Last week, the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security, Joseph Cuffari, told the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S.
I notice a new phenomenon of acknowledging error than pouncing on conspiracy here.
One of the reasons I actually read and even study some of these comments is the rarity of jarring dissonance and nasty innuendo.
But I think this subject of the possible Corruption in the Secret Service needs expansion and deeper scrutiny. The sort of corruption it represents is especially dangerous as a result of the structural proximity of the service to the Presidency. This probable evil is obvious in VP Pence’ refusal to enter the Secret Service car during the Capitol riot.
The SS Appears to have an internal cancerous rot that cannot be ignored.
Thanks, Art. I agree and hope that deeper investigation happens. It feels like it's being considered too lightly. That the members of the Secret Service should even be politically affliated is a surprise to me. I thought that by definition they protected the president regardless of party. Something is rotten in Denmark.
Forgive me for writing this with my editor's cap on, Art, but please know that the word you wanted was "phenomenon." "Phenomena" is a word used for more than one phenomenon.
I noticed that too, but being often guilty of misuse myself, slid past it as not interfering with the meaning in the discussion. Borrowed word from other languages are such a part of the English language that it's an ongoing question about when they can assume the usual English plurals, etc. This was always a big question when I was studying linguistics. Some words slide right in, but "phenomenon/phenomena" is esoteric enough, and occupies a particular kind of usage that it might take longer than usual. I find myself always having to pause and think with words like this. My mind works faster than my (aging) fingers, so I make a lot of errors especially where verb forms and articles are concerned (reverting back to the English variant I grew up with- which is the reason I became so interested in how language evolves and how adopted words come into use and change). Interesting phenomena. (Sorry, couldn't resist- language is just too much fun.)
Both phenomenon and octopus are derived from the Greek, which is why the plural of the latter is octopuses, not octopi (which is what the plural in Latin would have been).
Art. I believe that you will appreciate Lucian Truscott’s very sobering essay today from his Substack column. Indeed what is happening within the leadership and amongst the agents of the Secret Service cannot but ignored.
errare humanum est perseverare diabolicum...........we all are a little of the latter some of the time for our rigidity in some blind spots and all of us hope to benefit from the former most of the time
Thanks for asking, Pam. The temperature dropped significantly over night with the rain contuing today. We actually get such epIsodes every year but just for few days here and there....nothing like in the US.
Good to know you're human like us, Heather! Thanks for noting- I tend to miss things like that. (I just now corrected a date in a post I made 2 days ago in which somehow I typed 1980s instead of 1850s in relation to abortion. A significant difference and I have no idea how my brain ran into that stumble!) I think we read with a wide tolerance here, knowing that we are carrying on a thoughtful conversation, not a debate. Folks are accepting of unintentional errors. Thank goodness. I make many, but mostly having to do with verb forms and English plurals- my mind works faster than my fingers.
So true, TC, which is why I turn autocorrect off. I don't want my devices trying to tell me what I mean to type- they are incorrect and sometimes it is embarrassing. On my computer, it turns back on with every update, so I have to search it out and turn it back off. Ditto phone, but autocorrect is easier to turn off there. As for numbers, that is all me, and I do the best I can to make them behave.
So here we have a burgeoning scandal likely to shock the nation if this truth emerges: some Secret Service agents were part of the attempt to overthrow the government, and they destroyed evidence - text messages - to conceal their sedition.
Let that sink in for a moment. How far reaching was the conspiracy? Who planned it? Who ordered the phone replacement program? Was it indeed cover for destroying evidence?
Even if the texts aren’t recovered, the truth will emerge. And prison cells await.
I guess I’m not the least bit surprised the orange faced thug had other thuggish secret service white males in his thrall. One thing I have thoroughly learned at this point is people who bought into former prez’s b—ll—t are all around me on any given day and I live in MA one of the bluest and educated states. I think it boils down to this—some of the richest and smuggest citizens have convinced themselves that it’s all about their taxes and he was on their side. Many people who are struggling just to get by convinced themselves that if it weren’t for all the brownish illegal immigrants they would have done much better. Democracy is too theoretical a term for about half of our country who simply vote by their own $$$.
Agreed. And MA has a big red streak, from CT to NH, from Worcester to Springfield. Even in my town, for every two votes for Biden, there was one for T****. I thought the intelligence level was higher than that. I was misinformed.
I thought the intelligence of the United States as a whole was higher…boy were we surprised and so disappointed. The dumbing down of America is working and ‘T’ loves stupid people!
The many struggling people who convinced themselves are actually correct. There is a book, which I highly recommend that you read, to understand one of the Democrats' biggest problems, how our open borders immigration policy is undermining working class support of our party. It's called: Back of the Hiring Line: A 200-Year History of Immigration Surges, Employer Bias, and Depression of Black Wealth, and it's available for $13 on Amazon. It is a scholarly book (296 footnotes) that covers the relevant academic economic history; yet highly readable, as the author is a former journalist. Here are some excerpts to explain what has been happening:
"The employment history for working-age Black men with high school diploma, for example, has been calamitous during the sustained immigration surge from 1965-2020. Their employment rate during that time fell by 36 percent."
"In Washington [DC], long a majority Black city, it became increasingly difficult by the end of the 1980s to find a native born Black worker on construction sites, in the parking garages, in janitorial firms, or in the taxi cabs. Congress had filled the nation's capital with foreign workers and increasingly emptied the city's jobs of lower-skilled Black men, especially young Black men, although they continued to live there."
The people struggling to get by are absolutely right about the impact of the immigrants on their ability to earn a living.
Why do you think Trump gained Hispanic votes in 2020?
Oh but Liz, don’t forget about black people who they have been taking advantage of centuries! Let me add that they have been murdering them too for no reason than they are “different”!
I don't even know how to respond to this statement. It appears to be a deliberately planted attempt to divert us from real issues. ANYONE with any knowledge of public welfare can grasp the inherent falsehood here. So what is the real purpose of posting this here? It's not even related to the topic at hand.
I have difficulty w your statement. Evidence of that? While not statistically informed myself, I felt that “Maid”, (although an essentially white female capture of crushing poverty in US) still does a fine job of capturing the precarious bottom rung struggles and “abundant gov assistance” was not even a remote reality.
K. Barnes, I agree. Our public welfare system is anything but generous. In spite of our various economic sins, we are still the wealthiest nation in the world. And, feet-on-the-ground in the daily reality of our wealth are children, crowded into tenements, subsisting on unsustainable farms, wandering the roads and the city streets of the United States of America who DO NOT HAVE FOOD TO EAT. For me, that fact hovers over everything we do and say. I can never really get past it. Children and infants have no access to enough food to keep them alive. I've stopped caring whose fault it is. It doesn't even matter. There is something so deeply wrong about a nation and a government that would let that stand that I've reached the basic almost wordless reaction that boils down to GET SOME FOOD TO THOSE CHILDREN. This shouldn't be an issue of party or policy or any of our nonsense. How is this even possible.
Disagree. Can you cite facts to back your assertion? The so-called welfare system has been gutted over the years. And if work has been optional, why is unemployment so low?
I think Germans have a much better public welfare system than the USA, and it does the opposite of promoting people not working. It lifts them up so that they can get to work when able. The German unemployment rate right now is 5.3% which is a seasonal high. I am here right now. A lot of that rate comes from refugees who have recently registered to work here but have not yet gotten jobs. In March it was 2.9%. That was not a high unemployment rate considering that public welfare exists.
Beg to differ, HH Rose. Yours is a profoundly silly statement and I speak as a guy who has worked for many years with hundreds of people living on the edge of financial disaster, most of whom were orphans of the public welfare system you deplore.
Linda, if this paragraph, close to the end of an NYT article by Jason DeParle, describes a "white nationalist," I guess I'm guilty as charged:
"Mr. Beck said the charges of bigotry were especially unfair and let a reporter hear a tape of his 1970 wedding ceremony, which included a song he wrote pledging to fight “race hate.” He deliberately lives in integrated neighborhoods, he said, and sent his children to integrated schools, including one in a mostly black housing project."
"But perhaps most dangerous is that Wikipedia articles can be heavily biased depending on the topic at hand. This is especially true for articles about famous people, places, and things, or controversial topics (e.g. U.S. presidents, climate change, certain religions). In articles such as these, some unscrupulous editors try to put forward an agenda by carefully wording certain sections or by adding biased sources. While their behavior is not to be commended, it can be said that these editors are clever. After all, they have realized that, because Wikipedia is used so often, by injecting their bias into an article, they can almost unconsciously affect readers’ opinions on the topics at hand."
I don’t need to be schooled about Wikipedia; besides, there are other articles about Roy Beck--he’s been around forever. And the Southern Poverty Law Center puts him squarely in the middle of at least two known hate groups. Have a nice day.
If those phones were backed up to the Cloud the texts should be recoverable. I'd like to see a deep search to account for all the phones in service during that period, there may be some untouched.
The Secret Service themselves are experts at recovering deleted data. They would also be experts at hiding it. Still, those texts were not only on phones, they were on backed-up servers.
Sadly, "shocking the nation" might last for 24 hours. The fire hose of crimes and abuses of power has drowned America. Until the bad guys are hauled into court, convicted and looking through bars, this dumb and numb nation will keep sleep walking through life.
In other countries, Mar A Lago would be constantly surrounded by thousands of angry protesters. The Justice Department would see mobs of demonstrators as they went to work. The Supremely Sick Justices would see more than a handful "making some good trouble".
But hey! "Stranger Things" just got a billion views on Netflix. At least we have priorities established!
24 hours? Not any more. That’s part of the Bannon Plan to crash the culture by “Flooding the Zone with Sh*t”. The public hits the point where they cannot be shocked anymore, they trust nothing and no one, and they no longer will “Look Up”.
A scholarly treatment of this subject, i.e., a population not able to distinguish fiction from fact and eventually not caring, is Timothy Snyder's book, The Road to Unfreedom. Order from your local bookstore.
If the truth emerges before a Republican win in the fall, otherwise, deafening silence, except for the investigations of the investigators and impeachment of Joe Biden. Hope voting will do the trick, but so many “don’t look up.” Either about our democracy or climate change.
I’m trying to be as positive as you, Michael. So I will add prison cells ASAP. 🙏🏼👏🏼🇺🇸🤞🏻👍🏻[prayer hands and other similar symbols]. Apple, how about adding an upside down American flag?
Absolutely not. I do not agree with that at all. I find it abhorrent that Amazon peddles every abomination of the American flag that any anarchist can order with “prime next day delivery” guaranteed. Emojis do not need to include that type of disrespect to the flag.
I believe, as an emoji, it absolutely is. And currently, used as a disrespectful symbol by right wingers towards President Biden and democratic principles.
Keep in mind that these are not legal standards but "flag etiquette" with no legal standing or enforceability.
As noted in the "standards", flying a flag upside down has long been a legitimate sign of distress. Many people (with reason) consider that our nation is in distress right now.
I agree with that, but I also agree that flying our flag upside down to express that feeling is irresponsible. Disrespect is not the issue in my mind. It is irresponsible because it displaces a widely recognized call for help in times of emergency. By using an unside down flag as a statement of protest, we risk taking away the recognition of it as a sign of actual, immediate distress in which lives may be at risk.
We should honor that. We have many ways to express disagreement and protest. The one symbol with the potential for us to unite around is the flag as the symbol of unity: flown as a sign of respect for our potential and hope for preserving democracy. Reclaim the flag as a point of pride, and fly it high.
I've written before that as a Quaker and out of personal choice, I do not salute the flag nor recite the Pledge of Allegiance. But I do stand for it, and feel a sense of camaraderie with my fellow citizens. It is a symbol to express our aspiration to be the best we can be as a nation, a democratic society.
Lets not lose this by using the flag as an emoji. Let the radical right abuse it if they insist. But let the rest of us fly it as it is meant to be, and let's allow the upside down flag to remain as a sign of imminent distress, used in extremis.
Jeri, i agree 100+%! There seems that not a day passes without being made painfully aware of the Political cancer that is taking over in America. Has it come to the point of not being able to trust any part of our Government? With the Midterms and 2024 Presidential Election just around the proverbial corner we are on the edge of the abyss. Is there such a thing as a Political driven Dark Age?
I believe everything you write, Michael, in this post right up until your last sentence. Our prison cells are overflowing, but not with white-collar criminals nor seditionist traitors. They play the system and are not held accountable. Thus “No Justice. No Peace,”
Yes, white-collar criminals slither out of accountability most of the time. Seditionist traitors? These cases are more than rare. The South's secessionists weren't charged and let off the hook. And we saw where that got us. Now, it's all in the line. Game over if Trump and his co-conspirators walk.
The most recent Al Franken podcast had Malcom on and he laid it out in stark detail how serious J6 was and the threat has only gotten worse in the interim.
Good Morning Michael! I'm guessing you are either on the West coast or in Europe because you are often among the first to comment and at a time when I'm sound asleep. I say this because I always feel late to the main show when I get around to responding to your comments.
Your paragraph two is what I've been focused on since the late 90s when Hillary posited that there is a vast right-wing conspiracy. Her claim was met with great skepticism at the time but here we are 25 years later, and she has again been vindicated. There is a vast right-wing conspiracy and the depth and breadth of it is mind boggling. This treasonous conspiracy goes far deeper and is more devastating than what Trump has been involved in. Trump has played a role, but he is not the mastermind and he's definitely incapable of being the puppet master.
Surely, at the center of this conspiracy is a small group of multi-billionaires who view democratically formed governments as a threat to their financial domination of the world. It is very possible that this group is international. They obviously have at their disposal unlimited financial resources to both employ an elite group of investigators, analysts and strategists, as well as recruit and enlist key people in government, the media, and beyond to accomplish their goal.
I would like to flesh this out in greater detail and over a period of time because it is central to understanding who is behind the destruction of democracy in the United States and every other democratically operated OECD country. It is both fascinating and terrifying.
Morning to you. I'm on the West Coast and tend to stay up later than I should. Some mornings I blame Heather if I'm dragging.
You're on target. Many names of those undermining democracy with their riches have emerged, among them the Koch brothers (only one now), Peter Thiel, the Mercers, and others. It's also well-established that the Federalist Society, led by Leonard Leo, has funneled millions of dollars to build the let's-tear-down-America majority on the Supreme Court. All of this is the proverbial tip of the iceberg.
This is such a prescient comment. You have summed up so much of what I have always suspected but couldn’t succinctly articulate. I remember when Hillary made her comment about a vast Rightwing Conspiracy. And I remember the ridicule. But, I felt she was on to something. And of course she was.
Per Betsy Woodruff Swan, Robert Engel was tfg's "Agent in-Charge'" on J6 from "socks-on-to-socks-off". Per the Select Committee, Tony Ornato, the former SS Agent was then tfg's "Deputy Chief of Staff". Others. ANY "overt act" in concert is sufficient for Federal Co-conspritor Liability. Prosecutorial diligence required.
Also, the head of the Secret Service, James Murray, was appointed by Trump in 2019 and is a loyalist. He's resigned, effective the end of this month, and will be chief security officer for Snapchat.
So we hope and hope and hope...and pray and wish with fingers crossed, knocking on wood and clutching lucky magical-thinking objects (I was going to write "rabbits foots, but didn't want to offend). Excuse me whilst I go throw salt over my shoulder.
Indeed. Here's some to add to the mile-long list: before leaving office, did Trump tell the Secret Service to destroy the texts, or did his head of the agency or someone else take the action and then inform Trump?
I wouldn't be surprised if phones were routinely replaced at the turnover from one administration to another. I also wouldn't be surprised if this were used as cover to destroy sensitive and potentially incriminating data, with an innocent smile and an "Oops. Sorry about that."
WOW! What a day! From Secret Service Agents knowingly deleting their texts and information to our grand women in Congress stopping traffic. The in-between stuff like Trump’s continuous whining and the illegitimate electors trying to get out of subpoenas is so very annoying. Slap them all in jail first, then let them have their trial. After all, isn’t that what they do with black and brown people?
I am sorry to hear about Bennie Thompson. I so admire this humble man. Well, Liz will have the gavel on Thursday so that too, will be a very interesting day. Get some sleep, HRC, because we are really relying on your expert wisdom.
Morning, Christine! I watched PG's message right before watching/listening to HCR's chat yesterday. Such a contrast in personalities...we need both of them.
So true, Lynell. It’s interesting to me that it’s the same on this forum. I participate with Common Cause among other organizations, but I love their name. 🗽💜
Everything she says is spot-on. I wanted to slice up her monologue into 5 second bytes and make every Democratic politician memorize them. This is the sort of aggressive messaging we need. Just imagine if we had the message discipline of our foes, and could hear each and every one of these damning facts repeated verbatim and ad infinitum from the mouths of politicians on our side. If that happened, people who aren't paying attention would just suddenly find themselves echoing these points without even knowing where they came from.
That's how messaging works. Repetition equals success.
Not just repetition but distilling down to a single word that mobilizes the base to line up and salute- abortion! Antifa! CRT! guns! vaccine! socialism! The list goes on, the technique very effective. Pavlov's pups.
So true! I've noticed that the worthier the liberal policy, the lousier the messaging. So hard to convince people that simply being true right, and good counts for so little in the world of political speech.
Yes, a danger and have been for some time. I have mentioned before that I regard them as the party of death....of women, of children, of people murdered by guns, of the less fortunate, of POC and Native Americans, of our democracy, of the planet, of decency, of what it means to be a Christian. Death star is just the monstrous stimulant to a festering cancer.
Brilliant and chilling at the same time. Will the Democrats please give her a national platform to spread her message far and wide? The DNC should create a political ad that features her and only her. The succinct, incisive talking points should be cherry-picked and used by Democratic leaders.
Praise aside, I'm not sure where she came up with "we've abandoned environmental protections at the federal level."
We liberals need to focus less on messengers and more on messages. She's one person. We need to clone her talking points and put them in the mouth of every Democratic candidate or office holder. And while this "everything that's awful" summary is good for us, I'd like to see it broken into smaller, more manageable chunks before it goes out.
Bureau of Land Management has sold our supposedly protected public lands to cattle, mining and oil interests. America's iconic wild Mustangs and burros are being cruelly rounded up by Koch's helicopter goons and slaughtered by the hundreds of thousands.
But unless this gets sliced into 10 second soundbytes, repeated by countless politicians on endless loop and plastered on rural billboards, it will just be us talking to us.
And, re the deleted texts not being able to be found - BULLSHIT. As we all well know from our own electronica, texts, emails, et al are NEVER deleted from hard drives . You just have to know where to look and, if anyone knows the art of where to look, it should be the Secret Service. It's their fucking job.
Agreed. In addition to protecting the President, the Secret Service is the primary agency tasked with safeguarding the payment and financial systems of the United States from a wide range of financial and cyber-based crimes.
30 days is actually a fairly short time for recovering "lost" data from 19 months ago. It's a typical time frame for obtaining that quantity of data in a complex lawsuit, eg, Twitter vs Musk
Wow, Jeri! I read your first sentence “Very deliberate and takes illegal acts to do what the SS did.” My head snapped back to the German SS. Very disturbing and echoing at the same time.
Someone on Twitter noted that the SS is "always" near the president, so they must have known tRump was secreting 15 boxes of documents to Merde a Largo. And no one said a word???? Hmmmmmm.
As I tell my fiction writing students, the meaning of the term “dystopian novel” is currently in flux, as yesterday’s “dystopian” keeps becoming today’s “realistic.”
First they came for The Onion and killed satire, but I did nothing, because I wasn’t a satirist. Then they came for the dystopian novel and I did nothing because it was too late.
It will not be very nice hearing the Agents "taking the 5th" and suffering from memory loss due to their recent bout of dementia....but it will be necessary.
Apparently, Annabel, some agents were misled in not understanding the connotation of the word “secret” in the naming of their agency. And got carried away. 😬
I would like to see a list of all the agents who’s texts weren’t properly uploaded, and where they were exactly at all moments on Jan6, vs the agents who did upload. I believe a useful pattern would emerge that could be helpful to know.
Looks like there are still no "good Republicans" living or dead.
Can someone tell me why right wing Republican males all look like someone you would cross the street to avoid, not knowing who they were? Most recent example is Rokita.
I thought the same thing when his face flashed on the screen. Maybe it’s due to constant lying and posturing that makes their faces look like slightly misshapen dough.
I really do think that evil shows itself through physical manifestation...remember how Kellyanne Conway looked when she was first started with drump? And then how drawn and terrible she looked a year or so later? Evil shows.
Very much agree. Mostly evil is seen in the lackluster eyes. Like TFG the eyes have a reptilian look. And their smiles are wooden. Evil drains all the luminescence from a person.
The good news is Rokita has been sent a cease & desist order by the doctor's attorney, Delaney. The order warns Rokita “Moreover, to the extent that any statement you make exceeds the general scope of your authority as Indiana’s Attorney General, such a statement forms the basis of an actionable defamation claim." In response, Rokita still insists he's "investigating multiple sources and agencies." He's really making a fool of himself.
But it infuriates me that this doctor has to use personal resources to defend herself from slime like Rokita, who will prolong the attack out of hubris and spite and a humanity deficit. He belongs in the plaza in front of his offices in public stocks.
I didn't say I could, but I believe my wife can. That was from the old times when most politicians were trying to hide their lies. I guess she is noticing all kinds of little face expressions, maybe compensation for not being so good at listening. She certainly can read my face, and asks right away what's up, even when I am hardly aware of it myself.
The term for what the Secret Service did is spoliation of evidence. As a former litigator when informaton/ documents is destroyed after a request for preservation (no subpoena needed) it was a nightmare if it was my client or an opportunity for my client if the other side destroyed their information/documents. In addition to sanctions for violating several preservation laws, an inference of intent is bestowed upon the party whose information/documents go missing AFTER a request for preservation is made (a letter requesting such is a request for preservation).
It does seem like a pretty clear case for subpoenas to testify followed by dismissal for cause and loss of future benefits. No criminal charges necessary. Quick and easy. Except for the ones that go on to commit perjury too.
Can you imagine the thinking behind the deletion of Secret Service text messages after being told to upload them to an internal agency drive? What would be the penalty? In the trumpian white house “accidentally”removing confidential documents did happen. Transporting all the way to Mar-A-Lago. And then there’s the habit of flushing ripped up pieces down the loo. Was there a penalty for these infractions? Followers of TFG know there are few consequences for breaking the law. “The former president’s Goodfellas-style habit apparently carried over from his days as a businessman; he reportedly tore up displeasing papers as casually as one-ply bathroom tissue. In the White House, West Wing staffers mindful of his obligations under the Presidential Records Act often picked off the floor the shredded refuse and taped it, like Humpty Dumpty, back together again.” https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/594278-document-dump-turns-toxic-for-trump/
Made me laugh out loud this am, Rose, needed that after working a long day at the polls and Dem office yesterday ~ the T____ pick for Republican Governor won the Primary in Maryland. Good Lord!
Yes, the Regressives (AKA The Ass-Backwardists) want a furthering of the culture war, perhaps a civil war (they will. They'll talk themselves into it as easily as they do teachers carrying guns). As before, they do so because they're already facing a no-win situation for their future (this happens when you are bereft of ideas that actually do something). Their breed is slowly but surely dying and they are in panic mode--have been since Obama's election. What do you do when you panic? You do things like try to destroy the already-odious Missouri Compromise and go for the jugular (overreach) by making ALL western states pro-slavery...//glurb to modern times//...or try to hijack power through a combination of analytics-driven gerrymandering, Supreme Court sheeps'-clothery (with an able assist by the conveniently-duped Susan M. Collins), and outright election fraud--all backed by thirty years of incrementally more bombastic myth-making out of Limbaugh, Fox News et al...and the coup de grace: a worldwide social media f*cktastrophic disassembly of meaning-making that our permanently-ensconced Boomer-dominated "leaders" STILL cannot perceive, much less reign in... Wha La! You have Civil War 2.0, just waiting to happen. One year? Two? Seven? Think I'm kidding, overstating or wrong? Give me ONE notable thing that's DIFFUSING the situation (let's vote half the Boomers who still control 60% of Congress out of office in November and I might reconsider). Give me ONE reason to think these idiots won't do another Fort Sumter moment the minute their "Plan" starts to be unwoven (well, I'm making the assumption--perhaps a foolish one--that middle America will actually, y'know, wake up and vote in force. One of these days. Any minute now...). They've already decided. They WANT a war, or at least a division of our country. AGAIN (mostly because those that do have never fought in one and are convinced they won't have to face ANY consequences for it. Well, history IS on their side in that, isn't it?).
The ONLY peaceful way past this is EVERYBODY voting (even that's no guarantee, but by golly, let's make our system do its job before we resign ourselves to failure, or worse, hand over the keys to those who want to destroy it). It pains and stuns me to see wailing and gnashing of teeth about the mid-terms being a lost cause. They shouldn't be (overall) if people vote (But a lot of people can't stop littering either). Yes, I know well the gerrymandering and suppression. I know that Wisconsin now has to vote about 60% Democratic for them to carry elections there. So, then we must do that. We have to do whatever it takes (legally, of course). If we have 65% voting rates come November and, once again, the ~33% of this country who are Ass-Backwardists have won again, and then the litany of excuse-making is exactly that: OUR FAULT if that happens (Our. Never "they." OUR fault). Want to fight a war folks? I already did, and I do not. I'm tired. Trust me, you don't either.
You didn't mention that for an uncomfortably large number of people the passion for the Second Amendment is not about hunting or defending their persons or homes. It's about AR-ming up to defend their "freedoms" by being ready to beat back the Federal Government and the un-American, One World, anti-Christian-values socialists and ethnic invaders that are its supporters. Civil War 2 is already leaking out from the banks of political discourse and I'm sure all those guns are a reason many in power are moving with what may seem like exaggerated caution to prosecute insurrectionists
Love your acerbic, poetic descriptions of one of the serious troubles we are in: "social media f*cktastrophic disassembly of meaning-making that our permanently-ensconced Boomer-dominated "leaders" STILL cannot perceive, much less reign in... Wha La! "
Can anyone dispute the notion that HCR will go down as among the very great Americans of our time? Her Letters are invaluable, to say the least. Her intimate chats ("she's speaking directly to me!") reveal to us her unabashed vulnerability as her humanity and patriotism shine through. And let's not forget her CAFE Now and Then podcasts, delivered once a week where her talents as entertainer allow for playing "straight woman" to her co-host Joanne Freeman, all with a dedication to delivering accurate history to anyone who cares to listen. To me, it is remarkable how she marshals the ability to appeal to those of you who reside high on the intelligence scale while at the same time not leaving the rest of us behind.
From one American to another, I salute you, Heather Cox Richardson.
Up to now, the Secret Service was above suspicion, one of the VERY few government agencies that enjoyed universal respect and trust. The behavior of the agents who refused to drive DT to the Capitol supports that view, though some Reps might think otherwise, but this report definitely does NOT. Congress really does have a lot on its plate right now, but this MUST have consequences, if the reputation of the Secret Service is to survive.
Was the Secret Service above suspicion? Look at Robert Hanssen, the head of CIA counterintelligence, and Aldrich Ames, one of the most notorious traitors in U.S. history. In Britain, Kim Philby and Sir Anthony Blunt, custodian of the royal family’s vast art collection, fooled people for years while doing great damage. Is the whole GOP comprised of moles working for Russia?
None of the prople you name was with the Secret Service, which is NOT part of the labyrinthine "intelligence" agency "network" (I put those terms in quotes because they are oxymorons in the cases named. They are neither intelligent nor a network.) That is why we need an investigation - to determine whether the Secret Service has also been penetrated by subversives, now from the right. Up to now, we didn't worry about agents' political opinions, because they appeared to be doing their jobs so well. I hope we will soon learn whether that trust was justified, or whether the rot is indeed everywhere.
USSS in fact is an intelligence agency charged with establishing Electronic Crimes Task Forces (ECTFs) across the United States, and that's definitely an intelligence gathering function, as is the USSS duty for gathering intel to protect National Special Security Events in conjunction with local law enforcement and the FBI.
I agree that they are neither intelligent nor a network, at least as you describe those terms.
And the fact that Tony Ornato was allowed to be a member of Trump's presidential staff as a special staff assistant while doing double duty as a Special Agent then after fully supporting Trump on Jan 6 returning as USSS's training chief clearly shows they are already penetrated by subversives.
Thanks for this informative comment. Does the USSS report directly to the Chief of National Intelligence? If so, then I will withdraw the claim I made in my positing. I had been under the impression that USSS was an independent agency. You are certainly right about Tony Ornato, so the suspicion that the rot has already set in may well be justified. We still need an investigation, to find out just how far this has gone.
Agreed, and more than an investigation by the Trump-installed IG. His recently-announced criminal investigation looks to me like he's trying to shift the narrative away from his own complicity.
So……….the “ USSS in fact is an intelligence agency charged with establishing Electronic Crimes Task Forces (ECTFs) across the United State”. So this agency knows a bit about electronic communications I think. And for them to “OOOPS!” texts from one of the most infamous days in our recent history? It can only be considered calculated and should be pursued swiftly and fully. I agree with HCR that they weighed the risk and felt saying “sorry” was worth the cover up. What is their penalty for this egregious lapse of professionalism? How harsh in comparison to the truth that needs to be revealed about their actions that day? Slap on the wrist? Probably.
I'm more concerned about the survival of free citizens governed by functioning democracy than I am about the reputation of an agency that acts above the law.
But the two are connected. We won't survive as free citizens in a functioning democracy if the SS is subverted and impeds the fair election of our leaders. What if Pence had been whisked away by the SS and Sen. Grassley had presided, as was planned? "Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said he would preside over the U.S. Senate debate surrounding disputes of the 2020 election results if Vice President Mike Pence does not show up." Repubs walked it back but it was too late -- he'd said it. https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2021/01/05/grassley-suggests-he-may-preside-over-senate-debate-on-electoral-college-votes/
A reputation is a set of opinions about someone or something. If the Secret Service is behaving illegally, those people should be investigated and prosecuted. It takes a long time to build a good reputation, but virtually no time to ruin one. Currently, things are not looking good for the Service.
"The Republican Party and the right-wing extremists behind this decision are not pro-life, but pro-controlling the bodies of women, girls, and any person who can become pregnant. Their ultimate goal is to institute a national ban on abortion."
The Republican Party during my lifetime has become the most autocratic, theocratic, oppressive and dangerous political party since the Jim Crow southern Democrats who facilitated the KKK, lynchings, shootings, burning and bombings of black Americans.
Today's Republicans are America's Taliban. They promote guns, violence and dictatorial authority over all others, and lawlessness for themselves. They are not Christian as the Taliban are not Muslim. They are simply "Terrorists".
Yes. The last honorable Republican president was Dwight David Eisenhower. It's been a long, slow slide into infamy. And for the nation to survive, that slide must continue to oblivion.
The Secret Service has lost its way under the Department of Homeland Security. Alas, the Department of Homeland Security seems to have totally missed securing our Capital from insurrection! Heads should roll.
Did VP Mike Pence drive himself to the Capital on January 6th or how did he actually get there?
I corrected the date of DOMA seconds after this went out, but not soon enough. Sorry about that.
Knowing how to correct errors is the sign of a true professional.
And acknowledging we made a mistake is a sign of maturity.
Mistakes are allowed. Occasionally. :-)
I notice a new phenomenon of acknowledging error than pouncing on conspiracy here.
One of the reasons I actually read and even study some of these comments is the rarity of jarring dissonance and nasty innuendo.
But I think this subject of the possible Corruption in the Secret Service needs expansion and deeper scrutiny. The sort of corruption it represents is especially dangerous as a result of the structural proximity of the service to the Presidency. This probable evil is obvious in VP Pence’ refusal to enter the Secret Service car during the Capitol riot.
The SS Appears to have an internal cancerous rot that cannot be ignored.
Thanks, Art. I agree and hope that deeper investigation happens. It feels like it's being considered too lightly. That the members of the Secret Service should even be politically affliated is a surprise to me. I thought that by definition they protected the president regardless of party. Something is rotten in Denmark.
Co conspirators in the plot to destroy democracy.
Yes! That's the headstone epitaph for them all.
Forgive me for writing this with my editor's cap on, Art, but please know that the word you wanted was "phenomenon." "Phenomena" is a word used for more than one phenomenon.
I noticed that too, but being often guilty of misuse myself, slid past it as not interfering with the meaning in the discussion. Borrowed word from other languages are such a part of the English language that it's an ongoing question about when they can assume the usual English plurals, etc. This was always a big question when I was studying linguistics. Some words slide right in, but "phenomenon/phenomena" is esoteric enough, and occupies a particular kind of usage that it might take longer than usual. I find myself always having to pause and think with words like this. My mind works faster than my (aging) fingers, so I make a lot of errors especially where verb forms and articles are concerned (reverting back to the English variant I grew up with- which is the reason I became so interested in how language evolves and how adopted words come into use and change). Interesting phenomena. (Sorry, couldn't resist- language is just too much fun.)
Both phenomenon and octopus are derived from the Greek, which is why the plural of the latter is octopuses, not octopi (which is what the plural in Latin would have been).
https://www.etymonline.com/word/phenomenon
https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=octopus
Oh, that's a wonderful example! Thanks, Mim.
Art. I believe that you will appreciate Lucian Truscott’s very sobering essay today from his Substack column. Indeed what is happening within the leadership and amongst the agents of the Secret Service cannot but ignored.
Posting this rather late in the day. Please share if you have not already. https://luciantruscott.substack.com/p/wtf-happened-to-the-secret-service?r=l2aa7&s=r&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
Thank you Christine
Thanks, Christine.
'SS' has bad overtones. Better to spell out 'Secret Service'. The old SS had cancerous rot both internal and external.
Beginning to wonder if the new SS, Secret Service, doesn't also contain amounts of internal rot.
True. Thanks
30 days? Why not send the SS report to Archives this week?!
Repeating my previous post:
'SS' has bad overtones. Better to spell out 'Secret Service'. The old SS had cancerous rot both internal and external.
Could be.
errare humanum est perseverare diabolicum...........we all are a little of the latter some of the time for our rigidity in some blind spots and all of us hope to benefit from the former most of the time
Stuart, are you frying there in Paris? reading here that the temps in Europe and London are as high as they have ever been.
Thanks for asking, Pam. The temperature dropped significantly over night with the rain contuing today. We actually get such epIsodes every year but just for few days here and there....nothing like in the US.
Nullus anxietas!
Good to know you're human like us, Heather! Thanks for noting- I tend to miss things like that. (I just now corrected a date in a post I made 2 days ago in which somehow I typed 1980s instead of 1850s in relation to abortion. A significant difference and I have no idea how my brain ran into that stumble!) I think we read with a wide tolerance here, knowing that we are carrying on a thoughtful conversation, not a debate. Folks are accepting of unintentional errors. Thank goodness. I make many, but mostly having to do with verb forms and English plurals- my mind works faster than my fingers.
Brain stumbles are not helped by autocorrect. :-)
So true, TC, which is why I turn autocorrect off. I don't want my devices trying to tell me what I mean to type- they are incorrect and sometimes it is embarrassing. On my computer, it turns back on with every update, so I have to search it out and turn it back off. Ditto phone, but autocorrect is easier to turn off there. As for numbers, that is all me, and I do the best I can to make them behave.
and fumble fingers, like I have-LOL!
Sh^t happens! I know I never would have caught it unless it was some future date. ;-)
I didn't even notice even tho I was there, angered by it at the time.
https://twitter.com/shale_stone/status/1549729450895581186
Heather, we are all human, which means we do make mistakes.
No worries!!
So here we have a burgeoning scandal likely to shock the nation if this truth emerges: some Secret Service agents were part of the attempt to overthrow the government, and they destroyed evidence - text messages - to conceal their sedition.
Let that sink in for a moment. How far reaching was the conspiracy? Who planned it? Who ordered the phone replacement program? Was it indeed cover for destroying evidence?
Even if the texts aren’t recovered, the truth will emerge. And prison cells await.
I guess I’m not the least bit surprised the orange faced thug had other thuggish secret service white males in his thrall. One thing I have thoroughly learned at this point is people who bought into former prez’s b—ll—t are all around me on any given day and I live in MA one of the bluest and educated states. I think it boils down to this—some of the richest and smuggest citizens have convinced themselves that it’s all about their taxes and he was on their side. Many people who are struggling just to get by convinced themselves that if it weren’t for all the brownish illegal immigrants they would have done much better. Democracy is too theoretical a term for about half of our country who simply vote by their own $$$.
Agreed. And MA has a big red streak, from CT to NH, from Worcester to Springfield. Even in my town, for every two votes for Biden, there was one for T****. I thought the intelligence level was higher than that. I was misinformed.
I thought the intelligence of the United States as a whole was higher…boy were we surprised and so disappointed. The dumbing down of America is working and ‘T’ loves stupid people!
The many struggling people who convinced themselves are actually correct. There is a book, which I highly recommend that you read, to understand one of the Democrats' biggest problems, how our open borders immigration policy is undermining working class support of our party. It's called: Back of the Hiring Line: A 200-Year History of Immigration Surges, Employer Bias, and Depression of Black Wealth, and it's available for $13 on Amazon. It is a scholarly book (296 footnotes) that covers the relevant academic economic history; yet highly readable, as the author is a former journalist. Here are some excerpts to explain what has been happening:
"The employment history for working-age Black men with high school diploma, for example, has been calamitous during the sustained immigration surge from 1965-2020. Their employment rate during that time fell by 36 percent."
"In Washington [DC], long a majority Black city, it became increasingly difficult by the end of the 1980s to find a native born Black worker on construction sites, in the parking garages, in janitorial firms, or in the taxi cabs. Congress had filled the nation's capital with foreign workers and increasingly emptied the city's jobs of lower-skilled Black men, especially young Black men, although they continued to live there."
The people struggling to get by are absolutely right about the impact of the immigrants on their ability to earn a living.
Why do you think Trump gained Hispanic votes in 2020?
Oh but Liz, don’t forget about black people who they have been taking advantage of centuries! Let me add that they have been murdering them too for no reason than they are “different”!
In addition. Our public welfare system has become so generous that , if a person is so inclined, work has become optional for American citizens.
I don't even know how to respond to this statement. It appears to be a deliberately planted attempt to divert us from real issues. ANYONE with any knowledge of public welfare can grasp the inherent falsehood here. So what is the real purpose of posting this here? It's not even related to the topic at hand.
Thank you Annie.
Thank you Annie. I appreciate your response to that comment.
I have difficulty w your statement. Evidence of that? While not statistically informed myself, I felt that “Maid”, (although an essentially white female capture of crushing poverty in US) still does a fine job of capturing the precarious bottom rung struggles and “abundant gov assistance” was not even a remote reality.
K. Barnes, I agree. Our public welfare system is anything but generous. In spite of our various economic sins, we are still the wealthiest nation in the world. And, feet-on-the-ground in the daily reality of our wealth are children, crowded into tenements, subsisting on unsustainable farms, wandering the roads and the city streets of the United States of America who DO NOT HAVE FOOD TO EAT. For me, that fact hovers over everything we do and say. I can never really get past it. Children and infants have no access to enough food to keep them alive. I've stopped caring whose fault it is. It doesn't even matter. There is something so deeply wrong about a nation and a government that would let that stand that I've reached the basic almost wordless reaction that boils down to GET SOME FOOD TO THOSE CHILDREN. This shouldn't be an issue of party or policy or any of our nonsense. How is this even possible.
K Barnes: I agree!
David Holzman: I'm sure readers can get the book through their local independent bookseller. (Why promote A****n?)
I think it's sold only through Amazon. If it was available through local booksellers, I would not mention A****n.
Disagree. Can you cite facts to back your assertion? The so-called welfare system has been gutted over the years. And if work has been optional, why is unemployment so low?
I think Germans have a much better public welfare system than the USA, and it does the opposite of promoting people not working. It lifts them up so that they can get to work when able. The German unemployment rate right now is 5.3% which is a seasonal high. I am here right now. A lot of that rate comes from refugees who have recently registered to work here but have not yet gotten jobs. In March it was 2.9%. That was not a high unemployment rate considering that public welfare exists.
Beg to differ, HH Rose. Yours is a profoundly silly statement and I speak as a guy who has worked for many years with hundreds of people living on the edge of financial disaster, most of whom were orphans of the public welfare system you deplore.
David, still doing your weekly shill for the white nationalist, Roy Beck, I see.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Beck
Linda, if this paragraph, close to the end of an NYT article by Jason DeParle, describes a "white nationalist," I guess I'm guilty as charged:
"Mr. Beck said the charges of bigotry were especially unfair and let a reporter hear a tape of his 1970 wedding ceremony, which included a song he wrote pledging to fight “race hate.” He deliberately lives in integrated neighborhoods, he said, and sent his children to integrated schools, including one in a mostly black housing project."
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/us/17immig.html?scp=2&sq=tanton&st=nyt&pagewanted=all
Linda,
"But perhaps most dangerous is that Wikipedia articles can be heavily biased depending on the topic at hand. This is especially true for articles about famous people, places, and things, or controversial topics (e.g. U.S. presidents, climate change, certain religions). In articles such as these, some unscrupulous editors try to put forward an agenda by carefully wording certain sections or by adding biased sources. While their behavior is not to be commended, it can be said that these editors are clever. After all, they have realized that, because Wikipedia is used so often, by injecting their bias into an article, they can almost unconsciously affect readers’ opinions on the topics at hand."
https://oen.pressbooks.pub/becredible/chapter/wikipedia/
I don’t need to be schooled about Wikipedia; besides, there are other articles about Roy Beck--he’s been around forever. And the Southern Poverty Law Center puts him squarely in the middle of at least two known hate groups. Have a nice day.
If those phones were backed up to the Cloud the texts should be recoverable. I'd like to see a deep search to account for all the phones in service during that period, there may be some untouched.
There is bound to be someone who can find those texts.
The Secret Service themselves are experts at recovering deleted data. They would also be experts at hiding it. Still, those texts were not only on phones, they were on backed-up servers.
Check Hunter's laptop - stat.
But can't backups be overridden with new backups?
Nope. There are always traces.
Or were the servers wiped like Hillary’s?
There is bound to be someone whom they called who has messages on their phones....
Seems likely that in this day and age they could be recovered. I bet the Russians can get them :)
Need a laugh emoji or something. Love your wry sense of humor, Susan!)
🤞🤞
Sadly, "shocking the nation" might last for 24 hours. The fire hose of crimes and abuses of power has drowned America. Until the bad guys are hauled into court, convicted and looking through bars, this dumb and numb nation will keep sleep walking through life.
In other countries, Mar A Lago would be constantly surrounded by thousands of angry protesters. The Justice Department would see mobs of demonstrators as they went to work. The Supremely Sick Justices would see more than a handful "making some good trouble".
But hey! "Stranger Things" just got a billion views on Netflix. At least we have priorities established!
24 hours? Not any more. That’s part of the Bannon Plan to crash the culture by “Flooding the Zone with Sh*t”. The public hits the point where they cannot be shocked anymore, they trust nothing and no one, and they no longer will “Look Up”.
A scholarly treatment of this subject, i.e., a population not able to distinguish fiction from fact and eventually not caring, is Timothy Snyder's book, The Road to Unfreedom. Order from your local bookstore.
Yes, fiddling while Rome burns.
Rome lasted for about 1000 years, they didn't have "smart" phones, so the US will do it quicker.
If the truth emerges before a Republican win in the fall, otherwise, deafening silence, except for the investigations of the investigators and impeachment of Joe Biden. Hope voting will do the trick, but so many “don’t look up.” Either about our democracy or climate change.
And poor Hunter Biden...and those emails and Benghazi....
I’m trying to be as positive as you, Michael. So I will add prison cells ASAP. 🙏🏼👏🏼🇺🇸🤞🏻👍🏻[prayer hands and other similar symbols]. Apple, how about adding an upside down American flag?
How about just making the effort to find the right words? Emojis schmojis!
I’ll buy that, but the republican traitors use every word, symbol, $, and lie to win the hearts and minds of those who are weak in both.
That is how propaganda machines succeed.
Absolutely not. I do not agree with that at all. I find it abhorrent that Amazon peddles every abomination of the American flag that any anarchist can order with “prime next day delivery” guaranteed. Emojis do not need to include that type of disrespect to the flag.
What do you think an upside down American flag means? It just means "distress".
An upside down flag is used as a distress signal. Not disrespectful.
I believe, as an emoji, it absolutely is. And currently, used as a disrespectful symbol by right wingers towards President Biden and democratic principles.
A lot of opinion on this. Just one follows but I’m sure one can find support for differing opinion. https://starspangledflags.com/why-you-shouldnt-fly-the-american-flag-upside-down/
Yes, I am aware. But why do they get to co-opt EVERY American symbol? It doesn't mean we have to let them.
Remember when I was an exchange student in 1963, and was corrected when I asked why the flag was called 'stars and strangle banners'.
Keep in mind that these are not legal standards but "flag etiquette" with no legal standing or enforceability.
As noted in the "standards", flying a flag upside down has long been a legitimate sign of distress. Many people (with reason) consider that our nation is in distress right now.
I agree with that, but I also agree that flying our flag upside down to express that feeling is irresponsible. Disrespect is not the issue in my mind. It is irresponsible because it displaces a widely recognized call for help in times of emergency. By using an unside down flag as a statement of protest, we risk taking away the recognition of it as a sign of actual, immediate distress in which lives may be at risk.
We should honor that. We have many ways to express disagreement and protest. The one symbol with the potential for us to unite around is the flag as the symbol of unity: flown as a sign of respect for our potential and hope for preserving democracy. Reclaim the flag as a point of pride, and fly it high.
I've written before that as a Quaker and out of personal choice, I do not salute the flag nor recite the Pledge of Allegiance. But I do stand for it, and feel a sense of camaraderie with my fellow citizens. It is a symbol to express our aspiration to be the best we can be as a nation, a democratic society.
Lets not lose this by using the flag as an emoji. Let the radical right abuse it if they insist. But let the rest of us fly it as it is meant to be, and let's allow the upside down flag to remain as a sign of imminent distress, used in extremis.
our America is in distress now, as never before. Not disrespect, but acknowledgment of the danger that has seeped into every nook and cranny.
Jeri, i agree 100+%! There seems that not a day passes without being made painfully aware of the Political cancer that is taking over in America. Has it come to the point of not being able to trust any part of our Government? With the Midterms and 2024 Presidential Election just around the proverbial corner we are on the edge of the abyss. Is there such a thing as a Political driven Dark Age?
100%, Christine.
I believe everything you write, Michael, in this post right up until your last sentence. Our prison cells are overflowing, but not with white-collar criminals nor seditionist traitors. They play the system and are not held accountable. Thus “No Justice. No Peace,”
Yes, white-collar criminals slither out of accountability most of the time. Seditionist traitors? These cases are more than rare. The South's secessionists weren't charged and let off the hook. And we saw where that got us. Now, it's all in the line. Game over if Trump and his co-conspirators walk.
If you really want to know, ask Malcom Vance or Gaslit Nation.
The most recent Al Franken podcast had Malcom on and he laid it out in stark detail how serious J6 was and the threat has only gotten worse in the interim.
Good Morning Michael! I'm guessing you are either on the West coast or in Europe because you are often among the first to comment and at a time when I'm sound asleep. I say this because I always feel late to the main show when I get around to responding to your comments.
Your paragraph two is what I've been focused on since the late 90s when Hillary posited that there is a vast right-wing conspiracy. Her claim was met with great skepticism at the time but here we are 25 years later, and she has again been vindicated. There is a vast right-wing conspiracy and the depth and breadth of it is mind boggling. This treasonous conspiracy goes far deeper and is more devastating than what Trump has been involved in. Trump has played a role, but he is not the mastermind and he's definitely incapable of being the puppet master.
Surely, at the center of this conspiracy is a small group of multi-billionaires who view democratically formed governments as a threat to their financial domination of the world. It is very possible that this group is international. They obviously have at their disposal unlimited financial resources to both employ an elite group of investigators, analysts and strategists, as well as recruit and enlist key people in government, the media, and beyond to accomplish their goal.
I would like to flesh this out in greater detail and over a period of time because it is central to understanding who is behind the destruction of democracy in the United States and every other democratically operated OECD country. It is both fascinating and terrifying.
Morning to you. I'm on the West Coast and tend to stay up later than I should. Some mornings I blame Heather if I'm dragging.
You're on target. Many names of those undermining democracy with their riches have emerged, among them the Koch brothers (only one now), Peter Thiel, the Mercers, and others. It's also well-established that the Federalist Society, led by Leonard Leo, has funneled millions of dollars to build the let's-tear-down-America majority on the Supreme Court. All of this is the proverbial tip of the iceberg.
This is such a prescient comment. You have summed up so much of what I have always suspected but couldn’t succinctly articulate. I remember when Hillary made her comment about a vast Rightwing Conspiracy. And I remember the ridicule. But, I felt she was on to something. And of course she was.
You said it better than I could. Please do as your instincts tell you and publish, but don't delay. Timing is paramount.
Per Betsy Woodruff Swan, Robert Engel was tfg's "Agent in-Charge'" on J6 from "socks-on-to-socks-off". Per the Select Committee, Tony Ornato, the former SS Agent was then tfg's "Deputy Chief of Staff". Others. ANY "overt act" in concert is sufficient for Federal Co-conspritor Liability. Prosecutorial diligence required.
Also, the head of the Secret Service, James Murray, was appointed by Trump in 2019 and is a loyalist. He's resigned, effective the end of this month, and will be chief security officer for Snapchat.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/07/07/secret-service-murray-resign/
So we hope and hope and hope...and pray and wish with fingers crossed, knocking on wood and clutching lucky magical-thinking objects (I was going to write "rabbits foots, but didn't want to offend). Excuse me whilst I go throw salt over my shoulder.
This is very troubling. Are they like the Praetorian Guard? I do love though the comment that smart people never mess with archivists.
When were the replacement phones ordered?
So many questions, so few answers.
Indeed. Here's some to add to the mile-long list: before leaving office, did Trump tell the Secret Service to destroy the texts, or did his head of the agency or someone else take the action and then inform Trump?
And by whom? I think he might have quit. Cannot remember his name.
Some 20+ days after the request from the J6 committee.
not so confident as you that the 'truth' will actually emerge... or that any of it will lead where it oughta as you're optimistically suggesting.
excellent questions that need to be asked and answered... something is indeed rotten...
I'm currently reading Carol Leonnig's ZERO FAIL, a deep dive into the Secret Service...informative, disappointing, and myth busting...
I wouldn't be surprised if phones were routinely replaced at the turnover from one administration to another. I also wouldn't be surprised if this were used as cover to destroy sensitive and potentially incriminating data, with an innocent smile and an "Oops. Sorry about that."
WOW! What a day! From Secret Service Agents knowingly deleting their texts and information to our grand women in Congress stopping traffic. The in-between stuff like Trump’s continuous whining and the illegitimate electors trying to get out of subpoenas is so very annoying. Slap them all in jail first, then let them have their trial. After all, isn’t that what they do with black and brown people?
I am sorry to hear about Bennie Thompson. I so admire this humble man. Well, Liz will have the gavel on Thursday so that too, will be a very interesting day. Get some sleep, HRC, because we are really relying on your expert wisdom.
Here is some wisdom from the kitchen of Politics Girl today. “Republicans are a Danger to Our Country.”
Thank you, Leigh McGowan, for the messaging. Spot on. https://youtu.be/4W9ljttRlvI
Morning, Christine! I watched PG's message right before watching/listening to HCR's chat yesterday. Such a contrast in personalities...we need both of them.
So true, Lynell. It’s interesting to me that it’s the same on this forum. I participate with Common Cause among other organizations, but I love their name. 🗽💜
Yes, yes, Christine...and agree re Common Cause.
Everything she says is spot-on. I wanted to slice up her monologue into 5 second bytes and make every Democratic politician memorize them. This is the sort of aggressive messaging we need. Just imagine if we had the message discipline of our foes, and could hear each and every one of these damning facts repeated verbatim and ad infinitum from the mouths of politicians on our side. If that happened, people who aren't paying attention would just suddenly find themselves echoing these points without even knowing where they came from.
That's how messaging works. Repetition equals success.
Not just repetition but distilling down to a single word that mobilizes the base to line up and salute- abortion! Antifa! CRT! guns! vaccine! socialism! The list goes on, the technique very effective. Pavlov's pups.
So true! I've noticed that the worthier the liberal policy, the lousier the messaging. So hard to convince people that simply being true right, and good counts for so little in the world of political speech.
If you are on Twitter, which I am not, please do send her messages out. The Dems need desperate help in the messaging department!
Thank you for sharing Politics Girl. Fantastically RIGHT ON def sharing this.
Me too, Saratoga Sue, already shared it b4 reading your post .
Yes, a danger and have been for some time. I have mentioned before that I regard them as the party of death....of women, of children, of people murdered by guns, of the less fortunate, of POC and Native Americans, of our democracy, of the planet, of decency, of what it means to be a Christian. Death star is just the monstrous stimulant to a festering cancer.
Love PG because she is always so right on target!
Brilliant and chilling at the same time. Will the Democrats please give her a national platform to spread her message far and wide? The DNC should create a political ad that features her and only her. The succinct, incisive talking points should be cherry-picked and used by Democratic leaders.
Praise aside, I'm not sure where she came up with "we've abandoned environmental protections at the federal level."
We liberals need to focus less on messengers and more on messages. She's one person. We need to clone her talking points and put them in the mouth of every Democratic candidate or office holder. And while this "everything that's awful" summary is good for us, I'd like to see it broken into smaller, more manageable chunks before it goes out.
Bureau of Land Management has sold our supposedly protected public lands to cattle, mining and oil interests. America's iconic wild Mustangs and burros are being cruelly rounded up by Koch's helicopter goons and slaughtered by the hundreds of thousands.
Wow! This video is fantastic. WHY AREN'T THE DEMOCRATS GETTING THIS MESSAGE OUT THERE?!?
This, Christine, should be required watching by every Democrat in this Country!
But unless this gets sliced into 10 second soundbytes, repeated by countless politicians on endless loop and plastered on rural billboards, it will just be us talking to us.
Thank you, Christine!
Great summary, Marlene. Sending "healing vibes" to Rep Thompson...and continued health to HCR!
And, re the deleted texts not being able to be found - BULLSHIT. As we all well know from our own electronica, texts, emails, et al are NEVER deleted from hard drives . You just have to know where to look and, if anyone knows the art of where to look, it should be the Secret Service. It's their fucking job.
Agreed. In addition to protecting the President, the Secret Service is the primary agency tasked with safeguarding the payment and financial systems of the United States from a wide range of financial and cyber-based crimes.
They'd better know how to find "lost" txt data.
There's a server somewhere . . .
If they are “gone,” it was deliberate and calculated. It’s not easy
Yes. But why do they get 30 days? Surely this can be bumped up to the top of the list. Time is of the essence.
That always amazes me, too. Why 30 days. Their server can provide it in a couple days.
30 days is actually a fairly short time for recovering "lost" data from 19 months ago. It's a typical time frame for obtaining that quantity of data in a complex lawsuit, eg, Twitter vs Musk
Very deliberate and takes illegal acts to do what the SS did. They are running out the clock
Wow, Jeri! I read your first sentence “Very deliberate and takes illegal acts to do what the SS did.” My head snapped back to the German SS. Very disturbing and echoing at the same time.
It seems to me 30 days to provide this info is too reasonable. Make it a week.
Someone on Twitter noted that the SS is "always" near the president, so they must have known tRump was secreting 15 boxes of documents to Merde a Largo. And no one said a word???? Hmmmmmm.
Which is why there is a greater chance of them NOT being recovered.
For sure!
In archivists we trust.
So they are our super heroes??? Are they faster than a speeding bullet???
They are the keepers of our history and culture, along with librarians and historians.
Better than speeding bullets. Speed is immaterial. 😉
And it was Archivists who recognized that 15 boxes of materials went 'south' instead of to the National Archives.
As I tell my fiction writing students, the meaning of the term “dystopian novel” is currently in flux, as yesterday’s “dystopian” keeps becoming today’s “realistic.”
Remember when dystopian fiction was "escapist?" Now it's nonfiction. Since 2016, I've found it hard to read...
Believe me, I get it.
I had to put down Octavia Butler's books for that very reason.
“Dystopian” now becomes “Tuesday”
First they came for The Onion and killed satire, but I did nothing, because I wasn’t a satirist. Then they came for the dystopian novel and I did nothing because it was too late.
Some day the book of Revelations was not a prophesy, but the actual history of events, but written as a prophesy because it would have been censored.
As to the Secret Service texts: can they subpoena all agents involved and make them tell the committee what was in those texts, under oath?
It will not be very nice hearing the Agents "taking the 5th" and suffering from memory loss due to their recent bout of dementia....but it will be necessary.
Apparently, Annabel, some agents were misled in not understanding the connotation of the word “secret” in the naming of their agency. And got carried away. 😬
I would like to see a list of all the agents who’s texts weren’t properly uploaded, and where they were exactly at all moments on Jan6, vs the agents who did upload. I believe a useful pattern would emerge that could be helpful to know.
My thoughts exactly.
Looks like there are still no "good Republicans" living or dead.
Can someone tell me why right wing Republican males all look like someone you would cross the street to avoid, not knowing who they were? Most recent example is Rokita.
Hahahahahahahahaha. Sizzlin’, TC, sizzlin’.
I thought the same thing when his face flashed on the screen. Maybe it’s due to constant lying and posturing that makes their faces look like slightly misshapen dough.
I really do think that evil shows itself through physical manifestation...remember how Kellyanne Conway looked when she was first started with drump? And then how drawn and terrible she looked a year or so later? Evil shows.
Very much agree. Mostly evil is seen in the lackluster eyes. Like TFG the eyes have a reptilian look. And their smiles are wooden. Evil drains all the luminescence from a person.
Thanks for "evil draws all the luminescence from a person." I'll remember that.
Stephen Miller is a diabolically perfect example.
Love the "misshapren dough" analogy. Good one, Christine.
The good news is Rokita has been sent a cease & desist order by the doctor's attorney, Delaney. The order warns Rokita “Moreover, to the extent that any statement you make exceeds the general scope of your authority as Indiana’s Attorney General, such a statement forms the basis of an actionable defamation claim." In response, Rokita still insists he's "investigating multiple sources and agencies." He's really making a fool of himself.
But it infuriates me that this doctor has to use personal resources to defend herself from slime like Rokita, who will prolong the attack out of hubris and spite and a humanity deficit. He belongs in the plaza in front of his offices in public stocks.
I have a friend whose son is a physician and colleague of the gynecologist who cared for the 10 year old. He says it has been pure hell for her.
It's reminding me of the attacks on Christine Blasey Ford.
Yes. Horrific.
To the benefit of the Republican mis- and disinformation machine.
It’s that look of intense hatred.
Yes they have a telltale grayish slimy patina.
My wife used to turn off the sound in intervjus with politicians, to see who was lying.
How can you tell they're lying? Look and see if their lips are moving - works every time.
I didn't say I could, but I believe my wife can. That was from the old times when most politicians were trying to hide their lies. I guess she is noticing all kinds of little face expressions, maybe compensation for not being so good at listening. She certainly can read my face, and asks right away what's up, even when I am hardly aware of it myself.
The term for what the Secret Service did is spoliation of evidence. As a former litigator when informaton/ documents is destroyed after a request for preservation (no subpoena needed) it was a nightmare if it was my client or an opportunity for my client if the other side destroyed their information/documents. In addition to sanctions for violating several preservation laws, an inference of intent is bestowed upon the party whose information/documents go missing AFTER a request for preservation is made (a letter requesting such is a request for preservation).
There must be severe consequences for this.
And drag some people in to testify under oath.
It does seem like a pretty clear case for subpoenas to testify followed by dismissal for cause and loss of future benefits. No criminal charges necessary. Quick and easy. Except for the ones that go on to commit perjury too.
Thank you for this vocabulary lesson— I love it SPOILIATION.
I think he wrote it as "spoliation." I had to read it twice to pronounce it correctly.
Can you imagine the thinking behind the deletion of Secret Service text messages after being told to upload them to an internal agency drive? What would be the penalty? In the trumpian white house “accidentally”removing confidential documents did happen. Transporting all the way to Mar-A-Lago. And then there’s the habit of flushing ripped up pieces down the loo. Was there a penalty for these infractions? Followers of TFG know there are few consequences for breaking the law. “The former president’s Goodfellas-style habit apparently carried over from his days as a businessman; he reportedly tore up displeasing papers as casually as one-ply bathroom tissue. In the White House, West Wing staffers mindful of his obligations under the Presidential Records Act often picked off the floor the shredded refuse and taped it, like Humpty Dumpty, back together again.” https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/594278-document-dump-turns-toxic-for-trump/
Can the SS Humpty Dumpty be put back together again? Can our lives?
Isn’t it all absurd ? The Truth? Laughing and crying at the same time.
“In the Trump White House, even the water closets may have been crime scenes.” Thanks for sharing this great read, Irenie!
Made me laugh out loud this am, Rose, needed that after working a long day at the polls and Dem office yesterday ~ the T____ pick for Republican Governor won the Primary in Maryland. Good Lord!
Thank you for your service, Sandra! You are valiant, truly patriotic and have my wholehearted admiration! You deserve a laugh every day :-)
Yes, the Regressives (AKA The Ass-Backwardists) want a furthering of the culture war, perhaps a civil war (they will. They'll talk themselves into it as easily as they do teachers carrying guns). As before, they do so because they're already facing a no-win situation for their future (this happens when you are bereft of ideas that actually do something). Their breed is slowly but surely dying and they are in panic mode--have been since Obama's election. What do you do when you panic? You do things like try to destroy the already-odious Missouri Compromise and go for the jugular (overreach) by making ALL western states pro-slavery...//glurb to modern times//...or try to hijack power through a combination of analytics-driven gerrymandering, Supreme Court sheeps'-clothery (with an able assist by the conveniently-duped Susan M. Collins), and outright election fraud--all backed by thirty years of incrementally more bombastic myth-making out of Limbaugh, Fox News et al...and the coup de grace: a worldwide social media f*cktastrophic disassembly of meaning-making that our permanently-ensconced Boomer-dominated "leaders" STILL cannot perceive, much less reign in... Wha La! You have Civil War 2.0, just waiting to happen. One year? Two? Seven? Think I'm kidding, overstating or wrong? Give me ONE notable thing that's DIFFUSING the situation (let's vote half the Boomers who still control 60% of Congress out of office in November and I might reconsider). Give me ONE reason to think these idiots won't do another Fort Sumter moment the minute their "Plan" starts to be unwoven (well, I'm making the assumption--perhaps a foolish one--that middle America will actually, y'know, wake up and vote in force. One of these days. Any minute now...). They've already decided. They WANT a war, or at least a division of our country. AGAIN (mostly because those that do have never fought in one and are convinced they won't have to face ANY consequences for it. Well, history IS on their side in that, isn't it?).
The ONLY peaceful way past this is EVERYBODY voting (even that's no guarantee, but by golly, let's make our system do its job before we resign ourselves to failure, or worse, hand over the keys to those who want to destroy it). It pains and stuns me to see wailing and gnashing of teeth about the mid-terms being a lost cause. They shouldn't be (overall) if people vote (But a lot of people can't stop littering either). Yes, I know well the gerrymandering and suppression. I know that Wisconsin now has to vote about 60% Democratic for them to carry elections there. So, then we must do that. We have to do whatever it takes (legally, of course). If we have 65% voting rates come November and, once again, the ~33% of this country who are Ass-Backwardists have won again, and then the litany of excuse-making is exactly that: OUR FAULT if that happens (Our. Never "they." OUR fault). Want to fight a war folks? I already did, and I do not. I'm tired. Trust me, you don't either.
Have to agree with every furious word
You didn't mention that for an uncomfortably large number of people the passion for the Second Amendment is not about hunting or defending their persons or homes. It's about AR-ming up to defend their "freedoms" by being ready to beat back the Federal Government and the un-American, One World, anti-Christian-values socialists and ethnic invaders that are its supporters. Civil War 2 is already leaking out from the banks of political discourse and I'm sure all those guns are a reason many in power are moving with what may seem like exaggerated caution to prosecute insurrectionists
Love your acerbic, poetic descriptions of one of the serious troubles we are in: "social media f*cktastrophic disassembly of meaning-making that our permanently-ensconced Boomer-dominated "leaders" STILL cannot perceive, much less reign in... Wha La! "
Glad you liked it. I AM a poet, so I guess it should be, LOL.
See if you like this (from one of my poems): "Sociopathic
parentally-consensual tax-coded narcissism?
Bridges-falling scot-free financial Chernabylers?
Viagra-vaxxed, culture-warred insurrectolyptic f**ktastrophe."
Yep, that sums it up well.
Can anyone dispute the notion that HCR will go down as among the very great Americans of our time? Her Letters are invaluable, to say the least. Her intimate chats ("she's speaking directly to me!") reveal to us her unabashed vulnerability as her humanity and patriotism shine through. And let's not forget her CAFE Now and Then podcasts, delivered once a week where her talents as entertainer allow for playing "straight woman" to her co-host Joanne Freeman, all with a dedication to delivering accurate history to anyone who cares to listen. To me, it is remarkable how she marshals the ability to appeal to those of you who reside high on the intelligence scale while at the same time not leaving the rest of us behind.
From one American to another, I salute you, Heather Cox Richardson.
Morning, Lynell. I will not dispute your notion; the work she is doing here and elsewhere is incredible.
Thanks, Ally...morning!
America goes far beyond America, and HCR is one worthy of it.
Thank you, Olof...for sure.
Up to now, the Secret Service was above suspicion, one of the VERY few government agencies that enjoyed universal respect and trust. The behavior of the agents who refused to drive DT to the Capitol supports that view, though some Reps might think otherwise, but this report definitely does NOT. Congress really does have a lot on its plate right now, but this MUST have consequences, if the reputation of the Secret Service is to survive.
Was the Secret Service above suspicion? Look at Robert Hanssen, the head of CIA counterintelligence, and Aldrich Ames, one of the most notorious traitors in U.S. history. In Britain, Kim Philby and Sir Anthony Blunt, custodian of the royal family’s vast art collection, fooled people for years while doing great damage. Is the whole GOP comprised of moles working for Russia?
None of the prople you name was with the Secret Service, which is NOT part of the labyrinthine "intelligence" agency "network" (I put those terms in quotes because they are oxymorons in the cases named. They are neither intelligent nor a network.) That is why we need an investigation - to determine whether the Secret Service has also been penetrated by subversives, now from the right. Up to now, we didn't worry about agents' political opinions, because they appeared to be doing their jobs so well. I hope we will soon learn whether that trust was justified, or whether the rot is indeed everywhere.
USSS in fact is an intelligence agency charged with establishing Electronic Crimes Task Forces (ECTFs) across the United States, and that's definitely an intelligence gathering function, as is the USSS duty for gathering intel to protect National Special Security Events in conjunction with local law enforcement and the FBI.
I agree that they are neither intelligent nor a network, at least as you describe those terms.
And the fact that Tony Ornato was allowed to be a member of Trump's presidential staff as a special staff assistant while doing double duty as a Special Agent then after fully supporting Trump on Jan 6 returning as USSS's training chief clearly shows they are already penetrated by subversives.
Thanks for this informative comment. Does the USSS report directly to the Chief of National Intelligence? If so, then I will withdraw the claim I made in my positing. I had been under the impression that USSS was an independent agency. You are certainly right about Tony Ornato, so the suspicion that the rot has already set in may well be justified. We still need an investigation, to find out just how far this has gone.
Agreed, and more than an investigation by the Trump-installed IG. His recently-announced criminal investigation looks to me like he's trying to shift the narrative away from his own complicity.
So……….the “ USSS in fact is an intelligence agency charged with establishing Electronic Crimes Task Forces (ECTFs) across the United State”. So this agency knows a bit about electronic communications I think. And for them to “OOOPS!” texts from one of the most infamous days in our recent history? It can only be considered calculated and should be pursued swiftly and fully. I agree with HCR that they weighed the risk and felt saying “sorry” was worth the cover up. What is their penalty for this egregious lapse of professionalism? How harsh in comparison to the truth that needs to be revealed about their actions that day? Slap on the wrist? Probably.
Exactly
The 2018 eight, who spent July 4th in Moscow, and, of course, Moscow Mitch…
No kidding. Where are the translators' notes from that one?
I'm more concerned about the survival of free citizens governed by functioning democracy than I am about the reputation of an agency that acts above the law.
But the two are connected. We won't survive as free citizens in a functioning democracy if the SS is subverted and impeds the fair election of our leaders. What if Pence had been whisked away by the SS and Sen. Grassley had presided, as was planned? "Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said he would preside over the U.S. Senate debate surrounding disputes of the 2020 election results if Vice President Mike Pence does not show up." Repubs walked it back but it was too late -- he'd said it. https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2021/01/05/grassley-suggests-he-may-preside-over-senate-debate-on-electoral-college-votes/
With any luck and (who knows?) some good will, we COULD have BOTH.
A reputation is a set of opinions about someone or something. If the Secret Service is behaving illegally, those people should be investigated and prosecuted. It takes a long time to build a good reputation, but virtually no time to ruin one. Currently, things are not looking good for the Service.
and our democracy…
What good is a law that defers to the states when half of them are controlled by idjt men?
Exactly again. Boggles the mind.
"The Republican Party and the right-wing extremists behind this decision are not pro-life, but pro-controlling the bodies of women, girls, and any person who can become pregnant. Their ultimate goal is to institute a national ban on abortion."
The Republican Party during my lifetime has become the most autocratic, theocratic, oppressive and dangerous political party since the Jim Crow southern Democrats who facilitated the KKK, lynchings, shootings, burning and bombings of black Americans.
Today's Republicans are America's Taliban. They promote guns, violence and dictatorial authority over all others, and lawlessness for themselves. They are not Christian as the Taliban are not Muslim. They are simply "Terrorists".
Yes. The last honorable Republican president was Dwight David Eisenhower. It's been a long, slow slide into infamy. And for the nation to survive, that slide must continue to oblivion.
The Secret Service has lost its way under the Department of Homeland Security. Alas, the Department of Homeland Security seems to have totally missed securing our Capital from insurrection! Heads should roll.
Did VP Mike Pence drive himself to the Capital on January 6th or how did he actually get there?
I think he was already there in preparation for the ballot “counting.”