Trump, a real psychopath, also makes Nixon look as sociable as a talk show host.
When things were getting really hot, Nixon used to go from Key Biscayne down to visit his friend Bebe Rebozo at the Ocean Reef Club on North Key Largo. An uncle of mine had a house two doors away from Bebe's, but they never met. But one time I just missed hearing President Nixon playing the piano for all the diners in the local dumpy fish shack. The lady who owned it told us that Nixon had been there two nights before, had a good time, banged away on the piano for an hour, went around and shook hands with every table of people. Really enjoyed himself. I can't imagine Trump ever....
Nixon likely had mental health issues that arose late in his first term. There was a noticeable change in the man. Back in the day was much easier for the press to attribute the change to likkur (Nixon didn't have a drinking problem, he had the inverse, extremely low tolerance) and the war rather than MI. Some forget how Nixon's very effective and moderate Kalifornia Kitchen Kabinet went adios after the first term. It wasn't a coincidence, they saw the change and fled.
John Dean is often credited with being the curator of all things Nixon however he had very little interaction with him compared with those Nixon took to DC with him from CA. Those men have far more stories and insight than just Watergate, Enough said. Pretty sure they never shared any w/Dean due to how Dean has spoken Trump has mental issues yet never mentioned Nixon did as well.
Reagan's deteriorating mental state rarely comes up yet Rs and right-wingers pound away on President Biden as if he, not Nixon, not Reagan, nor Trump had bona fide MI conditions.
Remain an advocate for a Fit For Duty Test to include a comprehensive security background check that goes beyond the SF86 and annual re-testing for all positions-officer-office holders called out in the 2nd US Constitution. The idea a person can be both unstable and be handed a security clearance as if it had the same value as $100 worth of office supplies kills me.
Rich, I rue the day when I was a freshman in college (68)and Nixon spoke on campus and when he walked by us he shook my hand. Two years later as I'm getting my orders for Vietnam I was blaming that handshake but deep down I knew it was my fault because I dropped out of college to make some money and didn't notify the draft board thinking I'm going to be back in school before the draft board found out. Two months later I got my report for a physical letter you failed to report your status change.
Ha! Who said government agencies were slow to act? Two months and they got you!
I have to say that all the Army young enlisted men that I met who were smart AND good soldiers were draftees. It really pissed me off when during our stupid Iraq War SecDef Donald Rumsfeld said Vietnam draftees were worthless, and that an all-volunteer Army was better.
BTW, in 1966?, I came across Nixon and his pal John Mitchell at O'Hare airport. They were sitting on a bench between flights. I was in uniform and went over to shake hands with them.
They were very cordial. Nixon was a WW2 Navy officer, so he asked informed questions about me. I admit to voting for him in 1968. Side note: when he was VP in the 1950's my dad took a leak a few urinals away from Nixon at the Greenbriar. They didn't shake hands. Small world.
I lived through Watergate, too, and at least Nixon had the good sense to resign and the Repub party then, the good sense to demand it of him. We are in uncharted territory now with trump and his ever growing remora of indicted and un-indicted co-conspirators. He lacks the respect for the country to withdraw from contention for the Presidency as it is only a means to an end for him to halt any legal action his DOJ can control. I don't trust the courts to save us - we have to vote en masse come Nov.
Trump will never resign! Yes, we really need to get out the vote in a bigly landslide in November, for the Senate, the House and the President! We need to secure democracy.
Next, we have SCOTUS and they are an embarrassment and hopefully Roberts will come through and make it 5-4, however, I think they will let the lower court decide therefore, Delay again! I was very surprised at Amy Coney Barrett! She was the voice of reason and no one talked about the current case, just in the future!
This Court is worse than an embarrassment; it is openly fascist. It is the worst Supreme Court in American history, including the Dred Scott and Plessy Courts.
Back then I believed that I couldn’t hate anyone worse than Nixon. When the first information came out about Watergate BEFORE he was re-elected I protested and handed out fliers, met with everyone I knew to tell them that Nixon was the chief scumbag of all scumbags. I was only slightly on target because the biggest scumbag in United States history has turned out to be a weak, ugly, pathological, demented malignant narcissist that paints himself orange like a foolish dope with horrible taste. Having to live with what trump has wrought on this world and the disgusting influence he has on millions of dupes is beyond disheartening. I hope I live long enough to fully experience the appropriate and awful consequences for the slipperiest slimeball we’ve ever seen.
I have had the same exact feelings - back then, hated Nixon with fierce passion. Have not hated a politician more since then, until the Former Guy. I am almost as mad that he has made us feel this way, because it taints otherwise stable political discourse.
You might be on solid ground here, though - ancient wisdom or one of the classic poets or satirists phrased it as, "That which is despicable deserves to be despised."
I think it was this guy, and looks like Lucian would agree with it, too!
Lucian of Samosata[a] (c. 125 – after 180) was a Hellenized Syrian satirist, rhetorician and pamphleteer who is best known for his characteristic tongue-in-cheek style, with which he frequently ridiculed superstition, religious practices, and belief in the paranormal. Although his native language was probably Syriac, all of his extant works are written entirely in ancient Greek (mostly in the Attic Greek dialect popular during the Second Sophistic period).
Everything that is known about Lucian's life comes from his own writings,[1] which are often difficult to interpret because of his extensive use of sarcasm. According to his oration The Dream, he was the son of a lower middle class family from the city of Samosata along the banks of the Euphrates in the remote Roman province of Syria. As a young man, he was apprenticed to his uncle to become a sculptor, but, after a failed attempt at sculpting, he ran away to pursue an education in Ionia. He may have become a travelling lecturer and visited universities throughout the Roman Empire. After acquiring fame and wealth through his teaching, Lucian finally settled down in Athens for a decade, during which he wrote most of his extant works. In his fifties, he may have been appointed as a highly paid government official in Egypt, after which point he disappears from the historical record.
Lucian's works were wildly popular in antiquity, and more than eighty writings attributed to him have survived to the present day, a considerably higher quantity than for most other classical writers. His most famous work is A True Story, a tongue-in-cheek satire against authors who tell incredible tales, which is regarded by some as the earliest known work of science fiction. Lucian invented the genre of comic dialogue, a parody of the traditional Socratic dialogue. His dialogue Lover of Lies makes fun of people who believe in the supernatural and contains the oldest known version of "The Sorcerer's Apprentice". Lucian wrote numerous satires making fun of traditional stories about the gods including The Dialogues of the Gods, Icaromenippus, Zeus Rants, Zeus Catechized, and The Parliament of the Gods. His Dialogues of the Dead focuses on the Cynic philosophers Diogenes and Menippus. Philosophies for Sale and The Carousal, or The Lapiths make fun of various philosophical schools, and The Fisherman or the Dead Come to Life is a defense of this mockery. ***** {More}
I also lived through Watergate. I spent the summer between my junior and senior years of college glued to the hearings on tv. Sarah, I am right there with you. I never dreamed we would EVER have a president who made Nixon look not-so-bad. Still can’t say good, but you catch my drift.
Same time, same stations, Senator Sam Ervin (for all his other faults) was magnificent on the Senate Select Committee to Investigate Campaign Practices, aka the Senate Watergate Committee:
Samuel James Ervin Jr. (September 27, 1896 – April 23, 1985) was an American politician who served as a U.S. Senator from North Carolina from 1954 to 1974. A Southern Democrat, he liked to call himself a "country lawyer", and often told humorous stories in his Southern drawl.[1] During his Senate career, Ervin was at first a staunch defender of Jim Crow laws and racial segregation, as the South's constitutional expert during the congressional debates on civil rights.[2][3] However, unexpectedly, he became a liberal hero for his support of civil liberties.[4] He is remembered for his work in the investigation committees that brought down Senator Joseph McCarthy in 1954 and especially for his leadership of the Senate committee's investigation of the Watergate scandal that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon in 1974.[5][6]
Ervin was born in Morganton, North Carolina, the son of Laura Theresa (Powe) and Samuel James Ervin. He served in the U.S. Army in combat in France during World War I with the First Division at Cantigny[7] and Soissons, and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the Silver Star and two Purple Hearts.[8] He graduated from the University of North Carolina, where he was a member of the Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies, in 1917 and from Harvard Law School in 1922. Ervin was fond of joking that he was the only student ever to go through Harvard Law "backwards", because he took the third-year courses first, then the second-year courses, and finally the first-year courses.[9]
I have always felt that it may not be in my lifetime but it will be discovered that this Trump crime thing is going to be out there as the most corrupt thing ever in the history of our country.Bar none.I mean, we all know how filthy it is and has been even if Houdini Trump has continued to evade our justice system time and again.We KNOW he has crimed( a verb that Jeff Tiedrich has made his) for his whole lifetime.We know he has violated the tenets of our Constitution,time and time again.I feel that what we are seeing and hearing about all of this is just the tip of the iceberg.This upcoming election may be our last if he gets back in but I think not.As I originally stated, this guy’s crimes are going to trump Nixon’s guys lights out.
That’s because dogs can size you up by your smell, they read smells like we can see colors, his diaper aside, virtually any dog would find him disgusting, just like we do, then add the diaper 🤷♂️😎
Redeeming feature? He didn't send his truth squads into the Library of Congress during his first term to root out un-American books. Perhaps that's one of the projects for his planned dictatorship. Say! They can burn those books to heat the barracks on the concentration camps they plan to build for "illegal immigrants" and God (Trump) knows who else.
I “wallowed”in Watergate, saw all the committee hearings, some twice, because they were rebroadcast at night on PBS. Nixon was a piker compared to Mad King Donald. On top of the political corruption, you get financial and insurance fraud as well as sexual assault and defamation of character. To top it off, he is hands down the crassest, tackiest man in public life. I first got wind of him when The Art of the Deal hit the bookstores. I kept seeing it in every real estate office that I went to. Having just started in that business, I assumed it was a must-read. Within less than twenty minutes, my copy was hurled into the trash can. I love books and that is the only book I’ve ever thrown away.
50 years of Republican policies to underfund public schools, libraries and colleges. Add to that the unholy marriage of the far right political movement conservatives with some of the ultra conservative KKKristian evangelicals (not all Christian evangelicals are as extreme as the Seven Mountains crew or their ilk.) and the unfortunate confluence of favored rightwing news media which does NOT give "fair and balanced" versions of anything that is happening and instead, endlessly harp on meaningless 'culture war' issues. Add all that together and the country gets stupid, uninformed Americans who consistently vote against their own best interests. It is both frustrating and infuriating.
The Authoritarian Personality "invented a set of criteria by which to define personality traits, ranked these traits and their intensity in any given person on what it called the 'F scale' (F for fascist)."[1] The personality type Adorno et al. identified can be defined by nine traits that were believed to cluster together as the result of childhood experiences. These traits include conventionalism, authoritarian submission, authoritarian aggression, anti-intraception, superstition and stereotypy, power and "toughness", destructiveness and cynicism, projectivity, and exaggerated concerns over sex
(2) But you ask a classic loaded question - the background causes would have to include something to account for how Trump lost the popular vote to Hillary Rodham Clinton and Joe Biden, yet became POTUS in the first case, that's because of this inane institution, long past its sell by date:
The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC) is an agreement among a group of U.S. states and the District of Columbia to award all their electoral votes to whichever presidential ticket wins the overall popular vote in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The compact is designed to ensure that the candidate who receives the most votes nationwide is elected president, and it would come into effect only when it would guarantee that outcome.[2][3]
Introduced in 2006, as of April 2024 it has been adopted by seventeen states and the District of Columbia. These jurisdictions have 209 electoral votes, which is 39% of the Electoral College and 77% of the 270 votes needed to give the compact legal force.
Certain legal questions may affect implementation of the compact. Some legal observers believe states have plenary power to appoint electors as prescribed by the compact; others believe that the compact will require congressional consent under the Constitution's Compact Clause or that the presidential election process cannot be altered except by a constitutional amendment.
(3) Some other baked in assumptions in the question are that Americans are uniquely prone to voting these dangerous ethnocentric quasi-fascists into office, the refutation to that howler could go on for months, but maybe you mean "Americans fail to learn via their open mass media system in advance about the dangers of candidates like Trump, which is especially egregious, since most of the nations on earth not only are not democracies, their mass media has nothing like a "First Amendment set of legal protections for free speech and free expression," so we are back to our feckless mass media and the problems with the legacy corporate media treating Trump and the current degenerate GOP as a "normal politician leading a normal political party," to the extent they repeatedly fail to fact check Trump or the GOP spokespeople for him, etc.
The Columbia Journalism Review is what you want, maybe?!
And maybe at least some of that that time I spent sort of "studying" this kind of stuff and was told I needed to (in effect) "sell my soul to make MONEY-MONEY-MONEY-MONEY-MONEY-MONEY" wasn't wasted, thanks!
Yes, I lived through Watergate too and that seems like a bad movie compared to what is happening with DJT.
Fasten your seat belts everyone as the time gets closer to Election Day! My birthday is November 7 and I want a great present just like I did in 2020! They announced Biden's win on November 7!
With all the focus on the Orange Nodfather, I think we lose sight of all the poor dopes who have surrendered their futures for him. Everyone has to know by now the extent of his horribleness as a person, but he continues to inspire loyalty when he has never ever shown any back. Its like an evil spell cast over half the country. Even today I heard pundits claiming that the Pecker testimony demonstrates how the Stormy payments were made to protect his family, something that will resonate with all of the married jurors?? Are they just not paying attention?
When Pecker's ACTUAL TESTIMONY stated that tfg's payments were all about protecting his candidacy and campaign. How stupid can the consumers of Faux Noise get?
How stupid can they get? I think they've all reached ultimate/terminal stupidity. They've been so brainwashed for years by the Dumpster and his propaganda network that it's now impossible for them to ever accept the truth, even when they hear it directly from the Dumpster's closest allies.
They can't admit they've been taken in by an evil scoundrel. To acknowledge that truth would require them to look into a mirror. It's fear, embarrassment, and cowardice mixed together in one ugly brew.
Yet SOME form of metanoia* is practically a cosmic requirement for any imperfect sentient beings to evolve their views in the light of new information!
{Shakes fist at sky & heads to Netflix for more of the gripping 3-Body Problem}
This is a pretty intellectual series. I'm no genius, but I kept up with the dialogue and learned some very intriguing alternate concepts about our reality. It's target audience, I think, is the thinking man, and it is a beautifully done show. Can't ever really recall seeing something quite like it. You should watch it if you want something that challenges your mind, and simply relaxing and watching tv isn't your primary goal today. In addition, it feels like an easy watch, without any tedium to make you wish you could fast forward through parts of it. Definitely worth a viewing if only for the novelty of the story and how it encourages you to expand your mental horizons. *****
Good work! I had no idea so many of Nixon's guys were breaking laws. Although comparisons are odious (credit: my mother) Nixon's kids were better/nicer than Trump's, and no one ever accused his wife of being a good time girl.
Too bad that trump remains an unindicted co-conspirator in some of these cases as he was really at the center of all these sleazy schemes. ETTD - Everything Trump Touches Dies but not quickly enough.
They can have their trials and based on the evidence, further indictments may be forthcoming, especially if a lot of the clowns start pointing fingers in an effort to reduce jail time.
Read the book or watch the film of "All the President's Men." People were frightened to tell the truth, years before MAGA; but a good number of those who testified at the hearing or were indicted admitted their guilt and claimed to be ashamed of their actions. It appeared some people inadvertently got caught up in the Nixon scheming and the cover-up.
Now we have Trumpsters eager to cheat, lie, and betray their country. There's a qualitative difference.
One of the characters in this drama that I find most fascinating is Alan Weisselberg, the Trump CFO. He’s in his 70s. He unquestionably knows where almost all of the bodies are buried. He was part of Trump’s father’s organization and then segued in Donald’s part of the business. Working with some clients, I’ve been inside Rikers and it is (no joke) hell on earth. I’m a few years older than Weisselberg and I don’t think I could take even two nights in Rikers. And yet this guy lies and obfuscates and obstructs to protect Donald where he could have turned complete state’s evidence and kept himself out of jail (although he may have had to pay some healthy fines). A few nights ago I was watching a rerun of Godfather Two and the character of Frankie Pantangeli who after weaseling on congressional testimony was promised by the Coreleones that his family would be taken care of. Frankie then committed suicide. Maybe Weisselberg is Trump’s Frankie.
I’m not a Nixon apologist either, but he was a statesman compared to Trump. From foreign affairs to pollution, Trump would undo anything positive that happened during the Nixon administration, and be ignorant ( as always) of the history or consequences.
Nixon was done in by a small tinge of Normal. He failed to crush it in himself and paid the price. Trump is not hampered by any such tinge and is therefore exceedingly dangerous. I think apparently you need something in between Nixon and Trump to outrun the posse of Normals forever. I hope.
Nixon at least believed in the System, and was a product of it, and respected it to a degree (or feared it). Drumpf shows what can happen when a complete neophyte (and a crook at that) gets into politics purely as a narcissistic whim and without concern of consequences and then manages to eke out a win in our heavily flawed electoral system (which we had warning of in 2000, but nobody paid attention).
I think I would give Nixon credit that he would not abase himself in a clown show like the one Trump runs. He would not leave a courtroom where he was a defendant and stand and spew nutty lies. I may be willing to say he was not without decency, but for sure he was not without some sense of personal dignity.
I’m hoping for a Democrat landslide and see signs it may happen…lots of Republicans have resigned. If it happens, I hope they’ll pack the court; the Republicans did by not letting Obama’s candidate come up for a vote.
From HCR: "Trump insisted to the former RNC chair that he did not need the RNC to work on turning out voters. He wanted the RNC to prioritize 'election integrity' efforts."
Any candidate uninterested in acquiring voter turnout knows he cannot win without cheating. Let's vote in droves until we're Blue in the face, but let's also brace for election deception the likes of which the country has never seen before.
Oh, Trump is definitely worse. Your comparison to Nixon proves the old adage - those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. It’s up to us to prevent that from happening!
I lived through Watergate too, and Trump makes Nixon look like an amateur.
Trump, a real psychopath, also makes Nixon look as sociable as a talk show host.
When things were getting really hot, Nixon used to go from Key Biscayne down to visit his friend Bebe Rebozo at the Ocean Reef Club on North Key Largo. An uncle of mine had a house two doors away from Bebe's, but they never met. But one time I just missed hearing President Nixon playing the piano for all the diners in the local dumpy fish shack. The lady who owned it told us that Nixon had been there two nights before, had a good time, banged away on the piano for an hour, went around and shook hands with every table of people. Really enjoyed himself. I can't imagine Trump ever....
Nixon likely had mental health issues that arose late in his first term. There was a noticeable change in the man. Back in the day was much easier for the press to attribute the change to likkur (Nixon didn't have a drinking problem, he had the inverse, extremely low tolerance) and the war rather than MI. Some forget how Nixon's very effective and moderate Kalifornia Kitchen Kabinet went adios after the first term. It wasn't a coincidence, they saw the change and fled.
John Dean is often credited with being the curator of all things Nixon however he had very little interaction with him compared with those Nixon took to DC with him from CA. Those men have far more stories and insight than just Watergate, Enough said. Pretty sure they never shared any w/Dean due to how Dean has spoken Trump has mental issues yet never mentioned Nixon did as well.
Reagan's deteriorating mental state rarely comes up yet Rs and right-wingers pound away on President Biden as if he, not Nixon, not Reagan, nor Trump had bona fide MI conditions.
Remain an advocate for a Fit For Duty Test to include a comprehensive security background check that goes beyond the SF86 and annual re-testing for all positions-officer-office holders called out in the 2nd US Constitution. The idea a person can be both unstable and be handed a security clearance as if it had the same value as $100 worth of office supplies kills me.
Rich, I rue the day when I was a freshman in college (68)and Nixon spoke on campus and when he walked by us he shook my hand. Two years later as I'm getting my orders for Vietnam I was blaming that handshake but deep down I knew it was my fault because I dropped out of college to make some money and didn't notify the draft board thinking I'm going to be back in school before the draft board found out. Two months later I got my report for a physical letter you failed to report your status change.
Ha! Who said government agencies were slow to act? Two months and they got you!
I have to say that all the Army young enlisted men that I met who were smart AND good soldiers were draftees. It really pissed me off when during our stupid Iraq War SecDef Donald Rumsfeld said Vietnam draftees were worthless, and that an all-volunteer Army was better.
BTW, in 1966?, I came across Nixon and his pal John Mitchell at O'Hare airport. They were sitting on a bench between flights. I was in uniform and went over to shake hands with them.
They were very cordial. Nixon was a WW2 Navy officer, so he asked informed questions about me. I admit to voting for him in 1968. Side note: when he was VP in the 1950's my dad took a leak a few urinals away from Nixon at the Greenbriar. They didn't shake hands. Small world.
An all-volunteer army is better for reelection.
I lived through Watergate, too, and at least Nixon had the good sense to resign and the Repub party then, the good sense to demand it of him. We are in uncharted territory now with trump and his ever growing remora of indicted and un-indicted co-conspirators. He lacks the respect for the country to withdraw from contention for the Presidency as it is only a means to an end for him to halt any legal action his DOJ can control. I don't trust the courts to save us - we have to vote en masse come Nov.
Trump will never resign! Yes, we really need to get out the vote in a bigly landslide in November, for the Senate, the House and the President! We need to secure democracy.
Next, we have SCOTUS and they are an embarrassment and hopefully Roberts will come through and make it 5-4, however, I think they will let the lower court decide therefore, Delay again! I was very surprised at Amy Coney Barrett! She was the voice of reason and no one talked about the current case, just in the future!
This Court is worse than an embarrassment; it is openly fascist. It is the worst Supreme Court in American history, including the Dred Scott and Plessy Courts.
Pleasantly surprised by Barrett also. They’re gonna punt.
Back then I believed that I couldn’t hate anyone worse than Nixon. When the first information came out about Watergate BEFORE he was re-elected I protested and handed out fliers, met with everyone I knew to tell them that Nixon was the chief scumbag of all scumbags. I was only slightly on target because the biggest scumbag in United States history has turned out to be a weak, ugly, pathological, demented malignant narcissist that paints himself orange like a foolish dope with horrible taste. Having to live with what trump has wrought on this world and the disgusting influence he has on millions of dupes is beyond disheartening. I hope I live long enough to fully experience the appropriate and awful consequences for the slipperiest slimeball we’ve ever seen.
I have had the same exact feelings - back then, hated Nixon with fierce passion. Have not hated a politician more since then, until the Former Guy. I am almost as mad that he has made us feel this way, because it taints otherwise stable political discourse.
You might be on solid ground here, though - ancient wisdom or one of the classic poets or satirists phrased it as, "That which is despicable deserves to be despised."
I think it was this guy, and looks like Lucian would agree with it, too!
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucian
Lucian of Samosata[a] (c. 125 – after 180) was a Hellenized Syrian satirist, rhetorician and pamphleteer who is best known for his characteristic tongue-in-cheek style, with which he frequently ridiculed superstition, religious practices, and belief in the paranormal. Although his native language was probably Syriac, all of his extant works are written entirely in ancient Greek (mostly in the Attic Greek dialect popular during the Second Sophistic period).
Everything that is known about Lucian's life comes from his own writings,[1] which are often difficult to interpret because of his extensive use of sarcasm. According to his oration The Dream, he was the son of a lower middle class family from the city of Samosata along the banks of the Euphrates in the remote Roman province of Syria. As a young man, he was apprenticed to his uncle to become a sculptor, but, after a failed attempt at sculpting, he ran away to pursue an education in Ionia. He may have become a travelling lecturer and visited universities throughout the Roman Empire. After acquiring fame and wealth through his teaching, Lucian finally settled down in Athens for a decade, during which he wrote most of his extant works. In his fifties, he may have been appointed as a highly paid government official in Egypt, after which point he disappears from the historical record.
Lucian's works were wildly popular in antiquity, and more than eighty writings attributed to him have survived to the present day, a considerably higher quantity than for most other classical writers. His most famous work is A True Story, a tongue-in-cheek satire against authors who tell incredible tales, which is regarded by some as the earliest known work of science fiction. Lucian invented the genre of comic dialogue, a parody of the traditional Socratic dialogue. His dialogue Lover of Lies makes fun of people who believe in the supernatural and contains the oldest known version of "The Sorcerer's Apprentice". Lucian wrote numerous satires making fun of traditional stories about the gods including The Dialogues of the Gods, Icaromenippus, Zeus Rants, Zeus Catechized, and The Parliament of the Gods. His Dialogues of the Dead focuses on the Cynic philosophers Diogenes and Menippus. Philosophies for Sale and The Carousal, or The Lapiths make fun of various philosophical schools, and The Fisherman or the Dead Come to Life is a defense of this mockery. ***** {More}
I also lived through Watergate. I spent the summer between my junior and senior years of college glued to the hearings on tv. Sarah, I am right there with you. I never dreamed we would EVER have a president who made Nixon look not-so-bad. Still can’t say good, but you catch my drift.
Same time, same stations, Senator Sam Ervin (for all his other faults) was magnificent on the Senate Select Committee to Investigate Campaign Practices, aka the Senate Watergate Committee:
Samuel James Ervin Jr. (September 27, 1896 – April 23, 1985) was an American politician who served as a U.S. Senator from North Carolina from 1954 to 1974. A Southern Democrat, he liked to call himself a "country lawyer", and often told humorous stories in his Southern drawl.[1] During his Senate career, Ervin was at first a staunch defender of Jim Crow laws and racial segregation, as the South's constitutional expert during the congressional debates on civil rights.[2][3] However, unexpectedly, he became a liberal hero for his support of civil liberties.[4] He is remembered for his work in the investigation committees that brought down Senator Joseph McCarthy in 1954 and especially for his leadership of the Senate committee's investigation of the Watergate scandal that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon in 1974.[5][6]
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Ervin
Early life and education
Ervin was born in Morganton, North Carolina, the son of Laura Theresa (Powe) and Samuel James Ervin. He served in the U.S. Army in combat in France during World War I with the First Division at Cantigny[7] and Soissons, and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the Silver Star and two Purple Hearts.[8] He graduated from the University of North Carolina, where he was a member of the Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies, in 1917 and from Harvard Law School in 1922. Ervin was fond of joking that he was the only student ever to go through Harvard Law "backwards", because he took the third-year courses first, then the second-year courses, and finally the first-year courses.[9]
But what do you really think?😉
Nixon was a cold, Trump is terminal cancer.
I have always felt that it may not be in my lifetime but it will be discovered that this Trump crime thing is going to be out there as the most corrupt thing ever in the history of our country.Bar none.I mean, we all know how filthy it is and has been even if Houdini Trump has continued to evade our justice system time and again.We KNOW he has crimed( a verb that Jeff Tiedrich has made his) for his whole lifetime.We know he has violated the tenets of our Constitution,time and time again.I feel that what we are seeing and hearing about all of this is just the tip of the iceberg.This upcoming election may be our last if he gets back in but I think not.As I originally stated, this guy’s crimes are going to trump Nixon’s guys lights out.
Trump is not just corrupt but is simply pure evil, with not a single redeeming feature.
Yes.He doesn’t even like dogs ffs.
That’s because dogs can size you up by your smell, they read smells like we can see colors, his diaper aside, virtually any dog would find him disgusting, just like we do, then add the diaper 🤷♂️😎
And he threw rocks at children.
Redeeming feature? He didn't send his truth squads into the Library of Congress during his first term to root out un-American books. Perhaps that's one of the projects for his planned dictatorship. Say! They can burn those books to heat the barracks on the concentration camps they plan to build for "illegal immigrants" and God (Trump) knows who else.
Yes, and the picture at the beginning of this column is creepy scary.
I “wallowed”in Watergate, saw all the committee hearings, some twice, because they were rebroadcast at night on PBS. Nixon was a piker compared to Mad King Donald. On top of the political corruption, you get financial and insurance fraud as well as sexual assault and defamation of character. To top it off, he is hands down the crassest, tackiest man in public life. I first got wind of him when The Art of the Deal hit the bookstores. I kept seeing it in every real estate office that I went to. Having just started in that business, I assumed it was a must-read. Within less than twenty minutes, my copy was hurled into the trash can. I love books and that is the only book I’ve ever thrown away.
Why do Americans elect these creeps?
50 years of Republican policies to underfund public schools, libraries and colleges. Add to that the unholy marriage of the far right political movement conservatives with some of the ultra conservative KKKristian evangelicals (not all Christian evangelicals are as extreme as the Seven Mountains crew or their ilk.) and the unfortunate confluence of favored rightwing news media which does NOT give "fair and balanced" versions of anything that is happening and instead, endlessly harp on meaningless 'culture war' issues. Add all that together and the country gets stupid, uninformed Americans who consistently vote against their own best interests. It is both frustrating and infuriating.
Nailed it.
Excellent!
YES!!!
This is so true.
(1) The persons who consciously support and voted for him twice? Start here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Authoritarian_Personality
The Authoritarian Personality "invented a set of criteria by which to define personality traits, ranked these traits and their intensity in any given person on what it called the 'F scale' (F for fascist)."[1] The personality type Adorno et al. identified can be defined by nine traits that were believed to cluster together as the result of childhood experiences. These traits include conventionalism, authoritarian submission, authoritarian aggression, anti-intraception, superstition and stereotypy, power and "toughness", destructiveness and cynicism, projectivity, and exaggerated concerns over sex
(2) But you ask a classic loaded question - the background causes would have to include something to account for how Trump lost the popular vote to Hillary Rodham Clinton and Joe Biden, yet became POTUS in the first case, that's because of this inane institution, long past its sell by date:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Electoral_College
And a possible solution (there are legal hurdles) is here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Popular_Vote_Interstate_Compact
The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC) is an agreement among a group of U.S. states and the District of Columbia to award all their electoral votes to whichever presidential ticket wins the overall popular vote in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The compact is designed to ensure that the candidate who receives the most votes nationwide is elected president, and it would come into effect only when it would guarantee that outcome.[2][3]
Introduced in 2006, as of April 2024 it has been adopted by seventeen states and the District of Columbia. These jurisdictions have 209 electoral votes, which is 39% of the Electoral College and 77% of the 270 votes needed to give the compact legal force.
Certain legal questions may affect implementation of the compact. Some legal observers believe states have plenary power to appoint electors as prescribed by the compact; others believe that the compact will require congressional consent under the Constitution's Compact Clause or that the presidential election process cannot be altered except by a constitutional amendment.
(3) Some other baked in assumptions in the question are that Americans are uniquely prone to voting these dangerous ethnocentric quasi-fascists into office, the refutation to that howler could go on for months, but maybe you mean "Americans fail to learn via their open mass media system in advance about the dangers of candidates like Trump, which is especially egregious, since most of the nations on earth not only are not democracies, their mass media has nothing like a "First Amendment set of legal protections for free speech and free expression," so we are back to our feckless mass media and the problems with the legacy corporate media treating Trump and the current degenerate GOP as a "normal politician leading a normal political party," to the extent they repeatedly fail to fact check Trump or the GOP spokespeople for him, etc.
The Columbia Journalism Review is what you want, maybe?!
Thank you
And maybe at least some of that that time I spent sort of "studying" this kind of stuff and was told I needed to (in effect) "sell my soul to make MONEY-MONEY-MONEY-MONEY-MONEY-MONEY" wasn't wasted, thanks!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aW7HweAf3o
Pink Floyd - Money (2023 Remaster) \Pink Floyd 4.06M subscribers Premiered May 12, 2023 #TDSOTM50 #tdsotm #pinkfloyd
We need to know the answer by Nobember 4th.
Not important, but "Art of the Deal " was ghost -written. Are you surprised?
No. <snort!>
Yes, I lived through Watergate too and that seems like a bad movie compared to what is happening with DJT.
Fasten your seat belts everyone as the time gets closer to Election Day! My birthday is November 7 and I want a great present just like I did in 2020! They announced Biden's win on November 7!
Has anyone else noted that Election Day here is November 5? In the UK, that is also Bonfire Night (Guy Fawkes Day). The omens are tremendous.
With all the focus on the Orange Nodfather, I think we lose sight of all the poor dopes who have surrendered their futures for him. Everyone has to know by now the extent of his horribleness as a person, but he continues to inspire loyalty when he has never ever shown any back. Its like an evil spell cast over half the country. Even today I heard pundits claiming that the Pecker testimony demonstrates how the Stormy payments were made to protect his family, something that will resonate with all of the married jurors?? Are they just not paying attention?
Nodfather…love it. Gonna steal it.
When Pecker's ACTUAL TESTIMONY stated that tfg's payments were all about protecting his candidacy and campaign. How stupid can the consumers of Faux Noise get?
How stupid can they get? I think they've all reached ultimate/terminal stupidity. They've been so brainwashed for years by the Dumpster and his propaganda network that it's now impossible for them to ever accept the truth, even when they hear it directly from the Dumpster's closest allies.
They can't admit they've been taken in by an evil scoundrel. To acknowledge that truth would require them to look into a mirror. It's fear, embarrassment, and cowardice mixed together in one ugly brew.
I concur.
Yet SOME form of metanoia* is practically a cosmic requirement for any imperfect sentient beings to evolve their views in the light of new information!
{Shakes fist at sky & heads to Netflix for more of the gripping 3-Body Problem}
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metanoia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metanoia_(psychology)
www.imdb.com/title/tt20242042/reviews *****
something special
dmoreyn20 January 2023
This is a pretty intellectual series. I'm no genius, but I kept up with the dialogue and learned some very intriguing alternate concepts about our reality. It's target audience, I think, is the thinking man, and it is a beautifully done show. Can't ever really recall seeing something quite like it. You should watch it if you want something that challenges your mind, and simply relaxing and watching tv isn't your primary goal today. In addition, it feels like an easy watch, without any tedium to make you wish you could fast forward through parts of it. Definitely worth a viewing if only for the novelty of the story and how it encourages you to expand your mental horizons. *****
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three-Body_Problem_(novel)
Good work! I had no idea so many of Nixon's guys were breaking laws. Although comparisons are odious (credit: my mother) Nixon's kids were better/nicer than Trump's, and no one ever accused his wife of being a good time girl.
True. However, toward the end of his time in office, Pat was, iirc, abusing alcohol and other drugs. It took a toll on her.
Too bad that trump remains an unindicted co-conspirator in some of these cases as he was really at the center of all these sleazy schemes. ETTD - Everything Trump Touches Dies but not quickly enough.
They can have their trials and based on the evidence, further indictments may be forthcoming, especially if a lot of the clowns start pointing fingers in an effort to reduce jail time.
Actually, given the “immunity” issue, that might help get a speedy trial. Everyone will know who the “mastermind” was.
Read the book or watch the film of "All the President's Men." People were frightened to tell the truth, years before MAGA; but a good number of those who testified at the hearing or were indicted admitted their guilt and claimed to be ashamed of their actions. It appeared some people inadvertently got caught up in the Nixon scheming and the cover-up.
Now we have Trumpsters eager to cheat, lie, and betray their country. There's a qualitative difference.
One of the characters in this drama that I find most fascinating is Alan Weisselberg, the Trump CFO. He’s in his 70s. He unquestionably knows where almost all of the bodies are buried. He was part of Trump’s father’s organization and then segued in Donald’s part of the business. Working with some clients, I’ve been inside Rikers and it is (no joke) hell on earth. I’m a few years older than Weisselberg and I don’t think I could take even two nights in Rikers. And yet this guy lies and obfuscates and obstructs to protect Donald where he could have turned complete state’s evidence and kept himself out of jail (although he may have had to pay some healthy fines). A few nights ago I was watching a rerun of Godfather Two and the character of Frankie Pantangeli who after weaseling on congressional testimony was promised by the Coreleones that his family would be taken care of. Frankie then committed suicide. Maybe Weisselberg is Trump’s Frankie.
‘
Yes, but the Corleone family had a code of honor. There were rules in place. No honor in the Drumpf family, none.
I’m not a Nixon apologist either, but he was a statesman compared to Trump. From foreign affairs to pollution, Trump would undo anything positive that happened during the Nixon administration, and be ignorant ( as always) of the history or consequences.
Nixon was done in by a small tinge of Normal. He failed to crush it in himself and paid the price. Trump is not hampered by any such tinge and is therefore exceedingly dangerous. I think apparently you need something in between Nixon and Trump to outrun the posse of Normals forever. I hope.
Nixon at least believed in the System, and was a product of it, and respected it to a degree (or feared it). Drumpf shows what can happen when a complete neophyte (and a crook at that) gets into politics purely as a narcissistic whim and without concern of consequences and then manages to eke out a win in our heavily flawed electoral system (which we had warning of in 2000, but nobody paid attention).
I think I would give Nixon credit that he would not abase himself in a clown show like the one Trump runs. He would not leave a courtroom where he was a defendant and stand and spew nutty lies. I may be willing to say he was not without decency, but for sure he was not without some sense of personal dignity.
"It’s up to us to make sure that doesn’t happen." Correct in every respect. SCOTUS is corrupt - and the calvary isn't coming. It's us or nothing.
I’m hoping for a Democrat landslide and see signs it may happen…lots of Republicans have resigned. If it happens, I hope they’ll pack the court; the Republicans did by not letting Obama’s candidate come up for a vote.
Spot on, as usual. Nixon was a rank amateur compared to Dumpty.
From HCR: "Trump insisted to the former RNC chair that he did not need the RNC to work on turning out voters. He wanted the RNC to prioritize 'election integrity' efforts."
Any candidate uninterested in acquiring voter turnout knows he cannot win without cheating. Let's vote in droves until we're Blue in the face, but let's also brace for election deception the likes of which the country has never seen before.
Oh, Trump is definitely worse. Your comparison to Nixon proves the old adage - those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. It’s up to us to prevent that from happening!