You might have noticed that I wrote through the weekend rather than posting a photo on Saturday, thinking that I was sort of banking time and I would take a break during the week.
I read the NYT article earlier and simply shook my head because, as it stands now, not a damn thing will happen to Trump and his band of thugs. When are members of the prior administration going to be held accountable for crimes committed during their tenure? When are the GOP and RNC going to face the fact that they've tied themselves to a scheming, pernicious criminal? When is enough enough?
Daria, you are highlighting precisely what I stated yesterday, which is why, for me, hope is currently stuck in a dark closet in DC. My thoughts from yesterday:
"It is a frightfully dangerous situation, and if President Biden and the DNC don't begin to address the 6th January insurrection and its leaders in the Florida Swamp and in Congress in the strongest terms possible, hope will be a term that will regress to its tangled roots from bygone days."
This report from the NY Times only intensifies the horrors of the Trump administration and the shock of 6th Jan. It reminds me of Hannah Arendt's words during an interview: "The decisive day was when we heard about Auschwitz. Before that, we said: ‘Well, one has enemies. That is natural. Why shouldn’t people have enemies?’ But this was different. It was as if an abyss had opened. Amends can be made for almost anything, at some point in politics, but not for this.”
Of course, we have not had an Auschwitz -- thank goodness! -- but we have had a shocking warning in the form of an insurrection. When will the DOJ and Congress make a decisive move? When will we understand, as a nation, that totalitarianism is knocking at our door and we must take it seriously? Absolutely, Daria, when will "enough be enough?" When?!!!
Your 2nd paragraph describes how I feel precisely, Rowshan. It's crystal clear to me that we are losing our capacity, as a nation, to be shocked and horrified by crimes committed against us - from the financial and social crimes chipping away at our health and welfare to the wholesale oppression and murder of BIPOC by law enforcement, which goes on day after day, despite the cellphone video and bodycam evidence that should be more than enough to indict and convict the murderers. And, as if those things aren't enough, our leaders are promoting the wholesale, unlicensed, ownership of guns with the ability for John and Jane Doe to roam the streets armed and able to murder under the protection of Stand Your Ground laws.
In a "normal time" we would not have had a president pushing quack remedies to a nation suffering from pandemic; bellowing for four years that if he lost the election it's because he'd been cheated. And when he did lose, he doubled down and fomented hysteria amongst his faithful. On the 6th, a normal president would have ordered the lockdown of the Capitol and the insurrectionists would not have been able to leave the Capitol grounds - members of Congress who participated by providing information and access would have been removed from office, arrested and tried for treason. All of these things are signs of a broken, unhealthy society.
Whose United States of America is this? Blatant criminality goes unpunished, on all levels, day after day. It is beyond alarming. Those of us who seek change now beg and plead with our Representitives and Senators constantly for that change, but to no avail...Will we become petrified in time and space like small creatures in tree resin - fossilized because we were unable to stop the flow of atrocities and lawlessness?
Beautifully put, Daria, and perfectly posed questions! Thank you! From now on I'll just wait for your post and reply in agreement with a huge, upper case DITTO!😉
I listened to the Lincoln Project's breakdown last night. The entire episode is a little over an hour, but scroll through to listen to Glenn Kirshner. He assures us that Trump will be facing consequences. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6yuPkvyYRU
Thanks for the link Annette. The Kirshner clip that focuses on why McGahn's recent Senate testimony was important for future legal actions was, I thought, particularly informative.
And I beg to differ. I am sorry to bring this up again. We have a bloody, dark history of crimes against humanity, not unlike the atrocities and experiments of an Auschwitz.
Our native peoples were lied to and decimated in order to take this land, our participation in the colonial enslavement of Africans was to build and enrich white supremacists to create a powerful elite, just like what they had run away from. Some became like Hitler's Aryans.
My mind and body are ravaged with unknown feelings that are welling up that are changing me as I try to get through the book "Caste" and witness the film "The Underground Railroad." The people of our nation are carrying the trauma of our horrific history and reliving it over and over. It might have looked a lot more subtle because whites have been so good at subjugation, suppression and lying for hundreds of years about our REAL "whitewashed" history. For those living with that ever-present knee on their necks, they know our real history—which has never ended for people of color. White man's inhumanity towards humanity. We need to keep lifting the veil and be brave. These stories must be told and white people are the ones who need to listen. And when I feel sorry for myself for not living in a perfect Golden Rule world, hah! Female, born with Cherokee blood and cheekbones, I was also born with Euro ancestors skin and eyes. Luck of the draw in this white supreme world, even if my femaleness made me have to work a lot harder and be vigilant and more careful than my brothers.
"Historian Howard Zinn critically analyses the conception that World War II was really a "people's war" against fascism, as opposed to yet another inter-imperialist conflict with nothing to offer working people. ... It was a war against an enemy of unspeakable evil. However, ... Zinn argues that the United States only became openly anti-Nazism "when Japan and Germany threatened U.S. world interests." The United States entered the war after Japan attacked a naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in 1941." That is our real history about our white, capitalist leaders.
But our people, our warriors were the ones fighting for decency and humanity and against fascism. A democracy must measure it's leadership by it's foundations...and if they do not represent our integrity to our principles. They must be fired. The majority of our people are principled. Today, those people, We The People, must make immediate arrangements to keep all of us safe from tyrants and dictators.
So, Who are we, America? Is this dangerous abyss we find our country and selves in about money, power, continual hierarchies or is it about We, the People, All of Us, this time? No room for the antiquated, white, patriarchal fallacies that they enshrouded our country in. This is now the moment for what we DO in This Great Experiment. It is really the true moment of our REAL history. The steps we take right now will show ourselves and the world, who we really are. It is actually a very awesome privilege we are being called for, that those who fought and died for our principles live through our generations alive today. Dang, this feels like Devotion. Since that word has been "supremely" tarnished, I would use the word INTEGRITY. Perhaps we are INTEGRITISTS? (I just looked that up to see if it is a real word-- it is in the Urban Dictionary! It fits how I feel today, and after seeing my thoughts here, I feel very differently about what we are participating in right now. I do not feel unhinged. I feel FOCUSED.
I am so proud of you, Penelope. Your words inspire me. I, too, though often scoffed at as a Pollyanna, feel like a warrior and lay in wait in the brush with a keen eye and heart. As I am confident in the timing of an offensive surge to reclaim the Republic, I bless the journalists whose pens are loading our weapons of peace.
Love that, Christine! I was not sure where the hell I was going this morning. When I write my thoughts out, things often crystalize. The character, Cora, despite all her struggles, offers me strength (through tears). This film is agonizingly slow and does not skip over individual and collective pain. Viscerally changing me into deeper levels of what MUST NOT BE REPEATED in OUR COUNTRY, EVER again. I am trying to be patient with Justice. Am glad others warriors are lying in wait with me! Then I just scanned what Fern wrote below...those words all describe the depth of our need to apologize and plan to make reparations to my/our Native Peoples and African American peoples for such atrocities by our past and present white supremacists who think they are the chosen ones. But it is the responsibility of white people to learn what we were not taught about our country's history in order to not repeat it.
You know Penelope. I was in a convo with some people about white privilege. One white person talked about not seeing color. One white person talked about being uncomfortable referring to someone as African American because it sounded racist. I had to sigh. I finally said I think white people need to just quit talking and start listening. Most talking that is done just digs the hole deeper. The fear of reparations, blame, guilt clouds so many convos with excuses. I’ve bought so many copies of Caste by Isabel Wilkerson and gifted to friends. I still recommend to all whether you read the entire book or not or just a synopsis or review, please read, if you dare, the story of the encounter Wilkerson has with a Nigerian born playwright. Pgs 52-53.
I was so startled, I could not continue reading for several days.
Sometimes the simplest ideas are so dang profound, it renders reality as a stage.
Powerful writing, powerful thoughts. Historical trauma coming through generations into being re-enacted in different expressions. For all the historians here - please inform us the number of times when criminal behavior by people in the top most positions of leadership in this country has ever been fully adjudicated and the criminals sent to prison? On another note: we will see Biden's stripes revealed in how he deals with such fundamental cancer. Will his hail-fellow-back-slapping- bent toward "bipartisanship" -when the Republicans since Reagan have a well documented trail of absolutist partisanship long epitomized in the figure of McConnell- soften all meaningful adjudication? Will we see again American leadership absolutely incapable of making ones of their own face the magnitude of their own criminality? Non-pardonable crimes with extended meditative times behind bars in real, not executive, prison? As if such rot - like the probability of the NY judge about to free the Sackler family from facing the piper for the evils they've done and continue to do - won't further decay the democracy.
Good catch, Selina. Murder one and it's murder. Murder several and it's mass or serial killing. Murder a million and one is a statesman, even a founding father.
The genocide perpetrated by the European settlers in North America killed untold millions of indigenous people. Nobody knows how many, but knowledgeable estimates range from 10 million to 50 million, mostly between 1750 and 1890. White Americans were less organized perps than the Nazis were, but no less brutal and more “successful.” Dunbar-Ortiz’s History of the United States documents the scope and brutality of the American genocide.
Well said, Penelope. I greatly admired Howard Zinn; we met a couple of times and he was always genial and engaging. But I think he was somewhat off the mark concerning our anti-fascist war. A convincing alternate view comes from Ronald Takaki, who died too soon at 70. In Double Victory: A Multicultural History of America in WW2, the double victory was over foreign AND domestic enemies: Jim Crow, Asian hate, zoot suit rioters, anti-semites. Like others, American Indians also used the DV phrase at that time. We are fortunate that a great singer, a great American 1/4 Cherokee himself, recorded a great song about that struggle.
TPJ and Penelope, I do not know why TPJ did not elaborate on his differences with Howard Zinn about the USA finally entering into WW ll. I do not have an argument to make but thought it might be useful to excerpt some of Zinn's argument:
'For the United States to step forward as a defender of helpless countries matched its image in American high school history textbooks, but not its record in world affairs. It had opposed the Haitian revolution for independence from France at the start of the nineteenth century. It had instigated a war with Mexico and taken half of that country. It bad pretended to help Cuba win freedom from Spain, and then planted itself in Cuba with a military base, investments, and rights of intervention. It had seized Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, and fought a brutal war to subjugate the Filipinos. It had "opened" Japan to its trade with gunboats and threats. It had declared an Open Door Policy in China as a means of assuring that the United States would have opportunities equal to other imperial powers in exploiting China. It had sent troops to Peking with other nations, to assert Western supremacy in China, and kept them there for over thirty years.'
'While demanding an Open Door in China, it had insisted (with the Monroe Doctrine and many military interventions) on a Closed Door in Latin America-that is, closed to everyone but the United States. It had engineered a revolution against Colombia and created the "independent" state of Panama in order to build and control the Canal. It sent five thousand marines to Nicaragua in 1926 to counter a revolution, and kept a force there for seven years. It intervened in the Dominican Republic for the fourth time in 1916 and kept troops there for eight years. It intervened for the second time in Haiti in 1915 and kept troops there for nineteen years. Between 1900 and 1933, the United States intervened in Cuba four times, in Nicaragua twice, in Panama six times, in Guatemala once, in Honduras seven times. By 1924 the finances of half of the twenty Latin American states were being directed to some extent by the United States. By 1935, over half of U.S. steel and cotton exports were being sold in Latin America.'
'Just before World War I ended, in 1918, an American force of seven thousand landed at Vladivostok as part of an Allied intervention in Russia, and remained until early 1920. Five thousand more troops were landed at Archangel, another Russian port, also as part of an Allied expeditionary force, and stayed for almost a year. The State Department told Congress: "All these operations were to offset effects of the Bolshevik revolution in Russia."
'In short, if the entrance of the United States into World War II was (as so many Americans believed at the time, observing the Nazi invasions) to defend the principle of nonintervention in the affairs of other countries, the nation's record cast doubt on its ability to uphold that principle'.
'What seemed clear at the time was that the United States was a democracy with certain liberties, while Germany was a dictatorship persecuting its Jewish minority, imprisoning dissidents, whatever their religion, while proclaiming the supremacy of the Nordic "race." However, blacks, looking at anti-Semitism in Germany, might not see their own situation in the U.S. as much different. And the United States had done little about Hitler's policies of persecution. Indeed, it had joined England and France in appeasing Hitler throughout the thirties. Roosevelt and his Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, were hesitant to criticize publicly Hitler's anti-Semitic policies; when a resolution was introduced in the Senate in January 1934 asking the Senate and the President to express "surprise and pain" at what the Germans were doing to the Jews, and to ask restoration of Jewish rights, the State Department "caused this resolution to be buried in committee," according to Arnold Offner (American Appeasement)'.
'When Mussolini's Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1935, the U.S. declared an embargo on munitions but let American businesses send oil to Italy in huge quantities, which was essential to Italy's carrying on the war. When a Fascist rebellion took place in Spain in 1936 against the elected socialist-liberal government, the Roosevelt administration sponsored a neutrality act that had the effect of shutting off help to the Spanish government while Hitler and Mussolini gave critical aid to Franco. Offner says:
... the United States went beyond even the legal requirements of its neutrality legislation. Had aid been forthcoming from the United States and from England and France, considering that Hitler's position on aid to France was not firm at least until November 1936, the Spanish Republicans could well have triumphed. Instead, Germany gained every advantage from the Spanish civil war.
Was this simply poor judgment, an unfortunate error? Or was it the logical policy of a government whose main interest was not stopping Fascism but advancing the imperial interests of the United States? For those interests, in the thirties, an anti-Soviet policy seemed best. Later, when Japan and Germany threatened U.S. world interests, a pro-Soviet, anti-Nazi policy became preferable. Roosevelt was as much concerned to end the oppression of Jews as Lincoln was to end slavery during the Civil War; their priority in policy (whatever their personal compassion for victims of persecution) was not minority rights, but national power.'
'It was not Hitler's attacks on the Jews that brought the United States into World War II, any more than the enslavement of 4 million blacks brought Civil War in 1861. Italy's attack on Ethiopia, Hitler's invasion of Austria, his takeover of Czechoslovakia, his attack on Poland-none of those events caused the United States to enter the war, although Roosevelt did begin to give important aid to England. What brought the United States fully into the war was the Japanese attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. Surely it was not the humane concern for Japan's bombing of civilians that led to Roosevelt's outraged call for war-Japan's attack on China in 1937, her bombing of civilians at Nan king, had not provoked the United States to war. It was the Japanese attack on a link in the American Pacific Empire that did it.' (Howard ZinnUSAGermanyJapanfascismUS interventionwarWorld War II)
Differences about our country's motives for entering the war may continue, however, there appears to be no doubt about how crucial it was to the defeat of Nazi Germany.
This is all a very important compilation of actual American history vs. the Patriotic American History taught most of us. I'd like to expand on Zinn's comment about subjugation of the Philippines. At the outset of the Spanish American War, which included the goal of ejecting Spain from the Philippines as well as from Cuba, the U.S. promised to support their independence. A revolution against Spain had begun in the Philippines in 1896; in 1898, revolutionary leaders had declared the Philippines independent of Spain. At the conclusion of the Spanish-American War, the U.S. reneged on that promise, refused to acknowledge the Republic of the Philippines, and ended up with a new war in the Philippines as Filipinos fought to gain their full independence. Full independence was finally achieved in 1948.
I learned this while researching to understand a group of old photographs my cousin had which had just enough clues noted on the back of some to point me to the Philippines and 1900. Several of the photos are of the hanging of 2 Filipino brothers who had led the 'insurgency' against continued American occupation & governance. Also seen in the photos, and confirmed by the author of a 2-volume history of the Philippines, the U.S. Army occupying troops were all black Americans. It's not a pretty story.
For anyone interested in learning more about it, my source is "The Americans in the Philippines", vol. II by James A. Le Roy.
Thanks for this excerpt, Fern. Yes, this answered my quizzical puzzle pieces after reading Zinn's book that just did not match up to our very belated response to that war. I dared to ask a similar question to my octogenarian, adopted Swiss grandparents 35 years ago— why did Switzerland not join in the fight against Hitler during the war? I loved them, but their answers were incredibly limp and they appeared to want to avoid discussion. I just wanted to hear their perspectives, which must be very complicated for that little country to be surrounded by the German occupation in Europe. But why, I wondered, was the World Jewish Congress suing Swiss banks...I just wondered about that....
Even with Pearl Harbour, there was a significant arguement at the time about limiting the war to the Pacific. It's always interesting to compare professed war aims with the final outcome. Post 1918 American companies had successfully ousted their UK rivals from all of their investments in Argentina. Post- 1945 gave "carte blanche" to American Corporations under the hegemony of the US military umbrella....re-arming the world and feeding growth at home. They also maintained control over Uk's gold reserves and the horrendously overvalued exchange rate of the Pound to the dollar until lend-lease debts were truly paid for....till end of 1950s....ruining any chance oif economic recovery.
Yes. In the 30’s leading capitalists feared communism spreading to the US more than they wanted to be the protector of human rights! Thus, wait and see who prevails regarding Russia vs Germany!
Thanks-- TPJ, I will love to check this out! It always really bothered me how long it took for the USA to join in that world war, though. Zinn's accounts answered that for me, though it has been many years since I read The People's History. Being married to a Brit for a long time who grew up during WWII, I have been astonished at some of the USA's actions were prior to and following the war. In the least, I would say we have room for improvement.
A desperate fraction of us fear; rage; strangle; scheme; cheat; shoot; stifle; shout; squirm; choke,; threaten; oppress... Many, many more of us conglomerations; mixtures; hybrids; amalgams; shades of white/yellow/olive/tan/red/brown/black sing together.
*I had originally used the word "Patriotism" where I have Devotion above. Patriotism is a tarnished word for me, so I played with Devotion and then hit on Integrity. I should have gone back and edited that part!! I am all for Devotion and Integrity!
Yes, there are many other strategems that we can name as well, including the Trail of Tears, Japanese internment camps, etc. But the name "Auschwitz" does not belong to us in the same way that it permeates our Jewish kin and shouldn't be co-opted by us for other mass murders and genocides.
I shouldn't have brought up that quote, but it was only meant to reiterate that we need to be vigilant and wary of current movements that continue to back the despot.
Rowshan, Arendt's quote should remind every one of us that mass horror is just one step away. There is no other event in modern history that has the scope of the Holocaust or a place called Auschwitz that clearly define the atrocity neighbor can inflict against neighbor.
Daria, The lesson for all of us is to recognize the destruction and slaughter of human beings on a mass scale, includes examples before and after The Holocaust (Shoah). More than eight million indigenous people died, primarily through the spread of Afro-Eurasian diseases., in events described as the first large-scale act of genocide of the modern era. The Cambodian genocide, systematic persecution and killing of Cambodians by the Khmer Rouge under the leadership of Communist Party general secretary Pol Pot, resulted in the deaths of 1.5 to 2 million and sadly, there are other such tragic examples..
I suggest you peruse the film "The Act of Killing" before making such statements. Just because the 1965-66 genocide in Indonesia did not include White Folks, doesn't make it any less terrible.
And the denial while it was happening, and even afterwards. Although there is a national historical guilt professed by many in Germany today, I thought. Not all.
As Penelope Simpson Adams points out below, our "Auschwitz" has not been concentrated in time and space as were the Nazis' mulitple sites. Ours has been strung out across the centuries and throughout the states and territories, and has not yet been either ended or universally recognized.
Well, I hope enough will be enough when the Attorney General and others investigating the criminality stemming from our former MAGAnificent clown-in-chief are sure their cases will result in appeal-proof convictions. Acquittal would be a terrible outcome, almost worse than just letting bygones be bygones (perhaps I exaggerate!). Trump being arrested and held without bail in September of 2022 might hit a sort of political sweet spot. Conviction and life sentences? Sure, that too.
Well, maybe. Just letting bygones be bygones would be an extreme display of weakness from the left and would further embolden the right. Citizens earlier inclined to fight the good fight might fall into apathy. On the other hand, acquittal -- however frustrating -- might be seen as proof that our system is rotten to the core and serve as a wake-up call for folks thus far unable to imagine --or at least take seriously -- the idea of an America governed by a dictator.. Either outcome would play into the hands of the GOP and be disastrous.
For some reason I am reminded of the American officer in Vietnam who in 1968 reportedly commented on a recent battle, saying, " We had to destroy the village in order to save it." Seven years later the war ended.
How depressing it all is…. Even before I read today’s letter I was lying in bed, listening to the birds, such a lovely day… and I thought about how the evil that was still so pervasive in our erstwhile administration has just gone underground… as poison and plastic are eating away at our earth, those criminals are so busy and working just as hard to continue to take control of us and destroy our democracy. So we uncover this, and there will be more, and I wonder how long it will continue before someone emerges as the victor?
I recently listened to her interview with Ezra Klein for his podcast. She understands the systemic changes to implement. Though she'll never be president, I hope her proposals gain traction.
Klobuchar is great when she drops the “Minnesota nice” stuff and brings her inner bulldog to the table. Serious legal chops and doesn’t take bs for answers. Only hope she can find enough others to really bring it this time!
Unfortunately although I love ❤️ the dream you allude to Cynthia, my real hope is that the iDJT and his supporters continue to engage and enrage us. We have the numbers to take them on at the polls. Hopefully the trumpistas will provide the engagement necessary. If we can retain the Senate and House the Repugnants will split wide open and have to redefine themselves. tRump is both our devil and our potential savior.
You echo my sentiments David. Yeah, the gop is making it harder to vote but they haven't stopped our votes, the dems need to vote like they've never voted before!
David - increasingly I am abandoning that kind of think. I do not want to underestimate the ability of Republicans to find a way back to power. They are corrupt to the core, and they know how to use it. Also, I do not want to overestimate the will and gumption of the progressive voters on our country. Their MO is to complain and complain, and then sit out elections in protest. Or at least become complacent and sit out elections. Especially mid term elections. The progressives have really performed the last two elections, one of them a midterm. Can we really still expect that enthusiasm to continue indefinitely? I hope I'm wrong. I would rather bring these crooks to justice and put them in dark places never to be heard from again.
Yes-- without his bizarre antics, drooling at Putin's feet, and the total kowtowing of the repubs, so much has been revealed to us of our shadows and our vulnerabilities. The wicked past occupier may strangely enough, be the impetus for huge changes and the fine-tuning of our democracy as The Great Experiment. Who would have thunk?
That’s a good question. Anyone care to guess the limits? Thirty years ago when i left the States (couldnt afford to retire there: the powers that be had squeezed all the blood out of that turnip), I met a “retired” Scots doctor who did face lifts. He was a busy man. Well never catch the perpetraitors who started all this, just maybe a few who were left holding the bag. The ones who got away all these years set an example for the next round of crooks. Instead of licensing hunters to go after wolves, we should put bounties out on all the CEOs who sold their souls for their measley, inflation ridden retirements and the merger artists who bought out decent little American companies, sold the assets, people put of work and bought an island.
Do I sound slightly p*ssed off? As Malcom Nance says, maaaybeeeee.
Mergers should be illegal as a scam to redistribute assets. I remember reading about the closing of Safeway when I lived in northern Louisiana (late 1970s). The article juxtaposed the long-time Safeway workers (who lost good-paying jobs and pensions) and the East-coast corporate raiders (who legally absconded with the money).
Or, when a companies "merge," they must remain so for five years -- a proposal that would never be accepted.
Such a five-year commitment would also clean up the mortgage market. If you approve someone for a mortgage -- if you think they are financially solvent enough -- then you keep that mortgage for five years before selling it. Don't just pocket the closing costs and run.
But didn't become fully part of France (this time) until 1918 after alternating like a yoyo historically between France and German domination. There are still considerable legal differences between Alsace-Lorraine and the rest of France. We'll see about next time.....
Rhetorical question right Daria? Because of course we know the answer is never. They will double down until they’re voted out. That’s our work going forward.
Now, Daria. Now. And let’s all breathe for one second and remember that he is NOT in the White House. The plume of stench from his regime is still in the air, but it’s clearing. Can you feel it?
I said earlier Merrick Garland has been our Attorney General since March 11th. I cannot help but think he is on it. And our current Vice President is the exact one that posed the question about investigations to Barr. And speaking of Vice Presidents, despicable Pence just squeaked at the quickly decreasing wiggle room he lives in.
And to be quite honest, I’ve always feared who is pulling the strings rather than Trump himself. My focus is that the Justice Dept will bring THAT to light of day. And then the people will make mincemeat of that influence at the polls.
Well Biden needs to throw some $$$ at the DOJ and good people with those skill need to think about going back to work at the DOJ. That kind of “service” is every bit as important as landing on the Beach at Normandy. It is not heroic, there are no medals to be had, it is surely a grind and frustrating, but we desperately need all those hands on deck to straighten our course and do right by the rule of law. Otherwise we are just a freaking banana republic like the rest of them, How did we not learn from the Nixon admin’s shenanigans and do what needed to be done to strengthen our democratic institutions?
I almost feel nostalgic for Gerald Ford. He was just a party hack, enamored of the status quo, a decent guy without visible vices thinking inside the box, little leadership capacity, not too big on the vision thing, but a breath of fresh air -- well, air freshener -- after Tricky Dicky stunk up the place. The pardon was both the most important and worst thing he did as President. Strange that he survived 2 assassination attempts in the space of 17 days, some sort of record, I guess. Squeaky Fromme: now there's a footnote from history.
No, Christine, I can't. Not because I don't want to but because his puppet masters are still pulling the strings and getting away with crimes against US Americans. His regime walked, unscathed, out of office. They are still turning the screws at the local and state levels where people are at the most vulnerable.
I hear you very clearly. I still say to many, however, AG Garland has been in office just 3 months. The regime is still turning screws, but not as quickly as they did with the former president whipping them to action.
I am anxious to hear our Atty General speak this afternoon.
The trouble is, the powers behind the GQP have been busy setting up ways to overturn the will of the voters at the state level, and the Dem majority in the Senate is so thin that it looks like they will get away with it.
I'm with you Daria, except those you want to wake up are scheming, pernicious criminals themselves. The Republican Party may as well be referred to as the Fascist Party because that is what they have become. They have been working toward this for 40 years and have built an impressive infrastructure to get things where they are today. Democrats are at least 1 if not 2 generations behind the curve. While they were making progress toward a multicultural democracy, Republicans have been hard at work laying a solid groundwork to turn the clock back to pre-New Deal America. Just read "Evil Geniuses" by Kurt Anderson. If even possible, it will take another generation to mount a sustainable response to this.
As Frank Figliuzzi pointed out on Brian Williams' show, the DOJ lawyers who did this may have been acting completely out of the scope of their jobs, as defined in previous policy, making themselves personally liable for this crime.
At a minimum Barr needs to be dragged out of whatever safe house he's now ensconced in and hauled up before Congress to explain this. He obviously lied in his testimony when Kamala Harris was questioning him.
It’s time for a robust letter writing campaign demanding all parties in the Trump Organization involved in corrupting the Justice Dept., surveilling members of Congress and involved in the insurrection be brought to justice.
Letters will go to Biden, Schiff, Schumer, Merritt Garland & my congressman Christ. Then I’ll email a sample letter with email address for the above to my friends. It’s a plug and play approach that’s been successful before.
This will be a temporary diversion for me from focusing on S-1 and Florida elections. But, this can’t wait. Until we make noise nothing will happen.
Maddow mentioned a 6 part Boston Glove piece called Restoring Democracy, or something along that line. It’s free and it has some excellent talking points.
Agreed, let’s post our sample letters so we can pick the best parts of each. Then we can each email samples to our own networks and urge them to do the same. It’s a chain letter with a real objective. Some may even choose to post on social networks.
Well, he refused to answer the question--but did not invoke the 5th Amendment in doing so. I think it is interesting that Barr was one of the few Trumpistas not to receive a blanket pardon. One of the handy things about those pardons is that, no longer open to being prosecuted, those who received them can be required to answer questions and cannot invoke the 5th.
He quit before 1/6. I think his last day was December 24. It was very sudden.
Keep in mind that Barr wants to bring on the Rapture. He actually has some end of world or life theory that the majority will die and we’ll have some peaceful world of certain people. Probably rich white men and pretty teenage handmaidens. I never quite understood it.
My bad. It came right after the electoral college results were certified and I was thinking that he drew a line on not wanting to be involved in a violent insurrection that was surely being planned at that point. My brain did not code the memory accurately. LOL. Thank you for the correction!
. . . and this entire discussion takes us right back to another point we should always consider: is Bill Barr one of the corrupted and compromised officials? Did somebody bribe him? Pressure him? Blackmail him? That entire administration was being run by Donald Trump, who was in turn being run by Vladimir Putin. Were Barr and others in “Clean-Up-On-Aisle-45”s administration being compromisedthrough blackmail or bribery?
Certainly a possibility. One wonders if the NY investigation will bring out enough to spur Congress into an overall investigation of the administration. Some Republicans might join in the interest of demonstrating their own innocence.
Why should we believe Congressional subpeonas will be attended? If they are, they will answer with I don't recall, don't remember and don't know. Maybe they will throw in some lies... Democrats don't have the power in Congress, I just feel outrage is about as far as Democrats will go on this. The DOJ and FBI still have Trump appointments. I feel Criminals who are wealthy and power connected can get away with anything. Having a hard time having hope today.
It's time for Merrick Garland to brief the House and Senate Judiciary Committees regarding this astounding outrage and, equally important, what he's doing to rid the Justice Department of Trump appointees. Garland faces unprecedented challenges and deserves time. But he has an obligation to reassure the country that he recognizes the depth of rot and is committed to removing it.
I agree. It is time for Merrick Garland to "stand and deliver." Merrick Garland, are you going to defend our nation and the independence of the DOJ from the White House. Democracy is on the line and the nation has turned its eyes to you.
I believe that anyone that wants the Attorney General to move faster or is expressing disappointment in him after being on the job since March 11th must remember his judiciary experience, his reputation for thoroughness, and that, except for McConnell, would have been sitting on the Supreme Court now!
I, like many, want the corruption rooted out and prosecuted. However, I conclude that we could not be situated any better or be more protected against further corruption than by having our current AG. The Dept of Justice will put the guardrails back in place and whatever new ones to make sure this does not happen again under any president, Dem or Repub.
I agree, but I hope he gives us some crumbs so we can feel more hopeful about some accountability coming to pass. the wait is exhausting and worrisome.
Hahahahahaha. You are the best, Christy. I want the whole dang cookie! Forget the crumbs. That was the miserly treat of the former president to “his” base. And the crumbs are so stale and moldy now and he is STILL passing them out.
Garland’s background as preparation for Attorney General at this moment in history is not encouraging. He spent 24 years in the U.S. Court of Appeals in DC. This is a review court whose function is to uphold or reverse lower court decisions. Cases take 6-12 months to be processed. Consensus is striven for. This is not critique - merely description.
Garland took over a house that was burning down when he was accepted as Attorney General. It was thoroughly corrupted under Trump. What was needed in the new Attorney General was an educated and expert fire-breathing dragon.
What the DOJ got was a leisurely institutionalist.
Perhaps his immediate to-do list could have included the following:
A thorough house cleaning. Trump shaped the DOJ by firing sitting personnel and replacing them with loyalists. To my knowledge these people are still working for the DOJ. They should be gone - by now - and replaced, not with Biden loyalists, but people of knowledge and integrity. The rot contributed to the fire getting out of control.
Long before now, the people whose metadata was gathered by the DOJ should have been informed. It’s not even clear to me that the spying on politicians and journalists have stopped.
Barr’s corrupt and sinister decision to make the US government the defendant in the EJ Carroll lawsuit had the effect of nullifying it. The US government cannot be sued for defamation, so her case is effectively dismissed. So Garland upholding it is a gross breach of justice. Institutionalism is triumphing over elementary fair play. That case should be heard. It won’t be.
Similarly, his appeal of Judge Jackson’s decision demanding the release of the Barr memo re obstruction of justice in the Mueller report is, to put it charitably, baffling. This memo could conceivably lead to obstruction of justice charges against Trump, now that he is no longer President. Mueller himself asserted that Trump could be charged with obstruction of justice in his post-report testimony before Congress.
His announcement that it would be a “top priority” of the DOJ to root out the leakers who revealed the tax records of the ultra-wealthy is similarly baffling. If I was an American Jeff Bezos, I might perhaps cheer him on. Or if the country was in a somnolent period with no dire threats to its wellbeing, one could find no fault with making it “top priority”. But now? When the house is on fire? Really?
To put it another way, Christine. What has he *done* in his first three months that allows you to have such unshakeable confidence in him?
I wouldn't call Eric's account of the tasks awaiting the "leisurely constitutionalist" (another phrase you consider an insult?) a "rant," but a list of facts that help explain why Prof. Richardson and many of us on this list are alarmed at the state of democracy and the rule of law in the United States.
Here is an article by Elie Mystal about the DOJ's decision to continue protecting Trump (instead of letting him protect himself in court on his own $, like other citizens accused of rape): https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/trump-carroll-garland/ I'm posting it because it's useful in helping readers think outside the box that the Trump administration's scofflaw behaviors of the last 4 years have accustomed us to. I fear we have forgotten how the law works, to some degree, and what the Dept. of Justice exists to regulate and oversee!
Mary. You’ve already stated you “guess” I’m not a rape victim so that influences my opinion of DOJ action on the case you reference. Nor did I make any comment of Eric’s definition of “leisurely constitutionalist”.
Back off. You are displacing anger on my opinions and it is suspect, quite frankly.
Really? We could not be better protected? I guess you’re not a rape victim whose rapist, a former president, is still being well protected by Garland’s DOJ.
Whoa., Mary. You insult me that a woman who is not a rape victim can be casual about the crime? I have read thoroughly the trail of the case you refer to. And suggest that what has happened so far is happening so the eventual outcome cannot be overturned.
I also suggest that the delay in prosecuting this case is not because of our current Atty General.
It is not a delay. It is a refusal. The decision was made. I am not whining about a delay as you and others here and elsewhere assume. You are clearly someone who reads and considers information. You missed the story however, unlike a large throng of upset lawyers and political scientists and rape victims, about the decision not to pursue the case. It's weird and sad to me that millions of us could have poured into the freezing January streets to protest the Inauguration of a rapist for president, and now I am the object of accusations and name-calling ("Lightweight"?!) on a listserv of readers of Heather Cox Richardson for pointing out that the decision to consider Trump still inviolable despite being a regular citizen now is distressing. According to many I know who practice law and law enforcement and teach government and American political history, very distressing. And to rape victims like me, an occasion for despair.
He was a federal prosecutor. He played a leading role in the prosecution of the Oklahoma City bombers. I also suggest the 30 Republicans that voted “nay” to his confirmation as AG did so for a reason. An atty general, not under the whip of an autocrat of a president, does not leave stones unturned.
I had forgotten that he was the Oklahoma City bombing prosecutor. I have (in my little world) seen some prosecutors who become judges that really do an outstanding job although they do, from time to time, make some head scratching rulings.
I hope Mr. Garland can connect with his prosecutorial roots and bring all of the miscreants to justice.
I imagine that is going to be a tough row to hoe for him, with the very agency he supervises becoming mired in the carp from the former guy.
Ally House, you may well be right, but the issue is what Mr. Garland choses to do or not with reference to the standing of a particular case. No one has asked him to prosecute it: he's the Attorney General of the United States. The decision that Mr. Trump, a citizen like you or me, is protected from prosecution for a crime committed before he was president is a peculiar one: the chief task of the DOJ at present is to return the country to the rule of law, and bring law into line with the pursuit of justice. See Elie Mystal's assessment of the situation: https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/trump-carroll-garland/
Ari Melber interviewing NYT's, Michelle Goldberg and the Nation's Elie Mystal tonight on his show was about exactly this and interesting. They were all in agreement though of the seriousness of the most recent NYT's expose on Trump's goons and the need for Garland to clean the DOJ of the cult of Trump.
So far Garland has been very disappointing to me. Given his history I expected much more from him. He is avoiding anything to do with the Trump administration like the plague even if it was blatantly illegal.
I don’t think so, I think he’s getting all his ducks in a row…. There’s a lot, so much that he’s not going to let anything go. Yet I remember how I waited like a child on Christmas Eve for the Mueller Report…. And…
Hopefully, that is not the case. That so many people who are actually doing their job to follow the law fear for the safety of themselves and family (which I totally understand is a reality) is another sign of how far over the cliff we have gone. Fear and violence are the mainstay tools of an authoritarian government.
Or, perhaps he doesn’t want Trump issues to take all the air out of the room while the administration can actually get stuff done for the American people. This gives him time to sort through all of the issues that are in his office after 4 years of Sessions and Barr. It also gives him time to consider options. If this administration were to go into attack mode now the news would be all trump all the time again. That would not be good. There are things that are so much more important than putting Trump and his people in jail right now. In my opinion it is naive to think that those people will be treated as if they are murderers and it doesn’t serve democrats well to mud wrestle with the pig. The administration is doing a great job of keeping the temperature lower and the news media is doing a good job of telling the stories.
I think Mr. Garland can probably do many things at once with his big staff. And I can't think of anything more important for the DOJ than to restore its own functions and begin again to regulate and oversee the administration of justice in this country. We're not guaranteed of another 4 years of a law-respecting administration anytime soon, given the voting restrictions being put in place or considered in 47 out of 50 states. It is not "going into attack mode" to decide against continuing to defend the legally tortured position of Trump's DOJ to protect him from legal action on a 1990s rape count. As Elie Mystal points out in so many words, other accused citizen-rapists must hire their own private lawyers.
And there's that song again--if I had a hammer. Take the hammer of justice to the entire corrupt dr$mpf administration and throw the crazy ex45 in jail. He makes Nixon look like a saint. Take away or minimize all his perks and get him off the federal payroll. Dems-- can you get indignant now?
Hiding in plain sight is an observation and a question. (1) The observation: In a police state, everybody (on BOTH sides of the “aisle) is investigated in case blackmail is needed to gain political advantage! (2) The question: How many of the bowing and scrapping Republicans in Congress are compromised in ways that we are not yet aware of?
I was going to make a similar comment, Belvie. A DOJ that is subservient to an autocratic president could also be commissioned to investigate members of that president's own party. This would explain, for one example, Mitch McConnell's initial reaction to January 6th (he called it a "failed insurrection" and seemed, for once, to be showing integrity:
You just have to look how Stalin "explained" the failure of his farm collectivisation policy amongst his other efforts. The starving were hoarding food and starving themselves to make him look bad AND the local Communist Party officials were complicit and to blame for not exposing and stopping them. The starving were already dying so for his collaborators....Off with their Head! Fear does horrible things to people and pushes them to the same to others.
Back in Kentucky he’s being called Moscow Mitch for a reason. There was an aluminum factory built in Kentucky financed by one of Putin‘s buddies. So guess who has leverage on Mitch. Another weakling. The Republicans are saturated with them. I think Putin has a majority of the Republican House and the Republican Senate in his back pocket. When you’re the richest man in the world, that can buy a lot of leverage.
All you have to do is look up his biography on Wikipedia to find his home town, then google the town/scandals. Same for his school and church and university. The first ten Senators i search (in alphabetical order) coughed up a lot of dirt.
Wikipedia is not an authoritative source. Anyone can write a Wikipedia article. NYT is called the newspaper of record for a reason. Sure, it's not perfect but at least it corrects an error.
That's right. It was also called the lying New York Times and fake news by our former would-be dictator. It's mind boggling how our country is experiencing an ongoing(!) assault on truth, facts, and science. If I weren't living through this moment I wouldn't believe it could happen.
Nicely said. Remember also the other side of the equation of a police state:
(1) Blackmail and
(2) BRIBERY
Over on Greg Olear, you can find articles (and his book) which do a thorough study on the U.S. Republican officials who have been either bribed, or blackmailed, or both, by Putin. Trump was obviously one of those officials, the hideous spectacle of Helsinki should’ve told anybody that.
Now blackmail takes a lot of different forms. Lindsey Graham, according to one of Greg’s articles, switched from being critical of Trump to being a sycophant after speaking with Trump while he was playing golf. The turnaround happened after one brief conversation. Maybe the conversation went something like this: “I have a resource that will give you 5 million bucks if you join our side.“ or perhaps something like “ I have a copy of that specific document of yours, or I have photos of you doing X, that I will reveal to the world unless you play for me.“
Jeffrey Epstein, I am convinced, was killed because he held secrets that people did not want revealed. As long as he was in jail and getting squeezed by the American justice system, there was a risk that some vulnerable secret would be exposed. Jeffrey knew billionaires. He had dirt on billionaires. Billionaires can buy anything they want, if they are unscrupulous. The fact that the cameras outside Epstein‘s cell had been turned around told me everything I needed to know. The guards were either bribed, or they were slovenly and somebody paid attention and took advantage.
In the USA we have a tremendous number of highly placed Republican politicians who have been compromised, corrupted. Whether it’s blackmail or bribery or both doesn’t really matter, but as vigilant citizens, we should be acutely aware of this dynamic.
Recently I believe it was TC who brought up the Greens, and I had totally forgotten that Jill Stein met with Putin. Putin is carrying a grudge against the USA, I believe, due to something that happened with Hillary. Curiously, he is also fascinated with the culture and admires the USA greatly because this country and culture carries so much influence in the world. If you were paying attention to “Peter Burnett“ you would have seen him mention that, his wording was words to the effect that much of the world is downstream of America. That was not a typo, that was not a misstatement. Putin admires the USA. We need to bring his family to Disneyland, that will be an experience they never forget, that would probably be helpful in changing the dynamic. Disneyland is America’s secret weapon for charming foreign dignitaries and their families. We should be using it.
I’m currently reading “Stalin’s Daughter” by Rosemary Sullivan. The layers of manipulation and espionage, and the proficiency with which Russian intelligence has (is) operated is astounding. Regarding Butina, she seems to join a long list of “hits” that have just kept coming over the past several years. Let’s not forget Byrne was one of those closeted with TFG post defeat.
Thanks for the book tip, Gail. I well remember when Svetlana Alliluyeva defected from the USSR, but know little otherwise. It's time to reduce my ignorance!
re: Epstein. I know that his death was an intentional death, orchestrated by someone in power. All of my "conservative" friends think it was the Clintons. (see my shocked face.) I believe that the corrections staff was told to let his death happen by someone who had the power to do that. I strongly suspect it was the former guy, or one of his cabel, that made that happen.
That scenario is one that I hope Garland's DOJ can reveal.
Roland...with pleasure. If Putin starts doing the tourist in the west without having taken over the joint then the oligarchs will assume he's neglected their interests and is no longer covering their backs. This represents both an opportunity and a danger to them. They could take the chance to replace him for "legitimate" ideological reasons or punish him for dereliction of duty. Either way he is dead. Putin needs the "slow burning" conflict with the West to legitamize his autocratic rule. Absence of external enemies would be the end of him and the Russian people would throw the first stone.
The first Tsar of Russia, Vlad 1, reigned 1000 years ago and died without an agreed succession process and 17 pretenders to the throne were assassinated before someone finally won.
What? All. This perseveration on Russia!, Keep at it everyone. So what that Julian Assange rots because of truth telling and that the US likely had a hand in fixing his British trial. Following the US red herring propaganda on Russia is perfecto! Just that much more citizenry energy diverted away from matters of our own governmental and judicial corruption over which we potentially could do something about. How would the USA respond were Russia to perform military exercises as close to our Mexican or Canadian border as the USA troops near the Russian border in May? All the corruption rising to citizen consciousness - corporate, mega rich not paying taxes, juicing the insurrections, legislators refusing to accept the people’s’ presidential choice, governor pushing his legislature to grant corporate immunity from liability lawsuits to nursing home CEOs, dark money allowed, biggest Pentagon budget a la Biden, militarization of police who get away with murder, funding behind 100s of State bills to disenfranchise our people, Exxon hiding research and going full throttle dis and mis information campaign about fossil fuel destruction of Earth (Earth!), consolidation of media into a handful of corporations whose motto is money over truth and sentient beings, unilateral invasion of a foreign country without a declaration of war, FBIand CIA surveillance of us-computers, cell phones, bought legislators (Manchin and Koch money), obscene allowance of mega rich monopolistic operations, children in cages, Earth home suffering mega flooding when it’s not drying up or burning to the ground and the people tolerate not even half measures to deal with it, relentless corporate swallowing of the Commons….if we were a human body showing analogous symptoms, what would we and our families and friends be doing? Sitting around accepting bipartisan aspirin as cures for our beloveds? Would we remain cowered and acquiescent when the insurance company always for profit, refuses to pay the bill? Would we collapse before the magnitude of the diseases afflicting our beloved? Or would we break down into manageable pieces the solutions and actions ?
That's okay...don't feel badly...like someone famous once said...let those with the capacity to see ...see, and those with the capacity to digest word salads....chew and absorb....and for those without capacities...take the dog out for a walk....
Well the question is... do you have the capacity to write clearly and succinctly? I'd love to hear what you have to say, though I can't read the forest for all the trees.
Gee, I can't help you there...I found this on google "Can Myopia be Cured? As of 2020, there is no cure for myopia. However, some treatments and management strategies can help restore distance vision." Good luck with that....that's your 3rd helplessness.. Ding Dong take your contribution to humanity elsewhere, my door is now closed.....to you ......yours truly, Ballard girl
I think we still cling to the idea that politicians (and their acolytes) behave "properly". Blackmail (otherwise known "as I've/we've got the goods on you, mate") is a well entrenched behaviour - we've seen enough of it in Oz.
Yes, I read a tweet where somone said if the Trump DOJ got records of Democrats, did they also get Republican's? Is that another way to get blackmail info?
It is not only the anti-democratic and corrupt actions of Trump, Sessions, Barr and so many others in the former administration that are so disturbing but even more so the failures to hold all of them accountable. The entire administration will be recorded in history as the most ethically flawed and corrupt administration in U.S. history. Congress needs to enact strong ethics standards with real penalties for violations to prevent similar future abuses by politicians and appointed officials of either party.
I strongly recommend all read the editorial series published by the Boston Globe, available outside their paywall, on Future-Proofing the Presidency. You can find it here:
I am enraged. I want to do certain things to certain people that I cannot put in print.
That paragraph is in response to Heather’s report.
Next, change of subject:
KNOW YOUR PROVOCATEURS
I just discovered a few minutes ago, from a loyal and very sweet member of our community, who I respect and love, that we have a new “person,“ a woman’s name, who is a likely provocateur.
I want to know who this “person” is. As all of you know, I keep track of these things.
We have an alias named “David Carroll” who I haven’t seen in awhile. A couple weeks back, I began responding to “him,” and then got suspicious very quickly. When I asked the question, “who are you?“ it became immediately evident that it was a (likely Russian FSB) provocateur. Exact same type of languaging and modus operandi as “Jack Leon.”
Reminder to all of you good people: if somebody is acting like a provocateur, if somebody is causing you to feel poorly, become suspicious. Start asking the “person” questions. When your mood and self-esteem are starting to be affected detrimentally, that is a sign. Maybe you’re just getting your buttons pushed, but if your experience of this person is consistent, i.e. consistently poor, start asking questions.
And then report to all of us, especially me, what you have learned.
Thank you 🙏
A good person makes you feel good. A hostile person makes you feel poorly, consistently. That is a surefire means of identifying a hostile party.
I do appreciate your work and your reporting of this situation. It has certainly limited my engagement with some who I do not "feel right" about. I need to start tracking the names. I did my own due diligence with one regular contributor whose posts occasionally have a nugget buried within them, and have quit responding to them, mostly.
Thank you for bringing this situation to light, and helping us be more aware of the danger.
"A good person makes you feel good. A hostile person makes you feel poorly, consistently. That is a surefire means of identifying a hostile party."
No truer words spoken in an online setting, about an online environment.
And there's an important point: it doesn't matter if the person making you/us feel poorly is possessed by the Devil, is owned by Putin, or is just lashing out because of an unsupportive childhood and a lousy marriage. You can't really know what is behind it, unless they tell you outright (and even then, they may be making up stories), but it really doesn't matter. They're toxic, and the proof is in how their words consistently make you feel and think, and the effect they have on the discourse here.
Calling out a person on this site as GRU or MOSSAD or CIA is an exercise in speculation and name-calling. Calling out a person as abusive, insulting, or misleading is not: it's a direct response to the words on the screen. They may be paid provocateurs, but they may just be ass-trumpets. Their motivation is irrelevant. Their effect, however, is real.
I think it's credible that there are paid foreign agents on this site. HCR is (has become) a potent "influencer" in US American politics, and that will certainly have put this site on lists all over the world, friendly and unfriendly. That seems only reasonable.
It's also credible that they have tried, or are trying to do the hysteria-inducing gaslighting that has worked so well on Twitter and Facebook. It doesn't seem to work as well here. It doesn't work at all if we don't allow ourselves to be whipped to a hysterical froth by others' comments.
As Joseph Nemeth points out, address the conduct and its effects, rather than using a label. The most effective way to deal with someone appearing to negatively provoke, rather than constructively engage, is to Ignore. Do not engage. Do not give oxygen. Do not reward with any attention. Do not elevate the algorithm-driven "likes" and volume of comments.
There already is an established practice on social media. If a subscriber seeks a stronger action against a perceived bad actor, then the appropriate recourse is to make a report to the owner of the blog, in this case, Heather, or her Substack moderators.
Doing otherwise sets up divisiveness within this mostly wonderful group.
Hey, Jean-Pierre. The other day, Heather asked a question about the "national mood." Here is how I replied to a commenter who suggested newspapers were on the way out: "I was thinking about Woodward & Bernstein and Watergate. Hoping there are journalists out there today who can accomplish something similar." Perhaps that day is here. Glad to see you thinking along the same lines!
The intrepid band of investigative journalists has dwindled, but, those who remain are doing heroic work to keep us informed. They may save our democracy yet.
I so 1000% agree with this, Diane. Heroes. Our journalists are the very bane of corruption. Because pulling up the roots of it to the light starts with their pens. A mighty weapon, right?
Thank you, Heather. Unfortunately, none of this is at all surprising, in part because of the people involved (Barr, Trump, Trump's incompetent entourage, corrupt GOP congressional leaders) and in part because of what is by now a long tradition of abuse of power by the executive branch. Our Constitution is in urgent need of repair and modernization, and a large, hard-of-thinking segment of our population desperately needs help.
I like "hard-of-thinking" - like hard-of-hearing - a useful way to approach the terribly sticky problem of how to revive a sense of community among Americans (and I'm not talking about "bipartisanship" - the damage doesn't stop, the desecration of language continues even as the desecrator shrivels away)
Thanks Susan. For two months I've been deep-diving into 20C European history, both reading and writing, prompted by concerns arising from several years' normalization of political violence -- disturbingly like the Nazis during the Weimar Republic. (Also buying relevant used books at an appalling rate.) Dr R doesn't write about Europe much, unlike e.g. Tim Snyder or Mark Mazower. So more time goes to them and their colleagues, less to LFAA. If only we could read every good book, and avoid the baddies.
I agree about the need for modernization of the Constitution, but I do not trust anyone in either party these days to do it, above all in the Republican party. What we need to do is to defeat the authoritarian elected officials in the Republican Party, the ones who do not tell the truth and who support the Big Lie. Until those in the Republican Party who would break the law and distort the Constitution are defeated the Republic will be in danger as it as never been before. There is no one in the leadership of the Republican party today who could be an honest partner. The honest ones have been expelled from leadership.
I agree with your distrust, above all, in Republicans (not just the party) in the event a Constitutional Convention is called. The process is already underway for an Article V "Convention of States", theoretically to be focused on a Balanced Budget Amendment. If convened, what assurance would there be that this would be the only revision pursued? Not my preferred news source but all need to read this article: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mark-meckler-article-five-constitutional-convention_n_6086c380e4b09cce6c143b10
Also, for something even scarier (not linking it here), take a look at ConstitutionofStates dot com, collecting signatures supporting a Constitution of States.
Oh, no! I just checked and I gave the wrong URL! That's what happens when one doesn't verify and goes solely by memory! It's Conventionofstates dot com. Please, everyone who may have tried the wrong one, accept my apology.
My error reminds me of a lesson taught me in my earliest days working reference in a library. Always have the print source (this was the 60s) in front of you when you provide an answer to a question; don't rely on your memory alone.
My question is - who gets to decide the legality of this operation? I’m pretty sure I read that they convened a grand jury as part of the process, so will those records be released? It began as an investigation into a leaking of classified material, so didn’t a judge have to sign off on the subpoenas?
And one final question - was this all about who leaked the Steele Dossier and the “Pee Tape”?
The t***plicans would not care. He bragged about grabbing women by the genitals and that he could shoot someone on 5th Ave. and his followers would still vote for him. (As I have said in the past, his 5th Ave. statement appeared to me to be his test to see if his repetitive brainwashing of his vulnerable had solidified-- and he was mightily rewarded).
Shades of Cointelpro! The other chilling thing to consider is that given Donald's subordination to Putin we can be sure that whatever Sessions or Barr dug up got shared freely with Russia.
I'm livid. It's time to track down Donald, Jeff Sessions and Barr for a lengthy talk with the FBI.
My sense of outrage is equaled by my extreme nausea. There really are no limits these jerks will not exceed. So depressing for democracy and the rule of law.
This is just normal life to these people. Trump acted no differently in his existence in NYC while gerrymandering his devastated property black hole, paying off all and sundry, defaulting left right and centre and putting the people on the street...... playing "televisual mogul" to the cheers of the ignorant and "hard of thinking" and insulting the President of the time......in the plain light of day for all to see.
Remember the little anonymous band of brothers who were "keeping guardrails" around the president? Oh yeah, those were all the guys who got fired in the first two years.
True, I was thinking more along the lines of Congress critters. Yeah, the band of brothers or some staff people are more likely leakers. Somedays I need a timeline/cast of characters wall like you see in movies and on tv to try and keep up with all this.
I read the NYT article earlier and simply shook my head because, as it stands now, not a damn thing will happen to Trump and his band of thugs. When are members of the prior administration going to be held accountable for crimes committed during their tenure? When are the GOP and RNC going to face the fact that they've tied themselves to a scheming, pernicious criminal? When is enough enough?
Daria, you are highlighting precisely what I stated yesterday, which is why, for me, hope is currently stuck in a dark closet in DC. My thoughts from yesterday:
"It is a frightfully dangerous situation, and if President Biden and the DNC don't begin to address the 6th January insurrection and its leaders in the Florida Swamp and in Congress in the strongest terms possible, hope will be a term that will regress to its tangled roots from bygone days."
This report from the NY Times only intensifies the horrors of the Trump administration and the shock of 6th Jan. It reminds me of Hannah Arendt's words during an interview: "The decisive day was when we heard about Auschwitz. Before that, we said: ‘Well, one has enemies. That is natural. Why shouldn’t people have enemies?’ But this was different. It was as if an abyss had opened. Amends can be made for almost anything, at some point in politics, but not for this.”
Of course, we have not had an Auschwitz -- thank goodness! -- but we have had a shocking warning in the form of an insurrection. When will the DOJ and Congress make a decisive move? When will we understand, as a nation, that totalitarianism is knocking at our door and we must take it seriously? Absolutely, Daria, when will "enough be enough?" When?!!!
Your 2nd paragraph describes how I feel precisely, Rowshan. It's crystal clear to me that we are losing our capacity, as a nation, to be shocked and horrified by crimes committed against us - from the financial and social crimes chipping away at our health and welfare to the wholesale oppression and murder of BIPOC by law enforcement, which goes on day after day, despite the cellphone video and bodycam evidence that should be more than enough to indict and convict the murderers. And, as if those things aren't enough, our leaders are promoting the wholesale, unlicensed, ownership of guns with the ability for John and Jane Doe to roam the streets armed and able to murder under the protection of Stand Your Ground laws.
In a "normal time" we would not have had a president pushing quack remedies to a nation suffering from pandemic; bellowing for four years that if he lost the election it's because he'd been cheated. And when he did lose, he doubled down and fomented hysteria amongst his faithful. On the 6th, a normal president would have ordered the lockdown of the Capitol and the insurrectionists would not have been able to leave the Capitol grounds - members of Congress who participated by providing information and access would have been removed from office, arrested and tried for treason. All of these things are signs of a broken, unhealthy society.
Whose United States of America is this? Blatant criminality goes unpunished, on all levels, day after day. It is beyond alarming. Those of us who seek change now beg and plead with our Representitives and Senators constantly for that change, but to no avail...Will we become petrified in time and space like small creatures in tree resin - fossilized because we were unable to stop the flow of atrocities and lawlessness?
Beautifully put, Daria, and perfectly posed questions! Thank you! From now on I'll just wait for your post and reply in agreement with a huge, upper case DITTO!😉
Good lord, no, Rowshan! ❤
😂😂😂Just kidding❣️
THIS
I listened to the Lincoln Project's breakdown last night. The entire episode is a little over an hour, but scroll through to listen to Glenn Kirshner. He assures us that Trump will be facing consequences. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6yuPkvyYRU
Thanks for the link Annette. The Kirshner clip that focuses on why McGahn's recent Senate testimony was important for future legal actions was, I thought, particularly informative.
And I beg to differ. I am sorry to bring this up again. We have a bloody, dark history of crimes against humanity, not unlike the atrocities and experiments of an Auschwitz.
Our native peoples were lied to and decimated in order to take this land, our participation in the colonial enslavement of Africans was to build and enrich white supremacists to create a powerful elite, just like what they had run away from. Some became like Hitler's Aryans.
My mind and body are ravaged with unknown feelings that are welling up that are changing me as I try to get through the book "Caste" and witness the film "The Underground Railroad." The people of our nation are carrying the trauma of our horrific history and reliving it over and over. It might have looked a lot more subtle because whites have been so good at subjugation, suppression and lying for hundreds of years about our REAL "whitewashed" history. For those living with that ever-present knee on their necks, they know our real history—which has never ended for people of color. White man's inhumanity towards humanity. We need to keep lifting the veil and be brave. These stories must be told and white people are the ones who need to listen. And when I feel sorry for myself for not living in a perfect Golden Rule world, hah! Female, born with Cherokee blood and cheekbones, I was also born with Euro ancestors skin and eyes. Luck of the draw in this white supreme world, even if my femaleness made me have to work a lot harder and be vigilant and more careful than my brothers.
"Historian Howard Zinn critically analyses the conception that World War II was really a "people's war" against fascism, as opposed to yet another inter-imperialist conflict with nothing to offer working people. ... It was a war against an enemy of unspeakable evil. However, ... Zinn argues that the United States only became openly anti-Nazism "when Japan and Germany threatened U.S. world interests." The United States entered the war after Japan attacked a naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in 1941." That is our real history about our white, capitalist leaders.
But our people, our warriors were the ones fighting for decency and humanity and against fascism. A democracy must measure it's leadership by it's foundations...and if they do not represent our integrity to our principles. They must be fired. The majority of our people are principled. Today, those people, We The People, must make immediate arrangements to keep all of us safe from tyrants and dictators.
So, Who are we, America? Is this dangerous abyss we find our country and selves in about money, power, continual hierarchies or is it about We, the People, All of Us, this time? No room for the antiquated, white, patriarchal fallacies that they enshrouded our country in. This is now the moment for what we DO in This Great Experiment. It is really the true moment of our REAL history. The steps we take right now will show ourselves and the world, who we really are. It is actually a very awesome privilege we are being called for, that those who fought and died for our principles live through our generations alive today. Dang, this feels like Devotion. Since that word has been "supremely" tarnished, I would use the word INTEGRITY. Perhaps we are INTEGRITISTS? (I just looked that up to see if it is a real word-- it is in the Urban Dictionary! It fits how I feel today, and after seeing my thoughts here, I feel very differently about what we are participating in right now. I do not feel unhinged. I feel FOCUSED.
I am so proud of you, Penelope. Your words inspire me. I, too, though often scoffed at as a Pollyanna, feel like a warrior and lay in wait in the brush with a keen eye and heart. As I am confident in the timing of an offensive surge to reclaim the Republic, I bless the journalists whose pens are loading our weapons of peace.
Love that, Christine! I was not sure where the hell I was going this morning. When I write my thoughts out, things often crystalize. The character, Cora, despite all her struggles, offers me strength (through tears). This film is agonizingly slow and does not skip over individual and collective pain. Viscerally changing me into deeper levels of what MUST NOT BE REPEATED in OUR COUNTRY, EVER again. I am trying to be patient with Justice. Am glad others warriors are lying in wait with me! Then I just scanned what Fern wrote below...those words all describe the depth of our need to apologize and plan to make reparations to my/our Native Peoples and African American peoples for such atrocities by our past and present white supremacists who think they are the chosen ones. But it is the responsibility of white people to learn what we were not taught about our country's history in order to not repeat it.
You know Penelope. I was in a convo with some people about white privilege. One white person talked about not seeing color. One white person talked about being uncomfortable referring to someone as African American because it sounded racist. I had to sigh. I finally said I think white people need to just quit talking and start listening. Most talking that is done just digs the hole deeper. The fear of reparations, blame, guilt clouds so many convos with excuses. I’ve bought so many copies of Caste by Isabel Wilkerson and gifted to friends. I still recommend to all whether you read the entire book or not or just a synopsis or review, please read, if you dare, the story of the encounter Wilkerson has with a Nigerian born playwright. Pgs 52-53.
I was so startled, I could not continue reading for several days.
Sometimes the simplest ideas are so dang profound, it renders reality as a stage.
Powerful writing, powerful thoughts. Historical trauma coming through generations into being re-enacted in different expressions. For all the historians here - please inform us the number of times when criminal behavior by people in the top most positions of leadership in this country has ever been fully adjudicated and the criminals sent to prison? On another note: we will see Biden's stripes revealed in how he deals with such fundamental cancer. Will his hail-fellow-back-slapping- bent toward "bipartisanship" -when the Republicans since Reagan have a well documented trail of absolutist partisanship long epitomized in the figure of McConnell- soften all meaningful adjudication? Will we see again American leadership absolutely incapable of making ones of their own face the magnitude of their own criminality? Non-pardonable crimes with extended meditative times behind bars in real, not executive, prison? As if such rot - like the probability of the NY judge about to free the Sackler family from facing the piper for the evils they've done and continue to do - won't further decay the democracy.
Good catch, Selina. Murder one and it's murder. Murder several and it's mass or serial killing. Murder a million and one is a statesman, even a founding father.
How sad
The genocide perpetrated by the European settlers in North America killed untold millions of indigenous people. Nobody knows how many, but knowledgeable estimates range from 10 million to 50 million, mostly between 1750 and 1890. White Americans were less organized perps than the Nazis were, but no less brutal and more “successful.” Dunbar-Ortiz’s History of the United States documents the scope and brutality of the American genocide.
Absolutely, Rex. Thanks for the figures and history book recommendation.
Well said, Penelope. I greatly admired Howard Zinn; we met a couple of times and he was always genial and engaging. But I think he was somewhat off the mark concerning our anti-fascist war. A convincing alternate view comes from Ronald Takaki, who died too soon at 70. In Double Victory: A Multicultural History of America in WW2, the double victory was over foreign AND domestic enemies: Jim Crow, Asian hate, zoot suit rioters, anti-semites. Like others, American Indians also used the DV phrase at that time. We are fortunate that a great singer, a great American 1/4 Cherokee himself, recorded a great song about that struggle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEwSwQtSmDQ
TPJ and Penelope, I do not know why TPJ did not elaborate on his differences with Howard Zinn about the USA finally entering into WW ll. I do not have an argument to make but thought it might be useful to excerpt some of Zinn's argument:
'For the United States to step forward as a defender of helpless countries matched its image in American high school history textbooks, but not its record in world affairs. It had opposed the Haitian revolution for independence from France at the start of the nineteenth century. It had instigated a war with Mexico and taken half of that country. It bad pretended to help Cuba win freedom from Spain, and then planted itself in Cuba with a military base, investments, and rights of intervention. It had seized Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, and fought a brutal war to subjugate the Filipinos. It had "opened" Japan to its trade with gunboats and threats. It had declared an Open Door Policy in China as a means of assuring that the United States would have opportunities equal to other imperial powers in exploiting China. It had sent troops to Peking with other nations, to assert Western supremacy in China, and kept them there for over thirty years.'
'While demanding an Open Door in China, it had insisted (with the Monroe Doctrine and many military interventions) on a Closed Door in Latin America-that is, closed to everyone but the United States. It had engineered a revolution against Colombia and created the "independent" state of Panama in order to build and control the Canal. It sent five thousand marines to Nicaragua in 1926 to counter a revolution, and kept a force there for seven years. It intervened in the Dominican Republic for the fourth time in 1916 and kept troops there for eight years. It intervened for the second time in Haiti in 1915 and kept troops there for nineteen years. Between 1900 and 1933, the United States intervened in Cuba four times, in Nicaragua twice, in Panama six times, in Guatemala once, in Honduras seven times. By 1924 the finances of half of the twenty Latin American states were being directed to some extent by the United States. By 1935, over half of U.S. steel and cotton exports were being sold in Latin America.'
'Just before World War I ended, in 1918, an American force of seven thousand landed at Vladivostok as part of an Allied intervention in Russia, and remained until early 1920. Five thousand more troops were landed at Archangel, another Russian port, also as part of an Allied expeditionary force, and stayed for almost a year. The State Department told Congress: "All these operations were to offset effects of the Bolshevik revolution in Russia."
'In short, if the entrance of the United States into World War II was (as so many Americans believed at the time, observing the Nazi invasions) to defend the principle of nonintervention in the affairs of other countries, the nation's record cast doubt on its ability to uphold that principle'.
'What seemed clear at the time was that the United States was a democracy with certain liberties, while Germany was a dictatorship persecuting its Jewish minority, imprisoning dissidents, whatever their religion, while proclaiming the supremacy of the Nordic "race." However, blacks, looking at anti-Semitism in Germany, might not see their own situation in the U.S. as much different. And the United States had done little about Hitler's policies of persecution. Indeed, it had joined England and France in appeasing Hitler throughout the thirties. Roosevelt and his Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, were hesitant to criticize publicly Hitler's anti-Semitic policies; when a resolution was introduced in the Senate in January 1934 asking the Senate and the President to express "surprise and pain" at what the Germans were doing to the Jews, and to ask restoration of Jewish rights, the State Department "caused this resolution to be buried in committee," according to Arnold Offner (American Appeasement)'.
'When Mussolini's Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1935, the U.S. declared an embargo on munitions but let American businesses send oil to Italy in huge quantities, which was essential to Italy's carrying on the war. When a Fascist rebellion took place in Spain in 1936 against the elected socialist-liberal government, the Roosevelt administration sponsored a neutrality act that had the effect of shutting off help to the Spanish government while Hitler and Mussolini gave critical aid to Franco. Offner says:
... the United States went beyond even the legal requirements of its neutrality legislation. Had aid been forthcoming from the United States and from England and France, considering that Hitler's position on aid to France was not firm at least until November 1936, the Spanish Republicans could well have triumphed. Instead, Germany gained every advantage from the Spanish civil war.
Was this simply poor judgment, an unfortunate error? Or was it the logical policy of a government whose main interest was not stopping Fascism but advancing the imperial interests of the United States? For those interests, in the thirties, an anti-Soviet policy seemed best. Later, when Japan and Germany threatened U.S. world interests, a pro-Soviet, anti-Nazi policy became preferable. Roosevelt was as much concerned to end the oppression of Jews as Lincoln was to end slavery during the Civil War; their priority in policy (whatever their personal compassion for victims of persecution) was not minority rights, but national power.'
'It was not Hitler's attacks on the Jews that brought the United States into World War II, any more than the enslavement of 4 million blacks brought Civil War in 1861. Italy's attack on Ethiopia, Hitler's invasion of Austria, his takeover of Czechoslovakia, his attack on Poland-none of those events caused the United States to enter the war, although Roosevelt did begin to give important aid to England. What brought the United States fully into the war was the Japanese attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. Surely it was not the humane concern for Japan's bombing of civilians that led to Roosevelt's outraged call for war-Japan's attack on China in 1937, her bombing of civilians at Nan king, had not provoked the United States to war. It was the Japanese attack on a link in the American Pacific Empire that did it.' (Howard ZinnUSAGermanyJapanfascismUS interventionwarWorld War II)
Differences about our country's motives for entering the war may continue, however, there appears to be no doubt about how crucial it was to the defeat of Nazi Germany.
This is all a very important compilation of actual American history vs. the Patriotic American History taught most of us. I'd like to expand on Zinn's comment about subjugation of the Philippines. At the outset of the Spanish American War, which included the goal of ejecting Spain from the Philippines as well as from Cuba, the U.S. promised to support their independence. A revolution against Spain had begun in the Philippines in 1896; in 1898, revolutionary leaders had declared the Philippines independent of Spain. At the conclusion of the Spanish-American War, the U.S. reneged on that promise, refused to acknowledge the Republic of the Philippines, and ended up with a new war in the Philippines as Filipinos fought to gain their full independence. Full independence was finally achieved in 1948.
I learned this while researching to understand a group of old photographs my cousin had which had just enough clues noted on the back of some to point me to the Philippines and 1900. Several of the photos are of the hanging of 2 Filipino brothers who had led the 'insurgency' against continued American occupation & governance. Also seen in the photos, and confirmed by the author of a 2-volume history of the Philippines, the U.S. Army occupying troops were all black Americans. It's not a pretty story.
For anyone interested in learning more about it, my source is "The Americans in the Philippines", vol. II by James A. Le Roy.
Thanks for this excerpt, Fern. Yes, this answered my quizzical puzzle pieces after reading Zinn's book that just did not match up to our very belated response to that war. I dared to ask a similar question to my octogenarian, adopted Swiss grandparents 35 years ago— why did Switzerland not join in the fight against Hitler during the war? I loved them, but their answers were incredibly limp and they appeared to want to avoid discussion. I just wanted to hear their perspectives, which must be very complicated for that little country to be surrounded by the German occupation in Europe. But why, I wondered, was the World Jewish Congress suing Swiss banks...I just wondered about that....
Even with Pearl Harbour, there was a significant arguement at the time about limiting the war to the Pacific. It's always interesting to compare professed war aims with the final outcome. Post 1918 American companies had successfully ousted their UK rivals from all of their investments in Argentina. Post- 1945 gave "carte blanche" to American Corporations under the hegemony of the US military umbrella....re-arming the world and feeding growth at home. They also maintained control over Uk's gold reserves and the horrendously overvalued exchange rate of the Pound to the dollar until lend-lease debts were truly paid for....till end of 1950s....ruining any chance oif economic recovery.
Yes. In the 30’s leading capitalists feared communism spreading to the US more than they wanted to be the protector of human rights! Thus, wait and see who prevails regarding Russia vs Germany!
Thanks-- TPJ, I will love to check this out! It always really bothered me how long it took for the USA to join in that world war, though. Zinn's accounts answered that for me, though it has been many years since I read The People's History. Being married to a Brit for a long time who grew up during WWII, I have been astonished at some of the USA's actions were prior to and following the war. In the least, I would say we have room for improvement.
A desperate fraction of us fear; rage; strangle; scheme; cheat; shoot; stifle; shout; squirm; choke,; threaten; oppress... Many, many more of us conglomerations; mixtures; hybrids; amalgams; shades of white/yellow/olive/tan/red/brown/black sing together.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoMKnzTR0rM
Good for you— I’m more identified with the female caste— always ready to serve.
*I had originally used the word "Patriotism" where I have Devotion above. Patriotism is a tarnished word for me, so I played with Devotion and then hit on Integrity. I should have gone back and edited that part!! I am all for Devotion and Integrity!
Thank you
Yes, there are many other strategems that we can name as well, including the Trail of Tears, Japanese internment camps, etc. But the name "Auschwitz" does not belong to us in the same way that it permeates our Jewish kin and shouldn't be co-opted by us for other mass murders and genocides.
I shouldn't have brought up that quote, but it was only meant to reiterate that we need to be vigilant and wary of current movements that continue to back the despot.
Rowshan, Arendt's quote should remind every one of us that mass horror is just one step away. There is no other event in modern history that has the scope of the Holocaust or a place called Auschwitz that clearly define the atrocity neighbor can inflict against neighbor.
Hear, hear!
Daria, The lesson for all of us is to recognize the destruction and slaughter of human beings on a mass scale, includes examples before and after The Holocaust (Shoah). More than eight million indigenous people died, primarily through the spread of Afro-Eurasian diseases., in events described as the first large-scale act of genocide of the modern era. The Cambodian genocide, systematic persecution and killing of Cambodians by the Khmer Rouge under the leadership of Communist Party general secretary Pol Pot, resulted in the deaths of 1.5 to 2 million and sadly, there are other such tragic examples..
I suggest you peruse the film "The Act of Killing" before making such statements. Just because the 1965-66 genocide in Indonesia did not include White Folks, doesn't make it any less terrible.
And the denial while it was happening, and even afterwards. Although there is a national historical guilt professed by many in Germany today, I thought. Not all.
Yes, totally agree. Thanks for pointing that out.
As are the detention camps at the Mexican border.
As are the 600,000 people dead of Covid.
As is the prison system.
As is our caste system.
As Penelope Simpson Adams points out below, our "Auschwitz" has not been concentrated in time and space as were the Nazis' mulitple sites. Ours has been strung out across the centuries and throughout the states and territories, and has not yet been either ended or universally recognized.
Well, I hope enough will be enough when the Attorney General and others investigating the criminality stemming from our former MAGAnificent clown-in-chief are sure their cases will result in appeal-proof convictions. Acquittal would be a terrible outcome, almost worse than just letting bygones be bygones (perhaps I exaggerate!). Trump being arrested and held without bail in September of 2022 might hit a sort of political sweet spot. Conviction and life sentences? Sure, that too.
You don't exaggerate at all, acquittal would be much worse than just moving on, it would validate the actions.
Well, maybe. Just letting bygones be bygones would be an extreme display of weakness from the left and would further embolden the right. Citizens earlier inclined to fight the good fight might fall into apathy. On the other hand, acquittal -- however frustrating -- might be seen as proof that our system is rotten to the core and serve as a wake-up call for folks thus far unable to imagine --or at least take seriously -- the idea of an America governed by a dictator.. Either outcome would play into the hands of the GOP and be disastrous.
Interesting argument, I think we have a frying pan and fire situation and the only positive outcome would be conviction and removal of the source.
For some reason I am reminded of the American officer in Vietnam who in 1968 reportedly commented on a recent battle, saying, " We had to destroy the village in order to save it." Seven years later the war ended.
Or, from a different perspective, creative destruction, the prelude to rebuilding and improvement as long as the goal is positive.
More like sources.
And they’re not bygones. They’re just a prelude unless we nip it in the bud.
One can dream, can’t they?
How depressing it all is…. Even before I read today’s letter I was lying in bed, listening to the birds, such a lovely day… and I thought about how the evil that was still so pervasive in our erstwhile administration has just gone underground… as poison and plastic are eating away at our earth, those criminals are so busy and working just as hard to continue to take control of us and destroy our democracy. So we uncover this, and there will be more, and I wonder how long it will continue before someone emerges as the victor?
A monster with a thousand heads….. can we win?
Elizabeth Warren is persisting = ray of hope.
I recently listened to her interview with Ezra Klein for his podcast. She understands the systemic changes to implement. Though she'll never be president, I hope her proposals gain traction.
Same with Sen Amy Klobuchar. There are some fierce women as wind in the sails.
Klobuchar is great when she drops the “Minnesota nice” stuff and brings her inner bulldog to the table. Serious legal chops and doesn’t take bs for answers. Only hope she can find enough others to really bring it this time!
Sen. Warren is great at persisting!
❤️❤️
Unfortunately although I love ❤️ the dream you allude to Cynthia, my real hope is that the iDJT and his supporters continue to engage and enrage us. We have the numbers to take them on at the polls. Hopefully the trumpistas will provide the engagement necessary. If we can retain the Senate and House the Repugnants will split wide open and have to redefine themselves. tRump is both our devil and our potential savior.
You echo my sentiments David. Yeah, the gop is making it harder to vote but they haven't stopped our votes, the dems need to vote like they've never voted before!
Big ifs David but that has to be the next step. Putting the dfp in prison is an essential part of the process.
David - increasingly I am abandoning that kind of think. I do not want to underestimate the ability of Republicans to find a way back to power. They are corrupt to the core, and they know how to use it. Also, I do not want to overestimate the will and gumption of the progressive voters on our country. Their MO is to complain and complain, and then sit out elections in protest. Or at least become complacent and sit out elections. Especially mid term elections. The progressives have really performed the last two elections, one of them a midterm. Can we really still expect that enthusiasm to continue indefinitely? I hope I'm wrong. I would rather bring these crooks to justice and put them in dark places never to be heard from again.
Yes-- without his bizarre antics, drooling at Putin's feet, and the total kowtowing of the repubs, so much has been revealed to us of our shadows and our vulnerabilities. The wicked past occupier may strangely enough, be the impetus for huge changes and the fine-tuning of our democracy as The Great Experiment. Who would have thunk?
I am hoping you are right…
Yes we can. Will we?
Yes, absolutely we can; not easily and not as quickly as we'd like but, once we understand the need and have a coherent plan, we can achieve the goal.
That’s a good question. Anyone care to guess the limits? Thirty years ago when i left the States (couldnt afford to retire there: the powers that be had squeezed all the blood out of that turnip), I met a “retired” Scots doctor who did face lifts. He was a busy man. Well never catch the perpetraitors who started all this, just maybe a few who were left holding the bag. The ones who got away all these years set an example for the next round of crooks. Instead of licensing hunters to go after wolves, we should put bounties out on all the CEOs who sold their souls for their measley, inflation ridden retirements and the merger artists who bought out decent little American companies, sold the assets, people put of work and bought an island.
Do I sound slightly p*ssed off? As Malcom Nance says, maaaybeeeee.
Mergers should be illegal as a scam to redistribute assets. I remember reading about the closing of Safeway when I lived in northern Louisiana (late 1970s). The article juxtaposed the long-time Safeway workers (who lost good-paying jobs and pensions) and the East-coast corporate raiders (who legally absconded with the money).
Or, when a companies "merge," they must remain so for five years -- a proposal that would never be accepted.
Such a five-year commitment would also clean up the mortgage market. If you approve someone for a mortgage -- if you think they are financially solvent enough -- then you keep that mortgage for five years before selling it. Don't just pocket the closing costs and run.
Where are you based now Susan? Knox is certainly a great Scots name.
Portugal
Lorraine is a great French name. Lotharingian too.
But didn't become fully part of France (this time) until 1918 after alternating like a yoyo historically between France and German domination. There are still considerable legal differences between Alsace-Lorraine and the rest of France. We'll see about next time.....
I'm looking hard at retiring in Portugal. What part of Portugal did you settle in?
Rhetorical question right Daria? Because of course we know the answer is never. They will double down until they’re voted out. That’s our work going forward.
Amen!
Amen!
My question as well - when???
Agree! Now that we know, what will be done to those involved? It simply is not reasonable for people to wait years to see justice served.
When he goes to jail. Not pass go, no $200.
He has no "monoploy" on injustice,and not a "Cleudo" of justice. He...and they... just want to live in Mayfair (old English board)
And he never comes out!
Perhaps we should call him Teflon Trump (TT).
Teflon is not very good for your health in cooking or elsewhere!
trump has certainly not been good for the health of any of us or our country
Maybe that makes it even more appropriate? “Teflon Don”, for sure.
Teflon is a "forever chemical." We can only hope Trump isn't also forever.
Now, Daria. Now. And let’s all breathe for one second and remember that he is NOT in the White House. The plume of stench from his regime is still in the air, but it’s clearing. Can you feel it?
I said earlier Merrick Garland has been our Attorney General since March 11th. I cannot help but think he is on it. And our current Vice President is the exact one that posed the question about investigations to Barr. And speaking of Vice Presidents, despicable Pence just squeaked at the quickly decreasing wiggle room he lives in.
And to be quite honest, I’ve always feared who is pulling the strings rather than Trump himself. My focus is that the Justice Dept will bring THAT to light of day. And then the people will make mincemeat of that influence at the polls.
Well Biden needs to throw some $$$ at the DOJ and good people with those skill need to think about going back to work at the DOJ. That kind of “service” is every bit as important as landing on the Beach at Normandy. It is not heroic, there are no medals to be had, it is surely a grind and frustrating, but we desperately need all those hands on deck to straighten our course and do right by the rule of law. Otherwise we are just a freaking banana republic like the rest of them, How did we not learn from the Nixon admin’s shenanigans and do what needed to be done to strengthen our democratic institutions?
Why did we not learn from the Nixon's shenanigans?
Because Ford pardoned Nixon, which communicated that if you are the powerful/rich elite, you will not be held accountable for your misdeeds.
Like taxes, Two Justice systems. One for the ultra rich, and another fir the rest of us.
Cig, you always get to the point with some kickass responses.
Love it!
I almost feel nostalgic for Gerald Ford. He was just a party hack, enamored of the status quo, a decent guy without visible vices thinking inside the box, little leadership capacity, not too big on the vision thing, but a breath of fresh air -- well, air freshener -- after Tricky Dicky stunk up the place. The pardon was both the most important and worst thing he did as President. Strange that he survived 2 assassination attempts in the space of 17 days, some sort of record, I guess. Squeaky Fromme: now there's a footnote from history.
Garland BETTER be on it!!!! It's the Only HOPE I have!!!!😏💕
No, Christine, I can't. Not because I don't want to but because his puppet masters are still pulling the strings and getting away with crimes against US Americans. His regime walked, unscathed, out of office. They are still turning the screws at the local and state levels where people are at the most vulnerable.
I hear you very clearly. I still say to many, however, AG Garland has been in office just 3 months. The regime is still turning screws, but not as quickly as they did with the former president whipping them to action.
I am anxious to hear our Atty General speak this afternoon.
Hey, Daria, et al. Just saw this re what Garland is up to: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/garland-details-justice-dept-plan-to-protect-voting-rights/ar-AAKX9QH?ocid=msedgntp
So glad he spoke comprehensively about voting rights.
The trouble is, the powers behind the GQP have been busy setting up ways to overturn the will of the voters at the state level, and the Dem majority in the Senate is so thin that it looks like they will get away with it.
Bingo
I just felt it, Christine, I just felt it. And the stench of these traitors to our democratic republic is despicable.
Well, something stinks in the basement….is it a dead mouse, or a nest of rats, snakes, and spiders… crawling together fighting it out for control…
‘May the Most Evil Man Win?!’
When is the question for sure.
Ditto.
Same reaction here.
Enough will never be enough until the chemotherapy keeping the trump cancer alive in America is withheld.
The GQP have sold themselves to evil and will not change direction.
I'm with you Daria, except those you want to wake up are scheming, pernicious criminals themselves. The Republican Party may as well be referred to as the Fascist Party because that is what they have become. They have been working toward this for 40 years and have built an impressive infrastructure to get things where they are today. Democrats are at least 1 if not 2 generations behind the curve. While they were making progress toward a multicultural democracy, Republicans have been hard at work laying a solid groundwork to turn the clock back to pre-New Deal America. Just read "Evil Geniuses" by Kurt Anderson. If even possible, it will take another generation to mount a sustainable response to this.
Well said, Daria.
As Frank Figliuzzi pointed out on Brian Williams' show, the DOJ lawyers who did this may have been acting completely out of the scope of their jobs, as defined in previous policy, making themselves personally liable for this crime.
At a minimum Barr needs to be dragged out of whatever safe house he's now ensconced in and hauled up before Congress to explain this. He obviously lied in his testimony when Kamala Harris was questioning him.
It’s time for a robust letter writing campaign demanding all parties in the Trump Organization involved in corrupting the Justice Dept., surveilling members of Congress and involved in the insurrection be brought to justice.
Letters will go to Biden, Schiff, Schumer, Merritt Garland & my congressman Christ. Then I’ll email a sample letter with email address for the above to my friends. It’s a plug and play approach that’s been successful before.
This will be a temporary diversion for me from focusing on S-1 and Florida elections. But, this can’t wait. Until we make noise nothing will happen.
Maddow mentioned a 6 part Boston Glove piece called Restoring Democracy, or something along that line. It’s free and it has some excellent talking points.
I just happen to have that window open waiting for me to read them. https://apps.bostonglobe.com/opinion/graphics/2021/06/future-proofing-the-presidency/
Bruce also mentioned this today. It’s an amazing editorial board opinion series. Very compelling.
Yes! Im also in. Let’s put together a few small scripts for postcards/letters/emails.
Agreed, let’s post our sample letters so we can pick the best parts of each. Then we can each email samples to our own networks and urge them to do the same. It’s a chain letter with a real objective. Some may even choose to post on social networks.
Letters have to go through extensive security. Use emails and postcards.
Yes, I have heard that pre-stamped postcards that you can get from USPS get through security right away. I have a bunch ordered.
This!
I'm in! Let's do this!
I’m ready!
Well, he refused to answer the question--but did not invoke the 5th Amendment in doing so. I think it is interesting that Barr was one of the few Trumpistas not to receive a blanket pardon. One of the handy things about those pardons is that, no longer open to being prosecuted, those who received them can be required to answer questions and cannot invoke the 5th.
TFG wasn’t exactly happy with him towards the end. Seems like Barr quit the sinking ship after 1/6?
He quit before 1/6. I think his last day was December 24. It was very sudden.
Keep in mind that Barr wants to bring on the Rapture. He actually has some end of world or life theory that the majority will die and we’ll have some peaceful world of certain people. Probably rich white men and pretty teenage handmaidens. I never quite understood it.
My bad. It came right after the electoral college results were certified and I was thinking that he drew a line on not wanting to be involved in a violent insurrection that was surely being planned at that point. My brain did not code the memory accurately. LOL. Thank you for the correction!
My question: Who else knew?
Taking a guess here but I think everyone? But the dems
Did he lie or did he avoid answering?
He didn't tell the truth.
lies of ommission covering up crimes of comission;
Sounds familiar, where have I heard that before?
. . . and this entire discussion takes us right back to another point we should always consider: is Bill Barr one of the corrupted and compromised officials? Did somebody bribe him? Pressure him? Blackmail him? That entire administration was being run by Donald Trump, who was in turn being run by Vladimir Putin. Were Barr and others in “Clean-Up-On-Aisle-45”s administration being compromisedthrough blackmail or bribery?
I don’t believe blackmail was necessary. Barr is a natural autocrat, all he needed was permission.
I still can’t believe djt was clever enough to be such an ‘effective’ mastermind.
Certainly a possibility. One wonders if the NY investigation will bring out enough to spur Congress into an overall investigation of the administration. Some Republicans might join in the interest of demonstrating their own innocence.
No. He’s a dominionist and wants a piece of the pie!
Don’t leave the Vatican out.
LIED
Both.
What difference would it make? He’s so slippery… don’t think we’ll ever catch him.
Why should we believe Congressional subpeonas will be attended? If they are, they will answer with I don't recall, don't remember and don't know. Maybe they will throw in some lies... Democrats don't have the power in Congress, I just feel outrage is about as far as Democrats will go on this. The DOJ and FBI still have Trump appointments. I feel Criminals who are wealthy and power connected can get away with anything. Having a hard time having hope today.
Obviously but isn’t that a talent most attorneys prize.
Indeed.
It's time for Merrick Garland to brief the House and Senate Judiciary Committees regarding this astounding outrage and, equally important, what he's doing to rid the Justice Department of Trump appointees. Garland faces unprecedented challenges and deserves time. But he has an obligation to reassure the country that he recognizes the depth of rot and is committed to removing it.
I agree. It is time for Merrick Garland to "stand and deliver." Merrick Garland, are you going to defend our nation and the independence of the DOJ from the White House. Democracy is on the line and the nation has turned its eyes to you.
I believe that anyone that wants the Attorney General to move faster or is expressing disappointment in him after being on the job since March 11th must remember his judiciary experience, his reputation for thoroughness, and that, except for McConnell, would have been sitting on the Supreme Court now!
I, like many, want the corruption rooted out and prosecuted. However, I conclude that we could not be situated any better or be more protected against further corruption than by having our current AG. The Dept of Justice will put the guardrails back in place and whatever new ones to make sure this does not happen again under any president, Dem or Repub.
If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared. - Niccolo Machiavelli.
Profound as it relates to the former president, Richard.
I agree, but I hope he gives us some crumbs so we can feel more hopeful about some accountability coming to pass. the wait is exhausting and worrisome.
Hahahahahaha. You are the best, Christy. I want the whole dang cookie! Forget the crumbs. That was the miserly treat of the former president to “his” base. And the crumbs are so stale and moldy now and he is STILL passing them out.
This just in about AG Garland: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/garland-details-justice-dept-plan-to-protect-voting-rights/ar-AAKX9QH?ocid=msedgntp
Garland’s background as preparation for Attorney General at this moment in history is not encouraging. He spent 24 years in the U.S. Court of Appeals in DC. This is a review court whose function is to uphold or reverse lower court decisions. Cases take 6-12 months to be processed. Consensus is striven for. This is not critique - merely description.
Garland took over a house that was burning down when he was accepted as Attorney General. It was thoroughly corrupted under Trump. What was needed in the new Attorney General was an educated and expert fire-breathing dragon.
What the DOJ got was a leisurely institutionalist.
Perhaps his immediate to-do list could have included the following:
A thorough house cleaning. Trump shaped the DOJ by firing sitting personnel and replacing them with loyalists. To my knowledge these people are still working for the DOJ. They should be gone - by now - and replaced, not with Biden loyalists, but people of knowledge and integrity. The rot contributed to the fire getting out of control.
Long before now, the people whose metadata was gathered by the DOJ should have been informed. It’s not even clear to me that the spying on politicians and journalists have stopped.
Barr’s corrupt and sinister decision to make the US government the defendant in the EJ Carroll lawsuit had the effect of nullifying it. The US government cannot be sued for defamation, so her case is effectively dismissed. So Garland upholding it is a gross breach of justice. Institutionalism is triumphing over elementary fair play. That case should be heard. It won’t be.
Similarly, his appeal of Judge Jackson’s decision demanding the release of the Barr memo re obstruction of justice in the Mueller report is, to put it charitably, baffling. This memo could conceivably lead to obstruction of justice charges against Trump, now that he is no longer President. Mueller himself asserted that Trump could be charged with obstruction of justice in his post-report testimony before Congress.
His announcement that it would be a “top priority” of the DOJ to root out the leakers who revealed the tax records of the ultra-wealthy is similarly baffling. If I was an American Jeff Bezos, I might perhaps cheer him on. Or if the country was in a somnolent period with no dire threats to its wellbeing, one could find no fault with making it “top priority”. But now? When the house is on fire? Really?
To put it another way, Christine. What has he *done* in his first three months that allows you to have such unshakeable confidence in him?
And one final point: three times already, Garland’s DOJ has made rulings at odds with Biden’s beliefs (https://www.politico.com/newsletters/west-wing-playbook/2021/06/08/bidens-garland-headache-493167). Pick your poison - we don’t want a repeat of 2016.
But the image I have is of the flames rising and Garland puttering.
To respond to your rant, Eric….
The fire-breathing dragons you call for are there. In the form of deputy, assistant, and associate AG’s.
Vanita Gupta, Kristen Clark, Lisa Monaco all were confirmations resisted by many Repubs in the Senate. Stewart just confirmed end of May!
Wind in the sails of justice.
I wouldn't call Eric's account of the tasks awaiting the "leisurely constitutionalist" (another phrase you consider an insult?) a "rant," but a list of facts that help explain why Prof. Richardson and many of us on this list are alarmed at the state of democracy and the rule of law in the United States.
Here is an article by Elie Mystal about the DOJ's decision to continue protecting Trump (instead of letting him protect himself in court on his own $, like other citizens accused of rape): https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/trump-carroll-garland/ I'm posting it because it's useful in helping readers think outside the box that the Trump administration's scofflaw behaviors of the last 4 years have accustomed us to. I fear we have forgotten how the law works, to some degree, and what the Dept. of Justice exists to regulate and oversee!
Mary. You’ve already stated you “guess” I’m not a rape victim so that influences my opinion of DOJ action on the case you reference. Nor did I make any comment of Eric’s definition of “leisurely constitutionalist”.
Back off. You are displacing anger on my opinions and it is suspect, quite frankly.
Really? We could not be better protected? I guess you’re not a rape victim whose rapist, a former president, is still being well protected by Garland’s DOJ.
Whoa., Mary. You insult me that a woman who is not a rape victim can be casual about the crime? I have read thoroughly the trail of the case you refer to. And suggest that what has happened so far is happening so the eventual outcome cannot be overturned.
I also suggest that the delay in prosecuting this case is not because of our current Atty General.
It is not a delay. It is a refusal. The decision was made. I am not whining about a delay as you and others here and elsewhere assume. You are clearly someone who reads and considers information. You missed the story however, unlike a large throng of upset lawyers and political scientists and rape victims, about the decision not to pursue the case. It's weird and sad to me that millions of us could have poured into the freezing January streets to protest the Inauguration of a rapist for president, and now I am the object of accusations and name-calling ("Lightweight"?!) on a listserv of readers of Heather Cox Richardson for pointing out that the decision to consider Trump still inviolable despite being a regular citizen now is distressing. According to many I know who practice law and law enforcement and teach government and American political history, very distressing. And to rape victims like me, an occasion for despair.
Sadly, what is being ruled on is a defamation suit, not the alleged crime.
I think that in Garland, we are seeing what happens when you get a judge as AG rather than a prosecutor.
He was a federal prosecutor. He played a leading role in the prosecution of the Oklahoma City bombers. I also suggest the 30 Republicans that voted “nay” to his confirmation as AG did so for a reason. An atty general, not under the whip of an autocrat of a president, does not leave stones unturned.
I had forgotten that he was the Oklahoma City bombing prosecutor. I have (in my little world) seen some prosecutors who become judges that really do an outstanding job although they do, from time to time, make some head scratching rulings.
I hope Mr. Garland can connect with his prosecutorial roots and bring all of the miscreants to justice.
I imagine that is going to be a tough row to hoe for him, with the very agency he supervises becoming mired in the carp from the former guy.
Ally House, you may well be right, but the issue is what Mr. Garland choses to do or not with reference to the standing of a particular case. No one has asked him to prosecute it: he's the Attorney General of the United States. The decision that Mr. Trump, a citizen like you or me, is protected from prosecution for a crime committed before he was president is a peculiar one: the chief task of the DOJ at present is to return the country to the rule of law, and bring law into line with the pursuit of justice. See Elie Mystal's assessment of the situation: https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/trump-carroll-garland/
Ari Melber interviewing NYT's, Michelle Goldberg and the Nation's Elie Mystal tonight on his show was about exactly this and interesting. They were all in agreement though of the seriousness of the most recent NYT's expose on Trump's goons and the need for Garland to clean the DOJ of the cult of Trump.
I hope you're right.
So far Garland has been very disappointing to me. Given his history I expected much more from him. He is avoiding anything to do with the Trump administration like the plague even if it was blatantly illegal.
I don’t think so, I think he’s getting all his ducks in a row…. There’s a lot, so much that he’s not going to let anything go. Yet I remember how I waited like a child on Christmas Eve for the Mueller Report…. And…
Cynthia he's not waiting to act on this, the action has been taken.
Maybe he fears for his wife and children and is waiting until he has all his ducks in a row before he fires .
Hopefully, that is not the case. That so many people who are actually doing their job to follow the law fear for the safety of themselves and family (which I totally understand is a reality) is another sign of how far over the cliff we have gone. Fear and violence are the mainstay tools of an authoritarian government.
That's very sad.
Or, perhaps he doesn’t want Trump issues to take all the air out of the room while the administration can actually get stuff done for the American people. This gives him time to sort through all of the issues that are in his office after 4 years of Sessions and Barr. It also gives him time to consider options. If this administration were to go into attack mode now the news would be all trump all the time again. That would not be good. There are things that are so much more important than putting Trump and his people in jail right now. In my opinion it is naive to think that those people will be treated as if they are murderers and it doesn’t serve democrats well to mud wrestle with the pig. The administration is doing a great job of keeping the temperature lower and the news media is doing a good job of telling the stories.
I think Mr. Garland can probably do many things at once with his big staff. And I can't think of anything more important for the DOJ than to restore its own functions and begin again to regulate and oversee the administration of justice in this country. We're not guaranteed of another 4 years of a law-respecting administration anytime soon, given the voting restrictions being put in place or considered in 47 out of 50 states. It is not "going into attack mode" to decide against continuing to defend the legally tortured position of Trump's DOJ to protect him from legal action on a 1990s rape count. As Elie Mystal points out in so many words, other accused citizen-rapists must hire their own private lawyers.
Good point
And there's that song again--if I had a hammer. Take the hammer of justice to the entire corrupt dr$mpf administration and throw the crazy ex45 in jail. He makes Nixon look like a saint. Take away or minimize all his perks and get him off the federal payroll. Dems-- can you get indignant now?
We need some righteous indignation in the FBI/CIA and all the other security offices (how many are there now?)
Preach!
Garland is scheduled to speak today to the nation at 2PM ET
Thank you for that update, Frederick.
I’m not going to miss that!
Same here!!
And at the same time convince us that justice is not political.
Everything is political. Justice is ethics.
Hiding in plain sight is an observation and a question. (1) The observation: In a police state, everybody (on BOTH sides of the “aisle) is investigated in case blackmail is needed to gain political advantage! (2) The question: How many of the bowing and scrapping Republicans in Congress are compromised in ways that we are not yet aware of?
I was going to make a similar comment, Belvie. A DOJ that is subservient to an autocratic president could also be commissioned to investigate members of that president's own party. This would explain, for one example, Mitch McConnell's initial reaction to January 6th (he called it a "failed insurrection" and seemed, for once, to be showing integrity:
https://www.usnews.com/news/elections/articles/2021-01-06/read-mitch-mcconnells-statement-to-the-senate-on-the-storming-of-the-capitol ), but soon after, he spun his view a 180° and refused to investigate the incident. Can't help but wonder what skeletons Trump's DOJ dug out of MM's closet...
You just have to look how Stalin "explained" the failure of his farm collectivisation policy amongst his other efforts. The starving were hoarding food and starving themselves to make him look bad AND the local Communist Party officials were complicit and to blame for not exposing and stopping them. The starving were already dying so for his collaborators....Off with their Head! Fear does horrible things to people and pushes them to the same to others.
Back in Kentucky he’s being called Moscow Mitch for a reason. There was an aluminum factory built in Kentucky financed by one of Putin‘s buddies. So guess who has leverage on Mitch. Another weakling. The Republicans are saturated with them. I think Putin has a majority of the Republican House and the Republican Senate in his back pocket. When you’re the richest man in the world, that can buy a lot of leverage.
I seem to remember reading that he and Elaine will receive major stock options in that company.
Whoa!
I read a few years ago that Mitch and Elaine are both worth about 25 million. How much more do they need? When is enough enough?
The Koch family made a lot of real estate investments, though none have paid off quite so well as the Manchin in West Virginia.
All you have to do is look up his biography on Wikipedia to find his home town, then google the town/scandals. Same for his school and church and university. The first ten Senators i search (in alphabetical order) coughed up a lot of dirt.
Wikipedia is not an authoritative source. Anyone can write a Wikipedia article. NYT is called the newspaper of record for a reason. Sure, it's not perfect but at least it corrects an error.
That's right. It was also called the lying New York Times and fake news by our former would-be dictator. It's mind boggling how our country is experiencing an ongoing(!) assault on truth, facts, and science. If I weren't living through this moment I wouldn't believe it could happen.
Hmmm.... Makes one wonder why (or how?) they are being reelected.
Nicely said. Remember also the other side of the equation of a police state:
(1) Blackmail and
(2) BRIBERY
Over on Greg Olear, you can find articles (and his book) which do a thorough study on the U.S. Republican officials who have been either bribed, or blackmailed, or both, by Putin. Trump was obviously one of those officials, the hideous spectacle of Helsinki should’ve told anybody that.
Now blackmail takes a lot of different forms. Lindsey Graham, according to one of Greg’s articles, switched from being critical of Trump to being a sycophant after speaking with Trump while he was playing golf. The turnaround happened after one brief conversation. Maybe the conversation went something like this: “I have a resource that will give you 5 million bucks if you join our side.“ or perhaps something like “ I have a copy of that specific document of yours, or I have photos of you doing X, that I will reveal to the world unless you play for me.“
Jeffrey Epstein, I am convinced, was killed because he held secrets that people did not want revealed. As long as he was in jail and getting squeezed by the American justice system, there was a risk that some vulnerable secret would be exposed. Jeffrey knew billionaires. He had dirt on billionaires. Billionaires can buy anything they want, if they are unscrupulous. The fact that the cameras outside Epstein‘s cell had been turned around told me everything I needed to know. The guards were either bribed, or they were slovenly and somebody paid attention and took advantage.
In the USA we have a tremendous number of highly placed Republican politicians who have been compromised, corrupted. Whether it’s blackmail or bribery or both doesn’t really matter, but as vigilant citizens, we should be acutely aware of this dynamic.
Recently I believe it was TC who brought up the Greens, and I had totally forgotten that Jill Stein met with Putin. Putin is carrying a grudge against the USA, I believe, due to something that happened with Hillary. Curiously, he is also fascinated with the culture and admires the USA greatly because this country and culture carries so much influence in the world. If you were paying attention to “Peter Burnett“ you would have seen him mention that, his wording was words to the effect that much of the world is downstream of America. That was not a typo, that was not a misstatement. Putin admires the USA. We need to bring his family to Disneyland, that will be an experience they never forget, that would probably be helpful in changing the dynamic. Disneyland is America’s secret weapon for charming foreign dignitaries and their families. We should be using it.
Speak of the devil, and he appears. Here’s Greg’s post for today, an article and podcast about Maria Butina
https://gregolear.substack.com/p/how-do-you-solve-a-problem-like-maria
I’m currently reading “Stalin’s Daughter” by Rosemary Sullivan. The layers of manipulation and espionage, and the proficiency with which Russian intelligence has (is) operated is astounding. Regarding Butina, she seems to join a long list of “hits” that have just kept coming over the past several years. Let’s not forget Byrne was one of those closeted with TFG post defeat.
Thanks for the book tip, Gail. I well remember when Svetlana Alliluyeva defected from the USSR, but know little otherwise. It's time to reduce my ignorance!
I have the book and guess I best read it.
I was wondering if you were alluding to that. Olear has some amazing insight about Putin's/Russia's activities in our world.
Olear is the shizzit. I've been enjoying his podcasts and blogs every week.
re: Epstein. I know that his death was an intentional death, orchestrated by someone in power. All of my "conservative" friends think it was the Clintons. (see my shocked face.) I believe that the corrections staff was told to let his death happen by someone who had the power to do that. I strongly suspect it was the former guy, or one of his cabel, that made that happen.
That scenario is one that I hope Garland's DOJ can reveal.
I’ll send an invitation right away ...maybe...
please Susan....to stuartattewell@gmail.com.....thanks.
😂
Thanks for the Olear reference, Roland. Can't wait to read him!
He's great. You might also want to check out Lucian Truscott. Another good one with an entirely different style.
And Timothy Snyder. https://snyder.substack.com/
"It's a small, small world..."
Oh no! Now I have the worst ear worm that exists 😂
Putin's only problem with going to Disney, other than as its conquering hero is how to avoid assassination by his "friends" when he gets home!
Stuart would you mind spelling this out in different words? I’m not following you. Conquering hero? Assassination by “friends“ back home? You lost me
Roland...with pleasure. If Putin starts doing the tourist in the west without having taken over the joint then the oligarchs will assume he's neglected their interests and is no longer covering their backs. This represents both an opportunity and a danger to them. They could take the chance to replace him for "legitimate" ideological reasons or punish him for dereliction of duty. Either way he is dead. Putin needs the "slow burning" conflict with the West to legitamize his autocratic rule. Absence of external enemies would be the end of him and the Russian people would throw the first stone.
The first Tsar of Russia, Vlad 1, reigned 1000 years ago and died without an agreed succession process and 17 pretenders to the throne were assassinated before someone finally won.
What? All. This perseveration on Russia!, Keep at it everyone. So what that Julian Assange rots because of truth telling and that the US likely had a hand in fixing his British trial. Following the US red herring propaganda on Russia is perfecto! Just that much more citizenry energy diverted away from matters of our own governmental and judicial corruption over which we potentially could do something about. How would the USA respond were Russia to perform military exercises as close to our Mexican or Canadian border as the USA troops near the Russian border in May? All the corruption rising to citizen consciousness - corporate, mega rich not paying taxes, juicing the insurrections, legislators refusing to accept the people’s’ presidential choice, governor pushing his legislature to grant corporate immunity from liability lawsuits to nursing home CEOs, dark money allowed, biggest Pentagon budget a la Biden, militarization of police who get away with murder, funding behind 100s of State bills to disenfranchise our people, Exxon hiding research and going full throttle dis and mis information campaign about fossil fuel destruction of Earth (Earth!), consolidation of media into a handful of corporations whose motto is money over truth and sentient beings, unilateral invasion of a foreign country without a declaration of war, FBIand CIA surveillance of us-computers, cell phones, bought legislators (Manchin and Koch money), obscene allowance of mega rich monopolistic operations, children in cages, Earth home suffering mega flooding when it’s not drying up or burning to the ground and the people tolerate not even half measures to deal with it, relentless corporate swallowing of the Commons….if we were a human body showing analogous symptoms, what would we and our families and friends be doing? Sitting around accepting bipartisan aspirin as cures for our beloveds? Would we remain cowered and acquiescent when the insurance company always for profit, refuses to pay the bill? Would we collapse before the magnitude of the diseases afflicting our beloved? Or would we break down into manageable pieces the solutions and actions ?
Now there's a word salad that I don't have the capacity to parse...
That's okay...don't feel badly...like someone famous once said...let those with the capacity to see ...see, and those with the capacity to digest word salads....chew and absorb....and for those without capacities...take the dog out for a walk....
Well the question is... do you have the capacity to write clearly and succinctly? I'd love to hear what you have to say, though I can't read the forest for all the trees.
Gee, I can't help you there...I found this on google "Can Myopia be Cured? As of 2020, there is no cure for myopia. However, some treatments and management strategies can help restore distance vision." Good luck with that....that's your 3rd helplessness.. Ding Dong take your contribution to humanity elsewhere, my door is now closed.....to you ......yours truly, Ballard girl
Roland, how about Disneyworld? We could throw in a side trip to the Space Center and Alligator Land!!
I think we'll find that this is the tip of the iceberg.....Edgar Hoover has reincarnated!
I think we still cling to the idea that politicians (and their acolytes) behave "properly". Blackmail (otherwise known "as I've/we've got the goods on you, mate") is a well entrenched behaviour - we've seen enough of it in Oz.
Maybe we can now start to know rather than wonder... Right?
Yes, I read a tweet where somone said if the Trump DOJ got records of Democrats, did they also get Republican's? Is that another way to get blackmail info?
The question of the day!
It is not only the anti-democratic and corrupt actions of Trump, Sessions, Barr and so many others in the former administration that are so disturbing but even more so the failures to hold all of them accountable. The entire administration will be recorded in history as the most ethically flawed and corrupt administration in U.S. history. Congress needs to enact strong ethics standards with real penalties for violations to prevent similar future abuses by politicians and appointed officials of either party.
Absolutely, we need more than guardrails, we need consequences, swift and stinging.
One of the guardrails are the penalties for violations. With a sign….”Beware..advance your traitorous pace at your own risk, m-fers”.
I strongly recommend all read the editorial series published by the Boston Globe, available outside their paywall, on Future-Proofing the Presidency. You can find it here:
https://apps.bostonglobe.com/opinion/graphics/2021/06/future-proofing-the-presidency/?
Well, that was amazing, Bruce.
Aren’t all those DofJ types members ofBar Associations? Should they all be disbarred?
Yes, probably should be.
I am enraged. I want to do certain things to certain people that I cannot put in print.
That paragraph is in response to Heather’s report.
Next, change of subject:
KNOW YOUR PROVOCATEURS
I just discovered a few minutes ago, from a loyal and very sweet member of our community, who I respect and love, that we have a new “person,“ a woman’s name, who is a likely provocateur.
I want to know who this “person” is. As all of you know, I keep track of these things.
We have an alias named “David Carroll” who I haven’t seen in awhile. A couple weeks back, I began responding to “him,” and then got suspicious very quickly. When I asked the question, “who are you?“ it became immediately evident that it was a (likely Russian FSB) provocateur. Exact same type of languaging and modus operandi as “Jack Leon.”
Reminder to all of you good people: if somebody is acting like a provocateur, if somebody is causing you to feel poorly, become suspicious. Start asking the “person” questions. When your mood and self-esteem are starting to be affected detrimentally, that is a sign. Maybe you’re just getting your buttons pushed, but if your experience of this person is consistent, i.e. consistently poor, start asking questions.
And then report to all of us, especially me, what you have learned.
Thank you 🙏
A good person makes you feel good. A hostile person makes you feel poorly, consistently. That is a surefire means of identifying a hostile party.
I do appreciate your work and your reporting of this situation. It has certainly limited my engagement with some who I do not "feel right" about. I need to start tracking the names. I did my own due diligence with one regular contributor whose posts occasionally have a nugget buried within them, and have quit responding to them, mostly.
Thank you for bringing this situation to light, and helping us be more aware of the danger.
"A good person makes you feel good. A hostile person makes you feel poorly, consistently. That is a surefire means of identifying a hostile party."
No truer words spoken in an online setting, about an online environment.
And there's an important point: it doesn't matter if the person making you/us feel poorly is possessed by the Devil, is owned by Putin, or is just lashing out because of an unsupportive childhood and a lousy marriage. You can't really know what is behind it, unless they tell you outright (and even then, they may be making up stories), but it really doesn't matter. They're toxic, and the proof is in how their words consistently make you feel and think, and the effect they have on the discourse here.
Calling out a person on this site as GRU or MOSSAD or CIA is an exercise in speculation and name-calling. Calling out a person as abusive, insulting, or misleading is not: it's a direct response to the words on the screen. They may be paid provocateurs, but they may just be ass-trumpets. Their motivation is irrelevant. Their effect, however, is real.
I think it's credible that there are paid foreign agents on this site. HCR is (has become) a potent "influencer" in US American politics, and that will certainly have put this site on lists all over the world, friendly and unfriendly. That seems only reasonable.
It's also credible that they have tried, or are trying to do the hysteria-inducing gaslighting that has worked so well on Twitter and Facebook. It doesn't seem to work as well here. It doesn't work at all if we don't allow ourselves to be whipped to a hysterical froth by others' comments.
Let me know how to reply directly Roland.
One is “bridger” who was on stream Wednesday, I believe. Very naive and rude.
And our unofficial Jason Bourne, how do we relay our intuitive suspicions to you?
As Joseph Nemeth points out, address the conduct and its effects, rather than using a label. The most effective way to deal with someone appearing to negatively provoke, rather than constructively engage, is to Ignore. Do not engage. Do not give oxygen. Do not reward with any attention. Do not elevate the algorithm-driven "likes" and volume of comments.
There already is an established practice on social media. If a subscriber seeks a stronger action against a perceived bad actor, then the appropriate recourse is to make a report to the owner of the blog, in this case, Heather, or her Substack moderators.
Doing otherwise sets up divisiveness within this mostly wonderful group.
One insurrection began quietly in 2017. January 6 was the public insurrection.
Perhaps the next target of the DOJ should be Bill Barr himself.
You think?
Holy guacamole, thanks for pulling all this together. Hope you get to rest soon. So appreciate your letters!
Thanks Chere! Yet another reason to like guacamole.
Despicable and not at all surprising. This is Watergate on steroids.
Hey, Jean-Pierre. The other day, Heather asked a question about the "national mood." Here is how I replied to a commenter who suggested newspapers were on the way out: "I was thinking about Woodward & Bernstein and Watergate. Hoping there are journalists out there today who can accomplish something similar." Perhaps that day is here. Glad to see you thinking along the same lines!
The intrepid band of investigative journalists has dwindled, but, those who remain are doing heroic work to keep us informed. They may save our democracy yet.
Yes!! Subscribe if you can! We need to keep our fourth estate strong!!
I so 1000% agree with this, Diane. Heroes. Our journalists are the very bane of corruption. Because pulling up the roots of it to the light starts with their pens. A mighty weapon, right?
Mightier than the sword! 1000% back at ya, Christine.
So, Schiff and Swalwell, champion domestic spying on US citizens harder than anyone for the last 4 year, now they're upset it was turned on them? Bah.
Thank you, Heather. Unfortunately, none of this is at all surprising, in part because of the people involved (Barr, Trump, Trump's incompetent entourage, corrupt GOP congressional leaders) and in part because of what is by now a long tradition of abuse of power by the executive branch. Our Constitution is in urgent need of repair and modernization, and a large, hard-of-thinking segment of our population desperately needs help.
I like "hard-of-thinking" - like hard-of-hearing - a useful way to approach the terribly sticky problem of how to revive a sense of community among Americans (and I'm not talking about "bipartisanship" - the damage doesn't stop, the desecration of language continues even as the desecrator shrivels away)
Some people are hard of hearing, others are hard of listening.
Welcome back TPJ! I missed you.
Thanks Susan. For two months I've been deep-diving into 20C European history, both reading and writing, prompted by concerns arising from several years' normalization of political violence -- disturbingly like the Nazis during the Weimar Republic. (Also buying relevant used books at an appalling rate.) Dr R doesn't write about Europe much, unlike e.g. Tim Snyder or Mark Mazower. So more time goes to them and their colleagues, less to LFAA. If only we could read every good book, and avoid the baddies.
I agree about the need for modernization of the Constitution, but I do not trust anyone in either party these days to do it, above all in the Republican party. What we need to do is to defeat the authoritarian elected officials in the Republican Party, the ones who do not tell the truth and who support the Big Lie. Until those in the Republican Party who would break the law and distort the Constitution are defeated the Republic will be in danger as it as never been before. There is no one in the leadership of the Republican party today who could be an honest partner. The honest ones have been expelled from leadership.
Revising the Constitution… think about our current Supreme Court….ugh
I agree with your distrust, above all, in Republicans (not just the party) in the event a Constitutional Convention is called. The process is already underway for an Article V "Convention of States", theoretically to be focused on a Balanced Budget Amendment. If convened, what assurance would there be that this would be the only revision pursued? Not my preferred news source but all need to read this article: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mark-meckler-article-five-constitutional-convention_n_6086c380e4b09cce6c143b10
Also, for something even scarier (not linking it here), take a look at ConstitutionofStates dot com, collecting signatures supporting a Constitution of States.
When I tried to go to the constitution of states.com, weird message appeared about a security check and a change of default search engine. No go.
Oh, no! I just checked and I gave the wrong URL! That's what happens when one doesn't verify and goes solely by memory! It's Conventionofstates dot com. Please, everyone who may have tried the wrong one, accept my apology.
My error reminds me of a lesson taught me in my earliest days working reference in a library. Always have the print source (this was the 60s) in front of you when you provide an answer to a question; don't rely on your memory alone.
The news tonight is breathtaking!
My question is - who gets to decide the legality of this operation? I’m pretty sure I read that they convened a grand jury as part of the process, so will those records be released? It began as an investigation into a leaking of classified material, so didn’t a judge have to sign off on the subpoenas?
And one final question - was this all about who leaked the Steele Dossier and the “Pee Tape”?
I wonder if release of the pee tape to go viral on the internet will be enough to loosen his hold over his adoring crackpots, or, just solidify it?!
People have said that for years. I really believe it would break Donald Trump for Donald Trump, like cutting Sampson’s hair took his power.
The t***plicans would not care. He bragged about grabbing women by the genitals and that he could shoot someone on 5th Ave. and his followers would still vote for him. (As I have said in the past, his 5th Ave. statement appeared to me to be his test to see if his repetitive brainwashing of his vulnerable had solidified-- and he was mightily rewarded).
..So, why would they care about a little pee. They rubbed excrement on the walls and peed in our Capital. They won't care.
Three cheers for our "freedom of the press"....may it survive these toxic times. 🙏
I think as time goes on, more and more corruption, self-dealing, etc. within the Trump Administration will be revealed.
HCR is right; those embracing the former president are as stained and smeared as he is. At this point, that includes almost an entire political party.
Sad to say, it also includes Democrats who are reluctant to investigate it.
‘The masses are asses’
Shades of Cointelpro! The other chilling thing to consider is that given Donald's subordination to Putin we can be sure that whatever Sessions or Barr dug up got shared freely with Russia.
I'm livid. It's time to track down Donald, Jeff Sessions and Barr for a lengthy talk with the FBI.
It's a time to gather stones together.....
Oh leave Roger out of this I hate that POS. 😉
Hahahahah!! Good one, Roland!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVOJla2vYx8
My sense of outrage is equaled by my extreme nausea. There really are no limits these jerks will not exceed. So depressing for democracy and the rule of law.
This is just normal life to these people. Trump acted no differently in his existence in NYC while gerrymandering his devastated property black hole, paying off all and sundry, defaulting left right and centre and putting the people on the street...... playing "televisual mogul" to the cheers of the ignorant and "hard of thinking" and insulting the President of the time......in the plain light of day for all to see.
Criminals will be criminals.
The republicans and Putin knew who exactly who they were installing as the so-called 45th to do their dirty deeds.
Wouldn't it be rich if the leakers were Rs.
Remember the little anonymous band of brothers who were "keeping guardrails" around the president? Oh yeah, those were all the guys who got fired in the first two years.
True, I was thinking more along the lines of Congress critters. Yeah, the band of brothers or some staff people are more likely leakers. Somedays I need a timeline/cast of characters wall like you see in movies and on tv to try and keep up with all this.
Unsung heroes
Very rich.