After yesterday’s primary contests, we appear headed toward a Biden-Trump rematch in 2024. But this year’s election is an entirely different kettle of fish than that of 2020.
I still think it's so weird that these supposedly disgusted Republicans who are resigning or not seeking re-election, prefering to "eat their own livers," aren't simply voting with the Democrats to end this mess. Even the "moderate" Republicans would rather fail at their jobs than support their own institution.
On another note, I suppose others have noticed that that butler from Mar-a-Lago, coincidentially named "Butler," is testifying that he loaded boxes of document onto Trump's airplane before the FBI raid. Perhaps I missed something, but doesn't that mean that there's an airplane-load of documents still unaccounted for?
Dirk, regarding the stolen docs: A scary thought, indeed, and I believe that the National Archives folks have previously said that there are still some missing. Supposedly our spy agencies and the DoD won't even acknowledge that some are missing, due to the sensitivity of their contents.
I have long thought, since news of the missing docs came out a few years ago, that trompy would leverage them in some fashion: either to sell them to another country in exchange for money or other assistance (maybe election interference again) or as a Get Out of Jail card here (is that why Garland took so long to name Jack Smith?) . I still believe that he's using them for nefarious purposes one way or the other.
Regarding some of the missing documents, I found it very "coincidental" that some of Putin's close associates started having fatal "accidents" - falling out of windows, etc. My bet is that Putin learned from some of the missing documents just who among his circle was cooperating with the CIA. This is just one of the dangers that TFFG poses, just one. He wants to lock those of us on this thread up. Get out your check book and make some donations.
And, yes, those Republican politicians fleeing instead of staying and fighting. They aren't really serving the nation by doing that. No "Profiles in Courage" there.
Ivanna’s death from broken neck after a fall down the stairs reminds me of the death of Amy Devereaux, the wife of the Robert Devereaux, Queen Elizabeth I’s favorite courtier and love interest to whom she gave lots of financial assistance to raise his status and make him more suitable for a royal relationship…. Even though Devereaux, who wanted to marry the Queen, was already married. He basically abandoned his wife.
The court approved coroner said the cause of death was a broken neck resulting from a fall down the stairs. But additional notes of the coroner also found deep gashes into her skull … she had been hit with some large blunt object. No charges were ever brought.
How convenient …. Amy, who may have known of her husband’s affair with QE, was now quieted and out of the way. Though the coroner listed her death as accident, the public thought otherwise …. The affair between the Queen and Devereaux ended with Devereaux being barred from court. Current scholarship suggests an operative of the intelligence network run by William Cecil, the Queen’s enforcer, murdered Amy to coverup the affair and/or free Devereaux to marry the Queen. Amy, like Ivana, was buried quickly so further questions could not be asked, much less answered.
16th and 21st century deaths of politically connected and inconvenient wives suggest opportunities for political mischief in a police state.
I have never heard any details about Ivana's death. So, thank you for that, Jennifer. And while I avoid unsubstantiated conspiracy theories, I began seeing donald as a wanna-be "Godfather" during the 2016 race. In the years since, I have come to believe that he is a killer, even if he hires others to do it. What he has said recently is that he would love to take care of his opponents in putin fashion. I believe he wants to have people bumped off and anything else he wants to and not be bothered with any law enforcement. The Seal Team 6 scenario certainly appeals to him very much. And millions of Americans still want him to run/ruin our country again. It just blows my mind to pieces!
I remember an interview with candidate Trump before he was President where, in defense of Putin’s reputation as an assassin of enemies, he casually said, “well, our country does it, too.” I SO wished the interviewer had asked him, “what about you yourself. Have you arranged killings?”
Thanks for reading my post …. But I have a correction to make and apologize for the error … I should have written “Robert Dudley” as the queens paramour and husband if Amy rather than Robert Devereaux (the car of Essex, who led the Essex Rebellion against the Elizabethan court run by the Puritan Cecils (William and then an Robert), who instituted oaths of loyalty to the Church of England and enormous fines for those who did not attend church services (20 pounds a month, equivalent to a years salary for school teachers).
There are many many parallels between the kind of administration Trump is saying he will create and the reign of Elizabeth I: Elizabethan England was a police state, where torture was actively carried out not only to quash rebellion but also to quash any criticism of Elizabeth’s reign (ie., free speech). Her hatchet man William Cecil (elevated to Lord Burleigh by the Queen) and his side kick Francis Walsingham effectively ran a police state with spies everywhere (in homes, schools, churches, businesses, theaters, publishers) to root out not just political critics but also religious opponents of the Church of England (Catholics, , atheists, critics of the graft and corruption of the state church, for starters). Church attendance was required. If you didn’t go, you had to pay a fine. The Church of England, under Cecil’s direction, forced Catholics to attend Protestant services, Trump had claimed he will do much the same: fire any government employee who is not MAGA approved. Plus his alliance with Christian nationalists, who want to give people to church, suggests he will follow along with their demands to require people to attend church, ban abortion, punish LGBTQ people,.
Vagrants were hanged under both Henry VIII and Elizabeth I …. If you were stopped on the street and could not identify your “master” you could be imprisoned and/or hanged. Under Henry VIII, 50,000 people were executed for vagrancy. People had to be too busy to complain. This control technique will be Trump’s mantra as Christian nationalists claim that slavery was ok in the Bible so it is not bad. They not only want to force you to go to church but also to live the life they decide is best.
Reading A good history of Elizabethan England will provide many many points of comparison between what was known as “the golden age of England” but we now recognize as a police state and Trump’s vision of the US under his rule and his MAGA hatchet men, such as Steve Bannon, Peter Navarro, etc. and of course, punishment for speaking out against him will be met with punishment, perhaps torture and prison … at least get Musk to banish us from X.
And remember that what followed Elizabeth was the Puritan take over of the government under Charles I, which brought Oliver Cromwell to power. A study of his reign reveals the perils of religious extremism.
First, religion is commonly the public face of authoritarian regimes. I don't believe Elizabeth was any more spiritually inclined than TFG is. She did have to defend her reign, and the opponents to her succession masked the issue as Catholic vs. Protestant. Europe, and especially the Pope, didn't want to see any woman on the throne. Unfortunately for them the choices were Mary Tudor, Elizabeth Tudor, or Mary Stuart (Queen of Scots). There's a great movie about this called "Anonymous." It's liminally about who wrote the material attributed to Shakespeare, but subliminally about the politics of the time.
My other thought is the similarity between the Crusades and the Iraq war, basically a quest for wealth cloaked in religious zeal in the 11th century, as the fight for democracy in the 20th. I don't have the energy to write out all the similarities, but I will do in a day or two.
It actually was Amy Robsart Dudley who fell down the stairs and broke her neck, conveniently for her spouse Robert Dudley. Robert Devereux's wife was named Frances; he was the stepson of Robert Dudley and both men courted Elizabeth I. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_Robsart
So on June 3, 2022 Trump employee Brian Butler says he helped to load documents on Trump's Escalade to be taken to the airport and flown to Bedmininster.. Then in early July Ivana dies "accidentally" and is buried, not in a Catholic cemetery, but, strangely, on Trump's Bedminster golf course. (Catholics usually want to be buried in a Catholic cemetery).The narrative put forth was that cheapskate Donald Trump had Ivana buried on the golf course for tax reasons. Horse puckey! I'll bet Ivana's got top secret company in her resting place.
Well she’s buried in private property so the chances of anyone other than DT and his kids getting to the grave are very low … plus he got a tax break because he created the cemetery there.
Ivana's coffin needs to be disinterred. I find it near impossible to believe that a thin, liposucted, 70 year-old socialite weighed enough to require 10 pallbearers to carry her coffin. Which, by the way, allegedly held cremains, not a body.
There's a lot more in that casket than Ivana--or what's left of her. What better place to hide documents that someone doesn't want to see the light of day, than to have them buried in an unmarked grave? What I don't understand is how the 3 older offspring allowed TFG to dishonor their mother in this way.
Correction to my post: I should have written Robert Dudley, not Robert Devereaux …. Dudley was the queen’s lover and the husband of the Amy Robsart, whose death after falling down stairs and suffering a broken neck has long been viewed with suspicion. Dudley was the Earl of Leceister.
Devereaux was the Earl of Essex; and he was the leader of what is now called the Essex Rebellion, which aimed at getting rid of the queen’s counselors William Cecil and then his son Robert.
I certainly see the correlation but I believe you've conflated Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex, with his stepfather Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. Both men courted Elizabeth but it is Dudley's wife, Amy Robsart Dudley, who "fell down the stairs" and died of a broken neck. Robert Devereux's wife was named Frances.
Photos of Ivana's grave show that it is disappearing into the weeds. It should be searched. What an outcry that would have, but I believe his twisted mind is capable of that.
Ally, I'm happy to be reminded of the days of our youth, and the culture and the counter-culture.
And speaking of bumper stickers and paranoia, I keep wondering if it might be a good idea to remove our political bumper stickers from our back bumper. We still have a Bernie sticker on our Prius. We'll be driving through Missouri and Arkansas in a few days. Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to ...
No? We're just gonna continue to be f'd.. even harder than what's happening presently in various (R) dominated states,.that's all. The manure-spreader is in motion. You might say we're being "prayed" upon. Please kneel, here comes your turn..., it's #45.
Apparently congressman who step out of line and don’t vote the way Trump wants are threatened by MAGA extremists. Mitt Romney hired a security detail for his family. Most congressmen can’t afford to do that
What you are saying, Nancy, is that Trump has turned us into a Banana Republic. It's unbelievable. The whole basis of the democratic process is the peaceful transfer of political power: one person, one vote, majority rule. That phenomenon in the entire history of the world first took place here in the U.S. on March 4, 1801 when Pres. John Adams relinquished the presidency to Thomas Jefferson. They were bitter political rivals who later resolved their differences and died on the same day, July 4, 1826.
There's a crapload of stuff in the Constitution that needs a revision. What we need is for the southern states to secede again so they don't get the chance to obstruct the revisioning process. Similar to 1865 passing of the 13th amendment.
What you say is true, Richard, but it's not the whole story. There's been an argument about who gets to vote since the inception of our country. Although the majority was willing enough to shed the monarchy, not so much the aristocracy. There has always been a quarrel over whether everyone should have a say in government or only landowners (read the 1%). We're still having that argument.
Thought experiment: would we prefer to be governed by a relatively few well-educated and very wealthy corporate moguls -- or by a great many relatively poor people who have had some education?
Our founding authors probably contemplated exactly that scenario. But I think they wanted to get our system up and running before experimenting with democratic majority rule by us unwashed masses.
My opinion has been that I would prefer majority rule by our fellow ordinary citizens. Money talks, and with all the dark money sloshing around, the voices of reason are being drowned out. I would rather debate with the folks who live around here, instead of hoping that the vast sums of money spent by political campaigns on advertising will prove to be worthless. Years ago I believed that the vast majority of good-hearted American people would be incorruptible. I still hope that will prove to be true.
Richard, regarding the missing documents, I quote here from Joyce Vance's "Civil Discourse" column today that "Trump is arguing that when the National Archives tried to get documents back from Trump, the requests were illegal because they were 'politically motivated and driven by the Biden administration as a weapon against President Trump.'"
Is it just me who find Trump's arguments in his defense ludicrous? HE can politically motivate his followers all day long to distrust Biden, but how dare anyone try to discredit HIM.
He is such an adolescent, whining, psycho-brat and I'll never understand how his followers excuse his inane words and behaviors.
As they say, he can dish it out, but he sure cant take it,
It's not just that there's still a stash of stolen Top Secret docs in his control, he's being allowed to meet privately with other authoritarians like Orban just last week (unbelievably with docs there). As a now supposed private citizen that there haven't been follow-up raids to retrieve them, additional surveillance or other measures to protect our national security are beyond the pale. In my own father's day who held full Q and TS clearances for many years if anyone had tried such a stunt, much less so in-your-face-come-get-me bold, they'd have been hauled away long ago. The DOJ, FBI, Jack Smith & team have to know things we don't,...or we must surely pray they do.
Those who pray to ward off deadly peril are soon known as "martyrs." Anyone have other suggestions, if the polls continue to show the would-be fuhrer leading Uncle Joe in all the "swing states" that are actually the only ones that count (thanks to the Electoral College) by October, other than buying the biggest guns on the market? I'm highly resistant to that idea (though raised as a hunter and as comfortable as anyone should be with firearms), but will decline to trudge to the cattle-cars under my own power. I have little faith in the efficacy of the ten or twelve $27 contributions I can afford, in the face of the megamillions at the disposal of Charles Koch, Sheldon Adelson's widow, Leonard Leo, and their ilk. (Recommended book, of the "how we got here" genre: Nancy MacLean's "Democracy in Chains.")
Reply to Richard Sutherland - Threats of political suicide if Republicans don’t follow the whims of a would-be dictator on day one, why do so many cave?
Senator Lester C. Hunt (D) Wyoming chose real suicide in response to Joe McCarthy and other Republican Senators' threats in 1954. The threats were to make his run for another term into (just) political suicide by revealing his son was arrest for soliciting sex from an undercover male police officer but they resulted in his very real suicide.
Back in the early 70s I still had hopes for my old party to clean their own house when needed (Censuring Joe McCarthy, surgically removing Spiro Agnew before letting Nixon know he would lose an impeachment vote, and the ones that had made the critical difference in getting Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts passed. Besides honorable Republicans I’m descended from Senator Margaret Chase Smith’s “Declaration of Conscience” was always in back of mind but a bit short on context.
A few checks with Wikipedia helped me with the timing and surrounding events and conditions to enable a clearer vision of why people did what they did at certain times (not earlier). For instance I couldn’t understand completely why a Professor I’d end up talking to in a café after classes had seemed to work so long for Joe McCarthy before rejecting him so completely. It now seems he supported him for about 3 years before he started the excesses Senator Margret Chase Smith described in her speech 112 days after McCarthy’s Lincoln Day speech (also delivered in Wheeling West Virginia)
“…When Smith rose to deliver her fifteen-minute speech in the Senate chamber, McCarthy sat two rows behind her. Smith began her brief remarks by denouncing the fact that some members were turning the Senate into "a forum of hate and character assassination." She called for a renewal of "the right to independent thought" and a return to the principles of the Republican party as "the champion of unity and prudence." Her party should base its opposition to the Democrats on "proved cases" rather than "unproved charges." Smith concluded with a five-point "Declaration of Conscience," in which she was joined by six Republican colleagues.
After Smith finished, although she had not mentioned McCarthy by name, she fully expected him to respond. Instead, McCarthy quietly left the chamber. A few senators spoke in praise of her remarks, but for the most part the Senate remained silent, fearing to engage McCarthy in further recriminations. The mail, however, showed an eight-to-one approval for Smith's stand. Newspaper editorials endorsed her position, and numerous organizations awarded her recognition for her courageous stand in favor of civil liberties against the politics of fear. The next time that President Truman came to the Capitol for lunch, he invited Margaret Chase Smith to join him. "Mrs. Smith," he told her, “your Declaration of Conscience was one of the finest things that has happened here in Washington in all my years in the Senate and the White House…"
Margaret Chase Smith, and the Professor I spoke with a few times, both were concerned about “communists” and “sympathizers” (which I believe included exaggerated fear in some of any people who had looked into any form of communism before rejecting it as unworkable, and especially for any that tried to implement it by force). As I understand it, it was the implied use of force by American Communist Party members that led to the passing of the otherwise Constitutionally questionable Communist Control Act of 1954. That made sense to me as a way to ban actual party members (whom were expected to subscribe to the use of force) from positions in the Government (though FBI Director J,Edgar Hoover opposed it since he would rather have them easier to identify than if they went undercover).
Now for the other events of the time between Joe McCarthy’s Feb 9th 1950 speech, Margaret Chase Smith’s Declaration of Conscience and Joe McCarthy’s censure in 1954.
Her speech was delivered June 1, 1950, in Wheeling West Virginia 112 days after Joe MCarthy's Lincoln day speech in Wheeling in which he seemed to started the tactics Margaret Chase Smith spoke against. My Professor friend had mentioned that he had left when McCarthy went off the deep end (looking back, that seems 3 or 4 years after starting to campaign for his Republican race for the Senate in 1946, though it could possibly been in 1944 when McCarthy was a Democrat).
The world changed, though just 24 days later when North Korea invaded South Korea
I think that made it hard to go lightly on any known communists or any painted as even slightly interested, no matter how much their loyalty our country and the rules of democracy outweighed any interest in communism. Robert Oppenheimer is an excellent example (a great reason to pay close attention to the last third of the movie).
In his case, they simply revoked his security clearance as the most effective way to isolate him. We used him and many others because of their benefits to our efforts, knowing well enough about his social and intellectual contacts, as long as they needed him (and people like him), before shutting them out, and to me driving some into supporting our real enemies.
I’d be interested in what really tipped the balance against the best known example of extreme dirty tactics, McCarthy, in 1954. Was some of the less remembered background beyond Joseph Welch’s famous, “Have you no sense of decency..” quote , such as the mistreatment of Oppenheimer, or did the June 8 1954 suicide of Senator Lester C. Hunt have so much more impact with other Senators that the public knew less about?
“…No one associated with the Senate in 1954 would ever forget the trauma of that tragic day. The event influenced a classic work of American political literature, Allen Drury's Senate-based novel Advise and Consent. Working on the book when he learned of Hunt's suicide, Drury changed the plot to have his character, Senator Brigham Anderson, commit suicide in the face of lies about his moral conduct by his tormentor, a thinly disguised Senator McCarthy.
Later in 1954, still reeling from the shock of Hunt's death and McCarthy's brutal tactics, senators voted overwhelmingly to censure the Wisconsin senator. Within three years, chronic alcoholism claimed McCarthy—closing the chapter on this anguished era…”
It makes me see some hope in the poor attendance projected (less than 100) the Republican Retreat at the Greenbriar Resort in West Virginia (about 250 miles south of Wheeling where Joe McCarthy spoke in February and Margaret Chase Smith replied in early June of 1950. Maybe some of them (or those not attending) will consider similar Declarations of Conscience
Senator Margaret Chase Smith. Yes. She was the principal speaker at my graduation from Whittier College in 1965. Also with her? Richard M. Nixon and Bob Hope, who had great fun teasing Nixon who was at that time a private citizen. It looks as though the Senate and the House have "lost their way."
Richard, agreed. They could vote with Ds and do something. Now that they are leaving, they will surely be replaced by someone who is a wing nut MAGA. The party of death has demonstrated its total lack of courage. I did smile at the Lector/liver quote as it does demonstrate how truly awful the House rats are.
I happened to turn on Fox this morning - they had on their ' legal expert ' Gregg Jarett - who went on and on about the document case being just like Biden having documents - that it was a weaponized justice department going after trump for documents he had every right to have, he could declassify and keep anything he wanted etc
He conveniently omitted Butler's new testimony, the fact that the former guy failed to return the doc when asked and did not in fact have the right to any documents - some belonged to the Archives.
So a fox viewer watching knows nothing about what HCR just wrote - what we all have learned by being attentive to the information that is being revealed. This partially helps explain how trump has the support he does. An unedcuated or rather a misinformed consumer is their best customer !
I find it chilling that so many "cave in." There must be profound arm twisting, "kompromat," threats to life and loved ones, et al. I wonder why they don't band together and let the public know what is happening.? What terrifies them? If Trump and his minions have this power, then they all are god-forsaken.
There are several different types of threats: physical, informational (corruption and scandal blackmail), and financial (getting primaried, loss of campaign funds, loss of billionaire backers, lost of RNC support), both of the latter leading to loss of position, power, and wealth. Not sure which is predictably more scary for an American Congressperson.
Suspect the threats tfg is more apt to use today have gradually evolved from the classical NYC real estate mogul type of physical threats and criminal/salacious kompromat (divulging of corruption; hotel and party videos; honey pot porn & underage sex a la epstein), to increasingly include the less risky for tfg but very effective financial bullying of candidates via huge free megaphone given to tfg by msm for ~ last 9 years, and his growing personal control of the RNC, legislature, and judiciary, and a better knowledge of how to wield the reins of power in US government institutions.
As for his greater success controlling republican congress persons, it may be a combo of their greater susceptibility to blackmail (due to their striking hypocritical behaviors vis-a-vis a religious base), their frequency of associating with other compromised and compromising republican dominos, and tfg's growing control of the financial basis of the RNC, not DNC.
The MSM HAS learned a fair bit about being played, but by the very nature of commercial news (and human newspersons), they can't help themselves, and remain major suckers for tfg 's draw: if it bleeds it leads, and with tfg, raw meat is reliably on offer, seasoned liberally with disinformation. Red Meat Disinfotainment for the Foxes.
Surely, tfg has the predator's fine tuned sense for weakness, and the experienced bully's understanding of who can be pushed and with what buttons.
I remember United Flight 93, how the passengers didn’t cave, instead rising to stop the hijackers anyway they could.
We were supposed to fly out of Tampa that beautiful blue sky Tuesday morning but saw all the airplanes landing as we got within 15 minutes of the airport. It took until Friday to get a flight back to California. But we chose to fly 5 more times before the end of the year, ready like many others to do the same if anyone dared try to hijack a flight we were on.
My 78 year old WWII SPAR Veteran mother-in-law wondered if she would be in the way or could help in some way. My Veteran wife and I suggested she could use pillows and blankets to cover movements or pass them on to people to wrap their arms as protection against the things like the box cutters they used as everyone able rushed them. She was fired up and ready to ride as often as we could.
Just wish the members of my old party would respond as willingly against the threats the new powers in the party try to use to keep them in line.
No courage? Perhaps. But, by not opening their mouths and securing a # in the retribution (R) authority disposition list, they are still relatively free to cast their vote any way they feel like it. Just keep your mouth shut and you don't expose those cavities. And, by all means, avoid those who would stick you with some truth serum.
They aren’t thinking about R v D, they & their staff who read their mail are thinking how can they protect their families from the kind of INSANE hammer and chair wielding MAGAt assaults that Trump has incited and continues to ramp up.
The high profile types are already experiencing the survival mode thinking that will soon enough come to all, if MAGAts win the elections.
Already sold. You didn't think the Saudis actually bankrolled Jared to the tune of 2 billion for free, did you. Another of his epic mid-East deals like getting the countries who had no idea of fighting with each other to sign a peace agreement. I use that same brilliant logic to get my cat to eat meat.
Not only docs Trump absconded with, but all the Presidential Act electronic docs the Trump admin hid/deleted on private apps/devices (on official devices they are automatically collected) - and paper docs Trump/ his admin destroyed in full sight and behind the scenes. There were archivists collecting stuff off the floor and out of the garbage and taping them together.
Such briefings would, in a sane world, be treason. But let us suppose that they will feed him inaccurate information and watch for it to pop up overseas.
“His heinous” is a good one, with a double entendre even.
Perhaps they'll ve formatted graphic novel-style, in Comic Sans, with a map of Russia and other countries, along with a caricature of Dark Brandon with glowing eyes saying "RUSSIA IS BAD. KIM JONG UN IS BAD."
He’s not getting them yet. It’s a courtesy extended to the nominee. I suspect they will give him some briefings, but maybe (hopefully) nothing sensitive.
Well, President Biden's immediate predecessor failed to provide the President-elect with that information, so there is precedent for failing to provide information to insure a smooth transition of power.
"Launched by President Harry Truman in 1952, intelligence briefings for presidential nominees are designed to ensure a smooth transition of power and to prepare a prospective commander in chief for office. The briefings are not required by law."
His mind is going. This video provides a clear, compelling explanation. You don't even have to listen to more than 7 minutes to see he's quite demented.
Doug Gagne - "I have long thought, since news of the missing docs came out a few years ago, that trompy would leverage them in some fashion: either to sell them to another country in exchange for money or other assistance (maybe election interference again) or as a Get Out of Jail card here (is that why Garland took so long to name Jack Smith?) . I still believe that he's using them for nefarious purposes one way or the other."
Ron -- I just read it. I haven't opened any of the links provided in the article. I wish he and others would adopt Prof Richardson's style of including references in her Notes section. All the same, if what we are all speculating about is even just partly true, he and co-conspirators should be Rosenberged after a fair trial. Of course that will never happen, but perhaps that's how history will treat him, should the truth ever emerge decades from now.
Didn't think I'd see a reference to Julius & Ethel here, Doug. Ethel Rosenberg in particular was a victim of Cold War hysteria, and her name still reverberates as a tragic example of how Justice can be terribly distorted by inappropriate zeal in high places.
And if I may add a cruel irony, none other than Roy Cohn was involved in the prosecution at some level.
Finally, I would add that the Rosenberg case, viewed through the prism of our current times with a sort of 20/20 hindsight, provides a chilling warning. In 1951, there was real anti-semitism floating in the air, waiting to be charged. Today, the targets are different---the immigrant, the homeless, those of other than heterodox sexual orientation or identity---but the atavistic bloodlust remains, just waiting for match to be struck to tinder
They went to Bedminster, where coincidentally Ivanna, (after ‘falling down some stairs’ —how strangely Putinesque…) was interred in a newly permitted burial plot. Time to do subterranean scoping of this area and possible access tunnels.
I was worried even when he was President that he was leveraging material for blackmail and pressure-/for his business transactions and for self-preservation. Who knows what he is doing with them now? Fortunately he probably doesn’t have the concentration to comprehend complex info himself, but he may have henchmen interpreting for him and the next dictator may be smarter in their corruption than Trump.
Again, the national security issue isn’t the physical documents per se, it is the information on the documents!!
Once the chain of custody has been compromised, all that information sublimates into the internet where it circulates forever, until it is milked of every iota of effective intelligence.
At this point it is likely too late to avert such informational/intelligence harm, and the sole remaining value to finding the documents is to attempt to establish culpability (and if possible prevent further compromises; though not possible if tfg is reelected). They are merely the gun on the floor after the bodies are cold.
The harm to national security is almost surely non-interdictable, and while initiated years ago, it will continue to ripple decades into the future.
But there is no undo for compromised secrets, as all of you know.
Heads will continue to roll. Assets can’t trust US handlers to keep them safe.
America will operate in a comparative dark for a long time, thanks to electing a kleptocratic/mobster.
Trump is a cancer on democracy. His attitude regarding the classified documents is treasonous in my opinion. With the wheels of justice moving frustratingly slow.
I agree with you about the large exit of disgusted republicans. Why not vote their conscience. When they leave, they are leaving openings for more like Greene, Jordan, Gaetz etc. All we can do is hope that the vacancies are filled with more democratic not demoncratic people.
LINDA FORCE: Add a “T” to MAGA [MAGAT] and you get a phonetical of maggot. Why are Republicans so afraid of Trump? I can’t figure this out. Why are they ALL in lock-step with him. Must be cool-aid served at his golf courses.
Because they are cowards. The are afraid he will yell at them or worse that he will turn his goons loose on them. Not a single spine or honor or concern for the fate of the country and the constitution. They rather see the country destroyed rather than fight from within.
He's tapped into the underlying fanaticism in the Republican Party. Putting Trump and MAGA in charge (oh they took charge) may be the political equivalent of Jonesville "cool aid". Election 2024 will show how much damage is incurred. With so much party gerrymandering, I'm afraid though a lot of the "same faces" and more may show up next Congress, hopefully with Dems holding more political power. USA needs them! God knows what American international political reputation will then be.
I thought of that, too, they're leaving politics instead of staying and fighting because they are afraid of TFFG's base and fear for their lives and safety.
Well, that's certainly stirs some graphic images, a completely out-of-control ride. To be sure, it's apt in this case - a 2nd Trump presidency could spell doom for the republic. I never cease to be amazed and dumbfounded as to how such a low life could in fact wield such power and influence when everyone knows what a completely flawed person TFFG is. Where does the repair start?
You know the answer. It's the penitent's prayer. "It starts with me," or something of that sort.
You know the drill. Recruit, train, and field volunteer canvassers and good, reliable candidates -- local, state, and federal. Make a whole bunch of phone calls between now and November. Get your friends and acquaintances on board. Look for opportunities at your local-level Democratic Party offices.
What is that old labor cry? "Don't mourn -- organize!"
Representative Matt "Firebrand" Gaetz may have just handed us a gift.
I don't think there is any rule that says that one must rescue one's opponent when he falls into the trap of his own making. Of course, we can always sympathize later with the poor SOB who runs the ball into his own goal.
Oh but to get Lauren to quit is worth it. You didn't actually think that when they were quitting their responsibility that they would suddenly develop spine and morals and do the right thing. Nope, gutless but they WILL take credit in their area for all the good things Joe and the dems did in the last 4 years.
I had two dogs, a springer, and lab and both loved the water. I would throw a stick out into the pond, and the lab would leap in, swim out a good distance, grab the stick and swim back. Half way back the springer would swim out, grab the stick and bring it the rest of the way. I suppose this could be considered a doggie relay, but I see it as one dog doing all the work and another getting the credit. Infrastructure bill comes to mind.
Buck just did a bit of a barn burning the other day announcing his immediate departure without so much as pre-advising Johnson. Right wing Liz Cheney was forced out, having participated in the Jan 6 investigation, and been at it ever since. 30% of Republicans may be shed their voting preferences for this round. There is likely a pay off for Dems and Biden in all this.
Karen, how many times have you heard of the threats endured by those speaking against trump? Trump is basically a mobster and his “family” (like the “tourists” visiting the capitol building) will take care of any opposition.
Regarding the mobster aspect, in The Godfather there is a scene where the don says take care of it. He doesn't say kill anyone or rough them up-just take care of it. His henchmen know what he means. The don could say that he never said to kill anyone. Same with trump. He never really said the word riot but he sure implied it and his followers thought they knew what he wanted done.
People keep saying his bloodbath was taken out of context. Maybe so, but I have never heard of people losing jobs because of out sourcing being called a bloodbath. Getting a pink slip doesn't equate to that. Trump likes to use violent terms, execute Millie, shoot looters, send military to round up vermin (WWII concentration image?)Fight, Fight, Fight. Didn't he mention violence if he didn't win?
I can't rule it out. At least that some of the information arrived there in some form. Trump has repeatedly shown more respect for foreign tyrants than for his own country or its Constitution.
This is the virtual age, everyone! It makes NO difference where the physical documents are, once you have lost control of the chain of custody for long enough for a document to be photographed!
At the time I would have considered all those documents probably compromised as soon as tfg had unsupervised access. But once he attempted a coup, there’s no ‘probably’ left.
I am sure that every such document was compromised and I am sure that heads of our assets continue to roll.
You make a good point, except it merely leads to another mystery. If Trump was keeping the documents in order to sell their contents, why, in this virtual age, didn't he simply copy the docs, then return them with a smile? He's a treasonous, demented packrat, hoarding everything in reach...
Good question, Dirk, a couple glib answers come to mind, such as: “he’s not clever enough to know his own best self interest, when tag-teamed by his ego and narcissism”, et c. But on reflection I expect 1) he played loose with confidential documents all his presidency (be interesting to see i) a timeline of the date stamps of these documents, & ii) the associated topics) and 2) didn’t trust the people who supported his devices not to turn him in for treason.
(But expect & hope some daring and ambitious counter intelligence officer made sure some of these documents were seasoned with subtle tracer facts and misinformation.)
Thanks for adding to what already seems like an old comment and I like your observations. I think you're correct on both points, most especially in that he "played fast and loose" with his entire presidency, apparently by not knowing or wanting to know how it was supposed to work. His motivations may be very simple -- he recognized that the documents were a portable asset, and his entire life has been about acquiring and hoarding assets. He may well have little idea of what to do with them, except maybe sell them, and even then he probably doesn't have much idea what they're worth or how to deliver them.
They're petrified. Both physically for their families; and financially. That's why they won't call out the outrageous undemocratic leanings of Trump and his cabal of advisors.
RE: Republicans resigning and not seeking re-election, how curious it is they aren't standing up for the country against Trump. Exactly.
The real problem is even these so-called Moderates would vote for Trump as our Hitler any day of the week, and always will. They are only resigning now, sulking, because they know it went too far--their masks were ripped off by a desperate Trump as he fights off all these lawsuits--and they realize they'll be out of power next year. They own this, every last bit of the mess.
I will never forgive the Republican Party for their craven cowardice and greed. Never. I blame them even more than Trump. He's the symptom, they are the virus. Until we clean the system out of these Wanna-Be authoritarians who pretend to be patriots we will struggle as a country.
Yes. I have been wondering what Trump traded to get his bond covered, and to whom. It is quite scary given how aggressive Putin is, to think of him selling him or any one of a number of enemies of the state our secrets. If it is found that he has done that he should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
According to CNN “Butler told CNN how he unknowingly helped Nauta deliver boxes of classified information from Mar-a-Lago to the former president’s plane in June 2022 – the same day that Trump and his attorney were meeting with the Justice Department at Mar-a-Lago about the classified documents.” June 2022. Ivan’s Trump mysteriously falls down her stairs and dies July 14, 2022. The ex-wife is buried at Bedminster Golf Club. Yeah, that’s normal. I agree the doc were probably photographed. But the physical copies?…………I bet they sleep with Ivana.
Ivana's ashes are probably with daughter Ivanka. And it was all a ruse to bury the documents where it can't be exposed without public outrage about digging up a so-called burial site. Clever, but sick.
I've read that one faction wanted to do a comprehensive raid on all his properties but they were blocked by Republicans and Trump loyalists within the agency and the DOJ.
Not anymore. Since Don didn't have the money to pay E. Jean, that airplane was Seized to be sold and was stored in that same warehouse in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Good luck finding it.
Really? TRULY? I've always loathed that plane. A clumsy metal cylinder lumbering through the sky with his name on it in huge letters. He's still taking short rides in a convoy of armored cars, though.
Dirk, watching The Godfather movie recently, I was struck by the actions of the people he granted favors to and the persons who were part of his organization. The actions that he requested started out small, relatively inconsequential, and slowly became more illegal (the boiling frog analogy). The first punishment for not being sufficiently “loyal” to 45 is being primaried by a person deemed more compliant. If you survive the primary, then you and your family are publicly called out as a threat to 45, with the resultant death threats to you and your family. It’s a wonder that any Republicans run for national office. Look what happened to compliant Mike Pence.
Progwoman, to me, his actions are similar to those of the people who volunteered to go fight the Crusades. They knew that they had a good chance to be killed, but believed that their actions would advance the cause of Christianity.
He thought his undying fealty to Traitor would position him to become President. When will people wake up to the fact that no one is safe in Traitor's orbit? No one. Now even the RNC is being unceremoniously destroyed and the employees replaced by loyalists. Will that wake up and shake up their world enough to vote blue? Hoping, but think not.
Why isn’t Trump in jail?? He is obviously a security risk. He is also promising and already gives aid to Russia, a country we are essentially at war with. His followers are already attacking election workers and actively trying to intimidate voters. Yet, he gets everything he wants from the courts, even though he constantly attacks them. The kid in MA who released documents went right to jail.
Due process must be followed especially when the accused is a nominee for president. The “kid” who leaked the documents went to prison after his rights were protected by due process. If we don’t follow the rule law and throw people in prison we do what Orange Menace wants to do. We descend into the realm of dictators ourselves.
There is a different due process for those who can raise tens of millions of dollars to file really bogus appeals in order to delay justice, or avoid it completely. There is a different due process when member of the Supreme Court and other members of the courts who seem to owe loyalty to the accused. There seems to be a different due process when the wife of a Supreme Court justice has been totally supportive of an effort to overthrow a settled election. There is something called Equal justice before the Law! This is not happening.
Write letters to your local newspaper. Demand they publish the true unbiased news not the constant barrage of right wing propaganda. Reading the news or watching it on TV, one gets the impression that a savior is running against a doddering old socialist or president.
I’m so happy that the Democrats are finally pushing back.
I wish Garland had been less cautious and quicker with the investigations and indictments.
But you can see what happens when the indictment is sloppy. It’s thrown out by the judge as in the Giorgia case where three counts were thrown out. (In federal court this could have been modified but not in Geargia law)
Let's see if Fanni Willis can keep her job and get the trial up and running. She is allowed to modify the charges to fit the law, but it really isn't necessary.
That’s using the law to abuse and corrupt. Of course if you have money you can protect yourself better.
Don’t forget that the voters voted these people into office. They then appointed unqualified and corruptible judges. We must unite and get out the vote to make changes. We must start at the local level
I have wondered the same thing about those boxes of missing documents. It’s not a stretch of the imagination to learn they are in Putin’s hands. In return for a goodly sum of money and promises to support his candidacy. Sounds like appropriate front page news doesn’t it? Headline: Where are our Classified Documents, Mr. Trump?!?
I've read recently that Jack Smith is pushing so hard on the Trump stolen documents case because he has solid proof that Trump has sold highly sensitive, top-secret documents to foreign entities. He knows he has a case.
"In 2020 there were plenty of red flags around Trump’s plans for a second term."
* In 2016 & 2020 there were plenty of red flags around Trump’s plans. Still are. Figuratively and literally.
"I still think it's so weird that these supposedly disgusted Republicans who are resigning or not seeking re-election, preferring to "eat their own livers," aren't simply voting with the Democrats to end this mess. "
*I still think it's so weird that these Republicans, Moderates, Progressives, Independents supposedly disgusted with Trump aren't simply voting with the Democrats to end this mess. Hint: the differences between the candidates/parties are more significant than any similarities.
You are much more thoughtful than I was in my response to the current crop of "I give up" RepulbiKans. I am a member of the crowd that believes that some of those documents that are from said banker's box that left Merde a Lardo are buried on the first green at Bedminster.
I can not criticize Representative Buck, Senator Sasse, and others who threw up their arms and walked away. I exited the G.O.P. in 2018 when Justice Kavanaugh was confirmed. I think people like Representative Gallagher, Senator Flake, et many al. have decided to step back and let the fascist demagogy burn out with the implosion of the G.O.P.
🫣
As Trump drumpfs the G.O.P., these men and women remain ready to step back in and re-build the Party, though others who have stuck it out as good Republicans (e.g., Senator Murkowski). These latter Republicans may resent those who left only to invoke their right-of-return. Whatever happens, we all know that urgent electoral and campaign finance reforms are required.
To summarize, the Biden/Harris Cabinet is defined by intelligent, experienced, capable people with established careers in public service. From Dr. Janet Yellin to Dr. Miguel Cardoza, to Pete Buttigieg -these are people that are leading through vision and integrity.
The former Trump/Pence Cabinet is defined by corruption, a lack of ethics, and incompetence. Betsy DeVos -who thrives on student loan debt and interest payments like a vampire thrives on blood. Rick Perry -who struggled to remember three things at once. Wilbur Ross and his nefarious self-enrichment dealings with Putin. Ryan Zinke and Halliburton. Bill Barr "the Cover-Up General." The Trump Cabinet was a criminal organization, not a team of people dedicated to improving the life of the average American. Aside from self-enrichment, most of the agency heads despised the agency they were tasked to lead.
The difference in leadership is stunning -and I don't know if many are talking about it. It's not just the President/VP -it is the entire team that is important.
You know it is bad when Barr, a trump shoe licker (until he said something disagreeable) suggests that security? meetings which trump is now allowed to attend not include everything. Personally, I think he should be excluded. He thought it as a good thing to do to Biden.
There is no law requiring that Guilty Donald be given the president's daily updates or other classified materials prior to the election. That's always and ONLY been a courtesy.
Given that he's been indcted for mishandling documents and removing them from the secured areas they were required to be, and then hidng them after he was asked to return them, it would be the height of foolishness to consider him a safe risk. Give him the children's entertainment placemat from a Bob's Big Boy instead - he won't know the difference.
If it is a rule, it has to be one of the most stupid rules ever. Give updates to a person like trump who is vindicative, and he loses? We know how he behaves when he loses.
So true Karen. I'd like to see the DOJ force Trump to register as a foreign agent. (Of course, there are many more things I'd like to see AG Garland and the DOJ do -but they aren't conferring with me).
Garland is playing a form of Neville Chamberlain role. Playing the nice guy, don't rock the boat, doesn't want to seem partisan. Now all of these court trials will most likely continue beyond the election, and trump will pardon himself and his merry men. Trying to be bipartisan and assigning Hur to determine Biden's culpability obviously was a fail of gigantic proportions.
Obviously, now that Mr Trump has secured the Revanchist-Confederate (formerly Republican) nomination, declaring him to be a foreign agent is a mite awkward, but it is certainly an open question.
Trump should be barred from security briefings at least until the trial regarding stolen classified documents is over - providing there is a "not guilty" verdict. There is also the matter of yet more documents loaded on to a plane bound for points unknown. The mystery of what they contained and where they are also should be addressed before DT is allowed any more access to secure material. Setting these conditions may provide DT and his lawyers some incentive to stop dragging their feet, and stop holding our nation's security hostage.
Something wrong with an insurrectionist leader, voter suppression and voter fraud in 2020, on top of the national secrets he refused to return...He should not be allowed to run for anything to do with our government. Where is the anger in our country? TFG should not have Secret Service paid for by our taxes! He is trying to destroy us. He and his maga party are dangerous, anti-democracy traitors to America and need to be detained until all trials are over. Serious losses of citizenship should be considered for anti-American behaviors. TFG is a dangerous man and should be detained immediately for crimes against his country. WTF.
Pensa, the people who support fpotus believe he is their Messiah. I don't see any other way to explain why my normal (I thought) friends are behind him 100%. Believing in an imaginary sky pilot sets the stage for believing that "he and only he" can "save" the country.
My FBF living in SC and I haven't talked in years because of trump. I finally called her in relation to a possible scam on her brother's email address. her last words (after a really nice catch up conversation) was no politics. I guess she is officially a trumper.
Well, as a therapist who studied cults and Hitler most of my life, I can honestly say that brainwashing (neurolinguistic programming) is a dangerous tool and can be used to help people get over addictions and through difficult mental health issues. When used negatively, it can lead people to commit atrocities like Charles Manson, Mussolini, Hitler, Koresh. The only way to help those who are able to be helped is to stop the propaganda messaging. Why allow trump, fox, bannon, etc. to continually gaslight our people? Lies and propaganda are authoritarian tactics and I would think our government would have stopped this long ago. It is the dark shadow of freedom of speech. To have it requires tolerance and trust in others. We have a problem.
"The Trump Cabinet was a criminal organization, not a team of people dedicated to improving the life of the average American. Aside from self-enrichment, most of the agency heads despised the agency they were tasked to lead." Yes, George, and the next one will be so much worse. Thank you for the excellent analysis. Shared.
“What’s concerning to legal experts are the special powers that would be available to Trump that have been available to all recent presidents but have not typically been used. Should Trump decide to go full authoritarian, he could utilize what are called “emergency powers” to shut down the internet in certain areas, censor the internet, freeze people’s bank accounts, restrict transportation, and more.
Utilizing laws like the National Emergencies Act, the Communications Act of 1934, and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), he would be able to wield power in ways this country has never seen.”
'Democrats are taking third-party threats seriously this time'
'Analysis by Leigh Ann Caldwell and Theodoric Meyer with research by Tobi Raji'
March 14, 2024 at 6:21 a.m. EDT
'The campaign'
'The presidential race is official, with President Biden and former president Donald Trump clinching their parties’ nominations Tuesday'.
'But this year, Democrats are clear: They do not want a rerun of 2016, when third-party candidates got millions of votes, leading many political observers to say even today that those votes helped Trump defeat Hillary Clinton. '
'This time, Democrats are prepared. The Biden campaign and the political apparatus hoping to defeat Trump are taking third-party candidates seriously — a stark difference from the Democratic Party in 2016.'
'Before the third-party candidates get on a significant number of state ballots (and before some candidates are even set), Democrats have started to organize:'
'The Democratic National Committee has a dedicated staff, including veteran strategist Lis Smith, working to defeat third-party candidates. They have filed complaints about alleged violations of campaign law by the super PAC American Values 2024, which is backing independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to the Federal Election Commission.'
'In a memo provided exclusively to The Early, center-left think tank Third Way, which opposes a Trump presidency, debunked moderate group No Labels’ claim that its prospective' “unity ticket” will drop out if it appears the bid would benefit Trump, calling the group’s “off-ramp” a “fantasy.”
'Third Way has filed complaints to secretaries of state about the super PAC backing Kennedy.
American Bridge, the Democratic opposition research group, is tracking third-party candidates closely.'
“Allies of President Biden have formed a super PAC called Clear Choice, aimed stopping any third-party or independent candidates from gaining traction before the November election,” our colleague Michael Scherer reports this morning.'
“We’re expecting a close election in 2024, and we are going to be prepared for every contingency,” DNC spokesman Matt Corridoni said. “This includes making sure independent and third-party candidates play by the rules.”
'The case against a third party'
'The third-party candidates this cycle could be numerous and their impact significant.'
'Kennedy is set to announce his running mate in the coming days, and he’s spoken with football player Aaron Rogers and former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura, our colleague Michael reports.'
'Meanwhile, No Labels will appoint a panel today to discuss its presidential ticket, Michael reports.'
'While the group has had trouble finding a nominee after most high-profile politicians have declined, relatively low-profile Georgia Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan is reportedly in talks to be the candidate.'
'Princeton University professor Cornel West could run, and so could repeat Green Party candidate Jill Stein in the general.'
'In an election where voters are dreading a rematch from 2020, voters might be more inclined to at least be third-party curious.'
“History suggests disaffected voters gravitate back toward the main two party candidates, but we’ve never had two party candidates that are this unpopular where their negatives are higher than the positives for both of them,” Republican pollster Whit Ayres said. “It would not be surprising to see a larger proportion of voters pick somebody other than the two major candidates.”
'While it’s unclear where third-party voters will come from at this point, Democrats are worried that they might be potential Biden voters.'
“I think you’ll see a much more concerted effort about who these people are and why they should be avoided,” 'said Matt Bennett, co-founder of Third Way.'
'A repeat of 2016?'
'In 2016, the third-party spoiler moniker was real. '
'Trump beat Hillary Clinton in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, the three closest swing states that determined the election, by just 67,000 votes total. Libertarian Gary Johnson and the Green Party’s Stein received more than half a million votes among those three states. '
'In 2020, Biden won narrowly when there were no major third-party options. That year, the third-party candidates didn’t garner a significant amount of the vote.'
'Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans worry that third parties will take potential Biden voters. Those voters could be critical, as Biden pulled disaffected Trump voters for his narrow victory in 2020.'
“In 2020, if you were a Republican who refused to support Trump, you didn’t have another choice,” 'said Marc Short, top adviser to former vice president Mike Pence.'
'Kennedy'
'Kennedy’s national polling is sitting in the mid-teens, extraordinarily high for a third-party candidate. He entered the Democratic primary but switched to run as an independent in the general election. He has also toyed with running on the Libertarian party ticket.'
'Political observers say he’s polling high now because voters know the Kennedy name but know little about him, including his anti-vaccine platform and embrace of conspiracy theories.'
'On the surface, it might seem like Kennedy would take votes from Trump, but Democrats fret that he’ll eventually also hurt Biden. One top donor to Kennedy’s super PAC, Timothy Mellon, who has given at least $20 million per FEC filings, is also a major Trump donor.'
'As the New York Times wrote after holding a focus group with disaffected Trump voters', “the Kennedy factor in this election should be taken pretty seriously in the swing states where he’s likely to make the ballot this fall.” (WAPO)
Thank you for sharing Fern. Many were warned in 2016 that it was less about the President, it was more about the Supreme Court. While there were numerous issues that negatively impacted Hillary's campaign, high-profile entertainers supporting Jill Stein, coupled with the delay of Bernie Sanders in accepting Hillary as the nominee, and advocating for her were among key factors.
In 2016 I was very clear about what a Trump administration would mean to the United States, (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/resigning-from-oracle-george-a-polisner/) and his reign was worse than I could imagine. Attempting to extort allies, abandoning the Kurds, and Trump's misplaced devotion to foreign adversaries -who simply played to Trump's ego -was not on my list of possible horrors. Knowing what we've learned from his rise, if Jill Stein had any meaningful concern about climate, Women's rights, justice, equity, and democracy, she would gracefully tell the Green Party that they have an important future in American Politics, but at present -this is all hands on deck -you believe in democracy -or your don't. I'm less concerned about RFK Jr. -from a strategy perspective -sharing his dangerous ignorance will be key -however, now, with many more willfully ignorant -believing that a vaccination is actually a GPS tracking chip (or whatever nonsense they believe because some guy on the internet said ... or the brilliant research scientist (and football player!) Aaron Rodgers said ...) the likelihood of Jr. succumbing to an easily preventable childhood disease is rather high.
Finally -the Democratic Party needs to invest beyond electoral science. They need to understand that you cannot abandon rural areas, or bright red areas. You must field and support candidates everywhere and challenge everything. Failure to do so will grow each of those districts like cancers in the election system -there's no one to counter fraudulent ideas like "Trickle down" or climate denial, or an array of garbage vomited out by an idiot like Boebert, Gaetz, Jordan, or Comer -because there's no one to counter their stupidity which they happily spread to all of their constituents.
The "Greens" are less a party than a form of civic vandalism, popping up every four years to monkey-wrench presidential elections without ever having elected even a single Congressional Representative. Kirsten Sinema started her political career as a Green and look how that has ended up. She was merely a tool of the super-wealthy and the Republicans and so is Jill Stein or anyone else they dub as their flag-bearer.
Should we ever implement ranked choice voting, they could become more effective. That really should have been their core effort -while pushing the Democratic Party Progressive Caucus and supporting them. Without ranked choice voting -while I don't accept they are completely responsible for "W" or for Trumputin -they were a factor -most visible now at SCOTUS. (oh -and anytime I see Sinema's name -I throw up a little -so thanks for that! :)
I too think ranked choice voting is a much needed reform. Unfortunately, it has about as much of a chance of being implemented nation wide as the Washington Generals did against the Harlem Globetrotters.
The Electoral College has long been the rotting appendix within our Body Politic. It is an anachronistic drag upon the People's will, without question.
I would say however, that we need to be careful about stirring up too much animosity towards third party candidates, irrespective of how nutty and/or annoying some of them may be. We cannot and should not presume the two Party duopoly came down from Mt. Sinai with Charlton Heston, as it assuredly did not.
Finally, the HRC analogy is a poor one. She lost due to a combination of outside forces (Comey, Putin, etc.) along with her own fairly dunderheaded campaign based upon her presumed inevitability. Her weaknesses as a candidate were previously exposed by the Kenyan/Moslem/Socialist in the 2008 campaign, and again by Sanders (who arguably would have beaten Trump) in the 2016 campaign.
George, it was enlightening to read some of your LinkedIn history. Kudos. I agree with you: keeping the oddball third-party jokers from taking Biden votes is key.
Thanks James. Someday -if we still are aspiring toward a meaningful democracy, we will have entered into a National Popular Vote Compact among states to render Electoral College as obsolete as the slavery it was designed to protect, eliminated gerrymandering and voter suppression, and can then think about ranked choice voting -which would actually help break the two party (Democrats and Putin/Trump/MAGA) stranglehold on the system.
That won't help with the even greater distortion of the US majority will that constitutes the US Senate, where the majorities of the less than 20 percent of US citizens in the least populist 26 states -- so 10 percent of the US electorate -- have a stranglehold on the actual national majority (even before the effect of the rampant use of the "filibuster" allows a mere 1/3 of the Senators to stymie the national will). And it would require the approval of 38 states to amend the Constitution to change this (sure, that has a chance to happen). The brilliant, perceptive "Founders" -- pah!
Interestingly a national popular vote compact is an agreement between states to cast their electoral votes based upon popular vote totals. If enough states (representing the total electoral votes needed to win) join the compact it offers a workaround to the necessary Constitutional amendment.
I'm afraid the unicorn* voters will cost us our country.
*unicorn voters: Those who want perfection and purity in their party's platform, and are stunned when those ideals are not represented and either refuse to vote or vote third party.
Ally, without a doubt, you'll do your best. I try not to focus on the folks who aren't engaged, except to engage them and those engaged in what they think is in their self-interest to the ruin of the people, our country, beyond the borders and earth itself.
But the good news about the civil service is that tRUMP knows so little about DC and how/where things are and how they work that after he was elected, nothing changed at State and other offices as he and his appointees had no clue as to even where the offices were. People at State waited for tRUMP people to come replace them but .. ..crickets. No one showed as they were and this time will be even more clueless. Ladt time, he at least appointed some DC regulars but they weren't loyal enough. Anybody appointed this time will be so clueless about DC and government, they will relieve themselves on the floor as they won't be able to find the bathroom. You think he stinks.
This time the Project 2025 creators have a minute-by-minute plan for dismantling the civil service system, and any other safeguards, beginning on Day One. These are professional anarchists out for gold and power.
There were tears in the offices of DOJ when T**** was elected. I suspect that, this time around, should the unthinkable happen, those tears will be angry tears, and the rank-and-file will actively resist any intrusion by his minions. The resistance won't be subtle like last time.
100% this. Last time, there were more “Team Normal” Republicans that were pumping the brakes to Crazy Don’s free-wheeling schemes. There will be no John Kelley’s in the room this time … and DEFINITELY more operational people to push things like Project 2025.
It really boggles my mind about how little attention is paid to the differences when there is a comparison of the team around the president. Someone attached a link yesterday (I thought I bookmarked it but I cannot find it) comparing the teams surrounding the 45th and 46th Presidents. It was stunning.
I have the same issue; I'm often on my phone, and scrolling on that screen is challenging, not to mention the platform.
I'm getting an iPad for my birthday this month (I really want to have a score reader instead of 4 music folders, two of which are large binders) and look forward to easier perusal of LFAA when I am traveling.
I love my iPad. I use it more than my computer, but not ever for music editing. My husband uses his for his music - guitar tabs in his case. I hope you like yours! It’s a great birthday present.
I wonder if President Biden can resort to using the emergency powers which are meant to give presidents extraordinary authorities for use in extraordinary circumstances. America is obviously under a concerted attack to destroy democracy.
The ‘Emergency Powers’ Risk of a Second Trump Presidency | WIRED
What’s concerning to legal experts are the special powers that would be available to Trump that have been available to all recent presidents but have not typically been used. Should Trump decide to go full authoritarian, he could utilize what are called “emergency powers” to shut down the internet in certain areas, censor the internet, freeze people’s bank accounts, restrict transportation, and more.
Utilizing laws like the National Emergencies Act, the Communications Act of 1934, and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), he would be able to wield power in ways this country has never seen.
“There really aren’t emergency powers relating to surveillance, and that’s because the non-emergency powers are so powerful and give such broad authority to the executive branch. They just don’t need emergency powers for that purpose,” says Elizabeth Goitein, senior director of the Brennan Center for Justice’s Liberty & National Security Program at the New York University School of Law. Goitein says she worries most about what a president could do with the emergency powers available to them, though, when she considers whether a president might decide to behave like an authoritarian. She says the laws surrounding these powers offer few opportunities for another branch of government to stop a president from doing as they please. “Emergency powers are meant to give presidents extraordinary authorities for use in extraordinary circumstances. Because they provide these very potent authorities, it is critical that they have checks and balances built into them and safeguards against abuse,” Goitein says. “The problem with our current emergency powers system—and that system comprises a lot of different laws—is that it really lacks those checks and balances.”
It is an excellent thought Kristin. One thing that should be quite clear at present is that the criminal Trump will avail himself of any law or act, regardless of situational validity or legality, to accomplish whatever his self-enriching agenda is at the time.
While we would all likely characterize the present day as an extraordinary time (a criminal is now the head of a major political party, the House is controlled by MAGA zealot and a small crew of incompetent lunatics, the Supreme Court is stacked with partisans who feel unconstrained to adhere to any ethical standards, precedent (other than opinions and decisions dating back to the Witch trials), and at least 13 U.S. Senators attempted to participate as accomplices to Trump crimes and/or accessories after the fact by opposing the 2020 Electoral College (which is problematic in and of itself), and the continuing influence of foreign adversaries in our election process.
While I would like to see Trump -and the Trumputin MAGA party expelled and precluded from holding any public office -whether Federal, State, City, Local, or Homeowners Association (ie.- Scott Perry, Paul Gosar, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Jim Jordan, Gaetz, Comer, etc.), and then adding 4 Supreme Court Justices, passing strict ethical guidelines for SCOTUS that apply retroactively, etc. -just as we see the Trumputin/MAGA controlled House launching investigation after investigation without a basis in fact, evidence, or reliable witnesses, any future President could simply invoke emergency powers and effectively disenfranchise voters and destroy any thought of justice, democracy, and equity. What would prevent them from doing so, especially if there already was what they would declare -an ambiguous event or set of events to invoke it?
I am with Elizabeth Goitein -there needs to be serious safeguards to prevent abuse. We've already witnessed that the checks and balances of the American system were unable to prevent Trump's actions at the end of his term -and have failed justice thus far -he hasn't spent a day in prison.
Unfortunately our present "checks and balances" are as useful as taking our shoes off at airports -checks and balances provide a limited perception of protection of the American system but have been rendered fragile and ineffective -buried under the weight of dark money by corrupt justices and elected officials.
To develop the theme of the two teams: it continues to seem to me that Trump is actually "governing" in an UN-elected way, using a populist operating system to demand loyalty, sow havoc and block progress. At the same time Biden's team uses a democratic operating system to serve the citizens
Thanks Alan. Many years ago I wrote a piece comparing the (then) GOP to a mainframe, hierarchical. Liberal progressives were like a massively parallel compute system (without a communications and coordination bus). Silo’d, doing great work, but not collaborating and thus marginalized.
In the context of Dems really serving American needs, Heather shows MAGA descent into madness.
Funny thing is, the millions embracing the madness all seem cheery, as if it's their free choice.
The rich, all the dark money billionaires, see themselves as more free, as if more money gives more choices – energizing, motivating more passion.
Orwell long ago showed, however, how the feelings of choice for many are chimerical. As he patiently explained in "Politics and the English Language," when one sinks to cliché, slogans, hackneyed phrases, group abstractions and labels, one inevitably by that anesthetizes, blinds oneself.
Our billionaires cannot see how they have upped suffering, grown the wealth gap, enabled murderers such as Putin, Saudi royals, Kim, Xi, Erdogan, Assad, the ayatollahs, Hamas, and Netanyahu, and spread the nationalist hatreds of Orban, Fico, Modi, Sisi, and all Trump MAGA.
1st Q: how might it affect them if our billionaires knew even one of our humanities from films like “The Florida Project” and “Winter’s Bone”; novels like Barbara Kingsolver’s “Demon Copperhead,” Walter Mosley’s “Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned,” and many by Richard Russo and Stephen King; memoirs like Mary Karr’s “The Liars’ Club” and Erin Gruwell’s “The Freedom Writers Diary,” and any number of hip hop Ari Melber will cite?
2nd Q: what does it do us – to democracy – if our schools have gutted all that?
Billionaires may vary. Soros is something of a traitor to the ruling class, and they despise him for it. But malignant narcissism abounds in the ranks of Billionaires, and some of that is in plain sight. The "Republican" project since Reagan has been to kill the republic and pump plutocracy, and we have headed a long way in that direction since then. Now they want complete regime change.
We think, we sense, we imagine, we reflect, we feel, we learn to empathize, we experience, THEREFORE; we are. Humanities are part of the essential process of understanding and communication by which we are human. The hint's right in the label.
In 1987, J L, George Soros gave me a plane ticket and $2000 to go to Budapest, Hungary.
The ticket was round-trip, and the money covered a year's study learning Hungarian. For living expenses, Soros' people said hey, you're an American -- you'll be super popular and can teach English.
Correct he was, they were. Forever grateful, me (maybe as grateful as was your daughter in learning Japanese, going there -- or, rather, coming here?).
“Donald Trump is a threat to our democracy and our fundamental freedoms. He is proud of his role in overturning Roe, and has talked openly about plans for a nationwide abortion ban. He routinely praises authoritarian leaders and has himself vowed to be a dictator on Day One. Just this week, he said that cuts to Social Security and Medicare would be on the table if he receives a second term. Each of these stances ought to be considered disqualifying by itself; taken together, they reveal the former President to be an existential danger to our country.
“With his State of the Union speech last week, President Biden passionately presented our alternative vision. We will reduce costs for families, make housing more affordable, and raise the minimum wage. We will restore Roe, protect voting rights, and finally address our gun violence epidemic. The American people overwhelmingly support this agenda over Donald Trump’s extreme ideas, and that will propel our campaign in the months ahead.”
___ Kamala Harris
Vice President of the United States
'This is National Women's History Month. It honors the successes and sacrifices of U.S. women. It dates to March 8, 1857, when hundreds of women from New York City garment and textile factories rallied to protest harsh working conditions.'
‘The National Women’s History Month’s theme for 2024 celebrates “Women Who Advocate for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.” The theme recognizes women throughout the country who understand that, for a positive future, we need to eliminate bias and discrimination entirely from our lives and institutions.’
‘Women from every background have long realized that an uneven playing field will never bring equality or justice. Many feel the critical need to speak up and work harder for fairness in our institutions and social interactions.
During 2024, we recognize the example of women who are committed to embracing everyone and excluding no one in our common quest for freedom and opportunity. They know that people change with the help of families, teachers and friends, and that young people in particular need to learn the value of hearing from different voices with different points of view as they grow up.' (National Women’s History Alliance)
As we work together toward fair and free elections and bring the strong Blue Wave home, we have many models to learn from. Here is one of them.
‘Dorie Ladner, dauntless civil rights activist, dies at 81’
‘She joined the civil rights movement as a teenager in Mississippi, braving gunfire, tear gas, police dogs and Ku Klux Klansmen in the campaign for racial equality’
Dorie Ladner was 11 months younger than Emmett Till, an African American who was 14 when he was lynched in the Mississippi Delta in 1955, his mutilated body tethered with barbed wire to a cotton gin fan and submerged in the Tallahatchie River.
For their entire lives, Ms. Ladner and her sister, her junior by a year, had endured the indignities of life as African Americans in the Jim Crow South — the rides in the back of the bus, the restrooms and drinking fountains for Black people only, the segregated schools, the secondhand textbooks passed down by White students.
But with Till’s death, “I was enraged, but I did not know what to do with that anger,” Dorie Ladner told an interviewer years later. “His murder made me aware of my Blackness.”
On the encouragement of activists including Vernon Dahmer Sr., a family friend and local NAACP leader who would later be killed in a KKK firebombing of his home, Dorie and Joyce Ladner joined a youth chapter of the NAACP in Hattiesburg, Miss., in 1959, when they were in high school.
As students at Tougaloo College, a historically Black school in Jackson, Miss., the Ladner sisters joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, widely known as SNCC, which became a principal organizer of the civil rights movement.
Having decided that she couldn’t stay in school and “know my people are suffering,” Dorie Ladner dropped out of Tougaloo and for much of the 1960s devoted herself full-time to her activism.
“The line was drawn in the sand for Blacks and for Whites,” she said years later in an interview with PBS’s “American Experience.” “And was I going to stay on the other side of the line forever? No. I decided to cross that line. I jumped over that line and started fighting.”
At a time when Mississippi was one of the most dangerous places in the South for African Americans and civil rights workers, Ms. Ladner joined and led marches and sit-ins, mounted voter registration drives, and helped organize events including the 1963 March on Washington.
She traveled widely, encouraging Black people around the country to embrace their right to vote. She told one crowd in St. Louis that anyone who did not vote “should hang your head in shame,” explaining that in the South, “we have been shot at, beaten, cut and jailed for just trying to register to vote.”
“I gathered any courage I could from both Dorie and Joyce for being in Mississippi,” said Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), who worked there alongside the sisters as an SNCC activist. “They were fearless at a time when it was often that you took your life in your own hands to be in that state. It was they who encouraged me to come, and who encouraged me while I was there.”
The sit-in movement had been touched off on Feb. 1, 1960, when four Black college students sat down at a White-only lunch counter at an F.W. Woolworth five-and-dime store in downtown Greensboro, N.C. In Mississippi, where a more virulent strain of racism prevailed, many activists regarded sit-ins as too dangerous.
But “Dorie was a doer,” recalled Freddie Greene Biddle, a fellow SNCC activist in Mississippi. “There was nothing that Dorie wouldn’t do. She went into all the areas that were tough and hard to be in. She was out front.” (WAPO) See gifted link below.
Thank you Fern. I subscribe to WaPo but would have missed this obituary. What a leader and great person Dorie Ladner was. We should all (black, white, Asian, LGBTQ, etc., etc.) strive to be like her.
This is the chilling Frank Zappa quote that I've always remembered, and now with the Trumpian takeover of the RNC it is probably exactly what the Republican Party will do at their upcoming fascist convention:
“The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater.”
The Regressives are drunk on power as well as $$$$$. What I am unable to understand is WHY the retiring Congresscritters and Senators are so beholden to TFFG?
They've already given up.
And who made the deal to not prosecute the pedophile sex trafficking Matt Gaetz? They made up some BS excuse about untrustworthy witnesses, but Michael Cohen testified in the New York fraud case as the star witness.
The American oligarchs like Harlan Crow, the Koch brothers and dozens of other "Fascists" if you will control the Republican Party. Since the horrible Citizens United decision we have no idea how much they control.
They buy members of Congress and SCOTUS with impunity. I'm thinking that's more corruption than Fascism.
Enid Oklahoma electing a Nazi to their city council. There was even a story in the local paper before the election but who reads the paper anymore except us old people.
When Zappa did a concert in Lincoln, NE on a Sunday night years ago they were set up to record it. But, his wah-wah pedal wasn't working. At that time there was only one music store in Lincoln and it was closed on Sundays.
He told us the story after the opening number and played the entire unrecorded show sans Wah-wah.
Biden has accomplished so much, yet when I read this excellent summary I only feel sad and angry. The church I attend is moderate, but has many Trump voters (though not roaring MAGA types). Their take is that Biden "hasn't done anything" or that he "didn't fulfill any of his promises" or they parrot one or another of the GOP's points about Biden being dottering or Trump being a "strong leader" on the world stage and Biden being "weak." Nothing gets through to them (and, like far too many voters, they are too uninterested or lazy to bother going beyond the slogans they are fed on the favorite media site - for many of these middle aged and older, Fox "News"). It is sad and frustrating and very, very scary.
I have begun pondering how I will protect myself in the great likelihood that Trump wins. No, not physically, but mentally and spiritually. I will be 75 by that time. I simply cannot take another 4 years as a fully engaged, news guzzling adult. Yet, I've been reading the newspaper since I was in my teens - a very hard habit to break...
Anne-Marie, the last paragraph in your excellent comment is a grave concern to my situation too. I have also been pondering how i will protect myself in the likelihood that walking blob of excrement DJT wins. I cannot take another 4 years of that babbling, arrogant, criminal. I will be pushing 70 years old when the next presidential inauguration takes place. I want to flee to Canada, but that will be a logistical nightmare for me, and i have sent inquiries to officials at the immigration and citizenship services in Canada twice now and have not received any response whatsoever from them. I am probably not pursue moving and i am going to stay here in the USA and if DJT does win, i suppose i will be vermin that they will send to an encampment or thrown in prison because i am NOT going along with their Christian Nationalist BS or anything other ludicrous authoritarian regulations they have proposed for us. They are not going to force that on me. I can only wish DJT would do us a big favor, and DIE! I absolutely hate and despise him. I have never felt that way about anyone else but him.
I feel the same way, John. My husband thinks I'm being alarmist, but I'm very concerned about what'll happen if (as you so eloquently put it) that walking blob of excrement wins. We are on the cusp of retirement. We will need health insurance we can afford until we're eligible for Medicare. We will need all of the Social Security benefits to which we are entitled. If these things go away, we are screwed. Not to mention all the other impacts of a corrupt authoritarian government shoving religion down our throats.
I am voting for Joe Biden! I voted for Joe Biden and I voted for Hillary Clinton! This is my country. I have that women, racial minorities, the LBGTQ community and men of good conscience will vote for Joe Biden in November. I will be 74 at election. I am voting for myself, yes, but for my granddaughters. I want their future to be secure. I want them to use their intelligence and talents as they choose.
Please inform yourself about the Truckers Convoy. It was not dissimilar to your January 6. Leaders of the convoy intended to take over the Government by force. There were also many folks who came in from the US waving confederate flags. It was a huge disruption in the Canadian Capital. Most Canadians were frightened and very concerned. The residents of Ottawa were unable to drive, go to work or reside in the downtown area because of days of intimidation using very loud horns. It was definitely not as you call it a “trucker’s strike.”
It was bad, and went on for weeks. Very, very disruptive and frightening. And not only in Ottawa but at border crossings to the US. Much of the funding came from right wing groups in the US as well. This constitutes foreign interference in the political life of the country. Only a few of the main organizers had their bank accounts frozen. Most ordinary citizens who donated did not.
Know also that there are conspiracy theorists on the internet espousing that our Prime Minister is an autocrat. This cannot occur in our type of parliamentary democracy. The PM is the leader of the party in power, not a separate position as is the President of the US. There are also two additional parties that make up parliament.
Anne-Marie, I urge you to make some friends who support your political values. Try the League of Women Voters if you can find a group. Or maybe Common Cause or AAUW. I write postcards for a group called Reclaim Our Vote; they don't endorse candidates but issues and target registered Democrats with spotty voting records. There may be similar groups in your community if these don't exist. If Biden wins, you'll feel better about yourself, and if he loses you'll have some friends who share your values. And don't consume the news in isolation; that's unhealthy.
Great suggestions! I am attending our county assembly on Saturday. Even a little involvement in local politics helps dispels the myth that all politicians are the same.
Anne-Marie, it is really hard to penetrate that wall of denial. Softly and gently as you gather in fellowship after the service might be your best tool. I wish you the best of luck as you try to intercede.
I have been trying to “intercede” for years now and have gotten nowhere except to be alienated from friends and some family members! The only way I keep trying is by forwarding Dr. Richardson’s letters.
Actually, I'm not planning to try to intercede. They have there reasons, which I find sad or stunning or odd - they drank the cool aid - but trying to unconvince them would only destroy friendships I otherwise value. As to the church: I'm a retired pastor attending another pastor's church. My responsibility is not to make waves, stir things up, or interfere with the work of the other pastors.
If he chooses Aaron Rodgers for his VP I doubt he’ll siphon off many democratic votes. What a demonstration of poor judgment that would be. Tell me again how you think Kennedy isn’t anti-vax to even be considering Rodgers.
He is for a safe and properly tested vaccines.I will not support him if Roger’s is chosen. I suspect that it isn’t true, just the New York Times insinuating that to make him look bad. Just because he talks to Roger’s and Ventura doesn’t mean they are considered for Vice President. The Times is misleading , I think.
Shortly after Super Tuesday, I got a heavy-handed text from him. No idea where they got my number. I texted Stop and have only gotten one Republican text since then, but it felt odd.
Not the party of Eisenhower. Certainly not the "Party of Lincoln" (or T. Roosevelt). Sort of greedy old plutocrats meets cast off DIxiecrats, with notes of Nazi.
I remember when George Bush left office he said the thing that surprised him the most was how little power the president had. But then Trump seemed to have no problem trashing whatever he could and plans to finish us off if he gets re-elected. Why can’t President Biden pull more weight to do such things as add more judges to the Supreme Court or get rid of Louis de Joy who is doing his best to destroy the post office? We are faced with blatant treason.
We all have to vote soon! There may not be another chance.
A few weeks ago, I spent $40 dollars to send my California ballot special delivery from Japan where I live. The regular US mail is too unreliable. For the presidential election, I received my ballot 2 weeks before it was due. The envelope was torn and some things were missing. So I had to print out a ballot, thanks to Democrats Abroad, and I spent $80 to send it by DHL (because FedX is also unreliable.) Since the year 2000, it’s been getting harder and harder to vote! But in Australia it’s illegal not to vote! It’s one person, one vote - none of the GOP shenanigans to manipulate the votes. It drives me crazy!!
My spouse received her ballot 2 months after the 2020 election was over, despite having applied 6 months earlier, and having it confirmed. Shenanigans or incompetence?
Awful as many in Bush The Lesser's (actually Cheney's) administration were, Dubbya at least had SOME moral spine left, perhaps stiffened by his wife, that stopped him from Trumpian excesses.
I sent in a letter to the Biden campaign questioning those exact issues with my donation. It is way past time for the democrats in leadership to change the course of our tilting ship and very quickly.
Packing the Supreme Court is more difficult than it seems; it would be slightly less difficult to get a code of ethics written for each of the three branches. The President cannot 'get rid of Louis de Joy, the United States Post office is a "quasi governmental" organization, meaning ONLY the Board of Governance of the USPS can dismiss de Joy. When there becomes another vacancy on the board, the sitting President can make a recommendation to the board but the board appoints.
This election is the most important ever and just voting is not enough. I will be mailing 100 hand written post cards to swing states to get out the vote. I am also researching volunteering to work a polling station. This time just voting won’t be enough.
I recognize that Trump officially put forth the radical right ( I refuse to ever associate the word “Christian” with those people who spit on the teachings of Jesus) Supreme Court nominees. (Though it was highly unlikely he chose the people himself.)
But, it was McConnell who shoved these people through the system. Much of the enabling of Trump’s worst actions was due to Mitch McConnell and it should be recognized and remembered. Hitler, by himself, couldn’t have done much. It took the brown shirts (now red caps) and the cronies and enablers to do things.
Look at what Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Alexei Navalny has to say about Putin -- a gangster pretending to be a politician.
Every word applies to America's would-be dictator, except that he's not yet done to his country what Putin has done and is doing to Russia and its neighbors.
Your analysis of Trump‘s takeover of the Republican Party, and the alignment with Christian nationalism are deeply disturbing.
Any third-party movement by so-called disaffected Republicans, and those who don’t respect the integrity of President Biden and his administration will ensure the defeat of the US Constitution and the values of a constitutional democracy.
I remember going to bed at 2 in the morning after watching the MSNBC team close down Election Day 2020. We were all elated because we absolutely KNEW that nearly 10 million absentee ballots had yet to be counted and we further ABSOLUTELY KNEW that most of them would be from Democrat voters. It wasn’t till the following morning, as districts across the country tallied those ballots, and reality began to hit trump that something had gone terribly wrong for him, that the shitshow started. The ranting, the frantic phone calls, the gross lying about faulty voting machines and dead people voting…We must remember that absentee voting, because of COVID, may have opened a door of questioning we don’t want to reopen…especially with the Supreme Court of the USA deciding key issues anymore. I say vote at your designated site on Election Day if at all possible. And bring people with you who might need a ride. We can do this!
Well, finally tRUMP has promised to institute a policy that will rid us of him forever. If he carries out deporting those who received citizenship by being born here, he's gone back to whatever country his dad was from where they speak a language no one else speaks (or so he says). As my bumpersticker in 2020 so aptly said: BYEDON
I still think it's so weird that these supposedly disgusted Republicans who are resigning or not seeking re-election, prefering to "eat their own livers," aren't simply voting with the Democrats to end this mess. Even the "moderate" Republicans would rather fail at their jobs than support their own institution.
On another note, I suppose others have noticed that that butler from Mar-a-Lago, coincidentially named "Butler," is testifying that he loaded boxes of document onto Trump's airplane before the FBI raid. Perhaps I missed something, but doesn't that mean that there's an airplane-load of documents still unaccounted for?
Dirk, regarding the stolen docs: A scary thought, indeed, and I believe that the National Archives folks have previously said that there are still some missing. Supposedly our spy agencies and the DoD won't even acknowledge that some are missing, due to the sensitivity of their contents.
I have long thought, since news of the missing docs came out a few years ago, that trompy would leverage them in some fashion: either to sell them to another country in exchange for money or other assistance (maybe election interference again) or as a Get Out of Jail card here (is that why Garland took so long to name Jack Smith?) . I still believe that he's using them for nefarious purposes one way or the other.
Regarding some of the missing documents, I found it very "coincidental" that some of Putin's close associates started having fatal "accidents" - falling out of windows, etc. My bet is that Putin learned from some of the missing documents just who among his circle was cooperating with the CIA. This is just one of the dangers that TFFG poses, just one. He wants to lock those of us on this thread up. Get out your check book and make some donations.
And, yes, those Republican politicians fleeing instead of staying and fighting. They aren't really serving the nation by doing that. No "Profiles in Courage" there.
I also wonder about the death of Ivana Trump. She fell down the stairs in her NYC apt and broke her neck ???
There was no inquest that I read about and she was buried quickly and quietly.
She was an internationally acclaimed skier - huh?
A bit of Elizabethan history comes to mind:
Ivanna’s death from broken neck after a fall down the stairs reminds me of the death of Amy Devereaux, the wife of the Robert Devereaux, Queen Elizabeth I’s favorite courtier and love interest to whom she gave lots of financial assistance to raise his status and make him more suitable for a royal relationship…. Even though Devereaux, who wanted to marry the Queen, was already married. He basically abandoned his wife.
The court approved coroner said the cause of death was a broken neck resulting from a fall down the stairs. But additional notes of the coroner also found deep gashes into her skull … she had been hit with some large blunt object. No charges were ever brought.
How convenient …. Amy, who may have known of her husband’s affair with QE, was now quieted and out of the way. Though the coroner listed her death as accident, the public thought otherwise …. The affair between the Queen and Devereaux ended with Devereaux being barred from court. Current scholarship suggests an operative of the intelligence network run by William Cecil, the Queen’s enforcer, murdered Amy to coverup the affair and/or free Devereaux to marry the Queen. Amy, like Ivana, was buried quickly so further questions could not be asked, much less answered.
16th and 21st century deaths of politically connected and inconvenient wives suggest opportunities for political mischief in a police state.
Vote Blue in November.
I have never heard any details about Ivana's death. So, thank you for that, Jennifer. And while I avoid unsubstantiated conspiracy theories, I began seeing donald as a wanna-be "Godfather" during the 2016 race. In the years since, I have come to believe that he is a killer, even if he hires others to do it. What he has said recently is that he would love to take care of his opponents in putin fashion. I believe he wants to have people bumped off and anything else he wants to and not be bothered with any law enforcement. The Seal Team 6 scenario certainly appeals to him very much. And millions of Americans still want him to run/ruin our country again. It just blows my mind to pieces!
I remember an interview with candidate Trump before he was President where, in defense of Putin’s reputation as an assassin of enemies, he casually said, “well, our country does it, too.” I SO wished the interviewer had asked him, “what about you yourself. Have you arranged killings?”
He says it out loud, embedded in word salad, but only an idiot could miss his points.
Absolutely on the godfather style of politics … why people admire and support him… there’s the rub!
Thanks for reading my post …. But I have a correction to make and apologize for the error … I should have written “Robert Dudley” as the queens paramour and husband if Amy rather than Robert Devereaux (the car of Essex, who led the Essex Rebellion against the Elizabethan court run by the Puritan Cecils (William and then an Robert), who instituted oaths of loyalty to the Church of England and enormous fines for those who did not attend church services (20 pounds a month, equivalent to a years salary for school teachers).
There are many many parallels between the kind of administration Trump is saying he will create and the reign of Elizabeth I: Elizabethan England was a police state, where torture was actively carried out not only to quash rebellion but also to quash any criticism of Elizabeth’s reign (ie., free speech). Her hatchet man William Cecil (elevated to Lord Burleigh by the Queen) and his side kick Francis Walsingham effectively ran a police state with spies everywhere (in homes, schools, churches, businesses, theaters, publishers) to root out not just political critics but also religious opponents of the Church of England (Catholics, , atheists, critics of the graft and corruption of the state church, for starters). Church attendance was required. If you didn’t go, you had to pay a fine. The Church of England, under Cecil’s direction, forced Catholics to attend Protestant services, Trump had claimed he will do much the same: fire any government employee who is not MAGA approved. Plus his alliance with Christian nationalists, who want to give people to church, suggests he will follow along with their demands to require people to attend church, ban abortion, punish LGBTQ people,.
Vagrants were hanged under both Henry VIII and Elizabeth I …. If you were stopped on the street and could not identify your “master” you could be imprisoned and/or hanged. Under Henry VIII, 50,000 people were executed for vagrancy. People had to be too busy to complain. This control technique will be Trump’s mantra as Christian nationalists claim that slavery was ok in the Bible so it is not bad. They not only want to force you to go to church but also to live the life they decide is best.
Reading A good history of Elizabethan England will provide many many points of comparison between what was known as “the golden age of England” but we now recognize as a police state and Trump’s vision of the US under his rule and his MAGA hatchet men, such as Steve Bannon, Peter Navarro, etc. and of course, punishment for speaking out against him will be met with punishment, perhaps torture and prison … at least get Musk to banish us from X.
And remember that what followed Elizabeth was the Puritan take over of the government under Charles I, which brought Oliver Cromwell to power. A study of his reign reveals the perils of religious extremism.
I have a couple of thoughts on Jennifer's essay:
First, religion is commonly the public face of authoritarian regimes. I don't believe Elizabeth was any more spiritually inclined than TFG is. She did have to defend her reign, and the opponents to her succession masked the issue as Catholic vs. Protestant. Europe, and especially the Pope, didn't want to see any woman on the throne. Unfortunately for them the choices were Mary Tudor, Elizabeth Tudor, or Mary Stuart (Queen of Scots). There's a great movie about this called "Anonymous." It's liminally about who wrote the material attributed to Shakespeare, but subliminally about the politics of the time.
My other thought is the similarity between the Crusades and the Iraq war, basically a quest for wealth cloaked in religious zeal in the 11th century, as the fight for democracy in the 20th. I don't have the energy to write out all the similarities, but I will do in a day or two.
Thanks for the history about Amy Devereaux.
It actually was Amy Robsart Dudley who fell down the stairs and broke her neck, conveniently for her spouse Robert Dudley. Robert Devereux's wife was named Frances; he was the stepson of Robert Dudley and both men courted Elizabeth I. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_Robsart
So on June 3, 2022 Trump employee Brian Butler says he helped to load documents on Trump's Escalade to be taken to the airport and flown to Bedmininster.. Then in early July Ivana dies "accidentally" and is buried, not in a Catholic cemetery, but, strangely, on Trump's Bedminster golf course. (Catholics usually want to be buried in a Catholic cemetery).The narrative put forth was that cheapskate Donald Trump had Ivana buried on the golf course for tax reasons. Horse puckey! I'll bet Ivana's got top secret company in her resting place.
Well she’s buried in private property so the chances of anyone other than DT and his kids getting to the grave are very low … plus he got a tax break because he created the cemetery there.
Do you think Smith or the FBI will get a warrant to exhume her?
Ivana's coffin needs to be disinterred. I find it near impossible to believe that a thin, liposucted, 70 year-old socialite weighed enough to require 10 pallbearers to carry her coffin. Which, by the way, allegedly held cremains, not a body.
There's a lot more in that casket than Ivana--or what's left of her. What better place to hide documents that someone doesn't want to see the light of day, than to have them buried in an unmarked grave? What I don't understand is how the 3 older offspring allowed TFG to dishonor their mother in this way.
Your point about what is in that coffin is well taken …. 10 pall bearers for a box or cremains …???
From what we've seen, the 3 older offspring have a moral and ethical sense identical to their dad's.
Correction to my post: I should have written Robert Dudley, not Robert Devereaux …. Dudley was the queen’s lover and the husband of the Amy Robsart, whose death after falling down stairs and suffering a broken neck has long been viewed with suspicion. Dudley was the Earl of Leceister.
Devereaux was the Earl of Essex; and he was the leader of what is now called the Essex Rebellion, which aimed at getting rid of the queen’s counselors William Cecil and then his son Robert.
He is likely to repeat previous “accidents”
Mr. Melanoma will continue to try to wreck everything the majority of us regard as good, and right, and true -- until can't do anything.
I certainly see the correlation but I believe you've conflated Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex, with his stepfather Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. Both men courted Elizabeth but it is Dudley's wife, Amy Robsart Dudley, who "fell down the stairs" and died of a broken neck. Robert Devereux's wife was named Frances.
Yeah....someone needs to look into that one.
Photos of Ivana's grave show that it is disappearing into the weeds. It should be searched. What an outcry that would have, but I believe his twisted mind is capable of that.
Convenient, wasn't that?
Needed for burial on the golf course.
One down, 74 million to go. Internecine, extranecine, whatever.
I remember reading she resorted to alcohol, for the reason many do.
Buried off to the side of the course in the weeds at Bedminster. Marked with a small not even two foot stone marker which will soon be covered by the grass and weeds. https://twitter.com/MailOnline/status/1690467736403456002?lang=en
Somebody needs to spill the beans…
Just because we are paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get us. Will make some donation$ today.
I made some yesterday. Ruben Gallegos in Arizona, as suggested by Thom Hartman (I think; might have been Robert Hubbell)
I've been giving him a small monthly donation for many months, as requested by Mark Kelly.
We are NOT paranoid.
That's an old bumper sticker saying "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you."
You are 100% right; this is justifiable threat assessment, not paranoia.
Ally, I'm happy to be reminded of the days of our youth, and the culture and the counter-culture.
And speaking of bumper stickers and paranoia, I keep wondering if it might be a good idea to remove our political bumper stickers from our back bumper. We still have a Bernie sticker on our Prius. We'll be driving through Missouri and Arkansas in a few days. Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to ...
No? We're just gonna continue to be f'd.. even harder than what's happening presently in various (R) dominated states,.that's all. The manure-spreader is in motion. You might say we're being "prayed" upon. Please kneel, here comes your turn..., it's #45.
I always thought he resembled a dump truck.
Apparently congressman who step out of line and don’t vote the way Trump wants are threatened by MAGA extremists. Mitt Romney hired a security detail for his family. Most congressmen can’t afford to do that
What you are saying, Nancy, is that Trump has turned us into a Banana Republic. It's unbelievable. The whole basis of the democratic process is the peaceful transfer of political power: one person, one vote, majority rule. That phenomenon in the entire history of the world first took place here in the U.S. on March 4, 1801 when Pres. John Adams relinquished the presidency to Thomas Jefferson. They were bitter political rivals who later resolved their differences and died on the same day, July 4, 1826.
“The whole basis of the democratic process…… one person, one vote, majority rule. ”
I only wish this was true. Just ask Hillary Clinton. The electoral college thing needs to go, be terminated, dumped in the trash, put in the shredder.
There's a crapload of stuff in the Constitution that needs a revision. What we need is for the southern states to secede again so they don't get the chance to obstruct the revisioning process. Similar to 1865 passing of the 13th amendment.
What you say is true, Richard, but it's not the whole story. There's been an argument about who gets to vote since the inception of our country. Although the majority was willing enough to shed the monarchy, not so much the aristocracy. There has always been a quarrel over whether everyone should have a say in government or only landowners (read the 1%). We're still having that argument.
Thought experiment: would we prefer to be governed by a relatively few well-educated and very wealthy corporate moguls -- or by a great many relatively poor people who have had some education?
Our founding authors probably contemplated exactly that scenario. But I think they wanted to get our system up and running before experimenting with democratic majority rule by us unwashed masses.
My opinion has been that I would prefer majority rule by our fellow ordinary citizens. Money talks, and with all the dark money sloshing around, the voices of reason are being drowned out. I would rather debate with the folks who live around here, instead of hoping that the vast sums of money spent by political campaigns on advertising will prove to be worthless. Years ago I believed that the vast majority of good-hearted American people would be incorruptible. I still hope that will prove to be true.
Richard, regarding the missing documents, I quote here from Joyce Vance's "Civil Discourse" column today that "Trump is arguing that when the National Archives tried to get documents back from Trump, the requests were illegal because they were 'politically motivated and driven by the Biden administration as a weapon against President Trump.'"
Is it just me who find Trump's arguments in his defense ludicrous? HE can politically motivate his followers all day long to distrust Biden, but how dare anyone try to discredit HIM.
He is such an adolescent, whining, psycho-brat and I'll never understand how his followers excuse his inane words and behaviors.
As they say, he can dish it out, but he sure cant take it,
It's not just that there's still a stash of stolen Top Secret docs in his control, he's being allowed to meet privately with other authoritarians like Orban just last week (unbelievably with docs there). As a now supposed private citizen that there haven't been follow-up raids to retrieve them, additional surveillance or other measures to protect our national security are beyond the pale. In my own father's day who held full Q and TS clearances for many years if anyone had tried such a stunt, much less so in-your-face-come-get-me bold, they'd have been hauled away long ago. The DOJ, FBI, Jack Smith & team have to know things we don't,...or we must surely pray they do.
Those who pray to ward off deadly peril are soon known as "martyrs." Anyone have other suggestions, if the polls continue to show the would-be fuhrer leading Uncle Joe in all the "swing states" that are actually the only ones that count (thanks to the Electoral College) by October, other than buying the biggest guns on the market? I'm highly resistant to that idea (though raised as a hunter and as comfortable as anyone should be with firearms), but will decline to trudge to the cattle-cars under my own power. I have little faith in the efficacy of the ten or twelve $27 contributions I can afford, in the face of the megamillions at the disposal of Charles Koch, Sheldon Adelson's widow, Leonard Leo, and their ilk. (Recommended book, of the "how we got here" genre: Nancy MacLean's "Democracy in Chains.")
Amen and Amen!
Making donations is good and important. Equally important is giving our time!!
Postcarding, letter writing, phonebanking, texting, knocking on doors, ballot curing - you pick! Don't have a "home group" yet?
Here are four "homes" for ways to get involved. Please, pick one!!
* https://markersfordemocracy.org/
* https://open.substack.com/pub/simonwdc/p/another-strong-jobs-report-democrats?r=eznl2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
* https://open.substack.com/pub/chopwoodcarrywaterdailyactions/p/chop-wood-carry-water-312?r=eznl2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
* https://open.substack.com/pub/roberthubbell/p/made-for-tv-special-counsel-report?r=eznl2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
Yes, we can!!!
Good work. Thank you.
Reply to Richard Sutherland - Threats of political suicide if Republicans don’t follow the whims of a would-be dictator on day one, why do so many cave?
Senator Lester C. Hunt (D) Wyoming chose real suicide in response to Joe McCarthy and other Republican Senators' threats in 1954. The threats were to make his run for another term into (just) political suicide by revealing his son was arrest for soliciting sex from an undercover male police officer but they resulted in his very real suicide.
Back in the early 70s I still had hopes for my old party to clean their own house when needed (Censuring Joe McCarthy, surgically removing Spiro Agnew before letting Nixon know he would lose an impeachment vote, and the ones that had made the critical difference in getting Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts passed. Besides honorable Republicans I’m descended from Senator Margaret Chase Smith’s “Declaration of Conscience” was always in back of mind but a bit short on context.
A few checks with Wikipedia helped me with the timing and surrounding events and conditions to enable a clearer vision of why people did what they did at certain times (not earlier). For instance I couldn’t understand completely why a Professor I’d end up talking to in a café after classes had seemed to work so long for Joe McCarthy before rejecting him so completely. It now seems he supported him for about 3 years before he started the excesses Senator Margret Chase Smith described in her speech 112 days after McCarthy’s Lincoln Day speech (also delivered in Wheeling West Virginia)
See https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/Speeches_Smith_Declaration.htm
“…When Smith rose to deliver her fifteen-minute speech in the Senate chamber, McCarthy sat two rows behind her. Smith began her brief remarks by denouncing the fact that some members were turning the Senate into "a forum of hate and character assassination." She called for a renewal of "the right to independent thought" and a return to the principles of the Republican party as "the champion of unity and prudence." Her party should base its opposition to the Democrats on "proved cases" rather than "unproved charges." Smith concluded with a five-point "Declaration of Conscience," in which she was joined by six Republican colleagues.
After Smith finished, although she had not mentioned McCarthy by name, she fully expected him to respond. Instead, McCarthy quietly left the chamber. A few senators spoke in praise of her remarks, but for the most part the Senate remained silent, fearing to engage McCarthy in further recriminations. The mail, however, showed an eight-to-one approval for Smith's stand. Newspaper editorials endorsed her position, and numerous organizations awarded her recognition for her courageous stand in favor of civil liberties against the politics of fear. The next time that President Truman came to the Capitol for lunch, he invited Margaret Chase Smith to join him. "Mrs. Smith," he told her, “your Declaration of Conscience was one of the finest things that has happened here in Washington in all my years in the Senate and the White House…"
Margaret Chase Smith, and the Professor I spoke with a few times, both were concerned about “communists” and “sympathizers” (which I believe included exaggerated fear in some of any people who had looked into any form of communism before rejecting it as unworkable, and especially for any that tried to implement it by force). As I understand it, it was the implied use of force by American Communist Party members that led to the passing of the otherwise Constitutionally questionable Communist Control Act of 1954. That made sense to me as a way to ban actual party members (whom were expected to subscribe to the use of force) from positions in the Government (though FBI Director J,Edgar Hoover opposed it since he would rather have them easier to identify than if they went undercover).
Now for the other events of the time between Joe McCarthy’s Feb 9th 1950 speech, Margaret Chase Smith’s Declaration of Conscience and Joe McCarthy’s censure in 1954.
Her speech was delivered June 1, 1950, in Wheeling West Virginia 112 days after Joe MCarthy's Lincoln day speech in Wheeling in which he seemed to started the tactics Margaret Chase Smith spoke against. My Professor friend had mentioned that he had left when McCarthy went off the deep end (looking back, that seems 3 or 4 years after starting to campaign for his Republican race for the Senate in 1946, though it could possibly been in 1944 when McCarthy was a Democrat).
The world changed, though just 24 days later when North Korea invaded South Korea
I think that made it hard to go lightly on any known communists or any painted as even slightly interested, no matter how much their loyalty our country and the rules of democracy outweighed any interest in communism. Robert Oppenheimer is an excellent example (a great reason to pay close attention to the last third of the movie).
In his case, they simply revoked his security clearance as the most effective way to isolate him. We used him and many others because of their benefits to our efforts, knowing well enough about his social and intellectual contacts, as long as they needed him (and people like him), before shutting them out, and to me driving some into supporting our real enemies.
I’d be interested in what really tipped the balance against the best known example of extreme dirty tactics, McCarthy, in 1954. Was some of the less remembered background beyond Joseph Welch’s famous, “Have you no sense of decency..” quote , such as the mistreatment of Oppenheimer, or did the June 8 1954 suicide of Senator Lester C. Hunt have so much more impact with other Senators that the public knew less about?
See https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/Senator_Lester_Hunts_Decision.htm
“…No one associated with the Senate in 1954 would ever forget the trauma of that tragic day. The event influenced a classic work of American political literature, Allen Drury's Senate-based novel Advise and Consent. Working on the book when he learned of Hunt's suicide, Drury changed the plot to have his character, Senator Brigham Anderson, commit suicide in the face of lies about his moral conduct by his tormentor, a thinly disguised Senator McCarthy.
Later in 1954, still reeling from the shock of Hunt's death and McCarthy's brutal tactics, senators voted overwhelmingly to censure the Wisconsin senator. Within three years, chronic alcoholism claimed McCarthy—closing the chapter on this anguished era…”
It makes me see some hope in the poor attendance projected (less than 100) the Republican Retreat at the Greenbriar Resort in West Virginia (about 250 miles south of Wheeling where Joe McCarthy spoke in February and Margaret Chase Smith replied in early June of 1950. Maybe some of them (or those not attending) will consider similar Declarations of Conscience
Senator Margaret Chase Smith. Yes. She was the principal speaker at my graduation from Whittier College in 1965. Also with her? Richard M. Nixon and Bob Hope, who had great fun teasing Nixon who was at that time a private citizen. It looks as though the Senate and the House have "lost their way."
Richard, agreed. They could vote with Ds and do something. Now that they are leaving, they will surely be replaced by someone who is a wing nut MAGA. The party of death has demonstrated its total lack of courage. I did smile at the Lector/liver quote as it does demonstrate how truly awful the House rats are.
I happened to turn on Fox this morning - they had on their ' legal expert ' Gregg Jarett - who went on and on about the document case being just like Biden having documents - that it was a weaponized justice department going after trump for documents he had every right to have, he could declassify and keep anything he wanted etc
He conveniently omitted Butler's new testimony, the fact that the former guy failed to return the doc when asked and did not in fact have the right to any documents - some belonged to the Archives.
So a fox viewer watching knows nothing about what HCR just wrote - what we all have learned by being attentive to the information that is being revealed. This partially helps explain how trump has the support he does. An unedcuated or rather a misinformed consumer is their best customer !
Now we have Musk denigrating Biden -
democracy is in peril
I find it chilling that so many "cave in." There must be profound arm twisting, "kompromat," threats to life and loved ones, et al. I wonder why they don't band together and let the public know what is happening.? What terrifies them? If Trump and his minions have this power, then they all are god-forsaken.
There are several different types of threats: physical, informational (corruption and scandal blackmail), and financial (getting primaried, loss of campaign funds, loss of billionaire backers, lost of RNC support), both of the latter leading to loss of position, power, and wealth. Not sure which is predictably more scary for an American Congressperson.
Suspect the threats tfg is more apt to use today have gradually evolved from the classical NYC real estate mogul type of physical threats and criminal/salacious kompromat (divulging of corruption; hotel and party videos; honey pot porn & underage sex a la epstein), to increasingly include the less risky for tfg but very effective financial bullying of candidates via huge free megaphone given to tfg by msm for ~ last 9 years, and his growing personal control of the RNC, legislature, and judiciary, and a better knowledge of how to wield the reins of power in US government institutions.
As for his greater success controlling republican congress persons, it may be a combo of their greater susceptibility to blackmail (due to their striking hypocritical behaviors vis-a-vis a religious base), their frequency of associating with other compromised and compromising republican dominos, and tfg's growing control of the financial basis of the RNC, not DNC.
The MSM HAS learned a fair bit about being played, but by the very nature of commercial news (and human newspersons), they can't help themselves, and remain major suckers for tfg 's draw: if it bleeds it leads, and with tfg, raw meat is reliably on offer, seasoned liberally with disinformation. Red Meat Disinfotainment for the Foxes.
Surely, tfg has the predator's fine tuned sense for weakness, and the experienced bully's understanding of who can be pushed and with what buttons.
I remember United Flight 93, how the passengers didn’t cave, instead rising to stop the hijackers anyway they could.
We were supposed to fly out of Tampa that beautiful blue sky Tuesday morning but saw all the airplanes landing as we got within 15 minutes of the airport. It took until Friday to get a flight back to California. But we chose to fly 5 more times before the end of the year, ready like many others to do the same if anyone dared try to hijack a flight we were on.
My 78 year old WWII SPAR Veteran mother-in-law wondered if she would be in the way or could help in some way. My Veteran wife and I suggested she could use pillows and blankets to cover movements or pass them on to people to wrap their arms as protection against the things like the box cutters they used as everyone able rushed them. She was fired up and ready to ride as often as we could.
Just wish the members of my old party would respond as willingly against the threats the new powers in the party try to use to keep them in line.
No courage? Perhaps. But, by not opening their mouths and securing a # in the retribution (R) authority disposition list, they are still relatively free to cast their vote any way they feel like it. Just keep your mouth shut and you don't expose those cavities. And, by all means, avoid those who would stick you with some truth serum.
They aren’t thinking about R v D, they & their staff who read their mail are thinking how can they protect their families from the kind of INSANE hammer and chair wielding MAGAt assaults that Trump has incited and continues to ramp up.
The high profile types are already experiencing the survival mode thinking that will soon enough come to all, if MAGAts win the elections.
Already sold. You didn't think the Saudis actually bankrolled Jared to the tune of 2 billion for free, did you. Another of his epic mid-East deals like getting the countries who had no idea of fighting with each other to sign a peace agreement. I use that same brilliant logic to get my cat to eat meat.
Laughing.
Whatever his motive, the retention was inarguably purposeful. Not by any means a case of an inadvertent mix-up he was eager to rectify.
Absolutely. I believe even Hur admitted that in his testimony before Congress.
Perhaps orban's visit is just this...$$ for information to help the "trumpet's" financial woes?
Nahh Orban just wanted to meet Alena Habeena in the Mar-A-Lahgo Epstein chapel. Sorry.
ahh "Erin", just like the words in the song sung bbby George Thorogood.. "I can tell right away" you're "bad to the bone"... re: your response.. :))
Not only docs Trump absconded with, but all the Presidential Act electronic docs the Trump admin hid/deleted on private apps/devices (on official devices they are automatically collected) - and paper docs Trump/ his admin destroyed in full sight and behind the scenes. There were archivists collecting stuff off the floor and out of the garbage and taping them together.
And His Heinous is getting national security briefings again now.
Such briefings would, in a sane world, be treason. But let us suppose that they will feed him inaccurate information and watch for it to pop up overseas.
“His heinous” is a good one, with a double entendre even.
So noted, Stan. Well wordsmithed.
He is truly becoming demented. Here's a very good video on that. It's 18 minutes, but it's obvious he's in very bad shape after 7 minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuZw_8mM6xE
AAA+ on that. A hynee-wiper for sure...(R)(R)(R)(R)(R)rrrrrrrr... (flush hard.. it's a long way to FLA). Septic-ly speaking.
How is something so inconceivable possible?
Even in the "new normal" of that post-Drumpfian State of Lawyers, the U.S. of Absurdistan...
Bronwyn, I like that. "His Heinous."
Perhaps they'll ve formatted graphic novel-style, in Comic Sans, with a map of Russia and other countries, along with a caricature of Dark Brandon with glowing eyes saying "RUSSIA IS BAD. KIM JONG UN IS BAD."
Whoa! I missed something. How does he get national security briefings?
He’s not getting them yet. It’s a courtesy extended to the nominee. I suspect they will give him some briefings, but maybe (hopefully) nothing sensitive.
Well, President Biden's immediate predecessor failed to provide the President-elect with that information, so there is precedent for failing to provide information to insure a smooth transition of power.
I just read an an article yesterday in the Atlantic about the security briefings. He should get none or nothing that is useful to him.
Who is “they” who could or would give him anything?
You would think the indictment over documents retained and justice obstructed would be a hint it is a bad idea.
"Launched by President Harry Truman in 1952, intelligence briefings for presidential nominees are designed to ensure a smooth transition of power and to prepare a prospective commander in chief for office. The briefings are not required by law."
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-get-intelligence-briefings-classified-documents-criminal-trial-rcna142385
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/03/07/biden-intel-briefings-trump-00145651
His mind is going. This video provides a clear, compelling explanation. You don't even have to listen to more than 7 minutes to see he's quite demented.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuZw_8mM6xE
Absolutely correct, Lin -- let's not forget the Secret Service comms that were wiped post-Jan 6.
They had to retrieve documents from the toilets too!
Doug Gagne - "I have long thought, since news of the missing docs came out a few years ago, that trompy would leverage them in some fashion: either to sell them to another country in exchange for money or other assistance (maybe election interference again) or as a Get Out of Jail card here (is that why Garland took so long to name Jack Smith?) . I still believe that he's using them for nefarious purposes one way or the other."
See this Thom Hartmann article:
𝐷𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙𝑑 𝑇𝑟𝑢𝑚𝑝 𝑛𝑒𝑒𝑑𝑠 𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑦. 𝐴𝑝𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑙𝑦, 𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑜𝑐𝑢𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑇𝑟𝑢𝑚𝑝 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑙𝑒 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑊ℎ𝑖𝑡𝑒 𝐻𝑜𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔. 𝐼𝑛𝑐𝑙𝑢𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑏𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑟𝑎𝑤 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑔𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝐴𝑚𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑠𝑝𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑀𝑜𝑠𝑐𝑜𝑤.
𝐴𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 ℎ𝑖𝑠 “𝑔𝑒𝑡 𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑗𝑎𝑖𝑙 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝑒” 𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑑?
𝐼𝑡’𝑠 𝑎𝑠 𝑖𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑎 𝑑𝑜𝑒𝑠𝑛’𝑡 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑏𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑎 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑒𝑟 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑐𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑎 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑡𝑜𝑟. 𝐵𝑢𝑡 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑠.
https://hartmannreport.com/p/why-wont-our-media-say-donald-trump-868
Ron -- I just read it. I haven't opened any of the links provided in the article. I wish he and others would adopt Prof Richardson's style of including references in her Notes section. All the same, if what we are all speculating about is even just partly true, he and co-conspirators should be Rosenberged after a fair trial. Of course that will never happen, but perhaps that's how history will treat him, should the truth ever emerge decades from now.
Doug, I am completely missing what "Eisenberged" means.
Oops! In my haste to be clever I wrote the wrong name. I meant 'Rosenberged'. Thank you Ally -- I'll correct my post.
Ha!
Didn't think I'd see a reference to Julius & Ethel here, Doug. Ethel Rosenberg in particular was a victim of Cold War hysteria, and her name still reverberates as a tragic example of how Justice can be terribly distorted by inappropriate zeal in high places.
And if I may add a cruel irony, none other than Roy Cohn was involved in the prosecution at some level.
Finally, I would add that the Rosenberg case, viewed through the prism of our current times with a sort of 20/20 hindsight, provides a chilling warning. In 1951, there was real anti-semitism floating in the air, waiting to be charged. Today, the targets are different---the immigrant, the homeless, those of other than heterodox sexual orientation or identity---but the atavistic bloodlust remains, just waiting for match to be struck to tinder
Doug, your intent was clear, because that was what I flashed to. Specifically, the horrific photo that was taken as they were executed.
Hah! And I don't even subscribe (although I once did.)
They went to Bedminster, where coincidentally Ivanna, (after ‘falling down some stairs’ —how strangely Putinesque…) was interred in a newly permitted burial plot. Time to do subterranean scoping of this area and possible access tunnels.
I was worried even when he was President that he was leveraging material for blackmail and pressure-/for his business transactions and for self-preservation. Who knows what he is doing with them now? Fortunately he probably doesn’t have the concentration to comprehend complex info himself, but he may have henchmen interpreting for him and the next dictator may be smarter in their corruption than Trump.
Again, the national security issue isn’t the physical documents per se, it is the information on the documents!!
Once the chain of custody has been compromised, all that information sublimates into the internet where it circulates forever, until it is milked of every iota of effective intelligence.
At this point it is likely too late to avert such informational/intelligence harm, and the sole remaining value to finding the documents is to attempt to establish culpability (and if possible prevent further compromises; though not possible if tfg is reelected). They are merely the gun on the floor after the bodies are cold.
The harm to national security is almost surely non-interdictable, and while initiated years ago, it will continue to ripple decades into the future.
But there is no undo for compromised secrets, as all of you know.
Heads will continue to roll. Assets can’t trust US handlers to keep them safe.
America will operate in a comparative dark for a long time, thanks to electing a kleptocratic/mobster.
Trump is a cancer on democracy. His attitude regarding the classified documents is treasonous in my opinion. With the wheels of justice moving frustratingly slow.
I agree with you about the large exit of disgusted republicans. Why not vote their conscience. When they leave, they are leaving openings for more like Greene, Jordan, Gaetz etc. All we can do is hope that the vacancies are filled with more democratic not demoncratic people.
The first rule of the modern Republican Party is that conscience is forbidden. A. Vindman? Liz Cheney? They were regarded as criminals.
The repub party is gone, it's all Maga now.
LINDA FORCE: Add a “T” to MAGA [MAGAT] and you get a phonetical of maggot. Why are Republicans so afraid of Trump? I can’t figure this out. Why are they ALL in lock-step with him. Must be cool-aid served at his golf courses.
Because they are cowards. The are afraid he will yell at them or worse that he will turn his goons loose on them. Not a single spine or honor or concern for the fate of the country and the constitution. They rather see the country destroyed rather than fight from within.
They must be terrified for the safety of their families and are hoping to quietly bow out without poking the MAGA bear.
Or worse, make up a foolish nickname for them /s
We've seen this pattern before, and know that it really goes ugly. A tragic flaw (?) that our species so often falls for it.
He's tapped into the underlying fanaticism in the Republican Party. Putting Trump and MAGA in charge (oh they took charge) may be the political equivalent of Jonesville "cool aid". Election 2024 will show how much damage is incurred. With so much party gerrymandering, I'm afraid though a lot of the "same faces" and more may show up next Congress, hopefully with Dems holding more political power. USA needs them! God knows what American international political reputation will then be.
Some states have redone districts to a more equal status.
The real Kool Aid is the compulsion to dominate, and also the circular thinking of cult dynamics.
Maybe they don't want to be shot.
I thought of that, too, they're leaving politics instead of staying and fighting because they are afraid of TFFG's base and fear for their lives and safety.
Richard:
Are you familiar with the term, "Nantucket sleigh ride"?
It comes from the old whaling days. Once you put the harpoon in, hang on! It's the eighteenth century version of the dog that finally caught the car.
Vince S
Well, that's certainly stirs some graphic images, a completely out-of-control ride. To be sure, it's apt in this case - a 2nd Trump presidency could spell doom for the republic. I never cease to be amazed and dumbfounded as to how such a low life could in fact wield such power and influence when everyone knows what a completely flawed person TFFG is. Where does the repair start?
Richard:
You know the answer. It's the penitent's prayer. "It starts with me," or something of that sort.
You know the drill. Recruit, train, and field volunteer canvassers and good, reliable candidates -- local, state, and federal. Make a whole bunch of phone calls between now and November. Get your friends and acquaintances on board. Look for opportunities at your local-level Democratic Party offices.
What is that old labor cry? "Don't mourn -- organize!"
Those are the biggies.
Now let me refer you to a project that I think has potential to make a difference if our Democratic leadership in the House is willing to undertake it. Please see the Daily KOS diary entries at https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/3/6/2227962/-Republicans-own-goal-blunder-in-the-House
Representative Matt "Firebrand" Gaetz may have just handed us a gift.
I don't think there is any rule that says that one must rescue one's opponent when he falls into the trap of his own making. Of course, we can always sympathize later with the poor SOB who runs the ball into his own goal.
I would like to hear your opinion.
Vince S
Snakes sometimes catch their tails and eat themselves (yes, I looked that one up for some reason in the past.)
Mitt Romney said as much.
Yet they created this beast.
And whiffed on not one, but two chances to impeach the angry cheato. He has had MANY enablers.
I would think that by leaving they would be in even more danger because they're weakening the Republicans in congress and Trumps power.
Oh but to get Lauren to quit is worth it. You didn't actually think that when they were quitting their responsibility that they would suddenly develop spine and morals and do the right thing. Nope, gutless but they WILL take credit in their area for all the good things Joe and the dems did in the last 4 years.
I had two dogs, a springer, and lab and both loved the water. I would throw a stick out into the pond, and the lab would leap in, swim out a good distance, grab the stick and swim back. Half way back the springer would swim out, grab the stick and bring it the rest of the way. I suppose this could be considered a doggie relay, but I see it as one dog doing all the work and another getting the credit. Infrastructure bill comes to mind.
lol that is too good
Karen, LOL picturing your dogs 😆!
Sad and true what you wrote RE infrastructure . . .
Buck just did a bit of a barn burning the other day announcing his immediate departure without so much as pre-advising Johnson. Right wing Liz Cheney was forced out, having participated in the Jan 6 investigation, and been at it ever since. 30% of Republicans may be shed their voting preferences for this round. There is likely a pay off for Dems and Biden in all this.
Karen, how many times have you heard of the threats endured by those speaking against trump? Trump is basically a mobster and his “family” (like the “tourists” visiting the capitol building) will take care of any opposition.
Regarding the mobster aspect, in The Godfather there is a scene where the don says take care of it. He doesn't say kill anyone or rough them up-just take care of it. His henchmen know what he means. The don could say that he never said to kill anyone. Same with trump. He never really said the word riot but he sure implied it and his followers thought they knew what he wanted done.
Perhaps he used to say, “Be there. It’ll be wild!”
But now, “There will be a bloodbath!”
When someone tells you they “want to be a dictator”, and it appears they are assembling the means, BELIEVE them.
People keep saying his bloodbath was taken out of context. Maybe so, but I have never heard of people losing jobs because of out sourcing being called a bloodbath. Getting a pink slip doesn't equate to that. Trump likes to use violent terms, execute Millie, shoot looters, send military to round up vermin (WWII concentration image?)Fight, Fight, Fight. Didn't he mention violence if he didn't win?
The plane probably went to Moscow.
I can't rule it out. At least that some of the information arrived there in some form. Trump has repeatedly shown more respect for foreign tyrants than for his own country or its Constitution.
This is the virtual age, everyone! It makes NO difference where the physical documents are, once you have lost control of the chain of custody for long enough for a document to be photographed!
At the time I would have considered all those documents probably compromised as soon as tfg had unsupervised access. But once he attempted a coup, there’s no ‘probably’ left.
I am sure that every such document was compromised and I am sure that heads of our assets continue to roll.
You make a good point, except it merely leads to another mystery. If Trump was keeping the documents in order to sell their contents, why, in this virtual age, didn't he simply copy the docs, then return them with a smile? He's a treasonous, demented packrat, hoarding everything in reach...
Good question, Dirk, a couple glib answers come to mind, such as: “he’s not clever enough to know his own best self interest, when tag-teamed by his ego and narcissism”, et c. But on reflection I expect 1) he played loose with confidential documents all his presidency (be interesting to see i) a timeline of the date stamps of these documents, & ii) the associated topics) and 2) didn’t trust the people who supported his devices not to turn him in for treason.
(But expect & hope some daring and ambitious counter intelligence officer made sure some of these documents were seasoned with subtle tracer facts and misinformation.)
Thanks for adding to what already seems like an old comment and I like your observations. I think you're correct on both points, most especially in that he "played fast and loose" with his entire presidency, apparently by not knowing or wanting to know how it was supposed to work. His motivations may be very simple -- he recognized that the documents were a portable asset, and his entire life has been about acquiring and hoarding assets. He may well have little idea of what to do with them, except maybe sell them, and even then he probably doesn't have much idea what they're worth or how to deliver them.
Remember he met with the Saudis shortly after, regarding golf’s LIV Tour.
They're petrified. Both physically for their families; and financially. That's why they won't call out the outrageous undemocratic leanings of Trump and his cabal of advisors.
Interesting, isn't it? Dems get threatened all the time by MAGAts but they still stand up for the truth and do their jobs.
But we also know, this WILL change once it looks like we have a dictatorship...
Yet because of their cowardice, Traitor and his followers will only be more emboldened and those fleeing will be even more vulnerable.
RE: Republicans resigning and not seeking re-election, how curious it is they aren't standing up for the country against Trump. Exactly.
The real problem is even these so-called Moderates would vote for Trump as our Hitler any day of the week, and always will. They are only resigning now, sulking, because they know it went too far--their masks were ripped off by a desperate Trump as he fights off all these lawsuits--and they realize they'll be out of power next year. They own this, every last bit of the mess.
I will never forgive the Republican Party for their craven cowardice and greed. Never. I blame them even more than Trump. He's the symptom, they are the virus. Until we clean the system out of these Wanna-Be authoritarians who pretend to be patriots we will struggle as a country.
Yes. I have been wondering what Trump traded to get his bond covered, and to whom. It is quite scary given how aggressive Putin is, to think of him selling him or any one of a number of enemies of the state our secrets. If it is found that he has done that he should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Seth Abramson, who write “Proof,” talked about just this last weekend.
According to CNN “Butler told CNN how he unknowingly helped Nauta deliver boxes of classified information from Mar-a-Lago to the former president’s plane in June 2022 – the same day that Trump and his attorney were meeting with the Justice Department at Mar-a-Lago about the classified documents.” June 2022. Ivan’s Trump mysteriously falls down her stairs and dies July 14, 2022. The ex-wife is buried at Bedminster Golf Club. Yeah, that’s normal. I agree the doc were probably photographed. But the physical copies?…………I bet they sleep with Ivana.
Ivana's ashes are probably with daughter Ivanka. And it was all a ruse to bury the documents where it can't be exposed without public outrage about digging up a so-called burial site. Clever, but sick.
I do believe the FBI needs to raid Bedminster.
I've read that one faction wanted to do a comprehensive raid on all his properties but they were blocked by Republicans and Trump loyalists within the agency and the DOJ.
Not anymore. Since Don didn't have the money to pay E. Jean, that airplane was Seized to be sold and was stored in that same warehouse in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Good luck finding it.
Really? TRULY? I've always loathed that plane. A clumsy metal cylinder lumbering through the sky with his name on it in huge letters. He's still taking short rides in a convoy of armored cars, though.
Really? He can't fly around in his plane anymore!
Dirk, watching The Godfather movie recently, I was struck by the actions of the people he granted favors to and the persons who were part of his organization. The actions that he requested started out small, relatively inconsequential, and slowly became more illegal (the boiling frog analogy). The first punishment for not being sufficiently “loyal” to 45 is being primaried by a person deemed more compliant. If you survive the primary, then you and your family are publicly called out as a threat to 45, with the resultant death threats to you and your family. It’s a wonder that any Republicans run for national office. Look what happened to compliant Mike Pence.
I could never figure out why Pence, whose very life was threatened, remained a Republican and actually tried to run for office.
Progwoman, to me, his actions are similar to those of the people who volunteered to go fight the Crusades. They knew that they had a good chance to be killed, but believed that their actions would advance the cause of Christianity.
He thought his undying fealty to Traitor would position him to become President. When will people wake up to the fact that no one is safe in Traitor's orbit? No one. Now even the RNC is being unceremoniously destroyed and the employees replaced by loyalists. Will that wake up and shake up their world enough to vote blue? Hoping, but think not.
Why isn’t Trump in jail?? He is obviously a security risk. He is also promising and already gives aid to Russia, a country we are essentially at war with. His followers are already attacking election workers and actively trying to intimidate voters. Yet, he gets everything he wants from the courts, even though he constantly attacks them. The kid in MA who released documents went right to jail.
Due process must be followed especially when the accused is a nominee for president. The “kid” who leaked the documents went to prison after his rights were protected by due process. If we don’t follow the rule law and throw people in prison we do what Orange Menace wants to do. We descend into the realm of dictators ourselves.
There is a different due process for those who can raise tens of millions of dollars to file really bogus appeals in order to delay justice, or avoid it completely. There is a different due process when member of the Supreme Court and other members of the courts who seem to owe loyalty to the accused. There seems to be a different due process when the wife of a Supreme Court justice has been totally supportive of an effort to overthrow a settled election. There is something called Equal justice before the Law! This is not happening.
Write letters to your local newspaper. Demand they publish the true unbiased news not the constant barrage of right wing propaganda. Reading the news or watching it on TV, one gets the impression that a savior is running against a doddering old socialist or president.
I’m so happy that the Democrats are finally pushing back.
I wish Garland had been less cautious and quicker with the investigations and indictments.
But you can see what happens when the indictment is sloppy. It’s thrown out by the judge as in the Giorgia case where three counts were thrown out. (In federal court this could have been modified but not in Geargia law)
Let's see if Fanni Willis can keep her job and get the trial up and running. She is allowed to modify the charges to fit the law, but it really isn't necessary.
Giorgia law requires a new indictment from the grand jury which would take time. Of course they can go ahead with the rest of the charges.
That’s using the law to abuse and corrupt. Of course if you have money you can protect yourself better.
Don’t forget that the voters voted these people into office. They then appointed unqualified and corruptible judges. We must unite and get out the vote to make changes. We must start at the local level
"Supposedly disgusted Rupublicans"
These are the people who made Dunning Kruger famous, Dirk.
I have wondered the same thing about those boxes of missing documents. It’s not a stretch of the imagination to learn they are in Putin’s hands. In return for a goodly sum of money and promises to support his candidacy. Sounds like appropriate front page news doesn’t it? Headline: Where are our Classified Documents, Mr. Trump?!?
I've read recently that Jack Smith is pushing so hard on the Trump stolen documents case because he has solid proof that Trump has sold highly sensitive, top-secret documents to foreign entities. He knows he has a case.
"In 2020 there were plenty of red flags around Trump’s plans for a second term."
* In 2016 & 2020 there were plenty of red flags around Trump’s plans. Still are. Figuratively and literally.
"I still think it's so weird that these supposedly disgusted Republicans who are resigning or not seeking re-election, preferring to "eat their own livers," aren't simply voting with the Democrats to end this mess. "
*I still think it's so weird that these Republicans, Moderates, Progressives, Independents supposedly disgusted with Trump aren't simply voting with the Democrats to end this mess. Hint: the differences between the candidates/parties are more significant than any similarities.
You are much more thoughtful than I was in my response to the current crop of "I give up" RepulbiKans. I am a member of the crowd that believes that some of those documents that are from said banker's box that left Merde a Lardo are buried on the first green at Bedminster.
WOW Ally!! I didn't think of that!! I think you are onto something there!
I can not criticize Representative Buck, Senator Sasse, and others who threw up their arms and walked away. I exited the G.O.P. in 2018 when Justice Kavanaugh was confirmed. I think people like Representative Gallagher, Senator Flake, et many al. have decided to step back and let the fascist demagogy burn out with the implosion of the G.O.P.
🫣
As Trump drumpfs the G.O.P., these men and women remain ready to step back in and re-build the Party, though others who have stuck it out as good Republicans (e.g., Senator Murkowski). These latter Republicans may resent those who left only to invoke their right-of-return. Whatever happens, we all know that urgent electoral and campaign finance reforms are required.
Thank you @HeatherCoxRichardson. Your LFAA's are so important for a society at a crossroads between democracy and kleptocracy.
One major issue that has not been well-explored are the remarkable differences in key Presidential appointments -establishing a governance leadership team. I recently talked about it in https://bomdia.substack.com/p/justice-league-versus-larceny-league.
To summarize, the Biden/Harris Cabinet is defined by intelligent, experienced, capable people with established careers in public service. From Dr. Janet Yellin to Dr. Miguel Cardoza, to Pete Buttigieg -these are people that are leading through vision and integrity.
The former Trump/Pence Cabinet is defined by corruption, a lack of ethics, and incompetence. Betsy DeVos -who thrives on student loan debt and interest payments like a vampire thrives on blood. Rick Perry -who struggled to remember three things at once. Wilbur Ross and his nefarious self-enrichment dealings with Putin. Ryan Zinke and Halliburton. Bill Barr "the Cover-Up General." The Trump Cabinet was a criminal organization, not a team of people dedicated to improving the life of the average American. Aside from self-enrichment, most of the agency heads despised the agency they were tasked to lead.
The difference in leadership is stunning -and I don't know if many are talking about it. It's not just the President/VP -it is the entire team that is important.
You know it is bad when Barr, a trump shoe licker (until he said something disagreeable) suggests that security? meetings which trump is now allowed to attend not include everything. Personally, I think he should be excluded. He thought it as a good thing to do to Biden.
There is no law requiring that Guilty Donald be given the president's daily updates or other classified materials prior to the election. That's always and ONLY been a courtesy.
Given that he's been indcted for mishandling documents and removing them from the secured areas they were required to be, and then hidng them after he was asked to return them, it would be the height of foolishness to consider him a safe risk. Give him the children's entertainment placemat from a Bob's Big Boy instead - he won't know the difference.
If it is a rule, it has to be one of the most stupid rules ever. Give updates to a person like trump who is vindicative, and he loses? We know how he behaves when he loses.
Yeh but like most of the other rules and regulations from the 19th century, an assumption was made of gentlemen's honor.
Besides that, he isn't "the candidate" until the convention has ratified him.
Your words made me happy.
So true Karen. I'd like to see the DOJ force Trump to register as a foreign agent. (Of course, there are many more things I'd like to see AG Garland and the DOJ do -but they aren't conferring with me).
Garland is playing a form of Neville Chamberlain role. Playing the nice guy, don't rock the boat, doesn't want to seem partisan. Now all of these court trials will most likely continue beyond the election, and trump will pardon himself and his merry men. Trying to be bipartisan and assigning Hur to determine Biden's culpability obviously was a fail of gigantic proportions.
Very true. The fact that Hur still is employed by the DOJ is an epic fail.
BBC Radio News yesterday said he'd resigned.
He resigned but wouldn't swear that he wouldn't be part of the Trump administration in the future.
Indeed -perhaps he'll join criminal Trump's defense team (provided he enjoys work as an unpaid volunteer).
You can't fire me, I quit.
I thought he quit so he can testify as a civilian. Sounds sneaky to me.
Yes- you are correct. I thought on the basis of the misrepresentational narrative in his report -the DOJ would have fired him -however he did resign.
Perhaps he'll be replacing Alina in defending criminal Trump or in the appeals process.
More thenlikely looking for a job in tfg’s administration if he is elected. 🤬
He is not.
Indeed. Likely going to join the Trump unpaid volunteer defense team.
George:
Hah!
Why not, indeed!
Obviously, now that Mr Trump has secured the Revanchist-Confederate (formerly Republican) nomination, declaring him to be a foreign agent is a mite awkward, but it is certainly an open question.
Time for a couple of letters to my senators.
Vince S
Do your senators listen??
Kristin:
We are about to find out.
Vince S
Trump should be barred from security briefings at least until the trial regarding stolen classified documents is over - providing there is a "not guilty" verdict. There is also the matter of yet more documents loaded on to a plane bound for points unknown. The mystery of what they contained and where they are also should be addressed before DT is allowed any more access to secure material. Setting these conditions may provide DT and his lawyers some incentive to stop dragging their feet, and stop holding our nation's security hostage.
Something wrong with an insurrectionist leader, voter suppression and voter fraud in 2020, on top of the national secrets he refused to return...He should not be allowed to run for anything to do with our government. Where is the anger in our country? TFG should not have Secret Service paid for by our taxes! He is trying to destroy us. He and his maga party are dangerous, anti-democracy traitors to America and need to be detained until all trials are over. Serious losses of citizenship should be considered for anti-American behaviors. TFG is a dangerous man and should be detained immediately for crimes against his country. WTF.
Pensa, the people who support fpotus believe he is their Messiah. I don't see any other way to explain why my normal (I thought) friends are behind him 100%. Believing in an imaginary sky pilot sets the stage for believing that "he and only he" can "save" the country.
My FBF living in SC and I haven't talked in years because of trump. I finally called her in relation to a possible scam on her brother's email address. her last words (after a really nice catch up conversation) was no politics. I guess she is officially a trumper.
😢
There is a simple explanation if those “friends” are white people, and it would not be an anomaly, statistically.
There is a simple explanation if those “friends” are white people, and it would not be an anomaly, statistically.
White retired cops...
There was a comment on another site by a former secret service man. He thought trump was totally sound in mind. I asked when did he put in his time.
Well, as a therapist who studied cults and Hitler most of my life, I can honestly say that brainwashing (neurolinguistic programming) is a dangerous tool and can be used to help people get over addictions and through difficult mental health issues. When used negatively, it can lead people to commit atrocities like Charles Manson, Mussolini, Hitler, Koresh. The only way to help those who are able to be helped is to stop the propaganda messaging. Why allow trump, fox, bannon, etc. to continually gaslight our people? Lies and propaganda are authoritarian tactics and I would think our government would have stopped this long ago. It is the dark shadow of freedom of speech. To have it requires tolerance and trust in others. We have a problem.
Why is Trump allowed to attend security meetings? Because he is the RepubliCONs nominee?
"The Trump Cabinet was a criminal organization, not a team of people dedicated to improving the life of the average American. Aside from self-enrichment, most of the agency heads despised the agency they were tasked to lead." Yes, George, and the next one will be so much worse. Thank you for the excellent analysis. Shared.
The ‘Emergency Powers’ Risk of a Second Trump Presidency | WIRED
https://www.wired.com/story/donald-trump-emergency-powers/
“What’s concerning to legal experts are the special powers that would be available to Trump that have been available to all recent presidents but have not typically been used. Should Trump decide to go full authoritarian, he could utilize what are called “emergency powers” to shut down the internet in certain areas, censor the internet, freeze people’s bank accounts, restrict transportation, and more.
Utilizing laws like the National Emergencies Act, the Communications Act of 1934, and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), he would be able to wield power in ways this country has never seen.”
My hair is starting to smolder.
OMG (and I pray She is tough).
Good article. Scary.
Thank you MaryPat!
'THE EARLY 202' (WAPO, newsletter)
'Democrats are taking third-party threats seriously this time'
'Analysis by Leigh Ann Caldwell and Theodoric Meyer with research by Tobi Raji'
March 14, 2024 at 6:21 a.m. EDT
'The campaign'
'The presidential race is official, with President Biden and former president Donald Trump clinching their parties’ nominations Tuesday'.
'But this year, Democrats are clear: They do not want a rerun of 2016, when third-party candidates got millions of votes, leading many political observers to say even today that those votes helped Trump defeat Hillary Clinton. '
'This time, Democrats are prepared. The Biden campaign and the political apparatus hoping to defeat Trump are taking third-party candidates seriously — a stark difference from the Democratic Party in 2016.'
'Before the third-party candidates get on a significant number of state ballots (and before some candidates are even set), Democrats have started to organize:'
'The Democratic National Committee has a dedicated staff, including veteran strategist Lis Smith, working to defeat third-party candidates. They have filed complaints about alleged violations of campaign law by the super PAC American Values 2024, which is backing independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to the Federal Election Commission.'
'In a memo provided exclusively to The Early, center-left think tank Third Way, which opposes a Trump presidency, debunked moderate group No Labels’ claim that its prospective' “unity ticket” will drop out if it appears the bid would benefit Trump, calling the group’s “off-ramp” a “fantasy.”
'Third Way has filed complaints to secretaries of state about the super PAC backing Kennedy.
American Bridge, the Democratic opposition research group, is tracking third-party candidates closely.'
“Allies of President Biden have formed a super PAC called Clear Choice, aimed stopping any third-party or independent candidates from gaining traction before the November election,” our colleague Michael Scherer reports this morning.'
“We’re expecting a close election in 2024, and we are going to be prepared for every contingency,” DNC spokesman Matt Corridoni said. “This includes making sure independent and third-party candidates play by the rules.”
'The case against a third party'
'The third-party candidates this cycle could be numerous and their impact significant.'
'Kennedy is set to announce his running mate in the coming days, and he’s spoken with football player Aaron Rogers and former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura, our colleague Michael reports.'
'Meanwhile, No Labels will appoint a panel today to discuss its presidential ticket, Michael reports.'
'While the group has had trouble finding a nominee after most high-profile politicians have declined, relatively low-profile Georgia Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan is reportedly in talks to be the candidate.'
'Princeton University professor Cornel West could run, and so could repeat Green Party candidate Jill Stein in the general.'
'In an election where voters are dreading a rematch from 2020, voters might be more inclined to at least be third-party curious.'
“History suggests disaffected voters gravitate back toward the main two party candidates, but we’ve never had two party candidates that are this unpopular where their negatives are higher than the positives for both of them,” Republican pollster Whit Ayres said. “It would not be surprising to see a larger proportion of voters pick somebody other than the two major candidates.”
'While it’s unclear where third-party voters will come from at this point, Democrats are worried that they might be potential Biden voters.'
“I think you’ll see a much more concerted effort about who these people are and why they should be avoided,” 'said Matt Bennett, co-founder of Third Way.'
'A repeat of 2016?'
'In 2016, the third-party spoiler moniker was real. '
'Trump beat Hillary Clinton in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, the three closest swing states that determined the election, by just 67,000 votes total. Libertarian Gary Johnson and the Green Party’s Stein received more than half a million votes among those three states. '
'In 2020, Biden won narrowly when there were no major third-party options. That year, the third-party candidates didn’t garner a significant amount of the vote.'
'Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans worry that third parties will take potential Biden voters. Those voters could be critical, as Biden pulled disaffected Trump voters for his narrow victory in 2020.'
“In 2020, if you were a Republican who refused to support Trump, you didn’t have another choice,” 'said Marc Short, top adviser to former vice president Mike Pence.'
'Kennedy'
'Kennedy’s national polling is sitting in the mid-teens, extraordinarily high for a third-party candidate. He entered the Democratic primary but switched to run as an independent in the general election. He has also toyed with running on the Libertarian party ticket.'
'Political observers say he’s polling high now because voters know the Kennedy name but know little about him, including his anti-vaccine platform and embrace of conspiracy theories.'
'On the surface, it might seem like Kennedy would take votes from Trump, but Democrats fret that he’ll eventually also hurt Biden. One top donor to Kennedy’s super PAC, Timothy Mellon, who has given at least $20 million per FEC filings, is also a major Trump donor.'
'As the New York Times wrote after holding a focus group with disaffected Trump voters', “the Kennedy factor in this election should be taken pretty seriously in the swing states where he’s likely to make the ballot this fall.” (WAPO)
Thank you for sharing Fern. Many were warned in 2016 that it was less about the President, it was more about the Supreme Court. While there were numerous issues that negatively impacted Hillary's campaign, high-profile entertainers supporting Jill Stein, coupled with the delay of Bernie Sanders in accepting Hillary as the nominee, and advocating for her were among key factors.
In 2016 I was very clear about what a Trump administration would mean to the United States, (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/resigning-from-oracle-george-a-polisner/) and his reign was worse than I could imagine. Attempting to extort allies, abandoning the Kurds, and Trump's misplaced devotion to foreign adversaries -who simply played to Trump's ego -was not on my list of possible horrors. Knowing what we've learned from his rise, if Jill Stein had any meaningful concern about climate, Women's rights, justice, equity, and democracy, she would gracefully tell the Green Party that they have an important future in American Politics, but at present -this is all hands on deck -you believe in democracy -or your don't. I'm less concerned about RFK Jr. -from a strategy perspective -sharing his dangerous ignorance will be key -however, now, with many more willfully ignorant -believing that a vaccination is actually a GPS tracking chip (or whatever nonsense they believe because some guy on the internet said ... or the brilliant research scientist (and football player!) Aaron Rodgers said ...) the likelihood of Jr. succumbing to an easily preventable childhood disease is rather high.
Finally -the Democratic Party needs to invest beyond electoral science. They need to understand that you cannot abandon rural areas, or bright red areas. You must field and support candidates everywhere and challenge everything. Failure to do so will grow each of those districts like cancers in the election system -there's no one to counter fraudulent ideas like "Trickle down" or climate denial, or an array of garbage vomited out by an idiot like Boebert, Gaetz, Jordan, or Comer -because there's no one to counter their stupidity which they happily spread to all of their constituents.
The "Greens" are less a party than a form of civic vandalism, popping up every four years to monkey-wrench presidential elections without ever having elected even a single Congressional Representative. Kirsten Sinema started her political career as a Green and look how that has ended up. She was merely a tool of the super-wealthy and the Republicans and so is Jill Stein or anyone else they dub as their flag-bearer.
Should we ever implement ranked choice voting, they could become more effective. That really should have been their core effort -while pushing the Democratic Party Progressive Caucus and supporting them. Without ranked choice voting -while I don't accept they are completely responsible for "W" or for Trumputin -they were a factor -most visible now at SCOTUS. (oh -and anytime I see Sinema's name -I throw up a little -so thanks for that! :)
Hi George and All!
I too think ranked choice voting is a much needed reform. Unfortunately, it has about as much of a chance of being implemented nation wide as the Washington Generals did against the Harlem Globetrotters.
The Electoral College has long been the rotting appendix within our Body Politic. It is an anachronistic drag upon the People's will, without question.
I would say however, that we need to be careful about stirring up too much animosity towards third party candidates, irrespective of how nutty and/or annoying some of them may be. We cannot and should not presume the two Party duopoly came down from Mt. Sinai with Charlton Heston, as it assuredly did not.
Finally, the HRC analogy is a poor one. She lost due to a combination of outside forces (Comey, Putin, etc.) along with her own fairly dunderheaded campaign based upon her presumed inevitability. Her weaknesses as a candidate were previously exposed by the Kenyan/Moslem/Socialist in the 2008 campaign, and again by Sanders (who arguably would have beaten Trump) in the 2016 campaign.
It only takes one win. 🤓. https://www.bbc.com/sport/basketball/66525597
Learn to spell.
George, it was enlightening to read some of your LinkedIn history. Kudos. I agree with you: keeping the oddball third-party jokers from taking Biden votes is key.
Thanks James. Someday -if we still are aspiring toward a meaningful democracy, we will have entered into a National Popular Vote Compact among states to render Electoral College as obsolete as the slavery it was designed to protect, eliminated gerrymandering and voter suppression, and can then think about ranked choice voting -which would actually help break the two party (Democrats and Putin/Trump/MAGA) stranglehold on the system.
That won't help with the even greater distortion of the US majority will that constitutes the US Senate, where the majorities of the less than 20 percent of US citizens in the least populist 26 states -- so 10 percent of the US electorate -- have a stranglehold on the actual national majority (even before the effect of the rampant use of the "filibuster" allows a mere 1/3 of the Senators to stymie the national will). And it would require the approval of 38 states to amend the Constitution to change this (sure, that has a chance to happen). The brilliant, perceptive "Founders" -- pah!
Interestingly a national popular vote compact is an agreement between states to cast their electoral votes based upon popular vote totals. If enough states (representing the total electoral votes needed to win) join the compact it offers a workaround to the necessary Constitutional amendment.
I'm afraid the unicorn* voters will cost us our country.
*unicorn voters: Those who want perfection and purity in their party's platform, and are stunned when those ideals are not represented and either refuse to vote or vote third party.
There is a lot to be afraid of and a lot more to do, which will out work and out run the self-absorbed.
I sure hope so. I'm gonna do my best to make that happen.
Ally, without a doubt, you'll do your best. I try not to focus on the folks who aren't engaged, except to engage them and those engaged in what they think is in their self-interest to the ruin of the people, our country, beyond the borders and earth itself.
But the good news about the civil service is that tRUMP knows so little about DC and how/where things are and how they work that after he was elected, nothing changed at State and other offices as he and his appointees had no clue as to even where the offices were. People at State waited for tRUMP people to come replace them but .. ..crickets. No one showed as they were and this time will be even more clueless. Ladt time, he at least appointed some DC regulars but they weren't loyal enough. Anybody appointed this time will be so clueless about DC and government, they will relieve themselves on the floor as they won't be able to find the bathroom. You think he stinks.
This time the Project 2025 creators have a minute-by-minute plan for dismantling the civil service system, and any other safeguards, beginning on Day One. These are professional anarchists out for gold and power.
There were tears in the offices of DOJ when T**** was elected. I suspect that, this time around, should the unthinkable happen, those tears will be angry tears, and the rank-and-file will actively resist any intrusion by his minions. The resistance won't be subtle like last time.
Glad to hear that, but praying the unthinkable does NOT happen.
Hope is not a business plan.
And resistance will be futile.
Very true -although this time I suspect he will have some operational people that will work to implement the anti-democracy Project 2025.
100% this. Last time, there were more “Team Normal” Republicans that were pumping the brakes to Crazy Don’s free-wheeling schemes. There will be no John Kelley’s in the room this time … and DEFINITELY more operational people to push things like Project 2025.
They are assembling the ranks right now.
Indeed -and starting with the RNC.
It really boggles my mind about how little attention is paid to the differences when there is a comparison of the team around the president. Someone attached a link yesterday (I thought I bookmarked it but I cannot find it) comparing the teams surrounding the 45th and 46th Presidents. It was stunning.
Thanks to KR, here it is. Thank you, George!
https://bomdia.substack.com/p/justice-league-versus-larceny-league
Ally, I think it was George’s link to his Substack piece. You might be able to find it there. If you can’t I’ll try to link it.
It was! Thank you!
Glad you found it! I’m on my iPad and it’s much harder to do than when I’m on the computer.
I have the same issue; I'm often on my phone, and scrolling on that screen is challenging, not to mention the platform.
I'm getting an iPad for my birthday this month (I really want to have a score reader instead of 4 music folders, two of which are large binders) and look forward to easier perusal of LFAA when I am traveling.
I love my iPad. I use it more than my computer, but not ever for music editing. My husband uses his for his music - guitar tabs in his case. I hope you like yours! It’s a great birthday present.
I wonder if President Biden can resort to using the emergency powers which are meant to give presidents extraordinary authorities for use in extraordinary circumstances. America is obviously under a concerted attack to destroy democracy.
The ‘Emergency Powers’ Risk of a Second Trump Presidency | WIRED
https://www.wired.com/story/donald-trump-emergency-powers/
What’s concerning to legal experts are the special powers that would be available to Trump that have been available to all recent presidents but have not typically been used. Should Trump decide to go full authoritarian, he could utilize what are called “emergency powers” to shut down the internet in certain areas, censor the internet, freeze people’s bank accounts, restrict transportation, and more.
Utilizing laws like the National Emergencies Act, the Communications Act of 1934, and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), he would be able to wield power in ways this country has never seen.
“There really aren’t emergency powers relating to surveillance, and that’s because the non-emergency powers are so powerful and give such broad authority to the executive branch. They just don’t need emergency powers for that purpose,” says Elizabeth Goitein, senior director of the Brennan Center for Justice’s Liberty & National Security Program at the New York University School of Law. Goitein says she worries most about what a president could do with the emergency powers available to them, though, when she considers whether a president might decide to behave like an authoritarian. She says the laws surrounding these powers offer few opportunities for another branch of government to stop a president from doing as they please. “Emergency powers are meant to give presidents extraordinary authorities for use in extraordinary circumstances. Because they provide these very potent authorities, it is critical that they have checks and balances built into them and safeguards against abuse,” Goitein says. “The problem with our current emergency powers system—and that system comprises a lot of different laws—is that it really lacks those checks and balances.”
It is an excellent thought Kristin. One thing that should be quite clear at present is that the criminal Trump will avail himself of any law or act, regardless of situational validity or legality, to accomplish whatever his self-enriching agenda is at the time.
While we would all likely characterize the present day as an extraordinary time (a criminal is now the head of a major political party, the House is controlled by MAGA zealot and a small crew of incompetent lunatics, the Supreme Court is stacked with partisans who feel unconstrained to adhere to any ethical standards, precedent (other than opinions and decisions dating back to the Witch trials), and at least 13 U.S. Senators attempted to participate as accomplices to Trump crimes and/or accessories after the fact by opposing the 2020 Electoral College (which is problematic in and of itself), and the continuing influence of foreign adversaries in our election process.
While I would like to see Trump -and the Trumputin MAGA party expelled and precluded from holding any public office -whether Federal, State, City, Local, or Homeowners Association (ie.- Scott Perry, Paul Gosar, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Jim Jordan, Gaetz, Comer, etc.), and then adding 4 Supreme Court Justices, passing strict ethical guidelines for SCOTUS that apply retroactively, etc. -just as we see the Trumputin/MAGA controlled House launching investigation after investigation without a basis in fact, evidence, or reliable witnesses, any future President could simply invoke emergency powers and effectively disenfranchise voters and destroy any thought of justice, democracy, and equity. What would prevent them from doing so, especially if there already was what they would declare -an ambiguous event or set of events to invoke it?
I am with Elizabeth Goitein -there needs to be serious safeguards to prevent abuse. We've already witnessed that the checks and balances of the American system were unable to prevent Trump's actions at the end of his term -and have failed justice thus far -he hasn't spent a day in prison.
Unfortunately our present "checks and balances" are as useful as taking our shoes off at airports -checks and balances provide a limited perception of protection of the American system but have been rendered fragile and ineffective -buried under the weight of dark money by corrupt justices and elected officials.
George, your last paragraph is the best analogy I have seen!!
Absolutely!!👍
To develop the theme of the two teams: it continues to seem to me that Trump is actually "governing" in an UN-elected way, using a populist operating system to demand loyalty, sow havoc and block progress. At the same time Biden's team uses a democratic operating system to serve the citizens
Thanks Alan. Many years ago I wrote a piece comparing the (then) GOP to a mainframe, hierarchical. Liberal progressives were like a massively parallel compute system (without a communications and coordination bus). Silo’d, doing great work, but not collaborating and thus marginalized.
Thank you for stating the obvious differences and outcomes! Biden team has accomplished gains for the people of the nation - this is huge!
Hear ye! Hear ye!
In the context of Dems really serving American needs, Heather shows MAGA descent into madness.
Funny thing is, the millions embracing the madness all seem cheery, as if it's their free choice.
The rich, all the dark money billionaires, see themselves as more free, as if more money gives more choices – energizing, motivating more passion.
Orwell long ago showed, however, how the feelings of choice for many are chimerical. As he patiently explained in "Politics and the English Language," when one sinks to cliché, slogans, hackneyed phrases, group abstractions and labels, one inevitably by that anesthetizes, blinds oneself.
Our billionaires cannot see how they have upped suffering, grown the wealth gap, enabled murderers such as Putin, Saudi royals, Kim, Xi, Erdogan, Assad, the ayatollahs, Hamas, and Netanyahu, and spread the nationalist hatreds of Orban, Fico, Modi, Sisi, and all Trump MAGA.
1st Q: how might it affect them if our billionaires knew even one of our humanities from films like “The Florida Project” and “Winter’s Bone”; novels like Barbara Kingsolver’s “Demon Copperhead,” Walter Mosley’s “Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned,” and many by Richard Russo and Stephen King; memoirs like Mary Karr’s “The Liars’ Club” and Erin Gruwell’s “The Freedom Writers Diary,” and any number of hip hop Ari Melber will cite?
2nd Q: what does it do us – to democracy – if our schools have gutted all that?
Billionaires may vary. Soros is something of a traitor to the ruling class, and they despise him for it. But malignant narcissism abounds in the ranks of Billionaires, and some of that is in plain sight. The "Republican" project since Reagan has been to kill the republic and pump plutocracy, and we have headed a long way in that direction since then. Now they want complete regime change.
We think, we sense, we imagine, we reflect, we feel, we learn to empathize, we experience, THEREFORE; we are. Humanities are part of the essential process of understanding and communication by which we are human. The hint's right in the label.
In 1987, J L, George Soros gave me a plane ticket and $2000 to go to Budapest, Hungary.
The ticket was round-trip, and the money covered a year's study learning Hungarian. For living expenses, Soros' people said hey, you're an American -- you'll be super popular and can teach English.
Correct he was, they were. Forever grateful, me (maybe as grateful as was your daughter in learning Japanese, going there -- or, rather, coming here?).
I can see that from my bigger boat. Muffy, more champagne and truffles, hon.
A "red" tide lifts all super-yachts.
Bumper sticker!
So many to choose from..
From today’s Letter:
“Donald Trump is a threat to our democracy and our fundamental freedoms. He is proud of his role in overturning Roe, and has talked openly about plans for a nationwide abortion ban. He routinely praises authoritarian leaders and has himself vowed to be a dictator on Day One. Just this week, he said that cuts to Social Security and Medicare would be on the table if he receives a second term. Each of these stances ought to be considered disqualifying by itself; taken together, they reveal the former President to be an existential danger to our country.
“With his State of the Union speech last week, President Biden passionately presented our alternative vision. We will reduce costs for families, make housing more affordable, and raise the minimum wage. We will restore Roe, protect voting rights, and finally address our gun violence epidemic. The American people overwhelmingly support this agenda over Donald Trump’s extreme ideas, and that will propel our campaign in the months ahead.”
___ Kamala Harris
Vice President of the United States
'This is National Women's History Month. It honors the successes and sacrifices of U.S. women. It dates to March 8, 1857, when hundreds of women from New York City garment and textile factories rallied to protest harsh working conditions.'
‘The National Women’s History Month’s theme for 2024 celebrates “Women Who Advocate for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.” The theme recognizes women throughout the country who understand that, for a positive future, we need to eliminate bias and discrimination entirely from our lives and institutions.’
‘Women from every background have long realized that an uneven playing field will never bring equality or justice. Many feel the critical need to speak up and work harder for fairness in our institutions and social interactions.
During 2024, we recognize the example of women who are committed to embracing everyone and excluding no one in our common quest for freedom and opportunity. They know that people change with the help of families, teachers and friends, and that young people in particular need to learn the value of hearing from different voices with different points of view as they grow up.' (National Women’s History Alliance)
As we work together toward fair and free elections and bring the strong Blue Wave home, we have many models to learn from. Here is one of them.
‘Dorie Ladner, dauntless civil rights activist, dies at 81’
‘She joined the civil rights movement as a teenager in Mississippi, braving gunfire, tear gas, police dogs and Ku Klux Klansmen in the campaign for racial equality’
Dorie Ladner was 11 months younger than Emmett Till, an African American who was 14 when he was lynched in the Mississippi Delta in 1955, his mutilated body tethered with barbed wire to a cotton gin fan and submerged in the Tallahatchie River.
For their entire lives, Ms. Ladner and her sister, her junior by a year, had endured the indignities of life as African Americans in the Jim Crow South — the rides in the back of the bus, the restrooms and drinking fountains for Black people only, the segregated schools, the secondhand textbooks passed down by White students.
But with Till’s death, “I was enraged, but I did not know what to do with that anger,” Dorie Ladner told an interviewer years later. “His murder made me aware of my Blackness.”
On the encouragement of activists including Vernon Dahmer Sr., a family friend and local NAACP leader who would later be killed in a KKK firebombing of his home, Dorie and Joyce Ladner joined a youth chapter of the NAACP in Hattiesburg, Miss., in 1959, when they were in high school.
As students at Tougaloo College, a historically Black school in Jackson, Miss., the Ladner sisters joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, widely known as SNCC, which became a principal organizer of the civil rights movement.
Having decided that she couldn’t stay in school and “know my people are suffering,” Dorie Ladner dropped out of Tougaloo and for much of the 1960s devoted herself full-time to her activism.
“The line was drawn in the sand for Blacks and for Whites,” she said years later in an interview with PBS’s “American Experience.” “And was I going to stay on the other side of the line forever? No. I decided to cross that line. I jumped over that line and started fighting.”
At a time when Mississippi was one of the most dangerous places in the South for African Americans and civil rights workers, Ms. Ladner joined and led marches and sit-ins, mounted voter registration drives, and helped organize events including the 1963 March on Washington.
She traveled widely, encouraging Black people around the country to embrace their right to vote. She told one crowd in St. Louis that anyone who did not vote “should hang your head in shame,” explaining that in the South, “we have been shot at, beaten, cut and jailed for just trying to register to vote.”
“I gathered any courage I could from both Dorie and Joyce for being in Mississippi,” said Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), who worked there alongside the sisters as an SNCC activist. “They were fearless at a time when it was often that you took your life in your own hands to be in that state. It was they who encouraged me to come, and who encouraged me while I was there.”
The sit-in movement had been touched off on Feb. 1, 1960, when four Black college students sat down at a White-only lunch counter at an F.W. Woolworth five-and-dime store in downtown Greensboro, N.C. In Mississippi, where a more virulent strain of racism prevailed, many activists regarded sit-ins as too dangerous.
But “Dorie was a doer,” recalled Freddie Greene Biddle, a fellow SNCC activist in Mississippi. “There was nothing that Dorie wouldn’t do. She went into all the areas that were tough and hard to be in. She was out front.” (WAPO) See gifted link below.
https://wapo.st/48WkBM9
Kick ass and don't look back. Be like Dorie.
Thank you Fern. I subscribe to WaPo but would have missed this obituary. What a leader and great person Dorie Ladner was. We should all (black, white, Asian, LGBTQ, etc., etc.) strive to be like her.
Thank you for this History lesson!
Fascism in America. Who'd've thought it?
When Frank Zappa said on TV that America was heading towards a fascist theocracy, they all dismissed him as a weirdo musician.
In fact the man was quite the bitter genius.
This is the chilling Frank Zappa quote that I've always remembered, and now with the Trumpian takeover of the RNC it is probably exactly what the Republican Party will do at their upcoming fascist convention:
“The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater.”
That Mexican-paid wall? 😊
The Regressives are drunk on power as well as $$$$$. What I am unable to understand is WHY the retiring Congresscritters and Senators are so beholden to TFFG?
They've already given up.
And who made the deal to not prosecute the pedophile sex trafficking Matt Gaetz? They made up some BS excuse about untrustworthy witnesses, but Michael Cohen testified in the New York fraud case as the star witness.
So maybe it is just about the $$$$.
No Gary. Fascism, not corruption.
Big difference
The American oligarchs like Harlan Crow, the Koch brothers and dozens of other "Fascists" if you will control the Republican Party. Since the horrible Citizens United decision we have no idea how much they control.
They buy members of Congress and SCOTUS with impunity. I'm thinking that's more corruption than Fascism.
These are the Fascists-
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a-small-city-in-oklahoma-elected-a-white-nationalist-will-it-be-able-to-vote-him-out/ar-BB1jPuJm
Enid Oklahoma electing a Nazi to their city council. There was even a story in the local paper before the election but who reads the paper anymore except us old people.
Zappa was quite the genius in many ways he isn't traditionally given credit for. See his classical music creds.
When Zappa did a concert in Lincoln, NE on a Sunday night years ago they were set up to record it. But, his wah-wah pedal wasn't working. At that time there was only one music store in Lincoln and it was closed on Sundays.
He told us the story after the opening number and played the entire unrecorded show sans Wah-wah.
Biden has accomplished so much, yet when I read this excellent summary I only feel sad and angry. The church I attend is moderate, but has many Trump voters (though not roaring MAGA types). Their take is that Biden "hasn't done anything" or that he "didn't fulfill any of his promises" or they parrot one or another of the GOP's points about Biden being dottering or Trump being a "strong leader" on the world stage and Biden being "weak." Nothing gets through to them (and, like far too many voters, they are too uninterested or lazy to bother going beyond the slogans they are fed on the favorite media site - for many of these middle aged and older, Fox "News"). It is sad and frustrating and very, very scary.
I have begun pondering how I will protect myself in the great likelihood that Trump wins. No, not physically, but mentally and spiritually. I will be 75 by that time. I simply cannot take another 4 years as a fully engaged, news guzzling adult. Yet, I've been reading the newspaper since I was in my teens - a very hard habit to break...
Anne-Marie, the last paragraph in your excellent comment is a grave concern to my situation too. I have also been pondering how i will protect myself in the likelihood that walking blob of excrement DJT wins. I cannot take another 4 years of that babbling, arrogant, criminal. I will be pushing 70 years old when the next presidential inauguration takes place. I want to flee to Canada, but that will be a logistical nightmare for me, and i have sent inquiries to officials at the immigration and citizenship services in Canada twice now and have not received any response whatsoever from them. I am probably not pursue moving and i am going to stay here in the USA and if DJT does win, i suppose i will be vermin that they will send to an encampment or thrown in prison because i am NOT going along with their Christian Nationalist BS or anything other ludicrous authoritarian regulations they have proposed for us. They are not going to force that on me. I can only wish DJT would do us a big favor, and DIE! I absolutely hate and despise him. I have never felt that way about anyone else but him.
I feel the same way, John. My husband thinks I'm being alarmist, but I'm very concerned about what'll happen if (as you so eloquently put it) that walking blob of excrement wins. We are on the cusp of retirement. We will need health insurance we can afford until we're eligible for Medicare. We will need all of the Social Security benefits to which we are entitled. If these things go away, we are screwed. Not to mention all the other impacts of a corrupt authoritarian government shoving religion down our throats.
Yes, Ellen, John says it well: "that walking blob of excrement."
Except he (it) waddles, doesn't "walk."
And he (it) comes encased in diapers as much as he (it) also does in layers of also-caked-on orange cosmetics.
I am voting for Joe Biden! I voted for Joe Biden and I voted for Hillary Clinton! This is my country. I have that women, racial minorities, the LBGTQ community and men of good conscience will vote for Joe Biden in November. I will be 74 at election. I am voting for myself, yes, but for my granddaughters. I want their future to be secure. I want them to use their intelligence and talents as they choose.
Canada took over the trucker’s bank accounts when they went on strike. I would not go there.
Please inform yourself about the Truckers Convoy. It was not dissimilar to your January 6. Leaders of the convoy intended to take over the Government by force. There were also many folks who came in from the US waving confederate flags. It was a huge disruption in the Canadian Capital. Most Canadians were frightened and very concerned. The residents of Ottawa were unable to drive, go to work or reside in the downtown area because of days of intimidation using very loud horns. It was definitely not as you call it a “trucker’s strike.”
I understand it was bad like January 6 here. But to freeze bank accounts? They didn’t do that here and I hope we never get totalitarianism here.
It was bad, and went on for weeks. Very, very disruptive and frightening. And not only in Ottawa but at border crossings to the US. Much of the funding came from right wing groups in the US as well. This constitutes foreign interference in the political life of the country. Only a few of the main organizers had their bank accounts frozen. Most ordinary citizens who donated did not.
I’m grateful to hear your comments because RFKJR has used that incident as an example of how we don’t want our government to operate.
Know also that there are conspiracy theorists on the internet espousing that our Prime Minister is an autocrat. This cannot occur in our type of parliamentary democracy. The PM is the leader of the party in power, not a separate position as is the President of the US. There are also two additional parties that make up parliament.
Anne-Marie, I urge you to make some friends who support your political values. Try the League of Women Voters if you can find a group. Or maybe Common Cause or AAUW. I write postcards for a group called Reclaim Our Vote; they don't endorse candidates but issues and target registered Democrats with spotty voting records. There may be similar groups in your community if these don't exist. If Biden wins, you'll feel better about yourself, and if he loses you'll have some friends who share your values. And don't consume the news in isolation; that's unhealthy.
Great suggestions! I am attending our county assembly on Saturday. Even a little involvement in local politics helps dispels the myth that all politicians are the same.
Anne-Marie, it is really hard to penetrate that wall of denial. Softly and gently as you gather in fellowship after the service might be your best tool. I wish you the best of luck as you try to intercede.
I have been trying to “intercede” for years now and have gotten nowhere except to be alienated from friends and some family members! The only way I keep trying is by forwarding Dr. Richardson’s letters.
Actually, I'm not planning to try to intercede. They have there reasons, which I find sad or stunning or odd - they drank the cool aid - but trying to unconvince them would only destroy friendships I otherwise value. As to the church: I'm a retired pastor attending another pastor's church. My responsibility is not to make waves, stir things up, or interfere with the work of the other pastors.
Trump won’t win, RFKJR will take lots of votes away from him!
If he chooses Aaron Rodgers for his VP I doubt he’ll siphon off many democratic votes. What a demonstration of poor judgment that would be. Tell me again how you think Kennedy isn’t anti-vax to even be considering Rodgers.
He is for a safe and properly tested vaccines.I will not support him if Roger’s is chosen. I suspect that it isn’t true, just the New York Times insinuating that to make him look bad. Just because he talks to Roger’s and Ventura doesn’t mean they are considered for Vice President. The Times is misleading , I think.
I’m glad to see that there are at least some bounds on your support for Kennedy.
Moderate Republicans it's time to stand up house Speaker Johnson and defend our Democracy.
Better yet, vote them ALL out for not doing their jobs to date.
It seems that those who are not active insurrectionists are willing accessories after and during the fact.
But Mike has to go immediately.
One cannot really be a "Republican" and aim to destroy the republic.
But as Trump Junior said, "People have got to understand" (that there's no longer a Republican Party".
Shortly after Super Tuesday, I got a heavy-handed text from him. No idea where they got my number. I texted Stop and have only gotten one Republican text since then, but it felt odd.
More than odd. A shot over the bows? I wonder how many people they went to, and what the database is.
No idea. I should have copied it, because the tone seemed threatening.
Check with your carrier and see if you can retrieve it.
Probably scattershot. I was getting some MAGA messages for a while.
Not the party of Eisenhower. Certainly not the "Party of Lincoln" (or T. Roosevelt). Sort of greedy old plutocrats meets cast off DIxiecrats, with notes of Nazi.
J L:
It is past time to inter the corpse of the former Republican Party.
How does "Revanchist-Confederate Party" sound?
Vince S
Nattering Narcissists of Negativity.
If the moderate RepubliKans are going to quit anyway, why not join with the Democrats now?
I remember when George Bush left office he said the thing that surprised him the most was how little power the president had. But then Trump seemed to have no problem trashing whatever he could and plans to finish us off if he gets re-elected. Why can’t President Biden pull more weight to do such things as add more judges to the Supreme Court or get rid of Louis de Joy who is doing his best to destroy the post office? We are faced with blatant treason.
"I remember when George Bush left office he said the thing that surprised him the most was how little power the president had."
That's apparently why Trump want's to be a dictator. and it seems that his party thinks they would like it if he became one.
Shows he had never read the Constitution
Because judges have to get confirmed and no way the maga party is going to let that happen.
Best thing is to vote them out.
We all have to vote soon! There may not be another chance.
A few weeks ago, I spent $40 dollars to send my California ballot special delivery from Japan where I live. The regular US mail is too unreliable. For the presidential election, I received my ballot 2 weeks before it was due. The envelope was torn and some things were missing. So I had to print out a ballot, thanks to Democrats Abroad, and I spent $80 to send it by DHL (because FedX is also unreliable.) Since the year 2000, it’s been getting harder and harder to vote! But in Australia it’s illegal not to vote! It’s one person, one vote - none of the GOP shenanigans to manipulate the votes. It drives me crazy!!
My spouse received her ballot 2 months after the 2020 election was over, despite having applied 6 months earlier, and having it confirmed. Shenanigans or incompetence?
Awful as many in Bush The Lesser's (actually Cheney's) administration were, Dubbya at least had SOME moral spine left, perhaps stiffened by his wife, that stopped him from Trumpian excesses.
I sent in a letter to the Biden campaign questioning those exact issues with my donation. It is way past time for the democrats in leadership to change the course of our tilting ship and very quickly.
The Democrats have a hard time accomplishing much without majorities of REAL Democrats in both houses.
Packing the Supreme Court is more difficult than it seems; it would be slightly less difficult to get a code of ethics written for each of the three branches. The President cannot 'get rid of Louis de Joy, the United States Post office is a "quasi governmental" organization, meaning ONLY the Board of Governance of the USPS can dismiss de Joy. When there becomes another vacancy on the board, the sitting President can make a recommendation to the board but the board appoints.
HCR: Thanks for a wise and compelling analysis of the evolution of this U.S. presidency over the past four years!
This election is the most important ever and just voting is not enough. I will be mailing 100 hand written post cards to swing states to get out the vote. I am also researching volunteering to work a polling station. This time just voting won’t be enough.
Help VOTERIDERS to get voter IDs to Ohio voters would be one action that will make a difference this month ; time is of the essence.
Agree 100%
Good for you Joe!!keep it up-because you are doing the right thing!!!💙💙💙!!!
Thank You for your service, Joe!!
Oregon no longer has polling places (mail in ballots only). Post cards it is.
I recognize that Trump officially put forth the radical right ( I refuse to ever associate the word “Christian” with those people who spit on the teachings of Jesus) Supreme Court nominees. (Though it was highly unlikely he chose the people himself.)
But, it was McConnell who shoved these people through the system. Much of the enabling of Trump’s worst actions was due to Mitch McConnell and it should be recognized and remembered. Hitler, by himself, couldn’t have done much. It took the brown shirts (now red caps) and the cronies and enablers to do things.
Look at what Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Alexei Navalny has to say about Putin -- a gangster pretending to be a politician.
Every word applies to America's would-be dictator, except that he's not yet done to his country what Putin has done and is doing to Russia and its neighbors.
If he can, he will.
Your analysis of Trump‘s takeover of the Republican Party, and the alignment with Christian nationalism are deeply disturbing.
Any third-party movement by so-called disaffected Republicans, and those who don’t respect the integrity of President Biden and his administration will ensure the defeat of the US Constitution and the values of a constitutional democracy.
Welp, when you think everything within reach belongs to you by right, of course anything you want and don't get seems like a theft.
God picked you, not them.
I remember going to bed at 2 in the morning after watching the MSNBC team close down Election Day 2020. We were all elated because we absolutely KNEW that nearly 10 million absentee ballots had yet to be counted and we further ABSOLUTELY KNEW that most of them would be from Democrat voters. It wasn’t till the following morning, as districts across the country tallied those ballots, and reality began to hit trump that something had gone terribly wrong for him, that the shitshow started. The ranting, the frantic phone calls, the gross lying about faulty voting machines and dead people voting…We must remember that absentee voting, because of COVID, may have opened a door of questioning we don’t want to reopen…especially with the Supreme Court of the USA deciding key issues anymore. I say vote at your designated site on Election Day if at all possible. And bring people with you who might need a ride. We can do this!
Well, finally tRUMP has promised to institute a policy that will rid us of him forever. If he carries out deporting those who received citizenship by being born here, he's gone back to whatever country his dad was from where they speak a language no one else speaks (or so he says). As my bumpersticker in 2020 so aptly said: BYEDON