Let's not go back to all Trump, all the time. If we give him oxygen his notoriety wins votes, unfortunately. He will be indicted or not. Our job is to elect Democrats to keep the MAGA cult out of power.
Let's not go back to all Trump, all the time. If we give him oxygen his notoriety wins votes, unfortunately. He will be indicted or not. Our job is to elect Democrats to keep the MAGA cult out of power.
I can concur, Gary, that too much oxygen and public facing attention to Trump is dangerous to fanning his narcissistic flame. Nevertheless, HCR’s piece tonight is an important recap. Her exploration of why this particular case is not so easily dismissed as “a small matter” is critical background. What I take from this is a contextual, broad understanding which reinforces me as I talk at folks’ doors about the former president ~ what better way to reiterate or draw the distinction between the current functioning administration, our values, and vision and the previous?
TFG knew that his slander would play right into the Republicans’ already quarter century of negative propaganda about Hillary Clinton. Does anyone any longer remember her efforts to begin a national health care system?
I remember her efforts to bring national healthcare, and its nothing to brag about.
Whether you agree with the idea, her modus operandi was pure Hillary Clinton.
Tone deaf, inartful, and fumbling. None of her husband's qualities.
It was the hallmark of her career.
Blame everyone else.
Word on the street she is circling back for a potential run at the presidency.
I guess if Joe Biden and John Fetterman can hold office with little or no brain waves, there is hope for her.
The problem is no lesson is ever learned. Besides the screaming melting she had when so lost last time, there is no sense of self awareness.
It was classic watching she and her team spike the football and take victory laps in early October, a month before the election, in spite of Bill's protest.
But as Christopher Hitchens put it best, 'she feels she deserves the presidency' for everything she has done for the country. But "no one should ever run for therapeutic reasons"
“Tone deaf, inartful, and fumbling. None of her husband's qualities”
James A all you are doing is parroting mass media’s relentless negative message about an incredibly talented and accomplished woman who had the audacity to think she could be the most important person on this planet, that is, President of the United States. The nerve of her. In 100 years the misogyny and sexism toward her will be apparent, in hindsight, and future generations will have no positive explanation for the insanity of this country electing tfg, instead of her. There is no explanation and no excuse. As a woman, I will never forget or forgive.
You seem to equate the idea that there were no other crimes with the fact that Trump has gotten away with so many for so many years. Just for starters, there was the $25 million settlement he had to pay the students he defrauded with his Trump University scam.
Try running a billion dollar company. There are always problems.
Do you think he ran the university program day to day? Highly unlikely.
What you described is CIVIL LITIGATION not criminal. A $25,000,000 settlement doesn't sound like getting away with it.
Facts don't really matter. Feelings do. For leftists feeling are first, power is second, politics are third, the truth is last. Otherwise you couldn't have made such a silly post.
Everyone in politics is a narcissist. Are you that naïve? You don't think Clinton, Biden, Harris aren't narcissists too.
As for his taxes, he runs a billion dollar company. I worked on Wall Street. His return is incredibly complicated. Each corporation has its own returns.
Did you look at Biden's return? Did anyone look at his return? No one did. This a joke.
BTW - I suspect there was a lot of unreported income from the Chinese and the Ukrainians.
Hunter was the bagman and his being investigated by a grand jury for tax fraud.
The IRS investigated Trump and found no wrong doing.
Stop with the partisan moralizing. Its just makes you look silly.
Talk about lazy. How is it not lazy to characterize anyone with a contrary opinion as a leftist. Certainly there are prosecutors out there that are Trump haters, but that doesn't make them incompetent, and it doesn't mean that there was not a crime. How much did you send him?
Its lazy when you fail to mention highly relevant facts.
How could Heather leave out the John Edwards episode. Its virtually the same?
That's either dishonest or lazy?
Which one?
She also failed to mention that the FEC and the US Attorney had looked at the case and failed to bring charges?
Is that dishonest or lazy?
Which one?
She failed to mentioned the DA campaigned on bring charges against Trump. Or that the charges being explored are based on a novel theory no one has ever been prosecuted for? A records act.
Is that dishonest or lazy?
Either way it makes this post look like propaganda and partisan.
Well, I'd say it's "juvenile" to use question marks to indicate your incredulity when what you need is an exclamation mark, or even a simple period would suffice. I would also say it's embarrassing to believe there is nothing illegal about your daddy's shenanigans and that "truth" is something he's the slightest bit worried about.....hence his "Truth Social" disaster.
"There are no other crimes try as hard as you may. There is no crime here." No other crimes? Are you kidding me? No other crimes for which he has been indicted/convicted - now I can go with that. Is that what you meant? If/when the indictments come, the crimes indicted for will be spelled out clearly. You sir are for some reason trying to protect a known white collar criminal who took an entire nation and applied his crooked New York real estate mogul ways and bent our political systems toward his own benefit, often in direct opposition to the benefit of the nation at large, for four years as he was president. Some of that was legal, due to imperfections and inadequacies in our laws. Some was not - and for that he is under investigation on several fronts. Not only do I vehemently disagree with you on this, I would also point out that he has already gotten away with multiple potential crimes brought out by the Mueller investigation, obstruction of justice being one of them but not all. It appears the long arm of the law is going to let all that slide. This guy's gotta pay.
Thanks for doing the important work of talking to voters by canvassing. And for having conversations focused on finding common ground that are values-based. That’s golden!
Indeed our job is to elect those who make a better case for being in power than their opponents do, and Democrats are doing so and Republicans are corrupt as hell. That said, I find Trump and the vast array of anti-democratic co-conspirators attempting to overthrow the Republic (no?) and that's a very big deal. It is also essential that those who participated in the attempted coup, and in continuance of sidelining fair and free elections and due process of law be held as accountable as an other segment of society would be had they done the same. That tends not to happen so much to rich, powerful and/or popular; but it must. The more they get away with, the more outrageous and dangerous they have become.
“The vast array of anti-democratic co-conspirators attempting to overthrow the Republic”.
Thank you for stating plain unadorned truth here and throughout the whole of this comment.
The time has long since passed when, in the face of systematic cheating, lying, subversion and theft—carefully, ably, most professionally reframed to mislead—truth could be otherwise stated.
When, however, you suggest possible doubt about this “vast array” you do yourself no service and provide the conspirators with what they will try to use as a key to unlock the cage in which they have entrapped themselves. The onus is on them to disprove the evidence they have piled up against themselves—the words, the actions, the policy.
Policy? TO WIN.
And since all fair means of implementing that policy are on the point of failing, the means are and must be foul.
*
What surprises me is not so much the antics of mad extremists as how such a large body of ordinary men and women should have allowed themselves to be corralled like cattle. And here I am not thinking only of voters but of those politicians who entered politics to do a job serving their constituents…
HCR writes today of these people’s “conviction that Democrats will destroy the country” and their consequent belief that cheating to win is justified. I fear that in so phrasing her sentence she may be projecting onto those who call themselves “Republicans” convictions as genuine as her own. Genuine moneyed interests cannot lose all influence unless they are in the hands of idiots. Participation by genuine conservatives in work for the common good cannot “destroy the country”. This so-called “conviction” has nothing to do with “the country” and everything to do with total domination of that unfortunate country by those who have siphoned off so much material wealth from it that their sole concern now is with continued accumulation and with keeping, not use.
They are in this for accumulation’s sake. As for what to do with what’s accumulated, that is not even a secondary concern for most, as they haven’t a clue. And loose cannons like Musk who do have a clue are potentially even more dangerous, for themselves, for everyone else. All accelerator, their only brakes the rocks, the trees and the ravines by the roadside. Those and other vehicles.
Peter, that phrase struck me, as well. Thanks for pointing it out. That may be what they tell themselves when they try to fall asleep at night, but I don’t think it’s any more true than the other lies they tell.
I, too, was struck by the same sentence by Prof. Richardson: “ It appears Republicans have gotten to the point that they don’t believe they can win a free and fair election, and in their conviction that Democrats will destroy the country, they believe cheating to win is justified.” They don’t just believe—they know that their policies are so unpopular they can’t win a free and fair national election. As a result, they are intent on using all cheating necessary to gain and retain power, as people like Stephen Breitbart and Roger Cohen have been quoted baldly stating. And I agree that Prof. Richardson’s phrasing, “…and in their conviction that Democrats will destroy the country, they believe cheating to win is justified,” is far too kind. Trump and all the MAGA sycophants (McCarthy et al) and coattails/copycat opportunists (DeSantis et al) may have bamboozled millions of gullible MAGA voters into believing Democrats are evil and will “destroy the country.” But they themselves just want all the power and money they can get, any way they can get it. In other words, they have no convictions—they’re just crooks.
...And the Republicans certainly have no worries about anyone "destroy[ing] the country" because they don't care what survives so long as when the dust clears, they have all the power, and a lot of money. By "Democrats will destroy the country" they mean "destroy our opportunities to wage Republican authoritarian control via white supremacy, patriarchal dominance, old white boy network political, legal, and cultural hegemony, and no-rules laissez faire capitalism that gives us our god-given 'freedom' to aggregate all the money and power to us and our buddies, the rich and powerful, and externalizes all the costs and damage onto brown people, poor people, women, and the air, land, and water that we by ancestral rights ought to be allowed to use however we want to get rich and then dump our waste in, without the pesky interference of pantywaist rules from snowflake libruls whining about "pollution" and "global warming" and some silly salamander or whale or micro owl."
Thanks, Elizabeth M, for spelling out a few of the details of those We-Take-You-Pay Rights... Perpetual and, so they'd have us believe, divinely sanctioned...
I remember being called many names, from Democrat to socialist to commie, with other adjectives appended. Then is 2016, a self-righteous loser when tfg got elected and I asked for his goals and policies of my Red friends. "WE won. Get over it. You lost." Winning is everything. Now they talk about how good it was when tfg was in power. And, can't say what was good or better then. No. I don't tell them they are losers as they don't talk to me anymore.
Agreed. I noted this phrasing, "in their conviction that Democrats will destroy the country..." I don't think that is a conviction. They just know it will get supporters worked up enough to cough up money and votes.
Absolutely, Peter. There is no “cause” except to game the system and acquire influence and money. It baffles me that what is being said in its furtherance is being said with a straight face.
"All mass movements strive, therefore, to interpose a fact-proof screen between the faithful and the realities of the world. They do this by claiming that the ultimate and absolute truth is already embodied in their doctrine and that there is no truth nor certitude outside it. The facts on which the true believer bases his conclusions must not be derived from his experience or observation but from holy writ." ~ Eric Hoffer
The sad part is so many common folk vote against their own interest & well being. I frequently see people feed up with their Rep Congress critter say "i will vote for some one else as long as they are not a democrat" When some of these people had a choice of someone running with an I next to their name, support from both parties, they still voted for the Freedom Caucus guy one of our 2 House Reps.
Gary, Trump is the train wreck who never ends. He makes it impossible to look away. Especially for the media...he is VERY easy cannon fodder. His constant side show sells tickets. Don't be afraid of adding oxygen to this dumpster fire of a human being. Eventually there will be nothing but ashes and bones left....and yes the job is too keep MAGA out of power. Use the tower of light that's being thrown at this man to do that. Just think if these things all remained hidden...then what's left there to despise ? He does become the victim of a witch hunt...and not the villain he really is. Be one of the hero's in this epic tale and help throw him off of this stage forever. Don't fear the light. Embrace it.
Interesting his decision to seek the presidency brought to light his earlier misdeeds in NY, and piled on are his crimes of and after the presidency. Had he been satisfied with leading his tawdry, attention-seeking life prior to the presidency, he might have lived out his life out of the criminal Justice system.
MLM, I'm pretty sure Melania and Ivanka understand that. From what I've read I really don't think DJT thought he would actually win in 2016. It was all about stirring the pot and getting attention...then, he REALLY loved the power of it...the smell of the crowd and the roar of the greasepaint...but not the real responsibilities. Right now I don't think he really wants to "serve" as President...he just wants a shield from his other crap. It's disgusting that Mitch helped him get 3 Supreme Court Justices. That's the big blow from his Presidency that will last awhile.
You can see from his rallies, that Trump adores being adored.. a true narcissist. He adores the power of the presidency and that’s what he lusts for. And the money his supporters pour into his coffers.
Good on, Mike: “Don't fear the light. Embrace it.”
One way to add oxygen to the TrumptyDumpty BurnPit is to continue to shine a bright light on Biden administration/Progressive successes and achievements. “They” say Biden is too old. Yet, look at his accomplishments! (Is Rupert Murdoch too old at 92? Too old to make FOXy decisions, like getting married again - #5?)
Right on Paul. I thought Biden was too old during the last primary season. It turns out he was exactly the right guy for the job. Bless him. I knew a man who had been a test pilot all his career, Dick Henson. At age 90 the Insurance industry had to create a new category for him, because he was still flying his corporate jet. I think they might have required a co-pilot...but then Joe has that already.
Yes, exactly, Mike! Plus, our Founders had already come up with a plan that would remedy the Succession Issue. If something happens to Joe, it’s covered. AND, as we are now seeing, Kamala is moving from a “learning” mode to a “governing” mode. Her recent trip to the Security Conference in Munich is a perfect example.
What too many voters tend to forget is that when they push the lever for The Candidate, they are also “electing” everyone that person appoints to important positions. Those appointees can protect us from war, pandemics, unsafe products, pollution, etc. But when The Candidate is a criminal, the appointees will be criminals - members of a crime family who will protect their Leader because that Leader gives them access to untold opportunities for power and money. They will also be loyal because their Leader has the goods on them - as they do on him. A true crime family. Consider the Trump appointees vs the Biden appointees. Those are the people who can do untold damage or unrecognized good. I do not vote just for Biden; I vote for all the good people that a Biden Administration appoints to run the government.
Tell it to a media that still hasn't learned its lesson and would rather toss red meat than the current events that really matter to its audience. This is why a daily LFAA beats the M$M hands down. HCR must be related to Joe Friday b/c she sticks to "just the facts".
Christopher, it's sad, but the media is NEVER going to learn that lesson. "If it bleeds it leads" has been the battle cry forever. We all need trusted and reliable places to get real news and thoughtful enlightened opinions like this page of HCR's. But the general media landscape won't change...the one thing that might...just maybe affect it, is if Fox loses this suit with Dominion big time...that may reign some of the most egregious in. This case may also give pause to future journalists and who they chose to work for.
One can hope that Faux finally gets hoisted on its own petard. However it so frustrating to see how many reporters and news outlets seems completely ignorant of why they have the "freedom of the press" in the first place. They are supposed to be the eyes and ears of the American People, focused on keeping government honest and working on their behalf. Instead they scramble for "eyeballs" no matter how they can do that. So many shouldn't really call themselves news or reporters.
I DO agree that we should allow Trump into our brains for shorter periods of time. Read a bit each day. Get up to date. And then proceed with all the other aspects of life that matter to us. Like family, friends, fun. Like being productive. Like worrying about much more important things like the fact that we are murdering our planet.
But Heather's recap today is brilliant. Too many of the talking heads have suggested that this is a minor offense compared to his other crimes. That's only because the other offenses are so horrific. The Stormy Daniels payoff should have taken Trump to jail with Michael Cohen.
It was a really big crime that led to his election to be the worst President in history. It led to his denying the importance of Covid and the deaths of hundreds of thousands who could have been saved. It led to 4 years of Climate Inaction and worse. It led to Putin thinking it was OK to annex Ukraine. The list too long and I need another coffee.
That payoff led to the biggest electoral mistake in the history of the world.
I like this approach and I'm doing something I believe is an offshoot. I told some friends that since many articles, especially those produced for online consumption, are driven by click traffic, I'm going to be selective. The more we click on a particular topic, the more coverage of that item gets produced.
So, I've vowed to try only clicking on stories of TFG that list and discuss how damning the charges and crimes are against him. My hope is that if I and others do the same in feeding the algorithms, eventually they will almost exclusively cover his crimes, the many court cases springing from them and nothing else. All are welcome to join this quest.
What your comment seems to be saying is "let's stop talking about trump and he will just go away". Another version of this I hear among friends is "I so tired of trump I just stopped listening to the news, I have a life to get on with." My comment is; No we need to cut the head off the snake before it strikes again. I live in copperhead country, the way to keep copperheads away is to get rid of the mice. The GOP are the mice.
We have a duty to keep watching that repugnant person because he is a continuing danger to our nation. He has bullied the entire Republican Party into submission and raised a violent cult to attempt to destroy our democracy and establish a fascist dictatorship with Trump as its head.
It stuns me that one narcissistic bully could become this "Monster from the deep". But the truth is the people...our friends, family and neighbors empowered him with enough backing, enough votes...and then armed terror... to compromise most of the GOP "leadership". We HAVE to continue to pour light on this autocratic vampire. It's our only hope.
YES. Or as someone brilliant whose name I have unfortunately forgotten said, "When there's a deranged gorilla with a machine gun in the room, you've got to keep your eyes on that gorilla..."
Still we need to realize there are a few "good" republicans out there. We need a healthy 2 party system for a healthy democracy. Many of the Good Rep voted for Biden & are speaking out against the Magas & r as alarmed about what has happened to the party as the many here. So s get the Democratic voters out & the GOP who distain MAGA. Too many R who dont like the direction of the R party will not cross the line.
Dear Gary S., ordinarily I would agree with not giving DJT anymore of our oxygen. He gets enough to live on from the media and right wing circus that he has going for him. But I want to understand more about why the Stormy Daniels case has gained so much attention and why it is more important (in the media's coverage that is) than him clearly trying to overturn an election and inciting a riot against the US Capital. The media is going to spin what they will spin but in order for us to clearly understand and to motivate people to vote against him and his sycophants in Congress I think it is a good thing to explain what is truly going on. I keep thinking of history and how when Al Capone thought he could lie, cheat, commit crimes including murder the law FINALLY brought him down on tax evasion charges. He died in prison and the world was a better place with him gone. I am so hopeful that the same thing happens to DJT and truly, I don't care which of his horrible crimes they end up indicting him for. It would be great to have multiple indictments, one after another so we never have to see his ugly face and body, hear his voice or hear about him ever again. May he someday leave this world in obscurity.
It has been said in show business there is no bad publicity. But not everything is a show. Wannabee Sarah Palin got far too much press for about a year or so before she became Sarah Who? (no relation to the Dr.). But despite the fact that in a crueler world she might have wound up being president, she was most a distraction shouting "look at me".
Trump and his party's racketeering is a clear and present danger. We can be selective about what we focus on, but he cannot and should not be ignored. Democrats got into this pickle at least in part by not making a "thing" of "GOP" treachery. Think of the public reaction to Nixon's misdeeds and how "normalized" political whopper lies and law-breaking has become. We can't slide any further without disastrous consequences. Many lives have already been lost, and the public impoverished by "GOP" power plays.
Which we will do. And it’s true that much of the news isn’t worth reading. Sounds like you’re asking us to miss the final episode though. An episode so many have worked so hard to bring forth.
Gary, It’s not a matter of the subject matter as much as it is the key ingredient for understanding history: the details are critical to understanding events.
Heather’s keen eye for detail along with her astute congregation of footnotes develop a whole picture of an era dominated by a criminal who still threatens the nation.
When we consider the conduct of the current national affairs as not emerged in flagrant soulless forays of personal vendettas and nutty adventures of the Trump Presidency it is good we know delineate the stinking carcass before time eases its menace.
Our job is not to elect Democrats. It's to elect those with foresight and good judgement to realize the explicit 6 reasons, brilliantly listed in the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States of America for which our founders and everyone who swears to defend and protect must continue to ordain and establish by lawful authority.
Growing the GDP or making all men equal are not part of that list. Not to say it wouldn't be nice, just that it's not the government's job to form, establish, insure, provide, promote or secure anything but those six top requirements.
Leave the Heaven on Earth job to free people and their gods and not to our government. Anything but those six are just requirement creep and should be illegal.
The MEDIA is doing a very fine job at giving Trump abundant oxygen. They perpetuate and propel his notoriety. That, as I see it, is a huge part of the problem.
Let's not go back to all Trump, all the time. If we give him oxygen his notoriety wins votes, unfortunately. He will be indicted or not. Our job is to elect Democrats to keep the MAGA cult out of power.
I can concur, Gary, that too much oxygen and public facing attention to Trump is dangerous to fanning his narcissistic flame. Nevertheless, HCR’s piece tonight is an important recap. Her exploration of why this particular case is not so easily dismissed as “a small matter” is critical background. What I take from this is a contextual, broad understanding which reinforces me as I talk at folks’ doors about the former president ~ what better way to reiterate or draw the distinction between the current functioning administration, our values, and vision and the previous?
To many this hush money issue is small potatoes compared to the other crimes. HCR is dead right about its importance for the reasons she gave.
TFG knew that his slander would play right into the Republicans’ already quarter century of negative propaganda about Hillary Clinton. Does anyone any longer remember her efforts to begin a national health care system?
I remember her efforts to bring national healthcare, and its nothing to brag about.
Whether you agree with the idea, her modus operandi was pure Hillary Clinton.
Tone deaf, inartful, and fumbling. None of her husband's qualities.
It was the hallmark of her career.
Blame everyone else.
Word on the street she is circling back for a potential run at the presidency.
I guess if Joe Biden and John Fetterman can hold office with little or no brain waves, there is hope for her.
The problem is no lesson is ever learned. Besides the screaming melting she had when so lost last time, there is no sense of self awareness.
It was classic watching she and her team spike the football and take victory laps in early October, a month before the election, in spite of Bill's protest.
But as Christopher Hitchens put it best, 'she feels she deserves the presidency' for everything she has done for the country. But "no one should ever run for therapeutic reasons"
“Tone deaf, inartful, and fumbling. None of her husband's qualities”
James A all you are doing is parroting mass media’s relentless negative message about an incredibly talented and accomplished woman who had the audacity to think she could be the most important person on this planet, that is, President of the United States. The nerve of her. In 100 years the misogyny and sexism toward her will be apparent, in hindsight, and future generations will have no positive explanation for the insanity of this country electing tfg, instead of her. There is no explanation and no excuse. As a woman, I will never forget or forgive.
What other crimes? What a disgraceful claim.
There are no other crimes try as hard as you may. There is no crime here.
The FEC, The US Attorney found no wrong doing. Now a local DA who ran on "Getting Trump" brings a novel charge that has never been prosecuted.
You seem to equate the idea that there were no other crimes with the fact that Trump has gotten away with so many for so many years. Just for starters, there was the $25 million settlement he had to pay the students he defrauded with his Trump University scam.
What a lazy blanket statement.
Try running a billion dollar company. There are always problems.
Do you think he ran the university program day to day? Highly unlikely.
What you described is CIVIL LITIGATION not criminal. A $25,000,000 settlement doesn't sound like getting away with it.
Facts don't really matter. Feelings do. For leftists feeling are first, power is second, politics are third, the truth is last. Otherwise you couldn't have made such a silly post.
Really? Other people run billion dollar companies and don’t commit crimes. How? Because they are ethical.
Really?
Yet another silly post.
Name a billion dollar company and you can find dozens of lawsuits and settlements.
You either naïve or dishonest. Which one?
Are you and Libro working in tandem? You are both quite annoying.
Yup.
I'm sorry that the truth in annoying to you.
You can't point a single error, because there isn't one.
Heather's post today was so full of holes and so poorly research
its mind boggling. But the point of the post wasn't
write the truth, it was to write propaganda.
BTW I don't know Libro. Maybe I should
Is this a joke?
Everyone in politics is a narcissist. Are you that naïve? You don't think Clinton, Biden, Harris aren't narcissists too.
As for his taxes, he runs a billion dollar company. I worked on Wall Street. His return is incredibly complicated. Each corporation has its own returns.
Did you look at Biden's return? Did anyone look at his return? No one did. This a joke.
BTW - I suspect there was a lot of unreported income from the Chinese and the Ukrainians.
Hunter was the bagman and his being investigated by a grand jury for tax fraud.
The IRS investigated Trump and found no wrong doing.
Stop with the partisan moralizing. Its just makes you look silly.
Is this a joke? What a silly post! You are so juvenile you’re embarrassing.
How about sliding on over to TruthSocial or Newsmax or QAnon, where you would find your tribe ready to applaud your every conspiracy-minded word.
Talk about lazy. How is it not lazy to characterize anyone with a contrary opinion as a leftist. Certainly there are prosecutors out there that are Trump haters, but that doesn't make them incompetent, and it doesn't mean that there was not a crime. How much did you send him?
Its lazy when you fail to mention highly relevant facts.
How could Heather leave out the John Edwards episode. Its virtually the same?
That's either dishonest or lazy?
Which one?
She also failed to mention that the FEC and the US Attorney had looked at the case and failed to bring charges?
Is that dishonest or lazy?
Which one?
She failed to mentioned the DA campaigned on bring charges against Trump. Or that the charges being explored are based on a novel theory no one has ever been prosecuted for? A records act.
Is that dishonest or lazy?
Either way it makes this post look like propaganda and partisan.
In fact its so juvenile its embarrassing.
The truth doesn't have a political party.
Well, I'd say it's "juvenile" to use question marks to indicate your incredulity when what you need is an exclamation mark, or even a simple period would suffice. I would also say it's embarrassing to believe there is nothing illegal about your daddy's shenanigans and that "truth" is something he's the slightest bit worried about.....hence his "Truth Social" disaster.
I'm holding out hope for charges related to fraudulent real estate appraisals, so long as we are hoping for state action.
"There are no other crimes try as hard as you may. There is no crime here." No other crimes? Are you kidding me? No other crimes for which he has been indicted/convicted - now I can go with that. Is that what you meant? If/when the indictments come, the crimes indicted for will be spelled out clearly. You sir are for some reason trying to protect a known white collar criminal who took an entire nation and applied his crooked New York real estate mogul ways and bent our political systems toward his own benefit, often in direct opposition to the benefit of the nation at large, for four years as he was president. Some of that was legal, due to imperfections and inadequacies in our laws. Some was not - and for that he is under investigation on several fronts. Not only do I vehemently disagree with you on this, I would also point out that he has already gotten away with multiple potential crimes brought out by the Mueller investigation, obstruction of justice being one of them but not all. It appears the long arm of the law is going to let all that slide. This guy's gotta pay.
Leslie,
Thanks for doing the important work of talking to voters by canvassing. And for having conversations focused on finding common ground that are values-based. That’s golden!
Exactly, Leslie!
Indeed our job is to elect those who make a better case for being in power than their opponents do, and Democrats are doing so and Republicans are corrupt as hell. That said, I find Trump and the vast array of anti-democratic co-conspirators attempting to overthrow the Republic (no?) and that's a very big deal. It is also essential that those who participated in the attempted coup, and in continuance of sidelining fair and free elections and due process of law be held as accountable as an other segment of society would be had they done the same. That tends not to happen so much to rich, powerful and/or popular; but it must. The more they get away with, the more outrageous and dangerous they have become.
“The vast array of anti-democratic co-conspirators attempting to overthrow the Republic”.
Thank you for stating plain unadorned truth here and throughout the whole of this comment.
The time has long since passed when, in the face of systematic cheating, lying, subversion and theft—carefully, ably, most professionally reframed to mislead—truth could be otherwise stated.
When, however, you suggest possible doubt about this “vast array” you do yourself no service and provide the conspirators with what they will try to use as a key to unlock the cage in which they have entrapped themselves. The onus is on them to disprove the evidence they have piled up against themselves—the words, the actions, the policy.
Policy? TO WIN.
And since all fair means of implementing that policy are on the point of failing, the means are and must be foul.
*
What surprises me is not so much the antics of mad extremists as how such a large body of ordinary men and women should have allowed themselves to be corralled like cattle. And here I am not thinking only of voters but of those politicians who entered politics to do a job serving their constituents…
HCR writes today of these people’s “conviction that Democrats will destroy the country” and their consequent belief that cheating to win is justified. I fear that in so phrasing her sentence she may be projecting onto those who call themselves “Republicans” convictions as genuine as her own. Genuine moneyed interests cannot lose all influence unless they are in the hands of idiots. Participation by genuine conservatives in work for the common good cannot “destroy the country”. This so-called “conviction” has nothing to do with “the country” and everything to do with total domination of that unfortunate country by those who have siphoned off so much material wealth from it that their sole concern now is with continued accumulation and with keeping, not use.
They are in this for accumulation’s sake. As for what to do with what’s accumulated, that is not even a secondary concern for most, as they haven’t a clue. And loose cannons like Musk who do have a clue are potentially even more dangerous, for themselves, for everyone else. All accelerator, their only brakes the rocks, the trees and the ravines by the roadside. Those and other vehicles.
Guaranteed destruction of far more than America.
Peter, that phrase struck me, as well. Thanks for pointing it out. That may be what they tell themselves when they try to fall asleep at night, but I don’t think it’s any more true than the other lies they tell.
I, too, was struck by the same sentence by Prof. Richardson: “ It appears Republicans have gotten to the point that they don’t believe they can win a free and fair election, and in their conviction that Democrats will destroy the country, they believe cheating to win is justified.” They don’t just believe—they know that their policies are so unpopular they can’t win a free and fair national election. As a result, they are intent on using all cheating necessary to gain and retain power, as people like Stephen Breitbart and Roger Cohen have been quoted baldly stating. And I agree that Prof. Richardson’s phrasing, “…and in their conviction that Democrats will destroy the country, they believe cheating to win is justified,” is far too kind. Trump and all the MAGA sycophants (McCarthy et al) and coattails/copycat opportunists (DeSantis et al) may have bamboozled millions of gullible MAGA voters into believing Democrats are evil and will “destroy the country.” But they themselves just want all the power and money they can get, any way they can get it. In other words, they have no convictions—they’re just crooks.
...And the Republicans certainly have no worries about anyone "destroy[ing] the country" because they don't care what survives so long as when the dust clears, they have all the power, and a lot of money. By "Democrats will destroy the country" they mean "destroy our opportunities to wage Republican authoritarian control via white supremacy, patriarchal dominance, old white boy network political, legal, and cultural hegemony, and no-rules laissez faire capitalism that gives us our god-given 'freedom' to aggregate all the money and power to us and our buddies, the rich and powerful, and externalizes all the costs and damage onto brown people, poor people, women, and the air, land, and water that we by ancestral rights ought to be allowed to use however we want to get rich and then dump our waste in, without the pesky interference of pantywaist rules from snowflake libruls whining about "pollution" and "global warming" and some silly salamander or whale or micro owl."
Thanks, Elizabeth M, for spelling out a few of the details of those We-Take-You-Pay Rights... Perpetual and, so they'd have us believe, divinely sanctioned...
Once the crooks were dead or behind bars, the movie would come to an end with these words blazoned across the screen:
CRIME DOES NOT PAY
Today we all know that nothing pays like crime.
And nothing can guarantee that high principle more securely than to steal whole countries.
Observe what was done to Russia and is now being done to Ukraine. Then consider examples nearer home.
Elizabeth M: You've made me realize that the action of "To bamboozle" needs to be elevated to a felony!
Deluded deluders. Junkies, methinks, in thrall to a uniquely powerful drug, the more you take the more you need.
It’s win-win and lose-lose… yourself.
Like that old Rolling Stones number, I Can’t Get No Satisfaction.
I remember being called many names, from Democrat to socialist to commie, with other adjectives appended. Then is 2016, a self-righteous loser when tfg got elected and I asked for his goals and policies of my Red friends. "WE won. Get over it. You lost." Winning is everything. Now they talk about how good it was when tfg was in power. And, can't say what was good or better then. No. I don't tell them they are losers as they don't talk to me anymore.
Agreed. I noted this phrasing, "in their conviction that Democrats will destroy the country..." I don't think that is a conviction. They just know it will get supporters worked up enough to cough up money and votes.
Absolutely, Peter. There is no “cause” except to game the system and acquire influence and money. It baffles me that what is being said in its furtherance is being said with a straight face.
"All mass movements strive, therefore, to interpose a fact-proof screen between the faithful and the realities of the world. They do this by claiming that the ultimate and absolute truth is already embodied in their doctrine and that there is no truth nor certitude outside it. The facts on which the true believer bases his conclusions must not be derived from his experience or observation but from holy writ." ~ Eric Hoffer
The sad part is so many common folk vote against their own interest & well being. I frequently see people feed up with their Rep Congress critter say "i will vote for some one else as long as they are not a democrat" When some of these people had a choice of someone running with an I next to their name, support from both parties, they still voted for the Freedom Caucus guy one of our 2 House Reps.
Gary, Trump is the train wreck who never ends. He makes it impossible to look away. Especially for the media...he is VERY easy cannon fodder. His constant side show sells tickets. Don't be afraid of adding oxygen to this dumpster fire of a human being. Eventually there will be nothing but ashes and bones left....and yes the job is too keep MAGA out of power. Use the tower of light that's being thrown at this man to do that. Just think if these things all remained hidden...then what's left there to despise ? He does become the victim of a witch hunt...and not the villain he really is. Be one of the hero's in this epic tale and help throw him off of this stage forever. Don't fear the light. Embrace it.
Interesting his decision to seek the presidency brought to light his earlier misdeeds in NY, and piled on are his crimes of and after the presidency. Had he been satisfied with leading his tawdry, attention-seeking life prior to the presidency, he might have lived out his life out of the criminal Justice system.
MLM, I'm pretty sure Melania and Ivanka understand that. From what I've read I really don't think DJT thought he would actually win in 2016. It was all about stirring the pot and getting attention...then, he REALLY loved the power of it...the smell of the crowd and the roar of the greasepaint...but not the real responsibilities. Right now I don't think he really wants to "serve" as President...he just wants a shield from his other crap. It's disgusting that Mitch helped him get 3 Supreme Court Justices. That's the big blow from his Presidency that will last awhile.
You can see from his rallies, that Trump adores being adored.. a true narcissist. He adores the power of the presidency and that’s what he lusts for. And the money his supporters pour into his coffers.
I agree with you 100%, Mike!!
Good on, Mike: “Don't fear the light. Embrace it.”
One way to add oxygen to the TrumptyDumpty BurnPit is to continue to shine a bright light on Biden administration/Progressive successes and achievements. “They” say Biden is too old. Yet, look at his accomplishments! (Is Rupert Murdoch too old at 92? Too old to make FOXy decisions, like getting married again - #5?)
Right on Paul. I thought Biden was too old during the last primary season. It turns out he was exactly the right guy for the job. Bless him. I knew a man who had been a test pilot all his career, Dick Henson. At age 90 the Insurance industry had to create a new category for him, because he was still flying his corporate jet. I think they might have required a co-pilot...but then Joe has that already.
Yes, exactly, Mike! Plus, our Founders had already come up with a plan that would remedy the Succession Issue. If something happens to Joe, it’s covered. AND, as we are now seeing, Kamala is moving from a “learning” mode to a “governing” mode. Her recent trip to the Security Conference in Munich is a perfect example.
He's very experienced at this "game".
What too many voters tend to forget is that when they push the lever for The Candidate, they are also “electing” everyone that person appoints to important positions. Those appointees can protect us from war, pandemics, unsafe products, pollution, etc. But when The Candidate is a criminal, the appointees will be criminals - members of a crime family who will protect their Leader because that Leader gives them access to untold opportunities for power and money. They will also be loyal because their Leader has the goods on them - as they do on him. A true crime family. Consider the Trump appointees vs the Biden appointees. Those are the people who can do untold damage or unrecognized good. I do not vote just for Biden; I vote for all the good people that a Biden Administration appoints to run the government.
Absolutely right, Marge. I will never forget all those hucksters he appointed to key positions in our government. It’s a miracle we survived.
Yup, exactly, Marge. Good points!!
Excellent point. Not only would TFG 2.0 appointees be criminal but sycophantically so. An extremely dangerous cocktail indeed.
Tell it to a media that still hasn't learned its lesson and would rather toss red meat than the current events that really matter to its audience. This is why a daily LFAA beats the M$M hands down. HCR must be related to Joe Friday b/c she sticks to "just the facts".
Christopher, it's sad, but the media is NEVER going to learn that lesson. "If it bleeds it leads" has been the battle cry forever. We all need trusted and reliable places to get real news and thoughtful enlightened opinions like this page of HCR's. But the general media landscape won't change...the one thing that might...just maybe affect it, is if Fox loses this suit with Dominion big time...that may reign some of the most egregious in. This case may also give pause to future journalists and who they chose to work for.
One can hope that Faux finally gets hoisted on its own petard. However it so frustrating to see how many reporters and news outlets seems completely ignorant of why they have the "freedom of the press" in the first place. They are supposed to be the eyes and ears of the American People, focused on keeping government honest and working on their behalf. Instead they scramble for "eyeballs" no matter how they can do that. So many shouldn't really call themselves news or reporters.
Ratings drive the money. Folks like a good freak show. We sure have one on the GOP side of the aisle in the House these days.
For Fox, the expression “hoist on its own petard” comes to mind. May it happen!
I DO agree that we should allow Trump into our brains for shorter periods of time. Read a bit each day. Get up to date. And then proceed with all the other aspects of life that matter to us. Like family, friends, fun. Like being productive. Like worrying about much more important things like the fact that we are murdering our planet.
But Heather's recap today is brilliant. Too many of the talking heads have suggested that this is a minor offense compared to his other crimes. That's only because the other offenses are so horrific. The Stormy Daniels payoff should have taken Trump to jail with Michael Cohen.
It was a really big crime that led to his election to be the worst President in history. It led to his denying the importance of Covid and the deaths of hundreds of thousands who could have been saved. It led to 4 years of Climate Inaction and worse. It led to Putin thinking it was OK to annex Ukraine. The list too long and I need another coffee.
That payoff led to the biggest electoral mistake in the history of the world.
I love your spiritual awareness melded with political awareness approach, Bill. I felt sanity somewhat restored just reading your comment. :)
Ditto
I like this approach and I'm doing something I believe is an offshoot. I told some friends that since many articles, especially those produced for online consumption, are driven by click traffic, I'm going to be selective. The more we click on a particular topic, the more coverage of that item gets produced.
So, I've vowed to try only clicking on stories of TFG that list and discuss how damning the charges and crimes are against him. My hope is that if I and others do the same in feeding the algorithms, eventually they will almost exclusively cover his crimes, the many court cases springing from them and nothing else. All are welcome to join this quest.
99% agree. The other 1% is that the election of Adolf Hotler in Germany had greater evil repercussions.
What your comment seems to be saying is "let's stop talking about trump and he will just go away". Another version of this I hear among friends is "I so tired of trump I just stopped listening to the news, I have a life to get on with." My comment is; No we need to cut the head off the snake before it strikes again. I live in copperhead country, the way to keep copperheads away is to get rid of the mice. The GOP are the mice.
TRUE
We have a duty to keep watching that repugnant person because he is a continuing danger to our nation. He has bullied the entire Republican Party into submission and raised a violent cult to attempt to destroy our democracy and establish a fascist dictatorship with Trump as its head.
If that doesn't givexyou nightmares, it should!
It stuns me that one narcissistic bully could become this "Monster from the deep". But the truth is the people...our friends, family and neighbors empowered him with enough backing, enough votes...and then armed terror... to compromise most of the GOP "leadership". We HAVE to continue to pour light on this autocratic vampire. It's our only hope.
YES. Or as someone brilliant whose name I have unfortunately forgotten said, "When there's a deranged gorilla with a machine gun in the room, you've got to keep your eyes on that gorilla..."
Still we need to realize there are a few "good" republicans out there. We need a healthy 2 party system for a healthy democracy. Many of the Good Rep voted for Biden & are speaking out against the Magas & r as alarmed about what has happened to the party as the many here. So s get the Democratic voters out & the GOP who distain MAGA. Too many R who dont like the direction of the R party will not cross the line.
Dear Gary S., ordinarily I would agree with not giving DJT anymore of our oxygen. He gets enough to live on from the media and right wing circus that he has going for him. But I want to understand more about why the Stormy Daniels case has gained so much attention and why it is more important (in the media's coverage that is) than him clearly trying to overturn an election and inciting a riot against the US Capital. The media is going to spin what they will spin but in order for us to clearly understand and to motivate people to vote against him and his sycophants in Congress I think it is a good thing to explain what is truly going on. I keep thinking of history and how when Al Capone thought he could lie, cheat, commit crimes including murder the law FINALLY brought him down on tax evasion charges. He died in prison and the world was a better place with him gone. I am so hopeful that the same thing happens to DJT and truly, I don't care which of his horrible crimes they end up indicting him for. It would be great to have multiple indictments, one after another so we never have to see his ugly face and body, hear his voice or hear about him ever again. May he someday leave this world in obscurity.
It has been said in show business there is no bad publicity. But not everything is a show. Wannabee Sarah Palin got far too much press for about a year or so before she became Sarah Who? (no relation to the Dr.). But despite the fact that in a crueler world she might have wound up being president, she was most a distraction shouting "look at me".
Trump and his party's racketeering is a clear and present danger. We can be selective about what we focus on, but he cannot and should not be ignored. Democrats got into this pickle at least in part by not making a "thing" of "GOP" treachery. Think of the public reaction to Nixon's misdeeds and how "normalized" political whopper lies and law-breaking has become. We can't slide any further without disastrous consequences. Many lives have already been lost, and the public impoverished by "GOP" power plays.
Seems to me there is a difference between the crimes and the results of the crimes.
Yes and the two are intertwined.
Which we will do. And it’s true that much of the news isn’t worth reading. Sounds like you’re asking us to miss the final episode though. An episode so many have worked so hard to bring forth.
Yes. Keep it in peripheral vision and work to identify and mobilize Democratic voters.
Also how can giving oxygen to Republican nonsense hurt any more than it has so far? Their lies are lies.
Gary, It’s not a matter of the subject matter as much as it is the key ingredient for understanding history: the details are critical to understanding events.
Heather’s keen eye for detail along with her astute congregation of footnotes develop a whole picture of an era dominated by a criminal who still threatens the nation.
When we consider the conduct of the current national affairs as not emerged in flagrant soulless forays of personal vendettas and nutty adventures of the Trump Presidency it is good we know delineate the stinking carcass before time eases its menace.
Our job is not to elect Democrats. It's to elect those with foresight and good judgement to realize the explicit 6 reasons, brilliantly listed in the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States of America for which our founders and everyone who swears to defend and protect must continue to ordain and establish by lawful authority.
Growing the GDP or making all men equal are not part of that list. Not to say it wouldn't be nice, just that it's not the government's job to form, establish, insure, provide, promote or secure anything but those six top requirements.
Leave the Heaven on Earth job to free people and their gods and not to our government. Anything but those six are just requirement creep and should be illegal.
The MEDIA is doing a very fine job at giving Trump abundant oxygen. They perpetuate and propel his notoriety. That, as I see it, is a huge part of the problem.