I don't believe executive privelege extends beyond the term of service. There is no former executive privelege. I also believe that, while in office, every government official, especially the president, needs to be aware that at some point, everything they do, or fail to do, will be subject to examination, and, if appropriate, criminal prosecution.
Failure by a sitting president to "preserve, protect, and defend the constitution of the United States" while in fact actively seeking to undermine both the spirit and the letter of that document is treason of the highest order.
Ty Ralph! I groaned when the ugly term executive privilege reared it's ugly head, yet again! I was like, wait, he's immune from complying with our laws (subpoenas, and testifying under oath) while he's in office, and still immune after he gets kicked out?? No, WTF....
The privilege exists in order to keep bad actors from trying to impede a president in the execution of his duties, or imprison them without the investigation required by impeachment. This kind of thing often happens in destabilized postcolonial and post-Soviet countries, and is as scary a prospect, if not scarier, than the Former Guy's abuse of it. The power of which ended for him the morning of January 20th.
Executive privilege (EP) is a sticky wicket. Washington was the first to use it but it wasn't until Eisenhower the term "executive privilege" was used. Executive privilege is not a slam dunk as Nixon found out when he had to release his tapes. Bush II used EP like he was on steroids. He tried by executive order to extend it to former presidents and to extend it to "designated family representative".
Whether or not Trump can claim EP revolves around "intent" from what I've uncovered in my cursory search.
"There are generally four areas that an executive branch claim of privilege is based: 1) presidential communications privilege; 2) deliberative process privilege; 3) national security, foreign relations or military affairs, and 4) an ongoing law enforcement investigation."
"The fact that the privilege itself survives the tenure of a president does not, however, answer the more difficult question of who may assert that privilege. "
Same here. It's impossible to not decided guilt before the trial in TFG's case even though he's afforded the right to innocence. It's just so far beyond the pale all my objectivity is lost.
Which is why he'll never be tried in any US court. This problem is why the International Court was created in the Hague. Which we did not join because we didn't want someone like Trump tried by "them furriners."
No - shooting someone is a flat-out crime. If he can describe what he did about the election as "discussing election/legal policy possibilities," then it might be covered. However, "executive privilege" doesn't cover conspiracy to overthrow the government, so if those conversations can be shown to have happened in furtherance of such an event, then not covered. That's why I used the term "might be."
So I feel the DOJ has cleared the road in a timely and correctly interpretive manner to give the Select Committee the breadth they will need to investigate.
My other conclusion is purely speculative:
The former believes the Big Bullsh*t Lie more than anyone because he cannot believe HE LOST. Therefore, he still uses “Executive privilege” escape because he thinks he can.
Why am I completely unsurprised Bush II is desperate to extend executive privilege as far as possible? His administration was such a disaster for this country you have to wonder what the hell they were thinking. I'm sure there are many powerful interests very eager to keep the machinery out of reach of a curious public.
Bush II and Cheney are, at the core, responsible for the current state of Afghanistan and Iraq. In a just world, they would have already been tried as war criminals.
One obvious connection I see between him and ex-#45 is they were both spoiled rich little brats used to always getting their way and not afraid to inflict pain on others.
If that is possible, I want to be in on it. The sickening, unrelenting stress & angst he's put me (and us) through has taken a toll, mentally and physically, not to mention the 649 thousand (and growing) deaths from Covid-19.
Laws and rules do not concern him. Some day, I pray, they will catch up with him. His bluster and "positive thinking" (thanks a lot, NVP) can not protect him from justice forever.
May you be correct, Kim. All one can say for sure at this point is that his history suggests that the 'slime baggery' works. Can it be stopped? I hope so.
Absolutely, Ralph Averill. Seems like a no-brainer. How is it this is even a question, a sitting president failing to "preserve, protect, and defend the constitution of the United States"?
From what I heard last night, he can litigate and slow down the Select Committee's investigation, but it will likely be revealed. Let's hope. That would be the best way to prove Big Orange's (BO) treason and the complicity of his henchmen-and-women.
That's his forte isn't it?. He's been doing it his whole adult life. No doubt he's going to claim Executive Privilege after he exhausts all other options.
No, executive privilege regarding things said/done during the term of office can be protected. In fact, if Trump mounts a legal case to block this congressional demand, he will likely be supported by the DoJ, on the grounds they don't want to see a precedent set that would make it easy for Chairman Jim Jordan of the House Investigating Committee in 202- to have easy access to President Biden's record.
Just remember, the power of subpeona is a two-edged sword.
Joe Biden's DoJ is going to let Trump off the hook to protect Joe Biden? Did Joe Biden lead an insurrection too? What has he got to hide that hasn't already been discovered? What does any honest politician need to hide his/her record?
I'm not a lawyer. I started my original post with "I believe...", but I don't think executive privelege can be used to hide criminal activity, (see Nixon, Richard,) the same as attorney/client privelege.
No former president should be able to skate on treason and sedition.
I really think you should reconsider your decision not to take that reading comprehension class. What you think was said is not what was said. They will defend him to see if the requested material is covered by executive privilege, because there is a need to be concerned with precedent - for Biden or anyone else. If the material is not protected, then there is no precedent to be concerned with. But that determination has to be made.
I mean, seriously, would you want Gym Jordan or any of the other fuckwits to have an unlimited subpeona power? Give it a thought.
I read your post twice more and came away with the same conclusion. Maybe you should reconsider that writing course, and learn to express yourself a little more clearly, Mr. Published Author.
Unlike many sites, this site is characterized by mutual respect. Maybe you should try some of that, too.
It felt good to see the rule of law being upheld and reinforced by District Judge Linda Parker in Michigan sanctioning the lawyers for DT who brought a frivolous law suit against Michigan. She ordered them to pay legal fees of the State of Michigan, to have the nine lawyers get some court ordered education on election law and to refer the lawyers to their state bar for possible suspension of their license to practice law and even disbarment. Sounds like the judge's entire 110 page decision makes for some excellent reading. A district court judge here in Texas told me we would be all right as long as the Rule of Law held in our democracy. This gives me hope.
I look at the faces in the photograph and grow still and just think about things. These are perhaps men that were sons and grandsons of young freed slaves. To look at the medals bestowed by France and to think of them fighting all too well for freedom…..it stirs something in me.
Thank you, Professor Richardson, for the significant photos that accompany the history of which you write.
What strikes me is that they are all smiling, although they were well aware of our country's scorn. They knew that their contribution was immense. Shame on our racist history.
There was a colored unit in Brownsville, Texas, when Teddy Roosevelt was president. When the white folks falsely claimed murder and mayhem, and the unit commander defended the men, Teddy Roosevelt sent the unit home, relieved of duty, without a penny in pension, AFTER he was elected to another term. Black mark on an American president; thank goodness for the French who know bravery when they see it, and the US, belatedly..... Wait, 100 years?
"Theodore Roosevelt: 'The Only Good Indians Are the Dead Indians' When Theodore Roosevelt took office in 1901, he already had a long legacy of animosity toward American Indians. ... When he returned to the east, he famously asserted that “the most vicious cowboy has more moral principle than the average Indian.”
Reading your letter today has once again confirmed how blessed we are to have you to help us put these events in context of our history. I am so grateful I have found you and this amazing group of people. As a psychotherapist I studied systems theory which emphasized the importance of seeing the person in context of the wider systems. I am so impressed with your ability to do this with current events and our history. I love the way you are able to track the threads and pull the threads together so we can see the bigger picture. Our news with the latest breaking story is piecemeal, overwhelming, and difficult to put in context. Thank you for helping me see the bigger picture.
Horace Pippin, one of my favorite artists, was also a Harlem Hellfighter and incredibly proud of it. He was injured by a sniper, but overcame his injury to produce both lovely genre paintings and far edgier paintings influenced by his war experience.
Betsy, many thanks for sharing this window into Horace Pippin! It’s breathtaking learning more about him. I’m in instant-love with his School Studies and Sleepers.
About 20 years ago, I visited her Chateau de Milandes, now a museum, in France where she gathered her "rainbow tribe" of adopted children. I recommend the biography by one of her children, "Josephine Baker: the Hungry Heart" by Jean-Claude Baker. You'll be amazed by the many facets of her life including the French Resistance. "At the end of the war she was awarded the Medal of Resistance, The Legion of Honour and The Croix de Guerre with palm." Here's a brief biographical sketch: https://thegoodlifefrance.com/josephine-baker-chateau-des-milandes/
Many Black musicians and entertainers migrated to France, because their talent was appreciated and they weren't relegated to juke joints, as they were here.
The 19th-C musician Edmond Dédé (1827-1905) was a free-born Creole born in New Orleans. He moved to France to study and remained there as a conductor and composer. It's unlikely he'd have had the success he experienced in France if he'd remained in the Louisiana, or anywhere in the US during his lifetime.
The 369th had an infantry band led by James Reese Europe. Its marches were often syncopated, New Orleans style. The French had never heard anything like it. You could start by reading about Europe, the man. Commenting on other posts: The exemplary actions of black Cavalry soldiers out west after the civil war was often written about by white officers. For white soldiers, the war was over, and they didn’t want to be out west. They were a ragtag bunch. Many deserted. The black soldiers seemed to feel to a man that the way they behaved would reflect upon their entire race. The hellfighters and many black soldiers of ww2 probably felt the same.
No one, including Taliban leaders, know what will transpire in Afghanistan over the coming weeks and months. I was a Foreign Service Officer serving in/on Congo (1960-1966). Among other things I witnessed: 1) three major rebellions; 2) two sustained UN military attacks against a renegade Congolese province, whose leader Incredibly became prime minister of the Congolese government several years later; 3) a CIA-run Congolese Air Force staffed by Cuban personnel recruited from Bay of Pigs veterans; 4) five white mercenary contingents; 5) frightening rebel threats to kill 3,300 foreign hostages, including captured American consulate personnel; and 6) a Belgian/U. S. Military operation that rescued the great majority of these hostages.
Like the Congo, I find the Taliban Afghanistan a bizarre, three-dimensional puzzle. The Taliban have inherited a failed state. They have no experience in running a country, which is in shambles and financially broke. The massive foreign funds from America, international institutions, and humanitarian organizations have been abruptly suspended
The Taliban leaders are desperate to obtain international ‘legitimacy.’ They view this as imperative in obtaining Afghan funds that are currently blocked by America and by other entities. Currently Kabul banks are closed for lack of funds. With a prolonged drought,,the massive humanitarian aid that had provided sustenance to millions of Afghans is in limbo.
The Taliban was fueled by a conservative religious fervor based on Sharia law, which, among other strictures, treated women badly. As Taliban leaders are discussing a government of ‘national union’ with former Afghan leaders and tribal chieftains, the reaction to such dealings by the Taliban soldiers is unknown. How might Taliban leaders balance their desire for a ‘moderate’ international image with the fervor that has sparked it’s guerrilla war movement? Also, nearly half of Afghanistan’s 34 million people hadn’t been born when the Taliban was forced out 20 years ago. Young Afghans have been accustomed to a different life style during these non-Taliban years.
What are the options for the United States and other Western nations? Immediately this could relate to pragmatic negotiations to extend the rescue of foreigners and more Afghans who fear for their lives. Longer term, what conditions might be demanded to release at least a portion of the billions of dollars of Afghan funds now being blocked? What might be the terms of an arrangement to restart the flow of imperative humanitarian aid to the millions of Afghans in a drought economy where the individual annual income is about $2,000? Under what conditions might America and other countries acknowledge the legitimacy of the Taliban regime? Might the UN serve as intermediary in some manner?
What might be the role of China and Russia? China has some previous agreements for mineral development in Afghanistan. Might it seek to help the Taliban government? What Russia might do seems an enigma.
Mike Good point! By ‘legitimacy,’ I am referring to de facto or de jure diplomatic recognition. America did not officially acknowledge the legitimacy of the Soviet Union for 16 years, of Communist China for a generation, and, I believe, of Haiti for even longer. After my ‘rambunctious’ activity in rebel-infested Congolese provinces, two American ambassadors in Saigon ‘requested’ that I join them in Vietnam. Twice I refused. Contrary to robust military assessments, I found it crystal clear that there was no light at the end of that tunnel and that nationalism was far stronger than a bevy of military governments in Saigon.
Yes, the Vietnamese people, ably led by Ho Chi Minh, definitely wanted to run their own country without a Colonial corruption layer between them and getting things done.
Ho Chi Minh's ability to take a bunch of teenagers with old rifles and overwhelm the US Military? Even as we denuded their priceless jungles with Agent Orange, even as we dropped more bombs on them than all of those dropped in WW II.
One of the great lessons of history. People are willing to fight for their homes.
Who knew? :-)
That tends to generate some energy in folks for sure.
Mike Might one describe Vietnam as a modern day David vs. Goliath? (The bicycle again ask the helicopter?) What about the battle of Lexington/Concord, when the British marched so confidently out of Boston? (What lovely British uniforms—red coats absorb blood tastefully) . I recall vividly, in 1948, when Arab armies attacked poorly-armed little Israel confident of smashing success. (When Egyptian tanks ran out of gas, the tank crews fled and the Israelis advanced with gas trucks and then attacked the Egyptians with their own tanks) Or when Churchill, during the Battle of Britain, spoke of Hitler’s boast that he would ‘wring Britain’s neck: “Some chicken—some neck.” SPIRIT AND CONVICTION ARE MIGHTY BULLETS<
Our military in Vietnam grossly miss read the situation on the ground regarding both nationalist spirit and actual military force. General Westmoreland, later supported by CIA Director Colby, deliberately greatly underestimated the total Viet Cong military force. Sam Adams, my good professional (I was State Dept, he was CIA analyst) and personal friend, went from being a crackerjack Congo analyst to scrutinizing the order of battle of the Viet Cong. He discovered that our Army intelligence had been lackadaisical in monitoring raw intelligence. Sam’s rigorous analysis revealed that the total Viet Cong military force was 200,000 more than the official Army figures. General Westmoreland went bananas, for political reasons the CIA director supported him and officially muzzled Sam, and Sam was ultimately obliged to leave a career for which he was richly suited.
I am reminded of the comment: “Armies are so screwed up that they only have a chance of success by fighting another army.
Pretty tragic. All those bright minded resources in the 1960's with their minds focused on maximizing profit for Playboy (which was distributed to troops in Vietnam), Monsanto (agent orange), Raytheon, and hundreds of other military contractors who got on the infinite money train of war.
Same with Afghanistan. Twenty years and $3 Trillion dollars and it would have all been better spent on free college tuition, or, infrastructure, or, just fishing on the bank of a creek.
A complete waste. Vietnam. Afghanistan.
Plus, all those dead bodies of actual people in Vietnam and Afghanistan. Innocent dead bodies that we created for....
Thought I heard Blinken say he would recognize and work with whoever in order to get all US citizens out of Afghanistan, as well as Afghan who wish to leave.
As a former Foreign Service Officer, I am familiar with diplomatic ‘speak talk.’We haven’t had an embassy in Teheran since 1979, but we managed to negotiate the 6-nation 2015 nuclear deal. Ditto with Cuba for 60 years, though there have been numerous ‘discussions. Our CIA director had such discussions with the Taliban during this most turbulent period.
Just because they have forced a regime change, facilitated by their indiscriminate slaughter of innocent non combatants in front of hospitals, schools, markets, etc. doesn’t mean that they have a clue how to drive the ship of state. They know how to kill and it doesn’t take any education to know how to do that, running a government is another matter, just look at what we have experienced under the leadership of the insipid infantile clown, every thing they touched they damaged, you can’t say that about any previous administration. The taliban are about to hit a wall, that memorization of the koran in madrassas will ill prepare them for, and if they if they figure out a way to break through it they will then discover that it was protecting them from the cliff on the other side, as they hurtle off into the abyss. I think you are right, this is far from a settled issue.
Those billions they need that we control since they're in American banks might be the basis of a negotiation to extend the evacuation past August 31 (which was an arbitrary date unilaterally set by Biden, not something negotiated with the Taliban). It's well-known that money is the international language everyone understands.
In my opinion, what happens will be as surprising as the CIA-run air force you mention sixty odd years ago manned by Cuban personnel. Expect the unexpected.
Morning everyone. The starkness of the choices we now have in the next 3 years: elect more Dems in the House and Senate or see everything fall off a cliff into the Land of Autocracy. The Ghastly Obstructionist Party is terrified of what is happening now. Remember that rabid creatures are dangerous when cornered and they infect everything around them with no thought to the future. They are the real-world zombies.
One of the things I find interesting about all the hand wringing about Afghanistan is that the media are also now dropping the ball about all kinds of things the Despicables are rushing to get done while they are yelping and bellowing about Afghanistan: on the local level we are now seeing anti-choice bills being rushed through state legislatures; governors threatening to withdraw funds from schools with mask mandates; a ton of racist laws trying to restrict the vote. And very little of this is finding its way to the airwaves because everyone--who had ignored Afghanistan more or less happily for the last 20 years--is now pulling a "but her emails" moment to deflect attention to the anti-democratic activities going on all over the country. The doggedness of the House select committee is welcome, but they will continue to do their work more or less in a vacuum unless and until they can stop the "news" media from sucking all the air out of the room.
And yes: I am totally fed up. With a lot of things. But I will save all of that for another time.
Nice job wrapping it all up. But the question remains: what do we do about a political party, its leadership and its gullible and mostly ignorant supporters bent on destroying democracy in our country and replacing it with some brand of autocracy? The media is less than objective and that doesn't help either. Hope your "another time" is soon.
One thing we can do is what Joe Biden knows can make a difference: get broadband out to every home in the nation. The GOP has had the benefit of keeping too many people, the people they most take advantage of, in the dark tunnels of misinformation or no information. I am watching to see how hard the Rs fight against including that in any bill being considered. I fully expect that to be one of the pieces that gets pulled out of any bill. Eager to see what happens there. As to the Black soldiers from WWI finally getting the honor from the USA, it is wonderful it is happening. I am halfway through Isabel Wilkerson's "Caste" and my growing outrage and sadness over racism is making day to day life difficult. I honestly am so incredibly impressed with our black and brown neighbors and fellow citizens for continuing to rise up and take it all on. They will make more progress when more of us pale people take it on, too.
With you Deborah 100%. “Caste” was a deliberate and difficult read for me. I’ve shared the book with many. It completely changed my historical and emotional perspective about racism. I’ve referenced a personal encounter that Isabel Wilkerson describes on pgs 52-53 of her book a few times. I had to put the book down and think about it for a few days before continuing. The truth of it upended me.
Here is a brief rendering of the 8 pillars of caste in America. Sounds all too familiar of an agenda of the organizations running the Republican Party. The Heritage Foundation comes to mind.
I wish I could say that this is changing, but it isn't. We as a world are still requiring the most traumatized people in our midst to "fix" what we--as the privileged and powerful--broke. A report presented yesterday about systemic racism in the mortgage approval system (the exact same kind of study has been done over and over again and has produced the same result over decades of study) was stark. A report presented a couple weeks ago about systemic racism in job applications, especially high-skill and high-salaried ones, (the exact same kind of study has been done over and over again for decades and has produced the same result) is stark. Reports on systemic racism in evictions have also been aired over the last few weeks. But instead of looking at these studies and looking at themselves and saying "well, shit: we have to do better than this" and eradicating the metrics that lead to systemic racist action, the institutions--banking, real estate, most large corporations and HR departments--turn to gaslighting, claiming that the reports' findings are "explainable" and "rational" when they clearly are not. And if you dump gender into the pot along with race and class, well, you get the perfect intersectional horror show.
I see the problem as existential. Humans hate doing the hard emotional work of investigating themselves and their own actions, derived from generations of ingrained behavior triggers, and acknowledging the harm they have done, and to whom. Humans are not by nature introspective, because real introspection can be humiliating and super distressing. So humans tend to glom onto the tropes that make them feel better--and those usually present humanity as hierarchic in ways that can be determined by visual cues: male/female; white/not-white are just the easiest ones to recognize in the West. It's so much easier not to think, after all.
Every morning I get an intelligent, almost always surprising, too often shocking, useful mailing from Anti-racism Daily. It is helping me think. It is helping me do things large and small, so I have alternatives to wringing my hands in useless White guilt. I can’t recommend it enough! Google it. You can subscribe for free, or you can start your reparations by donating.
Deborah, I too am reading "Caste" and it rocks me to the core. At 70, it's very hard to read this and realize I'm a product of a white priveleged education and life in general. There is SO MUCH to be ashamed of, personally and nationally.
Yes, indeed, Barbara it is a hard read, even for somebody who thought they sorta got it. Nonetheless, we cannot be deeply ashamed of things that happened in the past, beyond our control and before we understood. We can, however, be ruthlessly determined to participate as agents of change. This is the significant challenge for us all who are embedded in a society where perhaps 40% do not understand or care about the evils of racism and another 10-20% have no inclination to change things from which they profit personally. For such people, I fear, it does not matter who they step on as they scramble to accumulate as much as they can. This too IMO is a critical aspect of what produces human caste systems. This is not to demean in anyway Wilkerson's main thesis about race and caste in America but to connect it clearly to her analysis of the Indian origin of the concept and underscore that both are alive and well in the US today. The second and in some ways more despicable crew, IMO, uses the first to get where they want to go. Years ago a friend of mine from Georgia confessed confusion about how 'they get people to vote against their own self-interest'? The answer, I fear, is simple: they just don't see it that way, which is a great tragedy for the rest of us.
I don't feel shame but realize many people do. I would rightly feel shame if I still took no proactive steps. It is better late than never and now that I know all these truths, I must speak up, I must be brave enough to state the truth, and I am obliged, I think, to pass on what I have learned to others around me. I have given or recommended the book to many already and will continue to do so. I can vote for and support those who will vote for the futures and needs and opportunities of all human beings, not just white ones. And so on. No time for shame. Let's get moving!
broadband is a good idea, but only potentially helpful ... I mean, this underscores another deep problem: access to the internet gives many access to more (and quite impressive) 'dark tunnels of misinformation'. I have no idea what to do about that apart from more practical emphasis in education to help youngsters to much better understand how to separate truth from fiction and how to recognize (and reject) propaganda.
Agree 100% about the requirement for ALL to get behind the push toward what is right.
In fact we don't have to put up with those algorithms that take people down dark spirals into Alternate Reality. They exist to augment Facebook (and its subsidiaries') profits. Zuckerberg keeps wiggling out of his responsibility in Congressional hearings: we MUST put more pressure on. Here's Ben Grosser's brilliant documentary collage "Order of Magnitude" on Z's obsession with "more"(featuring hilarious montages of paralyzed boredom on the faces of every one who has to listen to him, in or out of Congress). Spread it--it makes him too ridiculous to bow to: https://bengrosser.com/projects/order-of-magnitude/
You are not distressed that the Harlem Hellfighters and their families and their fellow Black soldiers and the Black people of this country had to wait a century (and fie while waiting) for the honor? That some readers snd HCR take this information as uplifting is certainly distressing to me.
Mary, perhaps you are unfamiliar with the book "Caste." I made an assumption that readers would understand that as I learn more background, the more upset and enraged, and discouraged I have become. It is incredible that people of color have survived at all given the horrible racism and systems that have continued to make their lives so incredibly difficult. And yes, I did the math and know that this medal is more than 100 years too late.
I have a hard time believing most, if not all, HCR readers are not distressed, at the least, by the wait. But there is room for also feeling uplifted that it finally happened. I would imagine that the families of the HH would also appreciate both reactions.
1) I didn't say "most." But 2) I wouldn't have thought *any* would remain undistressed till I read one after another comment grateful for the sunny uplift. So, I commented.
The Rethuglican mouthpieces are out in full force and singing from the same hymnal. So I have a question for all of my astute friends here. Are there any Democratic mouthpieces rebutting this crap? Has anyone heard what, if anything, Democratic Chair Jamie Harrrison is doing? I haven’t heard a peep from him. I had such high hopes when he ran a good campaign against Lindsey Graham and then was chosen as the head of the party. So if I am wrong please enlighten me.
First of all, congratulations to America. Over 80 000 people have been evacuated in little more than a week. The first day or so was the “bug”. The next few days were the “feature”. Where there is American will, a way will be found. From Biden on down, this has been an extraordinary forging of history. In the months ahead, hundreds of individual stories will come out that show humanity at its finest. Well done.
Months ago, I felt the same about the logistical challenge getting the vaccines out. There was enormous hand-wringing about the fact that America was behind other countries in this.
At the time we didn’t know how iron-willed Biden was. What we did know was that America is a mighty engine with deep organizational chops and the resources to make things happen.
Six months later, the picture is clear. All who wanted to be vaccinated have gotten the two shots.
Sadly, there are quislings in America. One of them ran the country (into the ground) for four years.
As a result there are millions of unvaccinated Americans and the scourge continues. The fact that Trump “endorsed” the vaccine last week is risible. That train has left the station.
Going forward, there is much work to be done, but there will be some victories. There must be continued social shunning until the critical mass of herd immunity. Large employers, sports teams, governments, commercial establishments - all of them must close their doors to all who are unvaccinated. The tide has already started - there are stories every day about this employer and that organization making vaccines mandatory. There is safety in numbers here. Those whose brains have curdled under the influence of Trump and those spoiling for a fight are going to have a hard time if the public fury and implacability of resolve is turned on them.
As a side thought, the resources that went into winning Georgia’s Senate seat must be turned to Florida, so that deSantis is punted decisively out of office.
Some way, somehow the Voting Rights legislation must be passed. If Pelosi could sweep away the protestations of mine potentially defecting Democrats, then Manchin and Sinema can be brought to their knees.
Without these bills passing, it’s hard to see how America is not lost.
As for Trump and conspiring Republicans, I fear that revenge will be a dish served very, very cold. Every legal dodge in the book, including Executive privilege, will be used to tie the House Committee in knots. Witnesses will not show, materials will be delivered with much expunged, and the courts will be used in every way to slow walk the process. Some of this will surely reach the Supreme Court, in whom we all invest perfect confidence I’m sure.
Maybe indictments from the DOJ will supersede some of the Committee’s work. But I’m not sanguine.
In summary, I believe that we will wait a long time for appropriate justice, which is beyond galling.
But in the meantime, good and great work has been done by this Administration. Now the big legislative pull is at hand.
"All who wanted to be vaccinated have gotten the two shots." Not at all. Maybe all White people who wanted it? All people who could take time off work to get it, and more time to deal with the reaction (in my case 3 days in bed)?
Good point. I was perhaps two sweeping. I’m very sorry about your bad reaction.
I was very fortunate with Moderna. I noticed literally nothing (except that I was surprised at my emotional reaction). I’m normally low key, but I proudly posted the sticker I got after each one on a blackboard in my house.
Like a child I was, after getting a gold star for good work. My wife gave me the side eye.
All that you lay out is precisely why they are the Ghastly Obstructionist Party, or perhaps a more accurate moniker would be the Gaslighting Obstructionist Party.
Amen. Excellent and fair names. And they remain remarkably unbowed and immune to the gasps of horror they elicit for the stupidity of their position.
If one could dignify it by calling it a “position”. They remain a worry.
When I cool my engines a bit, I feel some sympathy for the cultist followers who refuse to be jabbed. I am sure they are under massive social pressure not to cave. So they resist, invoking God and Fox, and remain enfolded in the society of the particular community they have chosen.
I watched Rachel’s interview with Bennie Thompson. He doesn’t pussy-foot around. He explained everything he and the committee are doing, thus far. Rachel wanted to know why the asked for documentation that stems back to April 2020. Rep. Thompson told her that there is strong evidence that the plans of the insurrection may have been started at that time. Nancy was so smart to select him as the top dog in this committee. I see a little light at the end of this very dark tunnel now.
With the requests, I see a little light within the tunnel now. Enough to start shining on truth rather than mere conjecture and opinion by media. No executive privilege to block the lifting and delivery of the documents . Because that executive prone to do so is gone from the office. He LOST.
The blessing of Trump’s loss and those public servants who refused to cave to election corruption are the gifts that just keep on giving. It’s a struggle everyday, but I’m so grateful we are here and not in the unthinkable netherworld if he had won.
History was made in federal court tonight. David H. Fink Esq., of Bloomfield MI filed a lawsuit, perhaps the most significant in history. He’s a nice man. We spoke tonight. Trump attorneys owe legal fees and court costs and may lose their licenses to practice - and stand accused of creating January 6th by Mr. Fink - by lying.
That accompanying photo is so appreciated. I spent some time staring into each individual’s face and tried to image what they’d experienced. Such courage and heroism.
Thanks for telling the story. But I do not take comfort in the fact that over a century after the French awarded the Croix de Guerrero to the Harlem Hellfighters, their own country decided to honor them as well. We do not in the case of Jan 6 have a century to wait (nor indeed did the Black soldiers of that hell or their families). There will be no democratic nation in the United States if we can’t put together an accurate and compelling history now.
A conservative friend I talked with today here in Texas claimed they were teaching in the schools now that Christians were racists. Critical race theory. We have a long way to go...
Nope! We’re going to stop hiding the racist things they have always done. We’ll find the buried indigenous children. How dare they slap a child’s hand for speaking in their own language? What teaching the truth will show is how “unchristian” they have acted. Time for reckoning. Time to stop pretending your adherence to a certain faith makes you any better than anyone else. Sorry for letting the rage loose for a moment. Thank you Heather and Cathy and this community. 🥲
I know many Christian leaders who teach their flock that being a Christian puts you above non-Christians. I’m not a historian or an expert on theology but I have 65+ years of living in the US of A and that premise is a fundamental part of too many I have lived alongside.
Yes, but that does not mean all Christians are racists. It is the leap to labeling and stereotyping all Christians of people as racists that I object to. Here, Christians is just an example of the invalid use of hyperbole and labeling to create hate and discord.
Even the Black Christians? Or only White Christians? My objection is attributing racism to ALL Christians. Bad logic is being used to create superiority and hate. It's a technique promoting autocracy and Manifest Destiny not Christianity. The irony here for these racist and likely antisemitic "Christians" is that Jesus was a brown Jew. For centuries European painting have depicted Christ as white and it is now how we think of him. I once heard an ignorant woman say If English is good enough for Christ, it's good enough for all of us! English didn't even exist when Jesus was on earth.
Cathy I heard that woman with my very own ears on a radio talk show in North Carolina back in the 90s--the topic of the show was translations of the Bible!
I am a non-theist, and as such lack the ability to to separate one flavor of Christ from another. I do know that my statement was a gross generalization. I also know far too many have killed in the name of Christ for a variety of “reasons” to ever buy into that belief structure.
My problem is the bad logic here. A person is Christian. That same person is Racist. Therefore, all Christians are Racists. This kind of black and white hyperbolic logic is bad and dangerous. It is creates hate where it isn't warranted. Racism is not a Christian tenet. Christians who are racists are not practicing their faith. Just to make the point: Are all black Christians also racists?
Thus reasoning is because of how deductive reasoning is taught (or not taught directly) in school. I did a lot of this because I felt it important for a child’s development of comprehension and critical thinking. This is how my classes did it and thus, support Cathy’s point.
Person A is a Christian. SOME Christians are racists. Soooooooo,
(Response) MAYBE Person A is a racist.
ALL humans are mammals.
Person A is a human.
Soooooo,
(Response) Person A is a mammal.
Traditionally, in a deduction, the difference in reasoning is learned whether the lead word in the deduction is SOME or ALL.
The problem for me is that CRT is being mis-defined by these folks. And CRT is not taught in schools anyways, unless you're talking about very specific courses in grad school.
They'll latch on to anything to argue and discredit the Democrats' agenda. Those who aren't too ignorant and do understand are happy to provide noisy distractions.
Cathy, please read my comment again. I said "Many Christians", and never said or intended to paint all Christians with that brush. Of course that's not the case. I was raised in the Episcopal church, and I know better than to believe that all Christians are racists, any more than Black Christians are racist.
Maybe they are and maybe they aren't, but in either case they don't have the economic, political, or social power to inflict their beliefs on anyone else. White Americans do have that power.
There is more to the January 6 insurrection and we will never know the full story. There is more too about Afghanistan and we will never know the full story. At least one thing is known, African-American soldiers have finally gotten their due 100 years too late.
Yes We WILL know the whole story! The challenge is, will the American people believe it? We need to teach critical thinking to young children so they can determine truth from lies early on! Trump is worse than a stain, he has facilitated a cancer of normalizing deception!
I was thinking last night - what if for a brief moment, we did know the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth about these things, and others… not after 100 years. And what would people make of it?
This is brilliant work. Wow. Incredible pulling all of this together. Wow those records requested by the committee should definitely make it clear what the former so called president and his yes men were up to overthrowing democracy and the change of presidents. Love how you tied in history and this well deserved medal. Thank you Heather for this. History and perspective and knowledge of what is happening today
I don't believe executive privelege extends beyond the term of service. There is no former executive privelege. I also believe that, while in office, every government official, especially the president, needs to be aware that at some point, everything they do, or fail to do, will be subject to examination, and, if appropriate, criminal prosecution.
Failure by a sitting president to "preserve, protect, and defend the constitution of the United States" while in fact actively seeking to undermine both the spirit and the letter of that document is treason of the highest order.
Ty Ralph! I groaned when the ugly term executive privilege reared it's ugly head, yet again! I was like, wait, he's immune from complying with our laws (subpoenas, and testifying under oath) while he's in office, and still immune after he gets kicked out?? No, WTF....
No citizen should be able to remain safely above the law ! Especially this F-ing Moron, as Rex succinctly labeled him early on!
The privilege exists in order to keep bad actors from trying to impede a president in the execution of his duties, or imprison them without the investigation required by impeachment. This kind of thing often happens in destabilized postcolonial and post-Soviet countries, and is as scary a prospect, if not scarier, than the Former Guy's abuse of it. The power of which ended for him the morning of January 20th.
WTF alright!
Executive privilege (EP) is a sticky wicket. Washington was the first to use it but it wasn't until Eisenhower the term "executive privilege" was used. Executive privilege is not a slam dunk as Nixon found out when he had to release his tapes. Bush II used EP like he was on steroids. He tried by executive order to extend it to former presidents and to extend it to "designated family representative".
Whether or not Trump can claim EP revolves around "intent" from what I've uncovered in my cursory search.
"There are generally four areas that an executive branch claim of privilege is based: 1) presidential communications privilege; 2) deliberative process privilege; 3) national security, foreign relations or military affairs, and 4) an ongoing law enforcement investigation."
https://lawliberty.org/the-constitution-and-executive-privilege/
It is a possibility he can:
"The fact that the privilege itself survives the tenure of a president does not, however, answer the more difficult question of who may assert that privilege. "
https://www.lawfareblog.com/can-former-president-assert-executive-privilege-impeachment-trial
That's all I have, this is a deep dive issue and I'm only on my 2nd cup of coffee. Have at it!
Nope, I will leave it to the lawyers to define what the meaning of "is" is.......
But thanks for the legalize, my mind is made up already, I would not be allowed on his jury, he's a crooked mob boss imho.
Same here. It's impossible to not decided guilt before the trial in TFG's case even though he's afforded the right to innocence. It's just so far beyond the pale all my objectivity is lost.
One more reason for him to reside in Moscow - they don't have to afford the right of innocence.
Which is why he'll never be tried in any US court. This problem is why the International Court was created in the Hague. Which we did not join because we didn't want someone like Trump tried by "them furriners."
So he will never be charged? He really could shoot someone on 5th Ave. and get away with it? I have too many WTFs today. Sad face emogi.
No - shooting someone is a flat-out crime. If he can describe what he did about the election as "discussing election/legal policy possibilities," then it might be covered. However, "executive privilege" doesn't cover conspiracy to overthrow the government, so if those conversations can be shown to have happened in furtherance of such an event, then not covered. That's why I used the term "might be."
Like you, my mind is made up, and his lawyers would rule me out just on the basis of the snarl on my lips.
One of my nicknames for him is mafia don.
Mine is asshole, but then I'm not good with words. ;-)
That strikes me as perfectly appropriate. Fine wordsmithing!
I'm framing this one. ;-)
Oh I've called him that too as well as many other things. I also like death star donny.
Remind me to never get into a battle of insulting names with you.
Ditto!!!😂😂😂
Ooops.
Looks that way to me ... that is where he has inherited his power - by hook or by crook ...
I’ve been looking into “Executive privilege” also, Christopher. My conclusions are one logical based on such as the following:
https://www.justsecurity.org/77610/unpacking-the-doj-letters-no-executive-privilege-for-trump-era-witnesses-on-2020-election-machinations/
So I feel the DOJ has cleared the road in a timely and correctly interpretive manner to give the Select Committee the breadth they will need to investigate.
My other conclusion is purely speculative:
The former believes the Big Bullsh*t Lie more than anyone because he cannot believe HE LOST. Therefore, he still uses “Executive privilege” escape because he thinks he can.
I rate that boring, idiotic, and FALSE.
😂
absolutamente!
Why am I completely unsurprised Bush II is desperate to extend executive privilege as far as possible? His administration was such a disaster for this country you have to wonder what the hell they were thinking. I'm sure there are many powerful interests very eager to keep the machinery out of reach of a curious public.
Bush II and Cheney are, at the core, responsible for the current state of Afghanistan and Iraq. In a just world, they would have already been tried as war criminals.
One obvious connection I see between him and ex-#45 is they were both spoiled rich little brats used to always getting their way and not afraid to inflict pain on others.
Please keep us posted, Christopher.
I'm done hoping I've planted a seed for HCR to grow. ;-)
I hope she will
It would make for a great Now and Then podcast also.
Thank you, Christopher. I'll open your links once my caffeine kicks in.
Buckle up, it's gonna be a bumpy ride. Have your preferred pan reliever handy also as reading this stuff has been known to cause a pounding headache.
Not to mention panic attacks.
Oooh, good one. We should create a whole list of the side effects he's caused and file a 74M person class action suit for damages.
Can we file a class action suit for extreme negligence re: his non-response to COVID and the ~650,000 deaths it has caused?
If that is possible, I want to be in on it. The sickening, unrelenting stress & angst he's put me (and us) through has taken a toll, mentally and physically, not to mention the 649 thousand (and growing) deaths from Covid-19.
His executive privilege ended last November. There are undoubtedly several rocks he can slink under, but not that.
They would have to be big rocks.
How about if we make him a nice set of concrete shoes, eh? 😉
Sorry, wish you were correct, but file this under "not necessarily ended."
Laws and rules do not concern him. Some day, I pray, they will catch up with him. His bluster and "positive thinking" (thanks a lot, NVP) can not protect him from justice forever.
May you be correct, Kim. All one can say for sure at this point is that his history suggests that the 'slime baggery' works. Can it be stopped? I hope so.
This is important, Ralph. This sticky wicket should be dealt with once and for all. I agree with you 100%: treason it IS.
Absolutely, Ralph Averill. Seems like a no-brainer. How is it this is even a question, a sitting president failing to "preserve, protect, and defend the constitution of the United States"?
Whaaaa?
I hope you're rigjt.
Yes, that’s my question - who gets to claim executive privilege? The current administration, or the former?
From what I heard last night, he can litigate and slow down the Select Committee's investigation, but it will likely be revealed. Let's hope. That would be the best way to prove Big Orange's (BO) treason and the complicity of his henchmen-and-women.
That's his forte isn't it?. He's been doing it his whole adult life. No doubt he's going to claim Executive Privilege after he exhausts all other options.
Well, consider that he is also claiming he won in '20 - not working out for him, other than creating chaos.
So true.
Both but there are always qualifiers. see below
That's how it seems to me ...
No, executive privilege regarding things said/done during the term of office can be protected. In fact, if Trump mounts a legal case to block this congressional demand, he will likely be supported by the DoJ, on the grounds they don't want to see a precedent set that would make it easy for Chairman Jim Jordan of the House Investigating Committee in 202- to have easy access to President Biden's record.
Just remember, the power of subpeona is a two-edged sword.
Joe Biden's DoJ is going to let Trump off the hook to protect Joe Biden? Did Joe Biden lead an insurrection too? What has he got to hide that hasn't already been discovered? What does any honest politician need to hide his/her record?
I'm not a lawyer. I started my original post with "I believe...", but I don't think executive privelege can be used to hide criminal activity, (see Nixon, Richard,) the same as attorney/client privelege.
No former president should be able to skate on treason and sedition.
I really think you should reconsider your decision not to take that reading comprehension class. What you think was said is not what was said. They will defend him to see if the requested material is covered by executive privilege, because there is a need to be concerned with precedent - for Biden or anyone else. If the material is not protected, then there is no precedent to be concerned with. But that determination has to be made.
I mean, seriously, would you want Gym Jordan or any of the other fuckwits to have an unlimited subpeona power? Give it a thought.
I read your post twice more and came away with the same conclusion. Maybe you should reconsider that writing course, and learn to express yourself a little more clearly, Mr. Published Author.
Unlike many sites, this site is characterized by mutual respect. Maybe you should try some of that, too.
It felt good to see the rule of law being upheld and reinforced by District Judge Linda Parker in Michigan sanctioning the lawyers for DT who brought a frivolous law suit against Michigan. She ordered them to pay legal fees of the State of Michigan, to have the nine lawyers get some court ordered education on election law and to refer the lawyers to their state bar for possible suspension of their license to practice law and even disbarment. Sounds like the judge's entire 110 page decision makes for some excellent reading. A district court judge here in Texas told me we would be all right as long as the Rule of Law held in our democracy. This gives me hope.
The best news for keeping the faith was hearing of a Texas judge upholding the Rule of Law for democracy!
Judges in Texas are elected but they no longer can declare a party on the ballot which is good.
Every time something likes this happens, I think, "It's a start" because there are so many others in line. Uggh.
Link with more about it.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/judge-sanctions-sidney-powell-other-pro-trump-lawyers-who-claimed-voter-fraud-2021-08-25/
BRAVO!!!
I thought the was huge!!
It
I look at the faces in the photograph and grow still and just think about things. These are perhaps men that were sons and grandsons of young freed slaves. To look at the medals bestowed by France and to think of them fighting all too well for freedom…..it stirs something in me.
Thank you, Professor Richardson, for the significant photos that accompany the history of which you write.
What strikes me is that they are all smiling, although they were well aware of our country's scorn. They knew that their contribution was immense. Shame on our racist history.
There was a colored unit in Brownsville, Texas, when Teddy Roosevelt was president. When the white folks falsely claimed murder and mayhem, and the unit commander defended the men, Teddy Roosevelt sent the unit home, relieved of duty, without a penny in pension, AFTER he was elected to another term. Black mark on an American president; thank goodness for the French who know bravery when they see it, and the US, belatedly..... Wait, 100 years?
For all the good that Teddy did, he was definitely a racist. Wasn't he the one who said "The only good Indian is a dead Indian"?
"Theodore Roosevelt: 'The Only Good Indians Are the Dead Indians' When Theodore Roosevelt took office in 1901, he already had a long legacy of animosity toward American Indians. ... When he returned to the east, he famously asserted that “the most vicious cowboy has more moral principle than the average Indian.”
Chilling - and today we've witnessed Trump Troops. They carry on the inglorious tradition, with no mitigating characteristics.
Reading your letter today has once again confirmed how blessed we are to have you to help us put these events in context of our history. I am so grateful I have found you and this amazing group of people. As a psychotherapist I studied systems theory which emphasized the importance of seeing the person in context of the wider systems. I am so impressed with your ability to do this with current events and our history. I love the way you are able to track the threads and pull the threads together so we can see the bigger picture. Our news with the latest breaking story is piecemeal, overwhelming, and difficult to put in context. Thank you for helping me see the bigger picture.
Exactly.
Yes, every word of this!
The Harlem Hellfighters were also the ones who introduced Jazz to France.
BTW - Josephine Baker has just been inducted into the French Pantheon - the highest honor that can be given there.
Horace Pippin, one of my favorite artists, was also a Harlem Hellfighter and incredibly proud of it. He was injured by a sniper, but overcame his injury to produce both lovely genre paintings and far edgier paintings influenced by his war experience.
Betsy, many thanks for sharing this window into Horace Pippin! It’s breathtaking learning more about him. I’m in instant-love with his School Studies and Sleepers.
https://philamuseum.org/calendar/exhibition/horace-pippin-war-peace
About 20 years ago, I visited her Chateau de Milandes, now a museum, in France where she gathered her "rainbow tribe" of adopted children. I recommend the biography by one of her children, "Josephine Baker: the Hungry Heart" by Jean-Claude Baker. You'll be amazed by the many facets of her life including the French Resistance. "At the end of the war she was awarded the Medal of Resistance, The Legion of Honour and The Croix de Guerre with palm." Here's a brief biographical sketch: https://thegoodlifefrance.com/josephine-baker-chateau-des-milandes/
Wow!
Many Black musicians and entertainers migrated to France, because their talent was appreciated and they weren't relegated to juke joints, as they were here.
Among them, writer James Baldwin.
The 19th-C musician Edmond Dédé (1827-1905) was a free-born Creole born in New Orleans. He moved to France to study and remained there as a conductor and composer. It's unlikely he'd have had the success he experienced in France if he'd remained in the Louisiana, or anywhere in the US during his lifetime.
I'm sure you're correct. It doesn't look as though we'll ever atone for our sins, considering that so many of us are still so racist.
I was so glad to read of that honor, TC. A treasure.
What a great piece of info about how jazz got to France. Would love to know more about this. Any sources you can recommend?
The 369th had an infantry band led by James Reese Europe. Its marches were often syncopated, New Orleans style. The French had never heard anything like it. You could start by reading about Europe, the man. Commenting on other posts: The exemplary actions of black Cavalry soldiers out west after the civil war was often written about by white officers. For white soldiers, the war was over, and they didn’t want to be out west. They were a ragtag bunch. Many deserted. The black soldiers seemed to feel to a man that the way they behaved would reflect upon their entire race. The hellfighters and many black soldiers of ww2 probably felt the same.
I know TC: such a wonderful thing! And a tiny bit of light in the middle of the muddy muddle we are all in these days.
WOW!
No one, including Taliban leaders, know what will transpire in Afghanistan over the coming weeks and months. I was a Foreign Service Officer serving in/on Congo (1960-1966). Among other things I witnessed: 1) three major rebellions; 2) two sustained UN military attacks against a renegade Congolese province, whose leader Incredibly became prime minister of the Congolese government several years later; 3) a CIA-run Congolese Air Force staffed by Cuban personnel recruited from Bay of Pigs veterans; 4) five white mercenary contingents; 5) frightening rebel threats to kill 3,300 foreign hostages, including captured American consulate personnel; and 6) a Belgian/U. S. Military operation that rescued the great majority of these hostages.
Like the Congo, I find the Taliban Afghanistan a bizarre, three-dimensional puzzle. The Taliban have inherited a failed state. They have no experience in running a country, which is in shambles and financially broke. The massive foreign funds from America, international institutions, and humanitarian organizations have been abruptly suspended
The Taliban leaders are desperate to obtain international ‘legitimacy.’ They view this as imperative in obtaining Afghan funds that are currently blocked by America and by other entities. Currently Kabul banks are closed for lack of funds. With a prolonged drought,,the massive humanitarian aid that had provided sustenance to millions of Afghans is in limbo.
The Taliban was fueled by a conservative religious fervor based on Sharia law, which, among other strictures, treated women badly. As Taliban leaders are discussing a government of ‘national union’ with former Afghan leaders and tribal chieftains, the reaction to such dealings by the Taliban soldiers is unknown. How might Taliban leaders balance their desire for a ‘moderate’ international image with the fervor that has sparked it’s guerrilla war movement? Also, nearly half of Afghanistan’s 34 million people hadn’t been born when the Taliban was forced out 20 years ago. Young Afghans have been accustomed to a different life style during these non-Taliban years.
What are the options for the United States and other Western nations? Immediately this could relate to pragmatic negotiations to extend the rescue of foreigners and more Afghans who fear for their lives. Longer term, what conditions might be demanded to release at least a portion of the billions of dollars of Afghan funds now being blocked? What might be the terms of an arrangement to restart the flow of imperative humanitarian aid to the millions of Afghans in a drought economy where the individual annual income is about $2,000? Under what conditions might America and other countries acknowledge the legitimacy of the Taliban regime? Might the UN serve as intermediary in some manner?
What might be the role of China and Russia? China has some previous agreements for mineral development in Afghanistan. Might it seek to help the Taliban government? What Russia might do seems an enigma.
Hang on, there is a rocky ride ahead.
"Under what conditions might America and other countries acknowledge the legitimacy of the Taliban regime?"
We, the USA, just did "acknowledge the legitimacy of the Taliban regime".
We, the USA, finally gave the Afghanistan back to the Taliban, the native born citizens of that country.
Remember, no member of the Taliban, or any Afghan citizen, was on board any flight that flew a suicide mission on 9/11/2001.
Mike Good point! By ‘legitimacy,’ I am referring to de facto or de jure diplomatic recognition. America did not officially acknowledge the legitimacy of the Soviet Union for 16 years, of Communist China for a generation, and, I believe, of Haiti for even longer. After my ‘rambunctious’ activity in rebel-infested Congolese provinces, two American ambassadors in Saigon ‘requested’ that I join them in Vietnam. Twice I refused. Contrary to robust military assessments, I found it crystal clear that there was no light at the end of that tunnel and that nationalism was far stronger than a bevy of military governments in Saigon.
Yes, the Vietnamese people, ably led by Ho Chi Minh, definitely wanted to run their own country without a Colonial corruption layer between them and getting things done.
Ho Chi Minh's ability to take a bunch of teenagers with old rifles and overwhelm the US Military? Even as we denuded their priceless jungles with Agent Orange, even as we dropped more bombs on them than all of those dropped in WW II.
One of the great lessons of history. People are willing to fight for their homes.
Who knew? :-)
That tends to generate some energy in folks for sure.
Mike Might one describe Vietnam as a modern day David vs. Goliath? (The bicycle again ask the helicopter?) What about the battle of Lexington/Concord, when the British marched so confidently out of Boston? (What lovely British uniforms—red coats absorb blood tastefully) . I recall vividly, in 1948, when Arab armies attacked poorly-armed little Israel confident of smashing success. (When Egyptian tanks ran out of gas, the tank crews fled and the Israelis advanced with gas trucks and then attacked the Egyptians with their own tanks) Or when Churchill, during the Battle of Britain, spoke of Hitler’s boast that he would ‘wring Britain’s neck: “Some chicken—some neck.” SPIRIT AND CONVICTION ARE MIGHTY BULLETS<
Our military in Vietnam grossly miss read the situation on the ground regarding both nationalist spirit and actual military force. General Westmoreland, later supported by CIA Director Colby, deliberately greatly underestimated the total Viet Cong military force. Sam Adams, my good professional (I was State Dept, he was CIA analyst) and personal friend, went from being a crackerjack Congo analyst to scrutinizing the order of battle of the Viet Cong. He discovered that our Army intelligence had been lackadaisical in monitoring raw intelligence. Sam’s rigorous analysis revealed that the total Viet Cong military force was 200,000 more than the official Army figures. General Westmoreland went bananas, for political reasons the CIA director supported him and officially muzzled Sam, and Sam was ultimately obliged to leave a career for which he was richly suited.
I am reminded of the comment: “Armies are so screwed up that they only have a chance of success by fighting another army.
Pretty tragic. All those bright minded resources in the 1960's with their minds focused on maximizing profit for Playboy (which was distributed to troops in Vietnam), Monsanto (agent orange), Raytheon, and hundreds of other military contractors who got on the infinite money train of war.
Same with Afghanistan. Twenty years and $3 Trillion dollars and it would have all been better spent on free college tuition, or, infrastructure, or, just fishing on the bank of a creek.
A complete waste. Vietnam. Afghanistan.
Plus, all those dead bodies of actual people in Vietnam and Afghanistan. Innocent dead bodies that we created for....
....absolutely nothing.
but profit.
Thought I heard Blinken say he would recognize and work with whoever in order to get all US citizens out of Afghanistan, as well as Afghan who wish to leave.
As a former Foreign Service Officer, I am familiar with diplomatic ‘speak talk.’We haven’t had an embassy in Teheran since 1979, but we managed to negotiate the 6-nation 2015 nuclear deal. Ditto with Cuba for 60 years, though there have been numerous ‘discussions. Our CIA director had such discussions with the Taliban during this most turbulent period.
All good points and questions, Keith. And thank you for your service.
Just because they have forced a regime change, facilitated by their indiscriminate slaughter of innocent non combatants in front of hospitals, schools, markets, etc. doesn’t mean that they have a clue how to drive the ship of state. They know how to kill and it doesn’t take any education to know how to do that, running a government is another matter, just look at what we have experienced under the leadership of the insipid infantile clown, every thing they touched they damaged, you can’t say that about any previous administration. The taliban are about to hit a wall, that memorization of the koran in madrassas will ill prepare them for, and if they if they figure out a way to break through it they will then discover that it was protecting them from the cliff on the other side, as they hurtle off into the abyss. I think you are right, this is far from a settled issue.
Those billions they need that we control since they're in American banks might be the basis of a negotiation to extend the evacuation past August 31 (which was an arbitrary date unilaterally set by Biden, not something negotiated with the Taliban). It's well-known that money is the international language everyone understands.
In my opinion, what happens will be as surprising as the CIA-run air force you mention sixty odd years ago manned by Cuban personnel. Expect the unexpected.
You left out that the Taliban have divisions within that will add more uncertainty to their governance.
I appreciate your insight here. Thank you!
Morning everyone. The starkness of the choices we now have in the next 3 years: elect more Dems in the House and Senate or see everything fall off a cliff into the Land of Autocracy. The Ghastly Obstructionist Party is terrified of what is happening now. Remember that rabid creatures are dangerous when cornered and they infect everything around them with no thought to the future. They are the real-world zombies.
One of the things I find interesting about all the hand wringing about Afghanistan is that the media are also now dropping the ball about all kinds of things the Despicables are rushing to get done while they are yelping and bellowing about Afghanistan: on the local level we are now seeing anti-choice bills being rushed through state legislatures; governors threatening to withdraw funds from schools with mask mandates; a ton of racist laws trying to restrict the vote. And very little of this is finding its way to the airwaves because everyone--who had ignored Afghanistan more or less happily for the last 20 years--is now pulling a "but her emails" moment to deflect attention to the anti-democratic activities going on all over the country. The doggedness of the House select committee is welcome, but they will continue to do their work more or less in a vacuum unless and until they can stop the "news" media from sucking all the air out of the room.
And yes: I am totally fed up. With a lot of things. But I will save all of that for another time.
Nice job wrapping it all up. But the question remains: what do we do about a political party, its leadership and its gullible and mostly ignorant supporters bent on destroying democracy in our country and replacing it with some brand of autocracy? The media is less than objective and that doesn't help either. Hope your "another time" is soon.
One thing we can do is what Joe Biden knows can make a difference: get broadband out to every home in the nation. The GOP has had the benefit of keeping too many people, the people they most take advantage of, in the dark tunnels of misinformation or no information. I am watching to see how hard the Rs fight against including that in any bill being considered. I fully expect that to be one of the pieces that gets pulled out of any bill. Eager to see what happens there. As to the Black soldiers from WWI finally getting the honor from the USA, it is wonderful it is happening. I am halfway through Isabel Wilkerson's "Caste" and my growing outrage and sadness over racism is making day to day life difficult. I honestly am so incredibly impressed with our black and brown neighbors and fellow citizens for continuing to rise up and take it all on. They will make more progress when more of us pale people take it on, too.
With you Deborah 100%. “Caste” was a deliberate and difficult read for me. I’ve shared the book with many. It completely changed my historical and emotional perspective about racism. I’ve referenced a personal encounter that Isabel Wilkerson describes on pgs 52-53 of her book a few times. I had to put the book down and think about it for a few days before continuing. The truth of it upended me.
Here is a brief rendering of the 8 pillars of caste in America. Sounds all too familiar of an agenda of the organizations running the Republican Party. The Heritage Foundation comes to mind.
https://www.recognizingsystemicracism.com/2020/10/the-eight-pillars-of-american-caste.html
Thank You Christine.
I wish I could say that this is changing, but it isn't. We as a world are still requiring the most traumatized people in our midst to "fix" what we--as the privileged and powerful--broke. A report presented yesterday about systemic racism in the mortgage approval system (the exact same kind of study has been done over and over again and has produced the same result over decades of study) was stark. A report presented a couple weeks ago about systemic racism in job applications, especially high-skill and high-salaried ones, (the exact same kind of study has been done over and over again for decades and has produced the same result) is stark. Reports on systemic racism in evictions have also been aired over the last few weeks. But instead of looking at these studies and looking at themselves and saying "well, shit: we have to do better than this" and eradicating the metrics that lead to systemic racist action, the institutions--banking, real estate, most large corporations and HR departments--turn to gaslighting, claiming that the reports' findings are "explainable" and "rational" when they clearly are not. And if you dump gender into the pot along with race and class, well, you get the perfect intersectional horror show.
I see the problem as existential. Humans hate doing the hard emotional work of investigating themselves and their own actions, derived from generations of ingrained behavior triggers, and acknowledging the harm they have done, and to whom. Humans are not by nature introspective, because real introspection can be humiliating and super distressing. So humans tend to glom onto the tropes that make them feel better--and those usually present humanity as hierarchic in ways that can be determined by visual cues: male/female; white/not-white are just the easiest ones to recognize in the West. It's so much easier not to think, after all.
Every morning I get an intelligent, almost always surprising, too often shocking, useful mailing from Anti-racism Daily. It is helping me think. It is helping me do things large and small, so I have alternatives to wringing my hands in useless White guilt. I can’t recommend it enough! Google it. You can subscribe for free, or you can start your reparations by donating.
Deborah, I too am reading "Caste" and it rocks me to the core. At 70, it's very hard to read this and realize I'm a product of a white priveleged education and life in general. There is SO MUCH to be ashamed of, personally and nationally.
Yes, indeed, Barbara it is a hard read, even for somebody who thought they sorta got it. Nonetheless, we cannot be deeply ashamed of things that happened in the past, beyond our control and before we understood. We can, however, be ruthlessly determined to participate as agents of change. This is the significant challenge for us all who are embedded in a society where perhaps 40% do not understand or care about the evils of racism and another 10-20% have no inclination to change things from which they profit personally. For such people, I fear, it does not matter who they step on as they scramble to accumulate as much as they can. This too IMO is a critical aspect of what produces human caste systems. This is not to demean in anyway Wilkerson's main thesis about race and caste in America but to connect it clearly to her analysis of the Indian origin of the concept and underscore that both are alive and well in the US today. The second and in some ways more despicable crew, IMO, uses the first to get where they want to go. Years ago a friend of mine from Georgia confessed confusion about how 'they get people to vote against their own self-interest'? The answer, I fear, is simple: they just don't see it that way, which is a great tragedy for the rest of us.
I don't feel shame but realize many people do. I would rightly feel shame if I still took no proactive steps. It is better late than never and now that I know all these truths, I must speak up, I must be brave enough to state the truth, and I am obliged, I think, to pass on what I have learned to others around me. I have given or recommended the book to many already and will continue to do so. I can vote for and support those who will vote for the futures and needs and opportunities of all human beings, not just white ones. And so on. No time for shame. Let's get moving!
Amen, Deborah! Some people deserve the shame, I must opine. May their eyes be opened.
Healthy shame shifts an issue from being intellectualized to being felt, and when we feel something, we are energized to do something about it.
broadband is a good idea, but only potentially helpful ... I mean, this underscores another deep problem: access to the internet gives many access to more (and quite impressive) 'dark tunnels of misinformation'. I have no idea what to do about that apart from more practical emphasis in education to help youngsters to much better understand how to separate truth from fiction and how to recognize (and reject) propaganda.
Agree 100% about the requirement for ALL to get behind the push toward what is right.
In fact we don't have to put up with those algorithms that take people down dark spirals into Alternate Reality. They exist to augment Facebook (and its subsidiaries') profits. Zuckerberg keeps wiggling out of his responsibility in Congressional hearings: we MUST put more pressure on. Here's Ben Grosser's brilliant documentary collage "Order of Magnitude" on Z's obsession with "more"(featuring hilarious montages of paralyzed boredom on the faces of every one who has to listen to him, in or out of Congress). Spread it--it makes him too ridiculous to bow to: https://bengrosser.com/projects/order-of-magnitude/
Brilliant, and Terrifying.
I watched the whole thing—I think it works it’s magic best that way. Did you?
You are not distressed that the Harlem Hellfighters and their families and their fellow Black soldiers and the Black people of this country had to wait a century (and fie while waiting) for the honor? That some readers snd HCR take this information as uplifting is certainly distressing to me.
Mary, perhaps you are unfamiliar with the book "Caste." I made an assumption that readers would understand that as I learn more background, the more upset and enraged, and discouraged I have become. It is incredible that people of color have survived at all given the horrible racism and systems that have continued to make their lives so incredibly difficult. And yes, I did the math and know that this medal is more than 100 years too late.
It’s some damn tough math to do. Obv that “pale people” barely have the stomach for it.
Honor bestowed is what is uplifting. I prefer that over the long, despicable wait continuing.
I'm absolutely distressed - and angry!
I have a hard time believing most, if not all, HCR readers are not distressed, at the least, by the wait. But there is room for also feeling uplifted that it finally happened. I would imagine that the families of the HH would also appreciate both reactions.
1) I didn't say "most." But 2) I wouldn't have thought *any* would remain undistressed till I read one after another comment grateful for the sunny uplift. So, I commented.
The Rethuglican mouthpieces are out in full force and singing from the same hymnal. So I have a question for all of my astute friends here. Are there any Democratic mouthpieces rebutting this crap? Has anyone heard what, if anything, Democratic Chair Jamie Harrrison is doing? I haven’t heard a peep from him. I had such high hopes when he ran a good campaign against Lindsey Graham and then was chosen as the head of the party. So if I am wrong please enlighten me.
ditto, Jack
First of all, congratulations to America. Over 80 000 people have been evacuated in little more than a week. The first day or so was the “bug”. The next few days were the “feature”. Where there is American will, a way will be found. From Biden on down, this has been an extraordinary forging of history. In the months ahead, hundreds of individual stories will come out that show humanity at its finest. Well done.
Months ago, I felt the same about the logistical challenge getting the vaccines out. There was enormous hand-wringing about the fact that America was behind other countries in this.
At the time we didn’t know how iron-willed Biden was. What we did know was that America is a mighty engine with deep organizational chops and the resources to make things happen.
Six months later, the picture is clear. All who wanted to be vaccinated have gotten the two shots.
Sadly, there are quislings in America. One of them ran the country (into the ground) for four years.
As a result there are millions of unvaccinated Americans and the scourge continues. The fact that Trump “endorsed” the vaccine last week is risible. That train has left the station.
Going forward, there is much work to be done, but there will be some victories. There must be continued social shunning until the critical mass of herd immunity. Large employers, sports teams, governments, commercial establishments - all of them must close their doors to all who are unvaccinated. The tide has already started - there are stories every day about this employer and that organization making vaccines mandatory. There is safety in numbers here. Those whose brains have curdled under the influence of Trump and those spoiling for a fight are going to have a hard time if the public fury and implacability of resolve is turned on them.
As a side thought, the resources that went into winning Georgia’s Senate seat must be turned to Florida, so that deSantis is punted decisively out of office.
Some way, somehow the Voting Rights legislation must be passed. If Pelosi could sweep away the protestations of mine potentially defecting Democrats, then Manchin and Sinema can be brought to their knees.
Without these bills passing, it’s hard to see how America is not lost.
As for Trump and conspiring Republicans, I fear that revenge will be a dish served very, very cold. Every legal dodge in the book, including Executive privilege, will be used to tie the House Committee in knots. Witnesses will not show, materials will be delivered with much expunged, and the courts will be used in every way to slow walk the process. Some of this will surely reach the Supreme Court, in whom we all invest perfect confidence I’m sure.
Maybe indictments from the DOJ will supersede some of the Committee’s work. But I’m not sanguine.
In summary, I believe that we will wait a long time for appropriate justice, which is beyond galling.
But in the meantime, good and great work has been done by this Administration. Now the big legislative pull is at hand.
"All who wanted to be vaccinated have gotten the two shots." Not at all. Maybe all White people who wanted it? All people who could take time off work to get it, and more time to deal with the reaction (in my case 3 days in bed)?
Good point. I was perhaps two sweeping. I’m very sorry about your bad reaction.
I was very fortunate with Moderna. I noticed literally nothing (except that I was surprised at my emotional reaction). I’m normally low key, but I proudly posted the sticker I got after each one on a blackboard in my house.
Like a child I was, after getting a gold star for good work. My wife gave me the side eye.
But I still feel that way now.
All that you lay out is precisely why they are the Ghastly Obstructionist Party, or perhaps a more accurate moniker would be the Gaslighting Obstructionist Party.
Amen. Excellent and fair names. And they remain remarkably unbowed and immune to the gasps of horror they elicit for the stupidity of their position.
If one could dignify it by calling it a “position”. They remain a worry.
When I cool my engines a bit, I feel some sympathy for the cultist followers who refuse to be jabbed. I am sure they are under massive social pressure not to cave. So they resist, invoking God and Fox, and remain enfolded in the society of the particular community they have chosen.
Love this Linda ❤️ Thank you!
Bingo. Time to fire up the emails.
I watched Rachel’s interview with Bennie Thompson. He doesn’t pussy-foot around. He explained everything he and the committee are doing, thus far. Rachel wanted to know why the asked for documentation that stems back to April 2020. Rep. Thompson told her that there is strong evidence that the plans of the insurrection may have been started at that time. Nancy was so smart to select him as the top dog in this committee. I see a little light at the end of this very dark tunnel now.
With the requests, I see a little light within the tunnel now. Enough to start shining on truth rather than mere conjecture and opinion by media. No executive privilege to block the lifting and delivery of the documents . Because that executive prone to do so is gone from the office. He LOST.
The blessing of Trump’s loss and those public servants who refused to cave to election corruption are the gifts that just keep on giving. It’s a struggle everyday, but I’m so grateful we are here and not in the unthinkable netherworld if he had won.
History was made in federal court tonight. David H. Fink Esq., of Bloomfield MI filed a lawsuit, perhaps the most significant in history. He’s a nice man. We spoke tonight. Trump attorneys owe legal fees and court costs and may lose their licenses to practice - and stand accused of creating January 6th by Mr. Fink - by lying.
I also like that they were also sentenced to get educated on election law.
And I hope that their "education" will prove useless, when their are all disbarred!
I must admit, I got an evil chuckle out of that part. 😈😅
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/judge-sanctions-sidney-powell-other-pro-trump-lawyers-who-claimed-voter-fraud-2021-08-25/
That accompanying photo is so appreciated. I spent some time staring into each individual’s face and tried to image what they’d experienced. Such courage and heroism.
❤
Thanks for telling the story. But I do not take comfort in the fact that over a century after the French awarded the Croix de Guerrero to the Harlem Hellfighters, their own country decided to honor them as well. We do not in the case of Jan 6 have a century to wait (nor indeed did the Black soldiers of that hell or their families). There will be no democratic nation in the United States if we can’t put together an accurate and compelling history now.
A conservative friend I talked with today here in Texas claimed they were teaching in the schools now that Christians were racists. Critical race theory. We have a long way to go...
Nope! We’re going to stop hiding the racist things they have always done. We’ll find the buried indigenous children. How dare they slap a child’s hand for speaking in their own language? What teaching the truth will show is how “unchristian” they have acted. Time for reckoning. Time to stop pretending your adherence to a certain faith makes you any better than anyone else. Sorry for letting the rage loose for a moment. Thank you Heather and Cathy and this community. 🥲
I agree, Christy, 1000%. The attacks upon our children and schools is my line in the sand.
That is the fallacy here. When a person uses his Christianity to say they are better than someone else they are not following their faith.
I know many Christian leaders who teach their flock that being a Christian puts you above non-Christians. I’m not a historian or an expert on theology but I have 65+ years of living in the US of A and that premise is a fundamental part of too many I have lived alongside.
If the shoe fits... White American evangelical Protestantism is deeply rooted in racism and the preservation of the institution of slavery.
Yes, but that does not mean all Christians are racists. It is the leap to labeling and stereotyping all Christians of people as racists that I object to. Here, Christians is just an example of the invalid use of hyperbole and labeling to create hate and discord.
The nuns taught me that "All Protestants are going to Hell." And I made sure all my Protestant neighbors knew that.
🤣
Where's the sad face emogi?
How about this one. It’s more than sad. 🧐😩😡🤮
Oh, please. Christians ARE RACISTS.
Even the Black Christians? Or only White Christians? My objection is attributing racism to ALL Christians. Bad logic is being used to create superiority and hate. It's a technique promoting autocracy and Manifest Destiny not Christianity. The irony here for these racist and likely antisemitic "Christians" is that Jesus was a brown Jew. For centuries European painting have depicted Christ as white and it is now how we think of him. I once heard an ignorant woman say If English is good enough for Christ, it's good enough for all of us! English didn't even exist when Jesus was on earth.
All, None, Always, Never - rarely are they truly such.
Cathy I heard that woman with my very own ears on a radio talk show in North Carolina back in the 90s--the topic of the show was translations of the Bible!
I am a non-theist, and as such lack the ability to to separate one flavor of Christ from another. I do know that my statement was a gross generalization. I also know far too many have killed in the name of Christ for a variety of “reasons” to ever buy into that belief structure.
It is horrifying how much the superiority of having the only valid or true religion has led to so many wars and deaths over centuries/millenia.
As usual, not bothering to understand what CRT is.
Many "Christians" continue to be unabashedly racist. That's a big part of the problem.
My problem is the bad logic here. A person is Christian. That same person is Racist. Therefore, all Christians are Racists. This kind of black and white hyperbolic logic is bad and dangerous. It is creates hate where it isn't warranted. Racism is not a Christian tenet. Christians who are racists are not practicing their faith. Just to make the point: Are all black Christians also racists?
Thus reasoning is because of how deductive reasoning is taught (or not taught directly) in school. I did a lot of this because I felt it important for a child’s development of comprehension and critical thinking. This is how my classes did it and thus, support Cathy’s point.
Person A is a Christian. SOME Christians are racists. Soooooooo,
(Response) MAYBE Person A is a racist.
ALL humans are mammals.
Person A is a human.
Soooooo,
(Response) Person A is a mammal.
Traditionally, in a deduction, the difference in reasoning is learned whether the lead word in the deduction is SOME or ALL.
The problem for me is that CRT is being mis-defined by these folks. And CRT is not taught in schools anyways, unless you're talking about very specific courses in grad school.
They'll latch on to anything to argue and discredit the Democrats' agenda. Those who aren't too ignorant and do understand are happy to provide noisy distractions.
Yes, you said many. I was referring to the friend I was talking to didn't make that distinction and that's what I'm reacting to.
Thanks, Cathy. I now see your comment further back on the page. Comments are frequently shuffled here, and the context becomes clouded.
Hear, hear, Cathy!! Thank you for sharing my frequent, logic conundrum - kindred thinker!
Cathy, please read my comment again. I said "Many Christians", and never said or intended to paint all Christians with that brush. Of course that's not the case. I was raised in the Episcopal church, and I know better than to believe that all Christians are racists, any more than Black Christians are racist.
Maybe they are and maybe they aren't, but in either case they don't have the economic, political, or social power to inflict their beliefs on anyone else. White Americans do have that power.
Sorry, my iPhone created ‘Guerrero’!
I think your phone might be onto something:
"Guerrero Name Meaning
Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian: nickname for an aggressive person or for a soldier, from an agent derivative of guerra 'war'."
Thank you for this piece -- thank you for every piece, actually.
YES!!
There is more to the January 6 insurrection and we will never know the full story. There is more too about Afghanistan and we will never know the full story. At least one thing is known, African-American soldiers have finally gotten their due 100 years too late.
I hope every soldiers next of kin were tracked down and notified about their soldiers. bravery, dedication and sacrifices for our country.
Yes We WILL know the whole story! The challenge is, will the American people believe it? We need to teach critical thinking to young children so they can determine truth from lies early on! Trump is worse than a stain, he has facilitated a cancer of normalizing deception!
Yes. Which is why Republicans are seizing control of school boards.
I was thinking last night - what if for a brief moment, we did know the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth about these things, and others… not after 100 years. And what would people make of it?
Congratulations to the families of the Harlem Hellfighters for their forefathers being finally awarded the CMH.
“Accurate history has a way of coming out!” What an excellent way to pull these two events together.
This is brilliant work. Wow. Incredible pulling all of this together. Wow those records requested by the committee should definitely make it clear what the former so called president and his yes men were up to overthrowing democracy and the change of presidents. Love how you tied in history and this well deserved medal. Thank you Heather for this. History and perspective and knowledge of what is happening today
You know what keeps popping into mind for me? I never thought TFG was able to plan and execute anything, much less an insurrection.
He was not acting alone. He was placed there to do this deed.
Precisely! He was just the useful idiot.
Perfect application of the phrase.
As Matthew Dowd says, he couldn’t organize a 2 car funeral procession.
😜😁🤣
Puppet on a Putin string.