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.
Well, I think we can only say such a thing because we're starting to believe he'll actually be prosecuted and found guilty--and that must happen--but there is enormous risk the other way as well. I, for one, will not breath easy until he's placed under house arrest for the rest of his life (for those, like me, that envision him wearing face-matching orange or swinging from a gangarm, this isn't happening. His most likely COA is to be confined, utterly, to Mar-a-Lago the rest of his life and cut off from outside communication. And like a prison boss, it will take about 3 months before the first news story of him trying to conduct secret communications with Rudy and Steve-o). Until he's actually, effectively removed from public life, I will not rest easy one iota.
Robert, you (always) write as if you know what you are talking about, and if you are the Robert McTague who comes up at the top of the Google list of Robert McTagues, then I have to assume you do. That said, I would like to know where it is written in the Federal Code that ex-Presidents who have been found guilty of multiple felonies get to enjoy cushy house arrest for the rest of their lives and not die in a maximum security federal pen out in the desert somewhere?
From my relatively safe perch here in Le Marche, rated by Giorgia Melloni (fascistoid leader of the farthest right Italian party Fratelli d'Italia and possible next Prime Minister) as a "model region", it looks to me like the Big Turkey's goose is cooked.
Biden and the Democratic Party are clearly aware that their political base, including us, will not accept anything less than an indictment and trial. Garland would not have sent the FBI to retrieve secret documents illegally kept at Trump's home if he wasn't sure that: A.) Trump has been committing a continuing felony by not returning the docs to the Archives, and B.) that a number of those documents corroborate damning testimony he has been getting from former Trump insiders who are abandoning ship because they don't want to go to jail for the SOB.
I think the DOJ will throw the whole fucking book at him, from obstruction of justice to spying for the Ruskies and other highest bidders to fraudulently pocketing campaign contributions to attempting to interfere with elections and violently overthrow the US Government (call it treason). And probably other stuff none of us knows about yet, and probably crimes he has yet to commit, but surely will, as he doubles down and tries to lie his way out of ... his life.
I have said it before: he will be behind bars or out on billion $$ bail by Thanksgiving.
I’d love to see him pay the price for what he’s done to our great country. He should be hung for being a spy. But he has a nasty group of followers with the “big” guns and I’m not prepared to see how they retaliate. My dream situation is that he runs like the chicken that he is, deserts his loyal followers. Let them see exactly what a piece of crap he is.
If he runs, it will be to the Saudis where there is no extradition treaty. Not that I give a crap, if only his fervent cultist followers would actually FOLLOW him (physically) to Saudi Arabia and get to enjoy the Saudi version of justice (I'm sure they wouldn't like it).
However I believe it's of paramount importance for those of his ilk to observe justice being done and to reflect on their own potential fate should they try similar tricks and tactics. (I know: that is wishful thinking, too.)
I think, like you, that he will flee. I was just thinking of how utterly insane it is that we are speculating that a former president might flee the country to avoid prosecution for treason, and it isn’t unbelievable to think it.
I think we should prepare for retaliation, and I think the National Guard can handle it. Not law enforcement, though, since all law enforcement organizations in the US, from the FBI down to the lowest county sherrif, are dominated by vicious authoritarians and rogue racists. We definitely cannot count on help from law enforcement, but the National Guard has a chain of command and a culture of carrying out orders made by officers in charge, whether the grunts like the orders or not.
We'll bring him back. He's more dangerous if he flees to Putin. We cannot let him just walk away. There are so many of them that Guantanamo Bay Resort still sounds good to me. Wasn't that Ginni's idea?
At the bottom of a decommissioned ICBM silo in the Midwest would be the best option. If it was secure enough for Alex Krycek in X-Files, it’ll keep the orange stain from spreading.
They didn't hang the Rosenbergs. They were both electrocuted. For what?
For being convicted of spying on behalf of the Soviet Union, providing the Soviets with top-secret information about U.S. radar, sonar, jet propulsion engines and valuable nuclear weapon designs. The conviction came in 1951, the year I was born. The federal government executed them both at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, New York, in 1953.
They were the first U.S. civilians to be charged with espionage against the USA during peacetime.
I wrote a little story in my head halfway through Trump's turn in which I turned him into a peanut. Channeling Beatrice Potter, I conjured up a very hungry squirrel who disposed of him nicely.
I'm reading (for the 3rd time) William L. Shirer's Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, so far only up to p. 70 or so. There are many parallels between Hitler's rise to power (as recounted by Shirer) and Trump's, including the use of violence for political ends. One signal difference is that Hitler was intelligent, even a genius, in some ways (evil, to be sure). Shirer quotes some passages from Hitler's Mein Kampf, which Hitler wrote without a ghost writer, I believe, and the writing is clear and even sophisticated. An American military attache' in Berlin who interviewed him described Hitler's conversation as being clear and logical, but fanatical. "Clear", "logical", "genius" are not words to apply to Trump (except "stable genius", of course). Finally, as far as I can tell, Hitler was intent on German hegemony at least in Europe and was fanatically anti-semitic, but his own elevation was a means to that end rather than his primary motivation, whereas personal exaltation seems to be Trump's only motivation. If there are historians out there who can fill in or correct this picture, I'd be interested to hear.
Right, J. "...personal exaltation seems to be Trump's only motivation..." If only the Trumpers would understand this. He doesn't care one iota about doing what's right for this country and protecting democracy. He's totally unprincipled and says whatever his audience of the day wants to hear to maintain their support and get applause. Got to feed that gargantuan ego. He became a Republican and changed to ultra conservative positions because that was the only way he could win them over. Now he's completely nuts and still the Trumpers hang on. GRRRRR...
I have the book! When I received the book and lifted it...and saw small print over 1100 pages. I have yet to read page one! After I finish Jesus and John Wayne...I may attempt it... a book length at a time! Congratulation on reading 2 times and beginning again!
He has been using Hitler’s playbook, get cozy with wealthy right wing business leaders, propagate the big lie relentlessly, grab power with a mob of violent supporters always at the ready, use propaganda constantly( Hitler’s “ peoples radio, Trump’s tweets), promise to restore the nation to greatness, place the blame on scapegoats, have a belligerent hateful even violent outlook, find ways around the constitution and the laws, use your personal charisma to charm the gullible, never back down. But Hitler was smarter and much more astute at politics.
Good morning David! I’d like to add C.) The DOJ recognized the risk to our national security of Trump’s continued possession of those documents.
I hope you are right. But I think, like Robert, that house arrest is more likely than jail, although how one would manage that at a club full of treasonous sycophants and toadies is beyond me. I do enjoy the thought that he might be able to see the golf course but not be allowed to play.
In order to hold 45 accountable, DOJ has to be confident that the people doing the work it would entail , that is, not just the FBI and DOJ staff, but the Secret Service in the event of a standoff, and the National Guard in the event of widespread insurrection, and for that matter the guys who think sovereign sheriffs have the last word would all have to be evaluated for their reliability and plans would have to be drawn up for various scenarios where individuals and groups within these groups choose to throw in with Trump. Everyone on the right with skin in the game, like Lindsey Graham can be counted on to rile up the rabble. But Trump needs to be stopped here, whatever it takes. I hate to echo Trump’s words, “You’re going to have to fight like hell or you won’t have a country anymore,” so I’ll just say that not stopping Trump here will only encourage those who have been using him to their own ends.
Certainly The Federalist Society used him to their own advantage. Dreaming here that Federalists lose this one and face some serious consequences. But that 1.6 billion injection forestalls that.
Seriously, I am not aware that house arrest is a form of incarceration we use in the USA. There may be some cushy low-security federal prisons for white-collar crooks guilty of ponzi schemes, etc. (a scandal in itself!), but for multiple felonies including espionage and attempting to violently overthrow the US Government? I should think not. The Italians use it for lesser crimes and for non-violent convicts they do not expect will try to escape, and it can take some pressure off overcrowded prisons, but why should Trump be treated tenderly? And since when has the GOP supported rehabilitation of criminals over simple punishment? According to Google The USA has the world's second highest percentage of incarcerated citizens, slightly lower than the Seychelles. I cannot imagine Trump getting only house arrest unless he wins the next election. Not sure how that would work. Something else to worry about...
Thank you editing function! Lazy me. I googled "house arrest" in the US and discovered it is used with electronic ankle bracelets. Each state is different. Well, sounds too good for Trump.
Michael Cohen went to Otisville federal prison. I envision something similar. But truly - Trump deserves something much harsher. Yet he may get nothing! We don't know yet. I do love the fact that financially he must be being bled dry with the legal costs.
I completely agree that our democracy depends on the notion that no one is above the law. So throw the book at him. I want to see him tried, convicted, and incarcerated. I suppose my expectation is that he will flee somewhere without extradition; Saudi Arabia comes to mind. But I also think he might not have a valid passport besides his official one - that stuff swirling around the DOJ’s taking his passports - one diplomatic, two expired - was odd. Does one need a valid passport to flee into exile?
Oh, I didn't know the DOJ had already grabbed his passports. Good! I hope they are ready to put him in preventive detention (even "house" preventive detention) if that is required. Never too soon!
Yes. I am so fed up with this jerk and his whining. Never forget that it was largely due to him that several men were incarcerated for years for a crime they did not commit. What a loser and a destructive on to boot.
I Apple mapped Seychelles. Zooming in I saw super high end resorts, roads, businesses and such on the main islands. I also viewed other islands showing some development but without ID’s. That led me to speculate some spooky stuff.
First order of business, once settled on his "golden throne", might be that he is required to pay back every single individual he owes, including damages for every slanderous, reputation-destroying lie he has perpetrated against others dumb enough to work for him.
Only referring to his tasteless and ostentatious NYC gilt laden bathroom “chamber pot”. Actually, he only throne he deserves, merely comes in white and is already installed in that cell to which he aspires. But how does a government imprison a past leader, criminal though he may be, after the person has had access to the country’s top secrets? Dicey stuff?? Does he get solitary?
David Herrick, I'm with you all the way! Your words " it looks to me like the Big Turkey's goose is cooked" came out of my own mouth last night. Cushy house arrest? No way!
David, turn it into a meme on CAVA (free) and post on Twitter to all the popular accounts you can find about the boxes or DOJ - I bet it would go viral! Now full disclosure, I am going a bit against my own principles of how to use social media "without snark" but I sure wouldn't mind seeing your hope fulfilled!
By Thanksgiving? Really? Sorry, but he hasn't even been indicted yet, and there is NO indication of when the DOJ investigation(s) will be completed. Grand jury proceedings take time, and even if indictments are handed down getting on a Federal docket also takes time. And then there are procedural issues, jury selection, etc. Not to mention the fine arts of delay in which T's shils are well schooled. I share your wish, but we need to be realistic about how long this will take. Sometime in 2023 seems more like it, and if he really declares his candidacy before the mid-terms all bets are off.
Granted there is a resistance, in pursuit of holding Dumpster to account for multiple high crimes, to even risking creating the appearance that the party in power is using the Justice Department to squelch the candidacy of an opponent of the other party. But DOJ surely must also be weighing the opposing risk, of appearing to abet the candidacy of a man already publicly demonstrated to have committed multiple crimes against the rule of law, our most important democratic processes, and our national security. They appear to be thinking “Okay, if we are headed for Door #1, it can only be if our demonstrably neutral pursuit of evidence and protection of national security publicly demonstrates that we literally had no other choice but to indict and prosecute.” Hence the excruciatingly painstaking slow pace, mum stance, and occasional statements by Garland that they are following the evidence wherever it leads, and that no one is above the law. Everybody already knows the MAGA extremists will cry politics and threaten violence, and that violence will probably break out again a la Jan. 6. Garland and DOJ appear to have decided on a course of implacable pursuit of the law, come what may. It is the job of the rest of us to ensure that in the upcoming elections we ensure that those who honor the law fairly win our currently still free and fair elections, to keep them that way and to be on deck to enforce the continued rule of law.
Yes, violence from his MAGA crowd is always a threat “but” it seems trump and his misfit consultants were expecting an even larger violent contingency on Jan 6. The fact that so many of them are now being indicted will possibly give pause to those still out there. Yes, there will be riots and protests and violence but his group is not in the majority. The riots and violence will be a problem but not insurmountable. They will be put down (in my opinion). Weeding out his supporters currently in law enforcement( local, Homeland, and Secret Service) and the US Military will be a daunting task though.
Well said Elizabeth. You appear to live on a planet where rational thinking and fairness prevails. I am not sure I live on such a planet. I have, over the last 6 years or so, seen and heard things that turn truth and reality on its head. That sounds like an understatement because I just don't know how to say it better. I think at this point that DOJ is going too slow. It risks the bad guys running out the clock. May have already happened, with the mid-terms looming now. As for relying on the good guys to do our part in November as DOJ continues to deliberate, I am not very confident, yet. Still too much apathy and naive disappointment to overcome. Losing the House alone is going to be catastrophic. Let alone the Senate. We are in a very vulnerable state right now. Could go either way.
Hi James. All your caveats are things I have been feeling and fearing for at least a year. I have lost count of how many times I have posted messages on the DOJ website to AG Garland and his IG strongly urging them to indict Trump well before the upcoming midterms. But I am becoming less pessimistic than I was because of recent events - the overturn of Roe has energized Democrats, the Kansas ballot question that would have allowed its legislature to outlaw abortion went down to blazing defeat, the Democrat in upstate NY who ran forthrightly on a woman's right to choose just won his special election which was a surprise, and not only are many political analysts and commentators downgrading their predictions of a red wave to either uncertain or a red mirage, but even Mitch McConnell recently stated that the Republican hope to increase their Senate seats and take the Senate is in real jeopardy due to what he called the "quality of candidates" - code for too many MAGA extremists won their Senate primaries. It is no longer a sure thing that the R's will take both House and Senate, or even just the House. I don't view any of this as certain, of course. We all have to continue to donate where we are able and push ourselves to work as hard as we can on Dem GOTV--voter postcards and letters, phonathons, canvassing, supporting proven local grassroots GOTV organizations in critical states. But I now have hope that if we all pitch in and work hard, we could--*could*--prevail. I hope millions of Democrats share that hope and commitment to doing whatever parts of the work they can do. Despair and cynicism breed inaction, and inaction predicts defeat.
Mitchell, you may be right, though we do not know exactly what any grand juries might already be doing. That said, I am not aware that candidates for election at any level are exempt from obeying the same laws as the rest of us. Trump said he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and nothing would happen to him, but he is too gutless to put his money where his mouth is (thank goodness!), and he knows that might be a bit much for many of his followers. Well, maybe he knows that.... Anyway, it behooves Garland to move quickly!
I do not know of any law that states that a person seeking public office is immune from the laws that all citizens must abide by. I really never understood the immunity from prosecution that a sitting POTUS has either. I know it is also not a law but a protocol.
He just meant arrested following indictment, without any of the subsequent proceedings you refer to. Getting on the docket is automatic upon arrest, at a minimum, for bail-setting, but arrest also triggers "speedy trial" constitutional deadlines that are on the docket.
I tend to agree that Thanksgiving is optimistic, but grand juries occasionally move quickly. That said, however, there are all kinds of obstructive shenanigans a grand jury target can use and we know Trump will use, and each one will take time to resolve, even the ones so meritless that they qualify as bad faith. That doesn't necessarily mean they'll play out the same way in all the cases, particularly in State courts, where judges with overwhelming caseloads are very experienced at moving cases along. They tend to frown upon delaying tactics, not least because each delay requires its own hearing, which adds to the workload. BTW, it's not just the time in court, which is usually 5-10 minutes, possibly 15. The judge has to work up the case the night before, and even total bullshit motions have to have citations to legal authorities.
One interesting possibility here is that judges would be allowed to use rulings from other Trump cases through something called "judicial notice." If Court A ruled against an argument that doesn't involve questions of fact or involves facts that are the same, Court B can "adopt the reasoning" wholesale. There are instances (quite common in federal courts) where a judge issues a ruling without holding a hearing.
I'm a lawyer writing these comments to try to explain the legal issues for anyone interested. I hope they are helpful.
Yeah Mitchell I am with you. Unfortunately. Trump and his cronies sure know how to game the system. He will announce candidacy soon if he thinks it will help his cause. Surely - surely - DOJ will not fall for such an obvious move. There will be more - appeal after appeal after appeal. And our legal system, even if it tries to expedite, will take too much time. And time is a factor. The more it grinds on, the more apathy sets in, the more memories get fuzzy, the more the 24 hour news cycle moves on. The perfect example is Crossfire Hurricane - Trump has not seen one iota of justice for all the sh_t he pulled for Russiagate. I am still quite skeptical that we are going to see Trump pay in a way anywhere near fair.
He has never seen justice for ANY of his shenannigans (including routinely stiffing people who did work of various kinds for him), before, during or after the Presidency. Ironically, he has benefitted from the very norms that he has been doing his best to ignore or undermine. No wonder he's so cynical about "the system" - he's part of it and knows very well how it works.
Because he's an ex-president, he gets security from the Secret Service. That's impossible to provide in a prison, plus the possibility of what his presence in a prison could create, leaves one with the choice of "St. Helena" - in our case, Mar A Lardo.
Prisoners are routinely segregated if it's necessary for their safety, so he would never be around any other prisoners. Nor would any other prisoners have access to him. I have no guess as to how the Secret Service would fit in.
Oops! Upon re-reading, I think I had the wrong "guys from the New York office" in mind. I thought you were referring to the Manhattan District Attorney's office.
If I believed in smileys, I'd attach about 20 of the red-face ones.
Well, all of this by Thanksgiving? That is indeed something to be thankful for in spades. It is on my wishlist. Gobble, gobble, gobbledygook. Put that bad boy somewhere far, far away. Somewhere we never have to see or hear from him or the rest of them ever again. (But, as Camus warned in The Plague, give them another fifty years and they'll be back.)
Me neither, but maybe we can figure out a way to nip this nonsense in the bud before then to spare future generations the misery of dealing with loose cannons. Now that is certainly wishful thinking on my part, but at least it's not a crime.
We need to pass "the Trump L:aws" mandating by law with 20-year sentences for conviction, the behaviors that were assumed by the founders would naturally be the way serious people in government would act.
David: Of course there is no federal statute specific to ex-presidents. There are federal criminal statutes that apply to everyone, including ex-presidents. Sentences for those convicted vary for both good reasons and bad. Sadly, there is a long history of leniency for those in the upper crust.
As I read his post, Robert was merely expressing his wish and a (possibly sardonic or sarcastic) prediction about the sentence Trump might receive if convicted.
I, an attorney, disagree with him and agree with you. I've never heard of home confinement as a sentence, though I'm not a criminal lawyer. I know it is sometimes used, including electronic monitoring ankle collars, for suspects or defendants out on bail or pending an appeal.
No matter what Trump is convicted of, I'm sure he will be do time. Moreover, for various legal reasons there will be multiple proceedings each with its own punishment, so even if one or two judges are very lenient, it's virtually inconceivable that all of them would be.
Holy crap David - I certainly hope so. I am not sure where you are getting your confidence from though. DOJ is showing its stripes already by not acting immediately on this Mar-a-lago top secret documents thing. Just like anybody and everybody says - if it were anybody else they would be in custody quite a while ago, in gigantic trouble, where FBI/CIA would be acting first and asking questions later. This is just the latest in a series of unlawful acts this guy has done, and none repeat none of it has resulted in justice. It has all emboldened the forces of fascism in this county to the point where they might just seize power in 2022.
DOJ may have so many former Trump "associates" trampling each other to get in the door and spill their guts to the FBI that there is some chaos there due to understaffing. I would add that espionage and treason are hard to ignore, and each crime he commits is worse than the last, because he doesn't know how to fold, only double down. Experienced poker players love guys like that, especially if they have deep pockets and lots of dough. He is toast.
Oh, I hope you are right! I too, don't want to see him in just house arrest. He did so little as President, except raise the national debt and downgrade our civil services including the National Security apparatus, that I truly get mad at the kid glove treatment he has already received from the DOJ!
Who would want HIM to be their caddy? Unless, of course, that person also enjoys cheating to win at golf. I mean, since nearly 100% of Drumpf's endeavors have failed...why would anyone want him to caddy unless they planned to win by cheating?
Which, when I think about it, is still fairly pointless--but, hey...that's the Dear Orange Leader: winning isn't merely the best thing; it's the ONLY thing, Fred's favorite son could never bear to lose at anything, EVER. Little Donnie still can't bear to lose: not even at a silly and pointless game of golf---how pathetically insecure is that???
And it's essential that he not be. While it is certainly not the whole story, I think that the immunizing and unethical blanket "pardon" handed to Nixon was a turning point in total dedication of "Republicans" using the law to obstruct justice.
It ranked, not that I needed to see some extreme punishment for Nixon; overkill would have strengthened his cause; but that we had to firmly draw a line the people entrusted with extreme civic responsibilities cannot be allowed to cross. We certainly failed on that one.
Robert, I share many of your worries. Far more important to me than seeing "it" held accountable under law, is that we of good intent, turn over every single rock to find out what it is that has made his ("its") persuasion seem to be a worthwhile alternative. I have my theories that have intrigued me for a decade and a half. I really want to see much more inquiry into the possibilities as I don't entirely buy most of the easy narratives that have been propagated. Cheers ! * edit in - I should have said "nearly equally as important than" above where I overly stressed unearthing causes; At this moment, nothing is more important than the actions that prove that 'no one is above the law.' That must be sacrosanct first.
No one above the law, meaning not one standard of enforcement for the power-deprived and another for the powerful. That how law operates in tyranny, and tyranny festers wherever double standards arise.
As HCR has stated the most important task that Garland and Biden have is to restore the rule of law. I don’t see how not indicting DJT, is an option for them, not now.
It's been the DOJ's intended task all along: indict by meticulously collecting clear evidence, flipping the little guys & gals, then the bigger ones, building a solid, unassailable case.
One of the problems I think, D4N, is that a lot of Americans just glaze over at the sound of the phrase "rule of law." I think lots, in the thrall of some personality or other, just don't get it. As I used to explain to my students, it doesn't just mean that we follow rules established by law - though it does mean that. What it really means is that "The law IS the RULER," not any single person or group. Obviously the Orange Menace* never learned that or, much more to the point, doesn't care a bit, if it stands in his way. * Hat tip for that appellation to Mike Murphy, vehemently anti-Trump GOP strategist, on the "Hacks On Tap" podcast with David Axelrod and Robert Gibbs. Highly recommended!
Rule of law to most people means that the person who stole the package off the front porch is apprehended or that homeless camps are swept off the streets or that thieves and vandals are in jail. It doesn't mean that death star and his minions are held accountable for the cult.
As much as I can't stand Bill Maher most of the time, he did a powerful New Rules about Hollywood's obsession with "rage revenge" movies. Forget due process! You killed my wife, so I get to go after and kill you." I'm not saying we blame movies or video games for individual decisions, but I have been in theaters (before I started vetting popular movies for violence that I can't stand) when the "villain" gets it and the hero/heroine is cheered. GOP right wing has gotten very very skilled at riling up that very energy.
"If Aristotle, Livy, and Harrington knew what a republic was, the British constitution is much more like a republic than an empire. They define a republic to be a government of laws, and not of men." - John Adams
(sssh, but yes; just between you and I, they do get confirmed Michele) Worse, they get adopted and co-opted with flaws at times, wandering off "the thing or things." I hold my peace here most often for a number of reasons; the first being that this marvelous blog we get to exchange on - with limits, is an action of grace by our dear Dr. DPR, whom I shall evermore cherish, making my first rule of behavior to try as hard as I can (given my personality) to restrain myself in a lot of regards. I have an unconfirmed suspicion that our good Dr. may be aware that I could say much more, but that she'd prefer that I not "confuse the choir" so to speak. We've not had that or any such conversation as she deservedly has earned so very many fans who'd love to have her ear. I have wondered, well David... how do you get the 'juice' to be heard ? There is a U.S. Senate seat being vacated in Ohio by Portman (R) in Ohio; being vied for by a _ rumper and Ryan (D). Would I have a prayer in that contest against all that money and juice ? Am I too late as I've dithered ? I sorted out the whole "do I have any chance" question by conceding that actually getting elected is "not" the main thing for me. The main thing is putting my thoughts out there to share among my state and yes national voters that I don't think the mainstream candidates are focusing on - that 'should' be focused on for the sake of "we the people." Allow me to ask you, if a "John Q. Citizen" came out of nowhere in your state, with no big money or political backing - nor media attention, stepped out and suggested some great ideas, would you take him or her seriously and perhaps be persuaded to give them your vote ? (thanks Michele)
"House arrest"? Guess it depends which crime(s) you think he will be convicted of. If Fanni Willis has her way, he will be behind real bars for long enough to die there. Not sure what Garland will settle for. Not sure if Garland will ever do....anything...
Here is what ought to clear the air - and make things straight up simple like a quality martini. As of January 20, 2021 TFG was a citizen of the US. No more, no less. There is no hierarchical special status in the law about former anythings. To put it into historical perspective - the acid test, perhaps - ask yourself how the founders would have treated a former president who attempted the overthrow of the government they created and risked their lives for.
I suspect at least a few of them would have wanted his head on a pike. Or at least have him returned to the enemy he embraced.
Respect Garland's "slows." He is treading where no AG of the US has ever had to go before. (Stress on "had to.") He is being very, very careful navigating terrain with no precedent. It's a bit like Obama who, as the fist Black president, was very, very careful never to be "angry Black man" political. His (I'll call them) "calms" often frustrated his party in Congress when they felt he had reason to be much more "out there," politically.
I hear you. My intellect understands your point. But my emotions and my sense of "justice delayed" don't care. If any other person had been found with top secret documents in his home, he would have been busted a long, long time ago. Treating TFG as a unique individual violates my sense of what America is supposed to be all about.
But...perhaps the AG is enlisting and roping in TFGs cohorts so as to solidify the case and get most of the bad guys in one large snare.
I will attempt to keep my emotions in check. Mostly.
According to TRMS there are 300 separate documents, each with its own flavor of malfeasance, treason, or espionage to ferret out. Plus any individuals mentioned therein to question or protect. I think you are right.
Even before noon on January 20, 2021, TFG was “only” a citizen, although that is the highest honor that the nation can bestow. While he was President, Washington was referred to as “the first citizen.” So be it.
I like Stephen Colbert's name for it as Karm-A-Lago. The karma of having classified and top secret documents there taking him down delights me in every way.
Jane, I'm totally a Colbert addict; I can't get enough of him, his writers, and of course his delivery ! You may have noticed that each day the Colbert happens to need to mention _rump, he has a new nickname on each of those days. I so wished I had written some of them down ! Cheers Jane !
I too wish I had Colbert's list of TFG's nicknames. Hilarious and creative. The best writers of all the shows. And his Meanwhile segment! I hope Stephen has room for more Emmys. Especially for his live shows following the January 6 Hearings. I have missed Stephen these last 2 weeks. Bad timing for a break. Will miss Jon Batiste, too. But it is my daily addiction along with LFAA! Cheers, D4N!
LOL. Yes. I had forgotten he called the WH a dump while he was occupying it. Probably not full of the tasteless junk he likes to surround himself with.
I am with you on this. As long as he is free to continue his misdeeds. I ,too, will not sleep well. I am rather enjoying him trying to use shopworn distraction tactics from his woeful playbook. We the people have been aware of his various smokescreens for years and the mainstream media are not longer hanging on his every word. There is no other way to go about things in that he must be prosecuted. Fascists gain power when they go unchecked. I say do it soon, before the midterms so that he doesn't have time to throw up another legal roadblock or hold another sleight of hand.
He was raised a crook, with a crook father role model, his daughter married a crook and is one, Melania is an unknown, but she is despicable for her not caring about being best or anything else. His two sons, well, we all know their daddy issues. Their wife and girlfriend are also disgusting. Even Tiffany turned out to be an opportunist sludge. The son Baron (what a name!), well, yet to be seen. So we have got to get them out for good. They see themselves as a “dynasty” and will try to run for office, trade on their name and make a big mess as they already have. Out, out damned spot!
Melania is busy with her own brand of narcissistic enterprise. She is having made images (dolls?) of herself and family for sale on the NFT market. You can't even buy them with real currency. What does that tell you?
This is such an unfortunate scenario you describe, but it seems to be the logical trajectory. It's hard for me to believe that the whole bunch is so evil or narcissistic. I'm still hoping at least one or two of those you mention will relent of their continued lying. Are they all so doomed to a path of lies and evil?
Mary, they are all ON the path of lies and evil. Doomed may be part of their karma, but they are fully on that path. Just follow the MONEY. Kushner, one of the most vile of them, got TWO BILLION DOLLARS for his perfidy. I hope they prosecute his rancid ass right into jail. OMG.
He has a morbidly strange ability to gather the gullible, the uninformed and the ignoramuses around him, almost like some evil sorcerer. I'm in agreement.
But so many of us ARE uninformed and gullible. We fall for advertisements with the most absurd claims (you will attract women if you use this brand of toothpaste, etc.) while responsible citizenship requires the ability to think critically about complex issues. We need to educate better.
And that's just part of it. I'm beginning to think that we need to scrap the entire system of government that has evolved to have so many nooks and crannies that a good lawyer can run it like a maze and so corrupted by money that a well-funded crook can lean on it until it breaks.
Becky, put some thought into what happens when whole systems of government get scrapped. History offers plenty of examples, but France in the late 18th century and Russia in the early 20th are good places to start. In recent years the GOP has been terrifyingly close to being able to call a constitutional convention and rewrite the Constitution. They're not quite as close as they were before the 2018 midterms, but the danger has not passed.
If the entire system got scrapped, those devising a new system would not be Letters from an American readers. The powers calling the shots would be the same powers calling them now: reactionary millionaires and billionaires, aided by a military and law-enforcement that is riddled with well-armed and well-trained right-wingers. It could be argued that the only thing holding them in check now is the system you're ready to scrap.
There's a great and much-quoted scene in Robert Bolt's play _A Man for All Seasons_ that speaks to this. Sir Thomas More is talking with his hot-head son-in-law, William Roper:
Roper: So now you’d give the Devil benefit of law?
More: Yes. What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
Roper: I’d cut down every law in England to do that!
More: Oh? And, when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you – where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country’s planted thick with laws from coast to coast – man’s laws, not God’s – and, if you cut them down – and you’re just the man to do it – d’you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I’d give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety’s sake.
I understand, but I am not yet concerned with how. It is hard to view a problem clearly and decide what should be done to solve it if at the same time you are plotting how to accomplish that. For now, these are separate problems. I think that we have not really considered what we want fundamentally, what is important and necessary. We’ve only tied ourselves in knots trying to make the best of a broken system, applying patch upon patch, wasting our time, attention, and resources, and in the meanwhile slowly dying. There will be a time to consider what you say, but first I want to get really clear about what is important and what is just mud.
What if we started over. Does good government have to be so complex? I think most people would feel that above all it needs to be fair. The Golden Rule is universal: Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. Even children understand fairness. Can a government be built up from there? Can we make our organizations and our laws and all our interactions straight enough and and clear enough to be obvious even to a child?
Becky. You are a revolutionary. However first: Get rid of guns, greed, anger, violence, lust, gluttony, rascism, and yes, we can start over. Until those evils are expunged from the human heart, we are doomed as a species. Sorry to be so pessimistic. Just seems to be our trajectory.
No, I think "despicable" is the proper designation. 'Deplorables' is not descriptive of the pack of rats and scum that follow and/or worship the dumpster fire.
More likely neighboring dachas in the Moscow suburbs. Or wherever Russians put dachas. And if not Russia, then another non-extradition country. If exile was good enough for Napoleon, it's good enough for FPOTUS.
One under scoring factor, that seems to keep getting lost, is what Mary Trump, PhD psychriaist, has repeatedly talked about, is the fact we're dealing with a pure narcissistic personality. As soon as you understand that, this all falls into place. Every it of it.
Including the current character of the "Party of Lincoln No Longer". We all of necessity pursue self-interest ,and we all must struggle with appeals to fear, resentment, greed, and ego aggrandizement. Pandering to our weaknesses has served despots for eons.
Narcissism now pervades the soul of the "Republican" Party.
And no be allowed to play golf. Or if so, someone else keeps score and reports it to the world. I still think prison bars and a pink coverall uniform is best.
I agree with that. I've been writing to my senator since Trump was elected that Donald Trump was a clear and present danger to the United States and I have not been proved wrong. He is dangerous and delusional and he has armed followers who appear to share a similar profile. I'll not be bullied by this bunch of thugs, but I want them all securely removed from society.
I agree that if he is convicted he wouldn't go to prison. I'm fine with home detention but my thought is his Tower apartment because access is already limited. Bonus: he'd be forced to look out on the city he knows hates him. Mar-a-Lago would allow too much freedom. The primary condition of confinement must be no golf (likely his idea of Hell on Earth), no social media, all visits and phone calls as limited as if he were in prison. This option would serve the needs of the Secret Service to not serve inside a prison and remove him completely from all public life. I'd love to see a hefty fine so onerous that he'd be forced into a fire sale of his assets.
Ha! Well, that is one argument for detention at MaL but that would be considered cruel and unusual punishment to lock him in a place that will soon be under water, literally.
This idea works for me. Cutting him off, but leaving him with the windows to stare out of at the city that has long forgotten him since his silencing would be perfect.
Tony Ornato…that name and description sprung out at me immediately and then the press went quiet. I think he was the hit man for Pence. That is why “Daddy” wouldn’t leave Mother and get into the effing secret service vehicle on Jan 6. He didn’t “know” or recognize the driver. I await the real deal on this at some point. Tony is retiring on September 1. Tomorrow. OMG.
Lies with no trace of shame is his most practiced talent. Some people are fooled all of he time, but I think Trump may be wearing out his welcome, burdensome even to some in his party.
And that “practiced talent” has worked well for his entire life. I don’t rest easy because of exactly that character trait. Neither our laws, norms, or stomachs are used to being strong enough to effectively hold to account someone like this. And he is preforming a Master Class for followers and Wannabes.
There was on occasion a hint of charm and levity from Trump’s public appearances of 20 or 30 years ago, but that is all gone now. He is all snarling, brutish bellicosity. He has become a one trick pony.... and it’s a pretty ugly trick.
I like “snarling, brutish bellicosity” Doug. He is really a “many trick pony” with one goal: to rule. To rule absolutely and to be in charge (of money mostly) until he drops dead from all his hamburgers. Can’t be soon enough....
Elisabeth, I agree that my comment about Trump is an oversimplification. But I still think his public persona at least, has become more unidimensional over time; there is no longer even a hint of human warmth or good humor. To me his overarching vibe now is almost always menace and threat. It’s tempting to speculate about what is driving this apparent progressive psychopathology, but for me the greater concern is why so many other people have been swept up into this guy’s dark id... or is he only channeling what was there all along? It just seems like such a sordid mess. I betcha there are going to be books and books written for years and years about this moment in our history. (assuming there will still be people writing books in our future!)
What astounds me is his belief that the 2020 election can and should be redone hasn't landed him an involuntary 72 hour psych hold. That degree of psychosis in anyone else would land us in the nearest locked unit. It would be fascinating to read the results of a psychiatric eval, which because of HIPAA, could not be disclosed to the public.
My healthcare colleagues have posited that he'd commit suicide if arrest is imminent, but I disagree. He may be crazy, but he's not stupid. He'll be on a private jet to Saudi.
I fear that the psychosis is the MAGA movement, the cult thinking cynically installed in public consciousness by 40 years of overly passive reactions to blatant plutocrat-financed mental malware, including racism. We all have a "reptile" brainstem, and some are more vulnerable than others, partly due to their circumstances. As for Trump and GOP leadership in general, I don't think they are for the most part deluded, but tell calculated lies shamelessly. They are rewarded for being ultra malignant narcissists.
If Mary Trump is correct and he is a full-on pathological narcissist, my mental-health friends say he would never, ever commit suicide. I think it's fair to think of him as a societal cancer. Cancers don't kill themselves: it's the essence of what makes them a cancer.
The belief that 2020 election can and should be redone was what made me think he’s reached a breaking point. Arranging a private jet seems more likely than other outcomes, especially if he saved certain documents of interest to Saudis
He and his party are venturing further and further out onto thin ice, but we are still very much at risk that their gambit may prevail, as have similar campaigns of Big Lies and treachery in history in world history.
The multi-billion $ payment to Jared makes me think the Saudis already got some of the documents they wanted. Traded to reserve a place with non-extradition laws. I suspect the private jet will be lifting off soon.
Wasn't it shocking to learn Jerod is not a world-class consultant? 😳
He was merely a conduit for the Saudis to pay T for classified, super dooper, top secret "don't tell anyone where you got this stuff" stuff.
And to think the weirdest political thing I'd ever heard of pre-Trump was that Nancy Reagan was so totally into astrology she made Ronnie schedule meetings around his horoscope.
Think about this: T LIVES to communicate. So essential to his narcissism that when FB and Twitter cut him off, he started his own social network. Now, he's letting that fall into bankruptcy; soon he'll be cut off from that. (And that's the pipeline he uses to funnel money in, so letting that dry up is telling.)
He's turning off the tap in preparation for boarding a private jet to Saudi.
Trump has lots of irrational delusional followers, just like those of Jim Jones who drank the Koolaid right to their deadly end.
My relatives, who now like DeSantis, buy every conspiracy theory they hear. The latest being that people who identify as "cats" and "dogs" demand and get bathrooms supplied with kitty litter from their public schools and company employers like Federal contractor Bath Iron Works. A FOX online paper reported this was all started by a "right wing blogger" and now consumes the time of school boards, superintendents and company public relations. Exactly what DeSantis likes doing. This is his idea of Florida change. I read this report to my relatives who said their friend at BIW saw the kitty litter.
Eventually, he will openly call for violence against the FBI and/or Justice Department.
Worse yet, those calls will be echoed by talking heads on Fox/OANN/Newsmax, as well as some politicians, and some of his brainwashed, cultish supporters will listen, just as that man in Ohio did.
An open call for violence? I’m wondering at which tipping point Free Speech crosses the legal line into “incitement to riot”
Talking heads should be contemplating that definition now, as their duty to clicks and likes would create their next breathless firestorm “breaking news”
I'd say that fits into Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes definition of the limits of free speech -- not to maliciously cry fire in a crowded theater.
Morning Joseph. Breaking my rule and will opine for a minute on the FPOTUS.
How far off the deep end he goes will depend on the fulcrum with the brown shirt Lindsey Grahams at one end spittle-sputtering, and the other end called “this way to an exit from FPOTUS🔝🔜” such as the ramp that the weasel Tony Ornato has jumped on. I think that end will weigh heavily with the re-igniting of the Jan 6th hearings and even more so with President’s address to the nation on Thursday and in the coming weeks with the President unfettered from the WH and on campaign roads.
In other words, I ask the question daily…. Where do you want to
be in 4 weeks and then another 4 weeks before the midterm elections? With Democracy? Or enslaved to those too busy helping themselves and not about to support your best interests? Which is it? Democracy or oafish Republican elephant dooky?
And all the rest from Bannon to every other neo fascist?
Never, never, never, never, dear Jeanne. I try to practice compassion as a spiritual seeker. He has left me in the dust with his completely dark and evil acts of villainy. No way, Jose.
I do not hate the guy, because I perceive he is badly broken, and not capable of controlling himself. Tragic, really. For all of us who have to deal with him.
My first thought when I read this, Bern, was of my brutal step-father who made the lives of me and my brother hell. As a theologian, I do not believe in heaven or hell - but there are times when I wish I could.
I worry about the violence. I do not think we should shrink from it. On the contrary!
Who, do you think, will incited and lead it? Steve Bannon perhaps? I don't see Lindsey doing much but threatening from safe spaces, but will the MAGATs be moved by anyone other than Trump himself?
He's still plenty, if not more, palatable to the MAGA crowd. As a society, we need to address the mass insanity (disillusionment, anger, fear, belief in disinformation, the need to be told what to do by an authoritarian leader and/or religion, absence of the ability to think critically) that fuels that movement.
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.
Thanks for bringing up the 2 hour top secret Helsinki meeting between Vlad and tfg - this might just have been the dirt summit, where the two top dirt mongers decided how to protect each other's dirty activities, past, present and future, and where a list of others whose dirt could be used against them was created - L Graham might not be the only one who got on the list for something he might need to hide from the world.
Haven't you wondered what was in the strange soccer ball vlad gave trump? It looked electronic. Did anyone ever inspect it? Passing the ball to the newest dictator? What would the orange flambé have to do with soccer or sports? Bone spurs? There was something very underhanded in that pass. I guaran-tee it.
I was unaware of the gift. Perhaps the soccer ball knows all ?😜
“ Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) had said on Twitter that the ball should be inspected for “listening devices” and that he would “never allow it in the White House.”
Oh, like that glowing orb that he and the guys with swords in the Mideast stood around like warlocks for photo ops. I wonder if they set 45 up for that to make a fool out of him...?
They were wildly successful. They surely were laughing up their sleeves (like pulling summer camp stunts on nubees ) when they called Trump over to "commune".
She speaks fluent russian, a to communicate with vlad directly would do the flambé no good. 45 can barely manage elementary English. But, I bet vlad can speak English and pretends he cannot because it may be imperfect.
Given her geopolitical origins, she probably does speak Russian, but she's not fluent, as used to be claimed, in French or Italian. I am, and I've paid attention to past videos of her in action. On the other hand, Putin does speak English https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrXf8Qn9pBI . And while we're at it, Tony Blair's apologetic French on the same video was quite passable. Boris Johnson on the other hand can just manage to fake a phrase for laughs. John Kerry speaks correct French with comfortable fluency, Antony Blinken's French is faultless.
It probably came from a Moscow dollar store, but I do recall the bugged. Trojan US seal, the gift borne by Soviets. Maybe Putin was telling T%#@& to "play ball" with him? Something also surely off with with L. Graham's lapdog status; carrot and/or stick.
You have to park your soul at the door to even get into the party these days, and showing scruples of any sort is strictly forbidden; as we have lately seen with J6 Committee members.
Anyway, it may be that Trump may only acted as an transfer agent for Lindsey's soul, for an Infernal buyer.
I think JL Graham is referring to the scruples shown by Cheney and Kinzinger. Their scruples are forbidden, ie., they are viewed as traitors by their Republican House 'colleagues,' the RNC, and Wyoming/Illinois MAGA voters.
It reads, “and showing scruples of any sort is strictly forbidden; as we have lately seen with J6 Committee members.” Meaning, some of the members of the J6 committee have been punished by their party for having scruples.
"Whereas, Representatives Cheney and Kinzinger are participating in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse, and they are both utilizing their past professed political affiliation to mask Democrat abuse of prosecutorial power for partisan purposes, therefore, be it resolved, That the Republican National Committee hereby formally censures Representatives Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and shall immediately cease any and all support of them as members of the Republican Party for their behavior which has been destructive to the institution of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Republican Party and our republic, and is inconsistent with the position of the Conference,"
I believe in everyone's right to a "private life"...of perhaps personal preferences. I also believe that TFG operated much in the way J. Edgar Hoover did. He had "files" on people. Your wonderment is not without merit.
More than any other United States Senator Lindsey Graham did a 180 degrees flip. Something caused him to do that. Perhaps it was the meeting you mention. What could possibly be so powerful as to cause him to jump to the dark side?
It has to be more than just the possibility of being outed as gay (if he is). In today's world, that might cost him an election, but not much more, and he's had a long run in the Senate. It can't be just that.
This supposition has had a very long life thus far. He didn’t get the nickname “Miss Lindsey” for nothing. If he still considers it something to hide, he is choosing his friends very poorly.
I think it has to be more than his sexuality for him to go this far. Lindsey must have some serious blood on his hands that he covered up long ago. If it was just him being outed as gay (possibly) I think he'd just take the election loss rather than do what he's doing now.
I thought it was the golf game at Mar-a-Lago. It must be a really good golf course. Or maybe FPOTUS showed Graham something in the basement. Maybe the fake Rothschild woman said something to Graham that day.
These days one's soul seems to be the price of admission to the "Republican" Party these days. Those who would not entirely let go have been benched or rejected as far as the RNC is concerned; "The Party of Putin".
"...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!”
The former guy's goal has not, I think, been to demonstrate leadership so much as ownership; he fancies himself the randiest tomcat on the block, demonstrating what he thinks he possesses by pissing on it.
Good to know that the number of followers on Truth Social has been dwindling substantially. Now the company hosting this service should stop that service immediately and demand payment.
He probably wants to plead insanity so he does not go to prison. Don't let him. Lock him up. Besides, he cannot live at Mar a loco, as it is, by law, a resort where he is not to live more than 6 months out of the year. And why should he be given a trump paradise to live in? Lock the bastard up and chuck the key. Do Pay Per View of him to monetize his stay so he no longer costs Americans heartaches paying for all the investigations and the legal costs and time wasted on him and his thuglicans.. He can still be a star with a 24 hour surveillance camera in his cell. Let him have his photo ops on the cover of Inmate Magazine where he can try to be the Emperor of that world with no use any electronics or tv ever again. Or a mirror.
On the upside: if we do incarcerate him like the average egregious lawbreaker in an inadequately funded prison, there may finally be bipartisan movement on criminal justice reform and prison standards funding.
The idea of Trump as somebody's punk in prison--which he would no doubt have to be just to survive--gives even me a moment of sympathy. It also kind of gives me the creepy thoughts that, first, it's exactly what he's tried to do to this country and, even creepier, that he might like it. I have no idea why I even had that thought but in some way it rings true. Sorry to be so disgusting so early in the morning
These are unusual times, Dean. You are completely forgiven. As far as being somebody's punk, I choose to put-on Melania's jacket and turn my back on nazis in prison: "I don't care, do U?" He and his thug comrades have been doing it to us for decades. Karma gonna get 'cha.
It really is difficult to fight the image of him in a diaper screaming and throwing himself around on the floor because he was told no. What is NOT hilarious is the millions upon millions of human beings who evidently wanted this ruling over all of us. I fear I will forever be coming to grips with my grief upon realizing my overestimation of humanity.
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.)
Wow, the kkkrazies. A veteran of three combat wars in the deserts, who happened to be black, told me that if Obama won, it would unleash the kkkrazies. We argued about that. He told me that white privileged people have no idea what lies under the surface in America if your pigment shades run darker. He told me not to vote for Obama. Well, I did vote for Obama and gave up on white friends...from Georgia on election night who could not understand why I was so upset the the orange flambé won and that there were so many red states. When I said I did not want a fascist for POTUS, they immediately responded with incredulity and exclaimed, "Obama is a fascist!" The world turned upside down from that moment on. You know, I have told this story on this forum before, and I feel like I am someone with PTSD and grief reliving that trauma until I can make some kind of sense or peace with it. I texted and called four friends that night and all of us were in tears at the audacity of part of this country being so kkkrazy and installing such a creature. And I still maintain he was installed. He never won an election with the popular vote, and for a numbers guy, that is his revenge fuel to destroy us (or USA).
I am having a hard time with the fact that in my little white life in a little white state (albeit very blue) I had NO CLUE. I don't think I was ever racist per se, but I had a weird misinformed belief that everybody was doing OK. I thought racism was lynching and segregation and didn't know the systemic and pervasive form it can take. It has been a crazy couple of years for me learning about what is going on this country. I feel like my life has been turned upside down because so many things I took for granted, so many things I thought, so many people I thought I knew, are all out the window...and I am "wrestling" with it all. I don't mean to make this space about me, I don't know what I'm trying to say other than maybe that it can be easy to not know what's going on outside your little bubble. With climate change breathing down our necks and more understanding of inequity, what I do, what I want, what I aspire to has all been up for review and old ways fill me with a feeling of a kind of repulsion. I am trying to slow down, use less, and learn as much as I can. Even in this little state, there are rumblings of Trumpism, racism, anger, violence that have been encouraged out of the woods by Trump et al. It's never been more important to vote, to communicate with representatives, to be kind to the people who really keep this country running, and to not back down from voicing disapproval of violence and hatred.
What gut-honesty, Kim. And what you are experiencing is pretty normal for white people. If you are a white woman, you may had more experience of being sexualized, minimized, particularly around pay, had a male take credit for your work, and if you are not around POC you never really had to think about it. It was my reading of Anne Frank and the race riots of inequality in Los Angeles that educated (woke) me to look around where I live as a teen. Why are all the people who clean our house and do our gardens latina or Japanese? Why did I get in trouble for just talking with Rosa, the pretty, young Latina who cleaned our house? Later, when I flew to Georgia for a conference...I wondered why all the white people were always the ones being served by black people? Then I read Howard Zinn's Real History of America and learned what was not taught to us about white supremacy. More recently it was labeled the Caste System and it all made total sense of the money and power in this country that is still held as if we were in a serfdom. Watching the film The Matrix solidified what we are living under.
We need to be freed from our white slave pods, just like Africans needed to be freed from their enslavement.
Thanks Pensa. the thing is I never saw racism or even POC being treated badly because my tribes have been too "well behaved" and I just have not been around POC very much. I never felt I was better than anyone as a result of insecurity so I just assumed everyone was more confident and had it together more than I did. But what I've come to realize is there are more pernicious forms all around us regardless, along with the overt stuff going on all along in our systems. You're right, there is some kinship just a a result of being female and a lot of that was so subversive and pervasive that I am also now realizing how much messaging I absorbed, accepted and just took as being the way it is. Thank you for your thoughts.
I am so sorry any of us had to experience this tragedy of our land. But it is all over the world. I am going to S.Africa soon and as I study their history, once again it is like reading American history right down to spreading small pox to get rid of the native people. There are really good reasons why white privileged men do NOT want people to know factual history. Much harder to pull the wool over educated people. America needs to really pay attention to the cabals like the Heritage Foundation that funds and spawns authoritarian tactics and propaganda. What do all these really wealthy people want? They have more money than they could ever spend in their lifetimes...so what is it? Addiction, boredom, nothing left to achieve? Or just plain power?
Just watched Democracy Now!'s 8/24 show, honoring what would've been Howard Zinn's 100th Birthday. Now, i need to get that book. Thanks for mentioning it.
It should be in every high school, maybe jr. high school. It has been a long time since I read it but it is a pivotal book about about real history, not "white-washed."
YES!! and videos of his interviews, speeches and presentations! he had such a relatable personal presence that came thru to everyone immediately. he managed to make crucial points to change your view with humor... a gifted and precious person whose legacy lives on.
The work of Jackson Browne, revealing America’s dark underbelly, might be a way to find some kinship in your awakening. We don’t see, right up until the time we do
Dr My Eyes, Lives in the Balance, Looking East are just a few who’s lyrics transcend the melody and the rhythm
Just saw JB here in Burlington VT! Great show at a relatively small venue. He's one of my all time favorites but I tend to listen nostalgically and go back to being 16. Thanks for the thought!
The Long Way Around knocked me out. He sang it on Colbert, "to watch our children come to harm, there in the safety of our arms..." That was my reminder that it is the artists who wake us up to reality.
Thanks for sharing what your Veteran friend told you. I believe that Obama's election ripped the scab off of the wound of racism and showed that rather than healing, the wound was festered and infected. I remember reading a piece in our local alternative paper in 2008 written by one of our Black pastors (I think; Eugene is as white as a city can get) who said, in essence, "you are not strong enough yet to elect a Black president. It will take more work than just saying "yay for hope and change" and I don't think that you are ready for the underbelly that will be exposed."
Wow! That gives me chills. What a prescient thing to say about white people. And mitch made sure that he would block and try to fail Obama on every turn. Mitch is evil personified.
Obama used his education well and his eruditeness and intelligence must have really riled the uneducated kkk types. I still think it is time to deal with the historical trauma of our nation that trumplicans have proven needs to have light shed upon it or we lose our democracy. Stare them down, people. Do NOT let them intimidate you. Confront them with truth and explain how this is not about guilt or shame, but not repeating atrocious history. Their leader is a guileless, entitled, chest- thumping manbeast of the jungle. Get him alone and see how tough he is. Stories of the drub's toughie insurrectionists, like Robert Palmer of Tampa, who was screaming, "This is WAR!" at the insurrection was crying when he was interviewed and that went viral. Another violent insurrectionist, Danny Rodriguez, tased a Capitol police officer and he started crying during is FBI interview, whimpering that trump called them to do it. You are either a bully or a victim...not both. It was a free country till trumps little brainwashed lock steppers started attacking everyone who does good work i our country. They are anti-Americans and should be punished and do social reparations for the rest of their lives. And make videos for children to help them learn what a democracy is all about. Use their jail time and hire videographers and documentary directors to work with the crying cult members--inside. And have them give a little tour of their cells, mess hall, showers, playground and visitor windows or rooms look like. Educate the entitled ones to shape them up.
For many of us, it was a free country, psychically at least, pre-Trump, but for many of us, never.
It's taken me most of my life to accept that we are not all equally endowed intellectually. The pathos of violent, hysterical Trumpers is real, because stupidity and gullibility are real. Some integrated form of community service might give them the multicultural experience they lack. They'll only change through direct experience and the kind of sunshine that reveals and cleanses.
Ally, I just went back to this statement by the Black pastor again. It has haunted me all day. "you are not strong enough yet to elect a Black president. It will take more work than just saying "yay for hope and change" and I don't think that you are ready for the underbelly that will be exposed." This is one of the cruxes of our homegrown nazi problems. We will have to dig very deeply and be very pragmatic. And JUSTICE must Prevail.
Yes, nothing pollyanna about it is there. We need to have people like that be on councils that we can have discussions with as we begin to recreate America in her next, more mature (hopefully) phase. We must come into this century and be protected from wayward troglodytes of the past.
Kathy, I spent my career in news production, fundraising, and communications for PBS and several environmental groups based in Minnesota. Death threats were common but more so random acts of violence against property and malicious mischief such as using a membership return mail envelope to mail random white powders or building bricks to our offices. One time, when the Forest Service held a field hearing in Ely, MN - a small resort town on the edge of the Boundary Waters Wilderness - one of my colleagues had his tires slashed. The temps were below zero, and none of the car services in town would help him. The implications were clear - we hope you freeze to death. The perps were caught, got a slap on the wrist and were back at it the next day, I swear.
I admit that when I received a death threat that included harming my then three year-old daughter, I considered changing jobs; even moving. Just disappearing. I cannot remember those days without breaking a cold sweat. Watching the rise of these fascists, particularly Trump, is frightening and really difficult for me because I know who these bastards are and the depths they will sink to to get what they think they are “owed”. No one should harbor any illusions about who and what they are.
Trump is showing deep signs of desperation. That means the feds are closing in- and that the situation is dangerous. I’m beyond grateful that Biden is forcefully calling out against these fascist, malignant, violent criminals, including the former Criminal-in-Chief. I’m also grateful to be able to be able to do a few things to help get out the vote. Time for a blue wave! We have to retain the House and Senate if we want a future that includes democracy.
I was consulting to land trusts in the SF Bay area til about 15 years ago, and got veiled threats from time to time. Once a guy pointed a rifle at me from his pickup when I stopped to introduce myself. I told him "Don't point that at me" and he swung it away from me. Guess he figured I was cool enough not to be intimidated by him.
Thanks for this. Circa 1974, my father was a Federal auditor for a non-defunct LEAA. He and his colleagues received death threas doing audits of Federal prisons in Mississippi. Those threats didn't stop them from doing their jobs.
Kathy(in the Wallowas), you are spot on in your assessment. I worked as a deputy in county law enforcement in Lane County from 1985-2013 full time, and 2014-2021 part time. From the early 1990's on these "anti-government" groups have had a stronghold here in the PNW. I was stunned at the number of people in my law enforcement network that supported the Hammonds and the takeover of Malheur NWR (interestingly, the hunters among them did not support the takeover...)
You live in a beautiful part of the state. I've been there a couple times, and loved it!
That must have been challenging. I know the area well! I remember being astonished at the number of overt Oathkeeper county sheriffs in the Oregon Sheriff's association.
You should come back up some time. October is considered our most spectacular month, you know!
We were there in October 2018 for Alpenfest (a friend had her 70th birthday excursion for that). The best motorcycle trip my wife and I took was to Joseph via the back roads in September about 10 years ago.
I really want to go back!
I, too, am stunned by the number of “constitutional” Sheriffs.
Thanks for your insight. Hope you and your wife can get back over here. On my way to check out WildCad, I see we have a wildfire column bumping up behind Mt Howard. (My garage/drive) is a staging area for friends should evacuation be needed. (Had the Buddhist temple there a couple years back.)
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 wouldn't miss Biden's speech for anything. It may be right up there with FDR's 'day of infamy' speech. And I agree he is hitting his stride; remember, he is a master of timing. Thursday promises to be electric.
And...first thing on my news feed this a.m.--an NBC piece about how unpopular the president is and how Democrats running for office don't want to appear with him. I am so fed up with the MSM.
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.”
But while the threat may be real, it is negligible by comparison with what could happen to the country if the rebels are allowed to get away with their sedition.
I think, whether it's a call to action or not, that the militants already are primed without anything Lindsey Graham might say. I hope that the WH, DOJ, National Guard are ready for it.
In the quiet recesses of my mind, there is a thread of analysis that all these "players" have been divinely developed, in a Shakespearian godly sort of way, to reveal all our darkest chapters since the "pilgrims" landed here, so the collective WE have to look at who we are now, and what a dangerous stew we have cooked up with our racist corporatocracy. To those who fear others, or feel superior to others, our colorful, American Melting Pot looks to them like a dangerous stew they fear will grow more powerful and unwieldy. So interesting that groups of white-privileged people hate those who were brought here and forced to build the wealth on their backs (after first decimating the Native Peoples). So, I try to put a positive angle on all of this, that it is time for America to grow up and face itself and Be Better (almost a steal from Melania, you know, the one in the jacket message that splashed across America as she visited brown children in cages: "I don't care, do U?" WTF. I will never believe that she is not a russian spy, a trained sparrow whose real name is Natasha. She speaks Russian and could translate communiques. All too convenient for the repubs and the donnie wannabe dictator who kowtows to russia. Way too convenient in my estimation.
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.
Sandy, recall a month or so ago--so much hang wringing and despair on here? YOU said tRump was going down, and it sure looks like it. Keep up those positive posts!!
Miss Lindsay says (calls for?) rioting? Just perhaps a number of these chest-beating morons of 1/6 are now seeing lots of their comrade's personal lives in destruction for their moment of fun.
I have no doubt that if, IF, any were foolish enough to act up like that again, those in law enforcement will come back at them much, much harder and in larger force than on 1/6.
President DJT SOON will be charged, he will be multiply convicted, state and federally sentenced, and incarcerated - with home arrest with Secret Service Staff - rotating... for a decade plus.
Sandy, you have so many important things to say, can you please stop turning me off in the first paragraph of your comments with untrue and unwarranted denigrations of Dr. Heather Cox Richarson? Otherwise you are a prophet.
HCR is a white on white idiot savant historian teaching at a Catholic College packed with the usual: not The University of Chicago, MIT, Harvard or snotty Princeton where our first was summa and he failed to learn what matters most. Nothing against the Biggest Lie spinning at The Vatican. I’ve known and supported cardinals. History is about agony and death, saints and sinners, whores intellectual and hookers everywhere. HCR recites fact - which helps. She does not count or picture the Blacks lynched and burned over a wood fire. She does not speak of the preference for white sperm in many Black women, infuriating men. She seems not to know the incredible pain of being Colored in a world of Boston College whites. In short, thanks for coming out, $1 million a year along with a surging interest in Substack will destroy what Randal D. Smith is cannibalizing making billions - see The Denver Post and dozens more. Substack is killing our democracy. But Tim Snyder is aiding and abetting and the Cliff Notes approach works for the sophists of every stripe. Does it matter? Read ROUGH DRAFT by Katy Tur and say what matters. The memoir is usually lots of lies. Tur’s is not. And her father is certified and horrible. She forgives him. Her children may never meet him - and will not care. Yes, it matters. Ketanji Brown Jackson may our nation’s most important citizen - so I hope. HCR is a comparative cipher - study Ketanji’s life, marriage and daughters. They are the message. The Court is ghastly. Thucydides is the best historian. Read Pericles Oration to the dead.
HCR goes into much greater depth on the atrocities you cite in her history & politics broadcasts. "Idiot Savant" as often happens with special ed labels, is no longer named that, and does not apply anyway. Enjoy your farm in the waning days of summer!
Suzanne Craig will do this. She follows the money... and the RI senator will continue to work the problem. SCOTUS caused this. The Court is out of this world. A movement to impeach a few of them might serve a purpose.
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?
If Trump has committed espionage it will not be in our best interests to ignore him. It will not be in your best interests either. If he is selling information on other governmental leaders that allows their enemies to take advantage of them and replace them, then we can end up with even more authoritarian governments than we already have. That is just one example of what is a problem with his behavior. He is also stirring up trouble. He is viewed as the path to salvation by many fundamentalist Christians in this country, so for that reason he cannot be ignored either. https://www.vox.com/identities/2018/3/5/16796892/trump-cyrus-christian-right-bible-cbn-evangelical-propaganda
Goodness, thank you for making that clear. Astounding that anyone in the entire world would suggest we ignore a former president whose corruption likely includes espionage.
Happy to gain knowledge about this "path to salvation" some folks see. Fortunately, for me, I am not an arbiter obliged to hear and empathize with a segment of the voting population who long for a country that will choke freedom, not expand it.
Talk about a double edged sword! Both a foreign agent and a savior for W(hite)C(hristian)N(ationalism). Off to the smithy with that sword, to be turned into a plowshare.
The media’s primary job is to provide the public with absolutely everything they can as it pertains to a former President potentially committing treason. He isn’t being “given oxygen.” He’s being exposed and it is international newsworthy on every level. If the media is still covering him if and when he goes to prison, then might be a time to declare we can ignore him.
He is a money maker for the media. President Biden is astonishing, yet mostly ignored. The former is rarely written about here in Europe. Look at the posts and reposts on social media of opinions. Where are the headlines in WoPo or NYT about Secret and Top Secret documents on the floor with Time covers?
Lock him up. He is a cult leader and he can get his followers to commit atrocities. Today, he has enjoined his cult to flipping the bird at the USA, democracy and the rule of law. Hopefully, Merrick and our military are preparing to shut them down. I love how strong Biden is being. The country leaders to stand against fascism, yesterday.
Lock him up. Everyone should stop talking about him. I truly don´t want to hear another word. Again I blame the media for so much attention. He loves it, and it got him elected. I realize everyone wants to know about the process of his demise. I just want him punished to the full extent of the law. And NOTHING more about T.... That will be a harder punishment for him than being in jail.
Unfortunately, he has assured that his name will go down in the annals of our history as the most corrupt, anti-American cult figure to enter our White House, and who was able to twist almost every republican in our Senate into pretzels at his beck and command. I cannot even use the verb "trump" anymore. Need a new word now. I also cannot wait until he gagged from the media and all attention and shrivels up into a raisin on his bunk.
OMG, Lynell! Thank you for that research~strange how so many of them describe what 45 and the rethuglican party have done to America, and to many of us who have been paying attention and know the difference between Truth & Lies. I am with you. I love how positive "prevail" sounds.
Morning, Lynell! Well done in your synonym search. I'm going for eclipse. But will bridge survive the "no eclipse" or "no master"? They might just go for "no drub".
Isn’t it ironic his grandfather came from Germany, Americanized his name, was successful enough to spawn Fred Trump, enormously successful monetarily (if morally bankrupt), from which Donald has benefited his whole life, and Donald wants to being down the United States.
I am so sick of seeing his face. It makes me want to puke. And his minions. They all need to go on an island and run their own little world. Maybe Johnny Depp is up for selling his island to them.
I thought that Sarah Palin got entirely too much attention for about a year after her failed VP run, but she was just a pathetic attention seeker. Trump and the Trump administration has committed serious crimes, and the more we have ignored serious "GOP" crimes and improprieties, the worse they become; to the point that they elevated this malicious con man to the presidency, and continue to defend him even now, as they openly conspire to throw future elections. Racism is bad, climate disaster is bad, corruption and plutocracy are bad, but our chances to improve them diminish severely without a fair and free ability to vote.
I was in your lovely country in June. In fact, the news items that kept coming over my phone, coupled with the scenery of Switzerland, made me want to just live out the rest of my life by a beautiful lake. THERE I actually could ignore tfg. But to answer your question: no, he can’t be ignored. He’s a sociopathic criminal and if the US is going to have a functioning justice system, he will have to face it.
Hey, Christina...greetings to you and Switzerland! Yours is a "pipe" dream many have had. But the reality within our borders only allows it to be a dream. Comments below sharply focus on why we cannot.
Hope you will hang in there with us as we navigate our way back toward democracy.
For folks like me on the "frontlines," the strength of your voice is very important, David. Being nice is nice, but I reckon "nice" isn't going to get our country back to where it needs to be. Your comments are a continual reality check that to ignore is to forget, something we cannot afford to do.
With all due respect to those outside our borders, in the immortal words of Eliot Ness in defense of his actions against a Canadian onlooker on taking down a criminal element..."Well, you're not from Chicago"
I clicked on a NYT article about the G.O.P. yesterday and was greeted with a giant profile of 45, mouth wide in rage. I immediately went to the comment section and said the image was so upsetting I couldn't read the article. 'If you want these articles to be read, resist the urge to put these taser-like images with what I'm sure are reports and opinions well worth my time and attention.' Those photos have got to go.
Just looking at drub and hearing his voice is incredibly disturbing after all his hate mongering of people and our democracy. Everyday the news has photos of him as if we want to see his torpid flesh ever again. If the party of sedition and treason, and probably espionage ever takes over, their kind would probably force everyone to have a photo of him in their homes and offices. With a little, square mustache above his corrupted nazi upper lip.
Just think, Christina, if we had ignored him in 2020, and voted him back into office... Putin's war in Ukraine would likely be on your doorstep by now because he would not have wanted to send aid to Zelenskyy. Switzerland's neutrality? Who would care?
I've had a day to ponder your remark. And I'm still pissed. Do you also ignore Putin? If so, please get your head out of the sand. Your country (and the whole of Europe) is in grave danger from the Russian tyrant. Ignore him at your peril.
There is no way for us (or the world, for that matter) to ignore either of these authoritarian despots: they will, if given the chance, plunge the world into a war that may well be the end of civilization as we know it, even the end of humankind. Please stop trying to minimize the threat. PAY ATTENTION.
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.
I also want to see Biden make a connecting appeal to the young. They tend to be less enthusiastic voters, but now more that ever, it is their future that is most on the line, from abortion to climate disaster. To my eye the DNC has long neglected engagement of youth. But you have to be real about it. The young are hyper-sensitive to hypocrisy,
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.
Then, I say we “Declare” immediately that Hillary won the 2016 election and tfg never happened. Strip away all the judges shoved through during that four years. Erase all the rulings they burdened us with. Unravel all his crazy legislation and executive orders. Restore all the civil service talent he sent packing. Return Vindman, Yovanovitch, and Hill! Reset ourselves to where Obama left the country. Accept that tfg was a bad dream! And like Representative Burlingame in the 1850’s, face the violence-mongers courageously and call their bluff, arrest the violators, and sentence sedition where merited. Onward!
History, though, should not be erased, lest it be repeated, and repeated... The underlying malignacy of this country is our racism-based economic and political system. This all had to come out. I thought I knew all there was to know, being a child of the 60's. Just last week I learned about the 1560's. So much evil to root out of our foundation.
Yes, start before the white man explores the globe. The 1619 project should be part of every history lesson. But that’s later. The day the white man stepped onto North American soil, was the beginning of the evil here. And in every continent they explored and conquered. The white man didn’t consider the first people or the Africans to be full humans. And that’s in our first Constitution. This is Critical Race Theory DeSantis and other southerners are banning from curriculum.
Thank you so much for posting this, MaryPat. The comments below it tell me that we're watching it very soon.
Germany has long committed to facing and learning from the lessons of their past. Their goal is to heal. To not deny their history. They teach all their children in school about the Nazis and Holocaust, instead of shying away, glossing over or otherwise trying to ignore this extremely important piece of their legacy.
We need to do the same... even more so because ours is longer, darker and tragically still overtly ongoing. And we're so divided partly because we are still in denial! We'll never heal our country otherwise. We have a long way to go.
MaryPat, this video is comprehensive and engaging and starts at the beginning. And most isn’t in the Standard History taught in USA schools. Especially the south. Today. There are fights going now especially in repub States that are replacing any possible truth with a watered down mix of fables, lies and folklore. Banning CRT.
Thank you for posting. Much of the 1619 Project is in this. Also Howard Zinn’s “The People’s History of the United States.
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.
Thank you for this Robert and Rose. It ends, "What Trump did was reckless and stupid. Any assertion that a few boxes of notes and papers isn’t a big deal is nonsense. Protecting such materials is a patriotic duty of anyone in public service, but the Republicans, once a self-styled party of national security, have decided that defending Donald Trump and his narcissistic demands is more important than the safety of the United States." I disagree with the first sentnce, though - I don't think there is anything reckless or stupid about trump's theft and review of U.S. classified materials. He was, as always, working under orders (Putin, MSB...)
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?
Well said. Tfg is king of the clowns and Lady Lindsay is his sad courtier, dancing as fast as she can, stirring up whatever stochastic violence she can, while she still has the spotlight.
News needs to stop being a for-profit enterprise. What will it take to get back to reporting news that matters?
“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.”
Thank You Beverly. THE WHITE HOUSE OFFICE OF PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT should be renamed "PRESIDENT BIDEN'S FIRESIDE CHAT OFFICE", and the content made as compelling and clear as FDR's.
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.
Well, I think we can only say such a thing because we're starting to believe he'll actually be prosecuted and found guilty--and that must happen--but there is enormous risk the other way as well. I, for one, will not breath easy until he's placed under house arrest for the rest of his life (for those, like me, that envision him wearing face-matching orange or swinging from a gangarm, this isn't happening. His most likely COA is to be confined, utterly, to Mar-a-Lago the rest of his life and cut off from outside communication. And like a prison boss, it will take about 3 months before the first news story of him trying to conduct secret communications with Rudy and Steve-o). Until he's actually, effectively removed from public life, I will not rest easy one iota.
Robert, you (always) write as if you know what you are talking about, and if you are the Robert McTague who comes up at the top of the Google list of Robert McTagues, then I have to assume you do. That said, I would like to know where it is written in the Federal Code that ex-Presidents who have been found guilty of multiple felonies get to enjoy cushy house arrest for the rest of their lives and not die in a maximum security federal pen out in the desert somewhere?
From my relatively safe perch here in Le Marche, rated by Giorgia Melloni (fascistoid leader of the farthest right Italian party Fratelli d'Italia and possible next Prime Minister) as a "model region", it looks to me like the Big Turkey's goose is cooked.
Biden and the Democratic Party are clearly aware that their political base, including us, will not accept anything less than an indictment and trial. Garland would not have sent the FBI to retrieve secret documents illegally kept at Trump's home if he wasn't sure that: A.) Trump has been committing a continuing felony by not returning the docs to the Archives, and B.) that a number of those documents corroborate damning testimony he has been getting from former Trump insiders who are abandoning ship because they don't want to go to jail for the SOB.
I think the DOJ will throw the whole fucking book at him, from obstruction of justice to spying for the Ruskies and other highest bidders to fraudulently pocketing campaign contributions to attempting to interfere with elections and violently overthrow the US Government (call it treason). And probably other stuff none of us knows about yet, and probably crimes he has yet to commit, but surely will, as he doubles down and tries to lie his way out of ... his life.
I have said it before: he will be behind bars or out on billion $$ bail by Thanksgiving.
I’d love to see him pay the price for what he’s done to our great country. He should be hung for being a spy. But he has a nasty group of followers with the “big” guns and I’m not prepared to see how they retaliate. My dream situation is that he runs like the chicken that he is, deserts his loyal followers. Let them see exactly what a piece of crap he is.
If he runs, it will be to the Saudis where there is no extradition treaty. Not that I give a crap, if only his fervent cultist followers would actually FOLLOW him (physically) to Saudi Arabia and get to enjoy the Saudi version of justice (I'm sure they wouldn't like it).
However I believe it's of paramount importance for those of his ilk to observe justice being done and to reflect on their own potential fate should they try similar tricks and tactics. (I know: that is wishful thinking, too.)
I think, like you, that he will flee. I was just thinking of how utterly insane it is that we are speculating that a former president might flee the country to avoid prosecution for treason, and it isn’t unbelievable to think it.
Think it because I'm about 90 percent certain it's true.
ah yes, wishful thinking, like Eliza Doolittle: wouldn't it be loverly?
Along with Saudi justice comes the Saudi prohibition on alcohol. I don't think the MAGAts would get along well there.
Trump doesn't drink, but he eats a lot of ice cream.
How much use would Trump be to the Saudis now?
No idea. Perhaps they would use him as bait? They seem to have a knack for chopping folks up. But do they fish?
That's a good one. I'm not so sure about the wishful thinking part and I hope your vision comes true.
I think we should prepare for retaliation, and I think the National Guard can handle it. Not law enforcement, though, since all law enforcement organizations in the US, from the FBI down to the lowest county sherrif, are dominated by vicious authoritarians and rogue racists. We definitely cannot count on help from law enforcement, but the National Guard has a chain of command and a culture of carrying out orders made by officers in charge, whether the grunts like the orders or not.
We'll bring him back. He's more dangerous if he flees to Putin. We cannot let him just walk away. There are so many of them that Guantanamo Bay Resort still sounds good to me. Wasn't that Ginni's idea?
Gitmo is an excellent idea for sentencing. Wherever his incarceration is located, it should be secret. He should just disappear
At the bottom of a decommissioned ICBM silo in the Midwest would be the best option. If it was secure enough for Alex Krycek in X-Files, it’ll keep the orange stain from spreading.
They didn't hang the Rosenbergs. They were both electrocuted. For what?
For being convicted of spying on behalf of the Soviet Union, providing the Soviets with top-secret information about U.S. radar, sonar, jet propulsion engines and valuable nuclear weapon designs. The conviction came in 1951, the year I was born. The federal government executed them both at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, New York, in 1953.
They were the first U.S. civilians to be charged with espionage against the USA during peacetime.
tfg should be shaking in his boots.
"Should" is the operative word here. I suspect he still thinks he'll get out of this...
I wrote a little story in my head halfway through Trump's turn in which I turned him into a peanut. Channeling Beatrice Potter, I conjured up a very hungry squirrel who disposed of him nicely.
Succinct and on target. Thanks.
I wonder if he will use Hitler's playbook?
I'm reading (for the 3rd time) William L. Shirer's Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, so far only up to p. 70 or so. There are many parallels between Hitler's rise to power (as recounted by Shirer) and Trump's, including the use of violence for political ends. One signal difference is that Hitler was intelligent, even a genius, in some ways (evil, to be sure). Shirer quotes some passages from Hitler's Mein Kampf, which Hitler wrote without a ghost writer, I believe, and the writing is clear and even sophisticated. An American military attache' in Berlin who interviewed him described Hitler's conversation as being clear and logical, but fanatical. "Clear", "logical", "genius" are not words to apply to Trump (except "stable genius", of course). Finally, as far as I can tell, Hitler was intent on German hegemony at least in Europe and was fanatically anti-semitic, but his own elevation was a means to that end rather than his primary motivation, whereas personal exaltation seems to be Trump's only motivation. If there are historians out there who can fill in or correct this picture, I'd be interested to hear.
Right, J. "...personal exaltation seems to be Trump's only motivation..." If only the Trumpers would understand this. He doesn't care one iota about doing what's right for this country and protecting democracy. He's totally unprincipled and says whatever his audience of the day wants to hear to maintain their support and get applause. Got to feed that gargantuan ego. He became a Republican and changed to ultra conservative positions because that was the only way he could win them over. Now he's completely nuts and still the Trumpers hang on. GRRRRR...
I have the book! When I received the book and lifted it...and saw small print over 1100 pages. I have yet to read page one! After I finish Jesus and John Wayne...I may attempt it... a book length at a time! Congratulation on reading 2 times and beginning again!
The quotes from Mein Kampf are in English translation, of course, so some of the sophistication may be that of the translator.
He has been using Hitler’s playbook, get cozy with wealthy right wing business leaders, propagate the big lie relentlessly, grab power with a mob of violent supporters always at the ready, use propaganda constantly( Hitler’s “ peoples radio, Trump’s tweets), promise to restore the nation to greatness, place the blame on scapegoats, have a belligerent hateful even violent outlook, find ways around the constitution and the laws, use your personal charisma to charm the gullible, never back down. But Hitler was smarter and much more astute at politics.
Nah. Too chicken.
Wouldn’t hurt my feelings 😉
Already is.
Good morning David! I’d like to add C.) The DOJ recognized the risk to our national security of Trump’s continued possession of those documents.
I hope you are right. But I think, like Robert, that house arrest is more likely than jail, although how one would manage that at a club full of treasonous sycophants and toadies is beyond me. I do enjoy the thought that he might be able to see the golf course but not be allowed to play.
In order to hold 45 accountable, DOJ has to be confident that the people doing the work it would entail , that is, not just the FBI and DOJ staff, but the Secret Service in the event of a standoff, and the National Guard in the event of widespread insurrection, and for that matter the guys who think sovereign sheriffs have the last word would all have to be evaluated for their reliability and plans would have to be drawn up for various scenarios where individuals and groups within these groups choose to throw in with Trump. Everyone on the right with skin in the game, like Lindsey Graham can be counted on to rile up the rabble. But Trump needs to be stopped here, whatever it takes. I hate to echo Trump’s words, “You’re going to have to fight like hell or you won’t have a country anymore,” so I’ll just say that not stopping Trump here will only encourage those who have been using him to their own ends.
Interesting last sentence! Made me think a little differently and wonder…took me to thinking of the federalist society. Hmmm…
Certainly The Federalist Society used him to their own advantage. Dreaming here that Federalists lose this one and face some serious consequences. But that 1.6 billion injection forestalls that.
Fact: Mein Kampf sits on DJT’s bedside table. 
Hi Kathy,
Seriously, I am not aware that house arrest is a form of incarceration we use in the USA. There may be some cushy low-security federal prisons for white-collar crooks guilty of ponzi schemes, etc. (a scandal in itself!), but for multiple felonies including espionage and attempting to violently overthrow the US Government? I should think not. The Italians use it for lesser crimes and for non-violent convicts they do not expect will try to escape, and it can take some pressure off overcrowded prisons, but why should Trump be treated tenderly? And since when has the GOP supported rehabilitation of criminals over simple punishment? According to Google The USA has the world's second highest percentage of incarcerated citizens, slightly lower than the Seychelles. I cannot imagine Trump getting only house arrest unless he wins the next election. Not sure how that would work. Something else to worry about...
Thank you editing function! Lazy me. I googled "house arrest" in the US and discovered it is used with electronic ankle bracelets. Each state is different. Well, sounds too good for Trump.
Michael Cohen went to Otisville federal prison. I envision something similar. But truly - Trump deserves something much harsher. Yet he may get nothing! We don't know yet. I do love the fact that financially he must be being bled dry with the legal costs.
Isn't there a maximum security federal prison for traitors, like Leavenworth? That would be truly fine!
How about ADX Florence, CO? I drove by there once. Not a nice place.
However, rarely does he pay. I think that may be why he has problems finding good attorneys!
I just read somewhere that all of Trump's legal fees--until this outrageous shyte-storm--were being paid by the Republican National Committee.
However, the RNC has indicated that they will NOT cover the legal fees generated by this "incident.
I completely agree that our democracy depends on the notion that no one is above the law. So throw the book at him. I want to see him tried, convicted, and incarcerated. I suppose my expectation is that he will flee somewhere without extradition; Saudi Arabia comes to mind. But I also think he might not have a valid passport besides his official one - that stuff swirling around the DOJ’s taking his passports - one diplomatic, two expired - was odd. Does one need a valid passport to flee into exile?
How about they simply put him in a straight jacket for a bit? Take the edge off...
Oh, I didn't know the DOJ had already grabbed his passports. Good! I hope they are ready to put him in preventive detention (even "house" preventive detention) if that is required. Never too soon!
House arrest isn’t uncommon in the USA.
Okay, Sandy. Tell me more. Who gets it? How common is it? Does it involve bracelets? Is it punishment or just used as pretrial detention?
Yes. I am so fed up with this jerk and his whining. Never forget that it was largely due to him that several men were incarcerated for years for a crime they did not commit. What a loser and a destructive on to boot.
I Apple mapped Seychelles. Zooming in I saw super high end resorts, roads, businesses and such on the main islands. I also viewed other islands showing some development but without ID’s. That led me to speculate some spooky stuff.
Well what spooky stuff did you speculate? I've heard they have super- nice beaches.
First order of business, once settled on his "golden throne", might be that he is required to pay back every single individual he owes, including damages for every slanderous, reputation-destroying lie he has perpetrated against others dumb enough to work for him.
Good luck with that, though!
No! No golden throne. Please.
A 5 gallon recycled lard bucket will suffice, I think.
Only referring to his tasteless and ostentatious NYC gilt laden bathroom “chamber pot”. Actually, he only throne he deserves, merely comes in white and is already installed in that cell to which he aspires. But how does a government imprison a past leader, criminal though he may be, after the person has had access to the country’s top secrets? Dicey stuff?? Does he get solitary?
That's a good one.
Mar-a-lago is too hard to protect - too many entrances, exits and secret tunnels.
It could not be allowed to be a resort any longer if he is confined there. Then who is paying upkeep?
I understand he owns other property near maralago- perhaps that would be more appropriate.
However, I’m not sure they would consider Florida to be acceptable during the summer. Does he get to travel around? No other spies do.
And no golf
And look at what we've spent already with the SS trying to secure iit. I don't want that bill forever, when we have perfectly good existing prisons.
Not suitable for house arrest. He might flee to Russia or SA.
Why not just put him in a tree house in the hot Florida sun? Sounds like an ideal spot for a former red head.
David Herrick, I'm with you all the way! Your words " it looks to me like the Big Turkey's goose is cooked" came out of my own mouth last night. Cushy house arrest? No way!
Damn, Judith, I was hoping to coin that phrase and have it go viral! Guess we're on the same wavelength.
David, turn it into a meme on CAVA (free) and post on Twitter to all the popular accounts you can find about the boxes or DOJ - I bet it would go viral! Now full disclosure, I am going a bit against my own principles of how to use social media "without snark" but I sure wouldn't mind seeing your hope fulfilled!
Confession: My words weren't precisely yours, but close enough. Happy to be on the same wavelength.
By Thanksgiving? Really? Sorry, but he hasn't even been indicted yet, and there is NO indication of when the DOJ investigation(s) will be completed. Grand jury proceedings take time, and even if indictments are handed down getting on a Federal docket also takes time. And then there are procedural issues, jury selection, etc. Not to mention the fine arts of delay in which T's shils are well schooled. I share your wish, but we need to be realistic about how long this will take. Sometime in 2023 seems more like it, and if he really declares his candidacy before the mid-terms all bets are off.
Granted there is a resistance, in pursuit of holding Dumpster to account for multiple high crimes, to even risking creating the appearance that the party in power is using the Justice Department to squelch the candidacy of an opponent of the other party. But DOJ surely must also be weighing the opposing risk, of appearing to abet the candidacy of a man already publicly demonstrated to have committed multiple crimes against the rule of law, our most important democratic processes, and our national security. They appear to be thinking “Okay, if we are headed for Door #1, it can only be if our demonstrably neutral pursuit of evidence and protection of national security publicly demonstrates that we literally had no other choice but to indict and prosecute.” Hence the excruciatingly painstaking slow pace, mum stance, and occasional statements by Garland that they are following the evidence wherever it leads, and that no one is above the law. Everybody already knows the MAGA extremists will cry politics and threaten violence, and that violence will probably break out again a la Jan. 6. Garland and DOJ appear to have decided on a course of implacable pursuit of the law, come what may. It is the job of the rest of us to ensure that in the upcoming elections we ensure that those who honor the law fairly win our currently still free and fair elections, to keep them that way and to be on deck to enforce the continued rule of law.
Yes, violence from his MAGA crowd is always a threat “but” it seems trump and his misfit consultants were expecting an even larger violent contingency on Jan 6. The fact that so many of them are now being indicted will possibly give pause to those still out there. Yes, there will be riots and protests and violence but his group is not in the majority. The riots and violence will be a problem but not insurmountable. They will be put down (in my opinion). Weeding out his supporters currently in law enforcement( local, Homeland, and Secret Service) and the US Military will be a daunting task though.
There will be NO violence.
Well said Elizabeth. You appear to live on a planet where rational thinking and fairness prevails. I am not sure I live on such a planet. I have, over the last 6 years or so, seen and heard things that turn truth and reality on its head. That sounds like an understatement because I just don't know how to say it better. I think at this point that DOJ is going too slow. It risks the bad guys running out the clock. May have already happened, with the mid-terms looming now. As for relying on the good guys to do our part in November as DOJ continues to deliberate, I am not very confident, yet. Still too much apathy and naive disappointment to overcome. Losing the House alone is going to be catastrophic. Let alone the Senate. We are in a very vulnerable state right now. Could go either way.
Hi James. All your caveats are things I have been feeling and fearing for at least a year. I have lost count of how many times I have posted messages on the DOJ website to AG Garland and his IG strongly urging them to indict Trump well before the upcoming midterms. But I am becoming less pessimistic than I was because of recent events - the overturn of Roe has energized Democrats, the Kansas ballot question that would have allowed its legislature to outlaw abortion went down to blazing defeat, the Democrat in upstate NY who ran forthrightly on a woman's right to choose just won his special election which was a surprise, and not only are many political analysts and commentators downgrading their predictions of a red wave to either uncertain or a red mirage, but even Mitch McConnell recently stated that the Republican hope to increase their Senate seats and take the Senate is in real jeopardy due to what he called the "quality of candidates" - code for too many MAGA extremists won their Senate primaries. It is no longer a sure thing that the R's will take both House and Senate, or even just the House. I don't view any of this as certain, of course. We all have to continue to donate where we are able and push ourselves to work as hard as we can on Dem GOTV--voter postcards and letters, phonathons, canvassing, supporting proven local grassroots GOTV organizations in critical states. But I now have hope that if we all pitch in and work hard, we could--*could*--prevail. I hope millions of Democrats share that hope and commitment to doing whatever parts of the work they can do. Despair and cynicism breed inaction, and inaction predicts defeat.
Mitchell, you may be right, though we do not know exactly what any grand juries might already be doing. That said, I am not aware that candidates for election at any level are exempt from obeying the same laws as the rest of us. Trump said he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and nothing would happen to him, but he is too gutless to put his money where his mouth is (thank goodness!), and he knows that might be a bit much for many of his followers. Well, maybe he knows that.... Anyway, it behooves Garland to move quickly!
I do not know of any law that states that a person seeking public office is immune from the laws that all citizens must abide by. I really never understood the immunity from prosecution that a sitting POTUS has either. I know it is also not a law but a protocol.
Time for that MEMO to be shredded and a real law put in place that sitting presidents are NOT above the law.
He just meant arrested following indictment, without any of the subsequent proceedings you refer to. Getting on the docket is automatic upon arrest, at a minimum, for bail-setting, but arrest also triggers "speedy trial" constitutional deadlines that are on the docket.
I tend to agree that Thanksgiving is optimistic, but grand juries occasionally move quickly. That said, however, there are all kinds of obstructive shenanigans a grand jury target can use and we know Trump will use, and each one will take time to resolve, even the ones so meritless that they qualify as bad faith. That doesn't necessarily mean they'll play out the same way in all the cases, particularly in State courts, where judges with overwhelming caseloads are very experienced at moving cases along. They tend to frown upon delaying tactics, not least because each delay requires its own hearing, which adds to the workload. BTW, it's not just the time in court, which is usually 5-10 minutes, possibly 15. The judge has to work up the case the night before, and even total bullshit motions have to have citations to legal authorities.
One interesting possibility here is that judges would be allowed to use rulings from other Trump cases through something called "judicial notice." If Court A ruled against an argument that doesn't involve questions of fact or involves facts that are the same, Court B can "adopt the reasoning" wholesale. There are instances (quite common in federal courts) where a judge issues a ruling without holding a hearing.
I'm a lawyer writing these comments to try to explain the legal issues for anyone interested. I hope they are helpful.
They are helpful, thank you.
Thank you, lawyer Berlin.
Yeah Mitchell I am with you. Unfortunately. Trump and his cronies sure know how to game the system. He will announce candidacy soon if he thinks it will help his cause. Surely - surely - DOJ will not fall for such an obvious move. There will be more - appeal after appeal after appeal. And our legal system, even if it tries to expedite, will take too much time. And time is a factor. The more it grinds on, the more apathy sets in, the more memories get fuzzy, the more the 24 hour news cycle moves on. The perfect example is Crossfire Hurricane - Trump has not seen one iota of justice for all the sh_t he pulled for Russiagate. I am still quite skeptical that we are going to see Trump pay in a way anywhere near fair.
He has never seen justice for ANY of his shenannigans (including routinely stiffing people who did work of various kinds for him), before, during or after the Presidency. Ironically, he has benefitted from the very norms that he has been doing his best to ignore or undermine. No wonder he's so cynical about "the system" - he's part of it and knows very well how it works.
In the words of my yiddish mother-in-law: your lips to G-d's ears...
From you mouth to the DOJ’s ears.
Because he's an ex-president, he gets security from the Secret Service. That's impossible to provide in a prison, plus the possibility of what his presence in a prison could create, leaves one with the choice of "St. Helena" - in our case, Mar A Lardo.
Doesn’t his ex president perks go away if he’s convicted of a crime? Surely it would!
Prisoners are routinely segregated if it's necessary for their safety, so he would never be around any other prisoners. Nor would any other prisoners have access to him. I have no guess as to how the Secret Service would fit in.
They could always assign the "guys from the New York office".
Oops! Upon re-reading, I think I had the wrong "guys from the New York office" in mind. I thought you were referring to the Manhattan District Attorney's office.
If I believed in smileys, I'd attach about 20 of the red-face ones.
What about the little resort the US has in Cuba? Might have to relocate a few enemies of the US to Isreal or Saudi Arabia or Alabama.
Damn!
Maralago is too hard to secure. It also would have to stop being a resort and country club, so who is paying for upkeep?
Really, Florence supermax works.
Kiawah Island Golf Resort, SC with 5-Star accommodations
Well, all of this by Thanksgiving? That is indeed something to be thankful for in spades. It is on my wishlist. Gobble, gobble, gobbledygook. Put that bad boy somewhere far, far away. Somewhere we never have to see or hear from him or the rest of them ever again. (But, as Camus warned in The Plague, give them another fifty years and they'll be back.)
But we won't be back. At least I won't.
Me neither, but maybe we can figure out a way to nip this nonsense in the bud before then to spare future generations the misery of dealing with loose cannons. Now that is certainly wishful thinking on my part, but at least it's not a crime.
We need to pass "the Trump L:aws" mandating by law with 20-year sentences for conviction, the behaviors that were assumed by the founders would naturally be the way serious people in government would act.
Actually it's a worthy objective. It's why I participate in this blog. But it will be hard to convince folks to change their ways.
Hopefully, he doesn't end up in the same place as us!
David: Of course there is no federal statute specific to ex-presidents. There are federal criminal statutes that apply to everyone, including ex-presidents. Sentences for those convicted vary for both good reasons and bad. Sadly, there is a long history of leniency for those in the upper crust.
As I read his post, Robert was merely expressing his wish and a (possibly sardonic or sarcastic) prediction about the sentence Trump might receive if convicted.
I, an attorney, disagree with him and agree with you. I've never heard of home confinement as a sentence, though I'm not a criminal lawyer. I know it is sometimes used, including electronic monitoring ankle collars, for suspects or defendants out on bail or pending an appeal.
No matter what Trump is convicted of, I'm sure he will be do time. Moreover, for various legal reasons there will be multiple proceedings each with its own punishment, so even if one or two judges are very lenient, it's virtually inconceivable that all of them would be.
Right on, lawyer man!
Holy crap David - I certainly hope so. I am not sure where you are getting your confidence from though. DOJ is showing its stripes already by not acting immediately on this Mar-a-lago top secret documents thing. Just like anybody and everybody says - if it were anybody else they would be in custody quite a while ago, in gigantic trouble, where FBI/CIA would be acting first and asking questions later. This is just the latest in a series of unlawful acts this guy has done, and none repeat none of it has resulted in justice. It has all emboldened the forces of fascism in this county to the point where they might just seize power in 2022.
DOJ may have so many former Trump "associates" trampling each other to get in the door and spill their guts to the FBI that there is some chaos there due to understaffing. I would add that espionage and treason are hard to ignore, and each crime he commits is worse than the last, because he doesn't know how to fold, only double down. Experienced poker players love guys like that, especially if they have deep pockets and lots of dough. He is toast.
Well said. Thank you.
I agree with you. And the phrase “ the wheels of Justice grind slowly “ is getting old!
I agree with you. And the phrase “ the wheels of Justice grind slowly “ is getting old!
May I dream with you…
Hope springs eternal.
Oh, I hope you are right! I too, don't want to see him in just house arrest. He did so little as President, except raise the national debt and downgrade our civil services including the National Security apparatus, that I truly get mad at the kid glove treatment he has already received from the DOJ!
What about that little resort the US has in Cuba?
Boy, I hope you're correct.
Perhaps a life sentence of community service as a municipal golf course caddy.
Cleaning toilets at a public golf course. As we know, he is familiar with the operation of toilets.
And the operation of golf courses....he can cheat there too. Oh, Jon.
That would be utterly ignominious for him-stuck on the course and not being allowed to play!
Who would want HIM to be their caddy? Unless, of course, that person also enjoys cheating to win at golf. I mean, since nearly 100% of Drumpf's endeavors have failed...why would anyone want him to caddy unless they planned to win by cheating?
Which, when I think about it, is still fairly pointless--but, hey...that's the Dear Orange Leader: winning isn't merely the best thing; it's the ONLY thing, Fred's favorite son could never bear to lose at anything, EVER. Little Donnie still can't bear to lose: not even at a silly and pointless game of golf---how pathetically insecure is that???
You are right of course, and it might qualify as torture to force Trump to serve others.
JL, how about JUST a life sentence.....?
That fits.
Oh c'mon now. You know once he's indicted his perp walk is going to be Weinsteined (or Cosbyed, not sure who gets credit for that game )
And it's essential that he not be. While it is certainly not the whole story, I think that the immunizing and unethical blanket "pardon" handed to Nixon was a turning point in total dedication of "Republicans" using the law to obstruct justice.
It ranked, not that I needed to see some extreme punishment for Nixon; overkill would have strengthened his cause; but that we had to firmly draw a line the people entrusted with extreme civic responsibilities cannot be allowed to cross. We certainly failed on that one.
I am old enough to remember when Armand Hammer appeared in court in a wheelchair!
🤣👏
Robert, I share many of your worries. Far more important to me than seeing "it" held accountable under law, is that we of good intent, turn over every single rock to find out what it is that has made his ("its") persuasion seem to be a worthwhile alternative. I have my theories that have intrigued me for a decade and a half. I really want to see much more inquiry into the possibilities as I don't entirely buy most of the easy narratives that have been propagated. Cheers ! * edit in - I should have said "nearly equally as important than" above where I overly stressed unearthing causes; At this moment, nothing is more important than the actions that prove that 'no one is above the law.' That must be sacrosanct first.
No one above the law, meaning not one standard of enforcement for the power-deprived and another for the powerful. That how law operates in tyranny, and tyranny festers wherever double standards arise.
As HCR has stated the most important task that Garland and Biden have is to restore the rule of law. I don’t see how not indicting DJT, is an option for them, not now.
It's been the DOJ's intended task all along: indict by meticulously collecting clear evidence, flipping the little guys & gals, then the bigger ones, building a solid, unassailable case.
And what happens to Rudy, Meadows, Bannon, Kushner and all the rest? Lots more to come.
One of the problems I think, D4N, is that a lot of Americans just glaze over at the sound of the phrase "rule of law." I think lots, in the thrall of some personality or other, just don't get it. As I used to explain to my students, it doesn't just mean that we follow rules established by law - though it does mean that. What it really means is that "The law IS the RULER," not any single person or group. Obviously the Orange Menace* never learned that or, much more to the point, doesn't care a bit, if it stands in his way. * Hat tip for that appellation to Mike Murphy, vehemently anti-Trump GOP strategist, on the "Hacks On Tap" podcast with David Axelrod and Robert Gibbs. Highly recommended!
Rule of law to most people means that the person who stole the package off the front porch is apprehended or that homeless camps are swept off the streets or that thieves and vandals are in jail. It doesn't mean that death star and his minions are held accountable for the cult.
As much as I can't stand Bill Maher most of the time, he did a powerful New Rules about Hollywood's obsession with "rage revenge" movies. Forget due process! You killed my wife, so I get to go after and kill you." I'm not saying we blame movies or video games for individual decisions, but I have been in theaters (before I started vetting popular movies for violence that I can't stand) when the "villain" gets it and the hero/heroine is cheered. GOP right wing has gotten very very skilled at riling up that very energy.
Just finished a novel set in the hills of eastern Kentucky. Revenge abounds.
Boy does that stir up any stereotypes I have about the folks in the hills of Ky.
Agree Terry; a thorny "choice" , eyeball attention, etc. Gets thornier the more you consider it.
"If Aristotle, Livy, and Harrington knew what a republic was, the British constitution is much more like a republic than an empire. They define a republic to be a government of laws, and not of men." - John Adams
I don’t buy the easy narratives either. Your hinting has me curious. Holding these ideas for over a decade and a half says they keep being confirmed.
(sssh, but yes; just between you and I, they do get confirmed Michele) Worse, they get adopted and co-opted with flaws at times, wandering off "the thing or things." I hold my peace here most often for a number of reasons; the first being that this marvelous blog we get to exchange on - with limits, is an action of grace by our dear Dr. DPR, whom I shall evermore cherish, making my first rule of behavior to try as hard as I can (given my personality) to restrain myself in a lot of regards. I have an unconfirmed suspicion that our good Dr. may be aware that I could say much more, but that she'd prefer that I not "confuse the choir" so to speak. We've not had that or any such conversation as she deservedly has earned so very many fans who'd love to have her ear. I have wondered, well David... how do you get the 'juice' to be heard ? There is a U.S. Senate seat being vacated in Ohio by Portman (R) in Ohio; being vied for by a _ rumper and Ryan (D). Would I have a prayer in that contest against all that money and juice ? Am I too late as I've dithered ? I sorted out the whole "do I have any chance" question by conceding that actually getting elected is "not" the main thing for me. The main thing is putting my thoughts out there to share among my state and yes national voters that I don't think the mainstream candidates are focusing on - that 'should' be focused on for the sake of "we the people." Allow me to ask you, if a "John Q. Citizen" came out of nowhere in your state, with no big money or political backing - nor media attention, stepped out and suggested some great ideas, would you take him or her seriously and perhaps be persuaded to give them your vote ? (thanks Michele)
"House arrest"? Guess it depends which crime(s) you think he will be convicted of. If Fanni Willis has her way, he will be behind real bars for long enough to die there. Not sure what Garland will settle for. Not sure if Garland will ever do....anything...
Here is what ought to clear the air - and make things straight up simple like a quality martini. As of January 20, 2021 TFG was a citizen of the US. No more, no less. There is no hierarchical special status in the law about former anythings. To put it into historical perspective - the acid test, perhaps - ask yourself how the founders would have treated a former president who attempted the overthrow of the government they created and risked their lives for.
I suspect at least a few of them would have wanted his head on a pike. Or at least have him returned to the enemy he embraced.
Respect Garland's "slows." He is treading where no AG of the US has ever had to go before. (Stress on "had to.") He is being very, very careful navigating terrain with no precedent. It's a bit like Obama who, as the fist Black president, was very, very careful never to be "angry Black man" political. His (I'll call them) "calms" often frustrated his party in Congress when they felt he had reason to be much more "out there," politically.
I hear you. My intellect understands your point. But my emotions and my sense of "justice delayed" don't care. If any other person had been found with top secret documents in his home, he would have been busted a long, long time ago. Treating TFG as a unique individual violates my sense of what America is supposed to be all about.
But...perhaps the AG is enlisting and roping in TFGs cohorts so as to solidify the case and get most of the bad guys in one large snare.
I will attempt to keep my emotions in check. Mostly.
I know it's hard, but I know you can do it, Bill. If I can, you can.
💞💞
According to TRMS there are 300 separate documents, each with its own flavor of malfeasance, treason, or espionage to ferret out. Plus any individuals mentioned therein to question or protect. I think you are right.
True
The Founders would have hanged him.
Or at least someone would have challenged him to a duel!
Even before noon on January 20, 2021, TFG was “only” a citizen, although that is the highest honor that the nation can bestow. While he was President, Washington was referred to as “the first citizen.” So be it.
Don’t tell chump
Park him in Gitmo.
For...f^&king...ever.
Let’s get out of Cuba. Park him with one of 2 million prisoners. Let him see what life is REALLY like!.
House arrest at Mar-o-Lago would be ironic since it will be one of the first places under water from his inaction on the climate conflagration.
Cathy I like your thinking. Someone on this letter called it “Mar-a-Loco”. Yes, quite loco.
I'm partial to Maga Lardo
Love that. Such an image!!
I like Stephen Colbert's name for it as Karm-A-Lago. The karma of having classified and top secret documents there taking him down delights me in every way.
I love that! Karma-A-Lago….thank god for Colbert!
Jane, I'm totally a Colbert addict; I can't get enough of him, his writers, and of course his delivery ! You may have noticed that each day the Colbert happens to need to mention _rump, he has a new nickname on each of those days. I so wished I had written some of them down ! Cheers Jane !
I too wish I had Colbert's list of TFG's nicknames. Hilarious and creative. The best writers of all the shows. And his Meanwhile segment! I hope Stephen has room for more Emmys. Especially for his live shows following the January 6 Hearings. I have missed Stephen these last 2 weeks. Bad timing for a break. Will miss Jon Batiste, too. But it is my daily addiction along with LFAA! Cheers, D4N!
My name for that glorified dump is Tsar-a-Loco. Can't remember where I saw it, but it fits.
I really, really love that nick name. Hope I can borrow it !
I borrowed it from someone, so I think it should be spread far and wide, especially since death star has a Russian best bro.
Michele, Perfect for that “dump”, as 45 called our White House. Dump’s dump. Another possible name.
LOL. Yes. I had forgotten he called the WH a dump while he was occupying it. Probably not full of the tasteless junk he likes to surround himself with.
Oh heck; it's up to my neck.
I am with you on this. As long as he is free to continue his misdeeds. I ,too, will not sleep well. I am rather enjoying him trying to use shopworn distraction tactics from his woeful playbook. We the people have been aware of his various smokescreens for years and the mainstream media are not longer hanging on his every word. There is no other way to go about things in that he must be prosecuted. Fascists gain power when they go unchecked. I say do it soon, before the midterms so that he doesn't have time to throw up another legal roadblock or hold another sleight of hand.
He was raised a crook, with a crook father role model, his daughter married a crook and is one, Melania is an unknown, but she is despicable for her not caring about being best or anything else. His two sons, well, we all know their daddy issues. Their wife and girlfriend are also disgusting. Even Tiffany turned out to be an opportunist sludge. The son Baron (what a name!), well, yet to be seen. So we have got to get them out for good. They see themselves as a “dynasty” and will try to run for office, trade on their name and make a big mess as they already have. Out, out damned spot!
Plural, spots
Jeri, can’t “like” your comment. But, yes, spots, really STAINS and cancer on this body politic. What are we gonna do?
Melania is busy with her own brand of narcissistic enterprise. She is having made images (dolls?) of herself and family for sale on the NFT market. You can't even buy them with real currency. What does that tell you?
It tells me, Hope, that they are soulless grifters. Can you imagine a doll of those creeps, in your house????
I do have a cloth Dammit doll of T that helps to calm me down by abusing it against the furniture and other untold things.
This is such an unfortunate scenario you describe, but it seems to be the logical trajectory. It's hard for me to believe that the whole bunch is so evil or narcissistic. I'm still hoping at least one or two of those you mention will relent of their continued lying. Are they all so doomed to a path of lies and evil?
Mary, they are all ON the path of lies and evil. Doomed may be part of their karma, but they are fully on that path. Just follow the MONEY. Kushner, one of the most vile of them, got TWO BILLION DOLLARS for his perfidy. I hope they prosecute his rancid ass right into jail. OMG.
Exactly, Elisabeth!
It’s way past time for Kushner to “best” his daddy’s 2-year prison stint.
He has a morbidly strange ability to gather the gullible, the uninformed and the ignoramuses around him, almost like some evil sorcerer. I'm in agreement.
But so many of us ARE uninformed and gullible. We fall for advertisements with the most absurd claims (you will attract women if you use this brand of toothpaste, etc.) while responsible citizenship requires the ability to think critically about complex issues. We need to educate better.
And that's just part of it. I'm beginning to think that we need to scrap the entire system of government that has evolved to have so many nooks and crannies that a good lawyer can run it like a maze and so corrupted by money that a well-funded crook can lean on it until it breaks.
Becky, put some thought into what happens when whole systems of government get scrapped. History offers plenty of examples, but France in the late 18th century and Russia in the early 20th are good places to start. In recent years the GOP has been terrifyingly close to being able to call a constitutional convention and rewrite the Constitution. They're not quite as close as they were before the 2018 midterms, but the danger has not passed.
If the entire system got scrapped, those devising a new system would not be Letters from an American readers. The powers calling the shots would be the same powers calling them now: reactionary millionaires and billionaires, aided by a military and law-enforcement that is riddled with well-armed and well-trained right-wingers. It could be argued that the only thing holding them in check now is the system you're ready to scrap.
There's a great and much-quoted scene in Robert Bolt's play _A Man for All Seasons_ that speaks to this. Sir Thomas More is talking with his hot-head son-in-law, William Roper:
Roper: So now you’d give the Devil benefit of law?
More: Yes. What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
Roper: I’d cut down every law in England to do that!
More: Oh? And, when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you – where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country’s planted thick with laws from coast to coast – man’s laws, not God’s – and, if you cut them down – and you’re just the man to do it – d’you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I’d give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety’s sake.
I understand, but I am not yet concerned with how. It is hard to view a problem clearly and decide what should be done to solve it if at the same time you are plotting how to accomplish that. For now, these are separate problems. I think that we have not really considered what we want fundamentally, what is important and necessary. We’ve only tied ourselves in knots trying to make the best of a broken system, applying patch upon patch, wasting our time, attention, and resources, and in the meanwhile slowly dying. There will be a time to consider what you say, but first I want to get really clear about what is important and what is just mud.
What if we started over. Does good government have to be so complex? I think most people would feel that above all it needs to be fair. The Golden Rule is universal: Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. Even children understand fairness. Can a government be built up from there? Can we make our organizations and our laws and all our interactions straight enough and and clear enough to be obvious even to a child?
Becky. You are a revolutionary. However first: Get rid of guns, greed, anger, violence, lust, gluttony, rascism, and yes, we can start over. Until those evils are expunged from the human heart, we are doomed as a species. Sorry to be so pessimistic. Just seems to be our trajectory.
Yes, I agree -- too many nooks and crannies. Needs tightening up, for sure. A criminal pays for his/her crimes, period.
And lest we forget how many of the gullible were indoctrinated with the Russian disinformation that helped get him elected to begin with...
Becky, seems we have a serious “Pogo” problem.
no accident that critical thinking skills are NOT taught
With less propaganda. Rupert rules the fools
Well and nicely said!
Yes.
Family members who only watch Fox will never pull away from tfg and will support his "victimhood" if he is indicted. It breaks my heart.
I think the descriptive you are reaching for is basket of despicables.
Deplorables
No, I think "despicable" is the proper designation. 'Deplorables' is not descriptive of the pack of rats and scum that follow and/or worship the dumpster fire.
Lol .... Peter forget about any run for Pres after that identifier ! I'm just sayin', it's been done and didn't prevail.
I sit corrected!!
You forgot “opportunists”??
I always had a comedic type vision of him sharing a padded cell with Putin. Cell block roomies. Just as a humorous mental picture. Together forever.
I like the picture of him and Rudy locked up together. Who would kill the other first?
They’d be too busy dying their hair to kill one another.
Can't like this, but LOL, the best so far this am.
Wondering what finished hair color one would get if Rudy's black dye mixed with orange ?
I think you are right, Wsj. Just too damn busy……do they allow hair dye in prison?
In west Africa, some dyes contained a certain golden natural substance.
Perfect!
Another LOL, wsj!
LOL,MLM!
I can just see Rudy’s teeth oozing out of his huge mouth, with 45’s grubby little paws squeezing the life out of him. OMG.
Even though it would be painful, I'd pay to see that, Elisabeth...morning!
More likely neighboring dachas in the Moscow suburbs. Or wherever Russians put dachas. And if not Russia, then another non-extradition country. If exile was good enough for Napoleon, it's good enough for FPOTUS.
Spooky, that visual is really scary: the love for one another part…..omg.
Yes Spooky ! Bosom buddies right ? Till the first disagreement, then _rump gets strapped to missile ..
lol Denise !
One under scoring factor, that seems to keep getting lost, is what Mary Trump, PhD psychriaist, has repeatedly talked about, is the fact we're dealing with a pure narcissistic personality. As soon as you understand that, this all falls into place. Every it of it.
Friendly correction: Mary Trump has a PhD in clinical psychology. Psychiatrists have medical degrees.
Including the current character of the "Party of Lincoln No Longer". We all of necessity pursue self-interest ,and we all must struggle with appeals to fear, resentment, greed, and ego aggrandizement. Pandering to our weaknesses has served despots for eons.
Narcissism now pervades the soul of the "Republican" Party.
Solitay confinement, no phone.
Well said, but he ought to go to a Federal prison for life. People were killed at his urgings, all seditious, and violent.
And no be allowed to play golf. Or if so, someone else keeps score and reports it to the world. I still think prison bars and a pink coverall uniform is best.
I agree with that. I've been writing to my senator since Trump was elected that Donald Trump was a clear and present danger to the United States and I have not been proved wrong. He is dangerous and delusional and he has armed followers who appear to share a similar profile. I'll not be bullied by this bunch of thugs, but I want them all securely removed from society.
I agree that if he is convicted he wouldn't go to prison. I'm fine with home detention but my thought is his Tower apartment because access is already limited. Bonus: he'd be forced to look out on the city he knows hates him. Mar-a-Lago would allow too much freedom. The primary condition of confinement must be no golf (likely his idea of Hell on Earth), no social media, all visits and phone calls as limited as if he were in prison. This option would serve the needs of the Secret Service to not serve inside a prison and remove him completely from all public life. I'd love to see a hefty fine so onerous that he'd be forced into a fire sale of his assets.
But, as announced, the water from the Greenland he offere to buy, is rising.
Ha! Well, that is one argument for detention at MaL but that would be considered cruel and unusual punishment to lock him in a place that will soon be under water, literally.
This idea works for me. Cutting him off, but leaving him with the windows to stare out of at the city that has long forgotten him since his silencing would be perfect.
Hey, good enough for me.
Yeah, we haven't even begun to uncover that part or his infiltration and manipulation of the secret service.
Tony Ornato…that name and description sprung out at me immediately and then the press went quiet. I think he was the hit man for Pence. That is why “Daddy” wouldn’t leave Mother and get into the effing secret service vehicle on Jan 6. He didn’t “know” or recognize the driver. I await the real deal on this at some point. Tony is retiring on September 1. Tomorrow. OMG.
See if the British will let us lease St. Helena. For the same purpose they put it to 200 years ago.
Well we still run Gitmo, but that cruel and unusual.
Lies with no trace of shame is his most practiced talent. Some people are fooled all of he time, but I think Trump may be wearing out his welcome, burdensome even to some in his party.
Please be right, JL!
Not nearly enough of them though.
And that “practiced talent” has worked well for his entire life. I don’t rest easy because of exactly that character trait. Neither our laws, norms, or stomachs are used to being strong enough to effectively hold to account someone like this. And he is preforming a Master Class for followers and Wannabes.
There was on occasion a hint of charm and levity from Trump’s public appearances of 20 or 30 years ago, but that is all gone now. He is all snarling, brutish bellicosity. He has become a one trick pony.... and it’s a pretty ugly trick.
I like “snarling, brutish bellicosity” Doug. He is really a “many trick pony” with one goal: to rule. To rule absolutely and to be in charge (of money mostly) until he drops dead from all his hamburgers. Can’t be soon enough....
Elisabeth, I agree that my comment about Trump is an oversimplification. But I still think his public persona at least, has become more unidimensional over time; there is no longer even a hint of human warmth or good humor. To me his overarching vibe now is almost always menace and threat. It’s tempting to speculate about what is driving this apparent progressive psychopathology, but for me the greater concern is why so many other people have been swept up into this guy’s dark id... or is he only channeling what was there all along? It just seems like such a sordid mess. I betcha there are going to be books and books written for years and years about this moment in our history. (assuming there will still be people writing books in our future!)
I like your choice of adjectives Dr. Just sayin'.. well done.
Agree. And my sense is that he’s becoming increasingly impaired and desperate.
As is Graham. There will be riots in the streets is surely 'kin' to shouting fire in a theater.
Interesting how all the suspects start to sing the same song as they approach that swirly tornado at the top of the drain.
What astounds me is his belief that the 2020 election can and should be redone hasn't landed him an involuntary 72 hour psych hold. That degree of psychosis in anyone else would land us in the nearest locked unit. It would be fascinating to read the results of a psychiatric eval, which because of HIPAA, could not be disclosed to the public.
My healthcare colleagues have posited that he'd commit suicide if arrest is imminent, but I disagree. He may be crazy, but he's not stupid. He'll be on a private jet to Saudi.
I fear that the psychosis is the MAGA movement, the cult thinking cynically installed in public consciousness by 40 years of overly passive reactions to blatant plutocrat-financed mental malware, including racism. We all have a "reptile" brainstem, and some are more vulnerable than others, partly due to their circumstances. As for Trump and GOP leadership in general, I don't think they are for the most part deluded, but tell calculated lies shamelessly. They are rewarded for being ultra malignant narcissists.
If Mary Trump is correct and he is a full-on pathological narcissist, my mental-health friends say he would never, ever commit suicide. I think it's fair to think of him as a societal cancer. Cancers don't kill themselves: it's the essence of what makes them a cancer.
That may have saved us (so far) from WWIII. It had to have been very painful to Trump not to fire any nukes.
It's why I was confident that Saddam Husein would never have physically attacked the US. He was another opportunist, not a fanatic.
The belief that 2020 election can and should be redone was what made me think he’s reached a breaking point. Arranging a private jet seems more likely than other outcomes, especially if he saved certain documents of interest to Saudis
He and his party are venturing further and further out onto thin ice, but we are still very much at risk that their gambit may prevail, as have similar campaigns of Big Lies and treachery in history in world history.
Bonnie
The multi-billion $ payment to Jared makes me think the Saudis already got some of the documents they wanted. Traded to reserve a place with non-extradition laws. I suspect the private jet will be lifting off soon.
Something stinks in those Saudi payments, that's for sure.
Wasn't it shocking to learn Jerod is not a world-class consultant? 😳
He was merely a conduit for the Saudis to pay T for classified, super dooper, top secret "don't tell anyone where you got this stuff" stuff.
And to think the weirdest political thing I'd ever heard of pre-Trump was that Nancy Reagan was so totally into astrology she made Ronnie schedule meetings around his horoscope.
Pre-Heather, we were all so naïve. 😂
Think about this: T LIVES to communicate. So essential to his narcissism that when FB and Twitter cut him off, he started his own social network. Now, he's letting that fall into bankruptcy; soon he'll be cut off from that. (And that's the pipeline he uses to funnel money in, so letting that dry up is telling.)
He's turning off the tap in preparation for boarding a private jet to Saudi.
His capacity for delusions is infinite
I would think that's an alternative, and when they figure it out, there's always Russia and plant some serious drugs on him.
Trump has lots of irrational delusional followers, just like those of Jim Jones who drank the Koolaid right to their deadly end.
My relatives, who now like DeSantis, buy every conspiracy theory they hear. The latest being that people who identify as "cats" and "dogs" demand and get bathrooms supplied with kitty litter from their public schools and company employers like Federal contractor Bath Iron Works. A FOX online paper reported this was all started by a "right wing blogger" and now consumes the time of school boards, superintendents and company public relations. Exactly what DeSantis likes doing. This is his idea of Florida change. I read this report to my relatives who said their friend at BIW saw the kitty litter.
We live in a brain deteriorating culture.
Eventually, he will openly call for violence against the FBI and/or Justice Department.
Worse yet, those calls will be echoed by talking heads on Fox/OANN/Newsmax, as well as some politicians, and some of his brainwashed, cultish supporters will listen, just as that man in Ohio did.
An open call for violence? I’m wondering at which tipping point Free Speech crosses the legal line into “incitement to riot”
Talking heads should be contemplating that definition now, as their duty to clicks and likes would create their next breathless firestorm “breaking news”
I'd say that fits into Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes definition of the limits of free speech -- not to maliciously cry fire in a crowded theater.
I would think members of the current FBI would not want to overlook any shred of evidence that might knock out Trump.
And his troubles are just beginning. Question to ponder: will he mentally implode before his criminal trials begin?
Expect more explosive tantrums.
And never admitting to losing.
Narcissists are apparently one of toughest of the personality types and rarely do themselves in
Tom Wirt:
At the moment narcissists, "...do themselves in..." is the exact moment they do themselves in sooner and for sure Later, Eh!?
He’s close to the edge.
WHAT ABOUT ALL THE SCUMBAGS IN HIS FAMILY, EH!?
Yes, but I think Mary is our best source.
Morning Joseph. Breaking my rule and will opine for a minute on the FPOTUS.
How far off the deep end he goes will depend on the fulcrum with the brown shirt Lindsey Grahams at one end spittle-sputtering, and the other end called “this way to an exit from FPOTUS🔝🔜” such as the ramp that the weasel Tony Ornato has jumped on. I think that end will weigh heavily with the re-igniting of the Jan 6th hearings and even more so with President’s address to the nation on Thursday and in the coming weeks with the President unfettered from the WH and on campaign roads.
In other words, I ask the question daily…. Where do you want to
be in 4 weeks and then another 4 weeks before the midterm elections? With Democracy? Or enslaved to those too busy helping themselves and not about to support your best interests? Which is it? Democracy or oafish Republican elephant dooky?
And all the rest from Bannon to every other neo fascist?
Russian warship….go f*ck yourself.
🗽
He's so pathetic, you almost have to feel sorry for him........Not
Never, never, never, never, dear Jeanne. I try to practice compassion as a spiritual seeker. He has left me in the dust with his completely dark and evil acts of villainy. No way, Jose.
Oh I do feel sorry for him. And pity. He hates pity. He deserves it.
Bern, Shakespeare said “Pity is the lowest form of hatred....”.
Interesting.
I do not hate the guy, because I perceive he is badly broken, and not capable of controlling himself. Tragic, really. For all of us who have to deal with him.
Shakespearean, even.
My first thought when I read this, Bern, was of my brutal step-father who made the lives of me and my brother hell. As a theologian, I do not believe in heaven or hell - but there are times when I wish I could.
Fair enough. I had a (now recognized) ridiculously stable and 'normal' upbringing and know not what I've avoided...
Considerably deeper. As a pure narcissist, he will destroy either the country or himself. Google narcissism.
Agree. I was reluctant to put it in writing.
Trump must be held accountable. But his expected criminal sentence must allow him to be released to testify in anticipated civil & criminal suits.
he is singularly responsible for 1.05 MILLION Americans who have died since the beginning of the Covid-19 Pandemic !!!!!!!!! Damn him to HELL!!!!
but of course.
And yet I see T—-P 2024 flags in windows where I live in Southern California! The Koolaid must really taste good.
Mental malware. They are infected.
Here in Indiana too. Actually less than a mile from me! I will not be campaigning at that house....without a bodyguard! LOL
As his appeal diminishes, he will continue to fight. I do not see an exit strategy that he would accept. I will join you with the morbidly curious.
I worry about the violence. I do not think we should shrink from it. On the contrary!
Who, do you think, will incited and lead it? Steve Bannon perhaps? I don't see Lindsey doing much but threatening from safe spaces, but will the MAGATs be moved by anyone other than Trump himself?
He's still plenty, if not more, palatable to the MAGA crowd. As a society, we need to address the mass insanity (disillusionment, anger, fear, belief in disinformation, the need to be told what to do by an authoritarian leader and/or religion, absence of the ability to think critically) that fuels that movement.
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.
Thanks for bringing up the 2 hour top secret Helsinki meeting between Vlad and tfg - this might just have been the dirt summit, where the two top dirt mongers decided how to protect each other's dirty activities, past, present and future, and where a list of others whose dirt could be used against them was created - L Graham might not be the only one who got on the list for something he might need to hide from the world.
Haven't you wondered what was in the strange soccer ball vlad gave trump? It looked electronic. Did anyone ever inspect it? Passing the ball to the newest dictator? What would the orange flambé have to do with soccer or sports? Bone spurs? There was something very underhanded in that pass. I guaran-tee it.
Add to that the RNC emails stolen by Russia in 2016. They only released the DNC stuff - there must have been some treasure in that trove.
I was unaware of the gift. Perhaps the soccer ball knows all ?😜
“ Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) had said on Twitter that the ball should be inspected for “listening devices” and that he would “never allow it in the White House.”
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/398799-soccer-ball-putin-gave-trump-contains-transmitter-chip-but-for-adidas/
Oh, like that glowing orb that he and the guys with swords in the Mideast stood around like warlocks for photo ops. I wonder if they set 45 up for that to make a fool out of him...?
They were wildly successful. They surely were laughing up their sleeves (like pulling summer camp stunts on nubees ) when they called Trump over to "commune".
Well, if there was a subtle message in the gift, I think the orange flambé missed it. He threw the ball wittily to Melania.
She speaks fluent russian, a to communicate with vlad directly would do the flambé no good. 45 can barely manage elementary English. But, I bet vlad can speak English and pretends he cannot because it may be imperfect.
Given her geopolitical origins, she probably does speak Russian, but she's not fluent, as used to be claimed, in French or Italian. I am, and I've paid attention to past videos of her in action. On the other hand, Putin does speak English https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrXf8Qn9pBI . And while we're at it, Tony Blair's apologetic French on the same video was quite passable. Boris Johnson on the other hand can just manage to fake a phrase for laughs. John Kerry speaks correct French with comfortable fluency, Antony Blinken's French is faultless.
That was interesting—thanks, Anne-Louise!
It probably came from a Moscow dollar store, but I do recall the bugged. Trojan US seal, the gift borne by Soviets. Maybe Putin was telling T%#@& to "play ball" with him? Something also surely off with with L. Graham's lapdog status; carrot and/or stick.
Senator Joe McCarthy grabs Lindsey’s ankle from the grave?
interesting concept...!
I wonder about every Repub who went to Russia for our 4th of July.😡
You have to park your soul at the door to even get into the party these days, and showing scruples of any sort is strictly forbidden; as we have lately seen with J6 Committee members.
Anyway, it may be that Trump may only acted as an transfer agent for Lindsey's soul, for an Infernal buyer.
I think JL Graham is referring to the scruples shown by Cheney and Kinzinger. Their scruples are forbidden, ie., they are viewed as traitors by their Republican House 'colleagues,' the RNC, and Wyoming/Illinois MAGA voters.
Oh, OK.
J6 committee members not having scruples? What??
What are you talking about....J6 members no scruples? Please explain.
It reads, “and showing scruples of any sort is strictly forbidden; as we have lately seen with J6 Committee members.” Meaning, some of the members of the J6 committee have been punished by their party for having scruples.
It's this:
"Whereas, Representatives Cheney and Kinzinger are participating in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse, and they are both utilizing their past professed political affiliation to mask Democrat abuse of prosecutorial power for partisan purposes, therefore, be it resolved, That the Republican National Committee hereby formally censures Representatives Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and shall immediately cease any and all support of them as members of the Republican Party for their behavior which has been destructive to the institution of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Republican Party and our republic, and is inconsistent with the position of the Conference,"
RNC official resolution.
I believe in everyone's right to a "private life"...of perhaps personal preferences. I also believe that TFG operated much in the way J. Edgar Hoover did. He had "files" on people. Your wonderment is not without merit.
I do, too, but many of Graham's constituents do not.
Graham would sell his soul for a snickers bar.
More than any other United States Senator Lindsey Graham did a 180 degrees flip. Something caused him to do that. Perhaps it was the meeting you mention. What could possibly be so powerful as to cause him to jump to the dark side?
It has to be more than just the possibility of being outed as gay (if he is). In today's world, that might cost him an election, but not much more, and he's had a long run in the Senate. It can't be just that.
This supposition has had a very long life thus far. He didn’t get the nickname “Miss Lindsey” for nothing. If he still considers it something to hide, he is choosing his friends very poorly.
That's a good question, what was the breaking point, although the wholesale soul sell-out seems to have afflicted pretty much the whole party.
BINGO! Sadly, for Graham, I still think it's the open secret of his sexuality. Maybe there's more, but I suspect his self loathing runs that deep.
I think it has to be more than his sexuality for him to go this far. Lindsey must have some serious blood on his hands that he covered up long ago. If it was just him being outed as gay (possibly) I think he'd just take the election loss rather than do what he's doing now.
Young boys, lots of them
OMG that’s funny. Could it be.
I thought it was the golf game at Mar-a-Lago. It must be a really good golf course. Or maybe FPOTUS showed Graham something in the basement. Maybe the fake Rothschild woman said something to Graham that day.
These days one's soul seems to be the price of admission to the "Republican" Party these days. Those who would not entirely let go have been benched or rejected as far as the RNC is concerned; "The Party of Putin".
Interesting idea.
Thanks, Danny, for bringing this up. I've said since the rise of TFG that Putin has some serious dirt on a number of people to get so many to flip.
👍🏼
"...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!
The former guy's goal has not, I think, been to demonstrate leadership so much as ownership; he fancies himself the randiest tomcat on the block, demonstrating what he thinks he possesses by pissing on it.
What a very apt simile. And it's a lingering stench.
Quizt, your comment is one of the best comments ever.
Good to know that the number of followers on Truth Social has been dwindling substantially. Now the company hosting this service should stop that service immediately and demand payment.
Poor branding. They missed their chance to call it "The Ministry of Truth".
"GOP - A Lie For Everything ®
Apt, but chilling.
Agree! Though they'll never get a dime.
And where will poor little Nunes go now?
Back home to beg forgiveness from his cow. Don’t take him back, Elsie!!!
He's off his head.
He probably wants to plead insanity so he does not go to prison. Don't let him. Lock him up. Besides, he cannot live at Mar a loco, as it is, by law, a resort where he is not to live more than 6 months out of the year. And why should he be given a trump paradise to live in? Lock the bastard up and chuck the key. Do Pay Per View of him to monetize his stay so he no longer costs Americans heartaches paying for all the investigations and the legal costs and time wasted on him and his thuglicans.. He can still be a star with a 24 hour surveillance camera in his cell. Let him have his photo ops on the cover of Inmate Magazine where he can try to be the Emperor of that world with no use any electronics or tv ever again. Or a mirror.
Above all no mirror.
Are you sure his image reflects in a mirror? 🧛🏽♂️
On the upside: if we do incarcerate him like the average egregious lawbreaker in an inadequately funded prison, there may finally be bipartisan movement on criminal justice reform and prison standards funding.
Now there's a thought!
...no make-up or hair dye either.
The pay-per-view might have to be X-rated if they put him in prison with hardened criminals.
I fear for the "hardened criminals" frankly....
Touché, Elisabeth!
Oh, I'm sure they can take care of themselves.
But they would still have to hear his voice
The idea of Trump as somebody's punk in prison--which he would no doubt have to be just to survive--gives even me a moment of sympathy. It also kind of gives me the creepy thoughts that, first, it's exactly what he's tried to do to this country and, even creepier, that he might like it. I have no idea why I even had that thought but in some way it rings true. Sorry to be so disgusting so early in the morning
These are unusual times, Dean. You are completely forgiven. As far as being somebody's punk, I choose to put-on Melania's jacket and turn my back on nazis in prison: "I don't care, do U?" He and his thug comrades have been doing it to us for decades. Karma gonna get 'cha.
I'd be more concerned he'd persuade them that he could lead a successful coup and get them all out.
I tried to banish that thought from my mind.
OOOO, gawd, David. That is true. Guess, as is with all rethuglican issues, the videos would have to be redacted.
While someone else might use that defense, tfg would never in a million years admit to that kind of "weakness". His fragile ego would never allow it.
I completely agree with the rest of your statement, and pay per view of his trial would generate millions to offset the damage he has caused.
I think, if it would save his bum from prison, he would do anything and then mock the whole thing to his cult following.
Small blessings that I don't have to be around the guy! Can you imagine?
No, not in the least!
That’s what’s known as on the steep descent into madness. It is a seriously deranged thing to say.
Any normal family would get him psychiatric help...
Daria, I would say....Simply stated, PATHETIC.
Well, yeah, that too, Pam. What I can't believe is that some people think this guy is still worth supporting. He's effing insane!
Calculatedly distracting.
I'm not sure how calculated he is at this point. He's more like a scratchy old broken record.
It really is difficult to fight the image of him in a diaper screaming and throwing himself around on the floor because he was told no. What is NOT hilarious is the millions upon millions of human beings who evidently wanted this ruling over all of us. I fear I will forever be coming to grips with my grief upon realizing my overestimation of humanity.
Unfortunately, you are spot on. The optics of his temper tantrum is hilarious. The consequences are not.
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.
Wow, the kkkrazies. A veteran of three combat wars in the deserts, who happened to be black, told me that if Obama won, it would unleash the kkkrazies. We argued about that. He told me that white privileged people have no idea what lies under the surface in America if your pigment shades run darker. He told me not to vote for Obama. Well, I did vote for Obama and gave up on white friends...from Georgia on election night who could not understand why I was so upset the the orange flambé won and that there were so many red states. When I said I did not want a fascist for POTUS, they immediately responded with incredulity and exclaimed, "Obama is a fascist!" The world turned upside down from that moment on. You know, I have told this story on this forum before, and I feel like I am someone with PTSD and grief reliving that trauma until I can make some kind of sense or peace with it. I texted and called four friends that night and all of us were in tears at the audacity of part of this country being so kkkrazy and installing such a creature. And I still maintain he was installed. He never won an election with the popular vote, and for a numbers guy, that is his revenge fuel to destroy us (or USA).
I am having a hard time with the fact that in my little white life in a little white state (albeit very blue) I had NO CLUE. I don't think I was ever racist per se, but I had a weird misinformed belief that everybody was doing OK. I thought racism was lynching and segregation and didn't know the systemic and pervasive form it can take. It has been a crazy couple of years for me learning about what is going on this country. I feel like my life has been turned upside down because so many things I took for granted, so many things I thought, so many people I thought I knew, are all out the window...and I am "wrestling" with it all. I don't mean to make this space about me, I don't know what I'm trying to say other than maybe that it can be easy to not know what's going on outside your little bubble. With climate change breathing down our necks and more understanding of inequity, what I do, what I want, what I aspire to has all been up for review and old ways fill me with a feeling of a kind of repulsion. I am trying to slow down, use less, and learn as much as I can. Even in this little state, there are rumblings of Trumpism, racism, anger, violence that have been encouraged out of the woods by Trump et al. It's never been more important to vote, to communicate with representatives, to be kind to the people who really keep this country running, and to not back down from voicing disapproval of violence and hatred.
What gut-honesty, Kim. And what you are experiencing is pretty normal for white people. If you are a white woman, you may had more experience of being sexualized, minimized, particularly around pay, had a male take credit for your work, and if you are not around POC you never really had to think about it. It was my reading of Anne Frank and the race riots of inequality in Los Angeles that educated (woke) me to look around where I live as a teen. Why are all the people who clean our house and do our gardens latina or Japanese? Why did I get in trouble for just talking with Rosa, the pretty, young Latina who cleaned our house? Later, when I flew to Georgia for a conference...I wondered why all the white people were always the ones being served by black people? Then I read Howard Zinn's Real History of America and learned what was not taught to us about white supremacy. More recently it was labeled the Caste System and it all made total sense of the money and power in this country that is still held as if we were in a serfdom. Watching the film The Matrix solidified what we are living under.
We need to be freed from our white slave pods, just like Africans needed to be freed from their enslavement.
Thanks Pensa. the thing is I never saw racism or even POC being treated badly because my tribes have been too "well behaved" and I just have not been around POC very much. I never felt I was better than anyone as a result of insecurity so I just assumed everyone was more confident and had it together more than I did. But what I've come to realize is there are more pernicious forms all around us regardless, along with the overt stuff going on all along in our systems. You're right, there is some kinship just a a result of being female and a lot of that was so subversive and pervasive that I am also now realizing how much messaging I absorbed, accepted and just took as being the way it is. Thank you for your thoughts.
I am so sorry any of us had to experience this tragedy of our land. But it is all over the world. I am going to S.Africa soon and as I study their history, once again it is like reading American history right down to spreading small pox to get rid of the native people. There are really good reasons why white privileged men do NOT want people to know factual history. Much harder to pull the wool over educated people. America needs to really pay attention to the cabals like the Heritage Foundation that funds and spawns authoritarian tactics and propaganda. What do all these really wealthy people want? They have more money than they could ever spend in their lifetimes...so what is it? Addiction, boredom, nothing left to achieve? Or just plain power?
I have wondered about what the 'angry white men' need for some time now. It's all about power. Needing more. Fearing losing it.
What do male readers think about the source of this need to be superior, wield power over others, sometimes at horrendous, brutal and deadly costs?
Just watched Democracy Now!'s 8/24 show, honoring what would've been Howard Zinn's 100th Birthday. Now, i need to get that book. Thanks for mentioning it.
It should be in every high school, maybe jr. high school. It has been a long time since I read it but it is a pivotal book about about real history, not "white-washed."
YES!! and videos of his interviews, speeches and presentations! he had such a relatable personal presence that came thru to everyone immediately. he managed to make crucial points to change your view with humor... a gifted and precious person whose legacy lives on.
The work of Jackson Browne, revealing America’s dark underbelly, might be a way to find some kinship in your awakening. We don’t see, right up until the time we do
Dr My Eyes, Lives in the Balance, Looking East are just a few who’s lyrics transcend the melody and the rhythm
Just saw JB here in Burlington VT! Great show at a relatively small venue. He's one of my all time favorites but I tend to listen nostalgically and go back to being 16. Thanks for the thought!
The Long Way Around knocked me out. He sang it on Colbert, "to watch our children come to harm, there in the safety of our arms..." That was my reminder that it is the artists who wake us up to reality.
It sticks in my memory (and craw) that he was a purported domestic abuser…I need to research afresh to confirm.
Lots of “he said, she said” and tabloid innuendo that you’ll find in research but if you’re looking for confirmation, all you’ll find is speculation
Your story echoes so many of us.
Agree. Learning is so hard sometimes and so invaluable. Hang in there, the efforts matter.
Whiteness: A Counterfeit Currency
Harvested, kidnapped, chattled, oppressed Eugenics maneuvers for pro]it
Invisible till we need a scapegoat
Red lined, ghettoized, marginalized, criminalized Embodying the lost scripture of sanity
When I screw up, I screw up
Black blunder’s generalized
If only THEY would....
If only THEY wouldn’t...
If only THEY’d vanish
T’would be our advantage
All in the name of an arti]icial construct
I bought the lie
The illogical myth
Chained to White spin masters Cutting edge tropes
I went to dances. You weren’t there A giant ghost puzzle
With missing ghost pieces
A dissonant blandness
Without you
Films were Gine. I Could sit anywhere
Brown bodies shucked to the far corner
I felt shame from my seat of privilege
Where fascism seemed like a scourge we’d defeated And not a white plan to lighten the land.
Advancement?
You’d work double-time
If you scored well, you cheated Your struggles? Mistreated Tokens to souls in limbo
Access to loans? Reasonable interest?
Black borrowing a harrowing gauntlet
“Give them this day, their daily noose.”
Be they ropes, derisions, bullets, incisions Lobbed from the market place like hand grenades
My vote counts. Your’s suppressed
A set-up to silence collective imbalance Humans of Color imprisoned for Pro]it We allow that!
We devised your addictions
An excuse to convict you
Called it a “War On.”
Government sanctioned genocide
The media gorges
Twisting your trauma
“One rock through a window”
Becomes a gazillion
Broadcast on faux news to mushroom proportions Pro]iling Black boys who hate themselves
You can shoot hoops if we let you Wherever we let you
In poisonous places where we wouldn’t go
Guinea pigs used for experimentation Exposed. Probed. Often not told.
A medical holocaust, forced degredation
Labs and off site prisons knew
As Wall Street prospered and Main Street grew
I’ll bet even your death is your fault
“Through your fault, through your fault, through your most grevious fault.”
You are the strong ones
still here, working on,
paying the price for our wealth/gap denial. WE are the cowards
We know the hard truths
That hatred’s been mainstreamed
That White Power never sleeps
That our profits are poison
That we’ll never reach our nation’s promise With this wall of privileged denial upon us.
This much I know
As we dehumanize you
We deny ourselves, too.
For humanity shares in the unspoken truths Like our very ]irst word-
A hearty breath
Your last word and mine, the ]inal ]inal sigh. ONE prayer to the sacred song of “Amen!”
That's powerful Jody. Thank you.
You are not alone. I’ve been wondering since (at least) 1980.
Thanks for sharing what your Veteran friend told you. I believe that Obama's election ripped the scab off of the wound of racism and showed that rather than healing, the wound was festered and infected. I remember reading a piece in our local alternative paper in 2008 written by one of our Black pastors (I think; Eugene is as white as a city can get) who said, in essence, "you are not strong enough yet to elect a Black president. It will take more work than just saying "yay for hope and change" and I don't think that you are ready for the underbelly that will be exposed."
Wow! That gives me chills. What a prescient thing to say about white people. And mitch made sure that he would block and try to fail Obama on every turn. Mitch is evil personified.
Obama used his education well and his eruditeness and intelligence must have really riled the uneducated kkk types. I still think it is time to deal with the historical trauma of our nation that trumplicans have proven needs to have light shed upon it or we lose our democracy. Stare them down, people. Do NOT let them intimidate you. Confront them with truth and explain how this is not about guilt or shame, but not repeating atrocious history. Their leader is a guileless, entitled, chest- thumping manbeast of the jungle. Get him alone and see how tough he is. Stories of the drub's toughie insurrectionists, like Robert Palmer of Tampa, who was screaming, "This is WAR!" at the insurrection was crying when he was interviewed and that went viral. Another violent insurrectionist, Danny Rodriguez, tased a Capitol police officer and he started crying during is FBI interview, whimpering that trump called them to do it. You are either a bully or a victim...not both. It was a free country till trumps little brainwashed lock steppers started attacking everyone who does good work i our country. They are anti-Americans and should be punished and do social reparations for the rest of their lives. And make videos for children to help them learn what a democracy is all about. Use their jail time and hire videographers and documentary directors to work with the crying cult members--inside. And have them give a little tour of their cells, mess hall, showers, playground and visitor windows or rooms look like. Educate the entitled ones to shape them up.
For many of us, it was a free country, psychically at least, pre-Trump, but for many of us, never.
It's taken me most of my life to accept that we are not all equally endowed intellectually. The pathos of violent, hysterical Trumpers is real, because stupidity and gullibility are real. Some integrated form of community service might give them the multicultural experience they lack. They'll only change through direct experience and the kind of sunshine that reveals and cleanses.
not sure they'll change... however, if we can find ways to address in meaningful (to them) ways ... the intensity of their anger may lower somewhat
Agreed! And it should begin when we're very young.
Ally, I just went back to this statement by the Black pastor again. It has haunted me all day. "you are not strong enough yet to elect a Black president. It will take more work than just saying "yay for hope and change" and I don't think that you are ready for the underbelly that will be exposed." This is one of the cruxes of our homegrown nazi problems. We will have to dig very deeply and be very pragmatic. And JUSTICE must Prevail.
It drilled me between the eyes and pierced my heart when I read it.
Yes, nothing pollyanna about it is there. We need to have people like that be on councils that we can have discussions with as we begin to recreate America in her next, more mature (hopefully) phase. We must come into this century and be protected from wayward troglodytes of the past.
Wow
I HEAR YOU. The PTSD and grief are real.
Sometimes, doesn't hurt to have critical thinking skills when you are surrounded by people who just don't care or see it a bit twistedly?
Kathy, I spent my career in news production, fundraising, and communications for PBS and several environmental groups based in Minnesota. Death threats were common but more so random acts of violence against property and malicious mischief such as using a membership return mail envelope to mail random white powders or building bricks to our offices. One time, when the Forest Service held a field hearing in Ely, MN - a small resort town on the edge of the Boundary Waters Wilderness - one of my colleagues had his tires slashed. The temps were below zero, and none of the car services in town would help him. The implications were clear - we hope you freeze to death. The perps were caught, got a slap on the wrist and were back at it the next day, I swear.
I admit that when I received a death threat that included harming my then three year-old daughter, I considered changing jobs; even moving. Just disappearing. I cannot remember those days without breaking a cold sweat. Watching the rise of these fascists, particularly Trump, is frightening and really difficult for me because I know who these bastards are and the depths they will sink to to get what they think they are “owed”. No one should harbor any illusions about who and what they are.
Trump is showing deep signs of desperation. That means the feds are closing in- and that the situation is dangerous. I’m beyond grateful that Biden is forcefully calling out against these fascist, malignant, violent criminals, including the former Criminal-in-Chief. I’m also grateful to be able to be able to do a few things to help get out the vote. Time for a blue wave! We have to retain the House and Senate if we want a future that includes democracy.
Agree with you!
It isn't new, it is dangerous.
And agree about being able to do a few things to help get out the vote. Thanks for "doing it anyway" - it matters.
I was consulting to land trusts in the SF Bay area til about 15 years ago, and got veiled threats from time to time. Once a guy pointed a rifle at me from his pickup when I stopped to introduce myself. I told him "Don't point that at me" and he swung it away from me. Guess he figured I was cool enough not to be intimidated by him.
Excellent approach. (Really value land trusts, btw... we have a couple here in NE Oregon that rock.)
Thanks for this. Circa 1974, my father was a Federal auditor for a non-defunct LEAA. He and his colleagues received death threas doing audits of Federal prisons in Mississippi. Those threats didn't stop them from doing their jobs.
I appreciate that level of commitment.
LEAA (Law Enforcement Audit Agency) was an independent arm of the DOJ at that point. The Agency was dissolved under the Carter administration.
Kathy(in the Wallowas), you are spot on in your assessment. I worked as a deputy in county law enforcement in Lane County from 1985-2013 full time, and 2014-2021 part time. From the early 1990's on these "anti-government" groups have had a stronghold here in the PNW. I was stunned at the number of people in my law enforcement network that supported the Hammonds and the takeover of Malheur NWR (interestingly, the hunters among them did not support the takeover...)
You live in a beautiful part of the state. I've been there a couple times, and loved it!
That must have been challenging. I know the area well! I remember being astonished at the number of overt Oathkeeper county sheriffs in the Oregon Sheriff's association.
You should come back up some time. October is considered our most spectacular month, you know!
We were there in October 2018 for Alpenfest (a friend had her 70th birthday excursion for that). The best motorcycle trip my wife and I took was to Joseph via the back roads in September about 10 years ago.
I really want to go back!
I, too, am stunned by the number of “constitutional” Sheriffs.
Thanks for your insight. Hope you and your wife can get back over here. On my way to check out WildCad, I see we have a wildfire column bumping up behind Mt Howard. (My garage/drive) is a staging area for friends should evacuation be needed. (Had the Buddhist temple there a couple years back.)
Us, too. I’ve come to hate fire season.
As one should.
Winter is coming.
Thank you, your post is valuable, especially for those who have never seen the raw scariness of those people.
Thanks for this report.
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 wouldn't miss Biden's speech for anything. It may be right up there with FDR's 'day of infamy' speech. And I agree he is hitting his stride; remember, he is a master of timing. Thursday promises to be electric.
And...first thing on my news feed this a.m.--an NBC piece about how unpopular the president is and how Democrats running for office don't want to appear with him. I am so fed up with the MSM.
Who owns NBC now?
Comcast, via their media conglomerate holding company, NBCUniversal Media, LLC.
Hmmm
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.”
But while the threat may be real, it is negligible by comparison with what could happen to the country if the rebels are allowed to get away with their sedition.
Agreed. It’s way past time for tfg and his collaborators to be arrested and tried for sedition.
Yep. Sounded like code to me, too.
I think, whether it's a call to action or not, that the militants already are primed without anything Lindsey Graham might say. I hope that the WH, DOJ, National Guard are ready for it.
Yup.
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.
There are many serious problems in the world, and it is amazing how many of them Republican ideology has caused or made worse,
Everybody else would have been indicted and put behind bars long time ago
Was it inevitable?
In the quiet recesses of my mind, there is a thread of analysis that all these "players" have been divinely developed, in a Shakespearian godly sort of way, to reveal all our darkest chapters since the "pilgrims" landed here, so the collective WE have to look at who we are now, and what a dangerous stew we have cooked up with our racist corporatocracy. To those who fear others, or feel superior to others, our colorful, American Melting Pot looks to them like a dangerous stew they fear will grow more powerful and unwieldy. So interesting that groups of white-privileged people hate those who were brought here and forced to build the wealth on their backs (after first decimating the Native Peoples). So, I try to put a positive angle on all of this, that it is time for America to grow up and face itself and Be Better (almost a steal from Melania, you know, the one in the jacket message that splashed across America as she visited brown children in cages: "I don't care, do U?" WTF. I will never believe that she is not a russian spy, a trained sparrow whose real name is Natasha. She speaks Russian and could translate communiques. All too convenient for the repubs and the donnie wannabe dictator who kowtows to russia. Way too convenient in my estimation.
Agree.
Exactly, dear Fern!! 🤬🤯
🌱🌿🌻🕊️
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.
"It ain’t over till the fat man is fried in the truth juices of tolerance." Sandy, I love this. Such truth un so few words. Thank you.
Thanks, Sandy
Sandy, on an unrelated note, I finished Rev Warnock’s book this week; certainly a spiritual journey and oh the appendices
Thank you for the recommendation
Rev. Warnock is the prophet cometh,
Modest Savior of the Senate,
He’s God’s gift to the nation.
Prayers that Georgia returns this man to the Senate. He has a calling. His life experience can serve us all
Thanks, Sandy
I was thinking last night about how we are living the Book of Job.....thanks for the connection.
Your thoughts match the last Book in the Good Book. Ketanji Brown Jackson is God’s Answer.
Sandy, recall a month or so ago--so much hang wringing and despair on here? YOU said tRump was going down, and it sure looks like it. Keep up those positive posts!!
Miss Lindsay says (calls for?) rioting? Just perhaps a number of these chest-beating morons of 1/6 are now seeing lots of their comrade's personal lives in destruction for their moment of fun.
I have no doubt that if, IF, any were foolish enough to act up like that again, those in law enforcement will come back at them much, much harder and in larger force than on 1/6.
President DJT SOON will be charged, he will be multiply convicted, state and federally sentenced, and incarcerated - with home arrest with Secret Service Staff - rotating... for a decade plus.
Sandy, you have so many important things to say, can you please stop turning me off in the first paragraph of your comments with untrue and unwarranted denigrations of Dr. Heather Cox Richarson? Otherwise you are a prophet.
HCR is a white on white idiot savant historian teaching at a Catholic College packed with the usual: not The University of Chicago, MIT, Harvard or snotty Princeton where our first was summa and he failed to learn what matters most. Nothing against the Biggest Lie spinning at The Vatican. I’ve known and supported cardinals. History is about agony and death, saints and sinners, whores intellectual and hookers everywhere. HCR recites fact - which helps. She does not count or picture the Blacks lynched and burned over a wood fire. She does not speak of the preference for white sperm in many Black women, infuriating men. She seems not to know the incredible pain of being Colored in a world of Boston College whites. In short, thanks for coming out, $1 million a year along with a surging interest in Substack will destroy what Randal D. Smith is cannibalizing making billions - see The Denver Post and dozens more. Substack is killing our democracy. But Tim Snyder is aiding and abetting and the Cliff Notes approach works for the sophists of every stripe. Does it matter? Read ROUGH DRAFT by Katy Tur and say what matters. The memoir is usually lots of lies. Tur’s is not. And her father is certified and horrible. She forgives him. Her children may never meet him - and will not care. Yes, it matters. Ketanji Brown Jackson may our nation’s most important citizen - so I hope. HCR is a comparative cipher - study Ketanji’s life, marriage and daughters. They are the message. The Court is ghastly. Thucydides is the best historian. Read Pericles Oration to the dead.
HCR goes into much greater depth on the atrocities you cite in her history & politics broadcasts. "Idiot Savant" as often happens with special ed labels, is no longer named that, and does not apply anyway. Enjoy your farm in the waning days of summer!
Written in the DARK. See edited - version written in daylight. Sandy
Writing in the dark does have its drawbacks!🌷
Yes. Spelling fails.
And, Sandy, we have to deal with issues like Leonard Leo and his 1.6 billion dollar cash contribution to the extreme right.
Suzanne Craig will do this. She follows the money... and the RI senator will continue to work the problem. SCOTUS caused this. The Court is out of this world. A movement to impeach a few of them might serve a purpose.
Amen, indeed. Your prayer swells my heart with hope.
Black Is Beautiful... Very Beautiful. See Mara Gay... dozens more.
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?
If Trump has committed espionage it will not be in our best interests to ignore him. It will not be in your best interests either. If he is selling information on other governmental leaders that allows their enemies to take advantage of them and replace them, then we can end up with even more authoritarian governments than we already have. That is just one example of what is a problem with his behavior. He is also stirring up trouble. He is viewed as the path to salvation by many fundamentalist Christians in this country, so for that reason he cannot be ignored either. https://www.vox.com/identities/2018/3/5/16796892/trump-cyrus-christian-right-bible-cbn-evangelical-propaganda
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jan/11/donald-trump-evangelical-christians-cyrus-king
Goodness, thank you for making that clear. Astounding that anyone in the entire world would suggest we ignore a former president whose corruption likely includes espionage.
Happy to gain knowledge about this "path to salvation" some folks see. Fortunately, for me, I am not an arbiter obliged to hear and empathize with a segment of the voting population who long for a country that will choke freedom, not expand it.
Talk about a double edged sword! Both a foreign agent and a savior for W(hite)C(hristian)N(ationalism). Off to the smithy with that sword, to be turned into a plowshare.
Opportunists in sheep's clothing...
Perhaps she just means don't give him oxygen through the media.
The media’s primary job is to provide the public with absolutely everything they can as it pertains to a former President potentially committing treason. He isn’t being “given oxygen.” He’s being exposed and it is international newsworthy on every level. If the media is still covering him if and when he goes to prison, then might be a time to declare we can ignore him.
He is a money maker for the media. President Biden is astonishing, yet mostly ignored. The former is rarely written about here in Europe. Look at the posts and reposts on social media of opinions. Where are the headlines in WoPo or NYT about Secret and Top Secret documents on the floor with Time covers?
👍🏼
Lock him up. He is a cult leader and he can get his followers to commit atrocities. Today, he has enjoined his cult to flipping the bird at the USA, democracy and the rule of law. Hopefully, Merrick and our military are preparing to shut them down. I love how strong Biden is being. The country leaders to stand against fascism, yesterday.
Lock him up. Everyone should stop talking about him. I truly don´t want to hear another word. Again I blame the media for so much attention. He loves it, and it got him elected. I realize everyone wants to know about the process of his demise. I just want him punished to the full extent of the law. And NOTHING more about T.... That will be a harder punishment for him than being in jail.
Unfortunately, he has assured that his name will go down in the annals of our history as the most corrupt, anti-American cult figure to enter our White House, and who was able to twist almost every republican in our Senate into pretzels at his beck and command. I cannot even use the verb "trump" anymore. Need a new word now. I also cannot wait until he gagged from the media and all attention and shrivels up into a raisin on his bunk.
Merriam to the rescue! (Sounds almost like Merrick!)
"Synonyms & Near Synonyms for trump
outbalance, outweigh, overbear, overshadow
best, clobber, conquer, crush, defeat, drub, lick, master, outcompete, outperform, overcome, overmatch, prevail (over), rout, shame, skunk, subdue, surmount, thrash, trim, triumph (over), trounce, wallop, whip, win (against), worst
one-up, outpace, outrace, outrun, overpass
beat, better, eclipse, exceed, excel, outclass, outdistance, outdo, outgun, outmatch, outshine, outstrip, overtop, surpass, top, tower (over), transcend
Relentless"
Personally, I like "prevail." Reminds me of Greg Olear whose substack is titled "Prevail." Waiting for his return in September!
OMG, Lynell! Thank you for that research~strange how so many of them describe what 45 and the rethuglican party have done to America, and to many of us who have been paying attention and know the difference between Truth & Lies. I am with you. I love how positive "prevail" sounds.
Thanks, Pensa. Some others could qualify as well to be used...so many from which to choose!
Morning, Lynell! Well done in your synonym search. I'm going for eclipse. But will bridge survive the "no eclipse" or "no master"? They might just go for "no drub".
Drub..great nickname for the party. The Party of Drubs.
Morning, Ally! The good news is we can use any or as many as we want!
Can you play bridge without saying T###p?
Thank You Lynnell!
P.S. September is only 2 days away.
Isn’t it ironic his grandfather came from Germany, Americanized his name, was successful enough to spawn Fred Trump, enormously successful monetarily (if morally bankrupt), from which Donald has benefited his whole life, and Donald wants to being down the United States.
I am so sick of seeing his face. It makes me want to puke. And his minions. They all need to go on an island and run their own little world. Maybe Johnny Depp is up for selling his island to them.
The Epstein island is vacant.
Heart in mouth.
I thought that Sarah Palin got entirely too much attention for about a year after her failed VP run, but she was just a pathetic attention seeker. Trump and the Trump administration has committed serious crimes, and the more we have ignored serious "GOP" crimes and improprieties, the worse they become; to the point that they elevated this malicious con man to the presidency, and continue to defend him even now, as they openly conspire to throw future elections. Racism is bad, climate disaster is bad, corruption and plutocracy are bad, but our chances to improve them diminish severely without a fair and free ability to vote.
All bitterly true.
Not with Fox, friends and cronies in full cry.
And a MSM who also are making $$ from it.
I was in your lovely country in June. In fact, the news items that kept coming over my phone, coupled with the scenery of Switzerland, made me want to just live out the rest of my life by a beautiful lake. THERE I actually could ignore tfg. But to answer your question: no, he can’t be ignored. He’s a sociopathic criminal and if the US is going to have a functioning justice system, he will have to face it.
Perfect, MLM.
Hey, Christina...greetings to you and Switzerland! Yours is a "pipe" dream many have had. But the reality within our borders only allows it to be a dream. Comments below sharply focus on why we cannot.
Hope you will hang in there with us as we navigate our way back toward democracy.
Lynell, I think you are a nicer person than I am. Thank you.
For folks like me on the "frontlines," the strength of your voice is very important, David. Being nice is nice, but I reckon "nice" isn't going to get our country back to where it needs to be. Your comments are a continual reality check that to ignore is to forget, something we cannot afford to do.
With all due respect to those outside our borders, in the immortal words of Eliot Ness in defense of his actions against a Canadian onlooker on taking down a criminal element..."Well, you're not from Chicago"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxinoDRrLGA
And me too. I am running out of patience with people who just aren't paying attention.
I clicked on a NYT article about the G.O.P. yesterday and was greeted with a giant profile of 45, mouth wide in rage. I immediately went to the comment section and said the image was so upsetting I couldn't read the article. 'If you want these articles to be read, resist the urge to put these taser-like images with what I'm sure are reports and opinions well worth my time and attention.' Those photos have got to go.
Just looking at drub and hearing his voice is incredibly disturbing after all his hate mongering of people and our democracy. Everyday the news has photos of him as if we want to see his torpid flesh ever again. If the party of sedition and treason, and probably espionage ever takes over, their kind would probably force everyone to have a photo of him in their homes and offices. With a little, square mustache above his corrupted nazi upper lip.
Just think, Christina, if we had ignored him in 2020, and voted him back into office... Putin's war in Ukraine would likely be on your doorstep by now because he would not have wanted to send aid to Zelenskyy. Switzerland's neutrality? Who would care?
Sure, Christina, and we can ignore Covid19 and global warming too, while we're at it. That should solve the problem.
Yes! Thank you.
I've had a day to ponder your remark. And I'm still pissed. Do you also ignore Putin? If so, please get your head out of the sand. Your country (and the whole of Europe) is in grave danger from the Russian tyrant. Ignore him at your peril.
There is no way for us (or the world, for that matter) to ignore either of these authoritarian despots: they will, if given the chance, plunge the world into a war that may well be the end of civilization as we know it, even the end of humankind. Please stop trying to minimize the threat. PAY ATTENTION.
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.
GOP hypocrisy is a well practiced feature, not a bug.
It would great to hear Biden explain in simple terms, the grave danger the FPOTUS has put us all in
I also want to see Biden make a connecting appeal to the young. They tend to be less enthusiastic voters, but now more that ever, it is their future that is most on the line, from abortion to climate disaster. To my eye the DNC has long neglected engagement of youth. But you have to be real about it. The young are hyper-sensitive to hypocrisy,
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.
Then, I say we “Declare” immediately that Hillary won the 2016 election and tfg never happened. Strip away all the judges shoved through during that four years. Erase all the rulings they burdened us with. Unravel all his crazy legislation and executive orders. Restore all the civil service talent he sent packing. Return Vindman, Yovanovitch, and Hill! Reset ourselves to where Obama left the country. Accept that tfg was a bad dream! And like Representative Burlingame in the 1850’s, face the violence-mongers courageously and call their bluff, arrest the violators, and sentence sedition where merited. Onward!
Let's roll
Michele, If only we had a Time Machine. A utopian dream for a dystopian nightmare.
History, though, should not be erased, lest it be repeated, and repeated... The underlying malignacy of this country is our racism-based economic and political system. This all had to come out. I thought I knew all there was to know, being a child of the 60's. Just last week I learned about the 1560's. So much evil to root out of our foundation.
Yes, start before the white man explores the globe. The 1619 project should be part of every history lesson. But that’s later. The day the white man stepped onto North American soil, was the beginning of the evil here. And in every continent they explored and conquered. The white man didn’t consider the first people or the Africans to be full humans. And that’s in our first Constitution. This is Critical Race Theory DeSantis and other southerners are banning from curriculum.
https://youtu.be/j4kI2h3iotA
Thank you so much for posting this, MaryPat. The comments below it tell me that we're watching it very soon.
Germany has long committed to facing and learning from the lessons of their past. Their goal is to heal. To not deny their history. They teach all their children in school about the Nazis and Holocaust, instead of shying away, glossing over or otherwise trying to ignore this extremely important piece of their legacy.
We need to do the same... even more so because ours is longer, darker and tragically still overtly ongoing. And we're so divided partly because we are still in denial! We'll never heal our country otherwise. We have a long way to go.
MaryPat, this video is comprehensive and engaging and starts at the beginning. And most isn’t in the Standard History taught in USA schools. Especially the south. Today. There are fights going now especially in repub States that are replacing any possible truth with a watered down mix of fables, lies and folklore. Banning CRT.
Thank you for posting. Much of the 1619 Project is in this. Also Howard Zinn’s “The People’s History of the United States.
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.
https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2022/08/whats-in-a-classified-document-trump/671284/
Thank you for this Robert and Rose. It ends, "What Trump did was reckless and stupid. Any assertion that a few boxes of notes and papers isn’t a big deal is nonsense. Protecting such materials is a patriotic duty of anyone in public service, but the Republicans, once a self-styled party of national security, have decided that defending Donald Trump and his narcissistic demands is more important than the safety of the United States." I disagree with the first sentnce, though - I don't think there is anything reckless or stupid about trump's theft and review of U.S. classified materials. He was, as always, working under orders (Putin, MSB...)
Paywall
Interesting. I had no problem accessing it and I am not a paid subscriber.
Saw that.
Also the article describing a second Trump administration.
Creepy.
Yep, scary stuff.
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.
Fred, that is such a kind plea. Bless your heart.
Thanks. Middle of night , awake, and bloated with tfg frustration.
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.
Well said. Tfg is king of the clowns and Lady Lindsay is his sad courtier, dancing as fast as she can, stirring up whatever stochastic violence she can, while she still has the spotlight.
News needs to stop being a for-profit enterprise. What will it take to get back to reporting news that matters?
“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.”
Thanks, Beverly. Just signed up !
https://www.whitehouse.gov/ope/
Thanks! Got it!
Done
Done. Thanks.
Thank You Beverly. THE WHITE HOUSE OFFICE OF PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT should be renamed "PRESIDENT BIDEN'S FIRESIDE CHAT OFFICE", and the content made as compelling and clear as FDR's.