314 Comments

Excuse me, but isn’t it time for the Biden administration to call a spade a spade and get tough with Trump and his ruthless gang of cohorts? Seriously, this crap from Trump will never stop unless someone stops it. If the Democrats are afraid to confront Trump and force people to testify, then what good are they doing for our democracy? This entire situation is infuriating me beyond belief. Diplomacy isn’t working. Do something that reflects courage.

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Typically off subject, here's a bit of the bright side ...:

Great news! President Biden is taking action to restore protections for three priceless national monuments: Bears Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante and Northeast Canyons and Seamounts.

https://www.npca.org/articles/3007-biden-administration-to-restore-bears-ears-grand-staircase-escalante-and

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Donald Trump was & is a landlord. That alone was reason enough for my not voting for him. His racism, sexism, misogyny, cheating, flaunting his wealth and White male privilege, and his reverence for organized crime was all icing on the cake of NOPE & Hell No. It hurts my heart every day that people voted for that monster.

PS: Happy Birthday Dr Richardson.

Thank you for this Letter too. Between my 3-hour round trip commute and my full work day, I am practically cross-eyed with tiredness by the time I get home. I only have two hours left to shove food down my throat, get ready for next day, and calm down enough so I can sleep. I can’t sleep after I read/watch the news. You’re Letter is one of the few ways I keep up with political news. It’s been a godsend.

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Can trump actually invoke "executive privilege" and delay/derail all of this? What happens when his minions refuse to respond to the subpoenas? Can they all escape prosecution? It is now October and these terrorists (which is exactly what they are) are still free to roam the country, spew their vitriol, amass large sums of money to continue their plot of a violent governmental takeover, stonewall the collection of evidence, slap justice in the face, and so on. It simply does not make any sense to me that this drags out ad infinitum. Where the hell is any justice? IMO if these people are not indicted, tried, found guilty, and jailed pretty damn soon, that is the final nail in the democratic coffin.

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HEATHER COX RICHARDSON!!

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There can be no executive privilege to conceal evidence of criminal activity, (See; Nixon, Richard,) and certainly not when the executive is no longer in power. The "order" from former President whatsisname to former members of his staff to not cooperate with the investigation is meaningless, laughable.

Where was the separation of powers on Jan 6th when members of the executive branch, including and especially the President, vigorously attempted to sabotage the legal, legitimate, constitutionally mandated functions of Congress?

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At DOJ, civil servants put themselves in harms way to preserve the nation from Republican predations. Just as Alexander Vindman, who after putting his life on the line, put his livelihood on the line to serve our nation. Please think about it. This is no small thing.

I am not surprised that across the nation some Republican officials have done the right thing and stood up to their party leaders. It is shocking that in Congress, although a few Republicans have distanced themselves from Pres. Trump's bad behavior, none have denounced Leader Mitch McConnell's worse tactics. As a Mainer, I gauge the devolution of the GOP by comparing past Sen. Margaret Chase Smith who denounced Sen. Joe McCarthy's tactics with current Sen. Susan Collins who carries Mitch McConnell's water.

When Hannah Arendt wrote of 'the banality of evil' she did not mean that the evil done by Adolph Eichmann

in the Nazi regime was commonplace. She meant how evil is perpetrated by a myriad of people 'just doing their job' in a bureaucracy with no thought to the harm they are doing to the community. We can debate the effect of Republican policies on our populace and planet. There is more than ample evidence to condemn Republican scorched earth procedures which are effectively overturning the Constitution.

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A question: At what point does the current justice department have enough evidence to arrest Trump for treason and sedition?

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Happy Birthday Dr Richardson ,may your day be filled with joy.

The overwhelming disregard that trump holds for this country, it's constitution and the rule of law becomes ever more apparent as the days go on, yet the GQP, his base, and the former republicans in Congress continue to tie themselves to his coat tails or perhaps his overlong tie. I say former republicans because they have abandoned any semblance of holding themselves to standards of ethics or morals that would have kept them from subverting this country.

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I am concerned - with all this talk about who belongs in jail, and why are they not there - here's a reminder of one person who clearly does not belong in prison, who will be lucky to survive the sentence ...:

Lawyer Steven Donziger, Who Led Suit Against Chevron, Sentenced to Six Months for Contempt

In New York, a judge sentenced environmental and human rights lawyer Steven Donziger to the maximum penalty of six months in prison for contempt of court. The misdemeanor charges were linked to a lawsuit brought by Chevron, which has been targeting Donziger ever since he successfully sued the oil giant in Ecuador on behalf of Indigenous people whose land was contaminated by the oil giant. Donziger has already spent over two years under house arrest, and the U.N. and other rights groups have called for his release. This is Donziger in a social media video posted after his Friday sentence.

Steven Donziger: “It’s very clear Judge Preska wants me to serve my six-month sentence immediately, so that even if I get exonerated on appeal, I still will have served a sentence for a crime I never committed. And again, another example, I think, of the punitive nature of what’s happening. It’s almost unheard of for someone convicted of a misdemeanor in the United States not to be let out pending his or her appeal.”

Protests across the United States are calling for the immediate release of environmental and human rights lawyer Steven Donziger, who has been held under house arrest in New York for two years after being targeted by the oil giant Chevron. Donziger sued the oil giant in Ecuador on behalf of 30,000 Amazonian Indigenous people for dumping 16 billion gallons of oil into their ancestral lands. Ecuador’s Supreme Court ordered Chevron to pay $18 billion a decade ago, a major victory for the environment and corporate accountability. But Chevron refused to pay or clean up the land, and instead launched a legal attack targeting Donziger in the United States. A federal judge in July found Donziger guilty of six counts of criminal contempt of court after he refused to turn over his computer and cellphone. In an unusual legal twist, the judge appointed a private law firm with ties to Chevron to prosecute Donziger, after federal prosecutors declined to bring charges. “This is a broader threat to our society,” says Donziger. “We cannot allow in any rule-of-law country, or any country, private prosecutions run by corporations.”

https://www.democracynow.org/2021/8/6/steven_donziger_house_arrest_chevron

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Thank you and Happy Birthday Heather.

The layers of this onion keep peeling away. I do wonder if when we are finished with the reveal, will there be a reconciliation of blame. The GOP have most definitely put January 6th behind them and collectively brushed it under the rug. I heard a trumper say the other day " at this point, I don't even know if January 6th happened ". What the hell does that mean?

I have noticed I am getting the pleas for money emails from Trump, his Son and the screaming banshee girlfriend of his 3-4 times a day. In these emails, their desperation is dripping in lies and anxiety.

.....and the horse you rode in on tends to be my go to response to their pleas.

Be safe, be well.

Enjoy your day Heather . We travel around the Sun but one time a year.

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“Today was also the deadline for four of Trump’s closest allies to turn over documents to the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol and to schedule testimony. Former chief of staff Mark Meadows, social media manager Dan Scavino, adviser Steve Bannon, and former Defense Department official Kash Patel have until midnight tonight to contact the committee.”

Any of this herd have the sneaking suspicion that the FBI and/or NSA already have documents and recordings of the above co conspirators jan6th coordination plot?

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Chuck Grassley is 88 years old and running for his next six year term in office. How do we get age/term limits on these fossils?

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Are these criminals especially Trump going to continue to go unscathed. It is very hard to watch this crimes series that never has any justice.

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A political system that kinda/sorta worked in the 18th century, when it was a three day trip from my ancestor's residence in Germantown PA to Philadelphia, in a country the rest of the world didn't pay attention to (as late as 1836, when USS Constitution dropped anchor in DaNang harbor, the government of Viet Nam was unaware that the United States existed), that was founded on the voluntary agreement of people to participate under norms that did not have the force of law, is unfortunately not a system that has a lot of survival chance 232 years later, now that a significant part of the system is populated by people who don't recognize the norms or voluntarily agree to follow them.

This is how the last big important Republic in history went the way of the Dodo Bird.

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"'Grab 'em by the p***y. You can do anything.' Today’s events indicated that, as president, he took a similar approach to the Department of Justice."

Brilliant!

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