I remember on that day, which was a Wednesday, our dear professor came on Facebook to help talk us through what was happening.
Heather thought he should be impeached and removed before the sun rose on another day. And, indeed, this would have been the case if he were an isolated madman and we still had two functional parties. But, alas, we do not. And here we are, nearly two years later.
But we SAW what happened, live and in color.
And no one who loves this country will ever forget it.
And yet the environment for big lies has been so firmly established the Republican National Committee dared to publicly pass 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,"
Had Trump actually won the last election, the Republic would be cooked. The professionalism and impact of the Jan 6th Committee has been and remains outstanding. The RNC should live in infamy.
The GOP is no more, might as well bury that “Grand Ole Party” bull Schitt. They are the enemy of us all. Bill Maher is wrong, they are NOT just normal Americans with a different opinion. They are a cult with designs to rule based on lies and propaganda. Hard to digest since I love some of these cultists who have embraced the lies. But they are a danger to the country and to our future…
We are all liable to error. The difference here is that one side’s ‘opinions’ are not subjected to critical thinking and their subsequent errors become articles of faith which they believe supersede reason—and even reality!
IMO these things aren't mutually exclusive: they can be both "normal Americans" and members of a cult. As a young antiwar activist, I went to one of the Rev. Carl McIntyre's "rallies for America," ca. 1970. It was my first up-close-and-personal encounter with this level of devotion, delusion, and hatred. I'd seen it on TV many times, notably in the white hatred directed against civil rights activists and small Black children trying to go to school -- not just in the South either, because what went down in Boston around busing was similar. There was also the "siege of Chicago" -- the police riot during the 1968 Democratic Convention, which I watched on TV at just past 17.
In my experience so far the people who are most shocked by the Trump administration, January 6, and everything that's happened since are often those who've never found themselves on the wrong side of "normal (white) Americans". I hope they stay shocked -- or "woke" as the right likes to call it. My most pleasant surprise of the Trump years is that so many of those who mobilized after Trump's election have stayed mobilized. This is why I dare to hope that the democratic experiment might survive this and grow stronger.
True, but "conventional wisdom" thought they were sure to make bigger gains in the House and take the Senate too, so it seems we (i.e., the sane people) got off easy. You're right, it's frightening that American voters trust them, but IMO the apparent reasons for that trust are even more frightening. The big one is that an terrifying number of American voters believe the U.S. is supposed to be (and maybe once was?) a white Christian country. Maybe even worse is that the Supreme Court majority seems to agree with them.
There hasn't been a "Republican" party since 2016. I have and continue to call it The Repugnant Party. Tell it like it is. And, the Repugnant National Committee is a Fascist organization and should be listed as a Hate Group.
My name for it is the party of death and treason. So much of the R structure and so many Rs are fascist and members of a Hate Group because that is all they have on offer. My ex-classmate in Elkhart has been silent on January 6th, but last week she posted a long list of R talking points which we have all heard ad nauseam.
The authoritarianism that Republicans are keen to embrace is predicated on a stratified society in which racism is an expectable component and a permanent underclass that even the most abused rank and file can feel "superior" to a key component of the "divide and conquer" strategy where all of the problems are someone else's fault. That said, it appears to me that the modern engine of the Republican Party is a plutocratic thirst for power. An Orwellian warped version of "Christianity" and white supremacy are hate fuel for the rank and file, but follow the money.
In my youth, the prime right wing hate object was "communism", and while the dictatorship part of communist dictatorships was indeed a threat to international security and justice, they made "communism" heinous thoughtcrime to even talk about. Lately they have dusted off the Joe McCarthy strategy calling anything different from them "communist", including Joe Biden, which is ludicrous (but dangerous). Which racism pervades American society in ways that are insufficiently recognized (by us whites) the committed, open racists used to hang out in the Democratic Party. When Civil Rights legislation spoiled their party, rejected Dixiecrats were welcomed into the "GOP" as useful fools for their fanaticism and numbers. "Saint" Reagan was certainly racist ( https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jul/31/ronald-reagan-racist-recordings-nixon ). My impression is that Nixon (a shameless red baiter) was less so.
Your comment on forgiveness is a hard one, Joseph. I feel like I've carried anger since 2016 (and the lead-up), still not truly believing that all of this could happen. But now that the Govt has given us factual evidence that it did and used our founding documents to do it, it's an unexpected feeling. Celebration feels awkward yet, sadness also feels inappropriate. So, I guess at this moment I am feeling it right to focus our extreme thankfulness for the members of the Committee and what they've done. Quietly, professionally and with main-stream media kicking & screaming the entire way, pushing the He's-going-to-get-away-with-it-all" ratings narrative for click bait,...they got it done, and well done, indeed.
Even allowing time for the midterms, through death threats and the right-wing slander / hate machine they maintained their focus with integrity. So, rather than feel celebratory or down, the committee has made me feel proud and I am grateful to them for that. A sincere thank you to ALL of them!
In considering the list of conspirators Michael Moore openly (& rightly, me thinks) calls "traitors" I am old enough to be reminded of Robert McNamara who as he approached his own mortality was driven to admit remorse and wrongdoing in his conceiving and direction of the Viet Nam War. Mr Moore's however, is a much longer list of those culpable in something equally corrupt. By the time their mortality is nigh, forgiveness may come, but for now I can only hope to live long enough to witness even one of them feel Jacob Marley's burden and weight ("it's a ponderous chain") of their "treason" and the resultant need to openly confess it before they go.
Beautifully written, BK. Thank you. However I don’t give one whit if they “confess” their guilt and treason (no “‘s). I just hope they all get tossed out, as Michael Moore so wonderfully said we have every right to do. Hooligans have no place in a democracy.
Exactly, Elisabeth. That seditionists or supporters of the insurrection are actually still in Congress and have been reelected to Congress boggles my mind.
It is repulsive that they are being paid by us— funders of this democracy. They deserve nothing and should pay every cent they owe us since they supported a fascist cult leader. No pensions, no books no speaking engagements. Rot in the corner with your lying, corrupt, broken, diapered, wannabe kinglet.
Glad you mentioned McNamara. The thought of him makes me heave; the “smartest man in the room” misled LBJ and killed so many with his lies. This crowd has no moral compass and doesn’t believe an iota of the religious blather they spout, or they would fear for their immortal souls. Pharisees all, put on a public show while your soul is a quivering mass of evil.
No doubt I believe in conspiracy more than I should, but assassinations of JFK, RFK, and MLK in short order are just too much to think they were accidental. They have the earmarks of malfeasance a la Putin.
Agreed. Loudly praying in the Temple while completely ignoring the teachings found in the first three Gospels. Some of them are probably not worried about their souls because they have been "saved" and walk on water and/or are part of the predestined elect. What a great way to avoid taking any responsibility for beliefs and actions...and the rest of us are going to hell.
Great comment, BK. The feelings are complex for me as well, but that sense of pride in the Committee that you mentioned really hits home for me. Actually had tearscin my eyes for part of their final meeting.
Me too, Cheryl. And now. The committee was/is stellar. Like Michelle Obama, I’m proud and grateful in this moment to be a citizen of this country. A bow 🙇🏽♀️ to each member of the committee for their fine work.
On Nov. 9, 2016 I cut off all ties with anyone I knew who had supported tRump, which included a 15-year co-worker and “friend” and a half-bro in MS. As early as March 2016, a few of us saw him as a Nazi using Hitler’s Playbook and that he was mentally unstable, unqualified for the office and dangerous. IDK why so few of us could see that, but I understood the cult mentality of ignorant, bigoted haters who loved that he spoke to them. For a while thru the mess of his presidency I considered that maybe they would come to see the error that they made and I thot maybe I could forgive them if they came out and said, “I fucked up, didn’t understand, was stupid for supporting him.” As things got worse and we saw the total ignorance of truth replaced by “alt facts” and conspiracy theories easily refuted by critical thinking, I am beyond that grace. These Fascists are Unforgivable. They are still among us and if they ever do gain absolute power, I as an outspoken Atheist, Antifa, Progressive, will be among the persecuted, put in concentration camps, gassed or shot. Yes, it can happen here, it was happening here.
I think DeSanctimonius is a bigger threat. He is more organized, equally hateful and smarter politically than 45. I noticed you live in Miami, so you know the way things work there. It is hard for me, as a former resident near West Palm Beach, to realize how right wing the voting population is in Florida….or is it gerrymandering? I worked for Hilary in Palm Beach County. Seemed like a lot of Dems there…..
BK there are some things that I may grudgingly ‘forgive,’ but will never forget. Like when I worked in Tokyo years after my cousin had been in a Japanese POW camp for over three years. ‘At times I would hum ‘Remember Pearl Harbor,’ while being polite to my hosts.
We need to have a conversation -- a national conversation -- about forgiveness.
It's generally not a good idea -- psychologically -- to hold a grudge, either as an individual or as a group. But a "grudge" speaks of unfinished business. You cannot continue to hold a grudge if the matter is resolved. You cannot forgive if the matter remains unresolved.
We like to take a "good Christian" view of forgiveness in the US, which seems to mean a completely unilateral personal release of all awareness of unfinished business, in an act of pure sweetness and generosity.
This can sometimes be accomplished by a shift of awareness of the importance of the matter. Most grudges throughout life are petty, and one can draw on one's generosity of spirit and let the matter go. We can be "bigger than the other guy." But this is only real if it truly resolves the matter. If you still find yourself grumbling about it at 3:00 am, you didn't forgive, you only pretended. Pretending forgiveness isn't forgiveness.
Then there is the matter of continuing abuse. You cannot "forgive" continuing abuse. You cannot even begin to forgive until the abuse has been definitively and permanently stopped. Trump has not been stopped. He has already signaled his intention to run for President again, and do this national clusterfuck all over again. We're all assuring ourselves that he can't win, whistling in the graveyard. But he's certainly threatening to do it again, and he has not been stopped from doing it again. Forgiving Trump right now is not possible. There is a great deal of unfinished business, and ongoing abuse.
Then there is the matter of the magnitude of the offense, and what is required to truly resolve it. We do not forgive Adolf Hitler, or Adolf Eichmann, or Heinrich Himmler, or Josef Mengele, or Claus Barbie, or any of the rest of that lot. It isn't possible to forgive them, because they transcended their own humanity and became symbols. Maybe that was their intent. If a child says, "I want to be just like Adolf Hitler," we are rightfully alarmed.
Donald Trump, even if he is stopped, has already become a symbol. He is a Caligula. He is a Tourquemada. He is a Hitler. He is the first, and almost-successful, destroyer of American Democracy. If a child says, "I want to be just like Donald Trump," we should be alarmed.
I might say it a bit differently, more like Liz Cheney.
All who remember the day Trump attempted to overthrow the government, which resulted in both death and destruction, will do our best to insure proper consequences are applied to those who both led the insurrection and supported it.
Now. That's a tall order in a country where prosecuting rich, white men has historically been, and remains, taboo.
However, consequences are what must be applied to the perpetrators. If not, the United States will cease as a Democracy. Sooner or later.
Just as Liz Cheney indicated yesterday.
Honestly, it really is too bad George Washington and John Adams are no longer around. I am guessing if they were, Trump would have already experienced said consequences by getting up close and personal with a rope.
I was thinking last night that these coming prosecutions of rich white men are a step along the path of "white privilege" coming to an end. Bout time. Justice has been waiting in the wings to make an entrance.
Side note: Mike Pence was the one who ordered the National Guard to activate. That was only supposed to have been the right of POTUS. Right there Mike Pence activated Amendment 25 and took the President's authority when the President was unable (his big ego got in the way) to act. No vote by cabinet and others in the administration. Pence did what needed to be done to protect lives and most importantly our democratic republic.
Yes, after four years crawling and mewling at Trump's feet to ably do Trump's every last bidding, Pence, at the end, found something he was not comfortable doing.
Overthrowing our government with lies and violence.
Pence's bar for "fed up" was pretty high though, to be honest.
Yup. And remember that Trump had already given up the game a couple days earlier when he blinked in face of the DOJ mass resignation threat. That was the moment he'd shown himself too cowardly to play it out, and from that point all his minions and spawn were well aware that they were on their own. None were willing to stick their necks any further out (tho Stone made a pretty good game out of it while seeming to straddle the legality line).
Pence was simply the most visible of the minions saying "nope, nope, nope...
WAY TOO LITTLE WAY TOO LATE imho. Heard last night this disgusting person voice tfg should not be prosecuted by DOJ. I need a shower after listening to his smarmy voice. Gives me the creeps.
Well, just enough, and just in the nick of time, but everything else he supported was always revolting. I can’t imagine him as President. Please, God, no!
Just because Pence refused to overthrow our government and Cheney helped investigate Trump doesn’t mean they are good people who should have a hand in running our government. Pence is a Christian Nationalist and Cheney opposed Biden every step of the way. If Pence and Cheney ride a popular wave into the Whitehouse, the results will be the same as if Trump got elected, although not so obvious. At least those two would take away our rights politely.
Bout time, Sally. White MALE privilege. And your comment about Pence activating the National Guard reminded me of seeing on film Nancy Pelosi trying every which way to get help ar the Capitol on that historic day. She was awesome. Thank you for your comments.
I have been thinking about white privilege too. This can be (and will be, I hope!) a crack in that privilege. And through that Crack, may creep in TRUE equal justice under the law, though it's a very long road yet to be travelled.
Let's hope. There are many white males who voted for Trump because he was a businessman and not a Dem. And they had the privilege to be able to overlook Trump's treatment of women. Never mind they have a mother, grandmother, wife, daughter(s). Other things are more important. This is a problem for me.
George Washington spent, what? EIGHT years (or thereabout) living in a tent, marching, leading soldiers, slitting throats and killing British solidiers to bring self rule to these shores?
Do you think Washington would put up with a spoiled, rich kid trying to undo his eight years of slogging hard work to kick the British out?
Not hardly. Washington would have had Trump hanging by the end of the day of January 06, 2021.
And it was true he was impeached by the House for "inciting an insurrection". And a majority of Senators voted to impeach him also......was it two thirds?
You've raised the question of capital punishment. As a nation, we have moved away from recognizing execution as legitimate. I believe a significant portion of that shift was based on innocent men and women being executed, pointing to a systemic corruption in the process of sentencing and performing executions.
We've never addressed the issue of when execution is appropriate, and when it is NECESSARY.
If you go back to the Greeks, they had a tendency of completing a conquest by killing the king, his wife, his lovers, his extended family, and ALL of his offspring, even the infants. The point was to leave no legitimate claim to power still living.
The penalty for treason has rarely been anything less than death or exile, and exile never worked all that well. Look at Napoleon.
Trump has committed a coup. He has already promised to do it again.
If there is any justification for execution, I believe it exists in the case of Trump.
And I need to be very clear about something. I'm not calling for Trump's death, I'm calling for his execution. There is a profound difference. Execution can only occur as part of a legal process, and carries the entire weight of the Rule of Law. Death by any other means isn't the same thing at all.
I am against the death penalty. Even for Trumpty Dumpty. Let him rot for the rest of his pathetic little life in a prison or in his self-made prison called his mind. If he even has one.
Can you articulate WHY you are opposed? Not looking for an argument, just an explanation.
I am also generally opposed to the death penalty, because it is so subject to misuse, particularly in an administrative state like the one we have. There is no real connection between the execution and the victims of the crime that incurs the penalty, and the administrators are often corrupt: you need look no further than the lynch mobs (extra-legal) shading into police brutality shading into bureaucratic mishandling.
That said, there are cases where it seems to me both appropriate and even necessary. Trump is a case in point. He will continue to drive insurrection from prison, unless the terms of his sentence also silence his public voice. Even then, "ghost writers" claiming to be Trump will rise up, and disinformation programs. Imagine a suddenly-far-more-intelligent "Trump" addressing his loyalists from behind the gray walls of his prison, made up of an entire team of propagandists. A "president-in-exile" can be at least as dangerous to the Republic as one in power.
I understand how you feel, but no need to be so cynical. This is more than political theatre. Consider the courage it took for all the Committee Members to pursue this investigation and state their true findings in public. I am sure every one of them has received death threats and a lot of harassment by Trump cultists.
It will make a difference to the survival of this republic.
For starters, it speaks the truth and will be published. It has exposed many of the facts the coup plotters want hidden. Despite all the disinformation, this report will be out there, and at least some of the hearings have been watched by millions. The Committee has made it MUCH harder for the plotters to dismiss what they did.
This is exactly where the “road ends”, in my estimation. That “live and in color” - yet people we all know - our neighbors, our family members, even our friends - because we saw it brought before us by media - claim it was “just a rally”…..”people defending their right to protest”….”a field trip visit to the Capitol”…..and, the biggest deflection, ….” No way as damaging as Black Lives Matter demonstrations in the streets, with millions of dollars of destruction…”
How can ANYONE deny the intensity of what the 187 minute record shows us? It, and the excellent work of the subsequent January 6 Committee, exists as undeniable proof that our country has been led by an autocrat with no love for this country.
“Our friends, our neighbors,” - someone else pointed out in another substack that the Germans were friends and neighbors to the Jews in 1930s Germany too. The Trump era has certainly opened all our eyes to how it happened back then.
Yes, if you studied how Hitler rose and succeeded, the rise of the republican regime with hostile foreign support and corporate sponsorship is petrifying in its' incivility in this day and age. And the orange monkey Putin and the rethugs found to play this out was beyond reality, and their control. Many of us knew this back in 2016, and our worst fears are way too near the edge.
While I have seen it many times in repeat, they had an attempted insurrection and I missed it. It was a beautiful day on Miami Beach and I was out riding my bike all day and off the grid, as they say. It wasn’t until I called my sister at 4:30 p.m. that she mentioned what had happened.
Some seem to think that anything that produces less than optimal ideological results is dysfunctional. By that measure, Lincoln's Republican party and FDR's Democratic Party were dysfunctional, too.
No offense, Ed, but the "two parties are certainly dysfunctional" assertion doesn't fly in the face of a Democratic Party supporting Biden's Administration that, in just two years, has accomplished more than, or at least as much as, some parties' administrations have in 8 or more.
Differences of opinion among Democrats are not "dysfunction."
Sinema deciding to be an Independent is not Democratic Party dysfunction.
I agree with our assessment except to offer one observation: The Lobby army in Washington, handing out money to get what they want, does influence Democrats and Republicans alike and that is dysfunction relative to John Adam's vision (although John Hancock, whom Adams represented, could be viewed as a lobbiest of that time perhaps).
The willingness of all of representatives to use their jobs as a method of becoming fantastically wealthy is a problem for both parties.
Only ONE presently acts like a mafia gang. Please learn close reading, Steve. It did not used to be that way, as anyone who lived pre-Reagan or read the 1956 Republican platform under Eisenhower knows. They became gangsters by their members not having the courage to hold their own accountable, parroting partisan platitudes and allowing the takeover of the party and indoctrination of half the nation to hate-on-command. To the extent a government is dysfunctional, the parties that form it are dysfunctional.
I partially agree with you Steve. Comparing republicans and democrats is not an apples and apples comparison. However, I would add that democrats are not always right and they have a lot of problems to overcome. It doesn’t matter who is right and who is wrong. What matters is voters and how they feel about the state of things in this country. And even if you remove the relatively small percentage of absolutely insane trump voters you are still left with a sizable portion of voters that are incredibly unhappy with democrats, the status quo and democracy. It’s just not working well enough for them. I would also say that personally I think that some of the positive rhetoric is complete garbage. I would like to see democrats make more acknowledgments around their own hypocrisy and things that don’t work for voters and be more in line with reality. The purity tests from the far left do democrats no good and some of the policy prescriptions are simply unproven. I am quite sad and concerned to see Pelosi step down. Even being a progressive she was able to make change incrementally.
Specifics? As good examples, see the last sentence of this reply.
Sounds mostly like you are repeating sound bites of zero substance from right wing talking points.
Who are the "sizable portion of voters ... incredibly unhappy with [D]emocrats"?
-sounds like a sound bit/talking point (and note that it's spelled with a capital D when referring to political party or party affiliation)
Is that unhappiness a consequence of being ill-informed as a result of listening to talk radio or getting most information from social media?
What "purity test" from the Left are you referring to?
- again, another right-wing talking point with no substance, or are you suggesting that Democrats should welcome anti-choice candidates? Note the big tent that accommodates both Manchin and Sinema.
The initial post addressed "dysfunction," which is what I addressed.
You've re-pasted a lot of unfounded pseudo-criticism of Democrats, but I don't see any substance in anything in your comment, let alone any real or specific information about "dysfunction."
And please, give me 5 examples (since you used the plural) of "things that don’t work for voters and [should] be more in line with reality."
On every major issue - support for Ukraine, infrastructure spending, student loan debt relief, civil rights, marriage rights, reproductive choice, shifting tax burden to the rich, climate change - most people, when polled without having the issue attached to a party label, support the Democratic Party position.
Specifically. I would start with your dismissive response to my fairly reasonable comment. More people than not hate the smug angry responses like yours regardless of their party. For your information I am a progressive democrat. I also live in a very conservative area and whether I like it or not there are a lot of good people that have different thoughts and beliefs than I do. Not everyone that voted for trump is a bigoted racist. That is what MSNBC might lead one to believe. We need to learn to live and work with people regardless of what I think of who they vote for. My point was if democrats want to peel voters away from republican politicians and maintain a sound majority they would do well to stop the smug purity tests and find some common ground with an even larger portion of the electorate. Unfortunately your response was not one I would use if I were hoping to educate someone on why I hold the views that I do. I hope you can come up with a better message.
I found your reply seriously lacking in substance.
My answer was definitely not angry.
I still don't know what purity tests you are referring to (example?).
I wasn't conveying a message, just asking for specifics about yours and challenging your assertions that Democrats need to address:
1. their own hypocrisy (what's an example of that hypocrisy?) and
2. "things that don't work for voters" (again, what do you mean by that?) and
3. "be more in line with voters" (again, what policies/votes/positions are you referring to that are not "in line with voters?).
Those are the same talking points I hear, read and see on right-wing social media. and from Republicans who appear on CNN and MSNBC but don't really want to identify any specifics.
If you read the original comment closely you will see that I did not say that both parties were dysfunctional, but rather that we do not have two functional parties. It is my believe, as I have stated publicly many times, that the Republicans have gone completely insane while the Democrats are still trying to govern while fighting right wing fascism at the same time. For the correct outcome to have happened after 1-6, the Republicans would have had to cooperate. Instead they doubled down on Trumpism. And that has meant a long slog for Democrats seeking justice.
No one here was providing right wing sound bites, Steve. Speaking for myself, I'm not going to engage with partisan cheerleading. There are plenty of free sites that bait people to do this. I didn't support this site with a subscription to engage in that.
It’s not over is an understatement. We have friends who live part time here in PA and FL. They are so off! Not Trumpers by any means but buying up DeSantis by the handfuls! They know we’re liberal and we’ve been friends for years. I do not bring up politics and neither did they until lately. Like letting kids use a litter box in class cause they identify as a cat. Or, we’re “making” our little ones read books about trans-gender or gay parenting then forcing them to decide what gender they would prefer to be. This what they say Biden and libs are doing. Also they’ve become hard core about this being the absolute truth! Trump may never hold office again, but here’s a heads up for the next highjacking of our democracy by Republicans. It’s happening now.
Politeness in the face of nonsense is a hallmark of some in the center. Maybe it’s time to address the nonsense on a personal level. Face to face and one on one.
I find it so bizarre that after all the progress that's been made in gay rights, there are people who are now believing a bunch of BS about "grooming." Perhaps they don't know anyone who is gay or transgender, which seems unlikely. No one is trying to take THEIR rights away, so what's the big deal?
Karen, how do they feel about the sexual scandals all over the evangelical churches? Pedophilia of every kind. Picked up some repugnant elected official recently exposing himself at a schoolyard. I mean, it doesn’t get more obvious who is doing what to whom! I think you are right about “the next highjacking of our democracy by Republicans. It’s happening now.” May God watch over us and help us to overcome this time in our history. To a better day and a better future.
Patiently and in a non-confrontational manner we explain this is nonsense and in no way represents what being liberal or what President Biden’s agenda is. If you want to know what a Democrat stands for ask a Democrat not a Republican, that way you’ll get an honest answer. I’d like to think it’s visa-versa
If I have learned nothing else from Heather, the Republican Party has been up to no good for a very long time. It will never end. There're plenty of narcissistic psycho- socio-paths out there hungry for power and attention, and plenty of right wingers happy to elect them.
Yes, NMorgan. We need to continue to grow, to be wiser, more strategic in our thinking and avoid going backward with fear and fury. This time is most difficult.
Fern, it really is most difficult. But we just accomplished what not one of us (be honest) thought actually possible! And we almost ran the table doing it. We may yet, if enough House members get indicted for their crimes. Allow me that hope.
Indeed, we should be healing our 'battle' damage, assessing our successes and strategies for improvement--and yes, our possible mistakes. Mistakes are the tuition we pay for becoming better.....
What is Washington doing to protect our main asset, the Vote? What are we all doing to identify, reach, and induct the estimated eight million new voters coming on line by 2024?
It is not to early for us to begin! Each of us can learn to use the tremendous energy of directed anger to be better--more effective--instead of being crippled by rage and disbelief. We are seasoned now, and as pro Democracy veterans we should also be looking to our own kit: How can we take better care of ourselves, for our own well-being and for the sake of our families and our colleagues in our "units"? How can we build our credibility and become better social neighbors to those who are on the wrong path, without being politically or morally righteous in this Time Between the Vote?
The struggle continues. Indeed, it may get worse. We are all needed to be our best--each and every one.
Peace, Slava Ukraine, Slava USA! I am so proud to be one of you.
Thank you Fern! I haven't been a regular for maybe a few weeks. But you know for certain how I feel about what you write, and who you are. So can I use your properly credited note on a few other forums? It is actually what inspired me to write tonight, instead of browsing what others were saying.
At the suggestion of a friend, I checked the FOX News website last night around 8 PM EST, and there wasn't a single mention of the January 6th committee. I think the headline was about leads in the murder of the college students in Idaho.
My 10 yr old grandson was watching with me that day, home sick from school, was horrified and not believing his eyes. I look forward to talking with him after two years to explain that everyone must be accountable, even ex-presidents.
I am not alone in having watched the events that day with tears of shock, anger and foreboding. I'm afraid that I will never be able to forgive this empty shell of a man nor his unabashed lackeys. Should the DOJ rejectthe recommendation to prosecute due to a belief that a "beyond a reasonable doubt" win was unlikely, then that foreboding was, is and will be well deserved.
Very true. I was on a ski lift with my family when all this was going on and it stays with me to this day. Rode that lift a bunch this summer to ride bikes with the family and it was on my mind again. Couldn't believe what I was seeing but we DID see it and knew it was going to wreak havoc.
That thought crossed my mind more than once! I feel I have PTSD after seeing a Nazi get elected, causing the death of people from COVID (with his lies). And then the insurrection! The peace of mind and confidence is my country has been mostly destroyed. There must be Justice for us or we will not survive as a country.
Indeed, I had a massage that am and we were happy that Georgia had new D Senators. Then we came home to the events at the Capitol happening before our eyes. Unbelieving that this was happening here and then sickened as it continued with no help arriving. I still have problems looking at the Capitol Building. As for death star, the mere sight of his orange face turns my stomach and that whiny voice.
The fraud case regarding the fundraising off false claims about the election is intriguing. Could Trump go down for financial fraud as well as the other charges?
Sheri, I believe your fundraising on "false claims" question must be thoroughly investigated as to each & everyone of the failed 61 cases. I would start with the tf'g complaints that were formally dismissed within 5 court days.
Were pdf attachments of meritless pleadings attached to "fundaising" scams meaning fraud-in-the-Inducement?
Did the fraud continue even after cases were formally dismissed by the Order of the Courts (plural). As always where did the money go? Follow the money, reveal the crimes.
Exactly Janet. . . .for which NO ONE has been held accountable yet. It’s truly beyond belief . . . Could not have said it any more clearly. I grapple with this how all we have is hearings plus four white men of privilege ignoring subpeonas. Imagine if Hillary decided to not go to the Benghazi hearings.
Historical comment true but, Ouch Mike. Contra Trending: Bernie Madoff, ENRON, Trump Org, tfg Family if not Son in Law-lessness, Crypto FTX Crash, musk madness .... Madoff died in jail, Trump Org CPA in jail, FTX Perp in Jail for extradition; musk in stunning on-going Brand Destruction i.e. no Teslas for the Holidays, naughty not nice, Advertisers flee, Space XXX.
Actually, the New York Times published evidence that Fred Trump committing fraud involving DJT when he’s was only three years old. It’s really been his whole life.
NYT's Susan Craig on the tf'g`s Tax issues this afternoon. UPDATE:. Susan Craig confirms she (the NYT) is in possessio of the remaining 1040's for years that the NYT does not already have in their posseession. Ms Craig is probably the ONLY competent reporter to read on these issues.
Thank you Dr. Richardson. Thank you for showing us how powerful this new media has become in bringing history alive. Thank you for your courage to pioneer the truth as it unfolds. Thank you for giving us this public venue letting us show a deep love of our country. Thank you for showing the threads of context which intertwine the past with today and how much better we may become. Thank you for the love letters of an American.
Pat Cole, your words sum up my feelings which have grown with each history lesson in Heather has built upon since her first letter. Thank you seems so inadequate.
I like who we are Lynell. I think these are growing pains to be sure. No one is quitting. You and others are thinking forward. We are in good company here. Every day brings us so much more to do. The wind never used to blow hereabouts. It always blew on the mountain front. We are the mountain hiney. I guess it’s the winds of change. I doubt we’ll ever arrive but come hell or high water we are going to make the journey!
As well as all the other Substack writers out there; the ones I follow are so knowledgable and they illuminate and magnify all that is happening, especially the ones with legal backgrounds. If I had to depend on just news organizations, even the good ones, I would either quickly lose interest or just not have the patience to go deeper. I love what good journalism is but I want to know what it MEANS, if that makes sense.
Yes Janet of Colorado. She is indeed as you picture her. A jewel, The Heatherstone. The many faceted dimensional time traveler who’s footsteps traverse the ages, leaving footprints across the pages of great writers and historians on their way back to us full circle.
Not. Although the scenery here makes one draw breath and elicits silence, I on the other hand am a fat short oldish carpenter with a tiny little sawmill. No bard, alas. I am, however swamped with orders here in Idaho for my all original two story outhouses designed for my many many many Republican friends. The model is “ the Race for the Top”. I also have it in a cheaper model I call “ Oh Crap!” I guess that would be a better place for my poetry.
I found it difficult to once again see video of the attempt to destroy our democracy; the attacks on officers and the nearness of the assault to Congress-people gives me goosebumps every time. I have so much anger for the orange person and his supporters, I am continually confounded that anyone can believe his lying attempt to destroy our democracy! Thank you once again Heather, for wrapping today’s hearing up in a tidy letter for future generations to understand.
I think he was full bore cheering them on rather than indifferent, relishing the destruction and mayhem committed in his name. To me it’s of utmost importance that those in support, including the RNC leadership, are fully prosecuted alongside.
Ooooo! Vaporized. We should add that to our Constitution for sedition and traitors and replace hanging. It is not really the death penalty, it is just transforming them into a new set of molecules, right? They still exist, but are less bothersome for the Union and our health. And, they would require no guards or maintenance fees for life. Bless them with The Force and vaporize...maybe into their alternative reality?
Many years ago, I encountered that solution in a sci-fi short story... where certain criminals were deemed to have no value to society and/or could not be rehabilitated. I believe T**** meets both of those criteria.
It's a regular symptom of his malignant narcissism. Those afflicted with this mental disease have NO empathy and see others only as tools for them to use or destroy in their own self-glorification.
I am with you Gwen. I was driving to an appointment yesterday when the Jan 6 committee began this report. I listened again to the violent recordings of the horrific January 6th insurrection. It is shocking, nauseating, so frightening and traumatizing.I can’t wrap my head around the lack of ACCOUNTABILITY for T***p and his enablers. We all saw what happened!
I feel for Merrick Garland, who has been placed between a rock and a hard place. He has no choice but to issue criminal indictments for T**** and several dozen of his minions (some of whom are still seated in the Congress). Godspeed, Mr. Attorney General.
As I was watching the final hearing today, my first reaction/emotion was one of renewed anger and outrage. As I continued watching, I found myself in tears. I felt incredibly sad that the events of January 6 actually happened, but even more sad that we are here, nearly two years removed from the events with absolutely no accountability for the leaders.
Now I am back to anger with the knowledge that an enormous amount of money has been raised predicated on the basis of a blatant lie.
I feel like I have PTSD as my sense of right/wrong and fairness are assaulted daily because the perpetrators of these heinous acts have not been (and may not be) punished.
My sentiments and raw emotions are the same as yours Cathy. If justice is not officially served after the J6 Committee has so meticulously laid out the crimes of the richest, the biggest then how can anyone ever be found accountable for anything? How?
Along with the perpetrators at the top, does anyone know of any ongoing investigations into the actions of law enforcement that day who did NOT involve themselves in trying to stop the rioters? Maybe internal investigations? Forgive me if this has been mentioned before, but we have also seen the involvement of military veterans and law enforcement in the rise of antisemitism and white nationalist propaganda. That worries me as much as anything else.
Cathy . . . This is just the beginning. Do not despair. We have now seen courage rear it's head in this Committee, and that will help others to find their own.
Trump deserves to be in jail along with all the other schmucks who believed his lies and attacked Congress and have been sentenced accordingly, leaving behind shattered lives. Thank you Jan 6 Committee and thank you Heather for helping us understand the ramifications every step
For the foot soldiers to go to jail, and tRump remain free is unconscionable. He and his henchmen planned and executed traitorous acts. He was going to STEAL the presidency, for God's sake. He incited predisposed people to violence. They left when he called them off. John Brown was hanged for attacking an armory at Harper's Ferry. Why is tRump's behavior different?
I hope the fake electors and Rona McDaniel are charged quickly. The accused and guilty will turn states witness and expose another layer of the fraud and its conspiracy. Rona represents the money. Who told her to pursue Eastman’s plot? TFG or wealthy donors? Which ones? Charge them too.
We need more information from Salesforce.com between the election and J6. Rona McDaniel with Salesforce.com deployed a fundraising email/text/ personal solicitation campaign based on the big lie. That is fraud. She organized the false elector scam. That is fraud, conspiracy, and sedition. She organized big donors to fly their jets full of rabid supporters to DC for J6. Rona McDaniel helped fundraise and organized TFG’s coup. Roger Stone organized, led, gave unofficial credibility to the militias, as the TFG’s representative giving them an unofficial deputy protected status. John Eastman provided legal cover with extra help from Justice Clarence Thomas via wife Ginni. 36 Congress critters plus Senators pressured the state legislatures to change votes, offer false electors, and more! Fu&&&&&&&&&&&ck what a rabbit hole to go down.
One of the biggest 'rat nests' is based in Ohio - the long vaunted 'swing state', yet conspicuously ignored. Ohio has been my adopted home for about 65 years or so, and if I am nothing else, I'm a fairly astute observer / collector of facts in evidence. I so long to see Jordan led away in cuffs once tried thoroughly and fairly.
We have just seen two governments threatened with a take down by goons and thugs. Peru and Germany. Those perps were arrested and are now confined. How this has taken us two YEARS is frustrating and discouraging. We all saw our version of goons and thugs attacking our precious democracy. On TV. Now we need to see ON TV, 45 and his goons in handcuffs being led away for permanent banishment from society. It’s called PRISON.
There has been more than 600+ people indicted for their involvement with the January 6 insurrection.
But now we’ve got to get the big guy and his fellow enablers (traitors). I would like to see justice served not like Nixon, who got away with not being  prosecuted. But I’m not holding my breath!
A republican president forgave a republican president. Nixon was always a crook and evil doer, just like Dump. We must demand 45 be prosecuted. This is not the 70’s….in our society some people ARE above the law, but not this time, Kids.
Last Thursday I flew home from Munich. Armed police carrying automatic weapons patrolling the airport wearing vests bulging with … stuff. (THAT is a frightening sight.) Extra random security checks. My son got selected for a “random” (lots of random things) check after we got through the first two. He was gone for 20-30 minutes while they emptied his backpack and carryon and went through his phone! He said the German agents told him more than once “don’t blame us; the US government requires this.” Our flight attendant, sitting across from us at takeoff, said the US does NOT require this kind of search. It was likely a reaction to the coup plotters Germany arrested the week before. A small taste of life in the US under Dictator tfg.
Totally agree. While I think the January 6th Committee has done a highly professional job, they have been doing Merrick Garlands work for him. The DOJ could have arrested Trump and dozens of Republican House members/traitors a year ago. We saw his crimes on TV. We have heard him admit guilt for stolen documents on top of that. Cuff him!
Again, I have nothing but respect for the Committee. They have created a public historically important document for the ages. But Trump should be in prison along with Eastman and crew. By now they could have been convicted...maybe awaiting sentencing, simply put busted!
This talk of “no one is above the law” is getting to rub me the wrong way. If the creeps 45 has surrounded himself with get away with this, I am not sure what I will think….
There are two million people sitting in prisons all over the country, so you would think the “system” could have figured out how to arrest the “freaking criminals” you mention and keep the rest of us safe from their evil acts, which are ongoing. OMG.
I would love to start a progressive political party that only allows women to be in charge. All the elected officers, reps, senators, etc. Men just get it wrong, every time!
The teenager who robs a Kwik Mart doesn't have dark money support, influential oligarchs, bribed politicians, lobbyists, and armies of lawyers---LARGE armies---to protect him from punishment.
Read NYT today. Wells Fargo paid money, and those who actually did the crime were never punished and got to keep the loot they obtained through their malfeasance. Not a one of the Congress persons who signed on to overturn the election has even been mentioned. "We protect our own" among the wealthy and connected yields a type of "justice" rotten to the core.
I'm about halfway through the report. a lot of clarification of what is already public, but I love the way it's packaged. nobody can complain of legalese or vagaries or subjectivity. I really hope DOJ moves quickly on this.
Ralph Welton quickly in deed. I keep hearing the echo of Michael Moore’s piece on the 14th Amendment to The Constitution. These crimes that are so clearly documented that day for anyone that can see or hear and then the summation of the facts .... if charges are not filed and justice served how can our Democracy survive? When and how can this insanity end?
What it takes is evidence. Like the wiretaps that Rudy Giuliani and the FBI employed to prosecute five mob bosses circa 1980. What we have in Trump and his Confederates is a racket, being run to generate income. Trump Tower was built, like so many other buildings in NYC in that era, with a 2% payoff to the mob. Rudy Giuliani is an expert at avoiding RICO charges. And that’s why Trump employed Giuliani.
The Committee presentations have been thoughtful, verbally impressive, no waste of words, no grandstanding. It shows what people with brains who are elected to public office can do, and it gives me hope that we will be able in the future to discern the best and the brightest who will work to preserve the America we respect and love. As for Trump, only limitless punishment is enough for him, in my book.
I believe the days of honest and intelligent legislators is behind us now that there is so much money to be made for this position. Many, if not most, of today’s legislators are bought and paid for by special interests. They no longer even try to act like they are there to represent the interests of the people who elect them.
And yet, there are people like Katie Porter and Jim McGovern and ... the list of competent, caring legislators who are not beholden to special interests goes on and on. The sad fact is that there are few, if any, Republicans on that list.
Perhaps requiring disclosure of the sources of all "free speech" dollars would be a start toward repealing the Citizens United decision if the evidence of the malevolence of undisclosed donation hasn't become clear enough yet.
Each time I watch a J6 hearing I’m disgusted all over again. Today’s was excellent. I can’t say I believe the JD will actually do much but one can hope….right?!!!
Guy- can you expand on your statement? How do you see Biden as weak? Are you referring to poll numbers? Are you referring to his restraint to not engage in mudslinging and petty insults with trump? Are you referring to his discipline and resolve to run the country and let the J6 committee and DOJ do their job without perceived political involvement from the Whitehouse?
Perhaps you’ve lost sight of the actual job and commitment a president has sworn to uphold. The last administration certainly perverted the office of president and all it represents .
I don’t see weakness from Biden at all. I see the strength of a president who knows what it means to be president and conducts himself in that manner. I see a man working in this country and around the world to restore respect and dignity to this country and to the office.
But Biden is such a target for those in need of a target. Go Joe, keep on being a decent, capable and patriotic politician. The thing Reagan pretended to be but it was just a role to be played for ultimate academy award. And many still buy the phony baloney.
Compared to his predecessor, he is a man of steel. Joseph R. Biden will be remembered as one of the finest, toughest, most compassionate Presidents in our nation's history. He will also be remembered for honoring and respecting the various divisions of our government. He is SMART enough and has the ethics in place to not impose his will on an independent DOJ.
I did not vote for Biden in the primary. But I will be forever grateful that he has been our President.
James, I think Jack Smith is now in control. I am holding my breath….I think we are going to get a big Christmas present this year….or early in the New Year. Save some champagne!
From what I have read about Jack Smith, there will be decisive recommendations to the AG to prosecute 45. He has a sterling reputation. And as an aside, people who have worked with him have no idea what his political persuasion is. He is a prosecutorial machine.
I have a special bottle of bubbly in our funky wine cellar (just a basement) with someone's name on it.
I got a much needed smile out of your "funky wine cellar (just a basement)" as out "wine cellar" is in our basement as well--it hold our son's college fridge (he graduated 8 years ago) which we repurposed to hold our wine. Nothing over $12/bottle, we are hardly connoisseurs!
Weak exactly how? He took office during a crushing global pandemic, economic turmoil, deep political division, and an evenly split Senate. Yet he's accomplished more than any president since arguably FDR. And he's restored badly frayed relations with key allies and helped to prevent Russia from taking over Ukraine. And as others have pointed out, he's governed with compassion. Right person at the right time.
Unfortunately I think what usually happens is not too much to the big guys Maybe getting him on lesser tax fraud and maybe taking presidential records. Maybe some of his buddies will go down as the ring leaders. Two years down the road now and those accomplices still in congress is what worries me most and now they control the house. Unless DOJ goes after them they still wave the flag.
I may lose all faith in “law & order” if he gets away with the documents case. It’s so clear cut. Yes, it does seem like most of the rich and powerful get away with everything. Much different justice system for us “regular” people.
The "documents case" or as Substack's Jay Kuo calls it, the `NARA Lago" case, will be the first case prosecuted by Jack Smith. Conviction bars tfg from holding "any office". Down stream national security fallout is the only potential delay I can see once all recoverable stolen documents are recovered.
The J6 case has a mountain of transcripts & exhibits to analyze. On the "fake electors" schemes, Jack Smith has already served seven (7) subpoenas to parties in the targeted states. The Perps documented their own felonies with formal filings with the Feds.
Seems possible that tfg photocopied some of the documents although some appear to be ORIGINAL documents that should have been returned . See for example, Yahoo News Insider reporter, Joshua Zitzer's, 9/3/22 report with photos showing an empty but, ORIGINAL, jacket marked "classified" along with an original "Situation Room" pamphlet in the "45 Themed Bar" at Trump Tower on public display in open sight.
I meant that he had plenty of time to have the originals copied before returning them. We still don’t know how many are still in tfg’s possession. What has he done with any/all of them? What will he do with them?
Raise the bar of "public sentiment" I think. Perhaps above all promote a collective will to get big lies and excessive money out of politics. It's the one ring to control them all. Even the urgency of constructive responses to climate change, among many other problems is hobbled by the outsized social power of lies and money. Recall that enough Republicans, long ago, were prepared to convict Nixon, and while not excusing or minimizing Nixon's abuses of power, his crimes look tame compared to what we have seen in subsequent decades, especially Bush II and Trump. Enough of us must decide that lies betray all of us, and some things should never, ever be for sale.
We are left with the greater burden. To be stronger, more fully informed, unwaveringly resolute towards a greater good; motivated not by anything so petty as a want for vengeance - only for justice and accountability for ourselves and posterity. That's just my humble opinion Evelyn..
Me too. I cannot understand why the House doesn't have the most prominent & outspoken Representatives who were actively involved in the plot, arrested and at the very least, unseated from their office. They should NOT be a part of the very government that they tried to overturn. They are TRAITORS.
Evelyn, I agree with you. I don't think the DOJ will take a case this size. I think we are at the point of being done with thinking anything that will ever happen to Trump or his allies. We are days away from the Republican controlled House and new Congress. All we are ever going to hear is Hunter Biden and subpoenas coming from the GOP for anyone that betrayed trump for rest of our lives.
Oh ye of little faith. You underestimate both the attorney general and his special counsel. Jack Smith just came back from prosecuting war criminals (real criminals, a lot tougher than this orange poseur), and he's going to go after T**** like a mad dog. I am looking forward to the eventual imprisonment of the former guy.
I really have to agree. Jack Smith will get the job done. People forget how long it took for Nixon's staff to be brought to justice. Nixon himself would have too without the Ford pardon. There will be no pardon from Biden.
Drumpf is certainly a "poseur", however he is also a "real criminal". His crimes are real and every bit as nasty as any war criminal. People have died because of his lies and incitement of violence; he deserves the exactly same kind of punishment meted out to those who commit crimes during wars and conflicts. If his punishment is greater than the usual run of white collar criminal, it is because the trust he betrayed was far greater and weightier than any garden variety white collar criminal.
Trump will face federal criminal charges for his attempted coup. First up, though, will be state charges in Georgia for interfering in the election. A wild card is possible federal charges for financial crimes in New York, which have been filed many month about if the district attorney there, Alvin Bragg, had courage.
What a great succinct summary, Heather! My kudos. I'm still wishing that Ginny Thomas would be one of the referrals by the committee to the DOJ and defang her husband, Justice Thomas. Do like that they referred DT to the DOJ. I had always wondered why the Constitution says High Crimes and Misdemeanors. Misdemeanor -- a minor crime -- can be grounds for impeachment? In my research on this I found that in British law at the time the Constitution was written British elected officials were held to a higher standard when it came to crimes because of the impact they could have on the general populace. So even a misdemeanor by an elected official becomes a major crime against the country. We, the People, all of us this time with Justice for all.
Let's imagine an alternate but plausible history. Picture Trump leading a phalanx of armed insurrectionist to the Capitol and cheering them on as they bludgeon police and break into the building. All on national TV.
Then what? Ordered forward by Trump, the rabble manages to capture members of Congress and even Mike Pence. Does Trump, like some Roman emperor, give the the thumbs up or thumbs down when the hangman's noose is tightened around Pence's neck?
Thankfully, the Secret Service didn't yield to Trump's demands — despite Trump having to some degree corrupted the organization.
Perhaps in his latter days, preferably in prison but likely confined to Mar-a-Lago, Trump will dwell only in the false reality he prefers: himself dressed in the Superman-like costume with bulging muscles he never had and vanquishing his enemies with laser-beam eyes.
Wish he would get no special treatment. I like the image of him shuffling around the prison and muttering about no hamburgers. But I've read that conventional prison would be too much of a security risk. Maybe he'll end up in a specially modified section of one of the white-collar federal prisons but isolated.
Hannibal Lector — not that's funny. The security risk fear is him selling secrets to prisoners who are intermediaries. Of course what is that shrinking, drug-addled brain capable of remembering?
Well, Michael, at least you got that I was trying to be funny. On a more serious note... If Trump is trying to traffic defense secrets to the Russians or whatever, I would suspect someone is keeping an eye on him by now, unless that cat is already out of the bag. More likely he's waiting for a high bid on the love letters to Kim Jong-Un. I'm waiting to see if he can keep his act going from a maximum security cell. I have my doubts.
One of the best punishments would be to deprive him of a phone. He loves to hear himself talk. Also, I hope some creative graphic artist produces a mock Trump card showing him in prison garb and cleaning toilets.
My main take away from Heather's teachings: we are all here but for a moment in time. (I NEVER gave history a speck of interest in my youth, give me the wonders of biology please!)
Like Iraq and Afghanistan haunt Mike Flynn. If Gore wouldnt have conceded, and became President, maybe we wouldnt have those wars and we wouldn't have a paranoid crazy Mike Flynn organizing J6 Coup de'tat.
I hope I'm wrong. Prison time — likely to the end of his life — is the deterrence we need. But will a judge or judges factor in his "prestige" as a former, albeit highly destructive president? And will they worry about inciting his cult followers?
Hartman's summary is really good. I thought of something else reading it concerning how the Rioters would be justified by TFG and his Radical Right GOP'ers, because the storyline : counter protesters of Antifa would be claimed as the real ones fighting the Police and MAGA rioters where just "peaceful protesters''. When in reality the MAGA Rioters were the only ones attacking the Capital Police. Is this called a "false flag"? This type of psy-op is uniquely Russian and fascist, is it not? Just like how Putin frames the invasion of Ukraine: the Ukrainian Govt is full of "Nazi's" that hate Russians and oppress Russian speaking Ukrainians ( which is not true) in order to justify his invasion and destruction of them when his "Little Green Men" are counter attacked by Ukrainian Armed Forces. It is really similar and evil, these "political fictions", is it not? Maybe just another thing Paul Manafort learned and brought home from spending more than a decade working for Putin in Ukraine and Eastern Europe. Something very similar happened called the Riechstag Fire in Nazi Germany that led to Hilter gaining power with emergency powers to placate national fear of "comunist threat" that burned down the Reichstag (German Captial Building). What dirty rotten scoundrels! I'm curious if anyone else sees these historical parallels.
I don’t think Russians “helped” plan the J6 attack. But they have seeded the type of rhetoric around it, and added enough propaganda via an open internet on our side ( theirs is closed like China) to radicalize enough Americans to believe the political fiction like the big lie, the paranoia, the conspiracies, and the normalization of the nastyness.
Manafort was consulting Yanocovich, former president of Ukraine during the Mandane ( not due on spelling) (civil protest when he refused to proceed joining the EU and turned towards Russia and EurAsia sentiment. Yanokovich used similar confusing story lines describing the protestors and the violence that his riot police inflicted on the students and young people. There are too many parallels to mention, but the sides were reversed. Protests, riots, spinning the narrative of who was at fault etc.
Thank you for a concise recap of today's hearing. I watched a News TV recap tonight but the politics and joking among the commentators gets exhausting. I thought of the term KISS...
I have just been watching these live on c span with no commentators. other than a look at Heather's tweets. I ve learned to do this for all major events
I found CSPAN delightful….it was a respite to think about what was being said by the committee members, all so eloquent and intelligent. I couldn’t agree more.
I remember on that day, which was a Wednesday, our dear professor came on Facebook to help talk us through what was happening.
Heather thought he should be impeached and removed before the sun rose on another day. And, indeed, this would have been the case if he were an isolated madman and we still had two functional parties. But, alas, we do not. And here we are, nearly two years later.
But we SAW what happened, live and in color.
And no one who loves this country will ever forget it.
And no one who saw it will ever forget it.
And yet the environment for big lies has been so firmly established the Republican National Committee dared to publicly pass 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,"
Had Trump actually won the last election, the Republic would be cooked. The professionalism and impact of the Jan 6th Committee has been and remains outstanding. The RNC should live in infamy.
The GOP is no more, might as well bury that “Grand Ole Party” bull Schitt. They are the enemy of us all. Bill Maher is wrong, they are NOT just normal Americans with a different opinion. They are a cult with designs to rule based on lies and propaganda. Hard to digest since I love some of these cultists who have embraced the lies. But they are a danger to the country and to our future…
We are all liable to error. The difference here is that one side’s ‘opinions’ are not subjected to critical thinking and their subsequent errors become articles of faith which they believe supersede reason—and even reality!
IMO these things aren't mutually exclusive: they can be both "normal Americans" and members of a cult. As a young antiwar activist, I went to one of the Rev. Carl McIntyre's "rallies for America," ca. 1970. It was my first up-close-and-personal encounter with this level of devotion, delusion, and hatred. I'd seen it on TV many times, notably in the white hatred directed against civil rights activists and small Black children trying to go to school -- not just in the South either, because what went down in Boston around busing was similar. There was also the "siege of Chicago" -- the police riot during the 1968 Democratic Convention, which I watched on TV at just past 17.
In my experience so far the people who are most shocked by the Trump administration, January 6, and everything that's happened since are often those who've never found themselves on the wrong side of "normal (white) Americans". I hope they stay shocked -- or "woke" as the right likes to call it. My most pleasant surprise of the Trump years is that so many of those who mobilized after Trump's election have stayed mobilized. This is why I dare to hope that the democratic experiment might survive this and grow stronger.
And yet, they won control of the U.S. House for the next two years.
It's frightening that American voters trust them.
True, but "conventional wisdom" thought they were sure to make bigger gains in the House and take the Senate too, so it seems we (i.e., the sane people) got off easy. You're right, it's frightening that American voters trust them, but IMO the apparent reasons for that trust are even more frightening. The big one is that an terrifying number of American voters believe the U.S. is supposed to be (and maybe once was?) a white Christian country. Maybe even worse is that the Supreme Court majority seems to agree with them.
Thanks, Jeri. Well-said!
There hasn't been a "Republican" party since 2016. I have and continue to call it The Repugnant Party. Tell it like it is. And, the Repugnant National Committee is a Fascist organization and should be listed as a Hate Group.
I spell it Republiqan
My name for it is the party of death and treason. So much of the R structure and so many Rs are fascist and members of a Hate Group because that is all they have on offer. My ex-classmate in Elkhart has been silent on January 6th, but last week she posted a long list of R talking points which we have all heard ad nauseam.
Just, wow. Their sky really is a different color.
Republicans are a clan of white supremacists in fear and fighting against the reality that they very soon will not be a majority!
The authoritarianism that Republicans are keen to embrace is predicated on a stratified society in which racism is an expectable component and a permanent underclass that even the most abused rank and file can feel "superior" to a key component of the "divide and conquer" strategy where all of the problems are someone else's fault. That said, it appears to me that the modern engine of the Republican Party is a plutocratic thirst for power. An Orwellian warped version of "Christianity" and white supremacy are hate fuel for the rank and file, but follow the money.
In my youth, the prime right wing hate object was "communism", and while the dictatorship part of communist dictatorships was indeed a threat to international security and justice, they made "communism" heinous thoughtcrime to even talk about. Lately they have dusted off the Joe McCarthy strategy calling anything different from them "communist", including Joe Biden, which is ludicrous (but dangerous). Which racism pervades American society in ways that are insufficiently recognized (by us whites) the committed, open racists used to hang out in the Democratic Party. When Civil Rights legislation spoiled their party, rejected Dixiecrats were welcomed into the "GOP" as useful fools for their fanaticism and numbers. "Saint" Reagan was certainly racist ( https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jul/31/ronald-reagan-racist-recordings-nixon ). My impression is that Nixon (a shameless red baiter) was less so.
"Ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse"?! If that was legitimate, we have no democracy.
Yeah, that is some sort of mental gymnastics.
AND it should die an ignominious death.
And no one who remembers it will ever forgive.
Your comment on forgiveness is a hard one, Joseph. I feel like I've carried anger since 2016 (and the lead-up), still not truly believing that all of this could happen. But now that the Govt has given us factual evidence that it did and used our founding documents to do it, it's an unexpected feeling. Celebration feels awkward yet, sadness also feels inappropriate. So, I guess at this moment I am feeling it right to focus our extreme thankfulness for the members of the Committee and what they've done. Quietly, professionally and with main-stream media kicking & screaming the entire way, pushing the He's-going-to-get-away-with-it-all" ratings narrative for click bait,...they got it done, and well done, indeed.
Even allowing time for the midterms, through death threats and the right-wing slander / hate machine they maintained their focus with integrity. So, rather than feel celebratory or down, the committee has made me feel proud and I am grateful to them for that. A sincere thank you to ALL of them!
In considering the list of conspirators Michael Moore openly (& rightly, me thinks) calls "traitors" I am old enough to be reminded of Robert McNamara who as he approached his own mortality was driven to admit remorse and wrongdoing in his conceiving and direction of the Viet Nam War. Mr Moore's however, is a much longer list of those culpable in something equally corrupt. By the time their mortality is nigh, forgiveness may come, but for now I can only hope to live long enough to witness even one of them feel Jacob Marley's burden and weight ("it's a ponderous chain") of their "treason" and the resultant need to openly confess it before they go.
Beautifully written, BK. Thank you. However I don’t give one whit if they “confess” their guilt and treason (no “‘s). I just hope they all get tossed out, as Michael Moore so wonderfully said we have every right to do. Hooligans have no place in a democracy.
Exactly, Elisabeth. That seditionists or supporters of the insurrection are actually still in Congress and have been reelected to Congress boggles my mind.
It is repulsive that they are being paid by us— funders of this democracy. They deserve nothing and should pay every cent they owe us since they supported a fascist cult leader. No pensions, no books no speaking engagements. Rot in the corner with your lying, corrupt, broken, diapered, wannabe kinglet.
Glad you mentioned McNamara. The thought of him makes me heave; the “smartest man in the room” misled LBJ and killed so many with his lies. This crowd has no moral compass and doesn’t believe an iota of the religious blather they spout, or they would fear for their immortal souls. Pharisees all, put on a public show while your soul is a quivering mass of evil.
The healing we needed after LBJ was Robert Kennedy. We were robbed of his leadership, and we have never recovered our national consciousness.
No doubt I believe in conspiracy more than I should, but assassinations of JFK, RFK, and MLK in short order are just too much to think they were accidental. They have the earmarks of malfeasance a la Putin.
And his son, sadly, has gone off the rails.
Agreed. Loudly praying in the Temple while completely ignoring the teachings found in the first three Gospels. Some of them are probably not worried about their souls because they have been "saved" and walk on water and/or are part of the predestined elect. What a great way to avoid taking any responsibility for beliefs and actions...and the rest of us are going to hell.
Definitely not worried about their souls.
Great comment, BK. The feelings are complex for me as well, but that sense of pride in the Committee that you mentioned really hits home for me. Actually had tearscin my eyes for part of their final meeting.
Me too, Cheryl. And now. The committee was/is stellar. Like Michelle Obama, I’m proud and grateful in this moment to be a citizen of this country. A bow 🙇🏽♀️ to each member of the committee for their fine work.
Each member of the Committee will forever in history wear badges of honor.
On Nov. 9, 2016 I cut off all ties with anyone I knew who had supported tRump, which included a 15-year co-worker and “friend” and a half-bro in MS. As early as March 2016, a few of us saw him as a Nazi using Hitler’s Playbook and that he was mentally unstable, unqualified for the office and dangerous. IDK why so few of us could see that, but I understood the cult mentality of ignorant, bigoted haters who loved that he spoke to them. For a while thru the mess of his presidency I considered that maybe they would come to see the error that they made and I thot maybe I could forgive them if they came out and said, “I fucked up, didn’t understand, was stupid for supporting him.” As things got worse and we saw the total ignorance of truth replaced by “alt facts” and conspiracy theories easily refuted by critical thinking, I am beyond that grace. These Fascists are Unforgivable. They are still among us and if they ever do gain absolute power, I as an outspoken Atheist, Antifa, Progressive, will be among the persecuted, put in concentration camps, gassed or shot. Yes, it can happen here, it was happening here.
I think DeSanctimonius is a bigger threat. He is more organized, equally hateful and smarter politically than 45. I noticed you live in Miami, so you know the way things work there. It is hard for me, as a former resident near West Palm Beach, to realize how right wing the voting population is in Florida….or is it gerrymandering? I worked for Hilary in Palm Beach County. Seemed like a lot of Dems there…..
BK there are some things that I may grudgingly ‘forgive,’ but will never forget. Like when I worked in Tokyo years after my cousin had been in a Japanese POW camp for over three years. ‘At times I would hum ‘Remember Pearl Harbor,’ while being polite to my hosts.
We need to have a conversation -- a national conversation -- about forgiveness.
It's generally not a good idea -- psychologically -- to hold a grudge, either as an individual or as a group. But a "grudge" speaks of unfinished business. You cannot continue to hold a grudge if the matter is resolved. You cannot forgive if the matter remains unresolved.
We like to take a "good Christian" view of forgiveness in the US, which seems to mean a completely unilateral personal release of all awareness of unfinished business, in an act of pure sweetness and generosity.
This can sometimes be accomplished by a shift of awareness of the importance of the matter. Most grudges throughout life are petty, and one can draw on one's generosity of spirit and let the matter go. We can be "bigger than the other guy." But this is only real if it truly resolves the matter. If you still find yourself grumbling about it at 3:00 am, you didn't forgive, you only pretended. Pretending forgiveness isn't forgiveness.
Then there is the matter of continuing abuse. You cannot "forgive" continuing abuse. You cannot even begin to forgive until the abuse has been definitively and permanently stopped. Trump has not been stopped. He has already signaled his intention to run for President again, and do this national clusterfuck all over again. We're all assuring ourselves that he can't win, whistling in the graveyard. But he's certainly threatening to do it again, and he has not been stopped from doing it again. Forgiving Trump right now is not possible. There is a great deal of unfinished business, and ongoing abuse.
Then there is the matter of the magnitude of the offense, and what is required to truly resolve it. We do not forgive Adolf Hitler, or Adolf Eichmann, or Heinrich Himmler, or Josef Mengele, or Claus Barbie, or any of the rest of that lot. It isn't possible to forgive them, because they transcended their own humanity and became symbols. Maybe that was their intent. If a child says, "I want to be just like Adolf Hitler," we are rightfully alarmed.
Donald Trump, even if he is stopped, has already become a symbol. He is a Caligula. He is a Tourquemada. He is a Hitler. He is the first, and almost-successful, destroyer of American Democracy. If a child says, "I want to be just like Donald Trump," we should be alarmed.
I see no possibility of forgiveness for Trump.
BK, such high praise so well said, such deserving recipients.
Joseph,
I might say it a bit differently, more like Liz Cheney.
All who remember the day Trump attempted to overthrow the government, which resulted in both death and destruction, will do our best to insure proper consequences are applied to those who both led the insurrection and supported it.
Now. That's a tall order in a country where prosecuting rich, white men has historically been, and remains, taboo.
However, consequences are what must be applied to the perpetrators. If not, the United States will cease as a Democracy. Sooner or later.
Just as Liz Cheney indicated yesterday.
Honestly, it really is too bad George Washington and John Adams are no longer around. I am guessing if they were, Trump would have already experienced said consequences by getting up close and personal with a rope.
I was thinking last night that these coming prosecutions of rich white men are a step along the path of "white privilege" coming to an end. Bout time. Justice has been waiting in the wings to make an entrance.
Side note: Mike Pence was the one who ordered the National Guard to activate. That was only supposed to have been the right of POTUS. Right there Mike Pence activated Amendment 25 and took the President's authority when the President was unable (his big ego got in the way) to act. No vote by cabinet and others in the administration. Pence did what needed to be done to protect lives and most importantly our democratic republic.
Sally,
Yes, after four years crawling and mewling at Trump's feet to ably do Trump's every last bidding, Pence, at the end, found something he was not comfortable doing.
Overthrowing our government with lies and violence.
Pence's bar for "fed up" was pretty high though, to be honest.
Yup. And remember that Trump had already given up the game a couple days earlier when he blinked in face of the DOJ mass resignation threat. That was the moment he'd shown himself too cowardly to play it out, and from that point all his minions and spawn were well aware that they were on their own. None were willing to stick their necks any further out (tho Stone made a pretty good game out of it while seeming to straddle the legality line).
Pence was simply the most visible of the minions saying "nope, nope, nope...
It definitely doesn't qualify him to be president.
But last night I heard Pence say he hopes Trump is never charged...that the whole scenario is only Trump's "wrecklessness"......
Pence - Too little, Too late in my opinion.
WAY TOO LITTLE WAY TOO LATE imho. Heard last night this disgusting person voice tfg should not be prosecuted by DOJ. I need a shower after listening to his smarmy voice. Gives me the creeps.
Well, just enough, and just in the nick of time, but everything else he supported was always revolting. I can’t imagine him as President. Please, God, no!
Just because Pence refused to overthrow our government and Cheney helped investigate Trump doesn’t mean they are good people who should have a hand in running our government. Pence is a Christian Nationalist and Cheney opposed Biden every step of the way. If Pence and Cheney ride a popular wave into the Whitehouse, the results will be the same as if Trump got elected, although not so obvious. At least those two would take away our rights politely.
Tom Pence and Cheney will be elected to the White House just after I am elected Pope. (I am not Catholic, but neither was Jesus.)
Bout time, Sally. White MALE privilege. And your comment about Pence activating the National Guard reminded me of seeing on film Nancy Pelosi trying every which way to get help ar the Capitol on that historic day. She was awesome. Thank you for your comments.
I have been thinking about white privilege too. This can be (and will be, I hope!) a crack in that privilege. And through that Crack, may creep in TRUE equal justice under the law, though it's a very long road yet to be travelled.
Let's hope. There are many white males who voted for Trump because he was a businessman and not a Dem. And they had the privilege to be able to overlook Trump's treatment of women. Never mind they have a mother, grandmother, wife, daughter(s). Other things are more important. This is a problem for me.
Don't count your chickens before they are hatched.
Pence is supporting Trump now.
I don't think Pence's support counts for much.
excellent point
Sally Pence isn’t all bad, but I wouldn’t give a farthing for this pence.
Mike, I like that image….it made me laugh. George Washington, tall and stately, holding the noose over the wriggling, red faced, squealing 45. OMG.
George Washington spent, what? EIGHT years (or thereabout) living in a tent, marching, leading soldiers, slitting throats and killing British solidiers to bring self rule to these shores?
Do you think Washington would put up with a spoiled, rich kid trying to undo his eight years of slogging hard work to kick the British out?
Not hardly. Washington would have had Trump hanging by the end of the day of January 06, 2021.
That is exactly what not sentencing Trump, and his cohorts to long sentences means, The demise of democracy.
Love that last paragraph…
And it was true he was impeached by the House for "inciting an insurrection". And a majority of Senators voted to impeach him also......was it two thirds?
You've raised the question of capital punishment. As a nation, we have moved away from recognizing execution as legitimate. I believe a significant portion of that shift was based on innocent men and women being executed, pointing to a systemic corruption in the process of sentencing and performing executions.
We've never addressed the issue of when execution is appropriate, and when it is NECESSARY.
If you go back to the Greeks, they had a tendency of completing a conquest by killing the king, his wife, his lovers, his extended family, and ALL of his offspring, even the infants. The point was to leave no legitimate claim to power still living.
The penalty for treason has rarely been anything less than death or exile, and exile never worked all that well. Look at Napoleon.
Trump has committed a coup. He has already promised to do it again.
If there is any justification for execution, I believe it exists in the case of Trump.
And I need to be very clear about something. I'm not calling for Trump's death, I'm calling for his execution. There is a profound difference. Execution can only occur as part of a legal process, and carries the entire weight of the Rule of Law. Death by any other means isn't the same thing at all.
I am against the death penalty. Even for Trumpty Dumpty. Let him rot for the rest of his pathetic little life in a prison or in his self-made prison called his mind. If he even has one.
Can you articulate WHY you are opposed? Not looking for an argument, just an explanation.
I am also generally opposed to the death penalty, because it is so subject to misuse, particularly in an administrative state like the one we have. There is no real connection between the execution and the victims of the crime that incurs the penalty, and the administrators are often corrupt: you need look no further than the lynch mobs (extra-legal) shading into police brutality shading into bureaucratic mishandling.
That said, there are cases where it seems to me both appropriate and even necessary. Trump is a case in point. He will continue to drive insurrection from prison, unless the terms of his sentence also silence his public voice. Even then, "ghost writers" claiming to be Trump will rise up, and disinformation programs. Imagine a suddenly-far-more-intelligent "Trump" addressing his loyalists from behind the gray walls of his prison, made up of an entire team of propagandists. A "president-in-exile" can be at least as dangerous to the Republic as one in power.
No. No forgiving this orange traitor. I want to read of his dying in his prison cell.
Yeah, James, like his good buddy Jeffrey Epstein…..
I was thinking more like Frank Salemme... of old age. But you make an apt connection to another really vile example of humanity.
Correct.
If you were actually there that day to witness it, forgiveness is not on the table.
Until such time as Trump is marched into a federal penitentiary, this is all political theater.
I understand how you feel, but no need to be so cynical. This is more than political theatre. Consider the courage it took for all the Committee Members to pursue this investigation and state their true findings in public. I am sure every one of them has received death threats and a lot of harassment by Trump cultists.
It will make a difference to the survival of this republic.
There is good reason to be cynical. We don't have a great history of punishing powerful people, Nixon and the south after the Civil War.
Very true, but there's no time like the present!
Yes, it will make a difference, but only if Trump is marched into a federal penitentiary. Otherwise this is all political theater.
Respectfully how will this make a difference to the survival of the republic?
For starters, it speaks the truth and will be published. It has exposed many of the facts the coup plotters want hidden. Despite all the disinformation, this report will be out there, and at least some of the hearings have been watched by millions. The Committee has made it MUCH harder for the plotters to dismiss what they did.
Ultimately, it's up to us. And every generation.
William, that will be the biggest theater of all. Like an SNL skit come true. Please, God, help us get this bugger arrested.
This is exactly where the “road ends”, in my estimation. That “live and in color” - yet people we all know - our neighbors, our family members, even our friends - because we saw it brought before us by media - claim it was “just a rally”…..”people defending their right to protest”….”a field trip visit to the Capitol”…..and, the biggest deflection, ….” No way as damaging as Black Lives Matter demonstrations in the streets, with millions of dollars of destruction…”
How can ANYONE deny the intensity of what the 187 minute record shows us? It, and the excellent work of the subsequent January 6 Committee, exists as undeniable proof that our country has been led by an autocrat with no love for this country.
“Our friends, our neighbors,” - someone else pointed out in another substack that the Germans were friends and neighbors to the Jews in 1930s Germany too. The Trump era has certainly opened all our eyes to how it happened back then.
Exactly, my fear to the bone on Nov 9, 2016. It was hard to fathom, still is…
Yes, if you studied how Hitler rose and succeeded, the rise of the republican regime with hostile foreign support and corporate sponsorship is petrifying in its' incivility in this day and age. And the orange monkey Putin and the rethugs found to play this out was beyond reality, and their control. Many of us knew this back in 2016, and our worst fears are way too near the edge.
While I have seen it many times in repeat, they had an attempted insurrection and I missed it. It was a beautiful day on Miami Beach and I was out riding my bike all day and off the grid, as they say. It wasn’t until I called my sister at 4:30 p.m. that she mentioned what had happened.
And it really is not over yet. It would be very dangerous to forget that. A machine that fully supported these actions remains in place. Here is some of that machine compiled by Michael Moore, and even that is not the end of it. Two parties are certainly dysfunctional, but it seems one is behaving more like a criminal cartel than "a party." https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F5a529864-4e4d-4be3-9efe-d2f2b13d753a_2150x5075.jpeg
Not sure I agree that both are dysfunctional.
Some seem to think that anything that produces less than optimal ideological results is dysfunctional. By that measure, Lincoln's Republican party and FDR's Democratic Party were dysfunctional, too.
No offense, Ed, but the "two parties are certainly dysfunctional" assertion doesn't fly in the face of a Democratic Party supporting Biden's Administration that, in just two years, has accomplished more than, or at least as much as, some parties' administrations have in 8 or more.
Differences of opinion among Democrats are not "dysfunction."
Sinema deciding to be an Independent is not Democratic Party dysfunction.
Steve,
I agree with our assessment except to offer one observation: The Lobby army in Washington, handing out money to get what they want, does influence Democrats and Republicans alike and that is dysfunction relative to John Adam's vision (although John Hancock, whom Adams represented, could be viewed as a lobbiest of that time perhaps).
The willingness of all of representatives to use their jobs as a method of becoming fantastically wealthy is a problem for both parties.
To put both parties in the same boat is sacrilege. Dems are far from perfect, an embarrassment at times, but not a cult of fools
Sorry. Sacrilege explicitly assumes sacred, a state that political parties will never attain.
Only ONE presently acts like a mafia gang. Please learn close reading, Steve. It did not used to be that way, as anyone who lived pre-Reagan or read the 1956 Republican platform under Eisenhower knows. They became gangsters by their members not having the courage to hold their own accountable, parroting partisan platitudes and allowing the takeover of the party and indoctrination of half the nation to hate-on-command. To the extent a government is dysfunctional, the parties that form it are dysfunctional.
I partially agree with you Steve. Comparing republicans and democrats is not an apples and apples comparison. However, I would add that democrats are not always right and they have a lot of problems to overcome. It doesn’t matter who is right and who is wrong. What matters is voters and how they feel about the state of things in this country. And even if you remove the relatively small percentage of absolutely insane trump voters you are still left with a sizable portion of voters that are incredibly unhappy with democrats, the status quo and democracy. It’s just not working well enough for them. I would also say that personally I think that some of the positive rhetoric is complete garbage. I would like to see democrats make more acknowledgments around their own hypocrisy and things that don’t work for voters and be more in line with reality. The purity tests from the far left do democrats no good and some of the policy prescriptions are simply unproven. I am quite sad and concerned to see Pelosi step down. Even being a progressive she was able to make change incrementally.
Specifics? As good examples, see the last sentence of this reply.
Sounds mostly like you are repeating sound bites of zero substance from right wing talking points.
Who are the "sizable portion of voters ... incredibly unhappy with [D]emocrats"?
-sounds like a sound bit/talking point (and note that it's spelled with a capital D when referring to political party or party affiliation)
Is that unhappiness a consequence of being ill-informed as a result of listening to talk radio or getting most information from social media?
What "purity test" from the Left are you referring to?
- again, another right-wing talking point with no substance, or are you suggesting that Democrats should welcome anti-choice candidates? Note the big tent that accommodates both Manchin and Sinema.
The initial post addressed "dysfunction," which is what I addressed.
You've re-pasted a lot of unfounded pseudo-criticism of Democrats, but I don't see any substance in anything in your comment, let alone any real or specific information about "dysfunction."
And please, give me 5 examples (since you used the plural) of "things that don’t work for voters and [should] be more in line with reality."
On every major issue - support for Ukraine, infrastructure spending, student loan debt relief, civil rights, marriage rights, reproductive choice, shifting tax burden to the rich, climate change - most people, when polled without having the issue attached to a party label, support the Democratic Party position.
Specifically. I would start with your dismissive response to my fairly reasonable comment. More people than not hate the smug angry responses like yours regardless of their party. For your information I am a progressive democrat. I also live in a very conservative area and whether I like it or not there are a lot of good people that have different thoughts and beliefs than I do. Not everyone that voted for trump is a bigoted racist. That is what MSNBC might lead one to believe. We need to learn to live and work with people regardless of what I think of who they vote for. My point was if democrats want to peel voters away from republican politicians and maintain a sound majority they would do well to stop the smug purity tests and find some common ground with an even larger portion of the electorate. Unfortunately your response was not one I would use if I were hoping to educate someone on why I hold the views that I do. I hope you can come up with a better message.
Glad you are a progressive Democrat.
I found your reply seriously lacking in substance.
My answer was definitely not angry.
I still don't know what purity tests you are referring to (example?).
I wasn't conveying a message, just asking for specifics about yours and challenging your assertions that Democrats need to address:
1. their own hypocrisy (what's an example of that hypocrisy?) and
2. "things that don't work for voters" (again, what do you mean by that?) and
3. "be more in line with voters" (again, what policies/votes/positions are you referring to that are not "in line with voters?).
Those are the same talking points I hear, read and see on right-wing social media. and from Republicans who appear on CNN and MSNBC but don't really want to identify any specifics.
If you read the original comment closely you will see that I did not say that both parties were dysfunctional, but rather that we do not have two functional parties. It is my believe, as I have stated publicly many times, that the Republicans have gone completely insane while the Democrats are still trying to govern while fighting right wing fascism at the same time. For the correct outcome to have happened after 1-6, the Republicans would have had to cooperate. Instead they doubled down on Trumpism. And that has meant a long slog for Democrats seeking justice.
I wasn't replying to your comment(s).
I was replying to Ed Nuhfer's and Robert Allen's comments
No one here was providing right wing sound bites, Steve. Speaking for myself, I'm not going to engage with partisan cheerleading. There are plenty of free sites that bait people to do this. I didn't support this site with a subscription to engage in that.
"Two parties are certainly dysfunctional" is an exact quotation form your comment.
I dispute that there are two that are dysfunctional parties, although I certainly agree that the Republicans act like a criminal gang.
Saying both parties are dysfunctional is a right-wing sound bite.
It’s not over is an understatement. We have friends who live part time here in PA and FL. They are so off! Not Trumpers by any means but buying up DeSantis by the handfuls! They know we’re liberal and we’ve been friends for years. I do not bring up politics and neither did they until lately. Like letting kids use a litter box in class cause they identify as a cat. Or, we’re “making” our little ones read books about trans-gender or gay parenting then forcing them to decide what gender they would prefer to be. This what they say Biden and libs are doing. Also they’ve become hard core about this being the absolute truth! Trump may never hold office again, but here’s a heads up for the next highjacking of our democracy by Republicans. It’s happening now.
Politeness in the face of nonsense is a hallmark of some in the center. Maybe it’s time to address the nonsense on a personal level. Face to face and one on one.
I find it so bizarre that after all the progress that's been made in gay rights, there are people who are now believing a bunch of BS about "grooming." Perhaps they don't know anyone who is gay or transgender, which seems unlikely. No one is trying to take THEIR rights away, so what's the big deal?
It’s the GOP m.o. Watch how when the issue is inequality, gop deflects to homosexuality/grooming etc. It’s a tactic in their demagoguery strategy.
Karen, how do they feel about the sexual scandals all over the evangelical churches? Pedophilia of every kind. Picked up some repugnant elected official recently exposing himself at a schoolyard. I mean, it doesn’t get more obvious who is doing what to whom! I think you are right about “the next highjacking of our democracy by Republicans. It’s happening now.” May God watch over us and help us to overcome this time in our history. To a better day and a better future.
Patiently and in a non-confrontational manner we explain this is nonsense and in no way represents what being liberal or what President Biden’s agenda is. If you want to know what a Democrat stands for ask a Democrat not a Republican, that way you’ll get an honest answer. I’d like to think it’s visa-versa
If I have learned nothing else from Heather, the Republican Party has been up to no good for a very long time. It will never end. There're plenty of narcissistic psycho- socio-paths out there hungry for power and attention, and plenty of right wingers happy to elect them.
❗️❗️❗️
HOW MANY AMERICANS WILL MISS THIS?
Jan. 6 Panel Accuses Trump of Insurrection and Refers Him to Justice Dept.
New York Times
Jan. 6 Committee Refers Trump to Justice Department for Criminal Charges
wsj
Jan. 6 panel urges Trump prosecution with criminal referral
AP NEWS
Jan. 6 Committee Says Donald Trump Associates Tried To Bribe Witnesses
yahoo news
Jan. 6 panel urges prosecution of former President Donald Trump with criminal referral
Chicago Tribune
Jan. 6 committee approves criminal referrals against Trump
NBC News
Jan. 6 hearing recap: House committee recommends DOJ prosecute Trump over Capitol attack USA Today
January 6 Committee holds final meeting, expected to take action against Trump, allies
FOX News
Jan. 6 panel plans vote on referring Trump for insurrection, other criminal charges
StarTribune.
Jan. 6 committee refers Trump to Justice Department for prosecution, an unprecedented move by Congress
WAPO
Unless Carlson and Hannity say -- without their usual twisted spin -- what the referrals mean, the former guy's base still won't believe it.
Yep,
The drummer boys have to speak to get the hypnotized to open their eyes.
But, I am guessing Trump is paying Hannity enough for Hannity to keep up his drumbeat for Trump.
Ann, They are not all one and the same person.
No, but those I know personally get their "news" only from Fox and firmly believe whatever Carlson/Hannity say.
Those who watch Fox.
What I dread is the noise when the new Congress convenes. Benghazi X 10.
Yes, NMorgan. We need to continue to grow, to be wiser, more strategic in our thinking and avoid going backward with fear and fury. This time is most difficult.
Fern, may I use your reply to NMorgan on other forums? It is timely and thoughtful, and my thoughts need it for context....
Of course, Gus. Thank you for thinking it may be helpful. Peace.
Fern, it really is most difficult. But we just accomplished what not one of us (be honest) thought actually possible! And we almost ran the table doing it. We may yet, if enough House members get indicted for their crimes. Allow me that hope.
Indeed, we should be healing our 'battle' damage, assessing our successes and strategies for improvement--and yes, our possible mistakes. Mistakes are the tuition we pay for becoming better.....
What is Washington doing to protect our main asset, the Vote? What are we all doing to identify, reach, and induct the estimated eight million new voters coming on line by 2024?
It is not to early for us to begin! Each of us can learn to use the tremendous energy of directed anger to be better--more effective--instead of being crippled by rage and disbelief. We are seasoned now, and as pro Democracy veterans we should also be looking to our own kit: How can we take better care of ourselves, for our own well-being and for the sake of our families and our colleagues in our "units"? How can we build our credibility and become better social neighbors to those who are on the wrong path, without being politically or morally righteous in this Time Between the Vote?
The struggle continues. Indeed, it may get worse. We are all needed to be our best--each and every one.
Peace, Slava Ukraine, Slava USA! I am so proud to be one of you.
Gus, The understanding and care you bring to our struggle is the gift of being fully human and working to remember that. Thank you, Gus Koch.
Thank you Fern! I haven't been a regular for maybe a few weeks. But you know for certain how I feel about what you write, and who you are. So can I use your properly credited note on a few other forums? It is actually what inspired me to write tonight, instead of browsing what others were saying.
At the suggestion of a friend, I checked the FOX News website last night around 8 PM EST, and there wasn't a single mention of the January 6th committee. I think the headline was about leads in the murder of the college students in Idaho.
Fox is complicit in all that happened in the lead-up to January 6 and all that's happened afterwards.
Backfire on whom? Possibly on those co-conspirators who didn't comply with subpoenas. Wonder what Rupert says in the NY Post today.
First rinse before FXnews hits the full wash cycle.
My 10 yr old grandson was watching with me that day, home sick from school, was horrified and not believing his eyes. I look forward to talking with him after two years to explain that everyone must be accountable, even ex-presidents.
That is a discussion well worth having.
I am not alone in having watched the events that day with tears of shock, anger and foreboding. I'm afraid that I will never be able to forgive this empty shell of a man nor his unabashed lackeys. Should the DOJ rejectthe recommendation to prosecute due to a belief that a "beyond a reasonable doubt" win was unlikely, then that foreboding was, is and will be well deserved.
That is correct.
Salud, Annabel.
🗽
Very true. I was on a ski lift with my family when all this was going on and it stays with me to this day. Rode that lift a bunch this summer to ride bikes with the family and it was on my mind again. Couldn't believe what I was seeing but we DID see it and knew it was going to wreak havoc.
Perhaps we might try suing for extraordinary mental anguish to half the nation?
That thought crossed my mind more than once! I feel I have PTSD after seeing a Nazi get elected, causing the death of people from COVID (with his lies). And then the insurrection! The peace of mind and confidence is my country has been mostly destroyed. There must be Justice for us or we will not survive as a country.
Indeed, I had a massage that am and we were happy that Georgia had new D Senators. Then we came home to the events at the Capitol happening before our eyes. Unbelieving that this was happening here and then sickened as it continued with no help arriving. I still have problems looking at the Capitol Building. As for death star, the mere sight of his orange face turns my stomach and that whiny voice.
DOJ time to expedite the indictments!!!
The fraud case regarding the fundraising off false claims about the election is intriguing. Could Trump go down for financial fraud as well as the other charges?
Sheri, I believe your fundraising on "false claims" question must be thoroughly investigated as to each & everyone of the failed 61 cases. I would start with the tf'g complaints that were formally dismissed within 5 court days.
Were pdf attachments of meritless pleadings attached to "fundaising" scams meaning fraud-in-the-Inducement?
Did the fraud continue even after cases were formally dismissed by the Order of the Courts (plural). As always where did the money go? Follow the money, reveal the crimes.
Always, always, in politics (and organized crime); follow the money.
Exactly Janet. . . .for which NO ONE has been held accountable yet. It’s truly beyond belief . . . Could not have said it any more clearly. I grapple with this how all we have is hearings plus four white men of privilege ignoring subpeonas. Imagine if Hillary decided to not go to the Benghazi hearings.
And take the RNC with him? Also disgorgement of the $250M goes with conviction and frankly is easier forfeited via civil forfeiture.
Sheri Smith, I believe financial fraud, most especially on that scale should most especially be considered and pursued.
Sheri,
Trump has committed financial fraud continuously since he was 18 years old.
So, based on past history, he is very unlikely to go to jail for fraud.
In the USA, fraud is how white people, for the most part, become wealthy.
None of them are in jail.
Historical comment true but, Ouch Mike. Contra Trending: Bernie Madoff, ENRON, Trump Org, tfg Family if not Son in Law-lessness, Crypto FTX Crash, musk madness .... Madoff died in jail, Trump Org CPA in jail, FTX Perp in Jail for extradition; musk in stunning on-going Brand Destruction i.e. no Teslas for the Holidays, naughty not nice, Advertisers flee, Space XXX.
This is a depressing thought.
Actually, the New York Times published evidence that Fred Trump committing fraud involving DJT when he’s was only three years old. It’s really been his whole life.
NYT's Susan Craig on the tf'g`s Tax issues this afternoon. UPDATE:. Susan Craig confirms she (the NYT) is in possessio of the remaining 1040's for years that the NYT does not already have in their posseession. Ms Craig is probably the ONLY competent reporter to read on these issues.
And return all that donated money to our coffers to pay for the huge costs to taxpayers by those who commit seditious deeds against us.
Thank you Dr. Richardson. Thank you for showing us how powerful this new media has become in bringing history alive. Thank you for your courage to pioneer the truth as it unfolds. Thank you for giving us this public venue letting us show a deep love of our country. Thank you for showing the threads of context which intertwine the past with today and how much better we may become. Thank you for the love letters of an American.
Agree, Pat.
My gratitude also to Professor Richardson.
Unita!
🗽
Pat Cole, your words sum up my feelings which have grown with each history lesson in Heather has built upon since her first letter. Thank you seems so inadequate.
Excellent tribute, Pat, to Heather, to our country, to all of us here.
I like who we are Lynell. I think these are growing pains to be sure. No one is quitting. You and others are thinking forward. We are in good company here. Every day brings us so much more to do. The wind never used to blow hereabouts. It always blew on the mountain front. We are the mountain hiney. I guess it’s the winds of change. I doubt we’ll ever arrive but come hell or high water we are going to make the journey!
Hanging together is so much better than hanging alone!
As well as all the other Substack writers out there; the ones I follow are so knowledgable and they illuminate and magnify all that is happening, especially the ones with legal backgrounds. If I had to depend on just news organizations, even the good ones, I would either quickly lose interest or just not have the patience to go deeper. I love what good journalism is but I want to know what it MEANS, if that makes sense.
Makes perfect sense, Carol.
Salud!
🗽💜🌲
Amen!
Yes Janet of Colorado. She is indeed as you picture her. A jewel, The Heatherstone. The many faceted dimensional time traveler who’s footsteps traverse the ages, leaving footprints across the pages of great writers and historians on their way back to us full circle.
Heather gems are really beautiful, but a Heatherstone is found on the Maine seashore exclusively.
Not. Although the scenery here makes one draw breath and elicits silence, I on the other hand am a fat short oldish carpenter with a tiny little sawmill. No bard, alas. I am, however swamped with orders here in Idaho for my all original two story outhouses designed for my many many many Republican friends. The model is “ the Race for the Top”. I also have it in a cheaper model I call “ Oh Crap!” I guess that would be a better place for my poetry.
I found it difficult to once again see video of the attempt to destroy our democracy; the attacks on officers and the nearness of the assault to Congress-people gives me goosebumps every time. I have so much anger for the orange person and his supporters, I am continually confounded that anyone can believe his lying attempt to destroy our democracy! Thank you once again Heather, for wrapping today’s hearing up in a tidy letter for future generations to understand.
More, how could ANYONE sit for nearly THREE HOURS and watch the carnage. And do nothing, which he had the power to stop.
It is merely one more example of his utter indifference. For that crime, I would have him vaporized.
I think he was full bore cheering them on rather than indifferent, relishing the destruction and mayhem committed in his name. To me it’s of utmost importance that those in support, including the RNC leadership, are fully prosecuted alongside.
Ooooo! Vaporized. We should add that to our Constitution for sedition and traitors and replace hanging. It is not really the death penalty, it is just transforming them into a new set of molecules, right? They still exist, but are less bothersome for the Union and our health. And, they would require no guards or maintenance fees for life. Bless them with The Force and vaporize...maybe into their alternative reality?
Many years ago, I encountered that solution in a sci-fi short story... where certain criminals were deemed to have no value to society and/or could not be rehabilitated. I believe T**** meets both of those criteria.
Soylent green would suffice. In lieu of the climate we could all stand to review that 1973 movie, which predicted conditions in NYC in 2022.
I like the way you think, James. Keep it simple.
It's a regular symptom of his malignant narcissism. Those afflicted with this mental disease have NO empathy and see others only as tools for them to use or destroy in their own self-glorification.
Sadly, the man only called for peace and quiet after it was clear his coup failed.
I am with you Gwen. I was driving to an appointment yesterday when the Jan 6 committee began this report. I listened again to the violent recordings of the horrific January 6th insurrection. It is shocking, nauseating, so frightening and traumatizing.I can’t wrap my head around the lack of ACCOUNTABILITY for T***p and his enablers. We all saw what happened!
This report confirms what we all saw and heard with our own eyes and ears on January 6th. The DOJ must finally act forcefully with no further delay.
I feel for Merrick Garland, who has been placed between a rock and a hard place. He has no choice but to issue criminal indictments for T**** and several dozen of his minions (some of whom are still seated in the Congress). Godspeed, Mr. Attorney General.
"These are the times that try men's souls." Thom Paine
Would that Thom were alive today and had a megaphone as big as FOX'S! He'd give Tucker a run for his money!
As I was watching the final hearing today, my first reaction/emotion was one of renewed anger and outrage. As I continued watching, I found myself in tears. I felt incredibly sad that the events of January 6 actually happened, but even more sad that we are here, nearly two years removed from the events with absolutely no accountability for the leaders.
Now I am back to anger with the knowledge that an enormous amount of money has been raised predicated on the basis of a blatant lie.
I feel like I have PTSD as my sense of right/wrong and fairness are assaulted daily because the perpetrators of these heinous acts have not been (and may not be) punished.
My sentiments and raw emotions are the same as yours Cathy. If justice is not officially served after the J6 Committee has so meticulously laid out the crimes of the richest, the biggest then how can anyone ever be found accountable for anything? How?
Yes, I agree with you. Unbelievable.
Cathy and Pat: my sentiments exactly! I feel hopeless for justice and so very despondent. PTSD exactly!!!
You describe my feelings too, Cathy.
Same here!
Along with the perpetrators at the top, does anyone know of any ongoing investigations into the actions of law enforcement that day who did NOT involve themselves in trying to stop the rioters? Maybe internal investigations? Forgive me if this has been mentioned before, but we have also seen the involvement of military veterans and law enforcement in the rise of antisemitism and white nationalist propaganda. That worries me as much as anything else.
Cathy, those are exactly my thoughts.
Cathy . . . This is just the beginning. Do not despair. We have now seen courage rear it's head in this Committee, and that will help others to find their own.
Trump deserves to be in jail along with all the other schmucks who believed his lies and attacked Congress and have been sentenced accordingly, leaving behind shattered lives. Thank you Jan 6 Committee and thank you Heather for helping us understand the ramifications every step
of the way.
For the foot soldiers to go to jail, and tRump remain free is unconscionable. He and his henchmen planned and executed traitorous acts. He was going to STEAL the presidency, for God's sake. He incited predisposed people to violence. They left when he called them off. John Brown was hanged for attacking an armory at Harper's Ferry. Why is tRump's behavior different?
I hope the fake electors and Rona McDaniel are charged quickly. The accused and guilty will turn states witness and expose another layer of the fraud and its conspiracy. Rona represents the money. Who told her to pursue Eastman’s plot? TFG or wealthy donors? Which ones? Charge them too.
We need more information from Salesforce.com between the election and J6. Rona McDaniel with Salesforce.com deployed a fundraising email/text/ personal solicitation campaign based on the big lie. That is fraud. She organized the false elector scam. That is fraud, conspiracy, and sedition. She organized big donors to fly their jets full of rabid supporters to DC for J6. Rona McDaniel helped fundraise and organized TFG’s coup. Roger Stone organized, led, gave unofficial credibility to the militias, as the TFG’s representative giving them an unofficial deputy protected status. John Eastman provided legal cover with extra help from Justice Clarence Thomas via wife Ginni. 36 Congress critters plus Senators pressured the state legislatures to change votes, offer false electors, and more! Fu&&&&&&&&&&&ck what a rabbit hole to go down.
One of the biggest 'rat nests' is based in Ohio - the long vaunted 'swing state', yet conspicuously ignored. Ohio has been my adopted home for about 65 years or so, and if I am nothing else, I'm a fairly astute observer / collector of facts in evidence. I so long to see Jordan led away in cuffs once tried thoroughly and fairly.
Certainly, foolish and ignorant "schmucks" believed Trump's lies. But what is far worse is that villains such as Gym Jordan USED his lies.
Which is even scarier and more deserving of punishment!
We have just seen two governments threatened with a take down by goons and thugs. Peru and Germany. Those perps were arrested and are now confined. How this has taken us two YEARS is frustrating and discouraging. We all saw our version of goons and thugs attacking our precious democracy. On TV. Now we need to see ON TV, 45 and his goons in handcuffs being led away for permanent banishment from society. It’s called PRISON.
There has been more than 600+ people indicted for their involvement with the January 6 insurrection.
But now we’ve got to get the big guy and his fellow enablers (traitors). I would like to see justice served not like Nixon, who got away with not being  prosecuted. But I’m not holding my breath!
A republican president forgave a republican president. Nixon was always a crook and evil doer, just like Dump. We must demand 45 be prosecuted. This is not the 70’s….in our society some people ARE above the law, but not this time, Kids.
Last Thursday I flew home from Munich. Armed police carrying automatic weapons patrolling the airport wearing vests bulging with … stuff. (THAT is a frightening sight.) Extra random security checks. My son got selected for a “random” (lots of random things) check after we got through the first two. He was gone for 20-30 minutes while they emptied his backpack and carryon and went through his phone! He said the German agents told him more than once “don’t blame us; the US government requires this.” Our flight attendant, sitting across from us at takeoff, said the US does NOT require this kind of search. It was likely a reaction to the coup plotters Germany arrested the week before. A small taste of life in the US under Dictator tfg.
Lordy
Totally agree. While I think the January 6th Committee has done a highly professional job, they have been doing Merrick Garlands work for him. The DOJ could have arrested Trump and dozens of Republican House members/traitors a year ago. We saw his crimes on TV. We have heard him admit guilt for stolen documents on top of that. Cuff him!
Again, I have nothing but respect for the Committee. They have created a public historically important document for the ages. But Trump should be in prison along with Eastman and crew. By now they could have been convicted...maybe awaiting sentencing, simply put busted!
Goons and thugs and some of the Uber wealthy.
This talk of “no one is above the law” is getting to rub me the wrong way. If the creeps 45 has surrounded himself with get away with this, I am not sure what I will think….
There are two million people sitting in prisons all over the country, so you would think the “system” could have figured out how to arrest the “freaking criminals” you mention and keep the rest of us safe from their evil acts, which are ongoing. OMG.
I would love to start a progressive political party that only allows women to be in charge. All the elected officers, reps, senators, etc. Men just get it wrong, every time!
The teenager who robs a Kwik Mart doesn't have dark money support, influential oligarchs, bribed politicians, lobbyists, and armies of lawyers---LARGE armies---to protect him from punishment.
Exactly Ed.
Read NYT today. Wells Fargo paid money, and those who actually did the crime were never punished and got to keep the loot they obtained through their malfeasance. Not a one of the Congress persons who signed on to overturn the election has even been mentioned. "We protect our own" among the wealthy and connected yields a type of "justice" rotten to the core.
I saw the movie, but I never read the book.
I'm about halfway through the report. a lot of clarification of what is already public, but I love the way it's packaged. nobody can complain of legalese or vagaries or subjectivity. I really hope DOJ moves quickly on this.
Ralph Welton quickly in deed. I keep hearing the echo of Michael Moore’s piece on the 14th Amendment to The Constitution. These crimes that are so clearly documented that day for anyone that can see or hear and then the summation of the facts .... if charges are not filed and justice served how can our Democracy survive? When and how can this insanity end?
I hope so too, but I foresee a lot of heel-dragging at the DoJ.
Talia, agreed. It would take years to prosecute a case this size.
What it takes is evidence. Like the wiretaps that Rudy Giuliani and the FBI employed to prosecute five mob bosses circa 1980. What we have in Trump and his Confederates is a racket, being run to generate income. Trump Tower was built, like so many other buildings in NYC in that era, with a 2% payoff to the mob. Rudy Giuliani is an expert at avoiding RICO charges. And that’s why Trump employed Giuliani.
William, that's true. Ghouliani may look like a nut, but he knows what to do when he has to.
The Committee presentations have been thoughtful, verbally impressive, no waste of words, no grandstanding. It shows what people with brains who are elected to public office can do, and it gives me hope that we will be able in the future to discern the best and the brightest who will work to preserve the America we respect and love. As for Trump, only limitless punishment is enough for him, in my book.
I believe the days of honest and intelligent legislators is behind us now that there is so much money to be made for this position. Many, if not most, of today’s legislators are bought and paid for by special interests. They no longer even try to act like they are there to represent the interests of the people who elect them.
And yet, there are people like Katie Porter and Jim McGovern and ... the list of competent, caring legislators who are not beholden to special interests goes on and on. The sad fact is that there are few, if any, Republicans on that list.
Perhaps requiring disclosure of the sources of all "free speech" dollars would be a start toward repealing the Citizens United decision if the evidence of the malevolence of undisclosed donation hasn't become clear enough yet.
Sadly I must agree
Too true, Cathy.
I like that, Frank: “only limitless punishment is enough for him, in my book.” My book, too.
Each time I watch a J6 hearing I’m disgusted all over again. Today’s was excellent. I can’t say I believe the JD will actually do much but one can hope….right?!!!
I share your disgust but believe the Justice Department will hammer Trump into submission.
I hope you’re right.
From your lips to....
Don't be so sure. Biden is very weak.
Guy- can you expand on your statement? How do you see Biden as weak? Are you referring to poll numbers? Are you referring to his restraint to not engage in mudslinging and petty insults with trump? Are you referring to his discipline and resolve to run the country and let the J6 committee and DOJ do their job without perceived political involvement from the Whitehouse?
Perhaps you’ve lost sight of the actual job and commitment a president has sworn to uphold. The last administration certainly perverted the office of president and all it represents .
I don’t see weakness from Biden at all. I see the strength of a president who knows what it means to be president and conducts himself in that manner. I see a man working in this country and around the world to restore respect and dignity to this country and to the office.
How do you back up your remarks?
Guy,
Biden is not weak.
American justice is just weak to non-existent where rich, white men are concerned.
Hundreds of white men crashed the entire economy in 2008, hundreds, and one white woman, Martha Stewart, went to jail.
So, don't blame Biden for the foundations of America.
But Biden is such a target for those in need of a target. Go Joe, keep on being a decent, capable and patriotic politician. The thing Reagan pretended to be but it was just a role to be played for ultimate academy award. And many still buy the phony baloney.
Biden is a target because he is a real man.
McCarthy is not a target because he is a craven coward.
In today's America, truly strong men like Biden, who obey the law, honor their wives, step up to bullies like Putin and Trump?
Well, Sean Hannity is so afraid of them that he villifies them four hours a day.
But, it is Sean Hannity that is weak. Not Biden.
Compared to his predecessor, he is a man of steel. Joseph R. Biden will be remembered as one of the finest, toughest, most compassionate Presidents in our nation's history. He will also be remembered for honoring and respecting the various divisions of our government. He is SMART enough and has the ethics in place to not impose his will on an independent DOJ.
I did not vote for Biden in the primary. But I will be forever grateful that he has been our President.
Dems would do well not to undermine him because of his age, he has delivered against the toughest odds.
Bill,
WHAT YOU SAID! Here, here!
You call a guy smart who attended a third rate law school, graduated 78th out of 79, then didn’t have have an original idea in 40 years in Congress
Cruz and DeathSantis went to Harvard. And they are hardly "smart".
But I may have erred using smart for Biden. Probably should have been level headed, brilliant, respectful or wise. Yeah, let's go with wisdom.
Biden has no hand to play in this. Merrick Garland is in control.
James, I think Jack Smith is now in control. I am holding my breath….I think we are going to get a big Christmas present this year….or early in the New Year. Save some champagne!
From what I have read about Jack Smith, there will be decisive recommendations to the AG to prosecute 45. He has a sterling reputation. And as an aside, people who have worked with him have no idea what his political persuasion is. He is a prosecutorial machine.
I have a special bottle of bubbly in our funky wine cellar (just a basement) with someone's name on it.
I got a much needed smile out of your "funky wine cellar (just a basement)" as out "wine cellar" is in our basement as well--it hold our son's college fridge (he graduated 8 years ago) which we repurposed to hold our wine. Nothing over $12/bottle, we are hardly connoisseurs!
Guy believes Biden's weak. But Guy probably also believes that Trump was both strong and competent, rather than grasping and wholly out of his depth.
Then he must worship Rupert, hahahaha
Quizt, you are as dumb as Biden
Biden is not weak. The pubs would like to have you believe that.
He is dark Brandon.
GO JOE!
There are people who don't know how to read clues. You obviously are one of them.
Weak exactly how? He took office during a crushing global pandemic, economic turmoil, deep political division, and an evenly split Senate. Yet he's accomplished more than any president since arguably FDR. And he's restored badly frayed relations with key allies and helped to prevent Russia from taking over Ukraine. And as others have pointed out, he's governed with compassion. Right person at the right time.
Do not confuse bluster with power, or dignity with weakness.
Unfortunately I think what usually happens is not too much to the big guys Maybe getting him on lesser tax fraud and maybe taking presidential records. Maybe some of his buddies will go down as the ring leaders. Two years down the road now and those accomplices still in congress is what worries me most and now they control the house. Unless DOJ goes after them they still wave the flag.
I may lose all faith in “law & order” if he gets away with the documents case. It’s so clear cut. Yes, it does seem like most of the rich and powerful get away with everything. Much different justice system for us “regular” people.
The "documents case" or as Substack's Jay Kuo calls it, the `NARA Lago" case, will be the first case prosecuted by Jack Smith. Conviction bars tfg from holding "any office". Down stream national security fallout is the only potential delay I can see once all recoverable stolen documents are recovered.
The J6 case has a mountain of transcripts & exhibits to analyze. On the "fake electors" schemes, Jack Smith has already served seven (7) subpoenas to parties in the targeted states. The Perps documented their own felonies with formal filings with the Feds.
Isn’t it plausible that tfg had already photocopied all of the documents? Maybe that’s why he kept stalling and they came in little by little.
Seems possible that tfg photocopied some of the documents although some appear to be ORIGINAL documents that should have been returned . See for example, Yahoo News Insider reporter, Joshua Zitzer's, 9/3/22 report with photos showing an empty but, ORIGINAL, jacket marked "classified" along with an original "Situation Room" pamphlet in the "45 Themed Bar" at Trump Tower on public display in open sight.
Yes!
I meant that he had plenty of time to have the originals copied before returning them. We still don’t know how many are still in tfg’s possession. What has he done with any/all of them? What will he do with them?
There is no rule of law without public integrity.
Since we seem to have a deficit of public integrity then there is no rule of law. So where does that leave us?
Raise the bar of "public sentiment" I think. Perhaps above all promote a collective will to get big lies and excessive money out of politics. It's the one ring to control them all. Even the urgency of constructive responses to climate change, among many other problems is hobbled by the outsized social power of lies and money. Recall that enough Republicans, long ago, were prepared to convict Nixon, and while not excusing or minimizing Nixon's abuses of power, his crimes look tame compared to what we have seen in subsequent decades, especially Bush II and Trump. Enough of us must decide that lies betray all of us, and some things should never, ever be for sale.
Touche JL. Salud !
We are left with the greater burden. To be stronger, more fully informed, unwaveringly resolute towards a greater good; motivated not by anything so petty as a want for vengeance - only for justice and accountability for ourselves and posterity. That's just my humble opinion Evelyn..
With the weakest president in American history
Oh, ye Foxers. Never learn
No, Guy, not the weakest president;
the MOST CORRUPT president in American history!
Guy Saperstein - you still haven't back this up with anything.
“Laws are spider webs through which the big flies pass and the little ones get caught.”
- Balzac
I want his accomplices in Congress indicted.
Me too. I cannot understand why the House doesn't have the most prominent & outspoken Representatives who were actively involved in the plot, arrested and at the very least, unseated from their office. They should NOT be a part of the very government that they tried to overturn. They are TRAITORS.
Totally agree with you!
Evelyn, I agree with you. I don't think the DOJ will take a case this size. I think we are at the point of being done with thinking anything that will ever happen to Trump or his allies. We are days away from the Republican controlled House and new Congress. All we are ever going to hear is Hunter Biden and subpoenas coming from the GOP for anyone that betrayed trump for rest of our lives.
Oh ye of little faith. You underestimate both the attorney general and his special counsel. Jack Smith just came back from prosecuting war criminals (real criminals, a lot tougher than this orange poseur), and he's going to go after T**** like a mad dog. I am looking forward to the eventual imprisonment of the former guy.
I really have to agree. Jack Smith will get the job done. People forget how long it took for Nixon's staff to be brought to justice. Nixon himself would have too without the Ford pardon. There will be no pardon from Biden.
Drumpf is certainly a "poseur", however he is also a "real criminal". His crimes are real and every bit as nasty as any war criminal. People have died because of his lies and incitement of violence; he deserves the exactly same kind of punishment meted out to those who commit crimes during wars and conflicts. If his punishment is greater than the usual run of white collar criminal, it is because the trust he betrayed was far greater and weightier than any garden variety white collar criminal.
I am going to keep the faith and hope with all my heart that T***p and all those involved in enabling him will be held accountable for their actions.
👋 👋 👋 👋 👋 👋 👋
I’m still holding out hope that SOMETHING will stick to the Teflon Don!
Trump will face federal criminal charges for his attempted coup. First up, though, will be state charges in Georgia for interfering in the election. A wild card is possible federal charges for financial crimes in New York, which have been filed many month about if the district attorney there, Alvin Bragg, had courage.
Sure hope the false electors and Rona are indicted real soon. Facing federal prison time they will sing, and up the food chain we go.
What a great succinct summary, Heather! My kudos. I'm still wishing that Ginny Thomas would be one of the referrals by the committee to the DOJ and defang her husband, Justice Thomas. Do like that they referred DT to the DOJ. I had always wondered why the Constitution says High Crimes and Misdemeanors. Misdemeanor -- a minor crime -- can be grounds for impeachment? In my research on this I found that in British law at the time the Constitution was written British elected officials were held to a higher standard when it came to crimes because of the impact they could have on the general populace. So even a misdemeanor by an elected official becomes a major crime against the country. We, the People, all of us this time with Justice for all.
Real consequences for the insurrectionists - all of them, this time.
So many crimes, so little time
"...contested Democratic candidate Joe Biden’s victories in court—losing 61 times"
Nobody says it better than Randy Rainbow:
Joe Biden has won this election so many times he is now the 67th president of the United States.
(5:22 PM · Dec 11, 2020)
https://twitter.com/randyrainbow/status/1337568568247001095
Yes, that's very Randy Rainbow. :)
omg, YES!
Let's imagine an alternate but plausible history. Picture Trump leading a phalanx of armed insurrectionist to the Capitol and cheering them on as they bludgeon police and break into the building. All on national TV.
Then what? Ordered forward by Trump, the rabble manages to capture members of Congress and even Mike Pence. Does Trump, like some Roman emperor, give the the thumbs up or thumbs down when the hangman's noose is tightened around Pence's neck?
Thankfully, the Secret Service didn't yield to Trump's demands — despite Trump having to some degree corrupted the organization.
Perhaps in his latter days, preferably in prison but likely confined to Mar-a-Lago, Trump will dwell only in the false reality he prefers: himself dressed in the Superman-like costume with bulging muscles he never had and vanquishing his enemies with laser-beam eyes.
Michael, if the punishment actually fits the crime(s), Trump will never see Mar-a-Lago again, and we won't see him again.
Wish he would get no special treatment. I like the image of him shuffling around the prison and muttering about no hamburgers. But I've read that conventional prison would be too much of a security risk. Maybe he'll end up in a specially modified section of one of the white-collar federal prisons but isolated.
Well jeez, Michael, the Guy's not Hannibal Lecter! The other prisoners would be safe enough.
I think the snazzy pen south of Canyon City, CO would be the right ticket for our former.... whatever. It may even have flush toilets.
Hannibal Lector — not that's funny. The security risk fear is him selling secrets to prisoners who are intermediaries. Of course what is that shrinking, drug-addled brain capable of remembering?
Well, Michael, at least you got that I was trying to be funny. On a more serious note... If Trump is trying to traffic defense secrets to the Russians or whatever, I would suspect someone is keeping an eye on him by now, unless that cat is already out of the bag. More likely he's waiting for a high bid on the love letters to Kim Jong-Un. I'm waiting to see if he can keep his act going from a maximum security cell. I have my doubts.
One of the best punishments would be to deprive him of a phone. He loves to hear himself talk. Also, I hope some creative graphic artist produces a mock Trump card showing him in prison garb and cleaning toilets.
"Quick Melania, help me carry this solid gold toliet to Trump Force 1, we need to escape to Venezula before Jack Smith gets back!"
I too have often wondered what would have happened if tRump had gone to the Capital as he had planned.
What would have happened If the GOP didn't bus in protestors to floriduh and Gore didn't throw in the towel?
This haunts me
My main take away from Heather's teachings: we are all here but for a moment in time. (I NEVER gave history a speck of interest in my youth, give me the wonders of biology please!)
Like Iraq and Afghanistan haunt Mike Flynn. If Gore wouldnt have conceded, and became President, maybe we wouldnt have those wars and we wouldn't have a paranoid crazy Mike Flynn organizing J6 Coup de'tat.
Another Rat F op orchestrated by Roger Stone.
I felt that if Trump had made it to the capital the mob would not have left and that was clearly his intention. The Secret Service saved us
If TFG went to the Captial, with the Secret Service vs the Captial Police. It would have either succedded or become a masacre.
Michael,
If Trump does not go to Federal Prison then that would be a crime against America.
I hope I'm wrong. Prison time — likely to the end of his life — is the deterrence we need. But will a judge or judges factor in his "prestige" as a former, albeit highly destructive president? And will they worry about inciting his cult followers?
Wow...and I just skimmed this! Thank you so much for the link....scary shit
Hartman's summary is really good. I thought of something else reading it concerning how the Rioters would be justified by TFG and his Radical Right GOP'ers, because the storyline : counter protesters of Antifa would be claimed as the real ones fighting the Police and MAGA rioters where just "peaceful protesters''. When in reality the MAGA Rioters were the only ones attacking the Capital Police. Is this called a "false flag"? This type of psy-op is uniquely Russian and fascist, is it not? Just like how Putin frames the invasion of Ukraine: the Ukrainian Govt is full of "Nazi's" that hate Russians and oppress Russian speaking Ukrainians ( which is not true) in order to justify his invasion and destruction of them when his "Little Green Men" are counter attacked by Ukrainian Armed Forces. It is really similar and evil, these "political fictions", is it not? Maybe just another thing Paul Manafort learned and brought home from spending more than a decade working for Putin in Ukraine and Eastern Europe. Something very similar happened called the Riechstag Fire in Nazi Germany that led to Hilter gaining power with emergency powers to placate national fear of "comunist threat" that burned down the Reichstag (German Captial Building). What dirty rotten scoundrels! I'm curious if anyone else sees these historical parallels.
I don’t think Russians “helped” plan the J6 attack. But they have seeded the type of rhetoric around it, and added enough propaganda via an open internet on our side ( theirs is closed like China) to radicalize enough Americans to believe the political fiction like the big lie, the paranoia, the conspiracies, and the normalization of the nastyness.
Manafort was consulting Yanocovich, former president of Ukraine during the Mandane ( not due on spelling) (civil protest when he refused to proceed joining the EU and turned towards Russia and EurAsia sentiment. Yanokovich used similar confusing story lines describing the protestors and the violence that his riot police inflicted on the students and young people. There are too many parallels to mention, but the sides were reversed. Protests, riots, spinning the narrative of who was at fault etc.
Thank you for a concise recap of today's hearing. I watched a News TV recap tonight but the politics and joking among the commentators gets exhausting. I thought of the term KISS...
I have just been watching these live on c span with no commentators. other than a look at Heather's tweets. I ve learned to do this for all major events
I found CSPAN delightful….it was a respite to think about what was being said by the committee members, all so eloquent and intelligent. I couldn’t agree more.