The Department of Justice (DOJ) today released the redacted affidavit that persuaded a judge to agree to issue a search warrant for FBI agents to look for classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, the property owned by the Trump Organization in Florida. It was bad.
The things he was impeached for the first time should have been enough to bench the Republicans for a generation. He will never do the honorable thing and he will never stop.
Prison or not, it is up to us to render him impotent by refusing to let him set any agenda outside of his cult. The media won’t do it. They should be giving most air and ink to President Biden and only cover Mr. Trump when something big happens in regards to prosecuting him. And they should never quote him. But sensationalizing DJT makes them money and their bosses are venal.
So it is up to us.
This would be tin horn dictator belongs in the dust bin of history. We the people can’t put him behind bars but we can deposit him in that bin.
Yes, the whole thing is astonishing, but somehow not surprising. Death star should be shoveling dung somewhere and never should have been the occupant of the WH. And yes, everyone who is thinking about this wonders what nefarious things have been done already. His personal notes on classified documents....like what...places where he could sell it? And the Rs are always and ever the party of death. Just thinking about them makes me want to vomit.
And all this time, what lingers in the back of my mind is...what effect might all this have on the January 6th hearings, which will soon ratchet up again? Might this seeming further incrimination of T***p make some potential witnesses who were "on the fence" now be more willing to come forward? Between the 1/6 hearings of T***p inciting a coup, the Mar-a-Lago raid by the DOJ, T***p's business being taken to court in October, T***p in trouble here in Georgia meddling in our election, one just MIGHT be inclined to think his great big orange ass is cooked once and for all. If he gets out of all this unscathed it really would be a miracle. And yet...y'know, one still (almost) has to wonder if he'll somehow manage to squeak through yet again. Anyway, I'm more hopeful now, or, even dare I say, guardedly optimistic that his world might be about to crumble. At least, that is my prayer.
I’m a novelist and a professor of literature. And I continue to be astounded that people seriously believed that this human monstrosity could be brought to heel, that the office of the presidency might somehow make him rise to the status of the office. College sophomores read Shakespeare for more reasons than one.
Thank you, Professor Richardson, for keeping us informed! I’m in north Idaho at the moment, and all I did today was bake chocolate cake and care for people. Your words are a life raft.
Thanks once again for providing us with an overview. I just read an Associated Press article that said these documents were mixed in with magazines and personal correspondence. Only a true megalomaniac would feel entitled to do this. What were the plans for using these documents? As information comes out, it just gets worse yet the party of Trump not only makes excuses but continues to support him. Shameful and disgraceful. I’m disgusted with Jim Jordan, Josh Hawley, MTG and their ilk.
With his own pen he, Trump, increased the penalty and made into law that “unauthorized removal of classified documents be upped from one year to five, plus added that it would be turned it into a felony.” It was his hope that HRC would be found guilty and get nailed!
Is it too cynical to say that Trump kept this material so he could remain the top news item, his MO to keep his name on the public’s lips? Here he is again displacing news about the accomplishments of the Biden administration and all the other things happening in the world. There is so much war, starvation, political unrest, rising autocracy, inflation, trade disruption and even a nuclear power plant held hostage to war! Here’s hoping the midterm elections go better than expo for Democrats
And this was the person who supposedly had no interest in daily security briefings but who we find has made notes on the most sensitive documents in existence. Those notes were probably dictated to him as we have been told before so were his many tweets. What was the security clearance of the dictatee . Not to mention the fact that the person who tRUMP depended on most to explain all the complicated sensitive stuff to him was Jared Kushner, a person who the NSA, FBI, CIA, etc would not issue a low level security clearance to and who travels seamlessly and is buddies with all the scary operators (Saudis, Iran, Syria) in the Middle East and has proven himself publicly many times to be uneducated about the seriousness of these things.
Donald J Trump has fucked the American people hard core and he and others couldn't care less.
Such jaw-dropping developments. It makes me wonder, is this the hill Republicans want to die on? Do they really want a president to have the power and authority to use national security information at will for personal gain, or whatever Trump had in mind? He still has in his thrall a great majority of that sad, putrescent group of old cynics, paranoid racists and misogynists, and greedy plutocrats, aka the GOP, who have not condemned his indifference to our national security and blatant disregard of our laws. Perhaps the criminal justice system will mete out some measure of accountability now, given how egregious Trump’s document stealing has been. But I don’t dare get my hopes up.
Oddly, I am not at all shocked. I hoped for the best that Merrick Garland would step up, and he has. I am still and yet crossing my fingers that Trump will be indicted, convicted and imprisoned. His picture shouldn’t be in the Capital. I have little faith the last two will happen, but I can hope, right?
Prescient: “He has betrayed our national security, and he will do so again,” House impeachment manager Adam Schiff warned the Senate. “You can’t trust [Trump] to do the right thing. Not for one minute, not for one election, not for the sake of our country. You just can’t. He will not change and you know it.” Schiff begged them to say “enough.”
"But they would not, and they did not, and here we are." Indeed, here we are...
Leaving a question of the Secret Service members... it sounded like there was involvement by some on January 6th.... this should get really interesting, really fast. The saddest part about this is that none of this is a surprise with TFG.
Surely spies from several countries, both adversaries and allies (Russia, China, and Israel come to mind, since all three are known to conduct extensive covert intelligence-gathering operations), made copies of any documents that may have interested them sometime during 18 months that the documents resided at a beach resort, padlock or no padlock. To believe that they would have failed to take advantage of such easy pickings is well beyond naïve.
Actually, I'm now waiting for the other shoe to drop. It is very probable that DT has already monetized some of the classified documents. At the point that sees the light of day, DT will be considered a traitor, be indicted and hopefully suffer the consequences of his actions. Whether he goes to jail or the insane asylum is the next question. It is time for the Republican MAGA rats to leave the DT yacht. We, the People, all of us this time.
"Trump’s lawyers told the DOJ that presidents have the absolute authority to declassify documents—this is not true, by the way—but did not assert he had done so."
So, one has to wonder, did Donald's lawyers graduate from a law school they found advertised on the back of a box of corn flakes?
Thanks for another week of finely crafted commentary, Heather. So glad you're wrapping up early. Rest well.
I couldn't face the document today, and reminded myself that "Heather's letter tonight will sort out the main points." The main points seem to be espionage, with a "who knows who has this information now or how it might be used against us, perhaps even in literal years to come" chaser. Every layer uncovered revealed a heightened level of deliberately mercenary and democracy-destroying behavior by Trump, his sycophants, and defenders, all of whom seem to have some vague sense of no interiority, of there not being anything of value, or any values that pertain to life and not death, there beneath the surface. There is nothing except more surface. Yes, Trump is now in trouble and likely to be indicted, but we are on a sword's edge as a country in terms of the survival of any kind of democracy. I remember watching the 2016 RNC and feeling chilled, describing it to a friend as a "Nazi gathering wrapped in a shit-show." The ominous feeling hasn't left; perhaps I'm just more used to it. I'm grateful for this pocket of reality-based discussion and community. I'm doing what I can and I know you all are too. Rot coming to light has to be good. I hope Biden gives more speeches of the type in Maryland, and his new coms person is taking no prisoners on Twitter. Take care, everyone.
The things he was impeached for the first time should have been enough to bench the Republicans for a generation. He will never do the honorable thing and he will never stop.
Prison or not, it is up to us to render him impotent by refusing to let him set any agenda outside of his cult. The media won’t do it. They should be giving most air and ink to President Biden and only cover Mr. Trump when something big happens in regards to prosecuting him. And they should never quote him. But sensationalizing DJT makes them money and their bosses are venal.
So it is up to us.
This would be tin horn dictator belongs in the dust bin of history. We the people can’t put him behind bars but we can deposit him in that bin.
Yes, the whole thing is astonishing, but somehow not surprising. Death star should be shoveling dung somewhere and never should have been the occupant of the WH. And yes, everyone who is thinking about this wonders what nefarious things have been done already. His personal notes on classified documents....like what...places where he could sell it? And the Rs are always and ever the party of death. Just thinking about them makes me want to vomit.
And all this time, what lingers in the back of my mind is...what effect might all this have on the January 6th hearings, which will soon ratchet up again? Might this seeming further incrimination of T***p make some potential witnesses who were "on the fence" now be more willing to come forward? Between the 1/6 hearings of T***p inciting a coup, the Mar-a-Lago raid by the DOJ, T***p's business being taken to court in October, T***p in trouble here in Georgia meddling in our election, one just MIGHT be inclined to think his great big orange ass is cooked once and for all. If he gets out of all this unscathed it really would be a miracle. And yet...y'know, one still (almost) has to wonder if he'll somehow manage to squeak through yet again. Anyway, I'm more hopeful now, or, even dare I say, guardedly optimistic that his world might be about to crumble. At least, that is my prayer.
I’m a novelist and a professor of literature. And I continue to be astounded that people seriously believed that this human monstrosity could be brought to heel, that the office of the presidency might somehow make him rise to the status of the office. College sophomores read Shakespeare for more reasons than one.
Thank you, Professor Richardson, for keeping us informed! I’m in north Idaho at the moment, and all I did today was bake chocolate cake and care for people. Your words are a life raft.
Thanks once again for providing us with an overview. I just read an Associated Press article that said these documents were mixed in with magazines and personal correspondence. Only a true megalomaniac would feel entitled to do this. What were the plans for using these documents? As information comes out, it just gets worse yet the party of Trump not only makes excuses but continues to support him. Shameful and disgraceful. I’m disgusted with Jim Jordan, Josh Hawley, MTG and their ilk.
What’s amusing and shall I nicely say, ironic?
With his own pen he, Trump, increased the penalty and made into law that “unauthorized removal of classified documents be upped from one year to five, plus added that it would be turned it into a felony.” It was his hope that HRC would be found guilty and get nailed!
Is it too cynical to say that Trump kept this material so he could remain the top news item, his MO to keep his name on the public’s lips? Here he is again displacing news about the accomplishments of the Biden administration and all the other things happening in the world. There is so much war, starvation, political unrest, rising autocracy, inflation, trade disruption and even a nuclear power plant held hostage to war! Here’s hoping the midterm elections go better than expo for Democrats
And this was the person who supposedly had no interest in daily security briefings but who we find has made notes on the most sensitive documents in existence. Those notes were probably dictated to him as we have been told before so were his many tweets. What was the security clearance of the dictatee . Not to mention the fact that the person who tRUMP depended on most to explain all the complicated sensitive stuff to him was Jared Kushner, a person who the NSA, FBI, CIA, etc would not issue a low level security clearance to and who travels seamlessly and is buddies with all the scary operators (Saudis, Iran, Syria) in the Middle East and has proven himself publicly many times to be uneducated about the seriousness of these things.
Donald J Trump has fucked the American people hard core and he and others couldn't care less.
ABOVE THE LAW
Such jaw-dropping developments. It makes me wonder, is this the hill Republicans want to die on? Do they really want a president to have the power and authority to use national security information at will for personal gain, or whatever Trump had in mind? He still has in his thrall a great majority of that sad, putrescent group of old cynics, paranoid racists and misogynists, and greedy plutocrats, aka the GOP, who have not condemned his indifference to our national security and blatant disregard of our laws. Perhaps the criminal justice system will mete out some measure of accountability now, given how egregious Trump’s document stealing has been. But I don’t dare get my hopes up.
Oddly, I am not at all shocked. I hoped for the best that Merrick Garland would step up, and he has. I am still and yet crossing my fingers that Trump will be indicted, convicted and imprisoned. His picture shouldn’t be in the Capital. I have little faith the last two will happen, but I can hope, right?
Prescient: “He has betrayed our national security, and he will do so again,” House impeachment manager Adam Schiff warned the Senate. “You can’t trust [Trump] to do the right thing. Not for one minute, not for one election, not for the sake of our country. You just can’t. He will not change and you know it.” Schiff begged them to say “enough.”
"But they would not, and they did not, and here we are." Indeed, here we are...
Leaving a question of the Secret Service members... it sounded like there was involvement by some on January 6th.... this should get really interesting, really fast. The saddest part about this is that none of this is a surprise with TFG.
Surely spies from several countries, both adversaries and allies (Russia, China, and Israel come to mind, since all three are known to conduct extensive covert intelligence-gathering operations), made copies of any documents that may have interested them sometime during 18 months that the documents resided at a beach resort, padlock or no padlock. To believe that they would have failed to take advantage of such easy pickings is well beyond naïve.
Actually, I'm now waiting for the other shoe to drop. It is very probable that DT has already monetized some of the classified documents. At the point that sees the light of day, DT will be considered a traitor, be indicted and hopefully suffer the consequences of his actions. Whether he goes to jail or the insane asylum is the next question. It is time for the Republican MAGA rats to leave the DT yacht. We, the People, all of us this time.
"Trump’s lawyers told the DOJ that presidents have the absolute authority to declassify documents—this is not true, by the way—but did not assert he had done so."
So, one has to wonder, did Donald's lawyers graduate from a law school they found advertised on the back of a box of corn flakes?
Thanks for another week of finely crafted commentary, Heather. So glad you're wrapping up early. Rest well.
I couldn't face the document today, and reminded myself that "Heather's letter tonight will sort out the main points." The main points seem to be espionage, with a "who knows who has this information now or how it might be used against us, perhaps even in literal years to come" chaser. Every layer uncovered revealed a heightened level of deliberately mercenary and democracy-destroying behavior by Trump, his sycophants, and defenders, all of whom seem to have some vague sense of no interiority, of there not being anything of value, or any values that pertain to life and not death, there beneath the surface. There is nothing except more surface. Yes, Trump is now in trouble and likely to be indicted, but we are on a sword's edge as a country in terms of the survival of any kind of democracy. I remember watching the 2016 RNC and feeling chilled, describing it to a friend as a "Nazi gathering wrapped in a shit-show." The ominous feeling hasn't left; perhaps I'm just more used to it. I'm grateful for this pocket of reality-based discussion and community. I'm doing what I can and I know you all are too. Rot coming to light has to be good. I hope Biden gives more speeches of the type in Maryland, and his new coms person is taking no prisoners on Twitter. Take care, everyone.