It happened in real time early this evening on MSNBC. We were watching the Ari Melber show, and the substitute host was interviewing Garret Hake, their Capitol Hill correspondent, about the meeting earlier today between prosecutors from Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office and Defendant Trump’s attorneys. Hake was on the screen outside the Department of Justice talking about the meeting when the shot changed to include the host, catching her looking down at her phone.
It is just so outrageous and unbelievable and insulting that the Republican party thinks so little of the American people that they want to inflict this cancer of a person upon us again in 2024.SMFH
The RNC is operated as an organized crime syndicate; ALL Repugs are managed by the Gang of neonazi fascist billionaires organized by Charles Koch and his pal, Lenard Leo. They want to subvert democracy, and under the cynical euphemism of “Citizens United,” they are well on their way to completing the their plan. . . With plenty of thanks from the likes of Mitch McCONnell and Clarence Thomas & friends.
Senator Tim Scott and Supreme Corruptice Clarence Thomas "matter," but fail as conclusive counter-examples since they serve as witting or unwitting stooges for the GOP racist agenda.
Well, yeah. No matter what the cause, there are some who take sides against what look like their best interests. However, their calculations can be complicated. A Black man, for instance, or a woman or any color might survey the liberal/Democratic side and see that over there they'd just be one of very many. On the GOP side, they'd stand out. They'd be listened to, even appealed to, as distinct voices that might give those in power more credibility. And indeed, being the token [FILL IN THE BLANK] can confer a certain power -- not all that much, in some cases, but it depends on what you're looking for. (E.g., your chances of being elected to the U.S. Senate as a Democrat from South Carolina are not great.)
P.S. I didn't go to law school so that is not where I learned this. ;-) I did learn a lot watching the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings. One thing I learned was that white male Democrats were so afraid of looking racist that most of them wouldn't hold Thomas to the standards that they'd hold a white nominee to. They were much less worried about coming across as sexist p*gs. Some lessons one never forgets. My opinion at the time was that they were racist and sexist AF. That opinion has not changed, though I hope some of the participants have grown a bit since then.
That was on while I was in my final year of law school (there was an extended gap between starting at Macalester and finishing a B.A. in philosophy at U. of Minnesota, then grad school in philosophy, then starting law school at William Mitchell in St. Paul).
I agree with all of this comment, Susanna -Clarence T. knew damn well he had harassed Anita Hill, no way she invented the salacious details, no way she confabulated the charges and subjected herself to the doubly bigoted scrutiny as a black woman, and yes, the interrogation of Thomas was done hesitantly for the reasons you cite. It's always a real forked up mess when so many biases and power trips collide, that's for sure.
Justice IS being served on a silver platter by Jack Smith and Company. Fake 45 thought he was being so very clever by trying to hide boxes and boxes of documents that were not his. He made so many mistakes along the way like the surveillance footage showing Nauta and De Oliviera moving things around. The Don must’ve slipped them some handsome bucks to keep his secrets. But then Fake 45 goes and swings papers around about Iran willy-nilly at his golf club for everyone to see. I want to know how many of our CIA agents were killed abroad because of his underhandedness. He put every one of us in harm’s way. That BASTARD!
The GOP has a history of massive hypocrisy on all sorts of issues, and intensifying the risk to CIA agents already risking their lives, risking a kidnapping, the works, is something they did under George W. Bush in connection with the March, 2003 invasion of Iraq, based on very dubious documents alleging Saddam Hussein possessed "Weapons of Mass Destruction," over and above those Iraq had already used against Iran - i.e., nuclear bombs, and a missile program to enable their use, remember Valerie Plame?
Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House
Valerie Plame Wilson. Simon & Schuster, $26 (411pp) ISBN 978-1-4165-3761-8
"The problem with this book is that it has been heavily redacted by the CIA and in parts is almost impossible to read. In order to understand Plame it helps to read journalist Laura Rozen's afterword, basically a straight forward Plame biography, first. Plame's story is now part of the history of the Iraq War. An undercover CIA agent, she suggested that her husband, former Iraq ambassador and Africa expert Joseph Wilson at the urging of the vice president's office be sent to Niger to investigate whether Saddam Hussein tried to obtain yellow cake uranium,* one of the Bush administration's apocalyptic talking points for the war. After he wrote an op-ed article in the New York Times called What I Did Not Find in Africa, Plame was outed as a CIA operative by columnist Robert Novak. [She was fair game according to Karl Rove, Bush's chief political strategist.] In a drawn out melodrama, special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald rounded up the usual Beltway suspects (Rove, Ari Fleischer, Matt Cooper, Judy Miller etc.) before a grand jury, but eventually Lewis I. (Scooter) Libby, VP Cheney's chief-of-staff, was the only one sentenced in the case for perjury and obstruction of justice (which was soon commuted by Bush). Plame's personal nightmare began with Bush's 2003 State of the Union address when the president declared the British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa the 16 famous words which directly contradicted Wilson's Niger findings. When Condoleezza Rice denied on Meet the Press that anyone in the White House knew that the Niger pancake uranium stories were untrue, Plame says it was the last straw for her husband and he wrote his Times piece. Although the cast of villains in Plamegate is now legendary, a new one emerges in Senator Pat Roberts, Republican of Kansas, and then chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Working closely with Cheney, Roberts did a lot of the White House's political bidding and made life particularly uneasy for the Wilsons by a careful distortion of the facts before the 2004 presidential election. Kudos go to special prosecutor Fitzgerald (highly intelligent, compassionate person) and barbs go to Judith Miller of the New York Times (I distrusted her reporting in articles she had written in the run-up the war). Plame relates a bizarre chance meeting with Matt Cooper of Time magazine, then under Fitzgerald's screws who asked Wilson Could you do something for me? to ask the judge for leniency. Plame says the whole First Amendment fight with Miller and Cooper was the Pentagon Papers or Watergate turned on its head...These reporters were allowing themselves to be exploited by the administration and were obstructing the investigation. It didn't make much ethical sense to me. Plame also has harsh words for the Washington Post and its editorial writer Fred Hiatt: I suddenly understood what it must have felt like to live in the Soviet Union and have only the state propaganda entity, Pravda, as the source of news about the world. She continues to batter the press at what came out at the Libby trial, which showed how eagerly [journalists] accept spoon fed information from official sources...The trial did not show American journalism at its finest hour. Although Plame guards her personal life with Wilson, she is blunt in acknowledging that the controversy surrounding them put a strain on their marriage, which seemed balanced on a knife's edge. There was apparently resentment on Wilson's part that his CIA wife could not defend him against some of the attacks: He deeply resented that I had not adequately come to his defense. When Wilson asked her Why are you choosing the Agency and your career over your marriage? it forced her to rethink her marriage and led to a reconciliation. She also reveals the intimate details of her post-partum depression which followed the birth of her twins in 2000. Plame seems paranoid about events that have happened to her. Was an IRS audit normal or was it triggered by something else? Why did the bolts on a brand new deck suddenly come out? And why did the CIA almost scuttle her book through censorship. [In one of the great ironies of the book, the part about the redactions is heavily redacted.] Plame asks: Was the White House also responsible for the stalling of my book? The book reveals little not already known about Plamegate although it would have been interesting to see what would have been the result without the massive redactions of the CIA.
* Valerie Plame did no such thing, the suggestion was already under discussion and she did not object, which is a different course of action, even if difficult for some people to distinguish. I read the book, it's also a moving personal account of both the aftermath of being betrayed by her own government, and her experience of PPD, post-partum depression.
Yes, I viewed the entire evening on MSNBC! Thanks for an excellent summary and more to come. Both DC and Fulton County in Georgia are already preparing barricades. The next indictment is coming very soon! It's going to be a hot summer in more than one way, weather wise! The earth is burning up and so is the former President and his cronies! Let's hope that he is convicted and sentenced to some jail time as he is not above the law! We need to make him an example so this won't happen with anyone else!
The mystery to me is how even one person would want to see this man as president again. If he handed out cool-aid to his cheering supporters at one of his rellies I bet they'd all drink it.
Their blind devotion is puzzling. Recalling when he was much younger, there was lots of puffy (and planted) news stories and photos of the great developer. Then the book extolling his virtues as a businessman, (rubbish really) but think a good-seller. Later got the TV show and who could bear that, apparently some did and so follows the “star” designation in fawning media. Eventually the racist part poured out and President Obama became his target. Bring in Rush Limbaugh who ate that up and fed it to massive audience and the significant number of racists in our citizenry loved it. When began running for Presidency, most of them knew him for TV show, successful author and purported successful businessman and how outrageous was it Hillary Clinton even had the nerve to run for President and misogyny was fully flowing. He displayed all the outrageous behavior, and if he can, why can’t we! None of it an excuse but the dumbing-down of Americans may have played a big role.
Sorry, that’s pretty depressing. Should have just had some wine.
Well, OutofhellTx you summed up the situation perfectly. Great writing actually). All the comments to Lucian's newsletter are so thoughtful and well written. Loved your last line; made me laugh. But yes, he has bamboozled a lo of people. Of course some say, yeah his character isn't great. but .... They talk about his accomplishments? Maybe sometime Lucian can do a fact check on his claimed achievements as president. If any someone else thought of them and he signed off on them, but he gutted the banking and other business regulations, and stifled scientific announcements to do with the environment, etc.
It's a long list of attacks on our basic rights: to vote, for women's freedom of reproductive choice, to have our votes counted and registered fairly, to have the environment protected and not to have our fossil fuel industry encouraged to boil the only planet we have, slandering our generals, soldiers in all the ranks, military veterans and soldiers who gave their lives or were seriously wounded and disable, slurred as "suckers," apparently for not finding a crooked doctor to invent some phantom bone spurs, etc.
In connection with that, "dodging the draft," something about a historic figure I just discovered a few hours ago:
"During World War II, Humphrey tried three times to join the armed forces but failed.[31] His first two attempts were to join the Navy, first as a commissioned officer and then as an enlisted man. He was rejected both times for color blindness.[32] He then tried to enlist in the Army in December 1944 but failed the physical exam because of a double hernia, color blindness, and calcification of the lungs.[32] Despite his attempts to join the military, one biographer would note that "all through his political life, Humphrey was dogged by the charge that he was a draft dodger" during the war.[33]
Humphrey led various wartime government agencies and worked as a college instructor. In 1942, he was the state director of new production training and reemployment and chief of the Minnesota war service program.[34] In 1943 he was the assistant director of the War Manpower Commission.[20] From 1943 to 1944, Humphrey was a professor of political science at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where he headed the university's recently created international debate department, which focused on the international politics of World War II and the creation of the United Nations.[35] After leaving Macalester in the spring of 1944, Humphrey worked as a news commentator for a Minneapolis radio station until 1945.[20]
In 1943, Humphrey made his first run for elective office, for Mayor of Minneapolis. He lost, but his poorly funded campaign still captured over 47% of the vote.[22] In 1944, Humphrey was one of the key players in the merger of the Democratic and Farmer-Labor parties of Minnesota to form the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL).[36] He also worked on President Roosevelt's 1944 reelection campaign.[37] When Minnesota Communists tried to seize control of the new party in 1945, Humphrey became an engaged anticommunist and led the successful fight to oust the Communists from the DFL.[38]" *****
'Into the Bright Sunshine' spotlights the achievements of LBJ VP Hubert Humphrey
July 27, 20232:01 PM ET
Heard on Fresh Air
Dave Davies
37-Minute Listen
Transcript
Humphrey is remembered for his defense of an unpopular war in Vietnam, but author Sam Freedman says the former mayor of Minneapolis played a critical role in getting Democrats to embrace civil rights. {It also transpires that before he was elected mayor, he had to take on the Silver Legion / Silver Shirts,* and when mayor, a serious presence of Cosa Nostra-connected organized crime in Minneapolis.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Silver Legion of America Other name Silver Shirts
Leader William Dudley Pelley[1]
Founded January 31, 1933[2]
Dissolved 1941
Headquarters Asheville, North Carolina[3]
The Silver Legion of America, commonly known as the Silver Shirts, was an underground American pro-fascist and pro-Nazi organization which was founded by William Dudley Pelley and headquartered in Asheville, North Carolina.[17]
The large/huge photo of Hubert Humphrey that towers over foot traffic in the West Bank Skyway as it connects with Willey Hall (only auditorium outside of cavernous Northrup Hall on East Bank large enough to host Noam Chomsky's speeches & Q & A here, etc.) and Mondale Hall, the U. of Minnesota's Law School, that photo captures Hubert's inner joie de vivre and spirit of optimism - and it was taken when he was dying of terminal cancer.
As usual lemme see if I can find a link so you can see what I mean...No, everything goes to "Humphrey School of Public Affairs" or "Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome," now replaced by the US Bank Stadium for the Vikings (and many other events, Taylor Swift just played two sold-out nights
there etc.) A shame, I could be there in twenty minutes with my trusty Nikon D3300 but would have to probably upload the photo as my `avatar' on here instead of that shot girlfriend Denise took on banks of Mississippi 15 years ago, couldn't get it through the copying process and post it any other way I understand, anyway. What an inspiring photo, of course thousands, tens of thousands and more "clueless" students, staff, faculty, visitors walk under it with zero comprehension, nothing new in that.
You have to go back at the beginning of the brain-washing to understand how to groom mobs. It started insidiously under Reagan and “the closing of the American Mind.” It was fostered through cynical use of language--repeated negative messaging linked to emotional responses. It’s what the military calls “weaponized propaganda.” It’s a matter of semiotics.
For sure, Dawna: Goebbels was in charge of Hitler's propaganda machine. he was a m,aster at this. I believe Trump studied these guys. I read once that one of his maids said he kept a copy of Mein Kampf in a locked drawer by his bedside.
Charles Koch and his nazi cronies studied this. TRump is “just” a sociopathic bully whose tactics of Lie & Deny fit into the mold. I don’t believe tRump is capable of “master minding” and weaponized propaganda requires preparation--that would be Charles Koch. All of these guys have literally bought into the Koch (Leo) Gang and, no surprise, when the curtain is pulled aside, they are collectors of neonazi momentos and have their issued Mein Kampf at the bedside. Trust me when I tell you: Trump’s 4th grade reading level precludes any serious study or interpretation of Mein Kampf, but it serves a symbolic purpose: He is one of THEM.
I 100% agree, Dawna, you nailed the character of these guys perfectly. Trump to them is the "Useful Fool" as first described by Putin a long time ago. Certainly he would have little understanding of Mein Kampf but he'd pick up the general idea. These men you describe are intent on dismantling our democratic system. Our only hope is the vote, unfortunately their gerrymandering manipulations and other insidious activities like the very thing we are talking about, feeding the masses garbage, is the only way they can gain power and they know it. Republican authoritarian policies are not attracting many new converts.
PS Great to see an edit button added at last by clicking the 3 dots. There was just the delete button before. Although I don't see all my errors as my eyesight not so good at 90..
Very well stated, OutofhellTx. The last sentence of the 1st paragraph is the key to everything that's happened to this country. The dumbing-down of Americans has played a HUGE role in the Dumpster getting elected and his continued support by the Repugnant party. Convicting & jailing him won't completely fix the damage but it will remove a huge catalyst.
I agree with you, and with Stan Wakefield, that the "dumbing-down of Americans may have played a big role" -- but I'd drop the "may have" because I've got no doubt. We can't just blame the educational system either, or the much-lamented dearth of civics education at the secondary-school level. Combine that with the death of the Fairness Doctrine in media, the explosion of commercial TV/cable outlets, and of course _Citizens United_ and the gutting of the Voting Rights Act, and you've got an Rx for an abysmally uninformed and/or misinformed electorate. Then add in the conviction of many that the only real Americans are white Americans . . .
It's not hard to see how our entire history has led us to this point.
Agree, drop the “may have.” During Senator John Kerry’s political effort, he was ridiculed for being an intellectual. Then he was ridiculed with the “swift-boating.” And much of George W. Bush’s appeal was he wore chambray shirt, cowboy boots and chopped wood on his ranch. Talked like a good-ole-boy. Sounds like he’s one them. They loved that crap. How easy was that?
After spending half my years in TX, I never let myself believe President Obama could win the first time. But had this instinct during campaign the team should put him in cowboy boots, chambray shirt and talk a little “aw-shucks” like.
You should have been on the campaign staff! I'm not sure Obama could have pulled it off, but I'll never ever bet against the guy, or Michelle either. What he was saying in 2008 resonated in a lot of places. That scared the sh*t out of many influential rich people, which is pretty much where Jane Mayer's DARK MONEY begins.
I have a hard time believing Trump actually wrote anything that includes words like "moreover". It's not his syntax. Who writes (or wrote and later was thrown under the bus) that stuff?
If it’s coherent, rational, and well-written, and contains only measured, dignified language, with no repetition, no words in all caps, no 5th-grade bully insults, and no outraged assertions of victimhood, it _definitely_ was not written by Donald Trump.
You say that because you are a witch hunting globalist tool of the crooked FBI and 14 Crazy Democrats, you know it, I know it, everyone knows it, Elizabeth!
It's getting late, I am channeling Trump, ai yi yi! Signing off over and out.
Once again, Lucian, thank you for making all of this comprehensible.
That we are even in this situation makes me wonder what will happen to us as a nation.
Are we in irreversible decline? I have relatives and friends who were normal people thirty years ago, but now think the Democrats are a greater danger than Trump. It is terrifying.
That's not it. I don't think the Trump cult is so simple. In our case it seems to have more to do with Evangelical and Catholic religion; traditional loyalty to the Republican party; related concerns about money; and immigration. My husband and I have large extended families in the Northeast, Virginia, Florida, and Arizona. Some in the younger generation have married people of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Jamaican, Indian, and Black heritage. There has been no negativity toward these new members. No need to point out the hypocrisy and challenging lack of facts typical of Trump Republicans. It's hard to know how much the "news" plays in. Are they influenced, or do they only listen to what reinforces their beliefs. It's not all of our friends and relatives, just some. Thirty or forty years ago, none of this was an issue. That is what is so puzzling.
Thank you for that nuanced explanation-- you're no doubt correct. And yet, and yet...both evangelicals and Catholics in the USA (especially the former) have a history that includes a fair amount of racism; concerns about money often contain unspoken resentments that minorities are "getting stuff for free;" and immigration concerns virtually always are concerns about too many people of color coming here, and not about immigration from"white" countries. So, even though there are many other factors that go into making a trumpster, I believe that if you dig deep enough, you'll uncover a bedrock of racism. It IS encouraging that so many members of the younger generation are marrying people of different ethnic/racial backgrounds. They are the hope for the future.
I forgot to mention that some have an obsession with "traditional morality"
i.e. anti-abortion and anti-gay marriage. They are the ones who accept "imperfect" leaders who will support their policies. It's a tangled web of Christian belief systems, fact free positions, and hypocrisy. Enter Savior Donald Trump.
Yes-- you've put your finger on those twin issues that unite Catholics and evangelicals and that help explain their allegiance to t-Rump. About 10 years ago, I read (don't recall where) that until quite recently the website for Bob Jones University described the Catholic Church as "the agent of the Devil." Not any longer! I'd agree that the opposition to gay marriage is unrelated to racism, but being anti-abortion.... well....black women are often viewed by those with "traditional morality" as being especially immoral and promiscuous, so punishing them by forcing them to have unwanted children is at least a part of the unspoken motivation for the traditional moralists' opposition to abortion. Nonetheless-- thanks again for pointing out that tangled web.
I agree, Judith. Getting stuff for free bothers the hell out of people who think they, not others, should be the ones getting stuff for free.
Perhaps if they were called fees, rather than taxes, people would be less resentful of having to pay for what government does for us. People grumble about fee increases, but they pay them anyway if they want the service.
"Getting stuff for free," like billions in corporate welfare, doesn't bother them at all - only when it helps poor people does this suddenly become completely unacceptable. Or they will complain overtly about both, but claim the "rich always find a way around the laws and the tx code," so there's no use changing the tx code and enforcing it, but as for the poor, let them eat cake.
That’s about it. There is also the perception that they are almost rich enough themselves that they should endorse loopholes and lax enforcement. There was a poll many years ago that found 25% of Americans thought they were in the top 10% of income or soon would be.
Actually, in the case of the evangelicals, it's the blind obedience to their chosen god and that has been studied-most evangelicals (and indeed, most very religious people) have a huge tendency to be supporters of dictators or cult leaders. Their programming is that of blind obedience and personality cult.
Trump fulfills their tendency to worship people who resemble them in so many ways.
Even in the bad ways, more so.
I could mention one person whom we would all name as being the ultimate cultist but I'm not going into that argument today. It's too hot.
But let's just say Trump makes his followers (mentally dumb and ignorant) want to follow him into hell because he's their chosen one.
Absolutely correct! My brother is a Trumplethinskin. He is not only racist but also suffers from the delusion that Democrats are demons. Fix Noise and the NY Post are his news sources. Needless to add, we don’t communicate very often. I am most courteous, and he always says something to try to inflame.
My last communication with her was shortly after she spouted a Trump cult slogan and I haven't missed her since.
I've cut her out of my life totally.
She lives in Florida and that's where she should stay where she's accepted as a white supremacist, racist and homophobic. What makes her odious to me is that she used to be better, but since she met her husband something snapped and she turned into a fascist.
I find her detestable in every respect. I won't ever visit or talk to her willingly again. She's proved to be a total outcast.
My father would have been so ashamed. I'm glad he never saw what happened to our country in the last 20 years.
BRAVO!!! That's exactly what I'd do in the same circumstances. I guess it's lucky I'm an only child. I have, however, done the same with former friends, when I became aware of their political views. Remaining friends with morally worthless people is a way of accepting that their views are legitimate.
Unfortunately that's true - the Trump cultists are beyond being simply 'more conservative' in an old-fashioned Eisenhower Republican sense, that's for sure. No possible rapprochements with them.
He is my only brother, and of my sisters, I am the geographically nearest. We only communicate by phone…rarely. My husband died last year and my brother’s children brought him to the memorial service at West Point. Brother was retired Grand Poobah of the American Legion post, and came in full regalia because “that’s the way he dressed for a military funeral!” At the luncheon after, his recollection was so inappropriate, that my children, my sisters and I were dumbfounded. So…i have allowed the relationship to continue somewhat because I have decided that he is developmentally disabled. And besides, the other sisters keep asking ME how he is. Maybe their phones don’t dial out.
Actually, we were close a long time ago, then she drifted off and we were off for the most part until my husband died-she's not been very communicative even in the best of times but this past year when I found what she'd turned into rather put the nail in the coffin of our personal relationship.
I won't stand for people who want to destroy this country. I might not sound like it, but I am a patriot and whoever supports Trump is a traitor to me.
That is what my sister has become. My father would have agreed.
Tonight I heard that 50% of the GOP voters do not believe trmp had ANY documents at Mar A Lago let alone Bedminster. At the point Fox has to tell some form of the truth, a whole bunch of people will meet some form of Jesus. Thanks, Lucian.
No they don't, no way, why would they need to "tell the truth"? Who is going to force them to lose their audience? The First Amendment will protect them if they start claiming any documents found there were (1) unclassified (2) started out secret, unclassified by Trump, but the lying Democrats, the lying lamestream media, the crooked FBI and DOJ, the corrupt judges and Jack Smith who hate Trump and hate God and hate the USA, are in a conspiracy to send Trump to prison if they can, (3) All the dubious documents not covered by (1) or (2) were planted, probably by Nancy Pelosi's husband as the driver and Hunter Biden in disguise, along with burglars hired by George Soros.
You need to use imaginative projection based on all your own life experience observing the worst of humanity, whether on film, in books, recounted by friends, relatives, acquaintances, professors and other teachers, whoever, or (hopefully not) in person, and "think like an amoral, opportunistic, money-mad quasi-fascist maniac" to understand the problem, is my argument.
It looks like this 4th person is a witness for the DOJ, possibly cooperating or just a witness. In either event, although we do not know his or her name the conspirators do. It should be interesting to see how long it takes for somebody to leak it so that the MAGA Terrorist Organization can intimidate him or his family.
I guess I am guilty (like Trump and most other people) of not remembering that concealment of a fact or crime is always going to be discovered by a prosecutor who knows his job, and furthermore by one who not only knows his job but is extremely good at it and is one of the best in his field.
Trump undoubtedly believed that Jack Smith wouldn't take his words seriously-after all nobody ever does-but that he did must blow the water out of Trump's pool. That he would actually go find the exact document that he was boasting about, and then use it as another indictment shows that Mr. Smith has a precise aim and he is aiming to take down Trump. That must stun Donald Trump to death. Nobody has ever done that to him, of all people.
Other people have often been fooled by knowing Donald Trump and that they will be blessed by knowing him. However, the two people who are now included in the indictment probably never thought that the 'Boss' was wrong to ask them to do what they did and that they personally would never be involved in his problems.
I don't think anyone who has ever been close to Trump ever walks away undamaged-be it wives, children, employees or attorneys. It's like Trump is a self-contained plague of immorality that if it brushes off on you, will damage you completely and forever.
Leaving the person affected destroyed and regretting they ever met the man.
Is there a term for such a person? I have no idea but I'm sure my description does have one.
A Republican Strategist Gets Real About the Worst President Ever
By Rick Wilson
From Rick Wilson—longtime Republican strategist, political commentator, Daily Beast contributor—the #1 New York Times bestseller about the disease that is destroying the conservative movement and burning down the GOP: Trumpism.
Includes an all-new chapter analyzing Trump’s impact on the 2018 elections.
In the #1 New York Times bestselling Everything Trump Touches Dies, political campaign strategist and commentator Rick Wilson delivers “a searingly honest, bitingly funny, comprehensive answer to the question we find ourselves asking most mornings: ‘What the hell is going on?’ (Chicago Tribune). The Guardian hails Everything Trump Touches Dies, saying it gives, “more unvarnished truths about Donald Trump than anyone else in the American political establishment has offered. Wilson never holds back.” Rick mercilessly exposes the damage Trump has done to the country, to the Republican Party, and to the conservative movement that has abandoned its principles for the worst President in American history.
Wilson unblinkingly dismantles Trump’s deceptions and the illusions to which his supporters cling, shedding light on the guilty parties who empower and enable Trump in Washington and in the media. He calls out the race-war dead-enders who hitched a ride with Trump, the alt-right basement dwellers who worship him, and the social conservatives who looked the other way. Publishers Weekly calls it, “a scathing, profane, unflinching, and laugh-out-loud funny rebuke of Donald Trump and his presidency.”
No left-winger, Wilson is a lifelong conservative who delivers his withering critique of Trump from the right. A leader of the Never Trump movement, he warned from the start that Trump would destroy the lives and reputations of everyone in his orbit, and Everything Trump Touches Dies is a deft chronicle the tragicomic political story of our time. From the early campaign days through the shock of election night, to the inconceivable train-wreck of Trump’s first year. Rick Wilson provides not only an insightful analysis of the Trump administration, but also an optimistic path forward for the GOP, the conservative movement, and the country.
“Hilarious, smartly written, and usually spot-on” (Kirkus Reviews), Everything Trump Touches Dies is perfect for those on either side of the aisle who need a dose of unvarnished reality, a good laugh, a strong cocktail, and a return to sanity in American politics.
Thank you for reading it so I don't have to. I have read some of them but I hit my limit a while ago! I listened to a good portion of MSNBC coverage tonight. Looking forward to what drops next!
Charging the Bedminister count in Florida may prove to be a terrible misstep if Judge Aileen “Boom Boom” Cannon mucks up the trial. Smith would have been better served to bring the charge in NJ, where a better qualified, less politically beholden judge might hear the case. I thought he was holding the Bedminister violation in reserve for that purpose. Now all the documents charges are going to be heard before a judge who is in thrall to the defendant; not a promising prospect.
The document in question allegedly made its way to Bedminster via Mar-A-Lago. Had the sit down with the ghostwriters occurred at his club in LA or in Scotland, the SC still would charge it in FL, the epicenter of all the document related crimes.
Believe me, Cannon is being watched like a hawk. Smith has many tricks up his sleeve to keep her on track. Otherwise, he can oppose her handling of the case. She is under a lot of scrutiny so I would think if she wants to keep her lifetime job, she better play fair.
I truly wonder if she is even capable of playing fair. ANY WOMAN who avidly supports t-Rump falls into my "Jews for Hitler/Blacks for Slavery" category of utter moral insanity. How much self-hatred does a woman have to feel, for her to worship that misogynistic monster enough to put her whole legal career in jeopardy by her devotion to him?
You're correct about Judge Cannon's godawful betrayal of women's rights. But her "whole legal career" is now completely guaranteed by Right Wing Foundation Money, and other ventures that reward exactly that hatred of women's rights.
You need to study how the reactionaries operate more closely, try this (googles "Right Wing Watch")
MOST RECENT Republican Politicians and Anti-Choice Activists Rallying Behind Democracy-Restricting Initiative in Ohio
July 28, 2023 11:40 am
Right Wing Round-Up: No Health Care in Schools
July 27, 2023 5:04 pm
Right Wing Bonus Tracks: A Lot of Witchcraft
July 27, 2023 5:02 pm
If States Start Designating 'Christian History Month,' You Can Thank the National Association of Christian Lawmakers
Aileen Cannon can make millions of dollars more by representing the wingnut foundations and organizations, there are a multitude of careers available to her beyond being a relatively poorly paid federal judge, happens routinely that they leave for a "white shoe firm" and never look back.
It is just so outrageous and unbelievable and insulting that the Republican party thinks so little of the American people that they want to inflict this cancer of a person upon us again in 2024.SMFH
The RNC is operated as an organized crime syndicate; ALL Repugs are managed by the Gang of neonazi fascist billionaires organized by Charles Koch and his pal, Lenard Leo. They want to subvert democracy, and under the cynical euphemism of “Citizens United,” they are well on their way to completing the their plan. . . With plenty of thanks from the likes of Mitch McCONnell and Clarence Thomas & friends.
I believe that for the current GOP, the only "American people" who matter are the white ones who vote Republican.
It’s their votes that matter, not the actual people.
Senator Tim Scott and Supreme Corruptice Clarence Thomas "matter," but fail as conclusive counter-examples since they serve as witting or unwitting stooges for the GOP racist agenda.
Well, yeah. No matter what the cause, there are some who take sides against what look like their best interests. However, their calculations can be complicated. A Black man, for instance, or a woman or any color might survey the liberal/Democratic side and see that over there they'd just be one of very many. On the GOP side, they'd stand out. They'd be listened to, even appealed to, as distinct voices that might give those in power more credibility. And indeed, being the token [FILL IN THE BLANK] can confer a certain power -- not all that much, in some cases, but it depends on what you're looking for. (E.g., your chances of being elected to the U.S. Senate as a Democrat from South Carolina are not great.)
P.S. I didn't go to law school so that is not where I learned this. ;-) I did learn a lot watching the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings. One thing I learned was that white male Democrats were so afraid of looking racist that most of them wouldn't hold Thomas to the standards that they'd hold a white nominee to. They were much less worried about coming across as sexist p*gs. Some lessons one never forgets. My opinion at the time was that they were racist and sexist AF. That opinion has not changed, though I hope some of the participants have grown a bit since then.
That was on while I was in my final year of law school (there was an extended gap between starting at Macalester and finishing a B.A. in philosophy at U. of Minnesota, then grad school in philosophy, then starting law school at William Mitchell in St. Paul).
I agree with all of this comment, Susanna -Clarence T. knew damn well he had harassed Anita Hill, no way she invented the salacious details, no way she confabulated the charges and subjected herself to the doubly bigoted scrutiny as a black woman, and yes, the interrogation of Thomas was done hesitantly for the reasons you cite. It's always a real forked up mess when so many biases and power trips collide, that's for sure.
Yes, I got a B.A. in philosophy at the U of Minnesota too, (only in Duluth,) and then I never ever did see one help wanted ad for a philosopher.
I did not see much of the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings but was spellbound then dismayed and disgusted watching the Brett Kavanaugh hearings.
Justice IS being served on a silver platter by Jack Smith and Company. Fake 45 thought he was being so very clever by trying to hide boxes and boxes of documents that were not his. He made so many mistakes along the way like the surveillance footage showing Nauta and De Oliviera moving things around. The Don must’ve slipped them some handsome bucks to keep his secrets. But then Fake 45 goes and swings papers around about Iran willy-nilly at his golf club for everyone to see. I want to know how many of our CIA agents were killed abroad because of his underhandedness. He put every one of us in harm’s way. That BASTARD!
The GOP has a history of massive hypocrisy on all sorts of issues, and intensifying the risk to CIA agents already risking their lives, risking a kidnapping, the works, is something they did under George W. Bush in connection with the March, 2003 invasion of Iraq, based on very dubious documents alleging Saddam Hussein possessed "Weapons of Mass Destruction," over and above those Iraq had already used against Iran - i.e., nuclear bombs, and a missile program to enable their use, remember Valerie Plame?
Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House
Valerie Plame Wilson. Simon & Schuster, $26 (411pp) ISBN 978-1-4165-3761-8
"The problem with this book is that it has been heavily redacted by the CIA and in parts is almost impossible to read. In order to understand Plame it helps to read journalist Laura Rozen's afterword, basically a straight forward Plame biography, first. Plame's story is now part of the history of the Iraq War. An undercover CIA agent, she suggested that her husband, former Iraq ambassador and Africa expert Joseph Wilson at the urging of the vice president's office be sent to Niger to investigate whether Saddam Hussein tried to obtain yellow cake uranium,* one of the Bush administration's apocalyptic talking points for the war. After he wrote an op-ed article in the New York Times called What I Did Not Find in Africa, Plame was outed as a CIA operative by columnist Robert Novak. [She was fair game according to Karl Rove, Bush's chief political strategist.] In a drawn out melodrama, special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald rounded up the usual Beltway suspects (Rove, Ari Fleischer, Matt Cooper, Judy Miller etc.) before a grand jury, but eventually Lewis I. (Scooter) Libby, VP Cheney's chief-of-staff, was the only one sentenced in the case for perjury and obstruction of justice (which was soon commuted by Bush). Plame's personal nightmare began with Bush's 2003 State of the Union address when the president declared the British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa the 16 famous words which directly contradicted Wilson's Niger findings. When Condoleezza Rice denied on Meet the Press that anyone in the White House knew that the Niger pancake uranium stories were untrue, Plame says it was the last straw for her husband and he wrote his Times piece. Although the cast of villains in Plamegate is now legendary, a new one emerges in Senator Pat Roberts, Republican of Kansas, and then chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Working closely with Cheney, Roberts did a lot of the White House's political bidding and made life particularly uneasy for the Wilsons by a careful distortion of the facts before the 2004 presidential election. Kudos go to special prosecutor Fitzgerald (highly intelligent, compassionate person) and barbs go to Judith Miller of the New York Times (I distrusted her reporting in articles she had written in the run-up the war). Plame relates a bizarre chance meeting with Matt Cooper of Time magazine, then under Fitzgerald's screws who asked Wilson Could you do something for me? to ask the judge for leniency. Plame says the whole First Amendment fight with Miller and Cooper was the Pentagon Papers or Watergate turned on its head...These reporters were allowing themselves to be exploited by the administration and were obstructing the investigation. It didn't make much ethical sense to me. Plame also has harsh words for the Washington Post and its editorial writer Fred Hiatt: I suddenly understood what it must have felt like to live in the Soviet Union and have only the state propaganda entity, Pravda, as the source of news about the world. She continues to batter the press at what came out at the Libby trial, which showed how eagerly [journalists] accept spoon fed information from official sources...The trial did not show American journalism at its finest hour. Although Plame guards her personal life with Wilson, she is blunt in acknowledging that the controversy surrounding them put a strain on their marriage, which seemed balanced on a knife's edge. There was apparently resentment on Wilson's part that his CIA wife could not defend him against some of the attacks: He deeply resented that I had not adequately come to his defense. When Wilson asked her Why are you choosing the Agency and your career over your marriage? it forced her to rethink her marriage and led to a reconciliation. She also reveals the intimate details of her post-partum depression which followed the birth of her twins in 2000. Plame seems paranoid about events that have happened to her. Was an IRS audit normal or was it triggered by something else? Why did the bolts on a brand new deck suddenly come out? And why did the CIA almost scuttle her book through censorship. [In one of the great ironies of the book, the part about the redactions is heavily redacted.] Plame asks: Was the White House also responsible for the stalling of my book? The book reveals little not already known about Plamegate although it would have been interesting to see what would have been the result without the massive redactions of the CIA.
***** publishersweekly.com/9781416537618
* Valerie Plame did no such thing, the suggestion was already under discussion and she did not object, which is a different course of action, even if difficult for some people to distinguish. I read the book, it's also a moving personal account of both the aftermath of being betrayed by her own government, and her experience of PPD, post-partum depression.
Exactly! Hot indeed!
Yes, I viewed the entire evening on MSNBC! Thanks for an excellent summary and more to come. Both DC and Fulton County in Georgia are already preparing barricades. The next indictment is coming very soon! It's going to be a hot summer in more than one way, weather wise! The earth is burning up and so is the former President and his cronies! Let's hope that he is convicted and sentenced to some jail time as he is not above the law! We need to make him an example so this won't happen with anyone else!
The mystery to me is how even one person would want to see this man as president again. If he handed out cool-aid to his cheering supporters at one of his rellies I bet they'd all drink it.
Their blind devotion is puzzling. Recalling when he was much younger, there was lots of puffy (and planted) news stories and photos of the great developer. Then the book extolling his virtues as a businessman, (rubbish really) but think a good-seller. Later got the TV show and who could bear that, apparently some did and so follows the “star” designation in fawning media. Eventually the racist part poured out and President Obama became his target. Bring in Rush Limbaugh who ate that up and fed it to massive audience and the significant number of racists in our citizenry loved it. When began running for Presidency, most of them knew him for TV show, successful author and purported successful businessman and how outrageous was it Hillary Clinton even had the nerve to run for President and misogyny was fully flowing. He displayed all the outrageous behavior, and if he can, why can’t we! None of it an excuse but the dumbing-down of Americans may have played a big role.
Sorry, that’s pretty depressing. Should have just had some wine.
Well, OutofhellTx you summed up the situation perfectly. Great writing actually). All the comments to Lucian's newsletter are so thoughtful and well written. Loved your last line; made me laugh. But yes, he has bamboozled a lo of people. Of course some say, yeah his character isn't great. but .... They talk about his accomplishments? Maybe sometime Lucian can do a fact check on his claimed achievements as president. If any someone else thought of them and he signed off on them, but he gutted the banking and other business regulations, and stifled scientific announcements to do with the environment, etc.
It's a long list of attacks on our basic rights: to vote, for women's freedom of reproductive choice, to have our votes counted and registered fairly, to have the environment protected and not to have our fossil fuel industry encouraged to boil the only planet we have, slandering our generals, soldiers in all the ranks, military veterans and soldiers who gave their lives or were seriously wounded and disable, slurred as "suckers," apparently for not finding a crooked doctor to invent some phantom bone spurs, etc.
In connection with that, "dodging the draft," something about a historic figure I just discovered a few hours ago:
"During World War II, Humphrey tried three times to join the armed forces but failed.[31] His first two attempts were to join the Navy, first as a commissioned officer and then as an enlisted man. He was rejected both times for color blindness.[32] He then tried to enlist in the Army in December 1944 but failed the physical exam because of a double hernia, color blindness, and calcification of the lungs.[32] Despite his attempts to join the military, one biographer would note that "all through his political life, Humphrey was dogged by the charge that he was a draft dodger" during the war.[33]
Humphrey led various wartime government agencies and worked as a college instructor. In 1942, he was the state director of new production training and reemployment and chief of the Minnesota war service program.[34] In 1943 he was the assistant director of the War Manpower Commission.[20] From 1943 to 1944, Humphrey was a professor of political science at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where he headed the university's recently created international debate department, which focused on the international politics of World War II and the creation of the United Nations.[35] After leaving Macalester in the spring of 1944, Humphrey worked as a news commentator for a Minneapolis radio station until 1945.[20]
In 1943, Humphrey made his first run for elective office, for Mayor of Minneapolis. He lost, but his poorly funded campaign still captured over 47% of the vote.[22] In 1944, Humphrey was one of the key players in the merger of the Democratic and Farmer-Labor parties of Minnesota to form the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL).[36] He also worked on President Roosevelt's 1944 reelection campaign.[37] When Minnesota Communists tried to seize control of the new party in 1945, Humphrey became an engaged anticommunist and led the successful fight to oust the Communists from the DFL.[38]" *****
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubert_Humphrey
npr.org/programs/fresh-air/2023/07/27/1190226679/fresh-air-for-july-27-2023-hubert-humphrey-and-the-fight-for-civil-rights
'Into the Bright Sunshine' spotlights the achievements of LBJ VP Hubert Humphrey
July 27, 20232:01 PM ET
Heard on Fresh Air
Dave Davies
37-Minute Listen
Transcript
Humphrey is remembered for his defense of an unpopular war in Vietnam, but author Sam Freedman says the former mayor of Minneapolis played a critical role in getting Democrats to embrace civil rights. {It also transpires that before he was elected mayor, he had to take on the Silver Legion / Silver Shirts,* and when mayor, a serious presence of Cosa Nostra-connected organized crime in Minneapolis.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Silver Legion of America Other name Silver Shirts
Leader William Dudley Pelley[1]
Founded January 31, 1933[2]
Dissolved 1941
Headquarters Asheville, North Carolina[3]
The Silver Legion of America, commonly known as the Silver Shirts, was an underground American pro-fascist and pro-Nazi organization which was founded by William Dudley Pelley and headquartered in Asheville, North Carolina.[17]
My mother, a Minnesotan, loved Humphrey. Thank you for this.
The large/huge photo of Hubert Humphrey that towers over foot traffic in the West Bank Skyway as it connects with Willey Hall (only auditorium outside of cavernous Northrup Hall on East Bank large enough to host Noam Chomsky's speeches & Q & A here, etc.) and Mondale Hall, the U. of Minnesota's Law School, that photo captures Hubert's inner joie de vivre and spirit of optimism - and it was taken when he was dying of terminal cancer.
As usual lemme see if I can find a link so you can see what I mean...No, everything goes to "Humphrey School of Public Affairs" or "Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome," now replaced by the US Bank Stadium for the Vikings (and many other events, Taylor Swift just played two sold-out nights
there etc.) A shame, I could be there in twenty minutes with my trusty Nikon D3300 but would have to probably upload the photo as my `avatar' on here instead of that shot girlfriend Denise took on banks of Mississippi 15 years ago, couldn't get it through the copying process and post it any other way I understand, anyway. What an inspiring photo, of course thousands, tens of thousands and more "clueless" students, staff, faculty, visitors walk under it with zero comprehension, nothing new in that.
Oh, Richard, I can picture it all now! Thanks!
You have to go back at the beginning of the brain-washing to understand how to groom mobs. It started insidiously under Reagan and “the closing of the American Mind.” It was fostered through cynical use of language--repeated negative messaging linked to emotional responses. It’s what the military calls “weaponized propaganda.” It’s a matter of semiotics.
For sure, Dawna: Goebbels was in charge of Hitler's propaganda machine. he was a m,aster at this. I believe Trump studied these guys. I read once that one of his maids said he kept a copy of Mein Kampf in a locked drawer by his bedside.
Charles Koch and his nazi cronies studied this. TRump is “just” a sociopathic bully whose tactics of Lie & Deny fit into the mold. I don’t believe tRump is capable of “master minding” and weaponized propaganda requires preparation--that would be Charles Koch. All of these guys have literally bought into the Koch (Leo) Gang and, no surprise, when the curtain is pulled aside, they are collectors of neonazi momentos and have their issued Mein Kampf at the bedside. Trust me when I tell you: Trump’s 4th grade reading level precludes any serious study or interpretation of Mein Kampf, but it serves a symbolic purpose: He is one of THEM.
I 100% agree, Dawna, you nailed the character of these guys perfectly. Trump to them is the "Useful Fool" as first described by Putin a long time ago. Certainly he would have little understanding of Mein Kampf but he'd pick up the general idea. These men you describe are intent on dismantling our democratic system. Our only hope is the vote, unfortunately their gerrymandering manipulations and other insidious activities like the very thing we are talking about, feeding the masses garbage, is the only way they can gain power and they know it. Republican authoritarian policies are not attracting many new converts.
PS Great to see an edit button added at last by clicking the 3 dots. There was just the delete button before. Although I don't see all my errors as my eyesight not so good at 90..
Very well stated, OutofhellTx. The last sentence of the 1st paragraph is the key to everything that's happened to this country. The dumbing-down of Americans has played a HUGE role in the Dumpster getting elected and his continued support by the Repugnant party. Convicting & jailing him won't completely fix the damage but it will remove a huge catalyst.
I agree with you, and with Stan Wakefield, that the "dumbing-down of Americans may have played a big role" -- but I'd drop the "may have" because I've got no doubt. We can't just blame the educational system either, or the much-lamented dearth of civics education at the secondary-school level. Combine that with the death of the Fairness Doctrine in media, the explosion of commercial TV/cable outlets, and of course _Citizens United_ and the gutting of the Voting Rights Act, and you've got an Rx for an abysmally uninformed and/or misinformed electorate. Then add in the conviction of many that the only real Americans are white Americans . . .
It's not hard to see how our entire history has led us to this point.
Agree, drop the “may have.” During Senator John Kerry’s political effort, he was ridiculed for being an intellectual. Then he was ridiculed with the “swift-boating.” And much of George W. Bush’s appeal was he wore chambray shirt, cowboy boots and chopped wood on his ranch. Talked like a good-ole-boy. Sounds like he’s one them. They loved that crap. How easy was that?
After spending half my years in TX, I never let myself believe President Obama could win the first time. But had this instinct during campaign the team should put him in cowboy boots, chambray shirt and talk a little “aw-shucks” like.
You should have been on the campaign staff! I'm not sure Obama could have pulled it off, but I'll never ever bet against the guy, or Michelle either. What he was saying in 2008 resonated in a lot of places. That scared the sh*t out of many influential rich people, which is pretty much where Jane Mayer's DARK MONEY begins.
Snake Oil Salesman is his “perfect” role.
Lucien, this is world-class reporting of a news-burdened day. Comprehensive clarity - thank you.
I’d start dancing but I’d give the cat a heart attack.
Dance by all means. Your cat will understand.
I have a hard time believing Trump actually wrote anything that includes words like "moreover". It's not his syntax. Who writes (or wrote and later was thrown under the bus) that stuff?
If it’s coherent, rational, and well-written, and contains only measured, dignified language, with no repetition, no words in all caps, no 5th-grade bully insults, and no outraged assertions of victimhood, it _definitely_ was not written by Donald Trump.
You say that because you are a witch hunting globalist tool of the crooked FBI and 14 Crazy Democrats, you know it, I know it, everyone knows it, Elizabeth!
It's getting late, I am channeling Trump, ai yi yi! Signing off over and out.
He has people write stuff for him and wipe his ass.
Susan, he was probably reading off a teleprompter parrot fashion and never even understood or even try to understand the meaning.and
Once again, Lucian, thank you for making all of this comprehensible.
That we are even in this situation makes me wonder what will happen to us as a nation.
Are we in irreversible decline? I have relatives and friends who were normal people thirty years ago, but now think the Democrats are a greater danger than Trump. It is terrifying.
Check your relatives for the virus of racism— it’s at the base of most trump-worship.
That's not it. I don't think the Trump cult is so simple. In our case it seems to have more to do with Evangelical and Catholic religion; traditional loyalty to the Republican party; related concerns about money; and immigration. My husband and I have large extended families in the Northeast, Virginia, Florida, and Arizona. Some in the younger generation have married people of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Jamaican, Indian, and Black heritage. There has been no negativity toward these new members. No need to point out the hypocrisy and challenging lack of facts typical of Trump Republicans. It's hard to know how much the "news" plays in. Are they influenced, or do they only listen to what reinforces their beliefs. It's not all of our friends and relatives, just some. Thirty or forty years ago, none of this was an issue. That is what is so puzzling.
Thank you for that nuanced explanation-- you're no doubt correct. And yet, and yet...both evangelicals and Catholics in the USA (especially the former) have a history that includes a fair amount of racism; concerns about money often contain unspoken resentments that minorities are "getting stuff for free;" and immigration concerns virtually always are concerns about too many people of color coming here, and not about immigration from"white" countries. So, even though there are many other factors that go into making a trumpster, I believe that if you dig deep enough, you'll uncover a bedrock of racism. It IS encouraging that so many members of the younger generation are marrying people of different ethnic/racial backgrounds. They are the hope for the future.
I forgot to mention that some have an obsession with "traditional morality"
i.e. anti-abortion and anti-gay marriage. They are the ones who accept "imperfect" leaders who will support their policies. It's a tangled web of Christian belief systems, fact free positions, and hypocrisy. Enter Savior Donald Trump.
Yes-- you've put your finger on those twin issues that unite Catholics and evangelicals and that help explain their allegiance to t-Rump. About 10 years ago, I read (don't recall where) that until quite recently the website for Bob Jones University described the Catholic Church as "the agent of the Devil." Not any longer! I'd agree that the opposition to gay marriage is unrelated to racism, but being anti-abortion.... well....black women are often viewed by those with "traditional morality" as being especially immoral and promiscuous, so punishing them by forcing them to have unwanted children is at least a part of the unspoken motivation for the traditional moralists' opposition to abortion. Nonetheless-- thanks again for pointing out that tangled web.
I agree, Judith. Getting stuff for free bothers the hell out of people who think they, not others, should be the ones getting stuff for free.
Perhaps if they were called fees, rather than taxes, people would be less resentful of having to pay for what government does for us. People grumble about fee increases, but they pay them anyway if they want the service.
"Getting stuff for free," like billions in corporate welfare, doesn't bother them at all - only when it helps poor people does this suddenly become completely unacceptable. Or they will complain overtly about both, but claim the "rich always find a way around the laws and the tx code," so there's no use changing the tx code and enforcing it, but as for the poor, let them eat cake.
That’s about it. There is also the perception that they are almost rich enough themselves that they should endorse loopholes and lax enforcement. There was a poll many years ago that found 25% of Americans thought they were in the top 10% of income or soon would be.
Actually, in the case of the evangelicals, it's the blind obedience to their chosen god and that has been studied-most evangelicals (and indeed, most very religious people) have a huge tendency to be supporters of dictators or cult leaders. Their programming is that of blind obedience and personality cult.
Trump fulfills their tendency to worship people who resemble them in so many ways.
Even in the bad ways, more so.
I could mention one person whom we would all name as being the ultimate cultist but I'm not going into that argument today. It's too hot.
But let's just say Trump makes his followers (mentally dumb and ignorant) want to follow him into hell because he's their chosen one.
Absolutely correct! My brother is a Trumplethinskin. He is not only racist but also suffers from the delusion that Democrats are demons. Fix Noise and the NY Post are his news sources. Needless to add, we don’t communicate very often. I am most courteous, and he always says something to try to inflame.
I found out that my sister is one a while ago.
My last communication with her was shortly after she spouted a Trump cult slogan and I haven't missed her since.
I've cut her out of my life totally.
She lives in Florida and that's where she should stay where she's accepted as a white supremacist, racist and homophobic. What makes her odious to me is that she used to be better, but since she met her husband something snapped and she turned into a fascist.
I find her detestable in every respect. I won't ever visit or talk to her willingly again. She's proved to be a total outcast.
My father would have been so ashamed. I'm glad he never saw what happened to our country in the last 20 years.
It's shameful.
BRAVO!!! That's exactly what I'd do in the same circumstances. I guess it's lucky I'm an only child. I have, however, done the same with former friends, when I became aware of their political views. Remaining friends with morally worthless people is a way of accepting that their views are legitimate.
Unfortunately that's true - the Trump cultists are beyond being simply 'more conservative' in an old-fashioned Eisenhower Republican sense, that's for sure. No possible rapprochements with them.
I'm surprised you're able to stay in touch at all!
He is my only brother, and of my sisters, I am the geographically nearest. We only communicate by phone…rarely. My husband died last year and my brother’s children brought him to the memorial service at West Point. Brother was retired Grand Poobah of the American Legion post, and came in full regalia because “that’s the way he dressed for a military funeral!” At the luncheon after, his recollection was so inappropriate, that my children, my sisters and I were dumbfounded. So…i have allowed the relationship to continue somewhat because I have decided that he is developmentally disabled. And besides, the other sisters keep asking ME how he is. Maybe their phones don’t dial out.
Actually, we were close a long time ago, then she drifted off and we were off for the most part until my husband died-she's not been very communicative even in the best of times but this past year when I found what she'd turned into rather put the nail in the coffin of our personal relationship.
I won't stand for people who want to destroy this country. I might not sound like it, but I am a patriot and whoever supports Trump is a traitor to me.
That is what my sister has become. My father would have agreed.
Tonight I heard that 50% of the GOP voters do not believe trmp had ANY documents at Mar A Lago let alone Bedminster. At the point Fox has to tell some form of the truth, a whole bunch of people will meet some form of Jesus. Thanks, Lucian.
No they don't, no way, why would they need to "tell the truth"? Who is going to force them to lose their audience? The First Amendment will protect them if they start claiming any documents found there were (1) unclassified (2) started out secret, unclassified by Trump, but the lying Democrats, the lying lamestream media, the crooked FBI and DOJ, the corrupt judges and Jack Smith who hate Trump and hate God and hate the USA, are in a conspiracy to send Trump to prison if they can, (3) All the dubious documents not covered by (1) or (2) were planted, probably by Nancy Pelosi's husband as the driver and Hunter Biden in disguise, along with burglars hired by George Soros.
You need to use imaginative projection based on all your own life experience observing the worst of humanity, whether on film, in books, recounted by friends, relatives, acquaintances, professors and other teachers, whoever, or (hopefully not) in person, and "think like an amoral, opportunistic, money-mad quasi-fascist maniac" to understand the problem, is my argument.
It looks like this 4th person is a witness for the DOJ, possibly cooperating or just a witness. In either event, although we do not know his or her name the conspirators do. It should be interesting to see how long it takes for somebody to leak it so that the MAGA Terrorist Organization can intimidate him or his family.
Somewhere I read his name but I will not try to remember it.
Lock him up!! Lock him up!! Lock him up!!!
I guess I am guilty (like Trump and most other people) of not remembering that concealment of a fact or crime is always going to be discovered by a prosecutor who knows his job, and furthermore by one who not only knows his job but is extremely good at it and is one of the best in his field.
Trump undoubtedly believed that Jack Smith wouldn't take his words seriously-after all nobody ever does-but that he did must blow the water out of Trump's pool. That he would actually go find the exact document that he was boasting about, and then use it as another indictment shows that Mr. Smith has a precise aim and he is aiming to take down Trump. That must stun Donald Trump to death. Nobody has ever done that to him, of all people.
Other people have often been fooled by knowing Donald Trump and that they will be blessed by knowing him. However, the two people who are now included in the indictment probably never thought that the 'Boss' was wrong to ask them to do what they did and that they personally would never be involved in his problems.
I don't think anyone who has ever been close to Trump ever walks away undamaged-be it wives, children, employees or attorneys. It's like Trump is a self-contained plague of immorality that if it brushes off on you, will damage you completely and forever.
Leaving the person affected destroyed and regretting they ever met the man.
Is there a term for such a person? I have no idea but I'm sure my description does have one.
toxic - a 'typhoid donnie'
That's the word:
Toxic.
He's a poisonous toxic person who should have been in prison a long time ago. It's only because he was rich that he wasn't.
Otherwise he would never have made it out of high school alive.
Everything Trump Touches Dies
A Republican Strategist Gets Real About the Worst President Ever
By Rick Wilson
From Rick Wilson—longtime Republican strategist, political commentator, Daily Beast contributor—the #1 New York Times bestseller about the disease that is destroying the conservative movement and burning down the GOP: Trumpism.
Includes an all-new chapter analyzing Trump’s impact on the 2018 elections.
In the #1 New York Times bestselling Everything Trump Touches Dies, political campaign strategist and commentator Rick Wilson delivers “a searingly honest, bitingly funny, comprehensive answer to the question we find ourselves asking most mornings: ‘What the hell is going on?’ (Chicago Tribune). The Guardian hails Everything Trump Touches Dies, saying it gives, “more unvarnished truths about Donald Trump than anyone else in the American political establishment has offered. Wilson never holds back.” Rick mercilessly exposes the damage Trump has done to the country, to the Republican Party, and to the conservative movement that has abandoned its principles for the worst President in American history.
Wilson unblinkingly dismantles Trump’s deceptions and the illusions to which his supporters cling, shedding light on the guilty parties who empower and enable Trump in Washington and in the media. He calls out the race-war dead-enders who hitched a ride with Trump, the alt-right basement dwellers who worship him, and the social conservatives who looked the other way. Publishers Weekly calls it, “a scathing, profane, unflinching, and laugh-out-loud funny rebuke of Donald Trump and his presidency.”
No left-winger, Wilson is a lifelong conservative who delivers his withering critique of Trump from the right. A leader of the Never Trump movement, he warned from the start that Trump would destroy the lives and reputations of everyone in his orbit, and Everything Trump Touches Dies is a deft chronicle the tragicomic political story of our time. From the early campaign days through the shock of election night, to the inconceivable train-wreck of Trump’s first year. Rick Wilson provides not only an insightful analysis of the Trump administration, but also an optimistic path forward for the GOP, the conservative movement, and the country.
“Hilarious, smartly written, and usually spot-on” (Kirkus Reviews), Everything Trump Touches Dies is perfect for those on either side of the aisle who need a dose of unvarnished reality, a good laugh, a strong cocktail, and a return to sanity in American politics.
www.simonandschuster.com/books/Everything-Trump-Touches-Dies/Rick-Wilson/9781982103149
Publisher: Free Press (February 26, 2019)
Length: 368 pages
ISBN13: 978198210314
I really like "blow the water out of t-Rump's pool!" That's a mighty wind of justice.
Thank you for reading it so I don't have to. I have read some of them but I hit my limit a while ago! I listened to a good portion of MSNBC coverage tonight. Looking forward to what drops next!
Thanks for doing the heavy lifting LKTIV. I appreciate it.
Clank! Clank! Clank!
Oooooo, I do like the sound of that!
Charging the Bedminister count in Florida may prove to be a terrible misstep if Judge Aileen “Boom Boom” Cannon mucks up the trial. Smith would have been better served to bring the charge in NJ, where a better qualified, less politically beholden judge might hear the case. I thought he was holding the Bedminister violation in reserve for that purpose. Now all the documents charges are going to be heard before a judge who is in thrall to the defendant; not a promising prospect.
The document in question allegedly made its way to Bedminster via Mar-A-Lago. Had the sit down with the ghostwriters occurred at his club in LA or in Scotland, the SC still would charge it in FL, the epicenter of all the document related crimes.
Believe me, Cannon is being watched like a hawk. Smith has many tricks up his sleeve to keep her on track. Otherwise, he can oppose her handling of the case. She is under a lot of scrutiny so I would think if she wants to keep her lifetime job, she better play fair.
I truly wonder if she is even capable of playing fair. ANY WOMAN who avidly supports t-Rump falls into my "Jews for Hitler/Blacks for Slavery" category of utter moral insanity. How much self-hatred does a woman have to feel, for her to worship that misogynistic monster enough to put her whole legal career in jeopardy by her devotion to him?
You're correct about Judge Cannon's godawful betrayal of women's rights. But her "whole legal career" is now completely guaranteed by Right Wing Foundation Money, and other ventures that reward exactly that hatred of women's rights.
You need to study how the reactionaries operate more closely, try this (googles "Right Wing Watch")
MOST RECENT Republican Politicians and Anti-Choice Activists Rallying Behind Democracy-Restricting Initiative in Ohio
July 28, 2023 11:40 am
Right Wing Round-Up: No Health Care in Schools
July 27, 2023 5:04 pm
Right Wing Bonus Tracks: A Lot of Witchcraft
July 27, 2023 5:02 pm
If States Start Designating 'Christian History Month,' You Can Thank the National Association of Christian Lawmakers
July 27, 2023 3:34 pm
rightwingwatch.org/?gclid=CjwKCAjwzo2mBhAUEiwAf7wjku7BFJQU5tzijWd8sxU_Fi16cvcTmDbkfH8UiYUPtyseOX-RQ84d4BoCH0kQAvD_BwE
Aileen Cannon can make millions of dollars more by representing the wingnut foundations and organizations, there are a multitude of careers available to her beyond being a relatively poorly paid federal judge, happens routinely that they leave for a "white shoe firm" and never look back.