As rumors swirl about what may be an upcoming indictment against former president Donald Trump from Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg, Republican Party leaders are in a bit of a pickle. For years now, they have gone along with—and some have fed—Trump’s insistence that the government is stacked against him and therefore against the right wing. Some have gone along out of conviction, undoubtedly, but others almost certainly were trying to keep the base voters without whom the Republicans cannot win an election.
Big news today that Trump attorney Corcoran apparently testified to the other GJ investigating the hidden classified documents. Judge Howell ordered him to turn over his contemporaneous notes of his telephone conversation with whoever told him about the delivery of the complete set of classified docs which of course was false. The government now has his notes. Presumably he was told that all the docs were produced that morning by this other person and that person was...you guess who? If so, guilty as charged of a serious national security crime! If someone else told him, the investigation just shifts to that person but it is probably fair to state that the buck ends up with Trump! The net result, dear Substack friends, is neigh! An indictment is very close to fruition! Finally! Kudos to Jack Smith for his motion to Judge Howell to waive the attorney client privilege which succeeded! A long shot that worked! Very rarely accomplished! Justice may be done quite soon!
Important to understand that Trump posted this on "Truth" Social: "THE RADICAL LEFT ANARCHISTS HAVE STOLLEN OUR PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION" and "MILLIONS ARE FLOODING THROUGH OUR OPEN BOARDERS' So...."Woke" people are baking German Chistmas pastries and boarders are flooding our cities.
I am with your previous comments re trump, bored by all the puffery and not so patiently waiting for him to go away…prison would be good but really just go away
This may cause Trump more harm than good. The country is suffering from 'Trump fatigue', and his constant alarms are reminding people how unfit he is to be president. My guess would be that for every one of his supporters who reaches for his credit card to send Trump a donation, there are likely to be many others were simply reminded about what an unstable person he is, and how much we want him to be gone. At some point, publicity and advertising get tuned out. We get enured to the stuff to the point that we don't even hear it anymore. It just becomes background noise. Trump is forever 'crying wolf', and at some point even his most fervent supporters are closing their checkbooks. I know this because I feel the same way about people who were constantly dunning me for campaign contributions, people to whom I have contributed before, but then I hear that little voice in me that says, 'not right now', or 'maybe later'. Even people I like can get tiresome in there pleas to send them campaign contributions. I get it. I also understand the tactics of solicitation, where the email appears to be personalized, and it says that I am among the top whatever it is that they're soliciting, or they want my opinion about something, or to sign some sort of petition; it's just one thing after another, and I tune it out. I'm expecting that these solicitations is to trump supporters are received in much the same way, because I get them— 'Apocalypse now'; the other side is winning; our fundraising is failing, send $3 (what the hell is $3 going to accomplish), the damn algorithm has my name and email address and it's never going to quit! This is going to come a point where even the most ardent redneck Trump supporter is going to realize that most of his beer money is going to Trump, or his family has expenses that won't allow for political contributions. Then there's the sure disillusionment of having to deal with someone we consider to be a friend who never stopped asking for money. The constant drip-drip-drip is terribly annoying, and we wanted to stop; and if we feed the beast, it's never enough. It's tax season, and most of us who have money are going to have to pony up some more to pay the tax man, because the tax system is corrupted, and billionaires pay less syntax than we do. There are too many hands out looking for money, and fewer reasons to give them any of it. So, when Trump bangs on his little tin cup, I'm expecting that a great number of his former supporters are simply going to avert their eyes and pretend that they heard nothing at all.
You guys, I need to share how I feel about something, and I need you all to gather in close so that no one else can hear, because it is ka-ray-zay. No, I mean, really, you'll think I'm nuts. Come in closer. Closer! I need to whisper it. Are you ready? I mean really really ready? Okay... here goes...
I don't really care that much whether tfg goes to jail or not.
Don't look at me like that! I told you it was crazy! Wait! Come back! I thought we were friends! HEAR ME OUT!
I didn't say I didn't care *at all.* Dont get me wrong, if/when it happens, I will take the day off work and invite everyone in my address book to the party of the year. Everyone will get their own custom noisemakers, and their own differently colored set of fireworks. Mom will make ambrosia. We will spill into the street as night falls and sing the Star Spangled Banner with an extra tear in the eye. It will be great.
But...
I remain so perplexed and concerned at both how much space the much-desired Cheeto Legal Reckoning takes up in this forum (and others) day after day, as well as the tone with which the conversation takes place. I have read so many variations recently of how "our hope rests with" those brave prosecutors reasserting the law and putting the charlatans away, lest our Repubublic be lost. Excuse me? Frankly, how rude to the tens of millions of common citizens who participated in saving our democracy the last few election cycles the regular way, by voting and interacting with our neighbors. We do not need a hero in a courtroom drama to keep this country going. What evidence makes y'all think we need any different kind of saving than we have already been doing ourselves?
I think our collective trauma is talking here and - as trauma does - it is demanding emotional closure. We Americans belong to a culture so steeped in narrative. We have mastered the tidy narrative of inspirational triumph especially well. Hollywood. Broadway. Manifest Destiny. We love heroes and villains, we love a final face-off, we love just desserts, lessons learned, and horses riding into the sunset. There is nothing wrong with loving these things! They speak to an optimism in the national character. The political rise of tfg was an absolute vortex of drama, and to those of us in the reality-based community, the unfolding drama has had an unequivocal supervillain. Yet the "vanquishing" part of the story has not arrived. Sure, the villain was removed from ultimate power, but he was removed by election. That's a way that all sorts of less-evil or not-evil people lost power, too! And he's still out there, and still having whatever he wants for dinner each night. Not good enough, say our poor narrative-seeking, traumatized brains. A *unique, unprecedented* menace must have a *unique, unprecedented* punishment! If you attempted a coup, you should be in jail! Come on! Please, we say, we have had so many of the stories we told ourselves about our country stolen from us, so many scales ripped from our eyes, this process has been so damn dramatic and painful, please please please just give us a satisfying ending. Let us have that part of the story, that closure. How will the world seem balanced if we do not get that?
But... what will having this ending DO for us exactly? Putting tfg away, however satisfying, will not single-handedly restore the rule of law in America, nor will the lack of such an outcome doom it. Plenty of evil people will still be out and about on private yachts, and many innocent people will be behind bars. What makes the continued precense of these systemic injustices any less of a deal-breaker with regards to how we perceive the rule of law? Putting tfg away, however satisfying, will not dissuade other right-wing wannabe autocrats from embarking on a less openly criminal quest for power, just as failure to put ftg away will not cause the army of progressive activists that sprang into action during his reign of terror to throw up their hands and walk away. Plus, the ICC just released another dire call to action today to save our only planetary home from tragic degredation. How will putting everyone's least favorite rotting pumpkin in the appropriate garbage bin get us closer to avoiding that, pray tell?
Simply, the supervillain's vanquishing is not our endgame. Not my endgame, at least. My endgame is a healthier society that is significantly less apt to give any such villainy space to thrive. And focusing so much on desired downfalls will not help us get there.
It would be poetic justice, yes. But social justice is what I care about more.
”...former Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele tweeted "Why the hell are you (Mike Pence) 'taken aback by the idea of indicting a former President' who has engaged in criminal behavior? Why continue to make excuses for Trump who would rather see you hanged & rancid behavior you decry in others?"... Priceless. Sounds like 'hero' Pence is somewhat conflicted...
Thank you, Professor Richardson, for the satisfying rundown of the current predicaments of the various insurrectionists inside government and out. What a pathetic and dangerous bunch of misguided power seeking prevaricators.
"The chairs claim they want to know if federal money was used in the investigation, but Representative Daniel Goldman (D-NY) noted: “Defending Trump is not a legitimate legislative purpose for Congress to investigate a state district attorney. Congress has no jurisdiction to investigate the Manhattan DA, which receives no federal funding nor has any other federal nexus.”
Jim Jordon (R-OH) is worried tax money is being used to prosecute Trump ? I’m more concerned as to whether federal money is used for Jim Jordan and his fellow cronies on their annual three-day retreat at a luxury resort in Orlando, Florida.
“So many reporters here I just saw a reporter start interviewing someone but they turned out to be a reporter too,”
Thanks, I needed this bit of irony + levity.
"Why the hell are you 'taken aback by the idea of indicting a former President' who has engaged in criminal behavior? Why continue to make excuses for Trump who would rather see you hanged & rancid behavior you decry in others?"
Excellent questions.
“American aid worker Jeff Woodke, who was taken prisoner more than six years ago in Niger and held captive by a terrorist group, has been released.”
Thank you Biden Administration and Secretary of State Blinken.
As is typical with anything regarding the Orang, fka as the less-than-majority-elected former president, he wants everyone ELSE to support his misdeeds. Shocking. Not shocking that his media can create an alternate universe where he is the victim though. It's his calling-card!
I agree it puts many if not all Republicans in a tough spot. HCR detailed that sufficiently.
My point, my reason for posting a comment, is: does any of it move the dial? Will ANY of this create a real conversation about the loss of real discourse between the parties; the REAL Democrats and REAL Republicans? That is what I'd like to get back to.
The fixation on Trump, by both parties, distracts, at best, from the job. The work that is governing. I'm sorry, but the MTG and Bobo's of the "leadership" should not define the conversation we all PAY FOR in this Country. The former office-holder seems to at-least hold-sway on the attention of the Country and until it changes; all efforts to besmirch, indict and give reason to not support that individual will be in-vane... I'll re-asset here that a portion of the Country is now under the influence of a Fox-News-created cult. Is it most of the Republican party: No. It is a portion that is out-sized from what even Mitch McConnell thinks is reasonable.
The Republican Party has work to do. It wont be at the direction of Mr. McCarthy. He's a bitch. The party needs leadership. They need a spine that can stand up to the ridiculous individuals that are advocating for, essentially, no government.
Dems need to advocate FOR government. As weird as that is, the frame of the debate has become that. Biden has done that, but it's not as easy as just doing it. People that need to know that government is working for them aren't hearing it. That will become the existentIal question in 24.
Here's hoping the reporters continue outnumbering the protestors and Trump will explode in a burst of apoplectic outrage that he is being deserted by his followers in his darkest hour. I am waiting for him to compare himself to Jesus Christ. Blasphemy is about the only thing left on his bucket list.
Big news today that Trump attorney Corcoran apparently testified to the other GJ investigating the hidden classified documents. Judge Howell ordered him to turn over his contemporaneous notes of his telephone conversation with whoever told him about the delivery of the complete set of classified docs which of course was false. The government now has his notes. Presumably he was told that all the docs were produced that morning by this other person and that person was...you guess who? If so, guilty as charged of a serious national security crime! If someone else told him, the investigation just shifts to that person but it is probably fair to state that the buck ends up with Trump! The net result, dear Substack friends, is neigh! An indictment is very close to fruition! Finally! Kudos to Jack Smith for his motion to Judge Howell to waive the attorney client privilege which succeeded! A long shot that worked! Very rarely accomplished! Justice may be done quite soon!
Important to understand that Trump posted this on "Truth" Social: "THE RADICAL LEFT ANARCHISTS HAVE STOLLEN OUR PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION" and "MILLIONS ARE FLOODING THROUGH OUR OPEN BOARDERS' So...."Woke" people are baking German Chistmas pastries and boarders are flooding our cities.
I am with your previous comments re trump, bored by all the puffery and not so patiently waiting for him to go away…prison would be good but really just go away
This may cause Trump more harm than good. The country is suffering from 'Trump fatigue', and his constant alarms are reminding people how unfit he is to be president. My guess would be that for every one of his supporters who reaches for his credit card to send Trump a donation, there are likely to be many others were simply reminded about what an unstable person he is, and how much we want him to be gone. At some point, publicity and advertising get tuned out. We get enured to the stuff to the point that we don't even hear it anymore. It just becomes background noise. Trump is forever 'crying wolf', and at some point even his most fervent supporters are closing their checkbooks. I know this because I feel the same way about people who were constantly dunning me for campaign contributions, people to whom I have contributed before, but then I hear that little voice in me that says, 'not right now', or 'maybe later'. Even people I like can get tiresome in there pleas to send them campaign contributions. I get it. I also understand the tactics of solicitation, where the email appears to be personalized, and it says that I am among the top whatever it is that they're soliciting, or they want my opinion about something, or to sign some sort of petition; it's just one thing after another, and I tune it out. I'm expecting that these solicitations is to trump supporters are received in much the same way, because I get them— 'Apocalypse now'; the other side is winning; our fundraising is failing, send $3 (what the hell is $3 going to accomplish), the damn algorithm has my name and email address and it's never going to quit! This is going to come a point where even the most ardent redneck Trump supporter is going to realize that most of his beer money is going to Trump, or his family has expenses that won't allow for political contributions. Then there's the sure disillusionment of having to deal with someone we consider to be a friend who never stopped asking for money. The constant drip-drip-drip is terribly annoying, and we wanted to stop; and if we feed the beast, it's never enough. It's tax season, and most of us who have money are going to have to pony up some more to pay the tax man, because the tax system is corrupted, and billionaires pay less syntax than we do. There are too many hands out looking for money, and fewer reasons to give them any of it. So, when Trump bangs on his little tin cup, I'm expecting that a great number of his former supporters are simply going to avert their eyes and pretend that they heard nothing at all.
You guys, I need to share how I feel about something, and I need you all to gather in close so that no one else can hear, because it is ka-ray-zay. No, I mean, really, you'll think I'm nuts. Come in closer. Closer! I need to whisper it. Are you ready? I mean really really ready? Okay... here goes...
I don't really care that much whether tfg goes to jail or not.
Don't look at me like that! I told you it was crazy! Wait! Come back! I thought we were friends! HEAR ME OUT!
I didn't say I didn't care *at all.* Dont get me wrong, if/when it happens, I will take the day off work and invite everyone in my address book to the party of the year. Everyone will get their own custom noisemakers, and their own differently colored set of fireworks. Mom will make ambrosia. We will spill into the street as night falls and sing the Star Spangled Banner with an extra tear in the eye. It will be great.
But...
I remain so perplexed and concerned at both how much space the much-desired Cheeto Legal Reckoning takes up in this forum (and others) day after day, as well as the tone with which the conversation takes place. I have read so many variations recently of how "our hope rests with" those brave prosecutors reasserting the law and putting the charlatans away, lest our Repubublic be lost. Excuse me? Frankly, how rude to the tens of millions of common citizens who participated in saving our democracy the last few election cycles the regular way, by voting and interacting with our neighbors. We do not need a hero in a courtroom drama to keep this country going. What evidence makes y'all think we need any different kind of saving than we have already been doing ourselves?
I think our collective trauma is talking here and - as trauma does - it is demanding emotional closure. We Americans belong to a culture so steeped in narrative. We have mastered the tidy narrative of inspirational triumph especially well. Hollywood. Broadway. Manifest Destiny. We love heroes and villains, we love a final face-off, we love just desserts, lessons learned, and horses riding into the sunset. There is nothing wrong with loving these things! They speak to an optimism in the national character. The political rise of tfg was an absolute vortex of drama, and to those of us in the reality-based community, the unfolding drama has had an unequivocal supervillain. Yet the "vanquishing" part of the story has not arrived. Sure, the villain was removed from ultimate power, but he was removed by election. That's a way that all sorts of less-evil or not-evil people lost power, too! And he's still out there, and still having whatever he wants for dinner each night. Not good enough, say our poor narrative-seeking, traumatized brains. A *unique, unprecedented* menace must have a *unique, unprecedented* punishment! If you attempted a coup, you should be in jail! Come on! Please, we say, we have had so many of the stories we told ourselves about our country stolen from us, so many scales ripped from our eyes, this process has been so damn dramatic and painful, please please please just give us a satisfying ending. Let us have that part of the story, that closure. How will the world seem balanced if we do not get that?
But... what will having this ending DO for us exactly? Putting tfg away, however satisfying, will not single-handedly restore the rule of law in America, nor will the lack of such an outcome doom it. Plenty of evil people will still be out and about on private yachts, and many innocent people will be behind bars. What makes the continued precense of these systemic injustices any less of a deal-breaker with regards to how we perceive the rule of law? Putting tfg away, however satisfying, will not dissuade other right-wing wannabe autocrats from embarking on a less openly criminal quest for power, just as failure to put ftg away will not cause the army of progressive activists that sprang into action during his reign of terror to throw up their hands and walk away. Plus, the ICC just released another dire call to action today to save our only planetary home from tragic degredation. How will putting everyone's least favorite rotting pumpkin in the appropriate garbage bin get us closer to avoiding that, pray tell?
Simply, the supervillain's vanquishing is not our endgame. Not my endgame, at least. My endgame is a healthier society that is significantly less apt to give any such villainy space to thrive. And focusing so much on desired downfalls will not help us get there.
It would be poetic justice, yes. But social justice is what I care about more.
”...former Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele tweeted "Why the hell are you (Mike Pence) 'taken aback by the idea of indicting a former President' who has engaged in criminal behavior? Why continue to make excuses for Trump who would rather see you hanged & rancid behavior you decry in others?"... Priceless. Sounds like 'hero' Pence is somewhat conflicted...
Thank you, Professor Richardson, for the satisfying rundown of the current predicaments of the various insurrectionists inside government and out. What a pathetic and dangerous bunch of misguided power seeking prevaricators.
It is a distinct pleasure to read this intelligent historian's round up of current events and the pickle Republicans are in now.
"The chairs claim they want to know if federal money was used in the investigation, but Representative Daniel Goldman (D-NY) noted: “Defending Trump is not a legitimate legislative purpose for Congress to investigate a state district attorney. Congress has no jurisdiction to investigate the Manhattan DA, which receives no federal funding nor has any other federal nexus.”
Details. details. The show must go on....
Jim Jordon (R-OH) is worried tax money is being used to prosecute Trump ? I’m more concerned as to whether federal money is used for Jim Jordan and his fellow cronies on their annual three-day retreat at a luxury resort in Orlando, Florida.
Buckle up .. it’s about to get bumpy !!
Thank you Heather.
“So many reporters here I just saw a reporter start interviewing someone but they turned out to be a reporter too,”
Thanks, I needed this bit of irony + levity.
"Why the hell are you 'taken aback by the idea of indicting a former President' who has engaged in criminal behavior? Why continue to make excuses for Trump who would rather see you hanged & rancid behavior you decry in others?"
Excellent questions.
“American aid worker Jeff Woodke, who was taken prisoner more than six years ago in Niger and held captive by a terrorist group, has been released.”
Thank you Biden Administration and Secretary of State Blinken.
Ni night all. Zzz...
As is typical with anything regarding the Orang, fka as the less-than-majority-elected former president, he wants everyone ELSE to support his misdeeds. Shocking. Not shocking that his media can create an alternate universe where he is the victim though. It's his calling-card!
I agree it puts many if not all Republicans in a tough spot. HCR detailed that sufficiently.
My point, my reason for posting a comment, is: does any of it move the dial? Will ANY of this create a real conversation about the loss of real discourse between the parties; the REAL Democrats and REAL Republicans? That is what I'd like to get back to.
The fixation on Trump, by both parties, distracts, at best, from the job. The work that is governing. I'm sorry, but the MTG and Bobo's of the "leadership" should not define the conversation we all PAY FOR in this Country. The former office-holder seems to at-least hold-sway on the attention of the Country and until it changes; all efforts to besmirch, indict and give reason to not support that individual will be in-vane... I'll re-asset here that a portion of the Country is now under the influence of a Fox-News-created cult. Is it most of the Republican party: No. It is a portion that is out-sized from what even Mitch McConnell thinks is reasonable.
The Republican Party has work to do. It wont be at the direction of Mr. McCarthy. He's a bitch. The party needs leadership. They need a spine that can stand up to the ridiculous individuals that are advocating for, essentially, no government.
Dems need to advocate FOR government. As weird as that is, the frame of the debate has become that. Biden has done that, but it's not as easy as just doing it. People that need to know that government is working for them aren't hearing it. That will become the existentIal question in 24.
Meanwhile, Trump spent the day “truthing” on social media.
He keeps LYING when he ought to be truthing, and he keeps LOSING when he ought to not bet...
Every day, President Truman's 1948 statement only becomes more relevant and accurate - the situation he described then is only 2,000x worse now:
"the only 'good Republicans' are pushing up daisies."
Personally, I don't think Jungle Gym Jordan could push up a dandelion.
Here's hoping the reporters continue outnumbering the protestors and Trump will explode in a burst of apoplectic outrage that he is being deserted by his followers in his darkest hour. I am waiting for him to compare himself to Jesus Christ. Blasphemy is about the only thing left on his bucket list.
As many will attest, “Just Asking Questions” is also known somewhat obscurely as sealioning or more crudely as JAQing off.