Media coverage of Trump’s commutation of his associate Roger Stone’s prison sentence has pushed the Russia bounty story out of the headlines. Knowing Trump’s skill at distraction, it’s hard to believe this is a coincidence. It’s a big story. In late February, Trump’s Presidential Daily Brief (the “PDB”) informed him that Russia’s military intelligence unit, the GRU, had offered cash payments to Taliban-linked fighters to kill American and allied soldiers in Afghanistan. The willingness of a foreign power, with whom we are theoretically not at war, to pay to have our soldiers killed is a huge deal.
I think the chief conclusion of all these different ....but linked...stories is that something is wrong with the system if he can get away with it. Countervailing powers are quite evidently insufficient to restrain a group of people intent on having their way and promoting their own interests regardless of the impact on others. The American people are not being served by this system, they are being dictated to by the schoolyard bully, his sychophantic helpers and their rich paymasters and they are supposed to wait for an election to do something about it.
The use of the Stone commutation as a diversion to swamp the bad news of both Trump's acquiescence in Russian bounty payments and his complicity in a sanitary disaster is evident.....but the "fig leaf" is so infintesimally small compared to the naked truth of this emporer and his new clothes! How is it that our media and commentators of all persuasions allows this strategy to function? Where is their sense of proportion? Run the story yes, but side-by-side with the really important stuff.
The attack on medical data credibility by both diminishing the role and access of Fauci and the CDC is a blatant attempt, on the one hand, to suppress the truth and on the other to de-credibilize the medical data by putting collection responsibilty into non-professional hands in a spiralling, uncontrolled multi-tier system. Florida's Govenor was more frank....or more stupid depending on your point of view. He tried to ban publication of the number of deaths.
The corollary of involving the National Guard and Federal Agents to invade hospitals and occupy, uninvited, urban areas is, at once, obviously dangerous but also a clear demonstration of the state of Trump's infantile mentality. He thinks that this makes him look as strong as Putin! In reality it shows him to be the little, disturbed boy playing with toy soldiers that he is. When will he start torturing animals? The clinical diagnosis is clear.
Where do we go from here? California is showing one way. They are closing down their economy again. It is time that Trump was made to understand that he is just a leaf in the wind, he is virtual and not real and will disappear when the people pull the plug
"But these events also remind us that a broader question remains unanswered: Why does President Trump keep trying to escalate tensions around the protests, while utterly refusing at every opportunity to de-escalate them?"
Because he wants to set off a civil war so he can declare martial law and cancel the election he's set to lose.
The distraction campaign is the Trump approach to coverups like this one of Russia's aggression. "The Democrats don't matter. The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with sh-t." --Steve Bannon to Bloomberg's Michael Lewis, Feb. 2018
My first reaction was, "Is it time to take to the streets yet?" But a fear deeper than risk of personal injury makes me step back: civil unrest bypasses the institutions that are intended to prevent this kind of "soft" coup, and if we give up on them, we weaken them further. In the paradoxical, "bizarro" world of Trump and his claque, such a move actually strengthens their position. Perhaps another impeachment, placed swiftly before the monstrously corrupt Republican Senate, would either compel them to attempt to preserve Congressional power or force them to reveal that they no longer care about democracy, the rule of law, and the American Experiment.
I’ve worked in health care for almost 40 years. I can’t believe that the CDC is being taken out from collecting, analyzing and dispersing data. Is this a done deal.? What a God damn nightmare this has become...
Trump has been kowtowing to Putin in plain sight of all of us for the past 4 years. It seems highly likely that Putin has “kompromat” on Trump. There’s been much speculation as to what that might be - sex tapes, illegal loans, money laundering, other crimes and corruption? If it’s true, then Trump is guilty of treason. I wonder who else in Trump’s inner circle knows that Trump is compromised and committing treason? Those people - in Congress, in the White House, in his friends or family - are committing treason as well.
Are there still polite optimists who say not to compare this demagogue to Adolf Hitler? He sends in his Schutzstaffel to Oregon to protect statues and they countermand the rules of engagement of the local police, seriously injuring a citizen exercising what used to be a Constitutional right to peacefully demonstrate against Der Fuhrer. Are we there yet? What will be our "Kristallnacht" defining the final destruction of our Constitutional Democracy?
Maybe it is just that I have a bias from my Insurgency and Counterinsurgency training and operations in Special Forces, through which I see the current happenings; but, Trump is intentional. He wants to provoke Americans to the point that he has an excuse to use National Guard and other troops under martial law, supported by his racist militias to stop elections and allow him to control the government by force........ a Coup/Civil war! and he has a great many helpers out there...... I never thought it was possible but he is getting closer and closer to the tipping point.... unless he, Barr and McConnell are somehow stopped we are in very perilous times........Americans have been lulled to sleep by libertarian/fundamentalist religion and not having seen serious bloodshed on our shores for a long time....
My deepest gratitude for your summary of the day's news, Heather. My leaping takeaway from it all is that there is no way he'll leave quietly if he loses the election. He'd rather burn down the house.
I wonder if Tucker Carlson's "vacation," in addition the revelations about and resignation of writer Blake Neff, might also have something to do with the unconscionable things he said last week about Sen. Tammy Duckworth.
Thank you, Heather. I usually read your letter in the middle of the night but am smart enough not to comment when I'm half asleep. My greatest wish is that I'll wake up at three a.m. and you will have written that its all over for Trump. But then we'd have Pence and his zealotry to deal with. November can't come soon enough.
With all leaders essentially silent except the noisy gong in the White House, it is up to us to lead our own families and communities. If we unite among ourselves in our communities and neighborhoods, we can create a positive future for ourselves and our children. Our community here in Portland needs to do a better job of stopping the riotous distractors from the BLM and Justice protests. We do not need federal interference. That said, I wonder why the rioting protesters select the Federal Courthouse to attack? (It is next to the local Justice Center). And, I believe the federal government does need to protect federal property. However, one would expect all officers to respect the 'rules of engagement' of the local community. Here, those rules forbid the use of tear gas and non-lethal crowd control weapons. With tRump boasting how he quelled the attacks on the courthouse, I have to wonder about the coincidence of the events. Well, back to my main point. We need join together in our communities to first do no harm and second continually nudge the world in positive ways.
I think the chief conclusion of all these different ....but linked...stories is that something is wrong with the system if he can get away with it. Countervailing powers are quite evidently insufficient to restrain a group of people intent on having their way and promoting their own interests regardless of the impact on others. The American people are not being served by this system, they are being dictated to by the schoolyard bully, his sychophantic helpers and their rich paymasters and they are supposed to wait for an election to do something about it.
The use of the Stone commutation as a diversion to swamp the bad news of both Trump's acquiescence in Russian bounty payments and his complicity in a sanitary disaster is evident.....but the "fig leaf" is so infintesimally small compared to the naked truth of this emporer and his new clothes! How is it that our media and commentators of all persuasions allows this strategy to function? Where is their sense of proportion? Run the story yes, but side-by-side with the really important stuff.
The attack on medical data credibility by both diminishing the role and access of Fauci and the CDC is a blatant attempt, on the one hand, to suppress the truth and on the other to de-credibilize the medical data by putting collection responsibilty into non-professional hands in a spiralling, uncontrolled multi-tier system. Florida's Govenor was more frank....or more stupid depending on your point of view. He tried to ban publication of the number of deaths.
The corollary of involving the National Guard and Federal Agents to invade hospitals and occupy, uninvited, urban areas is, at once, obviously dangerous but also a clear demonstration of the state of Trump's infantile mentality. He thinks that this makes him look as strong as Putin! In reality it shows him to be the little, disturbed boy playing with toy soldiers that he is. When will he start torturing animals? The clinical diagnosis is clear.
Where do we go from here? California is showing one way. They are closing down their economy again. It is time that Trump was made to understand that he is just a leaf in the wind, he is virtual and not real and will disappear when the people pull the plug
"But these events also remind us that a broader question remains unanswered: Why does President Trump keep trying to escalate tensions around the protests, while utterly refusing at every opportunity to de-escalate them?"
Because he wants to set off a civil war so he can declare martial law and cancel the election he's set to lose.
The distraction campaign is the Trump approach to coverups like this one of Russia's aggression. "The Democrats don't matter. The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with sh-t." --Steve Bannon to Bloomberg's Michael Lewis, Feb. 2018
My first reaction was, "Is it time to take to the streets yet?" But a fear deeper than risk of personal injury makes me step back: civil unrest bypasses the institutions that are intended to prevent this kind of "soft" coup, and if we give up on them, we weaken them further. In the paradoxical, "bizarro" world of Trump and his claque, such a move actually strengthens their position. Perhaps another impeachment, placed swiftly before the monstrously corrupt Republican Senate, would either compel them to attempt to preserve Congressional power or force them to reveal that they no longer care about democracy, the rule of law, and the American Experiment.
I’ve worked in health care for almost 40 years. I can’t believe that the CDC is being taken out from collecting, analyzing and dispersing data. Is this a done deal.? What a God damn nightmare this has become...
Trump has been kowtowing to Putin in plain sight of all of us for the past 4 years. It seems highly likely that Putin has “kompromat” on Trump. There’s been much speculation as to what that might be - sex tapes, illegal loans, money laundering, other crimes and corruption? If it’s true, then Trump is guilty of treason. I wonder who else in Trump’s inner circle knows that Trump is compromised and committing treason? Those people - in Congress, in the White House, in his friends or family - are committing treason as well.
Are there still polite optimists who say not to compare this demagogue to Adolf Hitler? He sends in his Schutzstaffel to Oregon to protect statues and they countermand the rules of engagement of the local police, seriously injuring a citizen exercising what used to be a Constitutional right to peacefully demonstrate against Der Fuhrer. Are we there yet? What will be our "Kristallnacht" defining the final destruction of our Constitutional Democracy?
Chuck Woolery. I’m so glad this expert has finally weighed in.
Could we be in the middle of a takeover and not realize it?
Maybe it is just that I have a bias from my Insurgency and Counterinsurgency training and operations in Special Forces, through which I see the current happenings; but, Trump is intentional. He wants to provoke Americans to the point that he has an excuse to use National Guard and other troops under martial law, supported by his racist militias to stop elections and allow him to control the government by force........ a Coup/Civil war! and he has a great many helpers out there...... I never thought it was possible but he is getting closer and closer to the tipping point.... unless he, Barr and McConnell are somehow stopped we are in very perilous times........Americans have been lulled to sleep by libertarian/fundamentalist religion and not having seen serious bloodshed on our shores for a long time....
I'm glad Trump is spending his time paying attention to stuff that Chuck Woolery tweets.
Handbasket...hell is a mile down the road and on your right.
My deepest gratitude for your summary of the day's news, Heather. My leaping takeaway from it all is that there is no way he'll leave quietly if he loses the election. He'd rather burn down the house.
I wonder if Tucker Carlson's "vacation," in addition the revelations about and resignation of writer Blake Neff, might also have something to do with the unconscionable things he said last week about Sen. Tammy Duckworth.
Thank you, Heather. I usually read your letter in the middle of the night but am smart enough not to comment when I'm half asleep. My greatest wish is that I'll wake up at three a.m. and you will have written that its all over for Trump. But then we'd have Pence and his zealotry to deal with. November can't come soon enough.
With all leaders essentially silent except the noisy gong in the White House, it is up to us to lead our own families and communities. If we unite among ourselves in our communities and neighborhoods, we can create a positive future for ourselves and our children. Our community here in Portland needs to do a better job of stopping the riotous distractors from the BLM and Justice protests. We do not need federal interference. That said, I wonder why the rioting protesters select the Federal Courthouse to attack? (It is next to the local Justice Center). And, I believe the federal government does need to protect federal property. However, one would expect all officers to respect the 'rules of engagement' of the local community. Here, those rules forbid the use of tear gas and non-lethal crowd control weapons. With tRump boasting how he quelled the attacks on the courthouse, I have to wonder about the coincidence of the events. Well, back to my main point. We need join together in our communities to first do no harm and second continually nudge the world in positive ways.
Is anyone discounting what may be happening with trump collaborators and operators to pull off an October surprise?