The Department of Justice (DOJ) today released the redacted affidavit that persuaded a judge to agree to issue a search warrant for FBI agents to look for classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, the property owned by the Trump Organization in Florida. It was bad.
The things he was impeached for the first time should have been enough to bench the Republicans for a generation. He will never do the honorable thing and he will never stop.
Prison or not, it is up to us to render him impotent by refusing to let him set any agenda outside of his cult. The media won’t do it. They should be giving most air and ink to President Biden and only cover Mr. Trump when something big happens in regards to prosecuting him. And they should never quote him. But sensationalizing DJT makes them money and their bosses are venal.
So it is up to us.
This would be tin horn dictator belongs in the dust bin of history. We the people can’t put him behind bars but we can deposit him in that bin.
The media should be covering Trump's theft of top secret and other highly sensitive documents for what it potentially is — the most significant breach of national security in U.S, history. It's a breach that may have caused extraordinary damage and put the country in danger.
The story should dominate the news every day. We're seeing only a small part of the story. While Trump was still president, he reportedly kept highly sensitive documents shown to him during briefings. Normally, such documents would have been immediately returned to secure places after the briefings. His actions were unprecedented.
And is it just a coincidence that in October 2021 the NYT reported: "Top American counterintelligence officials warned every C.I.A. station and base around the world last week about troubling numbers of informants recruited from other countries to spy for the United States being captured or killed, people familiar with the matter said."
It is reasonable to fear that Trump sold out the country to foreign powers while in office and has continued to do so — blatantly — since leaving office. He must be stopped and severely punished if found guilty by a federal jury.
But that is not what is being covered by the majority of media, Michael. Most media air is being given to ignoring the treason of the FPOTUS or arguing it it is true, and definitely sidetracking our time and effort. The media is not what is going to save us this round.
I declare “Enough” to the media also and turn my eyes and ears away from them and move forward. We must succeed with our vote for rule of law and democracy in November. Ultimately for peace to prevail, it must be fought for from the strength and ramparts of a continuing democracy.
Vote Blue. Declare “Enough”. All efforts are to get the vote out. Eyes forward. All hands on deck. Not a second, minute, hour to lose. Take back what has been seized from us without our consent, brothers and sisters.
And make certain those who enabled tfg are, at a minimum, voted out of office and, ideally, prosecuted to the fullest extent. If they are willing to enable him even if affects the security of their friends, family and COUNTRY, they deserve to rot in jail.
Some MEDIA (redacted! LOL) feeds into the Trumpian narrative. I have grown increasingly angry, increasingly weary of how the 'certain' MEDIA all but celebrates Trump. That the MEDIA shies away from telling truth to fact, exploding the tyranny of Trump, is a sad tale about what news outlets have become. **This has been edited from my earlier version, having taken too broad a swipe at "MEDIA".**
Not all Media, Keltik Warrior. MSNBC (especially Rachel) has done an extraordinary job since before the 2016 election exposing the truth about the now former guy.
Also Nicole Wallace, Ari Melber, and Chris Hayes. They've been all over this and have brought in knowledgeable analysts and lawyers to augment their revelations of this horrific case of espionage.
I with you! ENOUGH! I can’t tell you how many times Judy Woodruff of the PBS News Hour has lead the broadcast with disparaging comments. “The so called big lie”, was the last one I hear...and she has said it many times. I can’t take it anymore. I barely watch or read the MSM unless someone has recommended it. What a disappointment they are. They bare a piece of the pie of responsibility towards the undermining of our democracy.
See my post to ChipsPOV. I need to rein it in a bit. One thing in particular that is so irksome is how EVERY TV network plays the videos from Trump's most recent carnival crusades. Frankly, who cares -- really -- excepting the 35%?
Except MSNBC & CNN, and even ABC! God Love Stephen Colbert too! But tfg has his minions trained to not believe anything against him, no matter where it comes from.
You'll need to break up with CNN. They are looking to make their on-air personalities (cannot call them newscasters) stop using the phrase "the big lie" and to get more "conservative" guests.
Oh... didn't know! I hope Anderson Cooper can move to MSNBC then! It's going to be interesting to see what happens. It's become a media war of billions. I think the only thing that's going to make it right is to get tfg Off the ticket and achieve Democrat majority in both the House & Senate. We can do this!!!
Well said, Kinsman. I cannot fathom the depths to which journalism has fallen, nor can I bear to watch what has become of our "news" programs on network television.
I'm with you if we're talking about the media in general. There are notable exceptions. If you read a comment in Jennifer Rubin's column suggesting she get her own substack, that's me.
Yes, ChipsPOV, I did see this. I also saw the televised redacted copy of the affidavit. Thank God in Heaven for the judge's cautious oversight! As to the MEDIA, I am indeed talking about the media "in general", not meaning to take a broad brush. I follow WaPo, NYT, Huffington Post and TNR mostly. CNN and MSNBC have been an information mainstay for me. I also follow "notables" on Twitter.
But, what with Chris Licht as the new CNN cheesehead, I may stop watching CNN. Licht recently met with Republicans in order to determine how CNN might be more palatable to them. Enough said!
I am getting contradictory information about Chris Licht. I waiting until I have enough information to form an educated opinion. Here is what I know so far: Robert Reich published the below on his Substack on 8/23/22:
You hit the nail on the head calling out Donald J rump’s most glaring crime—not only is he a liar, rapist, and thief, but also a TRAITOR. I do not wish him I’ll health, only that he lives out the rest of his life at Rikers….
You don't bolster your case by turning TFG's last name into a slang word for the human derriere, a body part which evolved to its current form to enable humans to run, which hunter-gatherers did to catch prey, as Harvard's Daniel Lieberman has written. It is also an attractive (at least on some) secondary sex characteristic.
We don't vote for gods. We vote for servants. That's what our elected officials are supposed to be. Servants. But it seems they, and we, have forgotten that.
The espionage thing is not unthinkable but yet to be supported. It is enough that such material was handled so negligently, and for no good reason. Of that, there is no doubt. It is also clear that Trump compounded his malfeasance by making the search warrant necessary and withholding stolen property/evidence subsequent to the demand for it's return.
Equal justice under law has already suffered a hell of a beating, and we need to pull it back from the brink. It's bat-guano crazy to allow people to enter positions of the most grave of civic responsibilities, responsibilities that can determine our and our children's futures and be matters of life and death when they are provable crooks.
That, JL, is what IS the clear and present danger. “Provable crooks” cannot be allowed to enter elected positions to further the goal of ending Democracy for an unlawful authoritarian, fascist government. Our duty now is to quell our fears of the “what if the worst” has already been done by Mr. Trump and his cabal and hold faith in the face of treason that our current administration will navigate these waters.
Senator Schiff said it during first impeachment and says it still. Enough. Professor Richardson closes with it. “But they (the Republican Senators) would not (say enough), and they did not (say enough), and here we are.”
So…. we must. Say enough. I implore every day whenever I talk to any voter to set aside our engagement with arguing about the facts and whether one denies or accepts our current administration as legitimate. Of late, there is grudging acceptance in our conversations that it’s time that We the People throw down our gauntlet and clearly vote for the democracy we do agree to live in together so that any hope of adversarial discourse within a democracy will be allowed to proceed. It’s the only way for the blue undertow to steer the red wave from crashing us into the rocks. We must vote for democracy. Not for men and their ilk that have betrayed us for greed.
Keep the light of Lady Liberty and Lady Justice turned up bright during the dark of day that seems more and more threatening. It is the only way for OUR Light to fill these cracks of darkness.
Some do, some don't (like those presidential votes sidelined by the EC); but the more FOR freedom AND justice for ALL, the better, lest none but The Party in Power, count at all.
Just say NO (No, no, no. no. NO) to Bullies, from every available voter; as the stakes are higher than ever.
Everyone in New York knew Traitor Don was a sleazebag crook before he ran for office. He cheated so many people, no bank in NY would deal with him. But no one would listen to us. His role on TV was more real to many people than his 6 bankruptcies...Although I admit, I had not expected him to steal dozens of boxes of state secrets when he left office.
Since they found stolen goods on the property the first thing the feds should do is seize Mar a Lago, just like they would with any other dirt bag criminal.
Now that we hear that he kept documents from meeting while he was in office it cements in my mind that he’s been selling out our security from the very first. Why wasn’t something done then? I don’t want to sound too much like I’m filled with conspiracies but he’s been groomed for decades to betray our country. What was it about part of the terrorists renting space in Trump Towers before 9/11? What about him allowing Erdogan to slaughter our Kurdish allies? Letting 5,000 Taliban terrorists go free? Wanting to host them at Camp David? Why not his usual resort grifting spot? Was there information given to Putin to help attack Ukraine? Kissing the ring of the man who slaughtered Kasshogi? Let’s not forget 1/6. For a man who refused to serve in our military he has always expressed a thirst for horrific violence.
Every Republican making excuses for him or refusing to condemn his actions needs to go.
YES, Sharon!!! Not sure he was groomed specifically to be a traitor... just to be a greedy, ruthless autocrat with no boundaries. and yes, unspeakable violence.
Remember him wanting to have the military (tanks and all) paraded thru the streets of DC for him?? So much clear and open evidence long before the secretive sellout.
If anything, we've certainly given him and his greedy, power-hungry enablers more than enough space and benefit of the doubt. Conspiracy theories must have a place... and it sure looks like maybe this is the exceptional case where they apply?
The business plan for Trump University was to get people too poor to pay for tuition to max out their credit cards in hopes of high earnings. That's what made me realize--during his first election season--that he was scum.
If you read "Fear" by Woodward...you would know how many efforts were needed and done to attempt to moderate his worst tendencies...it will give you nightmares what he tried...
maybe that was just ruse?? acted like he couldn't read... wasn't interested... so we'd not be concerned about any of this material? for sure, his stooges and stoogettes (great word!) were and are... excellent points, Fred.
A presidential candidate should be required to pass the highest security clearance before being allowed on the ballot... if it requires a consultation amendment, you could get around that by having nominating parties to comply
Someone commented on TV yesterday that the DOJ is unlikely to prosecute the defeated former president for violating the Espionage Act because doing so would necessitate their revealing in court too much about our intelligence sources, the kind of material redacted from the warrant, and without doing so, they had a weaker case than prosecuting for obstructing justice. You don't lie to the FBI. Remember Ralph Edwards' old radio program, 'Truth or Consequences'? It is time for the latter. Equally serious problems are the Republicans in Congress who put party loyalty ahead of their being Americans, as Vindman, Hill and Yovanovitch did not do. As Charles Blow wrote the other day, Republicans are the problem. An even bigger problem are the Americans who still have any faith in them and will still vote for them.
"Someone commented on TV yesterday that the DOJ is unlikely to prosecute the defeated former president for violating the Espionage Act because doing so would necessitate their revealing in court too much about our intelligence sources, the kind of material redacted from the warrant, and without doing so, they had a weaker case than prosecuting for obstructing justice."
Does that make a lick of sense to you, Jack? My goodness if that were true, then people would violate the Espionage Act with impunity without fear of prosecution. Talk about leaving the barn door open. Garland will indict Trump and he will find a way to do it without harming national security. He just needs to do it now before the mid-terms!
Can we consider anything in those documents to be of any value for the security of our country anymore? I feel like ever single thing in there will need to be examined and reworked.
That is probably being done at this very moment. We still don't know, however, if the bad guys out there have been tipped off to the guy with a piece of clandestine electronic equipment in his basement or attic and who is more loyal to the United States than the defeated former president is or ever was.
Yes Sharon, "some were marked SCS, FISA, ORCON, NOFORN, and SI, the very highest levels of security, involving human intelligence, foreign surveillance, intelligence that cannot be shared with foreign governments, and intelligence that is compartmented to make sure no one has full knowledge of what is in it." The names of our spies, national security individuals are listed in those documents, puts the lives of those people in danger. One of them has information about Pres. Macron of France.
Garland’s methodical and comprehensive reputation leads to a suggestion that DOJ likely has the goods they need. That and the old adage when someone tells you who they are, believe them. At least believe experts like Bandy Lee and Ruth Ben-Ghiat and Timothy Snyder. #45 has demonstrated repeatedly his main mode of operation is revenge and he’s been at war with our intelligence community since they identified Putin’s part in his seat in our Oval Office for 4 years. David Rothkopf has a knack for pulling no punches.
"This is the reality of the Trump presidency. It must be seen for what it was and the man at the center of it must be seen for who he was and is--one of the greatest, most pernicious threats to US national security we have ever seen. "
Deservedly curt. The DJT presidency is such a massive maelstrom of crime and corruption it's hard to bring it all to mind (even this particular facet of it) without a program; such as Rothkopf provides.
When the indictment and prosecution come, as they certainly will, the real problem will be the reaction of his supporters, many of whom are in law enforcement, the armed forces and in elected State positions. Is the country ready to lose some its freedoms at that point, at least temporarily? Remember that Abraham Lincoln, facing a similar crisis, did away with the right to attain a writ of habeas corpus.
Dr.Lee is an activist extraordinaire, and tried to share her knowledge of how very dangerous #45 would be sitting in our Oval Office, despite great risks and sacrifices in her own life. Bandy X Lee, MD, MDiv
@BandyXLee1
Forensic psychiatrist, violence expert, editor of “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump,” and president of the World Mental Health Coalition.
Treason? The Greedy Oligarch Party enabled treason and espionage. They could have convicted him and be done with this monster. But no, their minds and hearts are corrupted. America needs to electoral purge them
The "GOP" swamp from which this current creepy "creature" arose is still producing a legion of monsters, but this one is exceptional for the historically massive swath of chaos and destruction in it's wake.
Aren’t traitors to the US executed? My earliest “news” memory is the front page story and photo of the Rosenbergs, executed in June, 1953 for trading atomic secrets to Russia. I was in the 2nd grade and to this day I remember that photo and my parents talking about it.
Robert Hanssen, former FBI analyst, who spied for Russia 1979-2001, is considered the most damaging traitor in US history. He is serving 15 life sentences. I remember when he was discovered. He met Soviet Agents and used dead drops in a park near my neighborhood. It was weird to see those locations on TV and know I had walked or driven past them.
Joan, I just read the Wikipedia entry on the Rosenbergs. It is very interesting! Now, my opinion is that for the U.S. to execute spies is not a road that we should travel. Everyone is entitled to some semblance of humanity, and execution has not a shred of humanity. The Wikipedia entry was a horrifying read for me.
You are right. I’m honestly not for capitol punishment, but I certainly believe Trump should be dealt with seriously, particularly when it comes to holding elected office again which he should not. We may never know what Trump did or planned to do with those documents, but if you or I stole that level of classified documents from the US government, I doubt we’d be free to play golf in the future.
Perhaps that is why the FBI grabbed his passports?
Benedict Arnold didn’t flee the country right away. He changed sides to fight for Britain and his treachery demoralized the Continental Army. George Washington desperately wanted to hang him, even sending an unsuccessful secret mission (John Champe) to kidnap Arnold back from the British. A local high school was named after John Champe since he lived in this area.
They briefly took his passports, but later said that they'd return them. After all, despite appearing to be the dirtiest thing to be hauled up from a sewer, Trump has still not been charged with anything that would justify limiting his right to travel. On the other hand, he would have to be willing to become a charity case and a puppet for whatever lunatic country agrees to accept him.
(Come to think of it, that might actually be an interesting punishment -- it would be enjoyable to watch Trump live out his final days as a pensioner living under the thumb of Kim Jong-un, issuing his rambling whines on demand via North Korean state media.)
I sure agree, especially if it turns out the Trump was feeding information on the CIA agents and sources while he was still in the White House which some reports seem to indicate. If this is true the DOJ will nail him for sure.
"Nobody in the arena I currently work thinks Trump did anything wrong at all."
Cut out the last six words.
Plainly, you have the good fortune to work in a thought-free zone, despite which your own thoughts can still move on their own legs, your eyes can still see and your ears can still hear. Dangerous privileges, going where they can't go 'cause they can't get up from the couch, seeing what they can't see with their eyes glued to the Fox telescreen, hearing what they can't hear with their heavy-metal-shattered eardrums.
In HG Wells' Country of the Blind, the sighted hero is hunted down by a blind population for telling what he can see and they can't and denying their sightless explanations of how the world is.
I know you have your ear close to the ground, Mike, and I respect that. What worries me is that I also get the same kind of feedback from a friend in New York City. Regardless of their politics, people in the know there knew too much about Donald Trump.
But there are a lot of people who don't know about DT but do know how much they resent those people-in-the-know... Country people have always resented big city dwellers and the interests of too many, like small farmers, have been so mangled by Wall Street and other outsize big-money entities, that it is hardly surprising if someone who claims to be against those forces should be treated as a savior. There's no William Jennings Bryant in sight, nothing but this firebug playing with matches where there's firedamp or a gas leak...
People need an outlet for their rage. Strange how they're so often used by their real enemies against scapegoats who have little or no connection with their oppressors. The way they talk about "libtards" and other states of the Union, you'd think they were speaking of foreign invaders...
I tried like heck to get the NYT article but they want my 💰 and I prefer to spend mine on other sources so that was the best I could do. Very glad you were able to access and 🙏 for letting me know! 🙏🙏
I cancelled my NYT subscription and use my $$ for more reliable reportage too. But hopefully the link to that article courtesy of Daily Kos will work for others.
Maggie Haberman of the New York Times wrote an article that addressed his entire four years in office. He never cared about national security, he often tweeted items covered in his briefings. Never used the @POTUS designation, but used his own name for tweets. "For four years, former President Donald J. Trump treated the federal government and the political apparatus operating in his name as an extension of his private real estate company.
It all belonged to him, he felt, melded together into a Trump brand that he had been nurturing for decades.
“My generals,” he repeatedly said of the active-duty and retired military leaders who filled his government. “My money,” he often called the cash he raised through his campaign or for the Republican National Committee. “My Kevin,” he said of Representative Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader.
I recall when Trump was insisting on putting his "10 on the Richter Scale" signature on all the COVID stimulus checks that went out, but reportedly the presses were not set up for it. He appears to want to take ownership of any positive event anywhere in the world and shed, by blaming others, for others any faux pas or evil.
It’s like the media, as well as the public, is in a kind of dissociative state, unable to process what’s really happening. This is the effect of Trump’s antics and of manipulation of him and other useful idiots through a concerted blitz of disinformation by bad actors in Russia and in the GOP
Much of the public seems to be in G.O.P. induced stupor. Anti-vaxx, anti-mask in a pandemic that killed 1,000,000+ Americans? No need to trouble one's self about climate so long as there are snowballs around? Trump is God's prophet? Things fall apart; the center cannot hold... Jim Jones warpo thinking going on here.
“Prison or not, it is up to us to render him impotent by refusing to let him set any agenda outside of his cult. The media won’t do it. They should be giving most air and ink to President Biden and only cover Mr. Trump when something big happens in regards to prosecuting him. And they should never quote him. But sensationalizing DJT makes them money and their bosses are venal.
I was just about ready to forget about that as I never got deeply enough into the story to be convinced by it. I mean, I saw "Trump Piss Tapes" and figured the headline was deep enough for me. Water under the bridge in any case, I guess.
When Dick Cheney and crew leaked the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame, it was a dirty, criminal, anti-American trick.
This trove of classified documents, literally box loads of assets, intelligence, and lord knows what else, makes the Plame scandal look like pettiness by comparison.
I wonder what would the Targaryens do with such a thorough traitor? We’re not in the great game now, instead we’re in a real time effort to blow Andrew Johnson away in the annals of worst president ever, and worst political party since the Southern Democrats.
“Dracarys”
Can we at least get some rule of law around here, and settle for nothing less than lots of jail time?
Modern Republicans bellow about "law and order" (including Trump) while pointedly ignoring any law that is inconvenient for their own political agenda. That has become their modus operandi.
Like ancient kings, the party of autocracy "can do no wrong", or so they would have us believe. The more they get away with the more lawless they have become.
Ah yes, you may recall that one about the American benefactor of an English village church who walked out of the service celebrating his generosity when the vicar said "We thank thee, Lord, for this our succor"...
Yes, the Netflix movie: "Fair Gaime" was a true eye opener for me."
Bush was, on many ways, worse than Trump if one includes invading two countries based on lies and fakery and one adds up the number of dead bodies as a result of said lies and fakery.
I still have my parents' copy of that book. My brother and I both used it for last minute book reports. I pulled it out this winter and reread it. The man did love his country and he lost his whole future and he was sorry. He also was the fall guy for his superiors. Everyone but Nixon got punished over Watergate. This can't be blamed on anyone but Trump who doesn't love anything and has no future to lose. They should fly him to the middle of a shark ridden ocean with the intention of dropping him on an empty boat - and completely miss the boat! It would be nice if he had to face a military trial as well as a criminal one.
They did immediately after Biden was elected. CBS too, hedging their bets, sacrificing journalistic integrity to preserve access to GOP leaders in case the power shifts back; under threat that their access would shut off completely if they actually did their jobs
The only way for America to get real news is to break up corporate ownership of media outlets on local basis. Separate TV, radio and newspapers. Break up the Monster Corporate control. Otherwise, we get served only what “the boss” wants us to know
Seems like it. The really really sad fact is the refusal by the NYT in 2015 and on to open up about all the horrors already known by most New Yorkers about how fundamentally unfit and treacherous this person was known to be. NYT did what it seems the majority of the uSA media does: print what makes money for the paper irrespective of its responsibility to facts, truth, its readers. When you legitimize a traitor apparently there’s no political will in the uSA to act properly against such a treacherous entity! The Republicans showed their real purpose long before #45 — Will these revelations put the nails in their coffin? I’m hoping but …..
Seems the truth tellers have no megaphone equal to Rupert and the MSM. Substacks are a drop in the bucket. Sad to say. Dems are trying, love Adam Schiff’s truth, may his comments reverberate around the land. And Joe’s calling them what they are. Scream Fascism back to every blather about socialism.
“ For several years, Brian Stelter’s Sunday CNN show, “Reliable Sources,” has been a reliable source of intelligent criticism of Fox News, rightwing media in general, Trumpism, and the increasingly authoritarian lurch of the Republican Party.
Last week, CNN abruptly canceled the show and effectively fired Stelter and his staff.
Why? The show had good ratings and was commercially successful. (More people watched it than MSNBC.)
The show was cancelled by Chris Licht, CNN’s new chairman and CEO, who has said he wants less criticism of Trump and the Republican right. Licht has told staff they should stop referring to Trump’s “Big Lie” because the phrase sounds like a Democratic Party talking point. Licht also wants more conservative guests.”
It reminds me so much of a Harry Potter line about the Daily Prophet: “The Prophet (aka the NYT or WP or CNN) exists to sell itself.” Declaring that they are the newspaper of record, or that democracy dies in darkness, does not mean that they are doing anything other than trying to sell clicks and subscriptions, democracy be damned. I agree with the comment above that they are trying to preserve access should our attempt to save democracy fail, when they should be aiding the effort and making up for 2016.
Frankly, I tend to go to Reuters or Associated Press when I just want the facts of the matter. Since they sell news to other outlets, their stuff seem more straight-forward. Everyone else seem to permit too much editorial opinion in what are ostensibly news articles.
Good grief, Jeff Zucker was the media mogul most responsible for T’s first occupancy of the WH! They hired Corey Lewandowski! Gone over?? They’re soaking in it.
Nor should Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Green, and Lauren Boebert, etc.be covered like they are important; they are not. They are just loud hoping to attract attention to their reality show. As for the tin horn dictator, he should be in jail with no ability to communicate publicly. No ability to communicate would be horrible for him.
>>"But sensationalizing DJT makes them money . . ."<< That is my major complaint about much of today's media. They will/would chase the devil far more quickly than they would chase the saint. That 35% of the U.S. citizenry supports Trump makes sorrowful commentary about our country, today.
First you assume he knows how to use a copy machine. Maybe his veneer of incompetence is a facade, maybe not.
But within the WH, photocopying classified documents would be noticed by others. Admins, clerks, etc.. He should never have been allowed to take documents to the Residence. Rules just didn't apply to him and those around him let him get away with it.
All he needed to do was take pictures of them with his phone. Think how many people have been allowed to do that at MAL. You don’t need copy machines anymore.
Today, someone on Twitter remarked, "What about any PDFs?" Of course, copies were made. I say that with certainty only out of my conviction how that is so Trump.
And why are we always subjected to photos or videos whenever Trump's name is mentioned in the media? And why do TV journalists keep saying “President Trump… uh…former President Trump…”? How long will it take them to get it right? Every time they say it his crowd loves it.
The most disappointing person who does this, for me, is Carol Loenig whom I admire tremendously. She consistently does it. Makes me very sad, not knowing her motive. Is it a kind of respect for the office? Dunno.
Full agreement but the Republican congressmen and women who stood fiercely by him, throughout it all and EVEN after 1/6, with red lights going off all through these miserable years, deserve special treatment for traitorous behavior with respect to their oaths of office.
Trying to replay Mussolini's March on Rome, and still the media are paying no attention -- except for pedlars of the Lie -- and still people are sleeping, still Trump-worshippers' adoration of their idol and grandiose expectations remain completely intact...
Blind faith in total nonsenses seems to be a peculiarly American psychosis. Often beliefs that cancel each other out...
Did all those generations escape oppression and religious persecution in Europe (and elsewhere)... for THIS?
Add to the cult of “worshippers” the numbers of citizens, exhausted and discouraged who choose to see DC’s dirty game of self promotion as separate and apart from their lives. Disgusted “with it all”, they can no longer stand the lies. Choosing to “give up trying” they burrow into their private lives, waiting. (Shades of a European past?) And for what do they wait? For it to be over??? With their hands clean, they may be free to view all partisans as compromised. Canvassing yesterday. These are the people we need to reach. They need a ballast they can count on. Dare I say it? With each discouraging conversation, I nodded my head in apparent empathy but my internal dialogue thought (nearly hysterically) that they NEED to read ALL of HCR’s letters. They need her unique, clear, steady and characteristically hopeful voice. What a gift we readers have had to find HCR and this thoughtful informed community. So too, those of us knocking on doors need to echo that voice to the discouraged and disgusted.
Were it not for the media, we would not today have the limited knowledge we do about the documents. I believe it was the NYT, CNN and Axios who brought a case to court to get the documents. So, as a general matter, if we are as interested in the history of these documents as all these comments attest, we should be grateful to the media. The DOJ would have given us nothing.
And here I feel ambivalent. The DOJ would have wanted nothing revealed because it could seriously hamper their investigation and endanger their sources. If true, the media was doing the country no favor when it pushed - and got.
In fact, I feel at first hearing that this will be a *win* for Trump. This will enable the story that that this was just about “a bunch of documents not returned”. It will be equated endlessly to not returning a library book on time. And so, there is a possibility that another lie will grow. Prosecutors whom I read or listen to (Ellie Honig, Preet Bharara, Joyce Vance White) are either skeptical that there will be an indictment or feel it will be 12-18 months in coming. Given the glacial pace of the DOJ, they may well be right. During this time, there will be derision and eye rolling from the Right whenever they encounter the kind of explanation Heather gave today. And the witch-hunt theory, so regularly espoused since 2016, will take hold.
What we heard today will be grist for the mill temporarily for those Americans who, with good reason, loathe and distrust Trump. But it’s insufficient to make much weight against what will become the growing palaver that we are dining out on conspiracy. “Occam’s razor”, the more educated enablers will shout. “He was unorganized, unaware of the law, liked to show off stuff he had like Shaquille O’Neal’s giant shoe. That’s all it is. You’re turning him into a criminal”.
Prepare for another x months of tiresome library book argumentation. The DOJ is going to clam up and it will be left to the public to duke it out. Both sides will be hypotheticals. Ours is the messier one.
Eric O'Donnell, we are bound to take the points you make seriously, noting your understandable ambivalence about today's publication of the affidavit authorizing the search of Trump's property.
While it is true that Americans (and too many others today) seem incapable of telling true from fake, one must surely be skeptical about your pessimistic assumptions. First, you seem to be assuming that people are even stupider than they seem. More to the point, when you speak of the DOJ's "glacial pace", so much evidence has been accumulating under the departmental ice that the glacial pace could speed up as shockingly and violently as the current calving of vast icebergs and colossal glacier collapse.
Things happen fast when the right conditions are met, and, prima facie, even a small fraction of current evidence would be enough to put anyone else but a past president of the United States in prison for a long time. It should not take very long for the competent security experts to vet the cache just seized and for the Department to determine precisely which charges are appropriate; and since the issues directly impact national security, it seems hard to believe that the wheels of justice will move more slowly than necessary.
One can, however, reasonably speculate that investigators and the Attorney General may need or have needed more time in which to clarify the detailed mechanisms whereby these documents were spirited away and by whom, as well as the uses made of said documents. Many other individuals will have been involved in these operations and national security demands that no stone be left unturned. However, while all the king's men may have hesitated to reveal His Majesty's doings, it is public knowledge that HM himself has never hesitated to throw subordinates under the bus.
I so enjoy your prose and logical thought. Thank you for taking the time to answer, Peter.
In truth, I agree exactly with what you write, especially considering the time lapse. Your iceberg metaphor is very apt. This is what I *want* to believe.
But two matters prevent me from full-throated agreement. The first is the clear MIA of the Justice Department in the first year. If, as Garland so patiently explained to us, they were following the wrong model. From the ground up flipping as you go is fine when there’s a single entity to whom all report. But there was only some. Injection between the attacking mob and the inside intriguers. So my understanding is that this should have been a “hub and spoke” operation. (Note I speak glibly as if I really know anything about the art and science of investigation. :)
My belief is that they were conceptually disinclined to go after Trump et al. We may never know how much we owe to the J6 committee, who by their incredible work hung the DOJ out to dry. At least that’s my belief.
Secondly I’d like to agree with you that the glacier will calve suddenly. A part of me is rooted in that thought. But I listen to all these prosecutors speculating that indictment will be slow or not at all, and I think it’s intellectually dishonest of me to put my hunch up against their wisdom and years of experience.
As for the pessimism about how intelligent the mass of people are, I’m a firm believer in P. T. Barnum’s maxim that nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public. It’s further complicated by the fact that people have re-oriented their lives and belief systems to follow Trump. They cannot disinvest now, because for millions that would be to indulge in self-flagellation. Trump and their psyches are one and the same.
I am optimistic overall. I publicly stated back in the spring that the Democrats would win both the House and the Senate. I knew all the reasons they wouldn’t, but I loved the dynamic the Republicans had created in their primaries - to win, you had to out-MAGA any opposition. That makes so many of them sitting ducks in the general election this fall. They are, in the main, stupider Trumps. I love it. I see no reason to change that prediction today.
And I’ve bet $100 with two friends that Trump will not make it *through* a Presidential campaign. I really think he won’t make it *to* one, but I hedged my bets.
I often feel ill at ease talking to—hectoring ?—people who know far more than I do, if only because most of this community are Americans, born and bred, while I have since a very early age been made very aware of America but never lived there, so that I really am a complete outsider. I had already noticed that you are Canadian, but like Mexicans and Latin Americans, Canadians, both Anglo and Québequois, are an American people. I am very much a European.
What’s more, it is plain enough that several contributors have a distinguished professional background. I don’t have that distinction, my only advantage is to have worked for one of the main institutions of the European Union as a mere translator, which gave me a ringside seat over a period of several decades.
You remind me of the dangers of wishful thinking—yet I, alone among my circle of friends and American relatives, did not wish for DT to win the 2016 election but expected it. That very expectation seems to have alienated one or two people…
I just read your FSB article—why that Son-of-KGB title, why B for “shattered”?—and see that my outlook has no little in common with yours, in particular when it comes to awareness of the unprecedented and constantly accelerating speed of change, and the fears and unease to which this gives rise. But let’s turn briefly to the discussion in hand…
I did not intend to say that the glacier WILL calve suddenly, rather that it may do so. However, on second thoughts, I do fully expect a cataclysmic collapse. Only, when? Of that I have no idea, except that it could happen at any time, even soon… or goodness knows when.
You think it’s intellectually dishonest of you to put your hunch up against the wisdom of the wise and their years of experience? Fair enough. But could we not turn that back to front and doubt the intellectual honesty of experts whose very professional expertise has separated them from their own humanity? What do you think explains the current disrepute in which both specialists and knowledge itself are held? Not only populist pied pipers’ tuneful mockery, not only wild conspiracy theories, not only resentful envy, but the tall ivory towers of hubris in which so many professionals have taken refuge. Teachers who teach as parrots talk, politicians and economists who tell us what to think when all they know is painting-by-numbers, cops who are hammers and for whom citizens are all nails, especially when they’re the wrong color and/or in the wrong income bracket, dog-in-the-manger preachers, I-speak-your-weight physicians, lawyers in hock to the mob… all, all hiding their inadequacy, their loss of soul behind smiling masks. The professional rictus.
One should not scoff at professional expertise, but it is to be taken with a good pinch of salt. Finally, as a seasoned but very unbureaucratic bureaucrat I mistrust them all.
Concerning politicians and civil servants, I would add that there was a watershed around 1980, when the generation who had fought in the second world war retired. Up till then, people were working for a better world, out to ensure that nothing like the hell they’d had to live through should ever happen again. Even the jaded thought in terms of What’s-in-it-for-us? When that wartime generation left the stage, their place was taken by smart operators whose clear albeit unspoken watchword was What’s-in-it-for-me?
It must have been at some time after the fall of the Berlin wall but before the collapse of the Soviet Union that I recall wondering loud and publicly in my workplace whether democratic institutions would last much more than a generation. Response: “You’re a philosopher…” It was not meant kindly…
I am new to Substack and so still misuse it in some ways. Actually I more and more think the title is crap. I’d like to change it, but it feels like a noose around my neck.
I’m loving the writing though. I have what I am personally satisfied as a strong thesis and I am anxious to have it fully elucidated some day.
I’m thrilled that you had the interest and patience to explain so much about yourself. Are you from Britain?
Your life sounds interesting and the depth of your thought is always obvious to me. You’re right about the fact that being on the same continent in Trump is different. We have been infected here in Canada on a small scale by a sort of cunning but idiotic populism. Years ago, Quebec tried to separate from the union, as you will know. But there was a genuine linguistic fear there. I knew several Quebecois and really liked and respected them, though I was horrified that they might secede. Thankfully they didn’t.
I have weird hunched for things and about twenty five years ago I made the brash prediction that it would be Alberta that would break away. They are our oil-rich province and have been disdainful of Canada.
But some loud talk died away when Stephen Harper became PM. He is from the West and was canny enough to rule as a Conservative who didn’t push the hot button social issue. And he had a long run.
Now, it’s very much off the radar, but there is a serious, populist move in Alberta, and perhaps Saskatchewan to become nations within the nation of Canada. The proverbial shit is going to hit the fan in September when the provincial PCs vote in a new leader. The front runner has a detailed plan which she says she will put into play immediately. So hardly anybody is aware yet, but we may be facing a most serious constitutional crisis in 6-8 weeks.
This time, it’s MAGA-ism pure and simple. All based on grievances. Alberta has often been more like the 51st state than a province. Calgary is a highly Americanized city.
The trucker revolt in Ottawa was spawned in Alberta. It was Trump fanboy stuff. I hated it.
As for your take on experts, I have much to say on it and no time at the moment to say it. I was raised by a doctor’s daughter. My own daughter is a doctor. One of our sons is the expert in his field of computational analysis - he, quite literally, wrote the book kbon Boolean functions.
Briefly, I deeply believe and appreciate expertise. And I hate saying things on this forum that I can’t prove - it can be a bit of a jumpy group. So I try to never be wise, but always try to get wiser.
Annabel, Stunning comment. I would like to borrow your last paragraph. “This would be tin horn dictator belongs in the dust bin of history. We the people can’t put him behind bars but we can deposit him in that bin.”
Well said! I fear that a very substantial part of our citizenry is complacent and therefore a great danger to our democracy. I also have that same fear that those citizens have no idea of the seriousness of what TFP has done. Republican support of Trump it’s so political that they have become untethered from our government, from reality that they are blind to the overwhelming danger to our democracy.
Annabel Ascher, in case this was not clear from something else I wrote, your inspired words "SO IT IS UP TO US" provide the keynote for this entire thread.
Thank you for making the people's responsibility so clear, and may those words set off a tsunami of awareness!
Yes, the whole thing is astonishing, but somehow not surprising. Death star should be shoveling dung somewhere and never should have been the occupant of the WH. And yes, everyone who is thinking about this wonders what nefarious things have been done already. His personal notes on classified documents....like what...places where he could sell it? And the Rs are always and ever the party of death. Just thinking about them makes me want to vomit.
Republicans have slid way downhill over the decades, and Democrats have improved since the days of laissez faire and George Wallace. That said, it appears to me that Republicans, after holding Nixon accountable until the blanket "pardon" turned against democracy and rule of law with Reagan. Since, they have plunged deeper into outright corruption and malignant narcissism, making Nixon's serious abuses seem small by comparison. Both the popularity of their blatant, dishonorable and malicious lies and our past public passivity is just weird, especially since history warns where this path leads. Perhaps our legal machinery is still sound enough to bring down the momentum of this coup d'etat that has been 40 years in the making, but it's likely going to need a lot of help from the public.
"it's likely going to need a lot of help from the public."
Here's a recommendation. I've just spent an hour or so visiting discussions/talks/interviews featuring HCR in various places, sometimes in academia, once in the White House, but mostly sitting in front of her bookshelf (I'd love to get my hands on just some of those old books!). As she talks, the fog dissipates and one's mind becomes calmer and clearer. Courage returns.
How to make the Kardashians disappear from our consciousness and people actually care about our “politics,” which ostriches like to avoid. Awake ye who slumber…
Thanks for an excellent thumbnail sketch of the history of how we arrived at the moral abyss that is the current Republican Party. It's horrifying to think that this party could regain power in the midterms.
And all this time, what lingers in the back of my mind is...what effect might all this have on the January 6th hearings, which will soon ratchet up again? Might this seeming further incrimination of T***p make some potential witnesses who were "on the fence" now be more willing to come forward? Between the 1/6 hearings of T***p inciting a coup, the Mar-a-Lago raid by the DOJ, T***p's business being taken to court in October, T***p in trouble here in Georgia meddling in our election, one just MIGHT be inclined to think his great big orange ass is cooked once and for all. If he gets out of all this unscathed it really would be a miracle. And yet...y'know, one still (almost) has to wonder if he'll somehow manage to squeak through yet again. Anyway, I'm more hopeful now, or, even dare I say, guardedly optimistic that his world might be about to crumble. At least, that is my prayer.
"If he gets out of all this unscathed it really would be a miracle."
If he gets out of this, any government integrity has been lost. We have to hold trump accountable or the whole world will be laughing at us for tolerating such nonsense. I think of all the military members (men and women) who have given their lives for the U.S. while being branded by trump as "suckers." That attitude pervades too much of the country now.
There’s no higher authority to sell out this country than the PRESIDENT. He deserves the worst punishment there is. Jail, incommunicado, making no $$. I keep hearing how there is no precedent … well, there is no precedent for a sociopathic president who is a traitor. Let’s create a “precedent.”
Treason and espionage against the USA by a sitting and ex-president would have resulted death as a consequence. That is how dangerous 45 and his comrades have gone against American democracy and our Constitution. If I committed all their heinous acts against our country and laws..where would I be sitting right now? I do not give a s__t about precedent. Get these guys off the street, our of our government positions where they belong. Please remove them, DOJ! They can await trial in a place where they can not harm our country any more.
I don’t think that the Greatest Generation fought World War II to get us to this point, where a traitorous president incited violence against the national legislature and stole state secrets. Here we are wondering HOW badly he has damaged our country. It is impossible to calculate.
Whenever I see comments (on Yahoo) yowling about "Antifa" I like to point out that the US military in WW2 was the biggest group of "Antifa" aka "Anti-Fascists" ever.
Boy, do I get that as well. I had one former colleague tell me "you know antifa is just the anarchists, right?" to which I replied "well, who is trying to overthrow the government here and install someone who was not elected?" There was much regurgitation of the election "fraud" and gnashing of teeth; no real substance to it.
I love to tell people, y'know, we fought a REALLY huge war against fascism 80-some-odd years ago. If somebody labels themselves "antifascist", then I'm all in. Since when is being against fascism wrong?? Okay, then if they're mislabeled and are really "anarchists", then let's consider another gross mislabeling, "defund" the police, which is not at all about "DE-funding" police (it implies taking away all funding), but is about RE-ALLOCATION of their funding and not putting local law enforcement into situations for which they are not prepared. Let's get our semantics right!
It will be decades at a minimum before we know the extent of the damage that the Republican Party has inflicted on this country by their willingness to protect and conceal the traitorous crimes of their standard bearer.
Yes, without a doubt. If those vets and KIAs had been able to see into the future and what was about to happen in the U.S., they may not have even picked up their weapons and agreed to serve, especially if they could crystal ball that trump would be calling them "suckers."
Yes, it is impossible to calculate the amount of damage trump and club have done. It's so important that we get a full accounting of what they did. Just one example of their family enrichment: I read in the London Daily Mail (8-20-22) that Jared Kushner is now worth $800,000,000. Exploiting the PPP program, Kushner got a loan for over $3,000,000, and that loan has been completely forgiven without any need for repayment. Maybe we need to read foreign newspapers to find out what is really happening in the U.S.
One keeps praying that his actions, pre his presidency, during, and post, will finally have some consequences for him. I am hoping that it will rally people to vote, to try to repair some of the damage that he has done to our country. I do blame the media for all the attention they give him. They put him in the White House, with all that free publicity.
"If he gets out of this unscathed it would really be a miracle." If he gets out of this, it would be proof positive that he is the Antichrist. Nothing but the supernatural can explain his apparent impunity.
Extreme corruption (such as the corruption-in-plain-sight Kavanaugh hearings and the Republican response to T**^p's impeachment) might turn justice in its head, but probably not if enough of the public has enough to say about it.
What will surely bring witnesses forward is if the DOJ indicts Trump. 'If you know something and hold back you have to think that I better make my deal now. Trump is going down and I don't want to go down with him.'
There are way too many guilty people thinking they can run out the clock. (Which should tell us just how strongly Republicans believe they can steal the mid-term elections.) Indicting Trump now is imperative to get people to come forward with what they know. The DOJ would be smart to not make any deals when they don't have to.
I’m a novelist and a professor of literature. And I continue to be astounded that people seriously believed that this human monstrosity could be brought to heel, that the office of the presidency might somehow make him rise to the status of the office. College sophomores read Shakespeare for more reasons than one.
“Truth matters little to him. What's right matters even less. And decency not at all. Enough.” Rep. Adam Schiff
I read the redacted doc today and if it were fiction it might be a best seller. But we know it’s nonfiction and the Truth is TFG compromised and continues to compromise our Democracy and that places all of us in danger. It’s a connect the dots and we don’t need a law degree to get it. Maybe someday we’ll have job requirements
for POTUS. Somehow corrupt real estate mogul and bad actor doesn’t cut it.
And the wrath of his sycophantic insurrectionists who soiled the walls. Trump & Co. should have been made to clean, repair, wash and disinfect our Capital and the grounds. And then go "hang" around the gallows their cult built for a little bit.
I wouldn't put it past them (Republicans) to bug certain rooms. Democrats are too trusting. They should expect the worst and disinfect the entire government of Republican influence. That's what the Republicans routinely do when they take over from Democrats.
A president with no conscience is a bit like a car with no brakes, only far worse. It was pathetic to see the press declare any momentary lapse in Trump's lies and incivility to be newly "presidential".
Worse than Trump and worse than any political fallout of Shakespeare's wildest imaginings are the places those secrets have been given. Woe to the world, I fear.
I wonder if our government has been pulling all our people in danger around the world back home prior to this search warrant for a the stolen classified and top-secret documents? I bet they had to do a lot of preparations over this past year to keep agents as safe as possible.
When a created fiction (fantasy?) becomes the reality for the many. Reality so achieved is lasting, for the sources for its validation keeps it alive, nourished, and immune from infections or light; those sources being communities of believer who acquired belief by aural instruction. The man has now become the myth that lives on, to be invoked when The Others' fact and evidence is in conflict with the asserted ideology. That myth of the true warrior, bigger than life, misunderstood by his (our) enemies.
Thank you, Professor Richardson, for keeping us informed! I’m in north Idaho at the moment, and all I did today was bake chocolate cake and care for people. Your words are a life raft.
My daughter lives in North Idaho and must deal with the far right. I am shocked by the venial attitudes of some of the people she must interact with. North Idaho is indeed beautiful but difficult. After hearing some of the situations that occur in this Republican state l was forced to look into the history of our republic. Unfortunately greedy and power hungry people have always been part of government. But, l did note, that except for Andrew Johnson never have we had a scandal of this proportion. I find it hard to believe that “He” who shall not be named got and continues to get away with out paying for his despicable behavior and rampant misdeeds. He has led his followers into prison, death, and bankruptcy. The final irony would be for him to get away with them.
Here’s the deal. (For your daughter.) There are many of us here in north Idaho working together to better our schools (see the great work done by Reclaim Idaho), save our libraries, and support other fine standards of living. I came of age here during the Cecil Andrus and Frank Church days. I know we can pull our state back to sanity.
Thanks once again for providing us with an overview. I just read an Associated Press article that said these documents were mixed in with magazines and personal correspondence. Only a true megalomaniac would feel entitled to do this. What were the plans for using these documents? As information comes out, it just gets worse yet the party of Trump not only makes excuses but continues to support him. Shameful and disgraceful. I’m disgusted with Jim Jordan, Josh Hawley, MTG and their ilk.
"What were the plans". You speak as if those plans were interrupted. He's had rthis stuff for almost 2 YEARS!!!!!
You can bet it's been sold to and seen by EVERYBODY with the money to pay for it and that this THEFT and theft is the only word to use was planned long before DJT left office. They knew just what boxes to take and how ti disguise them.
He has had access to this info for almost 7 years. Who know what he showed to all the people who paid money for access to him at Mar a Loco. for many, many years.
"What were the plans". You speak as if those plans were interrupted. He's had rthis stuff for almost 2 YEARS!!!!!
You can bet it's been sold to and seen by EVERYBODY with the money to pay for it and that this THEFT and theft is the only word to use was planned long before DJT left office. They knew just what boxes to take and how ti disguise them.
Linda, Yes! “ …yet the party of Trump not only makes excuses but continues to support him.” Support him and blame the Dems for weaponizing what? The office of president? It is beyond disgusting.
They Need him back in control or their asses are screwed. Need that the pardons will fall like manna. They will pull out all stops. Already have 1.6 billion to make it happen.
Could it be that all the hoopla coming from the TFG is to make headlines in the MSM and distract from the actual nefarious activities that might have been committed not only since the docs were taken to M-A-L but even before... Mixing classified information with magazines and personal notes was possibly intentional to deceive unsuspecting WH assistants who unwittingly helped to transport 'those' 'private' boxes to Florida ... It appears those personal notes could also be of interest to the FBI/DOJ as they were not ripped to pieces... Unthinkable the damage that might have been done already within the past 18 months (if not starting before Jan 29, 2021), especially when reading that surveillance footage shows that the 'boxes' were moved in and out of the so-called storage rooms at M-A-L ... Would there be any surveillance footage available from the rooms and places that the boxes were taken to and the people that handled them there?
Oh, besides that, it is also en Francais, used to express that something is morally bad:
C’est mal de mentir
It is bad to lie.
C’est mal de voler
It is bad to steal.
In America, it is against the law to steal votes or top secret documents. More so for a so-called president. Lock and all his traitors to democracy up.
I would not be shocked to find out that some were sold or shared.
But in all honesty, the way he had them stored and his assertion that "They're mine!" added to Bolton's comments that Trump would keep things because he found them interesting reminds me more of people who keep newspaper cuttings stashed around their house. I think he was collecting them to have them. They were souvenirs.
I don't mean for this to absolve him. Taking them and storing them so badly is what has created the security problems regardless of whether he meant to pass them on to others or not.
While your theory of FPOTUS as a pack rat may have some justification, remember that this is a man who added a “please donate” button to his announcement of his former wife’s death. He has always monetized everything he touched.
Suzanne--We don't know at this point what all he took, and are understandably speculating about his intent(s). But the notion that strikes me--especially given his documented penchant for not putting things in writing, tearing up notes, etc.--is that the congeries of materials thrown into boxes was connected to some idea of further defending himself, polishing his resentments, trumpeting his greatness/victimization. Since there were handwritten notes on some of the material repossessed in January, maybe he was going to once and for all prove the RUSSIA HOAX or some other witch hunt. Of course, I have no proof of this. But it would fit his character and action patterns.
From other conversations I'm definitely leaning back towards the idea that he kept things that would give him power. I like your idea of him believing he could prove the "witch hunt". It's also been pointed out to me that he would have had others around him who might make requests of things to keep.
With his own pen he, Trump, increased the penalty and made into law that “unauthorized removal of classified documents be upped from one year to five, plus added that it would be turned it into a felony.” It was his hope that HRC would be found guilty and get nailed!
Is it too cynical to say that Trump kept this material so he could remain the top news item, his MO to keep his name on the public’s lips? Here he is again displacing news about the accomplishments of the Biden administration and all the other things happening in the world. There is so much war, starvation, political unrest, rising autocracy, inflation, trade disruption and even a nuclear power plant held hostage to war! Here’s hoping the midterm elections go better than expo for Democrats
And this was the person who supposedly had no interest in daily security briefings but who we find has made notes on the most sensitive documents in existence. Those notes were probably dictated to him as we have been told before so were his many tweets. What was the security clearance of the dictatee . Not to mention the fact that the person who tRUMP depended on most to explain all the complicated sensitive stuff to him was Jared Kushner, a person who the NSA, FBI, CIA, etc would not issue a low level security clearance to and who travels seamlessly and is buddies with all the scary operators (Saudis, Iran, Syria) in the Middle East and has proven himself publicly many times to be uneducated about the seriousness of these things.
Donald J Trump has fucked the American people hard core and he and others couldn't care less.
William, I too, was thinking of Jared’s security clearance and how long it took for him to be approved. We should all wonder WHY he was approved at all after such scrutiny. And how many laws and regulations were trampled while TFG was in office. He flaunted the emoluments clause in broad daylight. And didn’t divest his investments. Hired his family for the most important “confidential” jobs as if they had an iota of experience. He knew he was the final word. That POTUS is the last stop. And now we can prove him right. The light is red, Donnie.
I wondered what idiot would give an incompetent like Jared 2 billion but now it's all clear - 700 top secret docs coverwd it nicely. And the Saudis even showed their gratitude by hosting a golf tournament.
I found that irony, the president who declared himself too "smart" to bother reviewing intelligence, and who reportedly would pay attention to briefings when staff frequently inserted his name was eager to to pilfer national security documents. We have yet to learn what might be suspected but it certainly smells of rat.
Such jaw-dropping developments. It makes me wonder, is this the hill Republicans want to die on? Do they really want a president to have the power and authority to use national security information at will for personal gain, or whatever Trump had in mind? He still has in his thrall a great majority of that sad, putrescent group of old cynics, paranoid racists and misogynists, and greedy plutocrats, aka the GOP, who have not condemned his indifference to our national security and blatant disregard of our laws. Perhaps the criminal justice system will mete out some measure of accountability now, given how egregious Trump’s document stealing has been. But I don’t dare get my hopes up.
The same Karl Rove who allegedly said in 2004 during the George W Bush administration, "We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”
The evil that he was (and is) has metastasized all around the land. Yes, his criticism was about their ineptness, not the crimes. He could have done it better, no doubt. He screwed Texas in 1994 and we ALL are still suffering.
Most people have a short attention span. Combine that with the Republicon strategy of throw enough shit on the wall, some of it will surely stick. They have been throwing tons of shit on the wall since the days of Nixon.
Nixon was disgraced for abuse of power and dishonesty, embarrassing the "GOP". It seemed to me that the lesson taken from that experience for by his party was "use the law to obstruct the law" and "if you are going be corrupt, get organized about it," rather like organized crime.
I have yet to see that impulse diminishing in the "Republican" Party in any fundamental way, but I think Trump is starting to be viewed less as highly useful wrecking ball and more "sinking ship".
I think that the fascists want their authoritarian back so that the assault on women, BIPOC, gays, non-Christians, and the civil rights of all can continue.
The past cannot be changed. Personally, I was in complete shock that Donald Trump was chosen to be a candidate to lead our great nation. For anyone much more more informed , please help me understand how someone who had no experience governing, very outwardly immoral, a poor business rolemodel could have become the leader of our country. This fallout from his time in office is not surprising. It follows his path of lack of character. His actions deny any love and respect for our country.
I would say he was "installed." There were vast amounts of monies, repetitive lies, fears, and divisive propaganda used in the orange flambé mob rallies and via megaphones like fox and internet cyber-warefare. Same tactics all authoritarians use when they desire a full takeover. Cyber-warfare is a modern coup tactic that has been very effective for evil intentions against democracies, certainly ours.
The outdated and no longer fair electoral college also helped propel this miscreant to office. He lost the popular vote by nearly 3 million. The majority in our nation did NOT choose him.
Emily, first, people in general are too lazy to research issues and will vote for a name they recognize, especially a “celebrity.” Second, tfg was a great talker and boasted regularly about his faux accomplishments—that’s how he has moved through the world. Third, Americans have lost faith in governmental institutions, particularly Congress, who until lately has done little but stymie the other side. They hoped a total newcomer would overcome this. Had he been intelligent and honest, maybe it could have moved the country forward. I saw the sociopath from the time he descended the elevator.
And hundreds of thousands (millions?) of younger people who are in thrall to him because their only "news" source is Fox. They never hear, nor do they want to, anything negative about him at all. And I don't believe they will come to see the light. And they vote.
Well I'm hopeful that my 12 year old grandson was accurate when he said "we aren't Trump supporters anymore". Upon further questioning he said "only local elections matter" and then "state's rights". Having my son on the dark side is bad enough. Having him mold his son to this thinking is tragic.
At least their not voting in national elections no longer cancels out my vote.
Oddly, I am not at all shocked. I hoped for the best that Merrick Garland would step up, and he has. I am still and yet crossing my fingers that Trump will be indicted, convicted and imprisoned. His picture shouldn’t be in the Capital. I have little faith the last two will happen, but I can hope, right?
Merrick Garland is a very patient, very strong, very determined Attorney General. I think he realizes that, with the evidence turned up thus far, he has to prosecute T**** under the Espionage Act, which T**** has clearly violated. I share your hope: my dream of seeing him in bracelets in a phalanx of FBI agents is still alive.
I hope so. But no one thought Special Counsel Mueller would turn into such a wishy washy lap dog. Until I see multiple indictments AND top notch trial lawyers (or perhaps Special Counsels hired amongst former DOJ standouts) ready to try the cases as opposed to offer a plea to Jaywalking, I am hopefully, anxious, not negative but still insecure about Garland.
One difference: Mueller was (or so he said) bound by the policy of "not indicting a sitting president." Garland does not have that restriction. And he firmly believes "no one is above the law."
Thanks for this article. I am un persuaded by ANYTHING Barr says. He abetted tfg and is in large part responsible for where we are today. His outrage doesn’t move me.
I suspect that Garland's intent here is to go after something that is both rock solid, and (I am searching for the right words, but failing so...) that is not "political", rather that is about theft and possession of unauthorized documents instead of the attempt to overthrow an election or the conduct of creating a situation where there was not a peaceful transfer of power.
I suspect that while everyone has been focused on the insurrection, Garland has been quietly plotting to indict Trump on criminal espionage. He's known about this for well over a year. He needs to do it now - strike while the iron is hot and before the mid-term elections.
I agree...his face, even on canvas, should never desecrate any government building again...Except maybe on a post office bulletin board for MOST WANTED if by chance he flees the country!
I still recall my daughter's telling me of the people in her office (she works in the DOJ) crying the day after the 2016 election, and again when his portrait was put up in place of Obama's in January. Hers wasn't the only office thus affected. But I'll bet very few of those removed portraits will be put anywhere but the dumpster.
I was thinking about those official portraits in place at every Federal Government building, James, and I wondered how the workers felt about it during those four years. I want to believe that January 20, 2021 was a time of great celebration for a large measure of those who labored inside those walls every day.
... MOST WANTED, EVER IN THE WHOLE WORLD - AN ALL-TIME HISTORIC FIRST - NEVER BEFORE SEEN IN THE WHOLE UNIVERSE OF HUMAN {and inhumane} AFFAIRS ... VERY, VERY SPECIAL ... {{it feels sooo good to be wanted!!}}
I may be misreading this, but if I remember correctly, there were three: his diplomatic passport, and two expired normal passports. I think he let his passport expire, and probably cannot use the diplomatic one unless he is on official business. I think it’s possible he doesn’t have a valid passport at all. Which might complicate things when he tries to flee the country to somewhere without an extradition treaty. (These are my speculations, not anything I’ve read anywhere.)
Prescient: “He has betrayed our national security, and he will do so again,” House impeachment manager Adam Schiff warned the Senate. “You can’t trust [Trump] to do the right thing. Not for one minute, not for one election, not for the sake of our country. You just can’t. He will not change and you know it.” Schiff begged them to say “enough.”
"But they would not, and they did not, and here we are." Indeed, here we are...
Leaving a question of the Secret Service members... it sounded like there was involvement by some on January 6th.... this should get really interesting, really fast. The saddest part about this is that none of this is a surprise with TFG.
Surely spies from several countries, both adversaries and allies (Russia, China, and Israel come to mind, since all three are known to conduct extensive covert intelligence-gathering operations), made copies of any documents that may have interested them sometime during 18 months that the documents resided at a beach resort, padlock or no padlock. To believe that they would have failed to take advantage of such easy pickings is well beyond naïve.
Actually, I'm now waiting for the other shoe to drop. It is very probable that DT has already monetized some of the classified documents. At the point that sees the light of day, DT will be considered a traitor, be indicted and hopefully suffer the consequences of his actions. Whether he goes to jail or the insane asylum is the next question. It is time for the Republican MAGA rats to leave the DT yacht. We, the People, all of us this time.
Cathy, do you think the MAGAts will really finally see the light? And the elected repubs who continued to support TFG even when evidence was black and white, through Impeachments and scandals? And January 6. hope we’re still not on Fifth Avenue. I want to believe: Yes, finally “We the People.”
Sadly, the "True Believers" within the cult will never see the light, and most elected Republicans will never voluntarily get off the plutocratic gravy train. We've got to do everything it takes to insure a massive turnout of clear-eyed voters in November, and then figure out how to undo the damage caused by years of anti-democratic Supreme Court domination.
Irenie, I think they'll distance themselves from DT but will still be MAGAites in their thoughts and actions. I agree with the commentator who said "We have defeated Trump, but we have not defeated Trumpism!" I've always thought of DT as a symptom and enabler not the cause of what is happening. Our strength is standing up and uniting and voting en masse this November! We don't have to fall into the pit like Germany did in the 1930s. We, the People, all of us united this time!
Maybe we can have it both ways. Criminally insane so he stays in jail for the insane. He is certifiably insane and he is a danger to others. Think about all the people who died of COVID that would be alive today if he had treated COVID as the medical crisis it was.
We know President Biden wouldn't pardon him. Hopefully, if the Republican Party itself survives and we have another Republican president he will want to move on from the whole DT era. (I said he deliberately. You can't protect white male privilege by putting a woman in the Presidency!) Maybe the Jan 6 Committee will recommend some limits to the President's pardon power.
"Trump’s lawyers told the DOJ that presidents have the absolute authority to declassify documents—this is not true, by the way—but did not assert he had done so."
So, one has to wonder, did Donald's lawyers graduate from a law school they found advertised on the back of a box of corn flakes?
Thanks for another week of finely crafted commentary, Heather. So glad you're wrapping up early. Rest well.
My dad worked at Kellogg's and, at one time, made corn flakes. And no way those boxes would have anything to do with a damn lawyer... you must be thinking of the prizes in the Cracker Jack box - that's probably where they got their law degrees.
All joking aside, what kind of an attorney willfully lies or misrepresents the intent of the law to protect a habitual criminal? Trump is a slow pay/no pay client so it's not as though they're being rewarded handsomely for representing him. They've seen other lawyers lose their right to practice law AND YET some are still foolish enough to jeopardize their careers by representing him. It makes ZERO sense.
This is a pure guess, but I visualized the likes of Eastman, Clark, etc., visualizing themselves sitting on the right hand of Frump if all went according to plan. Imagine the power they thought they could wield.
I believe the only thing that is motivating these "attorneys" is access to what they believe is "power". It sure can't be the money, since their "client" never pays his bills.
No promised land for them, Ally; and that goes for the Frump-endorsed election deniers who scrubbed their websites in hopes of gaining the votes of the "conservative" Dems and Independents....see Dan Cox in Maryland; Blake Masters in Arizona; In Wisconsin, Frump-endorsed Tim Michels; Doug Mastriano in PA. Believe the stripes they wore when first they practiced to deceive!
The legal profession has never been as honorable as attorneys would have us believe. It's only in the movies that they make it sound like the bar is hard to pass. If that were true, you wouldn't have all these third-rate personal injury lawyers.
I’m thinking it’s because Trump has dirt on them, so they are being blackmailed into it. And I’m thinking a lot of what Trump is doing is about getting dirt on people so that he can blackmail them in order to gain more power over them.
Daria, I've noted, too, that Heather is posting earlier this week. And also, did you see today that she was writing about the impeachment trials and those who lost their jobs due to tRump? Must be finishing her recent book and it must be about recent history and probably the fall of the rethuglican party.
I couldn't face the document today, and reminded myself that "Heather's letter tonight will sort out the main points." The main points seem to be espionage, with a "who knows who has this information now or how it might be used against us, perhaps even in literal years to come" chaser. Every layer uncovered revealed a heightened level of deliberately mercenary and democracy-destroying behavior by Trump, his sycophants, and defenders, all of whom seem to have some vague sense of no interiority, of there not being anything of value, or any values that pertain to life and not death, there beneath the surface. There is nothing except more surface. Yes, Trump is now in trouble and likely to be indicted, but we are on a sword's edge as a country in terms of the survival of any kind of democracy. I remember watching the 2016 RNC and feeling chilled, describing it to a friend as a "Nazi gathering wrapped in a shit-show." The ominous feeling hasn't left; perhaps I'm just more used to it. I'm grateful for this pocket of reality-based discussion and community. I'm doing what I can and I know you all are too. Rot coming to light has to be good. I hope Biden gives more speeches of the type in Maryland, and his new coms person is taking no prisoners on Twitter. Take care, everyone.
"Not anything of value, or any values that pertain to life and not death, there beneath the surface. There is nothing except more surface."
Key words.
Readers will hate and reject what I am going to say, but if we look coldly at ourselves and our history in recent decades, it becomes clear that Trump is not the disease but its ultimate and most deadly symptom.
And those key words accurately describe our society's disease, which is the outcome of an extreme imbalance: all on the surface, nothing behind it.
*
Here, however, we can take courage, for we know full well that there is more to life than surface effects. The cure is simple. Simple but far from easy, for it lies in reaching down beneath that surface, reaching down to tap our groundwater truth.
"The truth will make you free."
Yes, but the truth is what we most fear to face, what we never wanted to see. Hence our vain attempts to cling to that smooth surface with no fingerholds, nothing, nothing for the mind to cling onto.
And is not the fear that leads us to clutch for what is not there the ultimate irrational fear, the delusion of delusions? For danger lies in blindness, salvation in seeing things just as they are... and acting in consequence.
We are living in a nightmare. Awakening from a nightmare is difficult, the terror clings to us and won't let go. Yet awaken we must. Awaken and return to Life.
Yes, but I am feeling a strange calmness that critical facts continue to be rolling out and we will fight against the darkness en masse. I am not complacent at all, but I feel we have got this. Your words resonate with me, Peter. Thanks-- I feel that America is having to face up to so many truths about who we are and our history and apathy. I am so grateful for all the historical and current teachings that Heather and commenters provide. It feels very providential that we have the good fortune of brilliant minds to help us learn and stay focused. It feels more and more likely that we have the ability to change our messy course as we navigate these currents of change. Our country and our people are facing a very necessary need for maturity and inward and outward self-reflection. The traitors in our own country provided the compost—let's seed a new democracy, together.
In my lifetime, I have seen no evidence of a representative democracy. This is the one crosscurrent in politics. People don't feel like government/their politicians are working on their behalf.
The wealthy have hijacked government by financially appropriating elected officials. Politicians believe the path to victory is possible only with the help and contributions from the wealthy. People on the right and the left agree on this point - how could they not?
The rest is politicians engaging in dividing and distracting voters by exploiting social issues, religious concerns, and other personal grievances. The core of personal grievances is failure to attain financial stability. Most people's mentality is to be in competition to have more - more money and more things; bigger house and better car! People are mean and vindictive against "others" who are less deserving.
Decades ago, I observed that the two parties participated in what I termed 'managed gridlock.' They played this cynical game which resulted in little getting accomplished except when it came to aiding and abetting their donors - tax breaks, deregulation, and erasing consumer protections. Both parties let companies offshore millions of middle-class jobs and gave them breaks in trade agreements - none of which improved the lives of most Americans. The trade-off was cheaper goods which weren't really cheaper because they didn't last long and had to be constantly replaced. Income and wealth inequality is the underlying problem in America! Politics and government have one rule - the Golden Rule. Those with the gold, make the rules.
Absolutely, We the People should rise up, should have risen up in greater numbers and more often. However, it seems that it has done little if any good because the situation has gotten far worse. For the last 10 years we have become distracted by the assault on our democracy by white Christo-fascists and white supremacists that were deviously united by the Republican Party in a successful attempt to drive a wedge between Americans whereby a minority could usurp the majority. The country hasn't been this divided since the Civil War.
Meanwhile, we have done little to address extraordinary civilization-crushing issues. The wealthy don't want these issues to be addressed because it hurts their profits. Some people are becoming better off, but most are hanging on oppressed by insufficient wages to cover the ever-increasing cost of living. There are jobs but those jobs are not paying enough. The minimum wage adjusted to 2022 COL should be nearly $85/hour. Social Security benefits are at the poverty line for most and as I recall, 50% of retirees have no savings to speak of. We are the only first world country that doesn't have affordable universal health care in a country whose healthcare costs are the highest per capita in the world. This is insane and it's because politicians sold us out to stay in the good graces of the wealthy.
This may be what you call a societal disease, but it is the reality in America for most people. Correct me if I'm wrong Peter, but your analysis is focused more on the smoke and mirrors that people get caught up in. Life sucks in America for the majority because people live to work. I like living in a country where people work to live and when the powers to be prevent that from happening there are serious protests and consequences. Here in Ecuador, the minority indigenous population shut the country down until the government made the concessions asked for (actually there is a 90 day pause in the strikes while negotiations continue.) The majority, the Mestizos, for the most part support the minority's demands. People need to work to live - everyone understands that. Live to work vs work to live is the difference in state of mind.
It seems at the root of the disease you cite is a system that rewards unfettered capitalism to the detriment of society as a whole. People are ingrained to believe that material wealth is a measure of personal achievement. People are expected to strive to be financially successful instead of fulfilling their potential. People are consumed with money as if it is the key to happiness. People are unhappy and are filled with grievances when they believe others are responsible for their not achieving financial success.
Chips, I am with you almost all the way. It's just that more and more countries are being driven by greed-fuelled idiots with the deepest of deep pockets to imitate Russia and China, where only one man seems to count. So much easier to do business when you don't have to navigate through regulatory minefields, just go straight to the boss or his minions.
In these countries, justice is simply an arm, a coercive arm, of the executive. In America, the GOP may have made great progress towards controlling justice by controlling judicial appointments and lobbies may have gained influence that makes one silver-tongued salesman selling policies to Congress while buying Congressmen and women worth more than thousands of voters, yet there is still a little genuine pluralism, the President cannot order a judge to imprison a rival for life, the law may work mainly for those who pay but it still does not work exclusively for Big Money.
These stupid but ultra-wealthy people are like spoiled kids who want the world for their playground, want to have everything their own way, want the state to be their very own superpowered wheeled vehicle -- with no steering, with no brakes.
As for living to work, that has the great advantage of ensuring that people survive in a state of permanent anxiety and never have the time or energy to think for themselves. They are in effect serfs, but without the reciprocity that feudal serfs enjoyed, that of being protected by their lord. Systematic overwork in the US is just a racket and one that can only be bad for US interests as it undermines the health and creativity of employees. That said, not all firms are run like that, some are far more imaginative, and correspondingly successful.
Despite the colossal damage done to the world in past decades, America is still a very imperfect oligarchy, fools with too much money for their own good and anybody else's have not yet had the last word there. They have done their damnedest to turn me into a communist and had more success than better men, yet still failed, while showing far more ability when it comes to transforming themselves into full-blown (not semi) fascists. All too like Kafka's Metamorphosis...
My apologies for this rant, but while, say, Russia will have a very hard time recovering from the damage the Putin regime has done to the country, America could still overcome the great handicaps imposed by privileging Mammon over mankind, could still win the struggle to become worthy at last of the highest claims in its Declaration of Independence.
"As for living to work, that has the great advantage of ensuring that people survive in a state of permanent anxiety and never have the time or energy to think for themselves." Thanks for making that point. Unions, actually union leaders, had many faults but at its core was selective bargaining, job protection, and wage and benefit improvements.
We know Republicans chipped away at unions, but why didn't Democrats fight harder to protect unions? Union workers used to be the Democrats main rank and file supporters. I don't know if many people realize that a lot of those Trumpers are former Democrats and former union workers who are mad as hell at Democrats and government who they blame for their change in fortune. The main reason the middle class has been shrinking is because of loss of good paying union jobs. And union wages forced non-union companies to pay more to compete for employess.
A lot of blue states turned red when Democrats caved to their rich doners and gave only lip service to union workers. Democrats always came up a couple of votes short to protect unions. (i.e Managed Gridlock)
The demise of union domination was THE major turning point in my lifetime. When unions fell, so did wages. When unions fell, the wealthy had finally got the control they sought over the politicians. Republicans and Democrats alike changed their allegiance to the 1% at great harm to the 99%. They did it for personal empowerment, i.e. get and stay in office.
The legislative branch was the first to sell out; then the executive branch, and in the last couple years the judicial branch finally came under the control of the wealthy. The wealthy have taken over the government to protect and increase their income and wealth as well as establish a firm grip on the direction of the country. They stir the pot on social issues to keep people from focusing on their grip on power.
These social issues shouldn't even be in the domain of any government. It should not be the role of government to decide for women how to live their life nor to take control of a women's body. It is not the role of government or the Supreme Court to decide who can and cannot be joined in marriage. The SC has no business according to the Constitution and its Amendments to make decisions about race, creed or color.
The oligarchs don't want democracy; they want a plutocracy. That feudal system you mentioned, Peter, is right around the corner if Republicans gain control. And an autocratic president will most certainly order judges to imprison enemies of the state. We are much closer to becoming like Russia than most people can imagine. Maybe the military can save us, but recent polling suggests that the military (and law enforcement in general) are more aligned with the far right than I would have guessed.
Finally, there are only a handful of employee-owned companies that have survived. Most quietly are run out of business or bought out by larger corporations. Like unions, they are threat to capitalism.
I think we are saying the same thing but coming at it from different directions.
I think we are saying the same things, but we come from different continents. I was first unionized as a teenager doing a vacation job. Afterwards, in one way or another for all my working life. As for serfdom without feudal protection, I don't see this as being around the corner but all too present here and now.
FDR did what he could to make capitalists understand that his social policies were in their interest if they weren't to have violent revolution on their hands. Today such talk is farting against the wind.
I could never have imagined we'd see Nazism on the rise again, least of all in America or in Russia which suffered so terribly at the hands of Hitler's hordes. Yet there is a very real danger of something far too much like Putin's regime being brought to America. There is nothing vaguely like Allende's Chilean Socialist Party to be found in America but, as in Putin's Russia, there is no lack of Pinochet's admirers dreaming of the putsch to end all putsches.
Thank you ChipsPOV!! Truth. I'm waiting for the recording of Thursday's Zoom call on "Looking for Democracy in the US Constitution" ... will post it here when it comes in ... good insight and perspective on what foundations of American law do and do not guarantee ... most of what people believe in as rights, and vow to protect and defend has no roots in reality - projected dreams and ideals with little or no ground in law to support ... just off the top, here are some materials posted in the chat ...:
"The foundation of logical and inspirational principles expressed in the Declaration of Independence is stated early on with "the Laws of Nature and Nature's God". The laws codified by the Constitution regularly ignores both of these two fundamental law sets. And every problem we see today is reflected in this failure.
"Has there ever been a democracy that works? Majority votes can turn into genocide. Thomas Jefferson defined Democracy as "two wolves and a lamb deciding what to have for lunch. Freedom is a well Armed lamb contesting the Vote.""
*******
The National Community Rights Network:
The National Community Rights Network (NCRN) is a central resource for advancing a movement for local self-government through community rights.
Rights-based organizing empowers communities to elevate the rights of people and nature over illegitimate corporate rights that impede local and direct democracy.
Only when we realize that we are trapped in a fixed system can we begin to create new organizational strategies to work for what we envision within our communities, instead of compromising for what we don’t want.
This is a grassroots movement and we continue to work for true protections, not “stronger” regulations that legalize and allow the harm. This new era of organizing allows community members to be decision-makers.
Natural ecosystems have an inalienable right to not only exist but to flourish. Rights of Nature is not a new concept; however, its acceptance and implementation in the legal framework is a recent global phenomenon. The Rights of Nature Movement is a call to recognize our dependence on nature by protecting life-sustaining ecosystems and by granting our natural resources necessary legal protection and enforceable rights to ensure its health as well as our own survival. Through Rights of Nature, we ensure its ability and right to thrive and prosper rather than to be used as a mere tool of industry and corporate profit.
Corporate entities and individuals of extreme wealth have largely captured our government and economic institutions. Basic political, economic and human rights are in decline. The result is a lack of real democracy — defined as the ability of those who are affected by decisions having an authentic voice in the shaping of those decisions.
However, people have always strived for basic rights, resisted oppression, created alternative structures, and sought to control the power and influence of corporate entities and extreme wealth in society through education, advocacy and social movement organizing.
The REAL Democracy History Calendar provides 1-4 listings per day sent by email every Monday morning of activities, events, quotes from prominent individuals and/or other occurrences (both past and recent) on the themes of democracy, human rights, corporate power and rule, and wealth in society (especially in elections).
This Calendar is a production of Create Real Democracy:
Much of its original content came from the research and writings of individuals connected to the Program on Corporations, Law & Democracy (POCLAD: http://www.poclad.org) and the former Northeast Ohio American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). It’s currently updated by Greg Coleridge.
Our goal is to inform, intrigue and inspire — and to illuminate the reality that creating real democracy will not happen by changing any one politician, passing/repealing any one law or regulation, or reversing any single Supreme Court decision. It requires, rather, changing our political, economic and social culture – one byproduct of which will be to democratize our legal structures through genuinely inclusive, multi-issue, nonviolent social movements.
Kathleen, the fact that you can still freely write what you have just written and campaign for real, deeply valid causes without getting beaten up, imprisoned or forced into hiding is a better and more practical argument than any I put forward in answering Chips. But I can't help fearing that if the Drumpfistas have their way, those like you who think freely but don't have billions with which to back their thinking will be in real danger. As will the whole world.
They are barking mad.
Yet establishing tyranny in America still has to be an uphill struggle. For one thing, the eejits won't just be trying to suppress everyone who looks different, talks different, doesn't read from the same prayer book, they'll be using their vile weapons against one another.
Powers of governance in America are grounded in the authority of Christian faith as written in the Bible - which is (mis)translated contrary to the laws of Creation - so if the laws of God are Supreme, these power brokers, as representatives of the Law can be held accountable for their hypocrisy violating the fundamental laws of Creation.
Who will throw the money changers from the Temple of Life today? -
I feel somewhat proud that, when my wife asked "who or what are the Kardashians?" I had to Google it. I vaguely knew that it was some TV show I had never watched. Upon googling, I understood why.
You and she should be very proud. They and the one named after a French city and a hotel chain have confused my intelligence as much as the rethuglican cult.
Karell, Linda, yours is the most pointed, far-reaching comment I have yet seen on today's Letter... up to the words "shit-show".
You shine a light on the deep implications of this criminal lunatic's term in power and his actions, culminating in what we can now all see for ourselves.
You then write "The ominous feeling hasn't left..." Words that demonstrate your awareness of the horror, the dangers now closing in on us all.
But when you continue " perhaps I'm just more used to it" those words and all that follow simply demonstrate trauma. The depth of shock that engulfs all those with ears to hear and eyes to see.
I cannot find words to meet the situation, so I am most grateful for yours, which are worth sharing more widely.
*
Now is no longer a time for hope, we can only prepare to face whatever comes. Together.
The things he was impeached for the first time should have been enough to bench the Republicans for a generation. He will never do the honorable thing and he will never stop.
Prison or not, it is up to us to render him impotent by refusing to let him set any agenda outside of his cult. The media won’t do it. They should be giving most air and ink to President Biden and only cover Mr. Trump when something big happens in regards to prosecuting him. And they should never quote him. But sensationalizing DJT makes them money and their bosses are venal.
So it is up to us.
This would be tin horn dictator belongs in the dust bin of history. We the people can’t put him behind bars but we can deposit him in that bin.
The media should be covering Trump's theft of top secret and other highly sensitive documents for what it potentially is — the most significant breach of national security in U.S, history. It's a breach that may have caused extraordinary damage and put the country in danger.
The story should dominate the news every day. We're seeing only a small part of the story. While Trump was still president, he reportedly kept highly sensitive documents shown to him during briefings. Normally, such documents would have been immediately returned to secure places after the briefings. His actions were unprecedented.
And is it just a coincidence that in October 2021 the NYT reported: "Top American counterintelligence officials warned every C.I.A. station and base around the world last week about troubling numbers of informants recruited from other countries to spy for the United States being captured or killed, people familiar with the matter said."
It is reasonable to fear that Trump sold out the country to foreign powers while in office and has continued to do so — blatantly — since leaving office. He must be stopped and severely punished if found guilty by a federal jury.
But that is not what is being covered by the majority of media, Michael. Most media air is being given to ignoring the treason of the FPOTUS or arguing it it is true, and definitely sidetracking our time and effort. The media is not what is going to save us this round.
I declare “Enough” to the media also and turn my eyes and ears away from them and move forward. We must succeed with our vote for rule of law and democracy in November. Ultimately for peace to prevail, it must be fought for from the strength and ramparts of a continuing democracy.
Vote Blue. Declare “Enough”. All efforts are to get the vote out. Eyes forward. All hands on deck. Not a second, minute, hour to lose. Take back what has been seized from us without our consent, brothers and sisters.
United, Michael 🗽
And make certain those who enabled tfg are, at a minimum, voted out of office and, ideally, prosecuted to the fullest extent. If they are willing to enable him even if affects the security of their friends, family and COUNTRY, they deserve to rot in jail.
Some MEDIA (redacted! LOL) feeds into the Trumpian narrative. I have grown increasingly angry, increasingly weary of how the 'certain' MEDIA all but celebrates Trump. That the MEDIA shies away from telling truth to fact, exploding the tyranny of Trump, is a sad tale about what news outlets have become. **This has been edited from my earlier version, having taken too broad a swipe at "MEDIA".**
Not all Media, Keltik Warrior. MSNBC (especially Rachel) has done an extraordinary job since before the 2016 election exposing the truth about the now former guy.
Also Nicole Wallace, Ari Melber, and Chris Hayes. They've been all over this and have brought in knowledgeable analysts and lawyers to augment their revelations of this horrific case of espionage.
I with you! ENOUGH! I can’t tell you how many times Judy Woodruff of the PBS News Hour has lead the broadcast with disparaging comments. “The so called big lie”, was the last one I hear...and she has said it many times. I can’t take it anymore. I barely watch or read the MSM unless someone has recommended it. What a disappointment they are. They bare a piece of the pie of responsibility towards the undermining of our democracy.
See my post to ChipsPOV. I need to rein it in a bit. One thing in particular that is so irksome is how EVERY TV network plays the videos from Trump's most recent carnival crusades. Frankly, who cares -- really -- excepting the 35%?
Yesterday's NYT Editorial Board Opinion was hard-hitting. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/26/opinion/trump-documents-jan-6-prosecute.html
May be true but it’s easy to find evident to support one’s beliefs. They can only say what the big boys decide. Period.
Except MSNBC & CNN, and even ABC! God Love Stephen Colbert too! But tfg has his minions trained to not believe anything against him, no matter where it comes from.
You'll need to break up with CNN. They are looking to make their on-air personalities (cannot call them newscasters) stop using the phrase "the big lie" and to get more "conservative" guests.
Oh... didn't know! I hope Anderson Cooper can move to MSNBC then! It's going to be interesting to see what happens. It's become a media war of billions. I think the only thing that's going to make it right is to get tfg Off the ticket and achieve Democrat majority in both the House & Senate. We can do this!!!
Sadly, CNN has been bought by the semi-nazis too.
I think we need to stop watching ALL mainstream media. They ALL slant the truth. Every one of them. All bought and sold.
he didn't actually have to train the minions... they were already there before he showed up to take the reins.
Well said, Kinsman. I cannot fathom the depths to which journalism has fallen, nor can I bear to watch what has become of our "news" programs on network television.
I'm with you if we're talking about the media in general. There are notable exceptions. If you read a comment in Jennifer Rubin's column suggesting she get her own substack, that's me.
Did you see this, Vince? https://youtu.be/zmF14loVkgA
Everybody should see this, especially the Magats!
Yes, ChipsPOV, I did see this. I also saw the televised redacted copy of the affidavit. Thank God in Heaven for the judge's cautious oversight! As to the MEDIA, I am indeed talking about the media "in general", not meaning to take a broad brush. I follow WaPo, NYT, Huffington Post and TNR mostly. CNN and MSNBC have been an information mainstay for me. I also follow "notables" on Twitter.
But, what with Chris Licht as the new CNN cheesehead, I may stop watching CNN. Licht recently met with Republicans in order to determine how CNN might be more palatable to them. Enough said!
wasn't he Colbert's head producer, esp all thru covid days when just Stephen, Evie and Chris were doing the show from a closet or Colbert's home?
I am getting contradictory information about Chris Licht. I waiting until I have enough information to form an educated opinion. Here is what I know so far: Robert Reich published the below on his Substack on 8/23/22:
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/why-cnn-cancelled-brian-stelter
Then Chris Licht contacted Robert Reich regarding the information in the above post and Robert Reich published a follow-up on his Substack: https://robertreich.substack.com/p/my-conversation-today-with-chris. In response to Suz's comment below, I found this from Stephen Colbert on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_rVUr3g5Gs
Now that would be sweet justice if he's charged and convicted under what he signed into law. Paybacks are a bitch!
Excellent recommendation! The clips of Trump spewing venom over security are 🤯🤯🤯!
the YouTube you recommended was a great reminder of the irony of the drumbeat of "lock her up" for treason
You hit the nail on the head calling out Donald J rump’s most glaring crime—not only is he a liar, rapist, and thief, but also a TRAITOR. I do not wish him I’ll health, only that he lives out the rest of his life at Rikers….
You don't bolster your case by turning TFG's last name into a slang word for the human derriere, a body part which evolved to its current form to enable humans to run, which hunter-gatherers did to catch prey, as Harvard's Daniel Lieberman has written. It is also an attractive (at least on some) secondary sex characteristic.
You are absolutely right—I should not insult God-given body parts. Even an asshole has a valuable purpose….
For sure. Without assholes everything gets severely backed up.
More than one for a substantial proportion of the population.
WaPo columnist Jennifer Rubin has been doing a terrific job.
Vote? Who’s worthy of voting for? . Make no one your god. Only we save ourselves.
We don't vote for gods. We vote for servants. That's what our elected officials are supposed to be. Servants. But it seems they, and we, have forgotten that.
The espionage thing is not unthinkable but yet to be supported. It is enough that such material was handled so negligently, and for no good reason. Of that, there is no doubt. It is also clear that Trump compounded his malfeasance by making the search warrant necessary and withholding stolen property/evidence subsequent to the demand for it's return.
Equal justice under law has already suffered a hell of a beating, and we need to pull it back from the brink. It's bat-guano crazy to allow people to enter positions of the most grave of civic responsibilities, responsibilities that can determine our and our children's futures and be matters of life and death when they are provable crooks.
That, JL, is what IS the clear and present danger. “Provable crooks” cannot be allowed to enter elected positions to further the goal of ending Democracy for an unlawful authoritarian, fascist government. Our duty now is to quell our fears of the “what if the worst” has already been done by Mr. Trump and his cabal and hold faith in the face of treason that our current administration will navigate these waters.
Senator Schiff said it during first impeachment and says it still. Enough. Professor Richardson closes with it. “But they (the Republican Senators) would not (say enough), and they did not (say enough), and here we are.”
So…. we must. Say enough. I implore every day whenever I talk to any voter to set aside our engagement with arguing about the facts and whether one denies or accepts our current administration as legitimate. Of late, there is grudging acceptance in our conversations that it’s time that We the People throw down our gauntlet and clearly vote for the democracy we do agree to live in together so that any hope of adversarial discourse within a democracy will be allowed to proceed. It’s the only way for the blue undertow to steer the red wave from crashing us into the rocks. We must vote for democracy. Not for men and their ilk that have betrayed us for greed.
Keep the light of Lady Liberty and Lady Justice turned up bright during the dark of day that seems more and more threatening. It is the only way for OUR Light to fill these cracks of darkness.
Salud, JL. Unita 🗽
Christine - Schiff is a member of the House of Representatives, not the Senate. But he's a good guy!
"We must vote for democracy."
!
if our votes even count
Some do, some don't (like those presidential votes sidelined by the EC); but the more FOR freedom AND justice for ALL, the better, lest none but The Party in Power, count at all.
Just say NO (No, no, no. no. NO) to Bullies, from every available voter; as the stakes are higher than ever.
Everyone in New York knew Traitor Don was a sleazebag crook before he ran for office. He cheated so many people, no bank in NY would deal with him. But no one would listen to us. His role on TV was more real to many people than his 6 bankruptcies...Although I admit, I had not expected him to steal dozens of boxes of state secrets when he left office.
Since they found stolen goods on the property the first thing the feds should do is seize Mar a Lago, just like they would with any other dirt bag criminal.
Now that we hear that he kept documents from meeting while he was in office it cements in my mind that he’s been selling out our security from the very first. Why wasn’t something done then? I don’t want to sound too much like I’m filled with conspiracies but he’s been groomed for decades to betray our country. What was it about part of the terrorists renting space in Trump Towers before 9/11? What about him allowing Erdogan to slaughter our Kurdish allies? Letting 5,000 Taliban terrorists go free? Wanting to host them at Camp David? Why not his usual resort grifting spot? Was there information given to Putin to help attack Ukraine? Kissing the ring of the man who slaughtered Kasshogi? Let’s not forget 1/6. For a man who refused to serve in our military he has always expressed a thirst for horrific violence.
Every Republican making excuses for him or refusing to condemn his actions needs to go.
YES, Sharon!!! Not sure he was groomed specifically to be a traitor... just to be a greedy, ruthless autocrat with no boundaries. and yes, unspeakable violence.
Remember him wanting to have the military (tanks and all) paraded thru the streets of DC for him?? So much clear and open evidence long before the secretive sellout.
If anything, we've certainly given him and his greedy, power-hungry enablers more than enough space and benefit of the doubt. Conspiracy theories must have a place... and it sure looks like maybe this is the exceptional case where they apply?
I remember those days. He was a liar and crook from the day he was born.
And then trained by his father to be an even bigger one.
The business plan for Trump University was to get people too poor to pay for tuition to max out their credit cards in hopes of high earnings. That's what made me realize--during his first election season--that he was scum.
We assumed he would have advisors who would stop or at least slow his venal tendencies. We thought he could rise to the challenge of POTUS. Nope.
My cousin thought Congress would put a stop to his worse impulses. Nope.
If you read "Fear" by Woodward...you would know how many efforts were needed and done to attempt to moderate his worst tendencies...it will give you nightmares what he tried...
And at his other properties? Boxes, drives, photos, transcripts? He wasn't know for reading, but his stooges and stoogettes are.
maybe that was just ruse?? acted like he couldn't read... wasn't interested... so we'd not be concerned about any of this material? for sure, his stooges and stoogettes (great word!) were and are... excellent points, Fred.
Yeah, but if he let them read it they could sell the info on their own...
You know tfg would have never been passed for a security clearance if he’d had to qualify the usual way.
A presidential candidate should be required to pass the highest security clearance before being allowed on the ballot... if it requires a consultation amendment, you could get around that by having nominating parties to comply
The Dems should run on that promise
YES!!!
Not even close.
Someone commented on TV yesterday that the DOJ is unlikely to prosecute the defeated former president for violating the Espionage Act because doing so would necessitate their revealing in court too much about our intelligence sources, the kind of material redacted from the warrant, and without doing so, they had a weaker case than prosecuting for obstructing justice. You don't lie to the FBI. Remember Ralph Edwards' old radio program, 'Truth or Consequences'? It is time for the latter. Equally serious problems are the Republicans in Congress who put party loyalty ahead of their being Americans, as Vindman, Hill and Yovanovitch did not do. As Charles Blow wrote the other day, Republicans are the problem. An even bigger problem are the Americans who still have any faith in them and will still vote for them.
"Someone commented on TV yesterday that the DOJ is unlikely to prosecute the defeated former president for violating the Espionage Act because doing so would necessitate their revealing in court too much about our intelligence sources, the kind of material redacted from the warrant, and without doing so, they had a weaker case than prosecuting for obstructing justice."
Does that make a lick of sense to you, Jack? My goodness if that were true, then people would violate the Espionage Act with impunity without fear of prosecution. Talk about leaving the barn door open. Garland will indict Trump and he will find a way to do it without harming national security. He just needs to do it now before the mid-terms!
I've been posting this everywhere : https://youtu.be/zmF14loVkgA
I want MAGAts to understand that their dear leader will be "hoisted by his own petard."
Lock Him Up! Lock Him Up! Lock Him Up!
Can we consider anything in those documents to be of any value for the security of our country anymore? I feel like ever single thing in there will need to be examined and reworked.
That is probably being done at this very moment. We still don't know, however, if the bad guys out there have been tipped off to the guy with a piece of clandestine electronic equipment in his basement or attic and who is more loyal to the United States than the defeated former president is or ever was.
Yes Sharon, "some were marked SCS, FISA, ORCON, NOFORN, and SI, the very highest levels of security, involving human intelligence, foreign surveillance, intelligence that cannot be shared with foreign governments, and intelligence that is compartmented to make sure no one has full knowledge of what is in it." The names of our spies, national security individuals are listed in those documents, puts the lives of those people in danger. One of them has information about Pres. Macron of France.
Someone else on MSNBC said you don't blackmail or threaten the DOJ.
Garland’s methodical and comprehensive reputation leads to a suggestion that DOJ likely has the goods they need. That and the old adage when someone tells you who they are, believe them. At least believe experts like Bandy Lee and Ruth Ben-Ghiat and Timothy Snyder. #45 has demonstrated repeatedly his main mode of operation is revenge and he’s been at war with our intelligence community since they identified Putin’s part in his seat in our Oval Office for 4 years. David Rothkopf has a knack for pulling no punches.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1563492477109092352.html
From your link:
"This is the reality of the Trump presidency. It must be seen for what it was and the man at the center of it must be seen for who he was and is--one of the greatest, most pernicious threats to US national security we have ever seen. "
Deservedly curt. The DJT presidency is such a massive maelstrom of crime and corruption it's hard to bring it all to mind (even this particular facet of it) without a program; such as Rothkopf provides.
When the indictment and prosecution come, as they certainly will, the real problem will be the reaction of his supporters, many of whom are in law enforcement, the armed forces and in elected State positions. Is the country ready to lose some its freedoms at that point, at least temporarily? Remember that Abraham Lincoln, facing a similar crisis, did away with the right to attain a writ of habeas corpus.
Dr.Lee is an activist extraordinaire, and tried to share her knowledge of how very dangerous #45 would be sitting in our Oval Office, despite great risks and sacrifices in her own life. Bandy X Lee, MD, MDiv
@BandyXLee1
Forensic psychiatrist, violence expert, editor of “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump,” and president of the World Mental Health Coalition.
understatement of the past 500 yrs! shouldn't they AT LEAST have to get VALID security clearance before being sworn in??
!!!
Treason? The Greedy Oligarch Party enabled treason and espionage. They could have convicted him and be done with this monster. But no, their minds and hearts are corrupted. America needs to electoral purge them
The "GOP" swamp from which this current creepy "creature" arose is still producing a legion of monsters, but this one is exceptional for the historically massive swath of chaos and destruction in it's wake.
The real Manchurian candidate, except he was the Putin version…
I hope DOJ is looking into the flow of money into Trump's accounts.
Follow the money.
Putin’s People by Catherine Belton It’s all documented
Aren’t traitors to the US executed? My earliest “news” memory is the front page story and photo of the Rosenbergs, executed in June, 1953 for trading atomic secrets to Russia. I was in the 2nd grade and to this day I remember that photo and my parents talking about it.
Trump is a special case. He deserves special treatment. Incarceration would be too kind.
He should not be allowed to continue playing the victim card. If he wasn't a cult leader to millions, I would say let him rot away in Guantanamo.
He is a cancer that has affected millions and like any cancer, for the host to survive the cancer must be completely eradicated.
Robert Hanssen, former FBI analyst, who spied for Russia 1979-2001, is considered the most damaging traitor in US history. He is serving 15 life sentences. I remember when he was discovered. He met Soviet Agents and used dead drops in a park near my neighborhood. It was weird to see those locations on TV and know I had walked or driven past them.
Wow. Wildly Awfully Weird.
Thanks, Joan! I'd totally forgotten this, and I'd already had one year of college when this happened. Just not very politically alert.
Joan, I just read the Wikipedia entry on the Rosenbergs. It is very interesting! Now, my opinion is that for the U.S. to execute spies is not a road that we should travel. Everyone is entitled to some semblance of humanity, and execution has not a shred of humanity. The Wikipedia entry was a horrifying read for me.
You are right. I’m honestly not for capitol punishment, but I certainly believe Trump should be dealt with seriously, particularly when it comes to holding elected office again which he should not. We may never know what Trump did or planned to do with those documents, but if you or I stole that level of classified documents from the US government, I doubt we’d be free to play golf in the future.
Agreed, Joan, Even one page. This is all a great puzzle, and I expect it will remain so.
Trump may be a modern day Benedict Arnold.
It could be that simple and that horrifying.
Like Benedict Arnold, Trump very well may flee the country. If this happens I hope he takes the kids and corrupt USSS agents with him.
Perhaps that is why the FBI grabbed his passports?
Benedict Arnold didn’t flee the country right away. He changed sides to fight for Britain and his treachery demoralized the Continental Army. George Washington desperately wanted to hang him, even sending an unsuccessful secret mission (John Champe) to kidnap Arnold back from the British. A local high school was named after John Champe since he lived in this area.
They briefly took his passports, but later said that they'd return them. After all, despite appearing to be the dirtiest thing to be hauled up from a sewer, Trump has still not been charged with anything that would justify limiting his right to travel. On the other hand, he would have to be willing to become a charity case and a puppet for whatever lunatic country agrees to accept him.
(Come to think of it, that might actually be an interesting punishment -- it would be enjoyable to watch Trump live out his final days as a pensioner living under the thumb of Kim Jong-un, issuing his rambling whines on demand via North Korean state media.)
As long as he doesnt take any info with him! Can we count on that? I dont think so.
And if he made copies of those classified documents and took them along? He can't be allowed to leave the country.
I sure agree, especially if it turns out the Trump was feeding information on the CIA agents and sources while he was still in the White House which some reports seem to indicate. If this is true the DOJ will nail him for sure.
But Michael:
“Trump declassified them so, it was perfectly fine no big deal”.
Or.
“If Trump sold them then it must have not been important”.
Or
“The whole documents thing is just more of the Godless, communist Democrats dogging a good man”.
Or.
“Another liberal plot to keep Trump from his rightful place as President”.
Or
“Libs are just making nothing out of nothing”
The above are close quotes to what I have heard on various AM radio stations or at a small farmer cafe in upstate NY on this issue.
Nobody in the arena I currently work thinks Trump did anything wrong at all.
An amazing feat of 30 years of a right wing takeover of AM radio and Fox News AND local preachers.
Lastly, CNN is now owned by a right wing billionaire who holds 35% of the Fox News franchises stock.
He wants a more “Fox News like” presentation.
So. Soon CNN will be parroting Fox.
Total sweep as we used to say in baseball.
The "own the media" thing began in earnest with Reagan so far as I can tell.
Mike,
"Nobody in the arena I currently work thinks Trump did anything wrong at all."
Cut out the last six words.
Plainly, you have the good fortune to work in a thought-free zone, despite which your own thoughts can still move on their own legs, your eyes can still see and your ears can still hear. Dangerous privileges, going where they can't go 'cause they can't get up from the couch, seeing what they can't see with their eyes glued to the Fox telescreen, hearing what they can't hear with their heavy-metal-shattered eardrums.
In HG Wells' Country of the Blind, the sighted hero is hunted down by a blind population for telling what he can see and they can't and denying their sightless explanations of how the world is.
Peter,
In rural environments in America Trump is seen as a kind of hero/savior.
I live part time in a rural environment.
I think it is important to understand how entrenched Trump support is in key parts of America.
I know you have your ear close to the ground, Mike, and I respect that. What worries me is that I also get the same kind of feedback from a friend in New York City. Regardless of their politics, people in the know there knew too much about Donald Trump.
But there are a lot of people who don't know about DT but do know how much they resent those people-in-the-know... Country people have always resented big city dwellers and the interests of too many, like small farmers, have been so mangled by Wall Street and other outsize big-money entities, that it is hardly surprising if someone who claims to be against those forces should be treated as a savior. There's no William Jennings Bryant in sight, nothing but this firebug playing with matches where there's firedamp or a gas leak...
People need an outlet for their rage. Strange how they're so often used by their real enemies against scapegoats who have little or no connection with their oppressors. The way they talk about "libtards" and other states of the Union, you'd think they were speaking of foreign invaders...
I cannot grab the NYT’s article but it’s certainly getting coverage. Here is the Dailykos covering it: https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2022/8/27/2119143/-The-New-York-Times-Drops-A-100-Megaton-Print-Bomb-On-One-Donald-J-Trump
Thanks. This is all pretty terrifying.
And it keeps getting worse truly astonishing.
Christy-
Thank you for the link. I just opened it and discovered Kos links the NYT article and I was able to get it.
Much appreciated.
I tried like heck to get the NYT article but they want my 💰 and I prefer to spend mine on other sources so that was the best I could do. Very glad you were able to access and 🙏 for letting me know! 🙏🙏
Here’s another source:
https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/575384-cia-admits-to-losing-dozens-of-informants-around-the-world-nyt/
I cancelled my NYT subscription and use my $$ for more reliable reportage too. But hopefully the link to that article courtesy of Daily Kos will work for others.
Thanks again:
Most paywalls require JavaScript to run; turn it temp off in your browser & read NYT etc. (WSJ is the main exception).
Great link.
Thank you.
Let us see if Trump can also "get by with" espionage.
I will not provide my own probability assessment to avoid generating angst among readers.
Maggie Haberman of the New York Times wrote an article that addressed his entire four years in office. He never cared about national security, he often tweeted items covered in his briefings. Never used the @POTUS designation, but used his own name for tweets. "For four years, former President Donald J. Trump treated the federal government and the political apparatus operating in his name as an extension of his private real estate company.
It all belonged to him, he felt, melded together into a Trump brand that he had been nurturing for decades.
“My generals,” he repeatedly said of the active-duty and retired military leaders who filled his government. “My money,” he often called the cash he raised through his campaign or for the Republican National Committee. “My Kevin,” he said of Representative Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader.
And White House documents?
“They’re mine,” three of Mr. Trump’s advisers said that he stated repeatedly when he was urged to return boxes of documents, some of them highly classified, that the National Archives sought after Mr. Trump took them with him to Mar-a-Lago, his private club in Palm Beach, Fla., in January 2021. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/18/us/politics/trump-fbi-classified-documents.html?name=styln-trump-raid®ion=TOP_BANNER&block=storyline_menu_recirc&action=click&pgtype=Article&variant=show&is_new=false
I recall when Trump was insisting on putting his "10 on the Richter Scale" signature on all the COVID stimulus checks that went out, but reportedly the presses were not set up for it. He appears to want to take ownership of any positive event anywhere in the world and shed, by blaming others, for others any faux pas or evil.
It’s like the media, as well as the public, is in a kind of dissociative state, unable to process what’s really happening. This is the effect of Trump’s antics and of manipulation of him and other useful idiots through a concerted blitz of disinformation by bad actors in Russia and in the GOP
God bless you, HCR!
Much of the public seems to be in G.O.P. induced stupor. Anti-vaxx, anti-mask in a pandemic that killed 1,000,000+ Americans? No need to trouble one's self about climate so long as there are snowballs around? Trump is God's prophet? Things fall apart; the center cannot hold... Jim Jones warpo thinking going on here.
And yes, HCR is a breath of fresh air.
“Prison or not, it is up to us to render him impotent by refusing to let him set any agenda outside of his cult. The media won’t do it. They should be giving most air and ink to President Biden and only cover Mr. Trump when something big happens in regards to prosecuting him. And they should never quote him. But sensationalizing DJT makes them money and their bosses are venal.
So it is up to us.”
Perfectly said, Annabel!
Hi Rowshan.
Hmmm. Trump. Rendered impotent. Yes, I like the sound of that.
I’ll be mean and say that he probably already is. But not in the way that matters to us.
Nothing mean about the truth, Kathy.
He is already impotent. Remember the peeing over his face story?
I was just about ready to forget about that as I never got deeply enough into the story to be convinced by it. I mean, I saw "Trump Piss Tapes" and figured the headline was deep enough for me. Water under the bridge in any case, I guess.
Hi David,
Doesn’t it just put a smile if contentment on your face?!
Well, Rowshan, it ain't over 'til it's over, but yes, just the hint of a smile.
When Dick Cheney and crew leaked the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame, it was a dirty, criminal, anti-American trick.
This trove of classified documents, literally box loads of assets, intelligence, and lord knows what else, makes the Plame scandal look like pettiness by comparison.
I wonder what would the Targaryens do with such a thorough traitor? We’re not in the great game now, instead we’re in a real time effort to blow Andrew Johnson away in the annals of worst president ever, and worst political party since the Southern Democrats.
“Dracarys”
Can we at least get some rule of law around here, and settle for nothing less than lots of jail time?
Modern Republicans bellow about "law and order" (including Trump) while pointedly ignoring any law that is inconvenient for their own political agenda. That has become their modus operandi.
Like ancient kings, the party of autocracy "can do no wrong", or so they would have us believe. The more they get away with the more lawless they have become.
Trump has even managed to become the Christian leader of the Evangelical Church, just like the King of England.
So, he is currently deemed "untouchable" since he is "God's chosen".
what this means is Trump gives public money to private, christian based schools, thereby making him God's chosen money donor.
Ah yes, you may recall that one about the American benefactor of an English village church who walked out of the service celebrating his generosity when the vicar said "We thank thee, Lord, for this our succor"...
Our sucker.
Who's the sucker here?
His second term will be in the big house, not the white house.
His garb will match his complexion.
And....there will be pretty bracelets.
I so hope you are right! A dream come true.
Yes, the Netflix movie: "Fair Gaime" was a true eye opener for me."
Bush was, on many ways, worse than Trump if one includes invading two countries based on lies and fakery and one adds up the number of dead bodies as a result of said lies and fakery.
Will add that to the queue thanks 😊
Private Eddie Slovik comes to mind.
I read "The Man Without A Country" a long, long, time ago. We CAN'T make MAGA a martyr, but we can make him,legitimately,a pariah
I still have my parents' copy of that book. My brother and I both used it for last minute book reports. I pulled it out this winter and reread it. The man did love his country and he lost his whole future and he was sorry. He also was the fall guy for his superiors. Everyone but Nixon got punished over Watergate. This can't be blamed on anyone but Trump who doesn't love anything and has no future to lose. They should fly him to the middle of a shark ridden ocean with the intention of dropping him on an empty boat - and completely miss the boat! It would be nice if he had to face a military trial as well as a criminal one.
I’m with you. I’d give anything if the mainstream media would move the hell on.
Has CNN gone over to the dark side?
They did immediately after Biden was elected. CBS too, hedging their bets, sacrificing journalistic integrity to preserve access to GOP leaders in case the power shifts back; under threat that their access would shut off completely if they actually did their jobs
The only way for America to get real news is to break up corporate ownership of media outlets on local basis. Separate TV, radio and newspapers. Break up the Monster Corporate control. Otherwise, we get served only what “the boss” wants us to know
Seems like it. The really really sad fact is the refusal by the NYT in 2015 and on to open up about all the horrors already known by most New Yorkers about how fundamentally unfit and treacherous this person was known to be. NYT did what it seems the majority of the uSA media does: print what makes money for the paper irrespective of its responsibility to facts, truth, its readers. When you legitimize a traitor apparently there’s no political will in the uSA to act properly against such a treacherous entity! The Republicans showed their real purpose long before #45 — Will these revelations put the nails in their coffin? I’m hoping but …..
Seems the truth tellers have no megaphone equal to Rupert and the MSM. Substacks are a drop in the bucket. Sad to say. Dems are trying, love Adam Schiff’s truth, may his comments reverberate around the land. And Joe’s calling them what they are. Scream Fascism back to every blather about socialism.
The House impeached him twice. Hold the Republicans responsible for sure.
“ For several years, Brian Stelter’s Sunday CNN show, “Reliable Sources,” has been a reliable source of intelligent criticism of Fox News, rightwing media in general, Trumpism, and the increasingly authoritarian lurch of the Republican Party.
Last week, CNN abruptly canceled the show and effectively fired Stelter and his staff.
Why? The show had good ratings and was commercially successful. (More people watched it than MSNBC.)
The show was cancelled by Chris Licht, CNN’s new chairman and CEO, who has said he wants less criticism of Trump and the Republican right. Licht has told staff they should stop referring to Trump’s “Big Lie” because the phrase sounds like a Democratic Party talking point. Licht also wants more conservative guests.”
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/why-cnn-cancelled-brian-stelter?r=fqsxl&s=r&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
Faux News II.
No more CNN for me.
I stopped 16 months ago
Boycott CNN. I stopped my subscription to the NYT in 2015. I smelled a rat.
Demonstrating the abject power of one individual in shaping the national discourse
The concentration of this power is a critical fault in our information systems
How interesting, that Licht should proclaim "Let there be Night".
The man seems to be the victim of a misnomer. Or... well, Lucifer means "light bearer". Could the gentleman be one of the lights in Lucifer's hand?
Maybe those betting on horses both dark and pale should read Fritz Thyssen's "I Paid Hitler".
It reminds me so much of a Harry Potter line about the Daily Prophet: “The Prophet (aka the NYT or WP or CNN) exists to sell itself.” Declaring that they are the newspaper of record, or that democracy dies in darkness, does not mean that they are doing anything other than trying to sell clicks and subscriptions, democracy be damned. I agree with the comment above that they are trying to preserve access should our attempt to save democracy fail, when they should be aiding the effort and making up for 2016.
Frankly, I tend to go to Reuters or Associated Press when I just want the facts of the matter. Since they sell news to other outlets, their stuff seem more straight-forward. Everyone else seem to permit too much editorial opinion in what are ostensibly news articles.
Good grief, Jeff Zucker was the media mogul most responsible for T’s first occupancy of the WH! They hired Corey Lewandowski! Gone over?? They’re soaking in it.
I've been wondering that myself, and am nearly 100% aligned with MSNBC (and PBS). Even Anderson has lost his appeal for me.
Does anyone still watch CNN? Why?
Rupert and his greed leads the way, what are they thinking, besides the bottom line.
Nor should Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Green, and Lauren Boebert, etc.be covered like they are important; they are not. They are just loud hoping to attract attention to their reality show. As for the tin horn dictator, he should be in jail with no ability to communicate publicly. No ability to communicate would be horrible for him.
>>"But sensationalizing DJT makes them money . . ."<< That is my major complaint about much of today's media. They will/would chase the devil far more quickly than they would chase the saint. That 35% of the U.S. citizenry supports Trump makes sorrowful commentary about our country, today.
Very, very well said!!!!
What no one has said that I know of is why couldn't he have made copies of all those documents and still have those?
Trump is so unhinged he stupidly took the originals. He could have made copies and returned the originals. Talk about stupid.
First you assume he knows how to use a copy machine. Maybe his veneer of incompetence is a facade, maybe not.
But within the WH, photocopying classified documents would be noticed by others. Admins, clerks, etc.. He should never have been allowed to take documents to the Residence. Rules just didn't apply to him and those around him let him get away with it.
All he needed to do was take pictures of them with his phone. Think how many people have been allowed to do that at MAL. You don’t need copy machines anymore.
Today, someone on Twitter remarked, "What about any PDFs?" Of course, copies were made. I say that with certainty only out of my conviction how that is so Trump.
I've been asking this for many weeks.
And why are we always subjected to photos or videos whenever Trump's name is mentioned in the media? And why do TV journalists keep saying “President Trump… uh…former President Trump…”? How long will it take them to get it right? Every time they say it his crowd loves it.
The most disappointing person who does this, for me, is Carol Loenig whom I admire tremendously. She consistently does it. Makes me very sad, not knowing her motive. Is it a kind of respect for the office? Dunno.
Why not just say, "Trump"; period? He deserves absolutely NO accolades or titles.
Precisely, Sara T! Particularly "President Trump ... uh... former President Trump..." Infuriates me! And it happens so much of the time!
Full agreement but the Republican congressmen and women who stood fiercely by him, throughout it all and EVEN after 1/6, with red lights going off all through these miserable years, deserve special treatment for traitorous behavior with respect to their oaths of office.
Trying to replay Mussolini's March on Rome, and still the media are paying no attention -- except for pedlars of the Lie -- and still people are sleeping, still Trump-worshippers' adoration of their idol and grandiose expectations remain completely intact...
Blind faith in total nonsenses seems to be a peculiarly American psychosis. Often beliefs that cancel each other out...
Did all those generations escape oppression and religious persecution in Europe (and elsewhere)... for THIS?
Add to the cult of “worshippers” the numbers of citizens, exhausted and discouraged who choose to see DC’s dirty game of self promotion as separate and apart from their lives. Disgusted “with it all”, they can no longer stand the lies. Choosing to “give up trying” they burrow into their private lives, waiting. (Shades of a European past?) And for what do they wait? For it to be over??? With their hands clean, they may be free to view all partisans as compromised. Canvassing yesterday. These are the people we need to reach. They need a ballast they can count on. Dare I say it? With each discouraging conversation, I nodded my head in apparent empathy but my internal dialogue thought (nearly hysterically) that they NEED to read ALL of HCR’s letters. They need her unique, clear, steady and characteristically hopeful voice. What a gift we readers have had to find HCR and this thoughtful informed community. So too, those of us knocking on doors need to echo that voice to the discouraged and disgusted.
Were it not for the media, we would not today have the limited knowledge we do about the documents. I believe it was the NYT, CNN and Axios who brought a case to court to get the documents. So, as a general matter, if we are as interested in the history of these documents as all these comments attest, we should be grateful to the media. The DOJ would have given us nothing.
And here I feel ambivalent. The DOJ would have wanted nothing revealed because it could seriously hamper their investigation and endanger their sources. If true, the media was doing the country no favor when it pushed - and got.
In fact, I feel at first hearing that this will be a *win* for Trump. This will enable the story that that this was just about “a bunch of documents not returned”. It will be equated endlessly to not returning a library book on time. And so, there is a possibility that another lie will grow. Prosecutors whom I read or listen to (Ellie Honig, Preet Bharara, Joyce Vance White) are either skeptical that there will be an indictment or feel it will be 12-18 months in coming. Given the glacial pace of the DOJ, they may well be right. During this time, there will be derision and eye rolling from the Right whenever they encounter the kind of explanation Heather gave today. And the witch-hunt theory, so regularly espoused since 2016, will take hold.
What we heard today will be grist for the mill temporarily for those Americans who, with good reason, loathe and distrust Trump. But it’s insufficient to make much weight against what will become the growing palaver that we are dining out on conspiracy. “Occam’s razor”, the more educated enablers will shout. “He was unorganized, unaware of the law, liked to show off stuff he had like Shaquille O’Neal’s giant shoe. That’s all it is. You’re turning him into a criminal”.
Prepare for another x months of tiresome library book argumentation. The DOJ is going to clam up and it will be left to the public to duke it out. Both sides will be hypotheticals. Ours is the messier one.
Eric O'Donnell, we are bound to take the points you make seriously, noting your understandable ambivalence about today's publication of the affidavit authorizing the search of Trump's property.
While it is true that Americans (and too many others today) seem incapable of telling true from fake, one must surely be skeptical about your pessimistic assumptions. First, you seem to be assuming that people are even stupider than they seem. More to the point, when you speak of the DOJ's "glacial pace", so much evidence has been accumulating under the departmental ice that the glacial pace could speed up as shockingly and violently as the current calving of vast icebergs and colossal glacier collapse.
Things happen fast when the right conditions are met, and, prima facie, even a small fraction of current evidence would be enough to put anyone else but a past president of the United States in prison for a long time. It should not take very long for the competent security experts to vet the cache just seized and for the Department to determine precisely which charges are appropriate; and since the issues directly impact national security, it seems hard to believe that the wheels of justice will move more slowly than necessary.
One can, however, reasonably speculate that investigators and the Attorney General may need or have needed more time in which to clarify the detailed mechanisms whereby these documents were spirited away and by whom, as well as the uses made of said documents. Many other individuals will have been involved in these operations and national security demands that no stone be left unturned. However, while all the king's men may have hesitated to reveal His Majesty's doings, it is public knowledge that HM himself has never hesitated to throw subordinates under the bus.
I so enjoy your prose and logical thought. Thank you for taking the time to answer, Peter.
In truth, I agree exactly with what you write, especially considering the time lapse. Your iceberg metaphor is very apt. This is what I *want* to believe.
But two matters prevent me from full-throated agreement. The first is the clear MIA of the Justice Department in the first year. If, as Garland so patiently explained to us, they were following the wrong model. From the ground up flipping as you go is fine when there’s a single entity to whom all report. But there was only some. Injection between the attacking mob and the inside intriguers. So my understanding is that this should have been a “hub and spoke” operation. (Note I speak glibly as if I really know anything about the art and science of investigation. :)
My belief is that they were conceptually disinclined to go after Trump et al. We may never know how much we owe to the J6 committee, who by their incredible work hung the DOJ out to dry. At least that’s my belief.
Secondly I’d like to agree with you that the glacier will calve suddenly. A part of me is rooted in that thought. But I listen to all these prosecutors speculating that indictment will be slow or not at all, and I think it’s intellectually dishonest of me to put my hunch up against their wisdom and years of experience.
As for the pessimism about how intelligent the mass of people are, I’m a firm believer in P. T. Barnum’s maxim that nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public. It’s further complicated by the fact that people have re-oriented their lives and belief systems to follow Trump. They cannot disinvest now, because for millions that would be to indulge in self-flagellation. Trump and their psyches are one and the same.
I am optimistic overall. I publicly stated back in the spring that the Democrats would win both the House and the Senate. I knew all the reasons they wouldn’t, but I loved the dynamic the Republicans had created in their primaries - to win, you had to out-MAGA any opposition. That makes so many of them sitting ducks in the general election this fall. They are, in the main, stupider Trumps. I love it. I see no reason to change that prediction today.
And I’ve bet $100 with two friends that Trump will not make it *through* a Presidential campaign. I really think he won’t make it *to* one, but I hedged my bets.
Thank you, Eric.
I often feel ill at ease talking to—hectoring ?—people who know far more than I do, if only because most of this community are Americans, born and bred, while I have since a very early age been made very aware of America but never lived there, so that I really am a complete outsider. I had already noticed that you are Canadian, but like Mexicans and Latin Americans, Canadians, both Anglo and Québequois, are an American people. I am very much a European.
What’s more, it is plain enough that several contributors have a distinguished professional background. I don’t have that distinction, my only advantage is to have worked for one of the main institutions of the European Union as a mere translator, which gave me a ringside seat over a period of several decades.
You remind me of the dangers of wishful thinking—yet I, alone among my circle of friends and American relatives, did not wish for DT to win the 2016 election but expected it. That very expectation seems to have alienated one or two people…
I just read your FSB article—why that Son-of-KGB title, why B for “shattered”?—and see that my outlook has no little in common with yours, in particular when it comes to awareness of the unprecedented and constantly accelerating speed of change, and the fears and unease to which this gives rise. But let’s turn briefly to the discussion in hand…
I did not intend to say that the glacier WILL calve suddenly, rather that it may do so. However, on second thoughts, I do fully expect a cataclysmic collapse. Only, when? Of that I have no idea, except that it could happen at any time, even soon… or goodness knows when.
You think it’s intellectually dishonest of you to put your hunch up against the wisdom of the wise and their years of experience? Fair enough. But could we not turn that back to front and doubt the intellectual honesty of experts whose very professional expertise has separated them from their own humanity? What do you think explains the current disrepute in which both specialists and knowledge itself are held? Not only populist pied pipers’ tuneful mockery, not only wild conspiracy theories, not only resentful envy, but the tall ivory towers of hubris in which so many professionals have taken refuge. Teachers who teach as parrots talk, politicians and economists who tell us what to think when all they know is painting-by-numbers, cops who are hammers and for whom citizens are all nails, especially when they’re the wrong color and/or in the wrong income bracket, dog-in-the-manger preachers, I-speak-your-weight physicians, lawyers in hock to the mob… all, all hiding their inadequacy, their loss of soul behind smiling masks. The professional rictus.
One should not scoff at professional expertise, but it is to be taken with a good pinch of salt. Finally, as a seasoned but very unbureaucratic bureaucrat I mistrust them all.
Concerning politicians and civil servants, I would add that there was a watershed around 1980, when the generation who had fought in the second world war retired. Up till then, people were working for a better world, out to ensure that nothing like the hell they’d had to live through should ever happen again. Even the jaded thought in terms of What’s-in-it-for-us? When that wartime generation left the stage, their place was taken by smart operators whose clear albeit unspoken watchword was What’s-in-it-for-me?
It must have been at some time after the fall of the Berlin wall but before the collapse of the Soviet Union that I recall wondering loud and publicly in my workplace whether democratic institutions would last much more than a generation. Response: “You’re a philosopher…” It was not meant kindly…
Oh my goodness, that ‘B’ must be a typo. 🙃
I am new to Substack and so still misuse it in some ways. Actually I more and more think the title is crap. I’d like to change it, but it feels like a noose around my neck.
I’m loving the writing though. I have what I am personally satisfied as a strong thesis and I am anxious to have it fully elucidated some day.
I’m thrilled that you had the interest and patience to explain so much about yourself. Are you from Britain?
Your life sounds interesting and the depth of your thought is always obvious to me. You’re right about the fact that being on the same continent in Trump is different. We have been infected here in Canada on a small scale by a sort of cunning but idiotic populism. Years ago, Quebec tried to separate from the union, as you will know. But there was a genuine linguistic fear there. I knew several Quebecois and really liked and respected them, though I was horrified that they might secede. Thankfully they didn’t.
I have weird hunched for things and about twenty five years ago I made the brash prediction that it would be Alberta that would break away. They are our oil-rich province and have been disdainful of Canada.
But some loud talk died away when Stephen Harper became PM. He is from the West and was canny enough to rule as a Conservative who didn’t push the hot button social issue. And he had a long run.
Now, it’s very much off the radar, but there is a serious, populist move in Alberta, and perhaps Saskatchewan to become nations within the nation of Canada. The proverbial shit is going to hit the fan in September when the provincial PCs vote in a new leader. The front runner has a detailed plan which she says she will put into play immediately. So hardly anybody is aware yet, but we may be facing a most serious constitutional crisis in 6-8 weeks.
This time, it’s MAGA-ism pure and simple. All based on grievances. Alberta has often been more like the 51st state than a province. Calgary is a highly Americanized city.
The trucker revolt in Ottawa was spawned in Alberta. It was Trump fanboy stuff. I hated it.
As for your take on experts, I have much to say on it and no time at the moment to say it. I was raised by a doctor’s daughter. My own daughter is a doctor. One of our sons is the expert in his field of computational analysis - he, quite literally, wrote the book kbon Boolean functions.
Briefly, I deeply believe and appreciate expertise. And I hate saying things on this forum that I can’t prove - it can be a bit of a jumpy group. So I try to never be wise, but always try to get wiser.
Annabel, Stunning comment. I would like to borrow your last paragraph. “This would be tin horn dictator belongs in the dust bin of history. We the people can’t put him behind bars but we can deposit him in that bin.”
Well said! I fear that a very substantial part of our citizenry is complacent and therefore a great danger to our democracy. I also have that same fear that those citizens have no idea of the seriousness of what TFP has done. Republican support of Trump it’s so political that they have become untethered from our government, from reality that they are blind to the overwhelming danger to our democracy.
Also, the media needs to stop using tfg's image to illustrate their stories about the stolen government documents.
I would love it if I never saw that face ever again.
Annabel Ascher - I totally agree.
Annabel Ascher, in case this was not clear from something else I wrote, your inspired words "SO IT IS UP TO US" provide the keynote for this entire thread.
Thank you for making the people's responsibility so clear, and may those words set off a tsunami of awareness!
Yes, the whole thing is astonishing, but somehow not surprising. Death star should be shoveling dung somewhere and never should have been the occupant of the WH. And yes, everyone who is thinking about this wonders what nefarious things have been done already. His personal notes on classified documents....like what...places where he could sell it? And the Rs are always and ever the party of death. Just thinking about them makes me want to vomit.
Republicans have slid way downhill over the decades, and Democrats have improved since the days of laissez faire and George Wallace. That said, it appears to me that Republicans, after holding Nixon accountable until the blanket "pardon" turned against democracy and rule of law with Reagan. Since, they have plunged deeper into outright corruption and malignant narcissism, making Nixon's serious abuses seem small by comparison. Both the popularity of their blatant, dishonorable and malicious lies and our past public passivity is just weird, especially since history warns where this path leads. Perhaps our legal machinery is still sound enough to bring down the momentum of this coup d'etat that has been 40 years in the making, but it's likely going to need a lot of help from the public.
"it's likely going to need a lot of help from the public."
Here's a recommendation. I've just spent an hour or so visiting discussions/talks/interviews featuring HCR in various places, sometimes in academia, once in the White House, but mostly sitting in front of her bookshelf (I'd love to get my hands on just some of those old books!). As she talks, the fog dissipates and one's mind becomes calmer and clearer. Courage returns.
It must be done, because it CAN be done.
I agree. Clarity, solidarity, and perseverance furthers.
"...but it's likely going to need a lot of help from the public." I'm in, J L.
How to make the Kardashians disappear from our consciousness and people actually care about our “politics,” which ostriches like to avoid. Awake ye who slumber…
"Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you. " -Pericles
Thanks for an excellent thumbnail sketch of the history of how we arrived at the moral abyss that is the current Republican Party. It's horrifying to think that this party could regain power in the midterms.
Amen.
Do not cast aspersions upon us dung shovelers.
LOL.
And all this time, what lingers in the back of my mind is...what effect might all this have on the January 6th hearings, which will soon ratchet up again? Might this seeming further incrimination of T***p make some potential witnesses who were "on the fence" now be more willing to come forward? Between the 1/6 hearings of T***p inciting a coup, the Mar-a-Lago raid by the DOJ, T***p's business being taken to court in October, T***p in trouble here in Georgia meddling in our election, one just MIGHT be inclined to think his great big orange ass is cooked once and for all. If he gets out of all this unscathed it really would be a miracle. And yet...y'know, one still (almost) has to wonder if he'll somehow manage to squeak through yet again. Anyway, I'm more hopeful now, or, even dare I say, guardedly optimistic that his world might be about to crumble. At least, that is my prayer.
"If he gets out of all this unscathed it really would be a miracle."
If he gets out of this, any government integrity has been lost. We have to hold trump accountable or the whole world will be laughing at us for tolerating such nonsense. I think of all the military members (men and women) who have given their lives for the U.S. while being branded by trump as "suckers." That attitude pervades too much of the country now.
There’s no higher authority to sell out this country than the PRESIDENT. He deserves the worst punishment there is. Jail, incommunicado, making no $$. I keep hearing how there is no precedent … well, there is no precedent for a sociopathic president who is a traitor. Let’s create a “precedent.”
Treason and espionage against the USA by a sitting and ex-president would have resulted death as a consequence. That is how dangerous 45 and his comrades have gone against American democracy and our Constitution. If I committed all their heinous acts against our country and laws..where would I be sitting right now? I do not give a s__t about precedent. Get these guys off the street, our of our government positions where they belong. Please remove them, DOJ! They can await trial in a place where they can not harm our country any more.
Yes, jail. An underground cell in a Supermax prison, in a cell next to Hannibal Lechter or some equivalent sociopath.
I don’t think that the Greatest Generation fought World War II to get us to this point, where a traitorous president incited violence against the national legislature and stole state secrets. Here we are wondering HOW badly he has damaged our country. It is impossible to calculate.
Whenever I see comments (on Yahoo) yowling about "Antifa" I like to point out that the US military in WW2 was the biggest group of "Antifa" aka "Anti-Fascists" ever.
It is never a popular opinion.
Boy, do I get that as well. I had one former colleague tell me "you know antifa is just the anarchists, right?" to which I replied "well, who is trying to overthrow the government here and install someone who was not elected?" There was much regurgitation of the election "fraud" and gnashing of teeth; no real substance to it.
I love to tell people, y'know, we fought a REALLY huge war against fascism 80-some-odd years ago. If somebody labels themselves "antifascist", then I'm all in. Since when is being against fascism wrong?? Okay, then if they're mislabeled and are really "anarchists", then let's consider another gross mislabeling, "defund" the police, which is not at all about "DE-funding" police (it implies taking away all funding), but is about RE-ALLOCATION of their funding and not putting local law enforcement into situations for which they are not prepared. Let's get our semantics right!
Exactly!
It will be decades at a minimum before we know the extent of the damage that the Republican Party has inflicted on this country by their willingness to protect and conceal the traitorous crimes of their standard bearer.
Yep, those few remaining WWII veterans must be crying about all this, and those who didn’t survive are tossing feverishly in their graves.
Yes, without a doubt. If those vets and KIAs had been able to see into the future and what was about to happen in the U.S., they may not have even picked up their weapons and agreed to serve, especially if they could crystal ball that trump would be calling them "suckers."
Yes, it is impossible to calculate the amount of damage trump and club have done. It's so important that we get a full accounting of what they did. Just one example of their family enrichment: I read in the London Daily Mail (8-20-22) that Jared Kushner is now worth $800,000,000. Exploiting the PPP program, Kushner got a loan for over $3,000,000, and that loan has been completely forgiven without any need for repayment. Maybe we need to read foreign newspapers to find out what is really happening in the U.S.
Absolutely agree
One keeps praying that his actions, pre his presidency, during, and post, will finally have some consequences for him. I am hoping that it will rally people to vote, to try to repair some of the damage that he has done to our country. I do blame the media for all the attention they give him. They put him in the White House, with all that free publicity.
And under irresponsible media I fault Republican devotion to (Reagan mentor) Milton Friedman's "The only corporate social responsibility a company has is to maximize its profits." (see https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/leslie-moonves-donald-trump-may-871464/ )
Which of course is why regulation by the government is essential.
And boy, do they ever
"If he gets out of this unscathed it would really be a miracle." If he gets out of this, it would be proof positive that he is the Antichrist. Nothing but the supernatural can explain his apparent impunity.
Extreme corruption (such as the corruption-in-plain-sight Kavanaugh hearings and the Republican response to T**^p's impeachment) might turn justice in its head, but probably not if enough of the public has enough to say about it.
Deliberate ignorance, stupidity and greed
DOJ will serve him up like a Thanksgiving Turkey. No White House pardons this year, Donnie.
What will surely bring witnesses forward is if the DOJ indicts Trump. 'If you know something and hold back you have to think that I better make my deal now. Trump is going down and I don't want to go down with him.'
There are way too many guilty people thinking they can run out the clock. (Which should tell us just how strongly Republicans believe they can steal the mid-term elections.) Indicting Trump now is imperative to get people to come forward with what they know. The DOJ would be smart to not make any deals when they don't have to.
We all know what that F really stands for.
I actually have filled in the "f word" as flatulent. Every time the mouth opens, that is what comes out. Loud, gross, and odiferous.
So, FFPOTUS? 😉
🤣
I must admit that was the very first thing I thought of when I saw that!
When I first saw that, I thought wow, a grade and a swear word all wrapped up in one! Perfect.
I’m a novelist and a professor of literature. And I continue to be astounded that people seriously believed that this human monstrosity could be brought to heel, that the office of the presidency might somehow make him rise to the status of the office. College sophomores read Shakespeare for more reasons than one.
“Truth matters little to him. What's right matters even less. And decency not at all. Enough.” Rep. Adam Schiff
I read the redacted doc today and if it were fiction it might be a best seller. But we know it’s nonfiction and the Truth is TFG compromised and continues to compromise our Democracy and that places all of us in danger. It’s a connect the dots and we don’t need a law degree to get it. Maybe someday we’ll have job requirements
for POTUS. Somehow corrupt real estate mogul and bad actor doesn’t cut it.
Call him FPOTUS - FORMER President of the United States. I bet that really chaffed him, being referred to that way.
I read that "F" as "Fraudulent". He was never a president. First time in the Oval Office, in a gaggle of sycophants, "Hey! I'm the President!"
The “F” will cover a lot of things, Annie.
🗽
Ha1 Mine was "flatulent"
So true
:) :)
Of course, I read it as F$%K POTUS
Yeah, me too.
Me too. I’m guessing it also went through the minds of those preparing the affidavit.
"Failed," "Defeated," are closer to his worst nightmares. Oh, and his favorite projection— "Loser."
All part of FORMER POTUS
The White House probably still needs to be disinfected after tfg’s time in that building.
The walls carefully cleaned of whatever had fallen victim to his wrath at the time.
And the wrath of his sycophantic insurrectionists who soiled the walls. Trump & Co. should have been made to clean, repair, wash and disinfect our Capital and the grounds. And then go "hang" around the gallows their cult built for a little bit.
TC, I thought of you whispering on my left shoulder as my creative writing went pretty far with the gallows gambit.
I wouldn't put it past them (Republicans) to bug certain rooms. Democrats are too trusting. They should expect the worst and disinfect the entire government of Republican influence. That's what the Republicans routinely do when they take over from Democrats.
What is tfg sorry I must of missed this somehow
A president with no conscience is a bit like a car with no brakes, only far worse. It was pathetic to see the press declare any momentary lapse in Trump's lies and incivility to be newly "presidential".
Never on any day in his f***ing life was he presidential, except maybe in Rupert’s fiction
Worse than Trump and worse than any political fallout of Shakespeare's wildest imaginings are the places those secrets have been given. Woe to the world, I fear.
I wonder if our government has been pulling all our people in danger around the world back home prior to this search warrant for a the stolen classified and top-secret documents? I bet they had to do a lot of preparations over this past year to keep agents as safe as possible.
Good thinking. Perhaps that explains the delay in completing the documents retrieval.
When a created fiction (fantasy?) becomes the reality for the many. Reality so achieved is lasting, for the sources for its validation keeps it alive, nourished, and immune from infections or light; those sources being communities of believer who acquired belief by aural instruction. The man has now become the myth that lives on, to be invoked when The Others' fact and evidence is in conflict with the asserted ideology. That myth of the true warrior, bigger than life, misunderstood by his (our) enemies.
Mass psychosis
Thank you, Professor Richardson, for keeping us informed! I’m in north Idaho at the moment, and all I did today was bake chocolate cake and care for people. Your words are a life raft.
North Idaho....a beautiful place, geographically. Hang on.
Thank you. A…complicated place. 😉
Complicated with a capital C
Complicated is so true. I lived in Sandpoint for 8 years in the early 90’s. Beautiful and....complicated.
Melissa:
Are you offering us a slice of your excellent cake? :)
“Let them eat cake” even that simple offer is misunderstood in the history books. What will History tell us in 200 years about TFG?
Here's hoping for 200 more years of human history. Clearing out a number of "GOP" Big Lies could greatly help that happen.
Translation again. Apart from the fact that she didn't say it, "brioche" is not cake. Poor Marie-Antoinette.
TFG I STILL don’t know what that stands for
The Former Guy - He whose name shall not be mentioned.
Ok thank you I just call him Dtrumpf
Trying to give it up, but I'm visualising it.
Absolutely! Better yet, message me and I’ll send you my recipes!
My daughter lives in North Idaho and must deal with the far right. I am shocked by the venial attitudes of some of the people she must interact with. North Idaho is indeed beautiful but difficult. After hearing some of the situations that occur in this Republican state l was forced to look into the history of our republic. Unfortunately greedy and power hungry people have always been part of government. But, l did note, that except for Andrew Johnson never have we had a scandal of this proportion. I find it hard to believe that “He” who shall not be named got and continues to get away with out paying for his despicable behavior and rampant misdeeds. He has led his followers into prison, death, and bankruptcy. The final irony would be for him to get away with them.
Here’s the deal. (For your daughter.) There are many of us here in north Idaho working together to better our schools (see the great work done by Reclaim Idaho), save our libraries, and support other fine standards of living. I came of age here during the Cecil Andrus and Frank Church days. I know we can pull our state back to sanity.
Thanks once again for providing us with an overview. I just read an Associated Press article that said these documents were mixed in with magazines and personal correspondence. Only a true megalomaniac would feel entitled to do this. What were the plans for using these documents? As information comes out, it just gets worse yet the party of Trump not only makes excuses but continues to support him. Shameful and disgraceful. I’m disgusted with Jim Jordan, Josh Hawley, MTG and their ilk.
"What were the plans". You speak as if those plans were interrupted. He's had rthis stuff for almost 2 YEARS!!!!!
You can bet it's been sold to and seen by EVERYBODY with the money to pay for it and that this THEFT and theft is the only word to use was planned long before DJT left office. They knew just what boxes to take and how ti disguise them.
He has had access to this info for almost 7 years. Who know what he showed to all the people who paid money for access to him at Mar a Loco. for many, many years.
"What were the plans". You speak as if those plans were interrupted. He's had rthis stuff for almost 2 YEARS!!!!!
You can bet it's been sold to and seen by EVERYBODY with the money to pay for it and that this THEFT and theft is the only word to use was planned long before DJT left office. They knew just what boxes to take and how ti disguise them.
Linda, Yes! “ …yet the party of Trump not only makes excuses but continues to support him.” Support him and blame the Dems for weaponizing what? The office of president? It is beyond disgusting.
They Need him back in control or their asses are screwed. Need that the pardons will fall like manna. They will pull out all stops. Already have 1.6 billion to make it happen.
Could it be that all the hoopla coming from the TFG is to make headlines in the MSM and distract from the actual nefarious activities that might have been committed not only since the docs were taken to M-A-L but even before... Mixing classified information with magazines and personal notes was possibly intentional to deceive unsuspecting WH assistants who unwittingly helped to transport 'those' 'private' boxes to Florida ... It appears those personal notes could also be of interest to the FBI/DOJ as they were not ripped to pieces... Unthinkable the damage that might have been done already within the past 18 months (if not starting before Jan 29, 2021), especially when reading that surveillance footage shows that the 'boxes' were moved in and out of the so-called storage rooms at M-A-L ... Would there be any surveillance footage available from the rooms and places that the boxes were taken to and the people that handled them there?
And for how many years?? Your acronym for Mar a Loco is so apt as MAL.
The basis for:
MAL intent.
Wrongdoing.
Crazy (S. African)
Bad
Wrongful
ill
Abnormal
Inadequate,
Evil, malin, fléau, malfaisance, catastrophe (FR)
Wrong, tort, erreur, injustice, prejudice, mefait (FR)
Oh, besides that, it is also en Francais, used to express that something is morally bad:
C’est mal de mentir
It is bad to lie.
C’est mal de voler
It is bad to steal.
In America, it is against the law to steal votes or top secret documents. More so for a so-called president. Lock and all his traitors to democracy up.
I would not be shocked to find out that some were sold or shared.
But in all honesty, the way he had them stored and his assertion that "They're mine!" added to Bolton's comments that Trump would keep things because he found them interesting reminds me more of people who keep newspaper cuttings stashed around their house. I think he was collecting them to have them. They were souvenirs.
I don't mean for this to absolve him. Taking them and storing them so badly is what has created the security problems regardless of whether he meant to pass them on to others or not.
While your theory of FPOTUS as a pack rat may have some justification, remember that this is a man who added a “please donate” button to his announcement of his former wife’s death. He has always monetized everything he touched.
Suzanne--We don't know at this point what all he took, and are understandably speculating about his intent(s). But the notion that strikes me--especially given his documented penchant for not putting things in writing, tearing up notes, etc.--is that the congeries of materials thrown into boxes was connected to some idea of further defending himself, polishing his resentments, trumpeting his greatness/victimization. Since there were handwritten notes on some of the material repossessed in January, maybe he was going to once and for all prove the RUSSIA HOAX or some other witch hunt. Of course, I have no proof of this. But it would fit his character and action patterns.
From other conversations I'm definitely leaning back towards the idea that he kept things that would give him power. I like your idea of him believing he could prove the "witch hunt". It's also been pointed out to me that he would have had others around him who might make requests of things to keep.
What’s amusing and shall I nicely say, ironic?
With his own pen he, Trump, increased the penalty and made into law that “unauthorized removal of classified documents be upped from one year to five, plus added that it would be turned it into a felony.” It was his hope that HRC would be found guilty and get nailed!
Trump is by no means alone among self-righteous Republicans assuming that no law should hold THEM responsible for what they decide to do.
That boomerang might smart a bit. I can dream
You must have seen this: https://youtu.be/zmF14loVkgA
Is it too cynical to say that Trump kept this material so he could remain the top news item, his MO to keep his name on the public’s lips? Here he is again displacing news about the accomplishments of the Biden administration and all the other things happening in the world. There is so much war, starvation, political unrest, rising autocracy, inflation, trade disruption and even a nuclear power plant held hostage to war! Here’s hoping the midterm elections go better than expo for Democrats
And yet, his arse is at the top of the news feed. Coincidence, not a chance
And this was the person who supposedly had no interest in daily security briefings but who we find has made notes on the most sensitive documents in existence. Those notes were probably dictated to him as we have been told before so were his many tweets. What was the security clearance of the dictatee . Not to mention the fact that the person who tRUMP depended on most to explain all the complicated sensitive stuff to him was Jared Kushner, a person who the NSA, FBI, CIA, etc would not issue a low level security clearance to and who travels seamlessly and is buddies with all the scary operators (Saudis, Iran, Syria) in the Middle East and has proven himself publicly many times to be uneducated about the seriousness of these things.
Donald J Trump has fucked the American people hard core and he and others couldn't care less.
ABOVE THE LAW
William, I too, was thinking of Jared’s security clearance and how long it took for him to be approved. We should all wonder WHY he was approved at all after such scrutiny. And how many laws and regulations were trampled while TFG was in office. He flaunted the emoluments clause in broad daylight. And didn’t divest his investments. Hired his family for the most important “confidential” jobs as if they had an iota of experience. He knew he was the final word. That POTUS is the last stop. And now we can prove him right. The light is red, Donnie.
Jared's security clearance was never approved. Simply overridden by cheetoh.
And now, the two billion dollar question is what MBS expected (and quite possibly already received) in exchange for his "investment" in Jared's new venture capital firm, Affinity Partners. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/04/jared-kushner-affinity-partners-saudi-arabia-pitch-deck
All I can do is assume the worst. That money didn't come out of nowhere...
Exactly! When will we find out about that?
I wondered what idiot would give an incompetent like Jared 2 billion but now it's all clear - 700 top secret docs coverwd it nicely. And the Saudis even showed their gratitude by hosting a golf tournament.
:-D LOL!
Irenie, Jared never was approved. Tfg intervened and commanded Jared be given one.
I found that irony, the president who declared himself too "smart" to bother reviewing intelligence, and who reportedly would pay attention to briefings when staff frequently inserted his name was eager to to pilfer national security documents. We have yet to learn what might be suspected but it certainly smells of rat.
Such jaw-dropping developments. It makes me wonder, is this the hill Republicans want to die on? Do they really want a president to have the power and authority to use national security information at will for personal gain, or whatever Trump had in mind? He still has in his thrall a great majority of that sad, putrescent group of old cynics, paranoid racists and misogynists, and greedy plutocrats, aka the GOP, who have not condemned his indifference to our national security and blatant disregard of our laws. Perhaps the criminal justice system will mete out some measure of accountability now, given how egregious Trump’s document stealing has been. But I don’t dare get my hopes up.
Saw a clip of Karl Rove ----Karl Rove! --- criticizing Trump today. They may have had enough.
Karl Rove was chastising Trump and his minions for being dumb criminals, not for committing criminal acts per se.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/karl-rove-doesnt-buy-fox-hosts-spin-on-unsealed-mar-a-lago-affidavit
The same Karl Rove who allegedly said in 2004 during the George W Bush administration, "We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/karl-rove-empire/#:~:text=Karl%20Rove%2C%20adviser%20to%20U.S.%20President%20George%20W.,empire%20now.%22%20Rating%20Unproven%20About%20this%20rating%20Origin
"Karl Rove was chastising Trump and his minions for being dumb criminals, not for committing criminal acts per se." ... sounds exactly like Rove ...
Yikes. That’s some cold, hard shit, Ellie. An evil man, Karl Goebbels, I mean Rove, if there ever is such allowed.
Moving forward, Ellie. Think of you every day. Our work and success are clear.
Unita 🗽
Back atcha, Christine! 🗽
The evil that he was (and is) has metastasized all around the land. Yes, his criticism was about their ineptness, not the crimes. He could have done it better, no doubt. He screwed Texas in 1994 and we ALL are still suffering.
Gasp!
Most people have a short attention span. Combine that with the Republicon strategy of throw enough shit on the wall, some of it will surely stick. They have been throwing tons of shit on the wall since the days of Nixon.
I wish Suskind would just come out and confirm or deny that it was Rove's quote.
Saw that too! Imagine Karl saying those words...I was astounded!
Rove is another truly despicable individual.
And the architect of more evil than the country had seen before, even with St. Reagan
Nixon was disgraced for abuse of power and dishonesty, embarrassing the "GOP". It seemed to me that the lesson taken from that experience for by his party was "use the law to obstruct the law" and "if you are going be corrupt, get organized about it," rather like organized crime.
I have yet to see that impulse diminishing in the "Republican" Party in any fundamental way, but I think Trump is starting to be viewed less as highly useful wrecking ball and more "sinking ship".
Belongs in the same dung pile as Rupert.
Yes, to answer your question: this is the hill the Republicans want to die on. To date, most have skated by unscathed. Like you, I dare not hope.
They are supporting pardons for all. And plenty of greed
I think that the fascists want their authoritarian back so that the assault on women, BIPOC, gays, non-Christians, and the civil rights of all can continue.
I agree. Except tfg is not their only authoritarian--probably the most corrupt.
Oh, it will continue!! You can count on that no matter who is leading the party.
The past cannot be changed. Personally, I was in complete shock that Donald Trump was chosen to be a candidate to lead our great nation. For anyone much more more informed , please help me understand how someone who had no experience governing, very outwardly immoral, a poor business rolemodel could have become the leader of our country. This fallout from his time in office is not surprising. It follows his path of lack of character. His actions deny any love and respect for our country.
I would say he was "installed." There were vast amounts of monies, repetitive lies, fears, and divisive propaganda used in the orange flambé mob rallies and via megaphones like fox and internet cyber-warefare. Same tactics all authoritarians use when they desire a full takeover. Cyber-warfare is a modern coup tactic that has been very effective for evil intentions against democracies, certainly ours.
The outdated and no longer fair electoral college also helped propel this miscreant to office. He lost the popular vote by nearly 3 million. The majority in our nation did NOT choose him.
Emily, first, people in general are too lazy to research issues and will vote for a name they recognize, especially a “celebrity.” Second, tfg was a great talker and boasted regularly about his faux accomplishments—that’s how he has moved through the world. Third, Americans have lost faith in governmental institutions, particularly Congress, who until lately has done little but stymie the other side. They hoped a total newcomer would overcome this. Had he been intelligent and honest, maybe it could have moved the country forward. I saw the sociopath from the time he descended the elevator.
I blame Mark Burnett for deciding to make a smarmy failed businessman into a media personality.
He's a part of it; but he couldn't have done it without the Federalist Society (remember his list of judges in summer of 2016?) and Putin.
And hundreds of thousands (millions?) of younger people who are in thrall to him because their only "news" source is Fox. They never hear, nor do they want to, anything negative about him at all. And I don't believe they will come to see the light. And they vote.
Well I'm hopeful that my 12 year old grandson was accurate when he said "we aren't Trump supporters anymore". Upon further questioning he said "only local elections matter" and then "state's rights". Having my son on the dark side is bad enough. Having him mold his son to this thinking is tragic.
At least their not voting in national elections no longer cancels out my vote.
Vote blue. 💙
😢💙
They want a president with the power to hand out blanket pardons, period…
Maybe Democrats should be taking steps to prevent that now. There's a lot of literature on the lack of guidelines for presidential pardons.
Oddly, I am not at all shocked. I hoped for the best that Merrick Garland would step up, and he has. I am still and yet crossing my fingers that Trump will be indicted, convicted and imprisoned. His picture shouldn’t be in the Capital. I have little faith the last two will happen, but I can hope, right?
Merrick Garland is a very patient, very strong, very determined Attorney General. I think he realizes that, with the evidence turned up thus far, he has to prosecute T**** under the Espionage Act, which T**** has clearly violated. I share your hope: my dream of seeing him in bracelets in a phalanx of FBI agents is still alive.
I hope so. But no one thought Special Counsel Mueller would turn into such a wishy washy lap dog. Until I see multiple indictments AND top notch trial lawyers (or perhaps Special Counsels hired amongst former DOJ standouts) ready to try the cases as opposed to offer a plea to Jaywalking, I am hopefully, anxious, not negative but still insecure about Garland.
That’s ok. Just let him work. Our job is get the vote out. So we can still have all the messy discourse we enjoy.
Salud 100Panthers. 🗽
One difference: Mueller was (or so he said) bound by the policy of "not indicting a sitting president." Garland does not have that restriction. And he firmly believes "no one is above the law."
Yes, I love Merrick's message to the world about his work: NO FEAR OR FAVOR.
I take it totally to heart and believe in him. But we have to get out the vote because there is a lot more evil than just the defeated loser.
Tfg had Barr supporting and covering him. Read this week’s finally released DOJ decision memo (aka CYA memo).
Exactly. The people's lawyer who became T****'s lawyer. Another on the list of execrables who should never hold public office again.
MLMinET -- "Tfg had Barr supporting and covering him."
That may no longer be true.
“𝘚𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘐’𝘮 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘺 𝘵𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦’𝘴 𝘧𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴. 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘳𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯.”
“𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘮 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘛𝘳𝘶𝘮𝘱 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘵’𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘳𝘶𝘯𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘱 𝘶𝘱 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘣𝘢𝘴𝘦, 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘣𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘶𝘱𝘴𝘦𝘵, 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘴.”
“𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵’𝘴 𝘢 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘶𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘺, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘻𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘯 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘺.”
“𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘱𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘶𝘪𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘢 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘢 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘱𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘦𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘙𝘦𝘱𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘗𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘺, 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘣𝘺 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘥𝘦𝘳.”
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/william-barr-trump-outrage-pandering-trump-mar-a-lago-search_n_63090d66e4b0dc23bbe89c02
Barr is the master of triangulation. He plays both sides to the middle.
Thanks for this article. I am un persuaded by ANYTHING Barr says. He abetted tfg and is in large part responsible for where we are today. His outrage doesn’t move me.
I suspect that Garland's intent here is to go after something that is both rock solid, and (I am searching for the right words, but failing so...) that is not "political", rather that is about theft and possession of unauthorized documents instead of the attempt to overthrow an election or the conduct of creating a situation where there was not a peaceful transfer of power.
I suspect that while everyone has been focused on the insurrection, Garland has been quietly plotting to indict Trump on criminal espionage. He's known about this for well over a year. He needs to do it now - strike while the iron is hot and before the mid-term elections.
I agree...his face, even on canvas, should never desecrate any government building again...Except maybe on a post office bulletin board for MOST WANTED if by chance he flees the country!
I still recall my daughter's telling me of the people in her office (she works in the DOJ) crying the day after the 2016 election, and again when his portrait was put up in place of Obama's in January. Hers wasn't the only office thus affected. But I'll bet very few of those removed portraits will be put anywhere but the dumpster.
I was thinking about those official portraits in place at every Federal Government building, James, and I wondered how the workers felt about it during those four years. I want to believe that January 20, 2021 was a time of great celebration for a large measure of those who labored inside those walls every day.
It was.
... MOST WANTED, EVER IN THE WHOLE WORLD - AN ALL-TIME HISTORIC FIRST - NEVER BEFORE SEEN IN THE WHOLE UNIVERSE OF HUMAN {and inhumane} AFFAIRS ... VERY, VERY SPECIAL ... {{it feels sooo good to be wanted!!}}
Kathleen, this sparks an LOL that'll last me all day...thanks so much!
Only by the FBI
Yuge!
Why did FBI take his passport? Why is this not being discussed?
They were in the material the FBI took. The FBI acknowledged they should be returned the next day or as soon as they were discovered. No argument.
I may be misreading this, but if I remember correctly, there were three: his diplomatic passport, and two expired normal passports. I think he let his passport expire, and probably cannot use the diplomatic one unless he is on official business. I think it’s possible he doesn’t have a valid passport at all. Which might complicate things when he tries to flee the country to somewhere without an extradition treaty. (These are my speculations, not anything I’ve read anywhere.)
Trump said his passports were missing after the search. Then he dropped the matter. Probably he found them in some drawer the next day.
Hair: orange? white? or none?
I don't know about that. Hanging his mug shot alongside the row of distinguished presidents might say a lot.
How about an empty picture-frame?
Prescient: “He has betrayed our national security, and he will do so again,” House impeachment manager Adam Schiff warned the Senate. “You can’t trust [Trump] to do the right thing. Not for one minute, not for one election, not for the sake of our country. You just can’t. He will not change and you know it.” Schiff begged them to say “enough.”
"But they would not, and they did not, and here we are." Indeed, here we are...
Leaving a question of the Secret Service members... it sounded like there was involvement by some on January 6th.... this should get really interesting, really fast. The saddest part about this is that none of this is a surprise with TFG.
Hope more is coming on that front
Surely spies from several countries, both adversaries and allies (Russia, China, and Israel come to mind, since all three are known to conduct extensive covert intelligence-gathering operations), made copies of any documents that may have interested them sometime during 18 months that the documents resided at a beach resort, padlock or no padlock. To believe that they would have failed to take advantage of such easy pickings is well beyond naïve.
Wasn’t a Chinese national arrested at MAL for unlawful entry?
Yes and then there’s this: https://newsinteractive.post-gazette.com/anna-de-rothschild-trump-mar-a-lago-security-fbi-investigation/
FWIW:
"𝘖𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘭𝘭, 𝘸𝘦 𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘗𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘴𝘣𝘶𝘳𝘨𝘩 𝘗𝘰𝘴𝘵-𝘎𝘢𝘻𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦 𝘙𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵-𝘊𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘪𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘯 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘰𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘙𝘦𝘱𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘤𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘭𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘧𝘢𝘷𝘰𝘳 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵-𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘴. 𝘞𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘏𝘪𝘨𝘩 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘭 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘥𝘶𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢 𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘯 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘵 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘤𝘬 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘥."
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/pittsburgh-post-gazette/
OMG. I’ll look for more on this. Security? What security?
Their article was posted with the date 8/26/22:
https://newsinteractive.post-gazette.com/anna-de-rothschild-trump-mar-a-lago-security-fbi-investigation/
I read that one, although it scrolls weirdly, even from the WAPO comments section. Will look at Google for more on her.
I'm sure there are more sources. But the given direct link to the Post Gazette works OK for me.
We do not know how many months or years information has been sold or share...of course in exchange for, oh, I don't know...maybe love letters?
Actually, I'm now waiting for the other shoe to drop. It is very probable that DT has already monetized some of the classified documents. At the point that sees the light of day, DT will be considered a traitor, be indicted and hopefully suffer the consequences of his actions. Whether he goes to jail or the insane asylum is the next question. It is time for the Republican MAGA rats to leave the DT yacht. We, the People, all of us this time.
DT-delirium tremendous.
“Like no one has ever seen in history!”
Cathy, do you think the MAGAts will really finally see the light? And the elected repubs who continued to support TFG even when evidence was black and white, through Impeachments and scandals? And January 6. hope we’re still not on Fifth Avenue. I want to believe: Yes, finally “We the People.”
Irenie,
Sadly, the "True Believers" within the cult will never see the light, and most elected Republicans will never voluntarily get off the plutocratic gravy train. We've got to do everything it takes to insure a massive turnout of clear-eyed voters in November, and then figure out how to undo the damage caused by years of anti-democratic Supreme Court domination.
Irenie, I think they'll distance themselves from DT but will still be MAGAites in their thoughts and actions. I agree with the commentator who said "We have defeated Trump, but we have not defeated Trumpism!" I've always thought of DT as a symptom and enabler not the cause of what is happening. Our strength is standing up and uniting and voting en masse this November! We don't have to fall into the pit like Germany did in the 1930s. We, the People, all of us united this time!
Don't say insane asylum. He could plead innocent by reason of insanity. That would be a travesty.
Maybe we can have it both ways. Criminally insane so he stays in jail for the insane. He is certifiably insane and he is a danger to others. Think about all the people who died of COVID that would be alive today if he had treated COVID as the medical crisis it was.
But what about our pardons???
We know President Biden wouldn't pardon him. Hopefully, if the Republican Party itself survives and we have another Republican president he will want to move on from the whole DT era. (I said he deliberately. You can't protect white male privilege by putting a woman in the Presidency!) Maybe the Jan 6 Committee will recommend some limits to the President's pardon power.
"Trump’s lawyers told the DOJ that presidents have the absolute authority to declassify documents—this is not true, by the way—but did not assert he had done so."
So, one has to wonder, did Donald's lawyers graduate from a law school they found advertised on the back of a box of corn flakes?
Thanks for another week of finely crafted commentary, Heather. So glad you're wrapping up early. Rest well.
My dad worked at Kellogg's and, at one time, made corn flakes. And no way those boxes would have anything to do with a damn lawyer... you must be thinking of the prizes in the Cracker Jack box - that's probably where they got their law degrees.
Touché! 😆
Ha!!.......both boxes maybe misappropriated by those thugs.
It was probably on the back of a True Crime magazine.
Or matchbook cover.
All joking aside, what kind of an attorney willfully lies or misrepresents the intent of the law to protect a habitual criminal? Trump is a slow pay/no pay client so it's not as though they're being rewarded handsomely for representing him. They've seen other lawyers lose their right to practice law AND YET some are still foolish enough to jeopardize their careers by representing him. It makes ZERO sense.
This is a pure guess, but I visualized the likes of Eastman, Clark, etc., visualizing themselves sitting on the right hand of Frump if all went according to plan. Imagine the power they thought they could wield.
Yep. It’s what men have done since the beginning eons ago.
So clueless. That kind of power won’t light up a hovel, let alone a mansion.
Morning, Lynell. 🗽
Another round of "Morning" to you, Christine!
Good morning, Lynell (and Daria, and Christine)!
I believe the only thing that is motivating these "attorneys" is access to what they believe is "power". It sure can't be the money, since their "client" never pays his bills.
Buenos días, Ali! Yeah, "power" until they piss him off then he throws them under the bus.
No promised land for them, Ally; and that goes for the Frump-endorsed election deniers who scrubbed their websites in hopes of gaining the votes of the "conservative" Dems and Independents....see Dan Cox in Maryland; Blake Masters in Arizona; In Wisconsin, Frump-endorsed Tim Michels; Doug Mastriano in PA. Believe the stripes they wore when first they practiced to deceive!
Gifted: https://wapo.st/3PVmQ99
I daresay you're right, Lynell! What idiots. Very good morning to you!
.
A very fine Morning to you, too, Daria!
The legal profession has never been as honorable as attorneys would have us believe. It's only in the movies that they make it sound like the bar is hard to pass. If that were true, you wouldn't have all these third-rate personal injury lawyers.
I’m thinking it’s because Trump has dirt on them, so they are being blackmailed into it. And I’m thinking a lot of what Trump is doing is about getting dirt on people so that he can blackmail them in order to gain more power over them.
Like all professionals there are crummy lawyers. And those who have to settle for reflected “glory.” The 65 Project is pursuing them.
Wow, I had to look up the 65 Project. Didn't know about this group. Good for them and carry on!
Money and power mesmerize certain kinds of men and molls.
They NEED pardons, period
Daria, I've noted, too, that Heather is posting earlier this week. And also, did you see today that she was writing about the impeachment trials and those who lost their jobs due to tRump? Must be finishing her recent book and it must be about recent history and probably the fall of the rethuglican party.
Pam, yes! I'm looking forward to her new book. You may be right.
His lawyers graduated from the, expensive but fake, Trump University Law School.
I couldn't face the document today, and reminded myself that "Heather's letter tonight will sort out the main points." The main points seem to be espionage, with a "who knows who has this information now or how it might be used against us, perhaps even in literal years to come" chaser. Every layer uncovered revealed a heightened level of deliberately mercenary and democracy-destroying behavior by Trump, his sycophants, and defenders, all of whom seem to have some vague sense of no interiority, of there not being anything of value, or any values that pertain to life and not death, there beneath the surface. There is nothing except more surface. Yes, Trump is now in trouble and likely to be indicted, but we are on a sword's edge as a country in terms of the survival of any kind of democracy. I remember watching the 2016 RNC and feeling chilled, describing it to a friend as a "Nazi gathering wrapped in a shit-show." The ominous feeling hasn't left; perhaps I'm just more used to it. I'm grateful for this pocket of reality-based discussion and community. I'm doing what I can and I know you all are too. Rot coming to light has to be good. I hope Biden gives more speeches of the type in Maryland, and his new coms person is taking no prisoners on Twitter. Take care, everyone.
"Not anything of value, or any values that pertain to life and not death, there beneath the surface. There is nothing except more surface."
Key words.
Readers will hate and reject what I am going to say, but if we look coldly at ourselves and our history in recent decades, it becomes clear that Trump is not the disease but its ultimate and most deadly symptom.
And those key words accurately describe our society's disease, which is the outcome of an extreme imbalance: all on the surface, nothing behind it.
*
Here, however, we can take courage, for we know full well that there is more to life than surface effects. The cure is simple. Simple but far from easy, for it lies in reaching down beneath that surface, reaching down to tap our groundwater truth.
"The truth will make you free."
Yes, but the truth is what we most fear to face, what we never wanted to see. Hence our vain attempts to cling to that smooth surface with no fingerholds, nothing, nothing for the mind to cling onto.
And is not the fear that leads us to clutch for what is not there the ultimate irrational fear, the delusion of delusions? For danger lies in blindness, salvation in seeing things just as they are... and acting in consequence.
We are living in a nightmare. Awakening from a nightmare is difficult, the terror clings to us and won't let go. Yet awaken we must. Awaken and return to Life.
Ring the alarm bells!
Rise up.
Yes, but I am feeling a strange calmness that critical facts continue to be rolling out and we will fight against the darkness en masse. I am not complacent at all, but I feel we have got this. Your words resonate with me, Peter. Thanks-- I feel that America is having to face up to so many truths about who we are and our history and apathy. I am so grateful for all the historical and current teachings that Heather and commenters provide. It feels very providential that we have the good fortune of brilliant minds to help us learn and stay focused. It feels more and more likely that we have the ability to change our messy course as we navigate these currents of change. Our country and our people are facing a very necessary need for maturity and inward and outward self-reflection. The traitors in our own country provided the compost—let's seed a new democracy, together.
In my lifetime, I have seen no evidence of a representative democracy. This is the one crosscurrent in politics. People don't feel like government/their politicians are working on their behalf.
The wealthy have hijacked government by financially appropriating elected officials. Politicians believe the path to victory is possible only with the help and contributions from the wealthy. People on the right and the left agree on this point - how could they not?
The rest is politicians engaging in dividing and distracting voters by exploiting social issues, religious concerns, and other personal grievances. The core of personal grievances is failure to attain financial stability. Most people's mentality is to be in competition to have more - more money and more things; bigger house and better car! People are mean and vindictive against "others" who are less deserving.
Decades ago, I observed that the two parties participated in what I termed 'managed gridlock.' They played this cynical game which resulted in little getting accomplished except when it came to aiding and abetting their donors - tax breaks, deregulation, and erasing consumer protections. Both parties let companies offshore millions of middle-class jobs and gave them breaks in trade agreements - none of which improved the lives of most Americans. The trade-off was cheaper goods which weren't really cheaper because they didn't last long and had to be constantly replaced. Income and wealth inequality is the underlying problem in America! Politics and government have one rule - the Golden Rule. Those with the gold, make the rules.
Absolutely, We the People should rise up, should have risen up in greater numbers and more often. However, it seems that it has done little if any good because the situation has gotten far worse. For the last 10 years we have become distracted by the assault on our democracy by white Christo-fascists and white supremacists that were deviously united by the Republican Party in a successful attempt to drive a wedge between Americans whereby a minority could usurp the majority. The country hasn't been this divided since the Civil War.
Meanwhile, we have done little to address extraordinary civilization-crushing issues. The wealthy don't want these issues to be addressed because it hurts their profits. Some people are becoming better off, but most are hanging on oppressed by insufficient wages to cover the ever-increasing cost of living. There are jobs but those jobs are not paying enough. The minimum wage adjusted to 2022 COL should be nearly $85/hour. Social Security benefits are at the poverty line for most and as I recall, 50% of retirees have no savings to speak of. We are the only first world country that doesn't have affordable universal health care in a country whose healthcare costs are the highest per capita in the world. This is insane and it's because politicians sold us out to stay in the good graces of the wealthy.
This may be what you call a societal disease, but it is the reality in America for most people. Correct me if I'm wrong Peter, but your analysis is focused more on the smoke and mirrors that people get caught up in. Life sucks in America for the majority because people live to work. I like living in a country where people work to live and when the powers to be prevent that from happening there are serious protests and consequences. Here in Ecuador, the minority indigenous population shut the country down until the government made the concessions asked for (actually there is a 90 day pause in the strikes while negotiations continue.) The majority, the Mestizos, for the most part support the minority's demands. People need to work to live - everyone understands that. Live to work vs work to live is the difference in state of mind.
It seems at the root of the disease you cite is a system that rewards unfettered capitalism to the detriment of society as a whole. People are ingrained to believe that material wealth is a measure of personal achievement. People are expected to strive to be financially successful instead of fulfilling their potential. People are consumed with money as if it is the key to happiness. People are unhappy and are filled with grievances when they believe others are responsible for their not achieving financial success.
Chips, I am with you almost all the way. It's just that more and more countries are being driven by greed-fuelled idiots with the deepest of deep pockets to imitate Russia and China, where only one man seems to count. So much easier to do business when you don't have to navigate through regulatory minefields, just go straight to the boss or his minions.
In these countries, justice is simply an arm, a coercive arm, of the executive. In America, the GOP may have made great progress towards controlling justice by controlling judicial appointments and lobbies may have gained influence that makes one silver-tongued salesman selling policies to Congress while buying Congressmen and women worth more than thousands of voters, yet there is still a little genuine pluralism, the President cannot order a judge to imprison a rival for life, the law may work mainly for those who pay but it still does not work exclusively for Big Money.
These stupid but ultra-wealthy people are like spoiled kids who want the world for their playground, want to have everything their own way, want the state to be their very own superpowered wheeled vehicle -- with no steering, with no brakes.
As for living to work, that has the great advantage of ensuring that people survive in a state of permanent anxiety and never have the time or energy to think for themselves. They are in effect serfs, but without the reciprocity that feudal serfs enjoyed, that of being protected by their lord. Systematic overwork in the US is just a racket and one that can only be bad for US interests as it undermines the health and creativity of employees. That said, not all firms are run like that, some are far more imaginative, and correspondingly successful.
Despite the colossal damage done to the world in past decades, America is still a very imperfect oligarchy, fools with too much money for their own good and anybody else's have not yet had the last word there. They have done their damnedest to turn me into a communist and had more success than better men, yet still failed, while showing far more ability when it comes to transforming themselves into full-blown (not semi) fascists. All too like Kafka's Metamorphosis...
My apologies for this rant, but while, say, Russia will have a very hard time recovering from the damage the Putin regime has done to the country, America could still overcome the great handicaps imposed by privileging Mammon over mankind, could still win the struggle to become worthy at last of the highest claims in its Declaration of Independence.
"As for living to work, that has the great advantage of ensuring that people survive in a state of permanent anxiety and never have the time or energy to think for themselves." Thanks for making that point. Unions, actually union leaders, had many faults but at its core was selective bargaining, job protection, and wage and benefit improvements.
We know Republicans chipped away at unions, but why didn't Democrats fight harder to protect unions? Union workers used to be the Democrats main rank and file supporters. I don't know if many people realize that a lot of those Trumpers are former Democrats and former union workers who are mad as hell at Democrats and government who they blame for their change in fortune. The main reason the middle class has been shrinking is because of loss of good paying union jobs. And union wages forced non-union companies to pay more to compete for employess.
A lot of blue states turned red when Democrats caved to their rich doners and gave only lip service to union workers. Democrats always came up a couple of votes short to protect unions. (i.e Managed Gridlock)
The demise of union domination was THE major turning point in my lifetime. When unions fell, so did wages. When unions fell, the wealthy had finally got the control they sought over the politicians. Republicans and Democrats alike changed their allegiance to the 1% at great harm to the 99%. They did it for personal empowerment, i.e. get and stay in office.
The legislative branch was the first to sell out; then the executive branch, and in the last couple years the judicial branch finally came under the control of the wealthy. The wealthy have taken over the government to protect and increase their income and wealth as well as establish a firm grip on the direction of the country. They stir the pot on social issues to keep people from focusing on their grip on power.
These social issues shouldn't even be in the domain of any government. It should not be the role of government to decide for women how to live their life nor to take control of a women's body. It is not the role of government or the Supreme Court to decide who can and cannot be joined in marriage. The SC has no business according to the Constitution and its Amendments to make decisions about race, creed or color.
The oligarchs don't want democracy; they want a plutocracy. That feudal system you mentioned, Peter, is right around the corner if Republicans gain control. And an autocratic president will most certainly order judges to imprison enemies of the state. We are much closer to becoming like Russia than most people can imagine. Maybe the military can save us, but recent polling suggests that the military (and law enforcement in general) are more aligned with the far right than I would have guessed.
Finally, there are only a handful of employee-owned companies that have survived. Most quietly are run out of business or bought out by larger corporations. Like unions, they are threat to capitalism.
I think we are saying the same thing but coming at it from different directions.
I think we are saying the same things, but we come from different continents. I was first unionized as a teenager doing a vacation job. Afterwards, in one way or another for all my working life. As for serfdom without feudal protection, I don't see this as being around the corner but all too present here and now.
FDR did what he could to make capitalists understand that his social policies were in their interest if they weren't to have violent revolution on their hands. Today such talk is farting against the wind.
I could never have imagined we'd see Nazism on the rise again, least of all in America or in Russia which suffered so terribly at the hands of Hitler's hordes. Yet there is a very real danger of something far too much like Putin's regime being brought to America. There is nothing vaguely like Allende's Chilean Socialist Party to be found in America but, as in Putin's Russia, there is no lack of Pinochet's admirers dreaming of the putsch to end all putsches.
I like the way you bring context and facts to the conversation. I learn something from each of your comments. Be well and stay safe.
Thank you ChipsPOV!! Truth. I'm waiting for the recording of Thursday's Zoom call on "Looking for Democracy in the US Constitution" ... will post it here when it comes in ... good insight and perspective on what foundations of American law do and do not guarantee ... most of what people believe in as rights, and vow to protect and defend has no roots in reality - projected dreams and ideals with little or no ground in law to support ... just off the top, here are some materials posted in the chat ...:
"The foundation of logical and inspirational principles expressed in the Declaration of Independence is stated early on with "the Laws of Nature and Nature's God". The laws codified by the Constitution regularly ignores both of these two fundamental law sets. And every problem we see today is reflected in this failure.
"Has there ever been a democracy that works? Majority votes can turn into genocide. Thomas Jefferson defined Democracy as "two wolves and a lamb deciding what to have for lunch. Freedom is a well Armed lamb contesting the Vote.""
*******
The National Community Rights Network:
The National Community Rights Network (NCRN) is a central resource for advancing a movement for local self-government through community rights.
Empowering the Rights of Communities!
Recognizing the Rights of Nature!
https://www.nationalcommunityrightsnetwork.org
https://www.nationalcommunityrightsnetwork.org/about
https://www.facebook.com/NationalCRN
nationalcrn@gmail.com
*****
Rights-based organizing empowers communities to elevate the rights of people and nature over illegitimate corporate rights that impede local and direct democracy.
Only when we realize that we are trapped in a fixed system can we begin to create new organizational strategies to work for what we envision within our communities, instead of compromising for what we don’t want.
This is a grassroots movement and we continue to work for true protections, not “stronger” regulations that legalize and allow the harm. This new era of organizing allows community members to be decision-makers.
https://static.wixstatic.com/media/16cba6_9fdd39735e8a4c10bbe055f7c184af03~mv2.jpg/v1/crop/x_107,y_4,w_1298,h_1038/fill/w_688,h_554,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/wheel_July.jpg
Natural ecosystems have an inalienable right to not only exist but to flourish. Rights of Nature is not a new concept; however, its acceptance and implementation in the legal framework is a recent global phenomenon. The Rights of Nature Movement is a call to recognize our dependence on nature by protecting life-sustaining ecosystems and by granting our natural resources necessary legal protection and enforceable rights to ensure its health as well as our own survival. Through Rights of Nature, we ensure its ability and right to thrive and prosper rather than to be used as a mere tool of industry and corporate profit.
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National Community Rights Amendment
https://www.nationalcommunityrightsnetwork.org/ncrn-amendment
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Program on Corporations, Law & Democracy
Contesting the Authority of Corporations to Govern
https://www.poclad.org
*****
POCLAD 2007 article by Greg Coleridge and Virginia Rasmussen:
The U. S. Constitution: Pull the Curtain
One of a series of two articles on the U.S. Constitution
The Rule Of Property
Building A Democracy Movement — Starting Locally
https://www.poclad.org/BWA/2007/BWA_2007_DEC.html
https://www.poclad.org/BWA/files/2007/BWAVol8No2Winter2007.pdf
*******
The REAL Democracy History Calendar
https://realdemocracyhistorycalendar.wordpress.com/about/
Corporate entities and individuals of extreme wealth have largely captured our government and economic institutions. Basic political, economic and human rights are in decline. The result is a lack of real democracy — defined as the ability of those who are affected by decisions having an authentic voice in the shaping of those decisions.
However, people have always strived for basic rights, resisted oppression, created alternative structures, and sought to control the power and influence of corporate entities and extreme wealth in society through education, advocacy and social movement organizing.
The REAL Democracy History Calendar provides 1-4 listings per day sent by email every Monday morning of activities, events, quotes from prominent individuals and/or other occurrences (both past and recent) on the themes of democracy, human rights, corporate power and rule, and wealth in society (especially in elections).
This Calendar is a production of Create Real Democracy:
https://realdemocracyhistorycalendar.wordpress.com
Much of its original content came from the research and writings of individuals connected to the Program on Corporations, Law & Democracy (POCLAD: http://www.poclad.org) and the former Northeast Ohio American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). It’s currently updated by Greg Coleridge.
Our goal is to inform, intrigue and inspire — and to illuminate the reality that creating real democracy will not happen by changing any one politician, passing/repealing any one law or regulation, or reversing any single Supreme Court decision. It requires, rather, changing our political, economic and social culture – one byproduct of which will be to democratize our legal structures through genuinely inclusive, multi-issue, nonviolent social movements.
To sign up, click here
https://list-manage.us12.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=22ec715597d3c293b2e73e2e8&id=e937dc1b64
Kathleen, the fact that you can still freely write what you have just written and campaign for real, deeply valid causes without getting beaten up, imprisoned or forced into hiding is a better and more practical argument than any I put forward in answering Chips. But I can't help fearing that if the Drumpfistas have their way, those like you who think freely but don't have billions with which to back their thinking will be in real danger. As will the whole world.
They are barking mad.
Yet establishing tyranny in America still has to be an uphill struggle. For one thing, the eejits won't just be trying to suppress everyone who looks different, talks different, doesn't read from the same prayer book, they'll be using their vile weapons against one another.
Courage!
Well said. This reader may not LIKE it, but I happen to agree 100% with what you write here. All surface, no depth. All pablum, no critical thinking.
Powers of governance in America are grounded in the authority of Christian faith as written in the Bible - which is (mis)translated contrary to the laws of Creation - so if the laws of God are Supreme, these power brokers, as representatives of the Law can be held accountable for their hypocrisy violating the fundamental laws of Creation.
Who will throw the money changers from the Temple of Life today? -
Have to agree, but the Kardashians….
I feel somewhat proud that, when my wife asked "who or what are the Kardashians?" I had to Google it. I vaguely knew that it was some TV show I had never watched. Upon googling, I understood why.
You and she should be very proud. They and the one named after a French city and a hotel chain have confused my intelligence as much as the rethuglican cult.
Humor helps, smarty!
That is so perfect, Jeri! The "surface" of empty distractions for too many.
Karell, Linda, yours is the most pointed, far-reaching comment I have yet seen on today's Letter... up to the words "shit-show".
You shine a light on the deep implications of this criminal lunatic's term in power and his actions, culminating in what we can now all see for ourselves.
You then write "The ominous feeling hasn't left..." Words that demonstrate your awareness of the horror, the dangers now closing in on us all.
But when you continue " perhaps I'm just more used to it" those words and all that follow simply demonstrate trauma. The depth of shock that engulfs all those with ears to hear and eyes to see.
I cannot find words to meet the situation, so I am most grateful for yours, which are worth sharing more widely.
*
Now is no longer a time for hope, we can only prepare to face whatever comes. Together.
Sunlight can be a sanitizer.
“Nazi gathering wrapped in a shit-show,” has been so and got banned from Twitter for saying so.