
As for Trump's Man-Love, I suppose great minds think alike because in my column published yesterday I state: "When Trump speaks of Putin what takes place is nothing less than weird. His voice changes. His gesticulations change. He really, really admires Mad Vlad. He talks about how “tough” Vlad is and it is clear he wishes to emulate him. But (here we go), therein lies the problem."
My attempt to upvote you is denied, which means that you have blocked my responses and comments, but that is only you, not everyone else.
Never the less I totally agree with your post, and applaud you for the insight into the change in Trump's vocal modulation when he speaks of Putin.
Manchurian Candidate? I would expect that of Charles Koch, both he and Donald have a father named Fred
Fred Koch made his fortune building oil wells and refineries for Stalin in the 1930's, and brought back many of Stalins ideas, such as money based on gold, and "If you don't work you don't eat" (Art 12 of the 1936 Soviet Constitution.
Jane Mayer has a well researched and good book about the Kochs and many other American oligarchs, "Dark Money', a lot of Hartmann fans are likely familiar with it. It is a definitive literary work on how our political landscape has been corrupted by the obscenely wealthy.
As a matter of his candidacy, Trump should explain where the money came from when he posts the bonds (if he even decides to pay into an appeal bond account). Silly me, that's what we should make a candidate do! Aren't you looking forward to the lie he'll tell when he's asked?
There is also a commercial aspect to the spy arena. It would be interesting to know who he hired at Mar-A-Lago that put out the word to the spy-market about his stash. I wonder if they flipped that 12 bucks an hour into millions. It would be humorous if good people were not sacrificed by him.
It's a joke when they say he hasn't started a war, and the joke is that the one he started is on us. He already had a life-long war going on against common decency.
As a footnote, let's remember who hired Jack Smith.
Alis, any people Trump sacrifices, are people who kissed his ass and ring, and are not good people. The only thing I take exception with in your comment.
@ Alis. I'm sure he has to disclose. I'm in a discussion group with some lawyers who by consensus say he will try to reorganize his Florida properties ASAP.....
He turns into a pumpkin on the E.Jean Carroll Judgment pretty soon.
Much appreciation for your expertise as always, Daniel.
Let the games begin when determining their evaluation; there's some irony involved with that solution.
Putin could take care of it and maybe even come-up with a way to wash the money, but why buy someone you already own. The dumber and more bankrupt Trump looks, the more it reflects on our nation. Now THAT is exactly what Putin wants.
I had in mind the CIA and foreign service agents involved. We're vets. I served under Reagan, and I only had one vote in that matter, William. Of course I understand what you are saying about others' choices and consequences.
Trump has worked hard at getting a bidding war started among foreign entities to help pay his legal bills. He's discovered that US foreign adversaries will pay a lot for America's secrets. I'm not a death penalty advocate but I'm beginning to think the door should be left open for espionage agents & egregious treasonous activity.
Trump is a piece of crap and outright traitor. He has been so destructive to the FBI and CIA. I understand that feeling about the death penalty, because it is so unfairly applied in certain instances. When it comes to serial killers and in the case of burning agents and their informers, I'd support it. AND, I bet some of the relatives of agents that have been murdered would agree.
The willingness of the press and officials to ignore the reality of Trump breaking the law is hard to take. Why has the DOJ ignored their job? All while Repubs continue to investigate Biden in known false charges if they actually have ones. Where is the Muller unredacted report and so much more.
Clayton surely your question "Why has the DOJ ignored their job" is rhetorical.
Garland is why. He was vetted to Obama by Orrin Hatch R-UT a right winger if ever there was one, (Pre Trump), and a moderator for the Federalist Society.
The J6 committee exposed treason and the leaders of the exposition, yet Garland did nothing for two years until shamed into it, by and open letter from his peers., and all he did was appoint a special counsel. He moved the documents case to Florida, with the excuse of "that iswhere the crime occurred" A lie, the crime occurred in DC when Waltine Nauta loaded the boxes on the truck to take to the airfield, where they were loaded onto a plane. Garland compounded his complicity, by appointing Ailene Cannon to be the judge in the classified documents case, his lame excuse was that, it was "the so called wheel", i.e. chance, named for the Wheel of Fortune. Bull crap, Garland moved the case ot Cannon's district to put her in charge.
Garland was all over himself to appoint Trump humper, David Weiss to prosecute Hunter, but has anyone seen any special prosecutor for Ivanka, Jr and Eric, who grift the government and tax payers of millions, while taking virtualy bribes from the Saudi's and UAE.
If Joe had a spine he would fire Garland, the man is a fox inside the hen house.
What's specially maddening is that trials over crimes that can catastrophically affect the US and even the entire World could be derailed by a love affair between two consenting adults.
Daniel, you might want to weigh in on this conversation between Gloria and I, she took your link to Fetterman and Casey as a troll or something. Read my comment first
I am more than familiar with Daniel Solomon. I found the link that you were referring to
the link to Fetterman and Casey siding with Fox 29 for FCC's renewal of their license, meanwhile the Media and Democracy Project has been petitioning the FCC not to renew the license.
That is news, that is fact, the question that bounces around in my mind is why in the world would the two Senators from PA support Fox News?
They are not closet Republicans, they are not Trump humpers, so their reason must be political and strategic.
Fox29 reaches their electorate, they both barely won their seats. Bear in mind PA is Pittsburgh in the West, Phillie in the East and Kentucky in between, and Fetterman and Casey, need their support, not their hostility.
I would ask Daniel why he posted that link. Maybe their is more to Fetterman and Casey than meets the eye.
The Guardian doesn't like Fetterman because of his support for Israel and his position on immigration.
If that's the case then I too am an enemy because I share Fettermans POV on both.
Bob Casey is in the fight for his life for re election, but also supports the Biden/Democrats current stance, as does Fetterman, on immigration.
I know the "progressive" stance on immigration, it is open borders come one,come all.
And that is suicidal. America can't absorb the population of Latin America, not even 1/3rd
And progressives are too visceral, they jump on causes without thinking.
Latin Americans are very religious, unto superstitious, not stereotyping either, I married into and lived with Panamanians and have a bisnieto.
Latin Americans are conservative, feminists and LGBT would say ultra conservative, Catholics, Evangelicals and Pentecostals and as such natural allies of the homophobic, transphobic, theocratic, anti abortion, misogynists on the right, be they MAGAts, Libertarians, Never Trumpers or centrists.
All of them should be carefully and fully vetted, as is with a welcome sign out, all we are doing is importing more right wing cultural warriors.
Besides I saw a photo of a group of men, by a fire on the other side of the border, one of them was a Sikh, he is not escaping persecution or economic hardship, it costs a pretty penny to fly from India to Mexico.
Who knows who is coming through the border with the job seekers and political asylum seekers.
America is not and cannot be the world's policeman, neither can we be, nor afford to be, the employer of last resort. It is only going to get worse now that co2 levels have passed the tipping point. Europe and north America are under siege, and with people who don't share our secular, democratic values, as it continues and even ramps up, we will lose whatever secularity and economic security and well being that we enjoy, Europe is under greater threat, and that accounts for the rise of the right in Europe.
It only takes about 17% of a population for there to be a culture shift. It is worse in Europe because the migrating culture is not compatible with western culture. It does not assimilate, it co exists until it has sufficient numbers to displace the host culture.
I posted it to show there was a pending hearing, Fox 29 is vulnerable and that the media is the message.
I could go into the purpose of the FCC and Fox' history of lies, but I don't have the transcript, and don't know whether the sens were subpoenaed and/or subjected to cross examination. I don't know whether the ses were asked whether Fox 209n defamed them.
Open borders was a libertarian policy goal in 1982, cheap labor,nothing else.
It became a progressive issue, because there were so many people from the mid east with Visa's, thanks to Arab oil, that they wanted flood gates opened, and idealistic college students, easily swayed by bought and paid for professors, championed "underdogs", a lot of is peer pressure.
I had a professor in management, in 1971, hand out the Communist Manifesto as a reading assignment on which we were tested. It had nothing to do with management.
Yes, America has been enriched by immigrants,most of whom were discriminated against and considered non white, even the Irish (and I am 82% Irish).
But we can't, especially in these days, be the employer of last resort and a haven for every person who either needs a job and a food, or claims to be a political asylum seeker.
I feel for the homeless, but if I were to open the doors to my house to everyone who needed a roof or a meal, I would be living on the lawn,and it would no longer be my house, though I would be legally and financially responsible for all who dwell within.
Open borders is not a progressive agenda, it is a subversive agenda.
The first responsibility of a government is to it's citizens, not the world, not neighbors.
Failed states use migration as a pressure relief valve, the more mouths, the more dissents that flee, the easier their job of controlling those that don't.
Each nation state is responsible for the well being of it's own people, not forcing them out or dumping them on other nation states.
Our government is responsible for the welfare of it's citizens, not Canada, not Mexico, not Australia, Iceland, Denmark or Sweden.
Gloria, more from Daniel as regards posting that link:
Daniel Solomon
Notes from Baghdad by the Sea
57 mins ago
I posted it to show there was a pending hearing, Fox 29 is vulnerable and that the media is the message.
I could go into the purpose of the FCC and Fox' history of lies, but I don't have the transcript, and don't know whether the sens were subpoenaed and/or subjected to cross examination. I don't know whether the ses were asked whether Fox 209n defamed them.
Gloria here is Daniel's response: Honest mistake made. Problem is internet posting. if too long then it isn't read (TL:DR), too short and you are misunderstood. Me, well I suffer from a preacher teacher gene, and tend to go on and on, to cover all bases, never assuming that others have the same knowledge base as I.
Follows is Dan's response---------------------------------------------------
Daniel Solomon
Notes from Baghdad by the Sea
40 mins ago
I posted it to show there was a pending hearing, Fox 29 is vulnerable and that the media is the message.
I could go into the purpose of the FCC and Fox' history of lies, but I don't have the transcript, and don't know whether the sens were subpoenaed and/or subjected to cross examination. I don't know whether the ses were asked whether Fox 209n defamed them.
There is a book I read several years ago that has colored everything I have read since - The Great Leveler, Walter Scheidel. If you want a feel for the American state of denial, read it! The politicians talk of us losing our democracy/republic, when it is already gone! Why are we not talking about replacing our kleptocracy or oligarchy with a more democratic government? Who-the-hell wants to save what we have today! Today we are a puzzle with our pieces strewn all across the floor. We are the product of Russian propaganda. We are a product of Madison Avenue and Edward Bernay. We are a product of George Creel and his CPI in WWI. We are a product, something that has been produced, and all products are temporal. MAGA is an illusion sold to the desperate, a promise to retrieve what can never be retrieved. Biden tries to propagate an image of the unknown, a mystery, an ideal. Both are trying to give the voter what they want, an absolute answer when there isn't or never has been an answer.
This is all a politician has to sell, to propagate:
Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul - and sings the tunes without the words - and never stops at all.
Here I am though, faced with a real dilemma, which deceit to vote for and thus use and abuse me.
There is no choice. Trump means I am doomed on DAY 1,
Biden means that I get to live another day or two.
If my life was so unbearable that death would be a release, then maybe Trump
But it isn't and I want to live another day, so Biden it is.
The last vote I cast until 2016, was in 1984. I stopped voting then as I saw that politics was Kabuki Theater, none of it was real, we were just pawns between opposing groups seeking power and wealth.
When Trump came down the elevator and opened his mouth, everything changed for me. I saw, for the first time, a real difference. And he scared the shit out of me, still does, only more son now that he has fully revealed himself and his plans.
I thought that the constitution and system would protect us, and to some degree it did.
But Trump has learned from his failures, and so has the totalitarian, theocratic right wing.
He won't be making mistakes again, this time he will use our freedoms, just like Osama bin Laden said, to destroy us, and it has come to pass. The first step was the PATRIOT Act, which will be turned against all who have wounded and resist Trump's rule.
The internet has given us a transparency that will destroy us or transform us, which is yet to be witnessed. Our Founders were confronted with this reality and created institutions to try and put a rein on us. Given the wealth of the world to bolster their efforts, we lasted 200+ years. The internet has thrown a mirror before us, and we can't accept the vision. Maybe we will look in that mirror and change or maybe we will not. Biden and Trump are just surfers on the wave of history. Hope is buried deep in my unconscious and I can deny its existence with all my conscious effort without results. We will continue to suffer and dream.
I never thought that I would say this, but there is an upside to being 85, diabetic and a cancer survivor (maybe.. going in for a PETScan on Mar 13, new growth of ground glass nodules in my lungs, thought I was in full remission, was good stopped Immunotherapy about 2 years ago. The upside is that I won't have to endure too much more of this, downside is that my wife is 14 years my junior and will, and I am in much better physical shape than she..
I am concerned about my descendants, 3 children in their 60's are close to it, 11 grandchildren in their late 30's and early 40's, 30 great grandchildren and one great great grand daughter.
Well I didn't start the fire and certainly can't put it out. I didn't make the world I was born into, and I made the best of it, despite the odds and my own bad choices.
I have a bad feeling in my gut about November.
We only have five swing states, not 7 or 8 like 2020. AZ, MI, NV, MI,WI, PA with 61 electoral votes.
There are 226 electoral votes in blue and blue leaning states
235 in Red and Red leaning states.
There is talk that RFK Jr will be a spoiler in AZ and NV, Cornell West threatens some borderline Red states with significant black populations, like PA (Philadelphia, PA)
Muslims and Arabs, have demonstrated that they aren't really Americans because they are given the finger to Biden and the Democrats, as their hearts and minds are still in th Ummah and MidEast. If Michigan goes, because of the Muslims, that is 15 Electoral votes that Trump picks up, and if Pennsylvania goes to Trump because the young black males are flipping the bird to Biden and the Democrats because they haven't go everything they demand, Then Trump will be President,.
And those assholes who thought that they could blackmail Biden and the Democratic party and flip them the bird, will wake up with a hangover when Der Fuhrer starts rounding them up and shipping them back to the land and religion they so much love.
And the blacks,well with the neo confederates, KKK, and white nationalists running the show, they will be wishing that they had got off their asses and voted for Biden.
Unfortunately the unwashed and ignorant masses, think that this is just another election, and that after they have shown their naked butt to the "establishment" that the Democratic party will wake up and give them their druthers and they will right the ship in 2028.
Fools aren't listening to Trump, He and the Heritage foundation have laid out their plans, he quite openly, Heritage in Project 2025. We are in for a white Christian nationalist and fascist dictatorship. They have said so, and only fools don't believe them.
Our institutions won't protect us, because Trump will throw out the institutions and replace them with his own, and SCOTUS, well they are already in the tank for Trump and the Christian extremists. They took Trumps appeal for immunity. That means that they will rule in his favor, otherwise they could have sent it back to the DC Court of Appeals.
Depressing huh? I so do hope that I am wrong about the Swing State voters. And RFK Jr isn't to AZ as Nader was to FL. That the Muslims in Michigan are smarter than I think they are, and that the young black males in Phillie, are aware that life will be miserable under Trump.
Another great essay, Thom. As someone who worked with classified information the whole of my professional life, I'd have been in jail for one-hundredth of the lapses in accountability for which Trump has not been held accountable. You can bet and be assured of a win that Putin has, in his hands, our national secrets.
Sue Zie.
When you worked, did you have liability, defamation, error and omission insurance to cover?
None of that. I was expected to follow the laws, and to exercise responsibility and ethical behaviors. If I did not, I would have been reprimanded or worse. I expect no less from a president.
Fox and its employees all had some coverage. The carriers furnished the lawyers.
Umbrella insurance provides liability protection that may help pay expenses in a number of situations, such as alleged libel. Most authors have defamation coverage but policies exclude intentional or malicious acts, which means you cannot intentionally slander someone. I assume that companies have risk managers that would determine whether certain employees create uninsurable risks.
I am not sure of your point. This has nothing to do with defamation, slander and libel. It has everything to do with the laws governing handling of classified information. Are you real or a bot? Make it make sense, please.
Need to defend yourself. on offense, attack the license.
I don't know what you are babbling about. Insurance covers a business or an individual from attack. It has nothing to do with the illegality of mishandling, purposely, classified information. Can an individual buy insurance, then go rob a a bank and use that insurance to avoid prosecution for the robbery? It cannot. Trump broke laws, serious laws, by his mis-handling of classified information. One cannot "insurance their way out" of those deeds.
Daniel, in my final two years in the service, I rode a desk as an Administrative officer, one of my duties was to secure classified material. The military has no insurance or insurance requirement, and if I breached security procedures I would be court martialed, in the blink of an eye.
I had a clearance. I heard cases that may/may not have involved the Secrets Act. I would have to get a special clearance to hear top secret cases.
I would ask the parties to create a privilege log, and I could seal the documents. All of us had private insurance to make sure we had counsel -- just in case. When DOL or DOJ told me that the Secrets Act was involved that ended the case 99% of the time.
I also heard nuclear whistleblower cases, and cases involving government contractors, i.e. the Service Contract Act, Defense Base Act, War Hazards Act, etc.. All the contractors had to be insured. In the Defense Base Act, for example, triparty agreements. Many dealt with classified material.
The main reason to obtain coverage is to have their lawyers represent you. In many cases, they take the cases under "reservations of rights."
Meanwhile the CIA officer who went to jail for disclosing secrets during the Obama Administration is from my home town. I am much older. His dad was a principal and I used him as an expert in some of my cases 45+ year ago. I'm now a Facebook friend. Federal employment may be hazardous. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kiriakou
I don't know who you are or who you pretend to be, but you are telling lies.
Suzie: To whom were you addressing in that reply? I don't think it was me, or Daniel but certainly looks like it, the way substack posts comments. I have found it helpful, if I can remember, to include the screen name of the person who makes the comment.
My bad. I meant it for Solomon. I mis-typed. Apologies and I don't how to fix it. I always enjoy and mostly support your comments, William. Again, my bad.
Approving a person for a security clearance is an expensive, and time consuming process, the higher the clearance.
The lowest clearance is confidential, that can be issued by a commander. I don't recall at what level of command.
Next is Secret. A secret clearance, is given after a list of organizations, listed as subversive or enemy, is scrubbed, in other words a paper chase, or these days a computer search.
The Highest is Top Secret, that is expensive and time consuming and requires agents actually interviewing neighbors, former employers, associates and family.
And the demand for Top Secret Clearances exceeds the supply of investigative agents and that is how you wind up with an E-3 in the National Guard with Top Secret material.
All classified material is distributed and read on a Need to Know Basis.
There are, so I hear, categories higher than Top Secret, supposedly stuff like a Q, I never saw any in my administrative duties as a Classification officer, but do not doubt that they exist.
By the way, every step in the transmission of classified documents, their origination and disposal, is documented, that means who ever handles them has to sign for them. It is easy to follow the trail.
The folders seen on the bathroom floor of Mar A Lago, that had Secret or Top Secret on them with a bold border, also have a record of who handled them, thus the lawyers have a written trail of all involved, and why aren't they being called in to testify or be indicted.?
All of us were reviewed every 5 years. Like I said above. we needed to get a special clearance to hear top secret case -- only lasted for the life of the cases. My clearance data was stolen by the Chinese Army through OPM about 2014. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Personnel_Management_data_breach
A separate board hears security clearance appeals. A lot of candidates can not get clearance. We lost several prospects.
Historically all the background checks were done by the FBI, but under GWB OPM delegated many to private contractors.
The irony is that during GWB we "privatized" even our docket. The contractors may/may not have had the proper clarence for the level of the case we were hearing. When my wife was at the US Attorney's office in the 80's they privatized copying, and a Pakistani company got the contract for Miami.
Thanks for the update Daniel. I retired in 82, well before Dubya, was unaware that clearance investigations were conracted out. I wonder how many of the contractors work for the Chinese, Koreans, Iranians or Russians, or even the Saudis or the Emirates.
We know that Eric Prince, of Blackwater/Xi fled to the UAE
Bidens garage!
Daniel, ON this thread, down below, there is this post. I leave it to you to explain. I've tried. The problem starts with Carolyn, one of our notorious Jew Haters, accusing you and I of being bad guys.
Suzie has this thing about Insurance stuck in her craw. I think we are talking cross purposes here.
SuZieCoyote
Feb 29
·
edited Feb 29
Sorry, William. What he presents is a word salad that has nothing to do with the criminality of Trump's purposely mishandling classified information. Solomon says he's a lawyer who had a clearance. If he had a clearance (and if he is really a lawyer), he would know that "insurance" doesn't cover illegal handling of classified information. Anyone with a clearance is trained on the laws and the consequences when they are first awarded the clearance, then they are retrained no less than yearly. Insurance doesn't cover criminal behaviors. Full stop.
We were hacked by the Chinese Army in 2014 and after the fact THE GOVERNMENT provided all of us with private insurance.
Before that some of us had losses. I am still getting requests re proof of claim.
She's an idiot.
MAGA =
Manipulators And Gangsters Alliance
Release the Mueller report unredacted. Inquiring minds want to read it.
The media IS telling the truth! That’s how we know all this! (Even if slanted and on Page 12!) That’s NOT the problem!
The Problem is US! We refuse to believe it: Refuse to demand action: Refuse to get off our comfortable, materiality to take the massive effort necessary for enough action to stop this Traitor.
And That is the Truth as I see it from my 82 year old activist vantage point!
Suck it Up and Act! Don’t be a Sucker!
Save our Democracy Now!
There is truth in your comment Dr Claire, the real corporate media, not right wing media, does tell the truth...WHEN THEY REPORT IT, but they don't report all the news, and all we should know, they self censor because they are owned by corporations and people whose interests would be adversely effected if they reported all the truth.
And then they are selective with their sources and what they wish to believe.
A current Example. HAMAS runs a "Health Ministry" parallel to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
It is primarily a propaganda outlet for HAMAS. It spits out figures and "facts" that the UN, News Agencies, etc take as fact, without caveat or suspicion.
On the other hand whenever the IDF posts a video, the news agencies, and the UN caveat it as "unverified".
When Martin Griffiths of the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator at the United Nations. was questioned about why he used, without question, the casualty figures from HAMAS. His obfuscatory reply is that they were "triangulated", what ever the hell that means. Triangulated with what,sources from HAMAS, Al Jazeera, Iran.
I smell bias in the bowels of the UN, and of course Muslim nations are almost half of the worlds nations (57 in all), and Arab nations have enough money to buy anything and anyone.
Nader 's parents are Lebanese, He is biased when it comes to Jews, just as you are.
People who take sides in religious war are fools! Trying to reason with either side is pointless.
The hater just jumped into the pot of boiling water, how obliging of you. You choose to believe anything as long as it is Jewish hate.
Phuck Bibi,, Donald's brother from another mother.
Carolyn, you are the most pathetic excuse for a human I've met yet on the internet.
Thanks for the link.
Billionaires love Trump and SCOTUS. They also own MSM
You nailed it.
Call him by what he is: Donald J. Trump is a traitor to the United States and to democracy. We are so naive. We have allowed the spread of all of the disinformation that is out there. Those that want to destroy democracy and the United States are years ahead of us in their planning and their actions. I hope we are not too late.
Amy. You can call Trump a traitor and I can agree BUT his just a catalyst of everything that is wrong in the USA
Email to Ms Sally Buzbee, Editor in Chief, Washington Post
sally.buzbee@washpost.com
Dear Ms Buzbee,
Fifty years ago the Washington Post led the journalism world in asking WHY in their news reporting. Two of your veteran reporters asked WHY would a bunch of guys break in to the Democratic Campaign Headquarters? And they kept asking everyone who might know the answers to the WHY questions. Two years later they, and the rest of the legit news media and government, finally found the reasons for this burglary. The investigative process started with WHY questions.
Today there are many opportunities for journalists to ask WHY and dig for the reasons for former President Trump's actions and words. His indictments are public for everyone to read and they list the infractions. There is plenty of apparent wrong doing. But your reporters aren't asking WHY. WHY not?
Excellent and well written, thoughtful, you started out with praise, and then asked , essentially, what happened to the once great WAPO. I'll tell you what happened Bezo's happened.
50 years ago they also had Robert Novak, hack for right wing whackos.
I remember. IMO 50 years ago WAPO was a conservative disinfo center, that's what Katherine Graham set it up to be. NYT has never been liberal. It is and always has been establishment, same with WAPO.
The Board of the NYT https://www.nytco.com/board-of-directors/
For those who have the interest and time here is who runs WAPO, click on names of Board Members, very interesting they are either CEO's of other companies and/or were officers of other companies, and sit on other boards.
https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/THE-WASHINGTON-POST-COMPA-14903/company/
The Board of Directors of corporations are the ultimate authority, investigate the members and you learn their vested interests and dispel the myth of the "liberal media"/
Business, particularly media
business, has needed serious Antitrust enforcement for decades.
The whole "liberal media" notion has been a right wing myth designed to coerce voters into the belief that the nation has always swung too far left, when in reality, the opposite is true for almost all of the nation's history. They promote their media myths, anecdotally, by pointing a finger at individual journalists, who, like scientists & lawyers, in order to be effective, must limit their personal bias and view practicing their professions with an open minded approach. Many on the right see this, and a lack of strong right wing bias, as an indicator of liberalism and, see misinformation & lying as justifiable. (Thank you so much Rupert Murdock.)
The goal is to breed more right wing extremism and an unwavering right wing voting block. The same concept is true of the right's constant "socialism" refrains. What they are really opposing, in most cases, are social structures that the rest of the developed world sees as just basic humanity.
Put a very rich man in charge and most of the time you'll get a narcissist. The narcissist in charge model of governance is on full display with Putin, Orban, Erdogan, Un and Xi. Once they con their way into power, they never let go, unless their people get so fed up with the autocrat's insidious control and contempt for rights, the people foment successful violent revolution.
Absolutely Richard, absolutely.
The right wing, assisted by the right leaning corporate media, has successfully conflated liberal with socialist and socialist with communist.
The word association might have some affect with old farts like me, who were taught duck and cover under their desks. What rank stupidity, as if wood will protect you from incineration.
The newer generations weren't raised with the nuclear scare, or the cold war scare, and don't have that knee jerk reaction to the words liberal, socialist, communist that my generation and the boomers have.
Don't run from labels, own them, throw them back in their faces, bestow labels upon them
For instance the evidence just falls of the stage, that MAGAts are deranged for Trump.
Thus they suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS), a label that they have tried to affix to the sentient, perceptive and intelligent who reject their lord and savior.
Turn TDS back on them, accuse them of TDS.
Trump should have been cuffed and hauled off to jail under insurrection and treason charges the afternoon of January 6.
Here's the juice.
- Trump is an orange-colored avatar of 60% of the majority race's belief in their own supremacy
- However, can one actually be superior, if one enables (elects) a messiah who sells out one's country?
Then one would have to confess to being:
a. A duped dupe
b. Stupid AF
c. A complicit traitor angling for America to become a vassal state of Russia, as Russia is of China
As for the go-along to enrich themselves Australian/American cable-billionaires, they care about the nation as much as "Indian Traders" who sold Winchester rifles to so-called "Indians," in the 1800s.
My jaw was on the floor during yesterday's 'Deadline: White House' (CNBC - aka, the Never Trump Network). A correspondent interviewed a number of the Trump faithful at CPAC. I've also seen this done in other venues and rallies by the Daily Show. A sick form of comedy.
These are lost souls - millions of 'em - bowed to a false prophet with false beliefs that are solid to their core. It's sickening.
On Jimmy Kimmel, he showed a brief cell phone video of the audience at the Black Conservative Conference where Trump tried to identify with blacks, beccause he had a mug shot, stupid ass didn't know that he was stereotpying blacks as criminals, yet hardly a word from any of the MSNBC pundits, and zilch from the media.
Back to Kimmel, there weren't many in the audience, lots of empty chairs, and it was all white, save for one black in the background near the wall.
The Hartmann Report and Nicole Wallace's 'Deadline Whitehouse' are two of the top political programs in the country. I truly wish every American would support honest journalism and learn how to be an informed voter by listening to them frequently.
But for the extensive research and facts buttressing Tom’s essay, you’d might mistake it to be a bunch of conspiracy theories. That all he posits are factual is what renders things scary. Everything is happening in broad daylight and we shrug it off as if it’s some pesky sore that you wish away even as it grows into a canker! Tom is relentless in warning us about the impending danger. Are we listening?
That's why the GOP with their Russian GRU propaganda mentors generate so many fake conspiracies and false flags, to provide cover so the real conspiracies they are so often engaged in, won't catch any particular attention or outrage.
The media won't do that because to Trump, and his constituency, those that oppose him/them are the "traitors." After all, they are "patriots" "making America Great again" (as if it ever was; at least from where I sit). It's a variation on Jay Gould's theme: “I can hire one-half of the people to kill the other half.”
As for Trump's Man-Love, I suppose great minds think alike because in my column published yesterday I state: "When Trump speaks of Putin what takes place is nothing less than weird. His voice changes. His gesticulations change. He really, really admires Mad Vlad. He talks about how “tough” Vlad is and it is clear he wishes to emulate him. But (here we go), therein lies the problem."
https://rohnkenyatta.substack.com/p/anatomy-of-a-coward
My attempt to upvote you is denied, which means that you have blocked my responses and comments, but that is only you, not everyone else.
Never the less I totally agree with your post, and applaud you for the insight into the change in Trump's vocal modulation when he speaks of Putin.
Manchurian Candidate? I would expect that of Charles Koch, both he and Donald have a father named Fred
Fred Koch made his fortune building oil wells and refineries for Stalin in the 1930's, and brought back many of Stalins ideas, such as money based on gold, and "If you don't work you don't eat" (Art 12 of the 1936 Soviet Constitution.
Jane Mayer has a well researched and good book about the Kochs and many other American oligarchs, "Dark Money', a lot of Hartmann fans are likely familiar with it. It is a definitive literary work on how our political landscape has been corrupted by the obscenely wealthy.
As a matter of his candidacy, Trump should explain where the money came from when he posts the bonds (if he even decides to pay into an appeal bond account). Silly me, that's what we should make a candidate do! Aren't you looking forward to the lie he'll tell when he's asked?
There is also a commercial aspect to the spy arena. It would be interesting to know who he hired at Mar-A-Lago that put out the word to the spy-market about his stash. I wonder if they flipped that 12 bucks an hour into millions. It would be humorous if good people were not sacrificed by him.
It's a joke when they say he hasn't started a war, and the joke is that the one he started is on us. He already had a life-long war going on against common decency.
As a footnote, let's remember who hired Jack Smith.
Alis, any people Trump sacrifices, are people who kissed his ass and ring, and are not good people. The only thing I take exception with in your comment.
@ Alis. I'm sure he has to disclose. I'm in a discussion group with some lawyers who by consensus say he will try to reorganize his Florida properties ASAP.....
He turns into a pumpkin on the E.Jean Carroll Judgment pretty soon.
Much appreciation for your expertise as always, Daniel.
Let the games begin when determining their evaluation; there's some irony involved with that solution.
Putin could take care of it and maybe even come-up with a way to wash the money, but why buy someone you already own. The dumber and more bankrupt Trump looks, the more it reflects on our nation. Now THAT is exactly what Putin wants.
I had in mind the CIA and foreign service agents involved. We're vets. I served under Reagan, and I only had one vote in that matter, William. Of course I understand what you are saying about others' choices and consequences.
Trump has worked hard at getting a bidding war started among foreign entities to help pay his legal bills. He's discovered that US foreign adversaries will pay a lot for America's secrets. I'm not a death penalty advocate but I'm beginning to think the door should be left open for espionage agents & egregious treasonous activity.
Trump is a piece of crap and outright traitor. He has been so destructive to the FBI and CIA. I understand that feeling about the death penalty, because it is so unfairly applied in certain instances. When it comes to serial killers and in the case of burning agents and their informers, I'd support it. AND, I bet some of the relatives of agents that have been murdered would agree.
The willingness of the press and officials to ignore the reality of Trump breaking the law is hard to take. Why has the DOJ ignored their job? All while Repubs continue to investigate Biden in known false charges if they actually have ones. Where is the Muller unredacted report and so much more.
Clayton surely your question "Why has the DOJ ignored their job" is rhetorical.
Garland is why. He was vetted to Obama by Orrin Hatch R-UT a right winger if ever there was one, (Pre Trump), and a moderator for the Federalist Society.
The J6 committee exposed treason and the leaders of the exposition, yet Garland did nothing for two years until shamed into it, by and open letter from his peers., and all he did was appoint a special counsel. He moved the documents case to Florida, with the excuse of "that iswhere the crime occurred" A lie, the crime occurred in DC when Waltine Nauta loaded the boxes on the truck to take to the airfield, where they were loaded onto a plane. Garland compounded his complicity, by appointing Ailene Cannon to be the judge in the classified documents case, his lame excuse was that, it was "the so called wheel", i.e. chance, named for the Wheel of Fortune. Bull crap, Garland moved the case ot Cannon's district to put her in charge.
Garland was all over himself to appoint Trump humper, David Weiss to prosecute Hunter, but has anyone seen any special prosecutor for Ivanka, Jr and Eric, who grift the government and tax payers of millions, while taking virtualy bribes from the Saudi's and UAE.
If Joe had a spine he would fire Garland, the man is a fox inside the hen house.
What's specially maddening is that trials over crimes that can catastrophically affect the US and even the entire World could be derailed by a love affair between two consenting adults.
Funny and true, but also frightening.
If we want to make it hurt, the answer is Dominion v Fox. $787M over election lies!
Meanwhile, Fox has more exposure, Smartmatic's $2.7 billion defamation suit, shareholder's derivative suits. https://comptroller.nyc.gov/newsroom/nyc-pension-funds-sue-fox-corporation-board-for-breach-of-fiduciary-duty-in-connection-with-defamatory-broadcasts/
https://www.reuters.com/legal/fox-shareholder-sues-rupert-murdoch-other-directors-over-2020-election-coverage-2023-04-12/
FCC license litigation in Philadelphia. https://www.inquirer.com/news/fox29-fcc-broadcast-license-john-fetterman-bob-casey-20240227.html
Daniel, you might want to weigh in on this conversation between Gloria and I, she took your link to Fetterman and Casey as a troll or something. Read my comment first
https://hartmannreport.com/p/why-wont-our-media-say-donald-trump-868/comment/50562898?r=9q8rt
Would Fox 29 report more favorably on Fetterman and Casey for supporting them to the FCC? It could backfire.
Bias is a basis to deny the license.
Gloria I don't understand your comment. Are you saying that Fetterman and Casey supported Fox29 to the FCC,? Please clarify.
The story is in a link Daniel Solomon posted in his comment. Yes they did.
I am more than familiar with Daniel Solomon. I found the link that you were referring to
the link to Fetterman and Casey siding with Fox 29 for FCC's renewal of their license, meanwhile the Media and Democracy Project has been petitioning the FCC not to renew the license.
That is news, that is fact, the question that bounces around in my mind is why in the world would the two Senators from PA support Fox News?
They are not closet Republicans, they are not Trump humpers, so their reason must be political and strategic.
Fox29 reaches their electorate, they both barely won their seats. Bear in mind PA is Pittsburgh in the West, Phillie in the East and Kentucky in between, and Fetterman and Casey, need their support, not their hostility.
The full story is here, but I am not about to start a trial https://communicationsdaily.com/news/2024/02/27/Pa-US-Senators-Side-With-WTXF-in-Fracas-Over-FCC-Renewal-2402260064
I would ask Daniel why he posted that link. Maybe their is more to Fetterman and Casey than meets the eye.
The Guardian doesn't like Fetterman because of his support for Israel and his position on immigration.
If that's the case then I too am an enemy because I share Fettermans POV on both.
Bob Casey is in the fight for his life for re election, but also supports the Biden/Democrats current stance, as does Fetterman, on immigration.
I know the "progressive" stance on immigration, it is open borders come one,come all.
And that is suicidal. America can't absorb the population of Latin America, not even 1/3rd
And progressives are too visceral, they jump on causes without thinking.
Latin Americans are very religious, unto superstitious, not stereotyping either, I married into and lived with Panamanians and have a bisnieto.
Latin Americans are conservative, feminists and LGBT would say ultra conservative, Catholics, Evangelicals and Pentecostals and as such natural allies of the homophobic, transphobic, theocratic, anti abortion, misogynists on the right, be they MAGAts, Libertarians, Never Trumpers or centrists.
All of them should be carefully and fully vetted, as is with a welcome sign out, all we are doing is importing more right wing cultural warriors.
Besides I saw a photo of a group of men, by a fire on the other side of the border, one of them was a Sikh, he is not escaping persecution or economic hardship, it costs a pretty penny to fly from India to Mexico.
Who knows who is coming through the border with the job seekers and political asylum seekers.
America is not and cannot be the world's policeman, neither can we be, nor afford to be, the employer of last resort. It is only going to get worse now that co2 levels have passed the tipping point. Europe and north America are under siege, and with people who don't share our secular, democratic values, as it continues and even ramps up, we will lose whatever secularity and economic security and well being that we enjoy, Europe is under greater threat, and that accounts for the rise of the right in Europe.
It only takes about 17% of a population for there to be a culture shift. It is worse in Europe because the migrating culture is not compatible with western culture. It does not assimilate, it co exists until it has sufficient numbers to displace the host culture.
I posted it to show there was a pending hearing, Fox 29 is vulnerable and that the media is the message.
I could go into the purpose of the FCC and Fox' history of lies, but I don't have the transcript, and don't know whether the sens were subpoenaed and/or subjected to cross examination. I don't know whether the ses were asked whether Fox 209n defamed them.
Biden recently changed his about open borders.
Open borders was a libertarian policy goal in 1982, cheap labor,nothing else.
It became a progressive issue, because there were so many people from the mid east with Visa's, thanks to Arab oil, that they wanted flood gates opened, and idealistic college students, easily swayed by bought and paid for professors, championed "underdogs", a lot of is peer pressure.
I had a professor in management, in 1971, hand out the Communist Manifesto as a reading assignment on which we were tested. It had nothing to do with management.
Yes, America has been enriched by immigrants,most of whom were discriminated against and considered non white, even the Irish (and I am 82% Irish).
But we can't, especially in these days, be the employer of last resort and a haven for every person who either needs a job and a food, or claims to be a political asylum seeker.
I feel for the homeless, but if I were to open the doors to my house to everyone who needed a roof or a meal, I would be living on the lawn,and it would no longer be my house, though I would be legally and financially responsible for all who dwell within.
Open borders is not a progressive agenda, it is a subversive agenda.
The first responsibility of a government is to it's citizens, not the world, not neighbors.
Failed states use migration as a pressure relief valve, the more mouths, the more dissents that flee, the easier their job of controlling those that don't.
Each nation state is responsible for the well being of it's own people, not forcing them out or dumping them on other nation states.
Our government is responsible for the welfare of it's citizens, not Canada, not Mexico, not Australia, Iceland, Denmark or Sweden.
Gloria, more from Daniel as regards posting that link:
Daniel Solomon
Notes from Baghdad by the Sea
57 mins ago
I posted it to show there was a pending hearing, Fox 29 is vulnerable and that the media is the message.
I could go into the purpose of the FCC and Fox' history of lies, but I don't have the transcript, and don't know whether the sens were subpoenaed and/or subjected to cross examination. I don't know whether the ses were asked whether Fox 209n defamed them.
Gloria here is Daniel's response: Honest mistake made. Problem is internet posting. if too long then it isn't read (TL:DR), too short and you are misunderstood. Me, well I suffer from a preacher teacher gene, and tend to go on and on, to cover all bases, never assuming that others have the same knowledge base as I.
Follows is Dan's response---------------------------------------------------
Daniel Solomon
Notes from Baghdad by the Sea
40 mins ago
I posted it to show there was a pending hearing, Fox 29 is vulnerable and that the media is the message.
I could go into the purpose of the FCC and Fox' history of lies, but I don't have the transcript, and don't know whether the sens were subpoenaed and/or subjected to cross examination. I don't know whether the ses were asked whether Fox 209n defamed them.
There is a book I read several years ago that has colored everything I have read since - The Great Leveler, Walter Scheidel. If you want a feel for the American state of denial, read it! The politicians talk of us losing our democracy/republic, when it is already gone! Why are we not talking about replacing our kleptocracy or oligarchy with a more democratic government? Who-the-hell wants to save what we have today! Today we are a puzzle with our pieces strewn all across the floor. We are the product of Russian propaganda. We are a product of Madison Avenue and Edward Bernay. We are a product of George Creel and his CPI in WWI. We are a product, something that has been produced, and all products are temporal. MAGA is an illusion sold to the desperate, a promise to retrieve what can never be retrieved. Biden tries to propagate an image of the unknown, a mystery, an ideal. Both are trying to give the voter what they want, an absolute answer when there isn't or never has been an answer.
This is all a politician has to sell, to propagate:
Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul - and sings the tunes without the words - and never stops at all.
Emily Dickinson
You are spot on David.
Here I am though, faced with a real dilemma, which deceit to vote for and thus use and abuse me.
There is no choice. Trump means I am doomed on DAY 1,
Biden means that I get to live another day or two.
If my life was so unbearable that death would be a release, then maybe Trump
But it isn't and I want to live another day, so Biden it is.
The last vote I cast until 2016, was in 1984. I stopped voting then as I saw that politics was Kabuki Theater, none of it was real, we were just pawns between opposing groups seeking power and wealth.
When Trump came down the elevator and opened his mouth, everything changed for me. I saw, for the first time, a real difference. And he scared the shit out of me, still does, only more son now that he has fully revealed himself and his plans.
I thought that the constitution and system would protect us, and to some degree it did.
But Trump has learned from his failures, and so has the totalitarian, theocratic right wing.
He won't be making mistakes again, this time he will use our freedoms, just like Osama bin Laden said, to destroy us, and it has come to pass. The first step was the PATRIOT Act, which will be turned against all who have wounded and resist Trump's rule.
The internet has given us a transparency that will destroy us or transform us, which is yet to be witnessed. Our Founders were confronted with this reality and created institutions to try and put a rein on us. Given the wealth of the world to bolster their efforts, we lasted 200+ years. The internet has thrown a mirror before us, and we can't accept the vision. Maybe we will look in that mirror and change or maybe we will not. Biden and Trump are just surfers on the wave of history. Hope is buried deep in my unconscious and I can deny its existence with all my conscious effort without results. We will continue to suffer and dream.
I never thought that I would say this, but there is an upside to being 85, diabetic and a cancer survivor (maybe.. going in for a PETScan on Mar 13, new growth of ground glass nodules in my lungs, thought I was in full remission, was good stopped Immunotherapy about 2 years ago. The upside is that I won't have to endure too much more of this, downside is that my wife is 14 years my junior and will, and I am in much better physical shape than she..
I am concerned about my descendants, 3 children in their 60's are close to it, 11 grandchildren in their late 30's and early 40's, 30 great grandchildren and one great great grand daughter.
Well I didn't start the fire and certainly can't put it out. I didn't make the world I was born into, and I made the best of it, despite the odds and my own bad choices.
I have a bad feeling in my gut about November.
We only have five swing states, not 7 or 8 like 2020. AZ, MI, NV, MI,WI, PA with 61 electoral votes.
There are 226 electoral votes in blue and blue leaning states
235 in Red and Red leaning states.
There is talk that RFK Jr will be a spoiler in AZ and NV, Cornell West threatens some borderline Red states with significant black populations, like PA (Philadelphia, PA)
Muslims and Arabs, have demonstrated that they aren't really Americans because they are given the finger to Biden and the Democrats, as their hearts and minds are still in th Ummah and MidEast. If Michigan goes, because of the Muslims, that is 15 Electoral votes that Trump picks up, and if Pennsylvania goes to Trump because the young black males are flipping the bird to Biden and the Democrats because they haven't go everything they demand, Then Trump will be President,.
And those assholes who thought that they could blackmail Biden and the Democratic party and flip them the bird, will wake up with a hangover when Der Fuhrer starts rounding them up and shipping them back to the land and religion they so much love.
And the blacks,well with the neo confederates, KKK, and white nationalists running the show, they will be wishing that they had got off their asses and voted for Biden.
Unfortunately the unwashed and ignorant masses, think that this is just another election, and that after they have shown their naked butt to the "establishment" that the Democratic party will wake up and give them their druthers and they will right the ship in 2028.
Fools aren't listening to Trump, He and the Heritage foundation have laid out their plans, he quite openly, Heritage in Project 2025. We are in for a white Christian nationalist and fascist dictatorship. They have said so, and only fools don't believe them.
Our institutions won't protect us, because Trump will throw out the institutions and replace them with his own, and SCOTUS, well they are already in the tank for Trump and the Christian extremists. They took Trumps appeal for immunity. That means that they will rule in his favor, otherwise they could have sent it back to the DC Court of Appeals.
Depressing huh? I so do hope that I am wrong about the Swing State voters. And RFK Jr isn't to AZ as Nader was to FL. That the Muslims in Michigan are smarter than I think they are, and that the young black males in Phillie, are aware that life will be miserable under Trump.
All that and you are still lucid! Congratulations! We are just a pimple on the butt of history.
How is it that Trump has got where he has?
He is just a catalyst.
When has a colonial power lasted for long?
Very glad to see this mentioned, wish I had some time before work to comment more.