Archive for the ‘Law’ Category
2016 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, 2020 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, ABC NEWS, ADOLF HITLER, ALBERT SPEER, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BLOOMBERG, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CIVIL LAWSUITS, CNN, CRIMINAL PROSECUTION, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DON MCGAHN, DONALD J. TRUMP FOUNDATION, DONALD TRUMP, DONALD TRUMP JUNIOR, DRUDGE REPORT, EGOMANIA, FACEBOOK, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, GENE ROSSI, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HUFFINGTON POST, IMPEACHMENT, MEDIA MATTERS, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NBC NEWS, NERO, NEWSWEEK, NORTH KOREA, NPR, NUCLEAR WAR, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REUTERS, ROBERT MUELLER, ROD ROSENSTEIN, SALON, SAMSON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, STOCK MARKET, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUMP UNIVERSITY, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION, UPI, USA TODAY, WONKETTE
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on September 3, 2020 at 12:05 am
Donald Trump Jr. fears that his father will lose the election in November—and this will lead to the prosecution of his family.
“He’s like, ‘We’re losing, dude, and we’re going to get really hurt when we lose,’” a prominent conservative activist quoted Trump Jr. to the New York Times on August 24.
Trump Jr. believes that if Biden wins, there will not be a “peaceful transition,” Instead, the administration will “shoot the prisoners.”
The U.S. Department of Justice has a longstanding policy against prosecuting a sitting President. All bets are off, however, once that President leaves office.
And President Donald Trump has good reason to worry on that count.
He could easily face charges of obstruction of justice by attempting to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller, the man appointed to investigate the Russian government’s interference in the 2016 Presidential election.
Robert Mueller
On June 17, 2017, Trump directed White House counsel Don McGahn to get Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to remove Mueller, telling him “you gotta do this.”
McGahn didn’t comply. Trump called him the next day. McGahn considered resigning, then stayed—didn’t didn’t act on Trump’s order.
Former federal prosecutor Gene Rossi has stated that Trump could be indicted after leaving office.
During his nearly 30-year career with the Department of Justice, Rossi participated in more than 110 federal trials (including an unprecedented 90 jury trials) in U.S. district and bankruptcy courts. From 1989-2001, he worked in the Tax Division, trying complex civil and criminal matters and serving on an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF).
“If it were Donald Smith instead of Donald Trump, Donald Trump would have been indicted a year ago for the campaign violations,” he told Hill.TV in July, 2019.
On December 10, 2019, Trump paid $2 million to eight charities as part of a settlement where he admitted to misusing funds raised by the Donald J. Trump Foundation. These had been used to promote his presidential bid and pay off business debts.
It’s illegal for charitable foundations to advance the self-interests of their executives.
He was forced to close the charity as a result.
Donald Trump
Legal action also forced Trump to shut down his unaccredited Trump University, which the conservative magazine National Review described as a “massive scam.”
Although he boasted that he never settled lawsuits, he settled this one in November, 2016, for a reported $25 million rather than go to trial.
Investigations are now probing allegations of tax dodges, illegal campaign contributions, and improper foreign contributions to his inaugural committee.
There has been a great deal of speculation by Trump’s political foes as to what would happen if (a) he loses the election and (b) refuses to vacate the White House.
But, so far, no one seems to have raised the question: What if a defeated Trump, fearing civil and criminal prosecution after he leaves the White House, decides to avoid this by literally destroying much of the world in a nuclear war?
This is not so outrageous an idea as it may sound.
“If Adolf Hitler had possessed a button that would destroy the entire world, he would have pushed it at the end,” Albert Speer, Hitler’s architect and Minister of Armaments, said in a 1971 Playboy interview. “Today there are such buttons in the war rooms of all the great powers.”
Adolf Hitler
Trump has already threatened such action against North Korea: “North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.”
He has even seriously advocated using nuclear bombs to stop hurricanes from hitting the United States,
An additional reason for Trump’s playing Samson in the temple: He resides at the center of his own universe, and sees virtually everything as an extension of himself.
On August 23, 2018, Trump gave his rationale for why he shouldn’t be impeached. He didn’t say: “I’m innocent. I didn’t collude with Russian Intelligence to subvert the 2016 Presidential election.”
Instead, he said: “I tell you what, if I ever got impeached, I think the market would crash, I think everybody would be very poor.”
Trump’s egomania is literally stamped on his properties. Of the 515 entities he owns, 268 of them—52%—bear his last name. He often refers to his properties as “the swankiest,” “the most beautiful.”
Among the references he’s made to himself:
- “My fingers are long and beautiful, as, it has been well documented, are various other parts of my body.”
- “I think the only difference between me and the other candidates is that I’m more honest and my women are more beautiful.”
- “My Twitter has become so powerful that I can actually make my enemies tell the truth.”
- “My IQ is one of the highest—and you all know it.”
The Roman emperor Nero reportedly played the lyre and sang of Troy’s destruction while Rome burned. Adolf Hitler, in the last weeks of the Third Reich, salivated at the thought of destroying what was left of Germany.
Trump has repeatedly shown his contempt for civil and criminal laws—including those enshrined in the United States Constitution.
Thus, revenging himself on those he felt wronged him would be fully in keeping with his character.
2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, ABC NEWS, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, ASSAULT, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BLACK LIBERATION ARMY, BLACK LIVES MATTER, BLACKS, BLOOMBERG, BURGLARY, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CNN, CRIME, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DARREN WILSON, DONALD TRUMP, DRUDGE REPORT, DRUGS, EMERYVILLE, FACEBOOK, FBI, FELONIOUS ASSAULT, FELONY SEX CRIMES, FERGUSON POLICE DEPARTMENT, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, GEORGE FLOYD, GRAND LARCENY, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HISPANICS, HUFFINGTON POST, JASON BLAKE, KENOSHA COUNTY, MANSLAUGHTER, MEDIA MATTERS, MICHAEL BROWN, MISDEMEANOR ASSAULT, MISDEMEANOR ASSAULT AND RELATED OFFENSES, MISDEMEANOR SEX CRIMES, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, MURDER, NBC NEWS, NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK POLICE DEPARTMENT, NEWSWEEK, NON-NEGLIGENT MANSLAUGHTER, NPR, OAKLAND, PBS NEWSHOUR, PETIT LARCENY, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, PROACTIVE PROPERTY CRIMES, RAPE, RAW STORY, RESTRAINING ORDER, REUTERS, ROBBERY, ROBERT DALEY, RUSTEN SHESKEY, SALON, SAN FRANCISCO, SAN JOSE, SEATTLE TIMES, SEX CRIMES, SEXUAL ASSAULT, SHOOTINGS, SLATE, TALKING POINTS MEMO, TARGET BLUE: AN INSIDER'S VIEW OF THE NYPD (BOOK), THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, WALNUT CREEK, WONKETTE
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on September 1, 2020 at 12:02 am
On August 23, Jason S. Blake, a 29-year-old black man, was shot and seriously injured by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
The shooting occurred as officers attempted to arrest him. Blake was tasered as he scuffled with police. When he opened the driver’s door to his SUV and leaned in, Officer Rusten Sheskey fired seven shots, striking him four times in the back.
Blake is now paralyzed from the waist down, and may never walk again.
Protests followed. Kenosha County declared a state of emergency overnight on August 24 after police vehicles were damaged, a dump truck set on fire, and the local courthouse vandalized. Police urged 24-hour businesses to close owing to armed robberies and shots being fired. Up to 200 members of the Wisconsin National Guard were deployed to maintain public safety.
Missing from the story—in most news media—has been one crucial fact:
At the time of the shooting, Blake faced a criminal complaint charging him with third-degree sexual assault in connection with domestic abuse on July 6.
The officers had come to arrest Blake for violating a restraining order stemming from that complaint. A 911 call on August 23 alerted them that Blake was at the home of his alleged victim.
A sample restraining order
The restraining order stemmed from a criminal complaint, which accused Blake of breaking into the home of a woman he knew and sexually assaulting her in May. The victim told police she was asleep when Blake broke in at 6 a.m. and said, “I want my shit.”
She told police that Blake used his finger to sexually assault her. She said the incident “caused her pain and humiliation and was done without her consent.”
After Blake left, she realized her keys were missing and “immediately called 911,” the complaint said.
An arrest warrant was issued on July 7.
On August 9, 2014, a similar police/media incident had occurred.
Michael Brown, an 18-year-old black man, was fatally shot by a white police officer named Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis.
Brown’s 22-year-old friend, Dorian Johnson claimed that Wilson shot him in the back. Wilson claimed he shot Brown after the latter charged at him.
An FBI investigation found that there was no evidence that Brown had his hands up in surrender or said “don’t shoot” before he was shot. It also found that Brown was struck six times, all in the front of his body.
The shooting ignited nationwide protests.
Yet many of the media “covering” the story refused to note that, shortly before his shooting, a video camera taped Brown robbing a grocery store and manhandling its owner.
Michael Brown (left) roughing up a store owner
Had this been more widely noted, “Saint Michael” would have been seen as a mere thug who learned that assaulting a cop wasn’t the same as attacking a store owner.
On May 25, George Floyd, a former black security guard, was murdered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. While Floyd was handcuffed and lying face down on a city street during an arrest, Derek Chauvin, a white Minneapolis police officer, kept his knee on the right side of Floyd’s neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds.
Death of George Floyd
Across the nation, cities were convulsed by protests—including those in the San Francisco Bay Area. Among these: Oakland, San Jose, Emeryville, Walnut Creek and San Francisco itself.
On May 30, an initially peaceful protest march exploded into looting shortly before 9 p.m. as looters broke off and began smashing shop windows and ransacking stores in Union Square and on Market Street.
Among stores looted: A Sak’s Off-Fifth Avenue, an Old Navy clothing store, a Cartier Boutique and a Coach store. Looters especially targeted CVS and Walgreens drugstores. Liquor stores and a BevMo were also hit.
“Thirty businesses were looted or destroyed,” said David Perry, from Union Square Business Improvement District.
Undoubtedly many of victims of those looters and arsonists had been horrified by the Floyd killing. But many of them undoubtedly lost sympathy for the Black Lives Matter movement as they surveyed the wreckage of their stores.
Store owners were infuriated at having to replace stock that had been stolen or destroyed. And employees resented having to clean up the wreckage. Some stores no doubt were forced to close, leaving their former employees suddenly jobless.
And President Donald Trump has quickly moved to capitalize on that resentment. His brand of “divide and rule” politics brought him to the White House in 2016. And he’s determined to play on white fears of further black crime to win a second term.
White fears of black crime are reflected in the crime rate statistics for New York City.
While Blacks make up 24.3% of New York City’s population, they comprise:
- 58.0% of its murder and non-negligent manslaughter arrests;
- 40.7% of its rape arrests;
- 34.6% of its known other felony sex crime arrests;
- 59.4% of its robbery arrests;
- 51.8% of its felonious assault arrests;
- 51.7% of its grand larceny arrests;
- 71.6% of its shooting arrests;
- 45.0% of its drug felony arrests;
- 48.5% of its drug misdemeanor arrests;
- 54.7% of its felony stolen property arrests;
- 45.9% of its misdemeanor stolen property arrests;
- 51.8% of its violent crime suspects;
- 60.0% of its juvenile crime complaint arrests.
This is admittedly unfair to those blacks who are law-abiding citizens. But the fear factor will continue until crime rates among blacks start falling dramatically.
2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, ABC NEWS, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, ASSAULT, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BLACK LIBERATION ARMY, BLACK LIVES MATTER, BLACKS, BLOOMBERG, BURGLARY, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CNN, CRIME, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DARREN WILSON, DONALD TRUMP, DRUDGE REPORT, DRUGS, EMERYVILLE, FACEBOOK, FBI, FELONIOUS ASSAULT, FELONY SEX CRIMES, FERGUSON POLICE DEPARTMENT, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, GEORGE FLOYD, GRAND LARCENY, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HISPANICS, HUFFINGTON POST, JACOB BLAKEOB, JASON BLAKE, KENOSHA COUNTY, MANSLAUGHTER, MEDIA MATTERS, MICHAEL BROWN, MISDEMEANOR ASSAULT, MISDEMEANOR ASSAULT AND RELATED OFFENSES, MISDEMEANOR SEX CRIMES, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, MURDER, NBC NEWS, NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK POLICE DEPARTMENT, NEWSWEEK, NON-NEGLIGENT MANSLAUGHTER, NPR, OAKLAND, PBS NEWSHOUR, PETIT LARCENY, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, PROACTIVE PROPERTY CRIMES, RAPE, RAW STORY, RESTRAINING ORDER, REUTERS, ROBBERY, ROBERT DALEY, RUSTEN SHESKEY, SALON, SAN FRANCISCO, SAN JOSE, SEATTLE TIMES, SEX CRIMES, SEXUAL ASSAULT, SHOOTINGS, SLATE, TALKING POINTS MEMO, TARGET BLUE: AN INSIDER'S VIEW OF THE NYPD (BOOK), THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, WALNUT CREEK, WONKETTE
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on August 31, 2020 at 12:22 am
Blacks make up 13% of the American population, according to the 2010 census of the United States.
But they committed 52% of homicides between 1980 and 2008, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Only 45% of whites were offenders in such cases.
Blacks were disproportionately likely to commit homicide and to be the victims.
In 2008 blacks were seven times more likely than whites to commit homicide. And they were six times more likely than whites to be homicide victims.
According to the FBI, blacks were responsible for 38% of murders, compared to 31.1% for whites, in 2013.
From 2011 to 2013, 38.5% of people arrested for murder, manslaughter, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault were black.
In 1971, Robert Daley, a reporter for the New York Times, became a deputy police commissioner for the New York Police Department (NYPD).
In that capacity, he saw the NYPD from the highest levels to the lowest—from the ornate, awe-inspiring office of Police Commissioner Patrick Murphy to the gritty, sometimes blood-soaked streets of New York.
He spent one year on the job before resigning—later admitting that when he agreed to take the job, he got more than he bargained for.
It proved to be a tumultuous year in the NYPD’s history: Among those challenges Daley and his fellow NYPD members faced were the murders of several police officers, committed by members of the militant Black Liberation Army.
Two of those murdered officers were Waverly Jones and Joseph Piagentini. Jones was black, Piagentini white; both were partners. Both were shot in the back without a chance to defend themselves.
Writing about these murders in a bestselling 1973 book—Target Blue: An Insider’s View of the N.Y.P.D.—Daley noted:
- Jones and Piagentini were the sixth and seventh policemen—of ten—murdered in 1971.
- About 18 men were involved in these murders. All were black.
- The city’s politicians knew this—and so did Commissioner Murphy. None dared say so publicly.
“But the fact remained,” wrote Daley, “that approximately 65% of the city’s arrested murderers, muggers, armed robbers, proved to be black men; about 15% were of Hispanic origin; and about 20% were white [my Italics].”
The overall racial breakdown of the city was approximately:
- Whites, 63%;
- Blacks, 20%;
- Hispanics 17%.
Stated another way: Blacks, who made up 20% of the city’s population, were responsible for 65% of the city’s major crimes.
Or, as Daley himself put it: “So the dangerous precincts, any cop would tell you, were the black precincts.”
That was 49 years ago.
Now, consider the following statistics released by the NYPD for “Crime and Enforcement Activity in New York City” in 2019. Its introduction states:
“The reports below present statistics on race and ethnicity compiled from the New York City Police Department’s records management system.”
Then follows these statistics:
Murder and Non-Negligent Manslaughter Victims
- Black (56.6%)
- Hispanic (31.2%)
- White (4.9%)
- Asian/Pacific Islander (6.9%)
Murder and Non-Negligent Manslaughter Suspects
- Black (62.4%)
- Hispanic (30.8%)
- White (3.0%)
- Asian/Pacific Islander (3.8%)
Murder and Non-Negligent Manslaughter Arrestees
- Black 58.0%
- Hispanic 35.2%
- White 3.3%
- Asian/Pacific Islander 3.0%
Rape Victims
Rape Suspects
- Black 46.5%)
- Hispanic (34.8%)
- White (10.8%)
- Asian/Pacific Islander (7.3%)
Rape Arrestees
- Black (40.7%)
- Hispanic (45.4%
- )White (6.7%)
- Asian/Pacific Islander (7.0%)
NYPD Headquarters at One Police Plaza
Other Felony Sex Crimes Victims
- Black (33.8%)
- Hispanic (37.3%)
- White (21.3%)
- Asian/Pacific Islander (7.0%)
Other Felony Sex Crime Suspects
- Black (41.6%)
- Hispanic (37.5%)
- White (12.9%)
- Asian/Pacific Islander (7.3%)
Other Felony Sex Crime Arrestees
- Black (34.6%)
- Hispanic (47.4%)
- White (11.3%)
- Asian /Pacific Islander (6.4%)
Robbery Victims
Robbery Suspects
- Black (66.2%
- Hispanic (27.1%)
- White (4.3%)
- Asian/Pacific islander (2.3%)
Robbery Arrestees
- Black (59.4%)
- Hispanic (32.2%)
- White (5.2%)
- Asian/Pacific Islander (3.2%)
Misdemeanor Assault Victims
Misdemeanor Assault Suspects
Misdemeanor Assault Arrestees
Felonious Assault Victims
Felonious Assault Suspects
- Black (53.4%)
- Hispanic (32.6%)
- White (7.9%)
- Asian/Pacific Islanders (5.8%)
Felonious Assault Arrestees
- Black (51. 8%)
- Hispanic (33.1%)
- White (8.3%)
- Asian/Pacific Islanders (6.4%)
Grand Larceny Victims
- Black (24.4%)
- Hispanic (23.0%)
- White (35.9%)
- Asian/Pacific Islanders (15.7%)
Grand Larceny Suspects
- Black (50.5%)
- Hispanic (23.5%)
- White (11.7%)
- Asian/Pacific Islanders (3.9%)
Grand Larceny Arrestees
- Black (51.7%)
- Hispanic (28.5%)
- White (13.7%)
- Asian/Pacific Islanders (6.0%)
Firearm Arrest Population
Shooting Victims
Shooting Suspects
- Black (74.4%)
- Hispanic (22.0%)
- White (2.4%)
- Asian/Pacific Islander (1.1%)
Shooting Arrestees
- Black (71.6%)
- Hispanic (24.1%)
- White (2.7%)
- Asian/Pacific Islander (1.5%)
Drug Felony Arrest Population
- Black (45.0%)
- Hispanic (40.2%)
- White (9.7%)
- Asian Pacific Islanders (4.9%)
Drug Misdemeanor Arrestees
- Black (48.5%)
- Hispanic (35.3%)
- White (12.5%)
- Asian Pacific Islanders (3.6%)
Misdemeanor Sex Crime Victims
- Black (35.5%)
- Hispanic (36.7%)
- White (18.6%)
- Asian/Pacific Islanders (8.6%)
Misdemeanor Sex Crime Suspects
- Black (42.4%)
- Hispanic (34.2%)
- White (14.0%)
- Asian/Pacific Islanders (8.7%)
Misdemeanor Sex Crime Arrestees
- Black (52.5%)
- Hispanic (28.9%)
- White (14.5%)
- Asian/Pacific Islanders (4.0%)
Misdemeanor Stolen Property Arrest Population
- Black (45.9%)
- Hispanic (31.9%)
- White (16.8%)
- Asian/Pacific Islanders (5.1%)
Felony Stolen Property Arrest Population
- Black (54.7%)
- Hispanic (28.6%)
- White (11.5%)
- Asian/Pacific Islanders (5.0%)
Petit Larceny Victims
- Black (31.6%)
- Hispanic (29.9%)
- White (28.8%)
- Asian/Pacific Islanders (12.7%)
Petit Larceny Suspects
- Black (53.8%)
- Hispanic (26.8%)
- White (15.7%)
- Asian/Pacific Islanders (3.3%)
Petit Larceny Arrestees
- Black (44.7%)
- Hispanic (32.5%)
- White (17.9%)
- Asian/Pacific Islanders (3.3%)
Misdemeanor Criminal Mischief Victims
- Black (38.5%)
- Hispanic (29.8%)
- White (19.5%)
- Asian/Pacific Islanders (11.2%)
Misdemeanor Criminal Mischief Suspects
Misdemeanor Criminal Mischief Arrestees
Reported Crime Complaint Juvenile Victims
Juvenile Crime Complaint Suspects
Juvenile Arrest Population
ABC NEWS, ADAM SCHIFF, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, ANDREW JOHNSON, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BILL CLINTON, BLOOMBERG, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CNN, COMMUNISM, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DEMOCRATS, DONALD TRUMP, DONALD TRUMP JUNIOR, DRUDGE REPORT, ERNEST HEMINGWAY, FACEBOOK, FASCISM, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FORBES, FOX NEWS, GAVIN NEWSOM, GEORGE FLOYD, GOODYEAR TIRES, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HUFFINGTON POST, illegal immigration, IMPEACHMENT, JAMES COMEY, JOE BIDEN, Kamala Harris, KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE, LAFAYETTE PARK PROTESTS, LEGAL IMMIGRATION, MEDIA MATTERS, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, SALON, SAN FRANCISCO, SEATTLE TIMES, SEXUAL HARASSMENT, SLATE, SOCIALISM, ST. JOHN’S CHURCH, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, VLADIMIR PUTIN, WONKETTE
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Politics, Social commentary on August 27, 2020 at 12:05 am
On August 24, Kimberly Guilfoyle delivered a speech at the Republican National Convention (RNC) that met the psychological meaning of “projection”: Unconsciously taking unwanted emotions or traits you don’t like about yourself and attributing them to someone else.
Guilfoyle, 51, is a former attorney, prosecutor and television news personality who currently works as an advisor for President Donald Trump.
In 2001, Guilfoyle married San Francisco supervisor Gavin Newsom. Two years later, Newsom was elected mayor of San Francisco. In January 2004, Guilfoyle moved to New York to host the program Both Sides on Court TV and work as a legal analyst on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360.
In 2006, citing the strain of a bi-coastal marriage, Guilfoyle and Newsom divorced.
She joined Fox News in February 2006, as host of the weekend show The Lineup. When this was canceled, she remained a regular contributor to the network.
But in 2018, she abruptly left Fox News. According to the Huffington Post:
“Six sources said Guilfoyle’s behavior included showing personal photographs of male genitalia to colleagues (and identifying whose genitals they were), regularly discussing sexual matters at work and engaging in emotionally abusive behavior toward hair and makeup artists and support staff.”
Kimberly Guilfoyle
Photographer: Jill Lotenberg, Jill PhotographyPublisher: Chase Backer, 25A Magazine / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)
In May 2018, Guilfoyle and Donald Trump, Jr.—the son of the President—attended an event together. News subsequently leaked that the two were dating—while he was separated from but still married to his wife, Vanessa. Guilfoyle had been friends with the Trump family for years
The Trumps divorced at the end of 2018.
Since 2018, Trump Jr. has been openly dating Guilfoyle. According to The New York Times Magazine, they “have become fund-raising powerhouses,” helping the President amass a huge war chest.
Donald Trump Junior
Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)
Among the statements Guilfoyle made at the RNC:
“President Trump is the law and order President.”
[Trump has fired FBI Director James Comey, attacked Federal judges who found his policies unconstitutional, and fired Inspectors General for investigating his corrupt officials. He is only the third President—after Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton—to be impeached.]
“Biden, Harris, and the rest of the Socialists will fundamentally change this nation.”
[Russian Communist dictator Vladimir Putin is the only major world leader whom Trump has never attacked nor even criticized. He has rejected the findings of the FBI, CIA and National Security Agency that Putin intervened in the 2016 Presidential campaign to ensure Trump’s election.]
“[Democrats] will selfishly send your jobs back to China while they get rich.”
[The President has more than 100 trademarks in China, including 35 granted pre-approval since he took office.]
Donald Trump
“They will defund, dismantle, and destroy America’s law enforcement.”
[Trump has urged his followers to disobey state laws requiring them to wear masks and maintain social distancing. Many of them have marched on state capitols brandishing automatic weapons.]
“My mother, Mercedes, was a special education teacher from Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. My father, also an immigrant, came to this nation in pursuit of the American Dream.”
[Trump has tried to stop both legal and illegal immigration. And since July, 2017, U.S. immigration authorities have separated more than 5,400 children from their parents at the Mexico border.]
“Human sex drug traffickers should not be allowed to cross our border.”
[Trump partied heartily with sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. When Epstein’s widow, Ghislaine Maxwell, was charged with the enticing of minors and sex trafficking of underage girls, Trump wished her well.]
“In President Trump’s America, we light things up. We don’t dim them down.”
[Trump “lit up” Washington, D.C.’s Lafayette Park with tear gas against peaceful protesters so he could pose for a photo op at St. John’s Church following the death of George Floyd.]
“This election is a battle for the soul of America. Your choice is clear. Do you support the cancel culture?”
[When protesters object to honoring treasonous Confederate generals with monuments, Trump calls that “cancel culture.” But when a tire-making company bans MAGA caps from its workplace, Trump calls for a boycott of Goodyear Tires.]
“[Democrats] want to control what you see and think and believe so that they can control how you live.”
[When Twitter dared to fact-check Trump’s false tweets about mail-in ballots, he signed an executive order targeting liability protection for social media companies.]
“…President Trump cut middle class taxes, putting tens of thousands of dollars back in the pockets of working class Americans….”.
[Forbes magazine, which calls itself “the capitalist tool,” stated that “Trump tax cuts helped billionaires pay less taxes than the working class in 2018.” Reported Forbes: “For the first time in American history, the 400 wealthiest people paid a lower tax rate than any other group.”]
“Don’t let the Democrats take you for granted. Don’t let them step on you. Don’t let them destroy your families, your lives, and your future.”
[Furious that Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) mocked him during a session of the House Intelligence Committee, Trump tweeted: “I want Schiff questioned at the highest level for Fraud & Treason…..”]
* * * * *
Ernest Hemingway warned: “Fascism is a lie told by bullies.”
On the first night of the Republican National Convention, Kimberly Guilfoyle proved that Hemingway’s warning still holds true.
ABC NEWS, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, AR-15, ATOMIC BOMB, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES, BLOOMBERG, BUZZFEED, C-PAC, CBS NEWS, CIA, CNN, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DEMOCRATIC PARTY, DONALD TRUMP, DRUDGE REPORT, FACEBOOK, FBI, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, GUNS, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, MARJORY STONEMAN DOUGLAS HIGH SCHOOL, MEDIA MATTERS, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NPR, NSA, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REUTERS, RUSSIA, SALON, SANDY HOOK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, SEATTLE TIMES, SECOND AMENDMENT, SECURITY GUARDS, SLATE, SOCIALISM, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, USA TODAY NIKOLAS CRUZ, VLADIMIR PUTIN, WAYNE LAPIERRE, WONKETTE
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on August 26, 2020 at 12:15 am
On February 14, 2018, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz slaughtered two faculty members and 15 students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
His weapon of choice: An AR-15 assault rifle, often favored by gun massacre killers.
Eight days later, on February 22, Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the National Rifle Association, attacked those he held responsible for the series of massacres plaguing American schools.
And it wasn’t crazed gunmen armed with automatic weapons designed for military use.
Wayne LaPierre
With funerals still being planned for some of the victims, LaPierre blamed “the elites,” “saboteurs” and “new European-style socialists” for this and other gun massacres.
He did so at the Conservative Political Action Conference (C-PAC) in National Harbor, Maryland.
“They hate the NRA, they hate the Second Amendment. They hate individual freedom. In the rush of calls for more government, they have also revealed…their true selves.
“The elites do not care about America’s schoolchildren. If they truly cared, they would protect them. For them, it is not a safety issue. It is a political issue.
“Their goal is to eliminate the Second Amendment and our firearms freedoms, so they can eradicate all individual freedoms.”
His C-PAC congregation gave him a wild ovation.
And he accused the Democratic party of being “infested with saboteurs who do not believe in capitalism, do not believe in the Constitution, do not believe in our freedom, and do not believe in America as we know it.”
These “saboteurs” were “new European-style socialists.”
Which was ironic: In 2016, the NRA spent $30 million to elect Donald Trump—who fiercely defends Russian Communist dictator Vladimir Putin against the FBI, NSA and CIA.
He then outlined his solution for protecting America’s schoolchildren: Turning schools into virtual concentration camps patrolled by heavily-armed security guards.
The highlight of LaPierre’s speech came at its close: “And there is no greater personal, individual freedom than the right to keep and bear arms, the right to protect yourself, and the right to survive.
“It is not bestowed by man, but granted by God to all Americans as our American birthright.”
Anyone who’s seen the 1970 sci-fi movie, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, remembers the final scene: Where seemingly normal underground dwellers strip off their human face masks and reveal themselves to be radiation-scarred mutants.
They wear white robes, and stand silently during a sermon or shout “Amen!” in what is clearly a dark parody of a religious service. It’s immediately clear what they are worshiping: An atomic bomb standing upright.
And they pay tribute to the engine of obliteration that has destroyed human civilization and brought about a world ruled by apes.
Their leader, Mendez, chants:
“Glory be to the Bomb, and to the Holy Fallout. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be. World without end. Amen.
“His sound has gone out to all lands, and his light unto the end of the world.
“Almighty and everlasting Bomb, who came down among us to make Heaven under Earth. Lighten our darkness. O instrument of God—grant us thy peace!”
Reading Wayne LaPierre’s eulogy to the Gun and his passionate invoking of God, it’s easy to re-imagine his giving a slightly altered version of the sermon offered in Beneath the Planet of the Apes. It’s also easy to imagine this taking place during an NRA convention.
WAYNE LAPIERRE: The heavens declare the Glory of the Gun. And the body-count showeth His handiwork.
NRA CONGREGATION: His sound is gone out to all lands; and his Light unto the end of the world.
LAPIEREE: He descendeth from the outermost part of Heaven; and there is nothing hid from the lead thereof. There is neither speech nor language after His voice is heard among them.
CONGREGATION: Praise Him! Praise Him! My Strength and my Redeemer!
LAPIERRE: Glory be to the Gun, and to the Holy Bodycount! As it was in the Beginning, is now and ever shall be, massacres without end. Amen!
CHORUS: Amen! Amen! Amen! Amen!
LAPIERRE: Almighty and Everlasting Gun, who came down among us to make Heaven unto Earth. Lighten our darkness with your muzzle flashes. O instrument of God, grant us They peace.
CHOIR: Almighty Gun, who destroyed all men—to create corpses! Behold His glory!
LAPIERRE: Behold that Truth that abides in us. To reveal that Truth unto that Maker.
LAPIERRE AND NRA CONGREGATION: I reveal my inmost self unto my God.
CHORUS (singing): Unto my God!
CONGREGATION (singing):
All guns bright and beautiful. All creatures dead with lead.
The good Gun makes us what we are!
He takes out eyes to see with, and lips that might yet speak. How great the Gun Almighty, who has made all things dead. Amen!
WAYNE LAPIERRE: May the Blessing of the Gun Almighty and the fellowship of the Holy Bodycount descend on us all, this night and forevermore!
* * * * * *
Gun Violence Breakdown:
- Every year, 36,000 Americans are killed by guns—about 100 per day.
- Each year, 100,000 Americans are shot and injured .
- One-third of gun deaths are homicides.
- Guns are used in more than 70% of all homicide
- About a fifth are unintentional shootings.
- Gun homicides are concentrated in cities—roughly half of all gun homicides occur in urban areas that contain just a quarter of the total US population.
ABC NEWS, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BLOOMBERG, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CNN, CONSUMER PROTECTION LAWS, COP KILLER BULLETS, CRIME, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DRUDGE REPORT, FACEBOOK, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, GEORGE ZIMMERMAN, GUN CONTROL, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, LETITIA JAMES, MEDIA MATTERS, MEDICAID, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION, NBC NEWS, NEW YORK ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE, NEWSWEEK, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, PROTECTION OF LAWFUL COMMERCE IN ARMS ACT, RAW STORY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SECOND AMENDMENT, SELF-DEFENSE, SLATE, STAND-YOUR-GROUND LAWS, TALKING POINTS MEMO, TERRORISM, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. CONSTITUTION, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, WAYNE LAPIERRE, WONKETTE, WRONGFUL-DEATH LAWSUITS
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on August 18, 2020 at 1:20 am
On August 6, New York Attorney General Letitia James gave the National Rifle Association (NRA) an unprecedented broadside.
“The NRA’s influence has been so powerful that the organization went unchecked for decades while top executives funneled millions into their own pockets,” James outlined in a news release.
And she assailed the organization’s leadership for creating “a culture of self-dealing mismanagement” benefiting themselves, family, friends and favored vendors.
As a result, the NRA had lost more than $63 million in three years.
James’ office filed the suit on August 6 in New York Supreme Court. In it, she accuses the following NRA leaders of corruption and misuse of funds:
- CEO and Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre;
- General Counsel and Secretary John Frazer;
- Former Chief Financial Officer Wilson “Woody” Phillips; and
- Former Chief of Staff and Executive Director of General Operations Josh Powell.
Wayne LaPierre
The lawsuit accuses these officials of:
- Violating multiple laws including false reporting of annual filings with the IRS and New York’s charities bureau
- Improperly documenting expenses, improper wage and income tax reporting and
- Excessively paying people for work for which they were not qualified.
The NRA is headquartered in the Northern Virginia suburbs outside Washington, D.C. But it has operated as a New York-registered 501(c)(4) non-profit group since 1871.
As a charitable organization, the NRA faces strict state and federal rules governing spending. The alleged violation of many of those rules gives James’ office legal jurisdiction for bringing the lawsuit.
The NRA has long been one of the nation’s most powerful special interest groups. It has dominated Republican politics for decades. With a reported five million members across the country, it claims as its mission the defense of the Second Amendment right to bear arms.
The NRA claims that its mission stems from the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution, which states: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
NRA members conveniently ignore the first half of that sentence about “a well regulated Militia….” They simply want everyone to own a gun—and contribute to the NRA.
The charges now facing the NRA are not the ones for which it truly deserves indictment.
For decades, the NRA has been the death-dealer of choice to criminals and terrorists. In its wake lie the bullet-torn, bloodstained bodies of countless Americans from coast to coast.
According to the non-profit organization, Brady: United Against Gun Violence:
Every year, 114,328 people are shot. Among those:
- 37,603 people die from gun violence
- 13,380 are murdered
- 76,725 people survive gunshot injuries
- 34,566 are intentionally shot by someone else
- 22,926 died from gun suicide
- 3,554 survive an attempted gun suicide
- 478 are killed unintentionally
- 510 are killed by legal intervention
- 1,376 are shot by legal intervention
- 310 die but the intent was unknown
- 4,471 are shot but the intent is unknown
- 529 women are killed by their husband or male dating partner
Gun Violence is estimated to cost the American economy at least $229 billion every year.
Among the NRA’s “contributions” to this carnage:
- For decades, the NRA has peddled deadly weapons to millions, reaped billions of dollars in profits and refused to admit the carnage those weapons have produced: “Guns don’t kill people. People kill people.” With guns.
- It championed the marketing of Teflon-coated “cop killer” bullets capable of piercing the bulletproof vests worn by police officers and targets of assassination.
- The NRA opposes removing firearms from violent individuals under active restraining orders for domestic abuse.
- The NRA has bitterly fought background checks on gun-buyers, in effect granting even criminals and the mentally ill the right to own arsenals of death-dealing weaponry.
- The NRA has spent millions on slick advertising campaigns to win new members and frighten them into buying guns.
- The NRA rammed through a Republican-dominated Congress the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, (PLCAA). It was signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2005. This has armed the American firearms industry with immunity against lawsuits by victims of mass shootings and gun violence.
- The NRA has spent millions on political contributions to block gun-control legislation.
- The NRA has spent millions attacking political candidates and elected officials who warned about the dangers of unrestricted access to assault and/or concealed weapons.
- The NRA has spent millions pushing “Stand Your Ground” laws in more than half the states, which potentially give every citizen a “license to kill.”
- In 2012, the NRA rushed to defend accused murderer George Zimmerman, the self-appointed “community watchman” who ignored police orders to stop following 17-year-old Trayvon Martin and ultimately shot him.
- The NRA receives millions of dollars from online sales of ammunition, high-capacity ammunition magazines, and other accessories through its point-of-sale Round-Up Program—thus directly profiting by selling a product that kills about 30,288 people a year.
- Anyone–including convicted criminals—can buy the NRA’s “hide-a-gun” sweatshirts, putting both the public and law enforcers at deadly risk.
- Firearms made indiscriminately available through NRA lobbying have filled hospitals with casualties, and have thus badly strained the states’ public healthcare systems.
The NRA’s leaders—past and present—will never be criminally indicted for the carnage their greed and irresponsibility have unleashed.
But the effort by New York Attorney General Letitia James to dissolve the NRA is at least a welcome step in the right direction.
2020 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, ABC NEWS, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BLOOMBERG, BUZZFEED, CALIFORNIA ATTORNEY GENERAL, CBS NEWS, CNN, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DEMOCRATS, DISTRICT ATTORNEY OF SAN FRANCISCO, DONALD TRUMP, DRUDGE REPORT, FACEBOOK, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY’S INSTITUTE OF POLITICS AND PUBLIC SERVICE, GRETCHEN WHI8TMER, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, ILLEGAL ALIENS, IMMIGRATION LAWS, JOE BIDEN, Kamala Harris, LAW ENFORCEMENT, MEDIA MATTERS, MO ELLEITHEE, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, SALON, SAN FRANCISCO, SEATTLE TIMES, SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE, SLATE, TALKING POINTS MEMO, TAMMY DUCKWORTH, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE TRUTHS WE HOLD (BOOK), THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITED STATES SENATE, UPI, USA TODAY, VIOLENT CRIME CONTROL AND LAW ENFORCEMENT ACT OF 1994, WONKETTE
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on August 13, 2020 at 12:37 am
On August 11, former Vice President Joe Biden—now the Democratic nominee for President—chose California United States Senator Kamala Harris as his Vice Presidential running mate.
Harris had served as District Attorney of San Francisco (2004 – 2011) and as California Attorney General (2011 – 2017). Then, in 2016, she won election to the United States Senate.
In 2019, she ran for the Presidency of the United States. But after 11 months of failing to win major support among voters, she withdrew from the race on December 3.
To tout her candidacy, she had published her memoirs: The Truths We Hold. In these, she described herself as a “progressive prosecutor.”
But among the truths she holds secret: When she served as District Attorney for San Francisco, she set up a secret unit to keep even convicted illegal alien felons out of prison—and in the United States.
Today, with millions of illegal aliens from Central and Latin America flooding into the United States, the spotlight has shifted from the incarceration of blacks to that of Hispanics.
Illegal immigration—and what to do about it—is now the hottest political issue in the country.
For liberals of the Democratic party, “open borders” appears to be the solution to illegal immigration. Yet the vast majority of Americans support legal immigration—while rejecting illegal immigration.
And Kamala Harris’ record as San Francisco District Attorney is hardly reassuring on this issue.
Secretly, she created a program, called Back on Track, to train convicted illegal aliens for jobs they could not legally hold. This was a flagrant violation of Federal immigration law.
U.S. Senator Kamala Harris
Completion led to the expunging of a felony conviction, making it highly popular among convicted criminals.
One such alumnus was Alexander Izaguirre, an illegal alien who had been arrested twice within eight months—for purse-snatching and selling cocaine.
In July, 2008, four months after pleading guilty to selling cocaine, Izaguirre assaulted Amanda Kiefer, a legal San Francisco resident.
Snatching her purse, he jumped into an SUV, then tried to run Kiefer down. Terrified, she leaped onto the hood and saw Izaguirre and a driver laughing.
The driver slammed on the brakes, sending Kiefer flying onto the pavement and fracturing her skull.
D.A.’s office let illegal immigrants go https://tinyurl.com/yyhp3hb6
Back on Track became a centerpiece of Harris’ campaign for state Attorney General.
Until the the Los Angeles Times questioned her about the Izaguirre case, Harris had never publicly admitted that the program included illegal aliens.
Harris claimed she first learned that illegal aliens were training for jobs only after Izaguirre was arrested for the Kiefer assault.
Harris said it was a “flaw in the design” of the program to let illegal aliens into the program. “I believe we fixed it,” she told the Times.
Harris never released statistics on how many illegal aliens were included since the program started in 2005.
She said that after Izaguirre’s arrest she never asked—or learned—how many illegal aliens were in Back on Track. A strange lapse in curiosity for a prosecutor charged with enforcing the law.
When Harris learned that illegal aliens were enrolled, she allowed those who were following the rules to finish the program and have their criminal records expunged.
It is not the duty of local law enforcement, she said, to enforce Federal immigration laws.
So much for her oath to faithfully defend the Constitution of the United States and that of the state of California “against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”
From 2005 to 2009, 113 admitted drug dealers graduated from Back on Track. Another 99 were kicked off the program for failing to meet the requirements. They were sentenced under their guilty plea, the D.A.’s office claimed.
Harris told the Times that graduates of Back on Track were less likely than other offenders to commit crimes again. But her spokeswoman refused to offer detailed statistics to back this up.
When Harris became San Francisco District Attorney, she vowed she would “never charge the death penalty.”
Amanda Kiefer left California. Interviewed by the Times, she said she could not understand why San Francisco police and prosecutors would allow convicted illegal aliens back onto the streets.
“If they’re committing crimes,” she said, “I think there’s something wrong that they’re not being deported.”
At the outset of his Presidential campaign, Joe Biden pledged to choose a woman for his Vice Presidential running mate. Among those he could have chosen:
- Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who stood up to Trump-inspired anti-mask protesters threatening violence; and
- Illinois United States Senator Tammy Duckworth, who, as an Army officer, lost both legs in Iraq in 2004 after her helicopter was shot down by Iraqi insurgents.
Either would have lent significant gravitas to Biden’s candidacy. But Whitmer and Duckworth suffered the misfortune of being white—at a time when Uber liberals were demanding that Biden pick a “woman of color.”
By which they meant: Any color other than white.
Illegal immigration is President Donald Trump’s signature issue. And he has already tried to portray Biden as soft on crime and harsh on police.
Harris, with her record of protecting criminal illegal aliens at the expense of law-abiding American citizens, will easily fit both of these descriptions.
1968 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, 2020 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, ABC NEWS, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AMERICAN INDIANS, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARBARA GARSON, BLACK LIVES MATTER, BLOOMBERG, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CIVIL RIGHTS, CNN, COMING APART: AMERICA IN THE 1960S (BOOK), CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DEMOCRATS, DRUDGE REPORT, EUGENE MCCARTHY, FACEBOOK, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, GROSS NATIONAL PRODUCT, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, JIM SLATTERY, JOHN F. KENNEDY, Kamala Harris, KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY, LOOK MAGAZINE, LYNDON B. JOHNSON, MCBIRD!, MEDIA MATTERS, MISSISSIPPI, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, ROBERT F. KENNEDY, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SIRHAN SIRHAN, SLATE, SOPHOCLES, STANLEY TRETICK, TALKING POINTS MEMO, TET OFFENSIVE, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TIME MAGAZINE, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS, UPI, USA TODAY, VIETNAM WAR, WILLIAM L. O'NEIL, WONKETTE
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on August 12, 2020 at 1:26 am
On March 18, 1968, Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, speaking at the University of Kansas, called on his fellow citizens to show compassion for those less fortunate and in need of relief through the Federal Government.
“If we believe that we, as Americans, are bound together by a common concern for each other, then an urgent national priority is upon us. We must begin to end the disgrace of this other America.”
Finally, Kennedy did something almost no other politician—in his time or since—has ever done: He dared to attack that holy-of-holies, the Gross Domestic Product (then called the Gross National Product).
“If we believe that we, as Americans, are bound together by a common concern for each other, then an urgent national priority is upon us. We must begin to end the disgrace of this other America.
“Too much and for too long, we seemed to have surrendered personal excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our Gross National Product, now, is over $800 billion dollars a year, but that Gross National Product….counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage.
“It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and counts nuclear warheads and armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities. It counts Whitman’s rifle and Speck’s knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children.
“Yet the Gross National Product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials.
“It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country. It measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans….
Senator Robert F. Kennedy campaigning for President
“George Bernard Shaw once wrote, ‘Some people see things as they are and say why? I dream things that never were and say, why not?’
“So I come here to Kansas to ask for your help. In the difficult five months ahead, before the convention in Chicago. I ask for your help and for your assistance.
“If you believe that the United States can do better. If you believe that we should change our course of action. If you believe that the United States stands for something here internally as well as elsewhere around the globe, I ask for your help and your assistance and your hand over the period of the next five months.
“And when we win in November….and we begin a new period of time for the United States of America, I want the next generation of Americans to look back upon this period and say as they said of Plato: ‘Joy was in those days, but to live.’ Thank you very much.”
At the end of Kennedy’s wildly popular speech at Kansas State University, photographer Stanley Tretick, of Look magazine, shouted, “This is Kansas, fucking Kansas! He’s going all the fucking way!”
But he didn’t go all the way. On June 5, 1968—82 days after announcing his Presidential candidacy—an assassin’s bullet suddenly halted his short-lived campaign—and his life.
Robert Kennedy’s funeral train
Historian William L. O’Neil delivered a poignant summary of Robert Kennedy’s legacy in his 1971 book, Coming Apart: An Informal History of America in the 1960′s:
“He aimed so high that he must be judged for what he meant to do, and through error and tragic accident, failed at…..He will also be remembered as an extraordinary human being who, though hated by some, was perhaps more deeply loved by his countrymen than any man of his time.
“That, too, must be entered into the final account, and it is no small thing. With his death, something precious vanished from public life.”
As United States Attorney General (1961-1964) Robert F. Kennedy had the courage to wage all-out war on the Mafia. As a United States Senator (1964-1968) he had the compassion to champion aid to impoverished Americans.
Even in his own era—a half-century ago—Robert Kennedy stood out as the only major Presidential candidate who could legitimately make both claims.
Today, most Democrats—battered by decades of Republican charges that they’re “big spenders”—fear supporting big-ticket items to help the poor.
And the Black Lives Matter movement has made any connection to law enforcement a disqualification for higher office—as former California Attorney General Kamala Harris found out as a 2020 Presidential candidate.
America may never again see a Presidential candidate who can combine a strong stand against crime with an equally strong commitment to helping the poor and disadvantaged.
1968 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, 2020 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, ABC NEWS, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AMERICAN INDIANS, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARBARA GARSON, BLACK LIVES MATTER, BLOOMBERG, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CIVIL RIGHTS, CNN, COMING APART: AMERICA IN THE 1960S (BOOK), CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DEMOCRATS, DRUDGE REPORT, EUGENE MCCARTHY, FACEBOOK, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, GROSS NATIONAL PRODUCT, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, JIM SLATTERY, JOHN F. KENNEDY, Kamala Harris, KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY, LOOK MAGAZINE, LYNDON B. JOHNSON, MCBIRD!, MEDIA MATTERS, MISSISSIPPI, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, ROBERT F. KENNEDY, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SIRHAN SIRHAN, SLATE, SOPHOCLES, STANLEY TRETICK, TALKING POINTS MEMO, TET OFFENSIVE, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TIME MAGAZINE, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS, UPI, USA TODAY, VIETNAM WAR, WILLIAM L. O'NEIL, WONKETTE
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on August 11, 2020 at 12:07 am
On March 18, 1968, Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy did what few politicians have ever done: He accepted public responsibility for a war that had since become a national disaster—the Vietnam war.
Addressing a packed audience of students and faculty at Kansas State University, he said:
“Let me begin this discussion with a note both personal and public. I was involved in many of the early decisions on Vietnam, decisions that helped set us on our present path.
“It may be that the effort was doomed from the start; that it was never really possible to bring all the people of South Vietnam under the rule of the successive governments we supported—governments, one after another, riddled with corruption, inefficiency, and greed; governments which did not and could not successfully capture and energize the national feeling of their people.
“If that is the case, as it well may be, then I am willing to bear my share of the responsibility, before history and before my fellow citizens. But past error is no excuse for its own perpetuation. Tragedy is a tool for the living to gain wisdom, not a guide by which to live.
“Now as ever, we do ourselves best justice when we measure ourselves against ancient tests, as in the Antigone of Sophocles: ‘All men make mistakes, but a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong, and repairs the evil. The only sin is pride.’
Sophocles
And he dared to attack the war as more than a military and political disaster: He saw it as a stain on America’s moral fiber:
“Can we ordain to ourselves the awful majesty of God—to decide what cities and villages are to be destroyed, who will live and who will die, and who will join the refugees wandering in a desert of our own creation?
“If it is true that we have a commitment to the South Vietnamese people, we must ask, are they being consulted—in Hue, or Ben Tre, or in the villages from which the three million refugees have fled?
“If they believe all the death and destruction are a lesser evil than the Wet Cong, why did they not warn us when the Viet Cong came into Hue, and the dozens of other cities, before the Tet Offensive? Why did they not join the fight?
“Will it be said of us, as Tacitus said of Rome: ‘They made a desert and called it peace?'”
Robert F. Kennedy
The students gave him an ovation worthy of a rock star.
Time correspondent Hays Gorey said the electricity between Kennedy and the K.S.U. students was “real and rare.” “A good part of it is John F. Kennedy’s, of course, but John Kennedy …himself couldn’t be so passionate, and couldn’t set off such sparks.”
Jim Slattery, who would later be elected to Congress from Kansas, reread the K.S.U. speech during the second Iraq war and decided it was so powerful “because Kennedy was talking about what was right!”
As Kennedy started to leave, students rushed the platform where he stood, knocking over chairs and grabbing at him. They stroked his hair and ripped his shirtsleeves.
Later that day, Kennedy addressed another wildly enthusiastic audience—at the University of Kansas, in Lawrence, Kansas.
Then he addressed the glaring disparities between rich and poor Americans—a topic now generally ignored by Democrats and turned into an attack line by Republicans:
“All around us, all around us….men have lost confidence in themselves, in each other. It is confidence which has sustained us so much in the past. Rather than answer the cries of deprivation and despair….hundreds of communities and millions of citizens are looking for their answers, to force and repression and private gun stocks— so that we confront our fellow citizen across impossible barriers of hostility and mistrust.
Robert F. Kennedy talking with black children
“And again, I don’t believe that we have to accept that. I don’t believe that it’s necessary in the United States of America. I think that we can work together. I don’t think that we have to shoot at each other, to beat each other, to curse each other and criticize each other, I think that we can do better in this country. And that is why I run for President of the United States….
“I have seen children in Mississippi starving, their bodies so crippled from hunger and their minds have been so destroyed for their whole life that they will have no future. I have seen children in Mississippi—here in the United States—with a gross national product of $800 billion dollars.
“I have seen children in the Delta area of Mississippi with distended stomachs, whose faces are covered with sores from starvation, and we haven’t developed a policy so we can get enough food so that they can live, so that their children, so that their lives are not destroyed, I don’t think that’s acceptable in the United States of America and I think we need a change.”
1968 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, 2020 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, ABC NEWS, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AMERICAN INDIANS, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BARBARA GARSON, BLACK LIVES MATTER, BLOOMBERG, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CIVIL RIGHTS, CNN, COMING APART: AMERICA IN THE 1960S (BOOK), CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DEMOCRATS, DRUDGE REPORT, EUGENE MCCARTHY, FACEBOOK, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, GROSS NATIONAL PRODUCT, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, JIM SLATTERY, JOHN F. KENNEDY, Kamala Harris, KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY, LOOK MAGAZINE, LYNDON B. JOHNSON, MCBIRD!, MEDIA MATTERS, MISSISSIPPI, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, ROBERT F. KENNEDY, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SIRHAN SIRHAN, SLATE, SOPHOCLES, STANLEY TRETICK, TALKING POINTS MEMO, TET OFFENSIVE, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TIME MAGAZINE, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS, UPI, USA TODAY, VIETNAM WAR, WILLIAM L. O'NEIL, WONKETTE
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary, Uncategorized on August 10, 2020 at 1:37 am
He remains forever frozen in time—young, vigorous, with tousled hair and a high-pitched voice calling on Americans to do better for those less fortunate.
It’s been 52 years since his life was brutally cut short—yet he remains forever the age at which he died: 42. Born in 1925, he would turn 95 on November 20 if he were alive today.
And he exuded an idealism which seems totally out of place with today’s “I’ve-got-mine-so-screw-you” politics.
On March 16, 1968, from the Caucus Room of the Old Senate Office building, New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy declared his candidacy for President of the United States.
Eight years earlier, on January 2, 1960, his brother, Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy had announced his own candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination from the same place.
Ten months later, on November 8, that campaign had ended in victory with his election. And that victory, in turn, ended in bitter sorrow with his assassination two years, 10 months and two days later on November 22, 1963.
Robert F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign would not last as long as his late brother’s. Nor would it end in the victory he and his supporters yearned for.
Robert F. Kennedy
Eighty-two days later, he was dead—shot in the back of the head by Sirhan Sirhan, a Palestinian Arab furious at Kennedy’s avowed support for Israel.
For Kennedy, making up his mind to run for the Presidency was no easy task.
Since the assassination of his brother, millions of Americans had assumed—as his admirers or detractors—that he would one day become President.
For his admirers, there was an element of “the once and future king” about this young, intense man with tousled hair and a high-pitched voice.He—they believed—was the man who would somehow avenge his martyred brother by restoring “Camelot” and returning youth, energy and idealism to the White House.
A playwright—Barbara Garson—had even written a 1967 satire depicting then-President Lyndon B. Johnson as the MacBeth-like murderer of John Ken O-Dunc. In the end, he was confronted and killed by Robert Ken O’Dunc.
His detractors saw him as a ruthless upstart who wanted to foist too-liberal policies on the United States. They distrusted his sympathy for the downtrodden—especially blacks and Hispanics. Worse, they saw the Kennedy family as trying to found a dynasty of Presidents that could last until the mid-1980s.
But the real Robert Kennedy was long torn between running against Johnson—whom he had long personally loathed—and letting someone else do so.
Kennedy’s hatred of Johnson—and his irrational belief that LBJ was somehow responsible for his brother’s death—was well-known. And Kennedy feared that if he ran against Johnson, his many enemies would charge he was doing so out of personal animosity.
And there was another reason: Johnson, who had won the Presidency in a landslide in 1964, was certain to seek re-election in 1968. If Kennedy challenged him for the nomination, it might well split the party and result in the election of a Republican that November. And he—Kennedy—would be blamed for it.
Throughout 1966-7, Kennedy was urged to run against Johnson. Still, he dithered.
Then, on March 12, Minnesota United States Senator Eugene McCarthy entered the New Hampshire Democratic primary against Johnson—and won a surprising 42.2% of the vote to Johnson’s 49.4%. Four days later, Robert Kennedy announced his own candidacy.
McCarthy’s supporters were outraged: Their candidate had dared to do what Kennedy had not—directly take on Johnson. And now that he had shown it could be done, the opportunistic Kennedy had jumped in.
On March 18—two days after announcing his candidacy—Kennedy gave his first campaign speech at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas. This was the heart of conservative country, and Kennedy didn’t know how his audience would accept many of his decidedly liberal proposals.
“Do you think they’ll boo him?” his wife, Ethel, asked a friend before the speech. “Will they hate him?”
Arriving at the university, Kennedy ate breakfast at the student union—and told a group of university officials and student leaders: “Some of you may not like what you’re going to hear in a few minutes, but it’s what I believe; and if I’m elected President, it’s what I’m going to do.”
Kansas State University
As events unfolded, he—and Ethel—had no reason to worry.
Kennedy had served as United States Attorney General from 1961 to 1964. Yet he had not limited himself to simply fighting organized crime and enforcing civil rights. He had aggressively urged his brother, the President, to take a hard line on fighting the Communist forces in Vietnam.
But now he did something almost no other politician had—or has—ever done: He publicly accepted responsibly for the disaster the war had become since 1965:
“Let me begin this discussion with a note both personal and public. I was involved in many of the early decisions on Vietnam, decisions that helped set us on our present path.
“It may be that the effort was doomed from the start; that it was never really possible to bring all the people of South Vietnam under the rule of the successive governments we supported.”
_(cropped).jpg)
Bureaucracybuster's Blog 
2016 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, 2020 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, ABC NEWS, ADOLF HITLER, ALBERT SPEER, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BLOOMBERG, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CIVIL LAWSUITS, CNN, CRIMINAL PROSECUTION, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DON MCGAHN, DONALD J. TRUMP FOUNDATION, DONALD TRUMP, DONALD TRUMP JUNIOR, DRUDGE REPORT, EGOMANIA, FACEBOOK, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, GENE ROSSI, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HUFFINGTON POST, IMPEACHMENT, MEDIA MATTERS, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NBC NEWS, NERO, NEWSWEEK, NORTH KOREA, NPR, NUCLEAR WAR, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REUTERS, ROBERT MUELLER, ROD ROSENSTEIN, SALON, SAMSON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, STOCK MARKET, TALKING POINTS MEMO, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUMP UNIVERSITY, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION, UPI, USA TODAY, WONKETTE
TRUMP: INVOKING “THE SAMSON OPTION” TO AVOID PROSECUTION
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on September 3, 2020 at 12:05 amDonald Trump Jr. fears that his father will lose the election in November—and this will lead to the prosecution of his family.
“He’s like, ‘We’re losing, dude, and we’re going to get really hurt when we lose,’” a prominent conservative activist quoted Trump Jr. to the New York Times on August 24.
Trump Jr. believes that if Biden wins, there will not be a “peaceful transition,” Instead, the administration will “shoot the prisoners.”
The U.S. Department of Justice has a longstanding policy against prosecuting a sitting President. All bets are off, however, once that President leaves office.
And President Donald Trump has good reason to worry on that count.
He could easily face charges of obstruction of justice by attempting to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller, the man appointed to investigate the Russian government’s interference in the 2016 Presidential election.
Robert Mueller
On June 17, 2017, Trump directed White House counsel Don McGahn to get Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to remove Mueller, telling him “you gotta do this.”
McGahn didn’t comply. Trump called him the next day. McGahn considered resigning, then stayed—didn’t didn’t act on Trump’s order.
Former federal prosecutor Gene Rossi has stated that Trump could be indicted after leaving office.
During his nearly 30-year career with the Department of Justice, Rossi participated in more than 110 federal trials (including an unprecedented 90 jury trials) in U.S. district and bankruptcy courts. From 1989-2001, he worked in the Tax Division, trying complex civil and criminal matters and serving on an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF).
“If it were Donald Smith instead of Donald Trump, Donald Trump would have been indicted a year ago for the campaign violations,” he told Hill.TV in July, 2019.
On December 10, 2019, Trump paid $2 million to eight charities as part of a settlement where he admitted to misusing funds raised by the Donald J. Trump Foundation. These had been used to promote his presidential bid and pay off business debts.
It’s illegal for charitable foundations to advance the self-interests of their executives.
He was forced to close the charity as a result.
Donald Trump
Legal action also forced Trump to shut down his unaccredited Trump University, which the conservative magazine National Review described as a “massive scam.”
Although he boasted that he never settled lawsuits, he settled this one in November, 2016, for a reported $25 million rather than go to trial.
Investigations are now probing allegations of tax dodges, illegal campaign contributions, and improper foreign contributions to his inaugural committee.
There has been a great deal of speculation by Trump’s political foes as to what would happen if (a) he loses the election and (b) refuses to vacate the White House.
But, so far, no one seems to have raised the question: What if a defeated Trump, fearing civil and criminal prosecution after he leaves the White House, decides to avoid this by literally destroying much of the world in a nuclear war?
This is not so outrageous an idea as it may sound.
“If Adolf Hitler had possessed a button that would destroy the entire world, he would have pushed it at the end,” Albert Speer, Hitler’s architect and Minister of Armaments, said in a 1971 Playboy interview. “Today there are such buttons in the war rooms of all the great powers.”
Adolf Hitler
Trump has already threatened such action against North Korea: “North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.”
He has even seriously advocated using nuclear bombs to stop hurricanes from hitting the United States,
An additional reason for Trump’s playing Samson in the temple: He resides at the center of his own universe, and sees virtually everything as an extension of himself.
On August 23, 2018, Trump gave his rationale for why he shouldn’t be impeached. He didn’t say: “I’m innocent. I didn’t collude with Russian Intelligence to subvert the 2016 Presidential election.”
Instead, he said: “I tell you what, if I ever got impeached, I think the market would crash, I think everybody would be very poor.”
Trump’s egomania is literally stamped on his properties. Of the 515 entities he owns, 268 of them—52%—bear his last name. He often refers to his properties as “the swankiest,” “the most beautiful.”
Among the references he’s made to himself:
The Roman emperor Nero reportedly played the lyre and sang of Troy’s destruction while Rome burned. Adolf Hitler, in the last weeks of the Third Reich, salivated at the thought of destroying what was left of Germany.
Trump has repeatedly shown his contempt for civil and criminal laws—including those enshrined in the United States Constitution.
Thus, revenging himself on those he felt wronged him would be fully in keeping with his character.
Share this: