Lots of news swirling around about the boxes of classified information Trump took from the United States and held at Mar-a-Lago, but the most telling window into all those stories is that the former president took to his Truth Social network this morning to demand that he be declared the winner of the 2020 election, or that the election be redone again “immediately!”
I'm kind of morbidly curious just how far off the deep end Trump will go. He's passed the point of no return: every escalation makes him less palatable to everyone, and he has no other strategy.
Before Trump met with Putin in Helsinki, Lindsey Graham was his fierce opponent. After that meeting, he was Trump's lapdog. You have to wonder exactly what dirt Vlad gave Moscow Donnie on Lindsey that day, and how it could be so bad for Graham to sell his very soul.
"...the former president took to his Truth Social network this morning to demand that he be declared the winner of the 2020 election, or that the election be redone again “immediately!”
I agree about the 1990's surge of anti government sentiment (when I was a baby fed in natural resources that was a time when there was specific danger in the west for our non-white staffer attending a meeting in northern Idaho. (She wound up being escorted by our Law Enforcement staff.)
It was also a time when we got threatened a LOT - in fact, exchanging death threat stories became a thing. Some death threats were more effectual than others. Jack Ward Thomas, a researcher who became Chief of the Forest Service and who was involved in controversial issues even before that, got a death threat at midnight at his home about 50 miles from my house. (He told them he didn't take death threats at home, and to call him at the office.)
It was also a time when GOP officials (Helen Chenoweth, ID in particular) egged on violence against feds. I know of several incidents where friends got threatened at gun point, also here in Oregon.
I'd actually take 1990's date back a while, though. You might or might not remember that Chenoweth married the guy who started the Sagebrush rebellion, most active in the 60s or so. That whole crew used to threaten other feds (and folks with environmental leanings).
As it shakes out, I know of two threats to folks in my circle, both connected to the Hammonds, who you may or may not remember were the cause celebre/excuse for the Bundy occupation for the Malheur Refuge Occupation a few years ago. In those cases, the Refuge manager at the time had his son threatened with "being wrapped in barbed wire and dropped in a well", while the director of the Field Station at the time got another one of those death threats where they forgot themselves and left a call back number.
Still callling back to the Malheur Occupation, Rep Greg Walden (GOP) was in support of that action, along with the Oathkeeper Sheriff of adjacent Grant County: Matt Shea, the censured GOP state rep in eastern Washington who is trying to raise a Christian army near Spokane to behead non Christian men; and even one of the county commissioners in my County!
The point I'm trying to make is that the violence against Feds (outside of McVeigh! Thank god for Merrick Garland!) has been ongoing through the 60's and onward - and really, the 30s-late 40s had significant KKK manipulations and attacks as well. (Would like to recommend Entering the Klavern, based on a complete set of KKK chapter notes from this part of Oregon. My boyfriend's father was apparently a member!)
I'll close with my favorite death threat that I and my team got - it ended with the statement that he and Satan were watching us. And as the project we were working on had it's origins in an attack on a field crew at knife and gunpoint... you can see that the energy that fueled the 1/6 attacks has been roiling for YEARS. (At times it has felt like no one cared until it got into their back yard.)
I may actually listen to Biden’s speech Thursday. I usually avoid presidential speeches, even by politicians I support. They’re generally aimed at those who aren’t paying enough attention to what’s going on. But this one coming might well be a speech a future HCR cites as a turning point in our history.
I think Biden is hitting his stride as president at perfect time; just before the mid-term elections. I think he knows well what is at stake and is going to use the momentum of his recent legislative victories, as well as the seemingly endless revelations of criminality by his predecessor, to get as many Democrats as possible into Congress.
He’s going to sound the alarm and we’ll he should!
The optimist in me, that refuses to die, hopes for an election that refutes the history of previous mid-term elections.
I concur with legal analyst, Glenn Kirschner’s assessment:
“Lindsey Graham’s definitive statement that, if Donald Trump is indicted for his crimes, “there will be riots,” is reminiscent of Trump’s statement, “come to DC on Jan. 6, will be wild.” These statements are not warnings. They are recruitment calls.”
Race riots are American fascism. HCR’s latest is a wordy effort to avoid COLOR and Black and racial bigotry in the Republicans that prefer Trump fascism to Abe Lincoln’s tolerance and decency.
Steve Schmidt’s white rage at white supremacy is the message we Americans must hear. Lawrence O”Donnell of MSNBC spells out Trump’s fate and misery nightly. Lawrence Tribe nails it.
There will be no riots in the streets. Don Giovanni is the opera to watch. Trump shook the hand of the hand of the statue. He will vanish through the floor.
Hell will now receive the fascist president. Joe Knows Us set the course. Justice Ketanji BrownJackson will lead The Court.
Pinch me. I’m dreading. I have a dream that all of us are created equal and our women are not dominated by men.
It ain’t over till the fat man is fried in the truth juices of tolerance. The music is building to a finale. I hear the crescendo building.
Trump Inc is in Hell. Sen. Graham is whining about race riots to save the white legacy brat from racist Queens. Mussolini was found hanging kver a lamp post. Hitler checked out.
What dud Nixon do what did Agnew do?
79 million Trump racists will learn tolerance.
Pinch me. I’m dreaming. I don’t want to wake up.
Let’s roll, you know what to do. VOTE.
The nightmare is ending. The constitution won this time. Dred Scott died again. I’m having a fantasy.
Love is dealing with hate. Our Blacks will now forgive us, right? Two terms of Obama drove them crazy. Trump was their reply brief.
Ukraine is a message. Potassium iodide is needed.
Zelenskyy and Biden are leading us to a better place.
It was never going to be easy.
The Book of Job spells it out. We are being tested.
God and the Devil are playing with Man.
May the Black Women prevail. They flipped South Carolina.
From a distance, Switzerland in my case, it seems surrealistic to read & hear all the noise about a former president...isn‘t there a way to simply ignore him?
This an interesting turn: the self-described party of "law and order" suddenly whines that law enforcement is now the enemy and a Democratic president will address the country on the very real threat of anti-democratic actions and violence facing the country from Trump and his GOP cult.
As his legal jeopardy increases, so will Trump's desperate maneuvers to survive, no matter the cost.
One word describes the repubs and their deposed leader: Desperation. “the former president took to his Truth Social network this morning to demand that he be declared the winner of the 2020 election, or that the election be redone again “immediately!” And Lindsay Graham predicting riots in the streets if TFG is held accountable for his crimes. These tantrums could be harbingers of more violence. At the least they are meant to be distractions, as if we will forget TFG stole and hid top secret documents from the government in his private resort. Here we have President Biden showing strength and resolve, calling out Fascism (or Semi-Fascism) and TFG’s unpresidential (he’s still president he thinks) tantrums. Stay tuned.
I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but to reinforce my comments about the severity of the disclosure of classified material, Tom Nichols wrote an excellent synopsis in The Atlantic today.
tfg: If you just didn't do the stuff that everyone else who does that stuff goes to jail for, the FBI and DOJ wouldn't be coming after you. Eventually, Jones and Day lawyers and all the friendly judges who might have given you a chance, will be blocking your phone calls. Please stop. It's not them, its you who are the problem here.
This letter provides information I would never have known from the cacophony of media coverage currently posing as "news." That is a grave reflection of the echo chamber various algorithms direct what shows up in our news feed. It also is an indictment of the "entertainment" emphasis many media outlets hawk, over providing data, instruction, comparison or guidance.
The "REAL NEWS" should be the diligence the Biden administration is directing to help ALL Americans, Irregardless of party affiliation or geography. THE WHITE HOUSE OFFICE OF PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT offers regular (often weekly) briefings on multiple initiatives - faith community, health, nutrition/hunger, minority issues, and more. It is exceedingly transparent. Most people see government as a "black box" that collects taxes and is supposed to keep us safe. Registering online for these briefings is immensely informative to the general public on how government actually works. The Biden/Harris Administration is taking action on multiple fronts that seem to remain behind the scenes when it comes to media coverage. In addition to providing updates on policy priorities, The White House Office of Public Engagement is encouraging dialogue, involvement, suggestions for improvement and solutions, inclusion and diversity.
THIS administration is AT WORK. POTUS is not spending the day watching television or trying to be the nightly headline.
I'm exhausted of the clown show being the leading feature. Recall the admonition a circus sends the clowns out to distract the audience when something goes terribly wrong - imagine the lion tamer being attacked or the acrobats falling from the high wire or trapeze.
WHY didn't the GOP leaders invoke the 25th Amendment? Why didn't the GOP support the first, and then the second impeachments of DJT? WHY are MAGA Republicans putting party over country?
Trump's business ventures always lose money but he of course rakes in other people's money while he can, reaps tax benefits from his failures, and stiffs anyone buried in the wreckage. The question is: Does the clever and effective Leonard Leo still consider Trump a useful enough idiot to continue funding The Big Lie? Is The Big Lie useful enough in itself for Leo to continue funding its originator or are there other amplifiers who would be better investments. With $1.6 billion tax free Leo has a lot of leeway. Of course we'll never know unless players or whistleblowers come forth.
And a note on the Leonard Leo Graffiti Project here on MDI. The police top brass have been privately and now publicly supporting my 'right to tag'. Although some rogue cops ignoring instructions from their chiefs continue to threaten and harass me (one in plain clothes with a big side arm, responding to a complaint from Leo's RC Church of the Holy Redeemer in Bar Harbor initially refused to identify himself and said "We are watching and recording everything you do. Don't think this is over, this is not over" and then refused to take my complaint that a woman, who'd added her complaint to the priest's, had tried to hit me with her car, twice. He is a local cop, and a police lieutenant at the station took my report. Most interactions with police are courteous and friendly. Local activists have asked I not tag without one of them tagging along for my safety and as a witness.
On a tragi-comedy note, the priest yelled "you have no respect for the man." When a priest speaks of 'The Man' I think The Man from Galilee, so I said I respect Jesus. And the priest yelled "you don't respect Mr. Leo."
Having failed to get me arrested by the local police, Leo seems to have been pressuring the Town Manager, who has threatened to have me criminally charged and bill me for the time and supplies he is using every weekday in his first thing in the morning hop-to-it taxpayer funded Leo driven graffiti removal. On one day the Town Manager was unable to cite relevant state or town code that required him to remove the graffiti and the next day he was parroting exactly the language used by the rogue cops (one of whom I know, because he told me, has long associations with Leo.)
On a more serious note, Leo driven complaints (up until recently, according to a public statement by the police, Leo was practically the only one complaining) have effectively shifted some public focus onto "is my chalk paint temporary enough, am I a criminal and is the town the victim of my criminal activity" (Leo doesn't get his houseboy to the unconscionably wealthy wages for services rendered in the dark, for nothing.) I am trying to keep the focus on Leo. But public support for the Bar Harbor Police's good work to protect my civil rights might help.
Oh and as we were holding signs by the church parking lot, Leo stopped to invite us to Mass. A very smug, sanctimonious, and self satisfied little man, playing humble servant of Christ for his tweenies in the back seats of his SUV. Christ Wept.
While I have read the ruthless people generally don't suffer the consequences and have seen evidence of that, it seems that Trump may have to face some consequences for his deeds. Deciding to make Supreme Court appointments of anti abortionists was a bad move. I think that is going to galvanize people to vote. It certainly is getting women to march and protest, so the right wing is not the only side that can march and exercise express their discontent. I believe by the end of the year we are going to be inundated with stories of all of the things that can go wrong in a pregnancy. It is a wonder anyone even risks having a child after that. I think we need to start mailing these Republicans Windbag awards for the comments they make in the media which are cruel and stupid about the cases of women who are suffering from unwanted pregnancies who are denied abortions. I think Senator Lindsay Graham should definitely get a Windbag award.
August 29, 2022
I'm kind of morbidly curious just how far off the deep end Trump will go. He's passed the point of no return: every escalation makes him less palatable to everyone, and he has no other strategy.
Before Trump met with Putin in Helsinki, Lindsey Graham was his fierce opponent. After that meeting, he was Trump's lapdog. You have to wonder exactly what dirt Vlad gave Moscow Donnie on Lindsey that day, and how it could be so bad for Graham to sell his very soul.
"...the former president took to his Truth Social network this morning to demand that he be declared the winner of the 2020 election, or that the election be redone again “immediately!”
Simply stated, HILARIOUS!
I agree about the 1990's surge of anti government sentiment (when I was a baby fed in natural resources that was a time when there was specific danger in the west for our non-white staffer attending a meeting in northern Idaho. (She wound up being escorted by our Law Enforcement staff.)
It was also a time when we got threatened a LOT - in fact, exchanging death threat stories became a thing. Some death threats were more effectual than others. Jack Ward Thomas, a researcher who became Chief of the Forest Service and who was involved in controversial issues even before that, got a death threat at midnight at his home about 50 miles from my house. (He told them he didn't take death threats at home, and to call him at the office.)
It was also a time when GOP officials (Helen Chenoweth, ID in particular) egged on violence against feds. I know of several incidents where friends got threatened at gun point, also here in Oregon.
I'd actually take 1990's date back a while, though. You might or might not remember that Chenoweth married the guy who started the Sagebrush rebellion, most active in the 60s or so. That whole crew used to threaten other feds (and folks with environmental leanings).
As it shakes out, I know of two threats to folks in my circle, both connected to the Hammonds, who you may or may not remember were the cause celebre/excuse for the Bundy occupation for the Malheur Refuge Occupation a few years ago. In those cases, the Refuge manager at the time had his son threatened with "being wrapped in barbed wire and dropped in a well", while the director of the Field Station at the time got another one of those death threats where they forgot themselves and left a call back number.
Still callling back to the Malheur Occupation, Rep Greg Walden (GOP) was in support of that action, along with the Oathkeeper Sheriff of adjacent Grant County: Matt Shea, the censured GOP state rep in eastern Washington who is trying to raise a Christian army near Spokane to behead non Christian men; and even one of the county commissioners in my County!
The point I'm trying to make is that the violence against Feds (outside of McVeigh! Thank god for Merrick Garland!) has been ongoing through the 60's and onward - and really, the 30s-late 40s had significant KKK manipulations and attacks as well. (Would like to recommend Entering the Klavern, based on a complete set of KKK chapter notes from this part of Oregon. My boyfriend's father was apparently a member!)
I'll close with my favorite death threat that I and my team got - it ended with the statement that he and Satan were watching us. And as the project we were working on had it's origins in an attack on a field crew at knife and gunpoint... you can see that the energy that fueled the 1/6 attacks has been roiling for YEARS. (At times it has felt like no one cared until it got into their back yard.)
Stay safe out there.
I may actually listen to Biden’s speech Thursday. I usually avoid presidential speeches, even by politicians I support. They’re generally aimed at those who aren’t paying enough attention to what’s going on. But this one coming might well be a speech a future HCR cites as a turning point in our history.
I think Biden is hitting his stride as president at perfect time; just before the mid-term elections. I think he knows well what is at stake and is going to use the momentum of his recent legislative victories, as well as the seemingly endless revelations of criminality by his predecessor, to get as many Democrats as possible into Congress.
He’s going to sound the alarm and we’ll he should!
The optimist in me, that refuses to die, hopes for an election that refutes the history of previous mid-term elections.
I concur with legal analyst, Glenn Kirschner’s assessment:
“Lindsey Graham’s definitive statement that, if Donald Trump is indicted for his crimes, “there will be riots,” is reminiscent of Trump’s statement, “come to DC on Jan. 6, will be wild.” These statements are not warnings. They are recruitment calls.”
Is there anything more serious than what this man, DJT, has done to the US and its people?
Is there anything more serious than what the country allowed him to do to it and to its citizens?
DJT is still free to continue inflicting serious damage on the USA and its people.
Race riots are American fascism. HCR’s latest is a wordy effort to avoid COLOR and Black and racial bigotry in the Republicans that prefer Trump fascism to Abe Lincoln’s tolerance and decency.
Steve Schmidt’s white rage at white supremacy is the message we Americans must hear. Lawrence O”Donnell of MSNBC spells out Trump’s fate and misery nightly. Lawrence Tribe nails it.
There will be no riots in the streets. Don Giovanni is the opera to watch. Trump shook the hand of the hand of the statue. He will vanish through the floor.
Hell will now receive the fascist president. Joe Knows Us set the course. Justice Ketanji BrownJackson will lead The Court.
Pinch me. I’m dreading. I have a dream that all of us are created equal and our women are not dominated by men.
It ain’t over till the fat man is fried in the truth juices of tolerance. The music is building to a finale. I hear the crescendo building.
Trump Inc is in Hell. Sen. Graham is whining about race riots to save the white legacy brat from racist Queens. Mussolini was found hanging kver a lamp post. Hitler checked out.
What dud Nixon do what did Agnew do?
79 million Trump racists will learn tolerance.
Pinch me. I’m dreaming. I don’t want to wake up.
Let’s roll, you know what to do. VOTE.
The nightmare is ending. The constitution won this time. Dred Scott died again. I’m having a fantasy.
Love is dealing with hate. Our Blacks will now forgive us, right? Two terms of Obama drove them crazy. Trump was their reply brief.
Ukraine is a message. Potassium iodide is needed.
Zelenskyy and Biden are leading us to a better place.
It was never going to be easy.
The Book of Job spells it out. We are being tested.
God and the Devil are playing with Man.
May the Black Women prevail. They flipped South Carolina.
Joe Knows Us.
Amen.
From a distance, Switzerland in my case, it seems surrealistic to read & hear all the noise about a former president...isn‘t there a way to simply ignore him?
This an interesting turn: the self-described party of "law and order" suddenly whines that law enforcement is now the enemy and a Democratic president will address the country on the very real threat of anti-democratic actions and violence facing the country from Trump and his GOP cult.
As his legal jeopardy increases, so will Trump's desperate maneuvers to survive, no matter the cost.
Perilous times.
One word describes the repubs and their deposed leader: Desperation. “the former president took to his Truth Social network this morning to demand that he be declared the winner of the 2020 election, or that the election be redone again “immediately!” And Lindsay Graham predicting riots in the streets if TFG is held accountable for his crimes. These tantrums could be harbingers of more violence. At the least they are meant to be distractions, as if we will forget TFG stole and hid top secret documents from the government in his private resort. Here we have President Biden showing strength and resolve, calling out Fascism (or Semi-Fascism) and TFG’s unpresidential (he’s still president he thinks) tantrums. Stay tuned.
I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but to reinforce my comments about the severity of the disclosure of classified material, Tom Nichols wrote an excellent synopsis in The Atlantic today.
tfg: If you just didn't do the stuff that everyone else who does that stuff goes to jail for, the FBI and DOJ wouldn't be coming after you. Eventually, Jones and Day lawyers and all the friendly judges who might have given you a chance, will be blocking your phone calls. Please stop. It's not them, its you who are the problem here.
This letter provides information I would never have known from the cacophony of media coverage currently posing as "news." That is a grave reflection of the echo chamber various algorithms direct what shows up in our news feed. It also is an indictment of the "entertainment" emphasis many media outlets hawk, over providing data, instruction, comparison or guidance.
The "REAL NEWS" should be the diligence the Biden administration is directing to help ALL Americans, Irregardless of party affiliation or geography. THE WHITE HOUSE OFFICE OF PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT offers regular (often weekly) briefings on multiple initiatives - faith community, health, nutrition/hunger, minority issues, and more. It is exceedingly transparent. Most people see government as a "black box" that collects taxes and is supposed to keep us safe. Registering online for these briefings is immensely informative to the general public on how government actually works. The Biden/Harris Administration is taking action on multiple fronts that seem to remain behind the scenes when it comes to media coverage. In addition to providing updates on policy priorities, The White House Office of Public Engagement is encouraging dialogue, involvement, suggestions for improvement and solutions, inclusion and diversity.
THIS administration is AT WORK. POTUS is not spending the day watching television or trying to be the nightly headline.
I'm exhausted of the clown show being the leading feature. Recall the admonition a circus sends the clowns out to distract the audience when something goes terribly wrong - imagine the lion tamer being attacked or the acrobats falling from the high wire or trapeze.
WHY didn't the GOP leaders invoke the 25th Amendment? Why didn't the GOP support the first, and then the second impeachments of DJT? WHY are MAGA Republicans putting party over country?
Instead, they are sending in the clowns.
Trump's business ventures always lose money but he of course rakes in other people's money while he can, reaps tax benefits from his failures, and stiffs anyone buried in the wreckage. The question is: Does the clever and effective Leonard Leo still consider Trump a useful enough idiot to continue funding The Big Lie? Is The Big Lie useful enough in itself for Leo to continue funding its originator or are there other amplifiers who would be better investments. With $1.6 billion tax free Leo has a lot of leeway. Of course we'll never know unless players or whistleblowers come forth.
And a note on the Leonard Leo Graffiti Project here on MDI. The police top brass have been privately and now publicly supporting my 'right to tag'. Although some rogue cops ignoring instructions from their chiefs continue to threaten and harass me (one in plain clothes with a big side arm, responding to a complaint from Leo's RC Church of the Holy Redeemer in Bar Harbor initially refused to identify himself and said "We are watching and recording everything you do. Don't think this is over, this is not over" and then refused to take my complaint that a woman, who'd added her complaint to the priest's, had tried to hit me with her car, twice. He is a local cop, and a police lieutenant at the station took my report. Most interactions with police are courteous and friendly. Local activists have asked I not tag without one of them tagging along for my safety and as a witness.
On a tragi-comedy note, the priest yelled "you have no respect for the man." When a priest speaks of 'The Man' I think The Man from Galilee, so I said I respect Jesus. And the priest yelled "you don't respect Mr. Leo."
Having failed to get me arrested by the local police, Leo seems to have been pressuring the Town Manager, who has threatened to have me criminally charged and bill me for the time and supplies he is using every weekday in his first thing in the morning hop-to-it taxpayer funded Leo driven graffiti removal. On one day the Town Manager was unable to cite relevant state or town code that required him to remove the graffiti and the next day he was parroting exactly the language used by the rogue cops (one of whom I know, because he told me, has long associations with Leo.)
On a more serious note, Leo driven complaints (up until recently, according to a public statement by the police, Leo was practically the only one complaining) have effectively shifted some public focus onto "is my chalk paint temporary enough, am I a criminal and is the town the victim of my criminal activity" (Leo doesn't get his houseboy to the unconscionably wealthy wages for services rendered in the dark, for nothing.) I am trying to keep the focus on Leo. But public support for the Bar Harbor Police's good work to protect my civil rights might help.
Oh and as we were holding signs by the church parking lot, Leo stopped to invite us to Mass. A very smug, sanctimonious, and self satisfied little man, playing humble servant of Christ for his tweenies in the back seats of his SUV. Christ Wept.
Now off to the bus to town to tag.
While I have read the ruthless people generally don't suffer the consequences and have seen evidence of that, it seems that Trump may have to face some consequences for his deeds. Deciding to make Supreme Court appointments of anti abortionists was a bad move. I think that is going to galvanize people to vote. It certainly is getting women to march and protest, so the right wing is not the only side that can march and exercise express their discontent. I believe by the end of the year we are going to be inundated with stories of all of the things that can go wrong in a pregnancy. It is a wonder anyone even risks having a child after that. I think we need to start mailing these Republicans Windbag awards for the comments they make in the media which are cruel and stupid about the cases of women who are suffering from unwanted pregnancies who are denied abortions. I think Senator Lindsay Graham should definitely get a Windbag award.