Too little, too late. I'm feeling very sad about the relief package that was passed in the Senate last night. I think of all the lives lost, and all the food insecurity, and all the people distraught with figuring how to hold onto their homes. And, it only happened because McConnell felt he had to do it so he would not lose his power position of obstruction. Seven months since the House passed their bill. And, the checks which McConnell didn't want won't even arrive before Christmas. We can't have anyone have such unilateral power in the government of the People. Nor should we tolerate one party take all power. If a party gets 51% of the vote, they shouldn't get 100% of the committee chairs; this winner take all stuff has to stop. And, term limits have to start for members of Congress and the Justices and Judges of the courts. But then it isn't a government of the People most of the time, is it? Patron and Party over Country and Constituents. No. It won't do. So sad.
I agree with you, Cathy, as well. I have students at my little elementary school who have come so close to being evicted from the hotel they are living in, our school community has bailed them out three times. There are families of five and seven living in hotel rooms meant for one or two business travelers. I would really love to have McConnell and his wife live there for a few months, on one of my students’ family budgets, with one working car. It fills me with rage sometimes, the thought of McConnell and Barr and dense Pence in their fat cat lives, withholding relief aid, while my little students are going to school online, hungry, under their blankets in their packed hotel rooms.
What helps me is this quote from James Baldwin: People pay for what they do, and still more for what they have allowed themselves to become. And they pay for it very simply; by the lives they lead.
My students are far, far better people than the empty shells in the Republican Party who have furthered this misery.
But is that any comfort to them, Jeanne, that they're better people? I certainly hope so, but how can children comprehend that? I feel only outrage and hopelessness when I read stories like yours, and many blessings and thanks to you for continuing to Teach. You, like the frontline healthcare workers, are the real Heroes in this year especially.
Beth, thank you! I had to respond one more time as I was responding on the fly and hit “post” too quickly. I share your outrage for sure. I haven’t figured out how to make a bigger difference at my local level by somehow getting through to people at the Federal level. I so hope that our new administration will make a big difference!
Jeanne, you and every teacher out there are to be highly commended. Your heart is certainly there with your students. They know you care about each and every one of them.
My parents were victims of the Holocaust. Of course, they suffered with that for many years but they were bound and determined to persevere. They did and so will these children. They will be our future and it will be them who will right the wrongs. Bless you and I wish you safe holidays.
Thank you for being a teacher and for being in a community that has helped these families. To see this tragedy first-hand must be especially painful. I agree with you 100%. The perpetrators of this cruel crime need to experience this deprivation in their own lives.
Thank you, Pamsy. I joined this public school last year, after many years of working in a Catholic school. I loved that school, too, and that community was generous, too, from a distance. Now, I am proximate to the poor and it has changed my life for the better. The will and resilience of our families has humbled and motivated me to live a leaner, more purposeful life. I want to help change things systemically.
You embody all that I admire in this work that needs to be done. You are on the “front lines” where it is the most painful. I shrink away from the harshness and cruelty and do my little bit from the comfort of the home I hope I can keep. Thank you, again, for all that you do and for who you are.
Pamsy, I hope you can keep your home, too! You are so kind. I know I have landed in a special place. We need everyone, every role is important. Yours, too! Senator Paul Wellstone said, “We all do better when we all do better.”
Wow, Jeanne. I just read this aloud to my husband because it is such a clear visual of what is taking place. I'm so sorry for your students. And no matter the bravery they (must) exhibit now, who knows what effect this will have on them in the long run. They're children! My parents were teens during the Depression, and they never got over it, but neither of them had it as bad as the families you describe.
I worry about the long term effects of this poverty as well. Some of the older children have an air of defeat about them, others, defiance. The youngest still have hope, even trust. It pulls at your heart every day.
I worry about the long term effects of this poverty as well. Some of the older children have an air of defeat about them, others, defiance. The youngest still have hope, even trust. It pulls at your heart every day.
It is so good to hear your school community has helped your students and their families. That is the real America. That is how real wealth should be measured in one's generosity to one's community.
Agree, Cathy. I received an email yesterday from Senator Warner, my senator from Virginia, asking what top priority issue I want him to focus on. I replied to keep focusing on COVID-19 relief. IMO, getting Warnock and Ossoff elected will really help to achieve this.
I recently wrote Marsha Blackburn, Chief Trump Sycophant, and god back a form letter about trump being entitled to all legal avenues for to protest the election. Waste of time. However, my letter to editor was published, echoing one published earlier about her lack of interest in her constituents. So ... one for the team?
Lynell, I'll be sending Senator Cornyn, my senator, the same message later this morning. Hope they put some mental health provisions in all this with the stress the inaction of the Senate has caused. Both Warnock and Ossoff will make wonderful Senators... and we need them!
Keep sending the letters. The letters are meaningful to a Senator especially if they are not form letters. The staff maintains a count of the letters received on numerous topics and reports every morning on the count. They respond with a form letter only because responding to individually to hundreds or thousands of letters is impossible. But the impact of the letters is significant. Phone calls are even more powerful.
Yes, they have to keep a tally of phone calls they receive. Make certain each call is about another subject. These calls drive them crazy which is great!!
I keep writing. Yes, I don't bother with Senator Cruz. But, I figure they at least keep statistics about the emails they get and it will at least enter into their calculations for how to get reelected. And, perhaps my words will seed some new perspective in whoever reads them to pick the right canned reply.
Now that is disgusting! It is probably because they have to spend 70% of their time talking to the donors for the legalized corruption of campaign financing.
My Nevada Senators both send out comprehensive surveys regularly and respond to email and written correspondence; a former student of mine is an aide to one of them. We are very fortunate to have these two trustworthy women serving our state and nation!
You are indeed fortunate. I received a personal note from Beto O'Rourke's staff when I sent him feedback on his campaign. A good, sincere person with a very good staff.
They are quite rare. The senators from Indiana share a form letter file which is sent by an aide and, on rare occasions, has something remotely to do with the topic of the letter they were sent. They've also taken to having their office phones go direct to voice mail so, if they choose, they can completely insulate themselves from any constituent input that isn't in the comment portion of a check.
Yes, I am, indeed fortunate. I never could get a proper response from Dean Heller. Both Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen do good work for Nevada and are responsive to all their constituents. 💙
I find surveys that I get from candidates are worded with such bias they aren't worth answering. Good surveys are very hard to compose. The Senators vote 95% of the time with their big donors, not with what the people want.
It IS sad but it is also a start. It's better than nothing at all. It also seems calculated on McConnell's part to maintain his position. I hope the voters in Georgia rebuke him.
I would love to see all high-ups in the execitive branch (and ideally elsewhere) required to spend one month a year at the lowest level position in their department - generals as privates, etc - preferably starting before they take on the high office. Anyone in Congress should have to spend a month as an 'essential' worker and live on minimum wage pay. They forget the lives they are supposed to represent.
Maybe we should stop voting for billionaires who try to convince you they can relate to your life and situation. Terms limits would be a useful first step.
It takes a lot of money to run for office these days. Until we cure that, we will be stuck with mostly wealthy politicians. We also need to stop thinking that any yahoo can run government and recognize politics as a profession. I strongly disagree about term limits. We need people who understand the processes & have experience in charge. Would you let me fix the brakes on your car? My background is in accounting & computers but I'm sure I can watch a YouTube video to learn to do your brakes!
I agree with you about term limits and the skill of politics. To kick someone out of office when they finally understand how to do the job effectively makes no sense to me. It also empowers lobbyists, who have no term limits and gain power over time, and probably much prefer dealing with green politicians over seasoned veterans. The best term limit for a corrupt politician is an engaged and aware electorate and a vigorous free press.
While I see your point, I rather like the Texas system of having the Texas Legislature meet for only five months every other year. That way you get people from many backgrounds and expertise. No term limits other than you can't make a living being a member of the Texas Congress. It was the original intent of the Founders to not have professional politician class as an aristocracy. So, how do you solve the campaign financing questions, what I would call legalized corruption? Grass roots funding has been more lucrative these past few years. Heavens, DT have raked in over $200 million dollars AFTER the election with which he can do anything he wants. And, corporations should not have the rights of people essentially to skew the vote with huge contributions through PACs. Money from corporations is not the same as a First Amendment right of a person. I speak as a retired executive of a Fortune 100 corporation, a highly ethical one, where I certainly recognize the value of experience at each level of management, for instance. But, yes, I might let you fix my brakes if there is a test to check that it was done properly and reliably for instance. Brain surgery, no.
I would like to see them all cleaning public bathrooms and picking up trash along roadsides during their many vacations for their entire terms of office, keeping them real. Also no more special congressional health plans.
Good idea. Congress persons are actually on Obamacare, but their plans are almost completely paid for by the taxpayers. They should get Social Security like anyone else, no special pensions. That would get Social Security secured real fast.
The Republicans in Congress, especially Mr. McConnell, own all of this. Every action or inaction of the Trump Administration since the Senate voted to acquit on impeachment, through to inauguration, hangs around the necks of congressional Republicans, especially Mr. McConnell.
Since McConnell and many other Republicans were recently re-elected, we have a picture of how many of our fellow citizens, often waving an American flag, feel about democratic governance.
"Democracy for me, not for you."
To the former public supporters of Trump now seeking to "put some water" between themselves and the President, you're many days late and many dollars short.
I agree and IMO, they cannot be reformed or forgiven.
February 5, 2020 - the day Trump was acquitted by the Senate - was the final line in the sand for me. Those who sided with him on that date are stained.
The same applies for those member of the House who voted against his Impeachment on December 18, 2019.
What followed those decisions by the members of the Party of Trump was foreseeable. They were knowing and willing accomplices to Trump's behavior.
We will need something akin to a Truth Commission, non-partisan and empowered to search where the evidence leads them, to document the presidency of Donald Trump and the extent to which he and his party facilitated the undermining of our system of checks and balances and our election system.
Such a commission should recommend changes that need to be made to our laws in order to prevent anything like this from happening again.
I believe this is something worth supporting. Perhaps, those of us in this forum who share this view, might consider this a suitable course of action going forward and would be interested in researching how such a commission could be constituted. I am on board with the idea and would be interested to know how others feel about the viability of such a project.
I am right there with you and have talked about a T&C-type body for months. I used to be a mediator and I would gladly do whatever necessary. A commission would remove this from Biden admin who, however important we think finding the fractures that allowed trump to survive, has too many existing crises demanding its attention, some life and death.
If you would like to move forward with this, let’s talk. This email address (adpropono@gmail.com) was set up exclusively for the purpose of continuing this discussion. I look forward to hearing from you.
I share your view, and I would help with such a mission in any way I could. At best, we would instigate changes; at worst, we would gain knowledge and skill.
If you would like to move forward with this, let’s talk. This email address (adpropono@gmail.com) was set up exclusively for the purpose of continuing this discussion. I look forward to hearing from you.
Let's not forget to put the recent list of state AsG and Republican members of Congress who signed Amicus curiae on the lawsuit to the Supreme Court to throw out millions of votes in the swing states to the list who voted against Impeachment.
If you would like to move forward with this, let’s talk. This email address (adpropono@gmail.com) was set up exclusively for the purpose of continuing this discussion. I look forward to hearing from you.
(Not sure how the reply function works - who it reaches - so forgive me if you are receiving this more than once.)
There's a question as to how honest McConnell's "re-election" was. Thousands and thousands of Democrats voted for Biden for President and then "split their ticket" to vote for him. R-i-i-i-g-g-h-t....
I'm convinced. Now what? I will forward the story to my 100% Blue Ct congressional delegation, Sens. Murphy & Blumenthal, Rep. Hayes, but we're going to be stuck with McConnell I fear.
McConnell is a conniver through and through. I wondered how Kentuckians would vote for two dem governors with a very unpopular, one-term Repub sandwiched Between them, and re-elect McConnell. I hear it’s the $$ he bRings to the state. He arranged for a rolling mill to be built in Ashland with Oleg Deripaska’s money.
He does bring in money into his state but most goes into his pocket. He has more poor indigent people in KY than any state in the union. Someone on here gave him the moniker “McMurderer”. A perfect name for him!
Too many people fall for the idiotic concept that they should seek a “ balanced” government, which results in deadlock, where they should simply be looking for a moderate government.
And, the Republican "trashing" the Democrats and making everyone believe voting for one of them is anathema, leads to this. Somehow over the next 2 years we need to change minds...i.e. the Dems are the true purveyors of democracy.
Just as interesting are the billions of dollars McConnell's wife, the head of the federal DOT, funneled into Kentucky a month or so before the election. DOT funding is the last "earmark" available, and McConnell made sure it went right where it was needed.
When panicking over an infestation of "rats" the citizens of hamelin called upon a "magic" minstrel to play a melody that would entrance the rats and he would lead them to the river to drown. The "honest burgers" reneged on their vow to pay for services rendered and you all know where the children went.
How you deal with the denoument and aftermath of a crisis says a lot about who we are. We have to be careful of what we wish for and who we follow to get there. Biden's cautious approach is part of the answer but a truth commission in which nothing is hidden is also required and this cannot be driven unilaterally by the incoming President or the existing Congress. Such a "court" must have a power of forgiveness.... but also the possibility of inflicting the punishment of disbarment from public office/legal practice and of prohibition of administrative or other forms of control of business, NGOs, finance or socio-political funds etc. This should not however preclude criminal investigation and punishment either of serious crimes under current statutes.
This is such a great idea. Someone else mentioned a Truth Commission a few days ago. Maybe HCR can advise in a future column how this could come to pass and what we could do to help make it happen.
My “feeling” is that the DC pressure cooker is starting to let off steam after 4 years and in light of current news reports. There must be so many people in all of these agencies with documents and stories they feel they can now tell. More than the McCarthy Era or Watergate, I look to post-Nazi Europe. Was there a truth commission anywhere in Germany, for example? How did that country deal with what happened? ❤️🤍💙
Basically Germany didn't deal with it. They just hung the leaders that they could get their hands on and buried their heads hoping it would go away. The first Truth Commission was in post-apartheit South Africa. It was built into the "Commonwealth Transition Agreement" from the start...initially drafted by people i knew well and sometimes worked with in Ottawa.
It wasn’t the Germans alone who buried the past. They had a lot of help from the US, UK, and France, who used former Nazis against the USSR and its allies. Read David Nasaw’s “The Last Million.” Bigots and knaves in the US government made it easier for SS veterans to emigrate here than it was for their Jewish victims.
Japan has lived with a constitutional provision of defense-only army ever since but the "militarists etc stayed put, Italy hung Mussolini and Ciano to lampposts and never ventured to guess what was the Italian for "Nurnberg, Spain lived with Franco and France let most of the Petainistas slide into anonymity. Not much to choose between them really. Zero equals zero!
So, Stuart, do you have ideas or connections with the people who created the Truth Commission in S Africa? Is there a blueprint and people who could help crate something to present to our country? I love this idea. I have been thinking for years we needed a Council of wise people or elders/youth to serve as the checks and balances, especially after seeing our checks and balances ignored by this administration and by the republicans for years.
Big money and campaign finance reform is critical. I have never been asked for so much money as during this administration. Of course, I have never been so active and diligent and our there either. It is very frustrating to pay a fair amount of taxes and then have to pay organizations, candidates of various other states in order to try to stop the madness. So many things have to change.
But what I love are the solutions being presented by people with experience that know what kinds of efforts have great potential as we ratchet forward and leave the mad king and his sychophants behind to face the music.
Robin Jett here began a email "heathersherd@gmail.com" and another person, Dooley just submitted one he created. Perhaps each one needs to have a specific purpose that folks can rally behind. (Geeze, there are words now that feel so tainted to use--such as "rally."
Penelope, I haven't had any news of my friends in Ottawa for 25 years but i can suggest a few places to start looking at the successes and failures of Truth Commissions in South Africa, New Zealand and Australia:
Well, I truly appreciate your gifts of a little light reading...thanks, Stuart! I will begin to plow through, a little, each day. I feel very small for such a big task right now! Of course, I was hoping you would have the answers and connections and I could just float on your coattails...and it would be easy!! Many thanks, sort of. ;-)
While I worry about what a mentally unstable Trump might do as his administration finally starts circling the bowl, in the long term it is his supporters that concern me. No matter what policies one might support, I just don't understand how anyone can not recognize that Trump has been a total disaster as president. It's as if his supporters live in an alternate reality, one in which our friends are our enemies, our enemies are our friends, corruption is wholesome, hate is love, failure is competence, lies are facts, truth is suspicious. In other words, they are deranged. Somehow, someway we need to convince a good number of them that they have been off the mark... far off the mark. That is a difficult challenge. Sadly, I think that it will require Republican leaders to denounce Trump. It seems, however, that too many of them are also deranged.
When I first realized DT could be the nominee in April 2016, I studied Narcissistic Personality Disorder for two weeks. Here is an article on the end stage of NPD with Jim Jones as the example that I found then.
Well-written and frightening article about NPD and Jim Jones. I lived in the Bay Area during this time and knew people who followed him. I'm concerned about what chaos tRump will be able to cause in these final weeks. If ever there was a time to invoke the 25th Amendment, this should be it.
I bet the Don would love to be considered mad rather than a criminal and get a free out of jail pass. I wonder if this is all for show. Isn't that disbelief of anything he does atrocious? He is mad with power, having to pay the piper, and people to impress, like Putin.
Mitch McConnell is terrifying. Marcy Meldahl - Thank you for this recommendation. I may try to read this although, so far, it is totally beyond me to understand how cults develop.
These reporters investigated how Moscow Mitch, deeply unpopular in his state, continues to win elections by landslides, even in counties that have voted Democratic again and again. A particular voting machine type is used in Kentucky, not the Dominion machines Trump is complaining about. Maybe Amy McGrath’s recent loss to Mitch in Kentucky was not in a free and fair election!
I read the DC Report the other day. I hope it brings about an investigation into the dirty election deeds employed by McConnell. Why in the world would blue districts vote to keep him in office?
Absolutely no reason. Amy McGrath needs to insist on an examination of the voting machines used in these Democratic counties that inexplicably went for Mitch, and those which had more voters than population eligible tovote!
Important for all to remember that no matter what happens in the next 29 days, the sun will rise on 21 January 2021, Joe Biden will be President and Kamala Harris Vice President, the pandemic will continue to rage, hospitals and healthcare workers will be overwhelmed, the economy will be in a shambles, the just passed relief bill while of some help was far short of what was needed; DJT while no longer President will remain a threat as his supporters will continue to constitute tens of millions of deranged, fact- and truth denying miscreants living amongst us, and the work of governing well, competently, and compassionately will have begun once again in the face of massive challenges.
Do not think that on the 21st of January all will be well simply because the malevolent crazy captain who has been in charge of our ship of state has relinquished the wheel. The seas will still roil and the winds will rage as the storm continues. I am and will be somewhat comforted by competence, experience, and compassion at the helm, but remain terrified by the continuing storm until the seas are calmed. Biden is a good captain but he is not Jesus standing up in the boat and becalming the seas and reassuring his deciples that all will be well, he is just a better captain in the midst of a continuing storm.
We will all need to continue to work HARD and support the new administration and their efforts to restore the soul of America. Biden and his entire administration will need the collective efforts and good work of us all. We the People govern. So get ready, the job will just have begun on 1/21/2021. It is not nearly time get to declare “Mission Accomplished.”
Right, Bruce. Better times ARE coming, but it won't be like flicking a light switch; it'll be more like slowly turning a dimmer switch to bring back the illumination. We must be patient. Till then, let's do what we can to get Ossoff and Warnock elected, to make Biden's task a helluva lot easier.
Absolutely. It will be even more tenuous a hope if Ossoff and Warnock don't get elected, though Biden is convinced he will gain traction with the Senate R's.
What a mess! I’d love to see him truly crack up and have to be taken out in that nice white coat with the really long sleeves. However, I think it’s unlikely. In fact, it has occurred to me that it is quite possible that this is an act, a ploy for him to avoid the legal issues looming on the horizon. He is just shrewd enough and arrogant enough to try it. Time will tell.
Everyone needs to remember and be continuously reminded that those “former loyalists” who are desperately trying to separate themselves from him were COMPLICIT. They must be removed from office and never trusted again. Period. Keep beating that drum for as long as it takes.
Redfield should have quit when he was advised to and still had a chance. Now he is just as complicit as the rest. No mercy for cowards. He knew that what was happening was wrong but all he could do was wring his hands. He should have at least told the truth to the public and taken his chances. There are worse things than being unemployed. Like aiding and abetting a murderous administration with your silence and inaction. Shame on him.
Outrage over Alexander’s encouragement of pursuing herd immunity is understood but we really shouldn’t be surprised. For those who were listening carefully this strategy was both obvious and also admitted publicly by this regime, almost from the very beginning. Despicable, yes. A surprise? No.
I know there really isn’t but there should be a way to remove him and inaugurate Biden and Harris immediately. He has completely abdicated his responsibilities to this nation and its people. There is much damage he can still do. We should be able to protect ourselves from this.
Lastly, it heartens me somewhat to know that the “faux media” have started to backpedal and retract some of their lying and incendiary stories about the election. I can only imagine the wailing, confusion, and gnashing of teeth by “the base” as more and more of “their” trusted public entities (news, politicians, etc) reverse course and admit they weren’t telling the truth. I hope it becomes a deafening crescendo that finally wakes them from their ignorance induced trance. Maybe then we can move forward as one.
Taking a deep breath and hanging on for the duration. Thank you all, once again, for your support and community. Stay safe and be well, everyone.
Well said. Don't be too heartened by the faux media's retraction. They are only doing it because they've been served some very strongly worded documents threatening legal action.
Thank you, Daria. Yes, threat of legal action can sometimes light a fire under some folks. But the “base” is still hearing these things from a source they trust and I hope that is enough to at least sow the seeds of doubt. I hope.
Is their “base” really hearing? Or are they interpreting it as caving in while they cling to their “truths”? I hold no illusions about the impact of those retractions outside of the impending legal cases.
Right. I think the brainwashing has penetrated deeply into their brains and psyche. It will take a monumental effort to lend them a hand out of their alternate reality.
To quote a phrase used on the late, great "Barney Miller" sit-com when they had to deal with a crazy person: "Okay...looks like it's time to call the twinkie truck..."
Dear HCR, bearer of the flame of sanity lighting a path through the madness of 2020, I'm sure all your readers will be wishing you a safe, happy and hopeful holiday and 2021. You have truly made each day better.
Kudos to the Kansas City Star who did a deep dive into their decades of reporting and figuring out how they were disenfranchising the Black community and citizens. It will be refreshing to see this journalistic endeavor take shape. Certainly a step in the right direction for a new age of social justice.
So much here to report, yet somehow you do that so well Dr. Richardson. Pat Robertson thinks he can be impactful by finally stating the obvious, yet he is a key part of the foundation of insanity that inflicted trump upon us all.
The stimulus passed last night did one thing. It brought back the tax deductible, three-martini, lunch. Of course, we'll have to drink them at home, since restaurants and bars are still too dangerous. I'm ashamed of what the legislative process has become. And just now, Trump goes on a middle of the night Twitter rampage. Did he congratulate the Congress for doing what the should have done nine months ago? No. Did he congratulate the FDA on approving the Moderna vaccine? No. Rather he re-tweeted comments by Sen. Ron Johnson, R-WI from his committee's investigation of voting fraud. Pete Wehner is right. Trump is losing his mind.
And he has been asleep at the switch as people travel here from the UK, likely bringing the new and faster spreading mutated virus to our shores. Where’s “Mr. I-Stopped-Chinese-Travel” when we need him?
I don't know when we can stop worrying about the efforts by Trump and his Republican lackeys to overturn the election and subvert democracy. We can't yet move on, because Trump won’t stop trying to steal the election, and there are plenty of Republicans who will happily go along if they think he can find a way to succeed (they care nothing about the Constitution, the tradition of peaceful transfer of power or actual democracy - they just want power).
I thought we could stop worrying about this when the AP called the election for Biden. Then I thought we could stop worrying when the various state supreme courts threw out Trump’s lawsuits in the weeks following the election. Then I thought we could stop worrying when the states certified their election results. Then I thought we could stop worrying when SCOTUS threw out the Texas lawsuit. Then I thought we could stop worrying when the electoral college certified the results. Then I thought we could stop worrying when McConnell acknowledged that Biden is the president elect.
But no, still Trump and Republicans grasp and claw. Now I’m worried about Trump declaring martial law, and running new elections. Now I’m also worried about Trump appointing Sidney Powell as Special Prosecutor, seizing voting machines, and throwing out state results. And I'm worried about Congress rejecting the electoral college results on January 6th and insisting that the Republican legislatures in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin send a new slate of Trump electors to Congress.
These attempts to steal an election should be illegal. This is sedition - overthrowing democracy. No matter - there’s no punishment, no downside. Trump and his band of GOPers persist because they might win, they lose nothing for trying.
We can’t relax, can’t stop worrying. Not until January 20th, if Biden is sworn in. If.
I understand that none of this is likely. But it’s not impossible. Our system of government is full of holes for petty tyrants like Trump to exploit. We need to rewrite our laws so that men like Trump would be going to prison for what he’s done, and is doing. Because the next tyrant-wannabe - Cruz or Cotton or Hawley or whomever - has learned from Trump, and won’t fail.
Though I know that worrying does nothing helpful, I agree with you that it's not time to stop. After all, almost every day for the last 4 years, haven't we gone to bed thinking nothing more or worse could happen to surprise us, and then we wake up, and POW! we get knocked off our feet again.
I don't worry about "legal" machinations - I think all will fail. What wakes me at night is knowledge of all the "milita men" in these Michigan woods, who, at tRump's final call, will storm the castles.
Ms. Newland’s actions while in the Office of Legal Counsel served only to show Mr. Trump how to do outrageous, undemocratic things legally. Instead of serving as a guardrail for our democracy, she and others actively weakened our democracy. Her apology for the several years of damage she actively facilitated for several years falls in the category of “too little, too late.” Her apology strikes me as a feeble attempt to salvage what is left of a tattered reputation.
It matters not at all how many mia culpas are broadcast by any of Trump's past or present enablers. If you and I knew the depths of his depravity prior to his "election." these people knew even better, but saw an opportunity for themselves and their agendas. The result is what we are now seeing - sometimes worse than we could have imagined - and most of them knew in advance that there were no checks and balances to rein him in.
He was enabled by ultra conservatives who ignored his total lack of character, his racism, and frightening ignorance, in order to force their social agenda on this country. The racists and haters among us, his base, saw what he was, and applauded. Greedy corporations knew that he could be manipulated into cutting taxes and slashing regulations that protected us from malignant banking, disastrous environmental consequences of pollutants, and other safeguards for the country and Earth. And then there was Russia, understanding from the beginning that he would never appoint any intelligent watchdogs - just sycophants, hoping to enrich themselves.
The conservatives and evangelicals will continue believing that it was "all for the greater good." Industry will consider it to be the cost of doing business. Russia will be reaping the benefits of this useful idiot, at least until we plug all the holes in our intelligence community. The racists and haters will still be with us, continuing to spread their malignant hatred.
There is no appropriate forgiveness for any of these groups, and for career sleazy politicians like Mitch McConnell, they will never admit their evil, nor ask for forgiveness. They will tell us that "it's just politics." The politicians hoping to preserve their cushy offices will breathe a sigh of relief and deny their cowardice.
The only justice from any of this will come from those who manage to bind the wounds and find a way to prevent it from happening again - if that is possible.
The op-ed by Ms Newland in the NYT makes a very interesting point, as HCR mentions: she admits to being complicit in the horror show because competent lawyers--herself included--decided to stay on in order to protect the government from the worst excesses of the addled mind of Trump. If she and others had simply quit or said no, and been fired, then the court arguments would have been conducted by the likes of Giuliani and Powell--neither of them credible as lawyers or litigators--and so the courts would have thrown everything out that much sooner.
The fallacy in this argument is this: Trump doesn't care if he has lost in the courts, as endless series of subpoenas, court decisions, and charges of obstruction and contempt have proven. He simply ignores what he doesn't like to hear. How many times have his minions been subpoenaed to appear in Congress but never showed up because he "forbade" it? How many times have his tax records been subpoenaed but he has ignored the threat of being held in contempt of court?
Trump claims executive privilege for everything from his myriad lies over the last four years to sexual assault charges that occurred more than a decade ago. No lawyer in the Justice Department has dented that perfect record of obstruction and refusal. They really were not that complicit (although it is nice to get the apology). The real criminals are those who have enabled this sick bastard to act with utter impunity because it suited their purposes and they thought he was merely a performing bear they could control with a chain and a whip. Well they can't. And they are now frantically trying to dig their way out of the excrement they very happily jumped into 4 years ago in order to save the fantasy that anyone--anyone--holds them in esteem or respect.
This is what I call a proverbial (pardon my vernacular) shit show! I guess I could say that the dominoes are finally falling. The loyalists are separating themselves from Fake 45 except for those who are as crazy as he is. In Rudy’s case, that hair dye really fried his brain. It is truly sad to watch someone who was so effective in one of the most horrific events we have ever witnessed, to fall from grace.
Thank goodness for Clyburn and his persistency to demand discovery about the virus. Barr Nun is just now telling the truth but don’t you wonder why he decided to do that? You think an alien spaceship may whisk him away? Sorry, at this point, I am delirious.
What an absolutely horrendous wild ride we all have been on! Tell you what, I really miss some sort of normalcy. Don’t think we will see that for awhile.
I'm seeing an end to the "wild ride" we've been on coming from my "fake news" outlets. Less and less reporting on 45 and more and more reporting on Biden. Could it be that his being ignored is contributing to his deterioration?
Too little, too late. I'm feeling very sad about the relief package that was passed in the Senate last night. I think of all the lives lost, and all the food insecurity, and all the people distraught with figuring how to hold onto their homes. And, it only happened because McConnell felt he had to do it so he would not lose his power position of obstruction. Seven months since the House passed their bill. And, the checks which McConnell didn't want won't even arrive before Christmas. We can't have anyone have such unilateral power in the government of the People. Nor should we tolerate one party take all power. If a party gets 51% of the vote, they shouldn't get 100% of the committee chairs; this winner take all stuff has to stop. And, term limits have to start for members of Congress and the Justices and Judges of the courts. But then it isn't a government of the People most of the time, is it? Patron and Party over Country and Constituents. No. It won't do. So sad.
I agree with you, Cathy, as well. I have students at my little elementary school who have come so close to being evicted from the hotel they are living in, our school community has bailed them out three times. There are families of five and seven living in hotel rooms meant for one or two business travelers. I would really love to have McConnell and his wife live there for a few months, on one of my students’ family budgets, with one working car. It fills me with rage sometimes, the thought of McConnell and Barr and dense Pence in their fat cat lives, withholding relief aid, while my little students are going to school online, hungry, under their blankets in their packed hotel rooms.
What helps me is this quote from James Baldwin: People pay for what they do, and still more for what they have allowed themselves to become. And they pay for it very simply; by the lives they lead.
My students are far, far better people than the empty shells in the Republican Party who have furthered this misery.
But is that any comfort to them, Jeanne, that they're better people? I certainly hope so, but how can children comprehend that? I feel only outrage and hopelessness when I read stories like yours, and many blessings and thanks to you for continuing to Teach. You, like the frontline healthcare workers, are the real Heroes in this year especially.
Thank you so much for your kind words. I keep wishing I could do more for our students in need.
Beth, thank you! I had to respond one more time as I was responding on the fly and hit “post” too quickly. I share your outrage for sure. I haven’t figured out how to make a bigger difference at my local level by somehow getting through to people at the Federal level. I so hope that our new administration will make a big difference!
It’s no comfort to them, Beth, you’re right. Only a little comfort to me.
Jeanne, you and every teacher out there are to be highly commended. Your heart is certainly there with your students. They know you care about each and every one of them.
My parents were victims of the Holocaust. Of course, they suffered with that for many years but they were bound and determined to persevere. They did and so will these children. They will be our future and it will be them who will right the wrongs. Bless you and I wish you safe holidays.
Thank you, Marlene, for your words of encouragement and hope. Blessings to you, your parents and other family members this holiday season as well! 🙏🏽
Thank you for being a teacher and for being in a community that has helped these families. To see this tragedy first-hand must be especially painful. I agree with you 100%. The perpetrators of this cruel crime need to experience this deprivation in their own lives.
Thank you, Pamsy. I joined this public school last year, after many years of working in a Catholic school. I loved that school, too, and that community was generous, too, from a distance. Now, I am proximate to the poor and it has changed my life for the better. The will and resilience of our families has humbled and motivated me to live a leaner, more purposeful life. I want to help change things systemically.
You embody all that I admire in this work that needs to be done. You are on the “front lines” where it is the most painful. I shrink away from the harshness and cruelty and do my little bit from the comfort of the home I hope I can keep. Thank you, again, for all that you do and for who you are.
Pamsy, I hope you can keep your home, too! You are so kind. I know I have landed in a special place. We need everyone, every role is important. Yours, too! Senator Paul Wellstone said, “We all do better when we all do better.”
Wow, Jeanne. I just read this aloud to my husband because it is such a clear visual of what is taking place. I'm so sorry for your students. And no matter the bravery they (must) exhibit now, who knows what effect this will have on them in the long run. They're children! My parents were teens during the Depression, and they never got over it, but neither of them had it as bad as the families you describe.
I worry about the long term effects of this poverty as well. Some of the older children have an air of defeat about them, others, defiance. The youngest still have hope, even trust. It pulls at your heart every day.
I worry about the long term effects of this poverty as well. Some of the older children have an air of defeat about them, others, defiance. The youngest still have hope, even trust. It pulls at your heart every day.
It is so good to hear your school community has helped your students and their families. That is the real America. That is how real wealth should be measured in one's generosity to one's community.
I am so grateful to be in a community where people with the means to help do help. 🙏🏼
Agree, Cathy. I received an email yesterday from Senator Warner, my senator from Virginia, asking what top priority issue I want him to focus on. I replied to keep focusing on COVID-19 relief. IMO, getting Warnock and Ossoff elected will really help to achieve this.
I recently wrote Marsha Blackburn, Chief Trump Sycophant, and god back a form letter about trump being entitled to all legal avenues for to protest the election. Waste of time. However, my letter to editor was published, echoing one published earlier about her lack of interest in her constituents. So ... one for the team?
Good for you. You took the time to write a letter to the editor and it got published. Thank you. Yes, one for the team!
Lynell, I'll be sending Senator Cornyn, my senator, the same message later this morning. Hope they put some mental health provisions in all this with the stress the inaction of the Senate has caused. Both Warnock and Ossoff will make wonderful Senators... and we need them!
Cornyn is my Senator also. Every letter I have ever sent to him has resulted in a format reply so I have stopped sending them.
Keep sending the letters. The letters are meaningful to a Senator especially if they are not form letters. The staff maintains a count of the letters received on numerous topics and reports every morning on the count. They respond with a form letter only because responding to individually to hundreds or thousands of letters is impossible. But the impact of the letters is significant. Phone calls are even more powerful.
Yes, they have to keep a tally of phone calls they receive. Make certain each call is about another subject. These calls drive them crazy which is great!!
TY
Ditto with Thune in South Dakota.
Same from Ron Johnson in WI. :(
UGH! He needs to be...well, you know...
I keep writing. Yes, I don't bother with Senator Cruz. But, I figure they at least keep statistics about the emails they get and it will at least enter into their calculations for how to get reelected. And, perhaps my words will seed some new perspective in whoever reads them to pick the right canned reply.
I get the same form letter from both Senator Cruz and Senator Cornyn
Now that is disgusting! It is probably because they have to spend 70% of their time talking to the donors for the legalized corruption of campaign financing.
Ditto my experience with the weasil Thom Tillis in NC
Born and raised in rural NC. Left at 18 yrs of age and never looked back. Glad you have a Dem governor.
Wouldn't it be nice if all Senators were required to send out those surveys. If they actually cared enough to find out what their constituents wanted.
My Nevada Senators both send out comprehensive surveys regularly and respond to email and written correspondence; a former student of mine is an aide to one of them. We are very fortunate to have these two trustworthy women serving our state and nation!
You are indeed fortunate. I received a personal note from Beto O'Rourke's staff when I sent him feedback on his campaign. A good, sincere person with a very good staff.
They are quite rare. The senators from Indiana share a form letter file which is sent by an aide and, on rare occasions, has something remotely to do with the topic of the letter they were sent. They've also taken to having their office phones go direct to voice mail so, if they choose, they can completely insulate themselves from any constituent input that isn't in the comment portion of a check.
Yes, I am, indeed fortunate. I never could get a proper response from Dean Heller. Both Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen do good work for Nevada and are responsive to all their constituents. 💙
I find surveys that I get from candidates are worded with such bias they aren't worth answering. Good surveys are very hard to compose. The Senators vote 95% of the time with their big donors, not with what the people want.
With the Princeton study to back it up. The group Represent Us has what seems like a viable way to work around this reality.
https://youtu.be/TfQij4aQq1k
Wow! To think that they made this a year ago! Excellent breakdown of what we can do. Thanks!
Would be very nice, and there's always the chance, small but existent, that they'd read and respond to the answers.
It IS sad but it is also a start. It's better than nothing at all. It also seems calculated on McConnell's part to maintain his position. I hope the voters in Georgia rebuke him.
I would love to see all high-ups in the execitive branch (and ideally elsewhere) required to spend one month a year at the lowest level position in their department - generals as privates, etc - preferably starting before they take on the high office. Anyone in Congress should have to spend a month as an 'essential' worker and live on minimum wage pay. They forget the lives they are supposed to represent.
Maybe we should stop voting for billionaires who try to convince you they can relate to your life and situation. Terms limits would be a useful first step.
It takes a lot of money to run for office these days. Until we cure that, we will be stuck with mostly wealthy politicians. We also need to stop thinking that any yahoo can run government and recognize politics as a profession. I strongly disagree about term limits. We need people who understand the processes & have experience in charge. Would you let me fix the brakes on your car? My background is in accounting & computers but I'm sure I can watch a YouTube video to learn to do your brakes!
I agree with you about term limits and the skill of politics. To kick someone out of office when they finally understand how to do the job effectively makes no sense to me. It also empowers lobbyists, who have no term limits and gain power over time, and probably much prefer dealing with green politicians over seasoned veterans. The best term limit for a corrupt politician is an engaged and aware electorate and a vigorous free press.
While I see your point, I rather like the Texas system of having the Texas Legislature meet for only five months every other year. That way you get people from many backgrounds and expertise. No term limits other than you can't make a living being a member of the Texas Congress. It was the original intent of the Founders to not have professional politician class as an aristocracy. So, how do you solve the campaign financing questions, what I would call legalized corruption? Grass roots funding has been more lucrative these past few years. Heavens, DT have raked in over $200 million dollars AFTER the election with which he can do anything he wants. And, corporations should not have the rights of people essentially to skew the vote with huge contributions through PACs. Money from corporations is not the same as a First Amendment right of a person. I speak as a retired executive of a Fortune 100 corporation, a highly ethical one, where I certainly recognize the value of experience at each level of management, for instance. But, yes, I might let you fix my brakes if there is a test to check that it was done properly and reliably for instance. Brain surgery, no.
I would like to see them all cleaning public bathrooms and picking up trash along roadsides during their many vacations for their entire terms of office, keeping them real. Also no more special congressional health plans.
I feel strongly that Congress should not be able exempt itself from its own laws!
Good idea. Congress persons are actually on Obamacare, but their plans are almost completely paid for by the taxpayers. They should get Social Security like anyone else, no special pensions. That would get Social Security secured real fast.
The Republicans in Congress, especially Mr. McConnell, own all of this. Every action or inaction of the Trump Administration since the Senate voted to acquit on impeachment, through to inauguration, hangs around the necks of congressional Republicans, especially Mr. McConnell.
Since McConnell and many other Republicans were recently re-elected, we have a picture of how many of our fellow citizens, often waving an American flag, feel about democratic governance.
"Democracy for me, not for you."
To the former public supporters of Trump now seeking to "put some water" between themselves and the President, you're many days late and many dollars short.
I agree and IMO, they cannot be reformed or forgiven.
February 5, 2020 - the day Trump was acquitted by the Senate - was the final line in the sand for me. Those who sided with him on that date are stained.
The same applies for those member of the House who voted against his Impeachment on December 18, 2019.
What followed those decisions by the members of the Party of Trump was foreseeable. They were knowing and willing accomplices to Trump's behavior.
We will need something akin to a Truth Commission, non-partisan and empowered to search where the evidence leads them, to document the presidency of Donald Trump and the extent to which he and his party facilitated the undermining of our system of checks and balances and our election system.
Such a commission should recommend changes that need to be made to our laws in order to prevent anything like this from happening again.
I believe this is something worth supporting. Perhaps, those of us in this forum who share this view, might consider this a suitable course of action going forward and would be interested in researching how such a commission could be constituted. I am on board with the idea and would be interested to know how others feel about the viability of such a project.
I am right there with you and have talked about a T&C-type body for months. I used to be a mediator and I would gladly do whatever necessary. A commission would remove this from Biden admin who, however important we think finding the fractures that allowed trump to survive, has too many existing crises demanding its attention, some life and death.
If you would like to move forward with this, let’s talk. This email address (adpropono@gmail.com) was set up exclusively for the purpose of continuing this discussion. I look forward to hearing from you.
Totally agree. No idea how to go about instituting such a thing, but would do whatever needed to be done to support it. Maybe HCR will advise?
I share your view, and I would help with such a mission in any way I could. At best, we would instigate changes; at worst, we would gain knowledge and skill.
If you would like to move forward with this, let’s talk. This email address (adpropono@gmail.com) was set up exclusively for the purpose of continuing this discussion. I look forward to hearing from you.
This adpropono email to address a truth commission was set up by you? Or by whom?
By me.
Let's not forget to put the recent list of state AsG and Republican members of Congress who signed Amicus curiae on the lawsuit to the Supreme Court to throw out millions of votes in the swing states to the list who voted against Impeachment.
I'm in! Like the others, not sure how to initiate this, but we have a pretty sizable group of volunteers willing to make it happen.
I will post something on this in the next day or so. Some method for us to communicate - and share ideas.
YES!
If you would like to move forward with this, let’s talk. This email address (adpropono@gmail.com) was set up exclusively for the purpose of continuing this discussion. I look forward to hearing from you.
(Not sure how the reply function works - who it reaches - so forgive me if you are receiving this more than once.)
There's a question as to how honest McConnell's "re-election" was. Thousands and thousands of Democrats voted for Biden for President and then "split their ticket" to vote for him. R-i-i-i-g-g-h-t....
I see your point, but more or less the same thing happened elsewhere down-ballot where Republicans made gains in the House and state legislatures.
Since the re-election of George W. Bush, I have learned not to expect a lot of critical thinking among many of my fellow voters. Alas.
Read this from DC Reports.
https://www.dcreport.org/2020/12/19/mitch-mcconnells-re-election-the-numbers-dont-add-up/
I'm convinced. Now what? I will forward the story to my 100% Blue Ct congressional delegation, Sens. Murphy & Blumenthal, Rep. Hayes, but we're going to be stuck with McConnell I fear.
Yes, now what. It's too soon to act, I think, before the Biden-Harris inauguration. But after it? We should be preparing to investigate.
Hm. How do you legally overturn an election in Kentucky?
McConnell is a conniver through and through. I wondered how Kentuckians would vote for two dem governors with a very unpopular, one-term Repub sandwiched Between them, and re-elect McConnell. I hear it’s the $$ he bRings to the state. He arranged for a rolling mill to be built in Ashland with Oleg Deripaska’s money.
He does bring in money into his state but most goes into his pocket. He has more poor indigent people in KY than any state in the union. Someone on here gave him the moniker “McMurderer”. A perfect name for him!
The basic trick for magicians is to attract your attention over here, while the manipulation goes on over there. It do provoke thoughts, don't it?
Exactly. It was that election that made me realize the anti-intellectualism of half the country.
Too many people fall for the idiotic concept that they should seek a “ balanced” government, which results in deadlock, where they should simply be looking for a moderate government.
And, the Republican "trashing" the Democrats and making everyone believe voting for one of them is anathema, leads to this. Somehow over the next 2 years we need to change minds...i.e. the Dems are the true purveyors of democracy.
Oddly, anti-elitism was a deliberate position adopted by Republicans to try to attract more middle and lower class voters.
HA! That is such an oxymoron!
Just as interesting are the billions of dollars McConnell's wife, the head of the federal DOT, funneled into Kentucky a month or so before the election. DOT funding is the last "earmark" available, and McConnell made sure it went right where it was needed.
Well put.
When panicking over an infestation of "rats" the citizens of hamelin called upon a "magic" minstrel to play a melody that would entrance the rats and he would lead them to the river to drown. The "honest burgers" reneged on their vow to pay for services rendered and you all know where the children went.
How you deal with the denoument and aftermath of a crisis says a lot about who we are. We have to be careful of what we wish for and who we follow to get there. Biden's cautious approach is part of the answer but a truth commission in which nothing is hidden is also required and this cannot be driven unilaterally by the incoming President or the existing Congress. Such a "court" must have a power of forgiveness.... but also the possibility of inflicting the punishment of disbarment from public office/legal practice and of prohibition of administrative or other forms of control of business, NGOs, finance or socio-political funds etc. This should not however preclude criminal investigation and punishment either of serious crimes under current statutes.
This is such a great idea. Someone else mentioned a Truth Commission a few days ago. Maybe HCR can advise in a future column how this could come to pass and what we could do to help make it happen.
We could all write to Nancy Pelosi. . . .
My “feeling” is that the DC pressure cooker is starting to let off steam after 4 years and in light of current news reports. There must be so many people in all of these agencies with documents and stories they feel they can now tell. More than the McCarthy Era or Watergate, I look to post-Nazi Europe. Was there a truth commission anywhere in Germany, for example? How did that country deal with what happened? ❤️🤍💙
Basically Germany didn't deal with it. They just hung the leaders that they could get their hands on and buried their heads hoping it would go away. The first Truth Commission was in post-apartheit South Africa. It was built into the "Commonwealth Transition Agreement" from the start...initially drafted by people i knew well and sometimes worked with in Ottawa.
It wasn’t the Germans alone who buried the past. They had a lot of help from the US, UK, and France, who used former Nazis against the USSR and its allies. Read David Nasaw’s “The Last Million.” Bigots and knaves in the US government made it easier for SS veterans to emigrate here than it was for their Jewish victims.
With J. Edgar Hoover in charge of who got a visa!
😡
The Germans did a heck of a lot more reckoning than any of the other fascist countries.
Japan has lived with a constitutional provision of defense-only army ever since but the "militarists etc stayed put, Italy hung Mussolini and Ciano to lampposts and never ventured to guess what was the Italian for "Nurnberg, Spain lived with Franco and France let most of the Petainistas slide into anonymity. Not much to choose between them really. Zero equals zero!
So, Stuart, do you have ideas or connections with the people who created the Truth Commission in S Africa? Is there a blueprint and people who could help crate something to present to our country? I love this idea. I have been thinking for years we needed a Council of wise people or elders/youth to serve as the checks and balances, especially after seeing our checks and balances ignored by this administration and by the republicans for years.
Big money and campaign finance reform is critical. I have never been asked for so much money as during this administration. Of course, I have never been so active and diligent and our there either. It is very frustrating to pay a fair amount of taxes and then have to pay organizations, candidates of various other states in order to try to stop the madness. So many things have to change.
But what I love are the solutions being presented by people with experience that know what kinds of efforts have great potential as we ratchet forward and leave the mad king and his sychophants behind to face the music.
Robin Jett here began a email "heathersherd@gmail.com" and another person, Dooley just submitted one he created. Perhaps each one needs to have a specific purpose that folks can rally behind. (Geeze, there are words now that feel so tainted to use--such as "rally."
Penelope, I haven't had any news of my friends in Ottawa for 25 years but i can suggest a few places to start looking at the successes and failures of Truth Commissions in South Africa, New Zealand and Australia:
https://www.un.org/french/docs/cs/repertoire/93-95/CHAPTER%208/AFRICA/item%2002-%20South%20Africa.pdf
https://theconversation.com/do-truth-and-reconciliation-commissions-heal-divided-nations-109925
https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/truth-and-reconciliation-commission-trc-0
https://www.drake.edu/media/departmentsoffices/dussj/2010-2007documents/HealingAuger.pdf
https://berghof-foundation.org/files/publications/transitions_anc.pdf
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Truth-and-Reconciliation-Commission-South-Africa
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0021934703258988?journalCode=jbsa
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth_and_Reconciliation_Commission_(South_Africa)
https://core.ac.uk/reader/39667040
https://waitangitribunal.govt.nz/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waitangi_Tribunal
https://nzhistory.govt.nz/keyword/waitangi-tribunal
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth_commission
https://www.reconciliation.org.au/truth-telling-and-reconciliation/
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-12/australian-aboriginal-truth-and-justice-commission-what-is-it/12956326
https://www.justiceinfo.net/en/justiceinfo-comment-and-debate/opinion/45000-australia-s-first-truth-commission-transitional-justice-to-face-colonial-legacies.html
Have fun!
Well, I truly appreciate your gifts of a little light reading...thanks, Stuart! I will begin to plow through, a little, each day. I feel very small for such a big task right now! Of course, I was hoping you would have the answers and connections and I could just float on your coattails...and it would be easy!! Many thanks, sort of. ;-)
Not well enough for the long term, apparently, if the rise of Neo-Nazis in the German police force is any indication.
Yes!
I agree with this completely, and I second your caution about how the crimes are dealt with.
While I worry about what a mentally unstable Trump might do as his administration finally starts circling the bowl, in the long term it is his supporters that concern me. No matter what policies one might support, I just don't understand how anyone can not recognize that Trump has been a total disaster as president. It's as if his supporters live in an alternate reality, one in which our friends are our enemies, our enemies are our friends, corruption is wholesome, hate is love, failure is competence, lies are facts, truth is suspicious. In other words, they are deranged. Somehow, someway we need to convince a good number of them that they have been off the mark... far off the mark. That is a difficult challenge. Sadly, I think that it will require Republican leaders to denounce Trump. It seems, however, that too many of them are also deranged.
Read The Cult of Donal Trump by Steven Hassan. Helps explain how cults develop and survive. This is a cult.
Exactly!! The spectre of Jim Jones has been on my mind for a while.
When I first realized DT could be the nominee in April 2016, I studied Narcissistic Personality Disorder for two weeks. Here is an article on the end stage of NPD with Jim Jones as the example that I found then.
https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=40230
Well-written and frightening article about NPD and Jim Jones. I lived in the Bay Area during this time and knew people who followed him. I'm concerned about what chaos tRump will be able to cause in these final weeks. If ever there was a time to invoke the 25th Amendment, this should be it.
I bet the Don would love to be considered mad rather than a criminal and get a free out of jail pass. I wonder if this is all for show. Isn't that disbelief of anything he does atrocious? He is mad with power, having to pay the piper, and people to impress, like Putin.
And Hassan makes many references to Jim Jones’ temperament and techniques.
Mitch McConnell is terrifying. Marcy Meldahl - Thank you for this recommendation. I may try to read this although, so far, it is totally beyond me to understand how cults develop.
This easy-to-read book will tell you exactly how they develop.
Sorry ... “Donald”
I prefer to call him Don Trump, because I think it would piss him off, but also because he is like the don of an organized crime syndicate.
“War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength." I read that somewhere.
Maybe all this ranting about voting machines and stealing elections derives from the reality that Republicans themselves have done this. Have you seen: https://www.dcreport.org/2020/12/19/mitch-mcconnells-re-election-the-numbers-dont-add-up/
These reporters investigated how Moscow Mitch, deeply unpopular in his state, continues to win elections by landslides, even in counties that have voted Democratic again and again. A particular voting machine type is used in Kentucky, not the Dominion machines Trump is complaining about. Maybe Amy McGrath’s recent loss to Mitch in Kentucky was not in a free and fair election!
I read the DC Report the other day. I hope it brings about an investigation into the dirty election deeds employed by McConnell. Why in the world would blue districts vote to keep him in office?
Absolutely no reason. Amy McGrath needs to insist on an examination of the voting machines used in these Democratic counties that inexplicably went for Mitch, and those which had more voters than population eligible tovote!
Yes! Turn the tables on the Repubs and re-check those election results!
Wow. Hmmm.
Important for all to remember that no matter what happens in the next 29 days, the sun will rise on 21 January 2021, Joe Biden will be President and Kamala Harris Vice President, the pandemic will continue to rage, hospitals and healthcare workers will be overwhelmed, the economy will be in a shambles, the just passed relief bill while of some help was far short of what was needed; DJT while no longer President will remain a threat as his supporters will continue to constitute tens of millions of deranged, fact- and truth denying miscreants living amongst us, and the work of governing well, competently, and compassionately will have begun once again in the face of massive challenges.
Do not think that on the 21st of January all will be well simply because the malevolent crazy captain who has been in charge of our ship of state has relinquished the wheel. The seas will still roil and the winds will rage as the storm continues. I am and will be somewhat comforted by competence, experience, and compassion at the helm, but remain terrified by the continuing storm until the seas are calmed. Biden is a good captain but he is not Jesus standing up in the boat and becalming the seas and reassuring his deciples that all will be well, he is just a better captain in the midst of a continuing storm.
We will all need to continue to work HARD and support the new administration and their efforts to restore the soul of America. Biden and his entire administration will need the collective efforts and good work of us all. We the People govern. So get ready, the job will just have begun on 1/21/2021. It is not nearly time get to declare “Mission Accomplished.”
Right, Bruce. Better times ARE coming, but it won't be like flicking a light switch; it'll be more like slowly turning a dimmer switch to bring back the illumination. We must be patient. Till then, let's do what we can to get Ossoff and Warnock elected, to make Biden's task a helluva lot easier.
It might even be more like lighting a candle in the wind hoping it doesn't blow out. So we need to be sure to protect it and keep it lit.
Absolutely. It will be even more tenuous a hope if Ossoff and Warnock don't get elected, though Biden is convinced he will gain traction with the Senate R's.
What a mess! I’d love to see him truly crack up and have to be taken out in that nice white coat with the really long sleeves. However, I think it’s unlikely. In fact, it has occurred to me that it is quite possible that this is an act, a ploy for him to avoid the legal issues looming on the horizon. He is just shrewd enough and arrogant enough to try it. Time will tell.
Everyone needs to remember and be continuously reminded that those “former loyalists” who are desperately trying to separate themselves from him were COMPLICIT. They must be removed from office and never trusted again. Period. Keep beating that drum for as long as it takes.
Redfield should have quit when he was advised to and still had a chance. Now he is just as complicit as the rest. No mercy for cowards. He knew that what was happening was wrong but all he could do was wring his hands. He should have at least told the truth to the public and taken his chances. There are worse things than being unemployed. Like aiding and abetting a murderous administration with your silence and inaction. Shame on him.
Outrage over Alexander’s encouragement of pursuing herd immunity is understood but we really shouldn’t be surprised. For those who were listening carefully this strategy was both obvious and also admitted publicly by this regime, almost from the very beginning. Despicable, yes. A surprise? No.
I know there really isn’t but there should be a way to remove him and inaugurate Biden and Harris immediately. He has completely abdicated his responsibilities to this nation and its people. There is much damage he can still do. We should be able to protect ourselves from this.
Lastly, it heartens me somewhat to know that the “faux media” have started to backpedal and retract some of their lying and incendiary stories about the election. I can only imagine the wailing, confusion, and gnashing of teeth by “the base” as more and more of “their” trusted public entities (news, politicians, etc) reverse course and admit they weren’t telling the truth. I hope it becomes a deafening crescendo that finally wakes them from their ignorance induced trance. Maybe then we can move forward as one.
Taking a deep breath and hanging on for the duration. Thank you all, once again, for your support and community. Stay safe and be well, everyone.
Well said. Don't be too heartened by the faux media's retraction. They are only doing it because they've been served some very strongly worded documents threatening legal action.
Thank you, Daria. Yes, threat of legal action can sometimes light a fire under some folks. But the “base” is still hearing these things from a source they trust and I hope that is enough to at least sow the seeds of doubt. I hope.
Is their “base” really hearing? Or are they interpreting it as caving in while they cling to their “truths”? I hold no illusions about the impact of those retractions outside of the impending legal cases.
Right. I think the brainwashing has penetrated deeply into their brains and psyche. It will take a monumental effort to lend them a hand out of their alternate reality.
Yes, those who have drunk the Kool-aid will just say it is part of the conspiracy of the "Rats" to take down Trump.
I hope so too.
But Dominion is next, then...keef Fix's feet to the fire until Tge Fairness Doctrine can be reinstated.
Keep Fox's
Don't you simply adore spell check?
To quote a phrase used on the late, great "Barney Miller" sit-com when they had to deal with a crazy person: "Okay...looks like it's time to call the twinkie truck..."
Dear HCR, bearer of the flame of sanity lighting a path through the madness of 2020, I'm sure all your readers will be wishing you a safe, happy and hopeful holiday and 2021. You have truly made each day better.
Amen...thanks Heather and Merry Christmas!
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👍👍👍👍👍
Ditto!
Love, good rest, and Merry Christmas!!
Kudos to the Kansas City Star who did a deep dive into their decades of reporting and figuring out how they were disenfranchising the Black community and citizens. It will be refreshing to see this journalistic endeavor take shape. Certainly a step in the right direction for a new age of social justice.
So much here to report, yet somehow you do that so well Dr. Richardson. Pat Robertson thinks he can be impactful by finally stating the obvious, yet he is a key part of the foundation of insanity that inflicted trump upon us all.
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And yet, So Many follow him!! 🤔😮
The stimulus passed last night did one thing. It brought back the tax deductible, three-martini, lunch. Of course, we'll have to drink them at home, since restaurants and bars are still too dangerous. I'm ashamed of what the legislative process has become. And just now, Trump goes on a middle of the night Twitter rampage. Did he congratulate the Congress for doing what the should have done nine months ago? No. Did he congratulate the FDA on approving the Moderna vaccine? No. Rather he re-tweeted comments by Sen. Ron Johnson, R-WI from his committee's investigation of voting fraud. Pete Wehner is right. Trump is losing his mind.
And he has been asleep at the switch as people travel here from the UK, likely bringing the new and faster spreading mutated virus to our shores. Where’s “Mr. I-Stopped-Chinese-Travel” when we need him?
I don't know when we can stop worrying about the efforts by Trump and his Republican lackeys to overturn the election and subvert democracy. We can't yet move on, because Trump won’t stop trying to steal the election, and there are plenty of Republicans who will happily go along if they think he can find a way to succeed (they care nothing about the Constitution, the tradition of peaceful transfer of power or actual democracy - they just want power).
I thought we could stop worrying about this when the AP called the election for Biden. Then I thought we could stop worrying when the various state supreme courts threw out Trump’s lawsuits in the weeks following the election. Then I thought we could stop worrying when the states certified their election results. Then I thought we could stop worrying when SCOTUS threw out the Texas lawsuit. Then I thought we could stop worrying when the electoral college certified the results. Then I thought we could stop worrying when McConnell acknowledged that Biden is the president elect.
But no, still Trump and Republicans grasp and claw. Now I’m worried about Trump declaring martial law, and running new elections. Now I’m also worried about Trump appointing Sidney Powell as Special Prosecutor, seizing voting machines, and throwing out state results. And I'm worried about Congress rejecting the electoral college results on January 6th and insisting that the Republican legislatures in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin send a new slate of Trump electors to Congress.
These attempts to steal an election should be illegal. This is sedition - overthrowing democracy. No matter - there’s no punishment, no downside. Trump and his band of GOPers persist because they might win, they lose nothing for trying.
We can’t relax, can’t stop worrying. Not until January 20th, if Biden is sworn in. If.
I understand that none of this is likely. But it’s not impossible. Our system of government is full of holes for petty tyrants like Trump to exploit. We need to rewrite our laws so that men like Trump would be going to prison for what he’s done, and is doing. Because the next tyrant-wannabe - Cruz or Cotton or Hawley or whomever - has learned from Trump, and won’t fail.
Though I know that worrying does nothing helpful, I agree with you that it's not time to stop. After all, almost every day for the last 4 years, haven't we gone to bed thinking nothing more or worse could happen to surprise us, and then we wake up, and POW! we get knocked off our feet again.
I don't worry about "legal" machinations - I think all will fail. What wakes me at night is knowledge of all the "milita men" in these Michigan woods, who, at tRump's final call, will storm the castles.
Ho, ho, holy cow! This is all so elfed up.
Merry Christmas to all and may 2021 see Trump prosecuted and Biden restoring order to our nation.
Stay safe!
May your Christmas wishes be granted.
Ms. Newland’s actions while in the Office of Legal Counsel served only to show Mr. Trump how to do outrageous, undemocratic things legally. Instead of serving as a guardrail for our democracy, she and others actively weakened our democracy. Her apology for the several years of damage she actively facilitated for several years falls in the category of “too little, too late.” Her apology strikes me as a feeble attempt to salvage what is left of a tattered reputation.
It matters not at all how many mia culpas are broadcast by any of Trump's past or present enablers. If you and I knew the depths of his depravity prior to his "election." these people knew even better, but saw an opportunity for themselves and their agendas. The result is what we are now seeing - sometimes worse than we could have imagined - and most of them knew in advance that there were no checks and balances to rein him in.
He was enabled by ultra conservatives who ignored his total lack of character, his racism, and frightening ignorance, in order to force their social agenda on this country. The racists and haters among us, his base, saw what he was, and applauded. Greedy corporations knew that he could be manipulated into cutting taxes and slashing regulations that protected us from malignant banking, disastrous environmental consequences of pollutants, and other safeguards for the country and Earth. And then there was Russia, understanding from the beginning that he would never appoint any intelligent watchdogs - just sycophants, hoping to enrich themselves.
The conservatives and evangelicals will continue believing that it was "all for the greater good." Industry will consider it to be the cost of doing business. Russia will be reaping the benefits of this useful idiot, at least until we plug all the holes in our intelligence community. The racists and haters will still be with us, continuing to spread their malignant hatred.
There is no appropriate forgiveness for any of these groups, and for career sleazy politicians like Mitch McConnell, they will never admit their evil, nor ask for forgiveness. They will tell us that "it's just politics." The politicians hoping to preserve their cushy offices will breathe a sigh of relief and deny their cowardice.
The only justice from any of this will come from those who manage to bind the wounds and find a way to prevent it from happening again - if that is possible.
That was my impression too.
The op-ed by Ms Newland in the NYT makes a very interesting point, as HCR mentions: she admits to being complicit in the horror show because competent lawyers--herself included--decided to stay on in order to protect the government from the worst excesses of the addled mind of Trump. If she and others had simply quit or said no, and been fired, then the court arguments would have been conducted by the likes of Giuliani and Powell--neither of them credible as lawyers or litigators--and so the courts would have thrown everything out that much sooner.
The fallacy in this argument is this: Trump doesn't care if he has lost in the courts, as endless series of subpoenas, court decisions, and charges of obstruction and contempt have proven. He simply ignores what he doesn't like to hear. How many times have his minions been subpoenaed to appear in Congress but never showed up because he "forbade" it? How many times have his tax records been subpoenaed but he has ignored the threat of being held in contempt of court?
Trump claims executive privilege for everything from his myriad lies over the last four years to sexual assault charges that occurred more than a decade ago. No lawyer in the Justice Department has dented that perfect record of obstruction and refusal. They really were not that complicit (although it is nice to get the apology). The real criminals are those who have enabled this sick bastard to act with utter impunity because it suited their purposes and they thought he was merely a performing bear they could control with a chain and a whip. Well they can't. And they are now frantically trying to dig their way out of the excrement they very happily jumped into 4 years ago in order to save the fantasy that anyone--anyone--holds them in esteem or respect.
Lock them all up.
Bravo, Linda...
This is what I call a proverbial (pardon my vernacular) shit show! I guess I could say that the dominoes are finally falling. The loyalists are separating themselves from Fake 45 except for those who are as crazy as he is. In Rudy’s case, that hair dye really fried his brain. It is truly sad to watch someone who was so effective in one of the most horrific events we have ever witnessed, to fall from grace.
Thank goodness for Clyburn and his persistency to demand discovery about the virus. Barr Nun is just now telling the truth but don’t you wonder why he decided to do that? You think an alien spaceship may whisk him away? Sorry, at this point, I am delirious.
What an absolutely horrendous wild ride we all have been on! Tell you what, I really miss some sort of normalcy. Don’t think we will see that for awhile.
I'm seeing an end to the "wild ride" we've been on coming from my "fake news" outlets. Less and less reporting on 45 and more and more reporting on Biden. Could it be that his being ignored is contributing to his deterioration?
Quite likely - it's a form of slow starvation for him.
I agree that it’s pitiful to watch Rudy go nuts along with Trump. 9/11 truly was his finest hour. He should have quit then.