The story presented by the police about the massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, was that a teacher propped open the door the murderer used to enter the building. In fact, the teacher had propped the door open but slammed it shut and called the police because the shooter was firing a weapon outside. The door did not lock as it should have.
I know this question is naive but here goes anyway: how/why has Trump been able to avoid arrest? Seriously…I truly want to understand how a person gets away with so much for so long. He’s like an eel…no offense to the eel.
Madame Professor. For an academic historian you are one hell of a researcher and real time journalist. Bravo. For years I produced history videos where the outcome was totally known, before we started the project. Then I took on a documentary about the possibility of Fracking in Western Maryland. I had never been a "news guy". I interned at WJZ-TV in Baltimore during college and actually wanted to work a path towards Wide World of Sports. That went sideways...but what I learned from being around the news room was that I didn't want to be the guy sticking my camera in the face of someone whose child had been murdered.
The one news story I shot in 30 years was about Mel Fishers gold haul from the Atocha.
Fast forward to 2015 and I read a front page headline in the Baltimore Sun. Boom or Bust ? and it started me on a 2 year path that ended with Fracking being banned in Maryland by our Blue State Legislature and signed by our Red Governor. An historic first in a state that actually has gas reserves.
There was a moment in the work...when I said to myself..."I don't know if I can do this justice. I'm totally flying by the seat of my pants." People had donated their money to me...so I just kept going. In the process I went from journalist...which I maintained until the film was shown a few times... To activist when what would be the final vote getting out of committee was in doubt. My Dem State Senator from Baltimore was the log jam. She was owned by big G&O...and she did everything in her power to keep the bill in her desk. I helped force it out, by going head to head with her in a hearing. I had the advantage of meeting with her off the record and documenting her in public...and I learned how to get eye to eye with her. Boy, it feels good to tell this story. In the end we won...and she lost her seat as our rep.
So lets all keep learning and acting on it. Thank you Dr. Richardson.
Barr, Durham and Trump accused Sussman and Hillary of doing what Republicans do all the time - run a phony investigation in an attempt to smear their opponents. It’s such a standard part of the Republican playbook that they assumed Hillary would do the same thing. Of course, she didn’t. Republicans can’t believe that, because they assume that their opponents are as craven and amoral as they are. Trump and Barr cannot imagine a world in which the party in control of the White House wouldn’t use the DOJ and the FBI to try to destroy the opposition. The irony is that this is exactly what Barr and Trump tried to do with this Durham “investigation”. The only guilty party here is Barr.
Trump and his administration may be the sleaziest we have seen but that does not make it ok that Hilary is who she is. We know how they smeared Bernie and that among other things turned off so many voters. I have always felt that the choice of Hilary gave us Trump. I have often voted for the lessor evil and voting for Hillary was one of the most difficult votes of my life. The Dems keep supporting weak or compromised candidates, Texas comes to mind right now as Pelosi backed a anti choice, NRA, big oil supporting man over a young progressive candidate. This is why they are losing and why many people like me call ourselves independents or socialists. I fear what the midterms bring us.
It is yet another tragedy in the life of Hillary Clinton that the poisonous drip about her motivations manufactured by the Republican white male establishment seems to have entered the DNA of not just women Republicans but also so many Democrats of all genders and colors. I see it among my own Democratic and Independent friends, male and female. It is hurtful to me, and scary, to contemplate how undefended women in all professions are against such destructive and malicious speech.
What scares me most, however, is the lack of empathy and understanding for an outstanding female public servant whose life was (and is) dedicated to a better future for all, especially women and children, everywhere in the world. Yes, she voted for the Iraq war, a very bad mistake. So did virtually every other senator, most of them male. Ask yourselves: has it disqualified these men in the eyes of the voting public for the rest of their lives the way it did Hillary's standing?
Yes, Bill Clinton made terrible mistakes in his relationships with women. I recall the long-ago senator from Colorado, Pat Schroeder, describing a room (or rooms) in Congress for male politicians of both parties to retire to with their paramours. Bill Clinton was one in a long line of men who behaved (and behave) badly. But whose business is it to condemn Hillary for marrying Bill Clinton and/or staying with him after the roof blew off their private lives over private decisions, however bad? She forgave him. He mattered to her. She mattered to him. She understood him. He understands her. They have a child they raised lovingly and courageously. Who are we to condemn them if we consider ourselves, our own decisions, the poisonous culture we have been asked to navigate while going through our days, fighting for what we believe in, raising our children, taking care of our families?
I met Hillary Clinton during a weekend in the early 2000s for a dozen or two donors from the Boston area who were invited to meet her at the Senate and, later, at her home in Georgetown for dinner. At the Senate in the early afternoon, she spoke with us patiently while managing numerous interruptions and calls for votes. She wore a green pantsuit. At night, she arrived at the dinner table around nine, still wearing the same pantsuit, exhausted, but gracious. Guests could ask questions.
The second question was about the situation in the Middle East. She began to talk, without pause, for more than twenty minutes, with passion and empathy for all those she knew and had known there, and had interacted with, and had listened to, for decades. She knew everyone, on all sides. She knew everything, from a day ago and from decades before. She wove it together for us so we could understand what she understood. She was the most informed, lucid, compassionate politician and human being we could have had to represent us, who would have, and could have, made a difference in our politics. Her losses were a victory for the Republicans. They knew what they had to do when they first noticed her, many decades ago.
It is so sad about the door. I personally believe that the chief of the entire Uvalde police department coordinated throughout with the schools chief. This seems to be another instance of the police telling lie upon self protecting lie in their reports of an incident where people died because of what they did or did not do.
John Durham has sullied his name - hopefully forever. Seeing Gym Jordan and Mark Meadows trumpeting the false narrative is sickening. Benghazi and Hillary's emails still resonate strongly in certain quarters of the anxious right. And our former guy just keeps on bobbing and weaving all the while lying. The only thing that i can see being an antidote is serious campaign reform resulting in, among other things: 1) term limits for senators, congressmen at least and maybe even supreme court justices, 2) wringing out the money by, among other things, legislating a reversal of Citizens United, and 3) reintroducing a version of the Fairness Doctrine so that FOX's propaganda machine is reformed. And what else?
Where I live it would be a conflict of interest for a police officer at any level to be on our Board of Selectman (I.e.City Council) since the Board is the “employer “, setting salary and terms of employment. I find it curious and question the placement of Arredondo on the City Council.
Hard to "like" this letter professor. Maybe, just maybe, "investigations" should not make our "news" until indictments are issued? Has Matt Geatz ever been indicted yet? Are the Dems resorting to repugnitan tactics? Impeachments are nothing but theater with no one testifying under oath, congressional subpoenas are ignored with zero consequences. "Justice moves slowly", only for politicians in my opinion. Trying very hard here to keep the faith.
Still calling people at Fox News Corporation 'personalities'. The reason why they can't be charged for spreading lies is that Fox is not about news, but about entertainment. So, why are these people not called CLOWNS, which they are. I would like to see them all pictured with a red ball on their noses, or why not a 'Pinoccio' nose expanding for every lie.
There was an editorial, I believe(?) in WAPO theorizing that Putin’s false narrative of the war in Ukraine is impossible to repudiate ( how do you repudiate a false narrative?) and therefore within the Russian sphere of influence, he will always win his objectives. Trump’s playbook is exactly the same!
My question is what is a smart way to address false claims? Is there data to inform a path that will be productive for democracy to sustain itself? Hope alone isn’t doing it!
For inland readers, “chumming” is the deepwater fishing practice of throwing chunks of dead, often rotting, fish called "chum" into the water in order to lure large fish, such as sharks, for sport fishing. Your use of the term seems marvelously appropriate, in a very Maine way, as the oil-slick from a small amount of chum spreads out over a very large area, pulling in many large, ignorant creatures, all greedy for any garbage tossed to them. (My source: fishing for Blue Shark with my Dad 25 miles off of Portland ME, in order to weigh, tag and report their location to NOAA. Dad caught them using a fly rod, including one over 12 feet in length.)
Given what happened in Uvalde I wonder how long it will take for the citizens of Uvalde to recall their newest council member since he obviously was ill-suited to do his previous job.
Since the GQP have nothing to offer in terms of policy they have to continue to do meaningless things such as these lawsuits. Those lawsuits help to feed their misinformation to their base and muddy the waters so people are distracted from the real issue, that they have nothing to offer unless you have lots of money.
I know this question is naive but here goes anyway: how/why has Trump been able to avoid arrest? Seriously…I truly want to understand how a person gets away with so much for so long. He’s like an eel…no offense to the eel.
Professor, I found it particularly striking today what a capable journalist you are. But, I am so happy you chose the to be a scholar.
Madame Professor. For an academic historian you are one hell of a researcher and real time journalist. Bravo. For years I produced history videos where the outcome was totally known, before we started the project. Then I took on a documentary about the possibility of Fracking in Western Maryland. I had never been a "news guy". I interned at WJZ-TV in Baltimore during college and actually wanted to work a path towards Wide World of Sports. That went sideways...but what I learned from being around the news room was that I didn't want to be the guy sticking my camera in the face of someone whose child had been murdered.
The one news story I shot in 30 years was about Mel Fishers gold haul from the Atocha.
Fast forward to 2015 and I read a front page headline in the Baltimore Sun. Boom or Bust ? and it started me on a 2 year path that ended with Fracking being banned in Maryland by our Blue State Legislature and signed by our Red Governor. An historic first in a state that actually has gas reserves.
There was a moment in the work...when I said to myself..."I don't know if I can do this justice. I'm totally flying by the seat of my pants." People had donated their money to me...so I just kept going. In the process I went from journalist...which I maintained until the film was shown a few times... To activist when what would be the final vote getting out of committee was in doubt. My Dem State Senator from Baltimore was the log jam. She was owned by big G&O...and she did everything in her power to keep the bill in her desk. I helped force it out, by going head to head with her in a hearing. I had the advantage of meeting with her off the record and documenting her in public...and I learned how to get eye to eye with her. Boy, it feels good to tell this story. In the end we won...and she lost her seat as our rep.
So lets all keep learning and acting on it. Thank you Dr. Richardson.
Barr, Durham and Trump accused Sussman and Hillary of doing what Republicans do all the time - run a phony investigation in an attempt to smear their opponents. It’s such a standard part of the Republican playbook that they assumed Hillary would do the same thing. Of course, she didn’t. Republicans can’t believe that, because they assume that their opponents are as craven and amoral as they are. Trump and Barr cannot imagine a world in which the party in control of the White House wouldn’t use the DOJ and the FBI to try to destroy the opposition. The irony is that this is exactly what Barr and Trump tried to do with this Durham “investigation”. The only guilty party here is Barr.
Trump and his administration may be the sleaziest we have seen but that does not make it ok that Hilary is who she is. We know how they smeared Bernie and that among other things turned off so many voters. I have always felt that the choice of Hilary gave us Trump. I have often voted for the lessor evil and voting for Hillary was one of the most difficult votes of my life. The Dems keep supporting weak or compromised candidates, Texas comes to mind right now as Pelosi backed a anti choice, NRA, big oil supporting man over a young progressive candidate. This is why they are losing and why many people like me call ourselves independents or socialists. I fear what the midterms bring us.
It is yet another tragedy in the life of Hillary Clinton that the poisonous drip about her motivations manufactured by the Republican white male establishment seems to have entered the DNA of not just women Republicans but also so many Democrats of all genders and colors. I see it among my own Democratic and Independent friends, male and female. It is hurtful to me, and scary, to contemplate how undefended women in all professions are against such destructive and malicious speech.
What scares me most, however, is the lack of empathy and understanding for an outstanding female public servant whose life was (and is) dedicated to a better future for all, especially women and children, everywhere in the world. Yes, she voted for the Iraq war, a very bad mistake. So did virtually every other senator, most of them male. Ask yourselves: has it disqualified these men in the eyes of the voting public for the rest of their lives the way it did Hillary's standing?
Yes, Bill Clinton made terrible mistakes in his relationships with women. I recall the long-ago senator from Colorado, Pat Schroeder, describing a room (or rooms) in Congress for male politicians of both parties to retire to with their paramours. Bill Clinton was one in a long line of men who behaved (and behave) badly. But whose business is it to condemn Hillary for marrying Bill Clinton and/or staying with him after the roof blew off their private lives over private decisions, however bad? She forgave him. He mattered to her. She mattered to him. She understood him. He understands her. They have a child they raised lovingly and courageously. Who are we to condemn them if we consider ourselves, our own decisions, the poisonous culture we have been asked to navigate while going through our days, fighting for what we believe in, raising our children, taking care of our families?
I met Hillary Clinton during a weekend in the early 2000s for a dozen or two donors from the Boston area who were invited to meet her at the Senate and, later, at her home in Georgetown for dinner. At the Senate in the early afternoon, she spoke with us patiently while managing numerous interruptions and calls for votes. She wore a green pantsuit. At night, she arrived at the dinner table around nine, still wearing the same pantsuit, exhausted, but gracious. Guests could ask questions.
The second question was about the situation in the Middle East. She began to talk, without pause, for more than twenty minutes, with passion and empathy for all those she knew and had known there, and had interacted with, and had listened to, for decades. She knew everyone, on all sides. She knew everything, from a day ago and from decades before. She wove it together for us so we could understand what she understood. She was the most informed, lucid, compassionate politician and human being we could have had to represent us, who would have, and could have, made a difference in our politics. Her losses were a victory for the Republicans. They knew what they had to do when they first noticed her, many decades ago.
These were our losses, too, and certainly, mine.
It is so sad about the door. I personally believe that the chief of the entire Uvalde police department coordinated throughout with the schools chief. This seems to be another instance of the police telling lie upon self protecting lie in their reports of an incident where people died because of what they did or did not do.
John Durham has sullied his name - hopefully forever. Seeing Gym Jordan and Mark Meadows trumpeting the false narrative is sickening. Benghazi and Hillary's emails still resonate strongly in certain quarters of the anxious right. And our former guy just keeps on bobbing and weaving all the while lying. The only thing that i can see being an antidote is serious campaign reform resulting in, among other things: 1) term limits for senators, congressmen at least and maybe even supreme court justices, 2) wringing out the money by, among other things, legislating a reversal of Citizens United, and 3) reintroducing a version of the Fairness Doctrine so that FOX's propaganda machine is reformed. And what else?
Where I live it would be a conflict of interest for a police officer at any level to be on our Board of Selectman (I.e.City Council) since the Board is the “employer “, setting salary and terms of employment. I find it curious and question the placement of Arredondo on the City Council.
Hard to "like" this letter professor. Maybe, just maybe, "investigations" should not make our "news" until indictments are issued? Has Matt Geatz ever been indicted yet? Are the Dems resorting to repugnitan tactics? Impeachments are nothing but theater with no one testifying under oath, congressional subpoenas are ignored with zero consequences. "Justice moves slowly", only for politicians in my opinion. Trying very hard here to keep the faith.
Still calling people at Fox News Corporation 'personalities'. The reason why they can't be charged for spreading lies is that Fox is not about news, but about entertainment. So, why are these people not called CLOWNS, which they are. I would like to see them all pictured with a red ball on their noses, or why not a 'Pinoccio' nose expanding for every lie.
I continue to be educated on how Newt Gingrich’s destructive manipulativeness set the political tone for the next decades.
Dare I surmise that the pendulum is beginning to swing against tfg and the gop? Something feels different!
There was an editorial, I believe(?) in WAPO theorizing that Putin’s false narrative of the war in Ukraine is impossible to repudiate ( how do you repudiate a false narrative?) and therefore within the Russian sphere of influence, he will always win his objectives. Trump’s playbook is exactly the same!
My question is what is a smart way to address false claims? Is there data to inform a path that will be productive for democracy to sustain itself? Hope alone isn’t doing it!
For inland readers, “chumming” is the deepwater fishing practice of throwing chunks of dead, often rotting, fish called "chum" into the water in order to lure large fish, such as sharks, for sport fishing. Your use of the term seems marvelously appropriate, in a very Maine way, as the oil-slick from a small amount of chum spreads out over a very large area, pulling in many large, ignorant creatures, all greedy for any garbage tossed to them. (My source: fishing for Blue Shark with my Dad 25 miles off of Portland ME, in order to weigh, tag and report their location to NOAA. Dad caught them using a fly rod, including one over 12 feet in length.)
Given what happened in Uvalde I wonder how long it will take for the citizens of Uvalde to recall their newest council member since he obviously was ill-suited to do his previous job.
Since the GQP have nothing to offer in terms of policy they have to continue to do meaningless things such as these lawsuits. Those lawsuits help to feed their misinformation to their base and muddy the waters so people are distracted from the real issue, that they have nothing to offer unless you have lots of money.